Chapter 150.2 – Fire Seed (20)
◎ The island split open ◎
Inside an unmanned coffee shop two meters away, Zhuang Qingyan asked in a low voice, “Any progress?”
Su Cha shook his head quickly, “The structure of this island is different from a regular city. There are no air-raid shelters or underground facilities for refuge. I’ve confirmed that all residential buildings and public places are empty.”
“Is that so? Interesting…” Zhuang Qingyan supported his chin, and his gaze gradually became distant.
Su Cha hesitated, but eventually voiced his thoughts, “The feeling here is… very unsettling.”
“What do you find unsettling?” Zhuang Qingyan lifted his gaze.
“Everything is too clean and orderly. The residents don’t seem to have suffered an attack. Instead, it feels like… they disappeared out of thin air.”
Su Cha knew his thoughts sounded absurd, but that’s what he believed: the residents of the Elderly People’s Nation had vanished into thin air.
“Your intuition is correct,” Zhuang Qingyan nodded faintly. “I guess they left voluntarily.”
This statement stirred up waves of questions.
“What?” Lin Youyou exclaimed in disbelief. “Why would they leave voluntarily? Elderly People’s Nation is the most prosperous city in the entire Alliance. Why would they run to our lower-level districts and suffer?”
“Doesn’t make sense, right? There are quite a few residents here. If they really left, how could there be no news at all?” Fang Zhixu questioned.
The number of local residents in the Elderly People’s Nation was around a million, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the Alliance’s thirty billion population. However, for a million people to vanish quietly, especially among the privileged class, it couldn’t possibly happen without causing a stir.
This S-level mission was becoming more and more mysterious. The residents of the Elderly People’s Nation were hiding something, but what were they hiding and where had they gone?
“That’s right, a million people can’t just disappear out of thin air,” Zhuang Qingyan lightly tapped the table with his fingertips, his gaze turning gradually cold. “So I suspect that the Central Court has long known the truth, and perhaps… this is part of their plan.”
The others listened, feeling confused, and were about to ask Zhuang Qingyan for clarification.
“Something doesn’t seem right,” Su Cha spoke up, his sensitivity to the environment making him keenly aware.
“What’s wrong?” The others became tense.
“After leaving the Splendid Tower, I made a reference mark using a landmark,” Su Cha pointed to a spot below, “the position of that tree has changed.”
Lin Youyou looked over in confusion and then turned back with the same confusion. “I can’t see anything. What do you all think?”
Zhuang Qingyan frowned at the statement. “It’s not the tree that’s changing; it’s our position.”
Surrounded by endless seas, it was easy for people to lose their sense of direction in such an environment.
Lu Xiaoyu quickly pulled up a map, confirming their current location. “Wow, here’s some bad news. From the time we landed on the island until now, the exact position of the Elderly People’s Nation has shifted thirty nautical miles.”
When nobody noticed, the entire island had been moving at a gentle pace on the surface of the sea.
Everyone fell silent….
Xu Xing asked innocently, “Is this island alive?”
“Maybe it’s due to magnetic attraction…” Zhuang Qingyan pondered for a moment. “Can we determine the direction of its movement?”
Lu Xiaoyu clattered on the keyboard, then abruptly stopped, “Even worse news: it seems to be heading towards the Sea of Misfortune.”
“The Sea of Misfortune Triangle, the legendary nightmare of countless sailors, a place of no return.”
Fifteen hours from now, in less than a day.
Just as Song Ke was about to speak, her eyes suddenly froze.
A two-meter-long emperor crab crawled towards them horizontally, its eight long legs raised high.
Swiftly, Song Ke threw a flying knife, piercing through its crab shell and pinning it firmly in place!
The zombie emperor crab’s green-bean-sized eyes twitched a few times, and it spat out a pool of foul-smelling pus.
“Wuwa wawa ah wawa, it’s so scary!” Xu Xing agilely jumped onto a chair and pointed, “Sister, there are more outside!”
Song Ke suddenly looked up, and indeed, there were more than a dozen of the same creatures crawling quickly on the muddy streets.
“Ah—!!” Ear-piercing screams echoed from a distance.
Densely packed light flesh-colored sea rats emerged from the corners, resembling giant radishes with long tails, wriggling and crawling on the damp ground.
Song Ke’s face turned pale. This was definitely not something that should be in the Elderly People’s Nation. How did they manage to pass through the barrier?
The sound of engines starting came from above. A fully armed supersonic ship slowly took off from the helipad on the top floor of the splendid building.
Was it the team that had just planned to leave? Song Ke raised her head to bid them farewell. The supersonic ship ascended smoothly and, after a short while, plunged straight down with its nose into the sea!
