Free Web NovelChapter 124: Chapter 118: Long-range Materialization Experiment
「November 15th. The underground base of the Strategy Research Room.」
Inside the laboratory, a majestic white mecha brandished a dazzlingly bright Power Sword, slashing down into the empty air.
SQUELCH! The corpse of a Sound Hunter, sliced in half, materialized and dropped dead to the floor.
It hadn’t been lured by a human, however, but by a scarecrow.
CHUNK—
The mecha’s cockpit opened, and a long-haired girl of about sixteen or seventeen climbed out, her young face etched with fatigue.
After she stepped away, the white mecha dissolved into a streak of light and vanished.
The girl glanced at the Sound Hunter’s corpse, her expression one of undisguised disgust, and quickly left the laboratory.
Dr. Zhang was standing at the door. When he saw the girl emerge, he smiled, handed her an energy drink, and held up his phone, which already had a message typed out: (Good work, Bai. Did a Communication Secret Scroll drop this time?)
The girl glanced at the screen, took the drink, and gulped it down. Then, she pulled her phone from her pocket and typed a reply with flying fingers: (No drop. Also, I’m out of Psychic Power!)
(I know. Go back to your dorm and rest. Come back tomorrow.)
(Can I just not come back?) the girl replied in a flash. (Those Sound Hunter things are disgusting! Even worse than snakes!)
Dr. Zhang offered a silent, wry smile. (That won’t work. Your Snow White Traceless can kill them effectively, and that saves a lot of attack items.)
(What a pain!) the girl replied, then turned and walked away.
Dr. Zhang shook his head, accustomed to the willfulness of the girl named Bai Xuewu.
It had taken a monumental effort just to get her to join the Official Team; she’d only agreed after being persuaded multiple times.
She couldn’t care less about a position others would fight to the death for. As a self-proclaimed socially anxious otaku, she thought it was far more interesting to stay home and watch anime.
After much back and forth, Dr. Zhang had finally gotten her to agree by promising she could form her own one-person team and would only have to communicate with him, no other official personnel.
He went to all that trouble because he believed Bai Xuewu’s mecha ability was exceptional. She had immense potential to become a top-tier Ascender and was worth the significant investment in her training.
Besides, you couldn’t force someone that talented to join. If you created a sense of resentment, they might just feign compliance and then backstab you at a critical moment, causing devastating losses.
In hindsight, his decision had been the right one. Bai Xuewu had demonstrated her high value in the subsequent Ascender challenges, and now again as she used the immense power of her Power Sword to slay Sound Hunters.
(Dr. Zhang, I should be heading back now, too.) A young man with a head full of curly hair and glasses emerged from the adjacent room, holding up his phone to show the text.
Dr. Zhang glanced at the young man and nodded. (Go ahead. Thanks to your ability, we’ve reduced casualties.)
This young man’s ability was[Grassman Doll]. It allowed him to consume Psychic Power to create a scarecrow. The scarecrow possessed human characteristics—it could speak and show expressions, the only difference being that its body was made of straw.
After the officials found his registered ability in their database, they immediately transferred him to the base. By using his ability, the scarecrow could replace human testers in luring the Sound Hunters, thus reducing fatalities.
(I’m just doing my part.) After typing his reply, the young man departed.
Dr. Zhang stroked his chin, thinking the young man was promising material. If his Grassman Doll ability were developed further, it could surely lead to new derivative powers. His potential was excellent.
Furthermore, his Psychic Power cap wasn’t low either. At over 110 points, he was considered top-tier.
As it happened, the Third Team had been shorthanded ever since Gu Fei quit. After a bit more observation, perhaps he could let this young man try out for the spot.
...
Somewhere in the wilderness, not far from a camp encircled by vehicles, five people in matching black outfits were observing.
Gu Fei looked toward the youngest girl in the group and picked up his phone. (Looks like that camp up ahead has something from the list. How many people are inside?)
Chen Na closed her eyes, activating her[Perception Realm]. The movements of all living beings in the vicinity materialized in her mind.
She opened her eyes and replied on her phone: (Thirteen people.)
(That’s it? I could kill them all by myself.)
Chen Na’s body trembled slightly when she saw the words Gu Fei had typed.
Gu Fei was about to move forward but was stopped when a young man wearing headphones raised a hand.
Gu Fei typed angrily, (What are you doing?)
The youth with headphones: (We’re getting supplies, not killing anyone.)
A cold glint flashed in Gu Fei’s eyes. (How do we get the supplies without killing anyone? You think they’re just going to hand them over?!)
The other two members exchanged a look but offered no opinion.
The youth with headphones: (I’ll go negotiate.)
Gu Fei typed forcefully, (Why should I listen to you?!)
This time, the youth with headphones didn’t type. He just stared into Gu Fei’s eyes.
Not to be outdone, Gu Fei glared back, but he soon found the strength rapidly draining from his body. An expression of terror crossed his face as he became too weak to even stand properly, nearly collapsing to the ground.
The youth with headphones withdrew his gaze, paid Gu Fei no further mind, and walked straight toward the camp.
Gu Fei stared at his retreating back, his face a mask of disbelief, wondering what had just happened.
Just then, another team member, a short-haired young man who’d been watching TV in the lounge earlier, typed a message to him: (I’d advise you not to pick a fight with him. His ability is stronger than all of ours combined.)
(What’s his ability?) Gu Fei asked. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Although the five of them had formed a team, the only ability anyone knew about so far was Chen Na’s Perception Ability. She hadn’t revealed it herself; a short-haired woman had told the others so that Chen Na could take charge of reconnaissance.
The other four had kept their abilities a secret. They all knew, however, that the others were far from weak; otherwise, they never would have passed the selection to form a team in the first place.
(I don’t know either. I just know he activates it with his eyes.)
