It was 12:20 PM, well past dawn, yet Dawn City seemed swallowed by the polar night;

a black tide still shrouded the sky.

“Still no contact with Dawn City?”

At the Dawn Center near the Qiong Ancient Strait, the operations center was bustling. Numerous reconnaissance drones and Nightwalker units had already been dispatched, yet no news from Dawn City had arrived.

On the command vehicle at the base, Li Heping wore a trench coat over his military uniform, his expression grave. The tea on the table had gone cold overnight.

“The patrol drones can’t get close. Even the skies over Qingbo and Zhanguan are pitch black;

there’s absolutely no signal.” Chief of Staff Liu Yalou said with a heavy face.

“There are many convoys stationed nearby, but most are small or support units with older personnel and supplies. The majority of armed forces that were close enough have already pushed into Dawn City since last night. The emergency squads around our vicinity, the Nightwalker Organization—everyone who could go, went. The outer perimeter has turned into a bloody mess. We can’t break into the darkened zones at all.”

Wei Chonglou, the engineering commander at Dawn Center, was a tall, thin elder. Though wearing glasses, his whole body radiated murderous intent: “The hastily produced Emperor Mechs 02 and 03 have also been deployed, along with Huo Jiang’s eight Interstellar Predators. This is the largest firepower deployment since the Day of Revelation.”

“The fact that it’s still dark means the information from Operation Crescent Moon is accurate. This probing darkness aims to devour Dawn City. If they fail, neither we nor the other warzones will ever see daylight again,” Li Heping said in a low voice.

“The darkness came without warning. Despite all our preparations, we were still caught off guard. This surprise attack has now become a crucial battle.”

Also anxious were the survivors scattered around the world: the European Storm Alliance in Reykjavik, Phoenix City in Ushuaia, the Alaska United Front in North America, Noah and the Republic Shelter Islands in Oceania... Every survivor was watching the global premonition from the Phoenix Society with bated breath, countless prayers rising as the communication blackout from Dawn City deepened despair with every passing moment.

Dawn City.

Dawn had not come.

This super metropolis housing tens of millions now seemed transformed into an apocalyptic battlefield, a human hell.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, millions of survivors, a sky filled with starships and flying crafts, artillery fire, arcs of light, smoke, roars, screams—from 4 PM yesterday until now, nearly twenty hours of nonstop battle had raged. The city walls blazed fiercely all night but still failed to illuminate the sky.

The dark tide above resembled an iron wall of despair, completely enveloping Dawn City.

From three thousand meters up, the city looked like a shattered circuit board—broken roads were charred wires, burning buildings were melted chips, and upon this ruin flowed millions of monsters.

The 138-story Rainbow Center commercial tower was snapped in half. A massive special-level spider crawled over the ruins, its giant legs embedded with half-buried armored vehicle wreckage. Aerospace fighters continually bombed overhead, while on the streets below, dozens of self-propelled guns fired in unison. 155mm shells exploded within monster hordes, ripping through flesh and blood whirlpools. But in the next instant, a centipede-like creature burrowed from underground and crushed them into scrap iron, screams echoing.

Above City Wall No. 2, the Garrison troops, Iron Guard Brigade, and North American United Front units had lost nearly half their number. The Skybreaker emitted rolling thick smoke, and a plasma main cannon from a Dreadnought-Class Aerospace Battleship fired its last shots. A blue-white beam pierced three flying-wing monsters before the ship collided with another, causing a secondary explosion. The anti-aircraft chains shimmered like luminous pearl necklaces dangling in the sky. More monsters descended through cracks in the clouds.

Underground Shelter No. 21, Central Subway Station, Level B2

The emergency generator chattered loudly, dim lighting revealing tens of thousands of worn, pale faces.

Most here were women, children, elderly, wounded, and pregnant. The surface’s artillery thundered throughout the night, each moment here felt like a year. From the dark corners came the occasional quiet sobbing.

“Mom, is it daylight outside? Why hasn’t Dad come back yet?” A boy tugged at his mother Lin Xian’s sleeve outside the corner. In her arms, she held a gray doll with an extra eye.

Lin Xian was silent, offering no reply. He stared at the ceiling;

each explosion violently shook the fluorescent lights, dislodging small amounts of concrete dust. The crowd burst into brief screams, quickly muffled by sobbing and covering mouths.

