Famine 245: Shattering

Boom!

A wave of noise exploded from the crowd, a roar of excitement that shook Si Zhiyan’s eardrums until they ached.

In this moment, there was no way for anyone to keep calm. Si Zhiyan found it nearly impossible to distinguish the words people were shouting; every living soul had a thousand bitter stories to tell, and those voices became a blood-soaked tide, indistinguishable, each syllable weeping out their haunted, hard-won path.

Bian Xu floated directly above the battlefield. Here, in the skies above, was the position closest to the [Chief God]—the spot no monitor could replace, the most perfect vantage for a commander.

At that moment, Bian Xu no longer bothered to maintain any disguise: only a drifting white mist curled around him, with golden hair faintly visible, tousled by the blazing wind.

“Long-range teams, prepare! First marking wave, set—!”

Bian Xu’s voice rang out crisp and decisive over the channel, each order clear, steady, and bright. One command after another was issued, and the surge of the crowd, blanketed beneath the blood moon, scattered and spread, rushing toward the targets they had practiced for so long.

Crack! The first projection tag landed on the [Chief God]’s tendrils. Then came the second, and the third.
@Infinite stories, all on Jinjiang Literature City

The god stood in the center of countless projections, limbs askew, seeming not to understand what this was.

“Three, two, one… Fire!”

A humming surge, and the blue crystals worn by remote players erupted in dazzling light all at once.

Mage staffs were raised, bows drawn, sniper scopes lifted. A torrent of every conceivable attack arced through the sky—energy and bullets screaming—and crashed straight into the [Chief God].

【[Blue Crystal] Second-stage Forging Unlocked: Spellcaster skill power +15%. If attached to armor, adds an additional 15% flexible defense.】

The farm’s remote units, sacrificing almost every opportunity for increased defense or agility, had received only one kind of support: everything was poured into maximizing their spell power.

Among individual players, such focus was nearly impossible. No one could entrust all their hopes, all their lives, to someone else so completely.

Bang! Bang bang bang bang!

The Chief God’s golden light flared and erupted.

Like a vast slime struck and shattered, the radiance splashed and flowed, moaning, like ruptured, bleeding flesh.

The scattered gold light lashed out in clear retaliation, shuddering, and swept toward the source of attack.

Gao Zhai shouted, “Spring Grass Mercenary Corps, form up! Defensive formation, now!”

In front of every remote team, melee fighters had arrayed themselves, their war cries echoing as shields were raised, fortifications snapped into place, even their skin and muscle tensed and forged into armor, blocking that golden light head-on.

Wummm!

【[Lifespring—Mother’s Blessing]: Defense +15%】
【[Meat Processing Factory—Smoked Meat Can]: Defense +5%】
【[Life Crystal] Second-stage Forging Unlocked: Carriers gain 50% increased vitality, making living beings harder to kill, greatly enhancing endurance, immunity, and blood supply tolerance.】
【……】

Every glass cannon could trust their backs to them!

The [Chief God] hadn’t yet worked out how to counter these protected ranged cannons. But at the very front, the Ferryman of Bones Defense Corps had already closed in on the god.

Shao Tong racked his gun with a hard snap: “Kill!!”

His brothers answered, a tidal wave of sound.

This time, there were enough trained and armed fighters on the farm to keep the Ferryman of Bones Defense Corps united.

These seasoned veterans, surrounding Commander Nie, shouted their battle songs to the skies.

Those unfamiliar with war sometimes ask naive questions. @Infinite stories, all on Jinjiang Literature City

When the vanguard faces the most dangerous field and harshest conditions, with the highest casualty rates, how do commanders convince their soldiers to move forward instead of cowering at the rear?

From ancient times in any formidable army, the chance to take the vanguard, to win first honors, had to be fought for tooth and nail. Nearly every soldier would compete for, argue for, sometimes even scream for the chance—because only the best units could earn the right to lead the charge.

It means the greatest danger, but the greatest chance to achieve glory, the greatest chance to shape the war’s outcome!

A force with faith does not fear battle; fresh soldiers crave merit.
“Let me fight first, and I will be victorious!”

Bian Xu, poised above, switched channels, his voice brimming with calm confidence: “It’s in your hands, Commander Nie.”

“Understood!” Nie Du’s reply rang short and resolute.

Wave after wave of attacks, layer by layer, crashed against the golden light.

In an instant, countless marks of battle flashed before them: ravens spread their wings and shrieked, black blood spraying—

After years and years of unwavering faith, endless sacrifice and rebirth, …the Ferryman of Bones Defense Corps had—

In that moment, above and below, every layer of gold was marked, shattered, then reconstructed—the Chief God powerless to do anything but screech.

Frontally, if that failed—

Boom! The gold light swelled, swelling up in a burst that exploded across the sky.

