Everything vanished like a hallucination. The massive space station, crushing down like a mountain, passed through Mist City's buildings and ground, maintaining its tilted angle as it merged into the earth. It made not even the slightest sound throughout the entire process. If the monitor on his Power Armor had not faithfully recorded that heart-stopping scene, Xu Jiali would have suspected it had all been a case of mass hysteria.
The Gypsy Girl beside him was trembling slightly. Her catlike pupils glimmered nervously in the somewhat dim fog. Xu Jiali glanced back at her, and she immediately jumped nearly a meter straight up—like a cat that suddenly discovered a cucumber behind it when it looked back. "B-B-Boss, why'd you suddenly l-look at me? You scared me to death, meow..."
"What did you just say you used my allowance for?"
"Boss, you must've heard wrong..." Bell hurriedly began, but halfway through, she hunched her neck and turned her head unnaturally. "I'll pay you back when I get this month's salary, meow..."
Xu Jiali paid no further attention to Cat Head, who had been smoking catnip all day and was nearly oblivious to the world. Instead, he frowned and continued cautiously observing the situation on the streets. Then he checked the various environmental parameters automatically recorded by the Power Armor and found a large number of inexplicable blanks and brief bursts of interference—something that had never happened in his service career.
"Captain, communications have been restored." A Deep Dive Team member's voice interrupted Xu Jiali's thoughts. "We've also connected to the signal from the dive port!"
"All personnel, surface immediately!"
Baili Qing's expression was as calm as ever, but anyone familiar with her would probably have been able to see an unusual solemnity in her very pale gray eyes. She carefully