Chapter 216 - Sea of Flame
TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney
Thank you Oliver H.! Enjoy the sponsored chapter!
Standing by the gas station, the squad players were pondering about if there was a more efficient method of siphoning the gasoline out and were caught off guard. A hand grenade had exploded with the gas station as collateral. As the explosion was in close proximity to the gas station, nothing else needed to be said about the fate of those players.
Even if they had wanted to drop the tubes and run away from the gas station, there was no time. The hand grenade exploded a second later and in a flash of blood splattered red, the players felt the overwhelming force of the explosion that obliterated them.
Xue Jian had his back toward the gas station and took no notice of the events taking place behind him. Then 'Bang'! The force expelled Xue Jian outward like a jet propulsion. Xue Jian was sent flying over two dozen meters away onto the ground.
Xue Jian landed onto the ground, he was in immense pain. Due to the shock wave from the explosion, his eardrums were temporarily blown out. Even if Xue Jian wanted to muster up strength to get up, he couldn't do it.
Large amounts of broken cement and building infrastructure were sent radiating outward from the explosion, some landing on Xue Jian's body which held him down. Many more rocks landed nearby Xue Jian's body. Luckily, Xue Jian's survival instinct kicked in and he started crawling for dear life towards the flower terrace for cover. In the background, successive explosion noises shook the ground.
As Liu Gan and his group were heading towards the prison, they heard the destructive noises coming from the gas station. By the time, they turned to look at the scene, all they saw was a sea of flame in the place of the gas station and nearby surroundings. They were all shocked, unsure of what to do in this situation.
With the onset of the second explosion, the entire roof of the gas station flew off. It landed onto the middle of the street, sending broken cement and infrastructures off into various directions. Liu Gan and the other players all collapsed onto the ground from the roof hitting the ground, while Yin He somersaulted several times to regain her footing.
A miniature black mushroom cloud rose up to the sky right above the center of the gas station. With the sea of flame covering the ground, the three vehicles were burnt to crisp. All the food storages and resources were burned to the ground with the vehicles.
Emerging from the sea of flame were two burning players, coming out from a nearby restaurant. It took a step and cried out for help, but soon collapsed and burned. It was hard to tell which player it was from how burned the body was. It was definitely not Xue Jian's group since they were at the gas station. So it must have been from a nearby squad that was supposed to be pillaging the nearby buildings.
Xue Jian's squad would have been in the center of the explosion so they would've been obliterated upon the first explosion.
Liu Gan's expression was livid as he looked toward the site of explosion. Judging from the sound of the first explosion, it resembles a lot like a hand grenade. Seems like this wasn't an accident. It was a sneak attack!
Those attacking them must not have known about all the resources within the vehicle. If they had known, then they might have changed their strategy to go in for the kill instead of blowing it up! In addition, if Liu Gan and his group weren't heading toward the prison, they might have been caught up as collateral damage from the explosion.
Other squads weren't as lucky, those that were nearby the gas station were caught up from the explosion. Even if they weren't within the radius of the blast, the aftermath of the explosion was also as deadly. With the casualties still unknown, the roof of nearby buildings collapsed from the fire and out climbed several players. One of them had their arm snapped off and they kept calling for help, while being burned alive. Others were rolling on the floor trying to put out the fire.
The rest that weren't as injured immediately moved the injured to a safe area.
"Follow me, we have to help them!" Zhang ShengLi rushed forward with a face full of sorrow. With Zhang ShengLi leading, the front of the charge with his squad trailing, into danger.
Wang DeCheng, Han GuangMing and Zhang Hua were able to reach the scene of fire and were able to pull out numerous injured players. Since the three players are level 5, their body was much stronger. During the time of explosion, the three squad leaders were caught in the collapsed infrastructures in a nearby building, but they were able to pull themselves out from the ruins. So they didn't sustain much damage and were able to quickly provide aid.
Zhang ShengLi ran straight into the fire and his clothes caught on fire. In his last attempt of running into the sea of fire, he rescued the heavily injured and unconscious Xue Jian out.
Of the group of 40 players, they were instantly reduced to only 20. A majority of the rescued players were still laying down on the floor, more than half of them had minor concussions, but none of them were in serious conditions such as Comas. Due to the various degrees of burns and bone fractures, many of the wounded players were crying for help.
Lee Miao quickly got to work, making the most out of her ability and depleted her energy level. So she could only help the injured players with simple bandaging and primitive treatment. All the medical equipment was onboard the car. With medicine was in short supply, even sterile bandages were hard to come by. The moment the vehicle turned into ashes, Lee Miao cried out loud.
Liu Gan hadn't moved at all from his location. He was livid as he witnessed everything he worked so hard for, being burned to the ground.
"Elder Liu, before the explosion, I was on the rooftop of a building when I saw a suspicious group hanging out in the shadows of the gas station. When I wanted to alert our group, I saw them throw something from their hand and they quickly ran away! Then the gas station exploded…" Wang DeCheng reporting to Liu Gan. Wang DeCheng was limping as he made his report, he still had a metal pipe sticking out from his thigh.
"Elder Liu! We didn't aggravate anyone, we were ambushed! Dozens of our members are dead! Car, food, resources! All gone!" Zhang ShengLi said with tears flowing, but with an angry-look face.
"Elder Liu, there are several members that are severely injured, we don't have the medicine to help them… I don't think we can save them," Lee Miao also cried as she reported back.
"Elder Liu! Our team members died horribly! They didn't deserve this cruelty!" Han GuangMing sat on the floor naked, with his body covered in blood blisters, especially his buttocks - making it painful for him to sit.
"Yeah! We were attacked for no reason! So many of our team members have fallen or in pain. These group of attackers have messed with the wrong bunch! I will make them regret!" Liu Gan clenched his fist as veins started appearing from his forehead. Ever since he entered [The Trembling World], never had he been so mad.