A different world game? A different world game!

Chapter 851 Hell Drawing
The continent of Taril.

Warship port.

The floating tower 'Eye of Silence'.

Judging from its appearance alone, this floating tower is not much different from the other floating towers floating in the City of Towers.

The only distinctive feature is the magic orb suspended at the top of the floating tower.

The enormous magic orb and its simulated probe eye have become another iconic landmark of this port.

This strangely shaped floating tower, which appears to be used for environmental reconnaissance, has been here for almost half a month.

The reason we came here is naturally because of the previous Void Vanguard invasion.

It is designed to provide the vanguard of the Taril continent with more detection of void fluctuations; this is a specialized type.

Look inside to the reconnaissance hall.

Huge, honeycomb-shaped energy conduits meandered along the ceiling, emitting a constant hum as they channeled a continuous stream of magical energy into the giant master detection crystal at the center of the hall.

The air was cold, carrying the faint smell of burnt metal and a barely perceptible whiff of ozone.

The sixteen diamond-shaped auxiliary crystal screens are no longer simply suspended; they are embedded in the complex brass-colored robotic arm, like huge compound eyes peering into the world.

As the operator's gestures subtly adjusted the angle in the void, a cold, blue-white, constantly jumping and refreshing spot of light was cast.

The air seemed to solidify into a gel, with only the buzzing of data streams on the crystal screen, the clicking of precise magical gears meshing, and the rapid, crisp tapping of the chief operator Theresa's rune keyboard, like cold raindrops striking steel.

Theresa, a human woman with thin cheeks and deep-set eyes, had stubborn bluish-black bruises under her eyes from years of monitoring work.

Of course, it wasn't originally this serious.

But she really hasn't had a proper rest this month.

It's all the fault of those damned Void Vanguard.

Her fingertips seemed born to work with the complex rune interface, and at this moment they were gliding across the floating three-dimensional projection controller in front of her with an almost neurotic precision.

The projected model of the scorched continent rotated with subtle adjustments, its light and shadow shifting, reflecting in her bloodshot yet sharp as a hawk's eyes.

Sweat slid down her taut temples, melting into the slightly dry salt stains on her cheeks before it could drip.

Good heavens, she couldn't even find the time to wash her face.

But it will be soon.

She pursed her dry, pale lips tightly, her Adam's apple bobbing, and announced in a hoarse voice, a mixture of tension and exhaustion.

"Eastern Mainland! Confirmed! The fissure activity value has once again exceeded the first threshold—coordinates locked! Red zone! Marker point B7!"
Her finger poked at a wildly flashing red dot with erratic energy patterns: "Unable to map accurately, interference source... the interference source is eerily strong!"

She paused slightly, inhaling a large breath of cold, magical fumes, as if drawing strength to continue speaking, her fingers trembling as she moved to another spot.

"Northern permafrost zone, deep readings, probe wave penetrates 600 meters below the ice layer... feedback anomaly, spectral consistency 78%, suspected to be... a deep fissure, this is underground!"

Her voice rose an octave due to her frustration and anger.

The tentacles of the void invade from outside the interface, so they could appear anywhere.

Because of its unique dimensional structure, it is more likely to be created directly on the plane of the earth.

However, in some places, such as the interlayers of the earth, there are also gaps similar to those in plains.

If you're unlucky, a void rift might appear in such a place.

That's enough.

She vented her emotions for a moment, then pointed southwest, “Southwest Lava Trench, energy reading… scorching? No! It’s abnormally distorted! The reading doesn’t seem like magma heat, it’s more like… some kind of energy is simulating magma, masking its existence. This opening must be in some monster’s lair, they must be fighting.”

Finally, with a resolute air, she slammed her finger down on the ever-enlarging area model on the central screen, where it was now marked in bold strokes as "Contacted - Severely Contaminated Void Zone".

"And this cancer we've run into head-on! The 'Eye of Silence' has completely locked onto its core contamination point, the 'Ash Rift,' that's what the dwarves mark it on their maps, though the name is certainly not quite accurate now."

After recounting her work achievements over the past period, she sat down in her chair, leaned back heavily, and rubbed her eyes.

Finally got it done.

The other data monitoring personnel nearby also breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to take a short break.

Some people got up to wash their faces.

The dwarven sage Lurek stood like a silent volcano in the shadows to the left and behind Theresa.

