The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

The rain poured down, the dense raindrops lashing the broken bluestone slabs of the antique street like whips, splashing up murky sprays. Li Haotian and his group had just left that dark and eerie ghost market, and the oppressive atmosphere, like the torrential rain, weighed heavily on everyone's hearts.

"Boss, this place is really creepy. I feel a chill down my spine, like there are countless eyes watching me." Liu Hu, holding a heavy machine gun, warily scanned the empty alleyways around him. Rainwater slid down his hard face and into his collar.

Li Haotian didn't turn around. His gun was ready to fire at any moment, and his gaze was as sharp as a hawk's, piercing through the rain: "Now that we're out, let's not think about anything else. Let's get out of this area quickly and talk about it when we get to the safe house."

Qin Yue followed closely in the middle of the group, clutching the portable analyzer tightly to her chest, her brow furrowed with worry. The feeling of being watched in the ghost market hadn't dissipated after leaving; instead, it had grown even stronger.

Just as everyone was about to turn at a T-junction ahead, something unexpected happened.

"Watch out!" Little Black suddenly let out a sharp roar, its fur standing on end, staring intently at the dark alleyway directly in front of it.

Almost simultaneously, a dozen figures dressed in black raincoats silently appeared at the alley entrance, blocking the way. Their heads were bowed, rain dripping from the wide brims of their hats, their faces hidden in shadow, making it impossible to see their features.

"Who goes there? Stop!" Liu Hu roared, his finger on the trigger.

The figures didn't respond, not even a breath. Then, they slowly raised their heads, revealing faces that sent chills down everyone's spines—faces that weren't those of living people at all. Their skin was a deathly grayish-white, without pores, its texture resembling both dried leather and solidified grease. Their features were stiffly arranged, except for their eyes, which had no whites, just a bottomless, pitch-black expanse.

"Fire!" Li Haotian gave the order without hesitation.

"Da da da da da!"

The heavy machine gun in Liu Hu's hands spat out scorching flames, large-caliber bullets tearing through the rain and slamming into the chest of the monster at the front. However, a horrifying scene unfolded. The bullets struck the target's body without splattering blood; instead, they seemed to have entered a clump of sticky glue. The bullets tumbled and sank into the grayish-white flesh with muffled "thuds," and the muscles around the wound instantly writhed, enveloping and consuming the bullet like living fluid. Within seconds, the wound healed completely at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Without uttering a sound of pain, the monsters pounced on them like a pack of wolves, their movements stiff yet incredibly fast.

"Physical attacks are ineffective? What the hell is this thing?!" Qin Yue exclaimed in surprise and quickly retreated.

"Then blow them up! Liu Hu, grenades!" Li Haotian calmly commanded while providing cover fire.

"Alright! Try my treasure!"

Liu Hu grinned maliciously, pulled two high-explosive grenades from his tactical vest, bit off the pins with his teeth, and precisely hurled them at the enemy group. The grenades traced perfect parabolas in the air, landing amidst the gray-white monsters.

"boom--!"

A massive explosion reverberated through the night sky, accompanied by a terrifying shockwave that instantly tore apart several nearby awnings. Orange flames tumbled through the narrow alleyway, and the bodies of the gray-white figures struck by the blast were instantly torn to pieces, reduced to writhing chunks of rotten flesh scattered across the ground.

However, the remaining monsters did not retreat. They stared at their shattered comrades, their empty eyes remaining expressionless. Even more terrifying, the pieces of flesh on the ground began to gather and flow like mercury, attempting to fuse back together.

"Stop looking, run! Their bodies can liquefy and deform!" Li Haotian immediately saw the clue. This extraordinary characteristic of these creatures made them extremely difficult to deal with in narrow terrain.

The group quickly turned and ran into the depths of the intricate alleyways. Behind them, the gray-white figures displayed inhuman mobility; their limbs stretched and twisted as they ran, even able to crawl along the walls like geckos, like a gray-white torrent of death, clinging tightly to their backs.

"Damn it, I can't shake them off!" Liu Hu ran while looking back, casually throwing a few flashbangs behind him, but the flashbangs were almost useless against those monsters that had no visual nerves.

The chase unfolded fiercely in the deep alleyways of the rainy night. Li Haotian, with his exceptional tactical skills, led his men, dodging left and right, using the terrain to their advantage and constantly widening the distance. After a sharp turn, he suddenly stopped, stood against the wall, and aimed his gun at the three monsters pursuing them.

"Qin Yue, detect weaknesses!"

