Sensory Enhancement

Only two minutes remained.

Four carriages were still waiting at the assembly point at the town entrance.

A large number of crazed townspeople had chased them here. Some of them naturally noticed Yi Chen approaching from the lakeside and turned to pursue him.

At that moment,

the rear door of one of the carriages suddenly opened.

An arm as sturdy as a stone pillar reached out. It belonged to Dagobert, who had cooperated with them before and came from the North Territory.

The blond Edmund was sitting beside him as well, waving to Yi Chen.

"Isn't that William? Come on over. We happen to be one person short."

At this crucial moment, with the assessment about to end, there was naturally no need to refuse.

Yi Chen hurried forward.

When he reached out and his palm touched Dagobert's, an unimaginable force surged over... Without even needing to jump, his whole body was pulled into the carriage.

Edmund closed the door at the same time.

Since this carriage was now full, the coachman no longer waited.

Smack!

The reins struck the horses' backs, and the carriage quickly left the small town permeated with the stench of fish.

Besides the four of them,

there were also two unfamiliar faces in the carriage. Both were injured... One had bandages wrapped around his waist, while the other had a large amount of flesh stripped from his right arm and was spraying medicine onto the wound.

Compared with them, Edmund's team had suffered only minor injuries.

A small loop of bandage was wrapped around Dagobert's upper left arm.

Julianna was resting against the carriage wall, one hand placed over the right side of her waist and abdomen. She seemed to have suffered a slight injury there.

The blond Edmund only had an adhesive bandage, much like a sticking plaster, attached to his cheek.

By comparison,

Yi Chen, who was completely unharmed, naturally became the focus of everyone's attention.

Edmund leaned closer and asked curiously:

"Mr. William, I'm a little curious~

The three of us more or less fought our way from the town center to the assembly point. We even stopped twice along the way to observe our surroundings, but we never saw you.

Did you come from the lake?"

"Mm."

"How did you manage that? During a small-town riot, the most dangerous place is the lake that breeds Pathogens... Basically, no one taking the assessment would approach it at the last moment."

"I just happened to notice a gap."

"Is that so? How impressive."

"By the way, how long will it take to reach the organization from here?"

Seeing the taciturn Yi Chen take the initiative to ask, Edmund hurriedly explained:

"Places chosen as assessment sites generally aren't too far from the organization... This makes it easier to monitor the sites and prevent accidents.

At most, it'll take us three hours to reach the organization's headquarters—Zion City."

"Mm."

Yi Chen asked no more questions.

He used the time to close his eyes and rest, recovering from the lingering damage to his mental state.

At the same time,

he could also pay close attention to Little Grape's condition.

Although Little Grape had harbored some selfish motives during this operation at the bottom of the lake, it was still generally trustworthy.

Creak, creak~

The Plant Root Tendrils moved inside his body, trying to make contact with the Little Grape that was still developing and check on its condition.

Just as they were about to reach it, all the Plant Root Tendrils dispersed again.

Forget it. I'd better not disturb it...

He slipped both hands into his pockets,

leaned against the wooden wall of the carriage, and prepared to sleep properly.

However, he found that something remained in his mind, making it impossible to fall asleep.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he recalled that Abyss Laboratory and the untouchable unknown entity.

Since he couldn't sleep,

the habitual thinking of an engineering student took over, and he began to consider the root of the Green Lake Town incident.

The true mastermind behind everything should be the unknown entity I happened to see.

The Giant Eye at the bottom of the lake was merely a product of its experiments.

It sent that eye, along with several parasite samples, to Green Lake Town... Rather than an invasion that infected the town, it would be more accurate to say that it used the town as a Farming Ground.

Once high-quality Sick Ones were produced, perhaps they would be taken to the Abyss.

How terrifying...

Just what kind of beings rule this world?

Recalling the Epic Music over the ocean and the Golden Frame that had appeared above the unknown entity's head,

Yi Chen actually revealed a faint smile, eagerly wanting to uncover the secrets of this world.

About two hours passed.

A sudden, violent jolt struck the carriage.

At the same time,

the carriage gradually tilted upward, clearly beginning to climb.

"Are we finally heading up the mountain? Oof~ We'll arrive soon. I'm really looking forward to it."

The blond Edmund stretched lazily before taking it upon himself to open the rear door of the carriage... The coachman said nothing about it.

As long as they climbed the mountain, there was no risk of infection.

At least, that was true for now.

The instant the carriage door opened completely,

Holy crap!

The effects of his fear of heights instantly swept through Yi Chen's mind. His eyes widened instinctively... Fortunately, he hadn't been sitting on the outer side. Otherwise, he definitely would have been frightened into a violent jerk.

At present,

the carriage was traveling upward along an extremely steep mountain road at the cliff's edge.

A cliff lay directly to the right, with an estimated drop of more than two hundred meters.

The most terrifying part was

that the road was less than ten centimeters wider than the carriage.

The rolling wheels were practically crushing the very edge of the road, and the carriage could skid off at any moment... Any ordinary person would instinctively feel fear, a fear of death.

However,

the other assessors showed little change in expression, placing complete trust in the coachman's skill.

When the carriage rounded a bend between the cliffs,

several hundred meters away,

at the summit of the cliff,

a black city stood there.

The city had been built against the cliff, with even one-third of its area extending beyond the edge.

Thick fog filled the sky above the city. Some areas were even separated by a black membrane that effectively blocked outside observation.

So this is Zion.

For some reason,

when Yi Chen gazed at the city, his body instinctively produced a cold yet comfortable sensation, as if he had found a safe refuge in a world covered in festering sores.

Just then,

a commotion suddenly came from inside his body.

The skin over Yi Chen's shoulder rapidly bulged, and strands of black threads drilled through it and emerged.

They gently tore open his skin without causing the slightest pain,

and a Black Flesh Ball identical to the original emerged.

The neural connection between them also returned to normal.

Little Grape's voice followed:

Are we almost at the organization? That was fast.

Little Grape, you're already recovered? I thought you'd need several days.

It was only one exquisite little meal. A few hours was enough to digest it... It was barely a Good Thing, but it still gave me a certain boost.

Let you experience it too.

As Little Grape shared its newly upgraded visual trait,

an additional Circular Dashed Line symbolizing lock-on appeared in Yi Chen's field of vision.

Whenever any living target appeared in his sight,

the dashed circle automatically fell over that target.

At present,

the blond Edmund happened to be within Yi Chen's field of vision.

The Circular Dashed Line acted like Auto-Aim and immediately circled the target's head.

One second later,

the dashed line gradually became solid, signifying that the Lock-on was complete.

Little Grape's voice rang out:

All done. The target is locked on! As long as you form the relevant thought, the Psychic Radiation will act directly on it.

What!?

Yi Chen hurriedly shifted his gaze and blinked.

The lock-on naturally disengaged as well.

The blond Edmund seemed to sense Yi Chen sneaking a glance at him, but he didn't mind at all.