Editor: Junyans
The light suddenly dimmed. It was only when the sunlight disappeared, that one could realize how bright the cave actually was.
For a while, the cave’s hue turned into the greenish white of a CFL. The surroundings transformed from a cave full of natural beauty into an oppressive underground artificial structure.
Under this darkness, the misshapen bodies in countless sealed jars stood out in an eye-catching manner, reflecting the light, showcasing nightmarish white bodies that were soulless, hideous, and deadly silent. Their silence was the silent mourning for death. It looked as if their master had punished them by confining them forever in glass vessels as slaves on display.
At that moment, the players heard a low growl coming from the darkness in front of them, trailing off into a long, disconsolate whimper.
Everyone’s hand on their guns tightened a little, but they didn’t move; they were all waiting.
The roar did not stop; instead it slowly scooted closer towards them. The sound was coming from a lower point, so the thing was either very short or crawling.
The players added up to less than twenty people. Half of them quickly moved to their defensive positions, while others searched for the transmission tower as fast as they could. The way things were going, it should be somewhere in the northwest area of the hall, but that place was just a large junkyard, littered with the remains of machines and creatures.
When released into such a bleak space—a place prepared for death and suffering—these men were as silent as stones thrown into a dark river.
A swollen body of a mutant creature was soaked in a vessel behind Bai Jingan’s head, looking as if it were standing there. He couldn’t help but turn his head to take one more look. Its mouth was wide open, exposing its sharp teeth and severely burned mouth, along with a destroyed esophagus. Most of the corpses here were mutilated in one way or another.
Bai Jingan suddenly said, “This won’t do. We have to do something.”
Several people next to him turned around to look at him.
Xia Tian was staring in a daze at a corpse that resembled a fighting dog in the Lower City, when he also turned to look at Bai Jingan. The two exchanged looks, swift and intense gazes filled with the scent of gunpowder and death.
Both of them know what to do next. In this nightmarish place, they only needed that swift exchange of glances to understand each other.
Xia Tian nodded and said, “Then let’s make more trouble.”
“How?” Eric asked.
Bai Jingan ripped off a metal hose next to him. There was black oily liquid left in it, which smelled pungent.
He said, “By blowing everything up.”
The Killing Show had entered the fourth round, keeping almost all of the top experts in violence in the Upper City.
Fei Yu gave a “hmm,” while Eric whistled.
After a few quick conversations, the group agreed that “blowing everything up” was a great idea and immediately started scavenging for anything they could use.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
After going wild in the wee hours that day, they didn’t have too many weapons left in their hands. Xia Tian had even squandered all the incendiary weapons. But it didn’t matter. They could always “use local materials.”
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Bai Jingan found a welding torch and tossed it to Xia Tian, who caught it skillfully.
Fei Yu’s team went to study the closed jars and found that they were locked from the inside and could not be opened at all. Obviously, Mr. Shi wanted his mutated pets to stay in the jars forever.
“Damn, living and dying inside such a disgusting yet sturdy place. It’s going to be difficult to dispose of them,” said a sniper.
“Just pile them up and burn them. This thing shouldn’t be too hard to burn,” Fei Yu said.
“How to pile them up and burn them? These jars are strong, so a concussion gun won’t put a dent on them.”
“That one can,” Mo An said, lifting his chin toward Xia Tian.
Xia Tian pointed the rocket launcher at the northwest area and welded a base for a makeshift artillery platform.
He was welding the second screw in place when he caught a whiff of that smell, the smell of rotten things that belonged to the darkness… Without hesitation, he tossed the welding gun aside, turned around, and fired a shot.
He turned to see what the bullet had hit and was greeted with the sight of a horrible macabre creature that could send cold shivers down one’s spine.
Such creatures were crawling out from the darkness behind them. They were more retrograded than those in the previous ambush attack. A long tail was trailing behind them, and they were staring at the players with round, unblinking eyes. They looked like fishes walking on all fours.
