Chapter 306: Chapter 306 Invasion
Those were the last whispered words of the "invader"—the breath representing life was so faint at the moment of death that it sounded like a breeze drifting from the edge of an illusion, melting quietly by the ear, leaving behind an unsettling ticking sound.
It was the sound of blood dripping onto the ground.
"What did he say?"
Another monastery member leaned in and asked softly.
The man in the black robe standing beside Yu Sheng’s body lowered his head, seemingly still perplexed by the disturbing auditory hallucination, until his companion asked for the second time. It was as if he woke from a dream and raised his head, murmuring in a confused tone, "He said he’s dying, but something else has come alive... I don’t know, I couldn’t hear clearly."
His voice carried a hint of hesitation, as if even just repeating the words brought some mental unease.
But where exactly did this unease come from? What was he worried about? The man in the black robe couldn’t say for sure.
He only heard their fellow monastery member, who had been violently struck by the invader with a stick and seriously injured, moaning in pain. The high-dose stimulants and adrenaline auto-injected by the Power Armor couldn’t suppress the pain completely, and now the life support system in the armor was forcibly keeping him alive, but if delayed any longer, he wouldn’t survive.
"He must be sent to the surgery room immediately... His internal organs are like a pile of mush," someone checked the injured and quickly spoke, "The original body can’t be saved, make a decision—pure steel or blessed flesh?"
The monastery member on the ground breathed with difficulty, slightly raised his hand, and a hoarse, painful voice came from inside the helmet: "Steel..."
The man in the black robe checking the injuries nodded and instructed the others, "Alright, notify the medical team, prepare for the brain transfer surgery—we need a Mechanical Cultivator’s body."
Saying this, he bowed his head again, holding the injured man’s hand, offering deep reassurance, "Relax, brother, you are about to have a pure and powerful new body, the useless original shell will be sent into the biomass processor, becoming the cornerstone of our progress—hold my hand, head to the starting point of the path of ascension, but before that, I must first cut off some of your limbs—we can’t wait for the stretcher, we have to get your brain to the surgery room quickly."
The abrasive noise of "processing" the limbs of the injured echoed through the hallway.
Even if the limbs below the neck were amputated, the N-K-22 type Power Armor helmet could still ensure brain survival for fifteen minutes.
However, no matter the commotion behind him, the man in the black robe standing beside Yu Sheng’s body still quietly stood in place, as if something had drawn his spirit away, looking absent-mindedly at the "invader" on the ground with a vacuous stare.
"What are you looking at? We need to leave," someone called out from the side, "Leave this wreck in the hallway, someone will come to recover it later."
The man in the black robe snapped out of it, hurriedly nodding in response, "Oh, oh, okay."
He turned and walked towards his compatriots but couldn’t help glancing back at the pile of blood on the ground. He then seemed to sense something and looked up at the corner of the wall.
A secret camera in the corner quietly watched him.
The Brass Knight escorted several black-robed cultists quickly away from the place, the monastery members seemed to subconsciously sense some danger and departed hurriedly.
The place where Yu Sheng fell, scattered clothes, a pocket knife dropped from a pocket, a blood-soaked stick, all these things gradually melted into the pool of blood, as if being swallowed into another dimension, gradually sinking into the blood trace.
The cell phone also soaked in the blood, strands of blood trace seemed to have a life of their own, covering its screen and casing, and then the phone screen suddenly lit up.
The Border Communication interface popped up, followed by a private message window, where virtual keyboard keys flashed, and a line of text quickly compiled and sent to Baili Qing—
"Ah, back to the previous topic, want the Venerate Saints Monastery cultists?"
Moments later, the phone buzzed, Baili Qing replied with a brief word: "Want."
Then, after a moment, possibly sensing an issue with her reply, Baili Qing sent another message: "Are you bringing them back alive? Or should I just send a batch of support over? It’s too dangerous for you alone in their lair."
The blood on the phone screen slowly dispersed as a message quickly sent: "No need, sending someone over will alert them, realizing loss of control might lead them to blow up the entire ship directly."
"... Alright, then tell me how to cooperate."
...
At the top layer of the "Order Pillar", inside the Control Hall, an elder clad in a white robe still sat with dignity at his position, awaiting results from the action team.
He received good news.
