Zhou Yi looked at the strangely eyed doll beside him, avoiding eye contact.

A brief confrontation.

The doll slowly turned its face forward and said, "Honestly, before I said that sentence just now, I really thought about it."

"If I consume this body of mine, along with the self-detonation of all the dolls on this ship, could I inflict a fatal injury on you? That way, I could swallow up the entire Development Alliance region."

"But that's probably impossible."

"Following that, it would only be endless trouble."

"So, that idea only flashed through my mind for a moment..."

Its wooden eyeballs moved, observing Zhou Yi with a slanted gaze.

Zhou Yi said, "Stop talking nonsense."

"..."

The other party was stunned for a moment: "Very few people dare to talk to me like this."

"I don't like it when my people are fighting hard upfront, and someone else is holding them back from behind."

Zhou Yi said coldly.

He had now integrated himself into the order of the Wasteland. As long as he continued to grow stronger, the environment he was in, the treatment he received, and the opportunities would only get better.

He wasn't afraid of a real fight.

Now, Zhou Yi was more concerned about the opponents upfront.

Yuan Xiao had switched to a monster form, its whole body covered in white hair with a giant red crystal-like structure in the middle—Zhou Yi had once thought it was a giant eyeball, but in fact, it was a special semi-solid structure formed by the convergence of all bodily fluids in Yuan Xiao's body. This could concentrate all the power in the body and release it instantly; the humanoid form was actually not suitable for combat.

As the "Death Transformation" unfolded, localized distortions also appeared around the Angel of Death.

The large Stinger Man was also revealing its true form.

Its entire body was pitch-black, resembling a three-meter-tall human with long arms and legs, a pointed head, and a body covered in dense, sharp spikes. The spikes, long and thin, evoked a feeling of being pierced by thousands of arrows, similar to a combination of a sea urchin and a human.

Zhou Yi thought to himself, no wonder it's called Stinger Man.

The beast-shaped Yuan Xiao continued to move closer to the Stinger Man, as if in slow motion. Layers of ripples emitted from the Stinger Man, trapping Yuan Xiao in a quagmire.

The Angel of Death's white hair was gradually drying up, breaking, and falling off, but new white hairs were growing and regenerating.

Its core blood-red crystalline structure was continuously trembling and shaking, as if under enormous pressure.

Regarding the approaching outsider, the Stinger Man's actions were somewhat strange.

Its two hands—if you could call them hands—were stretching upward, but the movement was very slow.

As if swimming... or raising both hands to surrender?

Was it an illusion?

Zhou Yi frowned and couldn't help asking Duke Destructive beside him, "What is the origin of the Stinger Man?"

"Who knows."

The doll's head turned slightly, "The most common belief about them is that they are life forms from the Otherworld."

"Because they cannot communicate or express any discernible intent through their actions. Despite possessing great abilities and strength, they have no need for reproduction, seizing resources, or even aggression..."

"This is a life form that cannot be defeated, is incomprehensible, and indescribable."

Zhou Yi proposed, "Is it possible that it is a human who has undergone some kind of mutation or transformation?"

"A human? Indeed, its form resembles that of humans, hence the name Stinger Man. However, it's merely superficial; I am more inclined to believe that they are a different type of human life from the Otherworld."

Duke Destructive said, "However, this time, we should just chase it away. It seems that even the Angel of Death is having a hard time; I'll help too."

As it said this, its body split open from left to right, and it pulled a pitchfork from inside.

Duke Destructive swung the pitchfork: "Go on, give the Stinger Man some trouble."

Then several dolls ran out of the cabin, looking like children. They dove into the ship's cannons, were fired one by one, and rushed toward the area where the Stinger Man was.

As they flew into the Stinger Man's ripples, these child dolls exploded one by one, spewing ribbons from inside.

Although these ribbons were frozen in place, they interfered with each other, causing local tugging and intermittent disruptions in the surrounding ripples.

"The Stinger Man is too powerful, the energy blockade can only be maintained for a very short time."

Duke Destructive spoke regretfully: "We can't penetrate deeper into the area."

Zhou Yi also activated the [Radio], tuning to channel 5.

Target, the Stinger Man.

There was utter silence.

As if the Stinger Man itself was not emitting any signal.

Zhou Yi looked to the side. "Move a bit closer."

Duke Destructive didn't respond, but the ship began to move further towards the Stinger Man's location, stopping after about 50 meters.

"We can't get any closer, it's too dangerous," said Duke Destructive.

This distance was sufficient, though.

Zhou Yi silently thought, "Mic master, capture the Stinger Man."

"Yes."

A moment later.

The mic master replied, "Chairman, it's empty inside, no continuous consciousness was found."

An empty shell?

Zhou Yi was stunned.

That meant, the Stinger Man was not an intelligent life form, but rather a device or a prop.

It could not only store items but also had powerful self-protection capabilities, entering a stronger second stage after being activated once... Such a thing could not be the product of Wasteland technology.

Considering that the Heavenly People's technology tree is based on Assembly structures, beginning with gemstone frameworks for various extensions and developments.

So, the Stinger Man could almost certainly be identified as a special container made by another civilization.

Since it was a prop.

