29: Chapter 29 Psionicists

"Hahahaha!"

Flame Fist looked at his hands, which were still trembling slightly, and suddenly burst into an extremely arrogant laugh. The sound echoed through the sewer.

"I'm a freaking hidden character! I knew those constant whispers in my head had to be a hidden buff! Turns out, it really is Warp whispers from the Warhammer setting!"

"I am a noble mage! You physical-build mortals with your scrap metal, better get on your knees for me right now!"

Looking at Flame Fist's arrogant face and the ridiculous sight of blood streaming from his nose...

The other three, who had just recovered from their shock, saw their faces instantly darken.

"This is so freaking unfair!"

Nicotine Truth fished his iron shovel out of the water and cursed loudly in anger.

"This game is definitely rigged! Why is it that we're all clones who crawled out of the same cultivation pod, but you can throw fireballs while we can only play with mud?!"

Nicotine Truth pointed at Flame Fist's nose.

"Confess! Did you sell your round little butt to the devs?! This is definitely a dirty back-door deal!"

"Exactly, exactly!" Wang Shouyi 13-Spice chimed in sourly while rubbing his sore chest.

"Why are we just ordinary laborers while this kid gets to be a protagonist? I won't stand for this! I'm going to the official forums to write an essay and blast these dog developers!"

Seeing these guys so jealous their eyes were practically bleeding, Player Pi She endured the sharp pain of his severed fingers and tied a rag tightly around his left hand.

"Get lost, you lot."

Pi She grimaced in pain but couldn't help joining the banter.

"If this crappy game really let you sell your butt for a powerful hidden class, forget the butt, I'd even sell my sphincter till it's loose just to get it!"

"Alright, enough nonsense!"

Pi She raised his torch, his gaze becoming extremely sharp.

"Since such a powerful elite monster spawned here, there must be some incredible treasure at the very end! Everyone, recover your health bars, and let's keep exploring!"

Under the temptation of triple points and unknown treasures, the players threw even the fear of death to the back of their minds.

The four of them briefly bandaged their wounds and reorganized their formation, with Wang Shouyi leading the way with his shield as they continued to grope through the pitch-black sewer.

However...

To their surprise, for the next ten minutes, they didn't see even a shadow of a mutated monster.

The entire sewer was deathly silent, with only the sound of their footsteps in the water echoing through the empty pipes.

"Something's not right."

Flame Fist wiped away his nosebleed and looked around warily.

"Why is there nothing?"

As he spoke, Wang Shouyi, who was in the lead, suddenly stopped.

"Dead end."

The group crowded forward to look.

At the very end of the sewer, a giant Sewage Grate made of high-strength alloy with an extremely fine mesh had appeared!

The grate was firmly embedded in the pipe wall, covered in disgusting slime and rotting trash from who knows when.

Through the gaps in the grate, they could vaguely see what seemed to be an even larger Sewage Sedimentation Tank on the other side, but because it was too dark, they couldn't see it clearly.

"This grate doesn't even have a gap. How did those mutated monsters, which are bigger than calves, crawl through?"

Nicotine Truth tapped the alloy mesh with his iron shovel, producing a dull, solid sound; it was indestructible.

"There must be another opening! They definitely dug their way in!"

Player Pi She's mind raced.

"We were just focused on looking ahead as we walked. Everyone, put your torches close to the walls and look back! Check for any damaged spots!"

The four immediately turned around, holding their torches and carefully inspecting the metal walls like they were scanning the ground.

Sure enough.

At a corner in the shadows about two hundred meters back...

"Here! Come look!" Wang Shouyi shouted.

The group quickly gathered around.

By the light of the fire, they saw that on the side of the thick metal sewage pipe, a huge two-meter-high gap had been violently torn open!

The alloy pipe wall, over ten centimeters thick, was curled inward with sharp metal burrs, as if it had been ripped open like paper by the claws of some giant beast!

Inside the gap was an upward-sloping dirt tunnel that led to parts unknown.

"Holy crap, how much strength does it take to tear an alloy pipe like this?"

Flame Fist swallowed hard, feeling his pride as a mage vanish instantly in the face of this terrifying physical destructive power.

"Are we going in?" Nicotine Truth was getting cold feet.

"Go in! We're already here, at worst we die! I'll be back as a hero in 24 hours!"

Pi She gritted his teeth and was the first to crawl into the gap.

The excavated tunnel was unexpectedly spacious.

Although the ground was uneven, the height was even taller than these grown men, so there was no need to hunch over.

However, the environment in the tunnel was abysmal.

Terrifying claw marks several inches deep were everywhere on the soil walls and floor.

The characteristic stench of mutated monsters—a mix of rot and musk—was so thick here it was almost palpable.

