Campus Shooting Incident 174

After much persuasion, they managed to calm Ya Wen down and persuade her to find a safe place to take refuge.

Watching her departing figure, Li Aoz felt a little uneasy.

[Just now, her body shape began to distort, becoming like a spider...]

Previously, he fought against the White Knight of the Hidden Society. The opponent also had very obvious animal characteristics, but Ya Wen was more like a spider, while the White Knight was more like a shark.

The citizens of the [Hidden Society] are generally like this: they are humanoid in appearance, combined with certain powerful animal characteristics, and then their abilities are assigned according to their professions.

This unique social model seems to further highlight the power of a "Hidden Society".

"Judging from Ya Wen's condition, it seems that her mental state is unstable. Unlike other citizens of [society], the Secrecy's Citizen seem to have detached themselves from the core of [society], which makes them prone to paranoia and madness."

Just as the White Knight did, so did Ya Wen.

"I need to visit the Hunter Association's Abyss branch when I have time."

Li Aoz didn't believe that the 'hunters' who specialized in hunting down this particular 'society' wouldn't have kept records. Even if they didn't, it was fine; he could act as a whistleblower, sending this information over to warn people.

The most urgent task is to deal with the problems at hand.

He carried Dia Lan slowly and cautiously, finally settling down in a classroom on the second floor of a school building.

He removed the curtains, covered Dia Lan with them, Li Aoz used Element Architecture to generate cement to block the doors and windows. He then began to think about what to do next.

Li Aoz checked his experience and clicked his tongue inwardly.

He doesn't have much experience left right now, partly because players are generally busy with the Main Quest and will probably only start gaining experience after a version update.

"It's only enough for me to advance to the Epsilon-rank and complete my first species ascension... but the gap to the Zeta-rank is still too big."

Li Aoz bit his thumb, his mind racing with calculations.

He currently possesses a Stratum Advancement Ticket, which can directly elevate his rank, but if he uses it now, he will only reach the level of Epsilon.

The division of the Daoist ranks is extremely strict. Li Aoz once ambushed Verrazzi's Zeta-rank. He was able to survive the attack by relying on Bloodfiend Style, but that doesn't mean he could hurt the opponent. Even now that he has reached the Delta-rank, he doesn't have the confidence to go head-to-head with the Zeta-rank's Crescent Moon.

Moreover, Crescent Moon is a rather formidable opponent among the Zeta-rank.

Both being of the [Dominator] type, if [Ability User] and [Echoers] were to fight, the [Echoers] would definitely be at a disadvantage, as their roles are fundamentally different.

[Ability User] focuses on the development of Aoneng and the use of implants. They usually specialize in one or two Aoneng and are very strong. [Crescent Moon] can reach the Zeta-rank, so his proficiency in the [Crescent Moon] Aoneng is definitely above that of Li Aoz.

Unlike Verrazzi and his gang of businessmen, Crescent Moon is a typical chaotic and evil figure who takes pleasure in crime and killing. Even though he could have quietly sneaked into the school and stolen the three pieces of the Eye of Discernment's body, he still launched a terrorist attack on the school.

At least Verrazzi is a capitalist who abides by the law and has a bottom line; terrorists have no bottom line. Li Aoz wouldn't be surprised by anything they're capable of.

At the same time, the Zeta-rank is also a qualitative leap, granting them extremely high damage reduction effects.

Once you reach the Zeta-rank or higher, individual powerhouses are like real war vehicles; even percentage-based damage is greatly weakened, making them almost impossible for lower-ranking superhumans to kill.

Without reaching the same social class, Li Aoz lacked the confidence to confront them.

Moreover, he was still unsure whether Crescent Moon had reached the second stage of advancement.

The advanced class of [Ability User] is [Spellblade], which leads to the path of [Conqueror]. If Crescent Moon changes his class, then Li Aoz will not fight him at all.

[Echo] is positioned as an area-of-effect mage and information provider, while [Spellblade].

"Our primary goal should be survival. Let's see how Lao Huo and Lao Lu are doing. It would be best if we could contact them and try to survive as a group. That would increase our chances of being rescued."

Li Aoz activated the communication runes, but the Dimensional Barrier blocked the magical network, leaving no signal whatsoever.

The control over the field by Crescent Moon's Aoneng is too domineering. They can't contact the outside world, and the entire Trivella is probably blocked. In addition, the school's leadership team is all in outer space at the moment... If this continues, by the time they contact the powerful figures on White Candle Star, they will probably be doomed.

"No, we can't just sit here and wait to die."

Li Aoz tested it and found that the Echo Power cannot be blocked, which means he can contact people outside at any time.

But the problem is... he doesn't know any of the school leaders.

This is awkward. It's like a fire has broken out, you're holding the phone, but you don't know the fire emergency number.

Broadcasting directly would be possible—but that would be equivalent to telling Canyue that he is here.

Crescent Moon's goal is to steal the fragments of the Eye of Discernment. If Li Aoz were to reveal this, he would likely be quite unhappy.

"Oh, right, there are also people from the Help-Study Association..."

Li Aoz hesitated for a moment.

He will broadcast the news, and then all the Gravity Wave receivers in the Crystal Tower will know that he is in a clone. At that time, all the progress he has made will be in vain.

