parentshiftbook Chapter 633 Flipping the Table
Chapter 633 Flipping the Table
Chapter 633 Flipping the Table
A sorcerer in a dark blue robe stood at the end of the corridor, his hands behind his back, his gaze slowly sweeping over the crooked graffiti.
"Everyone," he began, his voice not loud, but it immediately drew everyone's attention.
"We've been here for almost six hours."
Those present immediately understood what he meant.
Six hours is indeed too long for a task that requires handling multiple locations.
The other wizarding teams that chose more popular locations have probably already dealt with one or two anomalies and are on their way to the next target.
"You all should be aware of their bizarre strength," the dark blue-robed wizard continued. "To be honest, they're not particularly powerful. Whether it's the Salty Fingers or the Graffiti, their energy levels aren't high. It's just that their characteristics are rather troublesome—especially those that are integrated into the rules and have no physical form, which renders us powerless."
The young witch nodded: "If it weren't for the limitation on the output energy level, even with these troublesome characteristics, they wouldn't be so troublesome."
"That's the problem." The sorcerer in the dark blue robe turned to face the group. "This thing isn't inherently difficult to deal with, but if we delay too long, other teams that have finished dealing with the anomalies might come and interfere. If we're unlucky, we could be judged as having failed our mission and lose our exploration slots—we can't just stand by and watch other teams snatch all the exploration slots for the anomalies."
He spoke very bluntly, but no one present thought it was inappropriate.
They were all high-level wizards, not hot-blooded young people.
In this mission, solving the mystery and saving civilians are the stated goals, but everyone knows the real core driving force.
It was a research opportunity in that strange dimension.
A completely new and unknown existence deeply connected with the laws of nature is more attractive to wizards than any wealth or military merit.
Even if they hadn't lost their spots, but instead lingered too long in this town, allowing other teams to enter the strange dimension first and reap all the valuable research samples—
That would be a huge loss.
"So, I have a suggestion." The sorcerer in the dark blue robes' gaze sharpened. "Since we can't find its exact location, let's flip the table."
"Flip the table?" The burly wizard raised an eyebrow.
"That's right!"
The sorcerer in the dark blue robe raised his hand and drew a circle in the air. A pale blue arc of light appeared at his fingertips, outlining a continuously shrinking ring.
"We shrink the barrier, continuously reducing its diameter from one hundred kilometers. At the same time, each of us unfolds our own solidified domain of laws, clinging tightly to the inner wall of the barrier, like a fishing net, compressing these two strange activity spaces little by little."
"Once the barrier shrinks to a certain size, even if they merge into the rules, they won't be able to hide. Within that limited area, when our barrier and domain 'squeeze' out the rules of this region, they will have nowhere to hide."
"By then, they will have nowhere to escape."
The corridor fell silent for a moment.
"This plan is feasible," the cursed witch was the first to speak.
"I also think it's feasible." The gaunt wizard pushed up his nose. "Theoretically speaking, the scope of activity of such strange entities that integrate into the rules must be limited to the area of rules they can influence."
"If we keep compressing this area, they will either be forced to reveal themselves or squeezed into our territory. Either way, it's better than the aimless searching we're doing now."
"But there's a problem," Jemin said, holding up one hand. "What do I do?"
All eyes turned to Jemin, who was standing at the edge of the corridor.
The sorcerer in the dark blue robe also looked at him, his eyes filled with a hint of apology: "Jermin, it's not that I don't trust your abilities."
"But the solidified domain of laws is the signature ability of a level six wizard; you haven't reached that level yet."
"As the barrier shrinks, we need everyone to expand their own domain to fill the gaps, ensuring the eerie entity doesn't escape. Your location—"
"I understand." Jemin nodded, his tone calm. "I don't have a law-based solidified domain, and forcibly participating might become a breakthrough point. So you go and shrink the barrier, I'll stay in the town."
