Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 618 Power

Suspecting that someone else might still be watching him, Han Zu remained silent, intending to minimize the possibility of them gaining information. His gaze fell on the jellyfish-like monster's corpse on the ground, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the hilt of the knight's greatsword. The sword wound on the transparent, gelatinous body still emitted a pale blue gas. He didn't deliberately hold his breath; he knew this illusion wouldn't only affect those who breathed that gas. Even though the monster was dead, its dead body continued to create illusions. Twisted lights and shadows would still flash before Han Zu's eyes—burning bookshelves and floating armor overlapping in his vision, and even, seemingly from nowhere, the cries of children and the sound of metal scraping together, creating a turbulent flow.

Han Zu knew he couldn't use energy attacks to destroy the monster's corpse, so the illusions remained unresolved for the time being. He placed his greatsword on the ground, his hands on the hilt, and stood motionless, letting the illusions appear and disappear. He simply circulated his internal energy, using the sensation of its flow to pass the time. After some time, the chaotic illusions gradually dissipated, and the patterns on the stone walls of the secret chamber became clear again. Once he confirmed the illusions had stopped and the gas on the monster's corpse had mostly dissipated, Han Zu opened his eyes. After confirming he had completely shaken off the illusions, he sheathed his greatsword and bent down to examine the monster's corpse on the stone table.

After discovering the corpse was of little research value, Han Zu made no further moves, brushing aside the monster's remains and tossing it off the stone table. His gaze swept across the corner of the secret chamber, searching for any information he might have missed. A few minutes later, Han Zu spotted a half-piece of faded silk, inconspicuous in the dim light, embedded in a crack in the stone wall. He walked to the location of the silk fragment, picked it up, and noticed that its texture was definitely not from this era, but vaguely matched the material of the clothing of the recycling team he had found on the first floor of the library. Using the location of the silk fragment as the center, Han Zu began searching using his X-ray vision and perception of the contamination field. Sure enough, behind the crack in the stone wall where the silk fragment was stuck, Han Zu discovered a passable space, which looked like a hidden secret passage.

"boom!"

Removing his armor's gauntlets, Han Zu inserted his fingers into the cracks in the stone wall, using the fastest and most primitive method to forcibly tear open the wall blocking the secret passage. After discarding the fragments of the wall, Han Zu could see what the secret passage looked like. It appeared to be a small passage, about the size of a ventilation shaft, barely wide enough for one person to crawl through. The inner walls were covered with fine scratches, indicating frequent passage by people or monsters. Han Zu quickly measured the size of the passage and realized that he couldn't pass through it while wearing his armor. But at this moment, his ability to create a mist came in handy once again.

"Hu~~"

"Boom."

Han Zu, having transformed his body into a mist, easily slipped into the secret passage. However, his armor suddenly fell to the ground, which puzzled him. Although he had been in an illusion before, he was still able to enter the mist-like state while wearing the armor. After discovering this, Han Zu exited the secret passage, returned to his normal state, and began to investigate what had happened.

Upon closer inspection, Han Zu discovered that the metal on the armor had lost its original luster and exhibited signs of decay he hadn't noticed before. It seemed as if it had once again experienced a thousand years of stillness, only this time, it hadn't survived the erosion of time. Han Zu watched as the armor gradually rusted and crumbled; before long, it would be reduced to pieces of scrap metal. The internal lining had already cracked and crumbled into dust. Similarly, Han Zu detected no energy from this armor turning into scrap metal—except, of course, his own.

The influence within his own body might be the reason why the armor suddenly became like this, but Han Zu doesn't know how it happened. And most importantly, although the knight's greatsword that he had tucked into his waistband also fell to the ground, the sword itself was not damaged like the armor. The reason it fell off Han Zu was because the straps that were originally attached to the armor had broken.

The knight's greatsword didn't seem to be damaged by Han Zu's power, but to be on the safe side, Han Zu didn't use his mist-transformation ability again this time. Instead, he obediently carried the sword and climbed into the secret passage. Armor wasn't actually that important to Han Zu, but weapons were a different story.

The secret passage was filled with a damp, musty smell. Water droplets dripped from the ceiling and walls, echoing crisply on the floor in the silence. To avoid being trapped, Han Zu quickened his pace, prepared to breach the walls at any moment. However, things didn't turn out the worst; it seemed Han Zu was indeed the only living being in the long, narrow passage.

"Pfft."

After crawling for about thirty meters, the ventilation duct suddenly sloped downwards, and the faint sound of flowing water could be heard at its end. Han Zu adjusted his posture, landing first on the cool stone slabs covered by accumulated water. Before him was an underground passage about two meters wide, its walls constructed of bluish-gray boulders, with moss growing in the crevices, emitting a faint fluorescent glow that cast an intermittent light on the passage. This seemingly harmless, even somewhat beautiful, fluorescent moss was actually poisonous. Although not fatal, it would quickly induce a state of unconsciousness, similar to a deep sleep, in healthy individuals or those with low immunity.

In this passageway, where the water reached up to his calves, Han Zu saw several motionless monsters, and one or two that appeared to be members of the Ferdinand family's retrieval team. One of the team members was already dead; judging from the cause of death—drowning—and the lack of other injuries, this unfortunate fellow had likely been affected by the toxins of the fluorescent moss, falling face-first into the water and drowning. The monsters, though not drowning, were also affected by the toxins, lying sprawled or prone in the water, slowly drifting with the weak current.

Han Zu searched the members of the retrieval team but found nothing. They were completely naked, with nothing but their clothes. Even if they had arrived in a hurry, these people would surely have some knowledge of the area and wouldn't have come empty-handed, especially not with weapons or medical supplies. The fact that they were completely bare meant only one possibility: someone had taken everything from them. Han Zu hadn't yet encountered any highly intelligent monsters, which meant that the person who took their belongings was likely one of their comrades.

