Everyone?
The crowd’s eyes were drawn to the map on the screen, and they shuddered in alarm.
A pale layer covered the Anomaly Zone on the map, like a veil of mist, faintly cloaking the entire area.
“Unknown fluctuations, unknown signals,” Ah Guang’s fingers danced in the air as if performing a ritual.
“The frequency is different from when the Mutated Creatures appeared before. Not sure what this thing is…”
Chuanzi frowned, pressed the broadcast button, and issued an urgent announcement to everyone: “Emergency notice, the entire city is now on Level One Alert. Everyone must immediately return to their posts and be ready at all times. I’ll repeat: Emergency notice…”
The broadcast repeated twice before the people in the surveillance video returned to their positions.
Those with tasks accelerated their work, while those without took out their weapons and silently began preparing, filled with killing intent.
The entire city entered a state of all-out defense, showing a glimpse of the fierceness they once displayed in the wasteland.
Their killing aura was far thicker than that of the Tian Shu Squad.
After issuing the emergency notice, Chuanzi grabbed his weapon and headed toward the room with the control console.
Liu Daming took a deep breath, turned to Ji Ting and the others, and said, “The situation is unclear right now. It’s not safe to send you back yet. Stay here for a while and observe the follow-up…”
He glanced at the white mist covering the entire map.
“Ah Guang, expand the scan range and check the outside situation.”
Ah Guang lazily tapped a key without even looking up, busy analyzing the abnormal data.
Originally, the map only covered the Anomaly Zone, but it instantly expanded to a much larger area, encompassing several nearby provinces and cities.
As a result, the mist-shrouded Anomaly Zone became less conspicuous, overshadowed by vast regions filled with green dots that radiated a sense of safety.
Seeing the expanded map, Ji Ting finally realized he could relax—a large portion of the densely clustered green dots were outside the mist-covered area.
Except for A City, of course; it was too close to the Anomaly Zone.
In fact, the Anomaly Zone was technically part of A City.
He sensed those around him also eased up slightly, no longer as tense as before.
Thankfully, the situation wasn’t the worst possible outcome—this was undoubtedly everyone’s greatest relief at the moment.
Before Liu Daming could speak, Ah Guang proactively sent the map to the information data team—due to the obvious technical and technological gap between them, Ah Guang entered the internal network as if he were invisible, completely unstoppable.
There was no sound from the earpiece, but Ji Ting guessed the scene on the other end must be hectic, and that they, too, had relaxed upon seeing the information.
He looked at Liu Daming and sincerely thanked him, “Thank you.”
“The wasteland has already been almost completely destroyed by them. I definitely don’t want to see a second wasteland,” Liu Daming patted his shoulder heartily.
“Rest assured, things aren’t that bad.”
The feeling was strange—Ji Ting suddenly felt as if the characters he had written had truly come to life.
Honestly, although Director Wang had explained this from the start, Ji Ting had a hard time seeing Li Yishu, the Tian Shu Squad, and Liu Daming as mere characters he created.
They seemed more like other people who had experienced similar fates—each with independent thoughts and personal preferences, occasionally giving him a sense of familiarity through subtle details, but fundamentally still strangers.
Only now did Ji Ting realize the overlap between the character archetype of the “big brother with strong loyalty” and Liu Daming’s image.
Loyal and straightforward, full of responsibility, bearing all the pressure alone—these were the choices Liu Daming made in a storyline that had veered off course.
Liu Daming didn’t notice Ji Ting zoning out.
Although he was comforting them, his own pressure was heavy—Ji Ting and the others had only seen footage of the monster siege, but he had lived through it firsthand.
If there were to be another monster siege, the city definitely wouldn’t hold until dawn.
He suppressed the flood of thoughts and continued to reassure them: “This mist is strange. It doesn’t have the characteristics of a living organism and may not lead to the worst outcome…”
Before he finished, Chuanzi brought news: “Fog’s forming outside.”
Liu Daming cut off his words, strode forward, and stood in front of the control room’s monitor, staring silently at the live feed.
Outside, thick fog had indeed rolled in, so dense that one couldn’t see their own hand, completely ruining most of the fortress’s external visibility.
Only the life activity detectors continued working diligently.
Seeing Liu Daming enter, Chuanzi hurriedly said, “The fog was light just a moment ago, but in these few minutes since you arrived, it suddenly became so thick that nothing can be seen.”
“Looks like something big is really about to happen…”
Ji Ting’s earpiece transmitted integrated information from the data team.
“Large-scale fog formation on the outskirts of A City. A thin layer of mist is spreading over the city’s skies. For safety, everyone is evacuating home immediately…”
As they exchanged information and absorbed the news, this sudden change showed no sign of stopping.
The thick fog covered the Anomaly Zone for several minutes before abruptly dissipating.
Everyone was stunned, staring at the screen.
No new red dots appeared, but instead a large number of yellow question marks were labeled.
“What’s this?”
Seeing the icon, Liu Daming was also stunned.
