Compared to the previous tunnel, this dim and lightless tunnel was even longer, as if it would lead to the end of time, creating quite a sense of oppression.
However, that was only for the Leo of the past.
The current him wouldn't care how long this tunnel was. In any case, whenever he felt the path ahead was too dangerous, he would inevitably teleport everyone away before the danger arrived.
Although fighting a hard battle relying on [Resurrection] wasn't impossible, they hadn't maxed out their current numerical values yet, so there was still plenty of room for improvement.
Fighting like that would be somewhat of a waste of [Resurrection].
After all, just because they couldn't explore further here didn't mean the [25%] area couldn't continue to be explored. Farming monsters as much as possible was their most urgent matter right now.
However, right until the end, neither Leo nor Kiana and the others sensed anything amiss.
Facts proved that the enemies here could no longer threaten them!
"An assembly hall?"
Finally walking out of the tunnel, Leo squinted, attempting to adjust to the rapid shift between light and dark, while observing their current location.
—This was an assembly hall no smaller than the playground outside!
Generally speaking, assembly halls in Far East schools would be substituted by the indoor gymnasium. However, some schools would specially build an assembly hall... Chiba Academy was obviously the latter.
Additionally, it was strange to say, but before walking out of the tunnel, there was still pitch darkness in front of them.
But the moment they stepped across a certain boundary, the entire space was illuminated by the bright rays of incandescent lights.
"It really has the vibe of a BOSS room," Kiana, walking beside Leo, whispered a complaint.
"But where are the monsters?" MEI asked, echoing Kiana's sentiment.
At the very least, as far as their eyes could see, they didn't spot any enemies.
This huge space was empty of everything, merely shrouded in white light.
If one really had to say, rather than an assembly hall, this place looked more like... a laboratory?
"Anyway, let's explore carefully first."
Although he was absolutely confident in his side's strength, Leo wasn't someone who liked to capsize in the gutter.
Even though they all had [Resurrection] as a safety net, if they could avoid dying, that was naturally best.
And even if he died, he hoped every one of his lives would be lost with value, rather than losing a life due to negligence.
Thus, the group divided into two teams: Leo with MEI, and Kiana with Sakura. They split up to explore both sides.
But until they met up at the end, let alone enemies, they didn't even find the passage leading to the next area.
Here, it was simply like—
"A monster room that hasn't been built well yet... Could it be that there's a BUG here?"
Rubbing her chin, Kiana had a face full of confusion.
After all, she had always thought they needed to trigger something for the monsters to appear. But after they searched around the assembly hall once and there was still nothing, she understood her thinking was wrong.
As for MEI's side—
"Could it be the same as the third floor..." Pursing her lips, she frowned and said, "The problem lies with the assembly hall in the outside world."
"But at least before we left school, we didn't hear of any supernatural events occurring at the school, right?"
Although Leo didn't spend much time at school, when he was there, he did specifically collect relevant information.
leveraging his identity as a transfer student, wanting to hear a bit of this kind of news wasn't out of place at all. So, whenever there was any sign of trouble, his classmates would tell him about it for fun.
However, factually speaking, let alone recent supernatural events, he hadn't even collected any past supernatural events of Chiba Academy.
These enthusiastic classmates only provided him with explosive news like 'The Affair in the Gymnasium' or 'The Tokusatsu in the Swimming Pool', but nothing related to the [extraordinary].
Although almost every school in the Far East had its Seven Wonders, such news rarely circulated in Chiba Academy.
After all, what era was this? Such obsolete rumors couldn't become popular among students anymore.
—The impact of short videos was far more interesting than these old legends.
"Indeed..." Understanding Leo's meaning, MEI added, "Perhaps there's a secret door?"
And just as she said this, news suddenly came from Sakura's side.
"Come look at this."
Waving her hand towards Leo and the others, although Sakura's face remained expressionless, her eyes revealed a trace of excitement.
After all, this discovery was her first contribution to this entire team; naturally, she couldn't suppress her joy.
It was just that she wasn't sure if the result of doing this would be a good thing, or if it would lead everyone to a team wipe.
Therefore—
"This is?" Looking at the rostrum that had changed appearance under Sakura's operation, Leo couldn't help but reveal a curious expression. "Didn't I already check this rostrum? How did you do this?"
In fact, the rostrum was in the area he passed through, and he had even asked MEI to check it thoroughly.
