Fantasy Game: Infinite City

The brief silence was broken by a low, rumbling current emanating from Han Zu's chest. This current carried with it the pale gray energy that was fused with his flesh, causing the scattered armor fragments around him to tremble slightly. He slowly withdrew his hand, which had been suspended in mid-air. The energy remaining at his fingertips was no longer a tangible snake, but had transformed into an invisible energy wave that spread through the air, touching the surrounding flesh and causing the writhing muscles to freeze instantly.

The energy within his body completely broke away from its familiar form and even began to resonate with the surrounding environment. Each flow could cause a slight vibration in the energy in the air. The minor wear and tear accumulated from the previous battles was completely soothed by this resonance, leaving only an overwhelming power, waiting for Han Zu's will to drive it.

The surviving soldiers on the battlefield struggled to their feet from the extreme terror. Some collapsed to their knees, their legs giving way, trying to rise from the bloodied ground, their bodies convulsing with fear. Others, driven by survival instinct, turned and rushed towards the exits of the core area, the roar of their powerpacks piercing the chaos. A few soldiers, trained to the bone, mechanically raised their weapons, their fingers on the triggers, hesitant to fire, their pupils reflecting Han Zu's godlike figure, filled with utter dread. Having witnessed Han Zu's actions, they no longer had the courage to resist. Fighting a powerful monster with whom they could fight on equal terms was one thing; fighting something capable of annihilating their comrades from afar was entirely different.

Han Zu stood motionless, without even assuming any attack stance. His power spread out like an invisible tide, covering the entire battlefield. A soldier rushing towards the exit suddenly froze. The jet nozzle of her power backpack was instantly blocked by an invisible force. Not only could the internal energy not be released, emitting a violent buzzing sound, but the internal energy core was also being frantically kneaded by something unseen and intangible. The safe energy that could have sustained her for a long time had, in just a few seconds, turned into an unstable and deadly trap.

The sudden turn of events filled the soldier with terror. She tried to manually close the backpack to prevent the energy core from overloading due to the anomaly and causing an irreversible explosion. However, she found that her limbs were firmly bound by something unseen, rendering her completely immobile. The next second, the power backpack exploded under the energy overload, tearing the soldier's body apart in the shockwave, turning into a cloud of crimson blood mist. The surrounding energy fragments, like iron filings attracted by a magnet, gathered around Han Zu, transforming into a pale gray energy stream that merged into his body.

Another soldier, wielding a twin-barreled energy machine gun, finally mustered his courage and pulled the trigger. A rain of blue energy bullets poured forth, heading straight for Han Zu. Han Zu remained standing, merely raising his arm slightly, his palm facing the direction from which the energy barrage was coming. The energy bullets did not produce the expected attack; instead, they stopped abruptly half a meter from Han Zu's palm. Then, the energy began to transform and was absorbed by Han Zu as well.

Han Zu turned his head, his gaze locking onto the machine gunner. He reversed his raised hand, pointing it at the gunner, and clenched it tightly. The twin-barreled energy machine gun in the gunner's hand instantly deformed, its alloy barrel shrinking like a crumpled piece of paper before being crushed into a lump of scrap metal, which he then hurled at the surrounding soldiers. One soldier, unable to dodge in time, was struck in the chest by the high-speed flying scrap metal. His combat armor caved in instantly, the crisp sound of breaking ribs clearly audible. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his body slumped to the ground, twitched a few times, and then fell still.

The scarred man watched his soldiers fall like mowing grass, the last shred of reason in his eyes consumed by madness and despair. He abruptly ripped open his shirt, revealing a black rune-covered band, and then drew a jet-black energy sword covered in eerie dark red runes from his waist. The runes lit up instantly as he infused them, the space around the sword subtly distorting, and a power capable of tearing the air apart emanated from it. He pushed off the ground with his legs, using the propulsion of his power pack, and charged towards Han Zu like an arrow released from a bow. Though he didn't roar, his ferocious expression and the death rage in his eyes revealed that this was a desperate, all-or-nothing charge.

The moment the longsword was swung, a dark red energy slash detached from the blade, hurtling straight towards Han Zu's back with a sharp whistling sound. Wherever the slash passed, the air was torn into tiny fissures, and the surrounding flesh and tissue were burned to ashes before they could even twitch. Han Zu still didn't turn around, nor did he raise a hand; he continued dealing with the soldiers in front of him. The dark red energy slash struck him precisely half a meter away, but it was as if it had hit an impenetrable wall. The slash instantly disintegrated, turning into countless tiny energy fragments. Under Han Zu's control, these fragments changed direction and shot towards the scarred man like a swarm of bees returning to their hive.

The scarred man's expression changed drastically. He hurriedly swung his energy sword to parry, only to find that the tiny energy fragments, like maggots clinging to bones, bypassed the sword's defense and struck his body relentlessly. His combat armor instantly became covered in fine cracks, the light from the runes on his armor dimmed rapidly, and the energy within his body was being frantically torn apart by these fragments. Before he could react, Han Zu had already dealt with the soldiers in front of him, turned around, and locked onto his body. The scarred man felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar; his limbs and bones seemed to be frozen by an invisible force, and even breathing became extremely difficult. He tried to urge the energy sword to continue the attack, but found that the sword was out of control. The blade began to vibrate violently and then slashed back towards his own shoulder.

