Triya didn't understand why Fu Zhu's reaction was so intense. She shrank her neck back timidly.
"Thirty-five years... Did we say something wrong?"
Fu Zhu expressionlessly took out his phone and glanced at the time. He could confirm that only a few minutes had passed since he left Amphoreus and returned to the train. Yet, in this short while, thirty-five years had already passed inside Amphoreus?
Was the time dilation between the inside and outside this massive?
"You two, I'm afraid there is no extra time for you to catch up. They are here."
The Queen drew a longsword from her waist, picked up a conch shell, placed it by her lips, and blew softly. A bizarre ripple rapidly spread from her center toward the surroundings. All the Siren warriors immediately drew their weapons in unison, facing the Black Tide that was already approaching.
Besides them, countless massive marine creatures also swam over from the rear, forming a battle line with the Sirens to protect the Phajina Kingdom.
Halicula swam to the side of Fu Zhu and Triya, reaching out to grab their arms and pull them back.
"Messenger and Fu Zhu, you two hide further away. This is the sea; you aren't as adapted to it as we Sirens are. Just leave it to us."
Triya nodded nervously. She indeed couldn't help much. As a Gateway Semigod, all she could do was open the Gateway to transfer the civilians or something similar. She herself had zero combat power; hiding in the back and not causing trouble was the biggest help she could give the Siren race.
Fu Zhu, however, did not respond. He said he came to help, so naturally, he wouldn't hide in the back and watch. But letting the Siren race exchange blows with those Black Tide monsters first to see the situation wasn't a bad idea either.
The Black Tide arrived on the heels of the sound. The tide formed by monsters crashed into the battle line formed by the Sirens and sea beasts. The moment the two made contact, it was like two opposing currents colliding. In an instant, countless Sirens, sea beasts, and Black Tide monsters were dismembered. Blood of various colors stained the originally clear seawater with a layer of filth.
With a flick of its tail, a massive sea beast sent a large group of monsters flying, like splashing up a spray of water in a black tide. But in merely a breath's time, the sea beast was swallowed up by the monsters swarming up.
The Sirens also launched an offensive against the Black Tide. Although their numbers were far inferior to the monsters of the Black Tide, they were the darlings of the ocean. Their strength in the sea was far more sturdy than the Black Tide monsters.
A single Siren could easily deal with a hundred Black Tide monsters.
The battle line formed by the Sirens and sea beasts faintly held the upper hand.
Hiding in the rear, Triya saw the heroic posture of the Sirens and couldn't help but laugh.
"Great, they hold the upper hand! The Black Tide won't knock them down!"
"Not necessarily."
Fu Zhu stared at the minimap with furrowed brows. From the first moment both sides engaged in battle, he had zoomed out the minimap, trying to find the source of the Black Tide. But he didn't find the source; instead, he saw an endless stream of monsters coming from behind the Black Tide, inexhaustible.
The individual strength of the Sirens was stronger than the Black Tide monsters, but their numbers were far inferior. Even if one Siren life was exchanged for ten thousand Black Tide monsters, for the Black Tide, it was a huge profit!
Hearing Fu Zhu's words, Triya's face turned pale.
Others might not believe Fu Zhu, but she had contact with him as early as thirty-five years ago. It was Fu Zhu who helped her succeed in embarking on her journey.
Even if Fu Zhu's words were exaggerated, she would carefully consider the truthfulness of them.
But right now, the words he spoke were truly what she least wanted to hear.
"Fu Zhu, why do you say that?"
"There are too many of the Black Tide. Tribios, protect yourself well."
After leaving this sentence, Fu Zhu immediately swam rapidly in the direction the Black Tide came from.
On the front line, the Siren Queen and Halicula, who were fighting hard to kill the enemy, both noticed Fu Zhu rushing toward the Black Tide. Their faces tightened involuntarily, and the former hurriedly shouted:
"Guest, come back!"
Fu Zhu, however, waved his hand with his back to the two, indicating he was fine. Then he pulled out [Yamato]. Facing the Black Tide, he swung a blade. A round of Cold Moon cleaved a path nearly a thousand meters long directly through the center of the Black Tide along with its momentum.
Fu Zhu took advantage of the moment before the Black Tide could fill this gap and charged straight through.
He wanted to see where these Black Tide monsters, which were somewhat similar to the Rift Creations caused by the Stellaron, came from!
