Chapter 34: Black Domain

Liao Tianhua spoke first. “This is the first time I’ve seen a Domain with two colors.”

Xia Mi couldn’t help but pick at her ear. She had already heard Medical Kit say this once in the game and had no desire to hear it again.

She felt like she could use a fast-forward button in reality.

So, she spoke at a rapid-fire pace. “The gray area can be entered, the black area cannot. Building 6 is black, making it very difficult to enter. You’ll decide to enter through the gray zone. You’ll take out a Dimension Detector to find a spot where the dimension is close to reality, and we’ll enter from there.

“Oh, and back at Building 6, you also used the Dimension Detector to find that the dimension on the rooftop was very close to the real world. That’s why I could see you from the roof and get the weapons through that crack.

“In a moment, you’ll use the Dimension Detector at that spot, the one at the eight o’clock position of the gray area, to find the entrance and lead me inside.

“Right, you’re also going to say that I don’t need to learn this stuff yet, that there will be training after I’m officially hired. I’ll learn it all then, and there’s an exam. I have to score at least a ninety, or I’ll have to retake the course.

“Anything else you wanted to say?”

Xia Mi spoke as if she were on double speed. Anyone with slightly poor hearing wouldn’t have been able to catch a word.

Liao Tianhua stood in silence.

Seeing such a peculiar Nest for the first time had filled him with a deep sense of crisis. He had intended to say something to alleviate his inner anxiety, but he’d barely managed one sentence before Xia Mi blocked every possible direction the conversation could take.

Xia Mi had already experienced this once in the game and had vented her emotions. Was he not allowed to be a little anxious too?

Xia Mi stared at Liao Tianhua. “Xiao Liao, I’ve noticed that whenever you feel anxious, afraid, or worried, you start talking more. And the stronger the emotion, the more official and positive your speech becomes.”

Liao Tianhua gritted his teeth. “Thank you. I have nothing left to say now.”

He was so annoyed by Xia Mi that his anxiety had vanished completely.

“Then let’s hand the helicopter over to the Second Team’s logistics staff, grab our supplies, tell the Second Team to wait until 4:00 PM on the 25th, and head out,” Xia Mi commanded.

She was overstepping her bounds, having already done all of Liao Tianhua’s work for him.

Holding back his frustration, Liao Tianhua followed Xia Mi’s lead. He landed where the Second Team’s logistics personnel were stationed and handed over the helicopter.

Whenever a frontline team went into action, a logistics team always followed. These people were responsible for medical care, supply security, receiving injured members, and handling demolition work if a mission failed.

Following Xia Mi’s instructions again, Liao Tianhua told the Second Team’s logistics staff to wait for three days and not to sign their death warrants too early.

Once Liao Tianhua finished coordinating with the logistics team, Xia Mi asked with some confusion, “You can’t actually blow up the Pharmaceutical Factory before the Nest is resolved, can you?”

“That’s right,” Liao Tianhua replied. “Even if we sent explosives inside, the difference in dimensions would prevent them from detonating.”

“Then back at Building 6, why did you say you’d blow the building up if the Nest wasn’t resolved within twenty-four hours? You couldn’t have done it anyway,” Xia Mi said, puzzled.

Liao Tianhua explained, “In principle, once a Nest has existed for more than twenty-four hours, we default to the assumption that everyone inside has been killed. We place explosives outside the Nest, and the moment it dissolves, we detonate them.

“At that point, even if someone is still alive, they are viewed as a host for parasites or eggs. Killing the host might not kill the Zhuo itself, but it strips the Zhuo of the energy it gained within the Nest, forcing it back into a weakened state. It would take a long time for it to open another Nest. Furthermore, we’ve already locked onto this Zhuo’s energy signature. If it moves again, we’ll be able to detect and stop it immediately. It all serves a purpose.

“We don’t want to be so cruel, but past lessons written in blood have taught us that after twenty-four hours, even if survivors are rescued, they only die in agony.”

Xia Mi listened intently. This concerned the life and death of ordinary people, she couldn’t afford to miss a single word.

Liao Tianhua continued, “However, Building 6 was a special case. It was the first time we’d encountered a Nest of that scale, involving over five hundred residents. I didn’t actually have the heart to blow up an entire building.

“The twenty-four-hour rule is the principle, but it can be adjusted based on the situation. I had already requested backup from my superiors. I planned to carefully screen everyone once the Nest dissolved, rather than just blowing the building up.”

Xia Mi nodded. “I see. You like to start by describing the worst possible consequences, but you handle things more leniently later. Is that some kind of leadership tactic?”

“Don’t go learning the wrong things,” Liao Tianhua said. “It’s not like that.”

His voice was exceptionally solemn, causing Xia Mi to sober up and focus on him.

“When lives are involved,” Liao Tianhua said, “I must prepare for the worst every single time, and then do everything in my power to prevent it from happening.”

