Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train-Chapter 347: Flying Fireballs!

High above, the black mist twisted and churned. Just as Lin Xian secured the Memory Core, he heard Senju Shun shouting. His first reaction was: Did something happen to Ning Jing? Without hesitation, he ordered KIKI to lead the team in a rapid descent, regrouping with Chen Sixuan and Shiori to fly low along the streets toward the suspected location.

“Lin, the Wastewater Treatment Plant must have received the signal. You have 15 minutes to evacuate.” – Moonlight Shinji’s voice came through.

Lin Xian kept an eye on the countdown as he examined the Memory Core in his hand. This black device was incredibly valuable—it could store the high-energy-density brain data of a full-grown human. For Digital Life, it was a highly advanced iteration.

He wiped off traces of cerebrospinal fluid and mycelium, then handed it to Grace.

“Grace, check the integrity of the Memory Core.”

Grace accepted it. Her left wrist’s synthetic skin slid open to reveal an interface slot. She inserted the device and scanned it.

“Not now.” Lin Xian retrieved the core. This one was better left to Moonlight Shinji to analyze. Their current mission was regroup and extract.

In the Baicheng city center, crumbling buildings loomed, and eerie noises echoed from all directions. Static crackled in their earpieces. When Lin Xian’s squad reached Baicheng Hospital, they saw a burning Transport Ship in the sky unleashing heavy firepower below. Swarms of silver drones weaved and fired, creating a chaotic battlefield in both air and ground.

Explosions rocked several blocks—smoke and fire everywhere!

Unlike the earlier transport ship they encountered, this one was clearly outfitted for war, supported by a full drone escort.

Boom—crack—crackle!

The ship’s wings unfurled like an angel’s, launching dozens of large cylindrical devices. Mid-air, they burst apart into swarms of spider-like robots that skittered along walls and ground. Their round heads spun, emitting red pulse lasers.

BOOM!

A shockwave ripped away decaying walls and vehicle wreckage like a tsunami, disintegrating both airborne and ground drones. Takahashi Ryunosuke, wielding a red katana, landed atop a building. With a swift slash, he sliced an oncoming Humanoid Mecha in half, triggering a high-energy explosion.

Thud, thud, thud!

Two silver heavy-duty mechas rampaged through the streets, smashing spider robots clinging to their armor while fending off waves of Eerie Entities. High above in the shadows, Senju Shun piloted the two mechas while also commanding another in the air battle aboard the transport ship.

“Lin!” Senju caught Lin Xian’s signal. “The Crimson Skeletal Horror triggered a Monster Tide. That ship is the main threat—Ran is on board. We need to end this, fast!”

As Lin Xian and team soared in, Chen Sixuan spotted massive combat erupting in the hospital’s inpatient wing. A massive explosion blew a black figure through a wall—Ning Jing leapt out from the crater.

“Captain Lin! There's a Watcher here—be careful.”

Before she finished, explosions erupted across the hospital courtyard. A golden flash launched out and landed a vicious kick on the black figure, sending it flying.

Julius Litt emerged from the smoke, rolling his ankle and muttering,

“Tough bastard.”

But before he could finish, the Crimson Skeletal Horror he kicked suddenly opened a pair of glowing scarlet eyes. Violent energy built up—and then discharged!

CRACK—BOOM—BOOM!

A blast combining A Bai’s laser and Luo Yang’s shock pulse obliterated the ground where Fan Qing had just stood. Dozens of fireballs ignited, tearing through an entire hospital wing!

Fan Qing looked on. Nearby, Xiao Qing swung with a grappling hook, charging with a gun-blade through the Monster Tide. Below, Monica used Sound Blades to shield A Bai, who then fired a laser beam at the transport ship.

But the ship’s prow carried a strange white apparatus, which launched chaff-like micro-devices that exploded into dark red fog—identical to what Fan Qing had encountered before. A Bai’s laser beam struck it but was stopped cold. The low-energy fog exploded, damaging the ship itself.

“Fewer Eerie Entities now. If that keeps up, no one’s making it out.” – said KIKI, watching the scene.

“Fire Bro, help Qian Dele and Ning Jing with the Crimson Horror. Ms. Chen, take Shiori and support Monica and A Bai. Help them locate the Watcher—killing monsters won't matter if we don’t neutralize it. KIKI, Grace, we take down the transport ship!”

“Got it.” “I’m on it!”

Lu Xingchen, fired up, charged like a meteor of flame. Mid-air, he crossed his fingers, conjuring a spinning blue fireball, the heat so intense it turned his armor red-hot. Gripping the fireball, he fired it like a Ki blast.

“Divine: Infinite Blazing Flame Blade!”

BOOM!

Frustrated from earlier, Lu Xingchen unleashed a new ultimate technique without restraint. A white-hot spiraling inferno blasted down from the sky, lighting up a three-kilometer radius.

Qian Dele and Ning Jing, closest to ground zero, had to retreat in a panic. Monica yanked A Bai away from the blast path.

The Crimson Skeletal Horror had just emerged from the dust when the sky brightened unnaturally. It looked up, saw the fire spiral, and tried to retaliate. Too late. In a flash, it and a hospital wing vanished—vaporized.

The creature’s clothing, body, and mechanical restraint device disintegrated. Its blood-red eyes didn’t even fire a shot—it melted on the spot.

WHOOOM!!

An inferno erupted, consuming entire blocks in a tsunami of flames.

The sheer scale of this attack shocked even Takahashi, Senju, Qian Dele, Ning Jing—and nearly blinded Lin Xian’s team.

Staggering back, Qian Dele gasped,

“Dude! You trying to get every monster in the city to notice you?”

Even KIKI, flying with Lin Xian toward the transport ship, cursed aloud,

“Is this guy insane?!”

“Hyaah!” Ning Jing leapt from rubble. “Watch out, that monster’s defense—”

She stopped mid-sentence. The Crimson Horror’s position was now a charred crater meters wide, flaming debris everywhere. Only a half-burned leg remained.

Staring at the scorched Lu Xingchen, whose armor was partially melted, Ning Jing wondered if he’d evolved—or was just blowing off steam. His attack was completely irrational.

Hovering above the scorched earth, Lu Xingchen admired his burning hands and muttered:

“This fire, though it can scorch cities and shatter stone, is far from burning the Eight Wastes or boiling the heavens... Still, my path must be tempered further…”

With the Crimson Horror destroyed, pressure on Ning Jing’s group eased. It had caught them off guard, but they rallied quickly. Just as the tide turned, the transport ship and its heavy weaponry escalated the fight.

Meanwhile, Chen Sixuan, Shiori, and Monica began tracking the Watcher.

“It’s within visual detection range. We have to kill it—only then can we erase the marks on us,” Shiori said.

With the three teams converged, the transport ship tried to escape. But Amano Ran was still fighting a humanoid mech on its deck, while Grace and KIKI approached from the flanks.

To their shock, the enemy mech resembled Grace—same skin material, but lacking a Quantum AI Core, making it more basic yet still formidable.

KIKI immediately used Telekinesis to seize the ship.

Whoooom!!

The engines surged in resistance. Takahashi Ryunosuke arrived and added his power—together, they held the ship suspended in mid-air.

Lin Xian and Grace landed atop it. The mech fighting Amano turned to look at Grace, tilting its head in curiosity.

Just then, Amano Ran smashed it with a punch, carving a glowing groove along the deck—but even after minutes of fighting, the mech showed only minor dents.

It prepared to rise again—until its limbs suddenly locked and twisted. Lin Xian had remotely overridden it.

Amano Ran stared in awe. Even behind her mask, the surprise in her eyes was clear.

“Don’t damage it. I want it.”

Lin Xian ordered Grace to deploy an EMP Bomb to disable the ship.

But Senju Shun interjected,

“We already tried. It’s got a Plasma Shield, and the crew is resisting. Something valuable’s inside!”

Understanding immediately, Lin Xian charged the control panels, using Mechanical Devour to strip integrated circuits and systems.

With his remote control abilities, human tech was nothing but a buffet.

Soon, the ship’s Flight Control Systems shut down. Alarms blared. With KIKI and Ryunosuke holding it in place, the ship crashed—toppling buildings, smoke billowing.

All around, Eerie Entities closed in—drawn to the Dark Marks on the teams.

