chsdbacks Page 431
Page 431
Time seemed to be paused at this moment.
Those energy beams, powerful enough to melt steel, came to an abrupt halt three meters in front of Zhou Ye, like light worms frozen in amber, maintaining their forward momentum but unable to advance even an inch further.
The seven or eight alien knights, along with their hovercraft, were all frozen in mid-air, their fierce and resolute expressions (if they had faces under their masks) forever frozen in time.
The sand swallow opened its beak, then silently closed it again.
Okay, standard procedure, as expected.
She had already grown accustomed to her husband's unreasonable ways. From solidifying space to creating planets by hand, and now to solidifying a few will-o'-the-wisps, it was as natural as breathing.
Zhou Ye's movements did not stop. He slowly closed his five fingers, as if he were crushing a walnut.
As he moved, the frozen spacetime began to twist, fold, and compress.
The energy beam was crumpled into a ball, turning into a few scattered wisps of fluorescence. Those arrogant alien soldiers, along with their prized war vehicles, were forcibly stripped from the three-dimensional world in a silent collapse. All matter, energy, and information were compressed into an indescribable point.
Finally, a thin, metallic-looking card appeared in Zhou Ye's palm.
The front of the card features miniature versions of the alien soldiers, poised in attack stances, lifelike as if they might leap out of the card at any moment. The back of the card displays a galaxy of data flowing through it, subtly forming several options.
【Gluttonous Vanguard Team】
[Civilization Level: Spacefaring Class (Vassal)]
[Individual Strength: Super Soldier (First Generation Standard)]
[Performable operations: parsing, interrogation, extraction, annihilation]
"The Taotie... so that's what it is..."
Zhou Ye looked at the cards in his hand, a look of understanding on his face. He chose "Analysis" and "Interrogation".
In an instant, a massive flow of information surged into his consciousness.
The Divine River Civilization, angels and demons, the death chants of the Styx Galaxy, the legacy of the Deno Galaxy... a grand and chaotic cosmic picture slowly unfolded in his mind.
"gentlemen?"
Feng Shayan looked at Zhou Ye's profile and asked curiously, "What... are these things?"
"A group of guys who call themselves gods fought for tens of thousands of years in the universe, and then set up the battlefield on Earth."
Zhou Ye summarized succinctly, then casually put the card away.
"Those were just some low-ranking soldiers under one of the fart gods named Karl, called Taotie. They came to carry out the so-called cleanup mission."
"God?" Feng Shayan's expression turned somewhat strange. "Like... someone like you?"
"Do not."
Zhou Ye shook his head, a barely perceptible smile playing at the corners of his lips.
"At most, they are super soldiers who have mastered some advanced genetic technology, live a relatively long time, and are somewhat capable of fighting. They are still far from being true gods."
In his perception, the so-called "gods" of this world are essentially a product of highly advanced technology. By rewriting genes and implanting "engines," they gain all sorts of incredible abilities. For example, the "Void Engine," which sounds impressive as 3.5, is, in his view, nothing more than a "world editor" client with higher privileges, and even that has many limitations.
Compared to a "GM" who directly modifies the underlying rules of the universe, he is not even in the same league.
"Then let's..."
Feng Shayan looked at the city in the distance, where signs of unrest were already appearing, and hesitated. Although the commotion just now wasn't significant, the disappearance of several hovercrafts into thin air would definitely attract attention.
"No rush." Zhou Ye's gaze fell on the city center of Juxia City, a hint of inquisitive interest in his eyes. "Since we're already here, we should at least experience the local customs and culture."
"Let's find a place and watch a show first."
The "drama" he was referring to was naturally the group of all sorts of "gods" and "super soldiers" who were about to descend upon Earth.
For Zhou Ye, who had just ended a rather "boring" journey, this new stage seemed more lively than he had imagined.
Chapter 409 Qi Lin
"Wait, who are you people? What happened to those aliens from before?"
Zhou Ye and Feng Shayan turned around and saw a smartly dressed young policewoman walking briskly towards them. One hand was on the holster at her waist, and the other was making a warning gesture; her pretty face was full of vigilance.
Zhou Ye looked the other person up and down. The familiar figure and face made him speak subconsciously:
"Qilin?"
When a stranger called her name, the policewoman's pupils contracted sharply, and her hand on her holster tightened. She was certain she had never seen this man before. He looked young, but his demeanor was as deep and unfathomable as an ancient well, and his eyes seemed to see right through people.
"It's me." Qi Lin suppressed her surprise and doubt, and asked in a deep voice.
"Sir, you haven't answered my question yet. What just happened here? Where did those... aliens on flying motorcycles go?"
She had just been on duty nearby when she heard the strange engine sound coming from this direction. Just as she was about to call for backup, she saw those energy beams shoot out, and then… then everything vanished. There was no explosion, no wreckage; it was as if the aliens had been a hallucination. If it weren't for the faint traces of energy burning still visible on the ground, she would have almost thought she was hallucinating.
21 Zhou Ye, seeing her nervous expression, casually replied, "Yes, just passing travelers. They were driving too noisily, so I told them to be quiet. As for you fighting, that's none of my business."
"Did you quiet them down?"
As Qi Lin pondered these seemingly casual words, a storm raged within her.
