237: Chapter 238 Interrupting Spellcasting

Suddenly, the situation changed dramatically.

On the bridge of sea breeze no. 9.

Lin Li had just swung the corpse of a Warrior Bug in his hands, smashing a swarm of Low-tier Leapers to death.

Before he even had time to breathe a sigh of relief at the notification on his pv terminal indicating the successful kill of the Norn Queen,

A sudden, bizarre change occurred in an instant!

At the exact moment the Norn Queen was slain!

The bugs that had been fearlessly and endlessly flooding onto the bridge suddenly became like puppets with their strings cut, completely losing their minds.

Not only did they stop attacking, but they also began to let out shrill, agonizing screeches, frantically tearing at and biting each other in a dog-eat-dog frenzy!

"Buzz—!"

As a terrifying shriek that seemed capable of piercing the soul rippled through the space,

A series of bizarre and sickening changes began to take place in the surrounding environment!

On the sturdy bridge walls of sea breeze no. 9, which were made of superalloy, disgusting, squirming tumors actually began to grow out of thin air!

Thick, dark red blood began to drip down from the ventilation holes in the ceiling.

The electronic screens on the control console flickered constantly, emitting harsh static noise.

In an instant, the surrounding air was filled with a sickening odor that was a mix of decay and the smell of copper.

Even more terrifyingly, a chaotic mix of blasphemous whispers—voices of men, women, young, and old, filled with temptation and madness—began to echo uncontrollably in Lin Li's mind!

"Fuck!"

Lin Li's pupils contracted sharply, his scalp tingling. "It's a Warp intrusion!"

Unlike the previous commotion outside the Coastal City, the death of the Norn Queen this time had caused a massive overlap and intersection of reality and the Warp barrier in this sector of space!

How severe was the situation?

Lin Li watched in horror as the tactical holographic sandbox not far away actually began to calculate the past timeline in reverse, defying the laws of physics!

The idealistic power of the Warp was frantically eroding this real world!

Lin Li whipped his head around to look at the Central Army elites who were desperately defending the bridge doors.

Because of their thick helmets, Lin Li couldn't see their expressions.

But judging by the abnormal movements of the soldiers, they were clearly under immense pressure!

Most of the Central Army soldiers had already dropped their weapons.

They were kneeling on the ground, trembling and wailing as they clutched their heads in agony, or slamming their hard helmets frantically against the metal walls of sea breeze no. 9 like madmen, trying to alleviate the excruciating pain in their brains.

Yet among this group, a few behaved very unusually.

Ironhead was still holding his Plasma Gun, maintaining a standard defensive tactical stance.

He kept turning his head to look at his crazed comrades, clearly filled with confusion, as if his simple brain was not affected by the psionic whispers at all.

Meanwhile, Pointy Ears was half-kneeling on the ground, his entire body trembling violently as he gritted his teeth, seemingly relying on sheer willpower to put up a difficult resistance.

Another devoutly faithful Central Army soldier had completely laid down his weapon.

He kept tracing the sign of the Empire's double-headed eagle over his chest, kneeling on the ground as he loudly and fanatically prayed for the God-Emperor's protection.

Lin Li gritted his teeth, desperately resisting the blasphemous whispers that grew louder and louder in his mind.

But the erosion of the Warp was impossible to guard against.

Before Lin Li's eyes, various illusions began to flash uncontrollably like a revolving lantern!

He saw the bloody scenes of innocent natives in the wilderness settlements being brutally slaughtered and skinned by the Orks;

He saw Frannie, who was currently undoing her exquisite and gorgeous formal wear, lying naked beside him with a bizarre smile, caressing his cheek with blood-stained fingers;

He even saw this physique he was so proud of aging at an exaggerated rate, his body becoming stooped and shriveled, tortured to the point of agony by countless malicious diseases.

In the end, he even saw Iron Man 73, who had been by his side all along, his cold metal head actually turning into a feathered, demonic bird head!

That bird head was staring at him with an extremely playful and mocking gaze!

"Get out of my head!"

Lin Li roared suddenly, raising his hand and giving himself a hard, resounding slap!

This intense physical pain caused the illusions in front of his eyes to shatter briefly.

Taking advantage of this fleeting moment of clarity, Lin Li whipped his head to look at Iron Man 73 beside him.

He saw that 73 was still standing quietly in front of the console.

However, its electronic eyes, which usually glowed with blue light, were completely dark now!

Its entire body had crashed, looking like a pile of completely scrapped metal!

Lin Li grew anxious.

In this godforsaken place where the Warp overlapped, without 73 at the helm, sea breeze no. 9 was nothing but a living coffin!

He rushed forward and slapped 73's heavy metal back repeatedly, his movements looking exactly like someone trying to repair an old television set from the last century.

"Old Seven! Wake up! Stop playing dead!" Lin Li shouted.

But 73 did not react at all.

The Warp energy storm seemed to have directly blocked the underlying logical calculations of this highly sophisticated artificial intelligence.

...

At the same time.

