Apocalypse Forecast Chapter 88: Shen Yue's 3,000-Person Buff

In reality, dealing with an erosion entity of this level is difficult... probably.
Setting aside whether these monsters, mass-produced on a large scale by the people of |Gui Jing| as if they were farming crops, should even be called frontier variants, if you ignore the abnormal black blood inside them, they are just animals that are a bit ugly, a bit large, a bit gluttonous, and unpleasant to look at.
They don't have any particular special abilities, they don't spit fireballs, and their combat power relies on numbers.
And if there are many of them, one or two will be naturally superior individuals, favored by the gods, and there will be some that are especially ugly, especially large, especially gluttonous, and especially unpleasant to look at.
For example, the one in front of me.
Its head is as big as a car, its neck is thick, and I doubt Huai Shi could cut through it even if he tried.
Moreover, right now, |Huai Shi| had no strength left.
I had been cutting down monsters without holding back at all, and I barely managed to survive and make it this far, so who would have thought I'd run into a big boss here.
It's over.
Huai Shi swung the sword and axe in his hands, but the giant wolf lying there laughed leisurely, opened its large mouth, and drooled foul-smelling saliva.
Huai Shi gulped and said in a trembling voice,
"Mr. |Shen|, give me a buff, quickly."
"You're so reckless, what's the point of adding a buff on top of that?"
|Shen Yue| was pale, huddled in a corner, and said as if he were about to cry,
"It's useless. My ability is meant for ordinary people. It won't provide much of a power boost. It would have been fine if there were many people..."
"Then do it like you do when there are many people!"
Huai Shi was so angry he could spit blood.
"Give me a lot of it."
No matter what the effect is, if you give me a lot of buffs, it will be useful somehow.
Shen Yue looked even more pathetic.
"Can you withstand a 3,000-person buff?"
Huai Shi felt like he was going to spit blood again.
"Can't you make it less!"
"I, I'll try, but..."
Shen Yue looked like he was about to cry.
The flaw of Shen Yue that most of his colleagues at the Social Security Bureau knew—he only had two types of buffs. One was for one person, and the other was... for 3,000 people!
The biggest reason Shen Yue had been stuck in a dead-end job in the Social Security Bureau's special support unit was that he couldn't control the 'amount of his buffs'.
He could easily destroy his allies by giving them too many buffs.
To be fair, the soul ability 'Efficient Work Method Without Overtime' is a quite solid and useful skill—as long as there are enough ordinary people, Shen Yue could lead a division to pioneer the frontier.
But the problem is, do ordinary people need to pioneer the frontier?
No...
Shen Yue's blessing is a set of buffs including intelligence boost, attack power boost, defense power boost, recovery power boost, and so on.
It has everything, and everything is weak.
It should have an effect on ordinary humans, but for |Sublimators|, it was too weak to be of any real use.
His instructor at the time suggested: if one method isn't enough, why not try it several times? And an obvious fact was discovered—the Sublimator who received the buff was on the verge of death.
Even Red Bull can kill people.
Giving a buff definitely increases power. But when the blessing wears off, you explode.
After two people were sent to the ICU, no one had the courage to receive his buff.
The only one of the same rank who could receive Shen Yue's 3,000-person buff was |Jin Mu|, who possessed the Stigmata of 'A'lai', an incarnation of steel with physical abilities that were superhumanly robust.
Jin Mu's limit was five minutes. Within five minutes, he could defeat a fourth-rank opponent with one blow. If one blow wasn't enough, he'd use another.
His appearance was a salvation for the benchwarmer Shen Yue. The two naturally became partners, and for the first time, Shen Yue realized the importance of his power.
That's why what pained Shen Yue the most was—if he had been by his side, Jin Mu wouldn't have had to die.
If he had been more careful, he could have defeated the monster that killed Jin Mu with a single strike of his 'Iron Whip'.
The cause of all this was that he had dragged him into it.
If he hadn't become his partner back then, this wouldn't have happened.
"Don't space out!"
A palm slapped the back of Shen Yue's head. Huai Shi was looking at Shen Yue with wide eyes.
"It doesn't matter if you can do it or not! Mr. Shen, I'm counting on you! I'm not afraid, so why are you?"
Shen Yue looked at Huai Shi blankly, gritted his teeth, and awkwardly raised his hands.
Huai Shi said to Shen Yue, sounding scared.
"As little as possible, you understand? As little as..."
Huai Shi said uncertainly, as if praying.
"Don't ever betray me."
Shen Yue's fingertips began to glow. At first, it was a blinding white, then the light rapidly dimmed, and while struggling to control it, the amount of the buff became half of what he gave to A'lai.
And then half again... and half again...
Finally, all his fingers swelled to twice their thickness. Too much power was trapped inside them, on the verge of exploding.
