Wu Pifu donned a set of micro-nano unit exoskeleton armor.
The technology in this world was far superior to that of Earth in the twenty-first century, yet it was still not at the level of the twenty-ninth century.
In terms of time, it was roughly at the level of the late twenty-second century.
This exoskeleton armor was mostly constructed as a whole, but it contained controllable metallic nano units that allowed for simple shell repairs, body shape adjustments, and other functions, so there was no need for special customization.
Once Wu Pifu put it on, he felt that the exoskeleton armor fit him extremely well.
“Mr. Wu, can you hear me?” A voice came from within the exoskeleton armor.
Wu Pifu replied, “I can hear you, very clearly.”
“Unfortunately, this is a standard exoskeleton armor and does not have the most advanced quantum communication system. Once we go deeper than three hundred meters below the pit, the drones we dispatch will lose all communication. The communication device on the exoskeleton armor is much stronger, but it can only reach a distance of five hundred meters. Right now, we can only activate Mr. Wu’s Unresting Spirit Light to break through this communication barrier.”
Due to the researchers' groundbreaking discovery of Phantom Rays, which could illuminate flesh and inflict physical damage, the Unresting Spirit Light was no longer essential.
At this moment, Wu Pifu proposed to explore the bottom of the pit, and neither the elder nor the officer stopped him.
Everyone wanted to know the source of it all, and for outsiders, going down was basically a death sentence.
Currently, there was no way to miniaturize the Phantom Rays.
The personnel and manufacturing level at the base could only temporarily create a high-power radiation generator to target the entire pit.
Only Wu Pifu could go down alone without being killed by the invisible flesh tendrils.
Jiu Jiu naturally stayed at the base, as it seemed relatively safe.
The entire city had been protected by this wave of defenses from the base, and they had less than ten minutes left before returning, which was the main reason Wu Pifu dared to go down.
The others were unaware of this, so when Wu Pifu prepared to descend into the deep pit, almost everyone in the base, except for those in core positions, gathered to watch him.
They looked at Wu Pifu with a solemn gaze, as if bidding farewell to a hero about to depart.
Wu Pifu looked at these people with a hint of sadness.
This was a weekend scenario, and almost every time the weekend scenario approached its twenty-four-hour conclusion, a dramatic change would occur—either monstrous aberrations would run rampant, or it would transform into a terrifying and bizarre land, culminating in a cataclysmic disaster that would annihilate everything.
This time, due to his decisions and interactions, the city had barely been preserved, but he was about to leave.
What would happen to the people in this city? Could they survive? Or was everything here merely some kind of illusion? Or perhaps a remnant of past information, a mark left behind?
He had no idea.
He only knew that the moment of parting was approaching.
Wu Pifu glanced at Jiu Jiu, who looked back at him, then the girl revealed a strong smile and nodded at him.
Only then did Wu Pifu turn and jump into the deep pit.
As Wu Pifu leaped into the pit, the exoskeleton armor activated the particle propulsion engine on his back in an instant, allowing him to hover and fly.
This increased his descent speed and provided him with great agility.
Wu Pifu held the Unresting Spirit Light above his head, resembling a light bulb illuminating him, enabling him to clearly see the surrounding flesh tendrils, allowing him to evade or use the weapons on the exoskeleton armor to strike from a distance.
With the help of this exoskeleton armor, Wu Pifu safely descended to a depth of three hundred meters.
However, upon reaching this depth, he immediately sensed something was amiss; his vision dimmed, and a viscous odor flowed through the surrounding air.
At the same time, the consumption rate of his Unresting Spirit Light increased more than tenfold, and its illumination range shrank from over a hundred meters to a maximum of about twenty meters.
A terrifying and dark sensation filled Wu Pifu's heart.
He quickly understood that this was a form of supernatural fear.
Although he realized he was not experiencing any fear himself, the fear naturally birthed within his consciousness, akin to being alone at home in the dead of night, washing his hair with his eyes closed, or walking down a long, dark corridor.
A certain fear seemed to arise instinctively, causing him to involuntarily feel dread.
This made Wu Pifu's heart grow solemn.
His resistance to negative emotions was already extremely high.
For instance, in the Song Dynasty Dream World, those who practiced evil arts could not break through his defenses against negative and mental attacks.
Of course, it could also be due to the five-step external attack immunity granted by his title, but he felt not even the slightest influence, which was also evidence.
Wu Pifu did not hesitate and continued to rapidly drive the exoskeleton armor downward.
Then he noticed something very strange.
The speed of time was accelerating!!
The exoskeleton armor had a time display inside, and he had specifically set it to show the time remaining until return.
When he reached the three hundred meter mark, there should have been about six minutes left.
However, the further he descended, the faster the time seemed to tick.
Upon reaching five hundred meters, he felt that one second had passed, but the displayed time had jumped by nearly three seconds.
