Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 552: Chapter 169: The "Old Friend" Who Died is Alive Again

Well World, the third layer, Unknown Desert.

Not long ago, he had triggered the Teleportation Stele left behind by the Ace of Spades, and he was enveloped by a golden glow, marking the start of his next journey.

Bai Wu originally thought this so-called new adventure was merely an "upgraded version" of the second layer of the Well World.

But soon, he began to sense the "special" nature of this world.

The sands of the desert—were multicolored.

It wasn’t that the sand grains were inconsistent in color; rather, as the wind blew, the sand would occasionally shift and change colors.

This strange phenomenon—Prayle’s Eye provided no explanation.

The desert was home to many sinister scorpions, but about these creatures, Prayle’s Eye did offer an explanation—

[Do not provoke them. They may appear small in size but in groups, they are all class-nine mutants.]

With Bai Wu’s current strength, class-nine mutants were not an issue.

The reason he found this place terrifying—mainly stemmed from the fact that, after drinking Well Water, Bai Wu felt "thirst and hunger" for the first time.

A true sense of hunger and thirst.

His powers had hardly decreased, and he could have passed through the Extreme Temperature Zone Desert without any problems.

Yet, upon arriving in this area, Bai Wu felt hunger and thirst.

This sensation gradually intensified, affecting Bai Wu’s combat capabilities.

Bai Wu also felt that despite supposedly possessing a powerful regenerative ability, this power was still present, but thirst and hunger, like two negative attributes, were gradually weakening him.

If a battle were to occur during this process, fighting against a swarm of class-nine mutants described by Prayle’s Eye as "small in size" yet the size of babies—

Bai Wu suspected his feelings of hunger and thirst would worsen even further.

By the time Bai Wu had traveled most of the way and was about to cross the desert to find a water source, Prayle’s Eye popped up with a note about the third layer of the Well World.

The note was long, unprecedentedly so:

[Once upon a time, humans and all living creatures needed to devour other species to obtain their life force.

As the Twisted emerged, more and more powerful beings, like the masters in fantasy novels that can survive without food, lived by absorbing the essence of heaven and earth alone~

Just like the Evil Fallen, who could go seven hundred years without eating, satisfied by negative emotions alone.

But not here, old pal. Here, you might still be a superhuman, and in all of the third layer of the Well World, few creatures can match you; yet even you, in this world, must drink, eat, sleep, and excrete!

Hunger, thirst, and fatigue will be magnified countless times here, directly affecting your life percentage.

Here, the Seventh Consortiums will continuously expand territories, establishing warm and suitable campsites for humans to rest.

Here, the Seventh Consortiums will fight for resources such as water sources, fruits, and food, which replenish life force.

Believe me, a single lake here could fetch hundreds of the most luxurious villas in Well City from the Seventh Consortiums.

However, being a speculator has no meaning for you or me anymore. What you need to do is figure out how to enter the next layer, and the side quest that must be completed to do so.]

Resources, and the fundamental of life and death.

This message brought Bai Wu’s attention to the struggle for resources in this world.

The Evil Fallen, humans with strong Innate Forces, the Seventh Consortiums—these beings, in a relatively normal world, had long been like demigods.

But in the third layer of the Well World, their strength was not diminished, yet they had to rely on survival resources just like ants.

Because in this world, all living beings would experience the necessities of life.

Eternal Beings in this world can be starved or thirsted to death.

Monsters, impervious to blade and bullet, invulnerable as Vajra, might die from holding their pee.

Beings energetic enough to launch relentless attacks might die from the lack of sleep due to exhaustion.

The rules, in front of the seven great Consortiums and countless Evil Fallen, demonstrated their might.

It seems that here, amidst the countless resources for survival, all beings, have been placed at the same starting line.

This indeed is a very interesting affair.

About ten minutes later, Bai Wu finally crossed the desert and arrived at the city.

He was not at all unfamiliar with this scene.

The area, which was over sixty degrees Celsius just moments ago, instantly turned to minus nine degrees.

It was as if he had walked from a furnace straight into an ice cellar upon entering the desert region.

Bai Wu found that his resistance to temperature had diminished somewhat, but overall it wasn’t enough to threaten his life.

