pjbooks Chapter 182 Arrival in Nancheng, Big Shots Gather, Two Zodiac Reserve Teams, Head Instructor!
Chapter 182 Arrival in Nancheng, Big Shots Gather, Two Zodiac Reserve Teams, Head Instructor!
people.
It was packed with people.
The underground psionic high-speed rail station leading to the southern city has now been completely reduced to a crowded tin can.
The air is murky.
The sour smell of sweat, the bitterness of inferior medicine, mixed with the cloying sweetness of cheap perfume, fermented here into a toxic gas that could knock a person unconscious.
"Holy shit..."
Wang Fugui's excited face, which was preparing for a "picnic," instantly fell flat.
He had never witnessed such a crazy sight.
"Holy crap... have all the professionals in the city come?"
"more than."
Chen Yifan's voice was very soft, yet it penetrated into Wang Fugui's ears with exceptional clarity.
His gaze swept over countless unfamiliar faces, and through the gaps in the crowd, he caught sight of a few blond, blue-eyed professionals.
Foreigners?
Unexpectedly, the speed at which the news spread, and the responsiveness of various professionals, far exceeded his expectations.
A dungeon where you can "resurrect".
This temptation is enough to drive people all over the world crazy.
"This is hardly land reclamation!"
Wang Fugui swallowed hard.
"This is a pilgrimage! It's a rush to be reincarnated!"
There isn't even a gap to step on on the levitation train.
The carriages were packed so tightly that there was no air at all.
The three of them finally found a spot in a corner, leaning against the cold carriage wall, surrounded by a group of burly men with bare chests and tattoos of ferocious beasts.
A strong smell of sweat and alcohol hit me.
"Tsk, look at those three little brats, so delicate and fair-skinned, they must have just rolled out of school, right?"
A burly man with a face full of scars and a centipede-like scar on his left cheek swept his gaze over Lin Xiaoyu's cool and delicate face, his eyes full of undisguised aggression.
"Judging by his age, has he completed his second job advancement yet?"
Another one-eyed man sneered, his voice booming, deliberately making sure everyone around could hear him.
"The C-13 mining area is no child's play. If you're below level 50, you'll just be a sitting duck for the monsters. Little girl, let me give you a piece of advice: you can still get off now, or you'll die inside, and your corpse won't be a pretty sight."
A burst of shrill laughter erupted around them.
Wang Fugui's face instantly turned bright red, a surge of hot blood rushed to his head, and his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, just as he was about to lash out.
A hand pressed down on his shoulder.
The force was not heavy, yet it was as steady as a mountain.
Chen Yifan shook his head at him.
He remained leaning against the carriage wall, his eyes closed, as if he were asleep.
However, a wisp of invisible and intangible spiritual energy, like an ice thread, quietly detached from his body and instantly wrapped around the two burly men who had been spouting wild words.
"You fucking know what, if we grabbed a girl like that..."
Just as Scarface was about to utter an even more vulgar word, a sudden chill ran down his neck.
He suddenly shuddered.
Extreme fear gripped his heart without warning!
An illusion exploded in his mind—his neck felt as if it were tightly coiled by a cold, venomous snake, its slippery tongue licking his Adam's apple.
Breathing was instantly taken away.
Cold sweat instantly soaked through my back.
The one-eyed man next to him also shut his mouth, making a strange "clucking" sound from his throat, and his face turned a liverish color.
The next second, the deadly feeling of suffocation receded like a receding tide.
The two men were panting heavily, clutching their necks, and looking around in terror.
The surrounding passengers looked at them with incomprehension and as if they were fools.
Scarface and One-Eyed Man stared at each other in horror, both seeing the same fear in each other's eyes.
Neither of them dared to utter another word, and wisely turned their heads to the side, shrinking their bodies like two quails that had been soaked in the rain.
An eerie silence fell over this corner of the carriage.
Wang Fugui was stunned for a moment, then looked at the two burly men who had suddenly fallen silent, and scratched his head in bewilderment.
After three agonizing hours, the train arrived in Nancheng.
Stepping out of the station, a wave of heat, mixed with the smell of gunpowder, dust, and rusting metal, hit me.
The scene outside the station is even more exaggerated than inside.
This city, which was nearly reduced to ruins in a psionic catastrophe twenty years ago, is now being revitalized by a frenzied crowd.
The sky was obscured by the shadows of various hovercars and old transport boats, and the roar of engines merged into a depressing thunder.
On the streets, abandoned shops have been pried open, and makeshift equipment stores, medicine stalls, and information brokers can be seen everywhere.
The flags of various mercenary groups fluttered in the wind among the dilapidated buildings, openly recruiting cannon fodder, with shouts and haggling rising and falling.
There is no law, no order here.
Power and self-interest are the only keys to success.
