novelraw Chapter 305: Sludge
Chapter 305: Sludge
Sheriff Brewer was leaning against a passageway entrance, single-handedly holding off the living corpses.
His situation was extremely grim.
Spent shell casings already piled at his feet, but more living corpses were pouring out from the shadows, roaring as they tried to tear this stubborn living creature to shreds.
Brewer was being forced back step by step, about to be overwhelmed any moment.
A corpse lunging towards Brewer suddenly had a hole blasted open in the back of its skull, its body pitching forward.
Immediately after, a white ghostly figure flashed past overhead.
White Ghost landed amidst the horde of corpses, his right hand moving like lightning, each precise swing snapping the neck of a living corpse.
The onslaught of the corpse horde was thrown into momentary chaos.
Brewer seized this fleeting opportunity, unleashing the shotgun's full potential, emptying the cylinder in an incredibly short time, forcibly blasting a fan-shaped vacuum zone clear in front of him!
The fight was over.Brewer leaned against the wall, gasping violently, sweat and blood mingling together.
"Honestly, I'm never taking this kind of job again," he said, looking up at Lin Jie and White Ghost walking out from inside, his lips pulling into a weary smile.
He then quickly checked his spare ammunition and the revolver at his waist.
White Ghost pointed with his prosthetic arm towards a spot on the ground inside the slaughterhouse yard.
There lay a heavy, round steel manhole cover, cast with the Delacroix family crest—a pelican holding a snake in its beak.
Understanding the implication, Brewer stepped forward and tried to pry open the manhole cover with brute force, but the steel plate didn't budge an inch.
White Ghost waved his hand, signaling the sheriff to step aside. He placed his damaged brass arm at the edge of the manhole cover and, with sheer force, pried it open a crack.
A thick, foul stench surged out from the gap.
It was an indescribable odor—pungent methane, sweetly metallic rotting flesh, sour industrial wastewater, and the deepest resentment.
Brewer couldn't help but take a step back, his face turning slightly green.
Lin Jie's brow furrowed tightly.
This wasn't just a physiological stench; it was a contamination on a spiritual level.
The manhole cover was lifted, revealing a bottomless hole.
Below was only a rusted, vertical iron ladder, winding away into darkness.
"I'll go first." Brewer slung his shotgun over his back, untied a new-style carbide lamp from his waist, lit it, and grabbed the slippery ladder.
His figure was soon swallowed by the viscous darkness below, leaving only a faint, flickering yellow dot of light as a guide.
Lin Jie followed closely, with White Ghost covering the rear.
The descent was much longer than anticipated.
They descended at least thirty meters before finally touching solid ground.
The feeling underfoot was unpleasant, like stepping on a sponge soaked in grease.
The carbide lamp's light dispelled the surrounding darkness, allowing them to see their surroundings clearly.
They stood at the edge of a massive main artery, ten meters wide, with a vaulted ceiling soaring high overhead, reminiscent of an underground cathedral's arches.
And running through the entire space was a literal "River of Rot."
The water was a glossy, ink-green color, thick and viscous like crude oil.
The river's surface floated a large number of mutated biological corpses infected by the plague—twisted human remains, swollen bellies of swamp buffalo—these bodies slowly undulating with the current.
Even more horrifying was that the walls on either side of this underground river and the vaulted ceiling were covered with a thick layer of green fungal matting.
They emitted a faint phosphorescent glow, illuminating the entire space as if it were the interior of a demon's organ.
The air was saturated with high concentrations of methane; every breath felt like inhaling poison gas, causing dizziness.
"This godforsaken place..." Brewer cursed under his breath. He covered his nose and mouth with a handkerchief, but the stench was inescapable. "The methane concentration here is so high that a single spark would blow all three of us sky-high."
"So put out your lamp." Lin Jie's voice was unusually calm.
He took out a structurally intricate metal instrument from his backpack—a portable, simplified version of the "Ether Spectrum Analyzer" Gretchen had given him in Munich.
"The spiritual field here is extremely unstable; corruptive energy is eroding everything." Lin Jie watched the wildly jumping needle on the instrument's screen. "But fortunately, the light from those fungal mats isn't a heat source. We're safe for now."
