The Ultimate Evolution
/ The Ultimate Evolution Chapter 926.949
The muscular man took a deep breath.
When he inhaled, Sheyan could feel his hair drifting forward. The suction force of his breath was unbelievable!
Strangely, he only inhaled but did not exhale. He inexplicably started chewing on the mouthful of air that he sucked in, as if he sucked in something hard and crunchy instead of intangible air! Sheyan could even hear the crunching noises!
A glint flashed across Sheyan's eyes as he communicated with Aziz through the nightmare imprint:
“What are you waiting for? Are you going to wait till his power reaches its peak?”
Aziz was apparently not used to being questioned. He only replied coldly after a while:
“I have no shooting opportunity. He's in my blind spot. Because I shot at those two people just now, he already narrowed down my possible hiding place. It wouldn't be prudent for me to act now that they're prepared.”
Those who were familiar with Aziz would be shocked if they heard him. He actually explained himself! It could be seen how big a temptation the Golden Side Mission was to him. Any other occasion and he might have already walked away.
Sheyan was about to speak when the burly man breathed again and laughed:
“Ye little bugs, tremble under the might of Lord Shali.”
As he spoke, he slammed his fist into the steel wall next to him!
Strictly speaking, the power of this punch was not that strong. The surrounding passages were all built with hard alloys, so the punch would at most make a dent in the wall. But, an odd thing happen.
The spot hit by Shali's fist emitted a “kakakaka” sound. With the spot as the centre, the surrounding steel wall twisted and twirled as if it was made of paper to wrap around the fist! A simple and savage steel boxing glove was thus formed!
Not only that. The steel alloy surface right on top and below Shali twisted strangely as if there were a pair of invisible hands shaping them. The hard surfaces were then crudely turned into a simple heavy steel armour which was then equipped on Shali.
“This isn't your power, Shali,” said Sheyan as he stood in front of the passage and sensed with his eyes closed:
“The one hidden in the metal, show yourself. I'm guessing you have Magneto's ability to control metal? It's no fun to stay hidden like this. Why don't you show yourself and let me take a good look at you.”
A string of coughing sounds could then be heard. It sounded harsh like the grating of metals. Afterwards, a young man in a suit “walked” out.
The reason the word “walked” was in quotation marks was because the way the young man made his appearance was very peculiar. His feet did not move at all. Instead, the metal under his feet was like a tamed horse, slowly dissolving on the alloy surface while sending him forward. It was clear that in front of this person, metal was but a puppy wagging its tail, eager for the care and food from its master.
Most importantly, he didn't seem to care that he had walked into Aziz's shooting range. Although the man did not seem to have made any movements, the air around him had a strange layer of distortion which looked very unique. It looked as if the air around him had turned into liquid while he was nonchalantly soaked in it. When others gazed upon him, they would find their line of sight forcefully distorted due to refraction.
“I think we have to think about how we should retreat,” said Aziz indifferently:
“This person's name is Salmons. He gained Magneto's ability by way of some chance encounter. In fact, he may have surpassed Magneto thanks to the strong support of his innate ability. He can control metal almost to the point of perfection – and metal happens to be the core ingredient of my bullets.”
Sheyan closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he was staring into the distance. He exclaimed confidently:
“Oh, so there are actually three of you.”
The Blood Sensing could only tell the number of participants in a certain area. There was absolutely no way it could have the precision which Sheyan displayed. Even the expression of the imposing Shali changed slightly when he heard that. He couldn't help exclaiming:
“Since you stand on the front line and dare to come to the Bloody World, you should be a Berserker, right? It's a miracle you're still alive with such a high Perceptive Sense!”
MTs would normally never participate in the Bloody World. Those who came here were all contestants who could pack a punch, escape swiftly, and had a certain level of survival ability. Therefore, Shali's team had made a mistake in judgement from the very beginning.
By their reckoning, Perceptive Sense was important but mainly for Gunners and Summoners. If a melee contestant really had a lot of free attribute points to spare, then they would normally invest in Physique instead. At least it would increase their survivability. For a party, having a Gunner with high Perceptive Sense was enough. Why would they need a Berserker with high Perceptive Sense too?
Little did they know that Sheyan had once again misled them. Sheyan did not rely on his Perceptive Sense to discover the last two opponents at all, but a temporary ability that he obtained after spending 5 achievement points – 'Penetrating Vision'!
Before he started a fight, Sheyan would always try to mislead the enemy in every possible way in order to give himself the greatest advantage. These little details could very well decide the outcome of a battle if they were utilised well! They may or may turn out useful, but Sheyan believed that there was no harm trying.
Sheyan did not answer Shali. Instead, he turned towards the ceiling and beckoned with his finger.
Amidst a harsh friction sound, a guy who appeared slightly stooped jumped down from above. He looked a bit resentful. The sharp steel claw gloves the guy wore on his hands had a lot of sand and soil stuck to them. For safety reasons, there was no ventilation shaft above this passage. Apparently, he intended to dig a tunnel directly towards the top of Sheyan's head!
Based on the way he did things, he seemed to be the kind of guy who was resolute and vicious, as well as having a lot of confidence in his own strength. Sheyan smiled at them and said:
“You want to take me on with just the three of you?”
“Not just you. We plan to take on both of you,” The hunched-back guy called Stend who jumped down a moment ago licked his lips and spat on the ground, then said, “Two idiots with five Bloody Invitation Letters.”
Salmons smiled slightly and said:
“Is that you, Aziz? When was the last time we met? Was it two or three worlds ago? Your bullets sure caused me a lot of trouble back then. But that was when you were together with your leader, the gravity controller. To think that I'll meet you again here….seems like today's not your lucky day.”
Aziz slowly walked out of one of the rooms, showing only half his face. He coldly said:
“I wouldn't be so sure.”
“Oh really?” Salmons smiled, “Do you really believe this guy in front of you is even stronger than the MT and leader of your party? Just stop with the unnecessary struggle and save everyone some precious time.”
Sheyan smiled and said:
“Are you talking about Zeus? That guy's nothing special.”
“Interesting. This is the first time I've heard someone refer to an MT as nothing special,” said Salmons, “Maybe you're also a powerful MT who came to this Bloody World for shits and giggles, eh?”
The others around him laughed mockingly along with his remark. However, Sheyan was very relaxed as he replied:
“Yeah, I am indeed an MT.”
“Oh, I see. So you're an MT who doesn't use a shield,” remarked Stend sarcastically, “MTs like you are a dime a dozen, but only among the newcomers. When the contestants had just entered this f*cking nightmare realm, everyone thinks that they're so tough. I didn't expect to find someone like that in the Bloody World.”
Sheyan ignored him and spoke with Salmons:
“The only advantage Zeus has over me is that he's an Awakener and he has a Domain ability. Although I've only become a Growth Hunter recently, I should have no problem defeating him.”
Salmons suddenly flashed a smile at Sheyan:
“Thank you, this gentleman here whose name I do not know. Thank you for your cooperation. You gave me the time I needed to complete this…..powerful spell!”
When he uttered the last two words, his eyes showed a feverish look. A golden protective barrier fully-enveloped his body. He started to chant loudly. At first, he was merely chanting alone, but towards the end many different voices joint his to form a grand harmony. The deafening voices echoed intimidatingly in the passage!
As he loudly chanted, the surrounding metal walls melted like candles. The metal walls looked as if they were covered with a layer of cloth that flapped in the wind. Behind them, countless hands and feet scrambled chaotically, as if thousands of demons were ready to smash that thin metallic layer to descend upon this world!
Chapter 927: So Easy!A metal fist smashed the dissolving metallic wall, causing molten metal to spray everywhere! The thing inside was seemingly about to climb out! But right at that moment, Sheyan took a deep breath and raised his fist!
Salmons' face immediately contorted into a strange expression. His chanting abruptly halted. He couldn't help but look down towards his right chest with a grimace, then stumbled a few times as he grabbed his right chest.
The facial expression Salmons showed was a mixture of incredulity and extreme pain!
Pneumonia, pneumonia!
At the same time, the strange squirming in the walls slowed down.
Sheyan crouched down and launched a fierce charge with 'Hornrage'!
He crashed into the golden protective barrier on the surface of Salmons' body in the blink of an eye, but was bounced back by half a meter! He didn't manage to damage Salmons even though Salmons was in extreme pain!
This layer of protective barrier was very powerful and also quite famous. It was the dream ability of every mage class, the advanced version of the magic barrier: the 'Glorious Barrier of Protection'! It enabled the caster to be immune to any damage for a certain period of time and had a very high precedence. On the other hand, the caster could not move, could not perform physical attacks, and could not use potions during this period.
Stend and Shali rushed forward in a mixture of shock and rage but a light blue bottle of test tube had already slipped from Sheyan's hand. The shockwave after the explosion swept through the passage and temporarily halted their offense.
A pale green poisonous smoke rapidly spread.
Sheyan's body suddenly emitted a fierce aura. A huge, awe-inspiring, and extremely oppressive illusionary image appeared behind him with the force of demons!!
The 'Stairway of the Sun'!
The floor under Sheyan's feet emitted a cracking sound as it broke into pieces due to the corrosion. The were currently deep in the underground, so Sheyan's feet sank into the soil beneath like they were plant roots and sucked the energy from the earth. The energy was transformed by the 'Stairway of the Sun' on his chest and gathered on his left hand to form a thick, dark miasma. Sheyan directed the miasma towards the 'Glorious Barrier of Protection' on Salmons!
The 'Beast of Corrosion' once again made its appearance!
This time, the 'Beast of Corrosion' took the form of a head of a huge, ferocious beast! The beast head was black and flowed like smoke. With two long fangs protruding out of its mouth, it looked like the head of a sabertooth. The beast head opened its jaw wide and bit the 'Glorious Barrier of Protection'!
It displayed a force so overwhelming that it looked as if it was ready to devour the whole world!
The golden 'Glorious Barrier of Protection' that Salmons was so proud of broke with a crack into seven or so pieces. The fragments burst forth and left deep scratches on the wall. In front of the 'Beast of Corrosion', the barrier was as fragile as an eggshell! It couldn't stop the horrifying force contained in the gigantic beast head in the slightest!
After breaking the shield, the 'Beast of Corrosion' turned even wilder. It chowed down on Salmons whole and even chewed on him a few times. Its throat convulsed greedily as it tried to swallow Salmons alive. When it found that it couldn't, it spat Salmons back out.
This is the power of the 'Beast of Corrosion'!
Greedy, wild, arrogant and unstoppable!
As the 'Beast of Corrosion' disappeared, an emotionless, merciless and monotonous shooting sound reverberated.
To Aziz, shooting an immobile target was as easy as eating and shitting. He could do it since he was three.
If he couldn't even hit his target under such circumstances, he might as well kill himself.
Aziz only shot one single bullet, but the force of the bullet was so strong that it formed a series of explosions as it whizzed through the air! Its horrifying momentum was akin to a fighter jet that sped low against the ground with a speed so fast that it seemed like it could catch up to time itself!
Salmons had yet to recover from the torment of pneumonia and could not use his ability to control metal. The bullet hit Salmons squarely between the eyebrows, causing a huge gush of blood. He was sent into a state of near death!
Salmons' party skill was triggered and he was teleported to a random location within one kilometer. But was Aziz's notoriety for naught? Two seconds later, the subsequent bleeding damage caused by the bullet took the final bit of Salmons' life!
Salmons, a man who could control metal and was regarded as the successor of Magneto, was brought down and killed in three seconds!!!
It instantly made Shali and Stend terrified of Aziz's frightening damage power. However, they overlooked Sheyan's role. They didn't know that this shot of Aziz would not work on contestants 99% of the time because it was rather similar to the insane attack of MCDH, the powerful sniper whom Sheyan encountered before. The shot required pre-judgment and a long charging time. More crucial was the fact that while Aziz was aiming at the enemy, the enemy would receive prompts.
Salmons, of course, received such prompts too. The reason he didn't dodge was because he needed to finish the final parts of his chant and he was too confident in his 'Glorious Barrier of Protection'!
He didn't believe that Aziz's attack could break this powerful defensive skill – and he was right. The only mistake he made was standing too close to Sheyan.
This mistake cost him his life.
Sheyan crossed his arms to protect his head from the furious strikes of Shali and Stend. The blows forced him to stagger back a few steps. Blood flowed down his mouth.
However, his sharp eyes sent shivers down the spines of the two enemies in front of him!
Now that Salmons was dead, the metal armour on Shali naturally became scrap iron and fell to the ground. The two men were about to resume their attack when Sheyan spoke to them with a smirk:
“Do you know why I spent so much time talking crap with Salmons? Do you really think that I wasn't aware of what he was doing?”
The two men in front of him were tightly wound as they had to be constantly on alert to dodge Aziz's terrifying shots. They didn't have any attention to spare to answer Sheyan's words. Cold sweat trickled down their faces.
Sheyan then sneered:
“No matter how slowly the US military react, they will definitely be here within half an hour. Talking with him has won me three minutes for the troops. Besides, Salmons wasn't the only one who was secretly preparing something. Why do you think his spell was suddenly interrupted?”
After hearing what Sheyan said, the two men instantly took a few steps back. This was the problem with a temporary party. They may perform very well when things were going their way, but once things turned south, they could crash in an instant.
As if to prove Sheyan's words, Shali suddenly covered his mouth with an incredulous expression. The sound of intense coughing intermittently escaped through his fingers. Meanwhile, Stend suddenly felt dizzy. He saw double and even started hallucinating!
They ran away immediately. Sheyan started moving as if he was going to give chase but finally decided against it.
A large number of participants were gathered here at the moment so the situation was still extremely dangerous for him. The 'Beast of Corrosion' was also in cooldown. It would not be worth it if he was ambushed after being drawn out of this strategic defensive spot. Furthermore, the two who ran away had not used their Honorary Dosages yet. Killing them would not be easy.
The reason Sheyan and Aziz could kill Salmons before this was because Salmons was overconfident and was eager to finish the battle quickly. Sheyan didn't think that he would come across such a situation a lot. To come across one such chance was already pretty lucky.
Currently, Aziz appeared very calm on the surface, but his heart was actually in turmoil. He couldn't help feeling extremely excited as he stared at the series of notifications that popped up after killing the opponent.
The last time he encountered Salmons with Zeus, they had a really difficult time. Why was that?
Because Aziz's bullets were made of metal. They would be affected once they fly into Salmons' area of control. Although Salmons was not as powerful as Magneto – who could stop the bullets in the air and repulse them back to kill – he still caused a staggering drop in Aziz's accuracy.
Zeus's gravitational field could do two things. One, it reduced the enemy's speed, and two, it increased his allies' speed. Although it showed some effect in that battle, it did not help much. Therefore, the Glory Party suffered a heavy defeat in that team battle.
But…..today's battle completely exceeded Aziz's expectation! If before this, someone were to tell him that he could easily kill Salmons by cooperating with a Growth Hunter, he would just shoot that person in the head. That's what he usually did to people who wasted his time.
But he won.
He. Won. So. Easily.
Chapter 928: Sudden ChangesNo matter how hard it was for Aziz to believe, what happened was a fact. Aziz felt so relaxed because Sheyan's request for him was unbelievably simple – start taking aim and charging his shot when he saw Sheyan's hand gesture, then pull the trigger. That's it.
There was no need for him to run, no need for pre-judgment, no need to confuse opponents, no need to dodge, no need to fire continuously or perform any advanced shooting technique! He just needed to pull the trigger, and…..he silently, indifferently saw the enemy fall.
How was that a fight against Awakeners? It was as easy as target practice!
Although Aziz had never personally experienced the power of Sheyan's disease, his party members had talked about it before. In Aziz's opinion, Sheyan's disease may be strange and powerful, but it was definitely no match for Zeus' gravitational field. He now realised that he was gravely mistaken.
The gravitational field could slow down the speed of enemies within its range but that did not mean the enemies in the field could not dodge or retaliate. Even if they were shot, they could still use potions or other items. However, Sheyan's ability could completely stun the enemies for a few seconds without prior warning.
This strange and powerful ability was undoubtedly very valuable for gunners. It was especially precious for someone like Aziz who needed the right opportunities to launch an attack!
“Are you talking about Zeus? That guy's nothing special.”
“The only advantage Zeus has over me is that he's an Awakener and he has a territory ability. Although I've only become a Growth Hunter recently, I should have no problem defeating him.”
Aziz couldn't help but think back on the words that Sheyan said. At that time, he thought Sheyan merely said them to confuse the enemies, but considering the event that transpired, Sheyan's words were most likely true!
His current strength as a Growth Hunter was actually comparable to Zeus!
The two of them silently guarded the power supply area for a while. After they found no abnormality, Sheyan realised that Aziz had made a request for a “trade”.
When Sheyan accepted the request, he found out that Aziz had listed all the loot from killing Salmons. There were 4 achievement points and he had drawn a silver-grade storyline equipment called 'Mwak's Eye' that looked like a mix between an emerald and an eyeball. It increased magic damage by 50 points, reduced Physique by 6 points, and increased Spirit and Intelligence by 4 points each. It was a pretty good equipment.
Aziz was still so direct:
“Without you, I can't kill Salmons. Without me, you can't kill Salmons. You choose.”
Maybe because the two of them shared the same Golden Side Mission so their realm secretly gave them some privileges and considered the two of them to be in a party. Therefore, the achievement points were still unassigned and could be distributed.
Just like how a lion would never share its food with a hyena, Aziz's action undoubtedly showed that he had finally truly accepted Sheyan as his temporary partner.
Sheyan knew Aziz was in need of achievement points – almost all contestants were – so he gracefully chose 'Mwak's Eye' . This thing would always fetch a high price in the market and could also be used by either Zi or Franklin.
“We can go now,” after waiting for five minutes, Sheyan sighed with satisfaction and said:
“The storm has passed. The army has entered the base to take control of the situation. Unless we want to explain to them the damages here that are beyond their understanding, then staying with other ordinary employees is our best choice.”
Aziz actually did not intend to leave, but when he saw the look of confidence on Sheyan's face, he silently patted his weapon and slowly followed Sheyan out. Sheyan noticed that Aziz would constantly look for hiding spots with every step he took. He seemed to do this out of instinct, like it was something in his DNA.
This habit of Aziz's must seem crazy from ordinary people's point of view, but in the eyes of professionals like Sheyan, Aziz felt like a cheetah silently moving through the night with its sharp fangs dripping with blood.
They took a few turns through the passages according to the signs they saw before. Everywhere they passed was covered in blood, a testament to the fierce battles that took place. They could sometimes see pieces of torn clothes. Sheyan even saw a “Versace” logo on one of those cloth pieces. He could imagine how devastating it had been for the innocent staff.
Although the participants were few, they could summon creatures to help them. More importantly, their destructive power was tens of times, maybe even a hundred times, more devastating than ordinary people!
As they walked, they found that not only were the blood spots on the ground getting more dense, they had begun to point to a certain direction. Sheyan hesitated on whether they should investigate the blood trail. While he was curious, it could lead to unknown dangers. In the end, it was Aziz who said:
“My hunch tells me that we should follow the blood trail.”
Since Aziz said so, Sheyan must of course respect his wish. They followed the blood trail past a few corridors to a place marked “WC”. The strange thing was that the blood trail disappeared on the west side of the lobby opposite the toilet. Everything in the lobby, be it the furnitures, the benches or the decorations., were all smashed and shattered. Those that couldn't be smashed had clear claw marks and bite marks on them!
These scars were probably left by robot dogs or summoned creatures.
The wall on the west side of the lobby actually consisted of three layers. The first layer was just ordinary wallpaper and the second layer was just brick and reinforced concrete, but the third layer, which was the innermost layer, was a seamless alloy steel door!
Even the violent attacking creatures could only leave some scratches on the alloy steel door…..At that moment, a group of American soldiers who were armed to the teeth rushed in and pointed their guns at Sheyan and Aziz. Next, the alloy steel door swayed a little, spewed out some white smoke, and slowly opened to both sides.
After the door opened, Sheyan saw K and Z standing in front of a group.
Both sides remained expressionless.
After a while, both sides forced out a superficial smile as a greeting.
“The MIB is so shady,” Jinkuang jumped up and down in a room, full with indignation, while holding a cup of coffee in his hand – of course, the coffee was free. He said:
“The MIB main base was actually divided into the inner and outer area! They let you and some cannon fodder as well as some cloned robots attract the enemies' firepower outside while the higher-ups hid in the inner area! No wonder their defence collapsed so easily!”
Sheyan lied down on a marching bed. His lips curled into a sneer:
“Fortunately, I never trusted them from the start!”
Thinking of this, Sheyan couldn't help but focus his attention on his personal space. Inside was a bell-sized ornament hanging from a dog collar.The rough craftsmanship of the ornament covered up the brilliance contained inside nicely!
The center of the ornament was actually a condensed galaxy containing millions of stars! He could even see the slight rotation of the spiral arms. It contained a heart-throbbing beauty.
This was the Galaxy!
It represented a very advanced model of energy transmission in the universe! The technology in the Galaxy was so sophisticated that even if humans were to research on it, they would find it impossible to understand.
Sheyan grabbed the Galaxy in his hand and smirked:
“Good thing I didn't show the you all my cards, MIB. No matter how wary you were of me, you'd never imagine that I already have the Galaxy in my hands! If I don't rip you off big time, my name is not Sheyan!”
At this time, someone knocked on his door. The rhythm was dry, monotonous and mechanical. Sheyan walked over and opened the door to reveal a frowning Aziz.
Sheyan was surprised. He knew that Aziz had always been a very calm person. He had a face so expressionless it may as well be the face of a corpse. He rarely showed any emotion like he did now. Something unusual must had happened.
Aziz simply said:
“Take a look.”
Aziz took out an iPad and placed it on the table. He said solemnly:
“This is the information I collected through the Internet in my room. During the last Blood Sensing, a lot of things happened. The situation had turned very tricky! There's a major upheaval!”
Sheyan's heart sank. Something that Aziz would describe as “very tricky” must be a huge problem.
He immediately looked towards the iPad and saw a hastily-recorded video of two figures engaging in a fierce battle. The force from their last blow caused a series of violent explosions. Not only were the cars next to them destroyed, even the pedestrian bridge near them started collapsing!
Sheyan looked at a few more videos and found that they were all similar.
“Oh,” Sheyan hesitated for a while before he said, “Some participants were recorded in action. Is there a problem?”
Chapter 929: The Consequences of Breaking the Rules!“Not at first glance.”
Aziz pressed his hands on the table and stared into the eyes of Sheyan:
“But what if I tell you that this video was uploaded when the last Blood Sensing was still ongoing but the location in the video was 31 West End Avenue, New York? What are your thoughts?”
Sheyan had an ominous premonition. He frowned and brought up a map of New York City on the iPad, then pinpointed the coordinates provided by Aziz. He was instantly shocked:
“What the hell! There were no red dots here during the last Blood Sensing! Could it be…..could it be that besides the dozen or so people who came here initially, more contestants arrived in this world midway through?”
Aziz remarked emotionlessly:
“This is the only logical explanation – and I have an inkling as to why this happened.”
Aziz sat down on the sofa at the side and placed his hands on his knees in a standard military sitting posture. He first observed the surrounding to make sure there were no surveillance devices, then said coldly:
“The reason these intruders appeared midway through the Bloody World mission was because our Noah Realm C broke the rules of this world by contacting us and issuing us a Golden Side Mission! Since the rules have been broken, the other realms naturally won't take things lying down. They'll definitely do everything in their power to maximise their own benefits! And that is how the intruders came to be.”
