23: Chapter 23 Tentacles of an Unknown Creature

Zhou An smashed into the monster horde like a meteorite, the terrifying impact instantly shattering several nearby Bone-Armored Beasts.

The power gauntlets of his silver battle armor created ear-piercing sonic booms, with every strike capable of blasting apart the head of a mutant.

"Boss, that's playing dirty! How could you not bring me along for the fight!"

Luo Ning had jumped out of the hatch at some point.

She carried her repaired jetpack on her back and held the newly upgraded [storm energy pulse submachine gun].

"Rat-tat-tat-tat!"

High-frequency energy pulses fell like a purple rainstorm, slicing through the thick scales of the monsters below without resistance.

Those Tier 2 monsters that drove ordinary survivors to despair were like lambs waiting to be slaughtered in front of the two of them.

Meanwhile, the [Cloud Top Fortress] hovering in mid-air had activated its automatic defense mode, its dual cannons and cutting beams precisely harvesting threats in the distance.

With a single strike, the two of them forcibly tore a bloody path through the monster tide toward the altar.

"Quick! Head to the center of the altar!"

With a powerful sweep, Zhou An cleared the monsters at the altar entrance and rushed into the dilapidated stone building with Luo Ning.

The interior of the altar was not as large as imagined, with an energy sphere emitting a soft golden light floating in the center. Zhou An reached out and touched it.

[Obtained: Sky Island Core Crystal x 6!]

"Six! Still four short of the ten needed for the upgrade." Zhou An was a bit unsatisfied, but getting six for free in the gray fog was already a huge profit.

Just as they were preparing to retreat, the entire island suddenly emitted an extremely dull humming sound, as if some ancient behemoth were awakening in the deep sea.

"Rumble!"

The entire floor of the altar collapsed instantly. A dark purple tentacle, thick to an outrageous degree and covered in eerie eyeballs and slime, suddenly thrust out from a crack in the gray fog beneath the ground!

It did not attack, merely slowly sweeping across the ruins, but the pure malice and mental corruption emanating from a higher dimension instantly swept through the entire space!

Zhou An just subconsciously looked up at the tentacle.

[Warning! Suffering from indescribable high-level mental corruption!]

[SAN value instantly reduced by: 50 points!]

"Damn it!"

Zhou An groaned, his mind feeling as if thousands of steel needles had been shoved into it. His vision blurred instantly, and even the power output of his nuclear battle armor experienced a momentary malfunction.

Luo Ning, beside him, had it even worse. Her resistance was already low, and this single hit wiped out her SAN value completely!

"Ahhh!"

Luo Ning let out a shrill scream, her eyes instantly turning blood-red, and the muscles all over her body began to tremble at a bizarre frequency.

[System Prompt: Teammate 'Luo Ning' SAN value has hit zero, triggering passive: Blood Lock Berserk!]

"Run!"

Zhou An endured the excruciating pain, full nuclear power engaged at his feet, and he rushed out of the altar, which was about to collapse completely, like a cannonball.

"Hum!"

The terrifying tentacle seemed to notice their escape and suddenly lashed out in mid-air.

The gale it stirred up alone caused the [Cloud Top Fortress] hundreds of meters above to shake violently, its protective shield flickering wildly.

Zhou An carried Luo Ning into the hatch and slammed his palm onto the emergency ascent button on the main console.

"High-frequency cutting beam! Full power! Cut it off for me!"

The moment the fortress shot skyward, the brilliant cutting beam swept fiercely across the tip of the tentacle that was about to catch up to them.

"Screech!"

Accompanied by an extremely sharp, eardrum-piercing screech from an unknown creature, a roughly two-meter-long, frantically writhing tentacle tip was severed. Zhou An was quick-witted and immediately controlled the invisible grappling hook to drag that disgusting piece into his system space.

"Boom!"

The fortress's four ducted fans roared madly, pushing against the terrifying pressure, and finally, after a few minutes, broke through the 10,000-meter death line!

"Hoo... hoo..."

Zhou An collapsed onto the floor of the cockpit, disengaged his armor, and panted heavily, his back already soaked with cold sweat.

"What the hell... was that thing?!"

This kind of terrifying pressure was nothing that Tier 2 or Tier 3 monsters could compare to.

He didn't dare to stop for a second, maneuvering the fortress up to the absolutely safe airspace of 13,000 meters before finally relaxing completely.

Luo Ning was also still somewhat shaken.

The two returned to their respective rooms.

...

It wasn't until nightfall that Zhou An woke up from his deep sleep. His SAN value had fully recovered thanks to the combined effects of the [Little Giant] and the recovery bed.

He went to the main console and checked the system storage. The piece of loot cut from the abyssal monster was lying quietly in a separate slot.

Zhou An curiously clicked on the description.

[Severed Limb of an Unknown Abyssal Behemoth (Extremely Dangerous Item!)]

Tier: ??? (Exceeds current detection limit)

Description: A materialized product of the Abyss's gaze. Even detached from the main body, it still possesses terrifying mental corruption capabilities.

Property: After taking it out of the system space, the SAN value of all creatures within a ten-meter radius will decrease by 20 points per minute!

Usage: Extremely high-level biological research material, or... used for mutual destruction.

"Drop 20 points per minute?!"

Zhou An's eyelids twitched violently.

He had spent time below 10,000 meters before, and it only deducted 7 points per hour; this piece of rotting flesh could drive a normal person insane in just a few minutes!

"Good grief, if some blind fool comes to rob me in the future, I can just throw this thing at their face through the hatch; wouldn't that be winning without a fight?"

But it was better to keep such a dangerous item locked at the bottom of the storage forever.

He glanced at Luo Ning's room; it was quiet inside. Because she had triggered Blood Lock Berserk, her passive talent had entered a 24-hour cooldown period. This meant they couldn't go messing around in high-risk areas like the Abyss for the next two days.

"Let's cook first."

For the next two days, the two stayed obediently on the safe route at 13,000 meters, occasionally scavenging in nearby material rains.

It wasn't until the third morning that Luo Ning's passive cooldown ended.

The two did the same thing again, cautiously sneaking into the shallow layer of the gray fog.

Perhaps the last experience had exhausted their bad luck, as this expedition was exceptionally smooth. They found a small sky island that had just sunk, encountered no terrifying abyssal behemoths, and only had to clear out a dozen or so ordinary mutant monsters to successfully obtain the crystals from the altar.

"Another 7!"

Inside the [Cloud Top Fortress] as it burst out of the black fog again, Zhou An looked at the 7 crystals emitting golden light in his hand, and adding the previous 6, the total reached 13!

"All materials have finally been collected!"

Zhou An stood in front of the main console, looking with fiery eyes at the [Upgrade] button flickering with orange light on the system panel.

The materials he had long prepared were finally going to be put to use.