by Chen Ran
Zero thought that the density of the vines should be related to the intensity of the radiation in the canyon. When he was in the middle of the canyon, Zero could clearly feel that the radiation from the canyon had increased. Even with his physique he felt numb all over. It was a sign that the radiation level had reached a certain level. Meanwhile, the radiation protection kit on Moni's body lit up with a glaring red light. After passing through that area, the light of the suite fell to a relatively lower yellow light.
He silently estimated the time. According to their current speed, they should be able to leave the valley in half an hour. Zero Big heaved a sigh of relief. To be able to move in a pendulum motion like this was actually quite exhausting. If it was a normal day, it would have been fine. However, his injuries had just started to heal, so he was not in the right place to do such intense movements. Now he could feel all sorts of bad signals coming from all over his body. Although he suppressed them with his will, Zero knew that he wouldn't be able to hold on for long.
Beads of sweat had soaked his forehead, and his hair, which had fluttered in the air, was now plastered to his face. The sterile bandage on Zero's back was also soaked in sweat, and there was even a slight blush from the intense exercise that caused the wound that was originally healing to open up again.
However, he could no longer stop it. He could only continue to persevere. Zero gritted his teeth and continued waving his almost numb hands, increasing the speed of his movements.
However, just when Taelice thought that the three of them were about to exit the valley smoothly, a violent tremor suddenly came from the direction of the entrance. The shock wave quickly passed through the ground and reached the area where the two of them were standing. The walls of the canyon began to tremble slightly, causing the vines that were connected to the walls to sway non-stop. The two of them found it difficult to even stabilize their bodies, let alone move forward.
What was going on?
Zero could clearly feel the danger signal coming from behind, but he could not see what was happening at the entrance of the canyon due to the natural curve of the canyon. But looking at Taelice's ugly expression, the matter seemed to not be simple.
Soon after, a strange cry came from afar.
It sounded like the whistle of a ship, but also like the call of some kind of animal, giving off a sense of déjà vu. He quickly compared the sound source with the numerous data from the memory center in his brain. In less than a second, he could tell that it was the sound of a whale. However, the three of them were on land and not in the sea, so how could there be the sound of whales?
It was the same voice that made Taelice shriek. "Not good, it's a Filthy phagosome!"
Zero was stunned.
He had read about this monster in the book of Monster Notes that Ben had given him, and he was impressed. The reason it was like that was because this monster called the Filthy phagosome was one of the few on land that had a huge body.
The Nefarious Filthy phagosome was like a blue whale that lived on land. When the phagosome was in its mature stages, its body was similar to that of an aircraft carrier, and even when it was young, it was the size of a small mountain. The phagosome's appearance was similar to a whale, causing its eyes to degenerate. Just like the whale, the phagosome could observe the outside world through sound waves. This was a type of monster that possessed the Meta-Su Domain's ability like the Finry's wolf s. It was just that, unlike the Finry's wolf's ice and snow type ability, the phagosome's ability was to control the earth element.
It lives underground and feeds on nuclear waste and any material with a source of radiation. In an era of turmoil, the Nefarious Filthless phagosome's food was practically everywhere. phagosome was able to roam freely between the ground and the ground due to its powerful control over the earth. Its unceasingly flowing, muddy surface could release the wavelength of an elemental Su of the earth attribute, and could cause a molecular level change to the hard ground. The moment the phagosome unearthed the earth, it would soften into sand and sand, causing the earth to become a sea of phagosome's unfettered swimming.
However, the larger the monster, the worse its reproduction ability would be. The scales of the gods were always relatively balanced, otherwise, if these monsters existed in large quantities, they would have become the masters of the earth long ago.
Su Yun never thought that there would be a Filthy phagosome in the Death Canyon, and the reason why this giant monster appeared here, was because of the flower of death that was everywhere in the Death Canyon. To flower of death, which was a lethal existence to the majority of its living creatures, it could not be more delicious. It was also because of this that this whale shaped monster was named as the Filthy phagosome. From a certain perspective, they were actually useful creatures, after all, they were the Earth Scavengers.
It was just that while the tainted phagosome was eating, it did not bother to differentiate between the different types of food. To them, although the three of them were not the main course, if they accidentally swallowed them together, the phagosome would not deliberately spit them out.
Thus, after that whale-like cry, the earth trembled and a bulldozing sound came from the entrance of the canyon. However, in the blink of an eye, Zero could already see a small mountain of sound pushing towards them.
This was a young phagosome, but its size almost covered the entire canyon. The Nefarious Filthless phagosome's mouth was wide open, its body did not move at all on the ground, but kept moving forward like a bulldozer. The flower of death s that were everywhere along with a large amount of silt were dug into its mouth, and even went all the way to its stomach. From the looks of it, it didn't mind eating all three of them.
Taelice shouted loudly, "Let's go! Once the phagosome has eaten, it will not stop until we clear out all the flower of death in the valley!"
Chapter 136 - The Line of Life and Death
The earth quaked and the mountains shook!
