Chapter 156

Chapter 156

In the current situation, Ark's abilities indeed couldn't penetrate Agatha's defenses, including those recently acquired from alien creatures sheltered from Nightfall, none of which had the power to directly break through.

Fortunately, the earlier incident with the "firewall" had allowed Ark to speculate on Agatha's abilities and prepare a response in advance.

Since her power was insufficient for a breakthrough, Ark considered what other abilities present could be utilized, and Mixue's "Rending" seemed a likely candidate.

Initially, her plan was to kill Mixue and then have Nereus devour her body to acquire the Rending ability.

Unfortunately, Mixue wasn't so easily dealt with, and with the pressure mounting from outside, Ark had to consider other strategies, resorting to the last resort of expending a great deal of energy to kill Mixue if necessary.

Before her direct confrontation with Mu'er, Ark thoroughly reviewed the abilities of the newly sheltered alien creatures.

She had recently acquired about thirty, with over twenty being Class B and five Class A. She had absorbed so many at once that she had only quickly reviewed their abilities by name previously.

Most alien creatures' abilities were intuitively named, revealing their functions at a glance, but Ark had overlooked many that required detailed exploration to understand their specific functions.

Ark delved into the details, her attention drawn to the description of one Class B alien creature's ability.

[Alien Creature: Thorn]

[Grade: B-Class]

[Primary Ability (Absorption Trap)]: Can set traps at five designated locations (lasting ten minutes). If someone uses their power at a trap's location, it can be transferred to the trap's master. The transferred power will be released at the same time it's transferred, and the trap can't be used again shortly after activation.

This was a thorn-like, worm-like alien creature. Even if a Class B alien creature's abilities were useful, they often had numerous restrictions, and this one had the most restrictions Ark had encountered so far.

She attempted to make her heart's location one of the traps. The release of this trap not only had a lead time, but it also couldn't be set on a living being, meaning it couldn't be used in sudden combat situations.

Just these two limitations alone rendered the ability a "useless power." In a world overrun with alien creatures and transcendents, there were countless useless abilities, with many of Ark's sheltered aliens possessing powers that were practically unusable.

In the past, she might never have thought of a suitable scenario to use this ability, but today, there happened to be a perfect situation for its application.

During her battle with Mu'er, Ark separated out Chameleon and Thorn, sending Chameleon underground with Thorn to set five traps at designated locations before returning to her body, awaiting Mixue's arrival.

Ark knew that neither Number One nor Fiery Star could stop Mixue from heading to the lower levels. Even she would have to use black holes to block Mixue, and Fiery Star and Number One lacked the means to counter this.

However, Ark noticed Mixue's "concern" for Number One and Fiery Star. Encountering them, Mixue would inevitably engage them until they were incapacitated, a theory confirmed by Fiery Star's reaction.

Before Mixue regains her senses, Number One and Fiery Star could buy some time.

As for what news could awaken Mixue, making her abandon the fight with Number One and Fiery Star to seek Nightfall's true core figure, Xi Xiang...

Mu'er's departure from the helicopter provided the necessary breakthrough.

Ark knew everything would come full circle after she killed Mu'er.

Of course, this was not a guaranteed success; Ark was indeed taking a gamble.

The ten-minute trap duration and five traps not completely covering the floor were potential factors for failure.

Fortunately, her luck held, and her step-by-step plan ultimately culminated in a perfect conclusion.

Through the Line Python she had positioned inside, Ark was kept informed of the internal situation. She timed it perfectly, using Rending against Agatha's defense at the right moment.

Success – the impenetrable defense cracked open to welcome her arrival.

Ark's brows lifted slightly, and before the people inside the helicopter could react, she immediately entered through the torn opening, using Chameleon's wall-penetrating ability to drop into the helicopter's interior.

Inside, Agatha, sensing her defense was breached, rapidly shrank the defense space to the minimum size needed to envelop the helicopter.

Ark barely entered before the defense space re-established; any slower, and she would have been locked out.

With structural insight, Ark could see the personnel distribution inside the transport helicopter. She landed in the unoccupied cargo bay, blending into the environment using the Five-Colored Lizard's ability.

Having done this, she slowly exhaled, easing the fatigue from constant fighting and overthinking.

Agatha's heart skipped a beat. Even after swiftly re-establishing a new defense space, she remained unsure if Ark had penetrated the interior.

The wind and sand that had obscured the camera's view had now quietly dissipated, the wind outside ceased, and the helicopter's interior could once again observe the situation below, without any sight of Ark.

