Lin Site, of course, ignored all the noisy clamor below.
The black-gold employee card of the Cleanup Department transformed into fine golden trajectories, carrying him closer to the heights time and again through surging wind and blazing dust light.
Many figures below suddenly saw the figure that had appeared, high above. Following a trajectory of subtle shifts, they drifted and climbed, bearing down on higher ground.
Some gentlemen, well-dressed but looking down-and-out, shielded their eyes with their arms to look up.
“Someone’s gone up. “
A startled maiden and young man stopped in their tracks, their gazes locked onto that silhouette amidst the arms of people pointing up at the sky.
“Someone’s going up to confirm what that is! “
…
It was floating.
Linsite was the first to confirm this; nothing was holding it suspended.
His psionic body swayed, the cloak, seeming oddly lengthened, tightly wrapped around him. His slightly trembling head was firmly bound by a silk scarf.
At the corners of his eyes, there were flickering shadows of a brilliant radiance, shifting even as it was buffeted repeatedly by the vast energy, as if a plasma storm.
But the rotating, subtly appearing and shifting orbits allowed him to always cross paths with his target, closing in ever further.
The boy approached the rattan chest a kilometer away.
｛Not very large.｝
He said inwardly. Another surge of immense force swept over him, his figure uncontrollably appearing two or three li away, but after that single step, Lin Site was carried high by a tilted track that flipped up from the ground, and then rolled closer to the object.
This time it was eight hundred meters.
Around the black card, the air was like boiling fine water.
He was pushed outward again. Another distant, slender figure surged up from the ground, sinking and descending slowly to disappear beneath the surface. As the trajectory came to Linsite’s feet and passed through without stopping, the boy stepped onto the ground and mounted it.
Then the entire great trajectory rose high, carrying him as he shot into the clouds.
The ground below broke into an uproar as people witnessed what seemed like a golden circle rolling upward through the night, vanishing faintly into the glimmering shafts of light that swept in.
The brown-black motorcade’s cuboidal vine chest hovered amid the shifting, thin mist.
Linsite’s face appeared on one side of it.
This time, it was ten meters.
A faint sound reached his ears amidst the whistling rumble of the wind.
Linsite, beside the cabinet, turned his lively, inspired eyes and glanced at the vine chest.
{You can come a little closer. }
{Would you say I am dead, or alive? }
……
On the distant ground, nearly a thousand miles away.
Inside the royal steed-borne carriage.
The delegation from Hework led by the mentor Blackstock advanced slowly, carried forward by No. 5 as the wind gusted.
“Back when the equipment wasn’t broken yet, the lieutenant carrying it said that Yang Buchen had gone underground. Did you hear that, Konni? “
“Mm. ” Fenny’s voice echoed softly in the darkness.
The howl of propellers could be heard carried on the breeze.
By the window, Haili Fenny raised her sharply contoured face just as a massive bomber plane entered the sight of Jennifer and the others.
The woman turned her face to the side and saw the strange large aircraft come to a stop. Its wide glass canopy was popped open, and the pilot’s voice rang out.
“Miss Korney? I am the pilot of the Praying Vessel. Colonel Brownlion ordered me to take you to the World Ark base in Havyn Zicktal, and to enter the lodge.“
Number Five looked at the aircraft.
“No,” the emotionless man said. “My orders are to protect this target.“
“Then all of you come up together.“
“You can come with us,” Soldier Number Five said coldly, hoisting the Royal Horse Spine carriage and continuing forward.
Streams of silvery, delicate light rolled and streaked across the clouds.
The pilot inside the cabin was taken aback for a moment. He glanced at the empty seats behind him and, with no other choice, stretched his arm back, grabbed the mechanical handle mounted behind, and pulled the canopy shut again.
The Science Demon’s bomber took off, soaring into the clouds.
……
In the streets and alleys of Talco, nimble combatants appeared, launching attacks on crowds, soldiers, and patrolling guards.
Though they had tried to stick to light, ancient weapons, as the authorities gradually loosened firearm restrictions, their assaults—which had initially caused heavy casualties—were already beginning to lose their early momentum.
A man with a twisted, useless arm, having dropped his homemade spear, was being dragged away from the street by two others.
“Why hasn’t the Chief shown up yet!“
With grief in his heart, he looked up at the sky, toward that black dot only visible through a telescope.
“You people don’t understand how terrifying the consequences of changing the world can be. “
At the end of the street, the two gasped for breath as they ducked behind a wall, watching the man being dragged away.
“Now is not the time to save him. “
They saw some flying machines beginning to drift up into the sky.
Frowning, the man who looked a laborer named Ahses said:
“The Fogfolk won’t succeed. Only by bringing the Chairman down can our world return to normal. “
“Yes, those people from the World Ark can never succeed. “
Jean-Rayne beside him nodded in agreement. Then he pulled open a rolled sheet of paper slightly, examined the patterns on it, turned back, and began to carve marks on the wall with a stone.
The traces appeared bit by bit when suddenly they heard a heavy, dull rumble.
