The star-gazing gem at the tip of Lu Yao's yew staff, once crystal clear, now looked as dull as a lump of coal. She stared at the barrier before them, which shimmered with a faint blue halo. Her fingers, pressed against the carved patterns on the staff, had turned white from the pressure.
The stench of the sewer was so potent it made eyes water. In the distance, the faint clashing of metal signaled that the Tianming Guild's dogs had already reached the corner of the pipe.
"Stop standing there like a dummy and do something," Lu Yao urged, a tremor barely perceptible in her voice.
Su Ming didn't rush. He slowly raised his right pincer, the one he was so proud of. The carapace was still stained with the dark green fluid from the previous battle.
The success rate of breaking a formation with pure physical force was usually less than ten percent. But he slammed it down anyway.
His massive pincer blade, carrying the sound of wind, chopped hard at the light curtain.
*Wong!*
A violently repulsive force surged back up the pincer instantly. Su Ming felt half his body go numb. The entire shrimp body was back three meters, his two hind legs carving two deep furrows into the wet, tiled floor.
The pincer bounced back.
"Is that supposed to work?" Lu Yao rolled her eyes.
"Worth a try. Maybe the quality isn't up to par," Su Ming said, shaking his numb right arm. "Looks like we have to hit the formation's eye. Can those broken cards of yours still be used?"
"Shut up. You wouldn't understand. This is Spatial Positioning Theory."
Lu Yao gritted her teeth and pulled a deck of tarot cards with frayed edges from her wide sleeve. The previous battle had almost drained her mana; the hand holding the cards trembled slightly.
She flicked her wrist. No magnificent magic array, no light-and-shadow special effects. Just one black card floated out from the deck, suspending itself in mid-air.
*The Hanged Man.* The card depicted a puppet with a severed string, hanging upside down on a burning cross.
"Funny coincidence," Su Ming said, staring at the card.
"What coincidence? This is a guide," Lu Yao snapped, pointing at a nondescript dark brick at the bottom left corner of the seal array. "There. Press that bone of yours against it."
Su Ming crawled over quickly. The sound of his broken carapace scraping against the dim sewer walls was enough to make teeth ache. He reached under his abdominal plating and pulled out the fragment of the Abyssal Core he had been keeping close to his body.
The object was bone-chillingly cold, constantly oozing black mist from its surface.
Su Ming slowly pressed the fragment against the dark brick.
*Scrape—*
The moment of contact, the purple moss surrounding the dark brick, looking like blood vessels, instantly twisted wildly, trying to wrap around Su Ming's pincer. But the Abyssal Core fragment erupted with a higher-order pressure. The black mist and purple light silently grappled in mid-air.
The moss withered instantly. *Crack.*
A crisp cracking sound was amplified infinitely in the dead silence of the pipe. The originally invincible blue light curtain melted silently, like butter cut by a red-hot knife, forming a gap large enough for one person to pass through.
A thick, bloody stench rushed in through the gap. It was ten times smellier than the sewer.
The two of them crawled out of the sewer exit.
The sight before them made Su Ming freeze.
The sky was a dark red. The landmark White Jade Bell Tower of Shattered Star City was now tightly wrapped by countless black fleshy tendrils, looking like a withered tree covered in malignant tumors, piercing straight into that scarlet sky.
The dome of Old Chen's Blacksmith Shop had collapsed halfway. The unburnt charcoal in the furnace had ignited the Star-Moon Guild sign next door. Billowing black smoke mixed with ash swirled above the streets.
But no one was trying to put out the fire.
The ground was covered in players. To be precise, corpses, dismembered limbs, and living humans fleeing in despair.
"My leg! Healer! Where's the healer? Help—!"
A level 50 heavy warrior dragged half his body across the bluestone pavement. Behind him, an Abyssal Vanguard over three meters tall was leisurely curling his lower limbs with a tentacle covered in barbs.
The monster had no eyes. Its body was covered in holes resembling barnacles, each one vomiting a disgusting green poison fog.
*Crunch.*
The monster closed its tentacles. The warrior's screams cut off abruptly, leaving only half a spine and a pile of minced meat.
Above the respawn point nearby, the originally golden pillar of light had turned a deathly gray. Under that bloody sky, the system prompt was particularly glaring: *Shattered Star City Area has converted to Abyssal Frontline. Respawn points are disabled. Player death will directly calculate current progress and force logout.*
"The game designers are definitely sick," Su Ming cursed in his mind.
He turned his head.
Lu Yao beside him suddenly covered her mouth. Her yew staff clattered to the ground. She gagged, her eyes red, tears mixing with the dust on her face, leaving muddy streaks.
She was a living human being. Even after experiencing so much despair in her past life, the physiological repulsion upon seeing this purgatory scene in this rebirth was impossible to hide.
"Don't look," Su Ming said, blocking her view with his wide pincer. "Crying won't solve anything. Go to the Bell Tower. There are clues to the lower passage there, and it's the only high ground not yet completely swallowed by the fleshy tendrils."
He knew it was cruel. But on the battlefield, weakness was the cheapest consumable.
Lu Yao trembled as she picked up her staff, saying nothing. She sniffed hard, gripping the staff shaft tightly again.
*Move.*
The two of them crept along the base of the damaged city wall. The closer they got to the city center, the denser the Abyssal monsters became. These Vanguard units seemed completely immune to ordinary physical attacks. Low-level players' skills only produced a tiny, insignificant white flash when they hit them, before being swallowed whole.
This was no longer the game players were familiar with, where one could duel based on numerical calculations and positioning. This was a real massacre.
Su Ming led the way. His huge red lobster shell looked out of place in the shadows of the ruins. Fortunately, the few low-level Abyssal creatures passing by seemed wary of him, hissing from a distance but not attacking immediately.
