Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 210 - 199 VS Chen Long 3

Chapter 210: 199 VS Chen Long 3

Chen Long’s attitude had undergone a marked change; he had become extremely vigilant, and his attack frequency had dropped by more than half. If I were truly laughing, it would be normal for him to have such an alert reaction. Not just limited to me, anyone in the middle of a fierce battle who suddenly sees their opponent start to smile would likely suspect something fishy.

"Am I laughing?" I asked in response.

And perhaps influenced by Chen Long’s words, I detected an elusive hint of amusement in my own voice.

However, I was indeed in a very good mood.

"...Zhuang Cheng, what are you thinking about?"

In my perception, far away, the girl Lu Chan standing in the control room seemed somewhat bewildered as she said, "I suddenly find it hard to synchronize with your spirit. Your thoughts are drifting away from me, and I can’t read what you’re thinking..."

Maybe thoughts also have something like radio frequencies, and my current thoughts might not mesh well with the girl Lu Chan’s personality, which could be why the spiritual synchronization isn’t going so well.

I didn’t respond to her but instead replied to Chen Long first.

"I’m just happy that you haven’t been brainwashed." I said, "All your actions are the result of your own will, and I’m not fighting with a puppet controlled by Ying Lingyun’s strings."

Initially, on Chen Long, there was only the "Portal Armor" that warranted my undivided attention.

Now, however, it was different, I decided to give Chen Long serious consideration—regain regard for the person who for the first time had inflicted real pain on me.

If it was through interaction with someone like him that I felt the abnormality of the world I was in, what then would I taste when that interaction reached its most intensified point, the stage where I killed him? I knew my state of mind at the moment might be a bit perverse, but I felt that I had to kill him with my own hands.

As my power and attention became more focused on Chen Long, the enemy, the suppression of the reboot rewind phenomenon in the stronghold’s environment inevitably slackened, and the revival of the guards and researchers gradually stabilized. There was no reason for me to kill them now. After all, even if all the guards and researchers died, there were no earthquakes or spatial blurring phenomena in the secret stronghold, as mentioned by the girl Lu Chan before, showing that these people were not essential elements to constitute an independent real-world space.

Besides, regardless of the guards, both the girl Lu Chan and Zhu Shi had stressed to me that leaving the researchers alive would not affect my destruction of the independent real-world space, so it would be better to keep them. I had no interest in killing them needlessly.

"What do you mean..."

After hearing my reply, Chen Long showed a genuinely baffled emotion and shouted loudly, "Nonsensical!"

He launched a high-frequency assault at me again, with fists glowing white repeatedly bombarding me. "Bombarding" indeed conveys a much stronger impression than "hitting," yet it was not merely an embellishment when used concerning his fists.

Every punch that landed would cause an exaggerated explosion, destroying an area of the stronghold. Yes, not "a room," but "an area." The shockwaves alone were enough to shatter countless walls and floors, creating vast architectural cavities, only for the omnipresent power of restart to rewind and repair everything immediately.

After taking a few soul-shattering heavy hits, even I could feel my movements becoming sluggish, and the dragging effect of the power of restart on bodily movements made my speed, which could easily outpace Chen Long’s, lag behind. It would be simple to heal the injuries to my soul, but I was in no rush to do so; I wanted to let Chen Long underestimate me a bit.

So, how exactly should I approach the "Portal Armor"? Initially, I had been counting on the girl Lu Chan’s spiritual magic, which, though not quite the "equal conditions battle" I had envisioned at the start, was still somewhat equal given that Dr. Silver Mask’s power of restart was supporting the other side.

However, not being able to count on that anymore was also a good thing; facing two enemies as one aligned more with my original intention. The girl Lu Chan has helped me a lot so far, so let me fight this battle solo. And she had also given me a hint for the strategy—

That hint was "sound."

Chen Long’s "Portal Armor" could strike my Fire Element body without interference from my flames, and while using his feet to take leverage from the ground, remain untouchable by attacks. The principle it followed was likely some kind of bizarre logic that defied common sense description. Perhaps it was also the result of Chen Long developing his skills. But since he, like me, was human, and commanded his powers with human thought, there surely had to be adherence to common sense in the core parts. At least not every part could be against common sense.

