Translator: AnubisTL
While Li Hao and Scar Dog began pinpointing the location of the valley teeming with mutated beasts, Chen Jiang turned his gaze to the mutant beast kill leaderboard.
Unexpectedly, he found himself back in the top spot. This came as a complete surprise, especially after learning about his fifth teammate's innate ability—no, his fifth teammate Wang Defa's innate ability.
In truth, Chen Jiang had no intention of competing for the mutant beast kill leaderboard this time. After all, having him kill these creatures felt like a waste. Wang Defa guaranteed a one-star item drop with every kill, while Chen Jiang received nothing.
In just one day of hunting, Wang Defa had amassed nearly 70,000 one-star items, completely transforming the turret's rate of fire and caliber. He had also acquired two set bonus skills.
What would happen after seven days? A month? A year?
To what absurd extent would his turret evolve?
[Global Mutant Beast Kill Leaderboard]
[Top Ranking: Human Player, Chen Jiang]
[Kill Count: 47,920]
[Second Ranking]: Mechanical Race Player, Feng Jiutian]
[Kill Count: 41,892]
[Third Ranking: Mechanical Race Player, Yan Fengnian]
[Kill Count: 37,892]
When he had launched the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb at the mechanical race city earlier, he had inadvertently struck a valley teeming with mutated beasts. As a result, he had eliminated nearly fifty thousand of them right at the start of the event.
This outcome had completely surprised him.
From second place onward, the rankings were almost entirely dominated by mechanical race players.
A quick glance revealed that nearly ninety out of the top one hundred spots were occupied by mechanical race players—practically a complete sweep of the leaderboard.
The Mutant Beast Kill Leaderboard only displayed the top one hundred players, so it was impossible to say whether the mechanical race players continued to dominate beyond that. However, it was clear at a glance that the mechanical race had prepared thoroughly for this global event.
Soon after, Li Hao, Scar Dog, and the others returned with their findings.
"Brother Jiang," Li Hao said with a slightly strange expression, "there are nearly forty artificial valleys in this area, each packed with mutated beasts. The average number of beasts in each valley is around forty to fifty thousand."
This was an astonishing figure!
Combined, the valleys held nearly two million mutated beasts!
All stored in these valleys—no wonder they had detected that strange stench even before getting close.
In such scorching heat, it was only natural that the massive pile of mutated beasts in the valley would emit a foul odor.
It was clear the mechanical race had prepared thoroughly for this operation.
"What a pity," Scar Dog said, shaking his head with mock regret. "Now it's all ours. Is it their bad luck or our good fortune?"
"Since we've found it, let's get started," Chen Jiang said, glancing at the map Li Hao had manifested. "Have you located the central point?"
"Found it."
"Then we're good to go. Scar Dog, open the gate."
"Yes, sir."
Moments later, a phantom gate slowly materialized several hundred meters above the central point of the forty-odd valleys.
From the gate emerged a turret with a four-meter caliber barrel, its muzzle poking out like a chick peeking from its shell, its lens-like eyes brimming with curiosity as it surveyed this strange new world.
Chen Jiang and his team had already positioned themselves on a distant mountain peak, several kilometers away. They'd learned their lesson this time—no more getting caught in the blast radius.
Standing atop the mountain, Chen Jiang gazed down at the barrel suspended in mid-air. He nodded in satisfaction, then slapped the turret's hull.
In the next instant—
The red runes etched along the barrel began to flash violently, like an Audi R8's strobe lights on overdrive!
Before anyone could react—
A crimson light pillar, over four meters thick, erupted from the barrel, shooting straight toward a valley teeming with mutated beasts!
Unlike a cannonball that detaches from the barrel, this crimson light pillar remained connected, continuously searing the valley like a laser sword cutting through butter.
The thick, solid ground melted instantly, leaving a massive crater over four meters wide and of unknown depth.
Then, accompanied by the scorching heat of the crimson light pillar, the beam began to move, carving a four-meter-wide trench across the landscape.
The valley, packed with mutated beasts, was annihilated in the first instant the crimson light pillar swept across it. Not even a scream escaped their throats before they were reduced to ash.
