Ark Chess Player

Chapter 111 Still inexperienced, but with unlimited potential

"Swords and fire, come first."

"Blood and bone come last."

"Heart and soul, burning."

"Life and death, the cycle of reincarnation."

Yan Ke's figure flashed in and out of the swirling slime, even the exploding flames couldn't keep up with him. His movements seemed like he was just wandering around aimlessly, but Lin Lu could still discern a pattern. It was a skill honed through countless encounters with numerous enemies, allowing him to keep his back hidden in a safe place at all times.

It's like having enemies surrounding Yan Ke; he would probably feel like the enemy is always attacking him head-on.

Moreover, Lin Lu, sitting on the staff, realized that this guy was a typical mercenary.

Yan Ke's swordsmanship is designed for killing, focusing on taking the enemy's head in the shortest time possible. However, he seems somewhat powerless against such a large monster.

That makes sense, after all, no comprehensive guide to all weapons in the New World has been passed down in Terra. These people also lack experience fighting large monsters, so naturally they don't know the true romance of the katana master. The tripe thrust, the Sadaharu hem, the Guli iaido, the righteous pebble—thrilling and exciting… the last one seems to be the perfect weapon hunter, except for that one.

If Lin Lu hadn't had a leg cramp, he could have grabbed his staff and gone up to fight the monster.

As a qualified support, the first skill to learn is Illumination (blinding), and max out all other stats like Constitution, Agility, and Strength. For skill books, learn One-Handed Sword Mastery, Two-Handed Sword Mastery, and max out Melee as well. In fights, use Illumination as soon as it's off cooldown, blind the enemy, and charge in for the kill. When no one can threaten your ADC, you'll be the coolest guy in the Rift, the best support.

"Ok?"

Lin Lu noticed a gaze on him and subconsciously turned his head to look.

Under the hole in the ceiling of the food processing plant, a bear-like girl with dark red hair was watching him.

The girl's school uniform looked very nice, but it was dirty because it hadn't been washed in a long time, not to mention that it was stained with bloodstains of different shades.

Lin Lu squinted. He was mistaken. The girl's hair was white, but it was stained with so much blood that it looked red at first glance.

"what……"

The girl raised her hand towards the sky, and in the dim night sky, she saw the light she longed for.

Lin Lu's gaze fell on the girl's wounds, his eyes fixed on her. He wanted to go down and check on her, but his instincts compelled him to turn away.

"Gaaaaaah—"

The berserk slime roared to the sky, spewing out large amounts of steam, and the thick white fog obscured the surrounding vision.

Deep red patterns covered its entire body, and its dried-up form showed signs of melting. It had shrunk from four meters tall to three meters, yet it felt even more dangerous.

After being deliberately lured into throwing a punch by Yan Ke, and having his other arm severed in a counterattack, the slime monster went into a state of self-immolation as if it wanted to burn everything to ashes.

At close range, Yan Ke was forced to retreat repeatedly by the intense heat of the steam. His blood flames protected his body, preventing him from being completely burned. Even so, his clothes still smelled of burnt charcoal, and his arms, which held the knife in front of him, were burned bright red, making his entire body look as if it were soaked in red paint.

"Three stages, huh..."

Lin Lu had an expression of complete surprise when the slime monster activated its destruction mode; he didn't even frown.

"It's time to end this."

Lin Lu gripped his staff tightly, closed his eyes, and resonated his mind with the Originium Arts trigger device.

He could hear the will of Originium, he could hear the voice emanating from the source of Originium, and he could hear the sound of the ever-surging waves.

"Noisy."

The commotion in his mind instantly subsided, and Ibitas's aura emanated from Lin Lu's body, a flash of silvery-white light passing by.

Lin Lu removed the glove from his left hand, and the burning flag imprint on the back of his hand shone with a deep glow. Extracted and fused black substances seeped from under his skin, and he clenched his fist tightly.

"Secret Staff - Anti-Gravity Mode x300%!"

