Marvel's Death Merchant

Zheng Zha, carrying a submachine gun, charged upwards while firing incessantly. His legs were too weak to support such an intense upward run. If it weren't for his last ounce of willpower, he probably wouldn't have had the strength to even lift a foot. He had been in this genetically unlocked state for a long time, the longest he had ever been in this state. Just like in the horror movie Alien 1, his genes had reached the critical point of collapse. He... had nowhere to retreat!

Finally, just as his submachine gun was about to run out of bullets, Zheng Zha rushed to the top of the clock tower, to an outward-facing platform where ghosts were constantly crawling in. He raised his gun and fired a burst of bullets, emptying the submachine gun's ammunition. Then, he kicked open the iron-locked door leading to the platform. Before him stood a giant ghost, staring at him face to face. He could even see the giant ghost reaching out to grab him.

"Ah! Die, you son of a bitch!"

Zheng Zha mustered all his vampire energy and recklessly charged off the platform, heading straight for the chest of the giant ghost... the location of the main body of the Ju-on, Kagaya...

"Has it started? This is truly exciting. No one has died yet. The next battle is a team fight, the time when I can truly change the plot. I will use my strength to prove my worth." Tang Xing thought silently as he continued to eliminate the dark creatures. (To be continued...)

Chapter 273 The Decisive Battle (3)

"Tang Xing, you are really amazing. This level of combat power is the strongest in our team." Zero looked at Tang Xing in surprise, and then looked at the dark creatures around them that had been eliminated.

“That’s right, I admit you’re better than me,” Zhao Yingkong said seriously.

"No, that's not important right now. What we need is to complete the mission," Tang Xing said coldly.

On the other side, Zheng Zha rushed to the chest of the giant ghost. The soul there was a twisted and terrifying face, its body twisted into a pretzel shape. As soon as he touched it, the ghost opened its mouth wide in agony and was instantly corroded and vanished by the vampire energy. At this moment, Zheng Zha was completely embedded in the core of the giant ghost.

After the first ghost was completely corroded, the surrounding ghosts began to swarm around him. The vampire energy was indeed domineering and powerful. With the slightest touch, those ghosts were completely corroded. However, Zheng Zha also felt that the vampire energy in his body was being consumed at an extremely fast rate. In just a few seconds, more than 40% of the vampire energy had already been consumed.

As everyone looked, a strange blue light emanated from the point where Zheng Zha and the ghost made contact. All ghosts that were corroded and disappeared would emit this light. However, gradually, this light became dimmer and dimmer, indicating that Zheng Zha's vampire energy was gradually decreasing. At this moment, a large human-shaped hole had been corroded into the chest of the giant ghost.

"...Zheng Zha! Is that you on the ghost's chest?"

Zheng Zha was completely focused when Zhao Yingkong's voice suddenly came through his communicator. He shouted desperately, disregarding everything else, "It's me... If I die, run as far away as you can. Time is almost up. Okay, don't talk to me. I don't care about anything else anymore!"

"...Why did you jump in there? Could it be...that you discovered the weakness of the Cursed Ghost?" Zhao Yingkong's voice came over unhurriedly.

"Yes! We've found a weakness! The main body of the curse is likely in the center of his chest! Don't talk to me, I can't let you distract me!" Zheng Zha's forehead veins bulged, and he almost roared.

“Zheng Zha… This is Zero. I don’t know if I can still aim at the target, but I can try. I have enough stamina to fire one more bullet… The light around you is too bright right now. Give me instructions when the light dims a little!” Zero’s voice suddenly came from the communicator.

"I'm here too. If he makes a mistake, I can aim again and destroy that thing," Tang Xing said calmly.

Zheng Zha paused for a moment, unsure how to answer. The flickering blue light meant he still had the energy to corrupt the ghosts. Once the light disappeared or weakened, he would immediately die from the entanglement of countless ghosts. At that point, he would truly have no power to resist whatsoever.

"Zero point... You only have one chance. When the light disappears, shoot the bullet into my left shoulder. That's where the Ju-on is!"

"And Tang Xing, if I die, you can drop a nuclear bomb in my direction. Completing the mission is the most important thing," Zheng Zha sighed.

"...Okay, understood." The two voices answered simultaneously.

Once Zheng Zha made up his mind, he no longer hesitated to expend the remaining vampire energy. He began to desperately unleash his vampire energy forward, and in an instant, the ghosts blocking his way began to corrode and dissolve. In just a few seconds, he was getting closer and closer to the main body of the Curse.

"Chu...Chu Xuan!"

Just as Zheng Zha was about to continue forward, the sudden appearance of a ghost in front of him made him tremble violently. This ghost was quite different from the others; it did not have a distorted face, and its body looked similar to that of an ordinary person. If it weren't for its bluish-white skin, it would have looked exactly like an ordinary person.