Even in the embrace of death, their lifeless remains found no respite. They had turned into a mound of pallid, shredded flesh, with a faint crimson blood, as if lacking a tangible form. They belonged solely to the obsidian depths of a sinister game. They belonged to the darkness of shadows and water. From the moment they were created, they were forever confined; it was their punishment.
The first few monsters leapt up and lunged at Xia Tian. With his back against the makeshift artillery platform, Xia Tian fired in quick succession.
These things moved very fast. Xia Tian fired four shots in a row, hitting the first one before it even had time to launch itself towards him. The last shot had just sounded when the fourth one’s teeth were almost on his face.
But his hand was steady, and his eyes were gelid, reflecting the light of the gunfire and the infernal scene in front of him.
The monsters were clambering out of the abyss at the end of the cave. “Abyss” was what it felt like, even though they knew that there was no abyss in the Upper City.
It wasn’t any abyss, however, but a vast underground river they were coming from, its extent veiled in obscurity. The deep waters lay dark and tranquil, with the muzzle flash casting its feeble glow over a limited expanse. Confronted by the immense void of darkness, this light resembled a flickering candle in the wind.
Through the dim light of the gunfire, Xia Tian saw countless white inhabitants of the abyss swimming up to the surface.
He stared at the horrifying sight with an expressionless face. He touched the other gun with his free hand and shouted to the back, “A few people need to come forward!”
Behind Xia Tian, the players were engaged in fire with another group of monsters.
A series of intense gunshots echoed, accompanied by commands and curses. To Xia Tian, it sounded like no one was coming for a while. He grabbed a musket and hurled it forward along with an oil can.
When the parabola reached its apex, he hit it with one shot. The musket ignited the oil, and the metal can exploded with a “bang.”
A rain of fire came down. The monsters retreated a little in all directions, but the flames were gone in a flash. Xia Tian went back to the ammunition bag to find out what else was inside, and his hands came upon a multi-purpose energy gun and a disposable encapsulation device.
He opened the safety off with one hand. At the same time, a white specter rushed forward and clawed at him, its claws penetrating deep to the bone.
Blood jetted down half of his face, and at that moment he could clearly see the monster’s irises, which was a turbid, feverish yellow. Xia Tian looked directly at those eyes filled with madness and pain, put the barrel of the gun against its mouth, and pulled the trigger.
A powerful repulsive force erupted from the gun barrel. The monster fell in large pieces to the ground. Xia Tian could see them twitching, as if swept away by a vicious broom. It could only roll around and screech in pain.
All encapsulation nets had built-in punishment measures. In the words of the Upper City: “Proper pain helps clear the mind.” He knew pain; people like them knew.
By the time Bai Jingan’s bullet grazed the top of his hair and exploded a monster’s head, Xia Tian had repelled three attacks alone.
Seeing reinforcements coming, Xia Tian dropped another scrapped gun barrel, rushed to the side of the makeshift artillery platform, grabbed the scattered screws, and continued to build the artillery platform.
The sound of breaking flesh and blood continued, getting more and more faster and closer to his ears. This place had become a new battlefield.
He screwed the screws in and welded them tight as fast as he could. There were a lot of tragic scenes all around him, and the cameras must be crazy busy right now.
While Xia Tian was tightening another screw, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He tossed the welding torch aside and shot a white specter that was about to bite into Eric’s throat, sending it flying sideways. Eric quickly fired, taking out two more, and was immediately involved in another round of battle.
Xia Tian wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, stood up, looked around, grabbed one of the relatively rookie guys—not exactly rookie, it was just that two of his three shots missed—pointed at the makeshift artillery platform, and said, “Get it done.”
Then he dashed into the fray without stopping.
When things started, Wei Xi had followed Eric, and he had an unrealistic feeling that the monsters were especially targeting them.
A monster dragged Eric down, and at the last moment, the man pushed Wei Xi to stand under one of the stronger light sources.
Wei Xi rushed toward him as another monster bit Eric’s right arm. Eric, who was holding his gun in his left hand, blew its head off, but a third had already pounced in front of him.