The filthy phagosome's hill-like body filled the entire horizontal space of the canyon. While it constantly pushed forward, it rubbed against the mountain walls on both sides, causing stone fragments to fly everywhere and the ground to constantly shake. The phagosome was like a high-speed bulldozer, continuously digging at the mud and stone on the ground, falling into its bottomless pit like stomach.
The speed at which it was moving seemed slow, but when it came to that gigantic body, that speed was incredibly shocking. However, in the blink of an eye, it had reached the corner where the few of them were. From far away, one could already see the phagosome's body that was constantly flowing with mud under the light of the flower of death, as well as that huge mouth that was about to take up half the height of the canyon.
"Run!" Taelice shouted, causing the girl to move even faster towards the exit.
Zero also silently followed behind her. The two of them no longer cared about conserving their energy, they just wanted to stay as far away from the phagosome as possible. Otherwise, once the phagosome arrived, it wouldn't care about the monkeys that were waving around on the vines. To phagosome, even if the few of them were not its main dish, it was still okay as a dessert.
The chase continued within the canyon.
The swaying walls of the mountain caused the vines to constantly shake, which created quite a bit of trouble for the two of them to move. Taelice was still alright, but there were already several times where Zero almost fell off the vine. Behind them, the phagosome was in hot pursuit. Its speed was faster than the two of them. They were getting closer and closer as they continued to chase. The stench from the phagosome had already started to desperately crawl into the nostrils of the three of them.
Zero threw himself forward and grabbed a length of vine. He didn't want his palms to become slippery from the sweat, but he wasn't able to hold on tightly to it. His entire body swayed forward. Fortunately, his other hand had not loosened, or else he would have fallen. Looking further back, the phagosome was very close.
The difference between the two was not more than a kilometer. Looking from this direction, the countless sand and sand on the ground of the canyon were flowing back into the mouth of the phagosome, it was worthy of being called a giant beast by the name of the Earth Eraser, the phagosome had no intention of stopping to rest after filling its stomach.
Zero's stamina had already reached the bottom. He silently estimated that at this speed, they could only move about 2 more kilometers. However, after that, their speed would decrease, and they might even lose all their strength and fall to the bottom of the valley. However, the phagosome did not slow down at all. At this rate, it could catch up to him before he reached his limit. In other words, no matter what, Zero could not escape.
Although Taelice's situation was better than his, it was still extremely limited. If they couldn't make the phagosome stop, they wouldn't be able to pass through the canyon.
However, it was not easy to make the phagosome stop either. Just like Taelice had said, it would not give up until it completely finished all the flower of death in the canyon. No matter if it was the zero Colt or Taelice's wheel saw, before the phagosome's gigantic body, they would just be a joke.
To make a beast like the phagosome stop moving, one would need at least a strategic-level weapon of war. But at this moment, where could they find such a weapon?
Zero continued to move, constantly thinking of possible strategies in his mind. However, after coming up with one method after another, he quickly rejected it. Combining their current environment, the equipment they carry and their own capabilities. All of these were replaced with data, but there was not enough data to support the feasibility of the method.
They moved another kilometer or so, and the phagosome got closer to them by another three hundred meters or so. What they were worried about finally happened. As their stamina and speed fell, the constant speed at which phagosome maintained their speed, gradually closed the gap between them. At this rate, they would be caught by the phagosome in less than half an hour.
Then, he looked back. When his gaze swept across the glowing flower of death, he suddenly thought of a possible but dangerous solution.
"How far is it from the exit?" Zero asked.
Taelice didn't know what he was going to do, but she still replied: "There's still three more kilometers to go, but I'm afraid …"
"I have an idea." Zero called out to her, "No matter what, you have to speed up. I need to pull out a distance and time that I can attack! "
"Are you crazy? There's no way to stop that big guy! " Taelice shouted.
Zero roared, "We have to give it a try no matter what. Unless you want to die here, or perhaps, don't you want revenge? "
Taelice's face changed, she did not speak anymore. black girl clenched her teeth. She was no longer calculating her physical strength according to what Zero told her, and started using them all at once. Immediately, Taelice moved even faster.
Zero took a deep breath and pushed all the damage values from his body out of his mind. Not caring about whether his body would collapse because of this, he used the Agility of a LV 5. Immediately, not only did he catch up to Taelice, he even went past her and moved between the vines without slowing down at all.
Just like this, the two of them used all their might to move, and in the blink of an eye, they were halfway there. Zero also successfully pulled a distance of 1200 meters between them.
He suddenly stopped and flipped over, hooking his foot onto the vine and drooping.
The Colt moved to his hand, and Zero took out a sniper rifle. The red light that was visible to the naked eye flowed from his finger towards the sniper rifle. When the entire body of the sniper rifle released a red glow, he then placed the explosive bullet that had Fire Essence Su added into the barrel of the gun.
Taelice was almost out of strength, and did not have the strength to ask Zero what she wanted to do. The wound on her back had completely ruptured. Blood and sweat mixed together, soaking the bandage and the tactical suit. Even so, Zero's grip on the spear remained as steady as it was before, even though his body was already trembling slightly.
"Don't worry about me. Don't look back. Just keep moving forward until you leave the exit!" The voice carried an unspeakable dignity, and did not allow Taelice to doubt it.
