Player Reload
Chapter 215 - 197: Raffi

Chapter 215: Chapter 197: Raffi

The majority of the Y-shaped pipeline was buried beneath the soil, constructed from some unknown metal with a diameter close to five meters.

The pipe on the left side of the Y-shape was the target location for the mission, where there was a valve with two blue circular recesses installed beside it.

On the right side of the Y-shaped pipeline, there was a valve but no recesses, and next to the valve was a hole big enough for a person to walk through. Below the hole, a pile of radial gray dust had accumulated.

Like flames, golden energy beams were continually seeping out from the hole, emitting suffocating heat.

This large patch of bare ground, probably cleared by the heatwave.

The man with bandages stared at the golden beam in silence.

The prophecy painting showed that he was hit by such an energy beam, resulting in his total disintegration.

"You guys stay on guard here, I’ll go take a look."

Before proceeding, Zhao Zijing deployed the drone to patrol the surroundings, and then released her Reconnaissance Skill to ensure there were no ambushes.

Only then did she pick up the Task Battery and walked forward slowly, examining it carefully.

The shape and size of the blue recesses matched the Task Battery exactly; it seemed that the Battery needed to be placed into them.

Using Telekinesis, she lifted the Battery and slowly placed it into the recess, hearing a "click" as the Battery twisted downwards and locked into place, completing the installation.

Following that, the remaining 60% of the Battery’s charge began to rapidly drop, as if it was being injected into the pipeline.

And a rumbling sound started coming from inside the pipeline.

"Zzzt—"

Just when everyone thought the mission had been completed cleanly and quickly, the damaged part of the right pipeline started to leak energy beams at an even faster rate.

As the rolling heatwaves swept in all directions, the drone Zhao Zijing had earlier released, merely after brushing past, went out of control and crashed to the ground.

The carbon fiber material of its propeller blades, which should only age after at least thirty years, melted and softened directly.

The plastic shell decayed into waste, exposing the inside’s rusty motley electronic components. It looked like it had been buried in a scrapyard for decades.

Zhao Zijing reacted extremely quickly, instantaneously releasing Telekinesis to push herself backward, away from the center area of the energy flow, and retreated to the armored vehicle.

Midnight Howl took out a two-meter-high, thick iron plate from the Backpack and thrust it into the ground in front of him.

This iron plate was a defensive product manufactured by the Prometheus Company. Once placed on the ground, it immediately unfolded to both sides, forming a solid shield wall,

blocking the remnants of the hot wind drifting from afar.

"Are you okay?"

Midnight Howl turned his head to look at Zhao Zijing, who was fine except for slightly whitened temples and fine lines appearing around her eyes and eyebrows.

She seemed to have aged several years suddenly.

"!!!"

Zhao Zijing’s eyes widened, her teeth clenched in extreme anger, and her hair fluttered without wind.

Unlike those players who care about their appearance and can’t wait to go to a ghetto beauty shop to make themselves look like a fairy descending from heaven,

she didn’t actually care much about her own looks, but the inexplicable aging was truly infuriating.

Red Driver looked at Li Cheng with some concern, hoping he wouldn’t say any flirtatious words to provoke Zhao Zijing at this time, as it might lead to a fight.

Unexpectedly, Li Cheng wasn’t focused on the changes in Zhao Zijing’s appearance. After a moment of thought, he decisively took out from thin air—

Wine?

Several cases of Flying Moutai were thrown by Li Cheng outside the shield wall, being baptized by the energy flow.

Following that, several cases of wines were thrown out, including domestic brands like Zhangyu and Great Wall, as well as international ones like Lafite and Latour.

"Hurry, throw them! That’s all money."

Li Cheng was quite excited, pouring stuff out continuously like a wholesale supermarket.

"Money?!"

Gray Rain, who had not been particularly interested at first, immediately lit up at the mention of the word "money" by Li Cheng, tossing items as well.

Muttering as he threw, "US dollar!"

Golden energy streams and billowing hot air were undoubtedly manifestations of temporal turbulence, causing people and objects hit by it to age rapidly.

Thinking differently, couldn’t this thing be used to make a fortune?

Like turning this year’s Moutai into a century-old one, or last year’s Lafite into a vintage from ’82, with one transaction you could earn a couple hundred thousand.

Eventually, Li Cheng wasn’t satisfied just throwing alcohol anymore; he started to toss rosewood furniture, pu’er tea, dried tangerine peel, pottery, paintings, and bronze artifacts into the hot wind...

All things that would appreciate in value over time.

The likes of Midnight Howl were completely stunned, gradually falling into numb bewilderment.

Wondering whether they should be shocked by Ant’s rapid shift in thought or shocked that his storage space seemed to contain every conceivable item.

Are you running an antique market here, or a wholesale supermarket?!

Red Driver couldn’t help but whisper, "Uh... Brother Ant, these bronze artifacts can’t be faked, can they..."

Li Cheng proudly responded, "Don’t look at the shape, just look at the patina. Could anything but the Shang and Zhou dynasties form such thick and pure rust?"

"The problem is, there were no Gundam robots or Hatsune Miku in the Shang and Zhou dynasties!!"

Red Driver was internally agonizing, unable to imagine what kind of extraordinary person could have created such a thing.

By now, the hot air from the time turbulence had gradually receded. Midnight Howl waited a while, then cautiously peered out from behind the shield wall.

The energy leakage from the right-side conduit had returned to its original scale.

And the Task Battery installed in the left conduit had popped out of its slot automatically, its remaining charge back up to 60%.

"F**k."

Midnight Howl couldn’t help but curse; the killing field system was truly frustrating, an objective seemingly within reach yet unattainable.

"Looks like it’s because the battery didn’t have enough charge?"

Red Driver hesitantly said, "The energy input into the left-side conduit leaked a significant portion through the right side.

This led to inadequate energy supply at the terminal."

Midnight Howl frowned, "But the problem is, the battery energy was originally being devoured and absorbed by this patch of grass!

From 100% down to 60%, are we supposed to make the grass spit it back out?"

"There are two other possibilities,"

Li Cheng, satisfied with the numerous wares that had been aged by time, spoke seriously, "One, there are two slots in the left conduit, meaning we need to find two batteries and install them. To make up the 100% charge.

Second, there’s a valve in the right conduit that’s leaking; we need to close that valve to stop the leakage.

That way, even if the final calculated charge isn’t 100%, we can still achieve the task objective."

"..."

The group fell into silence upon hearing this; both options seemed unrealistic. Apart from not having seen a so-called second battery all along,

Closing a valve on the right conduit? Didn’t they see that the closer to the leak, the more intense the time turbulence?

They would probably decay into dust before even getting there.

"My Telekinesis can’t get through that energy flow either,"

Zhao Zijing, regaining her composure, spoke solemnly. To test it out, she took out a brand-new steel bar and threw it towards the right-side conduit valve.

"Sha——"

The steel bar could only make it to within a range of twenty meters before it rusted and fell apart, unable to advance any further.

The golden energy stream seemed like a wall of sighs, dismissing all probing attempts.