The Bloodstained Zhurong

"So..."

"So my top priority now is finding a device that can get online and look up information."

Before Skullhead could say another word, Lin Xu cut him off.

Skullhead looked utterly incredulous.

"What the hell?? Weren't you just talking about the apocalypse and escaping on a rocket?"

"That was one hell of a sudden turn, wasn't it? Are you... schizophrenic?"

"You don't have some kind of mental illness, do you?"

"You're the one with mental illness."

Lin Xu rolled his eyes.

"You believed me when I said the world was ending? Then if I said your wife was a bitch, would you believe that?"

"...No."

Skullhead immediately shook his head.

"So you were messing with me??"

"Yeah. What else would I be doing?"

As Lin Xu stripped off his gear, he answered casually:

"Nothing better to do."

"The conditions aren't right today. We can't continue the operation."

"I need to take a look around the compound first. If you want to come, come with me. If not, wait in the vehicle."

With that, Lin Xu pulled open the car door.

Just like the previous times, Skullhead swiftly removed his gear and followed close behind.

"What are you going into the compound for?"

Skullhead asked.

"Didn't I say? To get online."

"I need a device that can look up information. We don't have one, so naturally we have to find one in the compound."

"...That makes sense, but somehow it doesn't."

Skullhead was full of question marks. He had plenty of questions, but had no idea where to begin, so he could only follow Lin Xu into the compound.

Lin Xu had a clear destination in mind. After scanning his iris and verifying his identity, he headed straight for the exhibition hall.

The holographic terminal in the exhibition hall was not just for displays. Like most large display screens from Lin Xu's era, it was essentially a computer.

Company permissions meant he could not use it to play games or watch movies, but looking up information was no problem.

Watching him operate with smooth efficiency, Skullhead could not help asking:

"You seem like you've been planning this for a long time... What exactly are you looking for?"

"Information on the Zhurong Mars rover."

Lin Xu answered.

Skullhead looked at him in bafflement and asked with a frown:

"A Mars rover? Why are you interested in that thing too?"

"Tsk... You mentioned the apocalypse earlier... Don't tell me you're also a member of that Planetary Reincarnation organization?"

This time, Lin Xu was the one who froze.

In fact, this was the first time he had heard the term "Planetary Reincarnation" from Skullhead.

It made him realize that he might have fallen into some kind of misunderstanding.

That was right. In 2025, Planetary Reincarnation had still been an extremely secretive organization, perhaps one that had never even existed at all. No matter how hard he tried, he could not find any information about it.

But what about 2045?

This organization had already been in the news. Xu Jin's identity had been publicly revealed, and he had been wanted as a criminal.

The organization's influence was growing, while its secrecy was declining.

If he wanted information on it, perhaps he could simply ask someone—or even search for it online?

Damn it!

Then what had all that effort I went through before even been for??

Lin Xu wanted to slap himself twice. As he continued toward the exhibition hall, he asked:

"You know about Planetary Reincarnation too? What kind of organization is it?"

"A terrorist organization. What else could it be... A terrorist organization that screams all day about the apocalypse coming."

Skullhead seemed to relax.

"If you're asking that, it means you have nothing to do with them, right?"

"Of course I don't. Why else would I ask you?"

Lin Xu replied as if it were obvious. Skullhead nodded and said:

"It's best if you don't. Everyone in that organization is insane."

"You've heard of groups like ISIS and the Taliban, right?"

"Planetary Reincarnation is even more extreme than they are. You could even say their extremism is on a completely different level from the extremists controlled by religion in the past."

"Ordinary people probably don't come into contact with that sort of thing very often."

"After all, things are still relatively stable back home, and counterterrorism forces are strong."

"But I used to spend time in the Middle East. You have no idea how much fear those red-and-green flags inspired in us once they went up..."

"Those people have no brains. When they fight, they don't have any concept of 'casualties' at all."

"Even if all they had were fire pokers, they would still charge straight into 12.7mm rounds."

"Man... Have you watched zombie movies? When they went crazy, they really were no different from the zombies in those films."

"That extreme??"

Lin Xu looked at Skullhead with some suspicion.

Based on his description, this so-called Planetary Reincarnation really was an extremist organization through and through.

They were violent, cruel, fanatical—one could even call them anti-human.

Those traits matched what he had heard in the Maritime Security office from the interrogator.

At the time, he had assumed the man had deliberately exaggerated the facts to achieve his objective, perhaps even slandered them to a certain extent.

But now, it seemed this organization really was not clean.

Not merely unclean. It was filthy to a terrifying degree.

