Chapter 17

"Damn, what kind of shoddy construction is this? They must have really cut corners!" Tang Cheng stood up, stretching his limbs to check for any injuries while complaining.

His luck was relatively good; he managed to adjust his posture in time as he fell, preventing any injuries. Moreover, the room he landed in was far from the other rooms, with a large gap in between. Otherwise, even if he hadn't been killed by the fall, he would have been crushed by the falling rooms.

However, not being injured didn't mean Tang Cheng's current situation was good.

First, due to the earlier collapse, his flashlight had fallen off and he didn't know where it had landed, leaving him in complete darkness. Tang Cheng didn't plan to look for it. Based on the time it took to fall, he estimated that he was at least ten meters below the floor above, and the ground was hard rock. At this height, the flashlight would definitely be broken.

Secondly...

"Alice..."

"Rebecca..."

"Flat-chested Alice..."

"C-sized Rebecca..."

Tang Cheng called out in the darkness, but received no response. He was certain that the two of them had fallen elsewhere and wouldn't be able to regroup with him in the short term.

Being in such a dark environment without any companions, and with the possibility of terrifying monsters lurking in the darkness, Tang Cheng's current situation was indeed very dangerous.

If it were an ordinary person, they would likely be panicking by now.

But Tang Cheng was different. His emotions remained as calm as ever. Even the two loud shouts he made earlier were just to alert Alice and Rebecca. If he were alone, he wouldn't have shouted like that.

"Hmm... It seems it's my turn to solo SAO. I wonder what kind of place this is..." Tang Cheng muttered to himself, then took out a lighter and a cigarette he had picked up from a car on the road earlier. He lit the cigarette and took a few satisfying puffs.

"American cigarettes, they don't feel much different from domestic ones..."

Tang Cheng exhaled a ring of smoke and raised the lighter to observe his surroundings.

To be honest, speaking or lighting a fire in such a place was very unwise, as the sound and light could attract monsters, leading to an attack.

Tang Cheng was well aware of this, but expecting him to consider his own safety was out of the question. For someone who didn't fear death, courting death was a daily occurrence.

By the faint light of the flame, Tang Cheng discovered that he was in an underground pit. The area was hard to estimate, but it was at least as large as a football field. He wondered what the Umbrella Corporation's mindset was in building such a pit under the research facility. When he shone the lighter downward, he saw numerous skeletons and animal fur on the ground.

Even human bones!

"Is this a dumping ground? No, that's not right. These bones still show clear bite marks. They're not discarded bodies but food scraps. So..." Tang Cheng began to understand what this place was.

A breeding ground, a monster breeding ground!

To study the T-virus mutations, the Umbrella Corporation must have kept some mutated creatures in this underground pit for research. The human and animal corpses were likely their food... Although keeping such ferocious monsters under the research facility seemed out of place, in the third part, the deranged researchers were willing to share a room with zombies, which was even more reckless. So, this behavior wasn't surprising.

The question now was, had he fallen into this pit and become monster food?

If the monsters had already left, it would be fine, but if they were still here...

"Roar..." At that moment, a low growl echoed in the darkness, and Tang Cheng could sense the hunger in the growl.

"Tch, just what I was thinking about." Tang Cheng sneered, then threw the lit lighter toward the sound, aiming his gun with his right hand. As the lighter flew through the air, a bullet shot out of the gun.

Bang!

A direct hit, the lighter exploded.

A simple lighter, even when it exploded, wouldn't have much power, but the explosion's light illuminated a certain area... Although the monster quickly retreated into the darkness when the lighter exploded, the light allowed Tang Cheng to see its true form.

A massive, heavy body, resembling a giant frog, with strong, muscular limbs, and a human-like head but an extremely fierce face.

"Indeed, it's a crawler." Tang Cheng was familiar with the monster's appearance.

"Encountering a crawler in such a place, my luck is really bad. This is... troublesome." Tang Cheng said, but a slight smile curved his lips. If there were light on his face, one would see a smile very different from his usual one.

It wasn't a smile, but a cold, bloodthirsty, and murderous grin.

...

Tang Cheng was not a normal person, and no one knew this better than he did.

Normal people feel fear when encountering dangerous and terrifying things, their courage increases when their blood boils, and they feel sorrow when loved ones die. But Tang Cheng never experienced these emotions.

Tang Cheng's abnormality wasn't limited to his emotions but also extended to his body.

To put it simply, Tang Cheng could freely control his body.