Boom!

Another massive explosion sounded below, plunging the entire shelter into panic.

“Damn it!” Zhang Jianjun, a veteran with a broken leg, threw away his cigarette and stepped on his mechanical prosthetic, heading toward the guards. “Here’s your guns! Go fight!”

His words ignited something. The crowd ceased their unrest and surged forward.

“You can’t just stay out there anymore!”

“There’s no stopping this dark invasion if you don’t fight!”

“Everyone, please return to the Xianchang District!” The guard commander’s expression was grave. “Your mission isn’t—”

“If they all die, hiding here is meaningless,” Wu Li pushed through the crowd, dust covering her face but her gaze unwavering. “The apocalypse is here. Men, women, old, young, all the same...”

“Exactly!”

“Give us weapons, and we can kill the monsters!”

“We can’t just wait here to die...”

Behind the commander, hundreds of garrison soldiers wore grim expressions. The anomaly had sealed off communication, and their comrades were dying outside. They could no longer bear hiding underground, hearing one fading voice after another over the comm channels. Now, all rose without hesitation.

“Company commander.”

...

At the commercial plaza’s ring-shaped defense line, the ears of the 7th Division commander Zhuang Yan had burst six hours ago. He had to turn his headset volume to maximum just to hear.

“All of Fifth Avenue fallen? What about the Mech Division?!”

Within the defense line, the armored division once numbering over twelve thousand was now reduced to fewer than four thousand, relying heavily on firepower to hold.

“Commander, over there!” Chen Yan turned his head. Three hundred meters away, a convoy of survivors crashed through burning barricades. These vehicles were heavily armed, strongbase transports charging behind the lines. Thousands of survivors were helping reinforce the defense.

“We’re the Steel Blaze convoy, here to assist!” Jian Zeyang led the team at the front, shouting into the comm: “Bringing supplies!”

“Prepare artillery, cover them!” Chen Yan shouted.

At this moment, within the city’s defenses, ranks and units faded away. Only those who could still pull the trigger remained.

Fifth Avenue Blocking Point

A young garrison soldier lay prone behind the electronic billboard atop a commercial building, his sniper rifle trembling. He was only sixteen, newly recruited due to his evolved perception, undergoing sniper training for less than two months.

Twenty minutes earlier, his squad leader had pushed him into cover: “Count to two hundred before coming out!”

At one hundred seventy-three, outside there was nothing but the sound of monsters gnawing on bones.

Through a crack, he saw his squad leader’s upper body pinned beneath a Humvee’s wheel, a detonator still clenched in his hand. The deputy squad leader was clutching a severed arm from when he charged into the monster horde with an anti-tank mine. There were more unidentifiable corpses. A curly-haired head nearby looked no older than him. Li Xiaofeng recognized him from physical training—they were always last in the ranks together.

Li Xiaofeng realized he was laughing, the absurdity born from overwhelming fear. He raised his sniper rifle, aimed at a monster devouring a corpse in the street corner, and—

Bang!

A headshot.

“Number 28.” Li Xiaofeng retracted his rifle, staring silently at the corpse of his squad leader in the distance. “I’ve broken your record, Squad Leader.”

The entire Fifth Avenue was engulfed by the monster tide, a chaotic roar everywhere. The shot instantly attracted a horde of monsters.

Then a second shot.

Then a third.

The street seemed to hold only this gunfire. Li Xiaofeng’s laughter turned to tears, but his practiced reloads never stopped—until a spider monster’s claw pierced his lung.

Falling, he saw a faint gray-white light in the eastern clouds.

That was not dawn.

It was more flying-wing monsters.

...

Boom boom boom!

West of the city, on Neon Street, it had become a vast nightmarish ruin of blast shockwaves. Surrounding buildings collapsed toward the blast center, forming a pit over a thousand meters wide.

Cracked edges revealed underground water pipes and cable lines exposed, water spraying, sparks flying—a post-apocalyptic landscape.

Within this pit, dense black crawling aberrations flowed like a flood, stitching together the tentacles of Sky Touch and the long legs of the Wanderer. Soon, a monstrous aberration over 200 meters tall, with long legs and tentacles, rose from the ground, emanating a terrifying aura of dread.

