The journey back to the shelter was spent in an eerie silence.

That steel chasm that separated life and death was like an invisible giant thorn, deeply embedded in Lin Feng's consciousness.

He sat in the spacious command vehicle, his fingers unconsciously tapping the armrest. His eyes, which had once looked down on all living beings and regarded everything as chess pieces, were now deeper than ever before, reflecting the gray and white desolate snow scene rushing past the window.

wall……

A simple word, yet at this moment it contains infinite and chilling profound meaning.

It was not meant to protect "us," the survivors of the wasteland.

It is that "paradise" within the protective walls.

So, what is it guarding against?

Were they those laughing corpses? No, while those things were troublesome, they weren't enough to warrant such a large-scale conflict from a civilization capable of creating such miraculous artifacts.

Therefore, the only explanation is that this vast land, which they call the "wasteland" and on which they depend for survival, is actually not as simple as a wasteland.

It was a cage. A huge, abandoned cage used to imprison something... something that even alien civilizations found troublesome.

He and his thousands of subjects were nothing more than unsuspecting prisoners in this enormous cage, or rather... pathetic prey sharing a room with wild beasts.

This thought, like the most vicious curse, lingered in his mind.

That long-lost sense of emptiness, of being in control of everything, was replaced by a new, colder shadow called "the unknown".

For the first time, he realized that he might not be a chess player at all, but merely a slightly stronger piece that had jumped onto a larger chessboard.

“Leader…” Qin Lan keenly sensed the cold aura emanating from Lin Feng. She wanted to say something, but Su Wanqing stopped her with a look.

Su Wanqing saw things more deeply. She knew that what the leader needed at this moment was not comfort, but reflection.

Something shook the foundations of this "god." And what could move him must be a terrifying existence capable of overturning the entire world.

As the convoy passed through the increasingly magnificent city gates of the sanctuary, Liu An, the chief steward of the Imperial Household Department, waited anxiously in the square in front of the palace. His face, which always wore a fawning smile, was now filled with panic and unease.

"Leader! You're finally back!" As soon as Lin Feng got out of the car, Liu An scrambled over, his voice trembling, "Something's happened! Something terrible has happened! The scout team that lost contact in the east... they... they're back!"

Lin Feng paused, a cold glint flashing in his eyes: "You're back? Then why are you so panicked?"

Liu An's face was ashen, his lips trembling, and he couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time: "They...they look...it's terrifying! You...you should go to the medical department quickly! One of them...has gone mad!"

The shelter's medical department was shrouded in an atmosphere of extreme oppression. The air was thick with the pungent smell of disinfectant, mixed with a faint hint of blood and a kind of... decadent aura unique to those who have suffered a mental breakdown.

Surrounded by a group of high-ranking officials, Lin Feng pushed open the door and entered.

The sight before her made even the hard-hearted Qin Lan gasp in shock.

The spacious isolation ward housed only three people.

One of them was tightly bound to the hospital bed. His eyes were wide open, bloodshot, and his pupils were unfocused. He kept emitting meaningless, beast-like roars.

His fingernails had completely peeled off, clearly from his previous frantic scratching. He had gone mad, utterly and irreversibly mad.

The other man huddled in a corner, wrapped tightly in a blanket, his body trembling violently. No matter how the doctor called to him, he did not respond, as if trapped in a nightmare from which he could never awaken.

Only the third person, a middle-aged man whose rank indicated he was a scout captain, remained somewhat conscious.

But he was in very poor condition. He sat blankly on the edge of the bed, staring at the ground with lifeless eyes. His weathered face was devoid of color, only ashen like that of a dead man.

“Captain, Captain Li Wei,” a doctor called softly, “the leader has come to see you.”

Upon hearing the word "leader," the captain named Li Wei trembled violently.

He slowly and stiffly raised his head, and when his gaze met Lin Feng's unfathomable eyes, the boundless fear and despair that had been building up in his heart erupted like a flood bursting its banks.

"Leader! Leader!" He rolled off the bed with a thud, scrambled to his knees in front of Lin Feng, hugged his legs, and burst into tears, crying like a lost child.

“Demons! Leader! We’ve encountered demons! Real demons!” he roared incoherently. “Not beasts! They are…things that crawled out of hell!”

Lin Feng didn't move. He just quietly looked at the broken Predator at his feet, his voice calm and without a ripple: "Tell me slowly. Tell me everything you saw and heard."

His voice had a strange magic that calmed Li Wei's extremely agitated emotions somewhat.

