[03:50 AM, The 13th Street Clinic Frontline]

  The massive Abomination, though its siege hammer arm was jammed by Bone's sacrifice, remained a terrifying killing machine. It roared deafeningly, its colossal body thrashing violently in an attempt to shake off the "bone ornament" still stubbornly biting into its chest.

  CRACK—CRACK—

  Bone's remaining skeletal frame issued heartbreaking splintering sounds under the beast's thrashing. Every crisp snap was like a heavy hammer smashing into John Doe's heart.

  "Let him go! You monster! LET HIM GO!!!"

  John went mad.

  His eyes, usually filled with timidity and evasion, were now bloodshot and terrifying. He scrambled up from the ground, ignoring the scalpel he had dropped, and charged at the ten-meter-tall behemoth with his bare hands.

  Hemophobia? Fear? Reason?

  The moment he saw Bone being torn apart, all those things went to hell.

  There was only one thought in his mind: That's my family. That's my brother who risked everything to buy me time.

  "John! Stop! It's suicide!"

  Grace's holographic projection on his wrist flickered frantically, her stable blue data streams turning into unstable red glitches.

  "Your body can't take it! Your Psionic Power is long gone! Charging in now will only turn you into a pile of meat paste!"

  But John couldn't hear.

  His world was filled with that shocking blood red. The magic within him began to spiral out of control. The usually gentle Necromancy mana now surged through his fragile meridians like boiling magma.

  "DIE... YOU BASTARD!"

  John reached the Abomination's feet. He didn't know what he was going to do—maybe bite through the monster's tendons, maybe just use his flesh to block a hit for Bone.

  "ROAR!"

  The Abomination's remaining good arm swung the spiked chain. With a howling wind, it lashed down ruthlessly at this insignificant ant.

  BOOM—!

  The expected gory splatter didn't happen.

  Just as the chain was about to crush John into paste, a heavy, cyan light screen covered in ancient runes rose up, blocking the strike head-on.

  It was Xuanwu.

  The usually lazy old tortoise was now lying on the ruins behind John. Though its size hadn't increased (due to insufficient mana), the shell on its back emitted a blinding light, condensing into a massive phantom image of the Black Tortoise that shielded John.

  "Calm down, you idiot!"

  Xuanwu's ancient voice exploded directly in John's mind, carrying a majesty that resented John's failure to meet expectations.

  "Do you want your skeleton brother to die in vain?! Did he trade his life for these few seconds just so you could throw yours away?!"

  "But Bone... he..." John knelt under the light screen, his hands clawing into the dirt, fingernails breaking and bleeding.

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  "He's not dead yet! That skeleton is tough as nails!" Xuanwu roared. "But if you die now, everything is truly over! That monster hasn't fallen; its core is still running! What can you do by charging? Be its snack?"

  Xuanwu's words were like a bucket of ice water poured over John's exploding heart.

  Simultaneously, the iPad screen lit up again.

  Daoist Singularity's face, covered in grease, leaned in close, his expression more serious than ever before.

  "Disciple! Listen! Deep breath!"

  Singularity even used the rhythm of the [Cleansing Heart Mantra], his voice carrying a power of forced sedation.

  "I know you're angry. I know you want to kill. But right now, you are not an avenger; you are the commander of this team!"

  "Look around you!"

  Singularity pointed at the screen.

  On the battlefield, due to John's rampage, the originally tight defense line had loosened. Without unified command, the Spartans were fighting individually and getting surrounded by the surging Scavenger troops. Nightingale's field hospital was facing the risk of being overrun without cover.

  "If you fall now, those neighbors who trusted you, those children, and your mom... they will all die!"

  "Is that the ending you want to see?!"

  John froze.

  He looked up through Xuanwu's light screen and saw his companions fighting in blood.

  He saw Confucius tanking two heavy soldiers with his granite muscles to protect the students behind him.

  He saw Uncle George charging with a kitchen knife after his hotdog cart was blown up.

  He saw his mother, Margaret, pushing her wheelchair, trying to use her own body to shield the wounded from bullets.

  "No..."

  John's body trembled. The violent rage didn't disappear but was forcibly suppressed by a deeper, more painful rationality.

  "I can't die... and I can't lose..."

  He climbed up from the ground, wiping the bloody tears from his face.

  "Grace, sitrep." John's voice was raspy, like he had swallowed sand.

  "Yes! Boss!" Grace sighed in relief, quickly switching back to professional mode. "The Abomination's left arm hydraulic system is destroyed, but its core power furnace is still operational. Its weakness is the stitching on its chest—that's the Psionic Core!"

  "But..." Grace paused. "Its defense is too thick. Normal physical attacks won't work. Even Li Bai from before would struggle to inflict a fatal wound without hitting a vital spot."

  John looked at the giant beast still wreaking havoc.

  Xuanwu's light screen was cracking. It wouldn't last much longer.

  "We need stronger power." John whispered. "Power that can kill in one hit, ignore defense, and even sever this damned karma."

  He looked at the iPad in his hand.

  On the screen, the [Summon] button was flashing gold. This was the last, highest-authority summoning opportunity granted by the system after Singularity repaired the server.

  [System Alert: Server load at critical limit.]

  [This summon will consume ALL remaining Merit Points (including overdraft limit).]

  [Warning: Extremely high-energy Heroic Spirit response detected. Prepare for spiritual pressure impact.]

  "Master." John asked the screen. "This time... can you give me the fiercest one?"

  On the other side, Daoist Singularity was silent for a second. He looked at John's eyes, which had completely transformed—filled with resolve and killing intent.

  "The fiercest?" Singularity smiled, a hint of madness in it.

  "Fine. Since you want to play big, your master will go crazy with you."

  Singularity turned around and kicked the smoking server rack hard.

  "Cut all power! Blast open the doors to the 'Hall of Valhalla'!"

  "We're inviting... a true God!"

  John took a deep breath, his finger hovering over the golden button.

  Inside his mind, an extremely resonant, male voice, like the striking of an ancient bell, suddenly rang out. It wasn't a system prompt, but a voice from a distant time, filled with grandeur and majesty.

  "I... have seen it."

  The voice said.

  "I saw that skeleton shatter his bones for you; and I saw you risk death for that skeleton."

  "Such loyalty... even in the chaotic times of my era... is enough to move heaven and earth."

  "Kid, you are good."

  "Since you have this heart, I have specifically asked Daoist Singularity to send me to this world for a walk."

  "Let me see just how hard... the monsters of a thousand years later really are."

  With this voice, a figure gradually became clear in John's mind.

  It was a figure from Eastern legends that represented absolute "Loyalty" and "Martial Valor."

  He was nine chi tall (approx. 2.07m), with a two chi long beard (approx. 46cm). His face was the color of dark dates, lips like painted grease.

  He held a Green Dragon Crescent Blade weighing eighty-two catties (approx. 18kg in Han Dynasty weight, 49.2kg in novel lore), riding the Red Hare horse that could travel a thousand miles in a day.

  He did not come for slaughter.

  He came to sever the injustice of this world, to protect the loyalty of "going forward even against millions."

  John closed his eyes, as if he could already hear the thundering hooves and the blade energy about to tear the sky apart.

  "Come out."

  "Martial Saint... Guan Yunchang!"

  [Message from Singularity]

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