The few guys still alive in the icy water hadn't lost much of their body temperature, meaning they probably arrived here about half an hour earlier than him. It just so happened that he was misled by the illusion and left the secret room. This time difference meant that their companions might not have gone far, and he might be able to catch up with them.

Han Zu stopped, and the pollution field extended forward. Energy feedback indicated a fault line ten meters ahead, below which lay a bottomless underground river. A suspension bridge, just wide enough for one person to pass, spanned the fault line. The ropes of the suspension bridge were rotten, the planks were broken in many places, and the bridge surface was covered by water, at roughly the same height as his position in the tunnel. The water inside the tunnel was likely caused by the rising water level of the underground river.

After traversing the passageway and crossing the suspension bridge ahead, Han Zu saw a relatively intact stone gate. Behind the gate was a massive circular hall with a dome twenty meters high. A rusted iron cage hung in the center, and the floor was littered with remnants of armor and broken weapons. Around the hall were numerous archways leading to various corridors, and Han Zu heard muffled roars coming from inside and near most of these archways. Han Zu's arrival seemed to have attracted the source of these roars; they quickly emerged from the shadows and corners—a considerable number and a diverse array of monsters. They seemed to have been drawn to the vicinity of this hall by something. Now, he thought, perhaps they were the remaining members of the retrieval team. However, Han Zu didn't see their corpses or bloodstains on the ground or anywhere else, so they must have found a way to escape. They had inadvertently left trouble for Han Zu, who arrived later.

Han Zu quickly retreated to the inside of the stone gate, taking up a favorable position. His gaze swept rapidly across the horde of monsters. In addition to the various skeletons and drowned corpses he had seen before, as well as those giant insect monsters, there were several other kinds of monsters here. Some were the size of calves, their bodies covered in rotting fur, with dark green vines wrapped around their exposed bones, the ends of which dripped corrosive liquid. Others were pitch black, with only their eyes flashing red, their limbs long and their claws sharp as knives, moving almost silently. And from the archway directly in front of him, a three-meter-tall elemental creature slowly emerged, its entire body covered in a rocky carapace studded with sharp stone spikes. The ends of its rocky hands were shaped like stone axes, making it look quite intimidating.

Suddenly, three monsters attacked in a triangular formation, their claws whistling through the air as they reached for Han Zu's head and limbs. Han Zu slightly parted his feet, his greatsword drawing a semicircle in front of him, the blade precisely blocking the attack from the Shadow Claw monster on the left. In the instant sparks flew, he kicked the right Shadow Claw monster's knee with his left foot, while simultaneously twisting his wrist, the back of the sword slamming into the head of the monster in front of him.

The right Shadowclaw monster's knee joint was struck by Han Zu's immense force, snapping with a crack as it lost its balance. Han Zu spun around, his heavy sword slashing horizontally, cleaving it in two at the waist, black blood splattering onto the stone wall. Another monster, struck by the back of the sword, hesitated for a moment; Han Zu closed in, his blade piercing its eye socket, pinning its head to the ground. The last monster tried to use this opportunity to attack Han Zu from the side, but he pulled it from the ground and swung his heavy sword, cleaving it in two.

As he dealt with the three monsters, others rushed forward, their corrosive liquid splattering onto the stone door with a sizzling sound, sending stone chips flying. Han Zu pushed off the ground, shattering the floor beneath his feet, and leaped into the air. He swung his greatsword downwards, the blade severing the vines of the foremost bone-corroding beast and its neck. As the head hit the ground, Han Zu used his shoulder to brace against the monster's corpse, slamming forward. The thrown corpse became a mobile shield, blocking the acid from the following monsters and forcing them to stop their acid attacks.

The relatively slow-moving elemental creature also rushed to Han Zu's vicinity and launched an attack. Its massive, axe-like arm cleaved towards Han Zu's position with the force of lightning. However, the creature was indeed too slow; Han Zu simply sidestepped, dodging the attack, though he was still knocked back several steps by the shockwave from the creature's powerful slam into the ground. The flying debris and billowing dust gave Han Zu time to observe the battlefield situation. He noticed obvious cracks at the seams of the troll's carapace, seemingly caused by energy erosion—clearly old wounds from previous battles. It seemed the escaped retrieval team members had a way to deal with this powerful elemental creature.

"Stab!!"

While Han Zu was observing the battlefield situation, many more monsters rushed up. Han Zu swung his knight's greatsword, like a highly efficient killing machine, stirring up a bloody whirlwind among the monsters. Corpses littered the ground wherever he went. Apart from a few elemental creatures that were not easy to deal with, any monster hit by the knight's greatsword would be chopped into mincemeat by Han Zu's monstrous strength. After mastering the movement patterns and attack frequency of those elemental creatures, Han Zu gripped the knight's greatsword tightly with both hands and began to spin it, becoming a highly efficient meat grinder, crushing any monster that dared to approach the center of the storm.

"boom!!!"

"Kara!"

Just as Han Zu was rapidly reducing the number of monsters, an unexpected situation suddenly occurred to him. A dim, almost black orb of light, which seemed to have come from nowhere, suddenly flew into the battlefield and struck Han Zu directly as he was wreaking havoc with his Whirlwind Slash. The orb blasted him away, and the knight's greatsword in Han Zu's hand was also shattered by the force of the light orb, turning into fragments that were scattered everywhere. Only the hilt remained in Han Zu's hand.

The sword hilt was no longer of much use. Without his weapon, Han Zu had no intention of lingering in the fight; he planned to find an opportunity to leave. However, before leaving, he looked around, trying to find the source of the light orb, but unfortunately, within Han Zu's field of vision and the area covered by the contamination field, he didn't see anything suspicious.