128: Chapter 128 High-Altitude Crisis! How to Overcome Oxygen Deprivation?

Li Qiang felt like a small boat in the middle of a raging storm.

No.

Worse than that.

He was currently like a tattered flag hanging in the eye of a category eighteen typhoon.

[Warning: You have entered a high-altitude strong wind zone. Agility attribute temporarily reduced by 3%. All actions will be severely affected.]

This bright red debuff was firmly pinned to his status bar.

His entire body was blown tightly against the cold steel outer wall of the "Tower of Babel." Only by relying on the [Gecko Adhesive Gloves] invented by Wang Wei did he avoid being blown away directly.

"Holy... crap!"

Li Qiang used all his strength just to squeeze those words through his teeth.

The wind was so loud that he couldn't even hear his own voice.

He struggled to turn his head and look down.

He saw the army of players below, who, upon reaching the height of ten thousand meters, seemed to have hit an invisible wall.

One player after another, as soon as they poked their heads up, were flipped by the gale, turning into small black dots that fell toward the ground with screams.

The scene looked like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

No, it was more like falling hail.

Because there were too many people.

"Wuhu! Taking off... Aaaaaah!"

"Who the hell is up there? Stop throwing wrenches down!"

“Holy crap! I'm being blown away! My Materials bag! The steel bars I worked so hard to carry up!”

The screams of the players rose and fell one after another in the team channel.

The "Tower-climbing" activity, which had been in full swing just a moment ago, instantly came to a standstill before this ten-thousand-meter natural chasm.

However, the gale was not the most fatal part.

Soon, the players who were clinging tightly to the wall, trying to endure the wind, discovered something even more terrifying.

Their health bars began to decrease at a slow but steady pace.

A new debuff appeared on everyone's status bar.

[Warning: You have entered a high-altitude oxygen-depleted zone. You lose 0.5% of your maximum health per second. This effect cannot be exempted by conventional healing methods.]

Hypoxia!

This was the true killer.

The gale only made it impossible for you to climb up.

Hypoxia, however, would actually kill people.

"Dog Planner! The Dog Planner is messing with us again!"

"I spent a whole day climbing to ten thousand meters! Now you tell me there's no air here?"

"There are [High-Pressure Oxygen Cylinders] for sale in the mall, five hundred Contribution Points per bottle! They only last ten minutes! This is more ruthless than a mugging!"

"Can't afford it! Simply can't afford it! How much money do I even earn from a day of moving bricks?"

The world channel and forums instantly exploded.

Players were full of complaints.

But their bodies were honest.

The fear of their health bars constantly dropping forced most people to retreat downward in a sorry state.

Only a few big spenders and well-equipped teams like the "National Team" led by Lu Feng were willing to spend a lot of money on oxygen cylinders to continue the difficult climb upward.

But their speed was also as slow as a snail.

The entire grand "Tower of Babel" project, for the first time, hit a deadlock because of the most basic-sounding issue: the "natural environment."

"We must think of a way!"

Li Qiang hid in the lee of a steel beam, panting heavily, looking at his health bar which was only half full, anxious as if his heart were on fire.

"Old Wang! Old Wang! Respond if you hear me! What kind of scheme are you brewing now?"

He called out frantically to Wang Wei in the team channel.

"Don't worry."

Wang Wei's voice was always so calm, even carrying a hint of... excitement?

"I'm collecting data. Wind speed, air pressure, oxygen content... It's so interesting. The physical Laws of this world show a wonderful polarization phenomenon in the high-altitude region."

"Speak in human language!" Li Qiang roared.

"Simply put, there's not enough air to breathe."

Wang Wei said calmly.

"Nonsense! Of course I know that! Is there any black technology? Get one for the brothers! If you don't come soon, we're all going to have to skydive back home!"

"The essence of technology is to solve problems."

Wang Wei's tone was like that of a lecturing professor.

"Since the problem is hypoxia, our core idea is... to produce oxygen."

"Produce oxygen? Here? Do you expect us to each carry an oxygen generator up here?" Li Qiang felt this was unreliable.

"No."

Wang Wei rejected his idea.

"Oxygen generators are too bulky and consume too much energy. We're going to use a more... biological, more eco-friendly, and cheaper method."

He paused, and in a tone used to introduce an epoch-making invention, he said slowly,

"Do you remember the Slime we used as foundation filler before?"

"I remember. What about that bouncy, squishy thing?"

"I performed a bold Fusion of its gene fragments with the chloroplast cells of the [Ancient Tree of Life] that we got from the Elf Race."

Wang Wei's voice revealed an irrepressible fanaticism.

"I have created a brand new single-celled symbiont. I have named it..."

"[Photosynthetic Slime Active Coating]."

Li Qiang was completely bewildered.

"What is this long and stinky name? Can you eat it?"

"You can't eat it. But you can... wear it," Wang Wei explained.

"You only need to apply this active biological coating evenly on your skin surface. It can utilize the strong ultraviolet rays at high altitude to perform efficient photosynthesis, and then through skin penetration, directly inject the generated oxygen into your blood circulation System."

"Simply put, as long as there is light, you no longer need to breathe with your lungs."

"You will become a... walking plant-man."

Li Qiang fell silent.

He was silent for a full ten seconds.

He felt like his brain couldn't quite process this information.

Smearing a layer of slimy stuff on his body?

And then he wouldn't have to breathe?

Why did this sound so much like some kind of cult ritual?

"Are you sure this thing is reliable? There won't be any side effects, will there?" Li Qiang asked uneasily.

"Theoretically, it's safe," Wang Wei replied.

