Mushroom Cloud Explosion

The instant Bai Zhu heard "jump," his body moved faster than his mind.

He kicked off with both feet and threw himself to the side.

The next second, the snow beneath him exploded.

A black crystal spike shot past, grazing the sole of his shoe and piercing straight through a slender tree beside him.

Bai Zhu did not stop after landing. He rolled twice down the snowy slope, his shoulder slamming into a rock. The pain made him immediately curse the entire Creation Society bloodline.

"Why is this thing like Ma Chao? Can't it stop for even a second?"

Milluki spoke rapidly through the earpiece.

"The black crystals on the Holy Knights' chests can also provide short-range guidance. You were marked just now."

"Couldn't you have told me earlier?"

"I just finished analyzing it!"

"Your command center really sucks!"

Bai Zhu scrambled to his feet and ran.

The snow in the dense forest beyond the town had yet to melt. Every step sank halfway in.

He was not running fast so much as dragging his body forward.

More than a dozen black-armored Holy Knights behind him did not shout.

Their boots crushed the frozen snow crust in a steady, synchronized advance, making his scalp tingle.

Bai Zhu glanced back.

These Holy Knights did not rush him all at once.

They moved in groups of three, spreading left, center, and right.

The front line applied pressure while the rear line blocked off escape routes.

Some raised their guns, some protected the flanks, and others specifically watched the trees and broken slopes.

Bai Zhu cursed aloud.

"Fuck, why do these guys know three-three tactics too?"

The sound of Milluki hammering away at his keyboard rang nonstop in the earpiece.

"Don't go left. Someone's circling around there. There's a hunter's shack ahead, a cliff to the right, and a pile of deadwood to the left."

"You're telling me all that like I can fly over it?"

"Don't you have that footwork that suddenly speeds you up?"

"That's a life-saving skill, not something I use for commuting!"

As soon as Bai Zhu finished speaking, the black crystal on one Holy Knight's chest lit up.

That man's speed suddenly surged. He charged over the snow, lowering his spear as he aimed directly for Bai Zhu's back.

Gritting his teeth, Bai Zhu flicked out a small bug.

Bang!

The Smoke-Blast Bug exploded in front of the knight, gray smoke blanketing half the forest path.

Bai Zhu had just begun to relax when the sound of heavy armor crunching through snow came from within the smoke.

The Holy Knight paused for only an instant before charging straight through it.

Scorch marks clung to his helmet, but he was unharmed.

Bai Zhu's eyelid twitched.

"Milluki, your kid isn't working."

"That's the disruption model, not the lethal model!"

"Can't your Zoldyck product line put labels on things? The user experience on my end is terrible!"

"Stop talking and take out the beetles!"

While running, Bai Zhu pulled out a metal box.

The lid sprang open, revealing six Black-Shelled Rhinoceros Beetles lying inside.

Up close, the things looked even less reliable.

Quiet, ugly, like Milluki's aesthetic given physical form.

Milluki reminded him.

"Don't throw the first one around. There's a rocky slope ahead. Flick it beneath the snow and lure them within ten meters."

"Ten meters? Didn't you just say the safe distance was thirty?"

"That's why you need to run!"

Bai Zhu took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to throw the box back at the inn and smash it into Milluki's face.

The rocky slope was right ahead.

He pitched his body forward and flicked the beetle in his hand into the snow.

The Black-Shelled Rhinoceros Beetle burrowed beneath the snow, and a red light flashed from its abdomen.

Bai Zhu lay prone on the ground, panting convincingly.

Because he did not need to fake it. He was already nearly out of power.

The three Holy Knights in front indeed closed in.

One raised his gun to block Bai Zhu's path.

One circled around to cut off his retreat.

The third reached out directly, preparing to grab the back of his neck.

Milluki shouted softly through the earpiece.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

Bai Zhu rolled over and activated voice authorization.

"Explode!"

The air went quiet for a moment.

The Holy Knights paused too.

Beneath the snow, the Black-Shelled Rhinoceros Beetle suddenly beat its wings and flew up.

Bzzzz—

It was loud.

It looked imposing.

Then it circled above the three Holy Knights once, landed on a nearby rock, and went completely still.

