I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 259: Chapter 224: The Living Creature in the Divine Dice

’So this isn’t an illusion anymore...’ Su Ze realized. The death experience was over!

But from the looks of it, the fourth trial hadn’t ended yet.

If the trial were over, he should have received his rewards and been sent back to the Dice Space.

Su Ze looked for Mr. Ya and found him not far away, his eyes still vacant. It seemed he was still in the ”one hundred ways to die” phase.

The thirteen of them, all Trialists, stood scattered across a clearing. The area was quite large, with soft earth underfoot, but not a single plant grew there.

At the edge of the clearing, a ring of chaotic gray matter blocked their path, trapping the thirteen of them within the open space.

Su Ze tried to walk over to Mr. Ya, but an invisible wall blocked him.

”So this clearing is divided into thirteen sections, one for each Trialist, so we can’t interfere with each other,” Su Ze muttered to himself.

The thirteen Trialists gradually finished the ”experience one hundred ways to die” phase and regained their senses... all except for Mr. Ya.

Just like in the first trial, Mr. Ya was the last one to finish. The next part of the trial wouldn’t begin until he came to, so everyone had to wait for him.

Su Ze had a good idea of what was happening. Mr. Ya’s survival skills were too strong. Although he couldn’t pass those tests, he wasn’t easy to kill either. He must have taken a long time to die in each scenario.

Therefore, his total time would naturally be the longest.

Mr. Ya finally came to his senses and apologized to the others with a smile.

At the same time, Mr. Ya quietly sent Su Ze a Spiritual Transmission.

The invisible wall between them restricted their movement, but it didn’t block Spiritual Transmissions.

”Boss, I’ve discovered a secret...”

Mr. Ya’s mysterious voice echoed in Su Ze’s mind, recounting a secret he had just uncovered while experiencing the hundred ways to die.

The test Mr. Ya faced was identical to Su Ze’s. He also encountered the giant purple ladybug in the first round, but unlike Su Ze, he successfully escaped its pursuit.

So, Mr. Ya survived the first round.

But he still went through all the other rounds that Su Ze had experienced.

This meant that surviving one of the rounds didn’t end the experience. You had to go through every single death scenario to escape the illusion.

Su Ze just happened to be the one who broke the cycle on the final round.

But that wasn’t the main point. Back to the topic... because Mr. Ya had survived the first round, he didn’t know that dying in those illusions wasn’t real death. So, when he was about to die in the second round, he still did everything he could to escape.

To survive, he used his ”Void” skill, trying to escape the Trial Space.

As a result, perhaps because the ”Void” skill was of such a high level, it directly pulled him out of the illusion and into the real Trial Space they were in now.

”I saw this clearing, and I saw all the other Trialists, including you, Boss. You were all still trapped in the illusion. While I still had time left on ’Void,’ I went beneath this clearing we’re standing on.”

”The earth under our feet looks thick, but it’s actually just a thin layer, only about a meter deep. Below the soil, there’s a hard shell made of some unknown material. It’s incredibly tough and blocks all spiritual probes. I was curious, so I passed through the shell to take a look.”

Listening to Mr. Ya’s story, Su Ze’s interest was piqued. He also used Spiritual Transmission to ask, ”And then? What’s down there?”

”There’s a living creature down there!”

Mr. Ya’s words sent a jolt through Su Ze. ’A living creature? What exactly qualifies as a living creature?’

’Something with life is a living creature!’

The crystal people and purple-skinned people they had encountered in previous trials were just temporary creations made by the Divine Dice using powers beyond their comprehension. In the end, they were just programs, not true life forms.

”Are you sure it’s a living creature with life, just like us?” Su Ze confirmed again.

”I’m positive. In my ’Void’ state, my body breaks down into the tiniest particles, and I can see the composition of anything. Something like the crystal people would just look like a pile of energy to me. But the thing under our feet, it’s made of flesh and blood!” Mr. Ya said with certainty.

This news was simply too shocking!

’Inside the Divine Dice, which has existed for who knows how many years, there’s actually a living being. What is its identity? The creator of the Divine Dice, or...?’

”Did you get a clear look at what species it is? Human or beast?” Su Ze asked.

”Definitely not human. It’s huge, so it must be a beast. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t get to see the whole thing, but I could sense that it’s in a deep sleep, and a very high-level energy is suppressing or sealing it.”

”’Suppressed? Sealed? Then it’s definitely not the creator of the Divine Dice. It must be something imprisoned in this Trial Space by the creator,’” Su Ze guessed.

He then recalled how different the start of this trial had been. They had been sucked into the Trial Space, with a distinct sensation of physical movement, unlike the previous rounds where they were teleported into the Trial Space before they could even react.

’There’s one more thing... at the beginning, there were so many Trialists, and each had their own independent Trial Space.’

’But now, the thirteen of us have to share the same Trial Space, crowded into this one clearing.’

