novelraw Chapter 299: The Raid
Chapter 299: The Raid
Opportunity waits for no one.
The terrain map had already formed in Li Wei's mind. Scar Glenn and Chu Wushuang were currently at a ruined town roughly 90 kilometers from their own camp. They would continue hunting other ruins, taking down Level 5 mutant creatures — but in three or four hours at most, they would likely return. That left him one, maybe two hours.
"Move!"
Adai in tow, Li Wei burst out of the cave and made straight for Scar Glenn's camp at full speed. No need for concealment anymore.
"BWAAAH!"
A strange bellow from ahead — the Level 5 mutant creature that had cracked yesterday and gone berserk. When Li Wei ran at full speed, suppressing his life-force field became impossible. To the creature, he was a fast-moving, delicious meal.
Li Wei didn't slow down. He kept running. The Level 5 mutant — apparently a massive, locomotive-like mutant bull — came thundering toward him with earth-shaking force.
Through his Perception, Li Wei could clearly see the creature's interior: three large life cores and one small one — the large ones in the head, abdomen, and heart, while the small one drifted slowly. It had clearly only recently formed.
Perhaps last month this old bull had still possessed some degree of intelligence. Right now, there was nothing left to say.
Li Wei adjusted his angle slightly and charged straight at the mutant bull. Both were moving at extreme speed.The bull's charge velocity was roughly 70 kilometers per hour.
Li Wei's straight-line sprint was no less than 50 kilometers per hour — and still accelerating.
He wasn't even wearing the Flame Baron title. He had the Rat Slayer title equipped.
29 Defense — the dense, powerful bones and muscle it provided were enough to sustain this level of explosive output.
39 Agility and 40 Strength supplied the driving force and flexibility.
440 Stamina, deep and sustained — the Level 2 Awakening advantage was in full effect. Even at this pace, Stamina consumption was within acceptable limits.
In fact, Li Wei felt like he was just warming up.
In an instant, the distance between them had closed to a hundred meters.
The bull's charge was reaching its peak velocity.
Collision was its instinct.
Li Wei had no doubt it could punch straight through a meter-thick concrete wall.
Or a building.
Its entire body was wreathed in a strange black mist, carrying the presence of a dark king.
But the moment Li Wei calmly drew the Bloodthirsty War Spear, that presence was crushed flat — because he triggered the Full-Grid Resonance instantly. Phantoms surfaced, flowing like light, and in the next second poured into the Bloodthirsty War Spear. It was hurled with a piercing shriek of displaced air.
A sonic boom.
As if an invisible force were guiding and locking it on target.
The Bloodthirsty War Spear wasn't a Destiny Resonance Weapon — but the Full-Grid Resonance still granted 200% additional damage.
In an instant, a cloud of blood mist bloomed. The mutant bull's entire head exploded as if struck by an armor-piercing round. The life core in its head was instantly destroyed.
The Bloodthirsty War Spear's enchantment durability took a hit as well.
Li Wei's Stamina dropped 100 points simultaneously — then immediately began recovering at a rapid rate.
That was the Level 2 Stamina Awakening advantage.
He slowed only slightly, drew the Enchanted Heavy Sword the next second, and accelerated back into the charge.
While the mutant bull was staggering and off-balance, the Enchanted Heavy Sword took its head in one stroke. Then Li Wei leaped, drove the greatsword straight down into the bull's heart with both hands, destroying the second life core, and severed all four limbs. It was no longer a threat.
He didn't bother finishing it immediately. Instead, he jumped down and knocked off the two massive, hardened horns, storing them in a Resource Card. Magical materials — valuable, and entirely his private property.
The bull was still trying to regenerate a new head. Two more sword strokes ended that.
Total time: under ten seconds.
Li Wei didn't find it remarkable. Just a quiet observation: stack the attributes, and it really was that simple.
He had exposed at least four openings during the fight — a consequence of power not yet fully controlled. But that would improve quickly through combat.
The mutant bull's corpse dissolved into black smoke and merged with the radiation fog. In its place, a gleaming Level 5 Universal Gold Card appeared. Li Wei touched it, restored all Stamina and Spiritual Power, then took out the Three-Star Pet Card Old John had left him and used it for enhancement.
Of course it could be enhanced.
Li Wei personally found Adai's increasingly pampered lifestyle insufferable — but what could he do? Without a proper Pet Card, he couldn't quickly recall Adai during combat. A significant weakness.
He had to rely on Adai flapping around on its own out there — and if it ran into someone like Li Wei or Li Yue, Adai's flashy flying wouldn't mean much.
