104: Chapter 104 Facing Old Deng

On the official forum of "warhammer 40,000 OL," a post titled [Live Record of the Underground Total Party Kill in Shahe Town! How on Earth Do You Fight a Psyker?] was rapidly pushed to the top of the trending list.

The poster was none other than [ikun True Fan], who had just been insta-killed and logged off.

"That's how it happened."

In the post, ikun used long paragraphs of text to tearfully complain.

"That white-bearded old man is definitely the highest-level BOSS we've encountered in this game so far! Compared to him, Flame Fist's little sparks are practically just a lighter!"

"That old man not only has a psychic air wall that can block all physical bullets, but he didn't even need to chant an incantation. He just glared at us and instantly released a terrifying, large-scale destructive shockwave! We have absolutely no physical countermeasures against this kind of idealistic magical energy at our current stage!"

Below the post, there weren't many replies from players, as most people were still in the heat of battle within the game.

However, a few veteran armchair players and Warhammer lore experts provided some fair assessments.

"Hey, high-level Psykers in Warhammer have always been this unreasonable. They can draw energy directly from the Warp and twist the laws of reality. Facing someone like that, unless you're also a stronger Psyker using psychic powers against psychic powers, ordinary people are just sending themselves to the slaughter no matter how many go."

"I second the person above. At a time like this, what you need most is to find a Sister of Silence! Those Untouchables, born without a soul and carrying their own anti-psychic aura, are the natural nemesis of Psykers!"

ikun replied helplessly:

"I understand all that. But where am I supposed to find a Sister of Silence? Anyway, the situation in the Shahe Town basement is very complicated right now. That old man is using the massive amount of negative emotions generated by the entire town's riot to crack a mysterious brain! We can't even get close!"

...

Fire Seed Shelter, Main Control Room No. 1.

Lin Li sat in front of the computer, looking at the battle report sent by ikun and the discussions on the forum, his brows furrowed tightly.

He had, of course, been closely monitoring the situation in Shahe Town through the system backend.

After all, that was a major resource town with a population of over a hundred thousand and a large Promethium refinery.

As long as it could be stably controlled, it would be absolutely beneficial for the development of Shelter.

Initially, things were progressing quite smoothly.

Governor Jia Mei led the rebel army to successfully clear out the biggest cancer, the Sand Snake Gang, and the [Scourge Legion] used heavy firepower to sweep away the peripheral private soldiers of the nobles.

Everything was proceeding according to plan.

But during the assault on the Black Tower, a major problem occurred.

That group of nobles actually fell to corruption on the spot, even summoning a Slaanesh Daemonette!

"Fortunately, the group of players Ming Shen led not only have strange thought processes but also have enough firepower. They used Promethium fire to purify the scene in time, preventing the situation from further escalating into a Warp rift."

"As a result, just as the fire here was put out, an even more powerful hidden BOSS jumped out from underground?"

A cultist Psyker who could instantly kill twenty fully-armed members of The Fourth Calamity.

To be honest, even if Lin Li wore Power Armor to fight over twenty players, he couldn't guarantee he could do it so easily.

That old man's strength had definitely reached a very dangerous level.

"To deal with this guy, the safest way is to transfer Flame Fist and that Psyker from the Brotherhood of Steel over here to defeat magic with magic."

Lin Li calculated their combat power.

"But they are currently far away at the Northwest Pass farming Greenskins. By the time they drive their beat-up cars over here, it'll be too late!"

That old man was using the negative emotions of tens of thousands of people for a ritual.

Once he was allowed to comfortably complete a ritual of this scale, the consequences would be absolutely unpredictable.

Cultists' minds don't work normally; who knows if he'll end up creating some destruction-level grand summoning circle?

"I can't wait. I have to go there myself."

Lin Li stood up, but he also had self-awareness.

Facing a high-level Psyker, one couldn't just charge in blindly.

"73!" Lin Li shouted.

Red light flashed as 73 walked into the main control room with heavy steps.

"Creator, what are your orders?"

"A high-level cultist Psyker appeared under Shahe Town and is performing a grand summoning. The players couldn't handle it and were wiped out."

Lin Li got straight to the point.

"Do you have any physical means in your database that can counter psychic powers?"

73's optical lens flickered, quickly providing a solution:

"According to records, a Blackstone Matrix can be carried to the site to set up a small Silence Field. Blackstone can effectively isolate Warp energy."

Lin Li's eyes lit up:

"Right! How could I forget that batch of Blackstone!"

"Go put on a human coat to cover yourself. Bring enough Blackstone to set up the array, and come with me!"

A few minutes later.

Lin Li put on that stylish red G-22 Type III Firefighter heavy Power Armor, holding a halberd in his hand.

