Chapter 84: Details Determine Success |
In the distance, a tidal wave of Scythe Monsters surged toward the radiance. They had finally crossed the halo of light that the Divine Item previously used to repel them, charging straight at their two prey.
Number Four stared blankly ahead. Using his hastily bandaged severed arm to support his gun, he tried to trick the monster by emptying his mind of all thought. But the creature was already guarding the area around the detonator, searching for the device that emitted neither emotion nor thought.
If Kyle had more time, he could have definitely relied on the Reality Anchor in his hands to coordinate with his teammate and complete the mission, but that was no longer an option.
The detonator or his teammate?
He could only choose one.
"Fearing life and fearing death, truly the mark of a mortal."
The Anomaly harshly mocked him in his mind.
Kyle made his choice.
Ignoring Number Four's curses, he acted just like the Captain had when carrying him earlier. Relying on the strength bestowed by the radiance, he forcibly dragged Number Four and sprinted toward the escape tunnel they had secured beforehand through Locking—it was still there, unmoving.
"Leave it to me! You need to take the intel back! Go!"
"Screw you, let go! It is not your place to order me around, rookie! Kyle! Damn it, I can cover you! Come back! Come back!"
Not far away, the screen of the Communication Device was glowing.
However, almost no one was paying attention to it anymore.
"Kyle?"
"Kyle, your connection was cut off!"
Shi Rang futilely sent messages from the other end of the Communication Device, but the clattering sound of the equipment crashing to the ground was his only answer.
Faint, indistinguishable shouts and the sounds of fierce combat echoed from afar. The computers at the Command Center were processing data regarding the "highest recorded localized earthquake." The War Hammer Mobile Task Force had already arrived in Green Island City, but by the time they navigated the winding underground tunnels, they would definitely be too late. No—War Hammer could not go down to provide support anyway. From the very beginning, the Divine Item had been luring more people into its area of effect. The more people it subjected to its Cognitive Pollution, the stronger its abilities would become.
Shi Rang racked his brain, repeatedly reviewing the latest Records provided by the Terminal Station, desperately trying to find something he could do.
"You have to take the intel back!" Kyle's desperate roar and the deafening crack of gunfire erupted from the other side of the Communication Device.
Fleeing the cavern meant abandoning the demolition mission, which guaranteed the Anomaly would continue to wreak havoc, commanding its linked subordinates to hunt down the remaining squad members.
The Divine Item had been able to control the Scythe Monsters from the very beginning. The only reason it had not slaughtered the N4 Squad immediately was that it wanted to assimilate them, transforming the Mobile Task Force members into its personal slaves as if performing a Summoning Ritual. However, it had suddenly changed its mind for some unknown reason, plunging the situation to rock bottom.
Fleeing meant death, and fighting head-on was completely out of the question. For the N4 Squad, this was a battle with absolutely no chance of survival!
Shi Rang was burning with anxiety. He opened the Records page and stared fixedly at the line that read: "Possesses a direct Anomalous Effect correlation with the Divine Entity, Blood Red God." He wanted nothing more than to directly sever its source of power, but he knew doing so would inevitably trigger even more terrifying consequences.
"Damn monsters! Damn it! Damn it all! Die, just die!"
Someone was roaring furiously while firing in the distance. It was Number Four of the N4 Squad.
Shi Rang was forced to mute the audio from the other end. He needed to focus his mind to figure out a way to save them as quickly as possible.
How was he supposed to alter the file?
If he could not change the keywords, how was he going to save the surviving members of the N4 Squad?
Should he elevate the terrain and force the Divine Entity to the surface?
Should he make the Visitor and the Scythe Monsters afraid of light, just like the Stitched Walkers? But imposing photophobia on a luminous entity would undoubtedly count as a massive alteration!
Kyle's words suddenly echoed in his mind: "It can read minds, don't think about it—"
Shi Rang had an idea.
Large-scale editing would lead to unpredictable, catastrophic changes. But what if he only tweaked the minor details?
He could not instantly transmit the intel to Kyle and the others, but after fighting a monster for so long, their armor was undoubtedly cracked and compromised. He could exploit that!
Moving at top speed, he located the exact sentence.
[Inhaling the gas that appears prior to the "Visitor" becoming active... will lead to... eventually falling into an anesthetized state...]
Shi Rang targeted the inhalation symptoms and inserted a single phrase right in the middle.
[Inhaling the gas... will lead to the target's emotional activity and pain perception being heavily suppressed, with their cognitive abilities gradually weakening over the course of several minutes... eventually falling into an anesthetized state...]
Clicking save, he immediately pushed the updated intel to the screen of the Communication Device.
Combined with the Records of the Divine Item, his plan finally took shape.
[The Subject does not possess sensory organs in the conventional sense... It primarily relies on emotional fluctuations and energy signatures to perceive its surroundings...]
:
He was not altering its direct properties, but rather making a minuscule adjustment to the surrounding conditions.
He needed to buy the surviving members of the N4 Squad just a few precious minutes.
'Please, let your breathing apparatus be damaged by now!'
Shi Rang reopened the Communication Device, only to find that the gunfire had become barely audible. He could hear the desperate sounds of Kyle wrestling with the monster, accompanied by the dense, scuttling footsteps of the Scythe Monsters converging on their position. The frantic shouts and the visceral sounds of hacking blades made him tremble in fear; he did not even dare to imagine the sheer horror of what was happening over there.
'Hurry up, just inhale a single breath of the toxic gas, even just one breath...' Suddenly, a stream of data transmitted from the motion-sensing module of the Communication Device. Shi Rang immediately checked the previous logs, discovering that someone had picked the device up earlier and carried it with them—perhaps hooked onto a belt or strapped to some other piece of gear.