Chen Sixuan finally located the Watcher at a sewer entrance. Monica ended it with a Sound Blade, carving it to pieces.

With the mark source destroyed, the three elite teams struck back, swiftly eliminating nearby low-level Eerie Entities, stopping the fight from spiraling out of control.

Having retrieved the Memory Core, Lin Xian and Senju held their teams back, hiding within buildings, watching the Transport Ship for reactions.

Bzzt bzzt—crack!

In the distance, Ryunosuke tore off its external components, crippling it.

Senju cautiously sent in a mech while Lin Xian and KIKI watched from below.

Then the ship’s hatch opened. Through the smoke, a middle-aged man in a special bodysuit and respirator mask emerged.

He looked different from the Replicants. No white mycelium, but a sophisticated Brain-Machine Interface at the back of his skull. Like an astronaut.

His pale, unnatural face looked out through the transparent mask. Narrow, cold eyes stared forward.

Raising his hands, he stepped out—facing two Heavy Assault Mechs locked on him.

Unbothered, he said,

“Quite the crowd. You must’ve paid dearly to survive this far.”

He gazed at the mech monitors, as if seeing the man behind the controls.

His rasping voice came through the mask:

“Moonlight Shinji, you burned Cloud Yunlan Center and destroyed Wei River Research Facility. Our Crimson World doesn’t understand why. Digital life. Intelligent ascension. This new path of civilization—isn’t that what you pursued for decades? Why fight against the sacred path of evolution?”

The surroundings fell into silence—this person was actually speaking directly to Moonlight Shinji.

At that moment, inside the Baicheng Western Mountain Underground Bunker’s Control Room, Moonlight Shinji, robed in simple attire, stood with hands behind his back. He gazed at the holographic screen before him, a calm expression on his face.

“That tone sounds awfully familiar. Let me guess—it's you again, Julius, isn’t it?”

Julius?

Lin Xian furrowed his brows when he heard Moonlight Shinji’s voice transmitted through the heavy mech. That name rang a bell.

Then it hit him.

Wasn't that the head of the Zero Element Center, the same man whose consciousness was infiltrated by Chu Yan at the Baihe Beach Stargazing Base? A high-ranking member of the Crimson World.

He was taken aback. This guy seemed to be everywhere. But then he remembered—the Crimson World had produced countless replicant memory cores to explore the Abyss Zones. Given the neural interface on this one, this was likely a replicant of Julius Litt.

“Gene compilation, bio-armoring, dark fusion? Tch, what an insult to the essence of digital life and its role in human civilization...” Moonlight Shinji said with a sigh.

“Civilization? In just 100 days since the Apocalypse, we’ve accelerated the evolutionary process by a million years. True intellect should recognize this isn’t destruction—it’s the breakthrough humanity has always needed,” Julius replied as he looked up at KIKI and Ryunosuke, flying overhead. “Flight—humanity spent centuries to achieve it during the Industrial Revolution. How long did it take you? Three days? Thirty? The ability to manipulate matter was supposed to be—”

“Interesting. If you can tell me the truth behind Abyssal Power, maybe you’ll convince me.”

That comment caught Julius off-guard. He fell silent for a moment.

Moonlight Shinji watched him, smiling faintly. Then, he gave a quiet command to Senju Shun:

“Shun...”

As soon as he spoke, Shun prepared to eliminate the target.

“Wait.” Suddenly, Julius turned his gaze toward Lin Xian. He had spotted Grace, and next to her, Lin Xian.

“You must be Lin Xian. Mechanical ability... what a flawless specimen.”

“What a pity—a perfect experimental subject like you is about to be buried in the Abyss. Otherwise, your ability might have been the key to breaking our bottleneck with machine intelligence.”

“Mind if I ask something?” Lin Xian spoke up. Even though time was pressing, this was his first face-to-face encounter with a major Crimson World figure. They had already destroyed the Zero Element Center in Yijin City, but what he knew of the organization was still just scratching the surface.

Senju Shun paused his attack, but gave a warning:

“Lin, don’t reveal too much. Even with transmission delay, everything you say can still reach Crimson World beyond the Abyss.”

Lin Xian nodded, understanding. He looked at Julius.

