RotA – Chapter 71

The violent shaking didn’t last long. When the tremors underfoot subsided, Chai Yuening ran to the window and looked in the direction of the tremendous noise.

She saw at a glance, far off in the sky, the golden sphere of light known as the Floating Light, now flickering erratically like a broken lightbulb.

Countless mutated beasts, so distant they looked like ants, were swarming back and forth, attacking the buoyancy core beneath the Floating Light.

“That’s just one of the buoyancy points. Including the central one, the main city has a total of seven buoyancy cores,” Yi Shuyun said. “As long as the central Floating Light isn’t extinguished, the Floating City won’t crash immediately. But with the peripheral buoyancy cores damaged, the base will lose its balance…”

Yi Shuyun had barely finished speaking when, in the same direction, another Floating Light began to flicker irregularly.

The level ground beneath their feet began to slowly tilt in one direction.

Chai Yuening looked toward the other buoyancy points. Every single one was under constant attack by mutated beasts.

It was as if they knew these things were the Floating City’s lifeline.

“Where there’s a swarm, there must be a leader. This is an organized assault.” Yi Shuyun’s brow was tightly furrowed, her eyes shot with red. “The swarm’s leader might retain human memories, perhaps it has even acquired human intelligence. It knows exactly how to defeat us… but we can’t find it at all.”

Mutation was always like this—retaining memories, but not a shred of emotion, causing a human to completely lose themselves before succumbing to the bloodthirsty instincts of a monster.

Mutated beasts flew in from nearby, but countless bullets cut them down outside the research institute.

Just as Ye Qing had said, this was a key protected area for the military. In truth, however, the beasts showed little interest in this location. At least seventy percent of the beasts in the tide had a single, clear objective—the buoyancy cores.

If it weren’t for that, the personnel stationed here might not have been able to protect the researchers and their work.

To maintain the Floating City’s balance, the base proactively extinguished two of the Floating Lights.

The good news was that when a Floating Light went out, the beasts around that buoyancy core clearly lost their direction, falling into a brief state of confusion.

They truly seemed to possess no intelligence of their own, merely following some command from an unknown source.

But after their brief confusion, the swarm regrouped and flew toward the other buoyancy cores.

The base couldn’t shut down all the buoyancy cores; doing so would cause it to plummet at maximum speed.

And now, with the swarm concentrated around the buoyancy cores, none of the heavy-firepower weapons that were most effective against the beasts could be used.

The Floating Lights, extinguished or flickering, were now like fragile balloons in a child’s hand—so easily broken, yet stubbornly tethering the teetering city.

It no longer floated with its former stability, but like a small boat on a stormy sea, rocking and swaying, as if it could sink into the sea of clouds at any moment, carrying hundreds of thousands of humans with it into an abyss of no return.

Finally, this human base made a difficult decision.

—City-wide emergency landing.

The human base, which had floated for over fifty years, would return to the ground during this beast tide.

The buoyancy cores were on the Floating City, while the buoyancy foundations were buried in the ground. They were connected by buoyancy pillars, which held the entire city aloft.

Because of this, the Floating City could not move horizontally; to return to the ground, it could only descend vertically.

Under normal circumstances, with the buoyancy system undamaged, the landing would have been perfectly safe. But now, with the system compromised, the difficulty of the emergency landing would be immense.

The base’s broadcast sounded again, the announcer’s voice carrying a calm composure, as if facing death itself.

“This is the Base Buoyancy System Control Center. We deeply regret to inform you that three of the main city’s seven buoyancy cores have been destroyed. The central buoyancy core is under an overwhelming assault by mutated beasts. The time the military can buy us is extremely limited. The base will now commence an emergency landing. Due to severe damage to the buoyancy system, many functions are temporarily offline. During the descent, the base will struggle to maintain balance. Please find cover or handholds immediately. Stay away from all edges to prevent falling from a great height. The estimated success rate for this emergency landing is—sixty-seven percent.”

A sixty-seven percent success rate for the landing. But even if it succeeded, what would they face on the ground?

“I remember…” Ye Qing said, her voice trembling, “a drone filmed the ground just a few days ago. Black vines have already grown beneath the base. It’s become a Fog Zone.”

The shaking underfoot grew more intense.

The Floating City began to descend. In that instant, the feeling of weightlessness became exceptionally sharp, as if one’s heart was about to leap from their throat, as if their very soul would be torn from its vessel.

“There’s no other choice.” Yi Shuyun pushed Ye Qing to a corner of the room, away from the desks and cabinets. She braced herself against the wall and slowly crouched down.

Chai Yuening pulled Chu Ci along, stumbling over to their side. She stood leaning forward, subconsciously extending her arms to shield the person in front of her.

