Cyber ​​God: Abyss Walker

"Clang!"

After the ceremony was completed, the exit gate of the room was opened, and the first to enter were Wu Ziming's men. These men, who were completely wrapped in standard protective gear, quickly came to Wang Yu's side, took out sprays without any markings from their waists, and sprayed Wang Yu, whose hands were already tied behind his back by one of his men.

"Ughhhhhh...!"

Despite clenching his teeth, he couldn't help but let out a muffled and suppressed cry of pain. The intense, stimulating pain traveled from every part of his body covered in wounds from which skin and flesh had been lost to Wang Yu's brain. The pain made him tremble all over, and cold sweat involuntarily soaked his already tattered and blood-stained clothes.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."

The intense pain lasted for about forty seconds before gradually subsiding. Wang Yu remained pinned down by the gang members, panting heavily. His wounds had stopped bleeding, and a thin membrane, somewhat similar to skin, covered them, causing a slight itching and trembling sensation.

The active wound cleaning spray is a derivative product of biotechnology. The reason why there is no labeling information is probably because this is a low-quality product that Hai Chao helped him make. However, for Wang Yu, who was originally just a miner and had no money, it is a luxury and a life-saving thing.

This active membrane automatically disinfects and stops bleeding from wounds, and stimulates the body to accelerate the healing process. Ordinary skin and flesh wounds can be repaired quickly and completely, although the body will indeed feel intense pain when using it.

"Let him go. He'll be one of our gang members now. The bomb collar will be removed when you officially start doing gang work. It's not very stable, and I don't want other gangs hacking into you and blowing your head off."

Wu Ziming stepped out from behind his men, pointed to Wang Yu whose hands were pinned behind his back, indicating that he was to be free. At the same time, he confirmed that Wang Yu had completed his identity transformation and, through the change in his own value, was no longer the trash that could be discarded at will.

"Do you have a place to live in the abandoned city?"

Wu Ziming stared into Wang Yu's eyes as he stood up and said.

"have."

Wang Yu nodded in a brief response.

"Very good. Then I will send you back to the mine. You have half a month to adapt to your current identity and the power you gained from the ritual. After that, you need to report to any of the underground bars under our control. When we remove the explosive collar from you, you will officially begin gang missions."

As Wu Ziming spoke, he handed the two items to Wang Yu through his subordinate.

"Remember, number 318, the explosive collar will detonate in exactly sixteen days. If you don't report on time in fifteen days, then... *bang*!"

As Wang Yu took the two items, Wu Ziming looked at his neck and, while speaking, mimicked an explosion sound with his mouth.

"I see."

Wang Yu did not refute. He looked at the two items handed to him: a small booklet that looked somewhat old, made of paper, but the paper did not seem to be a normal product of the wasteland's technology. Instead, it seemed to be made of ancient animal leather. The other item was a thick metal seal, which probably contained something inside.

"That booklet is for you to understand the power you gained from the ritual, and the seal contains a chip that can prove your membership in the Tide Gang. Oh, and give him a piece of clothing. As for the rest, good luck. I don't want my future subordinate, a lucky one who passed the ritual, to die in some corner of the ruined city without knowing why."

Watching Wang Yu examine the two items in his hands with a leisurely air, Wu Ziming explained their uses to him and had his subordinate hand Wang Yu a decent-looking jacket to replace his completely tattered shirt.

Thank you!

After offering a sincere thank you, Wang Yu put on his jacket, and his breathing became lighter due to the previous pain.

"Then you can leave now. My men will take you back."

Pointing to the exit, Wu Ziming confirmed that Wang Yu, the gang newbie, could leave.

Wang Yu naturally had no reason to refuse. He walked towards the exit, and once outside, he would put the hood back on, which blocked his vision and hearing and deprived him of the ability to speak. He should then have fifteen days of freedom. During this time…

"Thump!"

Wang Yu's body, which was walking normally, suddenly collapsed to the ground, his limbs twitching slightly and uncoordinated, as if his entire body had lost control.

"Oh, I forgot something. To prevent you from forgetting what's in your head, I must give you a reminder: never think of using the abilities you gained from the ritual to fight gangs. Otherwise, you should have already seen what happened to the Queen of Insects."

