Chapter 588

Here it comes.

Wu Quan tightly pressed his lips and cast a searching gaze at Ada.

The latter shook her head silently; her left eye projected a hologram, generating subtitles: “Full-spectrum electromagnetic interference. All drones lost contact.”

In many fictional settings, spiritual entities and paranormal phenomena are often linked to electromagnetic waves—and there is genuine logic to this.

Tap-tap-tap!

The steel framework supporting the shelter transmitted clear vibrations, a dense clatter of impacts, as if countless fingers and toes were scrabbling against it.

That thing was climbing up the steel columns.

Wu Quan felt his scalp prickle; he instantly flicked his wrist and tapped the mechanical keypad on his wristwatch over a dozen times.

Four electrically driven mechanical arms rose outside the shelter, lifting four automatic machine guns and extending them beneath the shelter.

Each machine gun carried its own camera, transmitting captured footage via insulated cables back to the room, where the central computer processed it (using algorithms to filter out memetic contamination) and displayed it on screen.

It was a gaunt, elongated humanoid entity, with limbs twice the length of a normal human’s, a spine sharply arched upward, gray-white skin, thoroughly decayed, and its lower jaw gone.

Perhaps hearing the mechanical arms rotate, the humanoid lifted its head; two hollow eye sockets stared directly at the gun turrets.

“Fire!”

No reminder from REX was needed; Wu Quan slammed the button on his wristwatch, and all machine guns opened fire simultaneously.

Clang-clang-clang—

The revolving barrels spun at high speed, spewing out belts of ammunition.

The humanoid did not dodge or evade; every bullet striking its body instantly slowed, lodged, then fell.

How is this possible?!

Wu Quan’s pupils contracted. Each bullet carried not only kinetic impact but also trace amounts of incense ash mixed with bone powder—effective at disrupting spiritual energy fluctuations. These had worked perfectly in previous paranormal incidents—until now.

Could it be that, as the mission timer counts down, the curse has grown stronger...?

No time to think further—the humanoid, or rather, the gaunt gray shadow cosplaying as Gray Rain, swung one arm; all four gun turrets were struck by invisible force and exploded into nothingness.

“Groups A, B, C, D—explosives deployed.”

Several kilometers away, inside the Imperial Guard tank’s cabin, the cylinder and cube robots struggled to suppress excited tones in their voices.

Drones scattered across the city had been suppressed by the airborne edge fighter’s onboard electromagnetic interference system, rendering them offline.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Cheng used the Ten Thousand Ages Battle Map to deploy Gray Rain and the Imperial Guard tank at separate locations: Gray Rain infiltrated beneath the shelter, while the drone-piloted tank switched its ammunition to vector shells and precisely struck the machine gun turrets below the shelter from afar.

Since vector shells were invisible and left no trajectory, to Wu Quan and even to Xiao Yuan, the customer service rep in the Ten-Eye communication earpiece, the gun turrets appeared to explode out of thin air.

Wu Quan’s heart lurched; the next second, the gaunt gray shadow drove its sharp nails through the shelter’s floor, its segmented, centipede-like joints frantically clawing.

Arcy remained silent, withdrew a talisman from her left hand and placed it before her right palm; her right palm’s skin folded back, revealing a dark, hollow barrel.

Hss—

A furious flame, carrying ash from the talisman, erupted, searing the long fingers red-hot—Zheng!

Abdulah drew from the void a replica Zulfiqar sword with a bifurcated blade and slashed with full force at Gray Rain’s dorsal hand; even when the blade shattered, it had no effect.

Wu Quan dared not risk anything; his blood surged, muscles swelled, tearing his clothes, and his condensed internal energy unleashed dozens of punches in an instant—useless.

“H Henghengheiheiheihahahaha 。”

Gray Rain chuckled inwardly. Twice before, facing Alpha Serpents and Phase Demons—cross-dimensional war machines—calling her “Little Gray” was justified. But facing players under Lv15, with Ze Luo civilization’s millennia-advanced nanotech, plus the full-spectrum enhancement of [Silver Wing Path], this was still too authoritative.

Thin, snake-like fingers coiled around the limbs of six players, forcibly binding and dragging them to the ground. The gray-white skin on their fingertips slowly split open, black blood pooling, ready to burst.

This black water naturally came from the Death Curse summoned by [Corridor of Heat Death]; combined with the Ten Thousand Ages Battle Map’s effect, Li Cheng could turn summoned entities into chess pieces and deploy them at will.

