Chapter 253: “King of Flames” |
“Well...”
Li Ye hesitated slightly.
He actually had considered deploying the Deep Sea Hunter Submarine and the Mechanical Squid.
But after careful thought, he ultimately gave up on the idea.
The main reason was that visibility within the Atmospheric Ocean was extremely clear. Any moving object could be seen at a glance.
The Deep Sea Hunter Submarine and Mechanical Squid were both naval combat vehicles that primarily relied upon stealth to launch surprise attacks.
Inside the Atmospheric Ocean, they instead lost this tremendous advantage and were far inferior to destroyers possessing ferocious firepower.
“So that’s basically the situation,” he told Fang Yong. “We need to consider the conditions of the region we’re in before deploying forces into battle.”
Fang Yong nodded in understanding.
Considering the military was still generally equipped with Level 3 configurations, Li Ye requested a steady advance while slowly clearing the Mutant Creatures upon Lava Island.
He estimated that one day would be enough to eliminate all the Mutant Creatures there.
At that point, they would obtain a massive amount of dropped resources.
When the Tomorrow advanced to Level 4, one issue was immediately placed before Li Ye.
That was the upgrading of the land, sea, and air combat forces.
Li Ye needed to gather a series of Tier 4 Vehicle Upgrade Blueprints and select a portion of vehicles for continued upgrading.
“It really is a long road of endless upgrades,” he thought.
......
Ruins Continent, Level 1 Region “Forest Zone.”
An ultra-giant demon was quietly entrenched there, blocking the route toward the inland regions.
Upon closer inspection, it was clearly a Volcano Demon.
Its body stood several thousand meters tall, towering over the land with incomparably majestic presence.
From appearance alone, the Volcano Demon looked almost identical to a supervolcano, except it possessed grotesque giant limbs, while the volcanic crater serving as its head bore a pair of enormous horns resembling twisted mountain peaks.
Its mountainous body also possessed gigantic facial features. Wherever its gaze landed, the air spontaneously ignited and the earth cracked apart.
The Volcano Demon’s skin consisted of countless layers of cooled lava and obsidian. Every piece of armor was as thick as a city wall and covered in bottomless fissures through which incandescent liquid flames flowed, resembling countless winding fire serpents crawling across its body.
The massive volcanic crater continuously erupted thousand-meter-high pillars of fire into the sky. Black smoke and ash blotted out the heavens, dragging the entire region into an eternal dark-red inferno.
Many years ago, the Forest Zone had been a flourishing paradise full of life and development.
Numerous Level 1 monsters and Level 1 Mutant Creatures peacefully inhabited the area, while human Mobile Cities and Survivor Caravans occasionally came here to develop.
But everything changed completely with the arrival of the Volcano Demon.
When this colossal creature several thousand meters tall stepped into the Forest Zone, the entire region began screaming in agony.
Merely existing within the region, the Volcano Demon completely twisted its ecological laws, transforming the once vibrant forests and green wilderness into an eternal scorched wasteland inferno.
As the Volcano Demon advanced step by step, lava seeped from the cracks in its armor and flowed wildly across the surface. The originally moist forest soil instantly hardened and cracked beneath the superheated temperatures before turning into rolling magma pools.
The underground water table completely evaporated, while rivers dried up within seconds, leaving behind only steaming riverbeds.
The atmospheric changes were even more fatal.
The terrifying heat emitted from the Volcano Demon’s body caused temperatures throughout the region to surge into the hundreds of degrees Celsius. Trees ignited spontaneously without ever touching flames, their bark carbonizing and peeling away as their crowns transformed into towering pillars of fire amidst distorted heatwaves.
The moisture-rich forest air was replaced by sulfurous poisonous fog, causing severe burns to the lungs of any living being merely attempting to breathe.
The most horrifying transformation occurred at the geological level.
Because of the Volcano Demon’s prolonged occupation, the earth’s crust permanently mutated beneath the continuous high temperatures, while magma infiltrated underground water systems. The once fertile humus soil became buried beneath thick volcanic ash before ultimately turning into lifeless dead land where not a single blade of grass could grow.
Destroying you had nothing to do with you.
The Volcano Demon perfectly embodied this sentence.
All human and monster forces within the Forest Zone faced catastrophic disaster because of its arrival.
The Volcano Demon barely even needed to act, yet the opposing side already suffered devastating casualties.
Even today, the Volcano Demon still quietly stood within the Forest Zone, faithfully carrying out its duty.
However, the arrival of an unexpected guest shattered the region’s original tranquility.
Upon the distant horizon, the ocean waters suddenly seemed to lose all light before beginning to boil.