As it stood, two giant eyes like headlights flared brightly. Its long legs stomped, shaking mountains and rivers!

Roar!

The combined monster emitted a trembling roar, shockwaves flying, like an apocalyptic beast.

“Damn, another S-level!”

Huo Jiang, commanding the Iron Guard Brigade mech squad in the central city, swore furiously. “These monsters, can they really regenerate after death?!”

“Artillery battalion, lock on and fire!”

At that moment, as the stitched aberration rose, it raised its hand and stomped toward a defensive line in the nearest district.

There, a regimental unit of the Iron Guard Brigade and thousands of survivors fiercely fought back with weapons, but all their fire was blocked by the aberration’s defensive force field generated by its long legs. Ordinary weapons simply couldn’t penetrate.

Thud thud thud!

The street rumbled. Just then, two colossal mechs thundered in, shaking the ground with every step.

“Burn it to ashes this time!”

On the Emperor Suzaku, Bai Ye and Su Rui shouted fiercely.

“Maximum load!”

“Maximum load!”

Buzz!

The Emperor Suzaku raised its Plasma Diffraction Sword. Its chest’s nuclear fusion turbine roared, bright red energy lines glowing intensely. The sword suddenly unleashed a booming blast, its blade lengthening by one-third.

The two stepped forward, leaping into the center of the pit, slashing down with one strike.

The giant aberration swayed its two tentacles upward, and its black geometric defensive field became visible to the naked eye. But the Emperor Suzaku’s Plasma Diffraction Sword cut through more than half the defense with a violent ionizing shock. The high-temperature blade slashed a deep gash several meters into its head!

“It’s working!”

Inside the cockpit, Bai Ye and Su Rui shouted in excitement.

At that moment, behind the Emperor Suzaku, a huge evil god shadow suddenly appeared. Standing tall on the ground, four hollow eyes emitted scarlet light, directly aiming at the Emperor Suzaku!

“Your opponent is here!”

Before the Corpse Driver’s laser could fire, a violent stomping sound came from beside the Emperor Suzaku. The Gray Mist Envoy gripped its Shockwave Battleship-Cleaving Blade with both hands. Three Hyperstring Reactor phase halos behind it emitted deafening roars. Its nuclear power core surged, concentrating thousands of gigawatts of energy into the blade’s shock arc generator. The horizontal slash sounded like a wide-body airliner breaking the sound barrier. The blade’s red-hot metal friction and brilliant blue arc discharges intertwined, forming a red-blue plasma arc streaking through the air!

This earth-shattering slash aimed directly at the Corpse Driver’s throat. The moment the blade struck, massive kinetic energy detonated the red mist and positional shield around the Corpse Driver’s throat, exploding violently. The fire arc sprayed out, and half of Dawn City could hear the ripping arc light.

The Corpse Driver was violently knocked back, its face covered in falling tendrils and dangling tissues. It toppled backward, smashing into several high-rise buildings. After the collapse, it stood again. Compared to the Gray Mist Envoy, the Corpse Driver was over half a head taller. Its massive form completely obscured the street’s light.

“Again!”

Lin Xian and Chu Yan showed no hesitation. While the Emperor Suzaku dealt with the stitched S-level, they charged the Corpse Driver again!

The Gray Mist Envoy dragged its blade single-handedly, dashing forward, raising a finger at the Corpse Driver. Numerous mechanical sounds came from its finger armor as its energy system shrieked sharply. A giant kinetic cannon over two meters in diameter roared toward the Corpse Driver!

Boom!

The cannon fired, but the Corpse Driver’s red mist and force field completely blocked it. Seizing the opening, Lin Xian prepared to strike again, but the Corpse Driver suddenly sprayed a dense red mist from its hollow four eyes, engulfing the Gray Mist Envoy entirely. Its eyes lit up with four laser beams that ignited the red mist, exploding fiercely!

The explosion was almost all-encompassing. Even with Lin Xian’s fastest reaction, deploying an AT force field shield, his armor was torn apart, scattering debris. He collapsed among the ruins, his elbow’s hydraulic valve exposed.

Before Gray Mist Envoy could stand, the dust above was suddenly covered by a massive shadow of darkness. In the next instant, the Corpse Driver raised its huge head, tentacles hanging everywhere, and lunged directly at them.

“Watch out!”

