Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 220 Life Blossoms, Miraculous Runes!
sizzle.

It sounded like squid on a hot plate, bursting with juice as it landed on a red-hot steel plate.

The eyeballs at the tips of the four tentacles were scorched and charred by the sunlight almost simultaneously, turning into a characteristic value that could be absorbed by the collector.

The collector has detected escaping biological information and is automatically absorbing it.

[Absorption complete; the Magic Eye Sponge's properties have been enhanced.]

The cotton chamber's characteristic value has reached 200% (maximum) and it can no longer absorb anything.

[The attribute value of the Flowing Cotton Pattern has reached the maximum of 200%, and it can no longer absorb anything.]

The characteristic value of the eye gauge reaches 100%.

[The attribute value of the angular eye has reached 100%]

"Not bad!"

Cheng Ye glanced at the prompts that popped up on the panel and nodded repeatedly with great surprise.

The Magic Eye Sponge's intelligence is actually quite high, roughly equivalent to that of a five- or six-year-old human child. Moreover, it is extremely vengeful, and its attacks become more ferocious with each one.

However, the eyeballs at the tips of its tentacles seem to lack normal vision. Even when it "sees" him go back into the water, it doesn't react at all. It only becomes aware of this when a piece of sponge and a tentacle are cut off, and then launches a frantic counterattack.

"Is it thanks to the Obsidian Armor?"

Cheng Ye touched the black armor on his body and secretly praised it.

When Bai Wei gave him this suit of armor, he only said that it could hide human presence to the greatest extent and avoid being detected by the source of infection. He didn't expect that it could not only avoid the sense of presence, but also deceive visual detection. It is indeed the highest level of annihilation-level protective equipment.

"Do you still want to go down?"

Rococo pointed underwater and couldn't help but swallow.

After being ambushed by Cheng Ye for the third time, the tentacles of the Demon Eye Sponge simply stopped retracting and remained standing a meter below the water's surface, as if it were on high alert.

"No, we have enough specimens already. Let's go back and rest first, and then we'll make plans in the afternoon."

Cheng Ye peered underwater.

He had a vague feeling that keeping the Magic Eye Sponge in its current state would consume a great deal of its energy.

This is a good thing, as it means that the energy it can supply to the fragments of immortal artifacts will be reduced, and the potential threat at night will also be lowered.

However, continuing to provoke the enemy in the water would be unwise; knowing when to stop is the safest course of action.

The two removed their obsidian armor and returned to the truck lab to put the newly acquired tentacle samples into the analysis equipment. They then rushed to the sauna room that had been set up to check on the removal of the infection from the water crab.

It was already noon, and the first group of residents who entered the sauna had already completed their exfoliation.

After two rounds of dehydration and rehydration, the person looked weak, but their spirits were still relatively good.

Given the wastelanders' recovery speed, they should be back to normal by tomorrow afternoon.

Seeing this, the other residents were completely relieved, and some even secretly hoped that they would also be infected so that they could temporarily not have to work and could rest in their apartment.

During lunch break, the four prosecutors gathered together.

Rocco quickly reported on the underwater situation, briefly explaining the existence of the Magic Eye Sponge. In order not to scare Wang Kang and Garcia, he deliberately did not mention the terrifying scene of "thousands of tentacles", only saying that the cave was under the body of the Magic Eye Sponge.

Even so, Garcia's expression changed drastically with fright, while Wang Kang looked on with curiosity, asking about the details underwater.

"Brother Cheng, are you going into the water again tonight?" Wang Kang asked.

"It's hard to say. Let's see how things go this afternoon. It would be best if we could complete the exploration during the day." Cheng Ye picked up a bag of nutrient solution, tore open the tube, and drank three bags in a row before stopping.

After three full-power bursts, the acceleration energy has dropped to 30%.

Fortunately, the "fish-like" device helped; otherwise, conventional diving alone would not have been able to explore the Magic Eye Sponge so efficiently. We would have had to slowly explore the outer perimeter underwater, just as Rocook had originally planned.

"After you start work this afternoon, you should take the lead in setting up defensive facilities and focus on clearing out any potential hazards along the road from the river to the camp."

