Chapter 1894 - 1893: An Old Acquaintance Behind the Scenes

The surroundings were eerily quiet.

Geslo raised his head and looked at the silence around him, then turned his gaze to Anke beside him.

Even though that ’old gentleman’ never told him his name, he quickly guessed that ’Denos’ was likely the old gentleman’s name.

But he couldn’t find the ’old gentleman’, so he could only shift his gaze to Anke beside him.

However, Anke also looked over with some bewilderment; clearly, Anke couldn’t find the ’old gentleman’ either.

Just then, deep rays of light illuminated from the walls, igniting a crimson-purple glow. These lights, like tentacles extending from the walls, were densely intertwined, wrapping into massive husks ready to engulf everyone in the room.

Meanwhile, Anke felt the ’texture’ under his feet seemed to undergo some kind of change, turning from hard to soft.

He lowered his head; the old floor was now writhing slowly like viscous flesh.

His feet began to sink rapidly.

He hurriedly lifted his foot and stepped to the side, only to land on the same sticky, soft ’flesh ground’.

At this moment, he felt as if he had fallen into a muddy swamp, his whole body sinking rapidly.

He lifted his head and looked at Geslo beside him, only to find Geslo was also sinking.

Apart from Geslo, everyone and everything in this room began to sink rapidly at this moment.

In an instant, his lower body was engulfed by the flesh ground.

It was then Anke vaguely realized the twisted flesh ground wasn’t completely solid, but rather some illusory semi-transparent substance.

Through this semi-transparent material, he could barely make out the vast, boundless prairie beneath the flesh ground.

Are we going to fall down?

A thought surfaced in his mind.

Boom—

At that moment, an explosion sounded abruptly in his mind.

"You have arrived." A voice, indistinguishable whether male or female, spoke in the void, the cold tone carried slight fluctuations, seemingly a hint of amusement.

And at that instant, Anke felt his descending body suddenly halt.

Boom boom boom—

Following that, a series of explosive crashes sounded above them and below them, as if in every corner of the building.

But these explosions didn’t cause any actual tremor, only an invisible wind sweeping through their souls, calming their agitated emotions for a moment.

The flesh ground engulfing their bodies seemed to stop, spreading some twisted and eerie power throughout the void.

The crimson-purple lighting entwined on the walls shimmered brightly at this moment, illuminating every corner of the room.

The engulfing flesh ground wriggled once again.

Boom—

Only this time, the wriggling lasted less than a second before another booming sound erupted, accompanied by a violent tearing noise akin to ripping fine cloth, and the crimson-purple rays were suddenly torn apart.

The feeling of being engulfed vanished at that instant.

Anke and Geslo awoke suddenly, finding the room unchanged from before.

The knife-wielding underground doctor looked at the man on the hospital bed, speaking somewhat confusedly, "How come so much flesh was cut."

"Take everyone and run, escape this building, and remember, don’t use the elevator."

At this time, an elderly voice echoed simultaneously in Anke and Geslo’s minds.

"Old man?" "Old gentleman?"

The two were taken aback.

Then, without hesitation, they stepped forward.

"Carry the elderly and patients, we’re going downstairs now." Geslo quickly addressed the special operations members who seemed to wake from a dream.

"Don’t worry about these," Anke also reached out and grabbed the underground doctor’s hand, seizing his scalpel in the process, "Let’s go first."

The underground doctor glanced at him with some bewilderment.

By then, the special operations team had already moved, lifting the elderly woman resting on the bed’s foot, rescuing the man on the hospital bed, swiftly heading for the door.

Geslo arrived at the doorway, and seeing the tightly closed door, kicked it hard.

Boom—

The door was kicked open, revealing a deep, dim corridor in everyone’s field of vision.

A few special ops members immediately rushed out, ran to the left, and pressed the elevator button located right next to the room.

"Don’t use the elevator!" Geslo shouted as he exited the door, seeing this scene.

A few members didn’t react immediately, and at that moment, the elevator doors opened, revealing the deep elevator to everyone’s gaze.

"Follow me!" Geslo shouted loudly.

Two special ops members quickly obeyed his command, rushing towards Geslo.

Boom—

As they acted, the deep elevator suddenly twisted forward, like an open mouth biting forward, snapping at the spot where the special ops members had just stood.

Accompanied by violent tremors, the special ops members tumbled to the ground before Geslo.

Looking back, they saw scattered debris, the torn corridor, and the still intact, tightly shut elevator doors.

"We’ll take the stairs," Geslo, without a moment to spare, turned his gaze into the dark depths of the corridor.

Then Anke, carrying the elderly and patients, followed by the special ops members, reached the door.

They quickly moved forward, passing through the narrow corridor, heading for the stairs at the corridor’s end.

The dim corridor lights had completely failed, flickering violently, casting an erratic illumination across the corridor.

The red and purple glows wandered through this space, flickering between light and dark, like serpents in the darkness, cautiously watching the pedestrians on the road.

Even the special forces who often dealt with exotic beasts quickened their pace upon seeing this scene.

However, apart from these red and purple glows, an invisible wind was also gently blowing through the void.

This wind brushed through the silent corridors like an invisible wall, blocking the covetousness of those red and purple glows.

Thus, the group passed through the corridor without incident and reached the narrow staircase.

······

As the crowd rushed downstairs, a black coffin hovered in mid-air behind the dilapidated old door of room 1505, emitting a faint black glow.

The surrounding walls writhed slightly, and the shredded red and purple glows slowly wiggled out again, covering the entire wall, straying along it.

"Did you guess this was a trap?" A voice, indistinguishable whether male or female, echoed in the empty room.