He hoisted the Men of Iron 73, who was wrapped in a gray coat, onto his shoulder like a heavy sandbag, and charged out of Shelter toward Shahe Town in the south.

Lin Li's physical fitness had already undergone primary enhancement, and with the terrifying boost from the Power Armor, he ran at the speed of a supercar.

About forty minutes later.

The night was deep, and radiation winds raged across the wilderness.

Lin Li stopped behind a ruined sand dune a few hundred meters from the north gate of Shahe Town.

He set down 73, whose metal skeleton was rattling from the jolting, and used the night vision in his helmet to observe the town, which was still ablaze in the distance.

"Charging in blindly is clearly inappropriate."

Lin Li had a lot of self-awareness.

"I don't know if that Psyker has finished his ritual. Players can respawn if they die, but if I get insta-killed, it's really over for me."

"73, you stay here outside the city gate and find a hidden spot to set up the Blackstone Silence Field. How long will it take?"

73 began pulling Blackstone blocks out of the special metal box on its back:

"I am already very familiar with the arrangement formula for this matrix. It will only take thirty minutes."

"Good, then we'll wait here." Lin Li gripped the halberd in his hand.

...

At the same time.

Underground in Shahe Town, at the palace altar deep within the trade market.

The withered old man with a white beard stopped his harsh chanting of incantations.

His cloudy white eyes stared fixedly at the silver-glinting brain contained in a crystal jar in his hand.

"The turmoil above... seems to have been quickly brought under control."

The old man felt the negative emotions available for extraction rapidly decaying and frowned slightly.

"This is outside the plan. The despair and anger of mortals are no longer enough to break through the firewall of this holy relic in one go."

Facing the sudden turn of events, this high-level heretic showed unexpected calmness.

"Staying here is no longer a wise choice."

He didn't hesitate. With a casual wave of his hand—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Around the palace, the thousands of glass jars containing mortal brains were crushed in an instant by an invisible psychic force!

All the brain tissue turned into nauseating lumps of mush, mixed with glass shards and scattered all over the floor.

After erasing all traces.

The old man carefully placed the crystal jar containing the silver brain into an inconspicuous gray cloth bag and hung it at his waist.

Without even looking at the twenty player corpses on the ground, he turned and walked out along the passage.

He reached the surface.

The sound of gunfire in the streets had thinned out.

The People's Armed Insurgent Army and the players were controlling the situation and rounding up the remnants.

The old man looked up at the Black Tower in the distance, its 16th floor still billowing thick black smoke, his face expressionless.

He pulled up the hood of his robe to cover his withered face and, like an ordinary wandering old man fleeing the fires of war, he blended into the night and walked straight toward the north city gate.

Behind the sand dune outside the city.

73 was still buried in the work of setting up the complex Blackstone Matrix.

Only half the time had passed.

Lin Li lay on the sandy slope, closely monitoring the players' movements inside the city through his pv terminal.

Suddenly.

The edge of his night vision caught a solitary figure.

A withered old man, hood pulled up, was calmly walking out of the dilapidated north city gate toward the wilderness.

If it were daytime, Lin Li wouldn't have given it a second thought.

Vagrants were everywhere in the wasteland.

But it was the middle of the night!

And the radiation wind was raging!

Unless there was something urgent, it was absolutely impossible for an unarmed mortal old man to run out of the safe city walls alone at a time like this!

Looking at the old man's pace, though seemingly staggering, every step was of an uncannily consistent distance, lacking any of the panic of a refugee.

On the chin exposed outside the hood, there was also a conspicuous tuft of white beard.

Lin Li's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"Holy crap... it couldn't be such a coincidence, could it? I ran right into the main guy?"

Just then.

The old man also seemed to have noticed something.

He stopped, turned his head, and those cloudy white eyes looked straight at the sand dune where Lin Li was hiding.

The old man's gaze pierced the darkness, seeing Lin Li in his heavy Power Armor.

But there was no trace of fear in his eyes, only a deep sense of loathing.

"There is a smell on you that makes me feel very disgusted," the old man's voice echoed in the wind.

He slowly raised his empty left hand and pointed a withered finger toward Lin Li from a distance!

"Get him!" Lin Li roared.

Almost at the same time.

73's shoulder armor instantly popped open, a multi-barreled machine gun barrel extended, and it spat out brilliant tongues of fire at the old man!

And Lin Li was even more decisive.

His entire body's muscles exploded with terrifying strength, and the Power Armor's engine roared.

Like a heavy truck, he held the halberd in both hands and leaped down from the sand dune with a whistle, crashing straight toward the old man!

