Struggle and Choice

"I still feel something's off."

The moment An Qin and Lin Feng left, Vivian immediately lowered her voice and leaned close to Chen Kong, Liu Ma, and Isabelle, her tone clearly grave.

"An Qin has always made me uneasy, and the two people she brought with her don't look like they came to cooperate on an exploration at all."

"Especially when An Qin introduced them—it felt like she was deliberately concealing something. That really doesn't sit right with me."

"And the way Lin Feng followed behind An Qin just now, he didn't look like an ordinary teammate at all. He looked more like... a supervisor."

"A supervisor?"

Chen Kong frowned. "You mean An Qin was forced into teaming up by them?"

"I don't know."

Vivian shook her head, a trace of helplessness flashing through her eyes.

"I don't have any evidence. These are only guesses."

"A Mechanical Star Envoy's judgment should be based on data and evidence, but this time... my instincts have been sounding the alarm."

Seeing how troubled Vivian remained, Chen Kong lightly tapped the strap of his tactical backpack, his gaze sweeping over the metal walls of the resting cabin. Tiandao's words echoed in his mind.

When dealing with anything, prepare for the worst. Sometimes, intuition is more convincing than any evidence.

After a moment, Chen Kong looked at Vivian and said steadily, "Vivian, Zhao Yu's proposal isn't actually a problem. Fallen Zone exploration allows temporary teams in the first place, and they're willing to offer one-third of the points as compensation. That isn't excessive. It's just that..."

"Intuition may not be wrong. We don't need to rush to find an answer. We only need to stay alert."

"When An Qin comes back, I'll probe a little about her relationship with Lin Feng and Zhao Yu, and