Let Flame Purge Everything!

At the very forefront of the Death Seekers Company, a small group of bedraggled Cultists fled desperately ahead, with the Players in hot pursuit behind them. These Cultists were clearly no elites. Apart from leaving behind a few corpses struck by lasgun fire, they had barely managed to put up any effective resistance along the way. Their sole objective seemed to be fleeing deeper into this dark, labyrinthine network of tunnels.

Just as the Players were about to wipe them all out, the Cultists suddenly turned into an inconspicuous side passage.

"Follow them! Don't let them get away!" JK growled, leading the other Players in without hesitation.

Yet the instant they stepped into the passage, everyone froze.

"What the hell? What is this? Did the rendering bug out?"

The sight before them was utterly bizarre—the ceiling, floor, and walls of the entire passage ahead were all covered in the IFF System's signature bright white highlights. At a glance, this tunnel, which should have been dark and unremarkable, had turned into a sea of white, as though the entire space had been designated a "hostile target." No wonder that Player had immediately suspected a rendering bug in the game engine.

JK, who was also at the very front, narrowed his eyes. After observing carefully for a moment, he said in a low voice, "No. Look closely. The walls... they're covered in mushrooms."

"Mushrooms?" one Player repeated skeptically. "Mushrooms are enemies too?"

As he spoke, he raised his lasgun and fired at the nearest patch of wall. The cluster of mushrooms struck directly by the high-energy beam was carbonized by the instantaneous heat, losing all activity. At the same time, a small portion of the white hostile markers in the Players' vision disappeared.

However, compared to the enormous area covering the entire tunnel, that tiny extinguished patch of white was as insignificant as a mayfly before the moon.

Clearly, there was no way they could clear the place out by shooting it bit by bit with lasguns.

"The Cultists are hiding in there. We have to go after them." One Player stepped forward. "I'll go in first and scout it out."

With that, relying on his ability to revive endlessly, he strode into the bizarre Mushroom Tunnel.

The result was that after only two steps inside, his movements became strange. He began swaying from side to side, firing his lasgun at an empty wall for no apparent reason while shouting, "I see them! Over there!"

Seeing that something was wrong, JK immediately shouted, "Hey! Are you okay? What are you shooting at?"

There was no way the man could not hear him from this distance, yet the Player seemed to have fallen into some kind of hallucination. Deaf to his teammate's calls, he continued staggering forward and firing wildly. Just then, a Cultist suddenly sprang out from behind a dense clump of mushrooms. Using his forward momentum, the rusty machete in his hand flashed across the Player's neck like lightning.

The Player's body stiffened, then he toppled forward like a puppet with its strings cut, dropping to the ground and immediately falling asleep.

The Players who had remained outside exchanged looks, instantly understanding the danger of this place.

"Young people really do sleep well," someone couldn't help quipping.

"So they're Hallucinogenic Spores... Those Cultists are lying in wait inside, waiting for us to inhale the spores and start hallucinating before coming out to ambush us."

"How long would it take us to deal with this stuff?"

"Or... could we just brute-force our way through by dying and resetting our status?"

"What about our Company Commander? The Company Commander can't die!"

As soon as that question came up, everyone was stumped. They could force their way through with the revival mechanic, but Ruan Wenbo could not. This path had to be cleared completely.

Just as everyone was at a loss, a Player squeezed out from the middle of the group and burst into hearty laughter. "Hahaha, it's finally my turn to shine!"

Everyone turned toward the voice and saw that the man was wearing a heavy, full-body protective suit. In his hands was a massive weapon integrated with the suit's power system—a Promethium flamethrower.

As it turned out, when he had first entered the game, he had been drawn to this imposing Flamer Suit in the System Store. Perhaps because a flamethrower could be operated by one person, albeit with some inconvenience, the developers had lowered its usage authorization to the rank of ordinary soldier, allowing individual Players to operate it. So this Player had saved every last bit of his merit, all for the chance to buy this dream piece of equipment.

But after buying it, he discovered that the thing was a complete pain in the ass.

First of all, by the time he bought the equipment, the battle to capture the Chemical Refinery had long since ended. That meant he had perfectly missed the defensive battles and secondary assault operations where flamethrowers were best suited, only to wear this incredibly heavy Flamer Suit into rapid assault battles that demanded mobility. After several charges, let alone earning any achievements, just keeping up with the main force had already taken everything he had.

He had also thought that once they captured the Chemical Refinery, they would have Promethium fuel to burn. But this mission was a long-range rescue escort far from their position, which meant they had no logistical supplies whatsoever. Normal Players using lasguns and melee weapons were fine, but he was miserable—every drop of fuel consumed from his Promethium fuel tank had to be paid for with his own merit.

But now, he had finally found the perfect situation for himself—wasn't a place like this, with narrow passages, densely packed enemies, and environmental threats requiring large-scale clearance, a stage tailor-made for a heavily armored flamer trooper like him?

All those frustrating experiences from before seemed to have found their answer at this very moment. Sure enough, there was a reason the developers sold this set in the System Store. There were no useless weapons, only useless operators!

So he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Fwoooosh—!!!!"

A thick orange-red dragon of flame roared as it broke free from the nozzle's restraints, instantly swallowing everything in sight ahead. Nearly a hundred meters of scorching dragon's breath brutally flooded the entire tunnel. The sizzling roar of combustion, the crackling of seared air, and the shrill screams of those hidden among the mushrooms as they burned in the flames all blended into a savage symphony of destruction.

On his interface, the white enemy markers melted away as swiftly as snow beneath the blazing sun. At the same time, the system's "ding, ding, ding" kill notifications rang continuously in his ears. Those crisp chimes now sounded like the most wonderful symphony in the world.

The Player felt that everything he had suffered had been worth it.

All the frustration of being unable to keep up with the main force and being left behind to eat dust, the heartache of watching the merit he had painstakingly earned flow away like water to become fuel, the looks from his teammates that seemed mocking but not quite mocking... at this moment, all of it vanished in the blazing flames!

He straightened the back that had grown slightly hunched from carrying heavy loads for so long. An unprecedented sense of satisfaction and strength flooded every part of his body. Behind his full-coverage helmet, his expression gradually became wild.

"Woohohohoho! Let flame purge everything!"

He let out a long-suppressed mad laugh, stepped forward, and unleashed another furious tongue of fire from his flamethrower, turning this passage that bred filth and hallucinations into a scorching furnace leading straight to hell.