Chapter 396: Roaring Hammer of Destruction

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The hole was positioned right in front of the corridor. If they took another ten steps or so forward, they would step on a sticky substance from insects.

All around them was suffocating, black smoke. When they turned their heads around and looked back, the hole leading outside could no longer be seen. All they could see was a black maze.

“How strange,” Meng Chao mumbled. “There were no explosions in the hotel. The smoke came in through the hole and embrasures, so why did it become so thick all of a sudden?”

While he tried to figure out this mystery, a huge beetle suddenly rounded the corner ahead of them. Its brownish-black shell was covered in a smattering of white spots. At first glance, it actually looked pretty beautiful.

But Meng Chao, who had not been afraid of the Golden Scythes and Ghost-eyed Golden Winged Flame Beetle, shuddered, and his expression changed drastically. He grabbed Lu Siya and yanked her back. “Run!”

“Wha—” Lu Siya was dragged away before she could say anything.

Both of them jumped away and lay down eight meters away.

Thud!

Behind them, the mysterious beetle opened its shell. Its stomach shrank swiftly, and a faint yellow gas came out of the spiracles on its exoskeleton.

A pungent scent that was one hundred times worse than rotten eggs instantly spread out.

Even if Meng Chao had the fighting power of someone at the peak of Earth Realm, the smell still stimulated him so much that he could not open his eyes.

As a Spirit Sensor, Lu Siya suffered a major blow because her senses were much more sensitive. Tears and snot covered her entire face, and her eyes and nose turned red.

Meng Chao shut his eyes and used the memory of what he had seen earlier to deduce where the beetle was. Then, he pulled the trigger of the Hammer of Destruction and used five rifle grenades to blast that mysterious beetle into smithereens.

A foul gas came out of its carcass.

Lu Siya screeched and did not even care about the sticky insect liquid on the floor anymore. She kicked her legs and took a few steps back before she brought out a bottle of medicine used to wash wounds from her waist bag. She poured it on her palm and rubbed it against her eyes and nose before she coughed and said, “What... What the hell is that?”

“A large ecdysozoa-type monster that’s similar to a stink bug.” Meng Chao could not hold back from sneezing three times. Then, he said, “Stink bugs are bugs that fart, and they’re known as smelly bugs. They have benzenediol, meta-Cresol, and other poisonous substances that are carcinogenic and can cause genes to change.

“When they run into their enemies, they can turn the poisonous substances in their bodies into poisonous fog in the ‘combustion chambers’ in their bodies through high temperature and high pressure.

“Even a stink bug the size of a finger can secrete a poisonous gas that can disgust a person for a long time, so a large mutated stink bug that is more than one meter long will be even worse!”

During the early stages of the Monster War, Giant Stink Bugs were monsters that seldom appeared.

Perhaps it was because the chemical reactions in their bodies were too complicated, but as its body was gigantified, the degree of its complicatedness and danger also increased by a large margin. If it grew to be too big, before it could even attack the enemy, the “combustion chamber” in its body would usually make it self-destruct.

But based on Meng Chao’s memories from his previous life, during the later stage of the Monster War, the number of Giant Stink Bugs would increase, and the poisonous gas they secreted would become even thicker and actually fatal.

When Giant Stink Bugs and Illusion Bugs worked together, especially in airtight environments like buildings or the underground, they would be able to maximize their effect of reducing a human’s vision, affecting their shooting trajectory, and interfering with their communications, which would allow them to get rid of the advantages humans had in terms of firearms. From then on, humans had to face the risk of inhaling poisonous gases while engaging in melee combat with monsters.

Fortunately, when the Red Dragon Army loaned them the equipment, they were each given a gas mask with a filtration system.

Even though it could not completely filter out the poisonous gas from the Giant Stink Bug, it was better than nothing.

Once they calmed their breathing, they moved forward and ran into an insect swarm with more than ten Scythe Heads, Twin-tailed Scorpions, and a Giant Stink Bug.

This time, Meng Chao acted quickly. He first fired at the Giant Stink Bug, and at the moment the beetle was about to release its poisonous gas, he blasted its stomach along with its combustion chamber.

While they got rid of the insect swarm, they heard explosions somewhere in the building.

They could not tell whether it was humans using grenades and rocket launchers to fight fiercely or whether the monsters had progressed further in their attempt to dig out the foundation underground.

“We don’t have much time. We have to find the members of Project 101 as quickly as possible!”

Meng Chao squashed a Golden Scythe’s head under his foot and yanked out its mandible. Then, he sliced through the shell of the last Twin-tailed Scorpion to cut it in half. He then flung off the adhesive liquid on the mandible and said to Lu Siya, “Can you sense a place nearby with the most chaotic spirit energy?”

“It’s—cough—it’s—” Lu Siya’s eyes were still as red and swollen as ripe peaches. Since she had inhaled poisonous gases, her throat also swelled up because of edema, and it was so bad that she was suffocating.

She gulped, but her saliva was stained with blood. She said with great difficulty, “It’s about thirty meters to our left. But I think there are around five walls separating us. If we circumnavigate it, it’ll be too troublesome. Let me regulate my breathing. I drained myself too much in the underwater tunnel just now. I...”

She wanted to say that once she finished regulating her breathing, she could activate her spirit energy magnetic field and reform the molecular structures to form a few holes in the wall.

