A single 9th-Tier Apollo Stone was worth a million Gold Coins. Nine consecutive failures, plus other materials, meant the cost of this R&D venture had exceeded ten million Gold Coins.
The price of research was undeniably steep.
“Still have two Apollo Stones left…”
Weilin weighed the remaining ones, her face turning slightly pale.
…Damn, did I just blindly burn through ten of them?
At least the condensed bullet was a one-shot success.
Anyway, all you need to know is this: no matter how much magic theory supposedly backs this world’s technology, no matter how plausible the principles sound, when it comes to Weilin, it still defaults to the rules of the game system. Yeah… basically just whale, whale, whale, and pull, pull, pull.
Furthermore, this nuke isn’t that kind of nuke.
Essentially, it’s just a super-giant Explosive Fireball. You can treat the name ‘Small Sun Nuke’ as an exaggerated name some stupid dev cooked up to promote a cash-shop item.
Take the blame, devs.jpg
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When Weilin opened her eyes again, thirty-five minutes had passed.
Airi was still faithfully standing guard beside her, but her gaze was fixed on the distance, her face clouded with worry.
“Airi?”
“Ah! …Wei, Weilin, what is it?”
“Nothing, I’m done. Are you well-rested?”
“Yeah, my condition is super perfect now… After all, I drank two bottles of Revitalizing Potion and rested for over half an hour.”
“Half an hour… I took that long?” Weilin couldn’t help but be surprised.
“Um… my Explosive Fireball…”
“Oh.” Weilin pulled out ten Explosive Fireballs she’d made on a whim earlier from her Eternal Space and tossed them to her.
“How come there are so many…!”
Weilin smiled. “Is that a bad thing?”
“I don’t know how Weilin did it with her eyes closed… but were you really… making bullets just now?”
Airi’s gaze was full of amazement, her expression one of sheer disbelief as she looked at the girl’s slight smile.
The Apollo Bullet… counts as a bullet too, I guess. Thinking this, Weilin simply nodded, saying nothing more.
Blowing ten million Gold Coins in half an hour to make a mega-Explosive Fireball comparable to a nuke—this wasn’t something to casually mention.
As for the Apollo Bullet, something that precious, Weilin certainly wouldn’t hand it over to Airi just like that. She intended to keep it as one of her own trump cards.
“Speaking of which, what were you looking at just now, Airi?”
Airi quickly stored all the Explosive Fireballs safely on her person, then straightened her expression. “In the northwest direction of the mountain range, close to the central hinterland of the island… there are people.”
Weilin was dismissive. “There are nearly ten thousand participants. Isn’t it normal for there to be one or two elite hunting squads?”
“That’s what I thought at first.”
Airi’s expression grew increasingly grim. Frowning, she said, “But that person detonated an industrial bomb! I recognize that smell… a fierce yet chaotic flame aura that relies solely on sheer quantity.”
An industrial bomb was made by piling massive amounts of discarded, low-quality fire ore together and forcibly detonating it through magic or external means, causing a huge explosion.
This method was only used in industry. After all, no enemy would be stupid enough to let you pile that much industrial waste ore next to them.
But Snow Essences were different.
They were so gentle-natured that humans could freely pass among them, and they might completely ignore you and continue wandering.
So, when the massive amount of fire ore was maliciously detonated, by the time they started wanting to fight back, their bodies were already dissipating and destroyed in the explosion.
The result, however, was just like Airi’s shot earlier: although elite Snow Demons were killed, no Snow Essence could be harvested.
“You’re saying… Imperial Citizens?!”
Weilin’s expression shifted as she asked.
“Mm…” Airi nodded gravely. “Probably so.”
“Which direction?”
“Northwest… wait, what are you doing, Weilin?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Go check out the excitement, of course.”
?
Why would Imperial Citizens come here?
It couldn’t be ruled out that they came specifically, having heard the Snow Kingdom’s magic competition was a “gold-rush haven”.
