Chapter 553

Christina wanted to follow Alice, but was blocked by an extremely wide ground crack in front of her.

She shook her head and turned to run in the opposite direction.

She ran, the ground cracked under her feet, red fire streams erupted into mid-air, and then turned into a rain of fire falling from the sky.

And Alice's figure disappeared completely.

Christina didn't know how long she had been running, only that she kept running, kept running.

Even though it felt like there was a drum kit in her ears, her lungs were burning, and her throat felt like it had been stuffed with razor blades...

Still had to keep running.

Her breathing became more and more rapid.

Suddenly, she seemed to trip over something, lost her balance, and pounced forward.

". . Huff—huff—huff—"

Am I going to die... Christina lay on the ground, looking at the earth in front of her, her brain in chaos.

Ground cracks and lava were in hot pursuit behind her, but she had fallen here, not only failing to get close to the "Black Hole Furnace," but even failing to catch up with Alice.

Is this the end...

Christina gritted her teeth, propped herself up with her arms, arched her body, and planned to struggle a bit more before the final fate arrived.

But until she stood up again, the weightlessness that should have followed did not come.

Did I survive?

When this thought arose in her heart, Christina suddenly realized that the surroundings were so quiet, as if the world's mute button had been pressed.

She looked up, raised her hand, and wiped the dust attached to the helmet back and forth, along with the mud mixed with snow water and dust.

The field of vision cleared instantly, and visibility increased a lot.

So, she saw—a hole opened in the sky.

This was not an exaggeration, or a metaphor.

The Foundation seemed to have built an invisible ring wall here, separating the inside and outside; outside was the "storm wall," while inside was almost still air, and she could still see the dim stars.

There were no thunderclouds here, no dust, no rocks hitting her face from time to time; it was quiet, pure, as if it had nothing to do with this storm.

And behind her, the nearly black storm was still rotating, bright red was leaping within it, and a bright rift valley stopped in the storm, not following along.

Such a distinct boundary was like a miracle, beyond Christina's cognition.

She attributed it to some mysterious technology of the Foundation.

Since the Foundation had built a mysterious facility, it seemed plausible to control the weather to protect and hide it.

As for Alice, if she were here, she would recognize the truth of this spectacle at first glance—the eye of the storm, the oasis area in the storm, and the destination of their trip.

"Did I succeed? Did I pass through the 'storm wall'?"

Christina was very surprised; she still found it hard to believe that she had just stumbled in like this?

But where was the "Black Hole Furnace" that "Drifter" mentioned?

She looked into the distance, and then in the darkness, she vaguely saw a building towering into the clouds.

That should probably... be the "Black Hole Furnace"?

Christina: "But what about Miss Alice?"

She thought for a little while.

"If the principle of Miss Alice operating the photo is the same as reality warping..."

"Then if I stabilize myself, will she pull herself over when she pulls me through the photo?"

Thinking of this, Christina activated the temporary reality anchor, and then pressed the distress button.

"Five seconds. Should be enough."

The process of reverse summoning didn't go wrong; Alice was dragged over by Christina, and no abnormalities appeared on Christina.

Sitting on the ground, Alice panted heavily; she felt terrible.

Running around like a headless fly in a storm where she couldn't tell east from west, and having to pay attention to the constantly cracking earth to avoid stepping into magma and burning to ash.

Fortunately, Christina used her ability in reverse, so she didn't get lost in the damn storm...

Alice thought while climbing up from the ground and patting the dust off her body.

From the moment she came in, she saw the huge shadow hidden in the darkness in the distance; that was undoubtedly a giant building.

Time to act.

Alice and Christina walked all the way until they could see the details of the building.

It was an irregular polygon, the structure was intact, but the outer wall had long since peeled off, exposing the reinforced concrete inside and unknown cyan metal.

"What a strange building..."

Christina felt inexplicably tired; it was probably too stimulating just now, and after the adrenaline effect wore off, her body was a bit fatigued.

She didn't pay much attention to it, then commented:

"It's like it was built around the things inside, rather than the things inside being placed in it."

Alice nodded, deeply agreeing.

Just then, a silver-white lightning bolt pierced the storm, illuminating the gray-black clouds, letting Alice and Christina's hearing be occupied by thunder.

Boom, the earth began to tremble again.

With a deafening roar, the ground on the right side of the two opened a huge rift in an instant, and flames surged out.

This was not an accident, but the horn of the catastrophe.

Alice and Christina looked at the red rising into the sky in surprise, and then looked at the "storm wall" in fear.

The cracks that were originally blocked in the storm advanced inch by inch, and then accelerated suddenly, eroding inward.

Starting from the storm wall, the entire earth was cracking.

Alice grabbed Christina, who was still in a daze, and turned to run:

"Let's go quickly!"

The roar of the storm was left behind them, replaced by the trembling of the earth and the roaring of the machinery inside the site.

But the closer they got to the building, the more powerless Christina felt, until at some point, she could no longer keep up with Alice's pace.

"Wait a minute, I can't run anymore..."

Christina panted, switched to a light jog, and then into a slow walk.

Then, she turned to look at the storm and the cracked earth in the distance.

Thank goodness, they didn't chase like crazy this time.

She looked at Alice:

"You go ahead, I'll be there in a while."

Alice looked at Christina with some worry, thought for a moment, and patted her waist:

"Still the same as before, the photo can still be used."

Christina raised her hand to make an "OK" sign and continued to walk forward in small steps.

But as time passed, the feeling of exhaustion not only didn't ease, but became even more severe.

No, this feeling is wrong...

Christina realized that something must be wrong with her.

Normally, even for a longer run, she shouldn't feel so tired, and certainly shouldn't have failed to recover for so long.

—On the contrary, if her physical fitness was so poor, like the old-day college student in Alice's mouth, she would never have survived in the wilderness, let alone keep up with Alice's pace.

Inadvertently clenching her fist, Christina suddenly felt her fingers weren't as agile.

She stopped, unsealed her gloves, pulled up her sleeves, and looked at her arm.

Her gaze froze instantly—

The muscles had relaxed.

What's going on...

Christina raised her right hand and tried to rub it—perhaps relieving the fatigue would restore it to normal.

But after rubbing it a few times, a piece of muscle was torn off.

And she didn't even feel pain.

Christina was stunned, her brain went blank, she didn't understand what had happened, until the muscle turned into powder in the air, and her pupils began to shake.

Why... didn't it say that for a short five seconds, time wouldn't catch up with you... but why...