Chapter 350: The other kind of powerful
In the eyes of the Illume-union, Sheyan was like an omnipresent specter, always appearing where he needed to. For example, for those fighting at the front had several times where they were about to suffer an attack, but Sheyan had showed up in the nick of time; either through his fists, or the repelling ability of the shotgun to repel viperwolves away, and thus obstruct the viperwolves’ onslaught.
Speaking from the party’s perspective, Sheyan’s readiness to get attacked by these beasts, was obviously more advantageous than having the beasts attack Sable. That was because the latter would have a higher chance of suffering from an explosive strike. Besides, it was naturally more worthwhile for the prepared Seaman, who obviously had excellent defensive strength, to get bitten instead of their own contestants who weren’t prepared.
Yet another viperwolf pack swarmed in. This time, Yuan Zhan and Demondream could tell that the hand-to-hand combat frontlines had finally reached its limit, and to sustain any longer was excruciatingly difficult. The frontlines crumbling would inevitably lead to the entire defense crumbling. In a flash, they readied themselves to act. But at this moment, without a single warning, Sheyan retreated backwards by 2-3 steps.
“He’s finally reached his limits?” This complicated notion finally welled up in both Archeaphill and Sable’s minds.
But just before they affirmed their notion; with a twist of Sheyan’s wrist, a shocking flask appeared from his palm. This flash had a huge belly and was swirling with a faint black liquid, filled to half. Then with a flick, he tossed it ahead.
The flask propelled through the air, crashing against a viperwolf’s body and shattered. Suddenly, with the shattered flask at its core, a dull black shock-wave swept out rapidly; finally a faint black miasma enveloped a radius of 20 square metre around the area. Those viperwolves that were caught inside the shock-wave seemed to have froze in that instance, sinking into a confused state! Those wolves that were wildly charging in with vicious intent were more miserable; losing their balance in mid air, they became like goods delivered to their targets.
At this moment, though the contestants of the Illume-union were ignorant of what was happening, the went by this principle; scumbags would take advantage of cheap exploits. Thus, they naturally seized this immense opening! Although Sheyan’s curse-mix only issued a second of confusion, it was enough to collapse the enemy’s onslaught, and allowed the contestants to make the first strike. It was definitely a significant twist of event in this battle.
After the curse-mix shattered and formed into a faint black fog of black miasma, persisting without dispersing as it enveloped the pack of viperwolves, someone very swiftly transmitted into the party’s channel.
“Eh, how did my attacks become stronger?”
“It’s crushing! What the hell is happening, how am I dealing out crushing damage?”
“This guy’s a real demon, his potion gave me a 3 point strength boost! But now it actually removed 4 strength off the viperwolf! What an insane 7 points difference, my strength can actually crush these sons of bitches! Ha ha! Bastards, taste my iron fist!”
“Seaman’s earlier ability should be his tossed potion; dealing an AOE effect causing the viperwolves strength to plunge by 4 points, movement and attack speed decline by 20%, and even released a second of confusion through its shockwave!”
“Wow, what an exquisite explosion effect… I was just 3 centimetres away from that damned son of a bitch’s fangs.”
“………”
“……….”
Following the successive exclamations of joy and surprise from several close combat contestants, the Illume-union’s moral instantly soared. Especially, Sable who snarled thunderously as he slashed forth with his giant black longsword; dealing out an atrocious explosive strike + crushing damages + AOE effect. It was as if a disgusting wind blade had swept through 4 viperwolves destructively, slaying 3 and heavily wounding 1; instantly reversing their current situation.
This battle sequence was within Sheyan’s predictions. He already understood beforehand that an average viperwolf had a strength of roughly 18 points. After a series of observations and deductions, he reckoned the mean strength of the close combatants here to be around 25-30 points. Naturally, +3 strength wasn’t adequate to invoke an outrageous upheaval; yet after tossing out his curse-mix and lowering the strength of the viperwolves to 14 points, it only required 28 points of strength to deal crushing damage. This undoubtedly meant that the majority of close combatants would be able to crush them and seal the nail on their coffins!
Yuan Zhan, who was Initially about to act, glanced towards Demondream, and spoke with a low tone.
“This Seaman’s support ability……is truly magnificent!”
Demondream had a mist covering her slender figure. Her curvy waist and perky buttocks could be faintly seen, but her face was a blur; with both hands pressing down on weapons at her waist. A long scabbard on her left, and a short one at the right, as she emanated a threatening and piercing aura. She remained silent as she gazed towards the battle. Suddenly, she turned around with a slightly surprised tone.
“Why did you come out……Zi?”
A tall and lofty female strolled out of the valkyrie’s interior. She was wearing a broad long robe that displayed an elegant and ancient Ramesses* dynasty style. Just by looking at it, one sense the feeling of fine exquisite craftsmanship. It’s design boasted of a sphinx, cuneiform and a scarab. The backdrop of azure blue undoubtedly projected an image of the roaring sea.
(TN: Ramesses was the third pharaoh of the nineteenth dynasty of egypt)
Shockingly, 3 rhombus glows appeared around Zi’s body, circling incessantly around her body. Merely by standing still, she emitted an awe-inspiring and compelling aura. It was as if she was a scholarly egyptian during egypt’s most prosperous era, an image of an egyptian queen standing behind pharoah as she inspected her subjects from the crown of a pyramid.
Zi’s deep blue pupils casted down towards the battlefield, the viperwolf side had already exposed a clear decline.
“A sudden appearance of an element X, I definitely need to see what is going on. So Demondream, what’s your view?”
A thread of gloom surfaced within Demondream’s voice.
“I’m sorry, sire, I have no answer.”
Zi was taken aback and replied.
“You……have no answer?”
Demondream lightly whistled out a breath.
“Really regretful, sire. This person named Seaman has a rather capable perceptive sense, I reckon it’s at least close to 30 points! More importantly, he should be wearing an equipment that can interfere with my ability. I’m unable to probe him effectively.”
Yuan Zhan couldn’t help but interrupt.
“Doesn’t your ability have precedence?”
Demondream coldly replied.
“Can’t his interference type ability similarly possess precedence?”
Zi quietly scanned the battlefield and uttered.
“Even if I don’t show up, I believe Sable and Archeaphill will definitely rope him in, then let’s first observe. The realm wars are ever changing and unstable, severely treacherous, with slaughters and conspiracies as its pillar. But now it’s just the beginning. Before the Golden side mission appears, it is better to play it safe. Of course, if this person wants to join our party; I have to admit we must be vigilant, certain core matters must still be kept a secret.”
Not even 10 seconds after she finished speaking, the party’s upper tier secret communications channel suddenly rang with Sable’s voice.
“Hey Zi, are you there?”
Zi’s dark blue eyes flashed with a glitter, as she lightly replied.
“Speak.”
Sable’s voice wasn’t as insolent as before, it had became rather humble and meek.
“I’ll just say two points. First, this kid is really useful. Just based on his current performance of abilities, it is enough to land him into any core circle of a party of this realm war.”
The rhombus glows revolving around Zi suddenly sped up, then quickly returned to normal.
“I find your evaluation a little exaggerated.”
Sable silently scoffed.
“I’m glad, our opinions seldom reach an unanimous verdict, but sadly, this brings me to my second point. My previous statement was actually Archeaphill’s judgement.”
Zi’s gaze tightened. No party leader would ever neglect the opinion of her own party’s MT. If not, that factor could easily lead to a division and eventual demise of the party. Zi wasn’t in a rush to question Archeaphill, but continued with a warm and unquestionable tone to Sable.
“I’d like to hear your opinion.”
Sable rubbed his hands and hesitated slightly before saying.
“Screw it! Really, I also kinda like this kid, he can allow ‘Tom’ (Referring to his sword) to crush damn morons! Moreover, he even showed up several times to tank some blows for me. Still, I think Archeaphill’s words would weigh more.”
“Your f***king mind is only filled with a pile of dogshit!” Suddenly, an irritable voice resounded, to be more precise, it was a shout!
Needless to say, it was MT Archeaphill that spoke. Hearing those words, Sable’s face instantly turned pale a little. If other members dared to shout at him, he would instantly fly into a fit of rage. Only Archeaphill dared to admonish him; with Archeaphill’s roar, only Zi’s calm voice could appease it!
“Sable, do you need me to repeat myself? Your f****king mid is filled with a pile of dogshit! Do you know what does it mean for someone to tank several blows for you? Those damned viperwolves definitely do not have low damage. If they struck you, an explosive strike would leave you devoid of close to 100 HP. As for Seaman who helped you tank this strike, at most he had lost 30 health points! Counting him within the entire party, it would mean being spared 70 points of damage! Just calculate, how many times has he tanked for you? And you hadn’t even considered the fact, how many fatal strikes has he tanked for me?”Chapter 351: Bombastic attention for safety
Sable fell into a daze before snorted coldly in response.
“No.”
“No right? But I did! Seaman shielded you 4 times! Covered me 11 times. Apart from that, he even blocked 2 sneak assaults against Kaide’s neck; and used that weak white grade shotgun that you ridiculed to send 4 viperwolves flying back! Those 4 viperwolves had their fangs an inch away from sinking into those weaker kid’s body!”
The vertical scar underneath Archeaphill’s oxygen mask flushed with red.
“1,500 HP! Since he entered this battle, this Seaman has spared our party at least 1,500 HP! When you guys were slothing around, he was defending. When you guys were fleeing, he was defending. When you were on the offense, he was on the defence! When you were happily slaughtering away, he was defending. When you were looting spoils of war, he was still defending! This brat completely disregarded desires of attacking, like a mad dog, crazily tightly crunching on the word ‘defence’!”
Zi gasped deeply, and then spoke with gentleness.
“Archeaphill, the burden of our party’s defence still rests on you. Perhaps Seaman is indeed capable, but without you, he is still nothing.”
Archeaphill’s tone finally soothened a little.
“Zi, perhaps this brat is unable to assume leadership; but honestly speaking when comparing to Huckle, it is simply comparing a clumsy rear guard to Micheal Jordan. Believe me, if this guy possess an innate ability and adequate equipment, he would be MT material! I firmly believe so!”
Zi’s robe fluttered even amidst the still air.
“I understand your intentions.”
Archeaphill callously added on.
“If usable, we use. If not, then we discard! Eh? f****, where’s Seaman?”
The reason why Archeaphill could afford to be distracted and participate in this core meeting, was because the current state of battle was settled. As the main frontier of the frontlines, it was crucial to plan ahead and prepare for a rainy day; awaiting for the next wave of aggression. Hence, he retreated to the rear safety region to rest and mend his wounds. Yet he had never expected that, within these few seconds, Seaman actually vanished!!!
Sable immediately screamed into the party channel.
“Who has seen Seaman!”
Swiftly, a reply transmitted.
“A severely wounded viperwolf just fled, and Seaman pursued it!”
Sable slapped his thigh as he sighed in vexation, his eyes flickered maliciously.
“Need me to bring some guys to stop him? If he isn’t willing, then I’ll kill him immediately!”
Zi humbly shook her head.
“If this person’s present conditions are really as formidable as what Archeaphill described; then once he has left, it would be difficult to find him. Let’s not talking about Seaman having other companions; don’t forget, the next wave of viperwolves are incoming! If you guys left, then wouldn’t our party be susceptible to a huge calamity?”
Sable was instantly flabbergasted. Zi shut her eyes to blink, then with a frosty like expression, she uttered.
“Go back to your posts, the next wave is already on the way!”
Perhaps only a few of them noticed; in that instance she blinked, Zi’s eyes turned from sky azure to black and then to golden!
Golden pupils!
With vertical pupils like dragons or cats!
**
If the first wave of viperwolves were considered as a tiny greeting from planet Pandora; then the next flooding tide, could be described as full of warmth and utmost respect! This warmth was like a tsunami, swallowing up a dozen of contestant lives.
Presently, Sheyan had already made rounds through the northern, eastern and southern regions and returned. Through his interactions with many contestants, all contestants had obtained a valuable piece of information:
In this particular realm war, there was a shocking alchemist, a support class contestant whose name was Seaman. The parties were all exceedingly aware, that this bugger utilized a white grade knucklers and white grade shotgun, and didn’t participate in any offense…..
Including the Illume-union, there were at least 3 other parties that harbored intentions to rope Sheyan in. They could all perceive the colossal worth he would provide, and silently made resolutions that if they couldn’t obtain him, his death would be the only option…….but this also meant one thing! Their primary attitude towards Sheyan would be to recruit him for themselves! In other words, before he rejected their hopes, Sheyan could be said to possess a friendly security amongst them!
That was the reason why Sheyan had decided to blow things up bombastically.
The sole reason.
Right now, it was during a resting interval after a battle. Many contestants were leaning against the valkyrie’s walls and panting heavily; hastily bandaging themselves and consuming healing medicines/foods.
Mogensha was currently standing aloft, raising his military canteen as he gulped down the salt water within. Stretching his throat up, his Adam apple shrank in as the water flowed fluidly into his throat.
Under the careful guarding and attention of Reef, his life wasn’t threatened at all. Even when the Mountain Banshees dove down from the heavens towards Mogensha, Reef charged towards him with lightning speed and casted ‘Courage’ on Mogensha; forcibly tanking for him!
(TN: Recap of Reef’s ability: ‘Courage’ – Base Ultimate ability: ‘Courage’. Castable on allies, cooldown duration of 15 seconds. Damage incurred to your target will be shouldered by you, damage lessened by 15%.)
It had to be mentioned that Reef had also acquired substantial upgrades after meeting Sheyan. Although his equipment hadn’t advanced in the recent few worlds, his base attributes had climbed at an astonishing pace. More crucially, his MP had been raised by nearly 200 points, allowing him more freedom to execute abilities requiring MP.
One must know, though Reef’s ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’ was a powerful non-mp ability, his rank 5 ability ‘Faith guard’ had already been upgraded from the fourth tier to the fifth; it was now half step into max lvl. Right now, he could cast ‘Faith guard’ on others, naturally the MP requirements grew from 30 to 40 MP.
(TN: Recap on Reef’s ability! – Rank 5 ‘skill tree’ ability: ‘Faith guard’ (Previous cultivation of the 4th tier). Activating it will instantly form a layer of mental constructed formidable armour, armour possess 100 HP, 10 points of defence and duration of 300 seconds. After it is destroyed, it will restore 100 HP to user within 10 seconds. (Tier 5 cultivation will allow casting on others). Activation of ability at tier 4 requires 30 MP.)
Apart from that, his ability ‘Courage’ not only had a cool down duration of 120 seconds, it required 30 MP to execute. Therefore, the two MP requisites became huge bottlenecks restricting Reef from exhibiting his fullest potential. After his adventures with Sheyan and acquiring those extra 200 MP, pulling his total MP to nearly 400 points, he was now able to substantially alleviate his previous frustrations.
At present, an exceedingly peculiar equilibrium was happening on the western battlefield, and this was due to Sheyan and buddies. This was because there was an awkward combination of 2-3 medium scale parties in the western battlefield, with none above the others, and they just had to be without a single MT. (MT is most known as contestants possessing defensive innate) Right now, Reef’s unrivalled valiance yet humble presence pervaded the atmosphere. Therefore, having him to lead this temporary western faction naturally became widely acceptable to the various parties.
At just this moment, Sheyan sneakily returned to their sides, sitting beside Reef as he laughed.
“How’s it? Is the pressure on?”
Reef shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s alright, but we already lost 6 people on our side. Also just a casual statement, that assistant tank from that Gothic party is really trash. Looting keys, he is faster than everyone. Shirking from danger, you’ll find him at the rear.”
Able to trigger a noble and lawful guy like Reef to anger, it could be said that guy was really one of a kind. Sheyan laughed heartily, focussing his gaze on Reef.
“I swear after I left, that MT Archeaphill from the Illume-union, would also describe his assistant tank with the same phrase. We only lost 6 guys in our western region? Right, they are really lucky. Your ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’ ability is perfect for such chaotic massive battles against ordinary beasts, it can even be said to be a field controller. Sadly, the rate of elite or legendary creatures resisting your ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’ is rather high.”
At this moment, Mogensha spat out his chewing gum as he lazily interrupted.
“Archeaphill? That tortoise moving baldy that carries a cumbersome shield? Oh, I understand why he has taken a liking to you. Because he is gay, and Seaman, your ass is ****! Oi oi oi, boss please don’t clench your fists so tightly, I’m just kidding. The real reason is because you probably raised his strength by 3. His top 3 attributes are actually physique, intelligence and spirit. After that is strength.”
“What!?!” Sheyan was stunned. Mogensha shrugged his shoulders.
“Don’t look at me with those eyes, I promise my information is genuine. Because in the past, his life was previously redeemed by the Symbiosis sect.”
Hearing this information, Sheyan’s eyes suddenly imagined that strange scene he viewed previously. That was at the instance he supported Archeaphill for the first time, his neck had rapidly transformed ash gray, as though it became granite; and it was the exact spot the viperwolf was about to munch on!
“Don’t tell me, that MT walks another path? A magic based, defensive warrior?”
Sheyan shook his head, casting aside his thoughts temporarily, as though he was placing a case file back into the shelf. Then he started to calmly assess the next wave of beasts. After facing that terrifying difficulty ‘A’ world, a natural scorn towards this difficulty ‘B+’ world had already formed in Sheyan’s heart.
“I feel we should dig a pit; bury these carcassess and flush away the blood.” A contestant randomly blurted out, his tone revealed his relative excitement.
Sheyan had obviously been drawn by his words. Yet sadly, the rest of the contestants around him completely paid no attention.
TN: I’ve changed the term limit-venator to Growth-hunter instead, there is a reason for this which would I will explain in later chapters. 🙂Chapter 352: 300,000 HP!
Though he treated as a highbrow entertainer, that contestant wasn’t the slightest bit discouraged. He continued to wave his arms and danced about.
“No doubt, the first 2-3 batches of viperwolves were inevitable. This is because of the gigantic steel bug behind our arses, which probably agitated and infuriated them when landing! Perhaps, it even wrecked their nests. As for the Mountain Banshees visiting, that is still a mystery, but an obvious idea would be the dense black smoke spiralling out of the valkyrie.”
“Stop bullshitting, moron……”
“Shut it, if not I wouldn’t mind silencing you with bullets.”
“Friend, listen to me please…..shut the hell up!”
Bang! echoes “The next time, it will be aimed at your brains.”
After hearing the words of this contestant, Sheyan’s vision congealed. He then headed over and spoke to that contestant.
“Hi, friend. Your reasoning seems rather fresh.”
The contestant was still dispirited, as he grudgingly shook his head.
“It is actually pretty common sense. The initial attraction of those frightening creatures is most likely due to their curiosity and agitation. However, every living thing possess two kinds of basic instincts, survival and reproduction. I fear that right now over here, the enticement for those beasts has accumulated too excessively, the blood and flesh littered over this battlefield is the greatest bait for them!”
“Yet the most fearsome part is that, if the battle continues persisting for too long, it may produce a chain reaction…..that would mean the more we kill, the more flesh and blood we leave hanging around. The more those savage hunting beasts would pay a visit!”
Sheyan pondered for a moment and immediately replied.
“That does sound logical. You’re a summoner based on charm?”
The contestant helplessly nodded.
“Yes, but unfortunately, my strongest, most formidable child had died in the previous world.”
“Child?” Sheyan was a little intrigued. However, he immediately reacted; he should be referring to his previously tamed creature. He stared into the contestants eyes.
“I am Seaman, and your name?”
“Makaji, glad to meet you, Mr Seaman.”
Sheyan then transmitted several lines into his party channel. Reef then leapt atop a vantage point and clapped for attention. As the strongest, most formidable MT in the western region, his words carried far more weight than most, and could fix the tone with a single hammer blow.
“I loathe this detestable planet, really. I once again reiterate. This is utter desolation, even breathing is difficult because of the venomous atmosphere! So now, brothers whom I had just fought shoulder to shoulder with, please aid me! Help me bury these bloodied carcasses that are blocking the way ahead, who knows what sort of fatal venom these carcassess would contaminate or release? Dammit, I really don’t wish to be unknowingly poisoned, while tanking an elite creature!”
Without a doubt, once Reef spoke, Mogensha and Sheyan backed him up. With others instigating, and in additional to the prestige and awe of Reef’s prowess, various others started responding in succession. Those present were both diversified and ordinary contestants; even without any working tools, they quickly excavated several deep pits dozens of metres at a suitable distance. Then they flung those carcasses into the pits and buried them.
When the workers gathered back to the western entrance of the valkyrie, the battlefield was only left with spots of blood stains. Mogensha leisurely tossed out an immeasurably powerful gasoline ignition grenade. In a flash, the entire region was covered in a sea of flames. When the flames subsided, a plain field was left.
Of course, to some wild beasts with keener sense of smell, the remaining blood stains and stench were like light bulbs guiding their path. Besides, for them, the sense of smell was akin to the driving license in modern day society, or possessing essential IT skill towards computers. But never ever forget, Sheyan’s group was only one out of the 4 battlefields! Putting it bluntly, as long as the bait enticement on their side was vastly inferior to the others; then naturally, the pressure they face would respectively deescalate.
Reef then spoke through the party channel.
“Boss, those beasts provided rather good drop loots, sometimes, even high quality rare materials would appear……from the start till now, AK and I have already raked in at least over 10,000 utility points. As for that light blue key that was just dropped, it even gifted us 3 potential points.”
Sheyan replied.
“I understand what you mean. You wish to reap more benefits right. Just like what you said, these creatures are not a threat to us at present. But never ever forget, our enemies aren’t merely these primitive beasts! If we pull out all our aces here….then, wouldn’t the most majestic forest trees be blown down by gales*!”
(TN: Chinese saying, that means trees would normally greed for rain, but when the fiercest rain and gales arrives, they would be toppled by that same greed. Similar to humans)
Reef’s expression changed as he sighed. He was ultimately only a powerful warrior, and comprehended matters at a simpler level. As for Sheyan whose thoughts dissected through layers, naturally he was wiser. At this moment, another wave of beast came surging from afar. Amidst the tide of beast, was an appalling sight of a giant monstrous beast; as enormous as a road roller!
This giant beast had indigo and orange stripes interweaved over each other into a waving pattern. Its head rather resembled a bison plus a stegosaurus combined. However, its body surface displayed chunks of muscular swells, brimming with explosive strength. Even from miles away, one could sense its tremendous hoofs trampling, producing “Thump Thump” reverberations on the ground; like an oppressive and shuddering drumbeat, resonating violently with the human’s internal organs!
Sheyan’s gaze flickered.
“That is…….”
He was about to probe, but another contestant who was given the task of sentry immediately reported the statistics. Seeing the silvery glitters from the binoculars he held, it should be a silver storyline grade equipment. Following that, a 3D imagery of statistics appeared to the audience.
Sturmbeest (Tier 2 legendary creature)
(TN: I’ll be using tier classification for legendary creatures from here on. So junior tier, tier 1, tier 2 and so on)
Na’vi tongue: Talioang
Scientific name: Bovindicum Monocerii
Height: 5 metres
Weight: Over 10 tons
Description: Planet Pandora’s giant type creature, height 5 metres, weight 10 tons. Omnivorous, violent and bad tempered, easily startled.
Strength: 39 points
Agility: ?? points
Physique: 10 points
Spirit: ??
Intelligence: ??
Legendary creature ability: ‘Mother-earth Skin lvl 4’ – Grants an additional 15,000 HP. Lvl 4 bonus effect, grants additional 5,000 HP.
Legendary creature ability: ‘Steel will lvl 1’ – Most speed reduction / Charming / controlling effects fare poorly against any creature with this ability.
Creature ability: ‘Wild collision’ – Deal an exceptionally terrorizing base damage + bleeding damages + strike back to enemies. Once activated, unable to stop (Once activating, immune to controlling effects / effect that has precedence). The further the distance charge up to collision, the more devastating its might.
Creature ability: ‘Warstomp’ – Heavily stomp onto the ground, unleashing an immense seismic wave.
Realm war additional bonus: Grant additional 300,000 HP to this creature.
No doubt, this bad boy was at least a legendary tier mightier than the mountain troll. This teaser, don’t even mention Reef, even the present state Archeaphill using that giant shield would be completely unable to resist it! Actually, an additional 300,000 HP bonus from the realm war was completely normal. With over 60 long range combatants, even with primary ordinary shots, they would at least be able to deliver 4,000 damage. Without that additional bonus, then this Sturmbeest would only be able to hold on for 10 seconds.
However, now with that 300,000 HP, this undoubtedly meant the contestants wouldn’t be able to bring it down within a short span of time. This undoubtedly signified that their defensive circle would inevitably collapse to total shambles in due time!
As the human crowd glanced apprehensively at each other; when the tide of beasts approached a kilometre distance away, suddenly two portion of black armies splitted from the main colossal army. The two portions were led by an obviously larger elite viperwolf leader, separating and heading towards the southern and northern defence side.
Viewing such a comforting scene, the western contestants couldn’t help but gasp in delight. Following that was another scene that left them gratified; numerous viperwolves actually sped ahead to the graveyard dug by the contestants previously. Their movements were fast and nimble, as soil and mud were being tossed out like raindrops. Those fierce and avaricious beasts begun to gorge themselves on the carcasses they dug out.
After that happened, the ranks of viperwolves swarming around the Sturmbeest became relatively sparse. Observing that their earlier preparations had yielded results, Reef then boomed thunderously.
“Move aside, move aside. I’ll draw back that lil’ monster. All long range combatants, concentrate your firepower against its front left leg! Try your best to slow it down, don’t just target its head!”
As Reef commanded the army, a layer of crystal gem shielded his body; obviously activating his ‘Faith guard’. Then he hoised his shield as he anchored himself at foremost of the army. Honor did not allow one to glance back; Sheyan naturally followed by his side in preparation for combat. Estimatedly under this difficulty, the chances of Reef instantly being whacked into near death state was not high. But if variables appeared; crushing damages neglecting defence or even amplified explosive strikes, or minute probability occurrences, then Sheyan had decided to immediately lift him up and flee.
200 metres,
A 100 metres!
This distance was already within most of the long range contestants firing arc. Sheyan could even see the thick profound vein lines on the Sturmbeest’s leather skin; it appeared like splintered cracks on a dried paddy field. Moreover, there seemed to be black string like parasites squirming about within it. Its swelling sinew muscles moved rhythmically beneath its thick skin. Its nostrils repeatedly sprayed out white fog, fogging out a metre far!Chapter 353: Dash and slash
The imposing manner of which the Sturmbeest stampeded in, could only be described as an magnified steam train rolling in rapidly!!!
Facing such an impending horrific collision, who would dare to dash and slash?
Within the western region; there were probably a hundred or so contestants, amongst which were at least 70 long range combatants. Minusing those weirdos who picked unorthodox combat paths, and those agility based close combatants, then the genuine few would could hold the frontlines were barely more than 10. However, the only one that dared claim to be a MT, was Reef. Only he possessed a defence base innate ability! It could be told how rare a MT was.
As Mogensha sprayed out long fiery tongues through his trademark golden AK, the other long range combatants followed suit, as they commenced bombardment on the giant beast’s left front leg. Of course, the battle line was as broad as nearly a hundred metres; due to awkward angles or various reasons, only a third were genuinely able to concentrate their firepower there. The rest still had to deal with the pesky average viperwolves.
Actually, if this Sturmbeest was alone; solely focusing their firepower could in fact swiftly beat out a crippling effect onto it. With a plunge in its movement speed, its threat would be reduced substantially. After all, not possessing long range offensive capabilities was its greatest flaw.
The true terror of the Sturmbeest was displayed with its ability to plough through their defensive formation, slaughtering a gap for the viperwolves behind to rummage towards the rear lines unobstructed. With such a focused assault, it instantly threw the entire battle into disarray. If an ordinary party was inflicted as such; even if they weren’t annihilated, they would’ve suffered immense casualties!
Fortunately, Reef had a handy AOE speed reduction ability, naturally he was able to hinder the viperwolves from their reckless wild charge. Though an average viperwolf dealt decent damage, they were incapable of long range assaults. Luckily, there were still 10 or so others alongside Reef, sharing the burden of these beasts; not expecting to slay them speedily, but just hindering them was enough.