Sheyan said with his brows knitted:
“If these intruders can see us in the Blood Sensing but we can't see them, then it's a huge problem for us! We're completely at a disadvantage! More importantly, what if the other realms endlessly pour contestants into this world?”
Aziz shook his head and said:
“That's not very possible. There should be a limit to what the realms can do. When the Noah realm broke the rules, it had to do so within a certain extent. For example, the normal Bloody World is like a bus moving steadily at full capacity. The action of our realm contacting us is akin to calling the bus driver to chat, while what the rest of the realms are doing is akin to stopping the bus and asking the driver to overload the bus. There must be a limit to how much they can break the rules.”
“Endlessly pouring participants into this word will be like overloading the bus until it bursts. If our realm keeps contacting us, it will be akin to chatting endlessly with the driver, which will greatly increase the risk of a collision. That's why the thing that you're worried about isn't feasible. My main concern is…..”
Sheyan solemnly said:
“Tell me.”
Aziz replied:
“If we assume that the overload quota for each realm is four participants, sending one contestant that had a strength equivalent to four normal participants should be within the extent that the realms can bend the rules too….. If that happens, the person will become our greatest enemy!”
Sheyan was startled:
“There's no way that can happen, right?”
Aziz snorted. His snort sounded like a gun being cocked.
“You should understand the difficulty of a Golden Side Mission as well. Not only do I think it's possible, I think it's very probable!”
Sheyan frowned as he took a sip of water, then said:
“Let's leave this matter aside first. I have three Bloody Invitations Letters and you now have three too. We only need one more to complete the Golden Side Mission!”
Aziz nodded, his eyes flashing with a murderous intent:
“You're right.”
Sheyan bent his fingers and knocked on the table as he said:
“I originally had some doubts but now I finally understand why only three people attacked us when almost every participant had rushed towards us when the Blood Sensing started. The only explanation that I could think of before this is that the rest of the participants were reluctant to face the official army. But now, it seems like they might've been ambushed by the intruders!”
Aziz's eyes lit up and he was about to say something but a wall next to him suddenly turned transparent. K then appeared with a serious expression on his face:
“We've found the whereabouts of Jones the Bug King. It's time to leave! We must win this battle! If we can catch him, we can continue our negotiation with the Arquillians. If we can read his memory and find the Galaxy, the crisis of the Earth will be lifted.”
Sheyan instead yawned lazily and said:
“I'm really sorry, K, but I was injured when I was guarding the backup power supply. I don't think I can join this fight. The core members of the inner MIB area are all talented, so I don't think you need me, right?”
The rational part of Sheyan's mind could understand K's action from before. If it was him, he wouldn't bring strangers into the core inner area so easily either. However, from an emotional standpoint, Sheyan wasn't so forgiving. Even though he'd secretly hid the Galaxy, he thought that he'd also provided quite a bit of help to K. In fact, he'd saved K's life. And K had repaid him by leaving him in the outer area without a word.
To be honest, if K had told Sheyan straight that he had to enter the inner area because he's an Earthling and so he's fragile, and had asked Sheyan to stay in the outer area to attract the enemies' firepower, Sheyan might actually feel better. But K chose to play tricks behind his back. Of course Sheyan was angry.
Of course, displaying his displeasure was merely a negotiation tactic. Sheyan knew that K undoubtedly needed the help Aziz and himself. No matter how strong his people were and how advanced the technology they possessed, they were still limited by their fragile physique. When the real fight started, they would either achieve overwhelming victory or suffer heavy casualties!
For the MIB, the fall of any senior agent was a disaster, the same way the Air Force would rather lose two expensive fighter jets than an outstanding veteran pilot.
If Sheyan and Aziz joined the fight, K was positive that the the casualty rate would drop by at least 70%!
This was a weakness that Sheyan could use against K in the negotiation. With Sheyan playing hardball and Aziz acting as a softener, K finally succumbed and reached an agreement with them. If they could kill Jones the Bug King, the MIB would provide a blueprint detailing the method to transform firearms into high-energy weapons!
The sly old fox K was quite insincere in the negotiation, but he did not expect Sheyan and Aziz to be so hard to crack. Plus, time was of the essence. Sheyan and Aziz only agreed after they obtained enough benefits. They then took off in the military vehicle provided.
Sheyan and Aziz hid among the MIB agents. Their appearances had been altered. Without the Blood Sensing, it would be difficult for others to spot them.
Such a large operation by the MIB inevitably attracted the attention of many participants. However, the intruders had caused the whole Bloody World situation to turn very chaotic. In addition, it was obvious that Sheyan and Aziz were in an alliance. No one would confront the two of them by themselves. That would just be courting death! As a result, the journey went smoothly.
The bad news was that when Aziz obtained his third Bloody Invitation Letter, four of the spots in New York City where they could return to the nightmare realm were closed down. The two remaining transfer points were very conspicuously marked with a bright crimson glow. Of course, only contestants could see them.
More importantly, the process of transferring back to the nightmare realm had been prolonged to five minutes. During the process, the one being transferred could not perform any action. If the process was interrupted, they will have to wait for an hour before they can transfer again.
These negative factors probably resulted from the Golden Side Mission. There was nothing Sheyan and Aziz could do about it. Therefore, some participants who intended to act would just pay attention to those two transfer points. Even when Blood Sensing was not in effect, they could prevent Sheyan and Aziz from sneaking away.
Sheyan found that the bullet-proof vests in the armored personnel carrier were actually equipable. They increased defence by 33% but they could not be brought out of this world and their durability would drastically reduce after taking three attacks. Even so, Sheyan and Aziz still chose to wear them.
During the journey, the LCD monitor in the armored personnel carrier was turned on. K began to explain the main points of this battle to the participating MIB members.
Sheyan and Aziz were both very familiar with Jones the Bug King so they already knew most of the information. From K's explanation, they found out that after Jones had escaped, he did not return to the underground sewer but had snuck into a large farm in the suburb instead. He started to make use of his terrifying reproduction ability to mass produce offsprings. The numerous livestocks in the farm became their food.
Jones kept his operation very low-key this time. He chose to attack a farm which was not so easy to be discovered. In addition, most of the MIB's search effort was focused on the underground sewers. These resulted in Jones developing his power to a considerable scale before he was found. If their operation failed, almost half of New York may be affected. By that time, it would be impossible to cover up the truth about the aliens, which meant that the MIB would lose its reason to exist.
Nearly one kilometer from the farm, cracking sounds could be heard as the wheels of the vehicle rolled over the road. Disgusting cockroach-like bugs had covered the whole road due to over-breeding!
Chapter 930: Arduous Battle(TL: This is bonus chapter #4 for October. Enjoy! And thanks for the Patreon support!)
The bugs that the Bug King bred seemed to pose little threat to humans. It was hard for their mouths to break through tough leather shoes, and they had no sharp stingers to pierce through human skin. The two pairs of wings behind their back were merely decoration. Although they were poisonous, their venom was not strong.
The only decent thing about them was that their movement was quite agile – but only relative to their size. Even a child would have no problem stepping on them.
But they had two advantages which ensured that they live a very happy life on this planet called Earth.
The first was their reproduction rate. Their life cycle – from an egg, to hatching, to sexual maturity, to laying other eggs – only took twelve hours. In addition, each time they laid eggs, the eggs would number over a hundred. They were all hermaphroditic too.
The second advantage was the fact that they would eat anything. These bugs brought un-fussiness in diet to the extreme. They would happily consume any organic matter!
Their reproductive power ensured their frightening number. Coupled with their excellent appetite, anywhere they passed would turn into barren land! They would eat the trees. They would eat the grass. They would eat the insects. They would swarm and devour the cattles and sheeps. Even the worms and ants in the underground could not escape from them!
However, the MIB appeared to have prepared a countermeasure against them. Three agricultural-use helicopters flew into the area. They first sprayed pesticides around the perimeter to form a barricade, then began to spray pesticides that specifically targeted the Bugs. It seemed that this wasn't the first time the Bugs had tried to infiltrate Earth. The MIB was very experienced in dealing with them.
The speed at which the pesticides showed their effect was surprisingly quick. The pesticides did not directly kill the bugs but instead turned them berserk so that they would jump and kill each other. They would leap so high that some of them reached a meter from the ground. The MIB seemed to be thinking long-term and were trying to avoid aftermath pollution as much as possible.
Suddenly, a black shadow flew out of the barn!
The shadow was so fast that it seemed to move beyond the limit of speed. It made a shrill screeching sound as it tore through the air and tangled around the landing gear of one of the agricultural helicopters! It was only now that they saw that the black shadow was actually something that looked like the tail of a scorpion. It was black and oily. Flowing liquid was visible within it. It obviously contained a strong hydraulic force.
The agricultural helicopter pilot knew that the situation was dire so he revved the throttle to the limit in an attempt to break free. The helicopter's engine roared furiously as black smoke spewed crazily out of the exhaust, but to no avail.
The tail burst forth with a great force and pulled the agricultural helicopter back by more than 30 meters. The rotors of the helicopter collided with the outer edge of the barn and shattered. What followed was a deafening explosion.
An MIB agent had rushed too far ahead and had rather unfortunately incurred the miniscule probability of getting hit by a shattered rotor. He was flung about seven meters back and was nailed to a tree. His head was completely wrecked!
The other two agricultural helicopters increased their altitude without hesitation; they did not want to be the next target. Next, the helicopter doors opened to show the MIB agents carrying rocket launchers. The projectiles they fired into the barn were similar to smoke grenades. Instead of exploding, they kept producing a lot of white smoke.
The Bugs obviously didn't find the white smoke comfortable so the smoke grenades that fell into the barn were thrown out one by one. However,the MIB agents patiently and persistently continue to launch them. They finally drowned the barn in a sea of white smoke.
“Prepared for battle. The enemy can at most endure our newly-concocted gas for three minutes before he rushes out,” said K with a serious expression.
Sheyan couldn't help himself and remarked:
“If he doesn't escape through the underground sewer, that is.”
K said expressionlessly:
“The sewer system of the barn is extremely simple. Two packs of plastic explosives were enough to block it.”
The sly old fox K was right. Jones only lasted for less than two minutes before he fiercely rushed out. He seemed to have changed into another form, looking like the creature from the movie “Alien”. His exterior was shiny and it was more compact than before. He looked even more intimidating than before.
The MIB agents who were waiting for him immediately pulled the trigger. However, the target did not burst into pieces as they expected.
When the shots from the energy weapon hit the thick outer shell of Jones, they only left a little bit of scorch marks. At least 90% of the force was reflected away, causing a series of explosions around Jones.
K's heart sank. He did not expect the energy weapons he was so confident in to be ineffective!
With a wave of his hands, twelve strong MIB agents, each towering over two meters in height, rushed up while holding riot shields. However, compared to the force of the high-tech weapons, human physique was so much weaker! The MIB anti-riot squad fell down like bowling pins amidst Jones' ferocious roar.
At this time, the lower part of Jones's body got harder, bigger, and longer!(ED: Hehe. Sorry couldn't help it.) His final form was like a large tentacle with a huge hollow and flexible cup shaped like a lotus head at its end. The tentacle drew a projectile arc in the air and snapped onto the head of an MIB agent!
The agent struggled madly. His distress, fear and helplessness were evident from the screams which intermittently escaped.
The cup squirmed rapidly to swallow the MIB agent whole. The agent was flung around a few times and then thrown out. He had turned into a large brownish red cocoon. No one knew what would hatch from it.
Jones suddenly rushed straight towards K like a tank, brushing aside eight people along the way! K's expression turned dark. He brandished his weapon and violently launched a string of shots. Unfortunately, almost all the energy were reflected. The explosions from the reflected energy shots almost shot down one of the agricultural helicopters in the air!
Jones smirked and said:
“Stop resisting and come here, K. Come into my body and be my child. I'll take good care of you.”
But at this time, Sheyan leapt and slashed at Jones's lower body. Jones was angered and immediately swept a claw at Sheyan horizontally from left to right.
Jones's giant claw actually had three toes and had a horrible purplish-black glow on it. Who knows how many lives it had harvested.
Jones' giant claw whistled towards Sheyan, attacking his upper, middle and lower body at the same time! Sheyan used his foot to pick up a scattered riot shield to protect himself and braced for impact with a shout! Jones' claw slammed into the thick riot shield with a bang, leaving three deep dents in it! Every dent was surrounded by cracks. The shield looked like it would completely shatter under a slight touch.
Even with the protection of the riot shield, Sheyan did not escape unscathed. The impact from the claw hit him and flung his whole body back, making him bleed profusely!
The biggest difference between contestants and ordinary person were evident then. Sheyan gasped a few times, grabbed two riot shields and threw himself at Jones again!
If one riot shield was not enough, what about two?
This time, Jones' claw attack was finally resisted by Sheyan.
However, at that moment, the giant cocoon from before started cracking.
A savage Bugman that seemed to have been stripped of its outer skin appeared from the cocoon. It uttered a string of unintelligible sounds. Its figure was as imposing as a bear, towering at over three meters tall. It was covered in black hair and also a body armour formed from solidified body fluids. Strong muscles swelled in its body.
The Bugman looked around and charged over. It immediately raised its claw to launch an attack.
However, an emotionless shot severed its gigantic arm!
A dark brown body fluid dripped from the wound. The severed arm flew in the air and landed in front of an MIB agent. He saw that the arm had large bones and had black, twisted fingers with sharp long nails. It looked very sinister.
The MIB agent was about to pick the severed arm up but the muscles of the arm suddenly twitched. The arm jumped up and grabbed the throat of the MIB agent tightly. The agent's face turned purple from suffocation as he frantically tried to pull the arm free from his neck. His scream was suffocated inside his throat.
Many people rushed over to help but the arm showed no sign of loosening, as if it was welded to his neck.
At the moment, Sheyan was also in a crisis. Jones the Bug King had not forgotten about him. A heavy blow from Jones once again destroyed Sheyan's shield and flung him away. Jones' elusive tail tore away a large piece of flesh from his shoulder in the process. Blood gushed out from the wound like a fountain!
Fortunately, Sheyan managed to dodge Jones' follow-up attack by rolling on the ground. The strike slammed into the earth, forming a pit half a meter deep and caused sand and stones to fly everywhere. Sheyan took the opportunity to take a breather and shouted:
“Try using other weapons!”
Chapter 931: Gun-wielding BugmenSheyan knew very well that there was no such thing as an impregnable defence. Since Jones the Bug King had evolved into a form that rendered him almost immune to energy weapons, it was almost impossible for him to be immune to firearms too, considering that in essence, firearms caused physical damage. Otherwise, this guy would be invincible.
Sheyan's words were a timely reminder for K. It's not that Sheyan was smarter than K, it's just that MIB agents had always relied on energy weapons far more often than firearms, so this was a blind spot in their thought process.
Jones was furious at this moment. He lifted his claw to attack Sheyan again, forcing Sheyan to escape with a roll. However, Jones apparently had been observing Sheyan closely. He already had a certain understanding of Sheyan's dodging habits.
Jones' right foot struck at Sheyan from an impossible angle. After Sheyan was promoted to a Growth Hunter, he had greatly improved in all aspects. Facing this attack, he could still bounce up from the ground and once again narrowly avoided the danger.
Unfortunately, Jones had identified Sheyan as his primary target. While Sheyan was still in the air, Jones' thick scorpion tail wrapped around a huge block of building wreckage which weighed around five hundred kilograms and threw it at Sheyan.
Sheyan saw the block flying towards him at an unbelievable speed from the corner of his eyes. The block contained such a terrifying force that the air turbulence it caused almost made Sheyan suffocate! He cursed in his heart but he couldn't find any way to dodge. He could only shield his body with his arms while bracing for the inevitable impact.
The collision caused severe pain in the front part of his body and sent him crashing into the wall of a barn behind him. The wall instantly shook and collapsed. The inside of the barn was thus revealed. It turned out that the whole barn was filled with disgusting-looking bugs. When Sheyan fell to the ground, the bugs completely drowned him like a brown tide!
Luckily for Sheyan, it was a sunny day so he was protected by 'Corrosynthesis' which surrounded his body. All the bugs which came into contact with his body were burnt. They died in droves.
Sheyan knew there was no time for rest so he pressed his hands to the ground to support himself in an attempt to get back up. His palms instantly crushed down on a large number of bugs which burst in an explosion of disgusting bodily fluids. The fluids smelled so foul that Sheyan almost vomited. Not only that, it also caused his hands to slip!
The slight delay was enough for Jones. He slightly crouched and then violently exerted his strength through his feet. The ground beneath his feet exploded as he leapt more than ten meters into the air. He curled into a ball with eight sharp exoskeleton edges protruding from his body. He rotated at high speed and crashed down on Sheyan!
Jones rotated with such force that he made a low ringing sound as the edges tore through the air. One would find their internal organs shaking as if they were resonating with the sound Jones' rotation made. There was no doubt that this move was meant to terminate Sheyan with extreme prejudice!
However, the sound of a gunshot rang out once again!
No one knew where the shot had originated from, but all the storyline characters somehow had a strange impression that the shot had the taste of blood.
Why did they have such a strange impression? That's because the reverberation of the gunshot was so strong that it crept into their noses through their breaths and made their noses bleed. The blood flowed into their mouths. Thus, the shot naturally felt like it carried the taste of blood!
When the shot sounded, the elliptical gigantic exoskeleton wheel that was Jones immediately exploded, pushing him hard to the side for about two meters. He brushed past Sheyan and slammed into the ground. The violent rotation did not stop. He stirred up hundreds of tons of soil, which flew a few hundred meters in the air before it rained down like a storm.
Such a powerful blow.
Such a powerful Aziz!
Because all the storyline characters had relatively weak physique, the huge tremor cause by Jones' rotation made all of them fall to the ground like they were experiencing an earthquake. But that wasn't the end of it. Even on the ground, the continuous tremor made them shake involuntarily like beans in a sieve. It was unbelievably uncomfortable.
Sheyan reacted quickly. He immediately rolled on the ground and scrambled away from Jones without a care for how pathetic he looked doing it. Jones didn't seem like he could voluntarily end his attack. He saw Sheyan running away but he couldn't do anything before the force of his rotation was exhausted. He could only scream angrily.
The terrifying attack shown by Jones had strengthened the MIB's resolve to exterminate him. When the tremor ended, they immediately aimed at him and opened fire. This time, they were joined by the ground troops from the American Army who escorted them here.
The bullets from this round of firing made a large amount of densely-packed dents appear in Jones' seemingly smooth and hard brown carapace. Jones wailed in anger and agony. A bullet from a rifle actually broke through its carapace and bright green liquid spurted from the wound. Although the wounds on his body closed up in an instant, at least the guns did much better than the energy weapons.
This discovery immediately lifted their spirit. Not many people could use the MIB's energy weapons, but all of them could use firearms! They were all elites from the military after all!
The shooting caused Jones' body to shrink at an alarming rate. In the end, he shrank to a size of about one-and-half-man tall and three-man long. He instantly scurried into the barn.
One of the soldiers tried to give chase but a Bugman with stiff movements suddenly appeared with a gun. It pulled the trigger again and again, causing the gun barrel to flash with several tongues of flame. The bullets penetrated into the chest of the soldier who had rushed forward!
The soldier's expression changed from shock to extreme pain in a fraction of a second. He stumbled a few steps backwards and fell to the ground as he died. The whole process was enough block the sight of several other charging soldiers for a few precious seconds.
Those few seconds was enough for the Bugman to ram its body into the solid wall beside it. The wall crashed down amidst scattering dust and dirt. The Bugman had obtained a shooting angle. While it was falling down, it opened fire again. The soldiers were about to raise their guns to fire but was met with bullets to their heads and throats! They were instantly killed!
The Bugmen cultivated by Jones…..had such outstanding shooting ability!??
That was the question echoing in the heart of everyone who was present. Those who were qualified to join this operation were all elite troops, even the escorts. As such, none of them were cowards. They instantly rush forward. However, they were limited by the terrain so only four or five people can face the Bugman at the same time. Two other Bugmen appeared and opened fire. In the exchange, three people were killed while the head of a Bugman exploded.
Common sense backfired on the humans. When the head of the Bugman exploded, the soldier who fired the shot shot simply assumed that the target had been eliminated. Little did he know that the Bugmen's vitality far exceeded his expectation. While he slackened, his own head was blown off!
The soldier next to him was very quick to react.He rolled, righted himself, half kneeled, and aimed at the Bugman. All four actions were performed in one smooth motion. Then, he calmly pulled the trigger.
But the headless Bugman had raised its muzzle first! Right when the bullet in the soldier's gun was about to leave the barrel, a bullet accurately penetrated into the barrel as well. The two bullets collided in the gun in the soldier's hand and a violent explosion occurred!
The soldier's index finger and thumb was blown off. The broken bone inside showed through the wounds. His ankle was also severed by another shot. The soldier rolled and screamed in agony as he held the wound with his bloody hand.
The headless Bugman sneaked back behind a wall to take cover. Although the soldiers who came here were all elites, it only meant that they had undergone elite training. It did not necessarily mean that they were honed through blood and fire! When they saw their comrade collapsing with a serious injury, two of them immediately rushed over to provide aid.
As a result, a Bugman once again appeared, and with that unique stiff motion, it lifted its gun and ended the life of those two brave but naive soldiers! The Bugmen had obviously left a person heavily wounded in order to bait others to help him!
The face of a captain-ranked officer immediately paled. He showed no hesitation in killing the wounded person on the ground with a shot. Then, he rushed forward with his gun without a word. Although he was shot in the chest, the bullet was blocked by the bullet-proof vest he wore. He stumbled back but managed to severe the wrist of a Bugman with three shots. He then signalled to the helicopters to cover the place with gunshots! A burst of indiscriminate shooting covered the scene, followed by the “smoke grenades” which the Bugs hated.
The captain took advantage of the cover provided by the smoke to lead over a dozen soldiers into a building in the outer area of the farm.
Chapter 932: The Power of EvolutionThis farm was quite large, covering an area of 220 hectares. Both KFC and McDonald's bought poultry from them. From this fact, one could imagine their scale.
Sheyan was currently outside the farm. The building the captain had rushed into seemed to be the reception area and office of the farm, so there was no livestock there. Of course, there were no humans too.
Not long after they rushed inside, one of the soldiers ran out screaming with a horrified expression. He stopped for breath and looked back when he reached the door, but a lightning-fast shadow passed by him and tore away half of his neck!
The carotid artery, esophagus, windpipe and even his vocal cords were torn apart! The soldier twitched and fell on the ground, amidst a rain of flesh and blood. He tried to scream but no sound came out of his throat. It was an eerie sight. The young soldier's wild eyes showed his unwillingness to die, but they gradually dimmed.
The killer was a giant cockroach. It was as big as a hound with a dark brown flat body, a small head that can move around, antennae that were long and thin, and well-developed compound eyes.
Its two deformed forelimbs were bizarrely folded together like a pair of scissors. Their edges were incomparably sharp and had blood dripping down from them. Some remnants of human tissue clung to them as well. They looked a bit like the forelimbs of a praying mantis, but when one looked closely, one would find them to be a lot sharper.
Aziz instantly sent a series of information to Sheyan:
[Jones' Gene Carrier (Child of Jones)]
[Strength: 50]
[Agility: 68]
[Physique: 18]
[Perceptive Sense: 17]
[Charm: 1]
[Intelligence: 1]
[Spirit: 1]
[Basic Melee Proficiency Lvl 8. Specific properties: ???]
[Biological Ability: Many-footed Agility – Because the creature has many legs, movement speed is increased by 100% and dodge rate is increased by 20%. With every leg the creature loses, movement speed is reduced by 25% and dodge rate is reduced by 10%. These reductions will keep stacking until the creature has no legs left.]
