Entering

Huotan Road in the western outskirts of Dongjiang City was an utterly ordinary residential street with nothing distinctive about it. When Wang Zhifan and the others arrived in an Official Car from the Special Administration Bureau, they found that several officials in Dark Green Uniforms had already cordoned off part of the street, barring all unauthorized personnel from approaching.

"We're the Special Cleanup Squad assigned to this mission. Here are my credentials."

After the Official Car stopped outside the cordon, the three of them got out. Chu Wei, taking the lead, stepped forward to speak with the official personnel responsible for the blockade.

He was a slightly plump man in his fifties of average height. A Medal hung on the left breast of his Dark Green Uniform. After narrowing his somewhat cloudy eyes to verify the credentials Chu Wei handed him, a few traces of a smile immediately appeared on his previously meticulous face.

"Go on in. Please make sure to complete the mission as soon as possible."

As he spoke, the man stepped aside and raised the nearby cordon with one hand.

"Thank you. We won't let the country down."

Chu Wei nodded to the man, who seemed to have seen much in life, then led Wang Zhifan and A Liao behind her as they ducked slightly and passed beneath the cordon.

After they entered, the man in his fifties in the Dark Green Uniform outside the cordon watched their retreating figures and began murmuring to himself with some emotion.

"Youth really is wonderful... If I were twenty years younger, I could definitely join the new battlefield..."

Less than fifty meters into the restricted area, after turning a street corner, Wang Zhifan and the others quickly spotted an exceptionally conspicuous anomalous zone. It was a building shrouded in dense gray mist, its interior completely obscured from the outside. Several armed personnel in Dark Green Uniforms stood guard around the mist-covered area.

Chu Wei immediately stepped forward to speak with the guards. After she showed them her Special Administration Bureau credentials, they promptly allowed the group to approach the boundary of the nearby Gray Domain.

However, Chu Wei did not lead the others directly into the Gray Domain. Instead, she stopped outside it, turned around, and reminded everyone to prepare themselves.

"Brother Fan, A Liao, have you both changed into your equipment? We may have to fight the moment we enter."

"I'm done."

Wang Zhifan answered at once.

In fact, he had started changing his equipment as soon as they crossed the cordon. More specifically, he put on the Wolf Pelt Armor, which was somewhat unsuitable for the current season, took out the Berserk Bracers and wore them on his wrists, and retrieved the Wolf Slayer Blade from his Personal Space.

These practical yet unflashy pieces of equipment were what Wang Zhifan had decided to use while working as a Temporary Worker. As for his other equipment, aside from the Chapter of Gloom and Iron Mountain Belt, which were hidden in his collar and waistband respectively and were likewise equipped, everything else remained unused in his Personal Space.

He did this mainly because he did not want to draw too much attention from others. If he went fully armed—wearing gloves, several rings, and carrying a Fine Grade Handgun—his rather nouveau riche appearance would clash somewhat with his Lv2 elite persona.

"Captain, I'm ready too."

After Wang Zhifan spoke, the teenage A Liao standing beside him nodded as well.

Compared to how he had looked in the car, there was not much difference now, except that he held a rifle over a meter long and wore a pair of stylish sunglasses. Combined with his somewhat youthful face and the black uniform of the Special Administration Bureau, he looked exactly like a juvenile war criminal.

"Then let's begin."

Seeing that both of her teammates were ready, Chu Wei immediately nodded.

Then, with a light wave of her right hand, a long-haired figure abruptly appeared in the air beside her. Yet the instant it appeared, it shot at tremendous speed into the Gray Domain ahead, leaving the others no time to make out its features.

Wang Zhifan knew that had to be Chu Wei's Female Ghost summon. At the same time, he noticed something new: when Chu Wei raised her hand just now, he saw that a Silver Bracelet had somehow appeared on her right wrist. She had probably hidden it beneath her sleeve earlier, and it had only been exposed now.

"Inside is a grassy field. Within a hundred meters of it are several low-level Treant-type monsters. Prepare for battle."

A few seconds later, a stern, translucent woman's face with flowing long hair emerged from the edge of the Gray Domain before them. Chu Wei promptly spoke to Wang Zhifan and A Liao beside her. She had used her summon to scout the conditions inside the Gray Domain.

"Alright. In that case, I'll go first."

Having learned that combat would begin the moment they entered, Wang Zhifan, as a warrior, naturally had to take the front. After speaking, he drew the Wolf Slayer Blade in his hand and stepped into the Gray Domain before him, with Chu Wei and A Liao following close behind.

It had been several days since Wang Zhifan last entered a Gray Domain. More precisely, last time he had fallen directly into a newly formed Gray Domain before later being brought out by people from the Special Administration Bureau. This time, however, was a somewhat different experience.

The moment he stepped into the Gray Domain, Wang Zhifan did not feel anything unusual, as though he had merely entered a patch of fog. But immediately afterward, the tremendous difference between the scene before him and what he had seen from outside made his whole body jolt slightly, and a trace of tension arose within him.

It was a perfectly natural physical reaction. Wang Zhifan had never experienced anything like walking into a gray-mist-shrouded street building only to have everything before his eyes suddenly undergo a drastic change—from a hazy ordinary building into a dense forest stretching hundreds of meters in every direction, surrounded by a vast ring of grassland, with dozens of Green Twisted Monsters wandering across it.

This shifting scenery was somewhat similar to entering a Dungeon, but whenever he entered a Dungeon, there was always an intermediate period of mental disorientation. It was unlike entering a Gray Domain, where the scene changed abruptly, as if he had crossed from one world into another in an instant.

Creak, creak. As Wang Zhifan, now inside the Gray Domain, began observing his surroundings, the Green Twisted Monsters not far away noticed him as well. They all turned their short bodies and started moving toward him.

Wang Zhifan felt that words could hardly describe the appearance of these monsters. At most, they looked like ugly, stunted tree roots that had gained sentience. Each consisted of a main body and all manner of clawing, flailing branches growing from it, radiating an aura of life and chaos.

"I've killed plenty of animals, but this is the first time I've seen anything that looks like this."

As several monsters on the grassland came within ten meters of him, Wang Zhifan inwardly mocked their crude appearance while quickening his pace and charging toward the nearest one. Soon, streak after streak of silver-white blade light flashed through the Gray Domain.