The biting cold wind howled at high altitude.
For a ten-thousandth of a second, Ren Yi fell into a state of profound self-doubt.
"This isn't right, is it?"
"Can we all just be reasonable for a second?"
From the very beginning, wasn't this supposed to be an assessment Instance?
He had only just broken free from a disastrous starting position.
Even though his luck had been poor and the Beacon had been teleported away—leading to some minor flaws that temporarily prevented him from returning—he had finally managed to take the initiative.
He had finally gained the upper hand and was ready to explore this world and complete his missions.
He was just about to enjoy the freedom of the vast world, like a fish in the sea or a bird in the sky...
So why, in the end, was the plot not only refusing to wind down but instead hurtling toward a completely insane development?
What kind of 'deus ex machina' was this? No, it was more terrifying than that.
This was a 'nuclear ex machina.'
This level of difficulty was simply unreasonable!
What kind of decent person drops a nuke on an assessment site?
Ren Yi watched the tiny, elongated shadow directly in front of that hollow, hideous "moon."
It was diving toward the heart of the sunken plain in a nearly vertical posture of absolute destruction.
"...My jinxing mouth really should have gone to buy a lottery ticket instead."
At this point, we must begin to discuss a serious question.
That is... can a nuke kill an Anomaly?
Well, that was a rhetorical question.
Of course it couldn't.
After all, Anomalies have no concept of death.
In this context, "death" could be automatically translated as "being forced to leave the wonderful Alliance to work for Death for a few hundred years to redeem oneself."
However, essentially, this "revival" mechanism also required a considerable amount of time.
From the perspective of a Participant who encountered an Anomaly in an Instance, they usually just disappeared and didn't reappear. One could say they "died" from the Participant's perspective.
So the question became: could a nuke cause this "temporary disappearance"?
Now, that question was interesting.
In Ren Yi's understanding, it depended on the situation.
He had references to support this.
If you randomly opened any Anomaly-themed novel and checked the first three chapters, ninety percent of them would say:
"The Anomalies have descended. Human technology is completely useless against them. At this moment, a Chosen One from country XX stepped forward..."
Cough, cough. Stop right there.
We cannot just look at the surface conclusion. We need to investigate the physics—that is, explore the logic of things.
The Alliance might not care about science, but it certainly cared about rules.
There were several reasons why technology might be "useless."
The most common reason was the Instance itself.
Whether it was a descending Instance or a summoned one, their function was actually to segment the rule-based power of the opposing world.
Under the protection of one's own rules, technology belonging to the "opposing world's rules" would naturally be ineffective.
The second reason was the rules themselves.
For example, some Anomalies or items possessed an "indestructible" rule.
This was similar to the door Ren Yi had encountered in the 【Escape Room】 that "cannot be opened for ten minutes."
Then, there were the powerful Anomalies.
Some could truly tank a nuke or swallow it whole... or their mode of existence was so unique that a nuke was simply irrelevant.
Unfortunately, Ren Yi, currently in a native world, did not seem to meet any of the above criteria.
But to be honest, as an Anomaly, a nuke was far less of a threat to him than it was to other carbon-based life forms.
At least he hadn't given up yet; he still intended to struggle a bit, didn't he?
The "Pain Bead" could still be used, which could help him avoid the most intense core of the initial impact.
However, the horror of a nuke lay not only in the instantaneous power of the explosion but also in the subsequent sustained high temperatures and radiation.
Ren Yi didn't particularly want to go work for Death for several centuries right now.
Therefore...
If he didn't run now, when would he!
Ren Yi instantly stretched his form into an extreme streamline, turning into a pale streak of light that was nearly invisible in the dark night.
He didn't flee along the riverbed.
This sunken riverbed was flanked by high embankments on both sides. Once a nuclear explosion occurred, the narrow terrain would trigger a terrifying "canyon effect."
The shockwave and the thousand-degree sea of fire would accelerate and stack within the riverbed channel like a high-pressure spray gun.
Ren Yi wasn't an Anomaly who enjoyed seeking death, and he certainly didn't have a masochistic fetish for tanking a two-megaton yield head-on.
So, he shot toward a blind spot on the slope of one of the long embankments—a natural rocky crevice formed by countless giant, interlocking granite boulders.
He had to escape the core zone of sustained annihilation temperatures!
...
While Ren Yi was desperately "fleeing the zone" at high speed in the air...
The situation on the chaotic, reddish-brown riverbed below also underwent a change.
"Die! You scum!"
Wu Erhun, the leader of the Black Tooth Tribe, was in a state of extreme excitement.
Straddling a heavy modified motorcycle, he swung his heavy, notched machete-shotgun with one hand, viciously hacking at an elite warrior from another tribe.
He was grinning savagely, already anticipating the delightful scene of blood splattering and brains bursting in the next second.
However, at that moment, the warrior—who had been firing wildly with eyes full of brutality—suddenly froze.
He remained in the posture of pulling the trigger, tilting his head slightly to look behind Wu Erhun.
The ferocity in his eyes vanished, replaced by endless confusion and daze.
Clang!
Wu Erhun didn't hesitate at all, using his momentum to cut the man down.
"Huh?" Wu Erhun frowned.
Such poor quality?
He had thought it was some kind of deathbed trick, but after waiting for several seconds, nothing happened.
At this moment, he finally felt that something was wrong.
Wasn't it a bit too quiet around here?
Wu Erhun pulled back his machete with some confusion, turning his scarred, fleshy face to look at the battlefield around him.
He discovered that his subordinates, who had been charging and howling like wolves, had stopped moving.
The nomadic tribesmen who had been fighting and struggling desperately had also stopped.
The original chaos suddenly began to subside. After noticing the abnormality around them, those who hadn't yet reacted also began to fall silent.
The entire Red Tide Plain, spanning several kilometers, fell into an eerie silence within a few short seconds.
Only a few machines that hadn't been turned off yet continued to chug and sputter.
The air seemed to become incredibly viscous and heavy in an instant; every breath felt like pouring sand into one's lungs.
"What... what's happening?"
Wu Erhun swallowed hard, every hair on his body standing on end at once.
He looked up toward the sky with a confused, stiff expression.
And then, he saw it.
Directly in front of that broken, hollow star corpse moon, a tiny line was falling at an incredible speed.
Then, at an altitude of about two thousand meters from the ground, it turned into a blinding ball of light.
The light was falling.
Rate on N.U.
