Let's Go to Hell Together!

Outside the gates of Hope Town. The caravan retainers loading and unloading cargo looked around nervously, unsettled by the thin mist suddenly drifting across the area. Both the town guards by the entrance and the mercenaries near the trucks tightened their grips on their rifles, keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings—especially the small forest to the north. The townsfolk exchanged glances, whispering in astonishment. "Mist?" "Why would there be fog in the afternoon?" "And that color..." "It doesn't look like ordinary fog. Could it be poison gas...?" "Is it those mutants?" Their speculation wasn't unfounded. After all, the mutants had attacked just a few days ago, only to suffer a defeat at the hands of the Alliance. The unease in the air quickly curdled into panic. People hurried into their homes; those with gas masks put them on, while those without soaked towels in water to cover their noses and mouths. A green-skinned half-breed stood in a street corner, a low hood concealing his furrowed brow as his right hand pressed against his chest. Half of the blood flowing through his veins belonged to the mutants. And right now, that part of his blood was churning with agitation... Outside the town hall. Ma Hechang stared blankly at the changes in the air and sky, anxiety written plainly across his fearful face as he muttered under his breath. "What on earth is going on?" Beside him, Wei Ming said nothing. The normally affable middle-aged priest seemed like a completely different person now, gazing expressionlessly at the sky. He appeared to have anticipated all of this, showing not the slightest hint of surprise. Ma Hechang's Adam's apple bobbed. Looking at him, he suddenly found the man unfamiliar, and an inexplicable unease crept into his heart. His lips trembling, he ventured tentatively, "...Old Wei?" The priest pulled his gaze from the sky and spoke abruptly, almost to himself. "It is Lord Holy Son." Ma Hechang froze, panic surging through him as he asked in a rush, "What did Lord Holy Son say?" The priest replied slowly, "He said nothing." "He is simply angry." Ma Hechang's breath caught. "Angry..." He didn't recall doing anything to offend Lord Holy Son. No— If he had to name something, there was one thing. They had grown quite close to the Alliance recently, even letting those soldiers stay overnight in town. He had heard rumors that the Alliance and the Church had bad blood. If that was the reason, the Holy Son did have grounds for anger. Yet that had been an emergency! Those green-skinned beasts had pushed right to their front door. If the Alliance hadn't intervened, the townsfolk might have ended up in cooking pots by now. Were they supposed to surrender without resistance? And why? Torch had promised to bring them peace and prosperity. They had embraced the faith because they believed what the missionaries said, yet those green-skinned beasts still showed up at their doorstep. Who had betrayed whom? "The betrayal of the faithless has brought down his divine retribution. A green plague shall shroud the earth, and soon all will witness his boiling wrath..." After uttering those cryptic words in a low voice, Wei Ming turned to Mayor Ma, whose face was pale with bewilderment and terror, and added with profound meaning, "Send some men to Pinecone Wood Farm to see." "That is the fate of traitors." *** At Pinecone Wood Farm, deep within the center of the mist. Because most players had deployed around the settlement's perimeter to set up defenses, and the gathered survivors had drawn another portion of the remaining players to the manor's entrance, this unassuming building felt somewhat deserted. Only the northern entrance to the underground laboratory was heavily guarded. The moment a footprint pressed onto the floorboard, translucent ripples spread across the empty corridor, outlining the streamlined contours of an exoskeleton. A pitch-black visor covered the intruder's eyes. Like a machine carrying out orders, he wasted no breath on words, raising the muzzle of his weapon cleanly and decisively. The instant her eyes met the gun barrel, Yin Yin felt blood rush to her head, her brain short-circuiting into total blankness. Time seemed to freeze, each second stretching out indefinitely. There was no time to think. Purely on instinct, she pulled Xiao Yang tight against her chest, spun around violently, and shielded her with her own back. A searing pain tore through her back and punched out beneath her ribs, jolting her body forward so hard she nearly crashed to the ground. At the same instant, she heard the sharp crack of a gunshot. *Bang—!