The god began to reconfigure itself.

Tens of thousands of golden tendrils shot from every direction, reaching for Bian Xu high above.

Yan Cheng swung his battle-axe with a shout: “Look out!”

Crash!

Millions of sinuous, menacing vines erupted from the earth, streaming in from everywhere to intercept the golden tendrils.

Bian Xu stood firm. Fire burned in those gold eyes, golden hair fluttering in the wind.

He was the farm, and the farm was him. It was a curse he could never erase, but also the gift he’d received, loved, and fused into his very bones.
In that instant, the whole earth, the sky, everything they’d worked to build, was one with him.

Surrounded by sparkling explosions, Bian Xu crossed his arms and laughed aloud:

“Think I’m a breakthrough point? Sorry—you picked the wrong guy.”

Snap!

The vines whipped those gold tendrils powerfully aside.

At the same moment, many players who’d been waiting below leaped up, converging midair to meet the gold light. Well-coordinated, their countless tendrils tangled like a net, shredding the broken golden light in an instant.

This was the flying mine dog squad—[Bloodglow Team].

Their leader, Xia Ke, was a young woman, laughing as she floated on her big, shaggy dog, winking at Bian Xu.

Even in the heat of action, Bian Xu couldn’t resist these comic moments, clapping once with a laugh: “Beautiful!”

Yan Cheng shouted into the wind, “It’s too dangerous here, Commander—get down!” @Infinite stories, all on Jinjiang Literature City

“It’s all right,” Bian Xu replied, smiling, “If it keeps the god’s eyes on me, you’ll all be safer. Fight well—don’t disappoint me!”

…Open, sincere, burning hot-blooded.

Yan Cheng was momentarily choked—he didn’t know what to say. His mind told him it was reckless, but his chest swelled with pride and warmth. In the end, he pressed his lips together, took a deep breath, and nodded gravely.

Last time, the farm owner Mr. Si Zhiyan had stood out front, unwavering. And his obvious successor, his assistant, took his place at the most critical moments, leading first from the front.

With such a farm owner, such commanders—what else could anyone do but give everything they had?

Yan Cheng swung his hunter’s axe with force, crackling blue-white lightning descending and exploding all around, twining instantly with the gold light.

“Liang Qingshuang!”

“Coming!” [Silver Feather Phantom] Liang Qingshuang shouted, tracing a circle with her ice-blade.

It was the same move she’d once performed with Yan Cheng when fighting [the Eye].

With the farm’s coordination, these two Chosen—unlikely even ever to meet—Clasped hands, and discovered that their abilities fit together with extraordinary synergy.

Instantly, lightning raced through the icy path Liang Qingshuang set, bursting again and again, spreading in a flash, rising like a field of thunder.

Ice domain, lightning field—in their arcs, the battlefield was wiped clean!

The Chief God shrieked in inhuman tones. The area was already cleared of players—only golden, flowing tendrils remained, shredded to bits by thunder, then pummeled further, until nothing but charred earth remained.

And across the front, more teams of Chosen had found combinations like theirs.

In this chaos, the Chosen from Xubei team were scattered too. Anderson, Zhong Yanqing, Wang Jianguo… all had found the teammates best suited to them. Some partnered with Chosen they’d never met; others, with non-Chosen whose skills happened to fit perfectly.

These groups became specialized squads, each with their own role, as sharp as blades—some covering the flanks, some leading the charge, some commanding flocks of wild anomalies—two or three working together like an entire army.

Here was the farm, humanity’s Babel, transcending race, camp, all stubbornness and prejudice, binding all survivors into one fabulous whole.

If you yearn for food, if you still hunger for life… you can find your place, here on the farm.

Wummm…

Under a rising storm of thunder from all sides, the Chief God’s golden light soon began to falter.

Slowly, irresistibly, it started to break apart.

“Did—did we do it?!” Someone, bloodied, looked up.

“Wait, no, there’s—there’s still something under that light—?”

Boom!

All remaining golden light exploded.

This blast was so sudden, so complete, no one had time to turn away.

In the midst of the shattering brilliance, everyone saw it: at the heart of the gold, a vast, chaotic, indescribable, unnameable thing.

It erupted like a geyser, surging, writhing, rolling, flooding over the field in a single instant.

Everyone’s ankles were suddenly awash in the stuff, caught off guard.

Amid shouts, people looked down.

It was as if it were matter, and yet some carrier of information-flow.

Its form and color changed continuously, sometimes formless and colorless, like a multitude of shifting, flickering words—each word a cell, or a crawling bug. Joined together by the million.

Symbols upon symbols, words in every language, entwined in recursive information; over and over, one word repeated—

Reproduction
Zeugung
せいしょく
Rozmna??anie
????
Riproduzione
Reprodukcija

——

Reproduction