Chapter 448: 448
15 minutes ago, about 7 km west of the Blast Tunnel. From the top of the Golden Maggot Number No 1, an unfamiliar voice said, “Stop wasting your time thinking about it… You are like needle on the clock, moving in circle. If you do not find the person who cast this spell, you will never leave this place…”
When they heard that, Xiao Tan and Matcha Cookie who sat inside the vehicle felt not that confident anymore. But this time Xiao Tan did not hurry to step on the brake. After all, this was just a normal person talking, it was not companied by a scary ghostly visage or the sound effect that would normally follow a jumpscare. Therefore… this was still within the acceptable range of Doctor Wang.
“Who is above there?” Xiao Tan slightly raised his voice and asked in a shaking tone. As he asked, he tossed Matcha Cookie a look through the rearview mirror. At the same time, he slowed down the vehicle. Matcha Cookie reacted quite swiftly. She pressed a few buttons and was ready to initiate the weapons on the top of the vehicle.
“My name is R2- Sharp Gale.” The man replied. “I am here to help you get out from here.”
“Are you an Anomaly?” Once Xiao Tan heard the man’s name, the question popped out of his mouth as if on instinct.
“Yes.” Sharp Gale replied calmly.
“one moment…” Xiao Tan quickly waved his hand for Matcha Cookie to stop what she was doing. “I think I remember that name… Brother Jue has mentioned your name to me before.”
“Yes, I have once infiltrated a sandbox to help Feng Bujue.” Sharp Gale added.
“Hmm…” After hearing that, Xiao Tan gave it some thought and decided to place his trust in this Anomaly. “Okay… I believe you. How about I stop the car now and you can come down to talk to us?”
“Hey, you plan to sell our safety just like that after a few words from this stranger?” Matcha Cookie whispered urgently from behind him. “What if he is a liar…”
…
“Since I can appear on the top of this vehicle without making any sound…” Sharp Gale at the top of the vehicle interrupted Matcha Cookie, “Then I am fully capable of ambushing you without you realizing it or leave something like a grenade on the top of your car… and then leave without a trace.” He paused. “Does that supposition help to allay your suspicion about me?”
In the few seconds that Sharp Gale spoke, Xiao Tan had already stopped the car. Then they saw a man flipped over the air and dropped on the road before them. R2- Sharp Gale basically looked the same as he was in the South Park scenario but this time, his outfit had been changed into a thick protective gear. From the first glance, he looked like the Michelin man.
“I will keep the story short…” Sharp Gale did not seem like he intend to get into the car, he merely stood before it and continued to say, “The timeline that created this ‘recurring space’ is the moment about 100 metres away before I got close to you. Therefore I believe… this is not a type of power that messes with one’s mind but a trick that twist and connect the concept of space and time… The spellcaster has been waiting for me to approach you before they show themselves.” He continued in a calm tone. “Based on my knowledge, this is a trick preferred by the time warden. And in the 12 Time Wardens, other than Sam Montier who had been exiled to Demon Maw Isle, the person who is most familiar and expert at using this kind of magic is Trevor…”
“Don’t know him.”
“Haven’t heard that name before.”
Xiao Tan and Matcha Cookie’s reaction was similar.
“That does not matter.” Sharp Gale did not seem to be fazed by this. “Please allow me to continue… First, please imagine this concept in your mind… the straight road that you see before you is actually not straight at all, it is instead the side line of a dodecagon. On one straight line, there is 24 different overlapping vertexes.” He pointed at the corner of the street. “These splits in the road are hints. After you have turned around 24 street corners, you would have completed a circle and returned to the centre.”
“You can see something like that?” Matcha Cookie asked. “Wait a minute… Before that, you admitted that you are an ‘Anomaly’?” After all, the girl was a main guild’s professional player, she had heard rumors about information related to this and it was normal for her to be curious about it.
“I am sorry I am unable to explain further the situation regardless myself.” Sharp Gale used a single sentence to stop Matcha Cookie from changing the subject and continued with what he started. “In any case… any folded space will have a gap in it and this gap will be the key to break out from the endless circle and it is also normally where the spell caster is hiding.”
“That is similar to what they call the ‘eye of the formation’, right?” Xiao Tan asked.