“Simple question—were the Colossus Anchor Points in Akesai and the Wei River meant to target Silent City... and me?”

No one had expected Lin Xian to ask that. Only Moonlight Shinji showed a flicker of concern in his eyes.

Julius looked at Lin Xian, then chuckled silently.

“You poor fool... You all really think your plan is working? That you can steal our research and walk away safe? Oh, let me give you a little gift.”

With that, he raised his left hand. His palm split open, revealing a strange control device embedded within—something that looked very much like a trigger.

In a flash, Senju Shun sensed the danger and began to move, preparing to fire the mech’s weapons.

But Julius was faster. Ignoring the weapons pointed at him, he pressed the button with his thumb.

“Goodbye, obsolete scum.”

But… nothing happened.

The air fell eerily still. The smirk on Julius’ face froze.

He turned to look—and saw that his entire left hand had vanished.

The so-called button press had been nothing but a gesture in thin air.

“Such a shame... wasting a good mechanical arm on a pig-brain.” From afar, Lin Xian, clad in Black Hawk Power Armor, said coldly. Trying mechanical tricks in front of him? That was like waving a sword in front of Guan Yu.

“How could th—”

Beep!!

Julius instinctively tried to process what was happening. His neural system was constantly transmitting to the outside world, but before he could compute the situation, his brain-machine interface suddenly crashed.

The device he had intended to activate was a ship-mounted destruction module, capable of self-detonation and spreading high-level Dark Pollution. While it wasn’t a direct mark, it would have greatly increased the threat level for Lin Xian and the others.

Elsewhere, deep underground outside the Abyss, the real Julius Litt, blonde and calm, sat in his office chair. The holographic screen flickered with fragmented audio.

Despite all the signal relay stations deployed, over 90% of data was still lost during transmission from inside the Abyss. All they could use were short, encrypted messages. Now, the audio feed gave him only snippets of Lin Xian and Moonlight Shinji.

He stared at the screen, waiting for the [Destruction] protocol to report back. According to the time flow inside, he should have received confirmation in a few seconds.

But several minutes passed. Still nothing.

“Destruction protocol failed. The mechanical ability truly allows for remote intervention.”

A voice sounded behind him. Julius turned to see several encrypted faces on the large screen. Each carried a codename.

“Our Zero Element Center has been compromised. The collaboration between that Mechanical Ability User and Moonlight Shinji is a serious threat.” “Julius, ensure Crimson-03’s retrieval.” “The Lord has decreed: Major operations in Dawn City are about to begin. The anchor point at Abyss Zone No. 5 must be accelerated.” “Understood.” Julius checked his watch. “It’s time. The Baicheng Purification Protocol begins now. The next activation window is in 24 hours.”

At Baicheng Hospital, near the crashed transport ship, fire lit up the darkness.

Thud!

The Julius who’d been speaking seconds ago collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

“Thanks for trusting me,” Lin Xian said to Senju Shun.

Shun exhaled slowly. He’d been just about to strike, but Lin Xian had secretly told him to hold back. That brief hesitation had even rattled Shun, usually calm under pressure. But clearly, Lin Xian’s gamble paid off.

“It’s fine. You were after his memory core, right? Looks like you got it.”

Lin Xian nodded.

“His brain-machine interface is more complex than most—took a little effort.”

Amano Ran walked over and yanked a memory core straight from the back of Julius’ skull. She handed it to Senju Shun.

“Looks intact.”

“Let’s get out of here,” said Qian Dele, relieved. They’d successfully intercepted both ships and recovered memory cores—whether from researchers or high-ranking figures. Their objective was met. All that remained was to let Moonlight Shinji decode them.

But KIKI still looked suspicious.

“That guy... I don’t think he was trying to activate a self-destruct. That device felt more like a decoy.”

Hearing this, Lin Xian messaged Senju Shun through their comms:

“Don’t you think it’s odd? That transport fought tooth and nail to survive. After crashing, he could’ve blown it up immediately. Why waste time talking—and give me a chance to take control?”

Now that Amano Ran had retrieved the core, Lin Xian’s expression grew even more serious. From his perspective, it was unlikely the Crimson World didn’t know about his Mechanical Ability. After all, his powers had already been exposed widely in Yubei City, Hengshan Pass, and Xilan City.

