Chapter 799

Roddy ran while holding Nicole, covering a distance of several kilometres before stopping. Then, he quickly jumped out from the mech.

Nicole’s face was pale and her eyes were tightly closed. Roddy extended his hand to check her breathing before releasing a soft sigh of relief. Hastily, he brought out a handful of Healing Beast Bloods and haphazardly shoved them into Nicole’s mouth.

After swallowing the Healing Beast Bloods, Nicole’s complexion improved slightly. However, she was still in an unconscious state.

“Roddy, you bitch! How are things on your end?”

Lun Tai’s hurried voice came through the guild channel.

“She’s still alive, but still unconscious.” Roddy lowered his head to look at Nicole.

“By the way, when I was saving Nicole just now, there was someone beside her. I also didn’t take him away.”

“He is…” Lun Tai’s voice grew somewhat hesitant.

“Tian Lie.”

“What?!”

Roddy gave a bewildered cry and jumped to his feet.

…

After Gaza’s death, the rest of the members from Thorned Flower Guild immediately chose to flee.

A reinforcing force of the opposing side had managed to suddenly kill off their Team Leader, the strongest amongst them here. Was there any need to continue this battle?

The camp immediately became deserted. With the exception of the burning barracks and Tian Lie, who was lying on the floor, the only ones left there were the members of Meteor Rock Guild.

But Lun Tai and the others were feeling very puzzled.

That person who suddenly attacked in the end and snatched away the meteorite, who was that?

It would appear that the silhouette had been lying in wait for a long time, hiding and lurking until that final moment when it suddenly launched an attack, killing the Team Leader of Thorned Flower Guild.

To be able to kill off a Team Leader of Thorned Flower Guild with one attack, that strength had likely reached…

[S] class!

Why did an [S] class character suddenly appear in this instance dungeon?

Roddy, holding Nicole, had already returned to the camp.

“There are no external wounds.”

Qiao Qiao had to expend quite some effort to decompose a hole on the cockpit of the Magic Mech. Lun Tai, who was crouched down, investigated the corpse there.

They could not see any wounds on Gaza’s body, but he was no longer breathing.

Tian Lie, who was beside them, only had half his body left. Still, given how monstrous his body was, he would not die from something like that.

“You… do you need any help?”

Qiao Qiao squatted and asked Tian Lie.

Although they had fought to the death in the Tokyo instance dungeon, everyone from Meteor Rock Guild had known – since Chen Xiaolian returned from World’s End – that Da Gang was Tian Lie.

Aside from Chen Xiaolian, the others weren’t exactly well acquainted with Da Gang. Even so, they could still be counted as acquaintances.

Moreover, during those days, Da Gang also did not do anything that would threaten them.

“I’ll be fine after a while.”

Tian Lie shook his head, an impassive mask on his face. Propping his half body up, he said, “Right now, even if there are metal objects for me to replenish myself, I would not be able to absorb them. That fellow… he left a special virus in my body. It’s disrupting the normal operations of my skill. I will need at least one more hour before I can return to normal.”

“Alright.” Qiao Qiao nodded. She had personally seen just how strong Tian Lie’s body was. Since he managed to stay alive, he would not die so easily. There was no need to worry.

“Nicole…”

Qiao Qiao had just turned her head when she heard Tian Lie speak up in a whisper.

“That stupid girl didn’t die, right?”

“No.” Qiao Qiao turned to look at Tian Lie before shaking her head. “She’s quite badly wounded, but it’s not fatal. Only, the damage to her Floater is quite serious.”

“Alright.” Tian Lie nodded, closing his eyes. For the first time, a look of exhaustion appeared on his face.

…

Tens of kilometres away, inside a hotel within a small town, Theodore was looking at a candle placed on the table before him. He waited, an anxious look on his face.

The burning candle was about to be completely burned up. There was less than one centimetre left. Theodore’s brows knitted closer and closer.

Just as the flame of the candle was about to reach the bottom, Theodore abruptly revealed a look of joy and he blew, extinguishing the candle flame.

The moment the candle light went out, another person appeared in the room.

“Guild Leader, you’re finally back! The countdown should have begun, right?”

Looking at Aderick, who had suddenly appeared in the room, Theodore swiftly stood up with a smile.

“Wait!”

