The survivors fired at those tendrils, bullets leaving hole after hole in the appendages, but it only slowed their approach.
Lin Ye drove the prison transport vehicle over obstacle after obstacle, the bridge behind him continuously collapsing. Up ahead lay the other side of the chasm—if he could hold on for just ten more seconds, they could escape from here.
But just then, an pitch-black prism over a hundred meters tall pierced through the bridge, appearing directly in front of the prison transport.
The dark prism was covered in crimson patterns, and beneath it was a headless giant creature. The base of the prism grew out from inside the creature's body.
The giant monster was covered in black tendrils that surged toward the prison transport, blocking their only path of escape.
The gunfire had stopped. The survivors knelt in the vehicle, repeatedly banging their heads against the floor, letting out roars like monsters.
A few survivors hadn't lost their minds yet, but they were in terrible shape, completely unable to fight back.
"I can help you drive, but I don't know where to go."
Little Guardian appeared behind Lin Ye, gripping the back of the seat, unsure of what to do.
"No need... I'm going to jump out and kill that monster soon. You hide yourself."
Lin Ye didn't slow down—instead, he drove the prison transport straight toward the monster. They had no way out now. If he couldn't take down the creature blocking their path, they would all die here.
"Alright, don't worry about me."
Little Guardian pulled out a pistol. She didn't like using such an inefficient and inelegant tool, but right now, this was all she could rely on.
Lin Ye dodged the monster's claw swipes with a series of drifts, driving the prison transport over the black tendrils. As long as his speed was fast enough, those appendages couldn't stop them.
Boom!
Lin Ye jerked the steering wheel hard, drifting to swing the transport sideways. The vehicle's body slammed into the monster.
A flood of tendrils surged into the prison transport. Lin Ye grabbed the light machine gun, leaped out of the vehicle, stepped onto the hood, and jumped onto the roof.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang...
Lin Ye infused the ammunition belt with his fear energy, then aimed at the crimson patterns on the prism and opened fire. The bullets shredded those markings, leaving countless holes in the prism.
The giant monster let out an enraged roar. It swung a claw at the roof, but Lin Ye anticipated the movement and jumped to the ground ahead of time.
And Lin Ye didn't stop shooting. The prism was too tall—he could only destroy a portion of the patterns. But these markings seemed to be a single system; damaging even part of them could break the prism's function.
This was exactly what Lin Ye was best at. He couldn't learn a completely unfamiliar technique in a short time, but he could quickly find a way to destroy this kind of structure.
Especially after studying stability and collapse in that garbage dump, he had learned many methods for breaking stability.
Using bullets imbued with fear energy, Lin Ye destroyed the critical nodes on the prism. The prism began to collapse, and the giant creature's body was drained of its contents by the prism. But before it died, it seemed to regain consciousness. This time, it didn't attack Lin Ye—instead, it slammed its claw into the middle of the prison transport with all its might.
Lin Ye's fear energy was completely depleted, and the light machine gun's ammunition belt was empty too. He could only stand there, watching the prison transport get smashed apart by the monster.
That final blow drained the last of the giant creature's strength. Its body collapsed along with the prism, turning into a pile of withered corpse fragments.
The tendrils detached from the monster's body. Some crawled into the chasm, while others slithered toward Lin Ye.
The bridge completely collapsed. The prison transport fell into the chasm along with the road. Lin Ye pulled out his pistol, shooting down the approaching tendrils, barely managing to lean against a fragment of the prism at the edge of the chasm.
These prism fragments had blocked the bridge exit, almost crushing Lin Ye in the process.
Lin Ye pushed hard against a piece of prism debris, squeezing into the gap between the fragments just before the tendrils could reach him.
"Damn, almost got killed by this trash."
Using the light machine gun as a pickaxe, Lin Ye slowly began digging through the ruins formed by the prism fragments. The prism had been over a hundred meters tall—even though some of its pieces had slid into the chasm, the remaining pile was still enough to keep him digging for a long time.
He not only had to carve out a passage, but also watch out for secondary collapses.
While digging, Lin Ye heard faint cries for help. He immediately changed direction toward the sound, and before long, he found the survivor calling out.
It was a prison guard pinned beneath a piece of prism debris. His luck was incredible—the fragment hadn't crushed his body.
"How did you end up here? Weren't you guys banging your heads in the vehicle?"
Lin Ye hadn't had time to pay attention to the prison transport earlier. Even though he didn't think Little Guardian would die so easily, the situation had been pure chaos. He didn't know if she had escaped.
"When you shot through that pillar, we snapped out of it. Right then, that monster smashed the front of the vehicle. Captain Jeffrey led us out of the transport, but that creature was blocking the way, so we had to go around. The fighting on your end was too intense—most of us were injured, so we had to escape the other way. But we were barely halfway there when that pillar collapsed."
With Lin Ye's help, the prison guard crawled out from under the prism fragments. He only had some minor injuries and could still walk normally.
"Do you remember where they are?"
Lin Ye didn't know how many were still alive, but he couldn't just abandon them—especially since Little Guardian should be over there too.
"Yes, I'll lead you there."
The prison guard pointed out the direction, and Lin Ye started digging a passage that way. Not long after, he found the crushed bodies of some survivors.
Thankfully, Little Guardian wasn't among them.
Digging a bit more, Lin Ye found Jeffrey. His lower leg had been crushed by a piece of prism debris. Lin Ye dug out his leg and gave him some basic first aid.
"That little girl? She was less than ten meters in front of me... should be that way."
Jeffrey took a moment to orient himself before pointing.
Lin Ye dug in that direction. This area had many survivors—none of them were in good shape, but most weren't seriously injured. Probably because this was just the edge of the prism's collapse.
That prison guard who had been parasitized by the moths was still alive too. Lin Ye treated his wounds a little more.
Lin Ye found Little Guardian quickly. She was curled up between several prism fragments, only suffering some scrapes.
"There's an object emitting an abnormal mental energy wave in the center of the ruins. It should be an important part of that prism. Do you want to go grab it and study it?"
Little Guardian leaned close to Lin Ye's ear, speaking softly.
"I didn't kill that monster just to leave the loot behind."
Lin Ye continued clearing the surrounding prism fragments, searching for more survivors. Once he confirmed there were no living people left in this area, he began digging a passage toward the center of the ruins, guided by Little Guardian.
The survivors followed behind him, moving together toward the center of the ruins.
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