Gate of Revelation

Chapter 843

Yang Yi wore a metal arm guard on his left arm. He pressed his left arm twice. Next, a mechanical clicking sound rang out as the arm guard immediately expanded, enveloping his whole body, forming an exoskeleton suit, complete with helmet.

He also brought out an energy rifle from his storage gear.

Tina, on the other hand, was equipped with two small, silvery-white pistols, one in each hand. However, the muzzles of the pistols were as big as hair dryers.

Yang Yi took the lead with big strides while Tina followed closely behind, her eyes constantly darting around.

The farther ahead the two ventured, the higher the humidity level became. Due to the humid air, water droplets swiftly formed upon the exposed surface of their bodies before dripping down every now and again.

That was especially true of Tina, whose long brown hair had become completely wet, sticking to her shoulders.

The two of them were transferred not too far away from the city and only needed to walk for around ten plus minutes to return to the peripheral area of the city.

Although the fog was becoming increasingly thick, it had yet to completely block off their line of sight. There was a small settlement up ahead, packed full with dilapidated huts. They were made from planks, built along the terrain there. Some of them had already collapsed while some others were already on the verge of collapsing.

Wind blew over from the front, carrying with it an obvious ocean stench.

Neither one of them gave the order, but both Yang Yi and Tina slowed down at the same time. Exchanging glances, they then slowly lowered their bodies.

They crawled forward until they arrived at the edge of the shanty town. Peering through the fog, they saw that a strange plant had risen up in the centre of the shanty town.

Clearly, this was the Misty Ocean Tree mentioned in the instance dungeon prompt.

Appearance wise, it appeared more like a mollusk than a plant. Tens of flexible tentacles protruded out from its trunk and were raised up high around it. The tentacles sprayed mist out nonstop.

In the area around the Misty Ocean Tree – within the shacks – were monsters of varying appearances. They looked like something formed through the fusion of humans and aquatic lifeforms. Moreover, there were also many kinds.

The hundreds of monsters standing guard at the outermost perimeter area were not too big. Rather, they were slightly smaller compared to normal humans. Except for the fact that they possessed a tuna’s head, there was nothing else special about them.

The monsters farther inside were all practically of varying appearances. Some looked like octopuses and some looked like swordfishes. Likewise, they all possessed a four-limbed humanoid body and were bigger in size. The monsters walking in a circle right below the Misty Ocean Tree had bodies with bulging muscles, obvious gill slits on their necks and eyes that extended out from either side of their heads. Their heads resembled that of a hammerhead shark.

“And here I was thinking it was something incredible. It’s actually nothing more than a big humidifier,” Yang Yi said with a hushed tone. “The number of monsters is somewhat high. One sniper, one infiltrator. Try your best to delay the moment of battle so that we can escape after launching just one attack.”

“I know.” Tina nodded. She turned and was just about to leave when Yang Yi suddenly raised his hand to snatch away the two pistols in her hands before tossing over his energy rifle to her.

“What are you doing?” Tina was startled.

Although the combat personnel from Zero City’s resident guilds have all received various types of training, they still had certain inclinations towards certain areas of expertise. Relatively speaking, Yang Yi was more proficient at long-ranged sniping while Tina was more specialized in close quarters urban warfare.

Upon escaping from Zero City, the two of them quickly found that they had been kicked out of their respective guilds. After a few days passed, they two of them eventually had to become temporary combat partners. All this time, whenever they were inside instance dungeons, it was Yang Yi who would assume the sniper role and provided cover from the back while Tina charged to fight the enemy.

“We’ll change this time. I’ll take the front.” Yang Yi held onto the two pistols. Weighing them for a bit, he then said with a tone that brook no argument, “You’ve only just given birth. Don’t let that child lose his mother.”

“I don’t think this instance dungeon will be too dangerous. Even so… thank you.” Tina fell silent for a moment before nodding.

Yang Yi continued to stand there while Tina picked up the energy rifle. With a crouching posture, she quickly climbed up to a high ground.

