Chapter 821

Within the conference room, Tong You was seated on a swivel chair with his eyes squinted, a cup of coffee in his hand.

Placed before him was a thick military notebook.

There were two separate pictures displayed on the notebook’s screen. On the left was a magnified three-dimensional map of Southern California. Countless arcing lines were slowly extending above the map.

On the right half of the screen was a row of countdown timers, the numbers there ticking down non-stop.

The fastest one had less than five minutes while the longest one only had seven minutes.

The positions that Tong You had wilfully drawn using a marker pen earlier had been faithfully followed by the staff. They dared not miss a single one.

This was not simply due to their deference to this president’s order. Rather, it was mostly because… everyone there was struck with fear at what was currently unfolding within Los Angeles.

The senior-ranking officials of this nation had learned enough to realize the gravity of their situation.

A total of 121 hydrogen bombs, with yields ranging from 400,000 tons to 1,000,000 tons. Half of them were set to explode at a height of 500 metres while the other half were set to explode upon the ground.

This terrifying number of nuclear bombs was enough to wipe out everything within the explosion range. It would be as though no life had ever existed there.

“Manager, opening a bottle of champagne now wouldn’t look too strange, would it?”

Looking at the numbers that were counting down, Tong You turned to look at Jiang Long, who was beside him. There was a triumphant look all over Tong You’s face.

“You’ve already kicked out all the Americans. Who would know?”

Jiang Long himself was incapable of suppressing the glee within him and he snapped his fingers at Tong You. “Open a bar.”

A bottle of champagne was brought out from their storage gear. Icy cold, golden-coloured wine swirled within the cups of glasses and bubbles floated upwards.

The countdown timer with the shortest duration was now only at thirty seconds.

“Then… may all our future instance dungeons go as smoothly as this.”

When that countdown timer reached 0, Jiang Long and Tong You laughed simultaneously. Gently clinking their wine glasses, they then gulped down the champagne.

…

A black cloud enveloped Aderick.

A wretched cry rang out as the black cloud was ripped apart. Next, Qiao Qiao’s figure was thrown to the ground, where it tumbled a few times. After that, she lay there, incapable of moving anymore.

The suit of armour that Aderick was wearing had been utterly shattered, not a single fragment remaining. Even half his body had disappeared.

And yet, countless mini tendrils were swiftly squirming about, reconstructing his body.

Unlike Xia Xiaolei, even though Aderick had received several fatal injuries thus far, he had not needed to replenish his energy reserve.

The genes he obtained from the Bug Armour had been integrated and enhanced by the alien genes, making them far stronger compared to the original.

Lun Tai continued to tightly hold on to the Guardian Shield. However, the active duration of its built-in Realm of Immunity skill had long since run out.

Lun Tai fell to the ground. There wasn’t a single wound on his body, but every part of it kept shuddering from pain.

Soo Soo, Bei Tai, Nicole. Every one of them no longer had the strength to fight. They could barely even stand. Those who weren’t were instead unconscious or in the midst of facing the invasive darkness-type power attached to Aderick’s attacks.

Despite knowing that her opponent’s attacks were of the darkness-type, Qiao Qiao had – in the end – gritted her teeth and used her Anti-materialization skill in an attempt to take Aderick down with her.

She succeeded in shattering most of Aderick’s body, but she too had to face a strong darkness-type backlash. She was beaten out of her anti-matter state, returning to her human form before falling to the ground.

At that very moment, the only ones who could still fight were Tian Lie and Roddy.

Tian Lie was half-kneeling on the ground, panting. There wasn’t a single wound on his body, but his face revealed that he was in extreme pain.

The two Mega Particle Cannons on the Gundam’s shoulders had been destroyed. The same was true of its left leg and right arm. It was barely able to remain standing with the help of its thrusters.

“If only I had this power back when I was in Zero City…”

Aderick did not immediately attack. Instead, he lowered his gaze to look at his wound.

Bits of flesh were still growing. Little by little, but very quickly, the wound was completely healed, leaving not a trace of injury. There wasn’t even a single scar.

“Maybe… Zero City would not have fallen.”

“Aren’t you thinking too highly of yourself?”

Tian Lie forced out a ridiculing sentence. He panted and gripped his fists.

“Just how… strong do you think you are? How laughable. That Shen, if he wants to kill you, one finger is all he needs!”

“You still have the strength to move?”

Despite the chaos all around him, Aderick calmly looked at Tian Lie. “Even though your physical body’s regenerative ability won’t work against my attacks, your soul sure can take a beating. As expected from an… [S] class powerhouse, and one of the Inspectors of Thorned Flower Guild. If this was in the past, I might not have been able to kill you.”