Xia Tian fired a shot from far away, and the impact made the monster tumble to the ground. Eric staggered to his feet, shot it in the head, and quickly raised his hand to finish off the monster biting his wrist.
Wei Xi stood at a complete loss. He didn’t find a chance to shoot; everything was too fast.
Clutching his weapon, he continued to monitor the signal strength. The data in the corner of his contact lens kept beating, demanding his undivided attention. When he redirected his gaze to the battlefield after just a few minutes, an endless hellish scene confronted him.
To his right, a white specter with a huge head was chewing up a fighter’s head. He saw his legs twitching; the pain must be extremely unbearable.
His comrade was busy with another fight, but still shot the monster with all his might. It collapsed and convulsed, but another one quickly rushed forward to continue the feast.
At the last moment, Wei Xi saw the man groping for something. It was hard to believe that he was still stubbornly unwilling to die. His hands fell upon an energy gun soaked in blood. He raised the barrel and fired one last shot.
Wei Xi watched all this with a shudder. There was no trace of the fairyland-like atmosphere that had been present just a few minutes ago. Right now, it was a dark banquet hall for monsters. There were deaths everywhere, interwoven with gunshots and a struggle to not give up until the end.
Someone was yelling, “Wei Xi!”
Wei Xi turned his head to look, and it took him two seconds to realize it was Eric. The man, half-bloodied, was rushing toward him, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Wei Xi turned around and looked up.
The thing was lying above his head at a diagonal. All he could see in that instant was a large piece of dirty white, resembling a giant spider. The moment Wei Xi looked up, it swooped down towards him.
Without a second thought, Wei Xi fired a shot in that direction. The gun Xia Tian had given him was of such a large caliber that the moment it was fired, the recoil made Wei Xi fall to the ground and his arm hurt badly.
But it worked—in Xia Tian’s words: “A bigger caliber always works.” Blood and flesh rained down, and the monster’s body fell to the ground. Wei Xi struggled to get up, and before he could feel the joy of killing the monster alone, someone grabbed him by the collar and dragged him violently backwards.
The next second, a huge pincer hit the place where he had just fallen.
Only then did he notice that it was Xia Tian who had yanked him. Then the man sprang in front of him and fired two shots at the lunging monster, hitting it squarely in the head and shattering half of its body—
Then the man turned around abruptly, grabbed Wei Xi’s collar, and pulled him to the right. In the next instant, Xia Tian’s gunfire grazed his face and shot out. Wei Xi felt the burn and blood splashing up the back of his neck. Another monster had kicked the bucket.
Xia Tian helped him up to his feet, then suddenly looked up ahead, and his body tensed instantly. Wei Xi followed his eyes and froze in place.
Xia Tian pushed him toward the crowd next to Eric, who quickly dragged him behind himself, as if afraid to lose him again.
Wei Xi looked over Eric’s shoulder and saw Xia Tian dart toward that direction without a trace of irresoluteness.
The monster was probably more than three meters tall.
It sallied out on all fours from the darkness of the countless corpses and laboratory glasswares. It was human-like in form, with oblique 3D patterns of its back.
Wei Xi saw these patterns open and erect one by one, as if huge flesh-colored wings were growing out of the monster’s back… Those were countless interconnected flesh-colored tentacles..
It crawled out of the garbage, looking like a dirty, deformed angel, flapping its flesh-colored tentacle-filled wing-like things crazily, caught in rabidity and hunger.
It attacked everything crazily, waving its tentacles. Its thickness seemed to be very high, and the gunfire almost left no trace.
It was the kind of thing you wouldn’t even dream of in a nightmare. It was hard for Wei Xi to imagine the mindset of those people who had designed it and let it climb out of the test tube.
He saw that several fighters beside him quickly exchanged several gestures and simply and swiftly carried out the division of labor.
Despite knowing that most of them weren’t going to survive, they were going to fight against the horrendous monster.
It was the start of a new battle.
Maybe it’s time to use the rocket launcher
Thanks for the chapter