The ash-grey thick fog churned endlessly across the deck.
The sea wind, damp and cold, pressed against her cheeks, and Jiang Nuan's heart pounded fast and heavy.
She laid all those memories out flat.
The green light of Qi Sui detonating his life force, Qinian's hoarse screams, the palms scorched by searing heat, the tentacle that pierced through her chest.
All the death and pain, and the despair, she spread them out in her mind without reservation.
The few seconds she waited for Shen Wu's reaction stretched into an eternity.
She braced for doubt.
For "you've been psychically contaminated."
For "your memories can't be trusted."
For any reasonable, normal, logically sound rejection.
"What are those things in your head?"
A pause.
Shen Wu's cool, distant voice sounded again.
"The memory chain is intact. No signs of artificial tampering."
Another beat.
"I believe you."
No pressing question of "why can you remember," no interrogation about "what's the principle behind the time reversal," not even a flicker of hesitation.
She bit down hard on her back teeth, forcing back the heat that threatened to spill from her eyes.
"...Thank you." She sent those two words back through her mind, the searing pain of the chest wound still branded into her body.
That sharp-tongued bastard—when it counted, he was actually reliable.
Shen Wu didn't respond to that.
"Control your emotions," Shen Wu said, his voice so steady it bordered on cold. "Don't let those eight things notice you."
Jiang Nuan bit the tip of her tongue hard and swallowed the surging emotions back down.
As if sensing her state, he added one more line.
"Breathe deeply. Through your nose."
On the deck.
Xu Guoping was still talking, his pace noticeably quicker than last round, his words earnest.
"Captain Lu, President Bai's condition is truly critical—"
"I heard you." Lu Shiyan cut him off.
Lu Shiyan's gaze drifted to Shen Wu at the edge of the deck, holding for less than half a second.
Then he raised his right hand, his fingers in black tactical gloves brushing the back of his neck, and slowly rolled his shoulders.
The motion was so natural it looked like the habitual relaxation of someone after a long flight.
His fingertips grazed the edge of his concealed earpiece twice.
Extremely light. Extremely brief.
Jiang Nuan's breath caught for an instant.
She didn't know what the gesture meant.
But she saw the reactions of the others.
Ye Que was the fastest to respond.
His body, which had been casually leaning against the deck railing, tensed almost imperceptibly, and his right hand, hanging at his side, shifted to slip into the pocket of his tactical vest.
His posture grew even looser.
But Jiang Nuan somehow felt that he was far more dangerous now than a moment ago.
Jiang Ce shifted half a step closer in front of Jiang Nuan, his broad shoulders and back completely blocking her from view, the movement as natural as if he were shielding her from the wind.
Qi Sui.
He paused for half a beat, then smiled naturally.
That warm, gentle smile returned to the corners of his lips as he stepped forward on his own, his bearing composed.
"First Officer Xu, don't rush," he said.
His voice was mild, like a doctor soothing a patient's family.
"I'm familiar with the SS-level-07 fully enclosed medical pod. Once the internal locking protocol is activated on this model, it cannot be forced open from the outside."
"Yes, yes! That's exactly the problem! Is there any other way?" Xu Guoping asked anxiously.
"There is, actually," Qi Sui said, drawing out his words for half a beat. "But..."
He paused deliberately.
Xu Guoping leaned forward, and the eight "crew members" all snapped their attention onto Qi Sui in unison.
Jiang Nuan sucked in a sharp breath inwardly. The synchronicity of these things was too precise.
"But what?" Xu Guoping pressed eagerly.
Qi Sui didn't answer directly. He turned his head toward Lu Shiyan, his eyes carrying a question.
What an act.
Lu Shiyan gave a slight nod, as if granting permission.
Qi Sui turned back, his smile deepening.
"The 07 model has an emergency medical override protocol. If the vital signs of the person inside deteriorate to below critical threshold, an external medical officer can force an unlock through specific means."
He paused, his tone turning slightly hesitant.
"But triggering this protocol requires certain preconditions. I need to first confirm President Bai's dietary intake and daily schedule over the past few days. I need to input this information into the override protocol."
Every word sounded perfectly reasonable.
