Chapter 592.2: We'll Go Down Together!

Failing to create distance, Mountain Falcon panicked a little. While stabilizing himself, he drove the dagger into the man holding his right leg.

The dagger struck an unarmored spot and sank two inches under Dog Good Names’s scapula. It did not hurt much, but it made him gnash his teeth.

When Dog Good Names did not let go, Mountain Falcon mercilessly stabbed repeatedly, raking through unarmored areas of his back.

Being a perception type player with weaker physical attributes than strength and constitution classes, Dog Good Names had tried to trip the killer but could not. Instead he ended up with his back gushing blood, stabbed in countless non-vital spots.

“Shit... are we actually playing for real?” he hissed.

Glancing at the little girl collapsed in a pool of blood, Dog Good Names grit his teeth, resolved himself, and with the last of his strength swung his body toward the window near the courtyard side of the corridor.

Anyway, he got a new life every three days. If he kept messing around, he might die without taking his attacker down with him.

Smash!

The window glass shattered outward, falling to the courtyard below from the second floor with a loud crash.

The fierce fighting was already enough to draw other nearby players’ attention. Someone would arrive soon.

Dog Good Names stared at the killer who hadn’t spoken a word from the start, The only difference was, his face was contorted. With a strange grin appearing on his face, he pushed off with all his might out of the window.

“Well, let’s go!”

Taken by surprise and flung out the window, Mountain Falcon wasn’t prepared for what was to come. He stared in astonishment at the reckless madman.

Luckily he had quick reactions. He grabbed the window ledge and hung outside it, then lifted his left foot and kicked hard at the man holding his right leg.

The fall from that height wouldn’t kill him.

His target was the antibody carrier, Yang Xiaoyang. If he threw her out of the window, there was no chance for her to live.

Unable to shake off the man clinging to his leg, Mountain Falcon bit his teeth and threw away his dagger, reaching for the fragment grenade at his waist when he saw the swollen face below break into a victorious grin.

“Let’s go to hell together!”

Earlier, he had pulled the final safety pin from the plastic bomb strapped to his exoskeleton, the last bomb, a grim old tradition of the Burning Corps.

A wisp of blue smoke rose from under the exoskeleton’s chest plate.

Mountain Falcon’s expression faltered. Before the look on his face could turn to panic, the flash and smoke of the explosion instantly swallowed them both.

Every window in the corridor was shattered by the blast.

Because the explosion happened outside, the shockwave did not propagate into the corridor; even so, Yang Xiaoyang, who had been about to get up to help, was knocked to the ground.

“

Ugh

!”

Ignoring the pain that threatened to make her cry, Yang Xiaoyang struggled up from the floor littered with glass shards, looked fearfully at the broken window, then at Yinyin lying in a pool of blood, and limped over, biting her lip.

That shocking pool of blood made her give up any hope of that one-in-a-million possibility that she might live, but she still reached out a trembling forefinger to Yinyin’s lips...

There was no longer any breath.

Lowering her hand, she felt the world spin. Eventually, she sank limp to the ground.

At that moment hurried footsteps sounded down the corridor and she saw many people rushing over. The researcher sister who had drawn blood from her earlier and others wearing exoskeletons as they ran over.

“There’s a wounded here!”

“Quick, stop the bleeding!”

“Damn... this person is not breathing.”

“Where’s a treatment syringe?! Somebody lend me one!”

“Why do you need to borrow one anyway? I’ve got one here, just take it!”

In a daze she heard them shouting as they carried Yinyin from the shards and blood and dashed for the stairs.

Chen Yutong crouched in front of her and gripped her shoulders hard, speaking into her ear with a voice breaking with tears.

There was no elation at surviving. Yang Xiaoyang felt a sudden ache in her nose and all her emotions poured out of her eyes.

She had never been so sad...

...

Official forum.

Although Brocade Lake Municipality, 800 kilometers from Dawn City, had already descended into chaos, the forum in another world remained calm.

Quit Bullshit found a new fishing spot north of Falling Leaf City. One could catch eels as thick as thighs there, but they just needed to sacrifice a bunch of people to do so.

The Storm Corps had taken over the Jungle Corps’s anti-marauder mission, and Spring Water Commander was sharing notes on Mutant Human tribes in the north and jungle combat tips.

As for Eye Owe Money, who had gone missing for a long time in the Sunset Province, he had finally returned and posted travel notes on the forum. It was another kind of walkthrough.

By the way, the Wislander folk stranded in Pioneer City finally received parts from afar and repaired their airship. They were heading home to Triumphant City. Battlefield Cheerleader felt both anticipation and hesitation, not knowing when he would be able to return to the New Alliance with his Wislander title hanging proudly on him.

Overall, everyone’s daily life was still cheerful.

Night Ten, who logged off early, reported the situation in the group and, having nothing else to do, made a forum post out of boredom.

Night Ten: Damn... I messed up today.

Sideline Slacking: What happened, bro?

Irene: Tell us, curious. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

The thread went quiet for a bit.

After being prodded for a full minute, Night Ten reluctantly replied.

Night Ten: ... Uh, got stabbed on the way to trigger a mission.

Spring Water Commander: Pfft...

