RotA – Chapter 62

After a brief hesitation, the two of them took advantage of the fact that the large bird was still feeding and skillfully climbed onto its broad back.

After multiple attempts, they had already confirmed that doing so posed little risk.

Most ground-dwelling mutated beasts seemed to have their own specific diet, and species outside that diet were generally not treated as prey, unless there were no other options.

Their method of identifying prey was not based on appearance—after all, all sorts of bizarrely shaped things now existed on the surface. Only by distinguishing through scent could they get a more accurate answer.

Under Chu Ci’s camouflage, their presence was like that of the most ordinary black vines. Even if they walked right past a mutated beast’s mouth, the beast would turn a blind eye.

And so, as they sat on the backs of these large mutated beasts, it was as if a butterfly had landed on a flower, or a small bird had perched on a cow’s back; it wouldn’t attract any undue attention from these behemoths.

After the large bird finished devouring its prey, it drank a few mouthfuls of water from a puddle, spread its enormous, dark brown wings, and flew in the direction Chai Yuening had anticipated.

It wanted to go home; it was going home…

A wave of bitterness welled up in Chai Yuening’s heart.

In this mutated beast, the human will had completely vanished, yet Uncle Liu’s final obsession still drove this massive body, flying toward the human base in the north, rain or shine.

In his life, he had been an officer there. His fighter jet had crashed during a mission, and from then on, he was someone who would never return.

Did he have a family? His family must have thought he was dead.

If the Floating City had managed to find the Fog Zone Base sooner, perhaps the dozen or so outer cities wouldn’t have fallen, and perhaps he and his family could have seen each other one last time.

But there were no “what ifs” in this world.

The world was so vast; to encounter that small base in the boundless fog was a miracle reserved for a very select few.

But it didn’t matter. From the moment she was reunited with “Uncle Liu,” Chai Yuening began to firmly believe that she could bring this miracle to the humans outside.

Because miracles were happening in this world at every moment.

Lost on their journey, they had encountered this great bird that wanted to return home. That itself was a miracle.

Miracles made people believe in fate, believe that some things were predestined.

Inside and outside the Fog Zone, the fate of humanity would ultimately be connected because of this.

The large, dark brown bird stopped and started on its long journey home. Chai Yuening and Chu Ci eliminated several risks for it and hunted some hard-to-catch food.

In the blink of an eye, several days passed. Its body was constantly changing, the color of its wings growing progressively darker.

It grew stranger and stranger in appearance, so strange that if the people of the Floating City saw it, they would surely blast it to pieces with cannon fire.

The moment that massive city in the sky appeared in their line of sight, they felt not a shred of excitement about returning to civilization, only a mix of complex emotions.

Chu Ci’s hands turned into vines, tightening slightly around the mutated beast’s enormous body. Perhaps it was this minor discomfort that made it temporarily land back on the ground, shaking its body restlessly.

The two on its back jumped to the ground. The vines no longer bound it, and after a brief moment of confusion, it once again flew freely into the sky.

Chai Yuening watched its receding figure, watched it fly toward that base belonging to humanity.

Hunting humans was the instinct of every mutated beast.

It would harm humans, and humans would harm it to protect themselves.

From the moment he lost his human will, that former officer of the Floating City was destined to never be able to go home again.

From the city among the clouds, fighter jets took off.

Countless missiles were launched at the behemoth. It furiously tore apart two of the jets, and at the very moment they suffered a devastating blow, those two jets activated their self-destruct systems.

A burst of fire exploded into a dazzling cloud of smoke high in the sky.

The final obsession of a man already dead plummeted downward, along with the massive shell that no longer belonged to a human.

Chai Yuening withdrew her gaze. Someone had reached the end of their destiny, but she and Chu Ci still had a road to walk.

This road was not long; they were heading to a destination visible in the distance.

The black vines here were not dense, so the fog was also thinner.

They walked through the fog as the sky gradually darkened.

As luck would have it, a fog lamp lit up in the distance—a message from their own kind.

A vehicle quickly stopped in front of them. The window of the front vehicle was rolled down, and a head poked out.

“Where are your teammates?”

“We ran into a mutated beast and got separated in the fog.”

“What about your communicators?”

“They’re broken.”

Just like that, they boarded the armored vehicle. The mercenaries on board handed them two infection test kits. The small vials felt like a memory from a past life.

Facing such a test again, Chai Yuening was somewhat nervous.

But everything was indeed as she had expected. She hadn’t been injured, so she certainly wasn’t infected. And Chu Ci, as always, showed no abnormalities in her test results.

This result brought a sigh of relief from the mercenary team that had “rescued” them.

In a world like this, most people were unwilling to extend a helping hand to fellow humans scattered on the surface.

Because those people might be infected, might suddenly mutate and attack, and might cause the entire team to be barred from returning to the base.

But in the end, they still chose to give them a ride. After all, in their minds, two girls who had lost contact with their teammates and were stranded on the dangerous surface had almost no chance of walking back to the base alive on their own two feet.

“There was a super huge flying beast heading for the base just now,” someone on the vehicle said, trying to make conversation. “Did you guys see it?”

“It was definitely huge. Even though it wasn’t a giant-class beast, for something that big to be able to fly that high is just terrifying.”

“Maybe we’ll really get to witness the end of the world for humanity.”

“Spit, spit, spit, bite your tongue.” The man in the driver’s seat shouted in a gruff voice. “If the military heard you say that, they’d definitely convict you of spreading false and terrifying information. Last week, that guy from Bernard’s team, who was it again? How many years did he get?”

“The one surnamed Zhao? Three years, I think…”

They discussed these heavy topics with laughter and jokes, though someone muttered softly, “Sentenced to three years… can the base even last another three years?”

But no one refuted such a sentiment.

The people here perhaps lived with this kind of talk every day. It was a voice that could never be completely suppressed, no matter how much one tried to silence it.

The fully loaded armored vehicle drove toward the human base on the horizon.

They passed the ruins of the outer cities, which had been bombed and were now scattered across the ground. Amidst this desolate scene, they parked the vehicle near a buoyancy pillar.

The communicator called the base, and the base’s lift platform slowly descended for them.

Everything felt like a dream. Over a month ago, they had fled in a hurry, and now they had returned to this place once more.

The outer cities were gone. The archipelago hidden among the clouds was now just a solitary island.

It still blotted out the sky, but it no longer looked as it once had.

Chai Yuening subconsciously looked at Chu Ci. That gaze, usually so calm, was no longer calm at this moment.

Chu Ci looked up at the slowly descending lift platform, a stubbornness in her eyes that was hard to describe.

This was her former cage, the place she had struggled countless times in her heart to escape from after realizing she, too, could make a choice.

But now, she had returned, all to uncover a truth that had been deeply buried for over fifty years.

In her eyes, there was anticipation, confusion, nervousness, and even a trace of fear.

Chai Yuening gently squeezed her hand. “Don’t be afraid.”

Her voice was very soft, so soft that only the two of them could hear it.

Chu Ci pressed her lips together, lowered her eyes, and nodded.

At the top of the lift, the people from the City Defense Office would not only test their infection status again but also verify their true identities.

But they no longer had identities belonging to the Floating City.

Chai Yuening had thrown away their ID cards for the human base long ago.

Even if she hadn’t, her identity from back then was surely now branded with the crime of stealing an important sample from the base.

The people of the Floating City despised the special sample that had “lured” the flying mutated beast. Chu Ci’s identity couldn’t be exposed, and besides, they had no proof. Even if they told the truth, it was unlikely anyone would believe them.

The lift platform ascended slowly.

Chai Yuening couldn’t help but start fabricating a lie in her mind.

Her expression looked perfectly calm, but in reality, she didn’t know if she could bluff her way past the City Defense and take Chu Ci to the Base Research Institute.

Sometimes she didn’t know if her luck was good or bad. On what should have been an ordinary day, a large flying mutated beast had appeared outside the Floating City, putting the entire base on high alert. Security at the lift platform had been tightened considerably.

A fighter jet, having just finished a battle, was tasked with stopping by to supervise the inspections. It landed next to the base’s lift platform, and the officer who stepped out of the jet was the very same one Chai Yuening had met in E3 District.

The moment their eyes met, Chai Yuening saw surprise in the officer’s eyes.

After the surprise came an extremely complex shift in his expression.

She found it hard to describe that complicated gaze, one of immense restraint.

He didn’t choose to expose her identity in front of everyone. He just silently watched as she and Chu Ci were tested, silently watched as they were unable to produce their ID cards.

The young City Defense soldier conducting the identity verification asked, “Which district are you residents of? Where are your ID cards? Did you lose them?”

Chai Yuening looked up and replied, “We’re from the Underground City Base.”

The mercenaries who had given them a ride all cast looks of utter astonishment.

“We’re from the main city’s research institute at the Underground City Base. The aircraft that brought us here malfunctioned, forcing an early landing. We were separated from the rest of our team after encountering a mutated beast,” Chai Yuening said with perfect composure. “We’ve brought extremely important research findings that must be delivered personally into the hands of Dr. Yi Shuyun.”

This response left the young City Defense soldier at a loss for words.

He was very young and had clearly never encountered such a situation. He cast a bewildered look at the silent officer standing to the side.

The officer gripped the gun at his waist and asked in a cold voice, “What did you say?”

That single, icy sentence made Chai Yuening take a deep breath. She said firmly, “I have important research findings that I must personally deliver to Dr. Yi. If you cannot authorize my passage, please relay my message to the Base Research Institute.”

As her voice fell, she looked back up at the officer.

No one spoke. The surroundings seemed to fall into a dead silence.

After what felt like an eternity, the officer turned and walked away. “Let’s go.”

Chai Yuening didn’t hesitate, quickly leading Chu Ci to follow him. They got into a vehicle, where it was just the officer and them.

The moment the doors closed, they locked, and the officer spoke again.

Chai Yuening: “Are you taking us to prison?”

“That comes later. Before that, you need to be interrogated,” the officer said in a low voice. “The person who stole the base’s important experimental sample deserves some special attention.”

“I have indeed come with extremely important research findings,” Chai Yuening explained.

“The Floating City can communicate with the Underground City remotely. What important research findings could possibly require you to make this long journey?”

“I didn’t go back to the Underground City Base,” Chai Yuening said flatly.

“You didn’t go back to the Underground City, and you managed to survive on the surface for over a month?”

“Yes,” Chai Yuening replied with a smile. “If I told you that there are still humans living deep in the Fog Zone, that those humans took us in and asked us to deliver a message to the outside world, would you believe me?”

“Impossible. Humans can’t possibly survive on the surface…”

Chai Yuening was silent for a long time before asking softly, “Over twenty years ago, in the Floating City military, was there an officer named Liu Ding?”

The next second, she saw a flash of shock in the officer’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

“He… he’s long since… You, how do you know his name?”

“I met him at the Fog Zone Base. He has many students there, but he dreams of coming back.”

“Where is the Fog Zone Base? Just give me the coordinates, and I can go get him right now!”

It was obvious the officer believed her. His voice was agitated, so agitated it trembled slightly.

Chai Yuening asked, “What is he to you?”

He said, “My father.”

Chai Yuening’s mouth fell open, and for a moment, she was at a loss for how to tell him the truth.

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