Chapter 1 What, Not Running?

"What, not running?"

Duan Mian, standing on a floating metal plate, slowly drifted out of the elevator shaft, a sinister smile on his short, narrow face. "You guys, didn't you enjoy farming monsters so much?

Killing non-human monsters, skinning them, drawing out their tendons, dismantling their bones, refining them into magical treasures, cooking them into dishes, eating them clean, leaving nothing behind."

Duan Mian's indifferent gaze swept over the players whose eyes were filled with fear and hatred, his voice calm and even, "Why do you feel afraid now?"

"..."

David said nothing, his left hand, placed at his side, slightly opening.

Whoosh—

A sharp whistling sound came from the elevator shaft. The Judgement Spear, triggering its return effect, pierced through the elevator shaft wall and shot straight at the back of Duan Mian's head.

Buzz!

The gravity domain instantly activated.

The Judgement Spear, flashing with lightning, struggled to hover behind Duan Mian, continuously vibrating, yet unable to advance an inch.

David pulled his hand to the right, and the Judgement Spear laboriously rotated its spearhead, brushed past Duan Mian's ear, and swiftly returned to David's hand.

Running away was pointless.

The opponent could fly directly using anti-gravity, their speed far exceeding their own.

Moreover, it seemed to have some kind of long-range communication method, capable of summoning other alien players from nearby floors—dragging it out like this would only lead to them being slowly whittled down to death.

The only way was to directly eliminate the opponent here.

Without needing to say more, the moment David grasped the Judgement Spear and crouched down, the others moved.

The demon tattoos on Abel's body flowed like liquid to his right hand, silently coalescing into a jet-black, light-absorbing double-edged sword.

His whole body seemed to move in slow motion, his heel slowly lifting, the ball of his foot pressing down on the ground.

The next instant, his entire being vanished from the spot, crossing a hundred meters to appear before Duan Mian.

The blade of the double-edged sword silently descended towards Duan Mian's neck.

Almost at the same time, Agares also appeared behind Duan Mian, the giant scythe in his hand vertically chopping down, further accelerating by borrowing the gravitational pull emanating from the opponent's body.

Daheitian, DoubtParanoia, Ant-King, and others in the distance also used their respective means to launch attacks on the opponent.

However, Duan Mian, surrounded, did not reveal a look of fear or despair on its face. Instead, the corners of its mouth lifted slightly in a human-like manner, revealing a hint of contemptuous mockery.

It pressed its palms together and clapped them lightly, causing the surrounding gravity to spike again.

The flying objects shot by Daheitian and the others all drew arcing trajectories, falling to the ground, not even light beam attacks were spared.

David's pupils suddenly dilated. This wasn't to say that the gravity emitted by Duan Mian could warp light like a giant celestial body.

More likely, the gravity domain had some wonderful chemical reaction with other skills,

causing the flying objects to be ineffective.

This was clearly demonstrated on the Judgement Spear—the golden spear, flashing with dazzling lightning, flew further than the other flying objects,

but became stuck ten meters in front of Duan Mian.

The spearhead and shaft vibrated wildly, as if unwilling, bursting with electricity, the entire spear slowly and continuously slanting towards the ground.

Gravity could pull down, but also lift up.

Agares and Abel, who had already rushed around Duan Mian, only felt a strong gravity coming from above their heads, their feet losing purchase, their entire bodies falling towards the ceiling of the floor, or rather, taking off.

The closer they got to Duan Mian's body, the more violent and chaotic the gravity became.

Duan Mian, one of the four demon generals, slowly stood up from the floating metal plate, and a demon body appeared in its hand.

The chameleon corpse of Biyie.

Duan Mian took out the tattered corpse of its companion, not to commemorate or mourn, but to...

Crack—

Duan Mian bit into Biyie's neck and tore off a piece of flesh and blood.

Biyie, who had been dead for a long time, had its corpse's head drooping, its empty eyes staring blankly at the Earth players in the distance.

Crack.

Another bite.

Duan Mian coldly chewed on its companion's corpse. The demon power that had been severely depleted due to the continuous release of the gravity domain was replenished again through the nourishment of flesh and blood.

Cannibalism, drinking blood raw.

Monster.

David waved his hand, recalling the Judgement Spear, not speaking, but an unusual emotion clearly flowed in his eyes.

"Do you think that we are just emotionless beasts?"

