Chapter 770: Sacrificial System
Sacrificial System
"It seems like there's... a tunnel down below."
Little Guardian suddenly sensed an area beneath them where mental energy couldn't penetrate.
The parasitic worm had been burrowing deep underground, moving away from the enemies on the surface. When it dug to a certain spot, it suddenly fell into a strange tunnel.
This tunnel appeared to be made of concrete, dozens of meters wide and over ten meters high. A black road ran through the center, and the parasitic worm had landed right in the middle of it.
It tried to continue digging downward, but found the road beneath it incredibly hard. Its sharp mouthparts couldn't bite through the surface at all.
The parasitic worm had no choice but to crawl up the tunnel wall to the ceiling. That was when it noticed that the opening it had fallen through was gone, and this section was also too tough to bite through—as if it hadn't fallen in from here at all.
"Should I intervene?"
Little Guardian felt something was off about this tunnel.
"No need. Let it move freely."
Lin Ye held Xiao Ling and brought a can of delicious meat to her mouth.
The parasitic worm curiously bobbed its head, unable to understand where it was. But soon, it stopped thinking and began rapidly squirming along the road.
It crawled forward for twenty minutes without finding the tunnel's exit. The surroundings didn't change at all, as if it was moving along a repeating section of road.
"There's something wrong here. Are you sure we shouldn't intervene?"
Little Guardian sat beside Lin Ye, asking with some confusion.
"I haven't actually faced many near-god rank enemies before. Being called 'near-god' means they have power close to a deity's. When dealing with opponents like that, we'd better prepare for the worst-case scenario in advance."
Lin Ye had actually considered whether to just go back. After all, he'd already completed the War Front activity and could return to the Shelter anytime. But he didn't want to lose this war like this—even if he was the only one left on the battlefield.
"So that's why I can't interfere with the outside world?"
Little Guardian finally understood why Lin Ye had stopped her from acting.
"It's not that you can't interfere—it's that there's no need to interfere yet. This tunnel is very abnormal. We didn't just stumble upon a place like this by chance."
Lin Ye stroked Xiao Ling's back. If this was some kind of test, now wasn't the time to strike.
"But this parasitic worm isn't very smart. We only told it to dig down. Can it really escape?"
Little Guardian didn't think staying in a place like this for too long was a good thing.
"Every parasitic creature I create now has a built-in template. They're not as simple as they look. If given enough time to develop, each one can become a high-rank spiritual energy creature—or even surpass the spiritual energy user rank."
Whenever Lin Ye had free time, he'd think about ways to improve the Parasitism Network, which was made up of individual parasitic nodes.
"Fine. I hope its growth rate is fast enough."
Little Guardian still felt this parasitic worm wasn't very bright.
Just as they were chatting, the parasitic worm suddenly stopped in place, flopping around like a fish on a cutting board.
"...What's it doing?"
Little Guardian couldn't understand the worm's behavior.
"Praying, of course. When the weak face difficulties, all they can do is beg for help from above."
Lin Ye said it in a tone that made it sound obvious.
"Is this something you wrote into the template too?"
Little Guardian had never seen a praying worm before.
"Exactly. Parasitism can only work on enemies of the same level. To cross tiers, you still have to rely on prayer. That's the fastest way to level up."
Lin Ye patted the cat's head, as if teaching her the principles of survival.
"...And that actually works?"
Little Guardian looked at the worm outside, which had already been elevated to high rank, and let out a surprised voice.
"I once encountered a very strong worm and got an item from it. It's a kind of medium—though Little Black ate it."
If Lin Ye wanted to boost his power this way, he could reach near-divine levels in a short time. But that would probably be his ceiling, and he'd be better off just becoming the Lord of Emerald Capital's lackey in Emerald Capital.
"How is that possible? Why would it do something like that? Just because they're both worms?"
Little Guardian asked, puzzled.
"Of course not. If a stranger suddenly came asking me for money, I'd probably punch him and show him how cruel the world is. But if a believer of a deity came asking to borrow money and promised to pay back tenfold, I'd have to think it over a bit."
No one likes losing money, and no one refuses risk-free gains.
"So this power is borrowed?"
Little Guardian didn't like borrowing from others. She preferred taking things directly.
"It's more like an investment. I inscribed a complete sacrificial ritual into the parasitic template. The entity the ritual points to can lend power to invest in this war. If I win, they can use the power they contributed to claim benefits from the battlefield—like enemy corpses, some high-tech equipment, and so on."
Lin Ye had been considering this kind of war model for a while. It wasn't anything new—every war on Blue Star had investors like this behind it.
"...You're not telling me you set up an investor behind every single parasitic creature, are you?"
Little Guardian looked at Lin Ye speechlessly.
"Of course. I'm not playing favorites. Why else would I make so many different types of parasitic creatures? Do I have nothing better to do?"
Lin Ye had long wanted to give those Card Creatures something to do. Drawing just one card a day was a waste of that Abyssal Relic's power. The system probably wouldn't stop this either, since this was his way of using the Card Box.
"So it must be pretty lively up there right now?"
To avoid being noticed by the enemy, Little Guardian didn't fully control the parasitic creatures. She could only sense their distribution range.
"It should be okay. The enemy has a lot of numbers and isn't weak. I'm the only one here, so I had to pull in some sponsors for help."
Lin Ye wasn't sure how effective this investment-sacrifice system was yet. This was his first time trying it out.
Above ground, the chaos had already grown far worse. Giant parasitic sharks with a dozen heads floated through the sky, parasitic dinosaurs hopped around everywhere, parasitic butterflies perched on the dinosaurs' backs, occasionally flapping their bright red wings, and the ground was crawling with parasitic worms that let out meowing sounds.
On the surface of the seawater, countless semi-transparent red parasitic jellyfish floated. Some fat parasitic penguins were sliding across them, while beneath the jellyfish, giant parasitic sharks with a dozen heads prowled through the deep sea.