The stomach weighed heavily, pulling downward.
The body felt light and cold.
The rapid heartbeat echoed like a bell in the mind, the eyelids growing heavier, gradually sinking into a pitch-black void.
On the ground was an altar stained with blood, wisps of black mist emerged from the void, greedily and madly boring into Feng Mu's body.
With his eyes closed, Feng Mu appeared to be asleep, lying motionless on the ground, only his lips continually muttered strange, inhuman syllables in a dreamlike chant.
Low, evil.
In the darkness, in the cramped space, time seemed to have lost its measure, only an unseen progress bar crawling forward at a snail's pace.
And the further it went, the slower it got, reminiscent of Baidu Cloud in a past life.
Perhaps a minute had passed, perhaps an hour.
Feng Mu abruptly opened his eyes, groggily staring at the progress bar before him—[Blood and Iron in Progress... 63%!!!]
"???" Feng Mu was shocked: "It's stuck, what the hell?"
A question mark floated above Feng Mu's head, and just as he was contemplating what the issue was, a short and dull thud reached his ears.
Feng Mu's expression changed, he held his breath.
Bang!
"The sound is coming from..."
Feng Mu glared at the wooden rack that blocked his vision, he listened again with his ears pricked, and his heart skipped a beat.
"There's someone else in the warehouse."
Feng Mu immediately understood why the ritual was interrupted.
"The ritual process requires silence; the noise from just a wall away disturbed my sacrifice."
With a grim expression, Feng Mu searched through his mind for his knowledge of sacrifices.
Soon, Feng Mu had the answer.
The good news is, the ritual hasn't failed yet, it's just paused; it can be continued, and the progress bar can resume;
The bad news is, he'll have to wait until the person outside leaves, otherwise, the ritual will keep being interrupted by noise.
To be safe, Feng Mu could wait for the person outside to leave before continuing, but although he was willing to wait, his body might not be able to.
The damp wrists, the heavy stomach, each breath reminded him that the sands of life were running out, without a pause.
"Usually there's not even a ghost here, why of all days, today? Damn it."
Anger was like a branding iron thrust into his chest, making every pore evaporate with wrath.
Feng Mu rose from the ground, inching step by step behind the wooden rack.
He moved very slowly, but each step was heavily forward.
To prevent making any breathing sounds, Feng Mu bit his lips tightly, his pallid lips were bitten raw, unable even to bleed, sweat as large as beans flowed down his forehead into his bloodshot eyes, stinging painfully.
His body slid slowly along the wall crevice, first revealing half a face, scarlet eyes unblinking, peering toward the source of the noise.
The warehouse lights were off, on the ground lay a broken phone screen emitting light, the cold blue light vaguely outlined the air.
A man knelt on the floor, his hands raised high, striking downwards, a body lay on the ground, half a face was smashed beyond recognition, a bloody mess.
Probably already dead, the body lay motionless.
"A murder!"
"Then he's unlikely to leave anytime soon, after all, one usually needs to hide the body after a murder, perhaps he'll find the area behind the wooden rack."
"Just my luck, but wait, isn't this a perfect sacrificial offering?"
"A madman, a vicious beast, there's no rule saying I can only choose one? ~"
"Perhaps this isn't unlucky, but fortunate?"
The man was still vigorously smashing, completely unaware of the face looming in the darkness behind him, and the sound of flesh and blood being smashed drowned out the approaching footsteps.
He smashed with such abandonment, his mouth emitting cruel growls: "Why didn't you listen to me, I gave you money, why did you suddenly resist, damn it, damn it."
He once again raised his blood-stained hands high and smashed downwards.
However,
This time, the shadow of his arm on the ground appeared exceptionally long, eerily extending as if it had grown an extra length.
Bang—
Blood splattered, the eye socket of the corpse cracked open, caving in, and under the gaze of those hollow sockets, a ram's horn hammer embedded itself into the forehead of the screaming face.
The two corpses were entwined on the ground.
... ...
The bodies were dragged, creating twisted blood marks on the ground, brushing against the wall and wooden rack.
Thus,
The sacrificial ritual resumed.
[Blood and Iron in Progress... ]
[63%, 64%, 65%...]
[98%, 99%, 100%...]
Exhausted of his last ounce of strength, Feng Mu fell into slumber, next to him also lay a corpse, its forehead oozing with crimson fluid merging faintly with the already solidified black blood on the ground.
[101%, 102%, 103%.....]
[156%, 157%, 158%.....]
[198%, 199%, 200%.....]
[Having shed mortal blood, devoured the merciless iron, reborn in blood and iron, you are both fearless madman and cowardly vicious beast, Destiny is watching you!]
[Congratulations to the player for completing the activation task. The game inheritance system is now officially running!]
