Chapter Thirty-Seven: When Two Paths Cross, the Brave Prevail

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Before the gates of Mechanica City.

The battle between the two sides had reached a fever pitch, the green grasslands stained crimson with blood. Pools of red liquid formed on the plain as the blood gathered, as if a rain of blood had fallen from the heavens.

Nearly all the stone spears and knives lay broken and useless; the main weapons on the field had become little more than thick wooden clubs or bare fists. Many combatants rolled and grappled in the mud, their bodies caked in the mixture of blood and earth.

...

“Die!”

After slicing open a coalition soldier’s abdomen, “Chen Nian” kicked another enemy flying. At first, he had tried to restrain his strength, not wishing to draw undue attention to himself, but the battle had raged on so fiercely that he was losing control. By now, quite a few Space Army soldiers had begun to notice him.

Fortunately, his body was so drenched in blood that no one unfamiliar with him could recognize who he was.

“What’s the point in this slaughter? Even if you kill hundreds, will it change the outcome of the battle?” Chen Nian forced himself to endure the discomfort in his mind.

The battlefield was a scene of utter desolation, littered with blood and all manner of grotesque things. Any normal person would have collapsed under the psychological pressure long ago. He had killed many players in games before, but no game could compare to the grim reality of the Virtual Realm.

“What else am I supposed to do? Should I hunt down their commander? But how would I even find him?” his other self replied coldly.

“Look to your left! Go help over there!”

Upon hearing this, “Chen Nian” turned his head to the left.

Roughly a hundred meters away, two small groups were locked in fierce combat. On one side was the Silver Dragon Legion’s Special Operations Squad, led by Ye Qiang. Most of these men wore armor made from giant crocodile hide and wielded bone knives fashioned from the creature’s teeth or bones—the best-equipped unit among the Space Army.

Opposing them were the burly warriors Chen Nian had previously encountered in the jungle. Their eyes gleamed red, and they swung spiked clubs with tireless, death-defying ferocity; they looked utterly savage.

Each side held its advantages, and the fight was locked in stalemate, with corpses already littering the ground.

“I understand.”

With that, “Chen Nian” strode toward the embattled squads. Having fought for so long, many coalition soldiers now recognized him. As he passed, they hastily parted to let the god of slaughter through.

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After dispatching a few hapless foes along the way, “Chen Nian” reached the skirmish. One giant warrior, seeing a blood-soaked man from Huaxia approaching, swung his spiked club without a word.

“Chen Nian” darted aside, then slashed at the giant’s arm.

With a crisp crack, his bone knife stuck in the man’s arm and snapped in two.

He wasn’t surprised; he had felt the knife would not last much longer. Releasing the broken blade, he seized the spiked club from the giant’s grasp with a powerful yank.

“I’ll be taking this!”

The club ripped free from the giant’s hands. With his new weapon, “Chen Nian” brought it down with a brutal blow on the man’s head.

The giant collapsed. “Chen Nian” tore off his tattered armor and tossed it aside, club in hand as he strode toward the next opponent.

Thud! Thud!

The dull sound repeated as these fearless “gene warriors” fell one after another beneath his blows. After smashing three or four, the spiked club broke in two. He casually snatched another and pressed on.

No one could withstand even a single exchange with him.

Not far away, Ye Qiang had been struggling to fend off these monstrous attackers. Suddenly, he noticed the pressure easing. Wiping the blood from his face, he saw a blood-soaked figure crash into the ranks of the monsters, clubbing down anyone nearby like a game of whack-a-mole.

No matter who they were, those pain-insensitive monsters fell motionless with a single blow.

Who is that? The question surfaced in Ye Qiang’s mind, but before he could ponder further, the man had already plunged deep into the enemy ranks.

Seeing the monsters about to surround the stranger, Ye Qiang shouted, “Follow him! Charge!”

Led by “Chen Nian,” the Special Operations Squad stabbed into the monster horde like a sharp blade, splitting them in two and then picking them off piecemeal.

Seven or eight minutes later, the powerful monsters were wiped out.

Without even glancing back, “Chen Nian” moved on to the next hot spot on the battlefield. Though he couldn’t grasp the overall situation, he sensed the Space Army was steadily advancing.

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Battles of this scale were like a tug-of-war—once one side faltered, defeat would cascade like a landslide.

...

It was impossible to tell how long had passed. Mechanica City, once distant, now loomed ever closer as the Space Army fought with increasing vigor. In contrast, the coalition’s lines collapsed, with large numbers of deserters appearing.

Especially along the road to the nearest teleportation array, corpses, wailing wounded, and bloodstains were everywhere. From afar, it looked as though a crimson ribbon had been unfurled across the vast grassland.

...

Unaware, “Chen Nian” had fought his way to the foot of Mechanica City.

The city sprawled over a wide area, shrouded in blue light. Though the Virtual Realm was in darkness, the artificial sun atop the city shone brilliantly, illuminating the surroundings as if it were day.

“Is this an energy shield?” “Chen Nian” murmured, tossing his wooden club at the blue barrier.

With a soft thud, the club bounced back.

“Just as I thought—an energy shield.” With a sigh, he turned around.

Behind him, the battlefield was a sea of blood, the ground covered with corpses and wounded as far as the eye could see. The great battle had become a rout; not a single coalition fighter remained in sight. The Space Army’s victory was now assured.

There seemed little reason for him to keep killing.

“Chen Nian, I’ll leave the rest to you. I’m tired,” said the other voice.

As the words faded, Chen Nian’s body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

A wave of indescribable exhaustion swept over him, as though gravity itself sought to pull him into the earth.

Even so, he forced himself to crawl to a nearby coalition corpse whose clothing was relatively clean, wiping the blood from his face and hands. Afterward, he dragged himself a little further and sprawled out on the ground.

The air was thick with the stench of blood. Above, the gray sky glowed with the artificial sun.

Chen Nian’s mind was utterly blank.

The sky began to spin, and he felt himself spinning with it.

At last, everything faded into darkness.