Song Ke: “!!”
Suddenly, she felt like she had returned to Hua City, witnessing the meteor shower of starships crashing again.
On the faces of Lu Xiaoyu and others were expressions of uncontrollable surprise. “The energy source failed? No, the Yiyu was sucked away!”
All the flying terminals in the Alliance, to some extent, used the new energy source “Yiyu” to maintain their levitating capabilities. The Lu’s starships were entirely powered by this new energy source. Without Yiyu, they could only perform short-distance flights and needed to stop periodically to replenish their energy.
Zhuang Qingyan quickly scanned the environmental index, “The magnetic field is disturbed.”
As he spoke, the cup of corn juice on the table suddenly tilted, and with a “plop,” it spilled on the table, and the viscous yellow liquid oozed out.
In the blink of an eye, the earth began to shake violently. The dull vibrations came from the depths of the sea, and the thunderous sound waves rapidly spread upward.
“Crackle—”
A deep and bottomless crack tore open the ground beneath their feet. Lin Youyou almost did a split, but at a critical moment, Su Cha embraced her with one hand, and the two jumped to the other side, standing together with Song Ke, Fang Zhixu, and Xu Xing.
However, the crack became deeper and larger, unexpectedly splitting the island in half!
Song Ke and the other six people were dumbfounded.
The Elderly People’s Nation was splitting open!
Literally splitting open!
The seismic activity from the ocean floor continued. After the first crack appeared, numerous fissures followed closely behind. The irreversible trend of the island’s destruction quickly unfolded, and fragments of varying sizes fell from high above.
Crack—
As Song Ke stumbled, she reached out and steadied herself with one hand. She watched as the island fragment where Zhuang Qingyan and Lu Xiaoyu were slid away from her.
In a critical moment, Lu Xiaoyu’s six mechanical arms extended, stabbing into the ground on the opposite side. With both the person and the wheelchair airborne, they narrowly landed on the opposite side. Due to the strong momentum, he inevitably fell out of the wheelchair, and Fang Zhixu and Su Cha hurried to help.
Zhuang Qingyan wasn’t as lucky. He was closest to the crack, and as the ground tilted, his wheelchair rapidly descended. If he fell down like this, whether he could swim or not, being crushed to death was certain.
Song Ke took two steps back, then suddenly accelerated and charged forward. She leaped into the air, swiftly reaching the edge of the cliff. With a short spiritual dagger formed in her hand, she exerted all her strength to stab into the ground, grabbing hold of the falling Zhuang Qingyan with one hand!
Zhuang Qingyan’s entire body swayed among the falling debris. His other hand tightly grasped Song Ke’s hand. Song Ke’s toes kept sliding forward. She gritted her teeth, her face turned red as she exerted all her strength to pull upwards. Suddenly, Zhuang Qingyan was lifted into the air, and Song Ke’s arms encircled him. Due to the inertia, they both rolled on the ground.
After rolling out of the inclined area, Song Ke got up, kicked Zhuang Qingyan’s shin, and roared like an angry dragon:
“Don’t pretend to be a cripple, get up! Run!”
Zhuang Qingyan made a painful hiss and smiled bitterly, “Song Ke, you overestimated me.”
Did he pretend to be lame just now? Having used a wheelchair for almost a year, he was now a genuine weak researcher. No matter how fast his mind worked, his physical strength couldn’t keep up.
The two of them crawled back to the elevated area where Lin Youyou and others were – a relatively intact fragment of the island. Song Ke, catching her breath after the ordeal, sat on the ground and suddenly saw something that left her stunned.
Among countless cracks in the islands, a colossal head emerged. Its face was covered in large black spots, two eyes shrouded in gray shadows, and it slightly opened its mouth, devouring several falling awakeners.
As this giant beast moved, Song Ke gradually saw its complete appearance. Its body length exceeded a hundred meters, covered entirely in a dark green hard shell, except for the head, limbs, and tail. The back shell was adorned with thousands of barnacles, creating a forest of barnacles that could instantly terrify sufferers of trypophobia!
With a splash, the monster’s long forelimbs rose above the water’s surface, patting the island where they were like oars.
Another round of earthquakes ensued, and the cracks underfoot grew larger and larger.
Song Ke suddenly realized that it was this monster that shattered the Elderly People’s Nation!
The terminal beeped, and a new urgent message popped up:
“New Sub-Mission (Urgent): Please eliminate the level 5 zombie monster – the “Prism Shell Sea Turtle” – that has appeared in District A5 Elderly People’s Nation as soon as possible.”
So there is a Bermuda Triangle even in a cyberpunk apocalyptic novel.
Who or what issued the mission? Afterall, the residents have evacuated.