I'm in Morioh, just joined a chat group for cute girls.

In an instant, a strange change occurred!

The Sarkaz mercenaries at the forefront suddenly let out a piercing scream.

Their bodies seemed to be controlled by an invisible force, twisting and swelling uncontrollably, with something throbbing wildly beneath their skin.

Immediately afterwards, with a few muffled "plop" sounds, countless brightly colored, disgusting poisonous frogs crawled out from their seven orifices and under their skin, instantly devouring them into a heap of mangled flesh!

Another mercenary who tried to fire was enveloped by a blinding light that appeared out of nowhere, brighter than the sun.

With a teeth-grinding sizzling sound, his entire body was instantly heated to thousands of degrees, and along with his weapons and armor, he turned into a pool of flowing, smoking molten iron!

This hellish scene completely shattered the already fragile nerves of the girls in Ave Mujica.

"vomit--!"

Yutenji Wakame was the first to break down. She leaned against the broken wall and vomited everything in her stomach.

Immediately afterwards, Mikasa and Mutsu also began to gag violently, their tears and saliva mixing together, making them look utterly disheveled.

Although Hachiman Kairin managed to hold back her vomiting, her pale face and violently heaving chest showed that she was enduring a tremendous shock.

Only Toyokawa Shoko bit her lip hard, forcing herself to look at the bloody reality before her.

Gu Ye dealt with those few henchmen as if he had merely swatted a few flies.

He turned around and looked at the girls who were vomiting profusely, his face expressionless.

Just then, a wild roar of an engine broke the deathly silence.

A modified motorcycle with an exaggerated design, covered in spikes and graffiti, rushed into the ruins like a steel beast, kicking up dust.

A lithe figure nimbly jumped off the car.

"Tsk, what a mess,"

Vishdale, carrying her grenade launcher, glanced at the several pools of indescribable "remains" on the ground, then looked at the girls vomiting beside her, and finally fixed her gaze on Xiangzi. "Looks like I'm a little late?"

Vishdel glanced contemptuously at the one-eyed Sarkaz who was paralyzed with fear on the ground, the corner of his mouth curving up with mockery and murderous intent.

"Who do we have here? It's just you, you little nobody."

She tapped her hat brim with the muzzle of the grenade launcher, her tone flippant yet dangerous, "The last time I spared your life in Kazimierz was to send you back to your hometown, not to let you tarnish the reputation of our Sarkaz mercenaries here."

The one-eyed Sarkaz staggered backward in terror, uttering a wail that was difficult to decipher: "Lord Vishdel... I... I didn't know it was you..."

"I know now."

The smile on Vishdel's face vanished, replaced by a cold indifference.

She didn't even glance at it again, but casually raised her hand, and several streaks of silver light flew out from between her fingers.

The surviving mercenaries didn't even have time to scream before their bodies stiffened and they fell to the ground, each with a throwing knife precisely embedded between their eyebrows.

Blood silently seeped from the wound, pooling into a small puddle on the cracked ground.

After doing all this, she casually tossed the grenade launcher over her shoulder as if she had cleaned up a few annoying bugs. Then she turned to look at Gu Ye, the terrifying murderous aura in her eyes instantly vanishing without a trace, replaced by a hint of barely perceptible resentment.

"You don't need to come."

Gu Ye shrugged, his expression unchanged.

"Toyokawa sent me an urgent SOS. I came to check on things, and by the way... I thought I'd drop by as a guest. Aren't you welcome?"

"A hundred welcomes."

Vishdel blurted it out almost instantly, a glint of light flashing in his eyes like a flame being ignited. That bastard… he knows how much I miss him.

She licked her lips, suppressing the surging emotions within her. Once she had settled these young girls in, she would definitely fulfill her duties as their 'lover'.

Of course, what she didn't know was that Gu Ye came here to take a vacation.

The flirting they were exchanging naturally caught the attention of the girls not far away.

After vomiting, Yutenji Wakame was wiping her mouth with a wet wipe when she saw the face of the black-haired boy. Her eyes widened in surprise.