Thanks to the hot and humid climate of South America, the vegetation near the city were able to thrive. Tina carefully hid herself within a clump of tropical plants. Putting up the energy rifle, she aimed it at the centre of the shanty town.

“I’m in position.” Tina’s voice rang out from the rice-sized communication earpiece in Yang Yi’s ear. “From your current position, head forward by fifty metres. There are no enemies. When you reach the third house, break in through the window and leave from the backdoor on the other side.”

“Got it.”

Yang Yi replied with a deep voice. Lowering his body, he then quickly moved forward with spry steps.

Although the number of merfolk within the shanty town was considerable, most of them were spread out, leaving only tens of stronger looking ones standing guard around the Misty Ocean Tree. The shanty town was quite big. Moreover, there were also various kinds of junk heaped around the place. Following Tina’s guidance, Yang Yi carefully snuck forward and was able to quickly approach the central area of the shanty town without being discovered.

“There are no more paths. All of them are occupied.” Tina carefully observed the situation below through the energy rifle’s scope. “At this distance, there are no longer any blind spots in their defence.”

“Got it. Give me the best route.” Yang Yi kept his voice to its lowest.

He had not hoped that he could sneak all the way to the Misty Ocean Tree without a fight. The fact that he could come this far was already satisfactory enough for him.

The number of monsters they had to face this time was too high. As there were only two of them, it would be too dangerous to simply barge in and fight the monsters head on.

“Rush out through the window on your right and open fire straight ahead. Then, turn right and run as fast as possible in the two o’clock direction. Next… wait!”

Tina, who was looking through the scope, suddenly let out a low cry.

“What happened?”

Yang Yi had only just asked when he heard the sound of planks cracking.

“Run! You’ve been discovered!”

Tina quickly said, her voice suppressed. At the same time, an energy beam shot out from the muzzle of the energy rifle to pierce through a merfolk.

Yang Yi instinctively moved forward. As he was rolling twice across the ground, he aimed the two pistols at his back. Without even turning his head, he pulled the trigger to fire out two arcing lines.

Behind him, two merfolk cried out miserably in unison. These two had only just destroyed the boards of the shack when a series of balls of light – the size of ping pong balls – struck them. Their bodies were thus smashed backwards.

“Charge!”

Tina bit her lower lip as she aimed at one merfolk after another using the scope. Every time she pulled the trigger, a merfolk would have its head blown up before falling to the ground.

It was unknown if it was due to their sense of smell or hearing, but the monsters seemed to possess quite the keen perception. Surprisingly, they were able to discover Yang Yi’s whereabouts before their side could launch an attack.

With this, not only did their painstaking infiltration efforts became completely meaningless, Yang Yi also fell into a siege.

The only option left was to quickly advance towards the Misty Ocean Tree.

Hopefully, the radioactive particles unit provided by the instance dungeon would work fast enough.

The energy rifle fired non-stop. Every time it opened fire, it would target the enemy closest to Yang Yi.

Yang Yi had already charged out from the dilapidated shack and was running towards the Misty Ocean Tree. At the same time, his hands swung out and the two pistols abruptly sprayed out two rows of light balls, which slammed into the group of merfolk. The tuna merfolk in the lead did not even have the time to react before the attack swept it aside.

Very weak!

The thought immediately appeared in Yang Yi’s mind.

However, how strong were the rarer merfolk deeper inside?

There were several hammerhead shark merfolk standing beneath the Misty Ocean Tree. Seeing Yang Yi charge out from the shack, they quickly uttered a series of peculiar syllables. After that, the surrounding merfolk swiftly spread out. Half of them moved to surround Yang Yi while the other half continued to stand guard around the Misty Ocean Tree. Every one of them brought out a crossbow made from fish bones and took aim at Yang Yi from a distance.

Yang Yi rapidly unleashed a sideway kick against the ground to evade a dense hail of arrows. Once again, he fired out another wave of light balls. This time, though, due to the enemies spreading out, his attacks were far less effective compared to the first time.

