Chapter 12 : Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Escape Successful
Chenxi’s breathing suddenly slowed.
Air currents wrapped around his entire body, and the veins beneath his skin throbbed. The burning sensation caused by activating Burst spread upward from his spine.
“Three minutes.”
Chenxi murmured to himself.
His body lowered, and in the next instant, Chenxi vanished from where he had stood.
The speed increase granted by the agility cloth armor made Chenxi feel as though the world itself had slowed down.
He could see clearly.
He could see everything clearly.
The movement trajectories of the spider swarm, the intent of every spider, the targets and landing points of the spider silk—everything had become something that could be analyzed and dismantled.
Shhk!
The first strike pierced the gap between the compound eyes of a Bone-Eroding Venom Spider.
His wrist twisted, and the cracking sound of the carapace breaking was swallowed by the hissing of the spider swarm.
The Bone-Eroding Venom Spider had no idea how Chenxi had suddenly appeared before it.
His other dagger followed through with a horizontal slash, cutting apart the tail of the second venom spider that was spewing poisonous silk.
Green fluid splattered.
The Bone-Eroding Venom Spider released a shrill cry.
But in the next moment, it could no longer make any sound.
Within a single second, Chenxi’s dagger slashed six times in succession. A Bone-Eroding Venom Spider that had once been extremely troublesome to him became nothing more than roadside debris.
Faster!
Kill even faster!
To be honest, Chenxi did not like using Burst.
Was the skill powerful?
Without question.
But the side effects were far too obvious.
Once activated, all attributes doubled for the next three minutes.
Listen carefully.
All attributes.
Not merely speed or strength—every attribute.
But what happened after those three minutes?
He would fall into a very long period of weakness.
Since arriving in this world, he had never encountered a teammate he could trust enough to reveal his vulnerable side.
If Hongxu had not said those words, he would never have turned back.
Her talent was decent.
She could become a good teammate.
That much was true.
But that was all.
If she died, then she died.
He could simply visit the slave market and buy another one of similar quality.
After all, he only had one life.
But still—
Chenxi’s gaze flickered. In his burst state, his focus had become extremely sharp.
She had said something like that.
He did not consider himself a good person, but abandoning her and escaping alone…
He could not do it.
That was the bottom line he maintained as a human being.
He pushed off the ground and charged forward.
Two ordinary parasitic spiders blocked his path, their jointed limbs stabbing toward his chest and abdomen.
Under orders from above, they used their lives to stop Chenxi.
Chenxi did not dodge.
His daggers crossed in a block.
Clang!
The moment the limbs were deflected aside, the twin daggers thrust forward like probing fangs, accurately stabbing into the compound eyes.
His wrist twisted.
Fluid burst outward.
At this moment, Chenxi truly resembled a phantom, slaughtering the parasitic spiders that blocked his path with frenzied speed.
Two Bone-Eroding Venom Spiders remained.
One hid behind the swarm, its abdomen swelling as it gathered venom.
The other was lunging toward Hongxu.
They intended to reduce their numbers first.
But Chenxi was faster.
Stepping on the corpse of a Petrified Lizard, he leapt into the air and hurled the dagger in his right hand.
A flash of cold light embedded itself into the mouthparts of the venom spider that had been lunging toward Hongxu.
“SKREE!”
The venom spider rolled across the ground.
“Left side!”
Hongxu’s roar rang out.
She was wrapped in sticky spider silk like a cocoon, tearing at the white webbing on her arm armor with brute force.
Three parasitic spiders shot toward the back of Chenxi’s neck.
He did not turn around.
Lowering his body and pivoting, the dagger in his left hand slashed backward.
Thud! Thud!
Two spiders exploded midair.
The third brushed past his hood before being nailed to the stone wall by the dagger thrown from his left hand.
Current dagger count: zero.
Chenxi looked at the Bone-Eroding Venom Spider that was now right in front of him.
He planned to dodge its attack first, then pick up a weapon afterward.
But a wave of weakness suddenly surged through his body.
The three minutes had ended.
“Damn.”
Facing death, Chenxi did not feel the terror he had imagined.
Regret… perhaps a little.
But more than that, he felt relief.
In this life, he had never once betrayed his conscience.
Calmly accepting death—that phrase probably described him perfectly.
“Die for me!”
What arrived before death itself—
Was Hongxu.
The massive axe whistled through the air as it smashed the Bone-Eroding Venom Spider away. With one hand, Hongxu lifted a massive boulder weighing over a hundred kilograms.
“ROAR!”
Hongxu let out a beast-like roar as she hurled the stone.
SPLAT!
The Bone-Eroding Venom Spider instantly became Bone-Eroding Venom Spider paste.
Just moments ago, she had finally torn away all the silk binding her body.
Without hesitation, Hongxu grabbed Chenxi in one arm and immediately turned to run.
…
Chenxi felt as though all the strength had been drained from his body. He lay limp across Hongxu’s broad back.
Beside his ears were Hongxu’s heavy breathing and the dull thuds of her boots striking the ground.
“Hey! Human!
Don’t fall asleep! Do you hear me?”
Hongxu’s voice was filled with labored breathing.
“Hold on! The way you look right now… is ugly as hell!”
Her voice was still loud, but Chenxi detected a trace of anxiety hidden within it.
His vision swayed as the stone walls on both sides of the passage rapidly retreated.
“I won’t die. Don’t worry.”
This was merely weakness.
It was not like Ultraman using psychic power and burning away his lifespan.
Wait, that was not right.
When Ultraman used psychic power, he lost sixty seconds of life every minute.
“Of course not! With me here, you won’t die even if you want to!”
Hongxu roared, quickening her pace.
“Those disgusting bugs… haah… if they think they can catch me… they can forget it!”
Chenxi was far too exhausted to notice that Hongxu’s favorability toward him was rapidly rising.
He had killed far too quickly just now, carving out a vacuum in the swarm.
Otherwise, Hongxu would never have escaped so smoothly.
Far behind them, a dull rumble sounded, accompanied by a terrifying presence.
The temperature of the entire Sixth Floor rose rapidly.
“It’s here. The Lord of the Sixth Floor.”
The Lava Golem.
They were fortunate.
They had escaped before the Lava Golem arrived.
If nothing unexpected happened, they should now be safe.
Several Petrified Lizards appeared ahead.
Then—
The massive axe swung.
Before the enraged Hongxu, the Petrified Lizards were nothing more than toys.
Not even intact corpses remained.
In a one-on-one fight—or rather, even against many—Hongxu did not fear the monsters of the Seventh Floor.
This time, however, there had simply been too many monsters.
That was why the two of them had ended up in such a miserable state.
The tremors subsided.
In barely a minute, the Lava Golem had already eradicated all monsters that should not have appeared on this level.
“The floor lord really is terrifyingly strong.”
A deep, dark tunnel entrance appeared within their view.
They had finally arrived.
The Fifth Floor.