Survival Guide in the Age of Cataclysm

Chapter 98 Space Storm

Sensing the unusual sensation within his body, Xu Yang immediately thought of the [Guide].

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the abilities granted by the [Guide] were somewhat similar to those of the Lord of the Forge.

However, the [Guide] grants abilities much faster, with almost no time difference, while the Forge Master takes several seconds to generate abilities.

Perhaps it's because the "guide" itself is a part of me?

Xu Yang had some guesses, and then looked at the two skills. He had just noticed a detail.

The ability is not acquired at the selected level immediately. Since he had the panel open, he could clearly observe that the two abilities were upgraded from LV1.

"In that case, the magic system should first create the corresponding LV1 external organs, and then evolve the organs one by one in some way, with each individual organ as the main body of evolution."

The ranking system uses the entire body as the basis for evolution, including external organs, which is why magic levels increase upon advancement.

Essentially, it's a difference in the subjects of evolution, which also means a difference in difficulty.

Thinking about this, Xu Yang understood.

The magic system does have its merits; by focusing on improving just one skill, one can quickly build up combat power, which is much more efficient than the rank system.

The only trade-off is that it's not comprehensive enough.

Xu Yang looked at the panel.

As he had expected, the generation of magical abilities only affected the sanity attribute.

As this attribute increased, Xu Yang's perception of magical abilities became clearer.

Simply put, it gives you a greater sense of ease and confidence.

Even the most basic fireball seems to have the potential for development.

Xu Yang nodded inwardly; he had actually anticipated this.

"As expected, just like how the increase in strength allowed me to unlock the ability to sacrifice myself, magical abilities are essentially a kind of mutation. As the related attributes increase, the more I can manipulate them."

Immediately, Xu Yang had a thought, and a fireball instantly appeared in his hand.

The flame projectile, about the size of a billiard ball, suddenly rippled on its surface, and its shape slowly changed, transforming from a round shape to a flat one.

Then it spread out into a flat surface, transforming from a cluster of flames into a spread-out flame, but unfortunately it didn't last long before it suddenly dissipated into the air.

Xu Yang wasn't annoyed. He already had a development plan in mind; the rest was just a matter of proficiency.

Thinking of this, he sighed.

If the flamethrower itself wasn't already useless, things wouldn't have come to this.

Xu Yang looked ahead.

After completing the transaction, the Lord of the Forge sat calmly on the stone chair, his figure exuding a sense of dejection.

"Senior, how do I return?"

Now that the transaction is complete, Xu Yang needs to think about how to return to the source of the earth.

The distance between two planets cannot be crossed by walking.

The Lord of the Forge didn't reply, but instead asked a question, his tone tinged with suppressed expectation: "Have you... spent all your denars?"

Xu Yang shrugged, opened his palm, and said honestly, "I've used them all up, not a single penny left."

"..."

The Lord of the Forge looked at him and sighed slowly, "Leaving the fortress will allow you to return."

Xu Yang nodded slightly upon hearing this, turned and left the fortress, descending the fiery red crystal staircase as he pondered.

He did indeed have five more dinars, which have not yet been extracted from the guide, but these five dinars were used for other purposes.

As the Forge Master previously stated, each time the Miracle Forge is actively summoned, one denar must be consumed by default.

So these are the remaining five [Time Stop] opportunities. Although there are some limitations, firstly, they need to be in the isolation zone, and secondly, they need to be during the red fall period, but their effect is enough to offset these shortcomings.

When the time comes, the fixed payment of dinars can be used to upgrade the fireballs, so it won't be a waste.

Moreover, it's not that it's completely useless outside of the red-haired period; it's just that the [Time Stop] skill has been changed to the [Return to Town] skill.

If I were to fight someone in the future and be defeated in a fierce battle, I could instantly teleport to the Furnace Planet, then recuperate until I was in perfect condition, and single-handedly achieve the effect of a series of attacks.

"Hey, why am I only thinking about this kind of shameless tactics?"

Thinking of this, Xu Yang couldn't help but smile, but he quickly suppressed it again.

There is still one aspect of this plan that urgently needs to be verified.

Xu Yang walked through the warm flames in the center of the steps, step by step, until his foot touched the gray-white ground.

In an instant, my vision was enveloped by an endless expanse of darkness.

As he regained his senses, Xu Yang was once again swept away by the same force, flying at high speed through a pitch-black star realm.

It's like a light shuttle.

In a short while, they returned from the Astral Plane to the Earth's Source.

In the woods, Xu Yang stood on the ground. Not far away, a green troop transport airship was docked in an open space.

He quickly set the time, then smiled broadly.

