I, the final BOSS of the beta test server!

When Hiltina woke up, it was already bright outside the window, and it should have been past noon.

The moment she regained consciousness, she subconsciously jumped up and looked towards the manor gate.

On the other side, Rast seemed to have woken up earlier. He was sitting calmly on the sofa, looking in the same direction as Hiltina, without saying a word.

Time passed by little by little in silence.

Until the footsteps coming from the entrance of the manor became closer and clearer, and finally stopped outside the gate.

dong dong dong-

There was a knock on the door.

Chapter 14 Iron Cross

dong dong dong.

dong dong dong.

The knocks on the door continued.

At the beginning, the knocking was relatively restrained, but later on the intensity of the knocking became stronger and stronger, and it sounded like someone was smashing the door.

Silently, Hiltina grasped the hilt of the Twinkling Morning Star, staring at the gate that was shaking and trembling due to the violent impact, ready for battle. The energy she had previously consumed from using the Night Blade had been completely recovered from her sleep.

She had no idea who was knocking on the door, but the "super intuition" given by the tank sequence was now frantically warning her.

There was no doubt that what was standing outside the door was something beyond Hiltina's previous knowledge and beyond the scope of human common sense... It was even difficult to determine whether it could still be called a human.

The only thing Hiltina knew about it came from Rast's few words and the brief word in the Night World Records—

"Iron Cross Plague"

The banging outside the door suddenly stopped.

But a few seconds later.

Stab, sting.

It sounded like someone was scraping their fingernails against the door frame, making a sharp, piercing, teeth-aching scraping sound.

She didn't know if it was an illusion, but amidst the harsh noise, Hiltina also heard slight gasps and laughter... It was as if someone wanted to laugh uncontrollably, but was forcibly suppressing it for some reason.

The sharp friction sound lasted for an unknown amount of time before Hiltina suddenly heard Last sigh.

boom--

Then the wooden bolt made a crisp sound, creaked off, and the door suddenly opened.

At this moment, Hiltina finally saw the other person's appearance clearly.

The man's face was ashen, and his left arm was completely bloody under his blood-stained coat. White broken bones protruded from it, and the tips of the bones still had traces of scraping against the wood... He had just used his broken arm bones to grind off the door bolt.

In his right hand, he held a spine covered in minced meat. It looked like the ribs hanging in a butcher's shop, but this spine was obviously not from livestock. It was more slender and fragile, with traces of gnawing everywhere on it.

The most eye-catching thing was the man's face, where a huge iron-gray cross mark ran through his entire face.

He looked at the two people inside the manor gate, and the corners of his mouth under the iron cross slowly drew up a crazy, hideous arc that a normal person could never achieve.

"I knew it... ha... you guys are still here."

Even though he was in such a weird atmosphere, the man was laughing wildly and hysterically.

"Is this the private detective, or your cheating wife?... Ha... It doesn't matter either way." The man pointed at Hiltina, holding the flesh-covered spine. "If I pulled out her spine and used it as a riding whip, it would definitely be more convenient than using this little beast right now."

The moment she heard the other person's words, a chill suddenly rose in her heart... Was this the coachman who had brought them here before? And the source of the slender spine in his hand was the coachman's own underage child?

Beneath the cross-shaped scar, the cruelty in his bloodshot eyes became even stronger. He moved slightly, and was about to rush towards Hiltina.

bang——

What moved faster than the man was Rust's gun.

The bullet shot out with great speed and pierced the man's left chest.

But what followed was a muffled sound. The full-metal jacket bullet, which was famous for its armor-piercing performance, could not even penetrate the flesh and blood. It stopped as if it had hit a steel plate.

Through the torn hole in the coat, one could see that the muscle diaphragm on the man's left chest was as twisted as steel. The armor-piercing bullet was firmly embedded in the diaphragm, leaving only a few cracks, but it had not actually hit the heart.

bang——

Five more bullets were fired.

It was clearly a rapid-fire attack, but the remaining five bullets followed exactly the same trajectory and once again accurately hit the coachman's already injured left chest.

Click.

This time, even the steel-like diaphragm could no longer hold on and completely shattered, and the heart inside the diaphragm instantly exploded into a bloody mist.

