Chapter 81: Rune Eruption
Regardless of the plans these six individuals had, it was now the moment for Su Hao's hunting.
Only by killing them all could he finally leave with peace of mind and find a place to get a good night's sleep.
Hovering high in the sky, Su Hao made his preparations and once again dived down, locking onto the fourth target.
Descending at a 60-degree angle from high altitude, when his speed reached a certain point, he flew just three meters above the ground and passed over the head of a Grandmaster-level opponent, taking with him a severed head that was thrown into the air.
Immediately after, he rapidly ascended and returned to the clouds.
"The Old Crane is dead..."
"What should we do?"
"Shall we disband? We can venture into the wilderness where there is still a chance of survival."
"Are you planning to defect?"
"No, I just don't want to die here inexplicably. I hope to die in a battle with ferocious beasts."
"Me too. Even if we roam the wilderness, we can still hunt some ferocious beasts. It's better than dying here. And... I don't think the 'Traveler' did anything wrong. I've also read 'The Warrior's Path' and 'Comprehensive Rune Interpretation.' I fully support his actions."
"Then let's go! Perhaps we'll meet again in the wilderness!"
And so, the five of them scattered and escaped, exerting all their strength as they fled in different directions.
Target number 5!
Su Hao dived down and, unbeknownst to the target, took his head.
As for why he always collected heads, Su Hao stated that he didn't want to, but it was because each of them was wearing armor that covered their entire bodies, leaving only their necks exposed, making it difficult for him to attack anywhere else.
Target number 6!
Su Hao furrowed his brows and immediately changed direction, flying towards the sixth target. However, as he caught up with the sixth target, the seventh, eighth, and ninth targets were about to leave his radar range.
After noting the directions of the last three targets, Su Hao swiftly severed the neck of the sixth target and turned his head towards the seventh.
"They really ran away?" Su Hao doubted whether they were thoroughly scared, but he dared not let his guard down. If they returned with something that could track him, they wouldn't come back with just ten people.
Su Hao no longer concealed his figure, disengaging from "Silent Flight Mode" and maintaining only the light-absorbing effect, flying at full speed.
"Boom!"
As Su Hao passed by, a sonic boom reverberated in the area, echoing like thunder.
The seventh target also couldn't escape Su Hao's hunt.
Next was the eighth target. Su Hao flew in the air for a while, searching, before finally finding him. After the eighth target ran beyond a range of three thousand meters, he started changing directions, showing considerable wit. However, he encountered Su Hao.
Finally, it was the last one, the ninth target. Despite having run a considerable distance, Su Hao persisted in his search and eventually found him, forcing him to surrender his head.
Thus, Su Hao's side achieved a complete annihilation of the enemy, a resounding victory.
Su Hao landed steadily on the ground, took a deep breath, and finally ended it all.
These ten Grandmasters nearly rendered him unable to fight.
However, for Su Hao, being able to understand his own combat flaws was also a gain.
"First, find a place to recover and thoroughly study my combat system. I can't afford to have such a mishap like today in the future."
With that thought in mind, Su Hao quickly ran, leaped into the air, and with a loud explosion beneath his feet, he quickly ascended to the sky, choosing a direction and flying away at high speed.
...
Half a month later.
Inside a cave in the wilderness.
Su Hao looked at the two fully alloy wings in front of him, set down the polishing tools in his hands, and nodded in satisfaction.
He then moved the wings to a brand-new set of armor, picked up one of the wings, and placed its root in the slot on the back of the armor, perfectly fitting it in place before securing it with screws.
Once he made sure it wouldn't loosen, he retracted the wing.
"Click!"
The wings folded inward, resembling a cloak extending diagonally backward.
Satisfied with the result, he installed the other wing and retracted it as well.
Now, the armor had sharp twin wings on its shoulders, resembling a small fighter jet. It exuded a strong sense of technology, shining silver under the light, sharp and unparalleled.
Su Hao looked at the armor he personally designed, and his eyes were filled with gleaming silver. He loved it.
Night fell, and Su Hao couldn't wait to put on the armor. He reached out and grabbed the helmet designed like a cone from the top, placed it on his head, and fastened it. He looked just like a flying man.
