Chapter 20: Bomb Attack

Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Bomb Attack

Seraphina Sullivan lay on a soft mat, munching on her dinner as she flipped through the diary she had taken from the supermarket.

Night fell.

It was once again the domain of the parasite variants.

Moonlight streamed through the glass window. The distant roars of parasite variants occasionally broke the silence, but none of it could affect her current mood.

’Looks like I won’t have to leave this city for a while...’ she murmured to herself, planning her route for tomorrow’s supply run.

Just as Seraphina Sullivan was finally relaxing and about to drift off to sleep, a deafening explosion suddenly ripped through the quiet night.

BOOM—!

The entire crane shook with the blast. Seraphina Sullivan shot up, nearly smacking her forehead on the control console.

She quickly scrambled to the window. On the other side of town, a pillar of fire stained the night sky blood-red, and thick smoke billowed upwards like a giant beast.

’An explosion? Could a Player have done that?’

Seraphina Sullivan’s heart suddenly pounded.

In this dead city, abandoned by the military, she couldn’t think of anyone other than a Player who could cause such a commotion.

She immediately took out her Analysis Glasses and switched them to night vision and long-range observation mode.

The distant scene came into sharp focus before her eyes:

An abandoned factory was engulfed in flames. Within the inferno, countless twisted figures could be seen fleeing in a frenzy.

It was the parasite variants!

What shocked her even more was that the ground around the factory was collapsing, revealing a massive underground cavern from which even more monsters were swarming out.

In the chaos, Seraphina Sullivan also glimpsed a colossal dark shadow.

’Wait... this location...’ Seraphina Sullivan hastily pulled out the map she’d found at the supermarket to compare. ’Isn’t this the place marked as the "Parasite Nest"?’

A terrifying thought popped into her head: ’Don’t tell me some Player is trying to complete Mission Two and thought they could just find the monster lair, set off a bomb, and reap an easy harvest?’

At this thought, Seraphina Sullivan couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath.

If that was the case, that Player was on a suicide mission.

Nighttime was already when the parasite variants were most active, let alone having their nest blown up directly!

’This isn’t grinding a quest, it’s just plain suicide!’

It was an act of pure recklessness.

Actually, Seraphina Sullivan was being a bit presumptuous. Because she had found the newspaper about the parasitic creatures and possessed the Eye of Resume, she was among the first to learn that the parasite variants and Parasitic Bloodworms were weak to sunlight and water.

But that didn’t mean every Player knew this information.

It was also possible that this person was just a reckless fool.

Seraphina Sullivan stared intently at the distant firelight when her Analysis Glasses suddenly captured a fast-moving figure.

It was a person dressed in black.

Then, Seraphina Sullivan saw the person throw a red object onto the ground, which then rapidly expanded in size.

It ultimately transformed into a sleek, red Formula 1 race car.

The man immediately leaped into the car and began weaving between buildings at an astonishing speed, with at least twenty frenzied parasite variants in hot pursuit.

What was even more terrifying was that as the explosions continued, every parasite variant in the entire town had been alerted.

’That race car? Nicholas Jensen?’

Seraphina Sullivan saw this through her Analysis Glasses and thought of the person she had met during the day.

’This guy really is an expert at courting death.’

With each explosion, dark figures converged on the blast site from all directions, their numbers so great it was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

"Crazy... absolutely crazy..." Seraphina Sullivan muttered.

She was suddenly grateful that she had chosen the high ground of the crane as her shelter. If she were still on the streets right now, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The battle in the distance grew more intense, with explosions going off one after another.

Nicholas Jensen sped through the empty streets in his F1 car.

Seraphina Sullivan saw that as he drove, Nicholas Jensen was throwing some black, spherical objects out of the car.

These spherical objects then created a continuous series of new explosions among the horde of parasite variants.

Apparently, these items were [bombs].

’Don’t tell me these bombs were also transformed from toys using his Talent Ability?’

If so, Seraphina Sullivan was truly envious.

However, while the explosions were powerful, the sheer number of monsters was overwhelming. Soon, Nicholas Jensen’s race car was cornered.

One of the parasite variants made a kamikaze charge, directly flipping the car over.

’It’s over...’ Seraphina Sullivan unconsciously held her breath.

She thought Nicholas Jensen was a dead man for sure.

’What a waste of such a good Talent!’

Seraphina Sullivan silently took off her Analysis Glasses, unable to watch the tragic scene unfold.

With complicated feelings, she leaned against the Wall of the operator’s cab.

What she had seen and heard tonight made her deeply realize the cruelty of this dungeon instance.

Even a Player with a powerful Talent could face irreversible doom with the slightest misstep.

"I have to be even more careful tomorrow..." she whispered to herself.

...

The explosions had echoed one after another last night, and the roars of the parasitic monsters had resounded all night long. Seraphina Sullivan tossed and turned, barely getting any sleep.

When the first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds, the commotion outside finally began to subside.

"Hoo—" Seraphina Sullivan rubbed her aching temples and forced herself to rally her spirits. "Don’t overthink it, Seraphina. Just focus on hoarding supplies."

After giving herself a pep talk and tidying up her temporary shelter, she carefully climbed down from the crane.

The morning streets were veiled in a thin mist, and the smell of gunpowder from the previous night still lingered in the air.

As if guided by some unseen force, Seraphina Sullivan’s feet unconsciously carried her toward the location where Nicholas Jensen had been cornered last night.

"Just a quick look. Maybe I can scavenge something useful..." she rationalized to herself.

After crossing a few streets, the scene before her made her gasp.

The entire area was severely damaged. Countless severed limbs of parasite variants were scattered among the charred ruins of buildings.

And in the center of the rubble, the familiar red race car had been reduced to a twisted heap of scrap metal.

’It’s just as I expected... It’s been blown to smithereens, there’s nothing left for me to scavenge.’ Just as Seraphina Sullivan was about to turn and leave, her peripheral vision caught sight of a large, white metal sphere lying next to the car’s wreckage.

The sphere’s surface was as smooth as a mirror, glowing with a strange luster in the morning light, completely out of place with its surroundings.

’What is this thing?’ She approached cautiously and tapped the sphere’s surface lightly.

CLANG! CLANG!

The crisp metallic sound was exceptionally piercing in the silent ruins.

Even more frighteningly, perhaps due to Seraphina Sullivan’s touch, the sphere suddenly emitted a mechanical "KCHH" sound, startling her so much that she stumbled back several steps.

She thought of Nicholas Jensen’s Talent.

’No way... Is this some last-ditch survival tool that Nicholas Jensen made from a toy?’

The metal sphere slowly unfolded like a blooming flower.

Inside, a figure covered in blood was curled up.

It was Nicholas Jensen.

His condition was abysmal: his combat suit was torn to shreds, his exposed skin was covered in wounds so deep you could see bone, and the most severe injury was a gash on his right thigh, where the stark white of his bone was faintly visible.

"Tsk... He’s that injured and still not dead? Does this guy have some kind of miracle cure?" Seraphina Sullivan frowned, instinctively taking two steps back.