Chapter 1: The Mysterious Vessel (Don’t forget to add it to your collection, comments and bookmarks are welcome!)

Chapter 1: The Mute Fool (Don't forget to bookmark and comment!)

The Gobi desert's yellow earth was rugged, undulating under the tread of the modified S501 tank-like off-road vehicle with its massive 220cm diameter tires that crushed sharp gravel beneath them. The scorching heat rising from the ground distorted the air both near and far.

High above, the sun blazed with an intensity that seemed ready to overflow, its heat unbearable to the point where the sunlight appeared almost red.

Seven vehicles, fierce and swift, plowed through the dust clouds in unison.

Inside the car, the temperature was tolerable. The rear center partition was lowered, revealing three screens displaying external temperature, weather data, a S-GPS map, and a thermal life-form detection screen.

A petite girl, appearing around fifteen years old with her hair tied up in a ponytail, wore oversized bee-eyed hyper-sensitive goggles that covered half her head. She monitored these displays while manipulating a complicated remote control. A lollipop perched on her cheek, rounding out her features as she muttered, "Alliance temperature is 48 degrees, map coordinates normal, heading steady, no hazardous creatures detected nearby. For now, it's safe. At our current speed and assuming no danger, we'll reach the Crimson Zone B05 ruins in 25 minutes."

"I've sent the notification. Waiting for feedback from the Ruins Exploration Department and their dispatch of personnel to meet us."

The S501 tank-like off-road vehicle seated seven people.

At the rear, isolated, stood a towering figure—a sniper two meters and thirty centimeters tall. In dangerous situations, he needed to be able to quickly position himself through the window, using the seat as a support for his sniping.

As the strongest armed personnel, his status was naturally the highest, but he had the closest relationship with this girl who barely reached one meter sixty.

Jenny, nicknamed Rabbit.

At this moment, she was being teased by the sniper, Pangkeksi.

"Oh, Rabbit, if I were you, I wouldn't waste energy sending signals to those dead folks. Isn't it precisely because our group has lost contact with BO5 that we've sent out eight search teams in a row without any results? Considering the impending Red Sun Tide, the group isn't willing to dispatch flight crews to waste energy. That's why they sent us, this reconnaissance team. Yet you're still sending messages over there. It's simply a waste of signal sources."

Before Rabbit could respond, Zhanghe, who was wiping his three-barreled assault rifle, the Falcon-1045, chuckled. "Big Oak, you don't understand. Their lack of response is their issue, but as an information officer, if Rabbit doesn't fulfill her duties, and someone with malicious intentions exposes it, you know very well the disciplinary measures the group's unification department would take."

The thought of those regulations and punishments made Pangkeksi's large frame shiver, though he grumbled, "We're all on the same side here. Who would report it?"

"Who knows?" Zhanghe's laughter was slightly shrill. The bald man, Chaxus, glanced at the seat behind the co-pilot's seat without revealing his thoughts.

"Speaking of which, our team's personnel and equipment aren't much better than the previous eight reconnaissance teams. What's the group thinking? Sending us to our deaths?"

Zhanghe replied, "We do have an advantage. Aren't we accompanied by an additional historical advisor?"

Chaxus deliberately put on a stern face to refute Zhanghe. "Wrong, it's a historical and environmental advisor. Oh, Advisor, do you happen to know the current environmental conditions outside? Are there any dangers in this desert?"

As he said this, the others burst into laughter.

Jenny frowned, silencing them as she cautiously observed the woman with shoulder-length black hair.

Her hair was pitch-black, smooth, and lustrous, her skin pale, almost unhealthy so, in contrast to the frontline combatants. This woman clearly held a non-combat role. Petite and delicate in build, neither tall nor short, her complexion suggested she had been sheltered from the sun for a long time while enjoying ample nutrition, explaining her vibrant hair.

Yet, she had leaned against the window throughout the four-hour journey from the aircraft to land, not uttering a single word. Only the recording and location device on the bracelet of her armored sleeve intermittently glowed red to indicate normal functioning.

She was still alive.

Her slender arms clutched a sleek, black helmet with a red sheen, a manifestation of her insecurity.

In the front passenger seat, Captain Ye Chen furrowed his brow, thudding the saber he was sharpening against the vehicle's metal partition.

The others fell silent but weren't necessarily afraid; rather, their resentment towards the woman intensified.

An outsider forcefully inserted into their midst, a weak and good-for-nothing, consuming resources and food unnecessarily...

Her resource allocation surpassed all of theirs, even surpassing Captain Ye Chen's.

Why should she?

Ye Chen turned around, his towering height of six feet three inches lending him an air of valiant grandeur. Despite that, his features could still be considered handsome. He was quite courteous as he addressed the woman sitting behind him, "Advisor Su, considering the perilous nature of this mission, it's a sign of trust that you've been entrusted to lead us. May I ask what your current thoughts are on our situation?"

