56: Divine punishment! An unsolvable scheme!
Lin Mo's understated murmur, like a decree from a Demon God beneath the Nine Hells, echoed over the silent Wailing Plains.
No one could hear his voice, but every person personally felt the terrifying weight of that statement, enough to freeze their souls.
"Retreat! Everyone! Immediately pull out of that damned poisonous fog!"
Overlord Mad Saber's roar traveled through the command channel to the ears of every member of the Ba Tian Guild. His voice, sharp, hoarse, and even somewhat hysterical, was strained by extreme fury and a hint of unconcealed fear.
However, the issuance of the command failed to halt the spread of the disaster.
"Guild Master! We can't! The fog has a powerful slowing effect, we can't run fast!"
"Help! My Health Bar... Ah!"
"Another one! 'Ba Tian Iron Guard' is dead too! He was clearly at the very back of the team!"
Screams of terror, like the sharpest blades, continuously pierced Overlord Mad Saber's nerves, which were already stretched to their limit.
He watched helplessly as the bright avatars representing his core elites in the guild channel darkened one after another at an unbelievable speed.
There was no warning, no Logic, and no reason to speak of.
Death was like a randomly administered divine punishment.
One moment you might be celebrating that you weren't in the center of the battlefield, and the next, that dark green death number would instantly swallow your Health Bar whole, like maggots clinging to bone.
This feeling was as if an invisible Death God, holding a ledger of Life and death, was leisurely walking through their collapsing formation. With a casual stroke, he would cross out a name, and the owner of that name would turn into a flash of white light and vanish completely from this world amid endless terror and confusion.
"Trash! All of you are trash!" Overlord Mad Saber's eyes were bloodshot. He fiercely grabbed the collar of the player responsible for data analysis beside him and roared maniacally, "Haven't you analyzed it yet?! What the hell is this thing! What is the principle of the attack? What is the range? How long does it last?!"
The analyst was already pale with fear and stammered in response, "G-Guild Master... we can't analyze it! This method of attack... it doesn't follow any rules! We can't find any trajectory, nor can we detect any lock-on! It's like... it's like the system is randomly executing players!"
"System execution?"
Overlord Mad Saber paused at the words, then became even more furious: "Do you take me for a three-year-old?! This is clearly the ghost's doing!"
His gaze was fixed tightly on the struggling Abyssal Lord in the distance. He knew the root of the problem lay with that tiny figure clinging to the BOSS like maggots to bone!
But what did knowing help?
That figure was currently at the absolute center of the entire battlefield, shrouded by the World BOSS's world-destroying skills. Forget sending an assassin to kill him; even their guild's top Divine Archer couldn't accurately target that figure frantically moving on the Demon God's body in this chaotic environment!
This was an open scheme! An unsolvable open scheme!
That ghost put himself in the most dangerous situation, yet, because of it, he placed himself in the safest position! He used the World BOSS as a shield and hundreds of thousands of players as a moat, creating an absolute "Sanctuary" belonging only to him!
... Meanwhile, in the Oracle Guild's formation.
Compared to the Chaos and collapse of the other guilds, panic also permeated here, but Order remained intact.
Guild Master Luo Li quietly floated in mid-air, the holy light surrounding her isolating her from the surrounding noise. Her gaze penetrated the churning poisonous fog and also fixed upon Lin Mo.
In her beautiful eyes, there was no anger, no fear, only a nearly greedy, burning intensity, like meeting a worthy opponent, and... shock.
"She understood... So this is how it works..."
Luo Li murmured, her voice carrying a trace of sudden realization, as if waking from a dream.
"Guild Master, did you figure it out?" Beside her, an Elf Archer with the ID "Moon God," also a core executive of the Oracle Guild, couldn't help but ask softly.
"Yes." Luo Li nodded lightly. Her voice was ethereal and pleasant, yet carried an indescribable complexity. "We were all wrong. We were wrong from the very beginning."
"We thought this was a strategy battle where hundreds of thousands of people fought over a BOSS. But in that person's eyes, this is just a... hunt."
"A hunt?" Moon God was puzzled.
"Yes." Luo Li's gaze became incredibly profound. "He utilized Mephitos's massive, almost unkillable nature, turning him into a perfect 'Poison Culture Medium.' He planted a world-destroying 'Plague' on him. And then..."
She paused, seemingly searching for an appropriate word.
"Then, he used us—used these hundreds of thousands of players eager to attack the BOSS—as a 'medium' to accurately project this deadly Plague onto every single one of us."
"How... how is that possible?!" Moon God gasped in surprise. "We are so far from the BOSS, how could his skill range..."
"It's not his skill range, it's the rule." Luo Li stated, word by word, with a hint of awe in her voice. "He has grasped a 'rule' power that we cannot understand. A rule that allows damage—or rather, a concept—to be transmitted regardless of distance!"
