Chapter 524: Alien Vision
A biting cold feeling instantly hit him. The moment his teammates beside him exclaimed, Xu Jiali also felt his steps suddenly slow down, as if something had suddenly entangled his hands and feet. The chill that could even freeze the soul made even such a powerful diver lose control of his limbs instantly - and it was not until this moment that he noticed from the corner of his eye that thin black lines had emerged from the fog at some point.
These imperceptible black lines seemed to be condensed out of thin air and floated in the fog, crisscrossing the streets. Three divers had accidentally touched the lines, and the irresistible coldness, stiffness and slowness made them stop stiffly.
The next second, the power armor began to alarm. The sensor module connected to the umbilical cord detected an abnormality in the user.
"Warning, mild soul dissociation, warning, mild soul dissociation..."
The psychic attendant walking beside him instantly sensed the abnormality in the contracted deep diver's condition. Lingling's pupils suddenly shrank into two narrow slits, and the hair on his tail stood up: "Boss, what's wrong with you, meow!"
As she spoke, the Jipro girl picked up her mechanical magic ball, ready to create a spiritual field to dispel those strange spider-like threads.
But Xu Jiali suddenly stopped her: "Wait—retreat and wait. The other unaffected divers also slowly retreated beyond these silk threads."
All the divers immediately maintained a defensive formation and began to retreat slowly, protecting several psychic servants at the scene in the team. Xu Jiali and the other two affected divers remained in the spider silk mist.
"Don't resist forcefully. Move your hands and feet slowly," Xu Jiali said in a deep voice, moving her arms little by little, gradually freeing herself from the spider silk. "Don't be nervous. We're not entangled, we're just touching. But if we move around, we might get entangled... This weird thing gets tighter the more you struggle..."
The other two divers quickly followed suit. A muffled voice came from under the helmet of one of them: "Captain, do you know what this is?"
Xu Jiali frowned, looking at the spider silk floating in the mist: "...Yes, I have seen them, but they shouldn't be here."
He recognized it as Irene's "string"—but why would the string of the little doll appear in such a place? And why was it spreading out of thin air in the fog like this...
Xu Jiali's doubts rose sharply, and with all sorts of random guesses in his mind, he swept his eyes across the streets on both sides, and suddenly noticed that the black "spider silk" that appeared out of thin air in the fog seemed to be more than just the one in front of him - there were more spider silks floating higher up, crisscrossing and crossing each other, passing through the warning barriers between the thick fog blocks and the thin fog blocks, and in areas where the fog was thinner, they could even be seen passing directly through the towering buildings.
Visibility was poor in the fog, and he could only observe a small part of the spider silk. But even this small part gave him a chilling feeling.
It was as if there was a net, an invisible net that may have been woven a long time ago but no one could observe, covering the entire city.
The cold feeling suddenly faded from his body, and Xu Jiali's hands and feet finally broke free from the black silk threads that pierced his limbs. He took two steps back in an instant, and in the next second, he was shocked to find that the spider silk that had trapped him and his teammates just now disappeared before his eyes in an instant.
Even the spider webs that extended out in the thin mist and floated in the air disappeared.
"Captain!" A diver who had just broken free from the spider web spoke up immediately, "That thing is gone!"
"I saw it." Xu Jiali waved her hand, then carefully raised the heavy particle rifle and probed towards the place where the spider silk had just floated. After a moment, she reached out again to try, but found that the thing was really gone.
Collective hallucination? Very unlikely.
Xu Jiali frowned and immediately turned on the communication device to report the abnormal situation here - conventional communication equipment cannot be used in the alien environment, but the "umbilical cord" device used by deep divers is not affected by this. In addition, over the past period of time, communication nodes based on "Spirit Fox Black Iron" technology have been set up in large numbers in large alien areas such as the City in the Mist. He and his teammates can contact the Secret Service headquarters at any time here.
That's how it should be in theory.
There was only a burst of unstable noise in the communication channel.
Soon after, other divers also discovered the abnormality of the communicator.
"Captain, communication is interrupted!"
Xu Jiali frowned tightly, then suddenly looked down at her chest.
A "chain" covered with black alloy joints extended from the interface of the power armor. The chain was only a dozen centimeters long and slowly drifted as if floating in invisible water. Red light flickered between the links of the chain, and the rhythm was steady.
"The umbilical cord connection is normal... but all communications are down," he said with a serious expression. He then quickly gave the order, "Number two, number three, attempt an emergency ascent."
The umbilical cord devices on the chests of the two divers flickered a few times and then returned to normal.
