Chapter 273: The New World
When a finger attempted to poke inside, it carried the thin layer of water along, like a transparent, elastic membrane that couldn’t be pierced. After reaching a finger joint’s depth, it could go no further.
Li Rui followed Tu Ran’s example and poked it as well. The water layer bounced back, pushing her finger out.
“Hurry up, I can’t hold on much longer,” Xiang Sheng said, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Just maintaining the barrier consumed her energy.
Tu Ran picked up the dagger from the ground, drew the blade, and thrust it at the barrier directly. It didn’t penetrate; the barrier remained intact and even bounced the dagger back. Tu Ran stepped back a few paces before stopping.
She hadn’t used her [Immense Strength], only the force of an average person, showing the barrier had a certain level of resistance.
Li Rui picked up a curved blade from the ground and, imitating Tu Ran, slashed at the barrier. It rippled but didn’t break.
“Amazing,” Li Rui couldn’t help but exclaim, switching to a spiked club.
Tu Ran tried an electric baton, delivering a few jolts, but it had no effect either.
The spiked club also failed to break the barrier.
Watching Tu Ran and Li Rui’s relentless attempts, Song Bai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Tu Ran then switched to a handgun.
She aimed at the barrier and pulled the trigger.
“Bang!”
A bullet shot out at high speed, pushing against the barrier upon impact. The barrier formed a visible arc before pushing the bullet back.
Xiang Sheng’s forehead veins bulged, and a few strands of hair on her forehead were soaked with sweat, sticking to her face as she focused all her strength against the bullet.
After ten seconds, the barrier broke, and the bullet pierced into the tree trunk.
Xiang Sheng couldn’t hold on and collapsed to one knee, blood trickling from her nose and splattering on the ground and her shoes.
“Sheng Sheng! You’re bleeding!” Li Rui rushed over in concern.
Xiang Sheng wiped her nose weakly. “It’s nothing.”
Tu Ran watched this scene and looked over at Song Bai, who was standing off to the side. She urged, “Quickly, try using your ability; the bleeding should stop soon.”
“Huh? Oh!”
Song Bai snapped out of her daze, immediately took Xiang Sheng’s hand, and pressed their palms together, closing her eyes.
A faint white light began to rise from their clasped hands.
Xiang Sheng felt a warm current flowing from her palm into her body, reaching all her limbs and restoring what she had just lost. The exhaustion that had nearly pushed her to her limit vanished entirely.
“I think… I’m alright now.” Xiang Sheng said uncertainly, touching her nose, which had stopped bleeding. “Xiao Bai, you’re amazing.”
Tu Ran picked up her weapons, returning them to her space storage, keeping only a dagger and a laser gun with her.
Watching the three of them embracing and praising one another, she shook her head helplessly. “Pack up, and let’s keep going.”
Although it was just the three of them—Xiang Sheng, Li Rui, and Song Bai—they had already formed a small team with clearly defined roles.
Xiang Sheng was calm, quick-witted, and adept at analyzing situations. She could take command and, with her abilities of [Realm] and [Super Jump], along with the skills Tu Ran had taught her—how to use a handgun, a laser device, and basic dagger techniques—she was now capable of both offense and defense, even taking on a leading role.
Li Rui, with her [Speed] ability and quick reflexes, had learned some basic skills from Tu Ran, along with bomb-handling techniques. She could assist Xiang Sheng as support and, if necessary, escape with Song Bai in critical situations.
Song Bai had [Healing] and [Judgment], which allowed her to act as both a healer and a strategist for the team.
Though rudimentary and pieced together, they functioned as a cohesive, operational team.
To help them grow faster, Tu Ran no longer accompanied them at every step.
During the day, Tu Ran would part ways with them, pointing them in the direction they should go. By nightfall, she would use her [Sense of Direction] to locate them again and spend the night with them.
This pattern continued for five days.
Each day, after parting with them, Tu Ran would use her [Teleportation] ability to reach other mountain peaks, sensing the location of alien creatures.
She didn’t approach directly but observed from a distance. If there were no notifications on her panel, she would move on to the next place. If she did receive a notification, she would charge in and confront them head-on.
In just five days, she had collected ten inner cores.
Four were intermediate, and six were primary.
Among the intermediate abilities, the only one of potential use was [Amphibious], which allowed her to breathe underwater.
Tu Ran hesitated about whether to keep it, as she already had six primary abilities with limited utility. If she acquired one more, she could upgrade them to a higher tier.
Finally, she decided to set it aside for now.
When she truly needed to use her advanced [Illusion Realm], she could always discard the primary abilities then.
Tu Ran then looked at her primary ability panel. With a six-to-one ratio upgrade for primary abilities, and having ten unusable primary abilities, she promptly sacrificed them to upgrade [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon] and [Mountain Collapse and Earth Crack].
Now, her remaining primary abilities were only [Absolute Hit] and [Dreamless Sleep].
She hadn’t used [Dreamless Sleep] yet and added it to her list of abilities to discard.
Tu Ran admired Xiang Sheng’s [Realm] ability and had always hoped to find something similar.
Her own [Annihilation] had a similar function, but it consumed significantly more energy than [Realm]. She needed a defensive replacement that could enhance her protection.
Unfortunately, she had yet to find one and didn’t have time to keep searching.
…
On the nineteenth day of entering the Threshold, Tu Ran sensed the presence of a “Gate.”
The energy fluctuations were intense, jolting her awake from sleep.
At dawn, with the first light breaking, Tu Ran climbed down from the tree where she had been resting, rousing the others. Together, they moved towards the place where the energy was most concentrated.
They soon arrived at a crater about two meters in diameter and half a meter deep.
From the look of it, this pit seemed to have been made by a large creature, as evidenced by the broken trees around it. Looking further, they could see a line of similar pits stretching out.
Li Rui squatted by the pit, craning her neck to examine the bottom. “It’s true; it almost looks like it’s filled with water. So… this is the Gate?”
She reached out to touch it, but Xiang Sheng slapped her hand away.
“Just look; don’t touch.”
“Sheng Sheng, you hit me~”
“…”
Tu Ran interrupted them, “Are you ready?”
“We’re just jumping in?” Li Rui shrank back, hesitating. “Shouldn’t we think this over a bit more?”
“What’s there to think about?” Xiang Sheng glanced at her. “We’ve already gone over every possible outcome—going back to the First World, traveling together to the Second, or even scattering across different worlds. There’s nothing more to discuss. We just jump and see where fate takes us.”
Li Rui pouted, “Alright, then. Let’s all hold hands and jump together; maybe that’ll increase our chances of landing in the same world.”
“Good idea,” Song Bai agreed.
Tu Ran had no objections.
The three arranged themselves with Tu Ran in the middle. She held Song Bai’s hand on one side and Li Rui’s on the other, with Xiang Sheng on the outer edge, holding onto Li Rui.
“Three, two, one—jump!”
…
Tu Ran’s vision went dark at first, then suddenly flooded with light.
Before she could fully adjust, she became aware of the bustling murmurs around her.
“Appeared out of nowhere…”
“A deserter, probably…”
“I thought it was another beast horde breaking through… scared me to death…”
“The capture squad will be here any second…”
Listening to these unfamiliar words, Tu Ran realized that she had arrived in a new world.
4th world??