53: Chapter 53 Human Flesh Drop! Slamming Down Like a Bat! (Part 2)

2:00 AM.

Total silence.

The night in the Ash Belt was unnaturally quiet.

Su Ming was sleeping soundly.

The temperature control system of the Constant Temperature Pod maintained a comfortable twenty-three degrees inside.

The inflatable mattress was neither too soft nor too hard.

It was countless levels better than the concrete floor of his low-rent apartment.

He was having a dream.

"Wooo...!"

A low-pitched bark dragged him out of his dream.

Su Ming rolled over and muttered.

"Dahuang, what are you barking for... don't you know it's the middle of the night? Stop disturbing the peace..."

"Woof woof woof!"

The Wasteland Mastiff was crouched outside the Constant Temperature Pod.

Its dark gold mane was bristling.

Its nostrils were twitching incessantly.

Its gaze was locked firmly onto the pitch-black night sky.

A continuous low-frequency warning growl emanated from its throat.

The door of the Constant Temperature Pod slid open a crack.

Su Ming, his patience worn thin from being woken up, emerged.

With messy, bed-head hair, he poked half his body out.

Dazedly, he scanned the sky.

Except for the pitch-black clouds, there was nothing in the sky.

Su Ming rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath.

"Not sleeping in the middle of the night, staring at thin air?"

"Something's wrong with you."

He pulled his head back in and casually closed the pod door.

He pulled up his blanket, preparing to return to his dreams.

Dahuang became anxious.

Just two seconds after the pod door closed.

Dahuang's low growl immediately escalated into a shrill, frantic bark.

Its four claws scratched restlessly at the gravel ground.

Its massive dark gold tail frantically lashed against the outer shell of the Constant Temperature Pod.

It made muffled "thud thud thud" sounds.

Su Ming's eyelid twitched.

No matter how carefree he was.

He knew that a peak Tier 2 mutated beast about to break through to Tier 3 wouldn't go crazy for no reason.

There was only one possibility.

Something was coming.

And it was stronger than the mastiff.

*Vrrr—*

The door of the adjacent Constant Temperature Pod popped open.

Shen Qingci stepped out quickly, holding her Tang cross-sword.

She had also just laid down a short while ago.

The tight fabric of her clothes outlined her striking curves.

A pair of straight, slender, jade-like legs were completely exposed to the air.

Wearing tactical boots, she possessed a deadly attraction amidst her valiant aura.

Her long hair was let down, as she hadn't had time to tie it up.

It fluttered gently with the night wind.

Su Ming swallowed hard.

Wait.

In the middle of the night.

Coming out wearing so little...

Are you here to fight a war or here to take my life?

Just as he was about to say something inappropriate to lighten the mood.

The air above them suddenly distorted.

A visible transparent ripple.

Smashed down without warning from a height of a hundred meters!

*BOOM!*

A massive sound wave hit the ground like a heavy bomb.

The violent air current was laced with highly destructive infrasound waves.

It instantly swept through the entire camp.

The two Constant Temperature Pods, along with sleeping bags and luggage, were sent flying by the raging air current.

They tumbled several times in the gravel pile over ten meters away before stopping.

Su Ming's cheap, fifteen-yuan camouflage tent fared even worse.

It was torn into strips and hung on a jagged rock.

Shen Qingci let out a muffled groan, covering her ears with both hands as her face turned pale.

The sonic resonance made her internal organs churn violently.

Even standing became extremely difficult.

Dahuang let out a yelp, its four legs going weak as it collapsed on the ground.

Its ears were pressed tight against its skull.

The wind and sand dissipated.

Only shattered rocks remained in the clearing.

Along with a man wearing only boxers and no shirt.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the ground, maintaining a dazed posture from being woken up.

His eardrums were ringing a bit, but his body showed no sign of being blown away.

His density had already exceeded that of lead.

The sound waves wanted to cause resonance in his body?

They'd have to ask the laws of physics first.

Su Ming scratched his belly and looked left and right at the wrecked camp.

"...Lion's Roar technique?"

He stood up and patted the dust off his boxers.

"Why does this thing only blow away tents and not people?"

Shen Qingci turned back and glared at him.

What kind of time is this!

Are your pockets too shallow and your ego spilling out again?

Still acting cool at a time like this!

A piercing screech suddenly came from the sky.

Above the gray mist, a massive dark shadow was circling.

A wingspan of five meters.

Membranous fleshy wings reflected faintly in the dark.

Its overall shape was a suspended streamline—a bat.

But its size was magnified twenty times.

Its wings vibrated at high speed.

Layer upon layer of transparent sonic ripples were continuously spat out from its mouth.

