Infinite Horror: The Strongest Zhongzhou Team

Ripley's reaction was much calmer when he felt the force pulling him into the air.

He immediately took a deep breath.

John's words were cut short.

surface.

Compared to the last time, the group was noticeably less disheveled.

At least he can stand up now.

However, the sudden chill in the surroundings made all four of them shiver involuntarily.

It only became more comfortable after the nanospacesuit stabilized the temperature immediately.

Without the previous flames and explosions, the temperature on the ice surface has dropped to a standard minus 138 degrees Celsius.

Fortunately, as soon as the disheveled group emerged, they saw the gray-black Betty hovering in mid-air.

Inside the cockpit.

After a passionate hug between Reeves and Wells, they reverted to their usual disdainful expressions.

However, his expression changed drastically when he saw those old antiques.

Fortunately, Li Xiao and Zhao Yingkong were still there, and these people all toned down their behavior considerably.

"What have you been doing? Does an emergency landing really take this long?"

Ripley finished asking the question.

Then they noticed that Veris had a mysterious expression on his face.

"Everyone, I think there's something interesting you need to see."

"But before that, let's get out of this awful place."

Reeves finished speaking with a serious expression, before anyone else could speak.

With a push of his feet, the mechanical seat beneath him spun around and landed on the control platform.

The grey-black Betty flew towards the other side of the earth after making a turn on a desolate ice field.

Ten minutes later.

Under Reeves' precise control, the Betty glided gracefully through the edge of Earth's thin atmosphere.

The icy blue planet shrank rapidly in the observation window.

Its lonely silhouette, once again covered in ice and snow, is revealed.

Watching as we escape Earth's gravity and enter the universe.

Reeves and Wells, who were in the driver's seat, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although they all knew this was only a temporary escape and that they would return to Earth soon.

But in any case, they have now completely escaped danger.

John carefully unpacked the package he had "found" in the junkyard.

The rusty parts inside gleamed with a dull luster under the soft artificial light.

"Finally up..."

Christie glanced at the Earth below the porthole with lingering fear.

Wells sighed:

"It feels like I just crawled out of a garbage dump and was then thrown into a freezer."

Compared to others.

Li Xiao then stood up, stretched, and said something inexplicably in the direction of the cold girl.

"No matter what, at least we broke even this time!"

Even the usually aloof Zhao Yingkong showed a rare faint smile and nodded.

The interaction between the two, and this particular line, left Ripley and the others completely baffled.

The reason the two were in a good mood was because, as the Betty flew away from Earth, the voice of the Supreme God echoed in their minds.

The game has completed the side quest for both characters, granting each a B-rank side quest and 5000 reward points.

As is customary, the two would probably just board the Betty and leave without looking back.

But now, the two have to go again.

After all, the two of them still have plenty of time to exchange their items.

After taking out another case of ice-cold beer.

Li Xiao then looked at Reeves and asked:
"What did you find?"

"Could it be even more outrageous than the dungeon we went to?"

Wells and his companions had been itching to ask for a long time.

But seeing Reeves so nervously piloting the spaceship for the first time, I didn't make a sound to disturb him.

After switching to autopilot mode, Revis glanced at Zhao Yingkong.

Then he turned around and took a bottle of beer.

Then he said with lingering fear:
"As we escaped the space station, the entire space station was completely destroyed by those drones and began to fall toward Earth."

It took more than ten minutes for the ground to become calm outside the atmosphere.

We immediately flew down and then made an emergency landing.

"We only detected that your signal coordinates had deviated from their location when the effects of the electromagnetic pulse disappeared."

"And the distance is very far."

"So we started our search along the equator."

"But at that very moment, at a location a thousand kilometers from the crashed space station, also in the equatorial region, we discovered this."

Reeves tapped his finger.

An image appeared on the 3D projection screen in the center of the cockpit.

"Isn't this the space station from before?"

"What's weird?"

As soon as Wells finished speaking, Ripley jumped to his feet.

