"Shallow, is it possible that I got lost in there and couldn't find the way back to Hawkins?" Dean did not rush into the tree hole, but observed the speed at which the tree hole disappeared and considered the way back.
It's a pity that this place is separated by two worlds and cannot be seen from God's perspective.
"The possibility is not small. If you go in and fail to come out before the tree hole disappears, then you will be trapped in the world," Qiantan said. "Then you can only gamble on your luck and open unstable nodes in the world. Trying to find a way home."
Dean crossed his arms and asked, "There is no suitable way to point out the node leading to Hawkins for me."
Qian Tan thought, "Yes, leave me here. There is an unbreakable connection between you and me. Even if we are separated by countless worlds, the connection still exists. I am like a spatial coordinate, which can help you select nodes to a certain extent. But How strong the specific effect is, I cannot determine.”
After Dean thought for a moment, he looked at the shadow next to him and said, "Go in first to find out the situation. If there is any danger, teleport back immediately."
"Um."
Ying's solid body instantly turned into a mist, smashed through the sticky cobwebs, and quickly got into the tree hole.
After less than five seconds of fumbling.
Shadow transmitted a strange picture back to Dean.
Obviously at this moment, the town of Hawkins is shrouded in bright winter sunshine, and the sky and earth are completely white, but there is not a single snowflake in the world inside the tree hole.
There was no sun, and the majestic dark clouds spread out in the dark and unclear sky, with streaks of scarlet lightning swimming among them, like roaring snakes splitting the sky.
Under the gloomy sky, a vast forest spreads out, dotted with dark brown pine trees, but all the trees are withered and withered. There are no green leaves or forked branches. Only the bare trunks are left standing, like a quilt. It sticks straight into the sky like a randomly sharpened pencil, and the pencil is also covered with white cobwebs.
Shadow turned his gaze.
Among these pine tree stumps, there were pieces of goose-feather-like spore plants visible to the naked eye floating in the air, but not a single small animal or even insect could be seen around them. It was eerily quiet, filled with the dilapidation and desolation of a doomsday wasteland. desolate.
The ecological environment of the world is completely different from that of Hawkins.
"Ying, keep walking around to see if there is any danger."
Dean issued an order outside the tree hole, and the shadow flew forward. However, it only flew less than one meter before it encountered an invisible obstacle and was unable to get closer.
His original range of movement away from Dean's body was two kilometers, but after being separated by two worlds, the distance calculation method changed, and he could only move at nodes.
If Dean wants to explore the specific situation of the world, he must take action himself.
Dean checked the node status again. Without external force, it should be no problem to maintain the open state for half an hour. In addition, the message sent back by the shadow arrived in real time, and the time flow rate on both sides should be the same.
"Shallow, I'll go in and take a look. You stay safe outside. If you find that the nodes are about to close, or if something happens to Steve and the three of you, let me know immediately."
"Don't worry, Master, even if I die, I will keep it for you." Qiantan used his mind power to grab a ball of snow on the ground and patted his belly.
Dean nodded, opened the life shield, squatted down and climbed into the tree hole.
…
at the same time.
Next to Hawkins Middle School, teacher Owen's house.
Jane, who was seriously studying after the Christmas carnival, heard a knock on the door, and then four familiar friends filed in.
"Good morning, Mr. Irving, and Jane, you are dressed so beautifully today!" The foursome rushed into the living room, looking at Jane who was sitting on the chair immersed in homework and wearing a brand new red down jacket, and chirped their compliments.
Jane grinned, "You are beautiful too."
"Haha, beautiful is not a word used to describe boys. You should say we are handsome." Dustin patted his chest, then put the DND chessboard and the apple pie prepared by his mother on the desk.
"Okay, handsome guys, why are you here so early today?" Jane picked up a piece of apple pie and gnawed it like a squirrel. "Didn't you agree that you would come to me to attack Demogorgon in the afternoon? I haven't chosen a spell yet. .”
"There's an emergency." Will turned warily and glanced at Mr. Owen, who was reading the newspaper, and said in a low voice, "My brother Jonathan was captured by Demogorgon. We must find a way to save him!"
"Um?"
"That's right, Jane," Dustin cleared his throat and said a little embarrassedly, "You helped me find my Meow Meow twice. I knew you were not only a DND mage, but also a mage in reality. Has the superpower of finding people.”
Jane stopped chewing the apple pie, pursed her lips and looked at the four people nervously.
She clearly remembers Dean and Hope's explanation that she must never let outsiders know about her superpowers. Now she has unknowingly leaked the news. What will happen?
Being kicked out of this home forever?
She squinted her eyes, panicked and scared, and thought Dustin's chubby face with missing teeth was very disgusting. She shouted angrily, "I shouldn't help you find a cat!"
Dustin quickly begged, "No, Jane, I swear, we will never reveal your secret!"
