Chapter 130: Blood Moon

Kingdom Grand Cemetery, Graveyard No. 43.

At 1:50 AM, Huo Pao carried an oil lamp, walking alone through the eerie graveyard.

For him, today was not a good day.

To be precise, he had been experiencing Mercury retrograde for the past half-month; nothing had gone smoothly.

Of course, the most unlucky event among them was being assigned to the Midnight Graveyard dungeon.

As a hot-topic dungeon recently topping the difficulty rankings, he had been paying attention to the Midnight Graveyard.

His focus, like that of the vast majority of Wasteland Realm players, was simply waiting to see when this mine would explode and which unlucky soul it would hit.

Initially, the difficulty of the Midnight Graveyard was not high; when its pollution value was within the normal range, someone had once achieved a commendable 60% dungeon exploration rate.

However, as the dungeon's pollution value continued to rise, the difficulty of the Midnight Graveyard increased exponentially.

Especially recently, with a zero clear rate for a continuous month and a half, its pollution value skyrocketed, shooting straight to third place on the Grade-B dungeon difficulty list, becoming a universally recognized extremely difficult dungeon.

Everyone knew there was a problem inside the dungeon, yet no organization had moved to handle it.

This was because the location of the Midnight Graveyard was extremely sensitive.

Situated in the gap between the Administration Bureau's and Bai Ta's control zones, it belonged to neither party's jurisdiction; if the dungeon went out of control and eroded into reality, there was an 80% chance it would appear in regions like Ma Da, Sakura Island, and Stick Island.

But the fatal part was that there was a 20% probability it would appear in the Xia Kingdom or within Bai Ta.

The relationship between the Administration Bureau and Bai Ta was more sensitive than asking a passerby in Bai Ta about their gender, making neither side willing or daring to intervene in the Midnight Graveyard.

If they succeeded in breaking the deadlock, expanding their actual sphere of control, swallowing up resources in neutral zones, and squeezing the development of surrounding small and medium organizations, questions and condemnations would inevitably follow.

Worse still, people would doubt the legitimacy of the motive for breaking the deadlock: a perfectly ordinary dungeon, how did it get polluted to the brink of losing control? If you weren't secretly behind it, why would you go break the deadlock?

If breaking the deadlock failed and caused the dungeon to spiral out of control within their own territory, aside from mockery from the outside, they wouldn't even be able to account for it to their own organization.

If the extremely low-probability event occurred where a deadlock-breaker sent by one side failed their strategy and the eroded dungeon appeared in the other side's territory, the spectacle would be even greater.

Large organizations dared not move, while small organizations could not move.

The combination of various factors turned the Midnight Graveyard into a large-scale game of Russian roulette; when the dungeon detonated, it would randomly fire a shot at the lucky winner.

In the past, Huo Pao, like the onlookers on the forums, spent every day discussing who would be the unlucky one getting shot.

Now he knew: it was him.

Was there anything unluckier than entering the Midnight Graveyard?

Yes, it was having teammates from the Iron Armor Group.

He had heard of the Iron Armor Group's notorious reputation, but he thought that no matter how domineering they were, as long as he didn't provoke them, it should be fine.

Who would have known that Lei Hu was far more domineering than he imagined, launching a violent attack at the slightest disagreement.

Although Huo Pao's level was not much lower than Lei Hu's, his Future Warrior class change was only green-tier, vastly inferior to Lei Hu's golden-tier Thunder Titan class change; he couldn't even last a single exchange before being subdued on the spot.

Subdued in the physical sense.

Just as the saying goes about losing a war due to a single nail, one piece of bad luck can easily lead to a chain of misfortunes, ultimately inviting total disaster.

Because he resisted Lei Hu, he was assigned to the graveyard furthest from the other players, and because he was injured, he moved slightly slower, resulting in the night patrol beginning just as he arrived at the gravekeeper's hut.

His predecessor urged him to sign the employment agreement, threw down a notebook, and fled on the spot with speed comparable to an agility-type player of the same level, impossible to stop even if one tried.

Seeing that the patrol time had already begun, his dungeon start was utterly ruined; he did not want to accumulate a failure in his gravekeeper duties on his very first day on the job.

Although this was his first time entering a dungeon on the brink of losing control, no matter how difficult it was, it shouldn't be much harder than an ordinary real dungeon.

Holding this thought, he carried the oil lamp, took the former gravekeeper's notebook, and walked while reading.

"Corpse reception: Every evening, a specialized carriage will enter the cemetery to transport corpses awaiting burial. Corpses must be stored in the church and buried the following day; before storing them in the church, first confirm that the corpse's hands and feet are tied together."

"Burial of the dead..."

