Alienation

The next morning, the fog in Port Grim was thicker than usual, and the salty smell in the air was so strong it was almost choking.

Lu Yuan dressed neatly, having specially changed into a dark trench coat for ease of movement. He tucked a sharpened scalpel into his pocket and a whole bottle of intermediate-grade holy water into an inconspicuous leather pouch at his waist.

"Let's go."

Looking at Brent, who had dark circles under his eyes, at the door, Lu Yuan spoke succinctly.

Brent clearly hadn't slept well either; his dirty little face was full of anxiety.

He led Lu Yuan through the bustling city center, heading towards the lowest-lying and most humid port area.

The further you go in that direction, the more dilapidated the surrounding environment becomes.

The bluestone slabs on the road had turned into mud, and the buildings on both sides had changed from Gothic huts to crooked wooden houses. The air was filled with the stench of rotting things, mixed with the sludge from the sewers, which gave people headaches.

This is the slum of Grimport, and also the closest place to the sea.

"It's just ahead... that low-rent housing."

Brent pointed to a dilapidated black wooden building not far away.

The house looked like it was pieced together from scrap wood salvaged from a ship, covered in moss, and had a pile of garbage that had been sitting against the wall for who knows how long.

Before he even got close, Lu Yuan could smell a fishy odor hanging in the air.

The smell was very strong, even mixed with a bloody odor, which made Lu Yuan subconsciously cover his nose.

Lu Yuan stopped and glanced at the lower right corner of his field of vision.

[Environmental Sensing: Extremely High Concentration of Abnormal Biological Traces]

"Dr. Lu?" Brent turned to look at him, his eyes pleading.

"It's alright, let's go."

Lu Yuan tugged at his collar and followed Brent into the dimly lit stairwell.

The wooden stairs creaked underfoot, the corridor was dark, the doors on both sides were tightly closed, and occasionally a muffled cough could be heard from inside.

"This is the one."

Brent stopped in front of a door with a tattered curtain hanging from it, his hands trembling slightly.

"Uncle...it's me, Brent. I've brought the doctor to see you."

No one responded from inside.

There was only a strange sound, like a wet rag being dragged on the ground, and heavy breathing.

Without saying a word, Lu Yuan reached out and pushed open the door.

The room was pitch black; the windows were boarded up and nailed shut, letting in almost no light. And the stench in the air was incredibly strong.

It took Lu Yuan a few seconds to adjust to the darkness before he could barely make out what was inside the room.

The room was a mess, with water stains and slime everywhere on the floor.

A figure was curled up on a tattered bed in the corner.

Using the faint light filtering through the corridor, Lu Yuan was able to see the "thing" clearly.

It was a bloated monster.

His skin had completely peeled off, revealing grayish-brown scales underneath. His head was swollen and deformed, his eyes bulged to the sides, and his mouth was split open to his ears, revealing a row of fine, sharp teeth.

The most terrifying thing was that there were three bright red cuts on both sides of his neck, which opened and closed with his breathing; those were gills.

[Witnessing a Deeply Mutated Being: Low-Rank Fishman Familiar (Incomplete Form)] [Warning: Sanity assessment in progress... Assessment failed, the target continues to suffer slight sanity contamination.]

A gray warning box popped up.

Lu Yuan remained expressionless and took a half-step back without making a sound.

"Uncle... Uncle?"

Brent hadn't even seen what was on the bed yet when he was about to walk inside.

Lu Yuan reached out and pressed down on Brent's shoulder, pulling him back a little.

"Brent." Lu Yuan stared at the figure in the room, his voice calm. "I need to speak with your uncle alone. Come in later."

"Huh? But..." Brent paused for a moment.

"The treatment requires it, and I don't want anyone to disturb me." Lu Yuan looked at the monster that was slowly turning its head, his tone leaving no room for argument, "Hurry up."

Brent was intimidated by Lu Yuan's stern tone. Although he was worried about his uncle, he gritted his teeth and ran out because of his trust in the "doctor".

As the footsteps faded into the distance, Lu Yuan turned around and closed the door.

But he didn't lock it.

In this confined space, if you can't beat something like this, it's easier to run away.

Lu Yuan turned around, looked at the monster who had already gotten out of bed, and took out a scalpel from his pocket.

