The Ultimate Evolution

I traverse along the pathway of darkness and imagination… Entering the realm born by human imaginations… Challenging Harry Potter’s magic, commanding the great Pirates of the Caribbean Terminating the Terminator’s strength, tearing apart the Matrix’s Hallucination Virus is my slave Endurance my inheritance Growing and hunting in the boundless universe Breaking through boundaries in a mysterious space Desiring evil, conspiracy and betrayer. Who can redeem what was already lost In a battle of demons who can leave an immortal legacy A declining Trump card, Final evolution! I’m… on a journey! We are one!

Sheyan remarked ruthlessly, "Your approach is simply running away, professor. Even if the integration fails, it's still a better option than to let history run its course! If we don't change history, Jean will be seriously injured in less than a week and she'll be swallowed up by her alternate personality. When that happens, not only will we lose Jean and Scott, we'll also have a new enemy in the Dark Phoenix, a powerful Class 5 mutant! But if we do as I plan, even in the worst case scenario, Scott will still be alive and we won't have to face a powerful enemy like the Dark Phoenix!"

Professor X was silent for a long time. He then said, "None of us can decide the lives of others. If we preserve the status quo, the situation you say may not necessarily come to pass as long as we protect Jean carefully. As long as the main personality is not severely injured, my mental cage can last for at least a hundred years."

"I choose to integrate... Even with the mental cage in place, I can still occasionally feel her loneliness, her pain. I didn't know what it's like before, but now I know; I know that there's another me who's suffering so much!"

Jean's words were firm and she sounded very determined, but there were many things in the world that could not be accomplished just by having determination. Determination may sometimes be a necessary factor for success, but it was by no means a decisive factor.

The integration of a dual personality was a very difficult process, not to mention that the main personality of Jean was far weaker than the secondary personality of Dark Phoenix. Furthermore, the latter had been locked up in the mental cage for so many years, so she would definitely do everything in her power to break out! If Professor X was not there to help, there was probably more than 99% chance of Jean being gobbled up as soon as Dark Phoenix was set free!

"I happen to know that the vampire Jasper Whitlock Hale has similar abilities in this area. Maybe he can help? ...And there's also something else which I'm not sure if I should tell you guys," Sheyan suddenly said.

"Tell us. As it stands, the success rate of the personality integration is no more than 30% even with my help. Even if the vampire is willing to help us, the success rate only reaches 40%, and that's already the most optimistic estimate. Feel free to tell us anything that may be remotely helpful," Professor X spoke in a calm voice.

"So you're saying that you want us to implant the fear of Freddy in people's hearts to push his power to a new height, so that he can enter the scene of the integration between Jean and Dark Phoenix to help?"

"Basically, yes," said Sheyan calmly, "It's impossible for Jean to remain awake when she tries to merge with Dark Phoenix! That's basically Freddy's home court. He'll be able to help a lot more than you think! "

"Most importantly, in the original future timeline, Freddy's not involved in Jean's life. Don't forget that what we're trying to do is to change the future here. If an X factor like Freddy joins, the probability of success will certainly increase."

To be honest, Sheyan had originally planned to heal Jean first, then ask for her help on this condition, but he suddenly saw the light. With this new plan, Freddy would become powerful regardless of whether Jean's integration succeeded or failed!

Professor X finally nodded. "So it's only a fear of that degree. That should be easily done. From a psychological point of view, it's only a simple replacement problem. Everyone has something they fear deep down in their hearts. Some people are afraid of the dark, some hate flies and maggots, some are afraid of snakes like you said, and some are scared of ghosts. It'll be difficult to deepen the fear in the hearts of the audiences on a large scale, but it won't be too difficult to replace their existing targets of fear with terrifying images of Freddy."

Professor X said after a moment of silence, "I'll bring you a tape in ten minutes. Take the tape to New York's largest radio station and play it there. You'll only need to broadcast it for five minutes. There are at least four figures in the radio station who have the authority to do this; you only need to persuade one of them. I suggest you hand this job over to the vampires. They move fast and can escape quickly. As long as they don't meet with a premeditated attack, there should be no problem."

Here, Professor X paused for a moment before he said to Sheyan, "But I have no prior contact with Jasper Whitlock Hale. I can't find any reason to convince him to help us...."

Sheyan knew that this was the part where he should contribute to his end of the bargain, so he told Professor X without any hesitation, "I'm acquainted with the Cullen family. Let me take care of it."

Because Professor X had to rest, Magneto took over the duty to defend the base. Magneto's way of protecting the base was beyond anyone's imagination. With the help of a helicopter, he sprayed metal powder all over the base. Then, he simply closed his eyes and remained still. He could perceive everything that was happening in and around the base through the changes in the metal powder. To him, metals were just like limbs he extended out. It was an amazing method.

The first to arrive was Jasper. Unexpectedly, Sheyan had easily managed to persuade him. It turned out that his power had reached a critical juncture, but there was no one in the Cullen family who could teach him. To be honest, who else in the world was qualified to teach him in this aspect other than Professor X? Therefore, convincing Jasper did not take much effort.

If he were to take his sunglasses off, they would be able to see that his eyes were bloodshot, but the twisted blood vessels were black in colour! There was also a vague feeling of Freddy's madness in his eyes! Even more bizarre was that his shadow had completely turned into Freddy's form, a malnourished figure with claws and a fedora.

In fact, if the surroundings were quiet enough, they would be able to hear Old Charlie's thick, muddy breathing that was like the greedy growl of the Cerberus in the deepest depths of hell, a growl filled with hunger and desire!

Old Charlie suddenly revealed a rare smile. "I'm fine. I often find myself tormented by memories of the past recently, the work of that little kid, Freddy. It caused me a bit of trouble, but this degree of pain is just right as a pleasant distraction," he said.

Now that everyone had arrived, they went over to Professor X's workshop. Surprisingly, Prince Dracula, another big shot in the base, was also present. His face was solemn. Professor X's unique and powerful brainwave amplifier, Cerebro, had also been moved there.

Professor X sat on it and spoke to Jean earnestly, "I'm asking you one last time. Are you sure you want to do this? Once the mental cage is unlocked, it'll impossible to re-seal her again. And, Jean, the moment I sense that the integration has failed and you're being swallowed, we'll...kill you without hesitation."

The next second, a powerful force enshrouded the place. The force could not be seen nor touched, but everyone could clearly sense its existence. They could feel the force gently wrapping around Jean's head, presumably in the process of canceling the mental cage.

The temperature in the room suddenly spiked. Jean Grey's left face twisted, but her right face remained calm. Her long hair flew up behind her, and there was a dark flame burning on it!!

"I, the dark flame of the Phoenix, is finally free! I'll fill this world with destruction and hatred! I'll let the wind carry the burning smell of sulphur and the breath of madness... You, who are you? I remember your aura! It was your mental cage that had kept me imprisoned for thirteen years!"

But at that moment, a strange laughter was suddenly heard - Freddy's hysterical laughter. The harsh, ear-piercing noise sounded like a knife cutting through glass, only it was magnified a thousand times!

Freddy, who had become a lot stronger, could not suppress his boiling desire to kill. He had immediately attacked Dark Phoenix! What's more, it seemed like he had actually caused heavy injury to the Dark Phoenix alternate personality with the first blow!

(A) If the two personalities loved one another, they could joyfully merge together like white milk merging into black coffee, finally becoming a lovely cone of Cornetto, sold for a retail price of $2.60.

(B) If each personality refused to bow down to the other, they would have a fierce fight and the weak would finally be swallowed by the powerful, perfectly confirming to Darwin's theory of evolution.

The so-called exception referred to cases where the integration was unsuccessful. The two sides would then continue to maintain the status quo. This situation was extremely rare. The chances of this happening were as slim as winning the lottery.

In actual clinical practice, case A usually existed more in theory. The situation would more often than not turn out to be case B. There's a saying which explained this well: If you can't get something on the battlefield, don't expect to get it on the negotiation table. This was especially so in personality integration, which was about life and death.

So now that Freddy had taken the initiative and severely damaged the Dark Phoenix personality, everyone understood that this was a great chance. Why negotiate? They'd eliminate her while she's injured!

The Dark Phoenix personality was known as a terrifying Class 5 mutant. It was a height that even sly old foxes like Professor X and Magneto did not reach! However, that was her strength in her prime after she had completely taken control of Jean's body!

The Dark Phoenix personality had just been freed from Professor X's mental cage, so she was still weak. She was at most only as strong as a Class 4 mutant right now. At the same time, Jean's main personality was also wrestling for control over the body.

Even if Jean only had the strength of a Class 2 mutant, the competition between the two was a typical internal conflict. Thus, the strength of the Dark Phoenix personality was further reduced by half a class.

In addition, Professor X and Jasper, two rivals of similar powers, were watching her closely from the side, so how could she not be distracted? Therefore, strictly speaking, the strength of the Dark Phoenix personality was fluctuating between a Class 3 mutant and a Class 4 mutant.

Sheyan could clearly sense the violent air exuded by Old Charlie diminish by half. The shadow behind him was originally Freddy's bizarre and distorted figure, but it had now turned back into Old Charlie's silhouette again.

But an undead monster like Freddy would only be sent back to hell if he was attacked with something like a cross or holy light. Other attacks would just injure him at most. The Dark Phoenix clearly had nothing to do with things like holy light or justice, which meant that Freddy's recovery was only a matter of time.

The following process was not something Sheyan could witness from the outside. However, he could see that Professor X was calm and relaxed. Instead, Jasper, who should merely be an afterthought in this fight, was pale and sweating profusely. He must have been exploited by the sly old fox.

But if the delighted look on Jasper's face was anything to go by, Professor X's instructions had likely benefited him greatly, helping him make a great leap in the use of mental power. If that's the case, then both sides must have made some kind of agreement beforehand. Jasper was doing this willingly.

The final result was not 100% perfect. The very core fragment of the Dark Phoenix alternate personality sank into the depth of Jean's consciousness. They could not completely eradicate the alternate personality, because doing so would only result in one consequence: Jean's brain would be damaged so badly that she would end up in a vegetative state. She would basically spend the rest of her life on a bed like the aftermath of a severe stroke.

Therefore, Jean had only absorbed a large portion of the shattered Dark Phoenix personality and raised the authority over her body from the previous 20:80 distribution (after the professor released the mental cage) to the current 99:1. As long as Jean did not fall into a deep coma, it was virtually impossible for Dark Phoenix to turn the tables.

Jean's power had greatly improved after that, barely meeting the standard of a Class 4 mutant. She could now also be considered a legendary figure like Professor X, Magneto, Dracula and Dr. Octopus, the first among the younger generation.

Sheyan checked the time. The other contestants would "descend" in less than 3 hours. There was still time to do something, such as returning to the radio station again with Jean to develop more "believers" for Freddy.

The current Freddy could no longer enhance his power through gathering the fear of ordinary people like before. He must now hunt powerful souls of high quality. Fear from ordinary people was useless to him now, even if there were millions or billions of them.

Sheyan had actually been worried that the sharp decline in human population during the apocalypse would lead to a sharp decline in Freddy's power, but now it seemed like this guy had broken through a barrier of some sort, so that would not be a problem any more.

Sheyan looked up only to see a dark, starless, moonless sky. The humans living on this planet was constantly subject to the invisible gravity of the Earth and the sun, while the Earth and the sun were also constantly under the control of the energy from the core of the galaxy.

His power could be understood as the power of "destiny". This power was strong because it was abrupt and delicate. The victim might not even perceive that the power was at work after being ambushed. They often had to trace back many steps in the events that had unfolded in order to find the anomaly effected by the power.

But Sheyan also saw a weakness in this power. The power could be performed anytime, anywhere and under any circumstances, but the force that it could exert should be pretty small. Otherwise, the mastermind could just drop a grenade or stab a nail into the victim's heart. Why would he go through so much trouble?

Besides that, Sheyan deduced that the more times this power "refracted", the stronger it would get, the more difficult it would be to guard against, and the more difficult it would be to avoid!

"Refraction" was just what Sheyan called it. For example, if this power simply made a nail inside Sheyan's body, then it only refracted once. If the power pulled the trigger of a gun and the muzzle of the gun was aiming at Sheyan, there was a medium in between, so it refracted twice.

When Sheyan was attacked back in the mudslide, the power was acting on a rock. The rock flew at a strange angle into the mud, splashing mud into the exhaust of the Ford Raptor, which led to the Raptor's engine dying. Because of that, the Raptor stopped in the path of a giant boulder tumbling down from the mountain. The giant boulder became the main weapon which struck the fatal blow.

The user would have to make the best use of the weather, the geography and every aspect of the natural environment! Sheyan had previously killed a man named Fate on the bloody invitation battlefield, who actually looked a little like Steve Jobs in his forties. He had a very troublesome ability to curse his opponent with bad luck. Fate's power was somewhat similar to that of the mastermind behind the scenes.

Fate's power contained obvious traces and loopholes; that was why Sheyan could find him and kill him. However, Sheyan could not find any flaws in the mastermind's power!

What will be will be, just as young virgins would always turn into old ladies. Therefore, Party Ace was calm when the rest of the contestants stepped into the world. Or rather, they were prepared.

Those contestants who had just stepped into this world were not gathered in one place. Instead, they were scattered all around the world. Their numbers were even higher than what Sheyan imagined, and they all had their own motives....

Three people with large bags, seemingly travel buddies, were gathered together at a tea garden by the river. From afar, they appeared to be nonchalantly resting, but their conversation was shocking if overheard.

"Only four Arks have been successfully manufactured in the whole world, but how can China, with their powerful pirating capability, tolerate this situation? If that man is to be believed, China has actually built thousands of pirated versions of the Arks. These pirated Arks only retained 75% of the original's functions and performance and have lost the ability to resist high temperature, but the fact is, the cunning Chinese have made the right bet!"

"WHAT! Are you serious! Thousands of arks, that's impossible, impossible!!! China have so many duplicate arks in the world of 2012?! Even if they're just duplicates, this is nothing short of a miracle!"

"I exchanged for this piece of information with a dark gold accessory. The trade was overseen by the Realm, so it must be true. Don't forget, this country's population accounts for nearly one sixth of the world population. Although population is no longer a deciding factor in war in this era, it's still a deciding factor in manufacturing, especially in the manufacturing of arks, which requires the strength of the whole nation!!"

"My God, at least a thousand arks... Although each ark is only designed to carry 10,000 people, that's only in the case where the standard cabins are all 35 square meters in size (two-person cabin plus a separate bathroom). If the carrying capacity is pushed to the limit, each ark can hold at least 100,000 people! In fact, every ark carried 100,000 people in the original movie plot and ended up safe and sound."

"That means, even if only half the duplicate arks survive in the end, China will have 50 million survivors...while all the other nations combined will only have 400,000 people."

"Can you imagine what will happen? Humans are social creatures, and a group of 400,000 people blending into a group of 50 million people is like a pinch of salt thrown into the sea! In less than fifty years, the Chinese will become the rulers of Earth without shedding a drop of blood!"

"If we can get our hands on convincing evidence and make it public, can you imagine what will happen to the whole world? World War 3 might break out before the apocalypse! Think about it, what an amazing change in the plot that would be! As people who cause this change, can you imagine the astonishing rewards we will reap?"

"No, I think it's in Tibet too, but the construction of the arks will certainly be put under the control of the army. According to the Chinese military system, the whole country is divided into seven military regions. Tibet is in the Southwest Military Region, and the main station of the Southwest Military Region is in Chengdu. That's why we're here. We must move very carefully here in order to find a clue."

A muscular man stared at the holy Vatican Palace in the distance. He then took a deep breath and exclaimed with excitement, "Is this the air of a planet that's about to end? Why does it feel so fresh to me?"

"I'm so glad we didn't hear the notification of our main mission failing as soon as we enter this world. That group of monsters from the last world was so irritating."

"Because I can already smell that thing... Yes, it seems that the Lance of Longinus really is kept here in St. Peter's Basilica. The lance has been worshipped here for thousands of years by pious believers. The body has already decayed, but it's good enough to be the soul of my weapon!"

"Considering how strict the security of St. Peter's Basilica is and how long the Holy Church has been here, where hundreds of millions of people have been focusing their worship and prayers for centuries, even the powerful contestants couldn't go up against them normally."

"Under normal circumstances, we'd be powerless too. But now that the global cataclysm is coming, even the famous Mona Lisa painting has been evacuated; the Vatican will definitely send someone to transfer the sacred object away too! They won't let the lance be buried under the sea forever! This'll be a great opportunity for us to rob it!"

Legend has it that with the lance in hand, every enemy within 120 feet would submit to you. The person who held the lance would decide the fate of the world, but a person who lost it would instantly die. In the ancient Roman Empire, the lance was a symbol of authority. Many successful monarchs had won countless battles with this lance in hand.

The man with a scar actually wanted to make the Lance of Longinus the soul of his weapon. This could only mean two things. One, the strength of this guy was likely shocking. Two, his weapon was probably so strong that it was something on par with the Lance of Longinus!

"Assassinate the following key storyline characters: Jackson Curtis (author) - 30 points, Dr. Adrian Helmsley (chief science advisor to the U.S. President) - 30 points."

"Charlie Frost(radio host and conspiracy theorist in possession of a map with the arks' location) - 20 points, Carl Anheuser (White House Chief of Staff, the fat man who will later become the acting commander-in-chief) - 20 points."

"I truly believe that we can have the best of both worlds, boss. Considering the strength of our party, we'll probably still get first place even if we split up into two groups. Think about it. Transporting the Lance of Longinus must be done in secret, so there's no way the Pope could do it himself. At most, he'll send his most trusted Cardinals. I think you're strong enough to handle them by yourself, boss. With Razor and Steel File helping you, there'll definitely be no problem."

"What the hell! How did the sky change from a bright sunset to a rainy night in the blink of an eye?" yelled a short, fat man, who was visibly annoyed at being drenched by the cold rain.

"It should be a special privilege given to the party that chose the Salvation route, in order to compensate for their strategic disadvantage," KD, the thin, short man, guessed.

This guy was wearing something that looked like both a pair of glasses and a pair of binoculars. It made him look weird, like a twentieth century pilot. When the raindrops fell on the lens, they actually splashed away like they had hit a high-speed rotating propeller. It was very strange.

"Forget about the damn main mission," said KD coldly, "We mustn't get sidetracked before our lord's will is implemented! Don't forget, the lord's power is omnipotent!"

After a long while, KD said unhurriedly, "Since the opponents had three days of preparation time, they've definitely used the apocalypse as a bargaining chip to form alliances with legendary figures in this world, build relationships with them, and even provide them with the necessary information to help them build survival vehicles. Their interests are now intertwined, so it's impractical for us to face the opponents head on."

"However, even if the Realms have given them some advantage because they're the weaker side, there must be a limit to how much they can expand! The number of legendary figures the opponents can form alliances with will definitely be limited to a certain amount. There's no way they can have every legendary figure on their side."

"The governments in this world are already building arks, so they must have controlled the necessary rare metals. This will certainly lead to a competition for resources among the private manufacturing factions. The essence behind this competition is a struggle for survival, so it'll definitely be intense with no possibility of reconciliation. Therefore, our best chance is to ambush them while they're in conflict. They may be powerful, but with the help of our lord's will, we can certainly win. That's my opinion."

This time, the final person, a tall, burly man, finally spoke. The man had bulging muscles all over his body, but not the bodybuilder kind - more like those of NBA athletes and sprinters, filled with explosive force.

He said unhurriedly, "According to the latest intel, our lord has sent three teams to deal with those guys. We're only one of those teams, and only one team can get the final reward! Let's do our best! Move out!"

The rain was so heavy that it was painful when it slapped on one's face, a dull pain. It was also icy cold, and like the fingers of the dead, it strived to take away all warmth from the living.

But it was in such weather that every inhabitant of the temporary base, from the young to the old, had poured outside and congregated on a large open area, packing the area full. They looked towards a huge platform in front of them with complicated gazes.

Hundreds of thick pipes surrounded the platform, meandering like giant snakes and twisting about like blood vessels. They were connected to some ugly large folds in the middle of the platform. A dull roar rose from the machines under the ground, and the earth shook. The pipes also began to wriggle like they had lives of their own. A large amount of gas started to be pumped in.

The air being pumped was not helium, that was normally used in airships, but an inert gas called mirium, which Dr. Octopus had developed recently. Not only could this inert gas provide three times the buoyancy of helium and was non-combustible, it's production cost was just one fifth that of helium.

The biggest problem with this gas was that the pollution from its preparation process was very troublesome to deal with. The pollution would cause the carcinogenic rate of local residents to increase by 7,000% and would take at least several decades to remove under normal conditions, but considering the current circumstances, it was no longer a problem.

A behemoth of an object gradually took shape as mirium was rapidly pumped into the balloon. The airship was an astonishing 318 meters in length, 60 meters in diameter, 300 tons in weight, and 300,000 cubic meters in volume. This meant that it was more than three times the length of a Boeing 747 and more than six times the diameter. The interior of the balloon was further divided into 128 sub-airbags, an intricate design.

Soon, the enormous lifting force produced by the balloon stretched the steel cables of the airship taut. According to experimental data, the actual lifting force of the airship was 921 tons, 10% higher than the design objective. There was no abnormalities with the steel cables connecting the balloon to the carriage compartment. All the experimental result was quite normal.

People were now allowed to go into the airship to inspect it. They found that the accommodation inside the airship were divided into two types. The first kind was a simple and wide room akin to a barrack.

In order to reduce weight, the bunk beds inside were specially designed and assembled. To put it bluntly, the bunk beds were just two pieces of rubber boards, one on top and one below, fixed on the bulkhead and supported by rubber pillars. One could sleep after laying clothes or something on them.

Each barrack-like room could accommodate thirty people and had its own bathroom. The excrements were directly poured out of the airship without much thought for the environment. Drinking water and food were supplied by the airship management in limited amounts. Electricity use was also restricted to two hours a day. As for water for domestic use, the water tank in the toilet will be filled at noon every day. There would only be one tank of water per day.

The second kind of accommodation was similar to the rooms of a humble inn. Each room could accommodate four people, and there was no restriction on domestic water and electricity usage. The inhabitants could also make orders and shop in the restaurant on the airship. But, they need to pay or make contributions to the airship.

Of course, the so-called payment was not made in currencies like dollars or euros, but a kind of token issued within the alliance. They could not find the relevant machinery to make coins in such short notice, so they just made some simple changes to the machinery that made Coke bottle caps to produce the tokens. That's why the tokens were also known as "caps".

There were two ways to obtain tokens. First, there were specially prepared exchange points on the airship where people could trade in hard currencies like gold and diamonds for the tokens. Second, those who made contributions to the airship would get wages or rewards in the form of "caps".

Next, various different tests were carried out. First, the airship's cabin was filled with a large amount of soil to simulate the airship's full load or even mild overload. The numbers reflected that its performance was satisfactory, without any abnormalities.

The last test was the damage resistant test, mainly testing for the airship's performance after sustaining permanent damage. The airship was subjected to a relentless collaborative attack from the vampires and the X-Men. When the destruction of the airship balloon while it ascended reached 20%, it could still maintain 90% of its transport capacity, but when the destruction reached the critical point of 50%, the airship's transport capacity declined rapidly. Despite that, the airship still persisted for 10 minutes before it started crashing down. The quality could be considered to be very high.

After all, according to the information the contestants provided, the surface of the earth will be submerged in sea water for a month at least. The violent force of sea water came from the movement of continental plates, so it was estimated that sea water would only rise for half a month, while the remaining half a month would be the fading period. Therefore, designing the airship to be usable on both air and water could very well save countless lives.

The cheers made Dr. Octopus beam with pride. He was swelling with a sense of accomplishment. In the subsequent meeting to discuss the initial inspection, he emphasised that the acquisition of precious and rare metals was still indispensable.

That's because if every seven airships were to form a formation like they had designed, the requirement for the connecting steel cables was extremely high. Not only must they be able to bear astonishingly high tensile force, they must also be able to be cut instantly if necessary. And yet, grouping the airships into formations was a must. Therefore, they could only choose to compete with other forces in a fight for survival.

The mission required them to obtain five kilograms of tritium, seven hundred grams of uranium and mercury, as well as one thousand kilograms of rhodium in seventy-two hours. At the moment, they still lacked 300 grams of tritium.

Tritium has actually made an appearance in a Spider-Man movie before. It is a material used to make hydrogen bombs. The accident which happened to Dr. Octopus was precisely caused by his research on tritium. It was said that if an accident were to occur during the handling of a tritium the size of a fingernail cap, it could possibly destroy the whole New York.

Party Ace were currently sitting around a table. Sheyan could find no response to Zi's words. He was only someone who was a little smart, not an oracle. He could not just divine where they could find 300 grams of tritium.

Professor X's voice suddenly transmitted into their minds. The voice felt a little tired. "One of the vampires, Count Hunter, has just return from his investigation. He seems to have brought back some useful information."

So far, there had been eleven waves of enemy attacks here, some tentative attacks and some serious ones, but they were all crushed by the strong defence laid down by Professor X. They were like huge waves splashing onto a reef, only to be broken down into nothingness.

Professor X could reach the strength of a lower Class 5 mutant with the help of the powerful Cerebro, at the cost of his mobility. However, this time, Professor X only needed to focus his Class 5 mutant power on the base and its vicinity. The effect was shocking. Within this area, he was as good as a god!

Even legendary superheroes would often find their mind controlled by the professor if they got slightly careless, turning towards their allies and attacking them. A crisis from the inside would always be the number 1 enemy of a team no matter how powerful the team was. And in this place, any team targeted by Professor X would find themselves facing a crisis from the inside!

However, the heavy workload was obviously exhausting Professor X. The image of the professor that appeared in the contestants' minds had bloodshot and sunken eyes. The eyes were still sharp though, as if they were able to see into the depths of one's heart.

Professor X's main personality and alternate personality could take turns to rest, but there was nothing that could be done about his physical exhaustion. The one currently controlling the body was Professor X's main personality.

"I'll be fine. Jean should wake up in less than three hours; she can take my place and give me a chance to rest. If that doesn't happen, Dracula has also shared with me a secret skill of the vampires that can quickly restore my energy," he replied slowly.

A blurry figure suddenly appeared outside the window, and in flew a large bat with golden stripes on its wings. The bat turned around and became a middle-aged European man with a polite demeanour.

He smiled at them and said, "I'm Count Hunter. I just received information that a batch of tritium retrieved from Fukushima, Japan, is being transported here, but this time, it's escorted by the government."

"That seems a bit odd. Since all the nations have an agreement, these tritium should be shipped directly to China where the arks are being built. Why are the United States keeping these tritium?" Sheyan asked doubtfully with a frown.

Count Hunter hesitated for a moment before he replied, "This should have something to do with a rumour that surfaced about seven hours ago. It's said that the Chinese government, while manufacturing the arks, is also taking advantage of the resources that are shipped to China from all over the world to start building pirated arks of their own based on the original ark blueprint. It's said that they're planning to build more than 1,000 arks!"

"This news has yet to be confirmed, but it has aroused great vigilance in all the other nations. I heard this batch of tritium has been held back precisely because of this rumour."

Hearing the news, Sheyan raised his eyebrows and said, amazed, "China's duplicate arks, more than a thousand of them! Wow! If their plan is successful, none of the other nations will be able to hold a candle to them after the apocalypse! No wonder the United States are so vigilant. But it's strange, how did they keep a project of this scale secret for so long?"

Count Hunter replied, "The method they use to ensure secrecy is very unique. They first manufacture the individual parts in various places throughout the country, then assemble the arks in underground sites. Rumour has it that when the relationship between China and Russia deteriorated in the 1960's, China have dug a lot of bunkers across the country in case of a nuclear war."

"The amount of underground nuclear bunkers is said to be astonishing, but only the government leaders know the exact number. They've skillfully utilised the project sites left over from the past to carry out the ark pirating project."

"Thousands of arks may sound like an astonishing figure, but when they're scattered across 9.6 million square kilometers of land....they're barely noticeable. Besides, there are various private organisations building their own survival vehicles too, that's why satellite surveillance didn't pick them up right away."

Sheyan fell into deep contemplation. After a while, he nodded and replied, "It's a bit too coincidental, but it's possible that the Realm is giving us preferential treatment. If the news is true, the security must be very tight, and the other forces will certainly flock there too. The difficulty is in fact really high."

"This is probably our last chance to complete the mission. Although this follow-up mission didn't state any failure penalties, but it should have inherited the additional reward aspect from completing the mission perfectly in the first round. The reward should be quite generous if we complete it," Mogensha said after a while.

Old Charlie surprisingly voiced his thought, "Why do you think Professor X ask Count Hunter to come here and tell us about this personally? It's because even the professor can't confirm if the news is true, so he's keeping a neutral position on this and doesn't want to give an opinion. Something that even Professor X is unsure of....I object to you guys going for this batch of tritium."

Sanzi looked rather cunningly at Sheyan, then at Zi. He seemed to be evaluating which one of them would have the final say in the family after they got married. In the end, he sold his big brother out.

There were six people in the party, with three votes yea and three votes nay. However, there's also Old Charlie. He may be Sheyan's servant, but his opinion, identity, and now even his strength were comparable to the official party members. Therefore, they would almost certainly end up not going.

Everyone immediately turned their attention to that place. They instantly saw flames that were rising high into the sky. The flames formed a figure of a giant which trampled about while laughing wildly. He left behind a sea of fire wherever he went!

The mutant Pyro had already died not long after the war begun, so the answer was obvious. Professor X's fatigue and the merciful nature of his main personality had finally resulted in a loophole in the defence. The Human Torch had succeeded in sneaking into the base. When he found Grimm and saw the half-dead state Grimm was in, he became furious and went berserk.

It was common knowledge that anyone with powers related to "fire" were usually also described as violent, ferocious and so on. Once the Human Torch flew into a rage, he instantly targeted the most important place in the base. His ability to control fire had gotten stronger after killing Pyro, so in but a few seconds, the fire became a widespread conflagration. The violent explosion also directly raised the Human Torch's power to the highest level!

But what place was this? This was a terrifying forbidden territory guarded by various legendary figures! Although the Human Torch managed to sneak in while Professor X had a lapse in concentration, it definitely did not mean that he could just do as he liked in here; he could not just run away after lighting a fire.

Seven or eight cars inside the base almost instantly transformed and assembled into a giant steel robot like an Autobots Combiner. It charged straight at the flame giant.

The flame was incorporeal, but the core of the flame giant was the Human Torch. The Human Torch raised his hand, and the steel robot was instantly burned. The fire ignited the fuel in the cars, resulting in a violent eruption. Steel pieces and debris were flung everywhere.

But the debris, under the control of Magneto, became the most lethal projectile weapon! It flew about like a metallic storm, making a strong buzzing noise in the air which caused goose bumps to rise all over the body of any who heard it. The sharp edges of those flying steel pieces would no doubt mince a human into shreds!

However, the Human Torch was also a legendary figure. He immediately reacted, dodging the attack. But suddenly, his vision went dark! Professor X had launched a mental pounding attack in his anger! Although Professor X was kind, the Human Torch's actions were unforgivable. The mental pounding, performed through the Cerebro, was as good as an attack from a Class 5 mutant!

Blood splashed out from the Human Torch's nose and ears. By the time he regained control of his body, Magneto's metallic storm was already furiously tearing at his body. The Human Torch was launched more than ten meters into the air, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

The Human Torch was seemingly about to be completely torn to pieces, but suddenly, as if his body had hit something invisible in the air, his trajectory changed towards the top of a building nearby.

Such a strange situation made Sheyan frown, but all of a sudden, a light harrumph from Jean could be heard in everyone's ears. Following that, black spots that looked like fireflies appeared from all directions and gathered at a seemingly empty spot on the top of a building nearby. The black spots suddenly ignited and lit up the silhouette of a human body.

Susan's invisibility was not something cheap like a simple distortion of the light. It was something of much higher class - she could travel in the gaps between planes. Invisibility via a distortion of light could be discovered through smell, hearing, footprints left on the ground, or even an accidental collision with the enemy, but Susan's invisibility could only be detected through sixth sense.

The Vampire Marquis was instantly killed by having his heart stabbed with a silver knife soaked in holy water! The odd change in direction of the Human Torch was caused by Susan using her telekinesis power to pull him away from the metallic storm area.

The black spots were a new ability that Jean obtained after she absorbed fragments of the Dark Phoenix's soul. They ignited once they attached to Susan's body. Her face instantly turned pale and sweat started dripping down her forehead.

Susan had only ran less than ten meters carrying the Human Torch before pursuers closed down on them from all sides. She leaped with all her might, propelling herself and the Human Torch five or six meters forward, and then dragged their bodies another five or six meters further with her telekinesis power.

The two of them were already very close to the border of the base. Most of the people in the base had been attracted over by the explosion caused by the Human Torch, so the periphery area of the base was actually quite empty at the moment. Just as they were about to stumble, a pair of long arms came flying towards them from the sky. It was Reed, the leader of the Fantastic Four. He had come to their aid!

The tornado was more than ten meters in diameter. It was filled with despair, fear, madness, bloodthirst and various other negative emotions, and even produced a harsh, bone-grating noise. Several illusionary images of giant golden-red bats hovered around it. One of the three most powerful figures in the base, Count Dracula, who had been lying patiently in wait all this while, had finally made his move!

He showed absolutely no mercy. By the time the bloody tornado dispersed, the Human Torch and Susan were already minced into bloody dusts in the air, while Mister Fantastic had barely escaped alive by turning himself into a mercury-like substance and flowed into the sewer.

Although the enemy who came to attack had sustained two deaths and one injury, and the professor finally avenged the death of Pyro, their base had also sustained heavy losses. Everything else did not matter much, but at least half the precious metals in the warehouse had either been destroyed or contaminated.... Professor X blamed himself for this, but the others could not find it in themselves to criticise him; he had really done his best.

This type of vans was widely used by courier companies and factories in New York City. But if you could see inside this van, you would immediately notice that the van was similar to other vans only in appearance. Its interior was just like an armoured vehicle - strong, durable and armed to the teeth!

A pair of eyes were staring closely at the image of the moving van on the screen. The eyes belonged to KD, the man with a slight frame. He was currently in a room with dim lighting. His three teammates stood behind him. KD's "glasses" had expanded quite a bit; it was now covering his whole face, like a mask.

Even more bizarre was the fact that the glasses strap which was originally wrapped around KD's head was now buried under the skin like blood vessels. It was actually trying to connect to the main blood vessels in KD's head! The material on the surface of the mask was originally rubber, but it had now begun to slowly change into the texture of human skin!

"According to my estimation, there's a 57% chance of our target coming here to rob this batch of tritium. I don't know if the other parties are in place, but you should have all seen the information our Lord, His Excellency, just sent."

The others nodded. Pale blue smoke was curling and dispersing behind them. The way that "Lord" of theirs sent them information was actually exactly the same as the way the Realm delivered the main mission when they first entered the world.

A minute ago, one of KD's companions, Lamb, was smoking when the Lord's will suddenly descended. Lahm was stunned. The light blue smoke he spat out started to form smoke rings in the air, and finally became letters.

"Reward: For each person you kill, you will be rewarded with a dark gold weapon. You can also convert the reward into points, unknown mysterious items, and other things!"

The smoke then dispersed, but the information left behind by the man hiding in the dark, the one they called their "Lord", was etched into their hearts like a knife carving.

"We can't be too greedy, KD. The lesson from the last time is painful enough. It's better to cut off one finger than hurt all ten. We should concentrate our firepower this time instead of thinking about getting them all. This time, we must make sure someone dies!"

The surface of KD's glasses suddenly flashed and various data streams of 0's and 1's appeared on it. He seemed to be making some kind of communication. Soon after, he gave the others a stack of information.

"The woman is called Zi. Although she's a mage, she may be wearing a dark green set equipment which greatly strengthens her defence, so she's very hard to deal with. She also has a high-level magic barrier. Her survivability is exceptionally high."

The tall man called Przybilla gave his opinion, "Zi should already be an Awakener, right? She's very well equipped, highly skilled, and I should add, she should have a transformation ability too, so she's not suitable as our first target. The teenage summoner is a Chosen. Those people are born with the Realm's blessing. What's more annoying is that summoners often have a life link with their summoned beasts, so many of them have survivability on par with MTs. Since we're aiming to kill in one strike...."

The screeching sound of brakes resounded through the air. An ordinary-looking car had suddenly charged in from the side to crash into the van transporting the tritium!

But strangely, the car that initiated the collision was bounced away, while the van carrying the tritium continued moving forward with only a slight deflection to its path. The car which initiated contact plunged into a shop nearby and exploded like it had been hit by a missile.

This collision was not deliberate; it was only one of the ordinary car accidents happening in New York City everyday. However, it immediately caused a chain reaction.

A Harley motorcycle dashed towards the van from a distance, carrying on it a huge man in a helmet and a leather suit. Gunshots went off and showered the man with bullets, but instead of falling down as expected, the man let out a loud laughter. His helmet was destroyed by the bullets, revealing a flaming skull inside.

Ghost Rider's wicked laughter violently shook the soul of every person in the van, making them fall unconscious. No matter how durable the van was, it could not protect them at the spiritual level! When Ghost Rider came out of the van with the tritium briefcase, a shining arrow penetrated his skull and exploded!

The one who made the shots was another legendary figure - the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Hawkeye. He laughed wildly. His cooperation with Spider-man was seamless, and they would surely return successfully this time.

Sheyan and his crew drove away in frantic retreat. They were all covered in smoke and flames. Even Zi, who was normally most mindful of her image, currently had messy hair and her face covered in dust. Reef was not doing any better. His hair stood straight up and he looked to be in a really sorry state.

"Holy sh*t! Isn't the scale of this battle a little too big? Magneto, Dr. Octopus, Dracula, Thor, Black Bolt, the Hulk, Batman, Spider-Man, Blade, Iron Man.... All these people fighting in the center of New York City. Do you want New York to be destroyed before the apocalypse arrives?"

"But we should have played a decisive role. I saw it. Mogensha's continuous shots had pushed the briefcase containing the tritium in Dracula's direction," said Sanzi, beaming with joy.

The car they were riding in was passing through an intersection. Old Charlie drove straight ahead without any reaction -- but it was a red light, and cars from the sides were still moving rapidly across the road.

Sheyan saw trails of blood flowing down both of Old Charlie's ears. A strong sense of crisis instantly rose in his heart. But at that instant, a flash of intense light blinded them.

The next thing they knew, they were already enveloped in a horrible heat and intense smokes. A feeling of fear from deep down in his heart made Sheyan curl his body, trying to minimise the chance of taking injuries to his vitals.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion to his eyes at the moment, but he had no power to act. He could only take the damage and be a silent witness. The hood cover and walls of the car curled and cracked like they were cardboard. Dazzling sparks shot out from the car engine. Flame filled the inside of the car, and the car split into numerous pieces!

Zi instantly activated her magic barrier. Several rays of light also flashed around her body, among which Sheyan could only recognise the decaying green of the Ndipaya Swamp and the sinister black of the Siths. Most of the attacks were bounced away by invisible force fields.

The occasional attacks made it past the force fields, but they were then stopped by Zi's magic barrier. Her magic barrier had a glass-like texture on the outside and a steel frame structure inside. The barrier was oval in shape overall, but upon a closer look, one could see that it was actually composed of multiple little blue squares. The attacks were halted and absorbed by the 'Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier', unable to hurt Zi in the slightest!

Reef was curled up behind his shield, a dark golden light faithfully protecting his body from harm. The sorriest ones were Sanzi and Mogensha. They were injured in the explosion and were now covered in wounds and blood. The temperature was so high that the blood dried into scabs as soon as it gushed out.

They were also filled with a sense of fear that the sky, the earth, the ocean, and even the whole world would collapse and shatter! This feeling was making waves in their hearts and was trying to take over their body!

The dark blue Rocket was not too fast at first, but when it got closer, strange ripples started appearing around it. Then, its surface suddenly peeled off like a blooming flower bud, exposing a thorn in its core which was like the pistil of the flower. The dark blue "thorn" seemed exceptionally sharp.

The flower petals which fell off around it quickly burst into flame! The "blooming" combustion gave rise to a strong propulsion effect, speeding the ice thorn up. The thorn shot forward like a flash of lightning straight towards Mogensha's eye!

It was a profession which utilised the effects of Intelligence and Perceptive Sense to the extreme to produce powerful long-range attacks, a profession which utilised high-tech weapons engraved with powerful magic!

As for where they stood compared to other type of gunners, their range was second only to the snipers. The interval between their shots was longer than even the snipers, but because they aimed through telekinesis, they had very high accuracy. In addition, besides being able to deal high physical damage like the snipers, the magic snipers' shots also carried fearsome negative effects!

At this critical moment of life and death, Mogensha, who had lost his balance and was falling down, kicked hard at a car behind him with a scream. The car slid back by more than five meters, making a harsh sound of friction, while Mogensha, with the help of the reaction force, propelled himself forward as if he was taking the initiative to bring his eye to meet the deadly ice thorn!

Following a soft sound, the ice thorn that was about the size of a pen penetrated into Mogensha's left eye and came back out from the back of his head, bringing with it some pale white and bright red substance on its tip!

Immediately after that, the ice thorn once again shed layer upon layer of its exterior skin like a bamboo shoot, leaving behind only a small light blue pebble that was in its core.

In order to get one of these pebbles, one must first acquire the soul equipment of an Awakener who was frozen to death. In addition, the Awakener must die from from a natural disaster and not from a contestant's attack.

When the soul equipment was decomposed by a specialised enchanter, there would be a certain chance of acquiring a pebble like this, called the 'Chill of Resentment'. This particular 'Chill of Resentment' was obtained by Pryzbilla after he plotted against an Awakener in the world of the disaster film, "The Day After Tomorrow", causing the Awakener to freeze to death.

That's right. If Mogensha hadn't courageously dashed forward at that critical moment to meet the shot with his eye, the 'Chill of Resentment' would surely have blown up in his brain... Taking a blow of that magnitude, he would almost certainly die.

But now, although Mogensha had suffered a heavy injury to his brain and also taken some damage from the 'Chill of Resentment' explosion, it only cost him an honorary dosage. One could see Mogensha's rich battle experience from this exchange. Although he usually remained low key, but in critical moments, he was very decisive.

Sheyan fell heavily on the road with his face down. The impact was not strong enough to knock his teeth off, but his nose did bleed. The roughness of the dust and the saltiness of his blood mixed together in his mouth, making him feel extremely humiliated.

At this moment, Sheyan was paralysed all over and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion around him. He could hear, he could see, but he could not do anything! He could not even shout out loud, his voice stuck inside his throat!

Sheyan's abnormal behaviour did not escape the eyes of KD who was observing from afar. KD kept observing Sheyan for a while longer and, after making sure Sheyan was not faking it, he drank a bottle of bubbling potion, then closed his eyes.

Hissing noises rose from his head. The thing he wore on his head, which looked like a headgear and also like a pair of windproof goggles, started to transform in both material and shape. In the end, it turned into a brown wrinkled hat which everyone would find familiar.

It was the Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter franchise! But the hat now had various decorations on it, such as magic crystals, phoenix feathers and so on. The decorations did not make the hat seem more elegant at all; rather, the hat now looked pretty low-class.

KD then took out a bottle of the same brownish-red potion and poured it on the hat. The hat actually opened its mouth and drank every drop of the liquid. It then started to sing.

"O great Sorting Hat, one as almighty as you must know if there are any places with a violent fluctuation in time and space around us?" enquired KD in a respectful tone.

KD immediately rushed to the window and looked to the west. The place in question was a plaza in the middle of the city with fountains, trees and exercise facilities. KD's eyes immediately fell upon a car with a radar, which looked like an Outside Broadcasting Vehicle (OBV).

In that vehicle, he could see two people sitting face to face. Although they were both men, their hands were very lovingly intertwined with together. Their eyes were shut tight, their eyelids constantly trembling. In front of them floated a circle of light, and in the middle of the light was a small figure of a human who looked exactly like Sheyan!

A large amount of black ropes could be seen tightly wrapped around the little man. The ropes seemed to be made from seaweed and the gray hair of the dead, dug out from graves. The little man was struggling with all his might, but he could not break free from the horrible bondage.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light! The French window in front of KD cracked and shattered into millions of tiny crystals. A sharp object swept past KD's face, leaving behind a line of bloody scratch! Blood slowly trickled down KD's face.

Pryzbilla was shocked and immediately got into a defensive posture, but KD slowly walked back and sat down while gesturing to Pryzbilla to calm down. However, he did not look too happy. "Sure enough, it's the Incantators of Destruction."

Pryzbilla's expression turned ugly too, but it became a sneer after that. "Those guys are here, too? Good! God has sent them to us! They murdered Keiko in such a cruel way in the Jurassic world; I can't let them off after merely killing one of them!"

KD closed his eyes and told Pryzbilla in a barely discernible voice, "We will get our revenge, but not now. Don't you realise it? Those Incantators of Destruction are normally reckless and lawless, but they only dare to provoke me just now instead of attacking me straight up. His Excellency has cast a huge net this time; he's determined to strike down his prey. None of us can afford to make a mistake! Think about his horrible ability. The next glass of water you drink might kill you!"

The muscles on Pryzbilla's face twitched a few times. He looked as if he still had something to say, but in the end, he just slammed the table heavily and ran back to the window. He started taking aim.

KD suddenly said, "It appears that the Incantators of Destruction are taking the guy called Seaman very seriously. They've actually used 'Grudge', the S-rank curse ability of the twins, to restrain him. A joint restriction performed by a pair of twin Awakeners....he'll probably need at least an hour to break free. You should be careful not to attack Seaman so as to avoid waking him from the curse. We must carry out His Excellency's instruction faithfully - we'll break his limbs and pull out his fangs!"

Sheyan and his party were not in their best condition as they had just escaped from the war between the major legendary figures. Furthermore, they had just survived an explosion from a bomb their enemy planted!

Then, the whole battlefield was transformed into a glacier-like environment by that horrifying blue rose. All of them suffered from a reduction in movement speed as a result. They were totally out of formation. It could be said that every condition was in favour of the opponents.

Following that, five contestants specialising in melee combat rushed out. All of them were Awakeners with abundant battlefield experience, each with their own strengths. Among them were two people Sheyan had met before in the Bloody World - Shali, who could swallow air and shoot air cannons with his mouth, and Stend, an assassin who used iron hooks. They cleverly separated the members of Party Ace from each other, preventing them from grouping up and forcing everyone to fight their own battles! With the powerful magic sniper and magicians in the distance, the situation became even more dangerous.

Sheyan did not enter the last world with his party. They fought by themselves and suffered a heavy loss. This world, he was together with them, but what difference did it make? He could only watch his party members being attacked without being able to do anything.

(TL: This chapter is three and a half times the length of a normal chapter. As for the reason...you'll find out soon enough. Please don't read the comments before you read the chapter.)

At the same time, in New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, a huge passenger plane whirred down the runway. Amid the stewardesses' gentle voice, a crowd of passengers poured out from the plane. Carlos, the ponytailed man who appeared in the Vatican previously, was lazily ambling down the stairs as he chewed on some gum.

A woman in a black priest's robe next to him suddenly raised her head and exclaimed in astonishment, "What a strong mental fluctuation! So strong it almost has physical form! This is already the level of the Rank 4 Temperer!"

Taji immediately grabbed the little cross in front of her chest, an action which exposed her snow-white cleavage and attracted a lot of gazes. The cross was very bizarre. The usual cross depicted the crucifixion of Jesus, but her cross had the skeleton of a giant twisting snake on it, an evil that had its own inviolable dignity. The giant snake was made up of seven bones, representing the seven deadly sins.

Blood-red glow leaked out from the gaps between Taji's fingers that were grasping the cross. Her eyes became cloudy, and she whispered like a Nightmare, "Twins, Grudge, Soul Binding....Earthling! So that's how it is!"

Taji smiled amorously. "A pair of Awakener twin brothers are using an S-class skill called 'Grudge' to bind a Growth Hunter. Currently, the two sides are locked in a violent clash at the mental level. The burst of power from this clash reaches the level of Rank 4."

Also standing next to Carlos was a man in camouflage clothes. His skin looked dark and tough, like it was coated with steel. He gave off a feeling that if someone were to hit him with a large hammer, the one holding the hammer would hurt his own hands from the shock instead.

"Ha-ha-ha." Carlos laughed. "Well said, Razor! What other surprises will the rich city of Big Apple bring us? We'll have to hurry up. How far is the battlefield from here, Taji?"

With a snap of his fingers, Carlos said, "Three minutes, we'll get there in three minutes! Not only will we eat the bread, we'll eat all the crumbs too! After all, our boss is the great Rocky!"

The three of them started moving at once. They rushed through the bustling crowd at an astonishing speed but without attracting much attention. Many people in the crowd just felt their bag suddenly becoming heavier for a short instant or a pat on their shoulders, followed by a gust of wind blowing past, yet when they looked, they did not see anything.

The three of them moved through the gaps in the crowd like fishes swimming in water. It took them less than 30 seconds to reach a quiet spot in the airport, a spot that was only 30 meters away from the outside. These three had actually bypassed all the custom officers and guards unnoticed, running in a straight line to the place where the fight was going on while ignoring all obstacles.

The man was wearing an ordinary ground crew uniform and had a very ordinary appearance aside from his rather thin lips. However, there was a hard to describe sharpness about him. The vibe he gave off was similar to the liquid metal robot in Terminator 2.

It was this ordinary person's sudden appearance that gave Carlos and his companions the feeling of an insurmountable wall in front of them, rendering them unable to take another step forward. They even had a hunch that if they were to force their way forward, they would crash and burn!

"Leave New York," the man said unhurriedly, each word carrying immense gravity. "My Lord, His Excellency, knows you're Rocky's people, so he decided to let you off today. If you insist on staying, this city will become your burial ground."

The man's right hand suddenly tightened when heard the words "the f*cking Lord", the green veins on his fists bulging. At that moment, the isolated building behind him suddenly collapsed without warning. The way it collapsed was very strange, as if it was cut down by half a dozen invisible axes that appeared from nowhere!

Right after she cried out the warning, she saw the figure of the man gradually melting and dissolving into thin air. Then, he bizarrely appeared on the right side of Razor. A dangerous-looking blood-red glow appeared on his left hand!

The glow was like a bright moon, like the reflection on a water surface, like the silhouette of a mountain occasionally glimpsed through the clouds; it's physical form could not be clearly seen. Anyone who laid eyes upon it could feel its sharpness and danger, but somehow, a strange feeling of gentleness would rise in their heart. They would feel a sense of intimacy, like they had seen a cooking fire in a cold, dark night.

His weapon was actually hidden in the sleeve of his shirt. The enemy's attack was bounced away amid a sharp clang. Razor's sleeve shattered into pieces, scattering like butterflies, exposing a long, sharp dagger inside. He twisted his wrist and stabbed the dagger towards the enemy.

But the enemy did not make any evasive maneuver. He simply let Razor's weapon stab into his abdomen. He then turned over his hand and that blood-red glow which made people's heart tremble suddenly appeared again!

This time, everyone there felt like they were suddenly in the dark outer space. The blood-red light slashed and sketched, transforming into multiple red lines of afterimages. The illusion disappeared soon after.

Actually, after their bodies were digitised in the Nightmare Realm, it was a common experience for a contestant to break a limb or two. Pain was weakened when they adventured in Nightmare worlds, and the broken limbs would be restored when they returned to the Realm anyway, so it was not anything serious.

But when Razor's left hand was cut off, he actually let out a bone-curdling scream! There was an irrepressible tremor in his voice. He instantly rolled away. When he stood back up, he covered his bloody broken wrist with a pale face. He trembled all over like he had just seen a ghost.

It had been mentioned before that Blood Equipments were divided into two types: individual parts Blood Equipment and standardised Blood Equipment. The one Sheyan managed to obtain was a Major General Blood Armour, a standardised Blood Equipment. But if there were standardised Blood Equipment, it stood to reason that there must be standardised Blood Weapons too!

Normally, standardised Blood Weapons were not sold off the shelf; there were only design drawings available for inspection. When a person who had met the rank requirement wished to purchase a particular standardised Blood Weapon, the person would have to go around collecting all kinds of rare materials before the Blood Weapon could be produced.

If you inspected the design drawing very carefully, you would find a very small, very sneaky number behind every material listed on the drawing, a number in the form of a percentage. The text was so small and so well-hidden that it was more obscure than the disclaimer on many commercial advertisements!

It turned out that the materials you so painstakingly collected according to the original requirements on the drawing were only 33% of the complete set of materials and were only enough for a normal production. To turn this 33% into 100%, for a perfect production, required about five times as much materials.

[ Weapons with this ability would have a certain probability of triggering the 'Extinction' effect after causing damage to the enemy. The Power of Extinction would attach to the wound caused to the enemy. At this time, the enemy's body would be considered to be un-digitised, and all Nightmare Realm medicines would become invalid on the enemy. The wound could only be treated by conventional medical means, and would only recover at the healing speed of an ordinary human! ]

[ The 'Extinction' effect would definitely trigger if the weapon caused a physical defect on the enemy, such as severing a limb. The resulting physical defect could not be restored by the Realm or by any medicine before the Power of Extinction on the wound had dissipated. ]

[ The Power of Extinction would last for at least one world and at most five worlds. When the Power of Extinction dissipate, 1 to 10 base attribute points would be randomly deducted from the victim. ]

[[ When the Power of Extinction was being produced, it would absorb one base attribute point or two achievement points from the weapon holder. The weapon holder could choose not to pay this price to stop the Power of Extinction from coming into being. ]

Although Carlos and his companions were experienced contestants who had seen many things, Evil Sword Apophis remained something they have only heard of in legends. Now that something in the legends had suddenly appeared in front of them, the emotion which rose in their hearts was not fear....but greed!

The man in front of them originally intended to frighten them off with the Evil Sword Apophis, but he had obviously underestimated the extent of their greed and wild ambition. Furthermore, their party and their boss Rocky were never people who would back down from fear if the profit was high enough!

If the mastermind behind the scenes was actually in charge of the situation here, he would surely not have made such a mistake, but the "Lord" was paying unprecedented amount of attention to Sheyan. He had actually lost to Sheyan once in the Terminator World before, so he dared not let himself be distracted by the fight on this side.

After seeing Apophis, not only were the trio not frightened off, they instead looked at each other and immediately launched a furious assault on the mysterious man in front of them!

Although Party Ace was in extreme disadvantage, they were showing a strong resilience different from the past! It seemed that as long as Sheyan was on the battlefield, even if he did not personally join the fight and was just there like a mascot, he would still make his teammates much stronger mentally.

Reef, who was like a caged animal at the moment, suddenly raised his head. His bloodshot eyes saw the right moment and he activated 'Courage' to throw aside his enemies and rush towards Mogensha, whose situation was extremely perilous. This was already the fourth time he had activated this ability, but the first three times all failed and were interrupted by the enemy's skillful positioning. This time, he was sure that he could reach Mogensha's side and block the next blow for him!

However, a huge force, filled with explosiveness, came from the side right at that exact moment. It was Shali's air cannon! The air cannon hit Reef's head and knocked him flying, while Stend's iron hook struck upwards from the bottom. It not only made a terrible wound on Reef's face, but also dug Reef's right eye out!

Reef fell hard to the ground; the severe pain and the head injury instantly knocking him unconscious. Even in the darkness, he could feel the intense pain and despair. A sense of hopelessness rose from the bottom of his heart. In actuality, mental toughness had always been Reef's weakness. Otherwise, he would not have found it so difficult to find the courage to face the failure of his Growth Hunter breakthrough trial.

"I seemed to have felt just as hopeless on that day, bleeding and crying amidst the dirt and dust, wallowing in the depression of being abandoned by my comrades. And yet I survived and escaped from that despair....I'm so tired."

"Why!!!" The word roared out from the mouth of Reef who was lying on the ground, the sound deafening. At that instant, everyone clearly heard the sound of something on the surface of Reef's body cracking, as if a shell that had been shackling him...had shattered.

The next moment, they saw Reef climbing back up from the dust. A tremendous change was happening in his body, the produced power so great that it was affecting the equipment he wore. The dark gold shield was ringing, as if it was under a tremendous pressure.

Fortunately, the pressure seemed to be released in but an instant. Reef stood unmoving like a towering mountain. At this moment, he thought again of that hand, the firm hand Mogensha extended to rescue him from certain death!

An incomparably vivid illusion of a large golden Paladin gauntlet instantly appeared around the palm of Reef's right hand, grabbing at the empty air. Mogensha and Sanzi, who were struggling bitterly, were suddenly flung back through the air in a parabolic arc as if the Paladin gauntlet had a tremendous suction force, pulling them to Reef!

At the same time, Reef's Nightmare Imprint glowed brilliantly, and the form of the Nightmare Imprint transformed from an ordinary shield into a beautiful, lifelike cross shield.

"F*cking hell...." KD, who was watching from the distance, gnashed his teeth in frustration. "Are you kidding me? He actually broke through to an Awakener in the middle of battle! That has as much chance of happening as winning a lottery! And sure enough, just like the rumours say, those who break through on the battlefield will comprehend an Awakening Skill right away! And the one who made the breakthrough is actually the MT! Now, their formation is in shape again."

(TL: I think I translated 'Awakening Skill' as 'Awakener Skill' before. After giving it some thought, I find that 'Awakening Skill' sounds much better, so 'Awakening Skill' it will be from now on.)

"These guys are way too resilient. Who knows how many times their equipment has been strengthened. If I'd have suffered as much injuries as Golden AK has, I would've died two or three times over even with the honorary dosage!"

"To break through to an Awakener on the battlefield, a person's every attribute must be way higher than the compulsory requirement of an Awakener. In other words, it'll only happen if a person is ready in all aspects and is only lacking a bit of comprehension to break through. This MT named Reef has already accumulated so much strength?" KD couldn't help but complain.

Little did he know that Reef had stayed for way too long in the normal contestant stage, so long that he had only managed to break through to a Growth Hunter in his final chance. Therefore, he had accumulated a tremendous amount of power and resources, even by Growth Hunter standards.

That's because a person would start taking shape when they broke through from a Growth Hunter to an Awakener. A Growth Hunter was like a rough steel ingot, while an Awakener was a steel product that had taken shape after the steel ingot had undergone further processing.

During the processing, impurities in the Growth Hunter's body would be removed like they were being tempered and quenched, which will produce a very strong impact from the inside. If the quality of the Growth Hunter's equipment was too poor and could not provide sufficient survivability, the Growth Hunter was likely to die from the violent impact.

This was the Awakening trial. It was indeed much easier than the Growth Hunter trial, but there were still many Growth Hunters who were reduced to ashes in this juncture because their equipment was not good enough!

It so happened that equipment was one of Reef's strong points. Many first-rate Awakener MTs did not have a dark gold shield, and yet Reef already did for a long time. Even his silver storyline grade claws were a top class equipment that a lot of people would be envious of. Therefore, his Awakening process was naturally devoid of any danger.

Reef had his hands full at the moment. Not only did he have to cope with the enemy's fierce attacks, he also had to take time to check the notifications on his Nightmare Imprint.

(PS: At the moment, Reef's maximum HP is about 2700 points, so he gained an additional 30 defence from this reward. The base defence provided by his dark gold shield is only +20, so 30 points of additional defence is almost equivalent to equipping one more shield than other MTs!)

[ You will instantaneously summon the Palm of God and use its divine power to bring up to two targets within 40 meters to your side. The Palm of God will then shatter, and the holy afterglow will restore 15%-20% of the HP of the allies you brought to your side, as well as remove any abnormal statuses on them. ]

[ 'Holy Grasp' can also be used against the enemy, using divine power to bring an enemy within 40 meters to your side. The enemy will be stunned for 1 second after landing. The holy afterglow of the shattered Palm of God will cause ( 100 + your Physique x 2 ) holy damage to the enemy, and inflict a further 300 holy damage in total in the next five seconds. ]

[ The cooldown time of 'Holy Grasp' is 30 seconds. You will consume your own vitality every time you use 'Holy Grasp'. The occasional use will not affect your lifespan, but please do not overuse this ability as medicines and methods that can supplement your vitality are extremely rare. ]

[ You have obtained 'Divine Grace Aura' - The aura has a range of 100 meters. All allies in range will immediately gain an additional 400 or 15% HP (whichever is greater) upon the activation of this aura. The 'Divine Grace Aura' will continuously consume utility points while it remains active. ]

[ 'Divine Grace Aura' Advanced Effect: 'Protection' (Unawakened) -- You can designate a target and instantly focus all the power of 'Divine Grace Aura' on the target. The target's HP will double or increase by 1500 (whichever is greater). This effect lasts for three seconds. ]

[ After the three seconds have passed, any additional HP remaining will be deducted, but if they have all been consumed, then no HP will be deducted. 'Divine Grace Aura' will not be in effect for the duration of 'Protection'. ]

[ You can also choose to temporarily forgo this aura ability and wait until you have a deeper understanding of auras to try and draw a stronger aura ability in the future. ]

Reef naturally would not miss any opportunity to help increase the party's chance of survival at this critical moment. Besides, the 'Divine Grace Aura' was a very decent ability.

Sanzi, who had been haunted by the assassin Lamb all this while, could finally take a breather. Lamb's swift and intense attacks previously left him no time to cast his magic!

( [ Active ability: 'Graffiti' – You discovered the true usage for 'Chieftain's hobby'. After painting on your face, a refreshing and cooling sensation seeps in. Concurrently, you acquire the acknowledgement of mother earth, allowing your charm and intelligence to be raised by 3 points; duration of 30 minutes. But please be mindful, though this is practically cosmetics, it contains a certain poison element. Your physique will temporarily decline by 6 points; duration of 60 minutes. ] )

He finished drawing a six-pointed star teleportation array on the ground in seemingly no time at all. His exhausted, blood-soaked finger was still so stable and swift when he drew the magic array!

Kulutego, who was originally left in the base to protect it, stepped out of the teleportation array, roaring in anger. A rock club instantly appeared in his grasp, and with it, he knocked the pursuing Lamb flying.

Kulutego's giant foot then stomped hard on the ground. Stone spikes as high as 3 meters instantly grew from the ground, centering around the spot he stomped on. Not only that, the earth around that spot also sank down. Hot magma sprayed out, wantonly gushing through the gaps between the spikes. Several enemies who originally wanted to rush in were stopped in their tracks.

Lamb was lucky that he reacted quick enough. After he was knocked away, he instantly rolled back up and ran away, leaving behind only an afterimage. Otherwise, he would have been stabbed by a stone spike. On the other hand, Iron Hook Stend was not so lucky. He was struck by two stone spikes which had suddenly grew out from the ground. He was immediately knocked into the air, spitting blood.

The eye on one of Kulutego's heads flashed red. A massive fiery rock appeared in his empty hand, and it was immediately hurled at Stend. With a scream, Iron Hook Stend actually forced himself to move half a foot across the air, barely avoiding the blow.

The 'Titanium Mesh Magic Barrier' was already on the verge of breaking down. After taking the shot, it instantly shattered and turned into glittering crystals. Right after that, a dark red javelin came flying from the sky, rotating crazily, and pierced through Zi's abdomen!

But by withstanding all these strikes, Zi finally completed her chant. With blood dripping down the corners of her mouth, she put her hands together and combined the pair of shining silver rapiers in her hands into one. A ray of light suddenly tore down through the sky like a bolt of lightning, instantly illuminating the whole land. The ray of light landed on the combined rapier!

Her long, seductive eyes were now filled with a cold killing intent. An illuson of a Dark Dragon head suddenly appeared around her. The light emitted from Zi's left hand became the dragon's upper jaw, while the light from her right hand formed the dragon's lower jaw!

Judging from the performance of Zi, she should have broken through to an Awakener for quite some time, but was still in the process of comprehending an Awakening skill.

Iron Hook Stend screamed in despair. He persisted for less than three seconds before he was reduced to ashes, leaving behind only his iron hook. The hook fell down from the air while glittering with an eerie light. It seemed to have turned into a soul equipment.

Of course, it must be noted that Zi's back was totally defenseless when she performed 'Force.Dragon Breath'; she did so while stubbornly withstanding the attacks of two powerful enemies. But when the attention of the enemies shifted to the soul equipment for a split second, she caught the chance to send a 'Force.Collision Wall' towards them, blocking them for a short while and winning herself some time.

Reef's 'Holy Grasp' happened to finish its cooldown at that moment. He instantly pulled the defenceless Zi to his side. If he hadn't, Zi would surely have been killed right there and then!

Party Ace finally reassembled their battle formation. However, Reef only had half his HP remaining and had used up all his recovery medicines, Brother Black was severely wounded, and Zi was also severely hurt. The only reliable fighting force they had on their side was the young cyclops Kulutego.

On the other hand, most of the enemies still retained more than 80% of their fighting power. The mastermind was also lurking behind the scenes, observing everything that was happening.

Inside the OBV, the twin brothers who were jointly casting the S-rank ability 'Grudge' were sweating all over. Suddenly, the elder brother coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"This won't do. The target's been struggling like a crazy beast from the moment he's restrained, and he's getting stronger as time goes on! I....I can't hang on for much longer!" he said with difficulty.

The younger twin instantly yelled, "The 'Grudge' curse produces a large amount of grudges after it swallowed a heart, which will come back to bite us. Just one heart and we'll already have to lose some base attribute points. You want it to swallow a few more? Do you want us to die, you asshole!?"

The effect immediately showed after the curse swallowed a heart in a blood sacrifice. The bright red glow of the curse got visibly more intense, so thick it almost seemed like real blood, and sounds of mournful wailing could vaguely be heard coming from it. The ropes binding "puppet Sheyan" wriggled wildly like they were alive and tied him up again!

The elder twin grinned fiercely. His voice was as harsh the scraping of glass as he said, "Excellent! We paid a rather heavy price this time, but this guy surely can't get away now unless someone injures him! But His Excellency has casted a Refraction Shield on him; even the people on our side can't break the shield in a short period of time. Therefore, he can only injure himself - but I guarantee that he can't lift a finger for the next ten minutes! His Excellency should be satisfied this time. This guy named Seaman will watch his companions die without being able to do anything! Ha ha ha! And we'll definitely be the party with the highest contribution!"

"The opponents are already arrows at the end of their flight. If we can maintain the current intensity of our attack, they'll completely collapse in two to three minutes. You don't have to waste another 'Chill of Resentment'," remarked KD nonchalantly.

KD watched as Pryzbilla went back to the firing hole. He told Pryzbilla, "As soon as the targets are wiped out, we'll immediately start attacking the Incantators of Destruction. We won't wait for Lamb!"

Kulutego gasped for breath and coughed violently. There was a wound beneath his ribs that was terrible even for a cyclops. His guts were spilled out. After all, Kulutego was only a young cyclops. The pressure he was facing now was something that not even his mother could handle by herself.

He did seize a chance to attack Sheyan, trying to knock Sheyan back to consciousness, but to no avail. There was a weird layer of protection surrounding Sheyan, rendering his attack completely useless!

But this guy just inhaled and did not exhale! He chewed on the air. Cracking noises came from inside his mouth, as if it was not air that he sucked in but glass fragments!!

A thundering boom reverberated throughout the area. Shali's 'Air Cannon' was no less powerful than a howitzer. At the same time, the other four surviving Awakeners launched their craziest assault yet on Reef, in concert with Shali!

A violent, earth-shaking explosion erupted, a result of the power from all the skills concentrating on one point. Reef, who was already heavily wounded, was blown away like a small pebble. He crashed into two cars and fell heavily into a nearby store, his fate unknown. All the people Reef protected behind him were also struck by collateral damage. They were knocked down to the ground, struggling to get up.

Shali hit Sanzi with a fierce punch. Blood spurted out of Sanzi's mouth. However, Shali was also instantly hit on the head by the roaring Kulutego with his heavy club, knocking him down to the ground hard.

Kulutego was immediately sent flying by Lamb and the other enemies, but they had all witnessed Shali's pathetic look. The embarrassed Shali climbed back up and charged forward like an angry lion to knock Sanzi away with a knee bump. Sanzi was sent into the state of near death.

It was at this precise moment that Pryzbilla finally pulled the trigger, believing that Party Ace had no chance to turn the tables around anymore. Since the 'Chill of Resentment' was already loaded, he must kill someone with the shot or it wouldn't be worth the cost. To tell the truth, Pryzbilla was interested in Sanzi's dark gold accessory.

The light blue rocket carrying the scent of death tore through the sky and blossomed as usual, revealing the dark blue core inside. It accelerated straight towards the head of Sanzi, who was already in the state of near death!

Sanzi immediately tried to use the 'Amniotic Water Tank' Party Ace brought out of planet Pandora, but how could the mastermind behind the scenes who arranged this sure-kill situation allow that to happen? A shrill ray of light flashed past, stopping the 'Amniotic Water Tank' from taking effect!

However, right at that moment, an already incomplete figure jumped out and intercepted the 'Chill of Resentment'. The 'Chill of Resentment' shot into his chest with a soft thud, sending him into the state of near death. This time, the 'Chill of Resentment' did not pierce through the body. It was left inside.

Only Mogensha, who was an expert in calculating the trajectory of bullets, could capture the exact instant to intercept the 'Chill of Resentment'. No one knew what he was thinking at that moment. They only knew that he had left the hope of survival to Sanzi, and brought the destruction of death into his own body!

Mogensha landed heavily on the ground. He raised his head with extreme difficulty while leaning against the wreckage of a damaged car, and smiled at Sanzi. He then lit a dirty cigar that was stained with blood, half closed his eyes, and took a deep, satisfying puff....

The roaring ice particles surged past like rolling waves, enveloping everything around in a layer of silver. Party Ace could not escape the fate of being frozen in the thick layer of ice. Their expressions were either extremely painful or simply blank, unable to believe their eyes.

Reef was pushed up high by the cold wave, his face towards the sky and his lower body frozen in the ice. Blood and tears ran wild on his face. He could still vividly remember the hand Mogensha extended towards him a long time ago, rough yet strong, saving him from the abyss of death.

Zi and Mogensha had not had much contact, but she had spent enough time with him to know that he was a man of few words, but a very reliable person. Once a job was assigned to him, they could rest assured that he would surely accomplish it.

"There's a bit of an accident, but I still consider that a perfect strike," Pryzbilla retrieved himself from the cover and said with a shrug. "That Mogensha dude actually chose to die in place of the summoner. Such a strong sense of camaraderie. Well, that's good too. I just got the notification that I've killed a Growth Hunter. Wow, I actually got a pretty decent amount of achievement points! Okay, time to draw a reward....a pair of dark gold leather pants! What a pleasant surprise! Lamb, Lamb, it's your lucky day! How're you going to thank me?"

"Not that. Before that. *cough* *cough* Damn, why is my throat itching so badly?" stammer KD while he coughed. He had already shifted his attention to the Incantators of Destruction.

"That's it!" KD's pupils suddenly contracted. "I've calculated the situation very accurately. With that shot, you could directly kill an enemy contestant, and although the power of the shockwave produced by the explosion of the 'Chill of Resentment' isn't too strong, it should still be strong enough to kill someone who's in the state of near death! I was aiming for the dark gold shield of that MT called Reef!"

"But the notification you received said you've only killed one person! That means the MT is still alive! Where did I miscalculate? He shouldn't have any cards left hidden up his sleeve. If he does, based on his character, he'd definitely have used it to save his teammate!"

KD paced back and forth, as anxious as a trapped beast, but Pryzbilla merely shrugged and said without much concern, "I saw Reef's body glowing with a yellowish light. You can't calculate everything; there'll always be...ah ah ah ah ah chooooo...accidents. F*ck, like this damn sneeze."

On the battlefield, Reef's position was the most conspicuous and the most awkward, because he was frozen in the air five or six meters above the ground by the ice shockwave when the giant blue rose exploded.

Everyone figured he would already be in the state of near death before the ice shockwave hit, and his glorious dark gold shield had attracted the greedy gazes of all the enemies on the battlefield.

It was for this reason that Zi and Sanzi, who were also in the state of near death after being attacked by the ice shockwave, were safe. The ice shockwave would not differentiate friends from foes, so the four remaining enemies on the battlefield had immediately escaped when the shot hit, but if they had ran back in to attack Zi and Sanzi right away, at least one of the two would definitely have died.

The four remaining enemies were surprised to find that Reef had actually not died in the ice shockwave and was still struggling in the state of near death. They had no time to think about it, only worried that they would be too slow to act!

Since the target party was almost wiped out now, it signified the end of the cooperation, so the previously allied parties were now... competitors, maybe even enemies!

The massive impact shattered the thick ice layer surrounding Reef into scattering light blue particles again. Most of the plaza was covered in ice particles, sharply lowering visibility and giving the air on the plaza a misty ambience, as if the scene before Mogensha's death was repeating itself.

In fact, 'Life-Link' had already protected Reef once before, but Brother Black's magnificent nirvana before his courageous death had attracted everyone's attention, and the blossoming blue rose afterwards was way too magnificent. The glow on Reef's body only flashed once, unnoticed by anyone.

An intense pain could be felt on his body, but Reef was happy for it. It was a strange feeling of revenge akin to self-abuse. He screamed in his heart, "This pain, this discomfort, can finally be transmitted to you, boss, but this is merely one thousandth of the pain in my heart. Can you feel it? Can you feel it??!!"

Then, amid the ice and dust scattered in the sky like a light blue mist, Reef saw that Shali, who was the closest to himself, had a very strange expression on his face.

Looking at his face, one could not help but wonder at the richness of the human expression. Shifting a few facial muscles by a few millimeters could actually cause such a huge change in a person!

But it was this ordinary-looking sabre which pierced through the chest of the formidable Shali from behind. It then slowly and brutally lifted the man up, clearly intending to cause him more pain!

At this time, Sheyan's gaze had become so hard that they were on the verge of extreme madness! He looked into the eyes of Reef, who was panting, face twisted in pain. Reef gritted his teeth and stared back at Sheyan with his eyes bloodshot. He squeezed his fists tight. There was no need for words; they understood each other's minds.

At that moment, Reef suddenly felt as if it was not ice dust that was flying around, but the smoke and ashes of cigars. He thought he could hear Mogensha's hearty laughter coming from it too.

The moment Sheyan disappeared, Reef found to his amazement that he could move and was already out of the state of near death. He looked down and saw his body covered in three layers of green light, which was the special effect of the silver storyline item carried by Sheyan, the 'Evergreen Leaf of the Sacred Oak'.

This leaf had an active ability on it called the 'Oak Recovery' which had the same healing effect as a level 5 'Rejuvenation', healing the target's HP by 450-600 over 12 seconds.

But such a cost was obviously quite worthwhile to help Party Ace get through the current critical situation. Reef was now stacked with three layers of lvl 5 'Rejuvenation' effect, restoring more than 1500 of his HP in twelve seconds. Therefore, he had quickly left the state of near death.

He had been blown away by the frost shockwave to a road right in front of a supermarket entrance. His hands and feet were frozen in ice, but because he was facing up to the sky, he could see the top of the three storey supermarket.

A car had been blown to the top of the three storey supermarket, awkwardly and precariously frozen at the edge of the rooftop with its bottom facing upwards. The ice freezing it was just strong enough to stop it from crashing down. If it did, it would fall right on top of Sanzi.

A pigeon happened to come from nowhere, flying past the area. It was suddenly assaulted by the chill in the air and immediately fell down unsteadily. With some difficulty, it managed to flutter its wings and grab an electrical wire nearby to steady itself.

But having been assaulted by the shockwave of the 'Chill of Resentment', the wire had already sustained a temperature far lower than it was designed to withstand. Although the pigeon was very light, it was fluttering and falling down from the sky, so without any suspense, the wire broke.

Now, the power supply was not cut off. Current was still flowing in the wire. One side of the severed wire, hissing and sparkling with electricity, swung towards Sanzi like the vine of Tarzan, but it was stuck at the edge of the supermarket rooftop.

The electric sparks on the wire continued to zap. The previous ice shockwave was like a typhoon passing through, messing up everything in its path and freezing everything facing it in a thick layer of ice, but a spot near the edge of the rooftop was blocked by the water tank on the rooftop, so it was not covered in ice. The wire happened to get stuck there. As a result, the electric sparks ignited a large lump of cotton wool that had been blown up there.

It so happened that a bucket of cooking oil had turned over beside the cotton wool. Oil had a much lower freezing point than water, so the oil was still flowing freely. Naturally, it was ignited, and it then flowed to the car that had been flung to the top of the supermarket and frozen there.

The upside down car that was stuck on the edge of the rooftop was maintaining its fragile balance at that position thanks to the ice. When the fire reached it, it started shaking unsteadily. By the time the fire spread to the car body, it finally could not hang on any longer and fell down straight towards Sanzi.

Sanzi was currently stuck in the state of near death, Reef had not recovered yet, and Sheyan would not be able to reach him in time! Even if the car couldn't kill Sanzi directly, the fuel tank would surely explode and burn when it was ignited. There was no way Sanzi could escape from death!

That's right, this was the work of the mastermind, who was overseeing the situation of the whole battlefield. When he found that Sheyan had inexplicably freed himself, he immediately came to a decision. With precise calculations, he would end Sanzi!

His power has been refracted five times through the pigeon, wire, cotton wool, cooking oil and the car, magnifying its destructive effect to the extreme! He was absolutely certain that even Sheyan, who had defied his expectations many times, could not save Sanzi this time.

Within Sanzi's vision, the car that was crashing down seemed to occupy the entire world! He closed his eyes in despair, and yet he could still feel the blazing fire on the car heating up his face.

He felt so helpless in the face of death. Mogensha had saved him the last time by sacrificing his own life, but who would save him this time? Who could save him this time?

It turned out that at that critical moment, an Audi A8 had burst into the scene at an astonishing speed and crashed into the burning car that was about to hit Sanzi like an angry bull. It launched both cars into the pavement nearby, where they violently exploded!

"How...How could this happen!" One could imagine the mastermind's mood at the moment. He had always managed to maintain his calm no matter what had happened, but this time, he couldn't help but roar out loud, "How could this happen? How could this happen!!! Replay the satellite image immediately!"

It turned out that when the pigeon landed on the wire, it broke the wire into two sections. The section on the right swung to the roof of the supermarket, but...it seemed the section on the left was unwilling to be just a side character.

It also drooped down and finally fell on the ground. The severed end, flashing with electric sparks, came into contact with a broken electric billboard. The frame of the electric billboard was made of metal, so it naturally conducted current. When the badly damaged electric billboard was zapped, a small explosion happened due to short circuit.

When the small explosion occurred, a sharp fragment of shattered billboard shot out spinning, moving at a high speed over a distance of more than ten meters. It penetrated the back of a car seat and pierced deep into a man's cervical vertebrae!!

This was, after all, a busy intersection. Severe chaos had instantly broken out when the attack occurred, so numerous cars had stopped all around the intersection. This driver was quite fortunate. He was knocked unconscious after being caught in the fierce battle and his car was damaged all over, but because he was wearing a seat belt, he was alive, firmly strapped to his seat.

When his cervical vertebra suddenly sustained heavy damage, he was instantly jolted awake by the pain. Although he was still very confused right after waking up, the first thing he did out of instinct was naturally to reach around behind his cervical vertebra with his right hand to pull out the fragment from the wound.

But his right hand could not reach the wound due to his current sitting position, so he must straighten his body to pull out the fragment. However, he was currently strapped tight to the seat by the seat belt, and his right foot was on the accelerator.

Therefore, when the driver straightened his body almost instinctively to reach behind and pull out the fragment, he stepped hard on the accelerator instead thanks to the seat belt....

The engine of the Audi A8 roared to life, and the car flew forward at once. It took only 6.2 seconds for this luxury car, which was famous for its performance, to accelerate from 0 to 100 meters per second. On the way, it happened to run across a smooth ramp covered in ice, formed by the icy shockwave earlier!

However, the luck of a Chosen was protected by the Realm. When the mastermind manipulated Sanzi's luck, it was equivalent to a direct challenge on Noah Realm C's authority and power, which was clearly against the rules. Naturally, it would be subjected to Noah Realm C's strong backlash!

Therefore, although the failure of this attack on Sanzi by the mastermind seemed to be accidental, it was, in fact, inevitable. If he had chosen Zi as the target instead, then Zi...would not necessarily have died either, because Zi's position was within Sheyan's reach.

He saw what had happened to Sanzi. It made him break out in cold sweat. Mogensha's death had left a permanent scar on his heart. He would never allow something like that to happen again.

Only then did Sanzi recover from his shock. The god of destiny makes fools of the people. Sanzi was definitely not unkillable even if he was a Chosen; it was just that the mastermind had used the most inappropriate means to try and kill him.

And also, thanks to the fact that most of the battlefield was now covered in light blue ice dust, the long-range attackers in the periphery were temporarily unable to take aim or find out the situation on the battlefield. They could not just carpet bomb the place blindly either; there were three different parties collaborating in this attack, so they could easily injure other people. Otherwise, even if Sanzi had escaped the murderous situation arranged by the mastermind, him and Zi would still not have made it!

After Reef finished performing 'Holy Grasp', a behemoth also came down from the sky. It was the dark gold leech! Its huge body could not only be used to slow down the enemy; it was also an excellent shield.

But the primary objective of the dark gold leech this time was not to shield Reef and those behind him, but to shield a painting, that had unexpectedly appeared, from sight.

Currently, the Ukiyo-e was desperately burning away its own soul, burning away everything it had! Like fireworks, it seeked only the brilliant eternity of that short moment, even if it had to destroy itself in the process.

Since the summoning had been done once before, Sheyan did not need to use his mind to paint the figure again. A dot, formed by mental power, appeared on the Ukiyo-e, and it quickly started painting.

The image of Melody soon appeared once more on the Ukiyo-e. The girl's image was very vivid on the Ukiyo-e, and her strong nature aura was brimming out of the painting. Her face on the portrait was grave, probably because she knew that the situation over here was critical.

Then, the Ukiyo-e started to burn, but instead of smoke, it produced a large number of complex, mysterious, and primitive runes. The runes quickly spread to the surroundings and finally formed an ivy arch, filled with vitality.

Almost immediately afterwards, Melody leaped out of the arch in a fiery red leather armour and the dazzling Phoenix bow on her back. There were traces of sunburn on her leather armour. These strange-looking burn marks were the legendary battle marks of the scorching sun. She seemed to know that the situation was an emergency, so as soon as she appeared, she sprinkled several maple seeds from her hand. Several large maple trees immediately grew from the ground, their leaves as red as fire, providing Party Ace with cover.

The next moment, a huge earth mound began to take shape in the place where Sheyan had lain immobile previously. Ramtas broke out of the soil while roaring furiously. Reef's servant, No. 7, also jumped out from the void and hid in the wreckage like a spider.

Party Ace had not summoned Ramtas and No. 7 previously because in the battle between the top superheroes of the world, they were only there to do the odd jobs with no intention of getting tangled up in the fight. After all, Ramtas was too slow, and No. 7's HP was too low. They would just be cannon fodders and a huge waste of utility points....How could Party Ace have known that they would be ambushed?

In just over ten seconds, Sheyan had completely turned the situation around and built a perfect protective circle for his three teammates. Now that he did not need to worry about them, he silently lowered his head and charged towards the remaining three enemies with a crazy momentum, as if he would sweep away everything in his path!

Among those three, Lamb and another man named Bosch belonged to the category of assassins. Both of them had typical speed-oriented builds, especially Bosch. Before Zi had transformed, he alone kept Zi busy for as long as five minutes!

Bosch's way of attacking was very simple. He liked to launch a flurry of frenzied, unending strikes. Once his opponent was entangled with him, he would launch a continuous storm of attacks. Each attack may not cause a lot of damage by itself, but the amount would stack up to a shocking value. Furthermore, Bosch had collected a number of equipment which increased his explosive strike rate in order to make up for his low attack power. That was how he had comprehensively and completely suppressed Zi! Under his incessant attacks and ghost-like footwork, Zi could not even lock-on to his figure to attack back until she had retreated to a wall.

The other man was Rogenvader, a berserker. In sharp contrast to Lamb and Bosch, who were fast but had weak attack power, Rogenvader had very strong attack power. Naturally, that meant he had a lower attack speed. His weapon was a two-handed dark gold heavy club specifically selected by the mastermind to deal with Reef.

Heavy weapons like giant clubs were characterised by their impact penetration. Even if they were blocked by the enemy, they would still cause a certain percentage of damage which ignored defence. That was why Reef did not persist for too long despite his really high defence. Defence-ignoring attacks were always the nemesis of people with high defence!

With his head lowered, Sheyan marched barehanded towards Rogenvader. That indeed surprised Rogenvader, who was still looking to attack Reef even though the pale blue dust was beginning to thin out.

He was surprised, yes, but he was still an Awakener who had experienced hundreds of battles. He turned his body, and borrowing the momentum, he swung the dark gold club down diagonally! The front end of the club shone with a ferocious glow.

At the same time, Lamb and Bosch quietly attacked from his left and right. The three had never cooperated before, but they all had rich combat experiences. They instantly formed a triangle, surrounding Sheyan from all sides.

A harsh sound could be heard as the dark gold heavy club collided with Sheyan's muscles and bones, but Sheyan's expression was indifferent. This degree of pain was a thousand times better compared to the agony of watching his teammate die while he was unable to do anything!

Then, a dark green light that almost blinded their eyes came from Sheyan's hands. It was the light from his gloves, the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves'!

The glow on this eye-catching pair of gloves was originally very gentle, but there was now a different layer of strange light on their surface. This layer of light should have been on the blade of '+13 West'!

That's right. Not long after Sheyan returned to the Nightmare Realm previously, the liquid metal life-form had awakened from its dormancy because it was hungry again.

What was it hungry for? Of course it was hungry for the 100 pieces of equipment stated in the mission! However, Sheyan felt that the party did not have enough financial and material resources to satisfy its desire because everything they had to do required utility points. So, he put it at the back of his mind temporarily.

When Sheyan's body was restrained, he could only free himself if he was attacked, but he was maliciously protected by a protective layer on his body. That seemed to be a puzzle with no solution, but the 'Life-Link' between him and Reef became the key to breaking the conundrum. As soon as Reef entered the state of near death, the damage he received immediately shifted to Sheyan. Sheyan was instantly jolted awake!

Sheyan had never been so eager for the enemy's blood! While the '+13 West' was powerful, its strongest property had a 90% chance of not triggering on a contestant....

Sheyan had always believed that the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' were more suited for support tasks, until he met that man on Uplos, the skull-wearing man called Test Subject Type E No. 7. This guy taught Sheyan with his unusual but ferocious throwing skills that gloves could be powerful too.

So when he needed the most offensive power, Sheyan chose to use the liquid metal life-form to strengthen the +4 mechanical power gloves instead of '+7 West' (Author's note: It's been mentioned before that the gloves had been strengthened to +4). After all, '+7 West' was only a dark blue weapon -- its starting point was too low -- while a dark green set was even half a grade higher than dark gold weapons. There were black, silver storyline and dark gold between them, a gap of three grades!

So, strictly speaking, the culprit of the previous assassination of Shali was not the sabre 'West' which had degenerated to +7, but the powerful pair of dark green gloves.

In fact, this was also one of Sheyan's trump cards to deal with the mastermind! After gaining the extra +6 strengthening, the pair of powerful gloves, which seemed like they could only be used for support, had instantly transformed into a pair of terrifying killer weapons!!!

[ Status: Hungry (The liquid metal life-form is hungry. Please feed it the required equipment as soon as possible. Otherwise, its growth will be adversely affected. In extreme cases, it may even swallow the equipment it is attached to.) ]

[ This ability is derived from 'Uppercut' and is a very powerful martial art. The user will instantaneously gather the strength of the whole body in a single lightning-quick punch and cause heavy damage to the enemy! ]

[ The cooldown time of 'One Inch Punch' is 60 seconds. Because 'One Inch Punch' put immense strain on the user's body, the user will sustain 150 damage every time 'One Inch Punch' is performed. ]

[ Warning: The user can launch 'One Inch Punch' any time during the charging process, and the attack power will be calculated according to the charging time. However, if the user is attacked during the charging process, they will suffer a backlash and will be injured. The amount of damage done by the backlash will be equivalent to the theoretical damage of 'One Inch Punch' at that moment. ]

[ Therefore, if you are not absolutely confident, please do not blindly attack with 'Ultimate Impact'. Otherwise, the enemy could easily seize the opportunity of the five-second charging time to reverse the situation. ]

[ Details: It appears that a once powerful man who mastered the ancient Chinese Wushu Wing Chun has also fallen to the point of becoming an unlucky interstellar miner. His residual aura is engraved on parts of the gloves. ]

Sheyan smashed his fist into Rogenvader's face so hard that Rogenvader's nose immediately burst like a rotten tomato that was crushed under a car tire! Mixes of red, black and white sprayed all over his face. The punch even smothered Rogenvader's scream inside his throat.

At the same time, Lamb and Bosch in the triangular formation had already made numerous vicious cuts on Sheyan's back and side with their sharp daggers and shortswords, but although their attacks never missed, they could clearly feel that their explosive strike rate had been suppressed. What's more, whenever they struck the enemy, the impact would numb their wrists, as if they were hacking at an iron slab!

Bosch was really quite obstinate. Once he had started attacking, his eyes would see red and he would stick to the enemy like a mad dog, not stopping until the enemy was dead.

On the other hand, Lamb was someone who was really cautious. He would think of an escape route first before doing anything. So, after attacking for a while, he stole a glance at the battle log but found that it had continuously failed to record the battle events. Fortunately, his Perceptive Sense was not low, and he also had a bonus provided by his innate ability, so he gave up on attacking for the moment and concentrated on his probing ability instead.

[ Your ordinary attack caused 206 points of theoretical damage to the enemy. The inter-contestant damage reduction lowered the damage by 40% to 124 points. The opponent's defence reduced the damage to 48 points. For unknown reasons, the actual damage done to the enemy is....5 points. ]

[ Your 'Backstab' (explosive strike) caused 874 points of theoretical damage to the enemy. The inter-contestant damage reduction lowered the damage by 40% to 524 points. The opponent's defence reduced the damage to 268 points. For unknown reasons, the actual damage done to the enemy is....68 points. ]

He had also expected the guy to be formidable. Otherwise, the "Lord" wouldn't have to go through the trouble to set such an elaborate trap. Therefore, it was understandable that this guy named Seaman had MT-level defence.

Sheyan's eyes were already bloodshot. After eating the blow, he took a sudden step forward, stomping his right foot on the ground hard like a hammer. The ice-blue snow and dust that had settled on the ground were stirred up again, dancing all over the air!

"Watch carefully, Mogensha.... Watch how I'll avenge you. All the people here are going to die!!!" Sheyan's muscles all over his body tightened up. His pupils became needle-thin in an instant, like the eyes of the Zerglings that were filled with simple indifference and killer instinct. His body glowed with a pale blue light, a sign that 'Zergling Rush' had been triggered!

Rogenvader's eyes bulged out like bells. Blood trickled down his gums. He roared and hit back with a knee, but Sheyan's attack was incredibly fast. A heavy left punch came from the top and smashed onto his knee! His kneecap was shattered into fragments!

Rogenvader howled in agony. He knew that the situation was bad. His figure suddenly blurred and he teleported three meters away, taking cover behind a car. This ability of his had a very short cooldown time of 10 seconds and could be used regardless of the terrain. It was very useful in a fight, whether to go in for the kill or to escape.

Sheyan kicked the car, making it roll over. Sheyan then launched a straight punch at the car. The car collided into Rogenvader and they were both sent flying for more than ten meters.

Before Rogenvader could land, Sheyan had already activated 'Hornrage' to close in on him at an amazing speed! When Rogenvader crawled out of the wrecked car painfully, Sheyan was already there waiting for him!

Sheyan rotated his body and hit the enemy with a straight right punch. The moment his fist connected with the enemy, time seemed to have stopped momentarily. It felt like the enemy was drawn to his fist!

The punch blew away the massive Rogenvader, who weighed nearly 110 kilograms, sending him crashing into a wall behind him. Cobweb-like cracks started appearing on the wall.

Rogenvader's eyes protruded out; he was already in a state of near death. When his body was about to slide down along the wall, something suddenly exploded inside him, as if a time bomb had gone off. He erupted into pieces of flesh and drops of blood!

The first outburst was the 200 points of fixed damage of 'One Inch Punch', while the second outburst was the 206 points of true damage acting inside Rogenvader's body, derived from Sheyan's 103 points of Strength.

[ The limit of achievement points you can obtain through killing in this world is 30 points. If you exceed the limit, the extra achievement points will become invalid and cannot be returned. Please distribute the achievement points carefully. ]

[ The killing reward is being randomly selected. The killing reward will be randomly selected from the equipment owned by the contestant you killed, and will be randomly assigned to someone in your party. ]

Sheyan's mouth twitched a little, but no one could tell whether he was smirking or sneering. At the same time, he was being simultaneously bombarded by three long range Growth Hunters hidden in the distance, his figure swallowed by smoke and fire. But when the smoke and fire dispersed, he was still rooted to the same spot, as steady as a boulder. He made a throat-cutting gesture towards the distance.

He had never seen anyone who could elevate their anger to such a violent level. Bosch felt his throat run dry, so he swallowed a nervous gulp. He was about to speak when suddenly, an urgent cry was heard in the party channel.

"That guy's a monster! His teammates are also recovering at an amazing speed! Besides, even if His Excellency is going to punish someone, you won't be the first one he'll look for!"

Bosch immediately turned around and saw from the corner of his eyes that Lamb had already taken the lead in escaping. He was well over twenty meters away by now. A chill immediately crept down Bosch's spine. He wanted to swear but had no energy to left to speak.

Bosch's decision was ingenious. His 'Death Throw' ability was very vicious as it would stimulate the black magic attached to the dagger. Once the enemy was hit, besides causing a lot of damage, the enemy would also have to go through the checks for eight different negative statuses - sluggish, freezing, slow, curse, weakness, bleeding, blindness and burning - to see if their attributes were high enough to resist those debuffs!

Of course, there were not many unlucky souls who would be hit with all eight negative statuses, but those who could resist all eight were even fewer. Under usual circumstances, it would be normal for someone to be hit with four or more debuffs.

And if Sheyan chose not to dodge it, then under the effects of the various negative statuses, Sheyan would only be able to get close to him for a fraction of a second. If Sheyan could really kill him in that fraction of a second, he could only chalk that up to fate.

Sheyan ate the 'Death Throw' and was inflicted with three negative statuses - sluggish, slow and blindness! All of them were debuffs that affected his pursuit of Bosch! His movement speed dropped sharply. He only had one chance to attack Bosch, just like Bosch anticipated!

Bosch tensed up when he saw Sheyan's chilly eyes that were already not far away from him. He silently prepared himself to endure the crazy tempest that would engulf him in the next moment. He swallowed three bottles of potion in a flash.

Zombie Blood Extract, which instantly slowed his heartbeat and blood flow, lowering his explosive strike rate and attack speed by 10%, but also lowering the explosive strike rate he would sustain by 20% and raising his movement speed by 25%.

In that half a second, instead of attacking Bosch, Sheyan merely grabbed Bosch's ankles with the pair of powerful gloves that glowed dark green and threw him into the maple forest that had leaves so red that they seemed to be burning!

In the maple forest, Reef, Zi, Sanzi and Kulutego had recovered nearly 40% of their HP by now under the care of Melody. Melody herself was in peak condition, as were Ramtas and Reef's servant, No. 7.

As the saying goes, two fists are hardly a match for four hands. Bosch was now facing seven enemies who were burning with anger, on Melody's home court, alone! Not only did the opponents have an MT, they were also in formation. A chill ran down Bosch's back like he had fallen into an ice cellar. He could not arouse any fighting spirit in himself at all! There was no suspense about the outcome of this battle.

Sheyan once again suffered a round of ranged attacks. This time, the power of the bombardment was astonishing. A mushroom cloud more than 10 meters high rose with Sheyan at the centre, then exploded outwards.

The ferocious shockwave tore many leaves off the maple trees planted by Melody. A couple of the high-rise buildings nearby, having previously suffered two destructive shockwaves from the 'Chill of Resentments' and were now struck again by a fiery shockwave, immediately collapsed, giving rise to a cloud of dust and smoke. If one did not know better, one would think that the apocalypse had arrived ahead of time.

But when the smoke and dust settled, Sheyan was still stubbornly half kneeling on the ground, gasping violently while flames swept over his body. However, his eyes were still fierce, and the sinister grin on his face was still there!

"You f*cking idiot, you think I can't do anything if you confine me? I'll now let you see how wrong you are! You gave me seventeen minutes and thirty-nine seconds of preparation time! That's why... more than half the people here are going to die!"

After Sheyan made that declaration, a blinding light shone from his chest. Two images formed from the light, overlapping together! The fist, proclaiming his identity as a Strength-type contestant, was now wearing a plate metal gauntlet. Meanwhile, the shield, proclaiming his identity as an MT, did not have a holy cross on it like Reef's did. Instead, the pattern on the shield was a towering mountain the colour of blood!

Sheyan had evidently also broken through the boundary of a Growth Hunter into the realm of an Awakener! He had accumulated just as much strength as Reef had, and his equipment was no worse than Reef's. Most importantly, Reef may have been immensely frustrated previously, but at least he could still move and scream. On the other hand, Sheyan was completely confined with no way to vent his frustration! So there was no reason why Reef could break through to an Awakener while he could not!

An illusion of the 'Stairway of the Sun' emerged behind Sheyan. Now that Sheyan was an Awakener, the illusion had become bigger, more vivid and more realistic. All its tendrils stabbed deep into the ground. The veins on Sheyan's forehead visibly bulged, and his eyes started to become bloodshot....

[ Obtained Survival Awakening Reward: 'Tenacity' - Because you have a negative condition which renders you unable to use any kind of shield, 'Tenacity' will enable you to get 20 HP for every point of Physique (a normal contestant would only get 10 HP for every point of Physique). ]

[ Obtained Offensive Awakening Reward: 'Gifted' - Because you have a negative condition which renders you unable to use any kind of shield, 'Gifted' will enable you to skillfully use all kinds of melee weapons. Even if you do not have the relevant mastery, you can still display the strength of a melee weapon. ]

[ Obtained Survival Awakening Skill: 'Survival Mark' - You can place a mark on a target within 100 meters of you to greatly enhance their survivability. In the next three seconds, 75% of any damage done to the target will be allocated to you. The allocation will be performed at the stage of theoretical damage value, so any damage reduction, including the damage reduction from defence, will be done after the allocation. ]

[ The initial cooldown time of 'Survival Mark' is 10 seconds. The cooldown time will increase by 30 seconds with every use, up to a maximum of 300 seconds. This will reset every 24 hours. ]

[ Obtained Offensive Awakening Skill: 'Hunter's Eyes' - Any prey targeted by you will find it hard to escape. You can release a power with your eyes to steal 25% of the movement speed of an enemy in your line of sight, and add it to your own movement speed. The effect will last for 30 seconds. ]

[ The initial cooldown time of 'Hunter's Eyes' is 10 seconds. The cooldown time will increase by 30 seconds with every use, up to a maximum of 300 seconds. This will reset every 24 hours. ]

[ You will consume your own vitality every time you use your Awakening Skill. The occasional use will not affect your lifespan, but please do not overuse this ability as medicines and methods that can supplement your vitality are extremely rare. ]

Zi knew that Sheyan had the Dzi beads which involved the strongest MT in the legends, so she suspected that Sheyan not having an aura ability may have something to do with it. Of course, she would not tell anyone about this.

Whenever Zi looked at Melody who was standing next to her, she would feel restless and uneasy for some reason. This was the first time she had felt like this in her life.

Wherever Lamb passed through, he would leave behind phlegm and purplish blood that carried a thick amount of A-viruses. Occasionally, handprints stained with pus and blood could also be seen on the buildings along the way. Lamb had covered his mouth with his hand while he coughed and left handprints on the walls when he steadied himself while running away.

Normally, just to be safe, Sheyan would keep the 'Pestilence Monarch' aura active whenever he walked on the streets or in public places. Anyone infected by the 'Pestilence Monarch' aura would enter the incubation period. But if the 'Stairway of the Sun' did not trigger the A-viruses, the spores of the A-viruses would soon wither by themselves, even in ordinary people. Anyone who broke away from Sheyan's viral range would naturally become fine again.

Those unfortunate fools had already stayed under his viral aura for....a full eighteen minutes now. That is to say, there had been an eighteen-minute incubation period for the A-viruses. Although these fools appeared normal on the outside, the germs replicated by the A-viruses had already penetrated into their organs and limbs!

Those unlucky fools did not display any symptoms, but their bodies right now were like ships that carried more than 10,000 tons of load. Those ships may seem safe -- the captain, first mate, second mate and third mate were all in position and the ships could even sail at full speed -- but Death's sickle were already on all their necks, ready to reap their lives at any moment....

Lamb's stumbling figure could be seen ahead. Sheyan must admit that Lamb's movement speed was much faster than his own. If it wasn't due to the fact that Lamb was frequently forced to stop to cough and catch his breath, Sheyan would never catch up to him.

The reason why Sheyan was pursuing Lamb was because there happened to be more enemies in this direction. Lamb's party and the Incantators of Destruction were all in this area, while the rest of the assailants were scattered in different directions.

Unfortunately, those who suffer from Sheyan's diseases would soon lose their symptoms and recover completely if they leave the effective range of the 'Pestilence Monarch', so Sheyan of course had to choose the direction where there were more people.

In addition, the 'Grudge' curse ability was of considerable threat to Sheyan. If this power could not be controlled by Sheyan, then Sheyan definitely had to destroy it!

"That bastard is actually still alive! **cough** I guess this sudden outbreak of diseases must be his work," Lamb's face was already half twisted. He gasped violently, and his eyes were full of disbelief.

"That bastard actually has dual-specialties! And he actually broke through to an Awakener in the midst of the battle! What's more, from what I could see, the strength of his equipment completely overshadows our own! Normal Awakeners are no match for him at all! Our party may still be able to go up against him, but definitely not after having fought a tough battle! **cough, cough** There's no point in fighting any more, KD. No matter how rich the rewards are, we still have to be alive to enjoy them!"

KD was also caught in a violent coughing fit and could not give Lamb any reply. But at that moment, Pryzbilla, who was lying near the windowsill, his face red with fever, suddenly stared wide-eyed at something. He shouted in a hoarse voice, "Lamb, Lamb! That guy is catching up to you!"

Pryzbilla's line of sight could cover most of the battlefield from that spot. When Bosch was flung away by Sheyan, Pryzbilla's gaze had involuntarily followed after Bosch. That brief moment of shifting his attention away was enough for the guy called Seaman to disappear from his sight.

To Pryzbilla's surprise, when he found Seaman again, the man was already within a hundred metres behind Lamb. Seaman looked like a winter wolf who was almost dying of hunger, hunting Lamb down quickly and quietly while eyeing Lamb's flesh with greedy eyes.

"Damn it, why did I use up all my 'Chill of Resentment's! **Achoo**" Pryzbilla muttered to himself while gritting his teeth. However, his hands were not idle. He quickly loaded the magic crossbow with a fiery red crystal as big as a thumb. The strange thing was, the crystal was frantically struggling. It even screamed in agony during the loading process.

A chill immediately crept down Lamb's back when he heard Pryzbilla's shout. He could not stop himself from looking back. When he did, his hands trembled involuntarily, because he saw the eyes of the enemy behind him. Sheyan's eyes were deep, like they contained an endless darkness, like they were a deep well that would suck away his soul!

This abnormality lasted for only a few seconds before Lamb came back to his senses. However, he did feel something abnormal still. He found that his running speed had significantly reduced, while the enemy in the rear had gotten faster!

This was the effect of Sheyan's 'Hunter's Eyes'. By the time Lamb ran 30 meters further, Sheyan had already caught up to him, and was within less than 10 meters of him. But at that moment, a strong sense of crisis washed over Sheyan. He looked up and saw the ruthless expression on the face of Pryzbilla, who was aiming at him from a distance. He also saw the magic crossbow, with its mysterious and magnificent glow. Sheyan immediately crossed his arms in front of himself in a defensive posture.

The loud howl of a fierce fireball resounded through the air. A strange blue fireball with a diameter of at least two meters shot forward at an insane speed, like a comet! It hit Sheyan head-on with a deafening "bang"!

The brilliant blue completely occupied all of Sheyan's senses in an instant. A terrible heat engulfed him, as if he had fallen into lava, burning his hair and his eyebrows. The sound of the explosion made his ears buzz. He was knocked more than five meters back by the explosive force.

A blue flame surged like an ocean wave and immediately submerged Sheyan in it. Some blue flames even burrowed into the blood vessels on Sheyan's arms like leeches, roasting his flesh and skin from within.

"Fortunately, the enemies have been suffering from my diseases for more than ten minutes and have also used up all their strong abilities, so they're already arrows at the end of their flight. Otherwise, I can only run for my life against such a party...."

"All the more reason to kill you now. Do you expect me to let you recover so that you can come back and kill me? Magic crossbow, good, very good!! So it's you that blasted Mogensha into pieces of ice and dust. Now I know who to go to for revenge!"

Sheyan noticed small black spots emerging on his skin inside the blazing fire. They were very inconspicuous when they first appeared, but they soon became vivid and distinguishable. They were tiny, black charred spots.

These black charred spots soon converged and rushed across his skin like a tide. A pungent smoke rose, full of a scorched odour! Sheyan's HP also dropped like a waterfall, but the rate of decline was still considerably stable.

"Oh? So after it bombarded me, there would be a paralysis effect, and a sea of fire will continuously burn around me?" Sheyan immediately planned to jump aside to avoid sustaining the continuous damage, but right then, a strong wave of mental energy assaulted him.

His ankles suddenly felt so heavy that it seemed as if there were a hundred kilograms of weight tied to them. Next, he felt something tighten around them. When he looked down, he saw that large rocks had grown out of the ground to lock his feet up like a shackle, fixing him in place. Sheyan could not move his feet at all.

"This should be a support type spell. It's a shame that Kulutego's power can't transmit this far, or this would just be a piece of cake for him!" Sheyan realised that he could not avoid the continuous damage, so he held his head in his arms and simply let the flame wantonly burn his body.

This kind of shooting frequency was obviously too fast for the magic crossbow. Terrible wounds appeared on Przybilla's hand as a result. The crossbow string was instantly soaked in blood. It was evident that Przybilla was doing this at a considerable cost. But he ignored that and aimed at the enemy again.

Sheyan did not dodge, nor did he fall into a defensive posture. He simply stared back at them with a weird, mocking look. The lethal attack which KD and Przybilla joined hands to produce came roaring, then noisily went away. It flew past Sheyan more than five metres away from his head. Finally, it emitted a flash of light in a building six hundred meters away and...was no more.

The look on Przybilla's face proved that he had just committed an error many snipers would frequently commit -- his aim was off. This was not because Sheyan was lucky. It was because the 'Headache' effect caused by the A-virus had mutated into: 'Hallucination'.

Flames were still burning on Sheyan's body and eroding into his muscles and bones. They were even trying to burrow into his internal organs along his blood vessels. However, the continuous, intense pain actually brought Sheyan a strange comfort, as if the more painful he felt, the more he suffered, the less guilty he would feel about watching Mogensha die.

At this time, Sheyan was wearing the fierce +10 dark green gloves and carrying the strong momentum of a newly awakened Awakener - he was shining like the bright sun! These enemies may be powerful, but their most powerful skills had all been used in the previous confrontation with Party Ace. Furthermore, they had been fighting for a long time, and all of them were infected with serious diseases. That was why he could fight them single-handedly.

If the enemies were all in their best conditions, Pryzbilla's party alone would have been more than Sheyan could chew. Of course, they probably would not be able to kill him either. But if a couple more enemies joined the fight, Sheyan could only run away.

Przbila's face turned unsightly. He turned to a room at the side and said, "It's lucky that I called you back, Gullit. I only did that to guard against the ferocious Chatichai from the Incantators of Destruction, but it seems like we've made the right move for the wrong reasons! With you here, even if we can't kill Seaman, we should have no problem retreating."

"Pryzbilla would not be of much use after Seaman get close to us. As for me, when I cast my debuff spells on him, their durations were shortened by more than half because that guy has dual-specialties!" said KD.

He continued, "The normal duration of 'Earthbind' is four seconds, but it took him only one and a half seconds to free himself. The magic core of the fire fairy Hedel that Pryzbilla shot just now should have produced a continuous burning effect that lasts twenty seconds, but it only burned for seven seconds on him! So unless I use that thing...I won't be any major threat to him. You'll have to be the main force in our fight against him."

KD exhaled a deep breath and said with some regret, "His Excellency wished to ambush Party Ace from all sides, so he only needed the most lethal members from the three parties in this fight. What can an MT do? The whole plan revolves around bombarding them with our strongest firepower and defeat them before they can react. Why would we need an MT? ** cough cough cough** Unfortunately, yes, we did catch them off guard with our sudden aggressive assault and managed to push them to the brink of collapse - we only needed one more push to wipe them all out - but a problem actually occurred on the side of His Excellency and the Incantators of Destruction! The person they were restraining together managed to free himself!"

It would be strange if KD had no complaints about this. Everything they worked for collapsed at the last moment, and the problem actually occurred at the place where they previously thought was the most reliable. How could he harbour no resentment?

"Bosch is dead. He was killed even after he used an instantaneous return item. The woman named Zi actually has the ability to interfere with dimensional fluctuations too. Bosch failed to escape..."

Lamb had just stepped into a corridor, but at that instant, he had also entered the range of Sheyan's 'Hornrage'. Lamb suddenly experienced a moment of dizziness. He then felt a burning sensation behind his neck. Looking back, he saw a figure that was engulfed in a dark flame sticking close to his back. It was Sheyan.

Lamb was someone with a strong determination. When he realised that he could no longer run away, he unhesitatingly fought back. With a shout, he slashed a dagger at Sheyan!

But Sheyan did not dodge the slash. He simply let the dagger open a bloody wound on his neck while he landed a heavy punch on Lamb's face. Lamb's strong body was blown away by the punch. His head crashed into the wall while he screamed in pain. The hard concrete wall shattered from the impact!

Sheyan's punch packed an unusual amount of power. The average theoretical damage of every punch of his was more than 500 points, and he also had the 'Flesh Explosion' ability. But most importantly, Lamb's main attribute was Agility and his secondary attribute was Perceptive Sense... This meant that the punch had caused crushing damage!!

Three shocking damage numbers popped up with that punch. Cracking sounds could be heard coming from Lamb's body - some of his bones had broken. Lamb's vision turned black while blood gushed out of his nostrils and mouth.

The punch was not that simple. A light flashed on Lamb's body. He had originally activated a buff on himself, but after taking Sheyan's hit, the buff dispersed into little spots of light. Sheyan had activated the 'Strength of the Sky' ability along with that punch!

"You killed my brother, but what's dead is dead. Those of us who survive must continue living. If you can give me something to ransom your life, I don't mind sparing you," Sheyan told Lamb without any emotion in his voice.

Lamb's heart was instantly full of hope. If he could meet up with KD and the rest of his party members alive, his chances of survival would greatly increase. Moreover, when they greatly outnumber Sheyan, they would have the final say. Could this guy be a simple-minded muscle head? He actually agreed to this kind of condition? What was an honorary dosage compared to his life? Lamb instantly agreed to the deal.

It turned out that Sheyan had approached within two meters of Lamb while they were trading the honorary dosage. Sheyan delivered another punch, catching Lamb off guard and giving him no opportunity to react. Lamb was sent flying again. He smashed through a door and flew into a building beside them. A series of crashing sounds transmitted from inside the building.

Sheyan rushed in amidst the dust and debris. In pursuit of speed, he actually smashed a hole through the wall instead of using the door. Yet, his momentum remained unabated.

Lamb had only just rolled back up when he was struck by Sheyan again. He hit his back on a pillar and bounced back towards Sheyan. Who knew how many of his bones were broken by now. He finally entered a state of near death.

He wished to curse out loud, but suddenly found that the light had dimmed. Sheyan had jumped up and rammed his knee hard into Lamb's chest. The crisp sound of Lamb's sternum breaking was immediately heard. Blood mixed with Lamb's stomach contents gushed out from his ears and nose. Lamb's eyes were filled with madness and hatred. His face was distorted, blue and purple. He had instantly died under Sheyan's iron fists.

The reason Sheyan deceived Lamb with words was firstly to play him like a cat playing with a mouse, so that Lamb would experience the sensation of falling from the highest high to the lowest low. This way, the revenge would feel much sweeter. Secondly, Sheyan was wary of Lamb's three teammates, so he was unwilling to spend a large amount of his strength on Lamb. He therefore use words to prevent Lamb from going all out before his death.

Time was tight. He must kill the magic sniper who killed Mogensha and the people who used a powerful curse to restrain him. The rest of the people he could let go, but those two must die!

Sheyan could sense that there were two people joining hands to restrain him with the curse. When he broke free, he caused them to be hit by a strong backlash, and Sheyan could sense that they had remained immobile ever since, either because they were unconscious or seriously injured. Therefore, the party of three he was about to face should be his strongest enemies.

Sheyan treated his wounds with some simple bandaging. After taking three deep breaths, he followed his senses and arrived at a door. He kicked the door open. Whatever was behind the door, he wasn't afraid!

The heavy anti-theft door burst open with a loud bang, a clear footprint engraved upon it. Some of the bricks and concrete connected to the door were pried away too, giving rise to dust and debris. The anti-theft door flew backwards.

However, after the steel door floated into the billowing dust, a terrible thing happened to it. A series of chaotic noises could be heard, followed by a strong gust of wind. The heavy anti-theft door had been crumpled into a ball like it was a piece of paper, and then thrown back at Sheyan!

A huge hole opened up behind Sheyan following a loud bang. A cool wind blew into the building. He could hear the bricks, furniture and other objects near his foot crashing down from the hole. After all, this was the seventh floor.

When Sheyan rushed to the door again, a large amount of red lights flashed within the dust and shot out like a torrential rain -- they were bullets! These locust-like bullets left long trails of flame in their wake and would explode upon hitting the target. Sheyan was caught off guard and ended up taking a few rounds of the bullets. The impact forced him to take a few steps back. He was about to jump aside to dodge when he once again felt a familiar sensation around his feet!

Naturally, it was KD again. As if the concrete stairs had come to life, it extended upwards past his shoes and covered his shins. It then solidified, sticking to his feet tight. With a furious yell, Sheyan forcefully pulled out his right foot and stomped it heavily on the floor. The stairs sunk half a metre down from the strong force. If it hadn't been for the steel reinforcement inside, it would probably have collapsed.

Sheyan even heard a sorrowful cry from the concrete that adhered to his feet. The scream was hoarse and weird, totally unlike the voice of a human. It was made by the Earthbound Spirit nurtured by KD, which had been badly damaged.

Despite Sheyan's quick response, he was still constrained for nearly a second. He felt a great threat coming from the front. In that instant, he had two choices. He could either take the honorary dosage, or use the teleportation ability on his dark gold ring. Either option could solve the current crisis! But at that moment, a few thoughts flashed through his mind.

'The mastermind is a very cautious person. He'll always leave as quickly as possible if he could not achieve his objective, so it shouldn't be him. However, this person should be the one who takes charge of the battlefield in his stead.'

'The enemy's actions proved that the person who's giving command is indeed a smart man, but there should only be one commander among them, because too many people giving orders isn't necessarily a good thing!'

The next second, an incomparably dazzling column of light shot out from the dust and smoke. The light was extremely concentrated, and air surged around it. The column of light struck Sheyan's chest. Light sprayed fiercely like the blinding sparks produced by welding, but a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times brighter! So bright that it could blind the eyes of mortals and destroy gods!

Such a magnificent power was already at the level of the main cannon on an interstellar spaceship. Merely the energy which escaped from the attack was enough to destroy the load-bearing structure of the building. The building shook for a while, then collapsed!

Sheyan was not unfamiliar with the exoskeleton armour model. It was the expensive machine from Avatar - the Amplified Mobility Platform, or AMP suit for short. It was a type of single-operated medium-sized mobile exoskeleton.

But the AMP in front of Sheyan looked much more powerful and complex than the ordinary exoskeleton seen in Avatar! If the exoskeleton on planet Avatar looked like a muscular, sloppy old man pulling a rickshaw, then this exoskeleton could only be described as a fully-armed member of the special forces.

It must be noted that the power developing the planet Avatar was a large private consortium. The government would definitely make sure that the military weapons they obtained could not pose a threat to them. Hence, the weapons seen in the movie were actually 20 to 30 years behind the technology on Earth.

After entering the world of Avatar, KD's party had surprisingly came up with a way to return to Earth on the Enterprise mothership. They arrived on Earth after more than three years of hibernation and managed to purchase this high-end exoskeleton!

This type of AMP could carry four people and was a lethal weapon that had already replaced tanks on Earth. It was far stronger than the AMPs on planet Avatar, be it in survivability or damage output!

KD also got his hands on another lethal weapon in the Starship Troopers world -- the design drawing of a Yamato cannon! That's right, the Yamato cannon, the cannon of the ultimate Terran unit in Starcraft, the Battlecruiser!

KD naturally tried to combine the two together. After a series of modifications, it became their party's ultimate weapon, a weapon of terrifying power! However, the cost of each shot was astronomical, mainly because the Yamato cannon was originally meant to be mounted on a gigantic object such as the Battlecruiser. Although KD had reduced the cannon's damage output, it was still quite incompatible with the AMP exoskeleton. It was like an 80-kilogram male Caucasian Sheepdog falling in love with a female Chihuahua which weighs a kilogram....It's a tragedy whenever they're in heat.

Sheyan's momentum was too overwhelming, and his party's mage even had the ability to sever dimensional connections. Gullit knew they only had one shot. If they blew this chance, all of them may very well die - this shot would decide their life and death. Therefore, Gullit had raised the power of the Yamato cannon to the maximum, something they had never done before!

The cost, of course, was unbelievably high. The AMP was now in a terrible condition. Several of its key parts were burning, alarms were blaring in the control cockpit, and the fire extinguishers kept spraying nitrogen. Not only that, the barrel of the Yamato cannon mounted on the shoulder of the AMP had also melted like a candle, turning into red-hot molten metal.

The energy display scale inside the cockpit had dropped into red. Electric sparks were leaping around on the dashboard - it looked as if it would explode at any moment. The three contestants inside also appeared extremely tired.

But this was to be expected. To use a Battlecruiser cannon on an AMP, the energy system would have to bear the brunt of the burden. Then, the aiming, simulation, calculation, balance modulation and launch timing control would all have to be carried out by linking the MP of the AMP crew together.

"It must be because he's in a state of near death," replied KD confidently. "Someone His Excellency is so wary of must have some lifesavers up his sleeve. In ten seconds, when the AMP's energy is restored back to 25%, the vital signs radar will regain its function. We'll search him out from under the wreckage and finish him. The equipment on him is extraordinary...."

But just as KD said that, the whole AMP suddenly trembled. The bullet-proof glass next to them, which was already full of cracks, shattered into millions of tiny crystals! A blackened arm reached in and grabbed Pryzbilla's chest. The arm suddenly glowed with a dark green light and yanked Pryzbilla out with force.

Pryzbilla could not react in time. With one leg stuck on the window, he was bloodily torn apart! He let out a terrible scream. Soon after, a merciless fist hit him in the face...

The dust gradually settled, revealing a charred, shabby figure. By just standing there, the figure looked as if he was towering over the earth. The figure took out a cigar, lit it, took a deep puff, and threw it on Pryzbilla's corpse.

Sheyan actually turned his back to KD and Gullit who were still in the AMP. He would definitely sacrifice them to Mogensha. This meant that he was already sure of their deaths.

Gullit's breathing was loud. KD's face was as pale as dust, his facial muscles twitching non-stop. He held onto his weapon tightly, trying to create an air of someone who would fight till the very end, but his occasional coughing and sneezing broke the atmosphere. Sheyan gazed at the cigar on the ground for a while, then sighed and turned around.

Sheyan slowly raised his fist. Gullit instantly pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger in a frenzy. However, it was a feint; the one Sheyan was aiming for was KD! Sheyan did not expect to be able to fool KD with his actions, but he had deceived Gullit. If Gullit had immediately turned around and fled while Sheyan was attacking KD, it would have been a real hassle to chase after him.

KD was not so easily fooled, but he was not the one Sheyan was trying to deceive! Seeing Sheyan pounce at him like a fierce tiger, KD immediately reacted. He was not a man who would just wait to be killed. Furthermore, he had only been commanding the fight from a distance, so his consumption was the smallest among the enemies.

A light flashed on KD's body. He had used an honorary dosage to refill his MP. Then, with an intense cry, electric sparks burst out all over his body. They began to gather!

But right then, KD suddenly realised something. Under Sheyan's control, diseases had started breaking out in KD's body. He was inflicted with all kinds of negative conditions, among which the most terrible for a mage-type contestant was high fever. Under the continuous high fever, KD's MP consumption was doubled any time he used an ability!

The ability KD was trying to use to bring Sheyan down with him was extremely powerful. Because of that, he had only just enough MP to perform it in his peak condition. However, with the negative condition of high fever, he was immediately put in a very embarrassing situation.

There is a saying that no matter how wise a man is, there will come a time when he will make a mistake. Sheyan's presence simply gave KD too much pressure,that was why he had made such an amateurish mistake. His vision instantly turned dark and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

An AMP was actually very fragile without its protective barrier. Sheyan smashed open the glass of the cockpit and charged inside. He ruthlessly grabbed KD's throat and raised him high!

Sheyan stomped down hard with his foot. Receiving an attack from the inside, the AMP creaked and shook unsteadily. Dazzling sparks burst out from several of its electric circuits, flickering and jumping wildly in the cockpit like the final struggle of a snake that had its head chopped off.

KD used all his remaining strength to squeeze out a few words from his throat. "If you kill me, you'll never find the man who controls all this from behind the scenes!"

Sheyan made no reply. The corners of his lips curled into a smirk. He showed no hesitation in throwing KD onto the steel wall. Under Sheyan's terrifying strength, KD could find no chance to fight back at all!!

KD's blood flowed all over his face. Amidst the violent concussion and cries of pain, KD screamed, "Don't kill me, don't kill me! That person is using a satellite to monitor our every move. He has a strange ability that can plunder the luck of the people around him, and then use that luck against his enemy to exhaust his enemy's luck. To find him, you only have to search for an area where a lot of people are experiencing bad luck!"

Sheyan slammed KD into the wall again, forcing KD into a state of near death. He then laughed and said, "I know you're not lying, because you're not telling me this information with a good intention. You just want me to go look for that guy so that he can kill me and avenge you, so....you should just die! "

KD was a wise man, and an outstanding strategist, but all his ingenious and clever schemes were shattered in the face of Sheyan's strength. He ended up paying for it with his life!

KD's greatest mistake was that he was too confident in the Yamato cannon he personally modified. So when the monstrous Sheyan managed to survive thanks to 'Death's Lament', he was caught off guard. His whole plan collapsed after Sheyan unexpectedly plunged into their midst!

By this time, Gullit had already run hundreds of meters away. The direction he fled in was obviously chosen with malicious intentions. He was running straight towards the gathering place of the Incantators of Destruction.

Gullit obviously realised that he might not be able to escape Sheyan's pursuit, so he wished to drag some people down with him! The hatred between these two parties ran deep. He understood that Sheyan, who was wallowing in the grief of losing his friend, would never let their party off, but he would certainly never let those people who could imprison him go either!

That was because Party Ace still had to stay in this world for some time. Sheyan would definitely not wish to risk being paralysed in unexpected moments. Maybe Gullit could even find a chance to escape when Sheyan was busy dealing with the Incantators of Destruction!

This was clearly a public venue, but right now, not a soul could be seen. The atmosphere was abnormally eerie, like a biohazard had broken out. He felt like the plaza was not plaza at all, but a terrible and gloomy giant vortex. The sun was shining on it brightly, but not a sound could be heard!

However, because Gullit was running for his life, and his Perceptive Sense was not as strong as Sheyan's, he did not realise that he was running to his death. He foolishly dashed into the vortex.

A voice suddenly transmitted directly into his ears. As soon as he heard the voice, his vision turned completely black. The voice sounded like it had gone through multiple turns and echoes before it reached Gullit, filled with mystery and gloom.

Gullit felt like his head was going to split, but there was still a shred of reason within his heart. He buried his head and ran with all his might, hoping to run away from here as quickly as possible. But suddenly, a darkness flashed in front of him. A corpse jumped out from a car and rapidly festered and decayed. In the end, its body turned into ashes, leaving behind only its head!

The illusionary skull that had lost its body was flying forward with extraordinary speed. Its exposed teeth looked like an evil grin, and some flesh that had not completely decayed could still be seen sticking to it. It was a horrifying sight.

Gullit specialised in driving and piloting, but he was still an Awakener. He immediately took a deep breath in his panic and leaped aside. But when he took in this breath, he felt as if millions of needles were sticking into his chest; it was extremely painful. He managed to dodge the illusionary skull, but it actually circled back in the air and bit him on the throat!

An unbearable chill washed over Gullit, making him scream. He completely lost control of his body in that instant, unable to lift even a finger! He was stiffly rooted to the spot. The skull gradually exerted its strength and slowly dragged Gullit up in the air. Following that, countless other skulls appeared, gnawing and biting away at his flesh and skin.

Gullit had spent a lot of energy in the assault against Party Ace earlier. He had already used his honorary dosage to recover his MP when they shot the Yamato cannon. Not only was he the operator of the AMP, he was also linked to the AMP. When the Yamato cannon explode after launching a shot with maximum power, it had also injured Gullit. Gullit had less than 40% of his HP remaining when he came here.

Inside Sheyan's eyes, he saw Gullit suddenly stumbling into a police car while he was running forward, colliding into it with a loud crash. The car window was naturally shattered. However, the shattered, bloody glass fragments eerily floated around him, then cut up his body in a frenzy! He was cut to death, leaving behind merely a skeleton in less than five minutes!

Sheyan's eyebrows flicked. He had arrived here carrying the unstoppable momentum from five straight kills. He may look to be in terrible condition, but his fighting spirit was at its peak. He regarded Gullit as a prey that was already within his grasp, but unexpectedly, he was killed by another before Sheyan could get to him. This was unforgivable. He took a deep breath and walked over!

Every step Sheyan took, the ground would quake as if he were a behemoth like Kulutego! Sounds of cups and plates crashing down could be heard from the nearby cafe. He slowly walked forward, alone, looking like he would turn the world upside down!

This was the biggest difference between a Growth Hunter and an Awakener. The former was still looking for his own path, while the latter had already found his path and was pressing forward courageously with indomitable will, without looking back! And Sheyan had accumulated a lot of strength, so he comprehended an Awakening Skill right after he broke through. At this time, he also had a strong desire to appease his hatred with blood. So, he had naturally brought his dual-attribute specialties into full play.

Seeing Sheyan's appearance, the guy called Chatichai, who was originally hidden in the dark, also made himself visible. He had wrapped his head in a black cloth. There were blood stains in the corner of his mouth. He spoke to Sheyan in a stiff voice.

While the guy was still talking, the OBV's engine roared to life - it was trying to drive away. Sheyan's frowning eyebrows were like a pair of daggers. The two men inside were on his must-kill list, their priority right below Pryzbilla. After all, he still had to stay in this world for at least two more weeks. How could he let these threats run away?

As soon as Sheyan rushed into the area, overlapping layers of terrifying illusions immediately assaulted him. This was the ability of the opponent, somewhat similar to that of Franklin, the deceased illusionist. The illusion could not be broken with simply a firm mind, so one could only get hit.

However, Sheyan had a different idea, because the enemy contained a lot of his viruses and his Perceptive Sense was also far above the enemy's! He could rely on the information transmitted to his senses to locate the enemy in the shortest time possible!

To explain it in a more visual term, this terrible illusion was like a labyrinth. Sheyan could sense the enemy's position at the other side of the labyrinth, so he could take shortcuts and move in a straight line towards the enemy. However, the enemy had surely set a lot of traps on this path.

As soon as Sheyan came into contact with the first trap, he immediately saw his HP drop sharply. That was within expectations. Chatichai had been making preparations here for a long time. If Sheyan could still get to him so easily, Chatichai wouldn't be fit to be an Awakener.

But since Sheyan still dared to dash towards Chatichai, of course he had something up his sleeve. It must be noted that Sheyan's current HP was all recovered by 'Death's Lament'. He had used 'Gloryheal' to heal himself once, then used 'Death's Lament' to survive the Yamato cannon. The honorary dosage was still on cooldown. Wasn't this the perfect time to use that thing?

After a flash of light, Sheyan's wounds miraculously healed and scabbed. He gritted his teeth and sprinted forty meters forward, then used the 'Mind Transmission' ability of his dark gold ring. The enemy was now within range of 'Hornrage'.

Sheyan was now covered in blood from head to toe. Who knew how many traps he had triggered as he charged forward like a tank. But thanks to his sudden outburst in speed, at least half the power of the traps he triggered did not fall on his body.

Chatichai could never have imagined that the illusion he personally laid down could be forcefully broken like this. His estimation of Sheyan was immediately upgraded to the level of ancient dragons and prehistoric beasts.

But Chatichai had an extremely fierce personality. With a roar, he pulled out an iron hook shaped like an animal's claws and swiped it down at Sheyan. Sheyan was ready to go after the twin brothers; he refused to waste his time here. He punched Chatichai's face hard, almost flattening Chatichai's face from 3D to 2D. Chatichai flew back while spraying blood.

But at the same time, Chatichai's horrifying iron claws also struck Sheyan's shoulder heavily, the sharp black barbs on the claws mercilessly tearing large pieces of flesh away! Flesh and blood sprayed in a frenzy.

Both of them fell down to the ground rolling. They roared and growled like wild beasts. Chatichai even tried to bite at Sheyan! But after all, he specialised in Intelligence. How could he possibly compete with Sheyan, a dual-specialty contestant in Strength and Physique, in close combat? In the end, all that came from him were cries of pain and the sounds of his bones breaking.

A punch sent Chatichai flying into a flower bed nearby, where he lay paralysed while bleeding profusely. Even his eyes had almost burst from being punched. Sheyan did not intend to spare him. He approached Chatichai in large strides and stomped on Chatichai's neck! He even grinded his foot a few times after that!

Chatichai held his neck while making unintelligible noises with his throat. The look of disbelief and pain in his eyes were particularly intense. While he convulsed on the ground, those eyes gradually grew dim. Blood gushed out of his mouth like a fountain.

Shali, Rogenvader, Lamb, Bosch, Pryzbilla, Chatichai and KD. All seven people could be regarded as influential Awakeners in their own Realm. Even if they were not leading figures, they were the core of their respective parties.

He had punched them to death! None of them survived, and none of them managed to escape. This was not because Zi had followed behind Sheyan and triggered a lot of dimensional ripples, but for other reasons.

Sheyan would not be able to sleep well if the twin brothers who could perform the 'Grudge' curse were not dead. They had driven away in the OBV, but Sheyan knew that there was no one else in the vehicle. Both of them were suffering from the backlash of the curse being broken, and they were seriously ill thanks to Sheyan's diseases. How far could they go under this condition? They would surely meet with an accident once the driver got dizzy.

After running down half the street, Sheyan finally found the OBV. It had crashed into a KFC. The diners were still running away in panic. Sheyan walked up to it and found a man lying face down on the driver's seat, blood flowing all over his face. Although Sheyan was boiling with anger, he remained cautious, wary of an ambush. He grabbed a stool and threw it at the driver. The result was the stool hitting the driver right on the head and knocking him out of the vehicle. He lay on the ground, twitching and bleeding....

Sheyan inspected the driver carefully. He saw large patches of purplish-black patterns on the driver's skin along his blood vessels, like the long hair of a ghost. The patterns were especially abundant on the neck. He looked as if he was being strangled to death. However, Sheyan was still wary. He approached the guy slowly and kicked him away hard. They guy bumped into a wall and bled even more profusely. His head was hanging at a weird angle. While Sheyan was still thinking of his next move, a series of notifications transmitted over from his Nightmare Imprint.

To be honest, Sheyan had expected the twins to make some final struggles. He thought they would counter attack with some combo strikes or something. That's why, although he appeared to be in a hurry to kill them, he was actually prepared for a prolonged fight. If worse comes to worst, he would wait for the rest of his party to come here and help him.

What Sheyan did not know was that the 'Grudge' curse was a really vicious ability, as was evident from its name. In truth, it was not something that an Awakener-level contestant should practice. The twins obtained the chance to learn it by coincidence, and the price they had to pay to do so was shockingly high. The rewards promised by the mastermind this time was too rich, so they decided to use this curse even though its level was still very low. As a result, the backlash after the curse was broken was also particularly severe! To make matters worse, they were also assaulted by Sheyan's diseases!

Anyway, to kill the enemy easily was always a good thing. Sheyan much prefer this than to have them climb back up vigorously and fight 300 more rounds with him. He glanced at the notifications and sighed.

By this time, Sheyan finally realised that the Nightmare Realm had not repeated the notifications. When he killed one of the twin brothers, the other one, the one who was in a more serious condition, had died at the same time. He died a pathetic death from coughing.

He went around the vehicle and saw that the back door was open. He walked to the pantry area inside and heard the sound of dripping water. There, he saw a corpse lying on top of a sink, the tap still running.

It seemed that the guy had tried to get some water to drink to stop the cough, but how tough was the A-virus? Before he could take a drink, he had already dropped dead! Looking at the blood and dark red tissue fragments at the corner of his lips, as well as his wide open eyes, it was obvious how wronged he felt before his death!

Having chased the enemies all the way here out of fury, Sheyan was already exhausted. He slowly walked back to the place where the rest of his party was located. Only now did he feel the numbness coursing through his body, and the fear. Looking back, those were ten Awakeners he had faced, not ten pigs waiting to be slaughtered! He had only done it because Mogensha's death had provoked him into launching a single-minded pursuit for revenge without a care for anything else. If his mind was still rational, he would probably not have done something so crazy.

Sheyan had only walked less than two hundred meters before both Zi and Melody ran to meet him anxiously. They simultaneously felt relieved and surprised when they saw that he was alive, albeit in a sorry state. They rushed to support him and took care of him as if he was going to drop dead the next second.

After all, Party Ace had three more days of preparation time in this world, which they had used to establish a network with people of common interests. Those legendary figures in their network would definitely come to their rescue as soon as they realised something was wrong. The enemies had no wish to face those people at all.

"It's a bit rash of you to do that. Anyone of us can die, but if you die, the party will completely break up. As long as you survive, the others who died will still have a glimmer of chance to live again. Don't forget, the Metal Professor had also died, but was resurrected afterwards," complained Zi.

They made some quick calculations. They had actually obtained 61 achievement points, probably because there were party leaders among the people they killed. However, Sheyan could only get 30 achievement points max through killing. After making some inquiries, he allocated 20 achievement points to Zi, 6 achievement points to Reef, and 5 achievement points to Sanzi.

(TL note: Equipment grade ranking: white < light="" blue="">< dark="" blue="">< black="">< silver="" storyline="">< dark="" green="" (set="" equipment)="" dark="" gold="" (a="" complete="" set="" of="" dark="" green="" equipment="" is="" comparable="" to="" dark="" gold)="">< light="" green="" (upgradeable="" equipment)="">< gold="" storyline="">

There was a pair of silver storyline wrist guards which had an ability called 'Absolute Run' on them. When the ability was activated, not only would the wearer's speed increase by 25%, gravity would also be maintained at a 90-degree angle to the wearer's sole for 120 seconds. In other words, with this ability in play, the wearer could run on the surface of a building like it was flat ground and even walk upside down on the ceiling. It was very useful for running away or chasing after an enemy.

The most valuable equipment they got was a pair of dark gold boots. They were truly an unexpected gain. Not only did they provide a substantial boost of all attributes +4, they also had the shocking special effects of 25% reduction in ability cooldown time and a 25% reduction in MP and HP consumption when using an ability.

They also came with the active ability 'Frog Jump', which enabled the wearer to jump 5~30 meters away. Upon landing, a shockwave which could stun nearby enemies would be produced.

Reef's 'Holy Grasp' Awakener Skill could be considered the most important skill in the party right now and could be used for both offence and defence. However, Reef only had the 'Courage' ability which he could use to dash to his allies; he lacked a movement skill to close down on an enemy. So after some deliberation, the dark gold boots were allocated to Reef.

With the death of Brother Black, Sheyan must boost his destructiveness to ensure that the party had sufficient damage output. He therefore took the silver storyline wrist guards. The 'Absolute Run' ability was very useful in both pursuit and escape.

The light green equipment that had been upgraded to level 5, the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, looked pretty underwhelming. Sheyan could feel a mysterious power in it, but none of them could figure out how to use the object properly. Nevertheless, they decided to keep it.

The dark gold club...the liquid metal life-form was salivating for it, and this was what happened after feeding the other four trash equipment to it. To be honest, Sheyan was terrified that it would swallow its current "host", his dark green gloves. That would be a catastrophe.

Given the team's current terrible financial situation - they still need a huge sum of utility points to pay for Melody's stay - the dark gold club was not fed to the liquid metal life-form. It should be able to sell for about 300,000 utility points! With it, Party Ace could finally make up a little for their financial losses.

After Sheyan regrouped with his party, he found that the luckiest person in the whole fight was Old Charlie. Right from the very beginning, he had been flung away into a nearby supermarket and landed on some discounted toilet rolls that were stacked up like a small hill. He was completely submerged in the toilet rolls, which enabled him to survive the two ice shockwaves. Because his Physique was not much higher than an ordinary person's, he had fallen unconscious when he landed and remained unconscious throughout. Besides the large bump on his head, he had no other injuries.

Old Charlie was silent upon hearing the fate which befell Mogensha, but perhaps because he had experienced too many deaths and farewells, he did not dwell in sadness for too long. He quickly regained his reason.

Sheyan's upper body was currently bare, exposing his solid, well-defined muscles. He was not trying to show off his figure. Chatichai's black art was really mysterious and there were some aftereffects it left behind which he had to deal with. For example, wounds that kept dripping pus, sores that looked like the face of a smiling human, etc. He could only remove them slowly with Melody's help.

Sheyan narrowed his eyes upon hearing what Old Charlie said. "You're right. The mastermind must know the weakness of this group he had temporarily formed, and that was, as soon as they were at a disadvantage, they would all just fight for themselves. The fact that I could actually kill nine Awakeners in a row shows that something must have happened which caused the mastermind to not be able to command the battle himself," said Sheyan while Melody was controlling her nature energy to burn away a piece of his flesh that had turned black.

"The mastermind disappeared after his attack on Mr. Sanzi failed...and Mr. Sanzi holds the special identity of a Chosen. It's very likely that his behaviour had violated the authority of our Realm, so he had met with some punishment."

Sheyan recalled what KD had told him, which he repeated to Old Charlie in full. Old Charlie seemed lost in contemplation. After a while, he suddenly raised his head and said, "Under certain circumstances, KD's information could possibly help us catch that guy."

A large mayhem had broken out. A large number of tourists were running around like headless chickens, screaming in horror, frantically trying to flee outside. The police cars and fire trucks were stuck outside, unable to get in.

The ray of light came straight from far in the distance to stab deep into the doorway of Airport Terminal 2 with unbelievable speed and destructiveness. Within a hundred metres of where the ray of light landed, all that could be seen were the dried bones scattered on the ground.

The JFK was a busy airport; one could imagine the hustle and bustle at the doorway of Terminal 2. There were at least thousands of people nearby at the time. One could imagine how much bones were left behind and how horrifying the scene was.

But even more bizarre was that in such an environment, there was still a survivor, and the survivor was someone who was brutally nailed to the ceiling of the terminal by the ray of light shaped like a longspear! The ray of light had pierced through his right chest, brightly illuminating the man's pale, flabby skin.

The guy turned out to be the plain-looking man who was fighting with Carlos, Razor and Taji previously. That lethal sword he carried, the Evil Sword Apophis, was still tightly in his grasp. Not only that, it currently seemed particularly dazzling, as if it wished to outglow the longspear!

"So it's you...the Saint of Darkness who wanders the edge of the Realms. Such mysterious abilities...you should be "Bind", the sixth in order. No wonder those three died in your hands! No wonder I couldn't take away the life of your Divine Servant even with the power of my Gungnir!"

"Your Divine Servant was the one who killed my core members! How dare you sling mud at us! Is the JFK Airport your private territory? Why can't my people pass through this place?" Rocky retorted furiously.

"That's just a replica, not even a real Divine Servant," said Bind. "Your members' bodies are full of filth. I'm here to clean this world, so I can't allow any filth to enter. Your members weren't just passing by; they initiated the fight due to their greed for the Evil Sword Apophis."

"Lies! That's just your side of the story!" Rocky's voice from the phone appeared very angry. "Carlos, Razor and Taji also had valuable treasures on them. It's obviously your Divine Servant who wanted to kill and rob them!"

The water tank hanging on the wall had probably not undergone maintenance for a long time. A rusted screw fell down. As a result, the water tank that was filled with water came crashing down. It fell on a woman who was hiding in the bathroom, scared out of her wits.

The woman screamed in pain. Her dress was stuck under the water tank, so she could not run away. She struggled violently to free herself. Finally, she managed to push the water tank away to run away in terror. But the water tank she moved away was stuck there, the water in the pipe gushing out. The water slowly flowed to the side and came crashing down from the third floor to the ground floor, forming a water curtain.

Bind was obviously an extremely arrogant person and always viewed himself as superior to others. How could such a person stand being slandered? Images immediately appeared on the water curtain in the form of reflections. It was showing the previous conversation between Carlos, Razor, Taji and the Divine Servant.

Carlos, Razor, and Taji pretended to be persuaded and seemed like they were leaving when they suddenly attacked the Divine Servant, severely injuring him. Carlos even laughed and said that they had finally obtained a godly item like the Evil Sword Apophis. Then...Bind intervened.

Because the airport maintained large patches of grass lawns, especially in the non-runway areas, rats could often be seen here. The rats could not be completely eliminated; they would always pop up again afterwards. Therefore, it was normal to see a couple of rat holes in the lawns here.

The Divine Servant still fought tenaciously despite being badly wounded. He tried to avoid one of Taji's attacks but it was obvious that he could not dodge in time. He took a step back and suddenly stepped into an abandoned rat hole. His body hence leaned back out of balance, barely avoiding Taji's strike.

Why was this rat hole abandoned? It was because the ground here sunk down a little, so water would easily accumulate here when the lawn was watered. So when the Divine Servant stepped into the hole, mud splashed out from under his foot and shot towards the face of Razor who had only one good hand left. It instantly impaired Razor's vision. Coupled with the fact that Carlos and Taji's strikes just missed, a rare opening immediately showed itself!

The Divine Servant instantly lowered his body and rushed forward. He rammed his elbow heavily into Razor's lower ribs. The sharp sounds of bones breaking could be heard. Razor's broken ribs pierced into his organs. Before he could even scream, the sword Apophis in the hands of the Divine Servant shook slightly. A shadow flashed pass, stifling Razor's scream in his throat! Razor could only make some gurgling noises with his eyes wide open.

His hands were grabbing the wound on his neck tightly. He let out a stifled groan, then started to spit out bubbles like a toad that was waking up from hibernation. The difference was that a toad spat white bubbles, while he spat blood bubbles.

The Divine Servant himself was injured after giving Razor a heavy blow. He immediately turned around and ran. Carlos and Taji were shocked and angered. They naturally refused to let him go. However, after they had chased him for over a hundred meters, large patches of white glows appeared on the water curtain. That indicated that Bind had personally descended.

