Coordinates: Lower Esophagus - Cardia Defense Line.
When the first batch of Crimson Boats carrying Dawn's vanguard forces burst out of the tracheal bifurcation and dove down along the wider, deeper passage, everyone felt a physiological discomfort.
The air here was no longer dry and cold. It had become hot, humid, and sticky, carrying a nauseating sour stench and the smell of fermentation. It was like crawling into the throat of some enormous creature that had just burped.
"This smell... is way too strong!"
Even with a gas mask on, Brute Force Yields Miracles frowned from the stench. "It's like boiling ten thousand rotten tomatoes and bad eggs together for three days and nights."
The fleet slowly decelerated and docked beside a pink fleshy cliff.
At the very bottom of their view was a breathtaking biological spectacle.
It was a massive circular muscular gate—the cardia.
It should have been tightly shut, like a locked city gate. But now, that "city gate" was spasming violently, with an enormous fissure split open at its center.
Hiss—hiss—!
Streams of yellowish-green fluid erupted from the fissure like geysers, accompanied by dull gurgling sounds, splashing across the surrounding esophageal walls. The once-smooth Flesh Walls instantly blackened and ulcerated, sending up waves of terrifying white smoke.
[System Warning: Entering a strongly acidic environment!] [Environmental DeBuff: High-Concentration Gastric Acid Corrosion.] [Effect 1: Deals true damage every second.]
A Dawn member curled his lips disdainfully. "Why are there environmental debuffs everywhere?!"
[Effect 2: The durability loss rate of non-acid-resistant equipment increases by 1000%!]
"Ah! My shield! My family heirloom shield!"
Another Divine Guard player who had just rushed forward to scout suddenly let out a scream.
Everyone watched in horror as the +4 chitin Bone Shield in his hand, which he had enhanced using all his savings, rapidly softened and bubbled after being splashed by a single drop of acid, like butter thrown into a hot pan.
Just five seconds.
That hard shield turned into a puddle of flowing sludge, dripping down his arm and burning him until he screamed.
"How the hell are we supposed to play this?!"
The player looked at the handle left in his hand, on the verge of tears. "It costs 800 points to repair it once, and one drop of spit wrecked it!"
Fear instantly spread through the crowd.
They weren't afraid of strong monsters; they were afraid of ruined equipment. For most grinding players, equipment was their lifeline! These class-change-level pieces of gear had cost everyone a great deal of effort.
"All personnel, fall back! Don't stand in low ground!"
Vanguard Across the Realm immediately shouted in the command channel, "Ordinary chitin equipment can't withstand this! Don't waste durability for nothing! Everyone, retreat to the suspended platform!"
The main force retreated to higher ground in a sorry state.
Looking down at the rolling ocean of acid and the Corrosive Sludge Monsters swimming merrily through it, their bodies covered in mucus, the Dawn Guild members looked at one another.
"How do we fight this?"
Cloud Pomelo looked painfully at her staff. "My staff's durability is dropping too. It's slow, but this acid mist gets into everything."
This was indeed their biggest problem right now.
They could dodge the fire in the lungs by positioning carefully; they could resist the poison in the liver by taking medicine.
But this all-pervasive acid mist was a direct assault on the players' wallets.
Just as the Dawn Guild was discussing countermeasures, a massive commotion arose from the waterway behind them.
"Make way, make way! Dragon War Guild business!"
"Don't block the way! You can't afford to pay if we hit you!"
Hundreds of specially modified Crimson Boats came sailing over in grand formation. Their hulls were coated in a gleaming acid-resistant layer made from some expensive alchemical material, and it was anything but cheap.
Dragon Fighting in the Wild stood at the bow, his equipment gleaming with golden light and clearly far from ordinary. Even from a distance, people could smell the Money Power on him.
As the president of the richest guild on the entire server, Dragon Fighting in the Wild might not have controls as refined as Vanguard Across the Realm's, but he had an unbeatable philosophy—
When poor, use tactical maneuvers. When rich, blanket the enemy with firepower!!!
He glanced at the churning acid below and snorted dismissively.
"This is the acid that stumped you people? Didn't you learn junior high chemistry?"
Dragon Fighting in the Wild swept out his hand grandly.
"Brothers, dump it in!"
Several thousand Dragon War Guild members each held a Strongly Alkaline Gallstone purchased at a high price from the Liver Region. Like they were reclaiming land from the sea, they frantically threw them into the acid pool below.
Glug glug—
The acid-base neutralization reaction erupted instantly.
Large amounts of white foam surged up, accompanied by an intense exothermic reaction. The pH of the once-lethal strongly acidic region rapidly rose, turning it into relatively mild neutral liquid.
[System Notice: The area's acidity is being neutralized. Acidity decreasing.] ["Dragon Fighting in the Wild" team contribution has risen sharply! Temporarily ranked first!]
"Hahahaha!"
Dragon Fighting in the Wild laughed loudly. "As long as the money's in place, even glass can be smashed to pieces! All forces, attack! Steal monsters! Steal contribution!"
Watching the Dragon War Guild members step on the neutralized ground and frantically harvest the Slime Monsters whose armor had been weakened, the Dawn Guild members' eyes turned red with anxiety.
"Brother Feng! They're cheating!" Brute Force stomped furiously, crushing the stone in his hand to powder. "They're just throwing money at it! That wave of Gallstones alone must've burned at least five million Bio-Energy, right?"
"That's also a kind of tactic. I have to admit it."
Although Vanguard Across the Realm's gaze was grave, he did not panic. Looking at Dragon Fighting in the Wild's arrogant back, he said calmly:
"However, burning money isn't sustainable. Gastric acid keeps coming endlessly, like ocean tides. How many stones can he fill it with?"