When the Sturmbeest was finally dealt a crippling blow and its mobility had waned greatly, it finally allowed the slightly faster contestants to draw its attention and lure it away. The rest of the contestants then concentrated their firepower against massacring the viperwolves, before they would proceeding to slay the Sturmbeest easily.
In theory, Reef’s battle plan showed no flaws, however, unexpected variables would always drift into the battlefield like a looming spectre. At the instant where the Sturmbeest arrived 20-30 metres away from the valkyrie, a dozen plus weird beasts clad in golden exterior simultaneously flashed out from its rear buttocks. These peculiar beasts could aim faraway towards the long range contestants who had just emptied a round of fire, before their cheeks swelled and abruptly sprayed out a gust of air!
The external appearance of these golden beasts were queer. They had slender long beaks like a red-crowned crane, a curved neck of a pheasant, yet its lower body had an oval shape of a turtle. It had 6 legs, amongst which 4 were used to gallop while the front 2 were oddly crooked; identical to a praying mantis sawtooth blades, looking extremely menacing.
Their skin was smooth yet dry, exposing loosened creases due to its relaxed state. The outline of their muscles could be vaguely seen beneath their skin. When these freakish beasts locked onto the distant long range contestants, their necks weirdly cocked back into a striking position like a cobra. From its sharp beak, a shocking venomous sting erupted forth, carrying a deadly neurotoxin!
Within the disorderly mess, that sentry contestant was actually still able to report information of that creature at first notice.
Slinger (Ordinary)
Na’vi tongue: Lenayga, scientific name: acediacutus xenoterribili
Height: 2.4 metres. Weight: 62 kilograms
Strength: 13 points
Agility: 25 points
Physique: 8 points
Perceptive sense: 17 points
Charm: 3 points
Intelligence: 7 points
Spirit: 7 points
Basic long range combat lvl 4, basic footwork lvl 4
Creature ability: ‘Thunder-rock embrace’ – grants additional 1000 HP.
Creature ability: ‘Camouflage’ – Slingers can effectively alter their pigment, concealing themselves and inciting sneak attacks.
Slinger special ability (Passive): ‘Neurotoxin overflow’ – Cause target’s muscles to turn rigid, and impair breathing. Movement speed decrease 33%, attack speed decrease 27%. Additional 5 damage/3 seconds, duration lasts for 15 seconds.
Slinger special ability (Passive): ‘Hairless skin’ – elemental damage dealt to it reduce by 15%. ‘Hairless skin’ has a 10% chance of causing enemy to miss.
Slinger special ability (Passive): ‘blade-foot’ – Every first successful physical claw will be an explosive strike. However, its crooked claws will easily lodge into the enemy’s flesh, and become unable to withdraw. Hence, after successfully striking the enemy, there is a 50% chance of disability of engaging in close combat for 20 seconds.
Description: This creature named lenayga in the na’zi tongue, is the strangest discovery on planet Pandora up till today; and is also one of the most dangerous species. This terrestrial carnivore loves to perch in tropical rain forests, and primarily prey on Hexapedes*.
(TN: *another species in Avatar, a land herbivore)
It is as tall as 2.4 metres and possess a muscular neck. Its triangular head contains a venomous sting that secretes neurotoxins. When nearing its prey; to prevent itself letting out sounds, it would move slowly and silently to pass through the forest ferns. When inducting its prey, its rooster lie neck would rapidly jet out its venomous sting, and finally capture its prey.
**
The first onslaught of the Slingers’ venomous stings instantly killed two long range combatants. This group of intellectual creatures even knew how to concentrate their assaults onto single targets, thus inflicting massive devastation. To the defensively weary long range combatants, a single venomous sting dealt even 50 – 70 points of damage; what was scarier was the poisonous element damage that surfaced!
For example being assaulted by a Slinger; it carried an additional poison element damage of 5 points/ 3 seconds, duration of 15 seconds. Then two Slingers would equate to 10 points / 3 seconds, duration 15 seconds. 10 Slingers would simply be 50 points / 3 seconds, duration 15 seconds…..and so on.
In actual fact, the pack of Slingers’ initial targets converged onto 3 contestants. Every 4 Slingers had focused on 1 contestant, and their targets were naturally the most prominent few amidst the long range combatants. In the end, those guys melted in a flash, not even having time to consume medicines. Fortunately, one of the survivor was indeed Mogensha, who delivered the highest damage output. Firstly, he had the bonus 100 HP from his Silver party’s skill, and the equipment he was wearing was forged by Reef using pandora crystals from the Starship Trooper world. Even with all that, he was still reduced into a near death state.
Shaken to the core, Mogensha threw away his image as he rolled wretchedly ahead, before activating his party skill ‘gloryheal’; immediately considered as negating the effects of poison with a sliver of healing. After the heart wrenching 15 seconds of poison damage lapsed, he then bandaged himself, waiting for his health to be restored to half before straightening himself to resume fire.
The contestants were caught totally unprepared with the appearance of like-minded long range aggressors. This was also due to the craftiness of these Slingers, who actually pasted themselves behind the buttocks of the Sturmbeest; only coming out in ambush when they reached firing range, thus dealing immaculate damage.
However, contestants who had worked their way here had all gone through their own storms and droughts. Though there were casualties, they had all fought against long range enemies before. Of course, the primary action was to seek cover, before approximating the enemy’s attacking intervals.
Such attacking intervals in firearms terms, would refer to its reloading phase. For the Slinger, after propelling its venomous sting, it had to suck in air and spray it out again.
By understanding this gap, one could grasp its attacking pulse, then grasping their personal attacking tempo, and finally grasping their authority to take initiative in the battlefield.
There were 5 long range combatants belonging to a party called ‘Sons of Caden’. Every time they mobilized and concentrated their firepower, they inevitably inflicted severe damage and even managed to slay one Slinger. Meanwhile, two other close combatants of the same party abandoned their own opponents; sneaking up to the Slinger’s ass, as they fished in troubled waters, and backstabbed them.
Strictly speaking, though they were long range combating freaks, Sheyan could tell the differences between them and the tentacled-freaks of the previous world. At least the round eye of the tentacled-freak was an irritating shit, boasting a 24 hours, no blind spot surveillance. Those tentacled-freaks held no fear of others sneaking up on their assess, and rupturing their butts.
Naturally, the Slingers suffered catastrophic casualties in a flash! However, don’t forget that the agile close combatants had forsaken their targets to rush back in aid. The two viperwolves they were originally dealing with wouldn’t possibly idle around, or yawn while suntanning under the sun, perhaps even copulating with their bellies facing the sky. They naturally shifted to charge towards Reef. If Reef hadn’t preserved his true strength earlier, and if Sheyan was merely an assistant without the calibre of a MT; then undoubtedly, if Reef didn’t die, he would be at least semi-crippled!
Yet more crucially, once the Slingers surfaced, nobody even bothered with Reef’s orders with regards to the Sturmbeest. Like a lively dragon and animated tiger, the Sturmbeest decided to pursue a sniping contestant brat vigorously. That unlucky child dished out immeasurable damage, therefore it was natural that the Sturmbeest harboured deep hatred towards him! While the Slingers were defeated and their bodies scattered around, the Sturmbeest had caught up to that contestant.
“Save him!” Observing the situation, Sheyan immediately roared into his party channel!Chapter 354: Hidden motives
Sheyan had to admit, the live and death of that contestant held no relations to him, however! If they allowed those who obeyed commands to die, while those uncooperative ones to survive; then no matter if he ended up dead or alive, it would be a slap against party ‘Ace’s’ face!
Hence, at this point, Mogensha fumed loudly as he pulled out his silver short spear; the spear metamorphosed into a dancing lightning as it bounced through the viperwolves ahead of Sheyan and Reef. The 3 viperwolves didn’t possess full health to begin with, and instantly exploded into a pool of flesh.
Simultaneously, Reef triggered his ‘Courage’ ability, as he swiftly flew and threw himself in blocking stance in front of that sniper contestant. Raising his shield, he represented the contestant to shudder the full collision of the Sturmbeest!
Howling winds first slapped against him……
The sensation of this collision, was exactly like being trapped in a landslide on the swiss alps!
At that moment of impact, the sturdy and valiant Reef was essentially blown away like a little pebble!
In that brief instance, the sparkling ‘Faith guard’ was thoroughly shattered, as fragments of silver shards evaporating out before dissolving into nothing. When it shattered, it reinstated 100 health to Reef.
“Its calculated damage is……373 points!” Sheyan easily analyzed the collision.
And then, he threw out a flask.
A flask of flourishing curse-mix.
After the collision, the sturmbeest would inevitably halt briefly, allowing Sheyan to seize this gap to throw out his flask, as it smashed against the head of the Sturmbeest! Right now, the Sturmbeest had already left its immune to controlling effects state.
A formless shockwave swept out, a temporary confusion penetrated the giant beast as it sprawled to the ground, while grunting bewilderedly. It’s unstoppable ‘Wild Collision’ had finally ceased, but not only that, a fog of faint greenish miasma rapidly dispersed out; enveloping it within. The fog appeared like ants swarming over it, gnawing and nibbling at its limbs.
“Poison fog! Lowering the enemy’s movement and attack speed by 20%!”
One had to acknowledge, the colliding might of an enormous and bulky creature like the Sturmbeest was exceedingly dreadful. Its cumbersome weight added amplified deadliness to its reckless charging. However, it was important to note, its frightening weight also compounded inertia needed to maneuver back into a wild sprinting charge!
As for the effects of the poison fog, it definitely influenced its speed. After colliding with Reef with its maximum charging speed; in order for it to accelerate back to its maximum speed, it would require another 5 seconds. However, after being confused for 1 second in addition to the persisting 20% speed decline, the Sturmbeest now required an entire 15 seconds to accelerate to maximum speed.
Flying through the air and heavily crashing to the ground, the impact force continued dragging Reef for another 5-6 metres; uprooting clumps of grass and mud behind him along the way. Just when everyone was worried, Reef made an agile roll as he climbed back to his feet. Blood trickled down his scalp, covering his face instantly as he looked extremely miserable.
Without saying a word, Reef casually wiped away the blood in his eyes. Finally clasping his lightsabre shaft tightly, he strided in large steps towards the Sturmbeest!
Releasing a grandeur that of the mighty Sparta marching towards the battle of Thermopylae under the setting sun!
Before closing up on the Sturmbeest, Reef activated his ‘Faith guard’ once more. After squandering his MP away, Reef’s survivability undoubtedly improved once again. ‘Faith guard’ was indeed a rather incredible ability.
Normally, with only a hundred plus MP, Reef could only treat this ability as his trump card. But now with three hundred plus MP, Reef was able to cast one whenever he felt danger. The disparity between the past and present was simply too vast to assess.
Within 20 metres of the Sturmbeest, Reef unleashed his ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’. A ferocious ripple swept out like a ring. However, the Sturmbeest only lost a little health, its movement shook a little before it recovered to its initial speed.
This was the outstanding speciality of a legendary creature – ‘Iron will’ !
The Sturmbeest buried its head and charged once again. Instead, the distance required to build its speed wasn’t adequate, resulting in its acceleration falling short of maximum. Reef immediately darted to the side, as he made a roll before jolting back up, before continue awaiting the beast sternly. Instead, the massive Sturmbeest had already poured its fullest weight forward, and was completely unable to retract its inertia; it stumbled several metres forward before scrambling to turn around.
Seizing this opportunity, Sheyan handed his ‘Endless spirited vodka’ to Reef, allowing him to gulp down two mouthfuls. Sheyan then signalled towards Reef, who didn’t even possess half HP now, signalling him to cut off 5-6 viperwolves who were fleeing away. Although Reef didn’t understand, he still gave up on the Sturmbeest and obeyed orders.
Sheyan himself then lunged towards a heavily wounded Slinger that was on his lateral side. Pulling out his white grade shotgun, he emptied his rounds to harvest the Slinger. It was as though he had completely given up on that Sturmbeest, and paid no attention to it!
“If you want chaos…..then I’ll give you chaos!” Sheyan’s eyes flickered with a lethal glare.
“ANNNGGGG!” At this moment, the cumbersome Sturmbeest scanned around its surroundings, as it released a bewildered long grunt. It then squinted its incomparably vicious bell-shaped eyes in search of a new target. Afterward, it no longer bothered much, burying its head as it initiate its wild charging. Presently, the entire battlefield situation had shaped up to become an increasing mess, a complete disorder! Yet right now, this chaotic battlefield caused an awkward phenomenon; a lack of accelerating space for the Sturmbeest. Unlucky contestants who were smashed by it only lost about half their health, or a little more!
At this moment, the majority of the crowd were berating and cursing. “Where did the f***king MT go?” Instead, Sheyan and Reef treated their words as fart, and lazily disregarded them.
Within a short 3 minutes, the entire western battlefield was in a total upheaval. The Sturmbeest grunted bewilderedly and furiously again, lifting its front hoofs and heavily stomping the ground. Right now, at least 3 contestants had died to it. Fortunately, Mogensha and the other sniper contestant were constantly guarded by Reef, allowing them to effortlessly unite their firepower. As for the battle situation right now, though the contestants were plagued with injuries and fatigue, the remainder of wild beasts were suffering the same fate.
As time sped by, the viperwolves and slingers were utterly eradicated, leaving behind only the cumbersome Sturmbeest wildly charging throughout the battlefield. Its gaze held contempt and great disdain, as it repeatedly bellowed furiously. Without the additional smaller pesky beasts loitering by its sides, the cumbersomeness of the Sturmbeest had finally became its greatest fatality.
Reef’s life had already recovered to 90% with bandages and medical supplements, he then started to directly confront and draw the Sturmbeest’s attention. Sheyan continued to assist him by his side. The chaotic situation immediately returned to its orderly state. Probably because victory had came smoothly in view of their earlier few skirmishes; hence, the contestants only realized now that the previous orderly state of the battlefield was actually unfavourable. As for the crux of the matter, it was all due to the quick wittedness of this MT in front of them, the same one they clearly neglected a while back!
At this moment, people finally started listening to Reef’s orders. Without selfish ambitions, they commenced destruction of the Sturmbeest’s left front leg. Yet noteworthily, as the Sturmbeest’s life force gradually plunged to a critical state, Sheyan and Reef started commencing their shady businesses. Once another close combatant approached, they would intentionally not intercept or draw away the Sturmbeest, allowing it to do their dirty work!
A ‘Son of Caden’ party member, an agile contestant wielding a double-edged blade, wanted to approach the beast in lieu of acquiring advantages. Yet Sheyan and Reef were already roughly clear on the habits of this Sturmbeest. Identifying this opportunity, they waited for the moment that contestant attacked before retreating. The agile contestant sank his double-edged blade into the Sturmbeest’s flesh, delivering a terrifying blow to it. However, he hadn’t anticipated that Sheyan and Reef would abruptly and shamelessly dodge away to spectate, not participating in blocking the Sturmbeest.
Consecutively, the Sturmbeest immediately retaliated against its nearest foe. With an enraged roar, it smashed its head into that agile contestant. The contestant hastily blocked with his double-edged blade, ultimately saving himself in time; but his life force was only 200 points. After suffering a merciless headbutt, he hurriedly executed his life saving ability and swallowed down a medicine; barely pulling his HP back up.
But right at that moment, the Sturmbeest had raised its towering giant hooves, and stomped down viciously!
A thunderous tremor shook the earth, unleashing a seismic wave. The ‘Warstomp’ severely injured that contestant, before the Sturmbeest came galloping in with a finishing blow. With a horrified shriek, the contestant was thrown 8 metres back, crashing down as his life similarly crashed to oblivion. But at this moment, when the Sturmbeest seemed to casting a vengeful glare towards the distant Mogensha, Sheyan and Reef instead hurriedly appeared in its line of sight, blocking away its charging path.
During the process of battling the Sturmbeest, all self-esteem he had lost to the Uruk-hais through the many cuts and bruises he received in the previous world, was finally redeemed. Though the Sturmbeest had an incredible offensive might of at least 150 – 250 points; but in comparison, Sheyan’s physique had reached a terrifying 45 points. His defence was now 22.5 + 2 = 24.5, absorbing at least 49% of damage! His innate ability absorbed 25 damage, as though absorbing a quarter of its attack! This was all exceedingly astronomical defensive statistics!
(TN: the Sturmbeest’s average damage is around 150 – 250, while its ‘Wild collision’ probably does more damage as seen from its max acceleration collision against Reef)Chapter 355: Domineering
Everything must have a beginning and an end; for example the Red Bull I’m drinking now, or Michael Jackson’s passing, or the Sturmbeest’s life……as the contestants continued chiseling at it, its life finally declined to oblivion.
It was constantly thinking of shaking off the two pesky worms in its face, and go after the clamorous, annoying houseflies further away. However, its cumbersome physique and wounded legs repeatedly provided them with ample time to escape.
What was worse, was the fact the two pesky worms were dishing out decent damage. They were like little pebbles by the riverbank; appearing insignificant, but tough enough to break someone’s tooth! Carrying an unwilling grievance, this enormous beast sprayed out massive amounts of blood; emitting a reluctant and sorrowful grunt, as it despondently collapsed to the ground. Ultimately, dropping a brilliantly radiating, silver key!
At that very moment, contestants who participated in slaughtering the Sturmbeest instantly received 1000 contribution points from the RDA company.
This key…….obviously attracted every contestant’s attention. Instead, it was seized by Reef; without hesitation, he flung it into the party’s shared interspatial storage. Then he swept a provocative gaze around, but none stood forward to question him! Reef then blatantly issued.
“This key is mine, whoever is unhappy can step forward now.”
Nobody spoke up……after completing this domineering deed, Reef remained exceedingly composed. He continued with his own affairs as he sat by the ground, bandaging and mending his wounds. Discontented murmurs could be heard around, but none dared to project their resentment. Most chose to remain silent, because they understood; it was better for things to flow smoothly.
At this instant, Sheyan deeply realized the imposing dominance of a MT – ruling by force, an evil tyrant. Anger, that would be placed on others. Therefore, for even a noble and gentlemanly guy like Reef, snatching equipments were indeed reasonable!
After a brief rest, seeing that his own health had roughly recovered, Reef widened his eyes as he headed towards the crowd of ‘Sons of Caden’ members. He then fumed angrily.
“Why didn’t you guys follow my instructions? If you think my orders are questionable, then you should’ve raised it up previously! But once the operation commences, you should’ve followed accordingly!! Are you idiots on your first vacation in the realm? You don’t know the rules?!”
Honestly speaking, amongst the mortality ranks of the contestants, the ‘Sons of Caden’ members died the most! Especially that agile dual-edged blade user, he was their current leader. After being berated by Reef, a female holding onto a longbow directly screamed out.
“Who do you think you are? On what grounds, are you throwing your weight around for?! Also, that Sturmbeest was killed by everyone, on what grounds are you monopolizing its key?”
Reef glanced at her, snorting coldly before turning to leave. Puffing on a cigar at the side, Mogensha leaned back, his lips curving as he hugged his golden AK and laughed.
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that, sounds like you guys are feeling rather indignant. Then how about you guys be the tanker for the next round of beasts? Then nobody would bother.”
The woman’s face changed, gnashing her teeth at Mogensha’s back figure, but not daring to do anything. She suddenly glanced towards another close combatant in her party and ordered.
“Jemu! You hold the front next, you’ll take half the spoils.”
Jemu scoffed mockingly.
“What can a dead corpse do with battle spoils. Previously, treating me like wind after mission completion but after being pressured by others now, you finally realized my presence? In your dreams! You think wielding a shield and being a MT is a breeze? Let me tell you, without him and his formidable assistant, yes, that Seaman also at the frontlines; our f***king pathetic frontlines would’ve crumbled long ago!”
“Just look at that person on the right, yes, that one toying with those twin daggers. Do you know who is he? That is Lille who slaughtered 7 members of Ahdi’s party in one breath! Yes, that haughty, rash and ill-mannered brat, he was someone who wholeheartedly listened to Reef’s orders…..”
Meanwhile, this period of rest had concluded. Mogensha unloaded a clip towards the faraway pack of viperwolves who were still unearthing their dead comrades from the pit; naturally his actions agitated the remaining portion of viperwolves. However, regarding the viperwolves whose deadliness lies within their pack; after getting familiar with their attack patterns, their individual threat had lessened substantially.
But with sheer numbers, they still offered unparalleled terror.
After several contestants had coordinated with Reef’s formidable ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’, the veterans who had long acclimatized to this world’s battles swiftly and efficiently concluded the battle with overwhelming superiority.
One noteworthy observation was that for the remainder of the battle; whatever keys or drop loots, Reef no longer hogged them for himself. Even when a dark blue glowing key surfaced beside him, it was no exception. As for Sheyan, he himself understood the logic of this; since he had eaten the meat, he should leave the soup for others, and wholeheartedly supported Reef’s behavior. In the long run, everyone still had to battle together as one. If things were done too excessively, then others would become dispirited or even rebel.
After the beast horde was cleansed, Reef called for 3 other influential and reputable contestants for a small meeting. After the meeting concluded, they formed a pact. Then they allowed that sentry contestant Uzel, an expert in reconnaissance belonging to the Gothic party, to head over to the northern and southern region to investigate their situation.
Right now, the Silver grade key earned through the supreme hegemony of MT Reef wasn’t opened yet. Since there was ample time now, they opened the silver chest. Glittering silver loot appeared with a list of notifications.
“You receive 4,200 utility points.”
“You receive 5 potential points.”
“You receive a giant bezoar. Valuable object/drug, exchangeable for 3000 utility points.”
“You receive a ring: Barbaric-demon pupil”
“You receive a horcrux: Sturmbeest’s Horcrux.”
**
“Ring: Barbaric-demon pupil.”
“Equipment rarity: Black.”
“Detail: Strength +3
“Detail: Spirit -4, charm -1, Basic long range combat -1 (If user doesn’t possess this ability, effect will be void)
“Equipment position: finger.”
“Material: Silicate calcium, two vulcanization salt, carbohydrate.”
“Equipment passive ability: Soul Irradiate – This pupil would occasionally strip off a fragment of the enemy’s soul, dealing 10 points of damage that ignore defence.”
“Equipment ability: Horn-rage – Within a distance of 8 – 35 metres, inciting a fanatical charge towards the enemy. Enemy will be stunned for 3 seconds, does not deal damage to enemy. During the charge, your movement speed will assume the extreme limits of the world’s difficulty, immune to all speed reduction effects.”
“Only when your strength vastly exceeds the target (Able to deal crushing damages), would you maintain the 100% accuracy rate of ‘Horn-rage’. If your strength is lesser than the target, this ability cannot be activated.”
“No matter if you struck your target or not, you will be stunned up to 1-6 seconds after ‘Horn-rage’ concludes. (Duration of stun is determined by strength, the higher the strength, the shorted the stunned duration). Cooldown of 180 seconds.”
“Weight: 14 g.”
Description: Brimming with vengeance, this is the pupil of the Sturmbeest. Although its soul has vanished, a portion of the Sturmbeest’s abilities remained. Of course, for a Sturmbeest who worshipped fleshy strength, it naturally weakens your spirit.
Sturmbeest’s horcrux
Equipment rarity: Silver Storyline grade
Usage effect: Usable on black grade equipments / weapons. Transforming them into soul artifacts, upgrading the weapon/equipment grade to Silver storyline grade.
Warning: If the horcrux is incompatible with the equipment, horcrux will be destroyed.
Material: ghost
Weight: 3 g
Description: Planet Pandora’s special circumstances has caused horcruxes to appear by a wide margin. Undoubtedly, this is due to the existence of the Avatar’s planet Eywa.
(TN: Eywa is the guiding force and deity of planet Pandora and the Na’vis)
*
Identifying that slut Jinkuang would be very interested in the giant Bezoar, Sheyan confided with Reef and Mogensha, before keeping it. As for the ring, after a series of discussion, both Mogensha and Reef had some form of reliance on Spirit, while the 3 points of strength would be a huge boost to Sheyan. Thus, Sheyan took it, and reckoned that its performance would be mindblowing if upgraded to a silver storyline grade.
Concurrently, this world’s first milestone ‘Meat owner’ had been accomplished. It rewarded a title ‘Meat owner’, which increased 10% damage to the wild creatures of this world. Undoubtedly, this title took first wearable priority, although a 10% damage increase was rather commonly seen.
After 5 minutes, the reconnaissance guy nimbly rushed back. At present, the northern and southern sides were still locked in ferocious combat like a wildfire. After burying the carcasses in the western region which led to a lower enticement force on their side, many beasts had filtered off to the other regions.
According to Sheyan’s previous investigations, the northern battlefield was held by the entire Illume-union. As for the southern battlefield, its constitution was slightly complicated. With a party named ‘Los Marcos’ as its core, the remaining 2-3 tiny parties comprised of many loose contestants. Moreover, there wasn’t a leader type, cornerstone character like Reef. According to theory, the southern battlefield should be in dire straits. However, in light of the latest report – the northern Illume-union region was actually the one locked in a difficult situation!Chapter 356: That gun……..
The Illume-union was clearly stronger, yet their situation turned out to be the worst. Hence, there could only be one reason.
The appearance of a legendary creature! The creature storming through the western and southern regions was a cumbersome, solid and mighty legendary creature, the Sturmbeest. Instead, the legendary creature the Illume-union was facing, was actually a giant leopard like creature!
According to Uzel’s description, it seemed like the creature was the apex land predator of planet Pandora, a Thanator! Which was also known as Palulukan in the na’vi tongue, which meant dry mouth, bringer of fear!
Not only did it possessed shocking strength, it had the agility that a Sturmbeest lacked!
Just by thinking of Archeaphill’s heavy shield, one could tell this was indeed an unfavourable match up. Once he squared off with a highly agile enemy, multiple loopholes could definitely be exploited. These loopholes not only mean that his situation would be perilous, but even the defensive line with Archeaphill as its core, would be burdened with holes.
Citing the earlier western region battle; once Reef retreated, Sheyan would still be able to temporarily mend the defensive gap. Yet even if Archeaphill could afford to leave his fort to deal with the Thanator, how would Huckle possibly assume such an immense responsibility? Never ever forget, alongside the Thanator were floods of viperwolves and slingers. More crucially, they were further reinforced by loose beasts from the western region……
Reef stroked his brows as he spoke to Sheyan.
“Even though I have a previous grudge with the Illume-union; but talking about now, if they were to be defeated, then we definitely wouldn’t be able to hold the fort until the Golden side Mission surfaces.”
Sheyan’s gaze flickered, immediately recalling about those few core members of the illume-union that hadn’t acted out. He immediately called Uzel over to inquire on several matters before ordering into the party channel.
“Rescuing the Illume-union is definitely a must, but I feel we should advance to the southern region first.”
Reef was slightly surprised, wanting to question but Sheyan immediately hastened him.
“Time is tight.”
Reef sighed deeply, nodding his head as he followed according to their discussion; selecting 6 guys with the heavy burden of aiding the southern battlefield. Amongst the six were sniper Jin Ximin that Reef had rescued previously, twin-daggers agile specialist Lille, party member Jemu of the ‘Sons of Caden’s’ and bowman 70mah of the ‘Gothic’ party. Apart from Jemu, everyone else was a high ranking member in their respective areas.
Currently back at the southern battlefield, it wasn’t a safer haven like what they had imagined it to be. The combination of viperwolves and slingers sufficed to cause headaches. What more, throwing additionally into the pot, was a tyrannical giant bull recklessly charging around, dissolving the defensive formations into disarray. Still, their offensive output seemed rather exceptional, and they followed the tactic of annihilating the slingers first, then the viperwolves and finally the Sturmbeest. Nevertheless, they still had to constantly evade the charge of the Sturmbeest. Since they didn’t possess a Reef calibre person to tank the Sturmbeest, they had to cruelly sacrifice lives in the process!
This tactic was undoubtedly equivalent to offering any arbitrary life to the boss Sturmbeest. Strictly speaking, once the Sturmbeest locked onto someone, based on its cumbersome flaw, then chances of surviving for long and even escaping would surface as long as one repeatedly circled around it! However, that was in a 1v1 situation! This was a messy as hell battlefield, where contestants were distracted and deadlocked in gruesome combat with other viperwolves and slingers. Therefore, death was inevitable.
But at this moment, Sheyan and company appeared!
