Hao Ren rubbed his temples, trying to grasp that last lingering sensation in his mind, but the voice that had echoed in his head while he was half-conscious had already faded like a dream. He checked the previous records of his mental communications and found, just as expected, a complete blank. The Data Terminal had not spoken at all.
"I think I heard someone speaking just now." Hao Ren exhaled and turned to look at the display inside the vehicle. The convoy seemed to be almost across the river, with the opposite bank glittering not far away. "It seemed to mention something about this world being close to collapse..."
"Your dreams are always unusual. Don't take them lightly." The Data Terminal became serious for once. "You seem to possess the ability to communicate with other consciousnesses through dreams."
"I know, I know. But that 'connection' was too brief this time, and I couldn't catch any clues. Still, I have a feeling that coming to the Northern Ruins was the right decision. This place must be the key to this planet... Omens always appear at the center of events, don't they?"
The three armored vehicles crossed the frozen Gray River without incident. What greeted the mercenaries was a dead world even more desolate than the wasteland outside, and everything here was even stranger. The cameras transmitted images of the terrain ahead and to both sides of the vehicles. Hao Ren saw a silver-gray land outside, with everything covered in the same sheen, as though the entire world had been transformed into metal. There were no plants, no buildings, and not even a normally shaped stone in sight. All that could be seen were bizarre mounds and round tower-like structures. They had merged with the ground like melted cheese, their smooth surfaces