Taelice listened to Su Yun's advice, and in the next moment, she passed by Su Yun and headed towards the exit of the far away canyon.
The zeros suspended in the air began to shake, and at the same time, while swinging his body in the direction of the cliff wall to the greatest extent, he released his feet. Immediately, Zero dashed towards the mountain wall. In the air, he turned around and adjusted his body to face the phagosome. Just as he was about to collide with the mountain wall, the Colt's muzzle just happened to form a straight line with the phagosome's big mouth.
Zero squeezed the trigger.
In the next moment, under the dark red night sky, a fiery cloud suddenly rose up in the valley that was suffused with faint blue light. It was quiet and beautiful, like a beautiful flower blooming in a valley. Only when the petals were completely relaxed did it reveal its malevolence and savagery.
The sound of the explosion masked the sound of gunfire. The fiery cloud first shrunk slightly towards the inner layer, before suddenly rolling in all directions. The blazing fire wave immediately spread along the two sides of the canyon. The flower of death that remained on the ground immediately became scorched by the flames, and the radiation sources on them immediately became the most intense burning agent, continuously increasing the speed and power of the fire wave.
As for the phagosome, it stopped moaning after the explosion. The zero explosive bullets went into its body, immediately igniting and exploding the countless flower of death in its body. Half of the phagosome's body had been blown to dust, even though the huge beast's life force was so strong that it did not immediately die. However, it could not continue to move. Moreover, it had no choice but to dive underground in the sea of fire that covered the entire valley.
Even though the danger of the phagosome had been resolved, the lives of the few of them still had not been guaranteed. The waves of fire headed towards them at an extremely fast speed. In the instant the flames flashed, they were already within reach.
By this time, Zero had already crashed into the mountain wall.
He took a deep breath and let it out. As hot gas spewed out from Zero's mouth and nose, its eye mask silently cracked. The silver threads from the golden right eye converged towards the center before spreading out to form the vertical pupil of a dragon.
Zenith stomped on the mountain wall and his body fiercely thrust forward. It was as though he had been submerged in water. A huge surge of energy propelled him out of the water. The air exploded, and Zero's figure suddenly appeared 300 meters away. Then, a series of muffled sounds came from the air.
At this critical moment of life and death, zero was already going all out. He immediately used the "Rampage" skill, pushing his Dexterity to the seventh step in exchange for breaking the sound barrier.
Waves of fire roiled about, but it was always a beat too slow. Zero gritted his teeth and sprinted forward. His figure left afterimages as he ran on top of the sloping cliff! However, with the use of [Rampage], his injuries worsened even faster. Originally, it could have lasted 12 seconds. However, after using it for 6 seconds, it felt like it had reached its limit.
One more second!
As he could see the exit of the canyon, Taelice's strength had already reached its limit. Behind her, a wave of flames that shot into the sky rushed over. Taelice could feel the destructive heat energy, and her hair was slightly curled up. She swayed forward again, but ultimately did not have the strength to grab onto the vine above her head. Under Moni's screams, the two of them fell down.
The fire wave had arrived.
Suddenly, Taelice's body trembled.
Looking back, he saw a bloody Zero pouncing on him from the side. He hugged Taelice an
d Moni tightly and used his last bit of strength to propel himself out of the canyon.
The fire wave chased them outside the exit, but the moment it touched their backs, it was filled with unwillingness. In the end, it went back into the valley due to the explosion.
In the air, the backs of zeros were ignited by the flames, but they finally made it out of Death Canyon!
After landing with all their might, the three of them fell onto the wet ground and rolled into a ball. Taelice sprawled on the ground, staring blankly at the night sky filled with dark red radiation clouds, unable to believe that she was actually still alive.
If it wasn't for the last pounce, their efforts would have been in vain. That flame was ignited by the radiation from the flower of death's body. No matter whether it was the heat or the damage, it was above that of ordinary flames. Taelice could still breathe outside the valley, but that was thanks to Zero.
However, Taelice could feel an ominous feeling from the strength and speed that Zero had displayed in that pounce. It was as if he had used his own life to exchange for something, something that did not belong to him.
Just as she was thinking about that, Moni's scream came from the side: "Zero, what's wrong with you!"
Chapter 137 - Undercurrent (I)
Lankey lay on the raft, which was drifting along the water. The river flowed at a moderate speed, carrying the raft along the water route for more than a hundred kilometers.
There was still a long way to go, almost five hundred kilometers of the river. According to the river's constant flow, Lan Qi would need at least three days before he could reach the downstream region. He would set up a careful trap there, and if Zero didn't die, then Lange would snipe at him downstream.
The White-headed Eagle's eyes were closed, and the sniper rifle "vulture" was placed flat on its chest. Lan Qi crossed his hands over the cold spear's body. His breathing was faint, and his heartbeat had slowed to a breaking point. This caused the temperature of his body to drop to an unimaginable level, similar to the temperature of the river. This was the ability that Lan Qi had learned during his five years of adventure in Southwest Land. He used a specific breathing method to reduce all the vital functions of his body, and avoided the perception of some deadly creatures.