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

"boom--"

As the heavy stone door closed completely, the last clamor and flames were mercilessly severed. The enormous aftershocks traveled through the ground, making the feet ache and sending shivers down one's spine.

The world fell silent again in that instant, with only the heavy breathing of the crowd echoing in the vast darkness. Dust swirled wildly in the beam of the powerful flashlight, like countless tiny, disturbed ghosts.

Li Haotian leaned against the stone door, his chest heaving violently, sweat dripping from his chin onto the cold metal floor. He felt no relief at having temporarily escaped the pursuit; on the contrary, a chill, deeper and more suffocating than the monsters behind him, was creeping up his spine to the back of his head.

Something is wrong here.

It was so quiet. As quiet as a vacuum in the universe, without even a whisper of wind.

"Is everything alright?" Li Haotian asked in a low, hoarse voice.

"Alive." Liu Hu wiped the blood from his face. Despite his injuries, the fierce glint in the burly man's eyes remained undiminished. "Those lunatics are probably trapped outside."

Su Wan was inspecting the portable terminal, the screen's glow illuminating her pale face. Her brow furrowed, her fingers flying across the keyboard: "All external signals are blocked here, but... I can detect extremely strong energy fluctuations. Right ahead."

Li Haotian straightened up, raised his tactical flashlight, and the beam of light pierced the thick darkness before him.

As the beam of light swept across the room, everyone's pupils suddenly contracted.

They had initially assumed that behind the door lay a tomb filled with burial goods, or some kind of sacrificial hall brimming with ancient mechanisms. But the scene before them shattered their preconceived notions.

This is not a tomb at all.

This is an underground atrium that is far larger than one can imagine.

The dome, at least a hundred meters high, disappeared into the endless darkness, its end nowhere in sight. The surrounding walls were not made of rock or mud, but of some smooth, grayish-black composite material, upon which flowed eerie, ghostly blue light, like the veins of some enormous creature.

Suspended in the center of this enormous atrium is a black, inverted pyramid-shaped structure.

It was entirely black, as if it could devour all light. Countless pipes of varying thicknesses hung from the dome or converged from all directions, densely connecting to the base of this inverted pyramid. Flowing through those pipes was neither oil nor electricity, but a dark red, viscous liquid that slowly writhed within the translucent tubes, emitting a low, gurgling sound, like the beating of a giant heart.

"My God..." Su Wan couldn't help but exclaim. She looked up at the floating behemoth, her voice trembling, "This is... a perfect combination of biology and mechanics. This energy reading is simply defying the laws of physics."

"This is the 'antenna'." Lin Mo, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke. He stood in front of the crowd, his eyes silvery-white, staring intently at the inverted pyramid. His voice was so calm it sent chills down one's spine. "The nerve center of the entire city, the bridge connecting the 'mirror' and 'reality'."

Li Haotian gripped his gun tightly; the safety was already off. He could feel the device emanating an invisible pressure, not the fear stemming from its sheer size, but a repulsion originating from the depths of his soul. It was as if the thing itself didn't belong to this world; its very existence was a desecration of reality.

"Be careful." Li Haotian shouted in a low voice, signaling everyone to remain vigilant and slowly advance towards the center.

As they drew closer, the surrounding scenery gradually became clearer. Around the enormous inverted pyramid were dozens of huge cylindrical petri dishes, each ten meters tall.

These petri dishes were made of thick, bulletproof glass and filled with a murky, yellowish-green liquid. Li Haotian focused the beam of his flashlight on the nearest petri dish, the beam penetrating the murky liquid and illuminating what was inside.

At that moment, even Liu Hu, a veteran of many battles, couldn't help but gasp.

"What...is that?!"

Immersed in the liquid is a giant biological embryo.

It was curled up in a ball, the size of a truck. Its skin was a sickly grayish-white, covered with human-like eyes that were tightly closed, and something seemed to be wriggling beneath the eyelids. Thick tentacles replaced its limbs, and where its head should have been, a gigantic mouth full of sharp teeth had split open.

On its back, several metal tubes were inserted, directly connected to its spinal cord, seemingly extracting something or instilling some kind of command.

"This is... a weapon." Su Wan's voice was extremely hoarse. She stretched out her hand, pointing at the sleeping monsters through the void, "They are mass-producing these things. If these embryos hatch, the entire Donghai City... no, the entire world will instantly turn into hell."

"Divine grace and trust..." Li Haotian gritted his teeth, squeezing out these three words, "Are they insane?"

"They're not crazy, they want to 'evolve'." An old and deep voice suddenly came from beneath the inverted pyramid.

"Who?!" Li Haotian turned around abruptly, his gun instantly locking onto the direction from which the voice came.

