Chapter 268: Savage Wilderness

"What have you done?!"

Naruto's gaze swept over the mountain of corpses and sea of blood on the platform, his voice trembling with extreme fury, "Killing without any burden, at will."

"Humans? Don't make me laugh,"

Gouchen, bearing no psychological burden whatsoever, waved his hand casually, recalling two iron swords to hover behind him, and sneered coldly: "Just a bunch of toys; they actually think of themselves as humans."

Players are a rather complex group; different individuals hold varying attitudes toward the script world.

Some treat the script world as a second life, dedicating themselves wholeheartedly to playing the roles assigned by the killing field well;

Some treat the script world as a resource treasury to be taken from at will, plundering recklessly within it to strengthen themselves;

And Gouchen, like many players, treats the script world as a game.

In a game, players can cast aside the moral constraints of the real world upon themselves and act according to their deepest desires without scruple; sometimes, they do so not for profit, but merely for fun.

In strategy games, they carve up territories and grant fiefs, kill blood relatives in pursuit of power, reverse the wheel of history, and turn billions upon billions of aliens into canned luncheon meat;

In simulation management games, they treat commoners as mobile human organ storage depots, turning the experience into a Northern Myanmar simulator;

In open-world games, they break into homes, rob, kidnap for ransom, and act out 'I don't eat beef' every single day.

In Gouchen's view, the myriad living beings within the script world are no different from NPCs in a game, merely a group of lower life forms.

Their very existence is simply to serve him, who possesses the identity of a Chosen One and is inherently superior to others.

Mere ants.

With words having reached this point, there was no longer any necessity for communication.

Ichigo Kurosaki silently unsheathed the Zanpakuto strapped to his back, initiating a zero-frame attack, and blasted out a crescent-shaped Getsuga Tensho.

Buzz—

Gouchen, hovering in mid-air, shifted horizontally, narrowly avoiding the blade light by a hair's breadth; the Getsuga Tensho struck the surface of the concrete wall, tearing open a deep fissure.

A tremendous roar echoed along the subway tunnel,

Gouchen raised a hand to wipe his cheek; the skin below his earlobe had been sliced open by the lingering force of the blade light, oozing drops of fresh blood.

He placed his blood-stained fingertip into his mouth, carefully savoring that familiar taste of rust, the corners of his lips curling into a pathological smile; instead of retreating, he advanced, kicked off the air, and instantaneously moved onto the platform.

The two long swords following beside him like floating cannons flew out automatically, one sweeping left toward Mr. Fantastic's neck and the other right toward his waist.

As the saying goes, injuring ten fingers is not as good as breaking one; among the three major thugs from City Hall, the weakest was this rubber man, Reed Richards, who had taken Luffy's place.

Killing him first would certainly not be a mistake.

At the critical moment, Mr. Fantastic's head abruptly retracted sharply into his chest cavity, like a turtle, dodging the horizontal sweep of the short sword,

while simultaneously, his waist elongated and softened, swaying backward like a noodle to evade the long sword.

"I'm truly being looked down upon."

With his head still tucked inside his chest cavity, Mr. Fantastic also knew that Gouchen targeted him because he considered him the weakest; speaking with anger in a muffled voice, he said: "Taste this, Rubber Pistol!"

Pfft.

Li Cheng and Huiyu, lying on the ground pretending to be corpses, nearly lost their composure again, frantically ranting in their hearts.

Hey buddy, this Rubber Pistol is clearly Luffy's move; it's one thing that you replaced his position, but how could you even steal his skills? Have you no respect for your elders?!

As an old-school superhero from Marvel Comics, Mr. Fantastic first appeared in the early 1960s in "Fantastic Four," making him a senior figure in the realm of rubber men.

He swung one arm backward, stretching it to its limit, then snapped it forward violently, his roaring fist aiming straight for Gouchen's heart.

At the same moment, Naruto and Ichigo Kurosaki, standing nearby, attacked in unison, blasting out a Rasengan and a Getsuga Tensho.

Facing the gang-up, Gouchen's eyes turned sharp; he retreated two steps and drew an ancient, weathered shield out of thin air with both hands.

The shield was made of bronze and iron, pitch black on the surface, standing as tall as a person and as thick as a palm, perfectly square in shape, with a shallow layer of inscriptions carved on its back, almost entirely washed away by time.

【Item Name: Savage Guardian Shield】

【Type: Armor】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Defense: Relatively Strong】

【Special Effect: Guardian Parry. Upon being attacked, perform a counter-action with the shield at that instant to reflect the attack back. The parry performance against energy-type attacks is superior to that against physical attacks.】

【Consumption: Depends on the intensity of the received attack; minimum 100 Spirit Points】

【Cooldown Time: Depends on the intensity of the received attack; minimum 10 seconds】

【Usage Condition: Strength attribute greater than or equal to 10】

【Note: The Savage Great Shield can only parry attacks received from the front; it cannot parry large-scale indiscriminate strikes or conceptual attacks.】

【Note: This is a shield left behind by a senior transmigrator; it details in detail how he accidentally transmigrated to a primitive tribe, led his clansmen in hunting beasts, practiced slash-and-burn agriculture, made pottery and smelted iron, built houses and boiled salt, invented writing, and established city-states... Just when his descendants filled the hall and he thought everything was finally on the right track, someone reported that densely packed three-masted sailing ships equipped with muskets and cannons were sailing across the ocean.】

【Note: Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce away the crow's feet.】

Whether in the auction house or in the back-alley black markets, equipment of the same quality always holds armor in higher regard than offensive props.

