Chapter 330: 326 I

The sound from Bu Gaojun's side turned into frequent static, occasionally interspersed with a few intermittent, miserable howls and strange beastly roars.

Zhu Jingzhi and Xiaoli felt their hearts sink halfway; they knew Bu Gaojun must have encountered a terrifying danger.

Listening to the sounds of bones and flesh being ground and separated coming through the earphones, their anxious heartbeats surged and thudded like drums, and their brains were as tangled as earphone cords stuffed into a pocket; they felt they were insane for actually thinking these sounds were so pleasant and melodious, making their brains calm.

Sleep Aid Video!

Zhu Jingzhi and Xiaoli were suddenly startled, immediately cutting off the communication link and banishing the desire for sleep from their minds.

The two remained silent for a long time before Xiaoli opened his hoarse throat, "Team Leader Zhu... does this mean our operation has failed?"

Zhu Jingzhi felt a stifling heat in his chest that he couldn't vent, making it difficult to breathe; he took a deep breath and said in a muffled voice, "Not necessarily... the Sleep Aid Video has already been dealt with, and the person who made the video has already committed suicide; no one else will be linked to the Shadow-Eating Worms... it's just that they might not be able to come back."

"Damn it!" Xiaoli couldn't help but curse, shedding tears of frustration.

If the goal was only to prevent the influence of the Shadow-Eating Worms from spreading, then once Dong Wen was found and it was discovered that Dong Wen, the mastermind behind the whole thing, was already dead, all subsequent operations could have been terminated; they only needed to be responsible for containing and monitoring unavoidable factors and organizing and summarizing the necessary Abnormal knowledge, and there would be no need to care whether Huang Zhengdao lived or died, leaving those who had listened to the Sleep Aid Video and been marked by the Shadow-Eating Worms to fend for themselves.

But in reality, it was not like that; from beginning to end, Bu Gaojun and the other Mysterious Investigators never intended to abandon those marked by the Shadow-Eating Worms like Huang Zhengdao—those were living, breathing lives.

That could be tens of thousands or even over a hundred thousand fresh lives; how could they sit by and do nothing?

The so-called trolley problem is not meant to make you choose, but how to avoid such a choice from happening; when one truly must make a choice, it is not just the life on that track that dies—the conductor who makes the choice, as long as they still possess a shred of humanity, will be unable to endure the condemnation and torment of their conscience, and their body and soul will have long since been dragged under the wheels of the train along with it.

This world is too crazy; if one cannot insist on being human and hold onto their humanity, the human world will have no warmth and will sooner or later, like countless destroyed civilizations of the past, be submerged and disappear on the scale of time.

Listening to the painful, choked-up voice of a grown man, the Mysterious Investigators of the Pig Group also lowered their heads heavily.

Zzz—zzz—

Just as everyone was plunged into deep grief, a request for a communication connection appeared on their communication channel; the appearance of this situation made everyone's heart tremble, followed by expressions of joy.

Xiaoli was just about to press confirm to accept the communication, but who would have thought that the Pig Group's team leader, Zhu Jingzhi, would make the confirmation even faster than him.

"Bu Gaojun, Bu Gaojun, are you alright!" Zhu Jingzhi gripped the microphone with sweaty palms, shouting to the person on the other side of the communication channel the moment it connected.

However, the voice that appeared on the communication channel immediately afterward left everyone frozen in place, as if a basin of cold water had been poured over them.

They only heard that it was not Bu Gaojun's voice, but another younger, clearer voice that delivered news that made everyone's hearts tighten: "I'm sorry, I am not the person you are talking about; he, he might not be able to speak to you anymore."

The other party's tone carried regret, and a slight sigh was picked up by the high-sensitivity earphone microphone; everyone heard it clearly, which almost confirmed the news of Bu Gaojun's death.

"Who are you?" Zhu Jingzhi calmed his heart and asked coolly, then a thought flashed through his mind, his eyebrows arched, and he asked uncertainly, "Are you Huang Zhengdao?"

The person on the other side frankly admitted: "Yes, I am Huang Zhengdao."

Hearing the other party's identity, everyone found it unbelievable; how could such an ordinary person have survived until now in that kind of environment? That was a Different Dimensional Space where even experienced A-Rank Mystic Investigators could barely detect danger before dying!

"What is the situation on your end now?" Zhu Jingzhi asked.

"Very bad," Huang Zhengdao said in a calm tone. "I think if we fail to stop these worms, more people will continue to be brought into this world by them, no... perhaps they will walk into our human Real World because of this."

"What do you mean? What do those Shadow-Eating Worms want to do?" Xiaoli couldn't help but interject.

Huang Zhengdao sighed, "I can make contact with you now... isn't this the most dangerous thing?"

Hearing this, everyone was jolted awake, suddenly realizing.

That's right, since their communication channel could connect across dimensional spaces, it meant that the Different Dimensional Space on the other side could also connect to the Real World at any time through various other channels.

The Shadow-Eating Worms used some unknown ability to replicate the city of New Dragon City in the Different Dimensional Space where they lived; it was likely because of this unknown means that their world mirrored reality, creating a connection between the two worlds.

Coupled with the special abilities inherent to the Shadow-Eating Worms, as long as any creature in a dimensional space could hear their voices, they could cross boundaries and hunt them.

These insidious and cunning Shadow-Eating Worms did not need to perform any deep-level invasion; they only needed to transmit their voices to the human world.

Perhaps they didn't do this in the past because human technology hadn't developed to the level of the information internet, and that kind of predation efficiency—or rather, the efficiency of obtaining playthings—was too low, so they decided to temporarily abandon this world; but now, because Wang Yong and Dong Wen used the Incantation to summon them, the Shadow-Eating Worms' gaze was once again drawn to the humans on this planet, discovering the changes here... and so they changed their minds.

These worms, those terrifying and cunning worms...

Perhaps they had even more unfathomable and incomprehensible schemes, and humans could only make such inferences based on their own perspectives and existing intelligence, but even just this inference was chilling enough.

"We must stop them!" all the Mysterious Investigators thought tremblingly yet firmly.

"Mr. Huang Zhengdao, thank you for the information," Zhu Jingzhi said seriously and solemnly. "Now I would like to ask you to hide well somewhere in that world, anywhere, and wait for our people to come and save you..."

"That won't be necessary," Huang Zhengdao said with a meaningful sigh, interrupting Zhu Jingzhi, "I have actually been listening to your conversation with Bu Gaojun all along; as long as those two Incantations are performed, everything can be stopped, right?

I will find the materials for the spell, and I will recite the Incantation."