[Biological Ability: Tenacious – The creature has amazing vitality. It will have an extra HP recovery rate of 100% in normal times. When it is heavily injured, its extra HP recovery rate will reach a staggering 300%.]
[Special Ability: Mantis Scissors – This disgusting monster is very adept at using his limbs to attack the enemies. Its deformed forelimbs will leave horrible wounds on its enemies. In addition, it has a corresponding ability to go with those terrifying weapons. This ability will allow it to attack the enemy in an instant to inflict 300% damage with 10% bonus in explosive strike rate and 33% chance to cripple the enemy.]
[Special ability: Alien Carapace (Evolved) – This monster has inherited Jones' newly evolved anti-energy outer shell which can reduce the damage of energy weapons by 95%, but at the cost of permanently lowering physical defence by 10 points. It will also have lowered resistance against firearms that do physical damages.]
[Bug Species Special Ability: Heart Nucleus – A creature with heart nucleus gets an additional 2000 HP bonus. The heart nucleus flows through the body along the bloodstream, so the explosive hit rate of the creature is reduced by 10%. Furthermore, if the heart nucleus is attacked, there will be an additional 300% of damage.]
[Description: This is a type of creature that should never appear on Earth. This type of creature will replace humans as the hegemon of Earth very quickly. It will be a big mistake to deal with them with nuclear weapons, the most powerful weapons the humans possess.]
[When a nuclear bomb explodes, all the living creatures in the affected area including humans, animals and even the fishes will disappear. Only the cockroaches will continue living. This is because the amount of radiation that the human body can tolerate is usually 5 rems, and once the total radiation exceeds 800 rems, humans will die. The German cockroach can endure radiation up to 9000-105000 rems, while the American cockroach can endure 967500rems. Even if there is a nuclear explosion, the cockroaches can survive.]
Sheyan's expression became serious:
“This is a huge problem!!”
That's right, anyone could see that this guy is a huge trouble!
As the King of the Bugs, Jones' the biggest disadvantage currently was that although he could breed, the bugs he produced were weaklings! A human being could destroy thousands of his children with bare hands without suffering any serious injury. However, there was now a new species among Jones' children that could pose a major threat to humans!
When Sheyan looked at the mantis-like forelimbs of the Child of Jones, he couldn't help but think of the massacre related to the seven sins. The humans killed in the massacre also seemed to have been cut by this kind of sharp edge. He then shifted his gaze to the corpse of the soldier who was killed by a shot. A chill crept into his heart.
Perhaps other people had yet to realise the meaning behind this, but the fact that the Bugs were so accurate with guns proved that Jones' underlings had undergone evolution. In addition, there was another important point: the guns used by Jones' underlings were all standardised firearms!
They were strong, stable and durable!
Although owning a gun was legal in the United States, it would be difficult for a regular person to provide so many standardised firearms that could hold their own against the United States army. This was especially so for Jones who could not integrate deep into human society since he could only speak simple English and was very stiff when he communicated with humans. It's impossible for him to use a large amount of cash to arm his underlings.
But it's a fact that his underlings were armed, which means that someone had provided them with these powerful weapons! It's difficult for the inhabitants of this world to even communicate with Jones, which means that there were contestants cooperating with Jones!
Just like the way Sheyan and Aziz cooperated with the MIB to gain tremendous power, the other contestants could naturally cooperate with other forces as well. This was actually an inevitable development so there's nothing strange about it. Sheyan was, strictly speaking, not that surprised, especially after a large number of participants had invaded this world. He was just wary of the danger because the opponent might have laid down some traps specifically targeting him. He must tread carefully.
K also felt that the situation was unusually tricky. If they launched a long-range battle, the opposing side had gun-wielding Bugmen who were extremely precise with their shots and were not afraid of death. If they fought at close range in tight spaces, the blade cockroaches would be a nightmare.
More crucially, the smoke bombs launched by helicopters were just insect repellents and would not actually kill the Bugs. To the Bugs, the insect repellents were equivalent to stink bombs rather than a poisonous gas. They would only feel terribly disgusted rather than any pain!
The Bugs that had not evolved and had no consciousness may be repelled by the stench, but for the Children of Jones who already had their own will and thoughts, staying in the smoke was akin to how a member of the special force would lurk in a waste pit to execute a mission. Although it felt terrible, it wasn't fatal either. They could endure it.
The humans organised another attack. This time, Sheyan was selected as well. His role was naturally to rush in front with a riot shield. Sheyan did not reject the role and successfully completed the request in an indisputable way – he only defended without attacking. The special forces members who pathetically retreated together with him in the end could only give him thumbs up. Many of them had received Sheyan's protection. Otherwise, they would have been crippled, or worse.
K's expression turned grim. It's not like he could grab Sheyan's collar in front of everyone and screamed: “Can you fucking ignore those stupid teammates of yours and concentrate on going forward?”
K knew that those words would make the troop collapse.
Sheyan stood indifferently to the side. There were two choices left to K at the moment. The first was to keep sending soldiers in. Once enough people died, the higher-ups would notice the situation here and would take this matter seriously.
The second choice was for K and Z to sacrifice themselves. When they did, higher-ups would understand the gravity of the situation and would take this matter seriously.
Z and K apparently treasured their own lives very much so they would not choose the latter option. The former option it was then. As the number of casualties gradually increased to an extent which no one could ignore, some higher-ups finally took notice of the situation here. They asked the people there to take a temporarily rest and let the army troops that were coming to go in first.
While they were resting, Sheyan's mind did not stop working. He went over to Aziz and said while chewing some tasteless military ration:
“What do you think?”
Aziz's gun skills had already gained the respect of the soldiers so his speech carried a domineering air, “Nothing. I only know that as long as there's another participant here, we will complete our Golden Side Mission!”
Sheyan said coldly:
“Jones have definitely allied himself with participants so you don't have to worry about that. What I'm worried about is that if we can't kill him now, we might not find another opportunity like this in the future.”
Chapter 933: The Mastermind Behind the ScenesAziz calmly remarked:
“I'm not too concerned with this damn Bug. When the regular army arrives with the tanks and flamethrowers, we will have no problem advancing. The problem is the damn Galaxy is still with the Bug. If we can't find it, the Earth will be destroyed.”
Sheyan naturally wasn't worried about that since he held the Galaxy in his hands. The others didn't know that. It was small wonder that they're concerned. However, Sheyan had no intention of divulging his secret. He contemplated for a bit and said:
“I'm guessing that the damn Arquillians are just bluffing. Besides, the MIB must have some ways of dealing with that. More importantly, we would never have obtained this information in the first place if we didn't have a close relationship with the MIB. If the planet is really destroyed, won't all the contractors die without even knowing the cause?”
Aziz nodded slightly. He sat down holding his rifle and stopped talking, maintaining his usual indifferent demeanor.
It didn't take long for the military's reinforcements to arrive. Several Apocalypse tanks went in spewing black smoke. The infantry followed after them with their uniform march. Whenever they saw a building, the Apaches would first launch a row of missiles through the windows, then open fire with the tanks.
All the buildings here were no higher than five stories so it wasn't too difficult to make them collapse. Finally, the infantry and the flamethrower-wielding soldiers would slowly crept forward. If anything happened, they could immediately move behind the tanks for cover.
Even though Jones had evolved and the combat strength of his underlings had also improved significantly, they faced the risk of being crushed by the powerful war machine of the humans. Seven or so soldiers were killed by a few cockroaches with mantis limbs who managed to survived, but it was an acceptable loss.
The battle tactic that the humans employed showed the determination of the MIB to win this battle. This farm was located in a remote area so they could swarm the place with helicopters, tanks and flamethrowers, but if Jones managed to escape today and started to breed at the city center, it would become a disaster that they could not conceal!
A light suddenly flashed, and before everyone had the time to react, a tank violently exploded. The explosives inside it caused a chain explosion which blew away the turret. Half the body of the tank driver flew more than 10 meters into the air. The explosions were intense!
The attack which caused the initial explosion was so fast that the shrill slashing sound was only heard after the tank had began exploding. The speed of the strike was much faster than the speed of sound!
Immediately after, the explosion of the tank covered up everything. Loud bangs followed one after another as violent flame raged. Shattered fragments were blown all over the place, forcing the people nearby to scramble madly to find cover. Shrapnels during an explosion were no joke. They could cut a person's head into two halves even with a steel helmet on!
Sheyan sniffed hard because he found that there was a strange fragrance among the smell of smoke and burning. Sheyan seemed to be familiar with this kind of smell. It was the like warm fragrance when sunlight shines upon a lush forest.
It was the smell of Elves!
Sheyan's heart sank. He instantly informed Aziz:
“There's a person among the enemies who inherited the Elves' powerful archery skills. Be careful.”
Aziz's eyes shined with bloodthirst and excitement. He licked his lips and said:
“Just what I want! The name of another powerful person will be engraved on my gun barrel!”
While the two of them were talking, another tank in front mysteriously exploded. Sheyan sniffed with his eyes closed and found that the fresh fragrance in the air had gotten a bit thicker. In the face of such a strange situation, K immediately ordered the troops to stop advancing, then carefully playbacked a video recording of the battlefield. Only when he slowed the recording to 1/24 the normal speed did he discover a green light that was forcefully elongated.
He then slowed down the playback speed to 1/48 the normal speed. Only then could he clearly see that the light was actually a green arrow enshrouded in a black mist! A long arrow! After it stuck onto the tank, it melted into liquid and seeped inside. Then , the tank exploded!
“What the hell is this?” Z has already become very frustrated at this point. He only had a few cards he could play and he had almost exhausted all of them.
Another light flashed and an Apache fell from the air while dragging a trail of thick smoke behind it. In less than a minute, the powerful US Army had accumulated a loss exceeding tens of millions of dollars.
For Z, this amount of loss was still acceptable, but he must have something to show to the people above. More importantly, this place was in the suburb of New York City after all. Dispatching helicopters and tanks were already the limit. It's not like they could request to bombard the area with tactical ballistic missiles! The commotion it caused would be too big.
Suddenly, Sheyan felt a strong threat so he immediately dived to the side. A large tree to his left mysteriously shattered. What was even more strange was that when the branches of the large tree fell to the ground, they turned into elemental creatures in the shape of deformed dark Ents and some strange-looking dark type animals. Luckily, these creatures were very fragile and fell easily to flamethrowers.
Aziz suddenly emerged like a ghost. He had been lurking on the large tree. There was a deep wound on his cheekbone which had continued to fester, and at the edge of the wound, multiple blood vessels slithered like snakes. However, Aziz's eyes were shining with a ghastly light:
“I'll catch him next time! I've long heard of how powerful the Dark Elves are, and I've finally seen it for myself today. But he will still die by my hands!”
Sheyan stared at the bloodthirsty Aziz and suddenly understood the difference between him and Mogensha. Aziz had an insane lust for battle and an arrogant confidence when facing off against stronger enemies!
There was probably only one conviction in Aziz's heart, and that was, in his field, he was the best in the world! It was easy to die going into battle with such mentality, but if one didn't die and was able to develop, one would become really scary.
And that's how it was with Aziz. Aziz's growth process was probably no less miraculous than that of Sheyan. With his strong talent and rich combat experience in the real world, he could easily kill Growth Hunters as a normal contestant! There was a saying that good preparation is the key to success. Well, Aziz had been “preparing” since his childhood! Could such a battle madman be weak?
“Do you want me to help?” asked Sheyan as the two of them were allies at the moment – although it was only temporary. Aziz waved Sheyan off and impatiently said:
“You stay out of it!”
Aziz tone was rude but Sheyan wasn't offended. He merely smiled and said:
“According to my observation, the opposing side should be a combination of an archer and a javelin thrower. The javelin thrower was the one who destroyed the Apache. If you don't want me to help, you have to be careful.”
Next, Sheyan threw a shining crystal bottle at Aziz. To Aziz, this thing had always been something that caused AoE stun effect + poisonous smoke. He caught it suspiciously and asked:
“What are you doing?”
Sheyan smiled and said:
“Just drink it.”
Aziz's became unhappy and said fiercely:
“I don't like jokes.”
Sheyan kept smiling:
“Me too, so drink it.”
Aziz finally observed the object in his hand carefully. He immediately looked at Sheyan with mixed feelings and cursed:
“You're fucking insane! No wonder none of them could break through Zi's defence back then.”
He lifted the bottle and gulped down the mix without another word.
Under the suppression of Aziz's attack, after a few minutes, a fierce explosion suddenly occurred in the opposite building. Aziz was also hit in the chest by a strange black javelin!
The black javelin pierced into Aziz's right chest and actually started to suck at his flesh and blood. It then turned into a fierce shadow wolf the size of a calf. The black fur all over its body stood erect, looking very ferocious! It had very explosive movement. Aziz looked quite pathetic under the violent assaults of its fangs. Luckily, he had the buff from Sheyan's mix so his life was not in danger.
Sheyan had already rushed upstairs to where Aziz was and finally stopped the fierce assault of the shadow wolf. The wolf was considered as an attack by a contestant so its damage was first weakened by 40%, then weakened by Sheyan's high defence, and then further reduced by 40 points. It was easily handled by Sheyan.
There was probably a limit to how long it could exist. After about two minutes, it fully exhausted the energy it absorbed from Aziz's flesh and blood and finally turned into a javelin. A black flame ignited on the javelin and burned it into ashes.
While Aziz and the opposite side suppressed each other's, K ordered the troops to launch a full-scale attack! There was only one reason for him to make such a decision, and that was the ultimatum by the Arquillians which hung over his head like an executioner's sword. He could not afford to delay any longer.
Without the interference from the two long range contestants, the troops advanced quickly!
Chapter 934: Horrible Abnormality(TL: This is bonus chapter #5 for October. Enjoy! And thanks for the Patreon support!)
Aziz was seriously injured so Sheyan naturally could not leave him alone. If someone like a thief appeared and attacked him, Aziz might die. Sheyan of course couldn't let that happen – at least not while their interests were aligned.
Fortunately, Aziz's injuries had healed very quickly, mainly because the MIB and the US Army provided some technologically-advanced healing items, ie. elastic medical coagulation bandages, BCW adrenaline injections, high-energy antibiotics, high-calorie food, and even used Gamma Knives to stop his bleeding. All these things were readily available in the medical vehicle. Of course, they could not be brought out from this world.
After the two of them recovered and re-joined the battle, they found that the fight at the frontline had become even fiercer as they advanced. Large amount of Bug corpses entangled with the corpses of soldiers on the ground. Flesh mixed with blood in a gruesome mess.
There was originally a green grassy field spanning thousands of square meters in the farm with several white sculptures on it. The scenery was very beautiful and it was the best rest area for the farm employees. However, the field was now had several large holes formed by explosions on it, each of them about five square meters in size. Black soil scattered everywhere due to the explosions. The green grass had been trampled all over. None of the corpses, be they human or Bug, were whole.
Broken limbs scattered about from the impact of the explosions. Blood flowed like rivers. The unevolved Bugs greedily gathered to enjoy the food. Pungent smell assaulted the nose. The place was like a scene from hell.
In the production area of the farm, the livestocks were divided into a total of six huge barns according to their type, namely two chicken barns, two cattle barns, a turkey barn and a pig barn. Chickens and cattles received special treatment because they were more in demand. They each had two barns.
Behind the six barns was a medium-sized processing plant. The livestock would undergo initial processing here in order to make the products more convenient to sell and transport.
The military had already broken through the defensive lines of the two chicken barns and had set fire to them in order to thoroughly eliminate those disgusting larvae. The current frontline of the battle was at the turkey barn area.
A large number of mantis-limbed cockroaches could be seen at the frontline area. They had even shown the ability to fly over a short-range. They came in groups and exuded overwhelming pressure.
Behind them were a large number Bugmen that used to be the farm workers. They provided support with firearms. A tank was destroyed on a slope. The raging fire and thick smoke from it were particularly eye-catching.
Under such circumstances, the US military's strong firepower was once again contained. If the infantry charged in without the cover of the tanks, they were definitely no match for the ferocious melee + long range combination of the Bugs. The scariest thing about the mantis-limbed cockroaches was their short-range flight ability which enabled them to swarm a person from every direction. The best way to deal with them was with the flamethrowers, but the precise shooting of the Bugmen in the distance ensured that any flamethrower-wielder who stepped forward would die!
Sheyan grabbed a soldier whose face was blackened by smoke, revealing only his two eyes and his two rows of white teeth, and asked:
“Brother, how did they burn the tank?”
The soldier was obviously a new recruit. He was breathing heavily and trembling all over. When Sheyan tapped his shoulder, he almost turned around and shot at Sheyan in his nervousness. Sheyan gave him some water and then lit a cigarette for him. After sucking a few mouthfuls of smoke, he finally calmed down a little. He replied with horror in his eyes:
“Those damn Bugs prepared anti-tank missiles! Our tank is tough, but it was hit at the same spot by three consecutive missiles. Of course it couldn't withstand that.”
The missiles were obviously prepared by the contestants too. Sheyan thought things over carefully while looking at the scene. No matter how he thought about it, he could not see a way the Bugs could come out victorious. Although they had the upper hand at the moment, as long as the United States used their usual tactic of bombing every inch of the area, defeat was inevitable for the Bugs.
The lack of long-range heavy-duty weapons was undoubtedly the biggest weakness of the Bugs! They could only take the beating.
Sheyan contemplated further and went to check some things on the tactical computer. He found that the battle situation here had attracted the full attention of the higher-ups. A large number of troops flocked to this place to block all the important roads nearby. In outer space, there were three satellites monitoring the situation here from different angles. It was extremely difficult for anyone to escape with such careful arrangement.
“It didn't feel like the opponents were fighting to the death. Rather, it felt like they were buying time,” mumbled Sheyan to himself as he took cover behind a broken wall.
“But what are they delaying for?”
Suddenly, a fierce explosion occurred. Sheyan felt a threat and dived down, but the wall that had concealed him collapsed and buried him underneath. After a while, Sheyan climbed out covered with dirt. He spat a few times to dispose of the sand in his mouth.
“So frivolous! The contestants on the opposite side are actually really willing to trade for heavy-duty weapons from the realm to eliminate these cannon fodder-level storyline characters!” Sheyan could not help but sigh. He continued to observe for a while, then called Aziz:
“Hey, do you know what these guys are doing or what they're preparing? I'm sure that they have something up their sleeves but I couldn't guess what it is.”
Aziz's cold voice soon rang next to Sheyan's ears:
“The Dark Elf archer and Javelin-thrower that fought with me had not shown themselves. I feel that they've gathered somewhere for some sort of ritual.”
At this time, three more tanks roared loudly and advanced forward while spewing black smoke. Hundreds of infantry quickly followed behind them. After a hard fought battle, they finally broke through another barn. Suddenly, Aziz fired a shot, and Sheyan sensed an extremely dangerous threat.
He instantly turned to his right and saw an arm being severed. Blood gushed from the arm as it traced a parabolic curve in the air before it landed on the ground. The skin on the arm was indigo in colour and was densely covered in mysterious tattoos. Following that, a black light tore through the body of five American soldiers to shoot towards Sheyan.
Some of the soldiers were pierced by the black light in the chest, some in the abdomen, and some in the limbs, but they all collapsed to the ground without exception. Their corpses had all aged significantly. It seemed as if their life essences had been greedily sucked dry.
Because the momentum of the black light decreased slightly after piercing through five people, Sheyan managed to turn his body, reach out with his left hand, and grab the tail end of the black light! He forcefully pulled it down before it could hit his chest.
What surprised Sheyan was that after he caught the black light, it shook violently in his hand, then quickly turned into a sinister looking black snake. The snake whipped its tail and caught Sheyan's wrist!
Sheyan was completely caught off guard. The black snake then bit into the back of Sheyan's hand. This snake had a triangular head and a pair of fierce eyes that would strike fear into anyone who looked at them. However, Sheyan remained quite calm. That's because he was immune to poison thanks to the 'Stairway of the Sun'. Although the snake was extremely poisonous, it was no threat to Sheyan. A snake without the threat of venom was no different from loaches and eels. Of course, that didn't apply to monsters such as pythons and anacondas.
The toxin secreted by the snake's fangs quickly spread under Sheyan's skin. Greenish-black lumps formed and spreading further. However, the tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' soon arrived to force the toxin back out. The expelled toxin dripped down from Sheyan's fingers. When it fell to the ground, it sizzled like acid.
Sheyan treated the black snake like a whip and slammed it around. After being hit seven to eight times, it turned into a bloody pulp. It finally freed itself from its illusionary state and turned into a long white arrow with black patterns. Then, it burned into ashes.
Only now did Sheyan have the time to receive Aziz's communication:
“Something strange seemed to have happened to the advancing tanks. We've lost communication with them. I can't see what happened from where I am. You should go take a look. If anything happens, immediately run to a spot where I have shooting angle.”
Sheyan instantly leapt forward and rolled. After that, he took cover behind a wall and moved for about 15 meters. He tentatively extended his head and looked out from behind the wall. He saw three Apocalypse tanks with their engines still roaring, but they had stopped moving forward. There were corpses all around them. Sheyan decided to take some risk considering his sturdy physique. After several tumbles on the ground, he reached the side of an Apocalypse tank.
The occupants inside had lost all signs of life.
“There are two ways to penetrate into a tank to take lives. The first is to use poison gas. The second is to use sonic weapons….” this thought instantly surfaced in Sheyan's mind. However, before he had time to think about it, K's voice transmitted through the receiver. His voice was filled with shock:
“Oh my God, what the hell is that!”
K had encountered countless strange experiences in his life. To make him lose his composure, it was surely something huge!!
Sheyan returned to the temporary General Staff Headquarters a few minutes later. In front of K was a 3D projection of the farm. Everything was flawlessly displayed, from the buildings on the surface to areas 100 meters below the ground.
A horrible abnormality could be seen on the projection!
Chapter 935: Gigantic Reproductive SystemThe 3D projection showed that there was no abnormality on the surface of the farm – or maybe any abnormality was hidden in the big processing plant – but underneath the surface, there was a strange giant object that was even bigger than the farm!
The main part of its body was divided into several tumor-like objects which were connected by some squirming tubes that looked like blood vessels. It was several kilometers deep under the ground and was constantly squirming. After observing the thing for a long time, a senior agent suddenly shouted:
“Why does this thing look like a super-sized reproductive system of a woman?”
Sheyan merely felt curious when the saw the thing, but Aziz's expression turned grim:
“Look at this structure, could, could it be….. that's right, the abundance of livestock bred in this farm was completely beyond our expectation. I initially thought that Jones the Bug King had devoured all of them to breed his future generations, I didn't expect him to make such a thing!”
Sheyan had hardly ever seen Aziz so flabbergasted before. He immediately knew that this was definitely a huge problem. He instantly asked:
“What is that thing?”
Aziz coldly replied:
“As far as I know, if you go back to the 15th or 16th centuries in some movie worlds, you may learn black magic. Most of this black magic isn't complete, but when the black magic is trained to the top level, the practitioner will be able to grasp some powerful forbidden spells.”
Sheyan narrowed his eyes:
“Forbidden spells?”
Aziz nodded:
“Many catastrophes recorded in human history were actually caused by this kind of forbidden spells. For example, the black death in 1665 was caused by a mouse which escaped from the alchemy lab of an alchemist who had mastered top-level black magic. The death element on the mouse rapidly grew after it had taken human lives. In the end, the alchemist's negligence caused the death of 700 million people.”
