Lord of the Myriad Worlds

Chapter 270: Radiation Miasma

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Five small fireballs hit Thomas's tower shield in rapid succession — the combined force nearly equivalent to ten grenades.

But when the smoke cleared, Thomas hadn't moved. He activated the City Builder title for the sixth time in as many minutes. The veins on his forehead stood out. The hands holding the shield trembled slightly.

Activating the City Builder title had its costs.

"Roar!"

One of the Ability Users outside transformed into a stone giant. An enormous fist like a wrecking ball slammed into the concrete barrier. Chunks of rubble flew in every direction. The fifty-centimeter-thick concrete wall — which had seemed so solid — suddenly looked fragile and small.

Another ten or fifteen hits like that and it would collapse.

But just as the stone giant wound up for a second strike, Zhao Xuanxuan exhaled sharply, leaped into the air with her hammer, and brought it down on the giant's elbow joint.

The stone giant was Level 3 — over four meters tall, body like iron and stone, seemingly impervious to everything. Yet Zhao Xuanxuan's hammer opened a hairline crack.

It looked like it had done nothing. Then, a second later, the crack exploded outward, spreading like a spiderweb — and with a crash, half the giant's arm crumbled to rubble. The giant stared in disbelief, expression utterly stunned.His defense had been broken? Just like that?

With another crash, the stone plating across his body began falling away like loose gravel. He let out a shriek, reverted to human form, and clutched his shattered arm, howling in pain.

Screaming for his mother. A strange kind of Ability User, this one.

"Roar!"

Another stone giant swung a fist — and punched the first one like a golf ball, sending him flying. He hit the ground spitting blood, clearly not long for this world.

But Li Wei stepped forward and hauled the man over. He fed him a Life Potion — passed to him by Li Yue a moment ago — and then a Two-Star Blood Resistance Potion, followed by ten One-Star Blood Resistance Potions.

Nothing more to it than that. Just a little experiment. Once only.

The Ability Users launched another assault. But after three consecutive stone giants had their rock armor shattered by Zhao Xuanxuan's hammer, they changed tactics — a barrage of small fireballs came pouring in, relentless and cheap.

There seemed to be an unusual number of fire-type Ability Users here.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Under the sustained bombardment, Thomas finally buckled. He could no longer hold the shield aloft — he was spent.

In that gap, a volley of bone spikes and ice spears came screaming in, forcing Leon and Zhao Xuanxuan back. Even Zhang Jinjun, who'd been about to rush forward to plug the breach, was driven back.

In that instant, three agility-type Ability Users vaulted over the barrier wall. They moved like cats — one lunged at Thomas, one at Leon, one at Zhao Xuanxuan.

In the confined space, they had every advantage.

Leon could barely hold his own. Zhao Xuanxuan was outmatched. As for Thomas — he could only close his eyes and wait.

Zhang Jinjun wanted to help but couldn't reach anyone in time. Julian the Three-Star Butcher stood there dumbfounded — he couldn't even track the three Ability Users' movements. This was so far beyond his level it wasn't even funny.

But for Li Wei, this was nothing.

He'd been standing in the third row, looking unhurried — but every detail of this small battlefield was in his grasp. He didn't overextend. He simply tossed the Bloodthirsty War Spear with a flick of the wrist, pinning one agility-type Ability User to the ground. Then a sliding step, past the startled Julian, and in the next instant he'd shoulder-checked the third agility-type Ability User, driving the Three-Star Dagger up through the man's jaw in one smooth motion. He pulled it free, flicked his wrist, and the Ability User who'd been trading blows with Leon — neither gaining the upper hand — had his temple punctured.

Then he drew the Two-Handed Heavy Sword and charged out.

Defense wasn't really his thing.

The move caught his own allies off guard — and left the enemy Ability Users completely flat-footed. Li Wei's burst speed was too fast, and the heavy sword that followed was faster still. With Perception +1 active, the life cores of these Level 3 Ability Users shone like fireflies in the dark — obvious and irresistible.

He didn't need anything flashy. He had no flashy moves anyway.

Just thrust. Thrust. Lunge and thrust. Thrust again. Thrust.

Nothing wasted. A 12.5-kilogram sword, backed by 29 points of Strength — one stab, one hole. One stab, one silence.

In under five seconds, Li Wei burst out from behind the barrier wall and came back around the other side. He gave the Ability Users no time to react. By the time they processed what had happened, twelve of them were lying in pools of blood.

Brutal.

Though honestly, Li Wei's contribution was small compared to what was happening upstairs. The fighting on the third and fourth floors was far more intense.

Every Ability User who'd climbed up there was being cut down by Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi like they were slicing watermelons — heads rolling, lines breaking.

These Ability Users were a bit weak, all things considered.

But the real show was about to begin.

Based on the pattern of the fighting, in just a few minutes, even as the Ability User count had been halved from two or three hundred, over a dozen of them had been pushed to the breaking point and evolved into Level 4 Ability Users.

That was the Flame Duke's plan. He was cunning — he'd gone somewhere to heal while using these Ability Users as kindling, forcing them to evolve through combat.

A shameless strategy. And one with no obvious counter.