But aside from this thing being welded to the high platform, he hadn't found any problems with this rostrum.
But looking at it now, a row of buttons had appeared on top.
"This is..." The one who spoke wasn't Sakura, but Kiana, who had leaned in. "A combination mechanism?"
"Mhm."
Nodding, Sakura explained to Leo and MEI, "For mechanisms like this, you need to bring your own combination buttons. Otherwise, no matter how you investigate it, it's just an ordinary rostrum."
Immediately, she showed the two the connection point of the button platform. That position was exactly the exposed wire after the microphone had been sliced open.
"So that's how it is..." Seeing this, MEI revealed a thoughtful look and said, "No wonder there was a reaction when I probed with electromagnetic waves, but I thought it was just the normal reaction of the microphone connection."
To be honest, how could a student living in the ordinary world like her think of such a gadget?
—No matter how genius she was, it was useless!
"Then how do we use this thing?"
Although he understood the principle, Leo looked at the extra buttons and still didn't understand the meaning within.
However—
"This is a signal trigger composed of 0s and 1s. Let me try."
Although it was her first time encountering this thing, MEI was a genius after all. After understanding the principle, she could immediately apply it.
Sakura didn't try to be brave regarding this. After all, she only knew a few button sequences she had learned during previous missions.
If she were really asked to press them, she didn't know what she would trigger.
Precisely because of this, she didn't do anything.
"You're really fully prepared."
Seeing MEI start tinkering with the buttons, Kiana smiled and said to Sakura, "I've only seen this thing in class."
The reason she could still remember this thing was mainly that this combination button platform looked too much like an arcade machine.
Additionally—
"You've only seen it in class because your group has Bronya, right?" With a roll of his eyes, Leo immediately guessed the reason.
After all, for aspects like technological warfare, it was still more convenient to hand it over to Bronya.
"Mhm."
Nodding, Kiana sighed, "If only Bronya were here. With her understanding of these things, we wouldn't need to worry at all."
Whether it was trust or dependence, she had always only been responsible for 'where to go' and 'what to hit' in the squad, never responsible for the puzzle-solving parts.
"Heh..." Amused by Kiana's matter-of-fact appearance, Leo couldn't help but reach out and rub her head, saying, "No wonder Bronya always says you're an idiot."
"There's no helping it." regarding this, Kiana pursed her lips and spread her hands. "Who let her have a chip in her brain? When discussing tech warfare, who can be better than her?"
After speaking, she looked at Leo with a feigned expression of dissatisfaction, yet she didn't slap away Leo's hand resting on her head. Instead, she inadvertently rubbed against it on her own initiative.
And this scene was naturally seen by Sakura on the side... Their relationship is really good.
Although she understood that Kiana and Leo had reached the level of life and death together, only after seeing the interaction between them with her own eyes could she truly understand.
"That isn't a reason for you to give up thinking either."
The impure little hand slid down. Leo conveniently pinched Kiana's tender and smooth pretty face before withdrawing his hand.
"I haven't gave up either."
Pouting, Kiana said, "It's just, who could have thought that such an obsolete thing would be needed here? Although this is because our group has Bronya, this kind of gadget directly wrapped with wires is also extremely rare. I can only say—"
Turning her gaze to Sakura, she laughed, "Sakura is still the best prepared."
"No." Shaking her head, Sakura spoke up, "I just brought everything I could bring. But some things were still lost after arriving here."
After speaking, she couldn't help but reveal a distressed expression.
Actually, she had brought quite a few hidden weapons.
However—
"Entering here is like that." Seeing Sakura's confusion, Leo said, "Except for items like accessories, it's very hard to bring items in here. Of course, after we go out, they will return to you."
The restrictions of the [Instance] were obvious; it wouldn't allow them to carry weapons that were too outrageous.
Otherwise, with their current physical constitution, it wasn't necessarily impossible to get a tank in here.
After all, he could teleport. As long as he could touch the tank, he could leave with the tank.
—Although in a place like this, a tank's function actually wouldn't be that great.
But at the very least, during his early stage reclamation, a tank could play an irreplaceable role.
What a pity... the [Instance] didn't allow it.
"Then in that case..." Hearing this, Kiana suddenly realized something.
Turning her head, she looked at the button platform MEI was operating. "This thing doesn't constitute a threat in the eyes of the [Instance]?"
