Chapter 48: Going Too Far!
Baha's statement on the World Communication Platform sparked anger among a group of Apocalypse Paradise contractors. Their words remained relatively rational because the fact that the World Core had been found so quickly already proved the strength of "Molei's Old Father."
Speaking on the World Communication Platform was different from online insults. Not long ago, Molei had shouted on the platform, challenging "Molei's Old Father" to a one-on-one duel, which led to signing a contract—this incident had already spread.
When facing "Molei's Old Father," most contractors felt a bit uneasy, except for the strong ones. Among these strong ones, few were like Zuiyasi, a guy with a face thicker than a city wall.
Top floor of the Sun Fortress, main command room.
"Boss, it's done."
"..."
Su Xiao closed the World Communication Platform. His goal was to make some of the Apocalypse Paradise contractors choose to wait and see, thus preventing nearly everyone from joining the battle.
Suppose 600 contractors from the Apocalypse Paradise side had come this time. If 50 of them, due to Baha's earlier statement, decided to wait and see, only entering the guard point area without approaching the fortress, this situation would cause others to follow suit. It was a psychological effect: "If he's not going to defend, why should I? Besides, there are those willing to defend. Let them be besieged first, then we'll reconsider."
The current situation was that none of the three sides wanted to fight one against two.
If the madmen from Reincarnation Paradise had come this time, there would be no need to worry about anyone being unwilling to fight multiple opponents. In fact, it wouldn't have developed to this point.
Suppose contractors from six sides—Apocalypse Paradise, Holy Light Paradise, Watchful Paradise, Sanctuary Paradise, Death Paradise, and Reincarnation Paradise—were fighting in one world. The situation would basically be that before even entering the world, the contractors from Apocalypse Paradise and Holy Light Paradise would have already formed an alliance at the space station.
Then the Watchful Paradise side would come to hammer these two sides. During this, there was a high probability that the Watchful Paradise side would receive an alliance request from the Sanctuary Paradise side.
After the Watchful Paradise and Sanctuary Paradise sides allied, there was an over 80% chance they would be backstabbed by those divine stick wielders, with a chain of backstabs, causing them to be eliminated first.
During all this, what were the contractors from Reincarnation Paradise and Death Paradise doing? Need to ask? Of course, they were beating each other up—whoever flinched was the coward!
Su Xiao was quite confident that this time, while guarding the World Core, the contractors from the Apocalypse Paradise side wouldn't easily approach the Sun Fortress.
Baha beside him was still editing text messages, not on the World Communication Platform, but using a sub-channel of the war channel to "debate" with Hao Mei—or rather, Hao Mei was getting roasted.
Meanwhile, at the underground casino in District 4 of Freedom City.
A young girl chewing something stood by the roulette wheel. She had long white hair, not pale white, but a warm tone between milky white and pinkish white. Her exact age was hard to determine; she looked young, but her gaze was exceptionally sharp. She was Hao Mei, currently arguing with Baha.
Beside Hao Mei was a glass of whiskey with half-melted ice. She dropped her last few chips to bet, drank the remaining whiskey, and chewed on the ice cubes while listening to the excited shouts of nearby gamblers.
The ball in the roulette wheel didn't land on the red zone as Hao Mei had expected, which made her inner frustration boil over. She was already getting roasted, and now she was losing at gambling—who could tolerate that?
Hao Mei's thought was: She was an Eighth Rank contractor with 32 points in Luck Attribute. Why was she still losing? Others with over 10 Luck points lost more than they won. After 30 points, it was hard to lose. Yet her 32 Luck points seemed fake.
Perhaps because losing with 32 Luck trampled on Hao Mei's pride, she said angrily, "Hey, white shirt, I suspect your casino is cheating."
"?"
The dealer across from her looked at Hao Mei in confusion.
"It must not be my problem. Damn it, gambling really is harmful."
The more Hao Mei spoke, the angrier she got. The gamblers around her silently stepped back. This was the usual reaction of bystanders when encountering someone in a bad mood.
"C-customer... are you here to extort money?"
The dealer spoke in a dazed tone while pressing the emergency button under the table.
"You're the one extorting money. I'm just being skeptical. Can't I?"
Hao Mei's expression was like someone whose tail had been stepped on.
"It must not be my luck problem. There's something fishy about your gambling table."
"Ma'am, you can inspect this table, and we'll provide the footage. We can help you watch it slowed down 10 to 15 times..."
"Heh~"
Hao Mei gave a 'disdainful' smile, turned, and walked out of the casino. As soon as she turned around, her expression twisted in frustration. If the casino was so straightforward, there must be no problem. If there was no problem with the casino, her mood was even worse. 32 points of Luck Attribute couldn't save her Great Chieftain aura—what a sad story.
Hao Mei obviously didn't know that Su Xiao, with 43 Luck points, still got unlucky when it was his turn. Even the Goddess of Fortune said there was no solution. If Hao Mei knew this, she would surely sigh, "There's always someone better."
