Chapter 28: Fate's Blood
Concrete buildings of varying heights stood in rows, a characteristic of Platinum Capital. To tighten the defensive line and reduce the city's footprint, all residents were forced to live in buildings dozens or even over a hundred stories tall. The company's alloy technology surpassed the era by 20 to 30 years. Because of this, Platinum Capital had the strongest wall. Until today, all residents of Platinum Capital took pride in this.
On the empty streets, many patches of blood were scattered, but no bodies were visible, only numerous drag marks.
Inside a half-collapsed, dilapidated building, the furnishings were exceptionally old, discolored black, pitted, and heavily eroded. Several survivors hid here. Everything happened too fast. That morning's news broadcast showed those potbellied company executives on screen, passionately declaring that the disaster had passed, that the empire's citizens who could settle in Platinum Capital were the lucky ones of the new era, and that they should forget old pains and look forward to the future.
The aroma of morning coffee, the beautiful female news anchor on the screen, the scent of baked bread—everything seemed to linger between smell and taste. But with a series of continuous roars and countless shrill screams, all luck and beautiful hopes were flushed away like toilet paper thrown into a toilet.
The building's entrance was blocked by various decayed furniture. On the wall beside it, a terrifyingly large claw mark became the only source of light here. The gloomy weather outside made the light that filtered in feel somewhat dim.
A total of eight people were hiding here: three students, a newlywed couple, a middle-aged company employee, and a company security guard. The last person was a beautiful woman with a perfect figure and silver earrings. Unlike the others, she sat on a fallen wardrobe, looking composed, holding a can of mandarin oranges in her hand, studying how to open it. Although for her, the can was more fragile than paper, she didn't intend to open it by force.
That's right, this was the anomaly among the insect race's mother queens, one who pursued individual strength: Aisea. Recently, her mood was average, a bit melancholic, so for the past few days, she had been female. If she wanted to find someone to fight, she would transform into male.
Previously, Aisea had indeed found people to fight, such as the Empire's Hand, Rhine Gold, and then the Sun Saint, Wagner. After that, she encountered a girl with a big hat whose ability was wonderful, able to summon endless undead creatures.
Besides that, Aisea also planned to fight Su Xiao. Her plan was to rest in Platinum Capital first, then go to the Sun Holy Nest. But before she could go to the Sun Holy Nest, Platinum Capital was attacked by the Nether forces.
After witnessing the Nether forces' large-scale attack, Aisea was puzzled: why did this world's world consciousness choose her as the savior? First, she wasn't that strong. She had already encountered several people on par with her.
This actually dealt a bit of a blow to Aisea. Originally, she thought that after training in private for so long, she should be at the top tier. To save time, in the past, when her insect race went to war, her subordinate "Insect Queen" would command on her behalf.
This also led to Aisea being almost completely isolated from the world, but that was what she wanted. The wonderful feeling of gradually becoming stronger was far more interesting than commanding the insect race.
A few days ago, the "Insect Queen" under Aisea died of old age. The worried and reluctant look in her eyes before death made Aisea understand the emotions of love and loss. Unfortunately, death was too powerful. Aisea couldn't reverse death and could only watch as that "Insect Queen," who had replaced her as the mother queen, gradually lost her breath.
After that "Insect Queen" died, Aisea's original subordinates were dumbfounded. When they realized that their mother queen couldn't even recognize all of them, they understood the seriousness of the situation and all went to join the Crimson Empress.
Aisea agreed with this. She didn't know how to manage the insect nest, and over the years, those leader-level insect creatures had contributed a lot. Leaving the nest now was not betrayal.
Aisea raised her hand and touched her silver earring, the loss in her heart fading a bit. Compared to her own strength, she was more puzzled about another matter: why did this world's world consciousness choose her as the savior?
Before the Nether invasion, Aisea's thought was that when the Nether came, she would stand alone in front. But when she saw the corrupted ones forming a black pillar several kilometers thick, pouring down from the sky onto Platinum Capital, Aisea immediately rushed into the building. Her thought at the time was: 'World, you tricked me.'
Aisea clearly realized that under that scale of human wave tactics, if she tried to block it, she would be like a firework, blooming briefly and brilliantly, then extinguishing in the sea of enemies, eventually disappearing completely.
Therefore, Aisea was very puzzled: what use did that so-called world consciousness have for choosing her?
"I can't figure it out."
Sitting on the wardrobe, Aisea crossed her legs and tossed the can in her hand. This image gave a strong sense of contrasting beauty.