Intricate patterns instantly appeared on the black and silver Originium staff. The outer shell of this Originium Artifact device showed signs of cracking, almost instantly exceeding its capacity. Uncontrollable power scattered, emitting a deafening roar, as if a corner of the night sky had collapsed. The deep blue energy waves swirling around Lin Lu were like the unpredictable ocean; the sunny side disappeared, revealing the cold, ruthless loneliness that was the true nature of the deep sea.

Lin Lu raised his hand, and the rapidly swirling air currents blocked the high concentration of steam that the slime monster was unleashing, dispersing the wisps of smoke.

In the world of white mist, he was the only one with a different color.

"Only a storm can topple a big tree?"

Cobalt blue reality flowed rapidly between Lin Lu's fingers. His Originium Arts, enhanced to more than three times their normal power, felt like a time bomb strapped to his heart; the slightest misstep would blow him up. The Ark Driver's central core shone with unparalleled brilliance, its auxiliary icons gleaming a deep blue, as if confirming this metaphor.

"FNNDP!"

Lin Lu raised his left hand high, and the three-ton slime monster was lifted into the air by an invisible, mighty force, leaving the surface of Chernobog.

This is the edge of Chernobog's upper city, the summit that Lin Lu climbed from the outer city wall, a height of a hundred meters, and also the bottomless abyss of monsters.

The deep blue aura swirling around him dispelled the high-temperature steam emanating from the slime monster. The severely burned Flamebringer stared dumbfounded at the monster soaring into the air, feeling as if he had been detached from reality.

He looked down at his blade. Was a sword really such an inconvenient thing?

“嘎嘎嘎嘎！！”

The crimson slime seemed to sense what awaited it and frantically tried to break free, but it was powerless under the power of space.

After repeated attempts to thrash itself to no avail, it resolutely chose to self-destruct, attempting to transform its entire body into slime mold and perish together with the city.

"Secret Staff - Particle Mode x300%!"

Countless streams of real matter materialized and bombarded the monster, a deluge of starlight sweeping across the surface, forcefully dispersing the slime oozing from its body. The speed of regeneration and the speed of dissolution were locked in a fierce struggle, neither gaining the upper hand. Half of the solidified slime, which had reached the critical point of melting, was covered by countless streams of cobalt blue flames, preventing air from entering the combustion zone.

Blood, flowing like tiny snakes, trickled from Lin Lu's nose. He felt as if the blood vessels in his head were about to burst, and the sound of the flowing blood made his scalp tingle.

Using two spells simultaneously, both in an overloaded state, would likely cause an ordinary person to suffer a stroke and die on the spot; it would be a miracle if they could last even three seconds.

"Robert!!"

Lin Lu waved his hand outwards, and the struggling slime monster was flung off the outer wall by the invisible spatial force, falling from the sky.

The outer walls of Chernobog weren't particularly high, but for a three-ton monster, even the strongest vitality should eventually come to an end.

But that's not enough, not enough. We must not leave even the slightest chance.

If such a monster survives and continues to grow in the desolate wasteland, who knows what kind of monster it will become.

Lin Lu pressed down heavily with his left hand, reversing the anti-gravity force wrapped around the slime and applying gravity to accelerate the giant's fall.

The reality particles covering the slime changed from cobalt blue to light red, and the monster, surrounded by highly flammable and explosive materials, resembled a comet landing.

The explosion landed with a tremendous roar, followed by a violent blast that shrouded the night sky in flames. The shockwave slammed into Chernobog, causing the mobile city to teeter on the brink of collapse. As for the monsters left behind in the desert, those nearby were instantly charred, while those further away were blown away by the airflow and smashed into the mobile city's chassis, becoming embedded in the tracks, impossible to remove.

It's likely that the slime monster is indeed dead.

Chapter 112 Anemone, My Superman (4K)

A howling wind swept by, lifting the hem of Lin Lu's red robe, and the shimmering particles of light dissipated into the air.

Lin Lu's body swayed heavily, and the Originium trigger device covered with fine lines in his hand immediately collapsed and disintegrated into powder.

The Ark Drive's energy was depleted, and the transformation was automatically deactivated.