With a crisp "crack," the scarred man's shoulder was cleaved open by his own energy blade, black blood gushing out. He let out a suppressed groan, his will to die replaced by agony. But he endured the pain and shut down the blade's energy output. However, the blade's failure didn't save him. Although the visible attack disappeared, invisible, blade-like forces followed, relentlessly cutting into the scarred man's body. His combat armor crumbled piece by piece, muscles were torn apart, bones were severed—the entire process was slow and agonizing. The scarred man tried to self-destruct, but found that the combat armor's energy had been completely absorbed, leaving no chance to detonate the energy core. Finally, under Han Zu's cold gaze, the scarred man's body was dismantled into countless fragments, scattered across the ground. Black blood mixed with broken tissue, making the ground even more viscous.

With their last commander gone, the remaining soldiers completely collapsed. The thought of escape consumed their minds, and they frantically rushed towards the various exits of the core area. But Han Zu's power had already covered all the passages near the battlefield. He didn't even need to move; with a mere thought, invisible energy walls materialized at all the exits, completely blocking their escape routes. The first few soldiers to reach the exits crashed into the energy walls, their bodies instantly thrown back by the immense impact. They landed bleeding from all seven orifices, lifeless.

Seeing this, the soldiers rushed to other exits, only to find that all the passages were blocked by the same energy wall. In desperation, some tried to attack the energy wall with energy weapons, but the energy bullets disappeared without a trace after hitting the wall, not even creating a ripple. Han Zu's power moved through the fleeing soldiers like a hunter, each surge taking several lives. He could easily penetrate combat armor and directly attack soldiers' internal organs; he could manipulate the flesh and blood of the ground to form sharp bone spikes that pierced soldiers' bodies from below; he could distort the surrounding air to form invisible vortexes that would pull soldiers in and tear them to pieces.

In desperation, a soldier activated his self-destruct device, attempting to take Han Zu down with him. He charged towards Han Zu, his combat armor flashing a dangerous red light, its energy core rapidly overloaded. Han Zu merely glanced at him; the self-destruct device's circuitry was forcibly severed, and the energy core's energy was rapidly drained. The overload was abruptly stopped, and the flashing red light instantly dimmed. The soldier's resolute expression froze, replaced by profound bewilderment. Before he could react, the eerie force that had claimed countless lives of his comrades had already gripped his heart. With a gentle squeeze, the soldier's body slumped to the ground, lifeless.

Another soldier chose a completely different approach. He removed the small energy shoulder cannon from his back, quickly adjusted the angle, and aimed the muzzle at the central vortex of flesh and blood, clearly intending to trigger a chain reaction by attacking the vortex, sacrificing himself and Han Zu. The energy shoulder cannon, fully charged, emitted a sharp buzzing sound, and a massive energy projectile shot towards the vortex with a whistling sound. Han Zu's eyes narrowed, instantly locking onto the energy projectile. The projectile suddenly stopped in mid-air, as if fixed in place by an invisible force. Then, under Han Zu's control, the projectile slowly changed direction, its muzzle pointing at the soldier who fired it. The soldier's face showed terror; he tried to escape, but found his body firmly bound by the power of his will. The next second, the energy projectile roared into the air, directly striking the soldier's body, blasting him and several surrounding soldiers into a bloody mist. The energy fragments from the exploding projectile were all absorbed into Han Zu's body, becoming part of his power.

The battle lasted less than ten minutes, and the once densely packed ranks of soldiers had dwindled to less than ten. These ten men huddled together in the northwest corner of the core area, their bodies trembling uncontrollably. Their weapons were long gone, their faces streaked with tears and blood, their eyes filled with a despair that seeped into their very bones. Han Zu remained standing where he had first used his new power to kill the soldier, unmoved. But the remaining soldiers knew very well that this place had become an invisible, terrifying cage, trapping them firmly within. Escape was futile, resistance a pipe dream. The remaining soldiers knew their fate, but their human survival instincts still clung to a sliver of false hope: perhaps this guy wouldn't kill them?

Han Zu felt the surge of new power, and the force binding the soldiers tightened slightly. The soldiers felt their bodies being squeezed by an invisible force, their bones cracking under the strain, struggling to breathe. They wanted to cry for help, to beg for mercy, but no sound came out; they could only watch helplessly as their bodies gradually deformed under the pressure. One soldier's arm was the first to snap, making a dull cracking sound, and black blood gushed out. Then, more bones broke, and the soldiers' bodies, like kneaded dough, gradually contracted and deformed, finally turning into puffs of scarlet blood mist that spread through the air. There were no screams, no struggles, not even a noticeable energy explosion; everything happened silently, as if these soldiers had never existed.

Just then, Han Zu sensed an unusually stable energy fluctuation in a certain area on the flesh-and-blood wall on the west side of the battlefield. Unlike the chaotic and scattered energy field around it, the energy flow in this area exhibited a regular cycle, like an independent energy circulation system. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the wall differed subtly from the surrounding writhing flesh-and-blood wall. Its surface was relatively smooth, lacking obvious blood vessels and muscle tissue, and instead covered with a layer of fine black scales. In the center of the scales, three fist-sized black crystals were embedded, arranged in an equilateral triangle. The surface of the crystals shimmered with a faint, eerie blue light, and as the light flowed, it formed fine energy lines that tightly connected the three crystals together. In the center of the triangular array, a distorted spatial rift floated, and the air around the rift fluctuated irregularly. Occasionally, tiny amounts of energy escaped from the rift, landing on the surrounding scales and leaving small scratches.

After examining it, Han Zu instantly understood what it was—a teleportation node created using the energy of the Creation Engine. The three black crystals contained immense energy, which maintained the stability of the central spatial rift. The continuous stream of reinforcements had been transported through this rift. Each time the eerie blue light on the crystal surface flickered, the spatial rift would expand slightly before contracting again, clearly indicating a continued supply of energy to maintain the teleportation channel's smooth operation.