There was a strict expression on Aderick’s face as he held the meteorite. Waving at Theodore, he then closed his eyes. After some time, he gently shook his head. “No, this instance dungeon is not complete yet. The quest has changed.”

“Changed?” Theodore’s face froze. “Just now, when we entered the second phase, wasn’t the quest the system gave us to kill off the meteorite holder?”

“It’s a stupid game of beat the drum and pass the flower.” With a cold expression, Aderick sent the system prompt to Theodore through the guild channel.

“Forty-eight hours?” Theodore gnashed his teeth. “For forty-eight hours, our position will be constantly displayed on the other teams’ radar? This… damn it! The system didn’t say anything just now!”

Theodore carefully read the prompt three times before coming to understand what Aderick meant about the ‘game of beat the drum and pass the flower’. Instantly, his face sank.

𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Back when Gaza made contact with the meteorite, all the other participating teams had received a notification about the start of the second phase. However, the notification only contained a short sentence: The alien meteorite had been snatched. Kill the meteorite holder.

At the same time, the coordinates for the meteorite also appeared on both their radars.

Originally, they had assumed that by killing off Thorned Flower Guild’s team that had obtained the meteorite, this instance dungeon would end.

But now, they too had become the meteorite holders.

In other words, they would become the besieged. Moreover, they would not be able to hide.

“The damned Development Team! They made it so further options would only be displayed for Players who had made contact with the meteorite! Before snatching the meteorite, all the other teams would not know that they would end up becoming the next prey!” Aderick snorted.

“This shouldn’t be that big of an issue.” Theodore took a deep breath and comforted himself. “The other teams in this instance dungeon should not have any strong individuals. Now that Thorned Flower Guild has been taken out, even if we come under siege from the others, we still have a chance of coming out alive.”

“Completing the quest is indeed not hard, but…” Aderick’s face grew increasingly dark. “There is no way we can continue to conceal our whereabouts anymore.”

After the collapse of Zero City, Aderick had led what remained of the people from Zero City to establish a new, temporary base in the South Pole. Everyone was strictly forbidden from leaving. However, now that they no longer have the shield afforded by Zero City, they would once again face the possibility of being selected by the system to participate in instance dungeons.

This time, the one selected was the Knights of Darkness Guild.

Aderick aside, the only other expert amongst the survivors of the guild was the [A+] class Theodore. To ensure that their whereabouts were not exposed, Aderick had elected to bring only Theodore with him to participate in this Los Angeles instance dungeon.

Aderick had the same plan as Meteor Rock Guild, find the location of the meteorite in advance and lay in ambush nearby. Once a team obtained ownership over the meteorite, they would promptly kill the meteorite holder to end the instance dungeon. That way, contact between them and the other teams could be minimized as much as possible and their whereabouts would not be leaked.

Aderick and Theodore had obtained information regarding the meteorite’s crash site very early on. Unlike the other teams, however, Aderick had snuck into the camp alone. Theodore, on the other hand, waited for Aderick in another town located tens of kilometres away.

The candle was a prop redeemed from the system called the Return Candle. The user would bind themself with the Return Candle. After that, no matter how far away they were, once the candle flame was extinguished, they would instantly return beside the Return Candle.

Earlier, Aderick had been hiding silently until the Return Candle nearly burned out before he could find the best opportunity to strike. After killing Gaza with one attack, he had Theodore blow the candleflame to bring him back.

Naturally, he had also brought the alien meteorite with him.

Aderick did not think that this instance dungeon would play such a big joke on them.

He lowered his head and stared at the alien meteorite before him.

“Guild Leader?” Theodore’s face sank. “Surely, you are not thinking of…”

“Actually, it shouldn’t be too bad.”

Aderick raised his head and cast a smile at Theodore. “According to the description given by the instance dungeon, the genetic enhancement and power obtained from devouring the embryo should be very strong. More importantly, this power can be retained after this instance dungeon is over.”

“But… if that’s the case, you…” Theodore clenched his fists. “Doesn’t that mean you will become a monster?!”

“If I become a monster, then so be it.” Aderick shook his head.

“Our location is already revealed on the radar. We will come under siege from all the teams here. Say we can defeat all of the teams, we need to ensure that not a single person survives. If even a single person survives, once this instance dungeon is over, everyone in the Awakened world will know that the survivors from Zero City are still alive somewhere in this world.

