Chapter 539: Both Sides Suffer
In the moment triggered by the God-Slaying strike, a violent conflict erupted on the ground. The heat wave that should have accompanied the shockwave instead spread frost from a distance.
The world above was seemingly destroyed by fire and explosions, and the ground and foundation were covered in frost, forming a cruel half-ice sculpture.
Shali held a crystal-blue crown and directed the tip of the God-Slaying Armor’s g*n.
It seemed frozen in space, preventing the enemy’s weapon from advancing.
All dust and particles dispersed, floating smoke transformed into icy particles falling from the sky, resembling a fine hail.
Absolute low temperatures spread in both directions, the originally blazing g*n tip lost its material structure under the frost’s cover, crumbling into square-like fragments little by little.
On the other side, Shali’s right hand was also covered in frost, extremely hard.
And the final vestige of the seal enveloping the crown was completely shattered by this strike, the terrifying low temperature covered everyone behind Shali in a layer of white frost.
The low-temperature shield that froze the space protected everyone behind this strike.
Just as everyone was filled with fear, Shali decisively severed her right arm to prevent the frost from spreading throughout her body, then immediately stored both the crown and her severed limb into her storage equipment.
At this moment, Shali’s bloody right arm froze again in this frost-laden world, the bright red color particularly striking, as if warning everyone of the life-and-d*ath moment they had just experienced.
“Go!” Shali shouted, fully waking the stunned group. She pulled Tan Han with her remaining left hand and turned to leave.
It was the best time to escape. Although the crown’s absolute zero had completely frozen and damaged Shali’s right hand, with her undying nature, it wasn’t a serious injury. She was a graduate student, after all, and her foundation was still very strong.
The worst was for the opponent; with one strike, their main weapon was completely destroyed. She acknowledged that the opponent’s strength was indeed impressive, but she also realized that their power was entirely based on that suit of armor. Without it, she could suppress them with her life level.
But the absolute zero crown made no distinction between friend and foe; everyone appeared not gravely injured at the moment, but the low temperatures and explosions continually ravaged their bodies.
So running away now was the wisest choice. Even without this decisive blow, she feared engaging the enemy, especially with that birdman potentially stabbing her in the back.
Plus, she had displayed the vessel of Extraordinary Knowledge crown, making it inevitable that those guys wouldn’t be tempted.
Moreover, Tan Han was still here. Shali thought that at the very least, she couldn’t drag Tan Han into this battle; Tan Han’s survival capabilities were nowhere near her own.
Her combat style mainly relied on her undying nature, or rather, most high-grade graduates of the Witch Academy favored this basis. This made their fighting somewhat frenzied, leading to an unbridgeable gap in fighting styles and philosophies between the higher and lower grades.
“Store manager… what’s going on?” At this moment, Tan Han felt very confused.
Not long ago, she received a call from the store manager saying she would come to find her and give her something, but she didn’t expect such a dramatic reunion.
So much happened in that brief moment that she didn’t know how to express herself.
For instance, what exactly was the manager going to give her, what was the object that blocked that strike, and why did the manager sever her own right arm… She couldn’t understand why everything had turned into this.
And more importantly, her own body felt as if it was undergoing a final flashback; the fear of d*ath forced her to expend everything to survive.
“I’ll explain later…” Shali gritted her teeth and spoke, wanting to use a teleportation spell to leave. However, her current condition was not good, and even if she ignored her own issues, if her spell was interrupted mid-way, the backlash could trap her in a crisis.
Therefore, the only option was to run first, even using a flying broomstick to take them to a safer place; they needed to leave this place first.
As for the devastated city… that was no longer something they could manage. Such terrifying enemies… how could they just be so-called extraordinary terrorists from television?
This was likely an alien invasion of the world!
Shali instinctively glanced back, those guys surprisingly hadn’t pursued them!
But regardless, this was a good thing.
She had possessed this crown for a while and had researched it herself, but she hadn’t discovered much. The initial seals placed on it were set by her instructor to prevent its terrifying absolute zero from harming her.
This was her second time using the crown like this; the first time she had just obtained it, and she had nearly faced d*ath from frostbite.