"I've consulted numerous records, but I couldn't determine how those exploration teams and the base, with their thousands of armed personnel, encountered danger and lost contact."

"Satellite surveillance has been hindered by the intricate atmospheric conditions and intense thermal shielding here, making it impossible to ascertain the situation."

"You're an environmentalist, do you see anything unusual?"

Sui Xin's gaze withdrew, fixing instead on Ye Chen. With slender, pale fingers, she caressed the slightly oversized sleeve of the combat suit. The fabric was waterproof, oil-resistant, and even heatproof, but it was somewhat rough, its texture palpable against her tender fingertips.

"Due to the previous eight teams selecting unique trajectories to avoid identical hazards, our chosen route is also the most recent and not part of standard convoy paths. Based on the geology here, these sand grains originate from Mirror Stone, a material specifically designed for the third section of deep-sea mining drill shafts. It has a hardness equivalent to the League's HB standard and can rival diamond. However, considering its resistance to pressure, water corrosion but vulnerability to high temperatures, they should have melted and deformed within two decades since the 2480 Deep Sea Subsidence Day when they were exposed to land after the seabed sank. Yet, they remain unchanged."

In the midst of a century of radical transformation, education levels polarized. This was evident in the vehicle as well. The front-line combatants weren't adept at nor tolerant of lengthy explanations. Zhanghe impatiently interrupted Sui Xin, "So what? What's your point? We just want answers."

Ye Chen glanced at Zhanghe, who then held back his temper and refrained from speaking further. Despite appearing mild-mannered, Sui Xin wasn't overly upset by the interruption. He fell silent for a moment like a mute, then resumed his explanation.

"I mean, this area was once a seabed subsidence zone. A deep-sea mining drilling rig exploded due to the dramatic changes in the sea, causing an atomic fusion-scale destruction that turned this region into a desert. Mirror Stone usually melts within a decade under such high temperatures. The fact that it's regained its sharp edges now suggests that there has been an extreme cold spell recently, causing the metallic ions to move again. Under the alternation of cold and heat, as well as climate cycles, they've re-formed their edges."

"In that case, we can't stay here overnight. We must reach the base before 7 PM, no matter what. Our vehicle's equipment and protective suits are designed to withstand high temperatures, not extreme cold. If we fail to reach the base, we'll perish here."

Ye Chen didn't have the chance to speak when Zhanghe fell silent, staring at the heat-distorted air outside and wondering how cold it would be at night. Even if it was cold... Lin Dan chuckled. "The senior advisor is truly impressive, but doesn't it seem meaningless? After all, it's only four in the afternoon. We'll surely arrive at the base."

Sui Xin's lips moved as if he wanted to say something but hesitated. Ye Chen noticed this and asked, "Do you have any other thoughts?"

"I'm thinking about the geological layer I saw earlier. This area used to be a layer of cypress rock formed by a large number of petrified cypresses during the crustal period. Later, the sea level rose and covered it... Then, as the sea level receded, it was exposed again. According to historical records, the Crimson Zone incident occurred within the latitude 20°N to 46°N and longitude 122°E to 154°E. At our current speed, if we're currently in the cypress rock area, that means we should be in the region where a cluster of volcanoes once erupted. It'll take us at least three hours to reach the B05 ruins."

"However, the GPS on the screen shows that we're almost at B05. I don't quite understand."

She was like a rigid top student who had memorized knowledge by rote. Suddenly, she found that the question didn't fit her memorized answer, so she was having trouble adapting.

But when she said this, Ye Chen, with his extensive experience, stared fixedly at the screen and immediately became alert. His volume rose abruptly.

"There's something wrong!"

At that moment, Jenny also reacted. She quickly probed the GPS information with the game controller-like device and suddenly realized...

"It's being interfered with! Its angle of reception has been overridden by someone else's location signal! The other party created an information shell to deceive us."

The network in the ruins area was very weak. Both connection and maintenance required special equipment. Without such devices, it was difficult to ensure stable signals for general communication, let alone establish local firewalls. If an external network entered the indigenous network area without a firewall, there was a high probability of intrusion. However, based on their understanding of the attackers in the ruins area, they were uncivilized, technologically backward, and numerous. They had never heard that these attackers possessed the ability to launch a network attack.

Unless they have talents specifically for this, and such individuals could easily find work in major corporations, why would they bother?

"We've been duped!"

As Jenny was about to exit the deceptive information bubble, Sui Xin gave her a perplexed glance. His lips moved slightly, but he ultimately remained silent, as Ye Chen had already called out.

"No!"

Too late – Jenny had already withdrawn from the false information capsule.

Ye Chen's expression shifted, and he promptly growled, "Get your weapons! Prepare for battle!"