Everyone's hearts leaped into their throats. Beneath the enormous black device, from a previously empty shadow, a figure slowly emerged.

It was a mysterious figure draped in a dark red cloak. He was tall and hunched over, with a white mask covering his face, making him look like a faceless ghost. His hands were hidden in his wide sleeves, and with each step he took, a faint ripple would spread out from beneath his feet.

"Li Haotian, Lone Wolf of D.H.I.E.L.D." The mysterious man's voice, processed by some kind of voice changer, sounded harsh and metallic. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"Are you the leader of the Divine Grace Trust?" Li Haotian asked coldly, his finger still on the trigger.

"Leader? No, that title is too worldly." The mysterious figure slowly stopped, standing before a huge petri dish. He stretched out a withered, bony hand and gently stroked the glass surface, as if admiring a masterpiece of art. "You can call me... the Gatekeeper. Or, the Midwife of the New World."

He tilted his head slightly, the blank space on his mask seemingly facing Li Haotian: "The 'God in the Mirror' you've been searching for has never actually been in the mirror. It's right here, in this 'grounded center'."

Li Haotian was shocked: "What exactly is this device?"

"It's a beacon, an antenna, and a womb." The mysterious figure opened his arms as if to embrace the inverted pyramid. "The dimensions of the real world are collapsing, and we see the future in the mirror. To bring that future to fruition, we need a vessel. This device will connect the nothingness in the mirror with reality, and these embryos..." He pointed to the sleeping monsters around him, "will become the first inhabitants of the new world."

"You want to turn the world into a playground for monsters!" Liu Hu roared, his gun spitting fire.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Several large-caliber bullets whistled out, heading straight for the man in the red robe.

However, a horrifying scene unfolded.

The moment the bullets struck the mysterious man, they seemed to plunge into a deep pool of water, vanishing without a trace of blood or a dull thud. Then, the bullets seemed to fly backward from the void behind the mysterious man, traveling even faster than they had come, grazing Liu Hu's scalp and embedding themselves in the metal wall behind him.

"Here, the rules of physics are defined by 'antennas.'" The mysterious figure seemed not to move an inch, his tone exuding an air of superior arrogance. "The toys in your hands are meaningless."

Li Haotian's pupils constricted sharply. This method had exceeded the realm of humanity, and even surpassed the realm of supernatural abilities they were aware of.

"Then let's try this!" Li Haotian suddenly pulled a high-explosive grenade from his waist, flicked the pin, and threw it with all his might toward the inverted pyramid.

Since we can't break it with our own hands, let's blow up this damn device!

"No!" Su Wan cried out in alarm, "If that device explodes, the energy it releases will shatter us all!"

But Li Haotian couldn't care less about that anymore.

The grenade traced a parabola in the air, flying precisely towards the core area of ​​the inverted pyramid.

The mysterious man finally made a move. He gently raised one hand and clenched it towards the void.

The grenade, flying through the air, froze instantly. As if time had been paused, the grenade hovered less than two meters from the black device, the white smoke from its fuse clearly visible.

"Struggling is futile, Li Haotian." The mysterious man slowly withdrew his hand, and the floating grenade then disintegrated in a strange light, turning into a pile of harmless metal powder that fell down. "Since you have come here, you are destined to become part of the 'Great Plan'."

At this moment, Lin Mo, who had been silent all along, suddenly took a step forward. His silver-white eyes reflected the huge black inverted pyramid, and his expression became more complex than ever before—a mixture of fear, longing, and some kind of memory deeply ingrained in his bones.

"So... this is the voice of the 'Mother'." Lin Mo murmured to himself, his voice so soft that only Li Haotian could hear it.

Li Haotian glanced at Lin Mo, his doubts deepening, but now was not the time to dwell on such things. Against such a godlike opponent, conventional tactics were completely ineffective.

"Su Wan, find this thing's weakness!" Li Haotian roared, his body not retreating, but instead lowering his center of gravity, like a wild beast cornered, staring intently at the eerie figure. "Liu Hu, cover!"

"Understood!" Liu Hu gritted his teeth and unleashed another round of ammunition, even though he knew it was useless, it was the only way he could vent his frustration.

Beside them, in those enormous petri dishes, the originally tightly closed "eyeballs" seemed to be disturbed by the flames and sounds of the battle, and one by one, they slowly opened a crack.

A murky, greedy, and malicious gaze pierced through the thick glass and murky liquid, focusing on these tiny intruders.

The entire grounding center began to vibrate violently.

The suspended inverted pyramid emitted a sharp whistling sound, as if it were excitedly cheering and anticipating the upcoming feast.