Zhou Yi's mind suddenly became very active.

Was there any way to capture it entirely?

While he was thinking.

Zhou Yi suddenly noticed that Yuan Xiao was only about two meters away from the Stinger Man.

But being so close, she seemed to be facing great pain, large quantities of white hair rapidly breaking and shattering, and white smoke constantly rising from her body, with the crystalline structure showing cracks and desiccation.

This was looking dangerous.

He had to enter the fray himself.

Zhou Yi took out the Guangna Box he carried.

Absorbing the Light Seed.

White Suanni, give me a boost!

This time, he absorbed all 450,000 Light Seeds he brought over in one breath, adding all to his Life Value, directly increasing his life by 4.5 million points.

Zhou Yi slowly opened his eyes: "I'll go over, wait for my signal, and get ready to support."

"Okay." Duke Destructive nodded.

Then Zhou Yi leaped down from the ship, approaching the target.

He had walked less than ten steps forward when he already felt a significant pressure.

-1

-1

Life degradation had already begun.

After another ten steps forward, the invisible repulsion had become almost tangible, making each step extremely difficult.

Life degradation intensified further.

-5

-5

...

Arriving at the cliff where Stinger Man was located, less than twenty meters apart, but by then, life degradation had escalated to -100 per second, reaching -1000 per second in the final ten meters.

In short, there was only 75 minutes left, and if failed, these 450,000 Light Seeds would be completely wasted.

What Zhou Yi didn't expect was that when he was only one step away from Stinger Man, Yuan Xiao actually lagged behind him.

What's going on?

He grabbed the white fur of the Angel of Death and initiated consciousness synchronization.

Yuan Xiao was shocked: "Chairman, why don't you feel any pressure at all?"

"Your body doesn't suffer any damage under such high pressure?"

"What's going on with your body..."

Zhou Yi immediately understood.

White Suanni did its part.

"You go back first; I'll handle this."

"Okay... Sorry, I'm too weak to be of any help."

Angel of Death swiftly retreated.

Zhou Yi focused his attention ahead.

The human-shaped sea urchin, Stinger Man, stood quietly on the cliff, its body slowly stretching with the air flow of the Dead Sea, appearing as if it was doing an ultra-slow version of Tai Chi.

A closer look revealed that the Stinger Man's body surface had contours almost like muscles, except devoid of reproductive organs.

The creator definitely intended to give it a humanoid form.

Zhou Yi brought his hand close to its long spikes.

The whole process took ten minutes.

The moment his fingers touched the spikes, Zhou Yi initiated consciousness synchronization.

However, just as mic master had predicted, this attempt to communicate was like dropping a stone into the sea, inside was truly empty.

Zhou Yi suddenly realized a problem.

Without the Sea God nearby, there was no way to perform Fire Seed Life Transformation.

But to bring the Sea God this close, the repulsion alone would likely be enough to shatter it.

A more realistic concern was how to obtain treasures from Stinger Man.

Zhou Yi fell into deep thought.

The creator must have considered this point; there should be some mechanism—was it just brute forcing it open? Like dissecting a sea urchin?

As he pondered whether to pound the humanoid tool with a couple of punches, Stinger Man suddenly split vertically from the middle, as if it had opened its chest and gutted itself.

Inside was a bundle of light.

It seemed that merely touching it qualified one to take the treasures.

Zhou Yi tried reaching his right hand into the bundle of light.

He felt he grabbed something, and his hand was immediately squeezed out.

He looked carefully.

In his hand was a sun-dried brown mud tablet.

The mud tablet was carved with a round small dot, next to it was a large two-legged monster extending its long neck and head devouring the small dot. The painting style was wild and the strokes abstract.

That was it.

From the Alert perspective, this mud tablet was also completely ordinary.

It had no energy reaction, and he could even crush it with his hand; there was no layer inside either.

It was just an ordinary mud tablet painting.

Zhou Yi was stunned.

No, this can't be.

Brother has painstakingly thrown half of his fortune, and you give me a pecking chicken picture?

Is this not picking on the honest man?

What's the difference between this and thanking for patronage!

I don't need your abstract art! Give me the treasure, the treasure!

At this moment, Stinger Man's whole body was continuously writhing and twisting, emitting a blinding light, pushing him outward.

Zhou Yi, now enraged, felt animosity rise from within and reached for the inside of Stinger Man's split chest.

Draw again!

The moment he touched it, he felt every bone and muscle in his right arm torn apart and ground, every blood vessel severed, the intense, sharp pain left his brain blank.

He just clutched at that bundle of light.

Then there was a whirl of heavens and earth in front of his eyes, Zhou Yi felt as if he was stuffed into an extremely narrow washing machine, beginning to be madly spun and wrung…

Coming back to his senses.

Stinger Man was nowhere to be seen.

Zhou Yi looked at what was in his hand, dumbfounded.

What used to be called his right hand now held a... yellow banana.

After calming down, all he felt was regret. Great regret.

Blind boxes are truly addictive.

Stupidly sacrificed a hand, forcefully opened the box again as Stinger Man transformed into a Light Core Body, and it was another loss.

Zhou Yi could only try to make light of his misfortune.

Hopefully, this priceless banana tastes better.

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