A black armored vehicle sped along the ruined roads of District C.
Ye Que sat in the driver's seat, both hands gripping the steering wheel. His driving was clearly not as skilled as Jiang Ce's; the wheels jolted violently over gravel and shattered chunks of asphalt, sending the cabin shaking.
Jiang Nuan leaned against the window, her shoulder knocking into the cold armor paneling once again.
Lu Shiyan sat in the passenger seat, a communication device clutched in his hand. "Qinian, come in, please respond."
Crackle—
"Shen Wu, Jiang Ce, any channel receiving, please respond."
Crackle—crackle—
The static buzzed, magnified several times in the sealed cabin.
She kept count silently.
Since getting into the vehicle, Lu Shiyan had attempted contact four times. Each attempt was about five minutes apart, and the result was always the same.
The fifth time.
"Qinian Squad, all-frequency broadcast, come in if you read this."
Crackle—
Lu Shiyan lowered the communicator from his ear and glanced at the signal status on the screen.
All gray.
His thumb rubbed twice against the edge of the device, then he turned off the screen.
The compartment fell quiet again.
Only the muffled thud of tires rolling over debris remained.
Qi Sui had closed his eyes the moment he got in, leaning back against the rear seat, completely still.
His closed eyes looked nothing like the smiling version of him. Without the curved eyes and upturned corners of his mouth, the lines of his face turned cold and hard.
For the first time, Jiang Nuan realized how much Qi Sui and Qinian resembled each other.
It wasn't just the features—beneath the mask of personality, their essence was exactly the same.
"Any news on your end?" Lu Shiyan turned to Qi Sui.
Qi Sui opened his eyes, still resting his head back. "I can't reach Qinian."
His voice came out a little hoarse.
Jiang Nuan paused for a second. Can't reach him? Everyone knew about the communicator issue—why would he specifically mention that?
Unless... he wasn't talking about the communicator kind of contact.
"There's a twin bond between us," Qi Sui explained, turning to her. "As long as the distance isn't too far, I can sense his physical state or emotional fluctuations."
The air in the vehicle seemed to freeze.
She felt like a bolt of lightning had struck straight through her skull.
That wild, crazy night crashed into her mind without warning—Qinian's scorching body heat, his aggressive moves, those vile, reckless words that trampled her sanity.
Then... Qi Sui.
The sound of him pouring water, his ice-cold fingers, his gentle yet forceful actions.
If they shared sensations...
When one person was doing those things, the other felt everything.
Doubled.
Jiang Nuan's face instantly burned crimson, the heat spreading all the way to her ears.
She quickly turned to look out the window, wishing she could yank open the door, jump out, and bury herself in some ruins.
Absurd.
This damn apocalypse left no room for human dignity.
Qi Sui didn't notice her stiffness; his attention was fully on his missing brother.
"Captain." Qi Sui looked at Lu Shiyan. "Could it be the residual energy from that SS-level exclusion zone?"
"Extremely low probability, but not impossible."
Lu Shiyan replied gravely.
"That exclusion zone, before we wiped it out, displayed extremely high intelligence.
It suppressed its own energy fluctuations, disguised itself as a low-level zone, devoured District C's Seventh Squad, and then even advanced two levels in an extremely short time."
Lu Shiyan picked up a portable holographic projection tablet from the side and pressed the power button.
A holographic map of Azure City lit up in the center of the vehicle, with a red dot marking their current location and a blue dot marking the position of the old base.
He traced a line on the map, connecting the old base to the refugee district.
“For a restricted zone of this level, if there’s still residual energy escaping, what would it need most?”
“To feed.” Ye Que spat out two words, yanking the steering wheel hard to avoid a gully.
“Exactly.”
Lu Shiyan’s fingertip circled the blue dot representing the old base.
“The refugee gathering point in Sector C has tens of thousands of living people—a natural hunting ground. But it didn’t go to the refugee district. Instead, everyone at the old base went completely dark.”
Lu Shiyan drew a circle around the blue dot of the old base with his finger.
“The old base has been cleared out. Only Qinian and the other two, along with the remaining security and research personnel, are there transporting uncontaminated materials. If the restricted zone really went there, why?”
The cabin fell silent again.
Jiang Nuan stared at the holographic map, her mind racing.
She didn’t want to die. Jiang Ce had taught her how to shoot before he left. Shen Wu, though sharp-tongued, had coached her on how to handle Wen Xu’an when he showed up. Qinian was a bastard, but at least they were her protectors.
If they died, the state of Lu Shiyan and his group would also be affected, and her chances of survival would drop even further.
“Because of quality.” Jiang Nuan broke the silence.
The three men’s eyes landed on her simultaneously.
Jiang Nuan swallowed, forcing down the tension in her chest, and met Lu Shiyan’s gaze.
“The refugee district has many people, but they’re all ordinary—their energy is weak.”
“The old base has fewer people, but it has Qinian, Shen Wu, and Jiang Ce.”
She analyzed carefully, trying to keep her voice steady.
“All three of them are top-tier ability users. For an SS-class restricted zone that urgently needs to replenish energy and possesses high intelligence, the energy of three top-tier ability users is far more attractive than ten thousand ordinary refugees.”
Lu Shiyan looked at her, a flicker of rare approval in his eyes. “Go on.”
Encouraged, Jiang Nuan’s thoughts grew clearer.
“Also, the old base is your territory. If it went there, besides feeding, it could also be about revenge.”
She paused.
“Or there’s something in the old base that it wants.”
Lu Shiyan looked away and tapped a few times on the projection panel.
“Good analysis.”
“But one point isn’t entirely correct.”
Jiang Nuan was taken aback. “What’s wrong?”
“It can’t swallow all three of them.”
Lu Shiyan’s tone carried absolute confidence.
“Qinian’s destructive power, Shen Wu’s Eye of Truth, and Jiang Ce’s absolute defense.”
“Even at its peak as an SS-class restricted zone, it would have to think twice before trying to gobble them up in one go.”
“And it’s nothing more than a remnant of energy now.”
Lu Shiyan shut down the projection panel, and the cabin sank back into dimness.
“They didn’t go dark because they were eaten.” Lu Shiyan stared at the road ahead. “They’re trapped. There might be something in the old base that was activated, something we don’t know about.”
“Speed up,” Lu Shiyan ordered Ye Que.
Ye Que floored the accelerator.
The armored vehicle’s engine roared with a piercing howl, the body lurching forward as it barreled straight toward the old base’s territory.
The broken gray cement wall in the distance, with its rusted barbed wire, grew larger in the dim light, like a pitch-black maw gaping open to await them.
Beneath the gray, rubble-strewn sky, the entire C District lay barren and desolate.
In the distance, a solitary, ruined tower stood amid the wasteland.
Much of the tower’s body had weathered and flaked away, exposing interlaced rusted steel rebar within.
A figure stood silently in the shadow atop the tower.
Wind howled past, whipping up dust, and the gray trench coat on the figure billowed loudly. He wore a pair of black leather gloves, and the high-powered binoculars in his hands slowly lowered.
In the reflection of the lenses, a black armored vehicle was driving straight toward the pitch-black maw.
The man lowered his head and pulled an old-fashioned pocket watch from his trench coat’s pocket. With a soft click, the lid sprang open, and the ticking of the second hand was faint yet clear in the wind.
“Jiang Nuan...”
He let out a light laugh, his voice hoarse and low through the mask.
“No—it should be codename Eden.”
He snapped the watch shut, thumb caressing the worn patterns on its lid.
“Everything is proceeding according to plan.”
He turned and silently vanished into the dark staircase that led down into the tower’s depths.
