Chapter 297: Collapse

Just as the few of them were chatting, the ground suddenly began to tremble, pebbles on the road rattling and bouncing.

"Earthquake?"

Bai Ji Xiong hurriedly grabbed the handle inside the vehicle, steadied himself, and sat properly. According to Tina and the other survivors from another world, earthquakes usually meant the collapse and disappearance of an entire region.

"It's more than an earthquake."

Zhao Zijing pulled open the rear door and released her just-cooled 【Dot Matrix Detection】 skill.

One, two, three...

Dots of light symbolizing life energy lit up densely, drawing closer and closer. Zhao Zijing's pupils contracted sharply. She abruptly raised the walkie-talkie and barked in a low voice on the public channel: "Enemy attack!"

Thud thud thud thud—

Dense footsteps burst out of the fog. Tens of thousands of mutated monsters of varying types surged over the city ruins like wildebeest migrating across the African savanna, among them flying types and giant beast types over five meters tall.

'Damn.'

Zhao Zijing's scalp prickled. If they were still inside the building, they could at least rely on solid terrain to hold out for a while.

But here, ruins were everywhere, with no cover around them. If the monster tide crashed into them, they'd probably be worn to death.

"This scene is still pretty spectacular though."

Li Cheng gripped the steering wheel, squinted, and said: "Like one day you suddenly remember there's a box of cookies at home you haven't opened in ages, and when you open it, a whole nest of dung beetles bursts out."

"Could you not talk nonsense at a time like this?"

Fu Ding Hua Long's expression was tense, but his hands moved without slowing, rapidly sketching out a machine gun turret to guard the spot on the spot. He complained: "And why dung beetles instead of cockroaches? Don't tell me you were crapping in the cookie box?"

"How could I? Even flies know you shouldn't poop where you eat."

Li Cheng looked shocked, then suddenly changed the subject: "But you can pee where you sleep. Like in the middle of the night when you don't want to get up, just grab a water bottle and deal with it. If you've got diabetes, you gotta be a bit careful not to mix up the bottle with iced black tea or whatever."

"Afraid of drinking the wrong one, huh? Why do I get the feeling that the moment the topic turns to poop and pee, you suddenly get all excited?"

Fu Ding Hua Long's eye twitched. In the real world he was a literary youth who studied Chinese painting—his hobbies were calligraphy, philosophy, music, photography, and he talked all day about George Eliot, Kafka, Joyce, and the like.

But after spending too long with Master Pi Fu, he had an inexplicable feeling of being contaminated.

The monster tide covering the mountains and plains surged over building after building of ruins, drawing closer and closer. The players set up their machine guns and cannons, and just as they were about to open fire, Tina in the rear carriage suddenly said: "Wait, don't act yet."

Thud thud thud.

The monster tide surged forward in full force, but ignored the convoy of armored vehicles lined up in a long dragon, along with the humans inside them, and kept charging headlong.

Just like animals fleeing for their lives during a forest fire, with no time to hunt.

And from Zhao Zijing's perspective, the slowest-moving light dots at the very back vanished into thin air.

"Everyone, accelerate and drive forward!"

Zhao Zijing snapped out of it, grabbed the walkie-talkie, and shouted: "The collapse has already begun!"

Two seconds later, a deafening roar finally came from the fog. The entire stretch of earth abruptly sank downward, taking the buildings on top of it, along with the slower monsters, down with it. All that remained on the spot was a bottomless pit.

Li Cheng floored the accelerator of the armored vehicle, racing forward at top speed. Hui Yu also leaned out of the vehicle, liquefying his limbs into ramps when they hit obstacles, letting the armored vehicle charge over.

This was when the players' diverse methods came into play. Zhao Zijing released telekinesis to clear obstacles ahead.

Daolin Gray took a bottle of potion out of his backpack slot, smashed it on his armored vehicle, causing the vehicle to grow four long legs wearing black-stocking high heels, striding over treacherous terrain.

