Raising all of humanity: Starting with a backyard pool world

Chapter 114 [Under the Sky, Heading to the Battlefield]

The snowstorm gradually subsided behind them, and the newly built city gate reflected the northern sun.

The snowfields of the Weeping Mountains stretched endlessly, and the four-person team traversed them.

"Honestly, this armor is even better than I expected."

Wang Xuan patted his heavy breastplate, the brand-new [Mirror of All Laws] reflecting a cold luster in the snow.

"The Dwarf King Thoradin is so generous. I feel like I can carry a mountain on my back."

"Your spearhead should be renamed too." Ai Jia glanced at the new weapon in Chen Kai's hand.

The spear, called "Breath of the Sky," had a body the pale white of Dragon Bone Star, while its tip was swirling with azure energy.

Chen Kai simply waved his hand casually, and the wind and snow in front of him were parted by an invisible force, forming a clear path.

"I haven't fully gotten used to it yet." Chen Kai felt the lightness transmitted back by the spear. "It seems to have a natural resonance with the wind. I only need one thought, and the wind becomes my weapon."

During their conversation, Li Yao fell a few steps behind.

She didn't participate in the discussion, but instead reached out her hand, seemingly to touch the falling snowflakes.

Aijia noticed her unusual behavior and stopped walking.

"What's wrong?"

Li Yao did not answer. She simply channeled a faint thought into the [Heart of Chaos] in her chest.

The snowflakes froze on her fingertips.

It was as if time had been paused in that tiny area.

She succeeded.

Without any guidance from anyone, for the first time, he actively and subtly controlled the power of chaos.

"I..." Li Yao looked at the strange sight on her fingertips with unbelievable joy, "I think I've caught it."

"Looks like this 'forced shutdown' has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for you," Wang Xuan said with a smile as he walked over, in high spirits.

"Let's go. When we get back to the valley, let's show those newbies what the best gear in this game really looks like."

As he spoke, he habitually opened the official forum, which was only available to beta testers.

He was going to check out what kind of lamentations the new players were posting, and also show off his newly acquired achievements.

But this time, the forum's homepage didn't have any newcomers complaining about the game's difficulty, nor did it have the usual arguments between the farming faction and the combat faction.

The blood and despair almost overflowed from the screen.

[Pinned][Warning] The disaster "Scarlet Plague" has arrived.

[Hot Post]: "[Holy crap! This game is for real!] Guys, I got pecked by a chicken, and I'm bleeding! Pictures don't lie!" This post has been pushed to the sidelines.

Instead, there were countless headlines in bold, bright red font.

[Live Post]: "[Frontline Blood and Tears Report] The White Fire has failed! The eastern defense line has completely collapsed! We can't hold on!"

[Help Needed]: "[I'm a fighter, I don't want to die!] What exactly is this Crimson Corrosion? Why can't I get rid of it even after resurrection? My hand, my hand is growing tumors!"

[Video]: "[Final Recording] Watching my teammates turn into monsters in front of me... I..."

The four of them huddled together, watching the content on Wang Xuan's virtual screen, their smiles gradually fading.

Wang Xuan clicked on the video with the highest number of views.

Those were images captured by players at the cost of their lives; the camera was shaking violently.

The Whitefire tactic, once considered the answer to the problem, is becoming less effective against new monsters that secrete oily mucus or even grow bony carapaces.

The player-created undead defense line has truly collapsed.

In the final shot, the cameraman is pounced on by a stitched-together monster. Before the scene goes dark, a system message pops up on the UI: "[The soul imprint is fading...]"

"Permanent death..." Ai Jia's voice was somewhat hoarse.

As players, there's no game on the market that allows you to delete your account and prevent you from logging in; unfortunately, they encountered one.

Wang Xuan closed the post and refreshed the page.

In another post, he saw an audio attachment.

The poster's ID, "Ghost Shadow," is currently grayed out.

"We found it... underground... a living... heart... quick... go... to it..."

The audio ends with a tooth-grinding chewing sound.

Wang Xuan, Chen Kai, and Ai Jia all wore extremely solemn expressions.

Just then, Li Yao suddenly let out a muffled groan.