For a fleeting moment, Zheng Zha hesitated. He didn't continue corrupting Chu Xuan. For some reason, he felt a strange respect for this man. What puzzled him was that Chu Xuan's ghost didn't pounce on him like other ghosts. Instead, it bypassed Zheng Zha, blocking several ghosts that were attacking from behind. In a daze, Zheng Zha seemed to see Chu Xuan nod his head slightly as he left…

"Is it an illusion? Or perhaps... Chu Xuan! I've avenged you!"

At this point, there were no other ghosts before him, only a life-sized Jia Yezi. Zheng Zha concentrated all his vampire energy in his left hand and then threw a powerful punch. As the vampire energy entered Jia Yezi's body with his fist, the ghost showed pain for the first time. She kept making gurgling sounds, twisting her body trying to avoid Zheng Zha's fist. But Zheng Zha was now determined to fight desperately. He no longer cared about the other ghosts touching his body. He just desperately poured vampire energy from his fist into Jia Yezi. This corrosive energy kept rushing into Jia Yezi's body, and the life-sized Jia Yezi ghost finally began to slowly shrink, becoming smaller and smaller...

When the first ghost touched Zheng Zha's body, his vampire energy was finally squeezed out to its last trace. His life force began to be continuously drained from the point of contact, and the Jia Yezi looked to be less than one-fifth of its original size. With just the last bit of power... it could be destroyed!

"Zero Hour and Tang Xing, now's the time!"

"Oh!"

Two loud bangs followed. Zheng Zha felt two bullets pierce his left shoulder and then his arm. It felt like an eternity. Then, the two mithril sniper bullets shot out from directly in front of his palm and blasted into Jia Yezi's body, completely shattering the ghost, which was only one-fifth the size of a normal person. The bullets then shot outwards with tremendous force, shattering Zheng Zha's arm and creating two holes in the huge soul's body.

In the dim light, Zheng Zha seemed to hear a wail, the sound of a woman. As the sound rang out, countless men and women around him also began to wail. The souls that were supporting Zheng Zha gradually began to disappear until Zheng Zha began to fall from a height of ten meters to the ground, when a pair of strong arms caught him.

"...We did it...Zheng Zha, we...Huh? I got an award too..."

Zheng Zha felt as if he could hear his companions' voices. In that instant, he felt that his heart was on the same level as Chu Xuan's. Perhaps companions could sometimes become a burden, or the leader could be ruthless and calculating, abandoning the weak to allow most people to survive. However, when we rely on each other for survival and entrust our lives to our companions, that is the kind of team he longed for!

"This should be enough. It's time to change the plot." Tang Xing relaxed his sniper rifle, thinking calmly. At the same time, the voice of the main god completing the mission rang out; they had clearly succeeded in completing the plot. (To be continued...)

Chapter 274 Return and Team Battle

After the repairs were completed, the group standing in the square were filled with sighs. The last few tens of minutes of the battle had made them go through several cycles of life and death, and then back to life again. The feeling of seeing hope and then falling into despair was even worse than in the horror movie Alien 1. But thankfully, they all managed to return to the "God" space alive.

"Haha, no matter what, we've all survived..." Zhang Jie laughed heartily.

"...How many reward points did you get? We all got different amounts of reward points," Zero suddenly said.

Zheng Zha was stunned for a moment, then said seriously, "More than 4100 reward points, and I also got two C-level side quests."

Zero said calmly, "I received a hint from the 'God' in a horror movie. The 'God' told me that by eliminating part of the curse, I would receive 2,300 reward points and a C-level side quest."

Tang Xing also said expressionlessly, "I received 3000 reward points and two A-level side quests."

Zhang Jie also said, "I have 1,800 reward points and two D-level side quests."

"1,500 reward points and two D-level side quests."

"I'm……"

In the end, after tallying the results, apart from Qi Teng only getting one D-level side quest, even Zhan Lan got two D-level side quests. In addition, everyone else got an extra thousand or so reward points. In other words, although this time was extremely thrilling, it was also very rewarding, with the rewards being equivalent to the accumulation of several horror movies.

"But... weren't Zero and Tang Xing the ones who killed the main body of the Curse? If their bullets hadn't come, we might all have been killed!" Zheng Zha asked curiously.

Zhan Lan touched her forehead and said, "Perhaps the 'God' distributes reward points for these side quests based on how much effort each person puts in. For example, in the previous horror movie Alien, we all cooperated in attacking the alien, but only you received reward points. I guess this is because killing the Queen was the main quest given by the 'God,' while in the Ju-on horror movie, survival is the main quest. Comparing the two, the reward for completing an extra quest is probably based on how much effort each person puts in."

