"Shoal, is it possible that I get lost in it and can't find my way back to Hawkins?" Dean didn't rush into the tree hole, but observed the speed at which the tree hole disappeared and considered the way back.

It's a pity that this place is separated by two worlds, and it is impossible to see it from God's perspective.

"It's not unlikely. If you don't get out of the hollow before it disappears, you'll be trapped in the world," said the shoal, "and then you'll have to gamble on your luck and try to find your way home by opening unstable nodes in the world." ”

Dean asked, clasping his hands around his chest, "There's no proper way for me to point me to Hawkins." ”

Shoals mused, "Yes, leave me here." There is an unbreakable connection between me and you, even if the connection between countless worlds still exists, I am like a spatial coordinate, which can help you filter the nodes to a certain extent. But how strong the effect is, I can't say for sure. ”

Dean thought for a moment and then looked at the shadow next to him, "You go in first to find out the situation, and if there is danger, you will teleport back immediately." ”

"Hmm."

The shadow's solid body instantly blurred into a mist and smashed through the sticky cobwebs and quickly burrowed into the tree hole.

After less than five seconds of fumbling.

Shadow sent back a strange image to Dean.

Obviously, at this moment, the town of Hawkins is shrouded in bright winter sunshine, and the sky and the earth are white, but there is not a single snowflake in the world inside the tree hole.

There was no sun, and the sky was dark and dark, and scarlet lightning swam in it, like roaring snakes, cracking the sky.

Beneath the gloomy sky, a vast forest of dark brown pine trees dotted with them, but all the trees withered and withered, without green leaves or forked branches, except for the bare trunks that stood like pencils that had been cut out of order, and which were covered with white cobwebs.

Shadow rolls his gaze.

Between the pine stumps, there were feather-like spore plants floating in the air, but there was not a single small animal or even insect in sight, and it was eerily quiet, filled with the dilapidated and desolate of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The ecology of the world is completely different from that of Hawkins.

"Shadow, keep walking around and see if there's any danger."

Outside the tree hole, Dean gave the order, and the shadow flew forward, but only flew less than a meter before encountering an invisible barrier, and it was difficult to get close.

He was originally able to move two kilometers away from Dean's body, but after two worlds, the way the distance was calculated changed, and he could only move at nodes.

Dean wants to find out what is going on in the world, so he has to go out himself.

Dean checked the node status again, and without the action of external forces, it should be no problem to maintain the open state for half an hour, in addition, the message sent back by the shadow arrived in real time, and the time flow rate on both sides should be the same.

"Shoal, I'll go in and take a look, you keep watch outside, if you find that the node is about to close, or if there is a problem with the three of Steve, notify me immediately."

"Don't worry, master, even if it is death, I will guard it for you." The shallow beach grabbed a cloud of snow on the ground with his mental strength and patted his belly.

Dean nodded, pulled his life shield, crouched down and climbed into the hollow of the tree.

……

At the same time.

Next to Hawkins Middle School, at Mr. Owen's house.

Jane, who was in earnest about her studies after the Christmas carnival, heard a knock on the door, followed by four familiar friends rushing in.

"Good morning, Mr. Owen, and Jane, you're dressed so beautifully today!" The foursome poured into the living room, looking at Jane, who was buried in her homework in a chair and wearing a new red down jacket, and chattered with compliments.

Jane grinned, "You're beautiful too. ”

"Haha, pretty doesn't mean to describe boys, you should say we're handsome." Dustin patted his chest, then put DND's chessboard and the apple pie prepared by his mother on the desk.

"Well, handsome guys, why are you here so early today," Jane picked up a piece of apple pie and nibbled on it like a squirrel, "Didn't you say that you would come to me in the afternoon to attack Demogorgan?" I haven't picked a spell yet. ”

"There's an emergency." Will turned around vigilantly and glanced at Mr. Owen reading the newspaper, and said in a low voice, "My brother Jonathan has been captured by Demogorgan, and we must find a way to save him!" ”

"Huh?"

"That's right, Jane," Dustin said with some embarrassment, clearing his throat, "and you've helped me find my meowth twice, so I know you're not just a DND mage, but you also have the superpower to find people in reality." ”

Jane paused as she munched on the apple pie, pursed her lips and looked nervously at the four of them.

She clearly remembered Dean and Hope's confession that she must not let outsiders know about her superpowers, and now she unknowingly leaked the news, what will happen?

Kicked out of this home forever?

