Chapter 23 Deadly Fireworks <TOC> Chapter 25 Killing Many Birds with One Stone
Translator: SumTLMan
“Has this red dust accelerated the onset of [Zombie Potion] in my body?”
Rayne looked at his rapidly withering arm. How couldn’t he understand what was happening? Wasn’t this the effects of [Zombie Potion’s] poison attack?
Moreover, with how excellent his eyesight has presently become, the red lines that looked like thin hairs could clearly be seen as “blood nematode worms” narrower than a hair’s width!
“Wisdom Brain” had also clearly indicated that a large number of living organisms had been “activated” in his body!
“What the hell is going on?! [Zombie Potion] wasn’t actually a poison, but some type of dormant, live parasites?”
In an instant, thousands of unbelievable thoughts instinctively popped into Rayne’s head.
With thirty seconds left until death, there was no time to ponder about it, and without hesitation, he pulled out several potions from his folded space.
[Advanced Antidote Potion], [Advanced Healing Potion], [Advanced Cleansing Potion]… He didn’t have any time left to distinguish between each of them as he injected all of the advanced potions in his storage space that he had thought might be useful into his thigh. But this still didn’t work…
The red hair-like “blood nematode worms” continued growing like crazy.
Rayne could clearly feel the life draining from his body.
He felt a sense of vertigo grow increasingly worse…
Like blood-sucking leeches, the “blood nematode worms” were crazily absorbing the blood and fluids from his body as if they wouldn’t stop until he was completely drained.
In just a second or two, Rayne’s bodily fluids had been sucked out of him. His drained face looked zombie-like as his mind gradually blurred.
However, just as Rayne thought he was about to die again…
Something dramatic happened!
“Huh…”
When a particular injection went in, Rayne instantly felt his soul returning to his body as his consciousness grew increasingly clear.
Upon a second inspection, the “red hairs” had shrunk to the point of being invisible to the naked eye. These “blood nematode worms” had taken the fluids they had sucked out and returned them back into his body!
“I’m saved!”
Rayne felt shell shocked as he walked past the gates of hell, his chest uncontrollably heaving and gasping for breath.
On further inspection, the potion that was administered with his hand was actually the same [Zombie Potion] antidote that he had previously configured in Pythius’s lab.
[Ding! Unnamed parasites have fallen into a state of dormancy, estimated time of awakening 1094 days…]
Whew…
Rayne breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The time limit for the next attack had become three years again…
Although the problem had yet to be resolved, his life was at least safe for now.
At that moment, he realised that this so-called [Zombie Potion] was actually a mysterious parasite?
The so-called “antidote” was actually a potion that kept the parasites in a dormant state?
Was that red dust the catalyst for awakening these parasites?
A lot of strange ideas popped into his head.
“Huh…”
Rayne didn’t have time to dwell on these connections as another thought suddenly flashed through his mind that made his scalp tingle.
“Nyah, Pythius was an undercover agent for the Omagh Royal Family?!”
……
Rayne was saved by the “antidote” he had configured during his potion studies practice.
But those who had been forced to take the [Zombie Potion] weren’t as lucky.
The moment the red “fireworks” had gone off, the tragedy was doomed to happen all around.
The bandit gangs’ death rate was already high, with new recruits usually being replaced very quickly. In large bandit gangs such as the “Demon Weasel Bandits”, more than half of the gang members were forced to inject the [Zombie Potion].
Not only the recruits but also the veteran gang members who thought they were “cured” began falling victim to this poison.
Ordinary gas masks couldn’t resist the fine dust, which, when inhaled, was fatal within 30 seconds.
And the Grand Prince’s aide had been working on this layout for three years. This type of poison had been spread through various means, and the “Demon Weasel Bandits” weren’t the only ones who had fallen victim to this plot!
How many of the 100,000 bandits had these red thread-like parasites lurking within their bodies?
……
As [White Wolf] Barzel led the bandit gangs to besiege at Omagh’s side, suddenly the surrounding crowd began screaming…
“Bro, why are you growing red hair all over your body?”
“What’s going on? What the hell is sucking my blood…”
“Damn it, help me pull out these red hairs… Burn it with fire…”
“AHHH…”
Hearing all of those heart-wrenching screams made the blood of those around run cold.
Before the reality had set in, outbreaks were sporadic for a moment or two, but then as if a chain reaction had been set off, rippling wails began resounding one after another all around.
Initially, the brothers all around them, who were still alive and kicking one moment, were suddenly transformed into “red-hairy monsters” the next. Then in the blink of an eye, they were sucked dry and became corpses, dying in the most hideous way imaginable.
How horrific was it to experience such a scene?
If it was just one or two people, it wouldn’t be as tragic as it was now, but when watching their brothers before them begin falling like harvested wheat, wouldn’t an ordinary person grow weak in the knees and become terrified by these tragic scenes of death?
In just ten breaths, half of the tens of thousands of bandits who had just surrounded the Omagh Grand Prince and his party had instantly fallen!
Just a couple of “fireworks” was enough to kill tens of thousands of people… Even a top master fighter like [White Wolf] Barzel couldn’t help but have cold sweat running down his back as he witnessed something so outrageous!
In one moment, there were the chatter and laughter of tens of thousands of brothers before vanishing in a puff of smoke. At this moment, when everyone looked at the black-robed aide beside Grand Prince Quentin, their eyes were filled with terror.