Who knows, as long as he clarified this point, he could understand the source of this world's crisis!
Seeing that Fu Zhu had no intention of turning back, the Queen couldn't help but furrow her brows, then turned her head and shouted at a Siren:
"Go bring him back!"
It was obvious that Fu Zhu's relationship with the Messenger was not simple. And the Messenger said she had only met Fu Zhu thirty-five years ago. Fu Zhu had passed thirty-five years yet remained the same appearance; this person was absolutely not simple!
The Siren who received the order was just about to set off when Halicula pressed down on her shoulder.
"My Queen, I'll go."
After speaking, Halicula took a step ahead and chased after Fu Zhu.
The Queen wanted to say it was nonsense, but seeing Halicula had already chased after him, and the Black Tide was beginning to gradually fill the gap in the middle, she could only let Halicula go chasing, while she and the others continued to face the enemy.
Fu Zhu's swimming speed in the sea was not fast, and before long, he was caught up by Halicula.
"What are you running out alone for? It's very dangerous here! Even if you want to help us, you can't pull this kind of lone hero act!"
Halicula pulled him and couldn't help but complain to Fu Zhu.
Fu Zhu turned his head to glance at her, then quickly withdrew his gaze. He hadn't expected that even in battle, Halicula wouldn't wear clothes properly. Could it be that Sirens didn't like wearing armor to protect themselves?
Putting away his guesses, Fu Zhu used [Yamato] again to swing a blade to clear the path, then explained a sentence to Halicula following him.
"The reason I'm moving forward alone isn't just because of confidence in my own strength, but also because I want to figure out where the Black Tide comes from. Their numbers are too great; you guys can't win."
Halicula was a bit unhappy hearing Fu Zhu speak such demoralizing words.
"Don't underestimate the Siren race! We are very formidable in the ocean!"
Fu Zhu just said coldly without turning his head, instantly extinguishing the bit of defiance in Halicula's heart.
"How many people do the Sirens have? How many does the Black Tide have? If they trade lives, can the Siren race respawn?"
"This..."
Halicula was instantly tongue-tied, not knowing how to refute Fu Zhu's words.
"If the source isn't resolved, the Siren race will inevitably lose this tug-of-war. That's why I want to figure out where the source is."
Halicula felt that what Fu Zhu said made sense now. But looking up at the Black Tide monsters constantly appearing from the source ahead, she felt a bit bottomless in her heart.
Just relying on her and Fu Zhu, two people, could they really smoothly reach the source of the Black Tide? Is it still too late to turn back now...
"Don't worry."
Fu Zhu seemed to have guessed Halicula's thoughts. The aura on his body began to climb steadily.
"They can't stir up any waves."
Waiting until Halicula, who was beside Fu Zhu, felt the aura coming from him, she instantly felt somewhat breathless. It was as if she were facing a Titan releasing its malice toward her with full force—no, even more terrifying than a Titan!
Fu Zhu instantly activated the power of the [Harmony] Envoy, rapidly typing a string of commands on the control console with his mind.
/kill Black Tide.
In the next second, the Black Tide that originally blotted out the sky and surrounded them vanished completely in an instant. Not a single trace was left behind, just as if they had never existed.
[Removed 24,587,423 entities]
Fu Zhu's experience level also dropped by fifty levels in an instant, nearly falling out of the minimum level 150 requirement to use the Command Blessing.
Seeing this scene, Halicula couldn't help but brake suddenly on the spot. Fu Zhu swam out a good few meters before realizing her action, stopped as well, and turned his head to look back in confusion.
"What's wrong? If you're worried about your companions, you go back first. I'm enough alone."
Halicula shook her head, bit her lip, and looked at Fu Zhu with a face full of shock.
Just now, when Fu Zhu input the command, he subconsciously read the instruction out loud. Although Halicula didn't understand it, she could guess that Fu Zhu used some kind of power to forcefully erase these Black Tide monsters directly.
"How on earth did you do that?"
Seeing Halicula asking about this, Fu Zhu shook his head without explaining. He turned around and continued to swim rapidly forward.
He noticed that after he used the command to directly clear these monsters, new Black Tide monsters began to appear constantly from the source at the edge of the minimap again.
He had to investigate clearly while the number of monsters hadn't been replenished yet.
........