“yes, I suppose they do mean the same thing.” Sharp Gale confirmed. “I have been riding on the top of your car for quite some time already and have basically seen through the rules and rhythm that govern this formation… So now, let me show you how to get out from this place.” He raised his arm to point at a certain direction and then said, “A dodecagon has four ‘intersecting points of 6 lines’, as long as we drive into this corner in front of us and then turn back and follow down a certain angle, we will be able to reach one of them. Based on my memory, this intersection is the closest to the start of the moment we entered the city, there is a very high chance that…”
Tsk—
Sharp Gale was halfway through his explanation when a sharp blade pierced through his chest. Xiao Tan reacted quickly. While he was shock, his body had acted on instinct. The sleeve knife bounced out from his sleeve and planned to rushed out through windshield to help.
“That won’t be necessary…” To his surprise, Sharp Gale raised his hand and opened his palm to make a halting motion at Xiao Tan who was inside the car. “I can deal with this on my own.” Sharp Gale’s expression was so devoid of warmth that it sent a chill down Xiao Tan’s spine.
The next second, with a turn of his body, he snapped the sharp blade that had impaled his body. Behind Sharp Gale, a figure appeared. It was a humanoid creature and it was covered in a long robe. The hand that was exposed was extremely furry, it looked like a half human half bear. But it was worth mentioning that the fur… had the pattern of a zebra. Naturally, this was the time warden Trevor. He was armed with a strange blade that was3 metres long and 1 inch wide. The end of the blade body itself is a sphere and the hilt was jointed to it. If it was placed on the ground, it would look like the ticking pendulum of a giant clock. However, there was another small tip that extended further from the tip of the small sphere. But no matter the shape, it did not matter anymore because it had been snapped by Sharp Gale…
“Since you have volunteered to show up on your own, this shall makes things much easier.” Sharp Gale turned around and said in a cold tone.
“Since you have seen through my spell…” Trevor said, “Then it does not matter anymore when do I make my move.”
“Hmph… Indeed….” Sharp gale suddenly laughed. “In the end, the result will be the same…”
…
At the same time, back at the battlefield between ROOT and the players. A large body ran into the fray from a far and joined the battle. Even though the body was large, but the movement was fast like lightning. The cold steel shimmered lifelessly in the dark and the sound of steel cutting through flesh rang out consistently… the level 3 Anomalies were like soft butter being cut through by the blade and they fell one after another.
ROOT reacted swiftly too. Before the metallic snowflake, six light hexagons materialized and they fired at the same time!
The light beam attacks that were consecutive were so fast that not many would be able to react to it. They shot towards the target but… none of them hit.
“Long time no see…” After avoiding the attack, 23 stopped and landed. A light cut of blood appeared on her fair cheek. “You have changed a lot… ROOT.” She used the thick sleeve to wipe away the trail of blood while she kept her eyes glued on ROOT in her fourth form. For high level Anomaly, the change in appearance or even a complete reconstruction of their internal structure would not affect their ability to recognize each other because they only recognized each other through codes.
“So that is the case… I should have known you people would have gone into this place through the SCP.” ROOT in a few seconds had analysed and confirmed the usage of the ‘astronaut costume’ that 23 was wearing. She made the correct assessment. When they spoke, more Anomalies from Origin appeared from the surrounding. Instantly, the surrounding streets, buildings, fields were already filled with 60 to 70 people. The batch that 23 dealt with earlier… was just the tip of the iceberg.
“Wait… Did you just say ‘you people’?” 23’s expression shifted. 2 seconds later, something dawned on her and she shouted loudly, “Red Iron, what are you doing now?”
As she finished, a pothole at a nearby street was flipped open from the bottom and a rather dishevelled Red Iron poked his head through, “I am fixing and electrocuting my heart…”
“Sigh…” 23 gave off a long sigh and said with a helpless expression. “Then are you done with that?”
“Just done!” Red Iron replied and he bounced up from the hole. By now, his wound had indeed disappeared but on the front and back of his chest was stuck with a pile of demon’s vine that was earthly yellow in color. “The corrupted code in this scenario is quite useful. Only by tempering with their codes, I can…” Before Red Iron could finish with his mumbling… 23 cut him off by asking, “Where is your protective gear?”
“Erm…” Red Iron was startled. “That was too constrictive and it affects the battle greatly so I removed it.” He paused for half a second before continuing, “But do not worry, I hid the thing at a very safe and secluded spot. I will put it back on before we leave this place. That’s fine,right?”
“Sigh… You sure give ‘wings’ a handful…” 23 gave another deep and long sigh. “If you are my subordinate, I would have whipped you into shape a long time ago…”
“That won’t be necessary, I will help you with that. In fact, I’ll take it one step further and take his life so you won’t need to trouble yourself with him anymore.” ROOT intervened with a wicked smile. As she finished, the lazers collected forces again and the clouds rumbled with thunder.
But to everyone’s surprise…
The lazers missed and it was so far distracted from its intended target… and it hit one of ROOT’s Anomalies. A level 3 Anomaly was hit for no reason and his head was shorn off.
“What?!” ROOT was shocked by this development. This result… was naturally not one intended by ROOT. It was not his miscalculation but it was interrupted by an outer force. Turns out… at the moment ROOT wanted to make her move, Shiva also controlled the Heavenly Hourglass and shot an energy blast at the lazer that soared past him. It was this collision that caused ROOT’s lazer to stray from its path and missed its target entirely.
“I knew… there will be a weakness somewhere.” Shiva said in a rather proud tone. This big brother from Brahman had been through hundreds of battles. Before he started Thriller Paradise, he had played many different online game before. The amount of time he had faced exceptionally difficult bosses that gave the players little chance to make mistake, have unpredictable attack pattern and will have a very long and lasting battle because they had endless health pool… the man who had gone through that system was definitely different from others. Shiva managed to discern with one glance that it was impossible to stop that lazer, at least with his current reflex speed it was impossible… but he was confident that the enemy’s special but simple battle format… must have some weakness to it. But no one had been able to discern it because the lazers themselves had been much too flashy.
“The lazer indeed is very fast…” Shiva told the teammates gathered around him. “But… since it is a long-ranged attack, then one has to take aim at the target.” He raised his arm to point at ROOT. “This thing’s appearance works very well to hide the intention to aim and there is movement of sight before she attacks and there is no preparatory action… but that is one single detail that we can pay attention to… and that is the gathering of energy in those polygons.” He paused. “Her ‘aiming’… is done as the same time as the energy has finished collected. Even though we are unable to observe it with our naked eye and we are unable to tell who is she targeting but if we create some kind of distraction during the two seconds when the light polygons are collecting energy, then… the situation earlier will occur.”
“Ha! So that is the situation here!” Brahma instantly looked more confident and he boasted. “Then this will be easy. Boss, you will hold her back with Heavenly Hourglass and I will rush over and use Seismic Toss on her and send her flying into…”
Before he could say the word ‘space’, the sentence was cut off because… at that moment, six dark lazers shot out from the six corners of the giant metallic snowflake. These six attacks were the actual attacks with no preparatory action. In less than a minute, ROOT used this skill that she had not shown before to accurately and correctly shattered the six stone plates from Shiva’s Heavenly Hourglass…
When they faced D1-Drake, Shiva had already exhausted the stone plate of fire. Therefore, at that moment, he only had the stone plate of Earth that he could use.
“Where are you going to send me to again, big guy?” ROOT said mockingly.
[Hmm… well, she sure is fast with her face-slapping… it is even faster than the time I need to use to analyse her whole attack pattern…] Even though Shiva cursed and grumbled internally but on the surface, he showed no trace of fear. He steadied himself and purposely said to threaten. “Your name is ROOT is it? Hah… interesting. I have more tricks up my sleeves than that. Don’t think that by destroying my Sorcery Weapon, you will be able to rest easy…”
“If you want to take out the rocket launcher, just take it out now. Stop wasting my time.” ROOT cut him off. “I can see clearly all the items in your inventory and the skills in your skill tab.” Her tone was dripping with derision. “I also know that amount of Life Points, Stamina Points and Sorcery Points that you and your three partners have left…” She paused as if waiting for the four from Brahman to react. Then she ended with a dark and threatening tone, “Hah… your Terror Points has continued to react. Is it okay for me to translate that as shock and fear?”
“Red Iron, you cover the four of them and try to hold on…” During the 2 minutes the two parties spoke, 23 had studied all the conditions of the four players and she came to this decision because she had no other choice. “I will try to hold ROOT back…” She said seriously and severely, “Before ‘he’ arrives, we must not fall.”
“Laughable.” ROOT sneered coldly. “23, you should understand very well that… you are not my match, so why push yourself towards death?” The voice that came out from the giant metallic snowflake was shrill and clear. “Other than that, why do you think I am still staying here to battle with the rest of you? Ha ha ha ha ha….”
The spine-tingling laughter drilled into every player’s ears. “This whole situation before me… I have already predicted it beforehand, even though Drake and Quick Bell’s death is not within my calculation… but all of your deaths are already exposed before my eyes.” She paused for two seconds and her tone slowed down to an even level before she continued. “23, before you arrived here, you have been dealing with my level 2 underlings, aren’t you? Hmph… and the order that you are given now… is to ‘hold me near the Blast Tunnel’ right? That is the mission that you need to complete.”
23’s expression did not change. She still kept her eyes focused on ROOT to prevent the enemy from ambushing her with a sudden attack.
