The chaotic flames flickered incessantly in the darkness, twisted figures appearing intermittently, like monsters from a nightmare.

Qico stood dazed in the blood-stained chamber, feeling disconnected from her existence, until warm blood trickled down her cheek, until she noticed the corpse at her feet.

It was a pale, indifferent face; Qico remembered him. Just minutes ago, they were laughing and chatting. Earlier, they were classmates and comrades, but now he lay dead at her feet.

Qico knew she would be the next soon.

The ravaging death and destruction were close at hand. Qico tried to recall the skills she had learned, but extreme fear left her mind blank.

Painful screams echoed across the battlefield, the scene exceeded anything she had imagined. The young Qico was completely petrified, standing motionless.

She thought of her family and her own safety, but she couldn’t control her emotions and actions. Qico saw blood-drenched, deathly figures and bodies torn apart by bullets, making her heart pound wildly.

A vast silence oppressed her eardrums until a strong hand tugged at her, pulling her into a nearby corridor, where she fell heavily to the ground. At the same time, the silence shattered, and the sound of mountains and seas poured into her ears.

"Qico!" A voice shouted, "Stay alert!"

Qico’s scattered pupils gradually focused as she recognized the blood-stained face before her, gasping, "Cap... Captain Kemp."

Perception of the outside world returned instantly; she felt endless fear and loneliness deeply corroding her heart.

Suddenly, chaos unfolded before Qico’s eyes. People were tearing each other apart, flesh flying, and the air was filled with the scent of death, making her short of breath.

In this insane world, Qico saw scenes of fierce violence unbearable to witness, bodies scattered everywhere, bloody remains rotting on the ground, an overwhelming stench making it difficult for her to breathe. Some warriors hadn’t died yet, emitting sharp wails, astonishingly calling out Qico’s name.

Qico wanted to move forward to assist, but her feet trembled weakly, as if her life force was crushed in that instant. Her vision blurred, the whole world seemed to tremble, pulling her into a vortex of death, suffocating her.

Amidst the tremors, malicious illusions and the abyss of the soul began to devour her.

The call sounded again.

"Stay alert! Qico!"

Her pupils ceased scattering, focusing again as Qico struggled back from the lost state.

"Sorry, sorry," Qico repeatedly apologized.

Qico, the newly appointed member of the Sixth Group, had excellent grades during school, even making her believe she could perfectly manage this job. Despite some senior members, she often carried an air of arrogance.

Until blood and death completely shattered her arrogance.

"It’s okay," Kemp reassured Qico while firing back into the darkness from behind a bullet-riddled wall. "When I first joined, I was in a similar state as you."

Kemp emptied his ammunition, dodged back behind the wall, slowly sat down, and painfully clutched his abdomen. Continuous high-intensity combat nearly exhausted his ether, a fatal bullet lodged in his abdomen during a momentary lapse, soaking his clothes with blood.

"Damn it, since that incident, the world has gotten increasingly chaotic," Kemp grumbled in a low voice.

Qico knew what Kemp referred to: the Decline Epidemic event in Oubos six months ago. As a new member, Qico didn’t grasp much of the inside story, but she knew that since that event, the King’s Secret Sword and the Order Bureau maintained absolute restraint, as if the other didn’t exist.

Meanwhile, more supernatural conflict incidents erupted within the Rhine Alliance, keeping the action teams busy.

"We have to get out of here!"

Qico, trying to muster the spirit, supported Kemp. Kemp didn’t refuse, but a trace of bleakness crossed his eyes. He didn’t think he could leave here.

The enemy’s scale and strength exceeded intelligence estimates. His team suffered a heavy blow at the first encounter, with several members killed and others scattered.

Kemp had sought help via the Heart Core Net, but soon the channel was interrupted by violent ether interference, leaving static noise inside the Heart Core Net.

"Stop, Qico." Kemp leaned against the wall, unwilling to move an inch.

"What is it?" Qico looked at him, tense.

"Honestly, this isn’t my first time facing a death scenario. It’s become commonplace. But you are different; you are still new, so you can’t handle it. I understand, don’t be too hard on yourself."

Kemp fumbled for a magazine change, hearing the approaching footsteps and those bloodthirsty sounds.

"Those bastards are faster and stronger than us; someone needs to take the intel out of here." Kemp said confidently, as this wasn’t his first brush with death.

"Captain..."

Tears filled Qico’s eyes. She wanted to say something else when Kemp suddenly moved; he turned, firing repeatedly as he drained his remaining ether. An ethereal barrier rose on his body.

Flames flickered, revealing a grotesque, bloody ghostly figure. Bullets hit its body accurately but didn’t slow its speed. In a flash, it reached Kemp, sword gleaming as the ethereal barrier shattered.