Amid the earth-shaking, heaven-swaying chaos, she heard choked screams, gunfire and curses, the thud of heavy objects, and the shattering of glass.

Everything seemed to be collapsing. A mist suddenly rose within the room, and strands of vines wove themselves into a cage, as if to protect them within it.

An anxious and worried voice came from Yi Shuyun’s communicator.

“City Defense Center to Dr. Yi!”

“Dr. Yi, Dr. Yi, where are you!”

“Are you alright? Please respond if you copy!”

Yi Shuyun: “I… I’m fine.”

“It’s great that you’re alright…” The person on the other end clearly breathed a sigh of relief. On his side, gunfire rang out continuously, interwoven with screams and the roars of mutated beasts. “Doctor, the base has approved your application. Lieutenant Colonel Liu An will be in full command of the trip to the Fog Zone Base. The fighter jet is about to arrive at the institute.”

“Thank you…” Yi Shuyun responded, her face pale. A complex smile finally appeared on her lips.

“Doctor, the base hopes… the base hopes you will go with them.”

“Why?”

“Drone surveillance has detected a massive gathering of beasts on the ground. If the base doesn’t make it, at least… at least you should live. You’re the person who best understands all of the Floating City’s research from these past years. The Fog Zone Base and the Underground City Base both need you. Humanity still needs you.”

“…”

In that instant, the chaotic world seemed to fall silent for a moment.

After the silence, Chai Yuening heard Yi Shuyun ask in a trembling voice, “How many others can be evacuated? Why… why aren’t we evacuating toward the Underground City?”

The reply from the other end was brutal: “Doctor, we’re facing mutated beasts with extreme flight capabilities. Without that sample to mask their aura, the fighter jet isn’t fast enough to outrun them. If the base can land successfully, we still have a fighting chance. But if we organize an evacuation, the jets will be attacked in the air, which might be even more dangerous than staying on the base and waiting for rescue. The only way for you to be truly safe is to go with them to the Fog Zone Base.”

The people of the Floating City Base didn’t know that this fighter jet’s destination was never the Fog Zone Base. It was the depths of the Fog Zone, a place thousands of times more dangerous—one might even call it the source of all calamity.

If the base hadn’t considered evacuating toward the Underground City, then this evacuation was absolutely futile.

Yi Shuyun fell silent.

Chai Yuening said quickly, “We can go to the Fog Zone Base first.”

Yi Shuyun: “It’s not enough. There isn’t enough time, and there won’t be enough fuel…”

She couldn’t trade the hope of humanity for her own life and Ye Qing’s.

Yi Shuyun bit her lower lip, pressed the communicator again, and replied with perfect calm, “Then I’m not going.”

City Defense Center: “Doctor?!”

“Once we’re on the ground, we can use the heavy weaponry…” Yi Shuyun said, then looked up at Ye Qing beside her, her gaze uncharacteristically gentle, as if offering comfort. “We’ll wait for rescue.”

Ye Qing nodded. Her trust in Yi Shuyun was absolute, enough to entrust her with her life.

The human base sank below the sea of clouds.

Drones, damaged by the beast attacks but not destroyed, still patrolled the isolated island that was about to sink from the sky.

If anyone had been standing in the control room, they would have seen the behemoth’s vertical descent.

It drew closer and closer to the ground. The four remaining buoyancy pillars flickered with golden electrical light under the immense pressure. The massive city struggled to maintain its balance, yet it couldn’t stop shaking.

Light sheets of paper danced briefly in the wind, but they too would ultimately sink to the ground.

Humans who fell from the railings were like butterflies with broken wings in the high altitude. Heavy objects brushed past them, or crashed down upon their already drifting, helpless bodies like falling rocks.

In that moment, everything plummeted downward like a meteor shower.

The city itself seemed to be shattering, and the falling people and objects were merely the broken shell flaking off during its death throes.

And below it, the swarm of beasts looked up, watching everything unfold.

The mutated beasts craved to devour human genes; they had long been awaiting the fall of this city.

It was amidst the violent shaking of the city’s emergency landing, the deafening roar of machinery, and the endless crackle of gunfire that Yi Shuyun pushed Chai Yuening and Chu Ci onto the fighter jet.

The moment the jet flew away from the Floating City, she looked back at the massive city about to touch down, at the swarms of mutated beasts on the ground two thousand meters away, and an unstoppable feeling of desolation washed over her heart.

The Floating City’s landing, she thought, would surely shake the earth.

—as stubborn and resolute as the will to survive.

If possible, she hoped this would not be the last time she gazed upon this city from afar.

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Author’s Notes:

First, crush a bunch of them (doge.jpg)