Chapter 169

Alvin said, "But the scholars couldn't find the problem, so they could only send the data report to Dr. Mei, hoping she could interpret it."

"So that's how that report came about."

Ai Yue nodded thoughtfully, "And then the report was sent out, and then something happened right afterward?"

"Yes, Dr. Michelle ordered the Teleportation Gate to be closed after sending the report,"

Alvin recalled the scene and still felt a chill. "But at that time, everyone discovered that the Teleportation Gate could not be closed. Even if the energy source was cut off, or even some key parts and equipment were destroyed, the Teleportation Gate was still open."

"Because at this point, the Teleportation Gate is no longer under your control."

Ai Yue gazed at the still-operating Teleportation Gate on the other side and sighed, "I see. I roughly know what happened next—an energy burst that affected everyone, right?"

"Yes, an incredibly terrifying amount of energy erupted from the Teleportation Gate, instantly destroying all emergency protection systems and equipment, and then engulfing the entire experimental base."

Alvin said in a low voice, "Two-thirds of the members fell into a coma on the spot, and their physical condition began to deteriorate. The remaining people held on for a few minutes, but eventually they also passed out."

At this point, Alvin paused for a moment before continuing, "I was the one who lasted the longest, but I probably didn't last more than fifteen minutes. And then... that's now."

"Fifteen minutes?"

Ai Yue frowned. "Do you remember how much time passed between the Teleportation Gate malfunctioning and you falling unconscious?"

"Not long, you could even say very fast... less than half an hour?"

Alvin thought for a moment, then said, "So I was quite surprised to see you. Had I been unconscious for a long time?"

"No, judging from the state you were in when you were unconscious, it may have only been five minutes."

Ai Yue's expression was somewhat grave. "It seems the situation is worse than I thought."

Ai Yue didn't have a very accurate sense of time, but Prometheus told him that at least six hours had passed from when Dr. Mei sent the message to when he entered the area eroded by the Sea of Quantum.

If everything Alvin said is true, then it can only prove that the flow of time in this place has become very different from that in the real world, which means that this area is rapidly sliding towards the Sea of Quantum.

It could even be said that if this Teleportation Gate hadn't been open, this area would definitely have become World Bubble —and World Bubble of this size might not even last a month before collapsing completely.

By then, everyone present will have to die.

"Can't even you solve this, Doctor Ai Yue?"

Seeing Ai Yue's serious expression, Alvin also became anxious. "At the very least, you have to leave here!"

Alvin was not surprised by the outcome. He had known about the risks since he joined the project. He was not afraid of death, and he was even certain that everyone in the project team, including those seemingly frail scholars, was prepared to sacrifice themselves.

But Ai Yue is the one person who absolutely cannot be harmed.

Not to mention, the other party shouldn't have been here in the first place; he risked coming here to save them.

If anything were to happen to Ai Yue because of them, Alvin would truly be guilty beyond redemption.

"Don't be nervous, things haven't gotten to that point yet."

Ai Yue smiled, then glanced at the distance and said, "It seems that others have woken up. Go and check on them, and gather them all together and tell them what's going on."

"I..."

Alvin wanted to say something more, but looking at Ai Yue's gaze, he could only nod in the end, "Yes, sir."

He was just a soldier, and even if he stayed here, he probably wouldn't be of much help. He might as well go and see if Dr. Michelle, who was in charge of leading the entire project in place of Dr. Mei, had woken up. If he had, things might have taken a turn for the better.

After the other party left, Ai Yue refocused his attention on the Teleportation Gate in front of him.

The console was broken before he arrived, and Ai Yue fixed it temporarily. There wasn't much of value inside, so the key to breaking the deadlock seemed to be this Teleportation Gate.

Although the Teleportation Gate issued an alarm, the scholars were unable to determine the cause. Does this mean that the problem actually lies on the other side of the Teleportation Gate?

Ai Yue then thought of the Teleportation Gate in his laboratory that had inexplicably closed due to a malfunction.