"That should be it." Nodding, Leo said, "It's even regarded as a decorative item. But—"
Thinking of something, he looked at the long sword in Sakura's hand again. "That long sword of yours isn't any ordinary item either, right? Only weapons of the [extraordinary] first rank are allowed to be brought in."
The restrictions of the [Instance] belonged to two extremes: either small gadgets that were common to the point of being harmless, or existences that had already broken free from the ordinary rank.
"Mhm."
Nodding, Sakura raised her long sword, showing it to Leo and Kiana. "This is Spirit Blade · Frozen Naraka."
"Eh?" Hearing this, Leo couldn't help but reveal a surprised expression. "Did [Fire Moth] give this to you?"
Although he had seen the extraordinary nature of this long sword early on, and it felt very familiar, he ultimately couldn't be sure.
"Mhm." Nodding, Sakura said, "This is the long sword I've used the longest. The previous blades all shattered during missions."
Her strength was too great; ordinary blades weren't enough for her to use at all. Eventually, it became this sword's turn, which she had continued using until now.
"Alright."
Given that Sakura joined [Fire Moth] earlier than originally, Leo didn't mind that Sakura used this long sword earlier.
However, in his memory, this sword was for Sakura to face the [Honkai].
And when Sakura wanted to kill humans, she would use the [Third Divine Key] · [Seven Thunders of Retribution].
But now, the [Previous Era] would no longer give birth to a new [Herrscher of Thunder], so her [Seven Thunders of Retribution] should be a no-go.
The position of the [Herrscher of Thunder] had already been occupied by MEI!
"You seem to know this sword?" Seeing Leo deep in thought, Sakura took the opportunity to ask the question she hadn't had time to ask before. "And you understood me so well before, so why is all of this?"
Since she cared more about Rin before, she only knew that Leo and the others understood the situation on her side, but she actually hadn't asked why Leo and the others understood them.
Now that the conversation just happened to reach here, she naturally wanted to ask clearly.
"This?" Glancing at MEI's side, seeing it would still take a while, Leo simply spoke up, "I didn't take the initiative to say it mainly because I was afraid you wouldn't believe it. But since you asked, then I'll say it straight. The matter is like this—"
Immediately, just as he did with Kiana and MEI, he spoke about his situation.
Although this was an [Instance] and there was a risk of being monitored.
But—
"Wu..."
Listening to Leo leaning close to her ear and whispering, Sakura suddenly realized she had made a wrong decision.
—I shouldn't have asked at this time!
Precisely because of this, she couldn't push Leo away at all, and could only let the hot air from the other party's mouth hit her ear entirely.
In just a moment, the tips of her ears turned red, and a blush resembling intoxication floated upon her entire pretty face, looking exceptionally beautiful.
"Heh~" Seeing this, Kiana on the side couldn't help but snicker, and glared at Leo coquettishly.
—Really, he just knows how to tease us!
Of course, having said that, she also understood this was Leo's "helpless move".
But if Leo was truly helpless, this matter could totally wait until after they went out to be discussed.
One could only say, it was Sakura who personally delivered herself to such an awkward position... it belonged to 'bringing it upon oneself, cannot live'!
"I-I understand..." Although she said this, Sakura actually didn't know if she specifically understood or not. But she understood the most basic information... So he understands me this well?
"Mhm." Nodding, Leo smiled, "That's why I know some information that theoretically only you and Rin would know."
"Indeed..." Precisely because of this, Sakura chose to believe rather than question.
After all, for some things, unless there was a third party she couldn't detect, it was simply impossible for anyone to know.
"Anyway, don't overthink it. aside from having this extra information, I don't have much advantage over you guys."
—Although just these advantages are enough!
Looking at Sakura with her pretty face blushing, Leo was in a great mood.
And just at this moment—
"Done." MEI, who was concentrating on studying the buttons, spoke up before Sakura could reply, "Everyone prepare for battle."
After speaking, she wiped the sweat from her forehead.
It had to be said, even though she was a great talent, she spent quite a bit of energy to understand it.
Most importantly, this thing didn't have a screen; everything relied on her mental calculations.
Fortunately, the other party didn't add another layer of camouflage protection, otherwise if she had to decrypt it again, that would indeed be somewhat difficult for her.
