I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

"Teacher Shen, you seem a bit cowardly," the boy said with a hint of teasing. "Could it be that spending so much time with me has made you lose all your dreams and now all you want to do is sleep with me like a little animal?"

"You can't stop spouting disgusting nonsense. It's just that as the master, I don't want to take Cheng Feiyu to his death." The girl punched him on the back, seemingly even more displeased.

"Don't worry, you won't die." The young man patted her hand reassuringly and sped up.

Before we knew it, the previously clear sky was gradually covered by thick clouds, and the ice surface exposed by the tracks turned into translucent blue ice, like a polished deep gemstone, allowing people to vaguely glimpse the ancient history sealed deep underground.

As the two approached the target area, something unusual happened.

The whole world was slowly enveloped by a milky white mist, as thick as milk, which submerged everything in sight, to the point that the boundary between the earth and the sky was dissolved, and no reference points could be seen. There was even a kind of illusion that one could not tell whether one was moving forward or backward.

Looking at the scene before him, Cheng Fei slowed down and said softly, "It's bleaching weather."

This unusual weather phenomenon originates from the polar ice caps. The continuous reflection of air ice crystals and clouds creates a uniform milky-white light curtain, which can directly cause spatial perception impairment in humans.

"What should we do? Maybe we should stop the vehicle first?" Shen Xi observed both sides of the snowmobile, her brows furrowing slightly.

"No need for now, we can follow the satellite navigation, just take it slow." The boy continued forward according to the software instructions on the screen.

After slowing down, the restless engine calmed down, and the entire space suddenly became exceptionally quiet. This, in turn, intensified the illusion created by the white weather, as if even sound was being swallowed up by the milky white light curtain in front of us.

The girl hugged the boy tightly, burying her face in his back, only revealing part of her gaze as she looked around.

In this atmosphere, the two continued forward until, after a long time, a blurry outline of an object suddenly appeared in the dense, almost tangible, milky-white light curtain.

Cheng Fei stopped the car, patted Shen Xi to make her let go of him, and led the girl out of the car to check.

What appeared before the two was a snowmobile of the same model as theirs, covered with a thick layer of snow, clearly having been abandoned for a long time.

Under the girl's gaze, the boy turned on the walkie-talkie and tried to contact the advance team, "This is the rescue team, please respond if you hear me."

There was no response.

The two exchanged a glance.

The boy carefully examined the abandoned motorcycle and found that there was still fuel in the tank; if it hadn't been so frozen, it could probably still start.

"We encountered the advance team's motorcycles, intact, but we don't know why they were abandoned." The boy then tried to contact the rear command center.

There was still no response.

The boy raised an eyebrow.

Even the satellite signal is gone, even though he was just driving according to the navigation a moment ago.

As if without realizing it, the two of them had stumbled into another dimension, isolated from the world.

"Cheng Fei, there's something else up ahead." The girl next to him patted him on the shoulder.

Looking in the direction the girl was facing, several blurry outlines appeared in the milky white light screen ahead, standing there quietly.

"Let's go take a look." The boy led the girl forward.

What appeared ahead was another snowmobile, the same model, also intact, also abandoned here.

It seems that a few days ago, the advance team that arrived here abandoned their vehicles and left for unknown reasons.

The boy observed the ground; it was flat snow with no footprints in sight.

"What exactly happened?" Shen Xi stared at everything before her, her brows furrowed.

Cheng Fei stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment, then realized something, "We might have arrived at our destination."

Before the two got out of the car, the navigation only showed the last stretch of road. Assuming the location was off, it wasn't impossible to arrive at the destination a little earlier.

"Then what should we do?" The girl looked up at him.

"Let's go further and see," the boy decided.

Before starting his operation, he placed markers along the road, starting from where he parked, in case the bleaching weather lasted too long and he returned lost.

The two then searched ahead.

As it turned out, Cheng Fei's guess was correct. They hadn't gone far when a rugged terrain where blue ice and rock met appeared before them. A huge, sloping fissure opened up in the ground, leading underground, and it seemed to be a large ice cave inside.

