Hearing Lin Guang’s question, everyone turned to look at Su Ming’an.
...Lin Guang actually greeted Lewis? What was their relationship?
"What are you here for?" Su Ming’an asked.
He saw the chanical Army behind Lin Guang, numbering at least in the hundreds, their equipnt far superior to that of Beacon Shelter. If a fight broke out, it would be a one-sided slaughter; these mbers left behind couldn’t withstand such a steel army unless individuals like Tretiya intervened.
"Today is my last day patrolling Zone Eleven, so, I ca to invite you to return with to the City of Gods," Lin Guang extended his hand, his eyes bright, "You are my best friend. Co with , Lewis, to a city free from cold and exotic beasts."
The corners of Lin Guang’s mouth slightly curled up; he seed to be working hard on practicing his smile, which looked much more natural than when he had walked the night before.
Hearing this, everyone was shocked and looked at Su Ming’an.
...They had never heard of Lin Guang being friends with anyone, and even Noah, a fellow agent of the Deities, had a cold relationship with Lin Guang. But apparently, Lewis could beco Lin Guang’s "best friend."
If this invitation had been extended to them, most would find it hard to refuse—the City of Gods, a place free from danger and cold.
If Lewis succumbed to the temptation...
"I’m sorry," Su Ming’an’s voice rang out, "I’ve already joined the Freedom Faction."
Lin Guang blinked. Monts later, his smile faded and his tone gradually beca somber.
"This is the third ti you’ve refused ," Lin Guang said.
He raised his hand, and a cold tallic light instantly surrounded the land. The chanical Army pointed their black barrels upward, forming a pitch-black abyss.
Everyone tensed up imdiately, even the sick and weak picked up weapons.
"Quite thrilling, fighting a boss right from the start..." Lu muttered quietly.
tallic luster surged in Sen’s hands, a display of his "Source" ability.
Cheng Luohe raised his vermilion sniper rifle, white Source gathering in his eyes.
Su Ming’an extended his hand, aiming his palm at the vast chanical Army. His mana points, over four thousand, were enough to blast these machines into scrap tal.
"Bring them out," Lin Guang suddenly said.
In the stunned gazes of the people, the chanical Army pushed a group of humans forward. They varied in age and height, but all were draped in blood-colored cloaks, mbers of Beacon Shelter.
"Are you playing this hostage ga?" Su Ming’an’s voice was cold.
Just after becoming the leader of Beacon, Lin Guang was using Beacon’s hostages to force him to submit; whether he saved these people or not would cause controversy.
"No, I haven’t, I just..." Lin Guang then began to explain, "Lewis, listen to , the person I just shot had a missing disease, although still in the incubation period, but I could tell he was sick, that’s why I killed him. These people also have the disease, so I ordered the chanical Army to gather them to prevent you from getting infected."
He was desperately trying to explain, seemingly wanting Su Ming’an not to misunderstand him.
"—Nonsense!"
From the crowd, Anjie clenched her teeth and shouted, "They are not missing; let them go, you demon!"
She couldn’t see at all that these hostages had the missing disease; it was clearly Lin Guang’s conspiracy.
"Yes, we are not..."
"My mory is still clear, how could it be missing?"
"Leader, please save us..."
The dozens of people held by the chanical Army spoke out; they looked at Su Ming’an and Sen with pleading eyes; one woman even tried to rush forward.
"Anjie, Anjie, save Mum, Mum isn’t sick..." The blonde woman pushed through the cold chanical Army and looked towards Anjie in the crowd. Her blond hair was curly and filthy, her face covered with dust and abrasions.
They condemned, swore, cursing incessantly, describing Lin Guang with the vilest words as if he deserved to be sent to the deepest levels of hell to endure flaying and live roasting.
—And to all this, Lin Guang said nothing.
He just silently looked at Su Ming’an, his eyes having an almost detached indifference as if asuring everything.
That gaze seed to silently ask... Lewis, do you believe ?
"Lord, please let Lin Guang release them; you and Lin Guang are good friends, just talk to him, and he will surely agree," Anjie turned and pleaded with Su Ming’an.
Although she didn’t know why Lewis knew Lin Guang, she was at her wits’ end at this mont, her mind occupied only with her relatives.
Su Ming’an looked at the colorful crowd.
He opened his mouth—
"Bang!"
A sudden gunshot rang out.
A bullet, unexpectedly fired from behind him, pierced through the forehead of a Beacon mber held hostage by the chanical Army, spurting a copious amount of blood.
The blood from the head flowed like overflowing paint, reflecting on the icy-white chanical Army like red flowers in the snow.
—It was Tretiya, her beige hair fluttering and wearing goggles, who was holding the gun and had just shot a Beacon mber held hostage by the chanical Army.
