Wasteland Border Inspector

Hearing footsteps, Luokuke swiftly raised his head, his eyes filled with fatigue, but upon seeing the underwater Crab-man had disappeared, he immediately felt invigorated, "Did it work?"

"Almost, get ready. We’ll be able to dive into the Cotton Room in a moment." Cheng Ye removed his helmet and shook off the water droplets.

"Okay!"

Cheng Ye changed into a loose-fitting black combat suit, pondering to himself as he walked towards the truck.

In the future, I must develop a set of clothes that can contract and expand like the Obsidian Battle Armor, otherwise, having to go "streaking" every time I use the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse Coexistence State is really embarrassing.

He reached the truck, took a sip of water, and then opened up the gathered intelligence for review.

It was the familiar blue sponge, only the analytical angle was different.

After reading through the intelligence on the Regulating Eye and Matrix Eye, Cheng Ye suddenly understood.

The so-called Regulating Eye and Matrix Eye are not referring to two separate eyeballs, but rather the front and back of the Demon Eye Sponge’s eye!

The front is the Regulating, corresponding to the access rules outside the Cotton Room.

To enter the Cotton Room, one must meet the conditions set by the Regulating Eye.

The back is the Matrix, corresponding to the constraint rules inside the Cotton Room.

Inside the Cotton Room, apart from the rules brought by the runes, the Demon Eye Sponge itself can also set many regulations.

For example, according to the intelligence, each organism with commanding silk patterns can stay on the second level for a maximum of half a day.

After half a day, they must leave and bring back more prey for it; they cannot linger inside.

"Regulating outside, Matrix inside, this setup is quite interesting."

"If these two abilities can be analyzed and used to build a Cotton Room, it would be like having an extra doorman and housekeeper."

Although the intelligence space still cannot analyze the runes, the level upgrade is not far off.

Even if the Demon Eye Sponge is contained later, he can dissect these runes in the intelligence space and archive them for future use.

After finishing the Regulating and Matrix Eyes, Cheng Ye went on to check the intelligence on the Assimilation commands and Passage commands.

But as the intelligence on the Assimilation commands unfolded, his expression immediately turned serious, and he couldn’t help but focus.

Perhaps due to the rarity and difficulty of collecting this feature.

Unlike the previous blue sponge, this time the intelligence showed the true form of the Demon Eye Sponge under the White Water River!

Wow.

The scene began with pouring rain, it’s unknown which year’s scene.

The entire Dapo Town was submerged by a flood, and the surrounding area turned into a vast marshland.

The perspective suddenly shifted to the distant river surface, and Cheng Ye held his breath. A gigantic ghostly blue crab, nearly six meters in size, was slowly drifting towards Dapo Town with the flow of the water.

This is... the original body of the Ghost Water Cave Crab?

He quickly paused the scene and zoomed in for a closer look.

Compared to the Crab-man Fusion Bodies previously seen, this Ghost Water Cave Crab, though large in size, appeared more orderly, without so much distorted flesh.

The two stalk-like eyes were tightly closed, evidently in a dormant state, merely drifting downstream with the flood. Its back had no grotesque growths, only round patterns resembling ladybug shells, glowing faintly.

However, just as the Ghost Water Cave Crab drifted past under the dock, more than ten sponge tentacles suddenly shot out from underwater, like ropes, entangling the crab’s body and anchoring it in place.

Then, several tentacles suddenly shattered into countless almost living particles, densely attaching to the shell of the Ghost Water Cave Crab.

"Creaking—"

The Ghost Water Cave Crab suddenly opened its stalk-like eyes, apparently startled awake, and raised its three-meter-long pincers in terror, trying to cut through those tentacles.

But having just woken from dormancy, its strength hadn’t recovered—how could it possibly be a match for a Destruction Level infection source?

Within just a few minutes, the sponge particles had completely covered its body, rooting and spreading on the shell, forming spiraling commanding silk patterns.

Amidst the unwilling "creaking" of the Ghost Water Cave Crab, the remaining sponge tentacles dragged it, bit by bit, underwater, ultimately disappearing through the giant fissure in the Cotton Room.

"Assimilation..."

"This turns other infection sources directly into its minions? This power is terrifying!"

Cheng Ye felt a chill at heart but also understood that this was the survival method of the Demon Eye Sponge.

Through "Coexistence", it continuously absorbs other sources and bodies of infection, turning them into part of itself. It can use these lieutenants to build defenses and capture prey, and in times of danger, use them as meat shields.