"This is bad!"

"Switch to the cargo bay camera," she instructed Jacob. She couldn't continue to shrink her defense territory any further. If she abandoned the cargo bay, Ark could attack its location, causing the helicopter to crash even if she hadn't entered.

What power did Ark use to breach her Absolute Territory?! Agatha's thoughts raced with alarm!

Agatha's defensive ability, "Absolute Territory," couldn't prevent a damaged helicopter from falling. She could establish a defensive territory anywhere, including non-dimensional data network spaces, to resist technological, paranormal, and weapon invasions, even radiation from outside the safety zone.

The smaller the space she created, the stronger the defense of the Absolute Territory. As Ark had guessed, the domain she initially set up in the data network was too vast, allowing an S-class hacker to breach it during an ability invasion, something an A-class Wall Rat couldn't achieve.

Now, the Absolute Territory Agatha had established around the helicopter was condensed to a degree where 99% of S-class transcendental abilities couldn't breach it.

But once the outer defense is breached and someone enters the territory, she can't stop them from using their abilities. Moreover, only one domain space can be opened in the same dimension.

The interior of the cargo bay was displayed on the screen through its camera. There was indeed no one there, but Agatha's intuition told her Ark was already inside.

She had abilities akin to invisibility, evading the camera's capture with ease. Realizing this, Agatha quickly grabbed the parachuting equipment nearby.

Mu'er was dead; she absolutely couldn't afford to die.

Sure enough, the next second, a figure appeared beside Agatha. A gunshot rang out, and a bullet headed towards her head, but it stopped inches away, blocked by the condensed defense territory around her.

Ending Agatha's life was not as simple as Ark had thought. If she could establish a defense territory encompassing the entire helicopter, she could naturally create one just around herself.

The Absolute Territory, now several times more condensed, was even more robust and indestructible. Ark didn't have a second "Rending" to use.

Agatha's abilities were even more troublesome than Mu'er's, making it unlikely to kill her in a short time.

Fortunately, Ark's objective was already achieved. As she retracted her external domain to protect herself, a massive wind blade sliced towards the midsection of the helicopter.

Without her defense, Ark's power solidly struck the helicopter.

The helicopter, severely damaged, could no longer maintain stability in the air and began to plummet rapidly.

As it fell swiftly, Ark passed through the bottom of the helicopter, choosing not to engage Agatha inside.

"Boom!"

The helicopter, billowing black smoke, crashed quickly to the ground. Ark could see Agatha, wearing parachuting gear, descending safely towards the ground. She tried to disrupt Agatha's equipment with her powers but was undoubtedly blocked.

Central's reinforcements had almost all arrived, with multiple armed helicopters converging overhead, filling the skies over Lejiang City.

Gasping for breath, Ark dodged bullets shot from above, landing on the roof of a nearby building. She then dropped a floor down using Chameleon's ability.

With the helicopter's crash, the barrier device was also destroyed. Xi Xiang contacted her urgently, "My powers have been restored, where are you!"

Ark, able to understand the situation through the alien creatures she had placed, closed her eyes and sighed, "Xi Xiang, don't wait for me, take them and leave immediately."

During this brief moment, the battle on the other side also reached a climax.

Realizing that Nightfall had begun its evacuation earlier than expected, Mixue's descent in search of personnel became more urgent. She soon reached the corridor of the conference level, which was the lowest floor.

This level had no doors. Mixue checked briefly and then used Rending on the wall at the end of the corridor, tearing it open to reveal a hidden room. As soon as there was movement, a volley of bullets shot towards her.

Mixue effortlessly dodged the gunfire, just as she expected. This vast space on this level indeed gathered many people.

Number One and Fiery Star had already arrived at this level through the elevator and were now waiting behind the wall for her arrival.

Mixue couldn't distinguish who Xi Xiang was. Her gaze fell behind them, without even a glance at the two, ready to eliminate them straight away. Number One and Fiery Star immediately stepped forward to block her.

"Ha," Mixue let out a cold laugh, "I didn't kill you, yet you rush to meet your demise."

She accelerated, closing in on them. Pointing her gun at Number One from close range, she simultaneously kicked Fiery Star in the stomach.

Number One manipulated the wall he had touched to transform and shield himself, but Fiery Star couldn't dodge in time and crashed heavily to the side, coughing up blood.

Worse still, the squad led by Rui Pan followed Mixue's footsteps to this level.