It was him! The man who came when Xiangzi invited us to the restaurant last time! Her mind raced, trying to connect the surreal scene before her with fragments of her memory.

Who exactly is he? Why does he possess such... monstrous abilities? What is his relationship with Xiangzi?

Gu Ye ignored the several gazes that were either terrified or inquisitive.

He walked over to Toyokawa Shoko, who was still somewhat dazed, reached out and gently patted her stiff shoulder, then went straight to the wild motorcycle—or rather, a heavily modified off-road tricycle with a back seat and cargo bed added—and sat in the passenger seat.

"Don't just stand there, come on up."

Vishdale snapped impatiently at the group of girls who were still standing there in a daze, "Want to stay here and become dinner for the next wave of wild beasts passing by? I'll take you to a safe place."

The girls seemed to wake from a dream, looking at each other in bewilderment.

Faced with the threat of death, all discord and suspicion seemed so insignificant. They helped each other up, staggering as they climbed into the truck bed.

Xiangzi was the last to come up. She took a deep look at the corpse on the ground, suppressed the trembling in her heart, and sat down next to Chuhua.

The motorcycle roared, kicked up a cloud of dust, and sped away from this bloody place.

The truck bed was extremely bumpy, and a cold wind rushed in, making everyone shiver.

While driving, Vishdale gave them a "science lesson" without turning his head.

"Put away your greenhouse-grown worldview. Welcome to Terra, a land riddled with holes by the 'Cataclysm'."

Her voice was cold and direct: "Here, human life is worthless, and the rule of the strong is the only law. Those kinds of people were just low-class trash. If you still use the old way of thinking, you won't even know how you died."

The view outside the car window became the cruelest footnote to her words.

The ruins of the collapsed city stretched endlessly, and huge, seemingly gnawed craters lay across the horizon, scars left by natural disaster.

Occasionally, eerie auroras and floating black crystals can be seen in the sky, exuding an ominous aura. Everything on this land speaks of "destruction" and "struggle."

The atmosphere inside the truck bed was extremely oppressive.

Yutenji Wakame finally couldn't hold back any longer. She stared intently at Gu Ye's back as he sat in the front passenger seat and asked in a shrill voice, "Hey! Where did you come from? What's your relationship with Xiangzi?!"

"Meow!"

Toyokawa Shoko immediately spoke up to stop her.

"Don't worry about it, Xiangzi!"

Miaomu was losing control of her emotions; she was desperate for a way out. "I want to know how to go back! Back to our original world! You must have a way, right?!"

She was practically begging; the "Miaomu Qin" who wielded immense influence online was utterly vulnerable in the face of absolute power and unknown fears.

Gu Ye slowly turned his head. Under the hood of his hoodie, his eyes were calm and unwavering. He looked at Miaomu as if he were looking at an unreasonable child.

"What's the price?"

He uttered two words calmly.

Miaomu was stunned.

Gu Ye's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.

"Toyokawa-kun paid a considerable price to get me here to save you. So, what price are you, or rather, you all, willing to pay to get me to send you back?"

This is of course a lie.

Teleportation is a free feature of the chat group. But looking at these girls who were clearly becoming disloyal to Xiangzi, Gu Ye decided to give Xiangzi a boost so that she could better control this team that was on the verge of collapse.

"cost?"

Sanjiao Chuhua immediately gripped Xiangzi's arm tightly, and whispered, "Xiangzi... what did you sacrifice? Is it... very dangerous?"

Xiangzi felt a warmth in her heart; she knew Gu Ye was helping her.

She patted Chu Hua's hand reassuringly and shook her head at everyone: "It's nothing, don't worry."

But Miaomu clearly doesn't think so.

She sensed the possibility of a "deal" from Gu Ye's words.

Her eyes lit up, as if she had found a breakthrough.

"What do I need to give in return? Money? Or something else? As long as you're willing to take me back, I'm open to discussing any price!"

