Not only is he alive, but his injuries are completely healed.
Yan Luo incredulously raised his left hand and then touched his chest with it.
Although he hadn't done a thorough examination, he was sure that his left hand had been broken, his ribs nearly all fractured, with some even piercing into his internal organs.
Yan Luo could feel the pain emanating from his organs; even a slight movement resulted in unbearable agony, and his spine was indeed broken, leaving him completely immobilized.
But now, his injuries are completely healed!
"...A deathbed hallucination?"
Yan Luo took a deep breath and stood up.
When his gaze swept across the chaotic forest around him, he frowned slightly.
Then, Yan Luo lowered his head to inspect his exoskeleton, tapping on his goggles and helmet.
The goggles were marred with mesh-like cracks, the helmet was unresponsive, and the exoskeleton was a mess, with the front armor bearing dents from the silent hunter lizard's massive blow, making it hard for Yan Luo to breathe.
Seeing this, Yan Luo's expression changed slightly.
Could it be... this isn't a deathbed illusion?
Before his supposed mutual destruction with the silent hunter lizard, Yan Luo hadn't the leisure to notice the deformation of the exoskeleton. Theoretically, if he were experiencing a deathbed hallucination, he shouldn't have been aware of the exoskeleton's damage.
In other words...
"It's real?"
Yan Luo looked around in confusion, his mouth slightly agape, staring blankly at the dark forest cloaked in crimson moonlight.
How could a regular person, sustaining such grave injuries, still be alive?!
And not just alive, his injuries are healed!
Yan Luo squatted down again, his mind in a tangle.
What on earth happened that allowed him to survive, and to heal as well?
The Abyss has been on Blue Star for eighty years now, and when Yan Luo studied related knowledge, he never came across any news or data about something like this.
Squatting there, pondering for a while, Yan Luo was startled back to reality by the sound of birds flapping their wings in the sky.
No matter how you look at it, surviving is a good thing.
Yan Luo rubbed his face, refocusing his attention, trying not to think about how he survived.
It definitely wasn't due to the help of a passing Hunter; with his condition at the time, unless a Second Rank [Redemption Angel] or [Prayer Lord] intervened, there's no way he would have made it.
Yan Luo had no idea how long he'd slept; after waking up, not only was he full of energy, but he also didn't feel the slightest bit hungry—a baffling situation indeed.
Getting his emotions in check, Yan Luo picked up the hand axe from the ground and hooked it onto his thigh.
The backpack was torn apart by the silent hunter lizard, its contents scattered, with both shotguns tossed away by him, whereabouts unknown; thus, the only weapons left to Yan Luo were a longsword and two hand axes.
Radar damaged, goggles damaged, the exoskeleton's integrity unknown, only melee weapons at his disposal...
Yan Luo couldn't help but take a deep breath.
Though he knew the way back to the entrance, with his knowledge intact to avoid demons, traversing there with just this equipment... Yan Luo felt he'd need to remain alert on this journey.
Psychologically prepared, Yan Luo lifted his head, determining his current position.
"North."
The entrance's approximate location was to the north, marked by a very tall tree, visible even amidst the dense foliage of surrounding trees.
In reality, that tree served as a disguise, with a signal tower inside; if Yan Luo's goggles weren't damaged, he could locate his return path via signals emitted by the tower.
Without food and water, Yan Luo needed to return to Crimson No. 2 quickly.
He drew his longsword, gaining a bit of security, and set off purposefully northward.
Since waking up, not only had his injuries healed, but he also felt invigorated and refreshed.
This feeling was peculiar, as if his body housed an engine, granting Yan Luo an unprecedented sense of ease and power.
Walking along, Yan Luo began to speculate about his own situation.
If he had healed from serious injuries without others' assistance, it might be related to drinking the blood of the silent hunter lizard when he killed it.
In the Abyss, everything exists in a state between illusion and reality. When a sub-item leaves its main body, like a fruit plucked from a tree, a fallen leaf picked from the ground, or water scooped from a river, it reverts to Magic Power, returning to the Abyss.