"Night patrol: Every night at 2:00 AM, you must patrol according to the designated route..."

Borrowing the dim light of the oil lamp, Huo Pao walked while reading.

Surrounding him was a dead and eerie cemetery; damaged tombstones and decayed skeletons of unknown identity occasionally appeared underfoot, forcing him to dodge as he advanced.

Besides that, thick vines on the ground that could entangle a person's ankles, and scavenging beasts darting through the shadows, made his nerves exceptionally tense.

Suddenly, a voice came from his diagonal side.

"Can you see the moon in the sky?"

Huo Pao subconsciously replied, "With such a big full moon in the sky, can't you see it just by looking up?"

He flipped the notebook and happened to see the very beginning of the next page, where a passage was written in red ink.

"SPECIAL ATTENTION!!! If someone asks you a question during the night patrol, DO NOT ANSWER under any circumstances!!! You must flee immediately until you can no longer hear the questioning voice!!!"

"Damn!"

Huo Pao froze for a moment, then slowly raised his head following the direction from which the question had just come; he saw that what he had mistakenly thought was a passing tree was actually moving.

It was a monster over seven meters tall, pieced together from multiple different bodies.

Its trunk, like a great tree, was thick enough for two people to encircle; looking closely, one could discover its body was woven like a hemp rope from multiple strands of "thin ropes."

Except that each strand of "thin rope" was formed by human torsos lacking heads, connected to one another.

The top of the great tree trunk was studded with various branches, which at first glance resembled a dense canopy; below the trunk, countless human hands and feet grew to serve as roots, which were currently digging rapidly into the earth, shifting from a "rooted" state to a mobile state.

The voice that had questioned him came from the upper-middle section of the tree monster's trunk, about four meters above the ground.

The headless human torsos composing the tree monster's trunk had their missing heads neatly arranged in a ring and nailed there.

Since they lacked necks, these heads could not look up and could not see the moon overhead.

But they could move their eyeballs; dozens of eyes were now gazing diagonally downward at Huo Pao passing by, their looks filled with jealousy and madness.

"You really intend to snatch the moon from me!"

"Snatch your hammer!"

Huo Pao activated his acceleration skill, quickly put distance between himself and the tree monster, and drew his rifle.

He pulled the trigger, bullets poured out like rain, each one striking the tree monster and exploding violently, causing it to shriek in agony.

In just five seconds, the tree monster was cut in half by the bullets, its trunk's faces riddled like sieves.

Whether on Blue Star or in the Wasteland Realm, any carbon-based lifeform cannot withstand the overwhelming firepower of thermal weapons.

Especially since this is a weapon enhanced by Future Warriors. Future Warriors' class trait is weapon modification: as long as their current equipped weapon is a thermal or high-tech weapon, they can perform future modifications on it.

The rifle in Fire Cannon's hands, after future modification, saw massive improvements in recoil, magazine capacity, bullet power, and rate of fire, and could also receive adaptive special modifications by analyzing targets.

This made his C-rank energy rifle more powerful than a standard B-rank firearm.

Future Warrior transformation barely enhances the player's core attributes, yet it consistently ranks in the top ten of green transformations, even more sought-after than some red transformations, precisely because of its powerful weapon modification skill.

With this rifle, Fire Cannon single-handedly killed over a hundred strong goblins in the previous B-rank dungeon.

Such a brilliant record was the very reason he dared to speak second after Guangzhi.

Can't I beat you, Tree Monster, if I can't beat Lei Hu? A buzzing sound, like tinnitus, echoed in Fire Cannon's ear. Then he saw a flock of crows flying across the sky, the bright full moon beginning to stain red.

The severed lower half of the tree monster, lying on the ground, its upturned face caught sight of the blood moon above.

"What a beautiful moon—I knew you'd hidden it away!"

Under the blood moon's influence, the tree monster's severed body rapidly regenerated, rising back to its feet.

Once standing, the moon vanished again from its eyes.

Dozens of faces wept blood, their expressions twisted with sorrow and rage, speaking to Fire Cannon:

"Damn thief, you've hidden the moon again—it's my divine miracle, you cannot take it!"

Fire Cannon cursed, "Crazy bastard. If you love the moon so much, why not stick your whole head into the canopy?" He raised his rifle and sprayed bullets at the tree monster, quickly realizing something was wrong.

The blood moon greatly strengthened the tree monster: damage that once required one shot now needed three to five.

Simultaneously, the tree monster's recovery speed after taking damage increased dramatically.

Before the blood moon, half a magazine had been enough to cut the tree monster in half. After the blood moon, a full magazine could only blast deep, pitted holes into its surface—hardly even piercing through.