At this moment, the black-water form of the Death Curse lay three meters underground; its hallucinogenic properties were sufficient to stupefy Wu Quan and the others.

“Black water nourishes people. Drink more. Drink more.”

Gray Rain whispered softly; without a lower jaw, her voice was severely distorted, sounding to REX and the others like the murmurs of an ancient god.

At the last moment, Arcy’s cybernetic waist exploded open, revealing a hidden spherical metal joint.

As a half-cyborg, her lower body, like Gao Da’s, was merely decorative.

The upper and lower halves of the spherical joint twisted in opposite directions, generating immense torque that freed her from restraint; she flipped upside down, supporting herself with one hand on the ground, while the other pointed toward the tightly bound Ada and activated the skill [Synchronized Displacement].

Ada was the intellectual crystallization of the Whale Song Guild, an exploration of advanced artificial intelligence—equivalent to an S-rank transcendent genius. Thus, Gray Rain had tightly guarded her: liquid metal bound every finger, and a rudimentary Faraday cage formed to block her spellcasting.

But a Faraday cage can lock what’s inside—it cannot lock what’s outside.

The [Synchronized Displacement] skill resembled [Familiar Swap], except its range was shorter and required a pointing gesture to activate.

In an instant, Arcy and Ada swapped positions: Arcy fell into Gray Rain’s finger prison, while Ada broke free.

In the instant she regained bodily control, she decisively dissolved most of her body into pure green data streams, rushing downward.

BOOM!!!

The explosion’s shockwave ripped through the shelter’s floor; the massive force twisted the support pillars like a wrung towel.

The entire building slowly toppled; Ada diverted some energy to envelop Wu Quan and the others in green data bubbles.

When the shelter fully collapsed and dust cleared, they saw the gaunt gray shadow’s chest torn open by a one-meter-wide hole, lying on its back, lifeless.

Clinging to the wound were countless Disco Mites (white, living maggots that wriggle on animal corpses like dancing grains of rice, hence the name).

“What... what is this thing?”

Abdulah, still shaken, muttered: “The [Nightmare Curse], as its name suggests, generates spiritual entities based on players’ fears.”

But this gaunt gray shadow was too sinister.

A serious voice came through the Ten-Eye earpiece: “The closest match in the database is the slaughterfield native species [Living Corpse], but similarity is only 30%... Watch out!”

The gaunt gray shadow dissolved into a pool of blood littered with maggots; from within it rose a smaller, clown-shaped abomination, shoulder slung with a cleaver.

Gray Rain had reviewed several players’ profiles—REX’s childhood trauma was clowns.

She did not rush forward; instead, she stood still, revealing a venomous, greedy smile: “Prop team—prepare smoke.”

High above, Li Cheng calmly commanded; the cylindrical robots hidden across the city’s buildings immediately activated, spewing blood-red smoke that covered half the city.

“Sound team—generate noise.”

Gray Rain stepped forward slowly, yet swiftly, using the Ten Thousand Ages Battle Map to teleport silently to the cube robots deep underground; each robot, in sequence, pressed its speaker switch.

With each step Gray Rain took, a muffled, deep-thrumming *thud* echoed from beneath the earth—as if her power could pierce through bedrock.

The aura of a master, the presence of a champion—until...

Thud!

Before Gray Rain could take another step, the cube robot deep underground fumbled and pressed the speaker switch too early.

Shit! We’re exposed!”

Gray Rain screamed inwardly, her step freezing.

“Don’t panic! If you’re not nervous, someone else will be.”

Li Cheng’s voice was firm—he knew these players too well; years of battling slaughterfields had conditioned them to auto-fill gaps: “Keep walking.”

Gray Rain’s smile stiffened; she continued stepping—but the cube robot beneath, humiliated before the revered General Ri Cheng, had its mechanical eyes flooding with electrolyte; the fluid splashed onto the speaker, sparking—instead of shutting it off, it began looping the *thud-thud-thud* like a stuck DVD.

“What the hell is this?!”

Gray Rain screamed inwardly, but the arrow was already on the string; she immediately broke into Michael Jackson’s moonwalk, stepping backward in sync with the subterranean rhythm.

To Wu Quan and the others, this suspected Stage-Two Boss clown could trigger micro-earthquakes with a single step, yet emitted no spiritual energy whatsoever—its power... unfathomable.

Run! Get as far away as possible—faster!