On Blue Star, looking at the night sky through the atmosphere is usually deep blue, only under extreme conditions would it be very dark. But when Lin Xian heard Hu Lushou say this, he felt something was amiss.
"I donât remember the latter half of the night. Anyway, before encountering the Abnormal Body, I had some impressions. The deep blue Iâm talking about isnât that transparent kind; it felt like a solid color projected onto the retina. Tsk tsk, I canât quite describe it, but it was just strange..." Hu Lushouâs tone was somewhat baffled, but as Lin Xian listened, it reminded him of something Chu Yan had once told him.
"Donât try to understand Taboo Items from a human perspective. If you see them, donât look. If you try to understand them, it will definitely defy common sense. Donât describe, donât elucidate!"
"And donât ever gaze at the sky!!"
"Donât gaze at the sky..."
In carriage number 12, Lin Xian sat alone, assembling the electromagnetic railgun while replaying these two sentences in his mind, feeling a chill running down his spine.
Since Apocalypse Day, the sky has become synonymous with danger.
Whether it was the sky danger ordinance issued by the Federation and Phoenix Society, the floating giant corpse in Jiang City, the Atmospheric Mica on Daluo Mountain, the Cloud Black Thorn in Xilan City, or the never-seen-before creature. Even the Starry Eye Lin Xian thought he glimpsed when testing the Mechanical Energy Cannon after defeating a swarm with Big Eagle and the Chasing Sun convoy near Hengshan Pass, they all sent chills down peopleâs spines.
Before humanity could react, the extreme night of Apocalypse Day cut off the connection between humans and near-earth orbit of Blue Star. The space station disappeared, and global satellites went offline. Lin Xian knew there must be Starship projects being conducted by both the Phoenix Society and the Federation, including the current Sky City. But up until now, there hasnât been any successful case or information, so in most peopleâs views, the sky holds danger even more despairing than the ground.
For the survival of human civilization so far, neither the Phoenix Society nor the Federation has found a truly viable solution.
The Federation chose to defend by withdrawing into strongholds, frantically constructing Underground Cities, while the Phoenix Society saved and fled simultaneously, trying to find a final answer before global extreme night. Yet no one among these frenzied individuals knew where this escape would ultimately lead. From Lin Xianâs current perspective, humanityâs strength was too minuscule. Even within just 100 days, they had evolved to Frenzy Level powers, but it was still far from enough to confront the darkness.
Rustle-rustle-rustle.
At this moment, Lin Xianâs Mechanical Heart was operating at full powerâhis left hand was assembling the electromagnetic railgun while his right hand constantly fetched materials converted by the Preparation Center to replenish the munitions manufacturing carriage. All team members were similarly on edge, busily working.
By 16:40 in the afternoon, there was less than two hours left before nightfall.
The third G3-electromagnetic railgun of the Infinity was finally successfully assembled. This was the first time Lin Xian manufactured two heavy weapons within a day. Because carriage number 12 was the central position of the train, this weapon station was also the only carriage equipped with short-range and long-range firepower simultaneously, naturally intended to protect the munitions carriage, the supplies carriage, and several adjacent living carriages.
Now, materials in Lin Xianâs Decomposition Center were only around thirty percent left. Besides continuing to manufacture ammunition, he began assembling Thunder Falcon 2000 drones while walking, to enhance his combat capabilities. The power of these drones is quite remarkable and they move swiftlyâdozens deployed at once could even force medium-sized Abnormal Bodies to retreat, so Lin Xian planned to manufacture several of them.
However, the precision of these things rivals PX-05 robots, so the manufacturing speed wasnât fast. The good thing was they were small in size, allowing him to move around. He went to carriage 3 to find Ding Junyi.
"Director Ding, any updates?"
As soon as Lin Xian entered, he noticed the Hell Black Chrysanthemum emitting a faint reddish glow, prompting his question.
Ding Junyi put down her mobile terminal and looked at him, saying,
"Several pieces of news: First, effective monitoring shows everyoneâs physical toughness has markedly improved since leaving Xilan City, though we havenât obtained the Phoenix Societyâs latest testing instrument. However, our trainâs Frenzy Level individuals have definitely increased and perhaps a Destruction Level has emerged."
"Secondly, my Superpower has also enhanced considerably. Iâm currently studying application methods that could benefit the team, and then thereâs the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes." Ding Junyi pointed towards another Cultivation Chamber.
"It has sprouted its first flower spike."
Upon hearing this, Lin Xian immediately stepped closer to observe, indeed finding at the tip of the flower stalk adorned with purple fissures, a white bud the size of a peppercorn was growing. It looked quite ordinary, yet within the stem, the originally very subtle flow of purple light seemed to have quickened, showing a distinct difference from before.
"Objectively speaking, perhaps this Disaster Plant will manifest its properties after flowering," said Ding Junyi.
Lin Xian nodded, noticing at this moment a heap of black material placed in containers on Ding Junyiâs lab table. It seemed like it was tissue from the black giant body earlier.
"Why are you researching this?"
"Itâs human tissue." Ding Junyi, wearing gloves, picked up a piece and crumbled it into powder with her fingertips, speaking with a grave expression: "It looks like itâs undergone some special preservation, devoid of moisture, yet itâs easy to analyze its cells and protein structures, even extract DNAâthis no longer falls under âparasitismâ."
Looking at Lin Xian, Ding Junyi said deeply, "They use human corpses to form their bodies. From this point, itâs clear that human shape is merely a mimicry of their species group."
Lin Xianâs eyes narrowed, just about to speak when a burst of static suddenly sounded in the communicator.
It seemed similar to the noise in a radio band. He didnât know if it was an illusion, but Lin Xian inexplicably felt the noise frequency was more like countless sharp cries mixed together, similar to the sound they heard after solving the Monster, near the black smoke drilling into the ground.
"Zzzt ~ Everyone, weâve got a situation."
In the communicator, Shi Deyuan spoke.
At this moment, in the head cabin of Dragon Mountain No.1, Shi Deyuan was holding electronic binoculars, looking towards a direction with a somewhat peculiar face, while Ning Jing and a group of engineering personnel stood beside him.
The alarm information came from drones, and when Shi Deyuan pinpointed the direction, his face changed as well.
"What is that?"
Beside him, Ning Jing, looking at the scene through electronic binoculars, was also dumfounded.
In the Gobi Desert to the northeast of the trainâs track, an eerie white stone sculpture floated quietly in the wilderness. The sculpture was huge and majestic, with a merlion face, resembling a human-made artifact.
The strange thing was, under the scorching sun, the light on the sculpture was distinctly different from the surrounding environmentânot only dimmer but also very abrupt.
It gave an impression that the thing was photoshopped onto the Gobi Desert with crude techniques.
But nobody could ignore the enormous size of the stone sculpture and the strong eerie feeling as it floated quietly in the wilderness. Even Shi Deyuan, accustomed to grand scenes, felt a spine-chilling, bizarre eeriness upon seeing it, inducing strong negative emotions in his mind that made him forget whether to breathe out or in.
Back on the Infinity, Lin Xian opened the carriageâs sunshade. Just as the visual system of the Power Armor glanced in that direction, its entire system crashed into darkness and then urgently began to reboot.
[Black Hawk-Silent Hunter Battle Armor 01 activated, conducting program self-check]
Lin Xianâs heart skipped a beat, struck by a sudden sense of immense dread.
He hurriedly pressed the communicator and shouted,
"Donât look, run!"