Chapter 2: 9999+? Concept?

“Holy shit, is this the Soul-Sealing Sword?”

“I’m not seeing things, am I? That’s actually the Spirit-Slaying Saber.”

“This, this, this... This is fucking all spiritual treasures that vanished ages ago. Who would’ve thought they had all sunk into the Deep Sea!”

“It’s just a pity. Maybe they spent too long in the Deep Sea. Their spirituality has dissipated by nearly half. Sigh... What a real shame.”

The five of them stood around the iron maiden and discussed it heatedly, greed and regret written across their faces.

As the weapons that had sealed and confined Su Fanchen’s soul were pulled out one after another, he could feel freedom drawing closer and closer.

Before long, as the final spiritual artifact was pulled out and neatly arranged on the deck, the group stood before the weapons and admired them for quite a while.

But Su Fanchen, trapped inside the iron maiden, grew anxious. He was only one step away from breaking free completely. How could he not be anxious?

“I’m counting to fucking three. If you still don’t open the door, I’m going out there and killing you all!”

Su Fanchen was so anxious that even the dialect from his previous life slipped out.

Yet inside the iron maiden, he did not dare move an inch, afraid he might scare the five people outside.

What if they shoved the Spiritual Artifacts back in?

After being trapped for a hundred years, he had discovered that the seemingly ordinary iron maiden was the true main force sealing him away. It was almost impossible to open from the inside.

【You pack of thieving dogs! You took the benefits, but you still won’t let this Sister System out. This is simply outrageous! Once this old lady gets out, I’ll make them kneel and sing Conquer until they die!】

Little System roared nonstop in Su Fanchen’s heart.

After the five finished admiring the weapons, their gazes all landed on the iron maiden.

The Spiritual Artifacts stuck into it alone were worth cities. The iron maiden itself might be worth even more. Moreover, there was space inside the iron maiden. Perhaps there were things within that they could not even imagine.

All five swallowed in unison. Fortunately, Brother Hui still retained a sliver of rationality.

He turned to one of the women and asked:

“Xiaona, in the outcome you foresaw, besides a great opportunity, was there anything else? For example, was there any danger?”

Xiaona pondered for a while, carefully thinking over the contents of her prediction, then said with some lack of confidence:

“Brother Hui, you know too. I’m only an E-rank precognition-type talent Awakened who has just stepped over the threshold of Control Grade. Being able to predict this much is already my limit.”

Brother Hui stared silently at the iron maiden, as if seriously calculating the risks involved.

“Why think so much? Who knows how long this thing has been sitting in the sea? Even the Spiritual Artifacts have used up nearly half their spiritual energy. So what if there’s danger inside? It’s probably long dead beyond dead.”

The red-haired young man was somewhat unconcerned. Better things were right in front of him, and he did not want to let them go.

“True. Fortune favors the bold. Let’s take the gamble!” Brother Hui’s greed ultimately triumphed over his rationality.

Before he even finished speaking, the red-haired young man, who had long since been unable to hold himself back, rushed eagerly to the iron maiden. His eyes were full of excitement and greed.

Then his muscles swelled again. His knotted muscles erupted with tremendous strength as he suddenly exerted force against the two sides of the iron maiden.

Inside the iron maiden, Su Fanchen was so moved that tears flowed down his face. These little brats had hesitated for ages, causing him to suffer for twenty extra minutes. They had to pay the price for that.

“Ahhh!”

Amid the red-haired young man’s roar, his face flushed scarlet, veins covered his head, and his muscles bulged to the limit.

The iron shell of the iron maiden, which had been sealed shut for a hundred years, finally showed a faint sign of opening amid a creaking sound.

“Come help!” the red-haired young man shouted through gritted teeth, his expression somewhat ferocious.

Only then did the others react, rushing forward one after another to help.

With the five of them working together, the iron maiden was finally opened.

For the first time, a beam of light shone into its interior, which had not seen the sun for a hundred years.

