Chapter 433: Exile

The Binary Tree's figure flickered at high frequency like a TV with bad signal; every counter-type skill still in the process of brewing had its energy drained dry, vanishing into nothing.

Bzzt—

He was forced out of the datalized state; the electronic watch on his wrist had its power sucked dry, and the VR glasses running on electricity also instantly blacked out. Even more fatally, the bioelectricity across his entire body was being drained away.

"Thunder Half-Moon Slash!"

At the critical moment, Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao's explosive shout came from far to near.

That Infinite Justice mecha had a 【Hover Engine】 Li Cheng had tossed stuck to its chest; the exhaust pipe at its back spewed out blue flames of nitrogen acceleration, providing ferocious thrust, crossing the entire pedestrian street in the blink of an eye.

The double-headed greatsword came slashing down diagonally,

The suit-wearing baby had a relatively high absorption efficiency for electromagnetic and thermal energy, but it didn't seem adept at absorbing pure kinetic and potential energy; it actively let go of Binary Tree and retreated to dodge.

The utterly weakened Binary Tree fell toward the ground; the oversized paper airplane Changsun Yao released arrived first, catching him mid-air, sparing him the comedic death of being skewered by rebar scattered on the ground.

"Storm Nebula Split!"

The Infinite Justice mecha split the double-headed greatsword in two, slashing at the suit-wearing baby in a chain of strikes. At the same time, every weapon bay on the mecha opened, firing off autocannons, rockets, and micro-missiles as support.

"So you see, you humans really are, like cockroaches."

The suit-wearing baby moved at high speed, dodging the mecha's heavy and powerful attacks, its soft pink palms easily absorbing the expanding explosive fireballs.

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao didn't engage with the talk at all, only attacking relentlessly.

Relying on the low-gravity effect brought by the hover engine, the mecha became incomparably agile and swift,

And the mecha's inherently flexible structure allowed it to perform movements humans couldn't, such as folding its arm backward one hundred eighty degrees.

And the buff-type skill named 【Newtype】 granted Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao an unusually enhanced perception ability, along with combat intuition beyond common sense.

The suit-wearing baby's innate abilities were certainly powerful, but it didn't seem to have received any systematic combat training,

Dodging, attacking, setting ambushes, luring — every thought was written on its face, very easy to predict—

In the real world, some gamblers, to avoid being read by opponents at the card table, inject botulinum toxin into their faces to stiffen the facial muscles so they can't make expressions.

That's what's called a poker face.

As for players, they generally deliberately control themselves from making expressions, or simply wear masks.

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao precisely controlled the distance, the double-headed greatsword constantly forcing the suit-wearing baby back, preventing it from closing in and unleashing that "Star-Absorbing Art."

"Lightning Tornado."

The word "slash" hadn't even finished falling,

The suit-wearing baby, who had been dodging for a long while with anger gradually building, finally couldn't bear it any longer, and with both hands, firmly caught the double-headed greatsword.

"You really think I'm afraid of you?"

The suit-wearing baby let out an angry shout, drove the double-headed greatsword heavily into the ground, took rapid small steps stomping up the Justice mecha's arm, charged straight to the cockpit, and struck out with a palm.

The nuclear energy in the mecha's nuclear battery, the electrical energy in the motors, the thermal energy in the engine — all kinds of energy were absorbed and stripped away. Yet Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao in the cockpit merely held a cigarette in his mouth and grinned.

【Planar Banishment】

In the distance, the clock-tower mage Nicholas finally finished chanting a lengthy spell, conjuring a great door out of thin air that spewed a ghastly green light, shrouding toward the suit-wearing baby.

This banishment could temporarily exile the target to another plane; in a secret realm, it would probably be a random teleport to some godforsaken corner of the realm.

(The reason it wasn't used on the grey-green giant earlier was that the doorframe's size was limited; even if the grey-green giant were forcibly banished, a large amount of flesh and blood would be left behind, and there would still be a chance of a new giant growing right back on the spot.)

And nearby, Bai Ma Mu Bei silently closed in, left elbow raised forward, right hand shifting from palm to fist, charging up 【Superheavy Punch】.

