Chapter 17: Princess Carry
As the team of human NPCs entered the Ring Tower, a series of roars suddenly began to sound from all around, and a hail of bullets fell without warning.
Facing the human intrusion, the Iron Dome defense system at the center of the Ring Tower remained effective despite the devastation of the apocalypse. Shen Guanchao hid under the photon shield of his guard drone, safe and sound.
A moment later, thousands of blue holographic projections appeared on the map. Sirens who had “come back from the dead” surged out from all around the humans like swimming dragons, disrupting the team’s vision.
At the same time, the first dungeon boss, [Class Reptilia Special Infected · Cattai Evil Lizard], broke out of the ground.
The massive and ugly Cattai Evil Lizard launched an attack on the human team. Just as it was about to pounce on Shen Guanchao, a sniper bullet from the rear hit its head squarely, knocking it askew and eliciting a painful roar, buying the human team a little time.
Unfortunately, the Evil Lizard had a lot of health. A single bullet couldn’t kill it completely; instead, it caused its aggro to instantly shift to Xie Jingchu at the distant sniping point.
In the second round of attacks, the Evil Lizard indeed charged towards him, kicking up countless flying rocks and sand along the way.
Xie Jingchu had already placed an ammo box to bug its aggro value. He huddled in the sniping point and fired several shots in succession. The Evil Lizard’s health dropped significantly. When only one-third remained, its aggro bar filled up, and it instantly unleashed its ultimate, slapping the ground furiously, causing the surrounding buildings to tremble.
Xie Jingchu fell from the high-rise in the shockwave. In the game, one could even hear the realistic whistling of wind past the ears.
He abruptly pulled the team distress signal and slowly opened his arms in mid-air.
The next moment.
A reassuring broadcast sounded—
[Received] [“NAVA·Flesh” is on the way to support]
A mecha character glowing with blue light sped over from the distance, the mechanical wings on its back carrying him soaring through the air.
The mechanical wings were a limited item released by the developers a few months ago. Shen Guanchao had spent tens of thousands of yuan to draw them. They could only be used in PVE and leisure maps, not affecting the fairness of PVP (Player vs Player) matches.
With the power of spending money, he caught Xie Jingchu in the nick of time.
The little fox fairy was embraced by the mecha, and the expensive mechanical wings carried the two slowly to the ground.
Upon touching the ground, Shen Guanchao quickly put Xie Jingchu down and raised the heavy weapon in his hand to deal a fatal blow to the Evil Lizard.
The first boss was defeated, and the human team gained a brief respite.
“Good job.”
NPC Raphael walked up to Shen Guanchao and extended his hand.
[System Notification: Main Story NPC Raphael favorability +500] [Monster Illustration: Cattai Evil Lizard (Defeated)] [Damage Settlement: “NAVA·Flesh” output 47%] [“Watching Sea Listening to Tide” output 53% (Full Firepower)] [Defeat rewards have been sent to player mailbox]
Shen Guanchao bumped fists with him, and the dungeon cut into CG (cutscene) mode.
In the CG animation, the Cattai Evil Lizard exited the stage with a final wail, summoning generic zombies from all over the city. Among them, an Emperor-level Special Infected [Moth Mother – Eye of Jonas], attracted by the smell of the Evil Lizard’s blood, flapped its wings rapidly over the abandoned city and attacked the Ring Tower.
The Commander NPC calmly raised the flare gun in his hand and fired over a dozen pheromone lure rounds in the opposite direction. Instantly, red light illuminated half the sky. The zombies were confused by this move and rushed recklessly towards the other target, bypassing the human team.
However, as the highest-level special infected, the Eye of Jonas was completely unaffected by the pheromone lure rounds. Following the smell of the Evil Lizard all the way, it flew above the human team.
It possessed a body even more massive than the Evil Lizard. With a slight flap of its wings, humans were lifted by the powerful airflow like puppets with cut strings.
