Chapter 410: Second cycle
Not long after entering the ruins, Lin Ye's sports car was scrapped.
In the ruins, those invisible attacks that came without any warning often appeared. Lin Ye simply couldn't predict attacks that would land on the sports car. He could only drive a bit further forward before the car was completely wrecked.
However, after being hit once, Lin Ye could now predict where the invisible attacks would land on his body.
"What a shame. I always wanted to drive a sports car like this once."
Sera carefully followed behind Lin Ye. When they got out of the car earlier, her right arm had been broken by an invisible attack, but under the influence of the biological sample inside her body, the wound quickly healed.
"Why not buy one?"
Lin Ye carefully observed the nearby ruins. The traces left at the moment of destruction were preserved on those dilapidated buildings.
"No money. I'm just a researcher's assistant. My monthly salary is only fifty thousand Free Coins, I can't afford a sports car at all."
Sera also observed the surrounding buildings. Invisible attacks occasionally landed on her body, but the biological sample would quickly repair her injuries.
"Don't research assistants have bonuses?" Lin Ye compared the various marks on the buildings with the marks on the squad wreckage in his memory. Considering the different materials, he also tried to deduce the nature and scope of the attacks from the marks.
"Yeah, but the bonus is tied to research results. Due to a lack of research results, my bonus has never exceeded two thousand."
Sera's pupils contracted slightly. She was also comparing those marks, and the results of her comparison gave rise to a certain conjecture.
"What did you discover?"
Lin Ye had been paying attention to Sera's actions.
"...These marks are very similar to the ones left by the invisible attacks that destroyed the combat squads. It's likely the same batch of anomalous creatures left them. Those unseen anomalous creatures first dealt with the combat squads, then came over and destroyed Free City. But..."
Sera seriously considered the possibility that Free City had already been destroyed, but there was something that didn't make sense here.
"But when Free City was supposedly destroyed, the second batch of adventurers was still in the city. I can prove the city wasn't destroyed, so this place isn't Free City."
Lin Ye was absolutely certain about this.
"But these ruins are the destroyed Free City. I often went shopping at that mall, the stuff inside was cheap and delicious. After shopping, I often went to that restaurant over there, their roasted meat combo was the best value meat meal in Free City. And that barbecue stall over there... If this isn't Free City, then something copied a Free City, and then destroyed the copy of Free City. But what was its purpose? Just to make us think Free City had been destroyed?"
Sera said, puzzled.
"Never try to understand the purpose of anomalous creatures. Just like humans need to eat and sleep, anomalous creatures also have rules they need to follow.
Let's first sort out our thoughts.
First, the Bottomless Pit spewed out at least a high-grade Pit Product. This Pit Product contaminated a large area, so the major forces of Free City dispatched squads to the Contaminated Zone to obtain the Pit Product.
Then, the squads lost contact. Some time later, Raymond commissioned me to approach the Contaminated Zone to check the situation.
During this time, the combat squads were destroyed by invisible attacks. Survivor Sera escaped from the pit and fled to the outside of the abandoned Free City.
After that, the second batch of commissioned adventurers approached the wasteland. Some adventurers entered the wasteland, while others returned to Free City. That's when they discovered the already destroyed Free City.
Finally, the second batch of adventurers were almost completely wiped out. Survivor Lin Ye entered the wasteland, saw the wreckage, and on the way back, survivor Lin Ye encountered the first batch's survivor, Sera, who entered the Contaminated Zone. The two of them entered the abandoned Free City together.
So, where is the first problem?"
Lin Ye tried to analyze the entire contamination incident with Sera.
"The scope of the Contaminated Zone."
Sera cooperated readily.
"Correct. When you saw the city ruin, I was still inside the intact Free City. The city ruin is part of the contamination. I, who saw the city ruin, was contaminated. Therefore, the scope of the Contaminated Zone is definitely not just within the wasteland. I didn't enter the wasteland, but I was still affected."
Lin Ye gradually grasped the thread of this contamination incident.
"So the wasteland and the city ruin are both scenes produced by some kind of contamination. Moreover, this contamination is a continuously advancing process. It first destroyed the major combat squads, then destroyed the replicated Free City."
Sera seriously considered various possibilities.
"There's a strange point here. Why can't we see the attacks, nor the anomalous creatures that launched them? Because if we could see these, the process would be complete:
A large number of anomalous creatures surged out from the Bottomless Pit, destroyed the combat squads, then destroyed Free City. The Source of Contamination is just making us experience this process."
Lin Ye thought of that obstruction that blocked crisis perception and his earlier speculation. An idea suddenly occurred to him.
"Maybe it just can't manifest those things..."
Sera felt like something was missing in the middle.
"Right. It can only manifest the scenes and the attacks. It can't pull those anomalous creatures here too, because those anomalous creatures are still inside the Bottomless Pit right now."
Lin Ye quickly guessed the Pit Product's ability.
"...Are you saying these scenes and attacks are from the future, and those anomalous creatures can't exist in two places at the same time? That's a very bold conjecture..."
Sera carefully considered this conjecture and found that it actually fit.
"Correct. The Pit Product's ability is to simulate and present scenes from a period of time in the future."
The reason Lin Ye could think of this possibility was because he was well aware that the possibility of Free City being destroyed was extremely high, which was why he believed these were scenes from the future.
At this moment, Lin Ye thought of another particularly important question: would these scenes continue simulating indefinitely, or would they simulate a certain stage and loop it? If it was a loop...
"Damn!"
Lin Ye suddenly sprinted towards the center of the ruins. They had already wasted a lot of time here. If it really was a loop, the second cycle could start at any moment now.
"Wait! Where are you going? If there's a second cycle, the city ruin will become the most dangerous area, because everyone is concentrated here. Those anomalous creatures would definitely choose to destroy Free City first!"
Sera followed behind Lin Ye. She hadn't yet figured out how to escape this influence, but she felt it was best to get as far away from Free City as possible right now.
"It's too late. And outside the city might not be safe. We need to find a building that can survive the attacks of the anomalous creatures."
Lin Ye ran straight towards the abandoned clubhouse. His World of Ashes Shelter was there.