Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 317 - 68 Gu Pan: This time, we will win! (7K words, asking for monthly votes)_3

Chapter 317: Chapter 68 Gu Pan: This time, we will win! (7K words, asking for monthly votes)_3

Unity is strength; just the sheer number, too, could ease an anxious heart slightly.

Upon hearing the reminder from Gu Yue Ming and Gu Pan, everyone started trying to activate the Promotion Drive to perform some tests.

Some acted gracefully as if savoring tea; others scratched their heads and pulled at their faces, resembling monkey performers; yet others grimaced and contorted, as if dancing some bizarre mechanical dance.

Since the initial activation of the "Promotion Drive" came with a bonus feature of mimetic ability to change one’s form into anything within a certain size range at will, a thousand people made a thousand different choices, with no two alike.

Thus, chaos ensued for a moment.

And the result was just as Gu Pan and her fellow Sword Master had mentioned.

The group of Transcendents once again fell into silence.

A peculiar stillness lingered for a good five minutes.

Finally, Tang Rou was the first to utter something pointless, "Can’t open it."

Seeing this, the offspring of the three families burst into discussion: "What’s going on," "What happened," "How do we handle this?"

They were all novices, originally thinking of coming out to hunt.

Instead, they hadn’t hunted many monsters but fell into a strange cyclic dilemma.

Moreover, two veteran Second Ranks in the team, Tang Rou and Gu Yue Ming, didn’t seem reliable.

This made everyone even more disheartened.

Especially after hearing Gu Yue Ming talk about being "stuck in an inescapable perpetual cycle," expressions of shock or fear appeared on many faces.

Some even murmured quietly, "Monsters are so terrifying, I knew we shouldn’t have come out," "We’re not going to die here, are we? Please no~."

Although they were immediately chided by their elders, a heavy atmosphere had already enveloped everyone.

Gu Pan saw this and couldn’t help but mockingly smile.

She had just been worried that directly stating the situation might not only be useless but could also throw the team into disarray.

Now, it seemed she had guessed right.

Though these guys were Transcendents and had been comfortably nurtured to level 12 by the Supervision Bureau, they had seen little of the world, likely used to laboratory monster blood, and their family teachings had told them about the dangers of the Wasteland and the wilderness being a playground for monsters.

But knowledge is just knowledge; without seeing it for oneself, who can truly believe it?

Now being told they were trapped in a bizarre loop, who had seen such a spectacle before? So, although they didn’t say they were going to desert, they were already in disarray.

At this moment, seeing this, Gu Pan thought they might have been better off not knowing.

At that time, she couldn’t help but remember Xu Shu, who had fought alongside her for over a week, witnessed him transform from an ordinary person into a Transcendent, then climbed up the ranks fighting for his life.

"My student, though a bit lecherous, was truly bold and could remain calm and creative in the face of danger."

"I wonder how he would handle such a situation?"

Gu Pan subconsciously considered the scenario from another’s perspective.

Without comparison, there would be no hurt; even Xu Shu, tagged by her as ’abnormal,’ seemed to stand out exceptionally like a dragon among men.

Finally, it was Song Qixing, the Second Rank "Fire Mage" from the Song Family, with a steady temperament, who said, "Unable to open the Promotion Drive might mean... I suspect we might have accidentally entered some natural ruins."

While speaking, he tapped the back of his hand and casually said, "It seems you all forgot that you can’t activate the Promotion Drive while inside the ruins. That’s a knowledge point, take note."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Yue Ming and Tang Rou looked at him with newfound respect.

This was actually common knowledge, but to remember and apply it in a real scenario depended on quick thinking and adaptability.

However, after a brief recall, the juniors just stared at him blankly.

"Ruins?"

"Uncle Six, aren’t ruins supposed to exist only beyond the border line?" Song Yao, a "Hunter" from the Song Family, asked.

"Yes, ruins are dimensionally abnormal spaces, gateways for deceitful monsters to invade the human world, but within the Star Tower’s radius, there shouldn’t be any ruins."

Faced with the juniors’ doubts, Song Qixing smiled slightly, "There are no absolutes in life; there are always some exceptions. Some ruins can open within the border line, though these incidents are rare but not unheard of; perhaps such news is simply suppressed."

As he spoke, his gaze briefly swept over Gu Yue Ming.

Gu Yue Ming was startled.

Though she was just a Sword Master not having entered the Gu Family’s Sword Tomb, she knew that the Sword Tomb was a special kind of ruin.

That was a secret of the Gu Family, and she hadn’t expected Song Qixing to guess it; this man was not to be underestimated.

Then, after a brief discussion, the members of the Hunter Association reformed their formation and got out of the vehicle.

Letting their accompanying assistants drive the vehicles at a very slow pace.

They arranged themselves in a "field" formation, a stance where they could support and cover each other, advancing as slowly as planting landmines.

In this way, although their speed had decreased significantly, they could stay alert to anomalies appearing from all directions, preventing any secretive, strange creature from surrounding them unnoticed.

Proceeding slowly like this, after traveling more than ten miles, they approached a light tower supply point with a Star Tower Flag.