The entire sea region rolled and bubbled as though thrown into a furnace. Steam and sulfurous poisonous fog formed a gray-white wall towering into the heavens, and amidst deafening explosive roars, a colossal creature burst forth from the sea!
The Emperor Beast “Fire-Eater” Gidon had arrived.
At this moment, Gidon’s entire body was covered in dazzling magma-like patterns, radiating unprecedented power and pressure—
This Emperor Beast had already absorbed immense thermal energy within the Flame Desert Zone of Southern Continent and was now fully prepared.
When Gidon completely emerged from the ocean, the receding waves formed hundred-meter-tall steam waterfalls behind it. The instant its gigantic claw landed upon the shoreline, the entire beach instantly vitrified, with molten silica forming winding rivers of crystal glass.
Most terrifying of all was the gigantic tail dragging behind it—
It resembled a living mountain range covered in lava spikes, and every swing carved burning trenches across the earth.
The Volcano Demon immediately became vigilant.
It clearly sensed hostile intentions from the newcomer.
And in truth, Gidon had specifically come for it.
In order to eliminate the enemy before it, the Volcano Demon directly unleashed its strongest killing move.
Its colossal body slowly rose like an awakening mountain range, while the volcanic clusters on its back emitted thunderous roaring sounds. Magma surged wildly within the volcanic craters.
The sulfurous smoke emitted by the craters blotted out the sky as temperatures in the atmosphere skyrocketed. Even rocks began melting.
Accompanied by an earth-shaking roar, the volcanic crater suddenly erupted.
Countless blazing white pillars of fire descended like flaming spears hurled by a god, tearing through the clouds as they crashed directly toward Gidon.
The explosive shockwave turned the surrounding air within dozens of kilometers into vacuum, while splattering magma barrages crashed down like meteor showers, blasting countless boiling craters into the ground.
This was the Volcano Demon’s strongest killing move—
A supermassive magma firestorm erupted through the volcanic crater.
This single attack was enough to completely destroy the Forest Zone.
Yet what terrified the Volcano Demon was...
The Emperor Beast before it appeared entirely unaffected amidst the meteor-like rain of fire. It even casually stretched out one claw to scratch its chin before letting out a huge bored yawn.
Several seconds later, Gidon launched its own attack.
Its enormous body slowly crouched low as the magma patterns upon its surface grew brighter and brighter. As Gidon opened its gigantic mouth, an unprecedented torrent of scorching energy formed within.
The Volcano Demon instantly felt an overwhelming sense of danger.
It wanted to flee, but its several-thousand-meter-tall body was far too cumbersome, severely slowing its movement.
The next moment, Gidon unleashed a thousand-meter-long torrent of energy toward the Volcano Demon—
This was not ordinary flame or magma, but Planetary Core Starfire compressed to the extreme through an energy field.
Wherever the Planetary Core Starfire passed, the air twisted and distorted while the atmosphere itself was torn into a vacuum corridor. Even light itself was completely devoured.
The Volcano Demon’s body was utterly melted and destroyed by the Planetary Core Starfire before collapsing to the ground.
Gidon slowly wandered over to the Volcano Demon’s remains before opening its gigantic mouth and noisily devouring the corpse.
This Emperor Beast had never come to challenge an enemy.
It had simply come to eat.
Within Titan Throne, aside from the fearsome title “Fire-Eater,” researchers had also given Gidon another even more fitting title.
“King of Flames.”
And it was not only Gidon.
At this very moment, Emperor Beasts had already landed across various regions of the Ruins Continent.
......
Apocalypse Sect Headquarters.
Pope Constantine entered the conference room and activated the communication projection.
Two figures immediately appeared before him.
Titan Throne leader Chu Shanhe.
Iron Oath Brotherhood Supreme Elder Karon.
The gathering of the three major human organizations this time was primarily for discussing and finalizing one matter.
Redeploying low-level human forces across the wasteland.
Ever since the Silence Agreement had been abolished, humanity no longer possessed any foothold upon the wasteland. The three major human organizations and high-level Mobile Cities chose to hide their tracks and survive through constant movement.
Low-level human forces could only survive by depending upon them.
For the three major human organizations, all fifteen continents and oceans of Blue Star required human force deployment.
Only then could humanity gradually regain control over the wasteland.
After extensive discussion, a brand-new plan was finalized.
That was to arm low-level human forces with Level 3 configurations.
Whether Mobile Cities, Survivor Caravans, Bounty Hunters, or Survival Squads—
Level 3 configurations were already sufficient for them to continue wandering and developing upon the wasteland.
The three major human organizations immediately issued an announcement inviting interested low-level human forces to register and participate in the project.
“We’ve already discussed everything that needed discussing. Let’s proceed according to this plan,” Karon said in a deep voice.
