A Tragic Scene

Ye Chen temporarily cast his myriad thoughts to the back of his mind and returned once more to his role as captain.

He lowered his head and glanced at the Black Ring watch around his wrist, seeing that its second hand had just completed a full rotation.

At the same time, Weimeng, Xiya, Firona, and Erigat had long since risen to their feet and gathered behind Ye Chen.

Although the captain had left them only a brief respite, that time had already been precious enough for everyone.

Ye Chen's calm gaze swept across his comrades' composed faces one by one. After confirming that everyone had recovered and no one was forcing themselves onward, he announced in a booming voice:

"We move!"

At his command, the six members of Dawn Squad took to the air, racing across the skies above the Blackwood Forest Sea toward the smoke-filled expanse at its eastern edge.

Along the way, Ye Chen and the others soon caught sight of one shattered battlefield after another scattered throughout the Blackwood Forest Sea.

Towering black trees lay toppled in every direction, level ground had split and collapsed, and countless bloody corpses littered the landscape. Most of the dead wore tattered clown attire, while a smaller number wore bloodstained trench coats identical to those of Ye Chen and his group.

Witnessing this brutal sight, the six of them remained silent.

Different emotions flickered through each person's eyes—heaviness, sorrow, regret, anger—but stronger than all of them was an unyielding fighting spirit.

Using the smoke billowing into the sky at the eastern edge as their clear marker, Dawn Squad took no further detours. In just a few minutes, they reached the barrier's edge on the far side of War Zone 9.

Then, the barrier wall standing there was the first thing to