Chapter 101

Fifty minutes after the invasion began, in the game space.

Shopping Mall, Area 101.

"Huff... hahaha... hahahaha..." Looking at the wreckage dissolving into data fragments before him, Jibe wiped the blood from his face, took a long breath, and laughed loudly. "Finally... finally took them all down! Hahahaha..."

Jibe's almost insane reaction was understandable, as he had just emerged from an intense and suffocating siege.

Besides him, the members of Zhushen, Hongying, Jianghu, and Order Second Team in the same area also wore expressions of relief.

In the nearly half-hour just now, these members of top-tier teams had exceptionally joined forces and racked their brains to eliminate a total of five "giants."

These giants also had a specific name—[Devourers].

Unlike ordinary cannon fodder and Raiders... Devourers were not a native type of data soldier; they were formed by the "combination" of other cannon fodder.

Typically, three hundred ordinary cannon fodder merged in data form to create a Devourer.

The combat power of a Devourer was determined by the total strength of all the cannon fodder participating in the combination. If Raiders were mixed in among the cannon fodder participating in the combination... then their combat power would also be included.

In summary, this was a very powerful type of data soldier, and also the ace force of the cannon fodder legions.

Although the top players in Area 101 successfully eliminated five Devourers, they also paid a heavy price.

Ice Emperor's "Trouble Naming Trio" was the first to fall. They made a significant contribution during the battle with the first Devourer, practically risking their lives to explore many of the Devourer's characteristics. Hongying's Tie Haitang and Fengxizi, as well as Order Second Team's Yongzhe Wudi, Yongzhe Wuju, Yezhi, and Jianghu's Wudao Ke, were all killed in the battles with the second and third Devourers.

By this point, the players had basically figured out how to deal with the Devourers, and only two Devourers remained. Therefore, the subsequent battles were relatively simple.

Until all five Devourers were killed, the death toll did not increase any further.

However, overall, the losses from this battle were quite severe. The only team that did not lose a single core member was Zhushen First Team (only four members came), while the other teams suffered losses of varying degrees.

"Sigh... why can't I laugh at all..." Looking at the laughing Jibe, Tiaoxingma propped up his sniper rifle, sat down on the ground, and let out a sigh.

This ace sniper from Order Studio was now the only surviving member of Order Second Team, and his mood could only be described as lonely as snow...

"Everyone has worked hard." Xiao Wen Cangtian turned around and looked at the non-professional players outside the battlefield at the first opportunity and said, "Thank you all."

His words were not meant to win people over but to sincerely express his gratitude.

Just now, when their five professional teams joined forces to fight the Devourers, the other players in Area 101 spontaneously united and blocked the ordinary cannon fodder and Raiders on the periphery for them, clearing their worries.

Without the assistance of these players, this battle would probably have become even more tragic... or even a disastrous defeat.

"Don't mention it, if you guys hadn't held off those giants, we would have been desperate long ago."

"Yeah, we just did our best to do what we could."

As soon as Xiao Wen Cangtian finished speaking, Passerby A and Passerby B, who were relatively close to him, politely responded on behalf of the masses to this president of Jianghu.

At this moment, the emotion of "fear" had basically disappeared from the players' minds, replaced by a sense of accomplishment after surviving a disaster...

Humans are animals with strong adaptability, and fear is also something that can be adapted to. For example... a horror movie can scare you once or twice, but when you watch this movie three times, five times, or even ten times, that feeling of fear will fade; and when you watch it a hundred times, the fear will completely disappear... because when you watch it for the hundred and first time, you already know exactly what will happen in the next second, that is... "unknown" becomes "known"; without "unknown," there is no fear; this... is adaptation.

Similarly, when facing a sudden crisis, people's psychological reactions are the same... fear will make people feel surprised and helpless, at this time, "instinct" will replace "thinking" and take over people's behavior.

Instinct is a valuable asset acquired by organisms in the process of evolution, and one of the guarantees for the survival and reproduction of species. Most creatures in the food chain have similar reaction processes when encountering unknown dangers—escape, hide, observe, probe...

Humans are no exception.

The development of technology and the maturity of cognition have not greatly changed our instincts, but fortunately, as a highly intelligent creature, humans can overcome instincts through training.

In a crisis, individuals with more "overcoming experience" regarding fear will adapt to the situation faster than other individuals. They only need a short time to allow "thinking" to return to the high ground occupied by "instinct" and play a good leading role. (ps: Feng Bujue should be excluded from this type of person, because the high ground in his mind is permanently occupied by "thinking," and "instinct" can only wait on standby on the hillside)

As long as a small number of people, or even one person, can quickly make correct reactions based on thinking, there is a chance to influence all the surrounding people. Because... "imitation" is also an important part of human adaptability. When people see a fellow human do something and come out unscathed, their fear of that thing will also be reduced. They will feel... that they can also complete this thing to some extent.

The battle situation in Area 101 was roughly like this... Under the leadership of a few elite players, ordinary players also quickly put their fear behind them and participated in the battle.

Faced with a battle situation that could be described as desperate, no one gave up and no one ran away; in the end, they successfully annihilated all the Derivatives that invaded this area.

…………

It is worth mentioning that... in this battle, two groups of people played a particularly crucial role.

The first group was an organization wearing white long windbreakers with the large character "Shang" written in blood on their backs—“Shang’s Honor Guard”; and the other group was an organization wearing blue long windbreakers with the character "Shang" also written in blood on their backs—“Xu Huai Shang Official Fan Club.”

The nature of these two groups was already very obvious, and there was nothing more to introduce... Among the large group of non-professional players, these two groups were like suicide squads. After the first Devourer appeared, most ordinary players retreated. Only these two groups... were completely unmoved, and from beginning to end guarded behind the five strong teams (actually, it was only Hongying First Team), resolutely holding out to the end.

