https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-840-The-Player-s-Creative-Way-to-Die/13677785/
Chapter 841: Assault Team
“No!”
Worldly Wanderer gritted his teeth, clenching his fists as resolve hardened in his eyes once more. “I’ll carry on—because of my teammates. I have to survive!”
“Boom!”
The Fire Elemental Behemoth swung its massive fist, hurling the Burning Monolith in a soaring arc. It smashed into two Mage Players mid-cast hundreds of meters away, reducing them to pulp in an instant.
“Sorry, my friends,” Worldly Wanderer muttered, not looking back. “I’ll be the one to explore this land… in your place.”
He surged forward, his Champion Warrior unleashing Dash, Tide of Armor Class, and Great Stride in rapid succession. Racing across the scorched earth, he moved like a storm wind, covering hundreds of meters in a heartbeat.
“Roar—!”
Wrath’s Molten Lava Monster pursued relentlessly behind him. With magma oozing across the ground, the colossal beast moved with terrifying speed, skimming over the molten surface like a living mountain in motion—chasing him through the trembling wasteland.
Worldly Wanderer felt the earth quake beneath his feet, making it nearly impossible to stay upright. He risked a glance over his shoulder. His breath caught.
The distance between him and the behemoth was now less than a hundred meters. Scorching gales whipped at his back, and the stench of sulfur burned his nostrils.
He knew—only by maintaining his full-speed sprint with active skills could he keep pace. Once they expired, he’d be caught.
If this continued, he was doomed.
Suddenly, through the thick smoke, a distant silhouette pierced the haze—a towering cliff face, sheer and unyielding. The Fire Elemental Behemoth wouldn’t be able to climb it anytime soon.
Closer still, he spotted a narrow, deep cave carved into the cliff’s side—so narrow it looked like the gaping maw of some ancient beast.
An escape route?
Hope flared in his chest, a fragile spark in the endless darkness.
He charged toward the cliff, leaping with the power of a Jumping Spell. With a powerful bound, he soared over ten meters, landing on a protruding ledge, then leapt again, weaving through the rock with agile precision, until he stood at the mouth of the cave.
“Boom—”
The Fire Elemental Behemoth roared in fury, its molten form slithering through the melting earth, surging toward him. The ground trembled violently. Rocks rained from the cliffside.
It opened its mouth—steaming, fanged—and from its throat erupted a torrent of molten magma. The fiery orbs rained down like a storm, aiming to crush him.
“Damn it!”
With no choice left, Worldly Wanderer gritted his teeth, plunged headfirst into the cave.
Inside, steam, thick smoke, and ash choked the air. Flames danced across the walls, casting flickering light that made the rock surfaces shift between shadow and fire.
Yet… something felt wrong.
He stepped forward cautiously—and his foot sank into something soft, yielding. A thick, viscous liquid coated the surface beneath.
What… is this?
Panic surged through him. A horrifying suspicion took root in his mind.
Slowly, he turned.
At the edge of the “cave,” a jagged row of sharp, chaotic fangs began to rise from the darkness—then snapped shut with a sickening crack.
“Boom!”
In the pitch black, the soft mass beneath him twisted. It wrapped around him like a colossal serpent, dragging him deeper into the cavern’s belly.
“No—!”
“I can’t die here! I haven’t proven the strength of ordinary players! I haven’t claimed my reward—!”
He screamed in despair, thrashing against the searing, sticky grip. But the hot, viscous fluid poured over him, dissolving flesh, melting bone.
Then, in the final moments, he realized—
This wasn’t a cave.
It was the mouth of a monstrous being. A trap, perfectly crafted.
The rock walls trembled. Cracks split open like veins. From within the stone, a long, serpentine form emerged—sinuous, grotesque, and terrifyingly real.
In the grip of the digestive fluid, Worldly Wanderer finally saw it.
【Molten Lava Worm】
Challenge Rating: ????
“Bosses everywhere, and the big ones are weaker than dogs… What is this place?!”
With his last breath, he let out a final, soul-wrenching wail—before darkness swallowed him whole.
---
“Confirmed,” came a voice from the statistics hub. “【Mortal】Guild has suffered a Full Party Defeat.”
“How long has it been?” someone asked.
“Damn, I thought he was serious with that confidence. Turns out he’s already gone in record time.”
“This place is cursed.”
“Just means they’re weak. Let’s go.”
Players murmured in disbelief, yet many couldn’t resist the lure of the reward. One by one, they stepped into the Apocalypse Zone.
And quickly, they learned the truth.
The River of Lava alone claimed over a hundred lives. Those who tried to fly or teleport across were thrown into chaos by the Spell Turbulence at the boundary—spells shattered mid-cast, and they plummeted screaming into the molten sea, turning to ash in seconds.
Even those who crossed the river faced the relentless heat, the choking ash-filled air. Without proper preparation, many died from heatstroke or suffocation within minutes.
Deeper in, the land was a nightmare. Every shadow hid a monster. The very air was thick with danger. Creatures once confined to the deepest molten caverns now roamed freely—waiting, watching, ready to pounce and tear players apart.
“Dog Designer!”
“Did you seriously drop a Fire Elemental Behemoth like it was a goblin?!”
“Unbelievable—every step has debuffs, three bosses per five steps. Who in their right mind could clear this garbage map?!”
“…Maybe I was wrong about Floating Life. He lasted half an hour? I fell into magma on my first step and burned to death.”
For days, teams attempted to cross. Most were annihilated within thirty minutes.