Aisea's gaze swept around. The others taking refuge with her included three students, two male and one female, all around seventeen or eighteen. She stayed mainly because of one of the boys, who gave her a familiar feeling. The sense of same origin was too strong. He was also a savior, no, his fluctuation in this regard was stronger than hers. He was more like a child of this world.
The remaining four were a middle-aged company employee, a company security guard, and a young couple.
The security guard, holding a rifle, leaned against the wall, his expression dazed, his hands uncontrollably trembling.
"We should escape."
One of the three students, a short-haired boy, spoke. He was the one Aisea had been focusing on, also the world's child of this world. His name was Leslie.
As soon as Leslie said this, his two classmates and the young couple nearby showed terrified expressions, looking at Leslie as if he were crazy.
"It's only a matter of time before we're found. According to my observations, after those monsters fell, a kind of dark green mist also appeared. Anyone who inhales that mist will become the same kind of monsters. I suggest we actively go inhale that green mist."
Leslie made a calm analysis, even smiling at the end. This made his two classmates instinctively move away from him, and the young couple nearby did the same.
"That's the Nether's cold mist. Inhaling it will cause assimilation, turning you into a corrupted one. Boy, are you crazy?"
The company employee, whose white shirt was stained with blood and tie was loose, spoke.
"I know that will turn me into a monster. According to my observations, there's also a hierarchy among those monsters, just like animals. The elite individuals among them have higher status, then the intact ones, then the incomplete ones, and finally the severely incomplete ones.
When we living people are found by those monsters, we'll first be gnawed on, then become the lowest-status monsters. Since we're going to become monsters anyway, why not become a more complete one? Maybe we can even get priority mating rights? If they have mating behavior, that is."
Leslie's words left everyone present dumbfounded. The company security guard even raised his rifle, aiming at Leslie's head, suspecting that the boy's thoughts had already been assimilated by the Nether.
Seeing the dark muzzle of the gun, Leslie raised his hands in surrender, his cowardice so natural and refreshing. He didn't have the typical world child attitude of 'I'm going to cause trouble, I won't die.' If there were a competition for the most cowardly world child of the century, this guy would definitely be on the list.
"Hahahaha, priority mating rights, hahaha..."
The company employee was amused. He pulled the terminal from his waist and tossed it to Leslie. The terminal fell to the ground with a clatter.
"This contains the structural map of Platinum Capital. There are two ways out of the city: one is through the underground drainage system, the other is to go to the central area, Zone 0. Under the command post there, there are two spatial teleportation devices connecting to New Star City and the Sun Holy Nest."
After saying this, the company employee drew his pistol, pressed the muzzle against his chin, and prepared to pull the trigger.
"Wait, big brother."
Leslie quickly spoke. The company employee turned his head to look at him, with an expression of 'spit it out if you have something to say.'
"Big brother, how do you know this? These two spatial teleportation devices for the big shots should be confidential, right?"
Leslie sat down three meters away from the company employee and took out the cigarettes he had just scavenged, tossing them to him.
Seeing the cigarettes, the company employee lowered the muzzle, lit one for himself, and prepared to have a smoke before ending his life.
"Spatial teleportation devices, what's so confidential about that? Those big shots have been afraid of death for a long time. The air defense system of Platinum Capital was designed by my team."
"Ah?"
Leslie was a bit stunned. He said with a pained expression, "Big brother, you'd better just end it now. The air defense system you designed is useless."
"Nonsense! We designed a Level 7 air defense. The weapons department, to save costs, colluded with the supervision department and used Level 4 air defense standards to pass off as Level 7."
"Why?"
The man from the young couple roared in accusation.
"Why? To cover up the financial hole they created when building Platinum Capital. If they didn't plug that hole, before the Nether invasion, Aiteqi Fok would have killed them first. What's more interesting is that after the weapons department and supervision department embezzled this money, the funds originally intended to plug the hole were further divided up layer by layer."
Hearing the company employee's words, the others were bewildered. They really couldn't understand how, at such a critical moment of disaster, someone could still embezzle funds meant for defense. Wasn't that asking for death? In reality, they didn't know that greed has no limits. Besides, the empire's New Star City was a retreat.
Before everyone could recover, the company employee had already pressed the muzzle back against his chin. Although he looked ordinary, he was by no means a small character. Unfortunately, the more he knew, the more despair he felt.
Bang!
Brains splattered, the skull spun and flew up. The bloody scene scared the others pale.
Bang!
Another gunshot, this time from the company security guard committing suicide. Compared to the others, he knew better that gunfire would attract something.
Tap, tap~
Aisea tapped the can of mandarin oranges with her fingertips, still not figuring out how to open it. She looked at Leslie and said, "Boy, you have extraordinary talent."
