The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 541 Explosion and Divinity

Loki's sudden betrayal was hard to believe, not only for Valentine and the others, but even Wu Chang, who was somewhat prepared, was still caught off guard when the betrayal occurred.

It wasn't until they saw the zombies slowly rising from the ground that Valentine and the others seemed to wake from a dream and began to act.

Their first action was to break down the door.

But since Loki has taken action, he certainly wouldn't be without this level of preparation.

Valentine and his group discovered that the exit gate had been locked at some point, and their access permissions and passwords had been changed, making it impossible for them to leave.

As for forcibly breaking down the door, that's even less realistic for them.

Disaster shelters are facilities designed to cope with various extreme disasters, and even anticipate certain scenarios. They are facilities that can protect the survival of citizens in Ein City even if it is directly bombed by nuclear weapons.

Its gates could withstand a nuclear blast; it was a pipe dream for Valentine and others to think they could dismantle it with simple firearms and melee weapons.

Valentine roared:
"Loki, what are you doing? Open the door!"

Having gone to such lengths to trap everyone here, it was impossible for Lokife to open the door so easily. He didn't even bother to respond to Valentine's roar.

Valentine and the others, being among the best survivors, understood that anger would not help them out of their predicament. Seeing that Loki did not respond, they continued to search for a way to leave the disaster shelter.

But they soon discovered that Loki's arrangements were flawless. All the exits that could be left in the shelter's design were blocked by Loki, and the barriers were not new, already covered with a thin layer of dust.

This shows that Loki's decision was not impulsive; he had made arrangements for today's events at least ten days ago.

As if to remind everyone to focus on the difficulties at hand, Loki's voice rang out again.

"As your former teammates, there's something I must remind you of."

"When the disaster shelter was being built, I had your loved ones inhale a temporary zombie immunity spray. They will not turn into zombies again for the next 48 hours."

"This drug is extremely expensive; it's a specialized supply for our operations team, costing more than an equivalent volume of gold. Do you know why this zombie immunity spray, with its exorbitant price, has become standard issue for squads like ours?"

Loki paused for a moment, giving everyone ample time to guess, but Valentine and the others had no interest in guessing; a great sense of foreboding enveloped their hearts.

Loki said in a pleasant voice:

"Actually, you should be able to guess that this is to destroy the evidence."

"After inhaling this immune spray, regardless of whether the medication is still effective, it will fix the user's scent and physical signs. So if we fail our mission and are surrounded by zombies, even if we are bitten by zombies or infected with the zombie virus, the zombies will not regard us as one of their own, and they will continue to tear us apart and eat us."

"In other words, if we fail our mission, the zombies will dispose of our bodies on their own, so we don't have to worry about their activities in Ain City being exposed after the zombie plague ends."

"Honestly, I like the clever ideas these companies have, and I hope you will too."

"You only have two choices now: either kill all the zombies or watch them get eaten by them."

Loki's words completely ignited the anger of Valentine and his companions, who had been suppressing their rage.

While he was cursing Loki, he also understood that this matter involved such a large number of people that it was impossible for only outsiders like Loki to be involved.

"Thompson, Fletcher, you two are both from Ein City. Are you really going to watch these Ein City citizens, who have recovered to normal, turn into zombies again, just because of the promises made by those pharmaceutical companies?"

"There are quite a few children here, especially Thompson and Cullen. You call yourselves clergy, aren't you afraid of going to hell?"

Valentine wanted to launch a moral offensive to awaken the conscience of the other survivor organization leaders, but what he didn't know was that since the Survivor Alliance was formed, after each general meeting ended and he left, the others would hold a small meeting.

Their goals were never the same as his.

What he didn't know was that the Perception Church, which Thompson believed in, was not a benevolent group; this was just routine for them.

When you interrogate Thompson with your conscience, he won't feel heartache or guilt; he'll only feel a sense of satisfaction.