“Not just staying in town,” the sorcerer in the dark blue robes added. “We need you to continue monitoring the town. As we shrink the barrier, these two monsters will likely try to create chaos by harming the townspeople, or use them as hostages. You need to make sure the people in the town are not affected in the process.”
"Leave it to me."
Without saying anything more, Jemin vanished down the corridor in a flash.
The town center, the fountain square.
Jemin sat cross-legged on the stone edge of the fountain again, his mental energy spreading in all directions like a tide.
This time, he focused his attention on the town's interior, scanning with greater detail than before.
Every family, every street, and every building appears almost transparent to him.
His destiny system was operating at full capacity, and the causal network covered every corner of the entire town.
He would detect any abnormality or any deviation from the normal course of fate immediately.
High in the sky, eight figures dispersed.
The sorcerer in the dark blue robe stood in the very center, his hands raised high, a complex array of runes appearing in his palms.
That is the control core of the barrier; all the nodes of the outer barrier are connected to his mental power through this core.
"Begin contracting." His voice reached everyone's ears.
Then, the barrier began to move.
A massive energy barrier with a radius of one hundred kilometers began to slowly shrink inward from the center of the town.
To be honest, this method is simply a pipe dream for many low-level wizards.
After all, the biggest feature of a barrier is that it can form a solid barrier, but its disadvantage is that its size is relatively fixed.
But the high-ranking wizards, relying on their knowledge, forcefully broke this "rule".
Even high-level wizards dare not proceed too quickly in this process, as it requires extremely precise control.
The contraction speed should not be too fast, otherwise the energy barrier will become unstable; the contraction amplitude should be uniform, otherwise gaps will be created.
Moreover, during this process, it is necessary to continuously screen various substances that need to be discharged.
After all, if the air is not vented outwards at all, the pressure alone will be enough to kill everyone in the town in the end.
As someone inside the barrier, Jemin could sense the change.
The energy density in the air is slowly increasing, just like the water level is rising little by little.
That's a natural phenomenon where the energy concentration per unit area increases due to the contraction of the barrier.
The salty fingers showed no reaction.
At least from Jemin's perspective, the concept of "saltiness" still lingered in the air of the town, unaffected by the shrinking barrier.
It's like a fish lying at the bottom of the water, completely unaware of the movements on the surface.
But the graffiti is different.
When the barrier shrank to a radius of fifty kilometers, Jeming's destiny system detected the first anomaly.
A causal line trembled slightly in the northeast corner of the town, as if someone had gently plucked a string on the other side.
Jemin's mental energy immediately focused on that direction.
It was the exterior wall of an abandoned warehouse. There were some blurry graffiti marks on the wall, but now those marks were slowly changing.
New graffiti is emerging.
Without hesitation, Jemin condensed his mental energy into an extremely fine blade and precisely sliced towards the wall.
He directly peeled the wall material containing the graffiti, which was still in the process of being completed, from the building.
With a soft "snap," the stone wall, along with the graffiti that had just appeared on it, was neatly sliced off, tumbled a few times in the air, and then was crushed into powder by Jemin's mental power.
The "medium" was destroyed, and the bizarre attempt at graffiti was interrupted.
But that was just the beginning.
In the following time, the graffiti seemed to sense the danger and began to probe wildly.
It attempts to create new graffiti in every corner of the town, some on the exterior walls of houses, some on the surface of cobblestone streets, and some even on the wooden floor of a resident's home.
Each time, Jemin managed to erase the graffiti before it fully emerged.
His mental power covered the entire town, and with his destiny system fully activated, his reaction speed was so fast that even a level six wizard might not be able to keep up.
He immediately detected every unusual causal fluctuation and immediately erased every graffiti that appeared.
The townspeople had no idea what was happening.
Some people only heard a strange noise outside, opened the door, and found that a piece of their exterior wall was missing.
But I didn't pay much attention to it, assuming it had fallen down due to years of disrepair.
The barrier continued to shrink.
The graffiti's eerie probing frequency suddenly decreased after the barrier shrank to a radius of ten kilometers.
