CH 179

The moment Kelly's voice came from the wireless communication system, the four-dimensional toad shifted direction. The flickering eye moved toward us rapidly.

"This fellow can seek us out through listening to our communicators. Unless we maintain absolute silence, it can detect us at any time," said Li Yizhi.

"But that didn't seem to be the case when we were in Lightning," said Old Du.

"Perhaps this creature has a limited range," I said.

"What are we waiting for? Let's run," said Zhang Bao'er.

We madly ran away from the toad. While we ran, Dondon constantly updated Spacetime on our current location. The flickering eye of the four-dimensional toad pursued us relentlessly. It also seemed like the toad could jump faster than our running speed as it was slowly catching up to us.

Right at that moment, a loud rumble came from the sky, followed by the sounds of cannon and laser strikes came. Up in the sky, Spacetime was heading our way while under the pursuit of a group of battleships.

"Canyue, there is an empty spot 100 meters ahead. I'll pick you up there," said Kelly.

We could cross a distance of 100 meters in less than 10 seconds, but just as we were about to start sprinting, a different red flickering toad eye appeared at our target location.

"Shit! An enemy occupied our withdrawal point! Canyue, what do we do?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"Have Spacetime fire some enhanced cluster bombs at the four-dimensional toad that's at our withdrawal point. See if they can blast through the fourth dimension. Old Du and Bao'er, fire at the toad chasing after us. Try to slow it down," I ordered.

"Canyue, that battleship and its fighter drones are also coming," said Dondon nervously, adding another piece of bad news on top of the pile.

The situation was urgent. In the sky, the Eternal ships were hunting for us, and on the ground, the terrifying four-dimensional toads were also relentlessly coming after us. The enhanced cluster bombs fired by Spacetime created intense explosions. The explosions were bright enough to cover the flickering eye of the toad, so we weren't able to see if the attack had been effective.

Behind us, the other toad was facing Bao'er's and Old Du's attacks in a relaxed manner. Countless laser strikes and tracking bullets struck its body but only created some flashes instead of actually causing any harm. The toad wasn't even slowed down by the attacks. At that point, it was less than 50 meters away from us.

"Canyue, we have been surrounded. We won't be able to pick you up at the designated spot. Spacetime must withdraw first, or all of us will die here," Kelly suddenly said.

In the sky, Spacetime was surrounded by enemy ships. The battleship hunting for us also joined the battle. Countless attacks rained down on Spacetime, attempting to drain its shield of energy. Based on what I saw, Spacetime would not last long if it didn't retreat.

Right at that moment, I saw a small shuttle fly out of Spacetime and speed toward us. Dozens of fighter drones immediately gave pursuit. The moment the shuttle was deployed, Spacetime turned upward. Kelly demonstrated her exceptional piloting skills as she flew straight toward outer space while being chased by a large number of enemies.

"The functionalities of the battleships of this era are truly incredible. They can even pull such a movement," exclaimed Li Yizhi as she looked at Spacetime retreating.

Meanwhile, the shuttle continued flying toward us while a bunch of fighter drones chased after it.

"Who is this? Are they trying to die?" exclaimed Zhang Bao'er.

Dondon tried to contact the shuttle, but he failed to establish communication with it. A red laser beam suddenly struck the shuttle. The shuttle spun, flew by us, and crashed into the pursuing toad, creating an intense explosion. The explosion was much more intense than we had expected because the explosion was actually the eruption of a nuclear warhead.

The nuclear explosion sent terrifying shockwaves sweeping out, destroying the pursuing fighter drones and sending us flying hundreds of meters away. Oddly, the mushroom cloud from the explosion only formed hundreds of meters above us, creating a terrifying region of raging shockwaves in the sky. 

It was as though they had carefully curated the scope of the explosion to avoid hurting us. We were able to protect ourselves with our powerful shields, but the explosion had still exhausted nearly 50 percent of our energy supply. 

The shockwaves and the mushroom cloud continued wreaking havoc. This nuclear warhead was more powerful than the personal nuclear warheads we had used to kill our first four-dimensional toad. If it wasn't for the fact that the explosion had been limited to the sky, all of us would have perished. Using the cover of the nuclear explosion, we retreated rapidly and escaped the four-dimensional toads.

"Canyue, there is still a toad at our pickup point. We can't go there anymore. We need a new spot," said Baron Sisse.

"From the current situation, we need to first find a hiding spot. We can think of a new plan after concealing ourselves," I gave a plan that might as well not be a plan.

"Commander, Master Crystal and Anxashe are the ones piloting the shuttle. When the shuttle was struck, they had launched the ejection protocol. I have received their signals. Do we meet up with them?" said Dondon, finally giving us a piece of good news.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Master Crystal and Anxashe had come to help us. I immediately led the team toward where the two had landed. They had landed less than a kilometer away from us. Thus, we reached the place where the signals came from after several minutes.

To avoid attracting more toads, I ordered everyone to turn off their communicators. We then searched the area for the two heroes with our laser probes. Suddenly, a signal light flickered before us. It was a signal from Master Crystal. We rushed over and found Master Crystal and Anxashe waiting for us at the entrance of a discarded ship.

Zhang Bao'er was exceptionally excited to see Master Crystal. Just as he was about to step forth and share his feelings, Master Crystal stopped him with a gesture. After gesturing at us to not make any noise, Master Crystal turned around and started leading us through the dumping ground.

