The Participant seemed to have found his target and suddenly hurled the steel fork in his hand.
His aim was excellent; the steel fork grazed a watermelon by a hair's breadth without causing a single scratch.
Ren Yi "saw" it clearly through his perception. The Participant's expression instantly shifted to utter shock, as if he had witnessed something completely beyond his expectations.
Immediately after, the screaming from the shaking watermelon abruptly ceased, replaced by a "shasha—kacha kacha—" sound of shattering. The rind split into pieces, and juice flowed everywhere.
With no suspense, the Participant could only watch in extreme panic as the field's soil slowly surged up and swallowed him, eventually making him a part of the Watermelon Patch.
As for Ren Yi, he still saw nothing.
This plot was still outside his line of sight; he could only "watch" through his 3D perception.
So, it was visible to the naked eye but invisible to perception?
A sense of anticipation rose in Ren Yi's heart.
The other Participants didn't have his leisure. They could clearly hear their companion's screams in the distance, and the sound was inching closer, the shadow of death pressing in like a tide.
Death itself wasn't terrifying; it was this encroaching, unknown fear that truly crushed a person's psyche.
In contrast, Ren Yi was actually starting to feel a bit worried. Auntie Lu Qing should have greeted all the Anomalies in the Instance and explained his identity.
Would this new Anomaly senior skip Plot 17 and not come "play" with him just because it knew he was "one of them"?
The Instance lasted three full days; the Anomalies couldn't possibly kill everyone in one day. Even if it bypassed him, it would be perfectly logical and wouldn't arouse suspicion from the livestream viewers.
But he was truly curious about this Anomaly's ability...
It wouldn't just not show up, right? These major Anomalies actually quite liked teasing Anomaly cubs.
Whether it was his own brother, Auntie Du next door with her two mouths, or Dr. Lin... this one shouldn't be an exception either, right?
While his mind wandered, Plot 18 next to him finally showed some movement; a watermelon began to shake abnormally.
The Participants were too far apart, so the one in Plot 18 hadn't seen what happened to the previous victims.
However, Participant No. 18 was clearly of higher caliber. He didn't panic; his movements were graceful, and the vines on the ground posed almost no obstacle.
With a light tap of his foot, he leaped as if performing qinggong, accurately thrusting his steel fork into the spot where the movement occurred.
But it was still in vain. The steel fork didn't budge, and that eerie power seemed completely unaffected.
The watermelon shattered, its bright red juice spilling all over the ground.
Participant No. 18's face changed drastically. He tapped his toes again, and surprisingly, he soared straight up, hovering in mid-air.
He was an Esper.
Ren Yi watched with great interest. If not for the fact that the watermelons didn't appeal to his appetite, he would have definitely sliced one open to eat while watching the show.
He secretly used the Anomaly Web to take a photo of the hovering Participant and sent it to Lu Zihan.
A reply came immediately.
【Lu Zihan: Wow! Another flyer!】
【Lu Zihan: Stool, how does he compare to you?】
Ren Yi's face darkened, remembering his own speed in the air, which was barely faster than a turtle's crawl.
【Ren Yi: Don't bring up my sore spots.】
Just then, for some reason, the Esper in the air suddenly flew toward Ren Yi's Plot 17.
But before he could fly more than a few meters, his movements became distorted and strange, as if entangled by an invisible force.
Ren Yi watched as the man's shadow in the moonlight grew larger and larger. Then, like a bird with broken wings, he plummeted to the ground.
Participant No. 18 looked terrified. Sharp wind blades swirled around him, instantly slicing through several watermelons.
But these violent wind blades couldn't stop the soil from slowly swallowing him up.
This time, Ren Yi finally saw the entire process of a human turning into a watermelon with his own eyes. Vertical green stripes slowly grew across the human face, and the previously terrified expression gradually became vacant.
Honestly, seeing green stripes grow on a human face was quite comical.
Now, it should be my turn, right?
Ren Yi jumped up from the rock he was sitting on, planting his steel fork into the ground with one hand and resting the other on his hip, looking around the surrounding fields with a heroic air.
The night wind rustled the watermelon leaves past his ears, the moonlight stretching his shadow tall and straight. The steel fork in his hand glinted coldly under the moon...
However, nothing happened. Even the intermittent screaming of the watermelons seemed to have grown tired, the volume decreasing into a listless, perfunctory groan.
The expected attack didn't come. Instead, a small wave of familiar positive emotions suddenly surfaced, swirling around Ren Yi.
Seriously, are you viewers from the Three Cities World that bored? What is it this time?
He didn't have a single Participant nearby to expend his "ammo" on. This energy was like gourmet food behind a glass display—visible but untouchable.
In the livestream:
"Look at that! That's the poise of a big shot! Standing firm even when the Anomaly arrives!"
"The guy above has way too thick a filter. I think he's just frozen in fear, standing there like a statue."
"Hmph! Just posturing. What's the point? This Anomaly is simply unsolvable. Didn't you see how miserable the others were?"
"Exactly! You can't chase it, you can't hit it, and the props provided by the Instance are all lies. They're useless. You can only watch it destroy the watermelons, which triggers the field's instant-death rule."
"Even Song Qingfeng from the Royal City fell. He was an A-rank 'Wind Control' Esper. To be dragged down mid-flight... how tragic."
Inside the Instance, Ren Yi couldn't hear their discussion and could only let that small wave of inexplicable positive emotion dissipate into the night wind.
His Anomaly perception had already spread out, mapping out the surroundings perfectly, yet that mysterious Anomaly was still nowhere to be found.
Or maybe it had already arrived, and he just hadn't noticed?
In his humanoid form, Ren Yi didn't have a 360-degree field of vision. He could only keep turning his head, scanning every corner alertly, but he still found nothing.
No way, is it really not coming to tease the kid?
Feeling a bit dejected, he lowered his head. The cool moonlight stretched his shadow long and thin across the ridge.
Then, his gaze froze.
Right at the chest of his shadow, two tiny, piercingly red points of light had appeared at some point. Like two miniature drops of blood, they were staring straight up at him.
Rate on N.U.
