Dispelling All Gloom

"No retreating! Hold them back!" "Those two-legged beasts are frail and weak! A single punch knocks them flat! Do you want to be defeated by trash like that?!" At the main entrance of the Champion Biology Institute... A three-meter-tall mutant centurion roared in fury like an enraged attack hound, urging his subordinates forward. His name was Hog. He was a warrior personally named by Gahn, as well as the most loyal and valiant fighter serving under that master. Within the Qi Tribe, where might ruled supreme, Gahn had groomed him as the successor to become the next chieftain. It was precisely for this reason that he had been entrusted with the heavy responsibility of defending this research institute. This place was the bond maintaining the covenant between the Qi Tribe and the Church of the Torch, and it was also the center of cybernetic modifications for the Qi Tribe. Gahn had ordered him to lead over a thousand subordinates to defend this place to the death. He had sworn a solemn oath to Gahn that no matter what, he would never let this research institute fall into the hands of the Alliance! If only they could hold out for two more weeks... The Eternal Kingdom of Heaven would remain upon this land forever! Hog gritted his teeth and roared, "...Charge! Eat their flesh, drain their blood dry, chop them into mincemeat! Turn them into sofas!" That roar was full of vigor and indeed ignited the blood in the chests of many mutant soldiers, sending hordes of green-skinned beasts howling forward. Yet before the tempestuous storm of the Alliance's assault, all their struggles were completely feeble and pale. The main entrance of the institute had turned into a bloody meat grinder. The lives of the mutant soldiers on the front lines dissolved into flying flesh and blood with almost every passing second. Under the cover of armored fighting vehicles, the Alliance's assault struck like an unstoppable spearhead, shredding the defensive line at the institute's main gate with overwhelming force. A Chimera armored vehicle rolled up the steps and rammed straight through the lobby wall. As soon as its blackened cannon muzzle poked inside, it unleashed a barrage of rapid fire. The sandbags piled across the corridors and stairwells were blasted away in an instant, and the mutant soldiers hiding behind them were ground into paste alongside them by python-thick tracer rounds. Following right behind was an iron behemoth brandishing a chainsaw. The howling blade was like a hound grinding its teeth, its green coating already pickled red with gore and minced flesh. He looked as if he were a fiend walking right out of hell. The instant their eyes met the murderous humanoid armor, horror flooded across the mutants' green faces, and the automatic rifles and shotguns clutched in their hands trembled uncontrollably. For a moment, they couldn't even tell— Who was the real beast here?! "Haha! Crazy! Completely insane!!" Barreling into the mutants' positions, Midnight Chicken Slayer wildly swung his chainsaw, completely intoxicated by the slaughter. This steel body suited him way too well! The only drawback was that his sequence level and experience gain were locked, and sometimes when he went berserk, he couldn't hit the brakes... But those were minor issues. This was a war between humans and mutants. A war between civilization and barbarism. In this war, there was no such thing as prisoners. Naturally, there was no need for mercy! Watching the Jungle Corps hack the mutants to pieces, the players from the Skeleton Corps found themselves without any chance to strike. One after another, they engaged their safeties and lowered their muzzles. Mainly, they couldn't even fire if they wanted to. In such narrow indoor terrain, Chicken alone occupied two-thirds of the corridor, and the Strength-type beasts clad in heavy exoskeletons completely blocked the path forward. Opening fire now would mean over eighty percent friendly fire. Leaning against an armored vehicle, Elaina watched the iron monster swinging the chainsaw ahead with an amused expression and quipped, "Brother Chicken has gone totally psycho." A teasing voice soon came through the comms channel from Brother Fugui. "What a cyberpsycho." Elaina: "Haha." "Let him go crazy..." Poking his head out of the turret, Brother Mole chuckled and chimed in, "It's not like he's normal very often anyway." The battle was going very smoothly. It was going even smoother than expected. Previously, these mutants could still trade blows with the Alliance's frontline troops relying on vehicular fire support and unexpected cybernetic enhancements. But as those vehicles were continuously destroyed by Chimera armored vehicles and the cybernetic mutants fell one after another, the remaining mutants couldn't even mount a decent resistance. In fact, they truly had little strength left to struggle with. Their active forces had already been largely depleted during the previous rounds of assault, while the Alliance's troops were practically endless. Suddenly remembering what he had promised Brother Mosquito