When the arrows struck the ground, they would all erupt into a clump of frost.

“These fellows are using magic weapons.”

Yang Yi whispered to Tina through his communicator. At the same time, he rushed into a small shack before jumping out from the window on the other side.

There were less than 50 metres left between him and the Misty Ocean Tree.

Yang Yi had only just jumped out of the window when the frost arrows brought down the shack behind him. Even so, he did not stop. He rushed along the narrow street and headed deeper inside.

Boom!

The two buildings on either side were abruptly upended as two hammerhead shark merfolk charged towards Yang Yi at the same time.

Yang Yi’s face was as cold as ice. He fired the two pistols furiously and a series of light balls shot forward. At the same time, his body slid forward to slip past the two merfolk’s encirclement from below.

However, the hide of the two hammerhead shark merfolk was terribly tough. Even though the bombardment from the light balls managed to inflict patches of burn on their hide, the explosions were not strong enough to break through the hide. All the explosions did was elicit a raging roar from them.

Despite their massive sizes, the movements of the hammerhead shark merfolk did not appear cumbersome at all. Before Yang Yi, who slid past them, could even get up, the two hammerhead shark merfolk had already turned around and two arms swung out simultaneously.

A long fin protruded out from both the arms of the hammerhead shark merfolk. As they swung their arms, the fins ripped the air to send four wind blades towards Yang Yi.

Hastily, Yang Yi evaded three of the wind blades but the last one struck his back, causing him to stagger forward.

Thankfully, the exoskeleton suit on his body was of quite the decent grade and the wind blade failed to break through it. That said, taking a few more of those attacks would likely result in the attacks going all the way into his bones and muscles.

Just ahead, tens of merfolk appeared. The one in the lead was yet another hammerhead shark merfolk.

A beam of light flew over from afar to precisely strike the right gill slit of a hammerhead shark from behind. The soft gills were not protected by its tough hide and were easily pierced through by the beam of light, resulting in a burst of blood. However, the hammerhead shark merfolk appeared to possess a stunningly tenacious level of vitality. Despite the severity of its wound, it did not fall down. Instead, it stretched a hand out and pointed at the distant Tina, roaring loudly.

Under the command of the hammerhead shark merfolk, tens of crossbow arrows were fired in unison, all towards Tina’s position.

As for Tina, after firing the shot earlier, she had already sensed that a counter attack would come. And so, she jumped to her feet and leaped towards the next sniper position that she had already determined beforehand.

However, in addition to the long-ranged attacks, the average merfolk soldiers were also rushing – in an orderly manner – to form an encirclement around Tina.

“Yang Yi, let’s withdraw. The difficulty level for this instance dungeon is higher than expected!”

Holding the rifle, Tina swiftly made her way around the shanty town while whispering into the communication device, “While they are still confused, you have a chance to leave.”

“Alright, you leave first.”

Yang Yi gave a short reply. At the same time, he pulled out a few plasma grenades. Pulling out the safety pins, he then hurled them forward.

These merfolk… they were no ordinary monsters.

Previously, when reading the quest description, he had not given them much thought. He had assumed that these merfolk were the same as the common monsters that he had encountered in the previous instance dungeons.

But looking at them now, they possessed a clear organizational structure and combat system. Moreover, the gurgling noises they made were clearly their language.

These merfolk were not some motley crew. Rather, this was a high-level army.

The plasma grenades exploded and the resulting flames engulfed the several merfolk who failed to evade in time. This also created a path for Yang Yi.

At any rate, this instance dungeon was not giving any punishment for failure of completion. Retreating now would only mean failure in obtaining the completion reward. It was not a big loss.

For the past few months, the two of them had been fighting, advancing and retreating together in instance dungeons. And while they were once formal combat personnel of Zero City’s resident guilds, tackling instance dungeons with so little members was still too much for them. Whenever they encountered a difficult enemy or a formidable instance dungeon monster, they would not feel ashamed about running away.

