Chapter 282
Yuki stood before the sea of flames, a sinister smile on his face. He enjoyed the feeling of slowly slicing his enemies to death, a sentiment that echoed the saying—
Those who can beat me in a fight can't outsmart me, and those who can outsmart me can't beat me in a fight.
The Roar soul fire scorched everything; even the strongest secret techniques were only one percent effective. Most of the Hope's hull was burned away, making the burning sky even more vivid.
The insect corpses fell like raindrops, and the queen and her guards in the passage had vanished without a trace.
The commander-in-chief looked on in horror and saw a man standing on a high platform, against the backdrop of a burning sky and a swarm of insects, looking like a demon, or perhaps a hero.
Chris swallowed hard; her mind was still a mess.
That's it? It's that simple??
A surge of fervent cheers welled up in his chest, but was abruptly swallowed back down by the man's raised hand.
"We haven't won yet, don't be so happy." Yuki's tone remained indifferent, and it was hard to detect any hidden excitement.
[Player Yuki, you have achieved the "Zerg Slayer" achievement by Insect Race Slayer swarm, earning 2 Specialization Points and 2 Enhancement Points.]
[The Insect Race Cleaner achievement will grant you innate hatred reputation with the Zerg.]
The unprecedented reward is almost equivalent to an S-rank mission evaluation.
However, considering the insect corpses falling like raindrops, this is reasonable, and upon closer examination, it might even be a loss.
If you can take the Fire Seed with you, the reward will far exceed 1200 points.
"Why does this achievement come with hate reputation? Does that mean I'll encounter Zerg again in the future?"
Yuki was puzzled by the explanation, but shook his head; now was not the time to think about such things.
Should we stop while we're ahead?
He ignited most of the Fire Seed's energy directly, and the main mission was nearing its end. But when he glanced at the commander-in-chief and captain, who were covered in blood, he took a deep breath.
As a player, he has completed the main storyline, but the Destiny of humanity remains unchanged.
"The problem isn't completely solved just because the Queen isn't dead."
His words made the group tense. As long as the Queen was alive, the Fire-Chasing Plan would be considered a failure, and humanity would face even more frenzied retaliation.
Destroying the Fire Seed is merely a means to an end; no one wants to perish along with the Fire Seed.
"The Fire Seed is burning; our time is running out."
These words plunged the commander-in-chief into despair. At his level, he knew that the "reinforcements" could return once they achieved a certain objective, meaning the enemy could simply pack up and leave, while they could only wait to die.
He was furious, he was disappointed, and he wanted to stand up, grab Yuki's collar, the Roar, asking if he could live with himself.
All those sacrifices, all that struggle—were they just stepping stones for them to escape?
Johnny Silverhand appeared beside them at some point, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping himself. As a player, he was also powerless to resist, but as a human being, he still had a sense of shame.
"A report just came from the front lines: some insects were devoured in the battle. Here's footage from the scene."
Perhaps to change the subject and buy time, a short video shot on the front lines was played. It showed a team of Psychic Warrior fighting a bloody battle with a swarm of insects. But as the battle raged, a bunch of blood vessels suddenly emerged from the flesh wall and devoured more than a dozen Samurai Bug.
Has the Queen gone mad? Why is she turning against her own people?
The infighting among the insect swarms diverted attention from the original sharp topic, Yuki suddenly slapped his thigh, realizing why.
"It's healing. Its main body was just shattered, and it needs to use its offspring to heal. Do you remember how the Queen reproduces her swarm?"
Split.
This is clearly recorded in the documents; the opposite of division is aggregation, and the queen is using the remaining insects to heal her wounds.
The win rate skyrocketed, and the contradiction between quantity and quality finally emerged. There weren't many bugs left around the Queen, and her regeneration was no longer unlimited.
"But we have to find it and kill it, but the Defense Force have reached their Limit; it's an impossible mission!"
The commander-in-chief roared, excited yet filled with fear, for he knew that this was something humans alone could not accomplish, and these extraterrestrials had lost their reason to continue fighting.
Hope is right in front of you, yet you can't grasp it; this makes the despair all the more profound.
Yuki turned his head and looked calmly at the commander-in-chief, who resembled a trapped beast. After a long while, he chuckled softly:
"Don't get excited, there's still time, enough time for me to kill the Queen."
Everyone, including Johnny Silverhand, was taken aback, because Yuki no longer needed to continue; this decision seemed rather unwise.
Instead of explaining, Yuki turned his head and said, "Captain, do you remember what I said before?"
"Huh? That sentence?"
Yuki stared at her, then pointed to the blood-stained power armor. "Remember to wear the clothes that Mai Sakurajima gave you."