“Our strength is already very weak. We cannot take another loss.

“By devouring the embryo, we will stop appearing on the radar. We’ll be able to continue hiding and avoid making contact with the other teams for the time being.

“More importantly, we are currently lacking power!”

Aderick stretched his hand to gently rub the rough surface of the meteorite. “We’ve lost a high number of combatants. Almost all the survivors are men from the research and development and logistics department. Their combat power is seriously lacking! But according to this instance dungeon’s prompt, once I obtain the power of this embryo, even after I leave this instance dungeon, I might still be able to – through genetic propagation – establish a formidable army.

“Maybe their combat power would be very weak, or maybe they would be very strong. It’s hard to say. But at the very least, they would be cannon fodders and not our precious members. No matter how many of those cannon fodders die, it would not be distressful!”

“But this is too dangerous! What if, after you devour the embryo…” Theodore had an anxious expression on him.

“Risks have to be taken.” Aderick shook his head. “Do you think that our actions now can truly hide us forever? That’s impossible, Theodore.”

“This time, the two of us are the only ones selected to participate in this instance dungeon. But this is a very rare fortune! How many people have I accompanied into instance dungeons thus far?

“Every time, I would be the only one fighting. By doing so, we can indeed ensure that our secret remains hidden, but it also means that the other members will not receive rewards from the instance dungeon.

“It is impossible for me to carry everyone like this forever. The day will come when someone discovers us. Meanwhile, our strength would remain stagnant.

“Before that day arrives, we have to make use of what time we have to improve our strength!

“As it so happens, this opportunity has appeared before us!”

Seeing Theodore about to say something again, Aderick raised his palm to stop him. “Enough. We don’t have the time to exchange nonsense now. Who knows? Maybe some teams are already using their radar to come after us.”

Raising his sword up high, Aderick aimed and stabbed it into the meteorite.

From the system prompt, they had found out that this meteorite was – in essence – actually an egg. However, its outer shell was tens of times harder than a rock. Aderick’s sword, the Soul Eater Sword, was already an [S] class weapon. Even so, he had to exert 80% of his strength to cut open the outer shell.

A faint-yellow liquid flowed out from the cut, giving off a vomit-inducing stench.

Theodore’s face turned ugly to behold and he had to force himself to not cover his nose.

Aderick, on the other hand, clenched his teeth and kept his sword. Then, he inserted both hands into the cut he made and pulled open the outer shell by force.

The shell was torn in half and even more of the faint-yellow fluid spilled out.

There in the middle of the two torn shells was a piece of meat. It wriggled non-stop, tens of tendrils covering it surface.

“How disgusting.” Aderick mumbled, but he did not hesitate to reach out with his hand to grab the piece of meat and shove it into his mouth before swallowing it down.

“Guild Leader…” Theodore gaped as he watched Aderick swallow the embryo. He could not stop himself from gulping a mouthful of saliva as both his hand gripped the blades on either side of his waist.

Hopefully… nothing bad happens.

After swallowing the embryo, Aderick’s whole body began twitching violently. But it only lasted for a moment before he fell silent and stood straight again.

“Guild Leader… you… you are still our Guild Leader, right?”

Watching Aderick slowly turning to face him, Theodore’s calves twitched slightly.

Although his combat power had long since reached [A+] class, Theodore knew all too well how big of a difference there was between him and his [S] class Guild Leader.

Heaven knows what devouring the alien embryo would do to a person. If his Guild Leader were to end up being controlled by the genes inside, becoming a monster that cared not about even his own relatives…

“Let’s go.” Thankfully, the words that came out of Aderick’s mouth made Theodore feel somewhat relieved.

“We cannot stay here much longer.”

Nodding, Theodore quickly brought out a flying skateboard from his storage gear before jumping on it.

As for Aderick, a pair of shadow wings grew from his back. Bringing out the Soul Eater Sword, he flew upwards. When he was about to touch the ceiling, he poked up gently to instantly create a large hole on the ceiling.

The two of them flew through the hole and swiftly flew far away.

Beat the drum and pass the flower. A game where people sit in a circle passing around a flower while a drum is beaten. When the drum stops, the one with the flower must do something agreed beforehand, such as singing a song or drink a glass of wine.