Chapter 807 - 681: Benefactor

Under the pitch-black sky, the neon lights on the streets of Shibuya replaced the vanished stars.

The road was bustling with pedestrians, fashionably dressed young men and women gathered in groups, discussing the latest released movies and TV shows.

White-collar men stood tipsily outside the entrance of an izakaya after work, waving cash to intercept Toyota Crown taxis.

The faint background sound of karaoke seeped from the floor above.

Everything seemed completely normal, like a scene of the lavish prosperity of the bubble economy era on the streets of Tokyo.

Except...

Tattoos. On the back of everyone’s neck, there was a dynamic tattoo in the shape of a clock. The clock had thirteen sections, each depicting images of water lilies, deer, jaguars, crocodiles, and such.

"[Sun Dial Curse],"

The Edge Fighter glided through the air slowly like a VTOL combat aircraft, and Li Cheng sat in the front flipping through Zhu Youdong’s notes,

"appearing randomly in specific areas of the Broken Land, infecting passing living creatures indiscriminately. Infected individuals will have a dynamic clock tattoo appear on the back of their neck,

with an assessment every 24 hours; a successful assessment resets the countdown, a failed one results in immediate death.

There’s no way to remove it, only postpone it—whenever a creature nearby dies from the [Sun Dial Curse], the countdown automatically resets."

Thud.

A white-collar man who just got off a taxi suddenly shuddered and fell forward, his whole face landing heavily in the roadside sewage.

As life ceased, the countdown tattoo on the back of his neck slowly dissipated.

Strangely, the surrounding pedestrians did not even spare him a glance. His colleague who got off the taxi with him stepped right over the corpse and entered the izakaya.

Moments later, several sanitation workers wearing masks passed by in a white Mitsubishi Fuso truck, their expressions calm and unaffected, tossing the body into the truck’s bed along with the trash can.

"They’re pretending to be normal..."

Gray Rain also understood, the gas stove in the izakaya wasn’t even lit, and the diners’ plates and cups were empty, simply pretending to make eating and drinking motions.

Li Cheng rolled down the window of the Edge Fighter (if Maxwell and the others were here, they’d surely quip, "Your fighter jet has manual windows?"),

and stuck his hand out into the wind, snapped his fingers.

Hoo—

The massive forms of the Mechanical Swarm appeared out of thin air, the air was rent by the shells covered with rivets and spikes, emitting a whimpering howl,

The giant linked artillery system [Barbados Pipe Organ] naturally descended from their hands, reflecting brilliant colorful lights.

"These are Zongsi’s puppets."

Suspended mid-air by floating engines, the Mechanical Swarm spoke in a low voice, their electronic eyes glowing red, showing clearly through scans that within the skull of every person down in the city, there was a parasitic worm.

The worm, about two fingers thick, replaced part of the brain’s gray matter in the lobes, lacking sight, its digestive system had even degenerated.

For nutrition intake, nerves and blood vessels extended from the body, hugging the remaining part of the brain tightly like octopus tentacles.

According to the Swarm’s account, Zongsi and it originally lived in the same jungle habitat before being infected by the Divine Calamity of the Insect Lord, transformed into Divine Abomination Followers, effectively "siblings" of sorts.

As the infection deepened, both parties possessed self-awareness and high-level wisdom, attempting to devour each other multiple times, yet neither could best the other, leading to mutual retreat.

In the subsequent decades, the Swarm developed cloning backup technology, creating one clone after another, occasionally having brief encounters with Zongsi.

Fellow practitioners are always rivals, each wishing for the other’s demise.

This is even truer among Divine Abomination Followers, where devouring a peer allows one to instantly acquire their accumulated genetic samples and biochemical technology.

"Call them out."

Li Cheng waved his hand, the armor on both sides of the Mechanical Swarm’s neck opened like air vents, drawing in the surrounding air, then emitted ultrasonic screeches.

Ultrasonic waves beyond human hearing range rippled the puddles on the roadside.

Not stopping at that, the Swarm also exhaled dense chemical pheromones, swiftly dispersing in the wind.

As evolution’s apex, Divine Abomination Followers can convey complex messages through pheromones with ease.

If translated into human speech, the essence might be something like "Zongsi, I’m bloody here, where are you?"

"Get out here! The mask must be yanked off, you must be slapped."

After a long wait with no response, Gray Rain was about to say, "Seems like there’s no reaction."

