Surrounded on Three Sides

"What's the use of cooling? There are so many skeletons here. Even if each one is hit by the Rules suppression, it will be fatal!" Tao Yuan said.

Wu Liang's Scalpel precisely sliced several skeletons into bones of varying sizes, while simultaneously offering a bad suggestion. "Run towards the area marked with black lines, see if you can cause infighting."

"Isn't that too risky?" An Ying disagreed.

"Do you have any other ideas?"

Wang Ding turned back and repelled the strange creature again, saying, "Let's try!"

The group immediately turned and rushed towards the territory of the Black-Line Weird. It was at this moment that they saw the Weaver had broken through the encirclement of the Black-Line Weird and was also running towards them.

The Weaver was tall and took long strides; he caught up with them in just a few steps, clearly sharing the same thoughts.

But then, 32 sculptures surrounded them from the other side.

The two groups quickly met in the center of the cemetery, with nowhere left to retreat.

Caught in a pincer movement, Wang Ding immediately raised a golden token to activate it, tossed it into the air, and a bright yellow phantom appeared in the sky.

"Quickly, get inside! My energy can sustain us for at least three minutes!" Wang Ding shouted.

Everyone squeezed in. The area covered by the halo was only a small, square area, but fortunately, they had all shrunk, so they could still squeeze in.

However, there are exceptions; Modian fell short.

Lin Nieran looked up at the several-meter-tall Modian, whose head was already beyond the height of the energy protection barrier, with half of it sticking out.

And beneath his body, a circle of tiny babies surrounded him.

"Before, without comparison, I didn't realize how small we've become." Tao Yuan rubbed his neck, looking helplessly at Wang Ding: "What do we do now? Modian's head is still outside."

Mi Chuchu collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. After catching her breath, she pouted and said, "That height is so great, I want it too."

Wang Ding shook his head and simply took off his glasses, which had been hammered into a spiderweb pattern on his face. "This is the largest capacity shield against group Weird Object. It'll need to be used a few more times before it revives... Sigh?"

Tao Yuan: "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Wang Ding calmly put away his glasses, saying, "I just realized after taking them off that I'm not nearsighted anymore and don't need to wear glasses."

Qin Rang incredulously, "Is that even possible? Why would you wear glasses if you're not nearsighted?"

As they were talking, Lin Nieran tapped Modian's shinbone. Modian tried to squat down and eventually managed to squeeze into the protective Weird Object in an awkward position.

"Boom!"

The next second, the speeding Skeletons and the Black-Line Weird merged, and the 32 sculptures also approached.

Just when everyone thought they would clash or at least test each other, the three strange entities abruptly stopped just as they were about to converge.

The sculpture that was charging at the front and moving faster even got a little closer to the Black-Line Weird because it couldn't stop in time. The Black-Line Weird was so frightened that it retreated straight back. The black line, which was shaped like a charging spike, dented backward, as if afraid of hitting the eerie sculpture.

They all stopped in front of the energy shield, peering through the halo of light at the people inside, yet restrained themselves from doing so.

Being watched by three S-Class Aberration with eerie intent was a first for the even battle-hardened Calamity Crossing Squad.

"Shouldn't the first code between two weirdos be that they devour each other?" Mi Chu asked, sitting up while clutching her chest.

"Perhaps there's an even more terrifying, higher-level Rules above these strange entities that crushes them, preventing them from killing each other or even making contact," Wang Ding said solemnly.

"Who could it be? Only someone with an SS-rank rank could do that, right?" Tao Yuan said while taking out Bubble Machine to restore everyone's health. "But this place doesn't look like SS-Rank at all. The Authorities ranking is A-Rank. We've experienced rising to S-Rank before, but jumping to SS-rank just doesn't make sense, does it?"

Qin Rang couldn't understand the strange Rules or anything like that in their conversation, but that didn't stop him from thinking.

"If you're asking who could possibly control this Orphanage, it's only the Orphanage Director," he said.

"Orphanage Director..."

They recalled the Orphanage Director they had seen earlier that day; he was clearly someone from within the organization, how could he be behind the scenes?

Wait, is that Orphanage Director someone who entered the Instance with the rest of the organization this time, or a projection from before in the Instance?

Could it be that he, Qin Rang, and Lin Yi are characters from Instance?

If that's the case, how long ago was this organization established? What is the connection between the members of the organization and this place? Is it related to the World Weirdification?

The World Weirdification; could it be the work of an organization? Are they involved?

The moment this thought crossed their minds, they all broke out in a cold sweat.

Otherwise, why would they be so strong? Could it be that they already knew about the strange entity?

"What exactly does Wang want? He brought us all here; it couldn't be to see us all die together." Wang Ding then turned his attention to another matter, "Which of you saw him during the day?"

Everyone except Modian shook their heads.

Wu Liang said, "I've met Modian before, tell me about him?"

He was also curious about what Wang had done.

Modian stared with one yellow eye and grinned, saying, "I killed the Disciplinarian Director underground and then tricked them into taking me away from the underworld to the Cemetery."

Tao Yuan: "No wonder we didn't see many Disciplinarian Director when we went in."

Wang Ding nodded. "Nothing strange happened when the grid was blown up in the passageway."

So he was killed by Modian...

"Aren't you guys thinking about what to do in three minutes?" Seeing their conversation veer off-topic, Wu Liang waved his hand in front of them, the cold glint of the Scalpel causing them to tilt their heads back.

Of the Calamity Crossing Squad, An Ying was the most nervous. As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the Skeletons facing him, his expression solemn, and his Bamboo Umbrella was ready to block any attacks at any time.

Qin Rang and Lin Nieran also huddled together warily, looking very worried that the thin thing would suddenly break open and devour them.

In comparison, Tao Yuan, Wang Ding, and Mi Chuchu were incredibly relaxed.

"Isn't there really no other way?" Mi Chuchu looked at the sky. "There are still two minutes of safe time left, right? No rush, I'll rest a bit more."

Lin Nieran looked up, his gaze fixed on the area outside the light barrier. The small barrier was already crowded with strange creatures, and even the top was covered with Black-Line Weird.

Seeing the eerie sight of them being surrounded in just a few seconds, the group took a deep breath.

"Have you ever encountered this situation before? What are your chances of survival?" Lin Nieran asked Qin Rang.

Qin Rang's eyes showed a resigned helplessness. "Perhaps tomorrow night, we can be resurrected in this Cemetery."

Lin Nieran chuckled, "Don't be so pessimistic. What if we die and no one buries us?"

Qin Rang, his eyes drooping, asked, "Aren't you even more pessimistic?"

An Ying gently tapped the two children on the head with her Bamboo Umbrella, making them both cover their heads and glare at her.

"It's not time to think about that yet; you two will be choosing your Cemetery soon."