Li Xiao initially shared Wells's idea, because the image showed what the space station would look like after it crashed.

But Li Xiao soon realized something was wrong.

Because the metal debris that he remembered had just exploded and crashed half an hour earlier was now covered with a thick layer of ice crystals.

Furthermore, the thickness of this layer of ice crystals is definitely not something that can be formed in a short period of time.

Reeves looked serious and offered no explanation.

And they changed the picture again and again, one after another.

"This is on the other side of the Earth, these are the coordinates... and..."

A series of five or six pictures.

Each picture shows a crashed space station.

And if Reeves wasn't joking, the coordinates and crash details in these pictures are all different.

Wells didn't make a fuss at this point, because compared to the underground city, this discovery seemed even more unbelievable.

Or rather, it's a bit outrageous.

Seeing the silence of the crowd, Reeves patted his cheek and continued:

“We went to five locations in total, and we searched the nearest one at each of them. We were able to find a crashed space station at almost every one of them.”

"Perhaps this is why no spaceship has ever been able to leave Earth."

"That's also why Ripley is so familiar with the space station, but there's no trace of human habitation on it."

"We then discovered that there seemed to be a force on the surface that wanted to attack the Betty spaceship."

As Reeves spoke, his gaze couldn't help but drift back to the girl in the corner.

"This presence should be the digital life recorded on the space station."

"Because I'm certain they aren't human."

Wells asked in confusion, "And then? That's it?"

"And isn't this quite easy?"

"Even if the space station is destroyed, the spaceship may not necessarily crash."

John added from the side:
"Our Betty isn't up to the task, but those luxury spaceships have automatic warning systems and force field shields for protection." "Those drones can't break through their defenses."

Reeves shook his head: "The point isn't the drones, the point is the people who command them."

"Those drones can't break through the force field shield's defense, but don't forget that a decoy that comes at the cost of a space station and a space elevator can't be without a backup plan."

"Just after we saw the crash end and the plane make its way to the ground, a huge mechanical monster appeared."

As he spoke, a deformed monster, a metallic monster, was projected onto the screen.

However, this monster that suddenly attacked from underground did not survive for more than three seconds in front of the girl.

Reeves seemed to be recalling what had just happened, and said with emotion:
"Otherwise, with this person around, we..."

After Reeves finished his vivid and engaging narration...

Christie and the others also told Reeves about what they had seen in the underground city.

I also introduced the little black dog in my arms.

That's right, after Christie had examined the little black dog.

Therefore, he was forced to become the sixth member of the Betty battleship.

Li Xiao raised his hand, interrupting the group's enthusiastic chatter.

"Alright, Moss, locate the underground city and Wendy's position."

With the help of the Betty mainframe, Moss projected the dungeon map that he had glimpsed at the top of the fluorescent passage earlier.

Ten thousand underground cities, like a giant metal honeycomb, dot the Earth's equator.

At this moment, the striking blue light in the center of the map—Wendy's location—was completely enveloped in a blinding crimson.

Those red dots were unusually dense and bright, like a scorching cage.

Li Xiao frowned.

"Is this the place?" Li Xiao's voice broke the hushed conversation inside the cabin.

"Target identified. Cole, have the coordinates been locked?"

"Coordinates locked. Moss is performing final map calibration and environmental analysis," Cole's voice came from the console.

"But the energy signals around there... are extremely dense, far exceeding any other area."

"As expected."

Li Xiao looked at the terrain map in front of him and calmly said:
“If the Grimaldians want to imprison their creator, they will naturally deploy a large force to guard it. Moss, try to establish a temporary data link. I need an ‘eye’ to go in and see what’s going on.”

"Command received."

Moss's synthesized sound was calm and even.

Looking at the Earth environment projected on the screen, the mercenaries were completely bewildered.

Reeves noticed something amiss and couldn't help but ask:

"When were these reconnaissance satellites launched?"

Li Xiao shrugged: "Just now, when I took out the beer."

