“Second Search and Rescue Team has arrived at the designated position. SGR concentration is 327.6. Over.”
“Third Search and Rescue Team has arrived at the designated position. SGR concentration is 341.2. Over.”
On the road before the canyon, Lin Mo turned his head to look at the Director of the Special Services Department beside him and gave a slight nod.
Seeing this, the Director nodded back in response and picked up his communicator, saying in a deep voice, “First Search and Rescue Team has arrived at the designated position. SGR concentration is 421.1. Everyone, synchronize your time—4:57 PM Beifu Time. Over.”
“Second Search and Rescue Team, 4:57 PM Beifu Time. Over.”
“Third Search and Rescue Team… Over.”
Hearing this, the Director pressed the transmit button again.
“Received. At exactly 5:00 PM Beifu Time, we will begin the deep search. Everyone, pay attention—”
“If you feel dizzy or experience a chaotic sensation as if your soul is being pulled, do not resist.”
“The moment you are sucked into the Dead Realm, confirm your position immediately and observe whether there is danger in the surroundings. Do not easily communicate with entities inside the Dead Realm, and do not attempt to interfere with its operation.”
“Finally… the identification password is: The mountains and rivers are safe, we wield the sword in all directions!”
“Everyone, please be extremely careful.”
Inside the communication tent of the temporary command headquarters.
Chu You’s right hand, which was gripping the mouse, trembled slightly—a movement so subtle it was almost imperceptible.
Hearing the final words from the Special Services Captain through her headset, her heart tightened.
However, she didn’t even realize that this specific worry for a certain person was out of the ordinary.
“Calibrating communication channel…”
At that moment, another voice suddenly sounded from the headset—it was Lin Mo, who had taken over the communication rights from the Director.
“I am the leader of the First Search and Rescue Team, Lin Mo. Commissioner Chu at Headquarters, do you copy?”
Chu You took a deep breath.
While adjusting the real-time frequency parameters of the communication channel on her computer, she replied, “This is Chu You. Communication is clear. Over.”
“4:49 PM Beifu Time. The search and rescue team is preparing to enter the Dead Realm area. Over.”
“Received. Data sampling preparations are ready…”
Chu You replied with rapid speech.
“Please… make sure to return safely.”
In front of the canyon, Lin Mo paused slightly as he was about to put away the communicator, then handed it back to the Director beside him.
He glanced at the time on his wrist, slowly turned to look in the direction he had come from, and replied from afar in an extremely soft voice, almost like a whisper, “Copy that.”
The clock ticked forward to exactly 5:00 PM.
Lin Mo turned around and gave a crisp tactical “advance” hand signal to the team members standing by behind him.
The fully armed members of the First Search and Rescue Team immediately sprang into action.
Maintaining a watchful formation, they moved quickly and orderly into the depths of the canyon shrouded by the boundary area of the Dead Realm.
The Director followed closely by Lin Mo’s side, holding a multi-functional environmental detection device.
While warily observing the surroundings, he reported real-time data in a low, rapid voice: “Ambient temperature 16°C, humidity 43%. Northwest wind, force 1. Low concentration of environmental pollutants. No unidentified Oracle wave frequencies scanned… The SGR index is rising rapidly… 438… 465… It’s about to break 500!”
Hearing this, Lin Mo abruptly raised his right palm and clenched it into a fist.
The entire team, like a precision machine, instantly halted all movement.
They maintained a defensive posture on the spot, silent as the grave.
The Director looked up, about to ask for the situation, only to see Lin Mo slowly reaching out his raised hand toward the seemingly empty air in front of him.
The next moment, a sight that caused the pupils of every witnessing team member to shrink occurred…
The moment Lin Mo’s fingertips touched the originally invisible and colorless air, it rippled with transparent, circular waves, clear as a water surface after a stone is thrown in.
“This is…?!”
The Director gasped in a low voice, instinctively thrusting the probe of the detector toward the slowly spreading ripples.
The numbers on the detector screen instantly jumped wildly.
“The SGR index is skyrocketing! 1784! 1921! 2102!!”
His voice was filled with unbelievable shock.
“Based on the Dead Realm model predicted from the data we collected previously, we were supposed to go at least another kilometer deeper before reaching the theoretical boundary… It seems our prediction was too conservative. The boundary… is right in front of our eyes!”
Hearing this, Lin Mo nodded with a grave expression.
“It seems the expansion speed of the Dead Realm far exceeds expectations. The Second and Third teams likely encountered the same situation… Attempt external communication immediately.”
“Understood!”
