Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 703: Chapter 578 Surprise_1

A brief silence fell over the battlefield.

The Sublimators from the Eye of Nightmare and Ivy League looked at each other before finally turning to Huai Shi, who stood on the forehead of his own Bio-beast, hands on hips, looking extremely formidable.

A hundred thousand question marks appeared in their minds.

What the hell kind of surprise is this?

Half an hour earlier, the news of Huai Shi’s prison escape had actually reached everyone here.

His story was already legendary. He was a solo hero who had bravely infiltrated the den of lions. Though outmatched and captured, he bore the humiliation patiently, waiting for the right moment. He then seized an opportunity, risked death to escape, confronted a Fourth Stage opponent, and successfully fled. Along the way, he slew fierce beasts and even parachuted out of Hell.

After such skilled dancing on the knife’s edge between courting utter disaster and narrowly surviving, repeatedly tempting fate, he had successfully dazzled both sides with his flashy moves.

It was all as smooth as flowing clouds and water, executed in one breath, leaving everyone speechless.

Then, as if suddenly popping out from a crack in a stone, he appeared right in the heart of the Ivy League’s central area.

With a face full of smugness.

At that moment, anyone would feel that something was amiss, right?

Everyone instantly backed away, bracing for battle, their vigilance raised to the highest level. Their hair stood on end, and they immediately came to a conclusion.

This is a conspiracy!

Coincidentally, Huai Shi also came to a conclusion at the same time. Also four words, though somewhat different from theirs.

—I’m so screwed!

In the midst of this sudden deathly hush, his instinct was to use French etiquette to foster good relations, but sensing the wariness and defensiveness in the others’ eyes, he suddenly perceived a glimmer of hope.

He stood with his hands behind his back, hiding his furiously trembling hands.

Proudly puffing out his chest, he stood atop the synthetic beast’s skeleton.

Looking down from his superior position.

He habitually squeezed out a mysterious, ’devilishly wild’ smile.

He gazed at the few ’acquaintances’ behind the barricades and called out, ”Long time no see, Colonel. All well, I trust?”

The Colonel stared indifferently at Huai Shi. He raised his hand, and the Legion behind him simultaneously lifted their guns, aiming at Huai Shi’s face.

Numerous little red dots settled on his body.

But Huai Shi remained unperturbed—though his heart was pounding so hard from fright it felt like it would stop—yet his expression became even more dignified and sacred.

In this moment, as death seemed imminent, his mind raced, a myriad of inspirations flashed, and finally, they transformed into a death-defying miracle, bursting forth!

”Comrade Colonel, the undercover mission is over! There’s no need to fight anymore!”

He proclaimed loudly, ”The Great Grandmaster sent me to tell you, you can return to your unit now!”

A moment of bewilderment.

Stunned by this overwhelming aura of a Second fifth, the Colonel’s mouth fell open, and he stood there for a moment, unsure what Huai Shi was talking about.

What does ’undercover’ mean? What does ’return to your unit’ mean?

What the hell are you talking about?

But the others, after their initial astonishment, couldn’t help but look back, incredulous.

Stunned and speechless.

”...I, I didn’t...”

In his shock, the Colonel involuntarily opened his mouth to defend himself.

But then he saw, atop the synthetic beast’s corpse, Huai Shi’s body abruptly disintegrate. Darkness spewed forth, and the pitch-blackness from the Buried Sacred Place enveloped everything nearby.

Countless afterimages emerged from it.

They turned around in perfect unison.

And broke into a mad dash!

Seizing this fleeting chance between life and death, Huai Shi scampered towards his own side’s position, screaming at the top of his lungs,

”—Great Grandmaster, save me!!!”

”Fire! Fire at will!” The Colonel’s vision darkened, almost bursting a blood vessel in rage at Huai Shi’s infuriating behavior. He roared, ”Kill that disgrace of the Ivory Tower!”

Without any need for dispatch or transmission, the sixteen massive synthetic beasts, the hundreds of mercenaries from the Eye of Nightmare, and everyone present from the Hell Swarm saw the Colonel’s orders appear in their visors. Immediately, the Ivy League’s War Chips distributed a detailed assault plan, down to every step, to each individual.

Right in the heart of the Ivy League’s stronghold, Huai Shi once again launched into a desperate flight.

In an instant, many of the split-off afterimages were wiped out amidst the gunfire and the ’Offensive.’

The Legion led by the Colonel unleashed a slaughter with unattainable efficiency.

The plethora of Alchemy weapons, sufficient to arm an entire Legion and incorporating modern super-technology that surpassed current advancements, now demonstrated terrifying efficiency in Hell.

They hit Huai Shi so hard he didn’t dare show his head, weaving about wretchedly, barely clinging to life.

Seeing their swift reaction, Huai Shi’s heart sank.

If only he’d thought to shout, ’Quick, tell Liz that Michel is a traitor!’

In fact, if he’d been even more unscrupulous, he could have rehashed those non-existent romantic trysts from his imprisonment to divert their attention.

But that would have been too heartless.

Even without a conscience, one must have some bottom line... If he hadn’t been truly facing a do-or-die scenario with no other choice, he wouldn’t have stooped to that.

Having his reputation ruined was just too painful; social death and biological death were both fatal, but the former felt even more excruciating.

His reputation was already in tatters, so he figured he’d better accumulate some good karma quickly... as much as possible. He had a feeling he’d need it if this maneuver went south.

A fourth Shadow Burial Shuttle.