"Since it's in space anyway, there's no need to launch it, so I'll just have Sakura throw it out directly."

Upon hearing this, the malty beer in the mouth of the mercenary suddenly lost its appeal.

Almost simultaneously, what the mercenaries failed to discover was...

A portion of Mosna's liquid metal body rapidly separated into extremely fine, almost invisible, solid threads.

These threads, like invisible tentacles, disregarded the spaceship's physical structure, pierced the vacuum, and extended downwards along specific trajectories, their target being the blue island in the sea of ​​blazing red dots.

That is, the underground city where Wendy lives.

These are the eyes that Li Xiao was talking about.

Once he was sure Moss had been released, Li Xiao said with a relaxed expression:

"Alright everyone, let's rest for three days first, and then we'll go to Earth to meet Wendy."

Ripley and Cole exchanged a glance, both seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

Wells and his friends immediately put their arms around him, and the group, carrying beer and food that Li Xiao had brought out, chatted and laughed as they walked towards the activity room.

They very tactfully left the control room to them.

Li Xiao and Zhao Yingkong weren't exactly injured, but they still needed to recover their strength and energy.

Despite the fact that the two proved that force on Earth could not harm them.

However, even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit, so the two, having been trained by the main god, would naturally not make such a basic mistake.

This is also why the two didn't go to find Wendy immediately after they met up.

Sitting under the cockpit window, Li Xiao closed his eyes again and entered a meditative state.

Activity room.

Why did Li Xiao say that the Ghibli imprisoned their creator?

"Isn't this backwards? Wasn't Wendy created by the company?"

"Do you still remember the technology that cyborg mentioned?"

"What technology?"

Cole said:

"Christie is probably referring to the technology of extracting consciousness and then transferring it to another person's body."

"If I'm not mistaken, the company created Wendy, and Wendy used this technology to create GQ."

three days later.

With the connection of satellite signals.

A small window quickly splits off the screen.

The images captured by Moss through its nanomachine tentacles began to flicker sporadically.

Then came a cold, oppressive metal corridor, heavily armed metal guards patrolling with efficiency and secrecy far exceeding that of ordinary cyborgs in the underground city, and complex laser fences…

Suddenly, the screen in the window started shaking violently!

The originally smooth data stream instantly became chaotic, with a large number of warning messages flashing across the edge of the screen like snowflakes.

"Warning! The detection unit has encountered strong resistance from the stream of consciousness! A highly active consciousness entity is intercepting it!"

Moss's synthesized voice showed obvious data fluctuations for the first time, revealing a hint of urgency.

"Moss cuts off all links."

Li Xiao commanded.

After saying that, the Betty, which had been stationary outside of Earth, restarted its engines and rushed towards a certain location on Earth.

Half a day later.

After the world before us returned to calm.

Ripley, Cole, and Christie stood speechless on the seemingly endless crystal floor.

With each step they took, the spotless crystal floor would shimmer with a colorful halo.

Ripples spread outwards.

It appears extremely dreamlike and unreal.

For them, this place is like a fairytale world in a dream.

Of course, they all knew it in their hearts.

This is not a fairy tale world, but an artificial world where the Ghibli people live.

When I stepped out of the spaceship and saw this underground city for the first time.

It's spotless here, like a delicate and clean crystal work of art.

From the ground to the arches, the covered bridges, and even the sky above the city.

Everything here is made of crystal.

Of course, this type of crystal also has another function: it can store and transmit information in all aspects.

In other words, everything here is part of the Ghibli family.

The three of them knew in their hearts that everything they had seen from beginning to end was just the tip of the iceberg that the Ghibli had revealed.

To become "them" of the Intelligence Clan, and "them" of the Interstellar Federation.

They are two contrasting entities that are on different paths but moving forward together, running in parallel.

Just as Li Xiao didn't understand Cretaceous dinosaurs, Ripley and his group didn't understand the Grimm. (End of Chapter)