Outside, the base had descended into total bedlam.
"Is it a blackout? Master Dodge! Where are you?" There was a dull thud in the dark as Luther, running like a headless fly, collided with Dodge. Both went sprawling.
"Ow, ow, ow! Disciple, you hit the wrong way! I'm on your right!"
Elsewhere, Emma was fumbling through the dark like a blind person. "It's so dark... Sister Katie, where are you?"
Her fingertips swept through the void and suddenly landed on a surface that was incredibly soft, elastic, and filled with a "vitality" that made her heart skip a beat.
The sensation sent a chill down her spine—it was a touch on a private, forbidden area.
"This texture... could it be?"
"Kyaaaa—!! Where are you touching, Emma?!"
"I'm sorry, Sister Katie!" Emma pulled her hand back as if electrocuted.
"Emma! I'm back here!" Katie's voice called out from a short distance away.
"Sister? Then what I just touched was..."
"I... I'm... Valerie..." a weak, trembling voice whispered from the darkness."
Sister Valerie? I didn't realize you were hiding so much... 'plot' under those clothes!" Emma couldn't help but exclaim.
"Valerie? Plot?" A string of question marks exploded in Dodge's head.
Valerie usually dressed as conservatively as a nun; the word "stacked" didn't seem to fit. Meanwhile, Luther's face turned beet red as his imagination went into overdrive.
"Don't... don't say things like that at a time like this..." Valerie sounded like she wanted to vanish into the floor.
Suddenly, a woman's scream echoed nearby, followed by a heavy impact and silence.
"Who was that? Phyllis?" Victor shouted, his voice coming from right near his feet.
"Victor, are you okay?" Valerie asked.
"I'm fine, but the person next to me seems to be having a run of bad luck..."
Just as the group reached their wits' end, a blindingly powerful beam of light swung toward them from the direction of the workshop.
It was so intense it acted like a shot of adrenaline to their vision, instantly bringing the world back into focus.
"That light source is... BWAHAHAHA!"
The moment Dodge saw the owner of the light, he lost it.
He doubled over, letting out a "slaughtered pig" laugh so loud it threatened to shatter the surrounding darkness.
The other warriors stood like wax statues, their muscles tensed as they fought to suppress their laughter, terrified that George would hold a grudge for life.
Internal Monologue: "Help, I want to laugh, but I also want to live!"
The "Human High-Beam" himself was currently scanning the crowd with a gaze that suggested he was contemplating dismembering Dodge into a thousand pieces.
"How is it? My custom-designed Mage Heart Brand High-Power Searchlight isn't bad, right?" Lawson, a man who thrived on second-hand embarrassment, didn't de-escalate. Instead, he threw more fuel on the fire.
Dodge's laughter stopped abruptly as a silence scarier than the darkness settled over the field.
Vroom—!
An orange magic circle manifested beneath {Mage Heart}.
Densely packed orange runes crawled over the gauntlets, swirling toward the palms as if preparing to unleash a world-ending "Rage Elemental Bolt."
"Calm down! George! You'll kill us!" Lawson broke into a cold sweat, performing a lightning-fast sliding kowtow.
"I won't laugh! Really! I'm sorry!"
"Apology accepted." George snorted, and the runes vanished instantly.
"Hey... guys, look at this." Victor knelt, pointing at the ground.
"It's Ester. Why is she passed out here?"
Ester was clutching her tablet, a prominent lump swelling on her forehead.
Apparently, she hadn't been able to see in the blackout and had tumbled from a height.
"Let's go outside. The power grid probably failed." Lawson forced a change of subject, patting George's shoulder.
"Keep up, 'High-Beam' God. It's midnight out there; the base's visibility depends entirely on you."
George's knuckles cracked. If it weren't for the bigger picture, he would have shown Lawson what an "Aurora Funeral" really looked like.
The group followed Lawson out of the base. The shopping mall, once a bustling transit hub, was unrecognizable.
The collision of the two worlds had warped the geography.
The flat road to the mall had been thrust upward by tectonic shifts, becoming a desolate plateau overlooking the city.
Lawson stood at the edge, his pupils shrinking at the sight.
It was a landscape of the apocalypse: buildings collapsing in flames, distant explosions, and agonizing screams weaving into a symphony of death.
Familiar landmarks were being replaced by grotesque, twisted structures from another realm.
"How... how did it become like this? We were inside for such a short time..." Katie's voice trembled.
"Unbelievable," Dodge rasped. "It wasn't this bad during our first mission. The rate of mutation is insane."
But their reminiscence was cut short by a streak of ghostly blue electricity tearing through the fog.
At the core of the power substation stood a Volt-Eater, a C-Rank, Wolf-type Shadow Shifter wreathed in electric arcs.
Its body was several times larger than a giant wolf's, its silhouette warping within the erupting thunder.
Several thick, violet-blue beams of light erupted from its spine, locking onto the power equipment like parasitic vines.
It was acting like a greedy super-capacitor, "consuming" the city's energy.
"Bro, do we go in?" Dodge's eyes turned cold.
"My {Tiger Soul} is Earth-attribute. I'm a hard counter to this thing!"
"Exactly! Crush it, Dodge!"
Dodge smugly reached for his phone to link his armor, but a second later, his ego deflated.
"Dammit! My phone is dead at the worst possible time!!"
Lawson didn't miss the chance to kick him while he was down.
"Dropping the ball now? Did you really think you were a walking power bank?"
"I... I'm sorry..." Dodge was mortified.
"Can't count on him. I'll do it!" Katie stepped forward.
"No!" Lawson refused flatly.
"The laws of this world prioritize attribute counters. Fighting against your counter reduces effectiveness by two-thirds. It'll be a war of attrition you can't win."
Silence spread like a plague. The warriors hung their heads. Their top fighters were neutralized.
"Everyone! Isn't it a bit too early to give up?" Phyllis's voice pierced the silence.
She offered a reassuring smile.
"Besides, don't we have an experienced ten-year veteran? Mr. Lawson must have thought of a way."
Everyone looked at Lawson.
A slight curve had formed at the corner of his mouth—the smile of a sage who held the board in his hands.
"Correct. I do have a strategy." Lawson tilted his head back, his eyes burning with a light only a hardcore gamer could understand. "After all... under my theory, no boss escapes. That's the ten-year veteran in me."