Chapter 421

Whoooooo!!!!!

The iconic horn of Dayun deafened all around as all sixteen tires simultaneously burst into flames; Gao Chao and the others had to grip the truck body tightly to avoid being thrown off by the sudden acceleration.

Foot pressing the accelerator, eyes calm as a still well, Xue Shi Paoxiao entered flow state at this moment.

Fully focused, utterly absorbed, his breath rose and fell in rhythm with the roar of the Weichai WP13 diesel engine.

"Old friend."

Hands tenderly caressing the steering wheel, this truck had taken him through the -40°C snowstorms of Mohe, through the 45°C scorching flames of Turpan's Flame Mountain where birds vanished, braved the rains and winds of the Sichuan-Tibet route, and raced day and night along the coastal national highways.

As if sensing Xue Shi Paoxiao's will, the two halogen headlights on the truck's front blazed fiercely, like the golden eyes of ancient monstrous beasts.

The sun visor automatically lowered, revealing an A2 heavy tractor-trailer driver's license.

Xue Shi Paoxiao grinned, flooring the accelerator.

Horsepower surged to 550, torque climbed to 2550 N·m.

Seventy meters, fifty meters, thirty meters.

The fleshy mountain slowly squeezed out of the tunnel, rising slowly with hands pressed to the ground. Its bloated face was etched with furious rage.

Arms like crane booms slammed left and right toward the charging Dayun.

At that instant, Xue Shi Paoxiao's hands moved like lightning, precisely controlling the clutch, accelerator, and brakes.

This maneuver was called "jumping the scale": the driver manipulated the vehicle to generate acceleration as it passed over the weighbridge, using inertia to alter the force distribution on the scale, thereby reducing axle weight and lowering toll charges.

And when jumping the scale was pushed to its extreme…

The heavy truck inexplicably leapt upward like it had springs beneath it, the front end lifting high.

Simultaneously, countless phantom images materialized around them.

Each 100-kilogram steel pipe, each 30-ton steel coil, sand, coal, cement, generator stators and rotors, large beam girders, wind turbine blades.

These phantoms surrounded the Dayun truck, carrying immense momentum, brushing past the fleshy mountain's arms by a hair's breadth before slamming into its still-open, unhealed abdomen.

Boom!

The Baosteel special alloy steel bumper shattered ribs, crushed internal organs, and tore through muscle fibers.

After an extremely brief darkness, the players' vision brightened again.

The armored truck pierced straight through the fleshy mountain, emerging from its back, its burning tires crashing heavily to the ground.

"This truck is amazing—overloaded with a hundred and fifty tons of steel coils. Even gods couldn't stop it."

Xue Shi Paoxiao muttered to himself, yanking the steering wheel hard; the heavy vehicle skidded and spun 180 degrees, its front facing the fleshy mountain once more.

The windshield wipers activated automatically, spraying washer fluid to clear blood, shredded flesh, and bone fragments from the windshield.

Half its body was pulverized, yet it still lived. Its massive form healed swiftly, even its broken spine regenerating slowly.

Xue Shi Paoxiao's expression didn't change; his right fist slammed down on a red button atop the dashboard.

Squeeeeee—

The blood-caked armor panels on the truck's body unfolded, revealing rows of honeycomb-style rocket launchers beneath.

All rocket launchers fired simultaneously; the blinding flashes of armor-piercing explosive rounds instantly engulfed the fleshy mountain.

"Let's go."

Fighting an opponent with infinite regeneration was pointless; Xue Shi Paoxiao reversed and sped away, weaving skillfully through the buildings with superior driving.

Ercha Shu immediately summoned a drone, sending it to hover around every corner of the tunnel.

Only after the heavy truck passed several turns did Xue Shi Paoxiao brake, exhaling deeply.

"It didn't follow."

Ercha Shu also relaxed, projecting the drone's footage as a 3D image—the fleshy mountain had chased for a distance, but soon grew exhausted and collapsed again on the spot. In some way, this confirmed Li Cheng's suspicion—that this fleshy mountain might truly correspond to Sloth.

In short, since the fleshy mountain remained where it was, they were temporarily safe. Everyone began examining their surroundings.

Unlike the brightly lit French restaurant,

this place resembled a village ruin—no lights at all, littered with broken walls and collapsed structures. The walls of abandoned buildings were gray-white, roofs tiled with red terracotta barrel tiles, doorways, niches, and arcades all built with semi-circular arches.

At the village's center stood a pool of ink-green, pitch-black water, its depth impossible to discern.

"Mediterranean architectural style," Li Cheng said, shining his flashlight. "Probably Greece or Montenegro."

"Yes, Montenegrin architecture looks exactly like this. I saw it during an assassination mission," Hong Zhi said softly, frowning unconsciously.

"Huh?"

Hui Yu raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Why are we analyzing this? Can't we just leave?"

Previously, whenever they passed other clusters of buildings, Xue Shi Paoxiao never stopped—yet here, he braked.

"There are signs of battle here."

Li Cheng's powerful flashlight swept across the ruins like a searchlight, illuminating everything it touched as brightly as day.

He pointed to scattered stones among the rubble—some bore obvious scorch marks. There were also dried bloodstains.

"Human blood."

Li Cheng lightly touched the dried blood with his fingertip; the worm gene, long dormant, activated, transforming his face into that of a black man with deeply sunken eye sockets.

"Loren Dat?"

Ercha Shu recognized the face, startled, and immediately waved his hand to pull up text and images from the database, projecting them into midair.

Loren Dat, American transcendent, level 25, affiliated with the Special Incident Division of the FBI, power system based on Jedi from Star Wars, parents' names, postal codes, IP addresses are…

Ahem, Whale Song Guild, as the entire arena's network service provider, held massive advantages in intelligence databases, effortlessly listing vast amounts of data on this player.

Besides Loren Dat, the ruins of the village contained dried blood from several other players.

All of them were players from the second or third waves to enter the secret realm.

Given the Centaur S and Fleshy Mountain L blocking the previous passage, they must have been teleported here directly and immediately attacked.

"Don't move. I'll reconstruct the scene."

Binary Tree's expression turned solemn. He pulled over a dozen large eight-axis disaster-relief drones from his backpack slot and sent them into the air; the bulbs beneath them lit up, Sun Zhaoyao the entire stretch of ruins.

After that, he took out even more small drones, which used laser scanning to build a model of the entire town inside his electronic brain.

Based on the positions of the rubble, the degree of crushing, and the fracture patterns, he simulated and reconstructed the battle scene.

"No need for all that trouble."

Li Cheng pushed up his Information Integration Glasses, shot out a bat-claw grapple, and snagged a wooden board floating in the middle of the town's pool.

On the wooden board lay quietly a handheld DV digital video camera.

The Information Integration Glasses showed that this camera had once belonged to Lorendat, with no curse or bomb fuse attached. After pressing the power button, a familiar face appeared on the screen.

"Card King?" The three of Red Spider cried out in shock at the same time,

and they saw this player, who belonged to 【Crown Casino】, with both eyes brutally gouged out, his face covered in savage scars, yet wearing an unnaturally delighted smile.

He held the DV digital video camera, grinned at the lens, and said: "By the time you see this video, everyone else is already dead."

(End of chapter)