Chapter 708 – Second Phase
Player Faction's Bottom Lane / Chaos Realm Faction's Top Lane
Xie Tian glanced at the new ally minion wave and spotted a new unit following after their colleagues. He turned around and gazed at the incoming minion group of Player Faction on a distance.
Strangely, only Chaos Realm Faction had a cannon unit. The Player Faction's minions didn't come with a cannon.
The two players that had been suppressing Xie Tian also noticed it as well. They looked back and forth, confused of what was happening. But as they were baffled by the development, the cannon turned toward them and opened fire. A large black metal cannonball flew to the sky.
Blowmaster, the mage, scoffed at the slow-moving cannonball. She moved back three steps and fired an energy ball toward a minion in front of her.
Suddenly, the cannonball detonated in the sky and released glittering light-yellowish smoke everywhere toward the ground.
Blowmaster looked up and frowned, "Cluster bomb?"
The gunner player had another reaction. His face turned white as he shouted, "White phosphorus bombs!"
"What's that?!"
"Run!"
It was too late for Xie Tian, Blowmaster, and the gunner to react. White phosphorus enveloped them, burning their skin and lungs. Even all minions suffered from the indiscrimination attack by the acidic flame.
Xie Tian held his breathe and circulated his holy flame element. As a 5th-stage fire dragonewt, this little burn was a joke.
Meanwhile, the players still thought of everything as a game. They screamed when their skin, eyeballs, lungs, and throat were scorched by the silent acid. However, the golems and robots resisted the chemical weapon and proceeded to push the wave to Xie Tian's tower again.
Xie Tian remained calm as usual, playing safe and avoiding a worst-case scenario of being ganged on. He killed Player's minions under the tower while using it as a shield.
Unfortunately, Xie Tian couldn't rely on the tower forever. It's HP dropped by a portion, and a partition of the red bar was emptied.
BOOM
One of the defensive plates of the turret fell down. Both players got the plate destruction bonus gold coins.
DING
As soon as the plate fell down, Xie Tian's turret range expanded. It launched a homing rocket, aiming at Blowmaster.
"WHAT?!"
Blowmaster was shocked when she heard a turret's warning. She cast a spell and blinked 500 meters away. Unfortunately, the homing missile still went after her and found the target.
BOOM
<Execution!>
As Xie Tian had never attacked Blowmaster, the game system treated as an NPC kill. Xie Tian didn't gain reward gold coins from the kill.
The gunner, on the other hand, managed to teleport back. He vanished from the lane.
Xie Tian glanced at the mini-map. Currently, Miaomiao already reached level 7 while Ma Moxi followed him with level 6. Those two guys got so many kills, and they were already sporting a mythic item, which boosted their combat prowess by a ton.
Xie Tian looked at his gold coin. He had been hoarding, and he had more than 1,600 gold. It was the time to go back and shopping.
…
Hiiro gazed at the scoreboard. He let out a sigh of regret.
The players on their side was outplayed by Chaos Realm Faction. None of them could get any kill, and they were pushed around by their opponents from both factions.
After Blowmaster had died, Hiiro tried to volunteer to be the sacrifice again.
And again, someone else was faster. The hostage next to Hiiro was shattered by the hook machine, and Blowmaster was revived.
Hiiro had enough. He bellowed in anger.
"YOU THERE! IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY, SWITCH WITH ME! LET ME GO OUT!"
Blowmaster looked up and glared at Hiiro. She flipped her middle finger at him.
"If I could, I would! Tell that to the psychopath behind this death game!"
Hiiro couldn't bicker. The best he could do was venting his frustration and anxiety to the bad players.
While everybody was in despair, Mu-Nyang suddenly communicated with them. They heard his sound transmission.
'Do you want to live, munya?'
"Of course, I do!" bellowed Hiiro.
'Good. Then, how about this deal? If you manage to survive 15 minutes to the game, your team can resign, munya! By resigning, two of the representatives with the worst performance will be killed. As for the rest, they get to return to your homeworld without the memory of this event, munya!'
"DEAL!" Hiiro accepted without hesitation.
However, Blowmaster didn't like it, "NO! Why should two of us die for them?!"
'Did you hear what I said, munya? Two players with the worst performance die, not everyone. As long as you do well in this game, you will get to live, munya!'
Mu-Nyang's words made sense. Blowmaster couldn't rebuke.
'However, there's a way for you all to make it back with your memory intact, munya.'
"What?"
This was a psychological technique. By oppressing the players to the point of desperation, any offer from Mu-Nyang seemed too good to be true. Even Hiiro regained a bit of hope by listening to Mu-Nyang's proposal.
'Here is the deal. If you manage to destroy Heavenly Dao Faction and resign, everybody gets to return home with their memory intact, munya! Of course, nobody dies as a punishment for losing the game, munya!'
"R-Really?"
'Of course, munya! I never lied.'
"I'll believe you!"
Blowmaster regained her hope. She rushed out. However, she went to the middle lane, where fights were the most chaotic. As she ran out, she heard her faction's message.
<Cannons have been spawned.>
"???"
…
Primordial Chaos Realm
Pangu had been spectating the game. He clicked his tongue in helplessness.
His real body at the Divine Theocracy Earth was in danger. His wife and son were targeted. And now, Mu-Nyang blackmailed him and forced Pangu to hand over the control over this game at the cost of his family's safety.
Although Pangu was at a complete disadvantage, he still had a few trump cards left. He might not be able to win this game, but he was confident in the long run, especially Pangu Online 2, which he hadn't revealed its true content yet.