on the forum earlier, Elaina turned to Elven King Fugui. "Speaking of which, didn't we promise Mosquito to help find his lost cybernetics?" "Let's do it after the battle is over." "Hope we can wrap up before dark." "Dark?" Brother Fugui curled his lip with a smirk. "With just this handful of beasts, think they can even hold out until noon?" While they were talking, a Strength-type beast wearing a K-10 "Iron Wall" exoskeleton approached from a distance and raised his helmet's visor. Seeing Old Na and Old Wang looking visibly idle, Piltover Paratrooper raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, you guys free?" Elaina asked with a smile, "What's up? Need a hand?" Piltover Paratrooper gave a helpless nod. "The elevator to the underground lab was wrecked by those brutes. Looks like they're dead set on fighting us to the bitter end. We tried pushing down through the fire escape, but it's too narrow, and our guys got stuck inside." The underground laboratory possessed the nature of a nuclear bunker. Its fire escape and elevators did not connect directly with the above-ground floors; one had to enter from the first-floor lobby. The Jungle Corps had already secured all the floor exits of the above-ground structure and was sweeping through the remaining mutants floor by floor, but the underground push wasn't going very smoothly. The mutants had demolished the passenger and freight elevators, and had laid numerous traps and barricades along the single fire escape stairwell. Hearing that someone was stuck, Elven King Fugui burst out laughing on the spot. "Holy crap, who's being that pathetic?" Piltover Paratrooper: "Crawling Model Worker told me not to tell anyone." "Pfft—" "Hahahahaha!" Watching Old Na and Old Wang laugh until they were out of breath, Brother Mole coughed twice to hold back his laughter and said, "Go help them out." Elaina flashed an OK gesture and racked the bolt of the rifle slung across his chest with a grin. "Okey-doke!" ... At the entrance of the underground research zone's power room inside the Champion Biology Institute, Hog was holding the line with his most loyal subordinates. Listening to the gunfire and explosions drawing closer and closer, a hint of dread finally surfaced on his scarred, fleshy green face. What he feared was not his own death. Rather, the current situation left him unable to see even the faintest glimmer of hope for turning the tables. Was their tribe going to end right here? If even the proud second-mightiest warrior of the Qi Tribe felt this way, the rest went without saying; the morale of the entire squad had plummeted to rock bottom. Although the boss had strictly forbidden whispering again and again, the mutants crouching behind the barricades still couldn't resist murmuring quietly among themselves. "Where are our allies..." "I heard they launched an attack against the Alliance last night... That cannon fire last night was their doing." "That commotion was huge." "Did they win?" "Do you even need to ask... That airship is still up there." "I heard our chieftain was over there last night too!" "Could the chieftain already be..." Listening to the growing chatter, Hog, who was already on edge, instantly flew into a rage and bellowed at those whispering figures, "Shut your mouths, you cowards! The chieftain is doing just fine, he doesn't need your concern! Keep your eyes on your defensive sectors! If I hear anyone talking about Master Gahn again, I'll rip their tongue out!" Seeing Hog fly into a violent fury, the green-skinned brutes immediately fell dead silent, not daring to whisper another word. However, while Hog could stop their mouths, he couldn't stop their minds from wandering. Things had already reached this point; even a pig could guess that their boss was most likely dead, and their allies had probably abandoned them long ago. They were simply being sent to their deaths. This resistance was utterly pointless! At that thought, the despair on each green face deepened further. Right then, a deafening blast echoed from the direction of the fire escape. Following a flurry of crackling gunfire came the grinding crunch of a saw blade tearing through bone and a chorus of shrill screams. Every mutant's heart leaped into their throat, their pupils hiding in the shadows filled with terror and panic. As if trying to dispel the fear in his chest, Hog hoisted the iron blunderbuss as thick as a fist in his hands and racked the bolt with a sharp clack. "Prepare for battle!!" Hearing that booming roar, the mutants braced themselves and let out a desperate howl. "Oooohh!!" ... At the fire escape entrance to the underground research zone, dozens of corpses lay strewn in every direction. Most of them belonged to mutants—their green skin made them identifiable at a glance—while a small portion were left behind by players, mostly wedged inside the wreckage of exoskeletons. War propaganda posters were plastered across the alloy walls, some of them clippings cut from magazines or newspapers, mainly detailing reports of victories on the front lines. Ironically, the battlefield of the Three-Year War had spanned several light-years, yet the flames of war had never reached this underground bunker. Yet today, more than two centuries later, the dust-covered alloy walls were riddled with dense clusters of bullet holes, and the gore pooling in the hallway almost submerged the soles of their boots. "...The power room is just ahead!" Checking the map on his VM, Piltover Paratrooper, who was clearing the path ahead in his heavy exoskeleton, shouted back to his comrades behind him, "Vital signs detected! This is the last room!" Elaina opened the quest log and glanced at it. "The remaining mutants are probably all in there. If I remember correctly, the pseudo-broodmother should be inside the power room... The nuclear fuel seems to be stored in the backup warehouse." "Let's put them out of their misery!" With that, Piltover Paratrooper gave a sinister grin. The chainsaw in his hand revved with a whine, making the air in the entire corridor feel stiflingly hot. Seeing Piltover Paratrooper about to charge forward, Elven King Fugui suddenly called out to him. "Hold on a second." Piltover Paratrooper halted in his tracks and looked back at him. "What?" Elven King Fugui gave a sly grin, hoisted a massive piece of hardware onto his shoulder, and declared with gleaming eyes, "Try this baby out!" Piltover Paratrooper's eyebrows shot up. Good grief! An RPG? "You brought this thing down here?" "Hehe, and it's a new warhead!" As he spoke, Elven King Fugui was already sliding a rocket nearly as thick as a thigh into the launcher tube. Seeing that the thing looked quite peculiar, Piltover Paratrooper curiously leaned in to take a closer look and switched off his chainsaw. "...What the hell is this?" Hoisting the loaded launcher onto his shoulder, Elven King Fugui said proudly, "A thermobaric warhead!" "Holy shit?!" Hearing that it was actually a thermobaric round, the surrounding players were instantly startled. Regardless of whether it was true or not, everyone except the relatively calm Old Na scrambled backward. "Modeled after the TBG-7V thermobaric rocket... Don't make a fuss, though Mosquito is truly a badass for managing to replicate this thing!" While explaining, Elven King Fugui couldn't help sighing with emotion inwardly. This Goblin Tech was getting more and more criminally dangerous. Unlike fragmentation grenades, this thermobaric warhead had no pre-formed shrapnel; it relied entirely on shockwaves and extreme heat to eliminate targets. Its lethality against targets in open areas was mediocre, but inside enclosed structures, its killing effect was absurdly high. And the fewer the windows, the more devastating it was! The instant atmospheric pressure of ten to fifteen atmospheres created by the thermobaric environment was enough to blast any known carbon-based life-form into cinders! "Cut the crap and hurry up." Not bothering to listen to his bragging, Elaina had already walked up beside the swinging door and grabbed the handle. Brother Fugui chuckled and aimed at the door panel. "I'll count to three. Get ready to open the door." Hearing that, Old Na didn't dare play any high-difficulty timing games with him and threw the swinging door open immediately. Bullets zipped out of the room with sharp whistles, giving Brother Fugui a fright and prompting him to pull the trigger by reflex. A plume of white smoke surged from the launcher tube, trailing a wobbling tail of flame as it plunged through the open door. Fortunately, the rocket flew inside. Otherwise, everyone in the entire corridor would have been roasted alive. At the same time, inside the power room, Hog, who had been poised for battle, was startled by the rocket burrowing through the door. He had prepared himself for a fight to the death with the Alliance, but he never expected these bastards to be so utterly dishonorable as to bombard them with a rocket launcher. "Get down!!" He bellowed and threw himself flat onto the ground. However, he quickly realized that the gesture was completely pointless. The roar of the blast along with over ten times the normal atmospheric pressure flooded into his eardrums in an instant. He lost his hearing before he could even utter a scream. And not just his hearing. The searing heat instantly baked away all the fluids in his body, followed by the carbonization of his skin, and then the vessels and flesh beneath. "Aaaaargh!!!" Blinded, Hog let out a heart-wrenching scream. Right now, he only wished his opponent would give him a quick death. His wish was quickly granted. The piercing agony did not torment him for long. Soon, like the other mutants, he was roasted into a mangled lump of charcoal within this inferno. The rising and falling screams and wails in the power room finally subsided. The players, their helmets covered in dust, poked their heads inside from the doorway. Not a single living creature remained in the entire power room, leaving only charred or dismembered corpses. The air temperature was as scalding as an oven pushed to its limit; even standing at the doorway caused burning discomfort, making it completely