With those words, Yuki climbed up the crevice, stepping over the charred insect corpses, leaving the girl completely bewildered.
Chris thought for a long time, staring at that back view, then suddenly her eyes widened, and her face trembled.
She remembered; it was when she returned from the wormhole battle that the other party gave her a magazine.
"He wants to end this damned war!"
[Use 4 upgrade points to upgrade the Hunter's Blunderbuss to Arcane Grade Level (Level 5)]
[Chaos Item. Double-Barreled Hunter's Firelock (Arcane Grade) - Forged Three Times]
[Reloads two bullets every 10 seconds. It uses three types of bullets: shotgun shells, buckshot, and incendiary shells. Power is proportional to the user's reload speed. Forging effect: Increases maximum energy tolerance.]
[Added a special projectile filling mode that can be filled with substantial souls; power is proportional to projectile mass, and resistance limits are greatly increased.]
[Side effect: The bullet is forged from the user's soul, increasing its consumption]
[Description: This is a weapon born from the soul; please do not use it repeatedly.]
Yuki climbed onto the twisted deck. The plain was littered with the corpses of the swarm of insects, and the sky was still burning, as if another sun had risen.
He wasted no time and immediately invested all his enhancement points. Two of these four enhancement points came from exploring beyond the wall, and the other two were from his recent gains.
Special projectiles? That's a bit like Zhang Jin's characteristics.
Yuki had seen similar Chaos Item before, so it wasn't hard to understand. In the past, he had stuffed his own soul energy into the musket. This thing couldn't be filled with too much, otherwise it would explode. It was even more impossible to pour all the energy of the Demon Heart into it, otherwise the artifact would explode and he would have to find someone to repair it.
Aside from its clever uses like ignition, its actual power isn't that great; even at full power, it's only slightly more Blaster Rifle.
Substantial soul?
Yuki immediately knew what to put inside: the soul of a Transcendental Grade- level expert. It was equivalent to that expert instantly self-destructing and unleashing all their energy.
Wait, I actually do have a Transcendental Grade soul, worth at least two or three hundred points.
The key is the versatility of this musket. If the bullets are pre-loaded, wouldn't anyone be able to pull the trigger?
Are you sure you want to continue?
Just then, Johnny Silverhand followed him like a ghost, reminding him that the countdown to his return had begun.
Yuki sheathed his musket, glanced at him, and said, "I don't like to leave things unresolved. The Queen is severely injured, and now is the best opportunity. The natives are too weak to continue. I feel it's wrong to just stand by and watch. Since I promised to end the war, I'll keep my promise."
Yuki gazed at the distant insect hive, where the battle continued.
"Just because of integrity?" Silver Hand shook his head; those from Night City didn't believe in that.
"Haha, we players can be saviors worshipped by thousands, or demons that destroy the world. We must do our best in every dungeon. What's the point of being half-baked?" Yuki laughed heartily, smelling the nauseating stench of corpses.
"You old sly fox, you still dream of being a hero?"
"The two are not contradictory. Insidiousness is just a means. Who doesn't want to be worshipped by thousands? At least this is not a gamble, and we really have a chance of winning." Yuki clenched his fist. When he saw Teresa emerge from the cracked hull, she shrugged and shook her head, and he knew what the outcome was.
The greatsword fought to a draw with a top-tier cursed spirit, which is already quite remarkable.
"I abandoned the Hunting Beacon; it can only stay away from the battlefield." The woman jumped to Yuki's side, glanced at Johnny Silverhand, and said, "The hunt must continue. Levi and the others are still trapped in the hive; they might not survive the next few hours before we return."
The return time can only be estimated from the burning. Since the Queen is not dead, she must be preparing for revenge. If she can't deal with those outside, why can't she take the meat that's right in front of her?
Before the other main force returned, the swarm no longer had an overwhelming numerical advantage. Johnny Silverhand looked around and could only sigh.
"Alright, I'll play along with you guys, but let me tell you in advance, we've reached our Limit, and I'll run away immediately if things get out of hand."
Inside and outside the insect hive, there were still a little over a hundred Psychic Warrior left, and the players were exhausted. Teresa's body was showing signs of distortion, Reiner Braun could barely maintain his Giant form, and Aslan's Gundam was destroyed.
Johnny Silverhand and Yuki were holding back the most, with the latter seemingly having anticipated this moment and never exerting his full strength.
"When both sides reach their Limit, it becomes a test of willpower."
"The swarm doesn't have a morale setting; they won't collapse," Johnny Silverhand coldly reminded him.
"Yes, they are not afraid, but they cannot transcend the limitations of the flesh to create so-called the Miracle." Yuki raised his hand and pointed to the side, where the Defense Force had already assembled next to the wreckage of the warship.