In the next instant, all the citizens simultaneously lifted their heads, veins bulging on their faces, emitting inhuman screams, "Ah—"

These people were either unlucky souls who accidentally fell into the Broken Land or clones cultivated by Zongsi using biochemical technology, all sharing the same facial modeling.

They dared not step out of Shibuya Square, clearly under captivity.

And at this moment, the crowd’s bodies convulsed together, backs arched, limbs touching the ground, with newly grown nails digging deep into the concrete, using hands and feet to rapidly climb the building’s exterior walls,

like cockroaches ascending high-rise buildings in stormy weather, swiftly reaching the rooftops, knees bending and thighs tightening, leaping into the air!

The Edge Fighter slightly ascended to avoid the grasp of this puppet horde, as each human form fell freely to the ground, smashing into blood mist, yet more puppets continued to climb the skyscrapers,

stepping on shoulders to form human ladders, resembling scenes from "World War Z."

The puppets remaining on the ground had their clothes ripped with a "tear," extending hollow bones and translucent wing membranes from beneath their shoulder blades, soon flapping into flight, approaching the Edge Fighter,

headbutting, punching, biting, attacking the glass windows of the fighter’s rear.

This spectacle might terrify a novice, but Gray Rain continued the mission battling Li Cheng during the Wan Ling Agreement, wrestling with the creator of this entire game world,

the strength of these half-insectified soldiers was somewhat weak,

Gray Rain rolled down the side window, holding a Skull Shattering Power Hammer in one hand, smashing to death a large group of Half-Insect People,

while wearing a Bluetooth headset with the other hand, listening to short videos, muttering, "Did Zhang Xuefeng’s motorcycle win the championship again? Didn’t it just win last month?"

That was Zhang Snow’s motorcycle.

Li Cheng almost spat out a mouthful of water; dealing with this group of Half-Insect People, he didn’t even bother summoning the Forbidden Army War Car, nodding toward the Great Swarm, signaling to fire freely,

"Yes, sir."

The Mechanical Swarm slowly raised the [Barbados Pipe Organ], with the pitch-black artillery barrels of the massive cannons aimed at the skyscraper rooftops.

Boom!!

The instant explosion of fire overshadowed the neon lights, as the two-ton shells effortlessly shredded the floor slabs, penetrating through floors, exploding abruptly in the building’s center.

The shockwave shattered office building glass windows, cascading debris, including office paper and furniture fragments.

The explosion’s power was so immense that one side’s supporting column collapsed. The skyscraper began to tilt, crashing onto adjacent buildings, like dominos, triggering a chain collapse.

Boom Boom Boom!

The rate of fire for each Barbados Pipe Organ barrel was 6 rounds per minute; multiple barrels combined became a dominant fire fortress. Buildings vanished in its path.

As for those flying Half-Insect People, they weren’t worthy of the Mechanical Swarm’s distraction—the vector nozzles on its back precisely controlled the flame’s direction, making it long and intense,

like a night club’s rotating disco ball, precisely exterminating the approaching Half-Insect People.

The killing efficiency was akin to the screen-clearing effect in a web-based idle game, leaving Gray Rain idly holding the Skull Shattering Hammer,

with Floating Engine fragments in her pocket, suspended mid-air, pulling out a phone and muttering, "Is the next World Cup match Qatar vs Switzerland? Let me check the odds..."

Since Li Cheng cut down her pocket money allowance, Gray Rain started brainstorming how to earn money herself.

Considering her lack of understanding of football, betting odds was entirely reliant on asking Dou Bao, already foreseeable how she’d end up on the rooftop...

Just as Gray Rain swiped the phone, the titanium phone case suddenly fractured, the fracture smooth as a mirror, and along with the hand holding the phone—fingers, palm, arm—all were sliced by invisible power.

Her whole body was bisected, and without the Floating Engine, the upper body plummeted to the ground in free fall.

Accurately speaking, it wasn’t invisible power; it was silken threads.

Nanowire, thin to the extreme yet high-strength silken threads.

The nanowire, almost without reflection, sliced directly,

Li Cheng reacted swiftly, instantly retracting the Edge Fighter, activating [Rooting in Stone Technique] to endure.

Half of the Mechanical Swarm’s body was sliced open, but it quickly reacted, with bearings at bone joints rapidly rotating to wind and coil the nanowire,

then swiftly redirecting the Barbados barrel, firing shells at distant buildings.

The skyscraper collapsed in no time, its interior nearly hollowed out, leaving only support columns and curled in the middle of the columns, a moth-like insect standing sixteen meters high.