dmims Chapter 53 I've never fought such a wealthy battle in my life!
Chapter 53 I've never fought such a wealthy battle in my life!
Chapter 53 I've never fought such a costly battle in my life! (First Update)
Tokyo, Shinjuku Ward, back alley of Kabukicho.
This is the parasite's favorite hunting ground. But tonight, the roles of hunter and prey have been reversed.
"Beep beep—beep one"
The urgent buzzing of bees broke the silence of the rainy night.
The captain of the 4th squad of the GOC Special Operations Team, codenamed "Grey Wolf," glanced at the "GOC Standard Bio-Rad" in his hand, whose outer shell was made of inferior plastic but whose core was strange moss.
On the display screen, the red light representing the strength of the redstone signal is flashing wildly.
"Strong bio-wave reaction detected on the second floor of the izakaya ahead. Quantity: 4. Confirmed to be a parasite gathering."
Gray Wolf made a hand gesture, and the five team members behind him quickly dispersed, their movements so synchronized that even the sound of their footsteps was absorbed by their specially designed tactical boots.
"Prepare for the assault."
But before kicking open the door, these special forces soldiers did not check their weapons safety like regular SWAT officers do; instead, they did something that baffled onlookers.
They all pulled out several square-bottomed glass bottles filled with various liquids from their tactical pouches at their waists.
"Glug, glug, glug."
With a series of synchronized swallowing sounds, the glass bottle was emptied.
[Power], muscle fibers expand instantly, and the recoil of the gun becomes as light as a feather in your hand.
[Night Vision], the pupils contracted slightly, and the pitch-black corridor became as clear as daytime in the field of vision, even the dust in the air was clearly visible.
[Swiftness]: Their nerve reflexes are incredibly fast, making the world seem to slow down by half a beat in their eyes.
"All buffs applied, let's get to work."
Gray Wolf tossed away the empty bottle, a glint of purple particles flashing in his eyes.
"boom!"
The directional explosives blew open the security door.
Inside the house, four parasites were feeding around a human corpse. Faced with the sudden attack, their reaction was remarkably swift.
"roar-!!"
The head of the leading parasitic beast instantly split open, transforming into a giant scythe. Using the table as cover, it pounced on the foremost assault soldier like a black lightning bolt.
"Die, humans!"
Logically, at this distance, human reflexes would be completely unable to keep up with the speed of the parasite.
But it was facing a group of drug-addicted, overpowered assault troops who showed no panic whatsoever. With the boost from the [Swiftness Potion], it simply turned slightly to the side and dodged the fatal blow in a manner that defied the laws of physics.
Immediately afterwards, the black short assault rifle in his hand, the [TaC Module HK416 (Modified Version)], roared.
"Da da da da da!!"
The gun muzzle spewed out blue and white enchanted flames.
The gun's barrel is engraved with the rune "Power V," and each specially made 5.56mm alchemical bullet carries terrifying kinetic energy comparable to that of a 12.7mm heavy machine gun.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The parasitic beast that was jumping in mid-air felt as if it was being repeatedly struck by an invisible giant hammer.
The tough keratinous armor was as brittle as paper in front of the enchanted bullets, and was instantly blasted into countless flying pieces of flesh.
"Watch out on the left!"
Another parasite lurking in the ceiling launched a sneak attack. Its tentacles transformed into sharp spears, precisely piercing a team member's shoulder and even penetrating his lung.
"Got it!" the parasite thought with elation.
However, the team member who was stabbed in the chest did not fall down, and did not even let out a scream.
With a blank expression, he grabbed the parasite's tentacle with one hand, and with his other hand, he skillfully pulled a golden apple with a strange luster flowing from his pocket.
"Click."
Take a bite.
The Golden Apple enchantment is now active.
The next second, a miracle occurred.
A dazzling golden light instantly erupted from the team member's body. That was the extra yellow health bar provided by [Damage Absorption IV], and the terrifying self-healing power brought by [Life Regeneration].
Under the parasitic beast's horrified gaze, the potentially fatal penetrating wound stopped bleeding, scabbed over, and healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even the severed muscles instantly reconnected under the golden light.
"What...what kind of monster is this?!"
The worldview of Parasyte has collapsed.
It tried to pull its tentacles back, but found that the "dying" human was incredibly strong and held it firmly in place.
"It's my turn."
The team member grinned, with crumbs of the golden apple still stuck to his teeth.