Constantine and Chu Shanhe slowly nodded as well.
If the plan proceeded smoothly, humanity would gradually regain control through the deployment of these “scattered roaming forces.”
......
Ruins Continent, Floating Island Zone, Mirror Forest Island.
Li Ye leisurely counted the spoils gained from attacking Lava Island.
The battle had been far easier than he imagined.
The primary reason was because the combat capability of the “Corrosion Throat” Single-soldier Mech had far exceeded his expectations.
The high-pressure acid it sprayed possessed unimaginably terrifying lethality against biological creatures.
When Li Ye dispatched the four “Corrosion Throat” Single-soldier Mechs onto Lava Island, the island’s Mutant Creatures immediately launched attacks against them.
The Molten Giant Lizards attacked first.
Their massive bodies crushed across the scorched land of Lava Island while flames surged within their throats.
Meanwhile, the combat personnel piloting the “Corrosion Throat” Single-soldier Mechs calmly pulled the triggers. The mechs’ hydraulic systems emitted sharp screeches as eerie green light suddenly shone from the nozzles of the high-pressure acid sprayers.
The high-pressure acid could be adjusted into projectile, stream, or mist modes according to operational needs.
The combat personnel chose projectile mode.
As the high-pressure acid projectiles fired one after another, the bodies of the struck Molten Giant Lizards rapidly dissolved. The acid crazily penetrated their bodies, corroding and decaying everything.
Within merely a few minutes, over a hundred Molten Giant Lizards were annihilated.
The other Mutant Creatures still refused to give up and continued launching frenzied attacks.
The ground exploded apart as Molten Core Worms burst upward from underground.
Flame-shell Crabs aggressively flanked from the sides.
Meanwhile, swarms of Sulfur Wingbats dived downward in groups.
The four Corrosion Throat Single-soldier Mechs simultaneously switched into mist mode.
The acid storage tanks mounted on the mechs’ backs violently trembled as pressure pumps forced the glowing green high-pressure acid into ring-array atomizing nozzles.
In an instant, an emerald-colored cloud of death exploded across the battlefield sky.
In mist form, the corrosiveness of the high-pressure acid was weaker than in projectile or stream mode, but it remained extremely deadly.
The acidic mist flooded into the mouths and nasal cavities of the Mutant Creatures, instantly collapsing their respiratory systems as their lungs dissolved into bubbling blood and pus beneath the acid corrosion.
When the four Corrosion Throat Single-soldier Mechs ceased spraying, everything within several hundred meters had transformed into a zone of death.
The ground was covered in thick acidic sludge, while the corpses of Mutant Creatures rapidly dissolved as though time itself had accelerated. Even their bones softened and warped beneath the acid.
Within this domain of death, only the four mechs stood proudly.
Acidic rain-like residue still flowed down their armor—
As the source of the high-pressure acid, the mechs themselves were naturally capable of resisting its corrosion.
Upon witnessing this scene, the surviving Mutant Creatures chose to flee in terror.
This time, they no longer retreated into lava lakes and volcanic craters, instead escaping Lava Island in all directions through the Atmospheric Ocean.
Without expending much effort, Li Ye easily captured Lava Island.
The land, sea, and air combat forces he had deployed merely occasionally fired from long range to support the four mechs landing on the island.
“This single-soldier combat mech is way too powerful!” Fang Yong could not help exclaiming.
“Yeah, even I didn’t expect this,” Li Ye sighed emotionally.
That said, the Corrosion Throat Single-soldier Mech was only suitable against biological-type enemies or small-scale engagements.
On massive battlefields involving countless troops, the usefulness of the mech became extremely limited.
The enemy possessed far too many methods for countering it.
Long-range bombardment from tank units.
High-altitude bombing from aerial forces.
Missile salvos and main cannon barrages from fleets.
Or long-range sniping using anti-materiel sniper rifles.
There were simply too many ways.
“In the Floating Island Zone, though, it might be worthwhile producing more Corrosion Throat Single-soldier Mechs,” Li Ye thought.
This time, the four mechs had eliminated several hundred Mutant Creatures, producing another significant batch of drops.
However, only the four mechs themselves could retrieve those resources, since the entire area had been horribly contaminated by the high-pressure acidic mist.
After considerable effort, the dropped loot finally arrived in Li Ye’s hands.
Level 4 Iron Ore, Level 4 Saltpeter, Level 4 Coal, and large quantities of Crystal Coins.
In addition to special materials uniquely produced by the Mutant Creatures.
As well as several Level 4 Blueprints.
The combat personnel operating the mechs then reported one issue to Li Ye—
The mechs’ high-pressure acid reserves had already been completely exhausted.