Translator: AnubisTL
Scar Dog clearly had the same thought.
His expression darkening, he asked, "Brother Jiang... could something have happened at Kindling City?"
Just then—
A voice suddenly boomed in their ears.
[Human Race Horn!]
[Player Liu Yiping: "Chen Jiang, come back. Kindling City is gone."]
"Hah!"
Chen Jiang exhaled slowly, his eyes flickering with complex emotions. For a moment, he didn't know what to say. Kindling City... just gone?
Ever since the city's exact coordinates had been announced in the world notice, he'd had a premonition of this.
But the mechanical race had dismissed it, so he hadn't pressed the issue.
Now, with the event barely underway, the mechanical race had bared its fangs as a returning participant, instantly slaughtering nearly five million human players.
What kind of firepower could achieve such devastation?
After a moment of silence, he replied.
[Human Race Horn!]
[Player Chen Jiang: "Understood."]
After sending the message, he gazed into the distance. He said little, but the sheer scale of the loss—nearly six million human players dead at once—was staggering.
Yet this shock was merely the surface. The true horror lay in the implications of such a devastating strike.
Upon first descending into this wilderness, the mechanical race immediately organized its forces and began systematically purging all alien race players.
The number of alien race players who perished in that initial purge far surpassed the staggering losses of this recent massacre.
Millions were no longer sufficient units for counting the dead.
Casualties were measured in hundreds of millions, even billions.
Had it not been for Chen Jiang and Scar Dog's extreme caution and sheer luck, they too would have perished in that initial purge.
After standing in silence for a moment, Chen Jiang didn't immediately return. Instead, he cleared out the remaining six mechanical race cities in the area, as well as the ape-man race canyon.
In total, he obtained 1.05 million fusion points.
Combined with the 180,000 fusion points he had previously acquired, his total now stood at 1.23 million fusion points.
An impressive sum, yet still far short of Feng Jiutian's nearly 5 million fusion points, which loomed before him like an insurmountable mountain.
Having completed these tasks, Chen Jiang, Scar Dog, and Li Hao opened phantom gates and returned to the world tree ruins.
They didn't use the world tree for travel.
The world tree's travel speed was too slow compared to the phantom gates. As long as the destination was within Li Hao's map range, they could arrive in the blink of an eye.
"Brother Jiang."
Seeing Chen Jiang return, Zhao Ritian asked with a complex expression, "Is Kindling City really gone?"
Although he barely knew anyone from Kindling City—only the human guardian Liu Yiping—as a fellow human, he couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy, like a rabbit mourning the fox's death.
While human players had died before, never had nearly five million perished in a single event. Perhaps such a catastrophe had occurred before, but it hadn't been publicly announced, so he remained unaware.
But Kindling City... he had been there, eaten noodles within its walls, and even helped defend it. He had fought alongside Brother Jiang against alien races within its borders. Now, the city was gone, leaving him with an unsettling sense of unreality.
"Yeah," Chen Jiang replied after a pause, nodding. "It's probably gone. Let's go together." He then turned to Wang Defa, who was standing nearby. "Come on, you too."
"Alright."
Soon, Chen Jiang's group stepped through the light gate and arrived at Kindling City.
The city had been utterly transformed.
The original Kindling City had vanished completely. No walls, no buildings—nothing remained. The entire area had been razed to the ground.
The ruins lay scattered across the site like shattered fragments, resembling an ancient historical site at first glance.
And at that moment...
Across the ruins, countless fires blazed, filling the air with the acrid, meaty stench of burning flesh. Human players, their faces streaked with tears, surged through the light gate, rushing toward what remained of Kindling City. They frantically clawed at the debris, their hands digging through the wreckage.
At that moment, the human guardian, who had been waiting beside the light gate, stepped forward as Chen Jiang approached. He moved to Chen Jiang's side and followed his gaze toward the ruined Kindling City in the distance, speaking in a somber tone.
"Kindling City had regulations."
"Those who hadn't used their racial innate ability were assigned to the first-line guard corps, while those who had were assigned to the second-line guard corps."
"The event had just begun, and nearly all of the first-line guard corps had voluntarily left Kindling City through the light gate to hunt down and eliminate alien race players."
"Some of the second-line guard corps followed suit."
"When the explosion occurred, some human players within Kindling City had used their racial innate ability, while others hadn't."
"We've just completed a rough count. Fewer than a million human players have been resurrected."
"Which means..."
The human guardian didn't finish his sentence, but everyone clearly understood the unspoken half.
Fewer than a million human players had resurrected, meaning over four million remained dead.
The true death toll from the explosion was over four million human players!
"Kindling City is a four-star item," Chen Jiang said after a pause. "Didn't it have any defensive structures? Energy shields or anything like that?"
"It had a basic energy shield, but it shattered instantly upon impact," the guardian replied. "To build stronger structures and energy shields, we need to upgrade them using human race merit points."
"I've already implemented tax policies and started collecting merit points. If everything goes according to plan, we should be able to construct a stronger building or energy shield every two to three days."
"But it's too late. The explosion came too suddenly, without any warning."
"If I'd known this would happen, I would have forcibly collected merit points from the human players back then. But dwelling on it now is pointless."
Chen Jiang remained silent, having destroyed countless cities—all belonging to the mechanical race. Yet when he witnessed their destruction firsthand, he felt nothing.
Not even pity.
He merely thought the cities lacked enough inhabitants to satisfy his bloodlust.
But when the same fate befell Kindling City, he felt a pang of discomfort.
