Chapter 351: Bonus Chapter

An Xuefeng and Zhang Xingcang had long since left the black desert, but the Lizard Duke had stayed. Under normal circumstances this made no sense; without the Infected present, with no connection to anyone holding authority, the Lizard Duke should have been expelled long ago.

But the authority holders had all entered the scene re-enactment from the black desert, leaving it in a peculiar suspended state, silent as death, and combined with certain special titles the Lizard Duke possessed, he had found a gap to exploit.

Of course, the more important point was that he had been fighting the mental illusion of Zhang Xingcang the whole time, deliberately letting himself be contaminated a little, which allowed him to claim an indirect connection to the authority holders.

If Dreamchaser’s strength lay in drawing people into dreams and fighting within them, if the Puppet Master’s power was in controlling puppets and silently manipulating others, if the Puppeteer’s tendency was to seize control and twist fate, then the Lizard Duke’s advantage was his extraordinary physical constitution, his mastery of close-quarters combat, and the sheer power of his body, which could even withstand the Return Journey Saber without his alienated form.

Ordinarily, Tour Guides without their alienated form had weaker physical bodies than Tourists. One reason was that the Agency selected Tourists mostly for good physical constitution, with only a minority of physically weaker candidates whose talent in other areas was exceptional. But Tour Guides were without exception people who had been terminally ill in the real world, at death’s door, with naturally diminished physical condition.

The other reason was that Tourists received subtle, cumulative strengthening in various aspects of their constitution each time a journey ended and they gained points and advanced in rank. Peak Tourists like An Xuefeng’s group had bodies at the absolute peak of human condition, though the direction of that peak could differ and was influenced by factors like titles and age.

Tour Guides had none of this.

Certainly, Tour Guides also grew stronger with each advancement, but primarily in the Abyss direction; things like enhanced capability at low death countdowns, greater control of energy after triggering Return to Zero and alienating. Tour Guides were intrinsically linked to near-death and death itself, and too strong a body that was too hard to kill was, in a certain sense, inconvenient.

The Lizard Duke was an exception to all of this. In the middle of intense combat, he had simply thrown his obstructing cloak aside, exposing a head of deep crimson hair the color of dried blood. He was extremely tall; hard, pale yellow scales covered the vital points of his body like armor, and especially on his fists, mutated bone hooks covered the knuckles like a pair of brutal, terrifying gauntlets.

The mental illusion of Zhang Xingcang’s contamination surged forward and rapidly corroded the scales, but the moment a scale was touched by contamination a pale white membrane rose across its surface, like a lizard shedding skin, and every wound and contamination sloughed away with it. Within five seconds the white membrane fell, and beneath it was fully restored skin.

“Aaah—!!”

Failed killing blows, one after another, drove the mental illusion into a rage. It was an unhinged mental projection to begin with; calm could only be sustained for moments, and frenzied collapse was its core nature. The situation reversed in an instant; the enraged mental illusion drove the Lizard Duke back step by step, yet from beneath the pale yellow scales forming his helmet, the deep blue eyes showed a flash of unrestrained satisfaction.

He was deliberately provoking the mental illusion into losing control again and again. The mental illusion’s state would inevitably affect Dreamchaser, and even now the Lizard Duke hadn’t abandoned his ambition of seizing the token from Dreamchaser and taking authority over the Death Sahara.

Tourists were too unreliable. The Silver Moon Killer only knew how to kill; he didn’t have the sharp mind of the Stargazer or Bai Xiaosheng. With An Xuefeng, Zhang Xingcang, and the others providing protection, the Silver Moon Killer assassinating Dreamchaser was essentially impossible. The Lizard Duke knew this perfectly well and had never been counting on the Silver Moon Killer. He was going to do it his own way.

******

“Mmph—”

The little Dreamchaser dragon, dozing by the fire, kicked its legs and flicked its tail tip with agitation, catching Zhang Xingcang’s attention.

“Wake up, Dreamchaser, wake up.”

Zhang Xingcang noticed the little dragon’s scales were going dark and immediately shook it awake. He could read Dreamchaser’s current dream state from the color of its scales; during pleasant dreams the Dreamchaser dragon’s scales shimmered like soap bubbles in sunlight, and during nightmares they went dark and dull.

“Roarr!”