A gory wound opened across Kemp’s chest, forcing him back several meters into a pile of corpses.

The instinct for battle made Kemp quickly scramble to his feet, but the sticky blood made his shoes slip, and he fell again, his eyes filled with pale, decayed faces, as layers of corpses piled up.

After the decline epidemic, with more and more extraordinary conflict events, the Field Operations Department underwent reorganization. The original action groups were expanded, and members were divided into several teams. Thanks to a good track record, Kemp became the leader of one of the squads under the Sixth Group.

A week ago, Kemp received orders to come to this town to investigate a recent spate of missing persons cases. As the investigation deepened, he discovered the enemy’s lair, only to find that the enemy’s scale far exceeded Kemp’s imagination, not to mention the type of enemy.

"How could the Night Race be here?"

Kemp struggled to raise his head. In the shadowy corridor, the crimson figure had a ghastly pale face, his pupils were blood-red, like coagulated blood.

Amidst Qico’s wailing, the longsword pierced Qico’s shoulder. The man jerked out the blade and carefully licked the cold metal, savoring the taste of blood.

Behind the man, one after another, distorted figures crawled in like beasts; they had human forms, but Kemp knew they had lost their human essence.

These were Bloodthirsty, the most vile beings in the Night Race, completely losing self-awareness, acting only on instinct.

Kemp coughed painfully, the intense pain almost ripped apart his will.

The man seized Qico by the throat, dragging her towards Kemp in large strides, then tossed her next to him.

Weak firelight rose around, illuminating a corner of the darkness. Only then did Kemp notice that the bones here were more numerous than he imagined. Besides a large portion of dried corpses, there were also many fresh bodies, even a few people barely clinging to life.

The sound of bloodthirsty breaths came from all directions. More and more Bloodthirsty were closing in. Only then did Kemp realize this was not a mere heap of corpses, but the dining hall of these monsters, and he and Qico would become their feast of blood.

"I never thought I’d die in a place like this," Kemp muttered lowly, having survived so many horrific battles, only to fall here; it was intensely frustrating no matter how he thought about it.

At this point, Qico was utterly dazed. For a rookie, such an intense first operation was a bit too much.

Just as Kemp was about to make a desperate fight, he vaguely heard something. Kemp paused, listening carefully, confirming that the sound was not a hallucination.

Suddenly, Kemp relaxed, lounging amidst the pile of corpses. Seeing her captain, Qico thought he had given up, sinking deeper into despair.

"Are you giving up too, Captain?"

"No," Kemp shook his head, "Reinforcements are coming."

"Reinforcements?"

Qico listened closely to the echoes inside the Heart Core Net, but no one responded to their call.

Could it be... could it be Kemp, in despair, had gone mad? Was he starting to expect things that didn’t exist?

Just as the wild thoughts were about to swallow Qico’s mind, Kemp spoke.

"Listen carefully, Qico, not to the Heart Core Net, but to the sounds of the outside world."

Kemp completely relaxed, closing his eyes and instructing Qico, "Listen carefully, do you hear anything?"

At this moment, how could Qico calm down to listen? The sound of blood-thirsty breaths approached her, the terrifying Bloodthirsty surrounded them, and Qico tried to summon Ether for one last counterattack.

Suddenly, Qico heard something, a chaotic and piercing noise from the darkness.

The sound grew louder until even the man heard it.

Something was coming.

In an instant, a piercing engine roar filled the ears, stabbing painfully like a sharp dagger. It was so noisy and oppressive that it seemed to make the entire air chaotic.

The man sensed something, trying to evade, as at the same moment the wall beside him shattered. A powerful arm thrust through and seized the man by the head.

The arm, brimming with irresistible force, slammed the man into the opposite wall, half his body breaking and sinking into it.

The sound of the engine became clearer.

The roaring clash of blades rubbed against each other continuously, growling like wild beasts, chilling one to the bone. It rose and fell rhythmically, like a heartbeat, evoking a sense of agitation and oppression. Each fierce acceleration was accompanied by a violent roar, making the whole world seem to tremble.

This sound howled like hell itself, lingering long in the ears, as if it would never stop.

In the swirling dust, a blood-stained axe blade cleaved through the air, splitting into the man’s chest. The serrated axe blade gnawed, spraying chunks of flesh and bone fragments.

Qico froze for a moment, then shouted, "He’s Night Race, an Undead!"

"Undead?"

The figure that broke through the wall slowly turned around, looking at Qico, holding a bloodstained Hand Axe in one hand and a head with a terrified face in the other. Below the bloody severed neck hung a broken spine, dripping blood.

With a forceful twist of the wrist, the head burst into a mass of vile blood in Bologue’s hand, ending all signs of life.