Caught in a pincer attack, the suit-wearing baby's body was pulled by immense gravitational force, trailing afterimages as it fell toward the banishment door. The corners of its mouth drooped, it took a deep breath, and its pink face flushed violently red,

Then

"WAAAH!!!"

Not crying, but roaring. The suit-wearing baby seemed to release all the energy it had previously absorbed in one burst; the sound waves were so vast and violent that they instantly killed that noise warrior's electric guitar, and demolished reinforced concrete buildings like crushing tofu.

Bai Ma Mu Bei's Superheavy Punch hadn't even managed to touch its target before the entire person was sent flying, the skin on the front of its body torn and peeled away entirely.

The suit-wearing baby tilted its head, and visible sound waves blasted toward the direction of the living.

The door conjured by the banishment had no physical substance and was unaffected by sound waves, but the players couldn't say the same.

"Stand behind me!"

Changsun Yao deployed her trump card, releasing a vast number of sheets of paper that automatically folded and assembled into a silver giant python with long whiskers.

The Flying Serpent is a kind of dragon; it can raise clouds and mist and swim within them.

The giant python raised its head high, the paper scales across its body flipping outward from the inhaling motion, and its great bloody mouth suddenly spewed out thick clouds and mist to contend against the rolling sound waves.

The piercing noise burst the eardrums of Changsun Yao, Red Spider, Binary Tree, and others; blood mixed with secretions from the second orifice flowed out, sliding down along their cheeks.

To avoid his eardrums bursting, Li Cheng very cleverly took chopsticks from the dimensionalized warehouse and pierced his own eardrums on purpose — after absorbing a large swarm's genes, his self-healing ability had risen by a huge margin,

Let alone a mere eardrum that could regenerate anytime, anywhere; even if he drew his own blood to make blood tofu, or cut out his own kidney for barbecue,

They could grow back in minutes.

The paper Flying Serpent's clouds and mist and the suit-wearing baby's sound waves were locked in a stalemate mid-air.

The suction force from the green-light door increased further; the Card King was caught in the crossfire, his entire body falling into the door, leaving behind an echoing "I'll be baaack-ck-ck-ck—"

And vanished without a trace.

And the suit-wearing baby itself was still being gradually pulled toward the green door by 【Planar Banishment】.

Perhaps realizing it couldn't break free, the suit-wearing baby redirected its sound waves, swept past the paper Flying Serpent, accelerated into the midst of the players, and its two small hands gripped Nicholas's legs, absorbing his mana with all its might,

Trying to drain Nicholas's mana pool dry before being banished, thereby ending the Planar Banishment.

"Whose kid is this? No one wants it, I'm sending it flying."

Before Li Cheng could act, Grey Rain swung the Skull-Crusher Hammer in a full arc and smashed it down on the baby's head with one hammer blow, sending it flying straight into the green door.

Smack!

【Planar Banishment】 dissipated on its own, and Nicholas, who had his entire mana pool drained dry, passed out without another word.

It's over.

After two consecutive high-intensity battles, everyone was already exhausted.

Red Spider's brain damage had her playing dead on the ground, and Nikola's spiritual power was completely drained, knocked out cold.

Changsun Yao dropped heavily onto the ground, gasping for air in great gulps. Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao crawled out of his nearly wrecked Justice Unlimited mech, and Bai Ma Mu Bei, who had been sent flying, limped back as well—

She poured a health potion down herself, regrowing her tendons, though part of her skin hadn't fully healed yet, making her look especially unsettling.

The weary, exhausted group said nothing, until from the darkness came the crisp click of high heels on the ground.

The black-clad woman, a sorrowful look between her brows, stepped slowly out of the shadows and appeared at the end of the road.

"Heh. Hahahaha."

When a person is utterly speechless, they really can laugh out loud. Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao, his eyes bloodshot, took a resigned, fierce drag on his cigarette.

This black-clad woman's strength was unfathomable. Earlier, when all the players had been at full strength, she had still cleanly and decisively wiped them all out in an instant. Now the whole group was crippled—

One could only say the secret realm was just too dangerous. No matter how difficult the scripted missions set by the kill-arena were, they would always leave one or even several paths to clear it.

But in a secret realm, anything was possible—even three back-to-back boss fights with no resupply could be thrown at you. Even Miyazaki Hidetaka wouldn't be this outrageous.

(End of this chapter)