You might think, "Isn't controlling your body easy? As long as you're not disabled, anyone can do it, right?"

If you think that, you're completely wrong. The control here doesn't refer to basic human movements but more intricate and subtle movements.

For example, to see the wing patterns of a mosquito, a normal person would need a microscope, but Tang Cheng, by focusing his attention, could clearly see the wing patterns of a mosquito a meter away, even if it was flying.

Not long ago, in the research facility where Alice was held, Tang Cheng used this method to find the password.

When searching for a mechanism on the villa's stairs, he relied on his hearing... Since it was an automatic trigger, the areas that could trigger it and those that couldn't were different. Although the difference was subtle and hard for most people to distinguish, Tang Cheng, by adjusting his hearing to the limit, could hear the difference as soon as he stepped on it.

In addition, Tang Cheng could control his metabolism, blood circulation, pulse, and brain function. If he wished, he could even stop his heart for ten minutes while still remaining alive.

This incredible ability, Tang Cheng didn't know when or why he acquired it. He only realized it when it was already there.

Abnormal emotions and an abnormal body made Tang Cheng an abnormal existence. If this abnormality were on someone with normal thinking, they would likely ponder and explore it. This was what made Tang Cheng most different from others... He never explored his own abnormality.

Of course, in the ordinary real world, Tang Cheng's abilities didn't affect his life, and he didn't find them particularly useful. But here, it was different!

Tang Cheng, now fully focused, could hear every movement around him... Although he couldn't see in the darkness, he could hear.

Five meters behind him, the crawler was gradually approaching. The sound of its limbs rubbing against the ground, the sound of its pulse, the sound of its blood flowing, and the sound of its tongue touching the air... Everything was within Tang Cheng's grasp.

Even with his brain working at high speed, Tang Cheng analyzed that the crawler's tongue would touch his neck in seven seconds, then it would take less than half a second to wrap him up and bring him to its mouth, where he would be instantly bitten.

So, what method should he use to deal with it?

In less than a second, Tang Cheng had already simulated over a dozen ways to kill the crawler in his mind.

So, he stood still, waiting quietly for the hunter... no, the prey to come to him!

Six seconds... five seconds... four seconds... three seconds... two seconds... one second!

Just as Tang Cheng mentally counted down to zero, his throat was tightly wrapped, the immense force making it impossible to breathe. His body involuntarily lifted off the ground and was thrown backward.

In the clear sound of the air being split, Tang Cheng heard a massive body pouncing on him.

At that moment, Tang Cheng felt the presence of death.

But he didn't panic; instead, he felt excited.

Yes, he liked this feeling. Whether it was his own death or someone else's, only in this state of near-death could he feel a slight emotional fluctuation. Only in this moment could he feel... truly alive!

So, he liked killing.

Whether it was killing himself or others.

However, in the peaceful real world, he couldn't get this feeling. Although he was abnormal, he had a minimum moral底线. He couldn't bring himself to hunt and kill innocent people. And ordinary animals, even large predators like lions and tigers, were too weak for him.

Once, he searched for seven days and nights in the mountains, and by slightly adjusting his neural response speed, he easily killed an enraged tigress. After that, he lost interest in bullying the weak.

He brought the tigress's cubs back home, raised them for over a month, and then gave them to a zoo. Since then, he had never experienced true killing again, only寄托ing this pursuit in novels, creating a terrifying serial killer protagonist based on himself to find the feeling of being truly alive in the novels.

But now!

He no longer needed to do that, because he was in a world where he could kill freely, and his opponents had equal strength.

This cycle world was exactly what he had always dreamed of!

Excitement, joy, and agitation... For the first time in his life, Tang Cheng's emotions rose by five percent.

Then, as his body was brought to the crawler's mouth, and the suffocating stench hit him, Tang Cheng finally moved!

The neural response speed of his left hand increased tenfold, and in a flash, the military knife severed the crawler's tongue. At the same time, the gun in his right hand fired, the bullet instantly penetrating the crawler's mouth.

Amidst the crawler's roar, Tang Cheng stepped on its body, using the force to jump up, then flipped in the air, and the military knife plunged into the crawler's brain, while the gun fired continuously.

Using both the knife and the gun, the crawler's body fell to the ground with a thud.

Tang Cheng leaped off the crawler, wiped the blood and flesh from his face, and said regretfully, "With such immense strength, but no corresponding speed, and extremely slow neural response, unable to protect vital areas... Too weak."