Cheat Awakening-Chapter 716. Two Roads, One Regret

Kran wore a white coat. Although his face appeared stern, he was deeply serious about his work. He carefully placed the hair and skin samples of the nightwalker he had previously collected into a container and then began to analyse their components meticulously.

"The nightwalker from before was my primary experimental subject. When I first injected it, I could only recall its consciousness for a few seconds, but that was half a year ago. Over the past six months, I have been collecting samples and continuously developing and modifying the treatment. Gradually, it can now possess some consciousness at night and will instinctively come to me for medication, so I no longer have to search for it."

Kran peered into the microscope, then looked up and whispered emotionally, "Deep in their hearts, they all harbour a longing to become human again."

Myne remained silent. He had actually discerned the difference between the two main mission choices very early on.

The first option was the destruction route: destroying the large oak tree at the source of the virus. All the zombies and nightwalkers in the city would be completely eradicated, like the thoroughly contaminated monsters in the previous dungeon, leaving only the survivors in the tower who were infected.

The second option was the rescue route: the key figure was Kran before him. He would need help to develop a potion capable of curing all zombies and nightwalkers, thus saving the entire city.

"The second one is obviously much more difficult. You have to enter the nightwalkers' lair to retrieve the pathogen sample from the large oak tree. Moreover," Myne looked at Kran, especially at the { ! } floating above his head, and asked with a poker face, "Have you lost anything important or something you can't get back now?"

Kran was slightly stunned, unsure why Myne had suddenly asked this.

He lowered his head and pondered for a moment before answering hesitantly, "When I was eighteen, I fell in love with a girl, and I lost her."

Myne was silent for a moment. "Believe it or not, I will kick you to death."

"Huh?"

"I'm asking about specific items you lost, at least something important that could be related to nightwalkers, viruses, big oaks, etc."

"Ah, about that, sorry, I thought we were going to talk about some emotional issues late at night, you know I usually don't have anyone to talk to, hahaha," A touch of melancholy flickered across Kran's face, which he tried to conceal with an awkward laugh.

He seemed a little more cheerful after voicing his inner thoughts. "If it's the past year, I haven't left here much, let alone lost anything."

"What about the time in the tower?" Myne pressed on.

Kran laughed bitterly before shaking his head. "That was even more complicated. I'm a scientific researcher, and I rarely participate in search missions. I stay in the tower for 300 out of 365 days a year. I did lose some things, such as beer bottle openers and hair dryers, but they were all insignificant items."

"There's really nothing that left a deep impression in the past 20 years?"

Myne frowned as he watched Kran ponder.

Was there something wrong with the direction I asked? Or should I approach this exclamation riddle from another angle? Myne thought confusedly.

"Actually, my life hasn't had many ups and downs. Except for the appearance of zombies and turning into a nightwalker, I have always been a humble, insignificant person," Kran said, trying to sound indifferent, but the sadness on his face was evident. Clearly, he wasn't pleased with this useless achievement of his.

"It was because of this that the girl I loved left me."

Myne looked at the other person's emotional state. Knowing this matter couldn't be easily resolved, he simply set aside the { ! } and said, "Sad plot? Did she fall in love with someone else and run away?"

"Or did you do something to let her down, and she kicked your butt and broke up? I have quite a bit of experience in relationship matters. If you want, I can offer some psychological comfort and advice on moving on. Your situation is the most basic one out there, believe me; it's not even worth mentioning."

Kran put down the items in his hands, instinctively wanting to light a cigarette, but he sighed again. "Actually, it's none of those. One afternoon, she asked me to go hiking. She said she had found something very interesting on the top of the mountain. We talked and laughed the whole way. She even kissed me. That was the best moment of my life." freёnovelkiss.com

"Isn't that a good relationship? How did it get lost? Were you not satisfied with a kiss and wanted to do something more fun, which disgusted her, or what?" Myne, clearly more interested in this gossip, instantly became curious and asked, making Kran's mouth twist as he wondered why his love story seemed more captivating to Myne than the matter of saving the world.