With Mogensha leading, the 4 long range combatants raised their guns/bows in unison, aiming towards the Sturmbeest’s buttocks that were in sight, before firing! Instantly, a miserably mutilated and ruptured anus could be seen.
Right then and there, the massive creature’s eyes turned bloodshot; its gigantic hooves braked abruptly, producing 6 deep depressions on the ground. Amidst the puff of sand and dust, it turned and buried its huge head forward. Without hesitation, it charged towards Mogensha!
Similar to previous times, before the Sturmbeest could connect with its target, Reef had cast his ‘Courage’ ability. Like a war god, he sped in front of Mogensha! Raising his shimmering silver ‘Alien skull’ shield. A muffled boom erupted, Reef was once again sent flying as he left a trail of sorrowful blood wafting through the air!
The contestants of the southern region all gasped in surprise!
As Reef was knocked flying, he did a somersault in mid air and landed half kneeling which his left hand pressing onto the ground. Then calmly and cooly, he stood up and bandaged himself. As for the Sturmbeest, it froze right after the collision. Seizing this opportunity, Sheyan reused old tactics; tossing a flask over. Then he proceeded to cover the bandaging Reef, earning precious time for him to heal up.
The contestants at the rear naturally seized this chance to pour in frenzied assaults! With someone curbing the danger at the front, the tremendously cumbersome Sturmbeest found it extremely tough to free himself from the yoke of its aggressors. The southern contestants were in an uproar, because everyone desired to be a naked snatch thief!
Even a moron would know that a legendary creature would produce a Silver storyline grade equipment, even higher grades were a possibility. However, they were still being tied down by hundreds of viperwolves and slingers. Moreover, another notion welled up within them; which was how to snatch the Sturmbeest back from Sheyan’s hands. Perhaps, only if someone possessed unprecedented might, and could deal a fatal blow to the Sturmbeest instantly. However, one still had to consider if they could tank the impending terror of the Sturmbeest’s charge…..
Sheyan and the rest were both battling and retreating, gradually luring this bad boy towards the western region. With their earlier experience, though the Sturmbeest was massively formidable, being under the constant pressure from all directions, its life would swiftly deplete.
At the moment the Sturmbeest’s health plunged to 20%, Sheyan suddenly noticed the back of his hand! He discovered his hairs had all erected up,
This sensation…….
This was indeed a difficult sensation to describe, it was as though his soul was being stabbed through!
Almost instantly, a gunfire echoed from the distance. The gunfire was strange, it sounded like a delayed echo that bounced through a thousand mountains valley…..the sound of an ancient mellifluous echo.
When the gunshot resounded, Sheyan immediately felt a tremendous threat. He ferociously darted forward horrendously, rolling onto the ground as dust and soil smeared against his face. Then he swung back in astoundment.
The Sturmbeest in front of him was momentarily stunned, every single attack struck against its body.
Then, its basketball sized eyes suddenly exploded, black and greyish fluids gushed out; raining over Reef and the twin-daggers agile contestant, Lille, beside him. Ash grey semi-liquid fluid spilled out of its nostrils and mouth – it was the Sturmbeest’s brain sap. After a brief moment, the giant beast seemed to be stripped off its soul, and crashed to the ground!
What sort of frightening assault was this; one that could deal a one-hit-KO strike to an enormous beast, with close to 20,000 HP remaining?!
Sheyan turned his head in shock, viewing a skinny tall figure keeping a rifle. Cyan smoke lingered persistently in the air, as the figure turned around and headed back towards the south; adopting a somewhat haughty and forlorn figure. His figure arrogantly trudged forward, just like a lone wolf staggering into the distance. For some unknown reason, Sheyan suddenly recalled Diaz, who had died to the Metals professor’s hands.
Bunch of western snatch thieves! I, your father can snatch it back too!
No doubt, that contestant belonged to the southern region. Although his gunshot was unable to change the fact that Sheyan and the rest would still obtain the dropped key, he had snatched away a huge portion of battle contribution. It was like a slap in the face to the western contestants. One must understand, the contestants alive now were mostly all exceptional ones. Who could tolerate such an act of provocation?
Consecutively, malicious glares flashed in several eyes, especially the twin-daggers agile contestant, Lille. It was utterly possible to imagine a guy like him handling long range combatants viciously; once he got close, everything would simply point to disaster. Fortunately, everyone’s attention quickly flashed back to the silver glowing key that was dropped.
This time, Reef didn’t monopolize the key. The silver key was to be arranged according to their pact – auctioned on the spot, the proceeds of the auction would then be evenly split between the participating contestants. In the end, a weapon emerged, called ‘Knocker-horn’.
This weapon was a single-handed knife; enhancing strength and agility attributes. Its effects included blood loss damage, 8 points of damage neglecting opponent’s defence. Yet, it just had to have a unique equipping requirement.
That was lvl 5 ‘Basic eloquence’ (Based on charm). The weapon’s description was – you had to convince the weapon’s soul to be able to display its greatest potential………
No doubt, this was starkly incompatible with Sheyan. To him who always lacked utility points and potential points, he would even take months and years to make an investment to reach ‘Basic Eloquence lvl 5’. Moreover, before this, the trio had squandered their wealth before entering, and could at most produce 3,000 utility points. Their networth was even inadequate for the the lowest auction bid!
After a series of intense battle between giants, the weapon was purchased by the party ‘Sons of Caden’ with 47,000 utility points, and 6 potential points.
(TN: meaning squabbling or negotiating)
Author’s notes:
Destroying the 20,000 HP Sturmbeest in a split second, is indeed a contestant’s ability. But, using this ability has loads of restrictions, and will definitely not influence the balance of this novel. When this ability is publicly announced later, everyone will understand.
Guess the name of that ability!
Clue: The name of this ability comes from a fiery movie’s name.Chapter 357: Exchange
Observing the current influence Reef and Sheyan possessed, that longbow woman from before shrank into a corner; feeling vexed and dispirited, she no longer dared to speak up anymore. Reef wasn’t a scumbag tyrant; he gestured everyone else to rest up till they were almost completely healed. Then they proceeded to rush towards the Illume-union’s region.
One had to admit, Reef was indeed one who understood the bigger picture. Although he had dueled with the Illume-union several times, since both parties were now on the same boat, he would naturally think for the other party. Yet truthfully, this was also his weakness. A selfless and righteous individual, this was no doubt a tough path to traverse on in this realm. As the proverb goes; water that is too clear has few fish, and one who is too critical has few friends. If his manner of governance always differed from others, then even one who possessed unsurmountable strength would be washed out eventually.
The reason why Sheyan had decided to help the southern battlefield first, was obviously for the Illume-union to pile up more casualties. This was due to staying with them briefly before. Hence, he understood the underlying terror of their party. He reckoned that they would definitely become their greatest enemy with regards to vying for the Golden side mission. Sheyan didn’t harbour extravagant hopes that the major powers of the Illume-union would suffer losses. But at least, the supporting crew would be damaged substantially. This was akin to sampling if a citrus was too sweet, one had to first peel off its external skin!
While Sheyan followed Reef as they arrived hastily at the northern battlefield, he finally caught glimpse of Pandora’s apex land predator, Thanator. It’s overall appearance was akin to a magnified black leopard; with its glossy black skin and yellow/red stripes, its maliciousness multiplied manifold.
Around its rear skull, there were 10 strands of beard like sensory quills. These quills were like sensory amplifiers, increasing the Thanator’s senses by ten folds. As it widened its jaws, this savage creature revealed a folded upper lip, leaving its largest fangs to stretch out. The speed of its neck and jaw strike would swiftly crunch out terrifying damage to enemies. Moreover, it had solid armour covering its neck all the way to its tail.
At present, this impressive legendary creature was ravaging through the crowd. However, the Thanator’s mobility no longer appeared agile; and vividly noticeable, it seemed to have glue poured over it. Such a hunting trick that was as subtle and gentle, as mundane as breathing or eating, definitely required a huge consumption of energy to produce it. As for its ferocious claws and lethal fangs, it could only lash them out against several summoned creatures pestering around it. The contestants were frantically dishing out damage, beating till it roared passively.
Previously when Uzel scouted, he didn’t dare go near the battlefield. Hence, he couldn’t obtain a report on the Thanator. Now, he displayed his full abilities.
Junior Thanator (Tier-2 legendary creature) (Thunder beast)
Na’vi tongue: Palulukan
Scientific name: Thanatora Ferox
Height: 2.5 metres, exceeds 5.5 metre in length
Weight: over 2 tons
Description: Pandora’s apex land predator. Six legged sprinter. Even Na’vi, renowned for their courage, would shiver in fear by its approach. Na’vi folks would never sing nor dance to extol it.
Strength: 30 points
Agility: 50 points (Max)
Physique: 25 points
Spirit: ? ?
Intelligence: ? ?
Legendary creature ability: ‘Mother-earth skin’ lvl 4 – Grants additional 15,000 HP/ lvl 4 effect, grants additional 6 HP per 5 seconds regeneration.
Legendary creature ability: ‘Iron will’ lvl 1 – most speed reduction effects would be bad against this creature.
Creature ability: ‘Lightning pace’ (Passive) – movement speed and attack speed are significantly enhanced.
Creature ability: ‘Brutal’ (Passive) – When attacking, it easily results in loss of blood, fracturing or other negative states. The Thanator’s assault damage increases by 10% against enemies in negative states, maximum stack of 50%.
Creature ability: ‘Quill sensor’ (Passive) – Possess an extremely powerful foreseeing sense towards danger. Lowers enemy’s explosive strike rate by 30%, raising its own evasion by 15%.
Creature ability: ‘Tail-whip’ (Active) – The Thanator’s tail is its greatest weapon. It can ruthlessly slash opponents like a whip, dealing a (strength x4) damage and stun the enemy. Duration of 5 seconds.
Realm war additional bonus: grant additional 200,000 HP / grants additional 30 HP per 5 seconds regeneration.
Suddenly, the Thanator sent a contestant flying with its tail, before turning to glare at the valkyrie’s interior channel; as it howled sorrowfully. Its sensory quills suddenly swelled and flared up, demonstrating a menacing expression. The movement of these quills were either for warning or flaunting, which was rather similar to a peacock displaying its plume during mating season!
Instead, Sheyan took notice of the Thanator’s savage flashlight gaze towards the front, he couldn’t help but look over as well. Eventually, he caught a glimpse of a suspended Zi in mid air, within the darkness of the valkyrie’s channel. Her legs were roughly hovering a metre above the ground, and one of her revolving rhombus globes had vanished. She then stretched her left palm remotely towards the Thanator, and maintained this posture.
“Seems like we’ve came too early.” Sheyan sighed in his heart. With one sweep of his gaze, he could tell the Illume-union had lost over 10 members. However, their displayed prowess was merely the tip of the iceberg; such show of force was already extremely lofty, yet beneath that, hid the majestic portion of the iceberg which was still a mystery! The entire Illume-Union party appeared exceedingly calm.
Furthermore, Sheyan also noticed that Reef and Archeaphill should’ve been former acquaintances. Their stares towards each other seemingly rubbed out tension sparks.
Faced with this situation, the westerners dared not be rash; but only remained at the outskirts and lured several elite viperwolves before slaughtering them. At least 2 dark blue keys were produced from that. Then they returned to their western region and made further defensive preparations. Of course right now, there was no need for any instructions. The contestants who had tasted the sweetness of strategy begun to take care of the carcasses themselves, cleansing the bloodstains neatly. They had even dug 3 different pit locations this time, naturally this was to better segregate the famished wild beasts.
At this moment, a black cloud of beasts once again approached from afar…….
***
Nightfall. After an entire 4 hours, the blood soaked and brave fighters finally heard a deafening broadcast from the internal of the valkyrie.
�� Please return to the shuttle, please return to the shuttle ��
�� Shuttle’s powered unilateral nuclear fusion power engine is restored. 3 minutes to optical interference shade. Defensive shade possesses untold camouflaging capability. During the night, Pandorian creatures will be unable to pinpoint the shuttle’s position. The safety of the passengers will be secured till 8 the next day ��
Upon hearing this news, many contestants immediately slumped down in exhaustion after entering the interior channel of the valkyrie; splashing water onto their faces as they sunk to sleep. Actually, Sheyan had realized one thing from the battling. Digging pits and burying the carcasses could only lessen the quantity of ordinary incoming beasts. Those powerful legendary creatures seemed to be unaffected one bit.
During the last waves of attacks, though there weren’t new sightings of high tiered legendary creatures; the sheer quantity of them would be doubled or even tripled every time. Such a quantity was something that even a powerful party like the Illume-union couldn’t withstand. Fortunately, the legendary creatures didn’t flock over, and most of the ordinary aggressors were enticed by the buried carcasses. Thus, it allowed the contestants a break through chance.
The other regions were similarly no fools, after have bizarre packs of beasts running over from the western region, they immediately started to make investigations of the western side; trying to understand why the wild beasts were seemingly deterred by their side. In the end, such a simple matter of cleaning up the battlefield remains was rapidly learned by them. Still, after persisting till night fall, the remaining quantity of contestants had been reduced to around half!
But of course one must understand; it wasn’t that many contestants had been killed, the keyword was reduced. Contestants who had survived till now, had long ago learnt to accept reality. Therefore, many contestants upon realizing things weren’t looking good, had renounced their participation; paying up a hefty price of 3 highest basic attribute and 5 achievement points. Besides, living remained the basic principle.
At this moment, 5 RDA workers from the cockpit of the valkyrie emerged. They walked down from the highest floor, and finally stopped at the central region of the shuttle. After an announcement that merely scratched the surface on what was wrong in the shuttle, they located a place to settle down as well.
Every contestant could utilize pocket computers they were given, to engage in inquiries. Furthermore, they could purchase medical supplies / equipment / recipes / unknown strange objects etc. However, the only currency usable was their RDA battle contributions.
In a flash, those 5 workers were naturally encircled by an impenetrable crowd, so much so that even a mosquito would find it hard to join in. Sheyan constantly observed the 5 workers in deep thought. He even attempted to climb up valkyrie floor, but was instead warned by a robotic sound upon reaching the top; warning him of this forbidden zone. If he persisted in entering, his battle contributions would be deducted entirely by the RDA company; and the ship-based weapons would turn hostile.
Of course Sheyan wouldn’t persist in entering the second floor, forbidden zone. He pondered thoughtfully before nodding, then returning back down and coup himself in a corner. At present, most of the contestants had assembled at the central aisle of the shuttle’s hall. They were sitting in distinct groups, and casted watchful glances towards each other.Chapter 358: Resurrection tool, exchange!!
Sheyan leaned against the wall to rest. After a while, Reef carried a gust of wind as he plunged his butt beside him. With a rather ecstatic voice, he lauded.
“Boss! We really need to stake everything in this time! I say this damned world has such a scary difficulty level, but the items we can exchange for are equally great! Hurry up and take a look!”
Currently, Sheyan had raked in massive exploitations from his supporting adventure. His offense wasn’t considered strong, thus, he frequently couldn’t obtain the contribution rewards of dealing the final finishing blow to enemies. However, countless contestants couldn’t shy away from the bonuses of his supporting gene-mixes! Every time they killed something, Sheyan chiseled away at their contributions!
Although individually it didn’t amount to much, the accumulated total was astonishing. Sheyan’s battle contribution rate had discretely ranked amongst the bests of the contestants, totalling more than 8,000 RDA battle contribution points. Something worth noting was that all contestants seemed to possess an ‘amicable’ relationship with the RDA company; it had no relations to battle contributions whatsoever.
When the contestant crowd surrounding the 5 RDA workers significantly lessened, Sheyan finally strolled over, requesting for the list of purchasables. The workers initially looked at Sheyan with abhor, probably due to his low charm. However, after realizing something about Sheyan, they gasped in astonishment.
“So it is actually Mr Lieutenant! Sir, I’ve heard about your legendary adventures before……wow, your contributions to the company are exceptionally generous. Please don’t worry, we will definitely provide suitable discounts for interesting merchandise.”
Sheyan nodded, the menu list exhibited fully in a flurry. The foremost display was a long list of warning:
Research Development Administration disclaimer notice:
Announcement.
Home base earth planet exploration regulations, no. 2311 and no. 3188 states:
The Research Development Administration cannot hire active military personnels as their armed fighters.
Exploring squad members cannot use weapons of mass destruction. Only high technology weapons of 50 years ago can be used for battles in foreign celestial bodies.
Weapon based aircrafts cannot exceed the latest model of the Aerospatiale SA-2 Samson, and the Scorpion Gunship (Aircraft).
Every weapon is programmed to be unable to inflict harm onto humankind.
………..
The list of disclaimers, was due to the RDA company’s motive of planet exploration and not starting a war. To preserve the safety of their workers, they had to employ armed fighters. Apart from that, the RDA company was already an extremely powerful company. Therefore, in order to prevent the RDA from further technological advances and amassing greater military influence, the Earth government had prevented them from using weapons of mass destruction.
Thus, the armed fighters employed were still stuck in the era of Star Trek, still utilizing regular chemical based bullets and ordinary rifles. They weren’t even allowed laser guns, needless to say space tanks, obliteration warships and other heavy space weaponry; because these didn’t belong to antiques of the 21st century. The best they had was the ‘Amplified Mobility Platform (AMP suits)’ , the robots seen in the movie. However, that too was also a distant descendant of first military exoskeleton used by Earth in the mid-21st century. Which goes to say, during the timeline of the movie itself, every mechanics involved were historic goods of the previous century.
Sheyan skimmed through everything, as he hurriedly browsed the menu. Even though he was already mentally prepared, he couldn’t help exclaiming in surprise. For some unknown reasons, the RDA company actually exhibited every single available merchandise in their menu, from items to equipments, to recipes to unknown strange objects. Only, a striking font marked out the purchasing requirements behind each segment.
As for Sheyan, his attention was locked onto the bottom few items, it was obvious these were the powerful objects that Reef mentioned.
Integrated animal controlling technique case: Pandora is host to many savage and hostile creatures; however, humans discovered that Na’vi’s are able to easily tame some. Afterward, it was discovered that Na’vi’s external nervous system is linked to the outcome of taming creatures.
After analyzing the Na’vi’s nervous architecture along with the creatures of Pandora, human scientists have invented a Mental control device, to tame the creatures. During their experiments, scientists have successfully controlled the Direhouse, Hammerhead Titanothere, Sturmbeest and various creatures. But till now, scientist are still unable to control the primitive vicious instincts of Viperwolves and the Thanator; only simple controlling reactions are recorded. However, due to the reliability and unpopular nature of these inventions, current research had been stalled.
This Integrated case is an affiliated product of said research. Upon using, there is a chance of controlling the aforementioned creatures (And ordinary animals). Maximum usage of 3 times before exhausting its capabilities.
Purchasing value: 12,000 RDA battle contributions. (10,800, legend level discount)
AMP military exoskeleton (Amplified Mobility Platform). Hailed as the AMP suit, it is a human operated, multi-purpose battle suit. The military credits it as ‘An Apache with arms’. AMP suit height: 4.205 metres. Width: 2.83 metres. Weight: 1,700 kg.
Pre-installed weapons: Kevlar – High carbon steel alloy battle knife
Additional installations (additionally purchased):
Gau-90 30mm hip-fired autocannon,
Explosive incendiary rounds
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Front Infrared panel,
Radar etc, navigation tools.
HP 5,000, defence 60.
Can be repaired.
Purchasing value: 15,000 (13,500 discount) RDA battle contributions.
Unmodeled Amnio tank
Amnio tanks are mimicked after functions of the mammalian womb. It can be used for growing cloned animals, humans(rarely) and replace limbs and organs. At present, it can successfully grow avatar bodies.
Growth takes place in a suspension fluid; with controlled temperature and constantly monitored chemical composition. Above it are placentiums, which function similarly to a mammalian placenta; supplying nutrients and hormones to the cultivating organism. Simultaneously with the supervision of monitoring equipment, controlling nutrients and other growth stimulants.
Avatars are supplied with a synthetic umbilical cord; jolting currents to stimulate muscle growth during the incubation process.
You can use the Amnio tank to cultivate your own cells, and avoid the first descent of the death god!
After purchasing this special item, it will be delivered to your personal room.
Once your body dies, the Amnio tank core computer will activate, remodeling according to the cells you left behind. You will receive a new life, but your equipment will be lost. The realm’s evaluation of you will drop as well. Therefore, the next few worlds you venture in will be relatively safer.
Purchasing value: 20,000 (18,000 discount) RDA battle contributions.
Quantity available: This device is a failed model of Avatar modelling Amnio Tank. Hence, it only has 8 available.
Upon seeing that, Sheyan instantly understood why Reef was so fascinated! This ‘Unmodeled Amnio Tank’, actually contained a resurrection ability that all contestant’s yearned for even in their dreams. Besides, its valuation was only a mere 20,000 battle contributions! One must understand, slaying a legendary creature already granted 1,000 battle contribution. Moreover, ordinary beasts covered the earth and the skies……
After seeing this, Sheyan instantly asked Reef if contribution points could be traded! However, the answer he received was ‘no’.
“Indeed that is so.” Sheyan pondered as he nodded.
Following that, he browsed through the menu list again, and very blatantly traded all his 8,000 contribution point! Strictly speaking, through hard work the next day, he could very easily save up 20,000 RDA battle contributions. At most, he could still exchange them for an AMP suit! Instead, Sheyan had squandered it all without hesitation.
He procured the following items:
Hydra Armour: Its name derived from the series of protrusions at its waist. It is favourably light, enhanced toughness while preserving high mobility. Because of its focused design, it can reduce the damage dealt by Pandora creatures by 30%, and raise your movement speed on Pandora; it also has a pre-installed oxygen mask.”
During its course of designing, many factors were considered in. Therefore, this hydra armour can be pasted over your armour surface.
Valuation: 5,000 (4,500) RDA battle contributions: Unable to be brought out of this world.
**
Nail gun: This is a highly precise, long range firearm. Its body is long, and its speciality lies in its bullet composition of titanium; allowing its nails to pierce most types of heavy armour. Its primary use is in destroying vehicles and other equipment/devices. Of course, it can be used to deal with various armoured creatures of Pandora.
In view of this weapon’s astonishing weight and recoil, you must have at least 30 points of strength to utilize it. Damage power of 100 – 140 points. Neglects 50% of defence.
Infrared laser, accuracy target device (Add on): With this precious object, even if your aiming is horrendously indescribable, you can turn into a 100 shot-100 hit gun deity. What you need to do is something even a 5 year old kid can manage; aim that lethal red dot towards your desired target, and press the trigger…….Chapter 359: Undercurrent flows
Nail gun valuation: 2,400 (2,160 discount) battle contributions. Infrared laser, accuracy target device valuation: 2,000 (1,800) battle contributions. This weapon is unable to be brought out of this world.
Lastly, I need to inform you. According to federal law regulation 14, whenever you aim the firearm at any humans; note, any single human, the microcomputer within the gun will automatically lock the magazine. Hence, malfunction or other unpredictable variable may occur. I sincerely apologize and beg for your understanding, as the RDA company is merely a resource extraction company, and not an ammunitions company.
After purchasing two items that could enhance his battle and survival capabilities by a level, Sheyan squandered the rest of his battle contributions on ammunition – the ‘Nail gun’ required titanium nail bullets which weren’t cheap at all! Fortunately, Sheyan’s +1 legend level was rather beneficial now. Right now, as countless others were observing him, summoning Jinkuang was simply too provocative. Thus, Sheyan didn’t summon him to haggle over the price, preventing others from noticing this shameless hidden trump card of his.
Following that, Sheyan engaged in a brief discussion with Reef and Mogensha inside their party transmission channel. After a short exchange of words, Reef and Mogensha’s face suddenly changed drastically, and ultimately turned ashen. They hurriedly rushed over to squander cleanly, all their battle contributions!!!
Because their intense discussions were done in the party channel, others could only take notice of their ugly expressions. However, many other contestants had comrades that perished in battle, and sunken faces were everywhere. Honestly speaking, if Reef and Mogensha were beaming with pleasure and all smiles, that would truly attract attention.
Another noteworthy thing was that 4 other legendary creatures had appeared within the beast tide during the day. However, out of the 4 legendary creatures, only 3 dropped keys. Amongst the keys, one of them exploded forth with utility points only; which was something Sheyan had encountered before. Nothing else came up, just a lump sum of utility points. As for the 2 other silver keys, 3 rather valuable objects surfaced – A silver grade ring, a black grade Skeletal-bow and another horcrux.
These 3 items trended towards long range or magic based contestants. Mogensha already had his excellent golden AK and Sparta spear, of course he looked down on that black grade bone-bow. Hence, party Ace didn’t really require those 3 items. After dividing the proceeds, their party storage was now brimming with 53,300 utility points and 15 potential points.
After cleaning out his battle contributions, Mogensha suddenly revealed a startled expression. Quietly, he transmitted to Sheyan through the party channel.
“Boss, one of that resurrection tools ‘Unmodeled Amnio tank’ has been sold.”
Sheyan was currently holding onto a cup as he drank water. Upon hearing this news, his grip tightened, causing the glass cup to emit creaking sounds followed by clear cracks appearing. This was because Sheyan himself possessed 8,000 battle contributions; hence, he obviously knew what devilish strength one needed to earn an entire 20,000 battle contributions in such a short span of time!
“Indeed, there is always a taller mountain.” Sheyan sighed in his heart. He originally thought his personal establishment of this steel strong trio party was flawless and unprecedented. Yet now, it seems like his personal judgement was indeed biased.
For some unknown reason, the moment Sheyan heard of the resurrection tool ‘Unmodeled Amnio tank’ being sold off, he instantly recalled that southern contestant; the one that dealt a one-hit-ko shot to the Sturmbeest! Then he thought of the core members of the Illume-union, before another audacious notion jolted through his brain.
“The buyer, it could very well be them………”
In the blink of an eye, news of that most valuable and limited edition resurrection tool spreaded like wildfire. Like a stone tossed into the lake invoking ripples, word of it travelled to everyone’s ears. Time seemed to rush through like an undercurrent. Every single contestant started glaring at the skies with fierce expressions, as though they wished for the skies to turn brighter quickly; eagerly anticipating the next wave of beasts.
The next day,
Morning,
9.18 am.
The contestants had repelled two full waves of beasts already. The passionate craze and desires incited by the resurrection tool had gradually diminished.
No one understood why there were so many wild beasts. Even after clearing and cleaning up the battlefield till not a single blood stain was left after each battle; when the next wave came, an unfathomable quantity of wild beasts returned in a swirl of dust!!!
They seemed to be blown over by a hurricane gale, like a back cloud of hailstones smashing in; bristles and thorns of the earth piercing in, stabbing in one inch at a time, trampling forward steadfastly across the horizon!!
Comparing with respect to all contestants; Sheyan, Reef and Mogensha became supremely low-key. Sheyan even discarded the initiative of proactively traversing through battlefields to earn battle contributions from his gene-mixes. He silently went about with his own affairs, choosing not to fight over meritorious contributions even one bit. Due to their conduct, their influence and position declined greatly. Yet this was reality, the greater someone’s ability, the higher their authority.
As for the current battles, tier 3 legendary creatures had started showing up. The waves of beasts no longer fought a bitter fight to the death, but instead carried notions of retreat. Hence, after the two waves of beasts had retreated, the entire western region contestants had suffered casualties amounting to half. The remainder were injured, but most importantly, they hadn’t rake in a single good fortune! Although no one knew how the other 3 regions were doing, but had an inkling they everyone were probably trapped on the same boat.
(TN: During previous battles, though the beasts were intelligent and retreated from danger, they still fought as a whole and perished as a whole. However now, the beast horde would retreat entirely as well)
Sheyan casted a glance towards Reef in preparation to execute accordingly to their earlier plan. All of a sudden, sparse and fragmented cheers could be heard amongst the contestant crowd. Closely following that, from within the channels of the valkyrie, an earth shaking sensation tremored tremendously; as though an enormous heavy beast was about to emerge from within.
Following that, step by the step, it wasn’t a wild beast that emerged from the shuttle’s channel.
It was an artificial intelligent steel monstrous beast! A terrifying weapon specially bred for war!
In the end, it was a contestant that could no longer endure; lacking only 1,000 battle contributions to hit the 20,000 mark, sadly, the contestant had reach a stage of being an oil lamp that was about to dry up. Thus, an ‘AMP suit’ was exchanged for battle contributions! Piloting the outdated ferocious machine, the contestant stomped into the battlefield!!
