Chapter 108: Distress signal

His words reeked of raw contempt and disdain. Bunny ground her molars together in sheer fury, slamming on the brakes so hard she nearly sent the punk-styled man flying through the air.

"How dare you!"

The punk man vanished. Two seconds later, he materialized right outside the passenger door, veins bulging along his forearms as he ripped the car door clean off its hinges.

Bunny’s jaw dropped.

"Don’t waste your time putting up a fight, cutie," he purred.

The punk man bent down and slithered into the driver’s cabin, pinning her hands behind her back and locking her neck in a chokehold. Leaning in close to her ear, he breathed a sinister threat:

"Unless you want me to do you right here."

Like a toad hitting on a frog—ugly as sin and full of twisted tricks!

Bunny bit down savagely into the fleshy web of his hand, sinking her teeth deep into his flesh until he let out a sharp hiss and was forced to release her.

"What are you, a dog?!"

Without missing a beat, Bunny ejected the armored vehicle’s spare motorcycle, using the split second to throw open the remaining door and dive straight out.

She knew full well she was no match for him in a direct brawl.

Tumbling across the hard ground for several revolutions before coming to a halt, Bunny scrambled over to the bike and twisted the throttle all the way back.

With a deafening roar of the engine, the tires sliced a deep trench into the sand. The woman’s silhouette shrank into a dark speck and vanished over the horizon.

The punk man’s lips curled into a cold smirk. Interesting.

He yanked the steering wheel around and tore off in hot pursuit.

Bunny had no clear idea where she was fleeing; she simply barreled eastward. A blistering, 40-degree heatwave whipped coarse sand grains across her face while cloud-like plumes of dust kicked up from beneath her wheels.

Not only did she have to maintain this extreme speed, but she also had to weave in serpentine patterns to dodge incoming rounds and rockets from behind. It was a breathless, pulse-pounding wasteland chase—a real-life mashup of Speed and Mad Max, except Bunny was half-dead from exhaustion.

At the exact same time, Teams A and B—both receiving her distress signal—were rapidly converging on her last known coordinates.

Team A was further out, so Team B, led by Arden, arrived first. Midway through their rush, however, Team B walked straight into an ambush as landmines launched their vehicle high into the air.

Orion dragged his brother and teammates out of the twisted metal with immense effort. Not far away, several masked Sentinels stood waiting in silence, their faces veiled in keffiyehs.

A man wrapped in a cloak blew a shrill whistle. In response, his spirit beast—a giant venomous scorpion—erupted from beneath the sand. Battle broke out instantaneously.

***

— Terra Warship Headquarters: Command Center —

Inside the stark, all-white command chamber, two officers clad in black-and-gold dress uniforms were delivering a real-time battle debriefing to Alion.

"The frontline alien wave has been successfully contained. They have begun retreating toward Defense Line 2, where our ground forces are conducting sweeping operations."

"The remaining auxiliary branches across 616 have all been intercepted..."

Just then, an adjutant knocked and stepped inside, cutting off the report.

"Supreme Commander, we have received an emergency distress beacon from the Sentinel Tower field squad."

A heavy, two-second silence fell over the room.

Seated on a floating command chair with his back turned toward them, the man finally spoke in a low, detached tone:

"Do minor matters like this require my personal attention?"

The adjutant hesitated briefly. "Supreme Commander... the distress signal was sent by Guide Bunny of the 616 team."

Guide-related emergencies carried higher processing priority than Sentinel operations.

The room plunged into silence once more.

Three seconds later, the man in the floating chair moved.

A pale, porcelain wrist rested lightly on the armrest. Beneath his dark, finely tailored military coat, two long legs encased in tactical trousers stood up unhurriedly.

The fabric of his uniform seemed to possess a strange, mesmerizing quality—absorbing every ray of ambient light around him, wrapping his towering figure in a deep, impenetrable shadow.

Long, silvery hair cascaded down like moonlight. Alion turned his profile slightly, exposing the high bridge of his nose and sculpted lips beneath the brim of his officer’s cap.

His voice was soft, yet laced with an inexplicable, chilling threat. "Then what are you waiting for? Save her!"

***

Bunny was still riding for her life, trying desperately to shake off the punk man. The motorcycle’s fuel gauge was rapidly flashing red.

She hadn’t even realized she was fast approaching the outer perimeter of the East District.

Rumble—!

Along the distant horizon, a massive wall of murky yellow sand surged into the sky, barreling forward with roaring winds and scattering sharp rocks everywhere. Even the ground beneath her began to tremble violently.

A sandstorm!

Dust storms like this were common across the wasteland—not only did they unleash catastrophic physical destruction, but they also carried lethal doses of radiation. Without a sealed radiation suit, exposure for just three minutes would cause a person’s skin to blister and decay.

Yet Bunny couldn’t turn back now; her only option was to ride straight through it.

The skies darkened completely. The woman’s figure charged ahead like a lone arrow across the desert, swallowing her whole as she plunged into the thick, churning wall of the storm like a droplet merging into a vast ocean.

In an instant, her tracking coordinates vanished from the map.

The punk man slammed on his brakes, abandoning the chase.

"Crazy woman," he spat, his eyes scanning the radar display coordinates:

Severe Nuclear Radiation Zone — Danger Level: SSS.

"Whatever. She’s just a Guide—she won’t survive anyway."

***

Meanwhile, Battle Assessment:

Team C: Xander and Rain successfully captured Nyl.

Team B: Ambushed by the hooded man; all supplies looted, whole team severely injured.

Team A: Annihilated the punk man’s squad, rescued Team B, but lost Bunny’s coordinates.

Team C soon regrouped with Team A. Without saying a single word, Liam and Astin marched straight up and slammed a fist into both Xander and Rain’s faces.

"Where is my woman?!

"Is this how you were supposed to protect her?!"

Two furious voices erupted simultaneously. Liam and Astin exchanged a quick glare, then resumed swinging their fists.

Brandon remained unconscious. All they knew was that Bunny had driven headfirst into the severe radiation zone—a foggy forbidden territory spanning hundreds of kilometers. The military wouldn’t waste a single resource conducting a search and rescue operation there.

A heavy, suffocating silence hung in the night air.