After an Infinite Flow Player Retires

Chapter 18

Four days ago.

The bureau began investigating a new case.

Although it was similarly a disappearance case, it was not the same as the case with the skinned girl.

The victims this time shared no similarities. Apart from the elderly, there were also men, women as well as children. They all disappeared overnight without a trace, leaving an orderly room and no signs of damage to the doors or windows. It was like they had disappeared into thin air. The authorities initially were not able to connect the cases but one day, a neglected clue entered their sights.

Some strange traces would always be found in the homes of the missing victims.

Dark and corroded wood, climbing marks in dark corners of the room, as well as traces of insect eggs scattered on the ground.

After investigating extensively for several days with no avail, the police contacted their last hope, the Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau.

And Zhao Dong was the unfortunate one sent over to help.

"….I brought the equipment to the crime scene. Everything was clean and tidy, nothing looked unusual." Zhao Dong spoke slowly, "But the moment it approached those things, the alarm on it started to go off frantically. I had never seen such high readings before. I initially thought there was a problem with the equipment but after I changed it, it was still the same."

"I quickly made a report. The people above were very concerned about this matter so they said that they would soon send someone over to deal with it….."

Cheng Cezhi asked with a blank face: "That….What went wrong?"

Zhao Dong smiled bitterly, "Nothing went wrong."

—- That was the most puzzling part.

On the night of the mission, Zhao Dong went home to rest as usual.

In the middle of the night, he was awakened from his sleep by an itchy sensation at his ankle. While scratching it in a still sleepy state, he felt something swollen and soft. It was as if there was something squirming around under the skin.

Zhao Dong abruptly woke up and hurriedly turned on the light. To his horror, he discovered that his ankle was no longer how it used to be.

Cheng Cezhi listened to Zhao Dong's retelling of what happened with a horrified expression on his face. He was so scared, his face turned pale, "T-t-then what do we do?! You can't let them a-actually crawl out of your body!"

Please read this from kk translates

"We have already contacted the people above. They sent an A-Level combat team over and should be here in the next two days." Zhao Dong sighed, "Haa, I hope they have a solution for this…."

Ye Jia who stood on the side didn't interrupt the entire time. It was as if he hadn't been paying attention to the conversation between the two at all. His eyes were lowered slightly as his gaze fell onto Zhao Dong's pair of horrific looking legs. His expression was unprecedentedly solemn.

—- That's right. He knew what this was.

Even in the game, this was one of the most difficult and terrible monster to deal with.

Ghost-faced Spider.

It was a terrible and evil creature that liked to travel around in groups of up to a thousand of them. They would kidnap humans and bring them back to their nest as food for the queen or to use as vessels for the eggs.

During the reproductive stage, the queen would only lay their eggs in a healthy human body after careful selection while ordinary spider soldiers aren't so picky and would leave their eggs wherever they go. These eggs would be in an incubation stage for up to a week before randomly finding a nearby human host. It would then grow inside the human body and slowly eat the host from the inside.

In the game, just the queen alone was at least B+ or more, or even an A+ level monster.

The entire nest together would be close to an S-Level difficulty.

They reproduce extremely quickly and can consume an entire city within a few weeks.

What was even more terrifying was that if a person was parasitised by their eggs, the eggs cannot be forcibly taken out using ordinary means as the larvae may be stimulated, speeding up the host's death as a result.

Apart from using the secretions from the queen's stomach to lure the larvae out, there was pretty much no other alternative.

This was definitely a big problem.

And he couldn't pin his hopes on the dispatched combat team. They didn't understand the habits of these creatures at all. On the contrary, the situation may become even more out of control due to their interference.

Ye Jia glanced at Zhao Dong who laid in the isolation ward. He sighed internally.

Forget it. He was after all a comrade who often helped him leave work early and would also help out with his share of work without any complaints. He should make a small trip.

—- This was probably the comradery between corporate slaves.

.

The first step to obtaining the queen's fluids would be to find their nest.

Ye Jia activated his ghost domain and visited the police station first to destroy the unhatched eggs that were still in their hands and then roughly checked the location where the disappearances had happened. He had a general understanding inside.

In the entire colony, except for the queen, the rest of the spider soldiers were just working soldiers with low intelligence. They never considered the law of 'not eating the grass outside the nest' and instead chose to do the opposite.

Ye Jia's line of sight fell onto an abandoned construction site on the map. He made a rough estimate.

It's probably here.

The next steps were for the small black hand to complete——

Ye Jia stood on the edge of the abandoned construction site. He ruthlessly pulled out the small black hand that was clinging to his sounder with an iron grip, "Here. Go search."

The small black hand struggled madly, "Ahhhhhhh I don't want to. Ghost-faced spiders are too scarryyyy——"

Ye Jia, "I'll let you play on the phone tonight."

"……."

The small black hand suddenly became spirited, "Yes boss! Thank you boss! I'll get going boss!"

Soon, with the help of the small black hand who was extremely sensitive to yin energy, Ye Jia was able to find the entrance to their nest without too much effort.

It was an abandoned building.

It seemed to be an unfinished project left behind following rapid expansion of the city. Because it was located on the edge of the city, it had been overlooked for at least five or six years.

The ground was overgrown with weeds, messy graffiti were littered across the dirty walls and the doors and windows missing covers were like hollow eyes staring at the gloomy sky in the distance. The entire building was enveloped in dark energy. Even ordinary people without the ability to see would inexplicably feel fearful and shudder.

The ground had already collapsed many years ago, revealing a large black hole in the centre.

Ye Jia stood at the entrance to the hole and looked down.

A foul, decaying odour emanated from it. One could also faintly hear some rustlings sounds.