Lin Xian and Chu Yan’s minds were linked. They raised their arms, crossing their force field shields, but the Corpse Driver smashed straight through the shield. The layered wrist armor shattered, and the ground beneath them collapsed violently, dust billowing!

[Warning: Gray Mist nerve suppression rate dropping, activity rising to 81%, exosuit synchronization efficiency down to 93.2%]

Viola’s alert rang again.

The Corpse Driver’s four blood-red eyes lit up once more, now directly targeting the Gray Mist Envoy’s head.

There was no way to block it!

“Dodge!”

Lin Xian gritted his teeth and shouted. The reactor’s phase halos spun wildly.

“Apostle: Magnetic Storm Shock!”

Woo!

A violent energy surge burst forth. Just as the Corpse Driver’s laser was about to fire, a massive magnetic storm over 500 meters wide exploded. Lightning arcs pierced through the ground and air, successfully interrupting the laser beam.

Then both raised their arms, charging power.

“Rocket Jet Fist!”

“Rocket Jet Fist!”

Boom! The Gray Mist Envoy ignited twelve detonation engines behind its arms, generating tremendous thrust. Coupled with the electric hammer devices on its fists, both fists slammed into the Corpse Driver’s face.

As they blasted the Corpse Driver back, the crimson cosmic evil god suddenly opened its huge mouth, unleashing a superheated flame jet.

A white blinding light flashed instantly. The Gray Mist Envoy’s chest and head armor, nuclear fusion core plates, and surrounding ground vaporized in a massive blast. A heatwave surged out. In a flash, the nuclear fusion turbine’s saw-titanium superconducting ring shut down, and all power and energy output cut off. All engine units stalled!

The overwhelming heat nearly knocked Lin Xian unconscious. Inside the exosuit’s control room, lying in the survival pod, his eyeballs trembled rapidly. Blood gushed from his nostrils and ears like a faucet, quickly soaking his face and hair within seconds.

[Heart rate critical]

[Activate AED system?]

“Lin Xian! Lin Xian!”

Inside the consciousness space, Chu Yan trembled transparently, sensing Lin Xian’s mental power fading. Her awareness existed through the Gray Mist Envoy’s neural mesh, living inside Lin Xian’s body. She clearly felt his pain.

“Ahh!”

Lin Xian seemed to have returned from the brink of death. His consciousness nearly severed connections, bouncing between himself, Chu Yan, and the Gray Mist Envoy. His head was dizzy and foggy.

“Careful, it’s coming again!”

Just as Lin Xian recovered, he and Chu Yan saw the Corpse Driver, looming above, staring with its four evil god eyes at the Gray Mist Envoy.

They could not see its gaze nor comprehend its thoughts.

But in that moment, Lin Xian and Chu Yan seemed to feel the monster ‘seeing’ them through consciousness penetration. Its emotion—whether confusion or rage—they could not tell.

But the following laser beams radiated oppressive killing intent!

Buzz!

At that moment, in the sky, the Hyperion Directional Constraint Cannon suddenly fired a blinding destructive beam, striking the Corpse Driver’s face and detonating the red mist, blasting it back.

Simultaneously, three Orbital Shockwave Cannons fired from three directions, hitting the Corpse Driver. Massive ability-user bombardments followed!

“Fire Fist!”

Lu Xingchen’s flames, KIKI’s telekinetic waves, Jiang Yun’s storm, Monica’s sonic roar, A Bai’s lasers, Li Guangwen’s shock fists...

Above, the Iron Guard Brigade fleet unleashed a volley of artillery, bombarding the Corpse Driver.

“Lin Xian, are you okay?!”

KIKI’s anxious voice came through.

“Not dead yet!” Lin Xian gritted his teeth, supporting his consciousness and standing with Chu Yan.

“Nerve suppression rate is dropping. This exosuit won’t hold much longer!” Chu Yan struggled to stand. “Lin Xian, we must find a way to break its defensive force field!”

“I see it now...”

Lin Xian adjusted his chaotic thoughts. The Corpse Driver’s attacks were annihilator-level. His AT force field shield not only couldn’t block but consumed vast reactor energy. Now the nuclear power core was shut down—that was the worst. Without reigniting it, he could only rely on the reactor phase halos to power this 160,000-ton exosuit.

