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"Wipeout, ration, or… most possibly, we have a trap before us!"

At that response, all of the color that had previously returned to Zhang Heng slowly seeped away Wipeout… Massacre… Trap… none of these were terms were part of his everyday vocabulary, much less his everyday life To have landed in such possibilities as a normal teen, a mere nobody, he… was stunned into speechlessness

Luckily, reality wasn't as bad as Guang Zhen thought Not long after, Yao Yuan returned with everyone else There weren't traps in town nor were there signs of bioterroris in the closet The fact was that their search didn’t even turn up one dead body However, Yao Yuan did e to solve the mystery of the curated town The answer came to him when his exploration ca it, he knew that the toas considerably safe, so he finally relaxed

Based on the degree of decomposition of the food in the restaurant, it had been at least two months since the town had had human contact In other words, the townspeople most likely were evacuated around then Yao Yuan's deduction was that the evacuation was carried out due to the town's proxiuard the secrecy of the spacecraft and its operations, the townspeople had to be moved

"Or at least that's my speculation," explained Yao Yuan, between bites of canned food that they had retrieved from around town "Of course, this is not to exclude the possibility of a secret wipeout In any case, it's all in the past, so it doesn't concern us Let's finish our et to that base immediately I've had a bad taste in est hurdle has yet to come"

And so, the team wrapped up their quick dinner and moved on their expedient way towards the locale pinpointed by the coordinates After a few more hours on the freeway, they veered into a side lane that was attached to an outpost Naturally, it was deserted As they carried on, they passed through more outposts that were si, they arrived at the spot where their ine their surprise and consternation when in reality they had driven into a secluded h the final outpost, the scene that greeted thee The concrete floor before them was pockmarked with explosive shrapnel and bullet holes, and equally disheartening was the presence of a few dead bodies and ould appear to be spherical parts from some mechanical remains The bodies were fresh kills; they had fallen only yesterday or the day before that

"Be on alert! Ying, prepare to snipe; Lee, you're with , take the rest and secure the periht after he issued the coh the carand dashed to the nearest cadaver He felt the inert body before taking a whiff of its blood to help procure a rudi of the situation A few seconds later, as his team fell in place, he started to take careful steps toward the spherical object

As Yao Yuan investigated the strange machinery, Lee and one other scout moved ahead for further exploration Within 30 seconds, a shrill eagle's call ca daze before they trained weapons at the call's direction However, the call quickly transfor, and without hesitation, Yao Yuan instantly headed its way

A few hundredfor breath up against one of the fortress walls As he ure was a heavily-built e eyes Despite prelie work, a copious a fro for hi out… or fronition dawned on Yao Yuan The on Prosper squad Yao Yuan promptly retrieved bottled water from his backpack and poured it down the hed up the liquid, he hazily opened his eyes Quite soet them to focus on Yao Yuan's face

"Yao… Yao Yuan? How can you be there? This is Tenne…" asked the , that shock turned into a boo howl "Of course, I should have known that those bastards would have tipped you off on this place as well Yes, it's true, there's indeed a spacecraft locked behind these walls, the very last one But alas, it's so close yet so far This thing here is impenetrable; it's on coave us were all false! They initiated the automated defense protocol It's a bloody trap and ravitas that had appearedhis nemesis had run its course, and as his breath slowed, thevoice, "To think of the unspeakable things that we've done for them… and this is how they repay us… How typical… But fear not… Yao Yuan… I shall reserve some seats for the Black Star Unit down below… I'll see you then…" As he uttered those words, thehis final respects to his once formidable opponent, Yao Yuan collected hiht, tea to be a harsh battle ahead I want everyone to be ready with their weapons and a equip to storm this base… And reiven the choice to fail!"

"FOR GLORY!"

"OR FOR DEATH!" rallied the group before charging into the o the way That is… other than Zhang Heng, as still unfaroup's dyna a few paces

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Footnote:

1 The literal translation is Dark Iron, which technically counts as Ebony, but since that sounds too feminine for a man, I've shortened it to Ebon instead