Qin Yue quickly raised the analyzer to scan, and the data on the screen jumped wildly: "Boss, their energy core is deep in their brains, but it's surrounded by a thick layer of bone shield! Only... only an instantaneous explosion at extremely high temperatures can destroy that structure!"

"Liu Hu, do you have any more high-explosive grenades?"

"Only two left!" Liu Hu was panting heavily, relying entirely on brute force to keep going.

Li Haotian's eyes sharpened as he looked at the monstrous figures flowing like liquid towards him on the alley wall. He said in a deep voice, "On my command. Stick to the wall, three, two, one, throw!"

Two more grenades flew out. This time, Li Haotian didn't wait for them to explode. Instead, he fired a series of shots with his rifle, accurately detonating the grenades in mid-air.

"Boom!"

The extremely hot fireball expanded instantly within the confined space, the massive heatwave instantly sucking away the surrounding air. The monsters, attempting to liquefy and escape, had their internal liquid structures boil and vaporize under this devastating heat. A piercing roar finally rang out—their first sound, sounding like cold water being poured into boiling oil.

The explosion subsided, and a nauseating, acrid smell filled the alleyway. Only a few piles of black, smoldering debris remained on the ground, never to be reassembled.

"Finally...done." Liu Hu plopped down on the waterlogged ground, panting heavily. "What the hell were these guys made of? Rubber?"

Qin Yue didn't rest. She put on gloves and carefully walked to a pile of slag. Amidst the charred ashes, a faint metallic luster caught her attention. She used tweezers to brush away the charcoal, revealing a chip no bigger than a fingernail, yet still perfectly intact.

"Boss, look at this."

Li Haotian walked over and took the chip. The chip was an eerie, dark blue color, with a tiny number engraved on it.

Qin Yue swiftly inserted the chip into the decryption terminal, her fingers flying across the keyboard. A few seconds later, her face turned deathly pale, and her pupils contracted sharply: "This...how is this possible!"

"What's wrong?" Li Haotian looked at her shocked expression and a sense of foreboding rose in his heart.

"This is the highest level of encryption protocol from Dragon Shield." Qin Yue pointed to the decrypted file on the screen with a trembling voice. "This chip belongs to a top-secret project within Dragon Shield that has been sealed for half a century—'File Zero'."

"File Zero?" Li Haotian frowned. "I've read some of the files from Dragon Shield, but I've never heard of this one."

"Because it was erased." Qin Yue took a deep breath and pulled up the written records and a few blurry black and white photos in the file. "It records that fifty years ago, when Donghai City was first being built, the construction team unearthed something incredible thirty meters underground."

On the screen, a yellowed photograph appeared. It was a huge bronze mirror, almost embedded in the rock strata. Although the mirror surface was covered with rust, it could still vaguely reflect the surrounding figures. The mirror was engraved with extremely intricate and bizarre patterns, which were exactly the same as the bronze fragments that Li Haotian had obtained before.

"This mirror... is over ten meters in diameter, buried deep in the earth's crust, as if it grew out of the ground," Qin Yue continued reading. "The entire exploration team mysteriously disappeared after coming into contact with the mirror. Only this recording and this mirror were left at the scene. To cover up the panic, the upper echelons of Dragon Shield sealed off that area, created File Zero, and purged all those who knew about it. And this chip was the identification device worn by the agents responsible for guarding that area back then."

Li Haotian felt a chill creep up his spine and up to the top of his head. The clues in the ghost market, the eerie gray-white monster, the ancient bronze mirror that had been sealed for fifty years, and the so-called "god in the mirror"... all the clues finally converged into a complete line at this moment.

"These grayish-white monsters..." Li Haotian looked at the debris on the ground, his voice low, "Are they the missing exploration team members from back then, or the D.H.I.E.L.D. agents guarding the mirror?"

"Very likely. This mirror possesses some kind of ability to modify living beings." Qin Yue looked at the data. "The last line of File Zero reads: 'The mirror is a door, and also an eye. When it opens, the world will be rewritten.'"

Li Haotian clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms. It turned out they had known all along, known for half a century what lay beneath this city, yet chose to conceal and seal it away, until today, when the monster crawled out of the abyss and the nightmare returned.

The rain seemed to be falling even harder. Li Haotian looked up at the pitch-black night sky, the endless darkness resembling the reflection of a giant bronze mirror.

"Now that we know where the door is, let's go smash the mirror." Li Haotian turned around, his eyes burning with a resolute flame. "Whether it's a secret from fifty years ago or a nightmare in the mirror now, they can all go back to hell!"

He grabbed the chip and led his team into the depths of the rain, leaving behind only a mess and the earth-shattering truth that was about to be revealed, a truth that could upend the entire city.