When Wu Pifu descended to five hundred meters, the illumination range of the Unresting Spirit Light was only about ten meters.
Fortunately, he still maintained communication with the base, seemingly because the Unresting Spirit Light was resisting something, thus preserving the connection.
Meanwhile, the time acceleration of the exoskeleton armor was also due to its constant calibration with the base's standard time, so the time fluctuations were not based on Wu Pifu's own perception.
“Your relative time has slowed down over there. Could it be that there’s a black hole beneath this pit!? Or an ultra-high-quality massive object? But how could that be? If it could truly cause such a degree of relative time effect, our planet would have been completely shattered long ago. It’s impossible…”
The voice from the base became extremely rapid and bizarre, sounding almost inhuman.
Wu Pifu's vigilance heightened, as this voice also instilled fear in him; it was another form of supernatural power that distorted his hearing.
Five hundred meters, seven hundred meters, one thousand meters…
Wu Pifu's five senses began to slightly distort.
He started to struggle to see the text and numbers displayed on the exoskeleton screen.
He could not discern whether he was moving down or up; only the Unresting Spirit Light above his head continued to shine, but its light could only envelop himself.
Time was rapidly passing, and only about a minute remained until his return, but according to his current perception of time, it might not even amount to a real ten seconds.
Suddenly, at that moment, Wu Pifu felt a sinking sensation in his feet as he stepped onto the ground.
He immediately looked around, but everything in his view was hazy and indistinct, making it difficult to see the ground, akin to watching a very blurry old movie or a somewhat clearer mosaic.
This visual sensation made him feel nauseous.
Even so, Wu Pifu still desperately looked around, and at the same time, the qi and blood within him erupted, causing an invisible red light to rise from his skin.
Although it was immediately suppressed, in that instant, he did manage to see something.
That was… a pillar-like life form, protruding through some kind of breach into this world.
The world within the breach was unobservable, indescribable, and unimaginable, and this pillar was something Wu Pifu could only barely see after exhausting all his strength.
Then he realized that it was not a pillar at all!
This fleshy pillar-like life form had countless eyeballs growing on it, all of which were staring at Wu Pifu.
In that moment, Wu Pifu felt his flesh begin to dissolve, and a pseudo-human life form was about to be born…
“That is… a finger?”
In a fraction of a second, Wu Pifu recalled the immense existence he had glimpsed when peering into the true nature of this world, something that protruded beyond the planet's atmosphere.
It seemed to be a finger as well?
In the next instant, Wu Pifu lost all consciousness.
When he came to, he found himself lying on the Gaia deck, retching uncontrollably, while a small green bird anxiously chirped beside him.
Nausea, discomfort, fear, cowardice, emptiness, helplessness…
Countless negative emotions flooded his consciousness, making him wish he could faint immediately.
However, Wu Pifu's will was also resilient.
He endured the overwhelming nausea that made him want to knock himself out, forcing himself to rise from the ground bit by bit until he stood upright, then with immense determination, he began to practice his martial arts.
The techniques of the Tiger Demon Art slowly unfolded from his hands, and as he practiced, the dim Unresting Spirit Light in his consciousness seemed to receive fuel, gradually brightening bit by bit.
At this moment, Wu Pifu was completely focused, with not a single distracting thought in his mind, just frantically practicing his punches.
However, he did not unleash his qi and blood; he merely repeated the techniques of the Tiger Demon Art over and over.
One hour, two hours, ten hours…
When Wu Pifu finally paused, he felt utterly drained, nearly blacking out from exhaustion.
He hurriedly pulled out meatballs from his pouch and swallowed them all without discerning their taste.
After sitting quietly for a moment, he felt that he had regained some energy, but soon felt unbearably thirsty, so he slowly walked to the maintenance station to drink some water.
Only then did Wu Pifu feel as if he had come back to life. “Mainframe, display the weekend time,” Wu Pifu rasped.
“There are sixty-three days, one hour, fifty-two minutes, and eight seconds until the ‘weekend.’” Wu Pifu was secretly astonished; he had been fully awake since returning and had actually practiced for nearly three days and nights!?
Before Wu Pifu could continue to ponder, the mainframe's voice rang out. “Important information detected, lost imprint discovered… Judgment complete. Level two maintenance personnel Wu Pifu, do you wish to provide important information and surrender the lost imprint? You may exchange for the following two options.”
“Title level increase by two.”
“May designate to obtain one advanced technique from the baseline reality Dream World 0.6 to 0.5, designated content from known technique systems.”
“Teleport three thousand carbon-based nano units.”
“Awaken thirty level one maintenance personnel.”
“Randomly unlock one inspiration potential.”
“Designated penetration once into baseline reality 0.3 and above Dream World.”
“Record this imprint (one-time usage qualification).”
“Please choose.”
(End of Chapter)