Chapter 2 Aberrant Classification

  Dawn broke, the sky still a monotonous shade of grayish-white.

  Lan Chi sat up from the raw wooden bed, his palm pressing against the smooth, dry wooden floor. The gaps that once let drafts whistle through the hut were now completely sealed. Though the stone-lined fire pit felt cold, every gray stone was embedded perfectly flush with the earth. On the side wall, the simple window with its thick wooden shutters was tightly closed, muffling the eternal, rustling sound from outside into a dull murmur.

  He scanned the nearly forty-square-meter one-bedroom living space, a fleeting sense of safety flashing through his mind.

  "Status," he murmured inwardly.

  A grayish-white panel materialized without warning in the center of his retina, its cold, mechanical font hovering in mid-air:

  [General Rules]

  Shelter Level Upgraded to: 1

  Based on participant eligibility, the survivor will receive a survival reward.

  Current Status: Upgrade complete.

  Lan Chi sat expectantly on the edge of the bed, unmoving, his gaze slowly sweeping across the room. He was waiting. According to common sense from the novels he'd read, after a successful upgrade notification, there should be a flash of light, materials appearing, or maybe a treasure chest dropping out of thin air.

  Ten seconds passed. Thirty seconds. One minute.

  Aside from a faint flicker of the text on the panel, nothing in the room changed.

  Chen Feng stood up and searched the room thoroughly. Nothing. He opened the door and looked around outside. Still nothing.

  "What's going on? Where's my reward?" Lan Chi asked, puzzled. He frowned, poking the floating window. "Where is my reward?"

  The panel didn't respond.

  He paused for a moment, then tried using more command-like phrasing. "Display my reward."

  "Claim reward."

  The system interface flickered slightly, then returned to its original state. No new information appeared.

  Lan Chi stared at the words "survival reward." A growing sense of being cheated slowly replaced his suppressed anxiety.

  He had worked desperately to complete collection tasks, kill bizarre monsters, and repair this shelter. And he got nothing in return!

  Was this fair? Was there any justice?!

  He stubbornly poked at the words "survival reward," his fingertip passing through harmlessly each time.

  Lan Chi took a deep breath, raised his palm, and slapped it hard against the area where the alternating red and white text floated.

  Slap.

  There was no sound of impact, but the moment his hand passed through the text, Lan Chi felt an incredibly faint resistance. It wasn't like hitting air; it was more like his hand brushing across the surface of water.

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  He stopped moving, keeping his hand outstretched, staring intently at his palm, which still throbbed faintly.

  The accumulated confusion and frustration finally breached the dam of his reason.

  "Talk!" He raised his voice at the floating screen, his tone carrying barely suppressed anger. "Where is my goddamn reward?!"

  His hand kept slapping at the screen. The previously calm system interface suddenly began to change. The originally clear mechanical font started to melt, its edges blurring, reforming into new text.

  [Detecting Anomaly...]

  [Initiating Anomaly Purge...]

  Two lines of icy text appeared. The interface's color rapidly shifted to a murky, foul grayish-green.

  The center of the screen abruptly bulged outward, forming a fist-sized lump.

  As the lump appeared, the light inside the shelter dimmed instantly. The air turned damp and cold, the temperature plummeting to freezing within seconds.

  Pop—

  A crack split open on the lump. Two semi-transparent, bizarre tentacles shot out from within, lashing toward Lan Chi.

  Lan Chi felt as if a powerful energy was crushing his brain. His stomach churned, and nausea surged straight to his throat.

  The tentacles spread open before his face like lightning, revealing a hideous, gaping maw.

  He was going to die! Lan Chi's heart hammered with terror from the sudden attack, but his body reacted before his conscious mind could.

  He stumbled backward in a panic, crashing into the storage shelf behind him. Fumbling frantically, he grabbed a stone blade from the shelf and swung it at the tentacles in front of him.

  Thump—

  A muffled sound.

  The stone blade struck the apparition. The instant it hit, the tentacle's surface rippled with an energy wave, like concentric circles spreading on water.

  A layer of white frost formed on the stone blade's surface upon contact, the chill burrowing straight into his palm along the blade.

  The attack was interrupted, and the several tentacles seemed angered. One of them coiled abruptly, like a venomous snake, wrapping around Lan Chi's wrist that held the blade.

  "Hiss—! Ah!"

  Unspeakable agony exploded. It felt as if concentrated acid had been poured directly onto his skin. A burnt smell filled the air, and the skin on his wrist blackened and charred before his eyes.

  Another tentacle shot toward his neck.

  Lan Chi reacted quickly, grabbing that second tentacle with his free hand, pulling and tearing at it with all his might.

  The despair of imminent death ignited Lan Chi's survival instinct in that moment. Fear was replaced by a surge of desperate ferocity, a near-maniacal drive.

  Using the momentum from the tentacle's pull, he lunged forward, gripping the stone blade with both hands, and smashed it down with all his force onto the center of the screen!

  A sharp crack echoed. The bulge in the center of the screen split open, and a viscous, dark green glowing liquid sprayed from the fissure. The two tentacles convulsed violently, their grip noticeably loosening.

  Gritting his teeth, Lan Chi raised the stone blade again and brought down a second heavy blow onto that crack.

  Bang!

  Crashhh!!!

  The entire twisted, grayish-green interface shattered like a pane of glass.

  A piercing shriek rang out, and the fragments dissolved into wisps of black smoke. In the final moment before the interface vanished completely, a deep, indistinct, inhuman whisper flooded Lan Chi's mind:

  "Outs...ider... leak...… purge…..."

  The phenomenon disappeared. The temperature in the room rose quickly.

  Lan Chi collapsed weakly to the floor, his breathing heavy and ragged. His wildly pounding heart made his chest tremble. He looked down at his right wrist. The area was charred black, the skin severely burned, with tissue fluid oozing from the edges.

  The system interface was gone. The reward was gone. But he was alive!

  "What the hell kind of world is this?!"

  Before Lan Chi could recover from the intense emotional aftermath of his narrow escape, a strange new pain suddenly shot from the wound on his wrist. The pain was like countless tiny ice needles, racing along his blood vessels, spreading rapidly through his entire body.

  The black corrosive marks seemed like a living toxin, crazily consuming his flesh.

  He felt a cold, foreign energy trying to attack his whole body, while within him, a counter-current of heat seemed to surge, pushing back against this invading force.

  The two forces clashed violently inside him. Lan Chi felt as if his blood vessels and internal organs were being torn apart.

  He didn't know how much time passed.

  Gradually, Lan Chi's consciousness returned. He slowly opened his eyes, sat up cautiously, and twisted his stiff body.

  He looked at his wrist. The black corrosive marks were gone. In their place were slightly paler, fresh scars. They felt a little hard to the touch, but didn't hurt.

  "I'm not dead, after all." Lan Chi lay back on the floor, grateful just to be alive.