90: The big boss has arrived! Raphael, the four-winged cherubim!

Three hours after the Black Iron City incident subsided, the outer ring of the Celestial Realm completely transformed into a carnival for players.

Wang Wei's "backdoor program" achieved astonishing success.

Throughout the entire outer ring of the Celestial Realm, all the sacred and solemn buildings were now bathed in disco lights, alternating between red, green, blue, and purple. The amplification arrays, which were supposed to play hymns, were now blaring a rustic and catchy tune on repeat at maximum volume.

"Good luck, I wish you good luck, good luck brings joy and love..."

In the massive square of the Courtyard of Glory, tens of thousands of players were wildly dancing to the impassioned music. In the center of the square, they had lit a huge bonfire with the dismantled Icon Guards' remains. Several griffon wings, freshly 'physically persuaded,' were roasting over the flames, dripping fat and exuding a rich aroma.

In the sky, several crooked simplified Chinese characters formed by white clouds silently proclaimed the invaders' arrogance.

[Player Daddies Were Here]

Li Qiang, shirtless, had tied the gold-trimmed Divine Servant's underwear around his head like a bandana. In one hand, he held a string of golden-roasted griffon wings, and in the other, a large cup of "drink" drawn from the Mead Fountain. He stood by the bonfire, bragging to the surrounding players.

"Back in the day, when I was in the Wasteland, the conditions were much tougher than this! Forget roasting griffons, we had to ration even mutant cockroach legs!"

"Brother Qiang is awesome!"

"Brother Qiang, tell us again the story of how you stripped the Goblins' underwear!"

The players burst into good-natured laughter, and the entire square was filled with joyful air. They had defeated the arrogant angels, stolen their mounts, hacked their System, and were now throwing a party on their territory. This pleasure of trampling the enemy's dignity repeatedly was more intoxicating than any equipment or rewards.

Just as the carnival atmosphere reached its peak.

"Zzzzzzt—"

The deafening "Good Luck" song abruptly cut off.

All the wildly flashing disco lights also extinguished at the same moment.

The world plunged into three seconds of absolute darkness and silence.

"What's going on? Old Wang, did your crappy server crash again?" Li Qiang mumbled, chewing the meat in his mouth, and looked up to shout.

No one answered him.

The next second, a thick, suffocating pure white beam of light silently shot out from the direction of the distant Inner City Core Sanctuary.

It had no thunderous momentum, no world-destroying special effects. It simply appeared quietly, at a speed exceeding light, accurately hitting the most boisterous bonfire in the center of the square.

The light beam flashed and vanished.

As if nothing had happened.

However, the dozens of players who had been singing and dancing around the bonfire, the most excited ones, along with the huge bonfire and the griffon wings on the grill, were all erased from this world.

There was no explosion, no screams, not even the white light signifying death.

They simply vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed.

A player who had just been arm-in-arm with a friend now stared blankly at his empty arm, then looked down at his equally empty friend list.

He opened his mouth, his carnival smile not yet completely faded, but his eyes were already filled with extreme bewilderment and fear.

"...Where are they?"

His voice was soft, yet it was like a bomb dropped in the silent square, instantly igniting panic in everyone.

"My... my teammates are gone too!"

"They were just next to me! Gone in a blink of an eye!"

"Not disconnected! They were just... deleted?!"

An unprecedented fear, like a cold hand, clutched at every player's heart. They finally realized that this was not a System bug, but an incomprehensible attack from some unknown entity!

Amidst this dead silence and panic, a figure slowly ascended from the direction of the Inner City.

He wasn't wearing gleaming golden armor, nor was he wielding a sharp light saber. He didn't even have a decent priest's robe.

The person wore a spotless white lab coat, perfectly tailored, like an Earth scientist who had wandered onto the wrong set. He wore gold-rimmed glasses, his face was handsome and elegant, and a gentle smile even touched the corners of his lips.

The only thing proving his non-human identity was the four peculiar wings constantly unfolding behind him.

The wings were not made of feathers but seemed to be carved from the purest energy crystals, displaying a translucent emerald green. From the edges of the wings, viscous green venom, emitting an ominous aura, slowly dripped, dissipating into an invisible mist in the air.

He was one of the Three Archangels of the Celestial Realm, the Supreme Regent responsible for life sciences and Soul matrix research.

[Four-Winged Cherub Raphael LV.???]

Raphael slowly flew above the square. He didn't even glance at the players below, who were like ants. He merely looked regretfully in the direction of the distant server room, adjusting the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.

His voice was not loud, yet it echoed clearly in everyone's mind, cold and elegant, like someone reading an experimental report.

"An interesting group of insects, actually bypassing the outer disinfection procedures and contaminating my sterile laboratory."

"I had initially wanted to observe your unique Soul structure, based on the 'kindling' protocol, for a bit longer. Unfortunately... the test subjects are too active, so I can only retrieve them early and make them into specimens."