Rustling sounds came, followed by footsteps. The gunfire had attracted the corrupted ones nearby.
"We all rush out together, then scatter and run. Whether we live or die depends on luck."
Leslie began to take deep breaths. What surprised him was that his words received no response.
"Boy, who are you talking to?"
Aisea easily tore open the metal seal of the can, showing a look of sudden realization, silently praising human wisdom.
Hearing this, Leslie's body stiffened. He turned to look at his two classmates and found their eyes were a deep green, with fine cracks appearing on their skin.
"In areas eroded by the Nether, all the dead will devote themselves to the Nether, even if they ended their own lives. As for your friends and the other two, they were just incidentally assimilated. Normal phenomenon."
Aisea used her thumb and index finger to pick up a piece of mandarin orange. She tilted her head back, opened her mouth, and released her fingers. The orange slice fell into her mouth. The sweet and sour taste made Aisea narrow her eyes.
While she was leisurely, Leslie in front didn't dare to move. He could even hear the monster diagonally behind him breathing instinctively. Although it was meaningless now, the rough breathing sound evoked a sense of power, a powerful strength that didn't match its body size.
"Boy, do you long to save the world?"
"Respected lady, at my age, I long more for..."
Leslie stopped mid-sentence, coughed dryly, and quickly changed his words: "I long to save this world."
Saying this, Leslie's face felt like it was on fire. The words were too chuunibyou, especially when said to such a beautiful and perfect lady.
"That sounds really stupid, but... it's better for you to survive."
Aisea, with orange juice still on her index finger, pointed forward. With a pop! The corrupted ones rushing toward Leslie all exploded into golden-red particles, rolling backward.
The pressure hit him head-on. Leslie's short hair was blown back. He felt a fear from instinct coming at him. What was in front was no longer a beautiful lady, but an elegant predator at the top of the biological pyramid.
"Your name?"
"Leslie, 18 years old, studying at..."
Before Leslie could finish his introduction, he found Aisea, sitting on the wardrobe opposite, smiling. A slight tearing sensation appeared all over his body.
Leslie's expression turned serious. He confirmed one thing: the somewhat lazy, informal lady in front was by no means a kind person. If she felt slightly displeased, she might kill him on the spot.
"Leslie, do you long to become strong?"
"I really do long for that, but I don't have extraordinary talent, and my compatibility with implants isn't high..."
"I understand. You can just say you're trash."
"Sorry, I'm trash."
"I know someone who can help you master powerful strength."
"Who?"
"The lord of the Sun Holy Nest, Kukulin Bai Ye."
"!"
Leslie took a big step back. Recently, the media and newspapers in Platinum Capital had reported a lot about this person, of course, 99.99% of it was negative.
That was natural. During that time, Su Xiao had hijacked the company's transport ship, and the company's three ace employees were killed like chickens and dogs within 3 seconds. The media in Platinum Capital naturally spared no effort to smear Su Xiao.
"Lady, I'm not completely trash. I have some talent in combat armor control. How about we go to New Star City?"
"Stop talking nonsense. Let's go."
Aisea stood up and walked outside. She suddenly became curious: when Su Xiao saw this world child, would he be surprised? It would be interesting to think about.
In reality, Aisea was overthinking. Su Xiao wouldn't be surprised because he had already killed several world children.
...
At noon, inside the base camp.
Five Titan giant beasts guarded the mother nest, with patrols of demon beasts further out. On the distant city wall, many demon beasts were also on alert, while Sun Flame Dragons circled above.
Inside the wooden building, Su Xiao paused the image on the terminal. The image froze on the huge black hole above Platinum Capital fully opening, pouring down a black pillar formed by countless corrupted ones. It felt like the sky was leaking, with disaster pouring down.
Su Xiao had gained more understanding of the Nether forces and their cannon fodder unit, the corrupted ones.
First, regarding Nether energy, it was a "negative attribute energy" amplified by Abyss power. What was "negative attribute energy"? Its scope was broad, including cold, death, erosion, filth, etc., all can be classified as "negative attribute energy." Conversely, life, recovery, light, etc., can be classified as "positive attribute energy."
The known characteristics of Nether energy were two: 1. Assimilate the dead, 2. Suppress death.
The former was easy to understand and was also the most unsolvable aspect of the Nether forces. As long as you fought them, all the dead would devote themselves to the Nether. This caused the Nether forces' cannon fodder to increase the more they fought.