This applies to demons as well; as soon as hair or flesh leaves the body, those parts gradually dissipate.
In theory, even if Yan Luo drank the silent hunter lizard's blood, he shouldn't benefit, as that blood wouldn't digest, but dissipate.
Yan Luo suspected that as the blood dissipated and turned into Magic Power, his body absorbed it.
His Magic Power adaptability was 'extremely low', unable to contain Magic Power; in other words, his resistance to Magic Power was very high.
The silent hunter lizard's blood turning back to Magic Power within Yan Luo's body couldn't permeate his body to return outside, thus being slowly absorbed instead.
Of course, all this was just a conjecture by Yan Luo, with no way to confirm its validity.
To verify this speculation, he'd have to conduct some experiments.
But that would be for later; now, Yan Luo had reached the base of the signal tower disguised as a giant tree, made a turn, and found the connection point between Blue Star, resembling frosted glass, and the Crimson Abyss. Putting away his longsword, Yan Luo crossed through the entrance back to Blue Star.
To allow Hunters returning from the Crimson Abyss to adapt to Blue Star's lighting, a huge sunshade was built above the Abyss entrance checkpoint at Crimson No. 2, casting a large shadow during the day and soft lights at night.
The surveillance cameras installed at the entrance captured Yan Luo's appearance and physique, compared it with the database, and discovered he was marked as a [missing] Hunter at the Hunter's Guild, triggering an alarm in the monitoring room immediately.
Several hunters preparing to enter the Crimson Abyss ran into Yan Luo and, seeing his dire state, were perplexed.
"Bro, what did you encounter?"
Yan Luo honestly replied, "A lethal creature."
At this, several hunters exchanged glances.
Surviving an encounter with a lethal creature—what a tough character... wait!
"You're Yan Luo!"
One hunter pointed at Yan Luo, exclaiming, "The new guy who can't be Engraved!"
Thanks to Jin Taiwen's 'vigorous publicity', nearly everyone in the Crimson No. 2 hunting circles knew about Yan Luo, aware that he was a rash yet pitiful newcomer.
Unable to be Engraved, forever an ordinary person, yet dreaming of being a Hunter.
Soon after, the hunter added, "Weren't you dead?"
When the Purple Fox Squad left the Abyss, their first action was to report to the Guild.
The Guild mandates reporting the discovery of any lethal creature, after which it issues a bounty on the creature, awaiting a Sequence 4 or Sequence 3 Hunter to eliminate it.
Yan Luo had entered the Abyss with the Purple Fox Squad for the first time, 'confusingly' dying there, prompting the Purple Fox Squad to report their knowledge to the Guild, absolving themselves of involvement in Yan Luo's death.
In fact, the 'Yan Luo is dead' rumor came from the Purple Fox Squad's account; the Guild listed Yan Luo as 'missing' following protocol, changing it to 'deceased' and terminating his hunter status only upon finding his body or if he failed to return from the Abyss within fifteen days.
"By luck," Yan Luo replied placidly, stepping towards the exit.
At this moment, soldiers stationed at the checkpoint arrived.
Within the Crimson Abyss is a demon known as the 'Shapeshifter', which, as its name implies, can morph into other creatures.
Before Yan Luo could change his status at the Guild, he was considered a 'missing person' at Crimson No. 2 and needed to undergo inspection.
Being well-versed in the Crimson Abyss, Yan Luo knew the procedure for returning missing persons from the Abyss and didn't resist the soldiers' checks.
He was taken to a special examination room at the checkpoint, had a blood sample drawn, and answered questions randomly selected from his files by the AI.
After a series of verifications, the soldiers finally confirmed Yan Luo as human, not a Shapeshifter, and let out a relieved breath, allowing him to leave on his own.
After Yan Luo left, the soldier who had examined him glanced over the report, muttering softly, "It's really tough for normal people to become Hunters. How many drugs did he have to inject just to maintain his physical functions..."