And this time, to resist that blow, she hadn’t expected the power released by the crown to be so terrifying. Although she had repelled the opponent’s attack, even inflicting horrific reverse damage, they were also suffering immensely.
Meanwhile, to the player operating the “God-Slaying” armor, they were receiving frantic system alerts.
The previous God-Slaying strike was a high-power hit of the armor, but it was by no means the strongest attack; however, the targeted blow had caused nearly unbearable backlash.
He could see his armor becoming erratic, the instability of extraordinary pixels signifying the impending collapse of the armor!
The absolute zero piercing through the armor and into his marrow made him feel as if his life was ebbing away, carrying all his weight in an ordinary person’s body.
He prepared to log out of the game, turning off pain synchronization.
But the most excited were the high-level game architects who had been observing everything unfold.
With just one retaliatory strike, they had destroyed the God-Slaying combat armor built from extraordinary pixels; this had to be a manifestation of the power of the technology core!
Before that explosive strike, they had thought this attack wouldn’t damage the technology core, but they had never expected the opponent to be so decisive, directly using this method for a near “mutually assured destruction” approach.
Now that they thought about it carefully… this time, they had been too impatient, but they also confirmed one thing: the technology core indeed existed on the opponent!
As long as they confirmed its existence, unlike the previous world they had abandoned where they merely confirmed the interference of similar-level powers via the All Worlds Terminal, they had never even seen the technology core’s physical form until the end.
Now they had seen it and even obtained its vessel form and some test data!
Once they thoroughly conquered this world and turned it upside down, finding it would only be a matter of time!
Moreover, this was merely a probing test for the advance pioneers. Although the extraordinary beings in this world seemed somewhat deep, they still had the people’s tactic!
The basis of the people’s tactic required a large number of game qualifications.
And the person with a massive number of game qualifications was identified as the girl who was taken away by that girl holding the technology core!
They didn’t expect such good news to come one after another. Although they had gained nothing in their initial contact and even lost a qualification for descent, there was still plenty of time. Probing was always accompanied by losses; as long as they were the eventual winners, it would be enough.
Now they needed to be more cautious. Until they had secured a large number of game qualifications, they couldn’t recklessly lose any more.
After all, until they occupied a dominant position with the total number of qualifications, if players descended into this world with the qualifications granted, those qualifications would be irretrievable upon their d*ath.
This meant that with that person’s d*ath, they wouldn’t have a basis to reclaim that qualification.
Because of this, different voices emerged among the high-level game architects. Some criticized this operation as too reckless, while others believed the intelligence obtained from this probe was crucial and the current sacrifices were acceptable. But this was just a minor dispute.
All present game architects were high-level figures who directed the development trajectory of a world and would certainly not truly tear each other apart over this issue.
At this moment, Shali had already taken Tan Han away from the explosion’s epicenter, hiding in a high building that hadn’t completely collapsed.
On their way, they saw many ordinary people affected by the incident; some had left traces of life on the ground, ending their tragic lives hurriedly, while others were left barely breathing, struggling to survive. The more they ran to the periphery, the more they saw living people; wailing… lamentation… became the prevalent tones.
But Tan Han felt they didn’t have the ability to save them right now. In fact… as long as she could quickly leave, that would be the greatest help for them.
“Store manager… what exactly is happening?” Finally stopped, Tan Han couldn’t help but ask.
However, after asking this question, Tan Han realized that as she spoke, a wave of cold air escaped her mouth. When her previously tense body relaxed in that moment, the chill made her feel icy all over, even her consciousness slowed down.
“Tan Han, are you okay?” Seeing Tan Han on the verge of collapsing after just speaking, Shali hurriedly went to support her. However, at this moment, her right arm had already been severed, and her undying nature allowed her body to recover only partially.
She wanted to use a potion but realized that the items in her storage equipment must have been completely destroyed by the absolute zero; even her storage equipment radiated waves of cold.
“I’m… cough cough…” Tan Han wanted to say something but realized her body was no longer under her control. A violent cough made Shali feel even more miserable.
Recalling that everything stemmed from her desire to give something to Tan Han, there was no chance to regret everything now.
Now she just wanted to take Tan Han back to the Witch Academy; those madmen couldn’t cause trouble in the academy, no matter how crazy they might be.