Huai Shi’s figure erupted suddenly from the dark cover. He delivered a flying kick, stepping on the back of an Eye of Nightmare member’s head, and fled in desperation under the relentless hail of machine-gun fire.

”Hmph, move aside, let me do this!”

The enraged Colonel had lost his patience. He shoved aside the sniper in his way, then reached down and pulled a hefty steel object from a box on the ground.

He hoisted it onto his shoulder.

The heavy cannon barrel swayed as it aimed at the distant Huai Shi, while the crosshairs on the display screen firmly locked onto his evasive, leaping figure.

To hell with you!!!

With the sharp whine of a completed lock-on, the Colonel pulled the trigger.

Instantly, scorching flames burst forth.

With terrifying firepower capable of turning an entire battle tank into ashes, the shoulder-fired rocket launcher roared to life, blazing with a blinding light as it pounced towards Huai Shi.

Death Perception instantly washed over Huai Shi from the back of his skull.

In fact, he felt as though he had fallen into an ice cave, surrounded by bone-chilling cold from all directions; a little more or less made no difference at all.

But death always has its order and priorities.

Some deaths are fairly peaceful, while other methods of dying... are exceedingly brutal.

I just freaking escaped from prison! Why are you using rocket launchers on me?! Huai Shi cried out in bitter anger, expending every last bit of his Source Substance for a fifth Shadow Burial Shuttle!

Suddenly, his figure appeared a hundred meters away, dodging the rocket’s blast, but immediately, everything went dark before his eyes.

As the shockwave spread, countless fragments of rock and soil flew at him like arrows. He was swept up by the hot blast and the Burning Wind from behind, involuntarily soaring into the sky.

And plummeting towards the fiercely contested no-man’s-land.

As the world spun around him, he finally saw the cover and formations of the Iron Crystal Throne’s Exploration Team and couldn’t help but burst into tears.

He was so close, so close to crawling back to the fountain...

Just then, in mid-air, on Abnormal Hell·Teralocan, the soaring Great Pyramid, a light suddenly flared. Then, the torrential rain that had been swept up into the sky abruptly shuddered.

A dazzling bolt of lightning, thick as a bucket, emerged from the brewing dark clouds, illuminating Huai Shi’s stunned expression.

At that moment, the killing intent from the High Priest descended from the sky. Everything in the lightning’s path was swiftly burned to charred cinders and shattered to pieces.

Fooled you, little brat!

But when the lightning was a hair’s breadth from Huai Shi’s face, it abruptly stopped.

Because in the sky above, a giant hand had pinched the end of the lightning as if catching a snake’s tail, preventing the lethal venom and teeth from crossing that final threshold.

It defied all logic, utterly incredible.

It was like tap dancing on the ashes of physics!

But Alchemy is precisely such an irrational thing.

In the hands of Atlas, the Dome Giant, as his fingers clenched, the lightning was effortlessly crushed to pieces as if it were glass.

And Huai Shi, finally bursting from behind the Ivy League’s cover, flew out and landed upon the scorched earth of the no-man’s-land between the forces.

He vanished in an instant.

It felt as if the earth had become some kind of liquid, engulfing him.

Huai Shi’s vision darkened, and the world spun around him. He was swept into an undercurrent, carried rapidly underground, and then propelled upwards by an immense force.

Ejected by the earth, he soared up only to crash down onto hard stone pavement, gasping heavily.

Still disoriented, he found himself within the Iron Crystal Throne’s fortress.

Only when he saw the familiar face of his teacher, Andrea, did Huai Shi finally breathe a sigh of relief, moved to tears.

”That was close, so very close to getting killed!”

He grasped Andrea’s hand tightly and shook it vigorously. ”At the critical moment, Teacher Andrea, you’re the one I can count on!”

Andrea, awkwardly having her hand gripped by Huai Shi, explained helplessly after a moment, ”Uh, I’m a Fourth Stage Sublimator. According to the covenant, I cannot directly participate in combat...”

”Huh?”

Huai Shi was stunned. He looked over blankly. ”Then who was it?”

Andrea coughed twice and pointed behind Huai Shi to a sullen-faced young man—Martin.

Huai Shi was taken aback.

This was totally unexpected...

He hadn’t even considered Martin. His presence was usually so faint that the thought hadn’t crossed Huai Shi’s mind.

Yet the rescue just now was undoubtedly the result of Martin’s specialty, ’Liquify.’

Although there had been some unpleasantness between them, the fact that Martin had decisively lent a hand at such a crucial moment made Huai Shi see him in a new light.

”Thank you, thank you,” he said, enthusiastically shaking the young man’s hand.

Martin tugged his hand a couple of times but found he couldn’t pull away. He could only snort coldly and turn his head. ”Just don’t cause any more trouble.”

What kind of tsundere character is this?

A group of medical staff rushed to give Huai Shi emergency treatment. Fortunately, other than a few bullet holes in his back, there were no major issues. A bit of stitching and patching, and he’d be ready to continue serving as a useful tool.

While he was receiving a blood transfusion, Andrea leaned in, her face serious, looking as if she wanted to say something but was hesitating.

”What’s wrong?” Huai Shi asked.

...

After a moment of silence, Andrea looked around, tucked her hair back, her lovely face cast downward as she leaned in, inching closer.

Huai Shi froze, his eyes widening.

Just as he was debating whether to resist, he heard her whisper in his ear, ”So, is that rumor about the child true?”

???

An awkward silence descended. Huai Shi’s expression gradually stiffened. He stared blankly at the earnest and curious Andrea, incredulous.

You people are seriously weird!