Chapter 75: Allied Members Scared Away
Crack, crack...
The crystal ball enveloping the Twilight Palace rapidly fractured, like melting ice, large chunks of crystal falling into the bottomless circular pit below. For a long time, no sound of heavy objects hitting the ground was heard. These massive crystal chunks seemed to be swallowed by the circular pit beneath the Twilight Palace.
Soon, the crystals on the stone bridge and the Twilight Palace disappeared, along with over four hundred contractors.
What did these four hundred-plus contractors represent? They represented that nine adventure groups from the Reincarnation Paradise side were almost completely wiped out, five of them annihilated. Of the remaining four, more than half were dead. Two adventure groups suffered the worst, one with only five members left, the other with sixteen, shrinking from medium-sized adventure groups to small ones.
After the crystal ball shattered, the Apocalypse Paradise side did not take the opportunity to launch a large-scale attack. Instead, they retreated toward the outskirts of the ancient ruins.
This was Xi's decision. After creating the super-large crystal ball, she would be weakened for a period, making it an unfavorable time to start a battle.
The Apocalypse Paradise side did not want to fight, and the contractors of the Reincarnation Paradise side had no choice either. The Reincarnation Paradise side was on the defensive; launching an attack would lose their terrain advantage. Moreover, the enemy now outnumbered them three to one. A reckless assault would only lead to total annihilation. Holding the Twilight Palace was the wise choice.
However, not everyone on the Reincarnation Paradise side thought this way.
On the seventh floor of the Twilight Palace, while Su Xiao was finalizing the details of the "Big Pineapple Plan" with Yan Chen, a lone wolf approached Yan Chen.
"Yan Chen, what happened earlier? So many people died."
The newcomer was the lone wolf Grey Bear, the hateful guy who analyzed urine with his mouth.
Seeing Grey Bear, the OL beauty and Nai Tang behind Yan Chen both twitched their cheeks, wanting to laugh but holding back. After all, Grey Bear was one of their own key members; laughing out loud would be too disrespectful.
"Go ahead and laugh if you want. I've tasted weirder things than that."
Grey Bear grinned, revealing a full set of clean, flat teeth.
"Um... no offense, I'm just curious. What did 'that thing' actually taste like?"
Nai Tang raised her hand weakly.
"What did it taste like... Hmm, how to describe it? A bit salty."
Grey Bear raised an eyebrow at Nai Tang. Clearly, Nai Tang was his type.
"Hmm?"
Su Xiao looked at them with some confusion. He didn't know what they were talking about. The OL beauty leaned close to Su Xiao, a faint fragrance wafting over.
Through the OL beauty, Su Xiao learned the gist of the matter and looked at Grey Bear with slight surprise.
"Oral composition analysis? That kind of ability is rare."
Su Xiao didn't care what Grey Bear had tasted; he was just intrigued by the uniqueness of his ability.
"Pretty good, right?"
Grey Bear smiled smugly when he heard someone compliment his ability.
No one noticed that Bubu Wang was staring at Grey Bear in shock, his gaze seeming to say, "Damn, bro, I've got some fresh stuff here. Want a taste?"
"Grey Bear, you didn't come to me just to chat, did you?"
Yan Chen seemed to have already guessed Grey Bear's purpose.
"Of course not. I just came to let you know I'm leaving the Twilight Palace."
Grey Bear's body tensed.
"Oh? Why? Compared to outside, it's safer here."
Yan Chen smiled warmly at Grey Bear.
"Why? Because I'm a normal person. I don't want to fight alongside a bunch of lunatics. It's that simple. Who knows what you guys will do? I'm leaving for my own safety."
Grey Bear glanced at Su Xiao and Yan Chen. He had a vague premonition that these two would do something outrageous.
Grey Bear's plan was simple: leave the Twilight Fortress and move freely within the ancient ruins. That didn't mean he was giving up on fighting the Apocalypse Paradise side.
