Chapter 36: The Meteor
Night was often the prelude to crisis.
In the fourteenth year of the Poseidon Era, cataclysmic beings were actually a common type of cataclysmic creature. Their bodies were similar in size to humans, but they were shrouded in a layer of black mist, making them impossible to see clearly, as if they, like those old cities, had been sealed away and lost in the past.
But they were not harmless.
At one in the morning, the aircraft’s monitoring screen showed an abnormality for the first time.
It was Team Twelve, but the warning red light only lasted for five minutes before disappearing. The number of small dots representing the students did not decrease, and the flight system did not receive a forfeiture signal. This meant that they had been attacked during the night, but had not been seriously injured.
Such small disturbances occurred nearly ten times during the night.
When Xu Xunyue woke up from his rest and took over the equipment from the person responsible for night monitoring, he happened to discover that there was an abnormality in Zhu Hui’s team.
The Guide teacher who was handing over to Xu Xunyue glanced at him and kindly added a few more words, “This warning red light just lit up. Team Nine was fine last night. It’s probably just some small cataclysmic creatures causing a little trouble.”
Xu Xunyue nodded.
“Thanks for the reminder. You’ve worked hard. I’ll take it from here.”
At this time, it was 6:30 in the morning, and it was snowing, not very bright.
The ground that had been cleared out as a temporary camp was slightly messy. The traces of human life left behind not long ago were quickly covered by the rustling snow, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
A particularly fierce-sounding wolf howl cut through the sky. The clouds stopped flowing, and the entire snowfield trembled.
“Zhu… Captain, are you alright? How are you?”
Yu Yuan was protected behind her mountain-like Sentinel teammate, shouting at Zhu Hui with hurried breaths.
Her compatibility with many of the academy’s Sentinels was good, which greatly increased her team combat benefits and training efficiency. But when she had invited Zhu Hui to join her team, she had absolutely not expected that her compatibility with him would be less than 60%.
Although less than 60% was fine, and she had heard that Zhu Hui didn’t need a Guide’s assistance when he teamed up with Guides before, not wanting to and not being able to were two completely different things.
Without a mental link, they couldn’t directly transmit information in their minds. To express anything, besides relying on instinct and combat experience, they had to shout.
Zhu Hui held a blood-soaked dagger and didn’t speak. The huge snow wolf, however, howled first, then strutted around in front of the few of them for two laps. Its light amber eyes were wide with excitement, and its sharp teeth and snow-white fur were stained with the remains of cataclysmic creatures, looking as if it could pounce on anyone who displeased it and tear them apart.
“These few are all dead. I’m fine,” Zhu Hui said. “My resistance to cataclysmic factors is relatively high. I’m suitable for close-quarters combat.”
As he spoke, he took out a small instrument tied to his waist that looked like a temperature gun and aimed it at himself for five seconds.
Five seconds later, a “beep” sounded.
Zhu Hui turned the lit-up display screen toward the other four.
Display screen: [Cataclysmic Factor Concentration: 10%]
This thing was called a Contamination Assessment Meter. It was an instrument developed by the White Tower specifically for measuring cataclysmic factors on humans. It was small, portable, and gave results quickly. People who stayed in the cataclysm zones and Undeveloped Zones for a long time were all equipped with one.
Assessing oneself from time to time was not only a responsibility to others, but also to oneself. Scholars had once made an official classification of the assessment results:
0-5% was the level of people who had lived in the Central Districts or the Imperial Capital for a long time. After all, it was the era after the Cataclysm, and no place was truly clean and free of cataclysmic factors. 5%-30% was the concentration that would appear at the edge of the Undeveloped Zones. For example, old soldiers who had been stationed at outposts for many years, even if they had only been patrolling outside the boundary line, would approach 30% after ten or twenty years.
30%-50% was the danger zone. As long as one entered a cataclysm zone once, the concentration would basically exceed 30%. If one entered many times and for a long distance, this value would continue to accumulate. But after resting in a peaceful place for a while, it would drop again, or at the very least, it could remain stable and not continue to grow.
However, once it exceeded 50%, it was a declaration that the person was about to begin transforming into a cataclysmic being.
Close-quarters combat with cataclysmic creatures was the easiest way to get contaminated. Their limbs and flesh would stick to the soldiers’ combat uniforms, and their splashing blood was a deadly poison. For this reason, armies entering cataclysm zones would generally bring enough guns and long cold weapons.
The group of five was currently walking along the edge of the Undeveloped Zone. Seeing that Zhu Hui’s assessment result was only 10%, they all breathed a sigh of relief, and were a little surprised in their relief.