As for suppressing death, this meant that all cannon fodder units of the Nether forces had no weaknesses or vital points. Unless they were blown to pieces or burned to ashes, even if only an arm remained, it would mutate into a mouth, eyes, etc., and then pounce on the enemy. That's how ferocious and tenacious they were.
Platinum Capital was defeated by this point. After the corrupted ones falling from the sky were blown up, no one cared about them. This caused the limbs and organs of the corrupted ones to mutate into various small humanoid corrupted ones, biting civilians everywhere.
Once civilians were killed or had Nether energy invade their bodies, assimilation took only a few minutes.
For some reason, the air defense system of Platinum Capital was unexpectedly weak. This should be a problem with the middle management. The high-level officials of Platinum Capital wouldn't do anything in this regard. At their status, they considered the bigger picture more, and money had little practical meaning to them.
The weakness of the air defense system caused Platinum Capital, which had the strongest wall, to be overwhelmed by the corrupted ones. After that, the 30 million population in the city became a new source of troops for the Nether forces.
In just 20 minutes, Platinum Capital fell. The strongest wall didn't even have a dent. From start to finish, the wall only played a negative role, blocking the civilians' escape routes. Very ironic.
Su Xiao watched the first half of this battle. He noticed one thing: the Nether forces should have a simple but complete power system, with the Nether Emperor at the top. The composition below was unclear to Su Xiao for now.
He had seen an elite unit of the Nether camp earlier. Its eyes were deep green, and its strength was not weak. Strangely, its death was not suppressed, and it even had vital points.
Su Xiao speculated that Nether energy was a double-edged sword. Those completely eroded became corrupted ones, i.e., cannon fodder. Those who could resist erosion and maintain rationality and self were elite units that had initially mastered Nether power.
Facing the Nether forces, Su Xiao only had one feeling: there were too many enemies. For the first time after developing a legion style, he felt like he couldn't win against an even larger human wave tactic.
Although corrupted ones were called cannon fodder, with the support of Nether energy, this cannon fodder was really not weak.
Next, it depended on whether the Nether forces would attack New Star City or the Sun Holy Nest. This was a major weakness of their side: they could only defend, not actively attack. The reason was that they simply didn't know where the Nether's lair was. Attacking the occupied Platinum Capital was meaningless.
Regarding where the Nether's lair was, Su Xiao already had a strategy. First, he was basically certain that Shenfu had joined the Nether forces. If so, by locating Shenfu's position, he could know where the Nether camp's lair was.
As for how to get Shenfu's position, the devourer Su Xiao had given to Shenfu earlier could achieve this. Locating the devourer = locating Shenfu = finding the Nether forces' lair.
That was the third-generation devourer, Dark Sun. For positioning, he could use the Sun power within the mother nest.
Su Xiao was about to start setting up when he received a mental message from Jila. The Spider Queen had retreated because all their external mineral veins had been attacked by the Nether forces. If the Spider Queen hadn't run fast, she would have been left behind.
This situation indicated that the Nether forces not only had an unsolvable human wave tactic but also a complete and wise command strategy.
At first glance, what the Nether forces showed was death, disaster, and chaos.
Upon careful thought, one would find that every step the Nether forces took was very steady. Before invading this world, the Nether forces first infiltrated, contacting various cults or rebel organizations on the colonial planets, using their hatred for the empire to complete the preparation work.
Just when everyone thought the Nether forces only used schemes and intrigues, the Nether army, like a bursting dam, pressed forward openly and directly, suppressing the empire and the company until they couldn't breathe, fleeing their lairs like stray dogs.
After that, the Nether forces didn't rush to attack Pandora Star. First, they indeed couldn't invade easily and needed to infiltrate slowly. Second, the Nether forces began to develop local troops. Since your empire abandoned you, join the Nether. Here, there is no pain, no disease, no need to worry about anything anymore.
At this stage, the Nether forces' troops were terrifyingly numerous, and this was without the Nether forces deploying their core legions.
Half an hour later, the Spider Queen, protected by her personal guard, fled back to the base camp in a somewhat embarrassed manner. She didn't need to intervene in the subsequent war. She just needed to manage the source ore mining.
This also meant that their daily bio-energy production was reduced to 5.1 million points.
Not long after the Spider Queen returned, Su Xiao received an alert from the sensing tower: a biological reaction was rapidly approaching.
A moment later, Su Xiao looked out the window. A giant beast resembling a rhinoceros was running quickly. On the rhinoceros's back sat a blonde woman, with a boy hanging on the side.
The woman's facial outline looked vaguely familiar to Su Xiao. This seemed to be Aisea. Last time they met, she was in male form.
