Lu Luo wasn't sure what was happening.
He instinctively touched his eyeballs, but even with his eyes covered, the small text remained in his vision.
He looked at the hurried man from earlier, and the Observer also gave a prompt.
"A dangerous guy.
Good thing he's in a hurry.
If you stared at him like that normally, your head would be smashed in."
"Lu Luo, what's wrong?" Qin Wanyu asked, seeing Lu Luo acting strangely.
"Oh, nothing, something in my eye."
After this interlude, Qin Wanyu's courage to confess her feelings had completely vanished.
She walked behind Lu Luo with her head down, heading upstairs.
As they walked, Lu Luo sniffed, feeling a strange sensation, as if he smelled an odd scent, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"Fishy smell?"
"Something strange has happened here.
Due to a lack of information, the noble S-rank Observer is unsure what occurred, but you'd best be careful."
Lu Luo narrowed his eyes, reaching out behind him and saying:
"Something feels off.
Be careful, hold my hand."
There was no response for a long time behind him.
Lu Luo instinctively turned around, and Qin Wanyu's figure had vanished.
"Are you looking for that human female?
She hasn't followed you since earlier; she's been standing downstairs the whole time."
Looking at the prompt, Lu Luo suddenly felt his scalp tingle!
If Qin Wanyu had been standing downstairs the whole time, then who was it that went upstairs with him just now?
"She was clearly following me just now… And what exactly are you?"
"Please don't be deceived by your eyes.
As for me, I am the noble and powerful S-rank Observer, and also your true eyes."
"My true eyes?"
Lu Luo steadied his emotions.
He looked upstairs, and it was better not to look, because when he did, his mind became unsteady again.
The stairs went on and on, endlessly, whether going up or down, it was the same.
He couldn't reach the second floor of the exhibition hall, nor could he return to the first floor.
"Endless stairs, or a ghost wall?
What should I do now?"
"I am merely your innate Observer sequence.
You want me to tell you what to do?
Don't be ridiculous, okay?"
"Are you really an S-rank innate sequence?"
Normally, if he had awakened a seemingly S-rank innate sequence, he would have been overjoyed, but the current situation seemed very wrong.
"Ah! Ah!"
Lu Luo was somewhat unable to decide whether he should continue upstairs or return downstairs when a piercing scream suddenly came from upstairs.
The sound continued, then grew weaker and weaker.
It seemed that some woman upstairs was in danger or under attack.
"No, I have to go downstairs." Lu Luo frowned, the scream meant danger, and he couldn't rush in anymore.
He wanted to go downstairs, but heavy, labored breathing sounds came from below.
"Haa~ Haa~ Haa~"
"There's a dangerous guy downstairs.
Although you really want to go down, I think it's better for you to go up.
As a noble S-rank sequence, the Observer hasn't yet played its proper role and doesn't want to sing its swan song here."
Lu Luo abruptly turned around and ran directly upstairs.
As a detective in his previous life, his judgment was quite good.
Since the Observer sequence had already given a warning, if he continued to risk going downstairs, it would be somewhat idiotic.
Lu Luo ran up flight after flight of stairs: 2, 3, 4, 5… 11, 12.
He leaned tiredly on his knees and the railing, having already reached the 12th floor, but the stairs in front of him hadn't changed at all.
There hadn't been a single door in the entire stairwell, a situation that made Lu Luo's heart sink.
The breathing sounds from downstairs were getting louder, meaning the dangerous guy downstairs was approaching.
At this point, he even hesitated to look down from the stair railing.
Unbeknownst to him, the stairs and railing gradually became sticky and slippery.
Lu Luo looked down at his feet and saw many green plants already wrapped around them.
"Is this… kelp?"
"That's right, this is kelp.
It's rich in various trace elements and can be boiled and eaten.
However, the one in front of you is a plant species, 'Flesh-Snare.'"
"Plant species, Flesh-Snare, is it an Xenomorph ?"
The kelp gradually wrapped around Lu Luo's calves.
No matter how much Lu Luo pulled, he couldn't tear it off.
If this continued, he would be strangled to death.
"Don't make a fuss.
It's just a newly mutated first-order plant species.
