Blaze stayed behind at the location where Lucia had disappeared for a while, hoping to see her popping up out of nowhere just like when she had appeared.
He waited for a long ti, but nothing. No silhouette, no voice, no ssage. It is as if she had disappeared completely from this realm. Maybe she had.
To make sure he wasn’t influenced by any ntal power, Blaze took a deep breath inside.
[You have gained the temporary effect: Outsider]
: You are immune to the ntal influence of this world.
Outsider was activated, but everything stayed the sa. He hadn’t been manipulated by any power. It was Lucia that had disappeared. This puzzled him. He wondered the reason she left and what its connection was to her completely different reality from Blaze.
All questions couldn’t be answered, so Blaze temporarily restrained his curiosity.
The ti of the day was past noon. The sky did not do a good job of telling Blaze when it was, but instinctively he knew. He could tell by his experience staying in this layer.
Blaze took out his Moonlight Karambit and carved into the tree that he had climbed. ’et at Station,’ he carved.
It pained him to leave her behind, but he had to go before sundown. Or else the wave of Wretched would eat him alive. Those creatures were nothing if he had his full power, but now, when his lungs weren’t even capable of producing electricity anymore, it was suicide.
Blaze left the tree and went toward the train station. The corpse around had woken up and started to walk aimlessly around. They were no danger, but there were a lot of them.
Dealing with these dried zombies would cost too much ti. Ti was of the essence here, so Blaze chose to ignore them. He stuck to the rooftop and used the Grappling Hook to maneuver from high ground to high ground.
He had a much better vision up here. That also helped him not lose track of the station afar.
He landed on a wide building with a spacious rooftop. There was a particular dried zombie staying there. It was taller and skinnier and had dark red blood veins running across its body.
The veins weren’t hidden under the skin but dangling freely, exposed to the air. Most of its flesh was gone. There was only a thin mbrane holding on for dear life. The mbrane stuck to the bone, making it look dark red in color instead of the usual white and light yellow.
When it saw Blaze land on the platform, the zombie screeched an illegible noise. Almost sounded like a broken record on playback. Its arm split into three, with each of the tips as sharp as a dagger.
It charged at Blaze. Its speed was deceptively fast. For a monster with no muscle, it should have no reason to be that fast. Sothing else was also fueling it.
Blaze took out the Moonlight Twinblade and imdiately clashed his blades with the zombie. Its bone-spear arms were surprisingly durable.
A fire spark flew out from the collision and pushed the two back a few ters. Blaze’s feet slid on the hard platform, leaving black trail marks. The monster was lighter, so it was sent rolling on the ground a few tis before gaining back its balance.
Blaze did not let it recover. He dashed forward the mont the force was dissipated. Blaze turned into a blurry image in the air; he spun aggressively, slashing the two Twinblades.
Blaze cut through the dried zombie. Its spine fractured and then crumbled. It was split in half and dropped on the ground.
The zombie did not die yet, and its upper body was still crawling. Blaze pulled out Irony and used its spiritual bullet to break the skull of the unique zombie. Once its skull was crushed with the bullet, its remaining body turned to ash.
[You have gained 250 experience points]
This amount was too little compared to what Blaze needed right now. But rather sothing than nothing.
He did not linger long and continued on. The train station was very close. He could see its entrance on the ground floor.
The entrance was a staircase leading down into the ground. It had a tiny roof covering above, barely usable as a ceiling but just enough to protect any traveler from sun and rain.
Blaze dropped down in front of the entrance. He turned back and saw that the place was infested with zombies. If Lucia returned, it would be very challenging to go through all this.
Blaze took out the Moonlight Karambit and carved it into the wall of the stairs.
’Down here,’ he carved.
Blaze went down the stairs. There was no light, no torch, or any illuminating light source. At the bottom of the stairs was a vast space with many train tracks going parallel with each other.
There were more threats under here. Near Blaze, a pile of rubble started shaking, and then a zombie erged from under it.
It was different from the normal zombie and the skinny zombie. It was bigger, fatter, and had an inflated bubble gut. That gut must be storing sothing.
The zombie opened its mouth wide and spit out a stream of stinky, dense, green liquid. Blaze hopped to the side, evading its attack.
The liquid lted the ground it touched. The hard brick was sizzling and slowly dissolved into nothingness.
Blaze couldn’t go into lee range with this beast. That bubble gut was due to burst. He would not like his perfect body to be destroyed by a simple mistake.
He pulled out the Irony and started blasting. To make sure, he extended his distance between him and the gut zombie. Making sure if it exploded, he would be outside of the blast radius.
The bullets poked holes into the inflated stomach. The holes leaked out dark green liquid, the sa liquid that the zombie had spit. But it didn’t explode.
The zombie scread so more, then it ran at Blaze. Its tiny legs were able to maintain the balance of its inflated stomach sohow.
The bubble gut was bouncing when it’s running. It looked like a walking balloon.
Blaze kept extending the distance and poking it with Irony. More and more holes appeared on the monster’s body.
Then, when the balloon had too many holes, it popped. The zombie exploded into a bouquet of flesh and green, stinky vomit. The vomit ate into everything it touched, sizzling the surface and dissolving the materials. Its flesh had a curious resistance property that prevented it from being dissolved by its stomach liquid.
The flesh definitely would have so research value in it, but Blaze wouldn’t be touching it. It was too disgusting.
He continued on his journey. Except for the Gut Zombie at the entrance, the place was deserted. No souls and no wretched souls were to be found under here.
There were a lot of skeletons, however. The skeletons lay everywhere. Blaze was able to find so between every couple of steps.
Soon, he found an office in the underground station. That place was lit with modern fluorescent light. The only glimpse of modern technology that Blaze had seen since he ca here.
The door to the office was made of steel. It was unlocked, but due to the corrosion of ti, the door was stuck tight. Blaze took out the Moonlight Karambit and slashed it.
A shallow cut was visible, but it was far from cutting the door in half. Blaze fed the Karambit his blood and then turned it into the longer version, Twinblade.
He tried again and slashed the door. A faint red outline shot out from the blade and split the door in half.
"Finally..."
Inside the office was a panel of buttons and screens. There was also a wide view looking down into the tracks and station. They could monitor everything from here. This was probably the control room.
Blaze walked in front of the tunnel and examined his options.
Most of the screens were cracked or broken. But there was one operating screen with a window still popping up on it.
’Call for a train?’
And under it were two options.
’Yes/No’
Blaze threw the skeleton sitting on the chair away and sat down, his eyes looking at the window.
He could go right now. But Lucia was still out there. He didn’t know for sure what her connection was with the real Alyson. There was a big chance that they were the sa person.
He weighed his choices carefully. Should he call for the train and leave? Should he wait for Lucia to co back?
Blaze walked out of the office and took a look around. In contrast to the area above, this station was not infested with any creatures.
It was safe at the mont. So Blaze decided to wait for one night. He returned to the office and barricaded the door using the steel door that he cut in two. Luckily, they still fit into the doorfra. He then pushed a few more pieces of furniture behind it, making sure it wouldn’t drop down.
Then he dropped on the floor of the office, lying next to the previous skeleton, and took a nap.
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