The one piloting the ‘AMP Suit’ was that longbow woman from the ‘Sons of Caden’ party. She casted a disdainful glance towards Sheyan and the rest, before immediately replacing Reef and Sheyan’s core position entirely; proceeding to usher frenzied bombardment against the third wave of beasts.
More and more contestants started following suit, exchanging their contributions for ‘AMP suits’. This was because to their horror, the offensive capabilities and sheer quantity of the beast horde was crescendoing to unbelievable heights. During yesterday’s assault, Mountain Banshees only made an appearance once from the skies, but they shockingly was one of the primary forces today. In addition to the swift demons on land, an utterly dreadful calamity rained down on them.
Only death awaited one who still harbored hopes of amassing 20,000 battle contributions! Covering the heavens, the torrents of mountain banshees swooped in unhindered as they demolished the contestants. As for Sheyan and party Ace, they all coincidentally purchased that ‘Hydra armour’ which reduced the damage they received by 30%. Even Mogensha felt rather calm under the constant protection of Sheyan and Reef.
The third wave of beasts were finally repelled.
Simultaneously, the valkyrie broadcasted loudly once again.
「Attention, attention! The next wave will be the final one for today!」
This message undoubtedly injected adrenaline into every contestant. Peeking around at the heroic ‘AMP Suits’ around them, these unfeeling and monstrous steel mechanical beasts, they completely forgot about their injuries as an inexhaustible conviction ignited within. Hence, after simply bandaging their wounds, they took up positions and prepared for battle once again!
Indeed because these monstrous steel beasts had fully replaced Reef’s position; when the fourth wave of beasts arrived, perpetually no one noticed that Reef and his two buddies had disappeared. Of course, they hadn’t assume great risks of charging into the beautiful yet remote forest of treacherous danger. Instead, they headed back into the depths of the valkyrie.
Within the steel channel, a deathly silence was observed barring only the wafting echoes of footsteps.
Direction lights dimly flickered, slowly attempting to cover the repulsiveness of the darkness.
At present, there was only a single RDA company worker left within the centre aisle of the valkyrie. He bowed politely and inquired respectfully.
“Sirs, may I be of service?”
Sheyan stood in front of him, smiling as he replied.
“Yes.”
With the help of Jinkuang, they cleaned up whatever measly battle contributions they had on hand. Although purchasing equipment was out of the question, they squandered the small amounts they had on ammunitions, medicinal supplies etc.
Sheyan deliberated for a while before purchasing a large bundle of high intensity explosives. These explosives possessed widespread and lethal explosive might, but its damage wasn’t attributed to the user. Hence, beast that were fried by it wouldn’t reward the user with battle contributions nor drop any keys. Thus, the contestants didn’t view it favourably, with presently only few had been purchased.Chapter 360: Fall out! Massacre!
After shopping, Reef and Mogensha left. Only Sheyan remained. His eyes flickered in tune to the direction lights. This awkward atmosphere persisted several seconds, before Sheyan smiled slightly and added on.
“I have something else that requires your help.”
The RDA company worker was as smooth as a machine.
“Please tell. But I must inform you, your current battle contributions are insufficient for more purchases.”
“That isn’t important.” The necklace across Sheyan’s neck suddenly twinkled with a splendid dark golden radiance. His voice was calm as he proceeded.
“What I want, is completely unrelated to battle contributions! I only hope, the overall in charge RDA member in this valkyrie, to release that important na’vi clan member you guys captured……or…..an extremely exceptionally crucial item to the divine Eywa you acquired on this planet!”
As the words left Sheyan’s mouth, the RDA worker’s face instantly changed; stretching his hands towards his waist. But at this moment, an incomparably muffled smack echoed into the still air; identical to the sound of a massive airplane landing. Within a split second. Sheyan’s welded steel knucklers smashed heavily against his face!
Caressing along his fist, was a ghastly green glow.
At this moment, Sheyan naturally utilized the ability of the ‘Shrivelled Tangerine’, smearing that awful lymphatic fluid onto his weapon; allowing his next three strikes to carry a corrosive elemental damage!!
Besides, after activating the ability ‘Format’ of his dark gold necklace ‘Smith’s Matrix-microchip’, Sheyan’s strength had already inflated to 49 points!!
It was a terrifying 49 points, only 1 point shy of the breakthrough boundary!
(TN refresher on ability: Format an order upon oneself, temporary converting 5 points of physique to 5 points of strength.)
His fist seemed to appear from a void, whistling as it propelled in and directly smashed out crushing damages and a beat back effect!
Blood, rage and violence!
This RDA worker was wearing a circular protective helmet; but with introduction of a crackling fist, a clear dent emerged on the steel helmet. Sizzling corrosive bubbles appeared. The miserable wails of the worker throttled within his throat, as he was struck 2-3 metres away; completely unable to maintain his grip onto his weapon as it flew out, crashing noisily and sliding over the floor. Armour and steel rubbed against the floor, releasing sparks and a piercing screech.
Sheyan advanced with huge strides, sparing no chance as he carried a ruthless viciousness! He silently charged towards the RDA worker, and swung his next punch!
In his desperation, the worker screamed loudly, a mouthful of blood spilled onto the ground along with teeth. During his deathbed struggle, he still managed to dodge forcefully, as Sheyan’s fist pounded against the steel door frame by the side! Sparks scattered along with a piercing screech. Sheyan pinched against the frame! Immediately, a portion of the steel frame was forcibly torn out.
“Do you think you can run?” Sheyan’s mouth curled into a cold sneer. He could already confirm this RDA worker didn’t possess strong prowess, his only formidability laid in his status! As he gazed onto the fleeing figure of the RDA worker, Sheyan plucked out ‘Ambition’ in a flash; a spiralling smoke, a booming echo, and a bullet to the back. The RDA member froze.
When Sheyan neared in, the RDA worker woke up; sadly he woke up to Sheyan’s blunt fist. He could only attempt to block with both arms! In the end, a distinct fracturing crack of both arms resounded. His face flushed with red as he spat out a mouth of fresh blood; his pupils seemingly about to pop out!
Then Sheyan raised his fist again! Aiming towards the RDA worker’s chest as he drilled down!
This fist directly penetrated into his chest, deeply squashing his rib, lungs and heart; before he retracted his hand out. Instantly, a massive bowl sized, deep blood hole appeared on the RDA member’s chest! Pshhh! Shattered eerie bone fragments, innards, blood sprayed out in a downpour.
Tranquility resumed once again.
Like a graveyard.
Sheyan then retracted himself, as he flicked his hands and flung off bits of flesh, innards and blood against the steel wall. The corpse didn’t drop a single key, however, there was an unusual looking silver-white card pasted at his waist. His nightmare imprint announced.
“You discovered a special object: ‘RDA worker identification card’. Do you wish to collect it?”
No doubt, this murder was for this piece of item. Sheyan walked over, using his blood drenched fingers to pick the card. Then, he nodded humbly.
“I see…….so it is like that.”
Although the channel towards the upper floor of the valkyrie was locked, Reef and Mogensha who had left earlier were currently keeping watch at the door. Naturally, they were spying for possible reinforcements to warn Sheyan. At this moment, both of them couldn’t help but recall Sheyan’s earlier words.
“I don’t know if you guys have realized, but it seems like there are many discrepancies and illogical areas that have surfaced after we entered this world.”
“We risk our lives to fight for this RDA company, but the rewards we gain from killing those beasts are battle contributions. From previous experiences, it should’ve been reputation shouldn’t it? This no doubt states that the RDA workers completely doesn’t treat us as equals. Instead, their attitude towards us are like how the Romans treated their gladiator slaves. If we won, they’d throw money at us, if we lost, then we die. From the start, we haven’t earned a single ounce of respect from them!”
“Analyzing from the perspective of the intensity rate of consecutive waves of battle, we can primarily deduce – there is no reason for those beasts to fanatically launch attacks against us for no reason whatsoever. Although the initial two waves of beasts can be explained due to the valkyrie invading their territory, or destroying their nest; while the ones after could be explained by the allure of reeking blood because of our initial slaughters…….”
“But! The most noticeable deviation, is that Sturmbeests are herbivores! Although we can eliminate the possibility of them feasting on flesh if they were famished…….but, just look at the abundant vegetation around us. There must be another reason that incited these enormously powerful herbivores to turn aggressive, risking all with no thoughts of personal safety!”
“According to my understanding and inference; although Pandora is strange, mysterious and oddly, there are only two groups that possess the ability to instigate so many beasts to initiate a charging death wish.”
“The smaller possibility points to the na’vi clan’s extremely extremely powerful Tsahìk*; as for the personal strength of this Tsahìk, it should be even stronger than the movie’s Omaticaya na’vi clan’s Tsahìk! The other and also most possible conjuncture, should be the actual ruler of this planet. Even in the movies, there hadn’t been an appearance of the true body of the divine Eywa!”
(TN:* A Tsahik is the spiritual leader of a na’vi clan)
“I dare not confirm that the RDA company has offended the latter, but there’s one thing I can confirm. There must be something worthy of interest onboard this valkyrie to them! If they cannot acquire it, then the beast horde wouldn’t cease. These insanely barbaric wild beasts would continue flooding in without sparing a single cost! As for us, there is completely no way to contend against this planet. The said mission of 3 days to establish our footing, is just a dead end!”
“To put it clearer, these RDA workers are harbouring a certain hope, and are treating us as cannon fodder to drag time! Once the real beast horde arrives that can threaten their lives, they would try and escape; or surrender, and handover the item the beast seeks.”
“Also, don’t just think that those ‘AMP suits’ can pull off an unstoppable riot. It seems that can display an immense explosive firepower within a short duration, and crush the beasts like dregs. However, I wonder if you guys noticed the mission’s hints beforehand?”
“The details were – ‘When the transport shuttle Valkyrie landed, it had startled several native wild races. Therefore, within a short time, the enemies you will face includes wild beasts and aboriginal inhabitants. Of course…..including your own kind”
“Please note, the term ‘aboriginal inhabitants’. This signifies that once the beast wave turns nastier, the battle may involve the na’vis……these freaks with venomous blue skin, and a bowmanship accuracy of a hundred hits in hundred shots! Even the words provided by the realm indicated ‘your own kind’…….hmph hmph, do you still not understand?”
“So what? You’re harping on those supreme rewards exchangeable with battle contributions?! Actually, those are merely bait strung by the RDA company to entice contestants! According to the incremental intensity and strength of the beast waves; if one doesn’t purchase any battle add-ons, to amass and save up 20,000 battle contributions is simply a minute possibility!!! This undoubtedly allows me to confirm, the first resurrection tool that had been purchased, would most likely be masterminded by the RDA workers; this is all to stimulate and arouse us to engage in spending on it!”
“However, once you purchase a battle add-on, then undoubtedly you will sink into a vicious cycle of repeated spending. Buying the ‘AMP suit’ would mean purchasing its weapons, and would mean purchasing ammunition! Purchasing armour would mean needing constant repairs. Even though with this equipment, one can continue massacring the beasts like chopping firewood. However, once the strength and intensity of the beast hordes increased, it will ultimately lead to further investments in weapons and protection, until the battle concludes! As for these items, the RDA company should’ve been given to us for free, because we are actually using our lives to shelter them. Just 20,000 battle contributions, that resurrection tool displayed in our faces. Yet in actual fact, to most contestants, it will become like a stringed carrot attached to a wearable stick extended from your head. Totally incapable of reaching it forever!”Chapter 361: First-mover advantage
“Finally, and also what I want to inform you, please scroll through your nightmare imprints again. Carefully examine our mission content – 3 days, protect the core engine of this valkyrie from being destroyed! It is not ‘protect the RDA worker’s lives within the 3 days’, and it is also not ‘preventing the beast from invading the shuttle’! As long as we return the item the beasts wants; would those beasts really want their teeth, claws and blood to be wasted on this giant, unfeeling, icy cold piece of metal? This is the only f* way of accomplishing this mission!”
“…………..”
“…………..”
Upon recalling Sheyan’s words, Reef and Mogensha couldn’t help but sense a cold shudder surge through their backs. At present, they couldn’t help but repeatedly recall the notification of their nightmare imprint – ‘In a short while, you will face wild beasts, aboriginal inhabitants…..of course including your own kind’.
Beforehand, the two viewed ‘your own kind’ as referring to contestants. But now, it seemed like their understanding was a mistake.
Before the first mission concluded; due to the uneven distribution of benefits amongst contestants, mutual conflicts was definitely a possibility. However, it was also a fact that the harsh standards of the enemy was no exaggeration. Under the immense pressure of the boundless beast horde, virtually no one would harbour devious thoughts against each other as of now.
Thus, this mission was hinting at another target; and shockingly, it should be the RDA workers of this shuttle!
At this moment; Sheyan marched over with a menacing countenance, carrying faint blood footprints beneath him, that stretched far into the darkness. Within Sheyan’s hands, was a silver-white card soaked in blood!
Right now, the low-key shell that Sheyan had been wearing the whole time was utterly shattered. Now, the feeling he emitted was that of brutal ferocity and valiantry. Also, a cruel untamed air of displaying his might!
But just when Sheyan had brushed the card against the identity verification slot, his face suddenly changed drastically. He fiercely forced the card into Reef’s hands, and issued a low tone into the party channel.
“Do exactly as I say.”
After speaking, Sheyan then retreated half step back and stood behind Reef, hanging down his brows and retracting his gaze. The shadow managed to cover his face, it was as if his entire aura had strange transformed; now, only his robust body frame and tightly clenched fists could be seen. In a flash, Reef was now the main lead of their party.
Within a short span of 10 seconds, a group of people walked in from the shuttle’s channel pathway.
This group appeared rather exhausted, their bodies were covered in speckles of bloodstains. However, they had an undivided loftiness when they congregated together, it was as if the air was shrinking in retreat to their every step.
An upright lady with long hair fluttering against the wind led the front; though one couldn’t see her features clearly, they could sense a unique aura emanated! Lovely, charming like a blade; Capable, experienced like a blade; Floating like a blade!
Her every advance was as though the clouds stirred, advancing like thunder and moving like the wind! Contestants surrounded and protected around her, seemingly representative of her razor-sharp claws that would claw away any obstructions!
Observing this lady, Sheyan couldn’t help but recall the Metals Professor. A prejudiced, tenacious lady, yet with a tinge of ludicrous stubbornness! During the winged-keys stage of that ‘Metals digestive system’, Sheyan had personally witnessed a beautiful woman reduced to stunning bones in a flash! However, after he had heard of news of the Metals professor possibly reviving, Sheyan could sense a deep profound threat stabbing against his back; like an immense pressure.
To the former Sheyan, the Metals Professor’s formidability degree was even stronger than Zi. Yet now, it seemed like their positions had to be swapped in current regard.
Zi!!
At this very moment, that woman Zi was actually leading the Illume-union’s core members and several ordinary members, as they arrived here!
Obviously, the Illume-union had more people infiltrating this shuttle than Sheyan; hence, to hide away from everyone’s notice, the difficulty of covert infiltration was much larger! Therefore strictly speaking, Zi’s deliberations and judgment was in no way inferior to Sheyan; it was merely that her party’s scale was enormous, and required more time to operate.
However, that time difference was enough to result in her being shy of the first mover’s advantage. Just a tiny step would be enough to determine success or failure in many things. For example, Zi’s party was definitely overwhelmingly superior to Sheyan’s current strength. Yet beneath their overwhelming might and the difference in party scale, they became one step too late.
Facing the hastily arriving Illume-union core members, Reef suddenly stretched a step forward; directly stepping into the middle aisle from the darkness! His step was long, and massively heavy; sending clear shivers across the ground when his solid foot sole trampled onto the steel floor.
At this instant, Reef’s appearance was like an abrupt, resounding mountain smacking into the Illume-union’s face. This mountain was not at all steep, but gave off a majestic sensation of spanning a thousand miles; as though it wouldn’t collapse even at the ends of the world! His abrupt appearance caused the Illume-union to suddenly halt their footsteps, with a sour taste welling in their mouth; as though they just complacently walked into an invisible wall!
“It’s you?” Zi couldn’t contain her surprise. The 3 rhombus glows around her started revolving rapidly, displaying her unstable emotions.
Humbly hanging his head down, Reef suddenly raised his palm. That blood soaked silver-white card shockingly lodged between his fingers.
“I know what you are thinking, Zi! And I know what you seek! It’s too bad you’ve arrived too late, this is the only key that allows entry into the upper floor of this valkyrie! Do you want to try seeing if I would snap this card into two first, or whether you can kill me and seize this card first?”
Archeaphill advanced forward with a huge stride, scoffing disdainfully.
“Reef, since your luck isn’t bad and you managed to sustain your tiny life when your party was obliterated, then you should cherish it and not rush to court death!”
Instead, Reef ignored him, as he continued negotiating with Zi.
“Think very carefully, the upper floor RDA workers can at anytime alter the scope of authority of this identification card, and reduce it to trash. Every delay of a second, is undoubtedly increasing the immensity of risks involved!”
Zi sighed deeply, and very frankly responded.
“What do you want?”
Reef snapped back.
“Obviously to cooperate.”
Zi gently replied.
“Cooperate? Sure! Then hand the card over, or you can just open the door right now.”
Reef stared coldly into Zi’s eyes.
“If you still think making a joke here is fine, then I wouldn’t mind delaying here with you guys as well. My conditions are – Party alliance for 3 days! The alliance scope must include the clause of no mutual harming; the fees will be paid by you, and any loots acquired will be split 50-50 within the alliance!”
Zi remained silent. Instead, Sable stepped forward from the back as he fumed angrily.
“In your dreams!”
But when Sable’s words vanished, Zi very straightforwardly replied.
“Fine! Your new party’s name!?”
Sable was stunned as he looked back and urgently cried out.
“Zi!”
Zi gently shook her head, faintly sighing.
“We were one step too late. Besides, time waits for no man, we don’t have a choice now. I definitely wouldn’t allow emotions to affect my decision, or that mere 20,000 utility points to play with everyone’s lives!”
From the darkness, the observing Sheyan couldn’t help but feel moved by Zi’s decisiveness. Such a woman who conducted her affairs without sloppiness. She may be willing to forgo smaller matters, but would become extremely very blunt and courageous with regards to bigger matters. Such a behavioral style was just like her force controlling energy; sharp and decisive, yet without form as it pressed against one’s body!
Nearly 10 seconds later, Sheyan and Mogensha both received notification from the nightmare imprint.
“Your party has formed a temporary alliance contract (advanced) with the Illume-union (party). Duration of 72 hours; during the phase of this alliance, allied forces are unable to have mutual conflict.”
After the allied contract was formed and officiated by the nightmare realm, everyone let loose a little. Reef gripped that silver-white identification card, as he slid it into the computer slot ahead! Clunk! The card was swallowed in.
Closely following, a spiralling set of steel stairs descended down. Demondream of the Illume-union core then astonishingly transformed into a mist as she sped forward; her speed didn’t seem outstanding, but in reality, she had already floated forth in a flash. She had even stole first place from the nearest advancing Reef.
However, Demondream immediately halted at the stair’s only entrance, because the computer generated voice warned:
「 This is a forbidden zone; if you insist on entering, all your battle contributions will be deducted by the RDA company, and all ship-based weapons will turn hostile. 」
Before reaching her current stage, Demondream had already cleared up all her RDA battle contributions. Instead, the last sentence inevitably caused her to shrink back!
“All ship-based weapons will turn hostile!”
At this moment, Sheyan had already scrambled forward, scoffing disdainfully and confidently into his party channel.
“The valkyrie shuttle is designed for interstellar transportation, and not for combat. Besides, what era is it now, don’t tell me that huge naval ships still fought in close proximity in this era? Even a warship wouldn’t install that many machine weapons internally; perhaps its exterior would be equipped with weapon systems, but internally, there surely wouldn’t be many ship-based weapons. Most crucially, if this is really a forbidden zone, clips and bursts of gunfire would’ve been unloaded already, why would they care to bullshit so much?”Chapter 362: Swift breakthrough
After Sheyan rushed in and occupied first place, Mogensha and Reef immediately followed suit; resulting in the Illume-union falling behind. Although rushing head first boasted of more risk, it also provided greater benefits. After Sheyan and the rest charged up, two RDA workers immediately glanced over, before instantly turning to flee without looking back.
Naturally, the bunch of contestants sprinted in pursuit. At present, the speed dominance of agile close combatants was fully displayed. Within a span of just 50 metres, Sheyan and party were thrown far behind by Demondream and another short-dagger user.
But at this moment, the two fleeing RDA workers suddenly leapt and hid behind a writing desk on their lateral side; before collapsing a row of bookshelf on the way, as books scattered in all directions. 20 metres ahead of them, a metal door suddenly opened, as two black muzzles poked out took aim.
When the muzzles surfaced, an abrupt and unexplainable cold sensation jolted up Sheyan’s spine. He immediately transmitted a warning to the party channel, as the 3 immediately darted towards both lateral sides.
Twin dazzling and captivating rays shot out from the muzzles, one of them directly piercing and whizzing towards Demondream! Then, the two muzzles swiftly retracted behind the door, as if trying to continue hiding in ambush.
As those oddly blue rays whizzed towards her, Demondream suddenly metamorphosed into a regiment of unfathomable violet mist; as though her physical body had been displaced. As the bluish ray whizzed through her, it vanished into incorporeal nothingness. Then Demondream’s body re-congealed, as only her complexion was noticeably slightly pale.
The other bluish ray shot towards the short-dagger user. The contestant immediately blocked with his dagger! Without refracting or ricocheting away, the bluish ray struck against the pointed blade of the dagger. Not even a tremendous boom or explosion happened, as it merely melted over the dagger like snow.
Immediately following, an indistinct faint blue started enveloping the surface of the dagger rapidly, before steadfastly contaminating that contestant’s entire body!
That fellow released a tragic and abrupt howl, as his body sprung up straightly before beginning to inflate fanatically like a ball. Finally, he exploded into a burst of shallow bluish-blood mist! Such a scene was incomparably miserable, brimming with bitter brutality!
As the blood mist dispersed, an upright figure with robes fluttering in the air flashed forward. Her face congealed like frost, as she raised her left arm. Her tenderly fair and thin fingers instantly clenched into a fist.
Following that, indescribable colorless dazzling rays seeped out through the cracks of her fingers. The rays appeared like gravels, or rain, or tears as they gracefully glided towards the ground, rapidly drifted forward upon landing.
Before the sprinkles of rays stopped for a rest, Zi forcefully punched her left fist forward! From afar, behind the veranda, a RDA worker suddenly screamed and surged towards them; his hand still grasping onto a powerful oddly firearm. Beneath, the worker’s legs were shockingly constricted by unbelievable speckles of colourless rays.
Force Convergence-grip!
Undoubtedly, after the RDA worker was pulled in, he was instantly swarmed and thoroughly destroyed.
At this moment, the other RDA worker leapt out, pointing the black muzzle of his ruthless firearm towards Zi. Yet this woman was fully prepared, and pointed out her left arm! Like a thunderbolt strike, the RDA worker turned senseless momentarily, completely unmoving where he stood. One could even see blood spurting out from his eye sockets, nostrils and mouth, drenching his entire glass mask. This fellow had already calculated his actions before leaping out, but was ultimately finished off without any conclusion!
Previously, Sheyan was also the fortunate receiver of her ‘Force Needle-explosion’; at present, he could tell she casted it on this unlucky brat. Seizing the opportunity of that RDA worker’s lifelessness, Demondream wafted forward in a myriad of incorporeal mist ahead of Zi. The entire mist wafting moment seemed long, but also seemed short; but when she reappeared in her solid form, the RDA worker was now covered with a gruesome outpour of blood, as he collapsed sluggishly.
Naturally, Zi who had executed two formidable abilities felt rather exhausted; with tiny footsteps, she had once again returned to the surroundment and protection of her fellow contestants. Her long gown danced around her, blossoming like a flower; indifferent and unhurried while she subdued her foes. Her graceful bearing was calm, a beautiful tranquility; like the dying leaves of summer paving the way for autumn. It was indeed an unforgettable impression to others.
After this sudden ambush, everyone didn’t dare to be careless anymore, thus allowing Archeaphill and Reef to lead the way. As they reached a cornering bend at the end, a clamorous collision of metals reverberated from both sides. Then a fully armed RDA sturdy worker charged out shockingly, his arms supporting a peculiar circular firearm; black deep barrels pointing over as he marched in with large steps, pressing the trigger with great strength!
Countless blazing-red tongues spat out from the muzzle, pummeling against Archeaphill’s greatshield. Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang! Chaotic sounds emerged, along with random splashes of innumerable sparks; painting a magnificently gorgeous scene filled with deathly maliciousness!
Archeaphill had experienced a hundred battles, and he could tell the RDA worker ahead didn’t possess great strength; this opening was merely opportunistic timing as well as terrain superiority. Currently, Archeaphill retained many various methods to counterattack. He breathed in deeply, but became fiercely stunned to realize a searing pain throbbing at his chest. Hiis heart welled with shock, because he had instead been struck by a bullet that had penetrated through his greatshield!
That gun possessed such penetrative ability!
Fortunately at this time, the contestants around him had begun retaliating. Mogensha and another two long range combatants simultaneously acted, as blazing hot bullets swivelled towards the fully armed RDA worker. Although he was fully clad in solid armour, incessant bullet collisions of “Dang Dang Dang!” could be heard. His advancement had been utterly stalled.
Overwhelmed by a bombardment of firepower, small cracks split surfaced over the RDA worker’s armoured knee. In a flash, 7-8 bullets pierced then into his left knee cap! Even though his fleshy defence wasn’t low, it wasn’t enough to withstand consecutive gunshots. Roaring agonizingly, blood and flesh sprayed into the air, as his left leg was forcefully decimated. Following that, his chest and abdomen received consecutive gunshots, blood gushed out like a fountain as he was swiftly dispatched.
After slaying several RDA workers, it was clear their relationship with this powerful large company had deteriorated to foes. These few enemies dropped key loots; the majority were white grade and light blue grade. Apart from a light blue grade armour, the rest were random dregs; their only worth was to be sold.
When the group rushed into the core control room of the valkyrie, they discovered that the original residents here had already fled cleanly; only leaving a complete mess of scattered files and documents. Suddenly, a whistling scream shook the space, Mogensha scrambled forward to observe through the cockpit window; where he immediately witnessed a small lifeboat (shuttle) spitting out faint bluish embers, as it sped into the sky.
“F****! They’ve escaped!”
Sable fumed furiously! Instead, Sheyan gently shook his head and voiced out.
“If those bastards wanted to run, they would’ve done so earlier already; why would they entice us to drag for time here and wait for reinforcements? That was probably a desperate contingency that they had no choice to. Which means, we can confirm that what we seek is still on this shuttle.”
“Moreover.” Sheyan paused briefly, cooly continuing. “They won’t be able to escape. Do you really believe this steel monster of a valkyrie crashed due to machinery malfunction? Furthermore, you can see the dense mass of frightening Mountain Banshees covering the skies.”
Not even a minute after Sheyan spoke, someone at the forefront of the window immediately yelled out.
“Look! They are under attack!”
10 seconds later, a thunderous explosion boomed out. The explosions didn’t cease; probably the shuttle’s random parts suffering consecutive explosions as well.
The bunch of contestants glanced at Sheyan unilaterally. Instead, Zi faintly snubbed him, her impression of him lowering by half.
This was because Zi already knew the RDA workers couldn’t escape. However, for such matters with a fixed outcome no matter if it was said or not, a truly intelligent person would comprehend the logic of trampling underneath the obscure shadows of the light; definitely not garnering unnecessary attention or vigilance. What she didn’t notice was that after Sheyan observed her expression, his vision flickered slightly.
Yuan Zhan of the Illume-union appeared to be an IT computer expert, he stepped forward as he strolled towards the control desk upfront, and started operating it; his fingers hammering against the keyboard, producing loud clicking sounds. After a brief pause, his low voice spilled out.
“It’s here!”
After speaking, he pulled down a lever by the side.
Billowing gas sprayed out, as gusts of white fog sprayed out from the exterior of the valkyrie; a surplus storage compartment. Heavy metallic creaking proceeded closely.
