The cold numbers were engraved deep in my retina like an epitaph, and every silent beat crushed my heart:
167:59:58… 167:59:57…
Pei Du suddenly closed his eyes, then opened them again. The glaring crimson countdown still hung stubbornly in the void of the broken dome of the ruined church, like the cold judgment of a god. The air was filled with spores, blood, and the smell of scorched metal, weighing heavily on his chest. His throat rolled, and all he tasted was rusty despair.
"Put it on." Xu Shuangyao's voice was like a taut string, hoarse on the verge of breaking, yet tinged with an unquestionable resolve. On her open palm lay the "crown," entwined with thorns and emitting a strange, dark red glow. Twisted metal thorns tangled and tangled, forming a cruel and twisted outline. The dark red glow flowing across its surface resembled solidified plasma, yet also the slow pulsation of a living being. The light wasn't blazing, but it carried an uncanny, deep-rooted attraction. Each faint flicker seemed to silently lick the surrounding air, absorbing the already thin light within the ruined church, leaving only a palpable shadow.
Pei Du's fingers were cold and stiff. The moment his fingertips touched the thorns, an indescribable stinging sensation suddenly exploded! The pain didn't just affect the skin and flesh, but was more like ten thousand cold steel needles, piercing deep into his soul, stirring wildly, and instantly tearing apart the already shaky dam in his consciousness!
"Ouch..." A suppressed groan of pain squeezed out from between his clenched teeth, and his vision suddenly went black.
It wasn't darkness. It was fragments of memory, violently ripped out by invisible hands and forcefully filling my vision.
Icy raindrops slammed into his face, stinging. He was so small, being dragged forward by a pair of rough hands, clutching his arms tightly. Mud filled his worn shoes, making each step too heavy to lift. He struggled in vain, crying, "Mom! Mom! Don't leave me!" His voice was hoarse, shattered by the strong wind. The person dragging him didn't look back; only a muffled, phlegm-filled cough could be heard from beneath the familiar, mud-stained wide-brimmed straw hat.
Was that his father? The alcoholic who had long since faded into a gray shadow in his memory?
This memory was so sudden, so clear, carrying the cold smell of rain and a fear that penetrated deep into his bones. It was like an icy hand gripping Pei Du's heart, nearly suffocating him. The cold touch of the crown of thorns still lingered on his fingertips, but this tampered, implanted illusion surged like a tide, carrying a piercing malice. At this moment of intense shock—
“Buzz!”
A low, almost silent roar, yet resonating throughout the ruins, suddenly pressed in from all directions without warning! The air instantly became thick and heavy, as if solidified into an invisible gel.
Pei Du suddenly looked up and his pupils suddenly contracted!
Outside the ruined church's already dilapidated walls, on the horizon, a dazzling silver "tide line" is surging towards it with overwhelming force!
It's not a tide. It's a mushroom dome army!
Endless "bacteria warriors" formed this torrent of destruction. They varied in form, some humanoid, some beastlike, and most were indescribable, twisted creations cobbled together from overgrown mycelium and metal debris. Their shells were covered in silver-gray fungal plaques that gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, their joints bare, tangled, pale mycelium writhing. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, with an inhuman, pure, murderous precision. There were no roars, no cries, only the teeth-grinding rustling of countless mycelium against metal, converging into a sea of deathly silence that engulfed the world. Wherever they passed, the ground eroded as if by potent acid, and billowing clouds of grayish-white spore smoke rose, obscuring the already dim sky.
That was pure, devastating crushing power!
"Damn it!" Pei Du growled, forcibly suppressing the eerie image of his "father" in his mind. A chilling sense of crisis instantly dispelled the poisonous fog of memory. He pulled out the alloy dagger from his waist, the blade reflecting a faint and dangerous light in the spore-filled air. Xu Shuangyao had already fastened another crown of thorns to her head. Her face was as pale as paper, fine beads of sweat oozed from her forehead, and her body trembled slightly from the enormous mental burden brought by the crown. Dark red thorns twisted through her black hair, and the flowing light reflected the lines of her tightly pursed lips and the fire burning in her eyes. It was a light mixed with pain, determination, and the will of mad science.
"Target locked! Twin carriers! Execute the highest order—'Purification'!" A cold, electronically synthesized voice, devoid of emotion, suddenly pierced through the dull rustling of the bacterial army, resonating clearly in the depths of every survivor's consciousness. The source of the voice was a massive, diamond-shaped metal object suspended directly above the silver torrent. Its surface was covered in flowing silver plaques, its edges gleaming with a faint blue light of data streams, like a suspended beacon of death.
Prime directive—Purification! Leave no one alive!
"Prepare to break out!" Pei Du shouted, and the few remaining wounded members of the Raven immediately formed a defensive circle with their backs to each other. The sound of weapons being loaded was particularly piercing in the dead silence. The breath of death was so thick that it was suffocating.
Just as the silver torrent was about to engulf this last ruined island, the cold "Purification" command sounded like a death knell.
“BOOM——!!!”
A deafening and extremely violent explosion, like a thunderbolt falling from the sky, slammed heavily into the seemingly indestructible left wing of the Fungus Skeleton Army!
The explosion originated not from the ground but from the air! Several ruggedly designed, modified armed rotorcraft, covered in thick, rusted armor, their engines roaring furiously, swooped down from the low-hanging spore clouds like steel vultures! Their fuselages were painted with hideous graffiti of mutant beast heads and crude, meaningless symbols, and the heavy machine guns and rocket pods mounted under their bellies spewed out destructive flames!
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