NOVEL NEXT Chapter 551: Rubber and Gum
At least by the Dragari, they were still treated as sentient living beings. Here, humans were nothing more than batteries.
Alex spent hours looking for the right building, but no matter how much he tried, there were no clues he could use to guess what building was what, other than some that were clearly used for drones to take items. He could have tried entering the buildings, but he felt it was not efficient. After some thought, Alex decided to return to the sewer and follow the flow where body parts were falling down.
But as he reentered the sewer, the situation changed. He saw more activity—drones buzzing around the area, seemingly looking for something. 'Did they find me and MingYue's presence?' he wondered.
After some observation, Alex realized they were not the target. The drones were moving in the opposite direction. 'Is it Alice or the others?' he thought.
Alex already knew someone must have moved the portal there to hide it in case he and MingYue returned. This also meant they either stayed close in the vicinity or at least returned periodically to check in case something happened.
He flew past all the drones, analyzing the direction based on any clues he could see that raised the odds someone had just passed through. After some distance, a sound of movement reached Alex. It wasn't footsteps, giving him an idea of who was coming. There was only one from his comrades who could come here without leaving any steps on the ground.
Turning a corner, a familiar face appeared before him. Her wings flapped silently behind her back, spreading out particles that made her presence more hidden. If not for Alex's familiarity with her life force and their close proximity, he would not have found her. Even then, he still needed to guess if it was really her. "Alice," Alex called out, sending the message directly to her mind.
Alice stopped in her tracks, then looked around but found no one. Despite hearing Alex's voice, she didn't drop her guard. Instead, she became warier. Her qi churned as her fingers moved, prepared to enter combat at any time. "Who's there? Come out! I won't fall for the same trick again."
Alex frowned. Seeing how she reacted, he knew it would take some time to convince her it was really him. Seeing her appearance, he could also tell she had experienced a lot. Rather than waste time and risk Alice finding out, Alex decided it was better to meet directly. 'Alice, come to the place where the portal was. I'll bait them to go in another direction.'
Before Alice could react, Alex controlled the mosquito to quickly fly back toward the drones. He flew past them again, then adjusted his qi to make it similar to Freay's before starting to spread it, amplifying the sound of his flight.
The dozen drones stopped midair, then all turned toward Alex's direction. It only took a millisecond for all of them to lock on Alex despite the distance between them. This ability far outperformed what Alex had in mind.
What happened next surprised him further. Symbols started glowing on the drones' bodies, and Alex suddenly felt mana emanating from them. 'A wireless mana transmission!?' he thought.
Before Alex could think further, ice began appearing all around him, forming something like a cage without a single gap—not even a mosquito could pass through. But this wasn't a normal mosquito; it was made of special material, making its body very strong.
A normal mosquito could only fly at 1 to 1.5 miles per hour (1.6 to 2.4 kilometers per hour). But this one was different—it could easily fly up to 767 mph (1,235 km/h), reaching supersonic speeds. The mosquito's body started to spin, raising its velocity. Then Alex used the life energy contained within, creating thrust and shooting it forward like a bullet.
BAM!
It tore through the barrier like a knife cutting through butter. But his journey wasn't smooth—after passing through, dozens of drones had already created a formation blocking his path. Each of them glowed with different symbols reacting to each other. 'A magic formation? This didn't exist last time I checked. It seems they've really improved the magic system,' he thought.
He crashed into the net, expecting to tear through it or clash if the barrier was strong. But the result once again raised his eyebrows. It was like he was crashing against a barrier that possessed the properties of both rubber and gum, reminding him of one of the famous anime he often watched in the past. Sadly, the author updated it so slowly that it completely stopped after the first dungeon break.
The barrier stretched, capturing all the momentum Alex had built up. His ability quickly sparked as he thought of the next best move. He could try expelling lifeforce to create runes that would melt the magic back into mana. Another option was to use it to create thrust and test the barrier's limits. But in the end, he chose the best option he could think of.
He triggered the lifeforce, making it churn like an atomic bomb on the verge of critical mass. Within his body, the lifeforce acted as a field of potential energy, not unlike a quantum vacuum teeming with virtual particles. This energy, once released, catalyzed a series of reactions that mimicked high-energy particle physics.
At its core, the lifeforce began creating an intense concentration of quasi-particles, hypothetical constructs that mirrored real-world particles but existed within the metaphysical framework of his abilities. These quasi-particles interacted with one another in a manner akin to nuclear fusion, where lighter particles combined under immense pressure to form heavier ones, releasing extraordinary amounts of energy in the process.
Alex had learned to do this from the incident when he lost his emotions, utilizing his lifeforce to trigger a small atomic explosion. His goal was to create as much damage as possible, pull everyone's attention, create another decoy, and then use it to escape with Alice and MingYue.