* Looking down, she saw her pretty clothes stained red with blood, and Xiao Yang staring up at her with wide eyes. Through her fading consciousness, she vaguely heard a heart-wrenching cry— "No—!" *Xiao Yang...* She wanted to speak, but only blood welled from her mouth. The figure seemed about to fire a follow-up shot, but for some reason mechanically lowered his weapon, drew a blood-stained dagger, and stepped toward her. Instinct told Yin Yin: His target wasn't her. *Right... come to think of it...* In the entire estate, Xiao Yang was the only one unaffected by the Na fruit. In a haze of realization, things began to click. If the Na fruit was so crucial to the Church of the Torch, they would never allow the Alliance to develop an antidote. It was only natural that they would target Xiao Yang. And after all, everyone had turned into monsters last night because of the Na fruit in the first place... Such a simple truth had been right in front of her, yet she had remained blind to it, even blaming her father's death on those outsiders and wishing they had never come. The seeds of this karma had been planted long ago, sown by their own hands. It would have ended this way whether those outsiders arrived or not. Her father had trusted those people so easily and handed everything over to them; that was why he died. And she was no different, believing in Lord Holy Son until the bitter end. And now, he had sent someone to kill her best friend. In the end, she was the sheep in the pen... "Run..." A scalding liquid rolled down her cheek—she couldn't tell if it was blood or tears of remorse. Gathering the last shred of her strength, she whispered those words into her friend's ear. Her tottering consciousness finally gave way. Her body pitched forward, plummeting into a bottomless abyss. Yet to her despair, the normally obedient and gentle Xiao Yang didn't run away. Instead, she remained, doing something utterly futile: desperately trying to wrap the girl's unstoppable wound with her own clothes. A human shadow fell over the two of them. Seeing the tip of a boot inches away, Xiao Yang froze. Pulling back her trembling hands, she turned toward him and dropped to her knees. "Please... don't hurt Yin Yin. Save her... I, I can die in her place..." The man said nothing. He was an Executioner of the Tribunal, code named "Mountain Falcon." Unlike the Executioner squads tasked with general defensive duties, he operated as a lone assassin rather than part of a special operations unit. His mission was to eliminate only one person: the antibody carrier who had survived the 03 frequency. If the bishop hadn't instructed him that the little girl named Yin Yin had a "Sanctuary" implanted in her brain and must be kept alive, he would have emptied a burst into both of them right away. Still... Why had the bishop bothered with such a superfluous request? There were plenty of Sanctuaries in this settlement. Was this one special? He didn't understand. Nor did he dwell on it. As the sword of the Church, his only duty was to follow the Forerunner's instructions and eliminate heretics who might obstruct the grand plan. In the face of civilization, one or two lives were utterly insignificant. Watching the hand reach toward her hair and the gleaming dagger drawn close, Xiao Yang's shoulders trembled uncontrollably, and she squeezed her eyes shut in terror. Yet the expected pain never arrived. A furious roar tore down the corridor along with the whistling shriek of parting air. Mountain Falcon's eyes narrowed in shock. Turning fluidly, he smashed his fist behind him, colliding squarely with the hurtling black shadow. The immense force exceeded his expectations, knocking him off balance and forcing him two steps back before he could catch himself. The instant he saw the face, he froze for half a second. He remembered this man. He distinctly remembered slitting this bastard's throat with his dagger alongside another guy in an exoskeleton. Yet for some reason, the corpse that should have been ice-cold was standing alive, the wound on his throat gone, replaced by a scarlet, centipede-shaped scar. The centipede scar didn't look like part of his body; it resembled a large piece of gauze glued to his neck, blood visibly seeping beneath a pulsating membrane of flesh. The