Duan Mian gnawed on its companion's corpse, its voice without a trace of emotion, "A civilization like yours, growing up carefree in a honeypot, probably will never understand

the feeling of surviving in eternal night.

The demon city where I was born cannot see the sun.

Millions of demons are all crowded into a narrow, enclosed, square city.

The core of the city is a perpetual lamp that emits light and warmth, and around the perpetual lamp are spherical multi-layered composite farmland created using anti-gravity technology.

The further out, the dimmer the light of the perpetual lamp and the lower the temperature.

From the core layer, which is warm, comfortable, and safe, for demon nobles to live in, to the cold, cramped, densely packed slums."

Duan Mian paused, slowly chewing on Biyie's body, a complex emotion on its face.

It waved its hand upwards, pressing Abel and Agares, who were trying to descend, back onto the ceiling.

"The rooms in the slums are not allowed to stand in, and there is no furniture like beds, nor is there room for them. The poor have no concept of time, only following the regular chimes, performing arduous and dangerous labor. Either worked to death in the farmland, or dragged onto the city walls as cannon fodder, or devoured by demon sunflowers while scouting and collecting resources.

Our race is born with the ability to manipulate gravity. My mother fainted from overwork while maintaining the anti-gravity farmland, causing two pieces of farmland to collide. She was arrested and imprisoned for negligence, and my father volunteered to join an expedition as a suicide soldier to find minerals in the dark wilderness filled with demon sunflowers in order to have her pardoned.

He never returned, and my mother also died from exhaustion under the farmland the following year—her body was thrown into the furnace below the perpetual lamp as fuel, just like countless demons in the past two hundred years.

From then on, I could lie down in the room that was only left to me, instead of squatting to sleep."

Duan Mian calmly ate Biyie's tail, its palms continuously patting forward, the violent and chaotic gravity causing the surrounding metal debris within a hundred meters to fly up,

spinning rapidly,

like dozens of dust devils, chasing after the players.

"You may be one in ten thousand geniuses in your own world, but how long have you had extraordinary power?

A year? A year and a half? Two years?

From the moment I was born, I have been learning how to control gravity, how to better maintain the farmland suspension—in the demon nest, no utilization value means inefficiency, which means death.

You, completely unaware of what sacrifice is.

You, lack, awe."

As the last word was spoken, Duan Mian also devoured Biyie's tail.

Surging energy flowed through its blood.

Vast demon power poured out, the gravity domain expanded again, shaking the space, and also shaking the players' limbs.

Hearts were squeezed, blood vessels crushed into pancakes,

muscles ruptured and torn, bones creaking and groaning.

David's face turned purplish-blue due to the backflow of blood.

He desperately released healing skills, maintaining his sanity—the Earth players they had summoned before had either died or retreated, leaving only DoubtParanoia, Daheitian, and others.

This, is, just, one of the four demon generals...?

In the metal tornado, the bruised and battered David barely opened his eyes, looking at Duan Mian roaring to the sky in the center of the gravity domain.

His fingers gently stroked the surface of the Judgement Spear, covered with ornate patterns, and sighed inwardly.

I'm really unwilling... to have to use it here.

A pure white light slowly appeared on the surface of the Judgement Spear.

[Name: Judgement Spear]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Perfect]

[Attack Power: High]

[Effect 1: Wrathful Thunder. Passively triggered, the excess kinetic energy applied to the spear is automatically converted into lightning with anti-magic properties.]

[Effect 2: Benevolent Grace. Passively triggered, automatically returns after being thrown.]

[Effect 3: Judgement Thunder. Actively triggered, throws the spear, turning it into a remotely controllable ball lightning.]

[Effect 3 Consumption: 700 Spirit Power]

[Effect 3 Cooldown: 5 hours]

[Equipment Requirement: Strength attribute greater than or equal to 13, possesses Olympus Divine Bloodline]

[Note: Ball lightning can consume spirit power to charge, the final power is proportional to the charging time and invested spirit power.]

[Note: Divine grace is like the sea, divine might is like a prison.]

Do it!

The spear in David's hand was entwined with dazzling electric light.

The overall shape changed, shortening, stretching,

gradually transforming into a spherical shape, the light becoming more and more dazzling.

His action was like some kind of signal.

Abel on the ceiling kicked off the dome, enduring the drag of gravity, and jumped down.

The tattoos on his body twisted and deformed, faintly turning into a gaunt demon face, silently laughing wildly.

