Chapter 240: Killing Intent, Social Death

Chapter 240: Chapter 240: Killing Intent, Social Death

Boosted by the Burst Power of Dragon Leaping Tail, Lance’s speed was astonishing.

He reached the little hooded girl just before the shockwave tore through the street, pulling her tightly into his arms.

Closely following behind Lance was a semi-transparent, silver-blue shield.

The shield formed a sturdy, inverted semi-circle over them, perfectly blocking the fiery blast and all the flying debris.

Then, a series of CRACKLES erupted from the shield.

The entire street was instantly and completely covered in thick smoke and dust.

Lance let out a small sigh of relief and looked down.

In his arms, Lilia’s little face was deathly pale. Her wide eyes stared blankly up at him, having forgotten even to cry.

The explosion had been too sudden, too violent. The child was clearly in shock.

Lance’s heart hammered in his chest as a wave of delayed fear washed over him.

’If I hadn’t happened to be walking down this street just now, if my Perception hadn’t given me an early warning...’

’...then this tiny life might have been utterly extinguished from the world in that explosion.’

Although he had only met this child twice, and they hadn’t even exchanged more than a few words.

But the truth was, from the first moment Lance saw Lilia, he felt the little girl’s personality was just like his mischievous little niece from his past life.

Perhaps it was this connection that made him act instinctively the moment he sensed danger.

And now, seeing the little girl’s utterly distraught expression.

At this very moment, an irrepressible killing intent surged up from the depths of Lance’s heart.

He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing his murderous rage. He reached out and gently patted Lilia’s small, hooded head, comforting her in a soft voice.

"Don’t be afraid. Big brother is going to get revenge for you now."

The ears of the silver-blue figure standing nearby, maintaining the shield, twitched slightly. It had clearly heard him.

...

The smoke and dust kicked up by the explosion were extremely thick, and visibility was close to zero.

In fact, the series of explosions on this street were only a relatively minor aftershock in the grand scheme of the entire attack.

The true epicenter of the devastating blast was the Silver Hand headquarters, the building marked with the Silver Arm Armor emblem.

Judging from the location of the immense boom and the flash of fire, it seemed their supply depot had been blown up.

Just as the surrounding Adventurers were reeling in shock.

"COUGH COUGH... Let’s go!"

Several figures in gray cloaks, using the smoke and dust as cover, scrambled out from the ruins next to the Silver Hand headquarters.

The moment they burst onto the street. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

The force of the blast had torn a large chunk from one of their cloaks, revealing a distinctively styled black Enchanted Inner Armor worn underneath.

An Adventurer nearby saw the Inner Armor and immediately shouted a warning.

"It’s people from the Iron Throne!"

The Adventurers, who had been angry and were about to draw their weapons to intercept these suspicious individuals, all hesitated upon hearing this.

"Is that... the Iron Throne’s Enchanted Inner Armor?"

This type of gear, bearing the Guild’s mark, was practically a symbol of an Iron Throne member.

In the current competition between factions for the Summer Crown, the Iron Throne was firmly ranked first on the "Team Leaderboard" and was definitely considered the Silver Hand’s most formidable rival.

Moreover, anyone with eyes could see that these two Guilds had already had a serious, bloody conflict some time ago in the Golden Mystery Realm hosted by the god Mercurial.

But no one had ever imagined that the conflict between the two sides had escalated to such an irreconcilable point.

The Iron Throne had even dared to violate the Underground City’s rules and detonate such a large quantity of Alchemy Explosives in a safe zone.

There was a major reason why large-scale explosive Alchemy Items were rarely used inside the Underground City.

Acts of large-scale, terrain-destroying violence could easily provoke the Underground City’s consciousness.

Once judged by the Underground City as malicious cheating, the difficulty of the Demons in the entire area could be drastically increased, and it might even attract the relentless targeting of special monsters.

So no one had anticipated that someone would be crazy enough to transport such a large quantity of forbidden explosives to cause such destruction.

"Dammit! Your Inner Armor is exposed! Hurry up and go, don’t cause trouble for the Guild!"

Among the few cloaked figures preparing to flee, the man in the lead suddenly turned back and hissed at his companion whose Inner Armor was showing.

Though not loud, his words were particularly jarring on the street now that the explosions had ceased, virtually confirming everyone’s suspicions.

This was the Iron Throne’s revenge on the Silver Hand!

Precisely because their identities were confirmed.

