The Rotting Prisoner stared at Faraway for a moment.
Its next move was unexpected. It remained very quiet, not letting out a great roar like some cliché monster making its entrance. Instead, it slowly lowered its head and began to mutter to itself again in a muffled, hoarse voice...
"...Offer... up..."
Its body began to tremble strangely, as if it felt a chill.
Faraway also noticed at this moment that it was tightly bound.
Two iron hooks were pierced directly into its collarbones. Its limbs and neck were all firmly shackled, the blood long since coagulated and dried.
’It’s not attacking on its own?’
Faraway was a little surprised.
After observing for a while, he slowly raised the Wooden Staff and Dagger in his hands...
It didn’t take long.
BOOM!
A Blood-colored Magic Ball exploded, and the Rotting Prisoner’s chest burst open, sending flesh and blood flying everywhere.
Faced with Faraway’s methodical Attack, it didn’t resist in the slightest, not even showing a hint of anger, like a flesh-and-blood rag doll at the mercy of others.
Or rather, it was more like a quiet, rotting corpse.
"Offer... up..."
Even as its body was on the verge of shattering, the Rotting Prisoner continued to mutter those unintelligible words to itself.
On the brink of death, it finally had a different reaction.
Its Rotten eye sockets looked toward Faraway’s position once more, and the blood-caked muscles of its face actually pulled into a terrifying grin...
"...Heh... ha..."
The laughter grew faint, its Life Force weakening until, at last, it vanished completely.
But under the circumstances, Faraway unexpectedly took two steps back, his eyes still fixed on the Rotting Prisoner’s corpse.
He hadn’t seen the game’s kill notification!
’Which meant... the Rotting Prisoner before him wasn’t dead yet!’
Sure enough, in the very next moment, the Rotting Prisoner’s corpse began to stir.
An inky-black mist suddenly billowed out from its eye sockets, nostrils, and mouth, spreading over its entire body like a liquid.
The other, previously intact parts of the Rotting Prisoner’s body began to rapidly decay.
Pale upper flesh, dark red livor mortis underneath—post-mortem changes that would normally take a long time to appear manifested on the Rotting Prisoner’s body in less than a breath, and it swiftly began to blacken and swell...
Seeing this, most normal people would have backed away to avoid being splattered with rotten entrails.
But Faraway merely narrowed his eyes and, contrary to expectation, moved closer to get a better look.
He only squinted to keep his vision from being affected.
If anyone else had seen him, they would have probably thought his behavior was utterly perverse.
...In fact, Faraway himself was well aware that this was not how a normal person would act.
But in his view, it was just a game—one that just happened to have very realistic sensations.
In fact... the realistic sensations weren’t even a drawback for Faraway; in a way, they could even be considered a plus.
’After all, you don’t get the chance to experience getting a faceful of rotten guts in real life...’
And the Rotting Prisoner before him seemed to have heard his innermost thoughts.
The next moment, the corpse’s swollen abdomen exploded violently, indiscriminately spraying fragments of rotten entrails and bloody fluid in all directions.
SPLAT!
Having moved closer while squinting, Faraway got his wish and took the full blast right to the face!
PLOP...
A piece of intestine slid off the tip of Faraway’s nose and fell to the ground.
Faraway, his expression unchanged, reached up to wipe the foul-smelling liquid from his eyes. Then, as if he’d seen some bad news, his brow furrowed slightly.
It wasn’t that he was disgusted.
It was because of the game notification and the feedback from his own Life Value.
[You have killed the Rotting Prisoner]
[Acquired: Wax Oil x16]
[You have been afflicted by the Corrosion of the Rotten. Your Life Value will continuously decrease.]
’It’s dead?’
Faraway ignored his dropping Life Value. His brow tight, he walked over to the Rotting Prisoner’s corpse.
After the explosion, the Rotting Prisoner’s corpse seemed to struggle for a moment, and the surrounding putrid liquid appeared to shift along with it.
But they soon stopped and began to disappear.
It was as if some condition hadn’t been met, resulting in failure.
But unlike ordinary corpses, it didn’t dissolve into Ashes but instead turned into specks of black residue.
The same thing happened to the matter on Faraway’s body.
But the [Corrosion of the Rotten] Effect did not disappear...
Faraway looked down at his arm.
On his body, which was formed from Wax Oil, liver spots and traces of rot were actually beginning to appear...
’So it even has a visual representation...’
’It just passively took hits, stayed quiet the whole time, and didn’t even have the second phase I was expecting...’
’Is this a bonus stage? No... it’s more like some kind of story event...’
Mulling it over, Faraway walked to the Spirit Candle and touched it to begin restoring his status.
Fortunately, besides restoring Life Value, the Spirit Candle also seemed to have the Effect of purifying abnormalities...
After the restoration was complete, Faraway didn’t leave right away. Instead, he stood up and looked behind him again.
Even though the monster called the [Rotting Prisoner] hadn’t dropped any loot just now, that didn’t mean it didn’t have any drops at all.
’A few more tries might yield some useful information...’
...
Luo Ge, who had witnessed everything, frowned deeply.
The aura on the Rotting Prisoner was extremely strange.
So far, whether on Candle Island or Exile Island, all the monsters he had sensed felt almost "withered"—a feeling that their lives were at an end.
But he didn’t sense that from this Rotting Prisoner. Its aura was completely different from previous monsters, making him feel it was bizarre and... unsettling.
This unease also stemmed from its strange characteristics.
From Faraway’s perspective, his [Corrosion of the Rotten] status had been purified by the Spirit Candle.
In reality, however, the Spirit Candle had simply crudely erased and annihilated the corroded areas on his body, reconstructing those parts with new Wax Oil!
This was completely different from how players recovered after being Poisoned in the past!
’Offer up...’
’Who is offering to whom? And what... is being offered?’
Luo Ge’s brow furrowed tightly.
...
"CRASH!"
After poking a hole in the wooden door with her spear, Guagua charged forward and slammed into it, shattering the door instantly.
"Haha, I can’t believe I could open this door without a key. This is so realistic."
Guagua laughed, then began to wander around the room curiously, Long Spear in hand.
Unlike Faraway, she had chosen the uphill path. She hadn’t encountered any monsters along the way and had come straight to this wooden door.
She had assumed it wouldn’t open but decided to give it a try just in case. She never expected to be able to get right in.
"Haha! It’s a Treasure Chest!"
After a quick scan of the room, her sharp eyes spotted a chest. Her face lit up, and she quickly bent down and began to rummage through it.
However, after rummaging around for a while...
"Something’s not right!"
Guagua’s head suddenly popped up from behind the bed. She lifted something in her hands and sniffed it... and her little face instantly contorted.
"Why is it all stinky underwear and socks..."
"Blech..."
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