Translator: AnubisTL
The crowd before him was truly massive.
Nearly a million people gathered in one place created a pressure no less overwhelming than tens of thousands of lions standing together.
Chen Jiang couldn't even count the number of people ahead; he could only see a dense, dark mass standing before him.
As his words rang out,
"Revenge!!!"
The human players, their faces alight with fervor, surged toward the light gate Chen Jiang had indicated. The chaotic swarm moved without a single trampling incident—a remarkable feat in itself.
Everyone rushed into the light gate.
At this moment, they needed a war to wash away the humiliation festering in their hearts.
In truth, if nearly a million human players flooded into a mechanical race city, the city might initially resist with its firepower. But it wouldn't take long before the defenses would crumble.
These weren't defenseless civilians.
Each human player possessed a unique innate ability, and when nearly a hundred of them gathered, their combined strength would undoubtedly far exceed the sum of their individual powers.
The human guardian gazed with a complex expression at the swarm of human players rushing toward the light gate leading to the mechanical race city. After a moment of silence, he spoke, "Kindling City can be rebuilt."
"This is the effect of a four-star item. All it requires is a certain amount of human race merit points."
"I've already entrusted this matter to my successor. After the reconstruction, we need to immediately collect merit points from human players to prioritize building a high-level energy shield."
"That way, we can prevent such disasters from happening again."
"Mm."
Chen Jiang nodded slightly, showing little concern for the matter. Instead, he asked, "You don't have much time left, do you?"
"About that..."
The human guardian sighed, his voice tinged with resignation. "I probably had forty minutes left, but with so many human players rushing into the mechanical race city, I'd say I'm down to three or five minutes now."
"I miscalculated. I should have waited until you died before letting them go."
"It doesn't matter. It's all the same. Got a cigarette?"
The human guardian shrugged, a wry smile suddenly appearing on his deeply wrinkled face. "A smoke before I go. Gives death a bit of ceremony. For an old man like me, this is actually a pretty good way to go."
"I've never seen you smoke before," Chen Jiang remarked, casually pulling a pack of cigarettes from Scar Dog's pocket and tossing it to the human guardian.
"I don't smoke," the guardian replied, taking the pack and pulling out a cigarette to put in his mouth. He tossed the rest back to Scar Dog. "I never smoked before, of course. But I've seen many human players, fighting alien race players to the death, lose limbs and still manage to light a cigarette in their final moments."
"I thought, perhaps dying with a cigarette is a uniquely masculine romance."
"My remaining life is like this burning cigarette, slowly approaching its end."
"Tsk," Scar Dog clicked his tongue, a hint of melancholy in his voice. "Come on, old man, I'll join you for one."
"By the time we finish these, it'll be about time to move on. Death, you know, if you accept its existence, it's not so scary after all."
"Who knows? Maybe after we die, we'll discover, 'Whoa, we get another life!'"
"Here!"
He dragged out the flamethrower and set it beside them, lit a cigarette, and tossed it into the barrel. "Let my old buddy join us for one too."
"Thanks."
The human guardian glanced at the rapidly decreasing numbers on his talent panel but said nothing more. He took a deep drag from his cigarette, then immediately erupted into a violent coughing fit, his face flushing crimson.
"Damn it! This thing is really hard to smoke."
"Yeah, it's pretty rough." Scar Dog nodded in agreement.
"Human race..." The human guardian stared at the glowing red tip of the cigarette in his hand, then looked up at Chen Jiang with a complex expression. "It must not perish."
Chen Jiang stood calmly, silent for a moment before replying softly, "Of course it won't."
"Good." The human guardian exhaled softly, then suddenly stiffened slightly before collapsing straight to the ground, his breathing ceasing.
By this point, the total number of human player deaths had exceeded 60%.
Due to his innate ability, the human guardian had reached his end.
"Phew."
After the human guardian fell, Scar Dog stood up and surveyed the surroundings. "What do you say, Brother Jiang? Should we start moving too?"
He didn't feel much grief over the human guardian's death.
He'd seen this happen countless times.
In the Ten Thousand Races Arena, human players died every moment. He himself had died once. It was hard to feel much sorrow about it. Unless it was Brother Jiang who died, he rarely experienced any strong emotional reactions.
Everyone dies eventually. You just get used to it.
"Let's go."
Chen Jiang turned to Li Hao. "Have you pinpointed his location?"
"Yes," Li Hao said, his expression serious. "Feng Jiutian's real-time coordinates are 100,000 meters away from the fourth light gate from the end of the third row."
"We'll need to open 100 phantom gates."
"But I haven't rested since mapping the area and opening the gates for the human players. My mental power is depleted. I need at least three hours to recover enough mental power to map the 100,000-meter distance between that light gate and Feng Jiutian's location."
"Alright," Chen Jiang nodded. "We'll wait three hours. We can discuss it again once you've recovered your mental power. He's not going anywhere."
At that moment, two guards strode over and carried away the human guardian's corpse. Simultaneously, a square-faced man stepped forward and stood before Chen Jiang and his group, his expression stern.
"Chen Jiang, hello."
"I am the second-generation human guardian, responsible for the reconstruction of Kindling City and subsequent tasks."
"Second-generation human guardian?" Scar Dog asked thoughtfully. "Do you not have a name?"
"The Guardian Lord has decreed that all future successors will use the title 'human guardian.' If I die, the next successor will be the third generation."
"Until the human race is completely settled."
"I understand," Chen Jiang said with a slight nod, offering no further comment.
The second-generation human guardian also kept his words brief. His purpose here was simply to have Chen Jiang recognize his face. With pressing matters to attend to, he quickly withdrew.
