?286 Chapter 286 – The Big Barrier
A huge barrier appeared inside the Inner City.
Surprisingly, it was only surrounding the Spartans' building.
The barrier was created by an Expert working for the city guards.
Right now, the Expert was holding a huge machine in his hands, and he was pointing it at the Crimson Sea.
The machine resonated with the megastructure that was the city, and the barrier extended towards the walls of the megastructure, completely isolating the Crimson Sea.
Naturally, Crimson Fungus City had ways to deal with Force Specters, and this kind of barrier was one of these ways.
The Crimson Sea hit the barrier and was stopped by it.
"Help!" one of the Newbies from the Spartans shouted as she hammered on the barrier.
By now, many parts of her skin had turned red, and on other parts, there wasn't even any skin left.
The Crimson Sea was completely devouring her.
More and more guards appeared behind the huge barrier.
The reactions of the guards were mixed.
Some of them got excited since one of their competitors was getting fucked, but some just felt sad and terrible.
When they looked around, they could see that the Crimson Sea had already extended over 100 meters into the Inner City.
Quite a few houses had been engulfed, and by now, the citizens in said houses were already dead.
Three more Newbies came out from the Crimson Sea and started to bang on the barrier.
"Follow protocol," one of the Experts shouted to the guards.
The guards took deep breaths.
Three of them jumped up and landed on the slanted barrier.
Then, they took out long rifles and pointed them at the barrier.
Surprisingly, the barrier allowed the rifles to enter.
The Newbies realized what was about to happen, and their terror intensified.
Two of the Newbies exploded in a shower of blood, leaving two more.
The others were waiting for their deaths, but surprisingly, the guards didn't shoot at them.
One of the guards shot at the building, leaving a huge hole behind in the wall at a height of about ten meters.
"Jump in there if you want to live!" one of the guards shouted.
The Newbies didn't hesitate and immediately started climbing.
The reason why these two Newbies were left alive was because their Barriers were still active, which meant that they hadn't been touched by the Specter.
When a breach occurred, it was protocol to kill every person who came into direct contact with any Specter.
The two Newbies managed to climb into the hole, and they no longer were inside the Crimson Sea.
Yet, the Crimson Sea continued expanding and rising.
The guards looked with narrowed eyes at the growing Specter.
Naturally, the Crimson Sea wasn't endless.
It had a finite size and couldn't just grow like that.
The reason why the amount of water was increasing was its food.
If one wanted, one could categorize Specters into two kinds.
Specters whose growth was limited by time, and Specters whose growth was limited by food.
The Dreamer was a Specter whose growth was limited by time.
This meant that it could only eat so much food in a given timeframe, which meant that it couldn't just suddenly explode in power.
In contrast, the Dung Heap was a Specter whose growth was limited by food.
If 10,000 tons of fresh food were dumped onto the Dung Heap, it might immediately advance to becoming an Adult, and that growth wouldn't stop anytime soon.
If one dumped a planet of food onto the Dung Heap, it might ascend to becoming an Eternal very quickly.
The Crimson Sea was one of these kinds of Specters.
When it had broken out of its Containment Unit, it had consumed several clerks, cleaning people, guards, and even Zephyx Extractors.
And unfortunately, the Crimson Sea became more powerful by killing people.
Right now, there were still a few Zephyx Extractors remaining inside the building, and they were surrounded by the Crimson Sea.
The normal people were already all dead.
If a Newbie were still inside the building, they would have already run out of Zephyx.
After killing the normal people, the Crimson Sea advanced to becoming a Peak Adolescent, which increased its power and size.
The Crimson Sea's acid was growing in power, and even the few Johns still inside the building felt their Barriers getting weaker rapidly.
A John jumped out of the Crimson Sea, but he hit the huge barrier.
His head vanished as one of the guards killed the John.
His Barrier had already been deactivated.
Killing the John assured that the Crimson Sea didn't gain anything from this kill.
The Newbies high on the wall looked with horror as the Crimson Sea came closer and closer to their location.
Suddenly, some red mist started to rise from the Crimson Sea.
The Newbies looked with shock at the red mist.
What was happening now?!
The guards on the outside narrowed their eyes.
They realized what this meant.
The red mist entered the hole in which the two Newbies were.
"My Zephyx is falling!" one of them shouted.
"Mine too!" the other one shouted.
At that moment, a new hole appeared at a height of about 30 meters, and an instant later, two figures jumped out from it.
They were the two remaining founders of the Spartans!
Kallum Sondur extended an emblem towards the barrier covering the building, and a moment later, a hole appeared inside the barrier.
Kallum Sondur and his friend flew through the hole, and the barrier closed behind them.
Naturally, both of them had already worked for the city once, and both of them had some common equipment used by the guards.
These kinds of emblems were used to get past these kinds of barriers.
These barriers were meant to isolate dangerous Specters and to keep them in place.
While the Specters were suppressed, Extractors would go in to deal with them.
Kallum Sondur and his friend landed outside the barrier, but before they could release a sigh, several guards appeared in front of them.
And then, another person appeared in front of the guards, who looked at Kallum Sondur.
"Congratulations," the governor said with an unamused voice before gesturing to the Crimson Sea, which was still releasing red mist.
"You have another Adult now."