(...)
Gu Fei knew there was always a bigger fish, but he had suffered too many blows to his ego recently.
First, his entire team was defeated by a single person in the challenges. Now, after joining a new organization, he wasn’t even a match for one of his own teammates. The feeling of defeat was overwhelming.
Thinking about it now, he realized that if these people had sided with the officials, he likely wouldn’t have been strong enough to become the captain of the Third Team.
He recalled Dr. Zhang cryptically mentioning this exact point: many powerful individuals in the civilian population were self-confident, even arrogant.
Some of these proud individuals were unwilling to join an official organization and take orders. That was why even members of the Official Teams couldn’t afford to underestimate civilian Ascenders, lest they suffer a crushing defeat.
Before long, the four of them watched as the people from the camp came out, got into their cars, and drove away.
They immediately went over and found that although the people from the camp were gone, most of their supplies had been left behind. It seemed the youth with headphones was right; he had somehow convinced the campers to voluntarily abandon their supplies and leave through negotiation alone.
(Send the coordinates to base,) the youth with headphones typed, instructing Gu Fei.
Gu Fei swallowed. Though he felt a surge of resentment, he did as he was told. He knew that from this moment on, the hierarchy between him and the youth with headphones was set.
If the team were to choose a captain in the future, it would undoubtedly be him.
...
「Mingdao Mountain.」 Guan Tong stood on the summit, gazing into the distance.
Time passed. Today was the 15th, marking half a month since the Rule Stage had begun.
During this time, he had been continuously using his Psychic Power to create Silver Hunter Bullets, killing Sound Hunters to acquire Sublimation Coins and Communication Secret Scrolls.
However, as his stockpile of bullets ran out, his kill efficiency dropped significantly. At this point, his output of Communication Secret Scrolls could no longer compare to that of large, official-level organizations.
As of today, large quantities of tradable Communication Secret Scrolls had been listed on the market, with the price fluctuating around 23,000 Sublimation Coins. It was possible to sell them for a higher price, but it wouldn’t be as quick.
Presumably, with the increasing supply, even the factions with vast wealth were starting to consider cost-effectiveness.
Guan Tong himself was more than satisfied. As the first person to test the waters, aside from the first two or three scrolls he’d sold on the cheap, the rest had all hovered near the peak price. He had even sold a few for around thirty thousand.
This had earned him a massive profit; his total Sublimation Coin count was now just a few thousand short of three hundred thousand.
But today, he wasn’t using his fully restored Psychic Power to create more bullets. Instead, he planned to try something else.
Namely, extreme long-range movement for his Shadow.
He’d had this idea for a long, long time and had even tested the Shadow’s maximum travel distance before. But back then, the Shadow’s movement was restricted by his own line of sight. It couldn’t break away from him, so it was unable to go very far.
But now that the Shadow possessed its own five senses, Guan Tong could have it spread continuously into the distance. He himself wasn’t sure what its maximum range was.
The reason he was conducting this experiment today was that the Ascender’s Home website was becoming increasingly popular. There was a surge in user demand for trading and commissions, and everyone hoped the site administrator would implement a feature for it soon—a "logistics" system as secure as the website itself.
That was why Guan Tong had decided to start experimenting, to begin the work of building his "Shadow Logistics" system.
He summoned his incorporeal Shadow and had it transform into its thinnest possible form: a Shadow Line, as fine as a strand of hair and only about 0.1 millimeters thick. One end of this gossamer-thin Shadow Line remained connected to him, while the other end shot rapidly into the distance.
Because the incorporeal Shadow had no physical substance, it could travel through the earth, which kept it hidden from sight.
Guan Tong directed it to travel continuously toward Yunhua City. Unlike its physical form, whose speed was tied to Guan Tong’s, the incorporeal Shadow was incredibly fast. It could cover a huge distance in the blink of an eye.
Once the far end of the Shadow Line was over ten kilometers away from him, Guan Tong temporarily halted its movement. Then, he attempted to solidify the Shadow.
SHING—
In an instant, the hair-thin Shadow Line turned from incorporeal to solid. Guan Tong paid close attention to the Psychic Power cost and was shocked to find it had only consumed a single-digit amount.
He was surprised at first, but after a moment’s thought, he understood why.
Although the solidified Shadow Line was long—over ten kilometers—its width was minuscule, only 0.1 millimeters. As a result, its total volume after solidifying was actually quite small.
It was like a young woman with shoulder-length hair. If each strand of her hair was about 50 centimeters long and 0.1 millimeters wide, and she had an average of 100,000 strands, the total volume would still be less than 400 cubic centimeters—that is, less than 400 milliliters.
What does less than 400 milliliters even mean? A small can of Coke is 330 milliliters. That entire head of beautiful hair would only have a few dozen milliliters more volume than a single small can of Coke.
In contrast, the Shadows Guan Tong usually manifested were on a 1:1 scale with his own body. Imagine how much volume that was. How many small cans of Coke would that be equivalent to?
This discovery confirmed for Guan Tong that the concept of long-range solidification was feasible.
Forget ten kilometers; a hundred or even several hundred kilometers would be no issue. He could easily extend the Shadow Line from Mingdao Mountain all the way to Yunhua City, over two hundred kilometers away.
However... Guan Tong didn’t get overly excited, because the problems with this approach were also obvious.
Keeping the Shadow Line as thin as a hair achieved a minimal volume, but it also meant the line was incredibly fragile. It would snap the moment it encountered any damage.
Furthermore, its strength was pathetic. What can a single strand of hair lift? If it couldn’t carry anything, how could he possibly use it to transport goods?
These factors made Guan Tong once again consider adding words to the first page of the[Wordless Book].
If he could add a word to give the Shadow Line extreme resilience, his "Shadow Logistics" plan would be one step closer to reality.