After a moment's pause, Chen Jiang said, "Let's go see how the human players fared in their battle."
"Right away!"
Scar Dog and the others exchanged glances before striding forward, except for Wang Defa.
Wang Defa returned alone to the original site of the world tree.
It couldn't be helped.
His innate ability prevented him from staying with others for too long.
When Chen Jiang and his group reached the mechanical race city, they were immediately confronted with a gruesome scene.
The human players emerged from the light gate without hesitation, charging toward the city ahead with furious roars.
Some were draped in ammunition belts, wielding heavy machine guns and relentlessly strafing the city walls.
One had ripped their spines from his neck and brandished it as weapon, charging forward with savage determination.
Each human player pushed their personal innate ability to its absolute limit, focused solely on advancing without a single pause.
Perhaps this was the main reason why nearly a million people could move together without causing a stampede.
Everyone was surging forward, not a single person retreating.
If even one person had faltered, a stampede would have been inevitable.
"Charge!!!"
A man, unarmed and with a ferocious expression that seemed to disregard the surrounding crowd, weaved through the bodies of his fellow players at breakneck speed, hurtling straight toward the city walls.
His innate ability was—
[Talent Name]: Phantom
[Talent Effect]: Upon activation, you gain a significant speed boost and the ability to phase through all obstacles, including stone walls and living beings. Usable once every 24 hours, with a duration of one minute.
Relying on this innate ability, the man swiftly weaved through the crowd, making a beeline for the city walls and gates!
However, just as he closed within three hundred meters of the walls, the mechanical race defenders on the ramparts clearly spotted the unusual human player. In an instant, two machine guns swiveled their barrels to target him.
The next moment—
The man was engulfed in a hail of fist-sized machine gun bullets. Human players charging alongside him were instantly torn apart, their bodies exploding into bloody fragments the moment the bullets struck.
Just as the man was about to suffer the same fate, a golden light suddenly erupted from his body, deflecting all the machine gun fire.
The man, who had been pale with terror and certain of his impending death, froze in shock at the sight. Then, snapping out of it, he threw his head back and roared, "Thanks!"
Without pausing, he charged toward the city gates, shielded by the golden light as he weathered the storm of bullets.
He had no idea where the golden light came from, but he assumed it was a special ability or item belonging to another player.
Unbeknownst to the man, a slender girl with jet-black hair lay unconscious on the ground, her eyes slightly closed and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
Her innate ability was:
[Talent Name]: Let Me Protect You
[Talent Effect]: Grants a fellow race player a golden shield that absorbs attacks, transferring a portion of the damage to yourself.
She didn't know who the man was, but she saw him charging naked toward the city gate at breakneck speed.
Perhaps he had a way to breach the gate.
I can't die like this.
Without hesitation, she activated her innate ability. But the moment she did, regret washed over her.
That's a machine gun! Even if I block for him, I'll still die, won't I?
The girl collapsed, falling mid-charge.
She fell, but the assault did not.
Seeing the human players behind her about to trample over the unconscious girl, her body suddenly sank into the ground, disappearing into the mud.
Meanwhile, in a nearby valley, hundreds of players paced anxiously.
"Hurry, someone get this injured person settled!"
"Anna, move your ass! Stop dawdling!"
A man shouted urgently, his face etched with worry. His innate ability wasn't offensive but supportive.
[Talent Name]: Earth Quicksand
[Talent Effect]: You can turn an area of land into quicksand, causing anyone or anything standing on it to sink.
This was his innate ability.
But it alone couldn't save the girl. The battlefield was too chaotic, with countless bodies falling every moment. Moreover, he couldn't even see what was happening in the center of the fray.
The rescue was primarily thanks to the young boy in a tracksuit beside him.
The boy's innate ability was:
[Talent Name]: Heaven and Earth Chessboard
[Talent Effect]: You can divide the battlefield into a grid and establish simple rules within it. The mental power consumed varies depending on the complexity of the rules.
Though simple, this innate ability had been crucial for his survival in the wilderness for the past three months.
The reason was straightforward: among the simple rules he could create was one that made enemy bullets unable to hit him.
However, the mental power required increased dramatically with the size of the chessboard and the complexity of the rules.
If he possessed sufficient mental power, he could even make all the bullets fired by the mechanical race defenders above miss the human players entirely.
For now, his limit was to have fallen human players transmit their exact coordinates to him. He would then relay these coordinates to the eldest brother beside him, who would use Earth Quicksand to retrieve the fallen players.
Just then—
The young boy suddenly wept tears of blood, his face contorted in agony as he roared, "Anna, I can't hold on any longer!!!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!!"
In the next instant—
A girl in a dress, her lips slightly pale, rushed toward the young boy at breakneck speed. She pulled a lipstick from her pocket and hastily smeared it across her lips before crashing into him.
She began showering his cheeks with rapid kisses.
With each kiss, color gradually returned to the boy's face.
Anna's innate ability was:
[Talent Name]: Flaming Red Lips
[Talent Effect]: While in Flaming Red Lips state, your kisses rapidly restore fellow race players' condition, including healing injuries and replenishing mental power. However, each kiss turns one strand of your hair white. When all your hair turns white, you permanently lose this ability and become cursed.
[Curse Name]: A Single Red Lip Tasted by Ten Thousand
[Curse Effect]: You will instantly age and remain in that aged form forever.
By now, most of Anna's hair had already turned white.
Without pausing, she heard shouts nearby and immediately hurried toward the commotion.
(End of the Chapter)
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