"Mutation!"
Wu Pifu's furious roar startled the three stunned newcomers.
Just as the tentacles were about to continue wrapping around them, he charged directly at the tentacles with a fierce shout.
The tentacles were pitch black, resembling a material akin to rubber tires.
The surface was covered in barbs, while the inner side was filled with sharp teeth.
If one were to get caught or scraped by them, a large chunk of flesh would likely be torn away.
This was Wu Pifu's first encounter with a Mutated Entity, though he had heard about them from his seniors.
All Mutated Entities were variations that did not involve supernatural contamination.
They were considered one of the easiest types of monsters to deal with, similar to the Nightmares he had faced before.
If it weren't for the downgraded Dream World, a Level Two Nightmare could easily slaughter tens of thousands in a legion within a minute.
Despite being the easiest to handle, these tentacles were about the size of a palm, at least five to six meters long, and dozens of them were thrashing about, making Wu Pifu's heart chill at the sight.
The other three were all newcomers; they had no strength to speak of, and their mental state was still stuck in the moment they entered the cryogenic chamber.
Although they would connect to the Dream Network every fifty years while in the cryogenic chamber, they were not citizens but merely allowed to continue sleeping in the Dream Network to avoid falling into the terror of the void.
Thus, they knew nothing at all.
At this moment, Wu Pifu met the tentacles head-on, while Qiu Qiu flitted anxiously in the air, chirping.
The four newcomers scrambled out of the tentacles' range, watching in shock as Wu Pifu dodged the attacks of dozens of tentacles with a speed unattainable by ordinary people.
He occasionally struck back with a claw, a punch, or a palm, each hit causing the tentacles to burst open and ooze black blood.
"Is he a citizen?"
The gentle young man spoke in a surprisingly leisurely tone at that moment.
The middle-aged man sneered, "How could a citizen come to a place like this? Besides, he has no affiliated interface, so he isn't a citizen."
The voluptuous woman nodded in agreement, "It's impossible for him to be a citizen; citizens can't engage in close combat... But I find your focus quite strange. Shouldn't we be discussing what this thing is?"
The middle-aged man seemed to have regained his composure from the shock.
He began searching for weapons while saying, "What else could it be? A bio-monster, of course. I've seen plenty of those during the Third War!"
The other two clearly disagreed.
They had also gotten up from the ground.
The gentle young man looked at Wu Pifu with a gentle expression, while the voluptuous woman followed the middle-aged man to search for weapons.
At that moment, a tentacle finally struck Wu Pifu's back.
With a single tear, a large chunk of muscle was ripped from his back.
However, despite this blow, Wu Pifu did not hesitate.
He rolled on the ground, pushed off with his legs, and with one arm pressing down, he tumbled more than ten meters away, escaping the tentacles' attack range.
Dozens of tentacles thrashed about, extending to their limit of about eight meters, and could not stretch any further.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this sight, but the next second, all the tentacles actually retracted back to the cryogenic chamber, beginning to tear and pull at the bottom of the chamber.
The true form of this tentacle monster was unknown, but it was clear it could not leave the cryogenic chamber.
It seemed to possess some intelligence, knowing to attack the cryogenic chamber.
Its strength was immense; as it tore and attacked, black blood splattered everywhere, yet it still managed to rip at the base of the cryogenic chamber, causing sparks to fly.
At this moment, the middle-aged man rushed to Wu Pifu's side.
He said in a deep voice, "Do you have any weapons? Even if there are no firearms, what about cold weapons? There must be something like wrenches, right?"
This middle-aged man was burly, nearly two meters tall, with his upper body exposed, muscles rippling with scars, clearly a fierce individual.
Wu Pifu replied, "Go into the passage; there are some things inside that can be used as weapons!"
After saying this, Wu Pifu was the first to run toward the maintenance base.
The three newcomers followed the middle-aged man and ran toward the maintenance base as well.
Qiu Qiu flew in the air, still closely following Wu Pifu, but carefully avoiding the gentle young man.
The four of them rushed toward the maintenance base, while behind them, the tentacles had completely torn open the bottom of the cryogenic chamber.
Dozens of tentacles were clawing at the ground, moving almost as fast as they were running.
When they arrived at the maintenance base, the three newcomers were taken aback.
The middle-aged man immediately shouted, "No way! This is a maintenance base, not an ancient artifact exhibition hall or a junkyard!"
Inside the maintenance base, aside from some tools and fixed maintenance vehicles, there were stone statues, wooden carvings, fishing nets, broken wooden tables, a few leather shields, and even a severed tank cannon barrel.
Wu Pifu said, "These are all things that the seniors randomly extracted from the Dream World; they’re of no use, and they just piled up here."
The information in this statement was overwhelming, leaving the three newcomers puzzled.
However, the sounds of the cryogenic chamber crashing against the metal walls of the passage echoed behind them, and they could not afford to ask more questions.
The voluptuous woman picked up a broken wooden plank from the ground, while the gentle young man grabbed a leather shield.
Only the middle-aged man directly picked up the severed tank cannon barrel to use as a club.
Though it was a struggle, it could still be used.
The middle-aged man shouted to Wu Pifu, "How do we fight?!"
Wu Pifu replied, "Wait a moment!"
After saying this, he picked up a ball of Buddha Clay from the pile of junk and pressed it directly onto his severed arm.
The black sphere transformed into a mud-like substance that fused into his severed arm.
Soon after, a pitch-black arm rapidly extended from his severed limb, and within a breath, the new arm's color changed to flesh tone.