He turned to look at Data Maniac behind him. Maniac nodded slightly and took over.
"We won't take the conventional route."
If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you can find it next time.
He pointed to the enormous muscular folds on both sides of the cardia gate, which were like sheer cliffs.
"The system mission is to 'build a dam,' not 'neutralize gastric acid.'"
"Based on the biology I learned in second grade, without the cardia, gastric acid will keep surging upward endlessly. Given the scale of Titan's body and metabolism, there's no need to calculate it to know it's impossible to completely neutralize the acid."
"Neutralization is only a temporary measure. Plugging the breach is the real solution."
"Thunder King, take the Third Regiment to the high ground. You're experts with ropes. I want you to hammer footholds into that slick muscular wall!"
"Pomelo, bring the Flesh Artisan Corps and follow up. We aren't reclaiming land below—we're building a gate above!"
The tactics split, and two titans stood side by side.
At the acid pool below, the Dragon War Guild forcibly carved out a path through the acid with massive material investments.
"President! My sword's durability is in the red!"
"Replace it! There's plenty in the guild warehouse!" Dragon Fighting in the Wild casually tossed out a spare weapon. "Keep chopping! Don't stop!"
This was a reckless gamble to buy time with money.
On the high muscular wall, the Dawn Guild had all transformed into "Spider-Men."
Led by Lei Zhen, three hundred special operations members used Bone Pickaxes and ropes to hang from the steep, constantly writhing esophageal wall.
The wall here was alive. It would occasionally make a swallowing motion—peristalsis—and anyone who failed to hold on would fall into the acid sea below.
"Something's in the fold at three o'clock!"
The Floating Cannon in Lei Zhen's hand had switched to precise single-shot mode. He hung upside down from a rope, his eyes sharp as an eagle's.
A flash of lightning streaked out, accurately blowing apart the head of the Strong Acid Spitter hiding in the fold and preparing to ambush them. Its corpse fell straight down and happened to smash into the Dragon War Guild's shield formation below, causing a wave of chaos.
"Hehe. I didn't do it on purpose."
"Divine Guard Corps! Chisel down the Hardened Calcium here!"
Brute Force Yields Miracles led a group of strongmen, anchoring themselves to the wall like nails as they dug.
"Artisan Group! Relay!"
Countless huge chunks of calcified rock were mined out, then guided by the Flesh Artisans' skills and connected in midair by thick biological tendons.
They actually intended to use Titan's own skeletal structure and muscle patterns to weave a "giant biological filter net" in midair, then sink it down and block the cardia breach at its source!
[System Notice: Detected that the "Dawn" Guild is constructing a large-scale engineering structure.] [Project Progress: 1%...] [Contribution is rising exponentially!]
Dragon Fighting in the Wild, who had originally held a distant lead, watched "Vanguard Across the Realm" shoot up the rankings like a rocket, and his face turned green.
"Damn it! Are they building illegal structures up there?!"
Dragon Fighting in the Wild gritted his teeth and looked painfully at his inventory again. "Ignore them! We'll build one too! I refuse to believe five hundred million can't buy that much stone! Someone, go collect stones! Where are the guild's Flesh Artisans? Get up there together!"
The competition between the two major guilds directly pulled the battle's progress taut to the limit.
Two hours later. Cardia Defense Line.
As Dawn Guild's enormous Calcium Bone Net slowly sank into the cardia breach, the raging eruption of gastric acid was finally contained. Meanwhile, Dragon War Guild's land reclamation project had begun to show results, piling up a landing platform below.
[System Announcement: The first breakwater has been completed!] [Gastric acid reflux reduced by 50%!]
"We did it!"
The Dawn and Dragon War players cheered at the same time. Although they disliked each other, their cooperation this time had truly been spectacular.
But just then, a dull, hungry roar came from the darkness deep within the cardia.
Grrr—!!!
An unprecedented fishy wind blew from deep within the stomach, mixed with highly concentrated [Pepsin].
[Warning: Stomach spasm! A strong acid tsunami is about to strike!] [Warning: Associated Boss has appeared—Gluttonous Maw (LV.23)!]
An abyssal giant mouth large enough to devour the entire platform suddenly burst through the dam they had just built.
It had no eyes and no limbs, only a massive circular maw filled with countless sharp teeth. Its body resembled a giant pink worm over a hundred meters long.
It did not even make an attack motion. It simply—inhaled.
The immense suction instantly formed a vortex.
The Dragon War Guild's Divine Guard Corps at the front did not even have time to raise their shields before they were swept, along with the stones beneath them, into that abyssal maw by the terrifying force.
"Crunch, crunch..."
The bone-chilling sound of chewing echoed throughout the battlefield. The sounds of shattered equipment and breaking bones mixed together.
"Wh-what the hell is that thing?!"
Dragon Fighting in the Wild staggered back three steps in fright. Looking at the dozens of guild portraits that had instantly turned gray, his face went pale.
Vanguard Across the Realm's gaze sharpened from above, and Origin Fang instantly slid from its sheath.
"The opportunity is here."
"Dragon War's people drew the first wave of aggro. The BOSS is in its recovery window."
Vanguard Across the Realm looked at the people behind him.
"Spirit Pivot Envoys, lock onto its excretory hole... no, its breathing hole!"
"All remaining melee members, prepare—boarding assault!"
On this battlefield where everyone had gone mad for Titan Blood, there were no allies, only competitors.
Whoever took down this BOSS would completely widen the gap on the contribution rankings and seize those mere 2,000 new-life slots!
Before you continue