"Ahead is the Central Square. Cross the square and it's the Bell Tower," Lu Yao's voice was very light, carrying a distinct nasal tone.
"Mm."
Just as Su Ming was about to take a step, an extremely dangerous sensation suddenly crawled up the back of his neck.
A腥 wind.
An extremely thick fishy wind swept out from a deserted magic tent ahead. A lone Abyssal Vanguard leaped out from the darkness, blocking the narrow alleyway they had to pass through.
It was even bigger than the one that had killed the warrior earlier. The barnacle holes on its body suddenly opened, emitting an extremely piercing high-frequency sound wave that instantly shattered the remaining glass windows around them.
Lu Yao was about to chant a spell when Su Ming yanked her behind him.
"No time, run," Su Ming said, lowering his center of gravity. The barbs on his pincers stood straight up.
He knew he couldn't beat something like this. The level 50 warrior hadn't lasted a second in front of it; his own rusty lobster shell would probably shatter in one bite.
But he didn't move.
Because that Abyssal Vanguard stopped too. Its forelimb, raised high to pierce its prey, froze in mid-air as if under a paralysis spell. The green fog in its holes stopped vomiting and instead began to trem violently, emitting a hissing sound like a leaking balloon.
Su Ming keenly sensed something was wrong. The opponent was smelling him. Or rather, sensing the aura of the Abyssal Core fragment inside him that he had just consumed half of.
An invisible tension filled the air. Three seconds later.
That arrogant monster, the Abyssal Vanguard that had been so domineering just moments ago, slowly and hesitantly lowered its forelimb. Its massive body bent down. The holes emitted low whimpering sounds, even carrying a tone of flattery and fear.
It lay down.
Like a poodle seeing its master.
Then, it forcibly vomited a black crystal from the softest part of its abdomen, carefully pushed it toward Su Ming with its tentacles, and then buried its head deeply between its two forelimbs.
Su Ming looked at the crystal. *It didn't die.* This thing actually had a tribute function?
He tentatively picked up the crystal with his pincer.
**[Abyssal Gaze (Fragment)]**
*Category: Special Material / Quest Item*
*Description: The visual center of an Abyssal Vanguard, compressed from high-dimensional energy. Records the star track coordinates at the edge of the Chaos Zone. Seems to have other hidden uses.*
"What is this? Deep-sea version of protection money?" Su Ming吐槽 in his mind.
But his actions didn't stop. He quickly stuffed the crystal into the gap of his carapace, then waved his large pincer at the Vanguard, pointing at the nearby members of its own kind who were slaughtering everywhere.
*Get lost. Go bite them.*
The Vanguard, as if granted a reprieve, suddenly sprang from the ground, let out a deafening roar, and charged headlong toward the nearest player squad without looking back.
The obstacle blocking the alley was cleared.
Lu Yao stood behind him, stunned. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but found her throat so dry she couldn't make a sound.
"Don't ask. Just say it looks majestic," Su Ming said without looking back, continuing forward. "Strike while the iron is hot. Move."
He was starting to understand now. The Vanguard Sequence mentioned in the system prompt was definitely not just a fancy title. In this fallen city, his lobster form was the top-level pass.
But he also knew this intimidation had its limits. Once he encountered a higher-level Abyssal creature, or the so-called Dominator itself, this disguise would be exposed instantly.
Passing the edge of the Central Square, they finally arrived at the foot of the Bell Tower.
There were no monsters here. Even the Vanguards that had been massacring people frantically just now had deliberately avoided this area, as if afraid of something.
The redwood doors at the base of the Bell Tower were tightly closed. Those thick black fleshy tendrils were growing from the sticky slime seeping through the cracks of the doors, coiling around the entire building's foundation like tree roots.
The closer they got, the more Su Ming felt something was wrong. His carapace was burning hot.
It felt like he was encountering an extremely strong undercurrent in the deep sea. Every pore was greedily absorbing the energy radiating from here. The remaining fragment of the Abyssal Core in his body was beating wildly, as if responding to some kind of summons.
This was not a good omen.
Su Ming stopped and looked up. From the crack in the door, viscous black water was slowly flowing down the steps, gathering into a small puddle at their feet.
He reached out with his pincer and gently touched the black water. No ripples.
But the next second.
*Boom—*
A dull, heavy sound suddenly came from inside the Bell Tower. This sound wasn't heard by the ears; it exploded directly in the mind. Su Ming felt his brain shake, his vision instantly blurred, and the entire world shook violently.
*Resonance.*
That strong sense of belonging mixed with oppression made him almost unable to stand. Lu Yao was even worse; she directly covered her head and squatted on the ground, her staff falling from her hand again, her face pale as paper.
"Su Ming..." she managed to squeeze out a few words. "The thing buried down here... it's wrong. It's too strong. This isn't just a lower passage!"
Su Ming said nothing. He stared死死 at the closed door.
He knew Lu Yao was right. That fluctuation capable of directly penetrating physical defense and shocking the soul could not possibly come from a mere teleportation array.
The System hadn't set up an escape exit here. It had set up a throne.
Su Ming stabilized his stance and crushed the Abyssal Gaze crystal he had just obtained.
Purple powder scattered into the black water at his feet, instantly triggering countless complex star track patterns. Those patterns floated on the black water like an unfolded star map, completely illuminating the shadows at the base of the Bell Tower.
In the crack of the door, a huge, bloodshot single eye slowly opened, staring死死 at him through the gap.
There was no killing intent in that eye. Only a hunger born of long separation.
"I know," Su Ming said, looking at the eye, feeling the Abyssal Core in his body almost burst out of his flesh. "The King of these things lives down here."