Cheng Ye paused, looked up at the slightly overcast sky, and said in a more serious tone, "I have a feeling that something might happen with this rain tonight, and there will be no shortage of battles."

“No problem!” Wang Kang replied immediately. “The solar panels have already been unloaded from the truck and installed. All that’s left is to set up the searchlights and run the power lines. Sun Dazheng is also leading people to build the watchtower. Once it’s built, we can see everything that happens by the river from the camp.”

“I’m fine on my end too,” Rokuk continued. “Yesterday I led a team to clear a large section of the ruins. Today’s main task is to improve the living quarters and assist in building defensive structures.”

As he spoke, he looked at Garcia.

Garcia paused for a few seconds, then nodded and said, "The living quarters were almost finished this morning. This afternoon I will lead people to clear the road to the river and set up defensive fortifications to ensure that the situation of the Darkwater Cave Crab attack yesterday will not happen again."

"it is good!"

Cheng Ye tossed the empty nutrient solution bag into the trash can and held out his hand. "Once we leave Happiness City and enter the wilderness, we prosecutors are a team. Facing the source of infection, we need to work together to survive."

Wang Kang was the first to understand and quickly put his hand on hers.

Without hesitation, Rokuk placed his hand on it as well.

Garcia looked at the three of them, gritted his teeth, and finally put his hand on them.

The four exchanged glances and recited in unison the first motto that every prosecutor must remember during their probationary period:
"With my duty, with my own hands!"

"civilization!"

"Live forever!"

As soon as the words were spoken, four hands pressed down sharply, and a surge of fighting spirit quietly rose from the depths of their hearts.

Wang Kang and Garcia continued to lead the team to advance the construction. After finishing his meal, Rokuk didn't rest for long and immediately went to the riverbank to prepare for the next underwater exploration.

After wandering around the town and confirming that there were no problems with the infrastructure and epidemic prevention, Cheng Ye returned to the truck laboratory.

The instrument was still humming, analyzing the composition of the tentacles while simultaneously testing their specific capabilities.
Seeing that the progress bar on the screen was only 45%, Cheng Ye was not in a hurry. He closed the laboratory door, sat down on the alloy stool, and opened the panel with a thought.

With the energy bar in the upper right corner fully replenished, he immediately redirected the page to the Biological Encyclopedia.

After three consecutive underwater harvests, the various properties of the Magic Eye Sponge have increased significantly. Even the previously slow-progressing Water Flow and Earth Flow Flow have now exceeded 5%.

"Extract characteristics: Cotton Chamber, direction set to intelligence." Cheng Ye silently recited to the panel.

[Detection indicates the collector has selected the "United" route; intelligence direction selection options are now available]

[Collectors, please specify the exact intelligence direction. If no direction is selected, intelligence from a particular direction will be randomly extracted.]

"Can feature extraction be like intelligence gathering, specifying a particular direction?"

Cheng Ye paused for a moment, then realized what he meant and said in a deep voice, "The direction is determined to be the indoor rule of Mian."

The moment the words were spoken, the space suddenly froze.

The 50% charge value on the panel was instantly deducted. Just like when searching for intelligence before, the surrounding scenery began to break into the most primitive pixels, and then quickly reconstructed into a new scene under the pull of energy.

咕噜 咕噜
The azure seawater was the first to emerge, clearly not the White Water River next to Dabo Town.

The camera angle suddenly dropped, as if he had traveled through a time tunnel. Cheng Ye suddenly realized that he had lost control of his perspective. His vision was now fixed on a small golden fish, and he could only observe by following the direction the fish was swimming.

Since he couldn't pause or switch perspectives, Cheng Ye simply calmed down and followed the little fish's line of sight as he moved forward in the seawater.

It is worth mentioning that this immersive perspective is not affected by the underwater environment; even deep in the sea, everything around remains clearly visible.

Soon, a blue sponge, completely different from the one below the White Water River, appeared beside the cliff by the sea.

Its shape is similar to the "sponge chamber" of the Magic Eye Sponge, but it does not have protruding tentacles. Instead, it has a crater-like depression in the center, with a huge eyeball about ten meters in diameter embedded in front of the depression.

Sensing the approaching golden fish, the giant eye slowly scanned the area before splitting open in the middle.

