Make Azeroth breathtaking

"What is it...?!"

Within a fraction of a second, Remus had already deciphered Tannis's words and learned that he had been 'insulted'. Before he could even formulate a retort, the Abyssal Black Hole Cannon unleashed by Neo Gransen had already made intimate contact with his 'body'. The completely chaotic power brutally penetrated his flesh and blood, and instantly, Remus felt a part of his body 'lose contact' with him!

Ignoring the need to restore that part of his body, Remus ordered his swarm of reconnaissance insects to rush towards the direction from which the attack came. Although Tannis and the others maintained their disguises, Remus still managed to find some traces in the data stream—the attackers were both unexpected and logical.

"Ah! I thought you weren't coming! Well then..."

Realizing that the attacker was the player he had 'killed' several times earlier, Remus instantly abandoned his 'revenge plan' and shifted his focus. In a frenzied convulsion, countless monsters and beasts swarmed out, rushing towards the direction he had identified as the 'player'. At the same time, he also did his best to send his 'response' to the insults he had just received into the channel that had spoken to him earlier.

“You %＃￥ bitch! You bastard! ￥……% gorilla! ……%￥……%! ……**……%*（！”

———————————————Tannis's dividing line——————————————————

"I'm certain there are 'players' or reborn individuals inside this thing."

Tannis calmly turned off her wide area communication device, reset the chat system to the squad module, and calmly displayed the feedback she had just received on the screen.

"It's very obvious..."

Looking at the string of perfectly repeated insults on the public chat, Old D wiped imaginary sweat from his brow—admittedly, many legitimate NPCs now possess artificial intelligence and have begun to think logically, but insults... well, it seems Sargeras hasn't even implemented that feature for himself...

"But why is there a 'player' here?"

Iggy was utterly puzzled.

"I don't know, and the area my black hole cannon attacked is also very interesting—here, the effect it should produce is 'deletion,' but it didn't actually do any 'deletion' work."

"Cannot be deleted?"

"Yes, in this world of programming, only..."

Tannis paused for a moment, then raised her weapon.

"Attack! I need to get into its core and analyze the guy inside—Iggy, haven't you always wanted to capture a player or a reborn for experiments? Now's your chance!"

62. The Emerging 'Shadow'

The swarm, one of the most terrifying disaster templates in the universe.

Imagine tens or even hundreds of millions of wild beasts of varying sizes and functions, all born for slaughter. Driven by some will, they sweep towards you like a runaway locomotive—or even something more intimidating, like a flood—destroying everything in their path, devouring all the organisms they can, and then sending everything they can use back to their lair to produce new invaders, in an endless cycle.

But... the swarm of insects that is currently charging forward in a mighty force seems to be being ravaged.

"Boom—Boom—Boom!!!!"

On the vast plains, powerful artillery fire slowly and relentlessly advanced along a line of fire. Modular unmanned aerial units, arranged in orderly formations, roared as they clashed with enemy air units. At the forefront of the battle line, giant robots piloted by players spearheaded the charge, continuously clearing out the swarms of insects that had managed to escape the barrage with their light and heavy firepower. Clusters of small ground combat units moved across the ground in skirmish lines to complete the final reaping.

"Forward! Forward!"

Seeing the bustling scene before him, Old D, already excited and with the simulation set to around 80%, roared wildly into the communication channel while sprinting forward in his vehicle. Raising his wrist, he unleashed a series of white-hot ion balls at the massive beast charging towards him from a distance. Instantly, the already wounded behemoth was incinerated and its body shattered under the bombardment of the ion balls, collapsing heavily to the ground with a mournful howl. Old D, showing no intention of stopping, directly trampled his machine over the beast's body. Splattered blood and flesh clung to the machine's thighs, then were quickly dried by the high temperature emanating from the cooling system, creating a series of abstract paintings full of cruelty, looking incredibly gruesome.

"For the Lich King! For the Alliance!"

In this frenzied atmosphere, the enthusiasm of the other players was also mobilized. They roared all sorts of chaotic battle cries and frantically unleashed terrifying firepower on the swarm of insects in front of them. White-hot plasma, gushing flames, and a barrage of laser bullets rolled wave after wave across the front line, crushing and shattering everything in their way.

"I never expected you to be carrying an intelligent legion production device."

Sitting inside his own machine, Iggy fiddled with his magical assistants, making them collect as many seemingly problematic scraps as possible from the battlefield, while simultaneously communicating with Tannis, who was leisurely sipping juice, on the communication channel.

"You always need to prepare more things."

The master tinker put down his cup, slid his finger across the screen, and glanced at the feedback from the front lines.

"At first, I thought there was a 99% chance that the players controlled these things, but now I think it's 100%."

"What?"