Thompson's icy voice rang out, speaking in a detached, world-weary tone:

"Whether it's you, me, or them, everyone has their own destiny, which they can't escape. It's just that it's destined, and we're simply following the fate that God has ordained for us."

Thompson's response completely shattered Valentine's hope for these lunatics. He knew that the only way to escape his current predicament was through his own efforts.

He glanced at his daughter, who had fallen into a coma due to weakness, gripped his weapon tightly, and his eyes hardened.

Loki was right about one thing: no matter the cost, he would never let her get hurt again.

Since he couldn't leave, he had no choice but to tough it out against the horde of zombies.

Seeing the zombie horde complete its zombification, becoming stronger and hungrier, Valentine and the others abandoned all hope and began to fight.

What Wu Chang saw next was an endless battle.

Valentine and the others had high stats, but the zombies in the disaster shelter had just undergone a version upgrade, and their strength had increased significantly, making the battle extremely difficult for everyone.

In addition, they were completely unprepared and lacked sufficient weapons and ammunition.

After all, who could have imagined that Loki and his team went to such great lengths to develop a drug that could reverse the zombie virus, only to release it on a large scale not to save lives, but to eliminate the weaker, older version of the virus from the zombies so that they could be infected with a more powerful one?

After the survivors ran out of firearms, they were left with no choice but to fight the zombies hand-to-hand.

The battle lasted for half an hour, and the survivors began to dwindle, while the zombie horde remained endless.

The battle lasted for an hour. The safe zone was breached, and only half of the survivors remained. They had no choice but to carry their loved ones, abandon the safe zone, and engage in mobile warfare to find new battle terrain.

In the second hour of the battle, the survivors were almost all killed or wounded, leaving only four people.

The four of them were guarding a warehouse. Three of them were exhausted and had fallen into despair. To prevent their loved ones from being eaten by zombies, they first pulled the trigger on their loved ones and then saved the last bullet for themselves.

Valentine was the only one left on the field. He did not give up; instead, his will became even stronger.

Wu Chang, who observes everything from Valentine's first-person perspective, is very aware of Valentine's changes.

In the Plague Corruption instance, willpower and resentment are extremely powerful forces. They allow humans to break through their limits and gain power beyond their flesh and blood. Those with strong willpower become zombies, and this power can be inherited by the zombies, transforming into even more powerful extraordinary forces.

The endless horde of zombies not only failed to destroy Valentine's will, but also served as a whetstone, constantly sharpening his edge.

Logically speaking, Valentine should have been exhausted long ago.

However, with the support of his powerful will, Valentine's body overcame fatigue. He did get tired at first, though. The intense fighting made his body feel heavy, and his senses began to slow down, as if the world itself was slowing down.

But after his will broke through a certain line, his body, which was as heavy as lead, became light and his movements became faster, while the speed of the other zombies remained as slow as he had previously perceived.

Although he only had a cold weapon, he was like a god, blocking the warehouse door all by himself, and no matter how many zombies surged in, he could not be forced to retreat a single step.

At that moment, his will reached its peak, and he felt that he could truly reverse fate and protect everything.

Just as Valentine felt his will burning, a blurry figure suddenly appeared beside his legs and inserted a potion into his body.

The man who attacked him was dressed conspicuously; he remembered him as one of Loki's men.

Before he could make a move against the attacker, a muffled, thunderous heartbeat exploded in his ears, making his body tremble.

dong dong!

This seems to be his heartbeat.

An indescribable change was altering his body, and for the first time, he panicked.

An endless stream of power erupted from his heart, but he felt no excitement, because along with the surge of power, an intense pain, powerful enough to break him, pierced straight into his mind.

The pain was so intense that it made him lose control of himself.

Wu had seen this change before; in Fox's mental world, she also exhibited this behavior when she was injected with the new human evolution drug.

The extraordinary factors in the evolution potion can stimulate a person's potential, but they can also attack a person's will. This kind of mental impact is unavoidable, and even Valentine is no exception.