Perhaps sensing the threat, the giant wolf opened its large mouth, revealed its ferocity, and attacked while howling. A wind was whipped up, as if a truck had really crashed into them.
At that moment, he reached out and pointed at Huai Shi. His fingers burst. Not only the skin and flesh, but even the tips of his finger bones shattered.
Before he could even see that, Shen Yue rolled on the ground in a panic. Fortunately, he dodged the giant wolf's charge, but he hit a corner and his whole body flew into the air. He felt as if he had been shattered into pieces.
And in the mist that had not yet dissipated, he suddenly saw pale blue flames flare up, tearing through the mist and the wild wind.
Huai Shi jumped up vigorously. Due to the instantaneously increased power, his height was over four meters.
Amidst a cry of pain, he drew his sword and axe and slashed down at the giant wolf below!
Huai Shi felt like he was about to explode.
The moment Shen Yue pointed at him, a massive power surged from within his body, and in the pitch-black void of the Stigmata in his chest, the last bottle of cola was crushed and shattered, erupting from the hole.
The familiar feeling of expansion returned.
Huai Shi felt as if he had been torn apart by too much power. Shen Yue tried his best to control it, keeping the buff amount to about 200 people, but it was still more than Huai Shi could handle.
His internal organs screamed. He was about to explode.
I'm going to die!
The moment he felt his lungs and entrails being torn apart, the flames that caused him such agonizing pain flared up in his body again, and the fire of Source Quality, created by the suffering and anger of ten million people, covered him.
The |Source Quality| fire caused frenzy, burned power, extracted all the excessively expanded power, and dissolved it into the mist of |Ashes of Calamity|.
The fire of the Ashes of Calamity burned vigorously.
Like a blast furnace filled with coal.
Huai Shi was hovering on the edge of collapse.
Amidst a roar of intense pain, while being dominated by the madness in his instincts, he swung his axe down onto the dog's head, which was as big as a car.
Clang!
The axe blade collided with the scales and was deflected.
The reaction force transmitted from the axe caused Huai Shi's body to spin in the air.
The wolf raised its head and tried to bite him with its large mouth. Huai Shi dodged in mid-air, landed unsteadily, and panted with his shoulders.
Deep footprints were carved into the ground.
The pain continues, and the power continues. I must end this battle quickly, or exhaust this excessive power quickly.
Before I am crushed by this overwhelming power.
Because of the hundreds of buffs, his exhausted energy instantly went off the charts.
Huai Shi stroked the axe with his hand. Lightning flashed.
Then, as Huai Shi pulled, the handle of the axe made a screeching sound of steel and rapidly extended. Huai Shi held the lengthened axe handle with both hands.
The mist of Ashes of Calamity surrounding Huai Shi gathered rapidly and condensed onto the blade covered in lightning, becoming a pale heart poison.
"Are you serious..."
The demon in the fire sighed.
"I never thought the day would come when I'd be slaughtering small animals."
In an instant, the giant wolf howled, and Huai Shi ran.
The giant wolf opened its mouth wide in anger, trying to bite Huai Shi. Huai Shi leaned back, dodged the teeth, slid between the four legs, and dived under the defenseless, soft belly.
The axe of wrath slashed from the neck down to the navel, where strange tentacles were growing. Fresh blood sprayed out like a waterfall.
The black blood coagulated rapidly as if it were alive, stitching up the gruesome wound. It dried in an instant, becoming a thick armor.
"Is it that advanced?"
Huai Shi was stunned, rolled away in a panic, dodged the tail that was as sharp as a sword, and staggered backward.
A noisy sound came from inside the giant wolf's belly.
"Idiot! Bite its head... I'll do it..."
"It's small and moves fast..."
"It hurts, it hurts!"
"Use your tail, stab it to death with your tail!"
"Why don't you use your claws?"
"I'm... hungry..."
"Don't play around, give it your all!"
It was as if a dozen people were stuffed inside its belly, talking and chattering. The black blood surged and danced in anger, fighting for control of this body.
Then, the black blood broke through the smooth body and emerged, transforming into incoherent organs.
Several hands, large mouths, several red eyes, the tails increased, and some of the tails were even sharper.
"Isn't that modification going a bit too far?"
Huai Shi was dumbfounded.
The giant wolf, which had completely transformed into a deformity, rushed toward Huai Shi, opened its already large mouth, and its sharp claws and sharp tail cut through the wind.
Huai Shi retreated, retreated further, and swung his axe fiercely toward the palm coming at him. Two of the giant wolf's thick fingers were cut off and rotted away in an instant. But the remaining fingers grabbed Huai Shi's axe and wouldn't let go.
"Caught you! I caught you!"
A happy voice was heard.
Huai Shi twisted his mouth and sighed.
"You idiot."

Translator's Note:
It has been revealed why Jin Mu and Shen Yue were a team.
I wanted to read more about this duo's exploits (´；ω；`)