The surrounding air was shaken into a blur.

"It's a Shatter-Void Bat!"

Shen Qingci's voice was kept very low, her tone carrying a rare gravity.

"This is the thing that shattered our car windows at the checkpoint during the day."

Su Ming recalled.

There indeed had been a terrifying beast roar when they passed the outer station.

At the time, he thought it was the aftershock of a distant battlefield.

As it turned out, the culprit had followed them.

"Tier 2 Elite Source Beast," Shen Qingci quickly added,

"Unless one has a long-range talent, otherwise..."

She paused.

"Otherwise, we're just sitting ducks."

Su Ming looked up at the thing.

The distance was too far.

This Shatter-Void Bat was extremely cunning.

It used the hundred-meter altitude as an absolute safety zone.

Relying on its sonic attacks to conduct a dead-angle-free air-to-ground bombardment.

Shen Qingci's Geng Metal Blade Bone was for close combat.

His own situation went without saying.

He was a melee brawler whose skills could only move in straight lines.

Two pure melee fighters plus an injured dog.

Against a flying sonic turret.

If this situation were in a game.

It could be summed up in four words: wrong game version.

*Vrrr—*

The Shatter-Void Bat opened its mouth again.

The second wave of sonic breath poured down from high altitude.

"Scatter!"

Shen Qingci kicked Dahuang and rolled away to avoid it.

Su Ming crouched low on the spot.

The sonic wave hit where he was standing.

The rock layer beneath his feet cracked directly into radial fissures.

Shattered stones ejected and splashed everywhere.

Su Ming narrowed his eyes and began counting seconds.

The Shatter-Void Bat's breath interval was about seven seconds.

The sonic coverage radius was about fifteen meters.

After attacking, it would circle at high altitude to reposition its target.

Positioning.

...Positioning?

Su Ming's top-student brain began to operate at high speed.

A bat.

Ultrasonic echolocation.

It doesn't use eyes to find prey.

It relies on emitting ultrasonic waves and receiving the reflected sound waves to "see" the world.

What if... the reflected sound waves were all distorted?

"Long-legs!"

Su Ming shouted to her.

"It relies on ultrasonic echolocation!

Your Geng Metal Secret Marrow itself is a high-frequency vibration.

Can you jam its radar for me!"

Shen Qingci was stunned for a moment.

She was a martial arts fanatic, not a top student, but she was also extremely intelligent and immediately grasped the tactical intent in Su Ming's words.

Use vibration to interfere with vibration!

High-frequency oscillation to disrupt the return of the sound waves!

As long as the echoes received by the Shatter-Void Bat were all chaotic noise.

It would be no different from being blind!

"I've never outputted energy this way before; I'm afraid I can't maintain it for long."

"It doesn't need to be long."

Su Ming gave a cheeky grin.

"Just give me three seconds."

Shen Qingci wasted no more words.

She knelt on one knee, holding the hilt of her blade in a reverse grip.

The second sequence, Geng Metal Secret Marrow, was instantly activated.

Golden liquid metal covered the blade.

A high-frequency hum pierced the air.

Shen Qingci endured the load on her arms.

She slammed the Tang cross-sword hard into the rock layer beneath her feet.

Golden liquid Geng metal seeped from the blade, spreading along the edge.

It wasn't the precise vibration usually attached to the blade for cutting.

Instead, she pushed the oscillation frequency to its limit.

Diffusing it indiscriminately into the surrounding air and ground.

*Hum!*

Within a thirty-meter radius of the entire camp, the air began to emit a piercing hum.

High-frequency oscillations centered on the blade edge were frantically injected into the earth.

And flowed upward through the air.

The surrounding sonic field instantly fell into extreme chaos.

Gravel jumped in the vibrations.

Dahuang shook its ears and yelped as it backed away.

The effect was immediate.

The Shatter-Void Bat high in the sky suddenly shuddered.

In its sensory world.

The outline of the prey disappeared.

The originally clear ground feedback suddenly turned into a massive blob of high-frequency garbled code.

Its "visual radar" crashed instantly.

Losing its precise positioning, the Shatter-Void Bat immediately fell into a frenzy.

It let out a piercing scream and folded its wings.

It dove straight down toward the central area where the sound waves were most chaotic.

Its massive five-meter wingspan body began to sway irregularly.

The sonic breath lost its aim, one shot veering thirty meters away and blasting a deep pit.

The Shatter-Void Bat was unwilling to give up and lowered its altitude.

Intending to scour the area with even stronger close-range sonic waves.

The intelligence of a Tier 2 Elite made a judgment it thought was correct.

