Chapter 49: The New Scraping Technician
The Sun Fortress had become desolate, the entire stronghold semi-sealed. Entering through the main gate, one would find the first floor empty. On this vast expanse of ground, there was only the iron chair at the center and Su Xiao sitting on it.
There was still some time before the world coordinates began to be constructed. What was certain was that the contractors from Holy Light Paradise and Watchful Paradise would first send out reconnaissance squads, especially since both sides had leaders.
Su Xiao had heard of the leaders from Apocalypse Paradise, Holy Light Paradise, and Watchful Paradise. Golden Count was the leader of the Apocalypse Paradise side this time. This man was not talkative. Although serious, he did not put on airs of leadership and had rich experience in carrying multiple weak teammates as a single strong player.
Golden Count could become this time's leader because he had previously led other contractors to victory in World Conquest Battles in earlier ranks.
Generally, such strong individuals from Apocalypse Paradise were particularly difficult to deal with. The difficulty of carrying multiple weak teammates could be imagined. Golden Count had come this far through such a path. If he had any slight inadequacy, he would have ended up like Queen Xi and Black Bee. One could only say, this old brother had it too hard.
Golden Count had strong comprehensive abilities. Compared to him, the leaders of Holy Light Paradise and Watchful Paradise this time were equally troublesome.
Sacred Hymn was the leader of Holy Light Paradise this time. Su Xiao had comprehensive information on her, mainly because of the grudges with Gray Gentleman and Fairy Ji.
Sacred Hymn was a super great healer. Based on Su Xiao's intelligence, in the eighth rank, there seemed to be no better healing type than Sacred Hymn. Of course, this did not rule out low-key healing types with even more astonishing healing output than Sacred Hymn.
Sacred Hymn and Fairy Ji—one was an executioner (similar to a hunter) of Holy Light Paradise, the other was a violator of Holy Light Paradise, and both were eighth rank. Their enmity had lasted for quite some time.
As a great healer, how did Sacred Hymn fight Fairy Ji? The answer was that Sacred Hymn's healing type was somewhat special. Originally, she was just a healer with strong healing output, until her class awakened, allowing her to summon the "Sacred Song Knight Order."
This was a knight order of twelve people, including melee, ranged, tank, perception, and control types.
The "Sacred Song Knight Order" was already very powerful. Their overall strength increased with Sacred Hymn's true intelligence and true charm attributes.
That was not all. As an eighth-rank top-tier great healer, Sacred Hymn could also bestow various buffs on the twelve members of the "Sacred Song Knight Order" and continuously restore their mana during battle.
What was even more exasperating was that the "Sacred Song Knight Order" had a characteristic: they were a guard group. After Sacred Hymn summoned them, they would establish a one-way "Life Rock" with her.
After this ability took effect, during battle, Sacred Hymn's body would transform into an elemental constitution. She would get injured and could die, but she would continuously "revive" due to the effect of "Life Rock."
Before killing all twelve members of the "Sacred Song Knight Order," it was impossible to kill Sacred Hymn. Sacred Hymn herself was a super great healer. With her present, the already powerful "Sacred Song Knight Order" became especially hard to kill.
Think this is shameless? No, the more shameless part was yet to come. As a healing type, Sacred Hymn's mana was not unlimited, but she could borrow the body energy of the twelve members of the "Sacred Song Knight Order" and convert it into mana to continue using healing abilities.
This was not the most mentally devastating part. The "Sacred Song Knight Order" seemed to have perfect coordination, but that was all an illusion. These twelve bastards were all dual-blade brothers. When the battle got intense, they would throw away shields, greatswords, and everything else, pull out their dual long blades, activate berserk, and twelve dual-blade mad dogs would be online.
This undying healer + twelve mad dogs lineup had almost made Fairy Ji vomit. Fairy Ji did not reject fighting; in fact, she enjoyed it. But when she encountered Sacred Hymn, she would turn around and retreat. It was not fear of Sacred Hymn, but a complete lack of battle experience. This thirteen-person combination was too disgusting. You fought them for a long time, only to find that their health was almost full, while you were about to die.
Among the three leaders, the last one was Orlandi of Watchful Paradise. This big brother was the most prestigious tank Su Xiao had ever heard of. He did not use a shield. His ability was simple to the point of being unbelievable. The harder you hit him, the harder he hit back.
