Chapter 3682: Less Than Before
Chapter 3682: Less Than Before
On the other side of the long path was a woman in a bright green robe, who had turned the corner and arrived on that path at the same time as they had. Just the same, she noticed the star as well.
The moment Ronron noticed the star, she immediately reacted. She rushed forward faster than Alex or Helen, going for the star faster than the woman could.
The woman reacted as well, noticing the star. She rushed forward with a far greater speed than even Ronron had. Ronron understood she couldn’t hold back at all. Instantly, she used her teleportation Dao, arriving next to the star long before the woman could.
The moment she arrived there, she took hold of the star.
"Get away from my star!" the woman in the green robe shouted, her hand reaching out for Ronron.
Ronron suddenly panicked with the situation and tried to teleport back, but she had just teleported in, so she found it difficult to use her Dao back to back in succession. She could only stand and watch.
Just as the woman’s fingers reached for Ronron, Alex appeared before her with his hands behind his back.
The woman slammed into him, unable to budge him in the slightest. She rebounded backward with great force and caught herself quickly before getting into a battle-ready stance. She looked at him with careful eyes, glaring more than anything.
An aura belonging to the Immortal Transcendent 8th realm coalesced around her in an instant as she prepared to fight against Alex. But a moment later, she stopped.
She let out a snort before resuming her regular stance, no longer seeming intent on fighting.
It had been clear from Riftblade’s explanation of their objectives in the secret realm that fighting was highly frowned upon. While no explicit punishments were mentioned, any fight that wasn’t a challenge of some sort was not allowed.
And that challenge itself wasn’t allowed for the first year. If the woman were to fight here, she could very well be disqualified immediately, and that was not what she wanted.
That was also the reason why Alex hadn’t attacked the woman despite her actions. He had simply stood as a guard so that even if someone did say that his actions caused her harm, he could say with utmost truth that he had only defended his daughter. He hadn’t attacked anyone.
The woman walked past them and quickly disappeared around the corner.
Helen walked toward the two. "Are you okay?" she asked with great worry.
"We’re fine," Ronron said with a serious look. "I froze just now. I couldn’t escape at all."
Alex turned around. "Do you not have the Dao of Spatial Expansion?" he asked. "You must’ve thought you couldn’t use your teleportation Dao. In such cases, you could give yourself time by expanding the space between the two of you."
Ronron nodded slowly. "I should’ve done that. My mind went blank suddenly, so I couldn’t move."
Alex didn’t push her. "That’s fine. You’re here to learn after all. And I’ll be here to protect you no matter what."
Ronron smiled genuinely. "Thank you, father."
They continued from there, going along to find more stars. Now that they knew it wasn’t just the dead ends where they would find them, they made sure to not miss a single spot anywhere else.
They found a few more stars in the next half an hour, but not enough to think this was a practical method of finding stars. The tower had given them more in less time.
"There are too many people here, and everyone is trying to find from the same limited amount," Helen said. "It’s likely that the stars are further inside the maze. I don’t think we’re going to get any if we don’t go in deep."
That was an issue. Alex didn’t really want to head in deeper into the maze. They were already late to this place, so others would have made it deeper. As such, there was no point.
"Let’s just see what we can find for the next few minutes, and if we find nothing, we can leave," Ronron suggested. "We have so many more places to go thanks to the map."
Alex came to that very decision as well. There were far too many people entering the maze, to the point that there was no corner they could turn anymore without seeing a person or two. The more they continued, the more it looked like the maze was getting filled to the brim.
"The hell is going on?" someone muttered to their group as they went past Alex and the rest. "How can there only be 3000 people here?"
Alex frowned slightly upon hearing that. "3000?" he asked Ronron and Helen.
"They must be talking about the number at the front. It must’ve lowered to only 3000 now," Helen said.
"I think so too, but there are certainly way more than just 3000 people in here," Alex said. "In that case... could the number represent something else?"
"Maybe stars?" Ronron asked.
Alex nodded. "That must be it. There must’ve been a certain number of stars inside this maze, and after so many went through, there must now only be 3000 more."
"We barely found any when there were fewer people and 8000 stars. With more than half of it gone, I don’t think it makes sense for us to stay here for much longer," Helen said.
Alex nodded. "I agree. We should leave."
As they traced their way back to the outer gate of the maze, they noticed a lot fewer people coming in. People had to have started to realize the situation that was going on, so many should have started skipping out on the maze entirely.
Once Alex arrived outside, he looked toward the number to the side and saw that it had lowered to about 1200 now. He knew he had made a good decision when he saw that.
It was better to just move on.