Lin Lu transformed back to his original form in mid-air, with a wisp of anti-gravity magic remaining around him.

He weakly raised his hand and grasped at the void. This feeling of constantly falling brought back a sense of déjà vu to his mind.

"Is this what it feels like to be kicked off the Hyperion...? No, what have I done before?"

Lin Lu made a self-deprecating remark, and then burped, with thick black smoke coming out of his mouth, as if his body was being burned.

Even a monstrous physique couldn't withstand Lin Lu's relentless pushing, pushing him beyond his limits time and time again, and his self-recovery ability gradually couldn't keep up with the speed of his self-destruction.

"Boom boom—boom!"

At the end of Lin Lu's line of sight, Noah's heavy motorcycle roared over, covering a hundred meters in an instant.

The AI-powered disabled man was driving a heavy motorcycle at full speed, looking quite smug as he took his hands off the throttle and spread his arms to try and catch him.

Anemone, my Superman.

Even a rational monster like Lin Lu would be moved if someone was willing to lend a helping hand in your most dangerous time.

Lin Lu stretched out his hands toward the silver lotus, the two smiled at each other, and then Lin Lu's palm passed through the silver lotus's body, his face slamming heavily onto the cushion.

"Splat".

After the rice seedlings were planted upside down and stood taut for a while, they slumped down and hung on the heavy motorcycle, looking like a salted fish that had been over-dried.

"Doctor, I'm just an AI girl, not a real girl. What are you thinking?" Anemone poked Lin Lu's buttocks, her fictional fingers turning into faint particles. "Even if I were a real girl with flesh and blood, with this equipment of yours hitting me, I'm afraid I'd be sent to the second dimension on the spot."

"That's enough, stop it, let me have some peace and quiet."

Lin Lu wiped away the blood from his nose, feeling a genuine fear of the anemone's brain-depressing aura.

Noah's motorcycle carried the exhausted Lin Lu toward the food processing plant. Yin Lianhua deliberately slowed down the motorcycle and looked around from time to time.

Lin Lu frowned and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Doctor, as an experienced warrior who can instantly see through enemy traps and is invincible with a brick in hand, there's only one possible ending for you: the screenwriter must have used their brain as a public toilet flushing toilet, the kind that hasn't been cleaned in four years. You'll be stabbed in the back on the spot by the person you rescued, then shot in the leg with a shotgun, and then..."

"That's enough, stop talking, or my golf PTSD will flare up again."

Lin Lu's lips twitched slightly, and his stomach ached so badly that he felt like he was going to vomit up the only apple he had eaten that day.

But he also understood that the anemone was reminding him not to let his guard down with strangers, especially these survivors.

The survivors in Chernobog were far more desperate than the refugees guarding the Rhodes Island ships.

"Maybe you shot their parents in the head three years ago, Doctor," Anemone added.

"Shut up! Stop trying to rally support for me! You want me to die already, don't you!"

Lin Lu instinctively raised his hand to slap away the anemone, but when his hand touched its body, the disintegrating particles caused a sudden pain in his chest, preventing him from continuing. A scene suddenly flashed in his mind: an anemone with half its face covered in Originium clusters lay in his arms, smiling as it cradled his cheek. Its body gradually disintegrated, turning into tiny specks of firefly light.

"hiss!"

Lin Lu gasped, shook his head violently, and blinked his slightly moist eyes.

It seems he's become obsessed with grinding monsters, even hallucinating.

Stop.

A katana burning with blood flames blocked Noah's motorcycle's path. Yan Ke, wielding the katana in both hands, stared at Lin Lu, his golden eyes vertical, like a dragon opening its eyes.

"You're still alive, that's good."

Yan Ke stood with his knife in hand, his tone calm. His body, which was almost steamed by the high temperature, stood straight and stared intently at Lin Lu.

His eyes revealed no other emotion, only longing, like an adventurer who had been adrift at sea for over a decade in search of unknown treasure, who had discovered an unexplored island.

"How should I address you? The evil spirit of the Tower of Babel, the leader of the Army Without Borders, or... Rhodes Island?"