His tone was like a researcher complaining that his lab mice had soiled their cage.

As soon as he finished speaking, Raphael gently waved his hand, as if dusting off his clothes.

With this motion, countless green spores, almost invisible to the naked eye and smaller than dust, descended like silent fine rain, covering the entire square.

The players immediately became wary, raising their shields or activating energy shields.

However, these spores ignored all physical and energy defenses, lightly landing on some players' skin and armor.

At first, nothing happened.

"What is this? A bluff?" A warrior player scoffed, reaching out to pat away the almost invisible green dust on his shoulder.

But the next second, his expression changed.

He watched in horror as a twisted, dark green vine uncontrollably grew from his arm, which was clad in a heavy metal gauntlet!

The vine, as if alive, deeply rooted itself in his flesh, frantically drawing his life force and growing and blossoming at a visible speed, finally producing a massive, constantly wriggling mushroom!

"Ah—! What the Hell is this?!!"

The warrior let out a heart-wrenching scream. He tried to cut off the vine with his other hand, but found his body was completely out of control.

His eyes quickly became bloodshot, and his sanity was completely devoured within a few seconds. He suddenly turned around, looking at the teammate who had just been drinking with him with a violent, hungry gaze, like one would look at prey.

"Roar—!!!"

He let out an inhuman roar, raised the battle-axe in his hand, and brought it down hard!

"Old Zhang! Are you crazy?!"

His teammate raised his shield in horror to block, but was forced back repeatedly by the savage force.

This was just the beginning.

In the square, more and more players began to show the same mutation. Some had huge mushrooms constantly spewing toxic gas growing on their backs; some had bizarre man-eating flowers blooming on their faces; others had their entire bodies covered by twisted vines, turning into indescribable plant monsters.

Their commonality was that, after being completely transformed, they would immediately turn and frantically attack any "normal" living creature around them.

The entire battlefield instantly descended into chaos!

"Help! Brother Wang also mutated! He's shooting at me!"

"Don't touch those spores! They drain HP! And continuously drain SAN!"

"Healing spells are useless! Purification can't dispel it either! This is a rule-level contamination!"

Wang Wei hid behind cover, his Analysis Glasses blaring a piercing alarm due to data overload. He watched helplessly as an elite guild team was completely wiped out in just half a minute due to infighting.

The "human wave tactics" that players were so proud of had, at this moment, become the most lethal poison. The more people there were, the faster the infection spread, and the more uncontrollable the chaos became.

Raphael in the sky, like an unconcerned spectator, watched his "masterpiece" with keen interest. He looked at the "invaders" who were once united, now slaughtering each other, a satisfied smile gracing his lips, like an artist admiring his painting.

"Struggle, scream. Your fear and despair are truly... the most exquisite nourishment."

He elegantly spread his arms, as if embracing the Hell he had personally created.

"Your so-called 'immortality,' in my eyes, is just moving to a different petri dish. Welcome to my garden."

Panic, like the most terrible plague, spread through the hearts of all surviving players.

They felt true despair for the first time.

This enemy was different from all the BOSSes they had encountered before. He didn't need powerful physical attacks, nor did he need world-destroying magic. He simply moved a finger and dismantled the players' core advantage—unity and trust.

He contaminated the concept of "teammate" at a rule level.

"Can't fight... this simply can't be fought!"

"Is that BOSS invincible? We can't even get close to him!"

"Logging off! I'm logging off to hide! This is too disgusting!"

Player morale, for the first time, showed signs of collapse. Some began to run in a panic towards the teleportation array they came from, while others simply chose to log out on the spot.

However, amidst this gloom and despair.

Li Qiang, the man who had stood on the edge of the battlefield, observing everything with cold eyes from beginning to end, not only showed not a trace of fear, but instead stuck out his tongue and licked his chapped lips.

His eyes gleamed with an almost perverse, extremely excited light.

"Biohazard... viral infection... controlling friendly forces..."

He muttered to himself, as if savoring something.

He looked at the elegant and indifferent figure in the sky, like a god, and grinned, revealing a chilling smile.

He suddenly opened his storage space. To the astonished gaze of all the players, he didn't take out potions or stronger weapons. Instead, he pulled out a yellowed, ancient blueprint covered in complex mechanical patterns.

It was the ultimate reward that had dropped from Dwarf King Sorin in Black Iron City, which he had been hoarding and reluctant to use.

[Final Weapon Blueprint: Fusion Core Bomb]

Li Qiang slammed the blueprint onto his Arm Terminal and selected "Craft Immediately."

The next second, he looked up and, through the Team Communicator, issued his final and most insane battle cry to all the struggling and despairing players on the server:

"All of you, snap out of it!"

"Playing Biohazard, are we? I got sick of it in the Wasteland a long time ago! Those bastards were much more disgusting than this!"

"Everyone! Put on your gas masks! Get out all the explosives you've been stashing away!"

"The Final BOSS has revealed his HP bar! Let's go!!!"