Valentine collapsed to the ground, expecting death to greet him, but the zombies ignored him, bypassing him and rushing straight into the warehouse.

"No!"

Valentine felt like he was going crazy. He had actually endured the pain that had put Fox in a semi-conscious state and that he could only rely on his willpower to survive.

He struggled to his feet, but that was the most he could do.

He was resentful, angry, and hateful, but to no avail. Just as he was about to stand up, a huge cross slammed into his back, slamming him back to the ground.

He turned around and saw Loki and the others appear behind him at some point. The huge cross that had knocked him down came from Cullen, but it was Thompson who had made the move.

He was powerless to break free from the men's hold and could only watch helplessly as the zombies stormed into the warehouse.

His eyes were bloodshot and tears of blood streamed down his face, but Thompson and the others remained unmoved. They simply put all sorts of state-of-the-art restraint devices on him, and then they went to the center of the hall, moved the items placed on top, and revealed a huge magic circle.

They placed Valentine in the center, with the others standing in a circle around him.

Loki and the other survivors all looked at him with anticipation.

A few minutes later, Loki seemed to sense the pain in Valentine's head subsiding, and he clapped his hands and said:
"I knew you were special. Only the most intense obsession and the strongest will can give birth to the most perfect experimental subject."

“Your body has not mutated at all, and can provide the most perfect sample. My efforts have not been in vain.”

Several players took out special syringes, drew several vials of blood from Valentine's body, and handed them to Loki.

Loki collected the blood and said to Thompson and the others:

"I'll go back and create the full-body evolution potion first. You all stay here and wait for the contract ritual to be completed."

Before Loki left, he suddenly reached out from the darkness, grabbed a body, and threw it in front of Valentine.

"Actually, you don't need to be so angry. The one that was eaten by the zombies just now was not your daughter."

Valentine looked at the familiar figure on the ground, his eyes shining again. He spoke for the first time since being injected with the evolution potion, his voice trembling as he asked:

"My daughter is still alive?"

Loki shrugged and said:
"No, what I mean is, from the very beginning, the daughter I helped you find was a fake."

"I can make as many of these dolls as you want."

Valentine was completely stunned; he seemed to have lost his soul, muttering to himself:
"How can it be."

After Loki left, the remaining survivors began to whisper among themselves. They lamented Valentine's fate and sighed that their hellish days in Ein City were finally over.

Once Loki completes the ritual and gains full control of Valentine, they can not only leave with their wealth, but also potentially obtain the complete evolution potion.

Unfortunately, there was something they didn't know: the ritual Loki set up was so powerful that even a zombie of Fox's caliber couldn't control it, let alone Valentine.

Wu Chang could sense that Valentine's consciousness was not affected at all. On the contrary, due to Loki's stimulation, it was undergoing a second mutation, rapidly advancing from the original lord level to divinity.

Ten minutes later, the light from Loki's ritual gradually dimmed, and Thompson came to Valentine, preparing to pack him up and take him away.

"How can it be."

Thompson heard Valentine still muttering to himself, repeating something in a low voice:

"Everything is predestined. If you have any complaints, blame yourself for not having the power to change your fate."

Thompson's words brought Valentine back to his senses. He looked up at Thompson and said:

"Destiny?"

Thompson met Valentine's gaze and realized that Valentine's gaze showed no signs of being controlled. He was so shocked that he took a half step back, but it was too late.

Valentine used his arms to break through the dozen or so layers of restraints covering his body, and punched Thompson in the chest, causing Thompson's chest cavity to cave in.

He picked up the body of Loki's daughter that he had thrown on the ground, and as he heard the doll in his arms call out the familiar "Daddy," he clenched his fists tightly.

"Is this the fate you speak of, the evil deeds you have committed?"

Thompson was punched by Valentine. Although he didn't die on the spot, he was barely breathing and was not far from death.