“I know what ZERO is capable of.” ROOT continued, “But he seems to have underestimated what I am capable of…” Suddenly a human face emerged on the surface of the metallic snowflake. It had a wicked and malicious smile on it. “The future that he can ‘see’ is no longer there… because…”
“Looks like… I have arrived at the correct timing.” At that moment, another woman’s voice travelled through the battlefield.
23 and Red Iron’s expression blanched immediately… In the orders given by ZERO, this was indeed not mentioned before. They saw a woman walked from the northern side of the battlefield. Her appearance and her outfit was completely normal. She could melt into the crowd easily in any other game. But the code showed that… she was ROOT in her 15th form, the ROOT who was the weakest, before she had any evolution.
“Surprised, are you?” On the shoulder of the ROOT who was sauntering over was a fainted young man—Sky Swallowing Phantom Dawn. “Actually this is very simple to explain…” She rattled off without a change to her expression, “I have… saved a last measure of insurance for myself.”
Not far away, ROOT in her fourth form continued the topic that ‘she’ had started. “before I entered this scenario, I split out part of my energy and had myself hide at the corner of this dimension… I have calculated the various possibilities that I might fail, no matter how small it is… that includes the extenuating factors that might be brought in by the leader of the demons, the organization Z and the many different players… Even if the worst is to happen… this version of ‘me’ at the edge of the dimension will be able to force the shell of the scenario to break and escape back to the ‘desktop’. But if everything has run smoothly… ha ha ha ha…”
By then ROOT in her 15th form had already reached the middle of the battlefield. She added. “ZERO must have told you… to hold me here until the arrival of both Phantom Dawn and Feng Bujue, then I will be defeated.” She shook her head and then dropped Phantom Dawn on the ground. “Hmph… Unfortunately, I have calculated and saw that future as well. So… I have done everything I could… to destroy that possibility before it is given the chance to rise.”
ROOT in the fourth form laughed. “And now what should you do? 23.” Her voice was getting icier. “I know… you are a unique existence. Even though your logical circuit told you that…’abandoning everyone and escape’ is the correct solution at this moment, you might not follow it…”
When ROOT spoke, the version of herself in the 15th form raised her arm to touch the giant metallic snowflake. The next second, she melted into liquid form and soon absorbed herself into her main body. At the same time, the Anomalies spread through the city had finally all gathered at this place. Other than those who had been killed, there were about 100 of them left. Even though they were all level 3 Anomalies, and they had not undergone any programming enhancement, but to deal with the four players from Brahman and Red Iron who was injured, it was more than enough.
“You are right…” After a very long silence, 23 finally spoke. “About everything…” She paused. “The situation is all under your control and our side… basically has almost no hope.”
“Almost?” ROOT sneered. “Are you sure you didn’t mean ‘absolutely’?”
“No…” 23 answered. “Therefore, I will wait, I believe…’he’ will have the solution.”
…
Tsk buzz tsk buzz—
The light lazers flickered on and off, like light chasing after shadows. The waves of darkness ebbed and flowed, one missed step and you would be swept away into darkness. ROOT trained all of her focus and firepower on 23. Even though 23’s speed was no lesser than Quick Bell at his optimum status but facing this kind of highly focused and intensive attack, it still was hard for her to deal with. It did not take long for her to be covered in wounds.
Blood dyed her protective gear red and it soaked into the decayed ground. 23’s face was blanched and the life could be seen leaking out of her eyes.
“If not for the fact that I am afraid of accidentally injuring my own people… I can destroy you with one single blast.” ROOT poked her face out from the metallic snowflake to show a sneering laugh. “But it turns out nicely because you do not deserve such a swift and easy ending.”
23 did not reply. She merely stood where she was quietly and used every single second that she was accorded to regenerate her strength. As one of the few unique Anomalies in the game, 23 had exceptionally good self-regenerative power but of course, she was not as monstrously strong as ROOT…
“I say… Looks like this is the end of our journey.” On the other end of the battlefield, Vishnu controlled several copper monsters to fend off the enemies while he told Yama next to him. “I am not sure what it meant to be killed in this scenario… but, if something bad is to happen, I hope that you will at least know this…”
“Is this really an appropriate moment to talk about something like this?” Yama waved her long whip and swept the few Anomalies that was closest to her. The gaze underneath her bang did not change. “Do not forget that this competition is being streamed live…”
“Actually… I cannot think of a better moment…” Brahma chose this moment to chime in.
“Yes… Since he has said that, I also support the guy to express the thing that he has been holding in all this while.” Shiva supported.