"There might just be a slight... change in appearance."

Half an hour later.

Wang Wei controlled several specially made drones to deliver the first batch of freshly made "Slime Coating" to the ten-thousand-meter altitude.

It was a slimy, grass-scented, vibrant... bright green paste.

"Who wants to try it first?"

Li Qiang looked at the group of players around him who were looking at each other, and volunteered to step forward.

As a leading figure in the entire server, he had to take the lead at a time like this.

He took off his shirt, revealing his bronze muscles, and then said to Wang Wei with a look of determination to face death,

"Come on! Slather me up!"

Wang Wei controlled a mechanical arm with a nozzle to spray the green paste evenly onto Li Qiang's body.

It was cold and slippery.

It felt like being licked by ten thousand slugs.

Li Qiang endured the nausea.

Soon, he was sprayed from head to toe, turning into a completely emerald... green man.

Not even a single strand of hair was missed.

A miraculous scene occurred.

The moment the coating on his body came into contact with sunlight, it actually began to emit a faint glow.

The constantly decreasing health bar on his status bar stopped.

That bright red [Hypoxia] debuff also disappeared.

In its place was a brand new, green buff.

[Photosynthesis (Potent): You are obtaining oxygen through your skin. In a lit environment, stamina recovery speed +2%, mental resistance +1%.]

"Holy shit!"

Li Qiang felt the warm, life-filled sensation within his body and couldn't help but swear.

"This thing... actually works!"

He moved his arms and legs, feeling filled with strength, even more powerful than if he had taken stimulants.

The surrounding players stared wide-eyed at the lively "Green Giant."

"Really? The coating even gives a buff?"

"Quick, quick! Give me some too!"

"I want green! No! I heard there's also pink!"

The players, who had been lifeless just a moment ago, instantly boiled with excitement.

They scrambled to take off their clothes, lining up to be "slathered."

Thus, ten thousand meters above the Wasteland world, an extremely spectacular and incredibly ridiculous scene appeared.

Tens of thousands of players, bare-chested, were lined up in long queues.

Wang Wei's drones, like industrious bees, shuttled back and forth, spraying different colored "Slime Coatings" onto them.

Soon, the vertical walls of this steel structure were covered with colorful "plant-men."

There were green ones, yellow ones, blue ones, and even a "Rich Gold Limited Edition" with gold powder that Lin Xiaowan had paid a high price to customize.

Every one of them faced the sun, arms spread wide, with a look of devotion, as if performing some mysterious sun-worship ritual.

"Though I've turned green, I've become stronger!"

Li Qiang stood at the highest point and shouted with his arms raised.

This witty remark immediately resonated with countless players below.

"For the Horde! Uh, no, for photosynthesis!"

"Today, we are all plant-men!"

On a distant safety platform.

Lu Feng and his "National Team" members watched this scene dumbfounded.

In their hands, they still held the oxygen cylinders they had just bought from the mall at a high price.

Those bottles seemed so out of place at this moment.

"Cap... Captain..." a young team member swallowed hard, "Do... do we have to apply it too?"

Lu Feng looked at those players who were as fanatical as cultists, and then at his team members in their uniform combat suits representing national honor.

He felt his Soul undergoing an unprecedented interrogation.

He silently took out his small notebook and, with a trembling hand, wrote a new rule.

[fourth calamity Survival Rule #18: Never try to use science to understand their solutions. Because their solutions are, in themselves, the ultimate insult to science.]

With the hypoxia problem solved, the players' enthusiasm for climbing was ignited once again.

With the joint efforts of the "Plant-man Army," the height of the "Tower of Babel" began to grow upward at an even more terrifying speed.

Fifteen kilometers.

Twenty kilometers.

Thirty kilometers.

When the height broke forty kilometers, the surrounding air was already thin enough to be nearly a vacuum.

The sky had also changed from blue to a deep, heart-palpitating dark purple.

The effect of the "Photosynthesis" buff on the players began to weaken due to the change in light intensity.

But an even more fatal problem arose.

Low temperature.

A bone-chilling cold that seemed capable of freezing the Soul.

[Warning: You have entered an extremely low-temperature environment. Your body temperature is continuously dropping.]

A new debuff replaced [Hypoxia], becoming the players' new nightmare.

"Achoo! So... so cold!"

"Holy crap! My coating... seems to be frozen!"

One player discovered to his horror that the originally soft green coating on his body was developing a layer of frost at a visible rate, then becoming stiff and brittle.

He reached out to touch it.

*Crack*.

The coating, like a piece of dried paint, shattered directly and fell off.

Immediately after, that familiar [Hypoxia] debuff popped up again.

The player's face instantly turned the color of pig liver.

This wasn't even the scariest part.

What was even more terrifying was that those players who still had the coating on found their actions becoming increasingly sluggish.

Their bodies were like frozen statues.

"He... lp..."

A player struggled to open his mouth, only to emit a puff of white mist.

Then, his body, maintaining its climbing posture, was frozen alive into an ice sculpture, hanging on the wall.

*Crack... crack...*

The crisp sound of shattering rose and fell one after another.

Countless players, like frozen glass people, fell from high altitude and were smashed to pieces.

The construction site that had been in full swing just a moment ago instantly became a tragic scene from the Ice Age.

Li Qiang also felt like he wasn't going to make it.

The "Rich Gold" coating on his body was already covered in ice crystals, making him feel like a frozen chicken just taken out of the refrigerator.

He used his last bit of strength to let out a desperate roar into the communicator.

"Old Wang! This piece of crap... it's not frost-proof!"