Apocalyptic Era: Starting from picking up a Bishoujo
Chapter 217 - 206 Sudden Change

Chapter 217: 206 Sudden Change

"I had already dueled with the real Chen Long and deciphered his ’Portal Armor’ under equal conditions, confirming his true inner self during the combat. For me, our confrontation had already concluded at that time, although I had no particular objections to the existence of Dream Chen Long, I simply couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to fight him again.

To put it less politely, this suddenly emerging Dream Chen Long felt somewhat superfluous in my heart, like being asked to ’chew on a sugarcane I had already chewed over once.’ Admittedly, Dream Chen Long might still possess some special abilities, and I was indeed curious. But that wasn’t enough to serve as a catalyst to ignite the flame in my heart. Let me reiterate, I am not a battle maniac and do not seek combat for its own sake.

Had it been the past, perhaps I would have eagerly accepted the challenge, or perhaps my tastes have just become more discriminating now.

Dream Chen Long seemed to interpret my attitude as provocation, bursting forth mana fluctuations of Great Success Rank.

The progress of his body outline’s transparency accelerated and the white light radiating from him grew even brighter, like a candle sacrificing its burning time for more heat. Incredibly, I felt his body becoming more solid, even casting a shadow at his feet. Centered around him, a real gale swiftly arose, blowing through my hair.

He was actually materializing. This was probably the power of the superpower ’All-round Enhancement.’ He was fortifying his own attribute of existence, forcibly elevating himself from the ’realm of illusion and dreams’ to the ’realm of reality’!

After all, he had breached the limit of a demon hunter’s Great Success Rank, and even if he wasn’t Impermanence, he could do things that reverse common sense to a certain extent.

However, by doing so, his remaining existence time would probably not even be assured for ten minutes.

"I must defeat you within the remaining time."

Shadows appeared and rapidly materialized into three-dimensional matter, instantly weaving into black armor that enveloped his entire body. Encased within the armor, he said slowly, "The method you used to defeat me last time, I have already deciphered. Don’t think you can still penetrate my ’Shadow Entanglement’ with light. This time, I am truly flawless."

Like himself, this ’Portal Armor’ was also indeterminate between reality and falsehood. But I could sense that it was only visually ephemeral, and in fact, Dream Chen Long should be able to temporarily unleash power equivalent to Chen Long’s when he was alive.

On the flip side, that was all there was to it. Without the support of the power of restart, he would have difficulty causing significant damage to me with a self-destruction tactic, much less defeat me within ten minutes. Moreover, since this wasn’t the isolated reality space, I could unleash my full power to dismantle the ’Portal Armor’ with overwhelming force. As for defeating the armor on equal terms, I had already done that, and naturally, I wouldn’t now be picky about the mode of fighting.

But to land a high-powered skill so clearly telegraphed onto an opponent was indeed no simple feat. Not only was I not in the mood to fight Dream Chen Long, but I also had more pressing matters that must be prioritized. After all, he would vanish on his own soon enough, and the nuisance of delaying him can be handled by someone else.

"Then, I’ll leave him to you, Divine Spear," I said.

Dream Chen Long’s expression showed surprise, while a thunderous noise came from a distance: "—Stop bossing me around!"

As the voice filled the space—strictly speaking even faster than the sound—the opposite wall of the laboratory was breached, and a figure wrapped in silver luminescence shot in like a cannonball, colliding head-on with Dream Chen Long.

Divine Spear had been lying in ambush around the vicinity of the Human Bureau’s old stronghold; his absence beforehand was possibly due to his reluctance to deal with those Monster Guards, but now with the power of Dream Chen Long’s Great Success Rank mana fluctuations erupting so recklessly, he naturally wouldn’t continue to stand by idly.

The impact of the collision shattered the laboratory and the corridor outside. Lu Chan and I landed on the floor of the level below, while Divine Spear and Dream Chen Long hovered above.

Despite the grandeur of the blow, Dream Chen Long remained unscathed. Divine Spear’s assault seemed entirely negated by the ’Portal Armor,’ and he was even met with punches and kicks in retaliation, forcing him to retreat a short distance.

However, Divine Spear promptly held his long spear across his chest to defend against the counterattack, not showing any surprise on his face, but instead like something had been confirmed resolutely, then spoke in a tone of assured victory: "I’ll take care of Chen Long... wait a minute..."

It seemed like only now did he notice the state of Dream Chen Long, his voice changing immediately, then he turned his head to look over. Like others, he evidently couldn’t see Lu Chan next to me but stared at me in disbelief.

