Burned Away, Turned into Snow-White Ash

The Player who had drawn the rulebook threw back his head and howled. His grief-stricken voice echoed through the empty factory grounds. "What the hell use is this thing?! Devs, I'm filing a complaint!"

The other Players burst out laughing at the dramatic scene, gleefully patting him on the shoulder before eagerly starting their own draws. For a while, C-3 was filled with all manner of cries, some delighted and some resentful.

Some Players drew things whose purpose was completely incomprehensible, scratching their heads without being able to figure out what they were for.

Others drew valuable items that could immediately boost their combat power. They cheered excitedly on the spot, practically wanting to kiss the devs in person.

Amid the noisy mix of joy and despair, Assassin suddenly shouted, "A skill! I drew a skill!"

That shout carried far farther than any previous cheer or wail. The surrounding Players immediately crowded around Assassin again, packing tightly around him.

"Huh? This game actually has skills you can learn out of thin air? I thought everything had to be trained slowly, like [Basic Combat] and [Basic Shooting]."

"Quick, share the panel! What skill is it?"

Assassin was fairly generous. He directly opened viewing access to his skill panel, allowing the other Players to see its details.

[Name: Hell Fire]

[Skill Attribute: Active Skill, Permanently Mastered]

[Skill Type: Psychic]

[Effect: Spew terrifyingly powerful Hell Fire from your mouth.]

[Cost: Everything you have]

[Learning Requirement: Possess an unwavering heart that dares to offer everything as a burnt offering]

[Remarks: "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to Mount Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you." —God]

It would have been better if he had not shared the skill panel. The instant he did, the surroundings fell silent for a second, followed by a tidal wave of envy, jealousy, and hatred. Everyone began denouncing Assassin with heartfelt outrage.

"Lucky King! Damn it!"

"Spewing Hell Fire from your mouth, with the cost being everything you have... This is a god-tier self-destruct skill tailor-made for you! I'm reporting this! There's definitely a Black Curtain!"

"'An unwavering heart that dares to offer everything as a burnt offering'—isn't that learning requirement practically pointing straight at your nose?! Damn, I get it. The system certified you, didn't it?!"

"Did you sneak into the devs' room in the middle of the night or something?! How could you do such a thing for power?! Confess now!"

After their brief shock and jealousy, the Players around Assassin immediately turned their indignation into curiosity and began egging him on.

"All talk and no action is just empty boasting! Come on, Assassin, show us how powerful this thing is!"

"Yeah, yeah! Let us see it! 'Everything you have'—I want to see exactly how that cost works!"

"That area ahead is plenty big. Go ahead and spray it wherever you want!"

Assassin himself was itching to try it as well. Looking at the cool icon and the intimidating description on the skill panel, he had long wanted to test this newly acquired skill. Now that everyone was urging him on, he went with the flow and readily agreed to their request.

"Sure, but stay back. Don't come asking me to cover your repair bills if you get caught in it."

Everything was ready.

Assassin walked alone into the open area that had been blasted flat and blackened. The Players who had been egging him on moments ago had now very sensibly retreated more than a hundred meters away, hiding behind the remaining pipes and cover with only their heads poking out to watch. Some, fearing that some inexplicable AOE might damage their gear, simply took off their slightly valuable Carapace Armor and weapons, going bare-chested to watch the show.

Taking a deep breath, Assassin activated [Hell Fire].

In an instant, he felt as though a tiny sun had been lit inside his chest. It was not a metaphor, but an utterly real sensation. The scorching heat began at his heart and raced through his blood vessels to every limb and organ. His internal organs felt as if they had been thrown into an incinerator, burning violently. Every drop of blood and every muscle fiber in his body seemed to be transforming into a fuel more savage and more primal.

"Everything you have"... so that was what it meant.

A powerful urge to vomit, mixed with the smell of charcoal and sulfur, surged from his stomach to his throat. Assassin clenched his teeth so hard that veins bulged from his neck. He tried to force the power down, to control when and where it erupted.

But the violence of that power far exceeded his imagination.

At last, he reached the point where he could endure no longer.

Assassin suddenly threw back his head, his mouth opening beyond his control. A thick dark-red beam, viscous like burning blood and mixed with golden sparks, violently erupted from his mouth!

Boom—!

Wherever the beam passed, the ground was instantly vaporized, leaving behind a deep trench whose edges still glowed with molten light. That terrifying torrent of energy shot straight into the distance, reducing every obstruction in its path to nothingness before finally striking a huge, long-abandoned chemical storage tank and detonating it into an even more splendid firework. The beam was so powerful that it briefly tore a wound of daylight into the night.

Even from far away, the Astra Militarum and Cultists engaged in fierce fighting at the main position could see the earth-shaking sight.

A blinding dark-red beam shot into the sky from the distant Chemical Refinery, its brilliance even eclipsing the artillery fire flashing across the battlefield.

Commissar Walter, who was directing the battle from the position, was so startled by the sudden phenomenon that the binoculars in his hands nearly slipped. He blurted out, "What the hell was that?!"

Walter quickly recovered from his shock. Frowning, he judged from the beam's point of origin that it seemed to have come from the Chemical Refinery... Could something have happened to the Death Seekers company...?

The dark-red beam that had pierced heaven and earth slowly faded, but the lingering might it left behind still shook everyone present. The air was thick with a pungent odor, as if metal had been melted and then corroded by strong acid. In the distance, the deep trench with its edges still glowing orange-red silently attested to the terror of that attack.

The distant explosion continued to rumble, but the Players had fallen into dead silence. They stared blankly at the trail of destruction, then at the burning wreckage of the storage tank in the distance, temporarily forgetting how to speak.

Several seconds later, the silence was completely shattered.

"I... holy shit..."

"What the hell was that?! Is that even a skill a Player can use?!"

"That damage... that range... That was practically a naval cannon!"

Once they came back to their senses, they marveled at the absurd, unreasonable power of the skill.

Ruan Wenbo was the first to fully snap out of his shock. He strode forward, his face filled with uncontrollable excitement and astonishment, and slapped the shoulder of Assassin, who was still standing motionless with his head raised toward the sky.

"Assassin, this time you're invincible under heaven—"

Before he could finish, his palm had just touched Assassin's shoulder when the figure hailed as the Lucky King crumbled apart like a fragile statue weathered for a thousand years.

There was no spray of flesh, no garbled data. Starting from the shoulder Ruan Wenbo had touched, Assassin's body rapidly cracked and collapsed, turning into a cloud of fine grayish-white dust. A night wind blew past, scattering the ashes into the air until they disappeared completely, as though he had never existed at all.

Ruan Wenbo's outstretched hand remained frozen in midair, a few insignificant grains of gray dust still clinging to his palm.

He looked at his hand, then at the empty space before him, where only the air stirred faintly. Once again, he fell into a shock even deeper than when he had seen the beam.

"...Holy shit, he turned to ash?"

Meanwhile, Bit, within the Warp, silently recorded everything. The first attempt to directly bestow a concept upon a living being rather than an object had been very successful.