The fairy maid cheers for her deceased master today.

bang bang bang!

With a heavy thud, the warehouse door closed behind us.

Who did this?!

The banging of the door echoed through the empty warehouse. Angel screamed in fright and threw herself into X's arms. Her blue eyes widened in shock.

"Master, wh, what's wrong! Ah, Master! The door is locked!"

X gripped his revolver tightly. He immediately stopped looking at the door and looked ahead, wary of any attack.

Irena has already assumed a fighting stance.

A green light emanated from her fingertips, and vines sprouted from the ground, wrapping around the doorknob. Then, with a creak, the door slowly opened a crack.

But the next moment, black mud seeped out of the door.

The black mud enveloped the vines, which instantly dried up and hardened, falling crisply to the ground.

"No," Elena said through gritted teeth, "this door is starting to become a deep swamp."

Not only the door, but also the walls and ceiling of the warehouse were gradually seeping out black mud. The sky seemed to darken a bit as a result.

At the same time, Angel suddenly covered her ears and squatted down. Her body trembled like a falling leaf.

"They're here!" she cried, distressed. "So many of them!"

Ex frowned. He strained his ears. He couldn't hear anything except his own fake heartbeat. Dead people don't have very good hearing to begin with.

But this scene stirred up X's memories. The last time Angel cried out like that and seemed to be in so much pain... was when she heard the cries of some strange creatures in the "Rain World".

Angel's behavior... was a harbinger of the enemy's arrival.

Before Angel could finish speaking, something moved in the shadows of a corner of the warehouse.

X immediately raised his gun. With the help of sunlight filtering through the broken roof, he finally saw what it was.

A humanoid creature.

Its skin was ashen and covered in blisters. It had no face and emitted a foul stench. Its limbs were twisted at unnatural angles. Its barely formed fingers were long and black, like rusty iron hooks.

The other party avoided the beam of light, circled around, and swayed like a zombie.

"A swamp mutated creature," Elena whispered, "and also... a completely corrupted being."

More strange creatures emerged from the shadows. Some resembled wild beasts, crawling on all fours. Others resembled humans, walking upright and unsteadily. They had one thing in common—they were like creatures of black mud, covered in mud, and exuding a swampy stench.

Since transmigrating to this world, he has heard the word "alien species" countless times. He has even personally witnessed fictional alien species in a mental world like the "Rain World".

But now... X has finally seen the complete Swamp Xenomorph in reality.

According to the pirated book, the Swamp Species can grow sticky tentacles, and each tentacle has a breathing eye at the end... But the real Swamp Species is just a lump of black mud that can be shaped.

It was indeed a pirated book.

"How did they get here?" Ax asked.

What X really wanted to ask was, where did the alien species come from?

Let's leave aside the "Rain World" for now; it's just a reflection of the real world. It's normal for there to be other species there.

But this was the first time X had ever seen a mutant in the real world.

"The first possibility is that the alien species from the wild came along the pipes." Elena pointed to the huge steam pipes on the side of the warehouse. "These pipes lead to various places. They may include the contaminated swamp area."

So, are there already polluted areas outside the city?

"Another possibility—"

Irene didn't have time to continue.

A mutated creature lunged at her. Its rotting hand reached for her face.

X immediately fired his gun, pulling the panicked Angel behind him and away from the aliens.

boom!

The bullet grazed the mutant's head, only knocking off a chunk of black sludge. The mutant swayed, then continued forward.

But Irene had already raised her hand.

"Act One: The Vine Cage"

Elena's vines wrapped around the alien's ankle. Tripping it. Then completely enveloping and trapping it.

But more alien species surrounded them.

A green light flashed, and more vines sprouted from the ground, temporarily blocking the alien species.

X fired several shots, but to no avail, and immediately realized that something was wrong.

"Without the blessing of the Holy Path Fairy..."

Back in the Rain World, his revolver only had unlimited ammunition and special power thanks to a blessing.

Wait a minute, isn't there a Holy Path Fairy right here?

What a coincidence!

So Ex shouted, "Elena, give me a blessing!"

"What blessing?!" Elena shouted. "I don't know how, I can only fight it out!"

Ex: "?"

Angel finally came to her senses. Blue light emanated from her fingertips, and ice flowers bloomed in her palm.

She threw the ice flower at the nearest mutant. The ice flower struck the mutant's face with a crisp sound. The mutant took a step back. A thin layer of ice formed on its skin.

"It works!" AX's eyes lit up. "Angel, keep using the ice flower!"

"But Master! There are too many of them!" Angel was both scared and anxious. She banged ice flowers into the ground, creating a wall of ice.

We managed to create a temporary safe zone.

More alien species surrounded them. Their viscous, rotting limbs were completely blocked by the ice wall. The low temperature also slowed their movements.

X continued firing. The revolver fired in rapid succession.

But even after a revolver of bullets was used up, it only left small holes in the aliens. The holes were quickly filled in again.

The alien species doesn't care at all.

"Ordinary weapons won't work!" Elena gritted her teeth. "We need magic! Or—a silver weapon."

So, silver is effective against swamp aliens, and silver bullets are needed?

No wonder the Holy Church likes silver products so much.

Ex quickly scanned the warehouse. His gaze fell on the abandoned machinery in the corner: rusty gears, broken steam pipes, and a pile of other old tools.

"Got it!" X shouted. "Elena, Angel, buy me thirty seconds! I need to get to the corner!"

Elena was somewhat puzzled.

What's the point of gaining thirty seconds?

However, she immediately got to work with Angel.

Elena's vines grew wildly, like giant green pythons, coiling around any approaching alien species.

Not only that, Elena's eyes were flashing green, clearly indicating that she was increasing her magical output. The vines binding the alien creature were sizzling, beginning to resist the black mud's corrosive influence.

Angel's ice flowers bloomed continuously, forming an ice wall to temporarily isolate the alien species. However, the continuous casting of spells also brought severe fatigue.

Angel didn't need to show it. Perhaps because of the contract, X could sense it intuitively.

The two fairies worked together to build a safe passage to the corner.

"Hold on!" Elena shouted, "There are too many mutants, I can't hold on much longer!"

X had already rushed to the corner. His fingers moved rapidly across the debris. The formula for equivalent exchange flashed through his mind.

How to manufacture a high-pressure steam ejector using rusted gears and a broken steam pipe?

Or should we use an old wrench and a broken glass bottle to make a spiked bomb?

More powerful firepower can delay the enemy.

But Ax shook his head.

No, we need real silver weapons. The materials here are limited; we can't waste them.

We need something more lethal, and more durable.

[Equivalent exchange initiated: scraps of silver-plated iron sheet (factory surplus from 1840, plating peeled off) + fragments of an old cast iron plowshare (worn out of use in 1830) + borax powder from a warehouse (chemical waste can leaked in 1823) + dried waste oak firewood (fuel) = silver-containing blade (silver-iron alloy blade)]

[Equivalent exchange initiated: Discarded old oak handle (broken piece from 1844) + rusted iron spool (factory discarded from 1835) + bent copper nail (woodworking waste from 1835) + discarded beeswax from a warehouse corner (damaged jar from 1829) = hardwood sickle handle with metal band]

There was a lot of scrap in the corner, but fortunately the Pure Beauty Poem system automatically recommended the most suitable scrap, saving time searching for materials.

The silver-infused blade was embedded into the iron band of the hardwood sickle handle with its metal ferrule, and then it was slammed heavily onto the ground. Assembly complete.

Then X grabbed his scythe and charged at the nearest alien.