But even though the Transmission Channel to the Crimson Iron Ant Nest hadn’t been activated today, Zhang Yanhang wasn’t too disappointed, because he figured that the next time it would open should be within the next two or three days. After all, it couldn’t possibly stay closed for an entire week, could it?
At the same time, there were still three days until the Transmission Channel to Raccoon City would open, and Zhang Yanhang believed that before his next trip there, the Transmission Channel to the Crimson Iron Ant Nest would definitely open again.
Of course, if the Transmission Channel really didn’t open, then Zhang Yanhang indeed didn’t have any means to change that. After all, this sort of thing was beyond the control of an ordinary Second Tier Awakened. If he could become a Fourth Tier Awakened like the group admin, then maybe he could use Multiple Choice to think of something, but as of now, that was truly impossible.
Zhang Yanhang would definitely clear out the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest this time, but because the opening duration of the Transmission Channel to the Ant Nest was relatively short, it was highly likely that he wouldn’t be able to clear the entire nest before the channel closed.
Therefore, Zhang Yanhang estimated that if nothing unexpected happened, he should end up spending several days inside the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. The area of the entire Ant Nest was quite large, after all. Just running through the whole map would take a significant chunk of time, not to mention having to deal with the monsters within.
But now that the national holiday was over, if Zhang Yanhang wanted to stay in the Ashen World for a few extra days without encountering any mishaps upon his return, he still needed to apply for leave from his school first, otherwise, the school might report an Awakened student missing to the relevant departments.
Fortunately, as an Awakened, it was relatively easy for Zhang Yanhang to apply for leave; he just needed to come up with any old reason.
For instance, he could say he had hit a bottleneck in his cultivation and wanted a few days off to break through it, or that his superpower control was a bit unstable due to a rapid increase in strength, so he wanted a few days to adapt to his enhanced abilities to prevent harming others.
In principle, the school was likely to approve leave for cultivation-related reasons under normal circumstances, and even if they didn’t, it wouldn’t be hard for Zhang Yanhang to resolve.
Besides the usual leave application process, he could also use the Autonomous Choice to take a leave of absence, so that part was definitely easy to handle; as long as Zhang Yanhang wanted leave, he could definitely get it. This text is hosted at novᴇlfire.net
As long as he applied for leave in advance as required, the school would not report him missing, and although going to the Ashen World wasn’t considered illegal or disorderly conduct, he mainly didn’t want to get involved with the relevant authorities.
Previously, Zhang Yanhang was uncertain whether the stories of the authorities arresting criminal Awakeners and sending them to a secret prison were just urban legends, but the group admin had confirmed the situation earlier. It wasn’t a secret prison they were sent to, but rather to the far worse Ashen World.
After all, in a secret prison at worst, one would perform unpaid labor and endure incessant "intimate interactions" with cellmates, but you could still live safely; whereas in the Ashen World, survival wasn’t guaranteed.
That’s because it was evident that the areas of the Ashen World to which convicted Awakeners were sent to pioneer were definitively the most dangerous ones, where the death rate from hunting monsters under normal circumstances was much higher.
But fortunately, Zhang Yanhang never engaged in illegal activities; his free time in the Main World was spent either attending school or staying at home and never going out, so being captured and sent to pioneer the Ashen World was definitely not something that would happen to him.
By the way, Zhang Yanhang felt absolutely no pressure about taking leave to go monster hunting in the Ashen World; after all, getting stronger was always his top priority. Ever since he became an Awakened, he was constantly striving toward that goal.
Only by getting stronger could he avoid becoming a mere backdrop in the Spiritual Qi Recovery Era, a potential casualty statistic from being in the wrong place during a clash between powerful beings.
"Although I’m always striving to become stronger, maybe I can relax a bit occasionally," he thought. It was evening, and Zhang Yanhang planned to resolve the matter of the raggedy-dressed young woman in his dreams.
He had said before entering the Ashen World yesterday that he would deal with it, and he felt this matter could no longer be delayed.
Previously, Zhang Yanhang really didn’t have much of a solution for dealing with the problem, since it was only a lucid dream, unobtainable through normal physical means.
But now things were different; he thought maybe he could solve the problem with an Autonomous Choice. Before, his Energy Value limit had been too low, and even if he wanted to make a choice, he was unable to due to his lack of power.
However, now was different from before; Zhang Yanhang had been promoted to Second Tier, and his Multiple Choice had grown stronger correspondingly. Thus, he felt that with his current Energy Value limit, he should definitely have no problem resolving such a small issue.
The main reason was that his Energy was now full, and he happened to have nothing else to do, so he thought he might as well resolve this issue along the way.
But in terms of phrasing, Zhang Yanhang felt he might still need to think a little, to avoid the Multiple Choice misunderstanding his intentions.
"Choice! How should I solve the problem with the previous lucid dream?" After some thought, Zhang Yanhang couldn’t come up with any better phrasing, so he just cobbled something together, figuring that the Multiple Choice was smart enough to roughly understand his needs.
[Do you want to solve the nightmare?]
[Option One: 2 a.m. (On October 14th at 2 a.m., if you are lying in your bed in a state of sleep, you will encounter the entity causing your strange dreams again.)]
[Option Two: 1 a.m. (On October 14th at 1 a.m., place all the Yin attribute Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures you’ve collected on your bed, which might attract the strange being, who would be powerless before you.)]
[Option Three: 3 a.m. (On October 14th at 3 a.m., lie in your bed and pretend to be asleep, to see if you can entice any strange beings, but unfortunately, it may be because the entity is too cautious and the attempt is unsuccessful.)]