It seems I'll have to make the trip after all.

Alvin was helping a scholar who was gradually regaining consciousness to his feet. He subconsciously looked up at the central control room, only to find that Ai Yue was no longer there.

Suddenly realizing something, Alvin rushed to the observation window and saw the last corner of the white coat disappear into the glowing Teleportation Gate.

Chapter 46 Little brother, are you targeting me?

The Sea of Quantum remained as gloomy as ever, the entire space seemingly coated with an ambiguous black layer, causing everything to change its original appearance under this filter, yet blending together harmoniously to create a unique atmosphere.

However, Ai Yue didn't really like this kind of environment.

Of course, these are no longer the main points. What Ai Yue needs to consider now is how to find a way to piece this severely eroded fragment, which is about to fall completely into the Sea of Quantum, back together.

After adapting to the environment of the Sea of Quantum, Ai Yue turned around and observed the Teleportation Gate that was right in front of him.

According to Alvin's description, neither cutting off the energy supply nor destroying the key devices could close the Teleportation Gate, indicating that the Teleportation Gate was no longer under human control but was controlled by the Sea of Quantum.

So, how exactly does the Sea of Quantum maintain this Teleportation Gate?

Ai Yue stared at the oval-shaped white hole in front of him, a thoughtful expression on his face.

He wasn't puzzled about where the energy supporting the Teleportation Gate came from. After all, in the Sea of Quantum, energy was the cheapest thing. Even without relying on the power of the Herrscher of Binding, he could feel the immense energy converging here and flowing into the Real World through the Teleportation Gate in front of him, aiding the erosion of the world fragments.

However, now, an invisible boundary has blocked the torrent of energy, preventing it from getting any closer to the Teleportation Gate.

It is a "Binding Barrier" released by Ai Yue.

He carefully avoided the location of the Teleportation Gate prevent it from closing due to loss of energy—after all, it was not only his only way back to the real world, but also the only remaining connection between Alvin and the others and the real world.

However, before he could figure out what was going on, some strange noises came from all around.

Ai Yue tilted his head slightly and saw many Quantum Monster surging towards him from all directions.

It's unclear whether this was an instinctive reaction of the Sea of Quantum to the Herrscher authority, or a probing attack from the mastermind behind it all.

However, they could not cross the barrier set up by Ai Yue. Compared to humans with flesh and blood, these monsters, which were mainly made of energy, were obviously more afraid of the power of the Herrscher. Almost as soon as they entered the range of the barrier, they melted away like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun.

However, the quantum monsters are not even life, and therefore have no feelings of fear. When faced with the stimulation of the Herrscher authority, they will only endlessly charge forward, launching meaningless attacks on Ai Yue.

Well, it's not entirely meaningless.

Ai Yue frowned subconsciously—the power of restraint is not invincible; it has its limits. Moreover, Ai Yue is only a half-step Herrscher now, so maintaining this barrier is not easy. He needs to stop not only the endless Quantum Monster, but also the massive energy surging towards him.

While the power of constraint is the nemesis of energy, it also has an upper limit. In a place like the Sea of Quantum, which has almost infinite energy, it is obviously impossible to maintain it for long.

Once he loses the power to restrain him, Ai Yue's safety in the Sea of Quantum will drop sharply. Therefore, he must make the most of every second and finish what he needs to do as soon as possible.

But how can we break this deadlock now?

Ai Yue stared at the Teleportation Gate before him, motionless.

Countless Quantum Monster crashed against the invisible barrier wave after wave, and the barrier, unable to withstand such impacts, continued to shrink in size. Ai Yue was as if he were standing on a deserted island in the sea, gradually losing his place of refuge with the rising tide.

He only made a move when the invisible barrier was compressed to the point where it was almost touching Ai Yue's body.

