Chapter 23: Waking Up Grumpy
The lighting in the main cabin was very soft. Some contractors, having eaten and drunk their fill, were lying on the alloy benches, snoring loudly. They were utterly exhausted, having spent the entire day killing Ground Crawlers.
Su Xiao also felt fatigued. He had been surrounded and attacked throughout the day. The gratifying part was that killing Ground Crawlers also earned merit points. For every 100 to 120 kills, he gained 1 merit point. This was due to individual differences in combat strength.
After a day of killing, Su Xiao had earned a total of 219 merit points. When he killed Ground Crawlers, they fell in large swaths. One strike of the Azure Demon would instantly kill a huge area of Ground Crawlers in front of him.
In the early stages, Blade Techniques weren't very effective in group battles. No, they were actually in the lowest tier. You could only slash one by one, and it was very tiring. But in the mid-to-late stages, you could cut down enemies in large swaths.
Amu and Baha hadn't earned many merit points, around 16 total. Baha had barely killed any enemies; it had spent the whole time scouting for Su Xiao. If scouting wasn't valued highly in the battle assessment, it might have earned even fewer points.
As for Bubu Wang, it had earned 85 merit points. That's right, this guy had been hiding in the cabin the whole time but still earned 85 merit points.
If healing data were compiled, Bubu Wang would make any healer feel ashamed. The Ice and Snow Aura restored 270 Health Points per minute, which was 16,200 points per hour.
Don't forget, this was just the aura's effect on one person. If you added up all the healing received by over 200 contractors, the total amount of healing was astonishing.
With this level of healing, even if Bubu Wang slept in the base camp, it would earn a massive amount of merit points.
Su Xiao sat up straight, stretched his neck, and smelled the blood on himself. He walked towards the corridor inside the main cabin, found an empty rest room, and the pressure door opened. The room was about 30 square meters. The good news was that it had a bathroom.
After washing up in line, Su Xiao lay down on the bed to rest. Soon, Bubu Wang, its fur still slightly damp, squeezed onto the bed and rested near Su Xiao's feet.
Su Xiao fell into a deep sleep. Having a base camp was indeed great. After a day of fighting, you could take a shower and sleep.
Thump, thump, thump.
Urgent knocking came from the door. Su Xiao got up and looked at the timer on the bedside table. He had only slept for 20 minutes.
"What is it?"
Su Xiao had just woken up and had only slept for 20 minutes, so his gaze was naturally not friendly.
Widow Xi outside the door instinctively took half a step back. She felt that Su Xiao was about to chop her.
"The Aberrants are attacking again."
"A harassment?"
"It doesn't look like it."
Hearing Widow Xi's words, Su Xiao picked up the blade leaning against the headboard, slung his long leather coat over his shoulder, and walked towards the cabin door.
As soon as he left the base camp, Su Xiao saw pairs of angry eyes. These hundred or so people were in a similar situation to him; they had just fallen asleep for a while before being woken up.
"Damn it! Fighting during the day, and now this shit at night!"
A guy from some unknown region started cursing.
"Who the hell has a flare? Fire one."
Bang~
A white-hot light ball rose into the air, so bright it was almost blinding.
With a boom, the flare exploded, providing continuous illumination high in the sky, casting light even stronger than daylight.
Two kilometers away, a pitch-black army of Ground Crawlers was charging, their footsteps shaking the earth.
"Dean, get some people to guard the rear hatch."
As soon as the Diamond King finished speaking, he charged out, followed by nearly a hundred other contractors.
'Blade Path: Super Ring Break.'
Clang.
The sharp ring of a blade cut through the night sky. Su Xiao had already charged into the midst of the Ground Crawler army. A pale blue ring-shaped slash expanded, and clumps of blood exploded as large swaths of Ground Crawlers fell.
Within three seconds, Su Xiao was surrounded by Ground Crawlers again. The muscles on his arm holding the blade bulged slightly. Sometimes, having great strength didn't mean you looked like a bodybuilder.
With a cross-slash of his long blade, Su Xiao killed several Ground Crawlers that leaped in front of him. A sound of wind came from behind him. It was a long-haired man.
"Watch out in front..."
Before the long-haired man could finish his sentence, Su Xiao decapitated him with a single slash and kicked his headless body away. This wasn't a contractor.
Bang.
The long-haired man's body exploded, and the blood formed sharp spikes that shot towards Su Xiao.
Just as Su Xiao was about to dodge, a dozen Ground Crawlers around him pounced. Sensing this, he entered a state of Spatial Penetration. He couldn't touch those blood spikes; they were some kind of ability from a Parasitic Aberrant.
One blood spike pierced Su Xiao's shoulder and flew out through his back in an instant. He disengaged from the Spatial Penetration state and slashed an X-shaped cut in front of him.
This time, the contractors didn't immediately hold their ground at the base camp. Instead, they met the charging Ground Crawlers, fought for a while, and then gradually retreated towards the base camp. They had a lot of waking-up grumpiness.
