Neylan smacked the screen. The impact sent the surface to glitch and ripple throughout. She pulled her arm with an effort like a hand glued to a covering. She clenched her teeth. Power surged beneath her palm. Light surged, and it radiated fiercely.
Light, shining in rays of white and silver, illuminated the underside of her hand, enveloping her palm and fingers. Small sparks blazed between her glistening hand and the screen. The amount of might held in one hand was astonishing, something Moko never thought was possible.
All her efforts were driven and sharp. After extracting an unknown amount of holdings from her System, she dropped to the ground. She bellowed as her open hand in the unnerving air crept a harrowing sign of danger. A silver light burned in her palm. Her palm aimed at the ground. To the ground, she slammed her hand.
A loud grumble trembled the dusty particles. Dirt and gravel burst upward, heaving with a force that disoriented Moko, Terayla, and the men. The wind rushed like a blind storm crashing onto their faces.
“At the cost of all that Neylan—I—sacrificed, and on behalf of my love who sacrificed for the people, I will raise this earth with towers and gravel the field with cups and glass!”
The light heard her cry, and it escaped from her palm.
The silver gleam conquered the sand and fog and dazzled across the land at which they stood, expanding meters far in all directions. Strands weaved beneath their feet, slithering with speed that couldn’t compare. The sky ceased its brightness as if submitting to the radiant flare that surrounded the people.
She used all her Entities to purchase one Asset multiple times. And on that purchase, the outlining beam of silver manifested its true glory.
Traces of circular shapes formed all around the vicinity, shapes that looked like doors ready to unfurl what had been summoned.
When the light dimmed and ceased, the ground opened.
Multi-leveled dispensers crawled from the depths and revealed their monstrous sizes. Pillars of white marble and dozens of gateways adorned with chiseled contours like clouds enveloped their emerging fame. A low hum accompanied their steady ascent. Their magnitude suffocated the atmosphere. They rose with a terrifying aura. Carved eyes appeared behind the intricate patterns as if staring at their souls.
Four entities cornered Moko, narrowing his space and towering higher and higher. In fear, he watched these cylindrical edifices spanning a few meters thick pull up roots and dirt effortlessly. Debris came crashing back down. Moko braced the raining soil and shielded Terayla. Her cats tucked their tails and hid under him.
The men protected themselves from the rain with their arms. They couldn’t escape. Wherever they looked, all they met were rows upon rows of these threatening buildings. It was almost unforgiving. Without enough room and the pouring shower of dirt and gravel, they couldn’t escape using any devious magic.
No one could escape.
The horrified gazes watched the enormous Assets endlessly climbing, seizing the minuscule sun that could barely fight against the shadows these anomalies expelled. A minute later, they ceased their climb, reaching a staggering height that reached taller than any Lei System.
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Multi-Leveled Cup Dispenser
A tier-8 Asset pertained to the Cup System that efficiently dispenses cups from the digital world of Entities. This Asset reaches 30 meters high in a cylindrical form and expands 7 meters in diameter with 4 vertical sliding doors spewing cups on each level. There are 8 levels, adding up to 32 doors all collectively releasing a base production of 1000 cups per second.
Neylan bought 20 dispensers.
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You smelled the chiseled marble and stone, like powder that hales you inside a Domain unlike you have ever seen. |
These massive commodities that covered the sun made Moko fear the true potential of a System. Dirt and roots continuously rained, delaying his reaction to proceed with the next plan: to duck and cover.
“Get down!” Neylan shouted, running over to grab Moko and Terayla. She pushed them down. Her hand reached for her screen, rapidly pressing and pressing until a soft sparkle of light emanated from her fingertip. From the ground to the air and back to the ground, she swung her arm and extended the beam into an arch.
The light manifested into conveyor belts and enshrined the three beneath a thick layer of metal and rubber.
“Magnify,” she ordered. The massive dispensers glistened momentarily, seeming to be enforced by a veil of golden light that faded.
The men retreated with their eyes fixed on the monstrous towers. They did all they could to escape, hopelessly transfiguring into a collection of smoke to weave their way through. But with these massive structures clumped together, covering every corner and bend and dominating the very sky they could escape to, nothing seemed to work out. It was truly useless.
An unpleasant view awaited them when they raised their heads.
Marble and stone ground against each other. The entire area was filled with the sound of grinding friction. Moko peered at the nearest building, and he watched the gaping mouths sliding open. It was not just the one he looked at, but all the dispensers opened. All the doors unveiled the darkness behind them, and in that darkness, cups.
Thousands of handholding cups came crashing down, spinning and shimmering in chaotic turns and clashes. Beneath those gaping black mouths came endless quantities of shapes and sizes—cubicle or cylindrical, stainless steel or plastic, glass or ceramic, porcelain or bamboo fiber. They all showered with unforgiving impacts.
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Moko, Terayla, and Neylan trusted their lives on the conveyor belts acting as a shield, an umbrella that kept any shards or ceramics from opening their skulls. Cups slammed to the ground and on top of each other, each destructive clang ringing deafening waves that made them cover their ears.
A plastic cup met the floor. A metal cup landed right on top, causing the plastic to fling and haul toward Moko’s head. He felt a hard thud. He got startled, managing to get lucky again. If it had been a glass shard, would have been a different outcome. Terayla also felt a thud on her back too. A lone ceramic shard shattered and burst forward, traveling to Neylan and hitting her back. They were not completely safe on the sidelines.