"Including the time it took to reset the bracelet, the time difference between my round trip and the Earth Source is almost negligible. The idea of ​​a war of attrition is correct."

Yes, since we have just arrived in the world of the Miracle Forge, we cannot be sure how much time differs between the two planets. If the time difference is small, then the idea of ​​a gauntlet battle is naturally invalid.

Fortunately, the planet where the Miracle Forge is located is somewhat peculiar, and the time spent there is relatively short compared to the Earth's energy flow.

"It's really a double blessing; it has improved our strength and added more trump cards."

Xu Yang strode towards the airship.

Upon entering the airship, I saw my three teammates sitting inside.

Why aren't you replying to my messages?

Nearby, Ma Yue caught a glimpse of Xu Yang's arrival out of the corner of his eye and immediately initiated a chat request.

"I was on the road and didn't check the messages," Xu Yang explained, then asked, "Hey, by the way, how's the fungus's hunt going?"

He knew Ma Yue's temperament well; if he didn't change the topic to something slightly more useful, the other party could talk nonsense to him for a whole day.

It's truly terrifying.

Ma Yue wrinkled his nose, shook his head and said, "What else could it be? We failed. If we had succeeded, we wouldn't be going back now."

Old He said a flesh angel appeared, the same kind of flesh monster we dealt with before, but only a first-tier one. It gave the fungus time to escape, and it's estimated the fungus has already fled into those overlapping areas.

Overlapping area?

Xu Yang hadn't heard of this term before, but he realized what kind of place it referred to: "You mean a place like the Azure Sea?"

"Yes, those are the places where two spaces overlap. They could be sealed off before the red fall ended, but not now. The fungus can't be caught once it escapes inside."

Can't catch up?

Xu Yang frowned slightly, then suddenly realized that he had just returned from the Miracle Forge, and when the Miracle Forge appeared, it did have a similar appearance to spatial overlap.

However, after entering...

With that in mind, he directly asked the question: "Are these overlapping areas connected to other planets?"

"You could say that the key is actually the [space storms] in those areas. This involves more than just one planet. If the other side wants to escape, they can simply enter the storm, and the search area will suddenly become the entire universe."

Xu Yang sat beside him, listening in a daze, just about to speak.

Suddenly, Ma Yue smiled and interrupted, "You want to ask what [Spatial Storm] is, right?"

Over the past two weeks, Ma Yue has not only discovered that Xu Yang is extremely lacking in common sense, but also that he was the same young man he had brought into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs just a month ago.

However, that was during the Red Fall period, and the other party did not have the opportunity to witness the spatial storm.

Ma Yue pointed outside the airship and chuckled at Xu Yang:

"There it is."

Xu Yang subconsciously turned his head, his gaze passing through the glass window.

At this moment, outside the airship, in a vast open field not far away.

Rumble...

In an instant, several streaks of purple lightning flashed across the sky, a fierce wind howled, and dark clouds gathered like a tidal wave.

The shrouded area turned into a dark, pale purple, with subtle fluctuations in the air as it flickered between light and shadow.

Some monsters appeared on the ground, and some seemed to die quickly because they were not suited to the environment of the earth, and were devoured by other monsters.

Moreover, it wasn't just monsters. Suddenly, after a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder, a row of emaciated, hunched-over, withered corpses appeared in the storm and marched in droves toward the center of the storm.

Even if the details are not clear from a distance.

But Xu Yang felt a sense of déjà vu as he watched this scene, and suddenly sensed that the [Mental Countermeasure] had been quietly activated.

He had seen those withered, dried-up corpses—right when he and Fang Qi entered the Astral Plane.

This time, however, it's not genetic memory, but reality.

Then, the [Guide] quietly opened.

【The Wanderer】

[A being that dies after falling into the astral plane is less a creature and more a cosmic phenomenon. It can sense the location of its home planet and moves instinctively, possessing a slight allure to other life forms.]

[Note: For all eternity, I will never see my homeland again.]

……

"Those are wanderers. If you feel you can't control yourself, don't look at them. They're heading to a place called the Astral Plane, which is the source of space storms."

Beside him, Ma Yue slowly spoke.

"Then... what exactly is the Astral Plane?"

A look of confusion flashed in Xu Yang's eyes.

Although he had entered the Astral Plane several times, he did not understand its nature, only knowing that he would enter this place during spatial teleportation.

but……

"What is the connection between this astral plane and space storms?"

Xu Yang frowned slightly, vaguely sensing that he was about to touch upon the biggest background of this world.

Upon hearing this, Ma Yue began to explain, speaking calmly and slowly: "The Star Realm originally meant a world where the starry sky is connected to the starry sky, through which one can cross from one starry sky to another."

