Chapter 881 - 378: The Great Stench (Part 3)
The workers with weaker bodies were the first to faint, collapsing in the nauseating stench, their bodies convulsing as though possessed.
Hansen, with his robust physique, covered his nose with a towel, and didn’t find the smell unbearable.
However, under the influence of the stench, his lungs began to feel heavy, and he struggled to catch his breath.
As a steel sheet cutter, Hansen had long dealt with iron filings, welding fumes, and wood dust, not yet severely afflicted with "shipyard disease." But recently, every night, he too felt chest tightness, needing a few coughs to feel better.
It’s evident the stench from the river triggered his lung illness.
He turned back to the workshop, coughing forcefully out of habit, trying to expel the congestion from his lungs.
Cough!
Cough!
After coughing, Hansen felt his chest clear, though he sensed that what he coughed up wasn’t just congestion but seemed like a lot more.
He removed the towel from his mouth, discovering it was spattered with bright red blood.
This... did I cough this out?
Next moment, Hansen’s legs buckled, becoming a "thump" within the crowd, losing consciousness.
Witnessing more companions collapse around them, the workers began to panic, fleeing from Hills River as they spread rumors of the deadly River of Colors.
The workers were so immersed in panic that they didn’t notice how their fear expanded the colorful river, flowing upstream visibly, turning the entire Hills River into color.
As the whole Hills River turned eerily colorful, a colorful steam invisible to ordinary people surged from the river’s surface, mixing into Grimland’s mist, spreading through the city.
Almost as soon as Wu Chang and others returned to Number 6 on Bai She Avenue, before they could unload Henry’s belongings from the cart, Wu Chang wrinkled his nose and asked:
"Do you smell a foul odor?"
The indifferent response from Raventon and other Dungeon Plane natives was sluggish; they sniffed forcibly and shook their heads in confusion.
Players like Negotiation Master with higher attributes and sharper inspiration mostly detected something amiss, furrowing their brows.
The ranked expert among them, Divine Tongue, spoke: "There’s indeed a foul smell, and it’s quite unusual."
Wu Chang’s inspiration confirmed his suspicion that the strange odor was absolutely the work of the Steam Council.
Using True Self, he shouted: "Close the windows and doors, activate the Defense Barrier, don’t let this smell in!"
"All Secret Magic Knights, gather and prepare for emergency situations!"
Wu Chang had arranged a large Mystical Ceremony at Number 6 on Bai She Avenue, and as it activated, a pale barrier visible only to the Transcendent appeared around the Secret Security Department.
Raventon and other indigenous knights looked puzzled at Wu Chang and his group’s serious reactions, unclear about the situation.
Raventon attempted to inquire what was happening, but as he opened his mouth, he was surprised to see the pale barrier rapidly transforming into color under some influence.
Soon after, he too smelled the foul odor Wu Chang had mentioned.
The large Mystical Ceremony bore no resistance to the stench, which could mean only one thing—this foul odor carried the Power of Root.
Raventon and other indigenous Secret Magic Knights, individually less powerful than the players, though detecting the foul odor later, reacted quicker.
Quickly, some began retching, others felt dizzy and faint, their chests tight, faces pale, limbs weak.
Under the stench, players fared little better; within two or three minutes, the weakest among them, Booker and Bai Ma, reached for potions to negate normal status effects.
Against the foul odor imbued with the Power of Root, ordinary potions were ineffective, only offering momentary relief upon consumption before returning to weakness.
After Bai Ma and Booker, Negotiation Master and Veronica followed suit.
Players one by one fell into weakness, leaving only Ma Jia, Killing Intent Fluctuation, Divine Tongue, and Wu Chang’s body and True Self temporarily unaffected by the foul odor.
The attack of the foul odor wasn’t limited to the Secret Security Department; the entire Grimland was shrouded in an indescribable stench.
Whether ordinary people or Transcendents, everyone weakened and succumbed to various mysterious negative statuses under the foul odor.
Those with strong bodies suffered only dizziness and nausea, with temporary weakness not causing serious illness.
If one had underlying diseases, the foul odor would aggravate them, turning minor ailments into severe, sparking fires of illness.
For instance, Hansen at John Shipyard, whose lung disease escalated under the foul odor, fell unconscious on the spot.
Now Grimland faced a major malarial outbreak, where severely afflicted patients hovered on the brink of death, culminating in unanticipated deaths numbered in the tens of thousands after the nightmarish stench.
The entire Grimland, including the Secret Security Department and even Queen Olivia’s Stilan Palace, faced chaos under the foul odor’s onslaught.
What’s dire is that as people realized the problems stemmed from this foul stench, their fear intensified its presence, making it stronger.
So powerful that even players like Ma Jia and Killing Intent Fluctuation struggled to resist, falling into weakness.
This was the First Law of Mysticism Wu Chang observed at Moonlight Sanatorium:
Human cognition is one of the origins of mysticism; the more people believe in its existence, the stronger it becomes.
People’s panic towards the foul odor accelerates its proliferation and spread.
Under the foul odor, Grimland felt plunged into apocalypse.
Yet if viewed from high above, the city revealed only one place completely unaffected by the foul odor, tranquil in time.
That place was the Gray Church Slums.
The towering Tree of Miracles halted the stench-laden mist externally; inside the Divine Kingdom, residents hadn’t even smelled the odor, immersed in dreams.