The hall once again fell silent, littered with the bodies of human-faced dogs and bullet holes.
Chen Ke glanced at the life countdown at the corner of his eye, firing the life-reducing gun in bursts, and his own life countdown remained at 4 hours, 45 minutes, and 59 seconds.
He looked toward Parker, who lay motionless in a pool of blood, feeling that the odds were against him.
"Hey hey… buddy," Chen Ke nudged Parker, who did not respond.
He turned Parker's body over and discovered a large bloody gash on his windpipe, Parker had long since stopped breathing.
That being the case, it was time to see what Parker had on him.
Chen Ke began to search Parker's belongings, who, like Black People, did not have much of value on him. His waist bag contained a phone identical to the iPhone 3G, a wallet, a magazine that was depleted except for one in Chen Ke's hand and the four rounds fired from the lined gun, totalling only 11 rounds of ammunition.
He lit up the phone screen, which displayed the date: March 22, 2009, 10:32 pm.
Chen Ke really wanted to use the phone to surf the internet for some information about this world, but unfortunately, the iPhone 3G produced in 2008 did not have fingerprint unlocking technology, and he could not unlock it using Parker's hand. He could not possibly guess the digital lock screen password, so he set the phone aside and turned to look at Parker's wallet.
Opening Parker's wallet, he found a family photo of three, several membership cards for various stores, and two 100 denomination banknotes. Chen Ke did not even know to which country the banknotes belonged, were they US Dollars?
What caught his attention was a credential sleeve tucked inside the wallet. He took it out for close observation.
The lower half of the leather sleeve contained a round, embedded coin badge, with a carving of an eagle clutching a globe, and over it was a magnetic card printed with Parker's registration photo, which read:
"Parker"
"Psychic Investigator"
"Class: D"
"Affiliated: Weber Spirit Production"
"Credential Issued: United Federation of Spiritual Energy Administration"
The United Federation must be the name of the country, and the Spiritual Energy Administration along with Weber Spirit Production drew Chen Ke's attention.
It seemed, then, that the existence of monsters in this world was no secret, and had even become a daily occurrence. Moreover, these monsters were not something ordinary people could handle.
Judging from his own recent experience, neither axes nor Glock 17s could deal fatal damage to the human-faced dogs. However, Parker's specially modified M1911A1 was able to kill them instantly.
In order to combat these creatures, the United Federation had established the Spiritual Energy Administration, training "Psychic Investigators" like Parker to go to places where so-called "Spiritual Ability Outbreaks" occurred.
Moreover, indicative of capitalism, these investigators weren't employees of state agencies, but rather employees of companies like Weber Spirit Production, which sounded rather like security companies.
Chen Ke removed the magazine and examined a bullet closely, its entire .45acp was white with no primer, and even with the naked eye, one couldn't distinguish the boundary between the bullet and the casing.
Combining the white flash produced after firing and the fact that it could not be used without consuming his lifespan, Chen Ke speculated that this bullet was produced through special engineering, likely filled with something other than gunpowder. Ordinary people might not be able to use it because they lacked "Spiritual Energy," and only "Psychic Investigators" like Parker could freely operate the firearms with their internal spiritual energy.
He analyzed it wildly, his face adopting an "Ah, I understand" expression and nodded.
Chen Ke only took Parker's cash, gun, and bullets; he left the rest untouched. He remembered Parker mentioning that leaving this place required passing through a place called the "Spiritual Ability Tunnel." He looked toward Parker's body, regretting not having asked where this passage was!
He also began to consider his plans for the next four hours. The current Chen Ke could only survive on the killing intent of others, which was manageable in a monster-infested building.
But what if he went outside?
In a civilized society, in a world with a sound legal system. Where would he find so much killing intent?
Was he to go astray and become a social scourge, a madman who killed, burned, looted, and tortured to stay alive?
That was not what he wanted, but he did not want to die either.
Chen Ke had more optimistic thoughts, like maybe this life countdown was merely a byproduct of the Spiritual Ability Outbreak? As long as he could get out safely, he could return to a normal life?
