God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World! Chapter 524: Too Much Heat

Beyond the devastated entrance, the entire landscape had transformed utterly.

Shattered rocks littered the area. Crimson blood streaked the earth in ominous trails, while corpses wearing Black Star headbands sprawled near the crumbled gateway. Certain ones missing arms or legs. Others sliced neatly in half. A few appeared pulverized by sheer brute strength.

ChaosKnight members lingered close to the entrance.

ChaosCleric rested one hand on his waist, the other lifted faintly, gaping at the slaughter with his mouth agape. Next to him loomed the ever-quiet Vv and a jittery gamer who darted looks between the cadavers and the passage underneath.

"What in the seven seas is going on here?" ChaosCleric burst out.

He whipped around to the gamer at his side. "This is the spot, yeah? You claimed you saw White Phantom nearby."

The gamer bobbed his head fast. "Yeah. I was on a quest close by and caught him moving this direction. I recognized him instantly, so I alerted everyone immediately."

His gaze swept the dead bodies once more, his throat constricting.

"I believe he caused all of this."

ChaosCleric glanced back at the entrance.

Black Star's fame preceded them—any dedicated gamer knew it. They pursued foes, laid ambushes, shadowed prey, and demolished lives over trifles like this. That fit perfectly. What baffled him was White Phantom charging right at them.

"Why would he even bother?" ChaosCleric grumbled.

The idea gnawed uncomfortably at his gut.

In days gone by, IceQueen dispatched envoys to Black Star's Torin to handle Gabriel Reyes. This occurred prior to the chaos erupting. Rather than eliminate the threat, Black Star repeatedly slaughtered the implicated players, banishing them to Whitebridge's Beginner Town. The fiasco escalated rapidly, prompting ChaosKnight to steer clear of them thereafter. (Chapter 246)

ChaosCleric recalled the irritation vividly. Still, IceQueen wisely halted her pursuit of Black Star.

He scratched his cheek and exhaled deeply.

One side of him relished White Phantom shredding those thugs. The other side questioned White Phantom's true loyalties. After all, he'd slain multiple players in Monkey Paradise—a grudge not soon forgotten.

As his mind churned, Vv began advancing.

ChaosCleric blinked in surprise and pivoted.

"Hey," he shouted. "Where are you headed?"

Vv offered no response.

The wordless form pressed on toward the passage at an unhurried stride, footfall by footfall into the fractured entryway.

ChaosCleric tsked in annoyance.

"Of course."

With hesitation, he trailed after Vv. The anxious gamer gulped and tagged along, his footfalls far shakier now.

From the moment they entered the base, an eerie wrongness permeated everything.

With each deeper advance, the atmosphere grew hotter. Initially just stifling. Moments more in, perspiration beaded on the gamer's nape.

ChaosCleric scowled. "It’s too hot in here."

He tugged open his collar a bit and pressed on, eyes sharpening with caution. Ahead, the corridor extended under a faint crimson glow, walls seeming to close in unnaturally.

Vv continued onward relentlessly.

The sweltering intensified with distance traveled. Far beyond typical cavern heat, it seeped into flesh and thinned every inhale.

ChaosCleric's face darkened.

The gamer next to him mopped his brow and whispered, "Something’s not right."

Silence met his words. Parched throats forbade any retort.

Moments passed, then a graver affliction emerged.

A peculiar frailty invaded ChaosCleric's legs abruptly. Subtle initially, it surged outward fast. Pressure built in his torso. His gullet parched even quicker.

"What... what is this?" the gamer croaked, voice breaking.

ChaosCleric halted, bracing a palm on the wall for support.

His HP was steadily dropping.

The truth struck like a blow, twisting his features instantly. No overt assault targeted him, but the base's intense blaze eroded his vitality regardless. One fact crystallized sharply.

White Phantom had traversed this lair, battled fiercely, and pushed forward—even as they faltered merely stepping inside.

ChaosCleric's breaths grew ragged. Through gritted teeth, he growled, "This is insane."

"We need to go back," the gamer urged. "We need to leave now."

Despite their obvious distress, Vv strode ahead unaffected.

ChaosCleric glanced upward and yelled once more. "Vv!"

Still no reply.

The gamer nearby lurched suddenly. His frame trembled, complexion draining to ghostly white.

"I can’t..." he began.

His speech abruptly halted, and just a moment later, his form disintegrated into streams of data particles right inside the tunnel. The glowing fragments scattered and faded away, leaving ChaosCleric gawking at the vacant space with bulging eyes.

In that fleeting instant, his heartbeat was the only sound echoing in his ears.

ChaosCleric staggered back one step and came to a dead halt. He simply couldn't press on.

All his instincts shrieked that venturing one step further would spell the same doom. He wasn't equipped for this ordeal. White Phantom might be some monstrous entity. Those clashing deeper in the base could be far more horrifying. No matter the truth, he'd hit his absolute limit.

Battle clamor boomed loudly from ahead. The walls quivered subtly. Remote collisions vibrated through the rock. Every so often, a stifled explosion thundered up the passage like lightning caged below ground.

ChaosCleric peered into the depths and gulped down his fear.

"What kind of people are fighting in there?"

Yet the battle wasn't the sole shock gripping him.

It was Vv.

The armored silhouette kept advancing into the inferno as if unperturbed, vanishing further into the base while ChaosCleric stood frozen, able only to watch.

...

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