Bai Zhu froze.

The three Holy Knights stared at the bug as well.

The scene was awkward enough to build a luxury villa out of it.

Three seconds later.

Bai Zhu lowered his voice.

"Milluki, does your family's explosion need a prayer to activate?"

The earpiece went silent for half a second.

Milluki coughed.

"I forgot to tell you, the Exploding Beetles have a Nen restriction."

Seeing that things were going badly, Bai Zhu quickly retreated.

"Go on."

"To compress several hundred kilograms of high explosives into an insect-sized body while fooling the perception of Nen users, I gave them a divine-demonic duality."

"Speak human."

"There's a fifty percent chance of a dud."

Bai Zhu looked up at the Holy Knights, who were raising their guns again.

"What about the other fifty percent?"

"An above-spec explosion."

Bai Zhu nearly laughed from sheer anger.

"How did you not tell me something this important earlier?!"

Milluki replied righteously.

"You didn't ask."

"Ask your ass!"

The black crystal spear had already stabbed before him.

Bai Zhu abruptly arched backward. The spearhead grazed past his ribs, and black patterns of light swept across his bandages, the sharp pain drilling straight into his flesh.

He did not dare take it head-on. He gathered his Reiatsu and performed a brief Shunpo, his feet flashing forward.

He slipped through the gap between the three Holy Knights, his posture ugly as hell.

But it worked.

He tumbled down the rocky slope, breaking several low branches along the way and rolling until he was covered in snow and mud.

Milluki was still taking shots at him through the earpiece.

"That's why I told you not to stand so close."

Bai Zhu crawled to his feet and cursed as he ran.

"What does a dud have to do with standing too close? Are you just making up excuses because you forgot to tell me critical intel?"

"You still have the energy to curse me. That means you're in pretty good shape."

"Thanks to your whole family."

"Don't thank us. My family charges for that."

Bai Zhu almost failed to catch his breath.

The Holy Knights continued their pursuit behind him.

The first beetle had failed to explode, making them bolder instead.

The lead Holy Knight raised his hand, and the formation immediately pressed closer.

Milluki routed intercepted voices into Bai Zhu's earpiece.

"Target's stamina is declining."

"Do not kill him."

"The elder requires him alive."

"Confirm the connection between the Blue Flame Heretic and Holy Stone contamination."

After hearing that, Bai Zhu's breathing instead steadied somewhat.

"They think your bug was a disruption device."

"That's normal. The first one didn't go off."

"They don't know you're a lunatic."

"Please address me as a professional."

"A professional with a fifty percent dud rate?"

"That's a restriction exchanged for power."

Bai Zhu did not argue further.

Cursing was one thing, but he still had to think.

One beetle meant fifty percent.

With two, there was still a chance.

If he used more, they could not all possibly be duds.

And if they all really were duds, then he would accept his fate today and turn around to apply to the system for some hidden achievement for Africans.

He reached for the remaining beetles.

"Milluki, route ahead."

Milluki became serious as well.

"Keep heading north. There's an abandoned logging road. It's narrow, with piled snow and broken logs on both sides. Good for setting traps."

"How dense are the pursuers?"

"Six in the front line, four in the middle, and another three to five uncertain behind them. Don't blow them all up at once. Cut off the front line first."

"No. I want to hurt them all in one wave."

"Are you crazy? The safe distance isn't enough."

"Then find me a ditch."

"There's a snow trench forty meters ahead to the right. It's a meter and a half deep. If you dive into it, you can avoid some of the blast."

"Some?"

"The rest is up to fate."

Bai Zhu gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Your family's instruction manual only needs four words—use at your own risk."

"Enough talking. I've opened beetle authorization for you. Set the traps yourself."

Bai Zhu charged onto the logging road.

The road was narrow, with old stumps and scattered rocks wedged along both sides, while snow concealed the potholes.

After every few steps, he flicked out a beetle.

The first hid beneath a broken log.

The second was stuffed into a hollow in the snow.

The third was lightly flicked with his scabbard, hanging behind a dead branch.

Milluki angrily reminded him through the headset when he failed to hold the fourth one steady.