“You think you can kill me now?” Tian Lie roared, his body rapidly swelling up. A pair of black wings spread out from behind him and fluttered in the wind. “I’ll let you have a taste of this senior’s full blow!”

“I have heard about your Angel Killer form before, but-”

Aderick’s figure rushed forward instantly, his long sword stabbing straight towards Tian Lie.

The swords of both Aderick and Tian Lie stabbed into each other at the same time.

“It seems my unkillable body is slightly stronger than yours!”

The two froze simultaneously.

A rattling sound came from Tian Lie’s teeth. Aderick’s Soul Eater Sword had only tapped his solar plexus without piercing it. Once again, however, a power of darkness permeated his whole body.

No matter how powerful his liquid metal data body’s regenerative ability was, it could not avoid an attack directed at the soul.

The black sword jutting out from Tian Lie’s right hand had pierced through Aderick’s heart, but Aderick maintained an indifferent expression.

“You’ve already tried it so many times. Do you still not get it? You all… cannot kill me!”

“Roddy!”

Tian Lie ignored Aderick’s words of ridicule. Instead, he abruptly opened his mouth and shouted.

At the same time, the black sword that he was holding in his right hand suddenly began transforming.

The sword was something he had created from his liquid metal data body. He could transform it at will.

And now, countless fine spikes had suddenly emerged from the blade of the sword. Like thorns, they firmly restrained Aderick’s body.

The very moment Tian Lie shouted, Roddy, who was piloting the Gundam, lifted the armour plates beneath the cockpit to reveal a square-shaped cannon muzzle.

“Multi-phase Beam Cannon. At 100% power!”

Following Roddy’s all-out roar, a beam of light burst out from the mech’s chest, shooting straight towards Aderick.

The Gundam’s whole body had long since become terribly damaged. Additionally, its use duration was quickly coming to an end.

For this final attack, Roddy had transferred all the power from the main reactor to the main cannon on the mech’s chest.

Even stronger than the Mega Particle Cannon.

Multi-phase Beam Cannon!

Aderick’s face sank. He wanted to move away, but the spikes jutting out from Tian Lie’s black sword held him firmly in place, completely immobilizing him.

The diameter of this beam was much bigger than Aderick’s body and it enveloped him completely. Even Tian Lie, who was beside him, had most of his body enveloped by this beam.

The beam of light continued for three seconds before gradually dissipating away. At the same time, the giant mechanical body of the Gundam also disappeared.

Roddy fell heavily onto the ground. Struggling to raise his head, he saw a deep ravine that continued straight towards the horizon.

Everything within the ravine had been incinerated by the formidable energy of the Multi-phase Beam Cannon.

“Damn it… this time surely… he’s dead, right?”

Roddy coughed a few times, a trace of a smile appearing from the corner of his mouth.

Back in the Tokyo instance dungeon, even someone as strong as Tian Lie had been incapable of stopping such an all-out attack from the Gundam’s main cannon. Surely… Aderick could not have survived.

Tian Lie himself only had half a body left and he gasped for breath as he lay on the ground.

Struggling, he brought out a steel ingot out from his storage gear and pressed down on it with his remaining left hand. Although it was much slower than before, the steel ingot began digitizing before flowing into his body.

“At least, you’re… smart.”

Finally, Tian Lie finished infusing the entire steel ingot into his body and stood up.

Back then, Roddy had been very quick to react. Seeing Tian Lie hold Aderick in place, Roddy had instantly pounced on the opening and opened fire.

That said, even though the damage to his body had recovered, Tian Lie’s face remained ugly to behold.

“You’re the smart one.” Roddy grunted and crawled up as well. In the previous battle, he had been piloting the Gundam from within its cockpit. Thus, Aderick’s attacks, while managing to damage the Gundam’s body parts, had failed to damage his soul. Out of all the people present, Roddy was the only one who was practically unhurt.

But Roddy was inwardly sobbing.

Gundam!

That was the Gundam!

It was the quest reward he had obtained after putting his own life on the line in the Tokyo instance dungeon. Later, he even spent large quantities of Star Sand to modify and strengthen it. Normally, he would be reluctant to even use it.

At present, however, not only was one of its legs and arms broken, even its core reactor had become severely damaged due to the overload.

There was no telling how many points and Star Sand he would need to spend to restore it to its original state.

“Stop looking so sad. This instance dungeon… getting out alive is a very difficult thing in itself.” Lun Tai panted as he got up as well. “Is everyone… alive?”

More than half of the members from the other teams had been killed, leaving only the few veterans and Team Leaders alive.

Thankfully, none of the members of Meteor Rock Guild were killed.

“No!”

