MERIDIAN OF THE DAMNED

Ch 02. The Locked Devil’s Bargain

The blue light before Wu Chen's eyes suddenly turned blood-red, flickering so rapidly that it cast an eerie crimson glow across the cracked walls of the temple.

The high-frequency hum in his head was replaced by a cold, rigid mechanical voice, utterly devoid of emotion.

[WARNING: HOST LIFESPAN: 180 SECONDS AND COUNTING. INFECTED TOXIN DETECTED.]

[PROPOSAL: EMERGENCY PROTOCOL, OVERLOAD MODE.]

"Overload? What the hell is that? Speak clearly, damn it! Don't give me a bunch of convoluted computer bullshit!" Wu Chen shouted, his voice catching in his throat as the female zombie's jaws hovered barely two centimeters from his neck.

Black saliva mixed with foul, rotten blood dripped from the creature's mouth onto his forehead, causing an intense burning sensation as though his skin had been splashed with acid.

[OVERLOAD MODE: FORCIBLY OPENING DEAD MERIDIANS BYPASSING THE SYSTEM FOR 60 SECONDS.]

[WARNING: HIGH RISK OF SEVERE INTERNAL DAMAGE. PENALTY WILL BE APPLIED UPON DEACTIVATION. DO YOU ACCEPT?]

"Fuck! What kind of devil's bargain is this?!" Wu Chen cursed, his eyes widening as he stared at the holographic text. "You want to steal my lifespan? But if I don't accept this demonic deal, I'm getting chewed to death right here! I accept! Activate it! Hurry up, before this thing bites my neck off!"

[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL: OVERLOAD MODE ACTIVATED.]

[TIMER RUNNING: 60 SECONDS... 59... 58...]

BOOM!

An extremely cold sensation suddenly exploded from the center of his chest.

It was not a warm flow of energy that soothed the body like the cultivation energy described in those novels. Instead, it was an icy force as sharp as thousands of shards of glass being violently forced through the dead, rigid, and blocked meridians in his body.

"ARRRGGGHHH! Fuck! It feels like someone poured boiling mercury through my veins!" Wu Chen roared at the top of his lungs.

His entire body convulsed rigidly against the muddy ground. His previously thin, emaciated muscles suddenly swelled as they were flooded with a wild and unstable power.

The pain was so intense that it felt as though every blood vessel inside his body was tearing apart and burning beneath his skin at the same time. Yet at the same time, the fractured bones in his right arm suddenly felt as though they were hardening and knitting back together, forcibly fused by the illegal pressure of the energy.

"Goddamn, I've got strength again? But this hurts... Fuck, this hurts like hell!" Wu Chen screamed, his eyes reddening as he endured the physical torment.

The female zombie above him let out a hungry growl and tried to bite down on his neck again.

"Get the fuck off me!" Wu Chen roared.

With his newfound strength, he swung his free left arm and drove a brutally straight punch into the female zombie's jaw.

Crack!

The blow was so powerful that the female zombie's jaw shattered into fragments of bone and rotten flesh. Her body was sent flying three meters backward, crashing into the dusty stone altar and cracking it even further.

"Now it's your turn, fake giant!" Wu Chen shouted, immediately turning his attention to the muscular zombie still gripping his right arm.

Ignoring the lingering pain in his shoulder, Wu Chen reached out with his left hand, now hard as steel, and seized the muscular zombie by the throat. His wild and ruthless mafia instincts completely took control of Li Jian Nan's frail body. He twisted his body with brute force, using his newly enhanced strength to slam the massive zombie into the temple floor.

THUD!

The ground inside the temple shook violently, sending clouds of dust from the altar into the air.

The muscular zombie growled hoarsely, struggling and trying to rise as its rotten hands clawed wildly at Wu Chen.

[OVERLOAD TIME REMAINING: 42 SECONDS...]

"Don't bother getting back up, bastard!" Wu Chen cursed, immediately driving his left knee into the muscular zombie's chest with all his strength before smashing his own head into the creature's face without hesitation.

Splatter!

The muscular zombie's face was smashed to pieces, spraying thick, foul-smelling black fluid directly across Wu Chen's face. Yet the creature still wasn't completely dead. Its rotten hands continued groping blindly, trying to grab and tear at Wu Chen's legs.

"Shit, you guys are stubborn as hell!" Wu Chen snarled, roughly wiping the black blood from his eyes. "I don't have time to play around!"

He quickly scanned the cramped temple.

Three wooden support pillars holding up the ancient temple were already severely rotten, leaning at dangerous angles and seemingly ready to collapse at any moment. One of the main pillars stood directly beside the muscular zombie and the smaller zombie, which was now rapidly crawling toward his feet.

"Die under there, both of you!" Wu Chen shouted.

He leaped backward two meters, then used every remaining ounce of Overload's power in his right leg to deliver a devastating straight kick directly into the broken section of the main wooden support pillar.

KRAAAACK!

