BXBX NOVEL Chapter 314: The Total Annihilation Engine
"I don\'t know if he managed to defeat that demon, but I seized the opportunity to slip away while they were at a stalemate."
"Aren\'t I the scout? My Arcane Law can enhance stealth capabilities…"
At this moment, Sterl was floating in a vast expanse formed by clouds, gazing into the distance, where he could see no end.
This was the core of the military formation of the Hall of Valor within The Blood Red Fortress.
Sterl suddenly noticed that the Hall of Valor had dispatched more than one Supreme for this operation. The Supreme sitting atop the clouds now was clearly different from the one who had assigned personnel earlier.
"I see."
"Well, it seems your scouting and secrecy skills are quite impressive. Someone will be along shortly to assign you to a new team."
With that, the Supreme lightly waved its sleeve, and Sterl was sent out of that realm.
…
"Done."
Sterl found himself standing within the fortress, three gigantic airships hovering above him, one of which was the military base of the Hall of Valor.
The other two airships belonged to the Golden Kingdom and Ashen.
However, the fortress was primarily filled with players from the Hall of Valor, while the numbers from the other two factions were significantly lower. After all, the exploration of the layer of hell was taking place within the Hall of Valor\'s territory.
The experts from the Golden Kingdom and Ashen had received the news later, so they needed more time to get into position.
This was also why Sterl\'s previous team had only been tasked with weakening the enemy\'s forces rather than engaging on the front lines.
With the three major factions not gathered together, the Hall of Valor wasn\'t willing to bear the brunt of the entire layer of hell alone.
Sterl had been somewhat curious about whether the players from the Golden Kingdom and Ashen would exhibit any special traits, but he hadn\'t seen anything noteworthy, so he let it go.
His mood was quite good. Just as he had suspected from the beginning, the complete annihilation of a small team on the battlefield wasn\'t a big deal at all. It was just that the Supreme had taken a sudden interest and asked a few questions. Otherwise, Sterl wouldn\'t have needed to concoct any stories; he would have automatically been assigned to the next team.
After waiting for a short while, Sterl closed his eyes to process his experiences. Just as he was about to level up, the orders came down.
Sterl was assigned to a new team, still serving as the scout, but this team was newly formed.
More than ten minutes later, in a luxurious hall within The Blood Red Fortress, many players had gathered in the team Sterl had joined. After enjoying some exquisite dishes that could only be purchased with contribution points from the Hall of Valor, the player who had bled the most, a mage, was appointed as the team leader.
Sterl, having already gained battlefield experience, was assigned as the vice captain and scout.
The first task for this newly formed team was to eliminate a group of hell players on the battlefield.
Sterl continued to hide his true intentions, collecting five blood-colored documents during the mission without putting in too much effort, as the team members had been quite friendly to him from the start. He didn\'t want to draw too much attention by taking down too many enemies.
As a result…
After completing their first mission, the newly formed team was in high spirits, celebrating in the tavern while sharing drinks and engaging in lively conversation.
However…
On the third day of the team\'s formation, in the northeastern battlefield of The Blood Red Fortress…
"Great job, Leo!"
"Your Flame just now was spot on! You took out their spellcaster!"
"Awesome, bro!"
The players were buzzing with excitement as the surrounding hell players were retreating in disarray. One of their fully leveled core damage dealers had been slain by Sterl, and the situation was rapidly turning in their favor.
Various skill effects converged, swiftly decimating the front-line warriors and tanks of the hell players.
On Sterl\'s side—
"Blood-colored document plus one, blood-colored document plus one."
Bionic Tear concealed himself, diligently gathering resources.
However, before Sterl could respond to his teammates\' praises, his expression suddenly changed.
"Be careful!"
"Everyone, scatter!"
With that, Sterl activated the marking feature in their team function, highlighting two blood-colored dots on the shared mini-map.
"Huh?"
"Got it!"
The others didn\'t know what Sterl had discovered, but after several missions together, they had developed an initial trust in their companion and swiftly moved away from the dots on the map.
Unfortunately…
It was too late!
A frenzy of Hurricane, mixed with blood-colored sand and stones, swept up a team member who hadn\'t retreated in time!
"Ah~!"
He reacted quickly, immediately attempting to use a certain item. He was enveloped in a faint blue ripple, but alas, the sandstorm shattered the item in an instant.
Then, he suffered damage.
In a heartbeat, his flesh was completely ground away by the Hurricane!
His internal organs were also pulverized, leaving nothing but a dry skeleton behind.
Nearby, another unlucky player was bitten by a swarm of dark purple snakes that had appeared from nowhere.