She squinted, panicked and scared, only to think that Dustin's toothless chubby face was very hateful, and shouted angrily, "I shouldn't have helped you find the cat!" ”

Dustin hurriedly prayed, "Don't, Jane, I swear, we will never reveal your secret!" ”

Mike, who was wearing a red down jacket next to him, also stared at Jane's eyes and added sincerely, "We are best friends and will never break our promises, and I didn't even reveal the news that you have superpowers." ”

"Just help me find Jonathan, and I'll give you my favorite song." Will put a few tapes on the table, "In every game in the future, Will the Monk will unconditionally milk you, the great mage, first." ”

Lucas patted his chest, "In the future, you will have the right of first choice for all my comics and trading cards, or will I give you my beloved slingshot?" ”

Jane stared at the nervous red faces, her green little face changed, she was worried that Hope and Dean would find out that she was exposed, and she was also moved by their sincerity, but in the end she chose to follow her heart.

"I'm sure you'll give me a picture of Jonathan once, yes?"

"It's ready, give!"

Will hurriedly pulled the picture out of his arms and handed it to Jane.

Jane took it and looked at it carefully for ten minutes, then sat down at her desk and closed her eyes and activated the dark realm of her mind.

While in Hawkins' lab, her abilities were very erratic and she had nosebleeds every time she used them.

But under Dean's constant guidance, as well as daily meditation and mental training.

Her control and precision never had been greater, and it took less than half a minute to find her target.

"I found Jonathan, he's still alive, he just looks scared."

The leader of the four team breathed a sigh of relief, with a smile on his face,

"Where is he?" Will couldn't help but take Jane's hand,

Mike, who was as tall as a bamboo pole next to him, immediately pulled Will's hand away, "Calm down, you'll scare our best mage!" ”

Dustin looked at Mike's quibble and grinned to show his underdeveloped teeth, exchanging a tacit expression with Lucas, the little black man.

"It's okay, I understand your feelings, I'll worry about my mom if she's not there." Jane stared into Will's reddened eyes and said slowly, "But I have limited words, and I can't describe exactly where Jonathan is, so that's all I can explain to you." ”

Jane's slender finger pointed to the front of the DND board on the table and said, "This is Hawkins Town." ”

She jerked the board flip over, pointed to the opposite back, and said, "This is where Jonathan is hiding." ”

The boys really didn't understand what she meant by her upside-down action of flipping the chessboard, and Mike leaned over to her and looked at the delicate little face.

"Why is Jonathan hiding? Hiding from the bad guys? ”

"It's not the bad guy, it's this thing." Jane picked up a special chess piece and placed it in the center of the back of the board.

The quartet looked at it, and the chess pieces were the ones that represented the Demon King Di Mo Gaogen.

Suddenly my heart was cold,

"What's the situation? Got a monster chasing Jonathan? ”

"Yes."

Will yelled, "Please, take me to him!" ”

Jane glanced worriedly at Teacher Owen who was sitting in the hallway, "I promised others that I couldn't go out." ”

The quartet looked at each other and began to rack their brains for a solution.

……

Forests on the outskirts of the north.

The world behind the tree hole.

Grey, empty, gloomy.

The cold wind was biting, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of leaves, aluminum ash, and flesh mixed with flesh.

Dean looked at this new world, and soon found some details that he had not noticed, the air, humidity, and temperature, all within the range that humans could adapt to.

But every time he breathes, he can feel that his lungs are expelling some kind of foreign body, well, there are slight toxins attached to the air in this world, which has a certain negative impact on ordinary people.

But for Dean, who is physically inhuman, it has no effect.

The clock in his hand completely stopped moving, and there was obviously some kind of strange magnetic field here.

In addition, it lacks life, the trees are dead, the ground beneath its feet is like ashes after being burned by fire, and there are no insects and beasts around it...

It's as if everything in this world has been forcibly robbed of most of its vitality and vitality by some kind of existence.

Bang!

Thunderstorms.

A scarlet lightning bolt flashed across the cloudy sky, illuminating Dean's tense face, and he felt as if something terrible was hiding in it to scrutinize himself, the uninvited intruder.

But he has a few ways to retreat -

Dean turned his skills to observe the woods from the world, and the criss-crossed grid-like nodes reappeared, no different from the outside.

But this time, he could feel a secret but strong connection, a connection to Dean's soul and spirit through the few unstable nodes in it.

Dean approached the nearest node on the left, pushed open the node like a window, and immediately revealed a warm sun-shrouded ice and snow forest, which was the outskirts of Hawkins.

Dean looked perk,

"Sure enough, this connection is the connection between the shallow badge and me in the real world, even if the tree hole that crossed the world just now is completely closed, I can find a new node through this connection and return to Hawkins!"

And for some reason, the energy consumed in this node to open from the world is only one-twentieth of Di'an's body energy, much less than the outside, as if they were originally in a semi-open state, like an unlocked door, Dean can break through the door with a light push.

But that's a good thing for Dean.

……

He set off along the northern edge of the forest and launched the "Brain Domain" to search for Jonathan.