Sighing and shaking his head, he closed his eyes and spoke in a sad tone, "Actually, she accidentally slipped and fell off the cliff."

Myne: (￢_￢)

"Lost due to physical reasons, huh! That's also possible. Well, at least this shows she really loved you and wasn't just fooling around," Myne tried to offer Kran some spiritual comfort.

Kran didn't take Myne's joke seriously.

Even before I could fully process her death, the zombie crisis erupted the very next day, preventing any search for her body.

He finally lit a cigarette, inhaling deeply. "Although so many years have passed and I've let it go, every time I think about it, I can't help but wonder how different things would be if I hadn't gone to that goddamn mountain."

As if a realisation dawned on him, Myne suddenly raised his eyebrows and asked with a frown, "You said the zombie crisis broke out the day after she fell?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what interesting thing she wanted to show you?"

Kran, though puzzled by Myne's question, paused to recall before speaking. "She was very fond of oddly shaped stones. She mentioned that while climbing the mountain, she'd accidentally seen a huge red stone under the cliff that glowed. That's what she wanted to show me."

"But I went there later and didn't find any glowing stone."

Myne's eyes narrowed slightly.

"What's wrong?" Seeing Myne's reaction, Kran asked, confused.

"I was just thinking that the system wouldn't go to such great lengths, create so much trouble, only to hide the clues in such an obvious and recent way, right?"

"Although I don't understand what you're talking about, you'd better pay attention to the time. It's almost daytime." Kran glanced at the clock hanging beside him. "I'll soon become a crazed nightwalker. I need to lock myself up. For your safety, you should leave now."

Although having three bodyguards now meant Myne didn't fear nightwalkers as much as before—a few fire bullets from Waffle were more than enough to dispatch them—he still didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble. He nodded, and as the first faint ray of morning sunlight pierced through the clouds, he and his pets came to the ground.

He decided to go to the mountain Kran had mentioned first.

It was essentially a split mission. The other teammates would take the first path, which was relatively safe and get assistance from other NPCs, making it easier. He, as someone with a cheat, could only rely on brute force and had to take the dangerous path alone... with his pets, of course.

Half an hour later.

Myne reached the mountain's summit. Observing the scenery around him, he noted that without humans desperately exploiting and destroying nature, the mountain was clean, green, full of vitality, and offered refreshingly fresh air. It was a distance from the city's central area, and there were very few zombies.

He looked around but didn't see any huge red stones like the ones Kran had described.

Looking down the cliff, he saw a very steep and deep ravine, overgrown with wild plants that obscured everything below.

He tried throwing a stone down and waited for a deep, distant crashing sound.

"It's quite high."

After surveying the area, Myne simply grabbed Waffle's legs and ordered him to fly down. This was the benefit of having flying pets; they were incredibly helpful for exploration.

He wasn't completely unprepared.

Because he currently lacked high combat skills, he had asked Kran for help. The other party had given him a dual-purpose UV flashlight for fighting nightwalkers, a pistol loaded with bullets, and a grenade for dealing with ordinary zombies.

The area was deep, and the light was insufficient.

Myne shook the flashlight, its beam illuminating the ground beneath the steep slope. His eyes flickered slightly.

In a dark corner, he did see a { ? } appear.

As he drew closer, the content of the { ? } was revealed.

{ It is in a half-dormant state and staring at you. }

"?"

Myne's eyes narrowed, and he pointed the flashlight directly at it.

Hidden in the corner's shadows, a nightwalker lay there, looking at him with half-open scarlet eyes.

As the ultraviolet rays struck its skin, it instantly began to burn. It roared strangely and pounced directly at him!

At that moment, Myne also saw more information above the creature's head.

{ It was the first zombie infected with the virus and also the first Nightwalker to be born. }

{ It stayed here for twenty years. }

{ It decided not to let that terrifying and dangerous creature see the light of day again! For the greater good, it even ruined its own life. }