Chapter 40: Chopping Off an Arm

In the following days, they rested in the plains during the day under their paper umbrellas and hurried on their way at night, killing any mutated species they encountered.

Lou Suo was responsible for close combat, Chu Xihen for ranged attacks, and Ling Yao was in charge of cheering them on and, incidentally, acting cute.

There was no other way; the harsh environment had killed all the small animals he could control. Even if there were things for him to control, those things couldn’t withstand a beating.

After another battle, Chu Xihen was so exhausted that he collapsed onto Lou Suo.

Ling Yao saw the cards floating above the pile of mutated corpses and rubbed his hands excitedly. “Can I touch the corpses? I feel like I’m lucky.”

Chu Xihen didn’t have the courage to say those words anyway, so he didn’t say anything and let Lou Suo decide.

Lou Suo didn’t mind. “Go ahead and try to pick them up.”

Ling Yao nodded and happily ran over to touch the corpses.

They had killed hundreds of mutated species in the past few days, but only two cards had dropped. The drop rate of these cards was really something else.

Fortunately, killing mutated species could improve the proficiency of their abilities and even upgrade them, so it wasn’t all bad.

Chu Xihen took out the Myriad Arrows card and glanced at it. Half of the arrows were left.

“I’ve found that this card is quite useful. I’ll be a ranged archer from now on. Once I use it up, I’ll buy another one from the trading market,” he said to Lou Suo.

“Okay.” Lou Suo was always responsive to Chu Xihen’s requests.

When the next instance came out, he would buy a Myriad Arrows card for Chu Xihen in the trading market.

“Ah!” Just as the two were talking, Ling Yao, who had gone to pick up the cards, suddenly screamed.

Chu Xihen flipped over and sat up. They looked towards Ling Yao and saw a small, green-furred wolf hanging from the unlucky child’s arm.

The two rushed over, but the green-furred wolf on Ling Yao’s hand was extremely agile. It jumped to the ground and ran away into the distance.

Chu Xihen drew his bow and shot an arrow, killing the green-furred wolf.

The moment the green-furred wolf died, another card floated out of the air.

But he wasn’t in the mood to care about any cards right now. He turned to look at Ling Yao’s arm.

Ling Yao had been bitten by the green-furred wolf, leaving a tooth mark on his arm with green liquid.

“Brother Chu, I’m going to die! I’m infected!” Ling Yao cried out.

Of the three types of mutated species that had appeared so far—green-furred wolves, blue beetles, and purple poison devil’s tongues—being entangled by the branches of the poison devil’s tongue, even if touched by the purple liquid, would not cause infection; it would only corrode the flesh.

However, being touched by the poison devil’s tongue’s main body’s venom, or being bitten by beetles or green-furred wolves, would cause infection and turn one into a walking corpse.

Ling Yao was now in the worst-case scenario. His arm had been bitten directly by a green-furred wolf.

Chu Xihen ignored his cries and first exchanged disinfectant from the mall to disinfect the wound.

Lou Suo also checked the mountain of mutated corpses again, making sure there were no survivors before walking back. Seeing Ling Yao’s wound, he remained silent.

After bandaging Ling Yao’s wound, Chu Xihen went to pick up the card. Chu Xihen also collected the two cards from the mutated corpse pile.

Ling Yao had happily run over to touch the corpses, but not only did he fail to pick up the last card, but he was also bitten by a mutated species.

“That green-furred wolf looked so small. Was it a secondary mutation?” Ling Yao asked Chu Xihen, his voice filled with sobs.

Normal green-furred wolves were about the size of real-world wolves, while the one that had bitten Ling Yao was about the size of a squirrel.

This was also a big reason why he was attacked. He never would have thought that there would be such a small and exquisite green-furred wolf hiding in the pile of corpses.

“It should be.” Chu Xihen looked at the cards he had obtained. “It’s a weapon card.”

The card was called [Arrow from Nothing]. The small print introduction was: “No arrow in hand, but an arrow in your heart. As long as your archery is superb, your arrows will be endless.”

A rare serious introduction, and for Chu Xihen, it was a weapon card that he needed.

Even his luck could produce such a high-quality card, making it hard to deny that the green-furred wolf wasn’t an elite among the mutated species.

In comparison, Lou Suo’s two cards were very ordinary.

One was called [Fake Spoon]: “You think this is a spoon? No, you’re wrong. It’s actually a small knife. Surprised? Unexpected!”

And the other was [Pretty Kettle]: “Although it’s pretty, it’s just an ordinary kettle!”

These two were truly trash cards, completely incomparable to the noble [Paper Umbrella].

But Lou Suo still put them away. Anyway, they were stored in the personal mall and didn’t take up space.

Although the mall’s initial grid only had three slots, all cards could be placed in one slot, and the mall would also directly filter out the required cards according to the user’s thoughts, which was very convenient.

After looking at the cards, Ling Yao began to wail again.

“Brother Chu, I’m really going to die. I’m going to turn into a zombie.” He had only lived a few days like a human with Chu Xihen, and it was going to end so soon. He really couldn’t bear it!

Chu Xihen searched his mall but couldn’t find any medicine to treat the infection, and he didn’t have any healing abilities either. He really couldn’t help Ling Yao.

But Lou Suo spoke up at this moment: “Don’t panic yet. You should still be able to be saved. There’s a high probability that we’ll enter an instance tonight. When that time comes, we’ll see if there are any healing skills or medicines to treat the infection.”

Being infected didn’t mean that one would immediately go crazy and mutate. There was still a process. Hopefully, Ling Yao could hold on until the instance opened.

“Oh, right! I forgot about that!” Ling Yao instantly perked up again. “I must live through the instance!”

Chu Xihen comforted him, “Don’t worry, even if there are no healing skills or medicine in the instance, I’ll kill you before you mutate. I won’t let you turn into a monster.”

Ling Yao cried again, “Brother Chu, don’t anger me. It’ll accelerate blood circulation, and I might mutate before I even enter the instance.”

“Actually, there’s another way.” Chu Xihen looked at Ling Yao’s hand. “Before the poison enters your body, chop off your arm.”

This was indeed a way to solve the problem, more reliable than gambling on finding skills in the instance. The reason he didn’t say it immediately and let Ling Yao chop off his arm was that he knew the other party definitely couldn’t make a decision in a short time.

He was also calculating the time. If it was really too late, he wouldn’t give Ling Yao any psychological preparation and would just do it.

“Then I choose to chop off my arm.” Ling Yao looked at Chu Xihen with tears in his eyes. “Brother Chu, if I become disabled, you won’t abandon me, will you?”

Ling Yao’s abilities were very weak right now. He had no points and no special abilities. If he lost an arm, life would be even harder in the future. Without a strong reliance, it would be difficult for him to survive.

“It depends on your performance.” Chu Xihen gave a vague answer.

He mainly wanted to see the extent to which Ling Yao’s abilities could grow. After all, this was a type of ability he had never seen before.

Ling Yao gritted his teeth. “Brother Chu, lend me a knife!”

They could talk about the future later. Right now, he had to avoid being infected.

Chu Xihen exchanged a sharp machete from the mall for Ling Yao, mainly to let Ling Yao get it over with quickly.

Ling Yao took the machete, raised his left hand, closed his eyes, and gave himself a chop. That clean and decisive force startled both Chu Xihen and Lou Suo.