Chapter 437: Crimson Rays
"Those people seem to want to trade with us for some high-tier spiritual energy cards."
Black Dog wasn't a fool either; if the other party hadn't made a request, he wouldn't have come to bother Lin Ye.
"That means they're relatively clever scammers. Go out and trade for one corpse. Let me see what's going on."
Lin Ye didn't think the other party would use corpses completely unrelated to anomalous phenomena for fraud. This was Free City after all. To survive here, even scammers needed some skill.
Black Dog quickly traded for a corpse. It was a charred human corpse, and within the body seemed to contain a certain amount of rule power.
"Huh? How is this fake so similar to the real thing?"
After finishing the roasted mutation creature thigh in two bites, Lin Ye brought the corpse back to the simple laboratory.
A few minutes later, Lin Ye successfully extracted a small piece of rule crystal from the corpse.
'Is this early-stage investment, or something similar to a rule crystal?'
Lin Ye used a mutation rune on a parasite while consuming the rule crystal. The structure within the parasite began to mutate rapidly, but soon, the mutating parasite collapsed, leaving only a pile of rotten flesh on the experimental table. 'I don't think I used a collapse rune...'
Lin Ye left the laboratory, intending to go find those sellers of fakes. However, as soon as he stepped out of the clubhouse, he saw a truck filled with those charred black corpses.
This truck reminded him of the trucks on Blue Star that sold cabbages and watermelons.
"You must be Mr. Lin Ye, right? We have many similar corpses and hope to conduct a transaction with you."
The driver parked the truck next to Lin Ye and said with a smile.
"I'll take them all. But you have to tell me the source of these fakes. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to file a complaint against you with the Adventurer's Association. I know the chairman."
Lin Ye decided to give these scammers a chance. After all, they just wanted to scam some money and hadn't reached the point where they absolutely had to be killed.
*Crackle, crackle, crackle...*
Those scammers all burst into flames. In just two seconds, they burned into black charred corpses. The charred corpses in the truck also climbed up, red flames reigniting them.
"You were already dead, and I didn't even notice."
Lin Ye took out his communication device and sent the information about these scammers to Raymond. Since the other party could produce charred corpses, there likely wouldn't be only one truck selling them in the city.
All those charred corpses lunged at Lin Ye. After getting close to him, their bodies burned again.
But this time, the flames ignited not only their remains but also the energy within their bodies.
"Just like this. These charred corpses seem to have a self-destruct ability. But as long as you use my collapse runes... see, they just collapse like this. They don't explode and hurt people, nor do they pollute the environment. Very effective."
Lin Ye used these charred corpses to demonstrate the effect of the collapse rune to Raymond.
"Excellent! I need a batch of collapse runes right now. The city is full of trucks selling these charred corpses, and many people have already been scammed."
If Lin Ye hadn't alerted him, Raymond wouldn't have known the charred corpse problem was this serious.
"Fine. But as payment, I want a batch of the charred corpses' residues."
Lin Ye was very interested in these corpses. They seemed to be in a state of slow collapse, and this collapse could also store the energy released during the process.
"Four cards for one portion of residue. Other adventurers are also interested in these corpses containing rule power."
Raymond, unsure of the charred corpses' value, said tentatively.
"Deal. I don't need that many anyway. A word of warning: you'd better not use the rule crystals extracted from the charred corpses."
Even the highly biologically active parasite could only collapse. Lin Ye didn't need to test to know the outcome of using such rule crystals.
"I definitely won't use them. But others might extract rule crystals and sell them. I'll spread this message."
Raymond understood those adventurers all too well. How could they give up such a good opportunity to earn Free Coins?
Lin Ye collected the charred corpse residues on the ground. He was just about to speak when he noticed everything before his eyes was tinged with a shade of crimson.
The communication was cut off. Lin Ye looked up. A massive blood-red crystalline structure had appeared directly above Free City.
The crystal released crimson rays in all directions. The crimson rays just happened to cover the entire Free City.
Creatures illuminated by the rays began to melt, eventually turning into puddles of crimson liquid. The crimson liquid eroded the ground and buildings like acid, leaving pitted marks on them.
Lin Ye deployed his spiritual energy shield and returned to the abandoned clubhouse before the shield could be pierced by the crimson rays.
"Activate the base! Commence the Shelter Plan!"
As soon as Lin Ye entered the base, he said to Bessie Pro, who appeared at the entrance.
"Yes."
Bessie Pro closed her eyes. The ground shook, and the entire abandoned clubhouse base began to transform.
"Boss, some of the brothers are still outside..."
Black Dog had also noticed the situation outside.
"They all have the spiritual energy cards I prepared for them. As long as they react quickly enough, they can survive the first wave of irradiation. After that, they can hide anywhere and hold on for a while. You organize their location information. Once the situation stabilizes a bit, we can go bring them back."
Lin Ye then assigned tasks to the others who came running over. He had considered situations like Free City falling, so he had made contingency plans beforehand.
The young people in the clubhouse began to methodically carry out the tasks Lin Ye assigned them. Various supplies were already prepared. As long as the base wasn't breached, they could survive inside for at least three years.
Lin Ye stood by the window, sensing the situation outside. The crimson liquid gathered like living creatures, eroding nearby buildings. Ordinary people would quickly melt into crimson liquid upon contact with the rays. Spiritual energy users could hold on for varying durations depending on their tier, but even high-level spiritual energy users couldn't ignore the crimson rays.
The crimson rays couldn't pass through buildings to liquefy humans, but the crimson liquid could consciously corrode buildings. If they lost the buildings used for hiding, more humans would turn into crimson liquid, leading to a vicious cycle.
Before all the buildings were destroyed, they had to do something.
Many people in the city could think of this, but only the major powers had the ability to solve the problem. Lin Ye hadn't yet figured out how to deal with the crimson crystal above either.
The trouble wasn't just this. There were still some anomalous phenomena in the city that hadn't been dealt with. If these anomalous phenomena could move freely within the crimson rays, then many spiritual energy users hiding in ordinary buildings would truly be in danger.
Just as Lin Ye was pondering his next course of action, over a dozen trucks drove toward the clubhouse base from various directions. Those charred corpses bathed in the crimson rays, flickering with flames on their bodies.