He and the rest closed their eyes as their lifeline shield couldn’t fully defend the chaotic downpour. Thousands of cups fell in the blink of an eye. Piles accumulated at all angles, and they buried the three in a matter of seconds. Darkness consumed their shelter.
The dispensers emptied their stock, burying them a few meters deep. The sound of continuous spewing and rumbling stopped. Her System ran out of cups. Her days’ worth of Entities, gone in just a minute.
The immense force crushed the cups hanging at the bottom. Ceramic ones shattered, fibers crunched, steels turned and bent inward, and glass cups cracked and also shattered. The pile pivoted and tweaked with every breaking cup.
They could feel it—the weight pushing against the conveyor belt. Hundreds and hundreds of pounds of hefty burden creaked their shield, its integrity faltering by the tick.
The conveyor belt bent downward. Its protection waned and deteriorated. They weren’t certain when, but they would surely be crushed.
Moko couldn’t find Neylan amidst the darkness, but he held Terayla as tight as he could, and she did the same. “Neylan,” he said with a tremor, “we’re going to get killed.”
“Wait,” she replied sharply.
Time ticked and ticked. The steel legs and bolts holding the belts twisted to the sides. Unable to fight the pressure, the shield gradually lowered. They felt their heads pressing against the ceiling. An overwhelming amount of stress pushed against the metal, forcing it to growl and cry in distorted gears and stretched rubber.
Terayla squeaked when the air tightened and shrunk. Moko felt his lungs trying to take in more air. He grew lightheaded. The heat intensified within this asphyxious darkness. If this continued, they would get suffocated before getting crushed.
“Neylan!”
“Return,” Neylan commanded in her drowning tone.
Cups sparked in a white silhouette and blinded their eyes. Shattered or intact, all the items flickered and got compressed into tiny beads. Each orb flew in her direction, hauling in immense quantities that kept everyone on the edge. The light streamlined into Neylan’s Cup, pouring inside and vanishing.
The air whipped and wheezed. Thousands of glistening orbs grazed their ears and faces, bringing no harm but a soft caress that soothed their restless hearts. Cups decreased from the bottom to the top. The commanding return caught the lingering ones and concealed them in light. No cup remained.
And a long minute later, all the Objects disappeared. All rushed inside her Cup that collected the mounting numbers that nearly killed them. They gasped and coughed for air that immediately surged into their bodies. The cool wind rushed in and caressed their burning bodies. The three caught their bearings, trying to avoid bumping their heads on the conveyor belts.
Moko opened his eyes and left the shelter. Terayla crawled out of the hideout, and so did Neylan. Everyone took deep breaths with sweat on their faces. When they brushed off their arms and legs, they searched for the captors.
In the distance, they found two bodies on the floor. Their figures remained unmoving. Limbs and clothes were idle in their slumber. Blood crawled out from slits on their bodies. But their bodies were smaller than they were used to. Moko hissed in disgust, blocking Terayla’s eyes from gazing at the corpses. It wasn’t a pleasant way to be sent off by getting crushed to death.
Their bodies slowly withered like rising ashes blown away by the wafty wind seeping between the towers. Arms and legs discolored and flaked up into the air. Clothes and blood turned gray and ceased to mark the ground in defeat. In a few seconds, the two corpses evaporated, leaving nothing but a patch of flattened grass.
“There goes everything,” Neylan said, nodding and conceding. “We spent everything to Upgrade our Assets to a higher tier for this. The accumulated growth from these past few days led up to this moment. I still saved a handful of Entities because this is only the beginning.”
“This was the part of the plan, right?” Moko asked, walking past the intimidating dispensers and creeping back outside. Terayla followed behind.
She nodded, following them. “If it wasn’t for Impy in our final stage of planning, our blind charge would’ve been more blind than without his message.”
~ When I was escaping from those men, I found out that they couldn’t move around trees while becoming a bunch of smoke. They used their feet to chase me. ~
~ Then when have they chased you in their transfigured form? ~
~ When I was on an open beach. Nothing got in their way. Also, because there were trees around, Moko was able to kill one and save me. ~
“We took his word and planned to purchase these dispensers. But I can’t imagine how Roven thought of doing this, placing his wife in danger,” she remarked. “I won’t argue, though. As long as we did what were told, it was all worth it. This build was to grab their attention…”
When they passed around the last row of towers, the blazing sun and the rushing sand caused them to shield their eyes. After suiting themselves in the warm air, they faced east.
Behind the arching hills and flatlands, four more streaks of black smoke coursed to their location.
“We were successful,” Neylan commented. “I’ve Magnified my Assets and Objects temporarily for ten minutes. It’s all I could purchase. This will keep my Objects and Assets able to inflict harm without me getting punished for it; however, this only works when I’m not the origin of the harm.
“I hope ten minutes is enough for you. From here on, it’s your turn. I will support you and shift the terrain. When this happens, they will most likely focus on killing me regardless of whether they take the divine punishment. Protect me. We need to make enough time for Roven’s team to attack. They must be running to the compound from the north as we speak.”
“What time is it?” Moko asked, pulling out his Cookie.
She swiped her finger and summoned a watch. Observing the seconds tick, she replied, “It’s 11:24. Are you ready for round two?”
Neylan readied her Cup and gestured for him to hide within the compact edifices. She entered first, Terayla and her cats trailing behind to flee from the four incoming men—double the men from before. Moko put the Cookie in his mouth.
(–1 Cursor)
83 CpS → 82 CpS
He pulled out an orb from the screen and muffled, “More like round three.”