"After the battle began, the Zerg swarm's unit composition kept changing and evolving, but it just didn't evolve in the right direction—some of the evolutions were just things that looked cool but were actually worse than their original counterparts. I personally think they couldn't even beat the Zerg swarm from the Ahn'Qiraj Wars—aside from the players, I can't think of any other being with this kind of thought process."

Hearing Tannis subtly point out a certain characteristic of players, Iggy's lips twitched slightly, but she had to admit Tannis had a point—in fact, even though World of Warcraft's events are now somewhat linked to reality, many players—especially those still accessing the game via computer—still mostly prefer choosing strange rewards, saying, "No matter what World of Warcraft becomes, looking cool is forever!"

"That makes sense, so is our opponent really going to be cool until the very end?"

"Maybe...but it's hard to say...hmm?"

Just as Tennys was pondering how to unravel the mystery of the Mother Nest and capture the players inside, a dragon-shaped insect that looked majestic and imposing flew out from afar caught her eye.

"How about we try provoking him again?"

——————The dividing line of the mother nest——————

"Like this? Like this? No way! Like this?"

Within the massive hive, Remus, his forces relentlessly crushed, was consumed by rage. He frantically mobilized his intelligence, utilizing his newly acquired knowledge to repeatedly adjust his swarm, but no matter how he adjusted, his swarm was pulverized under the enemy's terrifying firepower. Even when a few lucky swarms managed to break through the defenses, they could only take a few steps before being torn to pieces by the steel giants. The feeling of being torn apart sent a tingling, inexplicable sensation through his mind. And what enraged him even more was that it seemed... his opponent was playing games?

"Damn it! Bastard! ... & (*% (!)

Watching his magnificent dragon, created from a monster he remembered from a game known as a calamity, being easily sent to the ground by dozens of drones like a cruel joke, then torn to pieces by a swarm of combat robots, its head stuffed into cannon barrels and blasted towards him like a projectile, Remus was furious, cursing wildly. But no matter how angry he was, he couldn't change the fact that he was being used as a game experience.

"No! No! I need power—greater power! Even if I truly fall into darkness, it doesn't matter! I need power! If I can't even eliminate these players, how can I complete my true 'revenge'!"

Involuntarily, certain extremely childish thoughts began to surge through Remus's mind. He started to regret that he wasn't a real boss, a real villain—if he were someone like Sargeras or Amon, how could he have fallen into such... well, what he perceived as a hopeless situation!

'You...are praying...'

Just as Remus was cursing "fate is unfair" again and again, for inexplicably making him someone else's game experience, a deep voice rang in his mind. This voice was so malicious that Remus, whose mind was full of terrible thoughts, paused for a second.

'Who are you? '

'Hehehehe...'

A strange laugh rang out, and a 'person' that Remus recognized appeared before him. Seeing that this 'person' looked exactly like him when he was alive, Remus shuddered and felt all his thoughts vanish—nothing about defeating his opponent, nothing about revenge!

'What exactly are you...?'

"I am you... Little Remus... what you think, what you are incomplete..."

Remus smiled and slowly approached Remus, who was now a lump of flesh and unable to move. Realizing that something was definitely wrong, Remus frantically ordered his hive to intercept the person, but—there was nothing there!

"We... are one. Your hatred and anger made me who I am, and I will make you whole..."

Accompanied by Remus's scream of "Don't come any closer!!", the strange shadow slowly merged with Remus. At the same time, several readings on the instrument in front of Tannis suddenly spiked, and the swarm of insects on the battlefield seemed to receive some kind of 'boost,' extending their claws wreathed in black and red electricity and generating dark shields!

"Tannis!"

"I know, it seems the thing behind the scenes has emerged—or at least shown some signs—intelligent forces! System overload! Attack! Player squads! Follow me to decapitate!"

"Yes! Great Tinker!!"

Sixty-three. The third position

"Boom—Boom—Boom—"

On the wasteland of an unknown planet, the incessant sound of artillery fire echoed incessantly in the air like rolling thunder. The scorching wind blowing under the blazing sun carried a heavy smell of gunpowder. In the sky, drones arrayed in formation spewed white-hot air from their thrusters, continuously surging towards the front lines. At the junction of the battle lines, the earth was covered with crisscrossing trenches and writhing fortifications made of keratin and rock. The Zerg hive core in the far distance was enveloped by thick shields, walls, and various anti-aircraft guns, resembling a hedgehog.

"Nirvana".

Seated in her new Granzan, Tannis gently activated the control device on the crystal ball beside her, causing the forces of the void and holy light within the reactor to clash and annihilate each other, generating wave after wave of powerful energy. Driven by her machine, this energy transformed into deadly, white-hot beams of light, bombarding the distant Zerg hive's defenses. Although the newly formed defenses, stretching for tens of kilometers, effectively hindered Tannis's attack, under this terrifying power, the chitin of the Zerg organization and the soil and rocks they had gathered and used to work together surged wildly, like ice hitting molten iron. For every wall that was created, two or more were incinerated. For every swarm that managed to escape the trenches, three or more swarms were completely disintegrated.