Su Xiao ordered the demon beasts to let them through. A moment later, Aisea, carrying a boy, walked into the wooden building. She first let go of the boy she was carrying, then took a can from her carry-on backpack.
Seeing Aisea about to eat the can, Baha took out a box of pastries made by Xia. At first, Aisea didn't want to eat them. She had a special fondness for mandarin orange cans. But after tasting one of Xia's pastries, she was stunned. Her taste buds couldn't understand what divine flavor this was.
"This is?"
Su Xiao examined the boy Aisea had brought. The boy maintained a stiff smile, looking extremely nervous. As for other aspects, there seemed to be no abnormality.
"His name is Leslie. He is one favored by the world, much more favored than I am."
Aisea's voice was a bit unclear, her mouth full of pastries.
Su Xiao was quite surprised. He carefully observed the boy named Leslie. After careful observation, he indeed found a hint of the world child's feeling. He hadn't sensed it earlier because of the world's protection mechanism.
This world child had just appeared not long ago, possibly even today. Considering that Kara hadn't died long ago, everything was easily explained.
The Nether forces invaded today. Aisea could only be considered one favored by the world. In such a dangerous situation, the appearance of a genuine world child was not surprising.
This world child had just appeared, so his unique fluctuation of luck and fate hadn't manifested yet. Especially when encountering someone like Su Xiao, who had killed world children before, Leslie's unique aura as a world child would naturally be accommodated and concealed by the world's power to prevent Su Xiao from sensing it.
"One favored by the world."
Su Xiao examined Leslie. At that moment, Leslie's scalp tingled, and a chill rushed straight to the soles of his feet. His feeling at this moment was like facing a huge blood beast that could swallow him in one bite. This was no longer a mouse meeting a cat, but a gap of several more dimensions.
"Bai Ye, can he change the current situation?"
Aisea spoke, and as she spoke, her aura enveloped Leslie to prevent his mental level from having problems.
Leslie felt relieved. He realized that the elegant predator he had considered dangerous earlier was actually the most peaceful and least malicious here.
"Yes."
Su Xiao sat down and lit a cigarette.
"What should be done next? Make him stronger?"
Aisea became interested.
"No need. He is at his strongest state now."
Su Xiao was in a good mood. The gloom of Platinum Capital being breached had now cleared.
"He is clearly very weak. What does 'strongest' mean?"
Aisea examined Leslie as she spoke, confirming again that he wasn't hiding his strength.
"I have a friend who has killed several world children..."
"Pfft~"
Aisea couldn't help but laugh. The look she gave Su Xiao clearly said: 'That friend is you yourself, right?'
"According to my friend's research, after a world child appears, they have fate's blood in their body. This is the main reason why world children can quickly become stronger and turn misfortune into fortune. As the world child continuously consumes the fate's blood in their body, they become stronger and stronger. Whether they cultivate by burning life or overdrawing potential, in the end, it will be smoothed over by the consumed fate's blood."
As Su Xiao spoke, he placed a small bottle on the table. The bottle was almost solid, with only a rice-sized hollow inside, containing golden blood.
Simply put, the reason why world children can court death in various ways and still not die, plus their strength increases like a cheat, and they can burst out in battle, is all due to the fate's blood in their body. Without fate's blood, there is no such thing as bursting out. Their body energy is limited; no matter how hard they try, they can't burst out.
Interestingly, when a world child first appears, they have the most fate's blood. After becoming very strong, the fate's blood is exhausted.
However, there is another type of world child. They don't have fate's blood in their body but are directly infused with world power. This type of world child is generally short-lived, either of the chaotic evil camp or the extreme evil camp. Su Xiao knew two such world children: the Nameless Captain and the God King, Os Tobey.
Seeing the fate's blood in the bottle, Aisea's look clearly said: 'Still saying that friend isn't you yourself.'
Aisea's gaze turned to Leslie and said, "Boy, you don't have to work hard to become strong. To save the world, can you donate some blood?"
"Sure, I didn't expect I could be so important. It seems I'm not destined to be the protagonist in the story. Those stories are indeed all lies."
Leslie showed an open-minded mentality beyond his age. He raised his arm, indicating he was willing to accept blood drawing.
Boom!
A loud noise came. As this noise appeared, Su Xiao received a strong alert from the sensing tower. He leaped out the window, landing on the back armor of a demon beast.
Su Xiao looked up at the sky. A black hole appeared in the sky, then expanded to several kilometers in size, becoming a black chasm. Dark green liquid dripped from it. This scene was exactly the same as that of Platinum Capital.
(PS: Recommending a friend's book, titled "Naruto Duel Arena.")