Chapter 520

Clang, clang.

Beneath the scarlet canopy, the iron wheels of the Infinite rolled along the north-south track, emitting a rhythmic sound. Lin Xian could not recall how long it had been since he last heard the sound of train wheels; while remaining vigilant for danger, he felt a strange sense of nostalgia in his heart.

He turned his head, his gaze passing through the narrow corridor of the locomotive to look at the carriages behind, remembering when they first left Jiang City, the train had been empty, with only three people on board.

Now, Chen Laoshi was gone, and on this heavily armed train, there were only he and Kiki.

Argh!!

The moment Lin Xian was lost in thought, a strange anomaly suddenly appeared in the blood mist ahead. Several mutated scarlet human-like anomalies charged over at extreme speed. Before he could even register their appearance, they were captured by the Infinite's radar system. The close-in defense system's plasma beam array activated silently, firing ultra-high-temperature rays that swept rapidly across the front, instantly turning the charging scarlet anomalies into a cloud of debris in the air.

Lin Xian took a deep breath and immediately checked the status of his own markers on the battle armor interface. He was currently worried about the hollow-faced monsters he had seen yesterday; they were elusive. After seeing that the dark markers remained unchanged, Lin Xian simply increased the train's speed further.

Outside the train, hundreds of flying drones circled the Infinite like satellites, from the sky to the ground, forming a dense defensive network. The radar grid was so precise that even a mosquito approaching would be immediately locked onto. With these assets, Lin Xian did not need to rely on his own eyesight to judge danger. If any track issues arose, Kiki could respond quickly.

"What's wrong?" In Carriage 2, Kiki returned to her familiar position at the information center. One hand used telekinesis to manipulate the rapidly spinning metal die, while the other hand nimbly tapped on the keyboard, recording the observed data.

"A few mutated zombies, nothing much," Lin Xian replied.

Kiki continued her work without stopping, saying calmly, "If there are no accidents, we shouldn't trigger a scarlet tide, so what we need to worry about are high-level anomalies and hunters. Besides that, it's the road conditions."

Lin Xian looked at the thin blood mist ahead from the cockpit and asked, "The hunters you mentioned, are they those monsters with a black hole on their faces that can teleport?"

"That's right, but that's not called teleportation. Remember when we left Xia Weiyi, monsters could be transmitted through the blood mist? From the perspective of these monsters, this scarlet space is actually another dimension, different from the three-dimensional perspective we see."

"Why are they called hunters?" Lin Xian asked. "How are they different from anomalies?"

"Because these things possess intelligence."

Kiki's voice came through the communicator, and Lin Xian's brow furrowed slightly upon hearing this: "What do you mean?"

"Other anomalies generally only attack after being disturbed or toward dark markers, but these hunters are like wandering assassins. They cannot be detected by soul-oscillation values, don't rely on dark markers, and their movements are elusive and highly lethal. It's fine for us with the Infinite's protection, but if we were outside, even top-tier psychics like you and me could lose our lives in an instant if we were careless. The Phoenix Society believes these creatures were precisely designed as 'hunters' by the Tower People, hence they are called hunters."

"Moreover, besides ordinary hunters, there exists a type of larger, special hunter. Looking at their size, they might only be Special-class, but the actual disaster they can cause is even more terrifying than an S-class. One appeared on the Hake battlefield before; the Blade Action Group, with an average soul-oscillation value of 20,000, was wiped out in less than a minute, causing huge casualties to the Phoenix City support troops."

"That fierce?"

"The most critical thing is that this thing wasn't destroyed; it will hide and retreat to wait for an opportunity."

Lin Xian's expression turned solemn upon hearing this: "The one you and Lei Meng encountered at the beginning did appear strangely. If it weren't for the timely reaction, that A Long should have been dead."

"Yes, fortunately there was only one, and it was an ordinary one. We worked together to solve it quickly, but it's hard to say for others." Kiki added at this moment, "It is said that once you feel fear in the face of this creature, it will immediately appear behind you. Therefore, an individual and the overall team must maintain tacit understanding, and the mindset cannot be unbalanced, otherwise it won't be so smooth."

Scrape, scrape!

A few more anomalies appeared by the roadside and were cleared by the Infinite's laser weapons. Lin Xian did not disengage the safety on the heavy thermal weapons to avoid attracting larger-scale attention.

Hearing Kiki's words, he recalled the content he saw in the civilization preview ball and mused, "The so-called 【Angels】 of the Tower People have already deprived themselves of pain and fear, but after being destroyed by a high civilization, Yunjia's consciousness generated fear and pain, which spread with the dark invasion, causing the mutation of all mankind. Now it seems that pain and fear are not just emotional reactions in the Tower People's civilization; they seem to define these consciousnesses in the form of sub-energy and separate them physically. In this way, your saying that hunters can sniff out human fear might not just be an adjective..."

"Is that so? Then according to you, isn't Chu Yan in trouble?" Kiki responded at this time: "It's a pity, actually, I have a pretty good impression of this person..."

Lin Xian was silent. He realized that the Chu Yan consciousness in the civilization preview ball did indeed appear to protect him, but the scene where Chu Yan was swallowed by the Angel at the end also reminded Lin Xian that a part of Chu Yan's consciousness or recognition had already been severed and separated. Therefore, no one could be clear about her purpose in leaving the Phoenix Society. After all, from Lin Xian's speculation, that might already be 'another strange Chu Yan' or 'Chu Yan who has stripped away friendly will.'

Thinking about this, Lin Xian entered the Black Star Forge directly with his consciousness, trying to call Chu Yan, but the result still had no response.

So, for the sake of safety, he decisively exited the Black Star Forge, but just at this moment, a long-lost voice suddenly sounded in his ear.

【I am here】

"Grace!!??" Lin Xian never expected that it would be Grace's voice.

【It is me, long time no see, are you currently safe?】

Lin Xian hurriedly asked: "What happened, is the South Tianmen out of control or did you encounter any problems there?"

In the geostationary orbit of Blue Star, the huge photovoltaic wing surface of the South Tianmen defense platform rotated silently like light wings, with countless servo motors precisely calibrating the angle, aiming every inch of the alloy panel at the scorching sun.

The main station platform above the 12-kilometer-diameter circular energy storage array glowed with faint blue arcs. Inside the transparent observation cabin, Grace stood proudly in a ballet pose. Her visual focus system penetrated the giant sky screen, and a scarlet planet was reflected on the observation window.

90% of the entire Blue Star's surface area had been covered by viscous scarlet. The red dome swallowed the continents and oceans like a solidified sea of blood. The sunlight was completely blocked, and Blue Star looked like a dying planet wrapped in cosmic red gauze in deep space.

Grace picked up the brain-machine transmission device connected to the flickering bullet, and the light at the interface flickered.

【I used the dark energy frequency data transmitted by the Starry Sky Laboratory to try to re-modify the brain-machine information processing module of the flickering bullet. It seems it was a success.】

"Starry Sky Laboratory?" Lin Xian asked suspiciously: "Can they already transmit dense information data?"

【Yes, using a wave rate between the scarlet frequency synchronization device and the taboo item...】