Compared to other Destruction Level infection sources that rely on individual combat power for dominance, the group combat ability of the Demon Eye Sponge is evidently stronger, but its individual defense and attack power are relatively weaker.

"What about the Commanding Silk Pattern?"

Cheng Ye proceeded to check the next piece of information, and sure enough, the screen switched back to the familiar blue sponge, but this time the presentation of the Commanding Silk Pattern was particularly direct.

It turns out that it doesn’t spread directly through the tentacles of the Demon Eye Sponge, but instead expands with the help of those co-opted lieutenants.

For instance, the silk patterns on the grayish-yellow Fishman naturally have transmissibility; as long as they come into close contact with other fish for a period, the sponge particles on their surface will attach to them, gradually forming new silk patterns.

The tiny particles floating around the blue sponge are also a "medium", and once a stranger fish intrudes, it will immediately be attached by the particles.

The crucial point is that this attachment is not just for capturing prey but also for the process of selecting "lieutenants".

After entering the Cotton Room, Fishmen who can’t withstand the impact of the rune’s wild dance will be directly absorbed as food.

Those who can withstand the pressure to enter the second layer will be co-opted into new lieutenants, guarding the Cotton Room for the blue sponge and capturing new targets.

"If the Demon Eye Sponge also had similar selecting runes inside, what would it be like?"

Cheng Ye pondered while touching his chin, but there wasn’t much alarm in his heart.

Since so many ordinary Crab-man Infected Bodies can become lieutenants, it shows that the selection criteria are not too stringent, as long as one can withstand the first layer of rune impact, there is a high probability of safely entering the second layer.

Understanding this point, Cheng Ye simply used another 50% of his charging value to unlock the intelligence of the Commanding Silk Pattern.

Now, besides the three traits evidently related to the environment: nature, earth, and Water, the analysis authority of the other silk patterns has been obtained.

The viewpoint shifted, and as expected, the intelligence of the Commanding Silk Pattern returned to the Demon Eye Sponge.

As the intelligence space gradually formed, he glimpsed the scene and immediately pressed the pause button.

"Finally, the main showdown!"

This time, the intelligence space was no longer the external waters but a dark and narrow space.

With his previous experience analyzing the blue sponge, Cheng Ye immediately recognized it as the interior of the Demon Eye Sponge’s Cotton Room!

The space was circular, with a diameter of about three hundred meters, consistent with the size observed from the outside.

He swiftly scanned the surroundings and soon found two floating runes in a location similar to the blue sponge, and in the center of the Cotton Room was embedded a giant rune half larger than the previous two, but the intelligence system temporarily couldn’t parse the content of the rune to discern what it specifically represented.

Cheng Ye steadied his mind and pressed to continue playback.

As expected, the Cotton Room of the Demon Eye Sponge also had a second layer, and the bottom directly connected to a cavern.

His perspective followed the Ghost Water Cave Crab being dragged, watching it slowly sink into a deeper layer of the Cotton Room, moving toward the cave entrance.

Whoosh.

A deflating sound was heard, and Cheng Ye squinted his eyes, somewhat doubting whether he had seen correctly.

The Ghost Water Cave Crab, with a body size of nearly six meters, began to rapidly shrink upon entering the second layer, reducing to less than a meter in length in just a few seconds, appearing particularly diminutive compared to its previous size.

"Hmm? Does it also have the ability to alter its size?"

"No... Could it be the ability of the Demon Eye Sponge?"

As Cheng Ye was pondering, the Ghost Water Cave Crab in the scene "boomed" through the barrier of the second layer, entering the interior of the cavern.

In the next second, a dazzling purple light suddenly exploded, and Cheng Ye instinctively squinted his eyes. Once he adjusted to the light, he was utterly stunned by the scene before him.

The cavern was not the imagined dark, narrow appearance but instead seemed as if it had traversed into a primordial secret environment.

Everywhere was lush with green vines, the ground was covered in soft moss, the air was filled with a fresh aroma of grass and wood, and there was absolutely no hint of the desolation of the Wasteland.

In the center of the space, astonishingly, there was a blue lake several hundred meters wide, its water crystal clear, shimmering with a faint glow.

Cheng Ye’s gaze instinctively focused on the lake’s center, but with just a look, he couldn’t move his eyes away.

Because right above the center of the lake, a conch exuding a faint purple glow was floating in mid-air.

The shell was covered with spiraling golden patterns, and every breath-like flicker caused the surrounding air to ripple slightly.

That is... the Ten Thousand Orders Land Conch!

...