Everything so far was a distraction, which was irrelevant to the real game. After the grand reset, Pangu was certain that he could regain the upper hands and remove Mu-Nyang's vessels and protagonist curse altogether.
Pangu glanced at Mu-Nyang, who had been mumbling and moving his mouth. It was obvious that the cat had been busy chatting with the players.
Using the opportunity that Mu-Nyang was distracted, Pangu turned toward the invisible monster, which was being sealed under this plane.
Under this game plane, a certain three-eye cat was struggling to break free from the seal. The Providence Law chains cracked and broke off one at a time, but a new one appeared and bound him to the hollowed cave underground.
As Nian continued to struggle, he had a strange hallucination. A few seconds later, he fell asleep, and he began to dream of someone else's memory - the memory of Pangu!
'If I can't defeat protagonists, I'll create my one myself! None of you can enjoy the new universe! You all are going to die along with me, Mu-Nyang, Mao Miaomiao!'
A minute later, Mu-Nyang widened his eyes as he sensed the anomaly in the potential future timelines. He turned to Pangu and yelled.
"Have you gone insane, munya?!"
Pangu burst into laughter, "If I can't have the universe, then you can't have it!"
"You're asking for it!"
"Too late! Hahahaha!!"
In a sealed room, a silver Qi pearl, an entity ore, and a drop of Pangu's blood essence appeared in front of Nian. They merged with him!
Nian snapped open his three eyes. His mind had gone through countless years as Pangu, and he forgot about his previous identity as Nian.
Now, Nian thought of himself as Pangu, who had been sealed by Mu-Nyang!
NYAAAAAA!!
Nian let out a warcry and vanished from the spot. He committed suicide and teleported his soul to the depth of Primordial Chaos Realm, where Pangu had created three backup worlds as starting planets for gamers in the grand opening.
Nian's soul also scattered into a thousand small fragments. They hid among the three new Pangu's worlds, not allowing Mu-Nyang to capture him.
Seeing how his successor managed to flee from this game, Pangu couldn't stop laughing.
BOOM
Pangu's avatar was shattered into nothingness, leaving only Mu-Nyang, who had pointed his paw at the fake body.
"You're cheating until the end. Then, don't mind me if I do this, munya!"
…
MOBA Plane
It had been nine minutes since the game had started, but fights got into a stalemate after all turrets and cannons could attack everything several kilometers away. The balanced MOBA-like skirmish turned into an arterially game, where turrets and long-ranged cannons got to contribute in fights.
Clem, Meng Xin, Marcus, and Xiang Yu were helpless. They only stared at the bombardment fest at the center and the scattering white phosphorus in the sky.
"What are we here for?" Meng Xin grumbled.
"It's the developer's fault. Well, it's probably Pangu and Mu-Nyang's fault for making imbalanced game rules."
DING
While they were watching the battle from the sideline, the game sent out another announcement.
<The Oceans bring life!>
"Wut?"
Suddenly, the environment got greener. The stagnant shallow river started flowing and became transparent. Fish and small creatures were abundant while flowers and grasses grew taller.
Soon, both Meng Xin and Clem heard Ma Moxi's command.
'Get ready for group fight phase. I hope you have at least one legendary item or a mythic item.'
"Huh?"
As soon as Ma Moxi finished giving order, another change occurred.
<Tower plates will soon fall!>
<Dragon Invasion is imminent!>
<New constructions are available!>
"What now?!"
As soon as the messages were delivered, the turrets and cannons ceased firing. Their attack range turned to normal, and the cannons no longer fired phosphorus bombs.
…
Miaomiao stood alone at the bottom lane, hiding behind the turret. He stared at Eve, who was the only one remaining on the lane. As for Sun Crow and All-Heaven Sage, they were nowhere to be seen on the mini-map.
As soon as multiple messages arrived, Miaomiao widened his eyes in astonishment. He had never heard of this feature before.
Curious, he opened his game menu to see what he could do. Then, he discovered that the fountain shop had added a new section for players to use.
Now, all players could contribute their excess gold coins to build structures, such as turrets, anti-air turrets, and new spawners!
Miaomiao was tempted to buy these structures. However, it required 5,000 gold coins per building.
He hadn't completed all his items yet. Why should he invested in the buildings?
Miaomiao closed the game menu. He turned to Eve, who had already noticed the changes. As soon as all turrets stopped shooting, Eve charged out. She summoned her Dao Avatar of a saintess, revealing her current cultivation base as a Dao Pillar Stage or a Golden Core Stage.
Miaomiao rushed out and activated the domain of sword. Using Jia Shan's sword style, he swung his katana.
Eve narrowed her eyes.
CLANK
The invisible strike hit an AT-Field barrier.
Miaomiao sensed the feedback as his hands got numb. Moreover, his arms were paralyzed.
RUMBLE
Despite being at the 6th-stage, Eve activated a nascent soul domain, which covered the entire bottom lane. An army of female angles appeared in the sky and formed a formation, surrounding Miaomiao from all sides.
Turrets from Miaomiao's side began firing rockets at the angels nearby. However, it could only kill one angel per rocket, but a thousand of them!
The angels bellowed, and illusions of stellar stars appeared behind them.
They were all constellation immortals!
"Your win streak ends here, Mao Miaomiao!"
"Nah-ah. You can't possibly defeat me!"
Miaomiao switched primary energy from Death Essence to triple essence, which he entwined Life Essence, Twilight Essence, and Death Essence together as one. He converted them into a yin-yang diagram while forming a word formation under his feet.
Death Fortress Sword Style, Word Formation!
There was only one word in this formation.
Arousal!
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l