Chapter 16: “You Really Came!”

The moment Yu Fei connected to the perception feed, she saw a deafening explosion, and blood mist filled the air.
The feed and the link both disappeared.
The high-speed car screeched to an abrupt stop, leaving several skid marks on the ground.
The driver, incredulous, looked at Yu Fei beside him, who was equally stunned.
“Boss, the link just turned into an integration, and the model looked like that. Old Yuan seems to have…”
Yu Fei’s face darkened significantly.
“Yang Zicang…”
“I’ll avenge him!” one of them roared angrily.
Yu Fei’s hands gripping the car door creaked loudly.
“The overlap zone is A-rank important. After all, this time, the overlap must allow those big shots to enter.”
……
Yang Zicang had already left via another route.
He only moved through the buildings. Though he might encounters evil nightmares, compared to them, he was more wary of the people here. After asking for Liang Xi’s location, he hurried toward that mousehole hideout.
Over an hour later, on a deserted road with no cars, three panicked people came running from afar.
“Run, bros! The monsters behind will eat people!”
Following them were two cube-like, bluish-black monsters.
“Run! Those monsters are too terrifying! Where is the army? Only tanks or missiles could kill them!”
Swish!
A pebble with a golden phantom shot from Yang Zicang’s hand, tracing a sharp arc through the air.
With a bang, one of the cyan-black monsters chasing them instantly shattered.
The three were dumbfounded.
“Dead? That invincible monster that devoured two of us, just… dead?”
“Hello, my name is Zhao Bomin. Thank you for your help, but… what on earth was that thing!”
[I gained 31N.]
“It was merely spawned from a trash can, so it was weak. But I imagine you’ve already encountered monsters on the road so terrifying they defy description,” Yang Zicang said.
At these words, the couple’s expressions turned terrified. “What is this place? Did some biolab explode? Where’s the army? Have we been abandoned, right?”
Yang Zicang looked up at a nearby building that was beginning to emanate a musty, decayed aura.
Because these two people who hadn’t manifested models were present, the Nightmare Eggs within it had begun to stir.
After briefly explaining the information about the place, Yang Zicang pointed out the direction of Zuoming Avenue for the three and prepared to leave.
“Wait, handsome! Can I go with you?” Zhao Bomin said.
“Ah, Bomin, you can’t abandon us!”
The middle-aged man hastily dissuaded him. Without Zhao Bomin, they wouldn’t have survived this long.
Zhao Bomin knew that encountering a helpful person like Yang Zicang in this world was far rarer than facing a monster in this place.
“I don’t have time.”
Activating his dispatch ability, Yang Zicang quickly left the trio’s sight.
……
Outside the ruined collapsed area, two figures circled once before temporarily leaving.
In the afternoon, feeling that his cycle had once again become amplifiable, Yang Zicang quickly used it to shield himself and seized the moment to slip through a gap.
Inside this increasingly deep metal pipe, like a cellar, the air was cold and stale, with a faint odor of rot permeating the surroundings.
According to the boy, the first dozen meters of vertical depth were almost without danger, but beyond that, monsters would gradually start appearing.
{Brother, you really came?}
Liang Xi’s heart surged with excitement.
[I have a few friends; I need to prepare cycles for their month-end deduction.]
{Oh, I see. Brother, you really are a kind person.}
The light inside this eerie space was dim. Yang Zicang carefully observed the surrounding terrain, worrying whether there would be no foothold to leverage when climbing back later.
He was about to enter the peculiar dimension alone.
Suppressing the strange emotions in his heart, he descended several dozen meters, where several large horizontal pipes appeared.
Scratch, scratch~
Yang Zicang pressed closely against the wall, listening to a faint sound at the other end of the passage.
The owner of those footsteps seemed to have sensed a presence alien to this place, silently hiding at the opposite end, waiting for its prey to walk right in.
Suddenly, several whip-like things shot down from the cracked and crumpled metal mezzanine above.
Slap! Slap!
Yang Zicang lightly kicked off and darted into the pipe.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The several long whips lashed across his body, instantly costing him several decades of Amplified Chrono.
After a heavy thud of a body falling behind him, three calf-sized figures charged over rapidly, bringing with them dull, rumbling sounds. Yang Zicang stared in shock at the rats charging toward him. Was this the monster’s lair that guy had dared to enter alone?
[Candidate Liang Xi wishes to make an investment for me.]
[Liang Xi has invested 200N for me.]
