Chapter 50 Fifty Minutes After the Invasion Began, Game Space.

The Mall, Area 101.

"Huff... ha... hahahaha..." Looking at the remains dissolving into data fragments before him, Jibu wiped the blood from his face, took a deep breath, and burst into laughter, "Finally... finally, they're all gone! Hahahaha..."

Jibu's seemingly insane reaction was understandable, as he had just emerged from an intensely suffocating battle.

Besides him, the members of Zhushen, Hong Ying, Jianghu, and Order Team Two in this area also showed expressions of relief.

In the nearly half an hour just now, these members of top-tier teams had joined forces for the first time, racking their brains to eliminate a total of five "Giants."

This group of giants also had a specific name – [Devourers].

Unlike ordinary redundant soldiers and Sweepers... Devourers were not native data soldiers. They were formed by the "fusion" of other redundant soldiers.

Generally speaking, three hundred ordinary redundant soldiers had to fuse in data form to create a Devourer.

The combat power of a Devourer was determined by the total strength of all the redundant soldiers participating in the fusion. If Sweepers were mixed in among the redundant soldiers participating in the fusion... then their combat power would also be included.

In summary, this was a very powerful type of data soldier and the ace unit of the redundant soldier legion.

Although the top players in Area 101 successfully eliminated five Devourers, they paid a heavy price.

The "Difficult Naming Trio" of Bingdi were the first to fall. They made a great contribution in the battle against the first Devourer, essentially exploring many of the Devourer's characteristics by risking their lives. Tie Haitang and Feng Xinzi of Hong Ying, as well as Yongzhe Wudi, Yongzhe Wuju, Ye Zhi of Order Team Two, and Wudao Ke of Jianghu, were all killed in the battle against the second and third Devourers.

At this point, the players had basically figured out how to deal with the Devourers, and there were only two Devourers left. Therefore, the subsequent battles were relatively simple.

Until all five Devourers were killed, the number of deaths did not increase.

However, overall, the losses in this battle were quite severe. Only Zhushen Team One (which only had four members) did not lose any main players. The other teams all suffered varying degrees of losses.

"Sigh... why can't I laugh at all..." Looking at the laughing Jibu, Tiao Xingma propped up his sniper rifle on his hand, sat down on the ground, and let out a sigh.

This ace sniper of Order Studio was now the only surviving member of Order Team Two. His mood at the moment could only be described as lonely as snow...

"Everyone has worked hard." Xiao Wen Cangtian turned around to look at the non-professional players outside the battle circle at the first moment and said, "Thank you all."

He said this not to win people's hearts, but to express his heartfelt gratitude.

Just now, when their five professional teams joined hands to fight against the Devourers, the other players in Area 101 spontaneously united to help them block the ordinary redundant soldiers and Sweepers on the periphery, clearing their worries.

Without the assistance of these players, this battle would have been even more tragic... or even a complete defeat.

"You're too kind. If you hadn't held back those Giants, we would have been desperate."

"Yeah, we just did our best to do what we could."

As soon as Xiao Wen Cangtian finished speaking, Passerby A and Passerby B, who were relatively close to him, politely responded to the Jianghu president on behalf of the general public.

At this time, the emotion of "fear" had basically disappeared from the players' minds, replaced by a sense of accomplishment after surviving a disaster...

Humans are animals with strong adaptability, and fear is also something that can be adapted to. For example... a horror movie can scare you once or twice, but when you watch it three, five, or even ten times, that feeling of fear will fade. And when you watch it a hundred times, the fear will disappear completely... because when you watch it for the hundred and first time, you already know exactly what will happen in the next second, which means..."unknown" has become "known"; without "unknown," there is no fear; this... is adaptation.

Similarly, when faced with a sudden crisis, people's psychological reactions are the same... Fear will make people feel shocked and at a loss. At this time, "instinct" will replace "thinking" and take over people's behavior.

