Chapter 429: Elevator No. 3
The first to act was Andrew. The moment the elevator doors opened, he launched his attack.
Frenzied spiritual energy pierced through the core of the Mutation Creature. Its eight heads exploded simultaneously, splattering flesh and blood all over the elevator's interior.
But soon, two more Mutation Creatures squeezed into the elevator lobby, only to be blown apart by Andrew.
There was a breach on the side of Elevator Three. Those Mutation Creatures were squeezing in from outside that hole.
Bessie hurriedly entered the elevator, pressed the button for floor 8002, and then jumped back out.
"Good news! This elevator only has a button for floor 10000. This should be the final elevator leg!"
Bessie said excitedly.
"Hmm, I see that. But before we celebrate, we'd better find an elevator that actually works."
Lin Ye not only saw the floor numbers but also extended his mental energy into the breach to sense the situation outside the elevator.
Fragmented floor spaces, floating anomalous phenomena, anomalous creatures packed together... the scene outside the elevator could be described as a chaotic dance of demons. The situation outside was not optimistic. Lin Ye wasn't sure if these elevators could still operate normally.
They began checking the nine elevators one by one.
Elevator One and Elevator Two showed no response at all.
Elevator Three was damaged.
The damage to Elevator Four and Elevator Five was even more severe than Elevator Three's, with their entire bottoms missing.
Elevator Six was plastered with dark red missing persons posters, three of which were blank.
The doors of Elevator Seven opened to reveal no elevator car, just a pitch-black elevator shaft.
Elevator Eight would emit violent explosion sounds whenever anyone approached. The elevator doors were twisted and deformed, yet no gap appeared between the doors and the wall.
Elevator Nine looked perfectly normal, but a white paper was pasted inside with a few hastily scribbled red characters:
Don't go in, dangerous!
"What do we do? None of them seem promising."
Bessie asked, feeling conflicted.
"Let me test it first."
Lin Ye used biological samples to create a bizarre-looking quadrupedal creature. The creature hopped and skipped into Elevator Nine and pressed the button for floor 10000.
"If it can come down safely, we'll take Elevator Nine. If..."
Before Lin Ye could finish his sentence, a sharp, piercing noise erupted from inside Elevator Nine, somewhat resembling the sound of a supersonic aircraft breaking the sound barrier.
"Uh, we'd have to wait two hours for it here..."
Before Bessie could finish her sentence either, a heavy crashing sound echoed from within Elevator Nine.
"Seems we don't need to wait two hours after all..."
Andrew opened Elevator Nine's doors. The quadrupedal creature inside had vanished, leaving only a pool of blood.
"Actually, Elevator Three isn't so bad either, though it might be a bit drafty."
Lin Ye turned and walked towards Elevator Three. If they took Elevator Nine, their fate might not be much better than that quadrupedal creature's.
The moment Elevator Three's doors opened, three Mutation Creatures rushed out, with even more trying to squeeze inside.
Andrew took charge of clearing out the Mutation Creatures. Lin Ye used a spiritual energy shield to patch the breach. Bessie collected the corpses inside the elevator into her spatial item. Bessie Pro pressed the button for floor 10000.
It wasn't until the elevator reached floor 8004 that the Mutation Creatures attacking the spiritual energy shield from outside completely disappeared.
However, only the Mutation Creatures disappeared. Outside the breach, chaotic anomalous phenomena and fragments of shattered floor spaces were everywhere.
Fortunately, these things did not affect the operating Elevator Three, nor did they approach the breach.
"Is this the 'trash heap' you mentioned?"
Andrew observed the outside through the breach. He was a bit worried the elevator might suddenly crash into something.
"Yeah. As long as this area is cleaned up regularly, the Bottomless Pit won't affect the Free City."
Lin Ye set up several layers of spiritual energy shields over the breach. It might not be effective, but it was better than nothing.
Bessie nervously watched the anomalous phenomena floating in mid-air outside the breach. Afraid of attracting their attention, she didn't dare use her mental energy at all.
"I hope we reach floor 10000 smoothly."
Andrew was also somewhat tense. Elevator Three was the only remaining Safe Zone here. If something happened to it, they would have to face those anomalous phenomena with unknown rules directly.
"It probably won't be that smooth. Otherwise, Elevator Three wouldn't have this breach."
Lin Ye had been using his mental energy to sense the area around the elevator. If any anomalous phenomena approached, he would deal with them immediately.
"This breach might just be an accident. My luck has always been good. This time, there shouldn't be any accidents."
Bessie looked at the breach and softly prayed that no accidents would occur this time.
"But my luck is average, and his luck is even worse than mine. Your good luck alone won't help much."
Lin Ye suddenly looked towards the breach. A tattered chessboard abruptly appeared outside it.
"You want to play chess with me?"
Lin Ye walked to the side of the breach. Half of the chessboard slid through the breach unimpeded. The half outside the breach was filled with Mutation Creature chess pieces, while Lin Ye's side had no pieces at all, and the board itself wasn't even complete.
After the chessboard appeared, many anomalous phenomena materialized outside the breach, rising along with the elevator. However, because the chessboard blocked the breach, they couldn't enter the elevator.
Lin Ye sensed faint traces of rule power on those chess pieces. Therefore, using the power of the Flesh and Blood Rule Fragment, he used biological samples as material to create a flesh and blood chess piece on the board.
The piece's appearance resembled Bessie Pro's, only looking fiercer and more aggressive.
The moment the flesh and blood piece appeared on the board, the enemy's Mutation Creature chess pieces turned into pools of flesh and blood that converged around the flesh and blood piece, clearing the half of the board outside the breach.
The board immediately sprouted two rows of metal chess pieces. These pieces began attacking the flesh and blood around the flesh and blood piece. The flesh and blood, like liquid, squeezed into the gaps between the metal pieces, impairing their mobility.
Lin Ye then used the Fate Rule Fragment to form a silvery-white, illusory chess piece. He hadn't expected to create a Fate piece so easily. It seemed rules manifested more readily on the chessboard.
However, Lin Ye couldn't utilize the Fate piece's power, nor did he know what use this piece had.
The flesh and blood piece controlled the flesh and blood to fill the gaps between the metal pieces and twisted the metal pieces' joints. All the metal pieces collapsed onto the board.
This time, the board didn't sprout new pieces. An anomalous phenomenon entered the board from the rear—a blood-stained small knife. The knife shrank and appeared in the hand of one of the metal pieces.
That metal piece broke free from the flesh and blood's restraint, used the small knife to cut through the obstructing flesh and blood, and charged straight at the flesh and blood piece.
Lin Ye hastily used a Berserk rune to create a small piece. The small piece appeared on the board. The metal piece suddenly went berserk, beginning to frantically attack the surrounding flesh and blood, no longer fixated on the flesh and blood piece.