At the same time, on the other side, Lagus looked at the various reports on the Authority System and shook his head straight away.
"Where's my massive Black Tide? How did it suddenly just get cleared?!"
He carefully checked the Authority System again and found the system hadn't executed any commands at all. Yet on the screen, the Black Tide was as if it had been directly wiped away. If it wasn't a command issued by the Authority System, then who else could do such a clean and efficient clearing of the Black Tide?
Even if [Erudition] came, He couldn't possibly leave not a single trace behind!
Could it be that someone with higher authority than himself bypassed the Authority System directly and tampered with the underlying code of the Authority System?
But, isn't the Authority System made by himself? He understands the underlying code better than anyone!
So, what exactly is going on?!
........
At this time, the 'culprit' who made Lagus feel unprecedented confusion had already arrived at the source where the Black Tide appeared.
Fu Zhu frowned as he and Halicula floated directly above the Black Tide, watching the ocean trench ahead constantly spewing out Black Tide monsters.
"Something's wrong. This ocean trench is obviously just an ordinary ocean trench."
Fu Zhu realized something was wrong with just one glance. These monsters didn't have any birth process at all; instead, they were refreshed out of thin air just like the monsters in MC!
However, he couldn't be certain of this point. Who's to say this isn't a unique phenomenon of the Amphoreus worldview?
So he turned his head to look at Halicula beside him.
"Halicula, did you see anything?"
Halicula looked at the trench and shook her head.
"Siren history has never recorded this kind of phenomenon."
"Even you don't know... Then I can only verify it myself."
Fu Zhu immediately swam toward the edge of the trench while not forgetting to issue a command to the system in his mind.
'System, buy the Torchmaster Mod!'
[Torchmaster Mod Installed]
As soon as Fu Zhu went over, the monsters immediately discovered him and pounced directly at him.
"Halicula, help me buy a few seconds of time."
Fu Zhu didn't have time to bother with these annoying small mobs. He still needed to craft the Mega Torch from the Torchmaster Mod to verify his conjecture.
"Okay."
Although Halicula didn't know what Fu Zhu wanted to do, she had witnessed Fu Zhu wipe out tens of millions of Black Tide monsters with a casual sentence earlier. Now she chose to unconditionally believe that Fu Zhu really came to help them.
Fu Zhu landed inside the trench, put down a Crafting Table, and began to craft the Mega Torch. Halicula, meanwhile, brandished a sword, swimming around Fu Zhu, chopping every monster that tried to approach Fu Zhu into pieces.
"Done."
Crafting an item with a not-so-complex recipe didn't take too long. A few seconds later, Fu Zhu crafted the Mega Torch. Holding it, he plunged it downwards. The light of the Mega Torch instantly lit up the gloomy trench.
At the moment the fire lit up, Halicula felt warmth all over her body and subconsciously leaned toward the Mega Torch.
The Black Tide monsters were different. The moment the Mega Torch was planted, they seemed to see some natural enemy and retreated rapidly until they stopped at a place 64 meters away from the Mega Torch, staring covetously at the two of them, yet not daring to approach that light by even a hair.
Halicula looked at the surrounding Black Tide monsters and couldn't help but be somewhat amazed. The light of the Mega Torch at this moment was like a barrier, separating all the monsters.
"Fu Zhu, this torch is so magical!"
Fu Zhu nodded while looking at the minimap.
"Mhm, the effect of the Mega Torch is that hostile monsters will not appear within a radius of 64 meters around itself. And from the looks of it... it's really useful."
Fu Zhu stared at the minimap for a while, confirming that no new Black Tide monsters spawned. This verified his conjecture.
These Black Tide monsters really were refreshed directly like monsters in MC!
This Amphoreus is afraid... it's a Data World!
Then, who created this world?
After creating this world, why refresh new Black Tide monsters to destroy the world?
........
Meanwhile, on the other end, Lagus punched the wall expressionlessly.
From the moment the Black Tide was cleared, he noticed Fu Zhu who had returned to Amphoreus. He watched helplessly as he planted a torch that looked ordinary.
After that torch was planted, he discovered with shock that, centering on the torch, a range of 64 meters in radius became a Dark Zone for the Authority System. Not only could he not use his authority to delete the torch, but he also couldn't directly generate the Black Tide there!
Inside the range of the Mega Torch, it was already an area that had completely broken free of his control!
Who exactly is this man!