The communicator in front of the seat lit up, showing a monastery member wearing Power Armor and a black robe appearing on screen: "Sage! We’ve dealt with the invader, in a corridor on the periphery of the core area."
The sage’s face, tense with strained muscles, finally relaxed a bit: "Well done—recovery personnel will go to clean up afterward. What’s the loss?"
"A combatant was seriously injured, amputated below the neck, we’re taking his head to the surgery room. He fought bravely and applied for entry into the steel evolution branch at the point of dying."
"Mm, a bravely fighting person deserves such a reward," the elder in the white robe gently sighed, relaxing his whole body, "After handling this, report back to the upper zone."
"Understood!"
The communicator hung up, and the atmosphere in the Control Hall relaxed considerably with the arrival of good news.
"Thought it would be impressive."
A member of the monastery muttered nearby.
"It’s just a very strange guy, but there are plenty of strange things in this world," another person echoed, "not as troublesome as those shadows we dug up in the Adar Giant Pit."
"Uh..."
"What’s wrong?"
"Nothing, just saw some flickering on a few monitors, maybe a few channels reset while the core system was self-repairing. I checked it, everything’s normal."
"Don’t scare people..." an operator guarding a console muttered, stretching in his chair and glancing at the camera on the ceiling of the hall.
The camera quietly watched him, just like it did every day.
But for some reason, he suddenly felt a bit of... loathing and discomfort towards that camera staring at him.
The discomfort was inexplicable; he shuddered involuntarily, unsure of how to explain it to others, so he quickly diverted his gaze and avoided looking at the ceiling.
A faint electric noise came through the listening headset, as if someone said something in the communication channel, but it was indistinct.
The operator frowned, initially suspecting the headset was malfunctioning, but quickly dismissed it because there really was someone speaking amidst the faint static noise.
He furrowed his brows, adjusting the listening channel more attentively, trying to locate the source of the noise.
And then the voice of the "Sage" suddenly came from a distance, interrupting the quiet chatter in the hall—
"Has there been any response from the personnel responsible for the aftermath?"
"No," a communications officer immediately replied and then uttered a "huh" as their tone swiftly turned tense, "Something’s wrong!"
"What’s going on?"
"The recovery team’s signal disappeared—just a moment ago!"
The atmosphere in the hall, which had just relaxed, suddenly became tense again, and the "Sage’s" expression immediately turned gloomy as he rose from his chair: "Signal disappeared? Find out what’s happening, is it a communication failure or..."
"Both the communication signal and the living detection signal on the personnel have disappeared—Sage, they’ve vanished!"
"What about the surveillance?"
"They were just seen passing through corridor D-2, entering the connection airlock, but no one came out at the next airlock in the corridor!"
"Which is the closest drone bay? Deploy drones immediately."
The hall suddenly became noisy, with tense and urgent instructions and reports blending together, the Sage’s voice carrying a hint of anger, while nearby operators sounded tense and embarrassed.
Yet the operator at the console continued to carefully adjust his listening headset, cycling through the available channels, seemingly obsessed, trying to discern what the voice causing noise in the system was saying.
After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly heard a voice—very, very clear, as if speaking right next to his ear:
"Can you hear now?"
The operator jerked off his headset like he’d been electrocuted, eyes widened in terror, quickly looking in the direction of the Sage: "There’s someone speaking in the listening channel! Something has invaded our equipment—"
"What?!" the Sage was taken aback, then immediately activated the communicator to connect with the task force still on the way back to the upper levels, "Situation has changed, proceed to the server chamber immediately, there’s an invader hiding on the ship!"
However, only a hollow white noise came from the communicator.
Soon someone checked the communication system and surveillance, nervously reporting: "The task force’s signal also disappeared—near corridor D-1, the camera didn’t capture any attackers or battle footage."
The Sage stood on the spot, face dark as water, contemplating uneasily.
Something is hiding in this tower.
It’s attacking the people in this tower one after another; no one knows how, but it’s evidently moving very fast and striking with extreme ferocity, able to eliminate combatants in Power Armor before they can react.
Moreover, there might be more than one invader—because the two teams that encountered issues aren’t in the same area, and there was also a report about voices in the listening channel, suggesting the invaders are not only staging attacks but also hacking into the system simultaneously.
"...Deploy the second team, monitor throughout, maintain contact, seal all passages from D-1 to D-2, search inch by inch."
"Yes!"