While Li Wei was still processing this, he heard one of the Ability Users outside shout something.

"For Fazai!"

The next second — a boom. Fire erupted skyward. Limbs and debris flew everywhere.

What?

"Fazai!"

Boom!

Another massive explosion. Then, as if a devil's chain reaction had been triggered, blasts rang out one after another. Li Wei and his group were sheltered inside the building and mostly unaffected — but the Ability Users outside were screaming, bodies strewn across the ground.

In under ten seconds, at least fifty fire-type Ability Users had self-destructed, taking over a hundred others with them. The survivors were dazed and barely standing.

But the flames from the self-destructions didn't die out. They burned on over the bodies, and thick plumes of strange black smoke began spreading outward. Something was wrong.

When the remaining Ability Users inhaled the black smoke, they seemed to be hit by some bizarre stimulus — they began tearing at each other savagely, every last shred of reason gone.

"Brother! Get everyone up here — it's Blood Plague! The Flame Duke is releasing Blood Plague!"

Li Yue's voice came from above, urgent and sharp.

Li Wei didn't hesitate. He switched to the Rat Slayer title, stowed the Bloodthirsty War Spear, grabbed the unconscious test subject, and ran for the stairs.

By the time they reached the third floor, Julian — the weakest of the group — was already failing. He was coughing violently, on his knees, hacking up blood clots, fragments of tissue, and black corrupted blood. His skin had turned a deep, livid gray.

"Save — save me —"

He thrashed desperately, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes. He was genuinely terrified. He'd just come to this Chaotic Killing Battlefield to see what it was about — maybe pick up some good loot, maybe get lucky, maybe start down the road to becoming someone. He hadn't expected this. He'd barely arrived in this mission world, barely started the boss fight, and it was already this hopeless.

His vision was filled with flashing warnings about dangerously elevated radiation levels.

A flash of steel — and Julian's head fell.

Leon had done it, before Julian's radiation count reached 100. It was the necessary thing. This way Julian would lose at most one low-tier Profession Card. If Blood Plague Level 3 set in, nothing could save him.

Not that they weren't trying to save him — but Julian had been in this world less than three days. He was essentially a natural person in terms of resistance. Without Three-Star Blood Resistance Potions, there was simply no saving him.

"Move! Up!"

Li Wei urged them on. Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi had already reached the seventh floor. He Yuying was at the ninth — she was genuinely terrified.

By the time the group reached the tenth floor, they'd finally cleared the black smoke. Looking out, the miasma blanketed everything within a radius of 1.2 kilometers. The fifth floor and below were completely swallowed.

Li Wei looked at Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi. Both wore grim expressions. Neither had anticipated this. Had the Flame Duke been the final boss of Year Two? Year Three? He was supposed to lose control eventually on his own — but they'd pushed him over the edge themselves, ahead of schedule.

Damn it all.

How much radiation toxin had this Flame Duke been storing inside himself?

"Auntie Liang — how many Blood Resistance Potions do you have left?"

Li Wei asked quickly.

"Not many. Enough for one dose each. But this radiation miasma is spreading and the concentration keeps rising. Without a rainstorm, it won't clear for two or three days at minimum. I — I didn't think it would come to this. I underestimated the Flame Duke. This is my mistake."

Liang Yuzhi was full of regret. She'd never taken the Flame Duke seriously — so she'd cut corners on preparation. Who could have predicted this?

Li Yue's expression was equally dark. She was at a loss.

"Auntie Liang. Xiao Yue. We need to break out."

Li Wei said it again — the same thing he'd said minutes ago, when the two of them had been confident of victory. In hindsight, they should have broken out then.

"It won't be easy, Brother. The miasma covers a radius of 1.2 kilometers. The Flame Duke will definitely ambush us inside it. And in that miasma, we can't see our hands in front of our faces — the moment you open your eyes, radiation toxins start accumulating rapidly. We can't hold out. Even Liang Yuzhi and I — we absolutely cannot hold out."

"Brother, I'm sorry. I —"

Li Wei cut her off sharply.

"Don't say that. What if it's just the three of us breaking out? Leave the others on the twentieth floor. As long as they hold the stairwell, they can last three to five days without trouble. But if the three of us break out, the whole game opens up again."

"What?"

Both Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi were startled. It wasn't much of a plan — but it was something. Still, in total darkness, with the Flame Duke lurking and ready to ambush, in an unfamiliar and complex urban environment — was he serious?

Li Wei leaned in close and murmured something to each of them in turn.

"Neither of you needs to open your eyes. Just follow my footsteps. Follow my instructions exactly. Three minutes — at most three minutes — and we'll be out."

"Now — no more delay. Thomas, Leon, Xuanxuan, He Yuying — take the wounded up to the roof immediately. Watch for the Flame Duke's ambush, but the radiation miasma can't rise this high."

"Hold out up there, and we win this."

"Move."

With that, Li Wei released Adai and sent it climbing to eight hundred meters — a high-altitude vantage point to spot any incoming ambush from the Flame Duke.

As for the rest — he was fully confident.

Because he had the Rat Slayer title. He could open his eyes inside the radiation miasma. He could find the best path out.

That was what it meant to be a Scout.