Elf Wang: Who would stab a perception class like you??

Night Ten: I’m puzzled too, I felt nothing. Dog Good Names and I were gone in an instant. I thought he had his throat cut... There’s definitely something wrong with that guy.

Spring Water Commander: Could it be an awakener from the Torch Church?

Night Ten: Not that simple... I felt more like...

Sideline Slacking: Like what?

Night Ten: Frost, Eclipse, those kinds...

Unprofessional Retort: WTF? A battle android?!

Night Ten: Yeah... I heard perception classes are essentially a composite sensing of certain biological pheromones and detection of environmental changes. An android would lack the former, so I basically couldn’t sense it.

Of course, it could also be a cyborg like Hyrja with extensive biomechanical implants.

Considering the Torch Church’s black boxes mainly synthesized bionic organs, producing a cyborg wouldn’t be hard. It was just a matter of cost.

Spring Water Commander: Hmm... I don’t know the situation over there, but if that’s the case... isn’t the building in danger?

Night Ten: I already told the brother who handles online/offline contact in the group. It should be fine... But weird, why hasn’t Dog Good Names shown up yet? Didn’t he die with me?

The Burning Corps had a habit of rotating people to do offline duty, to facilitate timely communication. It was Ample Time’s idea. So at the first sign of deaths, Night Ten messaged the contact brother to log on and tell everyone there was trouble in the settlement.

Strangely, their brother dog had not bubbled out in the forums yet.

Just as Night Ten was wondering, speak of the devil, Dog Good Names popped into the post.

Dog Good Names: Damn! I was fighting that boss hot and heavy, and you’re spamming here?!

Night Ten: What the hell?! Weren’t you dead?

Dog Good Names: Who told you I was dead! I’ll tell you, Little Feather’s revival armor is damn good! I was about to log off, then my neck warmed up and I stood back up!

Elf Wang: ??? That good?

Irene: That cheat... It’s invincible. I’ll get one later. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Night Ten: Wait, forget the revival armor, how are things on your end?! What the hell was that thing that stabbed us?

He cared most about the little lass. As for whether his brother was dead, it didn’t matter. Everyone could revive anyway. They even saved their progress recently. Dying wasn’t painful at all...

Dog Good Names: Who knows, that guy ignored me; looked like he was after that antibody girl... Damn, he has no conscience. He actually wanted to stab a kid!

Night Ten: Where are you?!

Dog Good Names: Couldn’t beat him. That guy’s got something, in a second he gave me like five cuts. Probably what you said, a cyborg or something! But I reacted fast enough to drag him out into the corridor and took him out using the old trick.

Lawless Madman: Newbie here, dumb question: what's the old trick? ( ˶°ㅁ°)??

Dog Good Names: Heh heh, when I’m alive I’ll teach you step by step. (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵)

While everyone discussed, Ample Time’s ID suddenly popped up.

Ample Time: Who is on the Heart of Steel? Or who can contact the airship in-game?

Light Wind: (raises hand)

Ample Time: Pinecone Ranch’s whole area is about twenty-five kilometers away, near coordinates (X-233, Y-365). Our recon squad spotted a Mutant Human force roughly the size of a 1,000-man unit, some vehicles of unknown type, moving at 10 to 20 km/h... We are radio silent. Please report those coordinates to the Heart of Steel.

Light Wind: Huh?

Ample Time: What’s up?

Light Wind: Nothing... just our captain went out to scout for you, but looks like it won’t be needed? 0.0

Night Ten: No worries, we’ll tease him later for running for nothing. Won’t leave him hanging. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Irene: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

...

In the bridge of the Heart of Steel.

Staring at the vast sea of smoke piling on the ground, the captain by the observation window furrowed his brow. “... Visibility is too poor on the surface. Our planes can’t see anything.”

Chu Guang looked at him and asked, “Have you found the source of the fog?”

The captain shook his head. “Our consultant from the Biological Research Institution thinks... These obscurants might not be ordinary fog but spores released from the soil.”

“Spores?” Chu Guang frowned slightly.

The captain nodded. “The consultant’s take, based on clues gathered at the front, was that Slime Mold lying dormant in soil and within the greenery could, under certain conditions, release spores similar to those of Hives. However, these spores do not have the same information-exchange capability as the Hive... This is mainly due to portions of genes derived from those present in their genome.”

Chu Guang frowned. “So Na Fruit fungus has a connection to the Mutant Slime Mold?”

The captain hesitated, then said, “She believes there’s a link, but Na Fruit isn’t a branch of the Mutant Slime Mold. It appears to be manmade. Segments of Mutant Slime Mold genes were cut and grafted into the nuclei of some other fungal species... The research is ongoing and the consultant couldn’t give a definitive conclusion.”

Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully. “I see.”

At that moment, Little Seven on his shoulder suddenly lifted its head, leaned in, and whispered something in his ear.

After listening, Chu Guang looked at the captain and ordered, “Prepare the portside batteries and the bow main gun for fire. Aim at coordinates (X-233, Y-365), correct 500 meters to the west, and advance the barrage westward for two kilometers.”

The captain’s face turned serious. Without asking why, he answered immediately, “Aye!”