Taking advantage of the opening created by the dissipating plasma, Yang Yi charged out of the encirclement. Up ahead, Tina, who had the high ground, was quickly running away, putting more distance between her and her pursuers. Occasionally, she would stop to provide cover fire for Yang Yi.

But the merfolk arrows were continuously shooting towards Tina. Moreover, as Tina had to hastily open fire while in a state of combat, it was only inevitable for her hit rate to fall significantly. Tina had opened fire a total of 13 times, but only managed to hit five merfolk. Furthermore, all five were tuna merfolk, the lowest-level merfolk.

Yang Yi was running non-stop, but his pursuers were getting closer and closer.

But that was not all. More merfolk appeared before him to surround him.

Clenching his teeth, Yang Yi pulled out more plasma grenades from his storage gear, three this time. Considering for a moment, he kept one of them before throwing the other two backwards.

They did not have many items on them back when they left Zero City. In the days after that, the rewards they earned were also quite insufficient. The number of plasma grenades was not replenishable.

Although the plasma explosions were able to stop the pursuers for a bit, they were incapable of completely stopping them.

“You go first. I’ll catch up in a bit.”

Yang Yi jumped onto the roof of a shack and panted into his mike.

“If I leave, it’ll be even harder for you to escape.”

Tina firmly refused. With her left hand, she pulled out a silk net that was as thin as a cicada’s wing and threw it backwards. The silk net could be seen up in the air for one second before it disappeared from sight.

A few seconds later, a few of the merfolk pursuers, the ones at the forefront, abruptly started twitching all over as they came to a halt. A high number of electrical sparks flew out from their bodies, which turned into charcoal before falling to the ground.

However, the net flickered with light a few times before breaking into pieces.

“If you stay behind, that’s dying alongside me. What will happen to your son if you die?” There was a rare emotional tone in Yang Yi’s voice. “Did you forget what you said to me? That no matter what, you would maintain Gibbs bloodline!”

Tina was silent.

“Your husband is Zero City’s hero. Raise your child well.” After saying that, Yang Yi reached out with his hand and crushed the communication device to bits.

Yang Yi stopped running and turned to look at Tina, who was still standing high up in the distance. Then, he said softly to himself, “Goodbye… Flower of Rodriar. The days spent with you were quite pleasant.”

By then, however, all Tina’s ears could hear were crackling electrical noises.

She swiftly glanced backwards at her pursuers before turning to look at Yang Yi. Almost all of his escape routes had been closed off. Tina gave a deep sigh and a look of determination in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Yang Yi. I know as well, but… I’m sorry.

“And… thank you.”

Yang Yi gently tossed away the energy pistols and equipped himself with two war blades. His body was taut as he stared at the merfolk that were swarming towards him.

The hammerhead shark merfolk leading the merfolk group was none other than the one whose gills were struck by Tina’s attack. Seeing Yang Yi giving up on running away, it stopped running as well. Instead, it strode forward, waving its hands to command the other merfolk to surround Yang Yi.

Their language was incomprehensible to Yang Yi and even their faces were different from that of humans, but the hatred in its eyes were very obvious.

“At the very least, I’ll be killing you…”

Yang Yi gripped the hilt of his blades tightly, his eyes fixed onto the hammerhead shark merfolk.

Boom!

A missile descended from the sky, hitting an area that had the most number of merfolk and also disrupting the attack that Yang Yi was preparing to launch.

The few merfolk situated at the centre of the explosion had their bodies blown to bits while the others that were close by were also affected by the shrapnel and flames. They rolled on the ground while uttering strange shrieking sounds.

Immediately after that, even more missiles and beams of light arrived, transforming the ground into a sea of flames.

The sunlight, which had been blurred by the fog in the air, now cast a line of shadows down upon the ground.

Yang Yi swiftly raised his head and saw ten Sentinel mechs flying over at a high velocity.

At the same time, the loudspeakers of all the Sentinel mechs, adjusted to the highest possible volume, roared out a single sentence.

“Today, Zero City is reborn!”

Those loud words were filled with intense emotions, unyielding battle intent and glory returned.