Barzel finally understood why he felt this “Metternich” guy gave him the creeps as all of his hairs stood on end.
He had already won 70% of the battle without even lifting a finger by using such a tactic!
He had a vague inkling that this guy’s words about “killing them all” were about to come true…
Because Barzel also thought of an even worse outcome as a consequence!
…….
“Huh… We’re okay?”
“Haha… Why does this poison only work on those recruits?”
“Damn, it must be our regiment’s magic potion master who has pitted us! The potions they’ve prepared for our recruits have dormant parasites hidden within it…”
“This is definitely an inside job! It turns out those Omagh guys have long infiltrated our gang…”
“…”
Some of the cleverer bandits had probably already guessed the cause and effect of what was going on.
The leaders of the bandit gangs were also somewhat thankful. Although the “deadly firework” was beyond everyone’s expectation, the damage done to the major bandit gangs’ elite members wasn’t as severe.
The tens of thousands who died were mostly recruits who hadn’t awakened to transcendence, or they had [Awakened] but had just broken through their genetic lock.
These people weren’t considered the core members of the major bandit gangs, so their added combat effectiveness was deemed to be less valuable.
If they died, then they died. Those recruits’ lives weren’t worth as much, and they could simply be replaced with new recruits.
But it didn’t take long for the leaders’ rejoice to turn into despair.
……
“Not good. Our mechanical city has stopped running!”
“Damn it, where are the boiler workers, hurry up and add more coal…”
“Boss, it’s no good. The boiler workers are all dead…”
“…”
The clamour had resumed. Those veteran bandit gang members, who had just been celebrating earlier, had come to the realisation that… They were going to face an imminent catastrophe!
What were the usual jobs for the new recruits in the bandit gangs?
Boiler worker, gunner or mechanic!
When they died, it meant that there was no one left to operate the mechanical cities.
A mechanical city with no one left to man the controls will just become a pile of junk!
The dust spread unchecked into the control cabins of all the major mechanical cities, and then a large number of “red-haired monsters” began dying off…
The larger the mechanical city, the more people they needed to work together and operate it. In the blink of an eye, more than 90% of the basic operators had died!
Even if the surviving elite bandit gang members wanted to control a mechanical city, they were left powerless to do so.
As a result, no more artillery guns fired off from the major bandit gangs’ mechanical cities. The steam-powered boilers, with no workers, gradually stopped working because no one was there to feed the coal…
In another blink of an eye, thousands of mechanical cities that had been nimble enough to flee had all stopped and laid around as heaps of junk.
And when it rains, it pours. More desperate news came soon after.
Beyond the horizon, a mass of dark shadows could be seen, the enormous mechanical armies of the Omagh Empire began encircling them…
Without functioning mechanical cities, the bandit gangs’ greatest chance of escape had been cut off.
Under such circumstance, it was all over. The major bandit gangs were going to be completely exterminated.
……
“Damn it, what a dirty tactic!”
Rayne looked at the scene before him, and five words instantly came to mind: Turtles caught in a jar!
Even though he was one of those turtles who had been caught, he had to admit that the person who had set up this layout was brilliant.
But on second thought, he said, “F*ck!” and stood in place as if struck by a lightning tribulation on the spot.
“Pythius was an undercover agent for the Omagh Royal Family. So, could the secret of ‘Baron Maureen’s Treasure’ have been leaked to someone else?”
At this moment, Rayne looked again at the purgatory-like battlefield, and his face grew increasingly ugly.
Initially, he had thought that his first priority would be to escape from the centre of the battlefield and save his own skin.
By then, even if he was captured by the Omagh Empire’s army, he probably wouldn’t be killed off because of his status as an “apprentice doctor” and “apprentice magic potion master”.
No matter where he goes, these two professions will always have preferential treatment.
Besides, he was only a bandit recruit and wasn’t on any of the wanted lists, so he didn’t deserve death.
After being captured, perhaps he might even be able to turn his back on the underground world and cast aside his identity as a bandit forever and officially join the Omagh Empire…
However, since Pythius was an Omagh undercover agent, this was no longer an option as all of these thoughts became extravagant hopes.
Although Pythius may be dead, if an outsider knew his secret, they would never give up on looking for him.
Oh… And Rayne almost forgot.
There was also that person behind the scenes who had hired Quinn to assassinate Baron Maureen!
When the time comes, if Rayne is captured as a recruit belonging to the “Demon Weasel Bandits”, whoever is the person behind the scenes will surely be able to find him by hook or crook…
If he were caught, the chances were high that he wouldn’t be able to escape from being soul searched or tortured.
“Baron Maureen’s Treasure” means a great opportunity for Rayne to change his fate.
As for handing over all his secrets in exchange for a life as a salted fish?
Ah, bah!
He’s had enough of being a salted fish in his past life. He’s going to do something different in this one!
……
“I’ll just have to run for my life…”
Rayne thought as he took a deep breath.
At least with his “Wisdom Brain” around, his chances of escape weren’t hopeless.
[Ding! Trajectory analysis and calculation, direction →…]
His “Wisdom Brain’s” trajectory analysis revealed that the weak points of the Omagh Mechanical Army’s encirclement were in the southwest, which meant his only chance of escape was in that direction…
Without further hesitation, he scurried as swiftly as a panther onto the edge of the battlefield.
Chapter 23 Deadly Fireworks <TOC> Chapter 25 Killing Many Birds with One Stone