Chapter 206: Challenge

At 6 pm, the students of Class B had already set off and the students of Class A had assembled.

Xing Shuyao sat in the car and explained the battle strategy to the team leaders beside him: "This time, the apostles will clear out the high-threat individuals and some abnormal areas within the range. We are mainly responsible for maintaining the normal operation of the energy piles."

"Some of these anomalous areas cannot be cleared with this level of range attack. We need to deploy personnel to conduct internal destruction."

Everyone nodded repeatedly. There were three gold star symbols on the ancient ruins map sent by the communicator. These symbols represented three special areas that needed to be targeted and breached.

The cost of the World Tree Project was staggering, requiring a massive manpower commitment even for the first phase. Just defending a single ancient ruin required the entire A-class team, along with personnel from other organizations.

A special anomaly area of this size usually takes more than a week to conquer. However, considering that the apostles can come to help after clearing the nearby plots, there is still plenty of time.

The biggest shortfall in the budget is energy.

The previous power ceremony yielded fruitful results, but it would be great if these gains could pay off the costs of energy piles, human soul fronts and mercenaries. We cannot expect to activate all apostles to start a full-screen bombardment mode on these abnormal areas.

Even though it wasn't explicitly stated, the math-savvy students in Class A knew very well that the apostles would only stay for a day or two, and after the anomalies accumulated in the ancient ruins over the years were mostly cleared up, they would withdraw to the school, leaving at most a small team of 10 people as backup.

The team leaders had gloomy faces, but Lin Lang was much more cheerful.

"Hey~" The pink-haired girl threw a large box of compressed energy bars into the bus. She opened the window and climbed in lightly, landing on her seat.

Beep beep.

Zheng Lu got on the car before her, and before she could sit down, she stuffed a communicator in her hand and pointed to the message playing on the screen to show her.

"Oh?" Lin Lang grabbed it and took a look, and found that the academy was updating the combat report on the ancient ruins on the forum.

The school communicator is mainly divided into two modules, private module and public module.

The private module is mainly used to send and receive text messages and conduct one-on-one instructions. The public module has both public networks with poor network connections and school-specific networks with relatively good network connections.

Whenever the church launches an important test or collective task, the relevant area of the school forum will be open for a limited time to facilitate communication among everyone.

Since abnormal areas often block the network, this method of communication is often interrupted after the mission begins, and special artifacts need to be activated to maintain it.

The bus hasn't left yet, everyone is inside the school, and the internet connection is okay.

Therefore, the monitoring center uses text, tables and pictures with small icons to show everyone the current situation of the ancient ruins.

[Image] [The abnormality inside the ancient ruins has been temporarily suppressed, and the Paster value has stabilized between 10-130]

"Suppress?" Lin Lang grabbed Zheng Lu's phone and scrolled down. Since the apostles had been dispatched, shouldn't the information be temporarily cleared?

Of course, the clearing effect caused by the apostles will be short-lived, because after their power fluctuations completely dissipate, the rifts will erupt with a large amount of anomalies in a short period of time to fill the gaps.

However, the newly created anomalies are much more fragile than those before they were cleared, making them suitable for low-level psychics to practice with.

Perhaps the staff at the monitoring center also knew that the students would have questions, so they specially provided a photo from a bird's-eye view.

In the photo, you can see countless promotional leaflets floating in the air, and a large part of the ancient ruins have been "alienated" into the appearance of a modern city.

Thousands of pedestrians stood on the street, their heads raised, their arms stretched toward the sky. Some stood on tiptoe to catch the scattered flyers, while others ran as if they had seen the end of the world.

[Chen Xiao'e-Chen Xiaotong (Newborn Snake)'s Unknown Territory has included ancient ruins]

If the students observe carefully, they can see a layer of floating gray-black fog at the edge of the city. This layer of fog wraps around the "alienated" city like a long snake.

This is obviously the reason why the Paster value can be maintained in a lower range, reset to zero - Chen Xiao'er's power must have played a huge role in it.

