NIKKE: The Apocalypse Arrives, But the System is 100 Years Late

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

In the sky, the Raptures pierced by Mo Chen's tendrils exploded one after another, blooming like vibrant summer fireworks.

The once-clouded sky momentarily cleared.

Mo Chen's body plummeted rapidly toward the tendrils on the ground.

Sensing the imminent danger, the tendrils began retreating underground.

At the same time, the earth trembled violently. Soil churned, hills rose, and mountains crumbled. The terrain shifted visibly, while countless Raptures and infected Nikkes emerged from beneath the surface like a doomsday horde.

The naked Nikkes began clustering together, climbing over one another. Within moments, they had formed a massive humanoid monstrosity.

A hellish amalgamation of female bodies?

Mo Chen froze in place, taken aback.

"Isn't this straight out of Gantz?"

The Nikkes were connected by red threads, their lifeless eyes and motionless forms resembling marionettes.

At the creature's head, Mo Chen caught sight of a familiar figure.

It was Papillon!

Papillon, like the others, was completely naked. Her eyes were vacant, devoid of any spark of life, and her body hung limp, manipulated like a puppet. Both her arms and legs were buried beneath the other Nikkes, moving only as the massive creature shifted. She seemed to have lost all consciousness.

Mo Chen's heart sank.

He could tell these Nikkes were different from the brainless husks they'd fought earlier—they were still alive.

This just got a lot more complicated.

The monstrosity's head twisted in all directions, searching, until its gaze locked onto Mo Chen.

Like a predator spotting prey, it lunged at him in the next instant.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Sniper shots rang out from a distance.

Despite its size, the creature moved with alarming speed and agility, twisting its body to dodge Alice's sniper bullets as it charged forward.

He retreated quickly, evading the massive hands reaching for him. However, he hesitated to strike back, fearful of injuring the Nikkes trapped within the creature.

After all, they were still alive, unlike the corpses he had dealt with before.

This hesitation left him somewhat constrained, forced to dodge the monster's relentless attacks while searching for a way to neutralize it without harming the Nikkes.

Or rather, a way to defeat them without harming them.

Mo Chen moved with incredible agility, his movements enhanced by his mastery of martial arts.

But the creature's ferocity was overwhelming. Its attacks were lightning-fast, and the Nikkes on its body were firing laser beams from their mouths in all directions. Even he found himself narrowly dodging several attacks, evading by mere millimeters.

Fortunately, he managed to avoid serious harm.

Suddenly, the monster stopped moving.

The Nikkes on its body all turned their heads simultaneously.

Their hollow eyes stared directly at Mo Chen.

Papillon's crimson eyes stood out among the rest, unnervingly bright and accompanied by what seemed like a sinister smile.

Under the weight of so many lifeless gazes, his mind buzzed, and a wave of dizziness overwhelmed him.

The world spun, and his body froze, as though gripped by an invisible hand.

Mental control!

Mo Chen's pupils contracted slightly, and his heart tightened.

He had only heard of external forces like Maiden and Guillotine, or the security enforcer Yuni, possessing similar mental control abilities. He hadn't expected the monstrosity before him to wield the same power!

The mental grip grew tighter, as if it were about to crush him entirely.

The monster split its grotesque mouth wide. Its tongue, formed from Nikkes, slid out and licked the air, displaying an almost human-like expression of greed.

In the distance, Ludmilla was shocked by the scene and rushed toward Mo Chen. Alice and Snow White also fired their sniper rifles, trying to intervene.

But before their shots could hit, a protective shield—similar to the one used by Land Eater in the research base—materialized in front of the monster.

The bullets only produced faint sparks upon impact, unable to breach the barrier.

Meanwhile, tendrils that had been lurking underground began to emerge. They unfurled like blooming flowers, revealing countless dark red threads in their centers. These threads writhed and twisted, snaking toward Mo Chen like hunters closing in on their prey.

Danger!

The situation became critical in an instant.

Snow White, seeing her earlier attacks fail, bit her lip and forced herself to her feet despite the searing pain coursing through her body. Desperation fueled her movements as she prepared to deploy her anti-ship weapon for a last-ditch effort.

It was her weapon, Seven Dwarves .

This was the same weapon that had helped Mo Chen shatter Land Eater's shield earlier.

However, its energy consumption was massive. Even if Snow White poured all her remaining energy—along with her life-support reserves—into it, it would only suffice for a single shot.

But just as Snow White prepared to fire, seemingly resigned to a desperate gamble, Mo Chen's eyes snapped open.

A burst of crimson light flared from his gaze.

"Bang!"

The invisible mental restraints shattered instantly!

"Aaaaargh!"

The monstrous amalgamation of Nikkes let out a blood-curdling scream, its anguished cries reverberating through the air.

Mo Chen floated mid-air, emanating an aura of divine authority, as if a god had descended upon the battlefield.

He extended his hand, fingers spread wide.

A purple-black cube hovered into view, suspended in mid-air.

The Hetero-Core!

"Finally, you've shown yourself," Mo Chen muttered, a cold smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

From his lofty vantage point, he gazed down at the monstrosity with mocking eyes, the light in them sharp and scornful.

This was the moment he had been waiting for!

He had been waiting in order to stop the tendrils from escaping.

"Aaaaahhhh—!"

The monstrous amalgamation of Nikkes let out a piercing scream, lunging ferociously at Mo Chen.

The tendrils, sensing danger, began retreating underground.

"Thinking of running now? Isn't it a little too late?"

The Hetero-Core slipped from Mo Chen's hand.

It dropped into the pit dug by the tendrils, its four edges unfolding.

In the next moment, the core unleashed a massive surge of Punishing energy.

"Boom—!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"

The earth shattered, splitting apart as the energy erupted like a raging torrent. The core's power surged outward like a million beams of light slicing through the heavens, an unstoppable force obliterating everything in its path.

Dust and debris filled the air, blocking out the sky.

It was a long while before the smoke and dust finally settled.

The pit where the tendrils had been was now a massive crater, more than ten meters deep. The surrounding area had been reduced to scorched earth, the intense heat crystallizing the ground and sending faint wisps of smoke into the air.

It was as if that part of the world had been forcibly erased from existence.

Not far away, a group of Nikkes lay scattered on the ground, their bodies sprawled in disarray, their condition uncertain.

"System Notification: Defeated Material H (Juvenile Form), earned 20,000 points."

It seemed that Material H, like Land Eater, had been created decades ago.

Mo Chen stretched out his hand, and the Hetero-Core flew back into his grasp. Its energy had been completely depleted, its once lustrous surface now dim and lifeless.

The energy it had released far exceeded his expectations.

No wonder the Punishing Virus was used as fuel for the Zero-Point Energy reactor in the Punishing Gray Raven world.

"Right," Mo Chen muttered, recalling something as he quickly ran toward the fallen Nikkes.

Kneeling beside them, he extended his hand to check their vitals.

Fortunately, they still had signs of life: they were merely unconscious.

Mo Chen exhaled in relief.

He had deliberately thrown the Hetero-Core into the tendril's pit not just to annihilate the tendrils but also to ensure that the Nikkes wouldn't be caught in the explosion.