Ants recognize the forks they’ve constructed via pheromones, yet Zhang Yanhang lacked this function, so he could only tough it out, visiting every unexplored area until he naturally found the way forward. Fortunately, with Ti Pause, there wouldn’t be ti wasted.
Without Ti Pause, Zhang Yanhang even doubted whether three hours would be enough to find his way out of the Ant Nest; he could easily be lost inside.
"Choice! Which foot should I step forward with next?" Zhang Yanhang randomly made a useless choice to trigger Ti Pause.
In the next few seconds, he would frequently trigger Ti Pause to explore the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. Just thinking about this made Zhang Yanhang feel sowhat sad; such highly repetitive exploratory behavior was indeed tornting to the will.
"Sigh, if only I had so ability like phasing through walls, or if my Strength were strong enough to punch through the thick walls made of crimson iron ore. Then I could avoid the maze too. Unfortunately, my power is still insufficient."
Judging by the thickness of the surrounding crimson iron ore, Zhang Yanhang estimated that even if he reached Second Tier, his Strength would likely still be inadequate.
As for phasing through walls? Since he was neither an energy body nor a ghost with the ability to ghostify, such a feat was absolutely ludicrous.
"Speaking of which, would it be more efficient to capture that female ghost who covets my tender flesh and robust Spiritual Qi to scout for ?"
But Zhang Yanhang felt that even if he wanted to do so, he would have to wait for his next visit to the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, given that he was already in the Ashen World.
To run back for the ghost now would waste a significant amount of ti, possibly even consuming all of the three-plus hours without success in capturing the ghost, making it an unprofitable venture.
"Forget it, isn’t it just map running? Ti is paused anyway, and no ti will be lost, so let’s start officially."
Zhang Yanhang cranked up Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil’s Perception to its maximum range, then zood out of the maze at a speed of eighty kiloters per hour.
Though normally, running at such speed in the cramped environnt of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest would easily result in collisions with the walls, the increased Neural Reflex Speed provided by Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil allowed Zhang Yanhang to run at full speed while effortlessly avoiding obstacles in his path.
...
After the ninth Ti Pause ended, Zhang Yanhang stood vacantly in place, subconsciously taking a step forward with his left foot.
Including the initial Ti Pause, Zhang Yanhang had triggered Ti Pause ten tis in a row and had been running continuously for twenty hours under Ti Pause. Though true physical exhaustion didn’t exist, the ubiquitous light pollution and the highly homogenous passageways cast a great psychological shadow over him.
During the fourth Ti Pause, Zhang Yanhang found an Evaluation Settlent Treasure Box in the Outer Zone, and then, during the sixth Ti Pause, he entered the inner area of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, where he encountered sothing he hadn’t seen before in Raccoon City—an object resembling a vending machine.
This strange vending machine stuck out horribly from its surroundings, indicating to Zhang Yanhang that it was likely another special item generated by the Ashen World, similar to slot machines and Evaluation Settlent Treasure Boxes.
After finding the correct path to the inner area, Zhang Yanhang spent the next four Ti Pauses familiarizing himself with the forks in the Outer Zone and scouting out previously unvisited areas.
Zhang Yanhang now had an Intelligence Attribute of 25 points, but Intelligence didn’t equate to IQ, even though it also improved mory, logical, and computational abilities. The focus of the Intelligence Attribute was on raising the energy value limit and energy damage.
Thus, despite possessing 25 points of Intelligence and having seen a significant boost in mory, Zhang Yanhang still hadn’t acquired a photographic mory.
Because he couldn’t morize things at a glance, faced with the highly homogenous Ant Nest corridors, Zhang Yanhang chose to rerun these routes he had previously traversed to deepen his mory.
After going over them a second ti, Zhang Yanhang had almost entirely morized the Crimson Iron Ant Nest map, limited to the Outer Zone, as he felt no current need to rush to the inner area.
After all, he was definitely going to clear the Outer Zone before venturing into the inner recesses of the Ant Nest. Given the vast size of just the Outer Zone, he had no idea how long it would take to clean up. Even at maximum speed, it would take several days.
Therefore, Zhang Yanhang thought it was entirely feasible to explore the inner area after clearing the Outer Zone. Since cleaning the Outer Zone would take so long, he could not promptly reach the inner area.
Having nearly familiarized himself with all the forks of the Outer Zone, Zhang Yanhang prepared for one last Ti Pause to fill in the remaining gaps.
When this final Ti Pause ended, Zhang Yanhang would begin officially formulating and strictly executing the cleanup plan for the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. With over three hours left, he should be able to eliminate at least a three-digit number of monsters.
However, for this last Ti Pause, Zhang Yanhang decided to change the trigger. After choosing which foot to step with nine tis, he had grown weary of that question. Now, he planned to open a treasure box, mainly intrigued by the ’Ant Power’ Talent of the Crimson Iron Worker Ant, curious to see if he could pull it this ti.
If he did manage to get it, he planned to prioritize upgrading this ’Ant Power’ Talent.
Since the group leader said there’s a limit on the number of Talents usable at each Rank, Zhang Yanhang intended to follow the sa upgrading mode he employed in Raccoon City, focusing on a single most useful Talent and rapidly upgrading it with ample resources.
Only in this manner could he access Talents of higher strength and quality. Given the limited number of Talents, he needed to ensure each one was brought to a higher level, or else he would be at a disadvantage.
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