And the fastest way back was to teleport. As a preparatory witch who had accumulated so much knowledge, her small treasury had many spellbooks, including one on spatial teleportation, which she always carried for easy return.
However, using teleportation spells had thresholds. In her current state, she wasn’t sure if she could succeed, and usually, she preferred riding a flying broomstick. She wasn’t very familiar with using teleportation spells…
But she had to return quickly and get Tan Han treated, of course, to save herself as well, and she needed to report this matter back to the Witch Academy. The power of those guys was truly terrifying; it was nothing like the minor skirmishes shown on television.
Just as Shali was urgently contemplating, the space in front of her suddenly lost control, and retaliatory magic flowed back into her body from the spellbook, the backlash of mental power making Shali’s head pound painfully…
“Ugh…”
At this moment, Shali truly found herself in a situation where it was pouring rain on a leaky roof—something she least wanted had happened.
Tan Han, who had regained a bit of her composure, also saw the store manager’s appearance.
“Store manager…”
“Don’t mind me; contact… contact the instructors of the Witch Academy… to take us back…” Shali, despite enduring the pain of backlash, still managed to speak.
Tan Han quickly understood the current situation, but when she strained to pull out her phone, she found it ice-cold in her hand. It seemed unresponsive when she tried to turn it on, and when she exerted too much effort, the screen directly cracked; the low temperature had made the phone’s screen very fragile.
“My phone is broken… store manager… phone…” Tan Han opened her hand holding the phone, looking towards the manager. At this moment, her own situation was also not good.
“The phone…” Shali instinctively looked at her storage equipment. If the phone had suffered such damage outside, the one intimately touching that crown must be worse off!
“I’m sorry, Tan Han. I dragged you into this, dragged this city… dragged so many innocent people…”
Seeing hope vanish little by little, Shali felt a profound sense of loss. If only everything could be regretted… but there were no choices for regret.
“Don’t say that. The ones who truly destroyed all of this are those guys, not you, store manager… don’t fall into the trap of becoming a guilty victim…” Tan Han quickly comforted her. “Store manager, don’t speak as if it’s your last words… there will be a way…”
“Those guys seem to have mastered a means of detection. If they chase after me relentlessly, they’ll surely find us… I should drop the items; at least if we change locations, there’s a chance we could… survive.”
“That thing… what is it? Why are those guys so fixated on it?” Tan Han asked.
“That is… Extraordinary Knowledge. It’s very precious. As for why those guys are so fixated on it… I don’t know.”
“Extraordinary… Knowledge? Is it the crown-like thing? Is it a piece of knowledge?”
“I don’t know… I’m not clear. I only know that the crown is just the vessel for this thing. Are you also very interested in this, Tan Han?”
“Mm…”
“Then I’ll say… I came here to give this to you?” Shali continued to ask.
“Give it to me? Why?”
“There’s no reason… you were my only choice in this forced situation…” At this point, Shali couldn’t help but feel self-deprecating. In the end, she was led by the nose…
But at this moment, she felt so tired…
“Why?”
“There are many reasons…” Shali, after a moment’s pause, felt she could stand up again and painfully got up. “But this isn’t the time to discuss that… let’s quickly change locations. If worse comes to worst, I’ll… just give this up…”
Shali tore off the storage equipment hanging from her side. At that moment, it seemed to also be unable to withstand absolute zero, exuding waves of cold.
“Wait… store manager… we haven’t reached the worst situation yet…” Tan Han seemed to think of something and rummaged through her storage equipment to pull out a small object…
“What is this?”
“It’s a… summon item, something that can rescue us…” As Tan Han spoke, she exerted her remaining strength to place it on the ground. Suddenly, a runic ceremony spread from the ground, and the next moment, it blossomed into brilliant light, the last hope they had at that moment.
Even if Xiao Han couldn’t defeat those guys… at least Xiao Han could help them summon others.
Just as Tan Han was thinking this, their enemies seemed unwilling to grant them this glimmer of hope.
“Found it! Over here!”
Just as the ceremony was completed, waiting for a response, an icy voice suddenly sounded from outside, sending chills down their spines!
It was those guys!