The boy checked the landmark in front of the cave entrance and confirmed that it was the target point.

"Teacher Shen, let's go." He exchanged a glance with the girl beside him, turned on his headlamp, and walked in side by side.

The next second, Shen Xi suddenly gasped, grabbed the boy's arm tightly, and stared intently at the scene in front of her with her pure, dark eyes.

Cheng Fei frowned immediately, his expression turning serious.

Almost right at the entrance to the ice cave, there were corpses lying haphazardly everywhere.

Judging from their attire, they were clearly advance team members who arrived here a few days ago.

The blood congealed and froze, forming red patches that were splattered between the black rocks and the incoming snow, creating a shocking sight.

Shen Xi's breath caught in her throat, she swallowed hard, and her face stiffened.

"Don't be afraid." Cheng Fei patted her gently, walked forward slowly, and squatted down to inspect the scene.

The scene was horrific; the human body was bent at bizarre angles, with various parts missing, as if it had been violently grabbed, torn apart, and killed by some ferocious beast.

Everyone was connected by the same rope, as if they had just struggled to get here when they met with misfortune.

On the ground nearby, the boy found the virtual energy wave generator, the target of this mission, a cylindrical metal device about the height of an adult's knee, resembling a small nuclear reactor.

"Is it still usable?" Shen Xi tried to avoid looking at the corpse at her feet and squatted down to observe.

"It doesn't seem broken, but something's not right." Cheng Fei stared at the device, realizing something, and took a deep breath.

"What do you mean?" The girl blinked as she looked at his profile, seemingly lost in thought due to the unsettling environment around her.

"The last message sent back by the advance team." The boy looked into her eyes with an incredulous expression. "It clearly said that they encountered an ice collapse and the equipment fell into a crevice, but that's not the case at all."

As soon as he finished speaking, the air at the entrance of the ice cave fell into a deathly silence.

Shen Xi's pupils contracted slightly. "So we were deceived? Why would they do that?"

The boy shook his head. "If they can't find a reason to go to such lengths to trick us into coming here, they've probably been tricked too."

The girl paused, then shivered inexplicably. "You think the distress call is fake? How could that be?"

"I don't know, maybe someone is sabotaging us." The boy shook his head and carefully picked up the device from the ground and put it into his backpack.

"What should we do?" The girl looked around, her face growing increasingly uneasy.

"Since we're already here, let's go down and take a look." As the boy spoke, he drew a pistol from his chest holster, released the safety, and cocked it.

Although theoretically such a thing is ineffective against failed attempts, the people at the monitoring station still packed it into their luggage before departure, and now it comes in handy.

"Don't stray too far from me." Cheng Fei gently patted Shen Xi's head.

The girl nodded silently, her face tense as she followed beside him.

After connecting themselves with ropes, the two began to move deeper into the ice cave.

Once underground, all sounds ceased, except for the echo of one's own footsteps.

The tunnel leading to the depths of the ice cave was barely passable, though it was still not easy for Shen Xi. The girl's breathing quickly became rapid, and the boy, noticing this, silently slowed down his pace.

After a while, the tunnel stopped descending and passed through a gentle passage, where the space ahead became slightly more open.

The ice cave, mostly collapsed, appeared before the two of them.

Cheng Fei stepped forward and noticed that the soil on the ground showed signs of vitrification. In the wild, this condition usually occurs at meteorite impact sites.

"This might be where the spaceship crashed," the boy said, looking around.

Because the ice cave has almost collapsed, it's hard to tell what it looked like back then.

Shen Xi stood to the side, observing left and right by the light, and only moved along with the boy when he started to move.

After a careful inspection, the two discovered some metal parts of unknown material, and could not immediately determine whether they were products of Protoss Technology.

Naturally, neither of them discovered the failed project that was expected to be awakening.

"It seems the intelligence was completely false." Cheng Fei shook his head.

"So someone's behind this." The girl's tone turned annoyed.