“If it weren't for the sorcerers of the Continental Union who reached a mutual agreement and cooperated to kill the mouse that had grown into a terrible monster while hiding in central London, and thus cutting off the source of the death element, the black death would have continued for 30 years. But the collateral from their spells had also led to the famous Great Fire of London, which sent most of London up in flames.”
“Another example would be the smallpox virus, which was a by-product of the alchemical research on forbidden spells carried out by the Great Black Magician, Aristotle.”
“In 2004 A.D., the black magician David Copperfield experimented on forbidden spells in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The energy dissipation from the failed experiment directly caused the great tsunami!”
Sheyan listened to Aziz's explanation and couldn't help but ask:
“Did all these happen in your real world?”
Aziz nodded.
“That's right.”
Sheyan sighed:
“That's really unfortunate. So is the thing we're facing now is a kind of forbidden spell?”
Aziz seriously said:
“That's right. All human beings are born out of women's wombs, so it's not an exaggeration to say that the womb is the source of humans. I can almost say for certain that this thing they've made is the legendary….Flesh Louvre! The reason they were stalling for time was to give this horrible thing a longer gestation period! I suggest that we make preparations to retreat. According to legend, after the Flesh Louvre matures, its power is no less than other forbidden spells!”
Sheyan narrowed his eyes, and after a while, he said slowly but firmly:
“You're wrong. We can't retreat today. In fact, we must charge inside no matter what! This womb will determine whether we can safely complete our Golden Side Mission.”
Aziz exclaimed in shock:
“What the hell are you saying?”
Sheyan stared at the 3D holographic projection, the fierceness in his eyes seemed like it could shred the projection into pieces:
“This gigantic object had the form of a womb. There's no doubt that its role is to breed! What will it breed? Definitely high-tier creatures. Since they've expended so much effort and they're on the opposing side, there's no doubt that the womb will breed powerful creatures that are hostile towards us! And don't forget, we still haven't figured out the mystery behind the seven sins rituals! We can only assume that these things are all related to the Golden Side Mission!”
This was the first time Aziz saw the violent side of Sheyan's personality. A chill suddenly crept into his heart. He couldn't help but think if one day, they met as enemies, what would happen. But the more Aziz thought about it, the less confidence he had of coming out victorious. The reason was simple: Sheyan's HP was simply too damn high! Moreover, his defence wasn't low either. Honestly, even if Sheyan committed ten mistakes, others still might not be able to kill him.
On the other hand, Sheyan only needed his enemy to commit one mistake. With the continuous stunning ability and weakening effect of his mixes, it was enough for his enemy to feel the threat of death!
Aziz could also never forget that one blow from Sheyan! The terrifying blow which smashed Salmons' 'Glorious Barrier of Protection' into smithereens! To be honest, when Aziz saw the strike, he couldn't suppress the fear in his heart!
As the Flesh Louvre gradually matured, the clouds above the farm turned green and began to form a typhoon-like vortex. Large drops of rain fell from the sky. When the raindrops fell on a person's skin, they would cause a chill that crept into the bones, making the person shudder!
Sheyan moved over to the tactical computer and pressed a few keys to project a hologram of the original layout of this farm. He compared it to the current layout and immediately found the most suitable entry point – the sewer of the cattle barns was the closest!
Sheyan went to K, pointed at the 3D hologram, and said:
“I don't know what you think about this, K, and I don't want to know. I only know that if this damn womb-like thing is breeding a large amount of terrifying creatures, we can't waste anymore time here. If we wait until it matures and the things inside to hatch, the human population might go extinct from alien Bugs before the Arquillians even have the chance to shoot at Earth!”
K asked with a hoarse voice:
“What do you think we should do?”
Sheyan smiled sinisterly:
“Let's give it an abortion!”
But K slightly shook his head:
“The idea is very good, but unfortunately it can't be implemented. Our scientists have studied the body area on the surface of the ground hidden inside the buildings. They all agreed that long-range attacks will have their damage severely reduced! Even if we use the weapons requiring the highest level of authority, we will at most scrap away its body area on the surface. Now, you tell me, how do we give it an abortion?”
“Okay, sir, this is the first key point. We don't need to enter from the surface of the ground. Take a look at this basement. It's only five meters away from the reproductive system's fallopian tube. With a few brave, strong people, we can create a shortcut here.”
K continued asking:
“How do we do that?”
Sheyan beamed and said:
“Of course we'll blast our way in! There's no way it can be immune to energy weapons as well, right?”
“That sounds reasonable,” muttered K to himself, “It's worth a gamble.”
Sheyan had always been an efficient person, and he had great vision. In less than ten minutes, they arrived at the basement through the underground sewage system. There were dust, feces and pungent smell everywhere.
The thick cracks on the wall had become very precious to them at the moment. Sheyan picked the spot on the wall with the most cracks and got rid of the wall and soil. A rough greenish-black “wall” was revealed behind them. This should be the outer surface of the Flesh Louvre! The surface was filled with large suction cups, enabling it to easily creep through the ground and excavate the soil.
Several senior agents who followed Sheyan here aimed their energy weapons and opened fire!
A loud bang reverberated. The collective light from the energy weapons flashed so bright that Sheyan temporarily lost his sight. Amidst the splash of flesh and blood, he could clearly feel the pain of the “mother”, and of course, its anger too!
A terrifying black tunnel with a width of about five meters appeared in front of them. The edges of the black tunnel comprised of muscles that were growing wildly. They struggled to stir and twist together in order to close the wound as quickly as they could. Through a trace of light, Sheyan saw that the inside of the black tunnel was full of basketball-sized white placenta!
There was no doubt that the inside was an extremely dangerous place.
Be it the aura, the atmosphere, or the force exuded, they all pointed to this fact.
However, Sheyan stepped inside without hesitation.
After entering the vascular tube, he couldn't help but feel nervous. He did not advance carelessly. He first took a few deep breaths and gulped down some water to restore a little stamina.
Aziz had also rushed in before the wound closed. There was a small piece of bone in his palm which had some flesh and blood sticking to it still! He looked like someone who had found something very precious.
Chapter 936: Slaughtering the OvumAfter Aziz rushed in, the muscles of this strange black tunnel twisted and grew wildly to close the hole on the tough, strong meat wall.
The large hole that was at least three meters high and two meters wide made by high-energy weapons was closed in less than 20 seconds. One could imagine the vitality of the reproductive system from this.
Although the interior of the flesh tunnel fell into darkness again, Sheyan and Aziz had prepared lighting tools before they entered, such as headlamps and phosphorescent combat suits. Aziz handed the small flat piece in his hand to Sheyan and said:
“This is a piece of bone that dropped when the explosions just now hit the placenta at the side. Take a look!”
Sheyan carefully observed the hard bone piece and found that there were many marks left by the sharp objects on it, as well as bloodstains that seeped deep into the internal texture of the bone. He turned the bone piece over and found that the back contained some fine black hairs which felt soft and thick when they were touched. He exclaimed:
“This thing looks a lot like a part of a human baby's skull. The outer surface is covered by newborn baby hair while the inner surface is hard!”
Aziz squinted his eyes and said:
“Your guess is probably right. This place really spells trouble.”
As he said that, he took out a bayonet from his personal space. The bayonet was very strange. Sheyan couldn't tell what grade it was at all. When light shined on it, a penetrating chill would travel through the edge. It felt like anything that came into contact with the bayonet, be it air, water, or sight, would grind and sharpen the bayonet.
Aziz fixed the bayonet on the muzzle of his gun, then cut his palm and wiped his blood on the blade. The bayonet absorbed the blood with a greedy pleasure. The humming sound it made echoed in the confined environment and resonated with their eardrums.
Logically speaking, the current environment was quite unfavorable for gunners like Aziz, but Aziz had full confidence in his own skills so he decided to follow Sheyan in anyway.
Suddenly, the communicator in Sheyan's ear vibrated. Senior Agent C who led the team asked:
“Seaman, this is C. What's the situation?”
Sheyan pressed the earpiece and wrinkled his nose as he said:
“The environment is basically safe for humans, but the smell here is terrible. I'd rather stay in a rotten sewer than in this tunnel. The good news is, it's probably not poisonous. I urgently need you to provide some fresh air for me.”
Senior Agent C was a tall man with gray hair. He immediately replied:
“Move five meters to the west. We will blast open a hole after a 10-second countdown.”
Ten seconds later, a slurry of blood and flesh erupted from the meat wall five meters in front of Sheyan, some of it splashing onto his face. Sheyan did not reach out with his hand to wipe the blood away. Instead, he carefully observed. He noticed that there were indeed squirming creatures that looked like human babies in the pale white placentas on the inner wall. They all looked virtually the same.
Five senior MIB agents sneaked in wearing gas masks. The MIB was taking a huge risk in this operation. If these five experienced and powerful agents died, the MIB would probably need more than 10 years to train new agents to replace them.
The part of the meat wall that was destroyed by their energy weapons closed up and once again looked as good as new. C tentatively asked Sheyan:
“What's our objective?”
Sheyan took out a tablet computer and pressed on it a few times, pointing out:
“Our current position should be the in the Fallopian tube outside the left ovary. There's no doubt that if there's anything weird happening, it must be in the center of the womb! According to the original plan,we should move from the left to the right. The exit should be on the west side of the right ovary. After we blast open an exit there, our people should have captured the place and cleaned up the soil nicely.”
Agent C nodded and said:
“Okay, we'll move according to the plan then. I'm setting up the time bomb to explode an hour and thirty minutes later.”
The meat tunnel (Fallopian tube) they were in was quite spacious. It was almost 4 meters high and 5 meters wide. The wall secreted a kind of liquid and was in constant peristalsis. When they walked down the tunnel, the inclination became very steep, but the circular ring patterns on the wall of the tunnel provided places that had depressions as deep as 10cm which they could grab onto to steady themselves. However, their hands inevitably became coated with the sticky liquid.
There was also a hard to describe stench in the air. After smelling the stench for a long time, one would find their heartbeat naturally increasing and feel their heart beating against their ribs.
After Agent C installed the time bomb, they continued to walk cautiously toward the bottom. After about 200 meters or so, they suddenly felt the floor moving as if there was an earthquake. If they were ordinary people they would have fallen down. They were immediately on guard.
Aziz nonchalantly pierced his bayonet into the meat wall at his side. The meat wall contracted in pain and clamped tighter onto the bayonet. With that, Aziz easily stabilised his body. He closed his eyes while his two ears moved slightly. After a short while, he exclaimed:
“…This is bad. Something seems to be rolling down from above!”
Sheyan sucked in a cold breath. They were currently in a meat tunnel which had smooth sides with nowhere to hide. Something that made such a commotion while it rolled down must be gigantic in size! Their situation now was like tomb raiders who encountered one of those classic rolling stone traps!
However, their weird experiences so far gave birth to a weird idea in Sheyan's mind.
The huge organism they were in resembled the female reproductive system, and they were currently situated in the Fallopian tube a bit below the “ovary”. From this, it wasn't difficult to infer what the thing rolling down was – something which rolled inside the fallopian tube, what else could it be besides an ovum?
As soon as Sheyan realised this, his gaze turned sharp.
The rolling noise kept getting close. Because the wall of the meat tunnel and the rolling thing were not hard, the sound of the friction between them was not so much a “rumble” but rather a noise similar to stirring a ladle in a pot of extremely sticky substance.
Senior Agent C and the rest of the agents managed to blast a hole in the meat wall using their high-energy weapons to avoid the giant rolling thing. However, Sheyan screamed at them:
“Don't dodge it! We can't let this thing roll down! I'll stand in front and block it. Make sure you guys destroy it!”
After Sheyan finished speaking, he crouched down and rushed up the incline! Now that he knew the object wasn't something hard, he naturally dared to meet it head-on!
Although Sheyan was sprinting up an incline, it only took him less than 30 meters to raise his speed to the peak because his attributes far surpassed those of the average person!
He could now see that the spherical object rolling down from the distance was about four meters in diameter with a white outer membrane covering its surface. Below the white outer membrane was a layer of purple inner membrane. The blood vessels on the purple inner membrane twisted like snakes and penetrated deep into the sphere.
The impact on the sphere from its constant rolling was quite fierce, but because there were two layers of membranes tightly wrapped around the sphere, the sphere appeared rather elastic. There would be a slight depression at the part where a collision occurred, but the strong elasticity of the membrane would make the sphere bounce back and restore its shape.
Sheyan charged towards the sphere without showing the slightest hint of hesitation. Both his hands curled into fists. He slammed them onto the giant ovum with a scream!
The spots on the outer membrane hit by Sheyan sinked inside for nearly a meter. The membrane's flexibility was stretched to the limit but it refused to rupture. A strange mental fluctuation emanated from within the sphere and lashed outwards.
Two equally powerful forces collided and the clear sound of bones cracking could be heard. Sheyan groaned and was forced back by about eight steps before he fell to the ground. Blood flowed down his nose, mouth and ears like several red snakes slithering down his face. However, his character was extremely tough. After a roll, he pulled out his long saber. The faint blue light from the saber penetrated into his eyes.
When Sheyan temporarily halted the momentum of the giant ovum, Senior Agent C took the opportunity to aim his gun and fire. A glow condensed on the muzzle of the high-energy gun. A blinding bluish-white light flashed through the air….
And exploded!
Blood mixed with large lumps of organic structures flew all over the air. At least a third of the ovum was destroyed by this blow, revealing the dark red medulla inside. In the deep, bloody hole, two rows of parallel white spines were faintly visible!
A sense of despair so strong it felt like it had substance spread through the air. It continued to spread outwards. All the MIB senior agents were elites, but under such a painful and tragic feeling, they could only fall to the ground, twitching and vomiting.
Fortunately, at that moment, Sheyan stepped out and thrust his saber into the core of the ovum, then twisted with force! There seemed to be a painful scream in the air, but it gradually died down!
Chapter 937: Reaching the WombIt's worth mentioning that killing this strange gigantic ovum awarded Sheyan and Aziz three achievement points each. This showed that the ovum was definitely very important!
During the following journey, they successfully destroyed two other rolling giant ovums. The senior agents gradually adapted to the violent mental impact of the ovum's dying throes.
When they destroyed another ovum, a large part of the ovum exploded. A viscous, pale yellow bodily fluid and tissue gushed out of the destroyed ovum and covered the area. Sheyan, as someone on the frontline, was naturally soaked in the disgusting stuff as well. He no longer paid any heed to the strange smell. The human body's ability to adapt was very strong. After smelling it for a long time, he found that it wasn't such a big deal after all.
Suddenly, Senior Agent D accidentally stepped on a slippery spot on the ground and fell down. Some of the inner content of the ovum got onto his face.
D was a muscular and short-tempered guy with a brandy nose. He initially wore a gas mask but he often took out a flagon to have a sip, so after observing Sheyan for a while, he had decided to take down his mask.
Sheyan was covered with a large amount of the inner content of the ovum and he seemed fine, so Senior Agent D wasn't concerned. He casually wiped his face and uttered a few English swear words, then went on his way.
However, merely a few minutes later, Senior Agent D suddenly grabbed his face and screamed in horror. His voice was filled with despair and terror. A severe pain overcame his body; he immediately fell down and rolled violently.
Senior Agent C rushed over to help. He hugged D tightly to restrain him, and saw the madly protruding bloodshot eyes of D that had more whites than pupils. They were a horrifying sight. D had completely lost his reason!
C pulled out a high-intensity emergency injection provided by the MIB and stabbed it into D's neck!
The injection contained a special medicine which incorporated extraterrestrial technology. It could be considered an all–purpose medicine. It has extremely powerful effects on all kinds of statuses such as poison, weakness, radiation, near death, etc. It was America's thousand-year-old ginseng, Uncle Sam's ten-thousand-year-old fleeceflower root. (TL: Those are both expensive traditional Chinese medicine)
After the injection, the blood vessels on Agent D's neck and forehead bulged violently. He issued some loud groans and actually stuck his fingers into his own eyes. Blood gushed everywhere. Agent C tightly clamped down on D's arm but to no avail. Instead, he was sent flying by a kick from D. After that, D twitched violently on the ground before going still. It was a horrible way to die. He had even chewed on his own tongue and spat it out!
From the look of it, the injection that C gave him was not a treatment, but simply a powerful poison!
Following the death of Senior Agent D, the faces of both Sheyan and Aziz turned gloomy because both of them received some terrible notifications:
[Warning: One of the Senior MIB Agents under your protection has died. 5 achievement points deducted!”]
[Warning: With every death of a Senior MIB Agent under your protection, the penalty will increase!”]
“Goddammit, if I knew this I wouldn't have let them come. Now we must babysit them,” Aziz seemed to be stuck at something due to insufficient achievement points so having 5 achievement points deducted made him very anxious.
The other agents with alphabetic code names felt very distressed at seeing their colleague die such a horrible death as it could easily had been them. Some of them couldn't help but take out their emergency injections to take a careful look. There was a clear look of distrust in their eyes; with what happened to D, they probably wouldn't dare to inject this into their body anymore from now on unless they had no choice.
Their leader, Senior Agent C, was instead very calm. He walked over to his dead colleague and carefully examined the body. All of a sudden, Aziz kicked him away! Then, Aziz coldly thrust his bayonet into D's face and slowly pulled it back out.
Agent C was about to shout at Aziz but he immediately shut his mouth.
Half a body of a Bug that was still twisting and struggling could be clearly seen on the smooth surface of the bayonet! The head of the worm was similar to a centipede with a lot of legs hugging its body. It looked very ferocious. Even after being cut in half by Aziz, it was still about three centimeters long. Its total length probably reached five or six centimeters!
“This thing killed him,” said Aziz coldly.
He then cut across D's head. On the cross-section, they could see several such Bugs jumping cheerfully in the flesh like shrimps!
“Oh my God, this….. What in the devil is this?” Even Agent C, who was usually calm, could not help but exclaim in shock. He immediately recorded a video of the scene and transferred it back to the headquarters for investigation. The headquarters sent back the reply in less than ten seconds.
“The appearance of the Bug in the data you sent back matches the appearance of a very common parasite on the earth called the Demodex mite. These mites live in the sebaceous glands and are the natural enemy of women as they]cause blackheads and enlarge pores, among other things. In late stages, they may even cause rosacea, or brandy nose. In the data you transmitted, the sample was not in its complete form, but it was still more than three centimeters in length, while the largest mites on earth were only 0.5mm long – so we couldn't be 100% sure. I hope the information we provided is useful for you.”
Sheyan contemplated for a while and said:
“I think I know what happened.”
Agent C looked at him and said doubtfully:
“Pray tell.”
Sheyan said in a calm tone:
“Agent D's cause of death was his skin disease of rosacea! These cute little guys called the Demodex mites were happily growing in Agent D's nose – and Agent D didn't seem to mind this – but I just realised that when Agent D fell, his face was stained with the contents of the ovum we destroyed, and then the tragedy happened.”
“Therefore, I have reason to believe that the contents of the ovum rapidly enhanced the characteristics – and of course, the size – of the Demodex mites. They became violent and started to attack Agent D's brain. This was also caused by your emergency injection. Because these murderers are living creatures, they were probably affected by the emergency injection and become extraordinarily violent!”
However, Agent C still seemed doubtful:
“But this is merely your conjecture.”
Sheyan sneered:
“It's easy to verify this. You can drink a bit of the content of the ovum. If the roundworms in your belly don't grow to the size of giant pythons and burst out of your body within a minute, it'll prove that I'm wrong…..”
Agent C exclaimed angrily:
“Then how come you're completely fine when you're covered in this damn “egg yolk”?”
Sheyan simply shrugged his shoulders and said:
“Because my immune system is slightly stronger.”
Regardless of whether Sheyan's guess was right, all the MIB members including Agent C immediately armed themselves with gas masks, rubber gloves, etc.
They had traveled downwards in the soft fallopian tube for more than 40 minutes when their field of vision finally widened, as if they'd gone from an alley to a plaza. A misty fog surrounded the place. The fleshy-red floor was soft and covered in mucus. There would be a nipple-like protrusion every few meters. The fishy smell had gotten a lot stronger here.
“Have we finally reached the womb?” asked Sheyan as he surveyed the surrounding with narrowed eyes.
Aziz did not immediately answer. Instead, he quickly went around in a large circle around their entry point. He frowned as he said:
“Hell, this place is only as big as a basketball court! That's totally inconsistent with what our data indicated. According to the 3D hologram K showed us, the womb should be the size of at least 5 soccer fields. Could there be various compartments in the womb?”
After the initial inspection by Sheyan and Aziz revealed no danger, the senior MIB agents started their work nervously. Sheyan found an ear belonging to a pig that had not been dissolved yet in the wall of the womb.
This funny incident made Sheyan feel a lot more relaxed because this at least showed that their infiltration was in time. The huge monster had yet to completely matured, since it couldn't even completely devour the farm animals.
The agents soon came back, but they all returned empty-handed. Some of them proposed to use brute force again – aim their guns at the same spot and blast a way through – but they were stopped by Sheyan.
Chapter 938: An AcquaintanceFaced with their doubts, Sheyan could only sigh and say:
“The hints are actually quite obvious. Just think about it for a bit and you'll realise it! Since this gigantic monster is modeled after the reproductive system of a woman, its functions should be similar too! Can a woman get pregnant by herself? Even artificial insemination needs sperms!”
“So what we need to do now is wait! We'll wait for the fallopian tube to ovulate again, then…..we'll catch the big guy, the one who's definitely not wearing a Durex, the one who can't wait to poke inside! I have a hunch, that guy will be the ultimate secret we're looking for!”
Sheyan had gradually gained the team's respect throughout the journey. He was always the first one to rush into dangerous areas and the one doing the dirty jobs after all. Moreover, his deductions were often accurate. As such, even though Agent C didn't like Sheyan much, he could not overrule Sheyan's decision.
Fortunately, the time bomb that they set up before could be reset from the remote base, so they could afford to wait. However, Senior Agent C still secretly ordered them to fire a volley of shots towards a spot on the red meat wall in the distance. The result left them stunned. A volley of shots from their powerful energy weapons showed no effect at all!
Thus, they could do nothing but wait.
A tremor once again resounded from the fallopian tube in the distance. Their group of people was already very familiar with this ovulation behaviour. They waited in anticipation. Soon, they saw a huge ovum rolling down from the fallopian tube. Thanks to what they'd done before this, the ovum left a trail of viscous liquid along the path it traveled. This liquid was the remnants of the destroyed ovums.
After the ovum rolled into the womb, its momentum did not decrease in the slightest. It kept moving forward until it hit the meat wall on the opposite side. It gently bounced and attached itself to the meat wall.
Some kind of chemical reaction must have happened where the two surfaces came into contact. The liquid on the surface of the ovum emitted a hissing corrosive sound when it touched the meat wall. The meat wall began to dissolve and a large hole appeared to let the ovum roll inside.
Sheyan and his group immediately followed the ovum inside with no hesitation. Sure enough, after they got in, they realised that the meat wall had begun to heal slowly. The hole completely closed up in less than five minutes.
Following behind the rolling ovum, they entered another space inside the womb. Another ovum had stopped here and it appeared to have been inseminated. The inseminated ovum had inflated a lot and was pulsating like a heart. There was a crack in the shape of a cross on top of it. From the crack, some kind of liquid would gush forth from time to time. The liquid was probably something akin to amniotic fluid.
Without the need for Sheyan to remind them, the senior agents straightaway buried a bomb underneath it. They then observed the ovum which had just rolled in like curious children to see what would happen to it.
