300: Chapter 301 Purifying the Loot

Flame Fist's consciousness returned to reality.

He took off the virtual gaming helmet and rubbed his somewhat sore neck.

Fifteen times gene enhancement overload was used in the game, causing his character's genes to completely collapse, and he was forcibly kicked offline.

Now, he had to face a resurrection progress bar lasting up to twenty-four hours.

Since he had nothing better to do,

Flame Fist skillfully opened the official game forum and began his daily routine of shitposting and writing battle reports.

Before long, a rambling post of over a thousand words appeared on the forum's front page.

Title: [About How Our Brotherhood of Steel Defeated the Chaos Lord and the Khorne Greater Daemon].

Clicking on the main text, the layout was a bit sloppy.

Reading through the whole thing, rather than a frontline battle report, it was more like Flame Fist's personal bragging diary.

Between the lines, it was all showing off.

As soon as the post was published, Flame Fist used the hand speed of someone single for over twenty years to snatch the first reply under his own post.

[Use Fire Punch]: "I suppose everyone has seen the server-wide first kill announcement, right? Hehe, if you weren't at the scene, you simply have no idea how thrilling it was at that time! Just how intense the greater daemon's oppressive presence was!"

Below the text, he also attached a screenshot taken from the system's perspective.

In the image, the golden Power Armor leaped high into the air, smashing the Khorne Greater Daemon's skull with a single hammer strike.

The angle of the screenshot was chosen quite perfectly.

In the middle of the night like this, the forum was full of night owl players who had just gone offline or were slacking off.

As soon as the post came out, replies piled up instantly like a tall building.

However, the first ones to pop up weren't worshipful, but rather ruthless debunking.

[What to Fear with a Flash]: "With just this one picture, anyone with discerning eyes can tell that it was thousands of brothers throwing away their lives to deplete the BOSS's health bar, and then you rushed up and picked up the kill, right?"

Flame Fist immediately tapped the keyboard to reply.

[Use Fire Punch]: "What do you mean by picking up a kill? That's called a critical strike! That was a hammer strike with fifteen times gene enhancement, other players couldn't dish out this kind of damage, alright?"

[Black Tiger A-Fu]: "Brother Flame Fist is awesome! Anyway, the picture looks great, and this greater daemon looks very strong at first glance!"

[Use Fire Punch]: "Brother A-Fu still knows good stuff! Fighting this monster took quite a lot of effort out of me."

[Mudslide of the Merchant World]: "What's so great about this? Isn't it just stacking stats? Let ten people wear gene-enhanced Power Armor, activate overload, and charge straight up, and they can smash it to death just the same."

[Use Fire Punch]: "What you said makes sense, but today I got the first kill on a Khorne Greater Daemon."

[ikun True Fan]: "Wait, what tier is this greater daemon? Looking at this armor and horns, it doesn't feel very strong!"

[Use Fire Punch]: "Brother Kun has sharp eyes! However, the Khorne Greater Daemon I got the first kill on today is ten meters tall, and its combat power is infinitely close to Tier 7!"

[Captain Blood Pressure Gabriel]: "You brat are completely impervious to reason, but I'm just baffled, how come all the good things happen to you? The Norn Emissary was your first kill, the Hive Tyrant was your first kill, and now the Warp greater daemon is also your first kill! Hurry up and speak, did you sell your ass behind the brothers' backs to the developers?"

[Use Fire Punch]: "Gabriel is right, the Khorne Greater Daemon I got the first kill on today has extremely strong combat power!"

All Players: "..."

The chat logs under the entire post were instantly derailed by this automatic repeating machine.

Of course, besides this group of old acquaintances tearing each other down and trash-talking, there were also a large number of clueless newbies and ordinary players frantically spamming the chat below.

"Big shot 666!"

"Worshiping the first-kill big shot from the front row!"

"Is this the strength of the top three legions? Terrifyingly powerful!"

After the joyful bragging time.

Flame Fist leaned back in his gaming chair and finally remembered the main business.

He put away his joking tone and asked again in the post.

[Use Fire Punch]: "Let's talk business. In this campaign, we got some spoils of war dropped by the greater daemon, as well as a relic of the World Eaters warband. This thing is contaminated and can't be used directly. How should we handle it? My idea is to pack it up and bring it straight back to the Shelter, and let the boss use Old Man Huang's blessing to help purify it?"

After this question was sent out, the post went quiet for a moment.

Soon, the big shots in the forum arrived.

[Praise Ming Shen]: "Don't! Never bring it to the Shelter!"

[Praise Ming Shen]: "The core of the Khorne Greater Daemon's power is pure bloodthirsty instinct. Those demonic remains will continuously release violent Warp radiation outward.

This kind of radiation will directly erode the minds of anyone who comes into contact with it. If you bring this thing onto the spaceship, before you even fly back to the Shelter, the mortal NPCs on the ship will probably all be corrupted into madmen.

You'd better seal it up on the spot first, like writing some slips of holy words and sticking them on or something."

Flame Fist looked at the screen and frowned.

If you can only look at it and not use it, isn't that equivalent to scrap metal?

That blood orb dropped by the greater daemon looked quite appetizing; he was still counting on using that thing to upgrade his Thunder Hammer.

[Use Fire Punch]: "Is there any method to use it directly?"

This time, Ming Shen's side took a long time to give a reply.

Obviously, he went to consult specific background information.

Ten minutes later, a long reply popped up.

[Praise Ming Shen]: "Found it, there really is one."

[Praise Ming Shen]: "The Empire's Grey Knights chapter has a set of procedures specifically for dealing with Chaos weapons.

