Dust and smoke filled the air, obscuring the view.
Episode 4 began by directly continuing the battle that had only just started.
The camera lens adopted a top-down view of the ground, showing the audience the terrifying power of Lin Zhen’s previous attack.
The nearly 20,000 square meters of land had been pressed down like putty by fingers, forming a strange sunken disc shape.
It intersected with the big pit of Little Screw City, creating a gap through which sand and gravel continuously slid into the pit with a rustling sound.
Ice shards were scattered messily across the disc, glittering like candy on a dessert.
Wisps of black smoke rose from the center of the disc.
There was a deep pit over 3 meters in diameter, the direct trace of Lin Zhen’s earlier attack.
The pitch-black battle armor Dark Dust, which had dodged the attack, did not rush to counterattack.
At that moment, it floated in the air, tilting its head slightly as it looked at the pit.
The crimson light on its visor contracted and expanded at a fixed rate, as if analyzing something.
Seeing this, Lin Zhen raised his right hand but did not hurry to lower it.
He knew his own situation well. The Lightning Strike just now was powerful enough to kill a Three-star energy user, but its uses were limited.
Since he wanted to focus on stalling for time, he had to make good use of each strike.
The enemy was currently wasting time by zoning out, which was a good thing. He had no need to disturb them. As for whether the enemy could analyze anything, that was beyond Lin Zhen’s concern.
The trump card he had spent five years forging would be too underestimated if it could be defended against just by looking at it.
Thus, with both sides’ tacit ceasefire, the battlefield fell into an indescribable silence.
“Roar—!”
Perhaps the previous commotion had awakened the monsters lurking in the Dark Swamp. A clear roar came from the direction of Little Screw City behind Lin Zhen.
Accompanying it was a strange crawling sound that was both rustling and synchronized in rhythm.
tap-tap-tap-tap…
The ground trembled slightly, the footsteps became more urgent, and the crawling sound grew closer to Lin Zhen.
“Damn it!”
Lin Zhen had not anticipated that a monster would intrude into the battle.
At this moment, any attempt to look back or dodge would be a flaw.
He dared not make any move, forcing himself to resist the urge to turn around, and stared fixedly at Dark Dust, large beads of cold sweat quickly trickling down his forehead.
‘A wolf in front, a tiger behind. I’m done for.’
‘So this was your plan, Lao An?’
‘I was waiting for the BGM, and you were waiting for… a monster?’
Hearing the rapid crawling sound, Dark Dust slowly raised its head.
The constantly contracting and expanding red light on its visor had stopped changing at some point.
[Detected lethal danger, above 85%! Continue mission!]
[Detected lethal danger. Evaluating mission completion feasibility…]
[Emotion cooling injection…]
Cold blue text appeared at the bottom of the screen along with typing sounds.
Dark Dust suddenly shook, and the sections of its spinal structure lit up with blue light one by one, then went out.
The crimson light on its visor burst forth instantly.
The next second.
Dark Dust vanished from its spot.
Like a cannonball, wrapped in a milky white air current, it shot forward at an extremely terrifying speed.
Lin Zhen’s eyes narrowed, and his right hand swung down again.
“Lightning Strike!”
A dazzling blue lightning bolt fell from the sky as before, landing exactly between Dark Dust and Lin Zhen.
The crimson light on its visor contracted, and Dark Dust immediately drifted sideways with a flexibility it had never shown before.
Silver-gray molten iron flowed from various parts of its body, gathering under its feet to form a metal rod that pushed it sideways.
Boom!
The lightning bolt smashed into the ground, raising a massive wave and dealing another heavy blow to the already battered land.
Several black crab-like monsters that had just climbed up from the edge of the giant pit were also caught in the aftershock of this Lightning Strike.
They were directly sent flying and fell back into the giant pit.
At the same time.
Lin Zhen continuously extended a metal rod using his supernatural power, and in the blink of an eye, he had propelled himself hundreds of meters away.
The scenery on both sides of his vision rapidly flowed past.
He turned his head to look, saw dust and smoke rising behind him, and frowned.
‘Directly controlling metal to fly with me is not impossible, but it’s not Metal Reconstruction’s strong point. It’s acceptable for fighting ordinary enemies, but against an enemy of this strength, the speed is too slow.’
‘Generating metal directly to push myself to move has decent speed, but it not only consumes metal reserves, but reclamation also costs a use of star energy.’
It was not that he had not developed mobile devices for combat.
But devices were ultimately external forces that could be damaged, and sometimes, like today, they might not be available.
So he had to focus on improving his supernatural power.
As Lin Zhen’s thoughts flowed, just then, a blurry black light appeared within the dust and smoke.
The aftershock of the Lightning Strike was still spreading, but the wave that was enough to repel monsters could not hinder the black light at all.
Its speed increased rapidly, so fast that it was almost unreasonable, and wherever it passed, it was tinged with an ominous, deep darkness.
The distance of over 200 meters that Lin Zhen had barely pulled away was shortened to less than 50 meters in the blink of an eye.
Lin Zhen’s eyes turned cold. He formed his right hand into a gun shape and pointed it lightly at the black light.
“As I thought… I can’t escape!”
“Lightning Strike!”
Boom!
The lightning bolt fell from the sky at a terrifying speed.
But Dark Dust seemed to have predicted it, dodging sideways. While avoiding the attack, the air current wrapped around it became even denser, forming a white halo that spread outward along the edges of the armor.
White halo?
Lin Zhen’s gaze wavered as he recalled the phenomenon that occurred when Yun Ruoxi used Telekinesis to fly rapidly, due to the extreme focus of her telekinetic power.
The two were actually so similar.
‘Could it be that Dark Dust’s exaggerated flight speed and agility come from Telekinesis?’
‘How absurd!’
‘That means the opponent has three different abilities?’
‘Wait, in that case, wasn’t Dark Dust created using the genes of Lao Xi and Mo Yuan?’
‘That might actually be possible, since Lao Mo can copy supernatural powers, and so far, only Lao Xi has Telekinesis.’
‘WOC, that’s possible too?’
Enveloped by the white halo, Dark Dust’s speed suddenly increased severalfold. Like teleportation, it appeared right in front of Lin Zhen, blocking most of his field of view.
Whoosh!
The wind and waves stirred up by the Lightning Strike raged wildly around.
But when they reached Lin Zhen, they were all blocked by the 1.8-meter-tall battle armor and then dissipated into nothing.
At this distance, Lightning Strike would involve himself, so he could not use it.
Lin Zhen could only watch helplessly as Dark Dust raised its right hand, seeming slow yet actually fast, pressing it toward him.
This seemingly unintelligent battle armor had been concealing its true speed all along!
That had led to his misjudgment.
Or rather…
Had it not been using its full strength all this time?
It was only now that it struck with full force.
Lin Zhen didn’t know the answer.
His vision was nearly completely blocked by the matte-colored, cold mechanical right hand.
Dark Dust’s right hand descended, gently and without any force, grabbing Lin Zhen’s face.
[Armor recharge 90%, Ability: Ice.]