Chapter 771: Chaos, Crisis, Desperation

Foolish Game of the Gods

The aberrant mother-tree should have arrived long ago. But disengaging mid-fight was never easy.

Most opponents, seeing a foe retreat in fury, would proceed with caution, wary of deceit. But its opponent was Big Cat. Big Cat didn't think that hard. She only knew: if the enemy runs, you chase!

And that pursuit slowed the abomination's return to a crawl, nearly dragging it into a second brawl along the way.

But compared to fighting an opponent she couldn't beat, protecting her "external wombs" clearly took priority. So the mother-tree did make it back — and in front of the gathered players, it demonstrated power that could only be described as horrifying.

As it turned out, an enemy Big Cat could tank wasn't one everyone could. A few players who hesitated just a beat too slow were whipped into paste by the sky-blotting tentacles.

Cheng Shi's group of three was fortunate. Or, to be more precise, Cheng Shi was fortunate — none of the tentacles struck where he stood. And the moment they fell, two people simultaneously saved him.

Hu Wei's expression hardened. He slashed backhanded, drawing a blazing arc of flame, erecting a scorching firewall that blocked the mother-tree's assault.

The doctor moved even faster, his face taut as he seized Cheng Shi and shadow-shuttled them out of the area.

Perhaps Wang Mou acted out of goodwill. But more likely, it was curiosity about the answers Cheng Shi held.

When the Grand Marshal realized the team's "brain" had absconded with the team's "priest," his eyelid spasmed violently. He quickly rode the fire toward the perimeter to break out.

A bad feeling struck him. He sensed he'd been played — that after Lord Ultraman's encouragement and direction, he'd gotten hot-headed and jumped straight into 0221's pit.

Even without knowing exactly what the Truth follower was after, the doctor's claim that no divinity-assembly clues existed here meant 0221 had let all these players in deliberately. The chaos itself was probably another variable baked into the experiment!

The Grand Marshal's insight wasn't born of inflating 0221's intelligence through speculation. He simply knew Truth followers well enough — those lunatics would do anything for an experiment.

And given the current situation, Wei Mu's mass distribution of tickets probably wasn't innocent either. Had the Puppeteer already guessed everything, and that was why he'd been so willing to push things along — to fan Truth's experimental flames even higher, giving himself a front-row seat to the grandest show imaginable?

After all, Folly's Wise Men considered themselves wiser than Truth's scholars. Even if that was self-proclaimed.

Hu Wei's expression darkened at the thought.

'Since everyone's just watching the show... since everyone wants chaos... then let's make this chaos even grander.'

And so, seizing a moment when no one was watching, he stowed his War greatsword, his aura shifted completely, transforming from a general staging a breakout into... a tentacle!

Yes. A tentacle!

His appearance didn't change. But in the eyes of other players — and in the mother-tree's perception — the Grand Marshal Hu Wei, who'd just been swinging a greatsword, had suddenly become a tentacle.

This was the true power of Chaos's warrior class: Alien Blood Compatriot.

'In the heat of battle between two armies, I will forever be your ally — no matter which side you're on!'

Disguised as a tentacle, Hu Wei frowned, quietly drew a second greatsword emanating Chaos energy, and rode the tentacle surge back into the underground lab. Then, right under the mother-tree's nose, he shattered every tank in sight, releasing every last captive the tree had been protecting.

That sent the mother-tree into an absolute frenzy!

It lashed its own tentacles in a mindless rampage, attacking everything around it indiscriminately.

And right at that moment, Mo Li was leading a group of players back along Big Cat's original path toward her landing zone — but he found neither Wei Mu nor Cheng Shi.

With nowhere to go and a mother-tree growing more frenzied by the second, they had no choice but to set up a defensive position again and hold against the maddened tentacles.

But this standoff was nothing like last time. With the mother-tree's fury at its peak, tentacle attacks came faster and harder. Soon the entire area echoed with screams and cries of terror.

And it only got worse.

Suddenly, the massive flesh-tumor rose beside the underground lab again — this time swollen by a full quarter larger than before. Countless splaying tentacles blotted out the sky, murmuring, humming, looking every bit like the crown of a colossal tree thrashing in a gale.

And in that moment, the name "aberrant mother-tree" was finally, definitively proven apt.

The sky-raining tentacles grew more relentless. The tumor kept expanding. The canopy of tentacles spread along the air walls until it had blacked out the entire sky, plunging the vast central district into utter darkness.

Even the scattered blazes of fire could barely illuminate this twisted, nightmarish reality anymore.

The standoff between players and the mother-tree had turned decisively against them. Beyond a handful of peak players and elite squads still finding moments to breathe, the so-called cannon fodder Wei Mu had sent in had long since been reduced to pulp, smeared across the experiment site.

As for Wei Mu himself...

He was broken too.

Shattered in some unremarkable corner of the experiment site.

No one knew how he'd gotten there. No one even saw how he'd died. The surrounding tentacles simply registered chunks of dismembered puppet drifting through, and in their charging, scrabbling advance, swept the fragments into the ocean of tentacles.

The only organized team wasn't faring well either. Mo Li's singers had sung their throats raw buffing the main attackers. Every last priest had burned through their spiritual reserves.

Now the front line wasn't manned by ranged hunters and mages but by the dwindling assassins and warriors. And the attrition wasn't from critical injuries or exhaustion — it was from... impending labor and childbirth.

Staying inside the Prisoner's aura meant only taking hits. Charging out to attack meant getting "pregnant." Caught between these two impossible options, the assassins and warriors cursed the fact that they weren't ranged classes. Even after throwing every weapon they had, they couldn't hold much longer.

The position was on the verge of collapse.

And then — finally — Hong Lin came back!

The tower-sized giant bear let loose a roar and plummeted from above, crashing directly into the sea of tentacles outside the perimeter. Every swipe of those razor claws sent showers of shredded flesh flying. Every stomp of those massive paws ground clusters of tentacles into paste.

She was a wolf loosed upon sheep, venting the full fury of her killing desire across a battlefield that was nothing but enemies.

Seeing this, players inside the perimeter breathed silent sighs of relief. Even Mo Li and the Prisoner's expressions warmed slightly. But Tao Yi, at Mo Li's side, went pale and screamed toward the berserk giant bear deep in enemy territory:

"Where's Cheng Shi? You lost him?!"

"???"

The giant bear froze mid-motion.

She crushed the tentacle in her paw, then slowly turned her gaze toward the perimeter, eyelids twitching maniacally. The expression seemed to say:

'One more word like that and I stop killing tentacles and start killing people! Starting with you, you noisy woman!'

"Watch your back! Hey, don't just fight — SAY something! The Fate Weaver is missing!"

"..."

"ROAAARR—!!!"

The giant bear let loose a howl, matching the mother-tree's own intensity — growing every bit as berserk.

...