Fortunately, his life-saving item activated successfully, allowing him to disperse into several afterimages and retreat back to the safety of the team.
However, this player also had a dark expression, having been afflicted by some strange toxin.
"I can\'t cleanse it."
The priest in the team tried to help but could only bitterly utter a few words.
In just a brief moment, the team that had successfully completed several missions was now down to one dead and one injured.
At that moment, the sand and stones gathered, and the swarm of snakes dispersed.
A figure, seemingly sculpted from solid stone, and a woman with a cold demeanor stood there, looking somewhat surprised at the Hall of Valor team.
"You actually managed to detect us ahead of time—how interesting."
"We thought you were just a few little mice, but it turns out you\'re quite amusing."
"Let\'s see how long you can struggle."
These were two perfect-level demigods.
The expressions of Sterl\'s team changed drastically!
The two perfect-level demigods immediately unleashed their chaos skills and charged into the crowd.
The hell players, who had originally been scattered and disorganized, began to scream and charge forward as well.
In this wave…
Sterl found it easy to maneuver; he left Bionic Tear behind and, along with his surrounding teammates, began to flee in panic.
Everyone exerted themselves to use various teleportation abilities or activate life-saving skills in a desperate attempt to buy time to open their teleportation scrolls.
But in the end, only a few lucky ones managed to escape.
Ninety percent of the entire team was killed by the two perfect-level demigods.
…
Ultimately, Sterl, along with two companions, managed to escape.
They stood on a hillside, with the magnificent walls of The Blood Red Fortress looming behind them.
Sterl maintained his façade of panic and anxiety, while the two companions seemed to struggle to accept the reality of the situation.
"W-what… did we just… get wiped out??"
"Why did this happen??"
"We were just fine a moment ago."
…
The two knelt on the ground, their eyes filled with confusion and fear. If it hadn\'t been for their good fortune, they too would have met their end.
Sterl, having experienced a total wipe once before, stepped forward to comfort the two players, saying, "It\'s unavoidable; this is the battlefield."
"Anyone can die at any moment due to bad luck."
"Thank you… Leo."
The two players wept as if they had found their anchor in the storm.
Sterl maintained a calm demeanor. He felt no guilt; as a scout, he had perfectly fulfilled his responsibilities, helping the team avoid dangers multiple times.
However, if he had discovered the perfect-level demigods too early, his façade would have fallen apart. Discovering them a bit earlier than he did was already a remarkable performance for Leo.
The team\'s ultimate demise was simply a result of their insufficient strength.
Meanwhile…
In the original battlefield, Sterl\'s Bionic Tear quietly completed the collection of the last blood-colored document, bringing the total in his terminal to 47.
Indeed, Bionic Tear had wiped out all the players celebrating their recent victory.
…
On the other side, Sterl and the two surviving players were quickly assigned to a new team.
The three of them were not placed together.
Sterl joined a third team.
This team lasted only a day before being wiped out due to a sudden influx of demons breaching The Blood Red Fortress\' defenses. They had been hiding from the demons through a creature known as the Devourer Demon.
The Devourer Demon itself was not very strong, but it contained a strange space in its belly that was undetectable by normal probing skills, allowing a large number of demons to hide within.
Consequently, the hellish consciousness blocked the Hall of Valor\'s detection and deployed a massive number of Devourer Demons, resulting in a wave of overwhelming forces.
This nearly breached a portion of The Blood Red Fortress\' walls.
To defend the fortress, Sterl\'s third team participated in this meat grinder and was completely annihilated!
Even the two survivors from the previous second team perished in this battle.
…
Then Sterl\'s fourth team lasted two days, and the fifth team lasted only a day.
In less than a week, Sterl felt as if death followed him wherever he went, until he suddenly realized that his Fortune had inexplicably increased significantly.
He then understood that the continuous wipes were not solely due to the high intensity of battles near The Blood Red Fortress, but also because he had unknowingly entered a state of Fortune backlash.
This time, the Fortune backlash was different from the close scrutiny of the main world. It was an inappropriate analogy, but it felt like the hellish consciousness had developed a hatred for Sterl. However, during its expansion, the hellish consciousness was too preoccupied to focus on him, merely targeting him as a side effect.
As a result, the teams Sterl was in faced continuous misfortune, but it was precisely because of this bad luck that they attracted opponents at least at the demigod level, significantly increasing Sterl\'s Fortune.
The annihilation of five teams had brought his Fortune directly to 69!
Sterl was somewhat astonished; he had originally thought the second evolution of his cheat was still far off, yet it was now unexpectedly within reach.