They began moving along the narrow edge walkway.
This passage was also covered in fungal matting and mucus; every step had to be cautious, or they'd slip into the river.
They advanced in silence for about ten minutes. Apart from the distant sound of dripping water and the faint pulsing of the fungal mats, the world was deathly quiet.
"Wait." Lin Jie suddenly stopped, extending an arm to block Brewer behind him.
"What is it?" Brewer asked in a hushed voice, his eyes scanning the surroundings warily.
"There's something in the water." Lin Jie's gaze was fixed intently on the calm, ink-green water surface ahead.
Brewer followed his line of sight, seeing only the floating remains of a human corpse—a man in slaughterhouse work clothes, half his face rotted away, revealing stark white bone.
"Isn't that just a corpse? They're everywhere here," Brewer said, puzzled.
"No, look at its condition." Lin Jie's voice held a note of gravity.
At that moment, the quietly floating corpse suddenly shriveled up at an unnatural, high speed.
It was as if an invisible straw sucked out all the fluids and tissue from its body in just two or three seconds, leaving behind only a wrinkled human skin wrapped around a skeleton before it sank to the riverbed.
Brewer's pupils contracted. He finally understood what Lin Jie meant.
Some silent predator was lurking in the water.
"Damn it, leeches," he hissed through gritted teeth.
But in this environment deeply polluted by plague, ordinary leeches could never be this terrifyingly efficient.
The three of them focused their gaze. Hundreds of black and yellow objects clung densely to the walls or drifted in the river.
"We can't get past." Brewer's face turned extremely grim. "Unless we can fly."
The passage ahead was flooded; they would have to wade through the water to proceed.
And that roughly fifty-meter stretch of waterway had now become a death trap.
Lin Jie's mind raced.
Fire would ignite the methane. Bullets were highly inefficient against such a vast number of soft-bodied creatures hidden underwater.
They were in a deadlock.
Then, White Ghost, who had been silent all along, suddenly moved.
He took out several items from his backpack.
A dry wooden plank, a bundle of slender hemp rope, and... an iron hook.
Without a word, he securely fastened the iron hook onto a relatively sturdy metal pipe on the ceiling. He then tied one end of the hemp rope to the hook and the other end to the wooden plank.
A makeshift ferry tool was thus completed.
His intention was obvious: use the principle of a pendulum to swing across from above.
"That's one way." Brewer's eyes lit up, but then he frowned. "But it's too risky. What if the pipe isn't strong enough, or we become sitting ducks mid-air..."
Before Brewer could finish, White Ghost had already placed the plank by the water's edge. He then turned his head, his expressionless white mask looking at Lin Jie.
Lin Jie immediately understood his meaning.
White Ghost was the lightest and most agile; him making the first attempt was the lowest-risk choice.
But initiating the swing required an initial push.
"I'll do it." Lin Jie stepped forward, positioning himself behind White Ghost.
White Ghost nodded, placing both feet on the not-so-large plank.
Lin Jie took a deep breath and pushed the plank forward with all his might!
White Ghost, like a swallow in the night, silently glided towards the center of the river channel.
The lurking giant leeches below seemed disturbed; the water surface rippled faintly.
They raised their ugly heads covered in suckers but couldn't reach the prey passing overhead.
The first swing was very successful, but the returning force was noticeably weaker.
As the plank swung back halfway, its speed had already slowed considerably.
Just as the plank was about to stall in the middle of the river channel, White Ghost's right hand suddenly exerted force, pushing off against the wall beside him!
With this counterforce, the plank regained speed and successfully swung to the opposite bank!
The entire process was fluid and seamless.
"Well done!" Brewer couldn't help but whisper in admiration.
White Ghost steadied himself on the opposite bank, then untied the hemp rope and threw it back with force.
Next, it was Brewer and Lin Jie's turn.
With White Ghost's successful demonstration, the two also swung safely to the opposite bank.
Though the process was nerve-wracking, they ultimately passed through this deathly water zone without incident.
The three continued forward.
The passage ahead became increasingly spacious. Finally, they arrived at a huge circular space that seemed like a central confluence area.