The animation ended. Shen Guanchao immediately drove his game character to grab Xie Jingchu by the back of his collar. His left hand switched to a short knife and jammed it into a crack in the stone, securing both their bodies.
“Watching Sea Listening to Tide” was gathered into the mecha’s embrace for the second time. The wild wind blew his beast-ear costume backward.
Suddenly, a cold mechanical hand slowly stroked his “ears” from behind, protecting them.
Shen Guanchao released the short knife, protected Xie Jingchu, and sent him into a nearby building amidst the howling wind. He slammed the door shut heavily and commanded in the voice chat: “Don’t come out, I can solo this boss.”
In the game settings, the sniper’s stature was smaller than the main attacker’s, and the character’s weight and body type changed with the appearance of the costume. Shen Guanchao was wearing limited mecha, heavy enough to withstand Jonas’s wild wind, while Xie Jingchu, dressed in black shorts, beast ears, and a brown coat, was clearly insufficient to resist the gale.
Shen Guanchao filled up his temporary status and returned to the foot of the Ring Tower. Using the surrounding buildings, he jumped onto Jonas’s shoulder. With a rise and fall of his hand, the long serrated knife cut into Jonas’s large eye. Blood spurted out. His other hand released the self-destruct drone “Silver Wing” from the cabin, controlling it to fly into the boss’s body through the cut made by the serrated knife.
A few seconds later, Jonas’s mother eye was blown into crystal fragments by “Silver Wing.” Blue fragments fell from the sky like a rain of gems, announcing the arrival of victory.
Having taken a heavy hit, Jonas stopped flapping its wings, let out a painful roar, and entered a weakened state. The NPCs took the opportunity to fire various lethal weapons.
Finally, in just three minutes, Shen Guanchao took down this Moth Mother, refreshing the highest record since the event went online.
In the RSG club training base, seeing another leaderboard dominated by the ID “Flesh,” Lihua Na affectionately gave Shen Guanchao a WeChat voice call: “Brother, aren’t you carrying a girl? Why did you run off to grind the leaderboard again?”
Shen Guanchao sneered: “Carrying a girl while grinding the leaderboard, got a problem with that?”
“Hanging up, someone is still waiting for me.”
He switched back to the team voice chat, returned to the building where he had hidden Xie Jingchu just now, and opened the door. The person was waiting there quietly, very conscious of being a leecher.
“Let’s go, we won.” He extended his hand to Xie Jingchu, his silhouette backlit.
The sniper placed his hand in his palm and whispered: “Okay.”
Having cleared the two gatekeeper bosses, the rest of the dungeon was much easier.
During the battle just now, the Commander NPC was accidentally scratched by flying rocks picked up by the wild wind. A stream of blood flowed down his forearm, dripped onto the ground, and merged into the soil, seeming to awaken something buried deep within.
After the storm subsided, he bandaged the wound and continued to command the team forward, not noticing that tiny detail.
“The blood of the Red Eagle Central Commanders of all generations is like Tang Sanzang’s meat to Sirens. That NPC bled just now; Salophis is about to wake up.”
Shen Guanchao reminded: “Get ready. When the Siren King wakes up later, there will be two waves of zombie tides coming. These two waves are Siren variants with higher attack power. Find a good sniping point and use the heavy cannon to support me.”
Entering the Ring Tower, it was as if a towering tree had risen proudly on the vast land. Although covered in dust, the prosperity of the past could still be seen, and the beauty of highly advanced mechanical civilization was fully revealed.
The heels of human military boots stepped on the ground, busily collecting materials that could still be used everywhere.
The Commander NPC only stayed on the lower levels of the Ring Tower for half an hour. After confirming that the pollution level inside the building was not high, he walked towards the Garden of Eden on the top floor.
There was a sculpture fountain there, and the sleeping Salophis was within it.
The storyline was about to reach its end.
The Siren King crossed life and death to come before his Commander.
The gears of the apocalypse also turned slowly.
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