The principle of "New" is quite simple. It's like an engine, and human flesh and blood are the fuel. The more flesh and blood you provide, the stronger the power of "New" becomes.
The CCG must have lost their minds to invent something like this. Using "New" frequently is not just about getting injured; it could even shorten one's lifespan. In the CCG, it's not just Yuna using "New"; others like Shinohara Yukiki and Kuroiwa are also using it. This makes Su Xiao suspect that the higher-ups in the CCG don’t care about the lives of the investigators. Their actions imply that as long as they can drive away the ghouls, the lives of the investigators don’t matter.
Some high-ranking investigators might have noticed this, but they haven’t given up because they are fighting for their beliefs.
After receiving the "New" thrown by Su Xiao, it attached itself to Yuna’s upper body.
"I need to rest for a while again."
Without hesitation, Yuna pressed the switch on the back of her neck, and "New" was activated again. Three seconds later, Yuna, holding a scythe, had her strength increased several times.
"I'll smash you all, hahaha!"
Yuna let out a strange laugh as she spun the scythe, quickly killing the remaining dozen or so eyeless ghouls. In less than 30 seconds, all the eyeless ghouls were wiped out. Yuna was quick to kill ghouls, but she also fell faster; "New" was already starting to gnaw at her.
"Help, help!"
Just moments ago, Yuna was crazily slaughtering ghouls, but now she was on the ground, reaching out to Su Xiao for help.
Su Xiao leaned against the wall and walked over to Yuna, roughly peeling "New" off her body.
"Rip, rip."
Su Xiao successfully removed "New" from Yuna, who curled up on the ground.
"Stop pretending to be tough and hurry up. There are at least a thousand ghouls out there."
"But..."
Yuna still curled up on the ground.
"Choose between your pride and becoming a corpse."
After saying that, Su Xiao walked ahead slowly. He needed to leave Area 24 as soon as possible; it was more dangerous than he had imagined.
"Wait, wait for me."
Yuna, ignoring her embarrassment, forced herself to stand up, put away her Quinque, and followed behind Su Xiao.
"Please don’t look back, I beg you."
Yuna followed Su Xiao in an awkward posture, holding two Quinque boxes in front of her.
"Put this on."
Su Xiao took out a set of clothes from his storage space and tossed them to Yuna. She managed to get dressed in just five seconds.
"Oh no."
Yuna suddenly stopped, her face looking a bit pale.
"What’s wrong?"
Su Xiao looked at Yuna.
"The fight was too intense, and I lost my compass."
Losing the compass after entering Area 24 meant they could get lost, and if that happened, their chances of survival would be very slim.
"Don’t worry. Just mark your way as we go, and with my hand-drawn map, we’ll be out soon."
Su Xiao drew a line in the dirt with his sword to mark the path and noted it on his hand-drawn map.
"I wonder how Arima is doing. Compared to you two, I feel so useless."
Yuna lowered her head, following behind Su Xiao.
"Arima won’t die."
Yuna looked at Su Xiao in confusion.
"If he could die that easily, I wouldn’t have stayed back to help him."
Su Xiao didn’t know much about Arima from the original story, but after interacting with him, he found that Arima was a very clever guy with many secrets.
"This way."
As Su Xiao passed a corner and was about to move on, he noticed something strange about the meat wall nearby.
The meat walls in other places were all connected, but the one in front of him had a gap about forty centimeters wide.
Inside the gap was pitch black. Su Xiao took out a strong flashlight and shone it inside.
The gap in the meat wall was narrow on the outside but wider inside. From his position, he could vaguely see some dusty objects inside.
Yuna leaned her head in.
"This is... a secret room?"
"Seems like it."
Su Xiao put away his sword and moved towards the gap in the meat wall.
"Is there anything inside? I have claustrophobia; can I not go in?"
Yuna, who had just been mercilessly killing ghouls, now showed a look of fear.
"Those eyeless ghouls could show up at any moment. If you still want to fight them, you can stay outside, but in your current state, you might end up as a snack."
As Su Xiao spoke, he had already squeezed into the gap, and the space around him opened up.
With the flashlight, Su Xiao observed the situation inside the secret room.
A musty smell filled the air, and there were some unknown items placed inside.
Some items looked like wooden tables, while others resembled boxes, all covered in a thick layer of dust, making it hard to see their shapes.
It looked like an old laboratory, with no electronic equipment in sight. A dusty scale in the corner showed just how old this place was.
"I hate small spaces."
Yuna entered the secret room sideways, shaking off the dust from her head.
Su Xiao entered the secret room out of necessity; he was in bad shape and needed to rest temporarily.
There was no sense of danger here; otherwise, he wouldn’t have come in.
He advised Yuna to place the Quinque boxes in the gap of the meat wall to prevent it from closing suddenly.
Even if the Quinque boxes couldn’t stop the gap from closing, they could buy some time to escape. Those boxes were very hard, especially the one for "New," which was made of a special alloy.
"What is this? A laboratory?"
"It seems so, and it’s been here for quite a while."
Su Xiao walked to a wooden table and wiped off the dust on it.
"Cough, cough."
Dust flew up, and Su Xiao coughed.
"Crash."
A glass container fell to the ground and shattered.
Su Xiao instinctively stepped back to observe the broken glass container.
The glass had shattered, and from the fragments, it was clear that it was a beaker with a dark yellow interior and some suspicious black spots.
"I can’t believe there’s a place like this in Area 24; I’ve never seen it before."
Yuna looked around curiously.
Once Su Xiao confirmed that the secret room was safe, he leaned against the wall and took out a roll of bandages to wrap his wounds.
Yuna’s injuries weren’t severe; they were just surface wounds. She was currently experiencing fatigue from using "New," but she would recover after resting for a while.
Su Xiao, on the other hand, was seriously injured. Continuous battles had left him extremely weak, and he had lost some flesh to a primitive ghoul earlier, and "New" had also bitten him hard.
"Let’s rest for a few hours before we set off again."
Su Xiao took out some food and fresh water, eating a bit to regain his strength and gesturing for Yuna to eat some too.
He pulled out a Salt Rice Ball and ate it in two bites. This could restore 10% of his health, speeding up his recovery.
As for the higher-grade Golden Fried Rice, he didn’t use it.
He still had another portion of Golden Fried Rice, which was his best recovery food and felt precious.
Yuna sat in front of Su Xiao, replenishing her food and water, as she had lost all her supplies.
After eating the Salt Rice Ball, Su Xiao felt his injuries had improved a bit.
Activating his mark, Su Xiao checked his current CCG contribution points. The primitive ghouls he had killed earlier had earned him a lot of contribution points.
He had just killed over a hundred eyeless ghouls and wondered if he would gain contribution points from that.
"Upper-level Investigator, Current Contribution Points: 7723/10000."
Su Xiao squinted his eyes. He had actually gained over 5000 CCG contribution points in a short time in Area 24.
There must be huge secrets here, closely related to the CCG.
If he could uncover the secrets here, then...
Su Xiao weighed his options. If he explored the secrets of Area 24 now, it might lead to a fallout with the CCG, but the potential rewards would be massive.
Now was not the right time. Even if a fallout happened, it would have to wait until he exchanged that blue-quality potion first.
(End of Chapter)