Looking at her anxious expression, Gu Ye's lips curled into an almost imperceptible, sarcastic smile.

"You can't afford it."

After saying that, he turned away and ignored everyone.

The truck bed fell silent once again.

Miaomu's face turned red and white in turns, as if she had been slapped in the face in public.

Yawata Kairin frowned even more, as if she was pondering the true meaning of "price".

Ruo Yemu simply hugged herself tighter, as if trying to shrink into a shell where no one could see her.

Looking at the various expressions on her companions' faces, Toyokawa Shoko sighed inwardly.

She knew that the real test was only just beginning.

She cleared her throat and began trying to ease the suffocating atmosphere, at least to get them to accept the current situation.

"Everyone, I know this situation is hard to accept. But... we are one now. Only by relying on each other can we survive here. No matter the cost, I will find a way to get you all back."

Her voice sounded somewhat thin in the howling wind.

The modified motorcycle bumped along the rugged, ruined roads, each jolt a reminder to the girls in the truck bed of how unfriendly the world they were in.

Just as Yutenji Wakana had gotten used to the bumpy ride and started planning how to package this "bizarre experience" into an eye-catching story when she got back, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded from the front of the motorcycle.

"Tsk, you really know how to pick the time."

Vishdale cursed, then abruptly turned the steering wheel, and the car executed a beautiful drift, coming to a stop in a relatively open area.

Before the girls could react, they saw the ground begin to undulate in the shadows not far ahead, and giant insects, each the size of a large dog and covered with disgusting black crystal clusters on their backs, emerged from the ground.

They emitted sharp screeches, their compound eyes flashing with an inorganic red light, and charged straight at the motorcycle.

"Ah—! A bug, a bug! A huge bug!"

Miaomu's scream pierced the air again. Terrified, she shrank into the corner of the truck bed, clutching her head tightly with both hands, too scared to look again.

Mikasa and Mutsuya were both pale-faced, their bodies trembling slightly with fear.

The monster up close is more impactful than the corpses seen from afar.

"Originium bugs are the most common infecting organisms on Terra and also mobile sources of infection."

Vishdale's voice remained calm. She didn't even get out of the car; instead, she simply pulled a strangely shaped pistol from her waist with one hand and casually pulled the trigger a few times in the direction of the swarm of insects.

Several sticky bombs landed precisely in the center of the swarm.

"Enjoy the fireworks, little girls."

As she spoke flippantly, a series of violent explosions rang out.

The flames and shockwaves tore the Originium worms to pieces, and black fluids and crystal fragments flew everywhere, leaving a scorched patch on the ground.

The whole process was so fast that it was impossible to react. One second it was a surging swarm of insects, and the next second there was only a mess.

As Hachiman Kairin watched all this, she clenched her fists, and for the first time, a deep sense of solemnity appeared in her eyes.

In this world... battles and deaths seem to be just everyday occurrences.

After resolving this minor hiccup, the vehicle started up again.

After an unknown amount of time, a massive steel structure, completely out of place in the surrounding wasteland, appeared on the horizon.

It resembled a moving mountain, its hull covered with intricate pipes and lights, radiating the glow of civilization under the dim sky.

"We've arrived. Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals will be your shelter for the next few days."

"Vishdel said."

When they took the elevator into the warship, everyone was stunned by what they saw.

The spacious and bright alloy corridor, the soft overhead lighting strips, the holographic projection information streams that occasionally flashed across the walls, and the staff in uniforms coming and going with hurried expressions... everything here was filled with a sense of technology far beyond their comprehension, as if they had suddenly jumped from a post-apocalyptic wasteland into a scene from a science fiction movie.

Vishdale led them to a reception area where a slender, dark-haired girl wearing a hooded coat stood somewhat bewildered, seemingly waiting for someone.

Her eyes lit up instantly when she saw Gu Ye walk out from behind Vishdel.

"elder brother!"

She called out with surprise and sweetness, jogging over and naturally taking Gu Ye's arm, her face full of pure joy, "You're here!"