Standing beside Gransen, Iggy's magical robot was also operating at full power. The power of the four elements—earth, wind, water, and fire—was transformed by the unpredictable magical devices into terrifying weapons that even the Greater Demons would avoid. Wave after wave swept across the front lines: ice, flames, acid rain, tornadoes, lava... all sorts of chaotic and amplified natural disasters struck one after another, struggling even against the swarm's enhanced bodies. However, compared to the unreasonable rays of Neo Gransen, this stuff was something they could withstand to some extent, perhaps?

Beside the two enormous robots, the undead, now fully equipped with heavy weaponry by Tannis, stood in a line. Their armor-piercing heavy cannons steadily bombarded the weak points of the swarm's fortifications, peeling them apart, dismantling, and pulverizing them like onions. Meanwhile, the undead armed with assault weapons, protected by thick energy shields, swept left and right with their powerful melee weapons, dissolving and vaporizing everything in their path, forcibly clearing a way. Their heavy footsteps pounded the earth, even causing a slight tremor.

"I never expected that he would change tactics just when we were preparing to send in a decapitation strike."

Seeing signs of fortresses emerging beside the newly opened passage, Tannis muttered to herself as she lightly swiped her finger across the projection screen in front of her, switching her weapon to the Warp Shatter Cannon. She then launched a precise attack on a group of unfinished Zerg hive fortresses, still writhing with flesh and blood, successfully nipping them in the bud.

"This clearly shows that the one over there at least has some brains—but no matter how it changes, it can't withstand one of your shots, right?"

Iggy lazily answered Tannis's colleague, casually turning a knob on his machine to its maximum and throwing a pot-like object out like a giant bomb. After rolling around on a pile of trenches for a while, the pumpkin-shaped pot was successfully cracked into thousands of fragments by the concentrated attack of the swarm of insects, spilling out a large amount of liquefied fire element, turning the trenches and the things inside into a hot, viscous substance.

"I just tried it—it's impossible to increase the destruction engine to its maximum value; the limit is only enough to fire a black hole cannon."

Tannis's slightly annoyed voice reached Iggy's ears.

"Huh? Something's wrong with your machine?"

"No, so considering the chaotic state of the area we initially entered, I'm starting to suspect that this region isn't simulating energy operation according to the 'Azeroth' module, but rather has developed its own ideas. This order is merely the result of extremes meeting."

"...If that's really the case, then it's no ordinary problem. So far, we haven't fought in a universe that isn't governed by the six fundamental laws—is there any way to confirm this?"

Tanis's words made Iggy's face immediately contort into a bitter grin—as a sorcerer, she had conducted at least nine thousand forbidden experiments, some of which allowed her to glimpse clues about worlds built on non-six fundamental forces. These worlds would undoubtedly make Azeroth's existing combat modules extremely difficult to operate—not to mention, the energy system alone would be in serious trouble!

"Not at the moment."

The Great Tinker quickly answered Iggy, then locked his cannon back onto the distant object, frowning slightly as he watched the fluctuating parameters on the instrument panel.

"But I think it will happen soon."

——————————————Inside the Mother Nest————————————————————

"That's how you should play!"

"No, no! It should be like this!"

"I think we should send out this kind of soldier! Look!"

"That's how it should be!!"

"We have already mastered the ability to control certain 'rules'! We should do it this way!"

Having been flooded with massive amounts of data, Remus, no longer fanatical, hung listlessly in his 'nest,' listening to the endless arguments echoing in his 'mind,' lifelessly allowing these voices, imbued with a certain malice, to dominate his will and control his actions—admittedly, merging with the data hadn't caused him to lose his independent consciousness as he initially thought, but now he seemed to be nothing more than a data processing core used for 'thinking'...

"Boom, boom—"

However, although Remus couldn't control his thoughts, much less stop them from wandering, all the information the swarm had gathered faithfully fed back into his mind. Hearing the explosions drawing ever closer to his location, and watching his swarm being crushed despite their best efforts in troop deployment, Remus suddenly felt a sliver of hope—at least for now, this place was still operating according to the rules of the game. If he failed…

"The situation is bad; there is a calculation error, and the interference has not reached its maximum value."

"Unable to stop it?"

"Forty-five minutes until Earth time, the defense line will collapse."

"Cancel the defenses, flip the table."

"Then, stimulate this spirit."

Just as Remus positioned himself as a spectator, entering "watching the show," he heard a strange change in the words in his head. Before he could figure out what the 'voice in his ear' was saying, all the nightmarish scenes he had experienced were clearly copied into his 'memory'! And that wasn't all—there was more, worse—things he had never experienced before were all being crammed in—even though Remus, having gone through the previous events, realized that these were 'illusions of the game,' the inexplicable surge of anger in his mind made it impossible for him to 'refuse'!

"I... um... ah!!!"