Chapter 286 - 286 266 Real Life Maze

Words : 2088 Updated : Oct 9th, 2025

286: Chapter 266: Real Life Maze 286: Chapter 266: Real Life Maze The pallid silver Battle Axe swept in a semicircular arc. A faint ringing sound followed its spin, and after achieving the minimum spiral, it landed a strike with ultimate strength. “Thud.” The dull echo made Lu Ping’an frown. The right hand grasping the axe was slightly sore. The Stone Monster, upholding the entire ceiling, appeared to be solid. Lu Ping’an’s strike only made its deep red stone body glow even redder. The flashing colors on its body resembled a Traffic Signal or a warning that a bomb was about to explode. “Lu Ping’an…” The deep voice from behind made him swiftly move aside as his body pressed against the wall. “Slice!” The next moment, silver sword light flickered. The Stone Giant blocking the passage was covered by multiple sword lights. However, even where the sword light reached and the stone directly split, the red flashing light was only getting faster. “…The concentration point of its life force is about three centimeters below the right thigh joint.” Lu Ping’an timely shared this guidance. This time, when the thrown silver short sword pierced through it like light, it directly hit the agreed spot. The flashing red light finally stopped, leaving behind a litter of red-black rocks all over the ground. “How’s it going?” “Not too bad.” Lu Ping’an looked at his blade-axe, covered in chipped signs. A Brass-level weapon could work for hacking people, but tearing down a building was too difficult. The flat blade, which was originally designed to be sharp and thin, seemed to be set for a major repair… but remembering the free artisan labor, he didn’t mind. “…It’s about time, let’s go out and regroup.” Checking the time and realising it almost matched the set group time, Lu Ping’an and Xia Qin withdrew directly. They realised only when they reached the gate that their group was the last to return. “So hard, Meow!” “It’s disgustingly tough. It blocked the passage. Annoying that it blows up when hit hard.” “…Without hitting it, it will still explode.” “Beware of the left and right walls, it feels like they’re alive. Sudden maze reruns often happen, monsters appear from either side.” The members of Team 3 were sharing experiences in the clearing outside. After attempting to venture deep into the Exotic Realm for half an hour for the first time, Team 3 split into groups of two or three to tentatively launch the offensive. It’s not that they were keen to split up and get annihilated. Blame this damned terrain and the Stone Monsters. One person choked, two people couldn’t unfold, and three people got in each other’s way. It was better to split up into small teams and probe in different directions. The original wooden floor and walls were now covered with a layer of grey-black rock layer, not only extremely hard but also slightly hot. The narrow passage forced exploration to be a path cleared by violence. Annoyingly, the Stone Monsters that could explode at any moment were surprisingly hard. When it exploded… though the flying rocks didn’t do much damage, the heat was outrageous, and you couldn’t avoid it in this cursed terrain. Lu Ping’an noticed that several team members had burn marks on their bodies, not unlike the members of Team 1. Next to them, there was a pile of large shields made from modified security doors. This useful item left by Team 1 did prove to reduce the damage from explosive rocks. However, carrying this thing makes progress painfully slow, especially when the size of the passage is not fixed and you could get stuck inside if not careful. Lu Ping’an teamed up with the siege expert Xia Qin to try and get as far as possible without carrying an anti-explosive shield. Even Lu Ping’an didn’t expect to break into the Secret Realm with one expedition… then Team 1, averaging nearly third-tier, would have broken through long ago. The first time was just to collect information and get used to the battlefield. He didn’t expect it to stop on the first floor just half an hour in. “So far we haven’t encountered the liquid monster from the data. It’s actually not difficult to deal with the Stone Monsters on the first floor, but with this terrain… perhaps defensive operations from the perimeter would be a lot easier.” “Did anyone get to the second floor?” Xia Qin asked, not expecting a positive answer. When she entered the building, she felt like she was entering another world. The feeling of overflowing malice and disgust was like entering the belly of some giant beast. The walls are alive? The passage is constantly changing? Xia Qin trusted such illusions as if they were true. She felt like someone or something was watching her all the time. As expected, the only responses she received were shaking heads and silence. “Meow, I made it. It’s almost the same up there, plus there’s that disgusting sticky monster.” When Meow spoke, everyone was taken aback. “How did you do it?” “A Runner, huh? Oh, I heard you have the rare ability of Spider Walk. You passed from the ceiling, didn’t you?” “That thing is blocked up tight, even getting through the ceiling would be tough. No wonder people keep saying cats are liquid.” The lone wanderer, Meow, somehow managed to venture the furthest, instantly becoming the center of attention. However, just as she was feeling proud, she was met with a glare from Lu Ping’an. Immediately, her perked up cat ears drooped back down. It’s not that Lu Ping’an wanted her to hide anything, it’s just that she…. “She must have used the ‘Spirit Cat,’ right? She was supposed to be resting these days.” The order from the big cat was clear – refrain from using abilities, especially possession, for at least a month. Though phasing through walls may not be a major strain, her powers were still unstable. If she got stuck halfway through or couldn’t get back, she’d be stuck permanently. But for now, this is good news for both her, who urgently needed more recognition, and Team 3, who desperately needed more intelligence. “Meow, the sticky