An enormous storage compartment was unlatched outside, as it slid down from an inclined plane weightily. The storage compartment was at least a dozen metres long, 3 metres broad and seemed to be no less than 20 tons in weight. Such a transported good of immense scale was indeed something a tiny lifeboat could not carry.
Meanwhile on the outskirts, every wild beasts suddenly started howling fanatically. Abandoning their opponents on hand, they sprinted like maniacs towards that storage compartment. At this moment, Sheyan and his trio were shocked to discover, the amount of tier-3 legendary creatures had currently amounted to more than 20. There was even a tier-4 Thanator surfacing as their beastly leader!!
Seeing the current state now, Sheyan’s deductions were indeed correct. The instigating factor for the beast horde, wasn’t their daily lives being disrupted or the allure of blood and food! It was RDA workers stirring the wrath of the ruler of this planet!
White fog pervaded into the air; that steel container was swiftly struck opened, and finally exposed the items stored within……..Chapter 363: Wipe out
Within the steel container was a shocking 10 metre long giant ice block; sparkling and translucent, the ice displayed its forbidden contents extravagantly. Trapped inside was something astonishingly shaped like tree roots, twisted and intertwined, with many strands of white lingering around it. It had a length of at least 7-8 metres. The item revealed a meaty texture, while still exuberating a flavour of flora within. Thus, it was simply too difficult to determine its origins at this moment.
Upon witnessing such an event, numerous contestants groaned depressedly, and staggered several steps back, with some having blood oozing from their nose and mouth. Zi in particular suffered the strongest reaction. She straightforwardly shut her eyes, and sat down exhaustively like a withered flower, as though she had just received a severe blow.
Sheyan instantly realized that she wasn’t the only exception, and spirit/intelligence based contestants were all affected. As for himself, one with poor spirit and pitiful intelligence, utterly devoid of elemental energy or spiritual force; he widened his eyes as he swept his gaze around, having not the slightest trifling sensation affecting him. It was clear, that object must’ve emitted violent spirit ripples. Thus, the stronger one’s spirit or intelligence, the more severe one was affected.
Under the insatiable pressure of countless wild beasts, the ice block was rapidly chiselled away, and ultimately melted to the ground completely. As for that ‘tree-roots’ object, once it had interacted with the ground, massive roots sprouted from it and drilled deep into the ground. Instantly, numerous visibly thin white threads seemingly released and extended out in all directions, resulting in the ‘tree-roots’ object decomposing with unbelievable pace. Through the naked eye, one could vividly see its size dissolving into thin air; and within lesser than short 3 minutes, it utterly decomposed.
“That’s…….! The movie mentioned this before, that various kinds of mystical neural links exists between Pandora’s flora, trees and the ground! Every tree possesses millions of links, like a computer network or the human’s nervous system; connecting the entire planet into one body of neural network! Those fine spirit threads, are like the mediums of connection between organisms.” Sheyan’s mind immediately flashed with enlightenment.
“Sure enough, my guess was correct! The group of RDA workers definitely had acquired something viewed with extreme significance by the mesmerizing divine Eywa of Pandora! Observing how that object dissolved, it was probably an important nourishment for the divine Eywa. Perhaps something like salt to the humans; just requiring a minute consumption daily, but definitely still essential!”
“Ho, from what I’ve observed today, then I can reach the next deduction that……the divine Eywa’s main body, may perhaps resemble that of the inherent characteristics of fungus on earth.”
Since the root cause of the beast horde crisis had been thoroughly rooted out, the waves of feverish and agitated beasts started dispersing. Another thought formed within Sheyan’s heart, yet he wasn’t in a hurry to say it. Instead, he quickly spoke to Yuan Zhan.
“I have good news, the communication system of the valkyrie is ruined, probably destroyed during its violent crash landing. The latest issued message would only probably be the final emergency warning to the mother warship in space before crashing, or to Hell’s gate* base. In other words, they have no further means of external contact. Which goes to say that whatever we have done here, it is completely oblivious to the mother warship. Delving deeper, our current hostility with the RDA company will gradually subside within 24 hours, and return back to ‘amicable’.”
(TN:* Hell’s gate is the main centre for all human colonial activities on Pandora, and contains the moon’s only spaceport)
Hush! The pale faced Zi gently exhaled, and she gave off her orders.
“According to the information I’ve gathered, the engine we have to guard entailed by the mission isn’t huge. It is right here, above this core control room. Thus, 3 of us will keep guard over there….although those beasts have withdrawn, it doesn’t mean that the engine is fully invulnerable. From now on till mission completion, we will rotate in 3 hour shifts……..Reef, since we are already allied, your people must participate.”
Reef lightly replied.
“Sure, of course.”
Zi coughed gently for a while, before continuing.
“Next, Archeaphill, Yuan Zhan and Reef please stay behind. Since we are in collaboration now, and we possess two top-notch prestigious MT at the present stage, let’s discuss how we can maximize our present interests. The rest, you are free to roam about.”
Upon hearing that, Sheyan and Mogensha started heading towards the bottom deck of the shuttle, appearing as if they wanted to return to the battlefield and clear it for loots. However, once they left the surveillance of the Illume-union personnels, Sheyan took a sudden detour and headed towards the pathway channel towards the shuttle’s cabins. Mogensha curiously asked.
“Why are we heading there for?”
Sheyan whispered sneakily.
“Based on my inference, there should be something else waiting for us to uncover.”
Mogensha shook his head.
“Boss, you’re underestimating the Illume-union. I believe that when we were busy with other stuffs, they’ve already cleaned up the entire place like a dog licking its bone! Moreover, those RDA deserters wouldn’t possibly leave behind any valuable item. Damned! I suddenly have a brilliant idea, we should head over and search the crash site of those bastards.”
Sheyan smiled humbly.
“You’re wrong. There’s another place they haven’t entered, and there should be something valuable there.”
As he spoke, that silver-white metallic identification card shimmered brilliantly within his fingers.
Within the narrow steel space, a simple decorated cabinet stood silently. It was a monotonous sky blue cabinet, standing atop a greyish patterned fur rug. Such a scenery greeted Sheyan and Mogensha’s view.
Behind them, a metallic sliding door had been opened, with a silver-white card inserted within the card slot.
Mogensha directly used the nuzzle of his golden AK to wrench open a armoire by the side. His eyes suddenly glittered.
SN-9 ‘WASP’ Revolver. (The same type of revolver utilized by Colonel Miles Quaritch in the movies)
Grade: Black
This weapon is infusible with a horcrux
State: Mildly damaged.
Equipment position: Single-handed
Length: 228 cm
Weight: 11kg
Pre-installed component: Torchlight and Infrared remote sensor (Dismountable). Firearm effective range extended to 300 metres.
Attack power: 60-80
Details: Perceptive sense +2 / Agility +5
Details: Strength -2 / Physique -1 / Charm -3 / Intelligence -1
Magazine capacity: x4 (Mildly damaged state: Originally x8)
Shooting speed: 0.3 seconds/ round.
Equipment requirement: Agility 30 points, Perceptive sense 25 points, ‘Basic Long range combat’ lvl 5.
Weapon special ability: Wasp’ Stinger – When attacking, 33% chance of neglecting 50% of defence, and deal penetrative damages*. Its effect holds precedence.
(TN: *Penetrative damages is like crushing damages, a special effect)
This revolver should’ve previously been carelessly dumped into the cabinet after its original owner had discovered a slight malfunction; intending to repair it after finishing whatever work he had on hand. Who knew, his work would last forever!
No doubt, this revolver became Mogensha’s possession. This weapon wasn’t powerful because of other reasons but solely its pre-installed component! For a sniper, that torchlight and infrared remote sensor was of little value; but to a rifleman, this undoubtedly enhanced one’s effective shooting range by several folds!
Moreover, that precedence penetrative effect of 33% was a rather high probability, and further contained a 50% of defence negating property. Complimenting this weapon with Mogensha’s personal abilities, though it was just a revolver, the resultant threatening might was definitely not inferior to any small scale sniper rifle.
After reaping this benefit, Mogensha continued rummaging through; although he found nothing else, he was already fully satisfied. Gazing at the daydreaming Sheyan standing in front of a desk, he slapped his shoulder.
“Boss, it’s not bad already. Even though this revolver is black grade, it is definitely better than some silver storyline grade equipments! Even if we can’t find anything else, it’s not bad already.”
Sheyan’s lips curled into an enigmatic smile.
“You’re wrong, our biggest harvest is this.”
Mogensha suspiciously glanced down towards Sheyan’s fingers. Within it, was a shocking sky-blue padlocked diary, written with careless handwriting. Sheyan was currently browsing through its contents.
Today. January, day 3. Oh, wrong, day 2. God bless me, I keep forgetting this damned devilish planet has 25 hours in a day.
We just received orders to explore area ‘VII’ today. I suspect those giant blue-skinned monkeys are watching us.
God bless us. I heard those Na’vis are segregated into civilized clans and uncivilized aborigines. Simply speaking, you can associate those uncivilized aborigines with that man-eating tribe of humans in New Guinea. In their eyes, humans and direhorses are the same, they are both categorized as food.
Fortunately, the Na’vis near Hell’s Gate are all civilized clans. They are willing to interact harmoniously with the humans. This was one of the main reason Hell’s Gate was able to be established.
“…………..”
………….
Day 11, January. Flood! Oh my, oh my! Why is there a flood occurring in this season, if i didn’t climb up a fern, I would’ve probably been swept away by the muddy river. Something happened with Bambo’s oxygen mask inside the flood. I personally witnessed his complexion turning into the color of a boiled tomato…….
”
Alright, alright. I know Mr Smith would express his apology and just tell us that this was just an accident, outside of their expectations. But the frequency of such accident is really too high!Chapter 364: Clues and arrangement
I remained in the mines of Pennsylvania for 5 whole years, and it is already classified as a highly dangerous zone. Yet ever since stepping foot on this damned planet, the amounts of casualties I’ve personally seen within this month, have exceeded the past 5 years. No, I’ve never seen so many corpses in my life!
American dollars are cute, but a dead person cannot convert it into beer, drugs or enjoy the huge ass of young girls!
January, 23rd. We’ve finally arrived at our destination, Triangle Shoals. According to signals of our detector, the reserves of Pandora Unobtanium crystals here are shockingly unbelievable; moreover, it is an outdoor mine. The detector’s estimation wouldn’t lie. Yet we can’t even locate a single vein of ore…..fine, fine! Those wretched experts from headquarters explained to us that this was probably due to the ores scattering excessively across a vast region; something our current excavation technology cannot extract. Thus, the value doesn’t warrant extensive excavation.
I wanna screw all those expert’s mother’s ass!!!! We risked tremendous dangers, losing seven of us just for that single retarded answer? However, I managed to gather a chunk of Unobtanium crystal from the nearby river. Its purity seems rather high, and the quantity isn’t small. I’ll just bring this back quietly and appraise it. If it is really a high purity crystal, then it will be the first bucket of gold in my life. What teamwork, what discipline, what RDA company, they can all screw off.
January, 25th. We set off once again. To guard against my unreliable brain cells from forgetting certain precious objects, I will record the coordinates of the Triangle beach. It is xxx,xxx location.
January, 27th. We’ve actually being conscripted! Trudging for an entire two weeks without rest, and even after suffering 7 casualties, we’ve actually been conscripted! Moreover, their destination requires us to trek through that Windstone highland. Heavens, I know of a large clan of over 400 na’vis coincidentally residing in that area. Their clan is called the Mosake clan, translated as Toxic Arrowhead. More critically, they are an uncivilised barbarian clan!
January, 29th. Yes, I admit I rejected that exploration order. I’m afraid half a year worth of salary is in jeopardy, but let those american dollars go down the drain.
Life is still the most important, I have a premonition the majority wouldn’t make it back alive. Their bodies will end up beneath tree roots, or inside the bellies of wild beasts, or impaled on wooden hunting pikes, or lodged between the canine tooth and tongue of Na’vi aborigines. As for me who decided to keep watch inside this valkyrie, I will definitely make it back to Hell’s Gate alive!
“………….”
“……….”
Browsing till here, Sheyan started to nod slightly. Instead, Mogensha curiously exclaimed.
“Shit, what kind of person still uses a manual diary in this era! I reckon it should’ve been a 3D hologram imagery.”
Sheyan replied gently.
“Images are merely illusions, diaries can become legacies and passed down. Also, you cannot expect them to constantly have a supply of electricity while trekking through the wild. Even in a grave crisis, a burnt twig can be used as a pen to detail down events.”
At this moment, footsteps echoed in from the door. Without a change of expression, Sheyan kept the diary, while Mogensha was currently playing with his new toy. An Illume-union member appeared, poking his head in as he suspiciously swept his gaze around. Finally, it settled onto that unique new revolver of Mogensha, his eyes leaping with envious gaze before he left.
Afterwards, Sheyan desired to head outside to explore – especially that place where the mystical ‘tree-root’ object had decomposed. Even a minute understanding of the mysterious divine Eywa would make wonders. As for Mogensha, he decided to see if there were random junk worth picking up This didn’t just include dead beast carcasses, but also contestants.
After walking for some time, they discovered there weren’t much contestants left in this western region battlefield. Presently, those around were all leaning against the walls and panting heavily, but filled with a new lease of life and were rejoicing. Yet something worth mocking, was that the majority of ‘AMP suits’ contestant users had in fact died the fastest! From the highest heavens, Mountain Banshees seemed to harbour deep hatred for those metallic armoured monsters, hence turning them into their target of interests. Once an ‘AMP suit’ user fell, other wild savage beasts made it impossible to climb back up.
After they arrived near the exit of the shuttle, the two of them couldn’t help feeling startled. Blood! So much blood! With every trampling footstep, it was like waddling inside a pool of blood. The sorrowful sight of red would sent shivers down one’s heart, causing boiling blood to surge into their heads! Everyone around, things and object, were all soaked in thin and transparent red blood! An insipid rusty smell permeated through the air.
Dead carcasses littered every inch of the ground; it was evident that the endless streams of beasts had occupied superiority, thus forcing the defending contestants to retreat back into the shuttle. Although it was presently deathly still, observing this tragic scenery, would cause traumatizing screams of contestants and roars of beasts to continue ringing in their ears; interweaved into a mournful despair only found in the depths of hell.
This was an indescribably despairing battle. There were no losers, no captives and no pity. Weaker ones became food, stronger ones were rewarded with survival. Mogensha observed a badly decapitated ghastly white bloodied hand, that was still twitching slightly over a desk within the channel pathway.
Then a furry claw ferociously seized that decapitated hand. Grunts, bone crunching and whimpers blended together. A heavily wounded and famished viperwolf had pounced up; though its belly boasted of a gruesome wound with intestines spilling out, it voraciously chomped onto the severed hand of a contestant. Its reddened eyes had blood oozing out.
Mogensha released a burst shot of 3. A fiery bullet injected into its chest, as a blood lotus splashed out, followed by a flip in midair; then two following bullets spiralled into the gruesome belly wound. Mutually clashing inside, the bullets triggered an explosion and utterly finished off the viperwolf. He then gazed towards the scattered mess of flesh ahead, and couldn’t help grumbling.
“Dammit, will there even be survivors here?”
After Sheyan stepped outside and surveyed his environment, he stared into the skies and sighed deeply.
“That Zi is really not simple, she actually managed to uncover the mission’s snare, and were right on our heels. Although the Illume-union had lost over half of their members, their core group is still perfectly intact. In the following battles, they would undoubtedly occupy leading positions!”
Mogensha earnestly pondered and replied.
“Zi has always been a smart and powerful woman. That year because of her, the Metals Professor was able to brazenly break free from her previous party, and establish the Symbiosis sect. Apart from that, while observing Yuan Zhan operating the computer earlier, I noticed he seemed to have obtained a relatively crucial report. It should be the location coordinates pertaining to Hell’s gate base. If the Illume-union doesn’t harbour sincerity in cooperating, then they wouldn’t divulge this information.”
“Hell’s Gate location……?” Sheyan’s brows furrowed, as he nodded. “I understand.”
At present, humans had discovered planet Pandora for dozens of years already. To exploit and develop this dangerous, beautiful and fertile planet was definitely not an easy feat, it no doubt required adequate preparations. One matter of chief importance, was naturally to establish a perpetual solid base foundation.
Because Pandora was too excessively far from earth, therefore transportation costs had inflated to an extremely astonishing height. Thus, virtually all metal components, weapons and mechanics were all locally explored, extracted and assembled on planet Pandora itself. After dozens of years of harsh constructions, that current base had finally reached a basic extent.
Humans lived in a poisonous atmosphere here, along with the constant lurking of various vicious and savage Pandorian beasts; this was akin to living in hell. Therefore, the humans hailed their base as Hell’s Gate. Its other official name was ‘Resource Development Association (RDA) Extra-solar Colony-01’.
Previously, Yuan Zhan had already confirmed that communication systems had been destroyed after the valkyrie crash landed. Therefore, the Hell’s Gate personnels from the RDA company wouldn’t be aware of everything that had happened here; and their attitude towards the contestants should remain as ‘amicable’. This otherwise implied the possibility of more missions, side missions that would allow substantial prolonging of their duration in this world. Thus undoubtedly, the coordinates of Hell’s gate would be extremely precious.
Sheyan nodded, and followed their earlier plan to head over to that area where the mystical object had rapidly decomposed. Because of the multitudes of corpses and blood present, when they arrived, there were already numerous contestants scanning through the area. Evidently, though the grass here had suffered from excessive stampeding by the beasts, yet for some unknown reason, it was flourishing more than ever. Not only that, a queer smell permeated the air here, something that Sheyan had never smelled before in his life.
After staying here for barely 5 minutes, Reef suddenly contacted Sheyan through the party channel.
“Zi raised two requests, and they seem rather fair. Should I agree to them?”Chapter 365: Taking the initiative to recruit? no…..
Sheyan paused for a moment and replied.
“Her first request is regarding the coordinates of Hell’s Gate, no? Is the second request for us to lead a reconnaissance team to search that RDA lifeboat that crashed after escaping?”
Reef immediately turned slightly sluggish.
“Yeah, she wants to sell the coordinates of the Hell’s Gate for 30,000 utility points; but if we are willing to lead an expedition to that shuttle, then it would be free.”
Without hesitation, Sheyan replied.
“Reject all. If Hell’s Gate is host to more missions, then she would be begging to bring us along. Besides, the current Illume-union is already lacking in manpower and if they possess an additional MT, plus my formidable supportive buffs, then their own chances would increase substantially.”
“As for that matter to explore the shuttle……..that is a brainless mission! Such an obvious trail, every contestant would have eyes on it. Even if we manage to reap any benefits, we would probably offend many others around. We must consider this problem in the perspective of that leader, Zi! She shudders the interest of at least a dozen others on her shoulder, while we are only 3! Granted that even if both sides suffer, we would still be earning more!”
Reef sighed; to him, it instantly became clearer that he really wasn’t cut out to be a party leader.
“……….ok, I’ve rejected her. We are now stuck in a deadlock.”
Sheyan continued.
“Then draw lots for the duty shifts to keep watch over the shuttle’s engine…….you should’ve heard of the phrase ‘seeking common grounds while holding back’ right. Since we can’t reach an agreement and have sunk into an awkward deadlock now, then let’s first settle matters pertaining to our agreement; it can help to alleviate the awkward atmosphere. Adding on, it seems like the weakness of this Zi should be her unwillingness to concede. Our 3 days alliance contract of no mutual conflict between contestants had costed her 20,000 utility points, that is why she seeks 30,000 utility points in remuneration.”
“After suggesting to draw lots, the atmosphere here became lighter. Our shift is from 2200 at night to 2500……..so what should we do now?” Reef asked.
(TN: Remember Pandora has an extra hour)
Sheyan paused briefly and replied.
“Our current strength is still rather flimsy. Okay, now that the contestants have been filtered out, the ones left should be of good standards. We can try recruiting several temporary members. Also, I believe there is a map in this valkyrie that details the regions the humans have explored here. Although the map is very likely to be in the Illume-union’s hands now, we still cannot eliminate the other possibilities. If there are more clues, please notify me.”
At present, after the battle had concluded, the rough estimation of 400 contestants entering this realm war had now filtered to about 70 plus contestants. Of course, amongst the filtered 300 plus contestants, only about a hundred died in battle, the rest had fled back to the realm. As for the Illume-union, they occupied a major portion constituting roughly 25 members, and were the party with the greatest members left. Under their powerful influence, they would probably be able to rope in 5-6 members from the remaining contestants. If factoring other parties also recruiting helpers, then Sheyan would be roughly left with not even 10 others to persuade.
However to Sheyan, if his plans were to advance smoothly, minimally for now, he wouldn’t be lacking manpower in this world. But since the party had already been established, then it was naturally better to prepare for rainy days. If any new blood was worthy of enticing and nurturing, then they would definitely consider investing in such good prospect stocks.
Currently, after affirming that the beastly horde had retreated, the contestants had begun congregating in groups and clusters; discussing on the matter ahead. In reality, it wasn’t only Sheyan that possessed astute intellect and robust luck. For example there were still several constants who survived with their ‘AMP suits’, and were arrogantly pacing about in those gigantic metal suits. Naturally, these people would hold core positions in the future. Moreover, according to Mogensha’s gathered intelligence, there were 4 resurrection tanks that had actually been purchased by others!
Very swiftly, a team boasting 30 members soon emerged. Members of the Illume-union occupied half of this expedition team, and their destination was obviously that crashed RDA shuttle approximately 5-6 kilometres away. The significance of this was extremely important to the Illume-union; firstly, it was to rake in any immense fortunes from the airplane crash.
Secondly, if there were still RDA workers who survived, it was essential to…….silence them! If not, once a lucky survivor managed to communicate to superiors of the current events, the priceless coordinates of Hell’s Gate in the Illume-union’s possession would be reduced to worthless nothing!
At this moment, Sheyan’s attention was directed to his right. Two contestants were approaching him, both of which Sheyan recognized. It was that contestant with extremely formidable scouting abilities, Uzel; and the other was the twin-daggers agile expert, Lille. They strolled towards Sheyan, as Uzel begun with a slight smile.
“Hi, Seaman. I have some matters to discuss with you.”
Sheyan nodded in reply.
“Sure, please speak.”
Uzel glanced into Sheyan’s eyes with sincerity and continued.
“After fighting shoulder to shoulder with you, Lille and I felt that you are an extremely valiant dude. Of course, needless to say Reef is a rare MT. Hence, Lille and I are willing……”
Lille was probably a more impatient and impetuous character, and he interrupted. “Uzel and I are willing to be your recommenders; join our Banks Syndicate!”
Initially when Sheyan was listening to their verbal performance; honestly speaking, he harboured certain anticipation, and even felt rather heroic with a sense of dominance to recruit them. Yet after listening to the last sentence Lille uttered with a sense of superiority, he almost choked out a mouthful of blood. Fortunately, he had learnt how to cover up his emotions by now, and purposefully gasped in shock.
“Banks Syndicate? Then you guys…….”
Uzel boasted and sneered.
“That’s correct, Lille and I are both reserve-duty Growth-hunters! We obviously have the authority to invite you into this party of dominance!”
Sheyan glanced at them, neither servile nor overbearing as he replied.
“Though the Banks Syndicate is indeed incredible, but in such a powerful party, reserved members are always exploited commodity! As the saying goes, I rather be the chicken’s head than the phoenix’s tail. I would probably do better with Reef slowly developing our party.”
Lille hastened him.
“With our recommendations, your reserve trial period would only be one world, then you can enjoy the treatments of official members. Isn’t that good enough?”
Sheyan returned a humble smile as he shook his head.
“To an ordinary contestant, that is great! But to me and Reef, it isn’t enough. If you two have anything else, please tell.”
Uzel’s expression changed slightly; Sheyan was a rare type of support contestant, and Reef was a rarer MT. These two were both talents that were hard to come by in the realm. Moreover, though Seaman didn’t possess high offensive capabilities, he had performed rather shrewdly in general circumstances; obviously a character that wouldn’t release the hawk until seeing the hare*. Hence, he reckoned using illusory and unreal reasonings to persuade him would be impossible, thus he continued earnestly.
(TN: *someone that doesn’t act without purpose or incentive)
“Since Seaman is being so frank, so will I. We currently need to acquire the title of three milestones, ‘Plunderer’, ‘Penetrate’ and ‘Headhunter’. We require your assistance.”
Having slight misgivings, Sheyan asked.
“Headhunter? What’s that?”
Lille replied.
“Acquiring 3 longbows of the Na’vi folk. Under normal circumstances, you can imagine the chances of them dropping a longbow loot after being slayed.”
Sheyan deliberated briefly before replying.
“What are you guys trying to achieve with that many titles?”
Uzel laughed in response.
“Since we’ve all just went through a life and death battle together, I won’t hide anything. These 3 milestone titles aren’t considered top quality, but they are extremely useful after title synthesizing.”
Lille’s gaze flashed with an ominous glint, his face sullen as he interrupted.
“Since you guys aren’t willing to join our Banks Syndicate, we can still employ the both of you. Your remuneration will be 5,000 utility points.”
Hearing the ‘high valuation’ of 5,000 utility points, Sheyan’s left brow raised like a blade. His expression instead, remained calm as he swiftly browsed through the relevant information.
The requirements for ‘Plunderer’ was to acquire 1,000 units of Pandora Unobtanium crystals. (Crystal purity cannot be lower than 16.8%).
Requirements for ‘Penetrate’ is to acquire 10 longhorns of dire horses.
In addition to that ‘Headhunter’ milestone, the entire mission requirements wasn’t considered too tough. However, it appeared like Uzel and Lille weren’t planning to utilize their reserve-duty Growth-hunter prowess. Besides, that strength could only be activated for four times.
Hence with the conditions Uzel offered, it was obviously trying to take advantage of Sheyan and Reef!
Sheyan muttered to himself inconceivably before replying.
“To accomplish these milestones, I need a very detailed report. For example the location of those pandora unobtanium crystals. Moreover, direhorses are the Na’vi’s mounts, they definitely possess certain individual attributes.”
Lille lightly replied.
“Those reports have already been gathered by us.”
Sheyan smiled and continued.
“Then since that’s the case, then okay sure. My conditions are simple – 20,000 utility points, 5 potential points and all relevant reports you gathered. Moreover, all battle loots earned during the process of acquiring the milestone titles would be given to us, or else no need for further negotiations.”
Lille’s eyes flashed with maliciousness, as he fumed thickly.
“A lion opening its mouth too widely, aren’t you scared your stomach will burst?”
(TN: It means trying to swallow more than one can bear.)
Sheyan stuck up his lips slightly, standing up as he patted his ass in reply.
“Goodbye, I leave you with a free suggestion. Go and find Archeaphill of the Illume-union or another party’s MT, see if there are willing to help you guys.”Chapter 366: Seize the opportunity to lay eggs
Lille and Uzel were both exceedingly clear; why would Archeaphill even chip in to help them now? Apart from Reef and Archeaphill, there were no other revealed MTs around. Bluntly putting, they were just trying to use the name of the Banks Syndicate and status as Reserve-duty Growth-hunters to coerce the two, and devalue both of them. However, neither oil nor butter could work on this Seaman. To describe him in greedy context, he was someone who wouldn’t release the hawk until he saw the hare; putting it in uglier context, someone who wouldn’t shed tears until he saw the coffin!
Lille frowned, his eyes glinting ominously as he took half a step forward. Yet who knew, a sudden distinctive AK gunshots resounded from afar, striking against the patch of grass in front Lille. Sheyan then smiled humbly.
“I guess you aren’t aware; Big boss Reef had just signed a party alliance contract with Zi.”
After tossing this sentence out, their expressions turned stiff instantly. Sheyan laughed loudly as he strolled away.
After an interval of nearly 2 hours, the contestants returned from the exploration of the crashed lifeboat shuttle. Though they didn’t managed to find anything worthy amidst the remnants, they could confirm one fact; there were no survivors of that violent plane crash.
Yet something was worth mentioning; even though the expedition garnered no harvest, when the lifeboat shuttle crashed, a tier-2 legendary Mountain Banshee had its wings injured by it during the assault, and had landed onto the ground.
