"Interference cleared," she said calmly, her voice devoid of any emotion. She glanced out the window again, where the charred outline of Hawkeye Outpost 3 was faintly visible amidst the thick dust. "Target area reached. Prepare for landing."
Lin Mo looked at Shen Qingli's cold and calm profile. An indescribable chill, more biting than the chill wind in the ruins outside, instantly swept through his body. This power... was terrifying! This power was simply not something a human could possess! What on earth was she?!
The Night Owl assault craft slowly landed on a relatively flat patch of scorched earth outside Hawkeye Outpost 3, stirring up a cloud of dust. The roar of its engines gradually faded, eventually fading into silence. Only the dead wind in the ruins remained, whimpering through the twisted metal skeleton like the weeping of a dead soul.
Lin Mo unbuckled his seatbelt and took a deep breath of the cold air thick with gunpowder and the smell of burning metal, forcing himself to suppress the turmoil within. He grabbed the high-frequency sword and pulse pistol placed nearby and checked the energy readings, his movements steady and swift. The joints of his thick black tactical armor creaked softly, and the tactical eyepiece built into his helmet activated, scanning the surroundings, projecting various hazard signs and terrain data onto the edge of his field of vision.
He glanced at the co-pilot's seat. Shen Qingli had already stood, her dark gray cape swaying gently with her movements. Her right hand, covered in a dark blue metal glove, hung casually at her side. The high-frequency particle vibration blade, which had been disassembled into shuttle components, clung to her arm armor like a living black scale. Her silver-gray eyes calmly scanned the ravaged ruins outside through the porthole, her face expressionless, as if she were about to step into an ordinary laboratory rather than a place of death.
"I'll go down first," Lin Mo said in a deep voice, his voice carrying a hint of metallic texture as it came through the helmet's built-in communicator. He needed to confirm the safety of the landing site.
Shen Qingli nodded slightly without objection.
The assault boat's rear hatch slowly descended with the whine of hydraulics, forming a ramp. A stronger smell of burning and blood, mixed with dust, reached his face. Lin Mo gripped his pulse pistol tightly, hunched over, and sprinted down the ramp with the agility of a cheetah. With a tactical roll, he quickly landed behind a piece of half-melted alloy wreckage, scanning his surroundings warily.
Everywhere I looked, I saw a scene of devastation. Twisted and warped alloy beams, like the broken ribs of a giant beast, jutted diagonally into the charred earth. Broken cables, like dying serpents, swayed gently in the breeze, occasionally emitting tiny sparks. The ground was littered with scorched fragments of protective suits, mangled weapon parts, and... vast splatters of the blackened, congealed blood of the Ark warriors. Several mutilated bodies, crushed beneath the heavy rubble, silently testified to the horrors of the recent past.
Deathly silence. Aside from the sound of the wind, there was no sign of life. The mechanical beasts and artillery batteries from before seemed to have never appeared, leaving only this utterly annihilated ruin.
The tactical eyepiece scan returned the following results: [Radiation Level: Moderately Dangerous. Bio-Signal: None. Energy Residual: Faint (Pointing to the center of the ruins). Threat Assessment: High (Unknown Interference Source Exists)]
Lin Mo's heart was heavy. He made a safe gesture in the direction of the assault boat.
Shen Qingli appeared at the hatchway. She didn't make any tactical evasive maneuvers like Lin Mo, but simply descended with steady, precise steps. Her boots creaked softly as they stepped on the charred dirt and metal fragments. Her silver-gray eyes scanned the surrounding devastation, lingering briefly on the congealed blood and mutilated bodies. Their gaze remained icy, devoid of any human compassion or anger, as if simply assessing a set of objective environmental parameters.
"Target energy source remains, core area, underground." Shen Qingli's voice reached Lin Mo through the communication channel, clear and calm. "Interference intensity increased. Follow me closely, maintain a distance of three meters. If you go beyond this range, your nerves may be damaged by the residual high-dimensional interference turbulence." Her tone was flat, but it carried an unquestionable command.
Lin Mo didn't object. The terrifying power Shen Qingli had just displayed, as well as her ability to perceive the area, far exceeded his comprehension. He nodded silently, gripping his weapon tightly and maintaining a vigilant posture, following Shen Qingli about two steps away, heading towards the center of the ruins, where the shadow of death was the thickest.
The ground beneath my feet was strewn with sharp metal fragments and loose rubble, requiring extreme caution with every step. A strange, tingling static electricity hung in the air, growing stronger the closer I got to the center. Fine snowflakes and data scrambled began to appear at the edges of the tactical eyepiece's field of view. It was the residual contamination of high-dimensional interference.
Shen Qingli walked ahead, her steps unwavering. She raised her metal-gloved right hand slightly, palm facing downward. A faint, almost imperceptible, aura of blue light spread out from her like a wave, enveloping an area several meters around her. Wherever the light passed, the subtle static tingling in the air seemed forcibly smoothed out, and the interference from the tactical goggles was noticeably reduced.
She was using her own strength to counteract the interference. Lin Mo looked at the faint blue light with a chill in his heart.
Passing through a narrow passage formed by collapsed alloy walls, the view suddenly opened up - the core area of Hawkeye Outpost No. 3, which was also the most thoroughly destroyed area.
The massive alloy pillars supporting the dome twisted and broke, and the heavy structure collapsed, leaving a terrifying expanse of broken metal, like the fangs of a giant beast. A massive, charred crater, over ten meters in diameter, was blasted into the ground, its edges littered with metal nubbins, solidified from the heat of melting. The pungent smell of ozone and an indescribable, scorched, soul-searing aroma intensified.
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