Of course, it wasn't that she couldn't handle it, but that it would take quite a bit of time.
At the very least, it absolutely wouldn't be something she could handle in this short while.
And as she input the final command, the entire assembly hall underwent earth-shaking changes.
The surroundings became towering, while the central area formed a platform.
Finally—
"This is... a Colosseum?" Looking at the changes in the assembly hall, a trace of enlightenment flashed in Leo's eyes.
At the same time, "beasts" were pushed out from the ground one by one.
"It's Honkai Beasts!" Looking at the familiar enemies before her, Kiana couldn't help but gear up.
Although [Zombies] counted as familiar enemies too, how could fighting [Zombies] be as interesting as fighting [Honkai Beasts]?
"Assault-level and Knight-level?" Seeing the coming beasts clearly, Leo actually relaxed.
At the very least, the enemies before his eyes were all within a controllable range.
It's just that this number... is a bit much!
The central platform that looked broad before was now packed full of [Honkai Beasts].
Even without counting in detail, there were at least a hundred or more.
It really is... a rare grinding sanctuary!
After confirming the enemies' combat power was average, Leo couldn't help but have his eyes light up.
Although he wasn't sure how much [Imaginary Energy] one [Honkai Beast] could drop, as long as it was multiplied by a hundred, that wouldn't be a small number.
It was just—
"How do we fight?" Looking at Leo, Kiana said, "They are too dense. Even with our current strength, we can't go 'Dynasty Warriors' among them."
If it were the world she was originally in, she would have jumped down long ago.
But leaving aside that her strength had weakened, just discussing this world's strengthening, it indeed wasn't something she could act willfully against right now.
Speaking of these [Honkai Beasts] individually, she wasn't afraid at all, but gathered together, they were still somewhat difficult to deal with.
"MEI—" Turning his head to look at MEI, Leo said, "Are there no arrangements that can restrict them?"
He didn't believe that a Colosseum like this would be completely without half a defensive facility.
However—
"There are." Nodding, MEI confirmed Leo's guess. But— "But because of the passage of time, these devices have all failed."
After speaking, she couldn't help but reveal a helpless expression.
In fact, she had attempted it long ago, but there wasn't any reaction.
Only—
"Passage of time?" Frowning slightly, Leo stated bluntly, "First it was such an obsolete combination mechanism, and now devices failing because of the passage of time... It seems this place isn't an arrangement by those people."
When this [Honkai Domain] completely formed, this place would fall into an eternally repeating day.
So theoretically speaking, there was no reason for the devices here to fail.
And according to the information known before, the time the [Honkai Domain] took to form didn't exceed a year; this bit of time wasn't enough to make the devices fail.
Added to the obsolete combination mechanism, this place should have been arranged many years ago.
"This counts as an unexpected harvest too..." Pursing his lips, although he didn't understand the significance of this matter yet, having one more piece of intelligence was always good.
"Let's fight first." But since he couldn't think of an answer for a moment, he simply gave up thinking, using muscles to replace the brain. "Kiana and I will take the main offense; Sakura and MEI will support from the rear."
He and Kiana belonged to the thick-skinned and fleshy type, while although Sakura's strength was high, a large part of her strength lay in her speed. Being slightly weaker in the ability to withstand blows, she naturally wasn't suitable to be the vanguard.
As for MEI, there was even less to say; she still had a long road to walk in the area of [D-Rank].
The only place where she was powerful lay in that she had already become a [Herrscher], so her growth speed far exceeded Leo's.
Who knows, maybe sometime she could walk in front of Leo!
And regarding Leo's arrangement, everyone didn't have any objections, and very quickly charged towards this group of [Honkai Beasts].
"Truly tough!" Slashing a blade carrying [purple thunder] onto a Knight-level [Honkai Beast]'s body, he couldn't help but issue a complaint.
[Imaginary Energy +213]
Although he said that, his long sword still slashed into the Knight-level [Honkai Beast]'s body without obstruction, forcefully cutting off the opponent's charge.
To have such a combat record with infantry against cavalry only proved that his numerical values were truly high enough.
However, within this, there was also the contribution of the [Blade Soul · Herrscher of Thunder].
Previously when Leo slashed those mobs, he couldn't detect the changes in his own long sword yet, but now facing slightly stronger enemies, he naturally could perceive the difference within.