monster on the second floor is like the big dumb one on the first floor. You can’t kill it with physical attacks. If you keep hitting it, it just catches on fire and gives off a really stinky smell. “The floor on the second floor moves, Meow! There seems to be a monster inside and if you’re not careful, it might swallow you. You always have to keep an eye on your feet.” They had the raw information, but on-the-spot intelligence gathering and communication were essential… No matter how much you read about it, it’s not the same as being there. “Captain Lu, self-ignition, and moving walls and floors, were these mentioned in the information?” Deputy Captain Lu Xin asked directly. Lu Jun, who was watching from the side, nodded. The intelligence was outdated, there was no need to hide it. “Earlier, the walls and floors weren’t this hard, and the monsters didn’t explode or catch fire. They were also smaller than they are now. We found the first and second floors to be easy at first, but we were eventually forced to leave and start defending.” “Has it undergone Otherworldly transformation?” “Possibly, the core has certainly reached Decree-level. It might be linked to some Exotic Realm.” The power of Wild Realms is not constant, they usually become more troublesome over time. This is only the outskirts of the Realm, and it’s already this horrific. The mutations inside must be much worse. “It’s confirmed that the parasitic organisms can’t be eradicated.” Parasitic organisms are an extremely unsettling presence. Lu Ping’an had observed one before; a Magic Monster had a human torso growing out of its back. The man had seen Lu Ping’an and even asked the Special Service Team for help. When they attacked the Magic Monster, the man was still screaming. Both were alive and, in some sense, existed in a symbiotic relationship where the death of one party would lead to the death of the other. The strangest part was that such parasitic existences not only appeared on Magic Monsters, but also on walls and floors in places…. Even if they were killed, they couldn’t escape, as they would be forcibly regenerated after a while. While these beings were abhorrent and blasphemous, the Special Service Team could calmly discuss them since parasitic organisms are a common problem in Wild Realms, a coordinate ‘overlap’ of the ‘two worlds’. Though it was alive, it was already dead, merely a derivative of the pollution source or, more accurately, the ‘shell’ of the non-material pollution source in the material plane. The repeated regeneration of parasitic creatures, which could not be eradicated, indicated that the Otherworldly transformation of this area has completed. This meant that the two worlds overlapped on some level and only ‘orderly Realm transformation’ could erase this trouble. “… Can we blow up this building?” “We tried before, not only was the effect poor, it regenerated. It’s not necessarily a good thing if the entrance to the Realm is really buried underground.” The entire Ancient City’s combat power is currently focused on cleaning up wild contamination areas (Realm points). Those that remain problematic until now are naturally difficult tasks. With the basic information confirmed, the eyes of everyone fell on Xia Qin, waiting for her decision. She also felt a bit frustrated, the difficulty of this Wild Realm exceeded her expectations. Ignoring it was not an option. The Realm has not reached a stable period, nobody could guarantee that it wouldn’t continue to worsen. With past experience, after a while, it might even start to spew out Magic Monsters continuously. At that point, the situation would escalate two levels further. Trying to pass it off to another team… this damned Realm is right in the Zion District; it is in the city center. Nobody can escape from it. But a hard attack? The passageway’s topology puts the numerous in an inferior position. It’s an experience of inputting data in a line only to be trapped by explosives, something nobody wants to experience. Everyone from the Special Service Team Three wasn’t suited to this kind of battlefield. The Tamers and gunmen were useless in this case, Xue En didn’t dare use his abilities, Hua Xueyi lost her prided mobility, and even Lu Ping’an lacked the heavy hammer needed for a siege. The more people, the less use it had. Splitting troops was too risky. Maze-like terrains being annoying is completely justified. “Is the second floor the same?” “Meow, it’s even worse. There are lots of small compartments in there, and they change positions all the time. It took me ages and I still couldn’t find the stairs leading up,” Meow recalled, giving a particularly bad answer. “What about going from top to bottom?” “The same, but to be honest, I don’t recommend forcing a breakthrough. If the outer area is like that, the inside will be horrible. If the combat power is insufficient, there is a risk of getting trapped inside,” Captain Lu interjected. Evidently, they had tested it before. “This is quite tricky…” “If it wasn’t, it would have been sorted out a long time ago.” “Data Analyst? Is there an analysis report on the source of the pollution?” “If you’re searching for ‘rock’ and ‘explosion,’ there are at least a thousand common ones. They took the sample, but don’t expect anything anytime soon… The Information Support Department mostly pulls a hindsight-know-it-all, don’t count on them.” Wild Realms are troublesome like that, there’s basically no ‘Strategy Guide,’ you can only grit your teeth and push through… Perhaps there really is a simple and effective way to win, but by the time it’s found, the battle’s already over, rendering it meaningless. In the end, Xia Qin swept her gaze around the room, and made up her mind. “Let’s tough it out. Rest and regroup for 20 minutes, then we’ll make a push.” Tough it out with raw strength? Where is the raw strength coming from? At that moment, not only was Chief Lu Jun stunned, but the newly appointed Deputy Captain Lu was also completely lost.

Chapter 286 - 286 266 Real Life Maze

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