"Report, ascent failed - no response received from 'Submerge Port'."
"Lingling, try to break away."
"Boss! I can't get out!" Miss Jipro fiddled with the arm guards of her light power armor, then looked up and blinked. "The psychic link is broken, too."
After coming into contact with the black spider silk, all communications were severed. Although the umbilical cord was still connected, no one could ascend. The psychic attendants were unable to return to reality. The psychic connection was broken...
These conditions may recover over time, but they may not.
"Continue moving toward the target block as planned. There's a fixed communication node and safe house near the next thick fog barrier," Xu Jiali ordered without hesitation. "During this time, continue trying to call the 'Port' and the other deep-dive teams in Fog City. Number Three, send out relay drones and try to contact the walkers we left behind. See if their communication devices are working. If they are, bring one over. Lingling, stay alert. You'll be responsible for the invisible things."
"Got it." "Okay, boss!"
After quickly completing the arrangements, the deep dive team continued to move on the foggy streets.
They crossed an intersection where the road surface was always tilted, and then passed a group of buildings standing on the edge of the thick fog, bending and swaying like thin paper cuts. The lights in the distance became increasingly hazy, and the towering buildings stood quietly in the fog and shadows, as if they would never be reached.
Xu Jiali suddenly slowed down.
Everyone stopped right behind him.
A smooth road surface appeared in front of the deep diving team - the road surface had a silvery-white texture, as if it was made of some kind of alloy.
"...Boss, the roads in the city don't seem to be like this." Lingling widened her eyes and muttered softly.
Xu Jiali gripped the weapon tightly in her hand and led the team forward cautiously.
The scene ahead made the experienced divers stop in surprise.
They saw a wall - a towering wall with a slight curve, like the outer wall of some large space facility. It stood in the fog, and its entire body was tilted at about 30 degrees to the ground. One section of the wall was directly buried in the ground, and the other end was against a nearby shopping mall building. There were also some mechanical structures extending from the high wall, which seemed to be "fused" into the surrounding buildings.
Xu Jiali: “……?”
What the hell is this? Why is there something like this in Jiecheng?
The City in the Mist was an "alien replica" of the Realm City. Everything here was a shadow cast by the real Realm City. Even though the projection of the foggy streets would appear even more distorted and disorganized, Xu Jiali had led the team through so many operations here and had never seen such an outrageous sight—not to mention that this wasn't a foggy street at all. Where did this thing come from?!
It happened so quickly that just when Xu Jiali was confused, he suddenly noticed that the "wall" in the distance was moving.
The giant alloy wall that looked like the outer wall of some giant space station "flashed" in the fog, and then began to move crookedly along the street towards this side, and the speed was getting faster and faster - it was like a mountain crushing down on them!
"Shit—get out of the way!"
Xu Jiali's hair stood on end on the spot. She shouted and led her people to dodge to the side, while at the same time reaching out and grabbing the psychic servant closest to her.
The noise of the power armor joints suddenly overloading broke the silence of the foggy streets, and the flash of the booster rockets suddenly illuminated the surroundings.
Lingling was dragged by her boss and flew horizontally in the air. She meowed at the top of her voice and started to chatter: "Boss, there is something I have been wanting to tell you. I used the allowance that was in your balance last time to buy catnip. I am really good to you in this life, and I want to be with you in the next life too. Do you want to learn to inhale catnip and bite your tongue with me, meow..."
The next second, the overwhelming alloy wall suddenly accelerated again. Even the divers, with their speed, were unable to dodge it. Everyone could only watch helplessly as this giant structure, which seemed capable of crushing an entire city block, came crashing down on them.
Then watch it pass through the street unscathed like a phantom.
Xu Jiali watched the scene in astonishment. He watched as the high alloy wall, completely unlike an illusion, silently passed through the foggy city. He could even clearly see the structure behind the alloy wall—large supports, complex pipes and cables, indecipherable mechanical compartments, corridors, and gates...
Then he saw a huge cabin - it looked like a cafeteria, with many people dressed like researchers and some in combat uniforms sitting together to eat.
He and his diving team quickly passed through the middle of the "canteen". Then two researchers' eyes became dazed for a moment, and they seemed to suddenly see something. They suddenly stood up from behind the table, raised their hands and pointed in the direction of Xu Jiali and began to exclaim.
Xu Jiali didn't hear what the other party was shouting - because the whole process was silent.
Then, the alloy wall, the cafeteria, the Algraders... everything disappeared.
(End of this chapter)
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