Several tributary sewers converged all the filth of Delacroix town here.
And in the center of that vast lake composed of viscous liquid and rotting matter stood a massive, formless creature, forcibly fused from corpses and sewer sludge.
This monster stood ten meters tall, the size of a small hill.
Its body slowly writhed, its surface occasionally revealing agonized, twisted human faces or extending a pale, bloated arm.
A corruption stench a hundred times more intense emanated from it.
"Open fire!" Brewer roared, raising his shotgun first.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Large-caliber alchemical rounds screamed towards the behemoth, but they sank like stones into mud, only splashing a few small mud blossoms on its body before being swallowed by the viscous mass, causing no substantial damage.
"Physical attacks are ineffective!" Lin Jie immediately judged.
At that moment, several huge pustules suddenly bulged on the surface of the Sludge Mountain's body.
The pustules ruptured, and from them crawled out over a dozen human-sized, sludge-constructed, smaller sludge monsters.
They advanced with heavy steps, charging towards the trio.
"Leave them to me!" Brewer retreated while reloading, his precise shots dispersing the sludge monsters one by one.
But these split-off entities were endless; just dispersed, they would quickly reform from the sludge on the ground.
Simultaneously, White Ghost's figure vanished from sight.
Using his speed, he circled to the side of the Sludge Mountain, attempting to find its core.
White Ghost's prosthetic arm stabbed into the Sludge Mountain's body. However, his arm emerged from the other side, bringing out only a handful of foul-smelling muck.
"There's no core!"
As more and more sludge monsters split off, Brewer's defensive line was about to be breached.
Meanwhile, the Sludge Mountain's main body began slowly advancing towards them, preparing to completely consume them.
This was an exceptionally filthy and arduous battle.
"Blow it up!" Lin Jie's voice cut through the chaos. "Brewer! All the alchemical incendiary bombs you have! White Ghost! Stuff them all into this thing's belly!"
Brewer was momentarily stunned. It was a crazy plan, but it was their only hope.
"Catch!" Without hesitation, he pulled out five egg-sized alchemical bombs from his tactical vest and threw them all to White Ghost.
White Ghost caught them steadily, then transformed into a ghostly shadow again, charging towards the massive Sludge Mountain.
This time, the Sludge Mountain also sensed the danger.
Its entire body transformed into a massive sludge tsunami, crashing down towards White Ghost with overwhelming force!
White Ghost moved at an extreme speed. In the split second before the tsunami could engulf him, he plunged his prosthetic arm deep into the sludge wave.
"Fall back, now!" Lin Jie shouted.
White Ghost's prosthetic arm traveled at high speed within the monster's massive body, implanting the five incendiary bombs into different key locations.
After completing this, he immediately withdrew.
The Sludge Mountain's attack missed. It seemed somewhat confused, not understanding why this insignificant insect had abandoned its attack.
Lin Jie raised his revolver, his concentration reaching an unprecedented peak.
In his world, only the massive monster and the five faint spiritual reaction points within its body remained.
First shot.
[Serene Heart] trembled slightly.
An armor-piercing round drilled into a relatively weak fissure on the Sludge Mountain's body and then detonated the nearest alchemical incendiary bomb.
A chain reaction instantly occurred!
The explosion of the first incendiary bomb triggered intense internal combustion.
The high temperature ignited the massive amount of methane gas accumulated within the Sludge Mountain's body.
"BOOM!!"
A dull, thunderous roar came from within the monster's body.
Then, the second, the third...
Five incendiary bombs detonated in succession, igniting five miniature suns within its innards!
The intense internal combustion produced a massive amount of steam. Terrifying pressure built up wildly within its airtight body, seeking an outlet.
The Sludge Mountain's body ballooned like a balloon, cracks splitting its surface, scorching steam and green flames gushing from the fissures.
Finally, upon reaching a certain critical point, this troublesome gatekeeper was blown into a boiling, non-threatening puddle of muck in a cataclysmic self-detonation.
A searing shockwave mixed with foul-smelling liquid swept outwards. The three had to shield their heads with their arms to barely maintain their footing.
When the dust settled, the massive monster had completely vanished, leaving only devastation in its wake.