Wu Ziming's voice rang out from behind Wang Yu. Clearly, this was not an "accidental forgetfulness" but a deliberate attempt to intimidate Wang Yu, and the force of this intimidation was indeed quite strong.

An unbearable, agonizing pain coursed through Wang Yu's brain, as if pierced by steel needles. He could practically feel the parasite excitedly tugging at his fragile nerves. In this state, it wasn't a matter of whether he could endure the pain or not; his entire body was completely out of his control.

The chaotic colors before his eyes gradually faded along with the pain. Wang Yu, whose mind was still dizzy and throbbing, was put on the helmet that blocked his senses and escorted by Wu Ziming's men onto a transport vehicle to be taken back to the mine to wait for a fifteen-day "vacation".

"That's fine, right, Uncle?"

Wu Ziming looked at his uncle, who was walking out of sight, and asked him about the handling of Wang Yu.

"Okay, that's settled then. I'll have him register with the Mercenary Guild first, and then he'll go to the abnormal area to carry out some missions, honing his skills while further verifying his abilities."

As he answered, the uncle walked toward the center of the ritual room, where the sphere of flesh and bones formed by that madman existed alone.

"Mercenaries in the abnormal zone have a mortality rate exceeding 30% on every mission. Can he survive such a rigorous test..."

Wu Ziming muttered to himself, not in a hurry to ask Uncle Xiang again, but frowning thoughtfully.

"Yes, my job in the gang is to send members to explore the wasteland outside the safe zone, so I only need people who are truly useful. If they die while on a mission in an abnormal zone, I have no reason to feel sorry for them."

As before, Uncle seemed to be able to see through Wu Ziming's thoughts, and even without being asked, he still gave an answer in advance.

"I understand. Please allow me to ask my question, Uncle: why did you say that this sphere is a greater find than No. 318?"

Wu Ziming responded respectfully, then asked his uncle, who was examining the ball of flesh and blood, with genuine curiosity.

"Come here."

The uncle did not answer immediately, but instead gestured for Wu Ziming to come closer.

Feeling somewhat uneasy, Wu Ziming dared not disobey his uncle's wishes. He stepped forward to get a close look at the fleshy sphere formed from the madman's body.

The skeleton forms the outer outline, while the flesh inside contracts and expands slowly at a fixed frequency, clearly indicating that this thing is still in a "living" state.

"Fire one shot at it, on the lowest setting."

The second instruction came from my great-uncle.

"shot?"

Wu Ziming took out the Osprey II, a heavy pistol made by a gunsmith within the gang, from his waist, but hesitated. He still instinctively felt something was wrong about his uncle asking him to fire.

"..."

Wu Ziming had no choice but to pause briefly, then adjust the pistol's firing power to the minimum and fire the shot with a heavy heart.

"Bang!"

"what!"

A flash of light appeared as a sturdy bullet flew from the barrel, traveling a considerable distance to strike the fleshy mass head-on, followed by Wu Ziming's scream of agony.

The unexpected injury caused the gun in his hand to fall limply. He knelt on the ground, clutching his right arm, which had suddenly been blasted open, gasping for breath in pain. His eyes, filled with horror and disbelief, stared at the intact ball of flesh.

Do you understand?

Uncle walked to the corner of the wall, picked up the bullet whose kinetic energy had completely disappeared and which had stopped spinning, and asked Wu Ziming about it.

"This fleshy ball reflected the damage back at me?"

Looking at the bleeding wound on his arm, Wu Ziming felt no difference from being shot. He could imagine that if he had turned the firing mode to the highest intensity, his entire arm would have been torn apart, instead of just a bloody crater left by the bullet.

What he couldn't understand was how the wound had occurred. He was absolutely certain that the bullet had hit the fleshy ball head-on and bounced off the corner of the wall, without hitting him at all.

"To be precise, you first inflict damage on it, and then it transfers the damage it suffered onto you. As long as the damage inflicted on it does not exceed its single-time tolerance limit, or does not exhaust its remaining power, it can repeat this process indefinitely."

The uncle explained to Wu Ziming, who was quickly treating his wound with a spray and was covered in cold sweat from the intense pain, that the effect of letting the other party try it himself was indeed very good. He even almost guessed the effect of the fleshy ball.

