Chapter 204: Mission Completed

Ah?!

Not surprisingly, Yue Chengzhang met everyone's astonished gaze, and even Min Tianyou looked up at him with a surprised expression.

Yue Chengzhang scratched his face, feeling a bit embarrassed under everyone's gaze, showing no trace of the leadership demeanor he had just displayed; he looked more like a friendly neighborhood older brother.

When talking about that long-ago time, Yue Chengzhang's eyes were full of nostalgia; he naturally had a bit of a talkative trait, and his current concise, crisp manner of giving orders still took considerable time to develop.

Whenever he brought up the past, it was as if he had opened a chatterbox, and after a long time he mentioned that era to his junior schoolmates.

"Back then I was still studying at Mitra Academy, and I and my teammates were suddenly notified to join a certain secret mission, whose general content was to protect the designer of the 'Air Train'."

"Designer?" Ying Duo sharply caught that word; this is definitely a key NPC.

Yue Chengzhang, however, chose to avoid the topic at this moment; he had just spouted a lot about how excited he was to receive this mission, urging these junior schoolmates not to lose heart, saying this mission had encountered an accident, but with their talent they would surely become even smoother going forward, balabala.....

He said a lot of irrelevant things, with nothing else to add; the point was that he wouldn't discuss it at all.

"Who is that designer?"

Ying Duo asked curiously, this question being more direct.

"...... Her identity is one of the highest secrets of the Supervision Bureau today, and everyone who knows has signed a confidentiality agreement."

Yue Chengzhang also didn't expect Ying Duo to be so fixated on her identity; he feared Ying Duo would continue to press for details, so he could only immediately start changing the subject.

"Speaking of that, what about the 'design draft'? It's no big deal if it's lost; the designer said it only contains some scrapped plans, so even if it were taken, there would be no impact........"

"It's in Ying Duo's hands."

Shen Zexi pointed at Ying Duo, indicating for Ying Duo to produce the item.

Ying Duo, suddenly pointed at by Shen Zexi, was stunned for just a second, then promptly handed the design draft over to Yue Chengzhang.

Anyway, the contents have all been recorded by the player's system; he can check them anytime, and worst case he could just tell Bai Mu Yun's side that he had memorized it.

Yue Chengzhang received the well-preserved, albeit slightly aged design draft, quickly glanced at it, confirmed the familiar brushstrokes, gave a slight nod, and properly stored the item.

"Mm, as long as the item is present........ cough, that designer also specifically instructed that these early ideas, though immature, would be improper if they fell into the wrong hands."

The few people silently watched him, and hearing his sudden change in tone made the corners of their mouths twitch slightly.

His gaze turned to the devastated surroundings; after successive battles and explosive impacts, the Black Stone Mountain Range's terrain had been completely altered, the former mine entrance long buried, leaving only a suffocating scene of ruin and silence.

Lying on the hospital bed, Min Tianyou's gaze inevitably fell on the design draft Ying Duo had handed over, and the corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly.

He had completely forgotten about this........

He silently sighed in his heart.

Bai Mu Yun and Lu Mu appeared all too suddenly, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse; especially after the older sister confirmed that Shen Zexi was the true 'Fate Oracle,' most of his attention was focused on safeguarding this key figure.

If it weren't for using a little 'trick' at the last moment........

Min Tianyou's gaze flickered for an instant, catching sight not far away of a butterfly with dull, pale wings, which was trembling as it landed on a charred boulder, its wings lightly quivering in the breeze.

He had nearly met his end here, but instead he forgot the important matter he was supposed to attend to 'over there.'

This design draft should have been arranged to be smoothly taken away by those undergoing Co-Absorption, shouldn't it........

"So......" Qi Hengyu's voice suddenly sounded, breaking the silence among them; he surveyed the mountain range wreckage that seemed to have been gnawed by a giant beast, and suddenly began to doubt life.

"Do we count this mercenary mission as completed?"

He counted on his fingers, trying to straighten out the logic.

"Investigating the missing miners...... aberrant species, uh, those stone lumps, count as resolved? But this mountain has collapsed........"

Upon his remark, Chen Mo Zhi and Shen Zexi each froze for a moment, then fell into a subtle silence.

That commission to investigate the missing workers of the Black Stone Mine, after they successively experienced aberrant species assaults, fell into an abandoned base, were pursued by Co-Absorption personnel, and other high-intensity events, had long been completely forgotten by everyone.

At this moment, looking at the broken walls and ruins before them, that original goal seemed both distant and trivial, even somewhat absurd.

Ah, it turns out they originally took on just a D-rank mission........

No, a D-rank mission is supposed to be this intense?!

"Those 'stone people' are probably the missing miners; they must have become completely non-living monsters under the influence of some new-type mutation."

Shen Zexi's voice sounded, devoid of joy or sorrow, as if those petrified remains capable of twisting into human shapes were still right before their eyes.

"Your guess is probably correct."

Yue Chengzhang took over the conversation, his expression also turning solemn, no longer the friendly neighborhood older brother he had just been.

"This is highly likely to be a newly emergent aberrant species not yet fully recorded; it differs from known progressive infection or parasitism, and can even affect lifeless rock, signaling an intensification of mutagenic activity and a more cryptic form."

Moreover, not only that; in fact, aside from the appearance of this new aberrant species, reports of aberrant species abnormal uprisings have surfaced everywhere.

"Therefore, with the original mine of the Black Stone Mountain Range as the core, a fifty-kilometer radius area will be designated as a 'restricted zone,' during which all unauthorized personnel will be strictly prohibited from entering; as for those miners........."

Yue Chengzhang paused, his voice sinking a bit.

"They are no longer human, but rather anomalous entities that need to be disposed of and studied; their families will receive notice of a 'mining disaster, all deceased, entitled to corresponding compensation; of course, the mining-related industries here will also be completely terminated."

In other words, the missing persons case has been 'resolved' in the most cruel and thorough manner.

The mission objective appears to have been achieved, but the air is filled with anything but ease.

Ying Duo's system interface silently updated the mission status; the task 'Investigating the Missing Miners' was marked as 'Completed (Special Ending)', and a new prompt popped up:

【Region 'Black Stone Mountain Range' permanent lockdown information has been recorded, related exploration progress reset to zero.】