Li Cheng dug out a big speaker from his backpack slot, placed it on the roof, and played the theme song from the Fast & Furious film series to cheer everyone on.

This drew sideways glances from the other players, who wore strange expressions.

No way—Fast & Furious has so many tracks, why did you have to pick "See You Again"? That's bad luck, bro.

The group cut through mountains and bridged waters as they went, fleeing forward alongside the monster tide.

'This is definitely no ordinary geological collapse.'

Zhao Zijing split off part of her attention to look behind. As the ground caved in, the human-head balloons drifting slowly in the sky somehow also abruptly vanished.

As if they had been directly erased.

Thinking of this, she turned to ask Tina: "Has this kind of situation happened before? Monsters flying in the air are also being consumed by the collapse effect."

"..."

Tina, who was gripping the carriage handrail, paused for a moment before reacting, and said hesitantly: "The few collapses I saw before all finished collapsing in one go, not gradually like this one. Monsters flying in the air didn't disappear either."

Hearing this, Zhao Zijing's mind raced, pondering the possibilities behind the two different situations.

Twang!

A sharp, piercing snap rang out from behind. A player named 【Hyena】 stood up on the vehicle's roof, held a crossbow in both hands, and pulled the trigger repeatedly at the tall buildings on both sides of the road, firing metal spikes.

The spikes embedded into the reinforced concrete, and the motors inside automatically activated, pulling up a thin, high-strength steel cable suspended across the middle of the road, about 1.3 meters off the ground.

The monster tide, charging headlong, crashed straight into the steel cable—some had their heads sliced off on the spot, others were cut clean in half at the waist.

【Unit killed: Infected. Gained 40 experience points and 100 game coins.】

【Unit killed: Infected. Gained...】

【Hyena】 listened to the system credit notification sounds ringing continuously in his ears, the corners of his mouth curving into a silent, wild laugh.

This kind of open-and-shut farming opportunity didn't come often. In just this one wave, he'd netted over eight hundred experience points and two thousand game coins, leveling up on the spot.

Seeing this, other players followed suit. Taking advantage of the mutated monsters having no time to spare, they bombarded the monster tide wildly, harvesting quickly.

Someone even took out a custom rocket launcher and directly blew down a tall building, cutting off the road behind, causing dozens of monsters to be swallowed by the collapse effect.

Just as they were about to be caught by the collapse behind them, a lizard-like monster that had its hind limbs blown off by machine gun fire and couldn't move suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a glob of green mucus, hitting the rear wheel of the armored vehicle Hyena was on.

The mucus was extremely sticky, instantly gluing the tire firmly to the ground.

Hyena, standing on the vehicle's roof, swayed, hurriedly took a liquid nitrogen canister out of his backpack slot, and sprayed freezing gas at the green mucus, freezing it until it shattered, freeing the vehicle.

However, those few seconds of delay were enough for the collapse behind to catch up.

Seeing this, Hyena didn't hesitate. He kicked off the vehicle's roof, abandoning his companions inside the armored vehicle, as well as the few ordinary people riding in the rear carriage.

Accompanied by the cries for help from the rear carriage, the vehicle plunged into the abyss and vanished.

As for Hyena himself, he swung out a steel cable, hooked it onto the tail of another armored vehicle, and narrowly escaped the collapse.

"."

Sitting in Li Cheng's car, Xue Luomeng stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what she was seeing. If the Hyena hadn't tried to rack up points just now, it wouldn't have drawn the Aberrant's counterattack, and the ordinary people in that car wouldn't have had to die.

Yet in the end, it was the chief culprit, the Hyena, who managed to escape with his life.

"Using mortals as straw dogs — that's what Players are."

Grey Rain gave a whistle and said casually to Xue Luomeng: "Welcome to reality."

"That word is pronounced *chu*, not *zou*."

Li Cheng tossed off the correction, floored the accelerator, and sped past the city ruins. In the distant fog, that tower was faintly visible.