The moment the purplish-black tentacles wrapped around his ankle, the hairs on the back of Lin Yi's neck stood on end.
He could feel the tentacles covered with fine barbs, drilling into his flesh through the gaps in his tactical boots, as if trying to turn his flesh into a paste.
"Su Qing!" He drew his light blade with a backhand motion, twisting his wrist to sever the tentacle on his left leg. "Locate the trap's source!"
"Directly below the core!" Su Qing's voice crackled with static, her projection flickering violently on the terminal screen. "The Mother Nest has modified its self-destruct program into a strangulation array; all tentacles are connected to the central furnace—"
Before he could finish speaking, Long Wu's dragon roar had already resounded.
The warrior, whose body was covered in dragon scales, grabbed the tentacle that was wrapped around his right arm. A faint blood-red light burst from the bulging muscles, and he actually tore the half-meter-diameter tentacle in two.
Purple liquid spurted from the broken blade, splashing onto his chest and sizzling as it corroded, emitting wisps of blue smoke. He, however, seemed oblivious, swinging his battle sword to a full moon: "My dragon blood can burn through hell; this paltry slime is beneath my notice!"
Chu Yao's fingertips flew across the holographic keyboard.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, and data streamed across the terminal screen like a torrential downpour: "Tentacle regeneration speed 300% per minute!"
"We have to sever their neural nodes—" She suddenly stopped, her pupils contracting sharply in the blue light, "Wait!"
Thermal imaging revealed seven energy reactions within the slag heap ten meters ahead!
The frequency matches perfectly with the seven keys to creation recorded in ancient texts!
"Seven Keys?" Xuan Mingzi's phantom suddenly appeared behind Lin Yi's shoulder.
The game's mastermind, who always wore a Taoist robe, was no longer composed. His white eyebrows trembled violently. "It's true!"
They were absorbing the collapsing energy of the mother nest, which is why their signals were previously blocked.
"Listen up, everyone!" Lin Yi's light blade slashed down again. This time, he didn't rush to attack, but instead plunged the tip of the blade heavily into the ground.
Crimson lines spread from the soles of his feet, instantly freezing the tentacles in their wake. "Chu Yao, locate the Seven Keys' coordinates! Su Qing, calculate the safe path! Long Wu, clear the way!" He looked up at the Night Owl, still struggling to reassemble in mid-air. The dark red in the Black Hole's left eye had faded to almost extinguished. "That monster won't last long. Let's get the Seven Keys first!"
The owl seemed to understand what he meant.
The madness in his right eye, Ziyan, suddenly materialized, and his remaining divine body erupted with an even stronger purple light than before.
The severed tentacles seemed to be infused with new life, suddenly twisting and wrapping around Chu Yao's terminal—the team's information hub. If it were destroyed, all tactics would fail.
"Watch out!" Su Qing's scream was almost piercing.
Chu Yao reacted faster than her voice could register.
She suddenly ripped the tactical rope around her waist and swung it towards the nearest support post, using the momentum to swing backward.
The tentacles brushed against her hair, leaving charred marks on the wall.
When she landed, her knees slammed heavily against the metal plate, but she stubbornly used the terminal to protect her chest. When she looked up, her eyes burned with fire: "Seven Key coordinates have been synchronized!"
15 degrees east of north, the third layer of the slag heap!
"Good!" Lin Yi's light blade suddenly emitted a ghostly blue light.
This is a precursor to a skill exclusive to the [Time and Space Dominator] class. He could clearly feel the consciousness deep within his soul leaping with joy, as if urging him to unleash even greater power. "Long Wu, lead the job changers to suppress the tentacles!"
Xuanmingzi, hold off Night Owl's barrier!
"Understood!" Long Wu's battle blade suddenly grew three feet longer, and dragon breath wrapped in flames burst forth.
The tentacles hissed as soon as they touched the flames, turning to black ash in the blink of an eye.
He patted the shoulder of a shield-wielding classmate next to him: "Brothers, believe it or not, we can make our names in history books today?"
Stay close!
Xuanmingzi then formed a hand seal, his Taoist robe fluttering even without wind.
The golden runes he flicked from his fingertips pierced the Night Owl's purple barrier like arrows, instantly causing spiderweb-like cracks to appear on its surface: "This old monster's divine essence is about to shatter; he won't last ten breaths!"