The little fish nimbly accelerated and scurried into the gap, but after swimming a few meters forward, Cheng Ye's perspective suddenly snapped back, and he regained control.

But before he could even zoom out to observe his surroundings, the golden fish in front of him suddenly underwent a dramatic change.

Its body rapidly elongated, its scales shed and reformed, and finally it transformed into a golden mermaid.

With a human body and a fish tail, and a gentle and elegant face, if it weren't for those golden pupils, it would be almost indistinguishable from a human!

"Holy crap, it's transformed into human form?!"

Cheng Ye was completely stunned.

But what followed was even more mind-blowing: the interior of the cotton room was like a lively disco, with swirling blue lights flashing everywhere, and it was crowded with mermaids of all shapes and sizes.

There were handsome men and elegant women.

The two groups danced gracefully in the room, as if attending a party, creating an atmosphere so relaxed it was nothing like the lair of an infected source.

Cheng Ye tried to move the camera outwards, but once he went beyond the area of ​​the room, his vision would immediately turn pitch black, clearly indicating that he was outside the coverage of the intelligence.

He had no choice but to turn his attention back to the interior of the room, and after careful observation, he quickly discovered several key details:
First, there's the giant eye at the entrance. Behind its eyeball, countless tiny runes are densely engraved, their patterns obscure and difficult to understand, like chaotic scribbles, yet vaguely revealing some kind of pattern.

Whenever a new mermaid is about to enter, before the giant eye opens and closes, a batch of runes will light up first, emitting a pale blue glow.

Once the verification is successful and the mermaid enters, another batch of runes will light up when the giant eye closes.

"This is truly amazing. Could these runes be its underlying operating principle?"

Cheng Ye opened his eyes wide, trying to remember the arrangement of the runes that lit up when the door opened, but he soon discovered a terrifying fact!

The runes left an impression on my mind one second, and the next second, as soon as I looked away, the memory would disappear completely, as if it had been erased.

Not to mention the complete pattern, he couldn't even remember the general direction of the runes.

"The inability to even memorize them completely eliminates the possibility of humans using runes from memory."

After several failed attempts, Cheng Ye had no choice but to give up for the time being.

His memory was already quite good, but the strange characteristics of these runes clearly exceeded the scope of conventional memory. He could only try to find out the secret by analyzing the characteristics or matching information later.

Following this line of thought, he continued searching inside the room and soon found two more runes in a corner.

Unlike the tiny runes on his eyeballs, these two runes were the size of a manhole cover, with clearer patterns. And, remarkably, the moment he looked at them, a line of information automatically appeared in his mind:
[Murloc Transformation Rune: Causes a directional change in the form of a creature. It can only be applied inside a cotton chamber, affecting all creatures that enter it. The effect disappears automatically upon leaving the cotton chamber.]

[Analysis of this rune: No permission (This rune cannot be analyzed at the current job level. Please continue to improve your job level to unlock permission)] "Huh?"

"It can really analyze runes?"

Cheng Ye's pupils contracted slightly, almost unable to believe his eyes.

He immediately turned to look at the other rune, and sure enough, another line of information popped up:
【Life Blossom Rune: Can propel the life process of organisms in a specific direction. It can only be applied inside a cotton chamber, affecting all organisms that enter it. The effect disappears automatically upon leaving the cotton chamber.】

[Analysis of this rune: No permission (current class does not have permission)]

"The fish-man takes human form, and life blossoms?"

Cheng Ye paused for a moment, then his gaze returned to the mermaid dancing gracefully below.

Especially the golden mermaid who initially led him in, was now entangled in a wild dance with a blue male mermaid, a scene that was rather cringe-worthy.

However, upon closer inspection, it can be seen that the scales on the tail fins of the two fishmen are peeling off rapidly, and each scale that falls to the ground is instantly absorbed by the floor of the cotton chamber.

As the largest scale fell off from the base of the tail fin, the two mermaids suddenly let out a wail at the same time and collapsed to the ground.

The next second, a gap slowly opened in the floor of the cotton chamber, swallowing them along with the scattered scales.

Just as the opening closed, a barely perceptible ripple flashed by, and the space inside the room seemed to expand slightly.