The Director quickly clipped the detector back to his waist, took the communicator from the other side of his tactical vest, pressed the talk button, and called out in a deep voice: “This is First Search and Rescue Team calling Headquarters! Repeat, calling Headquarters! Calling Second and Third Search and Rescue Teams! Please respond if you hear this! This is First Search and Rescue Team…”
After a moment of dead silence, a burst of sizzling, extremely unstable static noise came from the communicator.
A fragmented voice could barely be distinguished:”…Sec… Second Search… boundary… preparing… to en…”
The voice stopped abruptly.
On the communicator screen, the red warning icon flashing to indicate a signal interruption became blindingly bright.
“Captain…” The Director turned the screen toward Lin Mo, his tone more serious than ever.
“Communication is cut. I suspect those two teams have run into the same situation as us. What do we do now?”
Lin Mo thought for a moment and said firmly, “The plan remains unchanged. We were going in regardless; a little earlier or later doesn’t make much difference. Everyone, get ready—”
His voice clearly reached every member’s ears: “Remember, enter the Dead Realm one by one. Any physical discomfort is normal. Absolutely do not attempt to resist the pull of the Dead Realm. Forcing resistance will cause irreversible damage.”
“Yes!”
“Understood!”
The unified responses echoed in the silent canyon.
The fully armed members quickly reformed their line, adjusted their breathing, and stared firmly at the invisible boundary, ready to step into the unknown at any moment.
Lin Mo stood at the front of the line, turned his head slightly, and gave the final order to the Director: “I will go in first. The other members will follow me in order. You go in last.”
The Director nodded heavily.
“Understood!”
“Right,” Lin Mo withdrew his gaze and looked back at the distorted, rippling air ahead.
He took a deep breath, as if wanting to imprint the air of the mortal world deep into his lungs.
“Then… I’ll see you in the Dead Realm!”
Before his voice had even faded, he hesitated no longer and took a decisive step forward, his entire body crashing straight into that invisible boundary.
“Vrrr—”
As if the pebble thrown into the water had become a massive boulder, the invisible air ripples fluctuated violently and on a large scale as Lin Mo broke through.
Under the tense gaze of all the members behind him, Lin Mo’s figure became blurred and distorted as the ripples warped, looking like a television image with poor reception.
In just two or three seconds, he completely vanished behind that rippling patch of air, leaving no trace.
“Next!”
Suppressing the shock in his heart, the Director stood by the boundary and calmly issued the command.
The second member in line took a deep breath, his eyes showing no fear as he took a large stride forward.
However—
The moment his body touched that wall of air, a sudden change occurred.
The ripples that were originally just swaying suddenly began to surge and boil like an enraged ocean.
A massive repulsive force erupted violently from the inside out like an invisible sledgehammer, slamming into the team member.
“Bang!”
With a muffled thud, the member didn’t even have time to react before he was sent flying by the immense force.
He crashed heavily onto the ground several meters away, his tactical helmet making a crisp clatter against the road.
“What happened?!”
The Director’s expression changed drastically, alarm bells ringing in his mind.
Disregarding Lin Mo’s instruction for him to enter last, he stepped forward and reached out toward the air wall that had become violent—
“Boom!”
The same result!
The moment his hand made contact, it was violently thrown back by an even more powerful force, leaving his entire arm numb from the shock.
Right at that moment—
“Roar—!”
“Awoo—!”
A series of low, raspy roars filled with a distorted and violent aura erupted densely from the steep slopes on both sides of the canyon without warning.
The faces of all the members paled.
They looked up one after another, staring tensely toward the source of the noise…
Behind the rocks and within the bushes on both slopes, distorted, writhing figures emitting an ominous aura appeared and disappeared.
There were so many that it made one’s skin crawl.
The Director’s pupils snapped into pinpricks as he stared intently at one of the fastest figures, which leapt from behind a giant boulder on the slope like a ghost.
The figure broke through the drifting dust and thin mist, diving down with startling speed!
As the distance closed, its originally hazy form became increasingly clear…
A streamlined body covered in dark chitinous armor, powerful digitigrade hind limbs, and compound eyes flashing with a bloodthirsty red light.
It was a high-level Speed-type Aberrant!
“En—emy—at—tack—!!”
The Director used all his strength to let out a furious roar.
Dazzling blue plasma instantly crackled across his body.
His legs exerted sudden force, cracking the ground as he launched into the air like an arrow from a bow.
Instead of retreating, he charged boldly toward the high-level Aberrant that was diving at him.
“Roar!!”
“Hiss-ga!!”
The next moment, as if receiving the signal to attack, more and more Aberrants of various forms lunged down from the slopes like a bursting flood, letting out ear-piercing shrieks.
These Aberrants were like a black tide, surging from all directions toward the First Search and Rescue Team members trapped on the canyon road.
Battle erupted instantly at the edge of the Dead Realm.
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