Instinct is a valuable asset that organisms have acquired in the process of evolution and one of the guarantees for a species to survive and reproduce. Most creatures in the food chain have similar reaction processes when encountering unknown dangers: running away, hiding, watching, testing...

Humans are no exception.

The development of technology and the maturity of cognition have not greatly changed our instincts, but fortunately, as a highly intelligent creature, humans can overcome their instincts through training.

In a critical situation, individuals with more "overcoming experience" with fear will adapt to the situation faster than other individuals. They only need a short time to allow "thinking" to return to the high ground occupied by "instinct" and play a good leading role. (ps: Feng Bujue should be excluded from this type of person, because the high ground in his brain is occupied by "thinking" for a long time, and "instinct" can only stay on the mountainside)

As long as a small number of people, or even one person, can quickly make correct, thought-based reactions, there is a chance to influence all the surrounding people. Because... "imitation" is also an important part of human adaptability. When people see a fellow human do something and be safe and sound, their fear of that thing will also be reduced. They will feel that... they can also complete this thing to some extent.

The battle situation in Area 101 was roughly like this... Under the leadership of a few elite players, ordinary players quickly threw their fear behind them and participated in the battle.

Faced with a battle situation that could be described as desperate, no one gave up, and no one ran away. In the end, they successfully annihilated all the Derivates that invaded this place.

…………

It is worth mentioning that... in this battle, two groups of people played a particularly critical role.

The first group was the organization wearing white trench coats with a large character "殇" (shāng) written in blood on their backs – "Shang de Qinweidui" (Shang's Honor Guard); and the other group was the organization wearing blue trench coats with the character "殇" (shāng) also written in blood on their backs – "Xu Huai Shang Guanfang Fensituan" (Xu Huai Shang Official Fan Club).

The nature of these two teams was already too obvious, and there was nothing more to introduce... Among the large group of non-professional players, these two groups were simply like suicide squads. After the first Devourer appeared, most of the ordinary players retreated. Only these two groups... remained completely unmoved, guarding behind the five strong teams (actually, it was just Hong Ying Team) from beginning to end, resolutely fighting to the end.

Regardless of their motives, their actions effectively encouraged the surrounding ordinary players, and their "death-defying" attitude inspired the morale of the crowd, barely maintaining the nearly collapsing battle line.

It must be said... in the victory of this battle, a certain female player had a great personal contribution...

…………

In short, after a fierce and arduous battle, this area finally returned to peace.

And the safety of this moment was undoubtedly the result of the joint efforts of everyone present.

For those ordinary players, their feeling at this moment... was like a batch of new recruits who had just participated in their first battle. Just surviving was enough to make a big change in their mindset. In the future, when facing similar situations, they would "adapt" more quickly.

The difference between seasoned veterans and green recruits in reality is roughly the same... It is this "adaptability" that determines whether you are confused or explode in sudden situations. Believe me... in most cases, the confused one will die.

"So the question is..." After a moment of silence, Shiva looked at the people beside him and said, "...is this the end?"

As he spoke, he looked into the distance at the boundary of the area. At this time, besides the dome, even the walls beside the mall had huge spatial rifts torn open. Even from a distance, one could clearly see the distorted space-time composed of data light streams.

"When the third, fourth, and fifth Giants came in... they knocked down most of the outer walls of the area, and the elevator doors leading to the login space were also destroyed. How are we supposed to get back?" Shiva muttered.

"Anyway, force quitting still doesn't work," Brahma replied quickly. "I just tried it."

"Yeah... and those players who have already died are still unreachable," Black and White Grey also muttered, touching his chin.

"Could it be..." At this moment, a very bad idea flashed through Xu Huai Shang's mind, "...is the system telling us to kill each other until the last person remains?"

Her words made everyone present gasp.

Fortunately, the anomaly that occurred in the next second... negated her hypothesis.

Buzz—

In that instant, all the players heard an abnormal sound in their ears, and their eyes were covered by white light.