He tried moving around and found that the wings on his back didn't affect his usual ground combat movements.
Su Hao operated a small mechanism, grabbing the two wing blades with his hands and pulling them outward.
"Click, click!"
The two wings expanded, and after Su Hao secured the mechanism, he directly sprinted out of the cave, kicked off the ground, and leaped high into the air.
"Boom!"
Both his feet and the runes of "Eruption" on the wings activated simultaneously. Su Hao shot up into the sky, quickly disappearing among the clouds.
The supersonic flight created a sonic boom that resonated far and wide.
Su Hao activated the three runes on the wings: "Sturdy," "Sharp," and "Breaking the Sound Barrier." After adding the "Coordinated" rune to himself, he began to show off his skills in the high altitude—flying sideways, spinning, rolling, wave-like flight, large curvature curves, breaking the sound barrier, silent flight...
As time passed, Su Hao's control became more and more adept.
He could be even more daring! But considering that this was just a test flight, his goal was to collect as much data as possible, so he calmed down and refrained from being too reckless.
After flying for a long time, Su Hao returned to the ground, landing steadily. He retracted the wings inward.
Inside the space of the ball, he checked the flight data from earlier and then checked the wings' durability data.
Overall, it was excellent, surpassing Su Hao's expectations.
Su Hao's flight experiment had been successful up to this point.
He happily gave a name to his first flight armor—Wing Armor.
Now, the next problem to consider was long-range attacks and high-explosive capabilities.
Let's talk about long-range attack weapons first, and the first thing that came to mind was a sniper cannon.
The material's strength was not enough, so he reinforced it with the rune "Sturdy." The rune "Eruption" could replace high-explosive gunpowder. However, the problem was that the firearms manufacturing technology in this world clearly couldn't meet the required precision. Once the bullet left the barrel, it would deviate, and it was impossible to hit distant targets.
Even runes couldn't solve this problem for the time being.
Helplessly, Su Hao had
to set aside long-range attacks and focus on researching them later when he had more time.
As for the issue of high-explosive capabilities...
The explosive energy was directly proportional to the explosive power, and inversely proportional to the explosion time.
So, in order to obtain high-intensity explosives, Su Hao's problem to solve was how to release as much energy as possible within the shortest possible time.
"Based on the data I've collected so far, when the blood energy is converted through the 'Eruption' rune, the energy released is the strongest. Therefore, I can use the 'Eruption' rune as the foundation for the explosion, similar to the effect of gunpowder."
Su Hao began to contemplate the strategy for creating high-explosive bombs.
However, relying on a single "Eruption" rune alone couldn't generate effective damage; it couldn't even shatter armor.
He murmured to himself, "If one rune is not enough, can a qualitative change be achieved by increasing the number of runes?"
Su Hao's calculation was very simple. If a rune of "Eruption" drawn by a Golden Silkworm had a maximum explosive force of '1', but by increasing the quantity and having 10,000 runes, the explosive force could reach '10,000'.
However, a problem arose: how could so many runes be detonated simultaneously?
Assuming that within the same bomb, there were 100 runes of "Eruption" drawn by Golden Silkworms. If the activation time of the runes was sequenced, then the first activated "Eruption" rune's powerful explosion would destroy the remaining 99 "Eruption" runes, rendering the effect useless.
Ultimately, the explosive power achieved would only be that of a single rune.
This was a structural problem.
Su Hao believed that there must be a solution.
"What should I do?"
As he pondered, Su Hao's eyes brightened, and he had a feasible idea.
...
On the other side, in the main city and Ancheng, within the palace, in a side hall of the Eternal Harmony Palace.
The Human Emperor squinted his eyes as he leaned on a huge chair. Suddenly, a person entered and bowed, whispering, "Elder, the pursuit of the 'Traveler' has failed. All ten Grandmasters dispatched were killed."
The Human Emperor suddenly opened his eyes, emitting a powerful aura that swept through the hall, leaving everyone with a chilling feeling.
The wrinkles on the exposed skin of the Human Emperor began to reveal large patterns, radiating a golden light.
(translated by begs)