Although it was injured, it remained dreadfully menacing; requiring the contestants to unify and deliver deadly attacks against it. The outcome was needless to say; trapped on the ground, the Mountain Banshee was reduced to flesh and bones. Yet more importantly, a minute probability occured when its dropped silver key was used.
A Dark-gold grade accessory had emerged!
This piece of news instantly produced wild reactions from all contestants. However, it instead landed in the hands of an unknown contestant. It was said that after the contestant acquired it, that contestant disappeared into the thick green forest of Pandora; completely unwilling to allow other contestants to loot from a burning house*!
(TN:* Means profit from other’s misfortune, refers to killing him and looting him)
Dark-gold grade……..and accessory!!
Two keywords that could already send thrills when apart, what more combined together! Such an equipment could trigger the rising winds and scudding clouds*, releasing a violent reaction that couldn’t be described by simple addition of 4+4 = 8, but instead an amplification of 4×4 = 16! No doubt, every contestants seemingly felt like they were injected with cardiac stimulants, as everyone begun considering the possibility of hunting more legendary creatures.
(TN: *chinese idiom, means creating turbulent situations.)
Presently, amongst the filtered contestants left, there were probably 5 or 6 reserve-duty Growth-hunters for every 10 contestants – formidable individuals who had touched the boundary of power! If they were willing to activate their incredible taboo strength, slaying tier-2 or even tier-2 legendary creatures wouldn’t necessarily be a delusion!
While the contestants were being stirred up, Reef brought someone to Sheyan, mentioning that he was willing to join their party. Actually, this person was no stranger, but was that western region sniper, Jin Ximin. While cooperating with them previously, a fond impression and compatibility dawned on him, thus he took the initiative to approach.
Without saying much, Sheyan allowed Reef to recruit him; offering Jin Ximin with a temporary member status. Although he could only enjoy the bonus skill of ‘Asylum lvl 1’ and couldn’t view other advanced skills of the party; upon joining the party, he could still earnestly observe a boost of 100 HP and 100 MP! This bonus caused him to involuntarily gasped in praise.
Mogensha had also recommended another person, Makaji, who treaded the path of summoners. His charm was rather outstanding, and was extremely precise with his research on various creature characteristics. It was him who had proposed burying the beast carcasses, and he was actually a biologist back in the present world. Hence, though he had presently lost his strongest summon, he still managed to ingeniously survive the beast horde.
But that wasn’t the main point……the main point was the ‘AMP suit’ he shockingly possessed! Although the suit seemed disadvantageous when fighting in a beast horde, that was because the horde comprised of an entire sea of wild beasts, alongside the wild ravaging of legendary creatures! But during normal circumstances, it would definitely play a core part in battle tactics.
Bluntly put, even if a piece of trash was the one inside the ‘AMP suit’, the trash’s position would be inflated to even a core member in a flash. Moreover, contestants who treaded the path of summoners shuddered one crucial factor – their potential was immense; if they managed to tame a mind-blowingly tyrannical creature, they would become like a born again daoist!
Mogensha had probably stayed in the Symbiosis sect for too long, and was extremely knowledgeable about summoner type contestants. Or perhaps, the impression left by Fanu was so profound that it was hard to erase. Thus, he favoured Makaji who had lost his strongest summon, and proactively lobbied to bring him into the party as a temporary member.
Regarding Makaji, Sheyan’s impression of him had ceased at the point he proposed to clean up the battlefield. Following that, he hadn’t noticed him…….since that was so, Sheyan couldn’t help but feel a sense of chilliness and apprehension in his heart.
But he immediately looked down at his hands,
The hands that possessed the apex strength of 49 points!!
Instantly, his lips curled into a faint smile, and didn’t object Mogensha’s idea.
Presently, it was nearing noon. The contestants possessed gallant might, but hunger still crept up fast. Not too long later, a bunch of familiar people gathered together while wolfing down their food. Mogensha lifted a bowl of maize congee. The cornflour used to cook his porridge was first roasted before grinding into powder. The congee was then mixed with seafood, mushroom, cream, bacon and various ingredients. Mogensha squinted his eyes as he apparently seemed rather content.
After downing the bowl of congee, Mogesha produced a giant hamburger; a savoury roasted veal, and dark-green lettuce sandwiched between.
In comparison, Reef appeared more dignified; shimmering utensils, pearly white plate and folded handkerchief……nicely slicing his Bay of Biscay ham perfectly, he completed it with italian mozzarella. Finally, his main course was rustic mincemeat bacon sauté, and ended it with champagne.
Instead, it was Sheyan who had the simplest of meals. In the vicinity of Xiwu pier, there was a famous stew boiler and barbeque, Authentic taste, which was the craftsmanship of a war veteran that brought it to Taiwan; whose legacy had been passed down 3 generations. It was said the old boss could beat his chest and swear that its marinade hadn’t changed once in 27 years. Sheyan ignited a spirit lamp, indulging his steamed bun inside the piping hot stew. That unique fragrance resulted in Mongesha and Reef pausing unilaterally, insisting on free-loading at all costs.
After the trio ate their fill, a gloomy Lille found his way here. Without formalities, he acceded to Sheyan’s conditions, straightforwardly divulging his gathered report to Sheyan. Ultimately, he formed a nightmare imprint officiated pact with Sheyan; its contents detailed a third of remunerations once accomplishing milestones. There were no chance for regrets anymore.
While signing the pact, Sheyan could feel the glaring sun as he reflexively lowered his head to knead his temples, and abruptly sneezed loudly. At this point, Sheyan felt a vague sense of abnormality, and instantly audited the pact once more, but finding nothing strange. He then turned to whisper several words to Mogensha. Mogensha’s expression changed while listening, finally he left them with a cheerful expression.
After receiving the reports, Sheyan feigned a little and handed them to Reef; allowing Reef to scrutinize it for an extended period. On the other hand, he himself sat beside and carefully contemplated for any snares involved. Even though he had considered the fact that both guys seeked to accomplish their milestones, it wasn’t likely for them to offer fake details. But things couldn’t merely be left to fate. As the saying goes, prudence sails for a thousand years, being overly cautious wouldn’t hurt.
Lille waited for a full half an hour, and finally frowned as he berated loudly.
“OI! How f* long do I need to wait?”
Reef coldly replied.
“Very soon, just wait for AK to return.”
After 10 minutes, Mogensha finally returned; bringing a total of 4 other contestants over. Amongst the 4 was Huckle from the Illume-union, that same Huckle who was Archeaphill’s assistant tank. The other three held long range combat roles. Representing the Illume-union, Huckle walked over. His first sentence directly caused the pupil in Lille’s eyes to tighten and crumble.
“Hey! Money isn’t the problem. Can you guys really promise the swift completion of the milestone ‘Plunderer’?”
At present, Sheyan’s newest recruited party members, Jin Ximin and Makaji, had also arrived. Facing Huckle’s questioning, Mogensha immediately snorted with disdain.
“You recognize big boss Reef, right! Huckle, even Archeaphill holds him in high regards.”
Huckle nodded.
“Yes, that is so.”
Mogensha then patted Sheyan’s shoulders.
“I don’t have to introduce Seaman right, he fought alongside you guys for a while.”
Huckle’s face became unsightly, because Sheyan’s previous performance had placed heavy pressure onto him. However, Huckle remained forthcoming.
“Hmph, Seaman is very formidable. Even the boss said so.”Chapter 367: Ambush direhorse
Speaking till here, Huckle had expressed his agreeableness. However, the other 3 contestants still appeared rather hesitant. Ironware could only be forged when hot, and to make someone foot the bill, one must first make him convinced. Thus, Mogensha pointed to the ‘AMP suit’ that Makaji had placed by the side.
“This is the battle tool supplied by my temporary member. Not only that, he understands the characteristics of those devils like the back of his hand. The crux of burying the carcasses over the battlefield, was primarily raised by him.”
Huckle instantly nodded his head in satisfaction. The existence of that ‘AMP suit’ provided ample persuasiveness already.
Finally, Mogensha pointed towards Lille and Uzel.
“Those two are powerful reserve-duty Growth-hunters. They have already gathered an incomparably comprehensive intelligence report and will be operating together with us; promising their utmost to safeguard our safety! This is the squad configuration; a valiant MT, a top-notch support, unparalleled firepower output, the combined oppression of two reserve-duty Growth-hunters, a perfectly detailed report and preparations. That is why i dare to guarantee that you guys will obtain your desired milestone before nightfall. Moreover, the price is cheap beyond imagination, gents…….what are you hesitating about?”
Hearing Mogensha’s pitch; not only Huckle exhibited satisfaction, even the other 3 contestants couldn’t help but nod. A bow and arrow user had even called another friend over! Mogensha then charged a fee and inscribed their contracts…….every milestone accomplished would cost a fee of 5,000 utility points / 5 potential points, or something of equal value. Everyone felt justified by the price, and had zero queries.
Instead, it was Lille and Uzel who had eyes that were about to spit flames out!!
This entire list of relevant milestone information, was the product of them begging their grandpas and grandmas, risking untold hardships and ultimately fine tuned it to perfection. They had offered it to Sheyan and the rest, but they hadn’t anticipated that this group of sluts would turn it into a swindling bazaar, and even profit from it! What was worst was that they couldn’t even dream of a single cent, and instead had to pay them. Where was the fairness? If heaven had eyes, why weren’t these scumbags being punished?
Uzel and Lille looked on with envy, hate and jealousy. Their sour resentful hearts urging them to pick up their swords and assassinate these scoundrels. However, they wouldn’t be able to duplicate Sheyan’s tactic. Why was that so?
The logic was simple, it was all due to the squad’s configuration.
Even though their prowess had touched the peak of this world, yet what does being a reserve-duty Growth-hunter mean? It meant that unless on the brink of life and death, they absolutely wouldn’t want to trigger that frightening strength. Yet more crucially, judging by the feedback of their actions; Lille was modelled towards a close combat agility based contestant. Uzel’s perceptive sense was immensely high, and utilized merely a pistol in battle; he was definitely hiding his true prowess. Yet it could be confirmed that these kids weren’t able to tank the front……..
Without one to tank, who the f*** will believe them!!!
Almost everyone were aware of the fearsomeness of this world’s beasts by now. So what if there were two reserve-duty Growth-hunters, the realm’s fundamental was still survival. Yes, you could kill your opponent quickly, but the same thing could be said of the opponent!
In comparison to Sheyan’s squad; MT, support, assistant MT (‘AMP suit’) with these 3 core variables, even a mentally impaired person would choose them. The logic was simple. Putting it straightforward, even in a crisis, it was surely the frontal MT who dies first. At least, there would still be some time to flee.
An exceptionally limpid river flowed along here. On its left, stood arduously steep cliffs, while a spacious grassland occupied its right. Not too far away, was a slice of dense luscious thicket forest. The river was at least 30 metres wide, but its water relatively shallow, at most reaching to one’s calf. Craggy rocks littered the riverbank. Purple waterfowls could be seen perching atop rocks that poked through the river surface, their gaze shining down onto the water.
That creature was called a Stingbat, entirely covered in dazzling bright purple and had four wings. Its body was a hybrid of pigeons and wild duck, over their yellowish chest was a unique linear composition of sensory nerves; allowing them keen senses to detect various mini organism and disturbances in the river. Their transparent fangs and intersecting fangs were used to deal with slippery fish types, only their scorpion-like tail stinger contained definite venom. To contestants, it wasn’t considered a threatening creature, unless it numbered to the hundreds.
Intuitively speaking, one could brand these creatures as dragonflies of the present world – obviously an amplified version.
“Dammit.” Hiding within the nearby thicket, Reef frustratedly glanced at the time. “According to Uzel’s report, now is the period where direhorses would visit here to drink water, why aren’t they here yet? Don’t tell me the report was mistaken?”
“Impossible. I believe those direhorses will definitely show up.” Makaji suddenly voiced out. “Please carefully observe the rocks by the riverbanks, its surfaces have been smoothened by friction. It must be due to certain massive creatures constantly brushing against it. Moreover, the area around the largest rocks are vacant, and smooth. Besides, that exuberant meadow should be long overgrown, but only grassroots remain and also seems like their nectar was treated as dessert. This undoubtedly translates to the creature being a herbivore. There’s one final reason, and perhaps the most important one.”
Till here, Makaji paused briefly.
“When we started surveying the terrain, I waded over to the other bank and discovered many subsided vestiges at the opposite cliff. The rocky surface appeared creamy white, after sampling, it tasted rather salty. That is the main reason those direhorses will show up. Periodically, they will trudge through the river to consume rock salt to preserve their flourishing vitality.”
Indeed so. Not long after Makaji finished speaking, clamorous galloping reverberated from the distance. During the earlier battles at the valkyrie, direhorses did not show up; probably because they weren’t adept in direct combat. However, when mounted by Na’vis and their longbows, then undoubtedly it transformed into a virtual nightmare of the grasslands.
Appearing before their very eyes were roughly 50 heads of direhorses. They each had 6 vigorous long legs, and were covered with grey and blue stripes. Possessing a long neck and a tiny head, mysterious spots like pupils painted their skin. Armour coated their entire body, from the neck to the back of their head. Two antennas stretched out from their ears, which could be neurally linked to the na’vis to control their movements.
Because Pandora’s gravity was weaker than earth’s, the direhorses reached 5 metres in length and 4 metres in height. They were smart but docile, and could be easily startled sparking them to flee at a top speeds of 95 km/hr. Of course, the milestone ‘Penetrate’ required the horn to be acquired through slaying male direhorses. Currently the tough issue Sheyan and the rest faced, was that once a battle breaks out, it will trigger a fleeing stampede of these robust horses!
One must understand, as an excellent mount, direhorses possessed relatively good defence and health. With an instinctive nature for fleeing once being attacked, killing them was a rather difficult operation. Moreover, wouldn’t Sheyan and the rest have to at least slay a couple dozen of these direhorses to satisfy everyone’s request?
Hence at this very moment, a trap was essential.
The trap was laid based on the fundamental requirements the direhorses had for this place.
Makaji not only possessed in-depth knowledge on creature traits, he also contaminated the rock salt of the opposite cliff with a certain drug. That drug was concocted according to characteristics of the present world zebra, one that would cause them to prematurely start breeding season. Yet it was well known that mating creatures would turn irritable, furious and would disregard everything else. It was the same reason why many convicts were given the death penalty, due to the popular combination of rape and murder…….
The ecosphere environment of Pandora wasn’t vastly different from Earth; apart from their build and some physiology composition, direhorses can be categorized together with horses of earth. Thus, Makaji had a seventy percent confidence level of his drug succeeding. Of course if Makaji’s ‘Animal aphrodisiac’ wasn’t effective, Sheyan still had a second contingency – which was pre-installing 7-8 ‘stumbling ropes’. As long as they directed the horses to rush in only one direction alongside the riverbank, then there was still a chance of stalling at least half the pack.
Observing the direhorses lapping by the riverbank, their feet gradually trampled against the rocks; finally, they wadded over the river, and started chewing off the rock salts. At that moment, everyone was feeling very apprehensive. But not 5 minutes later, two direhorse suddenly dragged out a neigh, before they started whiffing at an opposite sex’s ass. Then burying their heads down, the two males started to collide severely against each other. Bang! Bang! Bang! The oppressive thumping sounded like two ancient warriors duelling each other.
Makaji clenched his fist in excitement.
“Success!”
Following that, more and more direhorses started to copulate and carried out duels. They could see the robust and elongated ‘whips’ of the males. A fishy foul smell assailed their nostrils. Sheyan then gestured towards Jin Ximin. The sniper then raised his gun.
Not a single gunfire rumble,
This was because he had utilized a silencer. Although it would substantially decrease the might of his weapon, it could maximize the rate of covertly striking at the enemy. (The gun used is a Steyr AUG of Counter terrorist in Counter-strike)
(TN: author writes him as a sniper but the steyr aug is an assault rifle not a sniper, so he probably still possesses a hidden sniper rifle)Chapter 368: Deeper into Pandora forest
Broiling projectiles silently whizzed out, piercing accurately into the armour of a direhorse; causing light yellow bodily fluid to splash out. Under normal circumstances, this timid horse would immediately take off. Yet during matting while it beared the painful torment, it swung its hateful gaze over. Raising its tremendous solid hoofs, it broke into a frenzied charge towards here!
Immersed in copulating, the pack of direhorse was now a chaotic mess. The foul fishy smell pervaded the air and assailed their nostrils. Female direhorses excitedly dug deeper into the soil, awaiting the duelling victor of the incessantly colliding stallions. Thus, such a wildly furious and deserting direhorse behavior went completely unnoticed.
When the direhorse charged into the thicket, it was instantly slowed down by Reef’s raging ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’. In a split second, the contestants lying in ambush pounced up like wolves and tigers; one-sided assaults came pouring down in torrents, directed towards its legs.
The direhorse had astonishing defence, but after two legs were fractured, its movement speed greatly plunged. Immediately, the squad shifted their assaults to its chest. The direhorses had many vertically arranged operculum* on the chest muscles, which allowed them to increase the amount of air they intake with each breath. Thus, this allowed the direhorses to reach greater speeds and endurance.
(TN: *Nostril-like opening)
But due to that fact, it became an area that lacked protection and was exceptionally weaker; which was most probably the vital spot, frequently resulting in greater damages.
Sheyan took special notice of Lille and Uzel, whose performance had been merely average. Lille’s offence was rapid, biting and sleek, with blood trailing from every blade ray; a melancholic display of blood. As for Uzel, he carefully aimed his pistol and fired, seemingly dishing out pretty decent explosive strike rate; supposedly traversing the path of single-unit high damage output.
In a short span, that direhorse was mercilessly cut down, displaying discolored lifeless eyes as it twitched. Due to the earlier pact – ‘every single battle loot would be monopolized by party Ace during the process of accomplishing the milestones’, Sheyan blatantly picked up the dropped white key. Thus, he successfully acquired a longhorn required by the milestone ‘Penetrate’.
At this moment, Jin Ximin had begun raising his sniper rifle and continued his stealthy seduction. However, this time, his bullet landed inside the eye of a unlucky direhorse, who was in the midst of a duel. That direhorse neighed furiously, abandoning its opponent as it galloped over. As for its male opponent, it wasn’t willing to take things lying down, as it pursued hot on its heels; “You little guy trying to run after kicking and biting me??? No way!” (Horse neighing)
Undoubtedly, Sheyan’s squad simultaneously accepted the two ordinary direhorse. As time trickled by, they slaughtered through the entire pack of direhorses within 1 hour; of which, only a few female horses seemed to have awoken from their dreams and fled hastily. Amongst the dropped loots, apart from rolls of leather, horse bone etc, there were 3 direhorse neural whips (The antenna) that were branded as valuable objects. Those 3 whips should possibly worth much back in Hell’s Gate base of the RDA company.
At present, everyone managed to receive two direhorse longhorn. Delivering them to the realm through the nightmare imprint, Sheyan received the notification:
“You offered two direhorse longhorn.”
“You receive the title ‘Penetrate’.”
“Penetrate: When attacking an enemy, 0.3% – 0.8% chance of neglecting defence and dealing full damage. (Chance corresponds to attack speed, faster will be 0.3%, while slower 0.8%)”
“You can only equip one title at one time, do you wish to equip the title ‘Penetrate’ ?”
“Advance milestone: ‘Pierce’ activated.”
“Pierce milestone requirements: Acquire 5 direhorse crystal longhorn.”
“Details: Direhourse crystal longhorn can only be obtained from elite-tier creatures.”
After accomplishing the milestone ‘Penetrate’, two contestants had paid a fee in accordance to their contract and left; both uninterested in the remaining two milestones. However, they felt that this tiny party Ace was indeed pretty trustworthy, and thus recommended another contestant who was interested in accomplishing the milestone ‘Plunderer’.
Following Sheyan’s schedule, the next milestone to accomplish was ‘Plunderer’.
This milestone held a requirement of gathering 1,000 units of Pandora’s Unobtanium (Crystal’s purity must not be lower than 16.8%). However, Mogensha had already accomplished this! Back when he stayed for a prolonged period of 7 days back in the Starship trooper world. The unobtanium crystals he harvested using the arachnid drone then, was in fact shockingly usable in this world!
More importantly, the purity of those unobtanium in the Blackthorn tribe was astonishingly over 95%. This further implied that Mogensha only needed to fork out merely 200 units of the Starship Trooper world’s unobtanium, to accomplish this milestone.
According to Uzel’s earlier report; within a 50 kilometres radius, there were a total of 6 Pandora unobtanium mines. However, the mines were relatively small in scale; to the RDA workers, the costs of extracting those mines wasn’t worth it. Hence, these mines were neglected by the RDA company. Amongst the 6 mines, 3 had crystals of purity exceeding 30%.
Naturally, according to percentage, visiting those 3 mines would be most suitable. Because once a high purity unit of unobtanium were to be extracted, it would undoubtedly equate to several units of lower purity crystals.
As the saying goes, risks and rewards are inseparable. Monumental Hometrees (Na’vi tongue: Kelutral) would naturally grow on unobtanium ore veins beneath it. The more abundant the unobtanium ore veins, the larger the Hometrees.
Even though the gigantic trees wouldn’t pose a threat, to Na’vi clans adept at combat, the Hometrees were literally their homes. Naturally its hollows and caves were their houses, where the na’vi clansmen would sleep, eat, weave, dance, ****, and celebrate their connection to Eywa……
Bluntly speaking, those areas were where unobtanium crystals thrives the most. The larger the growth of the Hometree, the more Na’vi residents and the larger their clan. Yet crucially, all Na’vi clans treated these high purity unobtanium with the highest devotion……these fanatical zealots of religion held beliefs deeply rooted in their hearts; no matter if it was a civilized or barbaric na’vi.
Hence, trying to extract unobtanium crystals there would be equivalent to intruding on their homes; akin to digging inches deep into their homes without paying respects, and even plundering the resident’s ancestral idols. If one encountered such a thing, wouldn’t one immediately pick up knives and go after them?
Sheyan didn’t know if humans would, but he knew Na’vi folks would. Hence, nearing a kilometre away from their destination, they proceeded with utmost caution. In actual fact, advancing through such a dense tropical rainforest, was essential a relatively difficult task. Snake-like purplish vines drooped down, along with knee-high fat oddly yellowish-green plants and many interweaving ecological layers. Earthen green mushrooms that would explode when ripe, and many other fearsome and repulsive insects and organisms…….
Even their ears found no rest; a symphony of cicadas singing, the buzzing of insect wings and even toad croaking sounds…….multitudes of decaying trees and fallen logs, giving rise to the moist and humid climate, just like an evaporated reservoir. Countless species of tree frogs propagated, as they spread their acute toxins amidst the forest.
Reef deviated from the treading open pathway slightly, accidentally stepping on a twig causing a crunching sound to emerge. Suddenly, a yellow figure flashed out from the side! Reef instantly blocked with his shield. Caught off guard, Lille behind him immediately reacted, with twin daggers cutting out. Such a move didn’t feel very fast, but was just like a casual breeze; instead, the yellow figure splitted into two.
After the yellow figure slumped to the ground, it bounced around frantically in its dying struggle. Only upon death could they differentiate it to be a serpent like creature. It had a triangular shaped head, prominent jaws brimming with sharp tooth as it tenaciously nipped onto a dried twig; as though trying to make reprisals even in death.
Beneath its head, grew a pair of mantis like blades, looking exceptionally incisive; as though it could easily carve out human flesh.
Reef glanced at Lille; his eyes contained no gratitude nor did he offer a word of thanks, but silently continued forward. Pertaining to such flowery behavior, Reef wasn’t at all interested. Lille felt rather annoyed, his facial muscles twitched a little as he snorted and sheathed his daggers back to his waist.
The trees became sparser ahead, as bright and gratified red-orange vegetation appeared. They grew together in twos or threes, and were roughly 6-8 metres tall. There were no leaves on them, presenting itself as a translucent membrane state; as though numerous sea snails had piled up together, and constructed into a spiralling upwards trend.
Piloting the ‘AMP Suit’, Makaji accidentally touched a plant. This plant instantly reacted and coiled swiftly before retracting down, vanishing into the ground in an instant; it was completely hidden underground! From a distance away, light trampling of dried leaves transmitted in. Makaji observed, as his pupils concurrently contracted.
“This……..is this a helicoradian? Everyone careful! We’re now extremely close to our destination, na’vi folks may ambush us anytime!”
(TN: The helicoradian (Na’vi name: loreyu meaning “beautiful spiral”) is a zooplantae (part animal, part plant) possessing a single leaf that responds to touch by coiling up and retracting to the ground.)Chapter 369: Deterrence!
The helicoradian is a part-plant-part-animal life form; because it couldn’t move freely on its own, it possesses ridiculously swift reaction which protects it from danger. Moreover, other creatures inside the forest relied on the helicoradian to warn them about nearby dangers! If any small animal were to fall into their leaves, it would swiftly retract; trapping the small animal inside and digesting it for additional nutrients.
Of course when Na’vi clans required garments or sacks, they utilized the leaves of the helicoradian as an absolutely excellent raw material. If they wanted to weave ornate ceremonial robes or garments, they would kill off a hexapede*, and bury it beneath the roots of the helicoradian; it then would require only a week for the leaves to wither up.
(TN:* A hexapede (Na’vi name: yerik) is a land herbivore that resides in the various biomes of Pandora, including rainforests, savanna, subarctic tundra, and mountainous regions.)
As for the withered and scattered leaves, it exhibited a rather gorgeous and exquisite appearance; as though it was commemorating its own death. This was the resultant material used to weave garments. Moreover, it was said that the Na’vi in Avatar utilizes the orange pigments of the helicoradian as paint.
Hence, the sight of Helicoradians was akin to viewing the farmland of a farm, and could be confirmed that the na’vi folks were almost within reach. At the very least, the contestants had now arrived within their scope of activity.
38 seconds had lapsed since Makaji’s warning. This temporary squad suffered an ambush!
The victim was no one else, but Makji himself.
Actually to be more precise, it was Makaji’s ‘AMP Suit’ that was assaulted; to be even more accurate, it was the Polycarbonate fiber plastic glass window. In theory, this window was able to guard against consecutive shots of 14.5 mm bullets.
A genuine and literal long arrow had very precisely drilled against his window, before directly rebounding off. However, its solid arrowhead had left a thumb sized regiment of cracks on the window, where just 8 cm beneath the cracks, was Makaji’s left eye.
Within 7 seconds after the arrow plunged into the ground, Lille immediately picked it up. Examining it for further for 13 seconds, he then transferred it to Reef.
The arrow was two metres long. The arrowhead was disintegrated, but it could be vaguely identified to be forged with volcanic glass.
Actually to humans, shooting such a long arrow was virtually close to impossible.
Yet to a Na’vi whose built was 3 metres, and had strength 4 times that of the average human, drawing a 2 metre long arrow with their longbows crafted from Hometree branches was akin to eating or sleeping. It was exactly like how a butcher could skillfully dice away at raw pork. Because to the Na’vi warriors, shooting arrows was simply a life and death matter – truly a fate resulting in life or death.
That was the fate of dying to hunger.
Many a time, people would describe their passion as their second life. For example; Edison Chen and acting, Michael Jordan and basketball, Juan Tu (The author) and writing, a baby and a lollipop, a monk and chanting. As for the Na’vi warriors, their life was raised alongside their archery techniques…….this was the terrifying extent of a Na’vi’s arrow.
Perhaps the contestants on scene had already thought of this, but reality would always deviate greatly from imagination. When a real live example was exhibited in front of everyone, it was convincingly clear as the curves of a stripper. In such a circumstance, everyone felt a sense of confusion; having no room to advance or retreat.
“They are afraid and worried. If not, their first arrow should’ve been against you guys and not me.” The victim Makaji was the first to break the silence.
“A dog will bark louder towards a tougher enemy, a cobra will inflate their necks uprightly to frighten an enemy it deems hard to prevail against; that is the logic behind this. This is just a deterrence, a stern warning. Have you seen a dog barking menacingly at a bone before? If it had utmost confidence, why would a cobra swell up its neck to scare its prey? It would bluntly sink its fangs down without hesitation!”
No doubt, Makaji’s words came at the right time. Just when their morale was declining, he slowly pulled it back up. In actual fact, anyone would be bustling with vigorous morale after knowing those four words – The enemy fears me.