During Fire Cannon's reload, he saw the tree monster's lower limbs, formed of human hands and feet, swell to black-purple with blood. The next instant, it launched forward in a springing charge, hurtling straight at him.

As an experienced player, Fire Cannon had faced dozens of solo battles against large monsters; he knew exactly how to survive the power vacuum period and how to protect himself.

He raised a C-rank riot shield in his left hand, crouching entirely behind it to block the monster's ranged attacks.

At the same time, as the tree monster closed to two meters, he executed a sideward roll.

C-rank skill: Evasion—during the roll, there was a brief period of invincibility, ten charges, 120-second cooldown.

Paired with the riot shield, this was enough to carry him through the power vacuum period and create distance from the monster.

One roll dodged the tree monster's charge; mid-roll, he glanced at his notebook, which read:

"If, during night patrol, the moon in the sky turns red, return immediately to the Gravekeeper's Hut. Never engage in battle during blood moon time—once battle begins, you will be temporarily unable to leave the graveyard."

Aminos!

Fire Cannon burst into a string of curses, expressing strong physical interaction intentions toward the former Gravekeeper's female relative.

You warned me just in time! The tree monster's charge missed and didn't pause—it turned sharply upon landing and slithered along the ground toward him like a snake.

Though the tree monster appeared clumsy and heavy, its sheer size meant its absolute speed was not slow.

Fire Cannon didn't have time to create enough distance—he rolled again, sidestepping the tree monster like a matador, then fled in another direction.

As he zigzagged between tombstones, he raised his reloaded rifle, trying to halt the tree monster's advance.

But the tree monster showed no sign of stopping. Finding direct charges hard to land, it changed tactics: stretching its body straight and lying flat on the ground, it rolled toward Fire Cannon like a log.

The tree monster crushed tombstones and rocks beneath it, wrapping them around its body as armor—blocking bullets and causing its volume to swell like a snowball.

Fire Cannon excelled at positional warfare and ranged duels; the tree monster's relentless close-range pursuit put immense pressure on him.

After dodging several attacks in succession, his roll charges were nearly exhausted—if he continued, he'd be completely on the defensive.

The good news: Fire Cannon had now mastered the tree monster's rhythm and found the key to breaking the deadlock.

He used his second-to-last roll, timing it perfectly within the invincibility window to dodge the tree monster's impact while closing in on its canopy.

Then he pulled a string of grenades from his inventory and hurled them down toward the tree monster's canopy.

Based on his observations, the canopy was the tree monster's most vulnerable spot—striking it inflicted massive damage.

Following the tree monster's attack pattern, he used his final roll upon landing, ensuring the invincibility window would shield him from both the monster's pursuit and the blast wave.

Everything was under control.

But as he threw the grenades toward the canopy, he saw the tree monster's canopy split open, revealing a bottomless, abyss-like maw.

Instantly, the tree monster's body elongated like a striking cobra, swallowing both the grenade string and Fire Cannon whole.

Feeling the sudden darkness engulf him, and the heat and light erupting nearby, Fire Cannon cursed: "Damn slow-fast knife!"

Boom! The explosion nearly blew off half the tree monster's upper body—but under the blood moon, it healed rapidly.

It wandered aimlessly through the Royal Necropolis, searching for suitable branches to jam into its exposed upper torso.

As it walked, it caught the scent of living flesh and hurried toward it, soon spotting two figures.

"Brother Xiao En, please spare me—can't we wait until the blood moon passes before continuing patrol?"

Han Er was numb. As an old Gravekeeper, he knew full well the horror of the blood moon—even he refused to enter the graveyard during its time.

But this stubborn rookie wouldn't listen—he'd been cursed, unable to defy the other, forced to keep pleading.

Wu Chang waved his hand and said: "Han Er, don't worry about me."

Han Er panicked: "I'm worried about myself!"

As they spoke, a voice suddenly came from behind: "Can you see the moon in the sky?"

Wu Chang turned and stared at the Mediterranean-style tree monster—its sides stuck with branches, its center completely bare—and couldn't help laughing.

He grabbed Han Er, who was trying to flee, and gazed at the fresh blood-written last words on the tree monster's body, sighing deeply.

As he'd suspected, they'd all meet again soon.

And when they did, there'd surely be some unlucky bastard meeting him through pure resentment.

He looked at Brother Han Er and asked, "Brother Brother Han Er, is it still possible to escape now?"

Brother Han Er was about to cry, "I only know that if you keep pulling me, we'll definitely run out of time!"

"Then good luck—don't let it catch you. We'll meet at the Gravekeeper's Hut."

Wu Chang let go and waved at Brother Han Er as he sprinted off, then activated Social Anxiety and Advanced Stealth.

(End of Chapter)