"You took down Country? How is that possible?" The puppeteer's voice shifted. "How could my dear lead singer be killed by a grade 1 bug that could be crushed at will!"
"You talk too much." Chen San paid no heed to the puppeteer's shock and walked toward the edge of the high platform in a few steps.
On Xu Xiaoyou's side, she had just slain an orchestra puppet when another one crawled out from the mire behind her. A hand covered in sludge suddenly grabbed her ankle, and a large patch of black mist began to spread and invade!
She lifted her leg forcefully, only to find that the puppet's strength was surprisingly immense. It took the opportunity to pounce on her, its crimson puppet eyes reflecting her face.
More puppets began running from all directions at that moment, as if intending to drown her in a tide of puppets.
A gunshot rang out, and a bullet hole appeared in the head of the puppet clutching Xu Xiaoyou's right leg. Several more gunshots followed in succession, and all the surrounding puppets fell, turning into rotting sludge before reappearing in the distant mire, their bodies twitching with a clicking sound.
Xu Xiaoyou knew that Chen San and Tang Xin above were helping her share the pressure. Seizing the opportunity, she quickly used her longblade to carve an opening and sprinted toward the puppet mother.
"Chen San, Tang Xin, keep covering me."
A flash of cold light erupted as she once again used her longblade to slash through a puppet's body blocking her path. Her gaze noticed that the Lin Xing puppet on the right had actually crawled back up from the ground and was sprinting toward her.
Xu Xiaoyou immediately shouted, "Lin Sheng, take care of your brother!"
After shouting, she continued her rapid dash toward the puppet mother.
Hearing this, Lin Sheng, who was fighting a bloody battle among the puppet swarm, pulled himself away. Ignoring the puppets chasing him, he charged toward the Lin Xing puppet with his decapitating blade.
The two snake-fang daggers collided with the decapitating blade, sending sparks flying.
After several exchanges, the crisp sound of clashing weapons echoed.
It wasn't until he engaged Lin Xing that Lin Sheng realized how ruthless and swift this usually unreliable guy's strikes were. Every move and every step targeted his vital spots—kidney strikes, backstabs, stealth, bleeding...
Shadow Strikes. Almost every move contained endless killing intent.
The growth of a shadow was often accompanied by blood and sin. Universal Heavy Industries allowed them to slaughter each other in that dark, sunless arena where only death and brutality existed. Just like poisonous insects placed in a jar, only the most insidious, fierce, and ruthless children could survive to the end, sharpening their claws with the bones of other larvae and drinking the blood and flesh of others to let poison flow through every vein in their bodies, all just to become the most valuable shadow gu.
Lin Xing's moves were extremely fast and unpredictable, launching assassinations from any conceivable corner, quickly dragging Lin Sheng into a deep and bitter struggle.
During this time, Xu Xiaoyou had already closed in on the puppet mother.
"Return!" the puppet mother wailed for the third time.
Jazz roared, suddenly hurling the giant guitar axe toward Xu Xiaoyou.
The giant axe was like a cannonball, let out a series of whistles, and arrived in front of Xu Xiaoyou in an instant.
Her expression remained unchanged. Several [Scatter and Bolt!] cards lit up with golden patterns in her hand, merging into a single [Thief's Footwork].
The moment she activated the skill card, her entire body blinked into the air, dodging the thrown guitar axe.
The whistling giant axe didn't miss; it slammed directly into the knight's helmet of Rock behind her, cracks appearing alongside a burst of blood.
Rock's massive figure fell straight down with a dull thud.
Jazz scratched his head. By the time he reacted and roared to charge toward the girl again, it was too late.
Xu Xiaoyou brandished the chaotic fire blade in her hand. Amidst the dancing flames, she was like a dawn dancer, her enchanting figure weaving through the entire battlefield, her dazzling blonde hair fluttering.
Breaking through one after another, all enemies blocking her path turned into wailing souls within the fierce flames.
With a sudden slash, a wild fire dance severed all the silk threads around the puppet mother. Within a spiral pillar of flame, ash swirled, and the girl's figure suddenly appeared, her longblade piercing through the air!
In everyone's sight, a pillar of fire pierced through the puppet mother's heart, and a blinding white light shot straight toward the ceiling.
The puppet mother's wail echoed deeply within the underground church.
Is it over?
This thought appeared in everyone's mind simultaneously.
But in an instant, the scene before them cast a grey haze over their hearts, and a sense of silent despair welled up.
Beside the puppet mother's massive body, the blonde girl's face was dim, her eyes vacant, and her limbs floated in the air, clashing against each other with clicking sounds, appearing as though she were being controlled by silk threads.
In contrast, tears fell from the puppet mother's sorrowful face. Beneath the massive ribcage, granulation grew at the site of the burst heart, slowly wriggling and joining together, healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
That heart was not the puppet mother's fatal weakness; it was also just a misdirection from the puppeteer.
The puppeteer's irrepressible wild laughter echoed above the underground church.
"A bunch of idiots, as expected."
"A bunch of hopeless idiots, actually jumping right into the fire pit I designed."
"An animal's hardest bones always protect its most fragile organs," the puppeteer laughed incessantly. "How could a fatal weakness be exposed on the outside?"
"Where in the world would such a convenient stupidity happen!"
Everyone looked at the puppets surrounding them, their expressions changing repeatedly.
"Perfect, I'm getting a bit tired of this game too."
"I am the rule-maker; everything is decided by me."
"Don't bother searching so hard; of course I wouldn't be among those hundred puppets." The puppeteer's voice grew calm. "Let this boring game end."
"Checkmate, you idiots."
The puppet mother suddenly extended two sharp claws, wailing as she drove them into her own head, tearing open her entire face along with the skull. The masked figure of the puppeteer slowly stepped out from within, all five eyes narrowing as he cast a mocking gaze.
The aura on him was no different from what they had seen in the curtain earlier. There was no mistake; the man before them was the puppeteer, the ultimate target of their mission and the perpetrator of countless tragedies.
"Yorick!"
Lin Sheng roared upon seeing the puppeteer, clearing away all the puppets around him. His eyes nearly split as he lunged toward the man.
The latter merely glanced at him as if looking at an ant. With a wave of his hand, the puppet mother behind him thrust a sharp leg limb forward, piercing through his chest and forcefully pinning him to the ground!
"So loud and noisy." The puppeteer's eyes curved.
"You'll be reunited with your brother soon; you should be happy."
"And you all, these past few days in the snow-field have really left a deep impression on me. I probably won't forget you for the rest of my life."
Countless puppets pounced again, driving Tang Xin and Chen San down from the high platform, surrounding them in the center and launching continuous attacks.
Soon, both were covered in various wounds, making a final struggle as defeat seemed certain.
The puppeteer spread his hands, striking the pose of a victor. Ignoring the last struggling people, he walked toward the blonde girl, intending to properly appreciate his greatest harvest—an existence that was like an exquisite work of art to him.
Suddenly, he heard a disdainful laugh.
At that very moment, a bronze die flew into the air under his horrified gaze.
Its precision workshop-like structure spun continuously, and blue mist-like numbers flickered frantically on the hundred faces of the die before finally stopping on a single number.
50! 50! 50!
—Destiny Moment!
【Fortune and Misfortune: All creatures within a two-hundred-meter radius are freed from control, and all attributes are slightly increased as they enter a berserk state.】
The die was like an opened Pandora's box, as endless demonic black aura erupted from it!
The entire world shattered into screen panels, and a giant, crimson eye opened, staring at him, filled with joy and mockery!
Rate on N.U.
