The "Titan" Awakens!

Fang Chang: "Calm down first. Think carefully—what exactly happened back then?" Luo Yu: "I honestly don't know. The nuke went off and I was wiped out instantly. QAQ" Ye Shi: "What about before the nuke detonated?" Luo Yu: "...It felt like I triggered a cutscene, but right after it started, the nuclear blast cut it short. Damn it! If only it'd been a few minutes later—I didn't even get to ask what the price was!" Fang Chang: "A cutscene? What cutscene? And what's this about a price?" Luo Yu: "A mutant slime mold matrix... Oh right, and an old freak who's lived for over a century. He's the author of that book, *Oasis Beneath the Zhuobar Mountains*, a researcher from the Academy." Fang Chang: "Holy shit!" Ye Shi: "Holy shit??" Luo Yu: "Uh... does that have anything to do with the bug? Didn't the devs say I got bugged out by the nuke? (embarrassed)" Fang Chang: "Not necessarily. Play enough games and you'd know—sometimes the devs don't even know where their own bugs come from." Ye Shi: "+1. If they really can't figure it out, pulling out the nuclear option and rolling back the servers three days isn't out of the question either. (funny face)" Luo Yu: "Holy crap, no way, right?" Fang Chang: "Hard to say. (smirk)" Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes: "By the way, who's going to warn them? There's a matrix in Lost Valley... wait, is it a broodmother or a matrix? To this day, I still can't tell the difference between the two." Kuang Feng: "Where's Mosquito? Didn't he take a quest?" Lao Bai: "...He didn't reply to my message. He probably logged in." Luo Yu: "It couldn't still be alive, right? Bro, that's a megaton-yield nuclear bomb! What carbon-based lifeform could tank that?" Elaina: "Tch, what's a megaton yield in this game? Qingquan City has seen all kinds of crazy shit. Did you see the broodmother there back down? (funny face)" Luo Yu: "(nervous)" *** Lost Valley. At the mountain pass leading into the valley, several collapsed boulders blocked their path. Leaping down from the truck, Sisi, clad in a hazmat suit, walked to the middle of the road and pushed against the rock in front of her, only to find it didn't budge in the slightest. At the same time, the moment she drew near the area, the Geiger counter on her VM began ticking rapidly, the radiation readings spiking sharply. The radioactive fallout left by a three-phase bomb was no joke. In reality, taking two more steps inward would mean certain death. Fortunately, this was a game. Before donning their hazmat suits, everyone had already injected anti-radiation drugs. Rou Rou, with her massive frame, had even taken two doses. "It was probably blown over from the blast center... Clearing this out will take quite a while." Stepping back from the boulders blocking the road, Sisi looked back at the others on the truck. "I suggest we proceed on foot." "No choice then." Brother Mole nodded and hopped off the truck, with Mosquito following close behind. The party totaled six people and one bear. Besides the players, there was also a local guide from Petra Fortress. With a steel helmet perched on her head and an entrenching tool and shovel slung over her shoulders, Tail asked eagerly, "Ooh! Where do we start searching?" "No idea," Rou Rou said, scratching the back of her head. "By the way, do we have specific coordinates?" Mosquito swiped repeatedly across his VM screen, an awkward expression plastered on his face. "Uh... nope. The coordinates from the Administrator seem to be just a rough area." Brother Mole couldn't help turning around to ask, "Meaning the entire Great Rift Valley is a possibility?" Mosquito scratched his head. "Probably." Brother Mole: "..." A standard river valley basin had a radius of ten kilometers, which meant an area of nearly 314 square kilometers! Where the hell were they supposed to find anything across such vast terrain? If not for that nuclear blast, it wouldn't have been so bad. As a vital sign monitor, the VM could broadcast its own encrypted coordinates, which were shared among players. But after taking a direct nuclear strike, it would be a miracle if that function still worked! "Actually, it's not like we have no clues at all." Cupping her chin in thought, Sisi spoke up. "Assuming any remains survived, the shockwave of the nuclear blast would have pushed surface debris outward toward the valley walls. So in reality, we don't need to head deep into the valley—we just need to search along its outer perimeter." "Good point!" Brother Mole's eyes lit up, and he immediately added, "Brother Luo Yu was flying in from south to north, so the wreckage most likely landed on either the south or north side of the valley center!" Sisi nodded solemnly. "More precisely, the north side. I caught a rough glimpse earlier of where the plane came down." With that, she turned to the guide who had accompanied them. "Could you please wait for us here?" The guide hesitated. Before they set off, the city lord had specifically instructed him that the Alliance