Even if they didn’t know about his new skills like remote devour, scan, and control, Julius’ behavior had been illogical.

Even Senju Shun was beginning to doubt something. As he was about to speak, Moonlight Shinji’s voice came through his earpiece:

“Shun, check the transport ship’s replicant corpses immediately.”

Senju Shun responded at once, piloting his light mech into the wreckage. Soon, he reported back:

“65 replicants. All self-destructed. There’s a suspicious explosive device—probably what he tried to activate.”

“Shun, Lin... it’s a trap.”

“What!?”

Inside the bunker, Moonlight Shinji’s eyes locked onto the screens. His quantum brain calculated millions of scenarios per second—and found the problem.

“Both transport ships had 86 replicant corpses. The last known intake was at least 1600. Based on our data over the past two months, replicant survival rates—excluding our interference—average 87%. That means roughly 368 live replicants should’ve made it aboard. This time, we’re down over 70%. They likely have another evacuation plan.”

Many factors affect survival rates—like their experiments and the uncontrollable risks of the Abyss. But Moonlight Shinji, analyzing based on worst-case logic, multiple layers of preparation, no information asymmetry, and discounting outside interference, reached a grim conclusion.

Hearing this, Lin Xian and the others turned pale.

Suddenly, a piercing sound sliced through the air. They looked up—dozens of small rocket-like aircraft launched from the sewage treatment facility, darting across the sky in every direction!

“D*mn it!” Senju Shun cursed, firing up his mech’s propulsion system. It shot into the air. At the same time, KIKI and Ryunosuke launched themselves into pursuit.

“A diversion?!” Qian Dele shouted in alarm.

“Did Crimson World figure out our plan?” Monica asked, frowning.

“They’ve always known we were targeting their ships—but they’ve never pulled a stunt this desperate!” Amano Ran said grimly.

“There must be something vital on those rockets!” Chen Sixuan said, eyes sharp.

Hearing that, Lin Xian’s gut twisted. He pulled out the memory core. Suddenly, it all clicked.

The replicants on those ships were probably just decoys. The two cores they retrieved? Possibly meaningless.

And worse—if the rockets only carried a single thing each, why launch them all at once? It meant every rocket was a backup.

“We won’t catch them. Lin, call them back. This is the prelude to a full-scale Baicheng purge. We need to retreat—now!” Senju Shun’s voice was grave.

These rockets could break supersonic speed in seconds. Neither his mech nor KIKI or Ryunosuke’s flight speed could keep up. Seeing the danger, he gave the order.

But just then—a garbled transmission came through:

“Brother Lin, wait for me!!!”

BOOM!

As KIKI and Ryunosuke reached their limits, a fiery streak soared into the sky—aimed straight at the nearest rocket, vanishing into the night!

At 3000 meters altitude, the thin air was pierced by a conical shockwave. Overhead, a vast black canopy swallowed the stars. Lu Xingchen’s Power Armor burned red-hot from air friction, with gold-red plasma trails blasting from his joints. His helmet display flickered with alarms.

[High Temperature Warning!] [Overload Alert!]

Flames burst from his palms as multiple Mach rings tore through the air!

Mach 1!

Mach 2!!

Mach 3!!!

The outer layer of his battle suit peeled away. The flame trailing behind him shifted from crimson to deep blue. The darkness ahead twisted and collapsed into itself repeatedly. In just a few seconds, Lu Xingchen had pushed himself to his life’s limit using the Infinite Loop.

He looked up. In a flash, he saw the accelerating rocket tail burning brighter by the second.

He gritted his teeth.

“You monster, you’re not getting away!”

His right fist ignited. The Infinite Loop spun wildly, and he unleashed a full-force punch forward.

“Divine Might!”

In Baicheng, the roar of countless rockets disturbed the night. From the dark alleys, eerie entities began to stir. Gigantic bodies awakened with shrill cries, their deranged murmurs echoing everywhere!

On a rooftop beside a crashed transport ship, Lin Xian and Senju Shun’s squad stared grimly at the fire streaks splitting the sky.

Sensing the fear rising throughout the city, Shiori used her Ability to relieve the growing pressure of dark invasion on everyone.

“Tide’s about to rise!” Senju Shun warned.