This Perfect-quality 【Savage Guardian Shield】 was lent to Gouchen by his older brother, in an attempt to help him survive this extremely perilous deathmatch mission.

Clang!

Gouchen pushed the shield forward, reflecting both the Rasengan and the Getsuga Tensho away along the angle of reflection simultaneously.

Facing the Rasengan, Ichigo Kurosaki kicked off the ground, employing the Shinigami's Shunpo skill to flash far away.

Meanwhile, Naruto emitted red chakra from within his body, covering his entire form and growing three fox tails; in his Tailed Beast Cloak form, he tanked a Getsuga Tensho head-on.

The battle thus commenced; among the four powerhouses, except for Mr. Fantastic, the other three possessed high-speed movement capabilities, so when they fought, one could only vaguely see afterimages and hear deafening roars.

Wherever the afterimages passed, railway tracks were torn apart, tiles shattered, and concrete collapsed.

Fighting one against three, Gouchen grew increasingly excited, whereas Naruto and Ichigo Kurosaki felt somewhat constrained—

Firstly, being underground, they could not use large-scale attacks, or else they would cause the tunnel to collapse.

Secondly, they had to constantly prevent Gouchen from flying through the tunnel to the next platform, or directly flying out of the subway, otherwise he would slaughter even more toy city citizens.

Lastly, Gouchen's twin swords were incredibly sharp, perfectly countering the rubber man Mr. Fantastic, forcing the two of them to frequently split their attention to protect their companion.

As for Li Cheng,

he lay prone amidst a pile of corpses, playing the role of a dead body with professional dedication; to mask the sound of his breathing, he had specifically used the 【Assembled Plush Doll】 special effect to install a silent fan on his back.

Nearby, Hui Yu was likewise playing dead, quietly reaching over to write characters in Li Cheng's palm to convey a message.

'Being able to watch experts fight is so cool, so exciting, so satisfying, ya!'

'Shh, don't move recklessly; we are corpses right now.'

Li Cheng wrote back in response: 'But indeed, it's far superior to Hollywood blockbusters; nowadays Hollywood films don't even hire martial arts directors, relying entirely on special effects.'

Seeing Gou Chen and the others move to the other side of the platform, the leisurely Li Cheng and Hui Yu quietly twisted their heads while maintaining the crooked-eyed, slanted-mouth expressions of corpses, continuing to watch the show.

Two corpses lacking pulse, heartbeat, or breathing sounds had actually turned their heads; in any other film set, this would surely be terrifying.

Meanwhile, at the center of the battlefield, the combat was gradually drawing to a close.

Having consumed a massive amount of Life Potions, Gou Chen's negative side effects were now manifesting: the skin on his neck, arms, and chest exhibited a scale-like texture, his right eyeball was bloodshot, and three fingers on his left hand along with his left ear were gone without a trace.

The drug tolerance for Life Potions had reached its critical threshold.

Opposite him, Ichigo Kurosaki and Mr. Fantastic were covered in scars, while Naruto, who could use the Tailed Beast Cloak and repair injuries with chakra, bore no wounds on his body surface, though his demeanor showed some exhaustion.

"Pah."

Gou Chen spat a mouthful of bloody water onto the ground, staining his teeth crimson; sweeping a provocative gaze across the three City Hall thugs, he rasped, "Why have you stopped fighting?"

"Your Erosion quota," Ichigo Kurosaki tilted his head slightly, stating coldly, "probably isn't much left, is it?"

City Hall had long coordinated with Eugene and knew clearly that outsiders possessed a setting called "Erosion"; every use of spiritual power accumulated a numerical value.

Surrounded and beaten, Gou Chen had no possibility of holding back, and the 【Barbarian Guardian Shield】 was also a major consumer of spiritual power values;

his Erosion level was most likely already at the end of its rope.

"Additionally,"

Naruto picked up the thread, his gaze locking dead onto the short sword in Gou Chen's hand, "that sword of yours is truly extremely annoying."

"You discovered it?"

Gou Chen narrowed his eyes, clenching the continuously trembling and humming sword hilt.

【Item Name: Female Sword · Earth Fiend】

【Type: Weapon】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Attack Power: Relatively Strong】

【Special Effect: Soul Siphon. Upon successfully hitting a target with an attack, it steals a small portion of temporary attribute values from the opponent, not exceeding 50% of one's own base attributes. Using the Soul Siphon effect on others forcibly shifts them to a hostile state; it cannot be used on oneself.】

【Consumption: None】

【Cooldown Time: 10 seconds】

【Usage Conditions: None】

【Note: Attribute theft only occurs when both parties' strengths are close; stolen temporary attribute values last at most 30 minutes. After reaching maximum theft capacity, Female Sword · Earth Fiend enters a 24-hour cooldown period.】

【Note: Whose attribute values are these? If no one wants them, I'm taking them.】

【Note: This equipment is a bound item, dropping only upon death. Current bound target—Gou Chen】

This Earth Fiend short sword was the reliance that allowed Gou Chen to dare to fight three alone without calling for Li Cheng's help;

its Soul Siphon special effect could be described as overwhelmingly domineering—even if an ordinary person picked it up, as long as they killed enough, they could become a superhuman with all attributes at 7.5.