Agares next to him, his red and gold cloak fluttering violently, the scythe in his hand bursting into demonic flames, his huge body falling like a meteorite.

Thud!

Agares landed heavily in front of Duan Mian.

The surrounding chaotic gravity caused his red and gold cloak to tear into ragged pieces with a "hiss".

"Get out of the way!"

Duan Mian roared, pushing its palm forward lightly.

A huge concave handprint suddenly appeared on Agares's chest, separated by a distance, and the sound of bones breaking crackled incessantly.

However, the wound did not expand further, tearing Agares's entire body apart.

[Skill Name: Iron Heart Force]

[Type: Combat]

[Effect: Iron Heart. Evokes mental and physical strength to break an unfavorable state that may lead to failure or death.]

[Consumption: 400 Stamina]

[Cooldown: 10 minutes]

[Usage Condition: General Combat Level reaches Intermediate, Constitution attribute is greater than or equal to 12]

[Note: Grants the cowardly an iron heart.]

A gray shadow appeared on the surface of Agares's body. The combat-type skill called [Iron Heart Force] could allow him to break an unfavorable state.

This was not just simply canceling a debuff.

"Breaking an unfavorable state" meant that for a period of time, he would not be subject to the same type of restriction effect.

In the present situation, that was, ignoring gravity.

Agares, shrouded in gray shadows, suddenly swung the giant scythe burning with evil flames.

At the same time, Abel also fell to the ground.

The demon tattoos in his hand turned into two clumps of chain-like patterns, wrapping around Duan Mian's hands, feet, and limbs—although the gravity domain tore Abel's skin on a large scale, causing blood to splatter and muscles to rupture,

the ethereal chains he created had no weight themselves, and did not loosen despite the gravitational pull.

The others seemed to realize that now was the most critical moment. Two cyan-black arms grew out from under Daheitian's shoulder blades.

The left hand held a skull bowl, the right hand held a crescent blade.

The crescent blade gleamed, splitting the gravity storm blocking the way.

In the skull bowl, scarlet blood far exceeding the skull bowl's capacity was spilled.

The blood, emitting a sweet and fishy smell, covered the sky above Duan Mian like a thick curtain, suppressing the latter's spirit power recovery speed.

Ant-King also used his trump card.

Ant-like chitinous carapaces grew out of his back of hands, ankles, and chest.

His originally handsome face was also covered and shielded by dense scales of chitin.

As if he had put on ant armor.

The overall shape of the armor was not as beautiful as the insect-style "Kamen Rider,"

but instead revealed a hint of hideous, eerie, inhuman temperament.

The Ant-King, clad in insect armor, had his physical qualities soar by a notch.

Resisting the surrounding violent and chaotic gravity, he stepped forward,

and together with Daheitian, charged forward to the left and right,

clearing out those gravity-wrapped metal tornadoes for David in the rear, opening up a path straight to Duan Mian.

"Roar!!!"

Duan Mian roared to the sky, but its body was firmly bound by chains, and its palms could not be pressed together again no matter what.

It roared, heavily stepping on the floating metal plate with its foot.

The floating metal plate instantly changed direction and soared up,

blocking Agares's scythe chop while suddenly charging forward, slamming Agares heavily against the wall with a loud thud.

Duan Mian tapped its fingers continuously, and the square metal plate, suppressing Agares, bent its four corners backwards, deeply chiseling into the wall and suppressing Agares—[Iron Heart Force] could only allow Agares himself to resist the gravity domain.

But it could not resist the physical effects produced by the gravity domain driving objects.

Boom!

Duan Mian stomped its foot again, and Abel, who was grasping the chains in the rear, only felt as if several tanks had suddenly pressed down on him. The vast gravity directly drew the blood out of his blood vessels.

Blood sprayed outwards as if it did not cost money, and his whole body was covered in crimson.

His right arm snapped at the elbow with a crack.

Half of his right arm fell to the ground as if it had been injected with mercury, sinking deeply into the metal ground and continuing to sink.

Abel still had no expression on his face. He suddenly waved his left hand to the right, single-handedly grabbing the two black chains tightly, not giving Duan Mian any chance to press its palms together.

Now, is the time.

The ball lightning that David had been brewing for a long time flew forward lightly, seemingly slow but actually fast, instantly crossing a hundred meters, passing Daheitian and Ant-King, and heading straight for Duan Mian's chest.