Invasion - Chapter 98

Chapter 98

"Yes, the place Ni Ji and Guide Lin went to," Luther said, and thinking of this, he became excited again, "Think about it, a whole underground city, so many weapons!”

He gestured with his arm, excitedly pacing back and forth.

"Ji Xuan, when Ni Ji returns, I’ll have to properly reward him."

"Have him give us a detailed report on his experience."

"Perhaps the time for humanity’s counterattack has finally come."

As commander, knowing that the empire had acquired such a large number of heavy weapons made his blood boil, he had even started planning for humanity to fully reclaim the contaminated zones.

"What did Her Majesty say when she heard about this?" Ji Xuan asked.

"Her Majesty? Her Majesty, she of course…”

Luther wanted to say that Her Majesty was of course very happy, yes, Her Majesty had said it was a good thing.

Only, for some reason, a chill suddenly ran down his spine, making him subconsciously shiver.

They had already left the White Tower.

The giant tower stood tall, its white body behind them.

Ji Xuan looked at Luther beside him, this childhood friend he had grown up with, he was wearing his magnificent uniform, that noticeable scar on his eyelid, a dazed look on his face.

"Old Lu, do you still remember how you got this scar?" Ji Xuan pointed at his eye, his voice very soft, as if afraid of attracting someone’s attention.

Luther’s face darkened, an indelible sorrow in his eyes.

How could he forget? So many people had died that time.

During that expansion of the contaminated zone, he had almost lost all his family and close friends.

When the disaster struck, everyone who was still alive near the outpost had hurriedly crowded into the small outpost.

They had no food, no supplies, huddled together in the small outpost, struggling for a whole month.

He had sent requests for help to the capital again and again, but no rescue had ever come.

Even now, he didn't dare recall what had happened in the outpost during that period, it had been a hellish scene.

His mother had starved to death, his younger sister had starved to death, and countless close brothers, forced to leave the safe zone to fight, had eventually died in battle. The scar on his face was from that time.

But when he later came to the capital, he discovered that the people here were all living extravagant and decadent lives.

When mentioning that disaster, the fat official had casually patted his shoulder,

"The empire’s military budget is insufficient, there was no way to send a rescue, what a pity."

Luther’s eyes reddened. He clenched his fists and said to Ji Xuan, "Don't worry, I won’t forget, I will never forget this, in my life."

His usually low-key best friend didn't say much, just put his arm around his shoulder, patting him hard.

Now, they were dressed impeccably, successful and prominent. Seemingly having escaped from that nightmare.

But they both knew clearly that the part they had lost had not been filled, the fire in their hearts still burned, stronger and stronger.

How could they forget? Those vibrant faces, they would never forget.

…

Ni Ji carried Lin Yuan on his back, running through the underground.

Back then, "Chu" had broken through its prison, destroyed the temple and the research institute, destroying the underground fortress from within. Starting from the deepest part of the underground city, it had created a huge crack.

So, in the real world, the temple and the research institute had already collapsed.

Now, with the Land of No Eyes disintegrating, and the real underground city reappearing, the place where Ni Ji and Lin Yuan were located began to violently collapse.

The earth shook violently, the metal equipment hanging from the ceiling clanging, stones, dust, broken metal pipes falling.

Large sections of the passageway collapsed, sewage spraying from the pipes, soaking everything.

Deviants would occasionally rush out from the falling debris, nimbly clinging to the pipes, escaping upwards.

Ni Ji carried Lin Yuan on his back and ran.

At this time, the all-powerful Guide showed her weakness in physical strength, she could only slack off, lying on the sentinel's broad back.

A giant stone slab collapsed, crashing to the ground, blocking the passage they were in, the metal pipes beneath their feet shattering from the impact, shaking precariously.

Lin Yuan, without a word, looking over Ni Ji's shoulder, fired a shot forward. The anti-gravity weapon blew a large hole in the ground, the giant stone and the path beneath their feet falling into the deeper depths.

Ni Ji, his steps not pausing, his feet exploding with force, jumped high before the path beneath them collapsed, his toes tapping the falling boulder, his long arm extending, lightly grabbing the broken edge of the passage above.

He first pushed Lin Yuan up, then pulled himself up.

Three or four Deviants scrambled from the dust of the collapsing passage, quickly darting into the tunnel Lin Yuan and Ni Ji had just opened.

A few of them, finding their footing, poked their heads out from the broken edge of the passage, sniffed the air, then heard the loud rumbling behind them.

Just half a second too late. Fortunately, these two humans had good coordination, opening a passage for them, otherwise they would have fallen too.

Incredibly, Deviants and humans, meeting in such a narrow space, didn't attack each other.

Instead, they just looked at each other, and continued their escape.

Ni Ji, running at full speed, suddenly stopped. The two looked in the same direction.

Ni Ji's ears heard a faint whimper.

Lin Yuan’s tentacles sensed a crying soul.

After a brief search, they found the little deviant who had guided them, his swollen body was crushed under a huge stone slab that had fallen from above, pinned in a bad spot, with lots of heavy debris on top, making rescue almost impossible.

Lin Yuan crouched down in front of him, comparing the anti-gravity gun in her hand against the stone, feeling that it would only accelerate his death.

Even with Ni Ji’s strength, he couldn’t lift such a heavy weight. Moreover, this place could collapse at any time, they couldn't stay for long.

The little Deviant, crushed under the stone, cried, tears and snot streaming down his face.

He gritted his teeth, tore off a small piece of his own flesh, and his soft, white arm, like a noodle, extended from the gap between the stones, with the bloody piece of flesh at its end.

