Welcome to Ability Store-Chapter 54 - 53: The Beginning of Chaos and Upheaval
Honglian pushed through the crowd, sprinting out of the zoo, ignoring the astonished looks from people around, and dashed towards the Botanical Garden.
They had all fallen into a trap, a trap set specifically for the Dimensional Limit Mechanism!
The Masked Woman would never appear.
What they wanted were these endless streams of spectators... but the real stage was not in front of the Panda Pavilion!
"Honglian! Where are you?" the Captain called.
"The enemy’s target is the infiltration point in the Botanical Garden! I’m on my way to the west gate; have the other members intercept the remaining three gates, block the surrounding roads, and evacuate the local crowd immediately!" Honglian said sharply in one breath.
"Impossible, these are things only the government can do."
"Then use your connections to get the government to do it! I know the mechanism has such connections!"
Captain Wan was silent for a few seconds, "Are you sure this series of incursions is caused by the Masked Woman?"
By this time, Honglian had already passed through the west gate, only about four hundred meters from the coordinate location, "I’m sure! If there’s a mistake, I will take full responsibility!"
"Are you the captain or am I the captain?" Wan Chongshan clicked his tongue, "The person responsible can only be me. Did you all hear that? Go support Honglian at the Botanical Garden now, and be sure to stop the expansion of the infiltration point."
"Yes!" Wang Baihu and others responded in unison.
"Argh argh argh argh——————————"
Suddenly, a strange sound swept over the Botanical Garden.
It was a sound Honglian had never heard before, like the roar of some giant beast, but she couldn’t associate it with any creature.
The ominous feeling in her heart intensified.
After passing two more scenic spots, ahead was the "Great Forest," a flat and wide slope, modeled after a tropical rainforest, which was also the location indicated by the coordinates.
But before she could reach the edge of the slope, the ground suddenly began to quake.
It was as if ten dump trucks were advancing side by side!
Crack!
The trees on the outer edge fell with a series of snapping sounds, and a burly four-legged creature burst out from within. It was almost four stories high, and each leg was comparable to an adult’s torso!
Even though it was the first time Honglian had seen such a creature in person, she quickly associated it with a type of ancient animal from her memory.
Dinosaurs!
Then came the second, the third! These gigantic creatures pushed through the obstructing trees while howling, seemingly panicking. Fortunately, judging from their long and slender necks and sturdy four legs, these were herbivorous dinosaurs.
Once the large herbivorous dinosaur cleared a path, a few more dinosaurs with dorsal fins emerged behind it, their heads more pointed, bodies much lower to the ground, crawling like giant lizards.
What kind of dinosaurs are these?
Honglian didn’t recognize them, but she was sure she’d seen similar ones in dinosaur movies!
What made her scalp tingle was that there were also tourists in the Botanical Garden, although far fewer than in the zoo. Now, all these tourists were drawn by the unusual commotion, and after seeing actual dinosaurs, their first thought wasn’t to flee but to take out their phones to take pictures!
She didn’t attempt to dissuade them, knowing well that verbal warnings would have little effect.
The only way to prevent disaster from occurring was to cut it off at the source!
Honglian nimbly weaved through the running dinosaurs and dashed into the dense forest area. But this forest seemed extraordinarily deep, with interwoven branches and leaves growing denser, blocking out direct sunlight and letting it filter through as thin beams of light.
Following the dinosaur footprints and the shattered tree remnants for about two minutes, she finally heard some different sounds.
"Roar! Howl!"
"Run a bit faster... if you catch up, I’ll give you meat."
"Howl howl!"
The sound was just ahead to her right! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
Honglian immediately adjusted her direction, sprinting towards the sound, and after just a few steps, the surroundings suddenly opened up, feeling like the scene in "Peach Blossom Spring" where the fisherman from Wuling County passed through a mountain cave to reach a secluded paradise; the entire view became open and pleasant. The forest disappeared, replaced by a vast grassland, with a stream flowing on the ground, birds and beasts frolicking by the water, and in the distance, a migrating herd of dinosaurs could be seen.
Looking closer, she noticed there was a cement bungalow at the foot of the slope, looking out of place with the surrounding scenery, with a sign hanging at the entrance: Rainforest Service Area.