At 10 PM, the Ground Crawlers retreated, leaving over 40,000 corpses behind. Several large piles of bodies of varying heights were stacked near the base camp. For the Little Fatty, this was "dinner time."
Su Xiao sat on the metal steps by the cabin door, with Dragon-Slaying Flash leaning against his leg. He shook the blood off his hand, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it.
"Bai Ye, give me... one too."
A very gloomy-looking man was leaning against the side of the alloy steps. He struggled to get up and sat down next to Su Xiao.
Su Xiao glanced at the man who had spoken. It was Black Parasite from the Suicide Squad.
Su Xiao remembered that this person was originally female, but now they had become male. It was highly likely that their original body was destroyed, and they had switched to a new one.
Su Xiao pulled out a cigarette. Black Parasite leaned over with some difficulty and took it in his mouth. Su Xiao lit it for him after a few tries, but Black Parasite took a few puffs with no reaction.
Black Parasite looked down at his chest. A hole the size of a basketball was in his chest, going straight through.
"I got pierced. We have to win, Bai Ye."
Black Parasite's body began to go limp. With a thud, his head hit the alloy steps. The blood-stained cigarette in his mouth rolled down the steps. A mass of pitch-black energy near his heart gradually evaporated. That was his true body.
Black Parasite was dead. He was ruthless when killing others, but when he died himself, he was calm, accepting death with equanimity and peace.
War always claims lives, whether enemies or allies. Under the dense tide of Ground Crawlers, the Dean might die, Widow Xi might die, and even Su Xiao could die if surrounded and attacked for a long time by a large group of Ground Crawlers, Fission Aberrants, and Parasitic Aberrants.
It was no exaggeration to say that the current main battlefield was at Seventh Rank difficulty. A Seventh Rank contractor arriving here would have to bow down, even if they were a dragon. If they dared to be arrogant, they would die. Want to solo a world? Sorry, the Aberrants were the native overlords of this world, a warrior race, best at large-scale warfare and invasion.
Several tens of kilometers away, at the Apocalypse Paradise base camp.
Corpses of Orcs and contractors were piled near the base camp. Apocalypse Paradise contractors were standing or sitting near the camp, almost all of them injured.
"Hang in there. The native forces of this world aren't that strong. *Cough* The Orcs aren't that strong."
Unknown Saint's encouragement restored some morale to the contractors in the rear cabin. The Orcs were too troublesome, charging again shortly after being repelled each time.
Based on the combat power of the Orc troops, Unknown Saint could judge that as long as they commanded properly, they would definitely be able to hold out until the end.
Rumble...
The ground trembled slightly. Unknown Saint's expression turned serious.
"Saint, it's not the Orcs this time. It's the Aberrants. At least a hundred thousand Ground Crawlers."
"Retreat. Defend the rear hatch."
The Apocalypse Paradise contractors quickly rushed into the rear cabin. They could fight the Orcs, but as for the overwhelming tide of Ground Crawlers, that was too difficult to deal with. They could hold a defensive line for a while, but if they held it for too long, the contractors might stop following orders and retreat into the base camp.
The Apocalypse Paradise contractors were on high alert, ready to defend the rear hatch, when the charging Ground Crawler army didn't approach them at all. Instead, they rushed past 500 meters east of their base camp, heading straight for the Reincarnation Paradise base camp. In the Aberrant King's judgment, that was the real enemy, the powerful foe he acknowledged, the one he was willing to bet the fate of his race on, to engage in a decisive battle.
At that moment, at the Reincarnation Paradise base camp, their contractors were already fighting the Ground Crawlers, losing all sense of direction.
As for the Cult, a 170,000-strong Aberrant army was on its way, ready to flatten the Cult's base camp before turning to the main battlefield.
...
Near the Reincarnation Paradise base camp, at 2 AM, three flares illuminated the area. Looking down from above, you could clearly see the Aberrant army surrounding their base camp. Near the camp, less than 200 contractors were holding the line.
Explosions continued incessantly. Broken bodies flew everywhere. Large flocks of blood-red crows flew in the sky, converging into a formation that absorbed the life force of the Ground Crawlers below.
Blade auras crisscrossed. After each blade aura, large swaths of Ground Crawlers fell.
Nearly 190,000 Ground Crawlers had died on the main battlefield earlier. After the second general assault, the Aberrant King dispatched 300,000 Ground Crawlers, 20,000 Fission Aberrants, 1,000 Parasitic Aberrants, and five high-ranking Aberrants, vowing to settle the score with Reincarnation Paradise.
The earth was stained red with blood. The Aberrant high command named this place "Dage Tule," which, translated into human language, meant "Bloody Battlefield."
PS: (Two chapters today. Taking a break and organizing the detailed outline. Oh, and I forgot to wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday. Let me make up for it today.)