Bind had no choice but to intervene. It would be hard for him to explain himself if something like the Evil Sword Apophis was lost. Plus, he had felt the fury of Noah Realm C when he attacked Sanzi, so he could only leave for the time being to avoid the Realm's scanning.

That was why Sheyan sensed that the enemies had suddenly scattered like loose sand at the second half of the previous fight. That was why the mastermind had suddenly disappeared!

Sheyan and his party did not stay there for long because they had no intention of waiting for the FBI to invite them back to their headquarters for a cup of coffee. They went straight back to the base. Sheyan had previously applied for the 'Non-Combatant Protection' for Old Charlie, and yet he was still injured. This was probably because he housed Freddy inside his body now, so his threat level was judged to have exceeded the limit of the 'Non-Combatant Protection'.

[ Mission Hint: Everyone in this world isn't fighting for their own sake anymore. Their fathers, mothers, relatives and friends were behind them, supporting their will to fight to the very end. Therefore, the intensity of the fights is likely beyond your imagination. Past friendships no longer matter. ]

After some discussion, almost all of them choose the utility points in order to solve their current financial crisis. Only Zi, who was in urgent need to promote her military rank, chose the achievement points. The subsequent main mission soon appeared.

[ The main mission of the rest of the contestants in the current stage is to assassinate various heads of state and key storyline characters in order to create chaos. Please try your best to protect the following key personnel. You will receive the corresponding mission points. ]

[ Charlie Frost (radio host and conspiracy theorist in possession of a map showing the arks' location) - 20 points, Carl Anheuser (White House Chief of Staff, the fat man who will later become the acting commander-in-chief) - 20 points. ]

[ Mission failure penalty: All the benefits you have gained in this world will be taken away. Your data will be restored to the state when you first enter this world. ]

[ A: Peak Asian cultural works of art: "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" / "Ghost Valley Downhill" / "Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion" / "Heirloom Seal of the Realm" / "Ramayana Engraving" ]

(TL: I did my research: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Along_the_River_During_the_Qingming_Festival , https://bzdww.com/article/33866/ , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantingji_Xu , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_Seal_of_the_Realm , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana )

[ B: Peak European cultural works of art: "Mona Lisa" / "Venus de Milo" / "Winged Victory of Samothrace" / "Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross mounted with the Star of Africa". ]

[ C: Peak African cultural works of art (including Egyptian relics): "Benin Ivory Mask" / "Rosetta Stone" / "Golden Coffin of Tutankhamun" / "Sphinx" / "Golden Contract Slate". ]

[ B: Peak American cultural works of art: "Crystal Skull" / "Dagger of the Golden Priest" / "Eye of Quetzalcoatl" / "Indian Chief's Fanged Mask" / "Ancestor Doll of the Voodoo Religion". ]

If it was done alone, the person would only need to collect one work of art from each continent, making it four in total, but the person could not use two or more works of art from the same continent to make up the total.

For example, if you got the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", the "Mona Lisa", the "Sphinx", and the "Crystal Skull", you would complete the task. But if you got the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", the "Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion", the "Sphinx", and the "Crystal Skull", you have not completed the task because even though you have four works of art, you lack one from European culture.

The benefit of 10% increase in high-grade equipment drop rate and equipment strengthening success rate goes without saying. And the guarantee of not failing if the title was used in a title synthesis was especially precious.

Sheyan had tried to synthesise several seemingly useless titles before, so he knew how difficult a process it was. The fact that one had to burn other titles to provide energy for the synthesisation process was hard to bear, and still, the success rate was unbelievably low. Even a monster like Sheyan dared not be rash in matters of title synthesis.

If Sheyan could get his hands on this title that guaranteed success in synthesisation, he would go all in and fuse several of his most important titles at one go. Although he would burn quite a number of titles by doing so, he would only need to do it once. Sheyan did not say anything, nor did he need to. Everyone else knew he would try to get this title at all costs.

[ Effect: The holder of this title will acquire a peculiar ability. When the title holder faces a contestant who is infected with the holder's bronchitis disease and displaying the symptom of coughing blood, the holder can tell the infected person keywords such as "Tampax", "Playtex" and "Sofy". The symptom will immediately disappear and the disease will be eliminated. ]

[ However, when the infected contestant hears the keyword, they will immediately be stunned for three seconds and will lose 10,000 utility points. The title holder will obtain 5,000 utility points. ]

[ The title holder can only take a maximum of 50,000 utility points from a contestant with this method. If the contestant did not have enough utility points, utility points would not be deducted. ]

Although every faction in their alliance had suffered deaths, but at least they did so fighting for themselves and their loved ones. On the other hand, Party Ace had willingly take part in this mess in order to save them. There was a great difference between the two.

Sheyan could not take his mind off the mastermind. He knew that this time, the mastermind had likely come to this world personally, so the best chance to kill him was in this world of 2012.

KD was a wise tactician who was really good at psychology. He could calculate Sheyan's actions like he could read Sheyan's mind. That's why, even when he knew he was going to die, he still forcefully told Sheyan how to locate the mastermind. Sheyan could only sigh at how delicate and vicious KD's mind was.

Whenever two tigers fight, at least one would be gravely wounded. Regardless of whether it was Sheyan or the mastermind who died, KD would still have achieved his revenge.

There was no reason for Sheyan not to make use of the power and social network of the legendary figures by his side. He told them that the people who were trying to correct the course of history had arrived, and his companion had died in their hands.

Sheyan did not say too much, but when the native legendary figures heard the words "correct the course of history", their killing intent were obvious. Even the mild Professor X had a murderous air about him after killing a number of people in the past few days.

But their main focus was still in protecting the base. Now that they have enough materials, they could shrink the defensive perimeter and focus on defence. Many of them bitterly regretted letting the previous attack on the base happen, so the base defence now had become as solid as gold. In addition, Professor X and Jean could take shifts now. Therefore, even though the base suffered many high-intensity attacks afterwards, the loss they actually sustained was minimal.

Dr. Octopus's talent was now fully on display. The project he presided over finally had an abundance of raw materials; all his needs could be fulfilled. Furthermore, the survival of his family was obviously a great motivation for him. It was for these reasons that he actually managed to produce an entire airship formation according to their design in four days.

The seven behemoths looked just like floating islands when they drifted in the sky. In order to not get discovered, they only ascended about seven or eight meters above the ground, but even so, they were already quite the amazing sight. If it weren't because of the approaching apocalypse, they would surely have attracted the attention of the authorities.

Seven floating giant ships joined together had provided additional buoyancy. After a few rounds of testing and calculations, if the ships only had to fly for two months, the number of people that could be carried exceeded their previously most optimistic estimate by more than 20%. According to the final calculations, if all of them worked overtime until the day of the apocalypse, they could build a total of 52 airships, forming seven airship formations!

This level of productivity sounded shocking, but it was in fact due to the social environment in this world to some extent. Airship technology started in World War 2. It had been nearly a hundred years since then, so the various manufacturing processes and technologies had fully matured. In addition, they also had legendary figures helping in the manufacturing with powers that were beyond science. Hence, they only needed to make breakthroughs in a few key aspects, and the production would progress smoothly.

While in New York for the past few days, Party Ace had focused on searching for relevant information while paying attention to the movement of their target. They knew that the mastermind was still here, hidden in the dark like a thorn in their backs, so they had to be careful.

Party Ace discussed among themselves and agreed that the opponents could probably guess their main mission, so they decided to achieve only the bare minimum of the requirements to make sure they would not fail the mission.

The opponents did not know the specific list of treasures they had to collect, so it would be really difficult for them to wait in ambush. Although Party Ace had lost a member, Sheyan and Reef succeeded in breaking through, and they had also obtained a lot of equipment from the enemies. Their strength could be said to be even slightly higher than before.

The element of surprise was key in an ambush. Now that the enemies had already ambushed Party Ace once, Party Ace were already on high alert. The next time the enemies tried to ambush them again, it would inevitably not work very well. It would be even more difficult if Party Ace stuck together.

The mastermind would probably find it very hard to gather people to besiege Party Ace again after ten lives were lost to Sheyan's hands. Those who could become Awakeners were no fools. No matter how attractive the reward was, they had to be alive to enjoy it!

The first thing to accomplish with regards to the main mission was without a doubt to get either one of Jackson Curtis or Dr. Adrian Helmsley to their side. If anything were to befall them, Sheyan and Reef would have to pay a heavy price.

It was no longer a matter of utility points, mission points, or equipment. If they were restored to their condition when they first stepped into this world....they would turn back into Growth Hunters again! They had finally managed to break through to Awakeners after so much hardship. If they lost that, they would not be able to bear it.

But some things could not be rushed. No matter how hard Party Ace searched for news of Jackson Curtis and Dr. Adrian Helmsley, they could find nothing useful. The only news of the former was that he had left on a holiday, while there were no news on the latter at all (the White House's ark project was led by Dr. Helmsley). This could only mean that the Realm did not wish for them to be found yet.

As the apocalypse approached, more and more news started leaking. There would occasionally be some well-informed people who would come to them to enquire after noticing the abnormalities in their base.

According to the idea of six degrees of separation, it was in fact not hard for one to get in touch with someone in the base. More and more people came to them to try and buy a "pirated" ark ticket.

With regards to these people, their alliance would take them in as long as they were healthy, had a field of expertise, and could pass Professor X's examination. Driven by this common interest, the forces of the base began to expand. As for the authorities, they chose to turn a blind eye to the base's actions. It was now a critical transitional period, so maintaining stability was of the utmost importance to them. As long as Sheyan's alliance did not publicly announce the coming of the apocalypse, did not cause chaos within society, and did not force a direct confrontation with the authorities, they could be tolerated.

The credibility of this information was beyond doubt as it came from sources that were very high-level. The reason the base could receive confidential information of this level was because official Ark tickets were simply too scarce. As the saying goes, only the dead could keep secrets. Rumours of the end of the world had begun to spread, which directly led to their airship tickets to be in high demand too.

According to the intel they received, Mr. Jackson Curtis had just returned from a hospital in Miami with his daughter, while Dr. Adrian Helmsley was returning in a nuclear submarine having collected first-hand data from the bottom of the South Pacific.

Dr. Helmsley was a key figure in the Ark Project, so the security around him was no doubt comparable to the President. In a world with legendary superheroes, this level of protection was definitely not something contestants could easily crack.

Mr. Jackson Curtis had encountered some accidents during his trip, but he escaped completely unharmed, as if he were blessed by the Goddess of Fortune. A thug had shot at him with a shotgun, but the shotgun had somehow blown up by itself. A truck had gone out of control and was crashing towards him and his daughter, but an earthquake somehow occurred at that moment. The unlucky truck's wheels got caught in a fissure, causing the truck to crash into a nearby gas station instead....

Sheyan immediately knew that Jackson Curtis must have been buffed with the Protagonist's Luck - ie. Plot Armour - and a really strong one at that! After all, he was just a normal person, so the only thing he could rely on was his exceptional luck!

While reading through the information on Mr. Jackson Curtis, something moved in Sheyan's heart. He felt like he had caught on to something really important, but he could not say for sure what it was.

But he could not dwell on it, time was tight - since Party Ace could obtain this information, the others surely could too, to some extent. Some of them might have even gotten the info earlier than Party Ace did.

Knowing that Party Ace was about to mobilise, the legendary figures in the base cooperated with their actions by pretending to assault the other forces. The other forces thus went back to their bases and shrunk their defensive perimeter in panic.

Mr. Jackson Curtis' main occupation was a writer, but unfortunately, most of his books were stacked inside his own house. He was apparently not very popular, and had so few readers that he could count them - 422 people, to be exact.

So he once became the laughing stock of the people around him due to his embarrassing financial situation. In order to survive, he had no choice but to make a living as the chauffeur of a Russian billionaire -- in this regard, the author of this novel seems to have more luck than the protagonist, haha.

That explained the history and interpersonal relationships of the first half of Mr. Jackson Curtis' life. It was obvious that life had not treated him well so far. Perhaps all his luck was being saved for the latter half of his life, who knows. But, he had a very good mentality and always maintained an optimistic and positive attitude.

Sheyan gave Mr. Jackson Curtis a call while he was on the private jet. When he tried calling this number previously, all he got was the message "the number you have dialed is not in service". The Realm must have deliberately blocked the number back then. Now...it's finally reachable.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't need any credit cards, or refrigerators, or washing machines, or automobiles, or anything you have to sell. I just want to have a good, long sleep right now. I've just been through a lot of things and my energy's completely spent. Well, I don't mind if you call back ten hours later. That's all. Bye-bye."

Sheyan laughed. "That's good enough. Call Mr. Jackson Curtis, tell him that you've read his work and feel that many of his ideas resonated with you, so you'd like to talk to him about a new job. We can't underestimate Mr. Curtis' IQ; you're the only one among us who can realistically pull this off."

Zi made the call after giving Sheyan a glare. It took her little effort to convince Mr. Jackson Curtis with her strong career woman vibe. The conversation went as follows:

"If you wish to accept the offer, give me your bank account number. You'll immediately receive an advanced signing fee of $100,000 to prove that this isn't a fraud. The truth is, my boss is a reader of yours and he agrees with some of the ideas in your books. He's just been promoted to the position of president and is in urgent need of capable subordinates."

"So fast!" Party Ace were no doubt shocked. If they were the one who had to kill someone, it was impossible to do it so quickly unless they make use of Freddy's power. However, a key storyline character like Dr. Adrian Helmsley would most probably be immune to Freddy's mental attack.

After inquiring Jackson Curtis' address, Sheyan suddenly heard the sound of glass shattering from the other end of the phone. His heart sank! He urgently asked Jackson Curtis what had happened.

Party Ace held their breath collectively in fear of hearing the heartbreaking notification that their main mission had failed! Fortunately, the dreaded notification did not arrive. They immediately rushed off the plane at the fastest speed possible and drove straight towards Curtis' location. There was no need to look for road signs to guide their way because the thick black smoke rising from a spot not far away was the best guide they could ask for.

Amidst a harsh braking sound, Sheyan jumped out of the car like a tiger before it had completely stopped. After landing with a roll, he remained in a crouching posture with one hand on the ground. His entire body was filled with an explosive force, ready to violently burst out at any moment.

The rest of Party Ace who were already on high alert immediately got into their battle stances as well. Sheyan's palm that was pressed down on the concrete road sank into it quietly, as if it was not hard pavement but soft sand and mud. A fissure appeared from the spot where he pressed down, creeping forward like a venomous snake.

There was a person blocking their way - a huge man whose every movement carried a hint of condescension. Behind him lay three contestant corpses that were gradually turning into light particles, fading away. The huge man's chest was half-exposed through his shirt, and on it was a very conspicuous blood-red, crescent-shaped scar, extending deep down.

There were two things near him that stood out. Jackson Curtis, the incomparably important storyline character, was lying motionless next to his feet. They could not tell if he was on the verge of dying or merely unconscious.

The other thing that stood out was an elongated object that the huge man was carrying behind his back! The object was surprisingly emitting a supremely majestic vibe, causing those near it to have the impulse to kneel down in worship. It was glowing faintly with a white light under the sun. The glow would sometimes condense into the image of a cross, and sometimes into the image of a bolt of lightning!

Sheyan could recognise the weapon at a glance. Before the trip to Uplos, Sheyan had participated in an auction via his military rank, an auction where tigers fought with dragons. That was where Sheyan got his hands on 'Repentance', which later became 'Verdict'.

The auction item which left the deepest impression on Sheyan was naturally the mid-tier legendary storyline item, the Philosopher's Stone! The effect of reversing death on it was somewhat similar to Sheyan's 'Death's Lament'.

Of course Sheyan remembered the weapon. Even though it was wrapped in cloth at the moment, even though it's sharp, penetrating aura now had a tint of holiness to it, Sheyan still recognised it at first sight.

The combination of these two forces was akin to forcing a fierce general who specialised in piercing through the enemy formation on the battlefield into becoming a commander who must sit at the back of the army. Although the combination was not too absurd, it could no longer display its greatest power.

Sheyan sighed again. He then narrowed his eyes and replied, "Gungnir, such a powerful weapon. Unfortunately, it now contains the soul of the Lance of Longinus. Gungnir's main characteristic is penetration, the determination to pierce through everything in its path. On the other hand, the main characteristic of the Lance of Longinus is the symbol of power. Legend has it that with the lance in hand, every person within 120 feet will kneel down in submission, and the one who wields it could decide the fate of the world. However, the combination of the two will only result in Gungnir's sorrowful wail...."

"I remember now! You're present at the auction too, that's why you can recognise my baby at a glance! You should have bought a weapon at the auction, a dark gold gun? Since you've seen how my Gungnir looks like without a weapon soul, it's not surprising that you'd say that. But, the combination of the Gungnir with the soul of the Lance of Longinus is an augury from the Divine Augur, a combination which will result in the most suitable weapon for me. Without the combination of the two, how could I have arrived here so fast after killing Dr. Adrian Helmsley?"

Sheyan saw a slight movement from Jackson Curtis at that moment, so he finally felt a little relieved. However, after hearing Rocky's last statement, he could not help but gasp!

Getting here in time after killing Dr. Adrian Helmsley sounded like a simple thing, but the killing of Dr. Helmsley itself was no simple matter. It signified a hard-fought battle, yet it sounded so nonchalant coming from Rocky's mouth, as if he had only done something inconsequential.

If Rocky was not lying, Sheyan could already imagine the amazing spectacle. The unstoppable light flashing past, stabbing into Dr. Helmsley's body. When the gazes shifted to where the light came from, the culprit had already run away....

And to come here after the assassination.... Rocky started out later than Party Ace and he had to travel a longer distance than Party Ace, yet he could get here before they did to calmly wait for them. Such offensive power, such speed! Was this the fearsome power that was the result of the combination between Gungnir and the Lance of Longinus' soul?

"He's not lying. Otherwise, would he dare to stand in front of our party like this?" Sheyan said in the party communication channel. "This guy's definitely not someone who takes unnecessary risks and likes to blow his own horn!"

Before Sheyan could ask what his intention was, the man already told them, "I'm Rocky. Maybe you've heard my name before, maybe you haven't, but that's not important. The reason I came here is because you seemed to have done something big a while ago. Someone told me that a guy named Seaman had broken through to an Awakener on the battlefield and killed ten Awakeners in a row!"

Rocky laughed. "You think I'm here to praise you? You've got it all wrong! I've seen the recording of your kills. They're pretty mediocre. The only thing of note is your weird ability to infect people with diseases. The people you chased had used all kinds of abilities - flashing, jumping, weight-reduction skills - but even if they could temporarily pull away, they were forced to stop by the frequent sneezing and coughing, and that lowered their speed! They important thing is that I've never seen this powerful wide-area speed reduction ability before!"

[ Effect: All damage to the title holder caused by contestants of Awakener-rank and below reduced by 25%, and all damage done by the title holder to contestants of Awakener-rank and below increased by 25%. ]

All of them could not help gasping in shock. This title alone was enough to prove that Rocky was not lying! The guy in front of them may have already broken through the shackles of an Awakener. He may have even reached a level comparable to the Cardinal whom Sheyan previously encountered in the Bloody Battlefield.

Rocky looked approvingly at Sheyan. "No wonder that guy has his eyes on you. Based on how he usually does things, you'd indeed be placed on his blacklist. Okay, never mind that. My deal is, I want to take a look at the details of your ability that can produce diseases. In return, I'll hand over Jackson Curtis and provide some information about the guy who's hunting you down."

Rocky laughed, disdain clear in his voice. "There are indeed times when I, Rocky, would do anything to achieve my goals, but never have I ever gone back on my words! Do you see those three guys behind me? If I have any malicious intentions against you, I wouldn't have needed to do a thing - Jackson Curtis would have died in their hands! And let me remind you, your strength is far inferior to the Saint of Darkness, Bind. He may have made a wrong move and is now confined to this world, but his ability is still beyond your imagination!"

Following that, he displayed the details of the diseases he now possessed - only the diseases, of course. Rocky scrutinised them very carefully, then burst into laughter.

"So that's how it is. Bind restrained you for such a long time, but that also gave you the chance to spread the diseases and prepare for an outbreak. That's why the ambushers all fell sick. In addition, they've exhausted most of their power in the fight against your party, so that's why you could kill them one after another after you broke free.... You're pretty lucky, you know."

"Do you know why I say that you're lucky? That's because, right after you started to fight back, my comrades also ran into trouble with Bind's Divine Servant! Right when they were about to win, Bind joined the fight. He completely pulled his attention away from your side and shifted it over to that side! My comrades died as a result. After that, I fought with Bind head-on. When our fight was over, the fight on your side has also long concluded. Do you really think you could've killed ten people in a row if not for that???" said Rocky. His voice was filled with disdain towards the end.

Rocky burst into laughter. "See, this is why I like smart people. You're right, I am going to use you guys. It's impossible for Bind to catch up to me, so it doesn't matter whether you cooperate with me or not - he'll still end up attacking you in the end. But if you do cooperate with me, the chances of your survival will be at least 50% higher."

To be honest, everyone in Party Ace disliked Rocky's condescending attitude, especially a proud person like Zi. She was obviously trying hard to hold back her displeasure.

The man had overwhelming strength! Furthermore, he was holding their party's weakness in his hands. The feeling of having to rein in their seething anger was truly unpleasant.

What he wanted was naturally this feeling of superiority, this feeling of trampling such excellent talents under his feet! That's how you make others succumb to you without using force! If he didn't flatten their spirit and cut away their edges, would this unruly bunch willingly become his pawn?

"By the way, I also want to tell you guys that a turbulence has suddenly occurred in this dimension for some reason, so Bind will be trapped in this world for some time... This means that the most powerful ability of the Saint of Darkness is sealed, so now's the best chance to kill him! If you miss this opportunity, he'll swim free like a fish in the ocean and continue to come back to haunt you."

This was the problem that had continuously perplexed them. Previously, Sheyan thought that he was taking revenge for Stockholm Party, but the cost of doing this had already far exceeded the losses Stockholm Party had sustained back then.

"Every Realm is filled with more than just contestants, the same way an army would have more than just soldiers. An army also has logistics, intelligence, and tactical staff. The Saint of Darkness isn't a person, but a very mysterious organisation. They're said to know the core secrets of the Realms, just like the neutral factions (TL: The miners are a neutral faction). They do not belong to the ranks of combatants like the contestants, but they possess strong combat capabilities. They even know some loopholes in the rules of the Realms and can make ingenious use of them. In terms of human professions, they function as doctors, janitors, and the FBI at the same time," said Rocky while giving Sheyan a deep stare.

Rocky paused for a moment before he replied, calmly, "The Saints of Darkness have personal desires too. It's no surprise that they'd sometimes use their special abilities for personal matters. I do know one thing: the Saints of Darkness have always killed certain contestants for no apparent reason in secret. Their victims share some common points. No matter male or female, they're all no older than 30, they come from either the end of the 20th century or the beginning of the 21st century, they come from any of the Earth in the parallel universes, and all of them are of Chinese descent - don't ask me why, I don't know that either."

Rocky laughed again. "Of course there are! There are countless branches in the river of history! The minds of you young ones are still too narrow. For example, I come from the human base on Mars in 2110 A.D."

"I see," Sheyan completely ignored the condescending tone within Rocky's voice. He then asked seriously, "Tell us more about this Bind guy. The more we know about him, the more problems we can give him, and the greater your chance."

"You've seen his ability to control destiny. It's acquired from the movie world Final Destination. In truth, it was actually originally quite unremarkable, but after it was upgraded to a high level and used in conjunction with his Saint of Darkness abilities, he became as terrifying as Death itself!" answered Rocky in a grave tone.

Rocky glared at her, but Zi just returned his glare. "You're strong, but so what? Do you dare start a fight with us? Since you still need to use us, maybe you should learn some respect!"

"The only thing I respect is power. Bind has another ability which enables him to get out of a certain world at no cost as long as he's in non-combat state, but because of the dimensional turbulence, this ability of his is currently unusable," said Rocky flatly.

"Of course it won't be that simple," scoffed Rocky. "There's a powerful Divine Servant next to Bind. You might not even get past him. But I want you guys to know that Bind isn't as strong as you think. Catch!"

After that, a snow-white pillar of light descended from above to form a huge cross, wrapping Rocky in it. Rocky then shot into the sky in the form of a giant spherical ball of holy light more than five metres in diameter.

Reef, Zi and Sanzi all grinned when they heard that. Although Sheyan's plans were always full of difficulties, for some reason, he could always inspire everyone's fighting spirit.

"I can't believe I actually suffered a gas explosion. What luck! Sh*t, I feel like there are thirteen horse-flies flying around in my brain -- by the way, who are you guys?"

"We spoke on the phone not long ago. We haven't met before, but we can be considered colleagues now," Sheyan flashed him a friendly smile. He then pointed at Zi and whispered, "That's the head of the human resources department. She might look like a cold woman, but she has a very ambiguous relationship with the CEO. But more importantly, she was hoping that her friend would get the position you just filled, so you better be careful when you talk to her. Don't give her any excuses to fire you before you start the job."

"Any job with an annual salary of $700,000 will bring a lot of trouble with it, Mr. Curtis," Sheyan told him meaningfully, "Especially when the $700,000 is after-tax income. And, it's a job with a lot of free time."

Sheyan's words instantly had its effect. Zi heard what Sheyan said, and she was so furious that her teeth hurt. She really wanted to bite a chunk of meat off Sheyan's body.

"Fine. Can we sign the contract now? By the way, the signing fee of $100,000 has already been paid to your account. If you back out of the deal now, you'll have to return the money," Zi remarked with a chilly expression.

Curtis stiffened momentarily. He had overdrawn his credit card by $14,000, so as soon as the money came in, it would definitely be used to clear the debt first. If he backed out now, where would he find the money to pay them back? Therefore, he could only strengthen his resolution and reply, "Okay, I'll sign the contract."

The contract was something that was readily available. The base had set up seven companies of various sizes as a front for their operation. They had almost no trouble doing so with the help of Professor X's telepathic power. That was why all the documents they currently presented were legitimate. As for the $700,000....that was even less of a problem. Sheyan could fork out $700 million without batting an eye, let alone $700,000! He only offered $700,000 because he did not want to scare Curtis away.

After the signing of the contract, Zi gave Curtis $100,000 in cash, then told Curtis he only had three hours to deal with his personal matters before he had to start work.

Thanks to Sheyan's previous suggestion, Curtis did not raise any objection to this unreasonable request. He merely treated it as part of the $700,000 annual salary job -- or, more precisely, as the deliberate attempt of a crazy interviewer to cause trouble for him.

After going back into his house to pack up in a hurry (the explosion happened on the road outside his house), he gave his ex-wife a call to boast about his new job. He gestured that he was ready to go after that.

On the pretext of a free medical examination, Sheyan took a sample of Curtis' blood and dripped it onto his 'Chris Redfield's Lucky Bracelet'. The bloody glow of the bracelet shone even brighter, like a red agate. It seemed to be close to getting unsealed.

Sheyan could not recognise the subtle differences between various European cultures, just as many westerners could not distinguish the differences between Chinese architecture and Indian architecture.

"Rocky's legendary weapon initially had no weapon soul, so he targeted the soul of the Lance of Longinus. It makes sense that he would go to Italy," remarked Sheyan after hearing what they said.

"I see. Because of the apocalypse, these sacred relics must be transported to the arks. Since they'll no longer be protected inside the church, the difficulty of obtaining them is naturally much lower," Zi suddenly understood.

Next, they saw Rocky appear on screen in a rather sorry state. He was wearing an ill-fitting priest robe that had many holes on it. The parts of his skin that were exposed through the holes were red, as if they had been scalded by boiling water. A large number of people were in pursuit behind him, but from Rocky's relaxed expression, you would think that it was a group of ants that were chasing after him instead of a group of people.

"This is probably recorded with the recording function of the Nightmare Imprint," Zi said in a subdued voice, "I'll do the same next time. This can help us review our mistakes."

They then saw Rocky shake off his pursuers and arrive at the top of a building. He suddenly scowled, and there seemed to be sounds of glass shattering coming from his body. Rocky immediately pulled out a blue bead the size of a finger joint from his shirt. The bead was covered in cracks.

Rocky threw the bead to the ground. Smoke immediately rose from it. Carlos' battered figure, half kneeling on the ground, appeared within the smoke. He shouted in a hoarse voice, "Boss, help!"

Rocky frowned, and the priest robe on his body was instantly torn to pieces by a strong gale. Thunder and lightning appeared on his right hand. He grasped the legendary weapon behind his back. The wrapping cloth instantly shattered!

Party Ace were interested in how the spear, which had combined two legendary weapons, looked like, but its specific shape could not be seen because it was completely covered in a milky-white light. However, they could all feel the wild ferocity of the light it emitted.

Rocky performed a throwing motion, but Gungnir did not leave his hand. An incorporeal ray of white light shot out from its tip instead. A black hole suddenly appeared about 50 to 60 meters away, and the astonishingly sharp ray of light drilled into the black hole!

The scene shifted to the JFK Airport. A black hole had suddenly appeared above the airport. Carlos, Razor and Taji were on the verge of being wiped out by the Divine Servant. Suddenly, the light from Gungnir pierced straight down into the Divine Servant's chest, nailing him to the ground!!

There was a cut in the video after that. It now depicted Rocky's fierce encounter with the man called Bind. The scenes of this fight did not seem coherent, as if they had been edited. It felt like they were watching a comic strip instead of a video broadcast.

The Bind in the video had a very ordinary appearance, that of a middle-aged man in a suit commonly seen on Wall Street. The Gungnir in Rocky's hand should be the real Gungnir. Whenever it moved, twisting electric currents about five meters long would coil around it, and illusionary images of crosses and angels would appear. The object in Rocky's hands seemed like a bunch of electricity without substance, and yet it felt as wild and frantic as a three-thousand-foot waterfall!

But Bind was actually unharmed by these electric currents. He was like a leaf floating on water; the harder one tried to scoop it up, the further away the leaf would be pushed by the water flow. That was the impression he gave Sheyan and the rest in those dozen or so image fragments.

In the end, Rocky's electricity finally pierced through Bind's abdomen like a bloodthirsty beast, but at the same time, Rocky's tall body also convulsed, apparently receiving an injury himself. The video stopped there.

Party Ace watched the battles in the video over and over again, but besides the spectacular visual effects like those in blockbuster Hollywood movies, Bind being really good at dodging, and Rocky being really powerful, they did not discover anything else.

But Rocky's words from before were still ringing in their ears: "If you watch this DVD and perform a thorough study of Bind's actions, you'll still have a glimmer of hope!"

Amidst the startled gazes of the others, Sheyan smiled and said, "Once is enough. There's no point in watching it more than once. This is just a smokescreen that Rocky threw at us. He wants us to focus our attention on this DVD, and thus ignore some other really key things. Well, maybe not key things, but it should at least be something that Rocky doesn't want us to discover."

"On the surface, Rocky seemed to have explained everything very clearly and thoroughly. I do believe that what he told us today was the truth, and he has unraveled a lot of mysteries for us, but he had lightly brushed off something that's really important - the reason Bind suddenly abandoned the fight on our side to rush over to save the Divine Servant!"

Sheyan shook his head slightly. "We've been dealing with this guy for a while. From what I understand of him, he's definitely not a soft-hearted person. He should be someone who's narrow-minded, who thinks highly of himself, who will seek revenge for the smallest grievances, but also overflowing with talent. In the eyes of such a cold-natured person, everyone else should just be pawns to be used!"

"He's been hunting us for about three or four worlds now. The guy is obviously determined to kill us! He's worked so hard to lay out this intricate plan and managed to find such a good opportunity, but he abandoned it when he was about to wipe us all out? How could he do that for the life of a so-called Divine Servant?"

"Very likely," Sheyan's gaze was like the blade of a knife soaked in water, gleaming with sharpness. "Rocky may not necessarily have rushed over there in such a hurry to get revenge for his teammates. Maybe it's to get his hands on that thing!"

They discussed and analysed as they traveled. They soon escorted Mr. Jackson Curtis to the tightly-protected base. They arranged some tedious and time-consuming tasks for him to do first, such as checking accounts.

Party Ace paid attention to all this but was not very anxious about it. Right now, they were waiting. Rocky may be right in that Bind might not catch up to him, but as long as Party Ace keep themselves under the protection of Professor X, Bind could not do anything to them either! Sometimes, waiting was also an offensive move.

They were also waiting for the base to grow. Right now, the base was expanding at an alarming rate in ways that were reminiscent of pyramid schemes. People who wished to board the airships came in an endless stream, almost flocking over. The moment these people paid for their tickets, they became a part of the base.

Party Ace soon managed to gather the information they needed. After all, few people could retain any professional ethics when faced with the enormous pressure of their own and their families' survival.

Sheyan held in his hand a piece of paper on which was listed the American cultural works of art. There were red ticks next to all four treasures on the list - 'Crystal Skull', 'Dagger of the Golden Priest', 'Eye of Quetzalcoatl' and 'Indian Chief's Fanged Mask'. The time these treasures would be transported to the arks, the location and even the route were clearly stated next to each item!

Frequent earthquakes had begun to cause panic among the masses. In scientific terms, this phenomenon was explained as: half the block faults beneath the earth's crust were moving frequently, and the entire Pacific plate was showing signs of collapse.... In San Francisco, the area where San Andreas Fault activities were most likely to occur, there had been 16 earthquakes over 5.0 in magnitude, with 136 reported deaths.

Considering these facts, even if the authorities were still trying their hardest to suppress the news, the airship tickets sold by the base were getting more in demand every day.

The base had already sold more than 50,000 tickets up to now. The first test flight of a complete airship formation had been performed and thoroughly scrutinised, with the intention of giving the ticket purchasers some assurances. They had invited thousands of future passengers to observe the test flight.

It truly was an impressive sight. After all, each airship was 318 meters in length, 60 meters in diameter, 300 tons in weight, and 300,000 cubic meters in volume. Each airship also carried 30 rope ladders that could roll up automatically. The length of the central airship at the core of the formation had even reached 500 meters!

They had decided to increase the carrying capacity of each ordinary airship to 5,000, while reducing the carrying capacity of the core airships to 1,000. This was mainly because the passengers of the core airships were all people of high status, so they had a higher requirement for comfort. Furthermore, the core airships were responsible for transporting most of the food, machinery and other supplies. Even with these restrictions, the expected carrying capacity of each airship formation was still as high as around 35,000 people.

Because they had to keep a low profile, the airship formation's flying height during the test flight was controlled at 50 meters from the ground. Even so, the giant airships with large amounts of rope ladders hanging off them was quite an overwhelming sight. Coupled with the deafening roar of the engines, the whole exhibition had given the observers quite a bit of shock!

Those who were invited to watch the ceremony were naturally all people of high status. After the enormous lifting force produced by the balloons stretched the steel cables of the hanging carriage taut, the observers were guided into an airship for an inspection. They were first brought to inspect the worst kind of cabins, the ones with many people living together in a large area. Next, they were brought to visit the ordinary cabins, and finally the so-called VIP compartments.

If they had taken these VIPs directly to their customised rooms from the very beginning, these VIPs who were used to staying in presidential suites would surely find fault with the rooms. However, humans were animals that could make comparisons. Having visited the large rooms that had shared toilets and bathrooms as well as limited water supply, they were deeply satisfied when they saw the rooms prepared for them. They felt that their money had been very well spent.

Most importantly, they had also witnessed the ability of the core airship to disconnect from any of the sub-airships at any given time, which undoubtedly enhanced their sense of security, and also their sense of superiority -- it was a powerful feeling, having control over the lives of others.

The ceremony gave rise to another wave of frenzied ticket sales. A great deal of humans and material resources began to congregate in this abandoned factory area in the suburb of New York. Even the rent of accommodation in the vicinity of the factory area had spiked by 1300%, a clear evidence of the base's popularity.

The red light on the phone in front of Sheyan lit up, accompanied by a beeping sound. This special telephone was personally encrypted by Dr. Octopus to guard against wiretapping. Professor X's gentle but slightly tired voice came from the other end.

"I'm calling to discuss two things with you, Mr. Seaman. We find that there may be a big problem regarding the boarding process. The number of people holding our tickets has surged to 200,000. Thanks to the sudden increase in wealth and manpower, our productivity has greatly improved. We estimate that we can build 14 airship formations in total, thus saving nearly half a million lives. But this is all predicated on one premise -- the time and location of the beginning of the apocalypse that you provided is correct. Are you absolutely sure of it? If it happens earlier than expected, a large number of innocent people will die."

"I'm sure, professor. But won't expanding production bring additional troubles? Like your enemies, for examples. Their power can easily cause terrible and devastating blows to us. And there are also those bastards from our world who are trying to correct the course of history," asked Sheyan.

Magneto interjected in their conversation and said in a solemn tone, "Those guys are just loners, Seaman. They're not executioners, not butchers. The flying vehicle built by the Hulk and Batman can only carry a few hundred people. They've been a lot more reserved in their actions after they saw what we're doing. I don't think they'll come and cause trouble for us anymore. Surely they don't want to the post-apocalyptic Earth to contain just hundreds of people. The war between us may still continue in the future, but not now."

"As for the people who came from the same place you do - those that are trying to correct history - they should be heading to China right about now. We've already heard reliable news which confirm that China has indeed made thousands of ark replicas! Those people know we're no easy targets, so compared to us, they seem more willing to deal with China despite the distance. The U.S. government has also taken a breather and has tried to get in touch with us to see if there's any possibility of cooperation. If we can reach an agreement, we might even consider assisting the government in quickly setting up a production line for airships."

"I see," said Sheyan. "I can confirm that the end of the world has been delayed. It'll no longer start on December 21, 2012, but three hundred hours later. The first area of disaster will be in the Gulf of California, followed by the areas along the San Andreas Fault."

"New York will have two more hours of buffer time before it'll experience half an hour of earthquakes of magnitude 10 or higher. After that, the survivors will have about three hours to catch their breaths. After that, the last memory they will have before they die will be a terrifying tsunami so high it'll almost cover the entire sky...."

"Got it," Professor X had heard Sheyan describe the apocalypse more than once, but his voice was still shaking, filled with pain. "How are you guys doing over there? Do you need help?"

"Everything's going fine," answered Sheyan as he looked at Kulutego next to him. Kulutego was currently disguised as a fat kid and was chewing on Old Beijing Chicken Rolls, red ketchup smeared all over his mouth. His free hand was pressed to a hard wall.

Under the action of Kulutego's power, the wall slowly came crumbling down. The wall, which could withstand even nuclear attacks, appeared so vulnerable in front of the two-headed cyclops' power. Kulutego took another bite of the chicken roll while he impatiently dug through the decomposed sand to find the steel bars inside, which he broke. When his hand got deeper in, a sharp alarm sounded.

But Sheyan still appeared very calm. In this secret place disguised as a resort, 87 guards, armed to the teeth, stood on duty. They were the ones the alarm was trying to alert. However, these guards had currently all lost their ability to move and speak. They had all been firmly tied up by No. 7 with the method that the Ndipaya natives use to bind their prey.

Finally, a safe that was surrounded by six meters of reinforced concrete was dug out. The information they had said that if the safe door was not opened in the correct way, its content would be forcefully destroyed. Sheyan, who did not have the safe's password, did not want to risk it, so he broke a hole through the back of the safe instead.

There were a lot of things in the safe, but Sheyan's eyes settled on a plain-looking gemstone. He illuminated it with a flashlight. The light went through multiple reflections inside the gemstone and finally formed a weird image of a vertical pupil. When Sheyan lightly shook the flashlight, the light which formed the pupil moved like fire!!

She marveled with an admiration for glittering jewelry unique to women and dragons, "The 'Eye of Quetzalcoatl'. Even after it was forcibly pried off, it still retains its dignified characteristic. A legendary work of art that cannot possibly be counterfeited, at least not by present day's level of craftsmanship. The U.S. government hides it really well and simply refuses to display it. I remember that in the real world, a conglomerate made a heavy sacrifice in exchange for a glimpse of the real thing, but the government surprisingly went back on their words."

"The 'Dagger of the Golden Priest' is also shipped here together with the 'Eye of Quetzalcoatl', just like we expected. Together with the 'Indian Chief's Fanged Mask' we found in San Antonio, we've met the requirements for 'The Great Collector' title. Do we still need to look for the 'Crystal Skull'?"

"Why not?" replied Sheyan. "The Realm is always generous to those who can complete a mission perfectly. Besides, this is a job without competitors, at least not in America. Where's the location of the 'Crystal Skull'? Oh wow, it's actually in the hands of a private collector, a private collector with a really long name - Jakaya Mrisho Hassan Mwini Kikwete. We have to hurry up. We should try and settle the matter before the FBI finds him. It's not a good idea to keep going against the authorities."

"Seaman, I remember you told me before that after the apocalypse, Africa's Cape of Good Hope will become the world's highest peak, and there won't be any major changes to the overall terrain of the United States, right?"

"Excellent," said Dr. Octopus excitedly, "We have an astonishing amount of resources here, and there are so many things that I wish to keep. I plan to find a few waterproof underground warehouses in the most stable inland areas and stuff some things in them. As long as one of the warehouses make it through safely, we'll be able to save years, maybe even decades, of future hardship when we rebuild human civilization."

"Great idea!" remarked Sheyan, "I think you can just ask the government about it. The readily-available fallout shelters only need some simple modifications to achieve really good waterproof effect. We should indeed preserve as much of human civilization as we can. Okay, there's something I need to do right now. I'll talk to you later."

The home of Mr. Jakaya Mrisho Hassan Mwini Kikwete - or just Jakaya for short - was in a suburb of Detroit, a pretty remote place. The villa that was painted blue and white stood exquisitely in the shade of greeneries. The lawn near the entrance had been carefully mown. Under the intense 4:00 p.m. sun, it presented a scenery reminiscent of nineteenth-century impressionist oil paintings -

Step on the brake, shift to neutral gear, turn off the engine, and pull the hand brake -- Sheyan completed this series of actions in one smooth motion and jumped down from the car. His actions were not much different than usual, but he was clearly on high alert.

Reef was also on guard. He stood protectively in front of Zi, Sanzi and Melody while Sheyan formed the vanguard with Ramtas and No. 7, both of whom could be resurrected.

Sheyan moved cautiously to the lawn. After some quick inspection, he concluded, "It appears that the FBI were a little faster than us, but they've met with some trouble."

While he spoke, he moved to the police car and immediately affirmed his conjecture. There was a corpse in the driver's seat. The facial expression on the corpse was distorted, like the person had been frightened to death. The car was in reverse gear and the steering wheel had been turned several times, but the police no longer had the strength to release the hand brake.

Sheyan bent down to examine the corpse and touched the exposed skin of the corpse with his fingers. Something that seemed like tendrils instantly penetrated into the corpse.

"The identity of the deceased is....a first-class detective. His gun shows signs of having been fired, which means that the person we'll be facing shortly is likely immune to bullets. Wait, this guy's cause of death is actually...."

Sheyan had a shocked expression. He gave the corpse's head a kick, and the head immediately shattered. Inside the skull were bones, body fluid and blood, but nothing else. Even the spinal cord in the spine could not be seen.

At that moment, No. 7 repeatedly spat out his lizard-like long, red tongue as he made some noises which sounded like "ah ah ah" at Reef. Reef told Sheyan, "He said he just sensed a very unique aura leaving."

Sheyan thought for a while before he said, "Zi will come with me. Reef will protect Sanzi and go with Kulutego to the top of that tall slope over there, where you'll have a wider view and can monitor the enemy's movements. Melody will prepare some magic to control the enemy. Make sure that you're always within range of Reef's 'Holy Grasp'. Remember, we're here for the 'Crystal Skull', not to kill anyone."

All members of the party immediately went to work like well-oiled gears following Sheyan's arrangement. Sheyan continued moving into the villa. He walked to the front door with Zi by his side. Despite the eerie, gloomy atmosphere, Zi was somehow feeling a little happy. She hoped she could keep walking side by side with this man until the end of eternity.

Zi maintained her calm countenance, but blinding sparks were dancing on top of her fingertips. She had mentally prepared herself for whatever was behind the door, but the tragic sight she saw still made her frown.

That's because there were simply too many people who lay dead in the living room! All their faces were twisted. Although most of them were policemen and FBIs in black suits, there were also servants, elderly, and even little girls!

All of them had the same cause of death - their brains and spinal cords were missing. The bullet holes left on the walls showed that there had been a fierce gun fight here, but it seemed like the bullets were ineffective against the culprit. They had either all missed, or could not harm the culprit.

They hurried to the second floor but found no one there besides more corpses. After Sheyan caught a glimpse of the family portrait, he declared with confidence, "Everyone in this large family had died in this villa except for the Mr. Jakaya that we're looking for."

They searched the inside and outside of the villa once more. After confirming that the murderer had indeed gone away, they signalled to the rest of the party that it was safe to come in. No. 7 and Ramtas were sent outside to stand guard.

Although the party seemed to have returned to their usual demeanour, their every action carried a cautiousness which was not there before Mogensha's death. They moved carefully like they were treading on thin ice, for fear of suffering the pain of losing a comrade once again.

Next, of course, was a more careful and thorough search. They did not come here for the purpose of solving a case or bringing justice to the dead; they merely wanted to get their hands on the 'Crystal Skull' and leave without doing anything else. During the search, Sanzi found a hospital file from a drawer. He pulled out some of the content to take a look. What he saw completely stunned him. He instantly called everyone over.

The CT scan results looked normal at first, not much different from a normal person's, but towards the back, the skull of the patient on the CT films slowly turned into a weird shape. In a CT scan taken two days ago, the silhouette of the skull was exactly the same as the 'Crystal Skull' they were looking for.

"What the hell is happening?" They were all shocked to see the 'Crystal Skull' carved by the Mayans replacing a human's skull, growing directly inside Jakaya's head! Something as bizarre as this was completely unfathomable if they had not seen it with their own eyes.

The 'Crystal Skull' was a sacred object carved by the Mayans. From a mystical point of view, it could be considered a ritual tool, so it had some characteristics that were obviously very different compared to modern human skulls. Furthermore, they had Jakaya's earlier CT scans as reference, so they could easily make the judgment.

Sheyan said after a moment of silent pondering, "Legend has it that the 'Crystal Skulls' contain mysterious powers. There are also rumours that the 'Crystal Skulls' are related to the 2012 apocalypse. There are said to be thirteen 'Crystal Skulls' in total, and they contain information about the origin and death of humankind; they can help mankind solve the mystery of lives in the universe. Mankind must find all thirteen skulls by December 21, 2012, the day that the Mayan calendar, which has been circulating for 5126 years, ends. The Earth will fly off its axis unless all 13 skulls are gathered and placed in the right arrangement. Only in that way can the supernatural power of the skulls save the Earth. Jakaya's change may be related to this legend."

"If my guess is right, Jakaya can no longer be considered a human, so he's naturally no longer bound by human emotions. During my inspection, I noticed that the residents of this villa had died at least five hours earlier than the FBI. What I'm curious about is why he still remained in this villa after sucking out the brains of all these people, and only left in a hurry right before we got here," said Sheyan.

No hidden compartments could escape the detection of the two-headed cyclops and his power unless there was nothing associated with the earth near them. A hidden compartment about the size of a wardrobe was soon discovered. There was a mirror inside that was eerily covered in blood, and a scarcely legible diary beside it.

"I can't gaze into its eyes anymore. Rumour has it that the skulls were used by the Mayans to hypnotise the patients before an operation. Something seems to be calling out to me."

"Am I seeing things? Just now, in the illusion, the Crystal Skull was burned red-hot and thrown into water. It then broke down into powder and....the priest gained eternal life!"

The scribbles on the diary fully showed Sheyan and the rest to what extent a person would go for the sake of survival. To break the 'Crystal Skull' down into powder and eat it in order to gain eternal life sounded like a joke, but Jakaya had actually done it.

They also concluded that the skull was definitely not made of crystal, but of an unknown substance. After it was broken down into powder and consumed, it slowly turned Jakaya's skull into the same "crystal". No matter how one looked at it, it was something a parasite would do - a rather unusual kind of parasite.

"It's very likely that the guy did everything under psychological suggestions and psychological guidance, which means that he's being controlled like a puppet. Well, there's no other way. We have to catch him, cut off his head, and use his skull to complete the mission. Can you track him down, Melody?"

"I think so. He has a strong rotten, dirty, bloody and dark smell on him. I can easily find him with a Madoka Tree Spirit," answered Melody, her voice clear and melodious.

After a string of chants, a small tree next to them pulled out its roots while its branches rapidly grew. It then bent into the shape of a centaur, but unlike the usual centaur, its skin was a tender green and it had the upper body of a girl. It joyfully walked ahead to play the role of a hunting hound.

The Madoka Tree Spirit easily found the path Jakaya took to run away. Trampled grass and leaves may not be that conspicuous, but the same could not be said of the animal and human corpses occasionally left along the way.

All the bodies had a point in common. When their heads were stomped on, it would be revealed that they were hollow inside. Their heads were nothing more than empty shells.

With the tree spirit leading the way, the group chased after Jakaya in a straight line. They were fortunately not ordinary people, or they would have been completely exhausted by the various obstacles they faced along the way.

A railway split the wilderness in two like a zipper. Since there was a railway, there was naturally a necessity to maintain it. Therefore, there were many residences here for the railway maintenance staff. The residents had stable work and thus strong spending power, so an administrative unit like a town gradually formed here.

When the tree spirit led Party Ace to this town-like area, what they saw was an extremely tragic situation. To be precise, what they saw was a crazed massacre of humans, as food!

More than half the residences had died in the streets! They now noticed something they had not noticed in the corpses they previously encountered because those had been dead for too long. Now that they had fresh corpses for reference, they could clearly see that those people had died after something about as thick as an electrical wire stabbed into their bodies.

Sheyan walked at the very front of the party as usual. Suddenly, the window of a building in front of them shattered, and out flew a dark silhouette. The silhouette was sent flying by Zi's 'Force Collision-Wall'. When they looked closely, they discovered that it was a human on the verge of death.

A large number of blood vessels shot out of the surface of his body. Every blood vessel was green in colour, as thick as an electrical wire, and at least two meters long. They wriggled through the air like they were swimming in water. It was quite a bizarre yet disgusting sight.

Sheyan was not afraid at all. He kicked the weird monster in the chest hard. The kick was so fast that before the blood vessels that were dancing wildly could get close, they were already flying away together with the monster.

A large depression appeared on the monster's chest. He let out a strange cry of agony. However, he did not seem like he had learned his lesson at all. He continued to pounce towards Sheyan, but this time, his eyes were shining with a cunning glint.

Sheyan's face remained expressionless. He exerted some force on his legs, and the arms of the two corpses immediately broke with a crack. However, his movement had obviously slowed down because of this. With a cry, the monster pierced a large green blood vessel into Sheyan's shin!

The tip of the blood vessel looked very soft, but like the mouthpiece of a mosquito, it could easily penetrate through skin and muscles! It tried to squirm even further inside while greedily absorbing Sheyan's blood.

In that instant, Sheyan felt the wrath of the 'Stairway of the Sun', who detected that its "territory" had been invaded. Its tendril curled violently around the invading blood vessel! The blood vessel lasted only less than three seconds before it could not bear the entanglement of the tendril anymore and retracted back with lightning speed!

They witnessed the blood vessel that had sucked Sheyan's blood rapidly turn red. The blood vessel was originally green in colour, but it was now as red as a heated steel bar. It then started cracking; the cracks extending like a spider web. It convulsed slightly following the rhythm of the heartbeat, and then expanded rapidly! When the expansion reached its limit, the blood vessel naturally burned, burst and self-destruct!

The monster fled really fast. He bounced up and down and disappeared in the distance in the blink of an eye. Sheyan had no intention of chasing after him. He looked to the side and asked his party, "Did you guys notice?"

Out stepped Old Charlie from a shelter nearby. He replied, "I did. Freddy specialises in illusion and mental power, so he could feel that something was continuously affecting that guy's thoughts and brain waves, making him do things that deviate from normal behaviours. Things like eating the 'Crystal Skull' powder are definitely not what normal people would do."

From the monster's clothes, they could basically confirm that he was indeed Jakaya. His brutality, coldness and viciousness were vividly captured in the photographs. They could see from the photos that there were changes to his fleeing figure. His hands and feet had grown longer to help him run away faster, while his stomach had bulged like the bloated belly of a starving man. They could also see that he was deliberately protecting his stomach, as if there was something really important inside.

"Interesting. This is the first time I've seen a puppet controlled by a crystal skull like Jakaya. Judging from his behaviour, could it be possible that only one tenth of the brain matters and spinal cords Jakaya absorbed was for his own use, while the remaining was kept in his stomach to be given to the owner of the Black Crystal Skull?"

Sheyan suddenly paused and frowned before he continued, "For some reason, I have a feeling that we might discover something really big if we keep digging. Once the real identity of the owner of the Black Crystal Skull is revealed, it might give us a huge surprise."

"No," replied Sheyan, "When the 'Stairway of the Sun' came into contact with the monster's blood vessel just now, I don't know why, but I felt a vague sense of familiarity. I feel like I've probably met the owner of the Black Crystal Skull before, but it should be a very shallow level of contact, or I definitely would've remembered it."

Sheyan stared into the darkness with his brows slightly furrowed. Although the town was smeared in blood and eeriness, it did not grab Sheyan's attention at all. A stream of blood slowly trickled down Sheyan's nose to his lips, looking like a dark creeping worm in the dark night.

He had received quite the impact too when the tendril of the 'Stairway of the Sun' got into that short confrontation with the monster's blood vessel. When Melody saw this, she quickly rushed to his side and gently wiped away his blood. There was also a green glow on her fingers which healed him. Anyone could tell from her undivided and concerned gaze on Sheyan that she regarded Sheyan as her entire world.

Zi was naturally really upset when she saw this, but she merely bit her lips and turned aside. Women who appeared strong on the surface were often very vulnerable in many aspects.

What Sheyan was worried about did not happen, because Zi was even more afraid than he was of the consequences of laying it all out in the open. She was afraid that it would be the end of the ambiguous relationship between the two of them. Zi would rather be indecisive and occasionally feel jealous, than to steel her heart to face the cruelty of confronting Sheyan about Melody.

"This monster of darkness is very explosive, but its host is quite weak. Mr. Jakaya is a patient with advanced stage lymphoma after all. That means the host body can rarely provide nutrient to the 'Crystal Skull'. Most of the time, it's the 'Crystal Skull' that has to maintain the body. He won't run far," stated Melody.

Sheyan nodded. "You're right. Why did Jakaya still stay in his house after he killed his entire family and absorbed their brains? It's because he was trying to reach the Black Crystal Skull! The body the 'Crystal Skull' is currently controlling is so weak that it's like a radio that's about to run out of battery. It has to carefully adjust the band bit by bit in order to receive the desired signal."

Sheyan nodded again. "Melody's right. The monster ran away really fast, but after he managed to put some distance between us, he actually slowed down. In any case, we don't have much time; we still need to collect cultural relics in Asia, Africa and Europe. We can waste eight more hours on him at most. Eight hours later, we'll pull the net in."

"You're right. This guy is searching for a certain signal, a signal from the Black Crystal Skull. His weak body makes it impossible for him to transmit any more information over, so he can only look for places where the signal from the Black Crystal Skull is especially strong. He's like a ship struggling in a storm, having to rely on the faint light from a distant lighthouse to barely discern the directions!" said Old Charlie.

"Absolutely certain!" Old Charlie claimed with confidence, "The only way he can deliver any information is by killing himself, because the other side will surely sense something when he dies. It appears that the signal from the Black Crystal Skull is stronger in places with strong magnetic fields, so Jakaya will stop from time to time to find a suitable place to receive the signal."

Soon, Jakaya led Party Ace to the top of a hill. From the hill, they could see countless bright lights on the horizon. It was the largest city in Michigan, the world-famous city of automobiles, Detroit.

Upon arriving here, Jakaya caught a taxi. Party Ace had already anticipated what he was going to do while he was waiting for the taxi, so they had already obtained a Buick MPV for themselves through some less than legal means. They instantly followed after him.

Jakaya immediately got off without paying. He slowly walked forward while withdrawing a tentacle-like blood vessel. It was obvious what kind of fate had befallen the taxi driver.

"This guy has lost his worth! I already know where the Black Crystal Skull is!" Old Charlie suddenly said, "It's in the open jeep over there! See? Under the street light!"

Everyone turned to the direction where Old Charlie was pointing! Jakaya was also obviously moving in that direction. The eyesight of Awakeners were much better than ordinary people, so they could all see the "Black Crystal Skull" from here. The "Black Crystal Skull" was sitting with his back to them, burying his head and wearing headphones, looking like he was listening to music. He was a very ordinary-looking guy with sickly pale skin, but for some reason, when they focused their eyes on him, a feeling of sharpness will emerge, the same as the feeling they got when they saw the liquid metal Terminator in Terminator 2.

"It's him!" Sheyan suddenly shouted in the party communication channel. "No wonder he feels familiar. This guy was in the DVD Rocky gave us! He's Bind's Divine Servant, the idiot pierced by the light of Gungnir thrown by Rocky!!"

Everyone seemed slightly surprised to hear that. Indeed, the more they looked, the more he seemed like the Divine Servant. They never expected that the "Black Crystal Skull" they were pursuing would actually lead them to him! They'd searched high and low to no avail, only to discover him by luck!

Zi instantly shook her head. "No. We can deduce from what Rocky said that Bind has an ability to quickly return to the Divine Servant's side to provide reinforcement. If that's the case, it's meaningless for the two to stick together; it's a waste of human resources. Most importantly, Bind will absorb the luck of the people in his surroundings, and the ordinary people around us don't seem particularly unlucky right now."

Sheyan had a fierce glint in his eyes. He said in the party channel through gnashing teeth, "You guys know what to do. That damn guy called Bind has been hunting us down for long enough. He didn't personally join in on the fight which caused Mogensha's death, but he's the real culprit behind all these. From the information Rocky gave us, this Divine Servant obviously carries something or some secret that's very important to Bind! Today, we'll let that son of a bitch taste the pain of losing something important!"

Zi did not say anything, but a cold light shined on her fingertips. Sanzi was also silent, but Kulutego had begun to take deep breaths. They cyclops' sharp fangs would occasionally show through his mouth.

Jakaya was enthusiastically running in the direction of the jeep, the blood vessels on his fingertips fluttering excitedly. His stomach once again bulged grotesquely like a demon's belly. He obviously planned to feed all the "essences" that he had plundered along the way to his superior.

With a loud crash, a huge white palm appeared on Reef's head and broke through the MPV's roof. It traveled through a distance of 30 meters to reach the Divine Servant in the blink of an eye. The palm grabbed the Divine Servant and dragged him back to the Buick.

The Divine Servant's eyes instantly turned red - not bloodshot, but red like the eyes of a Terminator when it goes into combat mode. A large amount of light suddenly burst from his body, almost causing Reef's 'Holy Grasp' to break into pieces!

But Reef was not fighting alone in this battle. Zi completed her long chant right then. The darkness around her instantly turned into a huge, frantic vortex. Strange Sith magic runes flew out of the vortex one after another to surround the Divine Servant, then turned into a huge tentacle which wound around him. After that, the black magic runes exploded one by one deafeningly. The smoke produced by the explosions took on solid form and drilled into his mouth and nose.

The Divine Servant's struggle was immediately interrupted. Right after he was pulled over by Reef's 'Holy Grasp', it instantly shattered and daubed his entire body in a layer of light. The light was scorching hot, making his skin hiss as it burned!

Before the Divine Servant could even react to the continuous damage of 'Holy Grasp', Kulutego had already smashed down with a spiked stone mace. Even in such a situation, he could still react by blocking with his right hand, while his left wrist flipped in the air, apparently intending to retrieve a weapon.

This punch did not cause much damage because most of the force was used to make the target lose balance. The Divine Servant was immediately sent flying by the punch and landed heavily on the ground after a few flips. Zi's second chant concluded then. The illusionary image of a giant black finger sunk into the spot between the Divine Servant's eyebrows. The nail on the finger, sharp as a beast's claw, suddenly dug out with force!

This blow continued to keep the Divine Servant's body in a stiff state and his mind in a stunned state. He could only watch as the cyclops violently smashed its huge mace down him. The MT was also furiously swiping a weapon shaped like a beast's claws, tearing away flesh from his body, although he could not feel any pain presently.

In the reformed mind of the Divine Servant, his own life was secondary to issuing a warning! The Evil Sword Apophis that he was carrying must not be lost! He must notify his master as soon as possible!

He did ask his master why he did not carry something as important as the Evil Sword Apophis personally. His master answered that it was because his power came from the fringes, or more precisely, the loopholes in the rules of the Realms, so it was something that should be kept hidden. Once it was combined with something like Apophis, a weapon that also walked along the edges of the rules of Realms, it would inevitably attract the attention of multiple Realms eventually.

Therefore, not only must his master not carry the Evil Sword Apophis with him, they should not even be in each other's vicinity for a prolonged period. Fortunately, his master had a really powerful ability. As long as the Divine Servant could send a warning to his master, everything would be fine. Based on past experiences, the longest his master would need to get to him was 37 seconds, and the shortest was 8 seconds!

The Divine Servant's original intention was to get the slave controlled by the 'Crystal Skull' in this world to his side to help him recover from his injury. Never could he have imagined that it would attract a group of strong enemies over!

The Divine Servant harboured no thoughts of defending or attacking at all in his mind. He was only trying with all his might to bend his thumb so that it could touch the middle joint of his pinky finger. Such a simple little action would send a warning to his master. In this moment, it was the only meaning of his existence.

However, right when the Divine Servant felt that his paralysis was finally fading away, he saw the man who had just knocked him away with a punch pull out a silver gun! The gun suddenly emitted a holy power which seeped into his body, as if it was trying to squeeze every last drop of hidden evil out of him.

Thanks to Rocky's information on Bind, Sheyan knew that Bind had an ability to swiftly come to the aid of the Divine Servant. In view of that, he had no intention of letting the Divine Servant regain control of his body in this fight!!

Like a heavy tank driven at the speed of an F1 car, it went crashing towards its target with terrifying force and speed, seeking only to produce the most powerful impact.

The fist landed on the chest of the Divine Servant, right on the spot where he had been punctured by Rocky's Gungnir! The injury had yet to heal, and it now had to sustain yet another attack, an attack that came crashing into it like an avalanche! The fist actually penetrated deep into the Divine Servant's chest, and then burst out from his back! Blood gushed out like a fountain, carrying with it fragments of broken bones!

But a mysterious smile surprisingly appeared on the Divine Servant's face, despite the severe injury. That was because he was starting to regain some sensations in his limbs. He was, after all, a fanatic who was willing to die, as long as he could issue a warning to his master. This matter was more important than his life!

The Divine Servant's thumb was already moving towards his little finger, but at that instant, Reef came crashing down from the sky like a giant meteorite. He slammed into the ground violently, dust billowing. A dark gold shock wave spread from where he landed to once again paralyse the Divine Servant.

The ability on his dark gold boots -- 'Frog Leap'! It enabled Reef to jump 5~30 meters away and produce a shock wave upon landing which could stun nearby enemies for 4 seconds.

These precious four seconds of stun meant that the Divine Servant's thumb was doomed to never be able to touch the skin on his little finger, even though it was mere millimeters away!

Sheyan took a deep breath as he watched the Divine Servant be submerged in magic spells, Reef's long claws and Kulutego's stone mace. Sheyan was determined to be the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Within the darkness of the night, sounds of friction came from Sheyan's shoes. Sheyan's bare feet broke through the shoes and burrowed knee-deep into the ground like the roots of a tree. A large number of cracks radiated in all directions with Sheyan at the centre. Even the high-rise buildings nearby were slightly trembling!

Sheyan raised both his hands. The shadow behind him turned into an illusion of the 'Stairway of the Sun', its tendrils dancing wildly in the air. Melody, who was fighting with Jakaya in the distance, could not help turning back to stare at Sheyan in amazement. The aura Sheyan was exuding at the moment gave her a contradictory feeling of both terror and delight.

The 'Beast of Corrosion' this time took on the form of a miniature 'Stairway of the Sun'. As soon as it dug into the wound on the Divine Servant's chest, it extended a large number of tendrils which drilled deep into every part of his body!

An intense light glowed at that moment. The Divine Servant's body became transparent like it was being X-rayed. They could now see that his bones were actually made of steel, each one vivid and delicate. The Black Crystal Skull was also visible.

More terrifying was that there were actually some naturally-formed wrinkles on the surface of the brain inside his head. Together, they formed a line of text: "Bayonet: Brain Clone No. 11"!

The Black Crystal Skull was still suspended in mid-air. A fracture suddenly appeared in the empty space, as if something extremely sharp had sliced through the barrier of time and space. It instantly swallowed the Black Crystal Skull. Cracks started appearing on the rest of the Divine Servant's body, like it was porcelain. The body broke into fragments, then turned to ashes.

Sheyan finally heaved a sigh of relief. Party Ace may have been attacking fiercely and seem like they had the upper hand, but that would not last forever. The opponent was clearly just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. He was like a compressed spring -- the harder a spring was compressed, the stronger the rebound would be. If they were unable to kill him before he recovered, they may very well become the prey instead.

By killing the Divine Servant, they were finally able to vent a bit of their frustration! From how much the guy called Bind cared about the Divine Servant, they knew that the Divine Servant must have something important on him. Whatever it was, it had now been reduced to ashes along with the Divine Servant himself. This would no doubt be a brutal stab in Bind's heart!

By this time, Melody had already chased Jakaya two blocks away. The rest of the party quickly jumped into another car to go to her aid. When the engine roared to life, Sheyan vaguely heard a clink, as if something had fallen down. He did not pay much attention to it. With a step on the pedal, the car accelerated away.

"Is the Divine Servant really a contestant? Isn't his HP a little too high for a contestant? We almost failed to kill him even with all our forces combined, yet he doesn't look like an MT at all. But if he's not a contestant, why was there a 40% damage reduction when I attacked him?" Sanzi could not help voicing his doubt.

"The heavy injury on his chest made by Rocky's lance, Gungnir, had obviously not healed yet. When we attacked his chest, every attack resulted in an explosive hit. That spot was obviously a weak spot," Zi said thoughtfully.

"Remember what Rocky said? A Realm is like a complete army; although it mostly consists of ordinary soldiers, there are also cooks, logistics, special forces, intelligence teams, tactical staff and so on. This Divine Servant seems to be an experimental subject who possesses both the high HP of a storyline character and the inter-contestant damage reduction protection. At the same time, there's a great chance that he can't be healed by the Realm's medicine. On the other hand, the guy named Bind felt more like special personnel who enter Nightmare Worlds by using some unorthodox rules. If they were just here as bystanders and not cause any trouble, the Realm won't pay them much attention, but if they make too much noise, they'll surely face some problems," Sheyan gave his opinion.

"We took great risks by asking Melody not to intervene, but we still didn't get any loot. Even the Black Crystal Skull was taken away." (Those attacked by Melody will not drop loot.)

Sheyan smirked. "Things that will give Bind unforgettable pain, I'd willingly do them a hundred times over, even if I get no benefit from them at all! That guy will probably be here soon. After we help Melody get rid of that monster, we'll leave right away. We've just experienced a hard fight and none of us are in our optimum condition, so there's no need to confront him now. We'll give him some time to savour the pain."

Sheyan stepped on the brake and drifted beautifully, bumping into the escaping Jakaya, making him stagger. He had a body of a terminal cancer patient, and he had been taking attacks from Melody for quite a while now. Now that they were ganking him with no principles to speak of, he died almost immediately.

Sheyan chopped off his head. Jakaya's body and flesh instantly turned to ashes, leaving behind only the head in Sheyan's hand which rapidly transformed into the 'Crystal Skull' again.

Since they had achieved all their objectives and had even managed to get a rough estimate of Bind's strength from the fight with the Divine Servant, they had no intention of staying here any longer. Sheyan was not someone who liked to take risks; he certainly did not wish to fight with that Bind guy in their current conditions.

Sheyan stepped on the accelerator, intending to leave. But at this time, Sanzi said with a little hesitation as he stared at the trees rushing past outside the car window, "Brother, do you think....since the Divine Servant is different from us contestants...maybe the way he drops loot is different from ordinary contestants too?

"That's not necessarily true. Where did Zhao Yun's Qinggang Sword come from?" Zi immediately retorted. In truth, she was just dissatisfied that Melody got to sit on the front passenger seat next to Sheyan.

(TL: Zhao Yun is a legendary figure in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the Battle of Changban, he defeated the enemy general Xiahou En and took the prized Qinggang Sword belonging to the enemy leader, Cao Cao, from him.)

Zi rolled her eyes at Sheyan and announced decisively, "We'll go back. If worse comes to worst, we'll have Melody join the fight! So what if we don't get any loot from him? It's no big deal."

What else could Sheyan do? His brothers and his woman had all made their positions clear. He could only make a 180, causing horns to blare all around them because the cars behind them were extremely dissatisfied with his sudden U-turn. Sheyan ignored them and accelerated back to the place where the previous fight had taken place.

Because they had yet to go far, they returned in only about 20 seconds. When they were still nearly five hundred meters away, they could already see the whole place being illuminated by some sort of fire, so bright it almost lit up the entire night sky. Upon closer inspection, they saw a "dot" that had appeared in the air near the place where they fought the Divine Servant. The dot was burning the space down like a lit cigarette butt that was pressed to a piece of paper. They could also vaguely see something that looked like boiling magma in it.

Zi was astonished. "Someone's trying to create a wormhole to teleport here directly! Isn't he afraid of making the dimension collapse? Seaman, it seems like we've done much more damage to that Bind than we initially thought!"

A dark weapon suddenly appeared at the place where the Divine Servant had died. When the weapon fell to the ground, the reddish-black light surrounding it actually solidified into waving strips that looked like ribbons in water. And the ground around it rippled like a disturbed water surface! It was as if everything around it had turned incorporeal!

Zi's eyes gleamed. A bright horizontal line of light shot out of her slender finger. Next, the dark weapon drifted towards their car as if it was being pulled by something.

Sheyan had to admit that Zi's Force was an outstanding power. It could play a very special role in many situations. For example, Sheyan could now drive away without slowing down and and also get his hands on the weapon. They had saved at least five seconds of crucial time.

But the ribbon-like light around the weapon suddenly amplified intensely. Zi held her chest with a grunt and spat out a mouthful of blood. Sheyan was right in front of her, so the warm blood splashed onto Sheyan's neck. The mysterious weapon fell to the ground with a clatter.

At this time, a devilish finger dipped in magma stretched out of the "wormhole" in the distance. The surrounding air deformed and distorted, spraying blue flames from time to time from friction. The passers-by were already running away in panic at such a spectacle.

Sheyan did not hesitate at all to jump out of the car. Honestly, he was shocked. A weapon that had obviously turned into loot could still cause such severe damage to Zi! What the hell was happening? He had never even heard of such a thing before, let alone seen it.

Therefore, when Sheyan held onto the weapon, his heart was actually beating really fast - from nervousness, and from excitement. He felt like a boy who was holding onto a girl's hand for the first time.

Sheyan was also handed a direct and simple punishment. Smoke started rising from his palm that was holding onto the weapon; smoke that carried a burning odour. The skin on his palm was scorched by the high temperature of the weapon. But of course, Sheyan could bear the pain. He did not mind the pain at all. He was already thinking about the trouble and agony that he will cause Bind by taking this weapon away.

"We should go to a police station. Our movement might've been captured by surveillance monitors, so we first need to destroy all the images they have of us," Sheyan said calmly, as if the burnt hand was not his. Melody quickly chanted something, and a green, mist-like layer of healing light attached itself to Sheyan's palm. But as soon as it did, a black flame soared from the palm, almost wrapping Sheyan's entire arm in it.

Sheyan yelled, cutting her off, "Reef, take the wheel! Don't fall for the illusion produced by the sword. Yes, it can hurt its wielder, but it's far less threatening to me than what it looks like."

Reef immediately took over and stepped hard on the accelerator. The engine roared, and they quickly left the scene behind them. By now, the wormhole in the distance had gotten even bigger, and the finger of the devil had turned into an ugly, twisted palm! An ear-piercing noise suddenly resounded through the air. Some of the passers-by were shaken by the noise, falling down to the ground with blood seeping out of their ears!

Only now did Sheyan have the time to examine the weapon. The weapon was undoubtedly a sword, a sword with clear, simple lines, yet it had a certain weight to it. Its surface was glowing with a blackish-red light. Any ordinary person who laid eyes upon the light would feel a pressure on their chest, as if something heavy was weighing down on them. Even their breathing would turn difficult.

But what was really hurting Sheyan was another layer of light covering the sword, a soul-stirring red glow that almost felt corporeal. The red glow felt somewhat familiar to Sheyan; it felt like the glow on a blood weapon, but much more condensed. The glow was so intense that Sheyan's hand which held the sword became crimson and transparent, making the bones and blood vessels inside visible.

Suddenly, a dark green light flashed on Sheyan's other hand; it was the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove'! But what was even stranger was that the transparent layer on the glove had peeled itself away.

The transparent layer was, naturally, the immature liquid metal life-form. A distorted face suddenly condensed on its surface. The face screamed at Sheyan, "Master, please let me eat this mutated high-ranking Lieutenant General Blood Weapon! After I eat it, I'll enter the adult stage!"

The voice of the immature liquid metal life-form was still very tender. In order to emphasise that its request was legitimate, rational and reasonable, it had made four tiny fists and was ceaselessly waving them about. It was obvious from this how strong the desire in its heart was.

The Evil Sword Apophis seemed to have sensed a danger that was akin to the threat from an arch-enemy. It immediately retracted all its energy back inside itself. Even Sheyan's hand was no longer being burned. Right now, the sword looked no different from a common weapon with its simple and concise lines that had no unnecessary embellishment or decoration. Everything about it was made for the sake of simplicity, practicality and efficiency.

[ Attribute: Dual attributes of Dark/Fire. Weapons with Dark/Fire attributes will cause additional damage to enemies with Holy and Ice attributes, in addition to having a high probability of ignoring defence when attacking other enemies. ]

[ Calyx Handle: A handle woven from the silk of the giant interstellar beast, Kun Silkworm. It increases grip power. When attacking, the wielder has a high probability of gaining an 11% bonus to Strength and Agility. Lasts for 10 minutes. ]

[ Sword Knot: A Firewashed cloth woven from the fibers of top quality interstellar Firewashed fruit is tied to the sword handle. Not only does it increase the sword's aesthetic value, it can also be used to wipe the sword's blade. It increases Charm by 7 points and increases the weapon's hit rate by 2%. ]

[ Equipping Requirement: Lieutenant General (after mutating into Evil Sword Apophis, the equipping condition is lowered to Field Officer rank, be it official or reserve duty). ]

[ Active Ability: 'Apophis's Sneer' -- Apophis is definitely not a merciful weapon. Whenever you find yourself in a hopeless situation, you can choose to give your body up to Apophis. If you can still regain your consciousness afterwards, you will see corpses littering the ground around you. The enemies you wish to kill will definitely be among the corpses, but so may your brothers, your companions! ]

[ After activating 'Apophis's Sneer', the wielder will lose their consciousness and become a puppet that will feel no pain. Attack speed and movement speed will increase by 50%, speed reduction conditions will not take effect, blocking rate will increase by 100%, attack power will increase by 100%, but defence will drop to zero for 120 seconds. The wielder will attack every living creature around them indiscriminately until the end of the ability duration, or until there are no more creatures that can be killed. ]

[ Lieutenant General Blood Weapon Passive Ability: 'Enemy of Mankind' -- This weapon will cause additional damage to any humanoid creature (including contestants). The additional damage ignores defence, and the damage value ranges from 33% to 66% of the attack. ]

[ 'Perfect Evolutionary Mutation' -- When a Lieutenant General Blood Sword is forged with the maximum required materials, the weapon may undergo evolutionary mutation, but this evolutionary mutation may not necessarily happen in the direction you hope for. For example, the weapon may gain properties that increase the weapon's long-range attack power by 300%, or increase the weapon's magic attack power by 500.... These properties are indeed powerful, but for them to appear on a Lieutenant General Blood Sword is nothing short of a tragedy. ]

[ 'Perfect Evolutionary Mutation' means that the gained properties are all top-quality properties of great use to the wielder. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been described with the word "perfect". ]

[ High-Tier: The weapon is forged with weapon-forging materials of outstanding qualities, so it has been refined during the manufacturing process. The actual quality of the weapon is comparable to a General Blood Sword. ]

While everyone was carefully scrutinising the properties of the weapon, Sheyan seemed to have felt something and suddenly looked back. Although there were at least seven or eight buildings blocking his view, he could still see two demonic claws burning with fire fiercely penetrating through the dimensional barrier, pulling the barrier apart like they were tearing at paper!

Previously, a Chosen blessed by Noah Realm C had almost died from bad luck, even with the luck that the Noah Realm had bestowed upon the Chosen! A Chosen was not immortal, but to make him die by reducing his luck to the limit was equivalent to giving Noah Realm C a slap in the face! Therefore, Noah Realm C did not hesitate to produce a dimensional storm to express its anger.

Meanwhile, the act of forcibly tearing apart the dimensional barrier this time had intruded upon, or to be exact, provoked the authority of Noah Realm F. That's because this ability of directly folding and tearing up the dimension to create a wormhole was a power it had bestowed upon a powerful contestant it was nurturing, Seeded Contestant No. 877661 -- more precisely, Rocky! It was supposed to be the prerogative of Rocky's weapon! Only the combination of Gungnir and the soul of the Lance of Longinus was supposed to have this insane ability to strike at an enemy regardless of distance!

All the power of a contestant came from the Realm under which they belonged. This rare, destructive ability was also something that placed a great burden on Noah Realm F. Now, someone actually dared to make use of this power, and the person was not Seeded Contestant No. 877661! What's worse, the bastard had been caught red-handed for being in the act for too long!!

A monster over ten meters tall, covered in flames, emerged from the dimensional rift. The monster was like a huge ball of meat with no neck. It consisted of different parts from various corpses sewn together. A terrifyingly huge metal chain wrapped around it, and a relatively small palm grew from its back. The weirdest thing about it was the number "7" on its head.

But the dignity of a Realm's will was majestic. The huge monster was instantly reduced to dust! However, the Realm did not seem to notice a strange distortion of space underneath the monster! A shadow slithered forward like a snake and disappeared into the dark night. The shadow could see faint remnants of light within the darkness which clearly indicated the direction he should move in, guiding him like road signs.

The shadow heaved a long sigh of relief. All's good as long as Apophis was still safe. Another cracking sound came from his body, signifying that another of his life-saving item had shattered, but for Bind....this was all worth it as long as he could retrieve Apophis in time.

Bind had pursued nearly two kilometers in the blink of an eye, the scattered soul fragments pointing the way like ghostly road signs. Bind believed that he would locate the enemies in less than a kilometer - no, five hundred meters! If he weren't in a bustling city like Detroit, he would have discovered the enemies by now!

Bind knew of two ways to erase the soul imprint on the weapon, but neither of them could possibly happen here and now! As for Apophis being destroyed, that was even more improbable. What kind of fool would destroy such a top-class weapon? Besides, even if there was a fool like that, how would he destroy it? Bind had never considered a problem like this at all!

He never imagined that the situation would get out of control to this extent. He also could never have imagined that the object of his desire, the Evil Sword Apophis, was only less than 400 meters away from him right now! But, the weapon was now covered in a strange layer of modest light.

That was a sign that the liquid metal life-form was trying hard to eat something. It had used all its digestive power to form a miniature dimension with its body cavity! With Apophis in this separate dimension, it was naturally impossible for Bind to receive any signal from the sword.

Sheyan's shared the notifications he received in the party communication channel, causing everyone to turn and look at the sword in his hand. Apophis did not seem like it was being decomposed, Instead, it was shining. Waves of light could be seen on it.

"If the liquid metal can't win a quick battle against a powerful weapon like this, it's probably never gonna be able to win. It's the same way that you'd never be able to get some women into bed if they don't have a good first impression of you....Uhh, Seaman told me that," answered Reef with confidence.

[ Due to your liquid metal life-form's decomposition of the Evil Sword Apophis, you obtained some glass gold, a kind of rare metal... Please wait patiently for further details. ]

The decomposition of Evil Sword Apophis was finally visible to the naked eye. The process started from the hilt. It was as if there was an invisible hand patiently and resolutely rubbing back and forth on it, very seriously and very attentively. To explain it in a more visual term....it looked like someone was jacking it off.

The changes were very slow, but after a while, they could see the hilt starting to swell, becoming red, long and hard....oops sorry, made a typo. It got brighter and brighter. Then, as the temperature rose, more and more dust drifted down from the sword. Although the dust was very fine, it made the liquid metal life-form very excited when it fell down onto the life-form's wall below. The liquid metal life-form was constantly twitching and wriggling in joy.

Victory had been decided. The liquid metal life-form nurtured by Sheyan had the comprehensive advantage. Evil Sword Apophis could put up no resistance against it, let alone fight back.

Following the passage of time, the liquid metal life-form that had received "supplements" only got more energetic. It continued rubbing with a determination that could even grind an iron rod into a needle. It's originally silvery-white colour was beginning to turn a deep black. Its speed of decomposition was also rapidly increasing.

According to Sheyan's rough calculations, it initially took seven minutes for the liquid metal life-from to rub away a third of the sword hilt, but after that, it only used three minutes to decompose the remaining two-thirds. This showed that it was strengthening itself with its "spoils of war" while it worked, and had had a tremendous growth in strength.

Apophis' hilt and ornaments had all become nutrients for the liquid metal life-form. The sword was now like a suckling pig that had been shaved clean, like an orange that had been peeled clean, like a girl that had been stripped clean. It was about to meet with a terrible fate.

"Hold on a minute!" Apophis' synthesised, metallic voice suddenly resounded inside the car, full of anxiety, "Take this monster away from me! I'll serve you. You just need to prepare some materials to break my soul contract. Do you not long for my power?"

Others may be a little moved, but Sheyan absolutely refused to give in to the temptation of the sword. The only thing he wished for was to make sure Bind loses Apophis, either by taking Apophis far away or destroying it. As long as he could weaken the enemy while causing Bind unbearable pain, Sheyan would consider it a great success.

Of course he was, but after all, this weapon was, like its name suggested, an evil weapon. It was obvious from Apophis' abilities that its wielder's life meant nothing to it. As far as Sheyan was concerned, since he did not necessarily need the power of Evil Sword Apophis, why not just turn it into nutrients for the liquid metal life-form. This method was much more reliable.

The liquid metal life-form's importance to Sheyan and its usefulness made it no inferior to Evil Sword Apophis in Sheyan's eyes, not in the slightest. So what was there to hesitate about? Today, Apophis was doomed to suffer the tragic fate of being devoured.

So far, they had succeeded in destroying all traces of themselves in the city's information network. They had also observed for a while, through the HD feed of the city's surveillance monitor network, the place where they previously fought.

They decided to leave Detroit; it was time to fly to Africa. If they did not depart now, time would be too tight, and completing the requirements of 'The Great Collector' title would be very difficult.

Sheyan expected the liquid metal life-form to enter a period of hibernation after stuffing itself full, like it would always do. Sheyan was a clever person who was good at making deductions, so his guess was indeed correct, but there was one thing that was totally out of his expectations -- the hibernation this time only lasted less than ten minutes!!

Of course that's impossible. The same was true of the liquid metal life-form, which had undergone a drastic change in appearance. It was now streaked with black and red stripes.

[ Usage: It can be attached to all kinds of equipment to provide a powerful bonus to the equipment. The equipment will get an additional +6 strengthening (please refer to previous chapters for details). ]

[ Passive Ability: 'Suck' -- Whenever the enemy (or their weapon) came into contact with the armour/weapon the liquid metal enhanced life-form is attached to, the liquid metal enhanced life-form will analyse the enemy and commit the result to memory. After seven times, the liquid metal enhanced life-form will be able to calculate the trajectory of the enemy's next attack, thereby rendering it obsolete. ]

[ The liquid metal life-form has turned itself into the terrifying nemesis of all equipment in order to satisfy its own desires. During the devouring process, it can memorise and completely replicate the special ability of the equipment it devours, then attach it to the equipment it strengthens! ]

[ Explanation: Matrix Point Distribution -- This is how the internal structure of the liquid metal life-from is described in scientific terms. Considering that the organism reading this explanation has a 99.99% probability of not having graduated from the Imperial University School of Molecular Materials, a more detailed explanation will not be provided. You just need to know that, like the description "rich, young and handsome" for humans, this particular description is synonymous with status and superiority. ]

[ Inscription: "G-type Liquid Metal Enhanced Life-form (Matrix Point Distribution).... Why does my name sound so awkward? Why not just call me G-spot? That's quite catchy." ]

"Only abilities on the equipment I've devoured before or abilities you possess, like 'Ultimate Impact' or 'Apophis' Sneer'," explained G-spot, "But take note, some abilities may be in conflict with the equipment I'm attached to. In that case, the abilities can't be used. For example, consecutive-shot or three-consecutive-shot abilities can't be used when I'm attached to a melee weapon."

"I can replicate everything about it except for its precedence. However, the most powerful thing about 'Extinction' is that its power and authority are higher than the Realms', so I don't recommend choosing this ability. Unless...."

"Unless you also have another ability with a really high precedence. I can try to transfer the precedence of this ability to the replica of 'Extinction'. This is really just a basic switching problem, so it's not anything difficult. You just need to pay 50,000 utility points and 5 potential points for the material cost," answered G-spot.

Everyone in Party Ace had seen much of the world, so they had encountered various kinds of item souls before, from low grade ones to high grade ones. For example, the weapon soul of the Evil Sword Apophis from before. It had its own dignity. It had only begged for its life once, and once it saw that begging was useless, it did not utter another word.

But G-spot had been chattering excitedly from the moment it woke up. It would ask questions every time it saw something new. In the end, only Melody and Old Charlie had the patience to keep talking with him. Of the two, the former was simple and naive, while the latter was sophisticated and shrewd. Only they had enough energy to deal with this tireless thing.

Sheyan seized this rare moment of peace to check his gains. Only then did he realise that through G-spot's decomposition of the Evil Sword Apophis, he had received 80 achievement points and more than 300,000 utility points! That was about one third of the production cost of the sword.

Sheyan's achievement point initially stood at 241/400, so needed 159 more to promote. He got 30 achievement points after he went on a streak and killed those Awakeners in a killing spree. Now that he got 80 achievement points from Apophis, his achievement point total became 351. At this rate, he might actually be promoted before his Major General Blood Armour finished production.

Those 300,000 utility points had also solved a pressing need. Melody's stay would cost quite a bit of money, not to mention the debt they originally had.... These extra money finally pulled Party Ace a considerable distance back from financial collapse.

Eventually, the item soul appeared to have run out of energy. After contentedly speaking a few final words, it transformed into a pool of asphalt-like liquid and re-attached itself to Sheyan's 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves'. It then fell asleep. This whole series of actions was very similar to a person who moved to a bed lazily and pulled a blanket along the way.

But unlike before, the liquid metal life-form was now "embossed" on the gloves in the form of black and red stripes. Compared to the faint layer of glow before, it now felt more aggressive and more powerful, like a tiger that was sleeping soundly on the ground. The mere sight of it would cause fear in others' hearts.

The mission required Sheyan to feed 100 pieces of equipment to the liquid metal life-form after it woke up. Just as Sheyan expected, Evil Sword Apophis did not simply count as one piece of equipment. The progress bar had advanced from 5% to 35%. Apophis had actually counted as 30 pieces of common equipment.

Ever since he ran into Bind - no, ever since he ran into the Stockholm Party - Sheyan had felt like he was swimming against the current. The resistance he faced had always been much greater than he expected, and this resistance had reached its peak when they were ambushed previously. Their party was almost wiped out, and Mogensha was killed.

But from then on, Sheyan had started to feel the resistance gradually weakening bit by bit, until the pressure completely vanish presently. With him gaining 'Extinction' and the opponent losing Apophis, he already had enough chips to face the coming troubles head on, be they in the dark or on the surface. To be more precise, the so-called troubles alluded to Bind and the arrogant Rocky.

Sheyan turned to look at her. From her charming, provocative eyes, he saw a challenge. This was the way it was with strong career women; they would always try to prove that they were stronger than men, but they would also wish to be conquered by a man deep down in their hearts.

"That's right. After that condescending guy called Rocky left, I said that if we can actually get rid of Bind, the look on Rocky's face would be very spectacular," replied Sheyan in a relaxed manner.

"Based on what we now know, Rocky may not necessarily have the confidence in killing Bind, nor must he absolutely kill Bind. What he's striving for is probably Apophis! Imagine the look on his face when he learns that the loot he so covets has been devoured by us!"

Sheyan felt as if their party had traveled to another world when he stepped off the plane cabin. For Libya that was in the midst of a war, it was already a luxury to have a road from the airport which cars could travel through. There was no need to be too critical of the potholes and mud covering the road.

Their goal was the Nigerian Golden Mask. The reason they came to Libya was naturally because the mask had found its way to this place. Zandala, a tribal leader in Benghazi, Libya, had obtained the treasure with the help of the three oil deposits under him. The tribal leader stubbornly believed that the mask was the key to regaining the memory from his past life, so he spared no expense in procuring it.

Sheyan soon found the information provider in a bar decorated with coconut shells on the outer walls. She was a rather plump lady wearing earrings as huge as a bus standing handle. She had dark, shiny skin, and her plump body was almost bursting out of her dress. Only the glittering light in her eyes belied her cleverness and slyness.

The woman had a warm smile on her face. She even stretched out her thick arms to greet them with a hug. Sheyan merely lifted the briefcase he was holding without much emotion.

The woman took a roll of money from Zi. Her skin color reminded Sheyan of Mogensha. His mood abruptly got low because of that. After the woman counted the money, she actually took out a device to scan the money to verify their authenticity one by one. Finally, she clasped her hands in satisfaction. She stuffed the roll of money into her cleavage, and wanted to leave.

The woman let out a sudden exclamation, like she had forgotten something. She took out a piece of paper, scribbled a few words on it, and threw it to them. Sheyan grabbed it and took a look at it. He immediately asked with a smile, "What do you mean by this?"

The words written on the paper were "Benghazi, Libya". That was all. It was like when you ask for a person's address, and all you got in reply was Cleveland, Ohio. She was obviously playing them.

The woman suddenly had a very uncomfortable feeling. She slammed her hands on the table and yelled, "Break their legs, then strip them naked and throw them into the jungle!"

Business in the bar was slow; there were only a few people lying face down on the tables, seemingly asleep. When the woman slammed the table, all of them stood up holding AK47s in their hands, their faces expressionless. They deliberately let the outsiders hear the sound of the rifle bolts being pulled, their threatening intentions evident from their actions.

Moan was actually the name of the woman's husband. He was an arms dealer, an intelligence dealer and a bar owner at the same time. The reason he accepted Sheyan's request was for the lucrative reward Sheyan promised. The reason he had his wife put on an act was for the sake of his entire family's lives.

Moan knew the whereabouts of the Nigerian Golden Mask, but he also knew the only fate which awaited him if he sold out the Zandala tribe of Benghazi was to have his entire family left to die in a foul ditch with at least twenty bullet holes in their bodies. However, Moan still coveted the reward...

And that was what Party Ace was encountering. The only reason Moan refrained from murdering them was because these customers came from the United States, so there would be some trouble if he killed them.

Party Ace did not attack them. Reef had even raised his hands in cooperation. However, No. 7 had already slid down like a ghost from atop the back door of the bar. He instantly grabbed the shoulders of two AK-wielding fighters like he was greeting a couple of old friends, and then slammed the two people together.

The AK47s held by the two were smashed into pieces, and their bodies were naturally paralysed. The fighter next to them was obviously well-trained; he leaped to the side, raised his gun and took aim, but No. 7 had already pounced on him. The servant bit, or rather, licked his neck. The man's finger was clearly already on the trigger, but he simply could not pull it because his body had already been invaded by a poison from the Ndipaya Swamp.

Another of the fighters was already unconscious. Kulutego did not even get into combat; he just threw a coconut shell and the man was knocked out. Kulutego kept chewing on a mouthful of potato chips -- his new love.

Moan's wife did not expect her men to be so easily beaten. After standing dazed for a few seconds, she suddenly screamed, but the scream turned out to be a disguise too. She quickly retrieved a pistol from under the counter and pointed it at Zi's delicate face, about to pull the trigger.

The fat woman rolled out from behind the counter like a meatball and knocked her head on the edge of a table. She remained motionless after that, apparently unconscious.

Sheyan had his principles. No matter how malicious their gazes were, the most he would do was laugh. Moan could not run from them anymore now that his wife and kids were in their hands.

But Sheyan had miscalculated this time. In any case, it wasn't the first time he had miscalculated. His mistake was to predict Moan's actions based on traditional Chinese concept.

99.9% of Chinese people would rush to the scene no matter the circumstances when they found out that their wives and children were held hostage. But Mr. Moan had as many as seven wives and more than 20 children. He regarded them as his assets, like his goat herd. Would a person risk their life for less than one sixth of their assets? It was obviously impossible.

That was where Sheyan's reasoning had failed. After waiting for more than half an hour, they found that the people who came were not Moan and his underlings, but the local government troops who maintained the order in this place. They left without hesitation. They could have fought them, of course, but there was no point in doing so.

With no better option, Sheyan could only look for a place to browse the internet and make calls. Thanks to the base once again expanding in strength, they easily obtained another number they could call. An hour later, a fierce-looking man with a crew cut found them. He listened to their problem.

The man, nicknamed Scorpion, told them frankly that he couldn't provoke the Zandala tribe of Benghazi. In fact, even the government forces that were stationed here dared not provoke the tribe and could only cooperate with them. Scorpion advised Party Ace to go home at once. He had the means to procure tickets for the earliest flight - not for free, of course.

He also told them that he was willing to give them a 20% discount for the sake of the person who introduced him to them. Sheyan instead offered him three times the price with the condition that he finds Moan within two hours.

Scorpion seemed to be a very capable person. He immediately brought them into the military barracks in broad daylight, paying his way in with the money he had just gotten. Five minutes later, they set off driving the best off-road jeep in the barracks, a semi-old Dongfeng Warrior military jeep purchased from the Chinese military. Even on roads that were similar to tractor roads, the jeep still accelerated at a decent speed when it was put to the throttle.

The firepower on the jeep was also pretty impressive. An NSV heavy machine gun mounted on the jeep dragged behind it a long chain of bullets. The gun utilised the principle of gas-operated automation and had a unique machine offset locking mechanism. All firing points and bunkers within two kilometers were as frail as papers in front of it. Of course, the heavy machine gun was not cheap to use. It's standard cartridges were BZ armour-piercing incendiary original rounds and BZT armour-piercing incendiary tracer rounds. According to Scorpion, each armour-piercing bullet cost five dollars and each BZT round cost eight dollars. It must be known that the NSV heavy machine gun fired at an astonishing rate of 700 to 800 rounds per minute!

"There are three possible places where Moan could be in right now," Scorpion said while he grinned, exposing his snow-white teeth. "The brothel, the casino, or inside his own tribe. He's probably heard by now that you're looking for him, so he's more likely to have returned to his tribe. But the other two places were along the way, so we can stop by them to check just to make sure. It won't take too much time."

They drove through crowded and backward streets with low, tattered buildings on both sides. There was simply no way the jeep could move fast here. It was no wonder that whenever people spoke of Africa, they would start from poverty and hunger. The poor suburban slums and simple dirt houses in the villages they saw were shocking.

Martuba had an airport, so it was already considered a relatively developed area. On the streets, the cigarette vendors actually broke open a 20-pack cigarette and sold them one by one. In the free market, cooking oil was sold by spoons. It was evident how low the purchasing power of the ordinary citizens here was.

When they arrived at the inner part of the city, Sheyan found that the whole city seemed to be built around several large-scale supermarket chains. Various restaurants, cinemas, gymnasiums and clothing stores surrounded the supermarkets. Moan's casino and brothel were naturally built in this "central business district" too.

He also caught glimpses of the great variety of goods sold in the supermarkets, but their prices seemed extraordinarily expensive. The posters on the walls showed the items currently on discount: a kilogram of peaches, USD $12; a plastic bowl, USD $8; even a rubber warm water bag cost USD $10. Yet the people inside were all shopping leisurely with their shopping carts piled full.

The poor were extremely poor; the rich were unbelievably rich. The absolute gap between the rich and the poor was, naturally, the root cause of the present civil war and turmoil.

There was no way they could enter the casino and the brothel peacefully, so they resorted to violence. Scorpion was pretty much just a bystander during the process. Sheyan knew that he was borrowing their strength to weaken Moan's forces, with a view of replacing Moan, but Sheyan wasn't that concerned. He did not care as long as Scorpion could find Moan within the time limit he promised. If he could not keep his promise though, he's gonna get hurt real bad.

Having completed the sweep, the only result they got to show for it was that they were now quite sure that Moan had returned to his tribe. That was his den, his territory, where even a teenager could pose a threat to them. It didn't matter that the finger which pulled the trigger belonged to a child, the bullet itself was still as lethal. Against ordinary people, that was.

The jeep raced across the plains of Africa. Since it had excellent cross-country performance, galloping directly on the grass was actually a better alternative to traveling on the crushed and bumpy dirt roads. Unlike most other vehicles, it did not have the problem of being bogged down by the mud.

After forty minutes of bumpy ride, a forest and a river appeared ahead of them, as well as a village that might as well be a refugee camp. The neatest buildings in this dilapidated place were the two watchtowers at the entrance of the village. They, of course, also served as machine gun towers.

Sheyan, who had already gotten impatient, straightaway pointed the NSV heavy machine gun at the watchtowers and poured $2,400 to $3,000 of bullets at them. Under normal circumstances, even permanent buildings with 5cm of reinforced concrete walls could not withstand the firepower of over 300 armour-piercing rounds, so the two wooden watchtowers naturally could not either. They were torn into pieces, and so were the sentries stationed on them.

The sudden attack did not cause the tribe to fall into disorder; after all, this was a place plagued by war. Their rich war experience enabled them to organise a counterattack in the shortest time possible. Everyone in the tribe instantly turned into soldiers, regardless of whether they were the men, elderly, women or children. After all, the bullets they fired were equally deadly.

Fifteen minutes later, no more sounds of shooting could be heard. Even Scorpion's face had turned blue. He was glad that he hadn't put certain malicious thoughts in his mind into action. Otherwise, today would've been the day he died.

Ramtas silently dragged a man over. The man's right hand had been hit by an armour-piercing bullet, so it was now crippled. The injury caused his dark skin to turn pale. He screamed and struggled and looked at Sheyan with furious eyes. Sheyan flashed him a faint smile.

"Mr. Moan? This is the first time we've met, but we've had a pleasant conversation over the phone before this. I apologise for the damage we've caused to you and your people."

"That's right, the damn Yankee who told you money that wouldn't be a problem," Sheyan replied with a smile. "I don't know if you remember what I said before I bid you goodbye?"

Since Sheyan asked, Moan could only search his memory to recall the conversation. After a while, he finally mumbled, "You said I'll be in huge trouble if I make you angry."

Moan's expression grew gloomy. He then shouted hysterically, "I'll be in even bigger trouble if I offend the Zandala tribe from Benghazi! They'll skin all of us alive!"

Sheyan's face turn cold. "I don't have time to waste on you. There are 3600 seconds in an hour, and there seems to be less than 400 people in your tribe. From this moment on, I'll kill a person every ten seconds! You'll go last. I'm going to make an exception to my principles today, because there seems to be only two kinds of people in this damn place: desperados and non-desperados!"

Moan would not cave in easily. His stubbornness almost made Sheyan violate his own principle of not killing women and children - although these women and children could all skillfully kill ten people with an AK.

Fortunately, Sheyan successfully shifted the pressure onto Moan. In the eyes of Moan's tribesmen, the death of their loved ones was his responsibility. So after Sheyan shot the seventeenth man, the man's wife stepped forward and screamed hysterically, "You should've started with Moan's family - his wives, sons, father, and brothers! Why doesn't this bastard's family get punished first?"

Not everyone could remain indifferent while their loved ones were killed in front of them. Moan's nerves were already surprisingly tough, but after seeing six of his family members die, he was already at his limit.

The Zandala tribe in Benghazi may be threatening, but at least it was not an imminent threat. Moan was already greatly regretting his decision to swindle the Yankee's money. The money was now burning his hands like charcoal, no, like hot magma.

"Now why didn't you do that from the beginning? You see, I paid you three times the usual price, and yet you still made it so difficult for me. If you'd simply met me in that bar and told me what I want to know honestly, no one would've died. I wouldn't need to waste so much time either," said Sheyan with a smile.

Moan was instantly at a loss for words. He didn't dare to say it was because he thought Sheyan was a pushover. Sheyan smiled and continued, "See? It's all your fault. You underestimated my strength, so you tried to deceive me. You just failed to consider one thing: I may be more terrible than the Zandala tribe."

Moan was speechless. Logic told him that it was absolutely impossible for a small group of people to compete with the Zandala tribe which had 170,000 population and was said to have Apaches and missiles.

The Zandala tribe in Benghazi had almost replaced the functions of the local government. Their notoriety could stop children from crying at night. Therefore, what Party Ace was looking for, the Nigerian Golden Mask, was openly displayed on the desk of the tribal leader, Zandala.

For ordinary people, to get past countless guards and countless highly-advanced anti-theft mechanisms to take this object was as difficult as reaching the sky, but for Party Ace, it was not as hard as it seemed.

"The only news we have so far is that our target is on the desk of the tribal leader Zandala in the Zandala Tower, a modern building covering an area of more than 60,000 square meters, with over 7,000 freaking rooms inside!" Sheyan sighed. "We don't know anything more than that. We don't know the layout of the traps, we don't know where the firing points are, we don't even know if there's anything special about the Nigerian Golden Mask. That's bad. Unfortunately, we're pressed for time! I'd like to hear your opinions."

Zi thought they should split up into four teams. They should have no problem getting a list of the core members of the Zandala tribe. The three of them would then go assassinate those core members to cause chaos, while Sheyan would go straight to the "throne room". That should work.

Sheyan could only laugh bitterly after listening to Zi's plan. Zi sure had a lot of faith in him. But Sheyan knew better; he knew that he was not fit for the job. Even if he could get inside, he might not be able to escape afterwards. After all, Rocky and Bind were still hidden in the dark, waiting to pounce! It's too risky to do something like this in the current situation.

Sheyan suddenly missed Ronnie, the assassin he met on planet Uplos, dearly. If Ronnie was around, everything would be as simple as cutting a hot knife through butter.

As for whether Ronnie was willing to do such a thing, that was not within Sheyan's consideration. If he was willing, then excellent; if he was not, Sheyan would kick him until he was willing. Ronnie was unruly and extremely stubborn, but for some reason, corporal punishment, like what was meted out by a superior to a subordinate in the army, was every effective on him.

Sanzi told them that Kulutego could use his power to dig a tunnel inside, but the main problem was that they could not accurately pinpoint the correct destination. They did not even know where the office containing the Nigerian Golden Mask was, so what's the point of digging their way inside?

Old Charlie then came forward with a plan. His plan was devious and unorthodox, and filled with a large amount of deaths. However, it would also be very effective. Incredibly, it would force the Zandala tribe to give them the Nigerian Golden Mask of their own accord. Sheyan was silent for a while after listening to the plan. Then, he nodded.

Most people in Africa had the habit of taking an afternoon nap due to the heat. The tropical sun was very intense in the afternoon, so they would just take a rest in the shade to avoid the bite of the hot sun.

Then....Freddy, who had evolved thanks to the help of Professor X and Jean, traveled into their dreams while laughing sinisterly. To be precise, he had infiltrated the dreams of the people living in the Zandala Tower. Freddy by now could already enter the dreams of twenty people at the same time!

All 20 people dropped dead within seven minutes. Even the most advanced medical examination could only return the result of a "heart attack" for their causes of death.

In just half an hour, the number of people who died of a "heart attack" reached the astonishing figure of 110. Freddy stopped then. But before he did, he entered the dreams of 30 other people to induce and influence them. The dreams of these 30 people were all different, but they had a clear common point, and that was the Nigerian Golden Mask. Before their dreams ended, the mask would always try to murder them in the way they most feared....

But the stubborn Old Zandala denied the people their wishes. In fact, he had done so many times before. The stubbornness of the elderly was even tougher to break than uncut granite. How could he possibly change for a mere hundred lives or so?

And so...the second wave of deaths came. Because there was no more opportunity like the mass afternoon nap, the death toll this time dropped to 40. However, the list of casualty this time included Old Zandala's name. Eleven other people, so frightened that they were on the verge of collapse, once again testified that the Nigerian Golden Mask was trying to kill them in their dreams.

This time, the whole building fell into chaos, not just due to the deaths caused by the mask, but also because of the vacuum in power after the highest authority was no longer present!

Old Zandala's body was healthy up to the moment he died. Although he was already 58 years old, there were no signs that showed that he could not live until he was 68 years old, or even 78 or 88. Hence, the power underneath him was evenly distributed among several of his sons.

Party Ace walked into Zandala Tower disguised as doctors. The guards at the entrance were as good as decorations. They even heard the sound of gunshots while they went in. They still had no idea where the Golden Mask was, but they believed that having experienced so much tragedy, someone would willingly take them to it.

"Hey! You're infected!" Reef grabbed a woman nearby and said in an anxious tone, "I'm a member of the United Nations' World Health Organization! I received news that a lethal virus has appeared in this place. Please take us to the source of the infection immediately!"

The woman's face immediately turned pale. Due to the authority of the white coat, she heard a certain word very clearly. "....Infected?" the woman asked in a trembling voice.

Sanzi shook a random platinum VIP membership card of a luxury club in front of the woman and told her seriously, "This is my ID. As you can see, we're experts sent by the UN World Health Organization. A sudden increase in the gamma rays emitted by the sun has caused some pseudo-dead viruses on a certain antique that may be in this building to resuscitated, leading to the outbreak of an ancient virus! We can see that you're already infected; you're just not showing any symptoms yet because the viruses in your body are still in the latent period. There may be a way to save you still. Quick, take us to the source of the infection!"

There were obviously many flaws in Sanzi's claim, especially the platinum VIP membership card of a luxury club which he used as a fake ID. The words on it were all in Chinese.

Fortunately, although the decoration of this building was comparable to the headquarters of the world's top 500 enterprises, the quality of the staff inside the building was a different matter. In addition, the heavy atmosphere of death that had spread throughout the building had also destroyed much of their precaution.

The woman was successfully deceived by the platinum VIP membership card. Sanzi became the straw she was desperately clutching at, her final hope for salvation. She immediately grabbed his sleeve and said, "Okay, I'll take you there! I know where the source is!"

And so, they got themselves a guide. As they walked deeper into the building under the guidance of of the woman, they kept ruthlessly doubting out loud whether she would take them to the wrong place and thus delay their work progress. They also kept complaining and complaining about other things. The complained that the windows here did not conform to the lighting standard and could easily cause bacteria to breed in the building, and the poor ventilation there could easily trigger an influenza outbreak, and the janitors were slacking in their work, so the floor was must be filled with germs, etc. etc.... The woman did not quite understanding what they were talking about, but they sounded very professional indeed....

Chief Zandala usually did not have too many official duties to perform because the tribe had secretly ruled over Benghazi for more than ten years now, so everything was already on track. Even if something were to happen, his sons would fight among themselves for the opportunity to deal with it, in order to show their capabilities. For that reason, he did not have much work to do. The old man preferred to spend his spare time in the largest brothel in the area.

Therefore, Chief Zandala's office usually served as a multi-purpose room. Its function included a meeting room, a study, and even a mating hall. Its least utilised function was for work. So, it was naturally impossible to find anything valuable here besides the mask, the same way cash wouldn't be kept in a relatively public place in the house like the living room.

It was for this reason that when they walked into the office of Chief Zandala, the resistance they encountered was far less than they had anticipated. Of course, because of the nightmares, there were some who tried to come here to break the mask to vent their anger, but they were all stopped by the four guards here. Although the current Chief Zandala had died and the Nigerian Golden Mask had lost its protective patron, it was still protected by another thing -- its high transaction price.

Before the new Chief Zandala was selected and could deal with the Nigerian Golden Mask, the four guards dared not let the responsibility of losing the mask fall on themselves.

The Nigerian Golden Mask was very broad and had a weird curvature. There were two bloody fangs on the corners of the mouth. The eyes were just empty holes, yet there was an indescribable feeling of evil about them. The facial features were sharp and distinct like they were carved with an axe, but the wide cheeks eased the mask's expression to a mild majesty.

There was a strange glow on the back of the Nigerian Golden Mask. It was a golden glow so fresh that it seemed to be boiling. Humans loved this glow, and that was why the gold standard system was prevalent in most countries. If one were to inspect more carefully, they would find a few tiny holes in the golden mask -- they seemed to contain some mystery.

Sheyan did not study the mask for too long. He just needed to check if this precious artifact had a hidden lethal factor in it like the Crystal Skull did. He actually did discover something out of the ordinary. His fingers seemed to be touching the surface of the Nigerian Golden Mask, but they were in fact stopped a couple of millimeters away by something akin to a layer of invisible film, preventing Sheyan from truly coming into contact with the mask.

"What is this thing?" While Sheyan was wondering that, a loud bang came from the cupboard next to them. A very tall man appeared from inside the cupboard. The man's body was strong, explosive, and agile, just like the figure of Kevin Garnett, the famous NBA star.

But the man's glassy eyes, deadly pale skin and slightly mechanical movements betrayed his identity. He should be a zombie similar to a voodoo corpse puppet. Sanzi and Zi shouted at the same time.

"There's a fluctuation in the dimension, Seaman. The thing isn't summoned from another realm, it's being teleported over from somewhere in this world! We're being blocked from where you are by an invisible barrier. It'll take a couple of minutes at least for us to get to you."

He was not someone with a persecution complex, but he could not help recalling the ambush they had suffered before - a completely unexpected car accident, the party being separated, one of the members being the focus of firepower.... The difference was that the last time, he was the one being isolated while his teammates were the ones being attacked. This time, he was the one who had to try his best to survive, while his teammates could only watch helplessly from the sideline!

The overreacting Sheyan instantly stepped forward and gave the zombie a fierce hook to the chin with all his strength. The zombie flew up and crashed into the ceiling, smashing the decorative chandelier into pieces, then bounced back down and hit the ground with a bang. It turned into a mess of bloody flesh, broken bones protruding out of it.

However, the zombie apparently could not feel any pain. It instantly tried to climb back up with rigid, mechanical movements. Sheyan immediately charged towards it and gave its head a hard kick. The head snapped back by 80 degrees, and it brought the body flying back by five meters or so.

The zombie grabbed at a mahogany bookcase next to it to pull itself up. This action instantly caused the mahogany bookcase to tilt forward. Books that had never been opened since they were purchased dropped down and littered the ground. But the zombie had hardly lifted itself up by 45 degrees before Sheyan had once again pounced on it. Sheyan slammed his fist into the zombie's left chest.

The sound of the zombie's ribs breaking could clearly be heard, thanks to Sheyan's Strength that exceeded a hundred points. Even a zombie could not withstand such a fierce blow. It spat out an oily, asphalt-like substance. Sheyan immediately stuffed the substance back down its throat with a magazine.

The portraits of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were smiling warmly on the cover of the magazine, but their faces were slowly being blackened by the zombie's body fluid. This time, Sheyan intended to solve the problem once and for all. He moved behind the zombie and twisted its head by 180 degrees!

The cracking noise that came from the spine indicated that the connection between the brain and the spinal nerve had been thoroughly severed, so the zombie would no longer pose any threat to Sheyan. But Sheyan still kicked it a few meters away just to be safe.

The Nigerian Golden Mask suddenly flashed again. The sound of something fracturing came from the wall on the right side of the reception room. A huge palm with sharp nails slammed into it, causing dust to billow.

A huge African lion crawled out from the dust, but it was not a fresh, living lion. Sheyan could tell from its dry eyes and withered fur that it should be some sort of undead creature. It was strength, fearlessness and brutality personified.

But at that moment, Sheyan finally understood why the goddamn golden mask had such a weird curvature. It was because the mask was not designed for a human being at all. As soon as the lion appeared, the mask instantly flew to the lion's face and stuck to it tightly, forming a strange combination:

The combination of a lion zombie and the Nigerian Golden Mask may sound absurd, but for some reason, it gave off the feel of a Sphinx. One was a relic of the ancient Nigerian civilization while the other was a relic of the ancient Babylonian civilization, but they had actually combined together.

But this was actually nothing to be surprised about. Historical studies had shown that there exists many similarities and coincidences in mythologies even between completely unrelated Eastern and Western ancient civilizations, such as an ancient great flood or the creation of mankind from clay.

Sheyan stared at the mysterious and powerful lion in front of him. He decided to try and end the fight quickly. The monster looked rather tough to deal with, but it should pose no fatal threat to Sheyan.

The rest of Party Ace started getting busy too because some of the people in the building had finally discovered the group of uninvited visitors. They ran here one after another armed with guns. Sheyan had noticed by now that a spherical layer of earthy yellow light had formed with the mask at the centre, covering an area hundreds of square metres around it. It was this barrier-like layer that had separated himself and the Sphinx with the outside world.

"Hey, Seaman, I don't sense the consciousness of Bind. That guy should not be able to follow our whereabouts in the midst of his rage. And I've already familiarised myself with the way he attacks, so if he's really around waiting to ambush, I'll definitely be able to find traces of him. Also, I've discovered a key weakness in this barrier. Work with me to destroy it from the inside."

A ray of light shot out from Zi's finger and quickly coalesced into the form of a needle. It drilled fiercely into the spherical light barrier from the side! Large ripples spread from the spot where the barrier was pierced. Sheyan also punched the same spot hard from the inside.

The Sphinx growled in anger. The fur on its body that had dried up from the loss of vitality suddenly surged like grassland weeds that waved about wildly in the midst of a gale. A sound wave indiscriminately attacked everything around it, be it living or inanimate.

Even Sheyan found himself in a terrible state in the midst of the terrifying sonic wave. He felt like a tiny boat in the middle of a typhoon. He could only grab at something next to him in a hurry to stop himself from being blown away. As for the office, it was completely ruined. It looked as if it had been thrown into a huge blender.

Flower pots, books, sofas, benches, underwear, curtains and suits that had previously remained hidden from sight stirred and blended together in the storm! The tempered glass curtain wall to the side completely shattered, the fragments flying everywhere! It would take a couple tons of TNT explosives to produce such a dramatic effect!

Of course, the most unfortunate ones were the guards who were surrounding the area. They all stood rooted to the spot after the sonic wave swept past them. After a long time, painful looks crept onto their faces. Their heads then burst into horrible masses of bloody pieces. Only then did the headless corpses slowly fall to the ground, twitching ceaselessly. Blood oozed non-stop out of the cross-section on their necks.

The Sphinx pounced at Sheyan. Several cracks were made in the ceiling when it spread its wings. It swept its front paw at Sheyan. Sheyan clenched his fist and punched out with the black-and-red striped +10 glove. The paw met with the fist.

A deafening sonic boom erupted in the air. The impact sent Sheyan rolling several meters back due to the difference in body weight. The other paw of the Sphinx instantly slammed down towards him.

Sheyan once again launched a fist to meet it directly. At the moment of contact, there was a sudden flash of extremely dazzling light, so intense it seemed to be born out of extreme darkness. Even a slight glimpse of it would make one's eyes burn!

The Sphinx cried out painfully and staggered a few steps back. The paw that came into contact with Sheyan's fist was now covered with cracks like a broken piece of porcelain. Then, it broke into pieces, which turned into dust before they even reached the ground.

That was the word which reverberated through the minds of the other members of Party Ace at that moment. There was nothing to prove it, but what other ability could produce such a fierce strike and such a brutal injury? The attack had resulted in one of the Sphinx's four limbs becoming completely crippled!

An invisible force field erupted from the Sphinx, making Sheyan feel as if he was standing in a full-blown sandstorm. He could not even open his eyes, let alone stabilise his body.

Seizing this opportunity, the Sphinx thrust its wounded foot into the opening in the wall. The mask flashed, and when the Sphinx pulled its foot out again, it was intact once more. The injury seemed to have completely healed. But soon, the lightning-like light on it flickered, and the foot was reduced to dust again.

That's where the power of 'Extinction' was so formidable. A treatment may be temporarily effective, but 0.01 seconds after it took effect, the remnant power of 'Extinction' would once again reproduce the wound, negating any attempt to heal the injury. This special effect of 'Extinction' was way more evil than telling the victim straight-up that the injury could not be cured.

If the victim had received a notification showing that the injury could not be treated, they would have just accepted the fact right away. But due to the lack of a notification, they would repeatedly try to heal their wound and be repeatedly disappointed. It was like a person who suffered a serious cut, having recovered from the injury after much difficulty, being slashed in the same spot again. Think of the psychological trauma, the medical expenses, the youth lost....

The Sphinx glared furiously at the culprit who caused him so much pain. It charged at Sheyan again. But this time, it was smarter, having learnt its lesson. It sent broken concrete pieces splashing towards Sheyan while it ran. Sheyan tried to dodge as best he could, but he was still hit a few times. In addition, in this narrow space, the power of the Sphinx was comparable to the madness of a sandstorm. While Sheyan was avoiding the concrete pieces, he naturally could not pay full attention to the Sphinx's claws. He was struck by the claws and was sent flying outside!

Fortunately, before they came here, Sheyan had already considered the possibility that they might have to jump down from the building. While he was falling down like a projectile, he suddenly rolled around in the air and pushed opened a large umbrella.

It was not a single-person umbrella or even a double-person umbrella; it was a large-sized beach umbrella. It could shelter eight people under it without a problem. The umbrella's pole was also made of steel. If the owner of the fruit stall next to the hotel they stayed in was here, he would surely find the umbrella looking very familiar....

Sheyan was momentarily thrown upwards with great force by the air resistance right after pushing the umbrella open. He couldn't help but add a little strength to his grip, crumpling the steel umbrella handle as a result. If he were an ordinary person, gripping so hard would surely result in his wrist being sprained.

The stolen umbrella carried out its mission steadily. Suddenly, the Sphinx broke through the sky-blue glass curtain wall next to it with a deafening crash and also fell down in pursuit. Countless shiny fragments rained down on the ordinary people who were watching curiously below. Some of them screamed in pain, and some of them fainted.

The ferocious beast produced a fierce storm in the air as it flew. It snapped at Sheyan repeatedly, causing him several injuries, then landed before Sheyan could and opened its mouth wide!

The wide-open mouth seemed like a black hole, deep and dark. There seemed to be sounds of countless scarabs bursting inside it. Then, a strong wind rose and turned into a spiraling tornado, blowing Sheyan up again!

Sheyan climbed in altitude almost as fast as an elevator. The glass curtain wall of the building flashed past behind him at an astonishing speed, like he was on a roller coaster. Sheyan started to feel nervous. Finally, when he reached a height of two or three hundred meters in the air, the wind finally weakened. Sheyan fell back down.

But the beach umbrella was now damaged. It did not even last ten seconds under the tremendous pressure from Sheyan's fall before it completely broke down. However, it had completed its mission; it had effectively and reliably cushioned Sheyan's falling force.

Seeing the ground approaching him at a great speed, Sheyan immediately activated the ability on his newly-obtained wrist guards: 'Absolute Run'! He extended his feet towards the glass curtain wall next to him.

When his feet made contact, Sheyan bizarrely regained his balance in the air. But right at that moment, he suddenly heard a crashing sound. His astounding momentum had continued pushing him forward, making him glide more than 20 meters on the tempered glass curtain wall of the building like he was surfing, and leaving behind trails of bruises in the glass in his wake!

Sheyan made use of the momentum to dash downwards with astonishing speed. The glass curtain wall shattered with every step that he took, sending a large amount of glass fragments splattering into the building. A guard in the building was trying to check the situation on the ground through the glass wall, but a palm-sized glass fragment came flying towards him and slashed across his face. He fell to the ground screaming in agony as blood covered his entire face.

Sheyan sprinted vertically down from a height of more than 100 meters. The trail of glass fragments he left behind him soared more than seven meters high. They glimmered so brightly under the three o'clock afternoon sun that it was impossible for anyone to directly lay eyes on them!

Seeing this, the Sphinx raised its head and emitted a harsh roar while wagging its tail. Dust instantly billowed high into the air, almost covering the entire sky. But Zi and Reef did not stand idle either. They simultaneously attacked the Sphinx below.

The wind whistling in his ears, Sheyan readied his fist while he rushed downwards like a meteor. The Sphinx also opened its mouth and launched a lethal counterattack that was so strong that its vicinity became a vacuum area.

After an indescribable flash of light, a sandy hurricane descended upon the area. There were at least a few dozen tons of sand near Benghazi, and they were all sucked into the sandstorm.

Within the sandstorm, Zi and the rest of the party still clearly saw Sheyan's figure that dove down like a meteor. Although he was then blown away by the claws of the Sphinx, his fist had also mercilessly struck the golden mask!!!

Fortunately, the Nigerian Golden Mask seemed like it belonged to the category of non-living objects. After it was shattered by Sheyan's punch, it still recovered into the menacing-looking mask afterwards. The mask fell down from the air and before it could reach the ground, it was already seized by the panting Sheyan.

Now, Sheyan truly realised how powerful the 'Extinction' ability was. It was worthy of its reputation as an insane ability that could ignore the restorative power of the Realms!

The development of events following that incident was rather interesting. Some parts of Africa were still quite primitive and voodoo practice was very popular in some places. When a certain leader of a voodoo religion realised that the unexpected sandstorm could bring him great economic and social benefits, he bravely stepped forward to claim responsibility for the incident and loudly accused the Zandala tribe of having been punished by the god Legba!

As the saying goes, fortune favours the brave. His risky endeavour actually gained the support of several nearby tribes. These tribes were all either really ambitious, or had been suppressed hard by the Zandala tribe before this.

Religious pressure, external pressure, internal strife, and the fact that Chief Zandala died too suddenly all caused the end of the Zandala tribe's rule in Benghazi. When Party Ace's doings reached the newspapers, they became the "holy signs" of Legba, the god of the voodoo religion.

Meanwhile, the actual culprits, Party Ace had already arrived in Egypt. When they heard the news of what had happened in Benghazi, they couldn't help laughing. Their subsequent operations seemed to be blessed by good fortune too. The Egyptians were currently packing all kinds of ancient treasures to send to the arks. After Party Ace dealt with a company of guards, they managed to secure the rest of the African ancient works of art in one go.

[ Mission Briefing: Protect the special-model long-distance ships from being destroyed. The specific mission area will be assigned when the contestant steps foot in China. ]

[ Mission Details: Many special-model long-distance ships (replica arks) in Mainland China have already been bizarrely destroyed. Protecting all of them is an impossible task. Outside help is much needed.]

Looking at this side mission, Sheyan remained silent for a while. Then, he slowly said, "This is probably the most critical moment for my country. Will you guys allow me to make an irresponsible and selfish decision for once?

"Although this is just a parallel world, although they may not have anything to do with me, although there may be corruption, power struggle, ambition and conspiracies there.... But I still wish to do something for them, to try and save the people there even if there won't be much benefit in it for us."

Reef suddenly laughed. "When did you become such an emotional guy, boss? Now you made me a bit sad. It's unfortunate that there aren't any replica arks in the UK, or I would've tried to protect them too. If you want to do it, then I'll go with you. Besides, we need to go to China to collect the cultural works of art anyway, so it's not like we need to make a detour."

When the plane landed at an airport in southwest China, Party Ace could clearly sense a turbulent undercurrent in the society. Banners with the words "We want the truth" written on them could be seen everywhere. Perhaps due to the destruction of a considerable number of special-model long-distance ships, the cat was slowly getting out of the bag.

Their destination was Heping Town, a town 50 kilometers away from the outskirts of Jiyang City. As an important defensive base in southwest China, Jiyang was once a candidate to be the capital of the province.

During wartime, in order to avoid the eyes of some foreign threats, military enterprises had generally moved deeper into the land. They first hollowed out the mountains. Residential areas were built in the valleys, while military factories and other defensive institutions were built inside the mountains. This way, satellites wouldn't be able to capture images of the defensive facilities, and they wouldn't need to fear being bombed.

Every military enterprise had workers numbering in the tens of thousands. Including the family of the workers, they would add up to about 50 thousand people. In Heping Town, 70% of the population were family members and children of the factory workers and miners.

There was no doubt that a special-model long-distance ship was being assembled in the factory in Heping Town. It would be completed soon, no later than 12 o'clock tonight.

The mission they received was to secretly protect this metal transport that would be responsible for saving the lives of at least 50,000 people. Specifically, it was to protect the "brain" of the ship called the Galaxy System which would be transported over from Jiyang City today. Without this system, the special-model long-distance ship would be like a person without a brain, unable to perform its intended job.

Based on the cases that had occurred so far, Party Ace concluded that destroying the Galaxy System was the most convenient and direct way to destroy a replica ark. On the contrary, destroying the hardware of the ark was the most unpleasant method. The design of the ark focused primarily on durability and toughness. The watertight cabins alone numbered more than 400. As powerful as the contestants were, even they would find the ark body hard to deal with! And considering the staggering population of China, they could easily just mobilise a large number of people to repair the physical damages. It would be no big deal to them at all.

Therefore, after Sheyan performed some analysis, they decided to escort the car in secret. They were contestants, and based on the way contestants think, efficiency was of the utmost importance.

The authorities had obviously learned their lesson. This time, the Galaxy System was escorted by armoured vehicles and tanks. The time of departure was also shifted to 9 o'clock in the morning, obviously preparing to force their way through instead of moving in covert. Seeing the grand lineup, Sheyan was also wondering how the other contestants would deal with that.

When the motorcade was about ten kilometers away, something out of the ordinary finally happened. The armoured car moving at the very front suddenly halted for a brief moment, then went mad and crashed into the cliff ahead!

The driver's head was sluggishly tilted far back, as if it had been hit hard by a baseball bat. There was a bloody hole between his eyebrows, and a large amount of red and white liquid gushed out from the back of his head! Not only that, the bullet also carried an area-wide electric interference, so the armoured vehicle was as good as useless now.

The motorcade members were obviously very well-trained, but even so, when the drivers of the three armoured vehicles and tanks at the very front all fell to a single shot to the head - and most crucially, the sniper was still not caught - though no one dared to publicly object, the fact remained that no one was willing to move forward to the front of the formation anymore. They requested for air support, and some even suggested the need for infantry reinforcement.

Sheyan saw all this from a distance. He immediately turned towards Sanzi. After a brief communication with Kulutego, Sanzi confirmed Sheyan's assumption. The opponent indeed had an earth-element ability. That was how he could come and go at will without leaving any traces. Sheyan remained in place, choosing to observe further. He quietly committed the opponents' behavioural patterns and abilities to memory.

Reason for the Nickname: A blue band with the letter F is tied to his head. The band is judged after careful observation to not possess any special properties. There is a 61.4% chance that it is worn to commemorate someone.

It can be deduced from this that F may have experienced something unhappy recently, so he has an increased chance of becoming impulsive, getting irritated easily, and trading injuries in a fight.

Specialty 1: Based on the information available, F's specialty seems to be somewhat unique. He is unlike most other snipers who either have very powerful shots or very long range. He has fired three shots so far, and each shot has only reached its target after bouncing off a surface, like in billiards. This is the fundamental reason why the escort troops is still unable to locate him.

Specialty 2: F's bullets did not bounce off an existing surface, but a transparent barrier he made in the air himself, from range! From this, it can be judged that F's Intelligence is not low.

Specialty 3: F's shooting is very accurate. The three vehicles he shot are a Xiaolong B1 armoured vehicle, a ZTZ99 tank, and a Mengshi Z5 armoured vehicle. The internal structures of the three vehicles are different and so are the positions of the drivers inside, but F managed to hit all three in the head with a single shot.

We can thus infer two possibilities. The first possibility is that F is very familiar with the structure of the three vehicles in service. The second possibility is that F has a high Perceptive Sense and can directly sense the situation inside. According to my analysis, the latter's probability is as high as 87.1%.

Conclusion: F is most probably an alternative type among sniper. His primary attribute is very likely Perceptive Sense or Intelligence instead of Agility or Strength. His M.O. focuses on stealth. Although his offensive power is not that impressive, he probably has many life-saving methods derived from his high Perceptive Sense and Intelligence. To deal with him, explosiveness is a must! We can't give him any chance to catch a breath or run away.

After looking over it carefully, Zi added, "Could F possibly be a mage-type contestant? Maybe he's equipping a sniper rifle with low requirements, and he's making up for his lack of stats in the relevant attributes with his other equipment? This way, he'll have a great advantage in the fight against other mage-type contestants. I know that some of the higher military ranks have the privileges to ignore equipping requirements."

Reef also added, "It's possible. After all, magic spells that have comparable range to sniper rifles are extremely rare. Mage-type contestants are known for their fragile bodies. If they're hit by a sniper bullet before the fight has even started, they'd immediately lose the upper hand. If they're hit twice, it'll be really difficult for them to win anymore. Zi's theory makes sense."

Sanzi said very earnestly, "The three vehicles just now were shot when they were moving forward. Although they weren't moving very fast, they still maintained a speed of about 60 kilometers per hour. However, after they were shot, each one of them was actually pushed back a couple of meters from the impact."

After Sanzi had signed a soul pact with Kulutego, he could also sense the earth in a special way. Therefore, what he told them now was not something that he observed with the naked eye, but what the ground "told" him.

Sheyan immediately gave Sanzi an appreciative look. Seeing that, Sanzi was encouraged. He continued with more confidence, "So I think the sniper rifle's power likely exceeds our expectations. It can even push tanks and armoured vehicles moving at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour back by a few meters with a single shot. This kind of firepower is already comparable to a direct hit from a cannon!"

The rest of Party Ace instantly checked the crime scene again. They found that it was indeed so. The seemingly weak headshots had actually forced all three vehicles back by several meters, leaving deep tire marks on the ground. It was evident from this how much power the bullets carried.

"If that's the case...." Sheyan's eyes narrowed. "Then this guy might be a very tough opponent, maybe even a dual-attribute specialist. His high Perceptive Sense makes it difficult for us to approach him unnoticed, while his long attack range and strong attack power means that he'll have many ways to escape."

Sheyan turned to Old Charlie. "To tell you the truth, Freddy has given me a huge surprise. From how tough the Sphinx was, it stands to reason that Old Zandala shouldn't have been so easy to deal with, yet he had perished so easily to Freddy. That makes me look forward to his performance even more. I really want to know what his limits are, so that I can lay out better plans in the future. Can you try and see if you can kill this contestant?"

"Two, the contestant's mind can't be too clear. For example, if the contestant is in a drowsy state, the success rate will certainly be higher than if he's in a focused state. If he's suffered a heavy knock to the head, the success rate will certainly be higher than if he hasn't."

"Three, the contestant must not consciously guard against or resist the attack. This is the most important point. As soon as the opponent realise that it's a dream attack, the success rate will become extremely low."

Sheyan nodded. "That's not a problem, just try your best. I've realised that the Galaxy System this convoy is escorting might not be real. The troops look to me like they're just stalling for time. Have you guys noticed? Normally, the vehicle transporting the Galaxy System is placed at the very center of the formation, but the model of the center vehicle in this convoy is rather old and outdated."

"But more importantly, the surrounding vehicles aren't tightly protecting it. After the convoy was attacked, instead of shrinking the perimeter to tighten up the defence, the surrounding vehicles actually spread even further to look for the sniper. It almost seems like they're deliberately exposing the center vehicle. But the enemies appear to be much better informed than us; they've obviously split up and moved separately. Some of them must be intercepting the other routes. Well, let's begin then."

When he fired a shot, the bullet would fly out and bounce off an MP barrier hundreds of meters in front of the convoy. The barrier would accelerate the bullet and increase its power. That created the illusion that the sniper was ahead of the convoy. Most of the search effort was wasted in the area ahead, which was of course in vain.

The river flowed slowly, and it was murky. At least half of the water was actually mud. Even the nearby aquatic plants had a layer of mud on them. Gullis was hiding beneath the roots of a reed. An invisible shield around him pushed the water away from his body. The sniper rifle in his hands looked a little big, but that was because a plethora of enhancement items were equipped on the gun barrel. If these enhancement items were removed, the sniper rifle would actually look quite small.

"Looks like the convoy I'm attacking is a decoy," Gullis also discovered the flaws Sheyan had noticed. When he realised this, his focus instantly slackened. For him, his job was already complete. It must be known that every time he fired a shot, the cost was as high as 14,000 utility points!

It was not just the cost of the bullet. The main thing was the MP barrier which could increase the bullet's power when the bullet bounced off of it -- it required a casting material! And the casting material was a type of unknown mysterious item!

Although these unknown mysterious items could only be traded in for one achievement point each, they were still unknown mysterious items after all. The cheapest cut cake was still worth more than the most expensive cake. Therefore, Gullis no longer intended to burn away his money by firing any more shots.

The area 500 meters around him was actually covered in a biological electric network, with every living plant acting as a node of the biogrid. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to sneak up on him.

Since he was sure that he would only be a bystander after this and that his safety was guaranteed, Gullis immediately slackened off and yawned. Yes, it was perfectly normal that he would yawn. In the last few days, Gullis' party had worked non-stop and utilised their advantage as the early birds to destroy eleven special-model long-distance ships one after another. In the most tiring battle among them, Gullis had stayed in the same spot for seven hours before he destroyed the target with a single shot!

Such accomplishments had pushed their party to the very top of the scoreboard, leading the second placed party by more than 500 points. It was no wonder that he was getting tired.

"I definitely have to take a rest after meeting up with the others," Gullis couldn't help yawning again. He felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier. "Maybe I can take a short nap now? These ordinary people will never find me anyway. Even if they do, the magic traps I laid down will alert me. Hmm....**zzzzzzz**."

Gullis did not notice that a mysterious, vicious face had suddenly formed within the water that was constantly flowing around his body. The mouth on the face curled into a huge grin. The face moved swiftly towards the invisible protective shield surrounding Gullis and disappeared into it!

The thing that was amiss was the sensation on his other hand! The soft, delicate, elastic feeling was the sensation of pressing down on the coarse, dry sand of a desert!

Gullis lifted his head abruptly and saw that the sun had already set in the distant horizon, but the clouds were still burning red. A rare gentle desert wind blew upon his face. There was nothing but uneven sand dunes as far as his eyes could see, their soft contours extending to the horizon.

"What the hell? Wasn't I hiding in a river to ambush a convoy a moment ago?" Such a thought startled Gullis, and the distant sand dunes seemed to turn blurry, blown by a strong wind, at his moment of shock.

Bean Curd was a fellow who looked like Jake Gyllenhaal, the leading actor of Brokeback Mountain. His eyes were deep, with a trace of melancholy in them. In comparison, Gulis, with his thick stubble, looked much more manly.

When Gullis heard this, his eyes instantly turned wet. He remembered vividly that when their party was destroyed, his beloved Bean Curd had fulfilled his promise to protect Gullis with his own life. He died blocking an attack for Gullis, turning into ashes before Gullis' eyes.

Gullis willingly believed that all this was real on a subconscious level. He wanted it to be real. His greatest motivation to keep on living was to bring Bean Curd back to life.

He shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Maybe I was under too much pressure. I had a dream; I dreamed that our party was wiped out. Those of us who remained struggled bitterly afterwards. We decided to bet everything on this one mission, hoping to rebuild the team. I also performed a failed ambush. Damn. That dream felt so real."

What those two experienced next were exactly the same as in Gullis' "dream". They were constantly being attacked and pursued. However, because Gullis had seen all of it happen before, he could predict what was going to happen and make corresponding adjustments like he had read the walkthrough. Therefore, despite their struggle, they still managed to reach the place where Bean Curd had died in Gullis' "dream".

This time, Gullis did not make a mistake. He lurked in the sands, and by utilising his ability which allowed him to come and go like a ghost, he managed to put on an extraordinary performance, killing in succession the three people he hated the most in the Glory Party!

He could not stop himself from breaking into a wild laughter. In his previous "dream", these three people had tortured Gullis like cats toying with a mouse, They would force him into one hopeless situation after another before letting him barely escape alive. Now that those three were dead, even the desert wind felt fresh to Gullis.

But at that very moment, Gullis suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right foot that was buried in the sand, as if it had suddenly been gripped by a metallic hook! A strong force pulled him down into the sand!

The edge of the metallic hook was hard and sharp, easily cutting into Gullis' flesh and grating against his bones! He could even feel his bone marrow gushing out of the wound together with his blood!

Gullis screamed in pain and immediately triggered a magic trap to teleport himself away. However, the man who was attacking him had actually teleported after him. Now that Gullis looked more carefully, he realised that the man was the ferocious assassin who had just joined the Glory Party, Illidan!

Not only was his name the same as a certain person's, his weapon was amazingly similar too! The edge of the blade was as sharp as a dagger, and the arching design enabled it to hook onto the weapons and even the limbs of others! For example, Gullis' right foot!

Illidan mercilessly pulled at the blade hard, and the bottom part of Gullis' right foot went flying. Illidan disappeared from Gullis' view after that. Before Gullis could even react, he was already hit hard on the back of his head by something which felt like a hammer. His vision turned unsteady and his ears buzzed. The unspeakable pain paralysed him.

Then, a long trail of slashing light flashed past. The front part of Gullis' body was completely cut open. His innards spilled out. Gullis screamed as he fell to the ground. But while he was falling, he saw Illidan's body stiffen from the corner of his eyes. Bean Curd, covered in blood, was standing breathlessly in the distance. His magic staff had traced the runes for the 'Mega Blast' spell in the air. The spell was ready to be launched, but he was hesitating because the spell's destructive power would hurt Gullis too.

The opportunity allowed Illidan to place his blade on Gullis' neck. He yelled while half kneeling beside Gullis, "Finish the spell if you dare! This spell will hurt your allies too! I'm prepared to die with your friend!"

Bean Curd's face turned red from anger. The spell was about to be completed. If he kept delaying it, it would soon reach the limit and rebound back on him, making him suffer a terrible backlash! If that were to happen, not only would he fail to kill Illidan, Illidan could easily kill the both of them!!

At that moment, all Gullis could think of was the pain of losing Bean Curd in his previous "dream". He recalled vividly how Bean Curd had sacrificed himself to safe him without the slightest bit of hesitation. Gullis immediately hugged Illidan tight and screamed, "Cast it!"

In truth, if Gullis could keep a clear head at that moment, he would have realised that a mage like him without any Strength-boosting abilities could never have locked an Agility-type contestant like Illidan down. Unfortunately, his heart was currently filled with the sacred feeling of overbearing righteousness and sacrifice, so he failed to notice these details. He kept shouting at the top of his voice.

In the end, Bean Curd had no choice but to release his 'Mega Blast' spell. A burst of light as bright as the sun itself completely engulfed Gullis and Illidan. Gullis' mouth curled into a relieved smile....and his heart stopped beating.

Many have probably heard the story of the blindfolded prisoner who was told that he would be bled to death, but was instead frightened to death by the sound of dripping water.

Contestants may possess extraordinary tenacity and strength, but their heart and willpower were not necessarily that much stronger than those of ordinary people. At the instant when Gullis believed that he was dying in the hands of his beloved Bean Curd, Freddy had raised his steel claws and pierced them into Gullis' heart with a strange laugh. Although at that moment, Gullis could scream, or struggle, or resist, or take medication, he did none of those because he truly believed that he was dead!

Old Charlie opened his eyes. Inside his pupils were the illusionary figures of Freddy, who was laughing and chewing at a bleeding heart. But the illusionary figures soon subsided.

Old Charlie turned to Sheyan and reported, "The opponents received a piece of information after their party was destroyed. The information made them decide to enter the world of 2012 to make a final gamble. There are only three people left in this party. The one who destroyed their party was Zeus' Glory Party."

Zi's countenance changed upon hearing Glory Party's name. Old Charlie closed his eyes for a while to gather his focus, then said, "Master, Freddy's increase in power has already garnered the attention of the Realms, so we didn't get achievement points from killing this guy named Gullis, only a randomly selected item."

Sheyan nodded. Old Charlie took out a bag. When they opened the bag, they surprisingly found a total of 13 unknown mysterious items inside. All of them were a kind of unknown mysterious items with a shocking origin called the 'Smelly Toruk Particles'.

It turned out that Gullis' party had a member who was a botanist like Dardanian. When their party entered the world of Avatar, the botanist had planted his own genetically modified plant on the ground during a fight.

The plant escaped the fate of being destroyed in the fight. Not only that, it even mutated after adapting to the changes in the environment of planet Avatar. It began to blossom and bear fruits. The fruits of this plant actually attracted the tier 9 Great Leonopteryxes, and they became addicted to it. The fruits of the plant were similar to oranges in that they had rich flesh and hard seeds. Hence, their seeds were often not digested and would be excreted from the digestive system of the Great Leonopteryxes inside the dung.

The 'Smelly Toruk Particles' were the seeds found in the Great Leonopteryxes' dung. Gullis' sniper shots were so powerful precisely because he was using these unknown mysterious items as bullets.

Because these unknown mysterious items were not difficult to obtain, they were the cheapest kind of unknown mysterious items and could only be traded in for achievement points at a 1:1 ratio.

The 'Smelly Toruk Particles' were disgusting in both appearance and smell, but Zi was actually quite indifferent to them. This probably had something to do with the fact that one of her favourite types of coffee was made by grinding undigested coffee beans picked from the excrement of wild civets, which was a somewhat similar process.

Sheyan meticulously inquired about the whole process of Freddy's murder as observed by Old Charlie, down to the last detail. He found that this attack method was perfect to ambush someone. It truly was sinister and vicious to the extreme, a typical example of winning without shedding a drop of blood.

But according to Old Charlie, after Freddy had killed the contestant, he instantly claimed that he must take some time to immerse himself in the pleasure of this unprecedented way of killing someone, and dove into the depths of Old Charlie's consciousness. The whole process had probably exhausted a great deal of his energy.

From the information Freddy got from this guy named Gullis, the military had an alternative plan to transport the Galaxy System through the air by using an Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon helicopter. The theory behind it was to make use of the huge commotion made by the large convoy on the ground to attract the focus of the enemies, thus making the aerial route safer. Of the two other members of Gullis' party, one of them must be preparing to intercept the helicopter right now, while the other should be gathering more intelligence in case there was another transportation route.

Human could not fly without the help of machines, so if the person wished to intercept the helicopter, he would surely have to lie in wait at a high terrain not far from the landing spot.

Therefore, even without knowing the specific location, Party Ace still easily managed to narrow down the possible hiding spot of the enemy to three places around Heping Town from the map. No matter where the helicopter came from, it would be within the shooting range of these three high grounds.

"Incidents of social unrest, including looting and burning, have occurred in various areas around the world due to widespread rumors of the 2012 apocalypse based on Mayan predictions. A large-scale terrorist attack had taken place in Detroit, the famous automobile city in the United States. An explosion had occurred in a high-rise building, causing its collapse. Heavy casualties have been reported, but we are yet able to confirm the actual numbers. Many on scene have claimed to witness supernatural incidents which cannot be explained with science. Please stay tuned to our follow-up reports for further details."

"Detroit?" The mention of the city immediately drawn the attention of Sheyan. After all, that was where they had obtained the powerful Lieutenant General Blood Sword: Evil Sword Apophis. Unfortunately, the news did not provide any images, but there was a laptop in the car they stole, so they instantly browsed the internet for more information.