’Perhaps the difference between this Trial Space and the previous ones is that this space is completely ”real”—an objectively existing space.’

’The previous Trial Spaces we experienced might have had illusory components or were temporary spaces constructed from energy.’

Before Su Ze could think any deeper, the clearing they were in finally stirred.

In each of the thirteen Trialists’ sections, surges of blue energy began to pour out from the ground. This energy eventually coalesced into various shapes, forming thirteen different-looking beasts!

Thirteen Trialists, thirteen beasts—one beast appeared in each person’s section.

The green light of evolution on these beasts flickered, and their auras were highly unstable... The state looked familiar to Su Ze, much like the Liquid Turbellaria he had hunted before.

They were all fourth-rank beasts, but their power had been sealed, allowing them to only exert the combat strength of third-rank beasts.

Many of the prodigies from Lin Hua Country were present, and Su Ze wasn’t the only one who had been to the Royal Hunting Ground. Others also recognized the state of these beasts at a glance.

In that instant, everyone understood. This was the true content of the fourth trial: to hunt a fourth-rank beast whose power was suppressed to the third rank!

Su Ze frowned at these beasts formed from unknown energy. ’Are they real? Or are they like the blue-skinned people and crystal people from before, just temporary creations?’

Recalling that the energy forming these beasts had surged from underground, Su Ze guessed their appearance might be related to the sealed beast beneath them.

There was no time to think. The beasts were already attacking the Trialists.

Su Ze’s opponent was a massive beast over eight meters tall. Its body was a mass of knotted muscles, making it look as imposing as a mountain and exuding a sense of power.

It looked a lot like a kangaroo, except its forelimbs were much thicker, and its skin was purple.

The giant Kangaroo Beast locked onto Su Ze and unleashed a punch that came down from the heavens.

Su Ze activated ”Ant Power” and met the punch head-on.

And was hammered into the ground.

He wasn’t seriously injured, though. It was mainly due to the disadvantage in size.

Su Ze pulled himself out of the dirt, shaking his aching right hand. He glanced at the Kangaroo Beast’s powerful arms and had to admit that its last punch was incredibly strong!

Su Ze now had a rough understanding of the Kangaroo Beast’s strength. He estimated it was about on par with the power-sealed Liquid Turbellaria.

Moreover, the Liquid Turbellaria’s abilities were bizarre. This big kangaroo was relatively simple in comparison; it only knew how to punch, relying on brute force.

Su Ze had successfully hunted the Liquid Turbellaria right after entering the Butterfly Stage. His strength had improved by leaps and bounds since then, so dealing with this big Kangaroo Beast was not a problem at all.

SWISH, SWISH, SWISH...

Su Ze entered his liquid form, split into ten, and surrounded the Kangaroo Beast.

The Kangaroo Beast rained down punches with both fists, hammering Su Ze’s Liquid Clones continuously like a game of Whac-A-Mole.

But the Liquid Clones had nothing to fear from purely physical attacks. They simply turned into ten puddles of water and seeped into the soil, letting it punch all it wanted.

The Kangaroo Beast used its powerful punching skill again, madly pounding the ground. Experiencing it firsthand, Su Ze felt that the beast’s fists carried many strange properties, such as a bleeding effect and a healing reduction debuff...

’Why would a punching skill have all these flashy bells and whistles?’

As for more fitting properties like ”Shatter,” those were to be expected.

Of course, Su Ze wasn’t just going to take a beating. He immediately launched a counterattack. His ten clones simultaneously used the ”Furious Waves” skill from right under the Kangaroo Beast’s feet.

In an instant, the earth shook and the ground split!

The violent shockwaves and intense, high-frequency vibrations shook the Kangaroo Beast so hard it was about to undergo plasmolysis. The ten-stacked Dizziness effect knocked it unconscious on the spot.

BOOM!

The Kangaroo Beast’s massive body crashed to the ground.

Kicking it while it was down, Su Ze controlled his Perception Tentacles to quickly burrow into the Kangaroo Beast’s body. Then, his ten clones simultaneously discharged electricity...

The Kangaroo Beast twitched a couple of times and then went still.

Su Ze had finished his fight in a matter of moments. Looking at the other Trialists, most were being chased around chaotically by their beasts, while a few were locked in a bitter struggle.

The scene over by Mr. Ya was in a league of its own. His opponent was an elephant, chasing him and lashing out with its long trunk. The trunk would also periodically unleash all sorts of bizarre attack skills.

However, Mr. Ya was dodging with ease, and hadn’t been hit a single time from start to finish.

It was clear the battle between this man and this elephant would be a war of attrition.

Su Ze stared at the Kangaroo Beast he had successfully killed, wondering if the energy-formed beast would dissipate back into energy upon death.

But to his surprise, wisps of green energy flew out from the Kangaroo Beast’s body, stripping out some colorful Evolutionary Material along with them. With a SWOOSH, they all drilled into Su Ze’s body.