Shrouded Seascape

Charles carefully poked his head out of the window and saw the task force members slowly inching toward their location.

Clad in black, the task force members were now less than a few dozen meters away from Charles and his crew. Charles estimated that they'd be here in less than a minute.

The Black Beaver and the Collective had tacitly created a huge encirclement to surround every single sector in a pocket before moving toward that sector, which made sure that no one in that sector could escape their encirclement.

There were even two Collective members hanging above the ceiling, seemingly serving as recon drones, ready to catch even the tiniest movement from above.

"Anna, have you discovered any useful information from Alice? Hurry up, or we'll have no choice but to risk our lives here just to escape!" Charles urged.

The cogs in his mind turned, swiftly deducing their chances of a successful escape by risking their lives. Considering the distance between them and the crack in the welded iron door in the distance, Charles deduced that they'd have a chance at a successful escape.

Of course, they had to make the first move, as the ambushers would always have the advantage against those who had been ambushed. Unfortunately, they'd still end up suffering heavy casualties even with Anna's powerful support and risking their lives.

"Relax. I think I just saw something in her. Anyway, this girl's storage capacity is so large that it's frightening," Anna said, tearing off Alice's limbs. The next moment, her fingers transformed into wriggling tentacles that drilled into Alice's head.

They were in an extremely dangerous situation, but both Alice and Anna made small talk and laughed like best friends.

A few seconds later, Anna revealed a charming smile and exclaimed, "I found it, Gao Zhiming!"

Meanwhile, Captain Jim of the Black Beaver Mobile Task Force held his gun vigilantly as he glanced at his squad members entering the workshop ahead of them.

"Sector A5 is clear. Over." A clear voice echoed from Jim's earpiece.

"Black Beaver acknowledged. Keep searching all sectors. They must not escape," Jim said while moving toward the workshop up ahead. The slightly ajar door of the workshop and the bloodstains on the door itself caught Jim's attention.

Jim signaled at his squad members using his gloved right hand, and they responded quickly, surrounding the workshop in the same formation that they had used to isolate the sector.

Crash!

The window on the right side was shattered, and a few flash grenades were thrown into the workshop through the window.

A deafening explosion echoed along with a bright flash of light.

A member of the Collective rushed forward, tearing off the steel door from its hinges with just his bare hands.

Jim and his squad members responded quickly and were about to charge into the workshop when Jim's pupils constricted abruptly. A few grenades missing their pins had fallen to the ground when the door was pried open from its hinges.

BOOM!

The devastating explosion sent shrapnel into Jim's right eye, which emerged from the back of his head, killing him instantly.

The explosion reverberated throughout the factory, and Charles heard it as he ran across the factory; the explosion meant that his simple trap had been triggered rather than disarmed.

Charles and his group were running into the depths of the vast factory rather than toward the welded iron door, which was their exit. The decision wasn't made arbitrarily, as fighting undying task force members was suicide.

Fortunately, Anna had found a clue related to their immortality.

Charles turned to look at Anna, who was carrying Alice over her right shoulder. "Are you sure about this? It's going to be exceedingly difficult for us to leave this place alive if this doesn't work!

"I saw it in Alice's head. Their immortality comes from a certain relic. We just have to move that relic away, and those guys are done for."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots echoed, and a stray bullet ricocheted off something and struck Charles' bandages, causing him to inhale sharply in pain.

"This way. We're here!" Anna exclaimed. She rushed to a piece of massive intricate gear machinery and tapped rapidly on its buttons. A few seconds later, a massive steel door appeared in the middle of the gear machinery. Clearly, the imposing massive gear machinery was just a front to the hidden door embedded into it.

Everyone rushed in, and the heavy steel door closed behind them.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sharp metallic clangs echoed as the chasing bullets struck the steel door.

"Go down this corridor until you reach a dead end. There's a locked door at the dead end, and the password is 1342. The relic that is responsible for the immortality of those guys outside is beyond that door.

"Remove that relic, and those guys outside will die."

"What are we waiting for, then? Let's go," Charles said. He stepped forward, but a sailor with a severed arm walked ahead of him.

"Captain, I'll go first. It must be dangerous ahead; I can scout the way for you," the sailor said.

"Oh my, you really have such loyal and devoted crew members. I'm jealous," Anna said with a smile before pulling Charles along with her in the footsteps of the sailor.

Charles frowned slightly at the faint smile tugging at Anna's lips, but he did not say anything in the end.

Anna made a sidelong glance at Charles and leaned closer before linking arms with him. "Let's go, let's go, let's go. Dates with you have always been fun."

Charles walked down the dim corridor until he stumbled upon the locked door. He wasted no time and immediately typed in the password. The door opened, revealing a black stone sphere riddled with blood vessels in a variety of sizes.

"That's it. That relic has been resurrecting them over and over," Anna said.

Charles lifted his foot, wanting to approach the relic.

However, Anna pulled him back and said, "Don't get within ten meters of it, or you'll become immortal."

"I'll become immortal?" Charles asked, sounding stunned.

"Hehe, do you want to become immortal? Oftentimes, there's more than meets the eye when it comes to such great deals. Eternal life may not necessarily be a good thing. Perhaps it means eternal suffering rather than life, but who knows?"

Anna snatched the flesh revolver in Charles' hand and fired at the distant black stone sphere. The white bone bullets struck the black stone sphere, and it trembled incessantly beneath the attacks.

The blood vessels across it squirmed and were severed. Finally, the black stone sphere itself was hit by a bullet, causing it to fall to the ground with a dull thud.

The blood vessels shriveled and turned black.

Anna saw that and tossed the flesh revolver back to Charles. "It's done. Those guys outside should be—"

Anna's sentence came to a screeching halt midway as the gentle female voice from before echoed once more. "Containment Breach Level 3: Releasing Project 130's remains and initiating the detonation of the ascension passageways.

"Site 4 is permanently closed from now on. The contributions of all site personnel are appreciated. Everything is for mankind's sake. Goodbye."

"Fuck!" Anna and Charles cursed at the same time.

It seemed that the Foundation had taken into account every single possible scenario. The Foundation's contingency plan just in case the task forces were annihilated was to seal the entire site and obliterate it from the inside!

Just then, a violent tremor ran across the ground. The rumbling noises made it clear that the passageways connected to the Subterranean Sea inside this site had collapsed.

"Run!! Get out of here now! This place is going to collapse!!" Charles roared and led the crew to a rapid retreat.

"Anna, what is Project 130? What special abilities does it have?" Charles asked Anna while running away.

Anna's nonchalant expression from earlier had vanished and had been replaced by a grim look as she replied, "I have no idea. Alice's head didn't contain any information related to Project 130. However, it's definitely something bad because they're using it to obliterate this damned place."

Everyone forcefully endured the violent tremors and ran across the factory. They even stumbled upon the shriveled and emaciated remains of the task force members.

Anna was right; the black stone sphere relic was the source of their immortality, and they had perished along with it.

"Captain... Captain! Look behind you!" Second Mate Charlie roared, his voice filled with terror.

Charles turned and saw a tawny substance, which resembled soil, devouring everything in the corridor behind them. The tawny substance did not discriminate; it devoured the corpses of the task force members and even the swaying lights in the ceiling.

The swaying ceiling lights—no, everything froze instantly the moment the tawny substance shrouded them. Moving at breakneck speed, the tawny substance devoured everything in its way as it rushed toward Charles and his crew.

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