This incident was obviously big news in the States, so many details had been posted in various online forums. Sheyan found a picture which showed the building before and after it collapsed. Sheyan recognised the collapsed building at first glance -- it was a building from the place where they killed the Divine Servant. A horrifying hemispherical hole was clearly visible a bit towards the bottom from the middle of the building. Even with the naked eye, they could tell that it burrowed into the building at least 20 meters deep, and had around the same radius.

Broken steel bars, wood and other materials which made up the interior of the building scattered like horrible broken guts in the corroded hole. From the picture, they could almost feel the dust of the rubble billowing in the wind!

According to physics, the building should have collapsed in the direction where the hole was made, but strangely, it fell the opposite way! It fell on its back, so the huge wound in its abdomen was still visible after it collapsed. This showed that when the unknown and mysterious power eroded into the building, it also carried with it a great force which pushed the building backwards, causing its collapse.

"Oh my God, this building hasn't been built for more than five years! How did the steel frame inside corrode like it had been submerged in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for a hundred years? This must be the result of a corruption in the construction!"

Sheyan looked through several online forums. All the pictures were quite similar, but he did find an interesting photo from a Taiwanese website. It was a photo taken from a skyscraper next to the collapsed building. From the bird's eye view, it could be seen that although the collapsed building was indeed the most seriously wrecked, several buildings around it had also suffered severe damages and were emitting thick smoke.

Sheyan's eyes brightened. He immediately enlarged the photo and inspected it for some time. It was fortunate that the photo had pretty high resolution. He found a basin-sized hole on the glass curtain wall of a building nearby. The hole was neatly cut, and what was bizarre was that it completely penetrated through the building, so Sheyan could even see the scenery on the other side! This means that there was a strike powerful enough to penetrate through the entire thickness of the building!

Following Zi's remark, Sheyan immediately noticed that the edge of the hole was like wax that had melted and re-solidified! The re-solidified traces seemed like they were splashing outwards, so one could imagine the power at the moment of penetration!

"Rocky had actually killed some people before we found him that day. He hid the traces well, but I still noticed them. Wherever his Gungnir pierced through, this kind of traces could be seen," Zi added.

Following that, Sheyan continued searching for various images and information on the "terrorist attack". According to the rough calculation they made, they estimated that Rocky had attacked thirteen times in total!

Sheyan could now roughly guess what had happened. After the Divine Servant was killed, Bind had teleported over in a rage. However, to teleport in that condition probably made him very conspicuous. Rocky had likely noticed him and arrived in pursuit.

When Rocky found out that Bind had lost the Evil Sword Apophis, he instantly took the initiative to attack. A fierce fight broke out between the two monsters, causing collateral damage to the citizens and buildings around them....

"Rocky's Gungnir was built to finish the opponent with one strike. Even the gods tremble under its majesty. An attack from the Gungnir is like an emperor's edict; if the emperor wants you to die, you will not live! But in this fight, Rocky had thrown the spear more than a dozen times! He was definitely in panic! Think about it; if an emperor can't even get something done after passing down more than a dozen edicts in a row, it's basically the end for the emperor. What dignity does he have left to speak of?" Sheyan earnestly replied.

Sheyan nodded. "You're probably right, so we wouldn't need to worry about being attacked by these two for the next two or three days. The injuries from a fight of this magnitude won't recover that fast."

The car stopped with a jolt. Heping Town was not far ahead. Since they did not have to worry about the threat from Bind and Rocky, they decided to split into two groups to search two of the possible hiding spots simultaneously.

Sheyan went with Sanzi to the protruding spot on the west side of the hill. The rest went to the cove on the east side. If they could not find anything on either side, they would approach the middle at the same time.

A hundred meters away from the spot to the west, Sheyan suddenly detected a strong sense of danger. He instantly stopped and raised his head. From over a hundred meters ahead, he saw a middle-aged man in yellow clothes looking down at them.

His face was bluish and pale, like he was malnourished. A silvery-white box was placed next to him. The middle-aged man stared at Sheyan with a gaze so fierce that it felt like it could pierce into a person. He uttered viciously, one word at a time, "You'll definitely die here."

As soon as the middle-aged man said that, Sheyan instantly had a very uncomfortable feeling. His heart rate spiked to 180 bpm in an instant, then dropped down to 5-6 bpm a few seconds later! The cycle was so uncomfortable that it almost made him puke blood!

The middle-aged man's right hand reached into the silvery-white box, and the box suddenly began to rotate and fold like a Rubik's Cube. It transformed at an extraordinary speed into a dangerous-looking silvery-white machine gun!!

[ You have suffered a 'Deadly Blood Curse'. The rhythm of your heartbeat is now under the control of your opponent, and your blood flow rate will constantly change. Every time your heartbeat rhythm changes, you will suffer a heavy blow -- your HP will drop by 200 points and there will be a 50% chance of falling into a stunned state. ]

[ Your body is being eroded by your opponent's 'Dante: Corrosive Force'. Your defence has dropped by 5%... This effect is stacking, and it will stack up to a maximum of 75%! ]

[ Your body is being eroded by your opponent's 'Kratos: Rage'. Your chances of receiving an explosive strike have increased by 3%... This effect is stacking, and it will stack up to a maximum of 50%! ]

Following these notifications, Sheyan's field of view was completely filled with a bright white light, while his body was stinging like he was being dipped in boiling water!

The bullets from the silvery machine gun in the middle-aged man's hands spread out into a large net of light and came flying over. Sanzi was right behind Sheyan. He could not, and would not, retreat by a single step.

A fierce growl burst out from his throat as he charged forward while enduring the opponent's attacks. His exceptional momentum was akin to a speedboat charging up against a waterfall at an unparalleled speed, striving to break through the clouds!

The enemy Sheyan was facing was, of course, the temporary leader of the party that was damaged by the Glory Party, Dark Sky. Dark Sky was one of the pillars of the team, holding a similar amount of prestige to Zi in Party Ace!

Facing Sheyan's charge, his pupils shrunk slightly despite himself. Even MTs had to stop to defend themselves against this ferocious attack of his. Dark Sky had never met a crazy guy like Sheyan who dared to brave this attack in order to rush at himself, as if he did not care about his own life!

Sheyan was already halfway to Dark Sky in the blink of an eye. He had forcefully endured most of the shots from the machine gun transformed from Dark Sky equipment, 'Mr. Florence', while some of them he had blocked or had bounced away. The shots made little white glows in the air like fireworks. It was very beautiful.

Blocks started appearing from the surface of the machine gun like a Rubik's Cube. They rapidly rotated and rearranged themselves into a silvery-white shoulder-mounted grenade launcher. With a loud boom, more than ten silver glowing projectiles shot out of it, neatly covering the area 40 meters ahead in a carpet bombing!

This attack was no doubt the nightmare of all assassin-type contestants! No matter how fast you were or how quickly you could dodge, against an area-wide carpet bombing like this, you could only pay with your HP!

More than ten astonishingly huge clouds of smoke over 20 meters high rose on this side of the hill in an instant, the craters they made exceeding 10 meters in diameter. The place looked like it had been simultaneously bombed by several Katyusha rocket launchers. Such a wide attack range was truly shocking!

But Dark Sky did not feel any joy at all from hitting the enemy, because he could sense that not only had the attack been unable to seriously injure the opponent, it had angered him!

But a man who had fought hundreds of battles like him had faced much worse than this. He immediately rested both his hands on that powerful equipment of his, 'Mr. Florence'.

Blue veins appeared from the fingertips on both of his hands to drill deep into the equipment like slithering snakes! 'Mr. Florence', which had transformed into a multi-barrel grenade launcher, once again rapidly shapeshifted like a Rubik's Cube. This time, it transformed into a shield with a diameter of about three meters shaped like a radar dish, continuously flashing a silvery-white light. The shield protected Dark Sky behind it.

Usually, a shield would have a convex structure, curving outwards, but the radar dish shield formed by 'Mr. Florence' had a concave structure, curving inwards. If one were to inspect its surface carefully, one would see various mysterious patterns and abstract text on it.

The silvery-white umbrella shield had a futuristic look of high-end technology, while the patterns on its surface were full of a primitive, barbaric and awe-inspiring feel akin to the paintings left by cavemen thousands of years ago. The combination of the two contrasting styles gave rise to an indescribable feeling of majesty and mystery. And the closer one got to the dish-shaped shield, the stronger one could feel the tremendous pulling force from the shield, as if it was inviting others to hit it!

When he reached the shield, he clenched his fist, bent his elbow and gathered his strength.... The dark green light on his fist condensed into a glow so strong that it could dazzle one's eyes!!

The silver shield gave out a low hum in protest. As if triggered by Sheyan's punch, the mysterious patterns and text on the shield surface shined with a biting light one after another. The light immediately formed a mirror image and bounced back with tremendous force! This hastily formed radar-dish shield actually had a 100% counter-damage special effect!!

"So that's the trick. But do you really think it'll work against me?" Sheyan uttered a long and loud cry, and his entire body suddenly shined with a transparent layer of light wave.

The mysterious patterns and text on the surface of the silver shield shined even brighter, as if they were trying to replicate the power of 'Extinction'. But! The price of doing so was to burn like they had short-circuited, and finally turning into ashes!

Sheyan's punch took this opportunity to drive straight into the shield and broke its surface. The shattered fragments sprayed outwards like erupting fireworks. Grass that was cut by the fragments burned, and when the fragments skimmed over the rock nearby, they left long and dazzling lines of sparks! From this, one could tell how much power had been packed into this punch!

It was a punch at the peak of Sheyan's power. Dense fractures appeared on Dark Sky's shoulder blade and arm bones, then spread outside to his flesh. His right arm burst into a bloody mist!

Dark Sky's equipment, 'Mr. Florence', let out a sorrowful cry like the grating of a chainsaw on a steel plate. It had probably absorbed a portion of the destructive power for Dark Sky. It returned to the form of a silvery-white box, but the box now had a large amount of cracks on its surface!

Sheyan had not been able to do anything but take hits for over ten seconds previously, being shot at and bombarded at, but he paid it all back and more with this one single punch! He instantly felt much better.

But right when Sheyan wished to follow up with a kick, his vision suddenly turned dark, as if his whole body had been enclosed in something. After looking more carefully, he found that he was being surrounded by stone walls. It did not take him long to realise that it was Sanzi trying to help him, so he remained motionless. Almost immediately, he felt a series of explosions coming from the outside, as if the earth itself was falling apart. Even behind the protection, Sheyan was subjected to some heavy impact.

When the explosions stopped, Sheyan found that he was standing in the middle of a huge mudstone ball. Of course, the object was in tatters by now, and had moved him over fifty meters away from the place where he fought with Dark Sky.

It turned out that Dark Sky had a teleporting ability somewhat similar to Aldaris' 'Blood Elude'. As soon as Sheyan struck Dark Sky, Dark Sky had instantly triggered the bombs he had planted on the hill beforehand, and teleported away. But of course, Sanzi and Kulutego would not let him have his way. They used the power of the teenage cyclops to create a huge mudstone ball around Sheyan, which immediately rolled down the hill. The more intense the explosions, the further the mudstone ball was pushed from the center of the explosion radius.

Dark Sky had teleported to the top of another hill. He gasped for breath with a strong feeling of unwillingness in his heart, and some unspeakable fears! That punch of Sheyan's was truly earth-shattering. The defensive ability Dark Sky had always been so proud of easily crumbled like a piece of paper with a single punch!

What's more terrifying was that Dark Sky's party knew that this was their last chance and that they would perish if they failed, so they had bought a large amount of precious medicines with everything they had. Among them were naturally medicines to regrow broken limbs. But after Dark Sky took the medicine, the remnant power of 'Extinction' left on his shoulder immediately let him understand what brutality, tyranny and shamelessness means! The merciless glow of 'Extinction' flashed again, smashing the new limb that had just grown out of Dark Sky into dust!

People often fear the unknown. That was why a lot of big, muscular men were terrified of ghosts and other supernatural things. To Dark Sky, Sheyan's 'Extinction' ability was something completely unknown to him, so he naturally felt lost and afraid.

Dark Sky soon realised that, although most people would have already given up on him after he teleported to the top of another hill, but the opponents he was facing this time were rapidly approaching him again. More terrifying was the fact that all the mounds and stones blocking their way would bizarrely shift to the side, while some shallow ravines would fill themselves up! Those people were thus dashing towards him in a straight line!

Not having to move around obstacles may only win them a fraction of a second each time, but when dozens of those fractions of a second added up, they would save minutes.

Seeing the enemies who were closing in on him like predatory beasts, Dark Sky completely lost his previous determination and his will to continue fighting. He said dejectedly while gasping, "Let's run first, Florence...."

The silver metal box beside him was already covered in cracks like a tortoise shell. A silver light was constantly surging on it, trying to repair the cracks, but every time the self-repair was about to complete, a fierce flash of light would always appear and re-damage the box!

A few different expressions could be seen rapidly cycling through Dark Sky's face. Suddenly, he opened his mouth wide, then stuffed his only remaining little finger inside and bit down hard. Blood splashed, and his face turned even paler. He only had one hand remaining, and doing this took a lot of effort. He started sweating due to the pain.

Dark Sky spat out his little finger. It suspended halfway in the air. Then, the finger broke down into orderly lines of little blocks like a Rubik's Cube too. The little blocks rotated rapidly and the finger soon turned into a strange-looking crimson bug that had a row of eyes on both sides of its body. It floated in the air like a fish swimming in water. It swiftly "swam" away and disappeared into the distance, seemingly carrying a message for the last remaining member of Dark Sky's party.

At this time, blocks appeared on the silvery-white metal box again. The blocks rotated and the box transformed into a pair of glider-like silver wings. However, the cracks caused by 'Extinction' were still clearly visible on them.

Dark Sky quickly put on the gliders and turned back to look at Sheyan with a deep gaze. Sheyan was still more than a hundred meters away. When he saw what Dark Sky was doing, he could not help muttering to himself, "You dare fly here?"

Sheyan's doubt was not without reason. Since the replica arks had been continuously destroyed, the authorities were naturally in a panic. They had surely mobilised all military forces to all the assembly sites. The fight between Sheyan and Dark Sky just now was not quiet at all, so it should have alarmed the nearby army. If Dark Sky dared to glide in the sky right now, he might very well become an easy shooting target!

Sheyan sighed helplessly as he watched Dark Sky glide towards the ridge nearby. But at that moment, from Heping Town below, the tile roof of what looked like a common residential house suddenly slid to both sides, and a rotating multi-barrel missile launcher appeared from within.

Dark Sky was prepared for something like this happening. He never intended to fly far, only far enough to be out of Sheyan's reach. He had already calculated the required distance very accurately, which was a little more than two kilometers. With his gliding speed after putting on the wings formed by Florence, even with the damages on them, it would only take him 18.7 seconds to cover this distance!

The multi-barrel launcher instantly fired a missile directed at Dark Sky. It dragged a long trail of white smoke behind it, so the missile gave off the illusion that it was flying very slowly, but in fact, it was surprisingly fast.

But Dark Sky performed a clever maneuver in the air, and the missile rubbed past him. It landed on a mountain nearby and exploded with a low but deafening boom, stirring up dust and smoke dozens of meters high!

Dark Sky smugly flipped Sheyan a middle finger, because after escaping this missile, the path to survival now lay unobstructed in front of him. However...when Dark Sky was flying towards the opposite hillside, twenty more tile roofs slid open, and the same kind of multi-barrel missile launcher extended out from each of them. Every multi-barrel missile launcher could accommodate six Red Arrow VII air-to-air guided missiles!!

"Oh hell...." This was the last thought that flashed through Dark Sky's mind. 120 missiles, all aiming for him. Even if he was on the ground, he would still be swept away by the terrifying destructive force and be reduced to ashes! Even Sheyan could not survive an attack of this magnitude.

The pale blue smoke from the explosion slowly dispersed. Some debris rustled down. Sheyan sighed. He saw that some soldiers were already rushing to the scene silently, so he quickly left together with Sanzi.

The party had already joined up by now and had come to a local five-star hotel. Sheyan was lying on the sofa with a bitter smile on his face. The object on the coffee table were the pair of dark green gloves -- the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves'.

This pair of gloves which had seen its fair share of action recently, was rough and thick in appearance. They had the simple, direct style of mining gloves, yet the dark green glow on them was like the finishing touch of a decoration, so the clash of the two styles gave it a unique look that was not unattractive. Moreover, they were now streaked in black and red stripes thanks to the liquid metal life-form, which gave the gloves a fiercer vibe.

Reef, Sanzi and Sheyan looked at each other for a moment. Sheyan then smiled bitterly as he replied, "I don't know either. I'm not sure what's going on. I found the scar about half an hour ago. What baffles me is that the Realm assessed the gloves but couldn't find any problems with them at all. The result says everything's completely normal."

Having inspected the gloves carefully for a while, Old Charlie suddenly said while appearing deep in thought, "If I'm guessing correctly, master, then it should be an effect of the law of time entropy."

"Time entropy? The poison of time in the legends?" Sheyan's voice abruptly turned hoarse. "How could this be? And why does time entropy have an effect on my equipment?"

"In the legends, time is a poisonous thing. The poison of time is slow, resolute, irresistible and has no cure. All matters will be corroded by the poison of time and will eventually disappear, and that's where the theory of time entropy originated from. As for why its effect appears on the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves'....that's not too hard to explain. It should be because of 'Extinction'," explained Old Charlie slowly.

Having heard Old Charlie's opinion, Sheyan murmured, "You mean....the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' can't withstand the attached power of 'Extinction'?"

"Correct," replied Old Charlie. "According to my inference, it might be because 'Extinction' is an ability that only Legendary equipment would have, and even Legendary equipment have very low probability of acquiring this ability. But, we successfully transferred 'Extinction' to the dark green grade equipment, 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves', through the liquid metal life-form G-spot."

"This is a violation of the rules of the Realm. It's akin to a truck that only has a carrying capacity of three tons being forcibly loaded with ten tons of cargo! Even if it can forcibly move, the lifespan of the truck will still rapidly decline due to wear and tear."

"Things that have defects but are deemed perfectly normal are actually very common. The examples are everywhere around us. I think you're just confused because you're too concerned," Old Charlie said. "For example, if an amputee has been living healthily for a year after being discharged from the hospital, wouldn't you say that his physical condition is perfectly fine?"

"Probably so." answered Old Charlie earnestly. "I'm guessing that even the weapon soul of a legendary weapon could barely meet the requirements to control a high-level ability like 'Extinction'. There might even be great restrictions, such as a limit in the number of times it can be used in one world. When the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove', being only dark green in grade, forcibly bore the burden of the power, it must have been punished by the law of time entropy and received heavy damage."

Old Charlie took a moment to inspect the gloves again before he replied, "If the soul of the other glove is considered a teenager, then the soul of the glove with the 'Extinction' ability has become an old man of at least 60 years old."

Sheyan's eyebrows were furrowed tight. He was extremely concerned. If he used the 'Extinction' ability again, one of the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' might be completely scrapped. The gloves may very well turn from a set into an individual piece!

But Party Ace were still in a dangerous situation; they were far from being able to relax yet. Their biggest threats were undoubtedly Rocky and Bind. Although those two had just had a serious confrontation, they would definitely recover from their injuries and return again!

And don't forget about the other contestants who had ambushed Party Ace in New York. Half of them were still in this world! Sheyan dared not guarantee that he would not be forced to use 'Extinction' again in the remainder of their stay in this world.

But Sheyan could only produce a wry smile. "West is powerful only because of its strong properties. In essence, it's still only a dark blue weapon! Sherlock....er, I mean, Old Charlie, what do you think will happen if I attach 'Extinction' to a dark blue weapon?"

"If you perform one slash with 'Extinction', before 'Extinction' can even take effect, the weapon will have already been reduced to dust," replied Old Charlie flatly, "The soul of this weapon is still in its infancy. There's no way it can support the enormous consumption of 'Extinction'."

It was now clear that Sheyan could not afford to use the power of 'Extinction' if he had no legendary equipment, because the price was simply too heavy. It required him to sacrifice the soul inside his equipment! Once an equipment lost its soul, even if it was not destroyed, it would surely go down a few grades....

Over the next few days, as they investigated the whereabouts of the Asian cultural works of art, they also went around the country according to the directions given by their Nightmare Imprints to stop the other contestants from wrecking the other special-model long-distance ships.

They had fought close to ten battles during this period and had even encountered a collaborative attack from two parties in one of those battles. That particular fight was truly intense. In the end, they had only won after the MT duo of Sheyan and Reef managed to take down the two opposing MTs and collapsed their formation. However, Party Ace was already exhausted by then and had no more strength to pursue them, so they missed the opportunity to wipe them out.

They returned to the hotel they were temporarily staying in to take a rest. Before long, they heard someone knocking on the door. They could hear from the strength in the knocks that it was not the humble knock of a hotel staff.

Although there was only one person knocking on the door, they could sense that there was a group of people behind him. Sheyan stood up, looked around at the others, and then opened the door.

Sheyan was somewhat surprised to see the man standing behind the door, because he had seen that face on TV and newspapers more than once. He was a rising star in the country's military known for his opportunistic and unyielding attitude. In Sheyan's world, he had made a name for himself by solving some territorial disputes at the border.

Sheyan let him into the room. Only six of the people behind Mr. G followed him in, but even so, the rather spacious room still became quite packed. Mr. G frowned and told the people behind him, "Kang, you stay. The rest will wait outside! If these four want to hurt me, even 60 of you won't be enough to stop them."

Mr. G liked to be approachable and to make people feel comfortable when they spoke to him. Sheyan had no idea what this famous person wanted from himself, so he asked, "I'm just an ordinary guy, Mr. G. What business does a busy person like you have with me?"

"Behavioural Patterns: Has appeared with his companions in the vicinity of various Project S sites after entering the country. A fierce fight will always occur after their appearance. Their opponents are all people with supernatural powers like them. Only one special-model long-distance ship has been destroyed in sites where Seaman and his companions were present. Their success rate in stopping the destruction of Project S by people with supernatural powers is as high as 89%."

Mr. G stood up and said very seriously, "On the brink of the apocalypse, our country has noticed the appearances of many people with supernatural powers, but because we have to devote all our resources to the construction of special-model long-distance ships, we had no time to deal with them. They had truly put us on our back foot as a result. Whatever your purpose is, Mr. Seaman, your actions have saved at least hundreds of thousands of lives. Therefore, on behalf of my country, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!"

Sheyan just smiled. "There's no need for thanks. I'm Chinese too, and since I have to come here on a mission, I don't mind helping out a little. But forgive me, I can't disclose any more information than that."

"My mission is to collect these precious treasures and protect them from being damaged in the apocalypse. Once the apocalypse is over, I'll definitely return them safe and sound."

Mr. G frowned when he looked through the list. He then made several phone calls. After that, he said decisively, "Mr. Seaman, the three national treasures of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", "Ghost Valley Downhill" and "Heirloom Seal of the Realm" on this list are currently in the hands of the Chinese government. I can't guarantee that I'll definitely get them for you, but it shouldn't be a big problem. However, the authentic "Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion" is in the hands of the Taiwanese government, so the most we can do is provide you with its specific location. The "Ramayana Engraving" is India's national treasure and I haven't received any reply yet, but I believe providing you with its specific location shouldn't be a problem."

Mr. G had watched videos of Party Ace's fights. He knew that if they decided to take those treasures by force, the country would certainly have to pay a heavy price. Besides, Party Ace had shown their goodwill as soon as they came. He would rather bet on Sheyan's promise to return the artifacts after all this was over.

To put it bluntly, most people who would wish to lay their hands on these national treasures were doing so for the sake of money. But what use was money in the apocalypse? Moreover, Party Ace had supernatural powers. If they really wanted to earn money, they had thousands of ways more convenient than swindling national treasures. Why would they choose such a difficult method?

"Mr. Seaman, our government is actually still troubled by one big problem. If this problem is solved, it would help more people than protecting a hundred replica arks."

"The Americans aren't actually the first to accurately detect the arrival of the 2012 apocalypse. We've already received news of it during the Y2K phenomenon in 1999. Several of the major national projects after that were all designed to pave the way for the 2012 apocalypse, such as one of the so-called "Four Great Projects of China in the New Century"....the Qinghai-Tibet Railway."

Mr. G heaved a sigh of relief. He actually could do nothing even if Sheyan insisted on not taking the job. However, Mr. G's worries were actually unwarranted because as soon as he mentioned the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, rows of text had popped up on Party Ace's retinas.

[ This mission can only be triggered by someone who has won the trust of the Chinese government and is of Chinese descent. There are no requirements for the mission recipients. ]

The four looked at each other. Compared with their constant fear and uneasiness when they first entered this world, their minds were now a lot tougher and more tenacious. The death of Brother Black was like a raging fire which tempered all the impurities out of their minds. To be able to turn the situation around even under such difficult circumstances would obviously have a very huge impact on their mentality.

That was why, although Melody had already returned to her own dimension due to time constraints, the remaining four were still full of confidence. It was worth mentioning that Melody had told Sheyan before she left that the teleportation array had entered the final stage of production. The connection would be established any moment now. When it did, she would be able to cross through dimensions to fight alongside Sheyan again.

They nodded while silently choosing to accept the mission. Mr. G motioned to Kang to pull up the curtains, then took out a compact projector. He displayed the details of the whole Qinghai-Tibet Railway project.

It could be seen from the projection that the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was divided into two distinct sections. The 814 km section from Xining to Golmud was laid down in 1979 and put into operation in 1984. There was nothing special about this section of the railway. On the other hand, the section from Golmud to Lhasa began construction in 2001 and was completed in 2006.

Kang explained, "From a technical perspective, we actually already possessed the ability to build the Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the 1980s. After all, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which was much more challenging to build than the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, was opened to traffic as early as 1950. If we wanted to build it, we could've done so much earlier."

"However, it was not built due to various economical, technological and transportation reasons. The most important reason was that the high altitude of Qinghai and Tibet would adversely affect the health of non-local people who migrate there. Even among the Tibetans who have lived there for a long time, 14%-18% of the infants suffer from congenital heart diseases! A baby born from an intermarriage between a Han and a Tibetan would have 37% probability of suffering a congenital heart disease! That was why the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway wasn't high on the country's priority list."

Mr. G added, "During the year 2000, however, we received the news that there will be a great flood in 2012. In order to cope with this disaster, we began to gradually shift the economic and technological advantages of coastal areas to higher altitude areas. We lost many opportunities due to the process, but we still firmly carried out the plan. This was also the real reason the large scale development of western China was proposed."

"But as our research went deeper, we realised that the scale of the 2012 flood is likely beyond our imagination. Territories above 500 meters in altitude have changed from safe areas to high-risk areas. Only areas above 2,000 meters in altitude can be considered safe. Therefore, the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has become an urgent matter. It serves only one purpose -- so that the government can, with a single command, evacuate the whole nation to a safe place at the fastest speed possible."

Party Ace patiently listened to these confidential information. Kang continued, "In truth, with how much importance the government placed on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, it should not have taken as long as 5 years to complete. However, as the scientists' estimation of the 2012 apocalypse becomes more and more accurate, the government's emergency plans have to change accordingly!"

"When the research confirms that the intensity of the flood will reach the highest threat level of S-level, and the whole world, including the Himalayas, will be submerged, the authorities decided on three plans. The plan in the open is naturally the arks. The plan in the dark is the secret construction of the special-model long-distance ships, but even that is just a cover. The real trump card is the hidden plan during the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway!"

"When the Qinghai-Tibet Railway was built, we've explored and finally located the most stable areas of the earth's crust, the areas most invulnerable to earthquakes and collapses. In the end, we've located a spot in the Tanggula Mountains. There, we built seventeen fallout shelters of colossal scale. Each giant fallout shelter could accommodate 100,000 people! The fallout shelters are connected to each other by tunnels, and have undergone the most stringent waterproof measures. Even if they're submerged deep underwater, they have enough food to maintain self-sufficiency for more than 10 years!"

"Should this plan succeed, we will be the first nation to have a city with over a million people after the 2012 apocalypse! Not only that, the city will also have a complete industrial system and various production chains!! It will win us at least five years of precious rebuilding time after the apocalypse!!"

"According to our research, although the severe flood will sweep across the Himalayas, it will happen only because of the crustal movements. It doesn't mean that the water on Earth has really increased to a level that can submerge the Himalayas," Mr. G explained seriously.

As he said that, he picked up the half-full glass of water beside him and began to stir the glass so that the water rotated clockwise. A vortex formed in the water, and the edge of the vortex almost reached the mouth of the glass. When Mr. G stopped stirring the glass, the water level returned to its previous height again.

"When the crusts stabilised again, the flood will lose its source of energy. Our scientists believe that the activity of the main crusts will last no longer than 48 hours, which means that the flood will recede in a month at most. On the Tanggula Mountains that have an average altitude of more than 5,000 meters, the flood may recede even earlier. However, we must consider the worst case scenario, so we must guarantee two months of oxygen supply for the whole underground city."

Kang interjected, "That's where the crux of the matter lies! Although oxygen production technology has reached a very mature level in this era, but they're limited to supplying oxygen at a fairly small scale. This time, we have to consider the long-term oxygen supply for over two million people for up to two months! And we must do so while avoiding the ever-present surveillance from other countries."

"In the end, one of our scientists came up with a brand new solution. We've analysed the solution and found it theoretically feasible. The solution is to add an additive to water to break down the water molecules to obtain oxygen. His research of the new additive has already reached the final stage. Once successful, our final problem will be solved."

"What we need you to do is to protect Dr. W's safety! Attacks from those with supernatural powers has been coming unceasingly like mercury burrowing through the soil. We've also received intel that for the next 24 hours, a powerful existence will be hunting Dr. W down. Our protection appears so vulnerable in the face of the myriad of unimaginable superpowers. Hence, we can only ask for your help!"

[ Mission Failure Penalty: Should you fail, 10 points will be deducted from all your attributes. In addition, you will lose the trust of the government and will be forcefully sent back to the Nightmare Realm. ]

Sheyan and the rest analysed the mission failure penalty carefully. The deduction of ten points from all attributes was already a very severe punishment in itself. Losing the trust of the government means that Party Ace might as well say goodbye to the few cultural heritages in their hands.

Forcefully being sent back to the Nightmare Realm may seem like it was the lightest punishment among them, but it was not so. It would mean that everything they had painstakingly laid out in this world would go to waste! If the plans only came into play after the party had already returned to the Realm, Party Ace would not get any credit or rewards for them!

Dr. W liked to gesticulate dramatically when he talked. He had thick, dark eyebrows that were shaped like knives. In the art of face reading, it meant that he was a man who would rarely go back on his words, but the eyebrows were very close to each other, and that showed that he was not a sociable person.

But Dr. W appeared to be rather talkative presently. In contrast, his assistant had a slightly contemptuous look because he felt that Party Ace's presence were unnecessary. They had the powerful "Seeder" protection system which was impregnable. The assistant played a video for Party Ace with a slightly disdainful attitude.

These small missiles were not flying very fast. Thick black smoke trailed in their wakes. Red bursts of fire continuously broke out from the launching hole of the missile launcher, and the slow-flying missiles filled the whole tunnel in no time at all.

These missiles, each the size of a white gourd, were designed with an infrared tracking system. They could lock on to a person's body heat to pursue the enemy relentlessly!

The assistant told Sheyan and the rest arrogantly, "Our laboratory is located fifty meters underground. To get there, you need to pass through seven impregnable tunnels like this, which are connected together. What you see now is just one of the many functions of our powerful "Seeder" protection system. What difference will a mere few people like you make?"

Sheyan smiled at the assistant who had his nose in the air. "Since your laboratory is deep underground and there's only one exit, I'm guessing these missiles must not be that powerful. Otherwise, the tunnels would collapse and you will all be buried alive."

There was a sensor on the missile which was apparently extremely sensitive to living creatures. The missile was filled with a large amount of steel beads, shrapnels, and even poisonous gas. When the missile exploded, the real destruction would be caused by these little things that would burst out with great speed. Next came the highly toxic gas.

This proved that Sheyan's concern was completely unnecessary. The missile relied on the sharp, high-speed flying shrapnels to kill, rather than the impact generated by the explosion. That was why there was no danger of collapsing the tunnels.

Before Sheyan had even said anything, Zi, with a mere flick of her wrist, had already grabbed the automatic rifle of the guard next to her. She then fired the rifle at Sheyan and Reef! Multiple bullets struck Reef and Sheyan, but they still stood there like nothing had happened.

Zi broke the automatic rifle into two with disdain and said, "Your so-called unstoppable missiles are just a joke to us! As for the poisonous gas, the enemies can simply wear gas masks."

"You think the "Seeder" system has only one attacking method? We also have taser traps, flamethrowers that can instantaneously raise the temperature to 7,000 degrees...."

The assistant did not finish his sentence because Kulutego had appeared and instantly showcased his skills in digging. In less than three seconds, Kulutego had dug out a smooth hole over 3 meters deep in the wall next to him.

"You think the laboratory is safe just because its fifty meters underground? The "Seeder" system may be powerful, but why do I have go through the area under its protection? I'll only need ten minutes to dig fifty meters," Sheyan retorted flatly.

Dr. W had given him a good slap on the face. He then told the guard next to him, "I think Associate Researcher He needs to calm down a little bit. Please take him to the psychologist for a week of treatment. Don't let him out before the treatment is done."

Dr. W then told Sheyan earnestly, "I really don't have much time to waste, so I'll leave the safety of the lab completely in your hands. I believe in Mr. G, so I also believe in the person recommended by him. Lee, please help me transfer the highest defence authority to Mr. Seaman."

Dr. W very impolitely turned around and left right after he finished talking. Only then did his slightly crouching figure betray a hint of fatigue. His red eyes, growing stubble, and deeply furrowed eyebrows indicated that he had not had a good sleep for a long time. His exhaustion was visible from the inside to the outside.

"I'm guessing Doctor W is already in the advanced stage of liver cancer? When he stood there just now, he pressed his hand to his liver about four times. There's no way someone of his status can't get the best painkillers available. Only the severe pain of advanced stage cancer can make most painkillers ineffective," deduced Sheyan.

Lee sighed. "We tried to, but Dr. W refused them after using them once. Although they could relieve his pain, they interfered with his thinking. Dr. W knows that he doesn't have much time to waste, so he chose to keep a clear mind despite the severe pain."

Thick low clouds pressed down on the land. The billowing wind carried gravel and grass with it, and was slightly painful when it hit one's face. Whenever one tried to speak, they would taste the saltiness and roughness in the wind that was unique to high-altitude plateaus.

"Oh, is this the Kekexili I've heard so much about? The final part of our mission is in this desolate place? But I don't see any cities here! Can China really stuff more than a million people under the ground here? Wouldn't they suffocate like rodents in an overpopulated rat hole?"

Rocky was a little different from before. His cornea was shining with a faint blue glow, and so was the scar on his chest. He looked like he had fallen into a huge bottle of blue ink and could not wash away the stains even after a fierce scrubbing.

Carlos shrugged. Behind him was a shield-wielding man. This man was one who would leave a deep impression at a glance, because he was holding two shields! One of the shields was glowing with a dark golden light, while the other glowed a bloody crimson!

Compared to his fame, the likes of Skull and Zeus were hardly worth mentioning at all. If Steel File was akin to a national champion, then Skull and Zeus were just athletes at the district level! Without Steel File, Rocky would not have dared to split up with Carlos and the rest, letting them go to New York on their own.

Carlos was apparently not a prideful person. He was also used to being rebuked by his two bosses, so he did not take the previous reprimand to heart at all. He went back to the other five contestants. These five belonged to a party called "Life and Death". They were hired by Rocky to do the odd jobs.

Carlos spoke disrespectfully to a mage from Life and Death who led the way, "Oi, are you sure you've got the right place? There's no way there can be a city with a million population in such a desolate place! An underground city no less! Our time is really precious. We only have 10 hours left before the deadline."

"But the information you gave me clearly stated that the place is near Kekexili. This place is definitely Kekexili, I'm sure of it! The Tibetan antelope here is well-known all over the world!" the mage replied gloomily.

"I have a Shahtoosh shawl. I remember that it's woven with the down hair of Tibetan antelopes that fell when the Tibetan antelopes have a change in fur. The shawl is excellent. The down fur of the Tibetan antelopes is very fine, about 11.5 microns in diameter, which is three-quarters the thickness of the cashmere of Kashmir goats and one-fifth the thickness of human hair. The method used to test the quality of a Shahtoosh shawl is very unique too. Only an authentic Shahtoosh shawl can easily slip through a ring in its entirety. The shawl is smooth, but tough and elastic," said Zi.

Lee sighed. "Ma'am, the so-called shed fur is just a lie made up and spread by the traffickers of Shahtoosh shawls. They'll tell you that the Tibetan antelopes shed their fur in the bushes, and they'll collect the shed fur for processing. But that's not the actual situation at all. The Tibetan antelopes do have a change in fur once a year every summer, but because they live in no man's land and the fur falls off sporadically, the fur will be blown away by the wind as the Tibetan antelopes move. There's no way to collect the fur that falls off naturally. Five Tibetan antelopes were actually sacrificed to make your shawl."

Zi did not seemed too stunned upon hearing such a bloody piece of insider information. Instead, she replied very calmly, "Is that important? When the 2012 apocalypse comes, they'll all be dead anyway."

"We've allocated the living space for as many as 200 Tibetan antelopes, but that's already as much as we can afford. After all, the living space of us humans is also very limited. 200 Tibetan antelopes...will occupy the living space of 300 humans! Any more and it would be a crime against humanity!"

Suddenly, the alarm went off, and it sounded surprisingly urgent. As soon as they heard it, they could tell right away that it was an alarm which signified great danger! Lee immediately stood up and shouted, "What's the matter? Investigate the cause at once!"

Soon, a steady voice transmitted over. "This is Patrol Squad 7. I repeat, this is Patrol Squad 7. The emergency alarm was sounded by Patrol Squad 5. The squad sergeant has issued a red flare symbolising the highest threat level. We're still unable to establish communication with them. We're already rushing to Patrol Squad 5's area at the fastest speed possible. Over."

"Hello, is this Flight Team 1? Are you ready to mobilise? Yes, all five armed helicopters. The coordinates are (337,2858). You have been granted the highest level of authority. Two patrol squads have already been wiped out there, so as soon as you discover anything abnormal, fire at will!"

Five minutes later, they saw a few figures on the unique surface of Kekexili from the real-time video feedback. Sheyan's pupils contracted. He immediately pressed the pause button.

Reef took a glance, then suddenly pushed Zi away. A person like Reef would never have done such a thing if he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. He stared at the screen for a while, then made some adjustments with the computer. He then said, "Look at that guy!"

Sheyan's expression changed when he saw the person Reef was pointing at. A shield was something that anyone would pay a lot of attention to, and that guy was carrying two of them! In addition, both shields appeared to be the kind of heavy shield that could stop a cavalry's charge and must be held with both hands! They could immediately tell that this man was absolutely not that simple! He was likely not much weaker than Rocky.

In terms of personal strength, Sheyan thought that Rocky and himself should be at the same level, even if Sheyan was only an Awakener and Rocky might be a fourth-order Temperer.

In terms of equipment, Rocky had the legendary Gungnir, but Sheyan's liquid metal life-form had also reached the legendary grade and might even upgrade to a divine equipment in the future! Hence, Sheyan thought he still had the upper hand! Most importantly, Sheyan was sure he could take many more hits than Rocky, which means that he had a bigger margin for error, which means that he could trade blows and trade injuries. That was a great psychological advantage.

With the emergence of Awakening Skills, the role of an MT only became more important than before. A strong damage dealer could have a qualitative leap in terms of ability if he had the protection of an MT, even if the MT was very ordinary!

Before this, Sheyan was just "not afraid" of Rocky; he could not say that he would beat Rocky for sure. With this dual-shield MT in the equation, defeat was almost certain.

Reef took a deep breath. "So the rumour is true! This guy is likely Paper Weight, a person whose name resounded through our Realm a while ago. He has a strong passive innate ability: 'Mammoth Power'. It lets him ignore equipping requirements, so he's able to use two-handed weapons with one hand! I still remember the sight of him waving a two-handed sword with one hand while simultaneously carrying a Gatling gun on the other, charging about and going on a killing spree on the battlefield. Unfortunately, he disappeared not long afterwards. Some said he's dead, while others said that another Realm valued him highly and had poached him away...."

Zi nodded. "I agree with you. I've heard of the reputation of the Mad Demon, Paper Weight too. It seems that he really was poached away by another Realm. I didn't expect him to become an MT, and I sure didn't expect him to be going up against us right now!"

"What an interesting bit of information," As Sheyan spoke, he clicked on the still image on the computer to cut it back to the live feed, and....the broadcast on the screen had already become statics and noises.

No one in Party Ace was surprised. Five combat helicopters without any idea of the terror of contestants being destroyed in less than twenty seconds was perfectly normal. To be honest, Zi alone could have done it.

But Major Lee could hardly believe his eyes. After a momentary daze, he leapt up and replayed the video recording. He saw the helicopters rapidly approach the group of people. The pilot was ready to fire at a moment's notice.

As for the helicopter providing the video feedback, it managed to get within fifty meters of the group amidst heavy fire. Then, Steel File, the man Reef called Paper Weight, suddenly stood up straight. His right hand flashed with a red light, and he flung one of his shields over.

As the heavy shield whirled through the air at high speed, the air in its path moaned and distorted. The shield first crashed into another helicopter, then bounced away from the fire and smoke to slam into the broadcasting helicopter, which was still madly pouring ammunition.

Sheyan walked over to him and sighed. "You'll need to mobilise an entire division to deal with those guys, but I guarantee you, when the division arrives, they would have vanished without a trace, never to be seen again! Another way is to use attrition tactics. In other words, use the lives of your troops to slowly eat away at their MP and stamina!"

Sheyan sighed again. "The combined strength of those seven people is probably comparable to that of a regiment of soldiers armed to the teeth. You can weigh the pros and cons yourself."

"I understand...." Major Lee sighed bitterly and continued, "I finally understand why Mr. G wants you to take over the defensive system. Such unconventional enemies require unconventional tactics to deal with."

"I'll go ahead then," Sheyan went to the command station and asked Major Lee to input his voiceprint and fingerprint. The first thing Sheyan did after that was to check the situation of the base's guard forces, as well as the authority he currently had and the forces he could mobilise.

Sheyan had to admit that the strength of those seven people was far above Party Ace's. He would have to compensate for this gap in strength with the storyline characters. Even ants could kill elephants if they had enough numbers. The forces in this base weren't weak; if they were used correctly, it was not impossible to defeat that group of seven, perhaps even wipe them out.

"I need full control of the three satellites AS-03, AS-07 and AD-98. Cut off the unnecessary activities of the rest of the satellites immediately and focus on scanning the area of latitude XXX and longitude XXX. Your target is a group of seven people. The photos of all seven have been sent to you."

"Attention all units, attention all units, initiate level 1 combat preparation! All units are strictly prohibited from going outside without approval. All armed forces are authorised to open fire at anyone who appears suspicious. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is absolutely not a drill!!"

"Against these people, if you only give the order to enter level 1 combat preparation when you think it's time to do so, it'll already be too late. You would've missed the best chance!"

"You have to understand, Major, I was granted the authority to command by both Mr. G and Dr. W. If you have any questions, you can voice your protests to those two and ask them to deprive me of commanding rights. Otherwise, you have no right to interfere with my orders. I now order you to get out of this command room. I think your current mental state is seriously interfering with my job."

Major Lee immediately froze like an eggplant that was thrown into the freezer. After that, he came down from the command station and walked towards the exit with heavy steps, unwillingness apparent in his gait.

When he reached the exit, he suddenly turned around and told Sheyan, "Seaman! You have to remember, this isn't a drill! Every command you issue, every action, involves countless lives! You have to think of the nightmares that will haunt you for years to come and the blood on your hands!"

"You're wrong. If there's any other choice, those two wouldn't have handed over the command to a stranger like me. There's a saying from where I came from: "the compassionate do not lead an army". You've got the f*cking command right in your hands, but all you can think about are conscience, lives, nightmares, and the blood staining your hands! Remember this -- no victory comes easy. If we want to win, we have to pay for it with human lives!"

"What they want is not a victory without casualties, but a guarantee the job will get done, at any cost! Serving as a soldier means sacrificing yourself for a greater cause. A general builds his success upon ten thousand rotting bones. From ancient times to this day, no one has ever won a war with cowardice and indecisiveness. Mr. G and Dr. W will be satisfied as long as the experiment succeeds, even if every soldier here dies."

"That's impossible! Impossible!" Major Lee's rational mind told him that every word Sheyan uttered was true, but he still dashed towards Sheyan with bloodshot eyes. He grabbed Sheyan's collar and roared, "That's absolutely impossible!"

"He's right. That's exactly why we gave up on you! Lee, what we ask for now is the result, not the process. We've always anticipated from you a guarantee that you will accomplish the task at all costs, but all you've been doing is stressing about the lives that will be lost and so on. You never thought that in that position, the only thing a soldier has to do is obey orders, and then go to war!" Suddenly, Mr. G's voice was heard. It was clear that he had been monitoring the situation here all this while.

Major Lee looked like he had been struck by lightning. He staggered back unsteadily and sat down on the sofa with his face pale. That was obviously a severe blow to him.

Sheyan had already started to mobilise the troops. The size of the troops that could be sent here to guard the place could not be too large, or they would be noticed by foreign media. Therefore, all of them were elites. The whole garrison force was broken down and re-divided into thirteen squads. They laid in ambush, waiting to kill.

Party Ace's greatest advantage now was not that they had the help of an army of storyline characters, but that Rocky and his party did not know that they were here, so they could explode at a critical moment to give Rocky's group a heavy blow! That's right, just like what Bind did to them, ie. hit them where it hurts most the moment they put down their guard....

At this time, the joint scanning of three military satellites finally found the location of those seven people. They had simply camouflaged themselves - or, to be exact, camouflaged their tents - like stones that were half as big as a house. They had set up camp in a rocky terrain with great confidence.

To tell the truth, the tents they used do look exactly like stones from the outside. Apart from the soft material, it was almost impossible to distinguish them from real stones with the naked eye. Even the military satellite had to go through a lot of calculations and investigations before it finally discovered that there were three pieces of stones with exactly the same shape. That was how the suspicion it was them was aroused.

Having confirmed that it was them, Sheyan immediately requested to have ten or so of the most powerful missiles carpet bomb the place, but his request was mercilessly refused. Not that the state was unwilling to bear the cost, but if they caused too much of a commotion, it would easily attract the attention of foreign media. The Tanggula Mountains were the final card up the government's sleeve, so they couldn't allow any accidents to happen.

The rear launcher of each A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launcher could accomodate 12 ready-to-launch rockets with a diameter of 227 mm. The main types of rockets used were M26 dual-purpose rockets and AT2 anti-tank mine rockets.

When a A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launcher shot M26 rockets, 7,726 rounds could be fired in a single volley, which would scatter over an area as large as six soccer fields put together. The place would instantly become a sea of fire. According to the US intelligence report, the power of two A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers firing simultaneously was equivalent to the power of seven battalions of M109 self-propelled howitzers (188 howitzers in total)!

The deputy director looked at the report and then inquired about the A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers in the Chinese army. The data he obtained stated that they had strong firepower, but they had slow movement and low defence, and they would easily expose themselves when they were firing. Therefore, only after the army had gained air control and electronic control on the battlefield could they display their full power. The deputy director curled his lips in disdain, then threw the report into the wastebasket.

The FBI received thousands of copies of this kind of intelligence every day. Artillery shots would be fired countless times in every military drill nowadays; the attention they warranted was totally incomparable to the test firing of newer missiles. Even the most powerful heavy artillery could only fire 200 kilometers away, while missiles could easily cover several thousand kilometers in range. Now those they had to pay attention to.

But this move of Sheyan's was truly vicious; it had done a terrifying amount of damage to Rocky's temporary team! The bombardment from four Chinese A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers! A firepower equivalent to the continuous bombing from seven battalions of M109 self-propelled howitzers(188 cannons), with the help of satellites for precise positioning and focus!!

In terms of destructive power and lethality, the attack was certainly not inferior to a couple of intercontinental missiles. What was more vicious was that Sheyan, being a contestant himself, naturally knew some safety measures contestants would normally take under the situation. Therefore, he first carried out a five-minute continuous bombing. When he felt that the agility-type and mage-type contestants had used up all the honorary dosages and life-saving methods at their disposal, he stopped for 30 seconds to let them relax. Then, he commenced with two more minutes of continuous bombing....

This sinister assault had instantly killed one of the contestants, while another of the contestants had no choice but to use an escape item to return to the Nightmare Realm in his desperation. More importantly, Sheyan estimated that the remaining contestants had all used their honorary dosages. The most depressing thing about honorary dosages was their long cooldown time, which means that in the battle to come, almost all of Rocky's people would be one life short!

Of course, the carpet bombing this time was also a heavy blow to the arrogance of Rocky's team. They immediately vanished from the satellite surveillance. They had probably learnt their lesson and were now starting to take this mission seriously.

But Sheyan was already really satisfied with the result. In this confrontation between two powerful sides, Sheyan had seized the upper hand from the very beginning and had even killed an important chess piece of the opponent's. What he needed to do next was not to gain a bigger advantage, but to consolidate their current advantage to steadily achieve victory. Besides, Party Ace's main objective was to win as much time for Dr. W as possible, rather than wiping out the enemies. They must not forget that.

A flash of light appeared in an empty space, and Rocky's figure emerged from within like a genie. Gungir shone with an incredibly sharp light in his hand. About five or six twisted rays of lights lashed out from the spear, tearing through the air, and occasionally whipping the sand, stirring up streams of dust and smoke.

The blue taint on Rocky's body had become thicker, especially on his face. Vivid blue patterns had appeared on it, like the markings on a soldier's face when they wanted to hide their identity. The veins on Rocky's temples were visibly protruding. His body was obviously not in its best condition at the moment.

This man's teleportation ability was actually pretty insane. He could instantly teleport to any spot in his field of view, even if he was only indirectly looking at the place -- through a television, for example. However, the farther away the distance, the longer the activation time required, the heavier the consumption, the longer the cooldown time afterwards, and so on.

For example, if he wished to teleport a few hundred meters away, the estimated casting time was a second or so, and the cooldown time afterwards was less than twenty seconds. But back when Bind was about to kill Carlos, Rocky could only perform an indirect teleportation. It took several minutes for Rocky to gather his power, and the cost of the teleportation was several of his achievement points. When he arrived, his MP was completely empty, and the cooldown time of the ability was prolonged to 24 hours.

But Rocky certainly had a killer move which enabled him to teleport without consumption -- otherwise, if he teleported over without any MP, wouldn't he just be feeding Bind? But a killer move, while powerful, was also a double-edged blade. They either had incredibly long cooldown time like Sheyan's 'Death's Lament', or a heavy price must be paid.

"How is it, boss?" Carlos, whose whole body burned black, asked while gasping for air. His trademark ponytail had been burned away. If he was unwilling to spend utility points to restore it, then he could only appear with a crew cut for a long time. It looked pretty funny.

"There's no way it's a coincidence. Although the distance is more than ten kilometers, but in order to make up for our shortcomings, we've specially found a helper with high Perceptive Sense! Yet he couldn't sense the threat from a bombing of this scale at all? And he was even killed in the bombing?" Steel File a.k.a. Paper Weight voiced his doubt with a scowl.

Carlos took out a handheld computer and pressed it a few times. "We can basically confirm that they were the special M26 dual-propellant rockets launched from A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers. Their launching speed has been raised to a shocking level. In theory, it took only 1.3 seconds from the launch of the rockets to the detonation, while the aiming was done via a satellite....if the guy was careless at the time, 1.3 seconds really is too short for a warning. This isn't too strange for an S-level mission."

"But more importantly, who would dare to stand in our way? With the combination of boss and you, the strongest MT in existence, even a monster like Bind wouldn't dare to show himself! Considering that he was badly injured by boss in the fight before, he's probably still hiding somewhere to recuperate."

Steel File harrumphed, which was a tacit acceptance of Carlos's half-compliment and half-true statement. "....I can't help but feel that something fishy's going on. We should move to the target area quickly. We don't have a Perceptive Sense specialist in the team anymore, so if we're found by the satellites and they fire unconventional weapons at us again, we'll definitely suffer further losses."

Rocky opened his mouth to say something, but he ended up not saying it. If they wished to avoid satellite detection, they would have to go underground. But in an underground environment, Rocky's teleportation ability would be greatly restricted. As for the unconventional way of teleporting through a barrier, it required a long casting time. Any soldier with a submachine gun could interrupt his cast.

That's because he had actually followed along with the four A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers. Without the suppression of his Perceptive Sense, they could not have ambushed Rocky's team. What Sheyan did not anticipate was how quickly and violently Rocky had counter attacked!

Fortunately, Sheyan had detected Rocky's arrival in advance and had jumped into the sand to hide. Otherwise, a direct confrontation with Rocky would have been unavoidable. If that were to happen, Rocky could just stall Sheyan until his allies arrived.

Sheyan knew very well that Party Ace was certainly not the opponents' match, mainly because the guy called Paper Weight had broken the balance. Sheyan had no confidence of winning in a direct fight, unless Bind was on their side, which was obviously impossible.

"They've disappeared from our satellite surveillance. You're right, those guys have probably gone underground. Their mission hints likely only gave them a pretty broad area, that's why they have to keep investigating. Otherwise, they would've just rushed here straight away," replied Sanzi from the other end.

When Sheyan jumped out of the helicopter, Zi contacted him. "We've confirmed that the targets have indeed gone underground. They're currently moving in the periphery of Area F."

Sheyan snapped his fingers in satisfaction. Dr. W's lab is in Area A, which means that Rocky had chosen the longest path possible to their destination. He passed down more orders to rearrange the troops. He then took the time to give Mr. G a call.

"I've lost eight helicopters, 138 people, four A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers, and I expect the losses to continue piling up. The final losses may be ten times heavier than this."

Mr. G heaved a sigh of relief. "That's all I ask for. As for the losses, just try to control the scope of the losses within what would be caused by the coming apocalypse. I will grant you the relevant level of authority."

Mr. G's implication was clear. When the apocalypse came, the vast majority of the country's forces would be lost to natural disasters anyway, so why not let them go out like bright fireworks before the time came....

After Sheyan was authorised, he instantly issued some orders. "Transport three "Seeder" defence systems to Area D pronto! Mobilise some troops from the Tibetan Military Region over and arm them to the teeth! How many? As many as possible, as long as you can keep it secret from the outside world! Give them mostly weapons that can cause heavy impact, the kind that can destroy cave walls. One more thing, help me ask Dr. W when's the next time he'll be taking his medication. I need to speak with him."

The second injection was a highly concentrated nutrient solution. The cancer cells were frantically squeezing away his vitality, his physical strength and his energy, and him overworking his body certainly did not help. Therefore, it was necessary to provide more external help to this nearly dying body.

The third injection was a radiotherapy drug. Although cancer cells had spread all over his body, but any bit of cancer cell they could kill may help him prolong his life, even if only by a little.

Dr. W looked much older than the first time Sheyan met him. The wrinkles on his face, the fading light in his eyes, and even his heavy voice made him seem like he had aged considerably. His eyes were also deeply sunken, but his gaze had only turned more frightening, more resolute!

Sheyan smiled at him. "I'll keep it short. Two things: First, a little friend of mine will reinforce the rocks around your laboratory so that we can more effectively prevent any external impact from disrupting you. Second, ....Dr. W, I believe you must be very unwilling to die, but also feeling very helpless about it?"

"Yes! I know that my life is coming to an end. I can already see where the end is. But why can't the heavens give me just two more days!" Dr. W said, helplessness apparent in his voice.

A doctor nearby immediately panicked. "Hey, that's strong liquor! You're going to kill him! Doctor W's esophagus and stomach have already been corroded by cancer cells!"

Sheyan ignored him and just stared at Dr. W. Dr. W sighed after a while. "I haven't had any alcohol for ten years. How I miss the taste of Maotai. Okay, fine. I hope the taste of vodka won't disappoint me."

Two nurses appeared, ready to hold Dr. W. whom they expected to fall down... But the middle-aged man did not fall down! Instead, when he opened his eyes again, there was a bright glimmer in them!!

The taste of the strong liquor stimulated the taste buds like burning charcoal, as it always did. A burning sensation spread all over the doctor's body after he swallowed the drink.

Dr. W could not help but be reminded of the feeling of drunkenness and joy when he was still young and frivolous. He also knew that, although the sensation of the spirit washing over his taste buds may make him high and happy, the feeling when they leaked into his internal organs through his porous esophagus and stomach bag would be an unbearable torture.

Instead, he felt like he was being baked in a warm fire, a rather comfortable feeling akin to drinking hot chicken soup when one was sick. The pleasurable warmth even seeped into his limbs and bones.

His pain became significantly lighter, apparently because his nerves were paralysed by alcohol. The comfortable feeling was still lingering in his body. Dr. W could not help drinking two more gulps. As his intoxication deepened, the pain also became milder.

He was now in a slightly tipsy state, which made Dr. W feel more relaxed and comfortable. His entire body felt light as if he was lying down on clouds. He believed that working in this state should bring twice the result with half the effort.

Sheyan then turned around and walked out. While he did that, he pressed his earpiece to get the latest news from the rest of the party. The others did not transmit any emergency signal to contact him, but according to Sheyan's deduction, Rocky and his team should already be enjoying the feasts Party Ace had prepared for them.

Hearing the screams of those people, you would think that they were playing Counter Strike. But in truth, they were manipulating remotely controlled weapons to rain down attacks on Rocky and his gang.

There was no doubt that such a one-sided fight where the opponents could not attack them back was shameless, despicable and vile, but it was also very morale-boosting.

Sheyan pressed on the earpiece and spoke to the other side of the communication channel, "Are they in Area F2 now? Good. Bombard the passage ahead. Let's see if they'll dig a way through or take a detour.

"OK, successful bombardment! They seemed to have chosen to take a detour. It's not that easy to find someone who have earth-elemental power, bro. You can't expect to find someone like Kulutego everywhere!"

"They took a detour? Are they going to Area F3? Great! The "Seeder" defence system there should already be in place, right? Don't turn on automatic mode, let someone manually operate it! We'll give them a huge surprise!" Sheyan ordered.

Now that he had obtained the highest level of authority, several confidential secretaries at the side immediately prepared to execute his orders. Sheyan would not have been able to seize the opportunity to obtain such great powers if it wasn't for the disaster of the 2012 apocalypse.

There was a saying that if one did not use power when it was bestowed upon them, the power would just rot and expire. Sheyan naturally took this rare opportunity to put all kinds of poisonous schemes into practice one after another. He would definitely make sure every step Rocky's group took was filled with difficulty and exhaustion! If he could cut down their numbers again with the help of machines, then all the better.

Steel File, who was moving at the very front, suddenly came to a halt. A floating mine was flying over in the passageway ahead. It looked like a large pineapple that was floating in water, with a circle of mysterious red dots around it.

The red dots around the floating mine abruptly disappeared, and a beeping sound was heard. Triangular metal fragments, steel beads and other shrapnel contained in the floating mine suddenly scattered with unimaginable speed in the narrow tunnel, reflecting cold, terrible light!

The shrapnel produced trails of sparks when it hit the walls nearby. One of the contestants hired by Rocky could not avoid them in time. Several cuts were made on his body, and blood immediately gushed out. A piece of shrapnel had also cut across the unfortunate Carlos' eyelids, almost turning him blind. Even so, his vision was still greatly affected in the short term.

When the soldier who was manually controlling the "Seeder" defence system saw that a single floating mine was enough to send the enemies into a state of chaos, his spirit was instantly boosted. He pressed down on the button to fire the floating mines without letting go and at the same time, requested for non-stop reloading. If he could, he wanted to pour out all the floating mines immediately. It was not until the loading device protested with a high temperature warning that he stared hatefully at the enemies, daring them to move further inside.

At this time, the originally spacious passageway was already densely packed with the pineapple-like floating mines that had automatic tracking and would explode as soon as the enemy got close. They crowded the space and flew around like headless flies. Not only that, they were even releasing poisonous smoke which lowered visibility!

Rocky took out a radar the size of a mobile phone to take a look. There was a simple 2D map on it like in a video game. A red dot, point A, could be seen at the far end of the map, and that was their mission target. They were now at point B, which was denoted by a triangle. The few paths that could get them from point B to point A were clearly shown on the radar, but of course, more specific information, such as the presence of ambushes and so on, was not available.

This was something Rocky had traded for with his rank privileges. Every time a contestant promoted in rank, they would get several fixed privileges, and get to choose several privileges from a list of optional privileges. For example, after the promotion to Major General, the total privileges reached 200 points. The fixed privileges will occupy about 100 points, and the contestant could then choose from a list of privileges where each option occupied about 10 to 50 points.

Rocky's mission radar was a rare item in the optional privileges list. It could roughly indicate the direction to the mission target, something very practical. But this rare option was also very expensive, and that was why he did not have enough points to get the option of satellite-masking. The members of Rocky's party each had very clear responsibilities, and the one with the rank privilege to mask them from satellite detection did not enter this world. That was why they were in such a disadvantage.

"There's no way we can move above the ground," Rocky's face was cold and grave, "Right now, this passageway is the shortest way to the target. Even if we choose another route, there's no guarantee that it won't be even harder than this one. So, I don't recommend changing our path."

"Let me try," Steel File's eyes shone with a sharp glimmer. That's right, times like this were when the MT should step up and pave a path of blood for their team with their own body!

He suddenly raised both his hands high, then fiercely plunged them into the stone wall next to him. He was able to hold a heavy two-handed tower shield with one hand, but even with the support of his innate ability, it was absolutely impossible to do so without enough Strength. Therefore, this plunge had stabbed his hands into the stone wall forearm-deep.

Continuous cracking sounds were heard from the rocks. Steel File put more force into his arms, and the whole passage shook and groaned unsteadily. Then, the passage collapsed with a loud roar.

A string of loud noises and explosions could be heard. Obviously, a large number of floating mines had been detonated. Steel File raised his shields, crossed his hands and rushed forward. The two towering shields, lined up next to each other, protected him tightly without a gap. After rushing more than 20 meters forward, he flung one of the giant shields with great force!

The giant shield was thrown out while Steel File was running. It was shining with the colour of blood and spinning around at high speed. It tore a huge opening about seven or eight meters along the tunnel wall, then broke through the back wall. A few flashes of light followed, and a series of explosions took place. The shield killed all the soldiers hiding in the secret room at the back to control the "Seeder" defence system!

Zi shook her head. "No. This guy looks like he's proficient in both offence and defence, and is extremely rich in combat experience. He doesn't display his skills easily, but once he does, his skills are earth-shattering. He's like a heavy infantry of the cold weapon era, a tortoise wrapped in metal."

Reef suddenly interjected, "This guy may have explosive skills, but generally speaking, his weakness should be his speed. If I cooperate with Kulutego, we should be able to stall him."

The reason why Reef dared to say so was naturally because he was an MT himself, so he was not afraid of Steel File's explosive shield throwing ability. Moreover, Reef's 'Cardiac Shattering Roar' was actually an insane AoE ability in its own right, especially so now that it had gained precedence. Once Steel File was slowed down, he would find it difficult to get rid of Reef.

Sheyan smirked. "No hurry. They're at least five kilometers away from the destination, and that's just the distance in a straight line. We've laid down six "Seeder" defence systems along the way as well as various other traps and firing points. This guy isn't showing any weakness now, but that's only because he's not tired enough. When he gets tired...hmph, then we'll see."

At that moment, a yellow signal suddenly flashed. According to what they previously agreed on, a yellow signal was used to denote a very important internal affair, while a red signal denoted an emergency invasion. After the yellow signal was switched on, Major Lee's excited voice was heard.

"Mr. Seaman, after Dr. W drank your vodka just now, he fell asleep for a while. When he woke up, his mind felt a lot clearer and his thoughts felt more orderly. With the help of the vodka, he's solved the final problem that had been troubling him. Now, all that remains are some complicated calculations and tedious work. You only need to buy him another hour and a half, and the research will be complete!"

Sheyan laughed. Now, the pressure on Rocky had gotten even heavier. When someone did things under heavy pressure, they would often commit mistakes that they would not normally make.

"But more importantly, Rocky's Gungnir can destroy everything in its path. He probably just doesn't want to waste the power of his lance right now; it doesn't mean that he can't dig his way out of the ground in an emergency. I have a better way to make them give up. The reason why I choose to do what we're currently doing is because I don't want to scare them away yet. If there's a chance, why don't we try to loot his legendary weapon?"

The air in the underground shelter was rather murky at the moment. Many people inside were smoking excitedly. Large billows of light blue smoke interweaved together, almost making the underground shelter seemed like it was on fire. Sheyan closed his eyes and tapped his fingers on the table slowly, as if he was enjoying the second-hand smoke. After about 10 minutes, he asked, "Where are they now?"

Sheyan quietly contemplated for a moment before he said, "Those people are advancing really fast. It seems like they've adapted to the various traps and ambushes I laid down. Hmph, have you guys prepared what I requested?"

A technician nodded and answered, "It's ready, sir! We've urgently mobilised thirty-seven machines here and put them into operation right away. They should already be able to fulfil your request, sir."

"Excellent," Sheyan stood up and narrowed his eyes like a hunter staring at a prey that had fallen into his trap. He stared closely at the images of Rocky's group on the monitor. They had obviously figured out the patterns with most of the traps, and were thus starting to pick up the pace.

In truth, it was already really fortunate that Sheyan could delay Rocky's unbelievably powerful team for so long. He could not have done it without the help of the storyline character forces and weapons.

Of the four remaining members of the hired "Life and Death" party, only two came underground together with Rocky's party. The other two, who remained outside, were a sniper and an explosive expert. They were obviously unsuited for fighting in underground tunnels, so they had hid themselves in a concealed place outside to act as reinforcements if the need arises.

Contrary to Carlos' anger, Steel File just laughed, unconcerned. "If the time limit for the mission has been shortened, then the reward must have been raised too. The traps the opponent has set up are nothing to worry about. They're not worth mentioning at all now that we've familiarised ourselves with their patterns! We'll be able to reach the destination in half an hour at most. The Realm is just giving us extra rewards for free!"

When Carlos saw Rocky's expression, he could not help consoling his boss. "Don't worry, Boss. I think Steel File is right. We probably won't run into any situation which requires you to use your power anymore, thus aggravating your injury. You must be worried about Bind. But with Steel File here with you, even if he is a Saint of Darkness, he won't dare to show up. As strong as the Evil Sword Apophis is, it's still weaker than our powers combined! "

"That's where I feel something's amiss. The last time I fought with Bind, he was going up against my Gungnir with bare hands! I did force him to use all his hidden cards because of that, and that's great, but I still don't understand why Bind would give up on his greatest advantage," replied Rocky with a frown.

"The situation back then was really strange. When I sensed that the dimensional barrier is being broken through by force, I knew right away that it must be Bind, forcefully attempting to teleport regardless of the consequences. Logically speaking, Bind would only do something like that in an emergency situation because he would run the risk of being attacked by the Realms, but when I got there in a hurry, Bind was still in perfect health. And then we started fighting."

"That is weird," Steel File also expressed his concern after listening to Rocky, "I think the Divine Servant who held Apophis might have been attacked, and that's why Bind rushed over there like his ass was on fire. Maybe the Divine Servant was very seriously injured, so he dared not appear in front of you. As for why Bind did not use the Evil Sword Apophis, that's easily explainable. Saints of Darkness are people who walk on the edge of the rules of the Realms, and so is the Evil Sword Apophis. When they're together for a prolonged period of time, it could easily attract the attention of the Realms. Bind had just used an ability which violated the rules, so of course he dared not commit such a crime when the attention was on him."

The others felt that Steel File's explanation made sense, but Rocky was still anxious. He said with a frown, "There's another possibility. The Divine Servant might have been killed...."

Carlos immediately denied Rocky's assumption. He said earnestly, "Boss, you don't know what a monster the Divine Servant is. To kill the Divine Servant before Bind comes to his aid....honestly, it's impossible unless there were two of you!"

Steel File stared at Rocky with a frown and yelled at him. "Our mission now is to get rid of Dr. W!! The reward for this mission is very generous. Your heart is in turmoil, Rocky. How could you be fit to wield Gungnir if you don't have indomitable will and the courage to break through all obstacles?"

Steel File dashed forward again with his shields up, boldly charging towards a temporary bunker ahead. The roar of machine guns could not slow him down the slightest bit. Facing the terrifying Awakeners, even an official army armed to the teeth fell like dominoes.

But right after the team had conquered the temporary bunker, a dying soldier screamed and pressed a red button. The tunnel in front of them exploded with a deafening roar. Mud and rock rolled down and completely blocked off the tunnel.

The team was shocked. They instantly checked the mission radar and found that if they had to make a detour, they would have to go all the way back to Area F at the very beginning to take another turn! Not only would returning waste a lot of precious time, the enemy could also use this opportunity to lay down even more bombs to collapse the tunnels.

Rocky's eyes flickered, and a ferocious power surged through his whole body. Even Steel File had to take several steps back with a heavy face. Rocky flung Gungnir with a loud shout. A pious hymn instantly rose in the air. The fierce light from the spear blinded the team's eyes.

The collapsed section of the tunnel in front was nearly 30 meters long, but Gungnir still managed to pierce a hole through the rubble heap. The wall of the hole was smooth and flawless, but there was still residual heat and smoke left on it.

The team did not applaud or burst out with joy when they saw Rocky show his might. They merely stared hatefully ahead because more than a hundred meters away, at the other end of the tunnel forcefully made by Rocky, they saw the dim lights of military engineers burying more explosives.

The group instantly pounced on the troops in surprise and anger, but by this time, the explosives were probably already in place, and the soldiers did not hesitate to press the detonator! A terrible collapse occurred again to block the way of Rocky's team!

They had clearly noticed by now that there were no explosives pre-planted in these underground tunnels. The explosives in the places that had collapsed had apparently only just been installed. So, as long as they could rush past this collapsed section, they could catch up to the people planting the explosives. Even if explosives were detonated in the tunnels in front, they would not be properly installed yet. On the contrary, if their team went back to where they started to take another way, it would be tantamount to giving the enemy more time to make adequate preparation.

Rocky's face had turned completely blue after throwing that lance, but he was already like an arrow on a drawn bow at the moment; there was no way he could stop. The bones and joints in his body creaked like rusty mechanical parts. Blood was pouring out of his eyes and ear holes. Gungnir was thrown out once again!

After the lance left his hand, Rocky fell to the ground, face first. He took a long time to climb back up, gasping for air. The eerie dark blue had corroded into his limbs along his veins. Rocky seemed like he was about to become a smaller version of a Na'vi.

The rubble heap was pierced through again. Hundreds of meters ahead, at the end of the tunnel made by Gungnir, a man could be seen squatting there with detonators and wires in front of him. He was currently assembling them with a tense expression.

They could not let this man detonate the explosives. Rocky was completely spent, so there would not be a third Gungnir throw for a while. That meant their mission would fail. But as long as they could kill this guy, the path ahead was clear!

Everyone sprinted forward with all their might. After about 50 meters, the team inevitably split into different groups due to the difference in speed -- a group in front, one in the middle, and one at the back.

The first group was naturally formed by contestants with high Agility. Steel File seemed to have an ability to temporarily increase his speed, so he was actually rushing in front together with one of the hired guys. The middle group consisted of a druid who had learned metamorphosis techniques. In the final group was Carlos, who was staying back to take care of Rocky, and naturally, Rocky.

When Steel File and the high Agility mercenary reached within 20 meters of the soldier planting the explosive device, they were already at least a hundred meters away from Rocky and Carlos.

At this time, the middle part of the tunnel suddenly exploded again! A large amount of mud and rock poured down from above. The explosion this time was particularly violent, so the collapse spanned across more than 50 meters of the tunnel. If the underground tunnel was not constructed to resist earthquakes that were 10.0 or higher on the Richter scale, it would have completely collapsed.

Then, the rocks on the tunnel wall to the side exploded, and a large figure emerged from the billowing dust! His right hand shined with a ruthless silver glint as he struck out fiercely, causing serious injury to Carlos! Carles screamed in pain.

Carlos was instantly aware that they had fallen for the enemy's trap. Ignoring the blood pouring from his body, he gritted his teeth and flicked the coin in his hand towards the enemy.

The rotating coin made swishing sounds in the air, like the sound of something extremely sharp whirling and cutting through the air at high speed. If one were to observe the coin carefully, they would see that there were now sharp, transparent blades around the coin, like gear teeth!

Not only that, Carlos had also taken out a fearsome looking long blade. The handle of the blade alone was a meter long. It looked a little similar to Guan Yu's Green Dragon Crescent Blade, but at the end of the handle was a sinister-looking skull with five horns. Carlos instantly chopped down on the enemy who appeared to be somewhat surprised by the coin.

The chop was smooth and ruthless. After the blade had slashed past, the cold, cruel light still remained in the air. Normally, by the time the light was seen, the blade had already cut into the enemy's warm flesh and blood, so fast was the attack! The blade slashed faster than the eyes could respond!

These two consecutive strikes were Carlos' ultimate live-saving technique. He was performing them now without a shred of hesitation in order to protect Rocky's life. The power of these two strikes were so amazing that Carlos had insta-killed Awakeners with them before!

A harsh sound could be heard, like a chainsaw cutting into steel. And when Carlos' blade chopped down, it also resulted in a loud, deafening clang. Both strikes had been blocked by a shield!

The special effect of his steel claws caused as much damage as an assassin's strike, forcing Carlos to bring out his life-saving technique in order to take the assailant out as fast as possible. However, Carlos' killer move unfortunately landed on a well-prepared MT, so there was no way it would kill anyone. Carlos could not help staggering back a few steps from the impact.

Suddenly, Carlos felt his eyes sting, as if the sun itself was shining in front of him. Then, he saw a pair of eyes staring at himself. The eyes were black mixed with gold, and the pupils inside were vertical!

The person's face could not be seen. A dark energy and some unknown powerful force mixed together and very tamely wrapped around the person's body. She appeared as mysterious as a black hole. Her body was unnaturally tall. When she walked, she seemed like she was on tip-toe. Her gait was light and graceful, like she was dancing on a balance beam.

The two rapiers suddenly intersected. Carlos' eyes were painfully blinded once again. He knew he was in a terrible situation, so he immediately shrunk into a defensive posture, but the rapier in Zi's left hand suddenly shot forward. The strike was aimed at an extremely tricky spot, making Carlos' action seem like he was sending his head towards the rapier.

But Carlos managed to execute a timely response. He turned his body sideways with every ounce of his strength and barely managed to avoid Zi's rapier again. However, once Zi found that her attack had missed, she instantly slashed her rapier to the side before the stab had even run out of momentum.

A bloody trail in the shape of a "Z" formed in the air. Carlos let out a tragic cry as a terrifying wound appeared on his right chest. The flesh on the wound curled outwards, and blood poured out from it.

The wounds felt numb; they were not very painful and Carlos' limbs did not lose their functions. Therefore, he shouted in a hoarse voice, "Boss, you leave first! I can still hang on!"

But it did not occur to him why the stab wounds did not hurt. It was because the wounds were all covered in a strange circle of black electricity that completely paralysed his nerves.

When the two swords joined together, a dazzling black light burst forth from the combined sword. The black light was full of the aura of death. As the black light got more intense, it gradually turned into sharp claws and a sinister face -- the face of a Sith Lord. The Sith Lord laughed wildly as he extended a clawed palm towards Carlos!

As soon as the Sith Lord materialised, several black rays of electricity shot out from the stab wounds on Carlos' limbs. The black rays bit and clawed at Carlos, paralysing his nerves even further! And when the black rays of electricity merged with the illusionary image of the Sith Lord, the Sith Lord instantly grew more powerful. The Sith Lord turned into a chain-like black serpent and fiercely wrapped around Carlos' throat, strangling him until his eyes turned white!

The punch carried the 'Power of the Sky' which shattered a layer of buff effect surrounding Carlos! The fist smashed Carlos' nose and one of his eyes to smithereens! Carlos was blown away by the punch. It took a long time before the sound of him crashing to the ground like a broken cloth sack was heard.

Right after Carlos landed, the environment hundreds of square meters around them changed bizarrely. The floor was originally hard concrete ground, but it softened and sunk down in an instant, turning into a rotten, dirty, disgusting swamp.

(TL note: From Ch. 665: [ Set ability: Marsh Decay – when dealing damage to the opponent, there's a fixed chance of transforming your nearby surroundings into the environment of the Kijuju Marshland. Reduces movement speed and includes a chance of infection with various pestilences ] )

After that, both of Zi's swords pushed downwards in the air. As her motion concluded, a black hole at least 10 meters in diameter of appeared above Carlos, who had just landed. Inside the black hole was a violent vortex and bolts of lightning that were zapping about wildly.

A terrifying giant foot, bigger than a house, extended out of the black hole. The skin on the foot was purplish red in colour and seemed like it was made of metal. There were only three toes on the foot - but it would be more precise to call them claws. Each claw was half a meter long, very sharp, and shined with a metallic luster.

Zi had displayed her horrifying explosive power this time. The dark green glow on her body kept flashing, and MP poured out of her like water pouring down a waterfall.

The foot of the devil did not disappear after stomping down, but kept kneading and crushing whatever was beneath it. A black aura leaked out of the foot and spread on the ground, slithering like snakes. Howls of agony rose from everywhere, long and eerie, as if hell had descended upon the land!

Even before being stepped on, Carlos was already wrapped up in Zi's 'Force.Magic Chain', a very vicious ability which caused continuous damage, so he had already lost a considerable amount of HP. After he was trampled by the foot of the devil, he was forced to use his honorary dosage.

Reef had already rushed over with his ferocious steel claws raised high, about to attack the paralysed Carlos. Seeing this, Carlos could only do something that he had done many times before, and that was to shout: "BOSS, HELP!!"

He had yet to recover from the injury sustained in the fight against Bind. Having thrown Gungnir two times in succession in his condition, not only had he exhausted his strength, the injury in his body, which had previously been kept in check, was acting up again. Rocky's face right now was as blue as the face of a performer in the Blue Man Group, and the blood vessels on it was visibly bulging. He looked just like a monster.

Carlos fought with all his might to block a few blows for Rocky, and that had won Rocky a few seconds of precious time. Rocky knew that if Carlos died, he would definitely be next, so be it from an emotional or a personal standpoint, he must save Carlos!

In Rocky's peak condition, he would not spare someone like Seaman a second glance. He even thought that the only value of Seaman's existence was to be used by him to deplete Bind's strength. Never could he have dreamed that Seaman would stand in front of him in such a position, at such a time!

"We meet again, Mr. Rocky," Sheyan extended his hands to both sides and bowed politely in the dark. "I know the most precious thing to you right now is time. Your body needs time to recover, your ability needs time to cool down, your companion needs time to dig a way through this blocked tunnel."

Rocky's gaze gradually turned cold. He slowly raised his hand to grip at Gungnir on his back. The powerful holy lance was fiercely trembling, groaning while emitting a white glow. The glow condensed into the form of little angels, which slowly disappeared afterwards.

Sheyan's lips curled into a faint smile. "I'm looking forward to it... Or maybe we can have another talk? I don't mind chatting with you for a little longer. I mean it, because wasting time is actually quite beneficial to me. First, my companion should be able to get rid of that guy named Carlos soon. Second, my viruses also need a little time to spread."

At the mention of viruses, Rocky's pupils abruptly shrank. His figure turned blurry, and he had suddenly arrived in front of Sheyan in a totally incomprehensible way. He instantly slammed his knee into Sheyan!

With a loud bang, the white holy flame around Rocky's body exploded and ignited everything around him. Even water and rocks became its fuel. Sheyan was blown back to the ground. The white flame twisted around his body and gnawed at his flesh and blood like hungry snakes. His body hissed as it burned.

The white flame made his palm hiss, but black tendrils kept repairing the injury! Sheyan slowly climbed back up from the ground while exerting more strength with his hands, pushing Gungnir back bit by bit. His lips curled into a mysterious smile as he stared at Rocky. Word by word, he said, "Didn't expect this, did you? A tiny little ant like me, forcing you into such a dire situation."

Rocky sank his shoulders low and charged into a melee fight with Sheyan. Blood and white flame splashed intensely as both men launched a mad flurry of attacks at the same time. Although Rocky's attacks fell on Sheyan like rain, Sheyan retained his calm. His occasional counter-attacks were very effective, forcing Rocky to be wary of going all out.

Rocky suddenly saw an opportunity and immediately stabbed his lance forward fiercely. Like a dazzling flash of lightning, the lance pierced into Sheyan's chest. Holy light and blood burst forth, and the sound of hymns rose, making for a tragically magnificent sight.

But Sheyan also managed to seize an opening after Rocky had used all his might to perform that strike. He punched Rocky in the face, forcing Rocky to retreat covering his bleeding nose. Rocky thought that the blow would be enough to bring Sheyan down, but after Sheyan had staggered back a few steps, he regained his balance and sneered at Rocky. He grabbed Gungnir and pulled it out, then made a beckoning gesture at Rocky!

Gungnir, being a legendary weapon, instantly returned to Rocky's hands after it was pulled out, but when Rocky saw Sheyan smirking so indifferently, his face twitched. He no longer attacked, but slowly lowered his head and said, "I admit that I was wrong about you, but that doesn't mean you can act impudent in front of me!"

"The gap between an Awakener and a Temperer is comparable to the gap between a normal contestant and a Growth Hunter! Tremble under the terror of a Temperer, you weakling!"

With every word that left Rocky's mouth, a fierce, restless power could be felt in the air. The flesh and blood of those around became the nutrient for that power! With every beat of the heart, the power also throbbed and grew!

The cracking of bone joints could be heard coming from Rocky's right hand. The hand then deformed and expanded. A mixture of thick and fine breathing could be heard from around the right hand.

"Everyone has a way of fighting most suitable for them in theory, based on their own characteristics, but the normal shape of the human body is only the most basic version of a biological weapon! To exert your greatest strength, you must have the most suitable fighting form, and an Awakener is someone who can already grasp at the edge of the most suitable fighting form for themself!!"

His right hand, which was holding Gungnir, had become huge and deformed. The muscles swelled, evidently containing terrifying explosive strength. But although the right hand was huge and deformed, it somehow looked to be in harmony with Rocky's body as a whole, just like an elephant's unusually long trunk, or a squirrel's unusually fluffy tail, or a giant ape's unusually long arms....

At the same time, a loud noise came from within the 50-meter long rubble heap in the collapsed tunnel, followed by an explosion! An enlarged Steel File rigidly stepped out from the midst of the flying dust and smoke, like a robot. The mutated part of Steel File was actually his back. At a glance, he looked like he had a hump on his back! His two shields were now positioned on his broadened, thickened shoulders, as if they were embedded there, one on the left and one on the right. Every now and then, parts around his body would shine like the polished surface of a diamond!

When the two Temperers showed their true power and joined hands, the terrible pressure they brought was beyond words. Party Ace had killed Carlos with their collective effort, but the situation had suddenly taken an abrupt turn. The three were now sandwiched in the middle by two Temperers. They had turned from the hunters to the hunted in the blink of an eye!

Who was Rocky? A man who achieved the milestone for the 'Hundred-Man Kill' title; someone with extremely rich experience in fights against other contestants! The moment he realised that the enemies' attention was diverted by Steel File's appearance, he instantly let Gungnir fly once more!

An exceptionally fierce light burst forth, and three rays of illusionary light curved forward, creating explosions in the air that were so deafening that it sounded as if the sky was falling apart.

The speed and force of the three rays of illusionary light could not be described with mere words. Anyone who so much as glanced at them would feel their body burning, as if the light should not have existed in the mortal world at all!

The light flashed and went out as if it had never existed, but Reef was already half-kneeling on the ground. There were three visible holes on his dark gold shield, and surrounding the holes were fractures like the patterns on a tortoise shell.

However, this particular attack was not something that Rocky could easily perform. The attack was called 'Will of the Gods', and it was a killer move akin to Sheyan's 'Beast of Corrosion'. In fact, the cost of activating it was even higher than the 'Beast of Corrosion'!

[ 'Will of the Gods' -- Launch three rays of illusionary images of Gungnir to inflict heavy, mixed-type damage to an enemy (lightning type + true damage). This attack will not miss and will penetrate through the enemy's defence. After inflicting damage, the attack will leave a 'Mark of Light' on the enemy, causing all damages suffered by the enemy for the next 2 seconds to multiply by 2. The effect of 'Mark of Light' can stack. ]

Because Rocky's skill level was not high enough, he could not aim all three rays on the same target yet, so he had actually aimed his attacks on Reef, Sheyan and Zi at the same time, but Reef had used 'Holy Grasp' to pull Sheyan and Zi behind him..... But the rays had homing capabilities! As a result, all three rays pierced into Reef in succession!

The damage done by the rays of illusionary images was astonishing, but it was actually not that bad for Reef. However, the second ray came after the first. Not only was its damage doubled, the effect of 'Mark of Light' stacked, becoming x4! And when the third ray penetrated into Reef's body, the damage became shockingly high! Furthermore, it happened to trigger an explosive strike!

Rocky obviously did not expect this result either, but he reacted to it very quickly. He pressed his hand to his chest, and with a loud bang, the smell of ozone filled the air. Three pumpkin-sized electric balls hovered around him, rotating slowly and completely blocking off this end of the tunnel. On the other end, Steel File approached with heavy steps. The two "mercenaries" behind him watched on with evil grins on their faces.

"I'm a merciful person, so I'll give you the chance to say your last words even though you've just killed a brother of mine!" Every word Rocky uttered was firm and resolute. A huge cross rose behind him, healing his injury. "Don't even think for a second that you can escape with the help of that guy with earth-element power who's hiding in the rocks! I don't mind telling you that Steel File's power completely suppresses his!"

But surprisingly, Sheyan's face broke into a smile. "Quit your bullsh*t. You think I don't know that you're stalling for time? Stop acting like letting us say a few words is an act of such great mercy."

Rocky's gaze turned sharp and his expression became more vicious, because Sheyan's words were right on the money! Rocky considered himself a man with great foresight, but for the first time in his life, he met someone who could completely see through him!

"This man can't leave here alive," Rocky spoke seriously in the party communication channel. Then, as if afraid that the others had not heard him clearly, he repeated it again.

But at this moment, Sheyan's mouth suddenly curled into a strange smile. He said to Rocky, "I actually know that you're using this chance to take medicines and recover, and yet, I'm still willing to waste time talking to you. Why's that?"

Rocky's pupils contracted sharply. Sheyan laughed and continued, "Because I need to stall for time even more than you do, to wait for my preparations to complete! Hahaha, this battle has been worth it just for the sake of finally witnessing the true strength of Temperers. But how long can this battle form of yours last? Okay, the first half is over! We'll commence the second half of the fight in thirty minutes!"

As soon as Sheyan's words concluded, everyone there felt their eardrums vibrating slightly. Then, a tiny, hard-to-describe noise, like the sound of the air being compressed rapidly, transmitted into their ears. The noise was faint and intermittent at first, but in merely a few seconds, it turned grand and powerful!

Then, a damp smell seeped into their noses. The noise became thunder-like, coming from all directions at the same time like a surging tide. Gravel rolled down the cracks in the walls.

The next second, muddy water gushed over from the distance like a dragon, flooding the area. All of a sudden, everyone there found themselves submerged in an intense and rapid turbulence.

It must be noted that this underground tunnel was built to connect to an underwater city. It was nearly ten meters in height and was wide enough for four trucks to travel abreast! Yet the fierce, turbulent water had actually filled the whole tunnel!

Yes, this was the emergency measure Sheyan had arranged in advance, a measure carried out with 47 pumps which he had mobilised using his newly obtained authority. All the while, the young cyclops Kulutego had been planting explosives within the rocks, while Sanzi had stayed at the command centre, patiently waiting for Sheyan's order to release the water!

The deserted land of Kekexili may seem dry, but it was actually surrounded by snowy mountains. The underground city was designed with this in mind. Having been put to work for such a long time, the forty-seven high-power pumps had already stored a huge amount of water. As soon as the water was let loose, it completely flooded the underground tunnels.

Although the first wave of the water was extremely violent, as long as one could stabilise oneself, they would be able to adapt to the water afterwards. But having put so much effort into this escape plan, Sheyan surely wished for it to be as perfect as possible. Therefore, at least half the water content was mud. It was even muddier than the Yellow River. If a person who was not familiar with moving in this kind of water tried to force their eyes open, their eyes would surely be rubbed full of sand.

Since all of them were forced to close their eyes while being submerged in water, the biggest advantage went to the people who were familiar with underwater environment, followed by the people with high Perceptive Sense. Sheyan fulfilled both criteria, bringing his advantage to the maximum. He also had help from Kulutego. As soon as water flooded the tunnel, the two of them instantly helped Reef and Zi hide inside the stone wall next to them.

Of course this blow could not kill Sheyan, but it did make him struggle in the water and spit out a mouthful of blood! His eyes even began to turn white slowly. Rocky squinted and was barely able to see Sheyan. He was overjoyed with what he saw. But Sheyan immediately tried to break away after that. Rocky knew that once Sheyan managed to distance himself in the muddy water, it would be difficult to catch him again, so he instantly stretched out his hand to grab Sheyan.

Sheyan panicked, not willing to be caught by Rocky, while Rocky refused to let go. During the tug of war, Sheyan suddenly smirked ominously. Rocky was stunned, but before he could react, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. His head had been slammed by a rock in the water.

The visibility under the water was only about one to two meters. There was a lot of white foam in the murky, yellowish water. If one looked carefully, one would also see all kinds of garbage in the water, including plastic bags, fruit skins and tampons. When the staff received Sheyan's order to make the water turbid, they probably did not stop at adding soil into the water, but also dumped all their domestic garbage which had not been transported out for a long time into it.

Within the turbid yellow water that gushed and swirled, countless little bubbles escaped from Rocky's mouth. Taking the chance of Rocky being suddenly hit on the head, Sheyan grabbed Rocky's right hand and slammed his head into Rocky's nose.

A bright red smoke-like trail instantly came out of Rocky's nose. He was really close to Sheyan at the moment, so the both of them madly attacked each other in a frenzy. Gungnir may be powerful, but it could not fully display its might in this kind of close quarter combat.

More importantly, a fight under the water was radically different from a fight on the ground. Movement underwater would be affected by the resistance in the water, and breathing would also be greatly restricted. That was why the training program of professional special forces often contained underwater combat training.

As a Temperer, Rocky's adaptability and fighting capability were no doubt stronger than that of ordinary humans. It would not take long before he would get used to fighting under the water, but since Sheyan had worked so hard to create this opportunity, how could he give Rocky the time to get used to it? After fighting for dozens of seconds, Sheyan quickly gained the upper hand.

Suddenly, the blue veins on Rocky's forehead bulged, and a powerful force erupted from his body. His deformed right arm came swinging horizontally, its speed several times faster than his previous attacks. Rocky suddenly spread his palm and pressed it to Sheyan's chest.

In the middle of his palm was a clear symbol that was glowing with a blue light. The light was flowing like waves. The symbol flew straight out and firmly adhered itself to Sheyan's chest.

One might not know the meaning of this symbol, but anyone who laid eyes upon it could surely sense the profound and dignified feeling leaking out from it, like they were facing a towering mountain. This symbol was actually a divine text. Its meaning was "punishment"!!

As soon as the "punishment" symbol appeared, Sheyan was instantly blown back by more than ten meters. Even if the water was turbulent and muddy, it could not mask the symbol's blue glow. Thus, Sheyan instantly became a vivid and prominent target!

More shocking were the large amount of blue electric current left on the bloody hole in Sheyan's chest. The strands of electricity gripped the wound like shackles, stubbornly interrupting his recovery like the most vicious curse! They even tried to burrow into the blood vessels in Sheyan's chest, but that immediately triggered a counterattack from the 'Stairway of the Sun'.

After that throw, Rocky's right arm instantly shrunk back to its previous size, while Rocky himself appeared to be out of breath, as evident from the abundance of bubbles which escaped from his mouth together with strands of dark blood. His expression showed that he was exhausted. Evidently, his transformation had reached the time limit and had come to an end.

The weird blue colour which he had been suppressing immediately lashed back and spread to his entire body in an instant. Even his hair had turned an indigo blue. Then, the weird blue rapidly disappeared. It had completely corroded everything on the surface and was now turning inside towards his internal organs!!

Rocky trembled violently from head to toe. He looked as weak as an ordinary man who had just finished a 10,000-meter marathon. But at that moment, he suddenly saw Sheyan, who previously laid stiff in the water, jolt into motion. Sheyan opened his eyes again and looked towards Rocky with a fiery gaze! Then, like a fish swimming in water, Sheyan pounced towards Rocky to once again haunt him like a vengeful spirit.

"Sh*t!! How is he still alive!?!?" Rocky was absolutely shocked. Based on his assumption, Sheyan should have used his honorary dosage previously, so after receiving this spear attack, even if he did not enter a state of near death, he should not have much HP left. But contrary to Rocky's expectations, Sheyan actually still dared to fight back?!

Once again, they were tangled up as if they were wounded beasts, roaring at each other while tearing each other's bodies apart. In this situation, Sheyan still had the advantage. Although his head was hit hard by Rocky again, he also managed to give Rocky's stomach a fierce punch. The pain made Rocky groan, but that only resulted in him swallowing gulps of cold, muddy water. More blood mixed into the water and drifted away.

The water was still turbulent, but after the two were washed so far away, the water was not enough to fill up the entire underground tunnel anymore. That is to say, there was now air near the top of the tunnel.

Rocky did not have any bonuses or proficiencies in underwater combat, so he was already on the verge of running out of air. After all, underwater combat was a particularly oxygen-consuming activity. He immediately tried to struggle free to swim up for air. But how could Sheyan allow him to do that? He instantly attacked like he had gone crazy. When he saw that Rocky was beginning to get desperate, he stabbed a pair of fingers into Rocky's eyes!

Although Gungnir was not that useful in close combat, it was worthy of its name as a powerful legendary grade weapon. At that instant, it suddenly flashed, and a cross that was filled with a holy vibe appeared from its surface to float mid-water. The cross was the soul of the Lance of Longinus, coming out to cause trouble for Sheyan!

This thing seemed to be able to sense its wielder's crisis. The cross made up of milky white light projected an extremely condensed ray of light towards Sheyan's fingers. However, Sheyan's dexterity in water was no inferior to that on the ground. Sheyan's hand shifted to the side by borrowing the flow of the water current, then continued stabbing towards Rocky's eyes.

But when the ray of light missed, it actually refracted in the water and turned back to shine on Sheyan's fingers. A holy flame rose and burned Sheyan's fingers black. The finger poke that was sure to find its target also lost its accuracy because of that. Rocky slapped the water in a frenzy, desperately trying to swim to the cavity at the top to take in a precious breath of air!

However, Sheyan's prowess in water was not to be underestimated. A person's weight would be greatly reduced underwater due to buoyancy, and that was something that was difficult for other people to adapt to, but for Sheyan, it simply meant that his dexterity had increased.

Even though his initial attack was thwarted, he immediately reacted by borrowing the external force. With a flip of his wrist, his hand shot forward like a bolt of lightning!

Sheyan's hand carried such strength that it produced numerous bubbles in the water as it moved. He instantly seized Rocky's ankle and pulled him down with force! His hand was like a fierce shark that had opened its jaws wide to bite and pull its prey down into the deep sea!

Rocky's mouth was centimeters away from the water surface, but before he could reach it, he was dragged down by Sheyan's vicious hand! His chest felt so tight that it seemed like it was about to burst. The injury caused by Bind worsened even more. But Rocky had to endure the unbearable desire to inhale. He knew that if he gave in and sucked water into his lungs, even if he was on the ground, he would be coughing for several minutes afterwards, not to mention the chain reaction that would happen underwater.

If any one of these four situations was possible, Rocky had the utmost confidence of killing Sheyan for sure! But all these factors combined forced Rocky into such a miserable state!

Rocky's struggled violently under a severe lack of oxygen, but he knew that all this water had most likely been accumulated in haste, so the flood probably would not last very long. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to persevere until the very end.

Sheyan saw the opportunity and smashed down at Rocky's head hard. Then, he clutched Rocky's throat and slammed his head into the rocky wall nearby. Rocky's mouth and nose were already above the water level by now, but because his throat was being choked by Sheyan, he still had difficulty breathing. Without paying heed to anything else, he focused all his attention and strength on prying open Sheyan's grip on his neck.

When Rocky finally managed to inhale a desperate gulp of fresh air, he suddenly felt a warmth beside his ear. A gentle voice whispered, "You must be wondering why Bind didn't use Evil Sword Apophis in his fight against you."

When Rocky finally inhaled oxygen after a long period of suffocation, his body would temporarily feel soft and devoid of energy. This was caused by his muscles relaxing by instinct. When he heard what Sheyan said, his heart instantly sank!

"You sure had a great time stabbing me repeatedly with Gungnir. It'd be rude of me if I don't pay that back. Have a taste of the power of my legendary weapon.... Have a taste of the power of 'Extinction'!!!!!"

But Rocky had fought against Bind more than once before, so he had some experience in dealing with 'Extinction'. A silver cross immediately flew out of Gungnir to protect him. The weapon soul of the Lance of Longinus was worthy of its name. The holy light enclosed his body without a single gap like a transparent shield. In fact, it had even greater protective power than a shield. It was the 'Shield of Breaking Evil', and it had additional protective effect against special attacks like 'Extinction'.

Despite his fatigue, Rocky still managed to execute a whole series of defensive moves. Sheyan did not hesitate. Without another word, he took out 'Verdict' and pulled the trigger!

Rocky almost coughed up blood. To defend against a holy type attack with a holy light barrier was as good as using no barrier at all! The act Sheyan's previously put up was simply too realistic, but that turned out to be a feint! Rocky did not expect Sheyan to pull out such a move!

Fortunately for Rocky, he was favoured by the weapon soul of the Lance of Longinus, which also had holy affinity like 'Verdict' and was even one grade higher. So, when 'Verdict' judged Rocky as a heretic, it was only half effective. The damage caused by the shot was astonishingly low compared to usual, but luckily, the five seconds of stun retained its effect in full.

Sheyan took a deep breath. Bones crackled all over his body, the noise sudden and continuous. The water around him splashed about violently. When the noise reached its climax, the blood vessels on his right arm protruded like raging green dragons, and his muscles visibly swelled.

When Rocky heard Sheyan shout 'Extinction', his heart tightened once again, and he could not help but block his head with his hands instinctively. Under the perverse destructive power of 'Extinction', vital spots which were fatal without the protection of the Realm's digitalisation, such as the head, must be closely guarded.

Sheyan's fist hit Rocky in the chest, breaking it open and making a depression in it. The mouthful of blood Rocky spat out even contained fragments of his internal organs. The blood also had a bluish tint, showing that he was not only hurt from the outside, but also carried internal injuries. While enduring Sheyan's furious attack, he was also in a fight against the remnant of Bind's power inside his body!

A person's blood was produced by their bone marrow. If even his blood had turned blue, it showed that Bind's remnant power had already infiltrated deep into Rocky's bone marrow.

But Rocky was not finished yet. After all, he was a monster with the 'Hundred-Man Kill' title. Though his vision had turned dark after taking Sheyan's punch, he still react quickly. He clenched his teeth and swung Gungnir horizontally.

The horizontal sweep of the glorious legendary spear could be considered to be both an offensive and defensive move. If Sheyan continued to attack, he would have to eat this blow.

The reason this short moment to catch his breath was so precious was because they could both clearly hear the sound of the water rushing out in the distance. Obviously, the underground tunnel had come to an end ahead, so there was an outlet for the water.

For Sheyan, it meant that the terrain advantage he had so painstakingly created would disappear. As for Rocky, once he stepped onto solid ground, he would no longer have anything to fear of Sheyan. After all, Sheyan was also exhausted. Rocky's companions that had been washed outside by the water would certainly come to his aid quickly. He would surely escape then!

But a cold sensation suddenly washed over Rocky. The water was melted from the snow on the snowy mountains around, so its temperature was around zero. However, contestants had different physique from normal people, and he was in a fierce fight, so the blood in his body was flowing intensely. Why would he suddenly feel so cold?

Rocky immediately sensed that something was amiss. Only when he shifted his attention to his surroundings did he realise that the water around him had turned dark black in colour, and it was so cold that the chill seemed to creep into his bones. The water current had become a thick tentacles that wrapped around his body!

Sheyan's face had become unusually pale. His eyes were deeply sunken due to excessive blood loss, but they were still burning bright with determination. As he roared, the powerful 'Beast of Corrosion' entangled more tightly around Rocky's body.

The 'Beast of Corrosion' bound Rocky's body so tightly that it produced noises. Blood sprayed out of Rocky's mouth, a mixture of black and blue in colour, and spread over the water five or six meters in front of him in a fan shape.

Despite that, Rocky laughed hysterically. "You can't kill me, Seaman! I have the soul of the Lance of Longinus to protect me, and it comes with the passive healing ability 'Inner Vitality'! The lower my HP, the faster the healing effect! Your diseases won't kill me, and this kind of damage won't kill me either! You won't be able to kill me unless you can really use the power of 'Extinction' on the Evil Sword Apophis! But how's that possible for a trash like you? As if a trash like you can erase the soul imprint on Apophis!"

While Rocky was laughing out loud, the water flow carried him to the exit of the underground tunnel. He was instantly greeted by the blue sky, white clouds and dazzling sunshine outside. Underneath the entrance was a small yellowish pond which had just been formed. The drop to the pond was only about 5 meters in distance. The fall was no big deal even for an ordinary person.

The sunlight that carried intense ultraviolet rays felt extraordinarily warm to Rocky. A fire rose in his heart -- from the hatred, from the pain, and from the humiliation!!

Rocky's lips curled into a contemptuous sneer. The punch had neither momentum nor strength behind it. It looked to him like a final, futile struggle, born out of Sheyan's unwillingness to give up. He simply let the fist land on his chest.

But right after the fist made contact, Rocky immediately turned stiff. A terrifying crimson glow had suddenly erupted from the fist. Time seemed to have stopped at that moment, as if they were both in a pitch black alternate dimension. With the struck spot as the core, the crimson light split into countless lines which weaved and intersected around Rocky's body, making countless crimson boxes!

Rocky screamed. His body could no longer support him and completely blew apart! Under the dazzling sunlight, with the blue sky and white clouds as backdrops, the mass of blood-curdling crimson mist appeared particularly tragic! In the end, the red mist formed a cross. For some reason, it gave Sheyan a very uncomfortable feeling.

Sheyan jumped into the pond below in a hurry. He could not even keep his balance when he jumped, so his belly caught water first. A large amount of muddy water splattered about. He climbed to the shore gasping for air. Every inch of his body hurt.

Rocky's difficulty to deal with was beyond Sheyan's expectation. He had become unspeakably monstrous after he acquired the 'Inner Vitality' passive ability through the Lance of Longinus' soul. The lower his HP, the faster the speed of his recovery.

If even that 'Extinction' strike could not kill him, Sheyan would probably....not be dead either. After all, 'Death's Lament' was perversely strong too. However, he would probably have to run away with his tail between his legs.

[ You and your party will receive additional war rewards! However, you will also attract the attention of the Realm which the victim belonged to, and may be subjected to further assaults! ]

[ You are awarded an additional 50 achievement points, and each member of your party will be awarded 25 achievement points. This reward is not affected by this world's restriction on achievement point rewards. ]

[ Your loot is being randomly selected. The loot will be randomly selected from the equipment owned by the contestant you killed, and will be randomly assigned to someone in your party. ]

[ Warning! Warning! An anomaly has occurred in the data! The reason for the anomaly is because among the victim's data, there are four soul-bound equipment that are still functional!! ]

At this very moment, within the turbulence of time and space somewhere far away, a colossal Nightmare Realm floated in space. Its blood-red pipelines extended like tentacles tens of kilometers long. It was dignified, gigantic and awe-inspiring!

Sheyan's 'Unmodeled Amniotank' was already a crystallisation of the peak of science and technology, but compared to this capsule, it was a difference between heaven and earth. The former was akin to the scribbles of naughty children, while the latter was like a complicated machine produced by the combined efforts of hundreds of development teams. There were even some flesh-like parts around the capsule which appeared to be organic. It was very strange and sophisticated.

Intense flashes of electricity suddenly appeared around the capsule. Such strong electricity should carry a fierce sense of killing and destruction, but this electricity mysteriously had a feeling of vitality!

Technically speaking, this was actually an easily explainable phenomenon. It is well known that the forming of carbon-based life-forms is inseparable from the organic matters that are amino acids. The Earth is said to have originated from the Big Bang and was only a large sphere of flowing magma in the beginning. There were certainly no organic matter on Earth back then.

So where did the first organic matter come from? This is, in a way, a study into the origin of life. In 1953, a graduate student in the United States named Miller conducted the now famous Miller's experiment, a chemical experiment that simulated the production of organic matter (especially amino acids) by electric sparks (lightning) in what was thought at the time to be the simulated reducing atmosphere of early Earth. It was an experiment which tested the chemical origin of life.

This experiment proved that lightning can synthesise more complex organic compounds from simpler inorganic precursors. So, although lightning has its destructive side, it can actually breed life too.

"Warning! Dimensional turbulence is frequently occurring around the target world, so the probability of successful implementation of Plan A is no higher than 30%! Switching to Plan B as per the owner's pre-programmed setting."

"Warning! Warning! The implementation of Plan B will cause this cultivation capsule to go into overload. Energy leakage, explosions, electric current lashing and other problems will occur. This device will completely lose its function afterwards. Please stay at least 20 meters away from the device. Commencing countdown. Ten, nine, eight..."

The red light on the cultivation capsule blinked at an alarming speed under the fierce flow of electricity. Then, unbelievably thick trails of white electric current started to beat about violently as if they had gone berserk!

The man inside the capsule sat up in a hurry, breaking through the cover of the capsule. He closed his eyes and screamed wildly while his facial muscles twitched. His chest fluctuated so hard that it seemed like a bellows. But he soon calmed down and slowly opened his eyes.

"Unfortunately, the dimensional turbulence around the 2012 world is too strong, so only my soul could be sent back. My 'Coffin of the Queen of Blades' had to go into overload and is now completely destroyed as a result. Damn it, damn it! Even the soul of the Lance of Longinus has been destroyed! I'm going to kill that bastard!!!!"

[ Description: This cultivation cabin was once used by the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan. It contains great powers, but unfortunately, these powers are leaking away and only Her Majesty can recharge them. ]

[ Note: It can save you once or twice, but there is no way it can save you three, four or five times, so please leave this damn Realm as soon as possible. Cherish your life and stop fighting. ]

[ Note: Even a damaged 'Coffin of the Queen of Blades' coffin is still very valuable. It can be traded for a large number of utility points like a common war trophy, or can be gifted to the Realm in exchange for a large amount of potential points. You can also let the Realm keep it permanently in exchange for an astonishing amount of achievement points as compensation. ]

"Hmph, that Seaman dude must be coveting my Gungnir. Ha-ha, unfortunately for him, my soul survived, so all the equipment bound to my soul should essentially be bound still and definitely wouldn't be randomly selected as loot. Hmmm, let me think.... I don't think I have anything too valuable on me except for those four soul-bound equipment. Oh, wait! There's that thing that Steel File asked me to keep in the party storage! I haven't had time to store it yet! Don't tell me it's gone now!"

[ Warning! Warning! An anomaly has occurred in the data! The reason for the anomaly is because among the victim's data, there are four soul-bound equipment that are still functional!! ]

[ Data organisation complete. Awakener No. 1018, the soul of the Temperer you killed has survived, so the soul effect on the equipment still remains. The soul-binding will take effect. Your loot selection will continue, but the four soul-bound equipment will not be among the selection. ]

[ As compensation, the scope of the loot selection will be extended to the item slots, and the quality of the items entering the selection will be no lower than S-grade or legendary grade. ]

[ 'Pandora's Box': A rare item that is mysterious and weird to the extreme. Legend has it that this treasure box can satisfy any desire, but may also bring endless disaster. ]

He had already anticipated that Rocky would not be that easy to kill. He could not have promoted to the rank of a Major General if he was. A monster like him would definitely have his own unique life-saving measures.

Since Sheyan was able to destroy him in this world, forcing him to escape with only his soul, then his new body was likely a clone which he had long kept safe in his Realm. His strength would thus be reduced to what it was a couple of worlds before. It was equivalent to causing a sharp regression in the enemy's strength.

Meanwhile, Sheyan himself was making great strides forward. With a negative growth on one side and a positive growth on the other, the strength disparity between the two sides would be pulled closer. The next time they met, Sheyan should be able to confront him head-on.

The newly-obtained 'Pandora's Box' was a rhombus-shaped box about 50 centimeters high. As if it could ignore the force of gravity, only its sharp bottom tip was in contact with the ground while the box itself hung in the air. The box was mainly bronze in colour, looking as if it had seen a lot of history. On each tip was a transparent oval gemstone about the size of a fist. The gemstones consisted of lapis, rutile, phantom and trigonal crystals, all of which were extremely powerful in boosting mana.

There were some curvy scripts on the surface of the box, filled with a majestic feeling, but mortals could not recognise their significance because they were the divine text told in the legends. Figures of flowers, lightning, priestesses in white robes, Ivory marbles and other illusions would occasionally appear around 'Pandora's Box', delicate and lifelike.

The offering of sacrifices could be done through a little black hole which would appear from time to time on top of the box. According to the description on the 'Pandora's Box', the owner can open the box at any time to try their luck. For some reason, when Sheyan obtained the 'Pandora's Box', he had a feeling that the activities within the box were moving faster than before. The gems around the box were even heating up, so active that they emitted a soft glow. When the glow from all the gemstones combined together, they were so bright that they could even compete with the sunlight.

The worn-out Sheyan did not dare to stay in the water outlet for too long, lest Steel File and the rest of Rocky's team come to him. Sheyan had used up all his tricks and was already half dead, so he had no energy left to fight with them right now. When the water level dropped, he returned to the underground tunnels and hid inside, waiting for his companions to come find him.

There was only less than 20 minutes before the mission would come to an end. In other words, it was already impossible for Rocky's team to come back to finish the task, so Party Ace were rather free at the moment. When Zi held the 'Pandora's Box', she found that it was actually absorbing her MP. Since she was enjoying her teammates' protection at the moment, she simply let it be.

As a result, after absorbing about a third of Zi's MP, an illusionary image of a small hourglass appeared above the 'Pandora's Box' next to the little black hole to offer sacrifices. There was a percentage displayed next to the hourglass. It was currently showing 79%.

Sheyan enquired with the Realm about it and after paying a fee, he received confirmation that this percentage represented the scale of the sacrifice. The greater the scale of the sacrifice, the more extreme the surprise or disaster would be when the box was finally opened.

Sheyan pondered for a while, then tried to offer some unimportant things as sacrifices. However, this experiment did more harm than good. The 'Pandora's Box' appeared to dislike some of the things he offered and had repelled them back out of the black hole. The sacrifice percentage had even dropped down to 78%.

After some considerations, Sheyan gritted his teeth and offered the 'Goldpearl of the Caribbean Sea', the 'Aberration Horcrux', and the 'Hogwarts Sorting Hat' in one go. The scale of the sacrifice was finally raised to 80%. But strangely, it seemed that 80% was the limit; it would not increase any further.

The astonishing cost Steel File must have paid to raise the sacrificial percentage from 0% to 78% was evident from this. However, it only benefitted Sheyan in the end.

At that moment, Sheyan suddenly saw the 'Pandora's Egg' that he acquired in the hidden world of Resident Evil glow with a strange light. It suddenly occurred to Sheyan: 'Pandora's Box', 'Pandora's Egg'! There must be a special connection between the two!

First came the indescribable fragrance. This should be the fragrance that Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, bestowed upon Pandora to make all men go crazy for her.

The illusions around 'Pandora's Box' became vivid again. Sheyan and his party could smell a strong fragrance in the air. Illusionary white pigeons flew around the box. An apple tree with silvery branches and leaves grew and finally produced golden apples that were so heavy that they almost dragged the branches to the ground. Goats and sheep with long white hair and white bulls with golden horns walked about leisurely...

"We must open it now!" Sheyan could clearly sense that the energy inside the box had climbed to its peak, but when this opportunity passed, the energy would slowly drop back down to 80%.

But although the energy had reached its peak, opening the 'Pandora's Box' may not necessarily be a good thing because the box itself was a very uncertain object. Opening it may result in something good or something bad, and because its energy had reached its peak, the final result may be very extreme.

Hence, the best candidate to open the box was no doubt Sheyan or Reef because the two of them would probably still survive even in the worst case scenario. But Sanzi suddenly placed his hand on 'Pandora's Box' and looked at Sheyan earnestly.

"We can let big brother Reef prepare his 'Holy Grasp' in advance. I'll open the box when I count down to zero, and then big brother Reef can pull me over half a second later."

What happened next was pretty much expected. Sanzi reached out to 'Pandora's Box' and pushed it open! At the moment the box was opened, all the illusions around the box were absorbed back inside.

Next came the most thrilling and frustrating scene. Reef dragged Sanzi 30 meters away with 'Holy Grasp', but....for some reason, Sanzi was actually still holding on to 'Pandora's Box'! The box was pulled together with him!

Everyone exchanged glances with each other. This cooperation was a major failure. Fortunately, the box was already opened, so they figured that even if it was something bad, it had already happened. They could no longer escape anyway. They quickly crowded around 'Pandora's Box' to take a look and saw that the box had become transparent. The whole box then rapidly sunk inwards until it turned into a bright speck. Finally, what emerged in front of them was a very peculiar scroll.

The scroll had a thick feel and texture. From behind, it looked no different from any other sheepskin parchment, but after flipping it over, the front side of the scroll was actually rippling like the surface of water. No matter which angle one looked at it from, the image reflected on it would be of the person holding the scroll!

[ Description: I have heard the desire in your heart. You wish to become stronger. Given the abundance of your sacrifices, I bestow this scroll filled with blood and power upon you. Only the scalp of the ancient goddess Crete can bear the Divine Painting of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and lust, from her glory days. ]

[ Hint: The stronger your personal attributes, the more powerful the S-rank/Legendary-rank ability would be. As soon as the ability is acquired, this item will be destroyed. Please use it when you're in your best condition. ]

[ Warning: Do not blaspheme a god's dignity. A god's gift can be taken through victory, but cannot be blasphemously traded as goods. Therefore, only those who are truly entitled to own the scroll can open it. Otherwise, they will be punished by god. ]

If he wanted to strengthen himself now, his first choice would be to strengthen the abilities he already had, such as acquiring powerful diseases like SARS as quickly as possible. The next choice was to upgrade or unseal his equipment like 'Chris Redfield's Lucky Bracelet'. He also did not forget that he had a 'Major General's Blood Armour' waiting for him upon the promotion of his military rank.

Therefore, Sheyan originally wished to let Zi use this scroll. Zi had not acquired her Awakening Skill yet. Although her Force attacks were versatile and ever-changing, she lacked an explosive skill to finish the enemy with. Unfortunately, that did not seem possible now. He would have to use the scroll himself.

Sheyan did not intend to activate the scroll yet because they had already used up a lot of their buffing medicines and skills. He would only reach his best possible state after returning to the Realm. In addition, activating the scroll in the Realm meant he could get timely treatment in case of any accidents.

Sheyan leaped up with excitement and then heaved a long sigh of relief. A group of medical staff slowly pushed Dr. W inside. Presently, Dr. W could only lie on a sick bed with his eyes peacefully closed. The smell of aging and death emanated from his body, but he smiled when he saw Party Ace.

Dr. W handed the 'Endless Vodka' to Sheyan, then closed his eyes with a smile. Faint snoring sounds came from him after that. He was really tired. Although he knew he might not wake up from this sleep, but he had a very happy expression on his face.

The reward of all attributes + 5 was no doubt absolutely incredible for anyone who was a Growth Hunter or higher. It was equivalent to at least 50 free attribute points.

Unfortunately, Party Ace had utilised the power of storyline characters to ward off the enemies. Otherwise, they could have achieved the maximum completion rate, and the reward for that might have been all attributes + 7, or even + 10.

By his judgment, Party Ace must rely on the power of storyline characters to have enough strength to go up against Rocky. Otherwise, no matter how lucky they were or how much advantage they had, it would still be courting death.

Less than an hour after completing the mission, Mr. G came to them with a group of people. He had kept his promise and had brought Party Ace the three national treasures, the cultural works of art they needed to collect -- "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", "Ghost Valley Downhill" and "Heirloom Seal of the Realm".

The authentic "Preface to the Poems Collected from the Orchid Pavilion" was originally rumoured to be hidden in the mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of Tang, but after a best-selling novel popularised tomb-raiding, the authentic relic was found and had fallen into the hands of Mr. Gu, a very rich yet very low-profile man in Taiwan. The one currently in the Palace Museum was only a copy.

The "Ramayana Engraving" was India's national treasure and had already been packed up. It was scheduled to be taken aboard one of the arks in 36 hours. Its current location was in the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. However, it was very tightly guarded.

Both sides were in a hurry in this critical period before a crisis. Party Ace naturally did not have time to waste while an important person like Mr. G normally had to plan his time down to the minute. When the handover was complete, the two sides prepared to part ways after a brief exchange of words.

But just before they left, Mr. G suddenly told them, "You people have mysterious origins and have all kinds of peculiar abilities. In terms of your personal strength, you have already reached the pinnacle of human beings. It's truly amazing. Unfortunately, all the people like you that we've come into contact with have shown a strong hostility towards us. You guys are the only ones willing to communicate with us. Hence, I would like to ask for a little help from you, if it's not too much trouble."

"Don't worry, we won't do that to our own people.... All of you know how critical the situation is for us. News of our secret bases being attacked comes daily. We can't just sit idly by, so we've used some unconventional means to produce a batch of soldiers, and I'd appreciate it if you can provide some feedback for us."

A trace of curiosity crept into Sheyan's eyes. He immediately shifted his gaze to the soldiers who followed Mr. G. in. He did feel that something wasn't right with them. Now he knew why.

When these soldiers walked, their legs were lifted quite high, but when they stepped on the ground, they made almost no sound. Not only that, every step they took were extremely uniform, as if their steps were measured with a ruler. There were more than 20 soldiers, but they actually managed to keep the same pace when they walked. Their movements were as precise as machines, down to the millimeters!

Ordinary humans could never achieve this no matter how well trained they were. Sheyan turned to Zi. Her Spirit attribute was much higher than his, so she should be able to sense more information in these aspects.

Zi said in the party communication channel, "I'm guessing that some kind of liquid has been injected into their brains, which enables their bodies to continuously secrete adrenaline. In addition, their muscles and bones have been strengthened, and they're obviously breathing twice as fast as a normal person. They have probably undergone a biological transformation. To put it simply, they're continuously drawing on their own life force to maintain this "mechanical" state. Of course, doing so means their lifespan will inevitably be reduced sharply."

When Mr. G finished speaking, a burly man next to him had stood up, bowed his head and remained silent. He waited until Sheyan nodded before he stepped forward, stood in front of Sheyan, and after a word of warning, threw a punch at Sheyan.

Sheyan stopped the punch with his hand, but the strength in the burly man's fist was far beyond his expectation and had caught him off guard! His body tilted back, almost staggering by half a step.

But that exchange would be the only one where he was at a disadvantage. After he started taking the burly man seriously, he only defended and did not attack. The burly man threw four punches in a row, and the punches were so strong that they made sounds in the air. But after those four punches, his face turned pale and he started panting like a bull. Even raising his hands seemed to be a difficult task for him.

"Great explosive power, but the energy reserves in their bodies are too low, so they can't sustain the burst of power for long. Besides that, they can't handle their power properly. It's like giving a child a million dollars to shop with. Most of the money just goes to waste," commented Sheyan seriously.

Finally, he added, "Of course, the most important point is that their physique totally can't match up to the strength they possess. If the Major just now wasn't punching at me but at a wall or a tree, then I believe the bones in his arms and even in his fingers would have been broken."

The people chosen for the biological experiment had all been carefully selected. All of them had some foundation in martial arts, so they could adapt much better than others. Even so, many among the first batch of experimental subjects had actually broken their legs when they were undergoing running speed tests because they were kicking too hard.

Despite sighing in his heart, Mr. G still said, "We've identified this problem too and have started to find solutions for it. The current plan that we have is to equip them with a specially made battle suit. But the scientific research team still hopes to get some data from a fight against people with supernatural powers like you."

Upon hearing this, Sheyan suddenly grinned. "I actually have a few insights of my own in the field of human body strengthening. These insights can produce immediate effects for your research. If I write them down for you, and tell you the exact time for the beginning of the apocalypse, what can you give me in return?"

In order to prove his point, Sheyan even showed them his amazing ability to grow creatures right there and then. All of them were naturally stunned to see a tough-looking creature suddenly grow out from the ground within a short period of time.

But Mr. G was, after all, a politician. He could clearly hear the implication behind Sheyan's words. These people obviously had no need for money, women, or power. All this while, all they had shown interest in were those works of art. This transaction must revolve around those too.

After some negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement. Party Ace still needed seven works of art, including the European ones, to obtain the title of 'The Great Collector'. Mr. G. said that the government could help them obtain five of the works of art, but the remaining two were impossible for them. Party Ace would have to find their own ways.

They had now amassed about 110 points for their main mission: 'Protection!', which was not too low and not too high. They had wasted a lot of time to obtain 'The Great Collector' title so they did not have too much time left to continue gathering points. The day of the apocalypse was slowly approaching like a nightmare!

Sheyan knew to focus on what was important, so he did not try to use the remaining time to gather as many points as possible, because he knew that the more pressing the situation, the easier it was to make mistakes. Their biggest weakness right now was the protagonist Jackson Curtis, who had been tucked away inside the base, but how would the legendary figures take this ordinary guy seriously? It would not be impossible for someone - Bind, for example - to lurk around and find an opportunity to assassinate him.

That was why Party Ace was in a hurry to go back. There was not much time left to amass points anyway, so the time would be much better spent on strengthening the defence. If Jackson Curtis was somehow killed, all the points in the world would do them no good. They must not give the enemy any chances.

Furthermore, Sheyan must also go back to monitor the progress of the airship constructions. Although the Realm had not specified what kind of reward they would get for saving the ordinary people, but Sheyan knew from the path they had chosen that they would certainly not go wrong with saving the masses. At the very least, it would give a bonus to their mission completion rate.

After returning to New York, the first thing Sheyan did was to go see Professor X. He learned that, triggered by China's replica ark project, the US government had actually set their sights on the airship project near New York City. They had began to try to cooperate semi-openly with the base.

The base would only be building the core motherships now. The sub-ships of the formations would be constructed by two other external factories, which means that the scale of the project would be further expanded. Furthermore, as the government started to loosen their tight grip on rare resources, the war between the superhumans, which only happened in the first place due to limited resources, had also subsided.

The US government had forcefully suppressed all internal conflicts in this critical period before the apocalypse. Anyone who was strong enough to do anything was beginning to make every effort to prepare for their own survival, while silently waiting for the moment to come.

A red number was rapidly counting down on the display screen. This was a countdown timer, and the number on it showed that there were only 6 hours, 48 minutes and 37 seconds before the end of the world.

As far as the level of science in this world was concerned, there was no way to prove that this figure was right. Most people looked at the number with an apprehensive, complicated, and contradictory feeling. But without exception, their hearts were as heavy as stone.

The sky was blue, the clouds were drifting, and the sun was shining bright. There was not a single sign that in six hours, this beautiful world would be turned upside down and become a hopeless purgatory. Most people were still hoping that the damn prophecy was just a bad joke.

But some were secretly looking forward to the apocalypse, because if the prophecy really did come true, the world after the disaster would no doubt be a world of great opportunities. This dark mentality was especially prevalent among those who invested in the construction of the airships. No one liked to have their painstaking efforts abandoned in vain, or wasted without anything in return!

"We've confirmed that he's left the base an hour ago. The way he left the base was full of lucky chances. Everything seemed to have gone his way. Any other person would find it hard pressed to replicate the process," said Jean. "We investigated the incident and found that he had not done anything harmful to the base. He just took five first class tickets with him. We didn't really think much of it because he was recommended here by you, but the professor thinks we should notify you about it."

Sheyan cursed under his breath and hung up the phone. He started counting on his fingers. "Curtis' former wife Kate, his daughter Lilly, his son Noah, and Kate's current boyfriend Gordon. They only account for four tickets. Oh, Mr. Curtis must be preparing one for himself as well. "

Sheyan sighed. "We've neglected the personal feelings of the protagonist, Mr. Jackson Curtis. He's not alone in this world. There are three people he cares about: his ex-wife and his two children. After finding out about the apocalypse, Curtis has decided to go out and find them, for the sake of love."

"Hold on a minute," Sanzi suddenly interrupted, "Could it be possible that other contestants have already have Curtis' family under control and are using them to blackmail him, as well as set a trap for us?"

"It's unlikely," answered Reef, "Curtis is just an ordinary protagonist. He's an ordinary human without his exceptional MC luck. Therefore, the Realm would definitely give him extra protection. Any contestant who tries to seek out his family with malicious intent would only get the information that they've left home for a holiday. They can only be found if Jackson Curtis seeks them out himself."

Sheyan nodded. "You can say that. He will play a very important role in the future, similar to Washington and Montgomery. Although the future has changed because of what we've done, but in any case, we can't let any accident happen to someone important like him."

Sheyan gave her a deep stare. "Do you think it's a good idea to know so much about the future? All the prophets who have ever appeared in the course of human history have died in horrible ways!"

Sheyan's stare sent chills down Jean's spine. After a while, she said, "If that's the case, then let us go with you. With Professor X here, the base won't encounter too much of a problem. This is his wish too."

Jackson Curtis clearly intended to go to Manhattan Beach in California to pick up his ex-wife and children and bring them to the airships. Knowing who the target was and his time of departure, it was not difficult for the organisation, which was already an exceptionally large force by now, to find out everything about him.

Intel of him soon arrived. Sixteen minutes ago, Jackson Curtis had appeared in LaGuardia Airport and had tried to bribe one of the pilots there with a Rolex to take him to Manhattan Beach. The pilot refused, not because he was a pilot with principles, but because he suspected the watch to be fake....

Party Ace immediately rushed over to LaGuardia Airport with a helicopter. Upon arrival, they had only taken a few steps out of the helicopter when Ramtas suddenly twitched his nose a few times and told Sheyan, "I smell fresh blood, Master."

That's what they were afraid of! Sheyan immediately instructed Ramtas to lead the way. They sprinted behind Ramtas and arrived in a rented hangar, where they found a corpse. The dead man was obviously a pilot. His cause of death was a stab to the heart, so blood had sprayed everywhere. The bloody scene was truly a horrible sight.

"The diameter of the wound is less than a centimeter, and the edges are very smooth. It's definitely not a bullet wound. The murder weapon should be something slender and sharp, like a rapier from medieval Europe," judged Sheyan based on the wound.

"Based on the degree of blood coagulation, the murderer hasn't left for more than ten minutes. There should be very few ordinary people in this world who can use a weapon like this. In other words, the worst case scenario has occurred. Jackson Curtis has been found by other contestants."

As if to confirm Sheyan's judgment, gunshots and screams suddenly came from an office building not far away. The team quickly rushed over and saw airport securities frantically firing their guns at something.

But all of a sudden, a guard broke through the window and flew out, his body almost folded in half! Simply put, the back of his head was touching his heels. After he crashed to the ground, he twitched a few times before he turned stiff.

Then, the whole building seemed to shake, and seven or eight more people were thrown out of the windows. The airport securities were demoralised to see this. All of them retreated far away and did not dare to approach the building anymore.

On the contrary, upon witnessing this situation, Sheyan charged forward violently with only his arms crossed in front of his body for protection! Then, with a leap, he broke through the window on the first floor and successfully burst into the building. The anti-theft bars installed on the first floor window broke like dried twigs; they could do nothing to stop him!

After a roll to soften his landing, Sheyan climbed back up and saw several dead corpses in front of him. All of them had died from their body being severely twisted. This method of dying would naturally cause their blood to be squeezed out of them like water being squeezed out of a wet towel, but the blood left on the scene was far less than what it should have been.

Just as he rushed up to the second floor of the office building, he felt the building tremble again. He raised his head and actually saw a giant foot as thick as an elephant's breaking through the second-floor ceiling. The foot had stomped through the concrete floor of the third floor which was nearly half a meter thick, crushing the concrete into pieces and penetrating down to the second floor.

By the time Sheyan ran to the spot where a hole had been made in the ceiling, the huge foot had already been retracted back up. Debris rustled down from the ceiling. From the hole, he saw a sturdy-looking anti-theft door that was sent flying by some sort of terrifying force. The heavy steel door was deformed like a crumpled piece of paper. From the ensuing screams, the door had apparently injured several airport staff hiding behind it.

After a run-up, he grabbed the edge of the hole on the ceiling and pulled himself up. He instantly saw a huge greyish-white figure with lots of foldings on its thick skin. The pressure it gave off was akin to a Tyrant in Resident Evil.

When it turned its head to the side, its long, ferocious fangs, the colour of blood, were immediately visible. It seemed to have heard something and proceeded to move upstairs. Of course Sheyan would not let the thing go. He instantly pushed forward.

But all of a sudden, a sharp noise was heard! Two dark silhouettes as large as calves rushed out of the room to the left and right of Sheyan without warning and pounced on him from both sides!

Sheyan rotated his body to the side to avoid the attack of one of the dark silhouettes, while simultaneously smashing an elbow into the head of the other dark silhouette from below. The struck silhouette "squeaked" as it flew away.

Sheyan's arm strength was easily comparable to the combined strength of dozens of male adults, and according to human physiology, the force in a person's elbow attack was definitely greater than the force in their fist. In addition, this was a dangerous place, so Sheyan did not hold back when he attacked with his elbow. Even an elephant that was struck by this attack would suffer serious internal injuries.

Sheyan saw from the corner of his eyes what a terrible state the office was in. A few corpses were lying about, and their innards had either been dug out or were in the process of being dug out. It seemed that these mice had a rather heavy taste. The mice, of course, could not block his progress. He simply walked forward.

The pair of giant mice pounced on him again, the sharp white teeth in their mouths reminiscent of sharp, ultra-thin razors. Sheyan shifted his body again to avoid them. He had no intention of being dragged into a fight here. He wanted to go straight to the third floor.

They suddenly breathed in hard at the same time. Their slender bodies expanded rapidly until they looked like two obese porcupines. The white fur on their body stood up, then shot fiercely towards Sheyan who was behind them!

The mice were only about two or three meters away from Sheyan. As if the giant mice wished to go bald, they shot every fur they had on their body at Sheyan. Hundreds of fur were launched, at least! Sheyan could not help staggering from the impact. His entire back was now densely stabbed with sharp fur. He looked like a straw man used for target practice at an archery field. The two giant mice were strangely squealing excitedly like pigs that were scalded clean by boiling water.

"These fur projectiles have decent speed and strength," Sheyan, who was pricked all over like a pin cushion, straightened up slowly and said. "It seems that you guys are the ones who killed the pilot in the hangar. Oh, there are actually poison and diseases on the fur too. I can see how it would be a big problem for other people."

While he said that, the muscles on his back were actually twitching, twisting, and contracting in a weird way, pushing the spikes out of his body one by one. The numerous blood-red pustules left on his back was a horrid sight.

But there were also bluish-black lines that were visibly creeping across Sheyan's back along his blood vessels. Within a few seconds, all the pustules burst. Pus flowed out of them, followed by blood. Finally, all the wounds scabbed and closed.

The two giant mice still wished to attack. Sheyan put out his right fist and shook it, letting one of the giant mice bite him. However, Sheyan was wearing a dark green glove on his hand. No matter how hard the mouse bit with its sharp white teeth, it could not bite through the glove at all. Sheyan grabbed the other giant mouse and used it as a weapon to smash at the stubborn monster biting at his fist!! Blood splattered amidst the sound of broken bones!

The two giant mice had very flexible bodies, but not so flexible that they would be fine even after being twisted like pretzels. Against Sheyan's abnormal strength, especially under a situation where they were caught and could not display their advantage in agility, they ended up with a fate as miserable as the airport securities -- they were twisted so hard that their blood were squeezed clean out of them. In addition, their skulls had also shattered from a fierce collision.

"You'll have to be careful, because you're also within the range of the two snipers. Jean currently doesn't have the Cerebro with her, and us contestants are inherently resistant to her mind attacks, so we can only break through with Kulutego," Zi said with concern.

The third floor was occupied by partitioned offices. The whole floor was in a mess, as if a storm had passed through here. The building suddenly shook again. Sheyan kept going forward and finally saw the huge greyish-white figure again. The figure turned around after hearing Sheyan's footsteps.

In front of Sheyan was a huge monster with an elephant head and a human body that was fat yet muscular. Its pale white skin was folded like a bulldog's and there were many marks on it that looked like burn marks from cigarette butts. Those were actually the marks left by the bullets fired by the airport securities. The monster only had a single blood-red tooth, but it seemed particularly ferocious.

It held in its left hand a giant axe, which seemed to have been newly assembled from bullet-proof doors and various iron plates. There were no rivets or welding marks on it, nor any signs of a joint. All the pieces that made up the axe seemed to have been merged purely using mental power. Blood stained the axe. Sheyan also saw a black bra and a broken pair of glasses left on the axe. They were stuck to the axe with brain fluid as the glue.

When the monster saw Sheyan, it grabbed a desk with its trunk and threw it at him. Sheyan had no intention of dodging. He simply let the desk hit his body. The desk splintered with a loud bang, while Sheyan kept walking forward amid the flying papers as if nothing had happened.

The monster growled in anger. It raised the rough, bloody and barbaric "axe" up high and slammed it down on Sheyan's head. Sheyan took a step forward, raised his left hand, and accurately seized the monster's wrist!

Sheyan was not a small person by any means. He could be described as big and muscular. But even so, compared to the elephant monster's wrist, Sheyan's palm appeared as small as the palm of a barbie doll!

The moment the two came into contact, the glass windows in the whole building emitted terrifying groans, then shattered at the same time! Clear cracks appeared on the floor beneath Sheyan's feet. However, Sheyan also had an abnormal amount of strength. He managed to halt the advancement of the monster's swing and proceeded to give the monster a fierce punch on the abdomen!

The abdomen of the monster immediately trembled violently, rippling like water. The monster gave out a painful roar and hit Sheyan on the shoulder with its trunk, sending Sheyan flying more than seven meters away. Then, with a flick of its right hand, the string of steel beads hanging on its arm whizzed towards Sheyan.

When the string of rough steel beads flew through the air, an illusionary image actually appeared around it! The image depicted a string of steel beads completely different from the original -- dignified, smooth, and filled with an indescribable evil!!

Strictly speaking, the steel beads were not flying that fast, but the illusionary image on their exterior carried a strong sense of intimidation which rendered Sheyan's dodging action ineffective. The beads hit him from the front and knocked him back.

As soon as Sheyan got back up, he instantly rushed forward and activated 'Hornrage', slamming into the enemy's chest. Then, he pulled out 'Verdict' and fired it right at the monster's trunk!

Holy attacks dealt a lot of extra damage to dark creatures. Dark red blood sprayed wildly amidst the milky white outburst of holy light. The monster's thick elephant trunk was barely hanging on after the shot, so Sheyan grabbed it and forcefully pulled it apart.

"This guy's a monster! The Dark Vinayaka is a tier 4 legendary creature! Not only is it as strong as a warrior in close combat, it also possesses a large array of spells, but it's actually being beaten by that guy to such an extent!"

A man with a moustache who seemed to be lying idly on the balcony of an airport building in the distance couldn't help muttering to himself. Various data appeared on the sunglasses he was wearing, which in fact served as both a pair of binoculars and an aiming scope. They gave him a full view of everything happening in the building.

The moustached man was one of the two snipers. His weapon was currently placed at a spot that was less than 10 meters away from him, but it was already at the window of another building nearby. He could remotely control the aim and firing of the sniper rifle through a special mind device.

It was precisely due to such a clever arrangement that this man's disguise had seldom been seen through before. If a person managed to survive after being sniped, they would inevitably rush to the place where the shot came from. Never would they expect such a bizarre phenomenon where the gun was actually separate from the shooter.

"William, the target has been rescued and is now under heavy protection. We've also received reliable intelligence that Cyclops, the powerful storyline character, has intervened in this operation. One look from him and we'll probably turn to ashes. We'd better retreat."

The voice of the other sniper came from the earpiece. The moustached guy, William, had no intention of moving at all. He caressed his cheek with his pale, slender fingers as he carefully observed the commotion in the distant building.

"Give me three more minutes, Keith. The guy in the building is really strong, but that also means the loot will be rich! It's rare to meet a Berserker-type like him; we can't miss this chance! As long as we can kill him, it's no big deal even if we fail the main mission. A Berserker that can take so much damage...he might have legendary equipment on him!"

That silenced Keith. In terms of Perceptive Sense, there was a big gap between him and William. William was considered an outstanding scout even on a Bloody Battlefield.

"Great minds think alike," Moustached man William's lips curled into a mysterious smile. "Sure, he has a lot of HP, but how many sniper shots can he take before he dies? What's more, you have a consecutive shot ability!"

At that very moment, Zi was strolling into this very airport building in high heels and a pink overcoat! Sounds of the high heels from Chanel's latest collection clattering against the floor and Zi's slender legs wrapped in sexy black stockings caused many heads to turn. Her clothes complimented her tall figure and made her look particularly charming. The large red suitcase she pulled behind her announced her identity as a passenger.

Zi's entrance attracted at least 40% of the eyes in the departure lounge, half of them gazes of envy while the other half gazes of admiration. However, there were also three pair of eyes that were full of wariness. Their gazes swept past Zi like poisonous snakes.

There was no way the two snipers, Keith and William, had not taken any precautions in case their enemies closed in on them. Besides being guarded by their servants, they also had a companion who specialised in close combat. These people formed their second line of defence.

The gaze from William's servant was particularly sharp. The servant was a Native with extremely strong arms. His weapon was a boomerang with many sharp nails on it. Each nail was long enough to pierce through the enemy's skull. He would throw the boomerang at Zi as soon as he detected any danger from her.

Keith's servant was a member of the Special Forces. His weapon was an XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, an airburst grenade launcher with programmable ammunition, also known as the Punisher. It looked a little like an MP5 with a thicker barrel. Its ammunition was 25mm grenades. The shooter could program the grenades to fly towards the target and detonate at a specific position in the air. This feature of the weapon enabled the shooter to wipe out enemies who hid behind covers.

The companion of Keith and William who specialised in melee combat, Morris, simply stared at Zi with a chilly gaze without revealing any murderous intent or hostility, as if he was merely a cold brick.

This kind of people were the hardest to guard against. They could keep their murderous intent hidden while preparing to strike in secret. They would not strike until they were sure they could draw blood!

But unbeknownst to him, Zi was perfectly aware of him and the two servants. Although she could not sense them with her Perceptive Sense, she had the help of Professor X's proud disciple Jean. The enemies' thoughts were precisely transmitted into her mind.

Besides, Zi was not that simple herself. Even someone like Bind had to respect her and would not make her the primary target of an attack, despite her being a mage! Since she dared to come, she naturally had full confidence of defeating the enemies even without Jean's help!

Although the crowd in the departure lounge was bustling, Zi could clearly identify the three enemies. They might not be completely under her control, but she was confident that their actions were well within her grasp!

Thanks to Jean's help, the three enemies could not verify Zi's identify that easily. Zi had also took the time to dress herself up in order to confuse the enemies. Under normal circumstances, contestants would try their best to hide themselves and maintain as low a profile as possible. No one would deliberately make themselves look so dazzling as to turn heads!

Thanks to this, she was able to take more than ten noisy steps into the departure lounge in her high heels until she was within 20 meters of Morris. Then, she abruptly flicked her red checkered velvet scarf to block the sight of the two servants, and smiled at Morris.

Morris was a little surprised, but also somewhat hopeful of a possible romantic encounter. But suddenly, an indescribably sharp glint appeared in the eyes of the stylish woman in front of him and directly penetrated into his heart!

Zi continued walking towards Morris with a smile. No one noticed her long finger moving in the air, tracing various strange symbols as if there was an invisible silk thread tied to the finger. Every time a symbol was drawn, Morris, who was paralysed in place, would twitch in pain!

When the number of abilities Zi performed reached five, her face was already looking a little pale. Finally, her finger traced a symbol which signified "The End" in Sith text.

Zi had performed a series of her abilities, namely 'Force.Collision Wall', 'Force.Needle Explosion', 'Force.Alternate-Shuddering Wall', etc.... All of them had struck Morris, but none of the damage occurred until the symbol signifying "The End" in Sith text appeared. All the stacked up power hit Morris at the same time like an avalanche. It also happened to trigger an explosive hit. Together with the special effect of the Ndipaya set, the Growth Hunter Morris was insta-killed!

Suddenly, the lights in the whole departure lounge flashed once, as if the electric supply was unstable. Morris' eyes suddenly opened wide. A trail of blood dripped down the corner of his mouth as he slowly collapsed. He had died on the spot.

The reason for this anomaly was that Zi had finally comprehended her Awakening Skill after giving it much thought. She had long accumulated enough power and combat experience, while her equipment was also strong enough. What was lacking before was just insight. So once she managed to see the light, everything naturally fell into place. This was the first application of her Awakening Skill in actual combat. As expected, its power was breathtaking!

Zi had originally planned to gather all her abilities and release them in a single attack, and she wanted to name it 'Republic'. But after seeing the fight between Sheyan and Rocky, Zi realised that perfection was an unreachable distance, so she gave up on her previous thought. Instead, she would first paralyse the opponent, then combine several skills she was most proficient in and pour them into the opponent before "detonating" them for a great outburst of power!

In memory of her previous idea, Zi named this ability 'Shattered Republic'. At present, she could only combine five of her abilities, and they must be instantaneous ones.

Morris was actually rather unlucky. He specialised in melee combat, stunning, illusion, and poison, but he was killed before he could even do anything! Lust was indeed a man's greatest bane!

The two servants had clearly realised that something was off by now, especially when they saw Morris slowly fall down! The servant holding the XM-25 system on the second floor immediately released the safety catch. He skillfully aimed the black cross in his scope on Zi's head and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

He licked his lips excitedly. An inexplicable pleasure washed over him, and it even gave him a slight erection.Too see the head of such an unparalleled beauty burst like a watermelon from his shot was no longer a job for this guy, but his pleasure and a source of excitement.(ED: ew)

The grenade launched by the XM-25 system was very powerful. It first drilled into Morris' chest, then exploded with a loud boom! If it had hit an enemy, the enemy would first be subjected to a penetration damage, then explode from the inside!

Flesh and blood sprayed everywhere, dyeing the area more than ten square meters around in a cruel crimson. A woman who was passing by stood motionless with a dull expression on her face, seemingly unable to comprehend what had just happened until she wiped a handful of warm flesh and blood off her face. She stared at her hand blankly, then let out a horrifying scream!

Zi, who should have been severely injured by the attack, had vanished from the sight of the two servants. She had cleverly disappeared into the crowd like an agile fish with ulterior motives mingling into a swarm of panicking fishes.

When a bloody scene like this took place, anyone could imagine what would happen to the bustling airport departure lounge. That's right, it fell into complete chaos! Screams of pain, cries of fear, and shouts of anger rose one after another. People in the crowd could not even hear what the person next to them was saying!