"They're insane, they're all fucking insane..."
Wang Fugui stared at the scene before him, which resembled something out of an apocalyptic movie, his mouth agape enough to fit an egg.
A "resurrectable" copy has caused the world's order to collapse to this extent in a localized area.
Chen Yifan's gaze grew increasingly calm.
The more people there are, the more chaotic it is, the better it is to hide.
As the lowest-ranking "small characters" here, they need to keep a low profile to survive.
Following the coordinates on the forum, the three headed west.
The closer you get to the outside of the city, the more solid and fierce the aura of the surrounding professionals becomes.
Those low- to mid-level professionals who dared to make a lot of noise in the train station became like mice before a cat here, walking close to the wall as if afraid that even a loud breath would bring about their death.
On the roadside, you could even see several still-warm corpses, killed in the street because of equipment disputes, their blood staining the dust, but no one gave them a second glance.
This is the law of professionals: cruel and direct.
When they arrived at the so-called "reunion point"—a huge basin that had been violently cleared—even Chen Yifan, with his calm and collected demeanor, couldn't help but slightly narrow his pupils.
The basin was filled with a dense, dark mass of people.
A cursory glance reveals at least tens of thousands of people.
At the very front of that seemingly endless sea of people, a large area was clearly marked off, as if there were invisible boundary markers preventing anyone from crossing it.
In the center of the area, dozens of figures were either standing or sitting.
Each of them, sitting there quietly, emitted psychic energy that made the surrounding air viscous and even distorted the light.
They are the kings of this chaotic land.
"Those are... people from the 'Crimson Banner'!"
Suddenly, a chattering sound came from the side.
The three followed each other's gaze and landed on a group of people dressed in identical blood-red armor.
All that could be heard were suppressed gasps and whispers from those around them.
"Their guild leader is 'Blood Slaughter' Zhou Mu, a level 78 berserker! Rumor has it he single-handedly wiped out an entire B-rank dungeon!"
"And over there, that one completely shrouded in black robes, is Liu Shen, the leader of 'Deep Blue Thorn,' a master assassin at level 75! His assassination techniques can be launched from the shadows; there's no way to defend against them!"
"That old man with the gourd... Heavens! Wu Shan, the vice president of the 'Forgers' Guild,' a level 82 master blacksmith! Even a big shot like him in a crafting profession is here? Could there be mythical ore in this dungeon?!"
One by one, names that were well-known in Jiangcheng and even the entire Eastern Theater Command of the Dragon Kingdom emerged from the whispers of those around them.
Each name represents a regional overlord.
Each and every one of them is someone that ordinary professionals can only look up to in their entire lives.
But now, they've all come.
Like a group of apex predators who have caught the scent of a mythical beast's corpse, they have gathered here, ready to devour this unprecedented feast.
Just then, the crowd behind the basin suddenly stirred.
Immediately afterwards, the crowd was as if it had been cleaved apart by an invisible giant sword, and everyone involuntarily retreated to both sides, their faces filled with astonishment and confusion.
A wide passage was forcibly carved out by someone in the most brutal way.
An elderly man, thin and unremarkable, wearing plain, faded training clothes, walked in slowly, carrying a long object wrapped in rough black cloth on his back.
He walked very slowly.
The cloth shoes on my feet made no sound as they stepped on the gravel.
There was no energy fluctuation on his body, his eyes were cloudy, and his expression was indifferent, like an old man next door returning from his morning exercise.
But when the dozens of arrogant bigwigs in front of the basin saw him, their expressions changed at the same instant.
The arrogant face of "Blood Slaughter" Zhou Mu froze instantly, his fingers gripping the giant axe tightened subconsciously, and for the first time, something called "fear" appeared in his eyes.
The figure of "Ghost Shadow" Liu Shen swayed violently in the shadows, as if trying to hide himself deeper and completely assimilate into the darkness.
The Lv.82 master blacksmith "Flame Hammer" Wu Shan even stood up directly from his expensive low stool, his face showing obvious awe.
The clamor of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the basin was silenced at this moment.
"Holy crap..."
Wang Fugui swallowed hard.
"Who...who is that...this is quite a grand entrance!"
Chen Yifan's gaze was fixed on the old man who was walking slowly towards him.
Danger!
The extreme sense of danger felt like countless steel needles piercing his skin.
This feeling was several times stronger than when I faced [Hundred Images], and it was even approaching the unfathomable Lin Sen.
The newcomer's strength is absolutely at the very top of this country's pyramid!
Suddenly, a knowledgeable middle-aged man beside him uttered a sentence in a trembling, off-key voice.
"He...he is the head instructor of the reserve team of the Twelve Zodiac Guardians of the Dragon Kingdom..."
"Gun God, Liu Cang."
"Lv.92, Master-level Gunner."