Chapter 5: Bonds "Back to the Ground"
The busy sounds of the hospital lasted for eight hours before gradually quieting down. Xie Shuqin sat alone on the hospital bed, looking out the window at the floating clouds in the distance and the blue sky.
Suddenly, a large patch of white clouds was penetrated by a streak of black. The Falcon XII was soaring in the distance, and that familiar face smiled at her through the window.
Xie Shuqin shuddered suddenly, and the tingling sensation from her fingertips brought her back to reality. When she opened her eyes again, the Falcon XII had already disappeared, and there was nothing else in the endless sky except clouds.
"Jie Shuqin."
The voice came from outside the door. Baili Yunle walked in slowly, holding the IV stand in one hand, and sat on another empty bed.
He looked much more haggard. Baili Yunle, who was the one who paid the most attention to his appearance in the team, was now wearing casual clothes. His yellow curly hair was unkempt and hung messily in front of his eyes.
Xie Shuqin looked away and looked at her right hand in a plaster cast: "I dreamed of him again. It was nine years ago, when I first saw him."
Nine years ago, in the 210th year of the New Era, 20-year-old Yang Gui graduated from university with the highest score and was trained as the next captain of A061. However, in that year, the alien species began to mutate.
During a ground mission, Yang Gui's team was unexpectedly attacked by a high-level alien species, far more dangerous than Level II. The ground team had never encountered such a situation before, and the gunfire was completely ineffective against them. Ultimately, only two of the 200-man team survived: Yang Gui and Jie Shuqin, who had secretly crawled into the gravity body and fallen asleep.
According to Yang Gui's report, the advanced alien species, in addition to carrying bromine mist, can also transform humans. He personally witnessed a thick liquid oozing out from the fingertips and facial features of the transformed individuals, their bodies gradually expanding like balloons. Then, an incomprehensible growl erupted from their mouths...
Because of this incident, Yang Gui's ability awakening value dropped sharply from 29% to 20%. The once favored child of heaven ended up in a mental hospital and received psychological treatment for six years.
Thinking about this, Xie Shuqin sniffed: "Everyone knows these past events, but what no one knows is that Yang Gui's abnormal awakening value of superpowers was not caused by being scared, but because he forcibly activated his superpowers to ignite the gravity body in order to protect me."
Baili Yunle was a little surprised: "Ignite the gravity body?"
Xie Shuqin nodded. "At that time, all the vehicles were damaged. Yang Gui held me and sat in the gravity body, using his own energy as nourishment to activate the levitation launcher, which supported the gravity body to fly to the base."
"So that's how it is." Baili Yun was delighted. "No wonder Yao Yin was so surprised when she heard that you used gravity bodies to fly to the base."
Perhaps because of this incident, and to prevent a recurrence of tragedy, Yao Yin locked herself in the laboratory for three months, developing the "Falcon." This success made her famous and recognized as the base's top mechanic. Later, with Yang Gui and others testing the Falcon, twelve generations of the Falcon were produced, with the Falcon XII becoming Yang Gui's exclusive aircraft.
"Baili Yunle, shouldn't I be around Yang Gui?"
Baili Yunle was confused by the question. He frowned and looked up, "Why do you say that?"
"Nine years ago, his supernatural powers became abnormal because he met me. Now, it's also because I laughed at him before I left and told him not to be the first to die..." Her voice choked, and Xie Shuqin tried hard to hold back her tears. She wanted to raise her hand to rub her eyes, but found that her hands could not move.
"None of this was ever your fault." A tissue gently brushed across her eyelids. Baili Yunle leaned over to wipe her tears while holding onto the IV stand. "Don't overthink it. We're all comrades. How could we possibly hold grudges against each other over such a small matter? Besides, you know Yang Gui. He practically treats the mechanic as his second parent."
"But I did cause his ability awakening value to drop to 24%. If it were before, he could definitely avoid it..."
As they spoke, both of them were stunned.
Xie Shuqin's tears stopped abruptly. She looked up in surprise, "That's not right. Nine years ago, Yang Gui's awakening value had clearly dropped to 20%. Why did he tell me it was 24% a few days ago?"
Baili Yunle also frowned fiercely. He wiped the tears from Jie Shuqin's face and picked up the shelf. "I'm going to check his genetic profile. You should get some rest first. If there's anything, contact me through the chip."
-
In prison, Xu An slept for several hours and finally saw a ray of light.
The man was standing against the light, and his body looked particularly cramped in the narrow gap of the prison.
As the prison door opened, the red light on the surveillance camera flashed. Feng Lan sat across from Xu An with a heavy expression.
"Xu An, I'm going to ask you a few questions. You must answer truthfully."
Xu An blinked. Under the dim light, she could only see Feng Lan's hands clasped on the table, and the red light flickering slightly in his hands.