His expression was so heavy that Xia Mi decided to show Captain Liao a little bit of respect.

Liao Tianhua led Xia Mi to the direction she had pointed out. He cautiously checked it with the Dimension Detector first, then reached out to test it. Confirming that they could indeed enter the Nest from there, he looked at Xia Mi. “I’ll trust you this once.”

Xia Mi was about to charge in while carrying Shield, but Liao Tianhua blocked her path.

“I go first,” he said.

They couldn’t see the situation inside the Nest. It was highly likely they would be attacked by Zhuo-corrupted monsters the moment they stepped inside. The first person in was the scout, the vanguard, and the one most likely to face danger. Liao Tianhua was always the first to enter a Nest.

He instructed Xia Mi, “The walkie-talkies on our helmets work within the same Nest. Our team channel is 1, the Second Team is 2, and the public channel for all teams is 0. If we get separated inside, use those three channels to find me. The signal carries for five hundred meters.”

With his instructions finished, Liao Tianhua gripped a corrupted short sword and entered the gray domain first.

Once he was inside, Xia Mi shouldered Shield with one hand, gripped her fish-belly knife with the other, and charged into the gray mist.

Then she ran back the way she came, returning to her starting position.

Xia Mi: “Huh?”

That wasn’t right. Why hadn’t she gone in?

Was her starting method wrong? Maybe she shouldn’t be running, but should instead walk in calmly and composedly, just like Xiao Mi did in the game?

Xia Mi changed her posture, strolling into the gray mist as if taking a leisurely walk in a courtyard. Consequently, she strolled right back out the way she came.

Xia Mi: “???”

It was as if she had encountered a ghost wall¹. Even though she was clearly walking forward, she couldn’t get inside!

Why?

Xia Mi tried several more times, but the result was always the same.

In the game, she and Medical Kit had clearly gone inside together!

She racked her brain and realized the only difference between the game and reality was Shield.

In the game, Xiao Mi didn’t bring any humanoid props, only Medical Kit, so Medical Kit followed her automatically. Now that she had brought a humanoid prop, Medical Kit wasn’t following her anymore!

“No way. Is it really a choice between these two props?” Xia Mi said in shock.

The more it was like this, the more Xia Mi felt she couldn’t leave Shield behind.

There were too many unknowns within the Pharmaceutical Factory. Shield had to be a key clue. If she left her behind, Xia Mi doubted she would be able to rescue the members of the Second Team.

It was an intuition.

Xia Mi sat cross-legged on the ground to think. She looked up at the gray and black mists, which were intertwined but not merged. They were clearly like two tangled coils of incense, yet one rotated clockwise while the other rotated counter-clockwise. An idea formed in her mind:

“Could it be that without Shield I can enter the Grey Domain, but with Shield I can only enter the Black Domain?”

Outsiders wanting to enter the Black Domain required someone inside the Domain to construct a passage. Logically, she shouldn’t be able to get in.

However, Shield’s consciousness wasn’t in her body, her consciousness was trapped inside the Pharmaceutical Factory.

If Shield’s consciousness was within the Black Domain, then her body and her consciousness could serve as the perfect bridge to construct a passage between reality and the nest.

This was why the game had asked her to choose whether to carry both props.

One was the Grey Domain, the other was the Black Domain.

Xia Mi stood up, hoisting Shield onto her shoulder, and spoke to the Grey Domain: “Xiao Liao, hang in there. Once Shield’s consciousness and I reunite, I’ll come save you!”

She believed that with Xiao Liao’s experience, he should be able to survive!

Xia Mi didn’t have a Dimension Detector, but that didn’t matter. She had her intuition.

Ever since she arrived near the Pharmaceutical Factory, the feeling of being watched and observed had never vanished. Xia Mi felt that as long as she found the place where that gaze was strongest, she could get in.

She ran around the massive Pharmaceutical Factory at a hundred-meter sprint pace for over twenty minutes when she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

It felt as if a cold snake was crawling up from her tailbone, its icy touch making her back go cold.

Xia Mi stopped and looked toward the direction that caused the chill.

Her alertness was at its peak. Her reason told her absolutely not to go in that direction.

But Xia Mi shifted her steps anyway, walking firmly toward that daunting area.

It was the place where the black mist was thickest, gloomy and freezing. Walking into it felt like walking into an abyss.

Xia Mi endured the cold and stepped inside.

For a long time, her vision was blocked by the black mist, she could see nothing.

Just as she felt a glimmer of light appear and wanted to close her eyes because she wasn’t adjusted to it, her left ear twitched. The hair on her arms stood up in alarm.

Danger!

Xia Mi was right-handed. She was carrying Shield with her right arm and holding her knife in her left.

The danger happened to come from the left.

Xia Mi couldn’t see to her left at all. She could only take her sharp fish-belly knife and slash toward the place she felt was most dangerous.

She felt herself hit something, but at the same time, a sharp pain shot through her arm, as if it had been gnawed by serrated teeth.

