Ch. 33 — Surging Killing Intent!

Lin Xun was waiting in the lounge for the reforging to complete, when unexpectedly, an option for a forging mutation was triggered.

He carefully read the text description.

[Lucky Apostle! The attention of an unfathomable presence has triggered a miracle…]

An unfathomable presence watching? That sounded vaguely familiar. Lin Xun thought for a while before recalling where he’d seen similar text before.

It was east of the White Moon Church, atop the tower beyond the wave of harvested monsters. After he touched the Blood Sun statue at the top of the tower, a similar message had appeared.

At that time, it showed that his connection to the “Corrupting Blood Sun” had deepened, that he had received the gaze of an unfathomable presence… and then he had comprehended a new skill that temporarily increased his level by 5.

Could the Corrupting Blood Sun really think I’m a devout believer, and that’s why it’s showering me with benefits?

He shook his head. Unlikely. After all, he had dug the gemstone from the Blood Sun statue. The Paladin of Discipline hunting him down wasn’t exactly unjustified.

No longer bothering to decipher riddles, he turned his attention to the rare mutation triggered during reforging.

After careful consideration, Lin Xun hesitated.

The mutation effect of fusion required adding a new weapon. According to the text, the higher the quality of the weapons used, the more powerful the resulting new weapon would be.

Currently, his highest quality weapon was the “White Moon Silver Scepter,” which had reached the Rare grade.

His other weapons—Knight Greatsword, Crossbow, Church Longsword—were of much lower quality.

But the line “the new weapon will combine features of both weapons” gave him pause.

By typical game logic, the Dragonhunter Lance was a melee weapon, so fusing it with another melee weapon should be optimal. But his best melee weapon, the Knight Two-Handed Greatsword, was only Common+ grade.

After much thought, his inner gambler won out, and he made up his mind.

“Let’s do this! Who knows, maybe I’ll get a +999 Dragon Slayer Blade!”𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

[You have added the ‘White Moon Silver Scepter’ into the fusion.]

[Reforging in progress…]

The game text froze again.

“Wonder what kind of weird thing it’ll forge this time.”

This time, Lin Xun waited for a long while with no movement.

Knock knock knock~

A short-haired girl pushed the door open and waved him over.

“Lin Xun, let’s go. Meeting on the third floor. The sooner we finish the mission, the sooner we get to go home and sleep…”

Lin Xun responded, slipped his phone into his pocket, and left the lounge.

—

The outskirts of the city were silent in the dead of night.

The houses here were sparsely distributed, mostly old and low single-story homes.

Most families were already asleep. Looking around, only a few lights remained lit.

One such lit house sat in a courtyard.

The “Engineer” cautiously held something in his palms.

He swore—not even when he first held his newborn daughter fresh from the delivery room had he been this careful.

What he held looked like a mass of rotting, foul-smelling black sludge.

That kind of darkness… like standing on the edge of a cliff, staring into a bottomless abyss. It gave one the overwhelming urge to throw themselves in!

“For the organization to entrust me with the precious Source of the Apocalypse… even if it costs my life, I must complete the mission!”

Recalling his daughter’s sweet little voice calling him “Daddy,” the corners of the Engineer’s mouth curled into a smile of happiness as he murmured, “My good girl, soon Daddy will open the gate to a New World for you, a world without conflict, without pain.”

“In the New World, there is only peace and serenity…”

Halfway through his words, his pupils abruptly shrank. Without hesitation, he materialized his in-game equipment.

A dark gray combat suit enveloped his body completely.

A beehive-structured tantalum-titanium alloy exoskeleton, intelligent nano-fiber muscles, a mechanical spine linked to the human motor nervous system, and sleek tech lines—it was a full set of nano-armor!

Countless tiny injection ports in the armor instantly delivered tens of millions of nano-robots into his body. Oxygen saturation in his blood surged, and adrenaline flooded his system.

BANG!

A muffled, suppressed gunshot rang out.

In an instant, the nano-fibers on the armor’s surface rearranged their particle structures. Their extreme strength and resilience easily neutralized the bullet’s kinetic energy.

Clink clank~

The golden sniper bullet dropped powerlessly to the ground.