As they went deeper, the surrounding light was completely swallowed, leaving only the tiny, flickering glow of the torch struggling to survive.

An extremely cold and oppressive atmosphere of terror tightly gripped everyone's hearts.

"Brothers... why do I feel like this game is becoming more like Outlast or Silent Hill?"

Nicotine Truth pressed close to Flame Fist, his teeth chattering.

"This immersion is too damn scary. I'd rather spend a day moving bricks on the surface than stay in this hole."

Wang Shouyi, who was in the lead, was also feeling hair stand on end.

He felt as if countless eyes were staring at him from the darkness.

"Flame Fist..." Wang Shouyi called out with a trembling voice.

"What?"

"You... look back and see if there's someone... or something following us?"

Flame Fist's scalp tingled. He stared straight ahead and cursed without hesitation.

"Screw you! I'm not looking! Look for yourself! Don't you know the person who looks back in horror movies dies first?!"

In this extremely oppressive and slightly darkly humorous atmosphere, they groped forward for another ten minutes.

Finally.

"There's a wall ahead! We reached the end!"

Wang Shouyi quickened his pace.

At the end of the tunnel, another thick metal wall appeared.

Like the pipe wall before, this metal wall had also been crudely torn open.

Wang Shouyi cautiously walked to the edge of the gap, poked half his head out, and looked outside.

"Holy crap..."

After seeing the scene outside, Wang Shouyi sucked in a breath of cold air.

This wasn't some secret room at all!

It was an incredibly massive, bottomless abandoned Elevator Shaft!

Due to the powerful quakes of the wasteland and years of erosion, this heavy-duty elevator, originally used for commuting in the underground base, had long since crashed.

Looking down from the gap where they stood, there was only endless darkness and a dizzying abyss; the bottom was nowhere to be seen.

And about five or six meters above their heads...

They could vaguely sense a strong odor wafting from a half-open elevator floor door.

"There's a way up!"

Wang Shouyi turned back and whispered excitedly.

"Old Ding, give me the torch! I'll climb up the maintenance ladder on the side and check it out!"

Nicotine Truth quickly handed over the brightly burning torch.

Wang Shouyi slung his shield onto his back, held the torch in one hand, and grabbed the rusty metal ladder on the shaft wall with the other, carefully climbing up like a monkey.

Five meters... three meters... one meter...

Wang Shouyi finally reached the half-open elevator floor door.

He held his breath and quietly poked half his head out, trying to see the scene inside.

But it was too dim, and his vision was extremely blurred.

He could only vaguely see rows of tall metal cabinets and rusty shelves, looking like an enormous underground tool room or armory.

"I can't see clearly."

Wang Shouyi gritted his teeth, steeled his heart, and suddenly took the torch in his hand—

and threw it inside with all his might!

Whoosh!

The burning torch traced a parabola through the air, instantly illuminating the interior of this massive tool room!

The next second.

The color drained completely from Wang Shouyi's face!

His pupils constricted to their limit, his heart felt as if it were being crushed by a cold, giant hand, and even his breathing stopped!

Under the flickering yellow firelight...

On the floor of the entire tool room, on the ceiling, in the gaps between those rows of metal cabinets...

They were everywhere! All of them were those hunched mutated monstrosities with gaping maws and sharp claws!

Hundreds of pairs of malevolent eyes glowing with an eerie green light in the darkness turned in unison because of the torch's sudden intrusion, staring dead at Wang Shouyi at the door gap!

"Screeech!!!"

An extremely shrill, terrifying screech that could pierce eardrums suddenly exploded throughout the entire Elevator Shaft!

It was the frenzied roar of a startled monster swarm!

"Run!!!"

Wang Shouyi let out a high-pitched, shrill scream!

He didn't even bother with the ladder, letting go and falling five meters through the air, hitting the dirt at the gap with a thud.

"What's wrong?! What did you see?!" The three below hadn't reacted yet.

"A monster pit! It's full of monsters! The whole room is full of them!! Run, freaking run!!!"

Wang Shouyi scrambled to his feet, abandoning even his shield on the ground, and sprinted back toward the tunnel they came from like a madman.

In the Elevator Shaft above, the hair-raising sound of countless claws frantically scraping against metal walls could already be heard.

The mutants were pouring out of that tool room like a bursting dam.

"Holy mother of...!"

Hearing the commotion, Pi She, Flame Fist, and Nicotine Truth felt their scalps explode. They used every ounce of strength they had to follow Wang Shouyi in a wild dash through the tunnel!

They stumbled through the pitch-black tunnel, falling and getting back up several times, their lungs burning like fire.

The terrifying screeches getting closer behind them were like a death knell from the Grim Reaper.