He raised the [TaC Tactical Shotgun] in his other hand and shoved the muzzle directly into the parasite's gaping mouth.
"boom!!"
The battle ended within one minute.
This is a massacre.
These GOC warriors, clad in full Protective IV armor with enchanted diamond linings, wielding modified firearms, and snacking on golden apples worth tens of thousands of dollars, are like unstoppable bulldozers in the face of these parasites.
Meanwhile, on the third basement floor of GOC, is the director's office.
Pei Qi looked at the real-time battle footage transmitted back by the action team on the screen, nodded in satisfaction, and then clutched his chest with heartache.
"It's very efficient, but it's incredibly expensive —"
Every time Pei Qi saw his teammates eating golden apples, he felt like they were biting into his own major artery. Even though his family was rich, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
In order to reduce costs, Pei Qi originally planned to deploy a batch of various models of "artificial quinques" that were already capable of stable mass production to collect data in actual combat.
After all, while firearms are useful, the cost of ammunition and enchantments is substantial. Quinques, on the other hand, can be used indefinitely as long as there are Rc cells, theoretically making them more cost-effective.
After half a month of debugging, the "Kuink Random Synthesis Production Line," which was forcibly pieced together using the [General Machinery] and [Thermal Expansion] modules, finally stopped producing only explosions and waste after Pei Qi poured in dozens more boxes of gold ingots to expand its production capacity several times over.
It began to steadily produce the finished product.
Pei Qi turned around and looked at a row of newly made "weapons" on the display shelf behind him.
However, looking at these things, Pei Qi's lips twitched involuntarily.
"Is this the legendary curse of the unlucky?"
The core logic of this production line is the "exhaustive method." That is, you pour Rc cell fluid and various metal materials in, let the machine combine them randomly, and gamble on that one in a billion "perfect mutation."
As it turns out, without the protagonist's halo, most of the randomly generated items are industrial waste.
Pei Qi casually picked up a quinque codenamed "Prototype-089".
This is a dagger-like weapon, belonging to the tail-type weapon.
[Item: Quinque - Saltfish Thrust (Rank D)]
[Description: Although it tried very hard to become a knife, it became as soft as rubber due to the disordered arrangement of its Rc cells.]
[Special Feature: Makes a "plop" sound when attacking, deals very low damage, but has a 50% chance to inflict "psychic humiliation" when hitting an enemy's face.]
Pei Qi tried to swing it, but the blade sluggishly swung back and forth, just like a dead fish.
"If we give this kind of thing to the action team, they'll probably be laughed to death by the parasites."
Pei Qi sighed and picked up a shield that looked fairly heavy from the side.
[Item: Quink Screaming Barrier (Rank C)]
[Description: Decent defensive capabilities; can even stop pistol bullets.]
[Negative trait: Whenever attacked, the kagune mouths on the shield emit a female scream reaching up to 120 decibels.]
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Pei Qi imagined a group of special forces soldiers infiltrating the enemy camp, only to have their shields suddenly start screaming – the scene would be a disaster.
This row of display shelves is filled with such unusual products:
There is a glass sword that broke due to oxidation as soon as it was taken out (Class D);
There is a "Vampire Glove (Grade C-)" that requires the user to feed it one drop of blood every minute or it will stop working.
There's even a "bio-suction cup" that looks like a toilet plunger and whose function is unknown (purpose unclear).
These products, according to their ratings, are all stuck in the quagmire of C or even D grades.
Forget about S-rank, we don't even have a single decent mass-produced weapon that can reliably output B-rank damage.
Pei Qi looked down at the [Magic IXA] sword hanging at his waist, then at the room full of broken metal, and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
"I can only say that I was incredibly lucky to be able to make this replica IXA on my first try."
That's practically like getting an SSR in a single pull; it's like receiving a free trial card during the newbie protection period.
And these are the harsh realities of life.
Nine out of ten pulls are blue, and the other one is a guaranteed purple junk.
"This is science—no, this is the price of metaphysics."
Pei Qi threw the "salted fish dagger" in his hand back into the recycling furnace and watched it turn into raw materials.
Pei Qi glanced at the financial statements on the table, which showed that gold reserves were declining at a visible rate.
"Let the action team save their golden apples. Tell them, minor injuries don't keep them from the front lines, and they shouldn't be eating apples every time they get a scrape—those are money!"
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