Chapter 1346: Dead City….
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
The continuous crashing sounds stopped abruptly, but anyone could tell that the silence was not a sign of the other side giving up, but of them gathering strength for a more powerful hit!
Sheyan stood in front of the gate indifferently. He was even chewing gum in his mouth.
Most of the people here had only heard of how powerful he was, but an impression built from hearsay was utterly unreliable, so it was not until Sheyan nonchalantly stood in front of the metallic gate without any fear on his face that they intuitively understood the might of this Brigadier General. His reputation was formidable for good reason!
This was how you build up your prestige and authority in a group.
A few seconds later, an elite Zergling as large as a calf broke through, violently smashing the metallic gate into pieces. However, it was instantly greeted by a hail of bullets. The horrifying firepower filled its body with bullet holes. Fluids splashed out of it in great amount.
With a furious roar, Pontin stabbed his welding torch into the Zergling’s mouth. Fresh blood and pale green body fluids instantly gushed out of the beast. And when the elite Zergling was about to counter attack, Sheyan had already grabbed its two forelimbs and hurled it at the hard wall nearby.
However, the elite Zergling was indeed a biological weapon developed for the sake of war, so the more injured it was, the stronger it got. It bit out fiercely at the person closest to it. However, the opponent’s reaction was also very quick. He blocked with his hand, and the Zergling ended up only chomping down on the fellow’s elbow. Although it had some effect, it also made the Zergling’s teeth hurt.
During that short momentary pause in its action, a large, red Mark of Death appeared above its head, and a figure suddenly appeared behind it out of nowhere. Five blood red slashes streaked through the air, and the elite Zergling was dismantled into bloody pieces in an instant!
Ronnie had quietly made his move!!
Ronnie was currently feeling extremely satisfied having achieved his goal. After betraying his old Realm and joining a new one, all he lost were 2 levels of base abilities, 5 points of Agility, and 5% of explosive hit rate and dodge rate. However, what he got in return was terrifying.
Firstly, the most obvious change was in his survivability, which had improved by at least 150%, 200% if he took ‘Gloryheal’ into account.
Besides that, the 10% increase to all stats provided by Sheyan’s gene-mix was enough to make up for the 5 Agility points and 5% of explosive hit rate and dodge rate he lost. But even more important than that was the MP boost he received. Ronnie’s biggest problem before this was his lack of MP, which greatly limited his skills’ continuation and explosiveness.
He was the chief scout in his old party, but due to the party MT’s weakness, close combatants had it less convenient and less efficient than ranged combatants because they had to be ready for the enemy’s counter-attack at all times. Therefore, Ronnie’s damage output was often lower than the damage output of ranged combatants, so equipment that increased Intelligence or maximum MP would never fall to him….
Before this, Ronnie had to consider the problem of MP consumption after using only three or four skills, but now that he had gained Party Ace’s bonus, he would only have to think about the problem after twenty or thirty skills. If Ronnie was previously like a revolver, he was now like a machine gun with significant improvement in explosiveness and lasting time!
Ronnie had activated an ability and struck five times in the blink of an eye. Three of those strikes were explosive hits. The elite Zergling was instantly killed. Witnessing this, Sheyan could only sigh at the scariness of his quadruple explosive hit damage.
Sheyan reached out and grabbed the spirit crystal that dropped after the elite Zergling was killed. Then, he barked, “Don’t engage in prolonged fights! Both the Protoss and the Zerg will definitely shift their focus to the inner part of the city. We have to hurry up! Don’t waste the precious few minutes of lead we’ve gained over them!”
Ramtas cast a ‘Vine’ spell while he spoke, and a large number of vines quickly grew and spread while absorbing nutrients from the Hasok organic matters nearby.
These vines were very tough and were covered with sharp thorns which had a paralysis toxin on them. But naturally, they were weak to fire.
The good thing was, Sheyan had not discovered anyone among the Zerg who had the habit of smoking or committing arson, so even on a conservative estimate, he believed that it would take the Zerg more than ten minutes to break through this wall of vine, especially in a place like this where there was plenty of organic matter to provide nutrients to the vines.
“This way,” Sheyan made a turn at a fork in the road, going upwards. Their chaotic footsteps echoed loudly in the tunnel.
