Chapter 411: Plan failed
The two of them were sprinting wildly through the ruins. Invisible attacks rained down on them. Lin Ye relied on prediction to dodge the attacks, while Sera simply tanked them with her body. Both were running extremely fast.
Lin Ye took a moment to sense the situation inside Sera's body. He had always wanted to study the biological sample;
this was a perfect opportunity.
Sera followed closely behind Lin Ye. She had a certain level of skill in utilizing the biological sample;
otherwise, she would have been knocked down long ago.
"Are you really just a research assistant?"
Lin Ye questioned.
"I've been exposed to this type of biological sample before, which is why I can use it so proficiently."
Sera explained.
"But you said you had no research results. How could you have access to such an important biological sample then?"
Lin Ye pressed again.
"Being an assistant, you always end up coming into contact with some strange things." Sera replied very naturally.
"Well, that seems plausible enough. Does Carnot Heavy Industries have any shelter facilities?"
Lin Ye asked offhandedly.
"I'm just a research assistant. I have absolutely no access to that kind of information."
Sera replied while running and observing their surroundings. She was looking for buildings that hadn't been destroyed, but there was nothing like that around.
At a certain moment, the invisible attacks suddenly vanished. The surrounding abandoned buildings began to rapidly restore themselves. Free City quickly returned to its original appearance, except the entire city was eerily quiet, with only two people sprinting down the deserted streets.
"Damn! The second cycle has already started! Look, there's an intact sports car over there!"
Sera dashed toward the sports car by the roadside.
"Are you an idiot?! By the time you start that car, the fast-moving anomalous creatures will be right in your face!"
Hearing the sound of distant buildings being destroyed, Lin Ye manipulated his spiritual energy to push Sera to his side, then grabbed her and charged at full speed toward the abandoned clubhouse.
With the invisible attacks gone, Lin Ye could finally move at full speed.
Compressed spiritual energy surged wildly behind him. Lin Ye stepped on his spiritual energy to leap onto the roof of a nearby supermarket, then began sprinting across the tops of buildings.
A massive number of invisible anomalous creatures flooded into Free City. Destruction spread from the city's edge toward its center. Buildings toppled, structures were damaged. Whether it was commercial districts or the bases of the major companies, none lasted more than a second. There were no exceptions.
The destruction closed in behind Lin Ye. Dust from collapsing buildings engulfed the two of them. The nearest anomalous creatures were already within arm's reach.
They were less than a hundred meters from the abandoned clubhouse, but that hundred meters felt like an insurmountable chasm separating them. Unless they could jump across that space, the anomalous creatures behind them would definitely make contact before they could enter the clubhouse.
And if they were delayed even for a moment, they would be swallowed by the horde of anomalous creatures.
"Let's risk it!"
Sera directly detonated her lower body. Her upper torso pushed Lin Ye as they rapidly charged toward the abandoned clubhouse.
But it still wasn't fast enough. Lin Ye hurriedly used Blood Burning to ignite Sera's lower body. The massive energy propelled them like a cannonball, shooting them into the abandoned clubhouse!
The anomalous creatures followed right behind, instantly destroying the abandoned clubhouse. Just like the bases of other factions, the abandoned clubhouse didn't last a second either.
But before the abandoned clubhouse was destroyed, Lin Ye pulled Sera's upper torso through a layer of spatial barrier, entering a gray world where ash drifted through the air.
'Excellent! The World of Ashes space is indeed deployed here!'
The Pit Product had replicated the entire Free City. Free City was destroyed, so the Lin Ye who was in Free City at that time would definitely deploy the World of Ashes Shelter at the clubhouse base to protect those young people. If the Pit Product could even replicate the attacks of the anomalous creatures, then Lin Ye's World of Ashes would surely be replicated here as well.
Moreover, this was the World of Ashes deployed by the future Lin Ye. At that time, he would definitely have prepared ample spiritual energy and mental energy to maintain the World of Ashes. The current Lin Ye could now stay inside the World of Ashes without any consumption.
This was the reason Lin Ye wanted to go to the abandoned clubhouse.
Lin Ye opened the small bag and used the biological sample inside to repair Sera's lower body.
This assistant was a ruthless one, actually self-detonating her lower half. Lin Ye had originally planned to do the same, but she beat him to it.
"What is this place?"
Sera asked, half-dead.
"A shelter built by my future self. You did very well just now, though it was a bit unlike the reaction a research assistant would have."
Lin Ye quickly finished repairing Sera's lower body.
"You don't understand. Nowadays, it's the assistants who do all the real work. The official researchers aren't as capable as the assistants. That's the normal situation."
Sera climbed up from the ground and moved her body around.
"Well, that seems plausible too."
Lin Ye sat by the roadside to rest for a while, thinking about how to end the cycle.
"Could the main body of the Pit Product be inside the Bottomless Pit? Maybe if we enter the pit, we can deal with it."
Sera was also thinking of ways to end the cycle.
"Hard to say. I don't think the anomalous creatures would leave such an obvious weakness. Hiding underground in the wasteland would be safer than hiding in the pit."
Lin Ye felt it was unlikely.
"It wouldn't be outside the Contaminated Zone, would it? Then we'd have no way to deal with it."
Sera thought of another possibility.
"It probably isn't. There are still many high-level spiritual energy users in Free City. If it were outside, it would be finished if it ran into a high-level spiritual energy user just wandering around."
The Pit Product was maintaining the cycle. Lin Ye didn't think it would have any spare capacity to deal with high-level spiritual energy users from the outside world.
"Since this is a scene from the future, does that mean if we change this future, we can terminate the cycle?"
Sera thought of another solution.
"Change the future... You go block the attacks of those anomalous creatures? Seriously?"
Right now, they couldn't even touch those anomalous creatures. At best, they could use their bodies to block the attacks. Trying to change the future under such harsh conditions was practically a pipe dream.
"Uh, I'm just the one providing the plan. I'm not responsible for execution."
Sera indicated she was just an assistant.
"But there are only two of us here now. If you, the assistant, won't go, then should I go?"
Lin Ye was just thinking about whether to call a few people out to discuss together when the World of Ashes suddenly collapsed.
The entire world turned into ash flickering with dark red flames and dissipated. Lin Ye and Sera returned to the abandoned clubhouse.
The World of Ashes Shelter plan had failed.
Lin Ye reached out and grabbed Sera's calf while simultaneously drawing compressed spiritual energy from within his body, redeploying the World of Ashes before the attack could hit them.
His spiritual energy and mental energy plummeted. Lin Ye barely managed to maintain the World of Ashes. Perhaps because they weren't in the same spacetime, the World of Ashes didn't collapse this time.
But Lin Ye couldn't hold on for long at all, because the spiritual energy within his body was already nearly depleted.
He had consumed a large amount of compressed spiritual energy while escaping earlier. He couldn't last much longer now.
The collapse of the World of Ashes indicated that the anomalous creatures outside hadn't left yet, and there were still strong individuals in Free City who hadn't died. Going out now would be no different from suicide.
But Lin Ye had no other options now. Inside the World of Ashes, he couldn't absorb spiritual energy from the outside world, and there were no potions in his spatial items that could rapidly replenish large amounts of spiritual energy.
Just as Lin Ye was preparing to risk everything, a large amount of ash flickering with flames appeared inside the World of Ashes. This ash propped up the World of Ashes, replacing Lin Ye in providing the energy needed to maintain it.
This was the ash left behind by the previously collapsed World of Ashes.