A row of numbers appeared before his eyes.
"Leonard Churchill"
Strength: 0.71
Physique: 0.58
Agility: 0.62
Spirit: 4.73
Description: Weak;
"Data panel, huh... well, this is straightforward."
Since Leonard could accept the fact that he had transmigrated, he didn't find anything strange about the panel.
Instead, upon seeing these numbers, he immediately analyzed his physical condition.
The abrupt "4.73" for Spirit was probably related to the transmigration, or perhaps it was intrinsic to him.
But the other values were too low.
He guessed that a healthy body should have attribute values around 1, but his were basically only fifty or sixty percent of that, weak like a sick person.
And what was even more alarming was that the values were still decreasing while he observed them!
"You have come into contact with Curse Pollution, Physique -0.002"
"You have come into contact with Curse Pollution, Physique -0.001"
"Mental Erosion Exemption"
"..."
"Continuous contamination just by being close? No wonder I feel so weak..."
Leonard muttered to himself internally, quickly realizing that the mental pollution was like nuclear radiation, causing damage continuously upon proximity.
Clearly, he needed to stay farther away from the person on the bed.
He checked again—his clothes were not his own, but his body was still the familiar one.
Having transmigrated, he had replaced the original person without retaining any memory.
He glanced again at the woman beneath him; a monster is a monster, but he had to admit, she was quite attractive.
"Heh..."
Leonard mocked himself, cautiously avoiding the naked corpse on the bed, fearing that some reason might awaken it.
Going around bare seemed like a bad choice, so he gathered scattered clothing from under the bed and got dressed one piece at a time.
A dirty tactical suit, leather boots with hardened steel plates, an anti-stab tactical vest, and a simple gas mask—it looked like some kind of field equipment. To his surprise, he found two large-caliber revolvers and some ammunition fastened to the equipment belt under the clothes.
Thinking further, in a world with monsters, carrying guns didn't seem so strange after all.
Leonard held a revolver, his index finger gently moving on the trigger, and checked the ammunition, reflecting, "The firearms craftsmanship of this world isn't too bad."
The revolver was clearly produced in a small arms workshop, showing irregular hand-polishing marks everywhere.
Yet both in terms of structure and steel quality, the revolver was quite decent.
With such a large caliber, it could probably blow someone's head open like a split watermelon.
The bullets also had special silver patterns, probably not merely decorative but serving some special purpose.
Clearly, the gun was not intended just for humans; it was more likely for killing monsters.
"What kind of world is this, really?"
Leonard's curiosity about this world grew.
With the handgun in hand, he initially thought of turning around and trying a shot on the person in the bed.
But he dismissed the thought.
If firearms could easily kill this "B-level Catastrophe" monster, the original host probably wouldn't have ended up dead last night.
Although he didn't know why the monster hadn't awakened yet, it certainly wasn't dead—not as he understood death, at least.
Leaving the room was now his top priority.
...
Leonard, fully equipped, reached the room's exit.
It was an iron door that looked structurally complex even from the inside.
The door was rusty and seemed very ancient; the craftsmanship appeared old-fashioned. There were slight dents on the door that looked like someone had violently tried to break it open but failed.
Leonard put his ear to the door and knocked, finding it as thick as he had expected.
He didn't plan to force his way out and took a closer look at the door's structure.
Fortunately, there was a vent that looked like it was for food delivery. He pulled a dagger from its sheath, preparing to see if it might be possible to pick the lock.
Coincidentally, as he was tapping around, he suddenly heard a series of metallic friction sounds, "click, click," coming from inside the door.
The door's lock unexpectedly opened by itself.
Coincidence?
Or had he triggered some mechanism?
Leonard looked back. The corpse behind him showed no signs of movement.
The door was now open, and no matter what the situation outside, he had to face it.
After briefly considering the possible scenarios, he put on a gas mask and pushed open the room door.
...
As the door swung open, he was greeted by the distinctly apocalyptic bunker-style sealed corridor.
Gas lamps?
These were antiques from two or three hundred years ago.
Leonard instantly noticed the flickering wall lamps in the corridor and speculated about the age of the building.
What place was this exactly?
A strong desire for knowledge emerged in his mind, and right then, another line of text appeared before his eyes.
"You have gained Enlightenment: 'Alternate Dimension Abnormal Creature Shelter 407'"
"Disaster Level assessed: B"
"Space exploration progress: 47.1%"
"Death rate in this space: 69.4%"
"Keywords: Survival"
"Mission: This is a mysterious research institute imprisoning mutated monsters, and you need to survive here for three days"
"Passing rewards: Random output of Curse Energy Materials, Finished Cards in the space; the higher the exploration evaluation, the richer the final tally."
"..."
At this point, Leonard roughly understood.
Was this like a special space in a game's duplication?
However, he was not yet fully aware of this world, and he couldn't accurately grasp what "Alternate Dimension" meant.
But that nearly 70% death rate... it was glaring.
The dangers in this bunker were likely not limited to the person lying in the room behind him; there were probably others.
Maybe even other people.
Just as he was about to step out the door, Leonard's hand was already on the revolver at his waist.
He carefully observed his surroundings.
This sealed corridor had no windows and seemed to be an underground facility.
Apart from his own room, there were similar iron doors spaced about every dozen meters or so, and at least twenty to thirty rooms were visible within his line of sight.
"Could there be a monster locked in each of these rooms?"
It was at this thought that Leonard suddenly heard a creaking door sound, and the door of the neighboring room was pushed open from the inside.
Something came out!
Leonard instantly became alert and swiftly drew his revolver, aiming at the figure that rushed out from the door.
Clearly, the neighbor had also noticed someone in the corridor.
And was quicker!
In the instant when the two faced each other, their weapons were pointed at one another.
After recognizing that the other was human, Leonard, who was a second slower in drawing his gun, did not pull the trigger.
Neither did the other person.
More importantly, Leonard noticed the gun muzzle on the other person's right arm pointing towards him, and he slightly lifted the goggles he wore.
What in the world was this?
Mechanical arm?
Or should it be called... an Individual Steam-Powered High-Pressure Jet Cannon?
Leonard did not know how to accurately describe the other's equipment.
It was a steampunk style mechanical suit; the arm featured a metal cannon approximately 30mm in diameter with well-crafted brass valves and a pressure gauge, along with a metal arm guard connected by three high-pressure air tubes to a small steam boiler on the back. There were complex mechanical structures at the chest and knee joints, resembling a complete set of individual mechanical exoskeleton.
The boiler was puffing white steam, evidently a steam-powered weapon.
But all the talk of mechanical equipment and black technology aside.
What caught Leonard's attention was the Shield Light Barrier faintly glowing around the person's body?
Primitive steampunk black technology combined with magical light shields delivered a bizarre cognitive clash.
"Magic punk?"
Leonard initially thought he had a gun and that even in a confrontation, the odds would be evenly matched.
But this guy apparently knew magic!
Seeing the Magic Light Shield, he immediately realized that the technological and power trees of this world were not quite normal.
Oh,
Starting from the naked corpse, nothing had been normal.
His equipment was leagues behind.
Starting a conflict clearly wasn't a wise choice.
Leonard felt his situation might be a little dire.