Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 540 - 174. School Shooting Incident

Chapter 540: 174. School Shooting Incident

After much persuasion, he managed to calm Yawen down and sent her to find a safe place to hide.

But watching her departing figure, Li Aozi felt a slight concern.

[Her form had already started to distort earlier, resembling a spider...]

Previously, when he fought with the White Knight from the Secret Society, the opponent also had evident animal traits, although Yawen resembled a spider more, whereas the White Knight was more shark-like.

The citizens of the Secret Society seemed to be like this, humanoid in appearance, combined with powerful animal traits, and then delegated abilities according to their occupation.

This type of society was unique, which seemed to further highlight the strength of the Secret Society.

"From Yawen’s condition, it seemed her mind was not stable. Unlike the citizens of other societies, it appeared that citizens of the Secret Society easily exhibited signs of paranoia and madness once separated from their society’s main body."

Both the White Knight and Yawen were like this.

"I have to make a trip to the Hunter’s Association Layer Abyss division."

In such a unique society, Li Aozi didn’t believe that the ’Hunters,’ who specialize in hunting societies, wouldn’t have records. Even if there were no records, he could act as a whistleblower, delivering this information as a warning to people.

But the urgent task at hand was to handle the current issue.

He slowly carried Dialan step by step, carefully probing, and finally settled in a second-floor classroom of a teaching building.

After removing the curtains and covering Dialan with them, Li Aozi used elemental structures to generate cement, blocking the doors and windows, and began to think about what to do next.

Li Aozi checked his own experience points and clicked his tongue inwardly.

His current reserves were not much, due to players generally being busy with main quests, and there would probably be no experience influx until the version update.

"I only had enough to ascend to Epsilon, completing the initial species ascension, but the gap to Zeta was still too large."

Li Aozi bit his thumb and started calculating quickly in his mind.

He currently had a Class Promotion Voucher, which could directly elevate his class, but if used now, it would only bring him to Epsilon level.

The classification of Pathways was extremely strict. Li Aozi had once ambushed Velazquez at the Zeta Rank, and though he could survive against him with the Blood Demon Style, it didn’t mean he could harm Velazquez. Even now, reaching the Delta Rank, he didn’t have the confidence to fight Canyue head-to-head.

Moreover, Canyue was a particularly challenging opponent within the Zeta Rank.

Both belonged to the Sovereign system, and a duel between a Psychic and an Echoer would surely place the Echoer at a disadvantage due to their fundamentally different roles.

The Psychic focused on the development and use of Arcane Energy and Implant Gear, typically specializing in one or two types of Arcane Energy. The individual strength was high. For Canyue to reach the Zeta Rank, his Lunar Arcane Energy proficiency was certainly above Li Aozi’s.

Unlike the business-minded men like Velazquez, Canyue was a typical chaotic evil character, enjoying crime and slaughter. Even though he could have silently infiltrated the school and stolen three fragments of the Eye of Discernment, he still initiated a terror attack on the school.

Velazquez, for all his flaws, still adhered to the law, with some baseline, making terrorists more unpredictable. Nothing would surprise Li Aozi.

Additionally, the Zeta Rank conferred a significant built-in damage mitigation effect.

At the Zeta Rank and higher, individual strongmen were akin to real war machines. Even damage types that worked on a percentage basis would be greatly weakened, making it almost impossible for lower-tier Transcendents to swarm-kill them.

Without reaching the same tier, Li Aozi had no confidence to confront them.

Moreover, he didn’t even know whether Canyue had undergone the Second Transition.

The advanced occupation for a Psychic was a Magic Warrior, leading to the Conqueror Pathway. If Canyue had transitioned, Li Aozi wouldn’t stand a chance.

The Echoer’s role was one of an area-of-effect Mage and informant, while the Magic Warrior was a typical frontline spell tank, and in a one-on-one duel, he would stand no chance.

"Survival must be the top priority. I should check on Old Huo and Old Lu, and get everyone together if possible, as surviving together increases the chances."

Li Aozi activated the communication rune, but under Canyue’s dimensional barrier, even the magical network was disrupted, leaving him with no signal.

The control exerted by Canyue’s Arcane Energy was too dominant. Even the external contact was cut off, essentially isolating the entire campus of Trevela. Coupled with the fact that all the school administration was in outer space now, it meant that by the time they contacted the strongmen of Baizhu Star, the people here might already be doomed.

"No, I can’t just sit around waiting."

Li Aozi tested it out, and found that Echo Force wasn’t blocked, meaning he could still contact people outside.

But the problem was, he didn’t know any of the school leaders well.

This was ridiculous. It was like having a phone during a fire but not knowing the emergency number.

Broadcasting the situation was an option, but that would alert Canyue to his presence.

Canyue’s goal was to steal the Eye of Discernment fragments, and if Li Aozi broadcasted this, he would likely be displeased.

"Right, there are also the Aid Study Society members..."

Li Aozi hesitated.

Broadcasting would mean everyone in the Crystal Tower’s gravity wave receivers would know he had an Implanted Gear body, making all his current progress meaningless.