With an agile spin, she threw away her thick pink overcoat, revealing the pink adidas hoodie jacket she was wearing inside. She put her hand into her scarf and pulled out from it a red hairband, which she used to tie her hair into a ponytail.

She was wearing a pair of loose workout trousers underneath, which had previously been pulled up to expose the black stockings on her lower legs. Now that the trouser legs were let down, she instantly transformed from a sexy, cold career woman to a pretty, sporty girl.

As expected, her transformation enabled her to hide from the enemies' pursuit. She was still panting hard after pulling off the 'Shattered Republic' move. She tried her best to steady her breathing and reduce the rise and fall of her chest. After going up a flight of stairs, she saw the man who had previously shot her with the XM-25 system striding across the hall, looking around.

"Should I kill him?" Zi understood clearly the strengths and weaknesses of a servant. The strength was that they could be resurrected. Besides that, if the master was willing to spend funds to equip the servant, the servant's attack power may very well become as strong as the master's. The weaknesses were pretty obvious too -- the cost for resurrection was very high, each death would lower their loyalty, and they were usually really fragile.

'Shattered Republic' was activated once again, but because she had not rested enough and the ability was still on cooldown, she only managed to put two skills into it, namely 'Force.Needle Explosion' and 'Force.Collision Wall'!

The servant trembled violently all over his body, but only when Zi had already walked more than ten meters away. A sound akin to a mirror shattering came from his chest. Substances that were in a state between liquid and semi-liquid flowed out of the hole in his chest. Even if he covered the hole with his hands, the substances still flowed through the gaps between his fingers.

Someone with a certain level of technological knowledge would recognise the sticky, slippery substances that looked like plastic mixed with liquid soap, to be internal organs.

After all the internal organs flowed out, a bloody hole the size of a small basin could be seen on the servant's chest, as well as a large number of strange torn foldings and the plastic skeleton that was heaving within.

The man convulsed a few times and fell on his knees. His skin had become deeply wrinkled from losing too much nutrient solution. A warm, greasy smell, like the smell of cooked pork, permeated through the air. The man's head dropped down, his neck bending unnaturally, close to 90 degrees! His two eyeballs slipped down from their sockets and shattered on the hard floor with a crash.

Within Party Ace, if Sheyan's style could be described as "aggressive", then Reef's was calm and steady. You could leave any task to him, and although he would not give you any surprises, he would never let you down either.

On the other hand, Zi's style could only be described as "elegant" and "devilish". An enemy hit with the 'Shattered Republic' would often only realise that they had suffered serious damage or even died long after they were struck. It was as if Zi's fingers were controlling invisible threads of death that coiled around the enemy, undetected until the moment they tightened up!

Having killed the servant, Zi blended back into the chaotic crowd and continued to move towards Keith and William at the top of the building. When she could not remain hidden any longer, she waited until the last second before she leaped up.

The boomerang was so large that its measurements could only be taken in units of "meters". It appeared crude at first glance, but it contained a primitive and shockingly brutal destructive power. After the horrifying weapon cut through more than seven people that happened to be in its way, it smashed onto a spot on the floor. The whole corridor shook so violently that it almost broke apart.

The loyal servant had anticipated that spot to be the place where Zi would land, but contrary to his expectation, after Zi had leaped up, she had gently grabbed the chandelier on the ceiling. Such a simple action caused the servant to completely miscalculate.

For snipers, this was an extremely dangerous distance -- they were as defenceless as a naive teenage girl who believed in the lie of "I promise not to do anything to you in bed", thus naively burrowing into the blanket of a sleazy man in her beach volleyball pants.... That's because the range of most explosive melee abilities was restricted to around 30 meters. For example, Sheyan could charge at an enemy within 30 meters with 'Hornrage', and Reef could pull an enemy within 30 meters to him with 'Holy Grasp'.

Once an enemy got within this range of a sniper, the sniper could only choose to either run away, kill the enemy as fast as possible....or be killed by the enemy. That was why Keith and William immediately jumped up like the hemorrhoids on their butts had been poked.

William, the one who could use his mind to control his rifle from a distance, chose to flee, while Keith, whose sniper rifle was in his hands, chose to fight back! He still made such a choice when the enemy was almost within 30 meters of him. This in itself showed how confident he was in his gun skills.

But just as Zi stepped into the dangerous range of 30 meters, her slender left foot which breached the invisible sensitive line of the two snipers stomped hard on the floor. For some reason, even in such a critical situation, the deepest impression Zi left on others was still the perfect contour of her slim left foot.

The smooth and mirror-like terrazzo floor immediately cracked like glass. But what's more bizarre was that Zi had suddenly gotten into a half-kneeling posture with both her hands pressed to the floor, like a sprinter at the start of a race.

The floor underneath her body instantly shattered. Debris and dust rose and billowed everywhere. Zi herself, according to Newton's Third Law, bounced towards the rear hard and crashed through the transparent but tough glass curtain wall behind her. Upon landing, she rolled into a blind spot out of the shooting line of the snipers.

The reason Zi was causing so much panic was in order to reduce the pressure on Sheyan. Anyone would find it suffocating to be targeted by two snipers, especially while facing a strong opponent like the Dark Vinayaka.

13.4 seconds could not be considered too short, but it was not that long either. However, one thing was for sure -- it was certainly far from enough for Sheyan to kill the Dark Vinayaka. But the monster was not Sheyan's target. His real target was a seemingly unrelated person that Jean had identified!

There was no way the Dark Vinayaka was a contestant, so it must have been summoned by someone. As long as the summoner was killed, the monster from another dimension would no longer be able to remain in this world.

Before this, the summoner had been saved from countless critical situations by his party's powerful party skill, but... the one who killed him this time was a storyline character!

When a storyline character attacked a contestant, not only would there be no 40% reduction in damage, the contestant would not enter a state of near death either! Without the state of near death, the summoner's party skill became useless because it had no chance to trigger!

Sheyan was absolutely determined to kill this summoner. In order to finish him quickly, Sheyan even gave up on getting any loot from the summoner in order to save precious time!

Because Sheyan had suddenly realised that Jackson Curtis' departure from the base might not conclude so easily. With the amount of trouble he had caused, he may very well need someone to clean up after him!

As soon as the summoner died, the two snipers, William and Keith, immediately had a very uncomfortable feeling, like they had suddenly been stripped naked. They felt as insecure as soldiers on the battlefield who had suddenly lost their cover.

Someone once described the sniper profession as a profession of extremes. A sniper could kill ten enemies from a kilometer away, but once a single enemy managed to get within ten meters of the snipers, the enemy could kill ten of them. Although this saying was slightly biased, it did show the awkwardness of the sniper profession.

In the following ten minutes, Keith put his aggressive side on full display. With a decisive pull of the trigger, a bullet was ejected from the muzzle of his rifle. The bullet shattered after flying more than ten meters.

What appeared from the bullet were two revolving balls of electricity that were only as large as green beans. They accelerated swiftly with each revolution, reaching an extremely high speed in no time at all!

Although the trajectory of the balls of electricity was very obvious, the horribly violent sound of the balls tearing the air became so shrill and sharp that it cut into everyone's spirit and nerves like a red-hot knife, making their minds blank and completely paralysing their bodies!

His stance was somewhat affected by the recoil of the shot. He had left deep footprints on the rather moist lawn of the airport underneath him. He stepped so deep into the moist ground that when he staggered backwards, his foot pulled up some fresh soil which splattered around him. From this, it could be deduced that he was carrying quite a lot of weight on him, so even if he were to run away, he would not be that quick.

By this time, the electric sniper shot had reached Zi with an unimaginable speed, making her hair billow. Zi was still in mid-air and definitely could not avoid the shot, or so Keith thought. But suddenly, a huge golden palm gently wrapped around Zi's waist and pulled her away.

After Keith's shot had missed Zi, it landed on a steel beam of the Terminal 2 building that they were in. Plasma burst from the shot and made a hole in the steel beam that was over a meter in diameter. The whole terminal building lost its balance, shook twice, and completely collapsed, stirring up a large cloud of smoke and dust high into the sky. Fortunately, the design of the terminal building took the eventuality of earthquakes into consideration. The collapsed rubble did bury a lot of people underneath it, but there were more injuries than fatalities.

After Zi landed with a roll, she did not waste any time and immediately gave chase. She caught up with Keith a minute later and instantly attacked him with the 'Shattered Republic'.

And so ended the battle. William had fled from the airport and Mr. Jackson Curtis had survived. Party Ace's greatest gains came from the spoils of war dropped by the two contestants Zi had killed.

[ Passive Ability: 'Oath' -- Strong cohesiveness guarantees strong power. When there is an ally within 10 meters of the wearer, the wearer's attack power will increase by 5%. Every additional ally will increase attack power by an additional 5%, up to a maximum of 30%. ]

[ Passive Ability: 'Mein Kampf' -- When the wearer's attack triggers an explosive hit, 50% of the MP consumed by the attack will be returned to the wearer, and the explosive hit rate of the wearer's magic spells will increase by 10% for 15 seconds. ]

[ When the explosive hit rate of the wearer's magic spells stacks up to 100%, this bonus will disappear and a 60-second cooldown will begin. During this period, the wearer's MP recovery rate will increase by 50%. ]

This accessory was no doubt Zi's accessory now. She was naturally very happy about that. To tell the truth, when Sheyan had killed ten people in a row back then, he did get a lot of good stuff, but none of them could compare to this dark gold accessory. Luck was indeed a very important thing.

After that, they received another piece of unexpected news: Jackson Curtis was refusing to cooperate in any way and was showing signs of going on a hunger strike. His only request was to meet with the person in charge.

Sheyan sighed. What he feared the most had happened, and he could do nothing but face it head on.... After pondering for a while, he pulled open the car door and sat next to the silent and dispirited Jackson Curtis.

Jackson Curtis' jaw dropped. Then, he suddenly got emotional. "There's no $700,000 annual salary job, is there? That's just a lie you made up to trick me into going to the factory in New York! The most I've ever made in a year is $70,000, and that's only because my boss is a f*cking philanthropist! Why did you scam me? What's your purpose?"

"Calm down, Mr. Curtis," said Sheyan while staring straight at him, "Didn't you get a $200,000 signing fee? Isn't this money real? And didn't you get a decent weekly salary in the factory? If that's a scam, do you know how many people would like to be scammed by me? In what way did I deceive you?"

That shut Jackson Curtis up. Sheyan instantly continued in a harsh tone, "But you, Mr. Curtis! You betrayed my trust! You repaid my kindness to you by leaving without authorisation during working hours and stealing the company's assets!!"

After that, Sheyan placed the airship tickets in front of Curtis and said while staring straight at him, "The current market price of a single ticket is $10 million, yet there are plenty of buyers but no sellers. You stole five tickets, causing a loss of more than $50 million in total, and that's not including the loss from a series of chain reactions caused by your actions. Do you know how severe the criticism we will face from the board of directors because of you?"

"That does not excuse your crime!" Sheyan retorted sternly, "You're in big trouble, and so am I! Right now, the solution favoured by the organisation is to throw you out and completely cut you off from the organisation, including making your tickets obsolete!"

Jackson Curtis suddenly stared at Sheyan with a strong gaze. "I want to hear the truth from you. Why did you recruit me into the organisation? I have no expertise other than driving a car and writing some sh*tty books, and neither of those abilities can help you build airships."

Sheyan had long thought of an excuse. He replied earnestly, "There's a reason the organisation has the foresight to build airships to cope with the impending apocalypse. From what I've heard, quite a few people had the same dream, a dream of the tragic disaster to come in 2012. Because their dream was so vivid, all of them believed that it's not just a dream, but something from the future their souls somehow managed to experience."

"And a group of people, including you, have provided vital help to them in their dreams. They think that you guys may be the key people and nodes to support the future. That's why they intend to save all of you."

Jackson Curtis was a writer, so he had a rich imagination. It helped him accept Sheyan's explanation very quickly. He immediately begged Sheyan, "Then please save my son and daughter! And my ex-wife! Their lives are all much more important than mine!"

"Hello, hello! Is that you? Where are you? What! You just got home? You won a 7-day trip to Hawaii from a lucky draw? Damn, how could that happen? Oh, no, I don't mean that it's bad you won a prize from a lucky draw. I mean it's bad that you won a prize from a lucky draw at such a critical time...Hello? Hello??"

"An emergency mission?" When Sheyan saw the mission pop up, what he thought in his mind was not of a great opportunity or something of the kind. His first thought was of the huge risks it would bring.

That's right, because the warning was loud and clear. Accepting this emergency mission would lead to the apocalypse arriving at a random time. This means that they might be caught off guard. This means that the credibility they had so painstakingly built may come to ruin!

The disadvantages of the apocalypse arriving early goes without saying. If you suddenly asked world champions like Usain Bolt or Micheal Phelps to take part in a competition without warming up or while they were in the middle of a meal, let alone becoming world champion, they might not even win at the national level.

The disadvantages of postponing the arrival of the apocalypse were even more severe! Think about it. At first, everyone would be surprised, then they would become ecstatic, and then most of the people would accuse Professor X of being a liar! Then, they would go back home and...suddenly, apocalypse!

So Sheyan steeled his heart to deny Jackson Curtis' plead. But right then, the consciousness of every member of Party Ace was collectively jolted for a moment. Then, a scream of agony reached their ears, followed by the descent of an unbelievably majestic power and consciousness....

[ Mission Briefing: This is no doubt a very arduous task. You can already imagine the shocking challenges you will encounter in the process of completing this mission. Even destiny seems to be showing signs of going against you. The world itself will be angered at your heaven-defying actions. But, surely you can overcome the obstacles! ]

The mission itself was already extremely difficult; that goes without saying. But besides that, they also deduced something really terrifying from the two lines of "Even destiny seems to be showing signs of going against you" and "The world itself will be angered at your heaven-defying actions"....

And that was, anyone who accepted this mission would be "rejected by this world". That is to say, they would go through extremely bad luck. They might actually choke to death from drinking water. Such a horrifying punishment was almost similar to the occurrences in the movie "Final Destination", and also a little similar to Bind's ability.

And don't forget, "2012" was a disaster film that spanned across the entire world. In "Final Destination", Death had to make the effort to create the opportunities, but in this world, even if Death did not do anything, and even if all of them were blessed by Lady Luck, they still could not avoid going through dangerous situations. Now that they had angered the world itself, their subsequent journey would be akin to going through the apocalyptic world on Hard Mode!

The magician Liu Qian has a classic line: "This is weird. What's so weird about it? It's weird that I don't hear any applause!" According to the usual principle of the Realm that the more dangerous a task was, the more rewarding it would be, the reward for this mission should be through the roof! It was not something that could be explained away with merely things like "a malfunction has occurred here for some unknown reason, error code unknown"!

"What the hell happened?" That was the doubt in everyone's mind. But when Sheyan, the one with the highest military rank among them, was going to inquire with the Realm, all of them received another string of bizarre notifications.

[ Awakening Skill 'Hunter's Eyes': While stealing the opponent's movement speed, you will also steal 10 points of defence from the opponent in your line of sight and add it to your own defence. Lasts for 30 seconds. ]

[ Awakening Skill 'Shattered Republic': The casting distance is increased from 30 meters to 40 meters, and the maximum number of spells is increased from five to six. ]

[ Awakening Skill 'Holy Grasp': The HP cost to activate the ability is reduced by 50%. When it is used on an enemy, the damage is further increased by 10%. The damage will be no higher than 1000 and no lower than 150. When it is used on an ally, the ally will enter an invincibility state for three seconds. ]

Everyone was perplexed to see the sudden upgrade to their Awakening Skills. They had long learned through the information in their Nightmare Imprints that upgrading their Awakening Skills was absolutely not an easy task! That's because an Awakening Skill was in itself a very difficult thing to comprehend, as could be seen from how much effort it took for Reef and Zi to obtain theirs. Upgrading one's Awakening Skill was almost as difficult as upgrading one's innate ability.

But now, three people had their Awakening Skills upgraded at the same time. But while they were still lost in confusion, they received more notifications, and these notifications explained a lot of things.

[ The source for the unknown reason has been successfully found and eliminated, but Party Ace is already considered to have accepted the mission. Therefore, you must complete the emergency mission 'Jackson Curtis' Request'. ]

[ Noah Realm C, the Mother Realm of Party Ace, has intervened in view of the fact that the current situation has violated the provisions of Article 4 and Article 31 of the Joint Laws of Noah Realms. The Awakening Skill(s) of every member of the party has been upgraded. In addition, upon the completion of the emergency mission 'Jackson Curtis' Request', Party Ace will receive compensation according to the difficulty of the mission. ]

[ Please perform the mission immediately, Party Ace. Because the mission template has already been generated, you must carry out its execution. After the emergency recovery of data, the mission failure penalty is now reduced by 50%. ]

Things were now clear with these notifications. Evidently, that crazy guy Bind had not given up yet. He had used his Bug-like ability to modify the emergency mission 'Jackson Curtis' Request' and force them to accept it.

But Bind must have been careless when he was doing that, or maybe he was doing it despite knowing the immense risk, because his action was discovered by Noah Realm C. He was either killed or severely injured by the consciousness of the furious Realm after that.

But Party Ace still had no choice but to perform the modified emergency mission. In order to compensate for their losses, Noah Realm C had given them some rewards in advance by upgrading their Awakening Skills, and had weakened the penalty for mission failure. Besides that, Party Ace was also promised compensation after the completion of the mission.

Now that they had figured out the reason behind everything, the four of them first looked at Jackson Curtis, who was smiling with relief, and then looked at each other with a bitter smile of their own. They had no choice but to face the catastrophe. If they could not resist it, they might as well enjoy it....

-- even though this damn city was only two and a half hours away from New York by plane, and that was including the time for ticket purchasing and other miscellaneous things!

Evidently, the "anger of the world" mentioned in the mission description had taken effect. Car accidents and what not were just the side dishes in their journey. In the beginning, they were forced to change flight three different times, either due to heavy fog, technical problems, or because the pilot had fainted.... They did not dare to take a plane anymore after that. Delays they could still deal with, but if their plane suddenly crashed while it was high in the air, it would be disastrous.

Okay, since that was the case, they decided to just drive there. As a result, they encountered almost every unfortunate thing imaginable during their journey. If it wasn't for Kulutego's power saving their asses countless times, the journey might have been extended to fifteen hours long.

Since they had accepted Jackson Curtis' mission, they could not reach any of the key storyline characters at all! All their calls could not get through! Their only sources of information right now were the televisions at the side of the road and other such things.

"Hmmm... That house in front should be it," Sheyan sighed with obvious exhaustion. "Yup, this is Number 14, 16th Avenue, and that over there is the home of Jackson Curtis' ex-wife, Number 19, 16th Avenue. Thank god the apocalypse didn't arrive before we could find them, or we would've failed for sure!"

Straight, flat asphalt streets, lush trees, blue sky, white clouds, morning sunshine that dazzles the eyes a little, neatly parked vehicles, and the pleasant stride of beautiful women on their early morning run. It was a picture of serenity.

All four members of Party Ace were standing on the sidewalk, flanked by two neat rows of double-storey European-style houses with brown pointed roofs, white walls and bright glasses for windows. The front and rear of every house had a lawn that was about 40 square meters in size. Neat blue and white fences surrounded the beautiful lawns and the fragrant flowers inside.

A few steps in front of them was a brown-haired middle-aged man who was showing signs of going bald at the crown. He was taking care of the trees nearby. The privets, birches, and palms became well-trimmed under his scissors.

When Reef saw the man, he told the others, "This guy should be Kate's current boyfriend, plastic surgeon Gordon Silberman. He likes machines and has some piloting experience. He's in a much better financial position than Jackson Curtis. He should have at least one Lexus LX and a two-seater Porsche 911. Why did Kate leave the starving writer Jackson Curtis for Mr. Silberman? I think the reason is obvious. One more thing -- it appears that Mr. Silberman is not on our rescue list."

The public order in this area was obviously not very good, as all the residents there, including Gordon Silberman, were staring at Party Ace with vigilant eyes as if they were thieves. Sheyan took the initiative to greet the man.

Hearing her name mentioned, a beautiful woman with typical Latin American facial features walked out of the house nearby. She had long chestnut hair, high cheekbones, deep eyes, and a slightly large mouth. The wrinkles on the corners of her eyes and her forehead showed that her youth was rapidly fading away. She glanced at each member of Party Ace and came to the conclusion that she did not know any of these people standing in front of her.

Reef suddenly sighed and said, "Ms. Kate, you should know that in the great United States of America, the pay for every job is proportional to its difficulty... I don't think Mr. Curtis told you that his new job is actually very high-risk."

"Mr. Jackson Curtis was badly injured while he was on the job. He asked us to pick you up to go see him -- if you want to. If you do, you better hurry up. The ICU doctor said that he might not last very long. If you take too much time, you might end up attending his funeral instead," answered Sheyan in a voice filled with pain.

Tears instantly streaked down Kate's face. She covered her face with her hands and fell onto her knees while trembling violently. She then opened her mouth at the direction of the house as if to say something, but she choked and lost her voice.

Zi took a step forward and said in a soft voice, "The company is sorry to see this happen. There's no need for you to prepare anything. All your expenses will be paid by the company. Please hurry up."

It appears that Gordon was a cautious person. He first dialed Jackson Curtis number, but of course it could not be reached. Then, he asked to check their IDs, which was not a problem at all for Party Ace. Their IDs were made by professionals from the FBI. After all the doubts had been cleared up, they made preparations to leave.

But at that moment, Sheyan's eyebrow suddenly twitched. His Perceptive Sense was the highest among them, so he could clearly feel something happening at that moment. He could feel that something which seems to be of vital importance, maybe even life-threatening, to this world, had suddenly snapped.

Forty-seven kilometers below the Pacific Plate, there was a piece of Mesozoic sedimentary rock which was only about 100 square meters in size, but it had been here for millions of years. The times changed, the terrain shifted, but this Mesozoic sedimentary rock had remained the same.

A terrifying series of chain reactions were triggered as soon as the Mesozoic sedimentary rock broke. The tremendous pressure it had been enduring was completely transferred to the other plate faults! The bearing capacity of those faults had already reached the critical point even before that. Now that they were put under more pressure, they broke one after another.

A nail fell off, and the horseshoe followed; a horseshoe fell off, and the horse collapsed; a horse collapsed, and the general died; a general died, and the war was lost; a war was lost, and the country fell!

It sounded ridiculous that a nail could cause the death of a country, but when the whole series of events were carefully analysed, they were all logically connected. At this moment, the seemingly trivial matter of a Mesozoic sedimentary rock breaking was causing an even more serious consequence than the butterfly effect of the nail and the country, because it was something that would determine the life and death of billions of people, maybe even the survival of the entire human race!

A large number of clothes, backpacks, plastic bags and other such things were abandoned on the ground, as if a large number of refugees had just passed by the place. Hordes of people were crowding the entrance, fury flashing in their eyes. They carried slogans on their backs, something like "Punish those f*cking cheaters" or "Return my hard-earned money".

There were even a few groups of people gathered not far away who were screaming and roaring like wild beasts. These people, who felt cheated out of their fortune and was now carrying a bunch of debts, had chosen to take extreme actions. When they saw some of the staff of the base, they dragged the staff over and beat them up! Deaths had even been reported.

A politician stood in front of Professor X and yelled in a pained voice. Unable to control his frustration and disappointment, the politician spat on Professor X's face. Surprisingly, Professor X was the only leading figure willing to step forward to face the crowd. He was on an open-air conference stand, and there were thousands of people standing below him in anger and agony. Even when he faced such an insult, he still sat quietly in his wheelchair, asking only for more patience from the people. But no one listened to him.

There was spit not just on his face, but on his body as well. Apparently, he had been spat on by more than one person. Professor X was actually strong enough to kill all of them, but he did not do so.

Jean questioned Professor X angrily in her mind, saying that you're a victim too, why would you let these people insult you like this? But Professor X just calmly said, "A person must have the courage to face their own mistakes. And Jean, you must make sure that our own people have full control of the airships, even if you have to resort to force!"

Not only Professor X; Magneto and Prince Dracula were also facing similar condemnations. Magneto was not spat on, but mockery and verbal abuse were unavoidable. On the other hand, Dracula was plunged into a crisis of trust and was facing internal strife. A Vampire Count was currently pointing a finger at him, questioning him loudly. They were all in a messy situation.

The only key figure who was still having it easy was Dr. Octopus. He had always had a foul temper. Anyone who dared to insult him to his face could not escape the terrible fate of being swatted away like a fly by his tentacle. It sure was convenient being an evil villain!

Following the weak tremor was another bout of quakes! Anyone who has experienced an earthquake before would know that even the slightest earthquake felt totally different from the tremor caused by human activities. It was an inescapable force which came from the depths of the Earth!

In contrast, even if you stand next to a pile driver, or in a bunker that was being fired at by a howitzer, it would feel different from the seemingly unstoppable power of an earthquake.

These two bouts of tremors calmed down the wild crowd near the base almost instantly. They stiffened in place like lifeless puppets. Confusion and fear started creeping into their eyes.

Magneto had just written a cheque to pay for the damages with his own money, but while he was handing out the cheque with a gloomy face, his hand abruptly stopped in mid air. The fingers of the person opposite him were already touching the cheque, but the person was now shuddering and no longer dared to take it.

A man in a suit was about to spit on Professor X, but he suddenly stiffened. He lowered his head to look down at his feet to make sure the trembling was not his hallucination. The crowd below broke into a loud commotion. A trace of ambition flashed across Professor X's eyes!

After playing his role as a saint, his image of someone who was brave enough to take responsibility and be held accountable was now deeply ingrained into the heart of everyone there. With the support of these people, who could now stop him from becoming a presidential leader after the apocalypse? Professor X had long recognised the fact that without enough political power and status, there was no way to carry out his own ideology!

As for the problem of population decline after the disaster, Professor X had already consulted with various professionals in this field. They told Professor X that humans were the most fertile creatures on the planet. This was mainly due to two aspects:

First, most animals have mating periods when they are in heat, but not humans. Be it in spring, summer, autumn or winter, human males from the age of 13 to 80 could mate at will anytime, anywhere.

The United States government had also taken a lot of measures in response to China's replica ark project. Early estimation showed that the number of survivors may exceed 3 million people. After the disaster, it would only take 30 years for the population to reach the figure of 100 million.

As for Professor X's life span... Professor X was already powerful enough to take over the mind of a person who was brain dead or in a coma (this insane ability was shown in one of the X-Men movies)! Time was not a problem for him at all!

"The collapse of the Pacific Plate will begin from the centre. Imagine a biscuit breaking in two. A huge crack will slowly form across almost the entire United States, from the west to the east along the Mississippi River. The crack would turn into a super enlarged version of the East African Rift Valley. The intensity of the earthquake in areas near the crack will reach 13.0 in magnitude!"

"Fortunately, cities like New York and Washington will only be on the fringes of the first wave of disasters, but Los Angeles will be severely damaged due to the San Andreas Fault in San Francisco."

"Generally speaking, the population in coastal cities will have higher chances of surviving the first wave of the earthquake, but the tsunami triggered by the earthquake will strike two to three hours later. The first wave of the tsunami will probably be more than 1000 meters high. That will be the real disaster that will wipe out the coastal cities!"

The crowd was starting to panic from the continuous earthquake, although the intensity of the earthquake so far only ranged from magnitude-4 to magnitude-6. Despite not being immediately threatening to their lives, it was enough to crush the anger, shock and humiliation of the vast majority of people there! Their minds were instead gripped by endless fear!

Prince Dracula stood up with a bloodthirsty smile. First, he looked around. He saw that the questioning eyes from before had turned into total submission. Then, he slowly extended his hand and broke the neck of the vampire in front of him who was passionately questioning him a few minutes ago.

How could Prince Dracula miss this opportunity to clear out the dissidents? A bloody and horrible massacre immediately took place! Prince Dracula killed to his heart's content, then ordered the vampires to board his flagship while licking his fangs in satisfaction.

Magneto coldly stared at the man in front of him; the man who was once his friend, but was shouting madly at Magneto to compensate him for all his losses a few seconds ago.

Magneto could not be bothered to say another word to him. He stuffed the cheque into the man's mouth. After that, he looked around at the others in the room who had all broken into a cold sweat. He strode out of the room with a wild laughter.

Eight formations of airships, 56 airships in total, remained in the base. They had already been filled with gas before the specified arrival time of the apocalypse which Sheyan told them, floating low above the ground.

However, because at least half of the people had wavered, the airships were then lowered to only three or four metres above the ground, and temporary giant steps were installed to facilitate the departure of those people. But now, as soon as the earthquake occured, the mutants, vampires and other loyal subordinates of the three leading figures instantly retrieved the giant steps without hesitation, then ordered the airships to fly higher. These people, who were infuriated, were doing this out of spite!

Seeing the airships lift off and their only hope of survival about to disappear, those who came down from the airships fell into an even greater panic. The earthquake was still ongoing, and the fear in their hearts kept growing. Some of them started crying, some were yelling, some were shouting threats, and some had even taken out guns to fire at the airships.

This kind of behaviour obviously could not be forgiven, so they were quickly beaten up by the legendary figures and the weapons on the airships. The repair work was handed over to the vampires who could fly. They pasted something like Band-Aids on the damaged parts, then refilled the airbags with an air pump with the gas they had prepared in advance. The inside of an airship's airbag was divided into a large number of smaller airbags, so one or two broken sub-airbags would not affect the floating capacity much.

The one who stepped forward in this situation was still Professor X. He slowly drifted into the air and asked the people to kneel down to confess their mistakes, then sincerely beg for forgiveness by muttering his name in their hearts. Only then could they find redemption.

Such a request akin to a religious charlatan's would certainly meet with scoffs in times of peace, but in the current life-threatening situation, humans were willing to do things that were even more ridiculous than this. More importantly, Professor X could really read minds!

Soon, dozens of sincere confessors had a faint white light shining on them, and from an airship dropped down a rope ladder that rotated like a conveyor belt. One would not even need to climb the ladder; they only needed to hold tightly onto the rope ladder to be pulled up to the airship.

Now that there were examples, and the people could see a ray of hope, the situation finally calmed down. Although the ground was trembling violently due to the earthquake, the situation did not seem like it would be fatal for the time being.

In fact, most of the casualties occurred because some of the people could not hold on to the rope ladders properly. There were a dozen or so of them, and they naturally fell and died. Besides that, there were more than a hundred extremely religious people who felt that Professor X's actions were blasphemous to God, so Professor X mercifully let them leave. Except for the airships, they were free to go to any corner of the Earth.

The happiest ones were naturally the people who chose to stay on the airships. They were staring at the fools below with arrogant looks. The names of these people had been recorded down. As strong supporters of the base, they would certainly be given preferential treatment in the future.

However, most of the people who left had not returned yet. They had stayed awake in terror the night before, and when the apocalypse did not come, they had left thinking that it was all one big joke, so they were now sleeping soundly to make up for the sleep they missed last night. There was no way they could get here in time, and even if we do, the base may not be willing to accommodate them any longer.

So after the Big Three had a discussion among themselves, they decided to execute an emergency plan. They would take advantage of this critical moment while there were still billions of humans alive to urgently replenish some population from New York City. To take in people so wantonly without prior screening was definitely somewhat inappropriate, but population was the primary productive force of a nation, so having more was always better than having less!

The area they were in was hundreds of kilometers closer to the core area of the earthquake compared to New York! Most importantly, a crustal crack which extended from the epicenter was passing through this place, so the magnitude of the earthquake here exceeded 8.0!

How bad was a magnitude-8.0 earthquake? The official statement issued by the government stated that "most of the houses were damaged, the roads have collapsed and the underground pipelines have ruptured".

But keep in mind that the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake was only 7.9 in magnitude. The most destructive first wave of the earthquake lasted only 22 seconds, and the earthquake had occurred in relatively undeveloped areas in Western China with low population density. The final loss was 800 billion yuan (~USD $116 billion) and the death toll was close to 100,000.

The ground trembled, softly at first, then started to shake violently! Trees and houses swayed like grass, and no one could remain standing. It felt as if someone was brutally beating up the Earth's crust!

An old man was initially enjoying the morning sunshine on his balcony, but the strong quake threw him over the balcony railings, and he hit the ground below heavily. The cyclists on the side of the road fell down one after another. Car alarms went off due to the strong vibration. All the chaotic sounds intermingled, shaking the nerves of the humans.

Ironically, right before the earthquake occurred, Governor Schwarzenegger was still on TV releasing the official statement that the earthquake crisis had passed. No wonder he was mocked as someone who could only read from scripts.

"Damn it!" Sheyan swore out loud, then immediately passed down a series of orders. "Reef, go and save them. I'll go start the car. Sanzi, ask Kulutego to get ready. Our survival will most probably depend on him."

Sheyan sprinted to the car, completely ignoring the tremor of the ground, and started the engine. It was a car they had carefully selected before they came here, a car which was wild and domineering -- a pure white, six-wheeled extended Hummer H6!

The car needed only 8.6 seconds to go from 0 to 100 km/h and could reach a maximum speed of 200 km/h. Its 6.0L, 32-valve V8 OHV gasoline engine provided it amazing horsepower, much more than could be provided by the 2.0L and 3.0L engines in normal off-road vehicles.

The only disadvantage of this four-ton vehicle is that it consumes a staggering amount of fuel. It drinks oil like humans drink water. To give a more intuitive comparison, the fuel consumption of an H6 which moves in an urban area is about ten times that of a normal vehicle with a commonly-seen 0.8L engine. Fortunately, the H6 has a dual fuel tank configuration and can hold 240 liters of fuel, which enables it to move seven or eight hundred kilometers without refueling. Otherwise, it would have to stop for gas after every dozens of kilometers.

The sounds of porcelain tinkling and shattering came from everywhere, but what worried Reef more were the groans made by the timber supporting the house. This house obviously would not remain standing for much longer in this earthquake.

The cry of the children upstairs successfully provided Reef with the right direction. He covered his head with his hands and rushed upstairs. It was not that long a distance, but at least two chandeliers fell on him, covering him in glass fragments. However, they could not harm the sturdy Reef in the slightest. When he stepped onto the second floor, a wardrobe suddenly flew towards him! Reef clenched his fist and swung his elbow!

The wardrobe broke apart, sending clothes and dust flying everywhere, but it could not slow Reef down at all! As soon as he reached the second floor, he saw Kate and her two children taking cover under a dining table, hugging each other and trembling in fear.

Just as Reef was about to reply, he suddenly heard a very clear crackle coming from the roof beam. The beam broke from the middle. The whole building was going to collapse in a few seconds! He had no time to explain. He charged forward and sent the table flipping with a knee. With Kate in his left arm and the two frightened children in his right, he crashed through a window and jumped outside!

Less than two seconds after that, the interior walls of the house collapsed under the terrible pressure. The whole building was destroyed like a giant invisible palm had emerged from the void and pressed down on it, stirring up smoke and dust high into the sky.

A sharp glint suddenly flashed across Sheyan's eyes, because he could clearly see a sharp steel bar shooting out of the collapsing building, aiming straight for Lilly's back. Was it really just a coincidence?

"Such a straightforward attack. It's probably not Bind," Sheyan immediately decided. Zi, who was standing next to him, gently flicked her finger. A sharp Force turned into the shape of a needle and struck the steel bar from the side, knocking it away. Reef rolled to soften his fall, then sprinted forward while carrying the three victims.

Sheyan opened the car door and grabbed the panicking Gordon, pulling him into the front passenger seat. He then stepped on the accelerator. Meanwhile, Zi pushed open the rear hatch and reached out to receive the people Reef had rescued. A large number of fissures had appeared on the road a few dozen meters behind Reef, and they were extending in this direction.

The powerful V8 engine roared vigorously. Reef threw Kate and the two dizzy children towards the back of the H6. Zi very easily caught all three and placed them on the seats. Although the car was already moving above 60 km/h, Reef still managed to jump onto the car without much effort.

The Hummer H6 they had chosen was not a normal Hummer H6, but a modified one. Its front and back seats alone could already accommodate five adults. There was also the extended rear compartment, which had been decorated into a luxury bar with deluxe lighting, surround sound, and even TVs and refrigerators. The luxurious real leather sofa in the corner had a wide and comfortable back and could seat five people.

On the wall opposite the sofa, a wall-mounted 15-inch screen was connected to the DVD player in the front row. That, and the overwhelming acoustic effect from 10 speakers, turned this little space into a mobile private cinema. Next to the walnut-wood bar were two embedded refrigerators. The glass rack on the bar could hold 10 glasses firmly in place. The roof and the surrounding walls were plated with chrome for decoration, with variable-colour lamps inlaid within.

Kate was already placed on the sofa while she was still in shock. Zi helped her fasten her seat belt and brought her a cup of vodka to calm her down. The car was shaking due to the earthquake. A lot of fractures had appeared on the walls of the houses on both sides of the road. They collapsed one by one, unable to resist the violent destructive force of nature.

More horrible were the numerous fissures and pits that had emerged on the road behind them, determinedly chasing after them like falling dominoes! Vehicles parked on the side of the road were swallowed up by the sudden collapse one after another. Countless trees fell down and disappeared into the newly formed deep ravines.

Sheyan shrugged, then stepped on the throttle until it touched the floor. The engine of the Hummer H6 instantly roared louder. Its wide off-road tires played an important role at this moment. The vehicle shot forward, trying its best to outrun the collapsing road behind it.

The needle of the speedometer on the dashboard increased slowly and steadily: 90, 100, 120, 150 km/h! In the vision and senses of everyone in the car, the whole world seemed to be shaking violently!!

But right then, Sheyan finally encountered the thing he was most worried about -- a traffic jam! After steering onto the main road, more and more cars appeared in front of them. The people driving these cars were obviously gripped by fear and had not realised the great crisis encroaching from behind.

As soon as he said that, a loud bang could be heard. Sheyan had rammed hard into the butt of a Toyota Corolla in front of them, knocking it away. If they had let the car stay in front of them, they would fall into the abyss after but a few seconds.

Now was the time for the Hummer H6 to display its domineering might with its weight of more than four tons, its high-strength alloy steel structure, and its speed which had already accelerated to nearly 150 km/h. Ordinary vehicles could not stop it at all, unless there was a heavy duty truck blocking its way!

After knocking away the slow-moving Toyota Corolla ahead, the Hummer H6 only slowed down slightly before it once again accelerated sharply, spewing black smoke from its exhaust pipe. But after making a sharp turn, Sheyan could not help but swear out loud again.

That's because an accident involving more than 20 vehicles was taking place right in front of them. Fire and smoke filled the air. Under the circumstances, no matter how powerful the Hummer H6 was, there was no way it could just force its way through like a bulldozer.

Therefore, Sheyan did not hesitate to press the button on the dashboard to switch to off-road mode. With a turn of the steering wheel, the vehicle steered towards the lawn to the side!

The Hummer's performance on the road was about the same as cars like Jetta and Santana, but in terms of off-road capability, the Hummer was the king among civilian vehicles!

Amidst the loud roar of the engine, large masses of wet soil mixed with a large amount of crushed grass sprayed out from under the wheels and splashed onto the trees nearby. The lawn had obviously been carefully managed; the owner must have spent a lot of time on it, but he was now unable to make any protests because he was currently buried under his collapsed house.

Sheyan showed not the slightest hesitation in driving over several patches of lawn and smashing into a beautiful fence with blue and white morning glory growing on it. After that, the Hummer crashed into a shaky shed at more than 80 km/h, then dashed out among the dust and debris like a giant metallic beast.

The slope collapsed slightly, forming something like a staircase. Sheyan put the pedal to the metal, and the engine roared loudly. The custom Bridgestone off-road tires provided amazing grip for the vehicle, launching it forward. A large amount of wet mud frantically splashed out from under the rear wheels. The steel monster forcefully climbed up the steep slope!

Even after overcoming this obstacle, the path ahead was still not a smooth ride, but at least they had temporarily steered away from the direction which the fissures were extending towards. From this high ground, they could clearly see the vast land in the distance waving and undulating. The buildings were shaking and collapsing in this unprecedented disaster, and the trees were falling down one after another.

Sheyan smirked. With a turn of the steering wheel, the Hummer steered back onto another road which had less traffic. It charged forward violently, knocking away all the vehicles in its path.

The earthquake had lasted for nearly five minutes now. All the buildings that would collapse already did, while those that had not collapsed could probably still persist for a while longer, ushering in a relatively safe period in the city for the moment. Although entering the city was a very dangerous thing to do, in order to cut back time on the journey, Sheyan decided to take the risk.

"You should've turned left to get to the airport highway," Gordon pointed out Sheyan's mistake, but he immediately shut his mouth. He stared wide-eyed into the distance, because he already saw what the airport highway that was built on a bridge looked like at the moment. From a bird's eye view, it would look like the corpse of a snake that had dried up.

The whole highway had collapsed in sections. The road on top of some of the more stable piers were still being supported in mid-air, albeit a bit skewed, but at least half the highway had completely collapsed. The highway sections were densely packed with vehicles which could not advance or retreat. They could only crash to the ground together with the collapsing bridge, or wait for the land's fury to claim them.

The road they were driving on was also in a chaotic mess. Sheyan ruthlessly crashed through everything in their way -- vehicles, corpses, and even living humans that were screaming in panic. The surface of the Hummer was now full of scratches and dents, but its inside was not much affected. The engine was still providing powerful thrust, while the tough inner wall effectively protected the passengers inside.

The pier closest to them suddenly fractured. The cracks spread to the whole pier and it completely collapsed, no longer able to support the section of the road above it. The section of bridge, about four to five hundred meters long, fell towards this side together with hundreds of cars on it.

Sheyan swore in anger. He could only turn the steering wheel hard and execute a crazy maneuver akin to a drift, forcing the vehicle to steer into a small alley. But even so, there were still a few cars that were pushed by the falling bridge section which came sliding over in this direction, leaving trails of sparks that sprayed more than five meters into the air!

The invisible 'Force.Collision Wall' immediately flew out towards the cars that seemed like they carried the will of Death, giving rise to a loud, roaring wind! It crashed into the cars from the side, skillfully deflecting them away from their true course.

A white mixer truck was still crashing in this direction, but its course was already off by 15 to 20 degrees. It hooked onto a nearby building about five or six meters away from the Hummer and immediately lost control, swinging into the building. The building had already been ravaged by the earthquake, and now that it was struck by the white mixer truck, the huge impact force immediately made it collapse. A violent explosion followed.

Sheyan kept stepping on the accelerator, continuing to accelerate. After turning a corner, he saw many high-rise buildings trembling like unstable dominoes. Their glass curtain walls were cracking, and various humans and furniture were falling down from them.

Twenty metres ahead, an unbelievably large but shabby neon sign board fell down from the sky with a large number of electrical wires trailing behind it, looking like a comet crashing down to earth.

The electrical sign board was at least twenty meters high and five meters wide. Although it looked tattered, dirty and unremarkable right now, it was sure to be a most remarkable landmark in the city's skyline come nighttime. Sheyan dodged the crashing object with a sudden brake and drift. Countless broken glass fragments scattered across the area.

"This electrical sign board must have cost a lot of money. What a pity." Sheyan made the random remark under his breath because he had been involved in the installation of light signals on the airships, so he had been exposed to this kind of thing before. Surprisingly, a reply to his remark came rather quickly.

Suddenly, a group of people that looked like office workers rushed out of the hospital building. They were all in a sorry state and looked really terrified. Right then, a five-storey building next to them collapsed and mercilessly fell directly onto them. Only a woman was lucky enough to survive, but her left leg was crushed. She screamed and cried in despair.

Sheyan had seen too many of such incidents before to care, but Gordon suddenly started shouting like a wounded beast and thumping against the car wall in spite of the pain.

To stop the car to rescue someone in the current situation carried a great risk. There were dense buildings on both sides of the road. All of them could fall anytime, blocking their way or burying them alive. Furthermore, the earlier they could get to the airport, the higher their chances of survival!

After the woman was rescued and brought onto the car, they found that although she cut a sorry figure right now, she was actually a blonde beauty. Moreover, she had a curvy, sexy figure. However, her left leg was crushed and she was badly injured, so she would probably need quite some time to recover.

When the blonde woman got on the car, she first looked around, then hugged Gordon tightly and burst into tears. "I thought I'd never see you again!" she repeated over and over.

Kate's face visibly turned stiff seeing this awkward situation. However, she was apparently a very kind person. When the blonde girl had recovered slightly from her state of shock, Kate asked for a glass of brandy and brought it over to her.

The injury on Brooke's leg looked to be quite serious. The broken bones were exposed to the air, puncturing through the wound. There were also sand and debris sticking to the wound. They did not have anything to treat the wound with at the moment, so they could only anaesthetise her with liquor, and mixed drinking water with liquor to clean the wound.

Dr. Gordon Silberman, being a plastic surgeon, could certainly perform a simple treatment like this. But the ambiguous atmosphere between him and the patient he was treating was obvious to anyone who was watching. Even a blind man could see that there was something between them.

"Oh," Reef let out an exclamation of comprehension. All of them could hear the unconcealed dissatisfaction in Kate's voice. They now also understood Sheyan's intention in saving the woman.

In the original plot, Dr. Gordon Silberman had unfortunately died in the end. It was thanks to his death that the protagonist, Mr. Jackson Curtis, could get back with his wife and children without any problems.

But now, Gordon had been saved together with Jackson's family, and it was unlikely that he would die, unless Party Ace killed him themselves. To kill such a weak character who was extremely important to the plot? No contestant would ever do that unless they had no other choice! Party Ace, of course, was not so foolish either!

But then, a problem arose. If Gordon lived, Kate would still be his girlfriend, and the protagonist, Mr. Jackson Curtis, would have zero chances of getting back together with her. He was destined to be forever alone.

The storyline had changed dramatically here. Fortunately, Sheyan's keen sense made him aware of the problem, and he gave the order to rescue Brooke. It seemed that Gordon was not a very faithful man. Now, things would have a more satisfactory ending.

In truth, Gordon actually loved Kate a little more than he loved Brooke, but because Kate still had her ex-husband in a small corner of her heart, she had been taking contraceptives all this while. This particular matter had made Gordon very unhappy.

It was common knowledge that reproduction and survival were the instincts of all creatures. The activities of all living things could be considered to revolve around these two matters, human beings included. Furthermore, Gordon was already in his early forties, so his desire for having his own children must be very strong. This had become the most fundamental rift between them.

At that moment, Brooke had appeared. She was at least fifteen years younger than Kate, young, beautiful and unmarried. Her boobs were at least D-cup and she had a slim waist to boot.

In order to capture Gordon's heart, she perfectly played the role of a gentle, obedient and considerate woman. Monica Lewinsky could not hold a candle to her. Things like not wearing condoms and not taking contraceptives were trivial matters to her. In fact, she wanted to get pregnant with Gordon's child. It would help her climb up in status.

Gordon was not a saint. He could not help falling for such a gentle assault. However, his feelings for Kate were real, plus they were only living together together at the moment and were not married yet, so he decided to have both women simultaneously and see what happens. He just did not expect today to be the day his affair would be exposed.

The tough metallic beast that was the Hummer H6 finally escaped from the city with Kulutego's help, covered in scars and bruises. Fortunately, Sheyan had already planned a route in advance. Thanks to the Hummer's powerful off-road capabilities, they could race across uneven terrains straight towards Santa Monica Airport, avoiding the dangerous roads. They soon reached their destination.

The earthquake was still ongoing. The ground was shaking like it was floating on a water surface. But the earthquake here felt slightly weaker, and the collapsing of the buildings seemed less serious. Despite that, the airport was still in complete chaos.

The earthquake had happened for nearly half an hour, and due to the widespread knowledge of earthquake emergency measures, most people knew that they should move to an open space.... An airport undoubtedly fulfilled this criterion, hence the crowd density here far exceeded their imagination!

The 12-seater Sikorsky S-76 helicopter he had arranged for was still here, but it could no longer soar into the blue sky, because an electric cargo truck commonly seen in the airport had rammed into it. The helicopter was tilted, leaning against the ground on its side. It was already quite fortunate that an explosion had not occurred due to fuel leakage. As for the pilot, half his body was still stuck in the cabin. He seemed to have died for a long time.

But Sheyan shook his head. "Look at the four takeoff runways outside! They're all either damaged so badly that they can't be used anymore, or they're completely blocked. There aren't only humans on the runways, there are also lots of cars and other objects. Even if we don't care about human lives, we still won't be able to forcibly take off. That's why we can only look for another helicopter."

They wasted no time in doing so. Sanzi was left behind to take care of the people in the car, while everyone else spread out to search. However, the results were very disappointing.

"I found an airport staff who told me that ten minutes ago, someone had rushed here with a gun and forced the pilots to drive away the last two helicopters remaining."

All the development seemed to be advancing towards a hopeless direction, but Sheyan did not believe that the mission would force them into a dead end so quickly. A few ideas instantly sprung in his mind.

Gordon was in a state of confusion and fear, so he only snapped back to his senses after a short while. He replied, "I came here as an intern in my sophomore year and instantly fell in love with this beautiful place. I don't think there's anywhere in the world more suitable for me. It's been exactly 27 years and 5 months since then."

Brooke, who was biting her lower lip with a pale face, suddenly interjected, "Yes, sir, there is indeed a secret military base nearby, because if hostile forces attempt to invade the United States from the air, this place has a high probability of detecting the enemy's aircraft or missiles in advance. The military base is small, but it has a tight defensive system, and the level of confidentiality is high. The military base is also engaged in underground research."

"That's the only piece of good news I've heard in the last 24 hours. A high-level military base must be equipped with helicopters, and they'd be military helicopters to boot. I only have one last question because I need to verify the reliability of your information. How do you know a secret that Gordon, who has lived here for 27 years, doesn't?"

Gordon was momentarily stunned, but he soon verified that it was true. Indeed, there was a military officer who was chasing after Brooke madly in the first half of the year. This was the catalyst that prompted Gordon to start a relationship with Brooke. After all, something that was in high demand would always appear more precious. Even a bad lot of land would sell for the price of diamonds if there were people competing for it.

Brooke bit her lip in anxiety and said, "Of course, he took me there for a ride once. But the problem is, that place is a highly guarded military base. Although a terrible disaster like this has happened, I don't think the soldiers there will just let us drive a helicopter away."

Sheyan burst into laughter while re-igniting the Hummer's engine. "You're right, but I'm pretty good at persuading people, be they soldiers, politicians, bankers or lawyers. So don't worry about that, just show me the way."

In truth, a branch in the storyline had occurred here. Even if Party Ace had not rescued Brooke, they could have learned from the other hospital staff that the hospital had a light-weight helicopter that they used to transport patients. However, the light-weight helicopter could only carry seven people. Hence, Gordon would have to be sacrificed.

Although the reason given by Sheyan was not that convincing, Brooke still obediently acted as the guide. They arrived in the vicinity of the military base merely ten minutes later thanks to the excellent off-road capabilities of the Hummer.

The barbed wire fence denoting that this was a restricted military area had already been distorted out of shape or had collapsed, no longer able to prohibit outsiders from entering. During the earthquake, the soldiers had no choice but to run towards open spaces too.

But the earthquake had seemingly subsided now. At least, it had changed from the previous violent tremor into a light shaking. The people could now walk without holding onto something for support. However, a faint white gas was escaping into the atmosphere from the fissures on the ground, and the air was filled with a pungent smell.

Sheyan's senses told him that the earthquake was only a little tired from the sequence of serious disasters it had caused, so it was stopping for a moment to take a breather in preparation for a more terrifying outburst later!

Unfortunately, the rest of the people were not aware of this. They were basking in the joy of having survived a catastrophe. Maybe some did, but there was nothing they could do.

This restricted military area was situated in the wilderness, a place covered in yellow, withering grass. The only signboard guiding others to it was the cracked cement road. At the gate of the restricted military area, Sheyan boldly stepped on the accelerator and effortlessly broke through the guardrail. The three soldiers who should have been guarding the gate were nowhere in sight.

After driving two to three kilometers further, they saw green barracks, vast training grounds, and also the military airport Sheyan most wished to see, on which were three Black Hawk helicopters!

The Black Hawks were multipurpose helicopters commonly used by the U.S. Army. Apart from the pilot, each helicopter can carry 11 soldiers, 19 in an emergency. They are mainly used for transporting assault troops to the front line and to attack ground targets. Sometimes, they are also used to rescue the wounded from the battlefield.

Of the three helicopters parked on the apron, one had fallen into a fissure, tilting to the side, and it seemed like it had already exploded and burst into flames. Several people were currently beside it, trying to put out the fire with fire extinguishers. Fortunately, the other two seemed all right.

On the other side of the military base, more than twenty soldiers were gathered around a collapsed barracks, screaming loudly. It turned out that, although the surface area of the military base was not that large, the underground area was actually really vast! There were about twenty floors underground!

The underground facility of the military base was carrying out research akin to that in The Hive in Resident Evil. Of course, they had not produced any T-viruses or Z-viruses yet, but it was because they were afraid of biochemical leakage and pollution that they were performing the research at such a secretive place.

Therefore, the underground base was not afraid of nuclear weapons or satellite surveillance. However, there were pros and cons to everything. Now that they were assaulted by a high-intensity earthquake, the damage done was astonishing. All the facilities inside had collapsed and all the people inside were buried alive. None of them managed to escape.

The place the soldiers were gathered around, despite the risk of aftershocks, was the entrance to the underground base. They were digging hard at the rubble with shovels, but they could only try their best and leave the rest to fate. Based on their current digging speed, it would probably take them months to evacuate the first three floors of the underground base. And that was under the condition that there were no further earthquakes to disrupt their progress.

If they were still not discovered after that, the remaining soldiers must be blind. A few of the soldiers shouted warnings and aimed their guns at them, but the safety lock on their guns were still on. They were probably just trying to intimidate the trespassers.

Gordon and the other ordinary people at the back of the Hummer was naturally keeping a close eye on the development of the situation. When the soldiers targeted their M4A1 rifles at the car, it made them very uncomfortable, their faces immediately turning pale.

Sheyan suddenly turned to Gordon and told him, " Gordon, if....now, I'm just saying IF. If a fire is spreading behind you and is rapidly catching up to you, and there's a wooden bridge in front of you. You know that you'll be safe if you can just cross the bridge to the other side, but a stranger is standing on the bridge, refusing to let you pass. Will you kill him?"

This time, Gordon answered without hesitation. "Of course I'd kill him. I'd willingly be burdened with sin for the rest of my life if it means the person I love can live on in peace and happiness!

"Good heavens!" Lilly suddenly exclaimed in surprise. Before Sheyan had even said a word, a lieutenant with bloodshot eyes and was breathing heavily had already placed the muzzle of his gun on Sheyan's head. The pungent smell of alcohol carried over from the lieutenant's breaths. He seemed to be drunk.

The thick rifle butt slammed into the side of Sheyan's head. If Sheyan was a normal person, this blow would at least give him a concussion, but in reality, it only knocked Sheyan's head to one side.

The lieutenant became even angrier because of that. His younger brother was buried alive in the underground base and he had no place to vent his anger. He instantly roared like a wild beast and kicked Sheyan down. After that, he actually pulled the gun bolt back and fired the gun at Sheyan. He was not holding back any longer!

The two soldiers beside him were obviously surprised, but they knew they could not stop him in time, so did not say anything. Besides, according to the regulations, during a special time like in an earthquake, curfews would be imposed on prisons, military bases, government offices, police stations and other key official departments. Killing a trespasser could only be considered a handling method that was a little too heavy, and was not against the rules. As long as all of them insisted that the trespasser had sinister intentions, his death would not be investigated.

Gordon did not expect the soldiers to be so brutal. They actually started killing without any warning! His face turned pale and he burst out in cold sweat. Sounds came from his chattering teeth. The soldiers were now walking to the car with a fierce look in their eyes. Lilly let out a scream and plunged into her mother's bosom.

The five soldiers had all pulled back their gun bolts and were walking towards the Hummer with expressionless faces, but behind them, Sheyan climbed back up silently. He sighed heavily with his hands in his trouser pockets.

When the lieutenant who fired the gun heard that, he turned around as if he had seen a ghost. He was obviously well trained as he immediately took a step forward and raised his gun to take aim.

Sheyan ignored the muzzle that was as dark as a black hole and moved forward instead of retreating. He did not seem to have moved much, only taking a step forward, but he was now standing in front of the lieutenant with the M4A1 rifle stuck under his armpit. The gun continuously fired shots, but they all hit empty spaces.

The lieutenant was reluctant to let go of his gun and kept pulling at it hard, but the gun felt like it had been welded onto a wall. Sheyan exerted some force, and the gun immediately deformed, the gun parts scattering everywhere. The lieutenant tried to reach for the handgun on his waist, but Sheyan instantly slammed his head into the lieutenant's.

The lieutenant's head snapped back from the impact, and Sheyan slammed a knee into his crotch. His face immediately turned pale. He collapsed onto the ground with his body convulsing and his crotch in a bloody mess. Having dealt with him, Sheyan lowered his body and charged into the midst of the remaining four soldiers who had not yet reacted.

Sheyan's objective was simple. These soldiers were nothing in his eyes, but there were more than 20 other soldiers armed to the teeth not far away. He wanted to create a chaotic situation so that the soldiers could not fire at him.

Ordinary bullets could not threaten him, but this was after all a military base, not to mention that they still could not confirm what was happening with Bind yet, so it pays to be careful.

Sheyan rushed into the midst of the soldiers with his arms outstretched and grabbed the necks of the two soldiers in front of him. They struggled madly but could not resist against Sheyan's abnormal strength! Their heads collided together, and the world was silent once again.

At the same time, a trail of blood appeared on Sheyan's back. One of the soldiers had used his carbon steel dagger to cut open a long wound behind Sheyan. But when the dagger cut into Sheyan, his muscles contracted to grip the dagger's blade. Sheyan spun rapidly and rammed his elbow into the soldier's face. The sound of bones breaking could be heard, and the soldier slowly fell to the ground.

The last soldier could already sense that something was amiss and tried to run away, but Sheyan gripped his neck and held the soldier in front of himself as a shield. He shrunk his body and hid behind the soldier, then dashed towards the soldiers in the distance.

All of these happened in an instant. Besides the contestants, no one expected the man who had been shot by an M4A1 rifle to climb back up and fight like a wild beast. Not only did he either kill or severely injure five elite soldiers in an instant, he was now setting his sights on the other soldiers!

In their astonishment, the large group of soldiers in the distance were all caught unprepared. They clearly had the most advanced modern weapons in their hands and were in their own base, but they felt like they were prey being hunted by a predator!

"This man has superpowers!" An officer shouted. Since there were mutants and vampires in this world, it was impossible not to leave any traces. The officer rolled backwards into a textbook half-kneeling firing posture with astonishing speed. He quickly took aim and fired.

Sounds of bullets penetrating into the flesh came one after another as the soldier used as a shield by Sheyan convulsed violently. All the bullets accurately hit him on his upper body, drilling deep inside. His screams of agony gradually turned weaker.

When Sheyan had approached within five meters, he flung the "meat shield" which was now filled with bullet holes forward, knocking three people down. He then jumped and kicked out. The soldier in front tried to block his kick, but he ended up folding in half at the waist and flew away like he had been hit by a heavy truck.

The pupils of the major in command contracted when he witnessed this. The smell of blood felt heavy in his nose, and a sweetness was surging up his throat. He took a few deep breaths before he gritted his teeth and pulled out a grenade. He threw the grenade and fell down to the ground.

But before the grenade could land, it was slapped back by the enemy and ended up exploding next to the four soldiers on the side. Sharp metal shrapnels instantly tore apart the human bodies. Blood-curdling screams rose one after another.

Another soldier tried to use a new type of burning grenade against Sheyan, but before the grenade could be thrown, Sheyan had rushed over and grabbed his hand that was holding the grenade. The grenade's detonation mechanism activated right then, so the flame grenade ended up exploding in his hand.

The soldier screamed and struggled after catching fire all over his body. After running for twenty meters, he fell into a tent. The dry miscellaneous stuff around him was instantly ignited and the fire started spreading fiercely.

The officer's heart sank, but he had not lost all hope yet. That's because he could already hear the sound of engine coming from the east. He knew that the two soldiers left to guard the radio station had come to help in a "Bradley" M2/M3 Tracked Armoured Fighting Vehicle.

With the terrifying combination of a M2HB-QCB heavy barrel quick reloading heavy machine gun and a12.7mm APEI-169 Armor Piercing Explosive Incendiary on the vehicle, they should be able to easily tear up this damn bastard that had superpowers!

A deafening noise akin to the sound of thunder came from the distance, and a dark mass suddenly came whirring from the air. The dark mass turned out to be a huge rock that was heading straight for the armoured fighting vehicle!

Sergeant Litt was aiming at the enemy behind the heavy machine gun and was about to open fire, but the unexpected attack forcefully interrupted him. The rock carried such a strong momentum that he found himself having difficulty breathing. He could only protect himself with his arms in panic.

An agonizing pain caused by blunt force trauma assaulted the front part of his body. The protective enclosure could not protect him at all. The rock hit him head-on, sending him flying and crashing heavily to the hard ground in the distance, his fate unknown. The vehicle was also knocked more than two meters away amidst the harsh sound of tires rubbing against the ground.

But at that moment, they suddenly felt a tremor. The shaking got so intense that they had to get on all fours; none of them could remain standing. The Hummer was clearly parked on flat ground, but it was rocking from side to side because of the violent shock!

There seemed to be a huge beast with monstrous power underground, roaring and madly crashing into the ground! Every time it struck, the violent impact would successfully transmit to all the humans through the fragile land. The humans could only endure helplessly, unable to resist in any way!

Sheyan suddenly turned his head. This action was reminiscent of a beast turning around after being injured. His eyes were fierce, but there was a trace of uncontrollable panic in them. He was still quite calm a moment ago after killing more than a dozen people, but at this instant, he was showing fear akin to a trapped beast!

The altitude of the military base was quite high as it was built on a flat-top hill. The purpose of this was to prevent groundwater from seeping into the underground facilities. Therefore, it could be considered a high ground.

Therefore, they could clearly see a terrible chasm forming on the flat plain about 5 kilometers from here, like a giant snake several hundred meters in diameter wildly wriggling under the ground. A large amount of white gas rose from the cracks, assaulting their noses with a strange, stinging smell.

The vast plain suddenly sunk slightly, then swelled up, as if the whole area that was two to three kilometers in diameter was breathing rhythmically. Then, more than ten kilometers of the ground in front of them started undulating....

Such a scenery should have been very beautiful, but when Sheyan and his party witnessed this, it only sent chills down their backs! The unbelievable grandeur and power of nature! They could do naught but stare in awe and fear!

"Get on the chopper!" Sheyan yelled, then took a deep breath before he barked out orders, "Reef, install an auxiliary fuel tank and refuel the chopper. We probably won't have a chance to refuel on the way. Sanzi, help them board."

Sheyan went straight for the soldier with the highest rank, a major. He grabbed the major by the neck, pulling him close, and asked him seriously, "Where's the helicopter key?"

Sheyan laid him back down on the ground and stomped on his chest! His whole chest sunk down, and the dark red organs within squirted out of his mouth. He died a horrible death.

Next, Sheyan went to another soldier and said calmly, "You think the earthquake has stopped? You thought wrong! This is just the beginning! In five minutes at most, the volcano will erupt. If you can tell me where the helicopter key is, I'll take you with us."

Anger flashed across Sheyan's eyes. He instantly twisted the soldier's neck until it broke. After that, someone shouted in alarm, "I-I'm a pilot. I have the keys. Are you really willing to take me with you?"

The pilot screamed in shock, but he soon realised that Sheyan had passed by him like a gust of wind. The target of Sheyan's kick was the right hand of the soldier behind him who had a furious look in his eyes. A gunshot sounded, but the gun was already kicked out of his hand!

It turned out that the soldier was angry with his comrade's betrayal and had tried to shoot his comrade despite his injury. Sheyan noticed it the moment he raised his hand, and had immediately rushed to him.

The violent vibration of the ground had gradually subsided, but it absolutely did not mean that the catastrophe had calmed down. It felt more like it was taking a rest to break out even stronger later. Reef drove a gas truck over. Sheyan asked him how long it would take to fill the chopper tanks to the brim, and the reply was: close to two minutes.

"One, I want you to prove that you've really submitted to me. Two, one of them just tried to kill you! If it weren't for me, your brain would have been blown out. Three, I'm afraid of them firing at the helicopter after it takes off to bring it down. I'll give you 30 seconds. If you don't do it, I won't take you with us! We already have someone who can fly the helicopter!" answered Sheyan coldly.

Time trickled away, but every second seemed like hours for Party Ace. The air kept getting hotter, and the pungent smell in the air became stronger and stronger. The whole land looked like a boiling steamer pot. There would be a crack in the ground every two to three hundred meters which would suddenly spray white gas up to sixty meters into the air! However, the location of the military base they were in had apparently been carefully selected. Although the underground rock layers here were brittle, they were quite thick, so the phenomenon was not that obvious here. A low, muffled sound filled the air, causing their chest to feel heavy and making it hard to breathe.

Zi was already sitting on the pilot's seat, ready to go. She instantly pressed several buttons in the helicopter. Under her skillful control, the helicopter's rotors started to rotate. The ominous feeling in Sheyan's heart grew stronger. He could not stop himself from asking Zi, "How long will it take to lift off?"

Zi replied after checking the dashboard, "Because we've installed the biggest possible secondary fuel tank, and the number of passengers we're carrying is almost the maximum capacity, it's almost a full load operation, so we need at least 250 revolutions per minute, which means we'll need at least 70 seconds...."

After Zi explained that, a bright light suddenly erupted in front of Sheyan. He completely lost his sight. Even a contestant with a strong Physique like Sheyan only regained his vision gradually after five seconds!

More than thirty kilometers away, a huge greyish-red cloud erupted, almost covering the entire sky. Red, black and grey substances were constantly churning and stirring inside the cloud.

Sheyan's voice had hardly died away when an invisible shock wave swept past them. A gale which must be higher than Beaufort scale 12 blew so strongly that they could not even keep their eyes open! The grass and trees nearby were pulled from the ground and blown into the air!

The pilot, Peter, was about to climb onto the chopper. The look of astonishment had yet to fade from his face when the sudden gale blew him hundreds of meters away like he was merely a small pebble. He disappeared among the dust and debris that were flying all over the sky before he even had a chance to scream!

The greyish-red giant cloud in the distance expanded like crazy. Actually, it was mostly black now, the red parts were just spotted dots, providing embellishment to the magnificent monstrosity. More terrifying were the black clouds that seemed to have covered the whole sky. There were countless fiery-red spots in them which were crashing down at a terrifying speed! On the surface, they looked like little red dots, but they were actually the core stones from the deepest part of the Earth, filled with red magma! They were ejected from the Earth's mantle with unimaginable speed, then came smashing down under the pull of gravity!

Sheyan's group stared at the earth collapsing right in front of them. The huge mass of black clouds produced by the supervolcanic eruption approached rapidly despite looking like they were moving slowly. Countless red volcanic bombs poured down like rain, leaving long black trails of smoke behind them. They crashed into the ground, stirring up dust and smoke!

When they could observe more closely, they could tell that the bigger ones among the volcanic bombs were even larger than heavy duty trucks, while the smaller ones were about as big as a basin. The core of some of the volcanic bombs consisted of heat-resistant substances that had not melted, while others were formed from the lava ejected into the sky. The two kinds of volcanic bombs behaved differently when they hit the ground.

On the other hand, the volcanic bombs made from lava were like deep fried cuttlefish balls that were crispy on the outside but tender on the inside. When they pounded into the ground, their surface, which had solidified due to rapid cooling, instantly shattered. The red lava inside came splashing out stickily, dripping onto the area hundreds of square meters around, igniting everything that could be ignited!

Sheyan's vision was filled with dark clouds, lava, trembling land, and countless volcanic bombs coming down screaming from the black clouds!! The sight was akin to the forbidden spell 'Meteor Shower' or 'Judgment Day' in highly magical worlds!

Zi turned around to glare at Sheyan, biting her lower lip. She complained hatefully, "I wish it would go quicker, too!" Despite her anger, she still looked very charming.

Sheyan wished to reply, but the earth suddenly shook violently again. A terrifying crack emerged in the land in the distance, easily splitting through mountains and rivers, as if the land was gripped by two giant invisible hands and forcefully torn apart. The bottom of the fissure was an unspeakable abyss of terror. The whole land seemed like it would be split into two!

The sound of the land cracking became louder and louder. The concrete floor of the apron began to split open. The crack expanded rapidly, from a centimeter wide to two, from two centimeters to five....

Everyone on the chopper was drenched in sweat, not only because of the tense mood, but also because of the hot gas pouring out from the abyss. The temperature on the land's surface had spiked to around 40 degrees Celsius in an instant. The air they inhaled felt as hot as burning charcoal.

When they looked down, they could see red hot magma surging and boiling thousands of meters underground at the bottom of the abyss. Countless sticky-looking bubbles emerged from within the magma one after another. The crack was still expanding rapidly. All who stared into it felt like they were going to be sucked inside!

Suddenly, a volcanic bomb came roaring down, bombarding the Hummer they took here. The tough metallic fighting vehicle instantly burst into pieces. A small mushroom cloud rose, and a large amount of lava came splashing out, boiling and unstoppable.

At the same time, the terrifying fissure had already enlarged to an astonishing width of over 20 meters. The landing gear of the Black Hawk was unable to withstand the pressure of the expansion. It bent and broke, flying more than 7 meters away. The helicopter itself instantly dropped into the abyss!

Zi pushed the power output of the helicopter to the maximum with a cold expression. The helicopter engine let out a horrible sound, as if it was close to exploding. The lifting force produced by the helicopter rotors finally surpassed the helicopter's weight. The chopper gradually flew upwards with much difficulty. It slowly climbed out of the terrifying abyss, and, after adjusting its direction, flew off towards the distance.

Volcanoes erupted when the molten rock below the surface of the earth was pushed out of a vent due to a strong pressure. The magma which erupted from the volcano crater became volcanic lava. The process was like water being ejected from a sprinkler under the action of pressure. The ejected lava would cool down and solidify into volcanic ash.

The ash cloud from a volcanic eruption was often terrifying as it would obscure the sun. The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 resulted in the death of nearly 92,000 people. The ash cloud it produced covered the sun, lowering global temperatures by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2.8 degrees Celsius), making it impossible to sow properly in 1816.

The helicopter was gobbled up by the volcanic ash cloud coming from behind! In the ash cloud which composed of a large number of ash particles smaller than two millimeters in diameter, not only was their sight obscured, the helicopter engine would also be damaged by the ashes if the helicopter remained in the cloud for too long!

Fortunately, the powerful engine of the Black Hawk was already running at full power, and the high-speed rotating rotors provided enough force to quickly disperse the black cloud around them. The helicopter flew away, quickly outpacing the spread of the volcanic ash cloud.

They managed to break out of the volcanic ash cloud covering the sun merely forty seconds later. Their vision instantly brightened. They were still surrounded by red-hot volcanic bombs that came roaring down with black smokes trailing behind them, but in essence, volcanic bombs belonged to the category of "soil", so Kulutego was able to use his powers to skew the trajectories of the volcanic bombs heading for them. Hence, they were able to fly out of the danger zone without encountering much danger.

They flew past the outermost volcanic bomb as it crashed into a lake behind them. All of them breathed out in relief at the same time. The sudden sense of relief made them feel so weak that they felt like collapsing. Kate had already burst into tears while holding her children in her arms. The agonising pain in Brooke's injured leg finally caught up to her. Her face was pale, and her teeth clenched her lower lip so tightly that it almost bled. She curled up in her seat, trembling non-stop!

When Sheyan saw this, he turned to Reef and said, "There must be a first aid kit on a military helicopter. Look for it and help her treat her wound. My Perceptive Sense is higher, so I have to stay at the front to help Zi steer the helicopter."

Reef nodded and started looking. He soon found the first aid kit on a luggage rack. The collection of medicine inside was pretty thorough. Reef first gave her an injection of morphine, then wrapped her wound carefully with a triangular bandage. He had even removed a steel rod from one of the helicopter seats to fix her broken limb in place.

After the simple treatment, Brooke's pain was greatly alleviated and her complexion turned for the better. But she refused when Reef gave her antibiotics and some other medicines for her injury. She first looked at Gordon, then at Kate, then lowered her head and said in a soft voice, "I'm sorry, but...I'm pregnant. These drugs aren't meant for pregnant women."

"Oh..." Reef nodded in understanding. As soon as Gordon heard that, the look on his face was priceless. He leaped up from his seat involuntarily but was pulled back down by his seat belt. He then uttered in a trembling voice, "You, you..."

Brooke looked at him with tearful eyes. She started sobbing but did not say anything. The look on her face could melt any man's heart. Kate's face was stiff, as if she was wearing a mask.

Kate shook her head expressionlessly and said in a soft voice, "I understand. You have to take good care of her. She's already so weak, and now she's injured too. She'll be in even more pain when the painkiller's effect wears off in a moment."

Party Ace could pretty much confirm that Bind had f*cked off by now, or at the very least, he could only watch without interfering like a vegetative patient. Otherwise, he could have easily wiped them out, especially when they almost fell into the fissure a moment ago. A well aimed volcanic bomb or a light mechanical failure at that instant would have been enough to send them to their graves.

At the moment, looking down from the helicopter, the scenery on the ground was magnificently tragic, especially at the seaside. An area of land almost half the size of a city had swelled upwards and burst open, as if a powerful underground creature were pushing the land up. All the high-rise buildings and cars, the symbols of human achievement in technology and architecture, were either tilted, collapsed, or destroyed.

Seeing the destruction on the land, the children covered their mouths and sobbed in a low voice. Gradually, the eyes of the adults were filled with tears too. Facing such a disaster, countries, political parties and professions did not matter any longer. The only thing of importance was the survival of the human race.

After flying for hundreds of kilometers, they could see that the flat plains had it worst in the earthquake. Mountainous areas fared relatively better because they had thicker crust below them, but only relatively. After all, the earthquake in mountainous areas had also reached magnitude 8. The destructive power of landslides and mudslides were astonishing too!

But Party Ace, who had done their homework before, knew who it was. The person was another key storyline character, Charlie Frost, and this was his live radio broadcast. Charlie Frost was a paranoid radio host and scientist who had somehow found out about the end of the world. It was from him that the protagonist, Jackson Curtis, had acquired the map to the arks in Tibet in the original plot.

When the government began to loosen their tight grip, Charlie launched a radio program to report on the news of the end of the world. He even tried to explain the cause and effect of the apocalypse to the public using animation. In the original plot, he would witness the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera and, of course, die there.

Following that was nothing but static. Sheyan and Zi exchanged glances and said in unison, "Someone's trying to rescue storyline characters that will die? They're also trying to change the plot!"

"Logically speaking, all the other contestants have chosen the Destruction side. It's weird that they would actually save someone," replied Reef while appearing to be deep in thought.

They still wished to continue discussing this topic, but at that moment, Zi finally found the frequency for the encrypted channel. After keying in the relevant signal, the communication was established.

Sheyan smiled bitterly. "We're in a terrible situation. I'm sitting in a hijacked Black Hawk helicopter - the Pentagon will probably never forgive me for a whole series of violent acts I committed - but more importantly, our helicopter's landing gear is bent worse than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There's no way it can support the helicopter's weight when we land."

"The Leaning Tower of Pisa is no more, my friend. Even the statue of "Christ the Redeemer" on the Corcovado Mountain in Brazil, 2,330 feet above sea level, has collapsed," Professor X's peaceful voice came through the communicator.

"The situation of the area you're in is quite bad. I believe the Pentagon won't have the time to investigate the small issue of a missing Black Hawk helicopter. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"What? You're still in New York?" Sheyan frowned. "Be careful of the storm that will come together with the tsunami. The airships should rise to the top of the troposphere to avoid them before then."

Professor X replied with a wry smile, "We have no choice, Mr. Seaman, we can only take the risk. The time of the start of the apocalypse you gave us was a little early, and we've sustained some losses, so we can only spend some time in New York now to take in some people."

When Sheyan heard that, he could immediately imagine the embarrassing situation Professor X was in previously when he was accused of being a liar. Sheyan could only say apologetically, "It's regrettable that there were some minor mistakes. You guys must be careful. Mind the time; don't lose everything for small gains."

Professor X assured Sheyan, "When it comes to major incidents like the end of the world, a bit of time error is inconsequential. As for the problem of storms, we have Storm with us. She can sense storms ahead of time. We plan to stay in New York for two more hours. Are you coming to join us now?"

"According to you, this unsuccessful writer is an important node in the future, so we're carefully protecting him. But he's not in New York currently; he's in Washington," said Professor X.

"The helicopter he took was attacked by some unidentified people. Fortunately, we sent a Vampire Duke to bring him back, and the Duke beat the assailants back. After that, the apocalypse arrived. Just to be safe, and to avoid fights as much as possible, they went to Washington instead."

"There's a branch airship factory in Washington which we've worked together with the government to set up. They should be there right now. Mystique is in charge there, we can ask her to hand over command to you," said Professor X.

Probably because the Black Hawk helicopter had taken in a large amount of volcanic ash, Zi did not dare to raise its flying speed to the maximum. When she tried, the helicopter engine would make noises like the sound of an old man who had smoked for sixty years coughing. Therefore, they took shockingly long to arrived in Washington. Fortunately, they still arrived in time.

Jackson Curtis was no doubt exhilarated to see that his ex-wife, son and daughter were all safe. He waved a flare from below excitedly to send a signal to them. However, the helicopter's landing gear was broken, so Zi could only let it hover in mid-air about a meter off the ground, and let the others down first.

Jackson gave his daughter and son a fierce hug, but he looked a bit embarrassed in front of his ex-wife, Kate. But when Gordon, who was equally embarrassed, jumped off the plane with the sexy-looking lady, Brooke, on his back, Jackson rushed up to Kate and hugged her tightly. Kate burst into tears in his arms.

Zi then steered the helicopter far away before Reef pulled her out of the cockpit with 'Holy Grasp'. In this way, though the helicopter soon crashed and turned into a big ball of fire, all its passengers landed safely.

[ As compensation for completing this emergency mission, I will now give you your reward.... I will grant you two wishes. Of course, the wishes must be within a reasonable scope, and they cannot be something beyond my jurisdiction. You better think carefully before you make a wish, because once you do, even if I can't fulfil it, the wish would be gone. ]

If Sheyan was picking up chicks, he could just set the highest goal and work down from there; if they could not sleep together, then they could kiss; if they could not kiss, then they could cuddle; if they could not cuddle, then they could just hold hands.... But the Realm had made it clear that if the wish was something it could not do or if it was something which exceeded Party Ace's merits, the wish would be wasted in vain. Sheyan could not use the same strategy here.

Sheyan contemplated over the problem very carefully, and then said, "I'm already a Colonel and my total achievement points is close to reaching the rank of Major General. May I ask a few questions first?"

This was the privilege of Sheyan's military rank. Even the Realm could not deny that. The Realm thus replied, "You may, but I can choose not to answer questions that are beyond your level of clearance, and I may also charge you for certain questions."

Sheyan continued, "I've killed a guy named Fate before. May I know the name of his ability? The one that can manipulate other people's luck and give others misfortune. I believe this question isn't beyond my rank. It involves a rival Realm, and Fate's military rank was lower than mine. You should be able to answer this."

"Information check in progress.... The data is being restored. Please wait patiently. The estimated time required is 60 minutes, but if you can provide some relevant data, the time required will be greatly shortened.

"Search successful. Data is being retrieved.... The ability of contestant A801C71 is called 'The Power of the Dead', an ability unique to the 'Final Destination' world."

"'The Power of the Dead' is rated as an A-rank ability. It can be acquired by gaining the trust of the coroner William Bludworth, a key storyline character in the Final Destination world (by raising relationship level to Exalted) and learning from him. Because the acquiring difficulty is low but the upgrading difficulty is high, the ability is rated as an A-rank ability."

Their hearts sank when they heard the Realm's reply. Sheyan closed his eyes and was silent for a while. After that, he pulled Sanzi over and said a few words to him. Sanzi was visibly surprised. After a short moment of hesitation, he spoke to the Realm.

"Please state your wish, respectable Chosen." The Realm's voice was the same synthesised electronic sound, but he now added the word "respectable"! Sheyan silently cursed the Realm out in his heart. I'm already a freaking Colonel but I still didn't get an honorific title. Sanzi's not even a Growth Hunter yet....

Bind's ability was indeed bizarre, able to kill covertly without being detected. Truth be told, it was a really despicable ability. But if someone on their side had that kind of ability, how amazing would that be? They were in full support of this plan!

First, by his estimation, their achievements so far were not enough for the Realm to award them an A-rank ability for free. Sheyan only had about 50%-60% confidence that the Realm would agree to this request, which means that there was almost a 50% chance that the Realm would say no. Sanzi, being a Chosen, should increase the chances somewhat.

More importantly, although Sheyan certainly wished that he could take all the good equipment and all the good abilities, he knew that it was not practical. He could not win every battle by himself. Every contestant had their own opportunities which they should grasp when it presented itself.

Sheyan certainly wished to possess an ability like 'The Power of the Dead', but he realised that it was not suitable for him. It was a sneaky ability which could take the life of the enemy commander from thousands of miles away, which was incompatible with his build as an MT who fought at the frontline.

Sheyan's style was akin to a general who took the lead to charge straight into the midst of the enemies, cutting a path straight towards the enemy commander. On the other hand, 'The Power of the Dead' was a sinister ability which was akin to smearing poison on the breast of a beautiful woman who was presented as a gift for the enemy commander in order to kill him subtly and quietly. The two styles were totally incompatible.

Sheyan also suspected that it was necessary to have a certain level of Intelligence and Spirit in order to bring out the full power of 'The Power of the Dead'. That was the main reason why he let Sanzi ask for this ability.

After Sanzi had made the wish, the Realm replied in the same emotionless voice, "I can fulfil this wish, respectable Chosen, but it will cost you 20 achievement points and 50,000 utility points."

Party Ace lost a member for the first time in the 2012 world, but they had also gone on a killing spree! All of them had obtained quite an amount of achievement points. Sanzi naturally had no problem producing 20 achievement points for the fee.

It was worth mentioning that Sanzi had always had an official military rank. Zi and Reef had also realised the usefulness of having an official military rank after meeting Sheyan, so they had also made the effort to turn their reserve ranks into official ones. Right now, all three of them had official ranks.

The description on it was a simple one: "This scroll contains the formidable power of Death. After learning the ability on it, one will have the power to change the fate of others! Prerequisite abilities: 'Deep Meditation' lvl 4, 'Astrology' lvl 4, 'Casting Material Identification' lvl 4."

'Deep Meditation' was the advanced version of 'Meditation', a must have for all spellcasters. 'Astrology' was an ability which a lot of summoners, including Sanzi, find necessary to divine the location of a good pet or to predict the success rate of the next capturing attempt. However, he did not have 'Casting Material Identification' lvl 4. He could only wait until he had returned to the Realm to purchase the ability before he could meet the learning requirements of 'The Power of the Dead'.

The Realm had wickedly bound the scroll to Sanzi's soul. The implication of this was obvious. The Realm had only handed out this reward because Sanzi was a Chosen. The others were not, so they were only fit to stare at the scroll....

The requirement for learning this ability did not sound too harsh, and everyone seemed to be able to learn it if they wanted to, but to gain the trust of the coroner and raise their relationship level to Exalted was in truth so hard that it was enough to drive a person crazy!

This coroner was a forever alone guy without any relatives, friends or acquaintances. He had always maintained an unfriendly attitude with everyone. The only way to improve your relationship with him was to complete the tasks he requested.

His tasks were not actually that hard. He would ask for all kinds of strange things that were not that expensive nor were they difficult to find, but everything he asked for was a local specialty of other movie worlds! He might ask for a booger candy from the Harry Potter world, or a compressed cookie from the StarCraft world, or a zombie chicken from the Resident Evil world, or a roll of toilet paper from the Titanic....

Therefore, in order to complete his task once, even if you're lucky, you would have to wait until you return from the Final Destination world, then go to the Realm marketplace to buy the required item, then go back to the Final Destination world.... To raise the relationship level to Exalted, even if you have an unbelievable amount of Charm, you would have to repeat this process for more than a dozen times....

Someone once tried to go to the coroner after collecting a large pile of stuff that he might ask for, but the bastard could see what you had on you. He did not want anything you're carrying because what he wanted was your sincerity in going around running errands for him. Although you could finish the task remotely, but to accept another task, you still had to go back to the coroner!

So, was the learning requirement of 'The Power of the Dead' high? Not really. Any contestant could try if they really wanted to. But the effort it would take and the price one had to pay was enough to break a person!

This wish was fulfilled by the Realm, albeit not in its entirety. It allowed Freddy to leave a seed in Old Charlie's mind. Whenever Old Charlie required Freddy's power, Freddy could be reborn through the seed. However, this ability could only be used for a limited number of times. The seed would wither after it was used for three times, and each use must be separated by a world in between.

Party Ace were now outside the city centre of Washington, D.C.. Only five giant airships had been produced in this branch airship factory because of the late start of the project here. The right to choose the people to board the airships here should have been the government's benefit, but the government's main plans were still the Noah Arks and making more replica arks like China, so they had not paid much attention to this place.

There were not that many people here in the first place, and after Sheyan's error in judging the time of the apocalypse, they could now hardly see anyone here besides the staff. Of the five giant airships that were ready for takeoff, four of them had empty cabins.

Of course, so far, intense earthquakes had only occurred along the San Andreas fault in the central and western parts of the United States, and the ripple effect which reached east coast cities like Washington and New York was not that strong. But in any case, there were already sustained aftershocks of magnitude 5 to 6, and it was the information era, so news had already spread.

In addition, the horrible ash clouds from Yellowstone National Park's supervolcanic eruption had already rolled over to the sky here. It really was as Charlie Frost claimed: "The lights will go out in Washington too!" The people were already panicking.

Logically speaking, this place should have been a hotspot because it was one of the places that could provide them with the means for survival. The root cause for the low popularity here was that a terrible fissure had emerged during the aftershock which happened to cut off all three major roads leading to Washington! In this time of confusion, not many people would run here.

The one in charge of this place was Magneto's subordinate, Mystique, who could shapeshift into anyone's appearance and even copy their fingerprint. The person who could marry her would truly be a very lucky man. To have a different looking wife every day.... The female mutant was somewhat respectful of Sheyan, and she found all these administrative affairs really cumbersome anyway, so she gladly handed over the management of the sub-base to him.

Sheyan's plan was naturally to save as many people as they could. He clearly remembered that Washington and New York would soon be hit by a strong earthquake that would make even the White House collapse, before the cities would be submerged in seawater.

With the help of experienced managers like Zi, he ordered the workers to continue pumping gas into another completed but yet to be inflated giant airship. He planned to incorporated the airship into the formation.

Thus, the workers had to work overtime even during the end of the world.... It was truly the pinnacle of capitalism. The workers were naturally unwilling to fulfill such an unreasonable demand of the vicious capitalists, but their families were all on the giant airships, so they could only steel their nerves and do the job.

During the wait, Sheyan turned on the TV to check the channels that were still broadcasting to see what was happening all over the world. He found that almost all the heads of state of the nations which participated in the Ark Project had already flown to Cho Ming Valley in Tibet. The only two heads of state who remained were the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Italy. U.S President Thomas Wilson insisted to stay together with the people, while the Prime Minister of Italy was staying to pray for a miracle. But ten minutes ago, something really weird had happened. The prime minister of Italy was abducted!

That instantly reminded Sheyan of the fact that the nutty conspiracy theorist, Charlie Frost, had also been rescued away. He immediately came to the conclusion that there must be a great benefit to saving these key storyline characters and elites who enjoyed a high prestige among mankind.

With this in mind, Sheyan incorporated the giant airship which had been filled with enough gas into the joint formation, ordered the formation to climbed to a height of 1000 meters, and headed straight for Washington. Under the circumstances, there should be no need to gain permission from the Pentagon to fly over the air space of Washington.

A major drawback of the giant airships was clearly demonstrated during the flight -- their moving speed was excruciatingly slow, especially when sailing against the wind. Each airship had only three engines. For three engines to provide the thrust to move a gigantic object like the airship, a speed of 30 km/h was already the best they could do.

The Capitol Building and the Washington Monument, landmarks of Washington, collapsed one after another. As for the Statue of Liberty in New York, it had already collapsed for quite some time.

Despite the tremendous intensity of the earthquake, Sheyan was not too worried that he would find no survivors to save in Washington. There were 500,000 permanent residents in downtown Washington alone. Before the strong earthquake struck, there were enough signs and time for the residents to escape. Instead, he was worried about the problem of having too many people to save, leading to chaos.

As the airship formation advanced slowly forward, many people on the airships covered their mouths and wept. Looking at the land from above, they could see the continental plate beneath the entire downtown Washington had been pushed up. It then split into dozens of smaller plates, causing various horrifying fissures to form. The area near the sea had already sunk into the water.

Sheyan stood at the bow of the mothership. Looking down, he was delighted to see that the White House at the center of Washington was still largely intact. It happened to be situated on a piece of plate fragment about 7 square kilometres in size. This means that the American President was still alive, and there should be thousands of survivors there.

Although ash was falling like snow from the volcanic ash clouds, the hum of the engines of the giant airships and the bright searchlights on them still managed to attract the attention of the survivors. They wept and shouted loudly, then lit up anything around them that could be ignited.

When the airships reached the South Lawn, Sheyan ordered the crew to drop the anchors. They laboriously fixed the entire airship formation here, but still kept it at a height of 30 meters and did not immediately lower the ladders. Doing so would no doubt lead to an unprecedented tragedy. The desire to survive was enough to make the vast majority of people lose their reason.

A voice came from the loudspeakers on the airships which commanded the survivors to line up for orderly boarding. Meanwhile, Party Ace slid down from the mothership by holding onto a rope. They were naturally surrounded by people the moment they got down. At Sheyan's request, they soon met the respectable President Wilson, who was staying here with the people.

The black President (Danny Glover) cut a sorry figure at the moment. He had been encouraging others and helping rescue the wounded, so his whole body, including his hair, was covered in volcanic ash. His voice was hoarse and his eyes were sunken.

"I'll keep a long story short. The airships are huge, but they have limited carrying capacity, so we must make sure as much of them are used on humans as possible, instead of objects. I need you to organise all the survivors here to board the airships in an orderly fashion, and to check that each of them carries no more than a kilogram of luggage. Only you have the authority to make them listen. We already have a lot of food and things to keep them warm on board, enough for everyone's basic surviving needs, so they wouldn't need to bring any of those things. I thank you for your cooperation in advance."

Sheyan hesitated for a moment before he added, "One more thing, and it might be a bit cruel... We may have no choice but to abandon those that are injured so badly that they can't move. Our carrying capacity is limited, and so are our medicine and food. There are still a lot of healthy people awaiting our rescue. But of course, if there are family members to take care of the wounded, we won't forcibly abandon them."

Now that the crowd could see a ray of hope and the President was there to organise them, order was soon restored. Most people were in tears at the thought of escaping death. However, regarding the restriction of a kilogram of luggage each, some still tried to secretly break the rules even though the punishment for violation was the deprivation of their right to board the airships. But after a few of the rule breakers who tried to cause a commotion were shot on the spot, no other similar incidents occurred. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This saying did not exist without reason.

After rescuing the survivors around the White House area, the four empty airships were now packed. They took off once again. President Wilson also boarded the central mothership. He only stayed in the first place for his belief that he should be together with the people. He did not necessarily have to seek death.

He asked Sheyan if they could deliver these survivors to a safe area, then come back here to Washington to rescue more people. Sheyan could only shake his head and smile bitterly when he heard the request. He showed the President a 3D animation on the screen and gave him an explanation.

The intense earthquakes in coastal cities was actually a sign -- a sign that the second stage of the apocalypse was coming. The crust underneath most of the world was moving, and it would provide enough energy for the great tsunami. During the tsunami, the earthquakes would occur at the bottom of the ocean instead, so there would be a relatively calm period on land. If they let these people down now, the only fate awaiting them was to be drowned by waves several kilometers high a few hours later....

President Wilson sighed in disappointment having heard Sheyan's explanation. He looked as if he had grown several decades older in an instant. He sat down on the cold metallic chair next to him and pressed his fingers against his temples in exhaustion. Because the airships had to float in the air and there might be violent turbulence, all the furniture was fixed in place so as to avoid hurting people. Therefore, it was not very comfortable.

Zi could not help feeling a little sad seeing the respectable President Wilson in this state. Compared to his predecessors President Bush Sr. and Jr., President Clinton, and Watergate President Nixon, Wilson really seemed like a saint. Zi pulled Sally, the president's secretary, aside and spoke to her. Before long, Sally had fetched some hot water and started getting busy at the cookery at the back.

Soon, President Wilson was re-energised thanks to some hot towels, hot chocolate, and a large sandwich. He should have been extremely tired under the immense psychological and physiological stress, but he still insisted on checking the conditions of the survivors on the airships before he would rest. As a show of respect, Sheyan and his party members accompanied him on the inspection.

The base had obviously made ample preparations beforehand. The airship staff was currently distributing a myriad of supplies and necessities to every passenger in an orderly fashion, including a number plate, a set of hygiene products, and a grey blanket that was big and thick, though the fibers were a bit rough to the touch.

Although the passengers had just lost all their properties, at least they now had a safe place to lie down and rest, and a bed that may not be too comfortable but could keep them warm. But because the number of people rescued had exceeded expectations, some of the passengers could only sleep on a mat in the corridors.

A lot of people were so emotional that they burst into tears when they saw Party Ace and the President. Some even knelt down to thank them. It was obvious how high a reputation they enjoyed among the survivors.

After inspecting two of the giant airships, President Wilson nodded approvingly despite maintaining a critical attitude from the beginning. This was a crucial period, so all the passengers were asked not to leave their cabins. Dinner would be sent to each cabin by a specialised food trolley, and food would only be provided to those who possessed a number plate.

Each food trolley contained two large aluminum barrels. The first aluminum barrel contained high-density biscuits compressed into squares. Each person would receive a piece the size of a cigarette box. The biscuits were so hard that they could knock a person's teeth off. Each aluminum barrel contained enough biscuits to feed more than ten cabins.

The second aluminium barrel contained a very hot soup which had chopped carrots, meat strips, corn kernels and a lot of butter. The supplies provided to each passenger when they boarded included a military canteen and a large lunch box, so each passenger could fill their lunch box full of soup every meal.

President Wilson asked for a set of food to dine together with the people there, so that he could listen to their voices and opinions. For a President, the dinner was certainly not something that could be considered to be tasty, but the high-density compressed biscuits soaked in soup was certainly very filling, more than enough to make a grown man feel full. The soup also contained a lot of butter. Although that made it a bit greasy, it was very helpful in restoring energy and resisting the cold. The President could tell that the organisation had put a lot of thought into the food.

Some incidents had occurred during dinner. Some of the people could not get used to such crude food, so despite the warning signs prohibiting the act of wasting food, they still threw their food away.

This behaviour attracted the attention of the security personnel. They promptly handed out the punishment -- the number plates of the people who threw food away were taken from them and would only be returned 36 hours later. They would have to go hungry for at least four meals.

After some time, an urgent message came from the control room: the tsunami was coming. In order to cope with the imminent bad weather, the airship formation would climb to maximum altitude and seal off all entrances.

"All passengers are advised to stay in their cabins and hold on to something fixed to steady themselves. Those who are confident in their physique can move to the portholes to say goodbye to the great, beautiful, spectacular, magnificent Washington one last time."

Huge tides piled up on the horizon like dense clouds and rushed madly over. The tallest wave looked down upon the land from up high, then completely submerged it. All of them stared at the spectacle silently. At the top of the giant wave was an aircraft carrier, the symbol of the most powerful combat force among human forces. The Star-Spangled Banner on it could be clearly seen. It came crashing down together with the tidal wave and crushed the White House!!

Tears silently streaked down President Wilson's aged cheeks. This city, once the capital of the world's most powerful nation, disappeared from the face of the Earth, shattered and submerged!

The terrible giant wave swept past the land in an instant, eradicating the architectural heritages built by the painstaking efforts of generations. Everywhere they looked, all they could see was a vast white ocean. It was a scene of hopelessness! In the distance, where the sky met the ocean, dark clouds so dense they looked solid stood like mountains, surging madly with the occasional lightning flashing in them.

Sensing the atmosphere of loss, grief and despair in the air, Sheyan felt that he should say something. He went over to President Wilson's side and told him earnestly, "Mr. President, Washington may be buried deep under the sea, but why do we weep for this place in the first place? The meaning behind this name, the spirit it represents, is definitely not helplessness and grief! If we miss it, we can just engrave it in our memories so that we never forget it. If we grief over its demise, why not rebuild Washington with our own hands in the future? A new, more magnificent Washington! Don't forget, before 1789 AD, this place was only a wasteland beside the Potomac River!"

Sheyan continued, "According to the information I received, the flood will only submerge the lands for ten days at most before it recedes. When the time comes, we will face a brand new Earth. Mr. President, I disagree with something you repeatedly emphasised. You keep saying that you're the last President of the United States, but I believe that as long as there are American citizens who survive, as long as they keep the dream of rebuilding the country in their hearts, the United States of America will not perish!"

Everyone stared at Sheyan in astonishment, even President Wilson. Sally, the President's secretary, started clapping with tears in her eyes. The rest of the people around them followed her lead. Even President Wilson joined in.

When Sheyan saw them regain their morale, he knew that his speech had worked. He smiled faintly and then shouted at the engine room, "Hey, Sander, we're rising too slowly! We have to fly higher than those terrible thunderstorm clouds before they get here!"

In the next half an hour, all the passengers had a good taste of the experience of moving through thunderstorm clouds. It must be very nerve-wracking to know that they were only separated from the lightning and strong gale outside by a thin layer of cabin wall.

Fortunately, Lady Luck seemed to be on their side. Only one of the giant airships was struck by lightning, but it could still fly afterwards, though with some difficulties. Soon, the airships rose to 12 kilometers above sea level as planned. In this mid-latitude area, this height had already reached the top of the troposphere.

They could see the dark cumulonimbus clouds full of water vapour and flashing lightning below them. They were moving rapidly in the strong wind like a boat drifting with the waves. This was also part of the plan. Strong winds could not pose any significant threats to the huge, strong airbags of the airships, just like a turbulent water flow could never make an airtight, hollow can sink underwater.

The airships would now enjoy a relatively stable period. They were expected to drift in the air for more than 72 hours, after which the angry Earth would slowly calm down.

Most of the people in the airships had fallen asleep in fatigue and fear. Sheyan and President Wilson were drinking thick, bitter coffee together. They did not fall asleep, because they still had something more important to do.

The sky was engulfed in darkness. Lightning would flash below the airships from time to time, illuminating the ruined land thousands of meters underneath. The higher grounds were tenaciously resisting the erosion of the violent sea water, but with little success. Large lumps of volcanic ash floated high in the troposphere like poisonous tumours. Even lightning flashes could hardly penetrate through them. Such a bizarre but magnificent view could hardly be seen once in a person's lifetime normally.

In the topmost cabin of a giant airship, a group of people sat together under a bright light. A high-powered communication device was making rustling noises. The communication satellite launched into space before this was still functioning faithfully.

With a feeling of trepidation, a staff member tuned the high-powered communication device to the band agreed on before the apocalypse... A deathly silence filled the air, only the noises made by the storm could be heard.

"This is Air Force One. This is Air Force One. We have forty-three thousand survivors. They are all in good condition, with their own beds and access to hot food. If anyone can hear me, please respond. If you have any difficulties, we will try our best to help you."

"This is Noah's Ark D. I'm Captain Stephen. I beg your pardon, but....Air Force One is already submerged under the water in Cho Ming Valley right now. Please reveal your true identity."

Sally, the President's secretary, bent down and said solemnly into the microphone, "This is Sally, the President's chief secretary. You're putting the cart before the horse, Captain Stephen! Only an aircraft carrying the President of the United States is fit to be called Air Force One! The Boeing 747 S7M3B does not deserve this honourable title if it has no President on it!"

"This is Lieutenant General Agil from Secret Base B in Alaska. The base is submerged under the water but we're all safe. The earthquake has fortunately avoided us. I'm also reporting on behalf of Secret Base D and Secret Base E, who cannot establish communication because their communication devices were destroyed. We have 160,000 survivors on our side. Finally, I'd like to know if President Wilson is really still alive?"

Team Tuna was an emergency organisation formed by the United States after it learned of China's replica ark operation, for similar purposes. It was also the government's greatest hope. Hearing Team Tuna reporting in, everyone held their breath. To put it bluntly, the future revival of the United States' glory and their global status would all rely upon the success of Team Tuna.

All of them erupted in joy upon hearing the news, because it meant that millions of Americans had survived. More and more news transmitted over the encrypted channel, both official and private ones. All of them enquired about the President.

Ever since President Wilson announced his determination to stay together with the people, his prestige had risen to a level that was almost comparable to the first president in American history. Such a strong, charismatic personality had made his stature soar high in the hearts of all American citizens.

President Wilson sat down at the table and slowly said in a hoarse, tired voice, "This is Wilson. I'm sailing 12 kilometers above the ground with the last 43,000 American survivors from Washington. I've never hated destiny so strongly, for it almost made this great and proud race that is mankind extinct. And I've also never been so grateful at destiny, for even in such a difficult circumstance, it still gives us a glimmer of hope at life. Long live the United States of America!"

[ Congratulations Party Ace, you have accomplished a Glorious Feat: 'Saviour'! In the midst of the apocalyptic world of 2012, you succeeded in saving the lives of at least five million people who should have died! ]

[ A Glorious Feat is the ultimate secret hidden in every world. Each Glorious Feat is unique and is extremely hard to discover. Once a contestant achieves the Glorious Feat in a certain world, other contestants will no longer be able to do so. ]

[ You have triggered the relevant conditions. All of you can receive the bonus reward of Legend Level + 1, but if you choose to accept this, you will no longer be able to receive the reward for completing this world successfully. ]

[ Outside of combat, your Legend Level can enhance your reputation among storyline characters in any Nightmare World. 1 point of Legend Level will decrease the required reputation point to raise your reputation with any faction by 10%, and let you enjoy a 10% discount when you trade with all storyline characters. It will also grant you the right to speak directly with certain storyline characters of high statuses. ]

Although Sheyan's Legend Level had not made much of an appearance lately, a lot of that had to do with the fact that after Sheyan became a Growth Hunter, the difficulties of the worlds he experienced were too high. But even then, the only function of Legend Level that had not been showing much of an effect was the last one, "Legend Level will also raise your evaluation rating when you complete a mission". (TL: Probably because all his main missions lately have been crazy hard so he could only aim for low evaluation ratings.)

In truth, the other members of Party Ace had been enviously eyeing Sheyan's single point of Legend Level for a long time. How could the reward of the main mission compare to that? Moreover, if they could migrate Melody's entire race out of the Lord of the Rings world, they would get another point of Legend Level, and that was something that would definitely happen soon. Good things really do come in pairs.

Following that, Party Ace received the notifications that they had completed the main mission with a very low evaluation rating, and the reward was only 5,000 utility points. It could be seen from the reward how hard they were slacking on the main mission.

After that, they were given an hour of preparation time before they had to return to the Realm. Sheyan had no plans to do anything big in this one hour. He only intended to hand over the responsibilities in his hands to President Wilson before he left.

"...And that's it. This is the layout plan of the mothership showing all the food storage areas. The airships will probably have to stay afloat for about fifteen days. Considering that there will certainly be some passengers who will show irrational emotions and reactions, I suggest you to form a temporary armed force to maintain order."

"I see." Although the President's deep-sunken eyes showed that he was already really tired, he still tried his best to take in Sheyan's every word. He was even jotting them down in a notebook lest he forget.

Sheyan nodded in satisfaction upon hearing the President's reply. In his opinion, Professor X had no experience in politics at all. His specialty lay in soothing the people's hearts. Sheyan felt that the post-disaster rebuild should be left to President Wilson, who had a lot more experience in these matters. Professor X might just make things worse if he took over rashly.

The most suitable field for Professor X was actually religion. He could unreservedly use his mental touch to comfort the people's hearts, like a Pope. A governing system which had both church and state, but separate from each other, should be the most suitable one for the post-apocalyptic period.

Having handled everything properly and handed over command to President Wilson, Party Ace boarded a sub-airship used for emergency evacuation as per the Realm's instruction.

Because their reward for completing this world successfully had been exchanged for Legend Level +1, the summary of their adventure in this world shown by the Realm was very brief, so there was no need to waste too many words on that. They soon returned to the Nightmare Realm.

As soon as Sheyan got back to his personal room, he found a box on his desk with the words "Imperial Quartermaster Special Priority Delivery" on it. It seemed to be a delivery from the Empire.

Sheyan wondered who would send him something like this. He speculated that it should have something to do with his 'Major General's Blood Armour', but he had too many things he needed to figure out at the moment, so he put it aside for now.

He felt like his thoughts were all jumbled up because there were too many things to take care of. He sat down at his desk and started listing out everything one by one.

Next, he already had enough achievement points to promote to the next military rank, mainly thanks to the large harvest of achievement points obtained from his outburst of ten straight kills plus G-spot's decomposition of Evil Sword Apophis. His current achievement point total stood at: Colonel 403/400 (8 points were deducted from using 'Extinction' four times). It was clearly time to promote to Major General.

Next was the problem of the party's personnel reinforcement. This was an extremely urgent matter. As for the candidate, Sheyan already had someone in mind, but he never did things that he was not confident in, so he never told anyone else about this. Otherwise, if the guy refused to join, wouldn't that be embarrassing?

In addition, Sheyan also had to get into the best possible state he could to use the legendary item 'The Scalp of Crete' to gain an S-rank ability. Sanzi must also make the preparations for learning 'The Power of the Dead'.

Zi and Reef had just comprehended their Awakening Skills in the last world, and the Awakening Skills were quickly upgraded not long after that, so they must spend some time in the Realm to practice and get used to their skills in order to display their greatest power.

There was also the problem with the dark green gloves. Sheyan was sure that if he dared to use 'Extinction' again, these precious gloves would definitely be destroyed. Before he could solve this problem, his 'Extinction' ability was as good as sealed.

Finally, now that his innate ability had been upgraded, his resistance to diseases had no doubt improved too. This means that perhaps he could try to contract...SARS?? But that thought immediately sent shivers down Sheyan's spine. If he wanted the SARS virus in his arsenal, he should wait until he had at least 30 achievement points in reserve first...

They had a dark gold club to be sold. It would probably fetch a nice price. Besides that, they also had thirteen 'Smelly Toruk Particles' that could be traded in for an achievement point each. Unknown mysterious items which could be exchanged for achievement points were always hard currencies in the Realm. They could probably be sold for quite a sum of money too.

Jinkuang possessed an arrogance surpassing British swordsmen and French musketeers, and shouting like this to summon him would normally not get any reply out of him -- unless keywords such as "making money", "getting rich" and "profit" are mentioned.

Therefore, Sheyan was confident that Jinkuang would appear in front of him in less than three seconds. He would blink his eyes, and Jinkuang would be there in the previously empty corner.

But this time, Sheyan was disappointed. He closed his eyes and opened them again, but the empty corner was still empty. Sheyan was dumbfounded. For some reason, a feeling of emptiness rose in his heart.

There was still no response. Sheyan narrowed his eyes. He slowly stood up and walked to the room where Jinkuang usually stayed in. Sheyan did not come here often, but he could still recall the interior of the room clearly -- because Jinkuang's room arrangement was way too unique.

In the middle of the room was a heavily patched sky-blue hammock. He would find Jinkuang snoring there most of the time. The wall on the left was charred black by smoke, and next to it was a simple picnic stove built from broken red bricks. There was an old iron pot on the stove. Next to the stove was a pile of miscellaneous items (garbage) which included scrap papers, old books, scrap metals, tin cans, and so on.

A tattered leather bag for pig feed hung on the wall. The way the pig feed leather bag was hung and displayed was similar to the bear heads or deer heads in the living room of aristocratic families.

Of course, it was only relatively clean and tidy. For example, the smoke stain on the wall was still there, and there were still dust everywhere. However, the garbage, hammock, old iron pot, and Jinkuang's linen sack were all gone!

Sheyan checked his personal attributes in disbelief, and under the sub-category "Servants", there was only the name of "Old Charlie"!!! Jinkuang had secretly and one-sidedly ended their master-servant relationship!

A complicated emotion rose within Sheyan. The grief from losing Mogensha once again crept into his heart. He fought back the impulse to cry unrestrainedly. He had heard a song before called "Men Crying isn't a Sin". At the moment, he could deeply understand the message in the song.

But Sheyan soon suppressed this feeling after he came back to his senses because he understood that crying was a futile act. Instead of wasting his energy on crying, he should use it to find out why Jinkuang had suddenly disappeared.

Sheyan looked around and carefully inspected the empty room. His eyes stopped at the smoky corner where Jinkuang's kitchen used to be. Jinkuang would often cook here by igniting scrap newspapers and firewood.

Sheyan pondered for a while, then walked over and touched the ground with his finger. He found that the temperature in this spot was much higher than the temperature in the surrounding areas. That means Jinkuang's departure was not premeditated. Instead, he must have suddenly sensed something of vital importance while he was cooking. It made him panic and leave in a hurry.

Therefore, according to his memory, Sheyan sat at the place where Jinkuang would often sit when he cooked, and started thinking. Based on the spot's current temperature, the moment Jinkuang sensed something amiss was approximately the moment when Party Ace returned to the Realm. Did they carry anything special with them when they came back?

While Sheyan was racking his brains, thinking about the problem over and over, his fingers were strumming the floor habitually. A rough unevenness could be felt on his fingertips, as if there were some crisscrossing scratches on the smooth floor.

Sheyan was surprised. It must be known that this place was an absolute safe zone, so the floor, furniture and walls were indestructible -- at least to him it was. So how were these scratches on the floor made?

An idea suddenly came to Sheyan. He found a large sheet of paper, pressed it to the scratched floor, and used a pencil to smudge it back and forth. Gradually, the scratch marks were traced onto the paper. To his surprise, he found that the scratch marks were actually messy, unorderly sentences!

Sheyan thought back and recalled that whenever Jinkuang was alone, he liked scratching the ground with his long, black goblin fingernails. It had unexpectedly become an important clue today. After tracing all the scratch marks, Sheyan read the words, trying to understand Jinkuang's complex psychological state.

"Shouldn't Apophis submit to all direct descendents of the bloodline? Why would it be devoured? This feeling coming from Master...it's not 'Extinction', absolutely not! Although it feels like 'Extinction', it's fundamentally different, like gold and platinum!!"

"I've stayed here for so long. What if he's just a stranger who looks like Master? I'll have to pay rent, utility fees, and for the food.... Ah ah ah, no, no, don't ask me for money. I won't give you any. Put it on my credit first. I can pay you some interest. How about an interest rate of -3%? Aha, since you're not saying anything, I'll take that as a yes. Bye, I'm leaving."

"Sigh, why am I talking so much when I'm about to leave... I actually really want to stay, but the original entity seems to be getting stronger and stronger, constantly calling out to me... I can't resist that kind of power. Forget it, I know that you, little rascal, must be able to discover these traces I left behind. I'd better leave you a farewell gift. I've put it in your cupboard..."

That was where the handwriting stopped. Looking at these words, Sheyan felt like he could see the naggy old goblin in tattered clothes sighing and shaking his head as he threw everything inside the room into that seemingly bottomless linen sack of his. He must have swept the floor too -- although the floor was still not that clean.

Finally, the old goblin staggered into his room, placed something in it, and left here alone with his big, tattered sack, walking down the road slowly until he finally disappeared into the darkness... .

Sheyan suddenly felt a lump in his throat. Tears finally dripped down his face, and an unprecedented feeling of weakness assaulted him from the depth of his bones. This man, who had always been as tough as steel, leaned against the wall for support and slowly sat down on the ground. He covered his face with his hands, and the tears flowed out of the gap between his fingers. He had been suppressing his emotions for too long, he needed a release...

Zi was standing there quietly. From Sheyan's perspective on the floor, Zi's slim but curvy figure was in full display. Her legs that were wrapped in black silk stockings appeared exceptionally long and graceful. Her butt also looked especially perky thanks to her high heels.

Meanwhile, Sheyan's appearance at the moment -- his face in his hands, his tears and mucus dripping down -- must look really pathetic, completely unlike his usual calm, cold demeanour.

But in Zi's eyes, Sheyan looked especially cute at the moment. Yes, cute. Because right now, Sheyan was showing another side of himself, a side that was real, a side which was a reminder that he was only a 22-year-old young man. Under most circumstances, a 22-year-old young man was synonymous with terms like "greenhorn", "wet behind the ears", "immature", or "impulsive".

Only now did the 27-year-old Zi realise that the man in front of him was actually five years younger than herself... At that thought, she couldn't help smiling. Her eyes narrowed and her lips curled upwards. She oozed a sexy, womanly charm, a different kind of temptation to a teenage girl's innocence and naivety.

The reason for this was very simple. No man liked to show this side of himself to the opposite sex, especially an opposite sex whom he really wanted to hook up with. In such a situation, the man might show several different reactions according to his personality. Some would wipe away their tears and say hello, some would turn aside and pretend not to have seen the woman, while some would make use of the woman's curiosity to reach into her heart, thus turning a bad situation into a good situation...

"Jinkuang left without a word? Is he jealous of Old Charlie, or is it something else? To tell you the truth, when I saw that you didn't show much of a reaction to Mogensha's death, I thought you're really cold-blooded. But it seems that you're just hiding your emotions deep inside you."

"Are you done?" Sheyan was suddenly really angry. He did not like to be seen through, and even more than that, he did not like to be seen through by Zi, because in truth, he was a 22-year-old man and Zi was a 27-year-old woman! Sheyan had a very dominant personality, so being treated like a younger brother by Zi was unacceptable for him. If he could, he would rather be 32 years old.

Sheyan's reaction made Zi smile instead. To see the opponent agitated and annoyed during a negotiation was a very comforting feeling. Anger and irritation indicated that the opponent's psychological line of defence had collapsed.

Zi was actually a little irritated at being commanded by Sheyan to do this and that in Nightmare Worlds, because Zi was, in essence, a control freak. Her identity in the real world was a testament to this. That's why she could not help feeling a bit annoyed even though her mind told her that Sheyan was doing a slightly better job than herself.

So to see Sheyan's true emotions gave her great pleasure. Not only did she not leave, she walked over to Sheyan's side and sat down against the wall despite how inelegant it made her look. She turned to her side and stared at Sheyan with a smile on her face.

Sheyan felt like he was going to go crazy. He found that Zi could always find his weakness and poke him where it hurts the most without much effort. He couldn't help turning his head to glare at Zi, but when he did, he suddenly realised that the one sitting beside him was a woman.

Perhaps because she had to go to her company immediately after leaving the Realm, she was wearing formal office attire -- figure-hugging grey suit pants, a white Lapel shirt with fashionable, carved metallic buttons, and a grey woven suit. These clothes unreservedly complimented Zi's easy, casual elegance. Together with her calm and collected attitude, she exuded the vibe of a strong woman.

When she sat down next to Sheyan, her clothes had visibly tightened. As we all know, in different situations, under different environments, different attire can make people react differently.

For example, when a man sees a nurse or a policewoman in a hospital, his arse would probably tighten instinctively from the fear of being stabbed by a needle or of being arrested, but when a man sees a nurse or a policewoman in a club or other entertainment venues, his hormone levels would spike.

At the moment, when Sheyan turned around and looked at Zi, the feeling which rose in him was not the panic when a male subordinate faced his female boss. Instead, he felt his throat go dry. He swallowed with difficulty and his fingers curled into a grip instinctively, as if he was trying to grope a certain thing that had excellent elasticity.

That's because, from this perspective, he happened to be looking down Zi's chest at a fifteen degree angle. The two lumps of plump, firm flesh stretched the white shirt, almost making the buttons burst. The exposed skin looked soft and creamy.

Looking further down, the originally conservative pants was now vividly displaying Zi's alluring curves due to her sitting posture. Those slightly elastic pants were very flexible and hugged her full buttocks tightly. Seeing the ground on which Zi was sitting on, Sheyan suddenly had a vague thought -- how nice would it be if it was his body that Zi was sitting on....

As soon as he thought of this, his mouth went dry. It was impossible for a normal 22-year-old college student to remain calm when the woman of his fantasy was so close at hand, but Sheyan's actual psychological age was older than 32 years old, so he simply lifted his head and stared at Zi with an aggressive look.

To be honest, Zi had started to feel that it might not very proper to suddenly sit down beside him like this, but more importantly, her sitting posture was making the clothes at her chest and hip feel a bit tight, and it was rather uncomfortable. However, hearing Sheyan's threatening words, an inexplicable anger suddenly rose in her. For some reason, she instantly thought of the meek-looking Elven girl.

A woman as prideful as Zi naturally would not express her dissatisfaction at this moment, let alone mention Melody's name. She jutted her chin and gave Sheyan an arrogant, provocative stare. There were also traces of anger and seductiveness in her eyes. But Sheyan only saw the provocation. He felt like Zi was telling him, I'm going to keep staying here, little boy, what can you do about it?

Sheyan was already in a foul mood in the first place, and someone actually came to him to provoke him...and the one provoking him was not someone he could teach a lesson with his fist! Sheyan turned around in anger, half kneeling on the ground, and slammed his hands into the wall on both sides of Zi's head.

Sheyan's action was originally for the purpose of spitting some threatening words, but now that he was in this position, he suddenly found his mind going blank. This was the first time he had been so close to Zi's refined, delicate face, the first time he was smelling the feminine fragrance emitted from Zi after it was heated up by her body heat, the first time he was seeing this astonished but slightly embarrassed expression on Zi's face.

This was the first time a man had been so strongly invaded Zi's personal space, so she was surprised. As for being embarrassed, that was only due to a woman's instinct. 80% of it was still surprise.

"You damn woman, I warned you to get out of here," Sheyan started to feel a fire burning in his heart, and it was rising fast. He liked simple and direct actions, so his next move was a very ungentlemanly one.

Sheyan unhesitatingly kissed Zi's slightly parted red lips, even extending his tongue into her mouth before she could react. His right hand rudely reached behind her back and pulled her into his embrace, while his left hand grabbed at something which he had wanted to grab for a long time.

It happened so suddenly that Zi was at a loss for a while. She completely did not expect this. A soft, weak feeling washed over her, like she was soaking in warm water. Her heart beat began to accelerate. More bizarrely, her body seemed to be reveling in this feeling. In her confusion, Zi even let Sheyan did as he pleased at first....

That was, until Sheyan's hands naughtily rushed to the third base and tried to pry open her legs. That made Zi come to her senses with a jolt. She instantly resisted, and when she found that it was futile, she bit down hard....

'Take advantage of you when you're weak.... I'm the one who's crying here in a moment of vulnerability! You came to me against my wishes, and now you say I'm taking advantage of you when you're weak? How were you weak?' thought Sheyan furiously, but he did not intend to voice his thoughts, because when a man quarrels with a woman, win or lose, he would still lose anyway. Besides, Sheyan was in heat - how could he not be? Any man with a normal sexual function would have the same reaction - so he ignored what Zi said and went back to conquering her!

Zi, of course, was not willing to be conquered so easily, but Sheyan suddenly said something in her ears. Her body turned stiff, and her resistance after that became more symbolic rather than with any real intention of stopping Sheyan.

Sheyan's words were, "I now have 110 points of Strength and more than 4,000 HP. We're separated by mere centimeters. O great mage, in this situation, do you think your resistance is of any use?"

It was not the first time Zi had met someone who tried to take advantage of her, but with her extraordinary strength, she was normally able to let the guys who had bad intentions die an ugly death. Therefore, she could always remain calm, but... Sheyan's words reminded her that her advantage did not apply to the current situation at all.

What followed next were gasps, repressed groans, and the sounds of flesh slapping against flesh. The noises went from low to high, reached a peak, and finally fell back down.

Zi had actually been prepared for this. First of all, she was a normal woman with normal needs. There was not a man around her that she would look at twice, besides Sheyan, who was slightly better than the others, so why not let Sheyan have it. In Zi's point of view, she had only used a man to fulfill her desire. Therefore, if we were to analyse the situation further, Sheyan's role in the whole affair was almost similar to a dildo.

As for their relationship in Nightmare Worlds, that was another matter. Zi was a woman who had always been able to keep her work and private matters separate. Otherwise, she would not have been able to manage the E.S consortium so well. She would still behave very professionally in Nightmare Worlds, as that was a matter of life and death.

Sheyan was currently experiencing an indescribable sense of emptiness - it was a feeling of being emptied out, mixed with exhaustion. When the feeling reached his physical body, it produced only one effect: he did not want to do anything or think of anything. He only wanted to lie still and fall into a deep sleep.

Fortunately, Sheyan still retained a trace of reason and determination. He forced himself to climb back up and take a shower, thus squeezing a little more energy out of his body. He then returned to the real world and fell asleep on his bed. The trauma in the depths of his heart, as well as the fatigue accumulated in the depths of his body, slowly began to heal in his sleep.

He did not know how long he had slept for when he suddenly awoke to a nice smell. The smell was very familiar and quite attractive. He could not help but fight back his sleepiness and climb up. He then saw Uncle Dasi smiling kindly at him while smoking hookah. The fragrant smell came from a big blue-and-white porcelain bowl on the table next to him. It was a bowl of meat noodles.

The bowl of meat noodles cooked by Uncle Dasi was actually made from very common raw materials. The noodles were bought from the supermarket while the soup was brewed with a fish and some pork. The pork meat used was three-tenths fat and seven-tenths lean, cut in different thicknesses. The noodles were poured with soy sauce and sprinkled with salt and onions.

The bowl of meat noodles was very ordinary, but in Sheyan's childhood memory, having a bowl of meat noodles to eat was a very joyous occasion. Sheyan took a large bite of the chewy noodles and chomped it down into his stomach. He then took a sip of the clear soup that was filled with the aroma of onions, and ate the fresh, green vegetables in the noodles. Sheyan's habit was to eat the noodles first, then finish the soup. He would leave the tender shredded meat for last, gulping it down in satisfying big mouthfuls. It was truly an unforgettable feeling.

Uncle Dasi's culinary skills might be a little crude, but the essence of a bowl of noodles lay in its soup, and Uncle Dasi's soup was delicious. In addition, the meat he used was was three-tenths fat and seven-tenths lean, so it was tender even after it was cooked. Sheyan finished the whole bowl with relish.

Sheyan only realised after talking to Uncle Dasi that he had slept for more than 30 hours. Being as cautious as Uncle Dasi was, he would surely have sent Sheyan to the hospital if Sanzi had not told him that Sheyan had not slept for 3 days straight because he was taking care of business matters, so he would sleep for a long time.

First of all, the difficulty of the apocalyptic world of 2012 was shockingly high. Tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes -- these horrible disasters that would not be encountered in other worlds were common occurrences there. Even people as powerful as contestants would be killed in seconds, regardless of how high their HP and defence was.

Secondly, Sheyan had to face all the traps Bind laid down. That had squeezed out almost all of Sheyan's potential. Although Party Ace came out victorious in the end, Mogensha's death was a heavy blow for Sheyan.

Next came the sudden blow of Jinkuang's departure. While Sheyan was weak and vulnerable, he was cruelly squeezed by the alluring, mature Zi. It was lucky that his body was digitised, or else he would have become so weak that he would be bedridden.

Fortunately, the dual effect of ample sleep and family warmth slowly healed Sheyan's body and mind. Now that he had woken up and had a large bowl of meat noodles, Sheyan felt that he had recovered to 80% of his best condition, and he was still recovering.

Uncle Dasi was relieved to see that Sheyan was alright. He went to the dock to play mahjong after that. While Sheyan chewed on the meat left at the bottom of the bowl, he started feeling sleepy again. The thought of sleeping for another seven or eight hours felt very appealing to him.

Sheyan sighed. He really wanted to stick the words "the shame of contestants" on Sanzi's forehead. As a digitised contestant, Sanzi actually had to ask for help to deal with a bunch of normal people.

Sanzi added helplessly, "Can't help it. Those tracking me down aren't ordinary people. I suspect that they're from the National Bureau of Statistics. If I kill someone, things would get out of hand."

'National Bureau of Statistics? They have combat forces?' Sheyan's mind was still in a bit of a blur, but he immediately realised the importance of this matter. He instantly asked, "Where are you? I'll be right over."

Five hours later, Sheyan and Sanzi met up on a double-decker bus in Zhonghai. Sanzi was in a sorry state. His eyes were sunken and his face looked like it was covered in a layer of dust. To say that he looked like a hooligan was not that accurate because of his temperament, but he did look like a neet who had stayed awake for several days in a cyber cafe.

As soon as Sanzi arrived, he immediately grabbed the Dicos Chicken Rice that Sheyan brought for him and chomped it down so fast that he almost choked several times during the meal. Finally, after gulping down the last piece of chicken and licking the last grain of rice clean, he burped and sighed in satisfaction.

The bus stopped, and several people in black jackets got on. Their actions were fast and practiced. They immediately split up and looked around. When they saw Sanzi, their eyes turned bright and they instantly surrounded him.

"We're from the Urban Planning Department of the National Bureau of Statistics.... You're suspected of sticking private ads everywhere without permission and selling fake IDs. Please come with us to assist with our investigation."

Sheyan instantly became alert when he saw the person's action, because the agility of his movement was much higher than that of ordinary people. It was comparable to a someone who had trained more than 10 years in the army. In addition, each of them had a button on their chests that faintly reflected light -- those should be cameras. No wonder Sanzi did not dare summon his creatures. If it was captured by the cameras, things would get really ugly.

Sheyan, of course, would not just sit still and watch Sanzi being captured. He quietly sent a punch towards the abdomen of the man who was reaching for Sanzi's wrist. The man was obviously very confident in his own skills. His left shoulder sank as he used his left palm to block Sheyan's fist. Meanwhile, his right hand did not stop reaching forward.

As someone who had practiced self defence for a long time, even if an adult male swing a steel pipe at him, he could grab it with his left hand, let alone a person's fist.

Power burst out of Sheyan's punch when the fist connected with the man's hand. At that instant, the man realised to his horror that he could not block the enemy's fist even if he had 10 hands!

He felt as if the man he was facing was not a man at all, but a heavy truck with a load of sixty tons charging forward at full speed. Stopping his fist was not humanly possible!

His fingers were already touching Sanzi's wrist, but his abdomen was struck right then. His face turned pale. He seemed like he was trying to say something, but no words came out of his mouth. He stumbled a few steps back while holding onto his stomach and collapsed to the floor.

The bus was instantly sent into chaos. Sheyan did not stop after his first hit landed. Both his hands reached out and grabbed the head of two other men who were trying to pull something out of their jackets. He slammed their heads together. They fell to the ground as if they were drunk.

The last man immediately tried to escape, but how could he escape on such a crowded and chaotic bus? Sheyan approached him with slow, steady steps, then gave him a punch to knock him unconscious. He and Sanzi then got off the bus and ran away.

"There were three groups chasing after me," said Sanzi as he was led by Sheyan into a bustling shopping mall. "Now there should only be two groups left. Brother, I'm really thirsty, let me buy a strawberry sundae first."

Sanzi scratched his head and said regretfully, "I figured that you're probably trying to acquire SARS, so I wanted to help you find the virus strain. I didn't expect the Mainland to be so strict in this matter. Money didn't work at all. I was reported instead."

"Where would I find the extra achievement points to acquire SARS? Unless I don't promote my rank for the time being, but my Major General's Blood Armour should be ready soon. Compared to SARS, that's a bigger upgrade for me," explained Sheyan with a frown.

"But bro, you can survive the infection first and only make it your ability when you've saved up enough achievement points. This way, SARS can become an ace up your sleeve that you can use as soon as you have the achievement points," said Sanzi.

After all, the infection and replication of the SARS virus must be carried out in the real world. If he took this step now, things would be much easier later. Thirty achievement points sounded like a huge amount - it was common to obtain only two or three achievement points from a single world - but if a chaotic melee broke out in the next world, the accumulation of achievement points could be quite shocking.

Sanzi grinned excitedly. "Bro, my trip's not completely in vain. Mainland China may be really strict in the control of the SARS virus, but I've also received another piece of information. It's possible to get this stuff overseas."

Sheyan suddenly threw himself at Sanzi and tackled him to the ground. Something hissed past and pierced a small hole through the glass counter next to them. A cashier was greeting the customers in front of her with a sweet smile. Her leg suddenly felt numb. She touched the numb spot with her hand and felt as if it had been stabbed by a needle. She yawned, and suddenly fell asleep on the counter.

Sheyan's words were quite true. The news that someone was buying information on the SARS virus was bound to attract the attention of the National Bureau of Statistics. It was, after all, SARS. It was not something that could be eaten or worn. It had some research value for the country, but for ordinary people or private organisations, its only use was to infect others and cause social panic. Who would want to see this kind of situation? Terrorists! The authorities were naturally on high alert.

"There are three people watching us," Sheyan sighed, "And if we don't deal with them quick, it'll become 30 people in five minutes, and then 300. Sanzi, I see that there are a lot of pets in this shopping mall. Pets going crazy and attacking people isn't anything unusual."

Three retired veteran soldiers lay injured. One had a broken leg, while the other two were severely bitten, the joints on their hands and feet covered in blood - for some unexplainable reasons, quite a number of pets in the mall had simultaneously gone berserk and attacked them.

But that was not all. It was no big deal for the staff to be injured or even killed on duty. The most crucial thing was that their target had disappeared among the crowd. There are about 300 million people in the United States, and the population of China is more than 4 times that. Can you imagine the crowd in a busy shopping mall in a large city?

The head of department sighed. Since they could not catch the thief, there was only one way to prevent the worst from happening -- they had to heavily protect what the thief wanted.

Having escaped from the pursuit of the National Bureau of Statistics which was as hard to get rid of as mercury that had seeped into the ground, Sheyan sighed with relief and said, "It'll be really hard to get our hands on the SARS virus now that we've alerted them."

But Sanzi broke into a smile, "This may be true in Mainland China, but you've overlooked something, bro. SARS didn't only spread in China back during the epidemic period. China was only the place of origin (Shunde, Guangdong Province) and a serious epidemic area, but it eventually spread to 29 countries."

"We can try other countries. The countries that are publicly known to have SARS strains now are the United States, Russia and China, but Canada, Vietnam and Singapore were also epidemic areas back then. Canada and Singapore are both developed countries, so their pathological laboratories should have them too. I got this information for 130,000 yuan and a package of cigarettes."

Sheyan rolled his eyes. "I'll make sure to reimburse you. Let's try Singapore first. I should still have some contacts there. But since we're going abroad, we'd better not buy if we can rob. We don't have much money left."

"Ugh..." Sheyan was suddenly speechless. He immediately put on the air of an elder brother and tried to hit Sanzi. Sanzi instantly ran away like a naughty child. This teenage boy would only show his childish side in front of Sheyan -- though the topic of their discussion was adult level.

Sheyan and Sanzi's operation in Singapore went smoothly. Although Sanzi believed that they would not have to worry about money any more, Sheyan still chose the simplest and crudest method, which also happened to be free. He made the property of others - the sacred Republic of Singapore, to be precise - his own, by force. Everyone who disagreed with him had been knocked unconscious.

"Hello, I'm looking for Ms. Lingzi Su. What? She's sleeping? Please wake her up then! Okay, fine, I know you can't, but can you place the phone next to her ear, please?"

At this moment, Sheyan suddenly felt a little awkward because he had not contacted her at all after what happened between them. He fell into a moment of silence. After sorting out his thoughts, he said, slightly embarrassed, "Zi, it's me. I'm sorry, but there's an urgent matter I need your help with."

Hearing Sheyan's familiar voice, Zi instinctively tidied up her soft but slightly messy long hair even though they were thousands of miles apart and Sheyan could not actually see her.

Sheyan laughed and hung up the phone, leaving Zi to blush in anger. But soon after that, her lips gradually curled into a smile as she played with her hair. She yawned leisurely, then made a call.

"Hello, I need Gulfstream 1 to pick someone up from Changi Airport in Singapore right away. The guest is our VIP No. 12. In addition, ask the pharmaceutical company under us to prepare a sterile high-specification laboratory as quickly as possible."

An astonished voice came from the other end, "But Director Su, Gulfstream 1 is about to set out to pick up Prince Olic from the United Arab Emirates. Everything's already prepared."

The secretary could hear the anger behind Zi's voice. She cleverly chose not to say anything else. When kings fight against each other, the people suffers, that was the cruelty of workplace politics. But it was always better to choose a side early rather than to try to make everyone happy, only to end up getting nothing in the end.

After her slumber was interrupted by Sheyan, Zi no longer felt sleepy. She went to the mirror to tidy up her hair. She was currently wearing a silk nightgown of the highest grade, which rippled like water as she moved, occasionally revealing the beauty inside. Her slender waist, long legs and alluring curves could hardly be contained by the gown. For some reason - perhaps because she thought of something - she suddenly blushed again while biting her lower lip. She cursed in a soft voice.

There was currently a luster to Zi's face. Though it was faint, if one were to look at her carefully, it could still be easily seen. It was as if a cool, refreshing rain had washed away the dust, revealing the unique freshness of life within, making her even more attractive.

The manor's lawn had obviously been carefully managed. The style of the manor announced that the manor itself was at least 300 years old. The interior of the manor had a traditional feel with an old gramophone, a European style fireplace, an old wooden bar, and a wine table.

Just as Sheyan began to wonder if Zi was taking them here for a one-day tour of an ancient European castle, they reached a sparsely laid out bedroom, which had obviously been deliberately decorated in the same traditional style as the rest of the manor. The heavy Scottish wool carpet on the floor was the only commendable thing about the room.

Suddenly, Sheyan felt his entire body shaking slightly. No, not his body, the whole room was faintly trembling because it was moving down. Sheyan immediately understood that this was no room, it was a carefully concealed elevator.

When he got out of the elevator, he saw in front of him neat office desks, microscopes, test tubes, Petri dishes, and people who were busily moving about. It was a bustling scene.

"The consortium have always had some business in the grey areas, so just to be safe, these kinds of laboratories which may cause legal disputes are well-hidden from public view," she led him forward as she explained.

There were obvious traces of unhappiness in the scientist's voice. Zi smiled and said, "We found a volunteer who's willing to test out a new type of SARS virus. Your team's task is to record his data after the infection. Of course, your most important task is to ensure the survival of the volunteer. We're not murderers after all."

Although the government had prohibited this kind of research, sometimes the government's ban would just become a catalyst instead. For example, when a country bans prostitution, massage centres and spas would spring up like mushrooms after the rain.

This was especially so in Great Britain and France. In order to be the first to discover the "atomic bomb" of genetic research, live human experiments were conducted almost semi-openly. E.S consortium could already be considered very cautious compared to other institutions.

Therefore, the professor did not doubt Zi's words. He certainly wasn't foolish enough to question why the company would want data about the new SARS virus. After that, Sheyan was washed clean and pushed onto the test table like a lab rat.

The Professor nodded in satisfaction and tried to persuade Zi, "Actually, director, you don't have to stay here. You can go do your own thing first while we wait for the result. SARS sounds like a terrible disease, but its notoriety is mainly caused by its high pathogenicity, high infectivity, and the lack of a specific cure. Its mortality rate is actually only 9.3%."

"Therefore, the notorious SARS is actually way less dangerous than diseases that have a mortality rate of almost 100% like AIDS, Ebola and rabies. Few young adults die from SARS, because they have strong immunity and strong bodies. Usually, the deaths in young adults are caused by complications such as dyspnea due to pulmonary edema, exhaustion and multiple organ dysfunction. Based on the physical results of this volunteer, I can say with almost 100% certainty that he'll recover just fine."

Zi shook her head. "We can't be so optimistic, professor. The SARS virus that we're about to inject into him is a mutated strain. Except for the method of infection, every other aspect of the virus has been greatly enhanced, including the onset time and the symptom intensity."

The professor's face became dead serious when he heard that. He re-examined the surrounding area carefully, including the disinfection and sealing facilities, and brought another disinfection chamber over. A disinfection chamber is a glass container commonly seen in movies, normally used for dissecting mice. All operations are done using the mechanical arms in the disinfection chamber.

The effect of the virus was astonishing. It could be seen that Sheyan's lungs were instantly severely damaged, and there were a lot of black lines extending along his blood vessels. Sheyan no doubt suffered monstrous pain during the process, but he endured it without making a sound. Sanzi was extremely worried to see Sheyan's fists clenched tight and green veins bulge out on his forehead. Zi appeared indifferent, but her nails were digging deep into her flesh because her palms were clenched too tightly.

Amidst the extreme pain, Sheyan suddenly sensed something warm. He immediately looked towards the source and found that the warmth came from the string of Dzi beads given to him by the man named Reyno when his innate ability was upgraded. This string of beads had a large amount of the power of prayers in it, but Sheyan could not understand why it would behave so strangely at this time.

What Sheyan did not know was that Tibetan Buddhism originally belonged to the tantric path. It emphasised toughness, endurance and humility; to understand the teachings through experiencing the sufferings of the world. Some ordinary believers were even willing to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land thousands of kilometers away by foot.

There was even a saying that the practices of yoga actually originated from a sect of asceticism in the Tantric Sect. The way of this asceticism sect was to twist one's limbs to the limit to find release in pain.

Reyno only intended for Sheyan to use this string of beads as a communication device when he gave it to Sheyan, but that was only one of the many mysterious functions of the beads. Its most important function was as a ritual tool that Living Buddhas of the Tantric Sect wore during their cultivation!

Tibetan Buddhism was very prosperous in Reyno's dimension, so this string of beads was not a big deal, but in this dimension, this string of beads could be considered a very rare treasure.

Usually, when a person was in extreme pain, there would be very subtle changes to their breathing, heartbeat, endocrine, magnetic field, brain wave, electrocardiogram and so on.

Meanwhile, the beads that had the power of prayers in them were like a fixed-frequency radio. The subtle fluctuation produced by Sheyan, who had a very strong physique, under extreme pain slowly approached the "frequency" of the beads, thus triggering the activation of another of their function: the function as a ritual tool for cultivation!

Because the warmth felt very comfortable, Sheyan instinctively tried to pursue that warmth. He brought the beads out of his personal storage space with his mind and quietly grapsed them in his hand. Sheyan's palm was hidden from view under his side, so even though there were many people watching, they did not notice his actions.

With the string of beads in his hand, the warmth gradually spread all over Sheyan's body. A strange feeling slowly emerged within Sheyan. He felt like he was calmly observing the pain from the perspective of a bystander, as if the pain was acting on someone else's body.

He then felt the strange pain pouring into the beads, while the beads emitted an indescribable warmth in return. Sheyan felt like he was wrapped up in a soft, strange warmth which made him feel like he did not need to eat or breathe at all.

Darkness, tranquility, softness and warmth were the four senses that supported the sensory world of a human being. That was what babies felt when they grew up in their mother's womb.

The Rebirth Realm above the Fetal Realm was the supreme law of Tantric Buddhism. This realm was usually reached only when Living Buddhas who achieved Nirvana before they died burned out the remaining life force in their bodies.

The Fetal Realm could restore the senses back to the environment in a mother's womb during the fetal period. Meanwhile, the Rebirth Realm was the highest realm which would allow one to experience their own death, experience reincarnation into the Fetal Realm, and experience rebirth. This was equivalent to travelling to the future and witnessing the world after!

That was why in Tibetan Buddhism, Living Buddhas could often very accurately predict where and how they would die. The details of their predictions were often amazingly accurate!That's because they had really seen these things!!!

But the Rebirth Realm was truly a very profound realm. Generally speaking, reaching this realm was an ascension for the soul, but a great burden for the body. That was why there was a saying that reincarnation happened in a month. After reaching the Rebirth Realm, one normally would not live past a month before one would have to get ready to reincarnate.

What was more cruel was that even if the soul had ascended to such a powerful realm, it was still unable to escape a brutal cruelty when it reached the afterlife during the reincarnation process --

(TL note: Meng Po Soup is similar to the River of Forgetfulness in Greek Mythology. Souls of the dead would be given a bowl of soup by Meng Po in the afterlife before they reincarnate. The soup makes them forget the memories from their previous life. )

Although many Living Buddhas could slowly recall some of the skills, such as medicine, or scripture, from their previous lives based on their habits after reincarnation, they could not reach a realm where their present and previous lives completely coincide.

Sheyan himself did not expect that he would have to suffer so much pain and difficulty to upgrade the 'Air-borne Diseases' under the 'Pestilence Monarch' skill tree to the limit!

He also did not expect that under such a condition, with the help of the power on the ritual tool - the Dzi beads - that the Living Buddha Reyno had sent to this world, he would achieve the Fetal Realm which many monks and even some Living Buddhas could not reach in their lifetime!

The light above was very volatile, just like starlight. When he did not pay attention to it, it would feel very bright, but when he paid attention to it, it would feel dim. On the other hand, the area below him was brightly lit.

Little did he know that if he drifted upwards, he would be attempting to break through to the Rebirth Realm in cultivation. As someone who only reached the Fetal Realm with the help of external power, if he did try that, he would just be tormenting himself.

To reach the so-called Reflection Realm through cultivation was actually quite simple. In scientific terms, one would only need to clear out all the memory fragments and traces in their mind, then construct it back in reverse bit by bit, without missing any memories.

As we all know, memories would slowly blur with the passage of time. What have we done today and how many times we have done it? These memories should still be very clear. The memories from yesterday would be a bit sloppy. But what about the memories from a month ago? From a year ago?

The cultivation of the Reflection Realm was to backtrack in this way. First, the cultivator would have to think back on what they had done today, then yesterday, then last week, last month, last year, and so on. They could not even miss a single day.

When the cultivation reached the highest level, the cultivator would be able to clearly list out in their mind everything that had happened from the moment of their birth up to the current moment! It was equivalent to when a person sees the flashback of their whole life the moment before their death!

The highest level of the Reflection Realm was to recall the first scene the cultivator saw when they opened their eyes in this life, when they were still a baby. If they could continue to break through and discover the memories when they enter the womb, they would successfully break through to the Fetal Realm.

He reached the light below and stepped in. By doing so, he entered the memory of the first time he opened his eyes. He naturally saw something that the adult him had completely forgotten...father, mother!!!

Suddenly, a burst of smoke and electrical sparks came out of the device which cost 180,000 Euros, and a small explosion occurred. Mechanical parts like screws and gears flew out of the device.

A clacking noise then came from it. Closer inspection revealed that it was the sound of Sheyan's teeth chattering from being clenched too hard! His chest rose and fell dramatically, his fists were clenched tight, and the veins all over his body protruded out of his skin like he had just performed intense exercises.

Sanzi anxiously tried to rush forward to pull Sheyan out of the device, but Zi stopped him and said in a grave voice, "Don't. It doesn't look like the virus is running out of control. Rather, it looks like he's mentally triggered. I don't know what's the cause, but if you get close to him now, you might get hurt."

It must be said that Zi possessed the combination of a woman's unique attention to details and a consortium leader's broad outlook, and it was very precious. She could always see through many things to discover the truth at once. Hearing her words, Sanzi calmed down and took a few steps back.

The domineering aura of the beautiful director instantly took control over the room. The doctors and nurses all stepped out in a hurry. Sheyan's abnormal condition lasted for about five minutes before it slowly subsided. Suddenly, Sheyan punched the disinfection chamber.