Meng Chao did not wait for her to finish. He extended a fist and tapped the wall gently. Then, he took a few steps back and growled to summon his strength. The next second, he crashed into the wall like a raging rhinoceros.

The walls before him were used to separate spaces, so no matter how sturdy they were, there was a limit to their sturdiness.

Meng Chao’s spirit energy was like an erupting volcano. Lively spirit tattoos rose on his shoulders, and it was as if he had explosives strapped on him.

Boom!

He left behind a man-shaped hole in the wall, and with dust still on his body, he ran to the next room.

There was a Scythe Head lurking in the room, and it was stunned for a full three seconds by Meng Chao’s sudden appearance before it finally swung its mandible to rush over.

Meng Chao casually grabbed the Scythe Head’s mandible, and like a hammer throw athlete, he spun on the spot three times before throwing it at the wall, making the man-shaped hole become a little bigger. Naturally, the vermin was reduced to a bloody pulp.

He grabbed the twitching carcass of the insect and asked Lu Siya, “What did you just say?”

“... Nothing. I was going to say, ‘Go on. Do you best!’”

“Okay.” Meng Chao tossed the carcass away and crashed through the next wall.

Since he had more distance for his charge this time, the crash was even fiercer. Then, his field of vision widened, and a rather large space appeared.

This was once the hotel’s corridors for administratives.

Now, it was a hell hole covered in vermin.

The dark red emergency light flickered and illuminated the dense insect swarm in the area. The red light made it seem like they were covered in a bloody armor, which made them even more monstrous and ugly.

Dozens of humans were surrounded by the insect swarm, and based on the torn limbs from the insects on the floor, they had been fighting fiercely just now.

But their bodies were covered in wounds that had upturned flesh, their weapons were covered in chips and cracks, their faces were pale, and their breathing rapid. All of it showed that their resistance had come to an end.

The human escape squad was about to be completely obliterated.

Meng Chao placed the last thick and short rifle grenade ammunition belt into the Hammer of Destruction. The spirit energy in the barrel of the grenade launcher crashed against the crystals, and the ripples that came out spread out like invisible waves. It attracted a lot of the insects’ attention.

Meng Chao smiled. He no longer tried to save up on ammunition. He just fired all of the fearsome rifle grenades, which looked like a fierce fire dragon.

Eight Scythe Heads exploded because of the sound. Three Golden Scythes tried to resist, but while they cried out in pain, fist-sized, see-through holes were left behind on their bodies. The Twin-tailed Scorpions, Giant Centipedes, Three-eyed Wolf Spider, and all sorts of gigantified insects were torn to shreds from Meng Chao’s roars.

He strode forward, and the wrangled carcasses and sticky liquid under his feet became denser. When the last rifle grenade turned into a destructive firework, the torn limbs from the monsters reached up to his knees.

The humans had been cornered, but now, they were shocked by Meng Chao as he descended with his fearsome weapon.

The vehicle-mounted heavy grenade launcher was as thick as a bowl. Its muzzle was red, and after it was stained by the liquid from the insects, it sizzled while releasing white smoke.

Everyone stared at Meng Chao holding it. They were dumbfounded and could not say a single word even after a long time had passed.

The remaining insects thought that they could take advantage of Meng Chao after he fired all of his rifle grenades, so they hissed and rushed over.

Meng Chao licked his dry lips and held the muzzle of the vehicle-mounted heavy grenade launcher tightly.

He felt as if he was holding a burning iron which reached hundreds of degrees Celsius in heat. Boiling blood flowed from his palm to his heart.

He raised the vehicle-mounted heavy grenade launcher as if he was really carrying a Hammer of Destruction. Then, he stirred up a hurricane with it and sent two Scythe Heads flying. Then, he smashed a Black Beetle into pulp.

The lightning fast attacks attracted most of the insects’ attention. Under his cover, Lu Siya finally created a spirit energy magnetic field that had a diameter of more than ten meters. All the crumbled reinforced concrete within ten meters gathered together and turned into a fierce stone dragon.

Lu Siya’s mental strength turned into spirit tattoos that surged into the stone dragon’s back through her fingertips. It went up and formed a complicated set of scales. They gathered on the stone dragon’s head and lit up two balls of spirit flames, which gave the stone dragon life.

It opened its mouth wide, which revealed the rebars turned sharp teeth that fit its entire mouth, and the dragon charged at the remaining insects.

When the two vicious people —Meng Chao and Lu Siya—rushed into the battlefield, it greatly increased the escapees’ morale. The crowd shouted at the top of its lungs and activated the remnants of their spirit energy. Like tigers charging down the mountain, they chased after the insects. They worked with the duo and killed all the insects who had entered the corridor for administration.

The last Golden Scythe was cut to shreds by eight humans.

When the screeches of the insects disappeared from the battlefield, the people looked at each other and the insect carcasses piled up like a mountain around them. They could not believe that they had actually managed to survive.

They cast grateful glances at Meng Chao and Lu Siya.

“Are all of you alright?” Meng Chao could not even care about catching his breath. He made some hand signals and asked, “Are there any Project 101 members here?”

“Meng Chao?” Xiao Fanghua’s voice came from the middle of the crowd. She sounded like she could not believe what she saw.

“Big Sis Ya!”

Meng Chao’s heart was filled with happiness. He squeezed through the crowd and saw the pregnant Xiao Fanghua, who was protected in the center and had a pale face.