Chapter 302: Judgment

The three-headed, six-armed "Nezha" kicked off the floor barefoot, shooting forward like lightning, bouncing between walls and ceiling, overtaking Li Cheng outright, diving down and swinging the anchor at Fu Ding Hualong.

Doring Gray's observations weren't entirely wrong—"Nezha" truly possessed self-awareness and intelligence comparable to humans, and its first target was the melee-weak Fu Ding Hualong.

The latter was currently holding a brush, having just finished half of a door god painting on the wall (the original door god had expired and vanished on its own).

At the eleventh hour, Zhao Zijing's hair floated behind her, pushing her telekinesis to its limit, barely deflecting "Nezha's" form so the anchor scraped past Fu Ding Hualong's body by a hair's breadth before crashing into the floor.

Boom!

The metal floor tore open, revealing complex piping buried beneath.

Failing to land the strike, the players launched their counterattack. Zhao Zijing's temples bulged with veins as she unleashed telekinesis to suppress "Nezha."

Li Cheng swung his spear diagonally; the hundred-polar bear, transformed into an eye demon, raised its eye-tendrils, each tiny eye firing a green beam.

Facing the assault, "Nezha's" three heads and six arms proved devastatingly effective.

The leftmost head, a black man's face etched with sorrow, suddenly opened its eyes and roared—a piercing, ear-splitting blast—visible sound waves directly repelling several players, including Zhao Zijing.

The telekinesis suppression shattered; freed, "Nezha" immediately raised its bone club and blocked Li Cheng's spear thrust.

On the other side of its body, it seized the anchor embedded in the floor and swung it backward, crushing a player wielding a poisoned dagger who had been attempting a stealthy ambush into pulp—instant kill.

Pure stats. Pure power.

"Nezha" far surpassed every player present in physical strength and reaction speed, and its durability rivaled that of Grey Rain.

The weakened eye demon beams from the hundred-polar bear left only faint scorch marks on its skin, healing instantly.

Worse still, it wielded master-level martial techniques—its strikes came like a sudden storm, blades whirling in an impenetrable whirlwind.

"This damn thing could be a natural mutation? I'll swallow this steel bar."

Doring Gray, face ashen, pulled himself off the steel bar and jumped to the ground, gulping down a life potion to heal his wounds.

Steeling himself, he gripped his dueling rapier and charged forward.

On open ground, the players—with their varied abilities—could easily kite and snipe "Nezha" to death.

But the corridor was narrow and cramped, rendering many skills and items unusable.

"Get out of the way!"

The hyena shouted, pulling a rocket launcher from his inventory, its barrel stickered with a red skull.

He was about to fire when another player, Giam, seized his wrist—"Are you insane?! Noah said not to damage the building!"

"He only said not to damage the power room—he never said we couldn't damage the structure."

The hyena, unnervingly calm, shoved Giam aside and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A depleted fin-stabilized armor-piercing incendiary round streaked down the narrow corridor, homing in on "Nezha."

Li Cheng, maintaining his "Instant Thunder" skill, caught the flare in his peripheral vision, instantly swept his flag spear, and leapt backward.

The two door gods summoned by Fu Ding Hualong charged fearlessly, clinging to "Nezha," only to be smashed apart by two blows of its clubs, dissolving into raw ink.

As "Nezha" prepared to escape, Doring Gray gritted his teeth, spun the hilt of his dueling rapier, and activated its effect.

【Item Name: Sword of Judgment】

【Type: Weapon】

【Quality: Perfect】

【Attack Power: Average】

【Effect: Righteous Judgment. Upon targeting a foe with at least ten sword wounds, read their recent crimes and unleash a strike of varying power based on the severity of their sins】

【Cost: At least 250 Spirit Points, 200 Sanity Points】

【Cooldown: 30 minutes】

【Note: It's not the law giving me a chance—it's me giving the law a chance】【Note: "Order in the court!" The judge, hammering his gavel, was dragged away by bailiffs】

【Note: This item is bound. Current bound target—Doring Gray】

Hum—

The dueling rapier glowed with an eerie blue light; correspondingly, light surfaced beneath "Nezha's" skin.