The disinfection chamber was built to prevent biochemical contamination. It was almost as tough as bullet-proof glasses. However, Sheyan's current Strength was no joke. With just a single punch, the chamber already started cracking. He added another punch, and transparent glass fragments scattered onto the floor. Sheyan's furious fist, veins bulging, stood upright in the air.

After a long time...his heavy breathing finally subsided. Sheyan opened his eyes slowly, and the blood-red colour in his eyes rapidly faded, regaining their clarity. He stared at the white ceiling above him for a while, then heaved a long breath. He then turned his head to Zi and Sanzi.

The disease was still wantonly sweeping over Sheyan, but it was nothing too serious for him. Three hours later, the notifications from the Nightmare Imprint finally came.

[ You can activate the rest of the 'Pestilence Monarch' skill tree to make yourself stronger. Activating the rest of the 'Pestilence Monarch' skill tree requires 80 achievement points! ]

[ Ultimate Ability: 'Atypical Pneumonia' (yet to be activated) -- Enable the SARS virus to rapidly multiply in the enemies. The enemies' respiratory systems will rapidly collapse like dominoes, until they can adapt to this severe pain. ]

[ Activating this ability requires 30 achievement points. You will transmit the SARS virus to all nearby enemies. The virus is transmitted through air and droplets, so it takes only three seconds for the onset. ]

[ The virus can cause serious damage to creatures hostile to you at the instant of onset. When the SARS virus kills the enemy's immune cells, it causes severe pain, stunning them for three seconds. At the same time, they will be damaged by 5% of their maximum HP (this damage cannot be higher than 300 points when used on a contestant). ]

[ Every 10 seconds afterwards, there is a 75% chance of the enemy being affected by the SARS virus tentacles, thus gaining one of the three negative statuses of 'SARS Chest Pain', 'SARS Asphyxia' and 'SARS High Fever', as well as suffering the special effect of the disease worsening. ]

[ 'SARS Chest Pain': The SARS virus spreads to the enemy's lungs, causing severe pain. This effect lasts for three seconds, during which the enemy will not be able to perform any attacks, movements and casting actions. The enemy will also suffer a damage equivalent to 100 + the sum value of all the caster's attributes. ]

[ 'SARS Asphyxia': The SARS virus spreads to the enemy's respiratory tract, causing asphyxiation. The enemy will immediately suffer 100 points of true damage. Besides that, the enemy's movement speed will immediately drop by 50%, and the enemy's hit rate will immediately drop to 0%. These stats will slowly recover to their original values in the next 10 seconds. ]

[ 'SARS High Fever': The SARS virus will raise the enemy's body temperature from the normal 37 degrees Celsius to an astonishing 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 F) in an instant. Under this condition, the enemy's MP consumption will increase by 400%! The fever will gradually subside within 30 seconds, and MP consumption will decrease accordingly until it finally returns to normal (for example, after 10 seconds of high fever, body temperature will drop to around 39.5 degrees Celsius, and the MP consumption penalty will drop to around 200%). ]

[ Every time a negative status effect is triggered, it will worsen the effect of the disease on the enemy's body. When the disease-worsening effect stacks to seven layers, the SARS infection will become critical. Under the critical effect, the enemy will suffer from all three negative statuses of 'SARS Chest Pain', 'SARS Asphyxia' and 'SARS High Fever' at the same time, and the duration of all negative statuses will be prolonged by 200%. The damage inflicted on the enemy will increase by 20%. 33% of the damage inflicted on the enemy during the critical period will be converted into healing effects that will heal all nearby allies. Each ally cannot receive a healing amount of more than 33% of their maximum HP. ]

SARS was as formidable as they had expected, and its damage was also significantly higher compared to the simple negative effects of other diseases. The 5% damage at the moment of outbreak could not be underestimated. It may be mediocre against contestants, but remember the monsters on Pandora? The HP of those monsters were in the hundreds of thousands, even millions. 5% of HP meant tens of thousands of damage!

"We're waiting for your explanation, of course!" Sanzi spread his arms and smiled sneakily. "Why did you suddenly go berserk in the disinfection chamber? Zi was worried to death....AAHH!!"

"Hey, Zi!" Looking at the graceful figure of the leaving Zi, Sheyan suddenly stopped her with a serious expression. After a momentary silence, he said, "How 'bout we do it on the grass next time?"

Zi stumbled as if he had been hit by a bullet. Her figure looked like she was coughing up blood. She then ran away in a hurry while holding onto the wall. Her graceful and calm temperament had vanished in an instant. Looking at Zi's retreating back, Sheyan's smile slowly vanished. His eyes right now contained unspeakable pain and uncertainty.

Sheyan was seriously weakened by the SARS infection this time, unlike his previous experiences in contracting flus where he could just stand up and leave immediately after. He recuperated for a period of time with nutrient transfusions and antibiotics and what not. Unfortunately, they did not have much of an effect. A little exercise, and he would cough so hard that it felt like his lungs would fall out.

Sheyan could only accept his identity as a patient and take his time to slowly recover, all while silently enduring the suffering brought by the disease. He managed to hang on until it was time to return to the Realm. He could hardly wait and was already waiting by the stairs ahead of time.

As soon as Sheyan entered the Realm, before he even requested for a repair, the Realm already notified him that there were functional defects on his body. This was a pretty general term; for example, the inability to walk was also a functional defect, the inability to get an erection was also a functional defect, the inability to speak was also a functional defect. In his case, his condition was so serious that he was almost disabled.

After an examination, it was found that Sheyan's left lung seemed normal on the outside, but the inside was completely rotten! Meanwhile, his right lung was only one third functional! After paying an expensive amount of utility points, Sheyan finally regained his health.

He sat on the chair in his room and took a few deep breaths. He then saw the box on his desk, the one with the words "Imperial Quartermaster Express Delivery" on it. Sheyan now had amassed enough energy to deal with it. When he opened it, his face suddenly turned grave.

For example, the blood in arteries would shine bright red with life, while the blood in veins would be darker. Blood that had started to coagulate would be tinted black.

The blood red of the dispatch was a very weird shade of red, as if the envelope had been soaked in blood and left to air outside, so the red at the top was lighter while the red at the bottom was darker.

The dispatch gave Sheyan an ominous premonition, like seeing a black cat the first thing after stepping out of the house early in the morning. He touched the dispatch with his fingers. Its texture did not feel like paper, but more like a piece of ice with numerous patterns on it. A stiff, mechanical voice then sounded.

"Verification procedures initiated. Please pay attention to the operating instructions and strictly adhere to them. Any operational errors will cause unpredictable and irreversible consequences."

"Please place this item in a spot where it can be in direct contact with the Realm. A countdown of sixty seconds begins now. If verification is still unsuccessful at the end of the countdown, this item will self-destruct."

"Crap!" Sheyan couldn't help exclaiming out loud, but a curiosity rose in his heart at the same time. He immediately left his private room and went to the hall where he could let the parcel touch the unique crimson inner wall of the Realm. The wall had the rubbery texture of a car tyre, but also the softness of flesh. He wondered what material it was made of.

The countdown had only begun for less than ten seconds when Sheyan touched the parcel to the slightly retracting inner wall. Multiple rays of light shot out of the parcel, forming the emblem of the Empire which pasted itself on the inner wall.

The parcel flew into Sheyan's personal storage space of its own accord. After that, its surface began to move on its own. A lot of interlaced silver lines appeared on the surface, dividing the blood red surface of the parcel into smaller blocks like a Rubik's Cube. These blocks rotated rapidly in different directions to reveal a silver coin with ancient patterns inside.

The colour of the silver coin was slightly dark. The patterns on it depicted a scale with a strong Western Asian style. Its lines were clear and visible. The words "1 Dinar" was written on the other side of the silver coin in ancient Assyrian.

The coin was hanging in mid air as if it was floating. The space around it was strangely rippling like waves. It looked as if it was not something from this world, and would break through the barrier of time and space to fly away anytime!

[ Origin: All Earth-related worlds have the possibility of producing this coin. It can also be purchased from the mysterious store that will appear after reaching General-rank. ]

[ Effect: Betray the contestant's current Realm and transfer to a different Realm, under the condition that the new Realm recognises the contestant's strength and is willing to accept the contestant. ]

[ Description: This is one of the thirty silver coins that Judas, one of the Twelve Apostles, received after betraying Jesus. It possesses a mysterious power because it is stained with the blood of Judas. ]

[ Side effect: If the contestant fails to be accepted by the new Realm after demonstrating their power, there is a high probability of this action being detected by the contestant's original Realm. The contestant will face severe punishments, including not receiving any reward for completing the main missions for three consecutive worlds (but the penalties for not completing the main missions still apply), a 10% reduction in all attributes, etc. ]

[ Evaluation: Judas, who betrayed Jesus, ended up being hung from a tree. Believe me, if you betray the Realm you belong to but fail to be accepted by another Realm, you will end up much worse than Judas. ]

Next, a simple 3D model started forming in the air. Finally, the image that appeared in front of Sheyan showed a familiar figure: the assassin Ronnie! His data and attributes jumped out from his 3D model at a high speed and were quickly transmitted to Noah Realm C. Of course, Sheyan could not see the specific numbers.

"The target successfully received Noah Realm C's recognition. The second step of verification has been completed. The third step of verification initiated. Search in progress.... Detected the vital signs of a contestant nearby. If you are the intended recipient, Contestant No. 1018, please place your palm on this parcel to confirm your identity. If you are not, then please do not do so, or there will be unknown, destructive consequences."

"So much trouble," Sheyan muttered, but he still pressed his hand to the parcel as instructed. He felt a little electricity passing through his hand. Soon, the Nightmare Imprint on his chest flashed. The weird parcel floated up and gradually turned transparent, only the crisscrossing silver lines on its surface still remaining clear.

The crisscrossing silver lines were rearranged into a single silver line. Then, the parcel flew away and started sketching in the air like a brush. Finally, it formed a 3D projection of a human figure. It proceeded to sketch out the background environment, from simple lines to complex images, until the whole scenery was vividly restored and presented to Sheyan.

The one who appeared in front of Sheyan was Ronnie. He was a lot thinner than before. His chin was sharper and his stubble was unkempt. However, his eyes were still as poisonous and sharp as before. His clothes were all black, and he was even garbed in a black cloak. The cuffs were slightly folded up like a magician's to avoid them from hindering his weapon.

Half his left palm was cut off, and only bone stubbles remained on his ring finger and little finger. Several cuts that had blood-stained edges could be seen on his cloak. Even one of his eyes had burst.

Ronnie appeared to be inside a lump of rotten meat. Numerous disgusting tentacles wrapped around his body. From the gaps between the tentacles, Sheyan could see that they were moving rapidly through space. Ronnie's situation reminded Sheyan of a certain kind of anime.

Ronnie rubbed his chin as he stared at Sheyan in silence. After a while, he said, "If the Imperial Express Delivery that I spent fifteen achievement points on still couldn't reach you, it only means that I'm fated to die. Hello, team leader. I'm in a really bad situation right now. I'm reaching out to you because I plan to come join you."

He did not get an answer because this Ronnie was just a 3D projection, acting in accordance with what had been recorded beforehand. Ronnie's projection continued with a pale face, "When that bitch saw my custom-made Blood Weapon, she felt that her position in the party was being threatened, so she set up a trap and sold me out. They sent me to an area to scout, but what awaited me there was an encirclement of two enemy parties!"

Ronnie grinned wryly as he took out his x4 explosive hit damage Blood Weapon, a sharp shortblade. He caressed it slowly as he said, "Thanks to you, I managed to trade my Pi element ingots for some live-saving items. If it weren't for them, I would be long dead by now. Even so, I was still forced into a corner, so I could only prematurely activate an inheritance trial which I have no confidence in completing, the Dark Templar inheritance, and finally won myself some time to catch my breath. But they still won't let me go. If I don't get any help, I'll die sooner or later."

"So, can you come and save me? Even if you don't, I believe that based on my attributes, your Noah Realm C would still issue a mission to send others to save me. However, I still hope that you can come yourself, because you're the only MT that has ever been able to completely convince me, be it in strength or wisdom. If you come, you will have my absolute loyalty!"

[ Mission Hint: Because Awakener ZB419 is a deserter of his original Realm and has yet to contact this Realm, there will be additional dangers during the execution of the mission. ]

[ Mission Description: This mission is divided into two stages. When you come into contact with Awakener ZB419, plant the Nightmare Imprint Seed of Noah Realm C in his chest so as to generate a Nightmare Imprint belonging to this Realm. Complete this stage and you will get half the reward. ]

Although the mission had been displayed to Sheyan, he was not in a hurry to accept it. Instead, he said after a moment of careful consideration, "I have a few questions."

"An individual mission. If it was a party mission, it would be equivalent to declaring war on Noah Realm F which Awakener ZB419 currently belongs to," the Realm quickly replied.

"Awakener ZB419 is carrying out the Dark Templar's inheritance trial, so he should have entered the world of Starship Troopers. According to the information I received, the Starship Troopers world, like the Predator world, has begun to erode into the primary plane where the Empire is located. So, you can try to take a spacecraft from the Empire and reach the Starship Troopers world by passing through the dimensional barrier at a spot where it's weak. That way, like your previous emergency mission, it won't occupy the chance for your next world."

An imposing feeling suddenly descended. Sheyan found that he was completely unable to resist this force, but he had no intention of resisting anyway. The Realm said in a chilling tone, "Unknown. Contestant No. 1018, any attempt to betray the Realm is very shameful behaviour!"

"There must be contestants even stronger than Temperers in the Realm, right? Why don't you ask them to carry out the mission? Wouldn't the chances of success be higher then?" Sheyan asked.

"Because of the problem of power barrier. If a high-level contestant is sent to perform a low-level mission which does not match their strength level, the damage to the dimensional barrier will become even greater, so the cons outweigh the pros. High-level contestants might even die because their strength will be suppressed by the power barrier. To cite an example, the best way to catch a rat wandering around the house is to let a cat inside, rather than hire construction workers to tear down the house to prevent rat infestation."

Now that he understood these things, Sheyan accepted the mission without hesitation. When he told the rest of the party about it, they did not voice any objection. Zi, after pondering for a moment, had a discussion with Sanzi. They put together five pieces of Pi element ingots that Sheyan gave them before, which they had yet to sell.

These things were hard currency in the Empire. Sheyan would have to go through a lot of trouble if he wished to get some of these in the Empire. Now that he had a few in his hands, he could seize the initiative in any negotiations and would have a much easier time.

Although rescuing a person was an urgent matter, Sheyan had no intention of leaving in a hurry without making adequate preparations first. The first thing he did was to strengthen himself first so that he would not end up being the one needing to be rescued instead.

Ronnie was being hunted down by a large number of enemies, so they would obviously be outnumbered. It was also the Starship Troopers world, and the whole world was like one giant battlefield. Therefore, survival must be the first priority. More importantly, the last time Sheyan experienced the Starship Troopers world, he fought against the Zerg race, but based on Ronnie's words, Sheyan might be going up against the most mysterious race in the universe, the Protoss!

Sheyan felt like the diseases he currently had were probably enough. He only needed them to slow down the enemies. Therefore, Sheyan planned to upgrade his military rank first. The 'Peerless' ability on the Major General's Blood Armour was extremely useful for both pursuit and retreat! In addition, he would have dealings with people from the Empire, and those people were racist bastards, so the higher his military rank, the more advantageous it would be for him.

But just as Sheyan was about to go promote his rank, Old Charlie told him respectfully, "Based on my observation, Master, if you perform a title synthesis now, the probability of success should be relatively high."

Old Charlie nodded. "I found that there's a special place for synthesising titles in the Realm. I went there to observe, and after a period of time, I managed to make some inferences on the synthesis result through my observation details. Usually, when the synthesis results are ideal, the people who come out from the place will have lighter steps, and they will be visibly more excited. Those who failed in their synthesis are also discernible from the subtle details."

"Let me just get to the point. The result of my observation and analysis of 137 sample cases shows that the success rate of synthesis is 7% to 13% higher during the period of 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. every day. It happens to be 7:30 p.m. now, so if you're not in a hurry, I strongly advise you to perform a title synthesis first," said Old Charlie.

Of these seventeen titles, most of them would certainly be burned as fuel. The synthesis would naturally revolve around the two black-iron titles: Pirate Captain and Alcohol Master. The synthesis process has been mentioned before, so it will not be explained again here, but it was worth mentioning that the title Sanitary Pad Friend had been classified as a special title which could only be used for synthesis and could not be burned. Therefore, it was placed aside first.

[ Effect: Whenever you receive a healing effect of any type, your explosive strike rate will increase by 8% and you will also receive an additional healing of 10% of your maximum HP (this effect will only trigger once every 300 seconds and will not exceed 500 HP). The increase in explosive strike rate lasts for 60 minutes. ]

[ Effect: When there is a river, lake or ocean within a kilometer of you, the attack and defence of all allies within the same range is increased by 25%, and their movement speed is increased by 40%! (This effect only works on storyline characters and does not stack with other special effects.) ]

[ Effect: 'Letter of Marque' -- When you successfully capture or kill other ships or enemies at sea, you will have a certain probability of checking and acquiring their precious special products, special materials, or special equipment related to naval warfare. ]

( From wikipedia: A letter of marque and reprisal was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque )

[ Hint: After acquiring this title (note: acquiring, not equipping), your burning ambition is now on full display. It would be difficult for you to work under another pirate faction. ]

This synthetic title was pretty good, to tell the truth. It was useful on both land and water. Each property was also quite practical. But when Sheyan thought back on how much difficulties he had gone through to collect these titles, he felt that it makes sense.

Focusing on titles had some huge advantages. First, loot and equipment obtained by a party invoked the problem of allocation, but obtaining a title was very fair, because everyone would get one! The party would get stronger surely and steadily. Second, it would also raise the completion evaluation.

For example, in the previous world of 2012, a party which focused on titles could just meet the basic requirements of the main mission, and then fully focus on the title missions. There were already 5 ordinary titles to be obtained at the very beginning of the 2012 world, and there was even a bronze title! If a party was to acquire all six titles, the increase in strength was absolutely comparable to everyone in the party obtaining a silver storyline equipment!

For example, a Corporal promoting to a Sergeant is a promotion within the Petty Officer grade, so it is no big deal. But a Sergeant promoting to a Second Lieutenant, though still one level of promotion, is a promotion from a Petty Officer to a Company Officer. This is the so-called rank wall.

( Military Rank: Second Lieutenant < first="" lieutenant="">< captain="">< major="">< lieutenant="" colonel="">< colonel="">< major="" general="">< lieutenant="" general="">< general="">

There was actually a rank wall during Sheyan's promotion from a Captain to a Major too, as it was a leap from Company Officer to Field Officer, but Sheyan had skillfully circumvented it by using an item he obtained from a Golden Side Mission.

Yes, his current rank was "Brigadier General", which was pretty much the "Pre-Major General" rank. His level of authority was still similar to a Colonel; he just had a better sounding title. The actual change was that his achievement points were occupied by the promotion. If his achievement point total dropped below 400 points, the promotion would be judged as a failure. 50 achievement points would be deducted as a penalty, and he would have to try again. That is to say, he had no chance to turn back.

As for the way to cross the rank wall, the decision belonged to the central administration of the Empire -- more precisely, the General Staff Headquarters of the Milky Way War Zone. Normally, it would require Sheyan to complete a certain mission. However, Sheyan was now rushing to save someone, so he could only put the promotion mission aside for now.

Sheyan was still somewhat upset when he thought about this. If he had known, he would have acquired SARS first. Alas, man proposes but God disposes. How would he know that something like this would happen.

Fortunate, his party provided him with some support. First, the dark gold club had been sold to a heavy-spending man for a heavy sum. Well, maybe he's not really a heavy-spending man, just someone who happened to lack such a weapon to do something really big, so he was willing to spend a lot of funds on the dark gold club. Next, they met someone who was six achievement points short of learning an S-rank ability, so they managed to sell six 'Smelly Toruk Particles' for a few times the market price.

After amassing these funds, Sanzi issued a request to hire someone for a high price to repair Sheyan's dark green glove, which was close to unravelling. The poor equipment had been badly damaged by the liquid metal life-form, G-spot. Now that it had been repaired, Sheyan estimated that he should be able to use 'Extinction' twice without a problem.

But Sheyan soon realised that he was completely wrong, and that sometimes, one could not judge a book by its cover. Only after one personally inspected something in-depth could one make a truly reliable assumption. For example, a nerd who has watched porn countless times and knows every theoretical thing about sex would not become a sex god the first time he had sex with a woman.

When Sheyan decided to use the item, he was still complaining inwardly that it was totally unnecessary for him to be in his best condition, but five seconds later, he finally understood why there was such a suggestion. The scroll floated into the air. The layer on its surface which looked like a mirror and rippled like water started to shatter and break, revealing what was wrapped inside.

It was a bloody piece of scalp the size of a palm, peeled off while its owner was still alive! The scalp was sparsely dotted with hair and had ancient Hebrew divine scriptures on it. It gave off an intimidating pressure!

The outline of a figure slowly emerged with the scalp as the centre, as if a certain god who had been cruelly treated wished to be reborn through the scalp. The outline was not too vivid, but just by looking at the way he stood, he gave off an arrogant, crazed, bloodthirsty vibe!

Sheyan's face paled when he saw the silhouette that had a huge body, bulging muscles, hooked nose, bald head, intimidating war stripes on his face painted on with bone ashes, and red stripes on his body. Most importantly, in the face of this figure that had only a scalp left, Sheyan felt like his entire body was being stabbed by murderous intent!!

The blurry figure turned around. He yelled furiously when he saw Sheyan, "Another mortal who blindly chases after power and wishes to steal the power of the gods. A foolish idea that is truly infuriating! I hate violence, but I have no choice because your hopeless stupidity can only be cured with violence!"

After that, the terrifying illusionary figure of the deity rushed towards Sheyan. At that instant, Sheyan felt as if a speeding heavy truck was about to collide into him! For the first time, he felt weak. He could only cross his arms in front of himself for protection.

There were only two or three meters separating the two sides. Sheyan, with his 110 points of Strength and 153 points of Physique, was knocked flying like a small rock. His ears buzzed, and he could taste and see nothing but blood.

"Was he too strong? Too fast? No! It was me! My reaction slowed down and my strength has been weakened! I'm being completely suppressed!" This thought flashed across Sheyan's mind. When he saw the illusionary figure raised both his hands and slammed down, Sheyan instinctively tried to extend his hands to block the attack, but Sheyan found that his reaction speed had been slowed to the limit!

That was because a black tendril that looked like a plant root had pierced out of a vein on the back of Sheyan's right hand. It was neither fast nor abrupt; it unspectacularly extended forward at a speed that could be easily avoided by ordinary people. However, it somehow managed to reach the bloody scalp.

After that, the blurry illusionary figure slowly disappeared as if it were a punctured ball. Sheyan stared dumbfounded as the 'Stairway of the Sun' pulled the scalp over with its root tendril and wrapped a total of six tendrils around the scalp. This showed that it deemed the scalp to be very appetising food. It then skillfully secreted some digestive juice, which probably functioned like gastric juice, and devoured the legendary item, 'The Scalp of Crete'....

Sheyan searched around carefully and found that 'The Scalp of Crete' had truly been devoured! He questioned the Realm angrily and asked what the hell was going on, but the Realm's reply was "no comment". The infuriated Sheyan did not notice that the 'Stairway of the Sun' behind his sternum was shining with a strange red glow, and it seemed that something terrible was about to hatch from it. In addition, and the description of the 'Beast of Corrosion' was also becoming blurry.

Despite his successive troubles with his rank promotion and 'The Scalp of Crete', Sheyan could only depart on his journey to save Ronnie with a depressed mood because he suddenly realised that the mission to rescue Ronnie did not mention what the penalty for failure was.

It was precisely because the penalty was not mentioned which showed that failure would likely result in really heavy consequences.... It was the same as a wretched man the author used to know who kept lending money to a very beautiful girl, never mentioning the matter of repayment -- such a kind, selfless act, but in the end...the girl became his girlfriend! He recouped all his losses, and more!

After less than ten minutes of waiting in the Nightmare Realm's pipeline leading to the outside world, the spaceship sent by the Empire to pick him up arrived. It was the same spaceship as before, but the person who came to pick him up was different.

Sheyan heard some news of the people he knew from the Lieutenant sent to pick him up. Archer was a person with great technical skills to begin with, and having received Sheyan's political donation (two Pi element ingots) and gained the recognition of Lieutenant General Mungo, he naturally enjoyed a boost in his career. He was already a Lieutenant Colonel of the Empire by now and was leading a large-scale, high-end laboratory research.

Lieutenant General Mungo had become one of the most powerful figures in the Empire after he succeeded in becoming the chief of Alps Base 7. Because the base was close to Uplos, Mungo had a large amount of power and money in his hands.

During the long flight, Sheyan did not remain idle. He asked some questions he wished to know, such as how to pilot a large Imperial spacecraft, and things to look out for in a long voyage.

The Lieutenant apparently knew that Sheyan was a VIP guest, and he had also heard of Sheyan's feat of flying a Wasp to Uplos and back, so he answered every question he could.

Sheyan asked these questions for a reason. Before he departed, he already learned from the Realm that there were often turbulent dimensional rifts in places where the primary plane overlapped with other subplanes.

That means astonishing acceleration and wild maneuvers. As far as the physiques of the pilots in the Empire were concerned, they already found it difficult to get through the asteroid belts outside Uplos, let alone traveling through a dimensional rift. That means Sheyan must go alone, and he naturally had to pilot the spacecraft himself.

Sheyan then inquired about the current situation on Uplos. He was curious how the Predators would react to the death of their Arbitrator, but he was told that there were no reactions. Their fights were recorded by something like a black box, which succeeded in being transmitted back to the Predator's home planet.

The proud Predators believed that since the Arbitrator had fought with his full power in close combat and died in battle, it was a fair fight. As long as he did not die unfairly like being blasted by a plasma cannon or bombed by a mine before he had a chance to fight, they found nothing wrong with it.

As for the matter of the Arbitrator being outnumbered by the contestants, that was as it should be in the Predators' eyes. Predator warriors were supposed to be that strong. It would be more weird if a bunch of Predators had to gang up on a puny human. So since it was a glorious death in battle, there was nothing wrong, and there was no revenge to speak of.

Sheyan soon made his return to Alps Base 7. Compared to before, the base had become bigger and much more prosperous. Next to the old base, a large number of new sub-bases were being built, and they would be merged into the old base. They looked like scattered bubbles in water that continued to cluster into one big lump of bubbles.

Because there was no weight in vacuum, human space bases were built like legos and had a large number of connecting interfaces built in advance. They could be combined and expanded at will, so as to make use of the vast emptiness in space to expand infinitely.

Sheyan was not treated with discrimination this time, perhaps due to Archer's dramatical increase in power, or perhaps due to the Brigadier General uniform he was donning. However, a series of tedious immunity precautions were still routinely performed on him. Sheyan did not mind that, but he did find the disinfectant sprayed on him smelling really bad. It truly made him wonder; human technology had undergone thousands of years of development, but why did disinfectant still smell so bad? Couldn't they improve it a little?

He could not help recalling the present that Jinkuang promised to give him before he left. When he thought of that, he did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had searched his room inside out for a whole day back then, but could not find any presents at all. In the end, Sheyan found a line of messy handwriting in the doorway....

"Errr, about that, I seem to have forgotten something.... I've already lost the present I'm leaving for you. Fine, fine, I'll make it up to you next time.... Ah, forget it. Take this instead."

Of course, this kind of miserly behaviour was very much in line with Jinkuang's sneaky personality. If he were to give a present so generously, would he still be the great jinkuang? But in the end, Jinkuang still steeled his heart and left a generous souvenir for Sheyan.

Sheyan examined it for a long time but he still could not tell what it was. He did not dare to smell it in case it was a piece of cloth torn off the sock on Jinkuang's foot. That was not impossible.

Finally, he recalled a big hobby of Jinkuang, and that was, like ladies who would carry Louis Vuitton and Hermes handbags when they go out, Jinkuang would always carry a black pig feed sack wherever he went.

The present may be cheap (it was really, really cheap), but it was the thought that counts! Sheyan still put it away with a sigh. That slut Jinkuang indeed had a very unique personality. Even the gift he left behind was so unique. Every time Sheyan laid eyes on the gift, he would never mistake it for a gift from someone else.

After the inspections, Sheyan officially stepped foot into the extra-large space base. If it was a city that could accommodate 200,000 people before this, that figure had now soared to at least 500,000. Furthermore, from the countless construction projects carried out around the base, its expansion to a base with a million in population was only a matter of time.

The Lieutenant who received Sheyan made a call, then politely asked him to wait for a while. He explained that some big shot had come for an inspection, so at the moment, both Lieutenant Colonel Archer and Lieutenant General Mungo could not leave their posts. He informed Sheyan that he would have to wait for about three hours.

Sheyan, of course, would not stay in that place as the Lieutenant requested, even if there were plenty of wine, good food and sexy long-legged girls there. Do not forget that Sheyan had a perfect guide for this trip -- his servant, Old Charlie.

He firmly believed that the most interesting things about a certain place - including the food, art, scenery, folklore and specialties - would definitely not be found in the luxury restaurants and hotels meant for the rich and powerful. He would only discover them if he blended into the lives of the majority of people in that place. Even though he might have to endure some problems with the environment or hygiene, it was totally worthwhile. After all, if you want to try authentic Italian squid ink spaghetti, you have to bear the cost of your teeth blackening.

The streets of Alps Base 7 were visibly more prosperous than before. It seemed that there had been a large influx of people, just like the crazy influx of foreigners during the gold rush in West America.

More importantly, there were strange magnetic fields, terrifying beasts and bloodthirsty plants on planet Uplos, not to mention the existence of Predators, so it would probably be extremely difficult to establish a fully automated mining project there. Based on the current technological level of the Empire, they could only perform the plundering type of mining on Uplos instead of a sustainable development.

So if the planet was successfully developed, there would surely be a high demand for human resources, such as drivers for various construction machinery, as well as workers for maintenance, transportation and so on. The population expansion of Alps Base 7 was obviously in preparation for that.

Old Charlie's eyes were half-closed at the moment. He was obviously immersed in nostalgia having come back to this familiar place. A feeling of sadness emanated from him. When he heard Sheyan's words, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Where shall we go, master?"

"We have two to three hours, so maybe we can visit some places that you're familiar with and have something nice to eat along the way? I come from the bottom rung of society, so I'm very interested in the lives of ordinary people a few thousand years in the future," Sheyan said with a smile.

Sheyan narrowed his eyes. He knew that Old Charlie was someone with a story, and the story was definitely not an ordinary one. It might even involve the internal affairs of the Empire.

However, Sheyan was not a timid person. Ever since Old Charlie became his servant, he no longer had any relationship with the Empire. They were backed by the Nightmare Realms that could stand toe to toe with the Empire and were powerful enough to cooperate with them! Moreover, the big boss of Alps Base 7 was someone who had cooperated with Sheyan before. With all these factors combined, what did Sheyan have to worry about?

Of course, for Sheyan, the underlying reason for his decision was to win over Old Charlie. This man was a very capable and shrewd old fox, and he was even willing to risk his life to raise his evaluation in Sheyan's eyes. Even if Old Charlie himself did not say anything, Sheyan still believed that he should do something for a servant like this and help solve some of his worries.

All the buildings that made up the slums were standard low-cost housing, which was the kind of building that maximised the use of land area. They naturally did not take into account natural illumination, air quality, view and so on. The building designers had only one concept in mind, and that was the concept which their superiors had repeatedly emphasised:

"I have only one freaking requirement for your design: just stuff as many residents as possible into each building! Stuff, stuff, stuff!! Stuff it so full that there won't be room for a stamp. Who cares about art, aesthetic or comfort! Even if you build the houses into presidential suites, the poor-ass people who'll live here won't be able to pay an extra penny!!"

230 different designs were proposed at the time, and the final winner was an unknown designer. It was said that he had referred to the architectural layout of a certain overpopulated city in the Old Earth era...

It was for that reason that all residential housing in the Northern District had the same design. The buildings in the Northern District were similar to chicken cages in chicken farms. The developers only wished to accommodate as many chickens per unit area as possible. The building materials used were all black in colour for the purpose of durability and practicality. Therefore, there's another nickname for the Northern District -- the Black Chicken Cage.

The giant conveyor belt did not reach the Northern District, because the construction cost of the device was not low (reminder: the main streets of Alps Base 7 have giant conveyor belts that can transport people around). When Sheyan and Old Charlie came down from the street conveyor belt, what they saw in front of them was a very chaotic and noisy area. The place was almost as busy as a wet market, and various people were talking to each other while wearing hypocritical smiles on their faces. The content of their conversations were sometimes really ridiculous. For example, Sheyan overheard someone ask, "How much for two eggs?"

Old Charlie later "translated" for Sheyan that the so-called "eggs" were referring to grenades, while the ears were referring to a kind of local baked bread that were somewhat shaped like an ear. Such a strange way of conversing reminded Sheyan of bandits who used passwords and codenames when they conversed.

As Old Charlie led Sheyan deeper into the slum area, Sheyan realised that it would be very easy to get lost in this place because of the uniformity of the buildings. All the buildings looked the same. Of course, there were also crowded streets filled with countless people that had all kinds of different skin colours.

Numerous gazes followed after them, eyes filled with questions, envy, doubt, disgust, anger... Sheyan could sense that most of these gazes were directed at his unfamiliar face. It was fortunate that he had changed his clothes before he came, or this feeling of being the centre of attention would have been even stronger.

But Sheyan maintained his calm and ignored the gazes, while Old Charlie just huddled silently behind his coat and hat without batting an eyelid. As they moved along, Old Charlie also broke the fingers of two little pickpockets that looked no older than ten.

Soon, Sheyan finally saw a different kind of building, but the differences were still limited. It was just, in short, an unfinished building that had been abandoned. To get in, Sheyan and Old Charlie had to pay 30 Imperial currencies, which were almost equal to the purchasing power of USD $40.

"This is the best place for you to experience the city, master. Someone will bring us some food soon. After the meal, there'll be a black market auction today, and when the auction concludes, it'll almost be time to go back."

Sheyan's remark was not groundless. There is a strange yet commonly-seen phenomenon where well-educated people would often work for less-educated people. Steve Jobs, for example, was an abandoned baby. He stayed in an orphanage in the slums before he was adopted. Thaksin Shinawatra, the former Prime Minister of Thailand and former owner of Premier League team Manchester City, was born in an ordinary merchant family.

Sheyan and Old Charlie were led inside while they conversed. Only after he entered the building did Sheyan realise that the unfinished building was only a facade on the outside. The interior was decorated into a fairly decent-looking little theatre. The box seats at the top even provided a view of the street outside. Although there was nothing really worth watching on the street, looking down on the numb crowd outside from a high position did give a feeling of power.

There were currently not that many people in the boxes yet. Before long, a few people brought them food. The first dish was a steaming hot tray of pastries. Although they tasted fresh and smelled nice, the texture was pretty rough.

The pastries were made from cassava (TL: It's like sweet potato). The cassavas were ground into paste, mixed, stirred, left to ferment, and finally divided into smaller pieces and steamed. They were neither hard nor soft and were served with a kind of dipping gravy called nyama. The gravy had chicken and beef in it, but could also be cooked with other types of meat.

Old Charlie advised Sheyan not to dip the pastries in the gravy. With the expansion of the population, there would inevitably be a shortage of food and other daily necessities, so the meat used for the gravy was probably rat meat. Sheyan actually did not mind as long as he would not find any rat fur or rat innards in the gravy.

The fruit that was served next also felt pretty novel to Sheyan. It was about the size of a grapefruit. Before it was served, the top was cut off, and a few drops of soy sauce were actually dripped inside. The flesh of the fruit could then be scooped out with a spoon. It was especially crisp and refreshing. The soy sauce and the fruit combined into a very unique taste.

According to Old Charlie, in the northern area of the eighth planet of the Andromeda Galaxy, the strange climate there bred a kind of tree called the Hanishi tree. The Hanishi fruits produced by those trees were a unique kind of fruit that tasted sour and astringent. Every spring and early summer, people on the planet would collect the Hanishi fruits and extract their pulp. The pulp would then undergo a sweetening and fermentation process, and wine would be extracted from it.

The extracted Hanishi wine would be stored in oak barrels for 2 years to let it age. Finally, the aged wine would be blended with fresh cream to make this smooth tasting wine with a unique flavour.

The sip Sheyan took tasted sweet and rich. First, the tip of his tongue tasted the sweetness of the cream, then the taste buds on both sides of his tongue perceived a faint bitterness similar to coffee. When the wine reached his throat, he felt a passionate heat.

Nearly three-quarters of the seats had been filled while Sheyan was dining. An overweight man with curly moustache walked to the centre of the theatre and took off his hat.

"Gentlemen, we have just received news that an important person is visiting this sinful base that is full of opportunity, so we expect that public order control will soon be imposed. Therefore, we will no longer wait. We shall start this auction ahead of time."

After a dull thud of the hammer, the first to come on stage were three women -- three naked women. Although Sheyan was an adult male, he had higher standards now because he had Zi as a reference. Therefore, he was not interested in these vulgar practices. He naturally passed on them.

The following auction lots were nothing more than drugs, weapons, and other forbidden items. They made Sheyan yawn. Fortunately, some specialty products smuggled from other planets started appearing in the auction not long after that. To Sheyan's surprise, he even found an unknown mysterious item among these auction lots, and it was actually high-end stuff that could be sold for 5 achievement points!

The unknown mysterious item came from the eighth planet on the Centaurus constellation. The air was so dense on the planet that moving in the air was no different to the lifeforms there from moving in the water. There was a certain creature with few natural enemies on that planet called the elephant whale.

The unknown mysterious item came about when another parallel dimension overlapped with the primary plane, and the entry point happened to be on this planet. An elephant whale was hit by a dimensional rift derived from the phenomenon and, of course, died immediately, but for some reason, one of its huge teeth survived the terrible turbulence. That became the unknown mysterious item.

In terms of economic value, it was naturally worthless, but this trash in other people's eyes was an invaluable treasure to Sheyan. Fortunately, not many people competed with Sheyan for the item, so he easily got his hands on it.

The auction lot in question was an edited video clip! It was none other than a video of the contestants' experiences on planet Uplos taken from Old Charlie's eye. However, the battle scenes had all been cut, probably to avoid scaring off potential investors. The emphasis of the video was on the rich mineral deposits, and of course, the natural environment on Uplos.

This video was sold for an astronomical price in the end. Its appearance here also proved that the boss behind this place was not simple, since he could even acquire this kind of thing.

After some time, the auction was finally reaching its conclusion. When the finale was brought out, it gave everyone a shock. It was a solo-sized mech suit, and it was even a military model! Although it was stated that it could only provide seven times of enhancement, it seemed to be in brand new condition, and all its weapons were still intact. It was definitely not the economical version!

It was obviously a hot commodity. Nine out of ten people present at the auction wanted this thing. Who would hate having too much power? But right when the crowd was getting restless, a hoarse voice pierced through the noise in the theatre.

Such arrogant words appearing out of thin air was as tyrannical as a third party who suddenly barged in when a couple was having sex. Normally, when this happens, it would be like a stone thrown into a calm lake, giving rise to a thousand ripples. But the reality was that the bidders paid no heed to the man's words at all and had already started making their bids.

"An Arctic-class cargo ship with a mileage of only 2.8 light-years. It has ten-arm independent suspension, eight connecting rods plus air suspension. It also has three additional mounting interfaces and twelve plasma guns!"

The initially orderly auction house instantly descended into chaos. Meanwhile, Sheyan asked Old Charlie with much interest, "Who was the first guy who spoke just now?"

It was reasonable to assume that anyone who dared to yell that kind of thing in a place like this must certainly have some power. For example, if the one saying that was Mungo, would the boss of the auction house dare not proffer the mech suit? But strangely, after the man cried out, not only did the auctioneer not take him seriously, even the bidders completely ignored him.

Logically speaking, a person who shouted something like this in a such a place without the corresponding power would surely be dragged outside and beaten to a pulp! But that man was simply ignored, and that's very weird.

The man was in a box so Sheyan could only see his lanky silhouette. Old Charlie answered respectfully, "That person has a unique identity. Rumour has it that the reason this black market can exist here isn't due to the influence of Lieutenant General Mungo, but due to the power behind a certain Imperial General. The General has already established a black market here when Mungo was still a Major General. This guy, Grant, is the representative that the power behind the General stationed here. He's mainly responsible for supervising the transactions in the black market and preventing the black market's commission from disappearing. Of course, the General probably has dozens of other similar businesses, so he's only one of many representatives."

"Grant has a strained relationship with the black market boss. He has to. Otherwise, the two of them can easily be suspected of colluding with each other to cheat on the accounting. It's precisely due to this reason that he'd often deliberately do some strange things to cause trouble. All the regular customers know this and are used to it."

With a wave of his hand, two men in small cargo mech suits came clattering up the stage and lifted the small-sized solo mech suit up from both sides. They first smashed it with weapons to verify its toughness, and then pressed a button.

The solo mech suit had something which looked like a backpack on its back. After the button was pressed, the "backpack" quickly split and folded until it covered the entire mech suit. The small-sized solo mech suit was originally about 2.3 meters in height, but after it transformed into its attacking form, it turned into a large exoskeleton armour about three meters tall! Even if nobody was controlling it at the moment, it exuded a dangerous feeling!

That was the emblem of those the Empire considered to be rebels: the Interstellar Alliance! This kind of individual tactical equipment had never appeared on the battlefield before, which was to say, it was a powerful secret weapon of the Interstellar Alliance. But the enemy's secret weapon had actually appeared in an underground auction at an important location in the Empire!

"This is a new weapon type recently developed by the Alliance. At present, because of its high cost, it hasn't been put into mass production yet, and only a few troops of elite Alliance special forces have been equipped with this weapon. However, two brave warriors from these elite troops have seen the errors in their ways and have returned to the embrace of our righteous Empire. Since they have no intention of becoming soldiers again, they entrusted us with the sale of this powerful weapon. To be honest, this mech suit is probably the only one of its kind in the whole Empire, so you don't have to waste your time if you don't have at least 8 billion Imperial dollars."

The price had suddenly been raised by more than ten times, but the bidding became even more intense instead, now that the function of the weapon had been displayed, which showed that Sheyan's previous remark that "the poorer the place, the easier it is to produce the rich" was completely true.

The competition soon became white-hot. The curtains of the boxes had all been lifted, the occupants showing their faces to the crowd and asking everyone else to give them face and let them have the mech suit. The atmosphere in the theatre was thrown into a chaotic frenzy.

Towards the end, those who were not strong enough financially and those who were not so determined to have the weapon gradually withdrew from the battle. Three bidders remained, all powerful figures who had major influence with both the authorities and the underground forces on Alps Base 7. The highest bid currently was two planets with rich resources.

But the person who made this bid had some inside information. He knew that the Imperial Big Ben Research Institute was eager to acquire the key technology of this hybrid assault prototype armour called Prometheus! To raise his nobility title further was a difficult feat, but if he could establish a relationship with the researchers in Big Ben, it would not be a problem at all! He was determined to get this item.

By now, the bids were only slowly rising in value like a tug-of-war. The auctioneer's countdown was getting closer and closer to the word "Sold!". There were a few times when the auctioneer was about to drop his hammer for the final time, but someone always increased the bid at the last second.

Many people actually recognised him. They started mocking, "Well, well, isn't this the great Marquis Charlie? Oh, no, the former Marquis Charlie. I heard that you became a Cyborg because you're scared of dying. What are you doing here? Don't you have somebody's ass to kiss today?"

"Your granddaughter's doing well. I heard she's become a third-rate prostitute in a brothel. Since you dare to pollute my eyes here, I don't mind letting my servants patronise her business later!"

Sheyan stared at Old Charlie's back in shock as the old man walked forward silently. He was actually a noble of the Empire, and a high noble at that! Sheyan could never have imagined.

Old Charlie came up to the auctioneer who seemed ready to call the security. He took out a ragged, dirty cloth sack with patches on it - it was more appropriate to call it a worn-out sock - and threw it to the auctioneer, then said indifferently, "My master wants you to pack the mech suit into a suitcase. The suitcase must be blue, because that's his lucky colour."

Facing the dirty sack flying towards him, the auctioneer immediately showed off his impressive skills. He shrank back with an agility that was completely disproportionate to his obese body, as if the object flying over was a grenade or a spit...

Just as he was about to curse and ask the guards nearby to pry Old Charlie's head from his body and stuff it into the toilet at the back, he suddenly saw what was on the ground. The man instantly froze.

The mouth of the sack that Old Charlie threw was not fastened. Because no one caught the thrown sack, its contents naturally spilled out when it landed on the ground. A few items inside fell on the ground tinkling.

The sound was light and crisp, like two pieces of metal clanking against each other, but it had a charm that penetrated deep into those who heard it, making them shiver. But what was even more bizarre was the glow from the objects. Even though the auction hall was brightly illuminated, the objects shrouded the surroundings in a faint layer of alluring, gentle light as soon as they appeared. A light mist seemed to fill the whole theatre, turning it into a scene of ethereal beauty!

Those who were mocking and insulting Old Charlie before instantly turned quiet, as if their throats had been slit. Their faces were flushed, as if Old Charlie, who was standing there leisurely, had given them a hard slap!

The auctioneer's voice was trembling as he said, "These... Are these high purity Pi element particles? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mr. Charlie, Lord Charlie. Please excuse me. I've never seen these things in person before. I'll have to find an expert to evaluate them. Please wait for a minute."

Because his hands were trembling violently, he did not succeed in picking them up even after a few tries. In the end, because bending down with his large body was too tiring, he simply knelt down on the ground and picked them up one by one while his face and forehead were covered in sweat.

Upon hearing the words "high purity Pi element particles", the mafia leader immediately shut his mouth as his face turned pale. He quickly slipped out without a word. Someone who could so easily take something like this out could not be simple. Even if Old Charlie was only his dog, a fart from the dog was enough to make a guy like him fall down. Of course the smart thing to do was to run.

The boss behind the scenes had been keeping an eye on everything that happened in the auction, so as soon as the auctioneer placed the last scattered Pi element particle back into the stinky sack, an expert immediately came over.

The expert was named Eastern Goat. He was a big man with a goatee, and also a drunkard with a red nose and a red face. He constantly smelled of whiskey. Whenever he was asked to appraise treasures, he would always walk with his nose up in the air. However, he did know his stuff; he seldom made mistakes when he appraised.

But he had a terrible personality. Whenever he appraised something that was slightly lower in value, even if it was not a fake, he would feel like it was an insult to his status. He would often throw the object to the floor right then and step on it a few times in anger. The auction house naturally had to deal with all the consequences that followed afterwards. His arrogance was shocking.

But at this moment, when the arrogant expert Eastern Goat saw the glow, he solemnly received the stinky sock sack like he was receiving a royal crown. He took out a particle and, with a sacred expression of learning and researching, carefully inspected it with a magnifying glass.

The fat auctioneer had cold sweat on his forehead again. What if he had made a mistake? If these things turned out to be fake, he would become a huge joke, and his reputation would go down the drain.

He quietly crept up to Eastern Goat, trying to get some assurances for his anxious heart, but when Eastern Goat saw the auctioneer, he remarked impatiently, "What's the rush! Let me look at them for a few more minutes! I don't get to see these things everyday!"

Hearing this, the last shred of doubt disappeared from the plump auctioneer's heart. He had no more use for the expert; he was anxious to finalize the deal! With a wave of his hand, the angry expert was dragged away.

Six months ago, after news got out that planet Uplos was confirmed to be rich in high-purity Pi deposits, corporate stocks related to Pi element on the Galaxy Financial Exchange had experienced a temporary nose-dive.

But as soon as these corporates limited their output, the price of Pi element rose sharply, and their stocks recovered to their original value, some even rising higher than before.

So the auctioneer was confident that he would bring the boss a huge amount of profit if he could close this deal...and he would also get a large amount of benefit, so much that it would be beyond his imagination.

No one dared to look down on Old Charlie anymore. He took out another stinky sock, err, no, another sack and picked up a small piece of Pi element particle the size of a rice grain from inside it. He then walked over to a man who wore an eye patch and had unkempt stubble all over his face.

The man was named Zach Polly, and he was the president of the Merchant Shipping Alliance. He had a space shipping business, but if he encountered merchant fleets during his travels that he had confidence in defeating, he would often take on the role of a space pirate too. When he encountered a large fleet or a military fleet, he would turn into an honest taxpayer of the Empire.

He was someone who had already fallen out of the competition in this auction, but previously, Zach Polly had taken out a cage that contained a selenium-based creature: a selenium snake that could swim in space!

Selenium-based creatures had always existed only in the theory of biologists, and no one had ever seen a living selenium-based creature before. There was no doubt that the biologists of the Empire would go crazy upon seeing this snake.

Unfortunately, the Empire was busy trying to deal with the rebellion of the Alliance at the moment, so investment in biology was very limited. To put it crudely, the biologists could not afford anything.

On the other hand, Zach Polly was only interested in wine, women and weapons. The notion of leaving his name in history was as attractive to him as a pile of dogshit. That was why this selenium snake had appeared in the auction house instead of being sliced up in a laboratory somewhere.

He then turned to another man which had a huge mass of Yellow Nebulite mother lode in his possession. He had similarly used it to bid before. This mother lode would be very nutritious for G-spot. The man was not that greedy; he nodded, agreeing to the trade immediately.

His Yellow Nebulite mother lode was also very valuable and rare, but it was far from being comparable to a hard currency like Pi element. He would be making a huge profit in this transaction.

Zach Polly was stunned. When he realised that Old Charlie had no intention of turning back to him, he instantly hurried over and said, "Hey, hey, I'm willing to negotiate. How about half the sack?! No, a little less, how about three particles? Just three!"

He was a space pirate, accustomed to taking what he wanted by force, and he also knew Old Charlie's background, so in his panic, he reached out and grabbed Old Charlie's shoulder. But Old Charlie, who seemed so frail that a strong wind could knock him down, suddenly placed his hand on Zach Polly's large hand, coiled his thin, frail body, and kicked Zach Polly's foot, sending Zach Polly to the ground face first! A few of Zach Polly's front teeth were knocked out!

Because Old Charlie was now hosting Freddy's seed in his brain, Sheyan had strengthened Old Charlie's Physique before they departed. Old Charlie was now almost twice as robust as a normal person, thus avoiding the embarrassing situation of him being so fragile that he could be knocked down by the wind. In the Nightmare Worlds, twice the attribute of a normal person was nothing to shout about, so the cost for this enhancement was very low.

But the key point was, Sheyan's standard of a "normal person" was based on the ordinary earthlings of his time. However, the overall Physique of the humans in the future had declined due to the low gravity living environment in space and their fully automated lifestyle thanks to the advancement in science and technology. The guy called Zachary Polly may have decent Physique among future humans, but against Old Charlie, he was way too weak.

After knocking Zach Polly down, Old Charlie pushed him into the crowd, then took out half a Pi particle and asked him flatly, "Do you still wish to sell the selenium snake?"

Zach Polly's face paled. He did not expect his profit to drop by half in an instant. Of course he was hurling abuse in his mind, but half a Pi element particle was still at least ten times higher than the price that those broke-ass biologists could offer. No, it should be at least a hundred times higher!

He could only accept. Sheyan was actually determined to have this selenium snake no matter what, because it was actually also an unknown mysterious item. It was worth as much as seven achievement points.

The auctioneer was smiling so hard that his cheeks were trembling. He instantly nodded and replied, "Right away, sir... The inventory has been done. There are five Pi element particles, weighing 18.9 grams in total. Okay, here we are. We're going to pack the mech suit in a blue suitcase as you requested."

While he was replying to Old Charlie full of smiles, someone brought the suitcase over and shut down the power output system of the mech suit. The mech suit started folding itself. It seemed that it had no problem fitting inside a suitcase.

'I don't mind your arrogance normally, but right now, I've just closed such a big deal, and you instantly show me this kind of attitude? You're causing trouble on purpose!'

The fat auctioneer's expression instantly turned ugly as he shouted, "Shut the f*ck up, Grant, or I'll make you shut up. The boss has been unhappy with your behaviour for a long time...."

He had not even finished his speech when a horrible steel cable carrying dazzling electric sparks suddenly flew out of Grant's box to whip the fat auctioneer. The electricity flashed, and a boom sounded.

Out of the box came a monster with a square body. He had a humanoid figure, but his hands were so long that they almost touched the ground like an ape. His head seemed to be directly attached to his torso, his neck so thick and short that it was almost non-existent. He was also wearing a custom-made combat armour which covered his entire body. His muscles bulged inside the combat armour.

The construction materials of the theatre box could not stop the man at all. He split the box apart as he advanced towards the center of the auction hall, holding the shiny steel cable in his left hand. The steel cable had countless sharp barbs, and they were now covered in flesh and blood. The steel cable that was dragged loudly across the ground seemed extremely brutal.

No one could remember when the last time a tragedy like this had occurred in the black market. And this time, the one who was killed was a staff member of the black market!

It must be noted that to establish a black market like this, the most important thing was stability and order. The power behind the black market could definitely not let the people who won the bids in their auction to be killed immediately after they left this place! All the customers here were powerful figures with brains. If several of these incidents occurred, everyone would realise that there was something wrong with this place. Who would be willing to come here in the future?

Therefore, although this black market was built in the most chaotic and filthy area in the city, it had far greater order and cleanliness than the high class areas. The boss behind-the-scenes understood very well why this place could become so popular, so he was very careful in maintaining order, even at the expense of giving up some benefits.

But now, someone was trying to break this security, this order in the black market! This act was tantamount to cutting off the business of this black market. As the saying goes, cutting off a person's source of income was akin to killing their parents! So, more than a dozen burly men, armed with all kinds of weapons, quickly stepped out from the surroundings and mercilessly fired at the monster without a word of warning!

The weapons of these burly men were not very effective. The combat armour on the cubed-shaped monster managed to absorb most of the power from the bullets. The only bullet that was effective was an electromagnetic vibration bullet which hit the monster's chest, knocking him three steps back. However, it did nothing but leave a burn mark and a hole the size of a bowl on the monster's chest.

The monster let out a hysterical roar from the depth of his throat. He pulled back the steel cable, then swung it horizontally. The steel cable came whirring, carrying blood and shattered bones on it!

It sent several gunmen closest to the monster flying. The unfortunate guy standing at the very front was even split into two halves from his waist. Several people behind him flew back like bowling pins and slammed into the wall behind. They slowly slipped down, leaving behind trails of blood on the wall.

The inertia of the steel cable did not diminish even after taking the lives of five people. It lashed onto a pillar on the side and circled several times around it. The muscles on the arm of the square monster swelled as he tugged at the cable hard. The chandeliers tinkled loudly as the whole building shook!

Borrowing the force from the pull, the monster leaped forward. After softening his landing with a roll, he dashed into the midst of the bouncers and started swinging his arms about in a frenzy. Everything his hands caught, be it a person or an object, was flung away! Some were thrown out of windows and fell down from the building in dismay.

An old man sitting in an electric wheelchair rushed out of a corridor at the side. Although his eyebrows had turned white, there was a sense of ferociousness in them. They gave others a feeling that the disability in his legs was not a burden to him at all, but a kind of battle scar that was worth showing off with pride!

Of course, even more eye-catching were the eight Cyborg slaves he brought along. And these Cyborgs were not the kind that could only run errands like the original Old Charlie.

They were fighters of the Alliance taken prisoners from the frontline by the Empire. They had undergone the deepest level of transformation of having their personalities completely erased, but their deadly fighting skills had been preserved.

These Cyborgs relied on large doses of stimulants to maintain a highly-stimulated mental state, forgoing the need to sleep. Thus, they only had a lifespan of 10 years. The muscles on their faces were twisted and distorted, and their eyes were blank, almost turning completely white as if they were mentally retarded. However, don't judge a book by its cover. These eight slave Cyborgs were the most terrifying killers and were all madmen. As long as their master gave the order, they would rip their arms off and eat it without any hesitation.

For some reason, Grant shuddered when he heard the old man's seemingly emotionless words. Only then did he recall some legends about the old man in front of him who was nicknamed the "Crippled Wolf". Even the square monster stayed where he was, growling but not daring to move, because one of the slave Cyborgs was aiming at him with a gun shaped like a gourd.

That was because it was a liquid nitrogen gun normally used in space docking battles. Usually, a docking battle was launched for the purpose of seizing the opponent's spaceship. Flaming weapons were too destructive -- what if they accidentally ignited some plants or flowers that could cause an explosion?

Therefore, in order to ensure that the spaceship would still remain intact afterwards, the best type of weapon for a docking battle were sonic weapons, as they would cause minimal destruction to the surroundings. But because sonic weapons could easily be rendered ineffective by targeted measures, the number one preferred weapon for docking battles were actually liquid nitrogen guns, a type of weapon which could instantly reduce the temperature in the surroundings to hundreds of degrees below zero.

Even though the square monster was powerful, it could not withstand the low temperature of hundreds of degrees below zero. Moreover, this gun was an AoE weapon, and he would find the attack very difficult to avoid, considering his size.

Crippled Wolf seemed to have taken full control of the situation, but the defeated Grant did not show much panic. He merely smirked at Crippled Wolf and said, "Do you think I'm a fool, Crippled Wolf?"

To tell the truth, after Crippled Wolf hurried over to this place, 90% of his attention was not on his dead subordinate - as long as he threw some bones out, countless dogs like the dead auctioneer would flock to him, so why would he care about the death of one such dogs - but on the 5 Pi element particles that weighed 18.9 g in total!

"A genetically modified soldier? The way he's modified...this looks like the style of the Andromeda War Zone. Could it be...." muttered Crippled Wolf hesitantly, with a hint of alarm in his voice.

Crippled Wolf had a really ugly expression on his face. His facial muscles twitched non-stop. Grant continued, "You always say that if a rat yawns in the Northern District, you'll know about it. Well, it seems like your information network isn't working so well today. Now think, Crippled Wolf, why did the auction start ahead of schedule?"

A young man beside Crippled Wolf shouted angrily, "That's because some bigwig is visiting the base, so Mungo ordered for a clearance. You're saying that information is false?"

Grant replied with a grin, "The one talking to that bastard Mungo right now is just my lord's deputy. That foolish man thinks he's managed to establish another connection, but a disloyal double-dealing bastard like him don't deserve to speak to my lord personally! My lord was bored and he heard that there's a fun place here, so he came here to look around, but surprisingly, he actually found something that tickles his fancy. You should be honoured that my lord values your goods! Bring them here immediately!"

There was an immediate uproar. A low voice suddenly came from behind Grant. It seemed that someone had said a few words to him. Grant immediately narrowed his eyes and said, "Crippled Wolf, my lord wants YOU to bring the things to him!"

Crippled Wolf was a cripple in a wheelchair. How could he deliver the things himself? But he cast his pride away without any hesitation and, with an expressionless face, struggled to get off the wheelchair. He then crawled on the ground, twisting and moving his body like a pathetic worm. Not a shred of his previous intimidating air remained.

No one would associate his movement and body shape with the word agile. Instead, he bulldozed forward like a road roller and caught the Cyborg who was aiming at him with the liquid nitrogen gun. He headbutted the Cyborg, kneed him, lifted him up high, turned him around several times, and threw him to the stairs! The sound of the Cyborg's spine rupturing was clearly and audibly heard. The monster then stomped on the Cyborg a few times. The Cyborg died on the spot.

While he was speaking, the Cyborgs around Crippled Wolf were slaughtered by the monster! The Cyborgs would not attack without Crippled Wolf's command. To tell the truth, death was a release for them. Many in the crowd turned towards the crawling Crippled Wolf to see how he would react, but he looked as if he was wearing a mask on his face; no one could tell what was on his mind.

But at that moment, Old Charlie, who had been staying quiet all this while, moved. He stepped on Crippled Wolf's fingers. Due to his current strength, they immediately heard the sound of Crippled Wolf's fingers breaking. Crippled Wolf let out a terrible scream!

The hunching Old Charlie coughed twice, softly, but he added more force to his foot while doing so. Crippled Wolf screamed even louder. Old Charlie then said unhurriedly, "You haven't completed the transaction. How dare you touch my master's property?"

Old Charlie's action was so abrupt that many people could not get their heads around it yet. Some even felt like their brain had stopped working. The crowd only reacted after a long pause.

Old Charlie stared at Grant with his dim old eyes and said slowly, "Inside this sack is the fund my master used to bid for the mech suit. I don't care how you bicker among yourselves, but since the transaction has been cancelled, we naturally have to retrieve our assets. What's wrong with that? Which Constitution of the great Empire did we violate?"

Old Charlie's words made Grant choke on his follow-up remark, but a shrill, weak-sounding voice suddenly came from the box. The voice said indifferently, "Constitution? What Constitution? My words are the Constitution! And I declare that having the audacity to spout nonsense in front of me is a crime, a big crime! Kill him!"

As soon as the two finished speaking, the square-ish test subject monster roared like thunder, then moved towards Old Charlie with his two abnormally long arms hanging down. Every time he put his foot down on the ground, the ground would shake, so strong were his steps.

Old Charlie did not even spare him a glance. After he picked the sack up , he turned around with a cough and slowly walked towards Sheyan's box, totally ignoring the terrifying monster.

The body of the monster called Test Subject No. 1 was still covered in blood and human tissues from his massacre! It was a truly gruesome sight! And yet, Old Charlie dared to turn his back on the monster!

The crowd were secretly admiring the fearless attitude shown by Old Charlie. Little did they know that Old Charlie had seen all kinds of terrible storms and waves since he became Sheyan's follower. A mere test subject was really not worth mentioning at all.

But at that instant, a weird green spot suddenly appeared on the wooden floor under Old Charlie's foot. It seemed to produce a very strong lifting effect, so the step Old Charlie took this time was surprisingly big. It instantly propelled him out of the reach of the test subject.

There was a reason the floor of the auction house was made of wood. In this era of interstellar voyage, the commonly used construction material for buildings was actually a kind of standardised cement that had been specially developed. It could rapidly solidify and could be transported with ease. The travels in this era were measured in units of light years, so transportation cost had always been a significant problem. Therefore, wood was actually a luxury construction material.

Just less than 30 million kilometers away, there was a planet on which nitrogen and argon contents in the atmosphere were very high. This bred a very special kind of plant which resembled the moss on Earth, but its size was comparable to a banyan tree! The plant which was simply named "giant moss" densely covered the surface of the planet. Therefore, on Alps Base 7, using these giant moss trees as building materials was actually more cost-effective.

When the test subject slammed down on the floor built from giant moss wood, the wooden floor immediately burst due to its special texture. The giant moss wood shattered very thoroughly in the face of the irresistible force like a shattered car windshield, becoming countless sharp spikes which splashed out in every direction.

The spot beneath Old Charlie's foot suddenly flashed green again, and his forward march immediately shifted to a backward stride. Then, with the foot which stepped backwards as pivot, he turned around 180 degrees and, before the test subject had time to retrieve his huge arms, gave the test subject a slap on the face!

Test Subject No. 1 extended his two horrifying arms around Old Charlie, intending to squeeze Old Charlie's waist until his spine broke, but he suddenly stiffened in place. Approximately five seconds later, the muscular square monster fell to the ground face-first, his entire body spasming violently!!

Sheyan was the only one who knew what had happened in that instant. He had summoned Ramtas. Ramtas was proficient in level 1 and level 2 nature magic, which explained the sudden increase in Old Charlie's speed. It was just a simple level 1 nature spell: 'Longstrider'.

[ Level 1 nature spell: 'Longstrider' -- Use the power of nature to trigger the potential in the target, increasing the target's movement speed by 0.8 m/s. The spell lasts for 60 seconds. When there is a forest, grassland, or a large number of plants nearby, the duration of the spell will be extended accordingly. ]

The reason Old Charlie 's following slap was so lethal was because when his palm travelled through the air, he had caught a 10 centimeter long wooden spike and held it between his fingers.

The spike was just a very ordinary wooden spike. When the giant moss wood shattered due to its unique constitution, thousands of such wooden spikes were formed, flying across the air. The key lay in a second-order nature spell Ramtas had performed on the wooden spike:

Old Charlie slapped the wooden spike into Test Subject No. 1's right eye. The wooden spike then penetrated deep into the monster's brain and was animated into a hedgehog.... The first thing the frightened hedgehog did in the warm and sticky brain environment was naturally to erect all the quills on its body!

The thick skin of Test Subject No. 1 could repel even bullets, but this did not mean his brain could still function normally after such a blow! Otherwise, why would its skull be built with alloy steel?

The people around Old Charlie were now staring at him in fear. To tell the truth, because of his former status as a noble of the Empire, his family was more susceptible to bullying and humiliation after his fall. Which one of those present had not mocked and looked down on him? They had treated him like a pile of sh*t, hurling abuse at him after stepping on him.

But this man, who was forced to sell himself into servitude as a Cyborg, had now bobbed back up like a cork. The powerful biochemical test subject wearing the most advanced military combat armour was ended by this fragile-looking old man with one slap! What the hell was that?!?!

The death of Test Subject No. 1 signified that the two sides were now irreconcilable enemies. Old Charlie knew what to do without needing any advice from Sheyan. Back then, he had lost everything due to a moment of indecisiveness, causing his whole family to fall to the very bottom of society. Now that he had strength, he would not fear anyone!

So Old Charlie immediately hunched down and sprinted straight towards the box where the monster came from. Old Charlie's Agility was now twice the Agility of a healthy adult male from Old Earth running at full speed. In other words, it was 3.5 to 4 times the Agility of the humans from this era. Right now, he was even buffed by the powerful 'Longstrider' spell.

Old Charlie hunched his body and hid behind Grant while he charged forward. The people in the box decisively opened fire. Smoke and wooden fragments filled the box, but the number of people inside was also revealed.

One of them was a young man in his twenties. He had a pale face and drifting eyes, and his gaze was sinister and ruthless. The coat he wore was rather strange, somewhat similar to a swallow-tailed coat, but it had a large, curly collar that stood up. It was luxurious in a twisted way.

The man nearest to the young man was a muscular guy, but instead of being bulky and slow like Test Subject No. 1, his body was fit and well defined like Sheyan. The man wore sunglasses and stood there with his arms folded in front of his chest, seemingly indifferent to everything that was happening.

In front of him was an old man which should be something like a butler or a secretary who was responsible for arranging all the trifling matters for his master. Of course, he must also occasionally help his master come up with some wicked ideas. To put it simply, if Sheyan was an evil man, Old Charlie and Jinkuang would be playing the same role as the old man.

Standing on the outermost position was a man wielding a gun in each of his hands -- oh, no, he was a monster whose hands had been transformed into weapons. He was currently firing crazily. The hapless Grant had already been torn into several pieces by his bullets, but his bullets still could not touch Old Charlie. He only managed to force Old Charlie to take cover behind a pillar. Blocks of concrete fell off the pillar due to the man's unceasing shots.

The crowd took the chance to run away in this chaotic mess. Fortunately, because the auction was held in a hurry, only less than twenty customers had attended. Of course, all of them had brought followers along, but even including the followers, there were still less than 40 people in total. Therefore, they dispersed pretty quickly.

But a grey shadow shot out like a flash of lightning from the midst of the chaos and pierced through the chest of the man whose hands had been modified into weapons! Electric sparks dazzled the eye, and a series of explosions sounded. Black smoke burst out in billows.

The grey shadow was a bristle of Ramtas. It appeared that the bristle had not hit a vital spot because even though electricity was creeping across the man's chest and his chest was smoking, he could still turn towards the direction where the bristle came from and was prepared to shoot. His left hand had rapidly transformed into an energy weapon.

Sheyan did not fear the Physique and close combat skills of the future humans at all, but when it came to energy weapons, he dared not get careless. He had never doubted one thing -- he could kill Lieutenant General Mungo as easily as swatting a fly, but he would surely face a counter attack from various powerful energy weapons afterwards, and he would probably not be able to leave Mungo's office alive!

He had personally witnessed a shot from the main cannon of an Atlantic-class spaceship before. The power of the shot could even annihilate an entire planet! Any living creature must maintain the most fundamental fear of energy weapons from a genetic level!

Fortunately, the consumption of energy weapons had always been their limiting factor. The more powerful a weapon was, the more energy it needed to consume, and the bigger its size. Energy weapons that could threaten Sheyan's life were at least the level of a tank's main cannon. It was still impossible for current technology to produce a standardised individual-use weapon that could threaten Sheyan.

Ramtas knew about Sheyan's wariness of energy weapons. He did not even wait for Sheyan's orders and had already shot two more bristles. The first bristle pierced into the modified man's left shoulder and immediately caused the spot to explode.

The other bristle sent him flying at least five meters back. Amidst a series of explosions, black smoke billowed and electric sparks dazzled. The man had become a heap of steel parts mixed with flesh!

Seeing this, the man with sunglasses could no longer watch on with folded arms. He stepped in front of the sitting young man with an unbelievable speed and coldly said, "Who are you? Do you know who my master is? Never mind an accident, if he lost even a single hair, Alps Base 7 will be turned upside down!"

First, his skin carried a blue tint and his blood vessels were very prominent. These were signs of mild poisoning. There was a kind of drug called "heat" that was very popular among the social circles of the young nobles of the Empire. It was similar to cocaine on Old Earth, but the difference was that "heat" would only cause minimal harm to the body and was not addictive. It would also cause a weak, illness-like state which was very fashionable.

Blue dugongs were a kind of space creatures that only existed on planets near the centre of the Milky Way. They had a similar appearance to the dugongs (mermaids) on Old Earth. They had especially tenacious life. Their eggs could even survive in space for a long time by absorbing energy from the core of the Milky Way. But once they left the core of the galaxy, they would die.

After undergoing a special treatment, blue dugong skin could be worn as a bullet-proof vest. It would also constantly absorb the energy of the universe to enhance the wearer's body. Therefore, it was extremely valuable. Put it this way -- a Pi element ingot may not necessarily be able to buy a large piece of blue dugong skin!

Therefore, this young man's identity was evidently not that simple. In terms of political power, he may not be as powerful as Mungo, a local tyrant of a piece of territory, but in terms of status, he may be far above Mungo. When he said that he did not want to see Mungo, he might not be bluffing!

However, Sheyan had his own pride. Since he had obviously offended this guy to the point where reconciliation was impossible, he must eliminate him here and now to prevent future troubles! It was definitely not in Sheyan's personality to pin his hopes on another's generosity. A rock blocking his way must be kicked away. And if the thing blocking his way was something which could cause serious consequences, then Sheyan would dig a grave and bury it inside!

That was obviously instantaneous teleportation - an authentic one - because no damage could be seen on the walls of the box. Even more bizarre was the fact that the man could actually locate Sheyan. Sheyan had been hiding deep inside the box from the very beginning, and nobody had seen him. The man in sunglasses could actually determine Sheyan's exact location through his breathing alone. Such a strong battle instinct was truly fearsome.

Sheyan cocked his head, avoiding the slice. The man's palm slammed into the wall next to him. Horrifying cracks immediately appeared around the spot that was struck. It seemed that this man had also modified his body into a weapon.

It was that weird teleportation ability again. Not only did he avoid Ramtas' attack, he had also ingeniously positioned himself in Sheyan's blind spot. It was a textbook execution of the stratagem "stay clear of the enemy's main force and strike at his weak point". Considering his exceptional mobility, he had nothing to fear even if Old Charlie took this opportunity to attack his master in order to force him back!

The man in sunglasses stared at his opponent's back. He had already lost count of the number of times he had experienced something similar to this. As if he were programmed, he launched a punch as he always did in this situation. The goddamn instructor's voice seemed to echo in his ears.

"This spot contains the enemy's spleen. If you want to delay the enemy's death for ten hours, strike this spot with 70% of your full strength. After that, the enemy's spleen will slowly rupture due to coughing and vigorous activities, and his blood will fill his abdominal cavity within an hour!"

"Do you see this rib? Now look at my hand. Clench your fist like this! Strike this rib with your slightly protruding middle finger, and the broken rib will pierce into the enemy's lung, causing hemopneumothorax. No matter how powerful the enemy is, he'll become a sheep waiting for slaughter after that! "

"If you want to give the enemy a lifetime of suffering, attack this part of his spine. That's right! He'll become incontinent, impotent, have bedsores and will remain bedridden for the rest of his life! "

A flurry of storm-like attacks struck the enemy in front of sunglasses guy! In this moment, he felt that his attacks were perfect, flowing smoothly out of him like water. He felt that his skills had reached a new height!

It was easy for him to kill someone, but to beat a person to the brink of death and yet not crossing that final line, like he was doing now, was a level of perfection. It was the first time he had managed to achieve this!

First, those high purity Pi element particles were simply too attractive. He needed to leave this young man alive to trace their source from his mouth, so as to obtain more Pi element particles.

Second, he knew that his master must be in a foul mood right now, so he would want to vent his anger on this young man. Whether his master would carve off his flesh piece by piece to feed the piranhas or chop off his limbs to make furniture with, was none of his concern.

But when sunglasses guy stopped his attack because he thought he had finished the job, he was surprised to find that the muscular body in front of him did not collapse into a heap on the floor like he expected. Instead, he felt something like a steel shackle latching onto his wrist. When he looked down at his wrist, he found that it was being gripped by a hand.

The young man in front of him turned around. At that moment, sunglasses guy felt an unspeakable pressure emanating from the enemy, which made him feel suffocated. The words from the man's mouth made his heart sink.

"Someone as weak as you have the audacity to stand in front of me?" Sheyan suddenly grinned, and the teeth he revealed felt as fierce as the fangs of wild beasts. "One punch! You've hit me so many times, but it's fine, I'll just return one single punch. If you can survive this punch, I'll let you leave!"

The pupils of sunglasses man contracted abruptly. A great fear crept into his eyes. With a snap, he actually severed the left wrist caught by Sheyan himself, then activated his teleportation ability to flee! He instantly vanished into thin air!

Sunglasses man reappeared beside his master, trying to escape with him using his special power, but Sheyan instantly activated his own teleportation ability, the 'Mind Transmission' on his dark gold ring. He immediately caught up to the opponent and swung his fist.

The punch hit sunglasses man in the chest, immediately smashing him to bits, as if a bomb was detonated inside his body! Even the hardest part of his body, his skull, was smashed to pieces. He died a horrible death!

His fist that was covered in blood and flesh pieces was very close to the face of the young man, who sat there without any expression on his face -- it was probably less than 30 centimeters away.

The nauseouting mixture of flesh and blood dripped down from his fist and gathered on the table, drop by drop. The smell of blood in the air was so thick and the sight so gruesome that those who had not been baptised by the battlefield would surely puke their guts out if they were here.

But to Sheyan's surprise, the young man did not lose his composure in the slightest. He merely stared back at Sheyan with his head slightly raised. He seemed to feel a little cold, causing him to tug his coat tighter. The blue dugong leather coat fluttered like waves under this action, making it seem even more dazzling.

Sheyan waited patiently for Lucio to finish speaking, then extended his hand to Lucio's neck and gently twisted it. The neck instantly broke! Sheyan had his reasons for doing this. Although Lucio did act like a useless, spoiled rich kid just now, he was already showing some early signs of developing into a good leader. Sheyan could not leave him alive!

After ending the young man's life, Sheyan took off his blue dugong leather coat and gave it to Old Charlie to wear -- after making some alterations to its appearance through the Realm, of course. He then kept the special mech suit in his party storage space. He walked about ten meters down the corridor, then suddenly pulled a man out from the corpse pile with one hand.

The man was none other than Crippled Wolf, the boss of this black market. He had to crawl on the ground to deliver the things to Lucio because was disabled, but that humiliation had actually helped him survive the chaos. The sly old fox then tried to fake his death by holding his breath. Unfortunately, Sheyan had exceptional Perceptive Sense, so Crippled Wolf could not escape Sheyan's detection.

Crippled Wolf turned ashen-faced. He was about to say something, but a commotion suddenly rose outside. Soon after, the people who had participated in the auction all came back while cursing Crippled Wolf's ruthlessness.

It turned out that the reason Crippled Wolf could establish a black market like this here was because he was backed by General Arnold from the Andromeda Galaxy. Because he had accidentally offended a descendant of the Arnold family who came to pay a private visit, he knew that his fate was now in the hands of others, so of course he had to find some scapegoats. The more scapegoats, the better!

Therefore, as soon as he saw the crowd running away, he quietly and immediately pushed the emergency button to lock the place down, so that no one could escape! This way, any punishment that came from above would be shared by all of them. It was also a safety measure in case Sheyan and his entourage tried to run away.

Sheyan was worried that there would be endless trouble after this because a lot of those who ran away recognised Old Charlie. Little did he expect that all of them would be trapped here together with him. He immediately commenced the massacre! These were all the most evil people in the Northern District who had done a lot of bad things to the slum residents, bullying and exploiting them for their own benefits. Old Charlie's family had also suffered endlessly in their hands. Old Charlie did not feel any guilt at all when he killed them.

Next, Sheyan asked Crippled Wolf where the monitoring room of the black market was. He continued silencing any eyewitnesses he encountered while he moved there. When he reached the room, he destroyed all records of his existence. Everything in the room, from the software to the hardware, from big devices to tiny parts, was reduced to rubble.

Finally, he asked Ramtas to summon some Carrion Vines with a level 2 spell ( https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Carrion_Vine ) to eat all the corpses clean, destroying all evidence.

This was a black market, so the place was quite secluded with few people roaming outside. Besides, not everyone could come to this place. The trade items here, such as the aforementioned "virgins with three breasts", were all prohibited goods that could result in life imprisonment or a death sentence if they were discovered. Therefore, as soon as Sheyan left the building, his path was unobstructed in every direction. All three of them have superb skills, so they easily left the place without leaving any traces behind.

Sheyan then expressed his desire to visit Old Charlie's family. He found that Old Charlie's family was leading a much better life than he expected. They had already separated themselves from the ranks of prostitutes, beggars and thieves at the bottom rung of society.

Old Charlie had two sons and a daughter that survived the ordeal. A large family of fourteen was formed with those three at the core. The entire family lived in a crowded house that was smaller than forty square meters in size. The living environment was really bad, but their quality of life had already greatly improved compared to before. This was because they now had a legitimate occupation -- vegetable wholesalers.

Every square inch of land on Alps Base 7 was as valuable as gold, so no one would use the land here for farming, just like no one would farm in a bustling area like Manhattan.

That's easy, just import the vegetables from elsewhere. Of course, the so-called "elsewhere" was not referring to habitable planets hundreds or thousands of light-years away. Instead, independent farms were developed on the nearest terrestrial planet, and the products were shipped here to be sold.

Because of that, transportation costs actually accounted for more than half the cost of agricultural products, so of course the vegetable merchants had to transport as much vegetable as possible using as little space as possible. As a result, 99% of the shipped vegetables were pre-dried and dehydrated.

Luckily, the preservation technology in this era was pretty amazing. The middlemen could restore these dehydrated vegetables to their pre-processed state with a series of treatments, such as soaking them in water, spraying resuscitative agents, spraying restoration hormones and so on. Of course, they would not be as fresh as when they were newly harvested, but restoring them to about seventy or eighty percent of their original state was not a problem.

Old Charlie's family had found a business channel. They would purchase dried, dehydrated vegetables from the transport ships and process the vegetables in their own home. After the vegetables were restored, they would sell the vegetables and earn the price difference as profit.

By relying on their own effort, the family climbed out of the pathetic lives they previously led. They no longer had to survive through humiliation by relying on others' charity.

Sheyan wished to provide a little help to them, but after Old Charlie stared at them for a while silently, he smiled bitterly and refused Sheyan's offer. He understood well the capabilities of his descendants. He was already satisfied to see them able to feed themselves and lead a safe life by selling vegetables. If Sheyan really gave them some Pi element particles, the entire family would probably be wiped out...

Unlike when Sheyan saw him previously, Archer was now riding on the crest of success, as he was now an important man under Mungo. However, he remained very respectful when he spoke to Sheyan, with nary a hint of arrogance. Sheyan knew that this man could probably be trusted, so he told Archer the purpose of his visit honestly.

Archer was now privy to some of the internal secrets of the Empire. After hearing Sheyan's request, he was lost in thought for a while before he said, "Sir, the area you wish to go to is in the Southeast War Zone. It's not that long of a travel if you use the wormholes - the entire journey will probably take less than twenty hours - but one of the wormholes you have to go through has been listed as a military restricted zone. It's being used for transporting weapons to the front line. If you want to go through it, you'll have to apply for approval."

"The other problem is, you'll probably encounter dimensional turbulence when you enter the region where the alternate dimension eroded into and overlapped with ours. The Empire currently do not have the technology to make spacecrafts that are able to resist dimensional turbulence."

Sheyan nodded. "Don't worry about the second problem. Since my Noah Realm is the one asking me to take this route, he'll definitely solve the problem of dimensional turbulence for me. He won't let me die so easily. I only need a fast spaceship that's as sturdy as possible. You don't need to worry about the burden on the passenger's body."

Archer nodded. "All right. I'll make the preparations immediately. But I can't help you acquire the approval for passing through the wormhole. My authority level is far from enough."

Archer visibly hesitated for a moment before he said, "I don't know if I should tell you this, sir, but I heard there's some problem with the Major General's Blood Armour you ordered. I don't really know the details, but General Mungo definitely does. When you see him, remember to ask him about it, or you might be taken advantage of."

So what happened was, Mungo and Major General Fiji were both originally under the faction of General Arnold from the Andromeda War Zone. After the previous incident involving Sheyan, Mungo managed to establish a connection to Prince Pombaru from the royal family.

Mungo was a very ambitious man. Instead of picking a side, he stayed uncommitted and negotiated with the two powers, thus benefiting from both sides. As a result, he succeeded in securing his current position as the commander of Alps Base 7. However, neither the royal family nor the separatist warlord could allow him to continue doing this.

So, both sides had sent some very important people directly to Mungo to force him to make his position clear. Right now, Mungo was talking to the representatives of General Arnold, and the representatives of Prince Pombaru of the royal family would arrive in an hour. Mungo was naturally in a tough spot at the moment. He had no time at all to meet with Sheyan.

But Sheyan was very clear on one thing - Mungo may feel like he was in deep trouble now, but the thing that would give him a real headache was currently still hidden away like a time bomb. Once it went off, Mungo would realise that his current predicament was a paradise in comparison!

Perhaps if Sheyan stepped forward and gave himself up, confessing to the crime, the Arnold family wouldn't even believe him.... They would probably say something like "Who the f*ck are you trying to fool? So you're telling us, by coincidence, there happens to be an auction at the time, and, by coincidence, you happen to possess something that aroused his greed, and, by coincidence, you happen to be strong enough to kill him and his guards, and, by coincidence, you actually did kill him? F*ck off! Tell us who ordered you to do this, or we'll make sure you die a miserable and painful death..."

So Sheyan could only raise his head to the heavens and laugh out loud. He expressed his sincere understanding of Mungo's predicament. Although he came on this trip to rescue someone, he was no longer in a hurry, because a terrible storm was now looming over Alps Base 7.

Sheyan had faith in Ronnie. That guy specialised in Agility, and he was also proficient in scouting and making doppelgangers. Since his enemies failed to kill him in an ambush, thus giving him a chance to catch his breath, he should not have any problem staying alive for a while. He should at least be able to hold on until Sheyan arrived.

Next, Sheyan visited some of the prohibited military zones in Alps Base 7 accompanied by Archer. During the tour, Sheyan saw a monstrous shipyard under construction! This steel monster reached a height of five kilometers!

How tall was five kilometers? It was half the height of the Himalayas!! A shipyard that was half as tall as the Himalayas!! Think about how shocking it was! And, it also means that the spaceship that was about to be built here would be unimaginably huge!

Sheyan placed his hand on a thick porthole, feeling the cold sensation of the porthole glass passing along to his fingertips. Yes, he was shocked! Shocked by the extent of human imagination and creativity. This was probably how the humans in ancient times felt when they saw the Great Wall or the Pyramid of Giza for the first time!

The construction of the shipyard was still ongoing. He saw a lot of engineering robots flying around in space like a bunch of hardworking bees. Dazzling electric sparks broke through the darkness from time to time like flashes of lightning. Such a lively and thriving scene formed a strong contrast against the backdrop of the vast, indifferent, silent space.

After watching for a while, Sheyan told Archer, "To build such a huge spaceship here... It seems like the Empire is really determined this time. This spaceship isn't built according to the specifications of a normal warship, right?"

Archer looked at Sheyan in amazement. "That's right. Warships actually may not necessarily be better the bigger they are. The obsolescence of battleships on Old Earth is proof of that. The reason warships are so big is mainly for the purpose of accommodating enough energy generation reactors inside. There's a limit to this. When the energy generation system reaches a saturation point, the extra volume of the ship will just go to waste... Fine, I can see that your eyes are blank. Let me put it another way."

"According to a report I received when I was young, more than 72.3% of men are not satisfied with the size of a certain part of their body, and 99.98% of these people wished it'll be bigger and longer. We would always advise the many patients that come for treatment in our clinic that the abnormal size they requested isn't practical. These things aren't necessarily better the bigger they are. The critical point is 20 centimeters. Going beyond the limit is as bad as falling short, at least from a female point of view. The Pacific-class standard is the critical point for the current spaceships, whose main purpose is for battle."

(From Wikipedia: NEET is an acronym that stands for "Not in Education, Employment, or Training". It refers to a person who is unemployed, not in school or vocational training.)

"My father's a veterinarian." A look of nostalgia crept into Archer's eyes, "And my mother is the owner of a famous plastic surgery clinic. The clinic was so busy that even with my help, we still can't handle everything. In the end, my father had to help with a lot of the surgeries."

After further conversation, Sheyan was secretly alarmed with the Empire's progress on Uplos, because it was at a much more advanced state than he had imagined! The Empire had started a "Salmon Run" plan since half a year ago, and had executed it regardless of the cost.

Salmon run is a periodic annual activity where salmons, which have migrated from the ocean, swim to the upper reaches of rivers where they spawn on gravel beds. The salmons often have to travel for thousands of kilometers while swimming against water currents that flow at a speed of dozens of kilometers per hour.

During the migration, the salmons also had to face the problems of being hunted by their natural enemies, the changes in the environment, and extremely high energy consumption. Less than one in ten salmons would actually reach the spawning grounds. The reason they can migrate successfully is because they migrate together in a great, dense shoal. When they were hunted by their natural enemies, the fish in the periphery would sacrifice themselves. When they swam upstream, the aerodynamic flow of water when they travel in a shoal would save energy for the fish behind.

To put it bluntly, the Empire's Salmon Run plan was to amass a large fleet of spaceships to rush through the asteroid belts regardless of the cost. They only wished to ensure that a small number of their core airships could reach the planet despite the astonishing casualty rate.

The actual implementation of the Salmon Run plan was extremely tragic. Although most of the outer spaceships were out-of-service warships, they still had to form a real, solid fleet for the operation. The first Salmon Run plan ended in complete failure. They only managed to reach the middle section of the asteroid belts.

But the failed first attempt had provoked the arrogance of the upper and middle class of the Empire! The second Salmon Run plan was quickly proposed. This time, they would use active warships!

Furthermore, the Empire had actually used the Emperor's authority to force all the military regions, which had already shown signs of becoming secessionists, to fork out 400 active warships! The Imperial headquarters themselves sent out 100 warships! The Empire was clearly doing this to weaken the military force of each military region!

However, the base only managed to last for seven days. A sudden cosmic storm struck, cutting off the communication link between the base and the headquarters, which was already fragile to begin with. They lost all contact after that. The base had most likely fallen into ruin.

That's right. The defensive system of warships in this era mainly comprised of energy shields that were aimed at defending against energy weapons, but the monstrous impact from asteroids was a type of physical damage. That was why warships could not last long in the asteroid belts.

Therefore, they increased the thickness of the exterior armour of the warships to enhance their physical defence! Thicker armour means extra weight, and that naturally required a bigger energy system and propulsion system. So the giant warship named "Mariana" that was being built here was actually more than six times the size of a normal Pacific-class warship.

And its horrifying fusion-type armour, which combined steel and energy shield, was strong enough to handle the impact from asteroids that were smaller than 50 meters in diameter!!

There were 376 particle projection cannons on the ship which could smash any asteroid larger than 10 meters in diameter within 300 kilometers of it. According to the data collected from the previous two Salmon Run plans, the proportion of asteroids with a diameter of more than 50 meters in the entire asteroid belts was only about 2.3 per 1,000.

After hearing these statistics, Sheyan could not help muttering, "So basically, once the Mariana is successfully built, conquering planet Uplos will no longer be a problem?"

"Correct," replied Archer, "And the Empire has begun to officially set up a development agency to form various organisational structures. According to the latest news received last month, a Predator spacecraft was detected trying to fly to Uplos. The Empire gave the order to attack. We have yet to receive any further news from them."

Sheyan's eyes narrowed. After considering all the information he had received so far, he suddenly thought of a possibility - a very real possibility. When Sheyan thought of this, he could not help falling into a dilemma. If his assumption was true, how should he deal with it?

When Archer saw Sheyan suddenly falling into a gloomy mood, he thought the sight of the large warship made Sheyan recall the comrades-in-arm he lost on planet Uplos, so he tactfully avoided dwelling on the topic. Instead, he brought Sheyan to his personal workshop. He asked Sheyan to choose one of the models of military warships in service so that he could custom tailor and improve it for Sheyan to be used as his transport later.

All these trivial matters took more than three hours in total to complete. Archer was indeed a very sincere person. Although he must be a busy man with all the official duties he had to perform, he still dutifully kept Sheyan company the whole way, listening to Sheyan's opinions and requests.

After a while, Archer felt that something was amiss. He checked the time and said puzzledly, "That's strange. Lieutenant General Mungo should have finished his meeting with the guest a long time ago. Even if they're in a negotiation, it's impossible to come up with a result right away. He should have been able to temporarily excuse himself one way or another."

Sheyan smirked in his mind because he knew that the problem had surfaced. A member of the Arnold family had disappeared. That's extremely serious business. Mungo probably did not even have the time to go to the toilet right now. How could he spare any time to meet with Sheyan?

A terrible alarm sounded right at that moment! The alarm noise was actually not that loud, but for some reason, it penetrated really far. The low growl echoed within everyone's chest, making their chest so stuffy that they felt like vomiting.

"Why is a Level 1 alarm issued at a time like this? Are the Alliance invading? But there are two major war zones separating us! Maybe the Predators are making a counter attack? But that's impossible, the warning systems we set up haven't gone off."

Sheyan knew exactly what had happened. The incident he caused had come to light. The long absence of the young man from the Arnold family had aroused suspicions, and panic had spread like a plague. He grinned as he looked on at the all the staff who were retreating in a hurry.

The exterior of Alps Base 7 began to rapidly transform. A large amount of exterior armour started enveloping the base. Countless electromagnetic rail guns (EMRG) and large-caliber particle projection cannons emerged from the base's body like cards that were flipped, forming the most advanced and terrifying joint-firing shooting system in the Empire, the "Stonehenge" formation!

Sheyan could see from Archer's workshop that the streets were quickly clearing up. A large number of soldiers marched to the streets and started to impose martial law. The soldiers carried out door-to-door inspection. The operation this time was obviously at an unprecedented scale. The brutal behaviour and wanton actions of the soldiers all illustrated one fact - they were under great pressure.

However, less than twenty minutes later, a Lieutenant came to Archer in a hurry and reported, "Reporting as ordered, sir! We've received a signal from 30,000 kilometers away. The A-71 Squadron is requesting for permission to dock on Alps Base 7. They give us 10 minutes to provide them with five docking berths that are adjacent to each other, and the docking berths must be wide enough to support three Pacific-class warships and two Atlantic-class warships!"

Sheyan did not understand the significance of the A-71 Squadron, but everyone within the administrative system knew that any squadron numbering that started with "A" must be related to the royal family. No spaceship squadrons could break this rule. The squadron numbers of the Emperor's personal fleet (Doomsday) went from A-01 to A-10. Besides that, squadron numbering that started with "S" were exclusively used by the airships of the most mysterious organisation in the Empire, the Big Ben Research Institute.

A-71 was the flagship squadron of the person who was seventh highest in status in the whole Empire!! That is to say, the noble Prince Pombaru had actually come to Alps Base 7 personally!!

Ranking seventh in the royal hierarchy may not sound that impressive, but it must be known that in the absence of a crown prince, ranking seventh was actually something quite remarkable!

The highest ranking nobility was undoubtedly the Emperor, followed by the Emperor's biological mother who was still alive, Empress Dowager Helefen. The third should be Prince Balesta, who was guarding the three war zones to the west, suppressing the Alliance's forces. The fourth was probably the shadow Dean of Big Ben Research Institute!

Speaking of the shadow Dean, he was truly a very mysterious person. He was a man without a face, so he was also called the Faceless Man. The reason for this tragedy was because the Faceless Man was once the current Emperor's strongest rival for the throne. The victor in their rivalry was only decided at the very last moment.

The current Emperor was very magnanimous. He admired the Faceless Man's brilliance, so he did not order for him to be killed. Instead, the Emperor ordered for his face to be burned with laser as punishment, and let the Faceless Man join Big Ben Research Institute after that.

The Faceless Man took merely fifteen years to become the shadow Dean of the institute with his own efforts. He was already forty years old when his face was wiped away, so he already had a fully mature mind and outlook on life. Therefore, despite the tragedy that befell him, he was not controlled by the desire for revenge, but had instead silently made contributions to the Empire from the institute. Of course, there was also the possibility that the current Emperor was so powerful that the Faceless Man had no choice but to do so.

If the success rate of the first heir was 50%, then the success rate of the second in line would be 40%, and the success rate of the third in line would be 35%. This probability was not low at all. Furthermore, the Emperor was in good health, and Prince Pombaru's influence was on the rise. Therefore, if he did not make any major mistakes, his ranking might very well rise higher.

From the projected hologram, three giant Pacific-class warships could be seen traveling quietly through space like giant steel beasts in a triangular formation. Although the cold muzzles of their cannons did not seem threatening at present, the streamlined guiding lights on the body of the cannons kept flashing continuously, indicating that these cannons were definitely not ornamental. In fact, they had the power to destroy planets.

Above and below the Pacific classes was each an Atlantic-class warship escorting them at the same speed. All the warships had a common feature: a simple and lively pattern of a blooming pansy formed from large purple stripes at the front of the ship.

That was the symbol of the royal family! In this terrifyingly vast interstellar realm spanning hundreds of millions of light-years, the Pansy emblem symbolised submission to the unique authority of the monarchy! All must show respect and bow their heads in front of the emblem!

Archer sighed. "They had some problems when they were crossing a wormhole. This kind of thing has been happening quite frequently lately. It probably has to do with the retaliation from the Predators. They move very stealthily and has not engaged in a direct confrontation with us since the last time...."

The Arnold family had a natural psychological advantage when they faced Mungo, because Mungo was someone they nurtured from scratch. If a dog was raised by someone since it was a baby, no matter how fierce the dog usually barked, it could only lower its head with its tail between its legs in front of the master who raised it.

First of all, the direct descendant of the Arnold family, the young man named Arnold Fabian Montsson Lucio, disdained negotiating with Mungo and had let someone under him come instead. To be openly scorned like this made Mungo furious, but he could not lash out.

That was already frustrating enough. But not ten minutes after the talk finished, a young man kicked open the door to his office and demanded him to declare martial law to let the base initiate Level 1 combat preparation at once! He did this in front of many of Mungo's subordinates! This was no longer simple disrespect. This was spitting on his face and asking him to lick it clean!

The eldest son of the Arnold family, Arnold Fabian Moncchi Colbert, was indeed qualified to give Mungo an order, and he was not exactly acting beyond his authority. Furthermore, the order was to investigate the strange disappearance of his younger brother, Arnold Fabian Montsson Lucio.

It must be known that factions like the Arnold family, that were so powerful even the Emperor had to be wary of them, had long spread their wings and become monstrous behemoths. They protected their heirs very carefully. For instance, all the heirs had positioning chips planted in their bodies.

When the Arnold family realised that they had lost contact with Arnold Fabian Montsson Lucio for three hours, they immediately activated the positioning system. The result was the worst case scenario.... The positioning system could not locate his signal at all! It could not even locate the signals from his followers!

This would only occur if all the chips had been destroyed. Of course, there was also the slim possibility that the group was in a place that had a strong signal interference, so the signals could not be sent out. However, these positioning chips were high-end products of Big Ben Research Institute. When the Arnold family bought this technology, the institute guaranteed that it had strong anti-jamming capabilities. The credibility of the Big Ben Research Institute was beyond doubt.

"Prince Pombaru's A-71 Royal Squadron has arrived, sir. They're now 25,000 kilometres away and have asked us to vacate docking berths for them. Because Alps Base 7 is currently under Level 1 combat preparation, we're unable to carry out this operation. What should we do, sir?"

Mungo's mind went blank for two whole minutes. His brain seemed to have lost its ability to function. At that instant, the LCD screen in his office suddenly flashed. Not only that, but all the screens in the entire Alps Base 7 flashed as well. There was a strong signal interference.

The huge observational portholes, each 10 meters long and 20 meters tall, were equipped with a filtering system to filter out harmful light, so that the soldiers could look out of them directly with the naked eye. Spectroscopic analysis, energy readings and wavelength shift rate were continuously displayed around the portholes in the form of diagrams. In the case of free shooting in combat, the side with this ability would have a great advantage.

Sitting behind the heavily armoured launchers were up to 4,000 anti-matter missiles ready to be fired. There were also 280 powerful anti-matter laser cannons. It was claimed that the shots from these laser cannons were more powerful the further they traveled.

By the time all the screens inside the base regained their clarity, a furious face was plastered on all of them. The owner of the face had a large, red drunkard nose. He had thick hair around his lips and on his cheeks. The combination of his facial features gave off the impression of someone rude and fierce. He was the deputy commander of the A-71 Royal Squadron, Yodenov, nicknamed the Polar Bear!

Apparently, the fleet had detected from afar the anomaly in the base that was on Level 1 alert. They immediately reported this to the General Staff Headquarters of the Empire. The Imperial General Staff Headquarters quickly decided that the emergency situation on the base had seriously threatened the foundation and security of the Empire (because the safety of the third ranking successor to the throne was being threatened), so the password granting the highest level of authority was immediately transmitted to the squadron.

Only then did he understand why the ambitious warlords had to remain respectful and obedient under the authority of the Pansy even though the separatist regimes in the major war zones had already gained momentum, and the Empire had a strong outside enemy like the Alliance.

After the A-71 squadron slowly docked on the berths, the royal guards on them surged out of the spaceships like a tide. 130 space tanks came roaring out of the belly of the Atlantic-class warships, cooperating with the royal guards to take control of all the key departments. Only after they had confirmed that the situation was safe did Prince Pombaru unhurriedly make his appearance.

Despite the prince's usual lackadaisical attitude, this time, he had no choice but to let his subordinates dress him up. Purple had always been the low-key colour of royalty. The well-fitting formal attire gave his appearance considerable charm, but his eyes were still as unruly as always. Next, in order to show that he was a man of the people, he even took the initiative to pay a visit to several households to ask about the current situation. Only after that did he slowly walk to the conference room that was at the core of the base.

This series of actions by Prince Pombaru was executed swiftly and cleanly, like a set of free flowing combo punches. In addition, he also possessed the natural sense of superiority of the royal family. He effortlessly took control of the whole situation before either Lieutenant General Mungo or the people from the Arnold family could react.

Prince Pombaru was closely related to the Big Ben Research Institute. Who else could jam the signal from the positioning chips produced by Big Ben Research Institute but Big Ben Research Institute themselves. The more they thought about it, the more suspicious the incident seemed, and the more confident they were in their assumption.

Less than half an hour in the core conference room and Prince Pombaru already had a clear grasp of the situation. He was actually overjoyed, because this fortuitous situation had enabled him to take full control of the base as soon as he arrived, without him actually doing anything. He felt that even destiny was helping him. That put him in an excellent mood.

Next, Prince Pombaru must, of course, provide an explanation for suddenly taking over the base without warning. The explanation he gave was that it was a "misunderstanding". The reason was simple.

"A royal prince had personally come for a visit, but instead of greeting him, you entered Level 1 combat preparation. You're still citizens of the Empire. This kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable."

The Constitution of the Empire stipulated that only the Crown Prince and the Emperor himself could take control of a large military fortress like Alps Base 7, but Pombaru had valid reasons to take over the base on a temporary basis, so there was nothing Mungo could do about it.

But what made Lieutenant General Mungo even more distressed was that Prince Pombaru had been really quick to act. He merely offered Mungo some words of comfort and told him that he would not pursue the matter further, but he failed to mention when he would return the command of the base to Mungo! Mungo felt like he was slowly dying inside!

He knew that as long as Prince Pombaru kept his control of the base for a while, even if he did not actively look for evidence of Mungo's wrongdoings, those evidence would inevitably show themselves as time passed! For example, when the appointed time came to hand over the firearms Mungo had resold to other parties, a reminder would be displayed on the main channel. The bank statement of his financial investments would also show up on a special menu prompt....

Lieutenant General Mungo's brain was full of these thoughts. He could not even remember how he came out of the main control room. His vest was already soaked wet with cold sweat, and his entire body smelled of tobacco. He kept walking aimlessly for a period of time before he finally shook his head and went back to his residence with a sigh.

Lieutenant General Mungo's residence was naturally in the core area of the innermost circle of the base. He was unmarried, and his needs were fulfilled by the secretary he kept at his side. But right now, he naturally had no desire for such things, so he shooed the secretary away. He could only drown his bad mood with strong liquor, alone.

But the alcohol only made his mood worse. While Mungo was sighing at his fate, someone rang the doorbell. That made him inexplicably furious. He instantly screamed at the door to make the person go away.

However, the ringing of the doorbell stubbornly persisted. Mungo gulped down a few more mouthfuls of drink with bloodshot eyes. His mood had become even worse. In his anger, he opened the door and slammed the bottle he was holding on the visitor's head without even looking!

The bottle shattered loudly, bursting into pieces on the head of the man standing at the door. Mungo exhaled with satisfaction and yelled in a hoarse voice, "Serves you right. That was for...wait, it's you?"

Although he said that, he still let Sheyan in. After all, this man from his past was still a passable listener. Furthermore, both sides have some common secrets, so they could be more open with each other.

Although Sheyan already knew everything about the incident, he listened patiently as Mungo told him what he already knew. When Mongo's tongue turned stiff from talking, he picked up a bottle of vodka and took a few mouthfuls. He then said, stuttering, "You..tell...tell me...what can I do?"

Sheyan answered without hesitation, "You've already profited once from sitting on the fence. Do you really expect to profit for a second time? That's obviously impossible now. A large-scale mining of Pi element on Uplos is imminent, and this place will soon become a decisive variable that can shake even the Empire. You still want to get the best of both worlds? That's just digging your own grave!"

"Sell yourself for a good price while you're still valuable, of course!" Sheyan remarked flatly. "Otherwise, when both sides feel that you're too hard to control and reach an agreement to replace you, you'll be worthless!"

Various expressions cycled through Mungo's face again. The alcohol in his body had all turned into cold sweat. The words of this outsider were indeed really harsh. No one around Mungo dared to say these things to him, but he had to admit that every point Sheyan made was right on the money.

Sheyan rode the momentum and took the chance to voice his own question. "I've been answering your questions all this time, now it's my turn to ask a question. I heard some rumors that something has gone wrong with my Major General's Blood Armour. What's the problem?"

Mungo grinned bitterly. "The manufacturing process of Blood Armours was taught to us by the Realm. We still don't fully understand a lot of the principles involved. Although we know what to do, we don't really know the reason. The final process in the manufacturing of a Blood Armour is to put the armour in an unmanned spacecraft and send it to some extreme cosmic objects such as a red dwarf star or a black hole to undergo cosmic ray baptism. Therefore, when it becomes a finished product, it'll leak a powerful aura that may possibly resonate with people who get close to it, even ordinary human beings. It's a very comfortable feeling."

Mungo took a sip of vodka without saying anything. That was pretty much a silent confirmation to Sheyan's question. Sheyan pondered for a moment, but after that, he asked another question instead.

"Of course not," answered Mungo decisively. "Although 90% of your armour was made within the Empire, the remaining 10% consists of key technologies and core components that can only be provided by the Realm."

Mongo smiled wryly. "It's not exactly an interception in name. He's just delaying the delivery time as long as he can. This kind of practice is almost an open secret within the Empire. To be specific, he'll give various excuses to the Realm, such as saying that a department responsible for a certain process is undergoing reorganisation, or the spacecraft dispatched to transport the armour has crashed. In the end, when he can't put it off any longer and if he really, really likes the armour, he'll just confess to the crime and pay a heavy price as punishment. These things aren't without precedents."

"Yup," Mungo grinned bitterly. "The Faceless Man from the Big Ben Research Institute once gritted his teeth and paid the price of almost half a galaxy to collect enough compensation for a Nightmare Realm's fine, all for the sake of keeping a Blood Weapon he was asked to process. Six months after that, he became the shadow Dean of Big Ben Research Institute."

"Last question," Sheyan eyes reflected the light from the lamp, shining mysteriously, "The one who took my Major General's Blood Armour. Is it Prince Pombaru or the Arnold family?"

Sheyan grinned. "You're an important person in the Empire who guards a key territory, and you're also someone that both the royal family and the separatist forces are trying to draw to their sides. Anyone who wish to make a move on you must first consider the joint reaction of these two factions. Therefore, the possibility of other forces doing something like this is slim. It's Prince Pombaru, isn't it?"

Sheyan continued his deduction, "He's someone from Big Ben Research Institute, so he wouldn't be interested in things that are too common. I know that the institute is currently focusing on the research of biological soldiers. These soldiers can theoretically also make use of the unique power in the Blood Armour!"

"No," Mongo's answer came as a surprise to Sheyan. "The one who took your armour is the Arnold family. Prince Pombaru's field of study is in the power of darkness, so he's not interested in your armour which leans towards the physical side. Your armour was sent to the core of the galaxy for quenching, and it had to pass through the Andromeda War Zone."

"Let me guess. The Arnold family were tasked with bringing it along with them when they came here, but one look at it and they suddenly had a desire to keep it for themselves," Sheyan grinned and said. "Am I right? I think only a few people would dare to do this. I heard that the guy named Montsson Lucio has disappeared. So the one who did this must be Moncchi Colbert?"

Sheyan sat there quietly with his eyes closed for quite some time. When he opened his eyes, there was a strange smile on his face. He took a swig of Mungo's vodka and said, "You seem to have made up your mind."

Mungo was really just blinded before this because he was too deeply involved, so he could not see clearly. Now that his thoughts were clear after having a conversation with Sheyan, he had quickly made up his mind. In truth, his choice was quite obvious. One side treated him as a servant in a master-servant relationship and enmity was quickly brewing between them due to the disappearance of a direct descendant. The other side was a talented and powerful prince of the Empire who had the backing of Big Ben Research Institute. If he had to be a dog, then a dog of the royal family was much more prestigious!

"Since it's come to this..." Sheyan finished all the vodka in the bottle in one go. He felt as if flames were spreading from his throat and stomach towards his limbs and bones. He turned the bottle upside down and watched as the residual liquor dripped down to the glass coffee table drop by drop. His every word pierced deep into Mungo's heart.

"...you must go all out! Strike hard without any hesitation. The biggest reserves your new faction will have of a turncoat like you is that you'll betray them in the same way and go back to your old faction. So, burn all your bridges and hit your old faction hard to the point of no reconciliation. Your new faction will naturally be a lot less suspicion of you then."

"You'll probably find it inconvenient to handle this personally. It's not like you can do anything against the power of the Arnold family anyway. But don't worry, I'm here to help. Let me take care of it. Right now, although you've lost command of Alps Base 7, Prince Pombaru definitely haven't brought along enough soldiers to control the entire city because the city is simply too big. What you need to do now is to pass down orders to your subordinates to make sure they keep their eyes closed," answered Sheyan with a smile.

Such a simple condition. Mungo naturally promised to have it done without a second's hesitation! Of course, in exchange, he agreed to take care of Sheyan's problem for him.

However, at the moment, the entire Alps Base 7 was under the control of the royal family, having been granted permission by the General Staff Headquarters of the Empire. Under this situation, the Arnold family's warships were ordered to shut down their antimatter energy reactors for a "security inspection" and could only obtain enough power to maintain their basic functions from external power outlet connections. They did not even have enough energy to take off, let alone activate their weapons.

Seven huge warships were moored at the dock, but instead of a being ablaze with lights as they usually were, only their signal lights were shining. They looked just like seven cold corpses of huge snakes. Their grey lead surface looked especially oppressive, contributing to the restrained atmosphere on the warships. No one dared to breathe hard.

At this moment, on a steel road in the middle of the night, against the backdrop of the vast starry sky, slowly came a man whose face was not clearly visible, but whose firm gait exuded solemn dignity. His slow, steady steps were reminiscent of a Pacific-class warship that had just started moving - although the warship may be moving only a centimeter at a time, it gave off a feeling of being unstoppable due to its sheer enormity.

The whole Arnold contingent was on high alert. These were troubled times, and the power supply of their warships had been thoroughly restrained, so the powerful weapons on them had been relegated to mere decorations. There was simply no way they would allow such a strange figure to approach the ships so late at night!

Two elite soldiers went up to the man. "Get away from here, or die!" The arrogance and domineering attitude of the Arnold family was perfectly reflected in their choice of words.

And that was why the two men were sent flying the next second, as if a heavy-duty container truck, spewing black smoke and traveling at 100 mph, had run into them. They landed over 20 meters away and rolled for a dozen more meters before they came to a halt. The armours they wore shattered into pieces, scattering across the ground.

The others witnessed this scene in disbelief and anger! Various shouts travelled through the communicators. Three whole units of soldiers came to the scene like sharks that smelled blood. Alarms blared, and a psychological offence was initiated:

"According to Article 134 of the Imperial Constitution, you have committed a serious violation that is punishable by death on the spot. Put your hands on the back of your head and kneel facing the wall at once, or we may attack you with weapons...."

As if he did not hear the warning, the man continued to march forward, completely ignoring the soldiers! All three units instantly pulled the trigger, forming a horrifying and dense network of shots. The bullets that hit the steel walls bounced back, piling on to the lethality of the situation.

Even in this era, firearms were still actively used in the army. Why had they not been eliminated in this age of energy weapons? First, they could still kill any human that was shot. They did not fare worse than energy weapons in terms of range, and even had an advantage in terms of firing speed. Second, the power of energy weapons was proportional to their size. The power of individual-scale energy weapons did not really have a decisive advantage over the power of firearms. Third, and the most important reason - they were much cheaper.

All three units consisted of veterans from real battlefields. Under such intense firepower coverage, it did not matter if the man tried to dodge, crawl, roll, or even jump; avoiding the shots was almost impossible.

But the man suddenly bent down, and the screeching sound of metallic friction was heard. He had actually tore a large piece off the metallic conveyor belt road with a single hand! The steel plate that was over 5 square meters in size easily blocked the bullets. Then...the man suddenly spun around and threw the huge steel plate in his hand at the unit in front of him like he was throwing a discus!

What ensued was an extremely bloody scene. The steel plate cut two soldiers in half and sent at least five people flying. After that, the flying steel plate scraped against a steel wall, producing a long trail of sparks and a goosebump-inducing sound of metallic friction! The extreme heat produced from the friction almost evaporated the flesh and blood sticking on the steel plate!

Then, the figure actually charged into the midst of another battle unit. Just like a white ball in a game of billiards that rolled into a group of coloured balls, Sheyan stayed stationary after the collision, while the soldiers were knocked away!

What happened here had naturally attracted the attention of Prince Pombaru's forces. They were, after all, the exclusive guards of the royal family, so they were very alert to any abnormal activities. There was no way a bloody commotion like this could escape their attention.

"Hey, aren't those the elite soldiers from the Arnold family, the Iron Tusks? They are, aren't they? I recognise the Dim Steel armour they're wearing. That's a specialty of the Andromeda zone and their standard equipment. All of them are veteran soldiers bathed in blood in the war against the Alliance, who were forcibly removed from active duty and placed into this private army. Generally speaking, a full unit of the Iron Tusks has 2 times the combat ability of a unit from the regular army, but...what the hell am I seeing? Three full units, thirty-three people! All wiped out in....8.6 seconds!!!

"The target's data has been calculated. He's strong enough to tear steel apart with his bare hands. Although it's not alloy steel that's especially tough, his strength and explosive power are still estimated to be several times higher than our beast-level fighters. The peak instantaneous speed he displayed just now has also exceeded 900 meters per second! How can his explosiveness be so astonishing? What kind of muscle structure does he have?" (These people mistook Sheyan's 'Hornrage' speed as his normal speed.)

"Scanning result shows that the target is not equipped with any standard type defensive equipment. Or perhaps, our scanning devices aren't advanced enough to detect the kind of defensive equipment he's wearing. We also can't detect any energy weapons or firearms in his hands. If he's using any weapons, they're most probably steel knuckles or gloves."

"Such a powerful physique has completely surpassed any modified soldiers or half-machine cyborgs we know of. Perhaps only the strongest test subjects from the Big Ben Research Institute could reach this level... We have to notify His Highness immediately!"

"No need, I'm already here." The seemingly seamless steel wall suddenly slid open silently, revealing a dark, square passageway behind it. A row of yellow lights glowed on the hard tempered-glass floor, providing illumination for the passageway. Prince Pombaru appeared from behind the steel door that had slid open, accompanied by a woman with a cold demeanor.

In front of his trusted subordinates, Prince Pombaru had regained his wild and unrestrained nature. His hair was untidy, and he wore only a night robe and a pair of expensive-looking....flip-flops, exposing his furry legs. A lit Black Cross branded cigarette was held between his fingers. The unique smell of the cigarette caressed everyone's nose like the soft touch of a woman's fingers, tugging at their heartstrings and flaming their desires.

Everyone stood up and saluted. Prince Pombaru gestured for them to be at ease and sat down himself. Some of the faces present showed expressions of joy. That Prince Pombaru would appear in front of them in this disheveled appearance meant that he regarded them as his confidants. It was akin to your boss openly visiting a brothel in your presence – he would only do that because he trusts you.

With a wave of Prince Pombaru's hand, the video was replayed. He watched on as the fierce man on the screen kill without hesitation. The prince's indifferent attitude changed in an instant, replaced by a burning fervor in his eyes.

'This man is definitely not a modified human. Some of the modified monsters in Big Ben Research Institute may be stronger than him, but they don't exude the same feeling. The artificial monsters are all crazy and self-destructive, but this guy feels so full of vitality that it seems like even if his limbs were all severed, they would grow back!

"His identity is obvious. Only those relics from ancient times, the Noah Realms, can produce this kind of monster that violates the laws of nature, yet still feels so full of life! He must be a powerful warrior sent by one of the Realms. But it's strange – what did the Arnold family do to provoke such a monster?"

After dealing with all the Iron Tusk troops blocking his way, Sheyan continued moving forward. Every step he took left a bloody footprint on the ground, making for a horrifying sight!

At that moment, from the distance came the wail of a siren. Close to 20 Sky Chariots rushed over and surrounded Sheyan. These Sky Chariots had a strong floating capability, with a maximum altitude of 20 meters, as well as amazing speed and thick, solid armours. They could even play the role of main tanks in ground combat.

Prince Pombaru's brows slightly furrowed in front of the screen. The person next to him immediately asked, "Should we stop Mungo's men? We now control the energy supply of the whole base. We've even modified the keys and passwords for the reactors of all the warships. When their power supply is cut off, the Sky Chariots will be no better than piles of scrap iron."

But Prince Pombaru suddenly flashed a mysterious grin and said, "That won't be necessary. If this man really is who I think he is, these Sky Chariots won't be able to take him down. Besides.... that bastard Mungo seems to understand the current situation."

"Intruder, you've violated the provisions of Article 134 of the Constitution of the Empire. Put your hands on the back of your head and kneel down facing the wall at once. We will start a countdown. If you still refuse to obey our orders by the time the countdown ends, we will open fire. You will have to bear all the consequences."

Sheyan's lips curled into a mocking sneer. Faced with twenty cannon muzzles that were charging up with a blue light, he suddenly tore off the black rag surrounding him.

The sinister looking man in front of them was actually wearing a brand-new Brigadier General military uniform with half a golden star on his shoulders. The dignified military uniform of a General of the Empire, coupled with the killing spree he had just performed, gave him an intimidating aura!

Seniority and rank were of the utmost importance in any army. Incidences of insubordination we sometimes hear were really just individual cases that were far and few between. Moreover, the Imperial Army was extremely strict, and insubordination was punishable by death!

With his Brigadier General uniform on, according to the law of the Empire, it would require three Major Generals plus a Lieutenant General to deprive him of his current position. As for his death, it must be left to the military court to decide. No one else could pass down this sentence.

Sheyan had instantly made the whole place freeze by showing his military uniform. He immediately shouted, "My military service number is Z03861. If you think I'm a fake Brigadier General, feel free to verify it yourself. This unofficial army had the nerve to attack a Brigadier General in active service. According to Article 1875 of the Imperial Law, I'm allowed to retaliate in self-defence!"

Sheyan's words caused a storm. The soldiers present immediately tried to verify his identity with the military service number he provided. After they did, their expressions became very strange. Evidently, what he said was true! And all the Arnold family guards were retired soldiers. Although they were far more elite than regular troops, Sheyan was not wrong in calling them an unofficial army.

The troops that had just arrived on the scene immediately softened their attitude. Of course, this was all just a pre-arranged act to prove his identity to the Arnold family to make them hesitant. They had to be, especially now that everything in the base was under the supervision of Prince Pombaru. They had no choice but to do things according to the laws of the Empire! They must be careful not to violate any laws, or their wrongdoings would probably be reported to the General Staff Headquarters in less than five minutes. It would become solid evidence that the local military force was disrespecting the Empire's laws and were rebelling against the Empire!

The Sky Chariots dispersed even faster than they came, almost as if they were running away. The Arnold family contingent stared at him like they were facing a dangerous enemy. Sheyan folded his arms in front of his chest and spoke to them in an arrogant tone, "Tell the one who stole my Blood Armour to come out here right now, or I'll... "

The man was huge. He seemed to be a bit of a masochist, because all his joints were nailed with thick stainless steel bolts. His nose was spewing white vapour, and there were two terrifying scars on his back. He may be unnaturally large, but his movements still appeared to be quite nimble, not much different from ordinary people.

Even more frightening was the thick steel chain wrapped around his right hand which was connected to a terrifying hammer. The hammer seemed to weigh at least two tons! It was dragged across the ground as he moved, making a harsh noise.

Facing the big fellow, Sheyan raised his chin and asked coldly, "I'm a Brigadier General of the Empire. Who the hell are you? How dare you behave so arrogantly in front of me? Report your identity and rank!"

Sheyan already seized the giant man's left hand as he spoke, then twisted it hard! The muscles on the giant man's left arm swelled up as he screamed in fury, but his strength was clearly no match for Sheyan!

Though dazzling electricity burst out from all the bolts at his joints to attack Sheyan, Sheyan did not seem affected in the slightest. The giant man's left arm could not escape the fate of being broken with a loud crack! He howled in pain, and slammed the giant hammer in his other hand down on Sheyan furiously!

There was an obvious phase of storing energy before Sheyan let his fist fly. Every muscle on his arm swelled abnormally, and his arm became so huge that it seemed like it would make him lose his balance anytime. The swollen arm sprang forward like a spring that was suddenly released after it had been compressed to the limit, crashing into the giant man's chest with unimaginable speed!

The fierce blow made his chest sink in. Electric sparks leaked from the depression. Purple-coloured blood gushed out of the giant man's mouth together with a plethora of mechanical parts. He quickly fell backwards, but before he could fall to the ground, he was caught by Sheyan again. Sheyan kicked his face hard!

The giant man screamed in agony, but Sheyan still stomped on his face repeatedly without mercy. Sheyan was not only stepping on a biochemical prototype, but also Arnold family's pride, yet no one dared to stop him!

Sheyan had apparently held back a little because the stomping and yelling went on for nearly 20 seconds before the poor prototype died while spasming violently. Sheyan stood at the entrance of Arnold family's flagship and smirked.

Within a minute, a group of warriors came out from the flagship. Their positioning seemed disorderly, but they had actually blocked all of Sheyan's attack routes. These warriors were not wearing armour, but a rather close-fitting combat suit that had a sheen on its surface. The joints of the combat suit seemed particularly thick, like the joints of centipedes, crabs, or other such arthropods.

These warriors were not especially muscular. Their builds were obviously more suited for speed and mobility. They were tall and lean, but the outlines of their muscles were still clearly visible on the surface of their bodies. No doubt they had great explosive strength.

They were all armed with a short blade, hung at the waist, and held a hybrid high-energy gun in their hands. These guns were embedded with rare energy crystals and could switch freely between energy mode and magazine mode, as well as between assault mode and sniper mode.

Because he had a precedent of suddenly turning violent right after he spoke, the special force fighters immediately shrunk their defensive perimeter, released the safety locks of their guns, and aimed at him!

But although there were a few people of high status in the Arnold family contingent, they did not have anyone who's military rank could outclass a Brigadier General, because only those who had withdrawn from the ranks of the Imperial Army would be trusted within their faction.

His movement may not be as fast as the energy beams from the guns, but the guns were operated by humans. Sheyan still acted slightly faster than the time it took these modified soldiers to execute the order and pull the triggers.

He once again charged into the midst of the enemies in the blink of an eye. A second later, a dark green cloud of smoke surrounded all of them. Sheyan moved freely and killed wantonly within the smoke cloud, while the enemies had to hold back in fear of hurting their comrades. The result was obvious.

"Thirty-one seconds… the Arnold family's garrison troop, the Black Snake, wiped out in thirty-one seconds. As far as what we know, they're the most elite troops of the Arnold family," analysed the people under Prince Pombaru with barely concealed glee.

By the time the dark green smoke cloud dispersed, the one who remained standing was the demonic figure. Sheyan stared at the dark entrance of the warship in front of him and said, word by word, "Do you really want me to go in and retrieve it myself?"

Against this monster that had such a terrifying personal combat prowess, Colbert almost coughed up blood. Under normal circumstances, he would have a variety of ways to deal with this man. With a wave of his hand, he could mobilise ten or twenty space fighter jets and space tanks, and they would easily drive him away. If worse comes to worst, he could just use the weapons on the warships. Any weapon on the warships would be able to reduce him to cosmic dust!

But now, the ships' energy supplies had been completely cut off, so those measures became mere wishful thinking. He, the first heir of the Arnold family, was actually being forced into such an embarrassing predicament! It was completely inconceivable!!

Sheyan smirked mockingly. "An heir of the Arnold family, and you don't even have the guts to admit that you've taken my Major General's Blood Armour? I might as well tell you this. It was the Noah Realm that told me the armour is here, and the Noah Realm won't lie about this. I'll now start counting down to 10. If you still don't have the guts to come out when I'm done, I'll go in and take it myself! Anything that happens afterwards is your own fault!"

At this time, a heated debate had started within the flagship. Colbert may be the first in line to inherit the family seat, but his old man was still alive, so he naturally did not have absolute authority. There were several elders within the flagship who were powerful enough to suppress him if they joined forces. One of them was remarking heatedly, "Coincidence? You expect us to believe that this is a coincidence? Everything that's happened is obviously a trap laid down by Prince Pombaru and that traitor Mungo. First, they kidnapped young master Lucio to trigger the whole event. We naturally have to put the base on martial law to initiate a large scale search in response. That's how we fell into Pombaru's trap."

"Now that our energy supplies are restricted, a monster suddenly came looking for us! And most importantly, the monster keeps using the Imperial Law against us, so we can't do anything about him! He's also a contestant sent by a Noah Realm – that's the truly frightening thing. Even if he kills indiscriminately, it'll be very difficult to use Imperial Law to constrain him because he's someone who comes from the past. As long as he doesn't step into the territory of the Empire, even the Emperor himself can do nothing to him!"

The elder's main focus was obviously on "killing indiscriminately". The one who led the Black Snake garrison guards outside just now was an elder loyal to Colbert, but after that....there was no "after that"!

Another elder added, "No one among us is afraid to die, but the sacrifice must be for a worthwhile purpose. Young master Colbert, is the Major General's Blood Armour really that important to the General's cause? Will it get us a hundred more warships, or the right to an extra galaxy? Is it worth our lives?"

This elder was actually one who reached his current position by supporting another heir, the sixth son, Arnold Fabian Witten, so of course he had no intention to die for Colbert's sake here. He had gathered the other elders together on his side with a single argument!

These elders were on board as a secret move by the head of the family, the old General, to maintain control over his sons. He knew that familial bonds were thin and unreliable under the temptation of power, so he had long taken his own precautions.

Having got what he wanted, Sheyan laughed out loud and walked away haughtily. When he reached the entrance, a space tank belonging to Mungo's forces came to fetch him. Fire almost burst out of the eyes of everyone from the Arnold family when they saw the clearly visible marking on the space tank. This left no doubt as to Mungo's role in this matter.

Unfortunately, his allegiance was pledged to Prince Pombaru. Not only that, he had humiliated his old faction without holding back, which was undoubtedly extremely satisfying for his new superior.

Sheyan was very satisfied with the Major General's Blood Armour. The full name of the armour was 'Biological-Ion Hybrid Armour'. It used the latest metallic biological technology which incorporated his own genes into the armour. It had a metallic luster, excellent flexibility and had the same temperature as his body.

Once worn, the owner had to provide their DNA to the armour, because the armour would lock on to the owner's gene and adjust itself accordingly. It would also gain a self-recovery ability like a human, thus making repair almost unnecessary. As long as it was given enough time and light, it would repair its own wounds. The wearer would feel like the armour was a part of their body!

But when he eagerly went to request the mission to promote to a Major General, he met with a cruel fact – the promotion to Major General required the approval of the General Staff Headquarters of the Empire, because every Major General was regarded as an invaluable asset to the Empire. Before he could become an asset, he first had to undergo a difficult test. And the difficulty was several folds harder for a contestant.

Normal trials were no longer enough to test a Major General's ability. A Major General must be baptised on a real interstellar battlefield, against the gunfire of thousands of warships!

On these epic and magnificent battlefields, the personal strength of an individual was completely insignificant! On the contrary, a person without any strength but had outstanding commanding and tactical ability could perform miracles!

Sheyan seemed to be excellent in laying down schemes and traps, but that had always been limited to the scope of a few dozen people. Excelling in those kinds of small-scale fights did not mean that he would also excel in war strategy, just like a captain proficient in guerrilla warfare in the jungle could never hope to reach the level of Louis Mountbatten. The two were on completely different levels.

( From wikipedia: Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten was a British Royal Navy officer and statesman, an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. During the Second World War, he was Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (1943–1946). He was the last Viceroy of India (1947) and the first Governor-General of independent India (1947–1948). )

More importantly, the Empire would certainly not put an interstellar warship fleet under the command of a contestant, no matter how amazing the contestant was. Those warships were extremely valuable.

Fortunately, thanks to the intervention of the Realm, Sheyan could see a ray of hope - the waiting period could not exceed three Nightmare Worlds. If he was not promoted yet after going through three Nightmare Worlds, he would be promoted automatically. This was at least a more reasonable arrangement.

Everything on Alps Base 7 went as planned afterwards. Some people were happy, some were not so happy. The ones who were not so happy were, of course, the Arnold family, while the one who was happy was Prince Pombaru, who had achieved his objective in coming here. Sheyan also obtained the authorisation to pass through the wormhole he needed.

But he received more bad news after that. The Predators had quietly appeared again, and this time, they had implemented a technology that the Empire was still in the process of researching - breakpoint distortion technology!

In simple terms, it was a technology which could create a temporary fault in spatial dimensions, thus making a wormhole unusable! The wormhole was estimated to need at least five days to recover...

When Sheyan heard the news, he took a deep breath to suppress his impulse to go on a tirade. He knew that no amount of angry speeches would help, so he could only try his best to calm himself down.

Sheyan knew Old Charlie was a very prudent man. He would not come to Sheyan for matters that he was uncertain of, or were unimportant. So, Sheyan took his words seriously.

"I noticed that the position of Alps Base 7 on the interstellar map is about fourteen degrees off compared to the last time you came here, probably because of the previous Salmon Runs. This means that Alps Base 7 is even closer to Uplos now than the Kitty Hawk Advanced Base was back then, by more than 400,000 kilometres!" said Old Charlie.

"For real?" Sheyan was surprised to hear that. To tell the truth, although he was an expert in seafaring, he had no knowledge in the field of interstellar navigation, because the space was simply too vast! It was not until Old Charlie reminded him that he realised this. He immediately fell into deep thought.

"Why not?" asked Old Charlie. "First of all, master, you're now much stronger than before. Second, you've already been there once, so you don't have to waste time familiarising yourself with the environment. And lastly, the Empire have studied every type of monster on the planet that they have a record of and have developed specialised weapons for them. Therefore, they should be pretty easy for you to deal with now. The Predators also wouldn't appear again so soon. Five days is more than enough. Besides, you have nothing else to do anyway."

"But the Empire have clearly demonstrated their determination to mine the element on Uplos. The price of Pi element will reach its peak within the next few months! It may be useless to you, but it's extremely useful for Prince Pombaru and Mungo! Prince Pombaru is very influential in both the General Staff Headquarters and the Big Ben Research Institute. You're not only investing in the present, but also in the future," explained Old Charlie.

While Old Charlie was explaining his reasoning, Sheyan suddenly thought of something that had nothing to do with the topic at hand - Tom, the skull-wearing man he met on his previous trip to Uplos. When Tom was dying, his entire body was almost completely controlled by an organ that resembled cancer cells. The organ told Sheyan through Tom's mouth:

Although he died before he could finish, Sheyan was instantly filled with a strong sense of curiosity that he had not managed to calm until now. The words "Big Ben Research Institute" had been deeply engraved in his mind.

Three hours later, a spacecraft known as a "Frog", which was at least five times larger than a "Wasp", was prepared for him. The reason he could use a larger spacecraft now was because after two "Salmon Runs", the asteroid belts had also lost a lot of asteroids. The AI system made some detailed calculations based on the data of the contestants' previous trip to Uplos and concluded that it was possible for Sheyan to fly this specially modified spacecraft to planet Uplos, and then return safely in it.

Sheyan activated the engine expressionlessly and put his hand around the control column. A dazzling blue flame was instantly ejected from the rear of the spacecraft propeller. The spacecraft then accelerated into the asteroid belts!

Four days later, the battered "Frog" spacecraft slowly landed back on Alps Base 7, sandwiched in the middle by three cross-shaped spacecrafts which was sent to receive it. Of the eleven powerful fighters that departed within the Frog, only five returned alive.

However, the spacecraft had brought back an amount of wealth that was so astonishing that it made the finance officer sent by Prince Pombaru tremble. No one knew the exact amount, but an incident afterwards clearly reflected the abundance of the treasure.

Within seven days of the spacecraft returning, the price of Pi element in both the black market and the open market dropped by 33%! This was as ridiculous as the price of RON97 petrol in the real world suddenly dropping to UD $0.70 per liter!

After resting for 18 hours, Sheyan set out on an Amazon-class galactic warship that Archer had personally modified for him. It was a small spacecraft about 50 meters long. There was a pansy emblem painted on its surface. Its main body was a little flat, sort of like a sports car, but from the side, it looked like a streamlined bird that spread its wings, preparing to fly. Its appearance was gorgeous.

This galactic warship was not a simple spacecraft. It was actually the personal ship of Prince Pombaru! From this, Prince Pombaru's strong appreciation of Sheyan was evident. The pansy emblem on the ship alone would let Sheyan move unimpeded within the Empire. Its sturdiness goes without saying, but most importantly, the spacecraft forwent all manual control systems and could be controlled directly with the mind. That eliminated the risk of misoperation.

Sheyan had also received a clear, definite answer from Prince Pombaru regarding his promotion to Major General. By the time he came back from this trip, he would either be promoted directly or would be given a promotion mission. This was a large step forward compared to waiting for three Nightmare Worlds.

Sheyan did not mention the Big Ben Research Institute at all. He did not want to alert them to his real intentions. From Sheyan's point of view, it would be perfect if they could reach out to him on their own initiative.

Sheyan quickly reached the designated region thanks to Noah Realm C's instructions and the conveniences brought by the royal emblem. At 11:15 p.m. every day, the Starship Troopers universe would try to invade the Prime Material Plane. Although they would always be quickly beaten back, there would always be fierce conflict when two planes overlapped.

Sheyan arrived at 11:15 p.m. under the precise control of the computer, but the space in front of him was not as violent and dangerous as he had imagined. It looked the same as the other planes in the universe. When he looked carefully, he could see a faint layer of blurry whiteness, as if an incandescent light was shining on the space.

Despite being surrounded by spaceship walls that were tough and thick, his entire being felt like it was being distorted! It was a weird feeling, as if he was split in half at the waist. His lower body still sat quietly on the seat, but his upper body felt like it had been twisted around many times.

In just an instant, the exceptionally strong body Sheyan took so much pride in was about to be thoroughly destroyed! Fortunately, before reaching that critical point, the Nightmare Imprint on Sheyan's chest heated up, and an invisible energy pierced through the distance of uncountable light years and descended onto Sheyan's body!

In the face of such a powerful energy, not only Sheyan, even the whole spaceship shone bright red. Then, the spaceship and its passengers miraculously recovered from the feeling of extreme distortion. Only now did Sheyan understand the shocking destruction resulting from the overlapping and collision of two different planes. No one could describe the despair brought by the destruction, but behind the destruction, there were also countless new hopes springing up like bubbles.

After the fourth in line to the Arnold family seat disappeared from Alps Base 7, the Arnold family certainly would not take things lying down. However, they were absolutely certain that Prince Pombaru was the real culprit behind the incident. To be honest, when Colbert and the elders carefully analysed the whole incident, the layers involved in the schemes and all the events that were so intricately linked to one another gave them a real fright. They felt extremely threatened.

They came to a unanimous decision. The Arnold family had lost the fourth-in-line heir here and were at a disadvantage in all subsequent confrontations. Their fates were now left in the hands of others. If the first-in-line heir and a group of elders met their demise here too, the loss to the family would be even greater. As for demanding justice or something of that ilk, that had to wait for the right circumstances. Have you ever seen anyone who's able to get a fair deal when the other party is holding a knife to their throat?

So, the Arnold family contingent humbly asked for authorisation to take off and return home several times a day. At least that was still the case when Sheyan left.... No one even dared to say a word about poor Lucio's disappearance.

Old Charlie could not help asking, "Since the process when two planes overlap is so terrifying, how could the Predators travel in and out so easily, as if the overlapping region is their own backyard?"

"There are probably different stages when two planes overlap. It should be more intense in the beginning, and would gradually become smoother over time, which means that both sides should have a certain amount of time to get used to the change. The planes had probably overlapped on the Predator's side for quite a while now, so the reaction is not that strong anymore," answered Sheyan after giving it some thought.

While they were talking, the spaceship suddenly got bumpier. There was nothing at all in the space all around them, but the ship still shook violently like a box being dragged down a staircase. Even though there were shock absorption measures in place, Sheyan and Old Charlie still felt like their bones were falling apart.

After a while, the shaking stopped abruptly. Sheyan felt a vast emptiness in front of them. A completely different sensation was transmitted to his body. He felt like a person who went to the rooftop and felt a sudden gust of fresh air on his face after staying in a stuffy office for a long time.

An asteroid in front of them exploded violently. It was the kind of terrible destruction where every particle of dust separated from the asteroid from the inside out. Before the strong shockwave had even hit Sheyan's ship, he already saw a colossal metal spaceship flying over from afar, the muzzle of its gigantic main cannon still emitting smoke. But that was not all. Escorting around the giant spaceship were more than ten swallow-like Wraith spacecrafts, orange flames spitting from their rears. They were moving full speed ahead.

The fleet Sheyan was seeing was evidently the standard Terran combination of Wraiths and the ultimate Terran unit, the Battlecruiser. If there were six transport ships with them, they would form the standard configuration for a base colony.

The left and right wings of the spacecraft were each loaded with a bulging plasma cannon that looked like bellows, making the cabin in the middle of the spacecraft seemed especially small. The spacecraft was covered in yellow and green stripes, and the engine at its tail spewed blue flame.

On the whole, this small spacecraft did not seem very strong to Sheyan. He thought that a single Wraith could probably take on three of it. But for some reason, it felt like the entire Terran fleet was being driven away by this small, insignificant-looking spacecraft!

"What the hell is happening?" Sheyan was shocked at the sight. Then, he suddenly found strange humming noises coming from all sides even though the surrounding spaces appeared to be empty. The noises superimposed together, so faint yet so grand, as if billions of mosquitoes and flies were flapping their wings.

The Terran fleet changed their formation. The escorting Wraiths suddenly rearranged into a triangle and turned back. During the process, the Wraiths gradually turned invisible, vanishing from sight.

That's right, it was the unique stealth ability of the Wraiths. Sheyan noticed that in the direction where they had disappeared, an inconspicuous spacecraft was slowly traveling forward.

This spacecraft looked like a satellite launched by humans, but it flew like a heavy, clumsy swallow. It had evidently sensed the hostility of the stealth fighters as it immediately turned around and flew away.

After it fled for about 10 kilometers, Sheyan saw a sight that made felt his scalp go numb! His field of vision was filled by thousands of small spacecrafts which densely populated the space, as if they occupied the entire world!!

In between the gaps of the horrifying number of small spacecrafts, Sheyan could vaguely see some whale-like bodies gliding past. The small spacecrafts flew in and out of the whale-like bodies. Sheyan instantly realised what was happening. This was the most advanced technology of the Protoss race, an Arbiter, and the terrifying Carriers, an insane combination!

This world was dominated by three factions: Terrans, Protoss and Zerg. The Zerg were currently slightly stronger, but their advantage was not overwhelming. Friction would often occur between the three races for the sake of resources.

The last time Sheyan came to this world, he was mainly involved in the fight between the Terrans and the Zerg. This time, he would probably have to face the most mysterious and powerful race in the universe, the Protoss!

Its 'Recall' spell could teleport an entire Protoss troop from anywhere directly to its current location! It's 'Stasis Field' ability could prevent all enemy units in a 3x3 area from moving, attacking, or using special abilities! Even more frightening was its 'Cloaking Field' ability which could render all the units around the Arbiter invisible, except for the Arbiter itself. That was why a moment ago, it seemed to Sheyan like a small spacecraft was scaring away an entire Terran fleet – it was because the rest of the forces were invisible!

Obviously, every Arbiter was a valuable asset to the Protoss. The Wraiths were targeting it because they knew that it must run away, and that would win them some precious time. But as soon as the Protoss anti-stealth unit, the Observer, arrived, the Wraiths were instantly torn into space debris by the angry little spacecrafts launched from the Carriers, the Interceptors!

Seeing this awe-inspiring fleet roaring past him and flying away into the distance, Sheyan broke into a cold sweat despite knowing that they could not see him. The innumerable, densely-packed Interceptors truly resembled a swarm of locusts - ferocious, overwhelming, fearless, devouring everything in their path!!

The space soon regained its calm. However, Sheyan's eyes widened again, because he suddenly heard creaking sounds around him, as if the whole spaceship was suddenly put under tremendous pressure. Spots of light started emerging from the paint on the ship's surface and drifted away into space. Then, the metallic surface of the spaceship started rolling up and quickly disintegrated, revealing the mechanical structure inside!

Fortunately, at that very moment, a battered Wraith appeared shakily from behind an asteroid in front. There were several large holes in the Wraith's hull. Welding sparks occasionally flashed as the intelligent robot inside scurried up and down trying to fix things. The ship seemed to have lost its propulsion force. A long trail of black smoke tailed behind it.

Sheyan could tell with one glance that this was a deliberate arrangement by the Realm. He instantly launched two robotic arms from his spaceship before the ship had lost its power completely. The arms forcibly pulled the Wraith over, and the emergency escape port was swiftly connected. Sheyan and Old Charlie quickly fled into the Wraith.

The moment they escaped into the new spacecraft, Prince Pombaru's personal ship completely broke down behind them, turning into space debris. Sheyan could roughly guess why the ship had disintegrated. High-tech objects from a different dimension that had not undergone special processing would be rejected by the new dimension.

It was like a thorn that was stabbed into a human body. A strong rejection force would appear within the body. Sheyan and Old Charlie had evidently survived because they were protected by the power of the Realm. Only when two planes had overlapped for a long time and had reached a mature stage – like the overlapping between the Predator plane and the Prime Material Plane – would there not be such a strong rejection.

Strictly speaking, the Wraith's defence and attack power were not very high. Against air units, it mainly attacked with an Oakley double-barrel missile launcher that had a firing interval of 1.1 seconds. Against ground units, it would use 30 mm caliber burst lasers. Its greatest feature was still the cloaking device which gave it stealth capability.

Almost a third of this Wraith had been destroyed. That it was still able to drift in space was nothing short of a miracle! Numerous electrical wires that were still coursing with electricity hung loose from the ceiling. Thick smoke would drift to Sheyan's face from time to time. Many parts of the steel walls had visibly bent or split open. The mechanical parts behind the walls could be seen from the cracks.

An SCV (Space Construction Vehicle) was busy welding one of the cracks. When its operator saw Sheyan, he was momentarily stunned. He then saluted Sheyan and asked, "Brigadier General Seaman! Why are you here, sir?"

Sheyan was surprised at his reaction. He then realised that his status was different now. Various people came to greet him one after another while he moved forward,. They all looked at him with awe and respect. He could even hear some whispers behind him:

Finally, Sheyan entered the cockpit, where a huge gap in the wall had just been repaired. The weld marks were still glowing red. A large amount of red hot welding waste was left on the ground, hissing. This was a damage done by the pulse cannon of an Interceptor. The shot had torn the cockpit wall apart and struck an unlucky man. His blood had dried up on the floor. Three fingers wrapped in a damaged leather glove were stuck to the wall at the side, swaying.

A metal fragment had punctured deep into the chest of the wounded man on the left. The head of the wounded man on the right was badly injured and covered in blood. Sheyan first took out his 'Endless Vodka' and gave the wounded man on the left a gulp. Then, he abruptly grabbed the metal fragment, pulled it out hard, and pressed his hand to the wound. The pain made the wounded man scream and curl up like a shrimp, but he slowly relaxed after that. The vodka was apparently slowly taking effect.

Next, Old Charlie took out syringes containing hormone injections, analgesic injections, anesthetic injections, and antibiotic injections from the first-aid kit at the side and skillfully administered the injections with practised ease. The wounded man closed his eyes and slept soundly. His breathing had turned stable. After that, Old Charlie moved him aside and connected him to an automatic monitoring device which would send out an alarm if it detected any abnormal fluctuations. And thus, Sheyan finished handling the matter perfectly.

The next casualty was suffering from a severe brain injury and a sharp increase in intracranial pressure, so it was necessary to remove the hematoma inside through surgery, which was a really difficult operation. Old Charlie had acquired some theoretical knowledge in this field when he was made into a Cyborg, but he had no practical experience at all. However, there was no other choice; he could only grit his teeth and try his best. Fortunately, Sheyan's vodka once again showed an effect at a crucial moment - or the patient would have died on duty.

After that, Sheyan naturally took over the command of this stealth spacecraft without meeting with any objection. The woman earlier, named Kyrgyzna, stayed at Sheyan's side. After more than ten hours of emergency repair, the five SCVs on the spacecraft had finally repaired everything that could be repaired. But even so, this was the list presented to Sheyan:

The woman appeared to be a very qualified assistant and a professional in this respect. She quickly showed Sheyan an interstellar map and pressed it a few times with her finger. He quickly located the region they were currently in.

