Chapter 122: World-Class Mission
Cain allowed his Sense to spread outward as they moved deeper into the park.
Nothing living moved nearby, yet the deeper they went, the stronger the uncomfortable feeling in the back of his mind became.
Then they saw it.
The spatial crack remained suspended above the ground.
Cain stopped, and the others immediately did the same.
From a distance, it had merely looked strange, but up close, it looked completely unnatural.
There was no physical frame surrounding the opening. Space itself had been torn apart several meters above the ground, forming an irregular vertical crack whose edges constantly shifted and distorted.
Dark energy moved within it.
Occasionally, faint ripples spread from the opening and warped the surrounding light before disappearing again.
The Zombie King was gone, yet the spatial phenomenon remained.
Cain narrowed his eyes.
When he had fought the Zombie King, the creature had spent part of its time near this opening. Its hand had even remained pressed against the distorted space before Cain forced it away.
At the time, Cain had assumed the Zombie King was maintaining the crack or using something within it.
Apparently, killing the creature had not solved the real problem.
Jack stopped several meters behind Cain.
"This thing is still here?"
"Unfortunately, yeah."
Nathan studied the opening carefully.
"Has it changed?"
Cain could not answer with certainty as he was truly clueless.
However, the energy inside the crack seemed more active than before.
Dark waves occasionally moved through the opening, followed by brief flashes of gray light somewhere within the seemingly endless darkness.
Alex crouched and picked up a stone.
Cain immediately looked at him.
"Don’t."
Alex stopped.
"I was only going to throw it inside."
"I know." Cain looked back toward the crack. "But we have no idea what that might cause. Better not to touch anything until we know what we’re dealing with."
Alex looked at the crack once more before dropping the stone.
Cain continued forward carefully.
The others followed behind him.
When they came within several dozen meters of the spatial crack, something suddenly changed.
A cold sensation passed through Cain’s mind.
Five translucent screens appeared almost at the exact same moment.
Ron stopped beside him.
Nathan’s expression hardened.
Jack became completely serious.
Alex stared blankly at the words appearing before his eyes.
Cain’s eyes narrowed down.
[Ding!]
[World-Class Mission detected.]
The surrounding park suddenly became even quieter.
Another notification immediately appeared.
[World-Class Mission: Sever the Zombie Race Invasion]
[A forced inter-world invasion passage established by the Zombie Race has been detected.]
Cain’s expression immediately became serious.
The next lines appeared one after another.
[The spatial crack before you is the entrance to an incomplete Invasion Corridor connecting this World to territory controlled by the Zombie Race.]
[The Zombie Race is currently attempting to forcibly anchor the Invasion Corridor to this World.]
Ron lowered his spear from his shoulder.
Nobody spoke.
[Four Spatial Anchor Gates have been established within the Invasion Corridor.]
[Each Spatial Anchor Gate continuously supplies dimensional energy to the corridor, stabilizing the connection between both Worlds while expanding the spatial passage.]
[As long as the four Spatial Anchor Gates remain active, the Invasion Corridor will continue approaching completion.]
Cain’s gaze sharpened.
So that was what the Zombie King had been involved with.
The creature had not appeared through some random spatial phenomenon.
This entire thing had been on purpose as the Zombie Race wanted to invade this world.
The notifications continued.
[Once stabilization is completed, the temporary spatial crack will evolve into a permanent World Gate.]
[A completed World Gate will allow large-scale forces of the Zombie Race to enter this World without the current spatial restrictions.]
Jack’s expression gradually darkened.
Nathan stopped looking at the screen for a moment and glanced toward the crack.
Then the next notification appeared.
[Based on the current strength and development level of this World, the estimated probability of planetary destruction following successful establishment of the World Gate is 90%.]
Silence instantly filled the surrounding.
Ron stared at the number.
"Ninety percent?"
Cain did not reply as there was nothing to explain.
Even the System had concluded that if the Zombie Race successfully established a permanent passage, their world would almost certainly be destroyed.
And the apocalypse had only started today.
Humanity was nowhere near ready for an invasion from an entire hostile race.
They were still struggling against ordinary zombies and newly evolved creatures.
If large numbers of powerful beings from another World suddenly entered through a permanent gate, Cain could already imagine how badly things would turn out.
More information appeared before them.
[World-Class Mission Objective]
[Enter the Invasion Corridor.]
[Locate and destroy all four Spatial Anchor Gates.]
[Spatial Anchor Gates destroyed: 0/4.]
[Destroying each Spatial Anchor Gate will weaken the Invasion Corridor and reduce the flow of dimensional energy sustaining the spatial crack.]
[Once all four Spatial Anchor Gates are destroyed, the connection to this World will lose its anchors and the Invasion Corridor will collapse.]
Cain read the objective carefully.
They had to enter because simply destroying the crack from outside was apparently impossible.
The passage had already been anchored from the other side.
As long as those four Gates continued supplying dimensional energy to the corridor, damaging the entrance here would accomplish nothing permanent.
Even if they somehow managed to destabilize it temporarily, the Gates would simply continue feeding it energy.
Then another set of notifications appeared.
[World-Class Mission Zone Bonus activated.]
[All experience obtained within the Invasion Corridor will be doubled.]
[All direct System rewards obtained from enemies defeated within the Invasion Corridor will be doubled.]
Ron’s expression changed slightly, a smile appeared on his face as he couldn’t wait to use this opportunity to farm experiences and experiment on his newfound strength.
Cain’s eyes lit up.
Even after learning that their entire world had a ninety percent chance of being destroyed, that shameless bastard still reacted the moment he saw the words rewards doubled.
Cain could not even blame him as his own attention remained on the same lines for an extra second.