But the coachman was still not completely dead.

He covered his chest and looked at Last, who had just emptied a magazine and had not yet changed the bullet. The corners of his mouth curled up in an exaggerated arc, as if he wanted to say something.

The next moment, the silver piercing flashed and disappeared.

Sparks of metal collision flew from the driver's throat, but this scene of metal clashing did not last long. In an instant, the silver-white sword gained the upper hand, and the head, which still had a fanatical smile on its face until death, flew high into the air.

The knight's rapier trembled slightly, and a silver light flashed across the sword. The bloodstains were cleared in an instant, without leaving any trace.

Hiltina sheathed the Twinkling Morning Star and frowned slightly.

Even though Last had blown up the opponent's heart, causing him to lose most of his strength, he still used 70% of his strength when he pierced the opponent's throat with the sword, and only then did he penetrate the diaphragm that was as hard as steel.

If she had fought alone without Rast's assistance, just one polluter like the one just now would have been enough to make Hiltina spend a lot of effort.

If you want to end the battle quickly, you have no choice but to use Night Blade.

But how many times could Hiltina's Night Blade be used consecutively? And how many such polluters still existed in the entire Deep Blue Harbor?

However, what made Hiltina feel the most nauseous was the undisguised malice revealed by the coachman, rather than simply being difficult to deal with.

Although he still retains his sanity and can even communicate...but the other party can no longer be called a human being, but more like a beast in human appearance.

She looked at the man's motionless body and recalled the conversation they had in the carriage on the way here. She could not connect the kind-hearted coachman with the thug in front of her who had torn out her child's spine and used it as a whip.

Hiltina asked softly, "Does he have a bad relationship with his own children at home?"

"No, in a previous cycle, I once treated them to a meal at the Golden Deer Restaurant." Last said calmly, "They were a very happy family. The wife was a virtuous housewife and would often do some handicrafts to supplement the family income. They weren't exactly wealthy, but they had enough to live comfortably."

"His two children are also very well-behaved and sensible. The elder one works at a newspaper, and the younger one has excellent academic performance. He just received an admission letter from a university in the mainland, and the family is preparing for the tuition."

"After getting drunk at the dinner table, the coachman patted me on the shoulder and said that the things he was most proud of in his life were his two precious sons."

"So he'd sell everything he had, even driving a cab in the middle of the night, to support his son's future in a major inland city. And if anyone dared to harm his beloved son, even if they were a member of parliament, he would smash their head in with a bottle."

Luster's voice remained calm: "I know he meant what he said."

"But, that is worthless in the face of the evil god's will."

"All the beautiful, sincere feelings in ordinary people's hearts...are transformed into the purest destructive desires and sadistic tendencies, reducing them to intelligent beasts."

"That's what's called the 'Iron Cross.'"

Chapter 15 is art

"You should know how hallucinogens work. This kind of pollution works the same way."

"Their spirits have been eroded, and they have lost the joys, sorrows, anger, and happiness of normal people. They have been transformed to derive only from the thrill of inflicting pain on others. Other than that, nothing in the mundane world can bring them joy."

"So, in pursuit of that thrilling pleasure, the contaminated will resort to any means necessary to inflict violence and abuse upon others."

"Love, friendship, family... the more cherished and cherished these beautiful emotions were, the stronger the desire for sadism and destruction they fostered after the Iron Cross's reversal."

"The flesh and blood deformed by the pollution not only grants those affected physical fitness several times greater than that of ordinary people, but also causes the growth of steel-hard membranes in vital areas like the throat and heart."

"Ordinary pistol bullets and cold weapons are simply incapable of penetrating the diaphragm. Only full-powered rifle bullets or armor-piercing bullets can barely break through the defense. Of course, extraordinary weapons like your rapier can also do so."

Last's calm voice rang in Hiltina's ears.

"The most striking characteristic of these contaminated individuals is the appearance of an extremely conspicuous cross-shaped scar on their bodies, which appears iron-gray in color."

“I call these contaminated ones the ‘Iron Crosses’.”

"The so-called 'Iron Cross Plague' in later generations probably got its name from this."

Luster looked at the coachman's body and said softly, "Actually, according to the previous experience, he shouldn't be here."

