Ashen God
Chapter 260 - 259: Launch the First Tier Cleanup Plan

Chapter 260: Chapter 259: Launch the First Tier Cleanup Plan

The main reason Zhang Yanhang was worried was that he might encounter some special circumstances along the way, such as being separated by only a wall from several dozen constantly moving Crimson Iron Ants. If that happened, Zhang Yanhang feared they might have fled by the time he arrived and would trigger his Death Wave Skill in response.

Consequently, that would increase Zhang Yanhang’s Physical Strength consumption and correspondingly shorten his endurance time.

Nothing can ever be perfectly smooth sailing. That is why, considering the occurrence of some unexpected factors, Zhang Yanhang deliberately underestimated his endurance time; otherwise, even estimating it at seven hours would seem normal.

Just as Zhang Yanhang was contemplating the issue of endurance time, a Crimson Iron Worker Ant leaped down from the ceiling of the cave, seemingly attempting a surprise attack as it aimed for Zhang Yanhang’s head. However, while the ant’s body was still in mid-air, Zhang Yanhang reached out his right hand and grabbed its neck.

Crack!

Accompanied by the crisp sound of an exoskeleton shattering, the neck joint of the Crimson Iron Worker Ant broke, and its head fell directly to the ground while its body was casually flung aside by Zhang Yanhang.

[Successfully killed a First Tier One Star Monster ’Crimson Iron Worker Ant (Common)’ ×1, Soul Points +3.]

After taking care of the surprise-attacking Crimson Iron Worker Ant, Zhang Yanhang stood silently in his spot for a few seconds.

Although his Movement Speed had significantly increased due to his promotion to Second Tier, the refresh times for the Treasure boxes remained the same, still troubling Zhang Yanhang.

Just like now, though he had only killed one monster, he still had to obediently stand in place and wait for the Treasure box to refresh. This behavior was quite a waste of time, but unavoidable, as the earnings from the Treasure boxes were crucial for him.

If each wait could guarantee a Treasure box, Zhang Yanhang wouldn’t have any complaints about the time spent waiting for their refresh. Unfortunately, however, most of the waiting times yielded no rewards and merely resulted in a sheer waste of time.

Previously, it used to be that eight or nine Crimson Iron Ants would drop a Treasure box, but now it had increased to needing twenty Crimson Iron Ants to get one box. This change forced Zhang Yanhang to waste even more time waiting for Treasure box refreshes, and if the Treasure boxes could refresh instantly after a monster’s death, Zhang Yanhang’s hunting efficiency would undoubtedly be greatly enhanced.

After waiting for several seconds, there was still no sign of a Treasure box refreshing from the corpse of the Crimson Iron Worker Ant. Thus, Zhang Yanhang could only sigh silently and then ran off again towards a distant area.

...

Ten minutes later, just as Zhang Yanhang had expected, he had successfully cleared the area closest to the C-shaped passage. Now, only thirty-nine square kilometers were left to fully clear the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest.

Incidentally, after clearing this area, Zhang Yanhang casually activated Time Pause to reassess the route to the cave where Refined Crimson Iron was stored.

Don’t get him wrong; it wasn’t that Zhang Yanhang got lost—that would be impossible. He was merely delineating the areas he needed to clear next.

Including the area already cleared, Zhang Yanhang had divided the initial cleaning plan into eight sections, with each section averaging about one square kilometer in area.

Thus, if Zhang Yanhang wanted to complete the first phase of cleaning the Crimson Iron Ant Nest to upgrade his Pure World Fist in the Crimson Iron Cave, he must continue to clear another seven square kilometers.

"Seven square kilometers, estimating forty minutes per square kilometer," Zhang Yanhang calculated, "that would be about 280 minutes, roughly five hours." He remembered that the Transmission Channel could only be maintained for six and a half hours in total.

However, Zhang Yanhang had previously wasted thirty minutes in the Main World performing the Limitless Universe Skill to recover Energy Value before even entering the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. Thus, the Transmission Channel only had six hours of duration left by the time he entered.

Then, these six hours were further reduced by thirty minutes as Zhang Yanhang had to immediately deal with over two thousand surrounding Crimson Iron Ants upon entering the nest.

After that, another half-hour was spent digesting the gains from killing those two thousand-plus Crimson Iron Ants and, in parallel, using the Limitless Universe Skill to recover some Energy Value again.

"Calculating like this, before I even started formally clearing the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, the Transmission Channel already only had five hours of duration left.

Adding that I just consumed forty minutes clearing the first section, now the Transmission Channel actually only has four hours and twenty minutes of duration left, but clearing the remaining seven sections requires at least four hours and forty minutes.

Fortunately, I specifically took leave from school earlier; otherwise, if I could only clear the Crimson Iron Ant Nest during the operating time of the Transmission Channel, even six hours wouldn’t be enough to complete the first phase of the cleaning plan."

Zhang Yanhang felt his decision to take leave before entering the Crimson Iron Ant Nest was extremely prescient. Otherwise, if each cleaning session was limited to a few hours and then needed a five-day wait, that would be too troublesome and it would seriously hinder his promotion to Third Tier under normal circumstances.

Of course, in some more extreme cases, it might happen that Zhang Yanhang had already been promoted to Third Tier, yet this small-scale Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu would still not be completely cleared. This scenario was also very likely.

Zhang Yanhang had estimated his promotion time at three weeks, or possibly a month. Meanwhile, the Transmission Channel to the Crimson Iron Ant Nest could only be maintained for six and a half hours each time.

Even if opening it once could extend its duration by half an hour, Zhang Yanhang would still need to wait for three opening cycles, that is, fifteen days, to gather the total twenty-seven hours required to thoroughly clear the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest.