Uncle here isn't your average office worker!

Lying on the ground, his lungs were clearly highly crystallized, and with each breath he expelled large amounts of Originium dust. The infected man, an Originium crystal, had lost all identity—his appearance, language, and thought processes. Death had caught up with him, slowly dissecting him and feasting on this gluttonous meal. But a heart-wrenching scream suddenly brought the mindless infected man to a reaction.

That was a cry filled with sorrow and despair: "Dad!"

Perhaps out of sheer fear of the danger posed by the explosions that killed the infected, or perhaps simply due to a lack of understanding of the captured infected’s ability to resist, a little Kuranta girl rushed out from the crowd of infected during the chaos of the bounty hunters’ retreat and limped towards the unrecognizable crystal on the ground.

"father!"

She called out again. The Originium crystals on the ground, seemingly rooted to the earth, suddenly reacted. The infected man lying on his back seemed to suddenly feel a sliver of clarity; his will seemed to return to his body, filling his limbs and bones, flowing and transmitting through the areas filled with Originium. Some power within the Originium seemed to replace the normal function of his nerves, allowing him to become aware of everything happening around him, to hear the girl's call, and to hear the mocking voices.

That's my daughter.

"Damn it, how did that little one get out? What's wrong with you? Why didn't you keep an eye on her?!"

Why is she crying? Who bullied her? Damn it, no one is allowed to bully my daughter!

"Boss, it's really not my fault. There were so many people, and it was so chaotic just now, how could I keep an eye on him? I'll go and bring him back right now!"

But I'm just an infected person. My body feels so heavy, I can't move. Has this caused another relapse?

"Come back! Have you grown Originium in your brain? That thing's about to explode! You want to get infected too? Isn't that her daughter? We're just standing here watching him..."

No, don't cry. I can't let her worry. I have to...

"Let's see if he dares to blow up his own daughter."

I need to hug her.

Amidst the gazes of the crowd, some mocking, some pitying, the corpse, which had long since turned into a mass of Originium crystals, suddenly trembled. Then, as if in a final burst of life, the corpse, which seemed to have no further signs of life, suddenly rolled over and pulled the girl lying beside it into its arms.

The girl herself seemed stunned for a moment, until her frail body was slashed by the sharp Originium crystal, blood flowing down, mixed with fragments of Originium crystal, before she seemed to wake from a dream and react. She did not run away, but reached out and embraced the crystal.

"dad......"

"boom!"

With a crisp cracking sound, an explosion like thunder rang out, drowning out the girl's last words.

Flesh and blood mixed with crystalline fragments shot out in all directions, and a large amount of Originium dust exploded in the air, turning the entire area into a heavily contaminated Originium zone.

An infected person made a "spectacular" exit from the stage, taking with her anonymity and her anonymity.

The unexpected explosion even shattered the few remaining windows in the surrounding buildings. The tall bounty hunter struggled to his feet, covering his nose with his dirty scarf, and cursed viciously:

"Damn, why is this explosion so loud?"

He seemed to be simply stating a fact: this wasn't the first time he had witnessed infected people die, but in the previous instances, most of those infected people were blown up unremarkable, far less "deterrent" than this one.

It's as if the explosion was so powerful that it could intimidate them and prevent them from capturing his daughter.

"Hehe, what a pity, we lost two good items at once."

He chuckled coldly and waved to his team members: "Let's go, let's get out of here quickly. Today has been unlucky enough. Go home, take a shower, disinfect, and get this batch of goods off the ground as soon as possible. I'll buy you some inhibitors for disinfection!"

The team members cheered and drove away the remaining infected people.

Throughout the entire process, from the man's sudden onset of Oripathy and its rapid deterioration to near death, to the girl taking advantage of the chaos to escape from the crowd and rush towards her father, to the man's body exploding and the bounty hunters preparing to leave, these infected individuals remained completely silent.

They remained silent, like mere commodities, incapable of making a sound. Only the occasional glimpses of pity and self-pity in their eyes revealed the truth that they were still alive.

Faced with being driven away, they obediently turned around and followed the bounty hunter squad, which probably numbered less than a third of their own. The squad had only gone a couple of steps when they suddenly stopped.

They looked up blankly and found that a figure was blocking the way ahead of the procession.

The figure stood in the sunlight, somewhat blurred by the blinding light. He held a magnificent greatsword in his hand and wore a mysterious mask, looking like a chivalrous knight straight out of a fairy tale.

He said, "Stop."

Thus, the tall bounty hunter lost both his legs.

Volume 1: Chapter 254 A New Era Is Dawning

Columbia, Rhine Life, Headquarters Office.

After Project Flame Demon was forced to a halt, Christen appeared at Rhine Labs more frequently. The most obvious sign was that, starting one day, Rhine Labs employees were surprised to find that they could actually find the Chief in the Chief's office.

It was like going from one extreme to the other; Christensen hadn't even left his office for the past few days, eating, drinking, and sleeping all within that spacious office. Many people inquired with fellow Rhine partners, Serena and Muirses, but only received the reply, "I don't know what Christensen is doing either."

She seemed to be waiting for something, so much so that she didn't want to leave that spot even for a moment.

"Ding—You have a new visitor! Open the door quickly!"

The notification sound was provided by a water sprite who wished to remain anonymous. Her slightly playful voice always managed to rouse anyone from the most tiring mornings and nights. Christen almost jolted awake, jerking up from her desk and switching from a sleepy state to a serious work mode within seconds. She pressed the access button on the door.

"Kristen."

The newcomer was a woman with sharp, twisted horns on her head. She was dressed like a professional office lady, with a simple shirt and trousers that made her look rather old-fashioned. However, the bone pen she kept twirling in her hand, with its trendy appearance and many mysterious symbols carved into its hollowed-out parts, made her seem very rebellious to the truly old-fashioned members of her tribe.

She nodded to Christen as a greeting, then handed the stack of documents she was carrying to the desk.

"As you wished, I did not peek at the data from this month's scientific expedition."

“I believe you, Nastya,” Christen smiled at her, then quickly put the smile away as he looked down and picked up the documents.

She had no doubt that Nasti had been peeking. After all, if she had really seen what was inside, she wouldn't be in this state now; she would be even more shocked, more confused, or, more "distorted."

Without asking the head of the research department who compiled the data why he didn't submit his own report, Christen eagerly began reading the contents.

[Rhine Labs: Scientific Expedition Results of the No. 1 Underground Ruins in Trimont]

[Hereinafter referred to as Ruins No. 1.]

As we initially anticipated, the ruins of Trimont No. 1 are a massive ancient site, almost half the size of Trimont. Although most of the structures are highly decayed, we can still vaguely discern the functions of some of the vast spaces.

[From a structural perspective, Space 1 of Ruins 1 appears to resemble a massive icehouse or furnace (though the exact location is unclear due to a lack of necessary equipment), used for storing or thawing certain items. However, I find it difficult to imagine what kind of enormous object a freezer or furnace, approximately 30 meters long and 30 meters wide, with an area approaching one square kilometer, would be used to freeze or thaw. Or perhaps, many things were actually being thawed or melted inside? Furthermore, we still cannot understand why this room was built at the deepest point of the entire ruins.]

[Space 2 is a hospital. We can confirm this because it contains a large quantity of well-preserved medicine. Yes, it's surprising; the dates on the drug labels have decayed, but the structures themselves remain intact. We've already transported them out of the ruins and back to Rhine Lab, where we can conduct experiments to see if they still retain any efficacy.]

[Space 3 is quite special. Based on my personal judgment, this should be the central system of the entire ruins, preserving a large number of traces of life. However, we failed to find any ancient animal remains here. If, as we suspect, ancient history was destroyed by a super natural disaster that affected the entire land, then where did the people who once lived here go?]

【Space 4............

Seemingly having a premonition, Christen skipped the middle section and focused her attention on the end of the document.

Sure enough, the head of the scientific research department left his most important report here:

“Kristen, this might sound a bit mystical, but at the very bottom of the ruins, beneath the earth, I seem to hear some kind of call. I feel that there must be even deeper spaces in these ruins that have not yet been discovered, and we are not far from uncovering its true secrets.”