But even an ‘industrial explosion’ required a huge cost. Moreover, killing Snow Demons this way yielded almost no Snow Essence profit. Wouldn’t that completely defeat the purpose of “gold-rushing”?
Then, what objective the Imperial Citizens harbored was very thought-provoking.
According to Airi, the explosion had only happened once, but its power was terrifying. It was at least equivalent to dozens of tons of fire ore detonating simultaneously. The tremor was felt for at least fifty li in every direction. The surging fiery aura even hit Airi’s face from over a dozen li away.
“Forget farming Snow Essences for now. Let’s head straight there. They probably haven’t gone far…”
“Alright… Weilin, slow down!”
“If you can’t keep up, you can use your mid-air splits acceleration, y’ know.”
“No way! Why does this Demi-Divine Artifact have such a weird property!!!”
Airi had thought ‘Elegy of the Wind God’ could be her pride, but… emmmm.
#
In under twenty seconds, Weilin had crossed fourteen li and arrived at the scene.
Traces of fiery explosion and scorching, charred black marks radiated a thousand meters from the epicenter. Some of the scattered ore slag was already buried by drifting snow and ice, but the vast majority still lay bare, strewn all around.
Within a one-li radius, massive landslides and collapsed trees were everywhere. The trees here were so tenacious and thick, yet now they were snapped into pieces, lying across the path like insurmountable barriers.
Not a single Snow Demon could be seen.
Weilin waited another two minutes before the Wind Ranger arrived belatedly. Seeing the scene here, Airi felt even more certain of her deduction.
“…It was definitely an industrial explosion.”
“Ahead of this path blocked by the avalanche and trees, there’s only a sheer cliff face. But there might be caves or other passages…” Weilin’s eyes narrowed, her voice cold. “Let’s go directly and take a look.”
“If we’re that rash, we might run right into them…”
“With me here, what are you afraid of?”
They left immediately. Obstacles like avalanches and tree barriers couldn’t hinder the Strongest Mage and the Wind Ranger in the slightest.
Only after they passed through the obstacles and arrived at the massive cliff face did they indeed discover a deep, four-meter-tall cave entrance.
Boom! Bang! Bang!
In a tunnel-like cave like this, even the smallest sound would be amplified clearly. Let alone the fact that there was fighting inside…
This further spurred their curiosity. With the mindset of ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’, they cautiously advanced along the cave walls.
The deafening sounds of sword blasts and gunfire grew clearer the deeper they ventured into the cave.
At a rock wall ahead, the two silently stopped.
Using the blind spot, they peeked and spotted… two people dressed as common adventurers.
No, those had to be disguises!
One adventurer held a torch, his appearance and features hidden under a wide windbreaker, standing silently to the side.
The other adventurer was exceptionally tall and burly, wielding an Imperial General’s standard broad-bladed greatsword in one hand. Weilin recognized it at a glance—an Epic-quality weapon forged primarily from 6th-Tier ‘Earth Demonic Steel Ore’. Its wielder was definitely either rich or noble.
The depths of the cave were packed with Snow Demons, which surprisingly possessed extremely strong territorial instincts. Seeing intruders, they bared fangs and claws, swarming to attack. But they couldn’t withstand the heavy, sweeping force of the sword—cut down if not dead, wounded if not escaping… For those not instantly killed, the man would skillfully pull out a fire-element gun to finish them off.
“Your Highness, Wu Gu, are you certain this place has that… Ice Soul Lotus or whatever?”
At that moment, the burly man wielding both sword and gun asked the idle, cloaked man beside him curiously, his voice laced with respect.
“For the past three years of the magic competition, my people scoured the entire outer perimeter of this island before finding this place… A location that gathers large numbers of elite Snow Demons, even ones with territorial awareness—it’s suspicious beyond belief… In short, I wouldn’t have brought you here without confidence. Also, remember, do not say my name.”
“Your Highness, Wu Gu, you worry too much. There can’t possibly be anyone else here.”
“Better safe than sorry.”
“Fine… then how should I address the Second Prince… Gu-er?”
