Chapter 118: Punishment Mechanism Triggered, the Escape Begins

Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Punishment Mechanism Triggered, the Escape Begins

That afternoon, Seraphina Sullivan stopped for a break in a long-abandoned flower shop that had been overrun by various mutated plants. She took out some food and prepared to eat.

’Hmm, these flowerpots are a little broken, but they’re still usable.’

She surveyed the flower shop as she ate.

The flower shop was a wreck, filled with nothing but useless flowerpots.

’Perfect, I can take these. The plants back home, and the Growth Potatoes Tree, will have a place to be planted now.’

With that, Seraphina Sullivan began putting the relatively intact, giant flowerpots into her Space.

But as she looked at the flowerpots, she couldn’t help but sigh.

’Sigh, if only my Space wasn’t just a simple Storage Space, but one where I could plant things... That would be so much more convenient.’

’I hope the Treasure Chest I get at the end has some nice surprises in it.’

She pinned her hopes on the unknown reward.

Just as she was eating and letting her mind wander, the sky outside the window changed bizarrely without any warning!

The once-gloomy gray sky was suddenly stained an unnerving, ominous, eerie green, as if the entire sky had become a colossal, faintly glowing piece of green amber!

Seraphina Sullivan and Sean Chandler, who had been eating quietly, looked up at almost the same time, their gazes fixed warily on the strange green firmament outside.

Immediately after, a cold and merciless system notification, like a death knell, boomed inside the minds of all surviving Players!

[Ding! A Player has been detected seriously violating system rules by leaking information related to the ’system’ and ’Players’ to the Native People of this world!]

[Ding! Penalty mechanism is now engaged!]

[Ding! Until the scheduled return from this world, the overall difficulty of the ’Petrification Apocalypse’ world has been permanently increased by one level! All Players are advised to proceed with caution!]

PFFT—!

Hearing the notification, Seraphina Sullivan nearly choked on the steamed bun she was eating. She quickly took a large gulp of water to wash it down, but her expression had already turned foul.

She put down her half-eaten bun, instantly losing all appetite. All that remained was a heart full of frustration and Fury.

"Who was the brilliant strategist?! What kind of smooth-brained idiot triggered this damn punishment?!" Seraphina Sullivan couldn’t help but curse under her breath.

"We’ve only had a few peaceful days! Did someone really think this world was too safe? That surviving was too easy? They just had to ramp up the difficulty for everyone, didn’t they?!"

Difficulty increased by one level!

What did that mean?

Stronger monsters?

More monsters?

More frequent attacks?

Or would new, unknown dangers appear?

Seraphina Sullivan didn’t dare to imagine.

Her relatively smooth survival and salvaging plan had been instantly and completely ruined by some unknown idiot Player!

"We’re in deep trouble now..." Seraphina Sullivan looked at Sean Chandler. Both of their eyes were filled with unprecedented gravity.

Although only two days remained of their seven-day limit before they could return, this sudden difficulty spike filled the final countdown with uncertainty and deadly peril.

Every minute and every second from now on would likely be nothing like the relatively "easy" past few days.

Seraphina Sullivan looked up again at the unsettling green sky. This bizarre celestial phenomenon was undoubtedly the most direct sign of the increased difficulty.

"Something’s coming! A lot of them!" Sean Chandler’s ears twitched, and a low warning growl rumbled in his throat.

His beastly intuition had already sensed danger on a massive scale approaching rapidly.

Seraphina Sullivan shot to her feet, her spiritual power highly focused. A Silver Needle Sword materialized in her hand, and she stood poised to strike at the first sign of danger.

At the same time, she activated [Bird’s Eye] without hesitation.

Her consciousness instantly linked with the dozen or so birds she controlled, sharing their vision.

After days of constant practice and consuming her spiritual power, she could now control a hundred birds at once to form a reconnaissance network, but she could only share the vision of a dozen or so of them at any given time.

And through these "eyes" scattered across the sky, she saw a sight so terrifying it almost drove her to despair!

Under the green sky, dense, dark swarms of The Silenti were emerging from all directions, like a plague of locusts!

Their numbers were impossible to count, as if every monster in the entire city had gathered in one place!

Even more terrifying, the eyes of these Silenti, without exception, glowed with that same unnerving, eerie green light!

Tens of thousands of faint beams of Petrification Light converged, intertwined, and refracted, dyeing the entire sky that ominous shade of green!

This wasn’t some small band of monsters like they’d encountered before; this was a widespread cataclysm formed from Petrifying Light!

Seraphina Sullivan was dumbfounded.

There was no way they could confront this head-on!

With such a dense barrage of Petrifying Light blanketing the area, there was nowhere to hide!

Even if Sean Chandler’s animal form was immune to the "active" attacks of The Silenti, he absolutely couldn’t withstand this kind of indiscriminate, highly concentrated exposure to the Petrifying Light!

Just a moment of exposure under this green canopy would likely result in instant Petrification! 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

"Go! We have to leave now! We can’t let them trap us!" Seraphina Sullivan’s decision was instant, her voice sharp with urgency.

Sean Chandler’s reaction was even faster.

The instant Seraphina Sullivan finished speaking, he let out a low roar and unleashed his [Beastification] Talent at full power!

But he didn’t take the form of a half-man, half-wolf Werewolf.

Instead, in the blink of an eye, his entire body swelled and contorted, transforming into a massive, muscular giant wolf with glossy black fur!

This was a form better suited for long-distance sprints and carrying a passenger!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Seraphina Sullivan leaped nimbly and landed securely on the giant wolf’s broad back.

ROAR!

The giant wolf, Sean Chandler, let out a deafening roar. With a powerful push from all four limbs, he shot forward like an arrow released from a bow. He crashed through the flower shop’s already shattered glass window, carrying Seraphina Sullivan on his back. They galloped away at an astonishing speed, heading for a direction where the green light seemed fainter and the number of The Silenti appeared smaller.

They had to escape before being completely swallowed by the deadly sea of green light.

Elsewhere, the expression on every surviving Player’s face turned incredibly foul the moment the system notification sounded, as if they had just swallowed a fly.

’Motherfucker! Which brainless idiot was it?! Who the hell dared to leak information about the Doomsday Game?! If you want to die so bad, don’t drag the rest of us down with you!’

While cursing up a storm in his mind, Dexter Luther didn’t hesitate for a second, breaking into a desperate sprint for his life.

He didn’t dare hold anything back anymore.

Facing the overwhelming tide of The Silenti surging from behind like a green flood, and the dense Petrification Light that stained the sky the color of death, he frantically activated his [Shield] Talent!

’Form! Form! Form!’

He roared in his mind. The Energy in the surrounding air was instantly drained as countless invisible but tough [Air Shields] materialized. They formed in overlapping layers behind and to his sides, attempting to block and deflect the deadly rays.