(It could even steal Charm attributes; stealing enough granted a built-in beauty filter effect, making it very suitable for use before offline meetups or blind dates.)

The only shortcoming was that it could only be used on opponents of similar strength; otherwise, one could simply raise a nest of hamsters to sacrifice temporarily during battle.

The preliminary probing and attrition were over; next came the decisive victory or defeat.

"Gum-Gum Gatling! Gum-Gum Boomerang! Gum-Gum Cannon! Gum-Gum Battle Axe!"

Mr. Fantastic loudly shouted out various techniques of another rubber person, his endlessly extendable limbs bombarding Gou Chen continuously, before finally roaring, "Gum-Gum Net!"

He interlaced the fingers of both hands, extending and lengthening them to weave together, casting forward like a fishing net.

Gou Chen also knew that under no circumstances could he be trapped; his two iron swords slashed rapidly, cutting through the rubber fishing net.

With the ten fingers connected to the heart, Mr. Fantastic broke out in a cold sweat from the pain, yet he still sacrificed having all his fingers severed to forcibly tighten the net, binding Gou Chen tightly and locking his limbs with joint reversals.

Without needing Mr. Fantastic to voice a reminder, Ichigo Kurosaki gripped his Zanpakutō with both hands, slashing forward to unleash a diagonal Getsuga Tenshō.

Surging blade light approached in layer upon layer like waves; every single hair on Gou Chen's body stood on end, and relying solely on his instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm, he used only his protective sword light to forcibly withstand this Getsuga Tenshō, without employing the 【Barbarian Guardian Shield】 to block.

Boom—!

The rubber net vanished into nothingness; all ten of Mr. Fantastic's fingers were severed, gushing blood profusely, while Gou Chen himself was embedded by the Getsuga Tenshō into the subway tunnel's ceiling.

An even greater threat remained below.

There, Naruto flashed to the middle of the subway tracks, landing on all fours directly beneath Gou Chen.

The chakra leaking from within him surged violently; his skin cracked inch by inch like paper, his pupils transformed into red vertical slits, and the Tailed Beast Cloak grew a fourth tail.

He, or rather it, took a deep breath, his beastly chest swelling high as he brewed immense energy, and then, exhaled.

Violent energy blasted toward Gou Chen, who, in a final desperate move, drew out that 【Barbarian Guardian Shield】, striving to alter the trajectory of the energy beam named "Tailed Beast Ball."

Just as the description stated, the Barbarian Great Shield could only deflect attacks received from the front; the Tailed Beast Ball's range was too vast and its energy level too high, directly shattering the reinforced concrete ceiling and dozens of meters of rock strata;

bathed within it, Gou Chen seemed as if placed at the mouth of a violently erupting volcano, sent soaring high, bursting through the surface, and standing level with the skyscrapers.

He curled up entirely behind the shield, his left hand desperately chugging a large bottle of Life Potion to repair injuries, while his fractured right hand strained to hold the shield in place;

exerting all his strength to deflect a portion of the Tailed Beast Ball's energy beam, he sent it striking far away into the suburban forest, destroying numerous trees.

The aftershocks of the Tailed Beast Ball finally dissipated;

at this very moment, the entire urban district above the subway station had been placed under martial lockdown, not a single civilian in sight, with only several Divine Eagle Gunships circling in the distant sky.

Before the gunners on the gunships could even react, Gou Chen, having just downed a Life Potion, once again felt an intense threat.

It did not come from underground, nor from those gunships' rotary laser cannons, but from a distant high-rise building.

"Master Pi Fu!"

He shouted aloud, raising his shield with his last remaining strength before him,

the next instant, a golden arrow, long as a spear, shot from an extreme distance, pierced through the shield, drove into Gouchen's abdomen, and flung him backward, slamming him hard into a low-rise building district, sending up a cloud of dust.

Master Pi Fu?

In the subway tunnel, the three enforcers of the City Hall and the pilots of the Eagle Gunship all heard Gouchen's piercing cry—some stunned, some bewildered, some suddenly realizing.

Then, from among the pile of lifeless corpses,

Li Cheng, who had feigned death for so long, suddenly sprang up, using one hand to seal the Gray Rain with his electronic pet egg, and with the other, fired a bat-shaped grappling hook, surging out of the subway station at an unimaginable speed,

and as he leapt onto the surface, he drew his electromagnetic cannon, loaded it with a thousand-paper-crane familiar, and pulled the trigger.

Boom!

The electromagnetic railgun launched a projectile carrying the thousand-paper-crane familiar toward the direction from which the golden arrow had come.

Also toward Eugene's direction.

(End of Chapter)