The mission to the Help-Study Association will be completed in seven months, and he really doesn't want to waste this opportunity in order to perpetuate his expertise.

There's nothing we can do.

After much deliberation, Li Aoz decided that he could only rely on the players.

He edited the mission information and sent it to the White Candle Star players who were obsessed with running and attacking, asking them to spread the word about the attack on Trivella as much as possible.

At the same time, he also assigned a group of players to retrieve the two Timeless Masterpiece weapons he had hidden in the [Hero of Pharassia] graveyard, ' Dust-Sealed Sanctuary ' and ' Tsu・Shadow Edge ', and to transfer them over via the NPC's trade panel.

Li Aoz needed to increase his strength as much as possible. He acted quickly, issuing various production orders to Trustworthy Village, especially to the biochemical base deployed in the village. Li Aoz ordered the Biochemical Pool to immediately produce his spare bio-armor body.

We don't know how many troops Canyue has deployed yet, but we should prepare for the worst. If necessary, we can slip away and escape. As long as we have the strength, we can always rebuild.

Despite making these preparations, Li Aoz still felt uneasy, so he sent an echo message to Olavier, the owner of the 'Heroic Soul' bar, to discuss the matter. He planned to prepay some commission and invite several legendary mercenaries of the Zeta-rank to come over.

"Hey, Mr. Lioz, how have you been lately? What brings you to contact me all of a sudden?"

"Let's not talk about that now, Mr. Olavier. How many Zeta-rank are Valkyrie Fortress?"

"You want to hire legendary mercenaries? What a pity, you've come at the wrong time." Olavier said regretfully, "The Zeta-rank mercenary group at Valkyrie Fortress took on a big job a few days ago and they've all disappeared. As you know, once you're above the Zeta-rank, nobody does mercenary work."

What a coincidence!

"It's such a coincidence. Right now, there isn't even Zeta-rank on duty in the mercenary alliance at Valkyrie Fortress."

Li Aoz doesn't think it's a coincidence.

The Zeta-rank native to White Candle Star is absent, as is the Zeta-rank of the nearest neutral force— Valkyrie Fortress.

This clearly indicates that someone provided Crescent Moon with detailed intelligence support.

His mind raced, mobilizing all available resources.

The fact that Crescent Moon dared to launch another attack must mean it had some backing; someone must be supporting it. Li Aoz paid Olavier to investigate thoroughly and find out who was supporting Crescent Moon.

Li Aoz even managed to communicate with Mr. Liu E through Gravity Wave.

'You brat, what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into now?'

Mr. Liu E scolded in an annoyed tone, "After the Valenkov incident, the Imperial Path Management Association sent people to question me, questioning whether I had truthfully reported the Path information of the [Echoers]. Do you know how long it took me to get rid of them—"

[Mr. Liu E, now is not the time to say such things.]

Li Aoz quickly said, "I'm currently under attack from the Crescent Moon. Since you previously studied Sequence Aura, do you know about the Dimensional Barrier created by the Crescent Aoneng, and how to break through it?"

"You Sequence Aura in your past life! A normal person only encounters one or two Sequence Authority in their lifetime, how many have you encountered already?"

Li Aoz counted them: Gravity, Calamity, Bloodline, Crescent Moon.

Uh, I have four inside me right now.

'... You fucking bastard.'

If it weren't for her cyborg body, Mr. Liu E would have almost choked on his breath. She remained silent for a while before sending the message.

'I've studied Aoneng at the Life Commune for 140 years, and regardless of race, the level of acceptance of Aoneng is roughly the same. Now I just don't understand— Lioz, what is so special about you? What makes these sequence authorities revolve around you?'

If all else fails, just consider me the reincarnation of Lioz!

'Nonsense! Where would reincarnation come from in the Abyss?'

Liu E said irritably:

' Sixth Layer Star Abyss, Layer Abyss, Realm Abyss, Zhou Abyss, Group Abyss, Nether Abyss, Source Abyss. A total of 13 Narrative Civilization, only narrative number 7, "Soul Hometown," has this mechanism, and narrative number 7 is in the Realm Abyss. Even if you're lying, you should at least draft a plan.'

Then I'll just consider myself different.

Li Aoz didn't care about any of that.

He actually had some guesses about his own identity, or rather, he had a different view of Star Abyss than that of ordinary people.

Perhaps, I really do have some kind of connection with ' Lioz '.

'Unconventional... heh, maybe.'

Liu E sighed, as if remembering something, and sent a message:

"There's basically no way to overcome the Dimensional Barrier. Either you destroy the holder of the Aoneng, or you yourself possess the ability to ascend to a higher dimension and then escape from that two-dimensional space—provided, of course, that you're aware you've been two-dimensionalized."

"Sir, I understand what you're saying. I can do it alone, but once I trigger the Dimensional Barrier, Crescent Moon will definitely notice me. At that point, two-dimensionalization might not be enough to destroy me, but Crescent Moon and his Implant Equipment Vanguard will definitely be able to."

Liu E was helpless:

"You brat, you think I'm talking nonsense? Let me tell you, this old woman really has no way to deal with your situation. Every Narrative-level Civilization has a headache dealing with Sequence Aura. We [gravity] Aoneng are already considered law-abiding. Other Sequence Aura holders aren't treated much better than hunted witches."

Li Aoz scratched his head.

This is troublesome... He really has to survive on his own.