Lin Xian checked the time—five minutes left.

“Fire Bro’s back!” KIKI's voice rang out from above. Everyone looked up to see a flaming fireball racing toward them. KIKI immediately ascended to intercept, discovering that Lu Xingchen, engulfed in flames, was barely hanging on. His power armor had been nearly incinerated, and he clutched a scorched half of a rocket in one hand as he flew in.

Seeing this, KIKI quickly used telekinesis to guide him down safely. The group stared in astonishment—he had actually brought the rocket back.

“Lin Xian, mission accomplished!”

“Fire Bro, are you okay?” Lin Xian immediately noticed something was wrong.

Lu Xingchen was covered in burns, gasping for breath. His complexion was extremely pale, and his eyes were bloodshot.

“Incredible, Fire Bro. I’m seriously impressed,” KIKI said, amazed by his bold display.

Senju Shun frowned at Lu Xingchen’s state and quickly called on Shiori.

“Shiori, purify him—he’s absorbed too much fear energy and is completely drained.”

“Got it!” Shiori nodded and channeled her full strength. A green glow enveloped Lu Xingchen. Gradually, the red faded from his eyes, and his complexion began to recover.

Clunk, clunk, clunk.

Senju Shun operated a heavy mech and approached. The chest armor opened, revealing a narrow cockpit.

“Get in and rest. You’re in no shape to fight.”

“I’m fine. Nothing this body can’t handle.” Lu Xingchen tried to dust himself off, but his armor was practically shredded.

Noticing the awkwardness, and with no spare armor available, Lin Xian said, “Fire Bro, just get in and rest. We’ll still need you for the ‘Heavenly Descent’ later.”

“If you insist.” Lu Xingchen coughed and stepped into the mech before his gear completely fell apart.

Senju Shun sealed the cockpit and soon received Lu Xingchen’s vitals on his holo-display: “He’s not in good shape, but no serious injuries. Let’s move—tide’s coming.”

Everyone immediately understood and headed to the morgue beneath Baicheng Hospital—the same place where Ning Jing and the others had previously hidden. The main entrance had been destroyed by a Crimson Skeletal Horror, but Lin Xian reinforced it from the inside, sealing it multiple times and restoring lighting.

“D*mn, this is way nicer than before,” Qian Dele commented, glancing around at the now brightly lit space.

Previously, they had relied on their suits’ headlamps in this eerie place, which Qian Dele had always hated. Now, thanks to Lin Xian’s upgrades, the morgue became a temporary haven from the tide.

The corpses had long rotted. There were communication devices installed by Silent City. Many of the freezer cabinets were half open. Melted fluids congealed on the ground like wax, mingled with bone fragments and decaying fabric. In the corners, body bags were stacked. Some had burst from bloating, revealing carbonized remains inside.

Not long after they settled in, the tide began. A wave of chill swept the land. Outside, the hospital’s ruined inpatient tower boiled with eerie energy.

The burning wreckage and the downed transport ship had clearly drawn attention from many eerie entities.

In the underground morgue, Lin Xian and Senju Shun opened the damaged rocket. As expected, it wasn’t a missile, but a transport vehicle used by Crimson World to ship cargo outward. Inside was a small cryogenic pod—far too small to fit an adult.

Through the transparent lid, a grotesquely deformed Replicant was visible. Its limbs and prosthetics had been removed. In its chest was embedded a palm-sized culture dish, containing brown-red tissue—clearly added recently, as frozen blood still crusted its edges.

Everyone’s faces darkened.

“What the hell is this?” Amano Ran asked.

Ning Jing frowned. “They’re launching Replicants now?”

Qian Dele scoffed. “Why not just launch the memory core then...?”

“No,” Lin Xian said. “This method suggests the memory core isn’t the point. They need a living carrier!”

KIKI nodded. “Right. This Replicant must still be alive. That means the culture dish is the real cargo!”

Senju Shun said nothing but quickly sent the details to Moonlight Shinji.

Watching the cryo-pod feed, Shinji's expression turned serious. He focused on the tissue sample and spoke.

“Shun, extract the memory core and decrypt it.”

“Understood.” Senju Shun nodded and turned to Lin Xian. “I’ll need to remove the memory core. Can you secure the system?”

