Chapter 499 - 496: It Seems an Old Friend Has Come

Chapter 499: Chapter 496: It Seems an Old Friend Has Come

Although he recognized the Captain, Zhou Dynasty didn’t let down his guard. He remained in front of Li Luo, staring intently at the familiar person before him.

"You don’t recognize me anymore, kid?" The Captain spread his hands at Zhou Dynasty with a helpless expression. "It’s only been half a year. Did you eat some bad mushrooms and mess up your head?"

Hearing this familiar banter, Zhou Dynasty’s hand trembled, but he still didn’t lower his guard.

"Cut the chummy act! When did you get back?!" Zhou Dynasty yelled.

"A day ago," the Captain answered bluntly.

"Then why are you in this forest?!" Zhou Dynasty pressed.

"Because this is the center. The beacon was set to the center, so of course we landed directly in the central area." The Captain pointed behind him. The direction they had appeared from was, indeed, the center of the island.

"You’ve been waiting a long time, haven’t you?" he asked Zhou Dynasty, his tone gentle.

Then, the Captain turned to the squad members behind him.

"Everyone, take off your masks."

At the command, the squad members, bathed in starlight, all removed their masks.

Some were smiling, others looked resigned, but all of them gazed in unison at Zhou Dynasty.

Seeing these familiar faces, Zhou Dynasty couldn’t stop himself from taking a few steps forward.

"Big Head... Brother Tie... Ah Wang..." He mumbled the familiar names, his voice trembling.

However, Zhou Dynasty didn’t remove his own mask. Instead, he turned and whispered something to Li Luo.

Li Luo gave a subtle nod of acknowledgement. Only then did Zhou Dynasty turn back to face the Captain.

"Captain, are you here to pick me up?"

The Captain nodded. "And to deal with the activation contamination. We brought something special with us this time."

He gestured toward a squad member, who understood at once. The man opened his backpack and took out a small, red sphere.

"A Rift Bomb?"

Upon seeing the red sphere, Zhou Dynasty instinctively took a few steps back.

"That’s right. A Rift Bomb. We’re going to send this entire Sky Island into a rift to completely cut off the contamination."

Zhou Dynasty nodded. The moment he saw that red sphere, he understood the Captain’s plan.

The structure of the Abyss was not uniform; rifts existed between its various layers. If you fell into one, you would be trapped, with little hope of escape.

The Rift Bomb was a byproduct of humanity’s research into synchronization devices. By applying an incorrect sync, it could drag an entire area directly into a rift.

’If you can control it, it’s a rocket. If you can’t, it’s a missile.’ Humanity always found a way to cook up new weapons from any given tech tree.

The Rift Bomb wouldn’t just send the Sky Island into a rift; it would also shatter all objects on it into different temporal flows and spatial velocities, causing the entire island to "disintegrate."

Due to the chaotic synchronization, these disintegrated fragments would collide and instantly annihilate one another. That was how the Rift Bomb worked.

The Captain looked at the red sphere. "Our plan was to find you, return to the beacon, and activate the Rift Bomb as we leave. That will take care of the activation contamination for good."

He glanced at his watch. "The activation on this island is already severe. To prevent the Rift Bomb from being affected, we need to hurry. Let’s move out."

The Captain waved Zhou Dynasty over, then glanced at Li Luo behind him. "You too, friend. Come along."

He didn’t seem to question Li Luo’s identity in the slightest, simply telling her to come with them.

Li Luo froze for a second, then glanced at Zhou Dynasty.

"Let’s follow," Zhou Dynasty whispered. "I’d like to see how long they can keep this act up."

There was a chill in Zhou Dynasty’s words, but his expression remained impassive.

The two exchanged a look and fell in behind the suddenly appeared investigation team.

But the pair kept their distance, not quite merging with the rest of the squad.

The Captain merely glanced back at them occasionally, saying nothing.

Progress with the investigation team was unnervingly smooth. They didn’t encounter any more of the strange, star-cluster creatures, and even the motes of light were sparse, as if a path had been intentionally cleared for them.

However, the deeper they ventured, the more dazzling the swaying starlight became. The surfaces of the giant, ancient trees reflected shimmering nebulae, making it seem as if one could peer straight through the trunks and into the cosmos itself.

The night wind rustled the leaves, but their original green color was no longer visible. They were covered in a dense layer of blue and Purple motes, forming a star chart like a pixelated image. Each tiny leaf had become a habitat for its own miniature galaxy.

The motes within the bands of ethereal blue light grew more numerous, crowding together to form a brilliant river of stars that flowed slowly through the air. The lights here seemed more active, their colors shifting constantly.

Blue, Purple, pink, deep red...

They seemed to be exchanging vast amounts of information. This coalesced consciousness gave Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty the intense feeling of being watched, vague intentions filtering through the stray motes of light and into their minds.

The Block in the air, however, was just barrelling through everything.

Mo Ling didn’t care whether the motes would be absorbed by the metal walls. He controlled the Block, deliberately charging into the areas with the most light.

Whenever a band of light blocked his path, he simply had the Block charge through, violently sundering the dazzling river of stars. The motes would turn red and scatter in all directions.

Mo Ling was having a blast. It reminded him of being a kid, whacking bushes with a stick and watching the fireflies scatter.

’How come I’m not sensing any consciousness?’

Mo Ling felt no sense of being watched. Besides the dazzling glare of the scattering lights, he felt nothing at all.

As for the lakes of consciousness, voices, and sixth senses that Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty had mentioned, Mo Ling felt absolutely nothing.

Any stray motes that collided with the Block vanished without a trace.

If he tried to teleport the motes, they would vanish the instant they entered the Block. Moreover, the act of teleportation created a vacuum that sent the surrounding motes into a frenzy.

After discovering that teleportation sent the motes into a frenzy, Mo Ling had stopped using it. He wasn’t afraid of the lights himself, but he worried they might harm Li Luo and Zhou Dynasty.

For now, Mo Ling’s attention was entirely focused on the investigation team up ahead.

Everything about this investigation team felt off, and their appearance was far too coincidental.

The starlight shone down, yet the squad members weren’t entranced by it. In such a bizarre environment, they hadn’t bothered to properly verify anyone’s identity or get a situation report; they had simply let Zhou Dynasty and Li Luo join their ranks.

’Even if the situation was critical, a well-trained investigation team shouldn’t be making so many mistakes.’

Not only that, but Mo Ling had also heard every word Zhou Dynasty whispered to Li Luo...

"They’re fakes."

For some reason, Zhou Dynasty had sounded absolutely certain.