Christen suddenly stood up, looked at Nastya, and gave the order:

"I want to go out."

Nasti glanced at her, then chuckled as if she'd expected this. "If you don't go out soon, Ferdinand and Seria might come knocking on your door." After her comment, she paused and asked, "How long?"

Christen paused for a moment, then shook her head: "I don't know."

It could be a long time, or it could be a short time, depending on the progress of the scientific expedition in excavating the hidden part of the ruins. But Christen felt that it wouldn't be a short time.

She should have made more preparations before setting off, such as resolving internal conflicts within Rhine, consolidating her position, or at the very least, informing Saria of her purpose. But she simply couldn't wait any longer.

Christine had a premonition that she was almost about to touch upon a part of the truth she had been searching for. The mysteries of the stars might also lie deep beneath the earth.

“Go ahead.” Nasti sighed like an old mother who had watched her child grow up and had to let her become independent. “I will tell Yara and Seria about your decision. With them around, Rhine will be fine.”

"As for you, you've never cared about these things. I just want to remind you not to forget your promise."

Christen nodded, knowing full well what her banshee master was talking about: "Kazdel can also stand in the sky."

After saying that, she waved to her with relief, turned around and walked out of the head office.

Just before leaving, she suddenly stopped and turned around, saying:

"There's a mistake that needs to be corrected. Of course I care about what you're saying."

Without looking at Nastya's stunned expression, Christen walked out of the office.

A dozen seconds later, Nasti came to her senses, a smile appearing on her lips. She walked out the door, glancing to her left, and said:

"Director Dorothy, come out! Why are you hiding?"

Dorothy emerged from around the corner, scratching her head somewhat sheepishly.

“I wasn’t hiding. I just saw the commander-in-chief rushing out and was afraid something had happened.”

Nasti smiled, nodded, and replied as if jokingly, "Something did happen."

"What?" Dorothy asked curiously.

Nasti raised her head, looking at the ceiling, or perhaps at something much more distant, and said, "A new era is dawning."

Volume 1: Chapter 255 Small Animals

Excavation site of the Rhine Life Sciences Research Institute on the outskirts of Trimont, Colombia.

Colombia is a unique country. The Great Frontier Movement brought it a vast amount of developable territory, but this former colony, which is less than a century old, clearly did not have enough manpower to fully develop these areas, so much so that apart from mobile cities, its territory was practically wasteland.

Buried within these ruins and wastelands are vast treasures. These treasures could be gold mines sought by prospectors, resources sought by factory owners, or even relics searched for by scientists.

The existence of another civilization on this land before the earliest known Terran civilization has become a hot topic in Terran's scientific community. Numerous ruins, exceeding historical records, with unknown construction dates, technologies, and activation methods, all point to pioneering scientists that this world was not always like this; a more advanced, developed, and magnificent civilization, far beyond the current imagination of Terrans, once ruled this land.

Kristen Wright was one of these scientists who were "enlightened".

The more Christen explored the secrets of the sky, the more she realized that these secrets were inextricably linked to the land itself. Based on clues from numerous ancient documents she had collected, she deduced that the key to all the secrets lay in three places: first, Kazdel, the oldest civilization on Terra that had been erased; second, the remote, icy plains of Infi, which rejected everyone; and third, this land, a place they had lived in close proximity to yet had never truly paid attention to.

Therefore, she established the Rhine Life Research Department, a department that was questioned and opposed by almost everyone at the time. Theoretically, it could not bring any benefits to Rhine Life, but Christensen's insistence pushed it forward, which is why it has achieved what it has today.

Pero, his face pale gold, looked up at the massive gate that nearly filled the entire underground space. The gate was made of an unknown black alloy, a hundred times harder than D32 alloy—the most advanced steel available today—far exceeding the understanding of Terra materials science. It was covered in various micro-carvings, like dried-up pipes outlining a mysterious symbol. At the main entrance was a window resembling a recognition system. The archaeologists who first excavated here attempted to interact with the window, concluding, "This thing looks functional, but no matter how I touch it, it doesn't respond at all."

"He might be waiting for the right person."