Bang, bang, bang!
As Shang Jianyao launched the flare to the rear, Genaeva reacted with extreme speed, twisting his body and pulling the trigger.
However, the usually unerring Genaeva failed to hit the target this time; the bullets struck the edge of the balcony, sparking a few flashes.
The panther-like feline abruptly startled, breaking free from the stimulation of the flare, and leaped into the window corresponding to the balcony.
Boom!
The grenade launched by Shang Jianyao landed on the balcony, erupting in a blaze of fierce light, shattering many nearby glass panes.
"My aiming system suffered significant interference." After the sound of the explosion subsided, Genaeva explained his earlier "miss".
Shang Jianyao didn't mock him, but honestly said:
"My vision was also somewhat impaired. I originally wanted to bomb the room connected to the balcony, forcing that big cat to jump onto the street, but alas..."
He was rather disappointed by this.
Genaeva searched for a while but found no trace of the giant feline.
He said to Shang Jianyao:
"This might be the animal that Daba was reminding us to be careful of."
"What's there to be careful about it? It only knows how to follow us secretly." Shang Jianyao expressed his dissatisfaction. "Whether it's long-range or close combat, I can beat it with one hand tied behind my back."
Genaeva glanced at his left hand, which drooped due to paralysis, and didn't argue about it.
He said in a slightly synthetic voice:
"I've preliminarily figured out why Daba said that."
"Why?" Shang Jianyao always asked when he had doubts.
Genaeva answered, focusing on the key points:
"I searched the database using 'feline' as the keyword and found that it last appeared in the snow-covered city ruins. At that time, Xiaobai saw a giant, mostly white feline.
"That place doesn't have many things in common with Koninmis, but the most noteworthy is that both have some connection to the Eighth Research Institute. One is suspected, and the other is certain."
"Are you saying that the big cat just now might have been raised by the Eighth Research Institute?" Shang Jianyao easily understood Genaeva's meaning.
He wasn't surprised at all, and felt no fear, looking as if he wanted one for himself.
"Yes." Genaeva nodded his chameleon-like head.
Shang Jianyao pondered and said:
"So, where should we go to find the people from the Eighth Research Institute?
"Alas, I was too hasty in dealing with it just now; otherwise, we could have let the big cat lead the way."
"It probably won't be long before that feline brings the people from the Eighth Research Institute." Genaeva stated his deduction. "It should be one of the members of the Eighth Research Institute responsible for patrolling Koninmis. Animals aren't afraid of 'Heartless Disease,' nor do they worry about suffering anything in the electromagnetically disordered core area."
Shang Jianyao sighed.
"I should have talked to it properly and told it that envoys aren't killed during wars between countries."
Genaeva had learned not to follow Shang Jianyao's train of thought, as his companion's thoughts often changed. He directly said:
"I suggest we withdraw from Koninmis now, meet up with Daba and the others, and prevent an attack from the Eighth Research Institute."
"The more dangerous it is, the more we have to take risks, Lao Ge." Shang Jianyao once again responded with Wu Meng's words.
He added with a smile:
"I really want to see how the people from the Eighth Research Institute can move freely in this area that has some overlap with the 'New World'. I also want to see if they can still find us after I hide my human consciousness and Lao Ge, you activate the stealth function of the 'Chameleon' bionic intelligent armor."
"You need to take care of your scent as well..." Genaeva helped to fill in the gaps.
He then said:
"You can't turn on the searchlight along the way anymore, so you won't be able to check the corpses on the road. What's the point of continuing forward?"
Shang Jianyao answered without hesitation:
"This exploration must at least roughly figure out what the root cause of the problem is.
"Uh, exclude or confirm the possibility of a 'New World' node."
"Then let's delve deeper as soon as possible." Once a decision was made, Genaeva, as an intelligent robot, would never hesitate or be indecisive again.
"Alright!" Shang Jianyao turned his body, slightly bent his back, and adopted a starting posture.
During this process, he used the biological agent provided by the company to complete the masking of his scent.
But afterward, Shang Jianyao didn't stride forward and run wildly; he remained in place.
"Do you need me to shout 'one, two, three, run'?" Genaeva asked kindly, seeing that Shang Jianyao hadn't moved for a few seconds.
Shang Jianyao shook his head.
"No need.
"I just suddenly thought of a problem."
"What problem?" Genaeva asked in pursuit.
"Weren't we attacked by a high-level 'Heartless' before?" The degree of Shang Jianyao's mental leaps made it difficult for Genaeva to keep up.
"Yes." Genaeva moved his metal-cast neck up and down. "What's the problem with that?"
Shang Jianyao said seriously:
"At that time, I was affected and forgot how to use my abilities, just like my brain was affected by an ability similar to 'loss of limb movement'. It took me dozens of seconds to fully recover.
"If that high-level 'Heartless' was only at the 'Sea of Origins' level, I could get rid of the corresponding effect in a few seconds at most, and the degree of influence wouldn't be so deep.