Fortunately, out of extreme fear, the four of them burst into a running speed twice as fast as usual.

A second before their stamina was completely exhausted...

They finally burst out of that giant drainage pipe and scrambled onto their Off-road Bicycles hidden behind the rocks.

"Pedal! Pedal like your life depends on it!"

The four of them pedaled so hard sparks practically flew, fleeing toward the Fire Seed Shelter like four stray dogs running for their lives.

...

Two hours later.

Fire Seed Shelter surface camp.

It was now noon, and the camp was a scene of bustling activity.

The sounds of smithing, woodcutting, and players bragging and joking were interwoven, filled with a vitality rare in the wasteland.

"Out of the way! Move!"

Accompanied by the screeching of brakes and breathless shouting...

Four bicycles on the verge of falling apart charged into the center of the camp, plowing deep tire tracks into the ground.

"Thump!"

Pi She, Flame Fist, and the others tumbled off their bikes and sprawled on the ground spread-eagled, their chests heaving. They were covered in sweat-soaked mud and stinking sewage, looking ten times worse than a wasteland beggar.

The massive commotion immediately drew the attention of dozens of nearby players.

"Holy crap, aren't those Pi She and Flame Fist?"

"How did they end up looking like this? Did they get ganged up on by mutated Squigs?"

Others nearby also put down their work and walked over quickly.

"Weren't you guys going to explore the basement of that Food Factory?"

"What happened? Encounter a Greenskin Warband?"

"Greenskins... Greenskins are nothing!"

Pi She panted heavily as he struggled to sit up from the ground.

Even though he had three broken fingers and had been chased like a dog, his eyes shone with an extremely fanatical and excited light!

"Brothers! We're rich! Under that Food Factory... there's a giant underground warehouse or tool room!"

Pi She shouted at the top of his lungs.

"The space inside is ridiculously huge! Rows and rows of metal cabinets, there's definitely unsealed Golden Age treasures inside!"

As soon as he said this, the surrounding players instantly fell silent, everyone's eyes lighting up.

"Really treasure? Then why did you come back empty-handed?" a player asked suspiciously.

"Because there were too many monsters!"

Wang Shouyi 13-Spice also caught his breath and chimed in with lingering fear.

"That place is a freaking monster nest, full of those lightning-fast, high-attack mutated monstrosities. There's a massive swarm of them, at least several hundred. The four of us going in wasn't even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth!"

"Several hundred?!"

Hearing this number, the players present didn't feel afraid; instead, they collectively sucked in a breath of cold air, followed by a cheer more fanatical than if they had seen top-tier gear!

"Holy crap!!! Several hundred monsters?! How many points is that!"

"We're rich, we're rich! This isn't a dungeon raid, it's going to an ATM!"

"Brother! Count me in! My strength attribute is 6, I can tank and hit!"

"Count me in too! I'm going to the armory right now to get a pistol on installment!"

Like sharks smelling blood, the players instantly surrounded Pi She's group, frantically requesting to join the team.

Looking at this group of fanatical companions, Flame Fist suddenly gave a cold laugh.

He slowly stood up and brushed the mud and water off himself.

"You can join the team. But for this raid, our squad must take the lion's share."

Flame Fist looked around, his lips curling into an extremely arrogant arc.

"Because we hold the nuclear weapon that can completely clear out that monster nest."

"Tch, keep dreaming. You four pieces of scrap, what are you going to use to clear the area?" a passing player scoffed disdainfully.

"Use what?"

Flame Fist didn't waste words.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes again, communicating with the chaotic Warp whispers in his mind.

This time, he didn't deliberately suppress them, but instead actively guided that violent energy to gather in his hands.

"Open your eyes wide and take a good look!"

Flame Fist snapped his eyes open! In those pupils, a heart-palpitating orange-red glow lit up once more!

Boom!

Without any warning!

A ball of ghastly white fire, its core tinged with an eerie blue, instantly surged up from Flame Fist's palm!

That fire had no temperature at all; the surrounding players didn't even feel heat, but instead felt a chill and a shudder that pierced their souls!

Flame Fist gave a casual wave.

That ball of ghastly white fire smashed directly into a nearby piece of extremely hard wasteland granite weighing dozens of pounds!

Sizzle—

There was no explosion, no crackle of burning.

The moment it touched the ghastly white fire, that hard granite actually began to melt and decompose at a visible rate, like a piece of butter dropped into boiling water!

In less than three seconds...

That stone weighing dozens of pounds completely turned into a pile of extremely fine white ash that scattered with the wind, right before the horrified eyes of all the players!

The entire camp was deathly silent.

Everyone stared at Flame Fist like he was a monster, their jaws hitting the floor.

"Holy crap..."