Chapter 658: with translation of chapter title

The first faint ray of morning light shot into the slowly dissipating dust.

Under the Tyndall effect, the beam of light cast a pale whitish hue over the center of the explosion.

They passed through a stretch of ruins.

The Awakened Ones squad wearing Long'an Base uniforms rushed swiftly to the explosion's center.

Inside the quiet base, only hurried footsteps could be heard.

Everyone wore looks of shock, except Mo Ling, who sat expressionless on the bloody corpse, staring ahead.

This was the first time anyone had seen the scene after a nuclear explosion.

Houses collapsed, charred bodies lay about, ash covered the ground, and melted into a puddle of unidentified metal debris.

The whole world seemed to contain only black and gray.

On the berserk puppet, Mo Ling instinctively gripped the puppet's shoulders.

She saw that man.

In her eyes there was some dissatisfaction, but more worry.

Stepping over piles of charred corpses, Jing Tian was the fastest, flashing straight ahead.

"Lin Dui (Lin Bro)!"

"Lord Lin An!"

Their emotions were somewhat excited; the squad members and the newly formed Awakened Ones members shouted repeatedly in great excitement.

Several newcomers, seeing Lin An's Awakened Ones for the first time, were filled with reverence.

Within Long'an Base, they had heard of Lin An's deeds dozens of times.

It felt like a dream.

"Lin Bro!!"

Jing Tian grabbed Lin An's arm in one swift motion, his eyes scanning anxiously, fearing Lin An might have suffered a serious injury.

Seeing no wounds, he finally let out a big sigh of relief.

"I'm fine."

"Well, what about AnXia?"

Lin An watched the crowd rushing toward him, feeling quite moved inside.

After not seeing each other for over two months, everyone appeared to have grown a lot.

The entire squad's Awakened Ones were actually all Second Level.

Especially the squad members, the highest-ranked Gao Tian had already reached the peak of Second Level.

It seemed that, during his time going to the Secret Realm, everyone had been working hard.

Jing Tian blinked slightly, seeing a hint of longing in Lin An's eyes.

"AnXia... she was supposed to come along."

"But Colonel Chu said it would be better to let AnXia stay at the base."

"After all, we all left, and the base lacks high-end combat power, which is troublesome."

As they spoke, a hint of hidden worry appeared on Jing Tian's face.

He opened his mouth and added softly:

"Lin Bro, Long'an Base has recently had a few thorny issues... we haven't resolved them yet..."

Thinking of the supernatural incident in the Huanjiang Military Region, Jing Tian's eyes revealed fear.

After Lin An left, they tried to solve it themselves.

But they found that there didn't seem to be any good solution.

Lin An raised his eyebrows slightly upon hearing this, noticing that the group had likely run into some trouble recently.

"What about Chu An?"

"Didn't you let him help?"

"With that guy's brains, it shouldn't be hard to solve, right?"

Gao Tian, standing aside, curiously looked at the dry corpse at Lin An's feet, and upon hearing the question, hurriedly replied:

"Colonel Chu doesn't know what he's been up to lately."

"He hides inside the base all day, never goes out, and hardly manages anything."

"Aside from working on the spirit-powered fighter, we don't know what he's been doing the rest of the time..."

There was some resentment and incomprehension.

Since Lin An left, Colonel Chu hasn't really participated in their affairs.

Often, major and minor base matters are decided by their discussions.

Chu An... seems to be doing something important.

Upon hearing this, Lin An felt a stir in his heart, but didn't ask further.

Everything can wait until we go back to discuss.

Standing aside.

Wen Ya listened to the crowd's chattering discussion, hesitating for a moment.

She brushed aside the stray hairs from her forehead, then gently grasped Lin An's hand.

She opened her mouth, her lovely, charming face full of worry.

She wanted to say something, she wanted to say many things.

She wanted to tell Lin An what had happened at the base after he left, and how worried she had been about him.

But thousands of words could not be spoken, so she could only turn them into a silent gaze.

She lowered her head, her slightly trembling hand showing how nervous and worried she was.

Lin An saw this and smiled gently, hesitating a moment before lightly gripping Wen Ya's palm.

"Everything is going smoothly."

"How's Zhang Tie's side?"

Sitting on the shoulder of the heartless puppet, Mo Ling watched the scene before him, his expression slightly downcast.

This feeling.

This feeling, as if something dear to them had been snatched away.

Not being good at expressing their emotions, they also didn't know what they were actually thinking.

She awkwardly pressed down her thoughts, then whispered while pointing behind her:

"That stupid bear."

"Still outside the base perimeter."

"We parked the fighter outside; we can't land here."

As they spoke, Mo Ling curled his lip, then returned the Rat King's Ring to Lin An:

"That guy, he's quite sad."

"He saved many people and brought them back, but a few died on the spot."

As his words fell, a hint of gloom appeared on everyone's faces.

Mo Ling was referring to the Hua Guo survivors taken away by Xiong Hanzi.

The rescued people looked utterly miserable.

Especially those who came out of the laboratory, they hardly retained a normal human form.

Accompanying the team, the sole healing-type Awakened One was left there by Xiong Hanzi, trying to sustain the lives of several children.

But it seemed death was only a matter of time.

Especially the girl who had been constantly held in Xiong Hanzi's arms died the moment they landed.

Xiong Hanzi cried bitterly, as if recalling Youwei.

The girl's severed limbs and her tormented body made anyone who saw them feel a pang of heartache.

After learning of these survivors' ordeal, all members felt even greater anger toward the actions of the Twin Star Base.

But it seems.

Lin Dui has already taken revenge for those who died.

On the ruins.

Lin An listened, then fell silent for a moment, letting out a quiet sigh. He didn't say anything more.

Gao Tian, who had been observing carefully nearby, suddenly spoke up with a puzzled expression:

"Lin Dui."

"This guy.."

He couldn't help but kick the dry corpse in military uniform on the ground, curious to ask.

Among all the corpses, only this one had a peculiar death state.

Moreover, judging from his attire and the equipment still not removed from his corpse, his status was certainly not low.

Lin An glanced sideways and casually said:

"Nothing much, just let him send out a message."

Under the effect of the Fool's skill, the commander was utterly unable to resist his will.

Under the constant transmission of channel messages, the system literally drained all his spiritual energy.

This is probably the first Awakened One to die from sending a message at the Second Level.

Extremely fast reaction.

Gao Tian startled, instinctively opening the Fushan chat channel.

Seeing a flood of messages scroll by, the entire Fushan war zone exploded.

Many survivors were discussing the message the officer sent before his death.

"I am a high-ranking commander of the Hancheng military."

"Out of conscience and morality, I must tell you all: the Fushan military is using human survivors to make weapons! They are the true executioners! The high ranks of Daehan, they've killed...."

Below the message, an official representative was being surrounded and questioned by countless survivors.

And the official's explanation was pale and powerless at this point.