Chapter 110

With a “bang,” the door slammed shut, then quickly opened again. Ains looked puzzled at Hels and You Wenjie, who were talking in the nearby rest area, muttered a couple of sentences, and in the end, did not close the door. She walked into the monitoring room.

She walked back to Horne’s side and immediately asked, “Did you have a fight with sir?”

The monitoring room was very quiet, and her question reached everyone’s ears. Horne did not even turn his head as he directly answered, “No.”

“Then why didn’t he come in?”

Horne sat down in the chair next to her, picked up his own water cup, and slowly considered his words: “I don’t know. Probably scared, I suppose.”

Because of one sentence from Hels, Horne had completely ignored him these past few days, and it was a very deliberate and targeted kind of ignoring.

Hels was also quite helpless, but since Horne was thin-skinned, he felt he had poked a bit too hard. He could only gaze from afar at the other’s straight-backed figure through that door that had not been closed, from the frame of the door.

You Wenjie also followed Hels’s line of sight and stared at the inside of that door for a long time before he could not help but ask, “You haven’t told him about this matter yet?”

“Which matter?” Hels’s attention always followed Horne. Even as he answered You Wenjie, his head was tilted toward the other side, his raised leg swaying slowly, unhurried.

“Your body.”

The leg movement gradually stopped, and Hels did not answer. His gaze slowly dimmed.

“You even had to go to the slum all night to recuperate from your injuries,” You Wenjie continued to ask. “Has your body’s depletion exceeded 50%?”

“Mm.” Hels gave a simple response. “It’s fine. Not like it’ll kill me.”

He was looking at that person. The door frame framed that figure. No matter how far, how far, that silhouette was the only focus in his field of vision.

While lost in thought, the person in the monitoring room brushed his hair, tucking a lock of reddish-brown behind his ear. He tilted his head slightly, and the contours of his profile and neck curve all came into view.

“He’s been wondering how you three got out of the Obelisk. He cares a lot about it. I told him to put it aside for now, but with his personality, he’ll pursue it sooner or later. If he finds out that Aliens saved him, do you think he’ll forgive you?”

Hels lowered his eyes. After a long while, he said, “The best time to admit a mistake is right at the beginning.”

But from the very start, he had no opportunity.

You Wenjie fell silent and eventually just sighed.

Horne was still watching the screens in the monitoring room. Countless images reflected in his pupils as he tried to find clues quickly. He had not noticed the gaze locked on him from beginning to end.

Ains also did not quite understand. She looked left and right, then suddenly dragged her chair over to Horne’s side and leaned in close to whisper, “Are you two together yet?”

She thought her voice was small, but in reality, everyone in the room could hear it. The people nearby suddenly perked up their ears.

Horne crossed his legs, his fingers sliding nonstop over his water cup. Finally, he said flatly, “Are you very free right now?”

“Moderately free.” Ains grinned. After all, most of the monitoring footage in the room now was thanks to her cracking those codes, so she was indeed quite free at the moment. “I’ve just always been curious what sir is like when he’s alone with someone he likes. Because that guy…”

He simply could not interact normally. At least, not many normal people could get close to him.

“Normally.” Horne answered casually. In others’ eyes, Hels was always an unapproachable madman, but not in his. As long as they did not bring up that matter again.

Ains was somewhat baffled. “Then have you two held hands?”

Horne instantly felt several gossiping gazes land on him. The most intense one came from the girl right in front of him, who looked like she would not leave without an answer.

After nearly a minute of silence, Ains showed no intention of giving up. She grabbed Horne’s arm and shook it. “Tell me secretly, okay?”

Horne rubbed his brow and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

“Whoa.” Ains was very satisfied and pressed further. “Then have you kissed?”

Horne: “…”

“Come on, if you don’t say, I’ll call sir in.” Ains got excited and pointed outside the door. “I just saw sir. He’s right outside. If you don’t tell me, I’ll sneakily tell him: Brother says he wants you to kiss him.”

“Don’t.” Horne immediately stopped her in a low voice and grabbed her arm. He now knew that during the illusion, Ains had overheard his question, which was utterly embarrassing. The moment he closed his eyes, it was his own initiative, and that person’s words—even just in recollection—made his heart churn.

In truth, he had never experienced a kiss before, so when he mustered the courage to draw close that day, his inner state was extremely chaotic. He did not even know if that counted as a kiss.

He thought for a long time amid the beeping of the equipment. Much later, he finally mumbled a “mm,” deciding to count it as such for now.

“Aiya.” Someone nearby accidentally made a sound and immediately covered their mouth.

Ains winked at Horne. “Confessed yet? Who said it first?”

“If you’re really that free…”

“Tell me, brother!” Ains wheedled.

Horne fell silent again. After a good while, he sighed softly and said, “I’ll go find him and talk about this in the next couple of days.”

“You two haven’t even confessed yet? Oh, so you’re planning to confess first?”

Horne closed his eyes. “Mm.”

Ains grinned mischievously, but soon she stealthily glanced around, shrank her neck, and whispered, “Then, then… have you two slept together? Done it? How much do you like sir?”

Horne: “…………”

“Ains!” Homan finally could not hold back from the other end of the monitoring room and interrupted her. “Stop fooling around! The more you say, the more outrageous it gets! Do you really think no one else can hear?!”