"Feel free to leave if you want. Why bother coming to say goodbye? Wouldn't it be better to slip away quietly like Lucky Girl and Bug Girl?"
Yan Chen still wore a smile, but Grey Bear sensed no goodwill in it.
"Heh... Can I really leave safely?"
Grey Bear sneered. The contractors in the Twilight Palace now were almost all abnormal. The normal ones had either died under the crystal ball or had already left quietly.
"Of course you can. Leave if you want, stay if you want."
Yan Chen shrugged.
"Alright then..."
Before Grey Bear could finish, he suddenly noticed a pair of eyes staring at him.
"Brother, do you have any objections to my leaving?"
Su Xiao's gaze made Grey Bear uneasy.
"Not at all. I'm just curious about one thing."
"What... what thing?"
"Nothing."
Su Xiao smiled and walked toward the throne at the far end of the seventh floor.
Grey Bear slowly made his way to the exit of the seventh floor. When he reached it, he found a group of contractors with varied expressions standing in the corridor.
After a moment of hesitation, Grey Bear stepped into the crowd. He remained on high alert, constantly watching his surroundings. Who knew if these guys would suddenly snap? Allies? Don't make him laugh. In Grey Bear's view, the current Twilight Palace was no safer than the second-zone maze.
Under the gaze of a pair of crazy or indifferent eyes, Grey Bear passed through a corridor filled with contractors.
When he emerged from the crowd, the back of his shirt was soaked with cold sweat. If Yan Chen or Su Xiao had given the order, the lunatics in the corridor would have torn Grey Bear to pieces without caring which side he was on.
Stepping out of the Twilight Palace, Grey Bear let out a long sigh. A black-shelled insect creature crawled out of the dirt. Grey Bear entered the second-zone maze to reunite with his teammates.
Soon, Grey Bear met up with his temporary teammates, Lucky Goddess Ada and Bug Girl.
"How did it go? What did those two say?"
Ada patted Grey Bear on the shoulder.
"Leave if you want, stay if you want. That's what they said."
"Really?"
Bug Girl beside her didn't believe it.
"Those lunatics actually let us go?"
Bug Girl and Ada clearly didn't belong to the lunatic category, so they had left the Twilight Palace.
"You called them lunatics yourself. How can you fully trust what they say? Just now, I felt those two wanted to kill me. Maybe I still have some use to them, so they let me go. These psychos—well, the one with the blade isn't a psycho, but he's strong. The smell of blood on him is heavier than the others. Those lunatics have completely awakened. Forget about the group leaders; they're all crap now. They only listen to the psycho Yan Chen and that blood-soaked guy."
Thinking back to the terrifying atmosphere in the corridor, Grey Bear stomped the ground, sending dirt flying.
"Let's not discuss that for now." Ada sat on a large rock and continued, "Even though we're not acting with those lunatics, our goal has always been the same. We left the Twilight Palace because it was too dangerous. Our current team setup is good. We can find opportunities to ambush small Apocalypse Paradise units, or wait until they attack the Twilight Palace and then use the terrain to block them."
The three-person team began discussing their next strategy. However, they weren't the only ones who left the Twilight Palace. Another group leader, Nasa, the golden-haired, big-chested mature lady of the Fantasy Village Adventure Group, also left.
"Sis, is it really okay for us to leave like this?"
Little Brother Tie Zhu looked back at the Twilight Palace with a guilty expression.
"Silly boy, I'm protecting your life. We're not lunatics, so we have no right to associate with them. Unless we're stronger than them, forget it."
Nasa was followed by over twenty of her group members. More of her members had survived, but some chose to stay in the Twilight Palace.
For some reason, Nasa suddenly felt a bit sorry for Xi, because in the coming war, Xi would be attacked with full force by a group of lunatics.
Massive explosives, live bait, Taliban players (Black Blood), suicide squad enthusiasts—in the current Twilight Palace, there was nothing Xi could imagine that couldn't happen.