Chapter 36: The Attack |
Just as Luo Yi was converting Wu Zhong, Xia Heng in the distance had already attacked the scout.
"Boom!"
An explosion sounded from there.
The three looked over and saw a ball of flames erupting on the county road two kilometers down the mountain.
The refrigerated truck had exploded.
Several monsters jumped out from within the flames, but they were too far away to see clearly.
However, Luo Yi still recognized them, frowning: "Vegetable People..."
"Vegetable People?" Wu Zhong, reminded by this and with his enhanced vision, finally saw that the monsters' heads, torsos, and limbs seemed to be composed of vegetables.
These Vegetable People were originally inside that refrigerated truck.
"Vegetable People are grown and possess intelligence and strength close to normal humans."
"The most crucial point is that only objects that are also vegetables can harm Vegetable People."
"You can understand this thing as having 'complete physical damage immunity except for interactions with vegetables'."
"Don't even mention a car explosion - even if bathed in nuclear explosion, they wouldn't die."
Hearing this, Wu Zhong was shocked.
Complete physical damage immunity?
"Let's hurry and support Brother Xia!" Wu Zhong shouted.
But Luo Yi remained calm: "Don't worry, they're just Vegetable People. Old Xia can handle it."
"It's just strange how they let them detonate the vehicle? Blocking the road might attract firefighters."
Wu Zhong understood his meaning - attracting firefighters basically meant attracting Unit 985.
"Thump thump thump!"
Xia Heng's strength was extraordinary; he easily dealt with most of the Vegetable People.
It was simple - he just grabbed one Vegetable Person as a weapon and smashed the others to pieces.
Wu Zhong's mouth twitched. The so-called complete physical immunity except for vegetables sounded intimidating at first, but it wasn't that impressive after all.
Once their weakness was known, targeting them became simple, especially since they were made of vegetables themselves.
However, because of the Vegetable People's obstruction, the taciturn young man who was driving took advantage of the opportunity to escape, his face covered in blood.
He ran extremely fast, like a sprinter.
"Vegetable People are decent helpers, but that's about it."
"In combat, for Gold-level mercenaries, these are just small fry."
"Old Xia, don't let that scout escape... Huh? What?"
Luo Yi had been smoking a cigarette, calmly concluding his explanation, when suddenly his eyes widened in shock and he dropped his cigarette.
"What? That guy is this powerful?"
"Ten Thousand Swords Technique, that's a cultivation-type Awakened... This guy isn't ordinary. With this strength, why didn't he dare to fight me earlier?"
"Hiss... Not good, Old Xia can't hold on."
"I need to support him!"
The more Luo Yi watched, the more serious he became. He pushed off with his feet and shot forward, the air whistling as he covered over ten meters in an instant.
"What are you talking about?" Wu Zhong asked in astonishment.
Luo Yi had been explaining things clearly just moments before, then suddenly looked shocked, said some strange things, and ran off to support Xia Heng.
But Wu Zhong could see clearly - where was this Ten Thousand Swords Technique? Xia Heng wasn't struggling at all.
The taciturn young driver was just fleeing, and because of the car explosion, he was seriously injured with charred skin and flesh, curled hair, and a disfigured face.
He could be said to be escaping in a very pathetic state, while Xia Heng wasn't even chasing him but was frantically dodging something.
He was zigzagging left and right, repeatedly rolling, and with his cool purple armor, the movements looked quite stylish, but it was completely a solo act - he was having a nervous breakdown facing empty air.
"Not good! It's illusion magic!"
Wu Zhong realized - both Xia Heng and Luo Yi had fallen under illusion magic.
This was exactly what Xia Heng had mentioned earlier - the Polymorphic Power that the deputy leader named Matsutake specialized in.
"Damn, illusion magic is this powerful? Both of them fell for it..."
Wu Zhong wanted to stop Luo Yi, but this guy was moving too fast.
With one push of his feet, equivalent to a standing long jump, he launched himself over ten meters like a cannonball.
Then came rapid sprinting, his arms swinging so fast they became blurs, dust flying under his feet - he must have covered a hundred meters in at least seven seconds.
"It's fake! Don't go! It's illusion magic! Wake up!"
Wu Zhong stared at Luo Yi's retreating back, sensing something wrong.
He shouted loudly, trying to warn Luo Yi.
But it seemed like Luo Yi couldn't hear his voice.
This probably wasn't just an illusion problem - even his five senses must have been deceived.
"De Biao, let's follow them!"
Wu Zhong shouted to Yang Chunsha, who looked nervous, holding the leather-bound book against her chest with both arms.
She swallowed hard, cold sweat streaming down her body as if feeling immense pressure.
"This is too crazy... I... shouldn't we just stay here? Let the big shots handle their own business."
Wu Zhong turned back in surprise, realizing she had also fallen under illusion magic, seeing extremely terrifying scenes. It just wasn't severe - she could still communicate, as it wasn't completely targeting her.
"Then stay here. You can't resist illusion magic anyway."
He thought that among the people present, only he wasn't afraid of illusion magic. Bringing Yang Chunsha would just be a burden.
Hearing this, Yang Chunsha was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly.
But then her expression changed, staring behind Wu Zhong, opening her mouth to shout.
Seeing her like this, Wu Zhong didn't need her warning - he had already reacted.
His hair stood on end as he turned sharply while raising his arm, the purple arm armor already materializing.
He saw a masked man standing on top of the car who had appeared at some unknown time.