Led by the commander-in-chief, several hundred people formed a square formation, each one covered in wounds and bloodstains. There were fewer than fifty Psychic Warrior, and the rest, besides marines, included various staff officers and logistics personnel.
The queue was filled with rows of silver-white machines, Earthquake Generator I'd seen before. If placed inside the giant insect, they would be enough to shatter it.
They were fully armed, and their eyes revealed the same belief:
End this damned war.
Silence reigned, but under the burning sky, morale was at its peak. The blue mist emanating from the Fire Seed swirled around them, as if thousands of fallen comrades had come back to life.
Johnny Silverhand fell silent. As a warrior who had resisted tyranny and witnessed the sacrifice of his comrades, he understood this feeling all too well. Teresa also stopped smiling, seemingly recalling her past experiences hunting monsters.
And then there was Reiner Braun, and Aslan. Yuki suddenly realized that all the players gathered around him were the same kind of people.
With heavy footsteps, the commander-in-chief arrived beside Yuki, raised his hand, and respectfully handed a communicator to the man.
"Please issue a declaration of decisive battle to the entire army on the public channel."
For a moment, Yuki seemed to transcend the role of a player. Johnny Silverhand and Teresa seemed to realize something, but they did not try to seize it. As the true commander, this was the rightful power that Yuki Sorajima deserved.
With supreme authority, I can issue a declaration to the entire army. If I issue any orders haphazardly, humanity will collapse.
His breathing became heavy. The communicator felt like a scepter. Yuki didn't refuse and took it steadily. He held it in his hand, unsure of what to say, as many images flashed through his mind.
Upon entering the instance, there were warriors who self-destructed for the quest; marines who, though mortal, used their flesh and blood to fend off the insect horde; and Kudus, who willingly served as bait, embarking on a battle from which there was no return...
Too many sacrifices, too many corpses—the brutal war is the theme of this instance. Yuki picked up the communicator and spoke only one sentence.
"I am Major Yuki Sorajima, an honorary colonel of the Defense Force, and I hereby declare to the entire army."
His voice rang out in every communicator, or in the sky, leaving a dazzling trail as fighter jets maneuvered against the Bat Dragon; or in the city, in the ears of garrison troops trembling in the ruins, clutching their rifles; or outside the Unfallen Fortress, in the war machines charging back against hundreds of thousands of insect swarms.
Or perhaps it's in a shelter, in the ears of a fully armed disabled old man, and a bewildered child.
The whole world is in battle. Faces filled with fear, confusion, or numbness rise up. They don't know who Yuki Sorajima is, or where the Commander-in-Chief has gone.
"No matter which front you're on, whether you've heard my name before or not, I now stand outside the Hive, just inches from the Queen."
"I will be the arrow, follow me, kill the bugs, and end this damned war!"
Speaking frankly, without any sentimental scenes, Yuki, who was not good at speaking to begin with, threw down the communicator and looked at the pairs of eyes that were almost burning with anger.
That was hatred, a deep-seated hatred born from the deaths of countless comrades.
That was hope—the hope that the war would end, and that we could finally lay down our guns and live in peace.
Yuki is like a Fire Seed, igniting the flame in the souls of millions of people with the simplest words.
[Player Yuki, your Human reputation has been raised to Epic]
[Player Yuki, you are completing an epic achievement, which can be stopped at any time]
It's finally here!
The murmured hints that this is what Yuki truly seeks, but strangely enough, under the watchful eyes of those burning gazes, he loses interest in the 'epic quest'.
His chest burned like the sky, his spirits soaring like never before. He slammed the communicator to the ground, crushed it with a stomp, drew his knife, and roared as he fought fiercely.
"Kill the insects! The final battle!"
Chapter 43 Where are you going!
Kill the insects! The final battle!
As the flames of anger and hope spread and burned fiercely in the 'Global Insect Calamity,' humanity nearly went mad, becoming more fearless of death than the insect swarms whose dictionary does not contain the word 'death.'
On all fronts, from Marines to retired militiamen, a frenzied counterattack was launched, entangled in any insect that tried to retreat, Unfallen Fortress.
From Lieutenant General Motta down, including the staff officers of the command post, everyone went to the battlefield. Fighter jets roared overhead from time to time, dropping soldiers directly into the retreating routes of the insect swarm. Even if they would be overwhelmed soon, it would be worth it to create waves and slow down the insect tide for even a second.
No matter how skillfully the Queen manipulated the enemy, her army remained trapped, while the truly powerful advanced Zerg within were burned to ashes. She suddenly realized a cruel truth:
Yuki's schemes were meticulously planned, and from the very beginning, he never intended to escape.