America: The Cremator

Elena took out a palm-sized black square device from her tactical pouch, tapped it a few times, and the screen began to display some complex readings that Sulong couldn't understand at all.

Seeing that Su Long had also come over to observe, Elena glanced at him and explained, "This is a space detector, used to detect the stability of space."

"But since we are in the Otherworld, many rules are the opposite of those in the real world. For example, the most important thing is spatial stability. The higher the stability, the easier it is for the space here to be destroyed, and the easier it is for us to find our way back."

"Beep beep beep!"

The instrument quickly completed the test, and the number on the screen finally stopped at "0.17".

"This number... is very low, isn't it?"

Elena shook her head and turned off the instrument, her expression becoming somewhat serious: "That's right. Under normal circumstances, the stability of a newly formed projection area is at least 0.8, while the benchmark for measurement is 0.6."

"A value below this means the spatial connection is extremely fragile. 0.17... this number means that this place is almost completely disconnected from the surface world."

"So, the door between us and the real world has been welded shut, is that right?" Su Long's expression also turned ugly; he didn't want to stay in this hellish place forever.

Elena pulled out another exquisitely crafted silver-white cylinder from her waist pouch.

Su Long frowned: "What's this now?"

"Silver-based grenades can cause tremors in the inner world... Now we have no choice but to try it out and see if we can create a weak point..."

After saying that, Elena pulled the pin without hesitation and threw the grenade with all her might towards the ruins across the street.

The grenade traced a parabola in the air, and upon landing, it exploded like a flashbang, releasing a blinding burst of silver light. Countless fine silver powder particles spread out in a huge sphere centered on the point of explosion.

Wherever the silver powder touched, the space rippled like water, and the outlines of the dilapidated buildings around it were also distorted, but it quickly subsided like ripples on a pond.

Elena took out the instrument again to perform the test. The number on the screen flashed a few times and finally settled on "0.23".

Elena couldn't help but mutter under her breath, "Shit! The spatial structure here is even more robust than I imagined. It's like it's completely solidified, and no external force can budge it."

She took a deep breath and continued, "The stability here is too low. Our connection with the real world is almost completely severed. If we can't find an exit soon, we... might be trapped here to die."

"What about the Weird Support Bureau? Don't you have any backup plans for this situation?" Su Long pressed on, unwilling to give up. Being trapped and dying in this godforsaken place was no fun experience.

Elena gave a wry smile and said helplessly, "The department does have a 'reality anchor' that can forcibly tear open the passage between the inner world and the outer world. However, the Seattle branch's anchor point is currently carrying out a Class A containment mission on the east shore of Lake Washington, where more than a dozen ordinary people are trapped. Their situation is more urgent than ours. It would take at least fifteen hours to bring it over."

"We...can't last more than fifteen hours."

Surong persisted: "What about other regions? Can't we transfer people from other regions? Like Los Angeles or somewhere else?"

Elena let out a cold laugh, a laugh filled with undisguised contempt and mockery.

"A temporary transfer? With those ruthless members of Congress and the bloated managers in various departments, you can't even submit an application without millions in 'bribes'."

"Not to mention the ridiculously long approval process. By the time those bureaucrats finish their wrangling and stamp the papers, we've already been bizarrely digested into a pile of shit!"

As soon as they finished speaking, the two of them looked up at the horizon at the same time.

The dim, yellowish sun had sunk even lower than before, with only a sliver of its golden edge remaining on the horizon.

"Isn't the sunset a little too fast?" Surong murmured.

Elena's expression was extremely solemn: "The flow of time in the inner world is also chaotic and disordered. One second it might be daytime, and the next second it might jump directly to midnight."

As if to confirm her words, the setting sun, under their watchful eyes, visibly descended and disappeared completely below the horizon.

Darkness instantly engulfed everything.

The sky seemed to have turned into a heavy, thick black curtain, pressing straight down on the ground, making one feel suffocated and almost unable to breathe.

The dilapidated streets and building ruins became increasingly grotesque and terrifying, like a lurking giant beast.