The black oversized T-shirt clearly didn't fit properly, his arms wrapped in white cooling sleeves, his face covered by a very cool sun protection mask embroidered with rebellious text, only revealing eyes that looked like those of a fierce bandit.
"Boom!"
The arm armor collided with the other's large hand, and Wu Zhong was immediately sent flying back.
He crashed into Yang Chunsha, and the two tumbled together.
Wu Zhong landed and rolled once before stopping, kneeling on one knee, staring intently at the man.
The man stood firm, unmoving, cold and arrogant.
Seeing that he had come out worse in the direct confrontation, Wu Zhong was secretly shocked.
His physical attributes had doubled, his punching power nearly 300 kilograms, plus the tremendous impact force enhanced by the arm armor and its hard material...
For an ordinary person to trade punches with him would be suicide.
Of course, this person was definitely not ordinary - he just didn't expect someone to be able to clash directly with the arm armor bare-handed, withstanding tremendous force without retreating!
Strong! This person was far stronger than him.
The man was now leaning on a straight wooden stick, looking down from the car roof: "Huh? You blocked it?"
His voice was cold, hard, and full of magnetism: "You actually saw through the illusion magic this quickly?"
"Is that not allowed?" Wu Zhong said gravely, purple plasma gathering in his palm.
Without doubt, this was someone from that Lion Grass Mercenary Group - their combat personnel had arrived.
Xia Heng had at least one scout plus one illusion magic expert to deal with, while here...
Wu Zhong heard movement and quickly turned around.
"Ahhh!"
Yang Chunsha had already screamed - someone had sneaked up beside her and twisted her arms behind her back.
Without saying a word, Wu Zhong's iron fist shot out with a whistling sound, the air cracking.
The attacker had easily subdued Yang Chunsha but didn't expect Wu Zhong to notice.
Was the illusion magic ineffective?
Though somewhat startled, he immediately drew a knife to block. By then, Wu Zhong's iron fist had already arrived, the arm armor clashing with the short sword.
"Clang!"
A metallic clashing sound rang out, a small shockwave vibrating through the air.
Wu Zhong couldn't even keep his footing, sliding back two steps.
And this was after the arm armor had dissipated a ton of impact force for him - meaning this guy's slashing force also exceeded one ton!
The second attacker wasn't masked and was very handsome, like a supermodel.
But his words were extremely crude: "Damn it, this garbage knife can't even withstand one hit? And they dared to charge me eight hundred thousand for it?"
The short sword in his hand had broken at the point of impact, the fracture filled with purple light that was slowly corroding it.
Yang Chunsha, restrained by his single hand, wasn't struggling, her eyes blank.
As if seeing some terrifying illusion.
Seeing she was completely controlled by illusion magic, the crude handsome man slammed her hard to the ground, ignoring her for now, and kicked her away.
Then, with all his strength, he threw the broken sword like an arrow shooting toward Wu Zhong.
"Whoosh!" The air emitted a shrill whistling sound.
Wu Zhong raised his palm and violently shot out purple-melt ordnance.
"Boom!"
The broken sword exploded mid-air, the purple plasma still having residual power that splashed toward the opponent.
The opponent reacted quickly, pushing off with his feet and retreating several meters.
"Be careful, Ya Bai! He doesn't seem to be affected by illusion magic!" the masked man said gravely.
His tone was tense, very similar to how Xia Heng had been cautious facing unknown enemies at Unit 985.
Unknown enemies were the most frightening.
"Could he be a mind resister?" he murmured aloud.
Once this speculation emerged, both of them looked serious - this was unexpected intelligence.
And mind resisters might seem like just defensive types, but that wasn't the case, because there were almost no purely mental resistance effects.
Mind resistance was a general term for effects. For example, if someone could turn into a werewolf and go crazy seeing a full moon, but aside from full moons, could resist going crazy from other external forces, then you could say this werewolf characteristic had a mind resistance effect.
So it was usually a function accompanying some characteristic. Beyond that, mind resisters would be compatible with many disaster artifacts that had distorting costs, then shine brilliantly.
Among the known disaster-world experts standing at the peak, more or less all had some mind resistance, without exception.
Because those who could be affected by random things wouldn't survive to reach the peak...
You could say this was standard equipment for big shots.
Without this, they were just fleeting meteors, easily eliminated by others' schemes.
"I don't believe it. How many mind resisters are there? And we just happened to encounter one?"
"Captain, there's a guy here who isn't affected. Forget that woman, focus more on this man!"
Ya Bai shouted, his voice echoing around.
As soon as he finished speaking, the clarity returned to Yang Chunsha's eyes, then she looked astonished as she got up.
Seeing her book on the ground, she hurriedly reached for it.
"Crack!"
Ya Bai grinned fiercely and casually kicked, breaking one of her arms, followed by the woman's piercing scream.
"Ahhh! Save... save me..."
Yang Chunsha's face contorted, tears streaming from the pain.
"Shut up, calm down..." Wu Zhong slowly stood up straight, purple light swirling around his single arm, lecturing the crying Yang Chunsha.
"You should have remembered from your first day entering the disaster world - no one can protect you forever."
"People must rely on themselves."
His expression was blank, but internally he was panicking.
These words were both for others to hear and for himself.
He had to rely on himself again, feeling quite resentful - why was he fighting alone again?
Xia Heng was under illusion magic fighting in the distance, Luo Yi was also under illusion magic going to support him, and Yang Chunsha had been taken down in one move.
Instead, he, the true newcomer, had exchanged several moves with the attackers.
Great, now he had to fight one against two?
...