For instance, since he was determined to launch an attack directly at me as the enemy, he first had to catch me with his own senses. In other words, he had to receive information from the outside world—he had to allow external information to enter his "Portal Armor."

Previously, when the young girl Lu Chan used the spiritual magic, which in principle could ignore physical space, it was still mediated by sound. As long as Chen Long didn’t pick up on the sound, it would be as if nothing had happened. But Chen Long did actually hear the sound and even responded. The only reason it didn’t affect him was simply because he truly wasn’t brainwashed.

So, was it possible that he only allowed the "sound" information to enter the "Portal Armor," and even during combat, he relied solely on listening to determine my location and movements? That’s impossible.

Although we were currently mostly moving through Flame Transmission and Shadow Transmission, many movements were accomplished through supersonic speeds. Since it was all "supersonic," he couldn’t possibly pinpoint my position by sound alone in time.

He must have been watching me, which could be inferred from the movements of his head when I moved. Moreover, just like his hearing, his vision was probably augmented through the superpower of All-Round Enhancement; calling it a "Demon Eye" might not be an exaggeration. And anyhow, if it’s about eyes, they need to receive light information, which means allowing light into his "Portal Armor."

The question was—"Can light enter the ’Portal Armor’?"—was this piece of information really useful to me?

It really was useful.

And it was critically important, for I was about to exploit this information to breach the "Portal Armor."

I could manipulate the transition between my Spirit and fire back and forth, and my flames, as well as the light and heat they generated, were the manifestation of my Spirit. When I "fought side by side" with Agent Kong in the past, the reason why Agent Kong wasn’t blinded by the sudden bright light from my flames was because the light generated by the flames, like the heat I controlled, had a "dual standard" nature.

Of course, thinking back to that moment, even if I hadn’t whitelisted Agent Kong, as a monster he probably wouldn’t have been blinded by the brightness of my flames.

What I’m trying to say now is, since I can produce light that is essentially a manifestation of my Spirit, and Chen Long has included light on the "Portal Armor’s" whitelist, does that mean I can stealthily transmit my Spirit into the interior of the "Portal Armor" and then transform that part of my Spirit into flames, setting them alight inside and causing an explosion?

I wasn’t very skilled in controlling light, and the technique of "reverting light back to Spirit" was something I seldom used. Fundamentally, my superpower was to manipulate flames, and the concept of "heat" in my mind was very close to that of fire, while "light" was relatively more distant.

With just a little effort, I finally began to get the hang of it and started sending light into Chen Long’s "Portal Armor"—

No, this step was entirely unnecessary. The inside of the secret base was already covered with a Fire Sea spread by me; it had become my domain, filled with the orange glow of fire. And my light had long since entered the interior of the "Portal Armor."

The moment the thought occurred to me, Chen Long, who was about to punch me again, suddenly shook violently and quickly retreated backward.

With his sixth sense amplified by the superpower of All-round Enhancement, he must have realized a great disaster was imminent. But, after all, the sixth sense is just that, and it’s not "seeing into the future."

In our last battle in the real world, he had been caught by my wrist, and despite being at close range to an explosion of flames, he hadn’t managed to avoid it entirely. Through various clues, I could infer that his sixth sense could only warn him of the emergence of danger, without being able to describe exactly how that danger would manifest.

Where could he retreat to? As long as he was inside this secret base, there was no escape.

As soon as I thought it, the light that had invaded the interior of the "Portal Armor" transformed into Spirit and then into fire. And just like a firecracker suddenly exploding inside a matchbox, Chen Long’s body, which was hastily retreating, suddenly burst apart. The "Portal Armor" disintegrated severely in all parts, like an exploding fruit gushing bright and hot flames from numerous cracks.

The spilling flames, like pythons entangling their prey, turned back to bite again, devouring not just the body but the soul as well.

"Aaaaahhhh!!!"

Chen Long let out a scream of unbearable pain.

At the same time, the "Portal Armor" collapsed into ruin. It seemed that to make it wearable for Chen Long, the inside of the armor was not made of portals, thus it could be destroyed from the inside.

The conquered "Portal Armor" rapidly disintegrated just like ordinary shadow substances I had burned in the past.

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