The desert and the city ruins connected almost seamlessly, which made Bai Wu realize... this third layer of the Well World might be just like the area where Jing Er resides... a Stitched place.

It wouldn’t be surprising to see swamps, oceans, hills, and other special terrains outside the city.

The city’s style was also quite a mixture.

Bai Wu saw the seaport of Food City had been moved to the city center, and the tech buildings of Xuanhui City had been moved to the edge of the seaport.

The world was like a puzzle thoroughly shuffled.

Bai Wu was not in a hurry to analyze because he soon found food and water in an abandoned supermarket.

It was a rather large supermarket, and he had to enter the basement level through a broken elevator.

Upon seeing the canned goods and water, Bai Wu instinctively thought to check the production date, but he saw a note from Prayle’s Eye:

[No need to worry about getting sick from eating them. The food here all comes from the real world of your reality, at the real time. Of course, occasionally you will see food from other times and spaces, but at the least, they have also just come over from that world.

So let’s have a no-prize question—If a transmigrator traveled to the Tang Dynasty and shared a freshly opened pot of wine with the great poet sage, then brought the rest of the wine back after transmigrating to the modern era, how should the expiration date of that wine be calculated?]

This nonsensical question made Bai Wu understand the emphasis of this note.

This world will have many resource points.

Like this supermarket, seizing a resource point would yield food and water.

And there’s no need to worry about the sanitation of food and water. Perhaps the food and water here come from other times and spaces, but just like the wine in the question—though the wine has come a thousand years into the future, it has not been stored for a thousand years. For the wine itself, it has just been opened.

It’s like a person who travels a thousand years into the future. To those around them, this person is an ancient from a millennium ago, but to the transmigrator themselves, their age does not differ much from the people they encounter.

Bai Wu took several boxes of canned goods and then gulped down quite an amount of water.

He then stored these items back into his storage bag. Bai Wu couldn’t bother with the relationship between the food of the third layer of the Well World and reality; right now, he needed to replenish food and water.

Once the sensations of hunger and thirst disappeared completely, Bai Wu even felt a slight boost in his strength.

He experienced a long-missed sense of comfort from not being hungry or thirsty.

He decided to leave this place.

But the moment he stepped out of the elevator, Bai Wu encountered a few "old acquaintances."

Evil Fallen from the flight.

The dog-headed Evil Fallen, Tian Jing, looked tenderly at a nearby disemboweled female Evil Fallen with her stomach carved open.

And behind these two was a mummy wrapped in bandages.

Bai Wu was startled, instinctively thinking they were projections just like the people from the second layer of the Well World.

Even the shadowy Jing Liu thought it was so.

As for that mummy, Jing Liu had an impression of it, as it was Jing San’s Guardian.

The mummy’s strength was not strong, but it possessed Reincarnation.

Jing San had the Power of Life and Death, yet Reincarnation fell under Temporal Power.

Life and death, Reincarnation, it seemed both were in Jing San’s hands, which was why Jing Liu and Jing Wu were both fixated on it.

But this group of people...

They were not projections.

"You don’t need me to introduce them again, do you? Ok, the dog-headed man is a Bootlicker, lusting without fulfillment is probably his joy. The disemboweled woman was once a Bootlicker herself, lusting after the old monster of the Yan Family. As for this mummy, yes, he is the most stylish monster you and Prayle’s early collaboration defeated.

Yes, seeing this, you should be certain that these three who should have been dead and gone have appeared in this world—and they are not projections."]]>

On the third layer of the Well World, could it be that even life and death were twisted?

Could one even encounter the dead here?

Bai Wu stood there in a daze. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

The mummy looked at Bai Wu with great curiosity, while Tian Jing and Jian Qiu also revealed intriguing expressions.

"Don’t tell me—you died? No, I’ve seen your Evil Fallen form. This is your human form."

Jian Qiu spoke first.

Bai Wu was the sweetheart of her family’s young lady, Yan Jiu, and she had a very good impression of him.

Although... Bai Wu hadn’t saved them that day.

"What’s going on? How come you are here?"

The usually silent mummy that was almost unable to speak said:

"Bai Wu, how is my master?"

"Your master, do you mean Zhou Zeshui?"

The mummy was taken aback, then nodded.

That name was somewhat old, causing the mummy to pause for a moment.

