Free Web NovelBai Nine stood before {Academic Intelligence}, swallowing nervously. She lowered her head and murmured, “Six jie, my life is now in your hands.”
“Tsk, what are you saying?” Zhou Six sighed impatiently. “Has Six jie ever harmed you?”
“No, it’s just... this is too difficult to comprehend,” Bai Nine said. “A substance cold enough to freeze flesh, but innocuous so long as you shake it off within two seconds... How is that any different from the famed three-second rule?”
“Tsk...” Zhou Six finally understood Bai Nine’s hesitation. “Xiao Nine, since you’re personally catching the ball, I’ll tell you the principle I heard.”
Bai Nine slowly extended her arms, imitating Qiao Jiajin, facing {Academic Intelligence} as if confronting an enemy.
“Six jie, please explain.”
“That lei-whatever effect refers to this: if a substance of extreme cold suddenly contacts something far above its boiling point, it does not instantly boil or evaporate. Instead, an insulating vapor layer forms on the surface. This vapor layer envelops the substance, allowing it to move unpredictably for a short time.”
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“Huh...?”
“The substance you’re dealing with is probably {Liquid Nitrogen}, which has a boiling point of minus one hundred ninety degrees Celsius. Tsk, a human palm is far too hot for it, so it triggers that lei-whatever effect. This causes the liquid nitrogen to roll and tumble across your hand briefly without immediately harming your body. Now do you understand?”
Bai Nine swallowed lightly. “The Leidenfrost Effect... How is it possible for one to commit something like that to memory and then actually put it to use...?”
“Tsk, aren’t you using it already?” Zhou Six said. “Just follow through. We’ll be there soon.”
Bai Nine nodded and began staring intently at {Academic Intelligence}.
“Nine jie...” Qiu Twenty-One beside her asked with concern, “can this really work?”
“Yes,” Bai Nine replied. “I fully trust Six jie now.”
The mechanism trembled slightly. After all, it was a mechanism; {Academic Intelligence} gave no warning and immediately shot out a pure white cold sphere.
This time, the ball did not fly toward Bai Nine, but instead headed for Qiu Twenty.
Qiu Twenty held a terror of this inexplicable ball; in that split second, he froze, utterly failing to react.
Bai Nine had anticipated this. She ran forward two steps, grabbed Qiu Twenty to pull him aside, then rose onto her toes and struck the fist-sized white ball with her raised fist.
{Crack}!
The fragile sphere shattered under the impact of Bai Nine’s small fist, spilling liquid nitrogen. Some even splashed onto Bai Nine’s body and face.
She immediately screamed, shivering violently. “AHHH!! I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die!!” freewёbnoνel.com
And that frigid substance, releasing dense white vapor, shuddered away from her and ultimately faded into a cloud of white mist.
Bai Nine lingered in place for a few moments, staring at the liquid nitrogen on the floor as it turned into icy white vapor, until it dawned on her that she was perfectly fine.
The liquid nitrogen had nearly drenched her entire body. Though Bai Nine felt intensely cold, she was completely unharmed. freewēbnoveℓ.com
“Eh...?” Qiu Twenty-One stared in astonishment. “Nine jie... you—”
“Exactly as expected!” Bai Nine remarked happily, slapping Qiu Twenty hard on the shoulder. “Hehe! Twenty, Six jie’s plan is incredible!!”
Qiu Twenty was about to smile in return, but then noticed the abdomen of Bai Nine’s leather jacket was beginning to frost over.
“Ah! Nine jie... your—”
Bai Nine now felt a chilling cold spreading across her stomach, accompanied by sharp stabs of pain invading her body. Furrowing her brows, she quickly looked down at her jacket. The leather at her abdomen had frozen hard as stone.
“How unlucky...” Bai Nine muttered, pouting. “It really isn’t one hundred percent fool-proof... but still, it’s much better than before...”
Without hesitation, before the frost could spread further, she reached down and smashed the frozen leather jacket, revealing her toned midsection.
{Shatter}!
Shards of the leather jacket fell to the ground like pieces of hard plastic.
“My jacket!” Bai Nine felt a surge of grievance. “This size is so hard to find!!”
“Uh...” Qiu Twenty blushed slightly as he looked at Bai Nine’s ‘stylish’ leather jacket, then averted his gaze. “Ni-Nine jie... I, I think Ten ge’s size is similar to yours... maybe after this you could ask him—”
“Xiao Jiang Ten...?” Bai Nine nodded. “Good idea! I’ll ask Xiao Jiang Ten for a jacket when I get back.”
Qiu Twenty nodded and slowly positioned himself in front of Bai Nine.
“Nine jie, without much coverage, it's best to leave the rest to me,” he said, warming up his shoulders. “If it’s harmless once shaken off, then I can manage.”
For the next while, Qiu Twenty single-handedly dealt with all the ice balls from {Academic Intelligence}. But he was excessively cautious. Each time he shattered an ice ball, he jumped and flailed as if electrocuted, until not a drop of liquid nitrogen remained on his body.
After dealing with the final ice ball and shaking away every bit of liquid nitrogen, Qiu Twenty, not entirely convinced, jumped in place several times only to lose his footing and fall hard on his backside.
“Irritant lad...” Qiao Jiajin, watching from afar, blinked blankly slightly. “What kind of acrobatics act is that?”
“Q-Qiao ge...” Qiu Twenty lay on the ground, laughing awkwardly. “Sorry, my foot slipped...”
They had successfully dealt with four stars in rapid succession. With just over eight minutes remaining, the game had passed more than half its course; this was undoubtedly excellent news.
After reaching the endpoint, Qiao Jiajin swung down from the wheelbarrow and walked to the side of the track, glancing at the shattered white balls on the ground. Soon, he frowned.
Neither the iron spheres from earlier nor the current white spheres bore any inscriptions.
“You big lan-joeng horse... ugly bastard... puk-gaai zai...” Qiao Jiajin muttered under his breath. “So many balls and not a single word? Did you write all the rewards on the earlier {coal balls}?”
The collective rested for a brief ten seconds.
Ning Eighteen lowered her head, swiftly piecing together the facts. When her eyes swept over the surrounding wooden devices, it was clear she had noticed something.
“Qiao ge!” Ning Eighteen decided to share her thoughts immediately.
“What is it?”
“The next round’s {balls} should carry so-called {rewards}, but it may also be more dangerous...”
“What?”
Ning Eighteen exhaled deeply. “The next round’s {star} is {Abundant Fortune}, associated with {Ji Earth}, governing {prosperity and wealth}.”
