Hollow Zero.
Because entering a Hollow is akin to a spatial jump without coordinates, the shifting space causes the airflow that keeps helicopters aloft to vanish. This would result in the drone instantly losing all lift, turning into a bungee jumper without a cord and flattening into a metal pancake on the ground.
Thus, the aircraft could only drop the two of them off at the very forefront of the entrance to Hollow Zero.
The rest of the journey relied entirely on their own two legs.
Roland had suggested equipping them with an Autonomous Mech as a means of transport, but both Andrew and Hoshimi Miyabi rejected the idea simultaneously.
After all, the environment inside Hollow Zero is intricate and complex. When it comes to an Autonomous Mech...
It really isn't as fast as the two of them just running directly.
Standing in front of Hollow Zero and looking up at the surroundings, the massive Hollow was like an endless black wall, blotting out the sky and the sun.
It wasn't until one stood in front of Hollow Zero in the truest sense that one could tangibly feel what couldn't be felt from Scott Outpost across the Great Breach—the sense of insignificance of a human being in the face of an absolute natural disaster.
When standing in the distant Scott Outpost, due to the distance and the high vantage point looking down, although there were countless abandoned skyscrapers of the former Eridu city center surrounding it to set off its vastness, it didn't actually make people feel this reality so viscerally.
But when a person actually stands in front of it, the feeling is completely different.
It's no wonder that many investigators, who were clearly mentally prepared and had even entered other Hollows, would find themselves too terrified to enter when preparing to step into Hollow Zero.
When a silent black wall appears before you, and no matter whether you look up, left, or right, you can only see boundless pitch-blackness...
The oppressive sensation it brings is indeed unparalleled.
However.
This situation couldn't cause any impact on Andrew, who, as a Hunter, had faced natural disasters formed by many monsters.
Not to mention anything else.
Just the massive thunderstorm caused by the Kirin, capable of covering a radius of thousands of kilometers like a waterfall, possessed a much stronger sense of oppression than Hollow Zero.
At least Hollow Zero wouldn't launch a 'Dragon Charge' at you.
Feeling the impatient emotions coming from Icebrink on his back regarding this first battle after its repair, Andrew gently stroked the hilt to soothe it, then looked at Hoshimi Miyabi, who had also arrived in front of Hollow Zero.
He tilted his head, signaling:
"Shall we?"
Regarding the invitation issued by Andrew.
Hoshimi Miyabi, who had already begun to condense her spirit, simply nodded silently and seriously, counting as her response to Andrew.
Andrew, who had somewhat figured out Hoshimi Miyabi's personality, had already adapted to her bot-like performance.
Knowing she had agreed and was ready, Andrew made a final organization of the items in his Item Bag, and the two of them stepped together toward the boundless black wall before them.
Passing through the deepest, pitch-black outer wall of the Hollow.
Accompanied by a splash of colorful hues flashing through their vision, opening their eyes revealed the fixed station set up by the Defense Force inside Hollow Zero.
The transformation of space made one involuntarily feel an inexplicable sense of weightlessness, as if traveling through space into another world.
Even though he had experienced it many times, Andrew still couldn't bring himself to like this feeling of being out of control.
But in just an instant, Andrew adjusted his state.
Soon, following the route map sent by Belle, the two exited the station, and countless desolate and towering urban buildings appeared in Andrew's eyes.
As the former city center of Old Eridu.
Even the outermost edge of Hollow Zero contained the ruins left by countless high-rise buildings where people once lived.
The prosperity once possessed by the capital, which served as humanity's last hope, had long since turned into bubbles and shadows.
Under the ruthless scouring of time.
The traces that once belonged to humanity were continuously and gradually disappearing.
Because of the nature of the Hollow, the vast majority of life forms could not survive within it. Therefore, inside the Hollow, apart from extremely rare areas with lower Ether activity where some small green plants might remain growing, in the vast majority of cases, all one could see was desolation.
Within these dilapidated buildings.
Inhuman, terrifying Ethereals were wandering aimlessly, constantly searching for any potential life within their line of sight.
Brokenness and danger were forever the main themes within the Hollow.
And the reason Hollow Zero could be called Hollow Zero was not just because of its massive surface area.