The Aid Study Society’s mission had only seven months left. For the sake of the Perpetual Specialization, he really didn’t want to waste this opportunity.

No other choice.

After much thought, Li Aozi decided to rely on the players.

He edited the task information and published it to the Baizhu Star players who were obsessed with knife runs, urging them to spread the news about Trevela being attacked as widely as possible.

He also assigned a group of players to retrieve the two Heirloom Masterpiece weapons ’Dust Sealed Sanctum’ and ’Ethereal Shadowblade’ from the Heroes of Falysia cemetery and transmit them through the NPC trade panel.

Li Aozi needed to boost his strength as much as possible. He quickly issued a variety of production orders to Newbie Village, especially the biochemical base deployed there. He commanded the biological pool to immediately produce his backup implant gear body.

He didn’t know how many troops Canyue had invested, but he prepared for the worst. When the time came, escaping with a shell left intact would be better than dying here.

After making these preparations, Li Aozi still felt uneasy, so he sent an Echo message to Olavir, the owner of the ’Heroes’ bar, considering prepaying some commission to hire several Zeta-ranked legendary mercenaries.

"Hey, Mr. Leoz, how have you been? What’s gotten you to contact me all of a sudden?"

[Let’s not talk about this now, Mr. Olavir. How many Zeta-ranked mercenaries are currently at Valkyrie Fortress?]

"You want to hire legendary mercenaries? Unfortunately, you’ve come at a bad time." Olavir said regretfully, "The Zeta-ranked mercenary corps from Valkyrie Fortress took a big job a few days ago and went off the radar. As you know, beyond the Zeta rank, nobody does mercenary work."

[What a coincidence?]

"Just like that. Right now, there’s not even a resident Zeta-ranked mercenary at Valkyrie Fortress."

Li Aozi didn’t believe this was a coincidence.

The Baizhu Star natives of the Zeta rank were absent, and even the nearest neutral force’s Valkyrie Fortress Zeta ranks were absent.

This clearly indicated that someone was providing Canyue with detailed intelligence support.

His mind raced, mobilizing all the resources he had so far.

Canyue dared to launch another attack because he had backing for sure. Li Aozi paid Olavir to investigate thoroughly, aiming to identify who was supporting Canyue.

He even communicated with Mr. Liue through gravity waves.

"You brat, what kind of trouble have you gotten into now?"

Mr. Liue scolded him harshly:

"Last time with the Valenkov issue, the Pathway Management Association from the Empire sent people to question me, suspecting that I didn’t report Echoer’s pathway information truthfully. Do you know how long it took me to get them off my back—?"

[Mr. Liue, it’s not the time for this.]

Li Aozi quickly said:

[I’m currently under attack by Canyue. You studied Sequential Arcane Energy before. Do you know how to break through a dimensional barrier set by ’Canyue?’]

"Did you marry Sequential Arcane Energy in your past life? A normal person encounters one or two mandates in a lifetime; how many have you come across now?"

Li Aozi counted: Gravity, Calamity, Bloodline, Canyue.

[Uh, I currently have four inside me.]

"...damn you."

Mr. Liue, if not for his implant gear body, almost lost his breath. He remained silent for a long while before sending a message.

"I researched Arcane Energy at the Life Commune for one hundred and forty years. No matter the species, the acceptance level for Arcane Energy is roughly the same. Now, I don’t understand—Leoz, what’s so special about you that these mandates revolve around you?"

[If nothing else works, just consider me the reincarnation of Leoz.]

"Nonsense! There’s no reincarnation in the Layer Abyss!"

Mr. Liue reprimanded:

"Six-Layered Starry Abyss, Layer Abyss, Border Abyss, Zhou Yuan, Mass Abyss, Nether Abyss, Primordial Abyss. In total, there are 13 Narrative Civilizations, and only the 7th Narrative ’Soul Hometown’ has such a mechanism. The 7th Narrative is in the Border Abyss, so at least make a plausible story if you’re going to lie."

[Then just consider me unique.]

Li Aozi paid no further attention to it.

He had his own guesses about his identity, or rather, his view of the Starry Abyss was different from that of ordinary people.

Perhaps, he really had some connection with ’Leoz.’

"Unique... perhaps."

Liue sighed, seemingly recalling something, and sent a message:

"There are basically no solutions for a dimensional barrier set by Canyue. Either you eliminate the primary holder of the Arcane Energy or possess the ability to ascend dimensions, realizing you are two-dimensional and then jumping out—assuming, of course, you realize you are two-dimensional."

[Mr. Oldie, I understand that, I can manage it myself. But once I trigger the dimensional barrier, Canyue is bound to notice me. Even if two-dimensionalization doesn’t kill me, Canyue and his vanguard will.]

Mr. Liue said helplessly:

"Brat, are you saying I’m talking nonsense? To be honest, I can’t help with this. Every Narrative-level civilization struggles with Sequential Arcane Energy. Those of us with Gravity Arcane Energy are already considered docile. Holders of other Sequential Arcane Energies aren’t treated much better than hunted witches."

Li Aozi scratched his head.

This was troublesome... he really had to survive on his own.