However, Jemin could sense that the other party had not given up, but was instead gathering strength.
The power that was being compressed into an increasingly smaller space was becoming volatile.
Without hesitation, Jemin reported the situation to the wizards around him.
"Continue to contract." The voice of the dark blue-robed sorcerer rang out in the mental channel, tinged with a barely perceptible hint of joy. "It's starting to panic. This means we're on the right track."
Radius of five kilometers, three kilometers, one kilometer —
When the barrier shrank to a radius of one kilometer, Jemin could clearly feel that the air in the town had become "viscous".
The wizard was constantly expelling air, which was not viscous in a physical sense, but rather an increase in density on a conceptual level.
Just like salt that is initially diluted in a large amount of water, as the water continues to evaporate, the concentration becomes higher and higher.
He closed his eyes and used his mental power to sense the strangeness.
You can clearly feel both sensations.
A very weak force, like a candle flickering in the wind, could only huddle together under the pressure of the barrier.
—Those are salty fingers.
Another strong sense of abnormality occupied more than 90% of the compressed area.
Unlike the calmness of salty fingers, it is constantly struggling, twisting, and trying to find a way out.
Without a doubt, it was eerie graffiti.
"Keep shrinking," Jemin said in the channel. "Salty Fingers is already very small. The graffiti is still resisting, but it can't escape."
The barrier continued to shrink.
When the diameter of the barrier shrank to fifty meters, a change occurred.
The air above the fountain square suddenly vibrated violently, as if something was being forced out from an unseen dimension.
Jemin opened his eyes.
In the center of the square, next to the fountain, a pale white finger appeared out of thin air.
It wasn't inserted into any container; it just hovered about a meter above the ground, its fingernails damp, with liquid slowly dripping down.
The salty taste was the first thing the fingers couldn't take, and it became visible.
Jemin stroked his chin with interest. It seemed that the fusion of the bizarre and the law was not deep enough and required a certain range.
Now, it no longer has enough space to hide itself.
The compression of the barrier and the solidification of the laws of the eight wizards squeezed the rule-based area where it relied for refuge to the point of almost non-existence.
The finger trembled slightly in the air, and waves of curses spread outwards from it, a natural attack method.
But as soon as the curse wave spread out, it was blocked by the inner wall of the barrier, as if it had hit an invisible wall.
"The Salty Fingers have materialized," Jemin reported in the channel. "It's emitting cursed energy, but it's being blocked by the barrier. It has no effect on the townspeople."
"What about the graffiti?" the wizard in the dark blue robe asked.
As soon as he finished speaking, a chaotic burst of colors suddenly erupted in the sky above the square.
Graffiti appeared.
But this time the graffiti didn't appear on the walls or stone slabs; it just appeared out of thin air.
Those crooked lines, unevenly applied colors, and childlike brushstrokes directly sketch out a series of eerie images in the void.
The scene keeps changing.
One moment it's a distorted human face, with features out of place, eyes where the mouth is, and the mouth on the forehead.
One moment it's a chaotic mass of colors, as if someone had poured all the paint together and stirred it haphazardly.
Seemingly realizing that they could no longer hide, the graffiti began to imitate the images of several wizards.
Jemin saw the nine figures of them float in the air in a crooked and distorted manner, their postures closely matching their distribution in the square.
The graffiti attempts to replicate their appearance, then distorts those replicas.
The arms of a graffiti figure have been stretched out, becoming as thin as noodles.
A graffiti portrait's head was flattened, turning into a pancake.
The body of a graffiti figure has been twisted into a pretzel shape.
However, these distortions had no effect on real-world wizards.
At this moment, the eight level-six wizards no longer restrained their power, and each of them had activated their Law Solidification Domain.
The graffiti's bizarre attacks were neutralized by the power of the laws the moment they touched those areas, without even causing a ripple.
Seeing that its attacks were ineffective, the graffiti became even more agitated.
Finding itself unable to harm the high-ranking wizards surrounding it in the sky, it turned all its attention to—
Jemin.
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