Chapter 240 Choice

Behind him, the last section of the passage collapsed completely due to the violent vibration, and the roar was muffled by the thick rock layers.

The B7 bunker, as well as the figures of Lieutenant Cui and those soldiers, remained forever in the darkness.

Choking dust seeped in from every crack. Xiao Ran used his elbow to push aside a shaky prefabricated board, and the few of them finally climbed out of a collapsed pile of construction debris and saw the light of day again.

But the scene outside was even more suffocating than the doomsday inside the bunker.

The sky was shrouded in a strange, sickly orange-red light. A huge light clock projection was suspended at the ceiling, and every tick of the second hand was several times faster than the previous one.

Two-thirds of the familiar city block has completely disappeared, turning into a smooth, empty space, with forcibly torn building sections and twisted roads at the edges, like a painting with most of it erased.

Lin Che took off his windbreaker, wrapped up the coughing and dusty Xiao Ling tightly, and held her in his arms.

Su Wanqing carried the heavy backpack, which contained two cores and the unfinished amplifier. With every step she took, she felt the weight of the entire world pressing on her back.

Lu Zhao and Xiao Ran stood on the left and right, holding their weapons, vigilantly scanning every shadow around them that might hide danger.

They hid in the wreckage of a half-cut office building, where they could temporarily avoid the direct sight of high-altitude detectors.

"We have to go there." Su Wanqing looked up at the Weaver mothership that was looming in the sky like a dark cloud.

Lu Zhao looked down at the terminal on his wrist, complex calculation data flashing on the screen.

"According to the new data corrections brought by the Monk Core, I have found their pattern. The next 'blind zone' will appear after 42 minutes and last for a full 3 minutes.

We have to get close to the mothership within that time window."

The team advanced along an underground tunnel formed after the collapse. This was originally the city's sewage system, but now it has become their only safe passage.

From time to time, the low-frequency hum of the silver detector patrolling could be heard overhead, and each time it made everyone stop and hold their breath.

Xiao Ran walked in front. Relying on the stealth skills he learned in the military, he quietly cleared the steel bars and rubble that blocked the way for the people behind him.

Lin Che walked at the end of the team, occasionally looking back at the darkness from which he came, with a slightly frown on his face.

Since the bunker collapsed, the translucent figure disappeared.

"Where do you think 'Ye' went?" Su Wanqing lowered her voice and walked to Lin Che's side.

Lin Che shook her head cautiously, still looking behind her.

"It's hard to say. Perhaps he went to his true master, the Weaver.

Or maybe... he is just looking for the best time to approach us again. We'd better be on guard against him appearing at any time."

Lu Zhao raised his head and glanced at the silent mothership in the sky through the gap on the top of the tunnel.

"No matter what, we have to go in. The third core is in the center of the mothership."

Half an hour later, they emerged from underground and saw a half-collapsed commercial area in front of them.

Abandoned billboards hung crookedly on the exterior wall of the building, making a harsh friction sound when the wind blew through.

In this dead silent ruin, there were several civilians wandering around. They had empty eyes and slow movements, like ghosts who had lost their way and had no reaction to anything around them.

Xiao Ling poked her head out of Lin Che's arms and looked at one of the little girls who was sitting on the rubble holding a teddy bear. She couldn't help but want to speak.

Xiao Ran reached out and held her back, shaking his head gently. "We can't take any risks. Any unnecessary contact might attract the detector."

Xiao Ling's eyes turned red, she nodded with tears in her eyes, and buried her head back in Lin Che's arms.

Suddenly, there was a slight sound of movement from the pile of rubble ahead.

Everyone raised their weapons and went on alert instantly.

Surprisingly, what emerged from the shadow was "night".

His form was no longer a translucent shadow, but completely solid.

Under the skin, clearly visible blue energy lines spread throughout his body like circuits, outlining his slender figure.

He stood in front of everyone and spoke calmly, his voice without a trace of emotion: "The shortest path to the mothership is ahead, but it is also the area with the highest density of detectors. With your current capabilities and equipment, there is at least an 80% chance that you will be discovered and eliminated before you arrive."

His words were like a basin of cold water, poured on everyone's heart.

"The final core is indeed on the mothership," he continued, his eyes passing over the crowd and falling directly on Su Wanqing's face, "but only I know the safe path to there and the exact location of the core."

He stretched out a hand covered with blue energy patterns and extended an invitation to Su Wanqing.

"I can guarantee that I can take one person safely to the location of the core and return safely."

His tone was calm, as if he was stating an established fact.

"Choose me, or choose them. I can guarantee a perfect ending... but I can only take one person."

Lin Che immediately took a step forward, protecting Su Wanqing behind him, and pointed the weapon in his hand at "Ye".

"Another trick like this? Why do you think we will still trust you?"

Su Wanqing was silent for a moment, and the scene of the last failed reincarnation shown by the Guardian AI flashed through her mind.

She raised her head, a sneer on her lips.

"I believed you last time, what happened?" Her voice was soft but extremely firm.

"In my last reincarnation, I must have faced a similar choice... and I made the wrong choice. This time, I won't make the same mistake again."

She took a step back and stood side by side with Lin Che, Lu Zhao, and Xiao Ran. This action itself was the clearest answer.

"We act together," Su Wanqing said, "We either live together or die together."

Faced with such a rejection, a complex expression appeared on "Ye"'s face for the first time, like disappointment, but with a hint of imperceptible appreciation.

He withdrew his hand and took a few steps back.

Then he suddenly squatted down and drew a simple map on the dusty ground with his fingers.

"There is a maintenance channel on the northwest side of the mothership. It will be opened for thirty seconds every fifteen minutes to discharge the energy aftermath."

He pointed to a marked point on the map and said, "When the timing is right, you can use that energy fluctuation to conceal your own life signal and sneak in."

Then, he moved his finger to a point in the center of the map. "The core is directly below the central control room, protected by an independent time location. It cannot be approached by conventional methods."

Lu Zhao and others exchanged suspicious glances, unsure whether this was another trap.

After Ye finished drawing the map, he stood up. He suddenly reached out and took out a silver device the size of a fingernail that was gleaming with light from his neck and threw it to Lu Zhao.

"This is a jammer. It can provide you with forty-five seconds of 'invisibility' when you are close to the core."

After doing all this, he finally looked at Su Wanqing, and for the first time his tone was gentle, no longer absolutely rational.

“Maybe, you’re right this time. Choose the team, not the individual.

That’s the mistake you made last time—being too dependent on a single solution.”

As he finished speaking, his body began to blur. He left behind his last words before completely disappearing into the shadow of the ruins.

"I will be waiting for you on the mothership. As for whether I will be a guardian or an opponent at that time, it will be revealed soon."