was an ally of the Hump Kingdom, and that he had to ensure the safety of these distinguished guests at all costs. "But..." "To be blunt, the situation inside might be far more complicated than we imagined. If you come along, you'll probably only end up being a burden." Hearing her put it so directly, the guide no longer insisted and gave a nod. Having heard all the legends about Lost Valley, he certainly had no desire to get close to this godforsaken place anyway. "Be careful... This place is cursed. Traveling merchants passing by in the dead of night have heard evil spirits wailing inside." Sisi nodded and chambered a round in her submachine gun. "Understood." The group scrambled over the rubble barricade, entered the valley, and began searching for the crash site along the inner cliff walls. The shockwave from the nuclear explosion had utterly reshaped the terrain. Sisi was astonished to find that the area was completely unrecognizable compared to when she had come before. "Damn... is that the bomb crater over there?" Mosquito held up binoculars, peering toward the center of the valley at the terrifying crater stamped into the earth. Tail: "Whoa! The explosion was so spectacular! Tail even recorded a video!" Mosquito: "!! Let me see, let me see!" As they were whispering among themselves, a raspy, low growl drifted from ahead. Leading the way, Brother Mole halted in his tracks and raised his LD-50, aiming forward. "...A gnawer?" Sisi frowned. "Doesn't look like one... I've never seen this kind of monster in Qingquan City." Vigilance flickered across Brother Mole's face as he drew a flare gun and fired a shot into the sky. A fiery-red flare soared into the air, deploying a parachute overhead. The wine-red light illuminated the entire area, laying bare the creatures lurking in the dark. There were four humanoid beings crouching on all fours, their heads sunk into their shoulders, their sharp teeth jagged like shark serrations, and pairs of scarlet pupils radiating a chilling glow. The telltale red fungal patches gave away their identity. Without a doubt, they were fruiting bodies of the slime mold! "Fire!" The moment targets were confirmed, Brother Mole pulled the trigger without hesitation, spitting a blazing tongue of fire from his muzzle. Except for Rou Rou, who couldn't handle firearms, the four players opened fire simultaneously. Orange-yellow tracer rounds instantly spun a web of death across the pitch-black valley. *Hiss—!* The quadrupedal mutants let out shrill shrieks. Dodging a volley of gunfire, they kicked up a blast of dust beneath them and charged forward like cannonballs. *So fast!* Brother Mole was taken aback. Emptying his magazine, he immediately drew the entrenching tool at his waist and slashed forward. In the blink of an eye, the sharp edge of the shovel slammed into the mutant's forehead. Yet instead of cleaving off half its head, it let out a sharp metallic *clang*, as if striking solid stone. The mutant snarled, raising both front claws and snapping them inward like a giant pair of shears. Every hair on Brother Mole's body stood on end. He threw himself backward, barely evading the lethal blow. Thank goodness he was already Sequence Stage 3 and had completed his Second Awakening! Otherwise, that single strike would have been enough to send him straight back to his spawn point thousands of kilometers away. "Everyone watch out! This thing is freaky—" Roaring as he retreated, Brother Mole hurled his entrenching tool, striking the creature squarely in the head. Halting its rush, he whipped out the shotgun slung across his back. *Bang—!* A thick tongue of flame burst forth. Massive kinetic energy shattered the skull, and violent lead shot ripped straight into the mutant's forehead, sending its body recoiling backward. With their starter village located on the northern outskirts of Qingquan City, the players had accumulated abundant combat experience against mutants and knew this creature wouldn't go down so easily. Brother Mole didn't stop. He pumped the trigger three more times in rapid succession, ceasing fire only when the mutant had been blown into ragged pieces that could no longer form a complete corpse. On the other side, Sesame Paste, Tail, and Sisi were also forced into close combat after emptying their first volleys. The small-caliber pellets of magnetic slingshots were completely ineffective against the mutants. Emptying her magazine, Sisi swiftly drew two daggers strapped to her thighs, crossing them just in time to block a front claw slamming down at her. *Clang—!* The lightning-fast clash rang out like cold steel striking cold steel. "Ugh—" The immense shock and tearing sensation across the webbing of her thumbs forced a stifled groan from her lips, a trace of shock breaking her calm composure. *This strength—* *It's even stronger than a Crawler!?