"roar……"

The monster let out a low, murky growl, its dead fish eyes fixed on Lu Yuan, and murky slurry dripping from the corner of its mouth.

"It's probably hopeless."

Lu Yuan stared at the monster before him, his hand gripping the hilt of his sword tightly.

"It seems you're about to lose an uncle, Brent. Hopefully, he has other relatives."

Before he could finish speaking, the monster pounced!

The speed is astonishing!

Lu Yuan felt a blur before his eyes, and a stench swept over him.

Instinctively dodging to the side, the monster's webbed and clawed hand slammed hard against the door frame.

"Bang!"

The solid wood door frame was scratched with three deep grooves, and wood chips flew everywhere.

[Low-tier Murloc familiar detected] [Initiating analysis: Head hardness is four times that of a normal human, bone density is... Weak points are located in the gills, eyes, and abdomen.]

Grayish-white text kept appearing in his field of vision, but Lu Yuan only saw a small part of it—the weakness was actually marked directly?!

"Is it gills?"

Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened, and the scalpel in his hand flashed with a cold light as it headed straight for the monster's neck.

But the monster reacted faster than Lu Yuan had imagined; the scales covering its body suddenly opened.

"bite!"

The scalpel struck the scales with a sound like metal clashing, leaving only a white mark.

"Seems like I'm no match... Let me try again."

Lu Yuan made a mental assessment, used the momentum to roll backward, and narrowly avoided the monster's sweeping leg.

The leg was covered in slime, which splattered on the wall, leaving a corrosive black mark.

The room is too small; there's simply no room to move around.

The monster, having missed its first attack, became even more frenzied, opening its massive maw full of sharp teeth and lunging forward once more.

This time, it has blocked all escape routes.

There's no other way.

Lu Yuan's eyes hardened, and he suddenly reached into his robes with his left hand, pulling out the black glass bottle.

He unscrewed the bottle cap, seized the opportunity, and splashed about half of it into the monster's open mouth.

"Sizzle--!"

It's like water being poured into a pot of boiling oil.

The moment the holy water touched the monster's mouth, it burst into a violent burst of white smoke.

"roar--!!"

The monster let out a piercing scream, writhing on the ground in agony, clutching its mouth. The flesh inside its mouth rotted and charred at a visible speed, emitting a nauseating, burnt smell.

"It seems to be working well."

Lu Yuan, panting heavily, retreated to the window, but did not press his advantage.

Because he saw that although the monster was in pain, its scales became even redder under the stimulation of the holy water, and its size even increased. Its originally grayish-brown eyes instantly became bloodshot.

"This thing seems to have entered... stage two?"

[WARNING: Target has entered a berserk state; danger level increased!]

Lu Yuan glanced at the remaining holy water in his hand.

"There's only half a bottle left, I guess we can't kill him."

The monster, whose mouth was sore but whose murderous aura was even stronger, was staring intently at him.

"If we can't win, we'll retreat."

Without hesitation, Lu Yuan grabbed the chair next to him and smashed it hard against the monster. Taking advantage of the moment it blocked the attack, he turned around and reached for the doorknob.

However, at this very moment...

"boom!"

The monster, which had been lying on the ground, suddenly sprang up. Its thick tail swept across, smashing the chair in Lu Yuan's hand to pieces. With the force of the blow, it slammed heavily onto Lu Yuan's back.

"cough!"

Lu Yuan was sent flying and crashed into the wall, nearly spitting out a mouthful of blood.

The monster, its eyes bloodshot, approached step by step, its sharp claws raised high.

Lu Yuan struggled to get up, his hand reaching for the holy water bottle in his arms.

Just as the claws were about to fall.

"Clang--!"

A silver sword light sliced ​​through the dimly lit room like lightning.

Those claws, as hard as iron, were as fragile as tofu in the face of the sword light, breaking in two and twitching as they fell to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a tall, black figure blocked Lu Yuan's path.

A black trench coat, a wide-brimmed hat, and that silver greatsword that emitted a faint glow in the darkness.

"Step back."

The man didn't turn his head, his voice was low and hoarse, and his figure blocked Lu Yuan's way, exuding the aura of a powerful figure.

"Unauthorized personnel, please leave."