"This kind of product is called an anomalous derivative. It's something formed from the residual power of those great beings, and it usually has corresponding effects. If I'm not mistaken, he already believed in 'the suffering' before the ritual, which is why he was able to use his own corpse as a vessel to absorb some of the power after the ritual failed."

Within the field of vision of his special eye, the outer layer of the fleshy sphere was emitting a faint crimson light. Through the subtle characteristics of this light and his own experience, he could deduce the source of the power of this abnormal derivative. His uncle's ability to read people's hearts was also an extension of this power from some great being.

He placed his hands on the fleshy sphere and applied a slight force to it. The outer skeletal structure made a crisp sound, and the joints rotated with his uncle's movements, causing the overall structure to change and slowly transform from a fleshy sphere into another form.

Wu Ziming, who had personally experienced being "injured" by this abnormal derivative, was terrified as he watched his uncle change his form. He could almost see his uncle's body being "injured" and twisted and shattered in the same way.

However, no, even when his uncle fully unfolded the skeleton of this fleshy sphere, with the flesh that was originally a sphere now evenly spread on the human-shaped skeleton, he was not harmed in any way.

"As long as this anomalous derivative remains unharmed, it will not transfer the damage to the one who inflicted it. Simply restoring its skeletal form will not cause any harm. Now, can you think of the purpose of this anomalous derivative?"

Faced with his uncle's explanation and question, Wu Ziming was stunned for a moment, but he quickly followed the characteristics of this abnormal derivative and began to think about it, and the answer came to him.

Disregarding its bizarre shape with bones and flesh stuck together, with just a slight adjustment to the form and structure of this abnormal derivative, it can serve as an extremely useful piece of protective gear. No existing protective equipment can provide such strong protection.

It can even transfer damage to the perpetrator without regard to their defenses, combining both protective and damaging capabilities. Wu Ziming was momentarily dispelled by this, losing all fear of these incomprehensible creatures. The potential impact of such an abnormal derivative in gang warfare is unimaginable.

"Heh, it will be yours. Your father asked me to take care of you, so as long as you do well, I will naturally not treat you unfairly."

"clear!"

As always, he could see through the other person's thoughts. His uncle's calm face showed a calm smile, which made Wu Ziming excited.

"Number 318 doesn't have any obvious light, so it doesn't seem to be a mutant or twisted power. It should be an interference power like mine. I don't know which great being it comes from. Since the rules of my power prevent me from asking directly, I'll confirm it later."

Uncle's gaze fell on Wang Yu, in the direction where No. 318 had left. His mind raced, and he would pay close attention to this one of the two gains he had made this time.

……

"Bang!"

The car door slammed shut with a bang. Wang Yu, whose hood had been removed by the gang members who had taken him back to the mine, watched the car leave and silently walked toward his place in the ruined city that could barely be called home.

The surrounding environment was dazzling and psychedelic, yet strangely disordered. Holographic projections and scantily clad androids, both handsome men and beautiful women, were luring customers onto the road... However, neither the cars speeding by, nor the shops, nor the residents whose prosthetic bodies had been removed and who had collapsed and died on the roadside had anything to do with Wang Yu.

That's true in terms of money, and it's true in other respects as well. He seems unusually out of place in his environment, but this "specialness" is nothing special or meaningful in a place like the ruined city where madmen and fanatics are everywhere.

Turning his head, Wang Yu glanced back and saw a semi-transparent figure exactly like himself repeating his actions from about nine seconds ago. This thing seemed to have a deep connection with him, coming from some unknown entity... a blessing?

Without lingering along the way, Wang Yu walked towards his destination. After about ten kilometers, the near-sea area, still within the safe zone surrounding the abandoned city, came into view.

A damp, fishy-smelling fog had somehow enveloped the surroundings. Vehicles, pedestrians, and buildings were becoming increasingly sparse. No one from the abandoned city wanted to live in such an uncomfortable and unsafe place near the sea.

Several small buildings, still lit up, stand together on the inner side of the coastal road. They look unusually old, like relics from a previous era. Wang Yu's residence is on one of the floors. This building is known as "Kenya".

Only homeless stray dogs would choose this place as their shelter…