“Captain, your cataclysmic factor concentration is 3% lower than mine.”
“You’re only 13%? I’m already 18%!”
“Captain, how did you do it? You’re a Chief Sentinel, after all.”
This team was initiated by Yu Yuan, but after Zhu Hui joined, she had taken the initiative to give the captain’s position to him. The other few companions, although they didn’t have much interaction with Zhu Hui, had also adapted well.
Zhu Hui, however, was not very used to this long-lost liveliness. He smiled with a somewhat stiff expression, then turned to seriously talk about the next course of action:
“Today we will continue to advance along the boundary line. We expect to arrive at the A2 zone at four in the afternoon. The exploration formation will be the same as yesterday. I will be at the front. Yu Yuan, pay attention to your stamina consumption.”
Encountering a few small cataclysmic creatures on the second morning was not surprising, and could not even be considered bad luck.
Eliminating more cataclysmic creatures within their capabilities was not only beneficial for the activity’s score, but could also slightly reduce the pressure on the remote areas.
Such scenes and conversations were taking place all over the Endless Snow A1 to A5 zones. The flight system was calm, until four small dots in a group of teams all lit up with a red light.
It was Qiu Ye on the Sentinel Academy’s aircraft who had discovered the abnormality.
“Someone, come with me!” he stood up abruptly and shouted, “Team Thirty-Nine has sent a forfeiture signal, coordinates in the northern part of the A2 zone—no, some of them are heading into the Endless Snow! Damn it, what’s going on?”
“What?”
The Sentinel teachers next to him gathered around, but Qiu Ye had already pushed open the aircraft’s door.
“The lifeboat can only hold two people. Another Sentinel, come with me.”
The people from the Guide Academy also heard the commotion, but they soon had no time to pay attention to the situation over there, because three minutes later, more red lights appeared on the monitoring screen one after another!
This strange situation had never happened before. The aircraft became noisy.
“Damn it,” Xu Mengwei, who was sitting next to Xu Xunyue, turned off his terminal, his expression tense. “The Sentinel Academy just said that Team Thirty-Nine, which sent a forfeiture signal three minutes ago, has disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” Xu Xunyue looked at the screen in front of him. “All five of them disappeared, or four?”
Each team had five people, but when Team Thirty-Nine sent the forfeiture signal, only four of the small dots representing the students were lit up, indicating that their physical condition was not good.
“All five of them disappeared,” Xu Mengwei was obviously a little anxious. “All the lifeboats on the Sentinel Academy’s side have been launched. We’ve used two on our side, but according to the trend of these red lights… if it continues to expand, I’m afraid we won’t be able to save them all even if we launch them all.”
“…”
Xu Xunyue did not immediately respond to Xu Mengwei’s words. In fact, his brain was working rapidly, and his attention was divided into three parts.
One was thinking about what the monitoring screen was showing. For every team that lit up with a red light, not all five of their small dots turned red at the same time. If it were only an isolated case, it would be fine, but every team was like this. It was always three or four of the five small dots that issued a warning first, and after a while, the remaining one would issue a warning.
One was receiving the voices that had suddenly appeared in his mind. It was those layered voices again, like some kind of instinct, but Xu Xunyue clearly felt the temptation in them, just like the time he was on an off-site mission three years ago, only this time it was clearer, unprecedentedly clear.
[Come here.]
[Come here.]
[Come here.]
[This is your home, your hometown.]
[Enter the cataclysm zone. As long as you enter there, you will be the king there. Hordes of cataclysmic creatures will listen to your command, and the sea will also be controlled by you. You will become the new god of the old city.]
[If you don’t come here, they will go over. If they go over, they will become nutrients.]
[Don’t you want to protect them?]
[Even if you don’t go over, your creation is there. Your blood flows in his body. He will definitely be noticed.]
[Don’t you want to protect him?]
[As long as you return here, return to this place that makes them tremble with fear, you can dominate everything you can’t control now.]
The last part was analyzing the information on Zhu Hui’s side. The team Zhu Hui was in was also in this patch of red light, and three of the small dots were lit up.
In the noisy aircraft, he listened to the sounds from the snowfield.
“How long can you maintain this?” This was Zhu Hui’s voice.
“A-At least half an hour… It’s fine, don’t worry about me. They just broke out too suddenly. My compatibility with the three of them is over 70%. I can stabilize them!” This was Yu Yuan.
