"This pathway has been scanned by Grace, no Dark Creatures were detected, and we are in silent mode. As long as we don’t encounter them head-on, we should..."
Lin Xian spoke in the frequency band, trying to lighten the dull atmosphere.
Ning Jing responded, "Ah Bai is keeping an eye on our situation. If any mark appears, we must stop immediately, deal with the Abnormal Body, and avoid snowballing."
"Makes sense, like before when thousands triggered the Monster Tide, we had nowhere to run," Qian Deli said.
Buzzing, twenty-five Thunder Falcon 2000 drones rotated in a ring formation behind Lin Xian, appearing like a red arc of light in the black night sky, while Lin Xian, clad in the Black Hawk Battle Armor, saw various parameters displayed on the Holographic Vision ahead.
"We’re almost there. We now have over a 40-second delay with the train position."
While flying, Lin Xian was producing relay beacons and drones for deployment to connect the distance between White City and Silent City, and for emergencies as well.
KIKI, maintaining the Telekinesis Shield, was carrying everyone and flying quickly. Among them all, her spiritual power was the strongest, yet her small face was pale as she led the group over several ridges. The surroundings began to level out, with mountain roads and scattered buildings appearing, and in everyone’s Power Armor radar view, a small city with numerous building groups was nestled in the valley ahead.
"We’ve arrived at White City."
"Wait!" Suddenly Ning Jing called out to stop KIKI.
"Ah Bai sensed something ahead."
"Let’s stop first," Lin Xian said.
Ahead, black mist shrouded the view, with rows of abandoned and desolate houses appearing in sight. Hearing this, KIKI immediately controlled everyone to decelerate and land slowly.
The black asphalt road was not in disarray like the ruined cities they encountered before. On the contrary, the ground was relatively clean compared to other post-apocalyptic cities, with nothing but dust and what appeared to be mist seeping from the ground.
Missing were abandoned vehicles, scattered suitcases, or dead bodies.
The entire city seemed frozen at the time of Star Abyss’s appearance. All greenery and trees were withered and decayed. Standing on the ground, Lin Xian felt a sudden chill, looking towards the dark street ahead, faintly sensing some presence.
"What did you find, and where?" Lin Xian asked.
Ah Bai pointed skyward: "It vanished again, just in the sky."
[My observation system didn’t detect any abnormal creatures. Do you need me to scout?] Grace spoke up.
Lin Xian shook his head; if scouting were needed, Grace would’ve done it earlier. Though Grace had immense computational power, it didn’t mean she could capture Abnormal Bodies and Dark Aura.
"Be careful, we’re not robots; those ghostly things can see us," Monica cautioned seriously.
Chen Sixuan picked up the Meteor 3, aiming high on the street, then shook her head: "I see nothing, but going in directly seems risky."
"But staying here won’t help either," KIKI said with her arms crossed. "Do we have other options now?"
Usually quiet Xiao Qing stepped forward and said,
"Listen...to Ah Bai."
Everyone, upon hearing this, looked towards Ah Bai in Power Armor.
Lin Xian narrowed his eyes slightly and nodded, moving towards Ah Bai: "Alright, from now on, we view everything through Ah Bai’s perspective. Unless radar captures it directly, assume we see nothing."
Ah Bai, as a humanoid Dark Aura detector, was even more effective than the Hell Black Chrysanthemum, which could only sense marks already placed on one’s body, while Ah Bai could preliminarily observe the area.
Dragon Mountain No.1’s survival rate, with over a thousand people, was significantly credited to Ah Bai.
So, Lin Xian chose to act centered on Ah Bai.
Ah Bai nodded: "Some strange objects appear and vanish suddenly, not like they’re active, but..." he thought for a moment, finding a word: "flickering."
Lin Xian then instructed Grace: "Grace, lead the way."
"We’ll follow behind. As long as we’re unmarked, ignore it for now; we need to reach White City Rail Station first."
Everyone understood at this moment. With Grace leading, they set off towards the darkness ahead, with Ah Bai in the center, and followed Grace into the White City Street. The source of thɪs content is 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭•𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦•𝘯𝘦𝘵
Lin Xian, controlling 25 Thunder Falcon drones, followed on standby outside the squad. As the sound of their footsteps echoed in the darkness, it seemed as if only they existed in this silent world.
As the lights swept across the street, many shops remained open, but all the signs had rotted, paints peeled off, making them unreadable, and the merchandise, including clothes inside, rapidly degraded into some gray thread-like substance.
"This situation is highly unusual; even if over ten years elapsed here, textiles shouldn’t decay ," Ning Jing said, sweeping a flashlight over a clothing store. Inside, rows of women’s clothes had mostly turned into hanging gray-brown rags, giving her an illusion that even with the flashlight on, there was no color in this world.
So, she immediately looked at herself but discovered her judgment was incorrect.