God, it hurt. It hurt so badly Caroline almost passed out. She clenched her teeth, even forcing out a smile. There was a metallic taste in her throat—blood. But she wasn't scared at all. No matter how bad the injury was, Nelson could fix her up later. She wasn't worried. She made sure to cut herself in places that wouldn't stop her from moving. Her vision suddenly became clear. The falling sensation disappeared. The constant pain made it hard for Caroline to stand. But she held on by sheer will, opened the Zero System, and picked Haroldson's power. At the same time, she lunged forward. Blood gushed from three wounds, but she didn't care. Right then, Raven had lured the fly king to about five yards in front of her. In just seconds, Caroline reached the mutant fly king. "Die!" She could feel a surge of energy pulsing in her hand. The moment she touched the fly king, something burst out of her palm and shot into its body. Splat. Caroline felt like something in front of her had just exploded. Bits of meat flew onto her. The disgusting, sticky stuff covered her whole body. As determined as she had been just a moment ago, that was how grossed out she felt right now. Even the pain from the knife cuts faded a bit. Because it smelled so bad. Unlike Denton's stench, this was the rotten smell of decaying flesh, making her skin crawl. Caroline quickly pulled a bucket of water from her storage space and poured it over her head.As the smelly chunks of meat washed off her, she felt much better. Then she poured two buckets over Raven, who had already shrunk back. Only then did the two of them feel alive again. At that moment, Caroline finally understood what the system meant by "you'll figure it out yourself." Yeah, some things should never be blown up. But if she had another chance? She'd still blow that ugly fly to pieces. With the fly king dead, Caroline jumped onto Raven's back to search for Jet. "Jet! Jet!" she shouted. After getting practically bathed in mutant fly guts, neither she nor Raven cared about the trash on the ground anymore. They headed deeper into the area, running and calling Jet's name. But after a few hundred yards, they still didn't see any sign of him. Panic finally hit her. She remembered what she heard when she got caught in that illusion. "That little bird is dead. You're next." That must've been the mutant fly king trying to scare her. But she had no idea what Jet had run into earlier. "Raven, try to find Jet's scent!" Caroline said anxiously. But the stench in this place was so overwhelming that it was nearly impossible to pick out Jet's scent from the mess. Jet's scent was completely masked. Then Caroline spotted something by the wall—a gray feather! It was sitting in a pile of nasty trash, and its tip was stained with blood. Raven noticed it too and immediately dashed over with Caroline. Judging by its appearance, it was definitely Jet's.Seeing the red blood on it, Caroline's heart skipped a beat. But she quickly calmed down and started looking around for other clues. Thankfully, she didn't see a fat parrot body lying in the trash. "Jet! Jet!" Caroline shouted several times, but got no response. Then she noticed Raven had his ears up, like he'd caught a sound. After a moment, he sprinted toward a direction not too far away. Caroline's heart was in her throat. Along the way, Caroline saw many more gray feathers! Every single one had blood on the tip. Judging by the amount, her chest tightened—it was almost half of Jet's feathers! But still no body. Just feathers. She felt relieved and terrified at the same time. Could Jet really be dead, with only his feathers left? But Raven kept sprinting forward like he had found something. The half-minute run felt like hours to Caroline. Finally, Raven reached the entrance of a mall and slammed into the glass door. Caroline ducked, using her arm to shield herself from the flying shards of glass.