Chapter 305

Chapter 306: Invasion

That was the last whisper from the intruder: a breath of life so faint at the edge of death that it sounded like a breeze drifting in from the rim of a dream. The breeze melted at the ear and left only an uneasy ticking.

It was the sound of blood dripping to the floor.

Another Hermitage Member leaned in and asked in a low voice: “What did he say?”

The black robed man standing by Yu Sheng’s body kept his head down, as if still puzzled by the unsettling echo. Only when his teammate asked a second time did he lift his head as if waking, and mutter in a dazed voice: “He said he was going to die, but something else was coming alive… I don’t know. I didn’t catch it.”

His voice held a faint hesitation, as if even repeating the words might cause a small wound in the mind.

[Where does this unease come from? What am I afraid of?] He could not explain it to himself.

He could still hear their comrade who had been smashed aside by the intruder’s club. The badly hurt Hermitage Order fighter groaned in pain. Even the Powered Armor’s emergency shots of powerful cardiac stimulants and adrenaline could not suppress it. The armor’s life support System was forcing his body to keep going, but if they waited any longer, he would not make it.

Someone checked the wounds and blurted out: “We have to get him to the operating room now. His organs are like mush. The original flesh cannot be saved. Decide now, pure steel or graced flesh.”

The Hermitage Member on the floor rasped through his helmet while fighting for breath and raising a hand a little: “Steel.”

The black robed man who had examined him nodded and gave orders to the rest: “Understood. Tell the medical unit to prepare for Brain Body Transfer Surgery. We need a Cultivator body.”

He gripped the injured man’s hand and spoke in a firm voice to comfort him: “Relax, brother. You will have a pure and powerful new body. Your useless original shell will go into the Biomass Processor and become the foundation of our progress. Hold my hand and step onto the path of promotion. But first, I need to cut off part of your limbs. We cannot wait for a stretcher. We have to send your brain to the operating room as fast as possible.”

The harsh noise of “processing” his limbs echoed down the corridor.

Even with amputation below the neck, the helmet of the N-K-22 Powered Armor could keep a brain alive for fifteen minutes.

Noise rose behind them, but the black robed man by Yu Sheng’s body still stood where he was. It felt as if something had drawn out his spirit. His empty eyes stared at the intruder on the floor.

A teammate called from the side: “What are you looking at? We have to go. Leave that pile of remains in the hall. Someone will come to collect it later.”

The black robed man snapped out of it and hurried to reply: “Oh… yes.”

He turned to follow his companions, but could not help glancing back at the pool of blood. Then, as if sensing something, he lifted his head toward the corner of the wall.

A hidden camera in the corner was quietly looking back at him.

Bronze Knights escorted several black robed believers away at speed. The Hermitage Members seemed to sense danger without knowing why and left in a rush.

At the place where Yu Sheng fell, clothing, the small knife from his pocket, and the blood soaked club all began to melt bit by bit into the pool, as if swallowed by another dimension. They sank into the stain.

The phone lay soaking in blood. Threads of red spread across its screen and casing like living veins. Then the screen lit up.

The Border chat interface popped up, then a private message window. Keys flashed on the virtual keyboard, lively and quick. A line of text was typed in a breath and sent to Bai Li Qing: “Ah, back to the earlier topic, do you want the Holy Revere Hermitage cultists?”

A moment later the phone buzzed with her reply, just one word: “Yes.”

After a short pause, perhaps feeling that answer was off, Bai Li Qing sent another message: “Do you want me to bring them back alive? Maybe I should send a support team to you. You being alone in their nest is too dangerous.”

Blood on the screen slowly thinned and spread as another line went out: “No need. If you send people, it will alert them. If they see the situation slipping out of control, they might blow up the whole ship.”

She answered soon after: “Fine. Tell me how I should coordinate.”

…

At the top of the Pillar of Order, inside the Control Hall, an old man in white robes sat with stern dignity in his seat, waiting for results from the action team.

He got good news.

The communicator lit up in front of his chair and showed a Hermitage Member in Powered Armor under a black robe: “Sage, we eliminated the intruder. It happened in a corridor on the edge of the Core Zone.”

The muscles on the Sage’s tense face loosened: “Well done. Recovery will come to handle the rest. What are the losses?”

“There is one fighter in critical condition, amputated below the neck. We are taking his head to surgery. He fought bravely and, before he passed out, he applied to enter the steel evolution branch.”

“The brave deserve that reward,” the white robed elder sighed gently and relaxed. “Finish the procedures and then report back to the Upper Area.”

“Yes.”

The link ended, and the mood in the Control Hall eased at once.

“Thought he would be much tougher,” one Hermitage Member muttered.

“He was just a strange guy, and this world has many strange things,” another agreed. “He was not as troublesome as those shadows we dug up in Adar Crater.”

“Uh…”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. A few monitors flickered a minute ago. The core System may have reset several channels during self repair. I checked. Everything is normal.”

“Don’t scare me,” an operator at the console grumbled as he stretched in his chair and glanced at the camera on the ceiling.

The camera quietly looked back, just like always.

For some reason, a thin disgust and discomfort rose in him toward that camera. He shivered, unsure how to explain it, and quickly looked away.

Faint static crackled in his headset, as if someone spoke in the channel, blurred and hard to catch.

He frowned. At first he suspected a loose plug, but soon ruled it out, because there really was a voice mixed into the static.

He tuned the listening channel more carefully, wanting to find the source.

The Sage’s voice suddenly carried across the hall and cut through the low talk: “Have the cleanup staff reported back yet?”

“No,” a communicator answered at once, then gasped and turned tense: “This is bad!”

“What happened?”

“The recovery team’s signal just vanished, in a flash!”

The hall’s eased mood snapped tight again. The Sage’s face darkened as he rose: “Vanished? Find out why. Is it a comm fault or…”

“Both the comm signal and the life signal on their suits are gone. Sage, they are missing.”

“What about cameras?”

“The last shot shows them passing Corridor D-2 and entering an airlock, but no one came out at the next Door.”

“Which drone bay is closest? Send drones at once.”

The hall erupted into hurried orders and reports. Heat rose in the Sage’s voice. The nearby operators spoke with tight, anxious breath.

Yet the operator at the console stayed bent over his headset, switching through the standby channels one by one as if spellbound, trying to learn what the voice in the System noise was saying.

After who knew how long, he suddenly heard a voice, very clear, as if speaking right against his ear: “Can you hear me now?”

He jerked as if shocked and tore off his headset, eyes wide, then snapped his head toward the Sage: “There is someone talking in the listening channel. Something has invaded our equipment.”

“What?” The Sage was stunned, then opened a communicator at once and called the action team returning to the Upper Area: “Change of plan. Head to the server bay now. There is still an intruder on board.”

Only hollow white noise answered.

People hurried to check the comm and surveillance Systems and reported in worry: “The action squad’s signal has also disappeared, near Corridor D-1. The cameras caught no attacker and no fight.”

The Sage stood very still, his face as deep as water, and thought in a way that made everyone uneasy.

Something was hiding in the tower.

It was hitting one group after another. No one knew how, but it moved fast and struck hard, taking down fighters in Powered Armor before they could react.

And the intruder might not be alone, because the two lost teams were in different areas, and there was that voice on the listening channel. The intruder was attacking while hacking the System.

“Send a second squad,” he ordered at last. “Follow the surveillance feeds the whole time, keep contact, seal every passage from D-1 to D-2, and search inch by inch.”

“Yes.”