After thinking about it, everyone agreed with this statement. Indeed, if it weren't for Zheng Zha and Tang Xing's main attack when facing the seventh wave of Ju-on's attack, they might have been killed.

Since there were two newcomers this time, Zhang Jie and the others briefly explained how to use their respective rooms to them. They then agreed to meet again in the square the next day to discuss their respective enhancements and exchanges. After that, everyone returned to their own rooms, leaving only Qi Tengyi in the square to start creating his own bodyguards.

Around ten o'clock the next day, the crowd gathered in the square once again. But before they could utter a single word, they were drawn to a huge golden stone tablet in front of them. The tablet hovered five meters in mid-air, emitting a soft golden light, and quietly attracted everyone's attention.

Zhao Yingkong arrived first. She was still holding the book she had never put down. She glanced at everyone and said indifferently, "Look at this... there's some interesting information in it."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the golden stone tablet, which resembled a sphere of light, a "god." Simply by staring at it, one could directly receive information in their mind.

"...When the team appears, or when three or more humans have already unlocked their genetic locks, this information will automatically appear and remain in this 'God' space."

"...As we all foresee, when the biological gene lock is unlocked to the fifth level, that is, the final level of the gene lock, the organism will completely evolve into a higher level of life. Therefore, whether the human world will progress or suffer catastrophe depends on the will of that organism. However, in order to prevent a collision between two or more high-level organisms that could lead to the complete extinction of humanity, we have established the following regulations..."

"...When a team has accumulated three or more humans with unlocked genetic locks, the team will randomly collide with 'God' space teams from other continents in a horror movie. If either side kills a member of the other team, the reward points will be... 2,000 reward points and one C-level side quest. If the team kills a member of the opposing team with unlocked genetic locks, the team will receive 7,000 reward points and one B-level side quest. If the entire opposing team is killed, each member of the surviving team will receive one C-level side quest reward."

"...There is no cruelty, no manipulation, no justice or evil...Only one team can survive in the end. If you don't want to die, then keep evolving beyond yourself..."

The information was clearly incomplete, abruptly ending there. Zheng Zha was only then recovering from the shock of the information. He stared blankly at the people around him, who all wore the same blank expression.

Zheng Zha coughed, drawing everyone's attention, and said, "Zhan Lan, why don't you analyze the meaning of this information?"

Zhan Lan touched her forehead and said, "Wait a minute, my head is still a little dizzy, let me wait a bit..."

"This information can be seen as a message left by the creator of the 'Main God Space,' because the information is directly imprinted in our minds. Therefore, it will speak according to our language and knowledge. For example, 'unlocking the gene lock' is clearly a term that Chu Xuan once told us..."

"Finally, those who created the 'God' space don't seem to want the two teams to return to the real world separately. As a result, due to differences in beliefs, languages, values, and other aspects, it is very likely that the two teams will eventually go to war in the real world. The consequences of such a situation would be extremely terrible. For example... a Zero Point with ten times the strength and speed of an ordinary person, as well as superhuman reflexes, wielding a Gauss sniper rifle with unlimited ammo, plus other high-tech equipment, could completely take on an army, not to mention the high-tech design blueprints that Chu Xuan exchanged, and the dangerous weapons controlled by Tang Xing."

Zheng Zha said, "You mean we're likely to encounter horror movie teams from other continents in the upcoming horror movies, and the result will either be that we're all killed, or we kill them all, right?"

Everyone fell silent. Undeniably, surviving in horror movies had already nearly cost them their lives. Now, knowing they would be clashing with another horror movie crew, it was either kill or be killed. They had no choice but to kill. Thinking about it, weren't the other team members thinking the same way? So, what awaited them was likely a fight to the death.

Zheng Zha thought for a moment and then suddenly laughed: "By the way, what was mentioned above is that the team will only meet with other teams after the appearance of three people who have unlocked their gene locks, right? Zhao Yingkong and I have unlocked our gene locks, and someone who died in the past may also have unlocked their gene locks. Besides, how easy is it for other horror film teams for their members to unlock their gene locks? It is very likely that our team is the strongest among all the teams in all continents."

"Maybe! However, I believe in the power of technology. Gene locks also have limitations; they can't be used like technology. We still need to fight hard," Tang Xing said thoughtfully.

"That's right, Tang Xing is right, we need to keep fighting," Zhang Jie echoed. (To be continued...)

Chapter 275 Everyone Strengthens

Having been told that this would happen, everyone had no choice but to accept reality. Then they began to discuss which attributes they should strengthen.

Because of the huge reward points this time, everyone received extra reward points, plus valuable side quests. Everyone could exchange for some enhancement attributes or some high-level weapons. So after a brief discussion, Zero naturally chose his best skill, long-range sniping. In addition to improving his physical attributes, he also specially exchanged for a C-level enhancement attribute, Druid Eagle Eye Solidification.