Mike, who was wearing a red down jacket next to him, also stared into Jane's eyes and added sincerely, "We are best friends and will never break our promises. I didn't even reveal the news that you have super powers to my newborn sister."
"As long as you help me find Jonathan, I will give you my favorite song." Will put a few tapes on the table, "In every game from now on, Monk Will will unconditionally milk you, the great mage, first. .”
Lucas patted his chest and said, "In the future, you will have priority in selecting all my comics and trading cards, or shall I give you my beloved slingshot?"
Jane stared at the nervous and red faces, and her green little face changed. She was worried that Hope and Dean would find out her secret, but she was also moved by their sincerity, but in the end she chose to follow her heart.
"I trust you for once and give me Jonathan's photo, do you have one?"
"It's been prepared, here you go!"
Will hurriedly took out the photo from his arms and handed it to Jane.
After taking it, Jane looked at it carefully for ten minutes, then sat at the desk and closed her eyes, activating the dark field in her mind.
While in Hawkins' lab, her powers were so unstable that she would get a nosebleed every time she used them.
But under Dean's constant guidance and daily meditation and mindfulness training.
Her control and precision were much better than before, and she found her target in less than half a minute.
"I found Jonathan, he's still alive, he just looks scared."
The foursome breathed a long sigh of relief, with smiles on their faces.
"Where is he?" Will couldn't help but hold Jane's hand.
Mike, who was as tall and thin as a bamboo pole next to him, immediately pulled Will's hand away and said, "Calm down, you will scare our best mage!"
Dustin looked at Mike's quibbling look, grinning with underdeveloped teeth, and exchanged a tacit expression with the little black man Lucas.
"It's okay, I understand how you feel. If my mother is not here, I will also worry about her." Jane stared at Will's red eyes and said slowly, "But the words I have are limited, and I can't describe Jonathan accurately. Wherever I am, I can only explain it to you this way.”
Jane pointed her slender fingers at the front of the DND chessboard on the table and said, "This is Hawkins Town."
She flipped the chessboard over, pointed to the opposite back, and said, "This is where Jonathan is hiding."
The foursome really didn't understand what she meant by turning the chessboard upside down. Mike came closer to her and looked at this pretty and charming little face.
"Why is Jonathan hiding? From bad guys?"
"It's not a bad guy, it's this thing." Jane picked up a special chess piece and placed it in the center of the back of the chessboard.
The foursome took a closer look and saw that the chess piece represented Demon King Demogorgon.
Suddenly my heart felt cold and cold,
"What's going on? Is there a monster chasing Jonathan?"
"Yes."
Will yelled, "Please, take me to him!"
Jane glanced at Teacher Owen sitting in the corridor worriedly, "I promised others not to go out."
The foursome looked at each other and began to rack their brains to think of a solution.
…
Forest in the northern suburbs.
The world behind the tree hole.
Gray, empty, dark.
The cold wind was biting, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of leaves, aluminum ash, and flesh and blood.
Dean looked at this new world and soon discovered some details that Shadow had never noticed. The air, humidity, and temperature were all within the range that humans could adapt to.
But every time he breathed, he could feel that his lungs were expelling some kind of foreign matter. Well, there were slight toxins attached to the air in this world, which had a certain negative impact on ordinary people.
But it had no effect on Dean, whose physique was inhuman.
The clock on the hand stopped moving completely. There was obviously some kind of strange magnetic field here.
In addition, it lacks vitality, the trees are dead, the ground under your feet is like ashes after being burned by fire, and there are no insects or beasts around...
It's as if everything in this world has been forcibly robbed of most of its vitality and vitality by some kind of existence.
Boom!
Bursts of thunder.
A flash of scarlet lightning flashed across the dark cloudy sky, illuminating Dean's tense face. He felt that there seemed to be something terrible hidden in it, examining him as an uninvited intruder.
But he left several escape routes——
Dean turned on his skills to observe the woods in this world. The criss-crossing grid-like nodes appeared again, no different from the outside.
But this time, he could feel a secret and strong connection, forming a link with Dean's soul and spirit through a few unstable nodes.
Dean approached the nearest node on the left and pushed the node open like a window. After the node, an ice and snow forest shrouded in warm sunlight was immediately revealed, which was the outskirts of Hawkins.
Dean's expression brightened,
"Sure enough, this connection is the connection between the shoal badge in the real world and me. Even if the tree hole that just crossed the world is completely closed, I can find a new node through this connection and return to Hawkins!"
And for some unknown reason, the energy consumed in opening the node from the world is only one-twentieth of Dean's body energy, which is much less than outside. It seems that they are in a semi-open state, as if they are not locked. Dean can break through the door with just a push.
But that's a good thing for Dean.
…
He set off along the north side of the forest and activated the "dark area of his mind" to search for Jonathan.
