Chapter 657 Survive First

Yeah, what's wrong with giving it a shot?

The rest of Team Zero thought the same thing.

Armored vehicles and transport trucks rushed into contaminated zone 320 amidst a chase by a group of mutants. The sound of screeching brakes rang out. Looking up, everything around them was both familiar and strange.

The iconic mirror wall still stands, but the inverted city overhead has vanished.

The streets were filled with many mutated creatures, wandering aimlessly around.

The monster chasing behind stepped in as well, its scarlet eyes quickly dimming, instantly forgetting its prey and becoming empty, blank, and stiff.

The car had just come to a stop.

Wang Jiayu asked anxiously, "Qi Ling, how are you feeling?"

Qi Ling lowered his head, his heavy breathing sounding particularly clear in the deathly silent street.

Just before he rushed into this area, the dark matter on his body was still spreading wildly.

But now, everything seems to have been paused, and the dark matter has returned to its dormant state beneath his skin, no longer out of control.

"It's alright now..."

He opened his mouth, his voice hoarse, filled with the bewilderment of someone who had survived a disaster.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

"It's good that you're alright." Tao Haohao got off the delivery truck and shouted into the truck bed, "Old Song, throw some food out, I'm hungry!"

Song Liang: "Come and get it yourself."

Although this is Han Dadao's territory, it's not necessarily safe.

Song Liang remained vigilant after entering.

Tao Haohao jumped into the carriage, picked up a box of food, and casually tossed two bags to Duan Xi in the driver's seat, saying, "There are monsters everywhere on the road, and we've used up several boxes of bullets. What's going on?"

The scene along the way was shocking; almost all the polluted areas below five stars had collapsed, and there were mutants running around everywhere.

Everyone was worried about Qi Ling's condition, and they were busy fighting monsters and breaking through the enemy lines at an extremely fast pace, so they didn't have time to discuss anything.

"There's no signal on the road, and we haven't received a single message from behind." Duan Xi sat in the driver's seat without moving an inch, somewhat worried. "I wonder how things are at the base and with the captain."

"The balance has been broken."

Duan Xi subconsciously replied, "What balance?"

After he finished speaking, he realized something was wrong; whose voice was that?

The moment the sound rang out, Song Liang abruptly looked out of the car.

Suddenly, the mirror on the right side of the vehicle began to ripple like water, and a blurry figure appeared in the mirror.

The tall figure stood against the light, seemingly having stood there watching them for a long time.

Fortunately, everyone was mentally prepared, and since they had met once before, they all acted normally.

"Senior!" Song Liang asked, "Do you know what happened?"

Han Dadao shook his head, "I don't know exactly what happened, but I can feel a violent force from the outside constantly impacting and weakening my domain..."

Song Liang's expression immediately turned serious. Something was impacting the outer gray fog.

He told Han Dadao about the situation outside.

Upon learning of the collapse of other contaminated zones below level five, Han Dadao's expression turned grave. "Ding Lang, he..."

Song Liang gave him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, the signal here is almost completely cut off, so we can't log into the system to check the intelligence."

Number 111 is too far from here.

But it's easy to imagine that since other contaminated areas have already collapsed, that area will likely suffer the same fate.

Han Dadao remained silent for a long time, then sighed heavily before saying, "Is the disruption of the external balance related to that guide?"

Song Liang did not deny it: "Our guess is that the captain and Yun Zhao found the source, which triggered the chain reaction."

Han Dadao's gaze suddenly sharpened: "The source?"

Did she really do it?

Han Dadao suddenly laughed, a laugh that gave people a strange sense of joy, making the others afraid to make a sound for a moment.

The mirror still reflected the distorted streets and the wandering mutants.

However, upon closer inspection, one can see that the edges of the image in the mirror occasionally flash with a very unstable, electric-like ripple.

"I am under tremendous pressure to maintain this territory."

Han Dadao stopped laughing and looked at Qi Ling, whose condition had temporarily stabilized on the roof of the car. "This place is not absolutely safe either. I can suppress the dark matter in your body for the time being, but when the domain collapses, you will still need to find a way to face the completely insane world outside."

The team members' relaxed mood instantly sank to the bottom again.

"Senior, you can also..." Wang Jiayu hesitated, then subconsciously looked at Qi Ling and asked instead, "How long can you hold out?"

Han Dadao said calmly, "It depends on when that thing outside calms down. Maybe in a few days, maybe the next moment."

Tao Haohao couldn't help but interject, "Then we came in for nothing?!"

"He won't die for now."

Han Dadao glanced at the people in the car, "His condition is being forcibly suppressed; it's just a temporary fix. What you need to do is find a solution before my domain collapses, otherwise..."

His unfinished words sent chills down everyone's spines.

Duan Xi took a deep breath: "Senior, do you have any suggestions?"

Han Dadao turned around, and the mirror rippled again behind him. "First, survive."

Qi Ling hadn't said a word from beginning to end, and by this point, his expression was unusually calm.

On the way here, he had already resigned himself to his fate.

This might not be such a bad thing.

Because... only by completely eliminating dark matter can peace be restored to the world.

*

The outside world is in chaos.

People don't know the source or the truth of the disaster, yet they fight for a shared belief.

The sunlight was completely blocked behind him.

The circular hall before me was even more spacious than I had imagined, empty with no superfluous decorations. The walls were inlaid with pale blue strips of cool light, which were dim but enough to see clearly.

The two sides were lined with smooth metal walls, and the air was filled with a faint smell of disinfectant, mixed with a slightly bitter odor similar to that of a psychotropic drug.

It gives people a gloomy and lifeless feeling.

Yun Zhao had seen the blueprints for the twin towers from Minister Shao, but knew nothing about their internal structure.

Knowing that there was no time to lose, she didn't linger and immediately released her spiritual energy to investigate the source.

The strands of spiritual energy converged into a faint yet continuous fluctuation of spiritual power, like an invisible thread guiding her perception.

The little bluebird perched on her shoulder, looking up at the top of the tower.

[It's on top!]

Following the pull of the spiritual thread, Yun Zhao saw the spiral staircase extending upwards at the end of the hall.

The stairs were also made of cold metal, but the handrails had a warm, jade-like texture. The sound of her boots stepping on the metal surface echoed repeatedly in the spacious circular hall.

It's so quiet here.

It was so quiet that she could hear the faint sound of her own blood flowing, like an echo amplified infinitely, making her eardrums tremble slightly.

The spiral staircase in front of us seemed to have no end.

The higher you go, the fainter the smell of psychotropic drugs in the air becomes.

Yun Zhao adjusted her breathing and, holding onto the handrail, climbed upwards steadily. When she finally stepped onto the last step, the sight before her made her gasp.