man held a short blade in his right hand, parrying the assassin's thrust. With a savage grin, he spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto Mountain Falcon's helmet. "Motherfucker! Good thing I installed a biological prosthesis..." Earlier, both Kidney Fighter and Killing Dagger had equipped exoskeletons. Hao Gou had felt that wearing a useless hunk of iron like those two idiots was a waste, but leaving himself completely unaugmented felt lacking. So inspiration had struck: following Mosquito's lead, he went to Yu and got himself a biological prosthesis. Supposedly, it granted immunity to a single fatal blow and accelerated in-combat HP recovery, the only cost being an experience penalty. Thank god he'd installed it. Otherwise, that earlier stab straight through the neck would have sent him straight to respawn. Mountain Falcon had no idea what he was babbling about. Staring coldly at the cursing man, he snapped a vicious kick toward his chest, intending to create distance and draw his firearm to spray him down. Hao Gou took the kick to the chest with a muffled grunt, feeling as if a locomotive had slammed into his exoskeleton's breastplate, squeezing every bit of air from his lungs. Yet he refused to let the assassin get away. Locking the lower-limb joints of his Type 5 Light Cavalry exoskeleton, he weathered the kick, then lunged forward off both legs, wrapping his arms around the assassin's thigh to tackle him to the ground. Failing to create distance, Mountain Falcon was startled. Balancing his center of gravity, he drove his dagger down toward the man clinging to his right leg. The blade sank into an unarmored gap, burying itself two inches beneath Hao Gou's shoulder blade. While pain was dulled by the game settings, it still made him grimace fiercely. Seeing that he wouldn't let go, Mountain Falcon ruthlessly stabbed several more times, puncturing nearly every unarmored, non-vital area across his back. Hao Gou was a Perception-build player after all; his raw physical stats couldn't match his Strength- or Constitution-build brothers. His plan to trip the assassin had failed, and now blood was pouring down his back from who knew how many holes. "Fuck... playing for keeps, huh." Glancing at the little girl lying in a pool of blood, Hao Gou gritted his teeth and made up his mind. Using every ounce of strength he possessed, he twisted his body and threw himself toward the corridor window overlooking the courtyard. One life every three days anyway! If he didn't use it now, he'd regret it later! *Crash—!* The window glass shattered outward, raining down from the second floor into the courtyard with a crisp, bell-like clatter. The fierce racket of the struggle was more than enough to alert the other players near the annex; reinforcements would arrive soon. With a feral snarl, Hao Gou glared at the assassin who hadn't uttered a single word from start to finish. He threw his entire weight and strength into dragging the man out the window with him. "Then let's go together—!" Caught completely off guard, Mountain Falcon was hauled out the window. He hadn't imagined this suicidal lunatic would pull such a stunt, and stared at him in disbelief. Fortunately, his reflexes were lightning-fast. Reaching out, he caught the window frame with one hand, hanging outside the window while kicking violently with his left foot at the man clutching his right leg. A fall from this height wouldn't kill him. However, his mission was the antibody-carrying Xiao Yang. If he fell out here, his chance would be gone. Unable to shake off the man clinging to his leg, Mountain Falcon gritted his teeth, dropped the dagger, and reached for the fragmentation grenade on his belt—only to see a triumphant grin spread across the bruised face below him. "Go to hell with me!" Just moments ago, he had yanked the pin on the last plastic explosive strapped to his exoskeleton harness—keeping one final explosive was an old Burning Corps tradition. A wisp of blue smoke hissed from beneath his breastplate. Mountain Falcon's expression froze. Before his shock could turn into terror, a blinding flash and thick smoke swallowed them both. Windows all along the corridor shattered. Because the explosion occurred outside, the main shockwave didn't sweep into the hallway, but even so, Xiao Yang—who had just tried to scramble up to help—was knocked flat onto the floor. "Ugh—!" Ignoring the sharp pain that nearly brought tears to her eyes, Xiao