"What did you do to Chen Long?" he asked aggressively.

"As you can see, the real Chen Long is already dead," I said.

"How could you possibly..."

He still seemed unable to accept it, while Dream Chen Long let out a great roar, "Divine Spear!"

Divine Spear, like the past Lu Chan, was his teammate, and the one he was most hostile towards was probably the Extraordinary Fanatic who harbors the intention to oppress the public in the future. He even cast aside me, his "murder enemy," and charged toward Divine Spear. Meanwhile, Divine Spear, partially distracted by my killing of Chen Long, was caught unprepared by Dream Chen Long’s surprise attack, and was struck and sent flying an unknown distance, like a victim on the street hit by a car with murderous intent. Countless walls were shattered along that trajectory.

I sensed the two of them quickly entangling in combat. Dream Chen Long was clearly very effective at restraining Divine Spear.

The current Dream Chen Long is like a door, allowing anything to pass through him, and Divine Spear’s "Guaranteed Hit and Penetration" was terribly ineffective against him.

However, Divine Spear was undismayed, and I could feel the tip of his spear slowly brewing and compressing a tremendous amount of mana. From my own experience, the Guaranteed Hit effect of the superpower had something akin to a Space Transfer effect, which is to say it seemed capable of influencing space. And abilities related to space could probably be used to overcome "Portal Armor," the "spatial level defenses."

Perhaps Divine Spear had a way to directly transfer his attack inside the "Portal Armor" using "Guaranteed Hit," or even tear space itself apart using "Penetration"... Regardless, Divine Spear joined the battlefield with knowledge of "Portal Armor," so he couldn’t be without a strategy.

Taking advantage of the stalemate over there, I turned my head to the young girl Lu Chan and said, "Then, I’m going to rescue my friend."

She too drew back her gaze from the direction of their battle and nodded. Then, her figure faded and vanished on the spot, while the silver medal in my hand emitted a faint white glow at the same time before settling down to dimness again. This scene looked very much like she had returned into the silver medal, her material embodiment.

I activated Flame Transmission, entering the secret chamber of the control room.

Although the old base had become a battlefield, this place had still not been discovered, and Changan was safe for the moment. He was still immersed in the container that resembled a glass vase. According to the past statements by the young girl Lu Chan, this container could only be broken by a force of achieved level or above. Naturally, that was not a problem for me now.

I just refined a hint of destructive intention, wrapped it around my right hand in the form of flames, and then slapped the surface of the container. The container shattered like a vase accidentally knocked to the ground.

Changan fell heavily onto the ground along with the spilling water. Perhaps I was a bit careless; he was completely naked and drenched, and there were fragments like glass shards all over the floor, so I wasn’t sure if he would get cut or have pieces embedded in his body.

At worst, I’ll apologize to him after he wakes up. For now, I should take him to a place away from the battlefield. The black fog Teleportation Door from Mazao was still open, and I could use flames to split another body to transport him to the Zhu’s mansion... No, Zhu’s mansion is now collapsed, so I should notify Mr. Zhu to come and collect him... While thinking about what to do next, I was about to pick him up.

And just then, something unbelievable happened.

Changan suddenly raised his left hand and grabbed my extended arm.

That would have been enough, but there was an obvious abnormal strength in his grip. I was currently in Fire Element form, with the bodily strength to easily shatter city walls with a punch, or flick away a fully loaded heavy truck with a single finger. And yet, being held by him, I felt momentarily unable to pull away, even though I hadn’t exerted much force and it certainly shouldn’t be like this. Such strength, it was of an achieved level... no, even...

Changan slowly lifted his face, his eyes opening. Those were not the normal black eyes of the past, but a gold color, glowing faintly like those of nocturnal animals, with vertical, beastly pupils.

He abruptly let go of my arm. I was about to speak, but before the voice could come out of my throat, I felt an overpowering force striking me. Without any warning, he punched right at the center of my chest.

Quite seriously, the force of that punch even surpassed Chen Long’s, directly sending me flying backward. The reactive force caused the floor of the dark chamber where he stood to collapse completely, and my body smashed through the wall, leaving the old base structure and flying out a kilometer away in the blink of an eye.

The attack nearly blew up my upper body and also caused intense, soul-wrenching pain and damage. In terms of soul-killing power, it was even comparable to Chen Long’s White Light Self-Destruction Fist.

In other words, this was an attack of Great Success Rank.