With your strength, you can kill it in minutes."
"What strength do I have?!
Sure enough, I shouldn't make such statements casually in the future.
I just said this opening was pretty good, and now I'm about to be done for."
"Consciousness fusion complete.
Activating Sequence S-02 – Devourer, and Sequence S-04 – Fuser."
New sequences?
The sudden prompt left Lu Luo somewhat bewildered.
The problem was there was no instruction manual; how was he supposed to use them?
The kelp was wrapping tighter and tighter, as if trying to drag him downstairs.
Lu Luo could only grip the stair railing with one hand, using the other to resist the kelp's entanglement as much as possible.
The kelp had completely bound his body, and just as it was about to drag Lu Luo down, he suddenly felt a warmth at his fingertips, and something melted in his hand.
"100 energy points consumed for one synthesis: Iron block + Wood = Tool."
Lu Luo looked at his right hand.
His fingertips glowed faintly white, and under this white light, the iron stair railing began to soften and deform.
Soon, a crude machete appeared in Lu Luo's hand, and he could even see its information.
"Crude Machete"
Grade: Worn-out
Damage: 3-10
Description: Lu Luo's handmade item, very crude, but usable.
"The Fuser is a trash sequence.
Spending 100 energy points just to make this thing?
How can it be on par with an S-rank like me?"
Lu Luo automatically ignored the Observer's evaluation, gripped the machete, and immediately hacked at the kelp wrapped around him.
"Yah!"
"This thing actually screams?
So weak, and quite easy to deal with."
"Flesh-Snare is just a very common plant species.
I told you, with your strength, you can kill it in minutes.
However, it can only be considered a parasitic variant.
The real danger is still below.
It's coming!"
A woman slowly and tremblingly walked up.
Her expression was contorted in pain, and Lu Luo had no idea what she was trying to convey to him.
"What's wrong with you?"
A grayish-green claw extended from the woman's chest, and her once fair face was now completely bloodless.
She made "Uh! Uh!" sounds, but couldn't speak a word.
Lu Luo looked behind the woman, and the owner of the grayish-green claw gradually became clear under the light: a shark monster.
More precisely, it was a shark-headed body, but a half-human, half-machine monster with mechanical legs and arms.
Although Lu Luo had seen all sorts of variants in books, this was inside the wall!
How could there be variants inside the wall?
And more than one, at that.
"What is this thing, a mix of machine and shark?"
"A newly mutated mech-species, unrecorded.
You can give it a name, like Iron Shark, or Metal Man Shark, something like that.
Be careful.
Although they are both first-order, it is much stronger than the kelp.
Against such an opponent, I suggest you perform a slide tackle."
"What the… how do you slide tackle on stairs?"
Lu Luo suppressed the urge to curse, because he saw the stair railing, and under certain circumstances, such a slide tackle seemed truly possible?
The shark variant opened its huge mouth, bit off half of the woman's body, and then casually tossed the remaining corpse aside.
It chewed while staring at Lu Luo!
Lu Luo recognized that gaze; it was the same strange look from the shark in the display case earlier, as if it was smiling, or rather, sneering!
"Are you sure if I slide tackle over, it won't get full in one go?"
"That's your problem.
I'm just the Observer; combat isn't my responsibility, but I think it's highly likely it will get full."
Alright!
Lu Luo gradually began to calm down.
The opponent was clearly a monster-level existence.
In terms of strength and physique, it should far outclass him.
How could he kill this monster?
Lu Luo looked at the machete in his hand and suddenly asked:
"Can it turn into a firearm?"
"Fuser plan - Firearm is estimated to consume 340 energy points.
Insufficient energy, cannot proceed."
It was insufficient energy, not that it couldn't turn into a firearm.
Wishful thinking?
This was interesting.
The back of the hand resting on the stair railing suddenly felt a warmth and stickiness.
Lu Luo quickly glanced and found that it was a large amount of blood flowing down the stair railing.
"Looks like a lot of people died upstairs!"
Lu Luo's mind raced, but in this situation, trying to come up with a way to defeat a monster seemed somewhat unrealistic.
However, he had no better option now.
The opponent's lower body was mechanical, and he relied on his legs to climb stairs.