* It was common knowledge that even a formidable Awakened needed the tools of civilization to contend with mutants whose physical strength broke standard scales. Engaging a monster that combined such brute strength and speed in close quarters was clearly an unwise choice. Sisi rapidly opened up distance, her mind racing to formulate a countermeasure, but Tail was a step ahead of her. "Ohoho!" A half-meter-long bayonet flashed with cold light, thrusting fiercely toward the head sunken into the creature's shoulders. The strike missed the skull, sinking instead into the creature's collarbone. The monster let out a raspy screech, violently swinging its front claw forward. Right then, a thunderous bestial roar erupted from the side. *Roar—!* A bear paw studded with steel spikes slammed down like a roaring locomotive, swatting the monster squarely across the forehead with a resounding *smack*. The hardened skull burst open instantly, dark-green sludge splattering everywhere. Rou Rou took fright, hastily jumping back a step. As it turned out, her instinct was spot on. The dark-green fluid sizzled as it splashed on the ground, sending up wisps of white smoke. "Ooh! Nicely done, Rou Rou!" Tail gave a delighted thumbs-up, and Sesame Paste looked over in surprise as well. "Eep, what is this stuff?" Staring at her faintly scorched claws, Rou Rou's eyes widened in bewilderment. Sisi narrowed her eyes. "Corrosive blood..." *Trifluoromethanesulfonic acid?* *Or some unknown organic superacid?* With redox reactions this violent in its bloodstream, it was most likely not a purely organic organism. No wonder it had felt so bizarre when her dagger struck it earlier, and an entire submachine gun magazine had only stripped a layer of skin. This creature might very well be partially made of stone. Standing atop a nearby ridge and looking down at the group below, White Pigeon smiled faintly. "Splendid." He glanced up at the slowly descending flare, a flicker of irritation rising in his pupils. *Light...* *How repulsive.* Although illumination wouldn't substantially weaken his combat prowess, the slime mold's instinctual aversion to light still provoked physiological discomfort in him. After all, the symbiotic slime mold was an integral part of his body. Furthermore, the heat of the light would evaporate what little moisture remained. That was precisely why he had built his laboratory deep inside the caves. Speaking of which, why did these people insist on barging into his laboratory again and again? Didn't they have their own business to attend to? If they had merely been digging a trench, he could have turned a blind eye and pretended not to notice. Regardless, that nuclear bomb was simply crossing the line. White Pigeon's smile gradually cooled. It seemed four "Xiao Hei" units weren't enough. Then... How about this? A faint curve crept onto his rotting lips, and he snapped his fingers. The gesture was entirely superfluous, but he felt it had flair. The moment the snap sounded, his vocal cords emitted acoustic waves exceeding thirty thousand hertz, rippling outward in expanding rings. The sound was far beyond the threshold of human hearing, but it was just right for the "apostles" who answered his command. One after another, slumbering fruiting bodies were roused. Though most had perished in the nuclear blast, those that survived were undeniably the most formidable of the lot. Such as the "evolved organisms" living in symbiosis with stone! The crystallization born of his "intellect" and Xiao Hong's "vitality"—the "Xiao Hei"! Possessing obsidian-like hides and fused with the remains of marauders, these evolved organisms combined the speed of Crawlers with the defense of Tyrants, gliding across the terrain like low-flying tanks. That nuclear bomb had made him change his mind. He no longer intended to share this ruin with the outside world. If these people insisted on staying here... Then they could stay forever. At the foot of the ridge, Brother Mole suddenly scanned their surroundings with mounting dread. "I might not be Perception-type... but I've got a bad feeling about this." Dark shadows scurried beneath the distant ridges. More mutants appeared to be closing in. Beside him, Mosquito swallowed hard, warily peering around as well. "...Yours truly feels it too." Sesame Paste abruptly clutched her ears and dropped into a crouch, a fleeting grimace of pain flashing across her face. Seeing this, Tail darted to her side at once, crouching down with concern. "Giao! What's wrong?! Are you hurt?!" The pain lasted only a split second. Sesame Paste released her ears in confusion and, supported by Ah Wei, slowly rose to her feet. "Such a piercing sound... I think my ears are ringing... Sorry, what did you just say?" Her excessive pain sensations had been masked by the game system, but the abnormal status effect lingered. Sisi frowned, placing a hand just below Sesame Paste's ear and raising her voice. "Cats can hear sound waves between thirty hertz and forty-five thousand hertz, sometimes even up to seventy thousand... Can you pinpoint the general direction of the sound?" "I'll try..." Sesame Paste shut her eyes and focused her consciousness