The silence in the mind-link lasted only a few seconds.
Jiang Nuan could feel an invisible pressure, emanating from Lu Shiyan himself.
He hadn't spoken yet.
But no one interrupted. Everyone was waiting.
In the real world, Qi Sui was still trading words with Xu Guoping, his tone warm and patient, like a genuine doctor collecting data. The eight "crew members" crowded around him, rushing to answer one after another.
Jiang Nuan stood behind Jiang Ce, her gaze passing over his broad shoulders at the cluster of things pressing forward in the distance. A chill crawled up her spine.
"Last round's split."
Lu Shiyan's voice rang out in the mind-link, devoid of any extra emotion.
"I went with Shen Wu to the captain's cabin. Ye Que and Jiang Ce went to the cargo hold. Jiang Nuan, Qi Sui, and Qinian went to the crew quarters."
"Qi Sui deliberately bumped into the medical pod's outer wall, citing vibration from a suspected cargo hold explosion."
"The voyage log needed reading. Cargo crates needed opening."
"Three groups. Three target locations. Three tasks that required deliberate physical contact to complete."
He paused for a beat.
"Your deduction was correct, Jiang Nuan."
Jiang Ce's voice followed immediately. "Qi Sui had Qinian sharing half the pain, and he still dropped in a second. Let alone the rest of us who had to touch things outright."
Jiang Nuan's breath hitched.
She had already deduced this earlier, but she couldn't be entirely certain.
And Lu Shiyan, relying only on her fragmented, terse descriptions, had peeled apart the forbidden zone's killing logic in a matter of seconds.
"So last round," Jiang Ce's voice carried the weight of dawning realization, "Ye Que and I went to the cargo hold. We probably got hit when we opened the crates."
"You two were likely the first to be dealt with."
Shen Wu delivered the cold follow-up.
"No one in the cargo hold needs pleasantries. Opening a crate is a two-handed operation. You wouldn't even have had a moment to react."
"We did react," Ye Que said coldly. "The massive shudder that ran through the ship? That was us detonating the bomb after realizing something was wrong."
"So last round, my brother was taken down by that thing!"
Qinian's emotion in the mind-link was like a wild beast enraged.
"This time I'm going to burn through those disgusting things! Every last one! Burn them all to ash!"
"Qinian."
This time, it was Lu Shiyan's voice.
Not heavy. Barely even sharp.
But Qinian's fury stopped dead, as if someone had clamped a hand around his throat.
Jiang Nuan sighed inwardly.
She understood Qinian.
Last round, Qi Sui had severed the sensory link with Qinian right in front of him and charged into the thick fog without looking back. She had witnessed Qinian's collapse in that moment firsthand.
After that, he had almost lost all will to live. If not for Qi Sui's final words and her own desperate grip on him, he might have chased Qi Sui into death on the spot.
"Get your emotions in check," Lu Shiyan said. "Save them for later."
"It can possess and mimic crew members. It can release high-concentration contamination. And it can reset time after wiping us out."
Ye Que's tone was grim.
"This forbidden zone might be brushing against the threshold of SSS-rank. Head-on confrontation? We have no chance."
"No. It's not that strong."
Shen Wu flatly overturned Ye Que's conclusion.
"If it truly were SSS-rank, it would have absolute crushing power. It could simply break through that SS-rank medical pod directly."
Shen Wu's voice carried a hint of contempt for this forbidden zone.
"Why perform? Why pretend to be crew? Why use our hands to open that so-called medical pod?"
Lu Shiyan took over the conversation.
"Because its active attack power is, at most, S-rank."
"They failed to execute the forbidden zone's objective last round. Instead, they prioritized eliminating us. That's why the zone grew furious and force-reset time. It can't break into the medical pod from the outside. It can't instant-kill us. Its killing move is the high-concentration contamination source."
"As long as we don't deliberately touch anything, it has no way to touch us."
The fog was thoroughly dispersed.
"What about the time reset, then?"
Qinian's voice carried barely suppressed frustration.
"Even if we know its killing move and avoid touching things, what if it realizes it can't trick us and just flips the table, resetting time again? Infinite loops? We'll be worn down eventually."
That question brought a moment of silence to the mind-link.
Yes. The time reset. That was the forbidden zone's most unwinnable trump card.
"It doesn't have unlimited resets."
Jiang Nuan steadied herself and spoke. Her voice was still relatively calm.
"How do you know?" Ye Que asked.
"This fog is its domain," Jiang Nuan said. "It can't leave this stretch of sea. It can't expand. It can't move. It's confined to this small area around the White Whale."
"If we leave this stretch of sea alive, it can't trigger a time reset on us."
"In other words," Lu Shiyan spoke half a beat faster than usual, "as long as we don't touch anything, don't die, and pull out quickly, it has absolutely no way to stop us."
He paused.
"Jiang Nuan's deduction is correct."
Jiang Nuan exhaled. Something inside her brightened.
Not because she was a purification asset. But because her judgment and her thinking had been recognized.
"Summary," Lu Shiyan said.
"No active skin contact with any object on this ship. Any object."
"That includes walls, handrails, documents, equipment. Gloves stay on at all times. Use tools for indirect handling when necessary."
"This time, two teams. Ye Que, Jiang Ce, and Qinian will enter under the pretext of inspecting the cargo hold, then take the hidden door behind the southeast corner cabinet to the crew quarters corridor."
"I, Shen Wu, Qi Sui, and Jiang Nuan will head to the crew quarters directly, under the pretext of finding a way to open the medical pod."
He paused for a beat.
"Don't die here."
When those words landed, a strange warmth flowed through the mind-link.
It was something that surged up in all of them at once. Something that defied words.
Like unspoken understanding.
Like a promise.