"Don't crush its trigger abdomen!"

"This thing has a trigger abdomen?!"

"Why are you squeezing a bomb like an orange?"

"It looks like a bug. How was I supposed to know its belly was a button?!"

"That's a beetle, not your toy!"

Bai Zhu could not be bothered to argue anymore.

The Holy Knights chased into the logging road behind him.

Seeing Bai Zhu stumble as he ran, they spread their formation wider.

The Black Crystals on the chests of the front-row knights lit up, and their speed surged again.

Black armor bore down on him, stamping a row of craters into the snow.

Bai Zhu stopped at the end of the logging road, bracing himself against a tree trunk as he panted.

He raised a hand and waved at the pursuing Holy Knights.

"Gentlemen, welcome to this after-sales satisfaction survey."

The leading Holy Knight did not waste words.

"Take him alive."

Six Holy Knights accelerated at once.

Their lances lowered, Black Crystal patterns joining into one.

Bai Zhu turned and ran.

"Milluki!"

Only two words came through the headset.

"Get down."

Bai Zhu practically dove into a snow ditch.

While still in midair, he heard Milluki press the detonation button.

The first sound was still that of insect wings.

Bzzz.

Bai Zhu's heart skipped a beat.

Don't tell me it misfired again?

Then the second, third, and fourth beetles sprang out from beneath the snow at the same time.

They did not fly around wildly. They charged straight at the nearest black-armored Holy Knights.

One Holy Knight raised his lance to sweep them aside.

The tip had barely touched a beetle.

A white light exploded.

BOOM—!

The shockwave slapped Bai Zhu straight into the bottom of the snow ditch, and his ears instantly rang.

Snow, broken logs, and shattered rocks rained down over his head.

He opened his mouth to curse, only to get a mouthful of snow.

The second explosion went off immediately after.

The third was even closer.

The entire logging road was blasted into chaos.

Broken logs flew through the air, and a huge stretch of snow collapsed.

Bai Zhu lay at the bottom of the ditch with his hands over his head, feeling something strike his back twice.

Fortunately, it was not too heavy.

Several seconds passed before he finally raised his head.

All he could see was snow dust.

Milluki's voice came through the headset, warped with excitement.

"They blew up! Three blew up! Three!"

Bai Zhu spat the snow out of his mouth.

"Why do you sound like you've just won the lottery?"

"It is a lottery! Three out of six exceeded specifications. Pretty good luck!"

"I almost got killed."

"But you're still alive, aren't you?"

Bai Zhu propped himself up against the edge of the snow ditch and looked toward the logging road.

The pursuit formation had been blown apart.

Several Holy Knights at the front had gone completely still.

Fragments of black armor were embedded in the snow, and several Black Crystals from their chests were still flickering.

Those in the middle had been thrown over by the shockwave. Some tried to get up, but their chest Black Crystals had shattered, their black armor was tattered, and they were badly injured.

The Holy Knights in the rear were forced to halt at the edge of the blast zone, no longer daring to press forward recklessly.

Bai Zhu fell silent for two seconds before speaking seriously.

"Fatty, this thing of yours... it's not an assassination tool anymore, is it?"

Milluki sounded extremely pleased with himself.

"Precision delivery, low residual detectability, high close-range lethality. Aside from the probability issue, it's basically perfect."

"Basically perfect? You call a fifty-percent dud rate a probability issue?"

"The more absurd the restriction, the more absurd the power. Don't you understand Nen abilities?"

"I only understand that you're committing war crimes."

"What are war crimes?"

"Never mind. Don't update your knowledge base to that version yet."

Milluki snorted.

"I'm not bragging, but if I had enough materials, time, and budget, I could theoretically stuff a Miniature Rose into a beetle."

Bai Zhu's hand slipped, and he nearly fell back into the ditch.

"What did you just say?"

"Theoretically."

"Does no one in your Zoldyck family keep you in check?"

"My grandfather says I have a pretty good mind."

"Your grandfather is being far too subtle."

Bai Zhu lowered himself again.

The smoke and snow from the explosions had not yet dispersed. From afar, a snow-white mushroom cloud now rose from the dense forest.