on her hearing, searching for the source of the frequency. Before long, her eyes snapped open. Her gaze locked onto the adjacent ridge, her amber pupils narrowing slightly. "Over there!" Following her gaze, the others clicked on their flashlights. There, striking a thoroughly ostentatious pose on the ridge, stood a gnawer looking down at them with scarlet eyes. One look was enough to tell he was up to no good. "Motherfucker... a summoner build?" Mosquito cursed under his breath, unhooking a mechanical crossbow from his back. Catching sight of the primitive weapon, White Pigeon chuckled. "Heh, such childish tricks won't work on me." He watched the man squeeze the trigger, not even bothering to dodge. Just as he had anticipated, the bolt failed to hit him, whizzing past his ear instead. Assuming the people below had exhausted their tricks, he was just about to taunt them and convince them to back off when an explosive roar detonated right behind him. A massive, scorching shockwave laced with shrapnel slammed violently into his back. Caught entirely unprepared, he pitched forward headfirst and tumbled off the ridge. "Hehehe, art is an explosion!" Watching the gnawer tumble down the hill, Mosquito let out a wicked laugh, slotted another bolt into the mechanical crossbow, and cranked the windlass. *Little punk.* *You're still too green to play games with me!* "Pin that guy down!" Refusing to let the opening slip, Brother Mole shouted, charging ahead with his shotgun ready. Right then, an earth-shattering tremor rumbled from beneath their feet. Accompanying it came a piercing, prolonged wail. *Eee-woo—* The sound was drawn-out and delicate, resembling the mournful piping of a Qiang flute, carrying an ethereal trace of murderous intent. At the same time, the whistling screech of tearing air plummeted from above. There was no time to think! The instant the blur streaking down from the sky entered the corner of his vision, Brother Mole instinctively dove to the right, executing a roll to dodge the afterimage hurtling straight toward him. The shadow crashed into the earth like an artillery shell, smashing the ground to rubble and instantly erupting into a plume of shattered stone and billowing dust. Staggering back to his feet, Brother Mole covered his mouth and nose, retreating two swift steps while raising his shotgun. The dust cleared. When he got a clear look at the figure standing before him, his eyes went wide, and his muzzle involuntarily dipped an inch. "Luo Yu?!" Holding his mechanical crossbow, Mosquito's eyes bugged out as well, and he blurted an expletive. "Holy shit?! Did you defect to the enemy?!" Luo Yu didn't answer. He simply stared blankly at them with hollow eyes, standing in place like a walking corpse. The earth-shaking vibrations didn't cease with the settling dust; if anything, they intensified. Sensing the tremors originating from behind, Sisi whipped around at once. The moment she laid eyes on the colossus, her face drained of color. Noticing the shift in her expression, Tail followed her gaze, her jaw dropping wide enough to swallow a goose egg. "Holy giao!" *A Gundam?!* No— That thing couldn't truly be called a Gundam; it wasn't even humanoid. A blocky chassis jutted forward, its angular frame resembling an upright handgun. The rust-mottled barrel was overgrown with red fungal plaques, completely obscuring its original livery. It lacked a head—or rather, its head was buried inside its torso. Thick mechanical forelegs braced against the rim of the bomb crater, hoisting its cumbersome bulk upward, while its sturdy hind legs rested atop heavily rusted tracks, one foot already stepping outside the nuclear crater. The creature was practically a walking land cruiser! Far more than the "Pioneer," this was a true fortress built solely for war! Even Rou Rou's burly physique looked as puny as an ant before it. What kind of monster could possibly defeat such a thing? No— What kind of monster was even worthy of having this machine deployed against it? Mosquito swallowed hard, muttering in a daze, "Is that thing... the 'Titan'?" *This model...* *It's freaking incredible!* Standing by the valley entrance, the guide witnessed the scene as well. From the moment the tremor began, sheer terror had seized his face. "Spirit of the Sand Sea above..." His shoulders trembled, an overpowering urge driving him to kneel and pray. *The God of the Sky...* *Has returned to life!?