October 19, the eleventh day after the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, was also the fifth day since Zhang Yanhang had left the Main World. At 11:59 PM, he stood in the depths of the C-shaped channel at the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, located in the Outer Zone.
Zhang Yanhang waited for the Ti Pause to arrive as he stared at his watch.
As the ti on the watch turned to 11:59:59 PM, the familiar Ti Pause indeed appeared precisely within the interior of the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, and concurrently, a text option box erged before Zhang Yanhang. He imdiately started reviewing the details of the options this ti.
[Return to the Main World?]
[Option One: Yes (Upon your last visit to the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, after a brief exploration and based on the internal conditions, you devised a simple cleanup plan for the ant nest. This ti you have arrived here, you further improved the plan and prepared to execute it strictly.
Since it is the second ti entering the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, you set a modest goal for yourself—to clear the entire nest in one go. Not surprisingly, you easily achieved this goal, so now that you have completed your objective, you feel it’s ti to head ho for so rest.)]
[Option Two: Go Ho (Originally, you thought you could clear the entire small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest as efficiently as you did in Raccoon City by precisely executing your plan, but plans don’t always keep up with changes. The Crimson Iron Ant Queen inexplicably gathered all the ants halfway through the cleanup plan.
This unexpected behavior of the Ant Queen allowed you to complete your plan ahead of schedule, giving you extra ti to work on digging the tunnel to the new area. Despite incessant work without sleep or rest, you were still unable to finish the excavation before the close of the Transmission Channel, and regrettably, you had to return ho temporarily.)]
[Option Three: No (After spending a day clearing the entire small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, you devoted all your ti to the tunnel excavation towards the new area. Seeing the tunnel was only a few kiloters from completion, you were very reluctant to halt the excavation here.
Thus, despite knowing the Transmission Channel was about to close, you chose to stay and continue digging the tunnel to the new area. After four days of continuous, sleepless work, you, now extrely skilled at the task, quickly breached the remaining part of the tunnel.)]
"Finally, I can go ho. And of those three options, two are suggesting I head ho," he mused. "Seems like I really should rest. Although I’m sowhat inclined to continue digging the tunnel, when I think about it, I better not."
Calculating using the scale markings, Zhang Yanhang had previously dug up to seventy-two kiloters underground. Theoretically, he should have dug roughly another two kiloters after filling his Waist Bag and Storage Box, thus reaching a depth of about seventy-four kiloters.
The complete depth of the tunnel was seventy-seven kiloters, so Zhang Yanhang was actually just three kiloters short of breaking through the entire tunnel but had to return prematurely to the C-shaped channel due to insufficient ti.
Under normal circumstances, it would have taken Zhang Yanhang less than half an hour to finish the remaining section. However, it was just under normal circumstances, as the work soon beca abnormal with increased depth.
Specifically, as the depth increased, the density and Quality of the Crimson iron ore increased, which in turn caused a reduction in the speed at which Zhang Yanhang could separate the Crimson iron ore pillars due to the increased density and Quality of the ore.
After all, despite Alchemy being quite versatile, the lting speed decreased when dealing with higher Quality materials—it was an entirely logical rule that Green quality materials would lt slower than White quality.
Due to the unique properties of the Ashen World, the Crimson iron ore that was tens of kiloters underground, though still of Grey Quality and unable to be taken out, had a fundantal difference in strength compared to the ore at normal depths.
When excavating the regular depths of Crimson iron ore, Zhang Yanhang could advance two ters per second with Alchemy, four tis faster than if using his fists.
But as the depth increased, especially when it reached seventy kiloters underground, the speed of Alchemy already beca slower than his original fists; moving forward even half a ter per second was difficult.
For this reason, Zhang Yanhang’s four days of non-stop tunnel digging only reached a depth of seventy-four kiloters when normally, at a rate of two ters per second, he would have completed the entire tunnel in just over a day.
It’s worth noting that Zhang Yanhang had reached seventy kiloters underground by noon today, but the subsequent four kiloters took him a full ten hours. The difficulty of the tunnel excavation had suddenly increased significantly.
Compared to the ti spent digging, Zhang Yanhang actually used more ti to recover his Energy Value. He typically spent about four and a half hours regenerating energy after every two and a half hours of digging.
Considering the hour needed to climb the Crimson Iron Chain, Zhang Yanhang had adopted an eight-hour work system since reaching around sixty kiloters underground, completing a cycle every eight hours and imdiately starting the next one, allowing him to progress roughly two kiloters each ti.
If Zhang Yanhang could omit the energy recovery phase next ti he ca to the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu to dig the tunnel, maybe he could complete the entire excavation within the open ti of the Transmission Channel.
After all, when the Transmission Channel next opens, the start ti should advance by another half an hour, extending the channel’s duration to seven hours—seven hours purely for tunnel excavation would indeed suffice.
"So, I choose Option One, return to the Main World," Zhang Yanhang decided promptly after reviewing the content of the options.
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