The battle in the Monthly Ticket rankings is too fierce. Haven't eaten dinner yet, just washing an apple to munch on while I continue to type, type, type. ... Down the street.

Bai Long and the others reached a corner, turned back, and saw Ye Chen locked in fierce combat with that Silver Automaton. Neither could gain the upper hand; the Silver Automaton couldn't land a hit on Ye Chen, and Ye Chen couldn't damage the Silver Automaton, resulting in a stalemate.

"He can actually fight this automaton to a draw?" Yue Heng was somewhat astonished. Everyone had witnessed the terror of the Silver Automaton; when faced with a barrage of over a hundred thousand bullets, it was merely knocked back without a scratch, illustrating how terrifying its power was. Yet, Ye Chen was now engaged in a deathmatch with such a monster, and he wasn't losing ground.

Although they knew Ye Chen was strong, they never expected him to be terrifyingly so. In the first month, he had barely managed to kill a Level 50 Blood-Toothed Tiger, but now, he could actually battle a terrifying entity like the Silver Automaton. This rate of power increase was brutally fast.

Bai Long stared for a moment, then frowned abruptly. "He definitely can't maintain this state for long. He must have used something to amplify his strength, and most likely, there’s a time limit. Otherwise, with this kind of power, why would he rely on the base city? He could have snuck in here alone a long time ago. Even with that large swarm of mechanical beasts at the entrance, if he wanted to rush in, he could easily shake them off."

Everyone paused briefly.

Yue Heng frowned. "If that's the case, won't they pursue him?"

Bai Long shook his head. "On the arms of the mechanical beasts at the entrance, there's a special marking—it should signify their identity, specifically assigned to guard that section of the city. Therefore, they won't easily leave the city gate; otherwise, wouldn't falling for a diversionary tactic be too easy?"

Yue Heng and Zhuge Fan were momentarily stunned. They had run too fast and completely missed those details. What shocked them most was... Bai Long actually capable of making such an astute observation?

Seeing their odd gazes, Bai Long rolled his eyes impatiently. "Normal times are normal times. Right now, Ye Chen is probably in grave danger; he has no time to joke with you."

"You really have that good a brain?" Yue Heng asked suspiciously.

"Nonsense," Bai Long mimicked Ye Chen's tone, saying dismissively, "Don't forget, I graduated from Tsinghua's Humanities track. Idiots can't get into Tsinghua."

"Stop the chatter," Yue Heng also imitated Ye Chen's expression, frowning. "Hurry up and tell us what you have. Relying on him alone won't work! Every time he encounters a powerful monster, he tells us to leave and fights it off solo. That’s just shameless."

Everyone fell into a brief silence.

Indeed.

Every time they encountered a powerful monster, Ye Chen always told them to leave first.

The first time they met the Blood-Toothed Tiger... The second time they ran into the Blood-Patterned Leopard... The third time...

After exiting the Rune Ruins, on the road back towards Beijing City, they encountered many powerful monsters. In those repeated life-or-death predicaments, they always left under Ye Chen's command.

"We are too weak," Zhuge Fan lowered his head sadly.

"Yeah..." Yue Heng sighed softly, gazing at the ashen-grey sky. "Too weak. We don't even have the right to fight alongside him. Every time, we're just dead weight..."

They longed to fight alongside Ye Chen.

But every time danger arose, they were forced to flee first, leaving the monster behind for that man.

The reason was pitiable: because there, they were merely burdens...

Bai Long was silent for a moment, then suddenly looked up, determination flickering in his eyes, and looked at Yue Heng. "What about the rocket launcher we salvaged from the spaceship last time? I remember he entrusted it to you for safekeeping."

Yue Heng started, then his eyes lit up with sudden joy. "That's right! How could I have forgotten about that thing?" Saying so, he quickly raised his hand. On his wrist was an exquisitely crafted white bracelet.

With a light press,

The white bracelet rapidly dissolved into countless streams of energy, assembling swiftly under an arcane runic pattern into a rocket launcher—three feet long, with a muzzle diameter of about 10 centimeters. It had two buttons on the side: green for energy accumulation, red for firing.

"If the power of the energy pistol can kill a Level 1000 monster on a direct hit, I wonder what kind of destructive power this rocket launcher has," Bai Long exclaimed excitedly.

Yue Heng laughed heartily. "This thing was nearly forgotten! Now it finally has a use."

"Stop talking nonsense, let's start quickly!" Bai Long urged.

Zhuge Fan beside them was quite excited. Mo Feng, as usual, maintained a perfectly calm expression; if no one asked him, this man probably never would speak, using even fewer words than Ye Chen.

"Watch me blow this damn tin toy away!" Yue Heng grabbed the rocket launcher and charged out. He stopped about 5,000 meters from the Silver Automaton, half-crouching on the ground. He locked the Silver Automaton's chest plate in the launcher's scope, flashed a wicked grin, and fired.

"Die!"

Whoosh—

...