They will use hundreds of purification rituals like holy oil soaking, prayer etching, and psychic sealing.

This can completely erase the Chaos will in the remains, retaining only its extraordinary physical strength and Warp resistance. After processing, it can be safely utilized."

[Praise Ming Shen]: "The Grey Knights themselves are Psykers, and their characteristic is having a relatively strong resistance to Chaos pollution.

We ourselves also have very strong resistance to Chaos, plus you are also a Psyker.

Theoretically, you can try this method, but I still have to remind you, there is considerable risk."

Looking at Ming Shen's reply, Flame Fist's eyes lit up.

As long as there's a method, it's fine.

What players fear least is risk; at worst, it just means dying one more time.

[Use Fire Punch]: "Alrighty! Thanks a lot to big shot Ming Shen for the popular science! Once I resurrect and log online, I'll go mess with that blood orb!"

...

Shelter, Core Control Room.

Lin Li sat in the spacious command seat, picked up a cup of warm tea at his hand, gently blew away the drifting heat, and took a sip.

The tea entered his throat, dispelling a bit of fatigue.

Looking at Flame Fist's rambling, all-showing-off battle report post in the forum, Lin Li not only didn't find it noisy, but instead couldn't help shaking his head and chuckling softly.

He remembered what this group of players looked like when they first descended into the game.

At that time, newbies like Flame Fist and Pi She were exploring the ruins of the underground food factory.

A few mutant monsters in the sewer could chase them around in a panic, scrambling and rolling.

That disheveled appearance was still vivid in Lin Li's mind to this day.

And now, how much time had passed.

The energetic young men who used to be chased by mice now dared to activate gene overload, holding a hammer and engaging in a head-on, one-on-one battle with a Khorne Greater Daemon.

As the old father who summoned them over, Lin Li felt deeply gratified in his heart.

Then he began to browse the battle reports of various legions.

In the south, the Brotherhood of Steel's front line had stabilized.

The Chaos forces on Black Rock Planet were leaderless, and the liberation of the Thirteen Worlds was only a matter of time.

Shifting his gaze westward.

The fellows of the Scourge Legion had just finished cleaning up the rampaging Tyranids on a mineral planet a while ago.

As soon as they finished killing the bugs, they ran into the local Adeptus Mechanicus forces.

According to the battle report description, the first round of contact was quite unpleasant.

Scourge Legion players tried to recover some scrapped Adeptus Mechanicus vehicles scattered across the battlefield, and were treated as heretical scavengers by the Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii.

Both sides almost had an accidental discharge, and are currently in a standoff, which could develop into an armed conflict at any time.

Lin Li rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Having a conflict with the Adeptus Mechanicus was bound to happen sooner or later; this bunch of skeleton-like guys had too strong a desire to monopolize technology, and players loved scavenging trash the most.

In the east, the situation was fairly stable.

Baby Bus played to their specialty in merchant trading.

They had already established preliminary trade relationships with the three major knight families, and a large amount of living supplies and low-grade minerals were being continuously exchanged for local specialties.

However, undercurrents still existed.

The accompanying Daemon Hunter sent back a message that they were beginning to investigate information regarding Jack Li.

Meanwhile, the Galactic Empire Stormtroopers were still lost in the Warp.

But today there was a new piece of news.

The Stormtroopers detected that a similarly lost Imperial fleet appeared near them.

Both sides were in a silent state, observing each other across the Warp storm, and had not yet made formal contact.

The Bear Ridge Legion's biochemical laboratory operated round the clock, frantically digesting the captured Tyranids spaceships.

But at the same time, these people were getting bolder and bolder, and had begun experimenting with incorporating Tyranid genes into their own bodies to enhance combat power.

The Hand of God Legion's progress was the most worry-free.

The Astra Militarum personnel they recruited were already at full strength.

At this moment, they were conducting high-intensity live-fire shooting training.

It wouldn't be long before this fresh force composed of players and local mortals could head to the Black Port defense line.

Compared to large legions that liked to go to the front lines for direct frontal clashes, small legion players' playstyles were much more cautious.

They banded together to explore the edge of the galaxy, specifically picking barren planets with no life characteristics and no entrenched factions.

After finding a territory, they directly pooled their money and bought a planetary climate modification system in the system mall.

Mechanical towers were erected, and the atmosphere was reshaped.

Afterward, they posted recruitment orders in the forum and major refugee camps.

Using permanent land ownership as bait, they recruited indigenous pioneers on a large scale to go and develop it.

This kind of gameplay didn't fight monsters or grab territory; it relied entirely on farming and real estate development.

Lin Li greatly praised this; this was definitely a very wise choice.

If he were to choose, he would rather the vast majority of players do this.

Because the risk was extremely small, and the long-term returns were huge; what the Spark Alliance lacked the most right now was population.

"Everything is developing in a good direction."

Lin Li leaned against the back of his chair, muttering to himself.

The only regret was that the Alliance's total population base was still growing very slowly, and who knows how long it would take to complete the main storyline goals.

Just as Lin Li was about to pour another cup of tea.

73's cold mechanical voice suddenly sounded in the PV channel.

"Creator, Warp energy fluctuations detected."

"An unknown fleet is breaking through the veil of reality, entering the core area of the Yuanwang Star System directly via Warp jump."

Lin Li's hand pouring tea paused.

"Transfer the footage over."

Lin Li frowned slightly and put down the tea cup.

The main control screen's image switched instantly.

Long-range orbital probes transmitted high-definition images of the galaxy's edge back.