Every pause carried just the right signal of "I want to help, but I need to be careful."
Xu Guoping's expression shifted several times.
Jiang Nuan could tell these things were hesitating.
What they wanted was to lead the team straight to B-01 and have Zero Squad open that medical pod.
Qi Sui's speech had inserted an extra hurdle into the process: you have to cooperate with me first, and only then can I help you.
"Of course!" Xu Guoping made his decision quickly, a smile back on his face.
"Whatever data you need, we'll fully cooperate!"
He turned to the researcher behind him.
"Liu Cheng, give Doctor Qi a detailed rundown of the past few days."
"All of you should come tell me," Qi Sui said. "The more people, the more detailed it is, and the faster I can draft this protocol."
And so, all of their attention locked onto Qi Sui.
They took the bait.
For the first time, Jiang Nuan felt directly how seamless and swift Zero Squad's coordination was.
Just then, a faint sensation of weightlessness passed through Jiang Nuan's mind.
A moment later, several voices sounded in her consciousness without warning.
"Link established." Shen Wu's voice was as cool and clear as ever. "All members connected."
"Received."
"...Brother, are you really going to help them deal with that medical pod? Those things obviously aren't—"
"Shut up."
Jiang Nuan's heart clenched tight.
All of their voices.
Alive voices.
Last round, she'd been running alone through the corridors.
Her ears filled with nothing but her own ragged breaths, the screech of metal cracking under high heat, and the tentacle that pierced her chest.
And now, they were all here.
"This is a mental link," Shen Wu's voice sounded in everyone's minds at once.
"Within the range of my ability, I can establish a short-term multi-person psychic communication. It can't be intercepted or wiretapped externally. But it has a limited duration, so I'll keep it brief."
That was for Jiang Nuan's benefit.
He gave the others a quick summary of the situation.
Then Lu Shiyan's voice came through.
"Jiang Nuan."
Two words, neither heavy nor light, yet they made Jiang Nuan's spine instinctively straighten.
Even through the mental link, the pressure that belonged to Lu Shiyan was sharp enough to make her scalp tingle.
"Tell us everything you know."
Jiang Nuan suppressed the churning emotions in her chest and, in the fastest and most concise way possible, recounted everything from the previous round.
...
"In the end, only I made it to the deck. A tentacle pierced through my chest. Then time reversed, and I was back at the moment we boarded the ship."
The mental link went quiet for two seconds.
"...I died?" Qinian's voice came through, carrying a strange excitement. "How'd I go out? Was it cool?"
"Qinian." Qi Sui's voice cut him off, gentle.
Just two words, and Qinian immediately shut up.
"They have memories too," Lu Shiyan said.
Jiang Nuan was inwardly startled. She hadn't even gotten to that part, yet Lu Shiyan had already inferred it on his own.
"Yes."
She answered.
"Their behavior patterns have changed—they skipped the buildup from last round and went straight to the point. The target is most likely the person or thing inside that medical pod."
Another brief silence.
Jiang Nuan could feel something formless flowing through the mental link—something like an undercurrent of emotion.
No one questioned her.
No one said "That's impossible."
No one asked "How can you prove it?"
Zero Squad. The highest combat capacity. People who spent their lives walking the line between life and death in the forbidden zones.
They had seen too many things that defied common sense.
Time reversal was just one of them.
"So here's where we stand."
Jiang Ce's voice cut through.
"They know we're coming, and we know they're fake. Both sides are putting on an act."
"The difference," Ye Que said coldly, picking up the thread, "is that they don't know we know."
"Not yet, anyway," Shen Wu corrected.
"Jiang Nuan."
Her name again.
"After the last round of splitting up, you didn't hear any sign of the other two groups through your earpiece."
Not a question.
"...Right."
She recalled, then answered.
"Not long after Qi Sui, Qinian, and I entered the rest pod, I stopped hearing any sound from either of your groups entirely."
Lu Shiyan's gaze settled on the back of Xu Guoping, who was standing ahead, answering Qi Sui's every question in exhaustive detail.
He didn't speak immediately.
A few seconds of stillness flowed through the mental link.
It was the kind of stillness before a storm—when every lightning bolt is still hiding inside the clouds.