The enhancement succeeded instantly. One upgrade slot remained, so Li Wei upgraded it again to Five-Star quality, then bound and activated it. Adai had a new home.
Honestly, the cost-to-value ratio was just so-so. Right, Adai? You'd better work hard from now on and repay your master.
Two thousand standard gold coins.
Worth noting: he had now cumulatively donated 55 Level 4 Universal Gold Cards. The family's total assets had accumulated to 55,000 standard gold coins.
A staggering number — but it wasn't his alone. It was family property. At the end-of-month settlement, it would all be divided up, and then taxed.
Predictably: 50% King's Tax, plus 10% Duke's Tax.
Not just Li Wei — Li Yue, Liang Yuzhi, everyone would pay. Future territory development would require taxes too. Unavoidable.
Li Wei continued straight ahead. Any mutant creature in his path was killed on the spot. But he didn't encounter another Level 5 — it seemed Scar Glenn had already cleared everything within 50 kilometers of his camp.
Impressive. Li Wei's own camp hadn't fully cleared its surrounding area either.
[Warning: You are attempting to enter the territory of another player holding a Pioneering Card. Please confirm carefully. If you continue to advance, it will be treated as an invasion. As long as the other party is within a 25-kilometer radius, they will receive an invasion alert and will be able to use the Pioneering Card to mark your approximate location.]
The notification appeared without warning.
He was exactly 25 kilometers from Scar Glenn's camp.
Interesting. So raiding wasn't as easy as it seemed — 25 kilometers was enough time for a camp to prepare. Unfortunately, there were always gaps to exploit.
Li Wei smiled silently and stepped across the boundary.
[Warning! Warning! You are invading Scar Glenn's provisional territory. This means you are now formally at war. The other party may use any means to retaliate.]
Ha.
Li Wei began to slow down and modulate his life-force field. Scar Glenn's camp was well-chosen — backed by mountains, facing open plains. Beautiful.
But that terrain was also a liability right now. Anyone standing on high ground could see everything. Even with the Radiation Storm's faint toxic mist, if the other side had a reconnaissance Hunting Pet like Adai, detection was still possible.
"Adai — climb to a thousand meters. I need every detail of this camp."
Adai shot upward happily. Li Wei activated Vision Sharing and rapidly memorized the surrounding terrain through Adai's eyes. Within moments, he had a complete picture of Scar Glenn's camp.
'Hm. This old bastard is clever.'
Li Wei noticed that the camp's outer walls had several large gaps deliberately knocked into them — the concrete was only 30 centimeters thick. Fooling no one.
But inside the walls, large tracts of cultivated land had been cleared — roughly 30 to 35 mu. Excellent.
The key was the central fortified keep. A star fort, maybe — the layout had clearly been redesigned.
'Holy — at least a meter-thick alloy gate, firing slits everywhere, concrete walls at least two meters thick.'
Li Wei was genuinely alarmed.
Scar Glenn's fortified position was essentially impregnable.
A single entrance, sealed by an alloy gate. Approaching it meant walking into the concentrated fire of at least thirty firing slits. And from any other direction, there were no blind spots — a dozen or more firing slits would cover every approach.
Compared to Li Wei's own camp building — which had gaps everywhere — this place would turn any Five-Star Cross-Border expert who broke in into a nightmare scenario of confined, chaotic combat.
For a moment, Li Wei felt genuinely troubled.
Very troubled.
He couldn't exactly have Adai sneak in and open the gate. Impossible — that was a massive alloy gate built for vehicle traffic. It would need specialized equipment to open.
'Then there's only one option. My apologies.'
Li Wei reached into his chest and drew out the sealed lead-alloy box Liang Yuzhi had given him. Inside: 5,000 milliliters of natural human blood bags.
In normal times, this was already a devastating weapon. During a Radiation Storm eruption, it was something else entirely.
Li Wei took out 1,000 milliliters, made a small cut, and began running upwind — sprinting and scattering the blood as he went. Not a large amount, but deeply provocative.
Within moments, howls erupted from every direction. Level 4 mutant creatures among them.
Once that bag was empty, Li Wei recalled Adai and sent it airborne with another blood bag, directing it to fly directly over Scar Glenn's fort and drop it. A makeshift bomber — it could manage that.
Precision didn't matter. As long as it landed on the fortress, it was fine.
Mutant creatures didn't care about anything else. They charged first and asked questions later.
Li Wei used the Scout Cloak and the Night Ranger's concealment talent to slip away, then followed unhurriedly behind the tide of mutant creatures as they crashed against Scar Glenn's fortress. Worried one bag wouldn't be enough, he had Adai make another airdrop every few minutes — until every mutant creature within a hundred-kilometer radius had been drawn in.