More than ten minutes later, Hao Mei stood atop the tallest building in Freedom City, the Eternal Hope Lighthouse. The wind was strong up here.
"My mood is even worse. Molei's father is too arrogant. Daring to curse at me? Just wait."
Hao Mei muttered to herself. The high wind blew her hair. She pressed one hand on the sword hilt tucked at her lower back.
Standing at the lighthouse peak, with this scene and setting, Hao Mei wanted to take out her phone for a selfie. She maintained her pose and pulled out her phone to take a picture. Just then, a voice came from below through a loudspeaker:
"Lady on the lighthouse, please cherish life. Everyone has only one life. Don't do anything rash. Think about your family, your friends. If something's troubling you, just tell me..."
Hearing the loudspeaker announcement below, Hao Mei's face was full of question marks.
...
Kewabo Ring City, inside a tavern.
A strong smell of blood filled the air. A burly man stood before the bar, looking at the bartender slumped under the counter.
"Don't be afraid. I don't kill indiscriminately. They all deserved to die. You haven't reached that level yet. You're still young. Cherish your time and your family. They don't want to lose you, just as you don't want to lose them."
The burly man spoke coldly. The bartender, whose hair was soaked with alcohol and still shaken, nodded repeatedly.
Just as the burly man turned to leave, the bartender's face showed a fierce expression. He stood up, pulled a dagger from his lower back, and stabbed it into the burly man's spine.
The burly man paused in his steps, turned his head in confusion, and asked, "Did you... just stab me with a sharp object?"
The burly man, aka Golden Count, tried to pull the thin dagger from his back, but because he was so large, he couldn't reach it no matter how hard he tried. This made his aura gradually turn irritable.
"Do me a favor. Pull out the sharp object you stuck in my back."
"Huh?"
The bartender was dumbfounded. This monster had walked in earlier and started killing people. From fragments of conversation, the bartender learned that his boss had accepted an alliance order to find something called "Dark Haze."
What "Dark Haze" was, the bartender didn't know, but he knew this monster had come looking for traces of "Dark Haze."
"Don't just stand there. Hurry up. I'm in a hurry."
"Oh, okay, okay."
The bartender trembled, nodding like a chick pecking rice. Covered in cold sweat, he helped Golden Count pull out the thin dagger from his back. There was no blood on it.
Golden Count stretched his arms and strode out of the tavern. The bartender thought he had escaped disaster when suddenly he felt intense pain all over his body.
The bartender's body twisted like a rope, gradually turning, getting thinner and thinner. His eyeballs, blood, and organs were squeezed out of his body. At first, he could scream and beg for mercy, but as this torture continued slowly for nearly 10 minutes, he could no longer make a sound. Tears and snot flowed together. Golden Count had given him a chance, but his fluke mentality made him give up that chance.
Half an hour later, the bartender had become a spiral pillar as thick as a cup mouth and nearly 3 meters tall. Dozens of such spiral pillars stood in the tavern.
Leaving the tavern, Golden Count checked the time, then looked east, toward the war zone. After thinking it over, Golden Count decided not to head to the battlefield.
As the current leader of the Apocalypse Paradise contractors, this decision by Golden Count was very unexpected. It was practically suicide—he would be forcibly executed.
But Golden Count was determined to do this. The "Dark Haze" he was searching for was, to some extent, on the same level as that half World Core. He had even received a task certified by both Apocalypse Paradise and the Void Tree.
...
That night, Borderlands District, first floor of the Sun Fortress.
The first floor of the fortress looked very empty. The rough machinery originally used for processing Living Ore had been forcibly moved to the second floor by Su Xiao controlling the fortress.
Now, on the first floor of the fortress, the elevator to the underground mine was sealed, the doorway connecting to the residential area inside the mountain was blocked, and the stairway to the second floor was temporarily sealed.
Thus, the only entrance to the first floor was the main door. The interior was exceptionally empty, with only a black iron chair placed in the center. Su Xiao sat on this black iron chair, legs crossed, the sheathed Dragon-Slaying Flash resting diagonally in his arms. He was taking a short nap.
The 200,000-strong Wild Boar Warrior army had all left the fortress and hidden inside a hollowed-out mountain to avoid detection by enemy perception-type contractors. As insurance, Baha was scouting there—killing perception-types was its specialty.
Su Xiao's purpose was simple: when the enemy contractors attacked, he would appear to be surrounded, but in reality, the opposite was true—the enemy would be surrounded. Then, 200,000 Wild Boar Warriors would swarm in from all directions. The tactic was just that simple and crude.
At this moment, if any enemy perception-type came to scout, they would be shocked to find that only Su Xiao was guarding the World Core.
PS: (Two chapters today, 7000 words. A bit stuck, updating and then going to sleep. Will continue writing tomorrow after Feiwen's inspiration recovers. Good night, dear readers.)