Chapter 354 - 350: Giant Wood

It was only when he saw the cement on the ground begin to pulse in time with the wood in the air that Zhang Wenda finally understood: the wooden radio was the true entity, not the square-headed thing he had fought before.

That square cement head was literally just a cement head! Its only purpose was to serve as a vehicle to transport the radio.

Zhang Wenda had dealt with a wooden-staff radio once before. It hadn’t been easy, but he’d managed to take care of it. Now, thousands of its kin were staring at him. This was on a completely different level.

Seeing the various wooden appliances closing in, accompanied by a cacophony of noise, Zhang Wenda could no longer worry about anything else. With Hu Maomao on his back, he turned and ran.

At his speed, Zhang Wenda could have definitely escaped before the great timber fell, but it was clear the massive piece of wood had no intention of letting him get away so easily.

Suddenly, Zhang Wenda felt the ground beneath his feet begin to soften, as if he were stepping in mud. The more he ran, the stickier it became.

Zhang Wenda glanced down and saw the fully liquefied cement squirming toward his feet, trying to wrap around them and trap him on the spot.

"Hang on!" Hu Maomao, on his back, grabbed Zhang Wenda’s clothes, gritted her teeth, and yanked him free with all her might.

Instantly free, Zhang Wenda quickly stepped on his thought-clusters, putting distance between himself and the ground by launching into the air.

As he raced onward, Zhang Wenda looked down to see that, as far as his eyes could see, the once-flat cement ground had completely transformed into a roiling ocean of concrete.

One radio could control a small patch of cement, but this many of them could control a stunningly vast area.

"A blizzard? What kind of weather is that? *This* is what you call fucking weather!"

Zhang Wenda kicked back hard against a thought-cluster with his right foot, launching himself dozens of meters into the air. He bounded through the sky like a rabbit, trying to escape the controlled territory as fast as he could.

The Hippocampus’s recording played rapidly in Zhang Wenda’s mind, guiding his retreat. If he could just find the hidden door to the Area 2 pool, they could escape the pursuit and leave this godforsaken place.

Just then, the sky suddenly went dark. Zhang Wenda looked to his left and saw a tsunami, towering hundreds of meters above him, surging to crash down on his head. The immense pressure was nearly suffocating.

Fortunately, Zhang Wenda quickly came up with a solution. A flash of red appeared beside him, hoisting him and Hu Maomao up and throwing them clear, allowing them to fly out just before the giant wave crashed down.

But before he could even catch his breath, an even larger, taller wave surged toward him. The entire region was under the great timber’s control; the whole ocean was now Zhang Wenda’s enemy. As long as it wished, these attacks could continue almost endlessly.

Zhang Wenda knew he couldn’t keep running. At this rate, he would die of exhaustion here.

Just as he was about to be completely engulfed by the cement tsunami, Zhang Wenda, in a desperate move, swung his arm and opened the gate to his Inner World. He dove straight in with Hu Maomao, completely evading the attack.

The chaotic, hostile environment was instantly replaced by a familiar one. The once-strange forest now seemed incredibly welcoming. Both Zhang Wenda and Hu Maomao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what in the world was that thing? Where did it come from?" Hu Maomao asked as she hopped off Zhang Wenda’s back.

"Think about it," he said. "Given that the Lizard People want to get the people from the Third Line killed, just how dangerous do you think the signal’s convergence point would be?"

"I’m guessing it’s a native creature of this region. Whatever it is, I’m sure this thing wants the 1999 fragment I’m carrying." Finally able to catch his breath, Zhang Wenda pointed into the forest, where the Little Black Cat was kicking the Golden Ball around like a toy.

"It can sense the fragment even when you’re hidden in here?" Hu Maomao asked, finding it hard to believe.

"Who knows how they manage it," Zhang Wenda said, turning to walk toward the rift. "The only thing for certain is that they seem to know more about this thing than we do."

’We can hide in here for a moment, but not forever. We need to get out and resume our retreat once the storm dies down. If that great timber catches up to us, we’ll be in serious trouble.’

However, just as Zhang Wenda reached the rift and prepared to peer outside, the light from the opening was suddenly extinguished. He found it had been sealed shut, blocked solid by re-hardened cement.

’If it can liquefy the cement, it can also solidify it. That thing is clearly capable of thought, and it isn’t stupid. It’s developing countermeasures based on my actions. It wants to seal us inside this Inner World until its main body can arrive.’

Zhang Wenda certainly wasn’t going to sit back and wait to die. His scythe flew into a blur as he rapidly sliced through the hardened cement, attempting to carve a way out.

But no matter how fast or deep he dug, an endless supply of cement continued to block his path. It was as if an entire mountain of cement had been dropped right on top of them!

After digging for several hundred meters, Zhang Wenda stopped. He knew it was useless to continue; no matter how fast he dug, he could never outpace the rate at which they were pouring cement on the outside.

’This was why I never liked to use the Inner World to dodge attacks—I was afraid of exactly this kind of situation. If an enemy blocks the entrance to the Inner World, you’re left completely helpless.’

But of course, what you fear most is what comes to pass. The situation had occurred, and now they were trapped here with no way out.

’My time is running out. If that great timber reaches me, it’s all over.’

The desperate situation left Zhang Wenda frantic with worry. Just as he turned back into the depths of his Inner World to think of another plan, he found Hu Maomao had already found a solution. "Wenda! Use this."

"Use what?" Zhang Wenda asked, taken aback.

Hu Maomao reached out and patted the Triangular Device on the back of the car. "This!"

"You know how to use it?"

"Don’t forget my ability. If someone else knows how to do it, so do I!" Using the operating manual she’d found in the captive’s mind, Hu Maomao began to skillfully operate the device.

She opened the device, revealing an extremely complex interior. A milky-white sphere was particularly eye-catching; it was beautiful, but unfortunately, one side of it had already turned significantly black.

Hu Maomao didn’t touch the sphere. Instead, she looked at a small square compartment beside it. She took a triangular metal block out of a small box within the compartment, then scooped up a bowlful of the fresh water Zhang Wenda had prepared and poured it into the now-empty box.

Just as Zhang Wenda was wondering what on earth Hu Maomao was doing, thirty seconds passed, and that bizarre green light shot out once more. All the solidified cement the light touched instantly turned into clear fresh water, cascading down with a great RUSH.