Led by Himiko at the front, with Luo Lin and Timido in the middle, and Bronya bringing up the rear, the four of them entered the teleportation gate of the ruins challenge in a single file.
The scenery changed abruptly, transforming into an open plain in an unknown area of St. Fontaine, surrounded by buildings, with only a driveway seemingly for cars to enter.
Luo Lin observed the ground, noticing patterned bricks under her feet, indicating that this was likely a small square for the surrounding residents.
After passing through the teleportation gate, the red, glass-like gate slowly closed, leaving them in the middle of the field.
Timido, disregarding her social anxiety symptoms, loudly exclaimed, "The gate... it's closed!"
"Don't worry," Luo Lin comforted the pink-haired girl, "I have a feeling that if I want to, I can still summon the gate... at least this gate is under our control."
Bronya looked around and suddenly saw three small characters appearing above her field of vision.
[Level 1]
"Be careful! Something's coming!"
The ground rippled with red waves, and mechanical monsters crawled out of the ripples, roaring towards the group in the center of the field!
Bronya took the lead, aiming her energy gun at the mechanical jellyfish "Lover" flying in the sky. A series of ice-blue light bullets smashed the jellyfish to pieces with great momentum.
Himiko's reaction was quick too. She slightly twisted the handle of the Labor of Olympus in her hand, raising the temperature on the blade and with the surging force of the Eclipse Armor, the approaching "Fool" monsters were chopped into pieces before they even landed, as if cutting through butter.
Timido finally got a chance. She fiercely kicked the approaching "Fool" in the face. Although not as sharp as the Labor of Olympus in Himiko's hand, her ice blade easily sliced through the bodies of the mechanical monsters.
Luo Lin held her assault rifle and poured bullets into the flying monsters with red shields on their bodies—the "Counter Shield" was indeed a very game-like mechanism. Whether it was Bronya's energy gun, Luo Lin's imitation soulium bullets, Timido's ice cutting from Iceland, or Himiko's powerful sword strikes, they all had to hit a fixed number of times to break through it.
Bronya realized the mechanism behind the red shield and felt uneasy.
Muttering to herself, "What kind of mindset would create such a shield?", "I don't understand", "Dr. Tesla would probably be furious if she saw it," Bronya lowered the energy output, allowing her gun to fire a high-frequency attack similar to a machine gun.
For a moment, the sound of shields shattering on the field was incessant, giving a satisfying feeling of smashing glass bottles.
Obviously, even with the enhancement of each level of monsters, the early monsters in the ruins challenge couldn't pose much of a hindrance to the four warriors.
Soon, the first four levels were easily cleared, and a system prompt box appeared in front of everyone.
[Ruins Challenge> 4/23 levels, reached save point, progress saved]
"There's still a save point?"
Bronya put away her energy blade. She had just flown over and smashed a mechanical jellyfish trying to escape, putting an end to the brief battle. Now, she felt more and more like this thing was some kind of game prompt.
If Luo Lin knew Bronya's inner sarcasm, she would probably nod in relief.
—You're right, it's indeed a game! And even a mobile game!
Bronya clicked on the "Exit" button under the system panel and saw the red teleportation gate reappear.
[Leave the ruins challenge from here.]
Faced with this strange situation, Bronya tilted her head and gave up thinking.
"Let's try to call out this panel during the battle later. If we can exit during the battle, then I'll give a big thumbs up to this 'game designer'!"
Bronya emphasized her tone and pressed the "Continue Challenge" button fiercely.
---
Bronya was floating in the air with the lift provided by the "Moon Ring", shooting her energy gun in all directions, making squeaking noises as she hit the flying mechanical jellyfish and another flying type of mechanical monster.
"Good job, designer!"
Judging from the praise squeezed out of Bronya's mouth, the experimental results were probably very optimistic—they could indeed summon the system panel anytime and open the teleportation gate to leave the ruins challenge.
The only problem was that opening the teleportation gate took about ten seconds, and the monsters wouldn't stop attacking just because you intended to leave— if you wanted to leave, you had to do it while the monsters' attacks passed through the teleportation gate.
The good news was that the monsters and their attacks couldn't interfere with the teleportation gate. Laser beams and physical impacts had no effect on the floating red rift in the air, as if it were an invincible texture without collision volume.
"At least we can be sure this escape route is reliable, right?" Luo Lin joked.
"If I were the designer, I would definitely stop the other monsters' activities the moment the teleportation gate opens, or even just press a button to exit the battle and teleport back, allowing players to enjoy the game easily and happily—instead of having to control characters, brave the gunfire, and run to the teleportation gate themselves!" Bronya muttered a few words, taking out her terminal during the gap before the monsters respawned.
"The signal of the Void Archives has strengthened. It seems to be hidden deep inside. We should be able to see it if we continue fighting..." Bronya narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, "I'll ask it what it's plotting..."