Su Fanchen looked at that long-lost sunlight, and a stinging pain came from his eyes. He instinctively narrowed them.

It was unlike the cold, the pressure, and the utterly numbing loneliness brought by the Deep Sea.

If Little System had not been there to chat with him, Su Fanchen did not dare imagine what he would look like now.

Feeling the warmth brought by the sunlight, he felt at ease for the first time.

He tried to take a step forward, to embrace the light he had longed for.

THUD—

After being trapped for a hundred years, his body had already weakened to the extreme. The moment he took a step, his center of gravity became unstable, and he staggered before falling to the ground.

He stretched out his hand and looked at his palm. It was an arm that had been soaked until swollen, yet was also withered and dry.

【Jie-jie-jie-jie! Your Sister System has finally... finally come out. I don’t have to be trapped in the Deep Sea anymore. I don’t have to stare at endless darkness and hallucinate anymore. Boo-hoo-hoo. Ants of this world, start trembling now! Hee-hee-heh-heh.】

Little System cried one moment and laughed the next, as if she had gone mad.

The voice in his heart awakened Su Fanchen from his daze. He raised his head coldly and looked at the five people standing in front of him in a stupor.

Upon meeting Su Fanchen’s icy gaze, the five of them snapped back to their senses as if waking from a dream.

They had imagined that what was sealed inside the iron lump might be a terrifying monster, or perhaps a cursed demonic artifact.

But never in their wildest dreams had they expected that what was sealed inside was a... person?

Looking at the deep-sea coral and unknown algae covering the iron lump, they could not imagine how long this naked old man, whose whole body was soaked and swollen, had been submerged in the Deep Sea.

Was this really a person?

Or was he a monster wearing a layer of human skin?

“Mommy! A monster!” A piercing female voice suddenly rang out, breaking the silence.

Xiaona screamed loudly. The scene before her had completely shattered her understanding. She did not believe a person could remain trapped in the Deep Sea for so many years and still survive.

Only alien races that had escaped from dimensional gates could possess such a powerful physique.

“Shut up!” Brother Hui hurriedly stepped in front of Xiaona and scolded her in a low voice. He was afraid of angering this creature before them, which seemed neither human nor ghost.

So he tested carefully:

“Senior?”

“Senior?” Su Fanchen spoke, his voice sharp and hoarse, like the whisper of an evil ghost from hell.

The moment his voice came out, even Su Fanchen himself was startled, let alone the five people staring fixedly at him.

They were so frightened that they all took a step back, their faces full of shock and uncertainty.

“Heh.” Su Fanchen gave a wry laugh and tried to crawl up from the ground. But after attempting several times in a row, he still could not do as he wished.

A hundred years of confinement, a hundred years of hunger, and more than eighty thousand revivals had left his body severely overdrawn and weakened to the utmost limit.

However, this scene caused joy to appear on the faces of the five people who were watching Su Fanchen’s every move. They exchanged glances, and a trace of ruthlessness could not help but surface in their eyes.

Those who ventured through dimensional gates lived lives with their heads on the chopping block to begin with. A single moment of carelessness meant death.

Alien races would not show mercy. They ate people.

The young man at the bow nodded lightly, and the other four immediately understood.

Take his life while he was sick!

They unleashed their strongest killing moves one after another. Even Xiaona, whose ability was precognition-type, pulled out a self-defense firearm from her waist, aimed it at Su Fanchen, and pulled the trigger with bang, bang, bang.

In an instant, the radiance of amplification and enhancement, sword light, fists the size of sandbags, and a round backside all smashed mercilessly toward Su Fanchen.

When the dust settled, Su Fanchen was still half-sitting on the deck, without the slightest injury visible on his body.

Only, the corners of his mouth curled into a cruel smile.

Young people these days really were not bad. They knew how to respect the elderly. Seeing that an old man like him could not stand up for so long, they used every trick they had to help this old man regain his virility.

It was just that their chosen method was not quite right.