Regardless of their motives, their actions effectively encouraged the surrounding casual players, and their "death-defying" attitude inspired the morale of the crowd, barely maintaining the nearly collapsing battle line.

It has to be said... the victory in this battle owes a great deal to the individual contributions of a certain female player...

…………

In short, after a series of outstanding fierce battles, this area finally returned to tranquility.

And this moment of safety was undoubtedly the result of everyone's joint efforts.

For those casual players, their current feeling... is like a batch of new recruits who have just participated in their first battle. Simply surviving is enough to greatly change their mindset. In the future, when facing similar situations, they will "adapt" faster.

The difference between seasoned veterans and green recruits in reality is roughly the same... it is this "adaptability" that determines whether you are dumbfounded or erupt in a sudden situation. Believe me... in most cases, the one who is dumbfounded will die.

"So the question is..." After a moment of silence, Shiva looked at the people around him and said, "...is this the end?"

As he spoke, he looked into the distance at the boundary of the area. At this time, besides the dome, even the walls next to the shopping mall had been torn open by huge spatial rifts, and the distorted space-time composed of data light streams could be clearly seen even from a distance.

"When the third, fourth, and fifth giants came in... they smashed away most of the outer walls of the area, and the elevator doors leading to the login space were also destroyed. How are we supposed to get back?" Shiva muttered.

"Anyway, force quitting still doesn't work," Brahma quickly replied. "I just tried it."

"Yeah... and those players who have already been killed are still unreachable," Hei Bai Hui also muttered, stroking his chin.

"Could it be..." At this moment, a very bad idea flashed through Xu Huai Shang's mind, "...is the system telling us to kill each other until only one person is left?"

Her words made everyone present gasp.

Fortunately, the mutation that occurred in the next second... denied her hypothesis.

Buzz—

In that instant, a strange sound rang in the ears of all the players, and their eyes were covered in white light.

The subsequent sensation was similar to teleportation, but slightly different... but the players couldn't say exactly what the difference was.

About five seconds later, when the players regained their senses, they had arrived in a completely new space.

This was not a shopping mall, but a white, boundless world.

The sky and the earth in front of them were the same pure white. The entire sky was like an unreachable ceiling, emitting moderate light. On the white earth, there were many objects of varying sizes... there were tall buildings, trees and forests, high mountains and flowing water, and so on. All these objects were pure white, with only outlines and no details. Some stood there like simple, huge geometric building blocks.

In addition to these "large scenes," there were many relatively small objects in this space, such as cars, street lights, merry-go-rounds, dressing tables, bathtubs... these countless objects were also white outlines, and there was no pattern in their types, as if they were randomly selected from an encyclopedia and scattered evenly across this white earth.

"Eh? Isn't that Tiandi's Yu Zhong Ji Chang?"

"That's right, and Shangxin Guo."

"Is that Shanhe's Qiufeng Se over there?"

"Hey! Those are the Zhushen Four Heavenly Kings!"

"Eh? Were Jianghu's Kuangzong Jianying and Cai Bupa Ne in the same area as us just now?"

"Wow! I saw Goddess Xu, am I already dead? Is this heaven?"

Not long after the teleportation ended, the players discovered one thing... it seemed that the survivors from all the shopping mall areas had been sent to this strange space.

Just as the players were still scratching their heads, suddenly...

Boom—Boom—Boom—

Rhythmic, heavy footsteps came from all directions, and the ground beneath the players' feet trembled in bursts.

"What's going on? Are there more giants?"

"Ah! Over there!"

"There too!"

Indeed, these sounds and vibrations were the footsteps of the Devourers.

At this moment, four Devourers were running towards the three thousand-odd players gathered together from four directions...

"Tch... who's afraid of who!"

"Damn it! Let's fight if we don't agree!"

"The visitors are not friendly, everyone prepare to deal with the impact!"

The players who were able to stand here alive were all powerhouses who had survived the defense battles in each area. Although not every area had been attacked by multiple Devourers (cannon fodder tracked targets by sniffing data. Area 101 had the largest and strongest force because it had a large amount of strong data gathered there, while other areas had at most one Devourer), everyone present was confident that they could withstand the attacks of these four giants.

However... they misunderstood one thing.

These four Devourers were not launching a charge at the players, but...

Bang, bang, bang, bang—

As they watched, the Devourers jumped up one after another before they even reached the players. The timing of their jumps was almost the same, and they jumped extremely high. When they reached the highest point, the four Devourers simultaneously unfolded their bodies... and self-destructed.

"What is this doing? Setting off fireworks..."

"If you're going to self-destruct, you should get closer, jumping so high has no effect on us at all."

For the first three seconds, the players were still wondering what exactly these "giants" were trying to do, until the fourth second... the four light sources in the sky suddenly turned into four streams of light, converging towards the middle.

Buzz—

Boom—

Immediately afterward, the players heard two loud noises.

The first sound was a humming.

The second sound was an explosion.

Along with the sound, a tsunami-like wave of sound swept out and pressed down on the players.

Even though all the players quickly raised their hands to cover their ears, their eardrums still ached and their legs weakened from the exploding sound wave overhead. Some players with lower survival values... were directly turned into white light by this wave of sound.

"This is bad..." A full twelve seconds later, when the explosion stopped, Shiva, who was kneeling on one knee, endured the dizziness and raised his head to look at the sky.

At this time, at a height of about a hundred meters above the ground, at the place where the four streams of light had converged... a spherical spatial rift with a radius of about twenty meters had appeared, with all sides looking as deep as a black hole and the edges of the sphere surging with electric light.

Shiva had a deep impression of this thing. In fact, he had already guessed what he would face before he even looked up.

"...Another Sonorous Tunnel."