The longest surviving party—Elite from the Royal Authority Guild—pushed just over twenty kilometers before vanishing into the smoke, never to return.
Yet the Mechanical Divinity players stayed away. Instead, they bought recordings of fallen players from the Forbidden Zone—accumulating experience points, it seemed, like data from a graveyard.
At the edge of the zone, Singo sat with a notebook, scribbling furiously. His eyes sparkled with excitement.
“Confirmed,” he said. “This dungeon’s difficulty is extreme. Charging in blindly is suicide. Even with preparation, it’s a nine-out-of-ten death rate—constant danger.”
Stuffed Bun groaned. “No wonder you’re the number one masochist in Alerzage. You’re not scared—you’re thrilled by this nightmare. You’re a real home boy.”
Singo ignored the sarcasm, flipping through his dense notes.
“First step: cross the River of Lava. From observation, all flight and teleportation spells fail due to boundary-level Spell Turbulence. So we’ll use the basic method—like Worldly Wanderer did—hook and line.”
Xia Ye Qiu Yu’s eyes narrowed. “I can feel the turbulence. The weave of magic here is severed from the outside world—like a chasm. Maintaining two spells across the divide is impossible.”
“Even the magical golems from 【Magic Coin】—those spell-controlled constructs—lose control once they cross.”
“And inside? The magic weave is unstable. It’s like an ocean in a storm. Waves crash constantly. One wrong spell could fail… or worse, turn on you.”
Singo nodded. “But we must be cautious. Too many players here have attracted Lava Fish. Predators. They’ll leap from the pools at any moment. We need speed. And we must prepare Cold Elixirs to repel these fire creatures before they attack.”
He hadn’t finished speaking when a gurgle erupted from the lava.
A monstrous fish—its body dripping molten rock—slammed its tail, leapt into the air, and snapped up several players dangling mid-air in a rope net.
“Damn it!”
“There are monsters here?!”
Screams echoed as the fish crashed back into the river, sending up geysers of molten droplets that scorched the skin of nearby players.
Stuffed Bun shivered. “This is not fair…”
Singo, unfazed, pressed on. “Second point: adapt to the environment. Data shows the internal temperature is extreme. Toxic gases. Near-zero visibility. It’s like the Elemental Plane of Fire fused with Avernus—body and spirit entwined.”
“Even with high Dragonization levels, we need protection. Endure Elemental Damage, Air Filtration Bubble, Smoke Penetration—all essential spells.”
Tian Sheng Zhan Kuang patted his bald head and grinned. “Been in Avernus long enough. I’ve got some Territory Iron Gear left. Wear it, and you’re sealed off from the heat and poison.”
Singo nodded. “Good. Third: the monsters.”
“Average level is absurdly high. Too many. This is likely due to Kazul’s Awakening—creating spatial rifts that pulled in creatures from the Elemental Plane of Fire.”
“Honestly? Even a random dog would be over ten levels. Stay alert. One misstep, and you’re dead.”
He folded his hands, leaned forward, and concluded with a grave tone:
“Thus, the most valuable team for this quest? The one that relies only on raw physical strength—no gear, no spells, no Dragonization. Just pure, overwhelming power to crush numerical monsters.”
“…That’s not—”
They all turned toward the Mechanical Divinity frontline.
There, a squad of Vigitas Dragon-Scale Monks stood ready—arms crossed, eyes sharp, brimming with anticipation.
Clad in crimson power armor, their chests adorned with the Empire of Ashen emblem. They gripped power axes and chain saw swords, backs laden with heavy gear. Their shoulder plates looked like boulders.
In the crimson glow, these warriors—three to four meters tall, weighing over half a ton—stood like statues carved from fire and iron. A presence so immense, it felt impossible to block.
The leader, Steel Tide, grinned wide, raising his chain saw sword.
“Departure! Let’s crush this so-called Apocalypse Zone—for the Emperor!”
“For the Emperor!”
Their roar was fierce, deep, and thunderous—shaking the riverbank, sending debris flying.
With their transformed muscles, they leapt—ten meters high in a single bound. The ground cracked beneath them.
At the peak of their jump, they pulled out Hook Launchers, aimed at the far cliff, and fired.
The cross hooks shot through the air, embedding deep into the rock. The steel cables snapped taut, dragging the warriors across the river with impossible speed.
One after another, they landed—rock trembled, dust roared. The second wave launched into the air—flying high—when suddenly, the lava surface bubbled.
A massive whirlpool formed.
“Splash!”
A seven-meter-long Lava Monster Fish erupted from the river, jaws wide, blood-filled maw gaping—lunging at the airborne monks.
“That’s a huge monster!”
“Looks like Mechanical Divinity’s gonna lose people!”
Crowds on the shore gasped, screaming in panic.
But the monk showed no fear. He twisted mid-air, drawing his power sword. With a smooth flip, he inverted his body, hanging upside down, then slashed upward—his blade slicing through the air like a blade of light.
The edge met the monster’s head—crushing through its rocky hide and thick flesh with ease. The head split cleanly from the jaw.
In a flash, he landed on the far bank—kicking up dust and debris—unharmed.
The Lava Fish plummeted back into the river, spraying molten rock. Seconds later, it floated lifeless on the surface.
As it died, the river swarmed with other creatures—Lava Monster Fish, Lava Cannibal Fish, Flame Lizards, Fire Elemental Predators—all converging to devour the fallen giant.
Stuffed Bun stared, jaw slack.
“…Huh. A real man.”
(End of Chapter)
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