Having fought to the eighth rank, Su Xiao had clashed with many tanks. He found a problem: those tanks who did not use shields generally had a lot of prestige, while those who used shields were usually human sandbags.
Among the three paradise factions, the strongest three were the three leaders. Among them, Sacred Hymn's information was the most comprehensive. Orlandi's core ability was only roughly known, with many unknowns. Golden Count was the least understood.
Su Xiao pinched half a World Core between his index finger and thumb. The dim light shining down from above made the interior of the World Core seem to contain everything.
After admiring it for a moment, Su Xiao flicked his thumb, sending the half World Core in his hand flying upward.
The World Core reached its highest point and fell at a uniform speed. Beside the iron chair, a masked figure crouched less than half a meter away from Su Xiao looked up at the flying World Core. The masked figure appeared semi-transparent; this was his stealth state. As long as he held his breath, his stealth rank would receive an additional boost.
As the World Core fell, the masked figure's gaze followed it downward. The World Core landed back in Su Xiao's hand.
The masked figure shifted his gaze and suddenly noticed that Su Xiao, half a meter away, was resting his right forearm on the armrest of the iron chair, tilting his head to look at him. That gaze seemed to ignore his foolproof stealth ability and see him directly.
Their eyes met. The masked figure's scalp nearly exploded. His throat went dry, his bladder swelled, the soles of his feet went weak, his temples throbbed, and he was almost roaring in his heart: 'He didn't see me! He didn't see me!'
In the masked figure's almost desperate gaze, Su Xiao turned his head back, leaned back in his seat, picked up the long sword resting in his arms, and tapped it against the ground beside his leg with a clatter, his right hand pressing on the end of the hilt.
The masked figure's eyes were full of disbelief. He had clearly felt that the enemy had discovered him, but that was not important. He now had to leave immediately, get far away from this humanoid big boss.
The masked figure charged forward at full speed. His body felt light, and he fell to the ground with a thud, leaving him stunned. He had tripped on flat ground.
The masked figure tried to get up but suddenly found that his lower body had disappeared. Turning to look, he saw that along the path he had charged, the ground was covered with fallen organs, his intestines dragging out long. His body below the waist was still standing in place, and because it had no upper body, it fell backward with a thud.
The masked figure's pupils trembled. Intense pain struck him. He reached one hand to his throat, and his hand was covered in blood. This told him that his throat had been cut open. Just now, he had been cut in half at the waist and his throat slashed, yet he had been completely unaware.
The masked figure's vision went dark, the field of view gradually narrowing to a line. With his last strength, he turned his gaze and saw the final scene of his life.
Dim light shone down from above. A man sitting on an iron chair held the World Core between his fingers.
Finally, the masked figure, an assassination-type, fell into complete darkness. At the main gate of the fortress, a perception-type who had just sneaked in witnessed this scene. Her legs went weak with fear, and she now only wanted to leave quickly.
This perception-type, codenamed Tiya, had just entered when she sensed something was wrong. After witnessing the masked figure's gruesome death, she now only wanted to escape.
Tiya took a step back, ignoring everything else, and tried to take out a life-saving item.
Zzzz~
The Realm Severing Thread tightened. Tiya, whose neck was entangled by the thread, was lifted up. She struggled desperately. The sharp thread gradually cut into her skin, blood trickling down her fair neck.
Bang!
A Blood Spear struck. Tiya was pinned to the high wall. The Realm Severing Thread retracted. Blood energy exploded, and the impact sent a large shower of blood falling.
A mass of dark blue semi-fluid surged out. In no time, it devoured the corpses of the enemies on the first floor of the fortress, leaving not even a trace of blood. This was a half-finished Devourer, currently used by Su Xiao as a cleaning tool.
All of this was witnessed by a weak-looking little boy standing upright in a corner. He looked like a delicate porcelain doll. At this moment, he was pressed tightly against the corner behind him. Not only did he not dare to move, he did not even dare to breathe.
Blood energy radiated from Su Xiao as the center point, sweeping around like pulses. After a moment, Su Xiao withdrew the blood energy and continued to rest with his eyes closed.
Seeing this, the little boy in the corner moved slowly along the wall. He was not sure if his stealth ability could fool the humanoid big boss, but he had to try.
The little boy nervously moved along the wall for a full minute before reaching the main gate. As a perception-type of a large adventure group, Little Pei very much wanted to run to his teammates immediately. Every time he came to perceive a big boss, he had this feeling.