"I suspect he's a high-level 'Heartless' at the 'Corridor of the Mind' level.
"But what does a 'Heartless' use to defeat the Psychological Shadow Fear Island? How can he advance?"
This was something that creatures lacking intelligence couldn't accomplish.
Countless data entered Genaeva's main module, and high-speed calculations began.
After a few seconds, Genaeva said:
"That was the initial guess. Later, wasn't it confirmed that early Awakened Ones would never enter the 'Hall of Stars'?
"The 'Hall of Stars', the 'Sea of Origins', and the 'Corridor of the Mind' are all suspected of being built by certain existences or belong to the remnants of those researchers from the Old World.
"In other words, even if the Awakened Ones don't rely on the 'Hall of Stars', don't pass through the 'Sea of Origins', and don't explore the 'Corridor of the Mind', it's still possible to improve their abilities. The path is unknown, but the difficulty is greater.
"Since it's not necessarily necessary to pass through the 'Sea of Origins', it's not necessarily necessary to defeat the Psychological Shadow Fear Island."
Shang Jianyao suddenly understood:
"Those high-level 'Heartless' belong to this situation?"
"It's just speculation for now." Genaeva wasn't certain.
Shang Jianyao's gaze returned to the depths of the fog, and he shouted in a low voice:
"One, two, three, run!"
He darted out like an arrow, and with the assistance of the military exoskeleton, even with one hand paralyzed, he still ran smoothly, fluently, and naturally.
Genaeva followed closely behind.
This time, Shang Jianyao didn't bother with the corpses on the road and street and headed towards the deepest part of the fog.
He forcibly controlled his strength, not allowing the metal bones on the soles of his feet to collide with the ground and create too obvious a sound.
After running like this for a while, Shang Jianyao suddenly turned sideways, held the "Berserker" assault rifle, and pulled the trigger towards an alley shrouded in dimness.
There, shadows flickered, showing obvious signs of aggression.
At the same time, Genaeva also raised his arm and aimed at a window of a building on the other side.
There was also a figure there, seemingly about to break the glass and jump down to attack Shang Jianyao and Genaeva.
Bang, bang, bang!
Shang Jianyao and Genaeva completed their shooting at the same time.
This time, to prevent stronger electromagnetic interference, they didn't demand accuracy and directly used suppressive fire.
Amidst the sounds of bangs, the glass window shattered with a crash, and the walls on the side of the alley and the cement ground had one bullet hole after another.
The two figures were also penetrated by the bullets, penetrated like water ripples, without any damage.
"Illusions?" Genaeva calmly stopped shooting and proposed a possibility.
The two figures started doing their own things separately. One pounced into a corner of the alley and gnawed at the darkness as if there was delicious prey there. The other passed through the window and fell onto the street, wobbled a few times, and "died" on the spot.
Shang Jianyao "oh"-ed.
"Illusions similar to Flora and Barnard's?"
"But this doesn't come from the overlapping of the 'New World'. It's more like certain scenes after Koninmis suffered the disaster." Genaeva quickly analyzed. "Was this recorded by the disordered electromagnetic environment?"
Upon hearing this, Shang Jianyao was overjoyed.
"This shows that our direction is correct!
"We're a lot closer to the root cause of the problem!"
What he meant was that why they hadn't encountered similar things before but were now encountering them was because such situations only existed in the core area where the disaster broke out.
"Should be." Genaeva answered impartially.
Shang Jianyao waved his right hand holding the "Berserker" assault rifle.
"Then let's continue deeper!"
...
Koninmis outskirts, western mountain area intersection.
Jiang Baimian and the others parked the jeep deeper into the forest to avoid being discovered by the Eighth Research Institute's "patrollers."
"We can't contact Wei them anymore." Jiang Baimian, wearing a military exoskeleton, stopped trying. "Is the electromagnetic environment getting worse the deeper we go?"
Bai Chen nodded, looking slightly worried, and said:
"The deeper we go, the more likely we are to encounter people from the Eighth Research Institute. They won't let anyone investigate what exactly happened to Koninmis back then."
"They could completely learn from Taicheng and directly use remote missiles to wipe the area, burying the city..." Jiang Baimian didn't quite understand this.
"Perhaps the problem in the depths of Koninmis can't be investigated clearly. The Eighth Research Institute really just wants to prevent the problem from spreading, and missile bombing can't solve this." Long Yuehong guessed.
Jiang Baimian "hmm"-ed.
"I only hope now that Wei and Lao Ge don't run into people from the Eighth Research Institute and wait until we're prepared later."
"Yes, yes." Long Yuehong quickly echoed.
At this moment, Bai Chen pursed her lips and said:
"Team Leader, don't you think it's too quiet around us?"
Hearing Bai Chen's question, Long Yuehong realized that even the wind seemed to have stopped in the forest where they were.
It wasn't like this just now.