Data flashed across the crimson visor in front of the Engineer’s eyes, pinpointing the origin of the bullet’s trajectory. He looked toward the shattered window and leapt from it into the courtyard outside.

—

“Sniper failed, initiating assault!”

A sultry voice came through the earpiece.

Lin Xun narrowed his eyes, looking toward the courtyard not far ahead.

[You have materialized the Shell of the ‘Blood Sun Paladin of Discipline’!]

A suit of dark silver metal plate armor replaced his T-shirt and jeans, covering him entirely. From the slit visor of the heavy knight helmet, two crimson glows beamed forth. A crimson cloak fixed at the shoulders billowed in the night wind.

A two-handed Knight Greatsword, with a blade as wide as two palms, appeared in his grip.

The heavy-armored knight, perhaps due to using the “Tainted Crimson Sunflower Seed,” or maybe thanks to an upgrade in Shell Quality…

His already towering Shell grew taller still. The muscles under the plate armor swelled—he was like a steel beast!

The Paladin blew his horn, and a gigantic warhorse over three meters tall stepped forth from the void.

Its horseshoes were as wide as washbasins. Thick, sinewy blood-red muscles rippled beneath its hide. From its mouth and nose spewed crimson wind-like breaths.

The Paladin of Discipline mounted the horse, one hand gripping the reins, the other his sword—standing like an iron wall, guarding the escape route from the courtyard.

This mission, planned by his female superior, was to eliminate a mid-level figure in the New World organization—the Engineer.

Once the Engineer was killed, Lin Xun would be able to activate his talent ability in the real world.

Then he could seize the Engineer’s Shell and use it to carry out the rest of the plan…

At first, Lin Xun had hesitated, worried that stealing a Shell in the real world might have terrifying consequences. For instance, if he took over a Shell, would he permanently become that Shell’s appearance? Or would his own Shell become brain-dead?

But when he voiced these concerns in the meeting room, his coworkers had all burst out laughing…

Anyway, back on topic—as a newcomer, his task was simple: If the experienced team members failed to take out the target on-site, he was to block one of the target’s possible escape routes.

I mean, seriously, what kind of mission is that?

Lin Xun felt insulted. A grown man standing afar watching his female coworkers fight while he cheers from the sidelines? Just thinking about it made him feel humiliated.

Grumbling to himself, he spoke into the helmet’s earpiece: “Xiaoqi, your aim is trash. And you said the Shell comes with a skill that guarantees one hundred hits out of a hundred shots.”

“Shut it, you rookie! Just stay there and be our cheerleader!”

The short-haired girl’s breathless, exasperated voice crackled in his ear.

Lin Xun looked toward the courtyard. Inside, lights of various colors flickered, mingled with the muffled sounds of suppressed gunfire and blows landing on flesh.

Before the mission, Li Xingyue had emphasized that because the operation was taking place in a suburban residential area—even if the houses weren’t dense—they had to avoid making too much noise, so as not to alarm innocent bystanders.

That line was obviously meant for the newbie.

“Sigh…” Lin Xun sighed helplessly and patted the warhorse’s massive head.

The Turkoman Bloodhorse blinked its blood-red eyes and snorted dumbly, seemingly confused why its master was sighing.

Now that Lin Xun had enhanced his talent and materialized the Shell of the Paladin of Discipline again, he could suppress its battle-hungry instincts slightly while staying calm.

Had this been his first time using the Shell, he’d have already charged into the courtyard using Blood Charge.

Why not use the Yellow-Robed Bishop Shell?

Well, he could only say—had he known, he wouldn’t have reforged his weapon first.

Even now, the weapon in-game still read: “Reforging in progress…”

A mage without a staff—how’s he supposed to fight like that?

BOOM!

The entire courtyard was engulfed in a sudden pillar of fire, flattened to the ground.

A gray figure burst out from the flames, leaping far with just a few bounds.

And the direction of escape was the very route Lin Xun was guarding!

“Lin Xun, run! Don’t try to stop him!”

The sultry voice of the mature woman shouted anxiously in his earpiece.

That gray shadow was getting closer…

“Phew~”

Lin Xun raised his head and exhaled a stream of crimson breath…

The surging killing intent within his Shell burst forth like a caged beast—utterly unstoppable!