Ains pursed her lips, rolled her eyes, and shot back righteously, “What’s it to you? Sir is my spiritual father. What’s wrong with me asking about my father’s happiness?”

“Pa!” A slap landed on the table, sharp and loud. Everyone in the monitoring room flinched at once. Homan shot to his feet and said sternly, “Who is your father!”

How did it come to this again… The people in the monitoring room were used to it—one small argument a day, a big one every two days. They immediately went back to their own work, pretending they saw and heard nothing. Horne grabbed Ains’s arm and gently shook his head at her.

When Homan got angry, Ains got stubborn. Ignoring Horne’s hint, she shouted back defiantly, “Sir is the one who taught me and brought me up. Everything I have was bought by sir. What’s wrong with me thinking of him as my spiritual father? You only provided the sperm and nothing else. You even add to my troubles. And now you want to be a dad? As if it’s that easy!”

“Ains…” Horne had just opened his mouth when Homan abruptly stood, fury blazing as he stormed over and slapped her across the face without mercy.

“Pa!” A crisp sound, fiery. Homan flew into a rage and pointed at the wall of screens, roaring, “Who taught you to crack these? Were you born knowing how? Who gave you this bit of skill? I provided the sperm, and I’ll be your damn dad forever! Do you know how much I’ve done for you? You’d give your life if I asked for it, you ungrateful brat!”

“Then kill me! Kill me!” Ains screamed.

The scene instantly descended into chaos. Some people did not dare make a sound and buried themselves in their work. Others tried to mediate but were scared off by Homan’s demeanor. Homan trembled with rage, his eyes bloodshot. He did not care who was around as he looked everywhere, then directly picked up a nearby chair to smash.

Horne immediately stood up and shielded Ains behind him. “Don’t do it!”

With Horne blocking the way, Homan could not vent directly. In the end, he flung the chair back to the ground viciously, sending two metal fragments flying. His finger trembled as he pointed at Ains and said, “Useless trash, completely useless! With your temper, you’ll never amount to anything your whole life! Just leech off others and wait to die!”

“Die then!”

Homan was about to curse her more when a technician nearby suddenly shouted, “Mr. Homan! Come look!”

The words on the verge of spewing out were swallowed back alive. Homan turned his head and glared furiously at the man. “Look at what!”

The glared-at person shrank his neck and pointed at one of the screens. “That, is that… the Fate Community?”

As soon as he said it, Homan suddenly calmed down. The monitoring room fell silent too, except for Ains’s loud sobbing.

Ten-odd minutes later, You Wenjie and the others had all arrived, waiting solemnly. The air was tense.

“It appeared briefly for one second—a pitch-black block with a greenish corridor inside. The light was distorting. Jia Lan mentioned before that this is a characteristic of the Fate Community’s location, but I’m not certain.”

Everyone was very tense, staring at the dense array of screens, wanting to know what this thing that would decide humanity’s survival looked like.

Recon drones leaping through the Tower District darted between buildings. The technicians had isolated them for display, allowing a view from the perspectives of those active in the Tower area.

The ancient castle in the West District, the high-tech in the East District.

Among the hundreds of perspectives, a laboratory flashed by and had already scrolled past. Not long after, that recon drone circled back.

A room full of medical equipment that, upon closer inspection, did not quite look like a medical room. The furnishings inside were more like a lab—nothing like the spatial setup Aliens would have.

“Where is this?” Horne asked. He had not expected an answer, but Jia Lan responded.

“The Hermit Lab.” When mentioning this Alien, Jia Lan straightened its body, its voice much more respectful. “It’s said to appear in places like this, perhaps for research or something else.”

Tense silence prevailed, broken only by Ains’s occasional sobs. She clung tightly to Horne, who kept patting her back slowly, his gaze fixed on the screen.

A long time passed until someone suddenly pointed at the screen and shouted, “That’s it!”

Everyone’s gazes followed.

It was a dim corridor, long and seemingly endless, with no one and no sound. At the very end was a tightly shut room door. Nowhere the surveillance swept over resembled anything from Earth; everything emitted a faint greenish metallic glow. Under the recon drone’s view, these lights bent, overlapped, and extended endlessly.

This was…

Just one glance, and Horne’s mind exploded. His gaze locked there immediately.

After a few seconds of stiffness, he let go of Ains.

“Brother?” Ains called out, trying to grab his clothes. Horne walked forward a step as if he had not heard, then another step. Without realizing it, he approached right under the screen, looked up, stared at the scene inside, and his heartbeat quickened noticeably.

Violent panting, terrified flight. Closing his eyes, that bottomless-pit-like sprint all the way until—

The recon drone turned, illuminating the flashing light of an elevator.

Horne held his breath.

He remembered this place. He had searched for it for so long.

Not just Horne—even Jia Lan approached the surveillance of that corridor. It also looked up, staring fixedly at the image, murmuring, “Yes, it’s here. I can sense its frequency.”

Its body underwent some changes; the bones on its back began to dissipate and disassemble, attempting to recombine into wings. But separated by the screen and the door, the Fate Community’s influence was very weak, so it immediately controlled itself.

Horne had not expected that he had been so obsessed with finding this place back then—the more he searched, the less trace there was. And now, it appeared so unexpectedly before his eyes.

—This was the place he had panicked and fled from after waking up for the first time in Loch City.

But… how could that possibly be the location of the Fate Community?