But how could that be?

This was an organization whose ultimate goal was to get to Mars!

The entire organization had been built upon a foundation of science.

And clearly, it had recruited genuine scientific researchers like Xu Jin.

How could people like that tolerate such things?

Lin Xu frowned deeply. By then, he had arrived before the holographic projection at the center of the exhibition hall.

"Search for information on the Planetary Reincarnation organization."

The results appeared instantly, but Lin Xu quickly realized this was not what he truly wanted to find.

Page after page of results described Planetary Reincarnation's "crimes," interspersed with introductions, rebuttals, and critical articles from official institutions.

Yet none of that information contained any crucial clues.

Was this really the organization he had imagined?

Was this really the Planetary Reincarnation organization that was bound to space exploration, the one determined to reach Mars no matter what?

Or was this merely one part of it?

Lin Xu vaguely sensed that Planetary Reincarnation had already split apart by this point in time.

The more radical elements within the organization had strayed from its original purpose and were developing in an uncontrollable direction.

At the same time, these peripheral, uncontrollable elements had formed a thick shell, confusing the public, diverting official attention, and tightly wrapping around the organization's true core, making it impossible to investigate.

Was that a deliberate choice, or an inevitable result forced upon them by later developments?

Lin Xu did not know.

But he knew that the path of finding clues through internet searches had likely been completely cut off.

Even now, the authorities' attention remained fixed on the "surface" of Planetary Reincarnation. How could he possibly penetrate its core so easily?

He had to take it one step at a time.

Lin Xu let out a long sigh.

"Search for information related to the Mars rover Zhurong."

He issued another command to the AI, and the results soon appeared.

Unlike the results he had found in 2025, this time most of the information recorded the rover's entire history in greater detail.

It had launched in 2024 and landed on Mars at the end of 2024.

It discovered semi-metallic hydrogen, found suspected liquid water, photographed vast amounts of Martian terrain, and collected and analyzed samples from some rocks...

In 2030, the rover suffered its first malfunction.

For the next three years, it remained intermittently operational until it was completely scrapped at the end of 2033.

Its history should have ended there.

But then, a piece of information that left Lin Xu dumbfounded appeared before his eyes.

In 2035, the first official scientific expedition vessel, the Donghuang Taiyi heavy crewed spacecraft, landed on Mars.

Then, in mid-2035, the Zhurong Mars rover took off from Mars.

In January 2036, the return capsule carrying Zhurong entered Earth's atmosphere.

Due to a control system malfunction, the capsule deviated from its planned course and landed in the Nabk region, sixty-two kilometers northwest of Damascus, the capital of Syria.

The rover was ultimately recovered by Chinese authorities.

It really had come back!

Lin Xu recalled Xu Jin's words.

"Make sure you bring Zhurong back."

So, he had done it?

Lin Xu fell silent in thought. At that moment, Skullhead suddenly spoke beside him.

"Nabk... That's a familiar name."

"Familiar?"

Lin Xu turned toward Skullhead.

"You've been to Nabk?"

"Of course."

Skullhead pointed at the text on the holographic projection and continued:

"Doesn't it say right there? Zhurong landed in Nabk."

"I was working for another PMC at the time and happened to take part in the security operation."

"That incident left a deep impression on me."

"It really was the... bloodiest scene I'd ever seen..."

"Bloodiest?!"

Lin Xu was stunned.

"What happened?"

"An attack."

Skullhead clicked his tongue.

"You won't find this through public channels. Consider it a bonus that comes with hiring our services."

"Anyway, Planetary Reincarnation mobilized a large number of armed personnel in an attempt to seize the Zhurong rover."

"In Nabk, they left behind at least a thousand bodies."

"And we lost a lot of people too."

"I heard—just heard, okay—that Chinese official personnel suffered more than fifty casualties."

"After that, China's Maritime Security worked with overseas PMCs for three years and practically wiped out every extremist organization across the Middle East. ISIS and al-Sham were completely eradicated during that period."

"But after such a massive operation, all ordinary people ever saw was a simple statement: 'The joint peacekeeping and security mission involving multiple Middle Eastern countries has concluded successfully.'"

"Things were a little more high-profile domestically, though. State Security cracked down hard and arrested quite a few people. Some of them even made the news."

"Who?"

Lin Xu's expression changed sharply.

"Xu Jin? Was that name in the news?"

"I don't remember."

Skullhead shrugged.

"But that name does sound familiar. It probably was?"

Probably was meant it was.

Lin Xu let out a long breath.

Now, everything made sense...