We followed closely behind him. Due to the nuclear explosion, the entire defensive force of Planet Cloudcast had been deployed. Numerous black figures could be seen flying in the sky as the enemy deployed all their battleships toward our area.

'Shit. If we can't find a hiding spot, we won't be able to run from their main fleet. We will be sitting ducks then,' I thought anxiously.

Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.

At that time, we arrived at the front of an abandoned valley. Then, Master Crystal stopped and searched the ground. Suddenly, he gestured at Anxashe. Countless tiny holes appeared on the ground, as though the ground had turned into a star chart. If we weren't paying attention, we wouldn't have even noticed the holes.

After observing the holes for a bit, Master Crystal pointed at one of them. Anxashe then took out an arrow attached to a long rope and shot the arrow into the hole. The arrow descended underground. After a long while, when the entire rope was about to be pulled through, it stopped dropping. It seemed to have reached the bottom as Master Crystal nodded at Anxashe. At the sign, Anxashe started pulling.

The rope was stretched extremely taut, looking like it was being subjected to great pressure. We immediately stepped forth to help. With a loud rumble, part of the ground shifted. A thick and heavy door slowly moved up from the shifted ground. A square entrance appeared before us. Behind the door, a long staircase stretched back. At that point, the Eternal battleships were getting near us.

"Everyone, get in!" said Master Crystal.

We then rushed toward the stairs and walked into the dark underground. Master Crystal was the last person to enter the underground passage. At that point, the enemies had arrived above us. With a push of a switch on the underground wall, the door closed behind us. The closure of the door put into motion some workings, causing the stairs to start moving, delivering us three kilometers underground. When we turned on our lights, we found that we were standing at the top of a long staircase that led further underground.

"We can't talk yet. Come with me," said Master Crystal.

Anxashe, with his searchlight, took point while Master Crystal walked behind him. Everyone else followed the two as we traveled deep underground. The walls to the two sides of the underground passage were built of cold, hard steel. The staircase before us was exceptionally even, as though it was a finely crafted article that reached straight to the planet's core.

After walking for about two hours, we finally left the long staircase. The world before us opened up into a deep gorge with several hanging bridges built above it. What astonished us was the circular area around the gorge. The area was split into nine levels, and each level was filled with countless buildings. The door of each building was shut tight. It was unknown what manner of creature lived in these buildings.

Master Crystal brought us to one of the bridges. When we looked down the bridge, the terrifying scene of churning lava entered our eyes. As for our surroundings, there were countless identical buildings that messed with our sense of direction.

"Alright, we're here. This place should be safe. You may speak freely now," said Master Crystal, finally removing the speech restriction he had imposed earlier.

"Old man, what is this place? Why do you know this place?" asked Zhang Bao'er, who could no longer hold his curiosity in.

"You need to thank Dodo. They are the one who had discovered this place after hacking into the empire's database. After referencing the history I know, I confirmed that this place really exists. Since the situation was urgent, we could only take a risk and try reaching this place," said Master Crystal.

"Master, what place is this, exactly?" asked Old Du.

"This is the core of the planet. Cloudcast is an artificial planet, and this is its central zone. The foundation of the entire planet is this core, which serves as a massive computer simulation program. The power part of this core is basically a large nuclear reactor that provides energy to the entire planet. Each of these buildings hosts a different computer program that serves to help maintain the planet's ecological balance," said Master Crystal.

"Why do they need so many buildings for it? Do they really have so many programs?" I asked.

"For a planet to operate normally, it would require not only a large number of commands from the computer program but also proper aspect classification. All these buildings are in charge of maintaining the commands of the various different aspects of the planet, such as wind, rain, thunder, lightning, organic life, other animals, and so on. All these aspects are maintained by specific buildings here," said Master Crystal.

"Maintain? You mean there are maintenance workers here?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"There are maintenance droids with different shapes. There is at least one droid in each building. Everything works automatically, but as a precaution for malfunctioning droids, several hidden entries to the core are around the planet. The Eternals will enter every 100 years to perform general maintenance work on the core," said Master Crystal.

"Is the entrance the hole Anxashe shot an arrow through? If it can be opened with only an arrow, isn't the security here a bit too lax?" questioned Zhang Bao'er.

"Hehe, fatty, that's quite a smart question to ask. The arrow shot by Anxashe wasn't an ordinary arrow," said Master Crystal with a smile.

"What kind of an arrow was it?" I asked.

"That arrow was also a key. Dodo had duplicated a key before attaching it to the arrowhead. There are only 10 such keys in existence. Each key can only be used once. In other words, Plant Cloudcast was designed to last only 1,000 years. Also, the secret key alone is not enough. The arrow needs the ability to go through the various little holes to open the door. Thus, Anxashe had also installed a custom-made eyeball taken from a mechanical dog onto the arrowhead, allowing the arrow to search for its target automatically. Also, the rope we used was tough and durable, capable of withstanding a pressure beyond the pressure of the core. That rope was made of a unique material found on Rumble. In fact, there were only two of these ropes in existence. We would have failed if we had lacked even one of these items," said Master Crystal.

Zhang Bao'er stuck his tongue out and stopped questioning.

"What is our next plan? When are we leaving to eliminate those lion-faced beasts?" asked Li Yizhi coldly while everyone was still busy rejoicing in our escape.