The wooden pillar, as thick as an adult's thigh, snapped in two.

The temple roof, heavy support beams, and thousands of clay roof tiles immediately collapsed like a landslide, burying the center of the temple.

"Krrrggghhh!"

The muscular zombie and the smaller zombie roared as massive wooden beams crashed down onto them, crushing their bodies beneath the debris and pinning them to the ground.

[OVERLOAD TIME REMAINING: 25 SECONDS...]

"Hah... hah... one more..." Wu Chen muttered, his breath burning hot as though his lungs were being boiled inside his chest. The metallic smell of fresh blood began filling his throat. "Where's that filthy bitch?"

The female zombie, its jaw completely shattered, suddenly leaped out from behind the ruined stone altar, its blackened claws aimed directly at Wu Chen's throat.

"Still haven't had enough, huh?!" Wu Chen shouted, making no attempt to dodge.

He allowed the female zombie's left hand to rake across his left shoulder, tearing through his robe and flesh.

"Ah! Fuck! That hurts!" Wu Chen grimaced in pain, but his eyes gleamed with terrifying, savage fury. "But now I've got you, you monster!"

With his right hand still infused with Overload's power, Wu Chen seized the female zombie's long hair and violently yanked her head downward. He aimed her face directly at the sharp, broken wooden support beam protruding from the ground.

"Die!" he roared at the top of his lungs.

THUD!

The sharpened piece of wood pierced through the back of the female zombie's skull and emerged through her shattered mouth. Her body convulsed violently for several seconds before finally going limp.

[OVERLOAD TIME REMAINING: 8 SECONDS...]

"Hah... hah... damn... I'm exhausted," Wu Chen hissed, releasing his grip on the zombie's hair. He glanced toward the collapsed pillar, where the other two zombies were still struggling weakly beneath the heavy wooden beams.

With unsteady steps and ragged breaths, Wu Chen approached the muscular zombie, whose head was still protruding from beneath the rubble.

"You... cracked my arm earlier," Wu Chen whispered, his voice cold and merciless. "Now pay for it with your head!"

Wu Chen raised his right leg high, then brought it crashing down with all the remaining strength of Overload directly onto the muscular zombie's head.

CRACK!

The zombie's head burst like an overripe watermelon beneath his foot, filling the stagnant temple air with the overpowering stench of rotten flesh. The smaller zombie beside it also stopped moving after Wu Chen brutally drove the remaining piece of sharpened wood into its skull.

[OVERLOAD COMPLETE.]

[DEACTIVATING EMERGENCY PROTOCOL...]

"Ugh..."

Wu Chen suddenly froze where he stood.

The overwhelmingly powerful cold force that had filled his body moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a wave of pain ten times more agonizing than before. Every internal organ felt as though it were being violently squeezed, twisted, and crushed by invisible hands inside his chest.

Uegh! Cough! Cough!

Wu Chen collapsed onto his knees in the muddy ground soaked with black blood. Thick, foul-smelling black blood poured from his mouth. His chest heaved irregularly, his lungs feeling as though they had completely collapsed and refused to draw in oxygen.

[WARNING: INTERNAL ORGAN DAMAGE: SEVERE.]

[PENALTY APPLIED: HOST LIFESPAN REDUCED BY 3 MONTHS.]

The instant the system warning appeared, Wu Chen felt a horrifying physical impact.

His vision, which had been sharp and clear moments earlier, suddenly deteriorated dramatically.

The world around him seemed to become engulfed in a thick gray fog, leaving him with an extremely narrow field of vision, as though he were looking through a pitch-black tunnel.

"W-why... why are my eyes suddenly blurry?" Wu Chen whispered, his voice now hoarse and trembling violently.

His trembling hand touched his own face. His skin suddenly felt dry, rough, and devoid of elasticity, as though all the youthful vitality inside his body had been drained away in an instant.

An intense chill spread from the tips of his feet all the way to his spine, carrying with it a tangible sensation of extinction, the unmistakable feeling that a portion of his remaining biological lifespan had truly been forcibly ripped away from his body.

"What kind of fucking torture is this?" Wu Chen groaned, clutching his chest as its heartbeat slowed and weakened, as though his heart now had to struggle to pump thick mud instead of blood. "My body... it feels like it's shrinking and wrinkling from the inside..."

Every breath now felt heavy, dry, and rasping, resembling the breathing of an old man nearing death. A cold sense of dread seized his mind as he realized that the system was not bluffing. The transaction had demanded a very real price.

[CURRENT MERIDIAN STATUS: LOCKED.]

"Locked... again?" Wu Chen whispered hoarsely, his blurred eyes staring blankly at the final line of red text before his consciousness finally collapsed.

"Fucking transaction..."

Li Jian Nan's battered, emaciated body finally toppled sideways, falling unconscious onto the cold, muddy ground beside the foul-smelling corpses of the monsters as a light rain began to fall over the ruined temple.