She clutched her chest, and the vessel that had just been forged into the [Heart of Chaos] began to pound violently, its frequency almost matching her heartbeat.

A familiar yet extremely malicious and greedy power emanated from the distant East, resonating strongly with the power within her.

On her UI, a skill icon that was originally gray is now flashing with a blood-red light.

[Devour].

"Something's happened in the valley." Chen Kai gripped the spear tightly. "It's a big deal."

"We are the guardians of that place."

"We can't take the safe route anymore." Chen Kai looked at the map. "We need to go through here, cross Howling Canyon, and parachute directly in. That will save us two days."

"That place is full of unstable terrain and monsters," Ai Jia warned.

"Then let's charge in." Chen Kai's answer was as concise as ever.

No one objected.

The four turned around and sped off toward the area marked as extremely dangerous on the map.

……

River Valley Tribes, Eastern Defense Line.

Blood soaked the land, and the defense line had long since become a mere shell of its former self.

The flesh-and-blood wall formed by the players crumbled in the face of the fear of permanent death.

When Lightning Blade received the last words and system notification from the expedition team "Ghost," he was stunned.

[System Notification: Your soul imprint has become less stable. If you die again within the Crimson Plague area, there is an extremely high risk that your soul imprint will completely dissipate.]

[Consequences of Soul Imprint Disappearance: Permanent death, unable to log in to Asem Online again.]

Looking at the notification and then at the players around him who were still fighting with the mindset of "I can eventually grind down the BOSS by resurrecting eighteen times," Lightning Blade made a cruel decision.

He made this system notification public.

"Listen up, everyone! This isn't some monster with a debuff! If you die here, you're really dead! We won't be able to log back into Ashem, our data will be wiped!!"

"If they die, they can only watch helplessly from below."

The message was flooded the guild chat and world chat.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

"What?"

"Permanent death? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"I'm not playing anymore! I'm logging off! Let me log off now!"

A player tried to quit the game on the spot, but the system message was a cold "[Unable to leave combat]".

The first deserter appeared.

Then came the second, and the third.

They threw down their weapons, ignored commands, and disregarded the tribes behind them, fleeing madly westward away from the battlefield.

That "immortal defense line," once hailed as a miracle, crumbled completely in the face of punishment comparable to real death.

With the players no longer able to stop them, the monster horde was unimpeded.

"Hold on! For the tribe!"

The war leader, Kahn, had a single, bloodshot eye. He wielded a spear and repeatedly deflected the monsters that lunged at him, but his body was also covered in wounds.

Chieftain Terra, the elder who had always advocated for peace and development, also took up arms and stood before the last line of defense.

They had fewer than a hundred of their most loyal tribal warriors left.

Crimson fungal carpets engulfed the wooden walls, and twisted monsters surged like a tide, surrounding them.

The village's fire flickered in the wind, about to go out.

……

Two days later, at dusk.

Four figures appeared on the hill overlooking the valley.

After two days and two nights of forced marching, they finally arrived.

However, what came into view was a scene of the end of the world.

The earth was covered by a creeping, blood-red fungal carpet, the forest twisted into eerie shapes, and a grayish-white mist shrouded everything, exuding a sweet, rotten smell.

The once barren but vibrant tribe they knew was now reduced to a distant, faint campfire, flickering in the endless darkness.

As far as they could see, the tribe's defenses had been reduced to ruins.

Terra, Karn, and other familiar or unfamiliar key figures of the tribe are being slowly overwhelmed by a tidal wave of monsters.

The moment the four arrived at the hilltop, their unrestrained and powerful aura stirred up ripples across the entire battlefield, like four boulders thrown into stagnant water.

The chaotic, frenzied, and bloodthirsty monster horde below paused for a moment.

Those low-level Frankenstein monsters even crawled on the ground, trembling.

They sensed a fear from a higher level, originating deep within their blood.

The four of them stared silently at the hellish scene below.

Li Yao clutched her chest, where the [Heart of Chaos] was cheering and yearning.

She looked at the corrupted monsters, her eyes filled with an uncontrollable desire to devour them.

Chen Kai gripped the [Breath of the Sky] tightly and said only one sentence in the team channel.

"Prepare for airdrop."