Chapter 89: Setting Out!

Boom, boom…

Flames spewed from the rocket launcher, striking the wall and blasting out several large craters.

Fang Tang hurriedly stopped, using his mechanical claw to unleash a gust of wind that blew the dust and smoke from the underground chamber. He narrowed his eyes, but the fallen one's shadow had vanished without a trace.

“Where did he go?”

Fang Tang was puzzled. There were no holes in the floor or the walls—so how had the fallen one disappeared?

"A sixth-tier Fallen One is already considered a high-level being. With your strength… sigh, never mind, I won’t discourage you. He clearly has a mission—he took advantage of the Twisted Invasion to sneak into the underground chambers and collect souls. As for how he escaped… well, with the perfect mutation ability: Free Walk, within the scope of mild Twisted Rules, he can ignore all area restrictions.”

“That’s pretty wild!” Fang Tang smacked his lips, belatedly realizing the situation.

Then again, which perfect mutation ability wasn’t impressive?

Although the fallen one had left, Fang Tang still noted the incident in his little notebook, so he could settle the score if he ever ran into him again.

He would reclaim this ground, that much was certain!

With his pickaxe’s charges exhausted, Fang Tang could only remain in the underground chamber, keeping company with the Twisted Rules.

Fortunately, he had Yueyue with him, so the solitude wasn’t too suffocating.

He took out his portable shelter, washed up quickly, and lay on the bed in a relaxed pose, absent-mindedly swiping through his phone.

The nearby zones were all abuzz with discussions about the recent mass disappearances.

No matter how much they argued back and forth, nobody could figure out the cause.

But one person caught Fang Tang’s attention.

A man named Lin Xiao from zone D0023z0092.

Lin Xiao was a top player in that area, someone much like Fang Tang, relying on commissions to earn large sums of Elemental Stones.

Still, his earnings didn’t match Fang Tang’s. With the blueprints Fang Tang possessed, he had surpassed most people early on. While others were still tinkering with basic flame throwers, Fang Tang was already fully armed.

The gap was obvious. What intrigued Fang Tang was Lin Xiao’s chosen sequence.

Sequence 100—Physical Immunity.

A formidable defensive sequence. Against a freakish fallen one like the one just now, it might not suffice, but against regular fallen ones, he could rush them head-on and withstand their attacks.

Given enough time, he could wear down and kill a fallen one through sheer endurance.

A true front-line tank!

This was someone worth befriending, though Fang Tang wasn’t the type to force a friendship—if fate allowed, so be it.

Leisurely time passed quickly. After four hours, Fang Tang had already acquired his first debuff.

Insomnia.

A tormenting debuff.

Usually, it was more of a nuisance than a true hindrance.

But this was supposed to be his rest time!

Fang Tang scratched his head and called Yueyue over.

“Woo?” Yueyue tilted her head, confusion written all over her face.

Fang Tang said, “Yueyue, Daddy can’t sleep. In a moment, do your best to knock me out, but don’t overdo it, alright?”

Yueyue: ?

She had never heard such an outrageous request.

Still, an order from her master was an order, and carrying it out was all that mattered.

Fang Tang settled himself, beckoned Yueyue closer.

“Let’s do this!”

In a flash, Yueyue leapt onto Fang Tang’s back, raised her paw, and brought it down hard on his skull.

Bang!

“Snore~”

…

When he woke, Fang Tang felt as if he’d been transported to another world.

He checked the time on his pass and found he’d slept for twelve hours straight.

Aside from a slight headache, he felt refreshed.

The Twisted Rules had receded, and all his debuffs had vanished.

After washing up, he set rice to cook and quickly stir-fried two simple dishes. Man and wolf enjoyed a hearty meal together.

While eating, Fang Tang checked his messages.

Most were from Xie Ling, Liu Xu, and Ye Qing.

Xie Ling and Liu Xu had both reached stage seven of tier two and obtained their passes. They messaged Fang Tang to ask when they should head to the Cradle World.

Ye Qing had acquired her pass as well, but with more subtlety. She simply informed Fang Tang that she was heading to the Cradle World on her own.

She did this to avoid being used as Fang Tang’s assistant.

Fang Tang didn’t mind; he simply wondered when he’d settle accounts with her.

After all, Ye Qing owed him. If she chose not to team up with him, she would still have to repay him eventually.

His pass still had twenty hours left before it reset.

That wasn’t long nor short—someone with patience could wait a day; someone impatient couldn’t wait a moment.

Xie Ling was always obedient and followed Fang Tang’s lead, being both lucky and well-behaved.

Liu Xu was different—more scheming than Xie Ling, though less decisive than Ye Qing. Was it a case of aiming too high and achieving nothing? Or just a lack of courage?

Fang Tang didn’t care about these details. What mattered was his promise to Liu Yiran.

Back when he left the Garrison Division, he and Liu Yiran had a long conversation. That’s when he learned that something had happened outside the Gate of Evolution—explorer squads had suffered heavy losses and were urgently recruiting new talent, otherwise the task wouldn’t have fallen to him.

It took twelve hours after returning from the Twisted Rules before he could go again, so Fang Tang had returned to the underground chamber to wait for his pass to refresh, intending to head to the Gate of Evolution with Liu Yiran.

Because Fang Tang’s level was too low, he couldn’t get high-value intelligence from Liu Yiran, so he promised her that next time, he’d introduce two promising recruits.

With manpower in short supply, Liu Yiran quickly agreed.

Originally, Fang Tang planned to bring Xie Ling and Ye Qing.

He was familiar with Ye Qing’s sequence talent—it was impressive. And since Xie Ling was so lucky, her sequence talent couldn’t be weak either.

But unexpectedly, Liu Xu’s sequence talent was even better—superior in both support and combat abilities. By comparison, Ye Qing became less essential.

He told Xie Ling and Liu Xu to wait a while longer, explaining that a big shot would look after them, which eased their worries.

After a little exercise and some playtime with Yueyue, Fang Tang packed up his belongings and picked up his pickaxe to continue exploring.

With over ten hours remaining, there was no reason to waste time.

Besides, the Twisted Rules had already receded. The high-level fallen ones had either left or been slaughtered by the rules of the underground chambers.

Perhaps a few survivors still cowered in weakly twisted chambers, barely clinging to life.

But soon enough, as the Twisted Rules were completely wiped out by the chamber’s rules, the rest would perish as well.

Such was the iron law: no fallen ones allowed in the underground chambers.

With the Twisted Rules gone, Fang Tang reclaimed his status as top dog.

The overlord of zone D0023z0093 had risen once more!

With pickaxe in hand, he swept through the chambers like a locust swarm, leaving nothing behind.

This time, it took Fang Tang only three hours to clear thirty chambers—an average of six minutes per chamber. Impressive, wasn’t it?

Chamber 210.

Fang Tang took out his shelter again, lying lazily on the bed.

Sometimes, he reflected on himself—where had that initial diligence gone, the drive he’d had when he first entered the chambers?

After much thought, Fang Tang blamed it all on the Chamber Shop.

If not for the shop selling sequence talents, would he be so lazy?

That had to be it!

He silently vowed never again to buy sequence talents from the Chamber Shop.

The ease of becoming stronger while sitting idle was too corrupting—no better than those despicable capitalists!

Time passed quickly. When his pass finally reset, Fang Tang, still drowsy, pulled out his device and messaged Xie Ling and Liu Xu.

“Let’s go!”