Chapter 98: System Containment

After a moment of perception, Gunei

Gunei precisely looked toward the position of the Transcendent Gate.

“Before, when I didn’t look, just releasing my perception made me feel the fear of death.”

“But now, even when I release my perception, the sense of danger is almost negligible.”

“Indeed, after reincarnation, I have gained strong resistance to this peculiar memetic curse.”

After pondering for a moment, Gunei opened his eyes again.

What met his eyes was the dried, bloody flesh barrier.

But after staring for only three or four seconds, Gunei felt a soreness in his eyes.

Fortunately, he could still continue looking.

After about twelve or thirteen seconds, Gunei felt darkness before his eyes.

At the same time, a sharp pain struck deep in his eyes, and two streams of blood flowed from the corners.

Gunei quickly closed his eyes.

He touched the blood flowing from the corners of his eyes.

“It has lost its vitality. Although I have resistance, I still need to be careful in the face of this terrifying power. Having resistance doesn’t mean I can ignore its existence.”

“Terrifying power is still terrifying power. Having resistance only keeps me from being directly killed by the memetic curse it emits, or by the ability of higher life forms to crush lower ones.”

“Right now, I only have the capital to survive by bowing my head.”

“To contend with it, I need to possess great strength myself.”

With his eyes closed, blood surged rapidly in Gunei’s eyes.

Soon, the injuries in his eyes healed, but the transcendent blood that had lost its vitality could not be recovered.

“Huh…”

Gunei exhaled softly.

Then, with his eyes still closed, he opened the system’s adventure page.

Following the system’s guidance, he began to move forward with his eyes shut.

Just after entering the Transcendent Gate and taking two steps,

Gunei felt himself stepping onto the flesh barrier.

The flesh was hard, like stone, and at the same time, Gunei could feel it slightly squirming beneath his feet.

Stepping on it, his body rose and fell with the undulating muscles.

“Extremely hard yet still squirming—this means…”

“While this flesh has the vitality of living tissue, its strength far exceeds my imagination.”

“That’s why it possesses both ‘hardness’ and ‘squirming’ characteristics.”

“The life level of this ‘squirming flesh’ is very high,” Gunei mused.

Having long desired powerful physical defense, Gunei had studied the subject thoroughly.

Humans, with their flesh bodies, have skin and superficial fascia that are not meant for combat defense.

Thus, humans rely on transcendent armor.

For example, the chainmail Gunei wanted to buy.

But relying solely on equipment makes it hard to achieve his goal of being a “tank mage.”

Sufficient personal defense and robust physical vitality—that is the ultimate essence of tank gear.

Humans do not possess powerful physiques or super defense.

In nature, however, some transcendent creatures have excellent defensive abilities.

Representative examples are thick fur, higher forms like hard scales, or even the runic armor of some strange creatures.

This squirming flesh, possessing such hardness,

inevitably stirred some unusual thoughts in Gunei.

“Let me test the hardness of this flesh.”

He quickly opened his eyes to look around; ahead was a corner.

After a brief two or three seconds of opening his eyes, Gunei closed them again.

Then he directly chanted the “Magic Blade Cursed Spell.”

After a few days of idling, the Magic Blade Cursed Spell had successfully advanced to level one.

Its power was naturally much greater than the fourth-tier ordinary spell Rocket Art.

As Gunei finished chanting and released the Magic Blade Cursed Spell, he quickly opened his eyes.

A crescent blade, about half a meter long and twenty centimeters wide, with a color like black obsidian crystal, swiftly tore through the air and slashed forward.

The Magic Blade Cursed Spell was fast, much faster than fourth-tier Lightning Arc and Rocket Art.

In the blink of an eye, it crossed the nearly thirty meters and struck the flesh barrier at the corner.

With a “bang!”

The Magic Blade Cursed Spell exploded directly.

Gunei watched closely; the spot struck by the spell seemed unharmed.

With his eyes closed, Gunei walked forward.

Reaching the corner, he opened his eyes again, stared carefully for two or three seconds, then closed them.

“No trace of damage at all.”

“The defense of this flesh is absurdly strong,” Gunei marveled inwardly.

With this thought, he became even more expectant of the “Unnameable Flesh” the system had guided him to.

No longer lingering, Gunei followed the system’s guidance deeper in.

All along the way, he stepped on the squirming flesh barrier.

Fortunately, Gunei wore mithril-grade short boots, which kept him from falling due to the constant undulations of the squirming flesh.

Gunei walked carefully, advancing about two hundred meters or so.

He stopped.

The piece of “Unnameable Flesh” the system had guided him to was right before him.

Facing that piece of Unnameable Flesh, Gunei again felt fear and the threat of death.

Confronting this piece of flesh was like facing death itself.

To touch it would surely mean death.

And the system’s guidance was clear:

Do not touch it.

Use puppet threads or source power to make light contact, then store it in the system space.

Extending puppet threads, Gunei gently touched that piece of Unnameable Flesh.

“Store!”

Using the system’s special ability, Gunei directly stored the Unnameable Flesh into his system inventory.

The moment the Unnameable Flesh was stored,

the dangerous feeling vanished.

Gunei breathed a sigh of relief.

After a moment’s thought, he slowly opened his eyes.

What met his eyes was still the squirming flesh barrier, like cured meat.

He waited a few seconds; his eyes felt normal.

After more than ten seconds, the squirming flesh continued to squirm as before, but it no longer had the destructive power that had caused eye pain and damage.

Clearly, after that piece of “Unnameable Flesh” was taken,

the flesh barrier formed by it had lost its terrifying destructive power.

“Unnameable Flesh.”

As he pondered, Gunei looked toward the system inventory.

When he looked, the Unnameable Flesh did not cause any abnormal state.

“The special nature of the system space has rendered the meme or curse of this Unnameable Flesh ineffective. That must be it. The system’s containment ability is impressive!”

The piece of Unnameable Flesh before his eyes

was about the size of two adult male palms pressed together.

It was pitch black like ink, with golden blood vessels flowing over it.

The whole piece of Unnameable Flesh resembled a piece of “black gold,” exuding an indescribable eerie feeling.

“For now, I cannot touch this ‘flesh.’”

“Unless it kills me again.”

“When I can touch it, my resistance will be strong enough to withstand its erosion. At that time, perhaps…”

Gunei narrowed his eyes, ambition sprouting in his heart.

“At that time, I can use the Blood Pool to digest this piece of Unnameable Flesh and strengthen my body.”

The Blood Pool, at low levels, can only digest blood and ordinary-quality flesh.

But at higher levels, it can digest high-level, powerful flesh.

As Gunei stared at the flesh in the inventory, he suddenly heard something falling continuously.

“Plop… plop…”

The sound was familiar to Gunei—it was the sound of flesh falling.

“What’s happening?” Gunei was startled.