Chen Ke pondered in torment, as if he had lost his way on the road of life; at this moment, he suddenly noticed that the bodies of the dog-faced creatures on the floor were faintly twinkling with white orbs.
The white orb was very subtle, resembling a small luminous fog about the size of a fist. Moreover, not every dog's corpse radiated this white light. After briefly counting, Chen Ke noted that among the dozen corpses, only five formed white orbs.
Chen Ke squatted down beside the orb to inspect it closely. The white light wasn't harsh on the eyes and seemed to have something flowing on its surface, the longer he looked, the softer it appeared. Instinctively, he reached out to touch it, his hand passing through the orb and grasping a handle-like object.
He yanked the object out of the orb and with a "whoosh," the orb vanished into thin air. In Chen Ke's hand suddenly appeared a faint afterimage of a sword, resembling a continuously misting rod, twisting through space, its specific features unclear.
Within Chen Ke's field of vision, a transparent interface appeared:
[Unknown Short Sword]
[??]
[??]
[??]
Chen Ke immediately thought of the dagger he had previously plunged into his chest. As he cast a questioning glance at the blurry sword, a line of small text appeared at the corner of his eye:
"Use 20 minutes of lifespan to identify Holy Relics."
A bead of sweat trickled down Chen Ke's forehead as his lifespan dropped from 4 hours and 44 minutes to 4 hours and 24 minutes...
At that moment, the sword in his hand transformed. The white halo and mist gradually dissipated, and the sword's image became concrete.
Displayed in his hands was a Wide-Blade Sword, about 60 cm long. Its blade was sharp on both sides, featuring a blood groove down the middle. It felt heavy, wrapped tightly in a fabric ribbon stained with blood, looking far from a merely decorative sword. Chen Ke was convinced that this sword had indeed taken lives...
Looking again at the sword's details, they had changed to:
[Executioner's Bleeding Short Sword]
[Durability: Poor]
[Lacerate Wound: The wounds it causes will never heal]
[Blood Groove: Causes significant blood loss upon piercing]
The sword in Chen Ke's hands trembled slightly, flashing with white light, and transformed into a small, bright diamond radiating white haloes.
Chen Ke was clueless as to why the dog's corpses had dropped a sword, but he was gradually getting the hang of it.
He collected the orbs from the other four dogs, pulling out a coat, a helmet, a pair of boots, and a shield…
When he looked at these orbs, he fervently reminded himself, "I don't want to know what these things are!" Sure enough, his lifespan timer didn't autonomously deduct any lifespan for identification.
Looking once more at the spoils of war, the transparent interface appeared with "Would you like to spend 20 minutes of lifespan to identify Holy Relics?"
Good, he could now control the use of his lifespan freely...
Chen Ke had collected a total of five Holy Relics. Perhaps using these items would make dealing with monsters much simpler and convenient?
Unfortunately, the Holy Relics could not be used without identification, and the lifespan cost for identification was indeed quite high.
Moreover, summoning the Holy Relics from their diamond form to a physical state also required at least 30 minutes of lifespan to be consumed. Holy Relics in their physical state also seemed unable to be used for long durations; shortly after, they would revert back to their diamond forms.
Even if these items were very useful, the excessive consumption of lifespan meant that for the current Chen Ke, they could only be used as trump cards.
At that moment, the lighting inside the hall suddenly changed. The chandelier, originally emitting a warm orange light, slowly began casting a cold green light, turning the hall sinister and terrifying.
Chen Ke picked up the dim white diamonds that the unidentified Holy Relics had turned into from the ground and placed them into his wool coat's pocket. He aimlessly raised his M1911A1.
Then, in various parts of the hall, large white slits of light suddenly opened. Through the gaps, a squad of SWAT-like agents dressed in black was seen running towards the hall from the outside.
Chen Ke guessed that outside forces had forcibly opened the entrance, but he preferred not to interact with official personnel in this situation.
He looked toward the other light slits and chose one displaying an alley, into which he leaped without hesitation.