Pontin walked alongside Sheyan at the front of the group in his heavy, custom-made SCV armour, his heavy metal boots hitting the ground like hammers! He was an awe-inspiring sight. His brain may be filled with nothing but muscles, but he would not lose out to anyone in terms of courage and determination.
The sound of metallic boots trampling on the metallic tunnel reverberated through the air. Considering the age and history of the place, the fact that sounds of footsteps resounded here once again after so many years brought with it a certain sense of melancholy.
Sheyan’s finger gently brushed the wall. Surprisingly, there was no dust, spider webs, or cracks at all. The longer they travelled through the place, the more bizarre it felt. The city did not feel like a metallic city that had been sealed for thousands of years in the slightest. Instead, it felt like a magnificent brand-new city that had just been washed clean by fresh water from the bottom of a glacier…
But the weirdest thing was the fact that they had not found any corpses so far, nor any signs of Protoss activity.
This huge metropolis was akin to a ghost city, a dead city!!
“F*ck, what a scary place,” Kyrgyzna remarked crudely. It seemed that the Stimpack she used had not left any adverse effects on her at all.
The other three Marines, however, had fallen into a period of weakness. They were panting heavily despite the lack of any combat, looking as if they had just ran a 10-kilometer marathon while carrying a heavy load. They looked like they needed at least an hour or two to recover.
When the group turned a corner, they suddenly found themselves in a dead end. To be exact, the road ahead had not been built yet. This place appeared to be a messy construction site. Pontin judged with his professional eyes that at least ten Probes had worked here. The traces of welding and bridging were still here, but for some reason, none of the workers could be seen.
Everyone turned towards Sheyan simultaneously, inquiring with their eyes if they should turn back. But before Sheyan made a reply, Pontin was already showcasing his professionalism. He knocked around with his welding torch while he inspected the place, then told everyone with confidence, “The walls here are very thin. We should be able to get through with some effort.”
After that, Pontin instantly went to work with his welding torch that could cut through crystals. With Sheyan’s help, a big hole was quickly made. The other end of the hole connected to another tunnel that was also under construction. It seemed like the construction work was for the purpose of connecting the two tunnels together.
Although the environment was dark, there was no foul smell coming from the other side, indicating that the ventilation was rather decent. Sheyan took the lead in going in, and the rest quickly followed. A Marine laid down a time bomb and detonated it after they had moved some distance away. Because Sheyan had destroyed the support pillars, the explosion resulted in a heavy collapse which completely blocked off the path behind them. Even the Zerg who were good at digging would find the collapse troublesome to deal with.
After about ten minutes or so of travel, Sheyan pushed open another door. To be exact, he had pushed on it three times but to no avail, so he had kicked it open impatiently. They found that they had arrived on the city streets.
The surface of the Protoss streets were very smooth. The streets seemed to be made of mainly metal, but they were coated with a smooth, thick layer of something that looked like plexiglass. They also carried the symbolic smooth blue patterns of Protoss architecture. Reading helmets could be seen scattered on the ground near the wing-shaped seats on the side of the streets, indicating that whatever disaster befell this place, it should have happened in an instant. Besides that, from the triangular magnetic levitation machinery filled with goods that could be seen everywhere on the streets, Sheyan could tell that this place was once very prosperous.
Sheyan stared quietly at the bizarre and desolate scene in front of him. He suddenly walked to a wing-shaped seat and sat down on it, then placed his forehead on a pillar as the Protoss were wont to do. He maintained this posture for a while, then said, “I think I’ve almost figured it out. If my guess is correct, then it would explain everything, but there are still several suspicious points….maybe we’ll discover something later.”
At that moment, sounds of explosions and the Zerg’s fierce hisses came from somewhere close, perhaps only two to three kilometers away, but the building layout here was dense and the terrain was complex, so they would probably need quite some time to reach this area.
Sheyan checked the direction before telling the others, “Our goal is the city centre. According to Protoss customs, praying altars and sculptures will usually be built in the city centre, and the more valuable or magnificent something is, the closer to the city centre the Protoss will place it so that it can be closer to the gods! This way! Follow me!”