“Lin Xian, can you hear me?”

A strange yet familiar voice sounded. Lin Xian frowned. “Director Ding?!”

He never expected Ding Junyi’s voice to suddenly appear in his ear.

Not far from the Gray Mist Envoy, on a still-standing building, Ding Junyi wore power armor. KIKI had telekinetically brought her here, urgently contacting Lin Xian.

“I hear you. Speak.”

“I studied the dark energy conversion data you sent back. It’s the inverse of the dark invasion’s engineering data. That means these S-level creatures continuously use force fields and special energy because they exist in dark space. Dead aberrations become their energy supply. This matches the principle of aberrations appearing in night space. Comparing the Sky Touch’s defense data and your fight with the Corpse Driver, I found the Corpse Driver’s red mist recovery slowed significantly after entering the city. Do you understand what that means?” Ding Junyi said breathlessly.

Lin Xian was shocked but quickly realized: “There’s a Synchro Tower here. It can’t draw energy from the polar night?!”

“Yes.”

Another voice came from the Silent City cloud district main bridge. Mochizuki Shinji, supporting half of Dawn City’s anti-air firepower, sent a message: “My calculations match. The Corpse Driver must destroy the Synchro Tower.”

“Then we can’t give it the chance!”

Buzz~

Three layers of hyperstring reactor phase halos lit up behind the Gray Mist Envoy. Lin Xian and Chu Yan bit their lips and rose from the ground pit.

On the rooftop, Ding Junyi watched the massive exosuit flickering urgently. She said, “Lin Xian, remember what I told you? Aberrations are powered by their own life energy. S-levels survive by absorbing energy from their peers. So, the monsters dying inside the city also feed their energy!”

“But it’s limited!”

Lin Xian replied, “Night, polar night, Star Abyss—these should be three different environments for aberrations. Since they’re modifying the Star Abyss, it means current Dawn City can’t yet reach their ideal dimensional environment. And with the Synchro Tower here, so...”

“This is our home field!”

Lin Xian and Chu Yan shared a thought and returned to the Gray Mist Envoy’s perspective, now standing.

The Corpse Driver used its force field to defend against the barrage, firing a laser beam at the Iron Guard Brigade fleet. In an instant, a large squad exploded midair and fell. Just before it could fire on Silent City, a Shockwave Battleship-Cleaving Blade came crashing through the air, slashing the red mist and defense field with a huge explosion.

The Corpse Driver didn’t stop its beam but swept across Dawn City, turning several kilometers of city into burning ruins before charging at the Gray Mist Envoy.

“Apostle: Gravitational Lens!”

But the impact was met by the Gray Mist Envoy’s massive black hole blast. The gravitational lens slammed into the Corpse Driver’s face, sucking in red mist and force field energy. The Corpse Driver’s head skin and tentacles began to shred. Lin Xian and Chu Yan seized the moment, yanking the Shockwave Battleship-Cleaving Blade from the ground and slashing down fiercely.

Crash!

A chain of irregular explosions and blood mists erupted, tearing apart much of the Corpse Driver’s head and torso.

Sensing danger, the Corpse Driver detonated the absorbed red mist early, causing a massive explosion that knocked back the incoming ability team and several Interstellar Predators. Then it vanished again.

“Where?”

“In the sky!” Mochizuki Shinji’s voice came through the comm. Shiori detected a massive dark creature’s fluctuation. Mochizuki immediately adjusted all cannon fire for defense but was too slow for the Corpse Driver.

In the misty sky appeared a huge evil god silhouette. Its four scarlet eyes suddenly fired laser beams, sweeping across Silent City and blowing up vast deck areas. Silent City’s retaliatory artillery fire exploded against its defense field. The aberration vanished once more.

No one expected the humanoid Corpse Driver to hover in the air. Soon, it reappeared near the central city and quickly moved toward City Wall No. 2.

“Damn it!”

Lin Xian cursed. The creature’s sole target was the Synchro Tower, ignoring everything else. He immediately piloted the Gray Mist Envoy in pursuit.

“It uses energy for stealth, attack, and defense. If we keep attacking, we can stop it!” Lin Xian said.

Chu Yan replied, “No. It’s already close to City Wall No. 2. We don’t know how long before it runs out of energy, and Gray Mist’s nerve suppression won’t last much longer.”

