The player who drew the rulebook let out a mournful wail that echoed through the empty factory area: "What good is this thing?! Game dev, I want to complain!"
The other players, faced with such a dramatic scene, laughed out loud, gleefully patting his shoulder before eagerly starting their own draws. For a moment, Area C-3 was filled with various shouts of surprise or lament.
Some players drew completely inexplicable items, scratching their heads and unable to figure out their purpose.
Other players drew good items that could immediately boost their combat power, cheering excitedly on the spot, wishing they could kiss the game dev.
Amidst this clamor of joy and sorrow, Mua'dib suddenly shouted, "A skill! I drew a skill!"
This shout's penetrative power far exceeded any previous cheers or wails. The surrounding players immediately crowded around Mua'dib again, surrounding him so tightly that not even water could pass through.
"Huh? This game actually has skills you can learn out of nowhere? I thought they all had to be like those Basic Melee Combat, Basic Marksmanship types, where you had to practice slowly yourself."
"Quick, share the panel, what skill is it?"
Mua'dib was generous enough to directly open up the skill panel information, allowing other players to see the details.
Name: Hell Fire
Skill Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Mastered
Skill Type: Psionic
Effect: Spews terrifying Hell Fire from the mouth.
Cost: Everything you have
Learning Condition: Possesses a resolute heart willing to sacrifice everything
Note: "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." — God
It was fine before the skill panel was displayed, but once it was, the surroundings instantly fell silent for a second, followed by a burst of envy, jealousy, and hatred like a mountain collapsing and a sea roaring. Everyone began a vehement denunciation of Mua'dib.
"You lucky bastard! Damn you!"
"Spewing hellfire from your mouth, the cost is everything you have... This is practically a self-destructing divine skill tailor-made for you! I'm reporting this! There's definitely something shady going on!"
"'A resolute heart willing to sacrifice everything,' isn't that learning condition pointing right at you?! Good heavens, I get it, system certified, right!"
"Did you sneak into the game dev's room in the middle of the night?! How could you do such a thing for power! Confess now!"
The players around Mua'dib, after a brief moment of shock and jealousy, immediately turned their indignation into curiosity and began to egg him on.
"All talk and no action! Come on, Mua'dib, show us how powerful this thing is right now!"
"Exactly! Let us witness it! 'Costs everything you have,' I want to see how that cost works!"
"That area ahead is big enough, you can spray wherever you want!"
Mua'dib himself was itching to try it. Looking at the cool icon and the awesomely vague description on the skill panel, he had long wanted to test out his newly acquired skill. Seeing everyone egging him on, he took the hint and readily agreed to the players' request.
"Alright, then you all stand far away. Don't come to me for repair costs if you get caught in the blast."
Everything was ready.
Mua'dib walked alone onto the scorched, flat, open ground. The players who had been egging him on earlier now prudently retreated a hundred meters away, hiding behind the remaining pipes and cover, only peeking out their heads to watch.
Some, to avoid unexpected AOE damage to their equipment, even took off their slightly valuable carapace armor and weapons, preparing to watch the show shirtless.
Taking a deep breath, Mua'dib activated Hell Fire.
In an instant, he felt as if a small sun had ignited in his chest. That wasn't a metaphor; it was an incredibly real sensation. The burning sensation started from his heart, instantly spreading along his blood vessels to all his limbs and organs, which felt as if they had been thrown into an incinerator, beginning to burn violently. He felt every drop of blood, every muscle fiber in his body, being converted into some more violent, more primal fuel.
"Everything you have"... So that's what it meant.
A strong urge to vomit, mixed with the smell of char and sulfur, rushed from his stomach to his throat. Mua'dib gritted his teeth, veins bulging from his neck. He tried to forcibly suppress this power, to control the timing and direction of the eruption.
However, the ferocity of this power far exceeded his imagination.
Finally, he reached his breaking point.
Mua'dib suddenly raised his head, his mouth uncontrollably opening. A thick, dark red beam of light, viscous like burning blood, mixed with golden sparks, erupted from his mouth!
Boom—!
Where the beam of light struck, the ground instantly vaporized, leaving a deep, still-glowing, molten-edged trench. The terrifying torrent of energy shot straight into the distance, obliterating everything in its path, finally slamming into a huge, long-abandoned chemical storage tank, detonating it into an even more spectacular fireworks display. The power of the beam was so strong that it briefly tore a daytime wound in the night.
This earth-shattering sight, even from afar, could be seen by the Astra Militarum and cultists engaged in fierce combat at the main front.
A dazzling dark red beam of light shot up from the distant Chemical Refinery area, its brightness even overshadowing the continuous artillery fire on the battlefield.
Commissar Walter, who was commanding the battle at the front, was so startled by this sudden anomaly that the binoculars in his hand almost slipped. He instinctively blurted out, "What in the world is that?!"
Walter quickly recovered from his shock, and frowning, he deduced from the beam's trajectory that it seemed... to be from the Chemical Refinery? Had something gone wrong with the Helldivers company? The dark red beam of light that pierced the sky and earth slowly dissipated, but its lingering power still shocked everyone present.
The air was filled with a pungent smell, as if metal had been melted and then corroded by strong acid. The deep trench in the distance, its edges still glowing orange-red, silently spoke of the terror of that last strike.
The distant explosion's echoes lingered, but the players fell into a dead silence. They stared blankly at the trace of destruction, then at the still-burning wreckage of the storage tank in the distance, momentarily speechless.
A few seconds later, this dead silence completely erupted.
"I... my god..."
"What the hell is that?! Is that a skill a player can use?!"
"This damage... this range... this is practically a naval cannon!"
Coming to their senses, they all marveled at the ridiculously exaggerated strength of this skill.
Robert was the first to fully recover from the shock. He quickly walked forward, his face filled with irrepressible excitement and surprise, and clapped Mua'dib, who was still standing motionless, looking up at the sky, on the shoulder.
"Mua'dib, you're invincible now..."
Before he could finish speaking, his palm had just touched Mua'dib's shoulder when the figure hailed as the "lucky bastard" instantly disintegrated, like a fragile sculpture weathered for a thousand years.
There was no blood and gore, no data corruption; Mua'dib's body, starting from the shoulder that was patted, rapidly cracked, collapsed, and turned into a fine, grayish-white dust. A night wind blew, and these ashes drifted away with the wind, completely disappearing into the air, as if he had never existed.
Robert's outstretched hand remained frozen in mid-air, a few insignificant gray dust particles clinging to his palm.
He looked at his hand, then at the empty space before him where only air subtly flowed, and once again fell into a shock deeper than when he had seen the beam of light.
"...Holy crap, bro got Thanos snapped?"`
Meanwhile, Terrabyte, located in the warp, silently recorded all of this. The first attempt to directly imbue a concept into a living being rather than an object was very successful.