“Abandoned buildings… or rather, collectible supplies.”
The Tian Shu Squad exchanged glances.
Li Yishu said uncertainly, “So that white mist just ‘created’ a bunch of supplies?”
Seeing the yellow question marks on the screen, Chuanzi sighed in relief.
“We usually just call those trash. These things are very common in the wasteland. Abandoned houses, abandoned vehicles… just heaps of garbage. Anything of value has already been scavenged clean. What’s left are immovable scraps or worthless junk even if moved.”
“Some of them have become hideouts for Mutated Creatures, while others have been corroded by wind and rain into obstacles that block the way. This is the most common sight in the wasteland.”
Just as Chuanzi finished explaining, the earpiece buzzed with the latest update from the data team: “The white mist over A City has dissipated, and some…”
Unsure how to describe it, the data team simply sent a picture to the base.
Ah Guang’s fingers moved, enlarging the image on the screen.
Piles of trash suddenly appeared in the familiar city, riddled with corrosion marks from wind and rain, unrecognizable in form, scattered among wide streets and thriving greenery—like a glaring texture glitch.
The trash heaps were randomly distributed throughout the city, even mysteriously appearing inside residents’ homes, causing some minor chaos.
But compared to the Anomaly Zone, this change was nothing.
The urban area of A City was only affected because of its proximity; the Anomaly Zone bore the brunt of the mist’s impact.
Ah Guang released several live feeds at once, giving a comprehensive view of the surrounding situation.
Trash heaps were everywhere. Plants entwined around the debris swayed in the wind.
They appeared fragile but easily shredded those perfectly camouflaged “monitors.”
The ground’s color deepened, and even the soil changed fundamentally—from fertile earth to vast patches of sand and gravel.
The wild grass was gone, replaced by pits of various sizes.
The barren land was incapable of supporting ordinary plant life.
Faint dried bloodstains could be seen on the dark brown ground.
From the uneven terrain, shell marks, and scattered corpses, an onlooker could accurately infer the subtext—an intense battle had once erupted here.
Baozi muttered to himself, “The change is so drastic, it’s like we’re in a completely different place.”
Liu Daming exchanged a glance with Chuanzi.
“In fact, this is the wasteland.”
Trash heaps everywhere, barren soil, death and corpses—this was the most common landscape in the wasteland.
Wrench stroked his chin, puzzled.
“But I didn’t see any Mutated Creatures. This doesn’t really feel like the wasteland.”
A Qi clapped his hands.
“I was wondering why it felt off—turns out there aren’t any Mutated Creatures. Ever since the monsters’ lair was blown up by the boss, they’ve gone crazy. They attack humans in packs, especially outside our base. It’s been non-stop, and I barely remember what the wasteland used to be like…”
For A Qi and the others, the deepest impression of the wasteland was the omnipresence of Mutated Creatures.
Wrench nodded repeatedly.
Suddenly alert, he raised his voice toward the ceiling, “Ah Guang, did you detect any Mutated Creatures? After all that commotion, not a single one showed up?”
Ah Guang replied, “No life signs detected.”
Everyone looked at each other, excitement growing, a subtle, secret suspicion forming.
Leader Liu was the calmest of them all.
He pushed up his glasses but refrained from jumping to conclusions.
“There isn’t much time until the next wave of Mutated Creatures. Let’s wait and see how things develop.”
The atmosphere was both excited and tense.
Someone wanted to say something to lighten the mood but couldn’t find the right topic.
Their full attention was fixed on whether the Mutated Creatures would actually appear.
Time ticked by.
The Mutated Creatures never showed.
Only the wind blowing through the trash heaps in the wasteland made a chilling sound.
“Looks like the ‘experiment to control the fusion of the novel and reality’ succeeded.”
Leader Liu checked the time and reached a final conclusion.
He marked a check next to Experiment Plan Three and said calmly, “The earlier change might have been caused by the complete fusion of reality and the novel. The direction of this fusion shifted. The novel ending you all traveled back to left no place for Mutated Creatures, so none appeared…”
“However, logically, even these trash heaps shouldn’t have appeared. After all, you ‘traveled back to a normal society,’ not a normal society with a wasteland. Looks like this plan still has some issues to resolve…”
Although Leader Liu had many unanswered questions, Ji Ting and the others were fully focused on the fact that the experiment had succeeded.
Canned Food: “The experiment succeeded!”
Baozi rubbed his hands eagerly.
“Great! So this mission is done? We deserve a little break, right?”
Sniper Scope pulled out his phone.
“I know a bunch of good restaurants in A City…”
Just as this group was fast-forwarding to their holiday plans, Liu Xuanjin ruthlessly interrupted their daydreams: “Everyone, receive your next task orders. Ji Ting, you’ll handle follow-up communications with Liu Daming and the others. Canned Food, take Sniper Scope to help clear out those trash heaps in A City. Watch out for the plants in the debris—they’re somewhat aggressive. Collect as many live plants as you can. Hacker and Medic, you’re on support.”