There were various brown, blue, and yellow zones on the map, signifying the areas of influence of Zerg, Terran (humans), and Protoss respectively. They area they were in was a little awkward. A flaming galaxy at the side denoted that it was currently embroiled in the flames of war. This place originally belonged to the humans, but it had now been occupied by the Protoss.

Kyrgyzna nodded. "It's a planet that had been mined on a large scale a long time ago. The crystals and rare gases deposits on it have long been depleted. It's now been marginalised, so there shouldn't be too many soldiers left on it. It's also close to the territory of the Zerg, who are proficient in harassment and guerrilla tactics. So, this should be the safest place we can go to. Besides, according to computer records, us humans have left our traces on this planet. Although we were chased away, we have a habit of leaving strategic vaults behind. We might be able to find one of these vaults."

Kyrgyzna apparently felt that Sheyan's question was stupid, but she still patiently explained to him, "It shows that they've been fully occupied. The enemy has achieved over 98% control over these planets."

Old Charlie chimed in while pointing at Sheyan's head, "Brigadier General Seaman's head was hit hard during the crash, so some fragments are still missing from his memory. He can't remember certain things."

Sheyan nodded in confirmation. "Okay, Lieutenant Kyrgyzna, we'll do as you say. Let's go to the old abandoned planet you're talking about. By the way, what's the name of the planet?"

Lieutenant Kyrgyzna checked the information. But after that, she replied with confusion in her eyes, "That's strange. The planet doesn't have a regular identification number. It only has a Protoss name. Wait a second, let me try the translation function. It appears to be called... The Lost Temple?"

For some reason, after hearing the name of the Lost Temple, Sheyan's heart was suddenly filled with a grave and solemn feeling, like he was walking through a war memorial or heroes' graves in the real world.

At that moment, an SCV came over. Its operator told Sheyan in a gruff voice, "Our fuel supply has fallen to red-alert levels, sir. We must decide the flight path now."

It was worth mentioning that during the flight, they managed to rescue three engineering SCVs by tracing the radio waves their emergency pods emitted. These engineering SCVs were different from the maintenance SCVs on the Wraith. Their computers contained precious blueprints of the human command centre and information on all military operation buildings.

The Wraith's limited fuel supply kept burning away, and the blue flames emitted from the exhausts went out one by one. In the end, it could only glide through space using two active engines – the most economical configuration. Because of that, the flight which should have taken only three hours took them four and a half hours.

The entire Wraith was squeaking when it entered the planet's atmosphere. Sparks were shooting out of various parts of the ship. It truly seemed like it would completely fall apart at any moment.

Fortunately, under the combined effort of the maintenance SCVs on the Wraith to repair the ship non-stop, and with the help of the three engineering SCVs, they managed to survive the process. The Wraith flew down from the sky while spewing black smoke and shaking violently. Needless to say, it was a rough landing.

A navy blue land extended into the distance as far as the eyes could see. All throughout this solemn land, blue plants would grow, intertwining together. They looked like bean sprouts that had been enlarged a thousand times.

The sky was grey, and the clouds hung strangely in the sky like condensed grey dewdrops. Mammatus clouds like these could normally only be seen on Earth in places with extreme weather like Siberia, but they seemed to be the norm here. Modest amount of natural light shined down on the land through the gaps between the clouds. There was wind in the air, albeit not very strong.

The red light on the air analyser beeped continuously. The result of the air composition analysis was: 11% oxygen, 28% nitrogen, 35% argon, and differing amounts of sulfur dioxide, ozone, methane, plant seeds, moss spores and so on.

The air analyser suggested not to breathe this air directly unless there was no other choice. If a human breathed in this air for more than 30 seconds, it could easily lead to various complications. But of course, 11% of oxygen content was high enough for Sheyan.

The passengers of the spacecraft came down one after another and instantly went to work. The maintenance SCVs could not repair the exterior of the ship in space, so now was the best time to do so. The engineering SCV started using their own instruments to search for minerals. This planet had undergone large-scale mining before, but under an operation of a massive scale like that, there were bound to be some lower concentration mineral veins that were overlooked, like the wasted corners of a farm in automated farming.

Kyrgyzna was busy debugging the encrypted bands and detecting whether there was an undiscovered human vault nearby. After a while, she suddenly cried out in surprise and said to Sheyan, "Brigadier General Seaman! I received an encrypted message asking us to assemble at a certain spot!"

The final word, GHOST, was in red. Sheyan looked towards Old Charlie. Old Charlie was a servant, so it would not appear strange for him to ask. Kyrgyzstan was a pretty straightforward person. She immediately explained to him.

The Ghosts represented the apex of the Terran race's evolution and peak physical abilities. They were born with incredible psionic potential. They were recruited from an early age and trained by the government. They could guide their psionic abilities and use it to enhance their physical strength and endurance.

This process was strengthened by the special suit they wore that was made of psi-sensitive artificial muscle fibers. Any common Ghost was stronger, more capable and faster than a well-trained Terran.

They could cloak themselves and become invisible by continuously consuming MP. The 25mm C-10 canister rifle they were equipped with had nearly the same range as a sniper rifle. More terrifying was that they were able to compete against powerful mechanical units with pure physical force. That was because they had a powerful lockdown gun which could fire super-energy lockdown shots that would encase the enemy in a powerful electromagnetic barrier, thus disabling the enemy and "locking it down". The enemy would become a lamb awaiting slaughter after that.

Of course, the most powerful ability of a Ghost was their cloaking capability. They could use this ability to quietly move to the enemy's vicinity and activate an aiming device. A short while after, a powerful nuclear bomb would come whirring down. This was the terrifying attacking method which brought fear into the enemy's heart.

Therefore, Ghosts were often highly ranked in the human (Terran) army. If a Ghost had a red name, it showed that they were one of the legendary Spectres, powerful elite Ghosts that had experienced dozens, maybe even hundreds, of brutal wars and survived. Their influence was no less than ordinary Major Generals. Of course, a perverse monster like Sheyan who had +2 Legend Level was another matter.

Sheyan suddenly sensed something. He turned around and saw a maintenance SCV repairing the exterior of the ship with a welding torch. A large amount of sparks rained down from the steel like a waterfall. They fell on the ground and formed words.

[ Location: The Lost Temple / District 11 / Decadent Plain (13o29' S, 74o2' E) ] (TL: The stupid webnovel text editor won't let me superscript. Those 'o's are degrees. )

[ Additional details: This world has a killing setting. Please be careful to guard against all the contestants around you. Digital personal information module has been activated. Contestants can check their personal attributes at any time through the Nightmare Imprint on their chest. ]

[ You automatically grasp the relevant language. You are able to interact freely with the characters in this world. The ability will be erased upon leaving this world ]

[ Mission Note: Ronnie and his pursuers have arrived in the world for three days. Any dangerous situation can happen. You can find the relevant storyline characters in this world to locate their whereabouts. ]

[ Your appearance/identity have been processed; they will be restored upon returning to the real world. You can also commence modifications within the Nightmare Realm. For any questions, voice the relevant queries to the Nightmare Imprint; if your authority is sufficient, you will receive an answer. ]

These sparks did not attract any attention. When the words had concluded, the SCV moved away of his own accord. Obviously, he himself did not realise that he had been chosen by Noah Realm C to perform such a "miracle".

There was no doubt that under the circumstances, for the sake of speed, Sheyan could only go to the location indicated by the red Ghost in the radio signal. Of course, this may be a huge trap set up by the enemy after they managed to break the communication encryption of the humans, but Sheyan was pressed for time. He could only go to the designated spot without hesitation.

After walking more than 20 kilometers, Sheyan suddenly found a depression in front of him. The pit was smooth and regular, and it extended all the way to the hills ahead. There was some faint blue liquid at the side. After crossing the hills, Sheyan's vision suddenly opened up. An unforgettable sight appeared in front of him!

The plain ahead gradually narrowed as the hills on both sides rose steeply. Rugged blue rocks hug on the cliffs. Perhaps because of the strong wind on the high grounds, only stubborn moss grew on the ridges on both sides, adding a touch of life to this bleak, primitive distant planet.

Sheyan dipped his finger in the blue liquid and rubbed it on his fingertips. The liquid felt rough but not greasy. It smelled like a mixture of mechanical oil and body fluids.

Kyrgyzna's face turned pale. She told Sheyan softly, "It's the body fluid left behind by a Dragoon's wound, Brigadier General. The situation is more dangerous than I thought... With our current strength, we won't be able to escape if we encounter three or more Dragoons at once. So, for the sake of your safety, I suggest we retreat."

The Dragoons were the main force of the Protoss in Starcraft. They had nothing to do at all with the human warriors who ride fire-spewing dragons in medieval fantasy stories.

Legend has it that when the veterans of the Protoss race were fatally injured or disabled, they would be given the choice to become a Dragoon. Their soul would be transplanted into a large mechanical spider. After the process, they would be able to control the large mechanical spider as if they were born inside the body.

The Dragoons provided important fire support for the Zealots. Their phase disruptor could launch bolts of anti-particles sheathed in psychically charged fields. These disruptive anti-particle bolts were equally effective against air and ground targets, but they were prone to missing against smaller units, only causing 50% damage in most cases.

Kyrgyzna's concern was this: the way she saw it, Sheyan, herself and Old Charlie would at most count as three Marines (Terran unit). Together with the two maintenance SCVs, they might stand a chance if they fought against a single Dragoon.

But against two Dragoons, there would surely be casualties, and against three Dragoons, they would not even be able to flee... That's because the Dragoons were known for their toughness. They had 100 HP and 80 shields points, while a Marine, in the absence of a Medic, only had 40 HP. A Marine also had only 5 points of attack power, which was pretty pathetic. The two sides were not on the same level at all.

If Sheyan were to objectively assesses his own combat power, there was no way he would just be a Marine! He was probably comparable to an elite Ultralisk that had enhanced genes all around - an ordinary Ultralisk had 400 HP, 6 points of defence and 25 points of attack, while an elite Ultralisk had at least 600 points of HP, 10 points of defence and 30 points of attack!

After climbing to the top of the slope, they instantly met with a strong shockwave! The others were blown back by the explosive wave and staggered five or six steps back, but it only managed to make Sheyan shield his eyes with his hand. His hair and clothes were swept back. Something wet splashed onto his face. He wiped it with his hand and found that it was the pale blue body fluid of a Dragoon.

A Dragoon walked with six metallic arthropodic appendages and an advanced hydraulic-psionic mobility system, so it had great mobility in even in unstable terrains. It looked just like a big mechanical spider with a low center of gravity.

But the Dragoon in front of them had already exploded. There were red sparks on its three appendages in the front. Its head and chest had melted like candle wax. A large amount of blue liquid was flowing out, as well as some substances that looked like organic plastics.

Thirty meters to the right of this Dragoon was another Dragoon. It had a round, greyish-white shell made of light around it. Greyish-white electricity jumped violently around the light shell. Although this Dragoon frantically tried to move its six metallic feet, its effort was in vain - after a few unsteady steps, it completely paralysed in place.

Those were signs of being struck by a Ghost's lockdown shot! The lockdown shot worked wonderfully against mechanical units. It was said that some of the more powerful Ghosts could even paralyse Battlecruisers and Carriers with this ability!

There were four Dragoons on the battlefield. Two of them were locked down. The Dragoon which exploded in front of them before were destroyed by the Ghost's long-range bombardment.

The Ghost's conventional equipment was a 25 mm C-10 canister rifle, but it was clear from the way the Dragoon was destroyed that the shot was no less powerful than the strongest infantry equipment, the electromagnetic guided long-range suppression tactical gun!

But there was still another Dragoon two hundred meters away. It quickly pursued after the assailant. In front of the Dragoon were two Zealots, a basic soldier type of the Protoss race, advancing together with it.

The Zealots were thin and lanky, about two meters tall. Although their actual bodies were fragile, the power suit they wore provided them with 100 points of HP and 60 points of shield. They were encased in light blue plasma shields and equipped with extremely sharp psi-blades on their forearms, which could easily tear apart any creature or armour!

A Ghost wearing a light grey hostile environment suit was running away from them. He would turn around and pull the trigger from time to time. His shots would make ripples on the power suit of the nearest Zealot.

Suddenly, a revolving connecting rod was raised from the centre of the Dragoon. A showerhead-like muzzle at the end of the rod aimed ahead, and a snow white, elliptical photon projectile shot out from it and hit the ground beneath the Ghost, resulting in a violent explosion. Wet earth splattered everywhere and fell down like rain, leaving behind a deep pit about the size of a tub. But after that, the pursuing Dragoon and Zealots suddenly froze in place...

The most basic ability of a Ghost was invisibility. To be a qualified Ghost, the first thing you have to learn was to use your psionic power to activate the cloaking device!

Kyrgyzna, Old Charlie and the two SCVs had already started launching a fierce attack on the locked down Dragoon. The SCV's fusion cutter could also cause great damage to the unit, albeit with extremely low attacking frequency.

Fortunately, both Kyrgyzna and Old Charlie were using the standard issue weapon of the Marines, a 10mm C-14 gauss rifle. Under the attack of these two weapons, the Dragoon's shield was faltering at an alarming rate.

But while they were attacking in a frenzy, there was an abnormal distortion in the air about eight meters ahead of them. A burly figure blackened by smoke gradually emerged from the empty space. He had a square face that was covered with stubble, and his eyes were exceptionally sharp.

The Dragoon and Zealots in the distance, who lost their target a moment ago, had obviously noticed the commotion on this side. They immediately rushed fiercely in this direction. Snake instantly pulled the bolt of his gun and said anxiously, "You guys escort Brigadier General Seaman away. I'll hold them off."

"Cover me." Right after Sheyan said that, he grabbed the alloy ballistic battle shield nearby and dashed forward with his body tilted, like an arrow leaving a bow! Because both sides were charging at each other, it only took them slightly more than three seconds to cover the hundred or so meters of distance separating them.

The one who reached Sheyan first was the Zealot whose power suit had almost been exhausted by Snake. His psi-blade immediately struck the alloy ballistic battle shield, producing a sharp noise and a brutal scratch.

Sheyan's fist quickly followed, punching the Zealot's abdomen ruthlessly. Under the terrifying impact force, the armour made from tough and elastic material was first stretched to the limit, then burst apart! Sheyan's fist continued deep into the internal life support device within the armour. Pale blue body fluid was forced out of the Zealot's facial orifices by the punch, making for a horrifying sight!

The 'Uppercut' sent the Zealot floating nearly half a meter above the ground. Pale blue body fluids sprayed out like crazy from within his helmet. After landing, the Zealot spasmed a few times, then became perfectly still. When the power suit detected the complete absence of vital signs from its wearer, the spontaneous combustion device in the solid armour instantly activated, transforming the corpse and the broken armour into a plume of smoke which evaporated in the air.

That was the noble sentiment of the Zealots which outsiders would find hard to understand. They absolutely could not allow others to lay eyes on the unsightly appearance of the powerful sacred warrior upon death. Their remains could not be besmirched either. The proud soul would return directly to the kingdom of god amid the flame!

But this unexpected incident had inadvertently increased the pressure on Sheyan. His original intention was to use the Zealot's corpse to block other attacks. The surprising development stunned him for a moment.

Sheyan's sudden outburst which killed a Zealot in the blink of an eye no doubt left the Spectre, Snake, slack-jawed. But he then saw Sheyan's smooth movement come to an abrupt halt. Before he could shout a warning, the other Zealot's psi-blade and the Dragoon's antimatter bolt had already reached Sheyan!

The wet soil burst open with a loud bang under the bombardment of the antimatter bolt. The scattered soil which drizzled down blurred the sights for a while, but the others there could still see the figure of a man standing within the dust and smoke.

The Zealot, cold like a fighting machine, stabbed with his blade without hesitation. The translucent purple psi-blade gave a trembling cry as it smoothly tore straight through the air.

Although the Zealot knew his previous attack had struck the target, his rich fighting experience told him that it was not an effective hit. He had used his full power, but the blade had slid to the side after it struck the target, as if it had struck a steel fortress!

A large hand suddenly extended out of the dust and gripped the Zealot's wrist. The hand twisted, and the Zealot's wrist, which was protected by his tough armour, broke with a crack!

The dark silhouette within the dust suddenly charged out like a mammoth and rammed into the Zealot's chest! The power suit on his chest, not able to bear the force, immediately let out a groan. Cracks started spreading all over the suit, and the suit turned into countless fragments that fell off the Zealot's body.

The dark silhouette suddenly shrank behind the Zealot who was staggering backwards, using him as a shield. Another antimatter bolt from the Dragoon swept over the silhouette's head and hit the ground three meters behind him, making a big crater.

The heat and shockwave produced by the antimatter bolt could cause some splash damage, and this damage may be fatal to the weaker Marines, but to a monster like Sheyan who was built like a mammoth, it was no more than a drizzle.

Snake, the powerful elite Ghost, was not idle in the meantime. A veteran like him was an expert in seizing opportunities on the battlefield. He raised his custom-made C-10 canister rifle without any hesitation!

This devastating blow instantly robbed the Zealot of his life. The self-exploding device in his armour was activated, and like his compatriot, he too turned into a wisp of smoke that dispersed into the air.

Sheyan was still holding on to the broken arm of the Zealot which had a psi-blade attached to it. He leaped up and stabbed the psi-blade deep into the main part of the Dragoon's body. While Sheyan was hanging in mid air, he was struck by another antimatter bolt. He flew more than eight meters back, burning and smoking.

The plasma shield on the surface of the Dragoon's body that was originally barely holding on, instantly shattered upon impact. The Dragoon charged furiously towards the enemy it sent flying a moment ago. When it reached the enemy, it lifted one of its mechanical hydraulic foot and stomped down without mercy!

However,unbeknownst to it, the antimatter bolt had only caused superficial injuries to Sheyan. Sheyan easily blocked the metallic foot that was trampling down with both his hands. The Dragoon's mechanical hydraulic foot was stuck in mid-air like it had been embedded in a rock. No matter how hard its energy system worked, it could not move its foot!

At such a shocking sight, let alone Kyrgyzna, even a veteran like Snake was dumbstruck. But they were still aware that they were on a battlefield, and they instantly supported Sheyan with firepower. Under Sheyan's constant harassment, the overturned Dragoon failed to right itself up till the moment it died. It died a tragic death with the killing blow delivered by the welding torch of an SCV, a unit which the Dragoon normally looked down upon....

Next, they got rid of the locked down Dragoons one after another – a rather easy job. But after the fight concluded, the others stared at Sheyan like they were looking at a monster. Only the Spectre, Snake, could remain calm, but the shock in his eyes was still evident. To tell the truth, it was the first time he had seen such a terrifying guy - a human who dared to face a Zealot bare-handed!

Snake immediately straightened up, showing that he was paying attention. Sheyan thus said, "I know you have your prejudices, but there are exceptions to everything. Sometimes, a person's rank and fighting strength can be proportional."

After saying that, Sheyan burst out laughing. Snake was a very serious and cold person, so he was not very used to Sheyan's casual and enthusiastic attitude. But in front of this legendary figure whose name resounded like thunder, and having witnessed for himself the person's strength, he was not really put off with Sheyan's attitude. On the contrary, he liked that Sheyan did not act high and mighty despite his rank, and found him very charismatic.

But suddenly, Snake had an abrupt change in expression. As someone familiar with the place, he had noticed something wrong. He immediately told them, "The next Protoss patrol squad is coming! We have to leave!"

A warmth was transmitted from the synthetic plastic board. The energy in the crystals had been turned into heat, providing them with warmth. Compared to the minus 30 degrees outside, the temperature of 18 degrees inside could already be considered summer-like.

A while ago, thanks to Snake guiding the way, they easily found a branch crystal vein that had remained at a hidden spot on a hillside. The crystal deposit contained at least 9,000 units of crystals. It was not a low number. It was originally the Zerg that mined here, but because this spot could only let a single Drone in, and the Protoss offensive was too fierce, this crystal vein was deemed too inefficient to mine, so it was abandoned.

After collecting enough crystal resources, the first thing the engineering SCVs did was to build this underground supply depot. That kind of solved their accommodation problem. At least, it was a safe, protected haven that could let them take a good rest to recuperate from their fatigue in this god-forsaken place. They could not ask for more.

Sheyan looked into the marching pot on the alcohol stove in front of him. The field rations inside slowly began to let out a nice aroma. The field ration contained one third meat, one third flour and one third dehydrated vegetables, pressed together. Cooked with a few handfuls of snow, it would fill the whole pot.

Most of the others were sleeping soundly, including Kyrgyzna, who had huddled into her sleeping bag. The landing was a huge test to their nerves, and they had also fought a bitter fight afterwards.

The food in the pot soon boiled, forming a sticky paste that, for the hungry, emitted a fragrant aroma. Sheyan scooped up a bowl, then grabbed a translucent brown bottle from the side. He first bit the cork off and drank two mouthfuls of whiskey, then tossed it to Snake.

He continued, "Snake, I know that you Ghosts have all kinds of mysterious abilities. They exist thanks to your psionic powers, but ultimately, they're only made possible because of various high-tech equipment you're wearing. For example, you have superhuman strength because of the strength enhancement provided by your artificial muscle fiber suit. You have stealth ability thanks to your cloaking device. Your lockdown ability comes from your lockdown gun. Am I right?"

"Didn't the Empire try to perform these experiments before, and failed? The only successful products the research team could come up with were some stimulants. I heard they've even made fire-spewing soldiers. The research team was forcibly disbanded for violating human ethics."

"The experiments have never stopped. They've just moved below the surface. And the research has already reached a very high level - my existence is proof!" replied Sheyan with a smile.

Snake's eyes were initially full of shock and suspicion, but he froze when he heard the last words. After that, he put a cigarette to his mouth with much difficulties, but he could not lit it even after a few tries because his hands were trembling. The light put a shadow on his face, making him look solemn and depressed.

Sheyan continued, "There were initially 137 people who underwent the genetic enhancing experiment with me, but only seven of us survived. Three turned out disabled, mentally retarded, or insane. Only four of us were normal."

"Of the four, I'm the weakest. We found out through secret means that...the Protoss has begun the trial to inherit the Dark Templar legacy, and one of us, after going through the evaluations, has been recognised as having the strength to receive the legacy, so he set out a month ago to do that. We lost all contact with him afterwards."

"Brigadier General, if I hadn't witnessed your power for myself today - how you remained safe and sound under the bombardment of antimatter bolts, how you killed Zealots with your bare hands - I would've scoffed at your words."

"But even so, I still find it really hard to believe! The Dark Templar's legacy.... It's a terrible trial that can only be completed in a Dark Shrine. It's hard to imagine that a human can survive such a trial!"

Snake hesitated for a moment, then suddenly sent Sheyan a message with his mind. "What I'm about to say next is a top secret from the intelligence department. You must not tell others. But of course, I know that a legendary figure like you definitely won't leak it, so let me tell you this – there was once an internal strife within the seemingly united Protoss race. They called that period the Kalath Intercession!"

"In that internal strife, there were two major political parties with obvious ideological differences, and a bloody conflict broke out. During the conflict, many powerful technologies were lost to the annals of history, but now that the Protoss have been forced into a corner, they've lifted those bans and restrictions! According to our intel, the Protoss Conclave have acquired the permission to reproduce many of the previously banned technologies of destruction. Those that we've confirmed included a new type of advanced Dragoon unit called the Immortal, and a new type of warship: the Phoenix!"

"Your information was right. The reason this place is called the Lost Temple is because there really is an ancient Protoss temple here. Moreover, the people in this temple are elders who survived the bloody strife of that year. Therefore, their inheritance ritual is different from the current Protoss race. The Dark Templar they trained are also more powerful. More importantly, they're also guarding a secret, a huge secret! That's the real reason why my son and I have made five trips to this planet! Even our superiors don't believe us anymore! "

"The Dark Shrine on this planet is only a cover. The temple itself is already a very secretive existence, so those who come here to investigate would be confused by it, thinking that this is the real secret. That's how the manufacturing base that has lost power for thousands of years can remain untouched all this time, up to this very moment."

"The base is the production base of a mighty and mysterious unit that has been sealed up. Legend has it that it can cross any mountains and rivers, and once represented the peak of Protoss technology together with the Carrier! Legend has it that even thousands of Zealots will be reduced to dust in front of it!"

"Are you serious!" Sheyan gasped sharply. The mighty Carrier was undoubtedly the symbol of the whole Protoss race, the glory of the whole Protoss race! The strong pressure it gave its enemies when it creeped out of the darkness was beyond comparison.

But according to Snake, the Protoss actually had another kind of weapon that had the same level of lethality and intimidation factor! That was as crazy a news as the U.S. in Sheyan's world secretly having possession of a weapon that was comparable to nuclear weapons!

Snake realised Sheyan's shock. He continued slowly, word by word, "The name of that weapon is Colossus! (https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Colossus) I've come here to wait for the moment the Dark Shrine let down their guard so that I can sneak into the ancient Colossus factory and completely destroy the technology! My son died seven years ago because of this. That's why I'm so familiar with the situation in this place. This mission is my calling; I will not give it up!"

Sheyan looked back at Snake and said slowly, "My friend said he's taking a great risk trying to inherit the Dark Templar's legacy. Dying is one of the better outcomes. What he feared most was that he would be made into a monster like the Queen of Blades. My mission is to find my friend and take him home, or....end his life. I think it's in our best interest to cooperate."

Sheyan spread open his palm. A blue crystal the size of a rice grain sat there, glowing. He acquired this object after he killed one of the Dragoons; it had appeared directly in his personal storage space. Sheyan was curious what this thing was used for. After a careful inspection, he finally obtained the description:

[ Because a small amount of Noah Realm C's power still remained in your body, the soul of the Protoss troops you killed will be forcibly intercepted. The stronger the soul is, the higher the probability of obtaining a spirit like this, and the higher the purity. ]

[ This item can only be used on friendly storyline characters. Each unit of Protoss Spirit will enhance the strength of the target by one attack level, one defence level and 33% of HP. But if the target is judged as an elite creature, the effect will drop sharply. ]

"But it's strange," Sheyan muttered to himself, having suddenly recalled something, "When Snake told me the hidden secret, I thought I would receive a relevant mission, but there hasn't been any mission notifications. Why is that?"

"Maybe the Realm feels that this mission is too easy - something that I can accomplish if I simply reach out my hands - so it doesn't think this matter is worth issuing a mission for? Or is the mission so hard that I have no chance of accomplishing it? Hmm, that's very possible."

The highest level of lying was not to mix nine truths with one falsehood in ten sentences, but to tell ten truths in ten sentences! But the real meaning of these ten truthful sentences would only reveal itself by adding the eleventh unspoken sentence!

For example, a foreigner who is not familiar with the US entertainment industry asks you: Who's the most beautiful actress in Hollywood? You answer, "Audrey Hepburn, of course!" but secretly added "60 years ago" in your mind....

Sheyan closed his eyes with suspicion rising in his heart, and recalled in his mind everything he had experienced so far. He found that the most suspicious thing was the mysterious message they received after they landed - the message which ordered them to gather at a designated place, with the authority of a Ghost. Sheyan had asked Kyrgyzna about the message. Kyrgyzna had confirmed that the message was not transmitted in a direct manner, but rather spread around like a net.

Second, there should be no high ranking personnel in these spacecrafts that would often crash here from time to time. Otherwise, it would be considerably difficult for SNAKE to maintain his position as a leader with his unique status as an elite Ghost.

Third, according to Old Charlie's study, to make the radio signal cover the entire Lost Temple planet, a high-power transmitting station must be used. That is to say, Snake must have built a considerably large base here. But if that was the case, it would be difficult to explain why Snake was fighting the Protoss patrol squad by himself when they first met.

Fourth, if most of what Snake had said was true, then Sheyan did not have much time left. The Protoss would never give up a powerful technology that could be placed on a par with the Carrier, while the Zerg and the humans would not just stand aside and watch. Sheyan could already imagine that the focus of the three factions would probably converge here in the near future! What a tragic scene it would be!

Various thoughts cycled through Sheyan's mind. He came up with many countermeasures, but before he knew it, he found his whole body frozen stiff by the extreme cold. If it was not for the overwhelming might of his digitised body, he who lacked the experience of living in severe cold weather could really have died from being frozen alive.

He returned to the supply depot. The warmth inside immediately made him feel as if the season had suddenly turned to spring. The hot air that washed over Sheyan gave his skin a numb, prickling sensation. Perhaps because he opened the door a little too hastily, he caught the attention of an SCV operator named Pontin.

Pontin was a very important engineering SCV. After freeing himself of the heavy-duty SCV work attire, he was a rough, boorish man. Like most soldiers, he had a liking for liquor and tobacco. He also liked telling lewd jokes, and would often laugh heartily at his own jokes afterwards. As a result, he was often given a good beating by Kyrgyzna.

However, he had a decent character and was very loyal to his friends. The reason he was sent to the frontline in the first place was because he tried to fight against an injustice done to his friend. The other two rescued SCVs praised him endlessly.

"Pardon me, sir, I didn't know it was you. Oh god, your skin is frostbitten. Damn it, Ralph, get up and get some alcohol for Brigadier General Seaman to rub on his skin."

Sheyan smiled and dismissed unconcernedly, "It's all right. I only went out to relieve myself, but I thought I heard some strange noises, so I stayed out there for a bit longer."

A man like Sheyan, even when he lied, he would be lying very skillfully, and certainly not without a purpose. He pulled out a bead that gleamed with phosphorescence from his pocket.

When Pontin saw it, he immediate exclaimed in astonishment, "Oh my god, this is the devil's pearl, sir! Strange things often happen in this interstellar region, such as a person suddenly going missing while on patrol or something like that. It was later confirmed that all the incidents happened near this damn planet. Later, a study found that this thing you're holding would only appear on this planet, so it was called the vengeful spirit of the dead. Another name for it is the devil's eye. It's a bad omen to find one."

Sheyan pinched the pearl-like object with some force, crushing it into faint green powder, some of which leaked from the cracks between his fingers. The powder looked very beautiful. Sheyan suddenly had an idea when he saw this SCV operator who idolised him. He pointed to an empty room beside them and said, "Pontin? Get in there."

The supply depot may look like a single chamber from the outside, but there were actually several rooms inside, so it was possible to find a quiet place to have a private conversation.

In the room, Sheyan stared at Pontin and told him seriously, "I don't believe in ghosts or anything like that, but it doesn't matter, because our enemies on this planet are probably more terrifying than ghosts. The chances of our survival this time are not very high."

Pontin was silent for a moment, but he then nodded. Sheyan continued, "But I've never given up hope under any circumstances, no matter how difficult. That's the reason I can survive to this day. As for why I called you here, it's because you're an engineering SCV. Theoretically, you can build any buildings. When all hope is lost, you'll be our last chance to turn things around. I have high hopes for you."

Sheyan did not correct his mistakes. He continued seriously, "Yes, I'm powerful, but not because of high-tech equipment like the Ghosts. My power comes from this, and this."

When Sheyan said "this, and this", he patted Pontin's large chest and bicep muscles. Pontin licked his lips, excitement and anticipation in his eyes. It was obvious that he often worked out. This was a guy who liked muscles and hard fights.

In Starcraft, an SCV's default HP was 60 points, while a Marine's HP was only 45 points, because the former's armour was judged to be thicker. The two sides had almost similar attack power, with 5 points for the SCV and 6 points for the Marine, but the latter's attack speed was twice as fast as the former even without Stimpack!

Sheyan replied confidently, "Definitely. Like the way I tear the Zealots and Dragoons apart. But I must warn you, my strengthening method carries a risk, a great risk. You must think about it carefully."

A wry smile appeared on Sheyan's face as he shook his head. "I don't know. However, if you can endure it the first time, the risk of the subsequent strengthening attempts will slowly reduce."

Pontin's eyes almost jumped out of their sockets. "The strengthening can be performed multiple times? That means one day, it's even possible for me to kill a Zealot with my beloved cutting torch like you, sir?"

"Let's do it, then!" shouted Pontin with bloodshot eyes. Yes, he's not a powerful person, but he's a gambler who's willing to put his life on the line to fight for a brighter future!

Sheyan took out the Protoss spirit crystal from his personal storage. Although he was not required to do so, Sheyan still felt that he should explain everything to Pontin properly like a doctor would to a patient before surgery, so as to reduce Pontin's inner fear and resistance as much as possible. That should help increase the success rate.

"This is the gift left by the Protoss I killed during the day. I have a special way to deprive them of a part of their power and condense it into this item. You can try absorbing the power into your body. Whether the power will resonate with you would depend on your luck. But don't worry, I'll control it so that the power is slowly released bit by bit. Although doing it this way might reduce the effect of the strengthening, at least your life won't be threatened."

The blue spirit crystal glittered with a mysterious light on Sheyan's palm. Sheyan took one final look at Pontin. He did not see any fear in Pontin's eyes. On the contrary, he saw a firm determination!

A vivid crack abruptly appeared on the surface of the spirit crystal, and a series of crackle, like the sound of a river freezing in the winter, was heard. The spirit crystal turned into fine blue particles that drifted into the air like diamond dust, beautiful and dream-like.

But soon, the dust took on the form of a Protoss' twisted soul. It let out a string of unwilling but silent howls, as if it were struggling to escape from its tragic fate.

But the face of Pontin that he saw was one full of ecstasy. That's right, ecstasy. It turned out that he was not afraid of the possibility of dying; he was afraid that Sheyan was boasting about everything he had said before!

Now that he was witnessing the miraculous sight for himself, he immediately felt full of confidence. Seeing this change in Pontin, Sheyan no longer had any hesitation. He guided the glittering dust towards Pontin.

The dust were sucked into Pontin's nose. Pontan's face instantly twisted in pain. He felt as if rust was growing all over his bones. His right leg was numb, unable to move.

When he tried to scream, all that happened was his facial muscles becoming even more distorted; no sound came out of his mouth. Amidst the pain, there were also intermittent bursts of numbness and burning. It was a strange sensation. His arm felt as if it was dissolving like a candle!

Sheyan could only sigh. He did not know anything about the principle behind the strengthening, so he could not do anything to help. It was Pontin's own choice. They could only leave it to fate.

But before Sheyan left, he still fed Pontin three mouthfuls of 'Endless Vodka' and gave Pontin a flask of his gene-mix. Sheyan did not know if they would be of any use to him, but it would not hurt to try.

The next morning, Sheyan was woken up by a roar of laughter. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Pontin's red face that was so excited that it had become a little twisted. The man was violently shaking the shoulders of another engineering SCV and wildly laughed.

Kyrgyzna was a pretty wild woman. In truth, gentler women were rarely found in the army, except among the nurses. She immediately raised her machine gun and pulled the safety catch, then said in an aggressive tone, "As you wish!"

But before she could do anything else, Pontin had already charged forward like a bull. His speed and strength were both at a level that was beyond his reach before this! Kyrgyzna could only lift her machine gun to block as Pontin raised his welding torch and slammed down!

Although he did not press the switch, the welding torch, weighing nearly 30 kilograms, struck the gun with a fierce clang. Various rivets flew off the gun from the impact, and the gun was clearly bent out of shape.

Kyrgyzna was pushed a few steps back before she could steady herself, crouching on the ground. Her face was ashen pale, and her chest felt so stuffy that she almost threw up.

Sheyan rolled his eyes. Indeed, sexual desire was the main driving force behind human evolution. So his outstanding willpower was derived from his desire for a woman's body.

Sheyan now noticed that Pontin's body seemed one size larger. Previously, his muscles seemed like they were only there for aesthetic purposes, but they now looked like they contained an explosive force. Blood vessels sat bulging on the muscles like angry snakes. The muscles felt as if even if they were bitten hard, the muscle fibers would put up a stubborn resistance against the teeth.

The stimpack contained drugs with side effects that had been seriously underestimated. These built-in chemical injections would produce some very strong positive effects after they were injected into humans...and also some very strong negative effects.

The mixture of synthetic epinephrine, endorphins and a kind of psychotropic drug would instantly stimulate the nerves, greatly increasing the speed and reaction of a soldier. However, the long-term side effects included, but not limited to, insomnia, emaciation, mania/mild mania, convulsions, paranoia, hallucinations, internal bleeding, and brain damage. Therefore, the stimpack were often used together with other medical drugs.

SCVs and normal humans were prohibited from administering the stimpack. This was not a restriction, but a protection. If the stimpack was used without the corresponding medicines, it could possibly result in direct death. That was why Kyrgyzna was so shocked.

"Ha-ha-ha, will I use that kind of thing?" replied Pontin with a wild laughter. "This strength belongs to myself. This is the legendary power that Brigadier General Seaman has personally bestowed on me! Sure, this power almost killed me, but in the end, I managed to claw my way out from the depths of hell!"

[ Ability: Bulky (creatures with this ability will get a 20% bonus to Strength when attacking and have a 33% chance of knocking down an opponent smaller than themselves) ]

[ Creatures with the 'Skilled' prefix often have extraordinary skills in certain aspects. With this prefix, Pontin's speed in collecting resources increases by 500%, the speed of construction and repair increases by 500%, and he will need 20% less construction materials. ]

Sheyan instantly checked the attributes of the other engineering SCVs. He found that they only had about forty points of average attributes, which showed how big an upgrade Pontin had undergone.

Sheyan did not answer any questions. He left the entire mess for Pontin to handle (Pontin was only circling around Kyrgyzna, bothering her anyway). Sheyan still had many things he needed to do today. His first priority, of course, was to locate Ronnie. Since Ronnie had asked him for aid, he must have left some signs for Sheyan to help Sheyan find him.

He naturally left Pontin here to do work. Developing a base here seemed like a good idea. Sheyan planned to go out with Snake to look for more information. Although Snake was hiding a lot of secrets, it was undeniable that Sheyan had managed to obtain a lot of first-hand information from him.

Sheyan learned from Snake that the Lost Temple planet was much bigger than Earth, but there were a lot of forbidden, deadly areas on the planet which contained a kind of strong toxic substance that was fatal to both humans and Protoss. Even the tenacious Zerg could not hatch their eggs in the deadly areas.

Therefore, only areas that contained land that were steel blue in colour were safe, accessible areas. These safe areas were scattered throughout the planet. If these safe areas were put together, they would be about the size of Taiwan.

Therefore, it was not as hard as one would imagine to locate a friend or an enemy here. Snake also told Sheyan that the lost dark shrine would not remain at a fixed spot. Otherwise, let alone their enemies, even the Zealots from before, who had contradicting ideologies, would have located them and wiped them out.

Therefore, he had to wait for the right time to locate the lost dark shrine. Once the lost dark shrine appeared, a plethora of abnormal phenomena would occur. The most direct consequence of these phenomena was that this whole interstellar region would become like the Bermuda Triangle, causing strange disappearances of patrol spacecrafts.

Upon hearing this, a thought which gave Sheyan chills suddenly flashed across his mind. He suddenly recalled a particular matter which he could not figure out before - how Snake could ensure that his leadership status was not challenged by high-ranking survivors.

Because even with Sheyan's intelligence, he could not imagine how anyone could selectively let only the spacecrafts that carried lower ranking soldiers crash onto this planet.

After Sheyan came to this conclusion, he naturally realised that he was in extreme danger, but Sheyan had confidence in himself. Even when he was not prepared, to scheme against him was still a very difficult task.

That was because Sheyan's most defining feature was his durability! His extreme durability! Furthermore, he had great explosiveness. If his enemies could not kill him right away, they would have to face his fierce counter-attack!

The two men marched forth on the pale blue land, the moist soil beneath their feet making a soft rustling sound as they walked. Wind whistled through the air, rubbing against their faces and hats before whirling into their noses and mouths. No one spoke, because they had to remain vigilant, and because they had to keep quiet, lest they miss out on any important clues.

For some reason, Sheyan kept feeling that there was a faint odour of blood in the air, like the smell which lingered on a person's hand after they stabbed someone to death; a smell that could not be washed away by any amount of soap or rubbing! He inhaled deeply, trying to take in the odour, but strangely, the smell seemed to have disappeared.

"We're close to the Protoss patrol area. Like us, they're also waiting for the Dark Temple to open. They've sent a lot of troops here, determined to get their hands on the Colossus technology. But because most of the crystal deposits on this planet have been exhausted, they can't construct a lot of buildings, so they could only use the dumbest way...."

"But if I remember correctly, the only Protoss ship that can perform long-distance space voyage is the Carrier. Usually, long-distance voyage must undergo careful preparation to ensure that there's enough Corsair escorts, or the Zerg's Scourges could easily take the Carriers down in a suicide charge. Our own Valkyrie frigates are also the nemesis of Carriers. A rash, unplanned voyage would often only consist of Carriers and transport ships. If they encounter an enemy, the loss will be terrible!"

When Snake said this, his eyes were filled with a feverish glint. Sheyan quietly took note of this. Looks like the man was showing a little of his true colours. Snake probably realised that his momentary lapse may have raised Sheyan's suspicion, so he immediately revealed a piece of information that Sheyan was eager to know.

"The temperature last night should be around 30 degrees below zero? From my experience, when the temperature drops to -40 degrees, the chances of the Dark Temple appearing will become much higher."

"The transformation of that guy called Pontin was so fast, and so unbelievable! It took me 20 years to promote from an ordinary Ghost to a Spectre, but Pontin has changed from an ordinary SCV to a veteran soldier overnight! No, he's even stronger than a veteran soldier now. It felt as if he was completely reborn! Did you really do that?"

Sheyan carefully observed Snake's expression. He thought to himself that he had finally found the man's weakness. He then smiled and said, "The SCV is our most basic troop. No matter how elite or legendary an SCV is, it's impossible for them to take on an Ultralisk by themself. That's why it's not too hard to enhance the strength of an ordinary SCV."

"On the other hand, Ghosts are selected from among the most elite of humans. Even an ordinary Ghost possesses power that's far beyond an ordinary human. Your starting point is too high, so it's a lot more difficult to make you stronger. However, it's not impossible."

Snake was clearly hesitating. He had no way of telling if Sheyan was lying. However, from what he had seen so far, Sheyan did not seem like he was. Sheyan's final line was especially tempting to his ears. He could not help asking, "Do you really have a way?"

Sheyan smiled. "We'll have to kill stronger enemies. Only then can I extract stronger power crystals from their bodies. These power crystals are the foundation of the strengthening."

Sheyan had already stood up. His Perceptive Sense was not low, so he had also detected the strange, barely-detectable smell in the air. The smell was not unfamiliar to Sheyan – it was the smell of the Zerg.

Snake has quietly vanished into thin air. He was continuously burning his MP to cloak (stealth) himself. Even with Sheyan's formidable Perceptive Sense, he could not locate Snake's presence. Of course, part of the reason was because they were allies, but it was also a testament to Snake's strength.

Because Sheyan was currently positioned upwind, and because the Zerg had very sensitive senses of smell and hearing, he simply waited where he was for the expert to bring news back to him. Soon, Snake's hoarse voice transmitted over from the communicator.

The Zerg force was made up of three classic unit types - Zerglings, Hydralisks and Devourers. The cheap Zerglings make for excellent meat shields. They also had respectable movement speed and powerful claws that could tear through any armour.

Thanks to the Devourers' powerful Acid Spores and the fearless rush of the Zerglings, the Protoss troops were forced to keep retreating. However, the situation was soon reversed when the Protoss troops retreated onto a relatively high hill. There was a hard-to-detect blue glow on the ground there. When the Protoss troops stepped onto the blue glow, their combat effectiveness increased by at least 8%.

The Zerg's way of fighting focused on unceasing numbers. Seeing the enemy retreat, of course they had to rush forward to strike at the enemy's core! The Protoss had units that had the highest HP and the toughest defence among the three races, so one must wipe they out while they were still in the budding phase, before they could mature.

So even though the Zerg army knew that the blue light had buffed the enemies, they still launched a fearless offence under the command of the floating Overlord not far away. However, the Zerg troops at the very front soon caught sight of a shiny building unique to the Protoss race – a Pylon!

Almost all Protoss buildings were built around Pylons, because the Pylons could provide the energy for other buildings to function - without energy, everything was meaningless.

Then, from a very strategic location at the side, a yellow disc about three meters in diameter suddenly rose from the ground, supported by a pale blue pillar. It seemed as if the yellow disc was pushed up by the pillar.

The following second, a snow-white ball of light shot out from the yellow disc. Like Sheyan anticipated, the ball of light struck a Zergling, killing it. The yellow disc then immediately retracted back as quick as lightning. It reloaded in the blink of an eye and reappeared again, this time blowing up a Hydralisk to bits.

This object was the Photon Cannon of the Protoss. Its only weakness was that it could not move. The cannon fired an encapsulated antimatter sphere similar to that generated by the Dragoon, but because it was fixed on the ground, it did not need to consider the problems of energy supply and reaction force, so the photon shots it fired had greater range and greater power.

The Protoss had actually built two Photon Cannons. With the addition of these powerful weapons, the situation immediately took a sharp turn. Zealots surged forward, blocking the Zerglings' way and stopping them from advancing another inch. Meanwhile, the limited long-range firepower of the Photon Cannons focused entirely on dealing with the highly mobile Devourers in the air.

In just 30 seconds, at least seven Devourers were blown to bits in the sky, their blood raining down. However, the Zerg's rush was not entirely ineffective. Blue flame ignited on one of the Photon Cannons, indicating that its internal energy system had lost control. It would explode any moment.

Zerg troops were renowned for their low cost and astounding quantity. When a sea of Zerg units swooped in roaring, their terrifying numbers and unstoppable momentum could make anyone shake in their boots.

The incessant torrent of Zerg troops rushed into Protoss territory, and a fierce tug of war between the two sides began. The military strength of both sides was being depleted at an alarming rate. The frontline was simply a tragic flesh grinder!

Finally, something shocking occurred. The remaining Photon Cannon exploded too, but the momentum of the Zerg troops had obviously waned because their numbers had severely depleted. As the saying goes, an arrow at the end of its flight could not even pierce through the thinnest of silk. The last of the Zerg died crashing into the defensive wall created by the Protoss.

The territory right now naturally made for a tragic sight. It was reminiscent of the battlefields of old where corpses strewn across the land together with broken arrows and blades, but the flag that was smoked black still flew high, and the general who seemingly would not die supported his wounded body with his sword, welcoming the bitter victory.

The Probes were the Protoss worker units responsible for mining and construction, like the Drones of the Zerg and the SCVs of the humans (Terrans). These floating units were currently sweeping through the battlefield diligently, moving aside the corpses that were blocking the way and placing down spots of light in selected places.

(TL note: Some Protoss early game rush strategies feature Probes constructing Pylons and Photon Cannons near or in an enemy base, known as cannon rushing. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Probe )

This was the advantage in Protoss construction. The Probes themselves did not need to perform the construction. Instead, they only needed to lay down micro-beacons to provide an anchor and entry point for fully functioning structures to be directly "warped in" over interstellar distances to a certain destination.

The reason Snake judged that the Protoss had discovered a mineral resource was because the layout of the Protoss buildings was clearly meant to defend and wait for reinforcement.

But this was not a good defensive area at all. Yes, it was on a slope, but the Zerg forces could come from all sides, fully demonstrating their superiority in numbers. In addition, the Zerg might send aerial troops like the Devourers, launching a coordinated attack from both air and ground. If the battlefield was too large, the situation would become extremely complex, thus making it more difficult for the defensive side.

It did not take long for the Protoss base to expand to an astonishing size. There were only two Photon Cannons before, but now, it spread densely over the entire area, covering almost the entire hillside.

These Photon Cannons were skillfully laid down, leaving enough room for Zealots and Dragoons to move between them. This way, the Zealots and Dragoons could charge forward without a hitch, and when they were seriously injured, they could quickly retreat under the cover fire of the Photon Cannons.

Something strange happened after that. Three Probes came together and started summoning a building at the same time! Warped in this building seemed to require a large amount of energy supply, because as many as twelve Pylons were built around them!

After that, a large number of Zealots fearlessly marched into the warping light with a solemn and pious expression on their faces. As soon as they came into contact with the light in the middle, they would melt into it. They looked like ants that queued up to march into a juicer, like they were sacrificing themselves!

The light was gradually dyed red as more and more Zealots sacrificed themselves into it. It was initially pale red in colour, then turned scarlet, then crimson, and finally became a shocking dark red, like a beating heart that was stripped from the body.

Finally, after sacrificing nearly a hundred Zealots, the building gradually took form. It had the appearance of a giant palm that stood over ten meters high. Although the finer details were still slowly forming, the intimidating feeling it gave off could barely be contained!

"This is an non-standard Protoss strategic building," answered Snake. "It can only be built by powerful heroes among the Protoss. Neither the Zerg race nor the Protoss were rigid and self-conceited enough to be satisfied with staying at their current level. While striving to develop their own potential, they'll also try to achieve breakthroughs by studying other races. The Zerg are in the forefront in this field. The Queen of Blades, the product of an integration between a Cerebrate and a human, is the most successful example."

"The Zerg didn't stop there. They've also deciphered the secrets of our Terran command center. That's why Zerg Queens can leave their physical bodies to infest our command centers and produce those crazy suicide bombers. These are all facts that we've been able to confirm. They're also examples of how the Zerg make use of other races to evolve. There are rumours that they've already started the research on an non-standard strategic building – a building to mass produce the Queen of Blades..."

Snake's explanation stirred up a storm in Sheyan's mind. He had to admit, although the old man was very sneaky, he had a lot of knowledge. Sheyan listened attentively.

Snake continued, "In the battle in which my son died, we suffered heavy casualties. Even Lang West, known as the King of the Ghosts, died in that fight. He told me something before his death. The Protoss were researching their own non-standard buildings, inspired by the Zerg technology which uses flesh and blood to construct a stable warping wormhole!"

"You must have seen how crazy those things are, Brigadier General! A Zerg mine that looks empty and defenseless can suddenly be overrun by a shocking number of troops in just a few minutes with the use of a wormhole!"

Sheyan smiled and did not say anything. Of course he knew about the Zerg's powerful technology. It was thanks to this technology that he could let the Blackthorn Zerg cross countless galaxies and dimensions to descend upon planet Pandora.

Even watching from the distance, Sheyan could not help holding his breath in excitement! Such fearless courage, such tragic bravery! It reminded him of a famous line from an ancient literature:

The defensive line of the Protoss was the rocky shore, while the unceasing Zerg troops were the terrifying waves. When the two sides collided together, flesh and blood flew up to thirty meters high!

That's right! The crazy Zerg tide had indeed suffered a shocking number of casualties. The fatality rate of the Zerg troops that rushed at the very front was close to 100%. But countless more Zerg units came from behind to fill their place. In just an instant, the neverending Zerg swarm had already invaded one third of the Protoss territory!

Not only were the Protoss in an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers, they also lacked various facilities such as Shield Batteries to rapidly recharge their plasma shields. The only fate awaiting the Protoss was to become nutrients for the Zerg. Even the non-standard strategic building being constructed was about to fall!

It was a type of unit that was so weak that it almost had no direct attacking power, but it had the ability to instantly turn defeat into victory! It was the powerful creature which controlled the ionization energy in the universe, the High Templar!

Under the Psionic Storms coverage, the densely packed Hydralisks and Zerglings first froze, then burst into bloody pieces one after another. The Devourers screamed in agony and flapped their wings hard, trying to flee, but only a few managed to do so, and they were left seriously injured.

And the Ultralisks, which could withstand a few Psionic Storms with their high HP and defence, could not escape the fate of being destroyed either. After they lost the protection of their allies, they were instantly surrounded and attacked from all sides.

Sheyan let out a long breath. But when he turned towards Snake, he found that the man was looking at the Psionic Storms with eyes that were full of hatred and rage! It suddenly hit Sheyan that the Psionic Storm was not just a nightmare for low-level Zerg soldiers, it was also a nightmare for all non-mechanical human troops!!

Be it the SCVs, Marines, Firebats or Ghosts, they all had the common weakness of having low HP. The Ghosts' invisibility could not save them from large area of effect spells which performed continuous damage like the Psionic Storm. At most, they would last a few seconds longer than the other infantry forces.

In the battlefield in the distance, after suffering the heavy blow of the Psionic Storms, the Zerg forces completely pulled back. That truly caught Sheyan by surprise because it was unlike the Zerg's normal bloody and crazed fighting style.

The tremor rapidly intensified. The rumbling of the ground echoed throughout the whole battlefield. When Sheyan saw the rocks that were rolling down the hillside nearby, he suddenly remembered something.

"Are those things joining the fight? But those are special forces, not mass produced troops. A Queen that can produce those units must have been to Planet P before (the planet in Starship Troopers' plot). If that's the case, the commander of this battle may very well be my old opponent."

With a loud bang, the ground in front of the Protoss defensive base exploded violently, as if over eighty tons of TNT explosives were detonated there! The exploding soil soared more than fifty meters into the sky!

A Photon Cannon suddenly tilted to the side and collapsed because the ground beneath it had suddenly caved inwards! Out came a giant beetle from the giant pit that was made!

Yes, the giant beetle was a Tanker Bug of the Starship Trooper universe (https://starshiptroopers.fandom.com/wiki/Tanker_Bug)! The Tanker Bug had obviously been enhanced by the Zerg's war genes. It was a little smaller than usual, about three meters tall and five meters long, and it was covered in a greyish-white, tough, and rubber-like skin membrane. Respiratory holes grew symmetrically on both sides of its body, as well as 3 pairs of symmetrical long legs. The carapace at the vital joints on its body bulged, seemingly full of destructive force.

After the Tanker Bug made the Photon Cannon collapse, it sprayed acid at the two Zealots at the side with its mouth. An emerald green flame instantly burned all over the Zealots' bodies. They were already injured to begin with; now that they had received another attack, they quickly fell dead.

When the Dragoons and Photon Cannons nearby tried to tried to focus fire on the Tanker Bug, it immediately twisted its plump body and returned to the ground at an astonishing speed. Most of the photon shots could do nothing but blast the soil in anger.

At the same time, at least 30 Tanker Bugs had unknowingly burrowed their way to the bottom of various Photon Cannons and immediately went to work. They dug various ground fissures and pits, causing chaos among the Protoss defensive system.

But even crazier was the fact that they also seemed to possess some formidable special powers. The earth they raised when they dug out could form a temporary ground shield that protected them. Therefore, when they occasionally appeared above the ground, it was still hard to cause too much damage to them.

Without the defensive system, the Protoss could only let the Dragoons and Zealots tank at the frontline. However, the Psionic Storm caused indiscriminate damages, so if the Protoss keep using Psionic Storms, they would be hurting themselves too! The number of forces between the two sides were heavily in the Zerg's favour to begin with, so doing that would be akin to quenching thirst by drinking poison! Furthermore, the Psionic Storm was not something that could be cast non-stop. It was limited by the High Templars' MP....

There was no proof that Snake's action of tapping the rocks with his fingers was deliberate, but nevertheless, it had successfully attracted the attention of a Tanker Bug.

In fact, many people have little habits like that when they are deep in thought. The only accusation that could be made against Snake was that he was too careless. Snake could even argue that he had no understanding of non-standard units like the Tanker Bugs. But, the fact remained that a Tanker Bug had been attracted over, and...Snake had vanished after activating his cloaking device.

Snake could say that he was being targeted by the Overlord who had natural anti-stealth capability. He could also say that he suddenly had to go to the toilet, or his period had come and he forgot to bring a tampon....it's not like a dead man could accuse him of lying.

But Snake was similarly in quite a pinch himself because the moment Sheyan noticed Snake's abnormal behaviour, he had immediately smashed a bottle of gene-mix on the ground!

The Zerg had a very sensitive sense of smell. Even though Snake had turned invisible and ran a few hundred metres away, with that smell sticking to him, he would still attract the attention of the Zerg, especially the Overlord drifting in the sky! In fact, there were already a few Zerglings trying to sniff him out. His predicament was no less dire!

And if both of them survived and met each other again, Sheyan could just shamelessly defend himself in a voice filled with deep regret, "I was obviously just trying to buff you up! I didn't expect that kind of side effect..."

A Tanker Bug had emerged in front of Sheyan, drilling its way out from the soil. Its thick carapace shell seemed no different from armour and helmet. It's eyes shone blood red. Its complex looking mouthpiece wriggled non-stop, probably because it was continuously mixing various chemical compounds, ready to shoot a deadly acid at a moment's notice.

It was likely the first time the Tanker Bugs had made an appearance in front of the Protoss, so the Protoss were caught completely off guard. But little did the Zerg know, Sheyan was very familiar with the Tanker Bugs.

A long time ago, he had checked the detailed information of the Tanker Bugs through the Mother of the Blackthorn. The Tanker Bugs must have undergone various optimizations and modifications by now, but most of their nature and physiological structure would not change, just like how rice would always be short and grow in water no matter how much it was improved and optimized. It would never grow to three meters tall or be able to grow in the desert.

In the Zerg's opinion, discovering a stray puny human was no big deal. As for the human running away, was that not normal? Do you expect the puny human to engage in direct combat with a powerful Zerg warrior?

What? Send another unit to help? Are you insulting the strength of our great Tanker Bugs? Or is this puny human more important than conquering the sacred ground of the Protoss?

Hence, Sheyan led the pursuing Tanker Bug away, retreating while he fought. Sheyan's movement speed was not as fast as the Tanker Bug who had six long legs, but he only needed to be vigilant of the Tanker Bug's acid flame. Its other attacks, such as trampling with its long foot or crashing with its body, were tolerable. Therefore, although Sheyan seemed to be in a dire predicament, looking like he would be stomped or bumped to death at any moment, he still successfully escaped to the edge of the main battlefield.

Sheyan suddenly ran clockwise around the Tanker Bug, taking a few hard stomps from the bug as he did so. However, his sudden change in tactic gave the Tanker Bug a lot of trouble. After spinning around a few times in pursuit of Sheyan, the bug howled in anger and suddenly turned counter clockwise, trying to catch Sheyan off guard.

But Sheyan was long prepared for that; he immediately ran counter-clockwise too. The human body was simply a lot smaller than the Tanker Bug, so Sheyan could shift his direction much easier compared to the bug. The Tanker Bug could only pursue after Sheyan helplessly, as if he was being led by the nose. Less than 40 seconds later, the bug suddenly fell to the ground. It spasmed continuously with its feet facing the sky, foaming at the mouth, as if it had been electrocuted.

Back when he was on Planet P, the Blackthorn Zerg had already discovered a congenital defect in the brains of the Tanker Bugs – the grey matter in their vestibular system was severely inadequate, so continuously turning around like the Tanker Bug just did placed a huge burden on its poor brain. It led to inadequate blood supply to the brain, making it faint and spasm like it was having epileptic seizure.

Of course, this method could not be used as a conventional tactic against the Tanker Bugs because they rarely acted alone. Normally, they were either used as the main force of an attack like the Ultralisks, so they would be surrounded by a lot of Hydralisks and Zerglings, or they would move out in a group to make earthquakes in the enemy's base.

The 1v1 fight this time was a special case. If Sheyan actually tried to run circles around a Tanker Bug under normal circumstances, he would have been ruthlessly attacked by the allies around the bug.

After running more than five hundred metres away, Sheyan finally turned to look back. He found to his relief that the other enemies had not pursued him in anger like he had feared. The Tanker Bug he defeated was still foaming at the mouth. The other Zerg who had been watching ignored Sheyan's actions and had instead charged furiously at the Protoss base.

Following the advancement of the technology tree, another type of powerful Protoss unit was created and quickly deployed to the battlefield. This unit greatly restrained the Tanker Bugs!

Unlike the Tanker Bug that was strong and agile, the Reaver moved and attacked very slowly. It did not even have limbs and moved by wriggling its body, looking fat and dumb. However, by virtue of its only ability, it could rank among the high-level forces of the Protoss.

The Reaver was one of the few creatures that could chew on crystals directly and even devour them. After swallowing 15 units of crystals, it could convert them into some peculiar life-like organisms called Scarabs and store them in its huge, fat abdomen.

( TL: I'm referring to the Starcraft minerals as crystals to differentiate them from other types of minerals that may be present in this world. They're called crystals in the raws anyway. )

After the Reaver sent the Scarabs out, the Scarabs would perform all kinds of ingenious maneuvers like the most nimble of missiles to attack the target designated by the Reaver. Not only did the Scarabs have strong destructive power, they also caused radial splash damage!

With the Scarabs chasing after them like their own shadows, the Tanker Bugs were having a rough time. Even though they could swiftly drill their way into the ground to escape, they would always leave behind a wide underground tunnel due to their gigantic size. The Scarabs would just keep on chasing them. Each round of exploding Scarabs would cause the Tanker Bugs heavy damage, and the AoE effect would also make the ground collapse. From time to time, pillars of smoke and dust would burst out of the ground across the Protoss territory, accompanied by the grievous roars of the Tanker Bugs. The scattered soil would have the flesh and blood of the bugs mixed within them.

But the Zerg commander had already achieved its tactical objective. The first wave of assault had destroyed more than one-third of the Protoss defensive infrastructures, and the Tanker Bug assault had destroyed another third.

Sheyan had personally commanded a Zerg battle before, so he had also dabbled in various Zerg tactics. When he saw this, his pupils abruptly shrank. He could not help muttering incredulously, "The commander is actually putting the defenceless Overlords on the front line... and it doesn't seem to be for the purpose of making a large-scale airdrop. Is it doing it to hide the real killer weapons behind the Overlords?"

The Zerg's new assault wave soon reached the Protoss base. Only when they had gotten close did Sheyan see that, among the dense swarm of Overlords hid some strange creatures that had a sinuous head, a stretched skin membrane, and propulsed itself in the air by blowing out air like the bellows. It was yet another Zerg unit with zero offensive capabilities, the Queen!

(TL: One of the Queen's primary functions is to implant parasites in its enemies. The Queen can also infest other creatures, causing them to expire and Broodlings to emerge from them.)

The Protoss commander instantly realised that something was amiss. He immediately ordered the Reavers and the High Templars to retreat from the front line. Unfortunately, neither of these two units were proficient in speed. It would be difficult for them to escape even if they wanted to!

A large number of Overlords burst into bloody pieces under the attack of the Photon Cannons, but they had won the time for the Queens to cast their spells. Suddenly, black shadows shot out of the Queens' mouths at high speed, instantly flying hundreds of meters away to accurate hit the fleeing Reavers and High Templars!

The troops that were struck by the shadows immediately rotted and died, falling to the ground. Two hexapod giant bugs sprang out of each corpse and instantly pounced on the enemies near them. This was the insta-death special ability of the Zerg Queens: Spawn Broodling!

Less than one third of the Protoss' defensive facilities remained by now, and most of the Reavers and High Templars, who were the most effective against the Zerg assault, had been killed by the Spawn Broodling ability. The Zerg army immediately went all out. Together with the ten or so remaining Tanker Bugs, they launched a three-dimensional offensive from the air, the ground and the underground!

At that moment, the Protoss ship dock glowed, and an aircraft Sheyan had seen before, an Arbiter, suddenly emerged like a heavy, clumsy swallow! The most advanced Protoss aircraft had finally arrived on the battlefield!

(TL: The Arbiter is a high cost Protoss offensive-support psionic unit. Its Cloaking Field passive ability cloaks all nearby friendly units, but not itself. Its Stasis ability can cut an enemy attack wave in half, allowing allied forces to eliminate foes in smaller, more manageable groups. Its Recall ability can teleport allied forces into an enemy base, circumventing any defenses. )

However, this newly-arrived Arbiter possessed only the Cloaking Field ability. Neither of its Stasis and Recall abilities had been developed yet. In addition, it currently did not even have any energy to use an ability. More importantly, the vast group of Zerg Overlords were anti-stealth units, making them the Arbiter's nemesis!

The building was now fully formed. It had the appearance of a giant claw growing out from the ground. It carried the bright, concise, futuristic style of the Protoss, but its dark red colour, decorative fangs and sharp talons carried a hint of Zerg ferocity!!

The giant claw grabbed the Arbiter. The Arbiter began to disintegrate into spots of light within the claw's grasp. The spots of light coated the surface of the claw with a smooth, bright glaze, as if a soul had been injected into the claw, making it come alive.

After that, the giant claw performed a strange action, tightening into a fist and immediately loosening itself again. Following this action, one of the twelve Pylons (energy buildings) that were built around the giant claw suddenly exploded, and a blood-red portal emerged!

There were not many of these Protoss warriors - only twelve in total - and they were all of different types. But Sheyan instantly realised that these twelve Protoss warriors looked very different from the standard soldiers.

But this Zealot's appearance was completely different from a normal Zealot. He looked proud and aggressive. Ordinary Zealots were built for agility, while this Zealot was a muscular creature. He wore a red cape on his back and wielded a terrifying two-handed giant warhammer instead of psi-blades!

Following close behind the Zealot was a Dark Templar, commonly known as the hidden knife. Normal Dark Templars wielded a warp blade, but this Dark Templar wielded two! In addition, he could throw both of them to attack from range! The warp blades would rotate back to him like boomerangs. With every throw of the warp blade, a large group of Zerglings would die!

One shot from the Dragoon and Sheyan was already shocked speechless! A normal Dragoon could only shoot a single antimatter bolt at a time, but this Dragoon hero's cannon muzzle was like a shower spray. One spin of the cannon and six horrifying antimatter bolts shot forward, bombarding the Mutalisks so hard that they howled in agony!

That's right, it turned out that the function of this non-standard strategic building was to summon powerful Protoss hero units, and it summoned twelve of them in one go!!

(TL: Hero units are unique units that usually represent plot-important characters or constructs, taking part in battle on the field. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hero_unit )

The rest of the heroes marched onto the battlefield one after another like they were being paraded. There were four Zealots among the first summoned batch of hero units, making up the highest composition, while two of them were Dragoons.

Sheyan was not unfamiliar with the Archon because Aldaris' trump card was to summon one. The Archon was a huge monster that looked like the genie from Arabian folklore. A large mass of white light surrounded the Archon. Although the light gave off a holy feeling, the creature at the core had the face of a devil.

But Sheyan failed to see what was so special with this Archon except that his energy shield was thicker.... That was, until he released a Psionic Storm with a wave of his hand!

An Archon was formed by merging two High Templars, so logically speaking, Archons should be able to use Psionic Storms too, right? Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking. An Archon was an insanely strong monster that could hover, perform AoE attack, and attack from range, but they did not have an active ability like the Psionic Storm.

But this Archon did. And for some reason, the more Sheyan looked at him, the more familiar his actions felt. Finally, he could not help muttering to himself, "Why does this guy look so much like Aldaris?"

That's right. Sheyan had had a lot of contacts with Aldaris. As the MT who tank in front, it was necessary for Sheyan to be familiar with his teammates' habits, because excellent cooperation could save lives.

An Archon's attacking posture was reminiscent of a Taoist's "Thunder Palm". The Archon would hold his hands together as he collected the destructive particles in the air and released them forward in the form of a psionic shockwave, attacking the enemies in a 5-6 square meters area. However, the attacking range was rather abysmal, only about forty to fifty meters. This range was even shorter than the acid spit of the Hydralisks.

Other Archons would fearlessly rush forward and continuously bombard the enemies with their psionic shockwaves, but this Archon hero was a lot more cowardly. After attacking once, he would immediately take a few steps back. Only after he had confirmed that he was not being targeted would he attack again, once, before he would then change his location again. He did not want the "glory" of being recognised as a formidable enemy at all.

Perhaps because this Archon was a hero unit, he had the ability to unleash the powerful Psionic Storm. But compared to his cowardly attacking style, the timing and coverage of his Psionic Storm was nothing short of impeccable.

The areas covered by his Psionic Storms were always the areas most densely packed with Mutalisks, Hydralisks and Zerglings, and they were often the spots where the Protoss defence was about to collapse. In other words, without his Psionic Storms, those areas would have inevitably fallen to the Zerg.

That gave others the impression that this Archon was constantly rescuing the Protoss side in critical situations. It truly did appear like he was making great contributions.

After witnessing these details, Sheyan was almost certain that this guy was indeed Aldaris. Sheyan wondered why he was summoned here. It probably had to do with his status as an Archon.

But of course, Sheyan was not foolish enough to try and make contact with him under the circumstances. He was sure that Aldaris would not be hostile to himself, but Aldaris was not alone on the battlefield! Would the noble Protoss race let a filthy human approach their base? Sheyan was not so naive as to think so! He did not want to be turned into dust by numerous Photon Cannons. Therefore, he could only continue to watch quietly.

It was a widely accepted truth that the individual power of a hero unit could only play a very limited role in a large-scale warfare, but that referred to the power of an "individual hero". When the number of heroes reached a certain amount, they had the ability to turn the tide. The heroes stood tall on the battlefield like pillars. Although four of the heroes fell in battle, the situation was finally stabilised!

The bronze-coloured Probe soon told Sheyan the answer with its strength. It could construct buildings 300% faster, using 50% less resources! And unlike the worker units of other races, the Probe only needed to lay down the micro-beacon, and the building would "construct" itself. The Probe was free to leave and pursue other activities!

Everywhere this little guy passed through, it would leave a row of Photon Cannons and Shield Batteries in its wake, and these buildings would only take a third of the time to build!

After building up a series of defensive facilities, it went to mine for resources. Other worker units needed 10 seconds to fill their storage of eight units of energy crystals, but this little guy returned to the base after only a second, and it actually carried 50 units of energy crystals at a time...

Sheyan finally understood. The little guy may be a worker, the lowest ranking unit type, but to tell the truth, not only was its role not inferior to any other hero units, it was probably a lot more important! Sheyan would take him over three or four other hero units!

The Shuttle also had no attack power, but it was surprisingly fast. This hero unit was even faster. Moreover, perhaps to make up for its lack of any attacking capabilities, its HP and defence were shockingly high, and the speed at which its energy shield recharged was unbelievably fast.

The Shuttle zagged through the front line like a flash of lightning. Because it had no offensive power and was very hard to destroy, the Zerg troops often chose other targets instead. The Shuttle was responsible for rescuing the Protoss soldiers on the verge of death. It would pull them into its transport cabin with a strong suction force.

The Protoss troops all had a tough plasma shield around them for protection. The Shuttle would send the soldiers that were on the verge of death to the rear of the defence so that their plasma shield could be completely recharged by the Shield Batteries there. They would then rejoin the battlefield.

Do not underestimate the Shuttle's effectiveness. Sheyan noticed that most of the soldiers it saved were powerful but fragile units like High Templars and Reavers! Sheyan estimated that it had rescued twenty Reavers and nineteen High Templars in just ten minutes! These soldiers should have all died, but they had now recovered and rejoined the battle!

The unit was even more cowardly than Aldaris. Aldaris had at least moved to the front line from time to time, but this unit had stayed safely in the rear from the moment he got here.

The hero was a High Templar. Perhaps because he was a hero unit, he wore a heroic looking red cape on his back despite his cowardly behaviour. Well, okay, High Templars had no close combat fighting power, so it made sense for him to stay at the back to unleash a Psionic Storm once in a while.

He had stood next to the Gateway (Protoss building which warps in Protoss warriors from their home territories) and did only one thing, which was to use the other ability of the High Templar -- Hallucination!

When a normal High Templar cast Hallucination, they would create two duplicates of a certain target. The Hallucinations do not inflict damage when they "attack", do not have any defence, and do not have any skills. They take triple damage from all attacks and have the same amount of HP as the target.

But this High Templar hero created four Hallucinations instead of two when he used the skill! The Hallucinations only took double damage from all attacks and even had 10% of the target's attack power!

The Hallucinations the High Templar hero produced could be considered excellent meat shields. The hero's MP recovery was also super fast. He was as good as four Gateways just by standing there!

Sheyan could not help sighing in admiration as he watched the performances of these heroic units. The Zerg's crazed assault was being completely contained by these heroes.

Nevertheless, there was still no end to the Zerg soldiers in sight. It seems that they were going to have a long, drawn-out battle of attrition, moving into a contest of will and determination.

Sheyan had not gone far. Although he could not turn invisible, he had the advantage of high Perceptive Sense. He buried himself in the soil on a distant hill and watched the movement of the Zerg army from the viewpoint of a bystander.

"The most effective approach for the Tanker Bugs is to breakthrough from that spot! Yes, that must be it! Oh no, that fool Aldaris is actually over there too! This is a great chance for the Zerg!"

Of course, this did not mean that the Protoss commander was less observant than Sheyan. Sheyan's advantage was that he was a bystander looking over the battlefield from a high ground. And, even if the Protoss commander knew the Zerg's next move, he would still be powerless.

The Protoss base was located on a gentle slope, which was a very disadvantageous terrain to begin with. At first, the Zerg could only attack from an angle of 180 degrees from the front (they were limited by the cliffs on both sides). They could also attack by air, of course.

That was already a very broad attack area. But thirty-eight Tanker Bugs had dug into one of the cliffs, causing the cliff that had been blocking the ground forces to collapse into a gentle slope! That increased the Zerg attack area from 180 degrees to 240 degrees!

And that landslide had also affected more than a dozen Protoss buildings built near the cliff, making them collapse due to unstable foundation! Aldaris was also in the area where the collapse happened. He was toppled by the collapse together with some of the troops that were resting and resupplying there. When they came back to their senses, they were already being overrun by the Zerg torrent!

They were already separated from the main base. Having lost their geographical advantages and defensive facilities to rely on, being wiped out was only a matter of time!

Fortunately, at that moment, the Shuttle heroic unit came roaring. It actually had enough capacity to transport three Reavers and a High Templar at the same time! A soon as the Reavers and High Templar were let down a distance away, they instantly launched a fierce bout of attacks, and they were quickly transported away again afterwards.

The Reavers' Scarabs and the High Templar's Psionic Storm instantly blasted through the Zerg swarm, creating an escape path for Aldaris and the rest of the trapped soldiers! The path would close again in a few seconds, but it was a ray of hope!

All the trapped Protoss troops charged through the path in a frenzy! They squeezed out every ounce of their potential, driven by their instinct to survive! But the Zerg closed in from both sides, grinding down the charging Protoss troops one layer at a time until they were almost wiped out! Aldaris cunningly hid himself at the very middle, but with the skin gone, to what can the hair attach itself? When all the cannon fodder died, he would not escape this tragic fate either!

At that instant, Aldaris summoned the last ounce of energy he had left to unleash a Psionic Storm directly ahead of himself, then rushed into the Psionic Storm with a scream. His plasma shield was rapidly being exhausted.

The Archon is a very peculiar unit. According to the data in the game, an ordinary Archon has 300 plasma shield points, which is staggeringly high, but only 10 meagre points of HP.

But right then, he took an honorary dosage, instantly restoring himself to peak condition, and finally escaped from the encirclement, bruised and battered and covered in Hydralisk acid. Gone was his originally sacred and dignified Archon appearance that was like a big ball of white light. He looked more like green mouldy bread now.

Escaping along with Aldaris were the muscular Zealot who wielded a two-handed hammer (the Zealots have a passive which raises speed, so they run fast) and a Dragoon hero unit. This Dragoon had two more legs than an ordinary Dragoon, which gave him an advantage in movement speed. In fact, speed was his defining feature. He ran fast, attacked fast, and could fire 4 times faster than a normal Dragoon. He also had a probability of launching two antimatter bolts in one shot.

These three core units, surrounded by more than a dozen wounded soldiers, were running towards the location where Sheyan was hiding. Following behind them were the furious Zerg troops. The Zerg, who had the upper hand, naturally would not let the enemies get away so easily.

When the Protoss main base seemed like it was about to fall, the blood-red giant claw devoured two Arbiters in one go. Two Pylons burst simultaneously, but only one portal emerged. However, the portal was unnaturally big.

Following behind the heroic Carrier were eleven heroic Corsairs. These heroic Corsairs had bloodstained hulls, astonishing offensive power and extraordinary defence and HP.

The Corsairs actually adopted a crazy, suicidal tactic. They chased after all the Overlords, trying to hunt them down at all costs. A large number of Overlords had already sacrificed themselves before this to absorb damage for the Queens, so that the Queens could safely reach the battlefield. Now that they were targeted by the suicidal Corsair heroic units, the Overlords near the base were all cleaned up. All eleven Corsairs were completely destroyed in the process, but they had achieved their objective.

Right after the Overlords were eliminated from the battlefield, the Dark Templars, who had accumulated to quite a number, instantly joined the fight (Dark Templars are stealth units. Overlords are anti-stealth units). Their attack powers were truly terrifying, while the Zerg had no anti-stealth capability left!

The situation once again entered a deadlock. Despite their best efforts, the Zerg could not conquer the Protoss main base. The damage done by a large number of Dark Templars was simply too hot to handle, not to mention the Zerg had no way of handling them.

Hence, all the Zerg pursuers were highly mobile units. They consisted of a mix of Zerglings, Ultralisks and Devourers (Devourers evolve from Mutalisks. They are flying units that can attach "acid spores" to anything they hit).

Logically speaking, Aldaris in his Archon form should have been the bane of the Zerglings and Devourers, but that was only true if he was up against a limited number of opponents. Right now, there were dozens of Devourers, hundreds of Zerglings, and three Ultralisks. For this group of tired, defeated Protoss soldiers to turn back and fight them was simply suicidal.

Fortunately, these Protoss soldiers were all experienced veterans. After running for several kilometers, they suddenly split into three groups and fled in different directions. This forced the Zerg troops to split up too. This was good news for Sheyan!

Sheyan no longer concealed himself. He came out of his hiding spot and waved at Aldaris to catch his attention. Aldaris instantly ran towards the hill where Sheyan was located. Sheyan did not have time to explain anything to him. He simply shouted, "Cast Psionic Storm at yourself!"

Aldaris' eyes almost bulged out of the sockets. Cast Psionic Storm at himself? Sure, that would ensure that all the enemies were covered by the storm, but the damage done by Psionic Storm was continuous damage instead of instantaneous. Even the Zerglings, who had the lowest HP, could withstand the storm for a short while and attack him a couple of times before they died!

If he really did follow Sheyan's instruction, then barring any accidents, he would take damage from both the Psionic Storm and the Zerg!! He had already used the honorary dosage! He would die for sure!

Blue and white lightning tore through the sky again. However, amidst the storm, Aldaris was surprised to find that his HP was dropping very slowly. Only upon a closer look did he notice that he currently had an additional status condition:

[ Awakener No. 1018 has placed a mark on you, greatly enhancing your survivability. In the next three seconds, 75% of any damage done to you will be allocated to the Awakener. The allocation will be performed at the stage of theoretical damage value, so any damage reduction, including the damage reduction from defence, will be done after the allocation. ]

Psionic Storm lasted for three seconds, causing a round of damage every second. Sheyan's 'Survival Mark' helped Aldaris safely get through the most critical period. When the 'Survival Mark' was over, all the Zerglings and most of the Devourers within range had died. Aldaris practically only needed to deal with two Ultralisks now. He had more than half his plasma shield left, enough for him to survive.

Sheyan advanced forward and collided with one of the Ultralisks that was charging over in a violent impact. He was so strong that an ordinary Ultralisk could not knock him away!

"I can't! I'm not like the other hero units! They were invited here, but I volunteered to come here! I don't have the authority! Ah!! What kind of rubbish MT are you? Don't you see this Ultralisk breaking down my shield?!?!" Aldaris continued to scream.

Sheyan was wrestling with the Ultralisk with gnashing teeth. When he heard Aldaris' cry, he shouted back angrily, "You're a Protoss hero, so stop screaming like you're being raped by an Ultralisk! You're a disgrace to the Protoss race!"

Aldaris immediately shut his mouth, his face flushed with anger. But because there was a layer of light surrounding him, his expression could only be vaguely seen, so his embarrassment was not visible from the outside. In truth, Aldaris was a very prideful guy. It was already embarrassing enough that he had to cry out for help when he was under pressure. Now that he was ridiculed by Sheyan, he instantly gritted his teeth and refused to make another sound.

Of course, Sheyan may have mocked Aldaris, but he still tried to save him. He gave up defending to stoop down and plant the "seed" of Ramtas in the ground. The Ultralisk rammed into him, sending him flying. While Sheyan was traveling through the air, he pulled out 'Verdict' without any hesitation and performed all the necessary steps like declaring the enemy as a heathen, then rudely bombarded the head of the Ultralisk that was attacking Aldaris!

The boxing glove on Sheyan's right arm glowed an intense dark green! His arm slowly retracted back, seemingly with extreme difficulty. Every inch felt like it took Sheyan's entire strength, as if Sheyan's arm was bound to something that weighed a thousand pounds!

Fortunately, the other Ultralisk was currently unable to chase after Sheyan, because after it had knocked Sheyan away, Ramtas had dug out of the ground and engaged the Ultralisk with everything he had. Although Ramtas was certainly no match for the Ultralisk, he could definitely stall the muscular but simple-minded creature for a few seconds, maybe even more than a dozen seconds.

The moment the stunned Ultralisk raised its head, it was greeted by the sight of Sheyan's thundering fists. A string of sonic booms resounded through the air. Before the Ultralisk could even react, the carapace on its head that was was more than 30 centimeters thick was punched through by the fist, shattering like an egg shell! Its brain fluid splashed everywhere!

And it did not stop there. As if the fist had a life of its own, it even pulled Sheyan's entire body flying forward like an arrow! The fist was the arrowhead, while Sheyan's body was the arrow shaft!

Therefore, not only was Sheyan's fist buried deep inside the Ultralisk now, so was the greater part of his body. Only his left arm and half his left leg remained outside. The sharp edges of the hole made in the carapace cut deep into Sheyan's body, but Sheyan did not seem to notice the wounds at all.

The Ultralisk let out a terrified scream! Being a war machine, its pain-transmitting nerves had already been removed, but it still felt fear from its instinct as a living creature. It could clearly feel life rapidly seeping out of itself.

It raised its two sharp forelimbs, struggling to maintain the balance of its body and trying to offset the impact from the punch, but its body completely ignored the command of the brain. It helplessly fell on its rear.

Aldarius was attacking fiercely all this while. Under his spells, a large number of positive and negative ions were gathered and released towards the Ultralisk. Bluish-white electric currents, each strand as thick as the diameter of a bowl, zapped through the air and bombarded the Ultralisk. The attacked parts were quickly burnt black, and the yellowish-green fluid in its body started to boil and evaporate!

Sheyan was not at all comfortable, being almost completely buried in the Ultralisk's body. His arm felt as if it was being entangled by a large number of tough, squirming intestines. Those were the dense tendons of the Ultralisk and the source of its brutal strength.

And Sheyan's mouth also inevitably tasted a lot of the Ultralisk's body fluid. The yellowish-green fluid had an unpleasant smell, like boiling hot feces. Its taste was initially fishy and bitter, but then turned a little sweet.

Consuming the Ultralisk's body fluid did not give Sheyan any superpowers like in the legends. Instead, Sheyan got a very persistent negative status from accidentally tasting the fluid -- 'Gene Conflict'. The effect was a temporary drop in his maximum HP by 500 points, and it would actually last as long as 20 days.

Sheyan was livid. But just then, his right hand that had penetrated into the Ultralisk suddenly caught a lively object that was beating violently. Even with Sheyan's strength, he was barely able to maintain his grasp on it, so strong was the object beating. Sheyan felt as if it would slip out of the gaps between his fingers at any moment.

Sheyan took that as a provocation. He resolutely tightened his grip with force! In the end, the object was no match for Sheyan's monstrous strength and burst like a tomato, splashing its juice everywhere.

In that instant, Aldaris blasted it with another round of psionic shockwave, and this time, he was aiming for the huge wound made by Sheyan. The psionic shockwave drilled into the Ultralisk's body, becoming the final straw that broke the camel's back. The gigantic Ultralisk split into more than ten pieces. Body fluid and viscera splashed everywhere, soaking the ground hundreds of square metres in the vicinity!

Although the blow succeeded in killing their formidable enemy, Sheyan's face was charred black by the strong aftermath of the psionic shockwave, his hair standing upright from the electricity. His body was also covered in the thick body fluid of the Ultralisk. He looked absolutely terrible.

Of course Aldaris did that on purpose. He had always had feelings for Zi, so he had always held a little grudge against Sheyan. Cooperation was cooperation, but the revenge for personal grievances could still be exacted as long as it did not affect the overall situation. Besides, Sheyan had yelled at him previously, so the aftermath of the psionic shockwave made Aldaris very happy. He was now in a much better mood.

There was only one Ultralisk remaining, and it could easily be taken care of. Sheyan tanked in front; his Strength was no lower than the Ultralisk's, so he could hold the Ultralisk off while Aldaris safely launched his psionic shockwaves from behind. In addition, Ramtas was also firing his bristles at the Ultralisk from afar. The situation was developing in a favourable direction. Aldaris even intended to maliciously cause a bit of "friendly damage" once again with the last few strikes.

The fierce battle on this side had also attracted the attention of some ordinary Protoss troops that had successfully escaped, so by the time the Ultralisk was killed, their group expanded by an ordinary Dragoon and two ordinary Zealots.

In the end, Aldaris' ploy did not succeed. On the contrary, he was played by Sheyan instead. With a 'Tactical Throw', Sheyan flung him towards the dying Ultralisk. Aldaris ended up being drenched in the yellowish-green liquid, turning into a gloomy green globe…

After rescuing Aldaris, they decided to ride their momentum. They chased after the other group and soon caught up to the Dragoon hero who had two extra legs, named Tochego. When Tochego saw that the pursuing forces had split up, he had utilised his advantage in speed to carry out a hit-and-run tactic. He would shoot once, run away, then shoot again, repeating this maneuver over and over to try and kite his pursuers to death.

Therefore, Tochego was actually running around in circles on the plain all this time. He had decided to keep doing this as long as the Zerg did not send any reinforcement. He was quite enjoying himself. The problem was, even though he had been kiting the enemies for so long, he had only managed to kill two Zerglings.

After Sheyan's group joined the battle and tanked in front of him, Tochego could finally show off his impressive firepower. There was no suspense as to what happened next. But right after the battle ended, the trigger happy Tochego accidentally fired two shots at Sheyan. When he realised what he had done, he instantly performed the unique Dragoon dance to express his apology.

After a brief communication between the two sides, Tochego extended an alliance invitation to Sheyan. He had that authority, being a hero unit, and Sheyan had already shown his sincerity through his actions. The two sides finally reached an alliance agreement. From time to time, a Protoss symbol would glow on Sheyan's body, proving that he was an ally.

Sheyan's group had now expanded into a small army. Besides the three of them, there were also Ramtas, three Dragoons who managed to escape, two Zealots and a High Templar. The High Templar was a smart man. He had deliberately left some MP to cast Hallucination on himself at the most critical moment. With his Hallucinations protecting him, he had successfully escaped from the Zerg encirclement.

Next, they went to the aid of the Zealot hero, the muscular red caped man Sokada. There was not much to say about the operation. Two well-placed Psionic Storms killed off most of the Devourers and Zerglings. And then, after a simple skirmish, the Zealot hero was successfully rescued.

Red Cape Sokada was covered in wounds. He still cut a proud figure, but he probably would not have hung on for much longer if reinforcements had not arrived. In other words, their assistance was very timely. Fortunately, human medicine worked just as well on the Protoss, so after giving Sokada a series of injections for treatment, his condition rapidly improved.

At first, Sokada was very surprised to see Sheyan, a Terran, there, but after Aldaris' explanation, his perception quickly changed. In fact, he and Sheyan hit it off instantly, probably because they were both monsters that could take an Ultralisk head on.

But one thing that dissatisfied Sheyan was, Sokada firmly believed that Sheyan must have some Protoss blood in him, because he believed that only someone who possessed the noble Protoss bloodline could accomplish the feat of taking an Ultralisk head-on! Such a strange belief truly made Sheyan speechless!

But other than this problem, the forthright Sokada was actually a pretty agreeable fellow. He had a loud voice, which was much better than Tochego's cold, mechanical, synthetic Dragoon voice. But Tochego's coldness stemmed from his physical limitations as a Dragoon. It was not his fault.

Sheyan naturally had to distribute some of his gene-mixes to the group to earn some friendship points. No fighters would dislike Sheyan's mixes that could enhance their strengths all around.

Each of them reacted differently to Sheyan's mixes. Sokada instantly asked if Sheyan could give him a few more, but he gave up the idea when he found out that the mixes had a shelf life. Tochego tried to find out the recipe from Sheyan to see if there was a possibility to mass produce the mixes. Aldaris did not say anything, but he took his full share nonetheless.

They rested up for about half an hour until they recuperated to an extent. The small unit of wounded soldiers then decided to return to reinforce the Protoss base. When they approached the base, they saw from a distance away a large amount of glowing spots and buildings that were taking shape on the hillside. Although the sight was beautiful, there was a rushed feeling to it.

What they were seeing were clearly the aftermath of a war, and new buildings being rebuilt on the ruins after the fight had concluded. However, before they left, the Protoss base was clearly in a dangerous predicament, like a taut string that would break if it was pushed just a little harder.

The Zerg would absolutely not give up the chance to win. They would never have retreated if they did not absolutely have to. So what exactly happened to make the Zerg withdraw so abruptly?

In any case, it was good news that the Protoss base had not been captured yet. When Sheyan stepped into the Protoss base, he saw the terrible traces left by the war everywhere he looked, but a large number of Probes had been cleaning the place up, so the base was now once again enshrouded in that unique Protoss feel, an atmosphere that was both sacred and piercing.

Sheyan had now been marked as a Protoss ally, and because he could actually defeat an Ultralisk despite being a puny human, both Sokada and Torchego believed that Sheyan must be a hero unit himself. Therefore, he would be afforded certain privileges in the base, but he needed to perform further registration first.

Sheyan, of course, would not refuse that advantage. He followed a Zealot to the main building of the Protoss base, the Nexus. The Nexus was the heart of a Protoss base and served as a psychic anchor, allowing the Protoss to access the psionic matrix from even across the galaxy. It was a colossal building, similar in shape to the pyramids on Earth but with many additional components on the exterior, so its design had a sci-fi vibe.

The outer wall of the Nexus was built from a type of unknown metal that was engraved with a large amount of Protoss runes. These runes comprised of various circles and lines of different lengths. They appeared very mysterious.

Large transparent crystals that were over 5 meters tall were embedded into each of the four corners of the Nexus. Another large crystal over 10 meters tall was also placed at the very top of the building. All these crystals were formed by smelting the Pandora crystals collected by the Probes. They looked quite spectacular.

Of course, they were not ornamental. They had a very important function – whenever there was an invasion attempt, the five crystals would resonate with each other and glow dark blue, then form a powerful plasma shield to protect the Nexus from the enemy.

When there was a need for rapid healing and recovery after a war, these five crystals would emit a green glow instead, converting their energy into healing energy so as to heal the units inside the building.

Sheyan's appearance in the Protoss base naturally attracted a lot of attention, many of which were hostile. Fortunately, Red Cape Sokada was walking beside Sheyan all the time. Whenever Sokado felt an overly hostile gaze, he would stare back fiercely! He was an idol among the Zealots, which made up the majority of the Protoss forces, and the other Protoss soldiers could also tell that he was not to be messed with when they saw his giant hammer. Therefore, he saved Sheyan a lot of trouble along the way.

The moment Sheyan stepped through the gate of the Nexus, he felt an indescribable calmness, as if his soul had been shocked once, then washed clean with water. The vast space inside the Nexus actually gave him the feeling of being underwater – extremely clean and clear water, like the water that had just melted from thousand-year-old glaciers – just without the bubbles or breathing difficulties.

At that moment, the usually arrogant Sokada suddenly knelt on one knee and said in a panicky and respectful tone, "Lord Uraki! You've actually come here personally instead of just descending with your consciousness!"

When he coughed, it felt as if the calmness and quiet inside the base shook together with him. The violent cough of Lord Uraki lasted for ten whole minutes before it subsided. He panted in exhaustion after that.

Sheyan whispered to the simple-minded Sokada, "I believe Lord Uraki was deliberately luring the Zerg out full force to deplete their numbers. If Lord Uraki had shown up from the start, the cowardly Overmind on the other side would surely have retreated."

Sheyan's voice may have been soft, but how could it escape the ears of Lord Uraki, a powerful Protoss of a leadership level? He should be someone on the same level as the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan. The reason Sheyan said those words was naturally to attract his attention.

Sure enough, although Sheyan could not see this Uraki guy at all, he could distinctly feel a clear energy scanning himself. Soon, the big-wig said in a slightly cold voice, "First of all, human, I must thank you for siding with the great Protoss race. You have won our friendship. I hope you can cherish it and maintain it well. It will be the most important asset of your life."

'The Pandora crystals and gas resources on this planet are almost depleted having undergone large-scale mining before. The amount of crystals that you can bring here through long-distance interstellar travels are also limited, which can only mean one thing – be it the Protoss or the Zerg, both of you can only produce a limited number of forces.'

'You sly old fox. You hid yourself in the beginning to make use of your advantage in defence to dwindle down the Zerg's numbers. The attacking Zerg would naturally suffer more casualties than the defending Protoss,so the more aggressively the Zerg attack, the less troops they would have in their hands after this... I see. So someone on the Zerg side saw through your intentions and ordered a full retreat. And you're actually hurt – it must be because you were chasing after the retreating Zerg too hastily, so you fell for an ambush. An enemy on the same level as you had appeared!! '

Uraki seemed unwilling to have a long conversation with Sheyan. He did not even appear before Sheyan personally. He only sent a blue globe of light to the spot between Sheyan's eyebrows and left a mark there to show that Sheyan's ally hero identity had been recognised. That afforded Sheyan the same amount of privileges as Sokada and the other heroes.

Sheyan could only shrug off the Protoss leader's attitude. He knew the world did not revolve around him, and no one had any obligation to show him any goodwill. He had never been that kind of lucky characters. In any case, he had already achieved his objective, which was to obtain the right to freely enter and leave the Protoss base.

For Sheyan, looking for a Dark Temple that had been deliberately concealed on this vast Lost Temple planet was no different from looking for a needle in a haystack. Instead of going around aimlessly trying his luck, he thought that moving together with the Protoss forces and waiting for an opportunity to present itself was the better and safer plan. He could attack or retreat at will by hiding in the Protoss base.

Presently, the sky had darkened. The Nexus sat at the highest part of the entire Protoss base. Sheyan looked around and saw the whole base sparkling with little spots of blue light. Streamlined edges and pale blue colour were the main theme of the Protoss buildings. There really was a kind of mysterious, noble and elegant beauty to the base - if one were to ignore the murderous-looking Zealots and Dragoons on patrol.

At that moment, a group of patrolling Zealots passed by Sheyan. When they saw that a filthy human dared to set foot on the sacred ground of the Protoss, they immediately spread out and surrounded Sheyan in anger while drawing their psi-blades. But soon, the mark left on Sheyan by Uraki stopped them in their tracks. They expressed their apologies while half-kneeling on the ground, a show of obedience and respect to the heroic unit, and left afterwards.

Sad weeping sounds rose on the plain that was bathed in blood during the day. At the same time, a large number of fist-sized light globes floated up from the cracks in the plain. Sheyan had seen these things before – they were the so-called Devil's Eyes. They embellished the plain which appeared so bleak and cold in the daytime, giving it a grand, mysterious, yet desolate vibe.

Sheyan could not help checking his harvest from today's battle again. It was difficult to find targets that were completely "pure" and had not been polluted, so he only got a few white grade and blue grade equipment, all of which he fed to G-Spot as supplements. But he had also acquired some random spirit crystals from killing the Zerg, which may be of some use.

After waiting a little longer, the temperature plunged to a new low. Even with Sheyan's Physique, if he stood still, he would feel the chill drilling into his skin like frozen spikes. He was reluctant to wait any longer.

But at that moment, the gate of the Nexus suddenly rippled like a water surface, and Sokada, as robust as ever, walked out from it, his red cape flapping behind him. He first looked around, and when he saw Sheyan, he walked over with an unrestrained laughter.

Sheyan had tried to gauge his strength against Sokada before this. In terms of Strength, Sheyan had the slight advantage, but Sokada was very fast, so all in all, the level of basic combat prowess between both sides were similar. Of course, that was only the level of basic combat prowess. When Sheyan heard Sokada's words, he was immediately intrigued and asked to test out Sokada's new strength.

Sokada extended his hand, and Sheyan took it. They immediately began to exert power into their grip. This was a pure contest between muscles, a direct confrontation of strength against strength!

Sheyan still had the higher Strength, but Sokada felt like an entirely different person to him. He could feel the muscles of Sokada's entire body, hidden underneath his armour, bulging and twitching. Even though Sheyan was stronger, his Strength was like a heavy truck charging at high speed down a steep, uneven slope that was full of obstacles. The force he exerted was ingeniously dispersed!

Sheyan's back crashed hard into the building behind him. He quickly climbed back up with his palms pressed to the ground. When he did, he saw a large amount of cracks on the originally smooth floor beneath Sokada. That made him come to a sudden understanding.

They traveled through the mysterious, sharp and high-tech base. Blue light spots drifted by from time to time. There were so many things that were new to Sheyan that he did not even know where to look.

Sokada explained that a Dragoon's body was mechanical, and controlling the body was the soul of a veteran Protoss who could not step foot on the battlefield anymore after sustaining heavy injuries.

When the Dragoons were out of battle, the souls of these veterans would rather enter the Pylons and communicate with each other, savouring their achievements and spoils from the battlefield and enjoying rare times of leisure and happiness. When a fight broke out, these souls would return to their powerful metallic bodies and fight for the Protoss' glory.

Sokada brought Sheyan to a weird-looking building. To the left was a giant gear that was rotating slowly. The gear was connected to an elliptical part that was about thirty meters long and five meters tall. To the right was a giant ball. A beige, missile-shaped object about five to ten meters long was stuck onto the ball as decoration.

Sokada called this place the Furnace Laboratory. The main function of this building was to provide additional enchantment for the Protoss ground troops, enhancing their attack, defence and plasma shield strength. Although this place was called a laboratory, it was also a recreational and entertainment venue, much like a bar.

After climbing a set of beige, semi-metallic steps, they pushed open the door. Sheyan was instantly greeted by a wave of hot air on his face. He heard a clear, crisp noise in the background which sounded like dripping water. It was rather pleasant to the ears. He checked the place out and found that there were High Templars, Dark Templars and Zealots inside. All of them were shaking their heads to the rhythm of the dripping sound, seemingly enjoying the "music".

Soon, two cups of amber liquid floated out of the hole next to them. Sheyan took a sniff and found that it smelled quite pungent, like the smell of hydrogen peroxide. While his heart was in distress, Sokada already touched his glass to Sheyan's and gulped down his drink. Sheyan could only steel his heart and take a tentative sip. The drink tasted very unique. When it first entered the mouth, it had a cool taste akin to watermelon and cucumber. After a while, it became a rich creamy taste. Finally, after swallowing the drink, it left a beer-like bitter aftertaste.

Sheyan was about to ask Sokada to order something more suited for the human palates for him – even water would do – when suddenly, the music changed. It became the sound of the wind blowing across mountains and rivers. All the Protoss in the establishment immediately raised their glasses and shouted, "Moka!"

Sheyan finally understood that the music that the Protoss loved was not the sound made by any instruments, but the sounds of nature. They thought that those were the sounds from heaven itself. Sokada had already went over to a tall woman(?) (Sheyan could not really tell the gender of the Protoss very well) and started dancing with her. It seemed that to the Protoss, the more extremely they could twist their bodies without falling down, the better they could dance....

In this place with a large number of Protoss, the mark that Uraki left on Sheyan's forehead started to shine brightly. The blue glow covered his entire body, showing that he was a very special ally, so no one came to give him trouble. He saw seats of various shapes in the bar - triangular, round, and oval ones – so he chose one at random and sat down.

Sheyan lifted his head. He still could not tell the gender of the Protoss in front of him. He could only tell from the wrinkles on his(?) neck and face that he was pretty old. Fortunately, the Protoss communicated with the mind, so there was no language barrier.

The old fellow gave Sheyan a strange look - as if Sheyan was someone who ordered a cup of soy sauce or vinegar at the bar – then fulfilled Sheyan's request. Sheyan slowly sipped the water, but found that he had become the centre of attention without even doing anything... This made Sheyan feel rather uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Sokada once again came to the rescue. He returned this time not alone, but with a companion. From the ribbon-like ornaments the Protoss wore around her slender body, she should be a female Protoss.

Sokada sat heavily on the triangular chair next to Sheyan. The chair groaned in protest, sounding as if it would break down any moment, but it persisted in the end. Sokada picked up a large glass and drained the brown liquid in it in one big gulp, then sighed in satisfaction. He then introduced them to each other.

"This is the legendary human Brigadier General, Seaman. He's the strongest human I've ever seen. I think he might have some Protoss blood in him. This is Divina, our chief Phoenix pilot and a member of the Psionic Council. She's the most beautiful lady I've ever seen."

Sheyan took a glance at Divina, smiled and raised his glass. Divina looked back at Sheyan with cold eyes. The "ribbons" around her gathered and formed an odd oval symbol in the air. She then nodded at Sheyan. Evidently, that was the etiquette of Protoss ladies.

Divina's clear voice echoed in Sheyan's mind, "Human, why do you pour water directly into your body? Aren't you worried that it would flush away the nutrients inside you?"

Should he explain that drinking water could detoxify him and nourish his skin? That fresh water was an indispensable part of human life, able to flush harmful substances, such as calcium, phosphorus, uric acid, oxalic acid and so on, out of the human body?

But more importantly, Sheyan suddenly realised that drinking water might actually be harmful to the Protoss. The Protoss anatomy was obviously vastly different from the human anatomy.

Their interior structure likely maintained a perfect inner balance at all times. Water would dissolve away a large amount of organic and inorganic substances from their bodies, destroying their inner balance. Therefore, the seemingly harmless water would actually be poisonous to the Protoss if they drank it.

Sheyan was still organising his thoughts, trying to find the words to explain his situation to Divina, when the "ribbons" flying around Divina's body reached out to Sheyan and circled around his body.

"It's okay, human, you don't have to explain it. It seems that my understanding is a little biased. The human constitution should be totally different from ours. It was my mistake to try and gauge your situation from my perspective," said Divina.

Divina still seemed like she wanted to say something else, but Sokadara already dragged her away. They embraced each other and started getting affectionate with no regards for anyone else in the vicinity. In fact, the reason this place existed in the first place was to let the Protoss alleviate their tension before the battle, as well as to let them have fun and relieve their pressure afterwards.

When Divina, a popular figure here, was about to be conquered by Sokada, many Protoss started to gather around in an attempt to lure the beauty away, pushing Sheyan aside in the process.

"I can't believe it. So you're the legendary Brigadier General. Even my old man, who's so old that he already has one foot in the grave, has heard everything about you. I didn't expect you to look so humble."

Sheyan smiled. "What's your name, sir? Well... There's not necessarily much connection between a person's strength and outer appearance, is there? See how frail the High Templars look. Their fingers are as slender and pale as works of art , but it won't stop them from unleashing the most terrifying Psionic Storm that can reduce thousands of enemies to ashes! "

As he muttered to himself, he threw away the glass in his hand and poured himself a drink. The drink was a very magical and pretty light purple liquid which contained little glittering dots that looked like stars.

"Do you want to be thrown into the Star Prison by the Arbitration Council, Ol' Kido? This glass is made from the bones of Cosmic Blue Jellyfish. It's worth 13 honour points! The Starry Sky you're drinking is worth 50 honour points! You're done for!"

Ol' Kido looked at the Protoss like he was looking at a fool, then silently extended two straws that seemed like beard under his jaw into the glass, and proceeded to drink the Starry Sky! His expression seemed to say that dozens of honour points were worth nothing to him at all.

Not only that, he immediately ordered a glass of the treasure of the bar, the Sea of Stars, and continued to gulp it down like a cow eating a prized flower. He actually raised the glass at the Protoss in provocation!

The Protoss, of course, felt insulted and provoked by O'l Kido's actions. He instantly called in several Zealot military policemen that wore one-sided red armours. The Zealot military policemen stared at O'l Kido for a few moment, then grabbed the accuser by the neck and dragged him out.

Sheyan actually had a good guess, but he still shook his head just to be safe. Ol' Kido sighed and continued, "Because he made a false accusation against me. He believed that I won't have enough money to pay the bills, but in fact, I'm much richer than he thought, because... I had seven children - four sons and three daughters. All of them have their names on the death list. Their deaths provided me with a shocking amount of death gratuities, so I can drink the most expensive wine. But I'd rather be poor and drink only water like you -- sorry, I don't mean any offence."

"You're very strong. Even that kid, Sokada, seems to think highly of you. I think you must be strong enough to kill some Zerg bastards. Only the death and grief of the Zerg can soothe my aching heart. Otherwise, even drinking the most expensive wine here will only bring me as much pain as drinking water," Ol' Kido calmly said, "First, please kill fifty Zergs. Let me see your strength."

[ Mission Note: If you want to get the lowest evaluation rating, you can just report back after you've killed 50 Zerglings. But please try your best to choose stronger Zerg as your targets, and if possible, make sure they vary in type. Only then will you achieve a high evaluation rating, giving you a chance to receive the follow-up mission. ]

[ Warning: This is a good mission, but please perform it according to your ability. Nothing is more important than your own life. The time limit for this chain mission is 24 hours. ]

Following that, Sheyan talked to Ol' Kido for a while longer, and received another piece of valuable information: there would often be Protoss who came here to drink but did not have enough money to pay. When the military police were called in, most of them could only choose imprisonment, but a small number of them would chose to leave their valuables here as collateral.

Approximately half of these items were bought back by their original owners, but the other half were permanently forfeited! Sheyan thought that these items, many of which must be equipment, were great news for himself - at least it was great news for G-Spot!

Unfortunately, because his relationship level with Ol' Kido was still too low, he was not even allowed to see these equipment. Sheyan felt as if he had lost something he just gained.

At that moment, a commotion broke out among the Protoss that were sitting near the bar door. They suddenly ran out one after another, and the uneasy emotion slowly spread to all the people in the establishment. Sheyan followed their gazes and looked towards the distance, only to feel an indescribable sense of heavy oppression coming from that vast darkness on the horizon. Then, horrifying blood red lightning broke through the sky! It was an unconventional Psionic Storm!

Witnessing this lightning, subdued whispering spread among the Protoss like the suddenly appearing Psionic Storm. That was because only one person in the entire universe had the ability to unleash this horrible mutated blood red Psionic Storm -- the Queen of Blades, Sarah Kerrigan!

However, all of them knew that the Queen of Blades and Lord Uraki had both injured each other not that long ago. She was actually coming for them again so soon, while Lord Uraki was obviously still recovering from his injuries! The difference in the situations between both sides were obvious from a glance!

And with the arrival of the Queen of Blades, the Zerg's attacking pattern changed from a frontal assault to a side assault. They started employing a multi-faceted harassment strategy usually only used by the less powerful side in a war. It required a higher degree of coordination and cohesion between various troops, but if it was used properly, the tactic could be very powerful. Just imagine how disgraceful it was for the side which had the overwhelming advantage in strength if they had to turtle up in their base because they were constantly being harassed!

Sheyan was now almost certain that the Protoss were indeed hiding their true strength. Besides the fact that they had lured the Zerg to attack them for the purpose of depleting the opponent's numbers, there was now another piece of irrefutable proof presented before Sheyan's eyes - Sokada's introduction of the woman who hooked up with him.

Chief Phoenix pilot... What did that mean? The Phoenix warship was said to be the most-advanced Protoss aircraft. They were MVP-calibre warships meant to replace the Corsairs and the Scouts!

The whole base felt like it was being surrounded by a tide of Zerg. The cold eyes of the bugs seemed to be staring back at them from all directions within the darkness, monitoring their every move.

And waves would occasionally rise from the tide, slamming fiercely onto the Protoss base. They would destroy a Photon Cannon here or a Pylon there, then immediately retreat before the Protoss main force could arrive. If the Protoss force dared to pursue the Zerg, they would find it very difficult to come back alive.

Whenever a Protoss patrol squad saw something suspicious and rushed into the darkness, they would first cut through the darkness with unstoppable momentum like a hot knife through butter, then vanish in the darkness like sugar dissolving in water! After a few of such occurrences, the patrol squads could now only move within the range of the Photon Cannons.

In the beginning, the Protoss and Zerg forces were evenly matched, but after the battle during the day, because the Protoss were the defensive side who occupied the more advantageous terrain, a disparity in strength started appearing. At the moment, the power ratio between both sides were approximately 100:80.

That was to say, if they moved outside the range of the defensive facilities, the power ratio would become 70:50 in favour of the Zerg! So against this guerrilla tactic employed by the Zerg, the Protoss side could not move outside to confront them. They could only grit their teeth and endure!

Sheyan made some quick calculations and came to the conclusion that this tactic of the Zerg to slowly grind down the Protoss' strength was actually quite effective. The essence in a battle of attrition was to "hurt ten fingers instead of cutting off one", and to "accumulate small wins until they become a huge victory". Presently, under the cover of darkness, the Zerg appeared to have the advantage in terms of espionage thanks to the Overlords who had natural anti-stealth capabilities and could move into every opening. In addition, the Protoss' area of defence was simply too broad, so it was very difficult for their troops to come up with an effective defensive measure. This directly led to one consequence - the Protoss was helpless against the Zerg's guerrilla tactic!!

This also means that in but a few more hours, the advantage so painstakingly gained by the Protoss with the depletion tactic during the day would be gnawed away. More importantly, because half the Protoss's strength was invested in defensive facilities, the strength gap between the mobile forces of both sides would only keep widening!

However, at that moment, the special building of the Protoss suddenly glowed with extremely dazzling electricity. On top of the building which looked like a blood-red giant palm stood the leadership figure of the Protoss, Uraki. The tentacles on his face swayed, blown by the strong wind, and so did his robe, which clung to his body and showed off its strong and muscular outline!

Uraki suddenly gestured with his hand, seemingly directing his psionic energy at a certain spot in the base. A large group of Protoss troops immediately rushed to the location. The moment the defensive forces reached the place, a huge swarm of Zerglings sprinted out of the darkness. Their appearance was very abrupt, but against the prepared Protoss forces aided by defensive facilities, they might as well be running into a steel wall!

After three successive setbacks in the Zerg's offence, a red bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. Then, an invisible pressure crushed down on the base as if the whole sky had collapsed.

Those two powerful creatures once again engaged in a fierce direct confrontation. Only the both of them knew how terrible that collision on a spiritual level was. The air itself seemed to be torn apart by the invisible spiritual powers. More than a few of the weaker Protoss were affected by it, holding their heads and screaming in pain on the ground!

Soon, Uraki disappeared from the top of the building. The Queen of Blades in the distance also let out a fierce and furious scream, and the oppressive feeling gradually faded away.

Not long after, the sound of bells came from the Nexus. The sound transmitted through the air in the form of waves, but when it fell on Sheyan's ears, it was automatically converted into a telepathic message.

Although Sheyan had only one previous contact with Uraki, he immediately recognised the voice of the telepathic message as the one belonging to the legendary Protoss leader. Sheyan immediately heard the sounds of various heroic units dashing towards the gathering place. Evidently, Uraki's words carried great authority among the Protoss heroes, as if his words were the words of a god!

By the time Sheyan stepped into the interior of the Nexus, he found that the clear, fresh atmosphere inside that he felt from before had disappeared. Instead, it was now filled with killing intent. Two rows of yellow metal pillars with sharp, streamlined decorations on them, exuding a kingly majesty, lined up in the center of the hall.

At the end of the two rows of pillars was a huge dark blue crystal suspended in the air. Inside the crystal was Uraki, like an insect wrapped in amber. He seemed completely unconscious, but as he breathed, bright red mist would be discharged from the pores on his entire body.

Uraki's physical body seemed to have been badly damaged, but the moment Sheyan stepped inside the Nexus, he clearly had a feeling of being watched by the gods, as if even his internal organs were being seen through. It was probably because Uraki's soul had completely separated itself from the badly damaged body, and he still majestically controlled this sacred and dignified core Protoss building.

Facing such an extraordinary situation, Sheyan could not help sighing at how insanely powerful the legendary figure was. His soul could actually leave his body at will, as easily as one abandon a car that had broken down!

Sheyan saw Sokada secretly beckoning at him from the front of the crowd. Familiar faces were around him. Besides Aldaris and Tochego, there was also the woman Sokada had just hooked up with, Divina. Although Sheyan did not know what they were planning to do, he still silently moved over.

When the rest of the Protoss heroes saw a damn human slip into this sacred venue, their eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. And when they realised that the human had actually been authorised by Lord Uraki himself...they found that even harder to accept.

Sheyan looked around and saw that there were more than forty heroic figures in this place, further proving that the Protoss were hiding their true strength during the day.

Uraki's thoughts in their minds became stronger as he roared, "Yes, crush them! I risked serious injuries to myself in order to repel the Queen of Blades because only Kerrigan has the power to stop you! Now, she and I are both heavily wounded. You are our greatest fighters. What I want you to do is to blend in with our ordinary soldiers and use your formidable power to crush those insects! Make them scream in pain!"

Sheyan's heart jolted. Indeed, Uraki's ploy was very insidious, like needles hidden in a wool blanket. When the Zerg see a troop of Protoss soldiers which they thought were a ripe tomato waiting to be picked, they would surely chomp down on it without any hesitation, only to discover that the soft tomato contained a sharp needle inside! They would receive a painful pricking!

There is a saying that a flock of sheep led by a lion can defeat a pride of lions led by a sheep. Ordinary Protoss troops under the leadership of these powerful heroic units could surely erupt with a more terrifying force. More importantly, they would be fighting very close to the Protoss base, so they could be reinforced at any time. They could also retreat to the main base to rest any time they wished. It was almost impossible to completely wipe them out.

This way, when the Zerg were defeated several times in succession, they would become wary, and it would be hard for their guerilla squads to maintain their overall advantage like in the present situation. The Protoss would then slowly gain back their advantage.

Sheyan would still think about the causes and consequences of Uraki's order, but the rest of the people here were all hardcore fans of Uraki who would probably jump into a sea of fire without any hesitation should he order them too. Sheyan could not get used to this fanatical atmosphere, so he instinctively looked for an ally.

Fortunately, although Aldaris was a noble Protoss Archon on the surface, he was still a filthy contestant at heart. When Sheyan saw the guy cast an inquiring gaze at himself, the two of them quickly exchanged their thoughts with their eyes. Sure, there were some friction between them on a personal level, but they were currently on official business, and Sheyan had also accepted Ol' Kido's mission, so he nodded his head in reply....

A number of high-mobility Protoss troops had assembled within the base, accounting for about one third of the mobile forces the Protoss presently had. They were mainly ground units - Zealots, Dragoons, and Archons.

Several fully-loaded Shuttles were flying at low altitudes under the protection of Dragoons. Under normal circumstances, they were deployed to make sure that slow but powerful forces such as the Reavers and the High Templars would not fall behind. Any enemy attempting to attack the Shuttles from the air would have to endure the bombardment of the Dragoons' antimatter bolts.

This was also the standard configuration of the Protoss in ground warfare, tried and tested through countless battles to make sure it could cope with any dangerous situations – under the premise that the strength disparity between both sides was not too vast, of course.

Sheyan was currently disguised as a Zealot, standing alongside Sokada. The latter had been forced to give up his trademark giant hammer and red cape. He was currently muttering a string of curse words under his breath to express his strong dissatisfaction.

Tochego was intermixed within a large number of Dragoons. His two extra legs were not too conspicuous when he was among his kin, especially when he had deliberately camouflaged himself.

Sheyan took Ramtas with him. He wished to use his servant's sensitive sense of smell to acquire the most benefit for himself. Suddenly, the sound of battle and a violent explosion came from the south of the base. The squad did not move, because they knew that the distance was too far. If they rushed over, the only thing they would see when they arrived was the Zerg disappearing into the darkness.

This squad had received orders from Lord Uraki. It was of the utmost importance for them to choose the right time to join the fray. They must cause damage with the first strike! Until then, they should continue to lurk in the darkness.

The Protoss who was leading the squad in Uraki's stead was staying in the heroic Shuttle that had been disguised. He also had very strong mental powers and could pass his orders to every unit directly with his mind. Sheyan had yet to see his face and did not even know what type of Protoss soldier he was. He only knew that the guy was very strong, because he could sense it. The Protoss was like a highly alert spider that was pressing its front foot gently on the web it weaved, holding a tight grasp over the whole squad through the dense threads!

Ramtas, who was also disguised as a Zealot, twitched his nose a few times, then looked silently at Sheyan. He clenched his left hand, loosened his right hand and slightly skewed his left foot, indicating that he had smelled the Zerg and they were in the direction his toes were pointing at.

Of course, Sheyan would not give the Protoss squad a warning. He was only testing the accuracy of Ramtas' sense of smell. Sure enough, in about 20 seconds, the sound of a Photon Cannon shot came from that direction, as well as the angry shouts of Zealots and the screams of Zerglings.

The whole squad moved out at once, joining the fight like an arrow flying into the battlefield. They had been waiting for half an hour like the most patient hunters, and they were now charging forward like the most ferocious beasts, pouncing on the Zerg assault troops who thought they had succeeded in their ambush!

The area the Zerg chose to attack was not that far away, so when the Zealots sprinting at the very front arrived at the scene, they could just see several defending Zealots being killed and turning into smoke, and the plasma shield of a Photon Cannon breaking under the attack of a group of Zerglings. The Photon Cannon instantly ignited with a blue flame.

But the Zerg's joy was coming to an end. Usually, a Zealot's fighting power was equivalent to three Zerglings, so even if the Protoss side had a certain disadvantage in terms of numbers, the quality of their troops could make up for it. Well, this Protoss reinforcement squad actually outnumbered the Zerg troops.

Twenty Zerglings and thirty Hydralisks became blood that littered the ground in an instant, but they were far from enough to sate the bloodthirst of the Protoss. This Zerg ambush squad was only the tentacle that the kraken had stretched out in the darkness. The tip of the tentacle had been severed, but the remainder of the tentacle was rapidly being retracted back.

Their job was simple – they had to pursue after the Zerg troops that were retreating in a hurry to chase them to the source, so that they could teach the Zerg a painful lesson that they would never forget!

A Zealot's psi-blade fiercely pierced into the body of a Hydralisk. The Hydralisk's sticky green body fluid sprayed out of its body and quickly evaporated. A Dragoon's antimatter bolt exploded on a Zergling and burned it into smelly black garbage...

Sheyan ran away pathetically in a hurry. Behind him rose the strange sound of intense collision between metals. The soil on the ground rolled up, and a sharp wave of air over half a meter high surged like a tide.

It was not just simple air; it was a terrifying Lurker spine. After a Lurker burrowed into the ground, it could shoot its spines at a target through the ground. These spines would do the same amount of damage to all units they hit on the way to the target.

The fact that Sheyan was able to avoid the first round of Lurker ambush may still be considered a coincidence, but before the second round of sneak attacks came, he could no longer hide his real strength, because he already saw a Hydralisk in the distance spraying its acid here and there as if it was fooling around.

When Sheyan caught sight of the special Hydralisk from the corner of his eye, his heart immediately sank, because every time the damn Hydralisk spat, it was sure to find a near-death Protoss unit, thus making a kill with every shot!

That was the "ding" of the Protoss' Observer. These small drones were usually deployed to reconnoitre vast unexplored areas, or to observe and record battle events for the scholars of the Protoss to study in the archives.

The Observers were equipped with very complex sensor arrays, so they did not have enough energy left for defensive measures. However, they could easily detect invisible or hidden forces, and that alone made them very important on the battlefield.

The Observers usually did not have any active defensive systems at all when they fly at low altitudes to explore an area, but if they were deployed in combat areas, they could equip themselves with an invisibility force field to prevent detection by the enemies. Like the Arbiters, they did not need to expend any additional energy to maintain this invisibility force field.

When this Observer that was capable of detecting hidden units made its appearance, the Lurker that was lurking underground was instantly exposed. It was hiding behind a rock forty meters away!

Sheyan had been fighting tenaciously against this completely invisible enemy for ten seconds now. Although it had only been a short ten seconds, he felt like an eternity had passed. This time, with the Lurker exposed in front of him, Sheyan first dashed forward halfway, knelt on one knee and huddled up, taking a spine attack from the Lurker. While blood was still spraying from his body, he burst forward again, covering the remaining dozens of meters in the blink of an eye, and slammed his fist hard on the soft soil!

Soil scattered across the air. The underground Lurker felt the strong impact and pain coming from above, and let out a cry of agony. Sheyan, whose patience had worn thin, smashed eight more times into the ground until he heard the underground Lurker burst into bloody pieces.

But at that moment, Sheyan found that he had caught the attention of a ferocious enemy - the yellow Hydralisk that moved lazily! It was actually a heroic unit! That was why the Protoss expedition squad still fell into a bitter fight despite being made up of numerous heroes.

After the hit, Sheyan suddenly turned back and blocked his face with his right hand. A thick spurt of acid had shot towards him like a liquid arrow. The Hydralisk hero had already closed in to within 50 meters of Sheyan and had started attacking. Its disgusting mouthpiece squirmed violently, continuously spraying acid at Sheyan!

In order to disguise himself as a Zealot, Sheyan naturally had to wear the Zealot's armour. When the acid sprayed on the armour, the fine armour immediately blackened and emitted a pungent black smoke. It then started melting and distorting like burnt plastic, and proceeded to seep into Sheyan's flesh. It stung, but it did not feel that painful. However, when Sheyan checked his HP, he found that it was dropping at an incredible rate!

Sheyan instantly knew that he could not hesitate any longer. If he lost too much HP here, he would have a really hard time after this. He instantly brought out the big guns: 'Mind Transmission' + 'Hornrage'!

He covered the distance of fifty metres in the blink of an eye. Sheyan was still taking a beating a moment before, but in the next second, he was already slamming into the Hydralisk hero's soft abdomen!!

Sheyan's fist then pounded hard on the side of the Hydralisk's head. He put so much force into the punch that he could feel the grating of the metallic glove on the Hydralisk's skull. That part of the skull broke like matchsticks, and the tough skin there was stretched to the limit. The huge body of the Hydralisk was knocked more than two meters off the ground. It performed a difficult gymnastic sequence in the air, flipping 480 degrees before it fell heavily to the ground.

The Hydralisk's response upon landing was out of Sheyan's expectations. Unlike its previous domineering attitude when it killed with every shot from afar, it actually turned around and fled in a hurry! Large numbers of Zerglings came from all sides to protect it. Moreover, from a distance away within the darkness, there was a Queen who used 'Spawn Broodling' on Sheyan!

This perverse skill, which could insta-kill its target, was evidently only effective on ordinary units. Sheyan had already researched the threat of this skill while he was with the Blackthorn tribe, so he had no intention of dodging at all. He stepped forward and stepped on the tail of the Hydralisk hero. A large lump of disgusting eggs flew straight at Sheyan and hit him on the back, and a large number of milky white parasites immediately appeared and attempted to burrow into his armour.

However, it was all in vain, because all the parasites soon died. Sheyan simply rushed forward and continued to launch a fierce attack on the enemy in front of him. The swarm of ordinary Zerg around Sheyan attacked him in a frenzy, but Sheyan had no intention of stopping at all.

After discovering that 'Spawn Broodling' was ineffective on Sheyan, the Queen immediately sprayed a huge net made of thick green mucus at him instead. This thing was no stranger to Sheyan; it was the Queen's 'Ensnare' ability. The Queen was obviously trying to slow Sheyan down to help the Hydralisk hero escape.

As soon as Sheyan saw the mucus net coming at him, he simply pounced on the Hydralisk hero and rode on top of it! His left hand gripped the thick skin around the Hydralisk hero's neck tightly, while his right fist continued to smash repeatedly into its head.

The attack power and attack speed of this heroic Hydralisk were abnormally high. Unfortunately, its defensive capability was relatively low. After Sheyan closed in on it, it was not even able to fight back. With Sheyan's terrifying Strength plus the attack power of the insane +10 glove, every fist Sheyan launched hurt. The Hydralisk hero howled in agony, struggling like a chicken whose neck was cut halfway.

Because Sheyan had a strong innate ability protecting him, even though he was heavily surrounded by a large amount of ordinary Zerg, the damage he sustained was far less than one would imagine.

Sheyan closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He repeatedly and resolutely slammed his fist into the enemy. Finally, the Hydralisk hero emitted a loud shriek. Its body started to swell up like a balloon!

Upon discovering this situation, Sheyan instantly sensed a great threat coming. He immediately let go and rolled away, but how could the Zerg around him let him escape? They actually rushed at him in a frenzy. Sheyan had to drag seven or eight Zerglings with him as he forcefully rolled away like a lumbering big ball.

Although Sheyan had a few Zerglings on his back to cushion the blow, he could still feel the fierce impact on his back. The irresistible force pushed him forward by more than ten meters, making him fall flat on his face!

His back was completely numb, and his limbs felt devoid of strength. His ears could not hear anything but the buzzing in his brain. He was so nauseous that he felt like throwing up.

After several seconds, Sheyan found himself lying face down on the ground, slowly regaining his senses. He turned his head and looked back. A terrible area of flesh and blood, at least four hundred square meters, had formed around the place where the Hydralisk self-destructed. The place looked like a horrifying scene straight from hell, filled with blood, mutilated limbs and flesh pieces everywhere.

Only then did Sheyan realise that the sensation on his back had changed from numbness to burning pain. When he touched it, he felt that the armour and the skin on his back had been glued together, like a normal person who had been scalded by boiling water. He gnashed his teeth and ran forward, rescuing the surrounded Ramtas, and then successfully grouped up with Sokada. Together, their pressure instantly lightened.

Despite the addition of Sheyan to the Protoss side, giving them an advantage in certain aspects, the whole expedition force was still caught in a full-scale bitter fight. The reason for this was that the Zerg had anticipated their arrival and had placed their own heroic units here in advance. Although they had less heroic units than the Protoss side, they were effective in foiling the Protoss' plan.

The Protoss' original plan was to utilise the high-end combat power of a large number of heroic units to overwhelm the ordinary Zerg units, crushing them. It was like a cavalry charge in the era of cold weapons; a few thousand elite cavalry would cut through the formation made by tens of thousands of enemy infantries, creating chaos until the enemy's order completely collapsed.

However, with the Zerg heroic units joining the fray, it became very difficult for the Protoss elite squad to play its strategic role. Although there were far less Zerg heroic units than Protoss ones, their objective was simply to stall. Once the Protoss squad lost its mobility and capacity to overwhelm, they would be bogged down.

The Zealot hero had put on his red cloak again and took out his trademark hammer. He flew over hundreds of Zerglings and landed in the middle of a large group of Hydralisks. A red flame rose on his hammer, and he immediately swung the weapon around like a whirlwind. With this one attack, more than a dozen Hydralisks died in his hands.

But at this time, a huge Ultralisk charged towards Sokada and knocked him flying. Fortunately, Sokada had blocked the charge in time, or his stomach would have been punctured by the Ultralisk's fangs!

But even so, Sokada still landed with a terrible fall. He was completely defenseless for a short moment. The Ultralisk wanted to rush at him to give him another heavy blow, but Sheyan had already sprinted over. He first smashed a curse-mix at the ground to stop the ordinary Zerg soldiers from approaching Sokada, then slammed a fist onto the Ultralisk's head!

Sheyan was immediately knocked away by the rebounding impact. He rolled back up and rubbed his fist with his teeth gnashing. The Ultralisk received his share of the suffering too. It took a few unsteady steps back while shaking its head and letting out a dull groan. A large amount of white foam spewed out of his mouth. Tochego seized this opportunity to bombard the Ultralisk with a series of antimatter bolts from afar, blasting the Ultralisk, which was already injured to begin with, into pieces of flesh!

Aldaris also sent a psionic shockwave over, slaughtering the Zerglings surrounding Sokada. Sokada had recovered by now. As someone who usually fought at the front line, he would seldom have a chance to rest, so he often had to withdraw from the battlefield after a while, but this time, with him and Sheyan covering for each other, he had the chance to take a breather even during an intense fight on the front line. That prolonged his battle duration significantly.

At this time, the four of them, together with a small group which consisted of some Zealots and Dragoons, were slowly getting further and further away from the main force of the Protoss. However, led by Ramtas' sense of smell, they were also slowly escaping from the battlefield.

Eventually, the pressure on Sheyan and Sokada, who led the way, suddenly lightened. They abruptly found the area in front of them to be empty. The ferocious Zerg were all behind them; they had finally killed their way out from the seemingly endless sea of bugs! The ordinary Zealots and Dragoons following behind them also sighed in relief at escaping alive.

Because on planet Pandora, Sheyan already had the experience of bombarding Viperwolves packs with a large amount of Mutalisks. The acid spores the Mutalisks sprayed and the splash damage they caused were truly an amazing sight. But now that he was about to become the target of the acid spores, he found nothing amazing about it at all.

However, the main weakness of the Mutalisks was also widely-known – they had insufficient range. Their attack belonged to the category of mid- to short-ranged attack, so if a large number of Mutalisks wished to attack a certain target, they would inevitably have to cluster together.

And when the Mutalisks grouped together, the Protoss' powerful Psionic Storm could easily eradicate them. They also had to be wary of the Archon's psionic shockwave, which was also an AoE attack.

And within Sheyan's group, there happened to be a very powerful Archon – Aldaris! Not only could he attack with psionic shockwaves, he also had the powerful Psionic Storm at his disposal. As long as he could seize a good opportunity, he could actually wipe out all the incoming enemies by himself.

Sheyan had had a conversation with Aldaris before this. In other worlds, he could only transform into an Archon for a limited period of time, so he could only use this power as an ace up his sleeve, but this time, he was on a special mission, so he could actually maintain his status as an Archon without any consumption!

The Mutalisks swooped down with ear-piercing cries, bringing with them a harsh wind. Their main target of attack was, of course, Aldaris, who was hidden amid a soft white light.

Aldaris stood still as if he had been paralysed by fear, but Sheyan knew Aldaris was someone who would grow stronger the more powerful his enemy was. He was definitely calculating all the possible trajectories right now, trying to eliminate all uncertain variables! That's right, in Aldaris' mind, despite their horrifying numbers, these Mutalisks were all already dead! They would become the stepping stone for his victory!!

"Now!" When the shockingly large group of Mutalisks had dived to within 50 meters of him, Aldaris suddenly lifted his hands. Terrifying psionic energy leaped around on his fingertips. A terrible Psionic Storm suddenly rose, sweeping across the entire sky!

A brief moment after the Psionic Storm enshrouded the Mutalisks, another Psionic Storm appeared ahead of these flying Zerg, as well as to their left and right! Aldaris had actually unleashed four Psionic Storms almost simultaneously! An area of coverage of this size was unheard of!

Based on the destructive power of the Psionic Storm, the Mutalisks would be shredded into pieces if they could not fly out of the Psionic Storm within two seconds. But considering the vast area covered by the four Psionic Storms, it was almost impossible for them to achieve this unless they could immediately force themselves to stop mid-dive and fly in reverse like a car backing up. But of course, that kind of maneuver was only wishful thinking!

For Aldaris, the moment this horrifyingly large group of Mutalisks congregated, they immediately became his most ideal prey, as well as his source of Protoss prestige points and loot! He had a strong confidence in his secret move, the Psionic Storm Matrix.

The Queen of Blades, having arranged these Mutalisks to be the last line of defence to stop the enemies, would certainly take their greatest weakness into consideration! Especially when they were facing the powerful Protoss who were proficient in AoE attacks.

It was a very ordinary-looking Mutalisk hero, almost identical in appearance to the rest of the Mutalisks. Within the large group of flying Mutalisks, it was like a stone hidden on the beach.

But gold would always glitter. When the powerful Psionic Storm descended on the Mutalisks, all of them drew close to the Mutalisk hero. A huge protective cover, tinted green, instantly appeared around the hero and skillfully shielded the Mutalisks from the Psionic Storm.

In the end, Aldaris' completely depleted his MP after unleashing the Psionic Storm Matrix, but he did not even manage to scrape a single layer of skin off a single Mutalisk! What he had to face now was the furious attack from a swarm of angered Mutalisks in their prime condition!!

Sheyan instantly activated his Awakening Skill, 'Survival Mark', using it on Aldaris without any hesitation. Fortunately, he still had his innate ability, 'Death's Lament', at his disposal, so he did not have to worry about being insta-killed.

The Mutalisks continued their dive under the protection of the giant shield. Their terrifying numbers covered up the sky and shaded the sun. Fifty metres...forty metres...twenty metres! In the blink of an eye, Aldaris was already within the Mutalisks' firing range! Even under the protection of 'Survival Mark', he would most likely be instantly killed!

But right at that moment, a Zealot next to him burst into flame, then started swelling up. The flame burning him was dark red in colour. He rapidly became a giant glowing sphere, exactly like Aldaris but dark red instead of white. The silhouette inside exuded an oppressive pressure.

His outer appearance was almost exactly the same as Aldaris. The difference was, Aldaris looked like a white ball of light, while this guy named Noos was glowing dark red, as if he had just climbed out of the magma of hell. He was a type of powerful creature made up of living plasma energy, which injected into him eternal fury. These creatures could be formed by fusing any two Dark Templars together, and had the ability to control the mysterious energy within space and time.

These terrifying units were so powerful that the Dark Templars refused to acknowledge their existence for a thousand years. Only after the Zerg destroyed planet Aiur did the Dark Templar realise the need for, and unseal, their most powerful weapon!

(TL: The Dark Archon is a heavy Protoss psionic support unit. The powers of Dark Archons extend well beyond those of the regular Archon, more than compensating for their lack of any physical attack capability. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_archon )

The moment Sheyan felt the oppressive pressure, he instantly knew that this Noos guy must be the hidden leader of the selected assault force, the one entrusted with the command of this operation by the powerful Uraki! He had actually been hiding among their group all this while! Noos was probably hiding near Sheyan because he was wary of him. Sheyan was not a Protoss, so Noos must have thought that he was the most unstable factor in the whole squad. Surprisingly, Noos actually revealed himself at such a time.

The Dark Archon's dark red flame would send fear into any enemies that laid eyes on him, even the Mutalisks that were swooping down from the sky. But under the leadership of the Mutalisk hero and the protection of the powerful radiation shield which could absorb any harmful power, they resolutely continued to dive down!

Amid the blood-red illumination surrounding him, Noos raised his left hand and pointed at the giant radiation shield, or rather, at the Mutalisks in it that were flapping their wings hard and spewing acid spores! His consciousness instantly established communication with the mighty power which filled the vast starry sky, and evoked a resonance. A terrifying space vortex erupted among the Mutalisks. The powerful attractive force of the vortex did not cause any damage, but it could ignore the radiation shield because the shield only protected the Zerg from destructive damage. Most of the Mutalisks suddenly halted, as if they were frozen in time!

(TL: That was the Dark Archon's Maelstrom ability, which prevents all biological units (friendly included) within a 4 x 4 area from attacking, moving, or casting spells for short period of time. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Maelstrom )

After Noos had cast the Maelstrom, the dark red flame that was burning all over his body flared up to form an ancient Protoss symbol about two meters in diameter. He then shouted:

The ancient Protoss symbol instantly shattered, and the space on top of the Mutalisks, that were still frozen by the Maelstrom, split open. A large number of circular yellow rays radiated out of the rift, and...the minds of all the Mutalisks within range were controlled by Noos! They had become Noos' servants!

(TL: Mind Control - Transfers control of any enemy unit to the casting player. Using Mind Control will drain the Dark Archon's shields and leave it vulnerable. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Mind_control )

The heroic Mutalisk naturally could not be mind-controlled, but it happened to be within the firing range of the Mutalisks that had just been controlled. In the blink of an eye, countless acid spores struck the Mutalisk hero violently. The powerful heroic unit instantly burst into pieces in the air!

No wonder there was a saying that it did not necessarily take a sword to kill. On the battlefield, the greatest damage were often caused by those that had no direct destructive power.

Therefore, Aldaris actually still took some hits from some Mutalisks, and the cumulative damage was actually pretty high. If it wasn't for Sheyan's Awakening Skill, Aldaris would probably have died. But even if he did escape with his life, he was still seriously injured and had fallen unconscious.

The glow around Aldaris had become very weak, looking like it would dissipate at any moment. In a large scale battle like this, the strength of an individual was truly insignificant.

A calculative, cold-blooded guy like Noos would certainly make hitting the target his main priority. As for Aldaris' survival, it was not within his consideration. Besides, sacrifice was the necessary virtue of a Protoss hero!

To be honest, Noos' appearance was beyond the expectations of the Queen of Blades. Noos' strength level was already at the peak of a heroic unit, only a short distance away from entering the ranks of the leadership figures.

Noos had been unbelievably patient up to now. His sudden appearance had inflicted a heavy blow on the Zerg. At least hundreds of Mutalisks had been affected by his Mind Control, becoming his slaves.

Noos had used his whole strength in that strike, so he had currently fallen into a weakened state. Only now did his information, which had previously been concealed, appear before Sheyan when Sheyan looked at him.

[ Ability: 'Maelstrom' -- Use the dark energy within time and space to freeze time within a certain area, so that all enemies inside the area become immobilised, but still receive damage. Lasts for 12 seconds, cooldown of 600 seconds. ]

[ Ability: 'Mind Control' -- Use the dark energy within the soul to control the minds of other creatures. This is the ultimate weapon of the Dark Archon. The Dark Archon will possess the power and knowledge of a creature that is under control. ]

[ Under the effort of Noos, this ability can now either be used on an individual unit, becoming strong enough to enslave even the powerful heroic units, or be cast over an area, enslaving all the creatures inside the area! ]

The chain reaction brought by Noos' success was quite astonishing. First of all, the Zerg side lost a powerful force with high mobility and high attack power. Not only that, the force was now actually under the control of the Protoss side!

Noos had not simply eliminated the enemy forces. To give an example, if the power ratio between the two sides before were 8:4 with the Zerg's strength double that of the Protoss', then Noos' strike had weakened the Zerg's strength level to 6, while the Protoss's strength level had been increased to 6 as well. A single powerful move from Noos had unexpectedly turned the Zerg's overwhelming advantage into a level playing field!

The subsequent battle became even more tragic. With the Protoss troops' strength significantly increased, Noos led the group charging into the darkness again, back towards the Zerg army! His objective was to gather up the Protoss troops that had been separated into several smaller groups by the Zerg.

With a horrifyingly large swarm of Mutalisks blasting open a path for the group with no regards to their own casualties, and the lack of large area-of-effect destructive skills like the Psionic Storm among the Zerg, the Protoss group led by Noos cut into the Zerg army with unstoppable momentum like a hot knife through butter.

Such a frenzied advance was only made possible by the fragile Mutalisks leading the way in front with their attacks, leading to their high casualty rate. Under the retaliation of the Hydralisks, a controlled Mutalisk would die every few seconds. Scourges would also launch suicidal attacks against them from time to time.

After successfully absorbing two trapped Protoss groups into their team, Noos instantly headed towards the third group, but halfway there, he suddenly made a sharp turn! At the same time, something big was happening at the Protoss base. The heroic Shuttle from before took off and headed straight towards the battlefield, escorted by Divina's heroic Phoenix warship as well as various high mobility ordinary flying units!

Sheyan initially did not understand the reason behind Noos' sudden change in target. Being among the Protoss squad that had gone berserk with attacking, he had no choice but to move forward carried by the flow. However, he did feel the resistance in front of them increasing with time.

After a while, Sheyan finally realised the intentions of the powerful Dark Archon commander. He wished to go straight to the core of the Zerg army to take the head of the enemy's commanding general!

Although Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, had severely injured Uraki, she did not escape unharmed herself. She must have gone back to the Zerg lair to rest and recuperate. Therefore, as long as the Protoss team could take down the Overmind, a victory over the leaderless Zerg was almost guaranteed.

Noos first pretended to rescue the Protoss' stranded forces, baiting the main Zerg forces to move in that direction, then abruptly shifted his direction straight at the Zerg Overmind, while the Protoss base sent in reinforcements at the same time. The Protoss was making an all-out offensive!

In response, the Zerg forces naturally tried to fall back to defend with great haste. As a result, the surrounded Protoss troops could now break free from their encirclement. This way, not only would Noos be supported by the reinforcements from the base, he would also be reinforced by the rest of the Protoss soldiers on the battlefield. He had gained the upper hand in this fight.

The Zerg Overmind was defending against Noos' charge in order to survive, but were the Protoss soldiers not making the charge for the sake of their survival too? If the Protoss could not cause irreparable damage to the Zerg side tonight, having played all the cards in their hand, they would be no match for the Zerg once the Queen of Blades recovered. Therefore, the determination and the will of both sides in this crucial moment had reached an unimaginable level. There was a strong sense that both sides would fight to the last soldier.

Among the heroes Sheyan knew, Red Caped Sokada died during the charge! The heroic Carrier exploded under the bombardment of countless Hydralisks and Scourges! Even the heroic Shuttle was blown up by the Zerg!

Fortunately, the pilot of the Shuttle managed to survive thanks to Sheyan's timely rescue. Tochego had also survived because he was a long-range fighter. He only lost three of his legs, but he would have died too if Sheyan had not seized an opening to save him. Less than a tenth of the powerful Protoss heroic units remained. There were initially hundreds of Mutalisks under Noos' control, but less than twenty of them were still alive by now.

This Overmind looked almost similar to the Overmind of the Blackthorn tribe, except for the vivid red stripe which extended from his head all the way down his back. That's right, he was an old acquaintance of Sheyan, the Redliner Overmind who once fought against the Blackthorn tribe on the distant planet P.

(TL: Planet P is the planet on which the plot of Starship Troopers takes place, and also the planet visited by Sheyan waaaaaay back in the story where he helped the Blackthorn Zerg tribe fight the Redliner Zerg tribe. )

It had apparently grown stronger, evolving from a fat, bulky bug that looked like a maggot into a battle unit that was protected by a hard shell all over its body, like a cockroach.

Noos did not shout any orders or words of encouragement. He simply pointed with his finger, and his Maelstrom descended upon the awaiting Zerg troops ahead that had taken up a defensive position. Hundreds of Zerglings, Hydralisks, and Ultralisks, if not thousands, were immobilised by the powerful shackles of time and space, thus prying open a gap in the solid defensive line!

First, they swept the enemies with Psionic Storms, then let the Reavers bombard the enemies from long range with Scarabs, and finally dispatched the Zealots and Dragoons to clean up the mess. However, the bodyguards around the Overmind were extremely powerful, so the two sides were engaged in a bitter fight.

Sheyan truly envied Aldaris for being sent back to the rear to recover. He himself had to grit his teeth and charge at the front line. He already tried his hardest to choose weaker-looking targets whenever he could, but the soldiers here were all elites that had survived hundreds of battles, so he was still put under great pressure!

To Sheyan's chagrin, the few times he had tried to lay on the ground, pretending to be heavily wounded, Noos would instantly stare at him with cold, mocking eyes. Sheyan could only climb back up and keep fighting on the front line obediently.

Unbeknownst to Sheyan, Noos was a staunch supporter of the Protoss supremacy ideology, even more so than Sokada. He believed that the Protoss were the most perfect race, but Sheyan, a weak human, had actually lasted even longer than most of the Protoss elites under his watch. Of course Noos would have his eyes on Sheyan!

"Goddammit..." Sheyan had no choice but to pull out 'Verdict', sentence a Hydralisk in front of him to be a heretic, and pull the trigger. He was being forced to restore his HP via the healing effect of 'Verdict'! That showed what a tough predicament he was in!

Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the sky. A unique-looking streamlined aircraft broke through the darkness. Rows of transparent windows lined up on its crystal blue body. It had a flashy outer appearance, like an abstract-looking wild phoenix!

Thanks to the Protoss group's fearless, frenzied attack, a crack finally appeared among the guards protecting the Redliner Overmind, but only a small crack, just enough for the eyes to see what was behind it. However, at that very moment, a timely blue ray shot out of the tip of Divina's Phoenix and struck the Redliner Overmind!!

[ Description: The Phoenix fighter jet is a small but lethal aircraft, replacing the role of the Scouts and the Corsair in the Protoss army. The Phoenix is often used to patrol the borders of Protoss territories and eliminate all external threats. The jet's dual ion cannons are very effective in aerial combat, and can also be used to clean up ground forces. ]

[ Ability: Graviton Beam – Mark a ground unit from a distance, calculate its data, and lift it into the air, preventing it from moving, attacking, or using abilities for 10 seconds. Cooldown of 30 minutes. After modification, and coupled with Divina's formidable strength, the precedence of this ability is very high. ]

[ Ability: Ion Tide – At the cost of instantaneously consuming all plasma shield points (plasma shield points must be no less than 3000), trigger a wide-area Ion Tide that will cause damage to all enemy units in the surrounding airspace. The Phoenix will be out of energy for a relatively short period afterwards. ]

[ An alert enemy would usually distance itself when the Phoenix goes into overload to perform the Ion Tide, and return afterwards to inflict lethal damage on the momentarily defenceless aircraft. Therefore, Phoenix pilots would often stagger the release of Ion Tides to ensure a continuous network of aerial destruction. ]

[ Under Divina's control, this powerful Phoenix fighter jet would immediately fly into a small wormhole after releasing an Ion Tide, teleporting to a random spot within five kilometers. This greatly improves its survivability. ]

The Redliner Overmind showed no abnormalities and there was no indication that the Overmind had or would suffer any damage from the Phoenix's strike, but every Zerg knew that being marked by a Phoenix fighter jet was never a good sign.

But no matter how hard the Redliner Overmind struggled, it could not break free of the blue ray which connected it to the Phoenix. The other Zerg rushed madly at the culprit, Divina, but they were all beaten back by the Protoss troops who were prepared for them.

Finally, Divina's Phoenix finished its calculation. As the fighter jet emitted a dazzling light, the bulky Overmind was lifted upwards, floating to a height of 10 meters and out of the impenetrable protection of his escorts.

As Noos inhaled, the red glow all around his body was sucked into him, leaving behind only a black humanoid figure. Then, Noos' arm lashed out like a long black whip and fiercely struck the body of the Redliner Overmind!

The moment the black whip and the Redliner Overmind came into contact, everyone clearly sensed something, as if something of vital importance had been forcibly squeezed out of the Redliner Overmind, dispersing into thin air.

But the Redliner Overmind was in an even worse condition. A large amount of emerald green liquid gushed madly out of the cracks in the shell of his beetle-like body, dripping to the ground!

Unfortunately for the Zerg, Noos' previous Mind Control had eliminated close to 70% of the Zerg's aerial forces, and after such a bitter fight, the Zerg had close to zero aerial troops currently remaining. That is to say, unless the Zerg ground units could jump 10 meters high, they could not even use their bodies to absorb damage for the Redliner Overmind.

Even someone built as tough as Sheyan felt powerless in such a large-scale battle, and that was also true for the Redliner Overmind. No matter how tough his shell and his HP were, there was absolutely no way he could withstand the focus fire from such a shockingly large amount of enemies, even if they were only ordinary units!

The fat bug did not even last the whole 10 seconds of the Graviton Beam before he burst into pieces in the air. More than a dozen brown, fleshy pieces rained down together with a large amount of shell fragments and emerald green body fluid, making for an unbelievably tragic spectacle.

Sheyan took the chance to stealthily sneak away. To his surprise, he discovered several contestants that had appeared among the Protoss army, trying to profit from the chaotic situation, but Sheyan himself chose to run as far away as possible. To him, it did not look like the Protoss strategy had worked at all. Instead of the Zerg, the Protoss side was the one that seemed like it was about to collapse.

"What a bunch of fearless and ignorant people," sighed Sheyan as he fled. "Fortunately, Noos is too weak after unleashing Feedback to pay any attention to me, or I'd never be able to escape from his surveillance. Huh... This feeling!!! She's here already????"

Divina's Phoenix was crashing down amid thick black smoke. A blood-red bolt of lightning had accurately struck the Phoenix's cockpit, raising the temperature inside to more than 3,000 degrees.

As a creature of living psionic energy, Noos' death did not look tragic nor frightening. He only turned from a black globe of light wrapped in red light into two black globes of light wrapped in red light, and then slowly dispersed into the air. However, his death also meant that the Protoss army was now leaderless....

The moment Sheyan sensed the terrifying pressure, he immediately abandoned all disguise and ran away with all his might. Fortunately, Sheyan was the first to flee, and at the moment, he had already reached the outer periphery of the battlefield, so it was not long before he completely escaped from the battle.

Only after he made sure that he had fled to safety did Sheyan turn back. He found that the endless darkness from before had completely disappeared, replaced by the faint starlight in the sky and the faint phosphorescence of the steel-blue earth. Although the illumination was not dazzling, the air had a very low dust content, so visibility was still high. A biting chill seeped through the clothes into his skin, drilling right into the bones.

Soon, Old Charlie came to join Sheyan. As Sheyan's servant, Old Charlie could sense his position. Old Charlie had close to zero combat power on the front line, so Sheyan had left him behind in the human base.

Old Charlie had arrived in a Vulture, a Terran magnetic hovering war vehicle that looked like a motorcycle, known for its speed. The emergence of the Vulture showed that the human base back there was developing quite well.

Sheyan smiled and replied, "Of course. The last time I was in the Starship Troopers world, I already witnessed the situation when the Overmind of a Zerg tribe is killed. The remaining Zerg troops would go completely out of control and fight only for themselves, like a heap of loose sand! Another Overmind can instantly and effortlessly assimilate these troops into its own tribe."

"But after the Redliner Overmind was killed, although the strength of those bugs dropped from losing the bonus provided by the Overmind, their attack actually became more frenzied instead! This could only mean one thing – they could still sense the presence of a leader among them. Who else could it be besides the Queen of Blades?"

Old Charlie sat at the back, the wrinkles on his face so deep they seemed to be carved with a knife. He lightly coughed and said, "I smell a conspiracy here. There are too many obvious signs that this is a scheme, like these were all planned chess moves. Obviously, in terms of the highest combat force of both sides, Uraki is no match for Kerrigan, but on a lower level, the demigod-level Noos is a little stronger than the Redliner Overmind - but the result now is, although the Queen of Blades did successfully kill Noos, the Redliner Overmind is also dead, so she must return to the battlefield to lead the Zerg army despite her injuries. Her strength will undoubtedly decline again, while the quietly resting Uraki will recover some strength. The highest combat power of both sides will unknowingly return to a balanced state!"

A flash of light streaked across Sheyan's eyes. "Now that you mention it, it really does seem like an exchange of chess moves. Noos beat the Redliner Overmind, and the difference in strength between Noos and the Redliner Overmind is transferred to Kerrigan, reducing her strength. If Noos, who had reached the level of a demigod, actually had a bad relationship with Uraki, then the current situation really does smell like a conspiracy."

Sheyan's eyes narrowed. "I understand what you mean. Kerrigan can't leave the front line at the moment, so the defensive strength of the Zerg base is now at its lowest. If we're willing to take the risk..."

The idea of visiting the Queen's lair burned hot in Sheyan's mind, and it must be very enticing for some of the readers out there too – the story of a hero infiltrating the dragon's den and returning with a sack full of loot may be tacky and cliche, but it's also a very exciting and satisfying one.

In essence, the risk of infiltrating a dragon's den and the risk of infiltrating the Queen's lair were almost similar. Kerrigan's strength was not that much lower than a dragon's, and if she had her minions with her, she would eat the dragons for breakfast.

But there was one major difference. Everyone knows dragons like to collect shiny things like treasures and coins but never spend them, so their wealth would grow over time at a rate that is faster than any kind of financial plans offered by any banks....

On the other hand, the Queen of Blades may or may not have a hobby of collecting treasures, but she was undeniably a woman -- as we all know, even ordinary women have very strong spending power. Even if Kerrigan did have a hobby of collecting treasures, her spending power most likely outpaced her collecting speed. Therefore, Sheyan's likelihood of coming back empty-handed was quite high.

While Sheyan hesitated, he caught sight of Old Charlie who was sitting respectfully behind him. He could not help asking, "What do you think, Watson – I mean, Old Charlie?"

"I know what you're worried about, master, but according to the principles of the Realms, if there's no profit to be gained in the Queen's lair, then we wouldn't face any great danger either," Old Charlie replied calmly.

Sheyan was starting to be moved. "But no matter how empty the Zerg base is, there must be some defensive forces left. If I get careless for just a moment, I might be trapped inside."

"Based on my analysis, the Protoss and the Zerg will remain in a stalemate for some time and will not engage in any more large-scale fights. There's little chance of Kerrigan withdrawing with her troops back to the base. On the contrary, the Zerg are likely to take advantage of the remaining night time to carry out the harassment tactic from before to nibble away at the Protoss' number again. You can just return to the Protoss base to report on your mission and get the rewards, then rest for a while before you meet up with the human forces to rush at the Zerg base. That's the safest way," explained Old Charlie.

"After you left, Snake didn't come back either, but Pontin gave us another surprise. He actually promoted again. After that, he improved many of the Terran technologies and the base's mining efficiency. The human base has started to take shape," explained Old Charlie.

"Yes. Pontin has great potential. Before you strengthened him, he was actually already about to break through into an elite unit, so after he promoted, he was only a step away from a heroic unit. After some intensive work and experiencing a difficult environment under great pressure, it makes sense that he would break through. Of course, this also has to do with the fact that he's only an SCV, a basic worker unit type, so promotion is easier."

"If you're right in your analysis, it really is impossible for the Queen of Blades to return to base before dawn. The reason she was able to arrive so quickly to the scene earlier must be because she has a mental link with the Redliner Overmind. Now, the Protoss army should be able to win some time for us, so even if I take advantage of the chaos to flee back to the Protoss base to report back on the mission and then come out again, I should still have enough time."

Sheyan soon arrived back at the Protoss base. By this time, at a position five kilometers southeast of the base, the Protoss main force had already recovered from the chaos. They had formed a solid formation and were retreating as they fought.

Uraki had already taken command of the troops. The price of being routed was too great; it was not something Uraki could afford. Therefore, he could only use this slow but effective method to withdraw the troops.

The Zerg army, led by the Queen of Blades, chased after them like a pack of hungry wolves. Whenever they find an opening, they would not hesitate to rush in and tear off a large piece of meat.

Sheyan tidied up his appearance and tried to make himself look less messy before he entered the Furnace Laboratory. The atmosphere inside was still as elegant as before - beige floor, symmetrical and slender lines, and nature-like music which made one feel free and dreamlike.

But besides that, there was also a faint bloody smell in the air. The smell was not unfamiliar to Sheyan. It was the smell of the Zerg's body fluids mingled with the smell of the Protoss' body fluids; a smell that was present everywhere on the battlefield.

Upon entering the bar, Sheyan immediately detected the source of the smell. It came from a few worn-out and wounded Protoss. They had been treated, as were evident from the bandages on their bodies, and were now slowly recovering.

One of them, a Zealot, had actually been rescued by Sheyan before, so as soon as he saw Sheyan, he immediately stood up and offered to buy Sheyan a drink. Of course Sheyan would not refuse his kindness, but he still chose the non-mainstream drink of fresh water. Under the amazed gazes of the other Protoss, he quickly grabbed Ol' Kido and pulled him to the back.

It was worth mentioning that, in some aspects, the Protoss were rather similar to horses. They liked to sleep standing up. Some would sleep sitting down, but they would not lie down unless they really have to. Therefore, there was no bed in Ol' Kido's room.

They also had a habit of placing a small piece of Pandora crystal on their forehead when they slept, so a pillar inlaid with Pandora crystal was indispensable in every Protoss bedroom.

This was the first time Sheyan had entered the private bedroom of a Protoss, so he was rather curious, but he did not waste any time to take out the mission items that the powerful Zerg heroes or elites dropped when he killed them, and put them on the table one by one. They were all things like inner cores or hearts. Ol' Kido carefully inspected each of them, and at the same time, exclaimed in admiration.

"*sniff sniff sniff*...My children, do you see these? These are all my gifts to you. Let those damn Zerg rot in hell! You're indeed strong, human. You did a great job!"

[ Mission Description: Do you want to receive a reward now (a random silver storyline equipment) or do you want the reward to accumulate into the next round of the Hidden Chain Mission? ]

Sheyan was mentally prepared for the A+ evaluation. On that horrible battlefield, his personal strength was simply too insignificant. If his party was here, he believed he would have gotten an 'S' evaluation. Sheyan chose to accumulate the reward because a random silver storyline equipment was no longer that attractive to him.

After Sheyan chose to continue with the mission, Ol' Kido sat down in his chair, wiped away his tears and said, "I knew you're an ambitious man and you won't be interested in a reward of this level. Not a problem, even the Devil would be green with envy at the wealth I've accumulated over the years. As long as you can keep satisfying my wishes, you'll certainly get what you want!"

"No, no, no, I'm tired of seeing these dirty and bloody flesh. But more importantly, the terrifying fertility of the Zerg is a real nightmare. For every one of them you kill, two more will hatch in that far-away lair of theirs. I'd like you to solve this problem from the source!" said Ol' Kido with gnashing teeth.

Following the advice of the warning, Sheyan continued to talk with Ol' Kido for a while, mentioning his difficulties multiple times. In the end, he obtained two things. The first was a crystal bomb. It was a mission item which could only be placed inside the Hatchery. Upon detonation, it would eliminate three quarters of the Hatchery's HP.

Sheyan, who was familiar with the Zerg, knew that destroying a Hatchery was a time-consuming task even with his strength. After all, the tenacity of a Hatchery was beyond human imagination. Furthermore, a Hatchery chosen by the Queen of Blades must possess extraordinary capabilities.

The second item he got was a communicator which required a certain amount of utility points to use. When the communicator was activated, a holographic 3D image of Ol' Kido would appear from it. This way, Sheyan would not have to run back to the bar to hand in his mission.

This mission was no doubt perfect for Sheyan because he was already planning to go to the Queen's lair for a visit anyway, and he would have help from the human forces. This mission was just something he could do along the way.

It was already four o'clock in the morning. According to the information Sheyan obtained, daybreak would normally occur between six and six-thirty in the morning. Sheyan instantly rushed out of the Protoss base. He peeked at the radar and saw that the remnants of the forces the Protoss deployed were still nearly two kilometers away from the base. The Zerg were still viciously chasing after them, looking to do as much damage as they could. Sheyan did not wish to waste any time. He sprinted to the appointed place at full speed.

The environment was currently still pitch black, only illuminated by the faint starlight and the floating phosphorescent dots. The prussian blue land seemed endless, extending far into the horizon.

Sheyan looked back at the Protoss base and saw that it was actually enshrouded in a sphere of darkness, like a black hole which swallowed all lights. Sheyan could basically confirm by now that the dense darkness outside the Protoss base must be a trick of Kerrigan's. Only under the cover of this strange darkness could the Zerg hide themselves and carry out the harassment tactic from all sides.

He soon found a clear mark on the ground ahead. It was likely the traces left behind by a Vulture hoverbike. These hoverbikes could travel at a speed of 200 to 300 mph. Their standard armament was an AGP-2 grenade launcher.

There were also traces of caterpillar treads, which were probably left behind by the heavy-duty AAV-5 Arclite Siege Tanks that could transform between two modes. Their formidable firepower had almost become synonymous with the Terran. The 120mm Mjolnir Artillery Cannon they were equipped with was so powerful that the tank had to remain immobile to stabilise itself before firing a projectile. Each tank was operated by a crew of three: a gunner, a driver, and a commander or navigator.

"Not bad, Pontin," Sheyan could not help muttering to himself, "I thought I'd only get a few squads of Marines for reinforcement, but it seems like he sent me a whole mechanical squad."

Sheyan soon came across a Vulture that was on patrol duty. After Sheyan identified himself, he succeeded in hitching a ride on the Vulture. The Vulture brought him to the temporary human camp, where be saw both Pontin and Old Charlie.

Sheyan only found out from Old Charlie's explanation that Pontin was actually a real genius. Although the Siege Tanks and Vultures produced by the Factory he built could not be upgraded with the Armory due to a lack of resources, Pontin's skill enabled the Factory to obtain the "Excellent" prefix. The war machinery manufactured by the Factory had higher attack and defence than usual.

This time, Pontin had come out full force, bringing with him a total of 37 Vultures, 26 Goliaths, 11 Siege Tanks, 130 Marines, 18 Medics, and 30 SCVs. This level of reinforcement was already the best he could do.

Sheyan naturally had to repay the favour. During the previous battle, he had obtained a lot of Zerg Spirit Crystals. The first thing he did was strengthen Pontin to the limit. However, Pontin was already a heroic unit by now, so even a large amount of Spirit Crystals could only make him stronger instead of helping him break through to the rank of a leader like Noos and the Redliner Overmind. To break through this bottleneck, he must rely on his own comprehension and understanding. External help could no longer play a major role.

But even so, any building constructed by the newly-strengthened Pontin would have a "Fine" prefix. Not only were the buildings more resistant to attacks, the troops produced by these buildings would also be close to the level of an elite the moment they were produced. Of course, their Pandora crystal consumption was also higher.

Next, Sheyan raised Kyrgyzna and a female Medic to elite level with the remaining Zerg Spirit Crystals. This fully mechanized steel corps advanced forward at full speed. They soon arrived at the Queen of Blades' Hive Cluster.

Under Sheyan's order, the Goliaths that had extremely powerful anti-air capabilities started to roam the periphery in two groups, with the aim of cleaning up the Overlords that the Zerg had a habit of scattering around their base.

These jellyfish-like Overlords floated in the air with excellent mobility and anti-stealth capabilities. The Goliaths sniped at them and killed them one by one. Although this might alert the Zerg base, it was worth it because the leaderless Zerg base now had its eyes pried away as well.

The warning this might give the Zerg was inconsequential to the Terran army Sheyan brought. After the Siege Tanks moved into place, they started spewing thick white steam and making a loud ruckus while they transformed into the static but more powerful "siege mode". Their mechanical legs dug into the ground as they adjusted the aim of their powerful shock cannons. Then, the cannons angrily bombarded the Zerg base!

Under the bombardment of the powerful Terran Siege Tanks, the Zerg base was immediately covered in high-powered and high-range cannon fire. A Sunken Colony (Zerg structure that protects the base against ground-based attacks) was instantly blasted into a pool of bloody pulp. Not only that, even the adjacent organ building was affected. Thick brown liquid immediately sprayed out of it, accompanied by a cry of grief.

The moment the Siege Tanks fired the first shell, the SCVs next to them had quickly slid forward to build a hexagonal Bunker which could act as a supply station and a place for the soldiers to rest. It could also launch anti-air and anti-stealth missiles.

This was the fortress assault tactic which the humans were best at. With the Siege Tanks at the core, the humans could derive many different methods of attacking enemy bases.

The Siege Tanks had astonishing range in siege mode, far larger than the Sunken Colonies, so it did not matter how many Sunken Colonies there were in the base, they were all relegated to mere decorations. The Zerg could only deploy ground troops to attack the humans or use aerial forces to help out. As a result, the Zerg, who should have been the defending side, had to use the flesh and blood of their tribe to break through the iron defensive line of the humans!

But was the human defence so easy to break through? The Bunkers built by SCVs alone were enough to give the Zerg a headache. To defeat a defending human army, one would either need at least 1.5 to 2 times their military strength or possess specific forces which targeted their weaknesses.

Therefore, the Zerg base soon fell without any suspense. After the first wave of counter-attack organised by the Zerg struck the human fortifications like an ocean wave beating against a sturdy reef, ending in failure, the fall of the Zerg base was inevitable. The only resistance forces left after that were those newly hatched from eggs.

Seizing this opportunity, Sheyan stepped forward. He was wearing a suit of armour with the highest defence he could find, which was the armour of the Firebats (Terran infantry specialising in close-quarters combat). Following behind him were hundreds of Marines led by Kyrgyzna and 20 Medics.

Sheyan did not have the time to wait for the Siege Tanks to slowly advance while bombarding the Zerg buildings. After cleaning up the few remaining mobile forces in the base, he led the human troops straight to the Hatchery. From a distance away, under the illumination of the searchlights, he could already see the gigantic, sinister-looking Hatchery which stood like a giant red mountain. At the same time, he also saw a huge red column shaped like a fang next to the Hatchery which exuded a strong, wild aura.

Because that giant fang column, named the Palace of Flesh, was the residence of the Queen of Blades! Eight or so Zerg creatures were roaring angrily under the palace. They were all Zerglings, Hydralisks and Ultralisks that had the strong potential to evolve into elites or heroes. They were trying to advance with the help of the Palace of Flesh's power.

(TL: I don't think this palace is something that exists in Starcraft lore. The only residence of the Queen of Blades that I can find is Kerrigan's Leviathan, but that's a ship. It's probably something the author made up. Also, the full name of this palace should've been the Summer Palace of Flesh and Blood, but I shortened it to the Palace of Flesh, which is a nice juxtaposition with the Queen of Blades.)

These Zerg creatures showed a strong desire to duel Sheyan 1v1, but unfortunately, the latter did not possess any gentlemanly demeanour at all. With a wave of his hand, over a hundred Marines doped with Stim Packs rushed forward and drowned the Zerg in their numbers.

Sheyan did not waste any time to head straight towards the giant fang column. A steep, fleshy-red trail circled around the column like a snake. The trail obviously led to the top of the building, where Kerrigan's boudoir and all the riches and mysteries inside awaited.

Sheyan only spent about five minutes to climb the fleshy trail, because after all, the fang column was only less than 200 meters tall. It was normal for a monster like Sheyan to sprint to the top without stopping.

The top of the giant fang column was the Palace of Flesh, a revolving place with a hollowed out top. Sheyan stepped into the place with a feeling of awe - a feeling of awe entirely born out of respect for treasures, and this feeling quickly dissipated.

Because there was no place to hide in this place, not even a partition. In front of Sheyan was a large empty room like a new, unfurnished conference hall. If there were any riches to be found here, Sheyan would have seen it already.

"Freaking hell. It seems like the Queen of Blades isn't in a very good financial situation, and she must be a keen shopper too," Sheyan's disappointment was undoubtedly enormous. His greatest gain from this trip would probably only be this giant fang column: the Palace of Flesh itself. Ol' Kido should be very happy if Sheyan destroyed this building. It would probably raise his evaluation by a few dozen percentage points.

However, while Sheyan was wallowing in depression, lamenting that this trip was a major waste of time, something on his right hand bizarrely dissolved. G-spot had unattached itself from the glove, turning into a silvery-white mercury-like mini slime, and slid down to the ground.

Sheyan was naturally alarmed to see something like this which was out of his control. He immediately reached out to try and pull G-spot back. If G-spot ran away, it would be a real tragedy for him.

But after Sheyan wrapped his fingers around G-spot, the liquid metal life-form actually slipped out from the gaps between his fingers like extremely viscous mercury, determined not to return to Sheyan's embrace.

After that, the liquid metal life-form slithered across the ground in the form of a silvery-white tube about two meters long, moving rapidly across the fleshy floor like an earthworm.

The "palace" was an empty circular hall about 1,000 square meters in size. It was not much different from an ordinary conference hall or banquet hall. There was nothing else in the empty room except for a throne, a bed and a table.

The Palace of Flesh was built from elastic flesh which contained clearly visible veins filled with large amounts of flowing fluid.If you were to touch the flesh with your fingers, you would find that it was coated with a layer of dried transparent gel which prevented the fluid from dripping out. The floor Sheyan walked on felt slightly elastic too, not too different from a solid wooden floor.

Everything in the palace was visible at a glance. The Queen's throne was made of bones, fangs and flesh. A huge aorta behind the throne connected it to the giant column building.

When the Queen sat on the throne, she could slot all her hair into the holes at the back of the throne, as well as the nucleus of the neurons on her back into the nodes on the throne. She could transmit all kinds of information to the whole tribe in this way.

Next to the throne was a bed, and next to the bed was a table. These "furniture" were also made of flesh, bones, and fangs. There were some leftover fruits on the table.

In truth, the best way for someone of her level to feed was actually to jump into the nutrient pool of the Zerg. That way, each of her pores could quickly take in the nutrients and excrete the waste from her body. To eat with the mouth and then absorb the nutrients through the digestive organs was actually a very outdated method. It appeared that some human habits were still deep-seated within the Queen of Blades.

G-spot was heading for the throne of the Queen of Blades. It twisted its body and climbed up the throne along the bones and frames. Then, it transformed again, taking the shape of a plant with numerous vines, like an ivy. Numerous vines spread out and stuck to the bones and frames which made up the throne. A sizzling sound permeated through the air. These unbelievably hard materials were rapidly corroding and being absorbed by G-spot! These materials obviously had very high and very rare metal content.

Then, after turning the throne into a mess, G-spot started searching everywhere, seemingly not fully satisfied yet. Although it had shapeshifted into a wriggling earthworm again, its behaviour was more reminiscent of a Chihuahua that was running around, sniffing everywhere.

Sheyan tried to grab G-spot and pull it away, but to no avail. G-spot did not resist, but simply flowed out from the gaps between his fingers again. Sheyan could only sigh helplessly.

At that moment, Kyrgyzna suddenly came running in. She said, out of breath and with obvious panic in her voice, "Brigadier General! We've just received news of an anomaly detected during the latest radar scan! The Queen of Blades seems to have discovered our actions and is currently rushing back!"

The Terran had a technology which utilised the energy reserves in the main base to perform ten seconds of strong reconnaissance scan over a certain area, which they could perfrom at certain intervals. During the scan, the powerful radar waves could detect every detail in the area. Even stealth abilities which utilised the principles of light refraction or burrowing into the ground could not escape detection.

Sheyan went cold all over when he heard the report, followed by a strong feeling of frustration. He initially thought that the Queen of Blades only had a mental connection to the Hatchery, so he had left that building for last, but unexpectedly, Kerrigan also had a powerful alarm system installed in her bedroom!

"You and Pontin, leave at once!" Sheyan ordered without hesitation. "You won't escape the Queen's pursuit with conventional speed. Only the Vultures would have some hope of escaping. Take half the Vultures. After driving for 20 kilometers, split into two teams and move in different directions. After 20 minutes, split up again. The chances of successfully escaping will be higher this way. Leave the rest of the Vultures to me. The others won't be able to run away. They'll stay and cover your retreat."

Sheyan had already made up his mind. He would wait for G-spot, who had suddenly gone crazy, for three minutes at most. After three minutes, he would leave no matter what.

Fortunately, G-spot seemed to have found something. It quickly slithered under the Queen's bed and shapeshifted into a short, round cylinder, then slowly grew longer.

It appeared that G-spot was trying to push the bed up like a jack, but because it had limited strength, it could not overturn the Queen's bed even after several tries. Sheyan immediately rushed to the bed, grabbed it with both hands, and pulled it up with all his might!

The bed groaned in protest. Sheyan knew he did not have much time left. He gritted his teeth and once again gathered his whole strength and pulled at the bed. The whole palace was quivering with pain. Sheyan's brutal strength made a huge pit of hundreds of square meters on the ground. Terrifyingly deep cracks as wide as thirty centimeters criss-crossed in the pit.

Lying among the torn bloody flesh where the Queen's bone-and-fangs bed was originally placed was a board made of bones. G-spot visibly became very excited. It first turned into a drill and ferociously tried to burrow through the board, but to no avail. Then, it turned into a hammer and slammed into the board... Unfortunately, a hammer needed to be swung by someone to display its might. In the end, it could only turn back into the form of a worm. It jumped up and down, like a fish that had just been caught, to show its excitement and determination.

Sheyan felt a little helpless. He knew that he had no more hope of completing Ol' Kido's mission. If he could not obtain whatever G-spot had discovered either, then all his investment in this operation would have been for naught. Therefore, he could only move to the spot and raise his fist high!!

Under Sheyan's horrifying destructive force, the entire Zerg base was letting out a cry of agony! It felt like the whole Zerg base was connected together, like it was one big gigantic creature, and the spot that Sheyan was attacking was a vulnerable vital spot of this behemoth.

Sheyan was furious. He decided to go all out. He inhaled deeply, gathered power for a full five seconds with 'Ultimate Impact', and sent the punch down. The Hatchery and even the organ buildings surrounding it let out a howl of pain at the same time. The board cracked like a piece of glass under blunt force impact!

When G-spot saw this, it immediately jumped more than a metre high and landed on the cracks on the shattered bone board. It then turned into liquid and skillfully seeped inside through the cracks.

Sheyan punched the board a few more times, crushing it thoroughly, then pulled the fragments apart. He found a hole that had been cut out underneath. G-spot had become a silvery-white sphere about the size of a grapefruit. It had wrapped itself around a clear stone.

The stone was as clear as a crystal, and upon closer inspection, it gave off a mysterious, dream-like vibe. Looking into it felt as deep and unpredictable as looking into the vast universe, as if the stone contained an entire world.

G-spot had a unique ability in things regarding metal and it had had contact with this weapon before, so despite it being kept in Kerrigan's cleverly hidden treasure vault, G-spot still managed to find it through the familiar feeling the rifle's metallic components exuded. That directly led to the Queen's private collection being plundered!

It was said that the C-10 Canister rifle was not a very mainstream weapon. It was two whole grades below the currently widely used C-12. The difference between the two was like the difference between a tractor and a heavy duty truck.

Even though Snake had made modifications to it, these modifications were only useful in Snake's hands. Sheyan estimated that even if he obtained the rifle as a dropped loot, it would be a dark gold weapon at most.

So why would the Queen of Blades, who had seen all kinds of powerful weapons before and did not even need any weapons at all, treasure this C-10 Canister Rifle so? Why would she deem it important enough to be kept in her treasure vault?

Even if she had a special interest in collecting things, as a Queen, she should at least collect legendary weapons or something of that level. Why was there only this one weapon sitting alone in her treasure vault?

Sheyan could not get his head around this question. It was not until a long time later, when he read the detailed history of Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, that he understood why the weapon was kept in this place.

It turned out that Kerrigan was originally a Ghost while she was still a human. She entered the army in the same year as Snake. Due to what happened to her parents, she hated her instructors, and even the humans.

During her last mission as a Ghost, she completed the mission with flying colours, but ended up being abandoned by the Terran side. After that....the powerful Zerg Queen was born.

Back when the Queen of Blades was still a human Ghost, she had fallen in love with a man from the same batch. The man's weapon of choice was also the unpopular C-10 Canister Rifle. In the end, he died protecting her during a mission.

When Snake was caught by the Zerg and brought to her, this weapon made an appearance in front of her again. Although the Queen of Blades had abandoned her identity as a human, the gun sent ripples through her cold, still heart.

For the powerful Zerg leader, this old and outdated weapon symbolised the only happy memory she had in the first half of her life, the only memento that could give her a feeling of sweetness, a deep-rooted feeling in her that she could never and would never forget.

Therefore, this outdated weapon which had been out of production for 13 years might not mean much for others, but it was a priceless treasure to the Queen of Blades whose heart still hid a trace of human nature. It was worth being kept in the most secretive place.

In order to satisfy G-spot's desire, Sheyan had gone against his initial plan and had wasted a minute and 13 seconds here. Sheyan did not have the slightest confidence in successfully escaping from the Queen of Blades. He was making a gamble, which he rarely did, and this time, it was with his life at stake.

Sheyan instantly grabbed G-spot. Now that the little guy had been satisfied, it had become a lot more obedient. It let Sheyan keep it in his personal storage without showing any resistance. Sheyan instantly used every ability he had that could increase his speed and crouched down like a sprinter.

Sheyan quickly dashed away again, this time without looking back or stopping for a second. He even jumped down when he was still 30 meters from the ground without any regard to the injury that would cause. He limped to the Vulture left for him.

Air flowed powerfully out of the air cushion generator underneath the vehicle. The Vulture started floating and quickly reached a height of 40 centimeters off the ground.

Two bright jets shot out of the two horn-like thrusters behind the Vulture, blowing up the sand behind the vehicle. It was now only 28 seconds away from the theoretical arrival time of the Queen of Blades.

Sheyan did not waste any time to step on the throttle with great force. This rough action immediately made the engine roar angrily. The blue glows emitted from the ion thrusters reached three meters in length. The propulsion force they produced raised the Vulture's speed from zero to 130 km/h in an instant, making the vehicle shoot forward. If the passenger on the Vulture was not a monster like Sheyan, they would have fallen unconscious due to insufficient blood supply to the brain.

Sheyan's foot never left the throttle after that, not only because he found the acceleration to be way too slow for his liking, but also because the road condition on the Lost Temple planet was simply too good.

The flat prussian blue ground extended endlessly ahead of him with nary an obstacle in sight, not even a slightly large stone, so there was no danger of an accident at all. Besides, this new model Vulture had a spider mine suspension system, driveway deviation system, collision avoidance system, etc. It could run on full speed even in the Gobi Desert.

Within twenty seconds of departure, the Vulture's speedometer was blown out. The engine groaned hoarsely, and the speed needle constantly pointed to the maximum speed on the display which was 350 km/h, but because Sheyan had been accelerating like a madman, the Vulture's actual speed at the moment was at least 400 km/h. This was already higher than what the Vulture was designed for.

However, because the Vulture was produced from Pontin's Factory which had the "Excellent" prefix, exceeding the designed maximum speed by 20% was not too big a problem. It was just that the vehicle's body was beginning to squeak, and the rivets may also be getting a little loose.... In truth, it was written in the Vulture's user manual that doing this would reduce the service life of the machine by at least half. However, as far as Sheyan was concerned, doing so was worth it because it enabled him to leave the horrible Zerg base in just 30 seconds.

The outline of the Zerg base quickly disappeared into the horizon, and a few seconds later, even the damn creep on the ground could no longer be seen. Sheyan finally let out the breath he was holding. He previously felt like a heavy stone was pressing down on his heart, but with this breath out, the stone was lifted too. Sheyan estimated that ten more seconds at this speed and he should be absolutely safe.

But at that instant, Sheyan suddenly heard a dull roar! It was the sound of a Siege Tank's cannon fire! In the Zerg base, especially in a Zerg base which had lost all resistance, in order to avoid the artillery splashing and injuring others, the Siege Tanks were usually not in siege mode.

Sheyan's heart sank. The stone that had just been lifted off his heart had unfortunately come pressing back down, and it had become bigger than before. That's because Sheyan could hear a series of explosions in the distance.

It was well known that no matter how the Zerg die, they would not make a rumbling explosion sound, nor would they produce fire and thick black smoke. Therefore, the only explanation for these was that the human troops that were left behind to guard the base had been attacked.

But they had clearly taken full control of the base, so the only explanation was that the Queen of Blades had returned, bringing with her death, destruction, and, presumably, serious injuries as well as a foul mood.

And Sheyan knew that no matter how serious her injury was, she was not someone the current Sheyan could handle. Sure, Sheyan had always been good at taking on enemies stronger than himself, but that did not mean he would try to break a rock with an egg. He seemed like he often danced on the razor's edge, but if the situation permitted it, he would actually rather only perform missions that he was 100% confident in, and fight the enemies he was sure he could defeat.

Sheyan put more force on the throttle with an uneasy heart. Unfortunately, the throttle that had already been pushed to the limit could not give him any further response. Instead, the solid steel around the throttle groaned in protest.

Sheyan was sure that if Kerrigan insisted on competing in speed against the Vulture, which was equipped with plasma engines, despite being badly wounded, her injuries would inevitably aggravate regardless of the result.

But Sheyan once again miscalculated. The Queen of Blades actually had a lot of other methods at her disposal if she wanted to pursue Sheyan, such as riding on an Overlord, riding on a Mutalisk, or ordering a dozen Zerglings to pull a sleigh.... To chase after the Vulture with her own body, like Sheyan assumed she would do, was simply the stupidest method.

Of course, Sheyan's miscalculation was, in part, due to his ignorance of Kerrigan's past experiences. As a former Ghost commander, of course she was proficient in piloting all kinds of vehicles.

She chose a way that Sheyan never would have unexpected: she killed the driver of another Vulture and jumped onto it herself! She instantly put on a pair of windproof goggles and started the engine!

Kerrigan had received 16 years of brutal training as a Ghost. Not only could she drive a Vulture, she could even repair it. On the other hand, Sheyan only had 10 minutes of experience in driving a Vulture.

The Queen of Blades was lighter than Sheyan in weight. She also had some special abilities like the ability to reduce the effect of gravity to make the Vulture lighter. Even the wings on her back could help propulse the Vulture a little....

Sheyan's only advantage was the 73 seconds of lead he had over the Queen of Blades. Under the Queen's ruthless pursuit, this lead would no doubt be slowly nibbled away. She did not even need to nibble it away completely – if she could only close the distance between them to a kilometer, Sheyan and the Vulture he was driving would get a taste of Kerrigan's terrifying red lightning!

At this time, Sheyan noticed that G-spot had finished his meal. He simply let G-spot reattach itself back to his dark green gloves without checking, then went back to driving with his full concentration.

Sheyan could not see the Queen of Blade's pursuit, but because he had very high Perceptive Sense, he could sense the threat that was piercing into his back very clearly. It reminded Sheyan that the mess caused by G-spot was not over yet!

[ Warning: Awakener 1018, your 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' (dark green) have lost more than 70% of their physical bodies and are now damaged beyond repair. ]

[ Warning: Awakener 1018, your 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' (dark green) are deemed irreparable. You will lose any bonus provided by the equipment, including, but not limited to, attributes, attack power, special abilities, and so on. Perhaps the broken remains could still be traded in for a few hundred utility points. ]

Sheyan felt like a whole pool of ice water had been poured on him. Today's happenings had truly been a series of unfortunate events. First, he had screwed up a chain mission that would probably give a high reward, and now, even his dark green gloves were inexplicably damaged beyond repair too!

This pair of gloves could raise Sheyan's combat power by at least 20%. And with G-spot attached to them, he would even acquire the 'Ultimate Impact' ability, which raised his combat power by more than 30%.

Sheyan suddenly had an ominous premonition. He should have realised it the moment the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' were damaged, but the oppressive pressure from behind was simply too suffocating, and that dulled his reaction. He instantly checked, then roared in anger.

Yes, who else could cause so much trouble at such a crucial time but the liquid metal life-form, G-spot? Although Sheyan was driving the Vulture at more than 400 km/h, he still had an uncontrollable impulse to shred G-spot to pieces...

Because G-spot had already destroyed several important assets that Sheyan owned, it had become the only major asset currently in Sheyan's possession. Only an idiot would destroy their biggest weapon with their own hands....

"...How did it suddenly become mature?" thought Sheyan when he recovered from his daze after his foot missed the throttle. "It still needed so many pieces of equipment!"

Little did Sheyan know that the Queen of Blades' stone that G-spot consumed had a very unusual origin. It was named the Mobita Godstone. At this time, the ruler of the whole Zerg race, the Great Overmind, was still alive. He bestowed this stone to the Queen of Blades. It had an extremely powerful strengthening capability, enabling the Queen of Blades to use her mind to manage the Zerg that were spread out across galaxies thousands of light-years apart.

Even the Great Overmind had only found three of these stones, so their preciousness was evident. Under normal circumstances, this treasure could only be acquired after defeating Kerrigan, so even if Sheyan had obtained it by breaking open the treasure vault, it was something that could not be evaluated, could not be brought out of this world, and had absolutely no use.

The Mobita Godstone might be completely useless for Sheyan, but to G-spot, who was also a special storyline character, this Mobita Godstone was an extremely valuable source of nutrient that could accelerate its growth. When Sheyan obtained the stone by accident, it was truly great news for G-spot.

[ Active Ability: 'Devour & Replicate' -- The liquid metal life-form has turned itself into the terrifying nemesis of all equipment in order to satisfy its own desires. By devouring a weapon or an equipment, the liquid metal life-form can memorise and completely replicate all the properties of the weapon or equipment (including, but not limited to, attack, defence, attribute bonuses, special abilities, strengthening level), and...transform into the weapon or equipment!! ]

[ Details: The transformation process takes one second. During the process, G-spot will temporarily return to its primary state, and the various bonuses it provides will temporarily disappear. ]

[ Passive Ability: 'Replating Bonus' -- During G-spot's growth process, it has absorbed too much precious metals, so the weapons and equipment it transforms into will get an additional +6 strengthening (see previous chapters for details) ]

[ Passive Ability: 'Suck' -- Whenever the enemy (or their weapon) come into contact with the armour/weapon the liquid metal enhanced life-form is attached to, the liquid metal enhanced life-form will analyse the enemy and commit the result to memory. After seven times, the liquid metal enhanced life-form will be able to calculate the trajectory of the enemy's next attack, thereby rendering it obsolete. ]

[ Through the devouring process, the liquid metal life-form can also memorise a special ability of the weapon or equipment it has devoured and commit it to a memory slot, then attach it to the weapon or equipment it transforms into! ]

There are two memory slots left. Please choose the abilities you wish to store as soon as possible. However, please be aware that certain abilities could not be attached to certain equipment. For example, the special abilities of a ranged weapon normally could not be added to a melee weapon. ] (For example, if Sheyan stored a 'Great Fireball' spell in a memory slot, it would not be able to be attached to a glove because it was a long range magic spell.)

[ The liquid metal life-form can also transform into standard equipment that it has never devoured, but the transformed equipment will only have the properties of a basic standard equipment, and the default strengthening level will be +6. ]

Sheyan tentatively extended his right hand. G-spot instantly started to transform according to Sheyan's will. It rapidly turned into the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' that it had previously devoured. The gloves had the exact same properties as before and even had the 'Extinction' ability....

Sheyan continued ordering it to transform. '+13 West' was now a silvery-white long saber, and it had upgraded from dark blue grade to legendary grade. But more terrifying was the fact that Sheyan had actually found in the transformation list...Evil Sword Apophis!

However, the chills and killing intent burrowing into his back had only gotten stronger with time. He was aware that the crisis behind him was still as strong as ever, like a sharp knife aiming for his heart, inching closer little by little.

He took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes, and slowly pulled the control joystick to the right, making the Vulture speed towards the dark shadows emerging from the distant horizon.

If one were to look carefully, they would see that the colour of the ground below Sheyan was slowly changing from prussian blue to black – a deadly black! As he continued to move deeper in, the desertification of the land became more serious, and the land even started to smoke like a plain that had just burned for three days and three nights. There were no signs of life at all, only a deathly silence.

The lands on which the Zerg, Protoss and humans could move around on were prussian blue in colour due to a type of commonly-seen fungi growing in the soil. These fungi could purify the milder toxins that seeped out of the death zones.

Snake had told Sheyan before that there were a lot of death zones on the planet which contained a strong toxic substance that was fatal to both humans and Protoss. Even the most tenacious Zerg could not hatch their eggs in the death zones.

Tall, fang-shaped mountains slowly appeared ahead of him, sharp and majestic, piercing straight into the clouds. The terrain here was very complex, similar to the karst landform in the Guilin area except that there was no water. The wind was noticeably stronger here. It blew through the gaps between the mountains, sounding shrill and sad like the endless grieving cries of vengeful ghosts. The black mountains extended far into the horizon with no end in sight.

Here, Sheyan had no choice but to slow down, no longer daring to move at the extreme speed of 400 km/h. When he realised that his maximum speed was still slower than his enemy's, there was no way he would just sit back and watch as the lead he so painstakingly gained was eaten away. He had to make use of the harsh terrain to restrict the opponent's pursuit.

But Sheyan's ultimate goal was to stall her and keep her here. The Queen of Blades was now the only leader on the Zerg side. It was impossible for her to spend too much time pursuing himself over personal matters, because once the Protoss realised the situation and seized the opportunity, the Zerg army who had lost the command of the Queen would certainly be wiped out!

Alarms started blaring from Sheyan's Vulture, accompanied by flashing red lights. Malfunctions had started appearing in the body and engine of the Vulture. The corrosive toxic of the death zone had started chipping away at the Vulture's lifespan.

Sheyan was overjoyed instead of dismayed at this discovery, because it means that soon, both of them would have no choice but to abandon their vehicles and travel on foot. They would be exposed to the harsh natural environment. However, Sheyan had the powerful 'Stairway of the Sun' in him, so he was immune to poison and diseases, and also had a strong resistance to corrosion. This undoubtedly gave him a great advantage over the opponent!

Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, was now only 20 seconds behind Sheyan, but she could do nothing to stop the cunning human from infiltrating deeper into the death zone.

Kerrigan abruptly stopped her Vulture. No expression could be seen on her face, but countless stars seemed to be bursting, assembling, coming into life and dying in her eyes. Suddenly, all her snake-like hair stood up and trembled violently, calming down only after a long time!!

The Queen closed her eyes, and ten jellyfish-like Overlords drifted over from the distant sky. Two of the Overlords were ordinary creatures, and they died immediately upon landing, turning into charred ashes. The others were elite-level, and a man was soon released from the inner cavity of one.

After attempting to murder Sheyan through the Zerg's proverbial hands, he was unfortunately spotted by other Zerg. He could not get rid of the pursuit of the Zerg due to the anti-stealth capabilities of the Overlords. Fortunately, the Zerg who caught him sensed the same familiar aura of the Queen of Blades from his body, so he was left alive. He was injected with anesthetic and brought to Kerrigan.

Snake was currently bound by an Overlord's fleshy tentacles. He struggled violently but could not break free. The unique toxic of the death zone soon invaded his body. The special forces uniform he wore was rapidly corroding into pieces. The toxic then seeped deeper into him along the blood vessels underneath his skin. His breathing gradually turned weaker.

The Queen of Blades suddenly turned around and looked Snake in the eye. She said to him in a voice that had a deep baritone, "I see anger, unwillingness, and great ambition in your eyes, human! Excellent! You're exactly the kind of test subject I need!"

She suddenly raised her head and let out an invisible shock wave from her slightly agape mouth. All eight elite Overlords around her burst into pieces one after another. When some of these bloody flesh pieces fell onto the ground, they turned into the Zerg's unique moldy carpet (creep) under the power of the Queen of Blades, halting the spread of the deadly toxic gas. The rest of the flesh pieces started to wriggle wildly.

The Queen of Blades plucked a strand of her snake-like hair and threw it among the squirming flesh pieces in front of her. All the flesh pieces then wriggled towards Snake and enveloped him until he became a standing flesh cocoon. Countless bulging veins constantly squirmed on the cocoon, seemingly trying to provide energy to the inside.

"Pain is the driving force behind the evolution of life," remarked the Queen coldly, "If you want to live, you must learn to absorb the power of life from pain! When the Great Zerg Overmind rebuilt me in the past, it was an unprecedented experiment. I went through seventeen rebuild attempts, and each time, I was restored to the human form halfway when they noticed something going wrong. The pain you're experiencing now is nothing compared to that! Awaken, awaken, my faithful servant, my messenger of pain!"

The giant cocoon suddenly produced a crunch like the sound of dried leaves being crushed. Several lines of cracks appeared on the cocoon. The pungent smell of amniotic fluid suddenly filled the air. Then, a humanoid monster emerged from within the cocoon!!

The monster had a Zerg shell that covered him like an armour, but his face looked like the face of a Tyrant from Resident Evil (https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Tyrant). His hands and feet seemed like branches, and although their callused edges looked ordinary, they were actually extraordinarily sharp. The strangest thing about him was the sharp bone javelin on his shoulder which gave off a primitive and wild feeling. His hair had completely degenerated into needles.

Sheyan's assumption was indeed correct. The Queen of Blades could not stay away from her tribe for too long, so she could not keep pursuing him deep into the death zone. However, the captured Snake provided another alternative for the Queen of Blades. She could transform Snake, who was also a Ghost, and bestow upon him the formidable power of a messenger of pain so that he could chase after Sheyan in her stead!

"Retrieve my stone, and the gun that once belonged to you! And bring the thief's spine back to me. I want to taste the fluid from his spinal cord, mixed with his blood.

Snake – or more precisely, the messenger of pain - let out a savage roar, then dashed forward on all fours like a werewolf. The creep used to transform Snake had all dried up by now, so strong was the toxic gas of the death zone!

The faint sound coming out of the brand-new ion thruster engines could only be described as an old man's dying cough. Sheyan knew that it was no use trying any harder to pump fuel into them.

The poisonous corrosive gas emitted by the death zone had quietly eroded the Vulture's engines. It had made multiple holes in the cores of the engines where precision was most required, lowering the power output again and again, until the power output eventually became a joke.

He jumped out of the cockpit and stared at the Vulture whose surface had been corroded by the toxic gas into a mess. His fingertip suddenly extended and sharpened into a silvery-white blade, just like the liquid metal Terminator from Terminator 2, and effortlessly cut out a huge piece from the Vulture's leather seat to make a simple mask to cover his face with.

The death zone indiscriminately poured its toxic and corrosive gas onto Sheyan. Yes, the harsh environment which had never lost a battle was still trying to conquer this creature in front of it. As Sheyan strode forward, he observed the rate at which his HP dropped with a frown. In the end, he came to a conclusion:

The name of this ability was currently replaced by a row of question marks on Sheyan's ability list because it had gone into mutation after it had combined with the ability Sheyan acquired from the Pandora's box that was supposedly custom-tailored for him! There was a progress bar below it which had reached 89%.

Undoubtedly, the process was occupying a large part of the 'Stairway of the Sun's capacity, so if Sheyan were to temporarily suspend this process, he believed he would be able to last longer.

In the face of a harsh survival crisis, Sheyan was already thinking of how to last longer without dying. Because this might be a really long journey, Sheyan was in no hurry to depart yet. After making a simple mask for himself, he cut out several more pieces of leather and wrapped them around his legs. Only after that did he start marching towards the distance at a steady rhythm.

Less than 10 minutes after Sheyan left the broken-down Vulture, a figure silently emerged beside it. The figure was none other than the transformed Snake. He was now a Messenger of Pain, an assassin sent by the Queen.

His armour-like outer shell was gone, replaced by tough, airtight skin. The toxic corrosive gas could not penetrate this layer of skin, and the filtration system in his respiratory organs had also increased to four layers.

At the same time, the muscles of his legs and arms had become more developed in order to help him pursue the enemy better. There was obviously a distinct improvement in his agility. Corresponding to this evolutionary feature, the number of bone spikes on the surface of his body had also increased, and there were spots of dark green on them – they were obviously highly poisonous. Since his speed had vastly increased, then kiting the enemy to death with long-range attacks was no doubt the best choice.

After confirming that the Vulture was the one driven by Sheyan, the Messenger of Pain stooped down and circled around the vehicle twice while baring his teeth, then sniffed a few times at the spot Sheyan had stood on. After that, he roared wildly and shredded the broken-down Vulture into pieces with his claws and teeth! Brown-coloured blood splattered about during the process, but the monster kept going even after losing a few teeth and breaking a few claws!

This was where the name Messenger of Pain came from. He would bring pain to his enemies and also to himself, not letting go of any opportunity to cause pain. To him, pain was the driving force of life, the reason for him to fight. Either he made his enemies suffer or he would suffer even more himself!

Finally, the Messenger of Pain smashed the energy box and let out a sharp howl which penetrating far into the distance, seemingly trying to use his voice to pierce through the sky.

By this time, Sheyan was already 15 kilometers away. The shrill, ghastly wind of the death zone lingered around his ears all the time, and the dastardly environment kept nibbling away at his life, but he still kept up his vigilance. After all, his strong Perceptive Sense was constantly reminding him that the danger had not passed yet.

Even though the Messenger of Pain's provocative roar had to reverberate between the mountains countless times amidst the sounds of harsh winds before it reached Sheyan's ears, Sheyan could still vaguely hear it. He could not help uttering with a frown, "That's fast... Wait! Something's not right!"

Someone like the Queen of Blades would definitely regard pursuing Sheyan as a humiliation, so she would never shout out such a provocative roar. She would definitely choose to get rid of Sheyan silently, then leave immediately afterwards.

"The Queen of Blades is actually sending someone else after me? That's another thing out of my expectations. This woman is not that simple; she could come up with measures that target the blind spots in my thinking every time! Based on her personality, the one she sent must be someone that she thinks will be able to kill me for sure. Who would it be? A heroic Zergling? A heroic Hydralisk? A heroic Ultralisk? A heroic Mutalisk?... No, these conventional forces may be stronger than me, but Kerrigan wouldn't be 100% sure that they can kill me...."

When Sheyan thought of this, he decided to stop. He was not someone who liked to run away from the pursuit of his enemies like a beaten dog. He was already thinking of a counterattack, so he had to gauge the opponent's strength. The ball was in his court right now. If he used the few minutes he had to plan and arrange the battlefield to his advantage, then even if he could not defeat the enemy, he should still be able to escape.

Sheyan watched the Messenger of Pain approach rapidly from afar. The monster's abnormally long legs and arms looked almost like the poles of a pole vaulter, easily launching him forward. Then, following a flash of light, a series of information appeared in front of Sheyan:

[ Innate Ability: 'Active' -- The Messenger of Pain used to be a powerful Ghost. His psionic power has been transformed into a powerful accumulator, so active energy is constantly flooding every one of his cells. Any healing effect enjoyed by the Messenger of Pain will be boosted by 1000%, and his speed of recovery is increased by 300%. ]

[ Passive Ability: 'Agonising Pain' -- The Messenger of Pain can gain additional strength from his or his enemy's pain. When the Messenger of Pain receives damage or causes pain to others through damage, he will gain a certain amount of bonus in attack speed and movement speed. ]

[ Explanation: The Queen of Blades, Kerrigan, was originally just an ordinary Ghost, but the Great Overmind saw her potential and turned her into the monster she is today. Her resulting strength might be a coincidence, but it surely has something to do with her formidable Ghost psionic powers too. And now, Kerrigan has finally obtained another Ghost to "toy" with. The transformation she performed was simple and rough, but she has combined her own powers with a little bit of luck to produce this Messenger of Pain. ]

"So that's how it is. No wonder the Queen of Blades is so confident and doesn't even care about the poisonous environment of the death zone. She's actually sent something like this to chase after me!" muttered Sheyan to himself.

Sheyan was actually in quite a dilemma because his greatest advantage was his durability, but the monster he was going to face seemed like he was even more resilient than Sheyan. Sheyan was feeling the anxiety of his advantage being suppressed.

This feeling of anxiety reached its peak by the time Sheyan counted to 37 seconds, because he could now finally see the true appearance of the Messenger of Pain that was chasing after him. It gave rise to a feeling of fear in his heart.

For example, Sanzi was scared of the dark when he was an infant, but when he was a little older, he was afraid of Wang Heizai, a child from Siqiao Village, and of dried fish bones that had their meat completely shaved away. And even now that he had become a powerful contestant, he would still run away whenever he saw a toad for some reason.

When fear rose in the heart of a person with a resolute mind like Sheyan, even he could not help asking himself: 'Why do I fear this creature?' But he could find no answer to this question. In other words, he was afraid for no discernable reason!

Thus, Sheyan immediately knew that this unexplainable fear must stem from the effect of some kind of weird ability. This was to be expected. A creature that the Queen of Blades believed could finish him must have some abilities.

The reason Sheyan chose this place as the battlefield was naturally because it held a great advantage for him. The path leading here sloped upwards and was sandwiched between two sharp peaks that looked like canine teeth, while Sheyan was standing on a rock at the end of the path like a perching eagle.

The moment the enemy appeared from the other end, Sheyan could charge downslope like a heavy tank. His momentum and focus would reach the peak at the moment of collision, causing the strongest impact to the enemy!

But he immediately came back to his senses. He took a deep breath, feeling the corrosive poisonous gas move from his nostrils down his respiratory tract and spreading into his lungs. Then, he charged fiercely down the path.

The eerie illusion of the 'Stairway of the Sun' emerged behind Sheyan. He dashed down the slope violently like a wrecking ball and punched with his right hand straight at the enemy!

Strangely, the enemy had no intention of evading. Sheyan's punch made a strange noise when it landed on the monster. It was not the sound of a fist landing on flesh at all.

However, the Messenger of Pain was still sent flying by the punch, crashing into the black stone cliff beside him. Stone fragments scattered everywhere. The creature curled up into a ball when he fell to the ground, then slowly climbed back up.

Sheyan also staggered back several steps. He suddenly held his right shoulder with his hand. A large piece of flesh had been torn off his right shoulder, as if he had been attacked by a giant invisible clamp. He did not even know when he had been wounded!

More bizarre was that the Messenger of Pain, who was seemingly in a lot of agony, slowly straightened his body and stared at Sheyan with a weird, distorted smile on his face. He then slowly opened up his palm.

The Messenger of Pain looked at Sheyan like he was looking at his food as he stuffed the bloody piece of flesh into his mouth and chewed on it slowly and noisily. He savoured it with great delight like a child who had discovered something extremely delicious. Blood spurted out of his mouth as he chewed.

After devouring the piece of flesh, the Messenger of Pain stood up as if nothing had happened. He twisted his neck and laughed, then told Sheyan with a distorted expression, "Pain is the source of my strength. Come, give me more pain!"

Sheyan immediately realised that he had underestimated this monster called the Messenger of Pain. More precisely, he thought he had already regarded the Queen of Blades very highly, but he found that he had still underestimated her, and also underestimated this bastard chosen by the powerful woman to hunt him down.

[ You are affected by the Aura of Fear. Your attack power is reduced by 10% and your hit rate is reduced by 7%. When you damage the Messenger of Pain, the fear becomes more deeply rooted in your heart, so in the next ten seconds, you will be gripped by fear, hence become unable to carry out any active attacks on the Messenger of Pain which may cause him damage, including ordinary attacks, ability attacks, item attacks, etc. ]

[ Note: If you have inflicted continuous damage (damage over time) on the Messenger of Pain, the subsequent damages will not be restricted by the 10-second rule, but every time a damage takes effect, the 10-second rule will be refreshed. ]

[ Data disorder detected... Data conflict detected... Recalculating... Awakener 1018, due to your innate ability and other unknown reasons, the 10-second rule caused by the Aura of Fear is weakened to five seconds. ]

After that, he had to concentrate on dealing with the Messenger of Pain's attacks. Although Sheyan had always believed that offence was the best defence, he was currently affected by the Aura of Fear, so he could not attack at all and could only concentrate on defending.

Sheyan's eyes only saw a blur in front of him, and the Messenger of Pain had already crouched down like a werewolf and sprinted forward at a speed that was hard to distinguish with the naked eye, his long hands and feet moving like the limbs of a spider treading on water. He reached Sheyan in no time at all.

Then, as if he was trying to pay Sheyan back for the punch earlier, he launched his own punch at Sheyan. His hand initially appeared as dry and lifeless as a mummy's, but when he launched the fist, the muscles on his entire arm expanded abnormally, as if he had concentrated his whole strength and even his spirit into this arm. It gave off a strong sense of imbalance.

The inflated arm launched forward like a spring that was released after being compressed to the limit, slamming fiercely into Sheyan's shoulder and sending him flying more than seven meters away. It also sent Sheyan into a paralysed state, so he could not even adjust his position while he was in the air to soften the landing. He crashed into the hard stone cliff and fell heavily to the ground!

Sheyan climbed back up with a roll. Not only was he badly injured when he was struck, his face was also bleeding heavily, as if a hungry zombie had taken a large bite on his face. Sheyan had lost such a large chunk of flesh that his teeth and tongue were showing through the hole!

The Messenger of Pain had clearly only attacked with a punch, but Sheyan had once again suffered a bizarre second injury! It was as if there was another invisible enemy that would attack in tandem with the Messenger of Pain!

"Yes, I'm the foolish Snake! If I had known that Her Majesty could bestow me with such an amazing power, I would have long given up my human identity. You really should stop struggling. Her Majesty has taken an interest in your spinal cord. All resistances are futile in front of her desire," The Messenger of Pain sneered, exposing his eerie fangs.

"I need power to get revenge. I despise the goddamn Protoss who killed my son like they were crushing an ant. I despise the politicians and higher ups whose brains were filled with nothing but fat. A word from them, and we have to sacrifice our honour, years of our lives, and even our lives themselves! I can't punish those f*cking bastards without power!" roared the Messenger of Pain.

The monster howled and dashed forward again! Sheyan did not shrink back this time. There was a fierce look in his eyes. On the right hand which he deliberately hid behind his back, the mechanical glove was melting like a candle, and the silver wax was rapidly solidifying into a certain shape. Anyone who so much as laid eyes on the shape could feel its sharpness and repulsion, but a strange feeling of gentleness would inexplicably rise in their heart....

Sheyan wrapped his fingers one by one around Apophis' hilt. His palm that was grasping Apophis became red and translucent. A sharp thorn slowly grew out of the sword's hilt. When Sheyan wrapped his hand around the hilt, the thorn penetrated through his skin and pierced deep into his blood vessel. After that, Apophis started to absorb Sheyan's blood to bring out its terrifying power! A power that would make even the gods tremble!

[ Offensive Awakening Reward: 'Gifted' - Because you have a negative condition which renders you unable to use any kind of shield, 'Gifted' will enable you to skillfully use all kinds of melee weapons. Even if you do not have the relevant mastery, you can still display the strength of a melee weapon. ]

More importantly, when Evil Sword Apophis was devoured, it had already been strengthened to +4. Do not underestimate this +4 strengthening, because just strengthening this sword to +4 already required a terrible price.

Apart from the dramatic increase in attack power, the +10 Apophis had two other major enhancements. First, the negative effect of the active ability 'Apophis' Sneer' had been greatly weakened - after the end of the effect duration, the probability of turning into Apophis' slave had decreased from 33% to 7%.

Second, 'Extinction' had also been strengthened. Initially, there was a certain chance of triggering 'Extinction' after each successful attack on the enemy, but now, 'Extinction' would definitely trigger after the first successful hit on the enemy. The subsequent hit on the enemy would have a 2% chance to trigger 'Extinction', the hit after that would have a 4% chance, followed by 8%, 16%, 32%, 64%, and 100%! Each time after triggering 'Extinction', the trigger rate would be forcibly reduced to 2%, and the cycle would begin anew.

This way, the triggering of 'Extinction' had basically become a controllable factor. Apart from the first hit, no matter how bad Sheyan's luck was, 'Extinction' would definitely trigger within 8 successful strikes!

The Messenger of Pain fully demonstrated his advantage in having long limbs. His right hand swelled up and hardened in the blink of an eye; his fingers even becoming fang-like neoplasms. The right hand struck the right side of Sheyan's chest. Even Sheyan's formidable defence could not resist the powerful attack. Sheyan right chest was thoroughly pierced through, leaving behind a huge bloody hole!

Not only that, he was once again struck by the bizarre, invisible attack on his neck, where he lost a large chunk of his flesh. A part of his skull and pulsating carotid arteries showed through the terrible wound.

The signature skill of a Temperer was the ability to transform a part of their body into a perfect combat weapon… while the Messenger of Pain had clearly achieved a perfect transformation, able to transform at will. Every time he raised his hand, he would display terrifying power, exceeding the level of a Temperer!

And at this instant, the patiently waiting Sheyan finally saw a chance. Having just successfully struck the enemy, there was a large opening in the Messenger of Pain's defence. Furthermore, the source of his power was pain, so his did not place much importance on defence to begin with. The flaw in his defence beckoned at Sheyan like a wide open door!

Sheyan tightly clenched the sword hilt. The sharp pain from the thorn stimulated his nerves, making him more focused. He could feel his blood and life essence being greedily absorbed by Apophis.

The whole world suddenly turned into a sea of blood. His nose was assaulted by the sickening smell of boiling fresh blood. All he could hear was the sound of the air being split apart!

When Apophis was about a metre away from the Messenger of Pain, it suddenly met with some kind of resistance, as if it had cut into something thick and sticky. However, there was a dark crimson glow around Apophis' blade which was very faint but extremely sharp. Nothing could resist its slice, and nothing could last a second in front of it!

A hard-to-describe scream filled the air, but Sheyan was not done yet. He cut deeper into the hip of the Messenger of Pain, trying to sever his thigh bone from his pelvis. But in the end, the Messenger of Pain's strong body, personally forged by the Queen of Blades, foiled his plan. The muscles near the wound twisted wildly and gripped Apophis' blade, stopping it from cutting in any further. The force Sheyan exerted on Apophis slowly depleted until the sword came to a complete halt.

Although the chop was unsuccessful, the Messenger of Pain's right thigh was now only connected to his pelvis by a layer of muscles and calluses less than three centimeters thick. Thick yellow fluid gushed out of the wound in large quantity. The fluid turned into foam as soon as it came into contact with the air, trying to plug the wound.

Before Sheyan could even react after the slash, the Messenger of Pain already slapped him more than a dozen meters away. When he lifted his body off the ground, he found that half his cheekbones had shattered and he could no longer speak. Blood was seeping through the orifices on his face.

"What a powerful attack! Such terrifying damage! Ah, I'm getting addicted to this overwhelming pain! It's fueling my strength, awakening it from my body. You will soon taste double the amount of pain you inflicted on me, fool! You have no idea how great Her Majesty the Queen of Blades is. A wound like this may have been fatal to the previous me, but my powerful recovery speed will make you understand that all kinds of attacks - and I mean all kinds - are totally futile against me! YOU! ARE! WORTHLESS!"

On the Messenger of Pain's back floated a twisted, deformed, transparent phantom which seemed to be able to change into various shapes. Sheyan's bizarre injuries previously were evidently the work of this thing.

But a crack had appeared on the transparent phantom. The energy around the crack seemed to be trying hard to repair it. Strangely, a lot of "0's" and "1's" would occasionally pop up on the wound. And when the crack was finally completely repaired, a weird thing happened.

A strange blood-red trace which looked like the mosaic commonly seen in certain movies was left on the wound. The moment the wound closed completely, a blood-red light immediately flashed, and the wound was inexplicably restored to its previous state. During the restoration process, a large amount of illusory 0's and 1's kept popping up. The mosaic-like blood-red glow also turned into something like an electric current which charged back on forth on the wound!

The same thing was also happening at the top of the Messenger of Pain's right thigh. His muscles kept folding and twisting, trying to heal themselves, but every attempt was in vain. The moment the wound healed, the horrible power left by Evil Sword Apophis would turn into a series of code and data which forcefully prevented the wound from healing!

Sheyan cut a sorry figure at the moment. He had bruises and wounds all over his body. And the enemy he was facing was a special messenger sent by the Queen of Blades, a monster two whole orders above him.

However, a smile actually broke on Sheyan's face. He dusted off his body, then bowed politely at the furiously howling Messenger of Pain who was trying hard to stand up but keep falling back down.

Sheyan said in a relaxed manner, "It's very rude and presumptuous of me to say this, sir, but it's time for us to part ways. I wish you good health and a pleasant journey."

However, his right leg that was only connected to his body by a layer of skin dragged on the ground as he ran, greatly hindering his progress. Even when the Messenger of Pain attempted a long-range leap with his arms and foot, he was dragged down mid-air and fell heavily to the ground.

The Messenger of Pain rolled around in agony for a while before he once again lifted himself back up, unwilling to give up. A large amount of cell fluid gushed out of the wound again to try and heal his thigh. Yellow foam once again formed on the wound. After the wound appeared to have completely healed, the Messenger of Pain checked it carefully. He only started moving again after confirming that everything was fine. But reality gave him a harsh slap in the face after he took only a few steps forward.

Suddenly, his neck extended rapidly and swelled up. The deformed neck sent his head flying towards the wound like a bullet. He chomped down on the thin layer of flesh connecting his thigh to his body. His sharp teeth started grinding on it until his thigh was completely severed.

That is to say, the Messenger of Pain's self-mutilation tactic was effective. He only had one leg and two hands left, but his situation now was much better than when he was dragging the injured leg around.

With a ferocious look, he stuffed the severed leg into his mouth and chewed hard. Bones and flesh splashed out of his mouth as he chewed. The Messenger of Pain gulped down his own flesh and bone in such a hurry that they overflowed out of the corners of his mouth and his nostrils. Then, he sniffed the ground and started tracking Sheyan down.

The Messenger of Pain's movement speed was originally much higher than that of Sheyan. He could run just by using his limbs without moving his body, like the kind of spider that could run on water at high speed. His movements were so mysterious and unpredictable that they were impossible to capture.

But now that he had lost a leg, the speed of his pursuit was obviously greatly affected. He could barely keep up with Sheyan's speed, and the best he could do was not to let the distance between them be pulled further apart.

As for Sheyan, this insane monster was indeed causing him a huge problem. On the surface, Sheyan seemed to have gained the upper hand after making good use of the powerful Evil Sword Apophis, but the Messenger of Pain was still a monster two whole orders above him, so Sheyan had also paid a considerable price. If he were somewhere else, Sheyan might still have some confidence in successfully killing the monster, but he was now in a strange place like the death zone!

Sheyan was absolutely certain that even if he could kill the Messenger of Pain, it would surely be a bitter victory with him using up all the cards he had. The only fate awaiting him afterwards was to struggle for survival in the death zone, and finally die here, turning into a decaying corpse!

That was why Sheyan did not take advantage of the successful strike to try and defeat the Messenger of Pain, but had immediately seized the opportunity when the monster had lost his mobility to run away. Since he couldn't defeat the monster, he could still run, right? Furthermore, from now on, he had to avoid injuries as much as possible. The more stamina reserves he had left, the longer he could persist.

Sheyan threw away the last piece of leather mask he had, which he had used to cover his nose and mouth. The smooth leather had been corroded until it was full of holes, as if it had been soaked in a strong acidic solution for several days.

He coughed a few times. His coughs sounded hollow, and his phlegm had the colour of rust. His lungs had been severely corroded. Although this degree of damage did not have any impact on Sheyan yet, it was only a matter of time before Sheyan would be affected.

Sheyan carefully buried his spit in the ground. There was no way this could prevent the Messenger of Pain from tracking him down, but it could at least slow him down a little. But as Sheyan was digging the hole, he suddenly discovered something weird.

Based on his judgement, even if the Messenger of Pain was chasing after him at full speed, he should still be at least five kilometres away, barring any unexpected circumstances. It should take him at least twenty minutes to track all the way here.

A sudden realisation hit Sheyan, because he could clearly see that visibility was improving and that the environment was getting brighter. Three minutes ago, Sheyan still could not tell what that black spot on the faraway stone peak was, but now, he could clearly tell that it was a cave.

Sheyan looked up towards the sky and immediately realised the source of the disturbance. The sky of the Lost Temple planet was originally dim and cloudy. Lead-gray clouds weighed heavily on the land, like the dense rainy clouds commonly seen in summer on Earth.

The magical deep blue sky, with sparkling wavy lines protruding on it, seemed to have countless pair of malicious eyes peeping down from behind it. The clouds were white, but it was the white of a dead fish's belly, and they were very close to the ground.

Lightning then zapped among the clouds. Sheyan instantly felt a sense of weightlessness, as if his body was going to float upwards. Then, those strange white clouds in the sky started spinning, forming innumerable huge vortexes which slowly reached down to the land. They looked like white giant funnels that were slowly connecting to the ground. The spectacle was extremely spectacular, but also contained a strong sense of destruction and killing!

Sheyan could already tell that something was wrong. The wind had suddenly gotten stronger, and more and more soil started floating. They did not seem like they were floating due to the buoyancy generated by a large number of tornadoes, but because the gravity of the planet itself had been offset by some unknown factors.

Sheyan's expression turned grave. His steps became as light and unsteady as a drunken man. He tried to bury his fist into the cliff next to him to steady himself, but the black mountain cliff was surprisingly hard. Sheyan's punch only made an inconspicuous crack on the cliff.

But he refused to give up. G-spot quickly shapeshifted on his raised fist, transforming into '+13 West'. Sheyan hacked at the black cliff using the saber. Before his body completely lost balance, he managed to forcefully hack a hole deep enough to grab onto.

The wind started blowing fiercely. Before this, although the wind did blow intensely through the mountains and howled loudly like moaning ghosts, they felt quite disorderly, as if countless gusts of winds were entangled and weaving together, so the forces would collide and stagger with each other.

But now, Sheyan could clearly feel that the forces of nature had gathered as one to obey some great and profound will, so they all moved with the same purpose! The tornadoes formed under such circumstances were not something mortals had the power to resist!

Sheyan instantly felt his body being stirred up by the fierce wind until he was completely horizontal. His five fingers that were grabbing the hole on the stone cliff were pulled taut, having to withstand tremendous force! The green veins on the back of his hand swelled up. The force tugging him away was so strong that Sheyan could barely hang on!

At this time, Sheyan suddenly understood something. He now finally knew why he saw very few loose rocks and pebbles on the plains here. In the face of such shocking natural disasters, any loose rocks would have been blown away ages ago.

"Damn..." Sheyan could feel his fingers that were holding onto the hole go numb. He immediately gritted his teeth and stretched out his right hand so that it could take over for his left hand. But at that moment, Sheyan suddenly sensed a strong crisis. He instantly tilted his head to one side. He felt his ear go numb, and immediately saw a bone javelin fly past his cheek. The bone javelin quietly stabbed into the stone cliff next to him, penetrating at least a foot deep.

Sheyan's body reacted before his mind could. He grabbed the dark red nerve tendon connected to the end of the bone javelin. He turned his head back and saw that, unbeknownst to him, the Messenger of Pain had silently crept within thirty meters of him.

A long tail had grown out of the monster's butt since Sheyan last saw him. There was no hair on the tail, only a layer of skin, so the bony joints inside were clearly visible. The tail could be wrapped around a rock to steady himself.

The Messenger of Pain seemed much less affected by the storm. He first stabilised his body with his tail, then used long-range attacks to fire at Sheyan from afar. The first strike was truly unexpected, but his bone javelin was unfortunately affected by the strong wind, so its aim was inevitably slightly off. That was why Sheyan could dodge it in time.

The Messenger of Pain's bone javelin was powerful, but it was not a disposable weapon. A dark red nerve tendon was connected to its rear. Not only could the tendon enable the bone javelin to be retrieved after it was shot, it could also adjust the javelin's aim while the javelin was flying through the air. When all is said and done, it was the fault of the force 12 wind that what should have been a sure-hit attack missed!

The Messenger of Pain instantly screamed in agony. The dark red nerve tendon caught by Sheyan was somewhat similar to the muscles connected to the testicles. Imagine if Sheyan, who had more than a hundred points of Strength, grabbed your testicles and pulled. That was what the Messenger of Pain was currently experiencing....

But the more pain the Messenger of Pain felt, the greater the power he would display in his next attack, so Sheyan was not really trying to cause more pain for him, but rather to pull the Messenger of Pain off the rock he was holding onto. If Sheyan succeeded, the wild storm would solve all his problems for him.

Sheyan yanked hard again! The Messenger of Pain trembled violently from top to bottom. His long tail made loud sounds of friction from grinding against the rock. He seemed like he could not hold on for much longer.

But Sheyan had underestimated the monster's determination. When Sheyan tried to exert force on the tendon again, the Messenger of Pain's neck elongated, and his teeth bit down on the dark red nerve tendon, severing it. The unbelievable pain made him erupt with immense force. He pounced towards Sheyan fiercely.

The Messenger of Pain was indeed someone who inherited the Queen of Blade's formidable power and was two orders higher than Sheyan. He had used all his strength to pounce forward this time, so even though the wind blew strong and carried a large amount of sharp stone fragments in it, it could not stop the monster. The Messenger of Pain looked like he would drag Sheyan down with him even if he had to sacrifice his own life!

No traces of panic could be seen on Sheyan's face. In truth, the Messenger of Pain's reaction was well within his expectations, so he was prepared for it. When the monster reached within 10 meters away from Sheyan, a ruthless smirk appeared on Sheyan's face. He suddenly raised his hand that was hanging by his side, revealing the silver gun in it.

Sheyan had not let G-spot consume 'Verdict' because 'Verdict' could still continue to grow. If it was devoured by G-spot, Sheyan did not know if it would still retain that precious property. Besides, 'Verdict' was a long range weapon and had its own equipment slot, so switching to it was very fast.

The Messenger of Pain wailed brutally following the loud bang. More than a dozen black spots appeared all over his body. The black spots immediately started burning, spewing black smoke. This attack had caused an amazing amount of damage to him, while Sheyan had also recouped a lot of HP!

But more importantly, the tremendous impact from the shot had also caused the Messenger of Pain to diverge from his intended trajectory. He was clearly leaping straight for Sheyan, but he had now deviated by more than a metre. However, it seemed like Sheyan was still within his reach.

But...'Verdict' could now shoot more than once! While the Messenger of Pain was striving to extend his claw towards Sheyan, Sheyan was also trying hard to stabilise himself in the gale. However, the hand which was wielding 'Verdict' was still as steady as a rock. The muzzle of the gun shifted slightly, and the trigger was pulled again!

The pale blue smoke the muzzle emitted instantly dispersed in the storm, but the milky white dots of light were not affected by the wind in the slightest. More than a dozen of them bombarded the body of the Messenger of Pain. Under the great impact, the claw which he had put his entire strength into swept past Sheyan half a meter away. Then, the monster was blown away by the gale.

Sheyan sneered mockingly, but the sneer froze almost as soon as it appeared. He suddenly saw the Messenger of Pain's sharp tail stab towards him at a strange angle from below like a bolt of lightning! The monster had forcibly extended it by half a meter from the spine, so it still carried some blood and flesh on it.

Suddenly struck by such a heavy blow, all five of Sheyan's fingers lost the strength in them. He was immediately swept away by the wind, ruthlessly whirling towards the sky!

He was tossed and turned several times every second he was in the storm, and had lost count of the number of times he had crashed into a mountain peak! Even a powerful Awakener's brain could not endure such a shocking amount of impact. Sheyan naturally fell unconscious.

Before losing consciousness, he saw himself being swept up into the sky. At the end of it was an opening which was getting bigger and bigger, like the end of an upside-down funnel. It all felt strange and unreal!

His head was in such painl that he felt like it was going to explode, as if a gentle shake would make the thousands of broken porcelain pieces inside to rattle loudly. It took him a moment to regain his thoughts. He tried to stand up, but found himself bound to the chair at his chest and at his waist.

However, it seemed that they were only meant to make him stay in place rather than to restrain him, so he managed to free himself without much effort. He took a few unsteady steps, only to fall to the ground due to his severe headache.

The intense pain was caused by excessive trauma to his head while he was unconscious. It was akin to putting tofu in a bottle, then shaking the bottle violently. The tofu would definitely break down into a mess. It took a lot for Sheyan to survive an injury of this extent.

He gasped heavily while pressing his feverish forehead against the cold smooth floor, then lay down on his back. He felt a little better after the blood gathering in his head started to spread out to his limbs.

Then, Sheyan found something that looked like a surgery table. Although it felt like a bad omen, he still lay down on it. He let his head hang in the air from his neck up so that his feet would be in a higher position than his head. His head immediately felt less painful.

Only after that did Sheyan's mind regain enough clarity to look around. The material which made up the place was strong and felt light. The place had a streamline motif, which was beautiful, but some of the smooth symbols which decorated the place had an arrogant feel to them.

And considering the details such as being held in a sitting position while he was unconscious, he could deduce with confidence that this place he was in was another Protoss base, and they were not hostile towards him.

The reason they made Sheyan sit was the same as the reason the humans let the wounded lie down on a bed. The Protoss had no bed, so they could only let Sheyan sit down to recuperate.

Sheyan did not dare to change his posture yet. He continued to carefully maintain his current position with his feet higher than his head. His resilient heart continued to pump blood to every part of his body. Under the constant circulation of blood, Sheyan gradually recovered from his condition, and his headache became much better.

What happened afterwards made Sheyan realise that his bad luck had not completely left him yet. He first checked his status and found that his innate ability had gone into cooldown. This showed that the situation after he passed out was much more dangerous than he had imagined. He was lucky to have survived.

By now, Sheyan had noticed some patterns and symbols on the walls. They stood out considerably, depicting the fight between light against darkness. But the more mysterious things were the many curved eyes that looked like thin blades, watching over everything.

"Are these symbols...portraying the wars and changes between light and shadow? Is this place the legendary Twilight Council that had long disappeared?" he muttered to himself.

The reason was because the main reason Sheyan had come to this place was to find Ronnie's whereabouts, and Ronnie was closely related to the Dark Templars, so that was what Sheyan's investigation had focused on. Regarding this topic, Tochego had told him with confidence that according to the legends, the origin of both the Dark Templar and the High Templar lay in the ancient, powerful and long-lost Twilight Council.

Sheyan checked the place out. From its architectural style and decorative patterns, he could basically confirm that they were in the style of the Protoss, but many of the details were different from what he had seen before in the other Protoss base. Therefore, Sheyan was sure that this place had absolutely no relation to the Protoss force led by Uraki.

The technology of Uraki's Protoss was obviously more advanced than that of this mysterious place. At least in the medical field, Sheyan had witnessed it with his own eyes. Their limb restoration technology and cell activation technology could restore a dying Zealot back to his peak fighting condition in just three hours.

Considering Sheyan's contribution to Uraki's Protoss side, if he had fallen into their hands, he would surely be thrown into a cell activation container for more effective treatment instead of being left in such a quiet room for his body to heal by itself.

But he had his reasons for making such a harsh reply to the cold voice before he was completely sure of his current situation. He had only done so after careful considerations.

Since he was dealing with the Protoss, they were bound to be arrogant. Arrogance was a common characteristic of all Protoss even if they were not the ones led by Uraki. It was absolutely impossible to leave a good impression on an arrogant person by relenting or showing subservience. On the contrary, it would only make the other party look down on you even more. At least displaying an arrogant attitude back could possibly win you some semblance of respect.

"Have you really never seen a human with a noble soul, sir? In the old Galaxy Campaign at the Marginal Corridor, the Protoss and the humans cooperated for the first time ever. It was the humans who stood at the frontline, protecting you Protoss with their flesh and metal! The bodies of 1.3 million humans were reduced to ashes back then. Are their souls noble or lowly?" retorted Sheyan, his tone neither humble nor overbearing.

Sheyan simply had too little information on hand at the moment because he had not regained his consciousness for long, so he was naturally reluctant to see any of their leaders so soon. He immediately grabbed his head and said, "Oh, hell, my head feels like it's going to explode. If you force me to walk right now, it'll be no different from murder!"

The voice did not say anything, but a door silently slid open. Because Sheyan was lying on the operating table with his head hanging off the edge, he only saw two legs standing at the door.

The legs were wrapped in metallic armour that exuded killing intent and intimidation. The edges and corners of the metallic armour were so sharp that it seemed like they could cut the eyes of anyone who so much as gazed upon them.

Behind the legs was a flapping black cape. It was hard to tell what material the cape was made of, because it was as deep as the night sky, seemingly absorbing all the light that shone on it. But more bizarrely, anyone who looked at it would feel their line of sight constantly sliding away from it.

While Sheyan was still wondering what the other party was going to do, he suddenly felt a refreshing and comfortable feeling wash over him, as if a large amount of freshly-melted snow had flowed into his body from his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, then creeped slowly into his brain along his nerves.

The prickling pain on Sheyan's head immediately felt better, and when that refreshing feeling converged at the back of his head, the pain slowly dissipated like snow that melted away after being splashed by hot water.

But after that, Sheyan felt his breathing becoming less smooth, like something wet was obstructing his breathing. He wiped with his hand and found blood flowing out of his nose and ears. The blood was dark red, and some blood clots had coagulated. As the blood slowly flowed out of him, the pain in his brain gradually eased until it completely disappeared.

Sheyan was going to stand up, but suddenly realised that his limbs were not listening to him. He felt as if there were invisible shackles in the air tying his hands and feet down, and these shackles have their own consciousness, forcing Sheyan to bend to its will!!

At first, Sheyan was going to struggle, but then he remembered where he was right now, thus he relaxed his body. He was instantly lifted up like a string puppet and forced to stand straight.

"There's absolutely no more problem with your injury. Just follow me," the voice continued. Sheyan could now see that the man standing in front of him was wrapped in a black cloak and wore a triangular mask. His metallic long boots were very conspicuous.

He also carried a long staff in his hand which had strange patterns on it. The patterns were very mysterious and looked like stars that moved across the sky. At the tip of the staff, a soft little blue light was flickering faintly.

As soon as the words "just follow me" were uttered, Sheyan instantly felt like two invisible men had grabbed onto him and forced him to move according to their will. He kept quiet, did not resist, and let his body walk forward.

Sheyan noticed that the corridor he passed through were all considerably old. Although the surfaces were still sparkling bright, the rust, the smoothness from wear and the traces honed by time could not be erased.

After passing through various long metal passages inlaid with crystals, Sheyan finally arrived in a hall that was at least a few hundred meters high. There were a large amount of what seemed like paintings at the ceiling, but upon closer inspection, he found that the figures in the paintings were moving.

On both sides of the hall were two rows of exquisite and magnificent giant metal pillars, each more than ten meters in diameter. At the other end of the metal pillars was a huge metal altar that had a blue pulsating flame on it.

It could be seen from the hologram that 13 giant spirals had formed on the surface of the Lost Temple planet, sweeping madly across the planet's surface. From the perspective of outer space, a huge funnel-shaped black hole several light-years in magnitude had formed with the Lost Temple planet at the core. It was brutally swallowing everything within its reach!

A loud rumble suddenly resounded through the hall. The ceiling of the hall slid slowly towards both sides to reveal the starry sky. After that, something which gave Sheyan an indescribable feeling slowly descended.

The surface of the object was shining with a weird glow, as if the light from all the stars in the sky was gathered on it. Its overall shape resembled a spinning top. It was visibly spinning at a high speed, but it felt extraordinarily stable, as if wherever this object was, it would ensure the balance and stability of the place, and never collapse.

"This... Could this be....?" Seeing this object, Sheyan was shocked speechless. He finally knew why every forces were congregating in his place. To hell with the secrets of the Colossus! That's bullcrap! No wonder this place could turn someone into a Dark Templar...

Even more terrifying was that in Starcraft lore, even the Queen of Blades who once took over as the supreme ruler of the Zerg race was deprived of all her powers by the Keystone. It deinfested her and carried out a genetic reversal to make her human again! Thus, it could be inferred from this that the artifact should be able to easily turn a human into a Dark Templar too!

The Keystone descended slowly towards the flame inside the hall, and finally hovered over the flame. A blue ray of light suddenly shot out of the flame and landed on Sheyan. It penetrated him like an X-ray; he could not hide any secrets from it at all.

And so, a mark which shimmered with a gloomy blue light appeared from between his eyebrows – the mark which Uraki stamped on Sheyan's forehead, recognising his status as an allied "hero".

"That group of bastards are abominable, but they should still have decent judgment; they should be able to distinguish spies from true allies. Who gave you this mark of an ally?"

Against this terrifying existence who, albeit devoid of a physical body, actually possessed a godly artifact like the Keystone, Sheyan could only force himself to remain alert and respond respectfully.

"Respectful...lord of the Protoss. I am Seaman, a human Brigadier General, military number 1018. I came to the Lost Temple planet in search of a comrade of mine. This is a private operation and has nothing to do with any human authority. The person who gave me the mark is named Uraki. And because I have the privilege of fighting alongside two powerful Protoss in the previous battle with the Zerg, the Zealot Sokada and the Dragoon Tochego, I have also achieved a certain amount of merit."

After that, the blue flame seemed like it could not be bothered to talk to Sheyan any longer. It told the person that brought Sheyan here, the one that had a cold voice, "Shadow, you're in charge of this human. Verify whether his words are true, then...give him the sentence he deserves."

"Wow, I did not expect your life to be so colourful, human. The things you've experienced are no less amazing than that of many of our Protoss heroes... Uraki, that little priest, has grown to the point where he can be sent to deal with us, huh? But does he really think he's worthy? There are no records on the Zealot Sokada and the Dragoon Tochego, which means that they're insignificant to our race. It's still not enough to offset the blasphemy of you stepping foot on the Holy Land."

Sheyan narrowed his eyes and coldly said, "So what? Although I'm only a lowly human in your eyes, I'll have you know that you can kill me, but you can't defeat me! You can destroy me, but you can't insult me!"

This remark clearly touched a sore spot! Two rows of warriors, dressed exactly like Shadow, stepped neatly out of the empty air around them. All of them, including Shadow, hissed furiously!

Shadow took a step forward. The patterns on his "long staff" suddenly glowed, and the light at the tip of the staff extended bit by bit until it finally turned into a horrifying light blade. The staff had become a scythe!

(Dark Templars use powerful warp blades, based on modified psi blade technology. Further iterations on the warp blade's design yielded scythe-like blades, which helped diversify the combat style of the Dark Templar. These scythes are called shadow scythes: https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_scythe)

The liquid metal life-form started flowing on Sheyan's hands and finally became the '+10 Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves'. Sheyan dropped his head and slowly spread open his hands, like he was trying to completely enclose himself in a shell without being disturbed by the outside world.

Shadow's figure turned into a blur and reached Sheyan in the blink of an eye, leaving a long trail of afterimages in his wake. He swung his giant scythe. The blade of the scythe cut through the air effortlessly, producing a faint sizzle, as if the strong plasma flow was cutting the air molecules it encountered into two!

Sheyan abruptly raised his hand and used the 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove' to block the shadow scythe! The current 'Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Gloves' were not the same as before because G-spot had been upgraded to a high-tier legendary weapon, so the grade of the gloves it transformed into had also increased significantly.

Therefore, even though the shadow scythe's slash produced countless sparks on Sheyan's glove, it was unable to cut into it by even an inch. Sheyan was still hurt by the force penetrating through the glove, but he also managed to seize the temporary halt in the opponent's movement to take half a step forward and swing his elbow.

Shadow bent his elbow and blocked Sheyan's attack with his hand, but to his surprise, he found that the human in front of him was astonishingly strong. The impact from the collision forced him to lose his balance and stumble back.

Sheyan took the opportunity to stride forward and executed an 'Uppercut', launching Shadow into the air. Then, he sent sent three consecutive punches at Shadow, slamming him into the ground. Shadow skidded for more than 7 meters on the smooth floor before he came to a halt.

The furious Shadow abruptly climbed back up off the ground and swung his scythe diagonally downwards. In this instant, the whole hall trembled like it was shivering in cold. Strange noises akin to shattered pottery filled the air. An invisible shockwave centered around Shadow rapidly extended outwards.

Seeing Shadow raise his scythe again, Sheyan immediately rushed towards him. The scythe swung down again in a vertical arc, and another trail of blood splashed out of Sheyan's body, but the distance between them had disappeared. Sheyan gripped Shadow's shoulders and activated 'Tactical Throw', flinging him into the giant metal pillar next to them.

This was a heavy blow to Shadow. Dark Templars were known for their stealthy movement, and defence had always been their weakness. The giant metal pillar he crashed into could be regarded as the backbone supporting the entire base, so its hardness goes without saying!

Shadow was already dizzy from the strong collision, but to make matters worse, Sheyan was already waiting for him to bounce off the pillar. A knee strike and a high whip kick sent Shadow flying.

The rest of the Dark Templars have incredulous looks on their faces. Their impression of humans was of a race that had mastered the use of powerful machinery, but a human's personal strength was totally insignificant in their eyes. This was the first time they had ever seen a human having the upper hand in a fair one on one fight against a Dark Templar. All of them knew how strong Shadow was, but from the vivid dents in Shadow's armour, they could also tell that the strength of the opponent was far beyond the strength of a conventional human. It could be said that he was almost an Ultralisk in human form!

Shadow stood up slowly and stared at Sheyan with a serious gaze. The fight in his eyes had not diminished at all, but had grown stronger instead! His palm slowly and painstakingly brushed the edge of his scythe like a grindstone, producing blue sparks and making a harsh sound! This was the way the Dark Templars would sharpen their scythes with their own life force to increase the power of the scythes several-fold, a strengthening method called the "Blood Scythe"!

When Sheyan saw this, his face became grave. He took a deep breath and said eerily, "Since you wish to take my life, don't blame me for taking extreme measures as well."

Evil Sword Apophis' mysterious, sinister, and incomparably powerful glow illuminated the sacred temple of the Protoss. Even the powerful artifact floating in the air emitted a faint buzz, apparently noticing the anomaly happening in this space!

"Halt! Outsider, I sense a familiar feeling within you. Can you tell me why?" asked the gloomy blue flame as it flickered several times, its voice echoing in the hall.

Sheyan pondered over it carefully and realised that he indeed had something on him that was related to the Protoss. Yes, the communication device he got from Ol' Kido which he could use to contact Ol' Kido to report back on his mission.

Sheyan had treated this thing as a waste since his mission had failed, so he had left it in a corner in his storage space. But at this moment, he had a flash of inspiration after recalling Ol' Kido's age and appearance that was like the last flickering ember of a candle in the wind. Sheyan instantly took the device out and said, "Do you mean this, my lord? This is a keepsake given to me by a Protoss elder."

When Sheyan took out the device, the rest of the Dark Templars were still looking at him vigilantly. More precisely, they were looking at Evil Sword Apophis vigilantly.

Even though it was currently sitting in Sheyan's hand without doing anything, it still appeared so arrogant and unyielding under the strong oppressive pressure of the Keystone. The mighty Dark Templars, all of whom had experienced hundreds of battles, could not help fearing it!

A Dark Templar bizarrely emerged from the empty air, took the ping pong ball-sized communicator from Sheyan's hand, and displayed it on his spread palm. His palm that was encased in metal gauntlet suddenly glowed. Having been infused with psionic power, the tiny communicator floated up until it was about half a foot above the palm, then started spinning.

But the human-torch-guy turned a deaf ear to all the warnings. When he was 10 meters away from Sheyan, Sheyan suddenly felt a very gentle force pushing him back. The force felt like a repulsive force between two magnets of the same pole.

Sheyan was not alarmed at all, but was secretly glad instead. This action of his was enough to prove that even the leader of this Protoss tribe who was in possession of the Keystone was wary of his existence! Otherwise, why would he deliberately force him back?

Suddenly, Rogue said in that low but melodious voice of his, "This method of joining the parts together looks very much like our own unique technique. That bunch of conceited idiots could never make such a clever and simple thing."

Sheyan marveled in astonishment at the spectacle. The tiny little device could actually break down into so many bits and pieces. It was the same feeling as watching a magician pull a pigeon out of an egg, then a chicken, then a duck, then a goose, and finally, a whole pig....

Sheyan had no reason to hide anything, so he described the appearance of Ol' Kido in detail. He was surprised to find that, while he was describing the old man, a 3D image of the person he was describing had appeared next to him. When Sheyan was done, the 3D image was completed too.

Rogue remained quiet for a moment. The communicator was quickly reassembling again, and was then activated. Under normal circumstances, Sheyan could only activate the device after completing a mission, but Rogue surprisingly could do it at will.

Following a mysterious resonance, the 3D image of Ol' Kido sitting down next to a table appeared before them. In his hand was half a broken liquor bottle. He was snoring loudly, and there was a pool of vomit beside him.

Rogue suddenly extended his left hand. The hand was originally made of fire, but it immediately solidified into a strange hand that had a metallic texture! The joints of the fingers were thick, and the nails were sharp and slender.

His left hand rested on Ol' Kido's 3D hologram, and then... Sheyan felt a distortion in the surrounding space. The distortion was hard to describe. It was as if his soul and his physical body were stretched several kilometers long, then restored to their original form in an instant. There was no pain, but the feeling was clearly engraved in his mind.

When Sheyan came back to his senses, he found that Ol' Kido and his holographic projection had actually switched places! In order words, the holographic projection had been moved to the other side, while Ol' Kido himself was now in this hall!

In truth, this ability was not that advanced a technology for the Protoss. It was something had long been perfected. The powerful Arbiter aircraft could even transmit an astonishing number of Protoss troops to somewhere light years away!

Ol' Kido was originally sleeping while leaning on a pillar. Logically speaking, he should have fallen very badly after he was suddenly teleported here, but the truth was, he was sleeping just as soundly as before. There seemed to be an invisible force in the air holding him up.

Nobody spoke. All of them stared at Ol' Kido in silence. The latter seemed to sense all the eyes on him; he woke up stretching his body, and then froze. His gaze swept past the faces of all the people there, and for some reason, his started trembling violently. A moment later, tears filled his eyes....

Sheyan shrugged, but two more Dark Templars then surrounded him, so he had no choice but to do as he was told. But this time, instead of being brought back to the quiet room he was previously in, he was led to a very spacious place.

From here he could see a window. Surging red magma beat crazily on the window from the outside like a raging tide, then slowly slid down. Even someone like Sheyan, who had seen his fair share of awe-inspiring sights, could not help feeling dumbstruck. He instinctively took a step back to dodge.

Shadow's eyes flickered, obviously feeling a little smug about Sheyan's reaction, but he quickly calmed himself. Sheyan sighed, sat down on a nearby seat, and asked nonchalantly, "I'm hungry. Can the almighty and all-powerful Protoss race treat me to a meal?"

Sheyan feigned a stunned look. "But I thought the Protoss are very hospitable, at least that was the case when I was in Lord Uraki's base. They gave me a really good reception...."

The Protoss were proud, and Sheyan's words hit them right on their weakness. The other Dark Templars immediately had looks of anger on their faces. Shadow took a deep breath, then said, "Fine! What do you want?"

After Sheyan had hastily filled his stomach, another Dark Templar came in from the door and enquired, "I heard that your purpose in coming here is to find another human, Brigadier General?"

"I'm sorry, but there are seven places in the universe where the Dark Templar trial can take place. You might be in the wrong place," said the apparently much older Dark Templar.

Such a tactful compliment immediately eased the atmosphere. The old Dark Templar said, "According to the latest information we have, yes, eight days ago, there was indeed a human who came to us with a token we could not refuse to undergo the Dark Templar trial, but we were already making a huge exception by letting him undergo the trial, so we could not provide any other protective measures..."

"Our trial is a little different from the trials in other places, in that the participant can choose to teleport outside at any given time as long as they're in non-combat state. But the longer they stay inside, the stronger they will become. That's why the Dark Templars in other places are merely trash produced by standardised procedures, while the Dark Templars we produce are generally much more powerful," the old Dark Templar answered skillfully.

Having heard his explanation, Sheyan finally understood. The Dark Templars here were no doubt much stronger in terms of individual combat prowess, but the mortality rate of such a trial would certainly be very high. However, from a practicality point of view, only the places that could mass produce Dark Templars could meet the cruel consumption of warfare.

'Seems like there's a good reason why these guys were driven to this pathetic place for so long despite having a powerful godly artifact like the Keystone,' mocked Sheyan in his mind, but he was still more concerned about the whereabouts of Ronnie, so he asked, "So how long did your strongest Dark Templar warrior stay in the trial?"

Sheyan's eyes narrowed as he smiled. "Yes, I think so too, but although fifteen days may be a bit difficult, I believe my friend has no problem staying in there for ten days or so."

"A human staying inside for ten days!? How's that possible?" Another Dark Templar exclaimed in disbelief. "Sir Blackedge is someone who's unanimously recognised as the one who will inherit milord's title. After him, no Dark Templar has been able to last for more than 10 days in the trial ground!"

Sheyan could only stay in the place for the next few days after that. It might have seemed like a waste of time, but it was incorrect to say that these days amounted to absolutely nothing.

That's because his fight with Shadow had spread among the Dark Templars. The Dark Templars were all powerful warriors, so those who had witnessed the encounter could all tell that Shadow was being fully overwhelmed in that fight.

So, the majority of the Protoss who came to him were those looking to maintain the pride of the Dark Templar. Sheyan accepted their challenges without exception. All the challengers ended up running to the maintenance room holding their beloved warp blades with mournful faces.

Dark Templars were creatures who wander in darkness. Their M.O. focused on high damage and killing with one blow. They were good in agility and stealth, but definitely not in direct confrontation.... To fight a duel with the strong and robust Sheyan without using any weapons was akin to a male secret agent challenging a female spy to see who could pee further. It seemed totally fair on paper, but was in fact extremely unfair!

But as the saying goes, there are exceptions to every rule. Anything is possible in this world. There might be some Dark Templars who were good at frontal assault, but they would certainly be people of status like Blackedge. Those Dark Templars thought too highly of themselves to deign challenging the lowly Sheyan to a duel.

So Sheyan had been continuously fighting and winning for the past few days. To be honest, the Dark Templars presented no more challenge to him than punching bags. But he soon sensed that something was amiss. The Dark Templars who came to challenge him were few and far between at first, but they slowly came more and more frequently until finally, the challengers had to form a long queue at the doorway... Sheyan, who was initially quite passionate, quickly turned dispirited, because he suddenly found that his situation was quite similar to a prostitute that had booming business.

With Sheyan's intelligence, he soon realised the reason why he was so popular among the Dark Templars. He found to his surprise that the fighting skills of a Dark Templar, who was "frequenting" him for the second time, had improved! The Dark Templar was obviously much better than the last time they fought!

So that was it. These Dark Templars had been isolated from the outside world for too long. No matter how good their training methods were, those training could not help someone improve like actual combat could. The Dark Templars could only look inwards and tap their own potential to grow stronger. At most, they would practice fighting among themselves. Such a limited training method would become useless once they reached a certain level.

Hence, many of the Dark Templars had actually reached a bottleneck. What they severely lacked was the stimulation from other combat styles. After fighting with Sheyan, they instantly comprehended a lot of things. Those who were stronger would learn how to deal with an opponent who was weaker but more nimble than themselves, while those who were weaker would find ways to make up for their shortcomings.

The first few Dark Templars Sheyan defeated initially felt extremely humiliated, but when they realised that they had learned some skills which enabled them to defeat the opponents they could not defeat before, their humiliation gradually faded, replaced by a strong desire to grow stronger. The Dark Templars came to Sheyan tirelessly like a flock of ducks scrambling madly for food.

To be exact, he lasted for eight days and twenty-one hours before he transported out. But what pleased Sheyan was that, when Ronnie walked out of the trial cave and fell to the ground unconscious, most of the Dark Templars had some rather unsightly expressions on their faces. To put it in a more visual term, they looked like they accidentally ate flies.

Although Sheyan's confidence in Ronnie was somewhat overstated, Ronnie's passing score had still broken a record. It was good enough to be one of the top three scores in the history of the Dark Templar trial ever since its inception. The original third place had lasted for eight days and eighteen hours, but that record had unfortunately been pushed to fourth place now.

Ronnie stared wide-eyed the moment he saw Sheyan. His expression changed into one of relief, and he then immediately passed out. At the time, he was completely covered in mud, looking very much like a savage.

But the seemingly wet mud was actually full of chapped marks, like it had been burned by fire; a lot of debris would fall off when it was touched. A closer look at Ronnie would show that his skin had large patches of weird-looking papules on it, some of which had burst open. The tip of the papules had black spots on them.

Sheyan carefully observed the papules for a while, then searched around the place for a pair of forceps. With the forceps, he pinched the black spot on the tip of a papule and slowly pulled it out.

It turned out to be a horrifying parasite that was close to twenty centimeters long. It was about as thick as the wire of an earphone and was as tough as a steel wire. Even with Sheyan's abnormally high Strength, he had to use about 50-60% of his strength to snap it in two!

Seeing the papules all over Ronnie's body, Shedan's scalp went numb. How many worms were there in him right now? Sheyan could somewhat deduce the predicament Ronnie was previously in. He must have been chased by a creature or creatures that had infrared vision or an extremely sensitive sense of smell, so he had to jump into a river and cover his body in mud.

But the mud must have contained a large number of parasites which would quickly burrow into the skin to reproduce after coming into contact with a living body. Forced by the circumstances, Ronnie must have lit a fire or found a high temperature area, such as those near a volcano, to try and burn these parasites to death. However, something had occurred which forced him to return from the trial ground.

These diseases and parasites attached to Ronnie's body obviously worked on a contestant's digitised body and immune system. While Sheyan was still contemplating on how he should heal Ronnie, Shadow came to him and said, coldly, "I'm sorry, Brigadier General, but the trialist must leave our Holy Land at once. There's no room for discussion in this matter."

"But there's a bunch of people hunting him down out there! And if that coordinate happens to be in the death zone, the harsh natural environment will be enough to kill him!" protested Sheyan in anger.

Shadow shook his head. "Unfortunately, rules are rules. The weakest aspect of you humans is that you don't respect the rules. That's why you will never grasp the power in the laws of the universe!"

"Have the noble Protoss race ever deserted their comrades on the battlefield?" asked Sheyan calmly, but with a heavy tone. Before Shadow could reply, the other Dark Templars already shouted in fury.

Sheyan turned to Shadow again. "Nobility has nothing to do with race; nobility comes from the soul. The Protoss will never abandon their comrades, but neither will the humans! Please send me out together with him.

Sheyan grabbed Ronnie and easily lifted him up. He was sure that there were still living parasites on Ronnie. Those parasites looked extremely powerful, so Sheyan did not want to risk being infected by carrying Ronnie on his back. Led by Shadow, they came to a structure which looked very much like a teleport array. It was, in fact, a teleport array. Sheyan brought Ronnie to the centre of the structure.

There was initially nothing on the wall, but as soon as Shadow pressed it, the spot he pressed instantly glowed with a dark green light. Then, a power bar started charging up next to it.

"Have you ever seen the kind of lake that's completely isolated from other bodies of water? In the beginning, there might be lots of fish and shrimps in it, and it'll seem full of vitality, but stagnant water will always be dead water. The fish will die, the shrimps will rot, and the lake will become a decaying swamp. Finally, it'll dry up completely. Only unceasingly flowing and surging rivers are truly full of vitality, giving birth to even stronger lives!... Goodbye!"

A light shimmered in Shadow's deep eyes upon hearing Sheyan's words. Although the light died down almost immediately, Sheyan's words were deeply engraved in Shadow's mind like the marks left by a blade!

Little did Sheyan know that his unintentional words of advice would unexpectedly cause a turbulent upheaval in this place hundreds of years later. Shadow, who had gained control over the Keystone by that time, made the bold decision to break away from the tribe and rejoin the main Protoss group because he deemed that this place was close to becoming a rotting swamp. His decision naturally set off a series of bloody consequences, but that's a story for another time.

The power charge was soon completed. Before Shadow pressed down on the activation button, Sheyan, who anticipated that he would have to face the harsh environment on the planet's surface again, suddenly asked Shadow a question.

"By the way, before I lost consciousness, I was actually fighting with a special Zerg creature. If I'm not mistaken, the creature was probably a special monster personally produced by the Queen of Blades. He was really strong. Do you know where he is now?"

"The only reason you survived is because the Keystone had recognised the Protoss imprint on your body, so it automatically shielded you. If the guy you're talking about doesn't have any identification imprint on him, there's more than a 95% chance that he's already turned to dust," answered Shadow coldly.

"What about the remaining 5%?" This was a matter of life and death for Sheyan, so he must be absolutely sure. Otherwise, if the guy was lying in wait for him outside and instantly ambushed him the moment he was teleported out, he would be in big trouble.

It had to be admitted that the Protoss race truly did possess the most advanced teleportation technology. Before Sheyan knew it, he was already teleported away. The only thing he felt was a little dizziness, but that was normal.

Of course, this level of teleportation could not compare at all to the powerful instantaneous mass teleportation that the Protoss' Arbiters were capable of. The Arbiters could transmit several legions of soldiers to someplace light years away, and the troops they transmitted were able to immediately join the fight afterwards. What Sheyan had just experienced could be considered old technology.

Right now, it was the middle of the day in the outside world. The sky, having been swept by the storm caused by the Keystone, seemed boundless. The dense clouds had all vanished, so the sky was unusually clear.

The sudden bright environment made Sheyan squint. Underneath him, and extending far into the distance all around him, the originally prussian blue earth had turned dark green. The moss that was previously lying in dormancy had clearly sensed the arrival of the rare fine weather. It was striving to absorb as much light as it could, and had greedily extended its roots deep into the barren soil to absorb the nutrients. The moss blossomed, split open and reproduced in a short amount of time.

Ronnie suddenly groaned in pain. Sheyan checked his condition and found that the papules on his body had gotten worse. The parasites that were still alive were starting to wriggle underneath his skin like worms that had awakened from hibernation. If they burrowed into Ronnie's organs, there would be no way to save him unless he could return to the Nightmare Realm immediately.

But there were simply too many parasites on Ronnie's body. Even if Sheyan were to help him clean up, just clearing the parasites from his torso would take at least twenty minutes. By the time he was done, the parasites on Ronnie's limbs would have swam along his blood vessels directly into his heart.

Two seconds later, a figure suddenly emerged behind Sheyan, holding a wrench that was gleaming silver. The figure swung the wrench at the back of Sheyan's head. Although the action was fierce, it gave rise to no air movement nor sound.

Different assassins who learned the 'Sap' ability would produce different effects. The 'Sap' of this particular assassin required him to hit the back of the target's head. The target would then be stunned for fifteen seconds, unable to attack, move, cast spells or use items, but they would recover from the stun if they received damage. The moment the target recovered from the stunned state, they would immediately receive a damage value equal to the duration of the stun multiplied by the caster's Agility value.

But the moment the enemy made the move, Sheyan unexpectedly tilted his head to the side.... As a result, the 'Sap' landed on his shoulder! Therefore, the execution of the skill ended in failure. It did nothing except to shave a few dozen points of HP off Sheyan!!

After the assailant's ambush attempt failed, instead of fleeing immediately like assassins tended to do, the opponent actually pulled another non-mainstream weapon from his waist – a mace. With the unconventional weapon combination of mace and wrench, the assailant pounced at Sheyan ferociously.

Only now did Sheyan see what the assailant looked like. He was short and sturdy, and seemed pretty muscular. His triangular eyes shined with malice. He was strong, swift, solid and ferocious, like a crocodile in the mud.

The assailant smirked at Sheyan's question and responded, "Of course. Even if he's already dead, we won't leave until we see his corpse. Ha ha, I can't believe this accomplishment fell into my lap just like this. It must be my lucky day."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Dons laughed wildly. "This whole place within a radius of ten kilometers is filled with our men, boy. In five minutes, everyone will be gathered here! Now listen, I'll get a reward for killing you too, but I'll get even more benefits if I kill Ronnie by myself, so if you...*cough*...get out of the way right now, I'll spare...*achooo*...spare your life."

"Oh," Sheyan nodded like he had suddenly understood something. "I see what you mean. You're saying that if I can finish you in ten seconds, I can spare four and a half minutes to treat Ronnie's injury, and I'll still have twenty seconds left to run away."

Sheyan had activated 'Hornrage' without warning! All of a sudden, he was already right in front of Dons, but just as Sheyan was going to launch the next attack, a strange light flashed on Dons' chest. He instantly leaped backwards like he had been knocked away, pulling himself away from Sheyan.

Even more bizarre was the moss that grew wildly out of the ground and held firmly onto Sheyan's feet while Dons was being flung away. It reduced Sheyan's movement speed by 40%! When Dons landed, he gripped his pair of peculiar weapons tightly. The weapons suddenly lit up with a crimson glow, and the glow started surging and burning!

Dons took a step forward and disappeared into the air. However, his stealth ability which was achieved by refracting light could not escape the detection of Sheyan's unusually high Perceptive Sense.

After forcefully taking the hit, Sheyan was sent flying, enshrouded in flames. While in mid-air, Dons suddenly appeared and smashed both his weapons at Sheyan's head!

This was another one of Dons' abilities. He could install similarly invisible magic devices. The 'Great Fireball' was an ability on the magic device. He had already calculated Sheyan's trajectory in advance, so he was already waiting for Sheyan to be delivered to his doorstep!

His weapons temporarily halted. However, Sheyan he did not dodge them. The pair of enchanted weapons struck him on the head and exploded, scattering flames all around him! But seizing the opportunity, Sheyan rushed out of the flames like a devil, seemingly unaffected by the blow, and sent a fist at Dons' chin from below!

Dons was absolutely no match for Sheyan in terms of Strength. He was instantly sent into the air. Sheyan launched three punches in succession. Each punch seemed unspectacular, but the rock beneath his feet shattered with every forward step he took, so fierce were his momentum! Following the last punch, when Dons was about to reach the ground, Sheyan grabbed both of Dons' legs and flung him into the sky with 'Tactical Throw'.

Sheyan lowered his head. No expression could be seen on his face, but on his right hand that was raised high, the sharp-edged glove was rapidly changing shape like a melting candle....turning into Evil Sword Apophis!!

The way Sheyan effortlessly dealt with his own attack made one thing very clear to Dons - his opponent had been hiding his strength, and his real strength was terrifying. He was like an iceberg floating in the sea. The part floating above the water may seem tiny, but the part submerged underwater was so gigantic that it was immeasurable!

He started estimating if his HP could take it. Anyone who could live up to this point would surely have this extent of insight. From his assessment, he was sure that weapon was highly destructive, but after the attack, he should be able to move again. He would immediately go into stealth, sprint away, and send a request for help. As long as he could hang on for 10 seconds, his companions nearby would get here to help, and the others would keep on coming. They would attack the opponent like a pack of wolves attacking a lion. No matter how powerful this guy was, he would surely fall.

Dons started falling from the air. Then, just as he predicted, the sword cut into his right thigh. The sharp edge of the sword easily severed the tendons and blood vessels in the thigh, causing a serious injury to him. The attack was truly destructive, but it was within the scope of what Dons had predicted.

Upon landing, Dons immediately rolled away out of instinct. Even though he would aggravate the leg injury by doing so, he was going to use the honorary dosage immediately afterwards to restore himself to max HP anyway, so it did not matter.

After using the honorary dosage, he got up confidently and activated a speed boosting skill to dash away. But the moment he took a step forward, he instantly found that he could not exert any force with his right foot at all. He ended up falling heavily to his right.

A chill crept down his spine. He felt like he was in a nightmare. But luckily, he had enough wits left to instantly think of checking his battle log. What he saw there was cruel and merciless.

"Your body will be regarded as being in an un-digitalised state. Any Nightmare Realm medicine will not work on you. The injury caused by 'Extinction' can only be healed through conventional medical means, and will recover at the healing speed of a normal human. If you lose any part of your body, it cannot be restored by the Realm or any medicine before the power of Extinction on the wound has dissipated."

But its weakness was obvious too, and that was, it was deemed a tool instead of a lethal weapon manufactured for murder, so its base attack power was very low. Even after being strengthened to +7, the wrench's attack power was only about as high as an ordinary un-strengthened silver storyline weapon...

Dons used it because he himself possessed the ability to enchant it with flames, thus increasing its damage output. Moreover, the 33% chance of stunning was really good.

Under normal circumstances, it was pretty much just a collector's item. Only against specific enemies or in specific worlds like the Transformers world would it turn into a lethal weapon.

Therefore, it was something which was only valuable if sold to a specific target group. Otherwise, it would only sell at a low price. It was similar to the Chevrolet Camaro Bumblebee in the real world. This car model was obviously targeted at fans of the Transformers franchise. Without the Bumblebee appeal, not many people would be willing to buy the car at that price.

So Sheyan simply fed the wrench to G-spot for dessert. He was not only doing this to enrich the equipment database, but also because G- spot needed energy to switch between different weapons and equipment. Where did the energy come from? From these equipment it devoured, of course.

Of course, weapons and equipment that had no soul would provide less energy when devoured. However, the energy requirement was not that high. A silver storyline equipment was enough for G-spot to last through a high-intensity battle.

After dealing with Dons at lightning speed, Sheyan went back to Ronnie and found that his situation was getting really bad. Not only were the damn parasites on the limbs starting to counterattack, the parasites on the torso were already trying to invade into his internal organs.

Based on the speed of Sheyan's amateur-level treatment, even if he managed to eliminate all the parasites on the torso, the time it took would be enough for the parasites on the limbs to penetrate into Ronnie's internal organs.

Then, Sheyan raised his weapon. Of course, the weapon had changed from Evil Sword Apophis to +13 West, or else Ronnie would be in trouble.... A few seconds later, the unlucky Ronnie once again turned into a human tilting doll. His severed hands and feet, having lost the contestant's digitalisation protection, rotted away in just a few minutes. Even the hard bones became full of holes, like rotten wood.

And the weird parasites on them started to grow like crazy having acquired enough nutrition. The acid they spewed could even corrode into rocks, not to mention human flesh. The parasites could seemingly control the amount and the scope of coverage of the corrosive acid very well. They easily made little holes in the rocky ground that they could burrow into.

Ronnie's limbs quickly rotted away into nothingness, leaving behind the parasitic worms that looked like clusters of wool threads. All the parasites then drilled into the rocky ground, leaving no trace behind. They were probably lying in wait for a creature to pass by, at which time they would all jump out.

The parasites in Ronnie's torso seemed to have sensed the danger. Some parts of his body would occasionally bulge up. Sheyan aimed at a wriggling tail and gripped it with his forceps.

Sheyan accurately pinched the parasitic worm with the forceps thanks to his arm strength and hand-eye coordination. He instantly pulled back with force. However, a living worm turned out to be vastly different from a dead one. It struggled madly the moment it was gripped. Fortunately, Sheyan had the advantage in terms of Strength. He firmly clamped the worm and pulled it out slowly but steadily.

However, Ronnie suddenly started moaning in pain. It turned out that the parasite was panicking, so it was madly spewing acid out of desperation. That was bad news for Ronnie.

Sheyan was already feeling exhausted after dealing with only one parasite. He pondered for a moment. After that, he cut open Ronnie's flesh and searched for a wriggling tail. Having found one, his hand moved like lightning. The moment he grabbed onto the parasite's tail, he immediately pulled back with the same speed!

The parasite was already plucked out before it even had the chance to spit acid. Ronnie also did not seem to be hurt much. Once Sheyan saw that the method was effective, he instantly repeated the cycle of cutting open the flesh, looking for a worm, and pulling it out with lightning speed. Before long, he had extracted over 30 of those strange and vicious parasites from Ronnie's body.

An ordinary person would be long dead if they had all their limbs cut off and had to undergo such torture in the hands of Sheyan, but Ronnie's body was digitalised, so the moment the limbs were severed, the wounds had automatically shrunk to stop the bleeding. Therefore, he was actually not hurt too badly. And now that Sheyan had eliminated the source of his internal damage, Ronnie was starting to slowly recover.

And when Sheyan cut open Ronnie's belly and extracted from inside it a lump of white eggs the size of a fist, he found that Ronnie's "inhabited by parasite" negative status was finally removed. Ronnie was now sleeping soundly.

The assault Sheyan anticipated from the other contestants did not arrive. He had expected the next attack to come within ten minutes after he killed Dons, but more than twenty minutes had passed, and nothing out of the ordinary had happened. It seemed that, although these people were camping for Ronnie, they were not very alert.

(From Technopedia: A camper is a video gamer who finds a strategic spot within a level and waits there for players, game-controlled enemies or choice items to appear. This strategy is known as camping.)

But such an accusation against Ronnie's enemies was extremely unfair. Yes, they were all contestants, but they had never been trained to do something so dry and boring before. They had been waiting here without doing anything for more than ten days. The first few days were alright, but the more time passed, the more the days felt like weeks. They all speculated that Ronnie must have died in the trial, so their focus was long gone.

Of course, the most crucial factor was that these people never could have imagined someone logic-defying like Sheyan would appear here - someone who could finish Dons in the blink of an eye, not giving him any time to send a warning!

Moreover, their party was certainly not a silver party like Party Ace, so their communication range was much more limited. With the way the party had gone numb from waiting aimlessly, let alone 20 minutes, even if Sheyan took a 2-hour nap here, no one would probably notice.

Sheyan grew restless. He was eager to massacre all these people so that he could acquire the SARS disease. However, he knew he must remain cool-headed. He knew he must never underestimate the enemy under any circumstances.

It must be noted that, although Sheyan was definitely much stronger than other Awakeners, his 1v10 feat from before simply contained too many coincidences to be repeated. First, the enemies back then had already attacked for a few rounds, so they had used up all their strong abilities on Sheyan's other party members. Second, they had given him too much time to prepare the viruses. And last but not least, Sheyan had to admit that luck had played a huge factor.

Sheyan could not guarantee that he would always be lucky, so as cool as 1v10 sounded, he would always avoid it if he could. Even if he had to do it, he would only do it after making ample preparations and had prepared an escape route for himself. He had no wish of dying so young.

Sheyan started running while carrying Ronnie. Ronnie finally woke up after some time, only to find that he had become a human tilting doll again. He thought that he had fallen into the hands of the enemies, and that they had cut off his limbs and left him alive so as to better torture him...

Thus, Ronnie racked his brain, trying to find a way to kill himself, but fortunately, his misunderstanding was quickly corrected. Ronnie was so elated to find out he was safe that he passed out again from the excitement.

When he woke up for the second time, his attitude was no longer as aggressive as before. He asked weakly, "Seam... Boss, are we going to take a spaceship that has limited space again?"

An expression of fear crept onto Ronnie's face. He told Sheyan in a hoarse voice, "I smeared mud on my body to hide my smell, but I didn't realise there were a lot of strange eggs in the mud... The worms hatched on my body! I tried every way I could think of to get rid of them, even went so far as to get close to the crater of an active volcano to try burning them to death, but it didn't work. In the end....I could only go back."

Sheyan nodded. "Let me add to that. You actually brought the worms with you. That damn group of ancient Protoss seems to be quite prejudiced against you, they didn't want you in their base for even a moment, let alone let you recover there. The only person who's willing and able to deal with these worms for you is me, and I'm a terrible doctor."

Ronnie smiled bitterly. "Of course they're dissatisfied with me. The token I brought to them as qualification for the trial, I got from killing a Dark Templar. He was dying, and he pleaded with me to preserve his glory as a Protoss before the Zerglings could devour him. The trial qualification was his token of gratitude."

"The worms in your body reproduced very quickly, and with my mediocre medical skills, there's no way I could remove all the worms from your body - there was no way I could remove all the worms before they drilled into your internal organs, to be more precise. So, I used the most extreme but also the fastest method to remove the worms in your limbs, and that was to simply chop your limbs off. Umm...you can probably figure out the rest."

What could Ronnie say to that? He could only say, with a tiny bit of hopefulness in his voice, "...God praise your decisiveness! So, Boss, O magnificent Boss, you must have a way to help me recover while I'm still in this world, right?"

"I'm not playing with you, it really does depend on your luck," replied Sheyan. "There are only two places that can heal you right now. The first is the Protoss healing chamber, but that's only possible if the Protoss haven't been defeated by the Queen of Blades yet. The second is the Terran infirmary. The good news is, the humans have always been the leading authority in this field, so the infirmary can be built without going that deep into the tech tree. But, I don't know if the leaders of the human base on this planet, Pontin and Kyrgyzna, managed to run away from the Zerg. See? It depends on luck."

Ronnie was filled with gloom. What else could he say? He found his situation as laughable as the plot in a third-rate martial arts novel, where the main character, driven by vengeance, finally managed to reach a new height in martial prowess after much hardship, only to be injured right before encountering his sworn enemy again.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly spoke to Ramtas, "Hey, Ramtas, my dear Ramtas. Surely you remember me, right? I gave you a fish to eat before, remember? You remember! You finally remember! Please scratch my back for me, the itch is killing me! "

Sheyan was not running around aimlessly. He had memorised the coordinates of all the important places he had been to after he crashed down on this planet, so he was currently moving towards the base that Pontin and the other humans had built. He already tried to complete the main mission entrusted by the Realm, which was to plant the seed of a Nightmare Imprint in Ronnie's chest, but he was notified that the action could only be performed when Ronnie was healthy.

Fortunately, the journey did not take too long. After about half a day's walk, they saw a shadow in the sky. It turned out to be a Wraith. Upon discovering them, the Wraith un-stealthed itself, moved closer to them, and presumably took some images of them for identification purposes.

Before long, a Dropship (Terran transport spaceship) landed under the escort of more than a dozen Wraiths. Kyrgyzna had come to receive them personally. On the transport spaceship, she told Sheyan of what had happened to them after they separated. It turned out that the Queen's main target of pursuit was Sheyan, so Pontin's group did not have such a hard time. They had managed to escape after two Vultures at the rear of the group were destroyed by the chasing Mutalisks.

The counter-measure he came up with was to demolish all the factories and machine shops, and shift the focus of development from ground units to aerial units. He was obviously betting on the high mobility of aerial units and their ability to ignore the terrains. He thought that, even if they could not defeat the enemy, they could still run away....

Sheyan could only heave a heavy sigh after hearing of Pontin's decision. He did not make any comment. Pontin may be a little nonsensical in his decision making, but his speed of execution was impeccable. According to Kyrgyzna, the space dock he was building was already 80% done, and powerful Battlecruisers were already under construction...

They reached the base after a short flight. Sheyan realised that Pontin had actually constructed the base in a three-dimensional structure and had camouflaged it quite well. No wonder it had not been detected yet. Moreover, there was another advantage in having an SCV as the leader of the base . Although there was no bonus to combat, the base was especially proficient in searching for resources. They had already found two more isolated Pandora crystal veins.

They were offshoots of the main vein that had been mined to depletion. This amount of resources was still not enough to support large scale warfare, but it was more than enough to maintain the operation of the base.

The landing platform illuminated with navigation lights slowly opened up, and the Dropship landed on the underground platform. The base was already notified that there was someone wounded on board, so several Medics were waiting there with a stretcher.

As soon as they landed, Ronnie was instantly transferred to the stretcher and treated with a myriad of medicine, such as adrenaline, pipemidic acid, dimenhydrinate, carbetapentane , berberine, and fluocinolone acetonide.

The Medics were all female soldiers with a certain amount of psionic powers. They were very skilled healers who could effectively restore the health of wounded soldiers as well as treat the infections caused by the Zerg. Therefore, Ronnie's injury was merely child's play in their eyes.

Ronnie was quickly sent to the operating table for more effective treatment. The micro anesthesia technology and weak laser technology in this era were already quite developed among the humans, and the granulation wound regeneration technology had enabled human surgical techniques to reach an unprecedented height.

Several of the parasites that Sheyan had missed were plucked out. Following a computerised X-ray cross-section scan, Ronnie was injected with anesthetic and nutrients, then placed in a cultivation chamber for body parts regeneration. Sheyan took the opportunity to pay Pontin a visit.

Furthermore, he was also currently facing a tough problem. When he saw Sheyan, he looked like someone who had found a lifeline in a desperate situation. He first asked his short-skirt-wearing secretary to serve Sheyan a cup of coffee, then hastily shooed her away.

Pontin sighed. "Although the pandora crystal resources found by our base hasn't quite reached that level yet, the base is already beyond the allowed limit in terms of size."

It turned out that, in view of the severe war situation (the humans needed to cooperate with the Protoss to stand their ground against the Zerg), an Exploration Protection Ordinance had been enacted among the people.

The ordinance stipulated that even civilians could employ most of the military forces and military weapons of the army for exploration and war purposes in the vast universe as long as they could afford the crystals. The General Staff would not impose any restrictions on them or take a cut out of their profit.

Pontin was a beneficiary of this ordinance. Although he was a soldier in active service, the army he had currently established was not actually established through the General Staff Department. Instead, he had used the abundance of crystals in his hands to purchase soldiers directly from the one-way teleportation device through the privileges granted by the ordinance.

To give an example, he could purchase a Marine with 50 units of Pandora crystal. The Marine would a brain-washed prisoner on death row who would obey any order he gave without question. A brand-new Siege Tank required only 150 units of Pandora crystal and 100 units of rare Vespene gas, a kind of associated gas.

According to the ordinance, Pontin was recognised as the leader of the base due to his status as a hero. The troops he bought were completely under his command. However, these troops were expensive, and they could only display 80% of their combat effectiveness because they lacked the command of a good military officer.

And if he wished to possess advanced technologies such as the nuclear missile, the Battlecruiser, or the powerful anti-fighter Valkyrie frigate, he must undergo the examination and evaluation of the General Staff. Pontin had been informed in no uncertain terms that, due to his violations, the General Staff would be sending an investigation team over, and everything that he had built may be confiscated by the government.

The difference between the present situation and being under government rule was that, in the case of the latter, if the General Staff felt that this place possessed a strategic significance, they would send in a large number of troops and officers, and all authority would go under the General Staff. Of course, Pontin would be reimbursed with ample amount of wealth and honour. He could even go back home and enjoy retirement if he wished to. The Pandora crystals collected by the base after that would all go directly to the State Treasury. The troops would be teleported directly by the General Staff, so they naturally did not require any fee.

"They've made it clear that I have to reply within three hours, or the investigation team will be dispatched here three hours later through the one-way teleportation device. I have a feeling that the General Staff is very interested in this place, so the investigation team may very well be the people that will take over my authority right away. I will lose all the powers in my hand."

"I can't believe the General Staff would notice and investigate me just because I have over 30 Wraiths!" Pontin slammed into his desk in anger. "It's completely unreasonable. I know the owner of an interstellar farm who has more than 100 Wraiths, but he's left alone."

"Those f*ckers from the General Staff have quietly sent some military police over before they even sent me the notification. Anything I do now is monitored by those troops. The soldiers I've employed won't obey any orders to attack the members of their own army either," Pontin complained gloomily.

Sheyan's first suggestion to Pontin was to stop expanding, but Pontin said it was useless because the General Staff had already noticed this place. Like a dog that had smelled the bone in your hands, no matter how well you hide the bone afterwards, the dog would still come and take a sniff.

Sheyan thought about it for a while and asked for some information regarding the results of the base's investigation so far. These information fully reflected the human's advantage in investigative ability. They would first scan with the radar, then take aerial footage with the Wraiths that could turn invisible and move at very high speed. The investigation that the human base had made on the fight between the Protoss and the Zerg was very thorough.

After a long while, Sheyan turned to Pontin and told him, "If that's the case, then you'll have to leave a large mess for the General Staff to deal with, a situation so messy that they wouldn't be willing to take over. They'll naturally lose interest after that."

"The humans have a great advantage – our constructions can fly. Moreover, you've instructed the base to focus on developing air forces, which are highly mobile... "

Sheyan smiled and continued, "I notice that the Zerg have abandoned their air forces after their Mutalisks have been severely depleted, because gas resources are simply too rare. They're mainly developing their ground forces now, supported by air drops. We can use of this...."

The Queen of Blades immediately acquired a vision from another place. It was a vision from the perspective of a human Wraith pilot who was observing the terrain outside the spacecraft. This was made possible because the unlucky fellow had been infected with a parasite the Queen had secretly ejected.

The parasite would not harm its host. In fact, it even had the benefit of strengthening the host's immune system. It was also very covert and would not be detected easily. Its only purpose was to feed everything the infected person saw back to the Queen.

The Queen of Blades saw a human base that was average in size, but more importantly, she saw two crystal veins that had not been mined to exhaustion yet! The mineral deposits in the possession of both the Zerg and the Protoss were about to run dry. These two seemingly poor mineral veins may very well become the deciding factor in their war!

The Queen of Blades immediately assessed the defensive strength of this human base. She decided to personally lead a small elite team to raze it. This way, they would not make a huge commotion during deployment, thus reducing the chances of the Protoss discovering their actions and launching an attack on the Zerg base during her absence. Kerrigan and her group of elites would move in silence and obtain the decisive factor before the Protoss even realised it.

The Queen of Blades did not even consider the fact that this might be a trap, because if it was, it meant that the humans were laying down the trap at the risk of having their base sustaining heavy losses, or even being razed to the ground.

To put it bluntly, without the pressure from the Zerg, the humans would still be at war with the Protoss. Thus, the human commander would never make this kind of sacrifice for the sake of the Protoss, unless his head had been kicked by a donkey.

Three hours later, the Queen of Blades stormed into the human base leading a team of tough-looking underlings. The human forces showed no fighting spirit at all, and only resisted dispassionately (those who resisted were all military police sent by the General Staff). The whole base then rose into the air and pathetically ran away. The Queen of Blades was only after the mineral veins and wanted a quick resolution to the battle, so she did not spend too much effort chasing after them. However, at that moment, a group of belated reinforcements suddenly came out of the seemingly abandoned human base.

These seemingly panic-stricken humans actually killed about seventeen or eighteen of the Drones Kerrigan dispatched to occupy the mineral veins. The furious Queen, despite her mental exhaustion, threw at them a signature skill of hers - the red Psionic Storm. It burned those people, whose real identities were members of the General Staff investigation team, into charcoal.

Sheyan was currently outside Uraki's Protoss base. Right after he received the video, he rushed into the base to meet with Uraki. Although Uraki was not that fond of Sheyan, he did not hesitate to attack the Zerg base when presented with such a good opportunity.

The Queen of Blades was indeed an outstanding legendary-level leader. Even in such a situation, she had planned for any unforeseen circumstances. Yes, the troops she left behind kept being pushed back by the Protoss' strong attack, but they seemed to have no problem dragging the fight on until the return of the Queen of Blades!

But in that instant, a human army suddenly joined the battle, becoming the straw that broke the camel's back. The human army consisted almost exclusively of air forces. 30 Wraiths and 6 anti-air Valkyries destroyed the Zerg's pitiful air force in no time at all, then massacred every Zerg Overlord on the battlefield!!

The Zerg had a large number of Hydralisks that were effective against air units, so they did not build any Spore Cannons that had anti-air and air-stealth functions. Therefore, when all the Overlords were eliminated from the battlefield, the Zerg instantly lost the ability to detect stealth units. Furthermore, the Zerg larvae could not hatch without the nutritional support of the Overlords, so the Zerg could no longer produce soldiers and send them into battle non-stop like they always did!

The energy reserves of the three Arbiters were almost completely exhausted, so they no longer had enough energy left to perform their signature 'Stasis Field' and 'Recall' skills. However, their perverse passive skill, 'Cloaking Field', which could make all nearby friendly units invisible by refracting light, could still be used as it did not require any energy!

Under such circumstances, the Zerg could only attack the Arbiters that were still visible, but the Arbiters could fly, and they were guarded by an astonishing amount of invisible units, so by the time the Arbiters were struck down, the Zerg's main army had also suffered heavy casualties and was almost wiped out.

The Protoss troops swept the Zerg base like a tidal wave and managed to destroy the Queen of Blades' hive before she came back! Victory was thus decided. Even if the Queen of Blades dared to join the battle now, it would be a futile sacrifice considering the vast amount of Protoss forces left.

After that, the Protoss started construction on a strange building on a piece of high ground behind the Zerg base. The building looked like an energy crystal, but dozens of times larger. It actually required the combined efforts of close to a hundred workers to build.

The Pandora crystals reserves were being consumed at an alarming rate. In the end, more than three thousand units of crystals and vespene gas were consumed. A building which looked like the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, but made of glowing crystals, was thus constructed.

Uraki ascended the tower that was several hundred meters high while bellowing a chant. A tall mountain in the distance suddenly collapsed from his chant, revealing a dark pyramidal object about three meters high within. The object looked like some kind of totem, but also like a marker.

But in Sheyan's eyes, it felt more like a tombstone that had been beaten by the weather for thousands of years. It represented the glory and brilliance that was once lost in the annals of history, hiding a strange, dark power!

Uraki's chant was not finished yet. Under his continuous chanting, rockslides occurred on two other mountain peaks in the distance, revealing two more of the strange object.

The three totems each occupied a corner. If one were to look down from a high place, they would see that the three totems formed an equilateral triangle which covered more than twenty square kilometers of land between them.

Uraki's chanting voice turned intense. Countless cracks started appearing on the pyramidal totems that had stood there unchanging for thousands of years, and would have probably continued thus for thousands of years if not for him. The surface layer of the totems fell off like ice that coated the surface of stones, revealing the smooth, golden shine, the signature sharp lines of Protoss design, and the tyrannical ferocity!!

The three pyramidal totems started shaking violently under the chant. Circular sonic waves that were almost visible to the naked eye spread outwards in all directions, one after another. The ground enclosed by the totems shook and split apart. Only one fissure was seen at first, but more and more started appearing after that, and they grew wider and wider. The ground then collapsed downwards like in a 12.0 earthquake. The rising dust almost obscured the entire sky.... And when the dust settled, everyone held their breath!

The originally empty, barren ground had completely sunk down. There was now a gigantic depression hundreds of meters deep in the ground. In the middle of the depression was a magnificent Protoss city dozens of square kilometers in size. Many parts of the city had now been reduced to ruins and broken walls, but there were also many places that remained intact. Sheyan could even see various troops that were in the middle of advancing.

From what Sheyan could see, the city seemed to be caught in the flames of a civil war, but for some reason, it had been frozen in time. Only now had it reappeared in front of others.

Uraki finally collapsed in exhaustion. There was an anxious and terrified look on his face. He seemed to be trying hard to say something, but that action only made the blue fluid in his mouth gush out faster. The moment he fell to the ground, he instantly turned into dots of blue light which dispersed with the wind.

The Protoss were now leaderless following the fall of Uraki, but a High Templar that had electric sparks all around him quickly took over Uraki's position and bellowed out a strong mental order:

Following the command, the whole Protoss army dashed towards the ancient, magnificent city. But when they reached it, they found that the whole city was enclosed in an unbelievably thin layer of light. This light barrier must be the reason why the city seemed to be frozen in time.

Seeing the unidentified light barrier, the nearest Protoss troops stayed close to the city perimeter but did not open fire. They were awaiting further instructions from their superiors. Meanwhile, the rest of the Protoss army were still marching in, their procession spanning several kilometers long.

It was actually a group of more than 30 Overlords that had just hatched! Their movement speed had obviously been upgraded as well. The Protoss troops instantly circled around the large city to attack them, but the Overlords simply flew over the heads of the Protoss soldiers!

The Overlords started to release a great number of Zerg troops to the ground. Sheyan, who was watching from the distance, was shocked when he saw the troops the Overlords released.

They were blood-red monsters that were completely covered in flesh-like muscles, but upon a closer scrutiny, Sheyan could vaguely see human armour on them. From each of their backs grew a pair of tentacles that looked like skeletal wings.

These monsters were shockingly fast, like human Marines that had been injected with StimPacks. They charged into the light barrier, causing numerous violent explosions!!

A Zerg Queen could infect the Command Center of a human base that had been badly damaged, infiltrating it with a parasitic biochemical toxin. Once the Command Center was fully infested, the Command Center's occupants could be turned into mindless suicide soldiers. The bodies of the infested suicide soldiers would become twisted and produce extremely unstable chemicals. As soon as they got close to an enemy, they could detonate their own bodies to release the terrifying power stored inside to destroy the enemy.

Based on game data, the damage dealt by an exploding suicide soldier was 500 points, the same as a nuclear missile! This showed how terrifying and destructive the suicide soldiers were!

There was no doubt that these suicide soldiers were produced by the Queen of Blades after she conquered the human base abandoned by Pontin, which made Sheyan feel like he had dropped a large stone on his own foot. If it hadn't been for his suggestion to use the Queen of Blades to deal with their political enemies, the Queen of Blades would not have a Command Center to infest!

When the eleventh suicide soldier exploded on the light barrier, the barrier finally broke. It was hard to describe the situation at that instant. It felt like a super hurricane had suddenly swept across the land with terrifying force and speed!

Fortunately, the moment Sheyan noticed the suicide soldiers, he had immediately asked the Dropship he was on to land on a mountainside nearby. The mountain had blocked the horrifying shock wave for Sheyan with its thick body.

Otherwise, even if the transport ship was not blown to bits, it would probably be blown into outer space... Sheyan witnessed with his own eyes various large rocks that must have weighed hundreds of tons flying over his head like they were weightless. Based on their speed and trajectories, they would probably not land until they had flown dozens of kilometers away.

During the previous raid on the Zerg base, Pontin's air forces were under attack by Zerg units that had anti-air capabilities such as Hydralisks, so he had lost more than half of his forces. And in this horrible storm, more than a dozen Wraiths had disintegrated in the air after failing to heed the orders in time. The human army was now left with only four Wraiths and four Dropships that contained less than 60 Marines....

Of course, the Protoss were still the ones who suffered the most serious loss in this wave of destruction. More than half of their forces were reduced to ashes in the explosion. To make matters worse, a small Zerg squad personally led by the Queen of Blades had pierced straight into the back of the remaining Protoss army, turning their formation into a complete mess!

During such a chaotic moment, Sheyan slammed the table in front of him hard, sending all the cutlery on the table jingling. A fork that was covered in grease even flew straight at Ronnie, who was sitting behind him.

Sheyan growled excitedly in a suppressed voice, "That horrifying sense of threat is gone! This is a great opportunity for us; we must charge into the damn base immediately!! ...Why are you guys looking at me like that? Is there anything wrong with what I said? "

A bright orange flame shot out from the rear of the Dropship. This was caused by the excessive concentration of fuel in the ship's powerful engine. The sudden increase in the ship's acceleration had caused the air supply to the engines to become insufficient, resulting in incomplete combustion of fuel.

All the passengers on the Terran transport ship leaned back hard due to the sudden acceleration and could not help gripping the armrests beside them to steady themselves. Their bodies stuck closely to the metal wall of the Dropship due to the strong force, so they could feel the intense vibration of the transport ship. The ship was shaking so violently that it felt like it was about to disintegrate.

This sudden action by the humans immediately caused great concern and anger among the scuffling Protoss and Zerg! A small group instantly broke away from both forces to chase after the humans, as if by some tacit understanding.

The Zerg's current air force was pitifully weak. They only had six Scourges (Zerg kamikaze air units), but following behind them were more than ten Overlords which must be transporting Zerg ground troops in them. On the other hand, the Protoss' air force was still quite strong. Their hastily assembled pursuit team not only had a heroic Carrier, but also three Shuttles and two Phoenixes!

Even an ordinary Protoss Shuttle could be upgraded with anti-gravity technology. If upgraded, they would be among the fastest units. The Zerg's transportation of troops was done by the Overlords, so the Overlords had both reinforcement and anti-stealth functions. Although the human's transport plane, the Dropship, focused on survivability, its speed was rather mediocre.

The Zerg Scourges were small and fast. On the other side, the Protoss Carrier was actually a freaking heroic unit, so its flying speed was not inferior to that of a Shuttle that had the anti-gravity technology upgrade. Therefore, despite the best efforts of the escorting Wraiths to stop the enemies, they fell from the air one after another as black smoke poured out of them.

The humans had just barely made it into the abandoned Protoss city when the heroic Carrier's little Interceptor aircraft swarmed all over them like a horrifying swarm of black bees. Their pulse cannons made trails of fire on the Dropship.

The Dropship was already shaking violently from running on overload. Now that the engines had been damaged too, the Dropship's movement became as bumpy as a boat in the storm. Fortunately, all the loose objects inside had been tied to something or fixed in place, or Ronnie would be further injured!

Pontin came to the rescue. He once again had his SCV equipment on, complete with the mask and the welding torch, and went up and down the ship to repair the damages. Pontin was no longer the same SCV as before. As a heroic SCV, he was putting his amazing maintenance ability on full display. Under the intense attack, the speeding human Dropship constantly seemed like it would explode in the next second, but despite the black smoke spewing from it, it persevered for more than 5 minutes until it managed to fly into the inner area of the Protoss city.

Suddenly, a Zerg Scourge appeared on the flank of the Dropship and rushed towards it. Fortunately, the pilot was agile enough to tilt the ship to the side, albeit in a very awkward way. The Scourge brushed past the ship and crashed into an unmanned Interceptor on the other side!

The Scourge exploded with a burst of strongly acidic body fluid, corroding holes in the Interceptor. The Interceptor instantly became a pile of scrap metal pieces that smelled terrible and crashed into the wall of a magnificent building of the ancient city. From afar, the building looked like a piece of art that had been stained with cow dung...