The new ovum rolled towards the fertilised one. When the two collided, the new ovum was naturally no match for the larger fertilised ovum and was thus bounced away. Nipple-like protrusions on the ground started to eject some liquid which would adhere to the surface of the new ovum. The new ovum rolled pitifully towards another meat wall, then proceeded to corrode it and roll inside.
Sheyan's group immediately followed behind it. This time the ovum finally encountered an empty room. In the middle of the room, which was also the lowest point in the room, there was a pit that seemed to fit the ovum perfectly. The ovum happily rolled into the pit and finally found a place where it belonged. It sat there contentedly.
At this time, Sheyan suddenly said with a weird look on his face:
“Hey, guys. The thing that will happen next is very likely…..something we've all done before! Will we get a facial if we stay here?”
All of them were men. When they heard the word “facial”, they immediately thought of something that's not for kids! It might not matter for a woman, but a man would find that really hard to stomach unless they were someone on the bottom in a certain kind of relationship…..
Even Aziz, who was normally calm, displayed a complicated expression. He looked around and found that there was no place to take cover in. He said vehemently:
“We can't let this happen to us. We must stop the situation before it develops!”
The outer layer of the huge ovum that was lodged in the ground started to peel off and dissolve into smoke, drifting towards the top where a circular row of holes was visible. The smoke quietly dispersed there. The inside of the giant ovum was very strange in appearance. It looked like a pig brain contained in a plastic bag. It was mainly yellowish-white in colour and contained wisps of blood.
Following the “success” of the ovum, a hole opened up on the ceiling. It turned out that right on top of the ovum was something similar to a valve that could conveniently open and close.
Immediately afterwards, a brutal, gigantic thing which was muddy yellow in colour slowly descended. Its sharp limbs shined with a metallic luster, and a transparent spider-silk-like thread hung behind its butt. The thread periodically stretched and contracted, looking like it could break any moment, but it simply refused to break!
Sheyan sighed when he saw that and said:
“I was wondering why we didn't see this guy. Turns out he's staying here as the stud horse…”
That's right, the huge thing hanging from the top could only be Jones! He seemed to have discovered Sheyan's group waiting for him, and his relaxed demeanor rapidly descended into a panic. He desperately wielded his limbs, grabbing at the transparent thread behind his butt in an attempt to change course and escape.
Unfortunately, Aziz had already pulled the trigger. A bullet covered in flame easily cut – or rather, burned – through the tough spider silk. Jones the Bug King fell down awkwardly and thrust into the ovum that he was supposed to fertilise. The movement of his sharp limbs smashed the poor ovum into smithereens, spreading disgusting liquid and tissue everywhere.
Sheyan's expression was grim. The content of the ovum could cause mites that were originally only slightly harmful to the human body to undergo abnormal mutation and growth, after which the became strong enough to tear their human host apart. If it caused Jones' strength to increase further, they would have a big problem.
Fortunately, Sheyan's worries did not come true.
The genetic material in the huge ovum actually had two functions. The first was to improve the gene fragment information carried by the sperm, and the second was to perfect the unstable DNA of the newly-formed life. Unfortunately, the improvement and perfection were limited to bugs because the secondary structure of human DNA was a left-handed double helix, while the structure of the DNA carried by the ovum was a ring. It was similar to how a high-speed train could not travel on a subway rail. It was something totally unrealistic. This was why Sheyan was not afraid of being polluted by the ovum.
As the king of the alien Bugs, Jones' DNA had already been highly perfected, so he also did not enjoy the effects! Before he could scramble out of the destroyed ovum, the senior MIB agents had already pulled the trigger without the slightest bit of hesitation!
The beams from high-energy weapons ruthlessly shot through the air and landed on Jones. Unfortunately, the skin specifically mutated by Jones easily removed the threat of these light beams. The unfortunate one was the ovum behind Jones, which was blasted into pieces. The huge force from the beams volleyed Jones into the air and slammed him onto the meat wall at his back.
Although Jones seemed to be constantly on the back foot from the moment he appeared, the large size of his body alone was enough to give them a sense of oppression. It made Sheyan feel like he was facing a giant invisible wall. If even Sheyan felt that way, one could imagine the pressure on the MIB agents who were purely human!
Sheyan rushed at Jones and pierced Jones' abdomen with his saber!
After taking such a brutal hit, Jones screamed out loud and swept down with his two abnormal forelimbs. Sheyan was blown away by the hit. When the forelimbs hit the soft, fleshy ground, the force of the impact caused the ground to burst with an explosion of flesh. The shockwave also caused a great amount of blood to erupt from the ground, obscuring everyone's vision!
Sheyan's attempt at grabbing Jones' attention was successful. Aziz had quietly aimed his dark muzzle at Jones and locked on to him like a radar! A large amount of dense fire elements appeared out of thin air and gathered around the front end of the muzzle.
Aziz was angered. There was only one outcome for anyone who dared to offend him.
Destruction!
A terrible pillar of golden-red fire was ejected from Aziz's muzzle, accompanied by a thick layer of smoke. The pillar of fire gradually dispersed following the passing of time and distance, but the bullet was long gone.
Bullets were only terrifying if they couldn't be seen! This one shot from Aziz could be said to be the culmination of his power! However, Aziz had overlooked one thing, and that was, without Sheyan risking his life in the frontline, how could Aziz have done so beautifully? Sheyan contributed for at least 60% of this shot, and that was just the conservative estimate.
Chapter 939: Pyrrhic VictoryBecause Jones was extremely wary of the power of the MIB's energy weapons, he had expended a lot of effort to mutate his exoskeleton to make him almost immune to those weapons. However, it came at a great cost.
To explain it in simple terms, let's assume the Jones that had evolved to his peak form had 100 points of life energy. If he'd followed his previous direction of evolution, he'd only need to spend 10 points of life energy on his carapace. The remaining 90 points of life energy could be used to strengthen other aspects of himself.
However, to evolve a carapace that was immune to energy weapons consumed 60 points of life energy. He only had 40 life energy remaining to assign to attack, speed, HP and agility. His all-round attributes naturally took a big hit.
And of course, Jones' resistance to firearm-type physical weapons had also weakened a considerable extent!
Aziz's shot hit Jones on the right shoulder and instantly erupted into flame and explosions. Almost the entire right side of Jones' upper body had vaporised, with the exposed wound burnt and uneven. Half a chelicera hung limply from his body. Green liquid gushed out from the wound as the wound continued emitting smoke.
Tongues of flame that spread to the surrounding ignited the ground, turning the area surrounding Jones into a sea of fire. Even the shattered ovum was burnt!
Jones screamed furiously. He spun in the air and aimed for Aziz. The current Jones was a mix between a cockroach and a spider, but he had several long legs that were so sharp they sent chills down one's spine.
This attack he launched was an offensive move and a defensive move at the same time. If he brought out the bone blades on both sides of his body, the attack would become incomparably vicious. If he hit Aziz, Aziz would probably be shredded to death!
If did not bring out the bone blades, he could bounce around like a snooker ball and spread his spider silk about.
Right when Jones was about to hit Aziz, Sheyan suddenly charged in from the side with a phantom of a fierce bison behind him and smashed into Jones. That was the 'Hornrage' ability from Sheyan's ring. Jones was immune to the stun effect, but the impact from the collision caused him to deviate by about 3 meters and fly past Aziz.
However, even though the distance between Aziz and Jones had widened, the distance between Sheyan and Jones had shortened! Jones immediately turned around and stared daggers at Sheyan with a pair of ferocious crimson eyes, then issued a deafening scream!
The scream was rather similar to Reef's 'Cardiac Shattering Roar'. A turbid flow of air blew in every direction. Upon closer inspection, one would find the airflow filled with a large number of tiny bugs. They converged on Sheyan's body and turned him into a statue in an instant, making it difficult for him to move!
They took Sheyan by surprise. Due to the dim environment, Sheyan only had 'Photon-Rejuvenation' which had a recovery effect on him right now. He was rendered immobile.
Jones immediately lifted his two forelimbs high in the air. Similar to the way a kung fu master would begin his attack with a starting pose, that was Jones' signature pose before he striked. After the temporary pose, the violent alien lord smashed down on Sheyan's face!
The feeling of sharpness, the power in the fierce cut, they were like lightning tearing through the sky!
Every time Jones flung his claw, the thick, long claw would produce seven or eight illusionary images in the air which would form whirlwinds that enveloped Sheyan's strong body, throwing him up in the air like a toy. The claw whirlwinds kept increasing in number and seemed to have infinite grinding power! Sheyan's feet couldn't even touch the ground so he was completely unable to dodge. All he could do was tightly huddle in the air, hugging his head to protect it.
Fortunately, Aziz's gun sounded. Jones was still in shock at the moment and the pain in his body had not disappeared, so he retracted a chelicera in a hurry to carry out a defensive action. Little did he expect Aziz's shot to be aimed at Sheyan instead. The bullet sped towards Sheyan but it exploded ten centimeters in front of Sheyan's chest. The force generated by the explosion pushed Sheyan over five meters away without doing any significant damage to him.
However, Jones wasn't someone who was easy to deal with. The moment he saw Sheyan being sent flying, a black shadow shot out like lightning from his butt. It was a stinger that looked like the tail of a scorpion! It pierced through the right side of Sheyan's chest before retracting!
Sheyan rolled a few times on the ground before climbing up while holding his chest, a bitter smile on his face. Blood gushed out from the cracks between his fingers. He was about to say something but he couldn't help coughing. As soon as he coughed, more than ten horrible wounds opened up on his body at the same time! Blood spurted everywhere. Sheyan stumbled back a few steps and fell back down to the ground.
'Jones is truly ferocious. If I hadn't advanced into a Growth Hunter, that round of attacks would've probably sent me into a state of near death!' Sheyan wiped away the bloodstain on his lips and appeared to be in deep thought. He had realised his own shortcomings.
Firstly, compared to a traditional MT, he lacked a shield that could be used in an emergency. Secondly, he also lacked a domain ability like those displayed by Zeus and Skull, which could play a great role in the fight. If Reef was in his place, Reef certainly would not have been beaten so badly.
All of a sudden, the meat walls around the place vibrated. The nipple-like protrusions on the ground began to emit a faint crimson mist. Soon, the whole place was covered in the crimson mist. The originally smooth outer walls started squirming. The atmosphere of the whole place turned very strange. The blurry environment greatly restricted their vision.
“Shoot at its wounds,” Aziz suddenly spoke. When the MIB agents saw their energy weapons fail them, they originally felt very dejected. But when they heard what Aziz said, they came to a sudden realisation. All of them lifted their guns and fired!
All of the agents there were veterans in battle. As such, the senior agents were all very accurate with their shots. Jones managed to avoid several shots, but when Senior Agent C aimed at the wound on the right side of Jones's body and pulled the trigger, the shot connected. The part of his body which had lost the protection of the carapace suffered yet another injury. Large lumps of flesh and blood exploded from the wound!
Jones instantly screamed in agony. The pain squeezed out the last bit of potential in him. Before Senior Agent C could react, Jones had already rushed in front of him and struck him with a claw. He was involuntarily flung a few meters high in the air and was slammed by the accelerating Jones. Jones carried Agent C and charged into a meat wall at the side!
Jones stopped to gasp for breath after the collision. The horns on his head had blood and a faint yellow fluid dripping down from them. Senior Agent C's bulletproof vest had completely shattered and his chest had completely collapsed inwards. He stared forward with empty eyes. His body was held up by the horns and was swaying slightly. He was obviously dead.
[Warning: One of the Senior MIB Agents under your protection has died. 7 achievement points deducted!”]
[Warning: With every death of a Senior MIB Agent under your protection, the penalty will increase!”]
Sheyan and Aziz received the notifications again. Sheyan could still accept it but Aziz almost went berserk! The first time an MIB agent died, 5 achievement points were deducted. The second time it happened, 7 achievement points were deducted. Will they see a 10 point deduction the third time it happened?!!
Aziz's mood was akin to seeing a beautiful naked woman on a bed only one step away from him, but unfortunately, as time went by, he was getting further and further away from her!! One could imagine how mad he felt at seeing something he was so close to getting his hands on slipping away from him.
The furious Aziz inexplicably rushed towards Jones!
A gunman like him was actually going up for a melee fight!
Within one exchange, Jones' claw had already pierced through Aziz's chest. However, Aziz had also seized the opportunity to stab the bayonet on his gun into one of Jones' compound eyes!
The attack made Jones howl in pain. That wasn't all. Aziz viciously pulled on the trigger of the rifle and shot Jones' eye into a deep black hole. The bullet penetrated all the way into the brain!
Jones screamed in agony but still managed to thrust his terrifying chelicera towards Aziz. Luckily, Sheyan had reached them in time. He sank his shoulders into Aziz and bumped him away, but his left hand was severed by the chelicera instead! The severed arm flew three meters away while spraying blood!
Neither Sheyan nor Aziz could have imagined how fierce this battle turned out to be. When the MIB agents saw them fight desperately with their lives on the line, they finally realised how much danger they were in. If they don't fight with everything they have, they would surely die here today. They immediately came forward and fired a volley of shots at Jones.
About 1/4 of the mutated carapace covering Jones' body had been destroyed. At the same time, he had to constantly protect his head. Jones was instantly strained and had to desperately defend. After a while, he finally made a mistake. The wound on the right side of his body was once again shot and another explosion occurred! His body was close to breaking down…..
But even when he was about to die, Jones still severed his own claw and threw it viciously at an MIB agent, killing him and nailing him to the wall! Although Sheyan blasted Jones head off with the 'Beast of Corrosion' on the next second, but….he couldn't prevent the death of the Senior MIB Agent!
Sheyan and Aziz both had another 10 achievement points deducted!
This group of MIB agents had made each of them lose 22 achievement points in total!! 22 achievement points!!
Aziz's heart was dripping with blood…. He could only look towards Jones's body with anticipation, hoping that the loot could give him some comfort….
Chapter 940: Death(TL: This is bonus chapter #6 for October. Enjoy! And thanks for the support!)
The death of Jones the alien Bug King was worthy of his title of a king. It was extraordinary.
After he died, his body turned stiff as a statue for a while, then quickly dissolved and evaporated, like butter or wax. A pool of sticky pale yellow liquid covered the soft crimson ground. Countless transparent oothecae (TL: the egg cases of cockroaches, mantises, and related insects) could be vaguely seen floating in the liquid. Numerous bugs swam in the liquid and jumped around madly like frightened river prawns, but in the end, they couldn't escape the fate of dying.
The MIB agents were anxious to check Jones' remnant for the “Galaxy”. However, when they touched the bodily fluid left by Jones, despite wearing gloves, they immediately screamed in agony.
Their fingers looked as if they had been soaked in sulfuric acid. The fingers first turned yellow and white, then started to decay. The decay even started to spread upwards through the hand. The resulting pain was unbearable. Some of the MIB elites completely lost control of themselves and rolled around on the ground while wailing miserably.
Luckily, Aziz was on alert and had rushed towards them at once. He then used the bayonet to quickly cut off the MIB agents' fingers, or their hands in the more serious cases. They paid a hefty price for their impatience.
If Aziz hadn't done that, not only would the agents lose their precious lives, they might cause the military rank of Sheyan and Aziz to go down by a level as well.
“Aziz! Something's not right!” said Sheyan with a frown after waiting for a while. “I didn't receive any notifications of the kill!”
Aziz was on full alert. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the surrounding:
“Me neither. That damn thing is still alive.”
The atmosphere was quiet all around them, with the only sound coming from the dripping of water. What surprised them even more was that the destroyed ovum was still struggling to gather itself back, seemingly unwilling to accept its death.
Sheyan and Aziz both paid careful attention to a few pieces of Jones' carapace which that did not dissolve after his death. These carapace pieces were crystal-clear and shining like diamonds. Since neither of them received notification of the kill, Jones' real body was likely hidden inside!
However, at that moment, Sheyan suddenly realised there were two thick, strange, bloody arms stretching out from the crimson meat wall behind Aziz. The lines of muscles on the arms were very obvious. Each large arm only had three fingers with long, sharp nails. The arms grabbed at Aziz's neck without warning.
Sheyan didn't even have the time to shout a warning. He could only pounce towards Aziz, but it was too late; the nails on the mysterious arms had already penetrated into Aziz's neck. Aziz suddenly disappeared – it turned out that Aziz was only an illusionary image.
The next second after the illusion was broken, a senior MIB agent who had been shivering on the ground suddenly stood up with a roll and took a big step forward.
With this step, his body shattered like a broken mirror. The pieces scattered all over but vanished before touching the ground. The sight was horrifying. Only after he took this step did the others realise that Aziz had disguised himself as this MIB agent since God knows when!!!
Sheyan was shocked too! He felt that he had distributed his free attribute points correctly, because it seemed that in the later stages, almost every Agility-specialist would know a couple of illusion spells that they could use to attack the enemy or to escape by surprise. Maintaining a certain level of Perception Sense could ensure that Sheyan would at least not be at a disadvantage when faced with these kind of situations.
Aziz seized on this opportunity. He coldly lifted his old-fashioned Mosin–Nagant rifle with a single hand.
At that moment, a strange, low humming noise reverberated in Sheyan's ears. The noise was rather similar to the sound a plane made when it took off or landed. His nose seemed to have gone out of order, but there was a bloody taste in his mouth. The whole space seemed to have condensed into the muzzle of Aziz's rifle at a high speed!
Then, a shot sounded.
Even the MIB agents could see – or rather, sense – a very old-fashioned brass bullet shooting out of the muzzle while a brass shell was perfectly ejected to the side. The brass bullet had a clear accumulation of history and dirt. The bullet head was deliberately filed into the shape of a cross and had a twisted letter 'S' on its side.
This bullet was carved deep into the senses of everyone present, as if it was magnified in their perception. They couldn't miss it even if they tried too!
The brass bullet flew past and penetrated into the meat wall. All of them heard the clear sound of the most precious crystal shattering on the hardest of rocks.
For a moment, the whole world seemed to be swirling.
A humanoid creature covered in flesh and blood fell down from the meat wall. His mouth emitted some noise that sounded meaningless, but if one carefully thought about it, one would find the noise filled with a deep chill. It sounded like an elegy sung by a dying mermaid – it was sad, mournful, and determined.
Then, the air around the body of the flesh-and-blood humanoid creature began to redden. The red air quickly spread in every direction. The spot under the creature's feet suddenly burst with a glaring light shaped like an inverted funnel. A flesh-and-blood tornado formed around him. Everything that was caught up in the tornado was completely destroyed.
“You can kill me, but all of you will die with me!!”
A deafening roar resounded! It seemed that Jones did not die from the previous attack. He had abandoned his previous body in an instant and had sneaked into the wall of the womb to make a new body.
However, Aziz had accurately identified his core and gave him a fatal blow!
The lethality of the rapidly-rotating flesh-and-blood tornado was even more terrifying than the sharpest blades. The meat wall which had given Sheyan and the MIB so much trouble was nothing in front of tornado; it disintegrated as if it was carved up by a large number of formless blades. After the pieces from the meat wall entered the tornado, they were grinded into meat liquid and powder.
The tornado was like a giant grinder. Everything that was wrapped by it would be processed into fine powder which would fall like rain.
It was worth noting that the flesh-and-blood humanoid creature at the eye of the tornado was also dying rapidly.
Aziz immediately yelled when he saw the fast-moving flesh-and-blood tornado:
“You MIB idiots! Run!”
Both Aziz and Sheyan knew that this was Jones' dying blow. The flesh-and-blood tornado may seem terrifying, but it was powered by the life of the flesh-and-blood humanoid creature inside. It could stop at any moment!
Therefore, the thing most likely to cause heavy losses for Sheyan and Aziz were their temporary teammates from the MIB! If even one MIB agent was killed, it would probably cost each of them 15 achievement points. If three MIB agents were killed…. Sheyan didn't dare to imagine such a horrible outcome.
This situation reminded Sheyan of something that happened in basketball in Lebron James' first tenure with the Cavaliers. There was a discussion on which player was the best at stopping Lebron James, and the honour went to his teammate Drew Gooden….
Sheyan pounced towards the MIB agents and, with one of them under each arm, rolled away from the danger area near the tornado. The price Sheyan paid for that action was to have his back grazed by the tornado. At least half the area of his back was put to the grind and turned into a bloody mess, revealing the white ribs inside. It was a horrifying sight.
Sheyan gnashed his teeth in pain and anger, and shouted:
“I hate this damn mission! I hate being a babysitter!”
Aziz was calmly fired three consecutive shots. Even with his exceptional shooting technique, two of those three shots missed the target. The two bullets were blown away by the flesh-and-blood tornado. The third bullet penetrated into the core.
Sheyan tentatively threw a curse-mix. The shockwave from the curse-mix became the straw that broke the camel's back.
The flesh-and-blood tornado finally stopped!
[You have killed the Bug King / Mother Womb's Pollinator / Mother Womb's Guardian / His Majesty, The Great Sharista / Jones Silk-Carapace.]
[You have gained 10 achievement points.]
[You have gained 10 free attribute points.]
[There are currently 11 galaxies in which Jones Silk-Carapace is a wanted fugitive. Six of those galaxies allow someone who can provide solid evidence of killing Jones to receive the bounty, even if the person had not accepted the relevant hunting mission beforehand.]
[Hint: You must receive the bounty through the MIB.]
[Hint: Your reputation among the Arquillians has increased to 'Friendly'. You will receive a 20% discount when you trade with them.]
[Hint: You have obtained Jones' Tail. You can use this to travel through the mother womb uninhibited. It will disappear once it leaves the mother womb!”]
Chapter 941: Dark Green Boxing GlovesAfter reading the series of notifications, Sheyan felt slightly less gloomy. From his point of view, the importance of free attribute points was comparable to the importance of achievement points in a 1:1 ratio. On the other hand, Aziz, who was in desperate need of achievement points, was pretty frustrated.
Only after they contacted the MIB through a senior agent nearby did they find out that the bounties from the six galaxies were actually quite decent. They could choose rare precious metals, genetic-modification medicine or wormhole coordinates.
Among them, the precious metals were all extremely rare metals that were hardly found anywhere in the universe. They were “unknown mysterious items” that could easily be traded to the realm after they returned.
Genetic-modification medicine could increase their base attribute points.
The coordinates of wormholes were jealously guarded secrets most of the time. That's because in interstellar trade, a good wormhole coordinate could cut the journey by hundreds, sometimes even thousands of light years. Wormhole coordinates could be sold for exorbitant prices! Of course, the wormhole coordinates the six galaxies were willing to provide shouldn't be too valuable, but they could easily be sold for utility points.
Sheyan and Aziz had just taken a big hit to their achievement points, so they chose the rare precious metals that were labeled “unknown mysterious items”. The rewards from the six galaxies differed in their amount, but in total, the six “unknown mysterious items” could fetch them 13 achievement points. Aziz finally looked less bitter.
If they wanted to trade with the Arquillians, they must first find the Galaxy to restore the relationship between Arquillia and Earth back to normal. They could only put this off for now.
Jones's tail looked a lot like a scorpion's stinger – after it was magnified dozens of times, of course. When it pierced into the wall of the womb, the unbelievably tough crimson wall would dissolve and open up, as if the tail was a key opening a door. The tail made it easier for them to continue exploring.
While Sheyan was lost in thought, Aziz came over and raised his hand. On Aziz's palm lied a strange yellow crystal that was faintly shimmering. At its front, there was a clear bullet hole with cracks on the edge. This was probably Jones' core.
“Is this….the key dropped by Jones?” asked Sheyan dubiously.
Aziz nodded and said:
“I'm activating it.”
Sheyan's eyes gleamed with anticipation:
“I'm really looking forward to what we'll get.”
Aziz thought about it and said:
“Based on Jones' strength, he has a high chance of dropping dark gold equipment. However, because a lot of storyline characters were involved in the attack and they played a large role in killing Jones, it's hard to say.”
Sheyan smiled and said:
“These kind of things always depend on luck anyway.”
Aziz nodded in agreement. He exerted force with his hand and clenched the strange yellow crystal tightly. The crystal was instantly crushed into powder, which fell from the gap between Aziz's fingers. It formed into something that looked like a spider cocoon, resting on the ground like an old linen sack.
Aziz seemed to be very used to checking the spoils of his team, so without much care, he pulled off the “old linen sack” to reveal….a dark green glow!!
(TL note: Equipment grade order: 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 (upgradable equipment) < gold storyline )
Two lumps of gray, unremarkable things appeared in front of them. Although they appeared ragged, the glow they gave off was unmistakably dark green. When Aziz's fingers came into contact with them, a series of information appeared.
[Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove (Left)]
[Origin: Any world that may have in-depth communication with alien civilizations]
[Rarity: Dark Green (Set 2/2)]
[Material: Steel wire + Cast carbon + Pilosocereus pachycladus sprout + Boiling materials from planet cores + Singularity fruit]
[Addons: Nuclear power add-on battery (slot x3)]
[Equipment Position: Left hand]
[Equipment Type: Glove]
[Warning: In order to display the full power of this equipment, the wearer's DNA must be analysed and bound. Once equipped, it will bind with the wearer's soul and can no longer be traded.]
[Weight: 17.3 kg]
[Usage Requirements: Strength 50 points, Physique 70 points]
[Attack Power: 50-180]
[Durability: 350/800]
[Property: This glove will be in an energy-saving state when out of battle. In this state, its weight will drag you down, reducing your movement speed by 10 points (equivalent to the movement speed provided by 10 points of Agility). The effect will only disappear after the glove is activated.]
[Property: The core system of this glove comprised of an internal metal boiling point furnace that can devour and decompose the rare metal in the rest of the equipment to recharge the glove. Of course, you can also pay utility points to the realm to recharge the glove. The glove must be kept charged to display a strong combat power. It is your responsibility to make sure the glove's energy is always at full load.]
[Property: The chance of your melee attacks stunning the enemy is increased by 3% and the speed of your hand is increased by 15%.]
[Property: Your melee attack will have a chance to trigger a crash effect when the enemy you attack has less than 50% HP remaining, causing damage to enemies in the surrounding area. The damage value will be randomly selected from the last three damage sustained by the enemy. The true damage value must not exceed 200 points.]
[Property: Strength, Agility and Physique +2]
[Property: When the glove was made, a substance which emits strong, continuous radiation was mixed in, so the chance of you sustaining an explosive hit is increased by 3%.]
[Special Effect: Exquisite – The advanced craftsmanship of the aliens resulted in the high durability of this glove. If you are directly attacked by an enemy, there is a 50% chance of cutting the glove's durability consumption by half.]
[Special Effect: Rare – This item is very rare and the materials needed to repair it are very precious. To perform a maintenance of the glove in the realm, in addition to paying 500% of the repair fee, you must also pay 1 achievement point!]
[Equipment Ability: Uppercut! – Use this glove to land a fierce punch on the enemy's chin (if they have a chin), instantaneously stunning and launching the enemy into the air for a duration of 2 seconds. The damage value of this ability is equal to your normal attack power, but there is a 50% chance of explosive hit, and the stunning and airborne effects have precedence. Cooldown time: 1 minute.
[Set Special Effect: Accuracy increased by 7%]
[Set Special Effect: Whenever you attack an enemy, there is a chance to absorb 50 points of HP.]
[Description: This is a tool created by the aliens for the purpose of mining. An alien transformed it into a product suitable for combat. With it, he wandered through the universe, robbing and slaughtering wantonly. One day, he encountered Jones who was even more brutal than himself. His body was consumed by Jones to become nutrition for the bugs, while his equipment became Jones' collection. Now, it has become yours.]
[Planetary-Grade High-Energy Mechanical Power Glove (Right)]
[Origin: Any world that may have in-depth communication with alien civilizations]
[Rarity: Dark Green (Set 2/2)]
[Material: Steel wire + Cast carbon + Pilosocereus pachycladus sprout + Boiling materials from planet cores + Singularity fruit]
[Addons: Nuclear power add-on battery (slot x1)]
[Equipment Position: Right hand]
[Equipment Type: Glove]
[Warning: In order to display the full power of this equipment, the wearer's DNA must be analysed and bound. Once equipped, it will bind with the wearer's soul and can no longer be traded.]
[Weight: 17.3 kg]
[Usage Requirements: Strength 50 points, Physique 70 points]
[Attack Power: 30-60]
[Durability: 488/800]
[Property: This glove will be in an energy-saving state when out of battle. In this state, its weight will drag you down, reducing your movement speed by 10 points (equivalent to the movement speed provided by 10 points of Agility). The effect will only disappear after the glove is activated.]
[Property: The core system of this glove comprised of an internal metal boiling point furnace that can devour and decompose the rare metal in the rest of the equipment to recharge the glove. Of course, you can also pay utility points to the realm to recharge the glove. The glove must be kept charged to display a strong combat power. It is your responsibility to make sure the glove's energy is always at full load.]
[Property: Just like the boxers on Earth, you can use it to block and prevent those hooks, uppercuts, jabs, crosses, and other attacks from hurting you directly. When you use this glove to block, the success rate of blocking is increased by 33%, and even if the block is unsuccessful, it can reduce 15% of the damage.]
[Property: When the enemy's melee attack hit the glove, the kinetic energy circulation system in the glove will activate and will try to absorb the enemy's power. After the glove blocks 1000 points of cumulative damage (theoretical damage), it will activate the support system in the glove and inject cellulose into your body, increasing your agility by 20% for 10 seconds.]
[Property: Intelligence, Spirit and Perceptive Sense +2]
[Equipment Ability: Tactical Throw – This glove was originally used for mining. It can allow the wearer to explode with a huge amount of energy for a certain period of time. The wearer will be able to lift nearby objects and throw them! The throwing distance is 20-50 meters. The Strength and Physique of the wearer will determine the success rate of 'Tactical Throw'.]
[Special Effect: Exquisite – The advanced craftsmanship of the aliens resulted in the high durability of this glove. If you are directly attacked by an enemy, there is a 50% chance of cutting the glove's durability consumption by half.]
[Special Effect: Rare – This item is very rare and the materials needed to repair it are very precious. To perform a maintenance of the glove in the realm, in addition to paying 500% of the repair fee, you must also pay 1 achievement point!]
[Set Special Effect: Increase blocking success rate by a further 15%, but decrease damage reduction from blocking by 5%.]
[Set Special Effect: 'Tactical Throw' can be used on living creatures.]
[Description: If an outstanding baseball player obtains this glove, tsk tsk….. Unfortunately, this idea is unrealistic.]
Chapter 942: SecretAziz stared at the pair of dark green set equipment for a while. To be honest, the value of this pair of boxing gloves could be considered to have surpassed two pieces of dark gold equipments.
They could be used for both offence and defence. They could punch a hole through the enemy's defence when they attack, and they could turn the wearer into a well fortified fortress when they defend.
'Uppercut' was a very good crowd control ability, as was 'Tactical Throw'. After the upgrade from the set effect enabled the ability to throw living creatures, it could display its usefulness in many ways. Finally, the boxing gloves also increased blocking rate. Every property of these gloves was extraordinarily valuable.
And the most invaluable fact was that both pieces of the set was dropped together!
For contestants, the most frustrating part with set equipments lay in the word “set”!
Without the set effects, the properties of a single dark green equipment may not even be comparable to a silver storyline equipment. They also had pretty obvious negative effects. For example, these pair of boxing gloves both needed to be recharged either by spending a lot of utility points or by feeding them other equipments! How many people could afford to do that? Each piece by itself was probably less practical than a black equipment.
Contestants who obtained a dark green equipment usually wouldn't be able to obtain the rest of the set themselves. They could only purchase the rest of the set through the realm at exorbitant prices.
However, once the set was completed, it will show its power! 'Tactical Throw' could be used on living creatures! First, the wearer can stun the enemy with an 'Uppercut', then grab the enemy and throw them off a cliff! Such a shameless tactic!
Not only that, the ability could also be used to throw an enemy into a crowd of allies, or throw an ally who's good at AoE attack towards the battlefield to let them quickly join in the battle, or throw a near-death ally towards a safe place….
A tiny pair of gloves brought about infinite possibilities in tactical changes!
If Zeus got his hands on this pair of boxing gloves, his power would increase by more than 30%! And that was only Aziz's conservative estimate!
However, Zeus was destined to miss out on these gloves.
Aziz could only obtain the pair of boxing gloves if Sheyan willingly give up on them. But was that possible? Of course, Aziz could just embezzle them, but that thought never even crossed his mind.
On a personal level, Aziz was an extremely arrogant guy. He had never done this kind of thing ever since he became strong. He's the type to always push forward at full speed, without looking back! He would do anything for the sake of survival, but embezzling equipments for his own gain went against his conscience. Doing something like that would likely have an effect on his state of mind.
On an official level, Aziz still needed to cooperate with Sheyan on the Golden Side Mission. With the promise of even greater profit, Aziz wouldn't sour his relationship with Sheyan right now.
Despite having countless thoughts running through his mind, Aziz was actually just stunned for a moment. He then raised the pair of boxing gloves and asked in a cold demeanor:
“Do you want these?”
Sheyan raised his eyebrows and smiled as he replied:
“Take a freaking guess.”
Aziz harrumphed coldly and threw the gloves at Sheyan. Immediately, the glow on the old sack that looked like a spider cocoon left by Jones dimmed down. Aziz told Sheyan:
“I'll take the rest.”
Sheyan nodded:
“OK, no problem.”
Jones' other “remnants” consisted of a black grade armour and some miscellaneous items. However, in Aziz's opinion, the most valuable thing left was probably the “Galaxy”. If Aziz could get the Galaxy, he's not losing out by much.
Unfortunately, poor Aziz didn't know that the real Galaxy had been resting in Sheyan's personal space for quite a while. He was bound to take a loss in the distribution of spoils this time.
Right after Sheyan got the gloves, he immediately carried out the DNA matching. The gloves looked gray and unspectacular because they were originally intended for mining purposes and were only transformed into combat weapons later on.
However, as soon as they were activated, the alloy skeleton on every finger joint and on each wrist would rotate rapidly. The rotation speed would definitely get more intense during battle. The power that erupted from the gloves would definitely be amazing!
But the recharging problem shocked Sheyan speechless! If he opted to use utility points, he would need a staggering 47,000 points to charge them from their current empty state into full energy load! Fortunately, Sheyan had obtained two pieces of blue equipments after battling all the way here. He fed them to the gloves and saw that the energy level had recovered by around 25%, which meant that he would need about 8 blue equipments to fully charge the gloves.
In the current market, the price of an ordinary blue equipment was about 2000 utility points. Of course, abnormal blue equipments like Sheyan's '+7 West' were outliers. If Sheyan used equipments to recharge, he would need about 16,000 utility points worth of equipments to fully charge the gloves. That's a lot more cost-effective than directly paying with utility points.
It's just that his party's 'Flesh Explosion' ability also required the sacrifice of equipments to upgrade. With the addition of gluttons like the boxing gloves, all equipments below black grade obtained by the Ace Party from now on would probably be internally consumed…..
Next, Sheyan tried out the 'Uppercut'. He found that the ability was probably more useful in battles between contestants. It was a bit lacking for battles with storyline characters because some of the larger characters could not be forced to leave the ground with 'Uppercut'.
'Tactical Throw', on the other hand, was excellent. If he threw stones or similar projectiles at a target, the effects would differ depending on the size of the stone. A palm-sized stone would cause damage to the target based on Strength + Physique, and stun the target for 2 seconds. Larger stones had shorter range, but a circular shockwave would appear where they landed.
If he tried to throw an ally, the ally had the right to refuse.
Next, Sheyan checked with the realm and found that the boxing gloves he wore were classified as “small-sized precision gloves”. If he learned the advanced mastery of the gloves, he could use other weapons while wearing them. Of course, the effects of the two types of weapons do not stack.
After he finished dealing with his own matters, he found Aziz frowning at something that looked like a piece of stone, but also like a piece of bone. Aziz believed that this object was the one most likely to reveal the location of the Galaxy among the things that Jones left behind, so he naturally had to inspect it carefully. Sheyan kept quiet and turned to the MIB agents who were on their last legs.
“We've killed Jones, and all of you are pretty heavily injured. What are your plans now?”
Senior Agent S coughed a few times and replied with a frown:
“We've obtained first-hand evidence of Jones' death. Although the Galaxy has not been found, we finally have something for the unreasonable Arquillians. If we stay here in this sinister place and meet with any danger later, we'll only die a dog's death, so we plan to return to the ground and contact the Arquillians first. We should be able to buy some time from them.”
Sheyan and Aziz must now escort these guys back again, not at the insistence of the MIB agents, but at the insistence of Sheyan and Aziz – if a few of them lost their lives on the way back, Sheyan and Aziz would probably break down in tears!
When the MIB agents were escorted back, Z was overjoyed. He did not renege on his words and had immediately fulfilled his promise. He handed over a USB drive which contained a part of the MIB gun technology to both Sheyan and Aziz.
The two of them did not plan to stop here. They planned to continue digging up the secrets of this huge underground reproductive system. Sheyan had a feeling that some kind of secret must be hidden in the deepest part of the structure, while Aziz's intuition told him that the Galaxy was somewhere inside the damn thing.
Sheyan sighed at the sharpness of Aziz's intuition, but Aziz could never imagine that the Galaxy was actually in Sheyan hands. It's a good thing that they had Jones's tail now, so they no longer had to wait for the ovary to ovulate to go anywhere. They could just puncture a hole in the meat wall with the tail. The tail made it very convenient for them to explore the secrets of this strange, deep, gigantic womb.
It didn't take long for Sheyan and Aziz to patrol every incubator room, but unfortunately, they didn't find anything special. Suddenly, a low humming noise reverberated throughout the inside of the huge organ. The noise was full of an oppressive feeling and almost caused Sheyan and Aziz to vomit blood. It lasted for a whole ten seconds before it stopped.
“Over here!” exclaimed Aziz sharply as he suddenly pointed at a corner of the wall with his facial muscles twitching. Sheyan strode over without a word and proceeded to stab Jones' tail into the spot Aziz pointed at. However, Jones' tail, which had met absolutely no resistance so far, had inexplicably failed. It couldn't pierce into meat wall at that spot! It seemed that the key was still the key, but the keyhole was gone.
Aziz pulled out his rifle and stabbed the bayonet into the meat wall. When he pulled it out, a pale yellow liquid sprayed out. Aziz managed to dodge sideways, but his face immediately soured.
That's because the sharp bayonet on his rifle was now covered in a yellowish-green rust!
Chapter 943: The Murderer is Here?Aziz's bayonet had a very special origin. It wasn't a looted treasure; Aziz actually brought it into the nightmare realm from the real world.
The original form of this bayonet was a dagger used by the American special forces. This dagger first killed Aziz's father, mother, grandfather and grandmother, then finally stabbed into Aziz's thigh. He was only two years old at the time.
The dagger became his only toy when he was a child. After twenty years, he stabbed the dagger into the heart of its original master.
When he was discovered and then recruited by the nightmare realm, the dagger came in with him for some reason. As Aziz became more familiar with the realm, he finally paid some money to have a contestant with a forging ability forge the dagger into a bayonet.
The bayonet had no grade but it was a very powerful trump card for Aziz. Others would think that a gunman would be weak after being closed down; they wouldn't know that Aziz had a bayonet that could pierce through almost anything. It could kill without spilling a drop of blood.
But at this moment, the surface of the bayonet had a very clear layer of rust. When the rust was scraped with fingernails, some rotten powder would drop! When Aziz had used the bayonet to pierce the squirming crimson meat wall before, it was as easy as a hot knife cutting through butter. What lay behind the place where the sound originated from, and why did it have such powerful defence?
Aziz was in desperate need of achievement points at the moment, but he showed not the slightest bit of hesitation in consuming 8 achievement points to repair the bayonet! It was obvious that Aziz placed this weapon above everything else. Sheyan obtained this information because he was currently in a semi-alliance with Aziz and he had military rank advantage.
The incident also reminded Sheyan to be more careful. If he wanted to sell the Galaxy for a good price later, he better stay away from Aziz and do so without Aziz's knowledge. Otherwise, there would be cracks in the already tenuous alliance between them . At least, before the completion of the Golden Side Mission, Sheyan had to hide it carefully.
The strange sound gradually reappeared again, and the amplitude of the sound kept getting lower. The sound was not the kind of clear ringing sound when steel collides, but rather, it sounded like the low rumble when a car started, causing the uncomfortable feeling of the organs in the body vibrating.
Aziz looked towards Sheyan. He had already acted and had suffered a loss, so it should be Sheyan's turn now.
Sheyan's thick black brows were furrowed as he stared at the part of the meat wall that was stabbed by Aziz before this. A yellow liquid still dripped down from the spot and the wound did not quickly heal. It kept twitching and squirming, looking like a pair of mysterious lips reciting a silent curse.
Sheyan looked thoughtful as he squatted down, held Jones' tail between his fingers, and stabbed it fiercely into the wound!
The meat wall wasn't impregnable this time, but the crimson meat walls all around them started to squirm vigorously as if there was a large earthquake. Meanwhile, yellow liquid gushed out from the wound. Sheyan tried his best to dodge but he couldn't avoid all of it.
After the liquid splashed onto his body, it eroded into his flesh like sulfuric acid and gave off an unpleasant stench. At the same time, there was a strong resistance from the wound, as if it was trying to repel Jones' tail which was half a meter long!
Sheyan groaned and, ignoring the liquid which had completely burned his face, he continued to exert strength and finally pushed all of Jones' tail into the meat wall. Instantly, a strange noise which sounded like very thick cardboard slowly being torn apart was transmitted from within the meat wall. The meat wall started to constrict and split apart to form a tunnel which extended downwards.The walls on the two sides of the tunnel were very uneven, looking just like how the broken side of a sausage ham would look like if it was torn apart instead of sliced apart. Not only that, the crimson, fleshy walls were also madly secreting a pale yellow liquid!
Sheyan simply rushed into the newly-opened tunnel without much care because he had high defence and HP. Aziz hesitated slightly and immediately saw that the unstable tunnel had begun to rapidly close back up.
Seeing this, could Aziz still play it safe? Does he dare to play it safe? He could only grit his teeth and rush into the tunnel. Even though his whole body sizzled due to the erosion of the corrosive yellow liquid that had been falling down like rain, he could only soldier on.
Fortunately, the tunnel was not that long. Sheyan had only run for a dozen odd seconds before he his vision broadened. He rushed into an open space about the size of a basketball court. The place still looked like the environment inside a living body, with the walls, ceilings and floors all having a fleshy crimson colour. However, the colour here was obviously darker than where they were before, and seemed to be rich with blood.
In the centre of the area was a black-and-red oocyst (TL: Something like an egg) the size of a truck suspended in mid-air, rhythmically twitching. Above it connected a dark purple aorta (ED: That's the bigass artery that come out of the heart) the thickness of a bucket, while at the bottom, there was a large lump of folded umbilical cord that looked like the tubes on firefighter trucks. A large amount of liquid pumped through it.
The strange humming noise that they've been hearing came from the oocyst.
Sheyan noticed that as the humming noise sounded, layers of ripple-like wrinkle appeared on the surface of the oocyst. There seemed to be a connection between the two. Suddenly, Sheyan's pupils shrunk because he felt a strong sense of danger from behind him!
'There's nothing behind me but the meat wall half a meter away.' There was no change to Sheyan's expression but he was secretly shocked. However, when he compared this to Jones' attack from before, Jones' attack appeared much more clever. Sheyan thus felt much more relieved.
All of a sudden, Sheyan bent down and buried his head between his hands! A huge sickle-shaped limb appeared from the wall and slashed at him! If Sheyan had not acted in advance, this move would have been very deadly!
The sharp mantis limb left a long trail of sparks on Sheyan's right boxing glove! The attack was very strong. Fortunately, Sheyan's powerful new alien glove had reliably displayed its power. The mechanical joints that were rotating in all directions had skillfully absorbed most of the cutting force. Despite that, the cut still left a white mark on the surface of the glove.
Sheyan had not even seen the face of the ambusher before it had quickly retracted back into the meat wall at the side. After that, human-shaped bulges appeared on the meat wall, then broke away from the wall and turned into faceless, blood-red humanoid monsters. They seemed to perceive Sheyan as an enemy and had immediately charged towards him.
There was no doubt that the owner of the mantis limb was still hidden in the dark, waiting for a chance to strike.
The faceless flesh monsters pounced on Sheyan as soon as Sheyan entered their range. If Sheyan was held by them, he would definitely be on his back foot. Sheyan evaded two of the flesh monsters and kicked away one, then grabbed another one and twisted its neck until it broke. However, that didn't kill the monster. It continued attacking with its head tilted 180 degrees.
Sheyan turned to the side to avoid its attack, then threw his knee at its chest. The clear sound of bone breaking could immediately be heard. Sheyan felt as if there was a hard-shelled egg inside the monster's body, which shattered thanks to Sheyan's knee attack.
Next, Sheyan sent another flesh monster flying with a kick. He grabbed the shoulders of a flesh monster and continuously slammed his knee into the monster's abdomen. He was extremely ruthless. By the time Sheyan was done with it, its internal organs had all been broken. It dropped to the ground like a pile of mud. As soon as it died, it was immediately absorbed by the organic “floor”.
Suddenly, Sheyan felt a threat approaching from the ceiling. Although Sheyan had an early warning, the enemy was extremely fast. The terrifying giant sickle-limb once again slashed towards him. Sheyan didn't even have the time to block. He could only sink his shoulders, thus barely dodging the attack. Still, the sharp limb carved away a large piece of his flesh. The cut was so smooth it looked like it was made with a scalpel. Sheyan's clothes were instantly soaked in blood!
For some reason, Sheyan was suddenly reminded of the scene at the strange sacrificial ground, where the corpses were all cut into pieces! Only one thing could have caused such wounds! It was very likely that the series of murders were all committed by this person with the mantis' “sickle limb”!
When he thought of this, Sheyan immediately attached more importance to this person. He endured the pain and grabbed at the sharp deformed limb. At the same time, Aziz appeared from the entrance. The weapon in his hands flashed, sending a bullet over.
All Aziz did was pulling the trigger and firing a bullet, but anyone who saw him would feel a chill creep into their heart. It was a bullet that was fired but it screamed like an artillery shell. Such was its power.
The hidden enemy only lost his focus for an instant but the terrifying bullet had already reached him. The bullet carried the flesh of the two flesh monsters it passed through in its trajectory and pierced into the head of the enemy who couldn't dodge in time!
Chapter 944: Strange and Contradictory Breeding(TL: This is bonus chapter #7 for October. Enjoy! And thanks for the support!)
The flesh monsters hit by Aziz's bullet were torn apart into pieces, which fell on the squirming ground and were absorbed.
Although the guy with the huge mutated mantis forelimb struggled with all his might, Sheyan's high Strength attribute was no joke. The enemy couldn't pull himself free and Aziz's bullet accurately hit the target.
The shot forced him out from the meat wall and pushed him over 10 meters away while being drenched in a viscous blood-like liquid. He hit the huge oocyst in the center and rolled to the ground. Blood spurted out from him, forming a large crimson mist in the air!