Nicole had just gotten up, gritting her teeth as she did, when her face suddenly sank.

“Where’s the prompt for the instance dungeon’s completion?”

Everyone there grew stunned.

Aderick had devoured the alien embryo and become this instance dungeon’s BOSS. Thus, by killing him, this instance dungeon should have ended.

For this to happen, it could only mean…

“Careful…”

Lun Tai had only just started shouting when Aderick’s black silhouette abruptly emerged from the ground to unleash a stabbing attack at Tian Lie from the back.

Tian Lie’s face promptly froze and his whole figure stopped moving.

“It is as I’ve said, my regenerative ability is far stronger than what you can imagine!”

Aderick was completely naked. Not only was there not a single piece of clothing on him, even the epidermis layer of his skin had not completely regrown. Red muscles and flesh were exposed to the air.

Back when the Multi-phase Beam Cannon struck him earlier, he had – with all his might – plunged a tendril deep underground.

His body that was above ground was completely incinerated by the energy attack, but the tip of the tendril, which was underground, had remained intact. Swiftly, it multiplied and grew to completely restore his body.

The Soul Eater Sword that he wielded earlier had been shattered apart by the Multi-phase Beam Cannon. However, Aderick now wielded yet another black sword.

The tip of the sword failed to completely pierce through Tian Lie’s body, but it caused a “gege” sound to come out from Tian Lie’s throat.

Then, he fell.

Tian Lie… died?

Everyone there grew dumbfounded.

It was not as though they had not braced themselves for some casualties. Only, no one thought that the first to die amongst them would be Tian Lie.

His body remained unscathed, but it had become lifeless. Stiffly, it fell to the ground like a heavy block of iron.

“Argh!”

Suddenly, Nicole uttered out a mournful cry. Then, seemingly having gone mad, she charged towards Aderick.

The thrusters of her Floating Mech Armour were already damaged. Thus, Nicole could only run forward as fast as she could. An Ion Pulse Sword had lit up from each of her hands.

Despite knowing that this amount of damage could not kill Aderick, Nicole no longer cared.

The moment she saw Tian Lie die, she felt all the blood in her body surge into her head. It felt as though her brain was about to be burned away.

That man had such a filthy mouth and a rude behaviour. Moreover, there was such a deep grudge between them. And yet, for some unknown reason, Nicole suddenly found that she could not live without him.

“You are… an Angel, no?”

Looking at Nicole, who was charging at him, Aderick gently shook his head. “For an Angel to go crazy because the Angel Killer died. Seriously, tsk, tsk…”

By then, his skin had fully regenerated and he raised his sword once more.

His victory in this instance dungeon was no longer in question.

Next up, he would kill off everyone on the opposing side in this instance dungeon and…

Aderick looked at Nicole, who had already arrived before him. He had been about to stab her with his sword when he saw – through the corner of his eye – a dot of light up in the horizon.

Immediately after that, another dot of light appeared.

And another…

The number of dots kept increasing and in but a few seconds after the first dot of light appeared, dots of light formed an arc in the sky as they fell down like a meteor shower in midsummer.

“This…”

Instantly, Aderick’s face sank. He didn’t even notice Nicole’s Ion Pulse Swords piercing into his chest.

He felt as though he had fallen into an icy cave.

Those weren’t meteors.

Those were warheads.

Trident ballistic missiles!

“WHY?!!!”

For the first time, Aderick revealed a look of panic. He raised his head skywards, ignoring Nicole who was repeatedly stabbing him, and roared his lungs out.

The east wind blew across a thousand trees in the night and fireworks fell like meteors.

Countless balls of fire rose up at almost the same time.

A dazzling light enveloped the entire Southern California region. The high temperature and shockwaves from the fusion bombs turned the entire surface into hell on earth.

Upon seeing the explosion from the first atomic bomb he created, Robert Oppenheimer, the father of America’s atomic bombs, said, “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst all at once in the sky, mankind would perish. At this moment, I have become the Death, the Shatterer of all!”

Unbeknownst to Oppenheimer back then, decades after then, nuclear bombs, with power and number beyond anything he had ever seen before, would erupt within this very land.

When compared to the explosion currently ravaging the Southern California region, the mushroom cloud he saw was only like a small firecracker.

A few minutes after that, the heat and light finally dissipated away and mushroom clouds filled the sky.

No living creatures could survive this hell.

Silence reigned all around. The only sound there was the noise of sand and pieces of gravel hitting the ground after the force from the explosion threw them up into the sky.

The intense nuclear bombardment had transformed the surface of the ground into lava.

A long time after that, a hand suddenly emerged from the lava.

Aderick slowly crawled out.

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