Chapter 279

"Let it lead the way," Lin Yu's expression was chillingly calm. "Otherwise, circling in this ghost fog is a dead end."

Xu Xiaochuan gritted his teeth and opened the shielding box.

The chip 'whooshed' out, hovering in mid-air, its eerie blue light flickering on and off.

Then, as if pulled by something invisible, the chip drifted slowly into the depths of the dense fog.

"Follow it," Lin Yu ordered.

The three of them plunged into the fog.

The world instantly became blurred, the ground grew more slippery, and the air was permeated with a strange smell of rust and lime mixed together.

"We're surrounded," Xuanyuan Qing suddenly spoke, her voice very low. "Can you feel it? There's something in the fog."

Lin Yu immediately crouched down, signaling them to do the same.

Listening quietly.

Sure enough, faint mechanical operation sounds came from all directions, along with the fine friction of metal.

"Drones," Lin Yu's lips barely moved. "The latest ones, sonar-guided; this fog can't block them."

The stinging pain on Xu Xiaochuan's back grew stronger; he endured it for dear life: "The chip went that way, need to be fast."

Lin Yu nodded, pulling a small, pitch-black ball from his backpack: "Smoke grenade, thermal interference, can buy three minutes."

He pulled the safety pin and threw it with all his might toward the densest part of the fog.

With a muffled 'pop', even denser smoke exploded instantly, carrying a pungent chemical smell.

"Go!"

The three of them hunched over, moving fast against the ground, trying their best not to make a sound, following the direction the chip drifted.

The ground began to tilt upward, the mud beneath their feet turning into a gravel slope, the bushes scraping against their pants with a 'swish' sound.

Suddenly, in the fog ahead, a blinding beam of light swept over, grazing the top of their heads.

"Get down!"

Lin Yu shoved them both to the ground.

The three of them pressed tightly against the cold, damp ground, not daring to breathe.

The light beam cut back and forth in the fog, like a massive eye searching.

"Checkpoint," Lin Yu said in a low voice. "They set up a blockade ahead."

Xu Xiaochuan glanced at the chip hovering not far away; its blue light was significantly dimmer, seemingly waiting as well. "The chip signal is weakening, need to hurry."

Lin Yu stared at the pattern of the light beam: "Three sentry posts, scanning in turns, seven-second intervals."

Xuanyuan Qing nodded weakly: "Need to draw their attention away."

Lin Yu pulled something pitch-black and rough-surfaced from his pocket: "C4, not much, enough to make a bang."

Xu Xiaochuan's eyes nearly popped out of his head: "Where the hell did you get that?"

"Scavenged from the subway station," Lin Yu said agilely, installing a makeshift fuse. "Three points, create a fake target for them."

Like a cat, he moved silently to the west side of the checkpoint, stuffing the first block of explosives into the bushes. Then he circled to the northeast, burying the second. The last one was placed on the mountain slope to the south, furthest from the checkpoint.

When he returned, Lin Yu gasped for air: "Get ready, charge as soon as it blows, don't stop, don't look back, understand?"

Xu Xiaochuan and Xuanyuan Qing both nodded. Xuanyuan Qing's face was whiter than the fog, but she showed no fear.

Lin Yu raised a palm-sized remote control: "Three, two, one—"

Boom!

The first explosion came from the distant mountain slope, and the checkpoint's searchlights immediately turned in unison.

Immediately after, the other two directions exploded almost simultaneously, the firelight reddening the dense fog.

"Run!"

The three of them lunged out of their hiding spot, sprinting with all their might toward the checkpoint.

All the searchlights were focused on the explosion points; no one noticed three dark shadows pressing against the ground, crawling through a filthy drainage ditch beneath the checkpoint.

They were about to break out of the checkpoint's range.

Overhead, a sharp beam of light suddenly shone downward!

Lin Yu grabbed them both and dove into the bushes to the side.

Bullets flew past their noses, hitting the ground and splashing mud.

Not far overhead, a drone hovered, the gun barrel on its mechanical arm still emitting blue smoke.

"Discovered." Lin Yu picked up a damp piece of rubble from the ground and threw it at the drone without looking.

The stone hit the drone's shell with a 'clang', causing no damage, but the thing wobbled, emitting a piercing alarm.

"Split up!" Lin Yu roared, charging in another direction.

Taking advantage of the drone adjusting its posture, the three of them plunged into the denser fog in three different directions like startled rabbits.

Xu Xiaochuan ran headlong, his heart pounding like a drum against his chest. He glanced back; Lin Yu's silhouette appeared and disappeared in the fog, followed closely by two buzzing drones, drawing all the firepower. Xuanyuan Qing had vanished, likely using her smaller size to dive into some dense bushes.

He didn't dare look again, plunging forward, following the force pulling at the skin on his back. The terrain beneath his feet grew steeper, his breathing couldn't keep up, and his lungs burned with pain.

Suddenly, his foot slipped!

He lost his balance, rolling down a steep mud slope!

The world spun, mud and rotting leaves covering his face. He rolled a dozen times before hitting a tree and stopping, his whole body feeling like it had fallen apart, pain radiating from his joints.

He climbed up unsteadily, looked up, and saw he had rolled into a shallow pit.

Even worse—where was the chip?

He subconsciously reached into his pocket; it was empty!

"Damn it!" Xu Xiaochuan scrambled around in a panic, but the dense fog obscured everything, and all he could see was a gray-white expanse.

Just then, the receiver mark on his back throbbed with intense pain! This time it wasn't just heat, it was needle pricks! No, it was electrified! A piercing electric current instantly penetrated his skin, hurting so much he let out a muffled groan, nearly collapsing.

"Xiaochuan! Over here!"

Lin Yu's voice! Coming from not far away.

Xu Xiaochuan turned his head toward the voice and saw Lin Yu poking half his body out from behind a giant rock, waving at him.

"Hurry over! Xuanyuan Qing is here too!"

Xu Xiaochuan stumbled over; Xuanyuan Qing was indeed leaning against the rock, her complexion worse than before, her breathing short and rapid, the wound on her severed arm oozing blood again, staining the newly applied bandage.

"The chip… I lost it," Xu Xiaochuan gasped, anxious and frustrated. "I lost it when I rolled down the slope."

Lin Yu's face sank: "Don't bother looking."

He pointed into the distance.

The fog thinned slightly, revealing the silhouette of a massive spherical building, like a gray eyeball with half dug out, standing coldly there.

The observatory.

They had finally arrived.

Lin Yu pulled a military-grade binocular from his backpack and carefully observed the front: "Three lines of defense. The outer perimeter is an electric fence, looks broken, but could be a trap. The middle zone has armed patrols; judging by the footprints and tire tracks, there are quite a few, well-equipped. The internal structure is unclear, but there are at least two checkpoints. Stricter than I thought."

The pain on Xu Xiaochuan's back suddenly changed; it was no longer a sharp electric shock, but a strange tugging, an invisible thread pulling at his spine, dragging him forward.

"Inside… something is calling me," his voice tightened, trembling slightly without him realizing. "It's that girl's voice… much clearer than before."

Xuanyuan Qing struggled to stand straight but collapsed back against the rock, exhausted: "The fog is getting thicker, something's wrong."