"Therefore, from the moment he activated that poisonous fog Domain, we had already lost. The more we attacked the BOSS, the faster we accelerated the spread of the Plague. Every point of damage we dealt became a Knife he handed over to kill our comrades!"
"This is a... perfect loop, an unsolvable... Death Chess Game!"
After hearing Luo Li's analysis, Moon God felt a chill rush from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head, nearly freezing her blood solid.
She looked again at the figure moving deftly on the Demon God's body, and her eyes were left with nothing but endless terror.
This was no longer a player.
This was a calamity! It was divine punishment!
... The collapse of the battlefield was a chain reaction.
When the first guild chose to retreat because they could not withstand the strange attrition, the second, the third... followed suit.
Panic is a Plague more terrifying than Deadly Poison.
Within minutes, the seemingly unbreakable alliance front formed by the major guilds collapsed like a row of dominoes.
Countless players, like headless flies, screamed, cursed, and scrambled to flee the dark green Domain that had become a death zone in their eyes.
"Trying to leave?"
Lin Mo, standing on Mephitos's shoulder, watched the scattered crowd below and curled his lips into a cold arc.
"Did I permit it?"
He knew that once these people successfully escaped the range of the Toxic Domain, the effect of Plague Link would be greatly diminished.
This grand celebration of Wither absolutely could not end so hastily!
"ROAR—!!!"
As if sensing Lin Mo's increasingly high fighting spirit, Mephitos beneath him let out a more painful and unwilling roar. Its Life value, under the erosion of thousands of layers of True Corrosion Deadly Poison, had already dropped below the dangerous 30% mark!
Its movements became increasingly sluggish, and the demonic flames burning on its body dimmed considerably.
"Good, now is the time!"
A cold light flashed in Lin Mo's eyes; this was the opportunity he had been waiting for!
He was no longer content to passively wait for the random trigger of Plague Link. He intended to take the initiative and push this "divine punishment" to its true climax!
[Poison Burst]!
He did not choose to detonate all the poison on the BOSS, but instead, through a subtle technique, detonated an insignificant single layer!
"Boom!"
A muffled explosion.
[-188,540!]
A massive damage number floated above Mephitos's head.
And accompanying this [Poison Burst], the effect of Plague Link was activated once again!
This time, the death mark, containing over a thousand layers of Deadly Poison, did not randomly select a target. Instead, as if it had eyes, it landed precisely on Overlord Mad Saber, who was directing his team's retreat in the distance!
"Pfft!"
Overlord Mad Saber felt a stifling pressure in his chest, as if he had been violently struck by an invisible giant hammer. He didn't even have time to see his Health Bar before his vision suddenly went dark.
[-125,440! (Deadly Poison)]
[-125,440! (Deadly Poison)]
... This Overlord-level figure, who had dominated the epoch and commanded hundreds of thousands of players, turned into a flash of white light, his face full of shock, without even managing to leave a final word.
"Guild Master!"
"The Guild Master was instantly killed!"
The Ba Tian Guild's position instantly fell into a deathly silence, followed by an outbreak of even greater panic!
And this was only the beginning!
[Poison Burst]!
[Poison Burst]!
[Poison Burst]!
Lin Mo stood on the Demon God's shoulder like a cold executioner, precisely detonating the endless layers of poison on Mephitos's body again and again.
Every detonation triggered Plague Link once.
Every link accurately took the Life of a Guild Master or core commander from one of the major guilds!
Flame Mad Lion, dead!
Feng Yun Tian Xia Guild Master, dead!
Iron Blood Alliance Leader, dead!
... This was no longer a massacre; this was a "decapitation operation" so precise it was infuriating!
Lin Mo used the World BOSS as a cannon platform and the Endless Poison Source as ammunition, turning the entire Wailing Plains into his personal execution ground!
"Devil... He is a devil!"
Finally, a player's psychological defenses completely collapsed. He threw away the weapon in his hand and fled desperately in the direction away from the battlefield, tears streaming down his face.
His actions became the final straw that broke the camel's back.
Defeat was absolute!
The so-called army of hundreds of thousands was utterly reduced to a joke at this moment. They were routed and fled miserably, killed by an unseen enemy in a way they couldn't comprehend.
All that remained on the Wailing Plains were scattered corpses and the Abyssal Lord, who was wailing in agony within the Toxic Domain, his Life flame about to be extinguished.
As well as the solitary figure, standing silently on the Demon God's shoulder like a deity, overlooking everything.
Lin Mo slowly raised his head, glanced at Mephitos's Health Bar, which had dropped below ten percent, and then looked at the backs of those fleeing in panic in the distance, his eyes completely calm.
He knew that this farce should end.
And he would be the one to personally draw the curtain on this feast.