Chapter 41: The Blackout

The cavernous containment silo of Sub-Level 5 was completely consumed by the deafening, aggressive hiss of boiling stomach acid.

Ren stood perfectly still in the epicenter of the carnage, a towering silhouette of pale, iron-hardened flesh completely saturated in glowing blue fungal blood and highly corrosive green fluid. The ambient temperature hovered near a suffocating hundred degrees, the humid air thick with the putrid, choking stench of vaporized chitin, melting calcium, and the sharp, metallic tang of unrefined mana. At his feet, the massive, sixty-ton carcass of the Abyssal Glutton was rapidly dissolving into the concrete, its ruptured underbelly actively flooding the feeding trough with a toxic, bubbling grey slurry.

In his calloused, clawed hands, he held the prize.

The Level 18 monster core was massive, easily the size of a human torso and weighing roughly forty pounds. It was not a smooth, polished sphere like the lower-tier aquatic cores. It was a jagged, asymmetrical crystalline geode, pulsing violently with a blinding, deep sapphire light that cast fractured, dancing shadows across the curved concrete walls of the silo. The sheer, concentrated gravitational pressure radiating from the crystal physically pushed against Ren’s armored chest, creating a localized anomaly in the atmospheric density.

He could not simply swallow this core whole.

Ren dropped to one knee, the heavy rubber soles of his combat boots sinking two inches into the melting bone refuse. He set the massive sapphire geode onto a relatively intact slab of concrete.

The Gluttony skill roared, a violently expanding, agonizing void in his stomach demanding the high-tier fuel.

Ren raised his right hand, his ten-inch Rending Claws fully extended, and drove his fist directly downward into the center of the crystal.

CRACK.

The dense structure fractured into three massive, jagged chunks. The physical release of pressurized mana blew a rush of freezing air outward, instantly chilling the sweat on Ren’s face. He picked up the largest jagged shard, the sharp edges slicing cleanly through the thick callouses of his palm, his Iron Skin yielding slightly to the pure elemental sharpness of the anomaly.

He brought the glowing blue shard to his mouth and bit directly into the crystal.

His heavily reinforced molars ground against the dense, geode-like structure. The sound was horrific—a loud, wet, grinding crunch that echoed sharply against the vaulted ceiling, entirely distinct from the hissing acid.

He’s not just absorbing energy. He’s literally eating it, Chloe thought, squeezing her eyes shut for a microsecond as a violent shudder wracked her slender frame. The crunching sounds are making my teeth ache. I am standing in a puddle of melting bones, holding a P90, guarding a monster. And the craziest part is, I feel safer with him than I ever did with the humans.

Ren chewed methodically, swallowing the sharp, freezing shards.

[Gluttony Activated.]

[Consumed: Abyssal Glutton Core Fragment]

[Strength +5]

[Vitality +6]

The physiological heat was instantaneous and entirely catastrophic. A searing, white-hot fire erupted in his gastrointestinal tract, spreading rapidly through his vascular system like injected liquid nitrogen. The veins in his thick neck, forearms, and chest pulsed violently, turning a deep, glowing blue beneath his pale skin. He didn’t pause to let the excruciating systemic shock subside. He grabbed the remaining two chunks of the shattered core, grinding them between his teeth, the bitter, freezing deep-sea fluid violently colliding with the burning mana inside his chest.

[Gluttony Activated.]

[Consumed: Abyssal Glutton Core Fragments x2]

[Agility +4]

[Intelligence +4]

[Experience Gained: 2500]

[Level Up!]

[You are now Level 16.]

Ren gripped the edge of a massive, shattered boar skull resting in the slurry. The thick, calcified bone turned instantly to dust under the immense, unnatural pressure of his Level 16 Strength stat.

[System Notification: Maximum Dietary Threshold Reached.]

[New Skill Acquired: Corrosive Saliva (Active)]

[Description: Your biological fluids now possess a highly acidic pH level, capable of rapidly dissolving organic and synthetic matter.]

Ren exhaled a long, steady breath, his lungs expanding to their absolute maximum capacity. The air leaving his mouth tasted sharply of ozone and freezing ice, carrying a faint, glowing green mist. The excruciating internal heat slowly faded, replaced by a profound, chilling physical supremacy. His Chitin Shell and Iron Skin passives hummed silently beneath the surface of his epidermis, forming an impenetrable, dual-layer biological fortress that now pulsed with the latent energy of the gorged god.

He stood up, towering over the melting refuse.

Chloe lowered the smoking barrel of the FN P90, her chest heaving as she stared at his mutating form. The dark green Level III-A plate carrier weighed heavily on her shoulders, her blonde hair plastered to her skull with freezing sweat and toxic humidity.

“You’re glowing,” Chloe whispered, her voice cracking slightly in the cavernous acoustic space.

Ren looked down at his own forearms. The thick network of veins beneath his skin retained a faint, pulsing sapphire luminescence, a permanent, physical marker of the massive Level 18 core he had just assimilated.