His broad back pressed tightly against the cold interior wall of the floating tower, his heavy dwarf helmet tucked under his armpits, revealing tangled hair and a thick beard, like iron-gray mane, matted with sweat and dust.

The ends of his beard were even stained with dark red, not-yet-dry scabs, which gleamed with an ominous yet resilient luster under the magic lamp.

The grey-blue cloak he wore, which originally represented the radiant order of the Night's Watch, was now almost unrecognizable.

Soil, black and green corrosive slime, white marks left by scratching crystal clusters, and even a few marks that were torn apart by some kind of sharp claws and then hastily repaired.

The air was filled with a mixture of fishy smell, gunpowder smell, and strong acidic smell of sweat emanating from him.

As he listened to Teresa's every word, his eyes, hidden beneath his deep brows, sharpened like tempered steel, fixed intently on the four glaring scarlet coordinates on the holographic map, like malignant sores.

He didn't respond immediately, but instead unconsciously rubbed the scabs on his beard over and over with his short, stubby fingers, covered with old and new scars and calluses, until his fingertips turned slightly white.

"Ha... four... four highly poisoned nails... mercilessly driven into the very heart of this damned continent..."

He finally spoke, his voice hoarse and low, like two pieces of rusty steel rubbing against gravel, each syllable carrying the weariness and smell of gunpowder from the battle on the front line.

He turned his head slightly, his gaze piercing like a cold awl towards his equally grave-looking adjutant, Agni—this usually composed human officer also had worry etched on his face, his dark circles frighteningly deep.

"Mother Earth... Agni!"

Lurek's voice suddenly rose, filled with undeniable rage, so loud that a nearby operator's hand trembled, nearly causing him to press the wrong rune.

"Immediately! Go borrow it! Go and ask for it! Send a highest priority request for assistance to the City of the Ring Tower! By this damned 'Eye of Silence'?" He suddenly raised his thick arm and slammed his fist into the sturdy inner wall armor plate beside him, making a dull thud that shook the entire monitoring room.

"It's like a blind man who's drunk too much dwarven liquor! Its detection radius can't even penetrate the thick fog right under our noses! It can't tell if what's crawling out of the lava trench to the west is a worm, a phantom, or some fucking lava maggot taking a bath!"

He gasped for breath, exhaling a metallic, metallic scent, the weight of responsibility pressing down on his broad shoulders. "Insufficient intelligence! Agni! This is putting us all on a knife's edge! A blind man commanding a cripple!"

Agni squeezed his eyes shut, as if trying to process the overwhelming command.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to look at the panels that were flashing red light—especially the sharp lines representing the expedition's advance and retreat.

“Seventh Expeditionary Force… Reporting to the Expeditionary Force General,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady, but a slight tremor still lingered at the end.

"Three days ago, they crashed directly into the eruption point of the 'Ash Rift' from another direction... The coordinates were offset by three kilometers, a fatal shift."

"The consequence was that the 200-kilometer buffer zone was completely pushed back. The losses were... heavy, with more than 30% of the personnel killed..." He swallowed, his throat dry.

"but…"

He paused for a moment, then pointed to the area in the projection that was churning with murky purple-black and the usual heavy, gritty green of this continent.

"Monitoring shows that the proto-beast packs of the Mossy Swamp and the Void Biteers... are attacking each other frantically! Like... like two magnets that hate each other, locked together, they have created an unexpected, dynamic death buffer zone within the contaminated area."

He pointed to the jagged dividing line on the map, made up of constantly changing icons, "They're there...attacking each other."

Lurek let out an extremely short and piercing laugh, like metal being torn apart alive. "Chaos and destruction... a millstone forged from flesh and blood!"

He pointed to the nauseating intersection in the projection.

"Look! Look at these 'good neighbors'! The Void wants to drag this continent into eternal nothingness, destroying everything that lives on it. But these native evil bastards..."

His facial muscles twitched, whether from disgust or some indescribable schadenfreude, it was hard to tell. "Their blood, their flesh, even fragments of their souls, have long been soaked in the corrupt magic and primal chaotic laws inherent in this land."

“This is no gentle thing! Void contamination is indeed terrifying, but judging from the energy readings, it should only be a rift, not enough to overwhelm these already corrupted creatures.”

The reason why the continent of Taliel became like this was because the dwarves and the allied forces of various races once fought against the invading abyssal demons here.

This place has long been tainted by the chaos of the abyss, and in recent years it has become even more extreme and insane due to the waste generated by the defeat and death of an evil god.

The void is inherently a manifestation of destruction. Although its ability to destroy will and transform life is powerful, it is ultimately not a manifestation of depravity.

Since the power class does not have an overwhelming advantage, the crazy environment in this region can actually withstand it.

His finger jabbed sharply at the filthy green block representing the chaotic beasts: "That's like throwing a stinking goblin into a pool of starving piranhas. The energy level of the Void Erosion... Hmph, it's not enough to completely 'purify' the chaotic evil that originates from the roots of their bloodlines."

"These two bizarre troubles have collided, each believing itself to be the master of this scorched earth! A life-or-death spectacle is unfolding!"

Fortunately in misfortune.

His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the area on the map where purplish-black and dirty green eroded and canceled each other out, a scene that was both terrifying and strangely balanced.

"Damn God, I don't even know if this should be considered a good thing!"

He wanted to say a few more words, but then he felt that his awkward words might be a bit disrespectful.

Lurek spat out a mouthful of rusty-tasting saliva, "But this is indeed our only chance to breathe right now! They're tearing each other apart, gnawing at each other's flesh! Let this meat grinder turn slowly! The longer it turns, the more damn time we get!"

The adjutant listened silently from the side.

Well, I feel that Lord Lurek is becoming increasingly vulgar. He wasn't exactly gentle before, but he was at least a wise man.

Now he's become a purely war-oriented figure.

A dwarven sage learned nothing of vulgarity from the dwarves; instead, he was influenced by these adventurers.

Of course, it was indeed the pressure, anger, and surrounding environment that made Lord Lurek harbor a burning anger within him.

After Lurek finished speaking, he slowly raised his eyes, which seemed to see through darkness and chaos.

The gaze seemed to pierce through the thick crystal windows of the floating tower, directly traversing a distance of tens of kilometers.

It landed on that constantly roaring battle line—where a three-way battle was underway.

The area that Lurek is currently concerned about.

"Steel Cliff" defense zone.

It might now be called a meat grinder, a place of three-way slaughter.

The field of vision cut through the air filled with dark purple energy miasma and a pale green stench of decay, and landed on the so-called "Steel Cliff" defense zone.

This place was originally a dense, suffocating forest of highly poisonous thorns. A month of brutal fighting has completely leveled, crushed, and burned it, turning it into a vast slaughterhouse covered with scorched earth.

The temporary fortifications no longer resembled temporary structures. Thick prefabricated armor plates, low stone walls cast from local materials, and metal railings inlaid with jagged crystal cluster fragments were stacked on top of each other, forming a jagged battle line stretching for several kilometers.

To put it bluntly, no one believes that this defensive line is the work of the Night's Watch.

But the truth is, this was a temporary defensive line set up by the Night's Watch, or rather, by the expeditionary force.

The fact that it could be set up like this is enough to show how intense the battle was here, to the point that even the defensive lines were difficult to set up properly.

The walls of these fortifications themselves are an extremely bloody and chaotic abstract mural.

Large swaths of dark purple, viscous void pollution spread out like splashed ink, crystallizing the earth and the surrounding environment with purple crystals, within which black cracks appeared.

Everything gave off a sense of decay and destruction.

The blood of the dark green, foul-smelling chaotic monsters splattered and splashed, resembling eerie moss, a result of the frenzied native creatures.

Driven mad, they rejected all intruders and fought a chaotic battle with the void, which wanted to kill all living beings.

The sight of fresh or dried, blackened human bloodstains is shocking.

Not to mention the dried animal hide fragments hanging on alloy spikes, the huge compound eyes stuck in the seams of the armor that had not yet rotted, and the unrecognizable remains of internal organs trampled deep into the mud.

The entire battlefield reeked of a nauseating odor.

The intense stench of rotting corpses, the acrid smell of burning sulfurous crystals, the cloyingly sweet odor of ruptured internal organs, and the pungent, gunpowder-like fumes from acid-corroded swamps mixed with the toxic smell of purifying explosives together constitute the "keynote" of this land of death.

This place can only be described as a hellish painting.

(End of this chapter)