It's like the dark side of the universe; you can find corresponding coordinates in the astral plane anywhere in the real universe, and any two places can be instantly connected through the astral plane.

"etc--"

Xu Yang frowned and interrupted Ma Yue: "What kind of logic is this? If every corner of the universe has corresponding coordinates in the astral plane, then why can those coordinates be connected instantly? You're grammatically incorrect!"

Ma Yue was taken aback, but then he realized the problem.

If there are corresponding coordinates, then moving from one location to another should require movement, just like in the real universe.

Does "instantaneous" mean that the coordinates overlapped?

Under Xu Yang's questioning gaze, Ma Yue immediately turned on the bracelet.

"Don't worry, I have a standard answer."

As he spoke, he flipped through the electronic documents. Unexpectedly, he was quiet for a while before pointing to a page and saying, "This is it."

Xu Yang moved closer.

The screen was filled with dense text—a document discussing portal technology and the nature of the astral plane.

Xu Yang squinted and looked at it once, twice, three times...

"It's a bit complicated."

The article does contain some speculations about astral coordinates, but these are merely the author's own thoughts.

Xu Yang felt that the authenticity of the document was still questionable.

The first viewpoint recorded therein differs from what Ma Yue initially stated.

The universe was born in the astral plane, but humans observed the universe first and then discovered the astral plane, so they assumed that the astral plane was also a product of the universe.

It's obvious that Ma Yue remembered it wrong before, or he probably wasn't very familiar with the document.

Regarding coordinates, I would like to introduce a concept: the corresponding cosmic coordinates in the astral plane have a duality, they can be overlapping or scattered, depending only on the angle of observation.

Xu Yang found the specific principles to be a headache.

This is something he couldn't understand, and the author himself wasn't very confident in this viewpoint, making the whole article even more obscure and difficult to understand.

Ma Yue laughed from the side, "It doesn't matter if you don't understand. Just remember that a space storm is a temporary connection between multiple worlds through the astral plane."

The overlapping areas of the isolation zones are due to the persistent space storms, which caused parts of two of the multiple worlds to completely overlap.

For example, the Azure Sea is a combination of a landmass and an ocean planet, and at the center of the Azure Sea, there is a space storm that never stops.

If you want to enter the Astral Plane in the future, and you don't encounter space storms in other parts of the isolation zone, then you can enter those areas.

"Entering the astral plane?"

Xu Yang blinked and pointed to himself: "Me? Why would I go in there for no reason?"

"Oh, I forgot again, you only became a mid-level member during the Red Fall period, when there were fewer related missions."

"What mission?"

Xu Yang had already vaguely understood what he meant. After the Red Fall ended, there would probably be a batch of missions involving traveling to the Star Realm in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Suddenly, he remembered the one-time supply he received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after becoming a mid-level member. The life support garment was inside, and at the time he thought it was useless.

Then, in his genetic memory, Fang Qi had him wear this outfit the first time he entered the Astral Plane, which enabled him to survive in the Astral Plane.

"Life-sustaining suits are for maintaining life in the bizarre environment of the astral plane, which means the Ministry of Foreign Affairs implicitly approves that mid-level members are carrying out missions related to the astral plane."

Xu Yang couldn't help but grumble inwardly.

Immediately afterwards, Ma Yue's reply came from the side, confirming Xu Yang's idea.

"It's just some missions to other planets. The settlements don't have interstellar teleportation routes, so we can only transfer via astral transfer."

"No, what kind of mission would require going to another planet?"

Ma Yue chuckled and said, "It must be a good mission, the price is super high."

He composed himself and continued:

"For example, some of the companies in those giant cities have directly cooperated with the Federation to develop lures, such as the currently very popular 'Dragon Heart Potion'."

It started as a commission from Z-God, where someone captured a dragon from another planet and created it; I think it was called something like the Decaying Dragon or the Extinction Dragon.

Xu Yang also remembered that this seemed to be the drug-like lure he had seen when he went to sell guns to the unscrupulous businessman Cole.

"But these companies are all cooperating directly with the Federation, so why not let the Star Force take action? Why issue a commission? After all, the Lure is something that can benefit all of humanity; outsourcing it is too inefficient."

Upon realizing this, he immediately asked:

"Why not let the Astral Army take action? It doesn't make sense for freelancers like us to develop humanity's evolutionary industry. Shouldn't the military handle this directly?"

"They must be too busy."

"What are you busy doing?"

Ma Yue scratched his head and recalled briefly, "I don't know, I've just been busy with two things, one of which I heard is related to the Star Realm, but I don't know the specifics."

"And the other one?"

Ma Yue replied: "Control the universe, annihilate civilization."