By this time, Xia Mi had stepped through the black mist. Her surroundings brightened, and her eyes gradually adjusted to the light before her.

She looked to her left and saw a…

How to describe this thing? To use a common phrase, this little thing’s appearance was quite unique.

The thing standing in front of Xia Mi was actually a sunflower with teeth.

There were no seeds in the sunflower’s head, the area where seeds should have been was filled entirely with teeth.

Now, a deep gash appeared on the flower head, a wound caused by Xia Mi’s fish-belly knife. Quite a few of the sunflower’s teeth had also fallen out.

Xia Mi was wearing a Protective Suit, which blocked most of the attack. If the flower had bitten Xia Mi directly, her left arm would likely have been crushed to pieces.

Rows of holes appeared in the Protective Suit. Although Xia Mi’s left arm had no external injuries, it hurt so much she couldn’t lift it for a moment.

“I was wondering why my arm felt like it had been sawn by several rows of serrated teeth. So it was you?” Xia Mi said to the sunflower.

The sunflower seemed furious. Its long stem lunged, and its bloody maw, lined with rings of teeth, snapped toward Xia Mi’s head.

Xia Mi noticed that its bottom was still rooted in the soil, it shouldn’t be able to uproot itself. The sunflower was over two meters tall and could automatically bend its stem to attack. Those two-plus meters were its attack range.

Xia Mi leaped to the right, jumping over two meters and clearing the sunflower’s attack circle.

She flipped the bird at the sunflower and said smugly, “You can’t bite me! Die of anger!”

The words had barely left her mouth when Xia Mi felt the sky darken above her. A heavy, dark mass pressed down, crushing against her helmet.

Xia Mi looked up. A bloody maw, belonging to a sunflower at least five meters tall with a head diameter of over fifty centimeters, was gnawing on her helmet.

The helmet made a crack, crack sound as it began to shatter.

Xia Mi threw off the helmet and ran. She saw the five-meter sunflower take that sturdy helmet into its flower head and bite it to pieces in a few mouthfuls.

Xia Mi: “…”

If that had been her head, it would probably be in pieces right now.

After being attacked by two sunflowers in a row, Xia Mi finally noticed where she was.

This was a sunflower greenhouse!

The ground was covered in sunflowers!

Xia Mi was in no mood to provoke the sunflowers anymore. She hoisted Shield onto her back and bolted as a group of sunflowers opened their bloody maws, waving their stems to attack her frantically.

Fortunately, after gaining the Zhuo energy, Xia Mi was as light as a swallow and possessed incredible physical stamina, a casual leap could send her three meters into the air.

Years of playing badminton had gifted her with excellent dynamic vision, allowing her to keenly sense the sunflowers’ movements and dodge with agility.

Xia Mi leaped onto the head of a sunflower on the left, then sprang onto the leaf of one on the right, jumping continuously like she was playing a video game as she zipped toward the edge of the plantation.

Even while dodging, she didn’t forget to observe her surroundings.

This was a Pharmaceutical Factory, so why were there sunflowers here?

Xia Mi looked up and realized that above her wasn’t the sky, but a very high dome. The ceiling was fitted with numerous fluorescent lights and temperature and humidity controllers. The sunflowers were growing within this sealed environment.

These were artificially cultivated sunflowers.

Xia Mi suspected she had entered the Pharmaceutical Factory’s Underground Laboratory directly.

In the game, the space of that Underground Laboratory was massive, but it had been entirely empty, containing nothing at all.

Xiao Mi had seen a cultivation greenhouse, but there hadn’t been any plants inside.

In the game, there had been a sign posted outside the greenhouse that read: Traditional Chinese Medicine Cultivation Base.

“How the hell do these sunflowers count as Chinese medicine!” Xia Mi cursed inwardly.

However, because she remembered the game map, she fled in the direction indicated by her memory and, sure enough, found the exit.

Several large sunflower heads were blocking the way out. Knowing she couldn’t avoid them, Xia Mi held Shield horizontally in her arms to protect her and charged through in a single breath.

She intended to force her way out by relying on her own speed and the durability of her Protective Suit.

First, Xia Mi sent the fish-belly knife spinning toward the sunflowers. The sunflowers weren’t stupid, knowing the weapon could hurt them, they shifted slightly to avoid it. Xia Mi seized this opening and shot through like an arrow.

One sunflower managed to snap at her back, but luckily Xia Mi was fast enough to break free.

Once she left the greenhouse, the sunflowers stopped their pursuit, their bodies swaying as they watched Xia Mi from inside the enclosure with predatory eyes.

Feeling safe now, Xia Mi taunted them. “Come and get me then! You can’t catch me!”

The words had barely left her lips when she felt something move behind her.

Xia Mi spun around and caught sight of a long lizard tail at the bend in the corridor. As she turned, the tail seemed to be scurrying forward, vanishing around the corner in a quick blur.

Translator’s Notes