"What kind of enhancement is this?" everyone asked curiously.

"Druid Eagle Eye Solidification, rating 68 points, suitable for long-range sniping, suitable for large-scale battlefield horror movies. When equipped with long-range firearms, it has excellent effects on most enemies. There are no special skills. It can greatly improve the dynamic and static visuals of characters. It requires one C-level horror movie side storyline and rewards 1,000 points."

Tang Xing and Zheng Zha nodded secretly. Rather than choosing a comprehensive enhancement that doesn't help certain strengths, it's better to simply strengthen one's strongest attributes. This kind of enhancement is extremely effective for the team, but it doesn't significantly improve an individual's survivability.

The team led by their own leader is not like that, because he provides weapons to his members so that he can develop himself, which is also the rule of the Silent Team.

“I’ve thought about this carefully. Snipers generally don’t work in very dangerous places, and the attributes I’ve added aren’t sniping skills, but dynamic and static vision. Even in ordinary combat, they’ll be of great help. No problem,” Zero explained calmly.

Compared to Zero's frankness, the other assassin, Zhao Yingkong, was more competent. She silently exchanged and enhanced herself. When everything was over, everyone saw that she had an inconspicuous little dagger in a sharkskin sheath. Then, when she took the dagger out of the sheath, the entire dagger emitted a pale blue flame.

"The Fang of Netherfire! Two D-rank side quests. Two thousand reward points. Especially effective against spirit creatures! It can burn the soul of any creature... a legendary magical weapon." Zhao Yingkong didn't even glance at the crowd, but simply sheathed the dagger back into its sharkskin sheath and spoke softly.

"The Mithril Dagger and the Fang of Netherfire, my two weapons are quite good. One of them, Tang Xing, thank you for your help," Zhao Yingkong said with a slight expression of gratitude.

"No need to be polite, you're a member of this team," Tang Xing said simply.

Immediately afterward, Zheng Zha began his exchange. A short while later, everyone saw Zheng Zha suddenly calm down, as if sensing something. The next moment, his skin was covered in a layer of blood-red flames, not particularly dazzling, but undeniably reeking of blood. This blood-red layer looked as if his blood itself was burning. Bloody and vivid.

Everyone was startled by the sudden sight, but thanks to Tang Xing, who possessed the Veronica virus, they had some degree of immunity. Zhan Lan was the first to recover. She rushed to Zheng Zha's side, carefully examining his body. Finding no injuries, she anxiously asked, "Zheng Zha, what happened? Are you... alright?"

For a moment, Zheng Zha was too afraid to look at her. He nodded hesitantly, then said to everyone, "Haha, sorry for making you all worry. I was just testing the vampire skill I just obtained. This skill seems pretty powerful, but unfortunately there's nothing here to test it on. Next time, we'll use a monster from a horror movie to test its power."

Everyone came to their senses. Apart from Lingdian and Zhao Yingkong, who stood rather indifferently at a distance, Zhang Jie and Qi Tengyi excitedly surrounded them. They and Zhan Lan asked each other questions about the vampire skills, which somewhat eased Zheng Zha's awkwardness in front of Zhan Lan.

Zheng Zha explained in detail, emphasizing that this skill was extremely energy-consuming for vampires. In just that short period of burning, almost half of his vampire energy had been consumed. It seemed that, like internal energy, this was a skill that could not be used lightly unless in a dangerous situation.

At this moment, Tang Xing asked Zheng Zha, "How powerful is your skill?"

Zheng Zha paused for a moment, then said, "I think it's okay, and it's effective against dark creatures too."

"The flames aren't that simple. The flames on my body are viral flames, originally red, but they turned black after magical elements were added. So I need you to infuse your own power into your flames," Tang Xing suggested calmly.

"Actually, your true power is just hidden. I hope you can fully unleash its potential," Tang Xing added once again.

"Well, thanks, brother. What you said has given me some new ideas," Zheng Zha said excitedly after hearing Tang Xing's words.

"Has everyone finished strengthening?" Zheng Zha suddenly had an idea and asked in a murmur.

Zhang Jie was taken aback for a moment, then laughed and said, "Where can you get stronger so quickly? Side quests are hard to come by, so you should think about it carefully. Is there something you need?"

Zheng Zha coughed, slightly embarrassed, and said, "I think... cough, how about we all go to Hawaii Beach to rest for a while? Ten days, cough, not the real Hawaii Beach, but the Hawaii Beach from the previous horror movie. That way we won't consume side quest points or need five times the reward points. We only need ten reward points to exchange for one day. What do you all think? Let's just rest for ten days."

"I refuse!"

"OK……"

The two women spoke at the same time, then stared at each other blankly. This contradictory response only made Zheng Zha, the one who initiated the suggestion, even more embarrassed.

Why refuse?