My Abyss Survival Diary

Chapter 22 An Impossible Mission

The fog in the forest was a little lighter than in the morning, but the grayish-white moisture still clung to the ground like a thin veil.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy, shining on the soft, damp ground and on the spores that glowed at night. Under the sunlight, the spores lost their fluorescence and turned into a cluster of lantern-shaped, grayish-white down.

After leaving the Ironwing Confession Room, Badar was going to find a temporary camp, Simon planned to try out his new crossbow, and Klein wanted to try out the sniper rifle he had bought at great expense.

After finding his prey with his keen eyesight and sense of smell, Simon crouched behind a fallen tree trunk, took his quiver off his shoulder, placed it at his feet, and pulled out a steel crossbow bolt.

He pushed the crossbow bolt into the slot on the side of the harpoon, and with a click, the latch engaged, securing the bolt.

Under a large tree twenty meters away, a figure was wriggling.

The fungal corpse, dressed in tattered prison clothes, had grayish-white skin covered with dark green mold spots.

Its head was tilted to one side, its head lowered, and its body swayed slightly back and forth, like a corpse being blown by the wind.

He held his breath, raised the harpoon, and aimed the crossbow on the harpoon at the figure.

He could feel the outline of the grayish-white shadow, the rhythm of its swaying, and even the frequency of the throbbing of the fleshy mass at its neck.

Pulling the trigger, the steel crossbow bolt shot out from the side of the fork, leaving a gray-black trail that was almost invisible in the gray-white mist.

The arrow pierced the fungal corpse's neck! The arrowhead went in from the back of the neck, out from the front of the throat, and embedded itself in the tree trunk.

The fungal corpse's body suddenly stiffened, swayed twice, and then, like an empty sack of grain, slumped limply, hanging from the arrow shaft without falling.

Simon ran over with the harpoon in hand and expertly pulled the steel crossbow bolt from the fungal corpse's neck.

The arrowhead was clean, without blood or sap. He tested the blade with his thumb; it was still sharp.

He wiped the crossbow bolt clean, put it back in the quiver, drew a dagger from his waist, squatted down, and used the tip of the dagger to pry open the skin and flesh on the back of the fungal corpse's neck.

The dark red piece of flesh was still pulsating slightly, like a heart forgotten in a corpse.

With a flick of his wrist, the tip of the knife sliced ​​into the junction between the meat and the spine.

The piece of meat landed in my palm; it was warm and sticky, with fine veins covering its surface.

He wrapped it in cloth and stuffed it into his backpack.

A very faint gunshot rang out behind me; all I could hear was the faint sound of a silenced bullet cutting through the air.

Simon turned around and saw another fungal corpse thirty meters away, lying backward with half of its head shattered.

"A very accurate sniper shot," he thought to himself.

Klein abandoned traditional melee weapons and used a sniper rifle to provide him with support from a distance.

He held the harpoon in his hand, his thumb resting on the quiver's buckle, and pulled out the second steel crossbow bolt, inserting it into the slot. The movement was smooth, taking less than two seconds from drawing the bolt to reloading.

He bent down and reached forward along the edge of the bushes.

The mist swirled beneath my feet, each step steady yet incredibly quiet, like a feline stealthily hunting.

The third fungal corpse leaned against the trunk of a large tree, head down, hands hanging at its sides, fingers slightly bent, like some kind of wild beast preparing to pounce.

It hasn't found Simon yet; it's just waiting...

Simon crouched down and propped the harpoon on a low branch.

Ten meters away.

The crossbow bolts were almost perfectly accurate at this distance; he aimed at the back of the fungal corpse's neck, at the location of that chunk of flesh.

To test his aiming ability, he deliberately increased the difficulty, requiring the arrow to precisely sever the connection between the flesh and the spine in order to kill it instantly; otherwise, it would not fall.

He pulled the trigger.

The arrow left the bowstring, its gray-black trajectory piercing through the mist and embedding itself in the back of the fungal corpse's neck. The body lurched forward and crashed to the ground. The steel crossbow bolt had pierced right through the flesh of the incriminating evidence, but it was no serious injury.

Simon walked over, pulled out the arrow, dug out the chunk of flesh, and stuffed it into his backpack.

Klein's sniper rifle fired again, and the fourth fungal zombie fell from the tree, dangling on the branch for a couple of moments before crashing to the ground.

It had just hidden in the tree, attempting to ambush Simon, but was instead shot in the head by Klein.

Simon turned around, but the distance was too great for him to discern his location, so he could only give a thumbs-up.

Simon wiped the crossbow bolts clean, put them back in the quiver, and continued deeper into the forest, knowing that Klein was still hiding in the shadows, protecting his blind spots.

The fifth fungal corpse crouched behind the bushes, head down, chewing on something in its mouth...

Simon gave it no time to react. He sprang out of the bushes, hurling his harpoon across, nearly severing the fungal corpse's right leg. Then, with a fluid motion, he turned the harpoon sideways and fired a steel crossbow bolt through its chest.

The power of the fungal corpses lies in their inability to feel pain and their fearlessness in the face of enhanced melee weapons and firearms. However, their few advantages are completely lost in the face of these enhanced weapons.

Simon skillfully pulled out the arrow and dug out the chunk of flesh.

He took the cloth out of his backpack and wrapped the fifth piece of meat inside. The cloth was almost full, and the pieces of meat were squeezed together, pressing and throbbing against each other.

Simon put down his harpoon and rested where he was. Soon after, Klein emerged from the fog with a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder.

His blond hair hung down his forehead, and his face was covered in mud, but his light blue eyes were bright, like steel that had been tempered.

"Five." Klein smiled excitedly.

Their backpacks were bulging; after upgrading their equipment, they had hunted five pieces of evidence of crime in just one afternoon.

With five pieces of flesh as evidence of guilt, he could also legitimately fulfill the Iron Emperor's contract.

Golden characters appeared before my eyes, like a red-hot iron plate pressed into my retina.

【Iron Laws - Contract: Collecting the Flesh of Evidence of Sin (5/5)】

The evidence of guilt is piled up like a small mountain, but it's not enough; the empire needs more samples.

[The Iron King has witnessed your progress; accept His grace.]

[Blessed by Cold-Blooded Dismemberment: You will find it easier to observe the weaknesses of the alien's limbs, discover those weaknesses, and dismember the alien.]

[Blessed Imperial Short Sword: Every punch you throw will be more ferocious and powerful, shattering the heads of heretics with your fists]

[Blessed Three-Fearless Chariot: Your charge will be unstoppable, and you are immune to pain during the charge]

A blessing would be more useful.

Simon chose Blessing One, and ruthlessly dismembered the body.

Equipped with a harpoon, he will have a greater advantage in close combat with abyssal monsters.

The large golden characters broke down into countless golden particles, which floated into his body.

[Grace has descended, the tracks of the empire have been laid beneath your feet, continue your journey]

But this time, the new contract he received was different from the previous ones...

Really? Simon frowned, doubting whether he could fulfill the agreement.

[Iron Law - New Contract: Prevent the Children of the Abyss from escaping the Abyss (0/1)]