Beep beep.

The bus started at the right moment, and Lin Lang saw a relaxed smile on Zheng Lu's face. She didn't need to look in the mirror to know that she was smiling the same way.

"Chen Xiao'er has become even stronger." The students in the back row sighed.

"Yeah." Zheng Xiuli's voice was filled with smile.

The team leaders sat together, and the heavy atmosphere in the car was swept away.

Zheng Lu tapped the corner of her mouth with her finger and moved it upwards.

She didn't say anything, but Lin Lang knew what Zheng Lu wanted to say. They had argued about something more than once before, and had compromised more than once.

Human beings need faith.

Even people who have "no faith" sometimes hope that there will be someone "trustworthy, reliable, and able to entrust their dreams to" standing in front of them.

That person can be a mountain that protects you from wind and rain, a golden statue of god, or an eternal lighthouse.

Lin Lang looked away. She would not agree with Zheng Lu's fanatical belief in Xiao'er.

Xiao'ai is a human girl who can be hurt and cry. This kind girl possesses the tranquility of a fairy tale, but she lacks the immortality of a god. How can I place the burden of faith on her?

But at this moment she suddenly felt her soul touched.

It turns out... I don't know when, I also regarded Xiao'er as a symbol of hope.

"Chen Xiao'er didn't go with us this time."

Sun Yu hugged her knees and muttered to herself, her voice resonating with many people.

The students are not afraid of dying for the future of mankind, and are even accustomed to using tragic emotions to dispel fear and anxiety.

But when Chen Xiao'er got on the same bus with them and sat among everyone, just seeing her peaceful smile would arouse in my heart a feeling that was more positive than the desire for victory.

hope.

As long as I walk with you, I can't help but believe - believe that I am walking on the road to happiness.

"I really want to go on a mission with her... Last time, when I came back from the Energy Stone operation, I felt just like..." Yang Lele closed her mouth. She had never experienced a real spring outing, so naturally she couldn't describe the relaxing feeling.

Everyone quieted down and recalled every little thing they had experienced with Chen Xiao'er.

Beep. A group text message interrupted their reverie.

According to Investigator 19's feedback, an abnormal train has arrived at the abnormal station. A temporary route to the ancient ruins has been added to the station. Tickets for this route will be checked in half an hour.

"Wow~ Why not come earlier?" Lin Lang threw away the communicator with a smile.

It was too late for them, but the school would certainly not miss such a good opportunity. They would probably arrange for the rejection team and other school workers to take the train to the ancient ruins to save a lot of energy.

"Will the Knights be sent this time?" someone asked in a low voice.

"No." Xing Shuyao explained promptly, "The Knights have been hunting deep in the abyss lately, so it's probably too late to deploy them here."

The students tacitly avoided discussing the unusual train's trip to the ancient ruins. They all knew it was most likely targeting Chen Xiao'er.

Of course, it may also be for energy. In order to install energy piles, the church will drive away a large number of anomalies. It only needs to run to the surrounding area and use its space ability to rotate in a circle to get enough energy.

It deliberately ran to the station first to show its willingness to carry people, perhaps to show goodwill to the church, so that their people would remember to give it face in the future and not interfere with its hunting.

The bus continued to accelerate. Lin Lang closed his eyes and leaned against the car cushion, preparing to have a good sleep before the mission began.

After all, anything can happen in an abnormal area, but it is difficult to have an abnormal situation like "a comfortable bedroom with the air conditioner set to 26 degrees and a glass of water on the bedside table."

She didn't know how long she had slept in a daze, when she suddenly heard a voice called "Chen Xiao'er" and woke up with a start.

Lin Lang opened half of his eyelids: "Lu... is anyone talking about Xiao'er?"

Zheng Lu replied with clear eyes, "The battle report has just been updated. Xiao'e, along with Apostle 0 and a Devil Hunter, has entered the largest special anomaly area in the ancient ruins."

"......" Lin Lang was a little confused for a moment.