Sure enough.

The Shatter-Void Bat folded its wings and dove.

"Here it comes."

Su Ming stared at the swaying dark shadow, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.

Plummeting from a hundred meters.

Fifty meters.

Thirty meters.

Twenty meters.

The bat's speed was extremely fast, arriving in an instant along with a violent wind.

It opened its pair of sharp claws flashing with cold light, grabbing straight for Su Ming's head.

Shen Qingci was about to draw her blade to support him.

"Back off, let me handle this!"

Just as the bat swept over his head and its claws were about to touch his scalp.

Su Ming's legs suddenly exerted force.

Mass Engine, ignition!

*BANG!*

The rock layer beneath his feet instantly collapsed into a half-meter deep pit.

The shattered stones pulled out a ring-shaped shockwave.

Over a ton of True Mass achieved instantaneous acceleration under the engine's thrust.

Su Ming's entire person was like a heavy shell fired from a cannon.

Defying gravity, he charged straight into the sky.

When the Shatter-Void Bat dove to an altitude of fifteen meters, it saw an impossible image.

A dark lump was flying up from below at an absurd speed.

It instinctively wanted to pull up.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Su Ming's hands firmly grabbed the Shatter-Void Bat's claws.

The Shatter-Void Bat was so frightened its wings stiffened.

What is this filthy thing?!

Why is it so heavy?!

It thought the prey was trying to drag it down to the ground.

It desperately flapped its wings, attempting to increase its altitude and shake him off.

But in the next second, a violent thrust that defied all flight logic surged upward from beneath it.

The kinetic energy of the Mass Engine had not yet dissipated.

Su Ming wasn't being pulled up by it.

He was pushing it upward as he flew!

One ton of True Mass plus the directional explosive thrust of the engine at full power.

It acted directly on the Shatter-Void Bat's soft abdomen.

*Pfft!*

The Shatter-Void Bat spat out a large mouthful of foul-smelling purple blood.

Its massive body.

Under this unreasonable, violent head-on collision.

Lost all flight control on the spot.

It was forced backward and upward, soaring straight into the clouds!

Ten meters! Twenty meters! Thirty meters!

In the night sky, the giant bat was being propelled vertically by a single person.

Its fleshy wings made cracking sounds of bone fractures under the tearing of the violent reverse airflow.

It fell completely into a fatal stall.

Su Ming carried the Shatter-Void Bat up nearly fifty meters into the air.

Until the engine thrust was exhausted.

The two figures hung in mid-air, the violent wind filling their ears.

Su Ming's legs suddenly exerted force, releasing the bat's claws.

Using the last bit of momentum, he flipped over.

Steadily mounting the back of the Shatter-Void Bat.

He clamped his legs tightly around the bat's spine.

"Had a nice flight, didn't you!"

"Time to go down!"

Su Ming gave a cold huff.

The one ton of True Mass within his body was no longer offset by the engine thrust.

At this moment, it was 100% converted into pure falling pressure.

A terrifying dead weight of over a thousand kilograms.

Immediately pressed down on a bat that specialized in gliding.

The Shatter-Void Bat let out a desperate and shrill scream.

That pair of wings it took pride in exploded on the spot.

They simply couldn't withstand this sudden, mountain-like pressure.

The crisp sound of bones shattering came from its joints.

Shen Qingci looked up.

Amidst the gray mist.

A handsome youth wearing only boxers.

Riding on the back of a giant bat with a five-meter wingspan.

Man and bat.

Transformed into a rapidly falling meteorite.

Smashing toward the ground.

*BOOM!!*

The ground shook violently.

Shattered stones mixed with purple blood soared into the sky.

It directly smashed a large pit three meters in diameter into the hard wilderness.

The Shatter-Void Bat didn't even have the strength to struggle.

Its entire chest cavity was completely caved in by the heavy pressure.

Purple blood flowed all over the ground; it was breathing more out than in.

But it wasn't quite dead yet; this thing's life force was tougher than expected.

Su Ming jumped off the bat's back and waved to Shen Qingci.

Shen Qingci had been waiting for this exact moment.

Without a word, she pushed off the ground.

Her figure transformed into an afterimage.

The cold edge of the Tang cross-sword swept across.

Golden Geng Metal Secret Marrow covered the blade.

The high-frequency oscillation was pushed to its limit.

A golden arc of light flashed through the night.

The Shatter-Void Bat's head separated from its body.

It rolled out of the pit, the fierce light in its eyes slowly fading.

Shen Qingci sheathed her blade.

Su Ming kicked the headless corpse of the Shatter-Void Bat.