The height of 12 floors had already left him almost out of strength.
If he ran further up, he wouldn't even have the stamina to fight back, so he had to deal with this guy.
Looking again at the slippery railing and the iron knife in his hand, Lu Luo silently said:
"Can it turn into steel wire!"
"Fuser plan - Steel wire, estimated to consume 5 energy points."
"Change."
"5 energy points consumed for one change: Knife → Steel wire."
White light appeared again, and the iron knife in Lu Luo's hand quickly transformed into a rather tough steel wire.
Steel wire was one of the few methods Lu Luo could think of to kill the monster in front of him.
"Hey, Mr. Shark, I think we can sit down and talk.
Maybe we come from the same era, and perhaps we even met at an aquarium in the past.
I know you probably don't like being locked in a display case, but you're free now, congratulations!"
Lu Luo said something that sounded rather nonsensical, but the mech-shark in front of him actually responded, though it was just a "zzzt zzzt" sound of electricity.
"Foolish and weak human, actually attempting to speak with me.
What a laughable fellow.
— The above is a translation from the Observer."
"Variants, at least mech-species, can understand human speech, but we can't understand their language.
Asymmetrical information."
Lu Luo narrowed his eyes and made a classic gesture from a certain movie towards the mechanical shark: hooking his finger.
"Come here!"
"Zzzt zzzt!"
The mechanical shark suddenly lunged forward, but Lu Luo, who was already prepared, accurately dodged its first attack.
As he moved, Lu Luo stepped onto the railing and wrapped the steel wire around the shark's fin.
"Hook!"
"10 energy points consumed for one change: Steel wire → Hook."
The hook caught the mechanical shark's body, and then Lu Luo, sliding down the stair railing, performed a slide tackle directly downwards.
"Creak~"
The steel wire and hook instantly constricted the mechanical shark, but this level of weight was insignificant for a mech-species; it could easily tear it off.
If it were an ordinary person, they would surely be dead by now, but Lu Luo was no ordinary person, at least not since he awakened the Observer and Fuser sequences.
"Gears."
"17 energy points consumed for one change: Steel wire → Gear set."
The gear set jammed at the mechanical shark's fin, while Lu Luo directly jumped down through the gap between the stair railings.
He wrapped the steel wire with his clothes, but the pulling still almost cut his palm.
Fortunately, all of this was effective.
The power-saving gear set, combined with Lu Luo's rapid descent, directly jammed the mechanical shark on the stair railing.
Although it was a mech-species, its upper body was solid flesh.
The hook embedded into its flesh, and the thin steel wire tightened, gradually becoming a sharp blade, slowly cutting through the mechanical shark's body.
The mechanical shark finally showed a look of terror.
As a mech-species variant, it possessed the emotion of fear, but it was all too late.
The steel wire's sharpness was beyond imagination, and with the immense pulling force, in just over ten seconds, it had brutally strangled this mech-species to death.
"You won even like this?
You're as strong as a god of war.
I'm truly impressed by you, but I suggest you run away first."
Lu Luo struggled to climb the stairs.
He instinctively looked behind him, and there were no more steps going down.
The ground was covered with black water like ink.
If one got closer, they would see that the ink was actually long black hair mixed with mucus.
"Still looking?
Isn't living well enough?
Don't forget you're still a virgin in this world."
Lu Luo roughly understood what was going on.
For a monster like the mechanical shark, the Observer had allowed him to slide tackle, and he had indeed killed the mechanical shark.
But for this puddle of black water, the Observer directly prohibited sliding.
This difference was already very clear, so, run!
After Lu Luo ran upstairs, a figure gradually appeared in the ink.
If it weren't for the long black hair that completely covered its body and the protrusions on its chest, one probably wouldn't be able to tell it was a woman.
"Haa~ Haa~ Haa~"
The strange sounds emitted by the woman continued to echo in the stairwell, but she seemed to have no intention of chasing Lu Luo.
Instead, she stared blankly in the direction Lu Luo had left, as if deep in thought.
However, the woman quickly gave up thinking, her hair shattered the wall, and she entered a certain floor of the exhibition hall, continuing her slaughter.