The incredibly dense Ether energy had completely distorted and dislocated space, forming a complex environment akin to a maze.
Those buildings, whose own space had been swapped into mid-air, even formed strange spectacles as if the laws of physics had been completely overturned.
But beyond the beauty lay danger.
Those spatial rifts, ubiquitous due to spatial instability and liable to appear at any time, connected to any possible place in Hollow Zero.
It could be the ground, it could be the sky, and even gravity reversing directly in the next moment would be a minor issue.
For those entering Hollow Zero without a Proxy or a 'Carrot', wandering aimlessly inside was basically no different from seeking death.
Even Proxies with slightly average skills could easily meet their end inside.
But for Andrew, who had the support of Phaethon, this impermanence belonging to the Hollow was something he hadn't experienced in a long time.
Relying on the speed of the two, countless ruins were flung rapidly behind them.
Relying on the shortcuts found by the H.D.D System, in just three minutes, the two had already traversed a journey that would originally take 15 minutes in the Carrot's data.
The power of Phaethon was revealed undoubtedly at this moment.
"In the warehouse after turning left ahead, take the spatial rift hidden under the third shelf from the left. The space reached after entering the rift has only a 15% probability of encountering Ethereals. You can pass through with peace of mind at maximum speed!"
Inside the goggles, Belle's voice came through, slightly distorted due to signal transmission.
Leading Hoshimi Miyabi, Andrew directly kicked the iron door used to seal the warehouse in front of him, sending it flying. Relying on his strength, he directly and swiftly yanked the shelf Belle mentioned to the side.
As for finding a way to open the door?
Time is urgent; let your iron door talk to my brute strength!
However, this time, before jumping in, Andrew asked with a bit of suspicion:
"Is this probability of yours actually reliable?"
Saying this, Andrew began to count on his fingers, listing the encounters along this journey.
"For the last spatial rift, you said the probability of encountering Ethereals was only 10%. The time before that, you even said the probability was only 5%!"
Although Andrew didn't say what happened afterward, the blade of Icebrink on his back, emitting a brilliant golden light, already clearly indicated the results of entering those two spatial rifts.
As Andrew's voice fell, Belle immediately retorted stubbornly:
"Probability is just probability! And this is clearly just your luck being too bad, Andrew!"
"This is the result obtained by the H.D.D System after data collection and calculation. You should know that over at the Obols Squad's side, there's clearly a 73% probability result where nothing happens at all!"
After speaking, without waiting for Andrew to refute, Belle immediately urged:
"Alright, don't delay time! This temporary spatial rift will close in another ten seconds. If we miss this one, we'll have to detour through four more rifts to reach the target location to intercept Nineveh!"
"And we'll have to pass through a high-danger Ethereal activity zone in the middle. The ones inside are at least Level 4 Ethereals!"
Hearing Belle's urging and knowing time was urgent, Andrew stepped forward without hesitation and jumped down immediately.
Four spatial nodes and a high-danger Ethereal activity zone.
Setting aside the detour, a high-danger zone where Level 4 Ethereals were active wasn't a difficult matter for either Andrew or Hoshimi Miyabi.
But now was not the time to waste on such things.
However, when the sensation of spatial travel faded and light appeared in their vision once again...
In their line of sight, standing quietly in the center of this space and blocking the rift leading to the next spatial node, was an old friend—a Dullahan.
His presence made it impossible for the two to bypass him directly to the next node.
Silence enveloped the group for a moment before Andrew couldn't help but complain:
"There is definitely something wrong with the probabilities calculated by your H.D.D System!"
Regarding Andrew's complaint, Belle was choked up for a moment, unable to speak.
It was truly haunted.
How come everyone else is quite normal, but the moment it comes to Andrew, he is guaranteed to encounter a monster whenever he hits a node?
What kind of super unlucky guy is this!
"Damn it, if it weren't for calculating routes for so many squads simultaneously, pushing the amount of data my brother and I can handle to the limit—which ultimately leads to the current specific node content only being roughly estimated by the H.D.D System..."
"I would use the H.D.D to test out exactly what you'll encounter in the next node for you!"
However, it was ultimately just a 'what if'.
Andrew, knowing that Belle was already going full throttle, naturally wouldn't blame her. The complaint just now was, in the end, merely banter.
Looking at the Dullahan not far away.