The subsequent physical sensation was similar to teleportation, but slightly different... but the players couldn't say exactly what the difference was.

About five seconds later, when the players regained their senses, they had arrived in a completely new space.

This was not a mall, but a white, boundless world.

The sky and the earth in front of them were the same pure white. The entire sky was like an unreachable ceiling, emitting moderate light. On the white earth, there were many objects of varying sizes... there were tall buildings, trees and forests, high mountains and flowing water, and so on. These objects were all pure white, with only outlines and no details. Some of them stood there like simple, huge geometric blocks.

In addition to these "large scenes," there were many relatively small objects in this space, such as cars, streetlights, merry-go-rounds, dressing tables, bathtubs... These countless objects were also white outlines, and there was no pattern to their types. It was as if they had been randomly selected from an encyclopedia and scattered evenly across the white earth.

"Eh? Isn't that Tiandi's Yu Zhong Ji Chang?"

"That's right, and Shangxin Guo."

"Is that Shanhe's Qiufeng Se?"

"Hey! Those are the Four Heavenly Kings of Zhushen!"

"Eh? Kuangzong Jianying and Cai Bupa of Jianghu were in the same area as us just now?"

"Wow! I saw Goddess Xu, am I already dead? Is this heaven?"

Not long after the teleportation ended, the players discovered something... it seemed that the survivors from all the mall areas had been sent to this strange space.

Just when the players were still at a loss, suddenly...

Boom—boom—boom—

Rhythmic, heavy footsteps came from all directions, and the ground beneath the players' feet trembled.

"What's going on? Are there more Giants?"

"Ah! There!"

"There too!"

Indeed, these sounds and vibrations were the footsteps of the Devourers.

At this moment, four Devourers were running towards the three thousand-odd players gathered together from four directions...

"Tch... who's afraid of who!"

"Damn! Let's fight if we don't agree!"

"The newcomers aren't friendly, everyone prepares to deal with the impact!"

The players who were alive and standing here were all strong players who had survived the defensive battles in various areas. Although not every area had been attacked by multiple Devourers (Redundant Soldiers track targets by sniffing data. Area 101 had a large number of strong data gatherings, so the most and strongest troops came, while other areas had at most one Devourer), everyone present was confident that they could withstand the attack of these four Giants.

However... they misunderstood something.

These four Devourers were not launching a charge at the players, but...

Peng peng peng peng—

As they watched, the Devourers jumped up one after another before they even got close to the players. They jumped at almost the same time, and they jumped extremely high. When they reached the highest point, the four Devourers spread out their bodies at the same time... and self-destructed.

"What are they doing? Putting on fireworks..."

"If you're going to self-destruct, get a little closer. Jumping so high doesn't affect us at all."

For the first three seconds, the players were still wondering what those "Giants" were trying to do, until the fourth second... the four light sources in the sky suddenly turned into four streams of light, spurting and converging towards the middle.

Buzz—

Boom—

Immediately afterward, the players heard two loud noises.

The first sound was a long, buzzing sound.

The second sound was a deafening explosion.

Along with the sound, a tsunami-like wave of sound swept out, pressing towards the players.

Even though the players all quickly raised their hands to cover their ears, their eardrums were still aching and their legs were weak from the blasting sound wave above their heads. Some players with lower survival values... were directly blasted into white light by this sound wave.

"This is bad..." A full twelve seconds later, the blasting sound stopped. Shiva, kneeling on one knee, endured the dizziness and raised his head to look at the sky.

At this time, at a height of about a hundred meters above the ground, at the place where the four streams of light had converged... a spherical spatial rift with a radius of about twenty meters had appeared. Its four sides looked as deep as a black hole, and the edges of the sphere were surging with electric light.

Shiva had a deep impression of this thing. In fact, he had already guessed what he would be facing before he even raised his head.

"...Another Blasting Tunnel."