Although it wasn't very clear, Cheng Ye rewound the video and watched the boundary intently, and he did see the change.

Just as he was pondering this, the space suddenly shattered, and he was back inside the truck laboratory.

A faint light flashed, and the panel displayed replayable information, also five times.

"Mian Shi."

Cheng Ye frowned and replayed the intelligence footage again.

The golden fish analyzed by the collector was quite unique. It was clearly the weakest of all the fishmen. After dancing wildly for only about five minutes, it was stimulated by the runes to the end of its life and turned into nourishment for the cotton room.

"So, the Wamuro is actually like the Magic Eye Sponge's 'big stomach,' its digestive organ?"

This thought made Cheng Ye's heart sink. "If I really enter its inner chamber, won't I also be affected by the runes inside?"

If the Magic Eye Sponge's chamber also contains runes similar to "Dance" or "Transformation," turning him into a fishman and causing him to lose control inside, then he would truly be in dire straits.

He returned to the attribute panel, glanced at the remaining 50% charge, and finally focused his gaze on the Traveling Cotton Pattern.

Now, only by understanding the function of this cotton-like pattern can we determine the feasibility of entering the cotton chamber.

"Extract characteristics, intelligence direction, selected direction: the effectiveness of the cotton pattern!"

The scene is broken down and reconstructed once again.

To Cheng Ye's surprise, the same sea area appeared again this time.

A large, grayish-yellow fish was slowly approaching the blue sponge, and before it even fully arrived, the view was already unlocked.

Cheng Ye immediately paused the video and carefully observed the shape of the big fish. Its scales were covered with a layer of blue patterns, just like the microorganisms that had parasitized the Rokuk armor before, and its surface was covered with countless tiny tentacles.

On the belly of the large fish, a hideous gash had been torn open, from which pale red blood was seeping out.

As the patterned fish approached the giant eye, the eyeball indeed cracked open, allowing it to enter.

After the large, grayish-yellow fish swam in, it instantly transformed into a human form—a middle-aged fish-man!

The blue lines extending from below the earlobe are almost identical to the lines found on the two human corpses previously discovered, which confirms that those unknown lines are indeed cotton-like patterns.

The middle-aged merman, clutching the wound on his chest, swam around in the cotton room. Although affected by the merman's transformation, he was not affected by the Life Blooming Rune and went straight to the corner of the cotton room.

As soon as he stood still, the ground cracked open, swallowing up the gap in the earth, and the middle-aged merman jumped in.

Cheng Ye immediately adjusted his view to follow, only to discover that there was a hidden world behind the cotton room.

Similar to the cave dominated by the Magic Eye Sponge, there is also a space of about 700 to 800 square meters behind the blue sponge, where many fishmen are resting against the stone wall, their bodies glowing with a faint blue light.

Cheng Ye paused the screen and carefully searched for runes in the second-level space. He quickly found a new rune in the center of the stone wall.

[Life Synergy Rune: Can form a life synergy link with a specific creature, with both sharing life energy. It can only be applied inside the Cozy Chamber, and the effect disappears automatically after leaving the Cozy Chamber.]

The middle-aged merman casually found an open space and lay down, his body radiating a blue light.

Under Cheng Ye's watchful eye, the wound on his chest healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and was fully recovered in just over ten minutes.

He then left the cotton room and transformed back into his large fish form. Not only were his wounds gone, but his size seemed to have increased even more.

The screen shattered, the intelligence gathering ended.

"My guess was right! The cotton-like pattern really is the key to entering the cotton chamber!"

Cheng Ye stood up excitedly, but before his excitement could fully take hold, a sense of fear gripped his heart.

This discovery was undoubtedly pushing him toward the Magic Eye Sponge's chamber.

What runes might be inside the Magic Eye Sponge's chamber?
Once the Passive Cotton is materialized into an item, will it retain the effect of the "Immune to the Influence of the Saving Rune"?

Cheng Ye pondered, suddenly feeling somewhat anxious.

What he lacks most right now is experience; even with so much intelligence, he still lacks confidence.

Moreover, not to mention him, the entire human race in the wasteland lacks experience and knowledge about this source of infection.

