Chapter 121: The Human Skin Drum (25)

He had merely mentioned it. Why be so angry?

"Then why don't we discuss how to turn this village into a paradise?"

"It must be related to 'women' and 'childbirth'."

Tang Mu pointed to the stone statue of the woman that still stood tall within the village.

The scenery of the entire village had changed, but the only thing that remained the same was the stone statue. Despite the sea of fire surrounding them, the thatched temple housing it remained completely unscathed.

"Who still has a camera?"

Lu Zhengqing handed his camera to Tang Mu. She brought it to her eyes and, sure enough, the scene within the viewfinder had changed slightly.

The magma had shifted from red and bright yellow to a toxic, dark purple.

And the stone statue, which had originally been benevolent with closed eyes, was now glaring in the camera’s view, staring furiously in the direction of Tang Mu and the others. As for its stomach—which had previously been slightly distended, as if five months pregnant—it was now flat, as if it had never been swollen at all.

She then pointed the camera at her own stomach and the others'...

Good grief, it looked as if they were all about to go into labor.

Yet, when she touched them with her hands, she could feel no shape at all.

"Going to the woman's stone statue."

"We can't get there, how can we?" The fat man panted from the heat. "Look at the situation down there! It’s all magma! Columns of magma gas shoot up every now and then. We don't have anything to protect ourselves; a moment of carelessness and we'll be melted... If you want to commit suicide, go ahead, but don't drag us down with you!"

"Then just stay here."

Tang Mu couldn't be bothered with him.

The fact that Yan Xingwen in this instance had no memory made Tang Mu extremely unhappy. Furthermore, Yan Xingwen had disappeared just like the other missing villagers. This made her even more irritable.

Combined with this extreme heat...

It was irritability on top of irritability.

Explosive.

Tang Mu's brain felt like an overworked CPU, on the verge of burning out.

She wanted to rush to the stone statue right now, grab a hammer, and smash it to pieces.

A woman's sixth sense told her that the source of this instance boss's supernatural power must be that stone statue.

But rushing over was truly difficult.

The ground was covered in cracked, earthen crust. Walking on it, one could feel a terrifying heat. Even the soles of her shoes were slowly melting. If she walked a few more steps like this, the rubber from the soles would likely fuse permanently to her skin...

Tang Mu took off her shoes.

She walked barefoot.

Perhaps the "Mother" was watching her intently from not far away. As Tang Mu charged toward the thatched temple, the surface temperature suddenly spiked to a new level!

A scorching, searing heat rose from the soles of her feet!

It was a piercing, agonizing pain.

But for Tang Mu, it brought a strange sense of relief and calm that followed the intense agony.

The red thread bell was useless, too.

As soon as the red thread appeared, it melted into red liquid from the heat. It was impossible to bind anything or use it to propel herself away from the burning ground.

Even worse, you never knew when a sudden burst of magma would erupt from beneath the earth and instantly incinerate you...

A few times, Tang Mu was merely a tenth of a centimeter away from the magma shooting up from the ground.

The searing heat scorched her clothes off and left massive burns on her skin.

But the more it hurt, the more eerily calm Tang Mu became.

Others feared pain, but she relished it.

The more it hurt, the better she could extract a sense of composure from her extreme irritability, effectively "ice-cooling" her racing, overheating mental CPU.

However, when Tang Mu reached the thatched temple, the woman in the pavilion appeared again.

"Leave this place, and I will tell you how to clear this level."

Faced with the woman's advice, Tang Mu merely scoffed, "Smash this stone statue, and I can clear it just the same."

"This statue is merely one of the anchor points in the village. Destroying it will only cause me to lose a portion of my power; it cannot touch my true essence. Besides, do you no longer care whether this person lives or dies?"

In the woman's hand was Xingwen.

Not Yan Xingwen.

After all, Yan Xingwen would never gaze at her with such a petulant, angry expression.

When people in love are separated, if one of them lacks all memory of the other, it is truly annoying. Just like now—they could have been lovers, yet they were forced to be the most familiar of strangers.

"He is just an NPC with a decent face; how much affection do you think I could invest?" Tang Mu’s tone was indifferent, her expression nonchalant.

"Is that so?" The woman waved her hand, and many images suddenly appeared before the stone statue. "Even so, can you still calmly say that the relationship between you and him is just a shallow, ordinary one?"

The images conjured by the woman depicted a real battlefield.

The world of 2190 was far from peaceful. War was everywhere. People fought for food, for resources, for land, for the right to live. In short, any reason could trigger a war.

So much so that everyone, regardless of gender or age, had a period of required service. Even then, not everyone could complete the training—because you never knew when a new war would break out, forcing you to step from being an ignorant civilian into a battlefield filled with smoke and fire.

"Tang Mu, go back!" Yan Xingwen grabbed Tang Mu, who had snuck onto the battlefield, and scolded her, demanding she return to the safety zone. "This is no place for you!"

Although the environment of the battlefield was simulated, the death was real. Being hit by a particle beam gun might not physically damage the body, but it could cause actual brain death.

The people at the top used this to accelerate the reclamation of territories. As long as they occupied a certain area, a portion of the taxes from the people's point cards in that region would be deducted and sent to those in power.

Tang Mu ignored him.

Instead, she desperately shook off his hand and continued to charge toward the battlefield.

"Tang Mu!"

"I want power! And status!" Tang Mu retorted angrily at Yan Xingwen. "He has already emerged. His future will offer him many, many opportunities. And what about me? I have nothing! Only by consolidating power can I climb up as quickly as possible! I want to crush him, I want him to live his whole life in the shadow I cast upon him!"

"And what about me?" Yan Xingwen said with some helplessness. "I am the one who has been by your side for so many years. Can over a decade of knowing each other not erase the fear he brought you?"