Lin Yi took a deep breath.
He could hear his own heartbeat booming in his eardrums, a prelude to an imminent surge of power.
When the last tentacle was severed by Long Wu's battle blade, his pupils suddenly turned pure silver—time freeze had been activated.
The world froze in an instant.
The owl's purple light hovered in mid-air, like a broken necklace of purple gemstones; droplets of liquid, not yet dripping, hung from the broken surface of its tentacles, each drop containing congealed twisted blood threads; on Chu Yao's terminal screen, the coordinates of the Seven Keys were still flashing, and even the data stream maintained its flowing posture.
Lin Yi's figure traversed through the frozen space and time.
He approached Night Owl and could clearly see every crack on the other's face—a sign of the impending collapse of his divine body.
The dark red of the owl's left eye, Black Hole, was completely extinguished, leaving only the purple flame in its right eye still twitching futilely, like a candle flame about to go out in the wind.
"Your maternal will ends here." Lin Yi's voice was low, but it struck Night Owl's consciousness like a heavy hammer.
He raised the light blade, this time holding nothing back.
As he moved, space began to distort, and countless tiny cracks spread around Night Owl—a harbinger of the breaking of spacetime.
The moment the spatial rift swallowed the night owl, time began to flow again.
Long Wu's sword struck precisely at the root of the last tentacle.
When he looked up, he saw Night Owl's divine body dissipate like crumpled pieces of paper, and he was so shocked that his eyes widened: "Holy crap!"
Boss, that move was so cool!
Chu Yao's terminal beeped.
She glanced down at the screen and suddenly burst out laughing: "The energy fluctuations of the Seven Keys have intensified!"
They are responding to us—right ahead!
Su Qing's projection finally stabilized.
She stared at the spot where the owl had vanished, her eyes slightly reddening: "The self-destruct sequence of the Hive Core has been terminated. This is a safe zone."
The cheers of all the job changers echoed throughout the core cabin.
These players, who had once supported each other in the starting village, now stood shoulder to shoulder, the bloodstains and medals on their battle suits gleaming under the lights.
A girl holding a bow suddenly raised her weapon, the arrow pointing at the slag heap where the Seven Keys were: "The Seven Keys are right there!"
Let's go!
"Wait." The shadowy figure's voice suddenly came from the communication channel.
The voice of this highly civilized law enforcer, who was always shrouded in a black robe, was unusually tense at this moment: "Can't you feel it?"
A more powerful energy is awakening deep within the mother nest.
Lin Yi stopped in his tracks.
He suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck, as if an invisible pair of eyes were peering through layers of metal, locking onto him firmly.
It was a sense of oppression ten times stronger than that of a night owl, like an ancient beast that had been sleeping for ages finally opening its eyes.
"That is..." Xuan Mingzi's phantom suddenly became transparent, and his voice was solemn like never before, "The core will of the Mother Nest, the true controller."
The owl was merely its pawn, and now... it has awakened.
The seven keys behind the slag heap were still emitting a soft light, but that light now seemed like some kind of warning.
Lin Yi gripped the light blade tightly and turned to look at his companions.
Long Wu was wiping the purple liquid off his sword when he saw him looking over. He grinned and said, "Boss, no matter who comes, we brothers will fight them to the bitter end."
Chu Yao hugged the terminal to her chest and gave him an "OK" sign: "The location of Seven Keys has been locked, and the data link can be synchronized at any time."
Su Qing's projection gently landed on his shoulder, her voice soft yet firm: "I will always help you analyze the battlefield."
Lin Yi smiled.
He turned to look into the depths of the mother nest, where the energy fluctuations were growing stronger and stronger, even causing ripples in the air.
But he knew that as long as his companions were by his side, and as long as the Seven Keys of Creation were ahead, they could win no matter what came their way.
"Let's go." He took a step forward, the light blade in his palm gleaming even brighter. "Go get the Seven Keys, and then... let that so-called core will see what it truly means to—"
"The will of humanity."
Before the words were finished, a deafening roar came from the depths of the mother nest.
The sound was like the activation of some ancient machine, or the roar of a giant beast.
The molten slag piled up and fell with a tremor, revealing seven keys below that shimmered with starlight.
Deeper still, a pair of scarlet eyes slowly opened.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com