It might be hypocritical, but he couldn't shake the unease.
Though he desperately wanted to ask why Kindling City's millions of human players lacked powerful items or innate abilities, he kept the questions to himself.
Just then, he noticed an old woman standing near a light gate, her expression blank as she stared vacantly through the portal, seemingly seeing nothing at all.
He recognized her.
They had eaten noodles at her shop twice before.
The human guardian, following Chen Jiang's gaze, also spotted the old woman.
After a pause, the guardian spoke: "That old woman's son was in the guard corps. He used his racial innate ability once and was demoted to the second-line guard corps."
"During the explosion, she and her son were both in the shop."
"After the explosion, the old woman's racial innate ability hadn't been used yet, so she revived. But her son didn't."
"The old woman couldn't accept this reality. The shock of it all drove her mad, and she's been standing by the light gate ever since."
"Before, whenever her son left with the guard corps to hunt alien race players, she would always wait by the light gate for his return."
"Perhaps she still believes her son will walk out of the light gate any moment, just like he used to."
"The old woman is elderly and doesn't fully understand or accept the Ten Thousand Races Arena, racial innate abilities, Personal Innate Ability Items, or any of that. She only vaguely knows that the world has become like a game where people can revive after death, and that it's a dangerous place where death is commonplace."
After that, the human guardian fell silent.
He naturally recognized the old woman. Chen Jiang and the others had eaten noodles at her shop twice, after which he began keeping a close eye on her to ensure she wouldn't be bullied or face any other troubles within Kindling City.
Chen Jiang wanted to avoid any trouble if he came to the old woman's noodle shop again and saw this situation. He nodded slightly, his expression calm as he gazed at the old woman standing silently near the light gate.
He suddenly remembered Scar Dog's suggestion to capture the old woman and bring her to the world tree to make noodles for them every day. Chen Jiang had objected at the time, pointing out that she had a son. Now, he wondered if he should have listened to Scar Dog; perhaps it would have been the right thing to do.
At that moment, the old woman noticed Chen Jiang. Her face flushed with emotion, she stumbled toward him, her steps unsteady. As she drew near, she tripped and fell to the ground, her eyes red-rimmed as she pleaded in her local dialect, her voice trembling.
"You're Chen Jiang, aren't you? After you left last time, the human guardian came to tell me to use less salt in the noodles next time."
"I know the name Chen Jiang."
"I hear your name often. I know you're a powerful figure. Can you save my son? I've been resurrected, so why hasn't he? I had three sons, but the first two died. He's my only remaining child."
"Why hasn't he been resurrected?"
"Just a few days ago, I was arranging for him to marry a young woman from the city. Everything was going so well. How could this suddenly happen?"
Scar Dog's mouth twitched slightly. He desperately wanted to explain that her son's racial innate ability had already been used and he couldn't be resurrected again.
But it was clear the old woman didn't know her son's racial innate ability had been exhausted, or perhaps she never truly understood the concept of phoenix nirvana in the first place.
After a moment of silence, Chen Jiang calmly helped the old woman to her feet and handed her over to the human guardian standing nearby. He paused before saying, "Take her away."
"Understood."
The human guardian waved his hand, and two figures stepped forward to assist the old woman as she slowly shuffled away.
The old woman moved like a lost soul, being led away mechanically while muttering incoherently. If she had once possessed a vague understanding of the Ten Thousand Races Arena, that understanding had now completely vanished. All that remained was her grief over the loss of her only surviving son.
Chen Jiang watched the old woman's retreating figure, his expression serene and unreadable.
He hadn't finished his thought earlier. What he truly meant to say was, "Take her away from this world."
An old woman, trapped in the Ten Thousand Races Arena, had lost all three of her sons. Her age and mental state were deteriorating rapidly.
Her remaining life held no dignity, only suffering.
For the elderly, hope is often the greatest motivation to keep living. Without even that, existence becomes mere survival.
Perhaps leaving this world would be a release.
But he couldn't bring himself to say it aloud. It would have felt too selfish toward the old woman.
"I won't last much longer either," the human guardian suddenly announced, sharing his talent panel. "I never realized how quickly human players were dying."
[Talent Name]: Guardian
[Talent Effect]: Your life is bound to all human players. When the number of human player deaths exceeds 60%, you will die as well, rendering the racial innate ability Phoenix Nirvana ineffective.
However, as long as human player deaths remain below 60%, you will be immune to death, regardless of the cause.
Additionally, slightly increases the drop rate of mutated beasts for all human players.
[Progress]: 5782
Chen Jiang gazed at the human guardian's talent panel. This wasn't his first time seeing it, but the last time he looked, the line about "Progress" hadn't been there.
Moreover, the number after "Progress" was constantly decreasing:
5782, 5780, 5777.
At a rate of approximately two points per second, it was rapidly dwindling.
"When this number reaches zero," the human guardian said in a slow, hoarse voice, like an elder stating a simple truth, "it means the death toll among human players has exceeded sixty percent."
"And this," he continued, "is the current overall death rate among human players."
"Every minute, over a hundred human players are dying in various locations across this planet, in ways we don't even understand."
"My innate ability dictates that when the human player death count surpasses sixty percent, I will be consumed by death itself."
"At the current rate of two human players dying per second, I likely have less than fifty minutes left to live."
After a moment of silence, the human guardian spoke again: "It's not that I fear death's approach. After all, when you first topped the race kill rankings, I had a chance to randomly change my personal innate ability."
(End of the Chapter)
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