Since they were so courteous, Su Fanchen naturally had to let them experience his way of cherishing the young as well.

His gaze shifted to the colossal squid tentacle that had been hauled up along with him. Then he grabbed it in one motion. Who cared whether it could be eaten or not? He bit down on it.

Chomp, chomp—

It was quite springy. The taste was just not great. The fishy smell was pretty strong...

Seeing the monster-like old man act as if nothing had happened and even pick up the tentacle to gnaw on it, Brother Hui swallowed and sought confirmation from the people around him.

“Did we just attack?”

The red-haired young man also looked as if he had seen a ghost. His gaze was somewhat blank, and the fist he had used to strike Su Fanchen trembled faintly. He answered instinctively:

“We did. My hand is still shaking. It felt like I punched a steel plate. No, his body seems even harder than a steel plate.”

“Hiss... I fucking shouldn’t have rammed him with my ass. My ass seems... a little swollen.” The little fatty rubbed his butt, sucking in a breath of cold air, though his eyes remained fixed on Su Fanchen.

Brother Hui turned around and saw that one side of the little fatty’s backside was currently larger than the other. How was that just a little swollen? It was clearly an entire size bigger. The way he looked now was extremely comical.

But Brother Hui could not laugh at all.

His gaze returned to Su Fanchen. Looking at the frail old man before him, a terrifying thought sprouted in his heart.

“What the fuck kind of monster is this?”

In just a few bites, Su Fanchen ate the entire tentacle. He licked his lips, still somewhat unsatisfied.

When people were hungry, sure enough, everything tasted delicious.

【Hurry up! Make them kneel and sing Conquer. Your Sister System can’t wait to experience the feeling of conquest, and they are the first step in our rule over the world.

【Or you can chop off their limbs and throw them into the sea to feed the fish. After all, those fish were our neighbors for a hundred years. Since we’re leaving, we should at least give them some benefits, shouldn’t we? Hee-hee.】

Little System sneered as she came up with rotten ideas.

“Shut up! Idiot!” Su Fanchen was extremely annoyed. Ever since he came out of the iron maiden, Little System had been jabbering nonstop.

【You fucking cursed your Sister System again? ...】 Little System immediately protested.

Directly ignoring Little System’s curses, Su Fanchen thought back to the hundred years during which he had been sealed away. His panel had likewise been sealed. After enduring a round of siege just now, he was actually completely unharmed.

He could not help becoming curious about his current strength.

“Panel.”

【Name: Su Fanchen.】

【Age: 138 years old】

【SSS-rank mixed-type talent: Born Together with Heaven and Earth.

Passive Effect: So long as heaven and earth remain, the physical body shall not perish.

Note: The SSS-rank talent Born Together with Heaven and Earth evolved from the S-rank talent Soul Revival, which consumes one’s own soul to revive.】

【Talent-Bound Skill: Above Heaven and Below Earth, I Alone Am Supreme.

Effect: Unfold a domain and control the flow of time within the surrounding area by positive or negative one hundred times.

Heaven’s Punishment: Within the domain, according to one’s own spiritual power, release the might of heaven one or more times to smash everything apart.

Earth’s Armor: Within the domain, condense the essence of the earth to create a suit of indestructible armor to protect oneself.

Note: The duration of the domain is determined by spiritual power.】

【Personal Attributes:

Strength: 9999+ (Strength affects destructive power and so on.)

Agility: 9999+ (Agility affects movement speed, reaction speed, attack speed, and so on.)

Constitution: 9999+ (The higher the constitution, the stronger the physical body.)

Intelligence: 9999+ (Intelligence can increase skill release speed, increase spiritual power reserves, and so on.)

Note: Because the maximum attribute limit of this world is 9999, excess attributes will not be displayed.】

【Awakening Level: Concept?】

【Death Points: 11.53 million】

【Warning: Because the Host’s body and soul are in a severely weakened state, all attributes have been reduced by ninety percent!】