Deep inside the chamber of the Hive Mother Ship.

As the terrifying psionic storm surged out like a tsunami, the barrier between reality and the Warp overlapped most severely here.

For the Space Marines present.

Having served for over a century, they had frequently encountered many such sudden incidents.

Since their ships frequently needed to traverse Warp routes for Warp jumps, passing through certain dangerous sectors inevitably resulted in this supernatural phenomenon of two dimensions overlapping.

Therefore, this group of Astartes veterans was extremely experienced in handling this procedure.

The moment they sensed something was wrong,

Lucas and Chapter Master Tyberos immediately ordered their battle-brothers to quickly gather toward the center, forming an impenetrable circular defensive perimeter.

They loudly recited the God-Emperor's dogmas.

The sacred Purity Seals and parchment scriptures affixed to the surface of their Power Armor began to emit a faint golden glow amidst their prayers.

A few veterans even took out holy water and incense candles they carried with them, which miraculously lit up even in the vacuum.

Through this fanatical collective power of faith, the Space Marines slowly stabilized a small physical barrier of reality around themselves amidst the Warp storm.

While praying loudly, they held their Bolters, warily watching the group of mortal players on the periphery.

In their understanding, these mortals who lacked even the most basic protection of faith would absolutely mutate on the spot into disgusting Chaos Spawn in just a few more seconds!

When that time came, they would have to gun them down without mercy.

However.

The full-scale mutation they had anticipated did not occur.

But the situation was ten thousand times more absurd than they could have imagined!

On the players' side.

They did not have the protection of the Astartes' fanatical religious faith.

Although the consciousness of The Fourth Calamity had extremely high immunity and resistance to the Warp's mental pollution, it still couldn't withstand an energy baptism of this concentration.

Very quickly.

Nicotine Truth's body began to undergo physical mutation under the intense erosion of the Warp energy!

Through his thick Power Armor, Zhen suddenly felt an intense itch on his stomach.

"Holy shit!"

Zhen looked down and was startled,

"What's going on?! Why is a green octopus tentacle growing out of my stomach?!"

He immediately shouted in the public channel:

"Guys! Is this a bug?! Didn't the system-wide announcement just say the Boss was killed by us?! Why am I still losing health?!"

At this moment, the players' pv terminal channels were filled with harsh static, clearly suffering from Warp energy interference.

Fortunately, the volume amplifier and receiver built into the Power Armor helmets could still barely be used.

Zhen looked at the other players around him, who were equally bewildered:

"Brothers, what's the deal? Is there any veteran who knows the lore settings to explain this?"

Pi She, who had always studied the Warhammer lore quite a bit, stroked his chin.

"Judging by this bloody and gory special effect right now,"

Pi She analyzed,

"it should be that the moment the Boss died just now, it triggered a hidden mechanic. The Warp and the real world in this area are starting to undergo a dimensional overlap!"

Zhen frowned:

"Just like the Warp rift that appeared outside Coastal City during the war last time?"

"Not the same!"

Pi She made a very vivid analogy,

"For example, the rift last time was like a small hole torn in the roof of our house.

The Warp energy was like leaking water, dripping in drop by drop. There was a slow process, and we could still manage it then."

"But this time is different! This is equivalent to our house being thrown directly into the deep sea to soak!

Water is seeping in frantically from walls on all sides! This kind of full-scale dimensional overlap has a wider area of effect and happens much faster!"

At this moment, many casual players around who did not have a deep understanding of the Warhammer worldview were listening intently to Pi She's analysis.

But they were completely confused.

After all, for this group of The Fourth Calamity,

they usually only cared about killing monsters and leveling up. Their understanding of Warhammer was merely limited to shallow concepts like the Primarchs being big shots, the Emperor being the biggest Boss, and the Chaos Gods being the villains.

As for how terrifying the Warp actually was, they had no concept of it at all.

Zhen still didn't quite understand.

"Damn it! I'm not familiar with Warhammer!"

Zhen irritably slapped the tentacle that was squirming and flailing on his stomach,

"Old Pi, can you say something in MMO terms that humans can actually understand?!"

Pi She rolled his eyes and sighed:

"Simply put! To increase the difficulty, this crappy game has slapped an AoE Debuff on all of us right now! That tentacle growing on your stomach is just the first-phase manifestation of the Debuff! Got it?!"

It wasn't just Zhen who grew a tentacle.

At this moment, the screens of all the players were flashing with a blinding red light!

In the eyes of the natives, this terrifying mental pollution was enough to drive someone instantly mad and turn them into a Chaos slave.

But in the eyes of this group of The Fourth Calamity, it was nothing more than the system's annoying full-screen red flashing warnings!

Instead of going mad, the players started cursing up a storm!

"Damn! There's actually a phase two hidden storyline after this Boss died?!"

"What kind of disgusting mechanic is this? A forced full-screen poison effect, is that it?! And there's no antidote?!"

"Silly devs, do you even know how to make a game! This outfit of mine is very expensive. If the growing tentacles tear it, are you going to compensate me?!"