Then he looked toward the Grace Robot. “I might need her processing power.”

Lin Xian understood. Worried about a self-destruct protocol, he used the Mechanical Heart to open the pod and devoured the brain-machine’s kill switch, safely retrieving the memory core.

Senju Shun plugged it into his light mech’s control interface. Grace connected to the mech’s docking port and began decrypting.

[RSA encryption cracked. Connecting to stored consciousness...] [Connection successful. Identity: Li Tai, 45 years old, former Chief Genetic Engineer at Crimson Pharma...]

Meanwhile, Lin Xian had Grace forward the decrypted intel to Moonlight Shinji for full analysis. Because of earlier security concerns, Grace hadn’t been included in data transmissions from Silent City, so Shinji still needed to be the one to interpret and contextualize.

In the bunker control room, the electric lines lit up as Shinji’s AI Core raced through the data.

“So that’s what this is... what a troublesome group.”

He sighed, then said over the comms:

“It’ll take time to finish decryption, but we can already confirm that the memory core contains valid and complete backup data.”

“Second, from recent logs, they’ve successfully cultivated living dark cells. That’s both good and bad. The good: if these living cells can be studied, we might make incredible breakthroughs in researching Starfield corruption and dark invasion. Since all eerie entities lose biological activity after death, this could lead to a cure... maybe even save humanity from extinction. But that’s assuming we can get this sample out and study it safely.”

“What’s the bad news?” Ning Jing asked.

“That it was developed by Crimson World,” Lin Xian answered before Shinji could.

“Exactly,” Shinji confirmed. “And there’s something worse—Baicheng is about to undergo a full purge. But unlike before, this one isn’t just targeting us. It’s a forced contingency.”

“Forced?” KIKI asked.

Senju Shun said grimly, “Meaning... even Crimson World can’t control it.”

“Correct,” Shinji said. “They performed some kind of experiment beneath the wastewater plant. It woke up Target 01. Their evacuation isn’t just about us—it’s about retrieving all research backups and those living dark cells before the purge wipes everything out.”

“Target 01?!” Qian Dele exclaimed. “You mean that Star Abyss overlord?!”

Senju Shun took a deep breath and nodded.

The air in the morgue turned deathly still.

The Abyss Fiend was coming.

Above, thunder tore across the dark sky. Twisted black mist split the heavens like tectonic plates. At the United Train defense line by Bottomless Lake, survivors stared through train windows at the ominous black sky, feeling a faint tremor ripple through the atmosphere. A suffocating pressure poured down from the heavens like a crashing wave.

Back in the morgue, the cold silence was broken only by Lin Xian’s voice: “Do we still have time?”

“Target 01 is approaching from the center,” Shinji responded without hesitation. “But Baicheng’s main target hasn’t been exposed yet. Crimson World will wait until they’ve secured the living cell sample before they send the activation signal and initiate the full purge.”

“These bastards...” Qian Dele muttered, too stunned to even curse properly.

Monica, quiet until now, asked, “What if we intercept that signal?”

“Impossible,” Amano Ran shook his head. “Finding their relay station is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Even if we delay exposure, that Abyssal Beast is still closing in.”

“No,” Lin Xian interjected. “She means we go into the wastewater plant and destroy the device before the signal gets transmitted.”

Amano Ran, Takahashi Ryunosuke, and Shiori all frowned at the idea.

“Shinji,” Senju Shun looked toward Lin Xian and asked via comms, “Do we have time for what Lin’s suggesting?” ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

“Maybe...” Shinji took a deep breath. “Inside the Abyss, these rockets use only inertial guidance—they’re aimed at coordinates and retrieved manually. Because of signal lag, recovery takes time. At Crimson World’s efficiency... probably just a few to ten minutes.”

“But we have twelve times that,” Lin Xian said sharply.

Everyone froze.

“If it’s five minutes outside, we have an hour inside. Subtract the tide time, and we still have a shot before the next wave, right?”

Everyone—including Senju Shun—looked stunned. The time dilation between inside and outside the Abyss... might just be their key opportunity.

The room held its breath.

Then, finally, Moonlight Shinji’s voice came through clearly on all their comms:

“Yes.”

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