Will any force be able to decipher those mysterious runes? Can the research lab in Happiness City crack them?

Unfortunately, although he knew of the existence of "runes," he couldn't even remember the two large runes in the previous cotton chamber, and the same was probably true for the inside of the Magic Eye Sponge's cotton chamber.

Furthermore, the energy is still recovering, so it's temporarily impossible to extract the Passage Cotton Pattern into an item to test its effects.

Will he go in alone, or will he bring Rokuk along as well?

Cheng Ye rubbed his temples, feeling that the choice before him was becoming increasingly difficult. Going in alone was too risky, but if he brought Rokuk along, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to protect himself in case of an accident.

He got up and stood by the river again.

By this time, the sky had completely darkened, the leaden-gray clouds hung low, and the flow of the Baishui River was much more rapid than before, with white waves surging on the surface.

It is clear that it is raining heavily upstream, and the rainwater has already flowed into the river.

Cheng Ye stood there for more than ten minutes until a splashing sound came from the water and Rokuk surfaced wearing an underwater breathing apparatus.

To his surprise, Rocco was carrying a long, rectangular containment box, his face full of excitement.

"Another major discovery!"

Rokukli landed and climbed ashore, shaking the water droplets off his armor. "It seems you've pushed the Magic Eye Sponge to its limit. It released the source of infection inside before nightfall! I saw it with my own eyes underwater just now; it crawled out of its tentacles!"

As he spoke, he opened the containment box, inside which lay a 40-centimeter-long face-changing fish.

Its entire body is grayish-black, and what's truly chilling is that each of its scales is imprinted with a miniature human face. When its eyes are closed, it resembles a deathly mask, while when they are open, it reveals murky pupils, making it look exceptionally eerie.

So there are many sources of infection underwater now?

“Yes! I was just about to ask you to go into the water with me to collect them. If we collect them all now, the pressure will be much less when we explore the cave at night!” Rokuk nodded repeatedly, his voice filled with excitement.

This was definitely a pleasant surprise. Although wearing the obsidian armor meant they weren't afraid of these common sources of infection, no one could guarantee they wouldn't cause trouble at a crucial moment. Being able to eliminate them in advance was naturally the best outcome.

“Okay, let’s go down now.” Cheng Ye didn’t hesitate and turned to get the containment box.

"Wait!" Rococo suddenly grabbed him, his tone serious. "We agreed it was just containment, you can't start cutting the sponge again!"

"Uh"

Cheng Ye was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled, "Don't worry, I know the rules of containment."

The two retrieved enough containment boxes and tools, and then jumped into the water one after the other.

Just as Rocco had predicted, the Magic Eye Sponge seemed to be in complete panic. The underwater source of infection was active in the shallow water, patrolling around like guards.

At a glance, all the common sources of infection that Garcia mentioned were on the list.

Wearing top-tier protective gear, are they tasked with containing some ordinary sources of infection?

I've never fought such an easy battle before.

In just over ten minutes, the two took turns to contain a total of twenty-three sources of infection.

Cheng Ye didn't waste these "materials." As soon as the source of infection came ashore, he immediately extracted its characteristics.

Rokuk was already used to his "violent maniac" image, so instead of stopping him, she took the initiative to explain to him how to kill faster.

"Gone?"

After another patrol ended, the two surfaced and Cheng Ye wiped the water off his face and asked.

“That should be it. The sources of infection in these waters are all very conspicuous, and it would be difficult for us to find those that are hiding.” Rokuk took a breath.

"Then I."

"Wait, let me get ashore first!" Rokuk hurriedly swam towards the shore, a surge of strength suddenly welling up in his exhausted body.

When he climbed ashore, he hurriedly turned to look at the water, but Cheng Ye was nowhere to be seen.

He counted silently in his mind, and in just a few dozen seconds, the water surface suddenly exploded.

Cheng Ye, carrying four or five still-twisting sponge tentacles, soared into the air like a cannonball and landed steadily on the dock.

Behind him, hundreds of tentacles followed closely, waving wildly on the water's surface, clearly having angered the SpongeEye once again.

Cheng Ye blinked, his gaze falling on the eyeball at the tip of the tentacle.

Do you think he might release new sources of infection?

(End of this chapter)