Lin Li was praying frantically in his heart:

"I hope this Power Armor has at least some resistance to psychic powers!"

However.

Reality was harsh.

The metal storm fired by 73, at a distance of three meters from the old man, seemed to hit an invisible and distorted spatial barrier and was instantly ground into metal powder!

And Lin Li, who was mid-charge, felt as if he had slammed head-first into a tough, transparent wall!

Boom!

A violent force instantly exploded on Lin Li's chest!

Lin Li felt as if his internal organs had been savagely struck by a sledgehammer, and a piercing pain washed over him.

"Oh no! I overplayed my hand!"

Lin Li's throat felt sweet, and he spat a mouthful of blood directly onto the visor inside his Power Armor.

His massive frame was forcibly knocked back five or six meters by the force, slamming heavily onto the sandy ground.

The old man looked at Lin Li as he scrambled up from the ground, a flash of surprise in his eyes.

"Hmm? You didn't die after taking a Psychic Blast from me?"

The old man narrowed his eyes slightly.

He raised his left hand again, pointing at Lin Li.

But this time, his lips began to move rapidly, chanting an obscure incantation in a low voice!

The surrounding air began to distort violently, and a destructive psychic fluctuation ten times more terrifying than before was frantically condensing at his fingertip!

Seeing this, Lin Li knew there was no way he could run.

He fiercely swallowed a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood, his eyes bloodshot:

"Screw you! I'm taking you down with me!"

Lin Li gritted his teeth and used every ounce of his remaining strength to crash toward the old man like a cannonball once again!

At the same time, the old man's chant was complete.

"Die, mortal."

A distorted purple psychic storm, with the power to tear everything apart, blasted directly toward Lin Li's face!

In that life-or-death second!

A brilliant, pure golden light suddenly erupted from Lin Li's inner pocket!

That pendant?

It was the white pendant the Sister had hung around Lin Li's neck not long ago, only Lin Li had found it bothersome and stuffed it in his pants pocket!

This golden light, carrying an aura that repelled Warp energy, instantly opened an invisible force field in front of Lin Li!

Boom!

The purple psychic storm slammed into the golden force field like snow meeting a red-hot iron, letting out a piercing hiss as it was instantly evaporated and dispersed without a trace!

"Impossible!"

For the first time, extreme terror appeared in the old man's white eyes.

Although Lin Li didn't know exactly what had happened in his pocket, he knew this was his only chance!

"Die for me!"

Taking advantage of the moment the old man suffered psychic backlash and fell into a state of terrified paralysis—

Lin Li took a step forward, the halberd in his hand carrying a thousand pounds of force, its sharp tip piercing through the old man's head without any resistance, like stabbing through a rotten watermelon!

Pfft!

White brain matter mixed with blood splattered everywhere.

The old man's headless corpse fell straight down.

Lin Li was afraid this old man might still have some sinister spells, so he quickly went up and swung his halberd, smashing the corpse three more times with a series of "thuds" until the upper body was reduced to a pile of mush, only then finally stopping.

Phew... phew...

Lin Li opened the visor of his Power Armor, gasping for air, cold sweat soaking his back.

73 then walked over from behind the sand dune with heavy steps.

"Is this Warp energy?"

73's optical lens flickered with an inquisitive light.

"It seems capable of directly modifying local physical constants, which is even more admirable than pure data calculation! If this energy could be utilized scientifically and rationally..."

"Buddy."

Lin Li interrupted it irritably.

"I was almost freaking insta-killed just now! Can you say something nice and caring?"

73 fell silent for a moment.

Its voice synthesis module seemed to be frantically searching its vocabulary database, and finally, it actually said in a stiff tone, imitating a player:

"Well, you're not dead, are you?"

"Try being human for once!"

Lin Li couldn't be bothered to continue bickering with this sharp-tongued AI.

His gaze was drawn to the gray cloth bag that had rolled out beside the old man's corpse.

He stepped forward and used the tip of his halberd to flip open the bag.

Inside was a transparent cylindrical tank made of glass inlaid with some unknown metal.

Inside the tank, a brain was quietly suspended.

But the material of this brain was very special; it didn't look like organic flesh and blood. Instead, a fine silver metallic luster flowed over its surface, making it look like a piece of art carved from liquid metal.

"What on earth is this?" Lin Li was just about to turn and ask 73.

Beep—!

Lin Li's pv terminal suddenly vibrated.

A window popped up:

[Challenge Mission Completed: Rescue the Stone Man!]

[Mission Reward: 6000 Core Points!]

Lin Li's eyes widened as he looked at the silver brain in the glass tank, sucking in a breath of cold air.

"Holy crap?"

"Stone Man?!... This brain is all that's left of him?!"