Chapter 310 Rule Invasion

The incident occurred in nearly one-third of the Old Town area.

It was also one of the most challenging types of invasions—Rule Invasion.

This type of invasion isn’t simply about monsters appearing in the real world; it’s a change in the world’s rules, essentially turning the affected area into something akin to a game dungeon, complete with its own unique rules.

Moreover, these rules come in various forms, making it impossible to give a unified explanation. Thus, each time one tries to handle such an invasion, they must first explore the unique rules of the current event and gradually work to destroy the source of the invasion—

That’s right, these invasions are merely continuous disturbances caused by an invasion source providing energy within the affected range. As long as the source can be destroyed, the event can be resolved. Typically, the source of the invasion lies at the very center of the impacted area—quite straightforward and unpretentious, and in a way, it’s on par with the intelligence of those demons.

However, getting close to the invasion source and destroying it isn’t an easy task; the larger the affected range, the greater the difficulty.

I remember that catastrophic invasion event from my past life that resulted in a city being destroyed—it was a rule invasion. The impact transformed all living beings within the area into the kind of undead you’d find in a dark zone—this transformation lasted about a day. In fact, one could return to normal if they escaped the affected area beforehand, but most people weren’t prepared and thus missed the best opportunity to flee.

This turned what should have been a relatively manageable invasion event into a major disaster.

It was only after that disaster occurred that people officially categorized various invasion types, naming Rule Invasion due to its ability to affect the world’s real rules.

This current invasion seems quite similar; people aren’t prepared and are unclear about the nature of various invasion events and how to deal with them, so blindly rushing to save could very well lead to negative results.

Not to mention Tang Tang is still within the affected area, and Xia Xinyan can’t just stand by and do nothing.

From the outside, the range affected by the invasion looks as though it’s covered by a massive purple spherical glass, appearing even more bizarre against the backdrop of the city’s nightscape in the new area. However, that purple barrier isn’t solid; people can enter from the outside, and those inside can come out.

Just half an hour after the incident, a response decision was made, and efforts began to call out to the survivors within the affected area. Yet, by the time Xia Xinyan and the others arrived, over an hour had passed, and only a scant number of people actively walked out, most of whom were already positioned at the edge of the impacted range.

The entire boundary of the affected area has now been cordoned off with warning tape, and a large number of armed police officers stand guard here. When they saw Xia Xinyan and the others approaching, they immediately blocked them: “What are you doing here? This area is very dangerous; hurry and leave!”

Xia Xinyan completely ignored the group of police, directly activating her abilities and leaping over them into the purple barrier, while Ling Mo manifested his battle armor, fully activating his thrusters to quickly follow Xia Xinyan.

The group of police officers was left stunned.

However, when the hefty man attempted to lead his team into the barrier, they quickly snapped back to reality and blocked their path: “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“What do you mean, ‘what are we doing?!’ Of course, we’re here to save people!” the hefty man said without a second thought. “We’re all ability users; do you dare go in if we can’t?!”

“We don’t need your interference here,” a few police officers insisted, refusing to let them pass. “We’ll handle the situation properly.”

“Properly? How will you handle it?” The hefty man couldn’t help but laugh at them, raising his hand to summon a flurry of lightning, startling those police officers, “I’m just asking if you guys are stronger than me? If not, better get out of the way! We are the professionals here; the times have changed, bro.”

The officers hesitated for a moment, seemingly ready to say something when suddenly a voice piped in from beside them: “Let them in.”

The speaker was a police officer not much smaller than the hefty man. Upon hearing him, the group blocking the path obediently stepped aside.

“Thanks, bro,” the hefty man said casually as he rushed his team into the barrier.

The police officers who had previously blocked the way watched where they had vanished for a moment before one couldn’t help but murmur, “Wow… this world is really getting more and more magical.”

“Indeed,” the young officer who had spoken earlier smiled slightly. “What that hefty guy said is correct; times have changed.”

Police officers who once maintained social stability have now become the most useless group in situations like this—after all, they didn’t have time to play games and level up before this.

Above, they had certainly considered this point; the establishment of the Investigation Bureau was to respond to situations like these. Unfortunately, the Cataclysm didn’t afford them ample preparation time.

Meanwhile, inside the purple barrier.

Xia Xinyan and Ling Mo were approaching Tang Tang’s residence.

Once they entered the affected area, they found themselves engulfed in darkness. Perhaps due to the influence of the purple barrier, light from the outside couldn’t penetrate even the slightest bit, and there wasn’t a single light on in the buildings—it’s as if all sources of light had been completely snuffed out.

Moreover, once inside this area, they would lose contact with the outside world, as all communication tools failed. This was also why Tang Chong had been so frantic at the time—he couldn’t contact Tang Tang at all and had no idea about his sister’s situation, hence his reaction.

It’s worth mentioning that after the hefty man and his team entered the affected area, Ling Mo tried to contact them once and remarkably managed to reach them—it’s likely that the purple barrier affected communications, but as long as they didn’t go through it, communication was no problem.

Unfortunately, they had been in too much of a hurry and hadn’t asked for Tang Tang’s phone number beforehand.

“This place is really quiet,” Ling Mo remarked as he surveyed their surroundings, unable to help but mutter.

Xia Xinyan tilted her head to glance at him and suddenly said, “Mo Mo, can you try turning on some lights?”

She wanted to see if this area possessed the property of absorbing light.

Though this level of darkness wasn’t much of a hassle for her night vision abilities, light has uses beyond just illumination.

Ling Mo nodded instinctively. “No problem.”

Then, Xia Xinyan saw a small opening slide open in the armor on his chest, and shortly after…

She saw the sun.

“…The brightness is too high; let me dim it a bit.” As Ling Mo mumbled, the bright glow quickly dimmed until it only illuminated the street ahead. “Is this level okay?”

Xia Xinyan: “…”