Those freelance Adventurers and small teams, who had been filled with righteous indignation, all chickened out, forcefully suppressing the urge to act.

No one wanted to vent their anger for being caught in the crossfire only to offend a faction that was currently ranked number one and acted so unscrupulously.

Taking in the reactions of the crowd around him.

The cloaked leader revealed a barely perceptible, triumphant smile.

’Looks like the plan was a success...’

He delayed no further, leaping nimbly onto the highest point of a collapsed house’s ruins nearby.

"Go!"

He let out a low shout, raising his right arm.

The specially made Alchemy Hook on his arm shot out instantly. With a SWOOSH, it accurately hooked a huge stalactite hanging from the ceiling of the safe zone.

The other cloaked figures followed suit, firing their own hooks.

The winches whirred with a piercing, grinding sound.

The men were just about to escape the chaotic street.

But.

The very next second after their feet left the ruins.

An Iron Spear, parting the thick fog, came spinning out of the dense smoke and swept toward them.

The spear’s shaft unerringly snagged their grappling lines in mid-air.

Lance had made his move.

’He knew full well that while the main target of these Alchemy Explosives hadn’t been the people on this street...’

’...for an ordinary little girl like Lilia with no defensive abilities, even a single piece of flying shrapnel could have been instantly fatal.’

So Lance had no intention of letting this group leave alive.

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

Almost at the moment of impact, the Iron Spear forcibly tangled all the grappling lines in mid-air into an impossible knot.

A huge reactive force shot back, forcing the cloaked men to cry out in alarm, let go, and try to regain their balance as they fell into the swirling fog.

However, what came next...

What awaited their fall was not the ground, but a pair of vertical, Dark Gold pupils in the fog.

Nearly all the surviving Adventurers who were watching the spectacle saw an astonishing scene.

Deep within the thick smoke, an extremely dazzling, silver-red flame suddenly ignited.

This flame, like a shooting star in the night sky, flickered and darted back and forth through the fog at an incredible speed.

"THUD!"

That was the muffled thud of a heavy fist shattering bone.

"RIIIP~"

That was the sound of a sharp weapon tearing through flesh.

"BOOM!"

"CRACK!"

In a mere few dozen seconds.

The sounds of shattering echoed continuously from within the fog.

Then.

The dazzling silver-red flame was extinguished at just the right moment, as if the one-sided slaughter had been nothing more than an illusion.

This scene instantly piqued the curiosity of all the surrounding Adventurers to its absolute peak.

Who was it? Who would dare to intercept and kill members of the Iron Throne right here?

Just as the Adventurers in the smoke were trying to get a clear look at who the fierce figure hidden in the fog was.

Suddenly.

"WHOOSH..."

Two Rings Spell [Wind Creation Skill]

An extremely powerful whirlwind swept out from the Silver Hand’s headquarters.

It seemed a Mage from the headquarters was taking action.

In an instant, it blew away all the explosive dust and smoke that had enveloped the street.

The result was an extremely awkward scene for Lance.

The moment everyone’s vision cleared.

A hundred or so spectating Adventurers clearly saw the scene in the center of the ruins.

A black-haired youth in a Leather Vest was squatting unceremoniously next to a corpse, his hands working hard to strip the dead man of his Enchanted Inner Armor, the symbol of the Iron Throne.

Everyone was frozen by the scene before them for a solid two seconds.

[Royal Armory judgment successful... Target’s Resistance Threshold is lower than the King’s Authority Value. Ownership has been forcibly revoked.]

’Are you kidding me? Did you really have to do me like that?’

Lance, still clutching the just-revoked Inner Armor, remained squatting on the spot, his body stiff.

He could feel his toes trying to claw their way through his boots from sheer embarrassment.

’What in the world is this epic scene of social suicide?’

The feeling was like secretly changing clothes in your room, only for a group of reporters armed with cameras and long lenses to burst in and start relentlessly snapping pictures.

"Big brother is amazing!"

In the midst of the crowd’s silence, Lilia suddenly raised her hands high and shouted with an excited look on her face.

The little girl had already recovered from the shock of the explosion. As expected of a Minstrel’s daughter, her mental fortitude was a cut above that of an ordinary child.

By now, Bazzer had run to his daughter’s side. He was covered in dust and looked quite disheveled, holding his daughter protectively in his arms.

And beside Lilia was the silver-blue figure from before—as expected, it was the Snow Lady who had been standing dazed at the headquarters’ entrance.