An hour and forty-nine minutes later, Zhang Yanhang stood still, quietly waiting for the impending options regarding the transmission channel to be triggered.
In the almost two hours just past, Zhang Yanhang had made significant progress in the clearing plan for the first tier stage, having cleared two new areas during this period.
Currently, Zhang Yanhang was clearing the seventh area of the first tier stage cleaning plan, which was the penultimate area. Because he had used the Death Wave Skill several times en route, the clearing progress was somewhat faster than his initial speed expectations.
At this moment, the cleaning plan for the seventh area had entered the final phase, and Zhang Yanhang needed at most another minute or two of effort to completely clear this last area.
"Already more than five and a half hours into the Crimson Iron Ant Nest, but the Crimson Iron Ant Queen doesn’t seem to have any reaction whatsoever. Can’t you hurry up and come to kill me? Seriously, clearing the Crimson Iron Ant Nest as per the plan is really tiring."
In the almost two hours just past, the density of Crimson Iron Ants in the three areas Zhang Yanhang had cleared did not show any changes, still roughly the same as before, leaving him quite puzzled.
Zhang Yanhang had almost cleared a fifth of the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest, and yet the other side still showed no reaction, which was utterly preposterous.
"Could it be that the Crimson Iron Ant Queen knows she can’t beat me and has decided to just lie down and wait for death? That couldn’t be it, right? She’s supposed to be a monster from Ashen World, so such a defeatist attitude shouldn’t exist, should it? But if not that, then what could it be? Humans and ants really can’t understand each other."
As a human with relatively normal values, Zhang Yanhang really couldn’t comprehend what was going on in the brains of ants.
By the way, even though Zhang Yanhang had been working continuously for four and a half hours, he wasn’t feeling very tired. As it stood, he felt he had enough physical strength left to work for another two to three hours.
"Now it seems my initial six-hour estimate was rather cautious indeed. Even though the number of times I used Death Wave has indeed increased, I still have at least over seven hours of endurance."
Zhang Yanhang felt that having more endurance than estimated was a good thing. This meant that he wouldn’t need to rest immediately after completing the first tier stage cleaning plan, and instead, could go straight on to commence the second tier stage of the cleaning plan, which was to head toward the location of the slot machine.
As Zhang Yanhang was considering how to execute the next stage of the cleaning plan, Time Pause quietly arrived, and a long list of options about the transmission channel appeared before him.
[Do you want to continue hunting monsters in the Ashen World?]
[Option One: Yes (Today is October 14, 2020, the sixth day after the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. This is your second time entering the Crimson Iron Ant Nest in the Ashen World. Unlike last time, where you just came for exploration and simply hunted some Crimson Iron Ants, this time you have a detailed cleaning plan specifically for the Crimson Iron Ant Nest. Hence, although you know the transmission channel is about to close, you feel you should choose to continue staying in the Ashen World to hunt monsters.)]
[Option Two: Continue (The transmission channel from the Main World to the Ashen World is going to close in half an hour, but you feel that you still have plenty of energy and that you have hardly used any Energy Value. You think you can continue working for a while longer before resting. Having already applied for a three-day leave from university, you’re not worried about being absent from consecutive classes for five days, leading to the deduction of a lot of credits and a report to the relevant departments about an Awakener’s disappearance, so you choose to continue staying in the Ashen World to hunt monsters without any worries.)]
[Option Three: Go Home (Although you’ve been in the Ashen World for less than six hours, you suddenly feel a bit tired, even though you still have plenty of energy. And you’re also getting a bit bored with the continuous and repetitive task of hunting monsters. In light of the above, upon learning that the transmission channel from the Crimson Iron Ant Nest to the Main World is about to close within half an hour, you think it’s best to return to the Main World and rest a bit, and then come back to continue with the previously established cleaning plan for the Crimson Iron Ant Nest when the transmission channel opens again.)]
"Since I’ve already taken my leave, I certainly can’t waste it. There’s no way I’m going back to the Main World; I must completely clear the entire Crimson Iron Ant Nest before returning to the Main World. So, I choose Option One to continue hunting monsters."
Without any hesitation, Zhang Yanhang straight away selected the option to continue staying in the Ashen World to hunt monsters.
As for why he chose Option One, there wasn’t any other reason really; Option One and Option Two were more or less the same in meaning, so Zhang Yanhang simply picked one at random. This content belongs to n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
After Zhang Yanhang made his choice, Time Pause instantly disappeared, and he ran towards the distance. He would continue to execute the cleaning plan for the Crimson Iron Ant Nest; the seventh area was now just a few diverging paths away from being completely cleared.
October 15th, the seventh day after the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, midnight at twelve-ten, at the outer zone of the Crimson Iron Ant Nest.
The transmission channel from the small-scale Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dalagu to the Main World had already officially closed ten minutes earlier, so now Zhang Yanhang had no possibility of changing his mind, even if he wanted to. Fortunately, at this point, he had no thoughts about returning to the Main World.
After clearing the seventh area of the first tier stage cleaning plan, Zhang Yanhang immediately went on to clear the eighth area without a break. Thus, he had smoothly completed the entire first tier stage cleaning plan.
"Next up, I need to start executing the second tier stage cleaning plan, but before that, I need to upgrade my Four Great Emptiness Purifying World Fist." Zhang Yanhang was now inside the cave where the Crimson Iron Ants stored Refined Crimson Iron.