Lu Ming was squinting, trying to see what was happening in the dust, when he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder.
He turned and saw Cold Wind’s cold, stern face.
“Cold Wind? This sandstorm—is it Chen Chen?” Lu Ming frowned. “Why did that kid suddenly—”
He didn't get to finish.
Cold Wind’s right hand had already gripped his wrist, and his Level 3 Mid Stage mental power locked onto Lu Ming’s Ability Core like an iron pincer.
Lu Ming’s pupils shrank violently.
Cold Wind’s voice was icy. “Use your ability. Silence all sound in this area.”
Lu Ming was stunned.
Cold Wind increased the pressure. Lu Ming felt his Ability Core suppressed by an irresistible force, rendering him completely unable to move.
“Or die.”
Lu Ming’s expression shifted.
He glanced around, trying to find help from his companions, but he couldn't see a thing through the sandstorm.
Lu Ming yielded.
His Ability Core began to operate, and an invisible soundwave radiated from his body like a giant bubble, enveloping the entire convoy.
In that instant, every sound within the sandstorm vanished.
The soldiers’ shouts, the roar of the armored vehicles, the crunch of boots on gravel...
All sounds were absorbed and nullified by that invisible bubble; not a single vibration leaked out.
One hundred and twenty elite infantrymen were now effectively blind and deaf.
They stumbled through the sandstorm in a panic. Men collided, others fell to the ground, and some desperately rubbed their eyes to see, but there was nothing but billowing dust.
Fear began to spread through the ranks.
Some opened their mouths to scream, but couldn't even hear their own voices.
Others began to fire their weapons wildly. Bullets flew through the dust, striking the rubble and sending up showers of sparks.
Some ran forward blindly, trying to escape the storm, but the sand was everywhere, and they had lost all sense of direction.
At the very front of the convoy, the Command Vehicle—which had originally been trailing behind—had now surged into the lead under Iron Bone’s control.
Iron Bone, the Level 3 Mid Stage Ability User, sat behind the wheel, steady as a rock. He maneuvered the vehicle through the sandstorm, precisely avoiding every obstacle under Su Wan’s guidance.
The Command Vehicle was like a silent beast, crushing the ruins beneath its tires as it barreled toward the Non-Safe Zone.
The armored vehicles and infantry trailing behind, stripped of command and communication, could only instinctively follow the faint silhouette of the Command Vehicle ahead.
When the sandstorm first erupted, the commander had been in the middle of the convoy, standing on the running board of an armored vehicle and observing the path ahead with binoculars.
The grayish-yellow dust blotted out the sun, swallowing everything in an instant.
His binoculars showed nothing but a chaotic void.
“What’s going on?!” He lowered the binoculars and barked an order.
Such a sudden sandstorm...
Could it be Chen Chen’s ability?
Had that kid gone mad?!
The thought flashed through the commander’s mind, only to be drowned by an even sharper sense of impending doom.
One hand went to the pistol at his waist while the other rose to signal the men beside him—
But he never got the chance to speak.
An iron-like hand reached out from the dust, fingers splayed, and clamped onto the back of his neck like an eagle’s claw.
Zhou Hu’s massive frame appeared silently behind him, looking like a reaper coalesced from the dust itself.
The commander’s body stiffened, his pupils constricting.
He wanted to shout, to draw his gun, to activate his ability—
But Zhou Hu’s strength was too great.
As a Level 3 Late Stage gene-modified organism, the burst of power he exerted in that moment was enough to crush solid rock.
The commander only managed a muffled grunt before a sharp pain exploded at the base of his skull, and the world plunged into darkness.
His body went limp. Zhou Hu grabbed him by the collar like a dead chicken and tossed him onto the nearby ruins.
The sand continued to churn.
Deprived of its commander, the convoy fell into complete disarray.
Inside the communications vehicle, Shadow Blade had also completed his task in silence.
He shattered the precision components inside the communication equipment with a single palm strike. The exterior remained intact, showing no signs of sabotage.
On the navigation radar, the clear positioning signals dissolved into static. Every indicator light connecting them to the outside world went dark.
The communications soldiers pounded on the equipment in a panic, trying to restart it, but they were met with nothing but dead silence.
“No signal! The radar is down too!”
“What happened? Is the sandstorm interfering with the signal?”
“Impossible! This equipment is shielded against interference—”
“Shut up! Contact the commander, now!”
In the driver’s cabin, the driver gripped the steering wheel frantically. Through the thick dust, he could barely see three meters ahead.
He mashed the communication buttons, but heard only the harsh hiss of static.
“Sir! Commander!” the driver shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to reach the commander through the internal intercom, but there was no response.
He turned to look out the window, searching for any sign of the commander, but the sandstorm obscured everything.
With no other choice, the communications vehicle followed the Command Vehicle that had already broken away from the formation.
Iron Bone held the wheel steady, driving forward according to Su Wan’s directions.
The armored vehicles and infantry behind were like blind men feeling an elephant, instinctively following the dim shape of the vehicle in front of them.
Chen Chen slumped on the floor of the cabin, his face as pale as paper. Veins throbbed on his forehead, and sweat poured off him like rain.
His hands were shaking violently. His Ability Core had been pushed to its absolute limit; every grain of sand he controlled was draining his very life force.
Yet, his body was held firmly by Su Wan’s mental power. He didn't even have the power to stop.
The sandstorm continued to rage, blotting out the sky and wrapping the entire convoy in an impenetrable shroud.
Minutes ticked by.
After an unknown amount of time, the energy within Chen Chen was finally exhausted.
His body went limp, his hands falling uselessly to his sides as the light in his eyes faded.
The grayish-yellow sand slowly began to settle, and the view outside gradually cleared.
Through her mental perception, Su Wan confirmed that they had ventured deep into the Non-Safe Zone.
She squinted and looked out the window.
Then, her pupils contracted.
The scene before her was entirely different from the Ruin Zone she had seen over the past month.
There were no charred ruins, no twisted rebar, and no piles of rubble or collapsed walls.
Instead, there was a dense carpet of vegetation.
Massive vines wound up from the ground, as thick as barrels. Their surfaces were covered in fist-sized nodules that twitched slightly, pulsating like the beating hearts of living creatures...
Rate on N.U.
