Bottom of the Pit

"Physical enhancement... I hope he could survive the landing," Chen Jing murmured.

Inside the pit.

Nearly a quarter of the surviving hunters had chosen to shut off their cushioning thrusters early. The rest watched the crumbling passage walls around them with dread, silently praying that the carbonized puppet remains could hold on a little longer.

One hunter with a cross necklace around his neck simply closed his eyes, repeatedly making the sign of the cross over his chest with his right hand while muttering incomprehensible phrases like "Hallelujah, Aminos." It immediately made the atmosphere in the passage even more tense.

Just then, a section of the passage wall suddenly collapsed, leaving a huge hole. A massive hand pieced together from countless severed limbs and mangled remains reached out from within, seized the hunter who was making the sign of the cross, and swiftly withdrew back into the hole.

The prayer abruptly stopped. After half a second of silence in the team communications channel, several hunters began shouting, "Quick! Shut off these damned cushioning thrusters!"

Cheng Ming glanced at the passage wall in front of him, which was falling apart, and was wondering whether to turn off his own thrusters when the mysterious girl's voice suddenly rang out in his mind. "Call everyone over. Hold hands and form a circle."

"Then what?" Cheng Ming froze for a moment and asked.

"Shut off the thrusters and fall together. One second before you hit the ground, everyone activates their cushioning thrusters at once, setting them to maximum output to cancel out the momentum of the fall."

"Will that really work?" Cheng Ming asked.

"It should!" Chen Jing's voice sounded over the communications channel. "Although the exoskeleton will endure an enormous compressive force at the instant the thrusters restart, the core spine of