The Trembling World
chapter-272

TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney

The only thing for Liu Gan to do was to patiently wait for the signal.

Who else could he blame, other than his weak self? Even in this situation he had to rely on Yin He. The numerous risks she had taken had taken their toll on her. She took all the risks while he enjoyed all the benefits.

The rain was still down pouring rapidly, and the drainage system wasn't meant to handle this much water. The ground had accumulated several inches of ground water. The three armored warriors stood uncaring in the calf-deep puddles.unconcerned that the rainwater would seep into their armor and microchips.

Yin He stuck her hand out of the cage, and one of the armored warrior belatedly felt something dangerous was going to happen as he noticed. Her sleeve blade was out, gathering all of her energy at the tip, and she aimed it toward the most electrically charged area of the sky.

Inside the thunderclouds turbulently rolling over, every heartbeat meant more energy was getting condensed. Nearly a hundred billion volts was actually actually stored up there, just waiting for an outlet, the source of a violent outburst that would devastate the target of its wrath.

A hundred billion volts of highly suppressed lightning charges were lured down by the opposing electric charge and struck the ground. The Electric Discharge Strike shot from the ground into the clouds. With the supercharged atmosphere, it was nearly a direct pathway linking heaven and earth.

Even though the electric pathway was narrow, and far weaker than the charges of energy suppressed in the clouds. The effect was like a C4 explosion that momentarily lit up the entire cloud and created an opening. With an outlet created, the lightning immediately discharged along the path provided for it. The lightning strike was ten inch wide pathway down to the large courtyard where the armored warriors were!

BOOM! The sound echoed in the night sky deafeningly. Ears were ringing, since it was in close proximity, and the ground was shaking...

The three armored warriors were struck as collateral damage and sent flying. Each warrior flew in a different direction over a dozen meters. Malfunctions due to the electrical blast disrupted all body functions. Even though the microchip and armor escaped unscathed, their bodies were unconscious and their systems were rebooting.

Liu Gan and the other two players were shielding themselves behind the rubble and a large piece of fallen cement. Even they felt the power behind the blast, and part of the overhead cement ceiling started falling down on them.

The electricity that remained behind in the groundwater was fortunately being drained away. Liu Gan, Yan Su, and Zhang ShengLi quickly ran away from the avalanche of rocks falling down. By the time they reached the standing water, the lightning had already dissipated.

Liu Gan charged toward the center of the courtyard and the location of the lightning strike. It was a ten-meter wide depression being rapidly filled by the rain. There were only scattered parts of the melted alloy cage spread across the hot zone. Kingler had more than half its cage still intact. But a third of its body was fused from absorbed the blast through the cage. Thick flows of black liquid were gushing out from its body.

There were no traces of the armored warriors near the depression. Yin He, who created the explosion, was missing from the scene. Liu Gan turned on his earphones, and heard only silence. The type of silence that symbolized the source was forever gone.

Liu Gan felt very uneasy. He shoved several active hand grenades into Kingler’s mouth and hid. The resulting blasts broke its carapace in half and cooked its internals. A black orb, of never before seen size, flowed out from Kingler and into Liu Gan.

The burning sensation that seeped through Liu Gan’s vein was unbearable. After getting this kill on Kingler, Liu Gan’s wrist watch now showed level 9! He had jumped two levels, from level 7 to level 9!

It should have been very exciting news, but Liu Gan wasn't excited at all.

With the silence in his earphones and Yin He’s disappearance, Liu Gan instead felt quite miserable. Nothing like this had happened before, where Yin He had vanished without a trace.

Clearly, she had lied to him. She knew that once she was caught, there was no way of escaping, so she sacrificed herself. By using up her remaining energy, she had helped Liu Gan kill Kingler. She was able to create a winning opportunity out of a losing situation.

After killing Kingler, Liu Gan was distraught. He kept looking around, as if he was waiting for someone to show up.

He and Zhang ShengLi searched all around the courtyard, hoping that the explosion had merely sent her flying far away. Soon, Liu Gan found the three armored warriors. They were laying on the ground motionless and unconscious.

Yin He was nowhere to be found. There wasn't even a body to confirm her death...until Zhang ShengLi dove into the bottom of the depression to find a severed Sleeve Blade that had belonged to Yin He.

The Sleeve Blade had many scorch marks, starting from the point of impact and down to its roots. The backside of the blade was all melted metal.

Liu Gan instantly identified Yin He’s Sleeve Blade. The amount of lightning that came down on her surpassed her calculations and melted her along with the cage. This Sleeve Blade was the last remaining proof that she had once existed.

Liu Gan hugged the severed Sleeve Blade close to his chest while kneeling on the ground in the rain in misery.

This wasn't the result that he had planned for. He would rather give up the two levels than lose Yin He forever. Now, he had no one.

“Elder Liu…” Zhang ShengLi started crying, tears mixing with the falling rain.

“No need to say it.” Liu Gan answered hoarsely, clenching his fist tightly about that dagger.

...

The armored warriors had very durable sets of armor, Zhang ShengLi and Yan Su spent most of the next few minutes trying to move the bodies to the courtyard exit.

“This whole trip, I haven't been able to receive much. Since there are three of them and there are three of us, is it okay if we each took one?” Yan Su asked Zhang ShengLi.

Even though it is hard to appreciate how the armored warriors could be beneficial, but risking their life on this trip made it hard to return empty handed.

“If you join our camp, we can give you one and that won't be a problem. If you don't join, then that's too regrettable. We can't allocate you one,” Zhang ShengLi said as he shook his head.

“That can't be right? I thought we came here to cooperate on the mission. I didn't know there was a requirement of joining someone else's camp. In my previous group, Wang Chao agreed to have all treasures allocated equally,” Yan Su protested to Zhang ShengLi’s.

Liu Gan rushed over with a fire axe in his hand and smashed it onto the armored warrior’s chest. The fire axe had no effect and broke from the recoil, without even scratching the body of the armored warrior.