Jean-Rayne turned to look at his companion from the Borderlands, “Did you hear that? It sounds like something collapsed somewhere. “
Ares closed his eyes tensely, listened for a moment, then opened them and said:
“Let’s hope there aren’t any more casualties. Otherwise, if the Chairman doesn’t show up, the demons from underground might come first. “
Outside the World Ark headquarters.
Two squads had already brought more tarpaulin. Under the watchful gaze of the Crown Prince, the Blightblood Warriors frantically threaded the steel cables they held through the corner of the canvas being cut, then pulled them taut.
“Report, Your Highness the Crown Prince. This is a Secret Fruit given to you by an innkeeper. Please consume it immediately. “
Crown Prince Sarezzing Hazel stared at the small, green-skinned fruit before him.
He looked toward the farmers bustling in the open ground, some of whom walked into the hanging baskets, their bodies shrouded in energy as misty as buds wrapped in petals.
“Give them to the soldiers. “
“Yes. ” The reporter turned without a word and ran toward the Magic Blood Second Lieutenant, who was at a corner of a tent flapping in the wind, dragging an iron chain toward a basket.
Xíé River Quiyīn looked up into the sky.
He thought that if he were there, he would probably be able to hear fate many whispers of the dragon peoples. But he also had a faint unease.
Since weird enemies were conjured through the telescope, people like Ya Galinar should be hidden from sight. But if no avvesior action is taken, absolutely not anything let you figure out what it is overall.
To be honest, the best solution would be to evacuate the entire city. But there is not enough time for the hundred thousand townsmen. Even if, as soon as the wind started, passages shelterments owned up arranged so flow rest among broken or distributed fate multi-colored breeds much more wait there souls many others across short year durations.
Not to mention utterly hazardous unresolved situation probably at any seconds.
And in broad gloom to go high….
Amidst the howling wind and the storm of energy battering his consciousness, Lin Site contemplated, sensing the thick, surging currents around him.
The boy, protected by the Black Gold Security Department employee card, drifted like a leaf in a boat through these surging waves.
This is no simple problem.
He thought to himself.
This is definitely not an ordinary problem.
He was certain.
……
In one flying canvas basket after another, they shook and drifted into the high sky.
Lorenz ran along the long street.
“Don’t look! “
The running Air Force sergeant major whispered hoarsely as he leaped over a fallen corpse beneath his feet. He was afraid his crumbling spirit would, after the next faint, forget this message as terrifying as a nuclear bomb.
“Damn it. “
He shouted.
“Save me. ” Amid the running, a weak voice came from the side.
Several torn rags on the wall flapped and swayed with a smacking sound. Lorenz saw beneath them a man, hit by an arrow, sitting weakly and painfully on the ground against the wall.
“Sorry, I can’t do anything this time. “
Lorenz did not pause and continued running forward.
Di Biessel weakly watched the figure vanish ahead.
Several streets away.
In a civilian house, a tall armored warrior clad in metallic knight armor stepped out, holding a massive battle-axe.
This metal armor, stored for hundreds of years, was now worn on a person, as if a mighty warrior had returned triumphant from ancient battles against demons and ancient rogue humans.
But the slow, heavy aura from the armored knight barely cleared the threshold. Outside in the air, a strange bird, shot in from beyond the city walls at high speed, suddenly changed direction and twisted its charge as if discovering a new target.
The black shadow instantly shot to a few meters above the knight, transforming into a humanoid figure wrapped in black leather in mid-air. The figure thrust out a long sword, plunging downward.
The towering armored warrior looked up and immediately swung the giant axe in his hand.
A thunderous boom erupted from the air, and the displaced shockwave pushed both adversaries back some distance. The armored knight, his axe slightly cracked, glanced at his weapon, then, as astral yuan energy flared and burst forth, he swung the giant axe again, slamming it toward the figure who had lightly touched down on the ground and was rushing at him once more.
Clang! Clang, clang!
“Run! “
The commotion startled many.
At a nearby crossroads where people had gathered, many who had already been unable to wait for assembly and orderly departure now scattered in even greater panic, each running off into the dark night.
“Everyone, get out of the city quickly! There are bad people! “
“Those with telescopes and homemade weapons are the bad guys. Be careful if you see them! “
On the more peripheral edges of the city of Tarkov, many formed groups and ran out of the gates.
But while chaos consumed the city,
Some figures, striving to remain undetected, were drawing the scroll patterns entrusted to them in the areas handpicked by a barefoot staff-wielder.
On the walls, there were the lines they had painstakingly traced.
Some of them had only drawn half before being discovered by people, or they heard sounds and ran away. But on other walls nearby, there would still be someone coming not long after to start over, using stones or chalk, or even charcoal ash, to draw those mind-numbing patterns.
Thunder rolled and contracted as it swept past.
Beside a tributary of seawater.
Following the trail of red traces in the sea water upstream to this point, Long Xianing and his companions gazed down with pale faces.
Beneath the black, undulating ground fissure, within the large barriers where seawater churned to intercept foreign objects, were penned several creatures such as goats, pigs, and cattle, their bellies swollen.