This time the two are in the same world, and the old estrangement disappears, and Dean easily finds Jonathan squatting against the wall in a humble house.

Upholstery, cabinets, and miscellaneous items occupy the aisle of the living room, and the furniture and appliances are as old as historical relics against the coffee-colored wall coverings and carpets, and crawl with dust... This is an abandoned house that has been uninhabited for a long time.

But the structure and layout are very familiar to Dean.

"Wait, how is the place where Jonathan is staying so much like his house in the real world, just so old? But this is not from the world, how can there be Jonathan's home? ”

Dean didn't understand the current situation, so he could only follow the search's perception and continue north.

With the blessing of his telekinesis, he flew two kilometers into the air at a terrifying speed, leaving the withered forest and entering a barren field.

There are no trees, bushes, flowers and grasses, no people or animals, not even water sources, all the same empty stones, more lonely than the Gobi Desert, and the temperature is much lower, and there is no sunlight.

After flying for half a minute, Dean suddenly heard a strange roar.

God's perspective swept downward.

Not far ahead, under a raised umbrella-shaped rock, stood a humanoid creature with slender limbs, three or four meters tall, without an inch of hair, scales, and a smooth, slimy dark brown color.

It's thin, but it's covered in bulging muscles.

The arms are extraordinarily long, hanging down to the calves, and the limbs end with scythe-like claws, four fingers, that match the claw marks that Dean found on a real-world bicycle.

In addition, its head is oval, but its face has no eyes, ears, or nose, and only a large mouth like a man-eating flower, which splits into five petals with a roar, and each petal has countless small teeth with whitish tips, like the spikes on a hedgehog's body.

The progress of the event jumped to twenty percent.

"That's right, this thing attacked Jonathan last night and drove Jonathan out of the world. But this mouth is much more terrifying than the shoal badge, so let's call you a ripper monster. ”

Dean was suspended in mid-air, turning on the life perspective, and the surface of the Rift Monster's body refracted a black light of life, and the intensity was not high, only level 2.

Human beings are white, Hell Monks are blood red, and the monsters from the world are black, Dean analyzed from this, perhaps the energy field and magnetic field of different worlds are different, so the color of the life light of the creatures bred is also different.

This can be used to determine the world to which a creature belongs in reverse.

Dean summed up the experience of the world in his mind, and remembered what Jane had said not long ago.

"Jane had seen the Rip Monster in the dark realm of her mind, maybe it had already begun to invade the real Hawkins at that time?"

"But how did it get into Hawkins, does it have some kind of spatial ability to open nodes?"

The omen didn't warn Dean of any danger.

But Dean was still very careful, put on his life shield and ghost armor, took out a star arrow and bow from space, and wound the bow to aim at the rift monster from afar.

The mind moved.

The telekinesis turned into an invisible giant palm and fished it on the ground, instantly holding the rift monster into a ball and lifting it into the air.

The difference in strength is too great, like an elephant crushing a mouse.

It had no power to resist, so it could only fly in front of Dean with its teeth grinning and wailing, pretending to blow a fierce gust of fishy wind.

"It's so weak, and it has absolutely no spatial ability, so it's not that it opens the node to Hawkins, but something else."

Dean watched it up close, and the image of the Rip Monster was even more hideous and bloody, which would definitely make most people have nightmares for a week.

Its skin texture is very strange, soft, light, with a faint concave and convex texture, not like flesh and blood, but like a thin palm leaf.

Di An's head couldn't help but rise with an intuition - the Rip Monster is a mixture of animals and plants!

So how does it survive in this world of extinction, no sunlight, no water, and almost a post-apocalyptic wasteland?

Dean couldn't figure it out for a while, so he reached out and grabbed the fanged long knife from the void and raised it.

Brushing –

The sharp blade severed an ugly head.

You have killed a ripper, gain +1 proficiency, and combat lv5 (160→162/700).

As soon as the monster died, a black light shot its headless corpse like an arrow and rushed into the dark sky.

But the shadow beside Dean beckoned.

Zizi... The spherical arc flew out of the void and collided with the black light, instantly engulfing and annihilating the latter.

Shadow absorbs 1 Soul Essence, Shadow Lv4 (0→1/500).

Although it is weak, it is also a supernatural creature in any way.

In line with the principle of never wasting it, Dean collected a tube of blood from the Rift Monster, and skillfully peeled off its skin, teeth, nails, and bones all over his body in a spin of his mind, the quality of this monster's material was much worse than that of the snake demon, and it needed further refinement, and he barely managed to scrape a tenth of the materials for the Star Arrow with a single peel of skin and cramps.

Dean then dropped a shriveled corpse like a cicada and continued to fly in Jonathan's direction.

(End of chapter)