Apocalypse Gachapon

Chapter 2152.5- Blood Battlefield (5)

Lady Star was truly anxious.

No one in the Star-Eye Clan could be lost except Ye Zhongming. If the First Squad hesitated and failed to retreat before the Heavy-Hammer Apes began their charge, it would certainly be too late. Even if they retreated, they would be caught.

But there was no further response from Ye Zhongming. Just as Lady Star was about to use her authority as clan leader to order him back, something unexpected happened.

The source of this change was the metal balls that had rolled down to the base of the slope.

On the path, they had served a purpose. Their hardness, combined with the treated surface of the path, prevented them from being crushed. Anything that stepped on them lost balance and rolled down.

But at the base of the slope, they were harmless. The soft ground could not support a beastʼs weight on the balls; the balls would simply be pressed into the earth, losing all effect.

Even where the ground was firm enough, the flat terrain meant a beast might stumble but quickly regain its footing.

So these scattered balls had faded from attention.

Yet now, they re-entered the spotlight most astonishingly.

They burst from the ground. Small wings extended from their sides and vibrated rapidly, lifting them into the air.
All eyes turned to this spectacle. But before any creature could react, the balls… exploded.

There was no deafening roar or blinding flash like gunpowder weapons. Instead, there was a faint crackling, like wood burning.

Then came the distinctive whistling of countless sharp objects cutting through the air.

The balls had been in front of the mutant formation—right where the Heavy-Hammer Apes stood. As they exploded, waves of these apes collapsed, writhing in pain on the ground. There was no blood, only apparent agony and howling, as if they had lost their senses.

Even the giant Multi-Armed Wild Man Demon tilted to the side. It braced itself with several logs to avoid falling, but the mutated lifeforms beneath those logs were crushed to death.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of Ye Zhongmingʼs mouth.

These seemingly ordinary balls were one of his trump cards. If he had only wanted to make the charging beasts roll down the slope, he had other methods—formations, or smoothing the path and coating it with lubricant, for example.

But he had chosen metal balls—an extraordinary piece of new equipment he called ”Round Bees.”

These balls were dense devices. They had two features. The first was a hard shell that could withstand being crushed by the beasts—it needed at least Ke Steel-grade defense. That alone meant they could not be made from ordinary materials.

Some of the observers had wondered: using such good materials just to slow the charge? Wasnʼt that a bit extravagant?

But considering Ye Zhongmingʼs habit of handing out so much equipment, they assumed that a person of such wealth might simply not care. Even if they thought about it, they did not take it seriously.

After all, ordinary people never truly understand the world of the wealthy.

To the small clan alliance, Ye Zhongming was indeed wealthy. But he was not one to squander resources.

The second feature of the balls—and the real difficulty—lay in their internal structure.

They employed a high-end technique from the Talos Red Dwarvesʼ weapon and equipment manufacturing, officially called ”Stacked Bow.”

Ye Zhongming had spent three days, without sleep, conducting countless experiments before mastering this technique. Through continuous practice, he had gained new insights and reached a higher level.

For these balls, he used only this technique—a single mechanism. But he had applied it ten thousand times within each metal ball!

When he had dismantled Talos Red Dwarf equipment that used this technique, the highest number of stacked bows he found was 4,972—less than half of what he had achieved with his ”Round Bees.”

Once mastered, stacking bows was not particularly difficult. With extensive practice, one could easily achieve a thousand stacks. Beyond that, the difficulty increased. Each additional thousand stacks represented a new level of challenge.

At that point, precision was required. Otherwise, to ensure success, a thousand stacked bows would need to be a kilometer long.

But Ye Zhongmingʼs top-tier Craftsman status, his ample mental energy, and the benefits of the Great Refinement Soul Technique gave him exceptional overall ability.

When he tested his limits with stacked bows, he reached over seven thousand layers in just five minutes!

He did not know how this compared to the Talos Red Dwarvesʼ capabilities, but likely few could match it. And to fit so many stacks into such a small space…

This technique had already surpassed the limits of visibility; it relied entirely on feel.

Of course, the large quantities of precious metals he had acquired and his willingness to endure failure and material waste, were also essential to his success.

But when he broke through to ten thousand stacked bows, the result was only one: immense, overwhelming explosiveness!

Around the stacked bow mechanism was the metal ballʼs shell. Externally, nothing was visible. But if one cut open a ball, the internal structure would reveal itself: a bundle of countless short needles pressed together. When the ball exploded, the stacked bowʼs force was released, tearing apart the structure, and the ball became countless short needles flying in all directions.

They were not particularly sharp, but with that force behind them, piercing defenses was effortless.

And they were… poisonous.