Someone covered their mouth and pointed into the middle, ｛indicating｝ two or three figures that did not belong among these animals, wrapped in jackets and pressed down by the carcasses of livestock.
“Wait, wait…“
Just then, another person looked behind them and stammered. Long Xianing turned his head, taking a step back as he looked.
Some iron vines burst forth from underground, dispersing to extend and shoot toward the group.
With a splash, two figures leaped into the current; the remaining few screamed in agony as they were pierced through by the iron vines twisting around them.
Some vines extended down into the seawater below, but Jean Xinda and A La Ka, who had jumped in, had already vanished along with the rushing current.
…
On a street at the outermost edge of the city.
Hong Haocheng looked up, staring into the distance at the location of the black box, invisible to mortal eyes.
Two, then three delicate halos lit up in his pupils, only to fade again.
Yet, after a brief pause, a fourth would flicker into a tenuous brilliance.
Uncertain whether from hesitation or anticipation, Hong Haocheng always felt he might be unable to make this decision.
Perhaps he sometimes wondered if the intelligence he had gathered was truly accurate.
A trace of a formidable individual appeared at the street corner ahead, heading towards a more interior street. But he knew this person, who was using the Octagon Chamber of Commerce’s name to conceal their identity, was baiting the nearby Heiwen Zike Demon-Blood Warrior, for two people had just gone in the direction of that man.
Probably another one drawing those patterns on the walls.
His hands clenched slightly, then relaxed.
After several times, Hong Haocheng made no decision. He didn’t choose to hinder, nor did he choose to help.
……
Beneath ground level, Yang Zicang was familiarizing himself with the gear-shaped ring of light on his chest beside a strangely… ultra-retro pure mechanical device built to create a molten crystal display. He sensed a vaguely odd pulling sensation.
The faintly visible Six-Pointed Star seemed always on the verge of tugging at nerves deep within his chest, as if something were pulling at them.
Like… before a field trip, when you keep imagining scenes of other places you’re about to visit, causing a few muscles in your chest to tighten from anticipation.
Has something happened to Heiwen Zike?
Standing before the crystal dome emitting an orange glow, the young man clutching the push-button device in his hand couldn’t help but wonder.
……
Amid the overlapping shadows of swaying treetops, in the increasingly crowded school, Zhang Yu sat on the steps of the lectern, studying the telescope that had been confiscated.
Gathered in this classroom, the ones guarding the equipment and the precious Motafu-brand Telewave machine still managed to share some laughter over the day’s gains.
Honorifics usually reserved for formal social occasions rang out frequently in this pitch-dark classroom, punctuated by bursts of cheerful laughter.
Zhou Shu’an walked over and sat down beside him, handing him a cigarette that looked like it hadn’t been seen in stores for days—one he’d just gotten from the gentleman in the black velvet coat.
“Still figuring it out? “
“You tell me, ” Zhang Yu frowned, “if this thing were just for signaling, why stuff it with so much gold and gems? And besides, it can really see far. “
As he spoke, he lifted the telescope to his eye, peering over the heads of the crowd toward the deep blue night sky above the tree-silhouetted window frame.
As a thunderbolt flashed, he felt the distant mountain peaks were as close as if they were mere hundred meters away.
“Could there be a secret hidden in the barrel? “
“Hey, you’ve got a point. ” Zhang Yu turned the telescope over, trying to make out the faint structural outlines visible inside the barrel.
“It’s just a telescope. “
A man walked up to him, grinning as he offered a cigar. “Even if it’s gold worth a fortune, how valuable can it really be? You tell me—once we set up our own broadcast station, how many Silver Coins can we rake in? More than a hundred times over, at least. “
Zhang Yu looked up, took the cigarette offered by the son of a prominent local family who had contributed a good sum of money, and handed the optical sight over to Zhou Su’an beside him.
“You’re in a good mood today. “
“Of course, hehe. I can’t wait to announce to my closest friends that I’ve auctioned off the Tivi Machine. “
Zhou Su’an watched him stand up and start chatting with the man, then glanced at the binoculars in his hand.
“Xiao Yu. “
“Hmm? “
“What do you want to do with this? Still need to study it? “
“Our priority is protecting the equipment here. This thing, it’s just a bit more expensive, but its value to us isn’t very high. Handle it as you see fit. Anyway, once we catch that guy, we’ll find out what it does. “
Zhou Su’an frowned in thought for a moment and said to Zhang Yu, who had already lit his cigarette:
“I want to take it back and show it to the old gentlemen. “
“Huh? ” Zhang Yu turned his head in bewilderment.
Zhou Su’an said:
“In such a small domain, some people still find ways to break through the limits of the Science Demon. I think this thing can, at least, give that gentleman some inner comfort and relief, perhaps.“
Zhang Yu fell silent.
“You’re right, Brother Su’an. I’ll handle this matter.“
He snuffed out the freshly lit cigarette on the lectern, smiled and nodded to the teacher beside him, then took the telescope from Zhou Su’an’s hands, along with today’s itinerary documents wrapped in a package next to him, stuffed them into the inner pocket of his coat, grabbed his raincoat, and walked out of the classroom.
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