'Who could it be?'
He navigated to the main interface of the Communication Device and found that the modified Records he had sent were still displayed on the screen. A non-functional button on the interface had been tapped once, as if someone was trying to keep the screen from going to sleep.
'Who is there?'
[Dump Truck: N4 Squad, do you copy?]
However, the response he received was neither a data connection nor a spoken word.
The Communication Device was tossed onto the ground.
The bottom right corner of the cracked Eyepiece flashed with warning prompts: "Hermetic Seal Compromised" and "Lazarus Type-II Protocol Activated." The effects of the latter could practically bring a person back from the dead, but the price was permanent chemical damage to the internal organs and severe lifelong disability. Unfortunately, most people never survived long enough to even experience those side effects.
By the time a person needed to use it, the situation was already at its absolute worst.
A twisted, mangled hand moved away from the Communication Device. Using its trembling fingers like the legs of a spider, amidst the relentless gunfire and Kyle's furious roars, it crawled past a torn breathing tube. It dragged itself along the uneven Black Stone ground until it reached a tactical belt. The index finger raised itself upward, and using the dead weight of the entire hand for leverage, it pressed down with a crisp "Click," activating the sonar beacon.
Invisible ripples surged through the cavern. This intense, mechanical pulse was exponentially more conspicuous than any human emotion or thought.
The Scythe Monsters, and even the tall, pale creature, abruptly stopped and turned toward the source of the signal. Following a new directive from the Divine Item, they abandoned Kyle without the slightest hesitation and switched targets.
At the source of the brilliant radiance, the Divine Item felt a sense of confusion.
It had also Sensed the sonar waves, but there was absolutely nothing in that vicinity aside from this mechanical fluctuation.
That specific location had been completely empty the entire time.
It was not afraid of what Kyle might do. The man was already riddled with wounds and utterly helpless while keeping his distance from the radiance.
It had not managed to locate the detonator yet, but it assumed the device had undoubtedly been crushed during the chaotic trampling.
The Explosives planted by the humans posed no real threat to it. If it did not covet these highly qualified host bodies, it could have wiped out their consciousnesses at any given moment.
The earliest batch of humans had been a shame. It should have waited a bit longer for them to rappel directly into its grasp. Because it had acted too hastily, those interlopers either died or were yanked back to the surface by their safety lines, robbing it of the chance to assimilate them.
Throughout this recent pursuit, it had intentionally spared the lives of these new intruders, indulging their futile struggles while subtly and imperceptibly mutating them, preparing to bestow its final blessing.
After all, its previous cultist followers had been of extremely poor quality; not a single one had survived long enough to reach its presence. It required far superior human servants.
However, something was now interfering with it.
It was a presence remarkably similar to its own, tightly wrapping itself around these humans throughout their journey, clearly attempting to snatch its hard-earned prey from the tiger's jaws.
Forcing An Dewen to undergo the Ascension Transformation had been an act of sheer desperation. Time only permitted it to elevate a single, barely acceptable puppet. If it had not made a show of force, the other Anomalies lurking around these humans would have undeniably struck first.
Unfortunately, the other entities had not backed down in the face of its threats. It was, after all, only a mere fragment with limited power. Upon further consideration, it realized that the corrupted humans might not even end up under its full control. Thus, it abandoned its original plan, forcing An Dewen's Ascension Transformation to directly shatter the humans' pathetic schemes.
Keeping the one named Kyle alive would be enough. As for the rest, the other entities could fight over the scraps.
Had it not been forced by the circumstances, it never would have utilized those clumsy creations. It despised such crude, inferior beings and had previously driven them far into the dark recesses of the cavern.
So, what exactly was responsible for emitting that sonar wave just now?
Did a piece of human equipment malfunction?
What the source of the Anomaly did not know was that, right at the epicenter of the sonar wave, a lone figure lay in wait, staring with chillingly calm eyes at the sprinting Anomalous Entity.
The pale monster was the fastest. Even with another Reality Anchor stabbed directly into its chest, it still charged at the very front of the pack.
The figure did not move, nor did she need to run. Dragging herself all the way here, she had already completed all the necessary preparations.
The Scythe Monsters and the pale creature had kicked the detonation wires into a tangled mess, trampling and snapping quite a few of them. But Vanessa had previously survived being hunted by a pack of Scythe Monsters; when she laid down the wiring, she had anticipated the possibility of a massive enemy swarm, so she had strung up a secondary, elevated set of backup wires.
Even if the main lines were completely destroyed, the backup detonator would still faithfully hang in a designated spot—one that was extremely lethal for the person pulling the trigger, yet incredibly secure for the success of the mission.
Although Vanessa had not found the time to explain this fail-safe to the others, as a Squad Leader in the Pangolin Mobile Task Force, advanced demolition techniques and trap-setting were mandatory training subjects.
It was just that Holly was not quite as proficient in large-scale explosive operations as she was.
The pale monster dashed straight for the sonar beacon. Its razor-sharp forelimb shattered the device in a single strike, and carrying the momentum, its second slash cleaved deeply into Holly's shoulder.
Sensing the presence of live prey, it reared up its remaining two spiked forelimbs high into the air, ready to impale her.
She normally would have cracked a sarcastic joke to mock it at a time like this, but right now, she could not feel anything at all.
Directly above them, the ceiling of this forcibly widened cavern consisted of a massive expanse of highly unstable rock.
Using the only arm she could still move, Holly slammed her hand downward, crushing the detonation button.
"Go see your god, you bastard."