“Ahhhh, my head hurts, it’s so noisy… Class President Yu, Class President Yu, save me… Ouch, this contaminated bird dares to sneak attack me? Eat my bullet!”
“Captain… I can’t aim very well… I can’t seem to control my desire to attack, what’s going on?”
“Is that a cataclysmic being? There’s a cataclysmic being approaching—Captain, be careful!”
Then, there was a burst of battle sounds that could cover most of the other noises.
Hearing the wolf howl again, Xu Xunyue’s breathing also quickened for a moment. He calmed himself down and took two seconds to sort out the information he had received.
First, three people in Zhu Hui’s team had their physical condition decline. They were the other three Sentinels. Zhu Hui himself and the Guide, Yu Yuan, were fine. Yu Yuan was confident that she could temporarily stabilize the other three.
Second, the three Sentinels who had a problem had a mental problem. The keywords were headache, noisy, and it stimulated the Sentinel’s desire to attack, which was very similar to Yi Chengli’s symptoms more than half a month ago. Zhu Hui had almost fallen for it too.
Finally, a bold speculation:
Perhaps it was because he had given Zhu Hui mental soothing that the Zhu Hui in the monitoring sounded better than Yu Yuan, could fight with cataclysmic creatures, and could also suppress the other Sentinels with force when they couldn’t control themselves.
And the other teams that issued an alarm might have encountered something similar to Zhu Hui’s side. The three or four small dots that lit up with a red light represented Sentinels, and the rest were all Guides. In this situation, encountering a cataclysmic creature, or a Sentinel suddenly losing control, could lead to the Guide falling into crisis in a short time, all the small dots turning red, and even a team wipe.
But why would this situation happen collectively?
Yi Chengli had the aura of the Emperor’s spiritual field on him, but not every student at the Sentinel Academy did. Zhu Hui had accumulated three years of merits and had just been selected as the Chief Sentinel, so he had only met the Emperor at the summary conference at the beginning of this year.
It should be because of the region.
It was the problem of the Endless Snow.
The red dots on the display screen were mainly concentrated in the A2 zone. There were also some in the A1 and A3 zones. The students in the last two zones were originally few, and there were almost no problems.
The change happened so suddenly. Could it be that someone… no, some creature was pushing from behind? This guy had similar characteristics to the Emperor, but could affect the region to a certain extent, just as the voice in Xu Xunyue’s mind had promised him.
Xu Xunyue thought of a person he had ignored for three years.
Zhu Hui was a Sentinel, Yi Chengli was a Sentinel, and the first to be affected on the academy’s side were the Sentinels. Because the students lacked experience, Sentinels were already sensitive and more easily stimulated than Guides.
The Emperor was also a Sentinel, and that successor who had entered a cataclysm zone with the Emperor four years ago but had not returned with him…
Was a Guide.
He’s not dead, is he?
Four years ago, the Empire’s “Great Cleanup Operation” in the cataclysm zones was in full swing. Nobles, the royal family, and even the Emperor himself had personally participated. Several cataclysm zone boundaries were cleared back by more than ten kilometers, revealing the ruins of pre-Cataclysm cities.
Xu Xunyue had also participated in the “Great Cleanup Operation,” but the time of the accident, he had not gone with the Emperor.
That time, all the people who had traveled with the Emperor had died in the cataclysm zone. His most admired heir had of course not been able to return. The Emperor, who had always been brave and skilled in battle, had been depressed for a long time because of this failure. People understood him and felt sorry and sad for him. Xu Xunyue was the same.
—The Emperor loved this country, loved this land, and had devoted all his heart and soul to the Empire. Everyone naturally supported him.
Before the Cataclysm, the Empire was in a peaceful period of prosperous cultural development. Xu Xunyue’s parents were a Guide and a Sentinel who worked and lived in a medium-sized city. Their combat power was not outstanding, but in a peaceful period, it didn’t matter. They had formed an ordinary and warm family.
After the Cataclysm, the difference between the nobles, the royal family, and the common class seemed to have widened at once. Xu Xunyue, as a common orphan in the Poseidon Era, had his military rank rise so quickly, not only due to his own efforts and hard work, but also with the Emperor’s promotion. The Emperor had seen the potential of an Offensive Guide and had helped him suppress the arguments of the old-fashioned nobles when he was not yet famous.
He had easily become the youngest Guide captain in the Empire in a hundred years.
In a situation where the number of Guides volunteering to go to the border areas was far less than the number of Sentinels, his squad could easily have another Guide.
At that time, Xu Xunyue was a solid member of the Emperor’s faction. And three years ago, that highly confidential off-site mission was also partly a request from the Emperor.
