About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

Orson grumbled quietly, then looked ahead.

In the area that Orson could see with his naked eyes, creatures distorted by the infection of mineral disease were gradually moving towards this side.

Originium worms, hyenas, claw beasts, an indescribable mixture, crystallized flesh floating in mid-air—

These things marched across the wilderness at a moderate speed, causing even the earth to tremble along with them.

This time, the scale and variety of the infected creatures far surpassed the previous Originium worm riots in the north. However... the result was the same: stopping these creatures from advancing.

"Well then—the countdown is 30 minutes, let's begin."

Orson finally checked the time, gently raised the knight's sword that had turned red in his hand, and walked towards the enemy group.

Don't worry about output limits or surrounding damage, just have fun.

Orson summoned a pause, and a dark shadow extended from behind him, turning into twisting lines like whipcords.

Swish!

The extended rest drew an arc from right to left, and the first row of Originium worms that came into contact were instantly cut in half.

Just as Yu thought, because the surrounding space was enough for the Rest to reach its maximum speed, it could easily cut through the Originium worms that did not have a hard skin.

Swish! !

The twisted black rope turned into a piano wire that killed people invisibly, easily cutting off all the lowest-level Originium bugs that rushed in without thinking.

But this unparalleled situation did not last long.

Keng! !

The pause that was swinging forward suddenly got stuck in the middle. A claw beast with an exoskeleton as strong as steel blocked the swing, and at the same time caused the remaining Originium worms to rush over.

"Well, it's not that easy after all."

Orson put away the rest note, changed the direction and swung forward this time. At the same time, he took out the crossbow from his back, pulled out a metal crossbow arrow, and gently placed his fingers on it.

Chi-

Orson used "tuning" to rapidly heat up the metal crossbow arrow, turning it into a reddish-white high-temperature state almost instantly.

Then, Orson aimed at the claw beast's head and pulled the trigger.

Click! !

The crossbow arrow heated by high temperature exerted a power far beyond the main body, directly piercing through the claw beast that could withstand the swing of the rest mark and knocking it away, and several infected creatures behind it were also affected.

"Prioritize targeting high-armor units with targeted sniping—Hmm!"

Orson confirmed the location of another heavily armored pincer beast, but just as he put the second crossbow arrow on the string, dozens of hyenas that moved much faster than a car suddenly rushed out from behind the blind spot of the monster group.

This speed could not be dealt with by a crossbow. Orson put the crossbow aside, held the knight's sword in both hands and slashed at the oncoming hyena.

Click!

The first hyena was cut in half. Orson immediately changed his posture and held the knight's sword in front of him, using the sword to block the bite of the hyena that tried to attack the blind spot. He twisted the hilt and let the engine drive the knight's sword, directly cutting down all the hyenas surrounding him.

"Ow!"

"Don't make a scene."

Before the knight's sword could be charged, another hyena pounced on him. Orson wrapped the rest around his palm and punched the opponent's fangs. After blocking the hound's mouth, he pinched its head and hit it against the stone.

Orson couldn't perform precise operations on the rest while fighting smoothly with his main body. Therefore, in this situation, Orson could only activate the [FEVER] mode and wrap the rest into his body to maximize the effectiveness of his ability.

"Boom boom boom!!!"

"!?"

An attack composed of pure Originium energy came from behind the monster group, aiming at Orson. He quickly raised his knight sword to protect his body, forcibly resisting this wave of pure Originium skills.

"Hmm... So these guys can also use the most basic Originium techniques to attack?"

His shoulders and knees ached slightly, but he managed to survive the unexpected attack. Moreover, because the monsters had just bombarded him without mercy, the knight's sword had accumulated 40% of its energy.

"Tuning—without regard for physical limitations."

The palm wrapped in the Rest Armor tightly grasped the hilt of the sword. Because he did not need to consider the limit of the physical tuning, Orson only took less than 5 seconds to fill the energy of the Knight Sword "Red Queen".

Buzz buzz buzz! !

The roar of the engine temporarily drowned out the shaking of the earth and the howling of the monsters.

“Let’s try this…!”

Orson inserted his knight sword into the ground in front of him and swung it upwards with a roar. The half-man-high stone ground was forcibly "shoveled" up and stood in front of Orson like a shield.

It wasn't over yet. 'Lifting the Floor' blocked the attack routes of several monsters. At the same time, Orson drew out his sword and swung it forward with all his strength, releasing all the stored energy in one breath.

brake!!

A stream of pure heat burst out from the sword, like a lawn mower, cutting all the monsters within a dozen meters in front into two halves.

It looked like a very powerful blow, but Orson noticed that the space left by the killed monsters was filled with more powerful and dense Originium-infected creatures in almost no time.

Not only that, a group of hyenas who like to attack from blind spots gathered around him unknowingly and pounced on Orson from all directions.

MELTDOWN mode

Orson directly twisted the handle of the knight sword to the innermost side. This is the "hidden mode" that can completely unlock all the energy diversion restrictions of the knight sword in a short time after turning on the Snow Pheasant modification.

Click.

After a crisp sound, Orson instantly felt tired, as if the plug in the pool had suddenly been pulled out.

——This sword is actively absorbing all energy...!

Orson had to continue using the tuning to increase the temperature of the Red Queen, otherwise the handle would quickly drop below freezing.

Boom buzz buzz!!

The roar of the engine was even more distorted and deformed than those of the monsters. Orson could even clearly feel the trembling and wailing of every structure inside the sword.