"We... our three teams were exploring eastward towards that... that wall when all our electronic devices—compasses, communicators, locators... all malfunctioned."

His voice was hoarse and trembling, “We are lost in that white wasteland, unable to find our way.”

"Just when we were about to run out of ammunition and food, we...we discovered a valley."

Upon hearing the word "valley," Li Wei's body trembled violently again, and his teeth chattered.

"It was a valley that shouldn't exist. Outside it was a world of ice and snow, but inside the valley there wasn't a single snowflake, it was as warm as spring. But there were no plants there, not a single one! The ground was covered with a black, slippery carpet of fungus, soft to the touch, and it gave off a... a sweet, nauseating stench."

"We thought we had found a way out, but once we went in, we discovered... it was the entrance to hell!"

Li Wei's breathing became rapid, and extreme fear appeared in his eyes.

"We saw it...we saw a monster. I've never seen anything so terrifying!"

“There’s one… we call it the ‘Bone Ripper.’ It’s four or five meters tall, like a giant bear that walks upright, but it has no flesh and skin. Instead, it’s covered with layers of pale white, armor-like bone plates! Its arms are two sharp, two-meter-long bone blades! With one claw, it can tear our ‘Landwalker’ assault vehicle apart like paper!”

"There's another kind that can fly! They look like giant, featherless vultures, but they have insect-like compound eyes, densely packed together, emitting a red glow! They can spew a strong green acid liquid from the sky that can instantly melt steel!"

"The most terrifying... are the 'Shadow Lurkers.' They're like giant praying mantises, completely black, able to blend into the shadows, and silent as a shadow! One of my brothers was talking to me one second, and the next second, his head was gone! We didn't even see how the enemy made their move!"

The air inside the room seemed to freeze instantly.

Cold sweat beaded on Wang Dachui's forehead, and Li Xiangbin's face was even paler than Li Wei's.

They finally understood why the three elite squads had ended up like this.

"They...they're in cahoots with those laughing corpse hyenas!"

Li Wei's voice rose, filled with hatred: "We saw with our own eyes that those monsters drove thousands upon thousands of Corpse Laughing Hyenas to patrol and hunt in the valley! The Corpse Laughing Hyenas were as docile as hunting dogs in front of them!"

Lin Feng's gaze grew increasingly cold.

The Laughing Corpse Hyenas are merely cannon fodder; the real threat lies in these unprecedented, intelligent, and distinctly organized terrifying creatures.

"What are they doing?" Lin Feng asked the most crucial question.

“They…they are waiting.” A look of confusion and fear appeared on Li Wei’s face: “At the deepest part of the valley, there is a huge, bottomless cave. All our monsters are surrounding that cave. They seem to be performing some kind of…some kind of ritual.”

"We sneaked over there and heard a sound... a... heartbeat."

"Thump...thump...thump..."

Li Wei subconsciously imitated it; the voice was deep and powerful, as if it came from the depths of the earth.

“With each heartbeat, the entire valley would tremble slightly. Those monsters would drag the captured beasts, even living people, to the cave entrance, then cruelly kill them, sacrificing their flesh and souls to that thing inside the cave… that thing.”

"They are feeding it with their own flesh and blood! They are waiting for it... to awaken!"

The word "awakening" struck everyone's hearts like two heavy hammer blows.

“We’ve been discovered,” Li Wei’s voice was filled with anguish. “A massacre… It wasn’t a battle, it was a one-sided massacre. My brothers rushed forward one after another to cover me… They gave their lives to buy me time to escape…”

He couldn't continue, and collapsed to the ground again, sobbing uncontrollably.

Lin Feng slowly closed his eyes.

Everything is connected.

An insurmountable steel barrier, a paradise imprisoned, a wasteland serving as a cage, terrifying monsters lurking in the valley, and that unknown being being fed on flesh and blood, about to awaken...

A complete and brutal truth emerged in his mind.

Once that sleeping thing awakens, it will bring unstoppable, all-encompassing destruction.

By then, not only his small shelter, but the entire wasteland would likely be completely swallowed up. And that wall is the last line of defense; once the wasteland is breached, the next target will be the "paradise" within the wall.

"I see."

Lin Feng opened his eyes, all his confusion and bewilderment vanished, replaced by an unprecedented killing intent.

The sense of emptiness that had been troubling him was utterly shattered at this moment.

When survival itself becomes a luxury, any nihilism seems ridiculous.

He was no longer the aloof, manipulative king who punished all living beings.

He was a jailer. A lonely jailer, passively standing on the front lines of this cataclysmic disaster.

He had nowhere to retreat.