novelraw Chapter 91 : Ascension
Chapter 91 : Ascension
Chapter 91: Ascension
Realizing that Zhang Wenda no longer used the orange light, the creatures in the darkness drew ever closer.
「What do we do! They're almost surrounding us!」Song Jianguo said anxiously. At that moment, even with Zhang Wenda holding flashlights in both hands, he couldn't dispel the darkness that was steadily creeping in.
As they neared, Zhang Wenda noticed that the darkness held not only the shadows of black cats. From deep within the shadows emerged countless densely packed limbs and appendages—clearly, every shadow that had fallen into the depths of the dark web had been trapped here, regardless of what kind of creature it had been.
Various shadows rolled and churned within the darkness, writhing and clinging to each other, as if merging into one massive shadow monster.
Faced with the immense threat, Zhang Wenda’s body twisted and swayed between darkness and light, as though it were undergoing deformation.
「What do shadows fear? They fear light! But where am I supposed to get light now!?」
Just as Zhang Wenda stepped onto the damp ground, something came to mind, and he immediately pulled out the Oil Tyrant from his pocket.
With struggling eyes, he didn't hesitate—he threw the Oil Tyrant onto the ground. Instantly, the unknown liquid on the ground rapidly transformed into clear oil under the Oil Tyrant’s influence, spreading outward continuously.
True to its name, the Oil Tyrant worked swiftly. In no time, the air filled with the stench of gasoline.
「Forget me! Take 2826 and charge forward—go as far as you can!!」With Zhang Wenda’s command, Song Jianguo immediately obeyed without resistance.
Under Song Jianguo's direction, the cats formed a massive shield around 2826 and charged into the darkness without hesitation. In an instant, the shadows completely engulfed them.
At that moment, Zhang Wenda raised the flashlights he and 2826 had been holding, crossed them, and smashed them together with force. A piercing screech of metal on metal rang out, followed by a shower of sparks.
As the sparks landed on the Oil Tyrant-soaked ground—accompanied by a loud boom—the oil burst into flames. A bright blaze tore through the darkness, igniting the bottom of the dark web with the brightest of fires.
The raging fire rampaged, leaving the shadows no place to hide and no strength to resist—they were instantly ripped apart and dissolved by the flames.
The fire consumed not only the shadows, but also Zhang Wenda, who stood at its center.
Pain—his entire body was in pain. Zhang Wenda had become a Fire-man.
His clothes were completely burned away, the flashlight in his hand glowed red-hot, and his eyes had been scorched blind. All he could do was stagger in agony through the flames.
He shoved the two now-melted lollipops into his blistered mouth.
Yet even so, the healing power of the candy couldn’t catch up with the damage the flames were inflicting on his body.
All he could do was endure, and keep enduring. His immense tolerance for pain came into play here. No matter how much it hurt, he kept moving forward.
Just as he was about to reach his limit, everything suddenly cleared—the fire was gone.
The cats, already prepared, sucked up water from the ground and sprayed it all over Zhang Wenda.
Zhang Wenda quickly lay on the ground, rolling through the water. At last, before being burned to death, he managed to extinguish the flames on his body.
「Finally—finally, I’m alive.」Zhang Wenda looked up at the now much-brighter sky and let out a relieved laugh.
「You okay?」Song Jianguo asked, frowning at Zhang Wenda, whose clothes had been completely incinerated.
「I'm fine. I’m fine. The candy is still working. I should survive.」As Zhang Wenda struggled to get up and say this, his eyes suddenly lit up.「Oil Tyrant!」
Before the fire as large as a sports field, the bright light had left the Oil Tyrant—previously hidden in darkness—completely exposed, now floating alone in midair.
After searching around, Zhang Wenda found three Oil Tyrants scattered nearby. Including the one in the ceramic jar, he discovered that not only had he met his goal—he even had one extra.
Although his body still hurt badly, his face was beaming with joy. That extra one meant an extra 200 bucks—this near-death ordeal hadn’t been in vain.
Seeing the intense flames begin to die down, Zhang Wenda dared not search further, fearing darkness would return and the shadows would entangle him to death.
It was only then that Zhang Wenda noticed the floor of the dark web was littered with corpses of all kinds. But due to the shrouding darkness, no one had known they’d died down there.
「Let’s go. Let’s get out of here.」
「How? Can you fly or something?」Song Jianguo shamelessly swept a glance between his legs.
Zhang Wenda, his skin mostly recovered, took 2826’s jacket and draped it over himself.「Use your cats. All this hot air—might as well put it to use.」
A giant umbrella formed from cats rose up under the lift of the thermal current, carrying them upward toward the floating islands.
When they landed on one of the floating islands and looked up at the dense web of cables and more floating islands, everyone let out a breath of relief.
Finally, there was a path. From here, they just had to keep climbing along the web of wires to escape. The path ahead should be safe now.
「Thanks, this trip must’ve been tough for you.」Zhang Wenda smiled and said to 2826. This guy had made a major contribution.
「Yeah, especially tough.」2826 sighed, looking at his wounds.
「Haha, true enough. Bad luck for you, getting dragged into this thrill ride by me.」
Zhang Wenda took out the four drops of Oil Tyrant from the ceramic jar, lining them up neatly in his hand, admiring his spoils of war.
It hadn’t been easy. Really hadn’t. He’d nearly lost his life for these few items. Risky money sure paid well.
「Hey bro,」Zhang Wenda asked 2826:「How much did you get paid for this run?」
「Sixty.」2826 replied with a surprisingly low number.
「Only that little? We risked our lives to gather intel from the bottom layer of the dark web! With this intel, people could come down anytime and collect Oil Tyrants—think how much that’s worth!」
Zhang Wenda was even considering partnering with 2826 for multiple runs—maybe they could achieve financial freedom together.
2826 seemed to anticipate Zhang Wenda’s thinking.「It’s not worth that much. We’re operating in Thought Stream No. 7’s Network World. And in Thought Stream No. 7, there’s a core principle: the network is dynamic—it’s constantly changing, always evolving.」
「If you try to apply past experiences to scout out dangerous zones in the current Network World, trust me, you’ll die horribly.」
「Damn.」Zhang Wenda cursed harshly. This place really didn’t play by any logic.
「Oil Tyrants go for 200 bucks per drop, and the reason they’re high-priced but scarce isn’t without cause.」
「Alright, still—thank you.」Zhang Wenda looked at him seriously.
But 2826 shook his head and met his gaze.「You don’t need to thank me. You gave me the sun, I helped you find the Oil Tyrants. Compared to friends helping each other, this feels more like a transaction.」
「In fact, based on what I know of you, if I really helped you without asking for anything in return—you probably wouldn’t have accepted it.」
「What do you mean by that?」Hearing the hidden meaning in his words, the smile at Zhang Wenda’s lips slowly faded, his brow furrowing.
「You seem to reject unconditional help. You’re more willing to accept a trade.」
「When Rabbit helped you unconditionally, you didn’t want to accept it. But you let me help—because this was a transaction?」
Zhang Wenda suddenly raised his head and looked at him.「How do you know about Rabbit? Are you spying on me?」
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