The shot caused the eyes of both Sheyan and Aziz to shine with greed and their breathing to become heavier, like two hungry men who saw a beautiful woman!
That's because they could immediately see from the damage value that this person enjoyed the 40% rule, which meant that he was definitely a contestant!
It so happened that Sheyan and Aziz's Golden Side Mission lacked just one more Bloody Invitation Letter! That was to say, as long as they got rid of this guy, the Golden Side Mission could be considered half done! To get an invitation letter by crushing the opponent in a 2v1 situation in this isolated place – was there anything more beautiful in this world?
ROAR The half-squatting guy suddenly yelled: “How dare you hurt me, the great Togo! The Scarlet-Robed Cardinal will never let you off!”
Would Aziz stop to listen to the mad rambling of the guy called Togo? If shouts and curses were effective, being America's public enemy, Aziz would have been killed countless times!
Aziz raised his rifle and shot again! The bullet was almost not visible. The only thing that could be seen was its faint spiral trajectory in the air. Togo suddenly bent his head at such an angle that it almost seemed like it would fall off.
But it was thanks to this timely bend of his head that Aziz's bullet did not hit its target. The bullet was so close to Togo's cheek when it flew past that his skin could feel the heat emitted by the bullet. His facial hair had even curled up from the heat. After the bullet plunged deep into a meat wall, it exploded with a deafening roar and turned the nearby area into a sea of fire.
Togo saw that Sheyan had already stepped forward. Even though there was still a considerable distance between them, Togo could already feel a deadly threat from Sheyan. He raised his unmutated arm and aimed his palm at Sheyan!
Sheyan was just about to activate the 'Hornrage' ability from his 'Barbaric-Demon Pupil' ring when a series of explosions ripped through the air in front of him, leaving behind a stinging odour!
Not only that, but a huge amount of red mist sprayed out from the dark crimson meat walls in the surrounding. Numerous blood-coloured bubbles also spread through the air. The visibility became extremely low.
Over ten flesh monsters were delivered from the wall. These faceless flesh monsters were not that strong, but they were not afraid of death and were very crazy. More importantly, Sheyan and Aziz seemed to get no benefit from killing them. It was a really unrewarding task. Aziz frowned, fired three shots in a row, and finally sighed. He said with venom in his voice:
“That guy managed to run away!”
Because the cost of using the gloves was too high, Sheyan had once again brought out his '+7 West' and started his killing spree. The sound of the blade cutting into bones was shiver-inducing. The newly-created flesh monsters were just like farm chickens that were released back into the wild; they were completely at the mercy of battle veterans like Sheyan and Aziz.
The one-sided massacre ended as quickly as it had begun. The blood and body parts left on the ground were once again absorbed. The meat walls seemed as if they would greedily absorb anything with nutrient.
Sheyan and Aziz shifted their attention to the black and red oocyst in the middle. The surface of the oocyst was full of wrinkles, blood vessels and vein lines. It gave off an evil feeling and for some reason, reminiscent of a man's scrotum….. When it emitted the sound that was both deafening and shocking, a faint light which gave off a holy feeling would glow inside it. Such extreme and contradictory feelings given by the same object was truly very strange.
Using his gun, Aziz severed the giant aorta blood vessel above the oocyst and the disgusting umbilical cord below with no signs of hesitation. He coldly remarked:
“Now let's see what's in this damn thing!”
Sheyan walked forward. As if the giant black-and-red oocyst could feel Sheyan's hostility, it started squirming violently! Sheyan indifferently grabbed the tough skin of the oocyst and tore it! However, the skin only stretched; it didn't seem to fear being torn. Thus, Aziz could only walk over with a cold expression and cut a gash of more than a meter on the oocyst with the bayonet that he always carried with him.
The oocyst that was torn open fell helplessly to the ground like a broken parachute. Below it flowed a stream of pale-red tissue fluid. The air was filled with the faint bloody odour that even disinfectants couldn't cover up in labour rooms.
Sheyan pried open the oocyst and found a humanoid creature inside whose whole body, including its skin and face, seemed to be melting. Life was rapidly slipping away from it. Surprisingly, the glow which gave off a holy feeling was emitted from its body. The mouth of this humanoid monster was vigorously opening and closing like a fish that had just left the water and was trying hard to get the oxygen to survive.
Aziz looked at the monster in a condescending manner, then coldly said:
“This is the thing that caused us so much trouble?”
Next, Aziz mercilessly stomped on its throat. With how weak the monster looked, the stomp would probably kill him.
However, reality was often more bizarre than novel plots. When the monster was stepped on, a faint white light appeared on the surface of its body. The white light gathered together and burned the sole of Aziz's foot. Aziz immediately suffered Holy damage and was sent stumbling backwards.
The monster actually pounced forward with its mouth rattling. It reached out towards Aziz's legs. If Aziz was caught by it, he would definitely be thrown to the ground. For a person who specialised in long-range attacks, getting tangled up with this monster after falling to the ground was obviously not ideal….
Aziz continuously parried and dodged, but although the monster did not seem to have completely matured, its combat instinct was extremely strong. It constantly rolled on the ground while skillfully using its forehead, mouth, shoulders and other body parts to launch attacks. A faint white Holy energy overflowed from its body, causing a strong burn upon contact. The series of attacks it launched flowed smoothly and interlocked tightly with each other, forcing Aziz into a desperate state. He couldn't even find the chance to escape, let alone fight back!
Just as he was about to fall down due to the attacks, a majestic and irresistible strength gripped Aziz's shoulders together with a notification. After a slight pause, he gave the permission. The mechanical gloves on Sheyan's hands that were constantly spinning emitted a dark green glow and Aziz was suddenly thrown into the distance! The energy applied on him was both violent and soft; it not only allowed Aziz to fly a sufficient distance, but also allowed him to land safely.
This was the ability on the pair of dark green gloves which Sheyan was using for the first time – 'Tactical Throw'! The result was better than expected. However, the ability used quite a lot of energy, a full 15% of the energy bar. Sheyan also received the notification that if he continued to use 'Tactical Throw' in the next minute without waiting for the mechanical parts to cool down, the energy consumption would increase to 30%!
Sheyan appeared a lot more comfortable when he faced off against the strange undeveloped “fetus”. After all, he was an MT with far higher Strength and Physique compared to Aziz. The burn from the Holy energy was completely insignificant to Sheyan. Furthermore, the ambience was dim here; Sheyan had activated the 'Photon-Rejuvenation' ability which could heal him for 300 HP per minute. He did not care about the odd damages here and there.
Aziz was a very petty person. He was furious that the thing forced him into such an embarrassing state in front of Sheyan, so right now, he's firing hatefully with his teeth gnashed. When a powerful person like Aziz was left to fire at will, the consequence was frightening. It didn't take long for all the monster's limbs to be severed, causing a large amount of body fluids to flow out from it. It was on its last breath on the ground.
Only now did Aziz go forward once more. He said with a dark expression:
“Weren't you very powerful just now?”
The monster remained silent, but for some reason, the corners of its mouth curled into a peculiar smile. Aziz couldn't be bothered with it any more. He pulled out his bayonet and slashed fiercely! The monster bounced up like a shrimp that had left water, and when it landed, there was a horrible dark-red wound on its neck. Every organ in its neck, including the trachea, artery and oviduct, were severed by the bayonet but not much body fluid flowed out. There was just an intermittent gurgling sound.
Aziz coldly wiped his bayonet and put it back into its sheath. However, his expression totally changed after about two seconds. The change in his expression was strange; it was as if he was still acting cool in the previous second, but the next second, he had turned into a comedian!
What exactly happened that caused Aziz, who could murder without batting an eye, to be so flustered???
(TL: Find out on the next episode of Dragon Ball Z)
Chapter 945: Huge ConspiracySheyan opened his mouth and was about to ask Aziz what the problem was, but the next instant, he received a series of notifications and immediately understood:
[You have killed the Descended Holy Body (Immature). Please choose one of the following rewards:]
[A: Draw a random piece of equipment. The type of equipment is completely random, while the grade of the equipment will be randomly selected between blue, black, silver storyline, dark green, light green, dark gold, and gold storyline.]
[B: Obtain a random amount of utility points. The amount will range from 1000 to 100,000 utility points.]
[C: Obtain a random amount of base attribute points. The amount will range from 1 to 30 points.]
[D: Obtain a random amount of achievement points. The amount will range from 1 to 30 points.]
[E: Draw a random piece of item. The grade of the item will be randomly selected between blue, black, silver storyline, dark green, light green, dark gold, and gold storyline.]
“There's actually a chance to draw a gold storyline equipment or item!!” It's hard to describe the shock Sheyan was feeling at the moment.
(TL note: Equipment grade order: 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 (upgradable equipment) < gold storyline )
It must be noted that the base properties of light green equipments and items were probably not inferior to silver storyline equipments/items, and if their various requirements were met, they could slowly grow until they slightly surpass dark gold equipments/items in their final form.
Gold storyline equipments were top-class equipments with properties that far surpassed those of dark gold equipments. Only divine equipments could beat them!
So far, despite the help from Jinkuang, Sheyan had only ever obtained one light green equipment from the market! As for gold storyline equipments, he'd only ever heard of them and had never even seen one himself!
Sheyan was more shocked than surprised!
That's because he deeply understood that gain was proportional to risk! They didn't expend too much effort to kill this monster but had received such a generous reward, and it was only a monster that had yet to fully develop too! One could easily infer that if this monster had matured, it was likely to have extremely terrifying strength!
Sheyan shook his head and decided to put this thought aside for now. He would choose his reward first. After careful consideration, he decided that the probability of drawing a light green or gold storyline equipment was too small. He was not in urgent need of base attribute points either. So, Sheyan decided to raise his achievement points as a preparation to promote to Lieutenant Colonel.
He obtained 14 achievement points from the random draw. His luck was so-so; it was somewhere in the middle, not too bad and not too good. Meanwhile, Aziz got 21 achievement points! He was naturally extremely pleased.
Suddenly, the two of them heard another strange noise coming from the left. Aziz's eyes lit up as he asked:
“Could there be another embryo like this one being bred next door?”
When Aziz thought of this, his greed flared up. He immediately stabbed his bayonet into the meat wall and asked Sheyan to insert Jones' tail into the resulting wound.
However, Sheyan had this feeling that something was not right. Therefore, he first squatted down and dug a pit on the fleshy ground, then placed some genetical-extract mixes inside. He didn't know whether he could grow a creature in this damn place, but it's always better to be prepared.
However, the grown creature did not show any response for a long time. After waiting for a while, Sheyan and Aziz could only give up on it. They opened a tunnel into the room next to them. The things inside that room were pretty similar to the one they were in. The only difference was that the dark purple giant oocyst hanging in the middle of the room had actually been torn apart!
There was a huge opening on the side of the oocyst. The whole oocyst was wrinkled and dry like a wrung towel. All the liquid inside had been absorbed. On the fleshy red ground next to the oocyst scattered a lot of fresh bones with clear teeth marks on them!
When Sheyan and Aziz saw this, they immediately had an ominous thought – someone, or something, had been here one step ahead of them and had eaten the strange humanoid creature that hatched from the oocyst.
Aziz had a foul expression on his face – anyone would, seeing that a great opportunity that was right within their grasp had slipped away from them! He took a deep breath, then did some inspection. He then exclaimed furiously:
“This is where the thing had escaped from!”
The place that Aziz referred to was the “umbilical cord” under the oocysts! After easily removing the rotted umbilical cord pile, he immediately found a meat tunnel leading diagonally downwards. Aziz and Sheyan slid down the channel without hesitation. They reached another incubation room, but unfortunately, it had just been looted as well. The oocyst was broken, with only the bones left.
“What the hell are they breeding here?!” Sheyan felt more shaken the further they gave chase!
An underground giant female reproductive system spanning several kilometers, oocysts that looked like male scrotums, and a womb which was divided into an inner and outer area. The outer area was eerie enough, but the six secret rooms in the inner area were actually breeding humanoid creatures that gave off a holy feeling. And as soon as these humanoid creatures were born, the first thing they did was to kill and eat each other!
Sheyan had not even heard of such things before, let alone seen anything like it! The more crucial point was that Sheyan did not think Jones was capable of something this big. He smelled a huge conspiracy behind all these! Furthermore, the scale of the conspiracy was terrifyingly huge!
Despite the ominous premonition in their hearts, Sheyan and Aziz were still relentless in their pursuit. After passing through four incubating rooms, they finally found the killer who was always eating the embryos a step ahead of them in the fifth incubating room!!!
He was a tall, muscular and handsome man.
There was a hint of melancholy in his deep eyes and he wore a priest's scarlet robe that seemed to move with no wind. He had a very distinct air of holiness which was completely out of tune with the filthy and evil environment there!
But after looking at the man carefully, both Sheyan and Aziz drew in a sharp breath. They were shocked from the bottom of their hearts because upon closer scrutiny, they noticed that the man was completely naked! Where did his priest robe come from, then? It was grown from his own flesh! It may be difficult to tell from a distance, but it was quite obvious from close.
The man looked at them. His lips didn't move but a voice rang in their minds:
“Are you two lowly sinners the heathens Togo was talking about? I, the Scarlet-Robed Cardinal, am willing to give lost lambs like you a chance to repent your sins. Prostrate yourselves and accept the purification of the Holy Light!”
Aziz narrowed his eyes and took two steps back. The Scarlet-Robed Cardinal didn't have a strong air about him, nor did he give off a huge feeling of threat. He was just talking casually. However, Aziz knew that such people tend to belong to two extreme categories – they were either an empty-headed chatterbox, or an unfathomable enemy!
And based on the crazy fact that the Scarlet-Robed Cardinal had eaten a few embryos, his strength likely exceeded the imagination of the two.
At that instant, Sheyan felt the fighting desire in the 'Stairway of the Sun'. He suddenly blurted out:
“The most primitive light was derived from the deepest darkness. The brightest holiness was often born out of the filthiest darkness.”
The Scarlet-Robed Cardinal looked at Sheyan and praised him:
“You know quite a lot.”
But Aziz answered with a sneer instead:
“Holy my ass! He just ate all those undeveloped corpses. What's the difference between him and zombies?”
The Scarlet-Robed Cardinal said indifferently:
“I am only collecting my own Holy Bodies! What do ants like you know? What is evil, and what is holy? My actions are holy, and actions that I do not approve of are evil!”
“Such big words,” laughed Aziz.
But Aziz's next word died in his throat! With a wave of the Cardinal's hand, a wall towering high into the sky (figuratively speaking) instantly appeared in front of him and fell down towards them!
The immense pressure brought about by its sheer size aside, the blazing holy flame covering the wall gave them a strong sense that their souls would be purified into ashes if they were burned by it!
Sheyan immediately protected his head without hesitation and took a half step back to shift into a defensive stance. Aziz, meanwhile, wasted no time in taking cover behind Sheyan. Even so, Aziz still felt as if he was hit by a level 12 wind. In front of such a vast force, he felt like a small boat in a hurricane that could only drift with the waves!
However, Sheyan noticed that when the cardinal swung his hand and revealed his armpit, there was visibly a large patch of skin missing, thus revealing the flesh and veins inside. It appeared that Sheyan and Aziz's effort of killing one of the “Holy Bodies” was not in vain, because it directly limited the power absorbed by the Cardinal and caused a loophole to appear in his defence.
When the wall collided with Sheyan, the white holy flame spread throughout his body but it was put out in an instant. At the same time, Sheyan had also succeeded in buying some time. A black air surrounded him, and he was going to infect the Cardinal with a disease!
Chapter 946: ForceThe power of the virus was strong to begin with. Afterwards, the 'Stairway of the Sun' had even absorbed the mysterious extraterrestrial meteor and gobbled up Treebeard's Golden Fruits in the world of the Lord of the Rings, providing it with an enormous amount of energy and allowing it to separate into an animal form and a plant form. Finally, after the breakthrough challenge battle in this world, it also devoured one of its own kind. It had matured into a rather formidable stage by now.
Therefore, although Sheyan's 'Pestilence Monarch' was naturally weak against holy divine power, the divine power could only restrain 'Pestilence Monarch' to some extent, and was not completely immune to it!
Were priests and monks immune to sickness? At most, their chances of falling ill were smaller, and their conditions less severe. Therefore, Sheyan successfully spread his pneumonia to the Cardinal. The symptoms flared up immediately!
The first symptom that surfaced was severe coughing and expectoration. Sheyan's disease could be said to be quite strong so the negative effects were also very severe!
The Cardinal's brows furrowed because he could immediately feel the unbearable itch and pain in his throat, trachea, and lungs. A lump of thick, sticky phlegm was stuck in his throat, blocking his breathing, and he was forced to cough it out! Currently, in Sheyan's vision, the Cardinal was surrounded by a holy light, but there was a mass of black air around his respiratory tract.
As soon as the Cardinal became aware that something was amiss, he immediately directed the holy glow around his body towards the areas where the disease attacked. The black air signifying the disease was almost instantly overwhelmed by the light. However, Sheyan knew very well that with the Cardinal's current strength, while he could perhaps alleviate the symptoms of the disease, it was impossible for him to cure it!
Sure enough, the Cardinal soon frowned and lightly coughed twice. The phlegm that was made by germs was corroded by the holy power. Although the strong holy power had held the upper hand from the very beginning, Sheyan and Aziz still found an opportunity.
Aziz was a formidable guy. Even when the situation presented no chances, he would create one himself. When the Cardinal coughed, he naturally wouldn't let the opportunity slip. He raised his rifle with one hand and fired a shot. The glow around the bullet that shot out kept fluctuating and in the end the bullet was set ablaze.
When the Cardinal recovered from the cough, the bullet was only five meters in front of him. It was impossible for him to avoid it!
However, the Cardinal simply raised his hand and placed his palm in the bullet's path, then tightened his fist!
On the fist, the holy light glowed so brilliantly that the radiance almost blinded Sheyan's eyes! The bullet that was trapped in the Cardinal's fist could not penetrate through his palm at all. A dull explosion sounded. A few jets of black smoke mixed with flame gushed out from the gaps between his fingers, each of them half a meter long! It was obvious that Aziz's shot was very powerful, but not as powerful as this monster called the Cardinal!
He caught a bullet with his bare hand!
“Heathens….who spread diseases…..” the Cardinal did not look at Aziz who injured him, but instead stared at Sheyan. His words were spoken in a plain voice devoid of any emotion, containing only coldness. They felt like a sub-zero cold wind which blew through the barren Siberian wilderness, freezing the minds of people who heard them!
Even Sheyan, who had never been afraid of anything, felt a chill creeping up his spine when he heard the Cardinal's judgement. Those who were judged to be heathens, no matter how famous or important they were, had never had a good ending! Only one thing awaited them, and that was inhumane torture. And after the torture, they would be burned to death! ! ! !
The Inquisition's execution by fire of was definitely not as simple as being burned to death. Instead, the heathen would be tied to an ox cart and covered with rosin, then paraded around!
All of a sudden, the Cardinal raised his right hand loftily. In his hand rose a white ball of light. The ball of light didn't look very impressive and was even a little yellowish and dim.
The only thing special about it was that the ball of light would beat like a heart! Furthermore, its rhythm could actually affect the heartbeats of others, forcing their hearts to beat with the same rhythm!
Aziz fired three consecutive shots, but all of them were blocked by the Cardinal's other hand! The Cardinal nonchalantly threw the three flat and deformed bullets onto the ground.
However, Sheyan also noticed that when the Cardinal was accumulating energy into the ball of light, some black air had seeped into the main blood vessels all over his body. This was the special effect of Sheyan's disease : high fever! It forced the enemy's MP consumption to double when the enemy tried to use any ability!
Anyone who dared to attack him must pay the price!
The priest robe made from flesh on the Cardinal's body soared as his eyes flashed an icy glint:
“Cleanse those terrible sins of yours with your flesh! Go, my servant!”
As the Cardinal's words ended, the ball of light on his palm floated towards Sheyan and Aziz. Aziz wasn't someone who was easily scared; he fired a few shots at the ball of light in quick succession without any thought of defending himself. However, all the bullets merely penetrated through the ball of light and hit the meat wall at the back.
The ball of light sped up with every attack it took, reaching Aziz almost instantly! Aziz's pupils contracted when he saw this. He continuous tumbled to dodge the ball. Aziz's dodging technique was honed through blood and fire, he should have easily been able to avoid the ball of light, but the ball of light instantaneously accelerated and attached itself to Aziz's body in the blink of an eye!
The moment the ball touched him, Aziz issued a blood-curdling scream. How horrible did an attack have to be to make someone as cold as Aziz lose his composure like this? A series of exploding sounds came from Aziz's body, followed by a scorching smell. What surprised Sheyan the most was the fact that Aziz was sent into a state of near death in no time at all!!!
“How could this be?” Sheyan wasn't surprised that the enemy's firepower was so strong that Aziz sent to a state of near death…. After all, Aziz wasn't Zeus. There's nothing strange with him being fragile.
What really surprised Sheyan was the fact that Aziz entered a state of near death!
It must be known that only in a battle between contestants would there be 40% weakening in damage and the protection of the state of near death! Unless a contestant had an ability like Sheyan and Reef's 'Life-link', they would usually not enjoy the protection of the state of near death when they were attacked by storyline characters!
That could only mean that the Cardinal, who appeared as if he was going to take over the world, was actually a contestant! Who exactly was he???? Right now, Sheyan only knew that above the Growth Hunters were the Awakeners. Growth Hunters were similar to a crude steel ingot, while Awakeners were like steels that had started to undergo further processing and shaping.
For example, if a steel ingot was suitable to become a knife, then becoming an Awakener was like being formed into a blade. If a steel ingot was suitable to become a hammer, then becoming an Awakener was like being shaped into a steel block. If a steel ingot was suitable to become a gun, then after becoming an Awakener, it would at least take the shape of an elongated rod….
So was this Cardinal in front of him an existence which surpassed Awakeners? But he looked like a swindler and a bit like a storyline character too. However, Sheyan thought about Reef who's also like that.
So what if his realm went against the rules and gave the two of them a Golden Side Mission? The other realms weren't just gonna sit back.
Sheyan was sure that this strange, huge underground female reproductive system was definitely not something a single realm had the power to produce, which meant that….it might be something that multiple realms produced together by combining their intruders quota!
They gave up the opportunity to send more people into this world in order to arrange a terrifying situation where people with overwhelming strength could come to this world! They wanted to make sure both Sheyan and Aziz die!
Sheyan is a man and not a God, but his speculation and grasp of the situation was at least 70% right. Strictly speaking, the Scarlet-Robed Cardinal standing in front of them right now was only a clone. Yes, he was similar to the clone which Sheyan fought in the breakthrough challenge, so his personality was a bit weird. He was something in between a contestant and a storyline character, but his strength was not diminished at all!
When Sheyan saw Aziz enter a state of near death, he immediately rushed forward, since the two of them were on the same boat at the moment. He slammed his shoulder into the ball of light and sent it flying from Aziz's body to prevent Aziz from dying here.
As soon as Sheyan came into contact with the strange ball of light, his whole body shook. He immediately understood why Aziz reacted the way he did!
Chapter 947: RestrainThe strange ball of light thrown by the Cardinal seemed to be a single object, but it was actually comprised of energy in the form of countless needles. Upon closer inspection, it could be seen that each needle was formed of a string of spiritual words!
Two seconds after coming into contact with the ball of light, Sheyan could already feel his whole abdomen turn cold as if it was poked by seven or eight sharp needles at the same time, causing him severe pain. Each second the ball of light touched him, he would be attacked a few times!