After continuing advancing 70 – 80 metres forward, a panoramic view greeted their eyes, and the forest was distinctly turning sparser. Even the shrubs on the ground seemed to be revering and worshipping, as they leaned towards the ground.
Yet even more oddly, just like a fantasy, heavy rocks were currently hovering in midair. They were even floating with an aura of boldness and self-confidence. Brute force was meaningless against it, and massive clumps of soil, green moss and luscious shrubs sprouted from them. The scenery led them to unconsciously think of Nagrand, from the World of Warcraft.
(TN: Nagrand is a location in WOW, you can google it)
Undoubtedly, this was the mystical home for the unobtanium crystals. These precious ores could not only maintain its superconductor performance in extreme temperature, it even resonated with the planet’s magnetic field, forming a permanent force field allowing it to suspend in midair. This signified that Sheyan and the squad had arrived at their destination, but to acquire those items, they still had to advance into this nucleus zone.
Pressing on for another 5 minutes in, the contestants could now see a towering colossal tree from afar, stretching out from the forest into the sky. The colossal tree had exuberant branches and leaves, its height reaching a hundred metres. The thickness of the tree would require at least 40 persons to wrap around it in unity. At the height of 40 metres, the branches there even had a diameter of 4 metres! Nearing its base roots, massive titanic board-shaped mangrove like roots burrowed deep into the ground. Its flexible yet solid bark had one distinct feature – following the thickness of the trunk, it had uniformly deep crevices that were as deep as half a metre!
Such a colossal tree; just gazing upon it would dawn a solemn and imposing sensation. Its appearance housed natural spirals formed by branches and limbs of the tree, and its bottom was decorated by numerous ornaments; probably the symbol of a Na’vi clan. Moreover, many huge entrances carved out from the bottom, indicating a hollow interior. Although they were still relatively far, everyone could sense the air of dignified prestige, and felt an extreme urge to prostrate in worship.
At this very instant, 3 incoming arrows shuttled down from the sky!
Sheyan and Reef remained relatively calm; they had the fortune of witnessing the ranged techniques Uruk-hai leader, Lurtz. Having crossed through such a vast ocean previously, these arrows felt merely like a hassle. More crucially, the 3 arrows weren’t heading towards them. The assaults were all concentrated against the ‘AMP Suit’ that Makaji had expanded a huge amount of blood and money to purchase!
It was obvious, the 3 na’vi warriors who acted definitely fought with humankind before and had tasted agony from that ‘AMP Suit’. Without exception, it became the number one target. It couldn’t be said that they made the wrong choice, yet the cruel reality was this –
In the forest, the biggest threat wasn’t a fully equipped ‘AMP Suit’. Instead, It was the incredibly nimble and agile, close combat agility experts, with Lille at the forefront! During the instance of the enemy’s attack, the vigilant contestants had all simultaneously reacted in two ways. First was to take cover, and the second was to retaliate. Once again, Uzel verified his worth. A clear 3D image was instantly transmitted through the nightmare imprint to everyone’s eyes.
Na`vi (Ordinary)
Clan: Kiwatakin Clan
Height: 317 cm, weight: 142 Kg
Strength: 23 points
Agility: 38 points
Physique: 8 points
Perceptive sense: 24 points
Charm: 35 points
Intelligence: 7 points
Spirit: 10 points
‘Basic Long-range Combat’ lvl 7, ‘Basic Footwork’ lvl 7
Creature ability: Thunder-rock Embrace lvl 2 – Grants additional 3,000 HP.
Na`vi special ability (Passive): Archery arts – This is an essential survival ability of any Na’vi. Long range attack +50%, Utmost precision +15 cm (The arrow will adjust itself to precisely land on the target if it deviates within 15 cm). 15% additional chance of explosive strike for long range attacks.
Na`vi special ability (Passive): Fastened Limbs – Apart from water bodies, their movement will not be affected by any terrain.
Na`vi special ability (Passive): Deep-vision – Their large pupils allows more accumulation of light to provide night vision.
Keratin Skeletal (Passive) – A Na`vi’s unique skeletal calcification structure and keratin formulation prevents their bones from easily breaking. Even in the event of fractures, their body shape would be preserved. Damage received from falling from high altitudes lowered by 80%.
Weakness: Neural queue – The Navi’s hairs are actually grown out neural queues, which they utilize to communicate with Pandorian nature. Cutting it off will inflict tremendous agony to the Navi, causing horrifying perpetual damage.
Although Makaji was an authentic biologist, he was also a genuinely capable contestant; one that could continue persisting within this realm war. This undoubtedly meant that he had definitely gone through sufficient ordeals and violence.
After 4 consecutive arrow shots, a palm sized cobweb of cracks had already appeared on the window glass of the ‘AMP Suit’. Without a trace of courtesy, Makaji controlled this futuristic machine to raise its deadly ‘Gau-90 30mm hip-fired auto cannon’ and aimed over. Carrying a certain heartache and furious vengeance, he triggered it.
Generous streaks of scorching incendiary rounds volleyed forth, as gunfire rumblings pierced the air; forest leaves scattered wildly as smoke pervaded into the air!Chapter 370: Rooting out the nest
Under the incessant hurricane like gunfires of the ‘AMP Suit’, even a thick 3 metres wide tree couldn’t provide coverage for long; blistering into splinters after withstanding the bombardment for few seconds.
After the fanatical rain of fire subsided, several mysterious blue figures jolted out with surreptitious movements as they dispersed into the forest. It felt like fishes abruptly leaping out, graceful in that instance, before splashing down lightheartedly into the depths of the river.
At this moment, Sheyan suddenly darted out from a tree; half-kneeling as he raised a gun. Squinting his eyes, he pasted it against the scoping lens as he raised that ‘Nail gun’ of his. A red suspicious dot swiftly scanned past the trees; naturally, it was the infrared laser, an accuracy target device add-on.
Once the red dot overlapped with one of the blue figures, Sheyan directly pressed the trigger with extreme maliciousness and excitement. In that instance, he finally fulfilled his childhood dream; an unparalleled marksman with a hundred-shot-hundred-kills, acclaiming the major lead role in Hong Kong police dramas.
No doubt, this advanced technology made up for Sheyan’s innate deficiency, as he succeeded in hitting a bulls-eye. The skinny blue figure tousled forward, as ghastly blood fluids gushed out from its left thigh.
Yet when Sheyan was about to cry out ‘OKAY!’ in ecstasy, a long whip like object suddenly flashed out from the rear of that skinny figure, as it ingeniously twirled around the nearby tree branch. The figure who had just lost its footing once again swung forward, as it vanished behind a large tree.
“Oh shit! Curse that crafty tail!” Sheyan resentfully implored aloud as he reloaded. “If this gun was semi-automatic, then I swear even 10 tails would be nothing.”
Mogensha raised his lighted cigar to his thick lips.
“My only suggestion for you is to store away that toy figurine and stand in front of me. Not only can you block off those arrows, it is your bestest way of acting cool.”
“Oh screw off!”
Sheyan unhappily replied.
The ‘Nail gun’s’ formidability lies in its powerful penetration and expensive bullets. The weapon’s only firing mechanism was a single shot at a time. Fortunately, Sheyan’s reloading speed was adequately ‘fast’, he only needed a reloading interval of 5 seconds.
Yet within that ‘short’ duration, that Navi resurfaced in Sheyan’s view. Although the Navi stumbled out of its cover, it had already lost its value as a target board; because, it had been forced out by the grumpy looking Lille.
Like a walk in the park, the agile contestant Lille had appeared behind the Na`vi, unnoticed by everyone. Tranquil like participating in a hurdle race, not a single dagger movement in his left hand could be captured. Though he displayed such ordinarily looking mobility, yet a sudden shrilling black slash flashed out!
That black ray folded into an obliterating crescent moon, rippling forth with sorrow!
It carved through the Na`vi’s braids,
Carved through the Na`vi’s throat,
A violent outburst of fresh blood. This Na`vi who had suffered 5 armour-piercing incendiary rounds, and a titanium drilling nail finally lost his life; returning to the embrace of his god.
Rank B ability ‘Blade-dance slash’ !
The long braids of the Navi slowly pelted to the ground. Thump! He slumped to the ground and dissolved into infinite threads seeping into the soil of Pandora. Following that, another Navi couldn’t persist for long as well, and during the process of leaping out, that Na`vi was instantly assassinated by a deafening sniping gunfire of Jin Ximin!
Another remnant Na`vi had lost all rationality in his rage and anguish, howling ferociously as he charged in. He appeared to be a close combat warrior, without any bows or arrow. Instead, he clutched onto a jagged knife forged with beast tooth as he brandished it intensely; as though he could block all incoming bullets, then…….
Then with a belly of fire, Makaji controlled his ‘AMP Suit’ to target him.
Then……..
There was no more then.
In a flash, tu tu tu tu! 37 spiralling fatal rounds entered him, drilling in holes like a honeycomb.
Instead, Sheyan glanced towards Reef at this time. During the attacking process, the 3 Na`vis weren’t just idling without retaliation. They had also simultaneously retaliated while fleeing. An arrow landed nowhere, while another arrow soared in thirst for Uzel! Fortunately, Reef had raced forward to block it, yet this craftily angled arrow had lodged into Reef’s shoulder.
A 2 metre long arrow,
An arrow smeared with neurological poison element.
Sheyan glanced at Reef. Reef understood, and replied with a coarse voice.
“72 points, not an explosive strike. Side persisting damages of 48 points, movement decrease.”
If Reef wasn’t wearing the RDA company’s ‘Hydra armour’, then an ordinary Na`vi’s long range arrow would’ve dealt close to a hundred points to Reef already. Moreover, there were still other persisting damages, and even the movement declining effect? Such a ‘difficulty class’, was already nearing the strength of an ordinary orc of the previous world.
Yet one must acknowledge, Navis are long range aggressors. This undoubtedly implied a possibility of concentrated assaults! If Mongensha were to have suffered 3 simultaneous arrows of the Navi, then the possibility of crippling or instant death was high!
“Even a ‘B+’ difficulty is so troublesome……hais, if our next world advances another level, its difficulty would reach ‘A-’ or even higher!” Sheyan sighed in his heart.
After checking the contents of the 3 Navi dropped keys, they only presented two of items required by the ‘Headhunter’ milestone - Navi longbow. This item was indeed not a 100% drop rate. Therefore to complete this milestone, they probably had to slay 10 or so Na`vis each.
At this moment, every contestant started to proceed with caution. The dedicated Makaji continued piloting the powerful ‘AMP Suit’ as he led the front, while engaging in a battle analysis for them.
“In the movie, the Omaticaya clan that the main lead joined had a overall strength of 500 Navi. Those that could ride Mountain banshees were only 10 - 20. The height of their Hometree was 460 metres, with a diameter of 50 metres. Considering the fact that Hometree right ahead hasn’t even reached a hundred metres in height and the information we’ve gathered before, this signifies that this Kiwatakin clan comprises only of around 3-5 Navi. It is a declining clan on the verge of extinction.”
While Makaji led, he very detailedly made judgements with his expertise as a biologist. Every single judgement was supported with reasons and were terribly accurate. Hence, though he was a newly recruited member, he had discreetly stole the limelight from everyone else.
After hearing his words, everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Then like a hive of bees, they sprinted towards the Hometree. Even in a game, the thrill of rooting out an entire opponent nest was the greatest desire, there was no other.
Yet more importantly, per the contract agreements of between the contestants, only drop loot keys from creatures killed would be automatically deemed as party Ace’s possession. Yet the items that could be acquired within the Na`vi nest weren’t something that party Ace could monopolize…..
However after a brief while, before Sheyan had even got the chance to infiltrate the Hometree, the fastest agile model contestant strolled out within the tree hole with a disappointed expression. His expression was one of extreme nauseous, as though he had an impulse to chop away at someone. Sheyan became intrigued as he headed forward, suddenly a wave of smoke assailed his nose.
Although the Hometree was hollow inside, the humongous mangrove-like roots were scattered around and brimming with vitality and firmness. Its interior wasn’t damp and moist like their imaginations, but it had a dry, warm and tidy feel; utterly devoid of termite infested decaying wood. But they could obviously tell, the space within wasn’t considered huge, there wasn’t a second floor.
Leaning against the tree, or the walls of the interior, were some ornaments spoils of war. Skulls and repulsive objects hung over it, even broken javelins, bows and arrows were neatly arranged by the side.
There was a fireplace in the middle, only displaying withering embers. Flaming torches were placed by its side, which were composed of bountiful dried leaves and random stuff; which were soaked with an oil like substance, probably the secretion of a fat creature.
Over the fireplace, were dried twigs with vines suspended over; neatly sliced charred meat was dangling atop. No doubt, it had been long overcooked. Sheyan couldn’t recognize what meat it was, however, the second dangling item beside the meat was exceedingly familiar.
It was a human head.
Hair burnt ablaze, twigs forcing the mouth open. A human head being roasted.
Its eyes and brain juice had been dried out, leaving dark terrifying concaves. The skin had shriveled beyond recognition, as though its expression was a perpetual grotesque smile.
Honestly speaking, such a method was exactly identical to humans dealing with chicken or pig heads.
They could definitely infer, the chunks of meat dangling by the side, must’ve recently been part of this person’s body………Chapter 371: A barbarian’s preserved meat
No doubt, this unlucky dead child was definitely a RDA worker, who was utterly unrelated to Sheyan. Yet his head still couldn’t help welling up with an unexplainable feeling, as he couldn’t help pounding his fist against the tree wall!
This was a natural disposition of superiority as humans, the leader of all creatures! This was a rage sustained by personally witnessing their own kind butchered as food!
Don’t bloody say why humans didn’t feel cruelty while eating pork, beef or chicken.
As a human himself, he naturally had a human’s pride, the pride of guarding their own!
At this moment, Reef walked over. Witnessing all this, his face had also turned ashen. Only after a brief while did he speak up.
“These bastards……I really have an impulse to mutilate their corpses.”
“They’ve stolen away a mission.” Sheyan suddenly murmured.
Reef immediately thought of the focus after hearing his words. This pitiful meal of a person was definitely an RDA worker. Most likely, he was from the Hell’s Gate. If they could acquire his identity card, then they probably could invoke a simple mission of returning it. As for the mission rewards, it definitely varied.
If this guy was just an ordinary mercenary, then the rewards would be minute. If he turned out to be a person of high status, then the rewards would be generous.
Obviously, Sheyan had spoken only after observing the pile of mess around the fireplace. The pile of mess included Prolemuris* offals and fur, claws and heads of viperwolves, and even tattered camouflage soldier uniforms; a chaotic pile of hair and organs……naturally, this was the Na`vi’s kitchen.
(TN: The prolemuris (Na’vi name: syaksyuk) is a chattering, non-aggressive tree dweller that prefers the relative safety of the canopy to the dangers of the rainforest floor. Prolemuris are similar to monkeys or apes on Earth.)
Sheyan then raised his head and observed the spacious hollow space of this room. It was at least 11-12 metres high, riddled with other entrances leading outside of the tree hollow; maintaining the sunlight and ventilation of this place. After walking out, Makaji was currently gazing up with a complication expression. After seeing Sheyan, he left without saying a word.
Sheyan then stood at where Makaji was and gazed up. Needless to say there was a dense mass of leaves of the Hometree canopy, in addition, there were several large transparent brown pods swaying in the air. Those were the Na’vi’s beds, where they would simply climb up and enjoy a peaceful sleep in a rocking bed. Sheyan retracted his gaze, saying nothing as he left.
Next, was naturally tough labour.
The Hometree relied on the Pandora crystals to grow, yet it wouldn’t absorb or plunder from it; but its growth was solely because of the everlasting magnetic force field generated. The enormous trunk of the Hometree relied on this weightlessness environment to grow to its maximum potential.
The higher the quantity of Pandora crystals, the greater the magnetic force field. Therefore, the supplementary aid to the Hometree’s growth would increase, and the Hometree would grow increasingly enormous.
This was the same logic as the largest animal, the blue whale, living in the water. Only by drawing support from the water’s buoyancy, can it support such a colossal state and continue living. Yet if the blue whale ascends to land, it would be dragged down by its ridiculous weight. Hence, a majestic Hometree completely surpassing other trees wasn’t without reason.
Needless to say, digging beneath the roots of the Hometree, one would be able to find an abundance of Pandora crystals.
Undoubtedly, the most suited for this job was the ‘AMP Suit’.
Everything was implemented and carried out perfectly, excavating an endless supply of Pandora crystals. However, for all contestants present apart from party Ace, they sunk into an extremely awkward problem. This was the same problem that had plagued Mogensha and Reef back in the Starship Trooper world.
That was that the Pandora crystals could not be digitized and inevitably occupied space. More or less implying that they were…..cumbersome!
If not for Sheyan’s opportune short cuts, his official military rank accoladed with unparalleled achievements, his interspatial region of the nightmare imprint would also be easily limited. Sadly, the others around weren’t bestowed with such fortunes; hence after trying their utmost, they could only stash the basic requirements of Pandora crystals needed for to complete the milestone. There were two that couldn’t store enough, and had to manually and comically carry a pocket-full back. Of course, they didn’t forget to pay remunerations to Sheyan and party for accomplishing the milestone.
Also, it was at this moment that the 3 core members of Party Ace acknowledged something deeply – the significance and importance of their party storage, that 10x10x10 = 1000 square metre space!
After offering the nightmare imprint the Pandora crystals he acquired, Sheyan received a notification.
“You gathered 1,000 units of Pandora crystals. (Purity no less than 16.8%).”
“You received the title: Plunderer.”
“Plunderer: Every time you slay an enemy, 2% additional chance of acquiring a key. The key grade will be directly proportional to the enemy’s strength.”
“You can only hold one title at one go, do you wish to equip the title ‘Plunderer’ ?”
“Advanced milestone: ‘Looter’ activated.”
“Accomplishing requirements: Gather 3000 units of Pandora crystals. (Purity must be no less than 51.3%).”
“Details: A Pandora crystal of more than 51.3% cannot be produced naturally, therefore….you know it. Find it at Hell’s Gate.”
“This title is relatively fine eh. But, how does it aid title synthesizing……?” Sheyan was currently perplexed at this title synthesizing affair. At present, the boys from party Ace kept quiet about their party storage affairs, obviously not intending to divulge this secret to Lille, Uzel, and even Jin Ximin or Makaji.
Currently, the sunlight had infiltrated through the canopy of the Hometree, showering glimmers of light down. Those midway membership contestants had left, they weren’t very interested in the last ‘Headhunter’ milestone. Thus, obviously, they had to cherish the precious time left for other matters.
Suddenly, the ‘AMP Suit’ that was consistently excavating trembled violently, thick black fumes spurted out from the 6 exhaust of its rear engine. The rumbling of the engine became increasingly louder as though a monster truck was trying to climb up a slope. The entire machine was trembling excessively.
“What’s happening?” Mogensha immediately questioned.
Makaji mumbled several lines to himself, looking rather heartache for his ‘AMP Suit’. He then pedalled the gas pedal furiously.
“Dammit, there seems to be a massive dude underneath! Come help?”
Reef was the kindest individual, he immediately charged up in aid; chopping off a tree branch as he started prying. Finally, he managed to compliment the ‘AMP Suit’ and excavated the earthen object out. Everyone got a huge fright when the object pulled out was an appalling coffin, forged out of a cyan coloured rock!
A stone coffin!
This coffin was approximately 3 metres high and 5 metres long. The decorative engravings had mostly faded away, only leaving behind faint carvings; a savageness that was vividly portrayed. It could be seen that the Na`vis had buried this coffin with devout reverence.
Except…..this coffin just had to be buried at the largest entrance of this Hometree. According to Makaji’s understanding of the Na`vi; though they had the practice of burial, they wouldn’t allow the grave of a respected individual to be trampled over constantly. This was a perplexing occurrence, since they revered, why trample and despise it? Since they trampled, why bother revering?
But at this moment, Sheyan unintentionally noticed the gaze of Uzel and Lille, which gave him an indescribable sensation; one filled with greed, ecstasy, surprised and enlightenment. Although this expression was fleeting, and swept away in an instant, it had been earnestly captured by Sheyan’s eyes. Sheyan had committed this to his memory.
“Hmm, looks like these two guys seem to know what is inside this coffin.”
At this moment, Mogensha and Makaji had joined up to pry open the coffin. As their faces were covered with the oxygen mask, they weren’t scared of any embedded corpse poison. With a fist from the ‘AMP Suit’, the gorgeous but brittle stone lid bluntly fragmented with cracks. Mogensha kicked out as the coffin overturned to the side; spilling its contents into the sunlight.
It was a skull.
A tremendously huge skull!
That stone coffin was already relatively enormous; yet compared with this long and gigantic skull, it had only managed to forcefully contain it. Such a gigantic skull matching with a stone coffin appeared rather comical, it was like a fat leg being forced into skinny jeans.
The flesh had long decomposed around the skull, its eyeballs had dried to a layer of film. Yet its tenacious epidermis was preserved, with intercrossing strokes of bright red and yellow. One could imagine the clarity of the strokes even in the night, as it left a deep latching impression on everyone present.
In the natural world, this represented fear; represented deterrence; striking terror to those who saw it. The skull presented a domineering dreadfulness that could sweep across the entire planet!Chapter 372: Rebellion
A gigantic skull, with distinct stripes.
In the entire Pandora, only one creature dared to boast of this……
The overlord of the skies, the Great Leonopteryx! (Na`vi tongue: Toruk ‘Last shadow’)
To the entire Navi race on Pandora, riding one was equivalent to a WoW player acquiring the Twin Blades of Azzinoth or Frostmourne! It is said that through the history of the Navi race, only 5 had managed to ride it before, and were hailed as the ‘Rider of the Last Shadow’; leader of the Na`vi race, supreme in strength and authority.
(TN: For non-warcraft players, the Twin Blades of Azzinoth are wielded by Illidan stormrage, and the Lich King wields frostmourne. Both are main bosses of the game, so it means wielding them is akin to being the mega boss)
Yet why would this dragon’s skull of great significance, be buried underneath a footpath of the Hometree?
Sheyan had no clue of the underlying meaning, yet he had already noticed that wild look of ecstasy that flashed through Uzel and Lille’s face. From the information reports that they provided earlier, Sheyan believed that they had definitely been through this mysterious world
“But, so what?” Sheyan’s lips curled into a cold sneer. Of course, he too rapidly wiped off that smug arrogance from his face. He raised his head as he sincerely offered Lille and Uzel.
“Let us go. Our reputation is at stake. Since we’ve already made a pact with you guys, then we’ll definitely ensure that you finish the ‘Headhunter’ milestone. If we drag till nightfall, the Na`vi’s night vision prowess will be catastrophic for us. The difficulty level would multiply.”
But right at this moment, Uzel who had always been rather low-key, abruptly raised his head loftily. His eyes were clearly staring into Sheyan, with the misconception of gazing at everyone. In this instant, his eyes, pupils, eyelashes and faint brows suddenly turned fuzzy; as though his features were sketched with ink. The blurriness overflowed like spring water, then it thoroughly dissolved. The only clarity left behind was the nightmare imprint on his chest, shining with a piercing crimson red glow!
“If you have to blame something, then blame your luck that this thing surfaced here, the Na`vi’s pinnacle…..”
Uzel’s voice suddenly turned vaguely discernible, whilst containing an unfathomable prideful craziness.
“You shall all witness, the peak of my prowess —- the mighty judgement of a spirit boundary breakthrough!!”
As his last words faded, everyone on scene instantly submerged into a regiment of boundless white! This sensation, was like the sudden glaring sun piercing into the eyes while one was in darkness! When they recovered their vision, Sheyan was astonished. The earth was still the earth, forest still the forest, Hometree still the Hometree, Reef was Reef, he was himself. Only two things had changed.
Uzel had disappeared,
Lille had multiplied!
Standing in front of each individual, was one Lille!
A cutting edge display of immense sharpness, Lille!
“Why……isn’t my perceptive sense warning me?”
“That must be because Uzel isn’t directly threatening my life! It seems like he has only accomplished two things. Hiding himself and Lille, and conjuring several other illusions.”
“This is……really interesting.”
Once again, Sheyan’s lips curled into a sinister smile.
Right this instance, the 5 Lille’s acted simultaneously! Charging forward with an ordinary thrust!
This was all along a free to slaughter world; yet there was no warning, no notice or premonition. Yet because of that, Sheyan remained motionless. He had absolute faith in his perceptive sense.
“Indeed just a fake.” Sheyan mocked.
Yet not everyone in the party had such a keen perceptive sense as him!
Still piloting the ‘AMP Suit’, Makaji’s pupils shrank; although his powerful machine couldn’t attack humans, there was no need to doubt its defense. Hence, when Makaji observed Lille’s sudden burst and leap, followed by drawing daggers and stabbing forth, his heart remained calm. Because he ultimately believed, he wouldn’t become the first target. No matter what, Mogensha and that sniper Jin Ximin were much easier to kill.
“Unless…….how is that possible!”
A suddenly notion jolted through Makaji’s mind, as Lille’s dagger thrusted in!
Lille’s target was lethal and decisive, heading straight for the bullet-proof glass window of the cockpit! Indeed, the same cobweb cracks left behind by the Na`vi’s 4 arrows! Clank! A loud crunch resounded, the cracks deepened as Makaji shouted desperately.
“This one is real! Save me!”
Without hesitation, Reef activated ‘Courage’ and charged over; instantly following up with a ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’. After the rippling shockwave swept out, it was greeted by a shocking sight of Lille’s figure distorting and vanishing into thin air.
It was an illusion! Yet how did that dagger manage to reduce the bulletproof glass to a point of imminent danger, nearly shattered and smashed?
At this moment; both Sheyan and Makaji immediately recalled that absurdly lone mighty pistol that Uzel equipped. Since Uzel could even conjure out 5 Lille illusions, then it definitely wouldn’t be tough to camouflage his shot; masking it as an assault by the twin daggers Lille. It simply took a slight meagre effort.
Often times, only when a case is solved would one feel the simplicity of it. Yet before that, it frequently wrecked people’s brains.
Since things had developed to this extent, it implied that Reef had no choice but to choose between guarding Mogensha or that sniper Jin Ximin. The reason why this supposedly multiple-choice question didn’t include Sheyan, was deeply understood by Reef. Even Sheyan was hiddenly wishing Lille would take the initiative to attack him!
Hence Reef directly sprinted to Mogensha. One was a temporary party member, one an official member. One had gone through life and death with him, the other just an excellent marksman. Thus, this decision wasn’t difficult. The sniper Jin Ximin’s body suddenly flickered, suddenly executing a ‘Reclining leap’ ability. He directly pulled open the gap between the opponent. In a flash, pew pew pew! Muffled gunshots transformed Lille ahead into a sieve…….
Nevertheless, the one ahead of him was expectedly, similarly an illusion.
The Lille in front of Sheyan was an illusion, Reef’s one was an illusion, Jin Ximin’s one an illusion, even the ‘AMP Suit’ attacker Lille was an illusion……then had Reef gambled correctly? No! The incomparably flustered Mogensha pulled out his silver ‘Sparta spear’ to block, yet the incoming dagger thrust gradually faded into oblivion…….it was a bloody illusion.
The 5 Lilles assaulting the contestants were all illusions?!!!!
Then where was the real one?
The answer was disclosed in the next second,
It was a tree.
An ordinary looking tree, that was steadfastly stationed right next to the ‘AMP Suit’.
A shadow flashed behind the tree, directly spitting out the person, Lille.
Twin-daggers shimmered coldly in his hands, simultaneously stabbing towards the bulletproof glass.
A thunderous shatter pierced out, the bulletproof glass was instantly reduced into a thousand minute fragments of crystal glass; raining in all directions, as it clanked against the floor.
Makaji’s face twitched maliciously in that instant, and his gaze turned venomous. That polite, amiable and slightly boastful at times biologist appearance had vanished! In its place was an incomparable lunatic, his reddened eyes flashed as he snarled out crazily.
“Why must you force me!!! Why must you choose me first!!!”
“That’s because everyone here must die! Only with your death, can we enjoy this immense secret ourselves, this tremendous fortune! Since we have to kill, then we choose to deal with the most difficult first!”
Uzel’s voice wafted through from all directions, as though it was the whispers of the forest.