Putting aside that "devil hunter," the Church has always been very cautious about [Reset]. They generally wouldn't let Chen Xiao'er take the initiative in areas that don't involve power.

Buzz. The small TV on the bus flickered, then suddenly became brighter.

Images of the interior of an anomalous area are difficult to capture, especially since they must be filtered out before being shared with others. However, this image is incredibly high-definition, like a shot of a spotlessly clean laboratory inside a school.

The first thing that catches your eye is a luxurious building that is at least 20 stories high.

Its exterior structure resembles a hotel or restaurant, but the densely packed signboards on it make it look more like the commercial buildings in old movies that are rented out to different businesses.

A door that is three people tall and can accommodate two trucks side by side is wide open in the middle of the first and second floors. A security guard wearing a gold chain and brass knuckles stands in front of the door to "welcome guests."

Their faces were solemn, as if they were dealing with a hostile gang that came to challenge them.

“This is a scene from an ancient ruin…” The students’ first reaction was an alienated city.

After all, the church had just shown Chen Xiao'er and the Newborn Snake the unknown territory. Under their influence, the ancient ruins turned into a large area that was very abnormal for abnormalities. It should be here.

"More than that." Xing Shuyao lowered his voice: "This is probably one of the three special anomaly areas that we need to conquer one by one."

Everyone soon understood why he made such a guess.

Chen Xiao'er, No. 0 and a blonde girl dressed very strangely appeared in the picture. The whole street kept twisting as if a carpet was lifted up, erasing all the "strange" places one by one.

In the past, returning to zero relied on observation and touch, but now it was different. Not only where she stepped, touched, and looked, but also an invisible alienated field gradually extended in places she could not see.

What a terrifying power! She transformed a large abnormal area that was difficult to erase even with bombs of strange objects into this state without realizing it!

Zheng Xiuli laughed heartily. "It was the abnormal area we originally needed to conquer."

......

Mountains and rivers move, and relics appear and disappear.

The cracks that looked like scars gradually disappeared under the cover of gray-black haze, closing up on the real level and no longer emitting any steam.

The great existence's giant domain originally only affected the area near the east. Now the street lights in that area are still flickering, and the end of the road is rapidly extending towards the north.

If the small spots on the ground would disappear obediently if scraped off by snowflakes of promotional leaflets, then the three special abnormal plots of land were like hard scars that could not be wiped off with a light touch of the finger.

And now the invisible scalpel falls.

Rustle, before the anomalies understood the emotion of fear, the environment they were in continued to distort, solidifying into rooms of different styles.

These small rooms are quickly spliced together, like a bunch of thorns, to support one, two... dozens of floors of buildings.

The energy in the nest was squeezed by a huge force, emitting neon lights that illuminated the darkness.

Each rule and each special ability was temporarily managed, and was engraved into words and pressed on the light board.

No matter what form of abnormality they once had, no matter what kind of understanding they once had of emotions and souls, they all had some energy squeezed out and some energy squeezed in at this moment, and changed their forms in the seemingly "fair" material exchange.

In a short time they acquired a near-human structure, a smattering of common sense, and another form of power.

Disorderly devouring behavior was strictly prohibited. They quickly realized that they had a certain organizational structure, had to follow certain rules, and also had the possibility of cooperation.

This state may be temporary, or maybe...it won't end so easily.

The abnormal person who was in charge of guarding the nest, who should now be called a security guard, and his colleagues looked towards the road not far away.

Three conspicuous energy bodies broke through the night sky.

One was a deep purple flame, the other was an icy blue light, and between them was a star twinkling in the void, so bright that it was impossible to see any color other than "white".

Click, click.

As the three energy bodies approached, their hazy energy veils gradually faded, revealing their human forms. However, their pressure did not diminish.

Especially the black-haired girl in the middle. Every step she took was like a jumping black hole, crushing everything that was familiar to Abnormal into powder and then gluing them back together into an incomprehensible shape in the next second.

Tap, click.

The girl stepped on the nothingness and kept approaching.

They—they were finally beginning to feel fear.