Since the mummy faithfully guarded Old Zhou, it could be considered one of their own.

Bai Wu’s expression turned solemn:

"He’s dead."

The mummy was furious, its bandages blooming suddenly like a lotus in rage.

But Bai Wu’s next words calmed the mummy down:

"He died trying to save me. You should know, being Zhou Zeshui, he had long stopped wanting to live, he was just waiting for a... successor."

The mummy stopped short.

"He didn’t die in vain. That ordeal with the plane was also the cause that brought me here. I think you understand this place better than I do. I’m investigating here and plan to delve deeper into the next layer."

The Evil Fallen here naturally had contact with the local "people."

Those with numbers on their necks and almost no facial features were clearly different from Bai Wu’s appearance.

They too could instantly sense Bai Wu’s status as an outsider.

"My master... died, he who had the Power of Life and Death, how could he die?"

"That’s a long story."

Bai Wu glanced at Jing Liu. If it hadn’t been for Jing Liu’s scheme, Zhou Zeshui really wouldn’t have died.

However, Jing Liu didn’t care. She was without guilt. To her, obtaining Reincarnation was worth the sacrifice of a Jing San.

Bai Wu simply recounted his subsequent conversation with Zhou Zeshui, also informing the mummy of what had happened afterward.

Upon learning Zhou Zeshui’s last words, that he wished to die as a human, the mummy nearly knelt on the ground, overcome with grief.

Tian Jing and Jian Qiu had not expected Bai Wu’s experiences to be so rich.

It was one thing for a person to arrive at the third layer of the Well World, but in the real world, even the Twisted Master had been released.

The three Evil Fallen from the plane took some time to digest the news, gradually accepting some of the facts.

Feeling it was about time, Bai Wu said:

"It’s time for you to tell me some things. I’m still not very familiar with this world. You arrived here before me and must know quite a bit, right?"

"Oh right, I remember in the plane, weren’t there other Evil Fallen in the same cabin as you?"

Tian Jing, Jian Qiu, and another Evil Fallen were together. Bai Wu remembered these.

Jian Qiu replied: freёwebnovel.com

"Not all Evil Fallen that die will come here, arriving here is a matter of chance. Many Evil Fallen, once dead, are simply dead."

Jian Qiu seemed thirsty, Bai Wu handed over some water. Tian Jing, the saddened Bootlicker, spoke on Jian Qiu’s behalf to spare her the effort.

It seemed like everyone had acquired the ability to speak, which was a good thing.

"Only a small portion of the dead Evil Fallen have a chance to come here."

Bai Wu roughly understood then, to have encountered three "old friends" upon leaving home was quite fortunate.

"We need to quickly gather water and food and leave this place. You’re lucky to have ended up on the edge where resources are not plentiful, but there’s a consistent yield. This resource point will probably soon be targeted by the members of the Seventh Consortiums."

"For seven hundred years, we’ve had no need for water and food, no need for rest, but after coming here, we too have to collect water and food."

"Members of the Seventh Consortiums are the same."

Tian Jing’s words gave Bai Wu a better understanding:

"Do places like supermarkets and convenience stores here replenish resources regularly?"

"Yes... you can think of this place as a world with infinite resources, but though the resources are endless, the output of each refresh is very limited."

"We’ve been progressively deprived of living resource points by the Seventh Consortiums, continuously retreating into desolate areas. Many Evil Fallen starved to death, some even resorted to cannibalism."

Jian Qiu, the mummy, and Tian Jing all took the water offered by Bai Wu, clearly having been thirsty for a long time.

After replenishing, their expressions were completely different.

Bai Wu pondered a question:

"So you’re saying that the Seventh Consortiums have come to this world and are enemies of you Evil Fallen?"

"Yes, all Evil Fallen are enemies of the Seventh Consortiums. Of course, there are a few Evil Fallen who, to survive, have sided with the Seventh Consortiums." The mummy spoke with Sluggishness.

Bai Wu looked into the distance, the notification in his eyes already signaling the approach of a large force. He was not at all worried. In fact, he was somewhat excited.

Bai Wu turned around and asked:

"Everything in the Well World corresponds to the real world. I’m very curious to know, your deaths, which mean the slayings by the Seventh Consortiums, what kind of impact will they have on the real world?"