In front of the house, a tall, masked woman with colorful hair was enticing a short-clawed dinosaur, about the same height as her, with beef jerky, playing some kind of amusing game at the doorway.
The house indicated that the area still belonged to the Botanical Garden.
However, the nearby space had completely fused with another world.
This was precisely the High-Level form of the intrusion point; it may have started closely associated with a door in the service area, but has now evolved into part of the rainforest area.
Despite the absurdity of the scene before her, she had to consider: the Wanderer, who caused the expansion of the intrusion point, was a dinosaur. But it was not the culprit; the woman guiding it to repeatedly cross the boundary was the true culprit—clearly aware of this, she acted with seemingly innocent behavior while secretly committing a most vile crime!
She was committing a crime against the entire human world!
After the piercing chill came indescribable rage; Honglian could no longer control her emotions. She rushed down the dirt slope, pulling out a mechanism-customized pistol from her waist, and fired several shots at the woman and the dinosaur.
But the anesthetic-laced bullets did not hit their targets.
Two Qi Swords blocked the shooting path, just like when facing Joan in the dungeon.
Honglian instantly realized—this person again!
The Masked Woman and the Qi Sword Man were in cahoots!
Before she could use her King’s Castle ability to further approach the house, the third and fourth Qi Swords appeared in succession, one striking where the bullets landed, the other slashing directly at her hands, eliminating all her attack routes.
Gone was Honglian’s graceful maneuvering from the first encounter. Hastily, she was forced to roll backward, getting all muddy and having her pistol shattered by a sword.
Suddenly, she broke into a cold sweat.
If she had been 0.2 seconds slower, it wouldn’t have been the gun barrel shattered, but her hands!
The opponent was clearly improving, with the speed of sword swinging and chopping power now more lethal than before!
Even more infuriating was that the person never appeared. After forcing her back, only the four Qi Swords remained hovering in midair, isolating her from the woman.
Honglian outragedly shouted, "Do you know what you’re doing?"
The woman tilted her head, giving her a glance. Her sharp pupils showed no hesitation, "Of course I know. Because this is the only right thing to do."
As her words fell, she vanished without a trace.
The Qi Swords disappeared along with her, like the fight that just occurred was merely a nightmare. The only thing left on the scene was that dumbfounded dinosaur.
At this moment, a buzzing sound came from overhead.
Honglian looked up to see a helicopter circling in midair, with people on the aircraft continuously filming this direction. To the aerial view, this area was like a massive "space-time rift," merging two completely different scenic environments, attracting attention isn’t strange.
She knew in her heart that with or without this helicopter, it didn’t matter. The enemies set up the secondary stage next door, already drawing much attention. The numerous drones released or even satellites passing by would eventually fixate on this twisted space.
Similar situations have occurred before, like last time’s mirage, but that intrusion didn’t last long, and no outside path could be found. This time the intrusion happened on the ground, allowing a group of dinosaurs to escape; even if the logistics team tried their hardest, they probably couldn’t cover it up.
Looking at it this way, the intercepting incident at the abandoned clubhouse earlier might have been the doing of these two.
Honglian felt utterly exasperated; she had been led by the nose all along!
Meanwhile, many questions continuously bombarded her mind—
Predicting and detecting the intrusion point was something only the Mechanism could do, how could they have known beforehand?
Letting the erosion expand would only bring more chaos and destruction to the world; what benefit would that have for them?
And the opponent’s phrase "Of course I know," spoken as if she alone understood the true reality of the world!
Absolutely preposterous!
"My goodness... where have we come to?"
"Could it be a time-space journey? This place is stunning!"
Behind her, the astonished voices of onlookers were heard.
Honglian turned back to see clearly those were tourists near the "Big Forest," who, having recovered from their initial shock, were venturing into this area that was wholly imbued with an aura of incredibility.
Along with the dinosaurs roaming outside, the crowd flocking to see the spectacle from the zoo... the situation had inevitably spiraled out of control. Honglian realized that though this might merely be an unexpected hit to the Dimensional Limit Mechanism, for the world, it is the beginning of chaos and disruption.