Just as Little Pei, maintaining his stealth state, tiptoed out of the main gate, a large dog came walking toward him. The dog twitched its nose, sniffing for something. After determining the source of the smell, the dog raised its head and stared straight at Little Pei.
"Woof!"
Bubu Wang barked. Little Pei ignored everything else and charged at full speed toward the border of the vassal territory. Seeing him run, Bubu Wang immediately chased after him.
"Waaah!"
Little Pei, being chased by the dog, burst into tears, crying loudly. This involved a shadow from his younger days.
Little Pei ran ahead with all his might, crying loudly as he ran, while Bubu Wang chased behind, extremely joyful.
After running a long distance, Little Pei finally "shook off" the big dog behind him. He sat on a pebble beach, gasping for breath.
"Slowly raise your hands, or I'll draw my favorite pattern on your little face."
A female voice reached Little Pei's ears. The speaker was very close to him, her body almost pressed against his back. He could even feel the warm breath she exhaled, stirring the fine hairs on his ears.
A girl with metal patterns on her face appeared behind Little Pei. The metal patterns on her cheeks extended like cat whiskers to behind her ears. This was the metal girl who had assassinated Tide Hunter.
"You're a contractor from Watchful Paradise. I'm a contractor from Holy Light Paradise. How will you please me so that I'll let you go, little one?"
The metal girl crouched behind Little Pei, her sharp metal fingernails lightly sliding across his face. Little Pei, sitting on the ground, swallowed his saliva.
"Little Pei? Why are you here? Aren't you with the Tuanzhang and the others?"
A muscular man with a bare upper body walked over. Seeing him, Little Pei's eyes lit up, and he said urgently, "Brother Dean, save me! This perverted big sister wants to kill me."
"Cough, Little Pei, don't say that. We're allies with Metal Girl now."
Muscular man Dean looked a bit embarrassed, giving Little Pei a wink, meaning that knowing Metal Girl was a pervert was fine, but since she was an ally, saying it directly was not good.
After a moment, about thirty contractors gathered nearby. Among them, the leader was a man in a black robe with gold embroidery on the edges. He wore a hood, his face unclear, only a pair of eyes visible. These eyes were captivating, as if they could pierce the soul. This man was called Soul Master, a strong individual from Holy Light Paradise.
This group of over thirty people had met by chance on the road and formed a team. Now, Holy Light Paradise and Watchful Paradise were fully allied, which was the benefit of having a common enemy.
After listening to Little Pei's account, Soul Master, Metal Girl, Muscular Man Dean, and the other thirty-plus contractors had varied expressions. Among them, Metal Girl asked:
"You say that in that abandoned fortress, there is only one contractor from Apocalypse Paradise? And he has the World Core? Could this be a trap? Is the main force of Apocalypse Paradise hiding nearby?"
Metal Girl was full of confusion. Similarly puzzled were Muscular Man Dean and others.
"Sacred Hymn shared intelligence with me five minutes ago. The main force of Apocalypse Paradise is in Freedom City."
Soul Master spoke. Hearing his words, the eyes of all the contractors lit up.
"That is to say, the current stronghold has only one contractor from Apocalypse Paradise, and he has the World Core."
"No need to think, it must be a trap."
"Not necessarily. In the past, it was not uncommon for Apocalypse Paradise to have one strong player carrying many weak ones. Should we wait for the main force, or act now? Everyone should know how much battle merit we can get by seizing the World Core at this critical moment."
"That makes sense. If it were those madmen from Reincarnation Paradise, this situation would definitely be a trap. But for Apocalypse Paradise, it really might not be."
"We have over thirty people. Killing one person should be no problem. That person is not the strongest Golden Count of Apocalypse Paradise. Besides, we have Soul Master here. What do you say? Do we do it?"
"Do it!"
All the contractors looked at Soul Master. Soul Master nodded slightly, agreeing to the proposal to seize the World Core now.
What gave these contractors the courage to break into the fortress now? The answer was Soul Master gave them courage. After all, this was a big shot with soul-type abilities.
The contractors did not yet know that their opponent was least afraid of two types.
The first was magic type, because Su Xiao was a Law Destroyer.
The second was soul type, because Su Xiao's current soul strength was 560 points. Most soul-type abilities hitting him were just a matter of "local scraping" versus "large-area scraping."