Ye Chen was deep in the melee with the Silver Automaton. After hacking over a dozen times only to find no damage inflicted on the opponent, but instead chipping his Crimson Battle Saber in several places, he couldn't help but frown. He calculated the remaining time on his Superman Mode—only three minutes left—and felt the urge to retreat. Without a proper weapon, pushing a direct confrontation would only disadvantage him, as the automaton was forged entirely from special metals, making its defense superior to his own skin.

Just then, a beam of light flashed between the Silver Automaton's brows. Ye Chen's heart skipped a beat, and he hastily dodged aside. The spot where he had been standing was instantly pierced by a crimson beam, blasting a large crater into the hard metal ground.

At that precise moment—

Swish!

A white light streaked from a distance, about as thick as an arm, trailing a long luminous tail, moving with extreme speed, heading straight for the Silver Automaton.

"Alarm! Alarm!"

"High energy signature detected incoming from 30 degrees right, impact in 0.001 seconds, countdown commencing..."

The timing mechanism inside the mechanical beast had achieved such subtle precision that it could easily calculate the exact moment the rocket shell would arrive. (P.S. One second equals one million micro-seconds.)

"Evade! Evade! Please evade!"

BOOM!

Even with the Silver Automaton's speed, while it could calculate the projectile's velocity, its physical body couldn't react fast enough. Its foot had just lifted when it was struck by the energy shell. An explosion erupted from its chest cavity, spreading energy in all directions.

Ye Chen was startled and turned to look. He saw Yue Heng at the far end of the street, thrown backward onto the ground by the rocket launcher's recoil.

In the civilization of Runes, this rocket launcher was called a Light Cannon.

Thud!

The ground shook violently as the Silver Automaton's massive body crashed down, a large hole blown open in its chest. Its detection system should never have allowed such a high-powered weapon to appear nearby, but Ye Chen's constant harassment kept it unable to disengage and pursue Bai Long and the others, leaving it vulnerable to the blast.

"Beep beep~~~ Energy output system malfunction..."

"Beep beep..."

Alarms blared one after another. The Silver Automaton lay motionless, its central control unit completely destroyed.

"Is it dead?" Seeing the Silver Automaton remain motionless for so long, Bai Long and the others cautiously approached from a distance.

"If not dead, it's certainly crippled," Ye Chen glanced over, then turned back toward the Light Cannon in Yue Heng's hands and nodded. "Not bad this time."

Yue Heng grinned.

The danger averted, Bai Long was in high spirits and teased, "What's the big grin for? Didn't you hear him say 'this time'? It implies you messed up before."

"Screw your sister!" Yue Heng yelled.

"I don't have a sister," Bai Long replied earnestly.

"Damn it!"

"I'll catch you!"

"I'll damn you again!"

"And I'll catch you again!"

...

Ye Chen shot them a look. "Cut the nonsense, let's move quickly. The sound of fighting here will attract others." With that, he turned and ran toward the corner. Bai Long and the others quickly shut up and followed.

Running past the corner, they found the road ahead open and spacious, resembling a plaza. In the center stood a towering hall a hundred meters high, covering a vast area, constructed entirely of metal. On either side of the entrance stood two sixty-meter-tall stone statues: two incredibly beautiful women, possessing faces that could topple cities and unparalleled grace, each holding a crystal sphere, draped in light gauze, with a dove perched upon their shoulder.

"Temple of Light."

Ye Chen's eyes lit up, and he rushed toward it, stopping beneath the two statues. If he remembered correctly, this temple possessed an energy shield that would repel anyone who entered without permission.

He reached out his palm to touch it.

Ye Chen prepared for the counter-shock of the protective field, but to his surprise, as his palm made contact, nothing happened. His eyes flickered, and as thoughts raced through his mind, he understood. "This ruin has been parked here for who knows how many years; some of its systems have long since depleted their energy. Though this place has a shield system, it lacks a power source."

Realizing this, he relaxed slightly, stepping forward cautiously. He still dared not be careless; if he triggered some mechanism, he might not even have a chance to escape. After all, this city was built by the Atlanteans, whose average physical constitution was Level 100. If the mechanisms inside couldn't even kill an Atlantean, they wouldn't be called mechanisms.

It was like modern people not setting up a trap that even an average person couldn't avoid in a critical location.

Not long after, the group advanced step by step until they reached the temple's main gate. It was towering, perhaps fifty meters high, pure white like carved crystal, clearly reflecting their own images.

Ye Chen recalled the demise of the two men at the city entrance and hesitated. He told Bai Long and the others to stand aside and stood to the side himself. He looked around, searching the ground for a rock or something to throw, but to his dismay, the entire city was made of metal, and the ground was spotless—not a single stone or even a grain of sand was visible.

He had no choice but to pull the trigger and aim at the main gate.

Bang!

The bullet struck the gate and exploded, yet it caused no damage and left not even a trace. Furthermore, no counter-laser beam fired back from the gate.