"It's just that your arrival changed his original trajectory. He waited for us near the manor for a long time, during which time he was affected by the pollutants and quietly planted the seeds of contamination. After returning home, the seeds sprouted."

After thinking about it for a while, Hiltina quickly understood what Last meant.

In the previous cycle of Last, he did not exist, so Last did not need to use the reason of "bringing a private detective to catch an adulterer".

The coachman would not have waited near the manor for a long time for fear of being caught in adultery by Last and the others, so that he was contaminated silently.

"It sounds a bit like zombies." Xiltina thought of the zombie movies that have been quite popular at Fanxing University recently.

"If it really is a zombie, then we would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble."

Luster smiled and reloaded his revolver. "The zombies in those movies are, at best, just beasts in human form. They move slowly, have low intelligence, and their minds are full of biting people. Putting aside the fact that the zombie virus is contagious, wolves are much stronger when hunting..."

"But the Iron Cross still possesses wisdom, a wisdom driven by a desire for destruction and sadism."

"Using tools, driving vehicles, camouflage, setting traps, booby traps... everything humans can do, Iron Crosses can do too."

"Including the use of firearms?" asked Hiltina.

"That's right." Luster nodded. "And because their perception is enhanced, every Iron Cross is a sharpshooter."

Before the plague broke out, Rast's shootouts with the police and army were like playing Grand Theft Auto.

Then after the outbreak of the Iron Cross Plague, the game suddenly changed from Grand Theft Auto to Battle Royale, and what we had to face were doomsday robots that had built-in locks on their heads and would explode as soon as they showed their heads.

Luster glanced at his pocket watch: "It's almost time."

What time is it?

Before Hiltina could even ask such a question.

boom--

A huge roar came from afar. It should be from the direction of the port area, which was separated from the manor by half of the Deep Blue Harbor.

Immediately afterwards, dark smoke began to rise in the direction of the port area, accompanied by faint flames.

"What's happening over there?" Hiltina looked up. The smoke was so thick that it was still clearly visible even though it was halfway across the city.

"It's a large cargo ship expected to arrive at Deep Blue Port at 2 p.m." Last put away his pocket watch.

"I witnessed it all myself at the dock. The captain, stained like an Iron Cross, chuckled wildly as he steered the freighter at full speed, crashing it into the dock. He refused to let go even as he was engulfed in flames and twisted steel."

"At the same time, this is also the point when the Iron Cross Plague completely breaks out in Deep Blue Harbor."

Everything happened too fast.

As if to confirm Last's words, less than a minute after the roar from the port area, countless chaotic and noisy sounds were heard from the streets outside the manor.

To be more precise, the riots were not just in this neighborhood, but in the entire city.

Screams, desperate cries and wails, sounds of pursuit and shouting, and the sheriff's scolding rang out one after another...

From time to time, there were a few gunshots, but then everything returned to calm.

It is unknown whether the police subdued the Iron Cross with a gun, or were killed by the Iron Cross in turn, or whether they were also infected and became a member of the Iron Cross.

But the only thing that could be confirmed was that the crazy and hysterical laughter that Hiltina had heard from the coachman was becoming more and more frequent.

At first there were only a few, but soon the laughter became more and more intense, coming from all directions and becoming the mainstream in the chaotic noise.

In just a few minutes.

This originally peaceful port town turned into a purgatory where sin and chaos were rampant.

Hiltina let out a long sigh and looked at Rast. "What are you going to do next? Control the source of infection and then find a way to stop the spread of the Iron Cross Plague?"

"I thought so at first, but it's impossible."

Last shook his head. "The Iron Cross Plague is transmitted through bodily fluids. Blood, saliva, and respiratory droplets can all be transmission channels."

"As for those Iron Crosses who have already been contaminated, in order to better vent their sadism and violence, they are happy to actively transform others into madmen like themselves."

Hiltyna frowned slightly. "For example, they would smear saliva on knives and bullets? If humans were scratched by weapons, they would be infected."

"That's just the crudest method." Last took out the lead box containing the evil god statue from his arms. "Those Iron Crosses even mixed their blood into the city's water supply, wells, and rivers. Once the water is used, it will be contaminated."