Thick fog carrying the stench of rust and rotting flesh surged in from all directions, countless hideous and twisted ghostly figures flashed past within it, and mournful howls and faint weeping pierced the eardrums, stirring one's reason.

A dozen or so scarlet lights appeared in the thick fog.

Immediately afterwards, one after another, hunched-over humanoid monsters with ashen skin and disproportionately thin limbs emerged from the mist. Their exposed jaws were filled with sharp teeth, and they made hungry, hoarse noises from their throats as they greedily and fiercely locked onto the two living beings in the middle of the street.

"It seems we have guests."

Elena tucked the detector back into her waistband, drew her greatsword from behind her back, and warily watched the monsters that were surrounding her. At the same time, she didn't forget to introduce to Su Long: "The most common monster in the underworld is the D-rank ghoul. It's not very strong, but it can be quite troublesome when there are a lot of them."

Surong casually tossed aside the "Sirius" magazine, loaded it with pure silver bullets, and said with disdain, "We didn't host any awesome party to invite these ugly freaks."

Elena chuckled softly, then said self-deprecatingly, "Is it possible that we're the main course?"

Before the words were even finished, a ghoul pounced on the two of them impatiently, its sharp claws drawing five gusts of wind in the air, aimed directly at Elena's face.

Elena neither dodged nor evaded; the greatsword in her hand was as light as a feather. With a clean and swift upward slash, the silver blade sliced ​​through the air, instantly severing the ghoul that pounced on her in two, its foul-smelling entrails and black blood splattering all over the ground.

Two more ghouls attempted to ambush from the side, but before they could get close, two muffled gunshots rang out, and their heads exploded, turning them into two headless corpses that fell to the ground.

The two worked together seamlessly. Elena's greatsword was responsible for clearing out enemies from the front, while Suron precisely eliminated all enemies attempting to attack from blind spots, constantly eliminating the monsters that pounced on them.

However, their killing speed was far slower than the speed at which monsters poured out of the mist; it seemed that the more they killed, the more monsters came, an endless stream.

"Beep beep beep—beep beep beep—"

Elena's Geiger counter suddenly emitted a rapid, high-pitched beeping sound that was so irritating it was unsettling.

At the same time, several powerful auras filled with malice and violence emanated from the depths of the thick fog, rapidly approaching the two.

Elena pinned a ghoul that pounced on her to the ground with a single sword strike, her expression extremely grave.

Elena forced back the ghoul in front of her with a single sword strike, then shouted urgently, "The situation is dire! The negative energy concentration here is skyrocketing! And we've already been spotted by a C-rank anomaly. We must find a way out immediately, or we'll be worn down and die here!"

With a single shot, Su Long eliminated a survivor, his eyes gleaming as he activated his spiritual vision.

In the blink of an eye, the world before my eyes was covered by countless chaotic and twisted gray-black threads, so indistinct that they were impossible to see clearly.

My current level of spiritual vision is probably not enough to see through the weaknesses of the inner world!

"Cover me!" Surong yelled at Elena.

Without the slightest hesitation, Elena swept her greatsword across, forcing back the ghouls surrounding her.

Su Long took a deep breath, focused his mind, and a wisp of golden primordial fire emerged from his palm, then suddenly exploded, transforming into a surging ring of flames.

The flames instantly ignited the corpses on the ground. The sacred fire burned away the filth and formed a temporary barrier of flames, keeping the ghouls outside. Those ghouls that couldn't resist their instincts and rushed forward immediately screamed in agony upon hitting the wall of fire and were burned to a crisp.

A series of notifications flashed across Su Long's field of vision.

[Experience points +0.5]

[Experience points +1]

[Experience points +0.5]

……

Ultimately, the experience points were capped at 13.

Without a moment's hesitation, Su Long immediately invested all ten experience points into Spirit Vision.

Vision: 20 (Eye of the Spirit Realm!) - 30 (Eye of Truth!)

[The host's spiritual vision has unlocked a new stage, allowing them to see through the stability and fissures of space!]

A cool breeze rushed into my mind, and the world before my eyes instantly changed.