“Makaji, or should I say Mr Harlim? ……although you’ve changed to such a detestable name, but the matter of you betraying the Banks Syndicate and stealing a huge chunk of wealth is something extremely clear to me. Because, we are the moles dispatched by Zeus to infiltrate the Banks Syndicate! Actually you should thank us. If not for our Glory-party’s Zeus brazenly making a move in order to revive the Metals professor, and attracting the higher ups of the Banks Syndicate, do you think they would’ve given you a chance to escape?”
“Actually, this group of young friends, you should be grateful to us. This Makaji joining your party may not be a good thing. Ever since this traitor escaped from the Banks Syndicate, he has already ruined 3 other parties. So just resign to fate; even without us, you’d still be destroyed by him.”
Uzel’s crescendoing voice hadn’t reach its pinnacle before fading. Lille then seized this huge opportunity. Ferociously making a front flip as he hung in the air, his twin-daggers shimmered as his entire body curved backwards into a ‘C’ shape; his arms bending backwards agilely that he even touched his bended legs. Maintaining this vigorous posture for a split second, a flurry of movement took place as he ferociously slashed down!
This strike contained matchless devastation; due to its insanely fast execution, it stirred an intense reverberation of violent whimpers. Creak..crunch crunch! Incessant echoes of smashing metal pierced out. The ‘AMP Suit’ was terrifyingly chopped down from its head all the way till its leg!!!
Even Makaji’s arm that was gripping the control lever was severed and sent flying along with a river of blood.Chapter 373: Powerful Makaji
After his downward chop, the faintly glowing black dagger in Lille’s left hand dissipated into the air like ashes. Such a nasty and vicious downward chop actually required the sacrifice of a precious black grade dagger! Yet through this, one could tell how deep a persona Makaji had been hiding. Even Lille who had gained the upperhand acted in restraining fear, not hesitating to sacrifice a precious black grade weapon in order to inflict a heavy strike.
With a severed limb, Makaji cried out in agony, rolling out immediately. Simultaneously, his chest also dazzled with crimson blood, naturally displaying his boundary breakthrough. As an agile close combatant, Lille definitely knew how to execute a total suppression; being like a shadow that follows the body*. In a flash, a brilliant silver dagger appeared in his left hand, as his leg movements remained unceasing. Like a shadow, he pursued in for the kill.
(TN:*Chinese idiom, It means following relentlessly.)
Struggling against the pain as he wrestled violently, Makaji lifted his head to stare at Lille; it was as though his blood dripping eyes had morphed into a knife as it pierced towards Lille. Makaji slapped his right palm against the floor. In a flash, the ground erupted with 3-4 immense and winding crevices. As dust pervaded the air, four abrupt giant whip like vines erupted forth and swept out. The vines were as thick as a lamp post, brown overlaced with maroon bloodstains. The tip of these vines had mouths with sawtooth sharpness. It repeatedly revolved and chomped about, releasing a terribly intimidating sight at first glance.
Yet Makaji’s counter-attack counted for nought! The 4 giant vines swept through horizontally, as it blatantly collapsed thick trees and ferns, sending them flying and rolling dozens of metres away. It was like a real life hurricane tempest of violent winds and rainstorm. Yet when it struck against Lille, it only caused a ripple of undulations.
Illusion!!
It was actually another illusion!
The combination of Uzel and Lille, was actually so frightening! In that instant, everyone could no longer tell from truth or false. Even illusions could transform into reality. Immediately, a sense of extreme danger filled their hearts.
At present, the glow of the setting sun was apparent, penetrating the leaves as it shone against everyone’s faces. A roasting burning pain, stretching everyone’s shadows to its limits. Even the shadows of the 5 Lilles were casted over the ground, such was the genuity of Uzel’s illusions!
Reef’s pupils tightened as he shouted.
“Everyone, backs to each other!”
As his voice faded, the shadow beneath Makaji’s feet was suddenly displaced as Lille scuttled out, somersaulting from the back of Makaji, as he landed directly ahead of Makaji with his back facing him, as he sped forward………meanwhile, a drifting dagger ray lingered above as it struck down towards Makaji, like a silver crescent tearing down alongside the sunlight! It flashed against Makaji’s neck and down his chest!
Makaji instantly released a wretched scream! The brilliance of that silver crescent was unwavering, carving out a prolonged wave as it finally smashed down against the ground. Boom! Dust surged up like a tide towards the skies, as gravel and sand dispersed. Makaji’s ghastly collarbone could be seen near his neck, as blood sprayed out frenziedly.
Yet even after this strike, Makaji didn’t die; where he probably had used a certain healing medicine. The malevolent vicious expression on his face had subsided, as those 4 bloodied brown vines tore towards him, and deeply penetrated his body. Following that, the blood vessels on his face swelled up grotesquely, as though the vines had replaced his vessels; and was fanatically supplying its horrifying strength into his body.
Concurrently, Makaji stretched out his hand as it surged towards the fleeing Lille in retaliation! This time, his hand finally landed on Lille’s body. Almost instantly, flesh and blood was ripped out from Lille’s back. Makaji’s palm had sprouted fingernails that appeared like black incisive barbwire, mercilessly tearing off a huge chunk of flesh! Even the torrents of fresh blood was dyed jet-black in that instance!
“Go! My children!!!” Finally landing a strike, Makaji yelled out fanatically. Two flesh vines shed out from his body and drove into the ground. Illusory arts could trick the eye, but it was impossible to deceive a bloodlusted organism in search for blood.
Visibly seen, two mounds caused by the fleshy vines stretched onwards at breakneck speed. Mogensha and sniper Jin Ximin followed the direction of the vines, and also unilaterally opened fire wildly. But at this moment, an inharmonious muffled ringing broke the rhythmic gunfires.
That ringing was obviously the rumble of Uzel’s large calibre pistol!
The gunfire echoed out, resulting in a blooming blood lotus exploding on Mogensha’s left shoulder! Mogensha’s reaction wasn’t considered slow; at the moment he suffered the shot, he flung his ‘Sparta spear’ towards the direction that opened fire at him. This was because he couldn’t affirm the target, thus his ability couldn’t be used. That penetrating silver spear spiked deeply into the fibre of a tree, its tail fanning in trembles………following that, the two flesh vines suddenly detoured acutely, before directly surging towards Mogensha and the sniper Jin Ximin. Reef immediately charged forward, as he fumed out.
“Careful, they are trying to use your blood stench to confuse it with blood!”
Undoubtedly, sniper Jin Ximin immediately distanced himself from Mogensha. This was a wise decision, but as he sprinted away 7-8 metres, his elongated shadow materialized a person. Lille had abruptly appeared behind him, driving his silver resplendent flawlessly into Jin Ximin’s neck, as he ruthlessly and swiftly tore through Jin Ximin’s throat!!!
Blood flooded out like a fountain. In his desperation, Jin Ximin groaned and chaotically opened fire as he spun round; blazing bullets impaling Lille’s body, yet he could only witness as this sly enemy gradually dissipated away. Immediately, the two flesh vines fanatically surged forward, like a python as it coiled round Mogensha and Jin Ximin; insatiably drawing their blood as it gradually refueled the vitality of the severely injured Makaji!
Consecutively, everyone in the party received the notification:
“Temporary party member: Growth-Hunter no.899771 has left the party. Due to a penalty exemption ability, he will not suffer any consequences.”
“Growth-Hunter no.899771 can randomly choose to attack you, you can similarly attack him!”
“Hahahahaha!” Uzel’s wild laughter descended onto the forest. “Kiddos, I didn’t lie right. That brat Makaji definitely joined your party with evil motives! Once he finds no usefulness in you, he will mercilessly abandon you!”
Instead, Sheyan took notice of Makaji’s address……..Growth-Hunter! It wasn’t a reserve-duty Growth-hunter!! No wonder Uzel and Lille acted against him first!
At this point, Makaji issued a cold and sullen tone.
“You two morons, you actually forced me to this state. Truthfully speaking, this Silver party would be rather comfortable to carrying on staying. A rare MT, a support, if I managed to take charge, then wouldn’t that make me amazing? But since things have deteriorated to this, I express my apologies. Golden AK and that asian, I will try my utmost to allow you to witness the death of those two fools!”
As Makaji spoke out, Mogensha and Jin Ximin had already been thoroughly constricted by the flesh vines. The vines coiled 6 rounds like a huge python, lethally binding them. Even when Reef charged forward to slice it, it was to no avail. As Sheyan observed, his heart jolted with hundreds and thousands of notions.
“This……this, is the true formidability breaking through the boundary? A Growth-Hunter alone, just relying on a summoned creature can actually deal such devastating oppression onto contestants? Not right, it should be Mogensha and Jin Ximin’s strength is inadequate, and cannot escape the binding of the vines.”
(TN: the strength here should be talking about their strength attribute)
Meanwhile, still infused with two flesh vines, Makaji stood up, looking exceptionally tall and sturdy. His body swelled with numerous black vessels; as for his previously severed arm, the flesh vines had coagulated into a horrendous oddly tentacle. His legs had morphed into deep roots as it bore into the ground below. One could tell the life force of Mogensha and Jin Ximin was rapidly replenishing Makaji’s life. Makaji then laughed in ridicule.
“Once my roots are pulled out from the ground, that will be your time of death!”
“No chance.” An abrupt appearance of Lille from the shadow of a large tree coldly remarked.
“Since we already knew you are that Harlim, the one who had successfully rescinded the phrase ‘Reserve-duty’; the Harlim who had successfully upgraded into an official Growth-Hunter. That how would we possibly act against you without full confidence? Zeus had long ago told us of the method of dealing with you!”
What ended Lille’s words were Uzel’s violent coughing sound, sounding like it had utmost grievances with his own lungs! Sheyan could suddenly sense a searing headache befalling him, as an acute dizziness formed. The scenery in his eyes suddenly distorted like water, turning hazy like frosted glass. His nightmare imprint transmitted the notification.
“You are inflicted with mental torture, body control is greatly restrained…….”
“You are inflicted with a mental torture, body control is greatly restrained…….”
All of a sudden, from a distance, Uzel surfaced on a fork of tree branches. His hands were currently raised high while facing each other, as the surrounding air around him radiated with waves of glaring blindness. A chaos yellow sphere was spinning unceasingly within his palms, incessantly discharging fragments of thunder and lightning around it!!!
Translator Notes: To clarify things, Growth-Hunter (殖猎者) is the term for those that have broken through the boundary. Reserve-duty Growth-hunter (预备役殖猎者) is touching the boundary but not breaking through yet (where contestants can only activated this stage 4 times, if they touched the boundary).
Okay here is why I attempted to use the term Reserve-duty limit-venators at first – The author sometimes omits reserve-duty when referring to Growth-Hunters that hadn’t broken through the boundary, where I thought it would be clearer (and cooler) if I could separate the two terms while I read ahead into the novel. However, in light of further chapters, I decided that it would become too confusing to deduce which are limit-venators or growth-hunters, and I wouldn’t want to confuse readers with wrong terms. So I will stick to author’s way of growth-hunter and reserve-duty growth hunter, where the author will eventually reveal which are official growth-hunters. However, for now, don’t treat anyone as official Growth-Hunters unless explicitly written ‘official Growth-Hunter’, to avoid being confused.
Lastly, just wanna thank you readers for supporting this novel. 🙂Chapter 374: Ruby Card
Under this oppression, Sheyan felt a sudden impulse to shoot and stun Uzel, but he immediately suppressed himself; continuing to observe silently.
That ball of lightning enlarged rapidly, as Uzel ferociously casted it towards Makaji……..KABOOM! A thunderous explosion! Jolts of lightning danced out, as it merged into a dull golden lightning web that broadened up wildly; continuing to inflict sustaining damages.
Reef originally gritted his teeth and wanted to rush to aid, but under the state of mental torture, he could only crawl and roll; progressing with great difficulty!
Meanwhile, Lille had already charged within 5-6 metres of Makaji’s rear, before he directly half-knelt and drilled his dagger deep into the ground. Makaji groaned in anguish, as clear bloodstains dripped from Lille’s retracted dagger. Immediately, 5-6 thick roots erupted from the area he had stabbed, and viciously flogged towards Lille’s body. Yet undoubtedly, those roots struck an illusion.
Yet within a short 2-3 seconds, Lille once again appeared behind the the hybrid vines-flesh Makaji. His dagger was now enshrouded in an unfathomable inferno, as he directly lacerated through Makaji’s hands, elbows, shoulders, knees and various joints. Then, he leapt high up with his hands criss-crossed into an immense blazing ‘十’ character; like a voracious vulture, he dove in, directly penetrating through Makaji’s body.
Inferno ‘十’ punishment!
A split second later, a chain of incomparably intense explosions ensued, with dense fumes and flames assailing their noses. As Makaji cried in despair, the soil beneath his legs was a scattered mess, and his arms and legs combusted upon being amputated; causing him to lose balance and crumble to the ground. Lille was already peacefully crouching by his side, a glittering cold silver dagger sweeping forth horizontally; waiting for Makaji’s neck to voluntarily find its fatal blade, then he mercilessly slashed…….
“Curse it…….if only my strongest child wasn’t killed…….”
Those were Makaji’s final words before he was beheaded, and that was his……..dying words of regret.
A ruby like agate translucent card dropped from his body, attracting everyone’s attention. Lille instantly broke out in a crazed laughter.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA, it is actually is a minute chance drop of a Growth-Hunter’s ruby card. Thank the heavens, this is my lucky day. First I discovered a Great Leonopteryx’s skull, then I obtained such an unprecedented true treasure!”
Suddenly, Uzel’s noticeably exhausted voice projection rung out, brimming with dissatisfaction.
“Lille, I must correct your words. This is OUR treasure, our fortune!! If not, I wouldn’t mind exposing today’s matters to Zeus!”
Lille laughed dryly.
“Oh, my dear partner, please forgive my mistake. We’ve always been like one body right?”
Uzel’s coarse voice rung out.
“Cut the crap, hurry up and exterminate Rr…..Reef! Golden AK and that korean are constricted by those flesh vines. That revolving withering plant no longer poses any danger to us, but my MP cannot sustain this powerful neuro-interference state for long. This damned realm, why don’t they ever let me randomly draw the X-men world? If not, my ability would’ve been able to advance to its final perfection!”
Following that, Sheyan watched on as the fuzzy and distorted image of Reef struggled in lone combat! He very much wanted to roll and climb to assist Reef, but that battle was fought over 20 metres away. Instead, Sheyan felt like his every step was one inch, seemingly back to where he was before!
He gradually understood; it wasn’t that Reef was too far away, it was due to this powerful neuro-interference state. The enemy had perfectly utilized intensified hallucinations to confuse him. Although he appeared to be climbing forward, in actual fact he could very possibly be just detouring in a circle! This profundity could be described as a ghost trying to hit the wall, it was completely impossible.
However, no matter Lille nor Uzel, they both had to admit Reef’s outrageousness had exceeded their imaginations! Lille’s attacks were already rather deadly; wielding twin-daggers, his every physical strike would’ve reached at least a primary 100 points of damage.
For a dual weapon agility contestant, this wasn’t a fixed figure. One must understand, his every successful physical strike was equivalent to a x2 attack…….his twin-daggers could naturally jab out two physical damages. If his two damages simultaneously triggered explosive strikes or special effects (Crushing damages etc), then such brute force was simply a defiance of natural order.
Yet everything has its flaws and strengths. Facing a high defence high health freak like Reef, Lille’s 100 damage first went through a 40% realm regulation weakening; diminishing its damage to 60 points. Then his defence of over 30 points would factor in…..resulting in more than 50% of damage weakening! Counting in this manner, Lille’s attack was at least weakened to roughly 30 damage.
Why was it at least…….one still had to consider Reef’s ability ‘Faith guard’ – after using it, it could directly materialize a formidable mental screen; containing 100 HP, 10 defence and a duration of 300 seconds. After being destroyed, it would even restore 100 HP within 10 seconds.
Thus no matter how much Lille frenziedly assaulted, his harvest was minute against Reef, who was true to his name sake of being a tenacious reef. Yet one still had to consider both daggers were silver storyline grade, in addition to the influence of illusions. He frequently struck against Reef’s back, rendering Reef’s blocking utterly futile.
Of course as a reputable agility contestant, Lille definitely had a relatively high explosive strike rate. Yet Reef had his ‘Muscleman’ ability, stifling enemy’s explosive strike rate by 10% ! In addition to his frequently triggered passive ability ‘Rude’, causing a 3 second speed slow, and finally his ‘Shattering Cardiac Roar’ that largely suppressed the enemy’s speed. Therefore, it was extremely depressing to fight against him.
(TN: Recap of ability ‘Rude’ – a passive ability that once enemy is affected by this damage, will result in a negative buff of 50% movement/attack speed. Duration: 3 seconds.)
Hence, while Lille engaged Reef, he even had to retreat several times to heal with medicines or bandages…..yet with the illusory cover, Reef couldn’t pinpoint his location and was unable to counter-attack. But for Reef, it was simply impossible for him to try utilizing medicines or bandages.
This repetitive chiseling went on for an entire 5 minutes! Lille, was finally able to completely drain Reef of his MP…….still, Reef had another move hidden in his sleeves after he exhausted his MP. Once he could no longer case ‘Faith guard’, he activated the party skill’s ‘Gloryheal’! Once again pulling his health back to 50%!
Under such circumstances, what could the Lille with a blank expression do? No choice, gritting his teeth, he pressed on. Reef continued contending against him, but…….but when Reef was finally struck into a near death state, a radiance flashed through his body. One look could tell he had utilized his honorary medicine ‘Max-protein injection gun dosage’!!! Instantly, refuelling full HP and MP!!!
(TN recap: Honorary medicines can be bought directly from the realm but are very costly.)
In that instant, Lilles eyes darkened terribly, as though tears were about to fill his face. If not for the irreplaceable significance of that Great Leonoppteryx’s skull, and if not for Uzel activating his cherished last awakening of his boundary breakthrough! If not for their opponents seeming like an arrow at the end of its flight! Then Lille really wished to halt his attacks…….he would rather disgracefully escape, then this current humiliating and painstaking efforts.
At present, it was with no doubt had Uzel himself had used that mystical honorary medicine ‘Max-protein injection gun dosage’, allowing his MP to restore fully. If not, with the insane extent of his illusions, consuming MP would be severely taxing as well; he would never be able to sustain till now.
Time swiftly sped by; after healing for the ‘nth’ time, Lille’s expectant time finally revealed itself. His silver dagger carved into a blinding arc in the air, sweeping towards Reef’s throat. Finally…….finally, he had managed to force this ‘solid Reef’ like reef into a critical state.
This man of steel, Reef……finally; the lightsaber in his hands decrepitly tumbled down. His knees heavily crashing onto the ground……..the only time this happened previously, was amidst that thousand zergling sea. When the abandoned Reef had sunk into miserable acceptance of his wretched fate. That time, his heart was filled with despair!
Yet now, it was still filled with an unwavering superiority! To Lille’s surprise, when he stared into the eyes of the opponent he had clearly just defeated, all he could see was a rich ridicule and taunting. At the same time, Reef couldn’t help murmuring the words he kept in his heart.
“Comrades are really amazing, Ace, amazing indeed!”
Observing Reef’s expression Lille’s heart was wrenched in chiliness. Reef was definitely no fool. When his smile latched into Lille’s eyes, Lille begin filling with……..dreadfulness! Without hesitation, Lille hastily crisscrossed his daggers, stabbing down towards Reef’s neck!!!
“What the……why can’t it stab in?” a sudden faint silver aureole shockingly covered Reef’s neck. Fear and rage intertwined in his heart. In his disbelief, he consecutively stabbed four times; the aureole consecutively appeared like essence, totally and ingeniously negating Lille’s attacks.Chapter 375: Sheyan’s counterattack
Covert party skill: ‘Life-link’ activated!
Lille’s attacks weren’t considered high to them and after another 50% weakening, coupled with having its remaining damage transferred to Sheyan, and finally considering Sheyan’s defence, it undoubtedly equated to 1 damage, definitely nothing much……..
(TN skill recap: Any member once entering near death critical juncture, will engage ‘Boulder State’; having their movement speed decline by 50%, unable to attack nor use any items. Any damage dealt will be forcibly reduce by 50%! Then the other 50% of damage will be transferred to another member who is life-linked.)
“‘Division divine-art’, Uzel, use your ‘Division divine-art’ !!” Lille crazily roared out.
Uzel’s frustrated voice instantly replied.
“Dammit, you moron! To maintain this illusion I have to persistently consume MP, I even have to maintain that powerful neuro-interference state (That blurry vision, headache state that Sheyan is in) that requires manifold consumption of MP. That ‘Eye-of-Thor’ I previously hurled at Makaji exhausted a terrifying amount of MP…….do you think I can cast another ‘Division Divine-art’ ?”
“Look carefully, when you attack Reef, that same silver glow flashes out from that Seaman. This must obviously be a ‘Life-link’ ability. Reef is obviously incapable of combat anymore, you just need to follow our original plan and deal with that guy. Stop your thoughtless gibberish to me. Last warning, because you dragged too long with Reef, even my resupplied MP from the honorary medicine is almost wasted. That powerful neuro-interference state can only persist for another minute.”
Lille suddenly stood up, his gaze turning stern.
“Who are you calling a moron.”
Uzel retorted without hesitation.
“I’m calling you, a fool a moronic fool, you, you are the moron! Right, hand over Makaji’s ruby card to me, if not I will stuff your brains into your ass all the way back up your eyes.”
Lille was like a cat that had its tail trampled on, he fanatically bellowed in refute.
“In your dreams!”
Uzel earnestly replied.
“If you don’t hand it over, I’ll tell Zeus.”
Lille’s face sank.
“Without you, I can still finish off Seaman.”
Uzel scoffed coldly without the slightest fear.
“Without me, you are just a piece of trash, listen carefully, a piece of trash!”
Lille’s figure suddenly vanished, reappearing back behind Uzel on a faraway tree. With one thrust, he struck towards Uzel’s throat! Silver flashed out, but that dagger halted right in front of Uzel’s throat. The both then simultaneously glance towards Sheyan and Reef, a gaze identical to a cat catching a mouse. They burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.
“Just look at their lamentable looks of anticipation! They really think we are internal strifling idiots!”
“Oh woah, my acting is really high level, the ceiling at Broadway would’ve definitely crumbled from my resounding applause.”
“With our optimum partnership, why would we turn on each other over a stupid card? Hahahaha. Brother, take it.”
No hurries, you hold it first.”
“Eh, those two are rather dull. That woman from our previous encounter directly had a nervous breakdown, I still remember her pouring tears as she handed everything over.”
“……….”
“…………”
“Ok, no more jokes, let’s finish them.” Uzel suddenly turned solemn. “My MP is really running out.”
Lille displayed a victory ‘V’ gesture.
“Brother, just relax. I’ve been observing for long. That guy treads on a perceptive sense + Intelligence + Strength supporting path. I reckon he has outstanding equipment to prolong his life and defence. But weapon wise…….hahah, that knucklers and shotgun is a white grade joke, his poverty is as loud as ringing bells. But his awareness is pretty excellent, at times he relies on his judgment to evade enemies. Slaying him……would just require 10 seconds!”
“10 seconds……..” Even under the influence of the neuro-interference and a splitting headache, Sheyan couldn’t help twitching his lips. Looking ahead, Lille had already started sprinting towards him. He shut his eyes, allowing the tranquil darkness to guide his senses.
Observing Sheyan’s behavior, Uzel’s expression changed slightly……at this moment, Sheyan was peacefully standing still with his clenched fist. His eyes shut, amidst the splitting headache, he could feel an impending danger approaching…….incoming from beneath my left foot?!?
“How can Lille submerge underground and attack me?” This question blazed through Sheyan’s mind. Instead, he followed his perceptive senses without hesitation; retracting his left foot as he retreated half a step. Lille’s sudden attack instantly landed on emptiness!
However, if Sheyan had opened his eyes, Lille’s movement was clearly aiming for his right arm. Sheyan’s just retracted back his left foot, before a series of optical feedbacks displayed that it was his right arm that shrank back an inch!
“I got it! Under this powerful neuro-interference state, that Uzel can not only conjure up illusions, but also mislead the brain sensors within a short span. For example, my brain mistook my right arm as my left foot! If I had hesitated, i would’ve been stabbed……a reserve-duty Growth-hunter, is actually powerful to this extent?”
“Dammit!” The illusion master Uzel cursed in his heart. The enemies he hated the most were contestants on the same path of intelligence and spirit. To them, illusions were easy to see through. Next, he didn’t like facing off with high perceptive sensing enemies, their perceptive sense supplied warning to directly bypass the trickery of his illusions.
Following that, Lille consecutively struck out 3 times, but were all blocked or evaded by Sheyan without an exception….one must understand, with the enhancement of his gene-mix, Sheyan’s agility had soared to 32 points. Moreover, he had the warning of his perceptive sense. Besides, Lille hadn’t entered his awakened Growth-hunter state, it was obviously he couldn’t suppress Sheyan totally with his speed.
But at this moment, Uzel snorted scornfully. Pointing menacingly towards Sheyan, as lightning curled up on his fingertips instantly; then, an indescribably glaring lightning zapped towards Sheyan. Like a whip, it bolted towards Sheyan.
Sheyan had just sensed an immense threat, but the lightning had reached his front; even blocking was impossible! Seizing this golden opportunity, Lille pounced forward like a leopard; twin silver daggers hovering through the sky, circling and finally forming his ‘Inferno 十 punishment’, before exploding forth at Sheyan!
Sheyan crashed heavily to the ground, rolling several times before his back slammed against a tree, halting his inertia. He panted heavily as he felt his chest churning and a fishy taste in his mouth, unsure if it was the taste of blood or just soil. At this point, the scenery was skippy and distorted in his vision, but laced with a layer of faint blood red; a sign that the vessels of his retina had ruptured.
At this instant, that splitting headache and blurry effects pulsated in reluctance, and finally disappeared thoroughly. Sheyan could now view a magnificently clear scenery; immediately understanding the Uzel had probably exhausted his MP, and could no longer support that horrific neuro-interference state. That boundary breakthrough Uzel wouldn’t be able to conjure up that state again within a short duration.
Sheyan quickly affirmed his current state. Although he had suffered the full on assault of the enemies, but……but his mighty 800 HP was still left with a full 533 HP.
Most importantly, that gravest threat of the reserve-duty Growth-hunter Uzel wouldn’t pose a threat for a while. A dried out MP to a support magician contestant was akin to a gun without bullets, a tiger without claws. Although he still had that lethal pistol, while it could pose a definite threat to Mogensha or Jin Ximin; to Sheyan, that wasn’t a very big problem.
Wiping away the blood smearing his lips, Sheyan slowly stood up. The Lille ahead stretched both hands out, his silver daggers dancing amidst his fingers, exposing a cold glint identical to a beast’s ivory fangs. From behind him, an identical Lille stepped out, coldly gazing at Sheyan. This strange happening persisted 5 times, 5 identical Lille with his savage daggers stood motionlessly as they stared deathly into Sheyan.
“Oh, seems like Uzel’s illusion conjuring ability is still in effect.”
“Although I can try dealing with Lille relying on my perceptive sense, but 5 illusions can definitely obscure my pursuing vision.”
“Since that’s the case….hmph hmph. Though this partnership appears flawless, its greatest loophole is its inability to deal with high spirit or intelligence contestant right? If those two commanding women Zi and the Metals Professor were here, breaking through the illusions would be simple.”
“I see 5 illusions that are imitated to perfection. But in those women eyes, it would probably be 1 Lille dragging along 4 strips of junk.”
“But this isn’t important. Although my spirit and intelligence are garbage, but since the battle started, oh, wrong. Accurately speaking, 5 minutes after the battle begun, your second slippery loophole had already been laid bare in my eyes……”
“Big boss Reef, Golden AK! Don’t worry, I’ll definitely not give up, I’ll definitely rescue you guys!”
Sheyan suddenly bellowed out in a furious righteousness; his tone carrying an honest intonation and unswerving determination. Just hearing it would cause one to brim with tears of excitement, and burn with determined anger. Even after Lille and Uzel had heard it, they couldn’t help feeling his loyalty scaling to the clouds; that even in death, he wouldn’t abandon his comrades.