He reached out towards the Teleportation Gate, his energy instantly boiling over. Clearly, realizing he couldn't escape safely, he intended to destroy the Teleportation Gate, sacrificing his own life and the lives of the people in the world fragments to stop the Sea of Quantum from eroding the real world.

But the mastermind behind it all clearly wouldn't agree to such a thing.

Just as Ai Yue's hand was about to touch the Teleportation Gate, a thick slab suddenly "grew" out from in front of his feet, separating him directly from the Teleportation Gate.

At the same time, countless tentacle-like things suddenly emerged from among the Quantum Monster, trying to trap Ai Yue. Although many of them vanished within the restraining barrier, this sudden attack became the final wave to break down the barrier. In the end, a few tentacles successfully trapped Ai Yue's body and tried to drag him away from the Teleportation Gate.

As the barrier collapsed, the monsters finally had a chance to touch Ai Yue's body. In just a moment, they could tear Ai Yue to pieces... right?

"Finally, they took the bait."

Despite facing such an unfavorable situation, Ai Yue smiled beneath his mask, "Luckily, you're all just average guys who don't have much of a brain."

This was obviously an atmosphere he deliberately created. Otherwise, if a mere half-step Herrscher couldn't even last this long in the Sea of Quantum, wouldn't the Imaginary Tree seem useless?

The next second, an invisible ripple spread outwards from Ai Yue, and wherever the ripple reached, all monsters were instantly reduced to ashes.

If it weren't for the need to break the deadlock as quickly as possible and find a key entry point, Ai Yue wouldn't have resorted to such methods. Fortunately, although the Quantum Monster might have some brains, there aren't many of them, which is why they were fooled by such clumsy acting.

Now, the crux of the problem has finally come into his view.

As the Binding Barrier spread, all the weak Quantum Monster turned to ashes in an instant, but the powerful monsters that had just intervened to stop Ai Yue's actions did not have time to hide again and were thus enveloped by the Binding Barrier.

If it weren't for the fact that the other party was concerned about the Teleportation Gate and thus revealed a flaw, Ai Yue would have been unable to deal with them for a while in the Sea of Quantum, where interference was extremely severe.

At that moment, he finally saw clearly the monster that had attacked him earlier.

Judging from its appearance, the opponent looks a bit like a jellyfish. Combined with its previous moves, it resembles a Quantum Monster that Ai Yue had seen in the game. However, the opponent is extremely large, with so many tentacles that it makes one's scalp tingle. It is clearly not a minor character that can be easily killed in the game.

More importantly, Ai Yue could clearly see that more than two-thirds of the other's tentacles were raised upwards, their tips protruding directly into the air, as if they were connecting to something.

Ai Yue instantly realized the significance of the other party's existence: to serve as an anchor point, linking the Sea of Quantum with the fragments of the world. In other words, the monster in front of him was dragging the entire experimental base into the Sea of Quantum.

It is extremely difficult to separate a part from the real world because the real world possesses integrity and self-repairing properties. Therefore, even if the energy of the Sea of Quantum can enter the real world through the Teleportation Gate and cause erosion, it is not enough to drag a part of the real world into the sea.

Ai Yue had been pondering how the Sea of Quantum managed to do this, and had prepared several different methods for it. However, the answer was simpler than he expected—it was simply dragging it by brute force.

This made him feel relieved, but also somewhat disappointed.

He thought he could learn something new, but the characteristics of the Quantum Monster, which evolved based on the situation in the Sea of Quantum, were obviously difficult to use as a reference.

However, the fact that the matter could be resolved so easily was naturally a good thing for him. After realizing that as long as he killed this Quantum Monster, the world could return to normal, Ai Yue no longer hesitated, took out his gun and emptied the magazine of bullets at the monster in front of him.

The most important thing when Quantum Monster is to first knock them into a collapsed state before you start attacking.

Although the Quantum Monster before him was more powerful than any Ai Yue had ever seen before, it was completely powerless to resist under the dual attack of the Binding Barrier and the Quantum Collapse Bullet, and was easily crushed by Ai Yue.