Those were the vanguard of the Taotie! The alien invaders who had just caused massive casualties in Tianhe City a few days ago! Each one possessed superhuman strength and weaponry, requiring an entire squad of soldiers, or even super soldiers, to barely handle them. And this man spoke of it as if he had simply swatted away a few annoying flies.
"None of my business?" That makes so much sense, but it's also so infuriating!
Qi Lin felt her professionalism being challenged like never before. She took a deep breath, trying to make her tone sound more intimidating: "Sir, this is not a small matter. This concerns national security! I need you to come back with me for questioning!"
The sand swallow listened from the side, its heart filled with joy.
[This girl is interesting. She even wants to invite you for tea, sir? The last person to do that is probably buried up to his waist by now... Oh wait, the last aircraft carrier fleet that did that, along with a piece of land in their country, is probably hanging in the sky like the moon.]
She looked at Qi Lin with great interest. This world's "enforcer" was indeed quite good-looking, but as for her strength... it seemed that she hadn't even reached the inner realm yet. Her body was empty, with only a faint, inexplicable energy hidden within, which should be the "super gene" that the master had mentioned.
Zhou Ye ignored Qi Lin's "warning," not even bothering to look at her again, and turned to Feng Shayan, saying:
"Let's go find a place with internet access. I want to see the history of this world."
"Okay, sir."
The two of them started walking, intending to walk right past Qi Lin.
"stop!"
Qi Lin was both anxious and angry; she hadn't expected the other party to ignore her so blatantly. She gritted her teeth, her body instinctively lunging forward, reaching out to grab Zhou Ye's shoulder. This was her primal reaction as a police officer—to control herself first.
However, just as her hand was about to touch Zhou Ye's clothes, it seemed as if she passed through a layer of water. The figure in front of her didn't move, but her hand passed right through and grasped nothing.
Qi Lin froze, still in the position of lunging forward to grab someone, her body staggered due to inertia, and she almost fell.
She turned around abruptly, only to see that Zhou Ye and Feng Shayan had already walked more than ten meters away, without pausing for a moment.
“This…” Qi Lin’s mind went blank.
Was it an illusion? Or some kind of ability she couldn't comprehend?
The communicator on her wrist suddenly vibrated, and a stern male voice came through: "Qilin! What's going on? The surveillance footage stopped for three seconds on your end. We've lost the target! Repeat, target lost!"
It was Admiral Dukao's voice.
Qi Lin watched the two figures walk further and further away. Their steps weren't fast, yet they gave the impression that they were impossible to catch. She clenched her fists and reported into the communicator in a tone mixed with frustration and disbelief: "Reporting, sir... the target... the target has disappeared. No, they're right in front of me, but I... can't touch them."
There was a long silence on the other end of the communicator.
In the command center of the Juxia, Dukao looked at the static on the screen, then at the various monitoring images such as thermal imaging and energy sensing that the analyst had brought up next to him. They were all empty, as if there was no one on that highway at all.
"Unable to lock onto, unable to analyze, unable to understand..."
A technician muttered to himself, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
"It's like... it's like they don't exist in our dimension of observation at all."
Dukao's expression was more solemn than ever before.
The appearance of the Taotie was within his expectations. But these two mysterious figures who suddenly appeared, capable of wiping out a Taotie squad at will and blocking all of Deno III's detection methods, were a complete variable.
An uncontrollable and terrifying variable.
"Notify Lianfeng to activate the backup computing power of Deno III, connect to the dark matter computer, and redefine and search for these two targets at all costs!" Dukao issued the order, his voice hoarse.
He had a premonition that the appearance of these two people might be a more disruptive event for Earth than the invasion of the Taotie, or even the arrival of the Demon Queen Morgana.
Meanwhile, at the heart of the incident, Zhou Ye and Feng Shayan had reached the highway exit.
Feng Shayan glanced back at the policewoman who was still standing there in a daze, and whispered to Zhou Ye:
"Sir, are we just going to leave like this, 987? That young policeman looks like he's about to cry."
"if not?"
Zhou Ye countered with a question,
"Stay here, listen to them recount tens of thousands of years of cosmic history, and then be invited to join some kind of elite army to fight aliens? I'm not that free."
Feng Shayan imagined the scene: the gentleman, dressed in black armor, charging behind a group of young people, shouting "Demacia!"... She couldn't help but shudder. The image was too beautiful for her to bear.
"That's true."
She nodded in deep agreement.
"Playing war games with a bunch of immature kids is certainly beneath your dignity."
Zhou Ye didn't reply. His gaze was fixed on the neon lights of the city in the distance, and his divine sense had already covered the entire city.
“Something interesting is coming,” he suddenly said.
"Huh? What is that?" Feng Shayan followed his gaze and saw only a bustling traffic.
"A program with slightly higher privileges than those low-level soldiers is accessing this city." A genuine, not perfunctory, smile finally appeared on Zhou Ye's lips.
"She seems... very interested in the little bit of empty data that was left over when I crushed the trash."
Before the words were even finished, the night sky over Juxia City seemed to darken for a moment.
An aura of evil, decadence, yet brimming with irresistible allure, like ink dripping into clear water, silently descended upon the city.
Chapter 410 The Queen's Curiosity
Juxia City, the most bustling commercial street in the city center.
In an open-air café called "Left Bank," Zhou Ye and Feng Shayan found a window seat and sat down.