Chapter 22: 22: Superior Materials
Zhu Xiong and his wife, Gan Xinglei, left one after another, leaving Su Han alone in the room. He didn't rest but instead summoned the Four-armed Corpse.
Yan Meiyu and the others could go to rest, but he himself still could not because he had one more matter to deal with. The corpses of the Flesh Corpses from the tenth floor and above had already been piled up in the rooms of each floor. Per his agreement with Cheng Zhenyong, he had to quietly dispose of these things tonight.
"On average, about three to four Flesh Corpses were killed on each floor today. Even excluding floors nineteen and twenty, that still leaves about twenty to thirty Flesh Corpses. It's uncertain whether this will be enough to complete the Level 2 Flesh Corpse Blood Flesh Fusion."
After mulling over it for a moment, he quietly opened the door and walked straight towards the stairway, silently heading up until he reached the tenth-floor guard post.
Strictly speaking, since the entire building had been cleared, there was no need for Cheng Zhenyong to maintain the guard posts above.
But considering that many Flesh Corpse bodies were stacked on the tenth floor and that Su Han needed to quietly deal with them to avoid misunderstandings, two members of the security team were still left on the tenth floor to prevent accidents, with Zhang Fu leading them.
"Brother Zhang, you've worked hard."
Upon seeing the two men, Su Han greeted them and handed over two packs of Zhonghua.
Zhang Fu didn't stand on ceremony, happily taking the cigarettes with a smile that was half gratitude and half emotion, "No need for formalities. I should be thanking you. Without you, who knows how many people might have died today."
Su Han just smiled and waved his hand, showing no intention of taking credit, and Zhang Fu didn't say much more, only reminding him, "The survivors upstairs have all moved down. There's no one above the tenth floor."
As he spoke, he opened the safety door to let Su Han go up.
Su Han understood Zhang Fu's meaning, which was simply that there were no living people upstairs so there was no need to worry about disturbing anyone. He smiled and then, accompanied by the Four-armed Corpse, strode towards the upper floors.
Although Zhang Fu said there were no living people upstairs, Su Han was still very careful. The Four-armed Corpse went in front, and he followed with a crowbar in his hand just in case of any unexpected changes.
First, he went to the eleventh floor, where the Flesh Corpse bodies were stacked in a room near the staircase on the right. The door had been broken, so he pushed it open and entered. The living room, filled with stacked bodies and bloodstains, came into view.
There were only two Flesh Corpses here. The rest had already been contracted by Xia Ning and her group. Even these two bodies were killed by other Contractors out of concern for being overwhelmed during the exploration.
"Let's start, Four-armed Corpse, go and fuse."
Upon receiving Su Han's order, the Four-armed Corpse took large strides towards the living room, its huge palms grabbing the two bodies from the floor.
Although these Flesh Corpses were taller than average humans, they seemed small and fragile in the hands of the Four-armed Corpse, like little chicks.
The Four-armed Corpse's arms and flesh began to wriggle as strands of flesh, like silk threads, reached out to the two Flesh Corpses' bodies, gradually weaving into their flesh and slowly fusing together.
Su Han was patient, holding a table lamp while silently standing by to observe, keenly feeling the changes and feedback from the Four-armed Corpse.
If on the first day this kind of scene still made him somewhat uncomfortable, he was now as casual about it as he was about eating and drinking water, feeling no discomfort at all.
The compatibility between the Flesh Corpses' flesh and the Four-armed Corpse was high, so the fusion proceeded relatively fast. Su Han waited for about ten minutes, and the two bodies gradually turned into pale skeletons. The twisted bones accompanied the completion of the fusion, slowly falling onto the living room floor.
Following the fusion process, the Level 1 Flesh Corpse Blood Flesh Fusion Degree began to gradually advance towards Level 2, increasing from the original 2% to 11%. Perhaps because the fusion was progressing to Level 2, the increase in Fusion Degree from the same quantity of Flesh Corpses' flesh was relatively lower.
"On average, the flesh quality of a Flesh Corpse is around 4.5%. The proportion should gradually decrease later on, but it should still be enough."
After making some rough estimates, Su Han found that although there was some discrepancy from his initial estimates, it was at least not as drastic as ordinary metals, which could jump up almost ten times.
"First complete the fusion, then see what the effects are like."
He left the eleventh floor and continued upward, floor by floor, fusing the stacked Flesh Corpse bodies one by one, as time slowly slipped by.
Two on the eleventh floor, four on the twelfth, five on the thirteenth, four on the fourteenth, three on the fifteenth, four on the sixteenth, and eight on the seventeenth—a total of thirty Flesh Corpses were fused by Su Han's Four-armed Corpse.
Angel Envoy: Four-armed Corpse
Rank: First-level Intermediate
Skills: [Claw][Iron Skin]
Fusion: LV2 Ordinary Metal, LV1 Corpse Flesh 92%
Su Han looked at the Four-armed Corpse's panel and couldn't help feeling a bit troubled. The corpses in Building 7 had been nearly fully fused, but he hadn't expected the rate of fusion to drop so drastically afterwards.
The flesh and tissues of thirty corpses had failed to push the Fusion Degree to LV2, still short by 8%. That was no small amount.
"Can only check the 20th floor then."
Su Han headed towards the 20th floor with the Four-armed Corpse, though he didn't harbor much hope. Inside the pile of corpses on the 20th floor, it was hard to discern how many were human corpses and how many were of corpses.
They had long since started to decay and were stuck to each other, melding together—it was a question whether they could even be fused.
Inside the corridor of the 20th floor, a foul stench hit him, seemingly denser than it had been in the evening.
"Have the Four-armed Corpse try."
He ordered the Four-armed Corpse to grab a relatively intact piece of flesh from the pile of carcasses, but no prompt for fusion appeared.
"It won't work?"
His brow furrowed slightly. If this didn't work, he would have to consider the corpses hidden in the mist beyond Building 7. Finding them and killing them wasn't as easy as merely saying it.
He had to weigh the feasibility and risks, thinking to himself, "Or should I try fusing new materials, or organize an outing?"
His eyes moved toward the room at the end of the corridor. The body of the Spider Monster was there, half embedded in the door, with half its head slumped over its chest.
It had been shorn by the Four-armed Corpse's metallic Claw, not completely severed, the combination of the head and the red tendrils in the fissure was extremely terrifying.
He Fang had thought about taking the Spider Monster's body back, unsure of its exact use, but he had a vague answer in mind—that Su Han was feeding the corpses to his Angel Envoy using the bodies of monsters.
Although the Angel Envoy could maintain its state simply through the connection provided by the Book of Blood Spirit and the Contract, it did not mean they couldn't consume things.
The only possibility He Fang could come up with was based on the day he met Su Han when Su Han had searched the 5th, 6th, and 7th floors and found skeletons there.
Therefore, he too wanted to try it, but Cheng Zhenyong hadn't agreed, and he didn't dare to say it openly, which left the thing there.
The reason Cheng Zhenyong did not agree was simple—he was worried that Su Han also needed it and did not want to stir up trouble unnecessarily.
This series of actions had, indeed, made things convenient for the current Su Han.
He made up his mind to first take a look and see. The Spider Monster wasn't much weaker than the Four-armed Corpse; the difference lay in the skills rather than overall quality.
"Four-armed Corpse, bring its body over."
The Four-armed Corpse strode towards the Spider Monster's body and reached out to drag it towards Su Han.
However, as soon as it touched the body, Su Han, focusing his mind intentionally, suddenly saw a prompt jump out.
[Discovery: Spider Monster flesh, a higher level material compared to the current corpse flesh. Would you like to proceed with the fusion transformation?]