Chapter 1

The curving, stone left arm spun through the air, smashing into the floating Black Goat Mask.

The stone arm was incredibly sturdy, no less so than the [Steel Rod] he’d pulled from a crate earlier.

And because it originated from a human body, the energy conduction of Ripple Qi was excellent. Whether used as a hammer or thrown like a hidden weapon, it was top-notch.

It just looked a bit bizarre and macabre...

*Thud*

The Black Goat Mask, unleashing its full power, was struck head-on by the flying left arm. The Ripple energy clinging to the arm, like maggots in a bone, not only stuck firmly to the mask but also constantly eroded the wisps of black energy on its surface.

This mask, from the private collection of a Gypsy witch, was the legacy of a notorious voodoo sorcerer and possessed an uncanny quality.

After being attached to an abnormal organ, it awakened a primitive sentience close to instinct, knowing how to seek advantage and avoid harm. It immediately spun in place, flinging the arm away.

Unfortunately, Li Ang had already charged forward, deftly catching the stone left arm as it fell from the sky. He leaped high, gripping the stone arm tightly, and slammed it down hard on the mask.

The mask tried to fly away, but Li Ang casually unleashed a [Scatter of Shattered Objects], releasing an invisible repulsive force that bounced it back, right into the path of the stone arm.

*Clang*

The Goat Mask was smashed to pieces, along with the two halves of the lung embedded within, and fell to the ground.

[Abnormal Lung Cleared. Six Abnormal Organs Remaining]

The system notification rang in his ears. Li Ang frowned and hurried toward the forest cat lying on the ground.

The Siberian girl was rolling around, her face deathly pale, her eyes bulging like fish eyes, the veins in her swan-like neck bulging, her slender hands constantly clawing at her throat, tearing out strips of bloody flesh.

"Hiss, the ability is still in effect?" Miss Chai said in surprise, "What do we do? Can we save her?"

In the script mission, every teammate was a valuable asset, and at critical moments, they could be used as cannon fodder or meat shields, which was very useful.

The forest cat's pale eyes stared fixedly at Li Ang, her eyes filled with an intense desire for survival.

Save me, I don't want to die, save me.

Li Ang frowned tightly, using his left hand to pry open her upper jaw and his right hand to pry open her lower jaw, lifting her halfway into the air. Using his cat eyes' night vision, he looked into the girl’s throat.

In her throat, a huge, red-black polyp, resembling a tumor, had grown inexplicably, constantly wriggling and expanding, completely blocking her airway and mouth. It was extremely disgusting and filthy, enough to cause physical discomfort in ordinary people just by looking at it.

This was the root of the forest cat's suffocation.

As soon as Li Ang put his hand into the forest cat's mouth, the polyp seemed to sense something, vibrating violently, frantically squeezing the forest cat's airway.

If he tried to forcibly pull the polyp out, the forest cat would probably die from her throat bursting first.

"Bear with it."

Li Ang said coldly, putting the forest cat on the ground, pressing her forehead with his elbow to prevent her from struggling violently.

Then, he pulled out a sharp small knife from the tactical suit on his lower leg and located a soybean-sized depression 2-3 cm below the forest cat's Adam's apple.

(Both men and women have Adam's apples, but men's Adam's apples are more prominent)

This depression, located between the thyroid cartilage and the cricoid cartilage, was the location of the cricothyroid membrane—the cricothyroid membrane was only a thin membrane, behind which was the trachea, and there were no vital organs around it.

Li Ang slashed down with the knife, the sharp blade neatly and accurately piercing the forest cat's cricothyroid membrane.

"Hiss—ha—"

The forest cat suddenly tensed up, her eyes widened. She felt a trickle of fresh air flowing from the outside into the opening of the cricothyroid membrane, entering her trachea, greatly relieving the feeling of suffocation.

Taking advantage of this breath, she sat up, covering the slit in her throat with one hand, and scribbling in the air with the other, murmuring a spell in a weak voice.

After a moment, her face turned green, and she vomited out a large mass of red-black, viscous flesh.

The polyp fell to the ground, still wriggling slowly as if it were alive, but before it could crawl far, it was shattered into pieces by the forest cat's palm from a distance.

The Siberian girl, covering her throat, stood up with difficulty, looking very embarrassed. She nodded gratefully to Li Ang and took out a stack of black bandages from her backpack, wrapping them around her neck several times.

[Name: Harpy Banshee Bandage]

[Type: Consumable. Disappears after two uses]

[Quality: Ordinary]

[Effect: Healing Pity. Wraps the injured area, slowly healing a non-fatal, minor wound]

[Consumption: 100 points of Ling energy, 40 points of Sanity]

[Usage Condition: None]

[Note: Harpy Banshees live on cliffs. Their black hair is a symbol of vitality. Only humans who are recognized and loved by them can obtain a roll of bandage woven from the banshee's hair]

As the effect of the black bandage took effect, the forest cat's severed cricothyroid membrane began to heal slowly. After half a minute, she could speak again.

"...Thank you."

The forest cat nodded gratefully to Li Ang, and said in a somewhat hoarse and deep voice, "Was that a cricothyroidotomy?"

"Yeah."

Li Ang nodded.

Cricothyroidotomy is one of the emergency methods used clinically for patients with severe difficulty breathing. It involves cutting the cricothyroid membrane to allow outside air to enter the organs of those with breathing difficulties. It is simple, fast, and efficient.

Li Ang had mastered various clinical first aid skills many years ago, but Dahuang downstairs had always resisted to the death, so he didn't have many opportunities to experiment. Today was his first time performing a cricothyroidotomy.

Dahuang, you are too stubborn.

Li Ang looked at the forest cat, who kept expressing gratitude, and waved his hand indifferently. In his heart, he was still thinking about what had just happened.

As the forum's highlighted posts said, in script missions, if you don't have any subjective or objective malice and try to help teammates in danger,

you will not be subject to teammate damage judgment, and you will not be punished by the system afterwards.

(There are many highlighted posts uploaded by players on the forum. You can read the beginning of some of them, but you have to pay a certain amount of game currency for the rest, about one to ten points. The value of the content is judged by the moderators to prevent people from maliciously harming newbies with garbage highlighted posts.)

Li Ang pulled back his thoughts and looked at the forest cat and said indifferently: "Do you feel better?"

"Yeah." The girl nodded, pointed to the pieces of polyp on the ground and said hoarsely: "This thing is a bit like a voodoo curse.

I guess the mask with supernatural abilities and the special lungs produced some kind of alchemical reaction, generating a special skill."

As she spoke, the forest cat's face turned slightly red. She was a level 10 player, but she was almost killed by this polyp curse with a rather low level of occultism. It was really not supposed to happen.

But there was nothing she could do about it. As an occultist, most of the forest cat's abilities required her to chant spells and use gestures to release them.

The suffocating polyp curse happened to restrain her.

She shook her head and came back to her senses, only to see Li Ang squatting on the ground, taking out plastic ziplock bags from somewhere, his eyes glowing, using a knife to constantly poke at the pieces of polyp on the ground, putting them all into the bag,

and stuffing the mask fragments and shriveled lungs into different ziplock bags.

"Can't waste it, it's all good stuff."

Li Ang kept mumbling, with that faint chuckle, he was like... a mental patient addicted to collecting trash.