Lu Ren: "..."
Xiang Yang: "..."
"You bastard, you did it on purpose!"
After Lu Ren cursed in anger, he took advantage of the momentary struggle of the Armored Eagle Lady, trying to remove the longsword deeply embedded in its throat.
He lunged forward, and just as he picked up the dagger and was about to turn around, a sudden gust of wind came from behind. Lu Ren dared not look back and immediately rolled to the side again.
"Ding, you narrowly dodged the lunge of the Armored Eagle Lady, your Agility Proficiency +30."
Damn, if he really got hit, his body resistance wouldn't withstand such an enthusiastic 'embrace' from the enemy.
Without pausing, he got up, stepped back, twisted his waist, and pressed the button on the dagger's handle at his thumb, successfully activating the dagger in his hand.
Buzz!
With a light electromagnetic hum, the blade emitted a faint bluish glow, somewhat peculiar.
Facing the Armored Eagle Lady's sharp claws, Lu Ren unhesitatingly met them with his dagger.
Slice!
With a light sound, the claw, covered in hard armor of the Armored Eagle Lady, was easily sliced off, scattering five severed fingers around.
It was as effortless as cutting through tofu.
Without contamination energy, with this technology far more advanced than the real world, it's possible to find a way to cope with the Alternate Space Passage.
Is this why they opened the space channel?
But it seemed they didn't anticipate the contamination energy permeating the entire world, causing ninety percent of the creatures on the planet to mutate.
If it were three or four decades earlier, Lu Ren might have seen scenes filled with monsters throughout the cities.
A true monster paradise.
And to evolve further, upon discovering humans were becoming scarce, nearing extinction, they began killing each other. Under survival of the fittest, contaminated creatures quickly dwindled, becoming stronger as they grew fewer.
In a flash of thought, Lu Ren raised his dagger, slashing fiercely at the neck of the Armored Eagle Lady.
With a single slice, a head flew high, before dropping to the ground, rolling a few times.
The tall body of the Armored Eagle Lady twisted slightly before staggering back a few steps, collapsing heavily and lay still.
Lu Ren lowered his hand, sitting heavily on the ground, panting heavily.
"Ding, you have slain the Armored Eagle Lady, you gain a faint understanding of the dagger."
"Ding, you have slain the Armored Eagle Lady, your Agility Proficiency has increased..."
Xiang Yang clutched his chest and walked to Lu Ren's side, exclaiming in shock, "Uncle, that series of intense moves just now was really fast and powerful. I never thought dual swords could be played with so many variations, is this the kung fu you mentioned?!"
Sorting through the system notifications in his mind, Lu Ren gave Xiang Yang a sideways glance, perhaps to outsiders, his battle with the Armored Eagle Lady appeared as a decisive, clean, and efficient fight, devoid of hesitation, the actions fluent, defensive, and counterattacking without the slightest stagnation.
But the danger inherent was unknown to outsiders, a slight mistake would mean being torn into pieces by the Armored Eagle Lady's claws.
It must be said that the Basic Swordsmanship skill provided Lu Ren enormous benefits, granting him the capital to survive in this Otherworldly Ruins.
After returning, he must find a way to learn Yan Zhenghua's Swordsmanship.
He handed the dagger to Xiang Yang, who blinked in surprise, "You don't want it?"
Lu Ren: "I prefer longswords, I can't handle daggers well, they just get in the way."
If his skill with the dagger had been proficient, he wouldn't have handed it to Xiang Yang, even though a notification popped up earlier, a person's focus has its limits.
After resting briefly, the two finally stepped onto the elevator. With the authorization from their identities, the elevator, which had been dormant for decades, roared to life, the opening and closing generating a 'ka-ka-ka' sound of grating mechanical friction.
In this quiet and deep experimental center base, it sounded piercingly loud.
Lu Ren glanced at the nicks of various sizes on the blades of his dual swords, fearing that after one or two more high-intensity battles, they would be completely damaged, after all, they were merely limbs of a contaminated creature.
He couldn't help but glance at Xiang Yang, opened his mouth, and finally sighed deeply.
Xiang Yang, hearing the sigh, turned back in confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Actually, I really don't want to go down there," Lu Ren sighed.
Xiang Yang pitifully said, "Didn't we agree that once this is done, I'd give you my dagger!"
Lu Ren: "I agreed somewhat impulsively at the time, just shivered a bit."
Mumbling, Lu Ren watched as the alloy door opened and took the first step inside, glancing sideways at Xiang Yang still standing there dazed, frowning, he said.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry and come in."
Xiang Yang's face broke into a smile, stepping into the elevator.
"I knew you were all talk and soft-hearted!"
Lu Ren smirked, he definitely wasn't going in because the system determined he could gain more proficiency value in high-intensity combat.
In the past two days, as his proficiency increased, his swordsmanship realm also rose, meaning he was stronger now than when he first arrived, be it in physical fitness or Basic Swordsmanship.
With increased proficiency, his strength would become even greater.
That was Lu Ren's confidence in daring to go in.
Without a sharp blade, how could he advance?
With authorization confirmed, the elevator descended slowly, stopping only at the third layer high-energy particle experimental area.
Qingxu's voice suddenly came through, "Esteemed Commanders, the creatures within the Alternate Space Passage seem to have detected signs of your biological activity, the previously stable passage is beginning to fluctuate. An unknown presence on the other side of the passage is taking action, and the passage is expanding. If you need to close it, please do so promptly."
Lu Ren's heart sank slightly, he said solemnly, "How long?"
Qingxu: "Within seven minutes, after seven minutes the space energy fluctuations will reach their peak and the space passage will expand, causing the entire experimental center base to be absorbed, and those massive unknown presence sources will come through."
Xiang Yang raised an eyebrow, mumbling, "No way, we can't let those things come over, if they really get over here, we're finished."
We'll die here as well!
Lu Ren made a quick decision, "Qingxu, how do we close the Alternate Space Passage?"
"Restart the high-energy particle acceleration to counteract, but the pre-heat mechanism takes two minutes, so essentially, you only have five minutes to restart the high-energy particle accelerator, there are two contaminated creatures roaming the shortest route of this area. Based on biological activity detection, these two are stronger than those the Commanders have encountered."
Lu Ren frowned tightly, "Any good news?"
"The good news is the high-energy particle accelerator is ninety-one percent intact, allowing one forced particle acceleration, though it may cause a massive explosion in the third area due to breakage in the accelerator pipe."
"What a piece of good news," Lu Ren said helplessly, "do you have anything else to add?"