"Ahh! My fault, ahh ahh ahh!" Jenny suddenly realized their mistake – the other side had been attempting to cover their GPS signals and lead them into a trap, most likely monitoring them all along. Once she hastily exited the fake capsule, they would undoubtedly detect that the truth had been uncovered.

Consequently, the hidden adversary would launch a forceful assault!

The best course of action would be to pretend to remain under their control while secretly altering their trajectory, heading towards the correct base location to escape their opponent's grasp.

But now, it was too late.

Ye Chen issued a decisive warning to prepare for battle. However, at that moment... Jenny, who had switched to the weapon detection system, noticed a red glow appearing on the screen displaying the black-blue energy sensors.

She promptly marked the direction and projected it onto the navigation screen beside the driver's seat.

"There's a long-range attack incoming! Look at the screen!"

Knife, the driver, caught sight of it. With his powerful arms, he swiftly spun the steering wheel with great force.

Modern vehicles, especially armed ones, were equipped with numerous components on their steering wheels. To prevent enemy snipers from disabling the vehicle by targeting the wheel, they were usually made of heavy materials, weighing around 25 kilograms. Drivers of such vehicles were typically known for their strength.

Knife was experienced. The massive wheels dug into the ground as he sharply turned the tank S501. The trailing vehicles received the warning and scattered hastily...

In the blink of an eye, the long-range missile, which had traveled over two kilometers, entered the attack range of the seven tanks.

Boom!

Tank S501 managed to dodge, but the missile exploded three meters away from its tail, creating a three-meter-wide, half-meter-deep fiery crater. The impact caused the following tank to sway violently. Its tires absorbed the heatwave from the blast, but the driver's cabin window faced the shockwave directly.

Bang!

It shattered, splattering the driver's skull with blood, killing him instantly. The flames surged into the vehicle...

The captain, who was in the passenger seat, decisively kicked his former teammate out of the car, letting him be engulfed by the flames amidst his screams. Seizing the moment, the captain took the driver's seat and swiftly maneuvered the vehicle against the scorching heat.

But a second missile was inbound.

Boom!

A small projectile, the size of an egg, was redirected from high altitude, intercepting the incoming missile in a mid-range snipe.

Trajectories aligned, impact made, explosion ensued.

A surging wave of intense heat erupts in mid-air, leaving the tanks below unscathed. The one responsible for unleashing this precision-guided projectile is Pangsi, his robust waist firmly anchored in the rear seat. His head and upper body extend beyond the vehicle's roof hatch, adorned with system-splitter glasses. Under Jenny's precise instructions, he aligns his sights on the enemy positions and the thermal signatures of their weaponry...

The attackers struck with surprise, naturally succeeding in their initial assault. However, this exploration team was dispatched by a major conglomerate, so their personnel were skilled and well-equipped. Once they regained their composure, they swiftly transitioned into a counterattack mode.

Cannonballs retaliated from a distance.

Sui Xin was a non-combatant. All she needed to do was ensure she didn't become a burden and require these people to expend effort rescuing her. At this moment, she clutched her seat belt tightly, as if the sudden turn of events had startled her even further, causing her face to turn even paler.

She didn't even possess the instinct to grab a weapon for self-defense, yet her gaze occasionally swept across the upper surveillance cameras, her fingers secretly rubbing against each other in anticipation.

"Let's not engage in a prolonged battle. Just snipe their artillery from high altitude, and once we create distance, we'll be able to escape!"

Ye Chen knew very well that despite their affiliation with a major conglomerate and their strong background, the archaeological zone had always been one of the most chaotic and perilous regions on Earth. The abundance of resources equated to limitless wealth, attracting countless desperados seeking livelihood.

Forget about hunting down their exploration team, even if the conglomerate's top-tier executives were to set foot here, there would be deranged organizations eager to prey on them.

Success or failure was one matter, but should they succeed, not only could they extort the conglomerate, the energy supplies and equipment carried by the team alone would be enough to make them instant millionaires.

To put it bluntly, their single armored vehicle was worth 100,000 Alliance Credits, an amount that could cover the daily nutritional needs of an adult for an entire year.

Thus, even if a gang was behind this attack, if they caused too much commotion and drew the attention of other factions within this crimson zone, they would be in grave danger.

Ye Chen's plan was to avoid direct confrontation and prioritize the mission at hand.

The others, being seasoned veterans, heeded the captain's command and refrained from engaging in a drawn-out fight, attempting to stretch the battlefield...

But!

Not everyone shared that perspective.

"What's that noise?"

"Trouble!"

Jenny, the communications specialist, abruptly spotted five red dots appearing precisely at their vehicle's location on the screen. Upon thermal analysis, these indicators represented biological activity, not heat signatures from weapons.

So what did that imply?

Before Jenny could glance out the window, Sui Xin had already tilted his head to look down. From the window, he caught sight of sand and soil momentarily wriggling and bulging as the car sped by.

What on earth could this be?