Only after his opponent turned into specks of light and dissipated into the air did Ai Yue look down at his hands—this was the first time he had seriously engaged in combat since becoming a half-step Herrscher.

He had never really felt the power he possessed, since he had spent over 95% of his life as an ordinary human being. Only now did he realize that he was no longer the ordinary person he once was.

It's a pity that the power of the Herrscher of Binding seems too... Taisu. Even the Binding Barrier is not visible, and it doesn't have any imposing presence when used.

Speaking of which, the Binding Barrier in comics seem pretty cool. How do you use those?

As Ai Yue pondered, he walked toward the Teleportation Gate that was already showing signs of shrinking.

After the jellyfish-like Quantum Monster died, the Teleportation Gate completely lost its stable anchor point and will soon dissipate naturally.

Once Ai Yue passes through this door and returns to the real world, then the matter will be completely over.

But things once again exceeded his expectations—

Just as Ai Yue was about to reach the Teleportation Gate, a strange and intense energy reaction suddenly came from behind him. This energy reaction was so intense that Ai Yue sensed its appearance from a great distance. However, it was also so fast that the Authority of Binding had barely been able to detect it before it had already reached Ai Yue, rendering the Authority of Binding almost ineffective.

If I can't dodge this attack, I might even... die?

Fortunately, Ai Yue's reflexes were greatly enhanced after becoming Fused Warrior. Realizing that this energy shock was enough to threaten his life, he managed to dodge the attack by leaping to the side at the last second.

However, the Teleportation Gate could not be moved.

The next second, a violent energy surge exploded on Ai Yue's face. Fortunately, with the protection of the Binding Barrier and the armor, the explosion did not have much of an impact on him.

But when Ai Yue stood up, the Teleportation Gate had completely disappeared.

The way home... is gone.

Before Ai Yue could even grieve over this fact, he immediately turned around and looked in the direction from which the sneak attack had come.

Ai Yue was not foolish enough to let his guard down in such a dangerous place as the Sea of Quantum, so his Binding Barrier remained active, only its range was reduced to conserve energy.

Even so, it is still the power of the Herrscher, the manifestation of the laws of the world—the opponent's attack can pass through the Binding Barrier unimpeded. This is partly due to the extremely high speed, which results in a relatively short duration of impact, but more importantly, the Binding Barrier is almost unable to interfere with the energy itself.

The power of the Herrscher of Constraint is essentially a power against Honkai Energy. In addition, although it can also affect various other types of energy, none of them are as effective as it is against Honkai Energy. Even so, due to the high power intensity of the Herrscher authority, ordinary energy simply cannot withstand the influence of the Binding Barrier.

Unless the energy itself is of a higher level than Honkai Energy.

That is, a force that is closer to the Imaginary Tree, or the origin of the Sea of Quantum.

For example—

The moment he turned around, Ai Yue successfully locked onto the person who had ambushed him from a great distance.

Although the other person's appearance was completely obscured, the black and gold color scheme was enough to identify them.

The messenger from the Imaginary Tree, a monster that directly wields the Imaginary Energy —this energy level should correspond to the Imaginary God Remains in the game, right?

Are you kidding me? This is Herrscher- level monster! I'm only a half-step Herrscher, do you really think I can beat it?

Ai Yue tried hard to discern the other person's appearance, but could not confirm whether the other person was an "existentialist," a "nihilist," or a completely new Imaginary God Remains.

After all, the other party will be his next enemy, so he must be well prepared.

But to Ai Yue's surprise, the other party not only did not walk towards him, but instead got further and further away from him.

Only when he could no longer see the other party with the naked eye did Ai Yue finally realize that this Imaginary God Remains did not intend to attack him directly.

It was as if the other person's appearance was simply to prevent them from returning to the real world.

Realizing that he didn't need to fight such a troublesome enemy, Ai Yue breathed a sigh of relief before looking behind him.