While approaching, Andrew swiftly drew Icebrink from his back and said to Hoshimi Miyabi beside him:
"Old rules. The Ether energy in the environment is accumulating more and more. Leave these small Ethereals to me."
Regarding Andrew's arrangement.
Hoshimi Miyabi didn't offer any rebuttal, simply nodding very obediently to indicate she understood.
Subsequently, in order to keep herself in peak condition, she closed her eyes on the spot and continued to hold her breath and focus her mind, suppressing the consciousness within 'Wuwei' that had already begun to show some slight restlessness.
Her degree of agreeability was enough to make Tsukishiro Yanagi, who often broke down because this single-minded person wouldn't listen no matter how she tried to persuade her, cry out loud.
However, the main reason she was so obedient was primarily because...
Given Wuwei's current state, in a place like Hollow Zero where the Ether energy was a level higher than everywhere else...
Every time she made a move, it was a firm step toward Wuwei going berserk again.
Even though Andrew would be there to suppress it, it was fine usually, but if it went berserk during the battle with Nineveh, that would truly ruin things!
In order for Hoshimi Miyabi to still be able to strike with full force when they found Nineveh, under a brief discussion on the way, the small mobs were handed over to Andrew to handle entirely.
Just as well, it allowed Andrew to sharpen his blade before the battle.
As the saying goes, sharpening the blade before battle is an indispensable part of open-world hunting; it must be tasted.
Following a Spirit Roundslash that directly split the Dullahan—monster, shield, and all—into two halves, Andrew returned to Hoshimi Miyabi's side.
Icebrink, having accumulated energy to its limit, was constantly emitting a scorching red light, its blade brimming with a sharp aura.
As for the materials or whatever, under the current situation, he could only painfully give them up.
And accompanied by Andrew's approach, the terrifying aura condensed on Icebrink and its eager state directly caused the sliver of restlessness that had just risen in Wuwei to vanish once again.
It was terrified of being whipped again without explanation.
Sensing the dangerous aura that ceased to emit from Andrew's weapon for even a moment, Hoshimi Miyabi's eyes flashed slightly as she spoke up to ask:
"Is this the 'Red Blade' you spoke of, where power is accumulated to the extreme?"
Hearing Hoshimi Miyabi's question, Andrew spoke without any concealment:
"That's right. This is the final result of reclaiming the power used by oneself and accumulating it until it reaches the limit, where quantitative change forms a qualitative change. It means concentrating all power into a single point to transform it into an unstoppable cut."
"This actually belongs to a completely different attack logic from the combat techniques you usually use."
Completely unaware that his words just now had let the cat out of the bag, Andrew didn't stop his steps and continued to advance along the route guided by Belle.
Fortunately, a 'bot' like Hoshimi Miyabi completely didn't think about the fact that she should never have fought in front of Andrew before.
Her attention had been completely attracted by Andrew's move, which she had never seen before.
Although Andrew didn't give a detailed explanation of the difference between the two, as someone who had witnessed it live three times and was also an absolute genius in Kendo, how could Hoshimi Miyabi not understand the meaning Andrew wanted to express?
She had already keenly discovered it.
The reason such a situation appeared was that the underlying logic of Andrew's attack moves was completely different from her own.
Every attack Andrew swung when facing a monster was as if every opponent he had to face was an existence whose defense he couldn't even breach unless he poured out his full strength.
It was also like looking for every possible window to counterattack within the cracks of countless powerful attacks.
And all of his moves.
Everything, absolutely everything, was for the sake of making every cut he swung deal maximized damage during every hard-won attack opportunity in battle.
It was also for this reason that although every one of his moves and forms was extremely fierce, they inexplicably gave people a slow illusion.
But an illusion, in the final analysis, is just an illusion.
When Hoshimi Miyabi imagined herself in her mind as the monster he faced, she discovered that this seemingly slow attack was actually not slow at all.
Like an attack that would slice everything in two. Although as a human there were countless opportunities to dodge, for those monsters with slightly larger bodies...
Andrew's attacks were simply an execution platform that couldn't be avoided.
Slow, steadfast.
Like a final judgment from an arbiter. No matter what level of monster it was, in Andrew's hands, it would eventually and inevitably head toward its end.
____
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