The three newcomers were not particularly surprised by this.
They thought this black ball was a battlefield version or a rapid version of carbon-based nanomaterials, something they had encountered before, so it was nothing remarkable.
Wu Pifu, however, felt a sharp pain that was both numb and itchy coming from the new arm, but this pain was quickly dissipating.
Accompanying the pain was a certain heat flow that surged through his body, making the muscles in the areas it passed feel swollen, as if his entire strength was increasing.
Although Wu Pifu was prepared for this situation, he did not expect the effect of the Buddha Clay to be so immediate.
With the Mutated Entity approaching, he had no choice but to immediately use the Still Tiger Crouch technique and strive to circulate his qi and blood, spreading this heat flow throughout his body as much as possible.
Vaguely, Wu Pifu seemed to hear a kind of furious howl, a kind of moan, a kind of painful scream, and the sound of Buddhist scriptures composed of these noises.
How could a furious howl, a moan, and a scream recite Buddhist scriptures?
Yet he did hear it; however, when he listened closely, he heard nothing but the sound of qi and blood flowing within him.
The three newcomers saw Wu Pifu moving his hands and feet wildly, while his breathing was loud like a bellows.
Just as the tentacle monster was about to burst out of the passage, Wu Pifu showed no signs of attacking.
The middle-aged man roared angrily and charged at the tentacle monster with the tank cannon barrel.
The tank cannon barrel was about one and a half meters long and incredibly heavy, yet the middle-aged man managed to lift it.
He swung it down hard against the tentacle, and with a loud thud, several tentacles slammed into the barrel.
The barrel bent slightly under the immense force, and the impact shattered the middle-aged man's hands, while the remaining tentacles lunged at him.
In this critical moment, a figure darted to the middle-aged man's side, placing a hand on his shoulder.
The seemingly light touch contained a powerful force that sent him tumbling diagonally backward, landing seven or eight meters away before stopping.
The figure's other arm, shaped like a claw, continuously tore at the incoming tentacles, ripping them apart piece by piece.
It was Wu Pifu who saved the middle-aged man at the last moment.
He did not stop there; he forcefully stomped on the ground, unleashing nearly all his strength and qi in the shortest time possible.
His body turned a deep red, with white steam rising from his skin.
His speed was so fast it nearly exceeded the retina's ability to process, and in the blink of an eye, he broke through the gaps of dozens of tentacles, his figure bending forward like a fierce tiger as he leaped with all his might.
In an instant, Wu Pifu crashed into the cryogenic chamber.
Inside the chamber was a massive human face, with all the tentacles spewing forth from its mouth.
The back half of the face was flat against the interior of the cryogenic chamber.
With the force of his impact, his hands and feet, along with his body, became weapons, violently crashing into the nose, eyes, and mouth of this enormous face.
A tremendous sound erupted as the cryogenic chamber was sent flying over ten meters away, rolling several times on the ground before finally coming to a stop, along with the tentacles collapsing to the ground, instantly turning into foul blood.
Everything happened so quickly—from the middle-aged man charging with the tank cannon barrel, to him nearly losing his life, to Wu Pifu rushing forward to save him, and crashing into the cryogenic chamber—all within just over a second.
The three newcomers finally came to their senses and hurriedly looked at the damaged cryogenic chamber, witnessing the tentacles transforming into blood.
"Impressive, truly impressive!" the middle-aged man exclaimed loudly as he jogged toward Wu Pifu.
The other two newcomers followed suit, running toward him.
Wu Pifu smiled, then suddenly shouted, "Everyone, close your eyes!!"
At the sudden shout, combined with the momentum from just defeating the tentacle monster, the three newcomers instinctively closed their eyes.
In the next moment, Wu Pifu flashed to the side of the gentle young man, delivering a punch to his chest while simultaneously tearing apart his throat with a claw.
With a tearing sound, the middle-aged man and the voluptuous woman were about to open their eyes, but the next moment, they both screamed in pain, unable to dare to open their eyes, even covering their ears.
A cold, slippery voice said, "How strange, how did you discover it?"
As the voice echoed, the middle-aged man and the voluptuous woman screamed in agony, their skin suddenly revealing scales resembling snake scales, and the marks became increasingly pronounced.
"... The smell is too foul!"
While Wu Pifu spoke, he did not stop.
He directed his attention to a snake head that emerged from the gentle young man's torn neck.
He unleashed nearly all his strength, his arms combining to exert at least a thousand pounds of force.
Like scissors, his claws tore with all their might, ripping the snake head apart.
The writhing snake head showed no expression of pain; it was gradually transforming into a human face, which displayed a look of interest, its mouth continuously moving.
With Wu Pifu's dynamic vision, he could see it clearly.
"Interesting, I remember you, little thing..."
The snake head vanished into a wisp of pink smoke, disappearing without a trace.
The two remaining newcomers were still screaming, but the scale-like marks on their skin gradually faded.
Minutes later, they finally stopped their cries, the woman fainting outright, while the middle-aged man managed to half-kneel, saying in a deep voice, "What was that!? What exactly was that just now?"
"Contamination. No, it should be a parasitic entity of the contamination source, the culprit behind the annihilation of 6120 to 6122... the Pink Serpent," Wu Pifu said indifferently.
He looked at the scene of devastation, with five newcomers reduced to two, and sighed, "Newcomers... welcome to awaken, welcome to you..."
"To this nightmare."
(End of Chapter)