impossible to enter. The group waited until the extreme heat dissipated before cautiously stepping into the power room. Looking at the utter devastation inside, Elven King Fugui couldn't help smacking his lips. "Man... This weapon is too inhumane." When he went to the forums later, he definitely had to criticize it thoroughly! Piltover Paratrooper grinned. "Why talk about humaneness with beasts?" Although they hadn't gotten to have fun in the end, this way of dying wasn't letting these brutes off easy either. "Fair point." Elven King Fugui walked forward and kicked open the half-hanging door at the far end of the power room. A foul stench drifted out from behind the door. He switched on his flashlight and found an annular apparatus inside, bearing some resemblance to the reactor back in the vault. What was shocking wasn't the reactor, but the startling chunks of flesh growing across it. An ominous, deep dark green filled almost every corner of the machine. This was the Na fruit core! The culprit responsible for enveloping the entire Jinhe City region in spore clouds! A pseudo-broodmother synthesized through biotechnology! "A broodmother looks like this?" Walking up to the doorway, Elaina glanced at the broodmother, thinking it looked like a pulsating heart as well as an oversized Na fruit. He wondered what it tasted like. "The scientific name is Na fruit core... I wonder if the one in Qingquan City looks like this too," Elven King Fugui said, glancing at Old Na beside him with a strange expression. "You aren't thinking of tasting it, are you?" Elaina rolled his eyes. "Do I look like that kind of person?" One look at this green mass told anyone it wasn't edible. Besides, with such a massive blob, even if he wanted to eat it, he wouldn't know where to start taking a bite. Yet the other players standing nearby didn't believe him at all, each wearing an expression that said, "Aren't you, though?" Ignoring these rascals, Elaina took out the explosives he carried, rigged them near the pseudo-broodmother, and then urged everyone to evacuate the power room. Just then, a teammate's message came through the comms channel. After listening, Piltover Paratrooper turned to the others and said, "Power has been restored to the freight elevator. The nuclear fuel and other spoils have already been packed and sent to the surface... We should pull out too." The group boarded the elevator heading to the surface. Before the elevator doors shut, Elaina squeezed the detonator in his hand. The bomb began its countdown. Taking one last look at the gore-splattered corridor as the elevator doors closed, Elven King Fugui still had a look of unfulfilled craving on his face. "This mission... is just over like that?" He had heard that the brothers from the Burning Corps fought an intensely thrilling battle on the deck last night, whereas their side had barely encountered any decent resistance. It felt like it ended before they could even enjoy themselves. Elaina said with a nuanced expression, "Pretty much... The outcome was decided last night. Everything from here on is probably just mop-up work." The elevator arrived quickly. Almost the moment they stepped out of the elevator, a violent tremor traveled up from beneath their feet, sending the entire building into a shudder. Brother Fugui, who had just stepped out of the elevator, stumbled and nearly fell, managing to steady himself against the nearby wall. "Holy crap, how many seconds did you set on that fuse?" Clearly not expecting the power of that unassuming bomb to be so exaggerated, Elaina was completely dumbfounded as well. Looking up at the gradually tilting ceiling, he said, "I figured half a minute should've been plenty." Could that thing have been a damn nuke? Then he suddenly remembered that the brothers from the Burning Corps seemed to have captured a batch of tactical nuclear weapons in Boulder City earlier. The smallest model among them was only the size of a fist, yet packed enough power to level an entire street. Could it really... have been one of those? Piltover Paratrooper felt his scalp tingle. "Half a minute is plenty, sure, but why do I have this terrible feeling..." Seeing that the chain reaction triggered by the explosion showed no sign of stopping, Brother Mole, sitting in the turret of the armored vehicle, also saw his expression change. He kicked the driver hard and shouted down into the hull, "Reverse! Hurry!" Fortunately, the fighting upstairs had already concluded. Almost at the exact moment the players scrambled out of the research institute in a frenzy, the grand edifice that had stood firm for over two centuries finally collapsed in slow motion... ... On the bridge of the Heart of Steel. Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, Chu Guang quietly gazed in the direction of Singularity City, watching the building slowly topple into the ruins behind it. Although the mist outside the window had not yet cleared, the considerate and sensible Xiao Qi had thoughtfully projected the drone's aerial footage onto the glass. This remained the best viewing seat. Secured in his wheelchair, Yule sat beside Chu Guang. Looking at the billowing dust rising in the distance, his eyes were somewhat vacant. That was the starting point of everything. And it had become the ending point of it all. After a long while, his Adam's apple bobbed. "...Is it over?" Chu Guang glanced at him and spoke slowly. "Far from it. The evils you committed in your self-righteousness will likely take a decade or decades to make amends for. The suffering upon this land will probably take a very long time to truly come to an end." Yule let out a bitter laugh and closed his eyes toward the ceiling. Watching the apostle who had shut his eyes, Chu Guang continued, "Objectively speaking, however, the anti-radiation drugs and radiation-clearing agents you researched still helped a great many people." Yule shook his head. "That wasn't my credit alone." "I know, and I never claimed it was," Chu Guang said concisely. "Just like that building you're seeing now—it wasn't brought down by a single person either, but was the result of everyone's collective resolve. Our history moves forward the same way." Yule fell silent, the expression on his face looking like repentance, and yet like pure agony. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he looked toward Chu Guang standing beside him and spoke slowly. "How do you plan to dispose of me?" Chu Guang answered offhandedly, "That depends on which way you intend to redeem yourself." Yule looked at him with some surprise. "...Do I still have options?" "Of course you do. For example... you could go to Vault 79. It is currently the Alliance's biological research base, home to a group of biological experts and a giant lizard that has lived longer than anyone. We still have a mountain of problems waiting to be solved. There, you can use your knowledge and the rest of your life to help those who survived." Pausing, Chu Guang looked at him and continued, "Of course, you can also choose to bid farewell to this world with a 9mm bullet. That is the swiftest and most painless approach." Yule let out a bitter smile. "The latter sounds much easier." Chu Guang glanced at Lü Bei. The loyal young man understood immediately. He stepped forward to untie Yule's right hand, drew his own sidearm, chambered a round, dropped the magazine, and handed the weapon to him. Staring at the pistol in his hand for a long time, Yule sighed and flipped the safety back on. "...I choose the former." Perhaps death was the easiest choice, but he suddenly remembered Yinyin... that little girl he had wanted to release, yet ultimately failed to save. Chu Guang stared into his eyes for a moment, a trace of curiosity suddenly surfacing in his gaze. "Are you Yule right now, or Luo Qian?" He had noticed during the previous interrogation. The two personas of Luo Qian and Yule coexisted within this man, only that one was stored in his brain, while the other was stored in a bionic chip. Strictly speaking, this applied to every person implanted with a chip—whether it was Yule before him or Yinyin lying in the cryogenic hibernation pod. Every one of them was Luo Qian. That specter had dismantled himself into countless fragments, hiding within every vessel he deemed suitable. And that vessel was the ideal kingdom in people's hearts—the so-called Sanctuary. Perhaps having recognized himself, Yule's answer this time lacked the hesitation of before, carrying a hint of certainty in his voice. "Both." Turning slowly toward Chu Guang, Yule continued, "May I... also ask you a question?" Chu Guang replied briskly, "Go ahead." Yule stared into his eyes. "How can you guarantee... that the path ahead of you will truly be different from the choice I once made, and won't just be another form of hell?" He didn't know what lay at the end of this road; he only wanted to know why this vault Administrator before him was so confident. Yet Chu Guang's reply completely caught him off guard. "I can't guarantee that." Looking at the stunned Yule, Chu Guang paused before continuing as a matter of course, "I am merely a mortal, not some savior, nor do I possess foresight. The only thing I can guarantee is not to betray the trust people place in me, and to do what I can to the best of my abilities. As for whether we'll stumble into a pitfall tomorrow, I don't know either. "However, I will consult with them, facing our shared problems—or bugs, you might say—together, and discuss how to take the next steps together. Even if their opinions are sometimes immature, or even a bit childish, it doesn't matter. Our Alliance wasn't built in a day either. "If what awaits us ahead is hell, that will be our collective choice. But I believe that even if our feet truly stand in hell one day, our unity will allow us to walk out of it shoulder to shoulder." Yule let out a sigh and slowly lowered his head. "If only I had met you twenty years earlier..." If the gears of fate had not suffered that tiny divergence, if he had not met that man named Luo Qian twenty years ago... Perhaps his fate, and the fate of all survivors upon this land, would have been different.