That punch instantly cleared his eyes, making him realize that the zombified Valentine was far more powerful than any of the zombies he had seen before. Whether he wanted to survive or fight against the zombified Valentine, he had only one choice.

He took out the new human evolution potion that Loki had given him, inserted it into his body, and shouted to those around him:

"Hold Valentine back and buy me some time!"

Valentine did not stop Thompson from turning into a zombie; during the second mutation just now, he had already made a list in his mind.

He wanted to make these people feel the intense pain brought on by the superhuman factor before killing them.

He wasn't in a hurry to cause trouble for Loki. While completing his second mutation, he felt as if he had become one with Ein City to some extent, as if Ein City had become an extension of his body.

Through this connection, he could vaguely sense Loki's location and knew that they were still in Ein City.

In this state, he was confident that Loki and the others would not be able to escape.

What he needs to do now is to first settle scores with those who stabbed him in the back.

He could understand that they colluded with pharmaceutical companies to help them collect data and conduct various experiments.

After all, Ain City had been under lockdown for two years, and the survivors needed supplies.

But he never expected that these people would go to such lengths for their own benefit.

Since they like to talk about fate and the survival of the fittest, he will make these people truly experience what he advocates.

What followed was a one-sided massacre.

Valentine's zombified abilities made him so fast that he was invisible to the naked eye, bringing him close to the level of divine condensation and giving him stats far exceeding those of others.

The numerical values ​​and mechanics were overwhelmingly superior, leaving Thompson and the others with no chance to fight back. Even after they were turned into zombies, they were still torn apart by Valentine like toys.

They could only watch helplessly as Valentine executed them one by one in order, hanging them on makeshift crosses made on the spot.

If there were a contamination level detector at this moment, it would definitely show that the contamination level of the Plague Source instance is rising rapidly.

As the number of survivors dwindled, a figure moved in the darkness.

He was the player who mastered the art of stealth and injected the evolution potion into Valentine's body.

He used teleportation to leave the disaster shelter, then pressed the button in his hand. The next moment, a violent explosion occurred inside the disaster shelter, so loud that it could be clearly heard throughout the entire city of Ein.

Inside the disaster shelter, Wu Chang saw the flames of the explosion coming from both the ground and the ceiling simultaneously; it seemed this was Loki's backup plan.

Although Loki's purpose is unknown, Valentine's second mutation was likely intentional.

He wasn't planning to settle things with Valentine right now, so he made this arrangement to buy himself time to escape the instance.

Loki's setup was simple: explosives, lots of explosives.

The rules of the Plague Origin instance impose significant restrictions on energy-based supernatural powers and high-tech weapons. In other words, the plane encourages combat using physical strength and ordinary firearms, and these combat methods are enhanced by the plane's rules.

The fact that many survivors can inflict damage on evolved zombies comparable to level 30 players using only ordinary pistols and rifles is enough to demonstrate this rule.

So Loki trapped Valentine with a large amount of explosives. Even if these explosives couldn't kill Valentine outright, the violent explosions would be enough to cause the entire disaster shelter to collapse, burying Valentine underneath.

Flames erupted from all directions, engulfing the remaining zombies, the crosses Valentine had just made, and the few remaining survivor leaders.

As the flames threatened to engulf Valentine and his daughter behind him, Valentine spoke:
"enough!"

As he spoke, time seemed to stand still in the disaster shelter. Wu Chang saw the flames caused by the explosion and the debris and rubble kicked up by the shockwave frozen in mid-air.

Then, under Valentine's will, everything around them was reversed. The flames retreated back to the ceiling and the ground, the broken buildings were restored to their original state, and the zombies and survivors who had been blown to pieces gathered together and were pieced back together to their original bodies.

The player who had been teleported away returned to the corner of the lobby.

Before he could even react to what was happening, Valentine pierced his abdomen with an iron rod and pinned him to the wall.

As Valentine unleashed his power, reversing the explosion, a divine seed of his own condensed within his body.

His divine name is Time.

(End of this chapter)