* Utterly at a loss, he had no idea what to do, nor whether this was an auspicious omen or a harbinger of doom. Either way, challenging a god with mortal strength was plainly folly. He hopped onto his motorcycle, kicked the engine to life, twisted the throttle to maximum, and tore desperately toward the west. He had to bring this news back to Petra Fortress! Only the kingdom's most devout High Priest stood any chance of saving these poor souls! Meanwhile, the players inside the valley were trapped in an unprecedented crisis. In front of them stood "Luo Yu," behind them loomed the slime-mold-infested "Titan," and encircling them was a pack of neckless Crawlers whose names they didn't even know. Pairs of scarlet pupils radiated killing intent, forcing the encircled party to swallow nervously. No one doubted that the moment these monsters charged, they would tear the party to shreds within a single exchange, leaving not even a scrap of bone behind within three. "...If I'd known, I would've driven the tank here," Brother Mole muttered, taking a tense step backward. Mosquito let out a helpless chuckle. "A tank? Bro, even if you rode the Administrator in here, we'd still be screwed..." To say nothing of the rest—what could possibly kill that Titan climbing out of the nuclear crater behind them? That monstrosity had tanked the damage of a megaton-yield warhead! And at ground zero, no less... Staggering up from the ground, the "gnawer" shook his head, patted the dust from his body, and under a dozen stunned stares, suddenly spoke in human tongue. "Let's put all our cards on the table. I'll give you one last chance: go back to wherever you came from." "From now on, the ruins of Oasis No. 7 are closed to outsiders. If I catch sight of you again, I'll deal with you as marauders... By the way, some of the components on those Xiao Hei units were salvaged from marauders." "Care to test that?" A suffocating aura of dread hung over everyone's heads. While death wasn't terrifying in itself, it didn't mean death carried no cost. Staring directly into those scarlet pupils, Tail gritted her teeth and shouted with forced bravado, "You captured our friend! We can't just leave him behind!" "Friend?" White Pigeon looked at the loud little girl in surprise, then cast a peculiar glance at the motionless Luo Yu standing before him. "You mean this fellow?" The young man clearly hadn't regained his senses. White Pigeon presumed Xiao Hong had hurled him out out of concern for his safety. Seeing no response from the "gnawer," Mosquito raised his raspy duck-voice and bellowed, "That's right! Give Luo Yu back to us, and we swear we'll pull out of here!" Brother Mole cast a side glance at him, thinking that if Luo Yu knew he'd become this "badass," he'd probably be the first to refuse to go back with them. Still— He naturally supported Mosquito. Leaving aside the Administrator's quest, this difficulty scaling was absurdly bugged. They were all Agility-types—why was a Stage 2 creature faster than his Stage 3? Did that make any scientific sense? Obviously not! Those damn devs had to fix this bug! Meanwhile, Sisi turned to Sesame Paste and lowered her voice. "Prepare for battle..." Sesame Paste looked back anxiously. "Can we... really beat him?" Sisi analyzed coolly, "Those slime molds should be answering to his commands, like the 'summoner' Mosquito mentioned. As long as we pin him down, we can make the other mutants hesitate to strike." She didn't believe for a second that this shady character would release Luo Yu over a few harmless lines of talk-no-jutsu, let alone let them walk away unharmed. Logically speaking, silencing them was the optimal choice; it would protect secrets and serve as a deterrent to others. Despite the staggering disparity in strength, this boss fight was almost certainly unavoidable. White Pigeon stroked his chin, seemingly giving the matter serious thought. Just as Sisi braced to make her move, the creature's reaction caught everyone completely off guard. He nodded, readily agreeing to Tail's and Mosquito's demands. "Mmh... your request is reasonable enough. This young fellow is named Luo Yu, is that right?" "Since you know him, feel free to take him back." Tail's eyes sparkled with joy. "Ooh! Thanks, friend!" Hearing the word *friend*, a faint smile touched the rotting face. "You're welcome. Not all slime molds harbor malice... I know such notions cannot be changed overnight, but fortunately, I have ample time to wait, study, and prove it." "Take your companion and leave." "By the way, his brain being fried has nothing to do with me... If you want to blame something, blame that nuclear bomb." With that, he waved his hand. The piercing sound waves rippled outward once more. Sesame Paste instinctively covered her ears, her face twisting in pure agony. Under the direction of that sound, however, the "Titan" that had hauled itself out of the crater slowly sank back down, leaving only half its frame planted on the surface. The mutants encircling the players retreated as well, melting into the shadows at the base of the ridge. The threat of a total party wipe vanished in an instant. Brother Mole stared blankly at Sisi, who wore an equally dumbfounded expression. Both had fully braced for a boss fight. Brother Mole in particular— He had already loaded a buckshot round specifically designed for hunting colossal mutants into the chamber, intending to preemptively take down Luo Yu, who appeared to be under a "charm spell." Yet the turn of events defied all expectations. That "gnawer" had truly let them go. Was this... already a clear?