"Can you… eat it?" The little Deviant sobbed, "Everyone’s gone, I’m afraid no one will eat me after I die, I don’t want to be wasted.”

Seeing Lin Yuan and Ni Ji’s refusal, he extended the flesh further, crying even harder.

"I ate mommy, I’m very powerful, sob, sob…”

The flesh at the end of his arm was a semi-transparent, gelatinous substance, sticky.

It really didn’t look like something a human could eat.

But that little thing was crying so miserably, his sadness palpable, almost drowning Lin Yuan.

So, she really didn’t like young ones, whether they were human or Deviant.

The younger they were, the purer their emotions, making it unbearable.

Lin Yuan, her face expressionless, crouched there, looked for a while, then reached out towards that piece of flesh.

Fortunately, Ni Ji grabbed her wrist.

"You..." The sentinel sighed, “Don’t randomly eat things.”

His black killer whale appeared behind him.

In the narrow space, the strong whale slipped into the gap between the stone slabs, and with a whimper, its body gradually expanding, as big as a mountain, pushing the heavy rocks aside, creating space for them to escape.

The little Deviant, crying, crawled out from between the rocks. Now, he probably wasn’t going to die, he swallowed the piece of meat he hadn’t been able to give away, replenishing his strength.

After this commotion, the ground beneath their feet swayed precariously, and dust started falling from the ceiling, it looked like it was about to collapse again.

The little Deviant was frightened, clinging to the wall, he scurried away quickly.

The big black fish swam out, rubbed its head against Lin Yuan's hand, and then disappeared.

"Is Big Fish unhappy?” Lin Yuan, as she ran, wondered about this, “It seems a little listless, dejected, does it want me to pet it?”

She dodged the falling stones as she ran, thinking about that委屈 little head rubbing against her just now.

【Don't get distracted!】

【We’re escaping!】

【Main body, you’re too easily distracted by beauty!】

【You would always criticize us before.】

【Let’s satisfy him properly when it’s safe.】

【I’ll go first, don’t any of you fight me for it.】

They finally rushed out from the complex underground maze. The collapsing and falling debris around them lessened slightly.

Smoke and dust buried everything below, and the temple that had once existed had become a tomb where the gods slept.

Lin Yuan and Ni Ji were now at the cave entrance from before.

The Deviants that had lingered here had already fled and scattered in all directions amidst the collapsing chaos.

Only a group of blank-faced sentinels remained.

The puppet sentinels controlled by Teng Lu.

Those mindless puppets, having lost the one controlling them, lay limp on the ground, their eyes wide open, blankly staring at the small patch of sky above, more didn’t even have eyes.

Their bodies still alive, the souls within gone, they were like terracotta warriors in a tomb, lifelike, lying in all directions, not even blinking as small stones and dust fell on their faces.

Lin Yuan's tentacles spread through the ground, entering the minds of those Sentinels. After a while, she withdrew her tentacles.

"How is it?" Ni Ji asked.

Lin Yuan shook her head.

Too empty.

The bodies of those sentinels were still alive, their blood warm, but their minds were blank.

Empty.

Only an empty white remained.

Their mindscapes had been completely destroyed.

Their bodies alive, their souls dead, so many living warriors had been turned into mindless walking corpses. They could only lie here, waiting to be torn apart and devoured by Deviants, or starving to death.

Lin Yuan couldn’t give up. She closed her eyes again, and her tentacles searched, one by one.

Finally, only one gave a slight reaction.

Lin Yuan pulled him from the pile of living dead and placed her hand on his face.

Invasion, channeling.

After a long while, Lin Yuan withdrew her hand.

The sentinel beneath her hand looked at her blankly, only after a while did his eyes focus, a slight reaction showing.

Lin Yuan, supporting herself on Ni Ji's shoulder, stood up, and took two steps back, bending over.

Her stomach churned, she wanted to vomit.

"Are you okay?" Ni Ji, worried, reached out, patting her back gently. He hadn’t seen Lin Yuan like this before.

Even when offered flesh and blood by Deviants, Lin Yuan had had the courage to swallow.

On the bloody battlefield, her face had remained unchanged.

He didn't know what she had just seen that made her so sick.

Lin Yuan waved her hand dismissively.

She had seen some fragmented images in the remnants of that sentinel’s mindscape.

She now knew for the first time what unscrupulous things a person might do when they held power in their hands.

Taking pleasure in controlling sentinels’ mental bodies, invading the depths of their mindscapes, repeatedly torturing their most vulnerable places.

Amplifying their senses, inducing them, then stopping right at the edge. Wanton abuse, extreme control, making their lives a living hell, driving them to the brink of collapse.

Lin Yuan stood up again, searching for the next living person who still had some consciousness left.

The sentinel she had awakened reached out his weak hand, gently grabbing the sleeve of her clothes.

Lin Yuan turned to look at him.

The man blankly held onto her sleeve and asked, "Wh- why? Why did she treat me like that?"

"I… I didn’t do anything wrong.”

He woke up from hell, his mind not yet fully put back together, he could only hold on tightly to the person who had awakened him, desperately wanting to know why he had been treated like this.

Lin Yuan didn't know how to answer him.

Atrocities, sometimes their occurrence had nothing to do with right and wrong, only with who held the power.

The more power a person held over life and death, the more likely they were to completely lose themselves in it.

Having searched everywhere, among the countless sentinels, only one had been barely saved.

Ni Ji carried the sentinel on his back, and the two left this underground city in silence.

When they reached the surface,

Lin Yuan looked up.

In the sky, the morning sun had just risen, the dawn breaking through the darkness, washing over everything on earth.

The Land of No Eyes, that place that shed tears of blood, was no more.

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