Yang Zicang, while running, pulled out a few smooth pebbles he had prepared and held them in his hand. A light shimmered on his chest, and several quadrilateral phantoms enveloped his body.
“Quadruple Amplification!”
The two hundred years of Chrono invested by Liang Xi were instantly funneled entirely into these pebbles, which turned a silvery hue in an instant.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The three charging figures crashed bitterly to the ground.
[I have gained a total of 46.2N.]
A rush of wind came from behind. Yang Zicang, who had just dealt with the three monsters, was knocked to the ground by this thing, and its sharp, foul-fanged jaws lunged toward his neck.
“Bam!”
Gritting his teeth, Yang Zicang swung his fist. Encased in a golden phantom, the shadow of the punch smashed into the rat’s skull, sending red and white flying wildly.
“So disgusting.”
He quickly scrambled to his feet and fled the scene through the pipeline.
He really had no idea how that kid Liang Xi managed to stay in a place like this for a whole day and night; he himself had only been in for a few minutes before running into danger.
No wonder there wasn’t any abnormality in the first few dozen vertical meters—they must have been mustering forces, planning to ambush him.
{You’re amazing, Brother Yang, just like a super warrior in the movies.}
Flattery will get you everywhere. Hearing this, even in the midst of such a heart-pounding moment, Yang Zicang felt a certain warmth inside.
[I, the Great Quadrilateral, have accepted a sincere compliment from an investor.]
“Ah Liang, do you know where you are right now?” Yang Zicang asked in a low voice as he ran.
Through the sensory projection, he could see the boy crouching in a narrow crevice, with sharpened metal placed at the passage entrance, ready to thrust at any monster that poked its head out.
{I don’t know, but Brother Yang, if you keep going and pass through where I’ve been, I should be able to figure out a route.}
The layout underground was quite different from above. So Yang Zicang had no choice but to learn from the experience Liang Xi shared while groping his way forward, after shaking off a few pursuing rats.
……
At the entrance of the monster’s nest.
The man with sunglasses who had been following Yang Zicang the whole time waited for over ten minutes without seeing him emerge.
[Ma Chao, it seems your plan to take his life yourself will likely fail—the otherdimensional space is crawling with rats. If he gets swarmed, he’ll be dead for sure, even with his millennia of chrono-principal.]
“Shaomin, do not underestimate Quadrilateral like those fools. I firmly believe that he will not die so easily there, for the one who will take his life must be me.”
The man in sunglasses gave a light chuckle, not responding to this somewhat irrational remark.
He knew that for someone with that kind of ability, possessing a strong conviction was one of the conditions to support that ability.
That magical train.
A conviction that defies the rules of reality, absolute self-belief, and an unyielding spirit—these are what enable one to roam freely in this bizarre city.
Shao Min could still hear Ma Chao’s voice in his mind.
“I see his throwing range far exceeds that of an average person. If controlled well, that alien space will be like a duck to water for him. Haha, I wish I could come over right now and crush him, to avenge Zhang Fei!”
“No, this is, after all, Luo Xin’s territory. Once I plant the ‘seed’ you gave me in him, you can have your way with him tonight. It’s just a pity about Zhang Fei, falling at the hands of such a greenhorn.”
Ma Chao paused for a moment, then said calmly:
“It’s also my fault for trusting Zhang Fei too much! Ugh, what a regret! Before I enter the A-class intersection, I swear to tear him into pieces to set my mind at ease.”
“Hmm… With me here, you’ll get your wish.”
After cutting off contact with Ma Chao, the man in sunglasses took off his glasses, crouched behind an obstacle, and pressed both hands to the ground.
Shao Min’s eye sockets appeared as if two rotating animated textures, reflecting images of cartoon characters.
[I am the Mysterious Triangle!]
A triangular glow flashed from his chest.
“Dual-door fridge ability… Cold energy storage, activate!”
Ice frost formed in his pupils, manifesting as two cold mist-like orbs.
The mist twisted and drifted out from his pupils, which resembled hollow portals opening left and right.
After emerging from the sockets of both eyes, the two icy mists intersected in the void in front of him, transforming into two embracing cartoon phantoms. In their hands, they held aloft a small simulation platform assembled from the condensed mist.
“Go, toss this onto the person I saw just now.”
They floated swiftly and dashed into the gaps of the collapsed building, leaving only a faint energetic thread connecting them to the man’s eye sockets.
In the distance, a slightly stout figure watching through a telescope retracted his head.