Not only did the needle-like energies hurt him physically, they even touched his soul and penetrated deep into his senses, causing extra damage. Every time he felt the pain, a line of prayer would be shoved into his mind!
“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name…”
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven…..”
“Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil…..”
“For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen…..”
These prayers were extremely overbearing. After invading Sheyan's mind, they stubbornly refused to dissipate. They completely confined his thinking and subverted his thoughts. Sheyan was originally thinking of ways to counterattack and ways to bring them out of this difficult situation, but these prayers kept crashing about in his mind like corrosive maggots, tearing Sheyan's thoughts into pieces!
In the words of Buddhism, this kind of attack was referred to as cognitive hindrances; in Confucianism, it was called distracting thoughts! Distracting thoughts that can only be severed by the sword of wisdom!
The most powerful aspect with this kind of attack was that the more complex a person's mind was, and the faster one's thought process, the more effective the attack would be. Simple-minded people would find this kind of attack to be pretty useless….
After Sheyan was hit by the attack, his eyes fell into a daze. Exploding sounds similar to firecrackers going off were emitted throughout his body. The force from the explosions forced him to stumble back by a few steps. In this short duration, he had suffered dozens of attacks!
The confused look in Sheyan's eyes only receded after the attack had subsided for more than ten seconds. The power of the spiritual attack gradually drifted away and his mind slowly regained its clarity. Aziz rushed towards him, grabbed his sleeve and growled through gritted teeth:
“We're no match for him! Run!”
But at that moment, the Cardinal had successfully gathered his power once again. He looked at them with a sneer and directed his palm towards them! Another spiritual word ball of light flew over!
Aziz's pupils contracted. When he realised that Sheyan wouldn't budge, he immediately turned and fled. However, Sheyan merely stood there and laughed. He inexplicably spread his arms and took the initiative to embrace the ball of light!
The harsh exploding noises could be heard once again. The explosions kept forcing Sheyan back amidst his hysterical laughter, but Aziz, who had ran dozens of meters away, was shocked to find that even though Sheyan's chest and abdomen were charred black and his clothes were completely ruined, Sheyan showed no signs of being in pain. He didn't even bleed!
After the attack ended, it appeared as if the damage from the spiritual words were insignificant to him! He had instantly bent his body and charged at the Cardinal!
It didn't matter how much distracting thoughts were born or how wildly the spiritual words crashed in his brain, Sheyan used his willpower to focus on a single thought and anchored his mind down! His mind was as immovable as a reef standing tall in the midst of a raging tide!
'Hornrage', activate!
The Cardinal's pupils contracted. Anyone could see by now that the skill he was so proud of, the 'Ball of Spiritual Words', was completely ineffective against Sheyan! The 'Ball of Spiritual Words' was supposed to be a devastating attack with each ball containing almost 70 holy lines, and each holy line could cause about 30 points of true damage! In addition, it contained effects of intimidate, command, and confusion!
No matter how you look at it, it was a top class offensive skill. Unfortunately, 'Stronghold', the innate talent of the freak called Sheyan, completely restrained it!
The collision left the Cardinal stunned. Aziz was initially running forward, but when he noticed that there was an opportunity behind him, he immediately executed an elaborate backflip and launched a furious counterattack against the Cardinal.
His shot hit the Cardinal squarely on the head, shrouding the Cardinal's head in thick smoke and angry flame. A dark green brilliance exuded out from Sheyan's pair of unspectacular gray gloves. The mechanical joints of the boxing gloves began to rotate at a high speed. The force they generated were so great that the crimson meat floor under Sheyan was torn apart, causing a strange liquid to spray out.
The Cardinal roared furiously and was about to fight back, but he was greeted with Sheyan's fist on his chin. His whole body was involuntarily flung into the air.
'Uppercut'!
By this time, Aziz had been aiming for 4 seconds. For a sharpshooter like him, being able to aim for four seconds was a luxury! Aziz had once again used an ability that needed time to charge and needed his pre-judgment in order to hit, so he had to wait for an opportunity where it was impossible for the enemy to evade his shot before he could pull the trigger.
A deafening gunshot rang out. The terrifying sound seemed to make the whole world shake. The next second, the Cardinal who was sent up into the air by the 'Uppercut' emitted a painful scream. He was shot beneath his left armpit and a large amount of blood gushed out like a fountain!
It must be noted that there was an area under the Cardinal's armpit where the flesh was exposed to the air completely devoid of protection. It could be said to one of his major weaknesses. After being attacked by Aziz, the area immediately burst into a huge wound. The wound was so big that they could see the organs moving inside. The Cardinal's left hand hung limply at the side, and it seemed that its function was also affected.
Sheyan did not stop there, of course! The joints on his glove rotated at a high speed again, even spewing out black smoke like a heavy truck that was on full throttle. His hands clenched onto the right foot of the Cardinal and proceeded to throw the Cardinal towards the meat wall.
'Tactical Throw'!
The Cardinal, who had completely lost his balance, crashed into the meat wall. The elastic meat wall bounced him back at Sheyan. Sheyan currently had his eyes closed and his whole body seemed to be immersed in darkness. Behind him was a horrifying projection of the 'Stairway of the Sun'. It was over five meters tall, and gave off the feeling that it could cover the sky!
In an instant, three black tendrils of the 'Stairway of the Sun' intertwined together and rotated at a high speed, then pierced into the Cardinal's left armpit like a violent drill bit!!!!
'Beast of Corrosion'!
Amidst the Cardinal's anguished screams, his left hand was completely severed! A fountain of blood shot straight up into the air! Under this situation, the Cardinal actually tried to save his broken arm. A dark cyan vein flew out from his right wrist and coiled around the severed limb like a snake.
At the same time, the projection of the 'Stairway of the Sun' had also extended forth three tendrils to wrap around the broken limb. Both sides started to wrestle for control. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, his vein was cruelly severed by Aziz with a shot one second later. After 'Stairway of the Sun' succeeded in snatching the limb, it turned into the form of a giant shark and chomped down on the severed hand whole. It chewed on the hand, causing blood to splash everywhere, then swallowed the hand into its belly.
The Cardinal issued a tragic scream. From the wound where his hand was severed shot out a large amount of twisting cyan-coloured blood veins, seemingly in an attempt to re-form the broken limb. However, the attempt ended in failure. The sound of gunshots had never stopped all this while as Aziz ruthlessly, coldly and steadily chip away at the life of the Cardinal.
But at this moment, an odd figure rushed out – it was the person with the huge deformed mantis-like arm, Togo! He shielded the Cardinal and shouted:
“Master! You don't have to get caught up with them here! Retrieve your weapon first, then let them tremble under the glory of God!”
When the Cardinal heard what Togo said, he was visibly shaken. What happened next was the very thing that Sheyan and Aziz were most afraid of – he actually turned and fled!!!
Sheyan was so disappointed and anxious that he started hurling abuse at the Cardinal:
“You fucking idiot! Where's your honour? Are you running away like a little girl?”
The Cardinal turned a deaf ear to him and instantly disappeared from view from the tunnel in the meat wall. Togo used his deformed mantis arm to block a series of attack from Aziz. He revealed rows of black rotten teeth as he smiled sinisterly. After that, he tried to flee. Sheyan stared at him and spat out the words:
“You think you can still run away?”
Sheyan was currently covered in spots of blood and fraught with wounds. A black cloud hovered over his body as if it was paying respect to him. Togo sneered and was about to escape, but at this critical moment, he suddenly frowned and held his chest. His body started to violently twitch!
Virus: Chest pain attack!
Three seconds was enough for Aziz to release two shots. Togo did not have the Cardinal's exceptional perception or dodging ability, so he could only grit his teeth and endure those shots. But were Aziz's shots so easy to endure?
Chapter 948: Weapon!!(TL: This is bonus chapter #8 for October from meeting a Patreon goal. Enjoy! And thanks for the support!)
Aziz's attack seemed to be merely a nonchalant one-handed shot, but Togo could do nothing to defend against it!
For someone like Aziz, once Sheyan's disease created an opportunity for him, his damage output and lethality would reach the extreme limit of an Awakener's! That was why the realm they belonged to was so optimistic regarding the potential of their cooperation and issued them a Golden Side Mission!
Togo first felt his chest getting hot, then an intense pain spread like a cobweb throughout his body from the spot where he was shot. What terrified him even more was the fact that the chest pain caused by Sheyan's disease had slowed his response so much that even though he had tried to avoid the shot by rolling to the side, he was still hit!
Two bullets flew past and penetrated into Togo's chest one after the other. The bullet at the back hit the end of the bullet at the front, causing an explosion! A hole which was deep enough to reveal the bones inside appeared on Togo's chest.
The damage from this attack was not cumulative damage that was as simple as 1+1=2, but 4 times the normal damage!
Sheyan had seen Mogensha use this “tailgating” shooting technique before. Even though Mogensha's shooting accuracy was just as good as Aziz's, his proficiency was not as high.
The two bullets shot by Aziz only collided and exploded after burrowing deep into the enemy's internal organs, while Mogensha could only let two bullets explode at random locations in the enemy's body. Mogensha's control was lacking in comparison.
Not only was Togo abnormally deformed in appearance, his willpower, as well as his endurance, were not something normal people could compare too. He still pounced towards Sheyan, roaring like a madman, even with blood spurting out from his ears, nose and eyes.
Togo's judgement was correct. If he did not kill Sheyan, Aziz would keep attacking him from the back like a hungry wolf. It was impossible for him to escape.
That was why he made a desperate charge towards Sheyan. The only way he could survive was to kill Sheyan as fast as possible, then run away!
Of course, even though Togo's way of thinking was correct, it was only so in theory. Just like the way a person could hit the jackpot and win a few billion dollars with a lottery ticket, then invite a supermodel for dinner and some happy hours afterwards, it was something that could theoretically happen, but the probability of it happening…
Togo was screaming loudly as his deformed mantis limb slashed at Sheyan. A cold glint flashed within Sheyan's eyes. He decided not to avoid the attack and instead met it head-on with his arm!
The sharp mantis limb slashed open a deep wound on Sheyan's arm, instantly spraying blood everywhere. However, that was all the attack could do. To cut Sheyan in two with a single slash was unfortunately beyond Togo's ability at the moment.
So Togo fell dead.
He died from Aziz's shots.
Although Togo repeatedly showed the strength of a Growth Hunter, he was repeatedly foiled by Sheyan.
He tried to utilise the terrain to escape once again, but Sheyan caught up to him with 'Hornrage' and threw him back to the original spot with 'Tactical Throw'. Aziz kept pulling the trigger indifferently to mercilessly harvest Togo's life with bullets. Togo had used an honorary dosage during his struggle, but in the end, he still fell into a state of near death.
Interestingly, when Togo entered a state of near death, the party ability he demonstrated was actually a very rare offensive ability!
When entering a state of near death, a circular shockwave was emitted with him at the centre, dealing a damage of (300 + the total sum of his base attribute points) to all enemies in range. In addition, 100% of the damage caused would be fed back into his HP! The HP recovery was limited to a minimum of 25% of his HP and a maximum of 50%.
This ability was extremely useful in cases where he was ganged-up on like in a zergling wave, for example. He would be beaten into a state of near death, then suddenly explode with the party ability, killing all the zerglings around him and recovering half his HP in the process.
Or imagine a fight between two people of equivalent strength – Obi-Wan Kexxxi slashed at the throat of Anakin Skyxxxker, but Anakin Skyxxxker, who was on the verge of death, absorbed the damage from the attack and launched an offensive shockwave which also healed himself. Obi-Wan Kexxxi wouldn't even know what hit him.
However, this party ability of Togo's was not that useful against Sheyan and Aziz. It only meant Aziz had to waste a few more bullets.
A shot hit Togo's chin and sent his heavily-wounded body up in the air. By now, his mantis limb had been completely shattered. When he fell heavily on the ground, he could no longer move. A large amount of blood flowed to the ground and was greedily sucked into the tender meat floor.
Aziz had weighed his shot perfectly. Togo was now on his last breath without any ability to fight back.
It's not that Aziz couldn't kill Togo; he didn't dare to kill him!
The person to kill Togo would get his Bloody Invitation Letter. Compared to the generous rewards of the Golden Side Mission, the difference in reward for completing the main mission with 3 Bloody Invitation Letters or 4 of them were not that significant.
But the difference in danger was huge!
There was no doubt that the holder of four Bloody Invitation Letters would stand out like a blazing flame in the next Blood Sensing, making all the participants fly towards him like moths. Moreover, the Invitation Letters were also the quest items for the Golden Side Mission. They could imagine the consequences of carrying four Invitation Letters – the person must bear the brunt of the attack.
As arrogant as Aziz was, he did not have the guts to carry four Bloody Invitation Letters with him.
He did not say anything. He merely pulled back his gun and started a careful maintenance of his weapon. Usually, when an MT was present, this kind of job almost always fell on the MT.
This was the fate and the responsibility of an MT. They enjoyed the privileges and support of the team, so they must also face the danger at the forefront and attract the enemy's firepower to protect the teammates behind them.
Sheyan sighed. He was forced to take up this responsibility because he could find no reason to refuse. He could only reluctantly stomp on Togo's head. A cracking sound was made and Togo was killed.
A bloody glow flashed non-stop from the three Invitation Letters on Sheyan. Togo's corpse floated into the air and the Invitation Letter he carried drifted out from his body.
However, as an intruder, the Bloody Invitation Letter Togo held was somewhat different from Sheyan's Invitation Letter, like different versions of bank notes with the same value.
After a few minutes' wait, Togo's Invitation Letter was finally validated. It stacked itself with the rest of the Invitation Letters Sheyan possessed and they dropped back into Sheyan's personal space.
[You have killed the holder of a Bloody Invitation Letter….]
The notifications were finally here:
[You have acquired his Bloody Invitation Letter. You will be specially marked during the Blood Sensing.]
[You have killed a Growth Hunter (number unknown). You receive 8 achievement points!]
[The maximum number of achievement points you can get from killing in the Bloody World is 100 points. If you exceed this limit, the achievement points awarded will become invalid.]
[The killing reward is being randomly drawn. The killing reward will be randomly generated from the equipments of the contestant you kill, and distributed to you.]
[The process may take a while. The victim's data is being restored and calculated….. Please wait patiently.]
Sheyan just kept the reward from killing Togo without the intention of sharing any with Aziz because the risk that he bore from now on would be several times higher than Aziz! Not asking any further “tribute” from Aziz was already a sign of his benevolence.
Unfortunately, the equipment extracted from Togo was only a black grade equipment that increased Strength and Intelligence but reduced Physique. Sheyan's gloves were out of energy after that fight so he did not hesitate to “feed” the black equipment to the gloves.
The parts of the mechanical boxing gloves rotated at a high speed for a few minutes to grind the black equipment and absorb it. The black equipment provided about 58% charge. Sheyan was surprised to find that the newly added energy bar was black in colour, different from the previous blue one. There was a notification:
[The gloves have absorbed a black equipment, so attack power is increased by 10% until this energy is exhausted.]
The two of them continued to search around, looking to kill a few more giant ovums to earn some achievement points, but they soon met with a few people from the MIB inside the structure. It turned out that after the Cardinal had escaped, the resisting forces outside began to fall apart, allowing the MIB to easily occupy the area.
At this moment, the Cardinal had dragged his incomplete left hand to a certain place with his eyes closed.
He left a trail of blood behind him, cutting a sorry figure.
The place had a very eerie atmosphere because many people had died here not too long ago.
This was the place where Togo had dissected a large number of innocent citizens into meat chunks, then performed a strange sacrificial ritual.
The Cardinal mumbled to himself:
“Extreme darkness shall give birth to extreme light….extreme evil shall give birth to extreme power of holiness!!!”
Chapter 949: GrowthThe bar, which used to be a bustling place, had become totally abandoned ever since its owner and guests were cut into pieces. More bizarre was the strange influence that the tragedy had on the nearby residents. Every pet around the area, down to the last animal, had run away after the incident.
All the residents would have the same dream at night. In their dreams, they were naked and tied to a cross. There were many horrible dark green thorns around them that would whip them bloody!
Under such circumstances, even the bravest dare not live there any longer. Every person who moved out would fall ill, but fortunately, life would return to normal after that. News soon spread and eventually, everyone chose to move away.
Therefore, almost no one saw the Cardinal when he arrived. There was only an old drunkard who was a local inhabitant here. What he feared most was not any nightmare, but having no money to buy alcohol. Because the other people moved away in a hurry, they left a lot of cumbersome stuff behind. Those things provided money for the old man to buy drinks.
When the old man heard the noise, he initially rushed over in a fit of anger because he thought that a thief had invaded his “territory” and wanted to take away the properties that belonged to him, but his attention was quickly grabbed by the Cardinal's attire. It took a while for him to realise that the priest robe actually grew out of the Cardinal's body. Even if his brain had been dulled by all the alcohol he had consumed, such a bizarre scene still instilled fear in him.
He naturally tried to run away, but the Cardinal had long discovered him and would never give him the chance.
With a point of the Cardinal's finger, the old man was quickly lifted off the ground as if he floated up by himself. He screamed and kicked, causing a bottle of Chivas to fall out of his trouser's pocket. The bottle of Chivas crashed to the ground and the sweet alcoholic aroma instantly permeated through the air. The loss of the love of his life caused the old drunkard to swear profusely at the Cardinal.
The Cardinal's eyes turned cold.
“You lowly human. How dare you blaspheme the glory of God?”
With a wave of his hand, the old man's voice instantly stopped. His whole body suddenly…. separated. Yes, separated, not exploded. The gentle manner in which his body broke apart was hard to describe; it was the same way that meat would fall off from a bone piece by piece when it was boiled. The scene exuded a calm cruelty!
After a few seconds, the old man was completely broken apart. His hair, skin, flesh and bones were neatly separated and hung in the air. As for the blood, they gathered in front of the Cardinal in the form of a basketball-sized sphere.
With another wave of the Cardinal's hand, the rest of the remnants fell to the ground. Meanwhile, the basketball-sized blood sphere spread in front of the Cardinal to form a horrifying translucent blood mirror!
Through the blood mirror, the Cardinal saw everything that had happened here with cold, indifferent eyes….. A large number of people flocked toward the exit, but there seemed to be a transparent barrier that blocked all of them. The people screamed hysterically but it was to no avail. Next came Togo with his deformed arm, laughing and wantonly massacring, splitting the bodies into parts.
The Cardinal moved forward. He was indifferent to these tragic scenes. The blood mirror moved together with him. They finally stopped in the middle of the dance floor. The bone words that had crumbled into ashes once again appeared in his vision. The Cardinal couldn't help but mutter:
“Such beautiful madness! Such refreshing evil!”
Then, the Cardinal went over to the place where the bone words were and took a deep breath. The breath he inhaled seemed like it would never end. The force was so strong that a violent wind blew through the entire gloomy underground space. Not only did the wind scatter lightweight things such as paper and plastic bags, it even threw heavier things like wine bottles around the place!
After that, the Cardinal's hands glowed bright. The sound of hymns and gospels mysteriously rose in the surrounding. A slight disturbance could be felt from the floor. Then, a symbol which gave off a sacred feeling slowly emerged.
The symbol represented one of the seven deadly sins: Pride!
If one were to look carefully, they would see that the symbol did not appear out of thin air, but was formed from a small joint of bone from a pinky finger!
The Cardinal pinched the finger bone between his thumb and forefinger, then slowly exclaimed in a tone full of praises:
“Welcome back, my children, my servants, my weapons…..”
Then, the Cardinal opened his mouth and swallowed the bone!
“I repeat, I don't have any interest in superficial things like awards, honorary citizenships, certificates or medals!”
The voice belonged to Sheyan. He was telling this to a beautiful curvy woman in no uncertain terms.
The smile on the face of this beautiful lady was obviously a bit forced because few people would say no to her. Unfortunately, in her dealing with this guy in front of her, she was probably rejected more times than she had been rejected in her whole life.
The topic of conversation between her and Sheyan mainly revolved around Sheyan's crotch…..or rather, the object 50 cm above Sheyan's crotch.
Sheyan was currently swinging a keychain back and forth in that spot. On the end of the keychain was an old and ordinary-looking bell. Few people knew that inside the bell lay the Galaxy which could bring about the destruction of planet Earth. A few men were monitoring this scene with heavy breaths through a surveillance camera. They completely ignored the deep cleavage and alluring curves of the woman and had their eyes firmly glued to the bell.
“No doubt about it. That's the Galaxy that the Arquillians want.”
“Now that we've confirmed our target, what are you guys waiting for, then? Bring in the anti-riot police complete with shields, anesthetic guns and batons! Why are you negotiating with him? This is no time for righteousness!”
“He's not an ordinary person, sir. According to the information we've collected, he could destroy the Galaxy with his bare hands in a mere 0.2 seconds and kill at least five guards afterwards. We may not even be able to restrain him. We suspect that he may be another kind of highly-advanced alien exosuit.”
“Godammit! The Arquillians promised to give us another week after they saw the corpse of their prince's murderer, but we can't waste time! Get that thing at all costs!”
“I'm agree with you, sir, but his asking price is hard for us to accept. He's asking for the blueprint of the latest technology of our energy pulse gun! And he would only accept the kind that can be customised to fire in rapid succession!”
(TL: Probably this gun – http://meninblack.wikia.com/wiki/Tri_Barrel_Plasma_gun)
“My God, how did he find out about our latest technology? The Pisces aliens only sold the most crucial pulse coil technology to us five months ago!”
Sheyan quite enjoyed the sensation of being in control, so much so that he ignored Jinkuang's pleas to act in his place. He leisurely leaned on the lounge chair and stared into the eyes of the hot blonde in front of him while shaking his head firmly, saying:
“It's a 'no', Miss Spence. Even if you ask me ten more times, I'll give the same answer eleven times. I'm not American, so I have no sense of belonging and responsibility to the great United States of America. I urgently need some substantial rewards to make up for the loss of the Galaxy, otherwise I'd rather destroy it with my own hands – by the way, please pour me another cup of coffee, with milk and honey, hot, thank you. ”
After all the attempts of the MIB ended in failure in front of Sheyan, they finally gave in to Sheyan's tyranny. They handed Sheyan a one-time use customisation blueprint.
After customisation, an energy casing module that could be disassembled at will could be installed on a firearm. The firearm's shots would gain a similar effect to the special pulse guns of the MIB.
Because this shooting module was the latest technology, it could fire twice in rapid succession before entering a long charging phase. Considering the destructive power of the MIB's pulse weapons, being able to fire twice in a row made for a very formidable attack – although it would need to recharge for at least half an hour after that. If only one shot was fired, the energy would recover in just 10 minutes.
Sheyan could actually get more than this with the Galaxy as the trade chip, such as the large pulse guns used by the MIB, but they would be marked as things that “could not be brought out of this world”. Sheyan thus realised that there was a limit to how much he could extort with the Galaxy. If this limit was exceeded, the things he got in exchange would not be allowed to be brought out of this world.
Sheyan was not in a hurry to complete the transaction. He shamelessly continued to stay in the MIB's headquarters to wait until the next Blood Sensing was over. Sheyan had learned from his mistake; this time, he stuck to Agent Z like glue. Thus, he safely survived the Blood Sensing without much suspense.
The decision of Sheyan and Aziz to steer clear of the Blood Sensing for the sake of safety did let them avoid a chaotic battle. However, unbeknownst to them, it also gave the Cardinal ample time to grow stronger. By this time, the Cardinal had gathered the power of all seven deadly sins. As soon as Sheyan and Aziz made their appearance, they would immediately meet with unprecedented horrors!
Chapter end
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