The soft earth continued to writhe but had solidified, rendering the vast grassland below invisible.

"It was merely a simple guess," He Ao’s calm and aged voice emanated from the coffin, resounding in the void, "Now that I’ve come out, what about you?"

The voice did not respond, only the surrounding walls began to undulate.

The surrounding void gradually transformed, a vast forest vaguely appeared, half real and half illusory like a projection, overlapping into the outer city, superimposed onto the towering steel forests.

In the distance of the blurry forest, an ancient city faintly unfolded.

In front of the forest, outside the narrow space’s window, stood two stone chairs and a stone table, quietly standing there.

He Ao’s perception landed on that stone chair, and the black coffin flew forward, landing on the right stone chair.

He was extremely familiar with this forest; in Denos’ memory, this forest lay outside the city of Kovotra, one of the few low-risk areas outside the city devoid of powerful exotic beasts.

In the past, inner-city nobles loved hunting in this forest, declaring their prowess through the strength of their prey, winning the younger generation’s admiration.

Of course, this was when Denos was still young, and he frequently participated in these activities.

After immense trials and tribulations upon returning to Kovotra and becoming the governor, this forest had long been felled and incorporated into the expanding city, and the hunting tradition had waned.

"Did you recall some youthful memories?" that indistinguishable voice echoed from all directions in the murky and eerie forest, then gradually solidified into a somewhat youthful male voice behind He Ao.

He Ao’s perception extended outward, wisps of pitch-black glow extended from the tiny coffin, forming a hazy black humanoid shape.

He turned his head to look behind him.

A valiant young man appeared in He Ao’s field of view, with brown curly hair, brown eyes, wearing a simple leather coat, carrying a wooden longbow, holding a goose pierced by an arrow in his hand.

The black glowed body trembled slightly at this moment, He Ao looked at the young man behind him with some amazement.

He’d considered countless possibilities about the manipulator, but he hadn’t expected this possibility.

He looked at the youth, his voice carrying undisguised surprise, "Sulan?"

"Long time no see," the young man smiled at He Ao, "Big brother Denos."

His smile was sweet and natural, just like in Denos’ memory, imbued with a carefree purity.

——

Kaye City

"Did Rank City fall just like that?" Lina looked at the report in her hand, disbelief all over her tone, "Didn’t we have a mercenary corps nearby? How come no information was passed on?"

"The Nord Group’s Mercenary Corps came down the mountain behind Rank City and suddenly appeared at Rank City’s gates, bypassing our troops. Rank City is a small city with weak defenses, even with fierce resistance, the city gates were breached by internal bureaucratic collusion."

Fiss, standing opposite Lina, said in a hoarse voice.

"That simple? They broke through the city just by coming down from the mountain? Didn’t we have sentries or something on that mountain?" Lina was still a bit confused.

"We had people patrolling," Fiss said, "but that mountain is home to three massive B-level exotic beasts and various strong beast hordes. Under normal circumstances, it’s almost impossible for a large force to cross the mountain."

"Did they use some kind of existence beyond specifications?" Old Danny, sitting on the other side of the conference table, asked, "Like an Angel? But isn’t there said to be some sort of agreement among Angels not to participate in wars?"

"This isn’t clear, but it’s not out of the question," Fiss shook his head, "However, if Angels were involved, those exotic beasts should have reacted. According to the information from our spies in the Nord Mercenary Corps, the commander supposedly found a small path from the Era of the Great Cataclysm, it’s dangerous, but not entirely impassable, and that’s the route they took."

"What do we do now?" Lina quickly recovered, no longer hung up on the previous issue, "With Rank City taken, our route to Yilan City and Dawn City is cut off, we can’t support them, nor can they support us."

She raised her head, looking at Fiss, "Can we still contact our Mercenary Corps north of Rank City? Won’t they be cornered by those consortium armies?"

"We can," Fiss said slowly, "We keep in touch through enemy cities’ networks, and though the main routes are cut off, some small tracks remain open. After Rank City fell, I’ve ordered them to move north towards Yilan City."

"That’s good," Lina sighed in relief, "But our communication lines are still cut."

"Is it possible to concentrate our forces and reclaim Rank City?" Old Danny looked at Fiss.

"The consortium troops have a tight grip on Rank City now," Fiss said softly, "we lack the manpower."

"Can Dawn City send forces?" A voice rang through the office.

"In principle, they should be able to," Fiss quickly replied, "but it’s difficult, based on past experience, it requires communication and coordination, and the three sides don’t cooperate well."

At this point, Fiss paused slightly, suddenly realizing the voice seemed odd. He looked up, seeing a young figure standing before him.

"Mr. Vain?" He looked at the young man in front of him, momentarily speechless.

"Master Vain?" "Mr. Vain?"

Old Danny and Lina also shifted their gaze simultaneously and stood up.

He Ao looked at them, gently nodding, walked to Old Danny, gave him a hug, and naturally seated himself in the vacant main seat beside Old Danny, raising his hand to gesture everyone to sit down.

Then, he continued to ask, "How many troops can we mobilize currently?"

"Only the three Mercenary Corps directly under the Group and the City Defense Army of Kaye City can form effective combat power,"

He looked at He Ao, continuing,

"Currently, the First Mercenary Corps is near Saint Joen City, blocking Consortium Mercenary Corps from the south, the Second Mercenary Corps is near Dawn City, the Third Mercenary Corps was initially sent to protect Rank City, and after Rank City’s fall, they’re now moving towards Yilan City.

The Kaye City Defense Army remains in the city to protect Kaye City, and we can also mobilize the city defense armies of some surrounding cities under our control,

but they can only assist in city defense, combat outside the city is difficult, and they can’t form combat power."