Yes, a request.
A year later, the Emperor had requested him to go to the place where he had once suffered a setback, to see if he could find any traces or bodies of his companions from that year, especially that successor Guide.
…
The locator’s listening function was working diligently.
Amidst the strange sounds constantly emitted by the cataclysmic creatures, Zhu Hui’s voice was particularly cold and clear, as if it were attached with some kind of power, making it exceptionally clear.
He said:
“You guys go first.”
Another Sentinel, who had just been complaining of a headache, immediately shouted:
“No! How can we leave our classmates behind and run for our lives?”
Yu Yuan also said:
“Student Zhu… Captain, we can all continue to hold on. We’re cooperating very well, aren’t we? It hasn’t reached that point yet!”
“There’s no need to hold on. You just need to retreat,” Zhu Hui said. “This practical activity has already been canceled. Safety first.”
Yes, not long ago, both aircraft and the outpost of the Endless Snow had turned on their broadcasting systems, repeatedly playing a recording about the suspension of the outdoor practical activity in the practical area.
They had heard it. All the students had heard it.
“But your safety—”
“How much longer can we cooperate?”
Zhu Hui interrupted her.
“The physical strength, speed, and spiritual power of the three of them are on the same level. If they can’t hold on, it will be the three of them having problems at the same time. How will you save them then? How will I save them?”
“You can’t help me. They can’t leave you. You must take them with you. Let the three of them protect you, and you protect the spiritual domains of the three of them.”
“And haven’t you noticed? Compared to attacking them, these cataclysmic beings are more inclined to attack me.”
“I am the captain. The White Tower stipulates that in a crisis, you must listen to the captain’s command.”
“You all, retreat.”
A cataclysm zone was unpredictable. The first to leave was not necessarily safe, but it was always a little better.
He hoped that the first to leave this time would survive.
In the white-painted aircraft, Xu Mengwei threw the equipment on the table and pulled another Guide beside him to go out.
“Senior! I’m going to the rescue too. Don’t worry, I’ll have to trouble you to take a look at this display screen!”
The Guide he was pulling only had time to give Xu Xunyue a polite smile before being pulled out the door by Xu Mengwei.
At this moment, the red in the A2 zone on the screen was almost a solid block.
Zhu Hui’s location was also in the A2 zone.
The small dot representing him was still its normal color and was not lit up with a red light, indicating that his physical condition was currently normal.
But… normal now, what about later?
No matter how strong, as long as one was human, one would feel tired and need rest.
[Even if you don’t go over, your creation is there. Your blood flows in his body. He will definitely be noticed.]
Zhu Hui also said that he was being targeted.
Xu Xunyue looked toward the open entrance of the aircraft.
Because of the urgency of the situation and the frequent comings and goings of people, the aircraft’s door was no longer closed. One could directly see the scenery of the Endless Snow from there.
He saw the boundless snowfield, and the endlessly falling snow.
The soldiers stationed here had once joked that the snow here had a sense of eternity. As long as you looked at it, you would feel that this place would always maintain such tranquility.
But this tranquility had been broken on this day.
More importantly, all the accompanying teachers and local soldiers had thrown themselves into the rescue activities.
The soldiers at the Endless Snow outpost were all experienced warriors. Unlike the students, they were not easily affected. They put on their protective clothing and went into the snowfield with their guns.
On the aircraft’s side… except for the last one on the Guide Academy’s aircraft, all the lifeboats had already been launched.
And this last one was about to be launched by Xu Mengwei.
He had to step up.
This was the lives of hundreds of people, and his partner was also deeply involved. A simple rescue would not be able to turn the tide, only slightly reduce the casualties.
A Guide’s feeling was hard to be wrong. Perhaps he was the key to breaking the situation, with no alternative solution.
He also hoped that Zhu Hui’s teammates could survive. If the first to leave had another accident, his Sentinel would definitely be very sad.
Xu Xunyue closed his eyes slightly. When he opened them again, an invisible spiritual power spread out in all directions, unstoppable.
In those ice-blue eyes, a golden light flashed by.
Xu Mengwei and his companion stopped in their tracks for no reason.
Everyone around the white aircraft was dazed for a moment.
The next moment, the last lifeboat ascended wildly in a dangerous curve, its tail sparking with a dazzling light. The clustered white clouds were pushed aside, and the dim sky was illuminated.
Xu Mengwei stood on the snow and looked up in a daze.
The lifeboat he was about to board had been taken by someone else, and it was flying away rapidly like a meteor.