"Probably. In that case, let's go back first." Cheng Fei picked up a small metal part, used the issued Geiger counter to test it, confirmed that the thing had no radiation, and casually put it into his pocket.

Shen Xi noticed his movement and nodded, "Okay, let's go back."

So the two returned the way they came, replenishing their energy with snacks along the way.

Back at the cave entrance, the bodies of the advance team still lay quietly on the ground, half-buried by the snow.

As Cheng Fei passed by, he clasped his hands together and silently mourned for a second for the group of people.

The mission requires them to rescue survivors simultaneously, but judging from the number of corpses on the ground, that shouldn't be a concern.

Shen Xi glanced at it quickly one last time, then silently looked away.

Even after leaving the ice cave, the milky white light curtain still enveloped the earth, giving one a sense of unreality.

Following the marks they had left behind, the two moved toward their snowmobiles.

The advance team's motorcycles remained stationary. This time, Cheng Fei realized that they had indeed stopped in front of the ice cave, but the bleached weather had limited their visibility, giving them the illusion that it was quite far away.

With the advance team's motorcycles as a reference, the two men walking side by side unconsciously quickened their pace, eager to get back to their own motorcycles as soon as possible.

Just as they were about to reach the finish line, the two of them suddenly stopped and stared at the milky white light screen in front of them.

As they drew closer, the outline that emerged was not only a snowmobile, but also a person.

Or rather... a humanoid life form.

The moment Shen Xi saw what it was, her pupils contracted sharply, and she gripped the boy's arm tightly.

Cheng Fei also felt a chill run down his spine and to the back of his head, barely managing to resist the urge to run away.

A humanoid life form with a mercury-like metallic sheen stood beside the motorcycle, as if observing or waiting.

Hearing footsteps, it slowly turned its head, its faceless face silently watching the two, like an alien visitor encountering the inhabitants of this planet for the first time.

The living being exudes a strong sense of incongruity that can never be experienced through a game. In the mercury-like luster flowing on its surface, one can almost glimpse a vast nebula, with the Milky Way, where billions of stars converge, swirling within it.

In a daze, it seemed as if ancient and obscure ballads were whispering in their ears, or like the distant tolling of a great bell, the echoing sound concealing indescribable cosmic truths.

1013. The youth cannot be defeated.

Within the milky-white light curtain where distance was indistinguishable, time seemed to solidify and then stretch out infinitely.

The silver creature standing next to the snowmobile is about the same height as an adult. When you first see it, you might get the illusion that someone is playing a prank in a suit. But if you look closely, you will find that its body proportions and standing posture are not like those of a human.

With slender limbs and a slightly hunched back, it looked like a non-human being trying to imitate a human.

A strong sense of incongruity rang out in one's mind like an alarm.

A failure.

Opposite to it, Shen Xi's slender body became completely stiff, and she only managed to avoid falling by tightly gripping the arm of the boy beside her with both hands.

Cheng Fei also stared at the alien life form, his brows furrowed and his expression extremely vigilant.

He recalled the awakening status measurement table given to him by the foundation before he set off.

According to the meter readings, the first stage is a dormant state, and the failed attempt presents as an inhuman silver liquid metal.

In the second stage, the mass of the liquid metal increased out of thin air, gradually repairing itself into a human shape.

In the third stage, the failed project begins to operate, but its behavior is chaotic.

In the fourth stage, the failed project emerges from the chaos and begins to move freely.

In the fifth stage, the failed creation fully awakens, revealing its incomprehensible supernatural power.

If he understood correctly, the failed creation before him had awakened to at least the fourth stage, or even... the fifth stage.

A failed attempt at a near-complete revival.

Realizing the possibility that could be described as deadly, the boy took a deep breath.

If he had known this would happen, he would never have accepted the mission to come to this godforsaken place.

Even if he couldn't resolve the failed attempt to awaken halfway through, he could easily retreat, which is why he felt at ease accompanying Shen Xi here.

But if they were fully awakened, even with all the Protoss technology equipment in the corridor, they would have been wiped out.