“The biology adapts to the fuel,” Ren stated, his voice a low, localized rumble that carried zero emotional weight. He did not attempt to comfort her. He simply turned his glowing violet eyes toward the far wall of the containment silo. “The military built this infrastructure to siphon the beast’s ambient mana. They funneled the energy up the vertical shaft to power their residential sectors.”

Ren waded through the knee-deep slurry, leaving the massive, dissolving carcass of the mid-boss behind. He bypassed the heavy tungsten doors of the freight elevator, walking directly toward a raised concrete platform nestled between two massive, reinforced support pillars.

Atop the platform sat a heavy, modular control terminal, constructed from thick, dark polymer and entirely encased in ballistic glass. Thick, braided copper cables ran from the back of the terminal directly up the curved concrete walls, vanishing into the subterranean ceiling three hundred feet above.

Ren stepped onto the platform, his heavy combat boots slick with blue blood and green acid. He did not look for a physical keyhole. He did not attempt to input a manual override code on the primitive mechanical keyboard.

The military used this beast as a battery, Ren thought, his glowing violet eyes locking onto the primary power relays displayed on the terminal’s cracked glass screen. They built their entire luxurious hierarchy on its ambient mana. Now I have consumed the battery. I am going to shut off their lights and show them exactly what lives in the dark.

He raised his right hand, his Rending Claws fully retracted, and slammed his calloused palm directly against the thick ballistic glass.

He channeled his massive Level 16 Intelligence stat, weaponizing his newly acquired, volatile mana. The raw, invasive energy surged from his flesh, penetrating the fragile Old World circuitry of the terminal. Micro-sparks of blue electricity danced violently across the glass. The primitive digital logic gates melted instantly under the metaphysical pressure.

[System Intercept: Stadium Power Grid Accessed]

[Primary Relays: Active]

[Command: Terminate]

Ren crushed the internal relays with a single, aggressive pulse of his systemic will.

The heavy control terminal sparked violently, a thick plume of acrid black smoke erupting from the keyboard.

The effect was entirely instantaneous.

Three hundred feet above them, the massive, subterranean generators of Camp Alpha ground to a sudden, catastrophic halt. The harsh, strobing crimson emergency lights lining the long, opulent corridors of Sector One, the bright halogen floodlights illuminating the commercial concourses, and the warm, yellow LED strips inside the residential suites all died simultaneously.

Camp Alpha was plunged into absolute, suffocating darkness.

Down in the silo, the sickening yellow bulb inside the freight elevator cage flickered and shattered. The only illumination remaining in the cavernous Sub-Level 5 was the faint, bioluminescent glow of the fungal spores, the dark green bubbling of the stomach acid, and the terrifying, unblinking violet luminescence of Ren’s eyes.

“They are blind,” Ren stated quietly, turning his back on the ruined control terminal.

Chloe flinched, the sudden, absolute darkness pressing against her retinas like a physical weight. She reached up with her left hand, fumbling blindly against the tactical helmet she had strapped to her webbing, and explicitly clicked the heavy toggle switch on her mounted night-vision goggles.

The dual-tube optics dropped over her eyes, bathing the subterranean cavern in a stark, grainy, monochromatic green glow.

She looked at Ren through the NVGs. He was a terrifying, towering mass of dense muscle and armored skin, his body radiating a massive thermal signature.

“The freight elevator is dead,” Chloe noted, her voice trembling slightly as she swept the green-tinted cavern with her P90. “The blast doors are sealed. How do we get back up?”

“We do not use the cage,” Ren replied, his heavy boots crunching against a relatively intact boar skull. “The Warlord’s Battalion will attempt to secure the perimeter. They will flock to the primary access points, setting up heavy defensive lines at the top of the elevator shaft, completely expecting a frontal assault.”

Ren bypassed the elevator entirely. He walked toward the deep, shadowed curve of the eastern wall, navigating the rotting refuse with perfect, unimpeded vision. His Perception stat did not require ambient light. He mapped the microscopic fractures in the concrete and the faint drafts of cold air bleeding down from the surface.

He found exactly what he was looking for hidden behind a massive, rusted ventilation turbine.

A heavy, unmarked iron door sat flush against the concrete, secured by a thick industrial padlock and a heavy steel crossbar. It was an emergency maintenance stairwell, designed strictly for the original engineering squads and entirely disconnected from the primary digital security grid.

Ren reached out, gripping the thick steel padlock with his bare right hand. He applied the raw, localized kinetic torque of his Level 16 Strength.

The thick, hardened steel shrieked, warping and snapping entirely in half under his grip like a brittle piece of dry pasta. He tossed the ruined metal aside, lifting the heavy crossbar and pushing the iron door inward on its screaming, rusted hinges.

A suffocating wave of freezing, stale air rolled out from the vertical shaft, entirely untouched by the humid heat of the containment silo. A narrow, spiraling metal staircase stretched upward into the absolute, pitch-black abyss, winding endlessly around a massive central concrete pillar.

Ren steps firmly across the rusted iron threshold, his dark, heavy combat boots ringing loudly against the lowest metal step, driving his massive, armored frame upward into the freezing dark to begin the vertical slaughter of the blinded Warlord’s army.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep