Luna Dawson frowned as she looked at the brightly lit elevator lobby.

There was absolutely no suppression from any Spiritual Ability. Her spiritual power couldn’t detect even the faintest fluctuation of a superpower. It wasn’t that her spiritual power was restricted, but rather that there was nothing to detect. It seemed completely empty inside.

“What’s wrong?” Kevin Keane asked. Seeing her staring intently at the elevator, he assumed she had discovered something unusual.

“It’s nothing,” Luna shook her head. “The pharmaceutical factory is too quiet. Our progression so far has been far too smooth. That completely one-sided attack we faced earlier felt like it was just urging us to hurry downstairs. It didn’t harm us, but it was certainly obnoxious.”

The suppression of her spiritual power that began the moment they entered Decron clearly originated from this factory, yet they hadn’t suffered a single direct attack. It was far too abnormal.

“Smooth?!” William Walsh suddenly raised his voice, his anxiety and rage practically overflowing. He kicked fiercely at the Patchwork corpse by his feet with a heavy THUD, the sound echoing with his suppressed fury. “My sister is missing, and you call this smooth?!”

Dylan DuPont frowned and shot him a sharp, cold glare. Even though William was full of resentment, he could only grit his teeth and resentfully shut his mouth.

“Captain Sharon, please prioritize the big picture. During a mission, do not throw yourself into a panic.” Dylan’s voice carried an unquestionable severity. He knew very well that panicking now would only make the situation worse.

Luna, however, suddenly raised an eyebrow and let out a wicked chuckle. “She was nothing more than a defective human anyway. If she’s dead, she’s dead. As long as I haven’t lost any of my own people, it’s a good outcome for me.”

With that, she led her people and beasts straight into the elevator. Crossing her arms, she shot an arrogant, sidelong glance at William, who was still standing in his original spot. Everyone present knew that Luna dared to speak so brazenly solely because she had the strength to back it up. Even if she cursed out the Sloan ancestors eight hundred times, William would just have to endure it.

Ultimately, they had all accepted the base’s mission and were still maintaining a relatively amicable cooperative relationship. Furthermore, out of respect for the Special Operations Department taking the lead, Luna didn’t actually intend to abandon them. She just couldn’t be bothered to indulge William’s foul temper.

After all, Luna was a good person.

Dylan glared once more at the still-fuming William and urged, “Let’s go. Hurry up and follow them!”

The crowd knew it clear as day: in this bizarre Decron, death seemed imminent either way. Sticking with Luna undoubtedly offered a much higher chance of survival. Thus, no longer hesitating, they all crowded into the elevator.

William took a deep breath, suppressing the anxiety in his heart. He stepped forward to scan his iris and fingerprint on the elevator panel, then pressed his fingertip heavily against the button for the second basement level.

After a long while, the elevator doors slowly opened. The second basement level was pitch black. The thick darkness was like impenetrable ink; aside from the boundless black, nothing could be seen. Luna narrowed her eyes. Using the faint light spilling from the elevator, she scanned the area before walking straight toward the main control room not far away.

Moments later, following a harsh ZZT of electricity, the lights across the entire floor instantly flared to life. The air conditioning also hummed on, delivering a faint breeze of cool air.

Only then did everyone clearly see that the space on this second basement level was vastly larger than they had imagined. The ceiling height was nearly twenty meters! Even more bizarrely, the entire floor was exceptionally clean. Forget about zombie corpses; there wasn’t even a single drop of blood in sight. It was so clean it felt unreal.

Along both sides of the floor ran a circular walkway, while two massive round spaces constructed of giant glass panels stood in the center. A thin layer of condensation coated the glass, blurring the scene inside. They could only vaguely make out red and green plants growing within, like two enormous botanical greenhouses exuding an eerie sense of vitality.

Just as everyone’s attention was captivated by this peculiar environment and they began cautiously inspecting their surroundings, Cody, who had been following alongside them all this time, silently slipped back into the elevator.

With a soft DING, the doors of the elevator carrying Cody slowly slid shut and began operating in absolute silence.

At the exact same time, the doors to the other elevator—the one that had previously carried Sharon Sloan and Kyle Keith—unexpectedly opened on their own. It was completely empty inside, lacking even the slightest trace of human presence.

“Sharon!” William roared. He rushed forward like a madman, his hands frantically feeling every inch of the elevator car. He checked it over and over, as if trying to dig Sharon out of the empty cabin.

Seeing this, Lucas Scott hastily stepped up to restrain the nearly irrational William. Placing a hand gently on the back of his captain’s head, he reassured him in a low voice, “Captain! You need to calm down! Sharon might still be alive. We have to find clues first!”

William continued to crazily pound on the metal walls of the elevator, struggling fiercely against Lucas. After a long while, under Lucas’s repeated comforts, he finally began to settle down. His eyes, however, were still brimming with despair and an unwillingness to accept reality.

Miles Dawson rubbed his slightly blurred eyes, muttering in disbelief, “Cody just left like that? It didn’t need a facial scan or any verification to operate the elevator?!”

Dylan knitted his brows tightly, the unease in his heart growing heavier. Everything in this pharmaceutical factory was fraught with anomalies; every step felt like treading on an unknown trap.

Kevin Keane looked up at the screen next to the elevator, which now displayed the third basement level. “Let’s go,” he said calmly. “It merely finished leading the way. From here on out, it’s up to us to find our own clues.”

Suppressing their inner suspicions, the group bypassed the two bizarre, giant greenhouses in the middle and began to cautiously investigate every office along the circular walkway. Both sides of the walkway were lined entirely with glass-walled offices, arranged in a neat, staggered layout across the massive hall. A rough count revealed that there were hundreds of such offices on this second basement level alone!

A flash of joy flickered in Kevin’s eyes. He turned to Dylan and asked, “Left or right? Are we splitting up to search, or checking them one by one?”

Before Dylan could even open his mouth, a female water-type member of the Omni Squad hastily voiced her stance, her tone full of urgency. “We aren’t splitting up! I’m following Captain Dawson!”

“Me too! It’s safer with Captain Dawson!”

“No splitting! We’re all sticking with Captain Dawson!”

The team members’ voices echoed one after another. William’s face turned pale, then green. He was filled with embarrassment but lacked the power to refute them. How could he deny that what his team members were saying was exactly what he truly thought deep down? It was just that, out of pride, he couldn’t say it as bluntly as they did.

Dylan felt his head pounding. He had never imagined he would be sent to execute such an inexplicable mission, let alone be saddled with such a disorganized, demoralized, and fragmented squad. His work was a complete mess, and their rhythm had been entirely thrown into chaos.

Giving Luna and Kevin a helpless look, he said, “Then we’ll search together. Omni Squad will be responsible for keeping guard, and Sunset Squad will handle the investigation.”

“Okay!” the members of the Omni Squad replied in unison. Their voices were filled with eagerness as they immediately quickened their pace to catch up with the Sunset Squad, terrified of being left behind.

Looking at the abnormally clean environment and feeling the cool breeze from the air conditioning, the tension on the faces of Miles Dawson and Aaron Palmer gradually began to relax.

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