After confirming there were no enemies below, two of the Mercenaries surrounding the edge of the pit immediately removed the small equipment cases from their backs.
They opened the latches.
The two men took out the components inside and quickly assembled them. In less than half a minute, they had set up rope descenders at the edge of the pit.
At that moment, Sui Yang and the officer from earlier also reached the edge of the collapsed pit.
Without needing to say anything, the two squads immediately rappelled down to the parking lot below. The moment their feet touched the ground, they scattered and went on guard.
Sui Yang and the officer followed close behind, completing their descent.
"."
After landing steadily, Sui Yang saw that aside from abandoned vehicles covered in dust, there were no Mimic cannon fodder within sight. He holstered the 1911 again.
Then he took down a special "grenade" launcher from his back. It looked much like an M79, but was more tactical and modern, with a caliber of 60mm.
Gripping the launcher, Sui Yang, the officer, and the others lightened their steps as they made their way to a more open area of the parking lot.
While searching for load-bearing pillars to use as cover, Sui Yang also spotted the water-filled pool from the movie, which radiated a faint blue glow, as well as Alpha on patrol.
"..."
With his back against a load-bearing pillar, Sui Yang took several deep breaths. Although he was long past the age of personally entering the fray and had grown accustomed to life and death, it was hard to avoid a trace of tension when facing a moment in which a single strike could decide the outcome...
More than anything, however, the secretion of adrenaline sent his body rapidly into a state of excitement.
The officer standing to Sui Yang's right poked his head out, seemingly observing Alpha's movements, then held up three fingers to the two Mercenary squads on either side.
The officer then smiled and whispered to Sui Yang, "Boss, see you yesterday."
"See you yesterday." Sui Yang raised his left hand and lightly patted the other man's shoulder.
With that, the officer charged out of cover with six Mercenaries. They deliberately smashed the vehicles with their gunstocks and shouted toward Alpha in the distance, "Hey! You son of a bitch! Look over here!"
The intense noise, combined with so many moving enemies, made it impossible for Alpha not to be distracted.
"Roar!"
As if enraged, Alpha crossed dozens of meters in the blink of an eye. Several tentacles extended from its body, mimicking metal bone spurs as they stabbed toward the officer...
Sssht!
The hard, razor-sharp tentacles easily pierced the human body, pinning the officer to the ground.
"Cough!" The officer spat blood after suffering the fatal wound, but showed no fear whatsoever. He even raised both hands with all his strength, clutched the bone spurs tightly, and laughed, "Ha... hahaha...! You ugly bastard!"
From the officer's perspective, he happened to have a clear view of Sui Yang, who was moving so quickly that he seemed to have become a blur. Sui Yang had already leaped into the pool.
"Roar!"
Riiip!
With its attention completely drawn away and its fury stoked by the taunt, Alpha had no idea what was happening behind it and immediately tore the officer apart.
Before Alpha could turn around to investigate, however, it was confronted by the remaining six Mercenaries, who surrounded it and actively "went to their deaths"...
--
Underwater.
Sui Yang gripped the launcher tightly in his right hand, while his left clutched protruding rebar or walls. His legs kicked in a scissors-like motion as he rapidly dove deeper.
In less than a few seconds, he swam through layer after layer of obstacles and descended into a relatively spacious stretch of water, where he saw...
Omega, enormous and shaped like a sea anemone.
At its core was a rotating spherical object approximately three meters in diameter, while a dim blue light seeped out through gaps in its outer wall.
Seeing this, Sui Yang swam above Omega, aimed the launcher at its core, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Boom~--!
After the 60mm grenade left the barrel, its rear thruster immediately activated. It carved a trail of bubbles through the water and drilled into the core...
Kaboom---!!
The violent explosion not only blasted the core to pieces, but also accelerated the spread of its dark-blue blood.
Caught in the blast, Sui Yang's body uncontrollably rolled backward several times before he steadied himself.
But when he discarded the launcher and continued swimming downward, preparing to imitate William Cage by placing himself among Omega's blood and allowing it to seep into his body, he discovered that the underwater darkness had suddenly brightened again.
Only...
The light illuminating the water was not the faint blue glow of Omega's core, but a pale golden radiance.
More importantly, Sui Yang's entire body was now covered in a layer of faint golden light... and the source was actually him?!
The dark-blue blood that had scattered in all directions seemed to have been affected by this anomaly as well. Instead of drifting with the current, it gathered upward around Sui Yang.
In the end, all of the dark-blue blood was "absorbed" by Sui Yang.
!
At that moment, Sui Yang felt as if his head were splitting apart. But the symptom did not last long before he felt... comfortable? Or rather, completely relaxed.
There was also an indescribable sensation. As long as he wanted to...
!!
White light suddenly appeared, forcing Sui Yang to tightly shut his eyes while cutting off his perception of the outside world.
Once the white light faded and he opened his eyes, Sui Yang discovered that he had already returned to his office chair. The bottom-right corner of the computer screen before him displayed "1993/06/08/04:14."
He turned his head slightly and saw the predawn nightscape outside the window. Only then did he understand that he had successfully seized Omega's [Reset], sending time back to the day before the operation began.
This proved that his [Reset] was both a passive "skill" and something he could activate at will.
The fact that he could plunder all of Omega's blood, along with his body being enveloped in pale golden light, indirectly... no, directly proved that he had truly gained Psychic Power.
When he completed the blood ritual and opened the first Space Gate, Sui Yang had already been faintly able to sense the emotions nearby. At first, he had been unable to confirm it, but now...
Thinking this, he raised his left hand and vigorously rubbed his slightly aching temple.
Having studied "Warhammer 30,000 and 40,000," Sui Yang knew that Psychic Power was a double-edged sword. Once it backfired, even death would become a luxury.
More importantly, Sui Yang was uncertain whether he had produced a projection in the Warp.
As everyone knew, when Psykers used Psychic Power, their souls in the Warp were like bright flames.
One of the many reasons Sui Yang had plundered [Reset] was so that, like William Cage in the movie, he could endlessly "grind experience" and "search for a walkthrough" in pursuit of victory and a way out.
But before the Warp, [Reset] was completely inadequate.
Although there was a 99.99% chance that his Psychic Power came from the God-Emperor of Mankind, he could not rule out the possibility that it was a ploy by the "fun-loving" Tzeentch. Anything was possible, so he had to prepare for the worst.
At least after gaining the ability [Reset], he and Atlas had room for trial and error. In addition, the Investigator had already begun carrying out the operation step by step. Before long, he believed, the United Defense Force's technology would all be within his grasp.
However...
[Offspring... descent... two... Offspring...]
???
But before Sui Yang could worry about where humanity should go in the future, an even more troubling matter arrived with that cold warning in his mind.
(The End)
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