His boxers were intact, but one of his slippers had flown off to who-knows-where.

He looked up at Shen Qingci, who stood there holding her blade.

The night wind blew her long hair.

Black tactical vest.

Slender legs.

The blood-dripping Tang cross-sword in her hand.

He gave Shen Qingci a thumbs-up.

"With our coordination, putting us on the heavenly pride ranking would definitely be a dimensionality reduction strike."

Shen Qingci ignored him.

She looked down at the corpse of the Shatter-Void Bat.

Her gaze swept from the skeleton to the wing membranes, and then fell on the shattered head.

A Tier 2 Elite Source Beast.

The Source Energy crystal was worth at least two million.

The high-density skeleton and sonic organs were even harder for researchers to value.

She tilted her head to look at Su Ming, who was already rummaging through the corpse.

The corner of her mouth twitched.

Su Ming patted the remains of the Shatter-Void Bat's wings.

His mind was already calculating the numbers in the devour prompts.

A Tier 2 Elite Source Beast.

The skeleton density was at least three times higher than an ordinary Tier 2.

After consuming this entire corpse...

*Ding.*

A line of text popped up on the system panel on his retina.

Su Ming's hand stopped in place.

[Detected high-frequency Source Energy resonance body remaining in the Shatter-Void Bat's sonic organs. This substance can be used to exchange for a special skill in the system mall—]

[Mass Resonance (Limited Time Unlock)]

[23:59:59, 58, 57...]

There was no skill description, only the four words "Limited Time Unlock" flashing.

Limited time?

The timer's already started?

Su Ming's eyelid jumped violently.

As a veteran gamer who had suffered through various Tencent games and "Pinduoduo's one-cent-off" schemes.

He was simply too sensitive to this kind of red-text countdown.

"Limited time flash sale, only two hours left!"

"Stock running low, buy now or it's gone!"

"Congratulations, you've received a limited-time discount coupon, valid only today!"

And when you click in to look.

Original price 999, current price 998!

"You won't even give me a skill manual, just relying on the name to sell me a dream? You're playing blind-box hunger marketing with me, aren't you?"

Su Ming grumbled through gritted teeth in his mind.

"This is torture for someone with OCD!"

But he had to admit.

He was indeed being manipulated by the system's tactic.

According to his years of experience being fleeced.

In the hierarchy of system-based stories.

This kind of "limited time" labeled stuff was extremely polarized.

It was either an insane trap for money-grubbing gift packs.

Or it was a T0-tier god-tier skill that was so strong it broke the balance, and once missed, it was gone forever!

"Mass Resonance..." Su Ming repeatedly chewed over these four words in his heart.

Common sense in physics told him.

Once mass and vibration were combined.

The destructive power would explode exponentially.

"One ton of absolute mass, combined with any resonance, is a weapon of mass destruction!"

"If I give someone a hit with this point-blank, wouldn't I scramble their brains... or worse?"

Su Ming glanced at the Shatter-Void Bat's head, which had already been separated from its body.

The sonic organ that was still emitting residual oscillations was slowly dimming.

He grabbed the head.

And stuffed it into the system space.

Whatever, store it first.

In the distance.

The Wasteland Mastiff, Dahuang, poked half its head out from behind a rock.

Only after confirming the Shatter-Void Bat was dead did it trot over.

It wagged its tail frantically at Shen Qingci to claim credit.

Just now, it had been lying behind the rock the entire time without moving.

It had even dug its claws into the rock crevices.

For fear of being carried away by the wind.

Su Ming gave it a sideways glance.

"With that kind of performance, you have the nerve to wag your tail?"

Dahuang stiffened.

It turned its head toward Su Ming.

Then toward Shen Qingci.

Then back to Su Ming.

Ultimately, it chose to bury its entire face in Shen Qingci's palm.

Its tail wagged even faster.

This was its political stance after careful consideration.

Su Ming: "..."

Shen Qingci crouched down.

From the crack in the Shatter-Void Bat's skull, she dug out a crystal emitting a dark purple fluorescent glow.

A Tier 2 Elite-level Source Energy crystal, dark purple.

It was a full size larger than an ordinary Tier 2 mutated beast crystal.

She stood up holding the crystal.

She looked at Su Ming somewhat apologetically.

"I need to hand this crystal in for my trial mission..."

"It's yours, it's yours."

Su Ming agreed readily.

But his eyes were glued to the remaining carcass of the Shatter-Void Bat and didn't move.

What was a crystal?

This entire Shatter-Void Bat corpse was the real main course.

Plus the system's limited-time unlock [Mass Resonance]...

Tonight's battle was another huge profit!