Yang struggled up from the glass-strewn floor. She glanced terrified at the shattered window, then turned to Yin Yin lying in the pool of blood, biting her lip as she limped over. The horrifying smear of crimson left her with no hope for that one-in-a-million chance, but she still reached out a trembling finger to Yin Yin's lips... No breath. Her hand dropped. Her mind spun wildly, and her strength drained away as she slumped to the floor. Urgent footsteps echoed down the hall. She saw many people rushing toward her—the researcher sister who had drawn her blood, and others clad in exoskeletons. "Casualty here!" "Stop her bleeding, hurry!" "Holy crap... she's not breathing!" "Where's a healing stim?! Someone lend me one!" "Lend my ass, I've got one right here!" In a daze, she heard them shouting as they lifted Yin Yin from the sea of shattered glass and blood, sprinting toward the stairs. Chen Yutong crouched in front of her, wrapping her arms tightly around her shoulders, whispering something into her ear with a tearful choke. Without a single trace of joy at having survived, Xiao Yang felt her nose sting, and an overwhelming surge of grief poured from her eyes. She had never felt so heartbroken... *** Official website forums. Though Jinhe City, eight hundred kilometers from Dawn City, had descended into chaos, the forum back in the real world remained tranquil. Stop Bullshitting had found a new fishing spot north of Luoye City, where one could reel in swamp eels as thick as thighs, though it took quite a toll on one's stamina. Storm Corps had taken over the bandit-clearing duties from Jungle Corps, and Brother Spring was currently on the forum sharing his thoughts on northern mutant nests and jungle combat tactics. As for Big Eyes, who had gone missing in Sunset Province for quite some time, he had finally returned and was sharing travel notes—a different kind of walkthrough. Incidentally, the Wilantes stranded in Pioneer City had finally received the replacement parts sent from afar, repaired their airship, and embarked on their return journey. About to head to distant Triumph City, Battlefield Guy felt both anticipation and trepidation, wondering when he would finally return home in glory under his Pangolin persona. All in all, the players' daily routines were cheerful and leisurely. Having logged off early, Ye Shi reported the situation in the group chat. With nothing else to do, he casually opened a thread on the forum. "Fuck me... capsized in the ditch today." Brother Edge: "What happened to you, bro?" Elaina: "Do tell, I'm curious. (doge)" The thread stayed quiet for a moment. After being badgered for a solid minute, Ye Shi replied reluctantly. "...Uh, got shanked on my way to trigger a quest." Commander Spring: "Pfft..." Elven King Fugui: "Who could possibly shank a Perception build like you??" Ye Shi: "I'm fucking baffled too. Didn't sense a thing. Hao Gou and I were wiped in an instant. I saw his throat get slit right in front of me... that guy definitely had something wrong with him." Commander Spring: "Could it be an Awakened from the Church of the Torch?" Ye Shi: "Not just an Awakened... felt more like one of those..." Brother Edge: "One of which???" Ye Shi: "Like Frost, Eclipse, and their kind..." Unprofessional Anti-Mantou: "Holy shit? An android warrior?!" Ye Shi: "Yeah... I heard Perception builds fundamentally rely on synthesizing biological pheromones and capturing subtle environmental shifts. Androids don't have the former at all, so it's damn near impossible for me to sense them in advance." Of course, it could also be a cyborg packed with bionic prostheses like Heya. Considering the black boxes held by the Church of the Torch focused primarily on synthesizing bionic organs, creating a cyborg shouldn't be difficult for them. At most, it was a matter of cost. Commander Spring: "Hmm... I don't know the exact details on your end, but if that's the case... isn't that annex in grave danger?" Ye Shi: "I already told the guys on offline relay duty in the group. Should be fine... But weirdly enough, why hasn't Hao Gou logged off yet? Didn't he die with me?" Burning Corps had always maintained a rotation of players on offline duty to relay information between online and offline channels—an idea implemented by Fang Chang. So the moment he died, Ye Shi had immediately posted in the group to have the relay player log in and warn everyone that trouble was brewing at the annex. Curiously, though, Brother