“Then speed up!”

“Lin Xian, listen! We can only use the Gravitational Lens once more at best. If we attack, we must be sure we can kill it. We’ve already wounded it, so I have an idea...”

“No!”

Their consciousness linked;

Lin Xian knew her thought instantly.

“Listen. Since the Corpse Driver connects with Gray Mist, I can connect with it too, more precisely than with Earth Surge. If I fully use mental overload, maybe we can seize a chance...”

“You’ll die.”

“That doesn’t matter!”

Chu Yan answered without hesitation. “You’re almost at your limit too. We have only one shot left. Too many have died!”

Lin Xian’s eyes flickered. Gritting his teeth, he charged, firing two kinetic cannon blasts. The Corpse Driver blocked them with its force field, then swept four laser beams back.

“Ah!!”

Lin Xian roared, braving the lasers piercing his chest plate and mechanical arm, and slashed fiercely.

Boom!

Explosions erupted, pushing the Corpse Driver back again. This time, the Shockwave Battleship-Cleaving Blade shattered completely, the blade flying out and embedding in an overpass, which collapsed instantly.

“Don’t run!”

The Gray Mist Envoy punched out. The red mist on the Corpse Driver quickly gathered as a shield. It opened its mouth to incinerate Lin Xian and his team with a blazing flame. But the punch was a feint. Behind the Corpse Driver, a mechanical gate suddenly opened. Thousands of drones swarmed onto the back of its head and exploded!

Blood rained from the Corpse Driver’s back of the head. The red mist on its chest was blasted, erupting another explosion that threw the Gray Mist Envoy back. The armor and rocket thrusters on its mechanical arm shattered, revealing the gray-white S-level gray mist body. Its knobby scales and monstrous spines were terrifying!

The Corpse Driver, furious, suddenly vanished again. The next instant, it reappeared before the Gray Mist Envoy, mouth wide, releasing a white flash!

!!!

Three consecutive ultra-high-speed particle beams instantly shattered the Gray Mist Envoy’s front armor. Its already damaged tissues burst like a waterfall of blood clots. Surrounding street ruins turned to dust. The intense heat waves rolled out like a nuclear blast.

“Lin Xian!!!”

KIKI shouted, attempting to fly in to assist, but powerful shockwaves blew her back repeatedly.

In the battle’s core, within kilometers, all vessels, defensive lines, and ability users were reduced to ash. No one could withstand the shockwave to get close. Everyone could only watch as the Gray Mist Envoy was torn apart layer by layer.

After three particle beam bursts, the Corpse Driver’s head lit with four red eyes. In the next moment, within the Gray Mist Envoy’s mental space, the massive red shadow reappeared.

It sought to completely annihilate this lifeform.

But now, Chu Yan and Lin Xian suddenly opened their eyes!

Whir! Whir! Whir!

The hyperstring reactor phase halos blazed red, a violent mental wave surged from the Gray Mist Envoy. Chu Yan stared at the huge terrifying dark creature, releasing Lin Xian’s hand with a determined expression, her willpower rising sharply!

“Will Overload!”

Buzz!

Invisible mental energy exploded instantly. On the smoky battlefield, the Corpse Driver’s four crimson eyes strangely didn’t fire but dimmed for a moment!

At this moment, the Gray Mist Envoy stood, its three red overloaded phase halos roaring behind it. Lin Xian felt Chu Yan’s last moment of agony before fading. He summoned the Black Star Forge with his left hand and, despite the Gray Mist’s powerful mental destruction, struck with the last Gravitational Lens!

A spatial resonance sounded. All sounds on the battlefield seemed to freeze, returning to silence.

Everyone felt the faint light around the ruins instantly darken. A warped space formed before the Gray Mist Envoy’s right fist, like a black whirlpool in the sky. Even the Corpse Driver’s four red eyes were distorted.

At that moment, the twisted dark area sucked in all red and starlight, becoming a massive dark red black hole that pierced through the Corpse Driver’s chest and head.

“Ah!!!!”

Lin Xian roared, exerting all his strength to expand the Gravitational Lens. This time, the Corpse Driver did not activate its force field or red mist. Its chest was violently torn apart by the black hole, its entire head shredded and disappeared. Only a huge standing torso remained.