Forcibly woken, the little Dreamchaser dragon had a full load of temper and roared directly at Zhang Xingcang, blew a faceful of ash at him in a foul mood, then spread its wings and flew straight out of the bunker, landing in Wei Xun’s arms in the chieftain’s tower.

“Mm?”

Wei Xun looked down in surprise at the little dragon in his arms. Since Wei Xun had taken the bloodsucking blade, the little dragon had essentially stopped coming near either of the two Zhang Xingcangs. What had gotten into it now?

“Mmrrr—”

The Dreamchaser dragon that had landed in his arms quickly climbed to the top of Wei Xun’s head. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Its chest vibrated with a low, particular dragon hum; Wei Xun felt his hair being gripped in the little dragon’s teeth, and its claws kneaded the top of his head like a cat making biscuits. Very strange; Wei Xun had never seen the Dreamchaser dragon do this before.

‘What’s going on?’

What surprised Wei Xun even more was that An Xuefeng, who had been remarkably possessive since taking on his animal form, didn’t try to stop it.

“Hiss—”

Zhang Xingcang had come running out behind it and at the sight of this was first lost for words, then his expression shifted and turned distinctly serious. He asked Wei Xun instead:

“Bai Xiaosheng, are you all right?”

Wei Xun didn’t feel anything was wrong with himself. He had just been discussing with An Xuefeng the question of how to use the golden tokay gecko’s severed tail; whether using Wild Heart to transform into a golden tokay gecko and then severing his own tail to connect with the detached one could, at a critical moment, drive the Silver Moon Killer into a mindless rage.

Even if the Stargazer could sense the Silver Moon Killer’s location, the man was too dangerous. When a killer lost all reason his threat level dropped considerably.

Since the question involved the Wild Heart transformation, the two of them had moved away from the others and left the bunker for the chieftain’s tower to talk. But the Dreamchaser dragon’s flying tackle had seized all of their attention.

“I’m fine.”

Wei Xun answered first, mind running quickly. In the little Dreamchaser dragon’s perception he wasn’t Bai Xiaosheng or Wei Xun; he was the mental illusion of Zhang Xingcang. If he was fine, then it was the mental illusion that had a problem.

“This can heal mental disorientation and contamination-induced mental instability.”

An Xuefeng’s answer confirmed what Wei Xun was already thinking. Dreamchaser had done this for Return members before; even without the bond of a linked Tour Guide and Tourist, Dreamchaser’s formidable strength allowed him to use this particular method to clear part of a mental contamination.

“Has the Lizard Duke left the black desert?”

Wei Xun asked, and found that even Zhang Xingcang wasn’t certain about this.

“You didn’t drive him out when you left?”

An Xuefeng rarely spoke, and Zhang Xingcang’s expression turned rueful.

“The Lizard Duke’s original body is very likely still in the black desert, and the mental illusion has a problem. He’s using combat to induce the mental illusion into losing control and thereby disrupting Dreamchaser?”

Wei Xun rapidly reasoned out the most probable sequence of events. He didn’t yet have a full sense of how strongly a mental projection’s instability could affect a Tour Guide; the mental illusion had been sealed in the Death Sahara for so many years after losing control, and Dreamchaser had been fine through all of it, hadn’t he?

But Zhang Xingcang’s darkening expression and An Xuefeng’s rare silence told Wei Xun that a mental projection frequently losing control and going berserk would without question severely interfere with the Tour Guide.

“Fortunate that Dreamchaser got the wrong person.”

Zhang Xingcang exhaled slowly and deeply, watching the little Dreamchaser dragon finish its “treatment” on Bai Xiaosheng’s head and now peering down over the edge, rubbing its head against his cheek. A flash of guilt crossed Zhang Xingcang’s eyes, then hardened into resolve.

The little Dreamchaser dragon was running entirely on instinct now, which had its good points and its bad. It wasn’t seeing people clearly and had little calm reason left; if the mental illusion completely lost control and collapsed, it would very likely drag Dreamchaser into instability as well and disrupt the scene re-enactment and the authority contest. But the upside of not seeing people clearly was that the Bai Xiaosheng who was playing the mental illusion could always settle Dreamchaser down for a time.

Once the butterfly fragment was recovered and Dreamchaser could restore more of his power, his recovery could indirectly improve the mental illusion’s state and resolve this crisis.

