Chapter 17: Peering Rune

The gigantic eyeball, which he had nearly split in half with a cleaver and from which a mix of black and white fluid flowed, was now visibly shriveling and shrinking at a rapid speed. In the blink of an eye, it was reduced to the size of a marble. With a “whoosh,” it detached from the eye socket and shot toward Su Li.

The suddenness of the event startled Su Li; this was the first time he had encountered anything like this. However, the shrunken eyeball flew too fast for him to dodge. He felt a sharp pang in his brow, like a pinprick.

He quickly reached up to touch it, but felt nothing.

“What’s going on? Is this eyeball a Spiritual Source too? But it seems different…”

Just then, a flood of new information surged into his mind again.

“Acquired the fragmented ‘Peering Rune.'”

“Ability: Can peer into Spiritual Source Beasts and obtain their basic information.”

“The fragmented ‘Peering Rune’ can evolve, eventually forming the ‘Third Eye.'”

“‘The Third Eye’ possesses mysterious abilities…”

The information suddenly cut off just as Su Li wondered what mysterious abilities the Third Eye possessed.

He gently rubbed his brow, digesting the various pieces of information he had just received. There was astonishment, surprise, and above all, delight.

He had never expected that by killing this terrifying giant frog, he would not only gain two Spiritual Sources but also acquire this “Peering Rune.”

“Although it’s a fragmented ‘Peering Rune,’ the message says it can be used to peer into information about Spiritual Source Beasts. Spiritual Source Beast… that must be this guy in front of me.”

As he thought this, Su Li activated the “Peering Rune” with a thought.

A few thin red lines immediately appeared between his eyebrows, forming a slightly blurred, vertical eye-shaped pattern, which looked like a faint eye tattoo.

With the “Peering Rune” active, Su Li looked at the massive corpse of the giant frog, and new information immediately appeared in his mind.

“One-Eyed Frog: Elite of Level 1 Spiritual Source Beasts. Feeds on lower-level Corpse Beasts. Aggressive nature. Never gives up on marked prey; fights to the death. Can evolve into the higher-level One-Eyed Frog King. Killing a One-Eyed Frog has a certain probability of acquiring the special skill ‘Peering Rune.'”

As he processed the information in his mind, the vertical eye-shaped lines between Su Li’s eyebrows slowly faded away.

“That’s interesting. So this guy is called a One-Eyed Frog. It certainly deserves to be called an elite of Level 1 Spiritual Source Beasts. In terms of raw strength, it’s definitely stronger than me. It’s a good thing it wasn’t very smart.”

Su Li dragged the corpse of the One-Eyed Frog, which had been wedged in the bathroom, into the living room and dumped it on the floor. He looked at the creature’s disemboweled body with lingering dread.

The strength of this One-Eyed Frog was definitely superior to his own. The fact that he managed to kill it was partly due to luck and partly due to utilizing the geographical advantage of the bathroom. In an open space, even two of him might not have been able to handle it.

While contemplating, Su Li picked up the hammer he had dropped near the balcony and walked to the security door. He first checked the corridor through the peephole, seeing that the corpses were still piled up where he had left them.

After a moment’s thought, Su Li opened the security door, stared at the corpses, and activated the “Peering Rune.”

The vertical eye-like lines reappeared on his brow.

He only intended to test it, but unexpectedly, new information truly surfaced in his mind, providing details about the corpses.

“Corpse Beast: The lowest-level Spiritual Source Beast infected. Has a certain probability of evolving into a higher-level Corpse Beast through mutual consumption. Other: None.”

“So these dead humans were infected and turned into Corpse Beasts? And they can, in fact, evolve.”

Su Li pondered for a moment. He realized that the pile of corpses had attracted the One-Eyed Frog, so leaving them there was extremely unsafe. Who knew what other terrible monsters they might attract?

“If it only attracts low-level Corpse Beasts, that’s fine; I could kill two more to get the Spiritual Sources for my breakthrough. But if it attracts another monster like the One-Eyed Frog, I’ll be in trouble.”

Although Su Li had successfully killed one, there was an element of luck involved. If another one appeared, it would be difficult to say who would win, and he was unwilling to take that risk.

Su Li had initially considered dumping the corpses into the water outside the corridor, but he thought that discarding them in the water might even more easily draw danger.

After careful deliberation, he decided to pile all the corpses onto the roof. This way, if any monsters were attracted, they would be lured to the roof, which was comparatively safer than keeping the bodies in the corridor or throwing them into the water.

With his increased strength, he now had at least 500 jin (approx. 550 pounds) of power in his arms. Lifting these corpses was very easy, and he could carry two at a time.

He quickly moved all the corpses to the roof and piled them up. By this time, the sky had darkened, and night was falling.

Su Li looked out at the nearest building, which was also a 30-story tower with only the top floor exposed above the water. It was about 40 or 50 meters away.

Su Li occasionally looked at it from afar, but he had never seen any movement there.

“No matter what, I have to go check it out. Even if I don’t find survivors, maybe I can find some food.”

The sky had completely blackened. Night also meant the environment was much more dangerous. Su Li dared not delay any further. He quickly went downstairs, locked his own door, and looked at the One-Eyed Frog corpse left in the living room.

He had initially considered moving this corpse to the roof as well, but he felt reluctant because the large pile of corpses on the roof was very likely to attract monsters.

While he couldn’t eat the human corpses turned into Corpse Beasts, the One-Eyed Frog was different.

In Su Li’s eyes, this One-Eyed Frog was a pile of edible meat.

“Food is scarce right now, and this One-Eyed Frog looks like it has a lot of meat. It might be edible, so I’ll keep it here for now.”

After considering it, Su Li decided to keep the One-Eyed Frog’s corpse. It was mid-October. The temperature wasn’t low, with an average daytime temperature of about 20 degrees Celsius and an average nighttime temperature of 10 degrees Celsius. However, either due to a change in the world’s rules or because these bodies were Spiritual Source Beasts, their rate of decay was much slower than normal corpses. He hadn’t smelled any rot or seen any signs of decomposition when moving the Corpse Beasts earlier. If they were normal biological corpses, they would have smelled by now in this temperature.

Based on this small detail, the One-Eyed Frog’s corpse would likely not decompose immediately and could be preserved for a while.

Because the power was out, the living room was plunged into complete darkness.

Su Li grabbed the cleaver, intending to butcher the One-Eyed Frog’s corpse and cut off some meat, but it was too dark. He abandoned the idea for now.

(End of Chapter)