Dog hadn't shown up yet. Just as Ye Shi was wondering about it, speak of the devil—the ID 'All Good Names Taken by Dogs' popped up in the thread. "Fuck! I was in the middle of a blazing boss fight, and you're here shitposting?!" Ye Shi: "Holy shit, what's going on?! Weren't you dead?" Hao Gou: "Who said your grandpa died! Let me tell you, Yu's resurrection armor is god-tier! I was literally getting ready to log off, then a wave of heat surged through my neck, and I stood right back up!" Elven King Fugui: "??? That overpowered?" Elaina: "That's straight up cheating... too broken. I'm definitely getting one later. (doge)" Ye Shi: "Wait, set the armor aside for a second. How's the situation over there?! What the hell was that guy who shanked us?" His primary concern was the little girl. As for whether his brother died, that didn't matter much. Everyone had a life every three days, and they'd saved their data recently, so dying wasn't a big deal. Hao Gou: "Hell if I know. The guy wouldn't talk to me, but by the looks of it, he was ninety percent after that girl with the antibodies... Bastard had no humanity, ruthless enough to murder a kid that small!" Ye Shi: "Where is he now? (sweat)" Hao Gou: "Couldn't beat him. Guy had serious skills, felt like he landed five stabs a second—probably that cyborg you mentioned earlier! But my reflexes were fast enough. I dragged him out the window and traded lives using our old method." Fawai Kuangtu: "Humble newbie here, pardon the question, but what's the 'old method'? (curious)" Hao Gou: "Heh heh, once I respawn, big bro will teach you by hand. (blush)" While everyone was chatting, Fang Chang's ID suddenly appeared. "Is anyone on the Heart of Steel? Or can anyone contact the airship from in-game?" Feng Qing: "(raises hand)" Fang Chang: "Roughly twenty-five kilometers due east of Pinecone Wood Farm, exact coordinates near (X-233, Y-365). Our recon squad spotted a mutant force, about a thousand strong, with a small number of vehicles of unknown type, moving at ten to twenty km/h... We're currently under radio silence, please relay these coordinates to the Heart of Steel." Feng Qing: "Huh?" Fang Chang: "What is it?" Feng Qing: "Nothing... it's just our corps commander just headed out to scout for you guys, but it looks like he won't be needed now? 0.0" Ye Shi: "No worries, we'll all laugh at him together for wasting a trip so he doesn't feel left out. (doge)" Elaina: "(doge)" *** Bridge of the Heart of Steel. Looking out at the vast sea of fog blanketing the ground in the distance, the captain standing by the floor-to-ceiling observation window couldn't help but frown. "...Ground visibility is terrible. Our aircraft can't spot a thing." Chu Guang looked at him and asked, "Did you find the source of the mist?" The captain shook his head with a grave expression. "The consultant we brought from the biology institute believes... this obscurity might not be simple fog, but spores released from the soil." "Spores?" Chu Guang frowned slightly. The captain nodded. "According to the consultant, based on clues gathered from the front lines, mycelium dormant within the soil and living organisms can release spores similar to mutant slime mold under specific conditions. However, it lacks the ability to transmit information through spores like a slime mold broodmother... This is primarily due to gene fragments derived from mutant slime mold within its structure." Chu Guang asked, "Is there a connection between the Na fruit fungus and mutant slime mold?" The captain hesitated for a moment before answering. "She believes there is, but the Na fruit doesn't appear to be a direct branch of mutant slime mold. Rather, someone artificially spliced gene fragments from mutant slime mold and grafted them into the nuclei of another fungal species... The research is still ongoing, so the consultant couldn't give me a definitive conclusion yet." Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully. "I see." Right then, Xiao Qi, perched on his shoulder, suddenly raised her head and whispered something into his ear. After listening, Chu Guang turned to the captain beside him. "Prepare the port batteries and the bow main cannon for firing. Target coordinate area (X-233, Y-365), adjust five hundred meters due west, and execute a creeping barrage advancing two kilometers west." The captain's expression snapped to attention. Without asking a single question, he answered immediately, "Yes, sir!"