"Where were you before you were admitted to Tartarus Mental Hospital in the year 213 of the New Era?"
Xu An lowered his eyes, as if thinking seriously: "Hospital."
Feng Lan silently opened the recorder in his hand: "Which hospital?"
"I don't know. I've been there since I was born." Xu An added, "It seems to be quite famous."
Xu An hadn't lied about this. Before coming, Feng Lan had checked Xu An's files and her activities over the past few years, and they were indeed all in the hospital.
Feng Lan then asked, "What are you being treated for in the hospital?"
Xu An waved his hand indifferently. "Then I don't know, but you can ask Yin Xiangrong, she is my attending physician."
With a famous biology lunatic as the attending physician, Feng Lan knew that things were not simple.
"Next question, how do you know that aliens can launch mental wave attacks?"
Before this ground mission, the base had never been attacked by mental waves, and Xu An not only knew about it, but was also not affected by it at all.
"Because I can do it too." Xu An ignored Feng Lan's shocked expression and continued calmly, "Any awakening value over 30% is fine. If you want to learn, I can teach you."
After hearing this, Feng Lan and everyone in the monitoring room fell into a long silence.
Feng Lan nearly dropped the recorder in his hand. He gathered his words before asking, "One last question. Why do you know so much about alien species?"
His question was ambiguous, not specifically mentioning the alien's mental power or the location of the worm's crystal core. Xu An understood, and a faint voice echoed in the dim light: "I made this inference while Tartarus was receiving treatment, based on the medical records of other mutants."
It was a very regular answer, after all, much more acceptable than Xu An using mental wave attacks.
After the questioning session ended, Feng Lan slowly stood up and turned on the light.
The lights suddenly came on, blinding Xu An and forcing him to close his eyes. Before he could adjust to the light, he heard a voice from the surveillance camera: "Thank you for your hard work, Captain Feng Lan. The control room will fully report all the above information to the commander. Now it's your personal time."
Aside from the red light on the surveillance camera, Feng Lan finally put on a faint smile: "Why don't you turn on the lights?"
Xu An raised his hand, revealing the chain on his wrist, "I can't reach it."
"With your strength, wouldn't it be easy to turn on the light?" Feng Lan said this with a smile on his face, but the smile did not reach his eyes.
Xu An took off his hood, slowly stood up, and leaned against the wall. "So according to you, if I want to destroy the base, it would be easy?"
Feng Lan knew that she had heard the temptation in his words. He smiled awkwardly and was about to say something else, but Xu An beat him to it.
"You didn't tell them that you overused your powers?" Xu An raised an eyebrow. "You recovered in just eight hours. Should I ask if you didn't use your full power at all, or if someone was able to secretly replenish your powers?"
Xu An saw with his own eyes that Feng Lan was pressed to the ground by the worm's mental wave attack and couldn't even get up, so the first assumption was naturally not true.
"Everyone has some secrets. Xu An, we are not enemies. I didn't report your use of supernatural powers to crush worms to the base, which is my greatest sincerity." Feng Lan walked slowly in front of her and stopped two meters away from Xu An. "You also know about Yang Gui's situation. A061 can't be a disorganized group. The advance team needs people with excellent skills. Everyone can see your strength."
"So, Xu An, as the captain of Team A061, I formally invite you to become the deputy captain of A061 and fly the Falcon XII. If you agree, I will not report your unauthorized departure from the team on the ground, and tomorrow the base will arrange for you to receive the most advanced Falcon piloting training."
"You change your expression very quickly." Xu An chuckled: "Captain, do you still remember what you promised me before you fell asleep?"
Feng Lan immediately realized that these were the words Xu An said when he agreed to help. Although he didn't hear it clearly, he roughly knew what Xu An wanted to ask.
"Then you should stay in A061 even more." Feng Lan closed his eyes calmly. "When the alien species first arrived, the whole world was in panic. People didn't know how to deal with them, so they could only hide in caves. But over time, accidents will happen. For example, being trapped in a cave for a long time will lead to mental breakdown, or disputes will arise over the size of the activity area, or... there will be no food."
Feng Lan raised his head and looked into Xu An's eyes. "We live in a good era. Our ancestors left us a relatively safe place and taught us how to survive in the end times. That's why we have the united A061 today. I thought about the question you asked me the other day for a long time. It's a very complicated thing. I don't know how to tell you, and I don't know why you have such doubts. But I would suggest that you don't seek an answer, but feel it instead."
"The best place to experience it is A061. I hope we won't disappoint you." Feng Lan extended his hand. "Once A061 is adjusted, we will resume ground missions. Our main task will be to collect the biological genes of the alien species, develop tools to deal with them, and bring them back to the surface."
"Xu An, are you willing to join A061? To find the reason why people form bonds with each other?"
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