Yes, ash.
There was no trace of roasting or charring. The creatures were simply vaporized into black residue.
Fat, fur, flesh—all instantly vaporized. Only a few hardened bones, like skulls, remained as sparse black fragments scattered across the scorched earth.
In the blink of an eye, a valley teeming with mutated beasts had been reduced to ashes!
From start to finish, not a single sound was heard.
Whether the mutated beasts in the valley hadn't reacted or whether they were simply silent, even the turrets remained motionless.
Unlike the deafening roar of the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb, which nearly shattered eardrums, the crimson light pillar emitted no sound at all, as quiet as a serene woman.
Only when it melted the ground and vaporized the mutated beasts could faint sizzling sounds be heard.
Yet the crimson light pillar did not stop there!
Instead, it continued sweeping toward other valleys filled with mutated beasts!
Unlike artillery shells, which could pause after obliterating one valley before targeting the next, the crimson light pillar, once activated, would not cease until its energy cartridge was completely depleted.
This meant that the crimson light pillar, still in its activated state, swept directly from the annihilated valley to another valley teeming with mutated beasts!
The innocent land between the two valleys had not escaped the demon's grasp.
Soon—
Before the shocked eyes of Scar Dog and his companions!
The turret suspended in the air, like the eye of a demon, judged the mortal realm!
Wherever it passed, everything was reduced to ashes.
Eight seconds later—
The turret stopped, and the crimson light pillar vanished.
Its ammunition capacity had been exhausted.
The terrain below had been almost completely transformed.
The acrid stench of burning fur, the faintly nauseating aroma of cooked flesh, and a medley of other foul odors assaulted the group's nostrils.
Even Chen Jiang and his companions, standing thousands of meters away on a mountain peak, could feel the faint heat radiating from below.
They exchanged glances, each understanding the others' thoughts.
The next moment—
They materialized beside a ravine that had been swept by the crimson light pillar.
"Holy hell," Scar Dog muttered, staring in awe at the ravine before him. "This is beyond ridiculous."
The moment the crimson light pillar pierced into the wilderness, a portion of the soil instantly vaporized.
The remaining soil transformed into a crimson liquid, clinging to the sides of the trench like white wine on a glass, with faint traces of white crystals still visible.
"Approximately 50 meters deep," Li Hao said, his eyes flashing with awe as he provided the precise measurement.
Thanks to his map manifestation ability, he could easily determine the depth of the trench carved by the crimson light pillar.
To be honest, if he'd had something like map manifestation back when he was operating an excavator on construction sites, his boss could have saved himself a lot of trips. Constantly flying overseas was exhausting.
But there was no way to know what surprises might be lurking beneath the surface before each shovel strike.
"50 meters deep?!" Scar Dog exclaimed, his jaw dropping in astonishment. "Even many underground defense facilities aren't that deep! So, Brother Jiang, you can now deliver precision strikes from high altitude down to 50 meters underground!"
"Not quite. To be precise, it's a precision destructive strike at a depth of 50 meters underground."
"50 meters."
Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised by the figure. It was already an absurdly impressive depth.
The most remarkable part was that his Crimson Light Pillar was still in its initial state!
The Crimson Light Pillar was a set skill awarded after upgrading all enhancement options for his turret to +80.
As the turret's caliber increased, the diameter of the crimson light pillar would grow, amplifying its destructive power.
With increased ammunition capacity, the pillar's duration would also extend.
In essence, the Crimson Light Pillar was currently just a newborn cub, still mewling for nourishment and yet to fully mature, its milk teeth still intact.
Yet even in this nascent state, the pillar already possessed such immense destructive potential.
What unimaginable power would it wield once fully grown?
Moreover, both the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb and the Crimson Light Pillar were set skills unlocked at enhancement levels below +50 and +80, respectively.
How much more powerful would a +100-enhanced set skill be? And what about beyond that?
"This thing is already this powerful in its current state," Scar Dog said, his face etched with awe as he stared into the bottomless trench before him. "Once the caliber is increased and the enhancement reaches thousands of meters, piercing through an entire planet should be no problem."
"I never imagined I'd one day witness the possibility of making candied hawthorns out of entire planets."
