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ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 402 Part 1

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 402: Crimson Luminous Emperor Area Part 1

Finally, it seems that the trio of players reached their time limit when it comes to being able to stay in the teleported area, and I could see them off. After that was taken care of, I have decided to partake in a certain challenge here: breaking through the desert area as fast as possible using the Levin Trigger / Disaster Hand. With its high speed movement speed it should be a breeze here, right?

In this day and age, it is rare to be able to witness a perfectly starry sky due to the obstructions created by the artificial lights of civilization. In that respect, it can be said that VR technology can offer you much more that the real world in some aspects. The only thing you need to do is to close your eyes and you’ll be able to experience things that you would normally be unable to.

Looking upwards, the starry sky was a truly wondrous sight to behold, but looking at it without paying attention where you are going and what you are doing is a bad thing. You might actually fall over and hurt yourself in the process. By the way, just for how long I have been running now without triggering any sort of a fight or even an enemy alert?

「The end of the desert area…… It seems that I have finally reached it……」

When it comes to ShanFro, the over world in this game has little to no BGM playing in the background. There are times when some sort of soft melody will start playing or special sound effects come into play, but those times would only be reserved for boss battles and enemy encounters. Non-combat situations are only accompanied by the ambient noises of nature.

In other words, while I continue to run through the desert, the only thing that keeps me company is the complete and absolute silence. …… But it is all worth it. After all, it’s been a long and tough journey, but I was finally able to make some progress here. Even though sometimes it was so hard that I wanted to cry, this moment right here was sure to come. It was inevitable.

However, there is a certain reason why I was able to proceed through this vast desert without hesitation and little to no interruptions.

「I don’t know why, but I get the feeling that this red light is just like that of a lighthouse, talk about ruining the spectacular view of the night’s sky I have here……」

It is like a huge flame burning brightly in the night’s sky. However, that light is different from the usual brilliance of fire, which holds the power and energy to both create and destroy, unswayed by anyone…… It was the same red light like fire, but it was different. This one was like that of a lightning bolt coming down from the heavens.

Honestly speaking, my most recent memories associated with the color red are not all that good…… The most recent cases of red were trying to devour me or were the color of unbreakable armor that was almost impossible to overcome…… Hmm, I wonder if I have some sort of budding trauma going on here? It seems very plausible to me.

「Hmm, I see. This thing certainly looks like a crown coming out of the earth here. I must say, it is a sight to behold in its own right, alright.」

Before I even realized it, the sandy ground turned into a rugged rock surface. Right about now I was running through the bare rock bed, without the slightest presence of soil or grass. It was then that I could finally see it…… my destination.

「So, is this the so-called “Crystal Crown” that Noirlind was talking about before……?」

I hold your breath and look around suspiciously. If my way of thinking was correct in here, there was a group of monsters very similar to Crystal Scorpions bound to be somewhere around here. But for the time being the only monsters I was able to sense were…… centipedes and spiders?

「I don’t know why, but ShanFro surely loves playing with its insects, huh……?」

And they are huge at that…… I look around this place and I can see them clearly: looking like giant mortars and doughnuts, their size so big that even Thirdrema might have had a problem with accommodating more than a couple of them in its boundaries at the same time. However, there was no sign of my vision correction locking onto any specific target, so it must mean that they were all inactive and motionless.

「…… Could it be that they are sleeping?」

I…… I see? Well, could it be that it’s because it’s nighttime? Could it be that at night and with no one else around the monsters were less vigilant and are resting? It would be ideal here, I won’t lie……

「………………」

I pick up a small, softball-sized stone that just happened to lie under my feet and throwi it lightly towards the location where the monster were resting. I did not put that much power into it, but still, when the stone reached the edge of the bomb-like hole in the ground, it gently started to roll down the slope in accordance with the physics engine. And that resulted in……

ZUBOBOBOBOBOBOBO!!!!!! (The sound of a human-sized spiders popping out from the slopes of the mountain, completely overrunning the place.)

BUUUGAAAHHH!!! (The sound of stone chunks raining down on thesmaller spiders, crushing some of them flat. For some inexplicable reason it was giving this strange sense of déjà vu.)

ZUZUZUGOGOGONNN!! BOOOM!!! (The sound of a giant centipede appearing from beneath the ground, crushing a whole lot of spiders, or at least that’s what the sound was making me think of here.)

GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO!!!!!! (The sound of an enemy emerging. It was a giant spider that was mimicking a nearby rock formation, as giant as the small fortress.)

Whoa there, the cacophony of sounds that started to ring throughout the area in here were just like a siren heralding the start of a war.

「No way, there is just no way that something like this should be possible, right……?」

Although I am fairly sure that there was no gunpowder in this place I could hear the echoes of explosion roaring one after another somewhere in the distance.

Looking down below, I can see the space where the human-sized spiders were hiding. Throwing the dirt and soil aside, they attach themselves to the centipedes thanks ot the strange tubular-shaped shells that were growing out of their backs.

And then there was the sound of a loud explosion. It was nothing like gunpowder, but it was still more than enough to make a dent in the centipede’s shell, covering it with cracks. And let me tell you, that thing seemed to be hard as all hell! But still, that explosion was able to crack it and even send a small shockwave, exposing parts what laid underneath the centipede’s shell.

However, something like that was not enough to bring the centipede down. Onlt spiders fall to the ground, dead, but their small endurance could be easily covered with sheer numbers. Yeah. And perhaps this suicide attack is an active attack method rather than the passive one? I mean, the dead spiders soon enough shatter into myriad of polygons and disappear without sending any shockwave around. Oh, and look! They even left drop items behind!

「God damn it, that blasted Noirlind…… Was he perhaps exaggerating here?」

What was the intention of the Black Dragon and the developers alike here, throwing the players into a place where you were up against enemies that were literal moving fortresses and suicide bombers? I mean, obviously if the player runs into a place like that completely by accident they are going to be wiped out, because there is no way that someone would be able to handle a mass of giant monsters like that on their own.

「Fumu……However, I am no longer limited to walking on the ground! From now on, I can also traverse the skies no problem……!」

Somehow I was able to get it how exactly those mortar holes were created here. I mean, it was so obvious that there was no way that someone would be unable to piece it together here.

I must say, the sight of a spider shooting other spiders from its back like a cannonball was a sight to behold. And the centipedes rushing around the place, crushing smaller enemies with its legs and main body. They were even spewing something like poison fumes from their mouths, so I guess the above methods of attacking were not the only ones available to them.