"Captain, do you see the building on the right?" Sheyan suddenly interjected. "The one that looks like a tower. Yes, that's the one. My request for you is to charge straight at the protruding blade at the base of that tower! I guarantee you that the bottom of the tower is hollow. You just need to break through that thin protective layer, and you'll have the time to make a safe landing."

"But, sir! If the bottom of the tower turns out to be solid, the great impact will flatten us into pancakes, and the burning fuel will incinerate us to ashes! The whole process will take less than three seconds!"

The captain stopped talking, but when the transport plane flew towards the protruding blade amidst intense attacks from all around, a heart-wrenching scream came from the cockpit. However, the protruding blade did not turn out to be as hard as expected. Under the intense impact from the collision with the Dropship, it crisply broke into fragments. The captain's scream abruptly stopped after that.

In the end, the Terran Dropship crashed into a large amount of soft objects while emitting thick black smoke. But because of the darkness, they could not see what the objects were.

The captain's warning message immediately came. "Please leave the aircraft immediately. The hydraulic balance system and the oil pressure balance system are both out of control. The aircraft is estimated to explode in a minute and ten seconds!"

Sheyan immediately kicked out at the wall near him. This spot of the wall had been badly ravaged by acid and pulse cannon shots, so it was already in pretty bad shape. Sheyan's kick instantly made a large hole about the size of an adult male on the wall.

When Sheyan carried Ronnie and stepped outside, he immediately fell into a large amount of unidentified soft objects. Under his lead, the group of humans hastily ran away from the transport plane that had already started burning. They quickly found somewhere they could take cover behind.

They soon heard the explosion. A hot wave assaulted their faces, and a strange smell filled the air. The Dropship which had gone through life and death with them thus completely disintegrated, saying goodbye to the world in this heroic way.

The Protoss's love for the food was just like the Chinese's love for abalone and bird's nest. These soft things looked like single-cell organisms with a hollow centre. It was hard to imagine that they were organs taken from a kind of gigantic interstellar beast. Even the smallest of these interstellar beasts were bigger than the entire solar system!

Treading on the Hasoks that piled up like mountains, Sheyan walked forward, guided by his memory. He quickly reached the first underground floor of the building. The group looked around and quickly found a metal gate. Sheyan led them inside.

When the gate was closed again, Sheyan announced to the others, "Welcome to the Protoss town built 174 thousand years ago, the town of Kerdak. You may now rest up and treat your wounds. We leave in fifteen minutes."

"The Protoss town of Kerdak" was actually nothing more than a figment of Sheyan's imagination, but the name Kerdak was not something he pulled out of thin air. While he was staying in the Lost Temple, he would sometimes hear the Dark Templars sing when they were bored, and among the songs, he had heard lines such as "the splendid Kerdak, wandering in eternity".

The reason Sheyan said what he did to the dozens of Marines around him was naturally to put up a confident front so as to boost their morale. No one could expose his lies anyway. If his words could increase the group's fighting capacity by even a little, then it would be worth it.

Pontin had experienced a bad landing and had obtained a wicked gash on his arm, but he was much stronger now that he was a heroic unit. In terms of survivability, he could probably rival an Ultralisk, so even though the wound was deep, it did not affect him much. He had sprayed some medical spray on it, and it was currently being bandaged by Kyrgyzna.

When Sheyan saw this, he instantly pushed Ronnie down and tore open the shirt on Ronnie's chest without saying anything. Ronnie was completely overpowered by Sheyan's abnormal strength and could not resist at all. It seemed like a scene straight out of an R-rated movie.

A bright and shiny object appeared on Sheyan's palm. A closer look at the object would reveal that it was actually a globe of flesh and blood that was waving flesh-red tentacles about. It was the seed of Noah Realm C's Nightmare Imprint.

Sheyan slapped it down on Ronnie's chest. Ronnie instantly screamed in pain. He felt as if his chest was being burned by red-hot branding iron. The Nightmare Imprint seed grew rapidly and dug into Ronnie's flesh, taking root there. Finally, it successfully imprinted itself in Ronnie's body and became a brand new Nightmare Imprint.

[ Reward E: Corrosive Agent x 1 – When the agent is used, you will get a corrosive effect on your body. Any attack inflicted on you using a metallic medium (including, but not limited to, bullets, swords and blades) will be affected by the corrosive effect, reducing the damage done by 33%. The effect lasts for an hour. ]

[ Reward F: Dimensional Door x 1 – You can only use this tool in non-combat state. When the tool is used, it will create a portal that is only visible to you. You can return to the Nightmare Realm through this portal and stay there for a maximum of one hour, then return to the world you were originally in through the portal. ]

[ Reward G: Dragon Roar x 1 - When the tool is used, all enemies within three meters of you will be knocked 10 to 20 meters back (if they can be knocked back). They will also be stunned upon landing. However, if an enemy cannot be knocked back, you will be blown 20 meters back instead, and your movement speed will increase by 30% for 5 seconds. ]

Sheyan carefully scrutinised all the rewards and finally decided on 20 achievement points and the Dimensional Door. In truth, the reward of 10 base attribute points was also very tempting, but Sheyan went with the Dimensional Door in the end. Yes, it could not be used as a life-saving measure in a pinch, but if it was used well, it had very high tactical value and could bring major changes to a situation. That was what Sheyan was after.

20 achievement points, plus all the miscellaneous achievement points Sheyan obtained before, was already enough for him to activate SARS on the 'Pestilence Monarch' skill tree!!!

"I already did. My base abilities have been downgraded by two levels. I've also lost 5 points of Agility and 200 points of HP. And because I no longer have the party bonus, my explosive hit rate and dodge rate have also gone down by 5%. Damn, my survivability is now even lower than before. God damn Noah Realm C. It made so many beautiful promises when it was luring me over, but it seems like they were all lies," fumed Ronnie.

Sheyan shrugged. "I'm no stronger than an entire party. And it's obviously ridiculous that someone would have priority on a mission just because they know the mission target."

"The usual – achievement points, utility points. But more importantly, it promised that I'll get a huge boost to my ability to survive, a HUGE boost! But now, there's nothing!"

Sheyan laughed. "There's no mistake, then. The reason the Realm entasked me with rescuing you is because I'm the simplest, most convenient method for it to fulfil its promise – and also the cheapest, without question."

"S-Silver...party??" Ronnie's eyes widened in shock. He had previously came into contact with a black-grade party before, and that party already felt strong beyond belief. And he was quite reluctant to leave even his old party because the party provided a 5% explosive hit rate and dodge rate bonus.

Ronnie never would have expected a silver party to appear in front of him one day, and the party was actually inviting him to join! He chose "yes" with as much hesitation as a man would hesitate to look when a beautiful woman's skirt was blown up by the wind.

Only after Ronnie chose "yes" did he realise something. There were only two contestants here, Sheyan and himself, and normally, only a party leader had the authority to invite someone to the party. And since Ronnie was certainly not the party leader, that could only mean... Sheyan was the leader of this silver party!

There was suddenly a loud bang on the metallic gate. It sounded like something extremely sharp had slammed into it hard. Then came a string of continuous crashing sounds. The middle of the gate was bent inwards!

"GO GO GO!! Prepare for battle!" screamed Kyrgyzna as she took up her weapon. The Marines immediately stood up. Several of them thumped on the conspicuous red button on their heavy metal armour, and the built-in syringe immediately injected a dose of StimPack into them. Low growls rose among them one after another. Red threads filled their eyes.

Two Medics in special white armour started getting busy behind them. They used their psionic powers to direct vapour-like medicine into the Marines to help them quickly recover.

The continuous crashing sounds stopped abruptly, but anyone could tell that the silence was not a sign of the other side giving up, but of them gathering strength for a more powerful hit!

Most of the people here had only heard of how powerful he was, but an impression built from hearsay was utterly unreliable, so it was not until Sheyan nonchalantly stood in front of the metallic gate without any fear on his face that they intuitively understood the might of this Brigadier General. His reputation was formidable for good reason!

A few seconds later, an elite Zergling as large as a calf broke through, violently smashing the metallic gate into pieces. However, it was instantly greeted by a hail of bullets. The horrifying firepower filled its body with bullet holes. Fluids splashed out of it in great amount.

With a furious roar, Pontin stabbed his welding torch into the Zergling's mouth. Fresh blood and pale green body fluids instantly gushed out of the beast. And when the elite Zergling was about to counter attack, Sheyan had already grabbed its two forelimbs and hurled it at the hard wall nearby.

However, the elite Zergling was indeed a biological weapon developed for the sake of war, so the more injured it was, the stronger it got. It bit out fiercely at the person closest to it. However, the opponent's reaction was also very quick. He blocked with his hand, and the Zergling ended up only chomping down on the fellow's elbow. Although it had some effect, it also made the Zergling's teeth hurt.

During that short momentary pause in its action, a large, red Mark of Death appeared above its head, and a figure suddenly appeared behind it out of nowhere. Five blood red slashes streaked through the air, and the elite Zergling was dismantled into bloody pieces in an instant!

Ronnie was currently feeling extremely satisfied having achieved his goal. After betraying his old Realm and joining a new one, all he lost were 2 levels of base abilities, 5 points of Agility, and 5% of explosive hit rate and dodge rate. However, what he got in return was terrifying.

Besides that, the 10% increase to all stats provided by Sheyan's gene-mix was enough to make up for the 5 Agility points and 5% of explosive hit rate and dodge rate he lost. But even more important than that was the MP boost he received. Ronnie's biggest problem before this was his lack of MP, which greatly limited his skills' continuation and explosiveness.

He was the chief scout in his old party, but due to the party MT's weakness, close combatants had it less convenient and less efficient than ranged combatants because they had to be ready for the enemy's counter-attack at all times. Therefore, Ronnie's damage output was often lower than the damage output of ranged combatants, so equipment that increased Intelligence or maximum MP would never fall to him....

Before this, Ronnie had to consider the problem of MP consumption after using only three or four skills, but now that he had gained Party Ace's bonus, he would only have to think about the problem after twenty or thirty skills. If Ronnie was previously like a revolver, he was now like a machine gun with significant improvement in explosiveness and lasting time!

Ronnie had activated an ability and struck five times in the blink of an eye. Three of those strikes were explosive hits. The elite Zergling was instantly killed. Witnessing this, Sheyan could only sigh at the scariness of his quadruple explosive hit damage.

Sheyan reached out and grabbed the spirit crystal that dropped after the elite Zergling was killed. Then, he barked, "Don't engage in prolonged fights! Both the Protoss and the Zerg will definitely shift their focus to the inner part of the city. We have to hurry up! Don't waste the precious few minutes of lead we've gained over them!"

The good thing was, Sheyan had not discovered anyone among the Zerg who had the habit of smoking or committing arson, so even on a conservative estimate, he believed that it would take the Zerg more than ten minutes to break through this wall of vine, especially in a place like this where there was plenty of organic matter to provide nutrients to the vines.

Pontin walked alongside Sheyan at the front of the group in his heavy, custom-made SCV armour, his heavy metal boots hitting the ground like hammers! He was an awe-inspiring sight. His brain may be filled with nothing but muscles, but he would not lose out to anyone in terms of courage and determination.

The sound of metallic boots trampling on the metallic tunnel reverberated through the air. Considering the age and history of the place, the fact that sounds of footsteps resounded here once again after so many years brought with it a certain sense of melancholy.

Sheyan's finger gently brushed the wall. Surprisingly, there was no dust, spider webs, or cracks at all. The longer they travelled through the place, the more bizarre it felt. The city did not feel like a metallic city that had been sealed for thousands of years in the slightest. Instead, it felt like a magnificent brand-new city that had just been washed clean by fresh water from the bottom of a glacier...

The other three Marines, however, had fallen into a period of weakness. They were panting heavily despite the lack of any combat, looking as if they had just ran a 10-kilometer marathon while carrying a heavy load. They looked like they needed at least an hour or two to recover.

When the group turned a corner, they suddenly found themselves in a dead end. To be exact, the road ahead had not been built yet. This place appeared to be a messy construction site. Pontin judged with his professional eyes that at least ten Probes had worked here. The traces of welding and bridging were still here, but for some reason, none of the workers could be seen.

Everyone turned towards Sheyan simultaneously, inquiring with their eyes if they should turn back. But before Sheyan made a reply, Pontin was already showcasing his professionalism. He knocked around with his welding torch while he inspected the place, then told everyone with confidence, "The walls here are very thin. We should be able to get through with some effort."

After that, Pontin instantly went to work with his welding torch that could cut through crystals. With Sheyan's help, a big hole was quickly made. The other end of the hole connected to another tunnel that was also under construction. It seemed like the construction work was for the purpose of connecting the two tunnels together.

Although the environment was dark, there was no foul smell coming from the other side, indicating that the ventilation was rather decent. Sheyan took the lead in going in, and the rest quickly followed. A Marine laid down a time bomb and detonated it after they had moved some distance away. Because Sheyan had destroyed the support pillars, the explosion resulted in a heavy collapse which completely blocked off the path behind them. Even the Zerg who were good at digging would find the collapse troublesome to deal with.

After about ten minutes or so of travel, Sheyan pushed open another door. To be exact, he had pushed on it three times but to no avail, so he had kicked it open impatiently. They found that they had arrived on the city streets.

The surface of the Protoss streets were very smooth. The streets seemed to be made of mainly metal, but they were coated with a smooth, thick layer of something that looked like plexiglass. They also carried the symbolic smooth blue patterns of Protoss architecture. Reading helmets could be seen scattered on the ground near the wing-shaped seats on the side of the streets, indicating that whatever disaster befell this place, it should have happened in an instant. Besides that, from the triangular magnetic levitation machinery filled with goods that could be seen everywhere on the streets, Sheyan could tell that this place was once very prosperous.

Sheyan stared quietly at the bizarre and desolate scene in front of him. He suddenly walked to a wing-shaped seat and sat down on it, then placed his forehead on a pillar as the Protoss were wont to do. He maintained this posture for a while, then said, "I think I've almost figured it out. If my guess is correct, then it would explain everything, but there are still several suspicious points....maybe we'll discover something later."

At that moment, sounds of explosions and the Zerg's fierce hisses came from somewhere close, perhaps only two to three kilometers away, but the building layout here was dense and the terrain was complex, so they would probably need quite some time to reach this area.

Sheyan checked the direction before telling the others, "Our goal is the city centre. According to Protoss customs, praying altars and sculptures will usually be built in the city centre, and the more valuable or magnificent something is, the closer to the city centre the Protoss will place it so that it can be closer to the gods! This way! Follow me!"

Sheyan was already slightly panting. He was in a rather sorry state, with flesh and blood all over him, but fortunately, most of the flesh and blood belonged to others.

He had only two real injuries. The first one was on the chest, made by a Dark Templar's vicious warp blade. The wound dragged nastily from his left shoulder all the way down to his lower right abdomen. The Dark Templar must have been anticipating the cut to split his opponent in two, but it unfortunately only caused such a wound on Sheyan.

Sheyan's muscles wriggled and grew rapidly, trying to mend the wound, but there was still some residual force of the warp blade on it, so it was healing rather slowly.

This injury was a result of Sheyan's carelessness. He had dueled a large number of Dark Templars previously, so he thought he knew them well, but he found that he had underestimated these Dark Templars. They were veteran Dark Templars who had undergone the baptism of fire and blood on various battlefields, completely different from the new recruits.

Of course, the moment the Dark Templar managed to get a solid hit on Sheyan, Ronnie had instantly appeared behind him like a ghost. His lethal weapon that glowed blood-red pierced through the Dark Templar's black veil, slicing his throat. Warm emerald green fluid had splashed about, filling the air with a slightly pungent smell.

Sheyan's second injury was on his head, very close to his eyes. Blood had coagulated on his eyebrows, making his face look even more menacing. This injury was acquired when he tried to help an ally. A heroic Zergling had swung its claws down on his head and swiped away a large piece of his scalp, together with the hair. His skull was even visible through the wound.

There were only eight members remaining of the original fifteen-member squad. Besides Sheyan, Ronnie, Ramtas, Kyrgyzna and Pontin, there was also a Marine named Zengi, another Marine named Queiroz, and a Medic, Annie.

The Protoss and the Zerg seemed to have come to a certain agreement. Both sides had devoted a part of their forces to hunt Sheyan's group down. Enemy troops came at them one wave after another in succession. First, it was the Zerg troops, then the Protoss troops, then the Zerg troops again... They were mechanical, brutal, and unending, not giving Sheyan's group a chance to catch their breath.

Sheyan's squad was currently recuperating on one of the higher floors of a tall building. They silently sprayed medicines on their wounds and bandaged them up. Sheyan looked towards the distance, then broke the silence.

Although Annie was exhausted, her eyes still gleamed with excitement as she nodded earnestly. At such a time, no one wished to die, so everyone wished to rapidly grow more powerful.

Sheyan walked up to her and spread open his palm. A brown crystal about the size of a pea lay on it. It slowly dissolved into smoke right there on his palm and seeped into Annie through her nostrils.

One would grow stronger the quickest by experiencing intense battles of life and death. Furthermore, there was a hack like Sheyan there who could strengthen them with the spirit crystals dropped by the enemies.

Therefore, all the surviving soldiers were at least elite level now. Sheyan had also consciously directed more resources towards Annie, the sole surviving Medic. As long as she could grow to become a heroic unit, they should be safe as long as they did not encounter the Queen of Blades herself.

Having inhaled all the smoke, Annie trembled, then suddenly passed out. Sheyan seemed to have expected that. He instantly grabbed her and held her under his arm, then turned to the others.

By this time, Ronnie had silently connected a sliding rope to another building next door, then motioned for them to slide to the other side. Rope-sliding so high off the ground may seem dangerous, but for trained people, it was no big deal.

However, when it was Sheyan's turn to rope-slide over, a Hydralisk suddenly burrowed out of the ground as if it was a planned move. It pushed through the metal plate on the ground and spat at the rope up in the air.

In that instant, all the Marines applied their Stimpacks, no longer concerned about the consequences. With bloodshot eyes, they focused fire on the Hydralisk below, blasting it into a pool of blood and pus within three seconds.

Sheyan flung Annie, whom he was carrying, away. The force he used was just right for Annie to land on the opposite platform. Annie rolled several times after landing and did not appear to be hurt.

But because of the throw, Sheyan dropped even faster towards the ground hundreds of metres below. The trap laid down by the Hydralisk and Mutalisk seemed to have worked. The elite Mutalisk roared with joy and dove lower so as to better witness its enemy splattering into a bloody pulp with its own eyes!

That was the teleportation ability on the ring 'Entanglement of Victory'! Sheyan did not forget to point out a direction to the others who were staring wide-eyed from the top of the building, gesturing for them to leave first. Then, he clenched his fist and slammed it down on the Mutalisk's head! At the same time, he clamped his legs hard.

The strength he exerted with his legs was extraordinary. He instantly heard the crisp sound of bones breaking. The elite Mutalisk screamed in agony, but the scream was soon cut short by the green fluid gushing from its mouth. Sheyan's rock-hard fist slammed down on its head, sending down one punch after another. The creature's skull had most likely cracked after experiencing those punches.

These punches were for the purpose of causing as much pain as possible to the Mutalisk, so that its simple brain could not function properly and could only act according to instinct. Otherwise, if it came up with a bad idea like dying together with Sheyan, Sheyan would be in big trouble.

When the Mutalisk flew closer to the ground than it had ever been, Sheyan rolled off its back. The red glow on Evil Sword Apophis was so dense that it seemed like it was dripping blood. The head of the Mutalisk suddenly flew to the sky. Dark green acid sprayed out of it like an out of control faucet of a fire engine. Its head had been chopped off by Sheyan!!

Among the Protoss troops, Sheyan even saw some familiar armours. They had fought side by side before this, but they were now enemies who had to fight to the death! Sheyan's eyes finally settled on an extraordinary-looking Dragoon which had six long hydraulic legs...

A string of photon projectiles exploded at the spot where Sheyan stood a moment before. Even after the dust settled, the flowing plasma at the bottom of the pit the projectiles made was still dimly visible. Electric charges leaped up like freshly-caught fish.

At least twenty powerful Zealots rushed at Sheyan at an orderly pace, their momentum akin to an army of thousands! Fortunately, Sheyan had already dashed into an adjacent building. The sounds of things crashing came from inside, as if the building he had rushed into was a ceramic shop.

The Zealots were about to rush in too, but a huge metal plate spinning at a high speed came whirring towards them from the inside. The few who charged at the very front were instantly sent flying back, while the rest kept moving forward without breaking stride! However, the moment they stepped into the building, as if they had crossed an invisible barrier that did something to them, all of them bent down and gasped for breath while blue liquid dripped down from their masks at the mouth!

Sheyan was feeling exhausted too. After landing a successful hit, he instantly turned around and fled, not stopping there for a moment longer than was necessary. He had only just caught his breath when he suddenly felt an intense heat coming from somewhere nearby. A part of the metal wall was rapidly dissolving into red-hot molten metal. After that, a blinding flash of white engulfed him!

However, the intense burning sensation he anticipated did not arrive. The Psionic Shockwave brushed past his cheek and struck the air behind him... Actually, no, it struck a Dark Templar who was emerging from the back.

The shock on the Dark Templar's face quickly turned to anger, but right afterwards, an even more violent Psionic Shockwave hit him again. The Dark Templar instantly turned into glowing particles, scattering in the air!

"I can kill you anytime. I just don't want you to fall dead without even knowing how you died. Besides, I owe you a debt, and now that I've paid it back, I'll have more fun when I kill you."

Sheyan laughed as he grabbed a large piece of metal beside him. It probably weighed hundreds of kilograms. He flung the metal piece hard towards the back. Sounds of clanking, as well as screams of anger and agony, rose from behind him.

"Nah, I'd rather conserve some energy. If we get dragged down here, we might miss out on something really interesting," replied Sheyan with a relaxed expression while running in the lead.

Aldaris informed Sheyan that his main purpose in coming here was to earn enough contribution points to exchange for something very important to him, namely, a shield reinforcement device.

The shield reinforcement device would let the plasma shield inherit Aldaris' defence, which would greatly enhance his survivability! Aldaris had managed to earn a lot of contribution points in the last few fights because he had partnered up with Sheyan. He could just spam Psionic Storm from the back without a care for anything else.

Before he left the base this time, he had used up all his contribution points. Interestingly enough, perhaps due to the civil wars that had happened before among the Protoss, the relationships between different Protoss factions were quite strange. Aldaris' betrayal this time was only deemed a betrayal of Uraki's faction, so the personal relationships he had built with other Protoss were not affected at all. Aldaris thus betrayed Uraki without feeling any psychological burden.

This sounded like a case of "keeping business and personal matters separate". It was akin to the relationship between the brothers Zhuge Liang and Zhuge Jin during the Three Kingdoms period. One was a senior minister of Shu Han, while the other was a minister of Eastern Wu. On paper, they were enemies, but they enjoyed an amicable relationship on a private level.

Thanks to Aldaris' help, and because the commander of the pursuers, Tochego, was not that eager in his pursuit of Sheyan as he was well aware of Sheyan's might, the pressure on Sheyan from the Protoss side became much lighter. However, the pursuit of the Zerg did not let up at all. This way, the Zerg army was naturally weakened more than the Protoss army.

Don't forget, the Zerg were also engaged in a battle with the Protoss. The fight was not on a large-scale; they were mainly relying on the continuous production of reinforcement troops to maintain their strength level. As soon as the Protoss slackened in their pursuit of Sheyan, the growth in their forces and the decline in that of the Zerg immediately resulted in an obvious disparity between the two sides.

The Queen of Blades cursed the Protoss' treachery and could only follow suit in reducing the intensity of the Zerg's pursuit. If she did not, the forces guarding her would keep getting thinner, and the Protoss would definitely not miss the opportunity to assassinate the infamous Queen of Blades!

Sheyan retreated as he fought, continuously moving towards the centre of the city where a magnificent building could be seen. The building was supported by three completely straight pillars distributed in a triangular pattern, and on top of each pillar was a large hand that was spread open.

The tip of all three hands pointed upwards, and above them was a giant crystal more than 30 meters tall. The colour of the crystal was an astonishingly deep blue, like the colour of the sea. Around it were various delicate decorative patterns that looked like plants. The architectural motif was sharp and streamlined as usual, but it also gave off an indescribable glorious feeling, the kind which made anyone who laid eyes upon it to kneel in worship.

According to the information had Sheyan obtained from checking the records in the Lost Temple, the three hands represent the three branches of the Protoss Council, similar to the legislative, executive and judicial branches among the humans. This was a system where power was separated into three branches, and the aristocrats closely related to the branches live within the system. Meanwhile, the crystal held up by the three big hands was considered to be a sacred place, the place where the gods lived!

Seeing this magnificent view, Sheyan could not help thinking how grand and powerful it must feel to look down on the whole city from the giant crystal! It would feel like a king looking over his land!

"Of course. It's a Protoss secret. I also know that there are seven recorded Lost Temples in the universe, but in the past three thousand years, only four have been confirmed to still show signs of life," replied Aldaris.

Sheyan continued, "You should know that the strength of these Lost Temples are not worth mentioning at all compared to that of the current main factions of the Protoss, but do you know why these insignificant forces can negotiate with the main factions, and even hold themselves in the same regard?"

Aldaris' face became serious. "I don't. I've only heard that there are great secrets hidden among these forgotten clans. Some say the secrets are powerful lost technologies."

"Well, technically speaking, they're right..." Sheyan said contemplatively while rubbing his chin, "You can call it a kind of technology; it'd just be a technology that's way ahead of its time."

Sheyan stared at him and smiled mysteriously. "Do you really not know why this vibrant planet became like this? Do you really not know the cause of the terrible storm that swept across the planet the other day?"

"This magnificent city was suddenly frozen in time, becoming static for thousands of years. All the lives in it had evaporated in an instant, not leaving any corpses behind. Don't you see the connection?"

"There's another Keystone in this city, and its power is probably related to time! This particular Keystone is powerful enough to seal a whole city for tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of years - of course, at the price of the life of every living creature in the city!!" said Sheyan.

Aldaris mouth opened and closed again. He wanted to refute Sheyan, but when the refuting words came to his mouth, he could not utter it! He found Sheyan's deduction extremely bold, but after careful consideration, also very likely.

"If I can figure that out, the Queen of Blades and the current Protoss leader certainly can as well," explained Sheyan. "And the Keystone must be located somewhere very obvious, most likely in that blue crystal."

"But," Sheyan's words suddenly took an abrupt turn, "do you see the symbols on the three giant palms? The triangle most likely represents the Legislative Council, the circle represents the Executive Council, and the pentagram represents the Judicial Council. The most powerful weapons are usually held in the hands of the Judicial Council. So that building, I'm very interested in."

The magnificent artifact/palace/building at the city centre progressively became bigger and taller in his view, but the Protoss buildings separating them seemed to stretch on forever. After passing a row of buildings, he would just be greeted by another row. There was no end to them in sight.

Sheyan was surprised to hear that. "Casting Psionic Storm in a place like this? But Psionic Storm is ineffective against enemies who hide in buildings. It's never a good idea to cast Psionic Storm in a city."

But Sheyan disagreed. "I think I smell blood. Not the disgusting smell of Zerg body fluid, or the faint ethanol-like smell of Protoss blood. It might be my comrades. I have to go take a look."

Aldaris, of course, expressed considerable indignation and dissatisfaction at Sheyan's decision, but it was simply too dangerous for him to walk in this city that had a deathly atmosphere without the protection of an MT, so he could only follow after Sheyan. They passed through a dazzling but empty store and a square with a lot of disorderly seats before they found a bloody armour fragment on the ground.

The armour was made of carbon-based mangalloy. These types of armours were built to be strong and lightweight, so they were widely used by human Marines. This piece of armour appeared to be the part that protected the heart, so its wearer had most likely met their demise already.

Another thing of note they found were traces of a High Templar's death in the vicinity of the armour fragment. It appeared to be Ronnie's doing, because the High Templar seemed to have been killed with a single strike!

About a kilometer further, they heard the familiar sound of 10mm C-14 Gauss rifles going off, coming from ahead. The shooting was fast and intense, but from the sound, they could tell that only three guns were firing.

Suddenly, there was a scream, and the sounds of shooting became more chaotic. Sheyan hastened his steps and managed to catch sight of Ronnie engaging in a bitter fight with a Dark Templar hero who was wearing a black cloak. The Protoss hero's head was so big that it seemed as if a mass of tumours had grown on it. His eyes had also become blood red, like the eyes of the Zerg.

The Protoss hero swung his Shadow Scythe around and struck down on Ronnie's head. His action exposed a huge opening in his defence. Based on Ronnie's ability, he could definitely fatally hurt the Protoss if he stabbed the Protoss' chest in that instant, but Ronnie would also suffer a heavy blow if he did that. His habit forced him to dodge the enemy's strike.

A multitude of thoughts flashed across Ronnie's mind, but he gritted his teeth and forcefully halted his dodging actions. The Blood Weapon in his hand dazzled brilliantly as it pierced towards the enemy.

The sharp Shadow Scythe slashed down with a faint vibration, leaving a trail of electricity in its wake. Ronnie only had time to make sure the attack did not land on his head. A series of terrifying explosions went off on his shoulder, as if a storm of blood had suddenly risen out of nowhere!

Meanwhile, Ronnie's Blood Weapon ferociously advanced towards the enemy. The Protoss immediately reached out and grabbed Ronnie's weapon, but half his left palm ended up being completely severed by the immense force of the blade. His palm became a tragic white stubble.

Ronnie's strike stabbed fiercely into his heart. The Dark Templar hero's eyes bulged, his face becoming as red as blood. The power of the Blood Weapon exploded in his body and pierced into his inner organs. The Protoss hero may have a strong body, but every time his heart beat, another wound would be made on the heart by the sharp edge of the blade. Can you imagine the feeling?

The light in his eyes quickly turned dim. His gaze was initially full of bitterness and unwillingness, but it turned into relief as the large tumour on his head withered away. His body muscles relaxed, and after spitting out a mouthful of blood, he fell to the ground, devoid of life.

"He is," Aldaris affirmed. "We have no idea what the Queen of Blades is capable of. Before this, she was able to master the Psionic Storm ability just from discovering a genetically compatible Archon. I don't think it's anything strange that she's able to master Mind Control too."

The sound of gunfire was heard again, intermingled with the furious roar of Pontin. Sheyan rushed towards the source of the noise together with the others. Once he reached the place, he saw dozens of ordinary Zerglings ganging up on Pontin. Pontin was protecting Annie and Kyrgyzna behind him. He was injured all over, but he looked like he could still hang on for some time.

The three contestants instantly joined the fight. Aldaris' Psionic Shockwave was particularly effective against the smaller Zerglings as it was an area wide attack. But by the time they managed to rescue Pontin's group from the danger, Kyrgyzna had already stopped breathing. Her throat had been torn open by a Zergling. Despite Pontin's best effort, all he could do was to prevent her body from being devoured by the Zerg creatures.

Kyrgyzna's death struck Pontin hard. Even after all the Zerglings were dead, he still swung his welding torch about wildly while screaming furiously. Sheyan had to knock Pontin unconscious before he could take the welding torch away from his hand.

Sheyan then took out the 'Endless Vodka' and fed Annie two mouthfuls of the liquor. The Medic moaned and soon came back to her senses. She immediately went to work after that; disinfecting, cleaning and treating Pontin's injuries with familiar ease. As expected, medical treatment should be left to the professionals.

Although time was pressing, they had no choice but to stop and wait for Pontin and Annie to recover. Annie obviously cared for Pontin very much. Some parts of her body were still bleeding, but she ignored them and opted to treat Pontin first, all the while complaining that Sheyan had used too much force when he knocked Pontin unconscious.

'Something's very wrong with this assault.... In terms of aggro, I'm the one who had taken away the Queen of Blades' treasures, so I should be the one she hates the most. Even if she's doing this out of personal reasons, she should have gone after me instead of them.'

'Considering all the possibilities, the most probable explanation is that it was all a coincidence. It's a little hard to believe, but it's also the explanation that has the highest chance of being true…'

'The encounter between the two sides was pure coincidence. The controlled Protoss hero probably knew some sort of secret, so he was sent by the Queen of Blades to guide the way for the Zerg. No, this isn't a coincidence!! I asked Pontin and the rest to head towards the Judicial Council building which stores the strongest weapons. The Queen of Blades is also targeting the place. Doesn't that mean we're on the right path?'

Upon thinking of this, Sheyan instantly told the others, "The Protoss have probably sent troops to this area too. Their main goal is definitely the Keystone at the centre of the city! They wouldn't send too many people, but those they sent must be the cream of the crop. As long as we can deal with them, we can get our hands on the Protoss secret!"

Pontin regained consciousness and was staring at Kyrgyzna's body with extreme grief. Sheyan walked over, cut off a strand of Kyrgyzna's hair, wrapped it up carefully, and placed it in Pontin's hand. He told Pontin seriously, "It's not impossible to save her."

Sheyan smiled and explained, "There are already some high-end cloning technologies in operation, but due to the astronomical cost, they can only be used on a small scale. If we can acquire an important achievement this time, cloning Kyrgyzna with this strand of hair shouldn't be a problem. Of course, her memory will stop at the moment before her death."

After that, they continued on. Two kilometres later, as Sheyan had anticipated, they were attacked by a small squad of Protoss troops. The one leading the Protoss squad was none other than Tochego, who liked to move fast and strike fast.

Tochego and the twenty-odd ordinary Zealots with him were obviously no match for the human group. Aldaris alone could take care of all the Zealots there with his area-wide Psionic Shockwave, while Tochego was bound to lose once Sheyan or Ronnie managed to get close to him.

In the ensuing battle, Sheyan took an Antimatter Bolt from Tochego head on, then rushed out amidst the bursting electric sparks. When he got close to Tochego, he grabbed the Dragoon with both hands and forcefully flipped him upside down, exposing his most vulnerable part – the connecting joint on his abdomen – to the air.

Tochego had told Sheyan about this weakness of his himself. He had a high demand for speed, so he had two extra mechanical legs installed, but that also caused a big problem in the initially well-balanced hydraulic chassis. If the connecting joint on his abdomen receive a heavy blow, Tochego would completely lose his mobility.

After all, Sheyan and Aldaris had fought side by side with Tochego not too long ago. They were comrades in arms who had gone through life and death situations together, entrusting their backs to each other. Tochego had obviously held back against them as well. Therefore, they simply could not find it in themselves to finish him.

Ronnie was surprised at his reaction. Seeing the blue glimmer in all six of Tochego's electronic eyes, he could only answer, "Yes, I stayed in the trial ground for nearly ten days, just enough to achieve the third best record in history."

After Tochego said that, Ronnie had a blank look in his eyes. Veteran contestants like Aldaris and Sheyan could immediately tell that he must have received some notifications from the Realm. Sure enough, Sheyan soon received some information shared with him by his party member:

Sheyan had never seen Ronnie use this attack before. Ronnie's shortblade swung in a slow circular arc. However, as the blade cut through the air, those witnessing it felt their hair stand on end and chills creeping down their backs. The shortblade in Ronnie's hand was no longer than 40 centimeters, but the sharp, oppressive edge of the slash extended beyond 40 meters!

Sheyan could not help watching in awe. The attack was not only highly destructive, it also had an abnormally strong property - the 'Slicing' property. When the attack struck the enemy's body, weapon or equipment, it had a 33% chance to forcibly slice it apart, causing effects such as crippling, destruction or severance! Those with high defence and HP like Sheyan really hated this kind of attack that could forcibly cut off their limbs. Of course, they hated the kind of attacks that reduced HP by percentage even more.

Ronnie was immediately dumbstruck after executing the slice, because Tochego, whom he was meeting for the very first time, had knelt down on all six knees and said to him, "Please accept me as your servant, master."

"Are you f*cking kidding me!" Aldaris finally could not stop himself from blurting out a rude remark. It was understandable that he would lament the unfairness of life. If Tochego had offered to serve Sheyan, he could still accept it, but this was the first time the Dragoon had even seen Ronnie! How lucky could a person get?

Aldaris, of course, did not know that things were never that simple. First of all, Tochego had his own pride. The fact that Sheyan's group had held back the first time they met had bruised his ego. However, the Protoss were currently short-handed, and Tochego's high mobility was highly-valued by the higher ups, so he was sent out once more...

Having been defeated twice, Tochego was truly reluctant to go back and be sent here again for the third time, because that would shatter his self-esteem. He had also heard the human story of the hunter and the bear from Sheyan before (The story goes: a hunter went up the mountain to hunt, but was beat up by a bear. He changed his gun and went up the mountain again, only to get beat up by the bear again. The third time he went up the mountain, the bear asked him if he was actually there to hunt or get his butt kicked). Poor Tochego was already feeling like the hunter who was going up the mountain for the second time.

And it just so happened that Ronnie had been unfairly treated by the Lost Temple, for he should have gotten a reward for achieving the third best record in history. Therefore, the Realm compensated him by allowing him to accept a high-level servant.

And that was why Ronnie was able to get Tochego as his servant. Yes, he had struck it big, but not by much, because he had missed out on the rich rewards of placing third in history.

Pontin and Annie had almost recovered. Ramtas had died protecting them in the previous battle, so Sheyan once again used his 'Grow' ability to resurrect him. With the addition of Aldaris, the strength of the group had actually increased instead.

Sheyan estimated that the Zerg and the Protoss should have gone all-out in attacking each other by now in their attempt to gain possession of the powerful Keystone, so Sheyan's group should be safe for the moment. They used this chance to advance at full speed, rapidly approaching the core area of the whole city.

The closer they got to the centre of the city, the stronger the oppressive pressure they felt from the sacred towering buildings. The buildings that seemed clustered together from afar were actually separated from each other by a distance of nearly a whole block. The crystal held up by three big hands floated magnificently in the air as if waiting to be worshipped.

Sheyan's eyes drifted to the buildings around the Judicial Council. These buildings were actually quite big; they only seemed small compared to the three grand and mysterious towers in the middle. Sheyan estimated that these buildings were all more than 100 meters tall, and the area they covered was definitely bigger than a soccer field.

Searching all these buildings one by one was obviously something which would take too much time and effort. Sheyan could not be bothered to think of a way. Instead, he turned to a professional.

Pontin blushed. "If we were in a human city, Brigadier General, perhaps I'd be able to answer your question straight away, but this is a Protoss city.... a Protoss city that's thousands of years old, no less."

Sheyan smiled and nodded in understanding. However, Tochego suddenly interjected in his metallic voice, "In order to ensure that energy can be distributed more quickly and effectively, the research, development, and manufacturing sectors are usually located on lower terrains."

Sheyan did not hesitate any longer. He led them straight towards the building. However, when they reached the place, a thick metal door blocked their way. They bombarded the door with all kinds of attacks, and Sheyan then kicked it down. Behind the door was a deep, dark corridor. They followed along the corridor for dozens of meters before they saw a soft glow ahead of them. There were also some thick railings. When they got near the place, they were instantly dumbstruck.

In front of them was a huge pit at least several kilometers long and over 500 meters wide. The top of the pit was almost 50 meters above the ground, and the pit was at least 50 meters deep, so the drop from the top to the bottom was about 100 meters.

Protective plates which carried a distinctive Protoss style were embedded around the pit. The protective plates were smooth, hard, clean and seemed quite resistant to corrosion. In this huge pit were three large war machines that seemed to be in the process of being assembled. Based on the surrounding work frame, there had to be hundreds, if not thousands, of worker Drones working on these war machines once upon a time, packing the pit full like worker ants.

These three large war machines looked like giant insects with four slender, long legs that could easily step through any terrain on the battlefield. Their astonishing height enabled them to easily to cross ravines and cliffs to occupy the best firing spots. They had various obvious advantages such as high mobility, high survivability and low waste of firepower.

The height of the Colossus made it an easy target - units and buildings that had ground and air attacks could all attack it - but the Colossus was protected by heavy armour!

They were powerful Thermal Lances, and it looked like they would be placed on either side of the Colossi's body. Their sophisticated energy gathering system and precise aiming system ensured that the thermal beams they fired could maintain a high damage at a high efficiency.

(Thermal Lances are a protoss weapon developed by the Protoss Empire for the Colossus. They fire two superheated streams of plasma that incinerate groups of ground targets. These streams are targeted by an onboard AI, as well as gravity sensitive gyroscopes. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Thermal_lance )

The moment a target was destroyed, the thermal beams would immediately switch to the next target, so each round of thermal beams fired by the Colossi could destroy large groups of enemies.

Seeing the horrifying war machines in front of him, a strong sense of awe and impulsiveness rose in Sheyan's heart, despite knowing full well that they were only semi-finished products. They were still far away, but he could already feel the formidable power of these machines even though such a long time had passed!

At first, his voice was quite low, but it then grew louder and louder until it became so loud that the echoes buzzed in their ears. The people next to him turned to stare at him, but he seemed unaware.

Pontin suddenly dashed towards a nearby corridor like he had gone insane. Sheyan immediately grabbed him. Pontin struggled wildly and screamed, "Let me go take a look! Please, let me go take a look. Their design concept completely contradicts the ideology contained in the Thor Project! There's no way it could work! Please, Brigadier General, I must examine how it works! I beg you!"

"The Thor Project?" That startled Sheyan, making him release his grip on Pontin. Pontin dashed straight into the corridor, apparently in search of the design office. Loud crashing noises came from the corridor, sounding as if a bull had crashed into the room within.

Sheyan nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. Well, since you think that I have no right to know, then I have no reason to help you. When it comes to things involving this matter, I'll just stand aside and watch."

"We use it in place of our skin to protect our fragile bodies. We use it in place of wood to build magnificent skyscrapers. We use it in place of our teeth and nails to attack powerful enemies that were initially invincible to us!"

(TL: The Thor is a huge and powerful Terran mechanical siege walker. It is known to be one of the most heavy and powerful mechanical units in the Dominion Armed Forces. The Thor stemmed from the Terran Dominion's Thor Project. The Terran Dominion is the Terran empire.)

"On January 5th, I received a transfer order from the Simonson Munitions Factory. The transfer order was firm, and I couldn't say no to the conditions. I couldn't say no, because I still cherish my life."

"The plan went smoothly. To protect the secret, we were all moved to planet Korhal IV. Security of the surrounding area was very tight. Any spies who dared to try and snoop around were bombarded into pieces in no time at all."

(TL: The Simonson Munitions Factory is located on the planet of Korhal IV and is the secret site of the development of Odin, the prototype for the smaller Thor - https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Simonson_Munitions_Factory)

"The spy confessed to being an intelligence agent of the Umojan Protectorate. After the Umojan found out from a reliable source that the Terran Dominion were developing a new weapon of mass destruction, they immediately started to pay attention to this place."

(The Umojan Protectorate is the nationalised militia and united interstellar political entity of the Terrans of Umoja and other nearby independent colonies. https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Umojan_Protectorate)

"Three hackers have tried to infiltrate the system, but they were instantly repulsed. However, they have likely obtained a list of items, which included Battlecruiser-grade heavy alloy steel. The secret of the Thor Project could hardly be concealed any longer."

"The detectors I made found 383 invisible sensors around the factory. They were obviously left by spies. We can already confirm that these sensors can detect the strong electromagnetic waves and the regular seismic waves emitted by the Thor during the experiments."

"Many disorderly pieces of such information has been collected, but although the Umojan Protectorate is eager to solve the mystery, I'll wager that they still can't figure out what the Dominion is doing."

"Damn it, those bastards have overthrown my idea! What they proposed is definitely not the Thor I have in mind! The Thor should be a huge biped war machine armed with two giant particle beam cannons and and an artillery crew at the back. Its firepower should be no inferior to a Battlecruiser. Most importantly, this large monster should be able to be built by ordinary construction robots in a very short amount of time!!"

"I see. So the Terrans are also trying to develop the ultimate ground combat weapon," After reading the information, the contestants could not help but have such a thought.

Suddenly, a loud bang came from somewhere nearby, followed by billows of black smoke. After that, Pontin ran out of the corridor waving his welding torch around and laughing wildly, despite his face being burned black.

Sheyan and Ronnie rushed to the corridor and instantly saw a large hole in the wall. After they stepped through the hole, they saw a large hidden chamber which was at least thousands of square meters in size. Countless tiny, fist-sized crystals glittered faintly on the floor and walls.

Sheyan thought about it for a moment before he said, "You're right. In the Lost Temple, I found a drawing among the books which depicted something similar. Fortunately, I think I remember the activation procedure. Ronnie, call Tochego over. The operation can only be performed by a Protoss."

Then, Ronnie instructed Tochego to press down on certain crystals with his forelimbs like he was hitting a keyboard. The weak electric currents generated by the action slowly accumulated. Like starlights that illuminated a vast prairie, they lit up the dead and silent crystals one by one. In the end, the sparkle of the crystals illuminated the human's faces, coating them in a layer of blue. It was truly a spectacular sight!

The whole giant "workshop" started coming to life. All kinds of machines began to roar, and the production pipeline started moving at a high speed, returning the prosperity and vitality from tens of thousands of years ago back to the present. Pontin, who was watching all this in a daze, laughed all of a sudden.

Following that, his body surged with a flash of light which was only visible to the contestants! Sheyan instantly checked his attributes. Pontin had actually broken through the shackles of a hero and succeeded in becoming a leader-rank SCV!

Pontin marched up to Tochego and yelled excitedly, "Yes, that's it. I'll use the latest idea I've perfected and the Protoss materials to make the most powerful war machine ever! I can definitely do it!"

As he spoke, the light on his body seemed to be bursting out. Sheyan noticed that he had acquired a new aura ability which could affect all mechanical operations within a kilometer of him, increasing their efficiency by 25%. Moreover, the units personally produced by Pontin would be promoted directly to elite units!

[ Mission Hint: Pontin is trying to manufacture a war machine with the human's Thor design concept and using Protoss materials in order to prove that he and his brother were right. Please help him fulfill his wish. When the maintenance workshop was activated, it had alarmed some undesirable visitors hiding in the dark. Please be careful of them. PS: They have most likely received a mission from other Realms too, but to destroy instead of protect. ]

Considering that the Zerg and the Protoss were locked in a bitter fight at the moment and would probably not find a resolution anytime soon, the contestants gritted their teeth and decided to take the risk. They accepted the mission.

Sheyan had considered things even further than that. Only if Pontin could really build the strongest ground war machine in history would they have the qualification to intervene in the current dispute between the other two races! Otherwise, with their current power and assets, a sneeze from the Queen of Blades would be enough to take care of all of them.

Sheyan suddenly realised something. "The Protoss and Zerg will most probably not send any more troops to interfere with our operation here because their main target is still the Keystone. If one of the sides split even a small part of their forces to deal with us, it'll be as good as gifting the Keystone to the other side.... Which means, the ones who will come attack us will likely be contestants from other Realms!"

"Don't be careless now. The enemies probably outnumber us by three or four times. Their chances aren't low at all," warned Sheyan. "Ronnie, how about you give us a detailed briefing of the opponents?"

Ronnie, of course, was all too happy to share what he knew. He instantly briefed them on the detailed information of the enemies. Aldaris was surprised at some of the information. According to Ronnie, the other side had an attack-oriented MT and a defensive-oriented damage dealer.

When these two core members of the party were together, not only could they output decent damage, the whole would also become greater than the sum of its parts. They could easily accomplish certain things that ordinary MTs could not.

It was a little similar to the insane dual-MT configuration of Sheyan and Reef. The enemy duo had no 'Life-Link', but they had many means to tie the enemy down or to run away. They were like a piece of chewing gum; once they stick to someone, they would remain stuck to the person to death. Their enemy could almost never escape from them.

More importantly, all the people in this party were those who could attack the enemy anytime and anywhere. If you show them a single opening, they would thread the needle and hit you with their attacks. Perhaps you would not lose too much HP, but you would be inflicted with various status effects. They were like a pack of vicious wolves hiding in the dark, their eyes focused on your vital parts. As soon as there was an opening, they would rush up and take a large bite!

Aldaris' frown became deeper and deeper the more he heard about the enemies. He realised that these bastards they were about to face were quite tricky to deal with. More importantly, there were still more of the enemies that they did not have information on.

Sheyan looked at Aldaris who had turned quiet. He knew what Aldaris was worried about, but he did not say anything to encourage him because this kind of thing was not something that could be solved with words.

Sheyan narrowed his eyes and looked towards the metallic street not far away. A group of people had appeared, riding on a couple of Ultralisks and several Zerglings. The group was moving in their direction as swiftly as the wind.

Sheyan did not know how these people managed to get Zerg units as mounts, but he believed that they would have arrived sooner if it hadn't been for the weird gravitational distortion in this lost city, which stopped any aircraft or flying creatures from flying deep inside.

The man had a very peculiar-looking shield. The shield was quite broad and its main frame was in the shape of a cross. Overall, the shield seemed like it was made up of various bones tied together, but it had a metallic surface. It was also embedded with crystals that were as deep and wild as the eyes of beasts. The shield looked like the combination of a weapon, a shield, a magic amplifier, and a work of art all at the same time.

Aldaris was just about to ask if they should give up and leave or use a hit-and-run tactic, because to defend against them head on seemed almost impossible. When he heard what Sheyan said, he could not help questioning, "What are you trying to do?"

Aldaris' eyes glowed with a fierce light. "If you can really eliminate the MT right off the bat, we'll actually have a decent chance in this fight. But there's no way you're strong enough! In this kind of situation, you might be able to kill the MT, but what makes you think you can survive afterwards?"

Aldarius spoke no more. Instead, he started calculating, apparently preparing to release a Psionic Storm. The skill not only required a long time to cast, its timing also had to be calculated in advance.

"But boss, that's Yanigan! He may seem like he's carelessly charging in front, but he's always been very careful and calculative, and he's immensely powerful...." Ronnie could not help reminding Sheyan in a whisper.

When Aldaris saw that the group had reached within a hundred meters of them, a blue bolt of light more than 5 metres long shot out from his hands that were covered in a white glow. The blue bolt instantly formed a terrible Psionic Storm in the area ahead.

The powerful plasma storm swept across the area wildly, its power nearly reaching the sum of 100 natural lightnings! Blue rays of electricity glimmered in every corner of the area. Cries of agony and the smell of burnt flesh permeated through the air.

Although the Zergling mounts had been tamed, they still screamed violently under the intense pain. Some even started to jump around uncontrollably, almost jolting their riders off their backs.

Aldaris immediately saw an opening on Yanigan. Seizing this opportunity, he rubbed his hands together, and a stream of particles as thick as a bucket was launched from them. The stream of particles were blue and white in colour and stretched for over two meters long. It was so powerful that it immediately blew the mount under Yanigan to pieces. Although Yanigan had instantly jumped up, his calf was still hit.

The sound of the gunshot was very penetrating and gave off a sense of fierce impact. At the same time that the gunshot was heard, Aldaris was flung from his attacking position. He glided parallel to the ground at a high speed before slamming into the metal wall nearby. He bounced off the wall like a billiard ball, and only then did the impact force die down.

A fully deformed armour-piercing bullet, looking like a metal pie, fell to the ground from his body. Following the shot, Aldaris' plasma shield rapidly waned, and a wild blue energy spilled and gushed out of the spot where he was hit.

This incident indicated that the most valuable first three seconds of an ambush had passed. The enemies were already on high alert, and the sniper on the opposite side would not give Aldaris an easy time to cast spells.

The first thing Aldaris did after that was not to heal his injury, but to stare at Sheyan with a provoking look, because he had done what he said he would do, and more!

Yanigan had lost more than a fifth of his HP. Because his Zergling mount had been killed, he had lost mobility and had to take full damage from the Psionic Storm and Psionic Shockwave. His HP had dropped by more than a quarter.

However, Aldaris' provoking gaze landed on nothing but an empty metal wall. Sheyan should have been there leaning against the wall with his head lowered and his half-scattered hair covering his eyes, but in this instant, he was no longer there, as if he had evaporated into thin air! It felt as if he had never even been there at all!

The Vulture was personally built by Pontin. He could still free himself from his Thor Project to do that because a lot of the processes in the construction of the Thor could be left to the automated machines after inputting the relevant design parameters. He did not need to supervise the manufacturing process all the time.

Pontin, who had risen to the rank of a leader, had taken some time away from his main project to assemble several Vultures with the materials left by the Protoss. With the help of the robotic hands there, it was an easy job for him. These vehicles were made in case they needed to flee in an emergency situation.

Sheyan was piloting the Vulture. He pushed the control joystick to the limit in an instant, raising the Vulture's acceleration to the extreme. The Vulture shot forward like a bullet. As the figures of the enemy ahead became clearer, the fighting spirit in Sheyan's eyes became fiercer!

A big ball of fire came whirring at him from the front. The diameter of the fireball exceeded three meters, and its heat was so intense that visual distortion had appeared in the air around it. The fireball collided into the Vulture and instantly exploded. The resulting flames spread as far as a hundred metres, swallowing up even its own allies.

In his opinion, this attack of his had been decisive. A man as noble as he should take no part in the subsequent dirty work of "clearing the battlefield" and "finishing off the heavily-wounded enemy".

Although the attack had destroyed its propulsion system and the flames had burned it to the point where it only had its frame left, and an incomplete one at that, its inertia continued to push it forward at high speed, making it crash into the midst of the surprised enemies.

In that instant, time seemed to have slowed down. They could clearly see, as if in slow motion, the metal frame of the Vulture bend out of shape, and what was left of the Vulture's shell wrinkle, split apart, and shatter. Some of the fragments scraped Sheyan's face, leaving bloody trails on his cheeks. They could even see the blood separating into droplets and dripping onto the ground....

His knees bent slightly as he landed, his leg muscles taut and compressed. His black hair was originally flying about, but it rapidly fell down with the sudden halt of his body, sticking to his forehead. Meanwhile, Sheyan's burning gaze happened to land on Yanigan. The two of them locked eyes.

These attacks erupted with violent bursts when they fell on Sheyan's body. If it was any other person suffering these attacks, including Aldaris who had extremely strong survivability after his transformation, they would be heavily injured for sure!

Although the joint attack of the four enemies was powerful, they only managed to reduce less than half of Sheyan's HP. It was not enough to cause him heavy injury. The rest of the enemies wished to follow up with attacks of their own, but the sound of something cracking suddenly came from all directions. Sheyan's feet had sunk deep into the road surface, up to his ankles.

As if they had lives of their own, the cracks would reach towards the nearby living creatures and wrap around them mercilessly. As the cracks spread, all the contestants they came into contact with instantly turned stiff. Something rough, akin to tree bark, started growing on their skin. The condition was rather similar to petrification, but to be more precise, it was lignification - instead of their skin being turned to stone, it was being turned to wood!

This extremely rapid spread of the lignification effect forcibly halted the actions of several of the enemies who were trying to attack Sheyan at that moment, and some of the attacks had even backfired on them.

Yanigan, of course, did not escape the fate of being lignified either. He tried various ways to free himself of the negative condition, but everything he tried could only cure the symptoms instead of eliminating the source of the problem. The lignified state kept coming back into effect. If blood is dripping onto the floor from a wound, and you wipe the blood on the floor with a clean cloth, the spot on the floor would just immediately be soiled with blood again.

Sheyan suddenly let out a terrible roar from his throat. It did not sound like his voice at all, but shrill, angry, and filled with arrogance and bloodlust. After that, an illusionary figure emerged from his back. It looked at first glance like 'Stairway of the Sun', but if you look carefully, you would see some fierce white war marks on the trunk and some red stripes on the branches. And, for some reason, it gave off a feeling of surging with power!

Yanigan cried out in pain from the heavy blow, but he still could not move an inch. Sheyan then threw him into the air. The throw was executed seemingly in a casual manner, but a loud explosion sounded beneath Sheyan's feet. At the same time, more than a few of the 'Stairway of the Sun's tendrils lashed out at Yanigan's body hard!

Yanigan was thrown at least 70 meters into the air. Sheyan suddenly vanished from where he stood. He reappeared in front of the falling Yanigan with his right hand raised high.

Sheyan's right hand gripped Yanigan's throat. In this instant, the two became one, turning into a burning comet which fell from the sky at an unimaginable speed. They slammed into a nearby building four hundred meters away. The impact gave rise to a black shockwave circle which burst outwards. The building collapsed, while all the other buildings nearby rapidly decayed as if they had been soaking in a rotten swamp for a thousand years!

This was the new ability of the 'Stairway of the Sun' after devouring the 'Scalp of Crete' produced by Pandora's Box; a new skill that combined the 'Beast of Corrosion' with the custom-tailored S-level ability!

[ First of all, this ability will instantly spread the roots of the 'Stairway of the Sun' in an area of 100 square meters around the caster with the help of the goddess Crete's understanding of the world's mystery. The roots will forcibly bind all hostile creatures and turn them into wood for three seconds. They will receive a damage equivalent to 3% of their maximum HP every second. ]

[ During the lignification process, the 'Stairway of the Sun' will accumulate energy while analysing the enemy's weakness. Then, it will throw the enemy into the air and attack the enemy's weak points, causing a shocking amount of damage to the enemy. Damage = (50 ~ 300) + 10% of enemy's maximum HP (cannot exceed 10,000) + 2% of caster's maximum HP. ]

[ At the same time, the 'Stairway of the Sun' will warp the caster next to the enemy. When the caster makes contact with the enemy, the positive energy in the caster's body will react strongly to the negative energy in the enemy, just like in the generation of lightning. They will plummet to the ground like a terrifying comet. ]

[ At this time, the caster will have one second to choose a target location within two square kilometers of them. The caster and the enemy will crash into the chosen spot, causing (500 + 33% of enemy's maximum HP) of area-wide true damage. The closer someone is to the core impact zone, the higher the damage suffered. The shockwave from the impact will also weaken all the enemies it comes into contact with, lowering their attack power and movement speed by 33% for 30 seconds. ]

[ The bodies of all contestants are enhanced by Nightmare Realms, so the process of component structure analysis by 'Withering Impact' on contestants will be extended to 600 seconds. Therefore, if you attack the enemy with the 'Beast of Corrosion', the cooldown will be 600 seconds. ]

The tall Protoss building Sheyan and Yanigan had crashed into was close to crumbling. It shook a few times and completely collapsed, stirring up so much dust that it almost obscured the entire sky!

A burly figure slowly walked out of the billowing dust with steady steps. His expression was calm and nonchalant, while in his hand was something which looked suspiciously like a human head! Something red was seeping out of it.

"Yanigan has 3000 HP and 78 points of defence! Not only is his honorary dosage usable, he also has a golden apple that can instantly restore his HP to full! There's no way he would die! How could he die! "

While his opponents were panic stricken, Sheyan was also suffering from great pain, so much so that the muscles on his back were throbbing, almost twisting themselves into a knot. The pain was messing with all the nerves in his body. The most he could do now was to maintain his walking posture; there was no way he could fight.

Because this was the first time Sheyan was using 'Withering Impact', he did not know until he had performed it that the side effect was so crazy. To be honest, he would rather have his base attributes deducted than to undergo the baptism of this pain!

Fortunately, Sheyan had chosen somewhere far away for the landing spot of 'Withering Impact'. If he had decided to maximise the damage and chosen to crash directly into the enemy group instead, the moment of collision would have felt good, but it was virtually impossible to wipe out all the remaining enemies with just that.

Actually, let alone wipe them out, the shockwave would not even hit all of them. After that, they would definitely gang up on Sheyan, who had pretty much delivered himself to their doorsteps. Luckily, Sheyan's sudden appearance was too breathtaking, taking out the one the enemies recognised as the strongest among them in one strike! The attack had deeply shocked all of them. All the enemies could only think of two things right now: Did he have any other skills like that? How long before he could do that again?

Their hesitation gave Sheyan the time to gradually recover. His body was slowly getting used to the pain, and the pain was also lessening. But at that moment, the penetrating sound of gunshot resounded again!

The shot felt like a flash of light. Even with Sheyan's might, the bullet pierced through him and made him lose his balance. He was thrown ten meters back, and blood gushed out of his back. After that, came a big, horrible fireball.

The gunshot and the fireball looked very ordinary, but they were perfectly timed, forming a long-range combo strike. The sniper shot had great impact and damage, and would often violently knock the target back. During that time, the fireball would arrive.

The sniper shot was a physical attack, while the great fireball was a magic attack. No matter which aspect the victim's defence was focused on, they would take significant damage for sure.

But what the opponents did not expect was, when Sheyan had flown about 7 metres back, he forcefully flipped himself in the air and drop into a nearby metallic ditch! This way, even if the fireball exploded with perfect timing, the damage it would cause to him became very limited. At most, he would be hurt by its aftershock.

"This guy..." The sniper had long, cool-looking white hair. The stubble on his face was badly trimmed, while his nose was bizarrely crooked. His gaze looked a little unfocused, like he was constantly looking askance. Only when he was occasionally talking to others would his eyes sharpen, as if he were digging into the deepest corner of the other person's mind with his gaze.

Pacino stared into the distance and said with uncertainty, "The minimum distance someone would be knocked back by my shot should be 13 meters, but that guy regained control of his body when he was only knocked 7 meters away! After that, he cleverly avoided most of the damage from the fireball. I've only met one type of person who can do this."

"Of course I remember. That wanton pig. He swallowed a piece of god-damned dark gold equipment!" roared Old A. "That equipment should never have been given to that bastard Trino in the first place. See, it only benefited the enemy in the end."

Old A had struck a match to light a cigarette for himself. The matchstick abruptly snapped. "This guy is that strong?!" he exclaimed in surprise. There was finally a fluctuation to his voice.

However, he also did not simply rely on his Physique to free himself from the huge knockback impact of Pacino's shot, but both his Physique and Strength. The current Sheyan was definitely stronger than Skull, but not that much stronger.

The first thing Sheyan did after he fell into the metal ditch was of course to bandage himself up and take some medicine. His breath felt blazing hot at the moment, and his heart was beating as violently as boiling water, but his mind was as calm as newly dissolved ice. He was meticulously thinking ahead.

"The enemies work well with each other. The combination of the sniper and the fire mage is very powerful. Other than MTs, ordinary Awakeners would probably die if they're hit by that combo. Oh, that guy from earlier dropped something."

Sheyan realised that Yanigan's death gave him 5 achievement points, obviously boosted by his status as the vice leader of a party in addition to being an Awakener. He had also dropped that weird shield of his.

[ Special Effect: Moses' Devotion (passive) – Wielder's physical attack power and physical defence are increased by 15%, while magic attack power and magic defence are increased by 20%. ]

[ Special Effect: Moses' Kindness (passive) – Absorb 15% of the damage when wielder is attacked and turn it into a healing effect which is applied to all nearby allies. ]

[ Special Effect: Moses' Punishment (active) – Throw this shield at a target within 30 meters to cause 300 holy damage. The attacked target will be marked. Every time the target is attacked after that, they will be stunned for 1 second (this effect will only appear once every 2 seconds, lasting no more than 10 seconds). ]

[ Special Effect: Moses' Forgiveness (passive) – Whenever the wielder is inflicted with a negative status, the power of Moses will automatically try to remove it. If the removal is successful, this effect will enter a cooldown of 30 seconds. Regardless of whether the removal attempt is successful, one achievement point will be consumed (wielder can choose whether to activate this effect). ]

[ Description: This equipment is said to be a sacred object made by the prophet Moses himself, but this was eventually proven to be a rumour. However, before that, this seemingly ordinary shield have already been consecrated in Malmö's St. Peter's Church for more than 2600 years. ]

[ Therefore, the holy power contained in it is definitely no inferior to a real sacred object. However, due to the characteristics of Moses the prophet, the shield's attributes tend to be rather balanced. It has no outstanding abilities, but no weak ones either. Everyone can find the aspect they wish to strengthen on it. Whether the strengthening is what the wielder desires is another matter. ]

While Sheyan was checking the properties of the shield, he was also swiftly moving forward while bending down. He quickly reached a junction and turned a corner. However, a little over fifty meters after that, he felt someone or something pushing on his back! He lost his balance and involuntary tumbled forward. There was nothing he could do to stop himself. Even if there was a fire and or a heap of dung in front of him, he would still tumble straight into it whether he wanted to or not.

However, don't forget that Sheyan had phenomenal Strength - it would not be amiss to describe him as being as strong as a bull. Yet, he was unable to resist the force coming from behind at all... How powerful must the force be?

Ronnie could be heard shouting in the party communication channel, "Be careful, Boss!! There's an abnormally powerful summoner among them. That guy has suddenly gone crazy and summoned a Bishop self-propelled artillery to attack you! "

(TL 1: Self-propelled artillery (also called mobile artillery or locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move towards its target. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-propelled_artillery )

"FUU*%#^&!" Sheyan's eardrums were buzzing. If he were an ordinary person, his inner organs would have been injured so badly from the shock that he would have died right there and then. Even though he had survived, he still felt numb all over.

'Self propelled artillery...' The idea had only just registered itself in Sheyan's mind when another shell exploded less than two meters from him. Sheyan reflexively rolled away. When he climbed back up and was ready to use some medicine to treat himself in this critical moment, a thought suddenly flashed across his mind:

'Why is the enemy's aim so precise? High Perception Sense? Impossible! There's no way they have someone who has a crushing advantage over me in Perceptive Sense. Could it be....'

The Nightmare Imprint on Sheyan's chest glowed following his shout. The silver light quickly turned into countless little spots. At the same time, the light on the opponent's Nightmare Imprint faded, making it look like a stainless steel mark coated with a layer of mist. A contestant wielding a gun immediately yelled in anger.

Another contestant leaped down from a self-propelled artillery at the side and landed on the ground heavily. One of his arms and one of his legs were made of metal, and their designs looked very complicated and sophisticated. They were obviously not your average prosthetics. The contestant's eyes were filled with anger.

"What the hell's going on, Capote? I've just locked on to that bastard, but the precision suddenly dropped to 13 meters! I even loaded an armour piercing round for this shot! How am I supposed to hit him with a precision of 13 meters? That guy's a monster. I don't even know if I can kill him with the precision of 3 meters!"

Capote immediately retorted, "Are you an idiot, Vance? Don't you realise that the party ability has been suppressed? That bastard can actually suppress our radar ability to its initial state! Damn it, this guy's party is really strong. I'm afraid we've met a really formidable opponent this time! "

The self-propelled artillery summoned by Vance started to rotate, fold and merge, finally turning into a multi-barrel rocket artillery! He leaped onto it and smirked mockingly.

"See this? So what if the precision has dropped to thirteen metres. All it does is make me waste a few thousand more utility points worth of rockets! Ghani, make sure I have the priority on the loot this time!"

"That's fine by me, but you'll have to ask Pacino and Old A about it," replied a muscular man who was folding his arms in front of his chest as if the current situation was not worth his time.

Vance grunted, but did not say anything else. Instead, he pressed down on the launch button hard. More than a dozen tongues of fire shot out of the multi-barrel rocket artillery. Dense smoke enveloped the place like a cloud, while the spot Sheyan was last detected became a raging sea of fire!

The horrifying carpet bombing of rocket missiles covered hundreds of square meters. There was no fuel at the target area, but the rockets themselves contained solid fuel that was claimed to be able to burn for 30 minutes straight even on glaciers.

The smoke which enshrouded the area around the rocket artillery carried some heat and a burnt smell. Like the smoke on a battlefield, it was stinging, pungent and hazy. Although its source had nothing to do with human body fluids at all, it reminded one of the smell of blood.

However, when the smoke rose, Vance and the others there had a strange feeling. If they were to look closely, they would notice that the flow of the smoke was a little irregular. However, everyone's attention was focused on the area being bombarded at the moment, so no one had noticed the rather inconspicuous abnormality. After all, Sheyan was putting a lot of pressure on them.

The smoke suddenly surged, and there was a flash of crimson blade. It cut towards Vance's throat in a bizarre manner, as if it was refracted multiple times in the air. It was completely impossible to sense the attack coming. Vance even felt that even if he leaned back, he would still run into the blade.

Vance instantly jumped up with a startled cry. Streams of blood gushed out of his body. It did not seem like a lot of blood had poured out, but it left faint trails of crimson lines in the air.

The sharp blood-red shortblade sliced into Vance's skin again, this time easily cutting through his abdominal muscles. It could not be stopped at all. Not only that, the blood-red shortblade dragged hard and brought out Vance's inner organs. A large amount of blood spurted out of the wound and splashed along the high-speed blade.

Only then did the gloomy outline of Ronnie's body gradually emerge from the smoke. He was wearing a half-transparent cloak which surface was undulating like a wave. It looked like it would melt and disappear into thin air at any moment, but if one were to look at it carefully, they would see that it was only an illusion!

This was the permanent invisibility ability Ronnie acquired after passing the trial, the 'Protection of the Dark Templar'! It provided a permanent invisibility effect by constantly refracting light!

Vance howled in pain. The three slashes had penetrated deep into his body, leaving behind several serious wounds! Vance had used his honorary dosage, but a Blood Weapon was a powerful equipment which was made for a fight between contestants, so Vance found to his horror that his HP could not be raised at all! His only hope in this situation was that his companions could come to his rescue in time!

But suddenly, Ronnie's image blurred in Vance's vision. He first split into two, then into four, and continued to split further. Following a series of continuous flashing, eleven Ronnies appeared, all of whom surrounded Vance and attacked him from every direction, making eleven wounds on his body from various angles!

At this time, the help of his party members finally arrived. Having successfully attacked Vance, all 11 Ronnies immediately ran away in different directions, but Vance's party members would never let them get away. The 11 Ronnies were not very tough; they were wiped out in but a few seconds. However, the contestants did not look happy at all, because all 11 Ronnies turned out to be just illusions! The real Ronnie had already vanished into thin air again without them realising it!

With the permanent invisibility effect, Ronnie was like a tiger that had gained a pair of wings. He became a nightmare for the enemy to deal with, a terrifying assassin who could deliver a lethal blow from behind at any moment! He was a constant threat when he hid in the dark, perhaps an even bigger threat than when he appeared!

Everyone here knew that the attack power of Ronnie's illusions was not that high. However, his killer move, the 'Phantom Ghost Flash', was deadly. Even in a hopeless situation, it could seize the life of the enemy out of nowhere, instantly turning the tables around! And Ronnie had not used it yet!

Seeing Vance struggle frantically while grabbing his throat in pain, some of the contestants tried to save him, but their efforts were in vain. There were simply too many injuries on his body, and each wound was pouring out blood in large amount. More importantly, the crazy negative effect from the weapon which weakened any healing effect was still there.

Although Vance had been treated with the best medicine, his chest which was initially rising and falling like a broken bellows gradually slowed down. Finally, he exhaled his last breath with difficulty and died in the driver's cab of his summoned object. The powerful rocket artillery quickly rusted, withered, and collapsed, then turned into a cloud of dust which dispersed along with the wind. The only thing left of Vance in this world was his image in the minds of all those who witnessed his death.

Ronnie's level of lethality was far beyond what they expected. Not only did he now have a permanent stealth ability tailored for assassins, the abnormal bleeding effect in his attacks was something that was not mentioned at all in their intelligence of him.

Vance did not have high defence, and Ronnie was very familiar with him. Moreover, Ronnie's Blood Weapon was simply too powerful. With all these factors combined, three slashes was enough to leave Vance on the brink of death.

In addition, although the eleven illusions each only had 20% of the attack power of the real Ronnie, their attacks all carried the powerful bleeding effect! That was why Vance had bled to death on the spot!

All the other contestants instantly formed a circle with their backs to each other. When dealing with an invisible enemy, this kind of defensive stance was the most reliable.

In the area previously bombarded by rockets in the distance, the flames were still raging, but the contestants' attention had long shifted to their own surroundings as they tried to detect any abnormal movement.

This was especially so for Pacino and Old A who were strong in offence but weak in defence. They believed that if Ronnie decided to attack recklessly, they would not be able to stop him. So even though they knew that it was not a smart move, they had no choice but to prioritise on defence first.

Seeing how the situation had developed, Ronnie had already quietly retreated before Sheyan even had to instruct him to do so. His combat style was assassination rather than direct assault. Under the circumstances, to retreat and wait for an opportunity was obviously a much better choice than to force an attack!

Following Ronnie's disappearance, both sides fell into a silent deadlock, that was broken by a crashing sound akin to glass shattering, followed by the rumbling of something rolling on the ground.

Capote was heavily protected in the middle of the enemy group. Steel beads the size of thumbs dropped down to the ground from the gaps between his fingers. The beads were glittering with a strange red glow.

After the steel beads landed, they quickly changed shape and grew into fast-moving mechanical spiders. Each spider was as big as a palm. They stretched out their long steel legs and ran swiftly towards the distance, slipping through gaps and climbing through obstacles!

Capote had previously obtained an item from the Transformers world. It was a fragment of a lead case. Because it had been in contact with the Allspark for a long time, the fragment had absorbed a very small part of its ability. The fragment was then embedded with an enhancement gemstone. When the fragment was infused with MP, it could breed temporary metallic life-forms.

More and more mechanical spiders transformed from Capote's steel beads without any signs of stopping, restricting Ronnie's area of activity like a forbidden carpet. Ronnie was forced to retreat more than thirty metres away.

But at that moment, the powerful contestant they suspected to be an MT once again appeared about 100 meters in front of them. Pacino, who had long been waiting for him, fired a shot without hesitation!

Old A cleverly did not waste his MP to cast a 'Great Fireball' this time. He simply watched as the enemy quickly regained his balance after being sent flying, once again rolling into a metallic ditch.

Seeing Sheyan's sorry figure after he was hit and the blood which dripped to the ground, as well as the slowly dispersing pale blue smoke, the party leader, Ghani, suddenly frowned.

That's right! The opponent's performance had completely surpassed their expectations so far! This monster in front of them had already shown his terrifying attack power and survivability; he did not look like a fool who would just run out to get hit for no reason. But that was exactly what he did. What was the purpose behind it?

Soon, the giant white ball that was Aldaris appeared on a building not far away. With his hands raised high, he released the area-wide Psionic Storm! Violent and blazing hot electrical energy swept through the whole place in an instant. Not only did the storm harm the group of contestants, it also gave all the fragile mechanical spiders a devastating blow.

Old A and some other contestants that had long-range attacks immediately bombarded Aldaris in fury, but for some strange reason, Aldaris' HP was dropping very slowly. This was, of course, thanks to the protection of Sheyan's Awakening Skill, 'Survival Mark'.

The damage caused by the enemies was first weakened by the 40% rule in a fight between contestants, and of the remaining 60%, only 25% of it would fall on Aldaris. After going through the damage deduction from his own defence, he was naturally not harmed much.

Sheyan had to receive the remaining 75% of the opponents' damage, but his high defence meant that his current damage reduction stood at more than 55%, so he only received what amounted to about 35% of the original attack power, and that was before 'Death's Lament' deduct a further 50 to 200 points of damage!

Therefore, the damage he received was well within what he could endure. Only the odd true damages, holy damages, or damages which ignored defence would reach three digits. The rest of the damage figures, despite being numerous, were only in double digits.

Because among their long-range attacks, only Pacino's ability had an effect to knock the enemy back, so it could forcibly interrupt the Psionic Storm that Aldaris had to continuously maintain.

But now that Pacino had used the ability, he could do naught but wait. Not only must the whole party sustain the full damage of the Psionic Storm, the countless mechanical spiders released by Capote were also completely destroyed!!

"Goddamnit! Goddamnit!" Fire was almost shooting out of Pacino's eyes. His rage caused a momentary lapse in his concentration. Ghani, who had remained indifferent all this while, instantly clenched his fists and rushed towards Pacino, shouting furiously, "CAREFUL!"

A sharp crimson blade was clinging to his throat. Then, an irresistible force came from behind him, pushing him forward involuntarily, causing his throat to collide into the horrifying blade!

Blood gushed out of his throat like a waterfall. Pacino instinctively covered it with his hands, but the blood still seeped out of the gaps between his fingers without slowing down at all. His eyes were wide open, his facial muscles were twitching, and his throat was making unintelligible noises.

The throat slit caused a quadruple damage explosive hit without any doubt. Furthermore, after the cruel Dark Templar trial, not only did Ronnie gain the permanent invisibility effect whenever he was not attacking, the bleeding effect carried by his attacks was also greatly strengthened! Thus, the bleeding damage Pacino was suffering now was terrifying.

Ronnie did not keep attacking after landing a successful hit. Instead, he quickly retreated. The dark cloak behind him wrapped around himself and engulfed the light, and his body gradually faded. Although he would show himself when he attacked, once he stopped attacking, he would return to the state of permanent invisibility after two seconds.

As the party leader, Ghani was also displaying his formidable strength. He was more than ten meters away from Ronnie when Ronnie showed himself, but he instantly bent down and glided forward like he was skating on ice, reaching Ronnie in the blink of an eye. There were now a pair of boxing gloves on his fists which were glowing faint blue, like the colour of icicles.

Even though Ronnie had retreated quickly, Ghani stuck to him like a shadow! He launched a lightning quick punch at Ronnie. The sound of the boxing glove slamming into flesh at high speed was hair-raising. Having been struck by the punch, Ronnie stiffened, and a terrifying thing happened next.

The burly Ghani was actually dancing around Ronnie like the wind, clinging to him without giving him a chance to flee. His fists were so fast that they left afterimages, so he looked like he had seven or eight arms growing out of his body. The harsh sounds of fists slamming into flesh came incessantly.

The debris in the surroundings could even be seen moving towards Ghani, as if his punches had a strong suction force. Like a black hole, they pulled the enemy towards them, ensuring that the enemy would not escape from their storm-like attacks!

Illusionary images filled the air again! Ronnie was forced to once again use his ultimate skill to create illusions of himself, but his opponent was ready for it. All the illusions were annihilated in an instant. A man whose head was wrapped in a headscarf in traditional Indian style inhaled deeply, then pointed in a direction!

Ghani immediately bent low and skated towards the direction he pointed. This was his special ability, 'Gliding'. Although it consumed MP, it was extremely useful when he was pursuing someone.

Having taken Ghani's 'Waterfall Punches', it was impossible for Ronnie not to be hurt at all. And once Baganbu caught on to the scent of his blood, it did not matter if he was invisible, he would still be detected by Baganbu!

Ronnie's expertise was in scouting, so he was naturally proficient in the art of fleeing too. He had escaped more than 30 metres away in the blink of an eye. However, Ghani was quickly closing the gap between them with his pursuing ability.

However, four high-speed Vultures suddenly appeared and dashed towards them from the distance. Before this, Sheyan had used a Vulture's momentum to launch a surprise attack on the enemies, forcefully killing one of them despite being heavily surrounded. That had left a deep psychological impact on them. Therefore, when the Vultures appeared this time, most of them focused their attacks on the vehicles.

A cruel smile broke on Ghani's face. He had no intention of stopping at all. He had calculated everything very precisely. After catching up to Ronnie, because of the angle of the buildings, there would be a blind spot of about three seconds for his teammates during which they would lose sight of him, but during those three seconds, he could just use that move.

Yes, Sheyan had encountered a lot of great opportunities in Nightmare Worlds, but so had a lot of other people, because the opportunities in Nightmare Worlds were equally distributed to everyone.This powerful S-rank skill possessed by Ghani was the source of his confidence!

It must be known that the group that pursued Ronnie to this world was actually formed from the combination of two parties. Quite a few people had already left the world while waiting for Ronnie to come out of the trial, while another group had recognised the terrifying existence of the Keystone and had split away to try and snatch food from the tiger's mouth, intruding in the fight between the Protoss and the Queen of Blades. This group that had split away was led by the woman Ronnie once loved, Artemis!

Sheyan and Ronnie's vision went dark in an instant. They felt like they had been dragged into a terrible huge vortex. All they could hear was the sound of the wind roaring, and all they could see was utter darkness. The violent wind wrapped around their hands and feet tightly like a thousand ropes, stopping them from pulling themselves out of the hurricane!

Then, Ghani and the five horrifying black illusions behind him raised their hands at the same time and started to accumulate power! His lips curled into a sinister sneer.

But right then, a sudden unexpected occurrence spoiled Ghani's mood. While he was accumulating power, the mysterious contestant who was helping Ronnie out could actually still move. Not by much, but enough for him to kick Ronnie more than seven metres away.

"Do you truly wish to bear the wrath of the Great Ghani by yourself? Huh?" Ghani was completely infuriated. He launched hundreds of punches in an instant, each one as magnificent as a comet streaking across the sky! Moreover, the five illusions behind him also started attacking at the same time!

Seeing the opponent being hit so badly that he could only desperately defend, Ghani's heart was filled with pleasure. But the next second, an ominous feeling rose in him, because he felt like the flurry of punches were not that effective on the opponent!

Ghani had always trusted his gut feelings. He could be said to be a staunch believer of "following one's heart". This instinct was not something under the category of Perceptive Sense, but rather something he was born with. It was by relying on such cheat-like intuition that Ghani had become so successful.

Hence, Ghani immediately changed his attacking method. In addition, a split second before he changed his attacking method, he paused momentarily, deliberately revealing an opening to his opponent. If the opponent had the ability to counterattack and actually did, the opening would instantly transform into a vicious trap! However, Sheyan completely ignored the opening. He simply protected his face with his hands, seemingly determined to defend until the end.

The three punches did not come like a violent storm like they did before; they were obviously punches that could only be launched having accumulated enough force behind them. Each of the punches sunk deep into Sheyan with a dull thud.

The current Sheyan looked like a mute sandbag. He was knocked back a few steps, but the steps were very stable, showing no signs of collapsing at all. At that, Ghani could not help getting anxious. The illusions behind him were sucked back into his body in an instant like water being sucked into a whale, merging into a single shadow. The shadow then let out a strange, shrill cry and pounced on Sheyan like a wild beast!

The shadow wrapped itself around Sheyan. As if it was made up of dark fangs, anything that came into contact with it could not escape the terrible fate of being mercilessly torn apart, including Sheyan's flesh! Blood splashed wildly.

But Sheyan stood silent and firm like a mountain towering over the earth; nothing could shake him. Have you ever seen a mountain moan due to collapse? Have you ever seen a mountain break down because of a few cracks?

And so, the ominous feeling in Ghani's heart only grew stronger. He clearly had the upper hand, but why did he feel like he was precariously perching on the edge of a cliff? Seeing the figure in front of him, he felt as if the both of them had stepped onto a narrow wooden bridge under the arrangement of fate, with no room to turn back. One of them must be pushed off the bridge into the endless darkness below for the other to advance....

Ghani's breath became heavy, and his boxing gloves glowed again. He would use his punches to blast away everything in his path, blast away every obstacle that dared to stand in his way! There's nothing his fists could not solve!

The darkness that twined around Sheyan finally disappeared. The S-rank skill was so powerful that even one as strong as Sheyan could not move an inch when bound by it. At that moment, Ghani pounced on Sheyan like a Hercules transport aircraft, with a heavy roar and the sound of sonic booms! His punch that was aiming for Sheyan's face felt large enough to occupy the entire world!!

However, a grim crimson light also flashed in the air, and there was even a sound akin to glass rapidly cracking! It was the moan of the Realm's rules! That light, that blood-red light, was so heavy that it would suffocate anyone who laid eyes upon it. Life and death paled in comparison to it. Even time seemed to flow backwards in front of it!

At that moment, numerous members of the enemy party turned the corner, ready to support Ghani. They all saw the scene of the pathetic looking Sheyan being sent flying with a punch. A few of his teeth had even been knocked out of his deformed mouth.

But before they could start cheering, they saw Ghani's left hand fly into the air, having been severed at the wrist. The hand spun in the air for a long time, as if unwilling to yield to the gravity of the planet, before it fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Hence, chaos broke out among them. There were two kinds of reaction among those who knew what Apophis was – greed and fear – while those who did not were simply confused.

Every time the leech was summoned out, it was almost destined to be used as cannon fodder. The strong suction force in its attack could reduce the enemy's movement speed by 50% for 10 seconds, so it was perfect to stall the enemies.

However, Sheyan was summoning it this time for another of its ability. After awakening, if any enemy that was attacked by the giant leech suffered a bleeding effect in the next 60 minutes, the duration would be extended by 200%!

Ronnie, who had been kicked away by Sheyan earlier, suddenly appeared next to Ghani like a ghost. After stabbing Ghani twice in succession, he split up again! Before this, the only thing that restricted Ronnie's use of his cloning skill was his MP amount, but now, with the support of a silver party, Ronnie's MP had increased dramatically. His use of the cloning skill this time was completely out of the other party's expectations.

All eleven Ronnies ferociously stabbed their shortblade into Ghani at the same time. Although all the illusions had only 10% - 25% of the real Ronnie's attack power, they all had the same bleeding effect in their attacks!

11 grim wounds were added to Ghani's body. Blood poured incessantly out of them; the duration extended by 200% by the dark gold leech! What's more, the suppression on healing effect of Ronnie's Blood Weapon had even stacked with the restriction on healing effect of Evil Sword Apophis!

Therefore, the Ronnie they knew would only use his cloning skill during critical moments to save his life. They did not expect Ronnie to use the skill continuously to attack. Another thing they did not expect was for the skill to be so powerful when used together with Ronnie's Blood Weapon and bleeding effect!

The Ronnies did not stay to attack further. Right after they struck, all eleven Ronnies scattered and ran away in different directions. It was almost impossible to catch Ronnie under such circumstances. One thing had been proved before: even if all these Ronnies were killed, all of them could very well be just illusions. The real Ronnie may have long ran away.

Capote ran up to Ghani and held him tightly, trying to slow down the bleeding. The blood which poured out of the wounds instantly dyed Capote's clothes red. The thick red blood pooled together, slowly turning semi-solid, while those that had not solidified unwillingly dripped to the ground.

Capote's face paled. He fed and smeared all kinds of medicine on Ghani, but they did not seem to have any effect. Ghani's blood still gushed out of the wounds like water rushing out of faucets that had been opened to the limit.

The rest could only look on foolishly, powerless to do anything. Helplessly waiting like this was a heavy burden on anyone's heart, because they could not help thinking... If they were stabbed 11 times like this too, wouldn't they suffer the same outcome?

Ghani's chest heaved heavily as he gasped for breath. His remaining hand gripped Capote's arm tightly. His eyes were anxious, as if he wished to say something but was unable to express his thoughts with words.

Capote's heart was filled with a strong sense of shame and anger. His first reaction was to vehemently deny Ghani's suggestion. Are you kidding?! Even though they had lost a few people, they still vastly outnumbered the enemies. Besides, the enemies had Evil Sword Apophis!! Evil Sword Apophis.... Apophis....

'The man holding Evil Sword Apophis is strong enough even without the sword. With it, he becomes so powerful that no one can get close to him. And yet, their real killer is Ronnie, who's strength has greatly increased!'

'I see. There's a reason why that man used his ultimate move to eliminate Yanigan at the very beginning of the fight. He wants us to focus on his powerful attack, but his real role is actually to absorb damage and attract our attention. Damn it! Damn it! He's not holding a shield, but he's a full-fledged MT, without a doubt! He's an abnormally powerful MT the likes of which we've never seen before!'

'There's also Ronnie, who can safely attack under the protection of a powerful MT, and the powerful Awakener who can transform into an Archon.... Is our hastily assembled group really a match for them?'

'If that MT charged at us again after getting enough rest with the same unstoppable momentum as before, can we handle him? Without giving Ronnie any chance to strike?'

Because the first thing Sheyan did was to eliminate the core person in their group, Yanigan! The one that could protect his teammates from the very front as they charged forward!

Keep in mind that both sides were currently in the middle of a mission. The last thing Sheyan wanted was for the enemies to rush at them all at once and force their way through! Therefore, the first thing Sheyan did was to take out the one among them who had the courage and ability to lead the enemies forward as the arrowhead of the formation, at all costs!

A snake would not move forth without a head; a bird would not fly without wings. All the contestants at this level had well-defined roles. An MT's role was to charge in front, leading everyone forward. Therefore, once the MT was suppressed, even if the entire party's determination to advance was not extinguished, at least when they encountered difficulties and setbacks, they would have no one leading them out of the pinch. You simply could not expect a sniper or mage like Pacino or Old A to wave their sniper rifle or magic staff high and shout "Follow my lead!".

To be honest, even in the current situation, if these people decided to swarm forward without any fear of sacrifice, fully making use of their advantage in numbers, Sheyan and his side would still be powerless to stop them. If they did this, the final result would be obvious. Sheyan's mission would fail, and one or both of Ronnie and Aldaris would surely die. Sheyan's life may even be in danger.

And herein lay the problem. How could there be anyone among the enemies selfless enough to give up their lives for the team, letting the rest enjoy the fruits of their sacrifice? Especially now that the two people who usually led in front, the golden duo of Yanigan and Ghani, had both been killed.

"Boss, I think Capote is thinking of running away. I know him too well. He's quietly dropped a time bomb. I bet he's even planted one on himself, because I've seen him do it before with my own eyes. That way, whoever tries to bring him down will have to be prepared to go down with him."

Sheyan wiped away the blood and sweat from his face and gulped down a few mouthfuls of the 'Endless Vodka'. He said thoughtfully, "That's good. When someone starts running away, it'll trigger a domino effect, and others will follow suit. But that's to be expected. Oh right, what about the woman who betrayed you?"

There was a short silence before Ronnie replied, "I didn't see Artemis. She must have thought that it was a waste to send so many people after me, or maybe she discovered something that's more profitable than hunting me down."

Sheyan leaned against the metallic wall with his eyes closed. He only said after a while, "It's unfortunate, but you may not get your revenge in this world, Ronnie. There's no way for us to wipe out all these bastards here. Many of them will survive and join the woman, and they'll tell her everything they've learned about us. That's actually not that crucial; the crucial thing is, there are simply too few of us here."

"That's exactly what she wants you to do, you idiot!" Sheyan's voice was stern, angry even. "I risked my damn life to save you. Do you know how much I've given up? Do you want me to go back empty handed like a fool?"

Sheyan's tone was really harsh, like he was ready to carry out some inhumane corporal punishments on Ronnie. If it was any other contestants, they would have felt humiliated and their ego would have been bruised, but strangely, this method was very effective on Ronnie, and he seemed to take it very well. Of course, the premise was that it must be done by someone that had his full respect.

Sheyan turned to Aldaris. "It's time to put more pressure on them. This time, you're going to draw the enemy's attention with a Psionic Storm, and I'll charge in and release my disease. Ronnie, who do you think is the biggest threat to us among them?"

Baganbu, the one who had an exceptional sense of smell, was hit so hard that he flew away. He looked like a shabby sack as he traced an arc through the air, landing only after a long time.

Sheyan tried his best to calm down his turbulent breathing. Oxygen was a luxury for him right now. After all, fire was burning all over his body. He slowly retracted his fist. On his fist, G-spot was rapidly shifting shape, transforming from a silver glove back into Evil Sword Apophis.

The 'Ultimate Impact' Sheyan just performed was a heavy burden even for his powerful self, so much so that he even had difficulty putting out the flame on his body right now. He could only try his best to maintain his balance to keep himself from falling down humiliatingly.

Right before Baganbu landed, a human figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as if it had solidified from the air itself. The figure was Ronnie. As he and Baganbu crossed each other, his Blood Shortblade continuously drew seven or eight blood-red lines in the air. Baganbu, who was already in a state of near death, died on the spot without making a sound. His body was cut into several tragic pieces, which were then kicked away!!

Although Old A was currently behind Sheyan, being in Sheyan's blind spot and facing what was theoretically Sheyan's most vulnerable part, he no longer had the ability to cause Sheyan any harm....

There was a grim wound on his face. The red flesh at the wound's edges rolled outwards like a child's gaping mouth. His right eye happened to be situated on the wound, so his eyeball was also cut open. The fluid inside mixed together with the blood and dripped down.

Aldaris was no longer in his Archon transformed state, because the plasma shield around his body had been completely depleted. Fortunately, Aldaris was a contestant, so he was not too fragile.

The sinister dagger deeply embedded in Old A's back...was Aldaris' signature weapon, 'Mage Nemesis'! Old A's MP had been drained by the evil weapon bit by bit like silk being spun from a cocoon. A mage without MP was no different from a tiger without its claws and fangs.

Meanwhile, Aldaris had taken on the role of a dual-wielding assassin, attacking Old A with lightning quick strikes. Old A was running left and right, obviously in desperation.

This was how Aldaris fought. Against enemies who were more physically-inclined, he would attack with magic, whereas against spellcasters, he would show off his powerful close-combat capability... Old A had obviously fallen victim to Aldaris' fighting concept.

"Wait a minute! Wait a minute!!" Old A suddenly threw his magic staff away and gave up his resistance while crying out in despair. Interestingly, the one he faced when he shouted was Sheyan. He had apparently realised that the right to spare him lay in this man's hands.

Aldaris was startled. His blade had already reached Old A's neck. He could easily take away the last bits of Old A's HP, but that would mean disregarding Sheyan, and obviously it was better to avoid that kind of thing if possible, so he stayed his hand.

Sheyan was coughing violently. Blood oozed out of his facial orifices. Though his expression when he looked at Old A was calm, his eyes were sharp and mean. After a short pause, he slowly raised a finger.

The things Sheyan listed were obviously the reasons to kill Old A. Something else he did not point out was that Old A's action could potentially sow discord between Sheyan and Aldaris, intentionally or otherwise, because the gains from killing Old A should have belonged to Aldaris, at least on the surface. That was why Sheyan had used words like "persuade us".

"We killed a Dark Templar while we were waiting to ambush Ronnie. The Dark Templar was old and had an arm missing, but he was really difficult to handle. He almost ran away even with so many of us ganging up on him. If Artemis had not provoked him by insulting the honour of the Protoss, he would have successfully escaped."

"After we killed the old Protoss, we looted two pieces of dark gold equipment and a communication crystal. The secret I told you about is contained in the communication crystal. It turns out that what Zerg are most interested in is a kind of high-energy crystal. With the high-energy crystal, the Zerg can easily evolve, among other things."

"You can imagine how attractive the high-energy crystal is to the Zerg. It's no wonder that even the Queen of Blades is personally lured here by it. In truth, this planet is actually a trap, a huge trap meant to kill! Those ancient Protoss and the current Protoss have joined hands to target the Queen of Blades, aiming to kill her here!"

"I don't know the details, but I think such a large place must be a real ruin," said Old A with a wry smile, "It's impossible to fool a powerful monster like the Queen of Blades without making some sacrifices. According to our analysis, in order to lure the Queen of Blades deeper into the encirclement, the Protoss will keep enduring patiently. The moment she walks into the ambush, they will quickly launch a full attack to finish her off."

Old A hesitated for a moment before he answered, "Her goal is the Protoss' bait. Be it the high-energy crystal or the Keystone, they can make someone very powerful. To lure the Queen of Blades into the trap, the bait must be authentic."

As soon as Old A heard that there was room for negotiation, he quickly said, "I have three silver storyline equipment and 200,000 utility points with me. You guys can have all of them."

Sheyan was about to reply when he suddenly felt the ground shaking, followed by the sound of metal cracking, twisting and deforming, as if a magnitude 10 earthquake had occurred. After that, he saw the ceiling of the workshop not far away being smashed through, as well as the giant metallic monster that was the culprit.

The object was at least 30 meters tall. It was made of the same materials used in Protoss armours, but it did not have the signature plasma shield of the Protoss around its body. This would seemingly reduce its survivability, but it also means that it would not have a complex and high-precision internal device such as the plasma shield generator, so its armour and defence could be greatly strengthened. This was the same design concept used by the humans in their giant airships, and it was no inferior.

According to the Protoss' original design, the Colossus was like a spider with horrible long legs that could easily cross mountains and rivers to pour its amazing firepower on the enemy with deadly grace.

But Pontin had modified the design by combining the design concept of the humans with the highly-advanced technology of the Colossus. The monstrosity built no longer looked like a giant spider with long legs, but like a giant metallic bear with short, thick limbs!!

But this metallic monster could equip at least four of them, each with its own complex focusing and aiming system to cause maximum destruction! The Colossus' robust motive powering device could easily support the weight of five layers of armour, so it had nearly twice the survivability of an ordinary Colossus! The trade-off was only a 35% reduction in maximum speed and a 20% decrease in the maximum height it could cross.

Under Pontin's control, a giant metal palm as wide as a three-storey building was tall smashed down on a metallic street with a terrifying whir, giving rise to the horrible sounds of metal bending and snapping. A saber-toothed tiger that had been summoned by Pacino to cover his retreat was flattened into a fleshy pulp without so much as a whine.

After that, the metallic mobile fortress that was given the name of the Monster of Calamity slowly climbed out of the production factory. As it crawled forward, it greedily tore at the surrounding metal walls with its claws, then stuffed the broken metallic pieces into its giant mouth and chewed on them noisily like they were candy.

The Monster of Calamity had come to them with incomparable oppressiveness. Every time its giant mechanical foot trampled down, even the tough metallic street would sink down, leaving behind potholes everywhere. Metallic fragments and parts would also fly around!

Then, a round entrance opened up on the abdomen of the Monster of Calamity, and a flat oval platform glided down. This entrance was made with the latest Protoss floating technology. After the three contestants stepped on the platform, it automatically floated up and into the body of the Monster of Calamity.

But right after the metal door closed behind Sheyan, he suddenly collapsed on the floor, gasping heavily for breath. His feet felt weak and his body was fatigued. However, his cheeks felt very comfortable thanks to the cold metallic floor.

"What the hell is happening? Was I attacked by someone without me realising it?" Sheyan instantly tried to recall the events of the previous battle... He had courageously rushed into the midst of the enemies while enduring all their attacks. During this process, he had used the honorary dosage and 'Gloryheal', as well as activated SARS!

The terrifying virus broke out instantly, infecting all the enemies around him. The frightened expressions on their faces were still engraved in Sheyan's memory. Then, a Psionic Storm once agains swept through the battlefield, reaping away HP with its violent energy. Under the dual attack of disease and storm, the temporary defensive line of the enemies immediately collapsed. They fled in fear.

Ronnie constantly emerged from the darkness behind the enemy's back like a grim reaper. His horrible Blood Weapon silently traced lines of blood in the air, carving up the enemies' bodies. It was then that Baganbu, Old A and Pacino summoned up their courage and united together to fight back. They proved to be a real handful for Sheyan's side to deal with. During that time, Aldaris was beaten back into his human form from his Archon state. More than half of Sheyan's injuries were also sustained during that period.

Unfortunately, the rest of their group did not seize the opportunity to counter attack together with them, but had continued fleeing instead. This caused their resistance to become a futile attempt.

All three; Baganbu, Old A and Pacino, who stayed behind to fight, were powerful, but they were no match for Sheyan's side in terms of both individual strength and team strength, say nothing of team configuration. The side with an MT was bound to have a huge advantage.

"I didn't suffer any serious injuries. Why do I feel so weak? I feel like my life is being sucked out of me..." Sheyan pondered on the problem over and over until his consciousness started to blur... He felt as if he had been in here for a long time, but in truth, it had been less than 20 seconds since he entered the place.

Suddenly, a pair of strong hands held Sheyan up. The hands belonged to Pontin. Annie, who followed close behind him, started using her psionic powers to carry out basic treatment for Sheyan. After that, she put on an oxygen mask for Sheyan and placed him in a treatment capsule in the newly built infirmary.

Because the Monster of Calamity was built from Protoss materials and the combined design ideologies of the humans and the Protoss, the same was true for the medical facilities built in it. After Sheyan was placed in the capsule, an invisible gas seemed to hold him up inside. The gas slowly turned pale blue. It first cleaned the wounds on Sheyan's body, then started moving in and out of the wounds.

If one were to look closely, they would see dirt, sand, and pus in and around the wounds being gradually removed. Then, as the pale blue smoke penetrated in and out of the wounds, Sheyan's skin gradually turned transparent. The smoke extended into his body along his blood vessels and tendons, circling around them repeatedly.

The smoke did not seem to do anything, but if a high-precision inspection was carried out, it could be seen that the lactic acid, hormones and other things that had been deposited in the muscles due to excessive activity had all been removed. Everywhere the smoke passed through, the muscle fibers would slowly relax until they were completely loose, like the muscles of a baby in a mother's womb.

Under such repair works, some tiny wounds had even started appearing on Sheyan's body, dripping out blood that had a tint of black to it. His lungs were also wriggling quickly under the stimulation of the pale blue smoke, squeezing out some of the dust he had inhaled...

A device next to the capsule started displaying a series of statistics showing Sheyan's condition. Annie carefully observed the operation. She would exclaim with surprise from time to time.

"His vital signs are all normal, even better than than that of an ordinary healthy person. The only problem is that his brain waves are quite weak - in fact, they're completely beyond my level of understanding. Unfortunately, we don't have any drugs that can enhance the brain waves without causing major side effects," Annie's brows furrowed with worry.

As Sheyan lay unconscious in the treatment capsule, his thoughts were very disorderly, as if his memories had been shattered into numerous pieces and were now being put together again one by one.

He sometimes felt like his entire body was burning, and sometimes felt like he had fallen into an icy vault. Such extreme but contradictory sensations almost made his senses collapse. He wanted to scream, but found that he could not make a sound. He wanted to struggling violently, but found his limbs devoid of strength!

He slowly exhaled a long breath. His head felt like it was about to burst. The sensations from before teetered uncertainly between real and illusory; they felt so realistic, yet so vague.

Sheyan inhaled deeply and let out another long breath. He could already guess the reason why he became so weak. It probably had something to do with G-spot. Although the powerful liquid metal life-form could transform into various powerful weapons, it also had a major side effect, and that was, it would absorb the vitality of its wielder.

[ Pontin has successfully created an incomparably powerful war machine, the Monster of Calamity. Further evaluation shows that this unit type is the most powerful ground weapon that can be mass produced in this world so far! Therefore, you have obtained the highest evaluation rating. ]

At this time, the others had noticed Sheyan waking up. Annie opened the treatment capsule in a hurry and waited next to it with a new set of combat clothes. Sheyan took the sedatives and painkillers she offered while holding his throbbing head. He gulped them down in one go, then let out a heavy breath.

"The Queen of Blades appears to have the upper hand all around. Her forces are already very close to the Keystone. Your friend, Major Ronnie, hopes that we can move closer, because he said an enemy named Artemis may appear there at any moment," Annie replied respectfully.

Sheyan walked out of the infirmary and soon reached the central control room through the passages. He could not help gasping in surprise at what he saw. Pontin's techniques were truly amazing; he had advanced far beyond what Sheyan had imagined.

Even in the interior of the Monster of Calamity, Sheyan did not feel any shaking from its movements at all. Only when Sheyan looked outside did he realise that the war machine was currently in combat. It appeared that both the Protoss and the Zerg had realised the threat posed by this behemoth and had sent troops to attack it, but the deadly rays emitted by the giant thermal laser cannons were so powerful that they destroyed everything in their paths!

On the other hand, the damages done by the Zerg and the Protoss on the Monster of Calamity were close to negligible. Facing the astonishing thickness of its armour, it would probably require a whole squad of Dragoons to fire at the same time at the same spot to cause enough damage to overcome the armour. However, dense formations like that were like ripe grains in front of the giant thermal laser cannons, ready to be harvested!

On the Zerg side, the biggest threats to the Monster of Calamity were actually the kamikaze Scourges. The splashing acid produced when they self-destructed were truly tyrannical, as it was extremely corrosive to any kinds of metal! Each exploding Scourge would leave a pit at least half a meter wide on the external metallic armour of the Monster of Calamity. The pits were as ugly as scars, and the defensive value of the corroded armour continued to plummet.

Fortunately, a large amount of Vespene gas was needed to hatch Scourges, so their numbers were limited. In addition, the Zerg's aerial force was currently their biggest weakness. And with the abnormally skilled Pontin among the crew of the Monster of Calamity, the speed of maintenance was increased by 100%, so the threat of the Scourges was well contained!

She was currently standing on an Ultralisk that was charging forward fiercely. The Ultralisk was only an ordinary Ultralisk, but under the support of the Queen, it was even more ferocious than an elite Ultralisk and hungrier than a loser. Every swing of its sickle-like forelimbs would bring down several Zealots!

The facial features of the Queen of Blades actually carried some eastern grace, but her slightly high cheekbones added a touch of western dignity to her look. There were burn scars on her hairline, which stood out in sharp contrast with the smooth, delicate skin of her cheeks.

Of course, something that must be mentioned when describing the Queen of Blades was her unique snake-hair. If you were to evaluate the hair by itself, it was no doubt a horrible thing - thick, slippery and squirming like worms.

However, together with the Queen's delicate facial features and her amazing figure, it gave the queen an exotic seductiveness. This feeling would ferment, take root and sprout in the deepest corner of one's heart. Like a forbidden relationship, it was something that was publicly denounced, but during the darkest of nights, it would surface in the form of sinful desires.

Another feature of the Queen that stood out was undoubtedly the skeletal wings on her back. The wings gave off a feeling of being extremely sharp, extremely nimble and extremely dangerous. The Queen did not need to flap her wings to fly. She could float in the air by adjusting the gravity crystal inside her body to manipulate the magnetic force around her.

The last few times he had seen her, he had been completely overwhelmed by her terrifying and majestic presence. All he could think of then were her identity, her status, her splendour and her strength.

It was just like if one saw the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Whenever she appeared in public, few people would pay attention to what colour of lipstick she had on, or whether she had pretty eyes, or what perfume she was wearing. They would be focusing on every word that came out of her mouth.

Therefore, one could imagine that whenever the Queen of Blades appeared before someone, especially someone who was on the opposing side, the first thing they would consider would not be anything related to women, but...simply survival.

But this time, with a 1.5-metre-thick high carbon manganese steel armour protecting Sheyan, and through the lense of the high-resolution "Dragonfly" camera, he naturally felt no psychological pressure.

Due to some of the things that he had done before when he was put under great psychological burden by the Queen of Blades, Sheyan was even feeling a little rebellious at the moment. After carrying out a series of analysis in his mind and finishing all the serious matters, Sheyan started having some evil and disrespectful thoughts of the Queen.

For example, he suddenly found the Queen's breasts very shapely, like newly-matured pears that were still slightly green. Their teardrop shape made him painfully aware of the emptiness in his hands, giving rise to an impulse to grab something.

For example, he suddenly found the contour of the Queen's face very beautiful. Her lips were a little thick, but it was said that this was a sign of strong sex drive. They must feel good when they were kissed.

For example, he suddenly found the Queen's skin colour very appealing. It was a healthy tan like those possessed by Latin American women, wild and exotic, giving rise to a desire in him to conquer her.

For example, he suddenly found the Queen's figure very alluring. Her waist was slim, but her buttocks were full. Such a strong visual contrast would make the slim part appear slimmer and the full part appear fuller. It was a very pleasing sight.

The beauty of the Queen of Blades was not only based on these, but also contained in the explosive power in her body. It seemed like every move she made, she would burst out with great power! Such a wild feeling truly would cause one to have the desire to grasp something soft and bouncy and knead it hard to feel its amazing elasticity.

Sheyan grinned. "Even if this isn't a trap, will we really have a chance if we get close? Under the watchful eyes of the Protoss and the Queen of Blades – oh, and that woman called Artemis as well, who hasn't shown herself yet – our chances of seizing the Keystone is close to zero. I'm afraid we'll only have a real chance if we wait until both sides have tired each other out."

Aldaris looked like he had more to say, but he could find no other arguments. At this time, a device in Pontin's hand suddenly beeped. Sheyan could see that the progress bar on it had reached 100%.

Pontin seemed overjoyed. He told Sheyan, "Good news, Brigadier General! All the data of the Monster of Calamity has been recorded in the computer and has passed the computer's standard 3D modeling. Every specification, every scale, has been tested by actual combat and is now standardised! This has far-reaching significance!"

"This means, as long as there are sufficient resources, we just need to input this data into any SCV engineering computer of elite-rank and above, and they will be able to build the Monster of Calamity the same way they construct other buildings! Of course, the Monster of Calamity they build may not be as strong as this bad boy here, but they should be able to achieve about 70% of its combat capabilities! I, Pontin, have personally laid down the foundation to create this incomparably powerful weapon of war. My name shall be forever engraved in the Empire's history, because I shall also name this powerful creature the Pontin Beast!"

After keying in the data of the Pontin Beast into the computer, Pontin then connected to the database in the headquarters. The database's automatic evaluation system immediately slapped a top secret logo on it, and a large warning appeared on the screen in glaring red font. The minimum level of clearance to read the information was immediately set.

From the other end of the computer, hundreds of evaluators of the main database could be seen bustling about with much fuss. Fierce and excited roars could be heard all around. The environment instantly became chaotic.

He had indeed made an enormous contribution. In the human's interstellar conquest, ground warfare had always been a major problem they were facing. They could defend just fine, but offensively, they were severely lacking. This machine Pontin had developed could be said to have filled the biggest gap in the Empire's current arsenal of war weapons!

Sheyan instantly turned around and caught sight of the Queen of Blades showing off her might on the screen. Although her Ultralisk mount had been blasted into bloody pieces, she had jumped onto a Mutalisk that had the best mobility among the Zerg and dashed into the interior of a heavily wounded heroic Carrier. Dozens of seconds later, the Carrier started to fall despite roaring in protest. It crashed to the ground and exploded.

The Mutalisk hissed and soared high into the air, then furiously flew towards the giant rhombus crystal! But for some reason, it looked to Sheyan like a moth darting into flame.

The crystal suddenly turned transparent. Natural grains could be seen in it, extending deeper towards the inside in an orderly manner. The way the grains extended inwards was intriguing, like rivers that were destined to flow into the ocean no matter how they curved and bent.

When the Queen of Blades' hand came into contact with the rhombus crystal, she suddenly vanished from the Mutalisk's back. A black silhouette emerged in the crystal, and by its outline, it was apparently the Queen of Blades!

Then, like a snake wriggling in water, she swam towards the top of the crystal. There was a place at the top that looked like a crown pedestal, but it had a pendulum-like object on it. It had the colour of something that had just been excavated after being buried in rock for millions of years. It was very simple and very old, looking as if it had been engraved with the mark of time. Anyone who so much as laid eyes on it would feel a pure sense of awe with no other distracting thoughts, as if they were looking up at the vast starry sky!

The five fingers of the Queen of Blades finally rested on the object, and an indescribable sense of satisfaction spread all over her body. Every cell of hers was exuding thrill and pleasure at the moment. The Queen of Blades could not help letting out a cry of excitement!

It was common knowledge that both the Zerg and the Protoss were created by the powerful and mysterious Xel'Naga race. However, the end of the Xel'Naga race was tragic. As if they had accidentally opened the Pandora's box, they ended up being destroyed by the Zerg race that had completely gone out of control.

Presently, it was not the Keystone that was tempting the Queen of Blades, but a thin layer of substance smeared on it. This substance was a precious treasure that the Protoss found in an ancient Xel'Naga ruin. To explain it in simple terms, it was the first generation Zerg created by the Xel'Naga race!

Back then, the Zerg were still in the experimental stage. They did not reproduce asexually like they did now, but had different genders similar to bees and ants. The substance smeared on the Keystone was the secretion extracted from the sex gland of a male Zerg, found in the laboratory of the ancient Xel'Naga ruin!

The reason why the Xel'Naga race ended up being exterminated by the Zerg was that the Zerg had very strong evolutionary ability, which caused them to finally go out of control. However, the Zerg had never been troubled by problems of reproduction desire and sexual lust, so the gene fragments related to this aspect had never evolved. They naturally had zero resistance to the temptation of mating.

Humans were strange creatures when it came to sex. Among the known creatures that reproduce through mating, most have mating seasons. Their sexual behaviours would only occur during the mating seasons.

But after a human becomes sexually mature, they can mate anytime and anywhere they want. Therefore, human actually has a terrifying sex drive by comparison. The Protoss believed that there was still a trace of this human weakness left in the Queen's body. With the combination of both the Zerg and the human factors, the chances of the poor Queen falling for the trap were very high!

The moment the Queen of Blades' fingers came into contact with the "Keystone", she immediately found that the "Keystone" was falling off with a mere touch! She instantly had an ominous premonition.

"Warning! There is a 38.44% probability of a large-scale Protoss warping-in. Outdoor combat troops, please seek shelter in a metal fortress ASAP to avoid Psionic Storm damage. If this is not possible, please spread out and lie down, or enter a metallic vehicle ASAP. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."

While the warning sounds were still echoing in the air, an unbelievable spectacle was happening outside. A gigantic pitch-black shadow slowly approached from the side and overlapped with the plane they were in like a solar eclipse.

The huge black shadow had a diameter of at least 10 kilometers. Its shape seemed irregular, but upon closer inspection, it looked a little like an island that had been pulled up from the ground by an invisible giant hand. Dark red magma dripped down below it, sizzling when they fell on the metallic ground...

Ronnie, too, inhaled sharply in shock when he saw the shadow. He slowly said, "They've even brought the holy trial ground out of the core of the planet. Looks like this whole thing really is one big trap. Look, the Keystone is activating."

A fierce and solemn illusion could be seen hovering above the holy trial ground. It looked like half a piece of something, but also like some kind of blade. The "Keystone" unraveled by the Queen of Blades glowed with a strange illumination. Then, something with a curvy outline flew out of it. It could not be clearly identified, but its shape looked like a hook.

The Queen of Blades had obviously realised that something was amiss by now. She dashed left and right in the rhombus crystal, seemingly trying to find a way out, but whenever she collided into the crystal barrier, she would be bounced back. All the Zerg outside also madly crashed into the crystal, but to no avail.

Everyone there could only watch on as the events unfolded. The Keystone shard in the holy trial ground slowly drifted closer to the shard that was shaped like a hook and merged together with it. It was then that everyone saw, when these two objects combined, they took on the shape of a half broken scythe which looked shockingly similar to the shadow scythe used by the Dark Templars!

What's more, after the two shard pieces combined, the terrifying power contained in them grew stronger at an alarming rate despite still being an incomplete, broken weapon!

By themselves, the two shard pieces, despite possessing some threat, were at most like two pieces of uranium-235 that were placed separately; it would take them half a month to a year to kill someone with radiation. But when the shards merged, they were like two pieces of uranium-235 that were put together, creating a supercritical and efficient explosion born from terrifying nuclear fission chain reactions!

The combined Keystone shards swung down like a real scythe.The combined Keystone did not move very fast, but as if it had resonated with the heaven and the earth, it was impossible to hide or escape from. It was just like death itself; no matter how or where you flee, you could not escape from that fate!

A flash of light between heaven and earth! The body of the Queen of Blades instantly turned transparent, making her bones clearly visible. This attack seemed to have caused great damage directly to her every cell, her every gene fragment! Her body, which had already stabilised before this, was once again unravelling with a violent howl from the deepest level of her cells!

The giant rhombus crystal too shattered following the slash. The Queen of Blades fell down from the air like a meteor with her eyes tightly closed. Numerous Zerg instantly swarmed around their Queen and protected her with their bodies.

After the rhombus crystal shattered, it poured down from the sky like glittering dewdrops, making for a tragic and desolate scene. Then...there was a terrifying explosion!

It was almost impossible to describe the horror of the explosion with words. The only thing Sheyan could remember was that when the explosion happened, the huge Monster of Calamity that must have weighed more than a thousand tons could put up no resistance at all to the shock wave. The war machine was blown away like a feather in the wind!

Its emergency protection system was instantly triggered. Because Monster of Calamity was built with highly-advanced Protoss technology, a large number of anti-gravity devices had been incorporated into it. The anti-gravity devices were quickly activated to protect all the crew on the war machine. Unfortunately, the external impact was simply too strong. Before Sheyan fell unconscious, he heard a synthetic voice coming from the control system.

"If the intensity of the turbulence outside remains at the current level for ten more seconds, the war machine will automatically disintegrate. All energy supply modules will be switched to survival mode to prioritise the safety of the crew."

The explosive power of the crystal was so tremendous that it formed a powerful chain reaction. Sheyan happened to be facing the shock wave, so although there was a buffer time of ten seconds, he had no time to run to the back. He could only run towards the nearest anti gravity escape capsule and smash the emergency button!

Next, an emergency seat as spacious as a CEO's chair was pushed towards Sheyan's butt. As soon as he sat down on it, the seat quickly slid along a track. During this period, seat belts were continuously strapped onto him, binding him firmly to the seat.

Then, Sheyan's vision suddenly darkened. He had suddenly been encased in a large airbag. After that, several more airbags followed. They were instantly pumped full of air. Sheyan was spun around so much that he could not even tell which side was up anymore. He was sent into an escape capsule and ejected out at high speed.

The escape capsule inevitably still had to suffer the wrath of the explosion aftermath. Although Sheyan had over 100 points of Physique, it did nothing to help him at all. Even if he had 200 or even 1000, it would not make much of a difference; he would still turn into ashes if he was situated at the core zone of the explosion. Even though he was at the outer edge, he was still knocked unconscious by the violent shock!

Fortunately, Sheyan's blackout was pretty mild. Although his consciousness was a little fuzzy, he still had a vague sense of the outside world. He was like someone who had fallen into a light slumber; if the door was suddenly opened, the person would still sense it.

Therefore, when Sheyan sensed that the escape capsule had stopped moving, he started to struggle violently, trying to restore the control of the body to the brain that had lost its sense of balance. His efforts soon paid off. First, it was his index finger, then his thumb... and the bones and joints all over his body started to recover like snakes waking up from hibernation. After that, Sheyan regained control over his whole body.

The first thing Sheyan recovered was his sense of touch. He felt a hot and humid patch on his forehead, which gradually cooled. That should be a sign of a head injury which was continuously bleeding. After that, he felt the searing pain of several burn wounds on his body, as if he had been baked in fire.

Finally, he started to recover his vision. It turned from a blur to some vague shadows to double silhouettes, then gradually became clear. He found himself in a desolate looking valley, filled with boulders and broken rocks.

The escape capsule that protected Sheyan was now in a terrible state, especially its exterior. It was like an orange that had been roasted in a fire; a light flick on its surface would make a large amount of black ash drop off. It was also in tatters, as if it had been gnawed by numerous beasts with sharp fangs. If it were not for the metallic plate inside which was now exposed, the escape capsule would have turned out even worse.

The cover of the escape capsule was long gone, as if it had been hacked away, so Sheyan was directly exposed to the cold air. There was a large pool of dried blood on his head, which had turned blackish. This was obviously not ideal. The sharp odour of blood could easily attract over creatures that had a sensitive sense of smell.

The good news was that the built-in computer of the escape capsule was still functioning, and the emergency supply package inside was quite sufficient. Sheyan checked the records and found that Pontin's manufacturing skills were indeed pretty amazing. According to the records, the Monster of Calamity had performed a total of six ejections before it disintegrated, all of which were successful. Sheyan's escape capsule was the only one ejected in the direction of the shock wave, so the rest must be in a much better condition than him. That was a relief.

Sheyan also saw a video recording. After the Queen of Blades, having been cut by the scythe, descended from the air like a fallen leaf, countless Zerg had recklessly leaped up to use their bodies as shields for her majesty. In front of the terrible explosion, even the most powerful Ultralisk was gobbled up by the light and annihilated in an instant... but the Zerg still rushed to protect their queen without any hesitation!

"Danger, my foot. Didn't you see how powerful the explosion was? Even we, who were over seven kilometers away, haven't recovered from it yet. What can a tiny escape capsule do?"

"But Grey, Artemis asked us to check out if there's anything unusual in the west. If she finds out that we came here to make some side earnings, the consequences will be very serious."

"If you don't say it and I don't say it, how would she know? I'm telling you Gavin, don't lose your mind over her big tits and big ass. Sure, she's a slut, but do you really think you've got a chance? The men who wish to f*ck her are lining up for miles. Look at Roonie, the fool. Can you sacrifice more than he did? And yet, how did he end up? That's why, Gavin, we must always look for our own profit first and foremost. What's the use of making that slut happy?"

As the two men were conversing, a rock beside them suddenly exploded. A muscular figure broke through the cover and dashed out like a tiger charging down the mountain. The shattered rocks blasted Gavin's face, making him scream in pain. It was Sheyan!

But Grey instantly responded with a move no one could have expected. The moment Sheyan exerted force with his hands, he instantly knew something was wrong. The thing he grabbed did not feel like a human hand at all, but something like an inflated balloon. As Sheyan's grip tightened, the thing he grabbed exploded with a bang. Air and dust splashed wildly, and a leaf slowly drifted down. The real Grey was already more than ten meters away.

The short but stocky man had a long box in his hand. He reached inside and took out a grey whip. Upon a closer look, the whip appeared to be made of chained human bones. It exuded eeriness.

Grey did not deign to talk any trash. When he swung the whip, there was a loud bang, and Sheyan's eyes suddenly flashed with surprise. The whip did not look very impressive, but when it was swung just now, bluish-white electricity had streaked through the air, and there were crying sounds!

When Sheyan charged forward again, Grey naturally lashed at him with the whip. Sheyan protected himself with the glove that G-spot had transformed into and continued running forward. The whip wound around his arm once.

Sheyan suddenly shivered. He felt as if there was a black hole at the spot where the whip coiled around his arm, which was sucking all the heat out of his body. What's more, within seconds after contact, a thick layer of ice which smelled terrible had formed on his arm.

Gavin then pulled out a rocket launcher and fired it at Sheyan! Sheyan was wary of this kind of weapon that had slow firing speed but high destructive power. Before having more information about the enemy, he dared not take the shot head on.

With no other choice, he could only roll away in the hope of avoiding the brunt of the attack, but when he turned back to look, he saw that the rocket had also made a turn and was still flying towards him! In addition, Grey had pulled another whip out of nowhere and it was extending towards Sheyan with killing intent that was raging like a turbulent river! It casually whipped Sheyan on the back. The Marine armour Sheyan was wearing instantly split apart like a butterfly, the fragments flying everywhere!

The rocket exploded violently with a loud bang. Sheyan, who was burned black, suddenly burst out of the smoke, G-spot on his left hand shapeshifting into Evil Sword Apophis. Grey lashed out at him again. Sheyan blocked the whip with Apophis, but the whip was unfortunately flexible, so even though it was blocked, the tip still turned and struck Sheyan. It traced a crimson trail on Sheyan's face and took away a strip of his flesh!

Furthermore, it appeared that the whip had the ability to suck blood. Not even a drop of blood had flowed out of the wound, while the flesh around the wound became rotten like the flesh of a corpse. The rot was quickly spreading. If the rotten flesh was not cut away in time, the infection would likely become more serious.

Sheyan endured a few more of their attacks. He realised that in terms of trickery, weirdness, and nimbleness, he was no match for the opponents at all! On the contrary, he had taken quite a beating. He immediately took a deep breath, and his feet pierced into the soil like they were taking root!

The horrifying illusion of the 'Stairway of the Sun' appeared, waving its tendrils about like they were whips. Countless viruses, invisible to the naked eye, spread happily in the air. A mocking look entered Sheyan's eyes. He squeezed a few words out from between his teeth.

But even more terrifying was that they did not even know what was happening, what was causing the severe coughs and pain! There was nothing in the battle log, but the damage and pain were very real. They could clearly feel their health and stamina seeping out of them, like hot water which seeped through the cracks in a cold glass little by little.

A moment earlier, Grey would have had at least seven ways to deal with this punch, but right now, he could not even perform one of them. The only thing he could do was to harden his muscles and endure the hit!

After taking Sheyan's punch, the entire left side of Grey's face immediately swelled up, and several broken teeth flew out of his mouth. His whole body flipped back like he was performing a somersault before he hit the ground heavily. Blood overflowed out of his mouth and seeped into the thirsty soil, which greedily absorbed the viscous liquid rich with nutrients. A large dark brown patch spread beneath him.

Gavin was originally charging forward for a well-calculated pincer attack with Grey, but the SARS virus had already started multiplying rapidly in his body. After an involuntary sneeze, the attack was no longer anywhere close to being "well-calculated". He looked as if he was sending his face right towards Sheyan's fist.

Gavin immediately followed in Grey's footsteps. His hair was caught by Sheyan, and his abdomen took Sheyan's knee. He took a few unsteady steps back in pain. He turned out to be quite weak in close combat. Next, Sheyan grabbed his throat with one hand, lifted him up, and slammed him into a rock protruding from the ground WWE style! Gavin instantly let out a wail of agony. He grabbed his waist and rolled around on the ground in pain.

Grey, of course, could not just sit back and watch his ally being mercilessly abused like this. He charged at Sheyan, ignoring his pain, and whipped Sheyan's back again. The attack this time was vicious; it carved away a strip of flesh and skin at least a metre long from Sheyan's back. The wound was deadly pale, and it was emitting smoke that smelled horrible!

But before Grey could retract the whip, it was already grabbed by Sheyan. Then, Sheyan charged at him like a raging bull. The blood-red longsword in his hand pierced through Grey's heart as quick as lightning!

The usefulness of SARS was evident in times like this. If Sheyan were to meet someone with extremely skillful combat techniques who could put him in a situation where he could only defend passively without any chance to fight back, the powerful SARS would level the playing field.

After that, the enemy may still be able to attack Sheyan, but they would also have to face Sheyan's ferocious counterattack afterwards, which means both sides had to trade blows. However, in terms of defence and survivability, Sheyan was a freak even among MTs. In terms of offence, Sheyan had a legendary equipment like G-spot that could transform into various bizarre weapons at a moment's notice! The outcome of trading blows with Sheyan was obvious!

Sheyan yanked Apophis out, but blood did not splash everywhere as he had imagined. The sword had only left a seemingly insignificant wound on Grey's body. Apophis, however, was glowing such a bright crimson that it looked as though the blood of the enemy had been absorbed into the sword.

When Sheyan pulled the sword out, Grey immediately felt as if his spirit and soul were all pouring out of the wound like a hundred rivers flowing back into the sea. He never thought that he could ever feel so weak and helpless!

The feeling was like the weakness when one had not eaten for seven days straight, and like the emptiness when a man had just ejaculated. The feeling of weakness almost made him fall to the ground. Even breathing had become a heavy burden for him.

This was why Evil Sword Apophis was so powerful. The horrible 'Extinction' ability had destroyed the digitalised characteristic at the spot where Grey was wounded. Sheyan kicked Grey on the chin, causing him to flip backwards with a difficult somersault sequence. Grey's jaw bone broke into several pieces, and even the tip of his tongue was accidentally bitten off. Blood gushed through the air.

"AAAARRGGHH!! GO TO HELL!!" Gavin had recovered a little after catching a momentary breath. Witnessing his companion being tortured, he was so furious that fire was almost spitting out of his eyes. In his hands were two Uzi submachine guns that were glowing silver. Gavin aimed at Sheyan and pulled both triggers.

The Uzi submachine guns were only 40 cm long at most, but the tongues of flame which shot out of their muzzles reached the astonishing length of half a metre. The theoretical firing speed of these guns was 1500 rounds per minute, so the shells were being ejected from their rears in a frenzy. The shells actually hurt when they hit the face, and the hot touch carried an intense smell of smoke.

However, Gavin was shocked at that moment, because he saw the man in front of him burying his head low and charging forward while withstanding the hail of bullets from two Uzi submachine guns! Some of the bullets that hit him were bounced away, while some penetrated into his flesh and fell off carrying blood on them. The guy looked like a metallic monster wrapped in human skin!

Sheyan did not do too much after he reached Gavin. A flash of blood-red, and Gavin's left hand flew away. The hand was still holding on tightly to the Uzi submachine gun, and its finger was still pulling the trigger. There was fire all over the place, and the bullets flew in chaos.

The fight was basically settled after that. The two men had very tight lips, but Sheyan believed that he could probably pry something out of them if he was willing to spend the time and effort. However, the last thing Sheyan wanted to do now was to waste time, so without a word, he grabbed their hair and slit their throats one after another like he was butchering chickens!

The two men provided Sheyan with eight achievement points as well as a silver storyline weapon: the Uzi submachine gun, and a pair of ordinary silver storyline boots. It was a pity that the best item did not drop. In order to comfort himself, Sheyan could only tell himself that his luck was being saved up for next time.

Sheyan took a short rest to bandage his wounds. He found that the spots hit by the damn bone whip were obviously healing very slowly, and they were also emitting a rotten smell which should not exist on living humans. Moreover, this strange power was not under the scope of what the 'Stairway of the Sun' could deal with. Sheyan speculated that it should be something akin to cadaveric poison, like those in horror movies. Fortunately, with the backing of his strong Physique, the wounds were still tenaciously healing.

"Less than ten minutes had passed from the moment of explosion to the moment I landed. The fact that you guys managed to rush here in such a short period of time proves one thing – your hiding spot is somewhere high up that took little to no impact from the explosion, so you could monitor every move from that place. "

"I clearly remember that the ancient Protoss city did not have a spot like that at all. In that case, the answer is obvious. You guys were on a flying machine, and it was a flying machine that can turn invisible. In the Starcraft universe, there is a common vehicle that meets this requirement, and that's the Terran's Wraith!"

"Six escape capsules were ejected, so why was I the first one you guys look for? The answer is actually pretty simple. It's because the other five escape capsules were probably ejected in the same direction, so they landed close together. Meanwhile, I was by myself and was hit by the explosion shock wave head on, so my escape capsule naturally became your first target!"

"Hmm, if I were you guys, what would I do next? If the people I sent out don't come back, there are two likely explanations for that. Either they had died in an accident, or they had found something really valuable, so they had no intention of coming back. Since you sent those people to come look for treasures among the scraps, you should be pretty confident that there won't be any accidents. "

"In that case, based on the theory that human nature is evil, you will definitely be more inclined to believe in the second explanation... Therefore, your response should be to send a group of people who are good at tracking and has high mobility to hunt down the traitors... That means dividing your troops. Hey, that's a great chance for me."

After analysing the situation in his mind, Sheyan felt that he had grasped the crux of the matter, so after cleaning up the crime scene a little, he went in the direction Gavin and Grey came from.

After moving for less than two kilometers, Sheyan, thanks to his ultra-high Perceptive Sense and ample preparation work, encountered a group of contestants who were moving forward in a hurry. It appeared that Sheyan's deduction was spot on.

These contestants only had Gavin and Grey in mind. All of them firmly believed that those two had struck it rich and had run away with the treasures they found, so they were naturally anxious to catch up to the traitors. They had no attention to spare to their surroundings at all.

So Sheyan let them pass without stopping them. After walking for about five or six more minutes, he climbed up a high ground to survey the surroundings. By this time, Sheyan was already pretty confident in his deduction.

"The principle behind the Wraith's stealth function isn't very complicated. The Wraith needs to store electrical power so as to continuously supply energy to the light refraction device on it. That's why after being in stealth mode for a certain period of time, the Wraith must deactivate stealth mode to store energy again. Now that the Protoss have achieved complete victory, those people wouldn't dare to fly around in a Wraith that can't turn invisible... "

While he was analysing the situation, Sheyan had climbed to the top of the high terrain. The unique Prussian blue land of the Lost Temple planet unfolded in front of Sheyan. As he surveyed the terrain ahead, his eyes narrowed.

"So, their best option would be to temporarily land the Wraith and camouflage it. Not only can they reduce the chances of the Wraith being found, they can also save some fuel... The Wraith doesn't have the ability to take off and land vertically, and this area is filled with rugged mountainous terrains, so there aren't many places that are suitable for a Wraith to take off and land... That's it, that should be the place! Hmph, Miss Artemis, I bet you didn't expect an uninvited visitor like me!"

There was a huge piece of rock that protruded out of the cliff above the cave entrance, and it cast a large shadow. If one were to look from above, it would look like nothing but a common boulder. Nobody would spare it a second glance.

But if one were to stand on the ground and look at the place with their gaze parallel to the ground, they would see a cave below the rock. The cave had a small entrance but a large belly. The space inside was at least as big as a basketball court, and it was more than 20 metres high.

There was a layer of camouflage film covering the entrance of the cave. The camouflage film was a rather advanced piece of technology. From the outside, the entrance of the cave looked no different from a rock wall. The disguise would only be discovered if someone were to walk close and touch it. However, the person would also receive a strong electric shock, and a warning would be sent to the people inside.

After walking past the camouflage wall, one would immediately see a Wraith on the right side of the cave. It appeared to have been purposefully modified. The Gemini air-to-air missiles and the 25 mm burst lasers in its weapon system had been dismantled, so it had completely lost the ability to attack air and ground units.

In fact, the whole weapon system, ammunition supply system, and ammo storage had been removed. But because of that, a lot of space was opened up in the Wraith. The space had been used to install two "Falcon" engines, which increased the maximum acceleration of the Wraith by 175% and its maximum speed by 271%.

In the open space to the right of the Wraith, a campfire had been lit. The warmth of the campfire had driven out the dry, cold odour inside the cave. Half a sheep was being roasted on the fire, its skin already golden, and it was letting out the mouth watering smell of cooked meat.

There was also an amorous smell in the air inside the cave, which should have been caused by recent sexual activities. A woman with an hourglass figure was sitting beside the fire. Her eyes were curled like half moons, and looked as if they were able to speak. Her cheeks were unnaturally flushed. Two men were either sitting or lying down lazily beside her, their exposed chest revealing their solid muscles.

"They wouldn't dare. Two people can still coordinate their interests successfully, but how do you expect them to split the profit into four? And even if they're really alright with that, I'll just go look for them myself and skin them alive, then fly their skins as kites!" sneered Artemis.

James snorted. "Are you absolutely sure that the thing you made can really block our smell from leaking outside, Gyan? If it doesn't work as you say, we'll all become Zerg food."

Even though anger was gradually creeping into the voices of the two men, Artemis seemed indifferent to the fact. In fact, she liked seeing men fight because of her. However, James' words seemed to have reminded her of something. She took out an object from the box beside her.

The object was a bottle made from a transparent material. It looked rather strange, as if it was made of ice. But more importantly, the content of the bottle was the fake "Keystone" used by the Protoss to lure the Queen of Blades into the trap!

When Gyan saw the bottle, he said proudly, "The crystals I produce contain dimensional powers; nothing will leak out of them. So don't worry, Artemis. Although this thing can't be kept in our personal storage space yet, keeping it in a crystal bottle I made is just as good. There's basically no difference."

Gyan appeared to be in a daze. He looked like even his bones had melted because of the smile. However, he could not help questioning, "But, Artemis, why were you so determined to get your hands on this thing despite knowing the sacrifices it'd cause us? This is obviously just bait to be thrown away after use!"

Artemis rolled her eyes and stared at him mockingly. James quickly interjected, "You fool, what could we have done in that situation without exposing ourselves? It's already pretty lucky that we managed to get our hands on this. Besides, didn't you hear Artemis say that when the Queen of Blades was holding this thing, the look of obsession on her face was definitely real? That, together with the fact that it can't be kept in our personal storage, proves that it must be something extraordinary!"

"I saw it clearly. The Protoss trap may have been powerful, but they couldn't kill the Queen of Blades. In fact, my instinct tells me that they never wanted to kill the Queen of Blades in the first place!"

"The best way to get revenge on a person is not to simply kill them, especially someone like the Queen of Blades who have long ceased to care about death. What she fears most is to be deprived of her own powers. Why do so many millionaires choose to end their own lives when they go bankrupt? It's very simple for them to go on living, but once they've possessed something, they couldn't bear to live with the pain of losing it," said Artemis confidently.

Artemis sighed. "Don't you understand? Since this thing is so tempting to the Queen of Blades, the first thing we have to do is, of course, to find out why. Plus, there's a great chance that the Queen of Blades is still alive... Do I really have to spell it out for you? Of course we must find a way to make a deal with the great Queen! I'm sure she'll be very generous."

The words were quite tyrannical. At the same time, the expressions of Artemis and Gyan changed. They immediately leaped up and entered combat-ready mode. Artemis was dual-wielding daggers. Together with her thin waist and large hips, she truly did seem like a queen bee. Meanwhile, Gyan had magically "made" a shield and was standing in front of her!

Then, the tip of the sword suddenly disappeared. The stone wall behind James shattered and collapsed, having been smashed by a fist! Following that, a ferocious young man with thick black eyebrows appeared in front of them. He held an ordinary-looking blood-red sword in his hand, but when their eyes laid upon the sword, their minds could not help but scream!

The young man was Sheyan. Thanks to his strong Perceptive Sense, he easily saw through the camouflage at the cave entrance. G-spot then transformed into a pair of mining gloves, and Sheyan dug his way in from the side of the cave. He successfully sneaked inside and managed to overhear a string of secrets.

When an ordinary person had their throat pierced by a sharp weapon, it would mean certain death, but to a powerful contestant, it was merely a heavy injury. Even though the digitalised property of the throat was gone, the rest of James' body was still digitalised, and it was tenaciously maintaining James' life.

He twitched and rolled around on the ground. Gurgling noises came from his throat, and blood poured out of it in large amount. However, his eyes were still vicious, and he hatefully hugged Sheyan's feet, trying to forcefully bring him to the ground!

At the same time, Gyan also used his innate ability. An orange glow close to the shade of red suddenly enshrouded the area. The Physique of everyone in range instantly increased by 20.

Gyan's innate ability was not too strong, but it was not bad either. First, it was effective on everyone in range. Second, it could stack with many other related bonuses, and once it did, it would not be limited by distance anymore, only by its duration of one hour. The ability was rather practical.

With 20 points of increase in his Physique, James instantly calmed down. He was now determined to pull Sheyan down to the ground. Both his hands were wrapped around Sheyan's legs tightly, and he had learned some martial arts throwing techniques, so he had all the advantages and was feeling quite confident.

A chill instantly crept into his heart. Sheyan stomped down on his chest, and several of his ribs broke with loud cracks. Sheyan then immediately dashed towards the flirtatious woman named Artemis!

Sheyan firmly believed that a problem like her must be resolved as early as possible, or she would forever be a thorn in Ronnie's heart, a fatal weakness. Since Ronnie was already one of his men, Sheyan would of course prefer him to have as few weaknesses as possible.

Seeing Sheyan charging at her fiercely, Artemis did not seem too alarmed. Her movements actually left multiple afterimages in the air. This was an ability of hers that was both offensive and defensive. If she was hurt, some of the damage would be shared by the afterimages, and when she attacked, the afterimages would also perform the corresponding actions, so the power of the attack would multiply.

Artemis and Gyan had worked together for so long that their cooperation was seamless. One of them specialised in offence while the other in defence. James specialised in crowd control, so the three of them originally formed a perfect golden triangle, but unfortunately, he had been ambushed by Sheyan. He initially still had some strength left, but after being stomped by Sheyan, that last bit of strength seemed to be gone too.

Artemis was a smart, calculative woman. Sheyan had sneaked in quietly and ambushed James with a fierce strike, eliminating him from the fight with just one move, so she naturally thought that Sheyan was an assassin-type.

But what happened next completely overturned her conjecture. James failed to throw Sheyan to the ground because he failed the Strength check. It was no surprise that Sheyan's stomp after that had left James half dead.

Therefore, Artemis immediately labelled Sheyan with a tag of "possessing decent Strength". In addition, she also knew that it took a Perceptive Sense of 50 or more to see through the camouflage at the cave entrance.

So in Artemis' mind, she immediately judged Sheyan's Strength as A, Perceptive Sense as B+, and his Agility seemed to be around B. In addition, Sheyan had shown that he possessed strong close combat ability.

And therefore, based on her wealth of combat experience, and the fact that they still had other party members outside, Artemis decided on the strategy of fighting offence with offence! If they could quickly deal with this guy before their other teammates come back, they would not have to share the spoils with them.

As soon as she said that, a strong ray of light was suddenly emitted from the nearby wall. It shined on another wall, and was then reflected onto another. After multiple reflections, the whole cave was now filled with countless reflected light columns. Sheyan's vision became greatly impaired! No matter how strong his digitalised body was, it was impossible to defy physiological laws and be unaffected by strong light!

While his vision was filled with a fuzzy whiteness, Sheyan suddenly sensed something amiss. He instantly tilted his head, and Artemis cut a long trail of wound on his cheek. Sheyan immediately turned around and counter attacked, yet he hit nothing but air!

Sheyan instantly knew that something was wrong. His feet dug into the rocky ground and took root. The tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' illusion immediately extended in all directions below the ground!

Then, the ferocious SARS virus joyfully spread like the cheers in a carnival, filling up the air in the cave. In that instant, both Artemis and Gyan could smell the scent of a trap. The sharp pain that had assaulted all their nerves was not only sudden, but also filled them with the fear of the unknown. More importantly, none of the things happening to them was showing up on the battle log!

Artemis stared daggers at him, but did not speak. However, her back began to slowly bulge into a fist-sized lump. The lump burst open like a cocoon, and a pair of wings sprang out of it. The wings were originally folded, and when they were stretched out, they became a pair of transparent wings like those possessed by dragonflies and fairies!

Artemis proceeded to launch another attack on Sheyan. Even before this, her movements already carried afterimages, and with the addition of the wings, she now moved as fast as a spirit. Furthermore, Sheyan's vision was currently greatly affected!

Artemis immediately sprinted towards Sheyan with astonishing quickness. Sheyan was never good at dodging to begin with. A gush of blood soon flew out of his chest as he muffled a groan.

In truth, if Sheyan did try and dodge the stab, he actually had a chance of avoiding it, but he did not have much of a dodging instinct. His first reaction was usually to parry the strike, a result of his identity as an MT. The others left their backs to him because they believed in him. If he shrunk back like a turtle every time there was danger, he would expose his teammate's vital parts to the enemy...

But after Artemis' attack was successful, she did not expect the side effect of SARS, 'SARS Asphyxia', to suddenly assault her ('SARS Asphyxia': The SARS virus spreads to the enemy's respiratory tract, causing asphyxiation. The enemy will immediately suffer 100 points of true damage. Besides that, the enemy's movement speed will drop by 50%, and the enemy's hit rate will drop to 0%. These stats will slowly recover to their original values in the next 10 seconds.). With Artemis' speed, Sheyan's counter attack would never have hit her, but after her movement speed was reduced by 50%, Sheyan's sword hacked down right towards her head!

The bone-chilling crimson flash was, of course, the unique signature of Apophis! The sword was characterised by its viciousness; it would hurt its wielder first before hurting the enemy. The sword was still half a metre away from Artemis, but the woman could already sense the vicious chill. Every hair on her body stood upright. She screamed and tried to move away, but her body simply would not respond quickly enough!

Gyan was currently over seven metres away from Artemis. He instantly hurled his shield, which met with the sword that Sheyan, who had his eyes closed, was swinging down!

A crisp clang filled the air. Such a sound was the result when two weapons of incomparable grades collided. The sword G-spot transformed into was a high-tier legendary weapon, while the shield was only silver storyline grade at best. When the shield met with Sheyan's downward chop at full might, sparks flew, and the resulting noise sounded a little off.

The shield throw was a personal skill of Gyan's, which was specifically used to protect an ally in the distance. After throwing the shield out, it would fly back. When Gyan saw the crack left on the surface of the shield, he shouted at Artemis in a hoarse voice, "Be careful! That guy's weapon... might be legendary grade!"

Artemis' mouth was slightly agape. A glint of resentment and greed crept into her eyes. She instantly rolled away and stayed on the ground afterwards. Her ample breasts rose and fell with her breathing, but unfortunately, Sheyan could not see them, so this kind of seduction was of no use to him at all.

© Copyright The Ultimate Evolution - Volume Of Soil - Ongoing 1201 To 1366 Размещен: 03/04/2020, изменен: 03/04/2020. 2373k. Статистика. Стихотворение: Foreign+Translat Other Иллюстрации/приложения: 1 шт. Скачать FB2		Ваша оценка:

The Ultimate Evolution - Volume Of Soil - Ongoing 1201 To 1366 The Ultimate Evolution - Volume Of Soil - Ongoing 1201 To 1366

The Ultimate Evolution - Volume Of Soil - Ongoing 1201 To 1366
The Ultimate Evolution - Volume Of Soil - Ongoing 1201 To 1366