This was it.

"How do you plan to enter?" The small black hand poked its head out from Ye Jia's shoulder and asked him this curiously.

Ye Jia didn't answer this question. He instead looked thoughtfully at the dark hole before him.

This was the most critical step two —- Enter the nest.

At the same time, it was also the most difficult step.

These ghost-faced spiders had poor eyesight but it's sense of smell far exceeded others, especially towards the scent of fresh humans. What's more, there must be a lot of webs set up around the nest —- Those were their extended sensory organs. If anyone or anything wanted to sneak in and kill the queen who is protected by thousands of spider soldiers, it was practically as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

But, it wasn't impossible.

Ye Jia slowly put on his hood and lowered it down.

The next second, a wisp of cold ghost energy slowly spread from his body. It quickly enveloped him.

In just a few short seconds, the air around his entire body became the same as that of a fierce ghost's.

The small black hand stared at the young man before it in shock.

Not only did the air changed, but externally, the young man's appearance also became like that of a real ghost. The dark hood firmly covered the majority of his face, leaving only his pale and sharp chin exposed and dark smoky air surrounded him, making his figure hazy and indistinct. It was as if there was a layer around him that couldn't be seen through.

"This…….this……" The small black hand was stunned speechless, "You're too strong!"

It circled around Ye Jia incredulously, "Are you really human?"

Ye Jia: "………."

Even through that layer of dark smoky air, the small black hand could sense his threatening look. It trembled and quickly hurried back to Ye Jia's shoulder and spoke as if nothing had happened, "Cough, uh anyway, let's go!"

The ghost-faced spider's cave was dark and deep.

Ye Jia carefully walked through the entrance of the cave, The ground under him was slippery and rugged, and dusty spider webs covered the narrow passage like a net, making it difficult for him to navigate through.

When he reached the end of the passage, the space in front of him suddenly broadened.

Ye Jia raised his eyes and examined the scene in front of him in awe.

After so many years of playing in the game, Ye Jia's night vision had improved considerably. Borrowing the faint light entering the cave from the entrance behind him, Ye Jia was able to get a clear view of the scene before him.

Ghost-faced spiders had already dug through the entire ground below.

The cave before him was astonishingly large with countless strange passages shuttling through it. It was so dark, no one knew where they led. From the bottom to the top, it was covered in layers and layers of web and foul rotting stench filled the air.

This was one of the biggest ghost-faced spider nest Ye Jia had ever seen.

It was hard imagining how these monsters had managed to sneak into reality and create such a large kingdom for itself underground, constantly preying, multiplying, invading….

It was like a malignant tumour growing under the city's skin.

Such a huge lair, the spider soldiers as well as the queen must be at least A-level or greater.

But strangely enough, he hadn't encountered a spider soldier yet.

But that was a good thing for him.

Please read this from kk translates

A faint blue ghost fire rose from Ye Jia's fingertip. He bent down and brought the fire close to the web on the ground.

A trace of bright red appeared on the web.

It was a trace of human life.

—- All living humans were brought here as the queen's food reserve or to be used as vessels for the eggs. Where there are humans, you will also find the queen.

Ye Jia followed the faint trace of human life.

After concealing the human scent on his body, his entire existence almost blended in with the cave. As long as the spider soldiers didn't deliberately look around, it was almost impossible for them to distinguish his footsteps from the slight breeze shaking the webs.

His figure was like a flitting shadow. He followed the windy passages in the cave, quietly sneaking deeper and deeper in.

The further inside, the denser the webs became. Layers and layers of sticky web covered the entire passage, almost sealing it tight. The rancid smell in the air also grew stronger to the point where it made breathing difficult.

Suddenly, Ye Jia's hand touched something.

Soft and slimy, covered in spider web.

He turned and looked over.

The dim ghost fire barely dissipated some of the darkness. Under the faint light, Ye Jia was met with an upside-down pale face whose eyes were turbid and half closed, and mouth was open and twisted. The face looked like a melting wax figure.

Ye Jia narrowed his eyes slightly.

He cautiously distanced himself from the face in front of him and then increased the intensity of the ghost fire at his fingertip.

There was a huge nest in front of him. The webs on the ground were covered with rotting corpses. Some had been chewed up and mutilated while others only had a handful of bones left.

Countless humans were wrapped in spider web like pupae. They hung upside down in the cave with faces equally pale, vacant and stiff. In their stomachs, one could faintly see a moving bulge. It was as if there was something growing inside those bodies.

This was the ghost-faced spider's nursery.

The queen should be nearby.

Just as Ye Jia was about to extinguish the ghost fire at the tip of his finger, a large black shadow suddenly appeared not too far way from him. Six black and hairy legs stretched out from a huge tan body. On its ugly face, six eyes stared viciously at him with its mouth baring sharp fangs.

Oh no, spider soldier.

A faint cold light appeared at Ye Jia's fingertip.

But unexpectedly, the spider soldier didn't make any attempts to attack him.

Its fangs opened and closed, making a clicking sound. A guttural hiss sounded from its throat, "Attending the meeting?"

Meeting?

The light on Ye Jia's fingertip flickered. He quietly made a sound of affirmation.

"You're going the wrong way." The spider soldier hissed, "Come with me."

"The queen is already impatient."

After saying this, it turned and shuffled down the passage it came from.

Being taken directly to the queen. This was pretty much like hitting the jackpot.

Ye Jia hooked up his lips.

He stored away the ghost fire and followed along.

****(KKnotes: From the authors note, the ghost-faced spider is just a made up species where a couple of different insect natures/traits are mixed together. Please ignore all the inaccuracies and just take it with a grain of salt.)