Just then, Scar Dog spotted Wang Defa hiding in the nearby jungle. He raised his walkie-talkie to his lips and asked, "What are you doing over there?"
"I-I'm a little scared," Wang Defa's trembling, tearful voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. "You guys are going too far! You're scaring me!"
"..."
Scar Dog shot a strange look in Wang Defa's direction and clicked his tongue. "The kid's probably terrified. Come to think of it, he slaughtered seventy thousand mutated beasts yesterday. Even if he hasn't enhanced his physical abilities to superhuman levels, he's practically a demi-superhuman by now."
"Not to mention flying or teleportation, he's basically bulletproof and car-crash-resistant, right? His muscles are like bullets at this point, aren't they?"
"Scared already?"
"Well..."
Li Hao felt an unusual burning sensation on his face. He took a few steps back before speaking. "With physical attributes enhanced to a certain level, you can indeed use your muscles to deflect bullets. But that's only for small-caliber handgun rounds. At most, rifle bullets would be the limit."
"And this crimson light pillar..."
"This thing... it's beyond what physical attributes alone can withstand."
"To withstand something like this, you'd need to kill at least hundreds of millions of mutated beasts, right?"
"Well said."
Scar Dog nodded solemnly. "By the time Wang Defa has killed hundreds of millions of mutated beasts, this turret will have been upgraded with hundreds of millions of one-star items. At that point, even immortals would struggle to withstand the crimson light pillar, let alone Wang Defa."
Chen Jiang, leaning on his cane with one hand, surveyed the battlefield with satisfaction before glancing at the global mutant beast kill leaderboard.
[Global Mutant Beast Kill Leaderboard]
[Top Ranking: Human Player, Chen Jiang]
[Kills: 1,620,920]
[Second Ranking: Mechanical Race Player, Feng Jiutian]
[Kills: 84,892]
[Third Place: Mechanical Race Player, Yan Fengnian.]
[Kill Count: 67,892.]
With an astonishing kill count of over 1.6 million, he had firmly secured the top spot on the global mutant beast kill leaderboard!
Seven or eight valleys still teeming with mutated beasts remained untouched, the duration of the crimson light pillar proving slightly too short.
But that didn't matter.
His turrets soon materialized above the remaining valleys through phantom gates.
As the thunderous explosions echoed across the landscape, his kill count froze at—
[2,102,309]
Over two million kills!
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he was virtually guaranteed to claim the top spot in this global event.
Securing this top ranking would allow him to claim all three tiers of rewards for the "Big Brother Top Rank" achievement, granting him another battle-ruined fragment!
After a moment's contemplation, he retrieved the two-star item Achievement Compendium from his pocket and began flipping through its pages.
Having acquired the "Bloodstained Suit Pants" item, he had also unlocked the method for obtaining the next piece of the "Gentleman's Set":
[Bloodstained Wool Coat]
Acquisition Method:
[Achievement Name]: War Criminals' Advanced Academy
[Trigger Conditions]: Achieve a top-50 ranking in the Gates of Paradise global event; Achieve a top-10 ranking in the Gates of Paradise global event; Achieve first place in the Gates of Paradise global event.
[Completion Status]: All three stages remain unlit.
Chen Jiang closed the Achievement Compendium with a sigh. It seemed that quickly collecting all seven pieces of the Gentleman's Set fashion wasn't going to be as easy as he'd hoped.
For one thing, he had no idea what this "Gates of Paradise" global event even was.
At least, not yet.
Chen Jiang scanned his surroundings again, paused briefly, and suddenly remarked, "This crimson light pillar doesn't seem as environmentally friendly as the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb."
"Hmm," Scar Dog paused, nodding in agreement. "When it comes to environmental impact, it's definitely a bit worse than the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb."
"But this planet only has less than a century left anyway, so who cares about being environmentally friendly?"
"Besides, it's not our planet. Why bother being eco-conscious?"
"When you're driving someone else's car, you floor the gas pedal and drive it however you want!"
"Still, this crimson light pillar seems to have a lot of potential. Brother Jiang, let me think about it for a bit."
(End of the Chapter)
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