This time the two were in the same world, and the previous barriers disappeared. Dean easily found Jonathan sitting in a simple house with his back against the wall.
Cushions, cabinets, and other miscellaneous items occupy the aisles of the living room. The furniture and appliances are set off by brown wall coverings and carpets. They are as old as historical relics and covered with dust... This is an abandoned house that has been uninhabited for a long time. .
But the structure and layout looked very familiar to Dean.
"Wait a minute, why is the place where Jonathan stays so similar to his house in the real world, but much older? But this is not the real world, how can there be Jonathan's home?"
Dean was a little confused about the current situation, so he could only continue northward following his search sense.
With the blessing of his mind power, he flew two kilometers into the air at a terrifying speed, leaving the withered forest and entering a desolate wilderness.
There are no trees, bushes, flowers, green grass, people or animals on the land. There is not even a water source. The same empty rocks are even more deserted than the Gobi Desert. The temperature is much lower and there is no sunlight.
After flying for half a minute, Dean suddenly heard a strange roar.
God's perspective scans downwards.
On the ground not far ahead, under a raised umbrella-shaped rock, stood a humanoid creature with slender limbs. It was three to four meters tall. It had no hair or scales on its body and was a smooth, slimy dark brown color.
He is very thin, but his whole body is covered with bulging muscles.
The arms are extraordinarily long, hanging down to the calves. The ends of the limbs have sickle-like claws and four fingers, which are consistent with the claw marks that Dean found on the bicycle in the real world.
In addition, its head is oval, but there are no eyes, ears, or nose on its face. It only has a big mouth like a piranha. It roars and splits into five petals, with countless white tips popping out from the inside of each petal. The small teeth are like the sharp spines on a hedgehog.
The event progress jumped to twenty percent.
"Yes, it was this thing that attacked Jonathan last night and drove him out of the world. But its mouth is much scarier than the shoal badge, so let's call you the Rift Mouth Monster."
Dean was suspended in the air and turned on the life perspective. The black light of life was reflected from the surface of the slit monster. The intensity was not high, only level 2.
Humans are white, Hell monks are blood red, and the monsters in this world are black. From this, Dean analyzed that perhaps the energy fields and magnetic fields of different worlds are different, so the colors of the life light of the creatures they breed are also different.
This can be used to reversely determine the world where a creature belongs.
Dean summarized the world's experience in his mind, and then remembered what Jane said not long ago.
"Jane once saw the Slit Monster in the dark realm of her mind. Perhaps since then, it has begun to invade the real Hawkins?"
"But how did it get into Hawkins? Does it have some kind of space ability to open nodes?"
The omen didn't warn Dean of any danger.
But Dean was still extremely careful, put on his life shield and ghost armor, took out a star arrow and bow from space, and stringed the bow to aim at the slit monster from a distance.
A thought came to my mind.
The power of his mind turned into an invisible giant palm and reached down to the ground, instantly holding the Slit Monster into a ball and lifting it into the air.
The power gap is too big, like an elephant crushing a mouse.
It had no power to resist, and could only fly in front of Dean with its teeth bared and howling, pretending to be fierce and blowing out a gust of fishy wind.
"It is so weak and has absolutely no space capabilities, so it is not that it opens the node to Hawkins, but other existences."
When Dean looked at it up close, the image of the rip monster was even more ferocious and bloody, and it would definitely give most people nightmares for a week.
The texture of its skin is very strange, soft, light, with a faint uneven texture. It does not look like a flesh and blood body, but rather like a thin palm tree leaf.
Dean couldn't help but have an intuition in his head - the rip monster is a mixture of animals and plants!
So how does it survive in this kind of world with no life, no sunlight, no water, almost a doomsday wasteland?
Dean couldn't figure it out for the moment, so he stretched out his hand to grab the long fang knife from the void and raised it.
Swipe and pull——
The sharp blade cuts off an ugly head.
You killed the rip monster, proficiency +1, fighting level 5 (160→162/700).
As soon as the monster died, a black light shot out of its headless corpse like a sharp arrow, and rushed towards the dark sky.
But the shadow beside Dean waved from a distance.
Sizzling... The spherical electric arc flew out of the void, hit the black light, and instantly swallowed and annihilated the latter.
Shadow absorbs 1 point of soul essence, Shadow lv4 (0→1/500).
Although it is weak, it is still a supernatural creature.
In line with the principle of never wasting anything, Dean collected another tube of blood from the Rift Monster. With a flash of thought, he skillfully peeled off its skin, teeth, nails, and bones. The quality of this monster's materials was worse than that of the Snake Monster. There was a lot of it, and it needed further refinement. After peeling and cramping, I could barely collect a tenth of the ingredients for the star arrow.
Dean then dropped the shriveled remains of a cicada and continued flying in the direction of Jonathan.
(End of chapter)