Before the mission began, Doring Gray had coated the 【Sword of Judgment】 with a premium-grade magic potion capable of suppressing regeneration in carbon-based lifeforms.

Thus, despite "Nezha's" formidable healing, the minor wounds inflicted by the Sword of Judgment failed to fully close—just enough to trigger the 【Righteous Judgment】 effect.

Streams of light, like iron chains and nooses, bound "Nezha" in place; Doring Gray himself went blank-eyed, lost in daze.

On player forums, a widely accepted theory holds that every item has not only its stated rules, but also hidden, unwritten ones.

Take the 【Sword of Judgment】: "Unleash a strike of varying power based on the severity of their sins"—the word "sins" here is deeply ambiguous.

What is sin?

To a wolf, hunting prey is natural; to a herder, a wolf stealing sheep is unforgivable.

In one's view/p>

Likewise, what one nation's hero is another's enemy—different countries, ethnicities, cultures, and faiths define good and evil in wildly divergent ways, impossible to unify.

After extensive experiments by the European Heavy Industry Guild, the conclusion was absurdly ironic—

The Sword of Judgment's celestial strike has nothing to do with crime, justice, or law—it depends entirely on the wielder's discretion.

If the wielder deems the target utterly guilty, it unleashes a maximum strike equaling 80% of their total Spirit Points.

You talk about rule of law? I find that funny. jpg

Back to the matter: Doring Gray spent a full 600 Spirit Points, summoning a colossal sword phantom above the three-headed, six-armed aberration.

The phantom blade and the hyena's rocket round struck "Nezha" simultaneously.

In an instant, thunderous roar erupted—walls shattered, floors collapsed, a vast section of the building's structure vanished, revealing the outside's endless fog and the faint glow of the ground-level Light Prism Tower.

Smoke billowed, but the players wouldn't stand around like movie villains waiting for it to clear—

They all unleashed ranged attacks—lasers, guns, cannons—pouring fire onto the spot where "Nezha" had stood.

Li Cheng narrowed his eyes; his Info-Synthesis Glasses sharply detected anomalies, and he immediately slapped his palm toward the building's breach, summoning a hurricane.

The gale howled, scattering the dust and smoke.

"Nezha" was still standing where it had been, more than half its body erased, its legs trembling as it held its ground, a sphere of electric arcs encircling its frame.

It had been drawing electrical energy from the building the whole time, and now, by some unknown method, it was pouring it out in massive amounts, forging an arc structure on its surface resembling a Faraday cage.

Every ranged attack the players launched was captured by the electric cage.

"."

Nezha's remaining two heads now opened their eyes as well; arcs of electricity leapt across its body, and the half of its torso that had been blasted apart by the greatsword phantom and the rocket regenerated at a frightening speed—growing even taller and burlier than before, sprouting a mass of bone spurs.

Damn, the boss has entered phase two.

The same thought rose in every player's mind, but the next second, three tentacles shot out from inside Nezha, wrapping around Dorian Gray, Camus, and another player.

The tentacles abruptly tightened, and Nezha dragged the three who had no time to react, leaping out through the gap in the building, bounding up floor after floor in the blink of an eye, and vanished into the darkness.

The sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard,

Li Cheng, gripping his banner spear, was silent for a moment, then picked up the 【Sword of Condemnation】 that Dorian Gray had dropped, muttering to himself, "Oh, so this is the loot that drops from an Aberrant monster? Quite the haul."

That's your teammate's gear, you know! We're all watching! Your buddy gets grabbed and you loot while laughing—really? Want me to dock your reputation score?

Fu Ding Hua Long drew a deep breath. "After them!"

(End of chapter)