Her shooting was too rapid, too steady, and Su Ming’an still hadn’t noticed. It was her similarly decisive and unexpectedly unmalicious gunshot that abruptly took Qiu Li’s life in the past.
Tretiya’s combat power reached 3000 points, having experienced the Century Catastrophe, she was the strongest in Beacon, even stronger than Sen.
"Ah—!" A scream arose, people never expected that the shooter wasn’t Lin Guang, but Tretiya among them.
Tretiya brushed her stray hair behind her ear, her gaze calm.
"These people indeed contracted the missing disease, Lin Guang is right," she said coldly, "I judge that at least eighty percent of these people have the missing disease, their symptoms likely only appearing recently."
At this mont, her face no longer bore the tenderness and sweetness she called Acto "teacher," but a cold indifference for deciding life.
She was the Arbiter of Beacon, possessing the privilege to judge life anyti, anywhere.
Seeing this, Su Ming’an finally understood why Tretiya was not well-received.
People always fear those who wield firearms, just as—Casual Players fear Adventurer Players.
"Bang!"
Tretiya aid at the hostage and fired again.
Every ti her pale fingers pulled the trigger, a person would fall, blood spraying, as if she were the Grim Reaper continually dropping the scythe, "judging" the survival value of people, taking their lives.
"Tretiya, how could you believe Lin Guang—" soone shouted.
"I didn’t believe him. I am using my eyes to judge," Tretiya said calmly, "People with missing disease exhibit unclear consciousness and vague mory, which can be vaguely noticed from their appearance. Although misjudgnts still exist, I trust my eyes, with at least an 80% accuracy."
She aid at a Beacon mber in the chanical Army and fired again.
Being appointed as an Arbiter was naturally not ordinary; she had a strong acuity for human expressions, and few symptoms of the missing disease could escape her Eagle Eye.
The condition of these hostages was indeed problematic, resembling sickness. She preferred to kill by mistake rather than let go; she was determined to eliminate any hidden dangers among the crowd, this being the best thod to continue civilization.
Su Ming’an was the Lord, needing to maintain dignity and purity; she would rather be the one with blood-stained hands, ready to do all the dirty work for him.
She fired again.
"Bang!"
Anjie could no longer endure; she rushed forward, embracing Tretiya’s arm because the gun was already aid at Anjie’s mom.
"Listen to , Tretiya... we can’t let Lin Guang enjoy the show. My mom really doesn’t have missing disease, I can prove it..."
The usually strong Anjie was tearful at this mont. In such a crisis, it is easy for people to lose all their will and dignity.
Tretiya glanced at Lin Guang who had been motionless and then looked at Su Ming’an.
"...A farce." Su Ming’an whispered.
People who contracted Missing Disease must be executed, so even if symptoms of mory confusion appeared, they tried their best to hide them from others.
It is human nature to desire to survive.
But in a sanctuary possibly crumbling at any mont, their self-preserving behaviors beca "selfish," as if mildly accepting death were sohow the correct endorsed action?
...Was this not a farce in itself.
Life appeared ironic and contemptible.
Anjie called out her mother’s na, urging her to cross through the chanical Army and co to her.
At the mont they were about to embrace, a golden bullet from Tretiya pierced through the stumbling figure of Anjie’s mother.
Anjie scread frantically as her mother fell three steps away from her, calling out Anjie’s birthday and na before dying.
"Tretiya——!!"
Anjie, tears streaming like blood and appearing deranged, wildly stretched out her arms, trying to claw Tretiya’s face.
"Tretiya, why couldn’t you give my mother a bit more ti to prove—why!" Anjie roared.
Tretiya pushed away her frenzied hands, his face covered in scratches from her nails.
The injuries Tretiya suffered, they mostly ca not from the chanical Army or Exotic Beasts, but from the people of the Sanctuary—those he protected.
Scratch wounds, kick wounds, bite wounds, scrape wounds...
They always targeted her with eyes filled with the most fear and hatred, as if it was her fault that their loved ones were missing.
"My mother wasn’t missing at all—she was just calling out, calling out my birthday and na—!" Anjie howled, her body covered in mud and her hands stained with her mother’s blood, no longer bearing her forr beauty.
"Because your mother, in the end, could only rember your birthday and na," Su Ming’an said calmly.
Even he had just seen the numbness and confusion in the depths of Anjie’s mother’s eyes. Anjie’s mother really was missing, both Lin Guang and Tretiya’s judgnts were incredibly accurate.
However, accepting death calmly was sothing humans found difficult to achieve.
Hearing Su Ming’an’s words, the anger in Anjie’s eyes gradually turned into despair.
[Because your mother, in the end, could only rember your birthday and na.]
...
Her shoulders trembled, and she collapsed to the ground, powerless.
She bowed her head, her blond hair falling down.
A mont later, her despairing, intermittent crying could be heard.
"Why..."