“The Star Borer Insect is careful; the bait, the butterfly fragment’s location, how to draw it out…”

Zhang Xingcang and the others went through the capture plan in careful detail. It was already half past four in the morning; in one hour they would set out. In the bunker, Chen Cheng’s group had already started loading things onto Baby Corn. The current plan was not to return to the Red Sand settlement after killing the Star Borer Insect but to head directly to the Petrified Forest; its terrain was better suited to weathering the great sandstorm.

“Right, I’ll head back then.”

Zhang Xingcang left with the little Dreamchaser dragon. Wei Xun and An Xuefeng stayed behind in the chieftain’s tower; the two of them fell into an unusual silence, and then Wei Xun said:

‘Look, the Lizard Duke wants to influence Dreamchaser through the mental illusion. We need to hit back the same way.’

An Xuefeng went quiet; after a long moment he tried to change the subject:

‘There’s a better approach—’

‘There isn’t. Tomorrow when we hunt the Star Borer Insect, the Silver Moon Killer will definitely come. And the hunting ground is shared by the nine giant settlements; I suspect there are other settlements’ giants there too.’

The nine giant settlements each had their own hunting ground, but they also had one shared ground, the largest and most richly stocked, near the Petrified Forest. Enormous prey gathered there in numbers, which was what had attracted the Star Borer Insect to lie in the sand eating and drinking at leisure.

Wei Xun said decisively:

‘It’s the simplest approach.’

‘Hah.’

An Xuefeng sighed with resignation and finally conceded:

‘Fine, but let me be the one to do it.’

What they were discussing was Wei Xun’s earlier bold idea of using Wild Heart to transform into a golden tokay gecko, severing his own tail, and reattaching the detached one to interfere with the Silver Moon Killer. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] David’s group had seen the golden tokay gecko with their own eyes, so imitating it wouldn’t be difficult. An Xuefeng had the orange title Great Druid, which allowed him not only to transform into animals himself but to temporarily transform someone else into a specific animal.

But An Xuefeng didn’t want Wei Xun going off to sever his own tail and reattach someone else’s. He had finally conceded, but insisted on doing it himself.

‘You’re too strong, it would be easy to spot the difference—’

But putting himself in An Xuefeng’s position, Wei Xun also didn’t want An Xuefeng severing his tail. Going off to find his own amusement was fine enough, but the same thing applied to An Xuefeng. The idea of An Xuefeng having to attach someone else’s tail gave Wei Xun a peculiar sense of displeasure.

“Hmph.”

An Xuefeng sensed the shift in Wei Xun’s mood and gave a soft sound; his own mood lifted inexplicably. Without saying more; he simply and cleanly shifted into a golden tokay gecko, tensed the muscles at the base of his tail, and severed it without hesitation. After attaching the golden tokay gecko’s detached tail, not the slightest difference was visible. Especially with the Great Druid title, even the scent was an impeccable imitation.

Wei Xun put An Xuefeng’s severed tail away carefully. Exactly how much this would interfere with the Silver Moon Killer, Wei Xun wasn’t certain, but An Xuefeng was fairly confident. The golden tokay gecko connected to the Lizard Duke was not the same as an ordinary real-world gecko; it was a “whole,” and any missing part would affect the Lizard Duke’s control over it.

Which meant the Silver Moon Killer would absolutely come looking for this tail.

The gecko was called golden, but its color was closer to a soft pale yellow, with orange-red markings on its sides and the top of its head and deep red eyes that squinted with ease when light hit them, the vision seemingly not very sharp; it instinctively flicked its tongue now and then to smell the air around it. Genuinely adorable. An Xuefeng slipped into Wei Xun’s arms with practiced ease; he still had some sense of dignity and hadn’t shown himself in front of the Stargazer and the others.

Half past five in the morning. The sandstorm showed no signs of weakening; the wind was at least force ten, the sky dark as dusk, but it barely affected the giants. Wei Xun and the others sat up on Baby Corn, several tendrils raised as windbreaks.

The Red Sand Giant settlement’s hunting party stood ready; the giants brought their stone spears down against the ground in unison with a thunderous crack and let out a roar, the fire that blazed from their enormous eyes functioning like vast searchlights, actually scattering part of the wind and sand.

After the ‘departure ritual,’ the Red Sand Giant settlement’s new chieftain and hunting party set off together for the shared hunting ground.