[Congratulations to the player for receiving the activation gift pack. Rewards are as follows:
1. Inherited entry [Iron Eater]
2. Inherited entry [Frenzy Blood] (Passive)
3. Inherited entry [Feast] (Active)]
*
*
*
*
Feng Mu regained consciousness and when he opened his eyes again, it was already past midnight.
The room was pitch black with not a single bit of light.
He turned on his phone and shone it on the floor.
The patterns of blood had solidified into a dark brown, resembling corrosive paint, deeply penetrating the floor, etching cracks of varying depths.
The floor seemed to have been carved into an embedded altar.
In the center of the altar was a shriveled and withered corpse.
Feng Mu bowed his head, pondering how to deal with it.
"The most important thing is this suspicious-looking 'altar', how am I supposed to cover it up?"
Feng Mu felt a bit of a headache. He had no tools on hand, and it was almost dawn (Upper City would turn on lights). He didn't dare linger at the scene any longer.
"It's all the fault of the sacrifice ritual. Why couldn't it clean up the scene by itself? No after-sales service? Bad review!!!"
Feng Mu complained inwardly, then checked the time, quickly stuffing the blades and the claw hammer from the floor into his backpack before leaving through the window.
After climbing out the window, he circled to the warehouse's front door and looked at the crudely pried-open iron lock fallen on the ground, finally understanding how those two people got in.
Feng Mu picked up the lock and locked the door again.
"As long as no one comes here this week, maybe I can find a way to deal with the body later."
With thoughts in his mind, Feng Mu took advantage of the night's concealment, climbed over the school wall, and headed home quickly.
Feng Mu felt sincerely thankful to this world for the first time since he crossed over.
Hmm~
Thank you, world. Thank you, Lower City. Thank you to Zone 9 government, for not installing ubiquitous surveillance cameras, protecting the privacy of every citizen.
Thank you so much~
....
He returned home at 05:43.
The house was quiet, obviously everyone was asleep.
As the family's marginal person, not a single light was left on for him at night, which might sound sad, but Feng Mu only felt relieved.
He quietly slipped back into his room, took off his dirty clothes, packed them, and planned to find a secluded corner to burn them tomorrow.
"I'll also need to find a place to bury the blades and claw hammer."
Lying on the bed, after some calculations, Feng Mu's tense and excited emotions finally had a break, and he turned his attention to the activated system.
[Iron Eater], [Frenzy Blood], [Feast]!
Three lit icons appeared next to his character panel, one silver, two gold.
According to game symbols, silver represents A-level rarity, and gold represents S-level rarity.
"So it's a one A two S start!!!"
Feng Mu's eyes widened, looking as if he was stunned by falling into a pie made of gold.
And the introductions of the three skill entries indeed lived up to the game's rating.
[Iron Eater]: Feed on iron, and you can absorb the power contained within.
[Frenzy Blood]: All your attributes will be multiplied as your health decreases. If your initial attributes are high enough, you might even overturn gods with a sliver of health.
[Feast]: The blood of your kind is full of tempting aroma. Devour them, and you will gain immortality~
Feng Mu took a cold breath: "If I understand correctly, these three sentences roughly translate to—eating iron makes me stronger, I go berserk on low health, and... everyone is my blood supply?!"
Growth Divine Skill + Late-stage Divine Skill + Endurance Divine Skill = Father Tongzi's activation combo. So, are you going to submit or not~
"Luckily, I killed someone; otherwise, missing out on [Feast] would have made the combo incomplete!" Feng Mu thought.
It was obvious to anyone that [Frenzy Blood] and [Feast] are a pair of pure-loving siblings, and no one could separate them, just like man and beast, two sides of the same coin, incomplete without each other.
Suppressing his inner excitement, Feng Mu slowly calmed down.
"This combo is strong enough, but it requires time to fully realize. In the meantime, I need to bide my time and grow, eat iron to get stronger."
Feng Mu sincerely wished he could fast-forward to the late stage, but he also knew that was just a dream.
However, becoming stronger wasn't difficult for him anymore; all he needed to do was eat iron, and he believed the process wouldn't take long.
With a plan in mind, Feng Mu closed his eyes, and a game prompt timely popped up.
[The game has been fully activated and loaded into reality!]
[Next, as long as the player continues to perform actions consistent with the game's role, they can accumulate a progress bar. As the progress bar rises, players can gradually inherit the game's character and assets.]
[When the progress bar reaches 100%, the player will fully inherit the game character and dominate the Destiny organization!]
The 'red bean paste' screen shocked Feng Mu, causing his eyelids to twitch. He closed the pop-up with clenched teeth and thought to himself: "Absolutely unnecessary. I've got one silver and two gold already; why risk turning a bike into a motorcycle when I can comfortably eat iron?"
With a reliable method, only a fool would take unnecessary risks. Feng Mu only wanted to eat iron now, after all, how hard could it be to eat iron, right~