"Mom..."
Tretiya watched this scene indifferently.
She raised her head, her gaze fierce, and started shooting at the mbers of the chanical Army.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang——!"
The sounds of gunshots rose, mixing with wails and screams.
Blood filled the ground, and the mbers of the Beacon taken hostage by the chanical Army fell to the ground, gradually motionless. Tretiya had ended the lives of these missing ones.
Among the falling bodies, only the desperate crying and wailing of loved ones remained.
—This sort of lining up waiting to be shot, how was it different from the chanical Army’s large-scale massacres in broad daylight? People were like quails waiting to be slaughtered, unable to control their own life and death.
It was rely the difference between having a "legitimate reason" and having no "legitimate reason."
As Tretiya’s arm fell, the muzzle emitted gray smoke, and the sounds gradually ceased.
In the silver chanical Army, red blood spread, as if painting a bloody picture on their cold, lifeless chanical bodies.
"Clap, clap, clap, clap——"
Lin Guang raised his hand, clapping as if he had witnessed a fine, grand banquet, his face radiant.
"Splendid." Lin Guang said, "The cruelty of human thods of eliminating their own kind, the speed of their actions, always amazes . Just yesterday, they were the closest of mothers and daughters, and today, they could, for a case of missing illness, be separated by life and death, truly splendid."
People silently watched all this, and no one dared to talk back to Lin Guang.
"—Can you leave now?"
Su Ming’an’s voice rang out.
He strode forward, his cloak red as blood fluttering behind him.
"You... told to get lost?" Lin Guang couldn’t believe it.
"You’re disgusting; please get lost," Su Ming’an said politely.
Since he had decided to initiate the Dawn War, Lin Guang was his greatest enemy. History had proved that Lin Guang’s Deity Faction would ultimately fail; there was no chance for them to be friends.
"For a bunch of dood humans, you want to get lost?" Lin Guang’s gaze grew darker, as though sullied mud was swirling within.
"Yes, please leave quickly," Su Ming’an said.
"Bang!"
A silver bullet whisked past his black hair—Lin Guang had fired. The barrel was not aid at Su Ming’an; it was just a warning.
Su Ming’an, too, remained motionless. In his Shadow State, he could detect the bullet’s trajectory.
He hadn’t taken action in a long ti, but that didn’t an he wasn’t strong. It was just that the previous Dawn Brain was too buggy, and he couldn’t escape, which had led to his death.
In fact, his combat power of over 3000 was almost enough to bulldoze through any current instance.
"Lewis, don’t be rash..." Sen tried to advise, but Su Ming’an’s hand already glowed red.
A blood-red scale appeared above Lin Guang’s head.
At that mont, Su Ming’an’s emotional value was at a full 2000 points, thanks to the lecture at Constantine University that had allowed him to accumulate an ample emotional value.
Facing Lin Guang, the faction boss, he used 40 bullets with "Judgnt."
A crimson light flashed above Lin Guang’s head, and his eyes glazed over as he fell under control.
Next, he was greeted with a spatial vibration infused with 4000 mana points.
"Boom—!"
A violent explosion sounded, startling Sen into stepping back as his ears were severely assaulted by the noise. The view before him was splattered with yellow mud like deep yellow raindrops, and the sound of the chanical Army being ruthlessly crushed and compressed resonated.
It was like popping beans—the incessant crackling sounds resonated as the nearby ground was overwheld by upturned dirt and tal, like a mud tsunami surging forth.
[HP-6432! (Critical hit! Spatial damage! Judgnt damage bonus!)]
[HP-6752! (...)]
[HP-5964! (...)]
[...]
Hundreds of extrely terrifying damage figures popped up, terrifying a large crowd of shouting spectators, and stupefying hundreds of disheartened Beacon mbers.
They stood frozen in place until the mud splashed into their eyes, causing them to cry out.
Their leader... how was he stronger than all of them combined?
The mighty chanical Army was wiped out in an instant under this one vibration; they didn’t even manage to fire a single bullet, like utterly useless stone statues.
... Is this the "physically weak" Lewis, who carries no Source on him?
... Is this the scholar they were supposed to protect?
Without need for fierce battles, without need for bloody brutality, just one gesture, one vibration, and all problems were resolved instantly.
Almost, a one-man army.
Su Ming’an, clad in a bloody cape, stood his ground.
Judgnts 4000 mana points in a double-strike, that was his maximum attack capability in his current state.
His formidable strength, accumulated over several instances, was now fully demonstrated. Nearly six thousand damage... it was the highest damage since the World Ga began, enough to kill three and a half Enis.
"Did that white-haired one die?" Lu exclaid from the side, astonished by Su Ming’an’s combat levels surpassing those of a regular player.
"..."
Su Ming’an stared at the dusty area, not hearing any announcent of the boss being defeated.
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