The most crucial point was that the [purple thunder] was brighter than before, and at the same time, it would attach a paralysis effect to the enemy.
It was precisely this paralysis effect that caused this Knight-level [Honkai Beast] to stop its charge.
Otherwise, if it were the past [Blade Soul · Herrscher of Thunder], then while Leo killed the opponent, he would also have to dodge the opponent's charge.
But now—
"Slash!"
Slashing another blade without obstruction, he successfully chopped the Assault-level [Honkai Beast] that wanted to sneak attack him into fragments.
Although speaking of strength, the Knight-level [Honkai Beast] was naturally more dangerous.
But the petite and surprisingly fast Assault-level [Honkai Beast] was actually even more threatening.
After all, this little gadget could always give you a sneak attack suddenly when you were fighting a Knight-level [Honkai Beast]; simply disgusting to the extreme.
And there was no need for this world's strengthening; this little gadget was inherently ADHD, with an extremely high attack frequency.
Therefore, after having the strength enhancement of this world, they were even more unscrupulous.
Those two small wings frequently wanted to scratch Leo and the others.
Fortunately—
"No need to worry about your backs."
A rapid blade light flashed past; Sakura was guarding behind MEI.
With her divine speed, she was just right to deal with these Assault-level [Honkai Beasts].
To be honest, if she were asked to face Knight-level [Honkai Beasts], that would really be a bit difficult for her.
She belonged to the assassin type, most unsuitable for frontal combat.
But letting her play support, she guaranteed that the Assault-level [Honkai Beasts] daring to sneak attack would have no return.
"Mhm."
Seeing the threat behind him was gone, Leo naturally used his full strength to fight desperately in the front even more.
As for Kiana beside him, the golden light on her body had never dissipated.
And while Kiana used the golden light, her dual guns also never ceased fire.
Leveraging her experience against [Honkai Beasts], every one of her strikes was effective.
It could be said, provided these [Honkai Beasts] hadn't been strengthened, they simply wouldn't be a match for her alone.
But even so—
"S-Solved..."
Supporting her knees with both hands, MEI couldn't help but be somewhat exhausted.
There was no helping it; the time she had stepped into the [extraordinary] was ultimately still too short.
Added to her lack of combat experience and problems with strength distribution, now she naturally couldn't hold on somewhat.
Of course, Leo and the others weren't much better off, only able to move normally, that's all.
"MEI, you rest a bit first; we'll go collect the spoils of war." After letting MEI rest on the spot, Leo said, "After checking, we can go back."
Mainly calculating the time, even if there were areas that could still be explored, they didn't have time.
After all, he still had to speed-run three more times; otherwise, today's [Reset] count would be wasted.
Finally—
[Damaged Honkai Beast Wing*13]
[Description: Wings of Assault-level Honkai Beasts chopped to pieces.]
[Function: Strengthen equipment.]
[——Wahhh!]
[Damaged Honkai Beast Lance*3]
[Description: Lances of Knight-level Honkai Beasts chopped off.]
[Function: Strengthen equipment.]
[——Ahhh!]
Compared to the former, the quantity of the latter was much less.
Additionally, the drop of these things was unrelated to their killing method.
After discovering materials were dropping, Leo deliberately attempted to attack the corresponding areas of the [Honkai Beasts].
But this wasn't Monster Hunter after all; his behavior didn't have any use.
Even [Honkai Beasts] killed by him in one slash dropped materials as they should.
Ultimately, he concluded that these materials were essentially products concentrated from the opponent's essence by [Tongzi], not truly dropped from the opponent's body.
Therefore afterward, he just slashed however felt comfortable.
"Great harvest!"
Glancing at the tunnel that appeared on the central platform after killing all the [Honkai Beasts], he chose to teleport back.
After all, it was still that saying: cannot waste the [Reset] time!
Finally—
"Made it!"
Snatching the time before midnight, they successfully used up all [Reset] counts.
And as the generous reward for their efforts, his [Imaginary Energy] returned to one hundred thousand—
[Imaginary Energy: 107413]
Grinding like this for a week, there would be a guaranteed income of seven hundred thousand [Imaginary Energy].
Although even so, it was still unable to let him max out the [Honkai energy] of [D-Rank], it was very close to maxing it out.
Not to mention, he could also go grind [Honkai Erosion Points] during the day.
Just like this, a week of hard work passed.
________________________________________
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