But this self-destructive, all-consuming state also brings with it powerful force.

Chi! !

With just an ordinary swing, the thermal jet instantly vaporized the hyenas that rushed towards him.

Tune, swing, tune, swing—

He was clearly just an inconspicuous boy, so small that he would disappear immediately if thrown into the wilderness.

However, it was this young man who, by himself, was able to stop the group of infected monsters known as "natural disasters".

Every swing of the Red Queen brought about widespread death. Even the beasts without any intelligence gradually realized that the creature in front of them, which seemed to be able to be killed with just one attack, seemed to be able to stop their advance.

however--

Click! !

It was not known whether it was the dozens or hundreds of times that the Red Queen in Orson's hand swung, but it suddenly made a very crisp shattering sound.

The attack that should have killed the monster outright only managed to sever the two arms of an indescribable, twisted monster.

——Has it finally reached its limit?… Red Queen no longer has the ability to accumulate explosive energy.

Orson knew very well that this was the inevitable outcome. It would be more accurate to say that being able to hold on until now was beyond Orson's expectations.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

The monsters also noticed the damage to the boy's weapon. These infected creatures, which had already slowed down their pace, once again rushed towards Orson.

"It's not that simple after all... Then come on - [Curtain Call]"

"Ouch!"

Boom! !

Orson deprived the surrounding monsters of their 'Originium Skills', or the circuits through which Originium flows.

Originally, this ability couldn't directly harm the human body, but for the infected creatures that needed the power of Originium to move—

This is an unreasonable "cheating method".

The monsters that rushed over fell directly to the ground and didn't even have the ability to get up for a while.

——The effect is better than expected, but the problem is...

Xie Mu was unable to kill these infected creatures directly, as they did not feel the same 'fear' as before.

Another group of monsters soon rushed over again. Orson had to forcibly cancel the curtain call, and then released it again without even having time to breathe.

"Curtain call—cough cough!"

The sweet liquid spurted out in an instant, and Orson couldn't even tell whether it came out of his nose or mouth.

Orson was ready for an endurance battle, to see whether he would stop the monsters first or completely lose consciousness and faint first. For this purpose, he even injected the Originium suppression potion in advance.

But judging by the results, the effect wasn't very good. Because of the excessive use of his frequency exploration ability during the previous eradication of the Sicilian Gang, Orson had already overdrawn his body. Furthermore, fighting the Godfather in an environment with a high concentration of Originium infection had only exacerbated the deterioration of his body.

—Oops, my physical condition is worse than I thought...

The effect of the curtain call was not complete. One of the pincer beasts was not deprived of its ability to move, but instead rushed directly towards Orson.

The distance was too close, and because of the activation of [Curtain Call], Orson, who had lost the physical protection of the FEVER armor, had no confidence that the "Red Queen", who had become an ordinary knight sword, could block this attack.

The only remaining option is the crossbow...!

Orson forcibly raised the crossbow hanging beside him and aimed at the claw beast, but before he could pull the trigger, the claw beast's sharp claws had already swung in front of him.

Orson was ready to use his crossbow as a buffer to take the blow, but at this moment:

boom! !

A flame came from behind, directly melting the claw beast and the monsters behind it into slag.

"This is……"

Orson was a little confused by the attack for a moment, but before he could come to a conclusion, several indescribable Originium crystal monsters pounced on him from mid-air.

“Crack!!”

This time, the monster turned into an ice sculpture in mid-air before it could touch Orson, and shattered into pieces after falling to the ground.

“Tallulah, Froststar…!?”

Orson turned around and saw two people who shouldn't have been there.

"I know you, Orson, won't change your mind once you've made up your mind, so why don't we just pretend to agree with your plan and come over to help? It's just that getting out of Longmen was a real hassle, so I apologize for the delay!"

Frost Star smiled, then drew out his Originium staff and froze a row of Originium bugs.

"you……"

"Ahem, don't look at me like that, Orson. I'm still your superior in name only, so I have the right to refuse your request, that's all."

Tallulah coughed twice, drew out her two-handed sword, walked to Orson and said.

"But then over there at Longmen—"

"We chose you, Orson. We believe in the path you've chosen, and that you have the ability to turn that '1% perfect ending' into reality. So, Froststar and I have decided to bet our future on you, nothing more."

Snow Rabbit patted Orson's shoulder, and at this moment, a PRG flew over from a distance and crashed into a group of monsters not far away.

boom! ! !

After a loud bang, countless monsters were blown away and shattered.

"BINGO! It's a huge help that this thing still works. I told you to bring it out even if it takes a little time, Texas~"

"Exia...!? And Texas, Lapland?"

Orson opened his eyes wide, somewhat unable to believe what he saw.

A car with a penguin logistics logo printed on it drove over. Archangel Exiah, with half of his head popping out of the sunroof, greeted Orson and threw the RPG launcher in his hand aside.

"Idiot Orson! We were lucky enough to ask Officer Chen first, otherwise we would have let you come here alone—you're going too far!"

"There's no need to be so formal, little dog~?"

"I'm entrusting the mission to Sora and Croissant, Orson. We are your seniors, so we can choose not to accept the commission."

"You guys really... forget it."

Orson wanted to say something, but when he saw the girls who chose to follow him, he just smiled and raised the Red Queen's sword, which had turned into an ordinary knight's sword.

"There's only one goal: to stop these things."