October 19, the eleventh day after the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, was also the fifth day since Zhang Yanhang had left the Main World. At 11:59 PM, he stood in the depths of the C-shaped channel at the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, located in the Outer Zone.
Zhang Yanhang waited for the Time Pause to arrive as he stared at his watch.
As the time on the watch turned to 11:59:59 PM, the familiar Time Pause indeed appeared precisely within the interior of the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, and concurrently, a text option box emerged before Zhang Yanhang. He immediately started reviewing the details of the options this time.
[Return to the Main World?]
[Option One: Yes (Upon your last visit to the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, after a brief exploration and based on the internal conditions, you devised a simple cleanup plan for the ant nest. This time you have arrived here, you further improved the plan and prepared to execute it strictly.
Since it is the second time entering the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, you set a modest goal for yourself—to clear the entire nest in one go. Not surprisingly, you easily achieved this goal, so now that you have completed your objective, you feel it’s time to head home for some rest.)]
[Option Two: Go Home (Originally, you thought you could clear the entire small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest as efficiently as you did in Raccoon City by precisely executing your plan, but plans don’t always keep up with changes. The Crimson Iron Ant Queen inexplicably gathered all the ants halfway through the cleanup plan.
This unexpected behavior of the Ant Queen allowed you to complete your plan ahead of schedule, giving you extra time to work on digging the tunnel to the new area. Despite incessant work without sleep or rest, you were still unable to finish the excavation before the close of the Transmission Channel, and regrettably, you had to return home temporarily.)]
[Option Three: No (After spending a day clearing the entire small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu, you devoted all your time to the tunnel excavation towards the new area. Seeing the tunnel was only a few kilometers from completion, you were very reluctant to halt the excavation here.
Thus, despite knowing the Transmission Channel was about to close, you chose to stay and continue digging the tunnel to the new area. After four days of continuous, sleepless work, you, now extremely skilled at the task, quickly breached the remaining part of the tunnel.)]
"Finally, I can go home. And of those three options, two are suggesting I head home," he mused. "Seems like I really should rest. Although I’m somewhat inclined to continue digging the tunnel, when I think about it, I better not."
Calculating using the scale markings, Zhang Yanhang had previously dug up to seventy-two kilometers underground. Theoretically, he should have dug roughly another two kilometers after filling his Waist Bag and Storage Box, thus reaching a depth of about seventy-four kilometers.
The complete depth of the tunnel was seventy-seven kilometers, so Zhang Yanhang was actually just three kilometers short of breaking through the entire tunnel but had to return prematurely to the C-shaped channel due to insufficient time.
Under normal circumstances, it would have taken Zhang Yanhang less than half an hour to finish the remaining section. However, it was just under normal circumstances, as the work soon became abnormal with increased depth.
Specifically, as the depth increased, the density and Quality of the Crimson iron ore increased, which in turn caused a reduction in the speed at which Zhang Yanhang could separate the Crimson iron ore pillars due to the increased density and Quality of the ore.
After all, despite Alchemy being quite versatile, the melting speed decreased when dealing with higher Quality materials—it was an entirely logical rule that Green quality materials would melt slower than White quality.
Due to the unique properties of the Ashen World, the Crimson iron ore that was tens of kilometers underground, though still of Grey Quality and unable to be taken out, had a fundamental difference in strength compared to the ore at normal depths.
When excavating the regular depths of Crimson iron ore, Zhang Yanhang could advance two meters per second with Alchemy, four times faster than if using his fists.
But as the depth increased, especially when it reached seventy kilometers underground, the speed of Alchemy already became slower than his original fists; moving forward even half a meter per second was difficult.
For this reason, Zhang Yanhang’s four days of non-stop tunnel digging only reached a depth of seventy-four kilometers when normally, at a rate of two meters per second, he would have completed the entire tunnel in just over a day. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel⦿fire.net
It’s worth noting that Zhang Yanhang had reached seventy kilometers underground by noon today, but the subsequent four kilometers took him a full ten hours. The difficulty of the tunnel excavation had suddenly increased significantly.
Compared to the time spent digging, Zhang Yanhang actually used more time to recover his Energy Value. He typically spent about four and a half hours regenerating energy after every two and a half hours of digging.
Considering the hour needed to climb the Crimson Iron Chain, Zhang Yanhang had adopted an eight-hour work system since reaching around sixty kilometers underground, completing a cycle every eight hours and immediately starting the next one, allowing him to progress roughly two kilometers each time.
If Zhang Yanhang could omit the energy recovery phase next time he came to the small-sized Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu to dig the tunnel, maybe he could complete the entire excavation within the open time of the Transmission Channel.
After all, when the Transmission Channel next opens, the start time should advance by another half an hour, extending the channel’s duration to seven hours—seven hours purely for tunnel excavation would indeed suffice.
"So, I choose Option One, return to the Main World," Zhang Yanhang decided promptly after reviewing the content of the options.