The battlefield quieted for a moment. Lin Xian was utterly exhausted, hearing Viola’s fading voice.

[Warning: Gray Mist nerve suppression rate dropping, activity rising to 88%, exosuit synchronization efficiency down to 92.3%]

“Lin Xian, Lin Xian!”

In the dark mental space, Chu Yan’s consciousness grew transparent. She looked at Lin Xian anxiously and said,

“Listen, I... just saw from the Corpse Driver’s consciousness... the Star Abyss No. 5, the Abyssal Fiends are coming!”

“What?!”

Lin Xian and Chu Yan’s connection was still broken and intermittent. Much of her voice was inaudible, but some images came clearly to Lin Xian’s mind.

He saw a giant serpent stirring in the clouds, a huge neural tentacle pulsing underwater.

He saw a terrifying giant in the mist, and beneath the deep sea, a strange floating presence resembling a human brain.

Through Chu Yan’s consciousness, Lin Xian seemed to view aberrations worldwide from the Corpse Driver’s perspective. Most astonishingly, beneath the ocean depths, he saw human presence!

“We didn’t kill it... Lin Xian!” Chu Yan’s fragmented call came.

At that moment, from the Gray Mist Envoy’s remaining viewpoint, Lin Xian saw the Corpse Driver standing still, black mist swirling around it. The consumed body tissues were rapidly repairing visibly—bones, tissues, plasma, nerves...

The quickly restored Corpse Driver turned and charged again toward City Wall No. 2 amid ongoing artillery fire.

He saw the city’s desperate battle, the garrison, Iron Guard Brigade, and countless survivors dying continuously. Mech squads stood before City Wall No. 2 but were crushed one by one.

He saw countless ability users charging in resistance, dying in despair.

This scene blanked Lin Xian’s mind instantly.

“We forgot... When the Crimson World created the exosuits, the darkness could foresee our actions. So, using the Gray Mist Envoy doesn’t threaten the Star Abyss because...” Chu Yan’s faint voice echoed.

“Because the Star Abyss is testing humanity’s strength,” Lin Xian replied grimly. “When the Star Abyss knows humanity’s power is insufficient to threaten it, the Abyssal Fiends will swiftly arrive. All aberrations and S-levels are sacrifices. The Corpse Driver and Abyssal Fiends are tools made by the Star Abyss for dimensional expansion.”

“Lin Xian...” Chu Yan looked at him before disappearing, “Sorry...”

Fizz!

A flash flickered inside the Gray Mist Envoy’s neural control room. Lin Xian’s consciousness began to retreat as exosuit synchronization efficiency fell continuously.

In the dark space, only Lin Xian’s figure remained. The hellish thunder of the Gray Mist neural mesh roared around, and Lin Xian’s consciousness gradually disconnected.

[Warning: Gray Mist nerve suppression rate dropping, activity rising to 89%, exosuit synchronization efficiency down to 90%]

[Warning: Gray Mist nerve suppression rate dropping, activity rising to 90%, exosuit synchronization efficiency dropping to... 0]

Ahh.

Among the ruins, a loud roar quietly arose. Then rubble trembled. Under the watch of the Xianchang garrison and Li Xiaofeng’s fleet and sensors, a faint alarm suddenly sounded.

Beep beep beep beep!

[Detected small-scale disaster creature fluctuations;

Spirit Resonance Index exceeds S-level standard!]

“What’s happening?!” Lu Tianye shouted.

“Another S-level?!”

At the Twin Star Tower command center, Ye Lan’s face darkened.

“How? Where did an S-level come from, appearing directly inside the city?” Xu Yan exclaimed.

“Could it be an underground creature like Earth Surge?” Su Jin asked anxiously.

Inside the city, alarms blared wildly among resistance forces around the central district. Survivor convoys also shouted in alarm.

“Damn, another S-level?!”

“Are you kidding me?!”

“Where?!”

“Prepare defenses!”

“All convoys, retreat to City Wall No. 2!”

“Move fast.”

Meanwhile, KIKI immediately took Ding Junyi and the Infinite team members, swiftly retreating with flight abilities.

Ding Junyi, carried by KIKI, looked toward the distant ruins, eyes narrowing slightly. She said,

“Did we forget something?”

“What?”

“Gray Mist Envoy...”

“It’s an S-level itself.”