Chapter 1 After a Period of Adjustment on the Ship

After a period of adjustment on the ship, Nina had grown accustomed to facing the small difficulties that arose during her studies—including but not limited to the shadows that surfaced from the spirit realm, the demons that appeared from the abyssal depths, and the mutations of the books themselves. Coupled with her persistent training, she had made considerable progress in controlling her powers.

Specifically, she could now deliver a flying kick with a force of 6000 degrees without setting the bedding on the adjacent bunk on fire.

A blinding light flashed, and a demon from the depths of the world instantly turned to ashes under the might of the sun. The air didn't even have time to retain a burnt odor—only the warm scent of bedding after being sunned in the midday light.

The last abyssal hound, drawn by the book, remained alone in the center of the room. Even as a chaotic and unintelligent abyssal demon driven only by instinct, the fearsome creature seemed momentarily bewildered. It couldn't comprehend why it had suddenly lost its two companions—now, before it was A-Gou, held by a chain in Shirley's hand, growling low, and behind it was Nina, walking forward step by step, enveloped in a radiance like the scorching sun.

The terrifying pressure from behind far surpassed that of the seemingly abnormal "kin" before it.

The abyssal demon subconsciously turned its head, meeting a gaze as searing as the sun.

Nina lowered her head slightly, her hair completely dyed with a golden sheen. Blinding light escaped from her orifices. Beneath this human shell burned the power of an ancient sun. She gazed at the demon, and the bones in its body began to burn directly under her gaze.

Shirley was startled. She had never seen Nina angry before, and she had even thought that her usually cheerful friend never got angry. But now she knew she was terribly wrong—Nina was clearly very angry.

Her anger rose like the sun. Even though she restrained the escaping heat, the light still seemed to scorch one's soul, piercingly bright.

As Shirley grew more nervous and finally couldn't help but speak, Nina finally spoke—she opened her mouth, and scorching plasma flames escaped from the corners of her lips, her voice like thunder:

"My homework!" Her voice even carried a hint of grief and indignation, "My papers! My reference books! And Shirley's homework! All shredded by these dogs!"

The demon was so intimidated by the sun's fury that it lost the ability to move. Shirley was even more astonished when she heard this, almost bursting out laughing: "Really? My homework is gone too?"

But in the next second, she reacted and quickly stopped Nina, who was about to avenge her homework with a flying kick: "Ah, wait! Spare this demon for now! A-Gou has something to ask!"

Nina had already raised her foot, but hearing her friend's call, she subconsciously stopped and glanced at Shirley out of the corner of her eye: "What's there to ask—isn't it just an abyssal demon that came to make trouble while people were reading? We've killed several of them on the ship…"

"But it's daytime now!" Shirley said loudly.

Nina paused, suddenly realizing.

It was daytime, even though a thick fog had risen outside and the sky had become as dim as dusk. But time-wise, it was daytime—the time when Anomaly 001 still shrouded the world.

The city-state was safe at this time. Reading wouldn't attract intrusions from the darkness—why did these abyssal demons appear?

Nina's gaze (6000°) immediately fell fixedly on the last abyssal hound.

Bathed in the light of the star at close range, the bones of the demon's body began to emit smoke—it instinctively struggled, seemingly wanting to open a rift to return to the abyssal depths, but this instinctive escape was instantly interrupted.

A-Gou disrupted the nascent rift that had just appeared around the demon.

"Can you get anything out of it?" Nina restrained some of her power, looking curiously at A-Gou, "Didn't you say that normal abyssal demons have little intelligence and can't be communicated with at all?"

"No brains means no brains, but if you really want to investigate, you can still find something—they have memories, and sometimes some consecutive fragments appear in their chaotic thoughts," A-Gou shook its head, seemingly a bit dizzy from headbutting another abyssal hound earlier, "Don't worry, abyssal demons have their own 'communication' methods."

"What communication methods?" Nina and Shirley asked in unison.

"…Not very aesthetic," A-Gou muttered, slowly walking towards the abyssal hound that had gradually stopped struggling under the scorching sunlight. Then, it looked up at Shirley again, "Close your eyes, Shirley."

Shirley paused, obediently closing her eyes.

Short growls, fighting, followed by the sound of bone fragments being torn, crushed, and chewed. Amidst the teeth-aching creaks, the intense struggle of a demon lasted only a moment.

After a while, Shirley tentatively opened her eyes and saw only a small pile of black dust quickly dissipating on the floor in the center of the room. A-Gou was standing next to the pile of dust, while Nina was standing opposite, a little dazed. After a long while, the scorching light on her body gradually dissipated, and she exclaimed, "Wow."

Shirley guessed what had happened after she closed her eyes. She looked at A-Gou with a slightly complicated expression: "Actually… I didn't really need to…"

"You'll have nightmares, I know you," A-Gou shook its head, then ground its teeth, spitting to the side with some disgust, "Ptooey."

"Did you get something stuck in your teeth?"

"Chewing on these demons who can't even recognize words is like chewing on rocks. You can't even squeeze a complete sentence out of them—and to think this guy was chasing after knowledge." A-Gou disgustedly complained about its illiterate kin, showing off its confidence and pride as a cultured dog. Then, it lowered its head, seemingly seriously perceiving the information it had just "communicated."

After a moment, it looked up, somewhat puzzled, and looked at Shirley and Nina: "Strange… the remaining memories of this abyssal hound show… it never felt the suppression of Anomaly 001…"

Shirley and Nina exchanged surprised glances.

"But now… it's clearly daytime…"

Shirley subconsciously muttered, slowly walking to the window and peering outside.

The increasingly thick fog had enveloped all the streets. The thick fog and high-altitude clouds covered Frost City like layers of curtains, and in this heavy curtain, the sky had dimmed like dusk, and in the distance, one could not even see the facade of the building across the street.

But there was still a cluster of light in the sky, which was the location of the sun—it was indeed daytime, it was indeed Anomaly 001.

"Nina, look," Shirley pointed to the sky, "The sun is there…"

She suddenly stopped.

In the depths of the thick fog and clouds, the bright cluster of light trembled slightly, and then, like a reflection in water,晕散 spread to the surroundings.

It seemed that from the beginning, it was not the sun at all—it was just a visual afterimage remaining in the sky above the city-state when the curtain rose.

Above Frost City, the sun disappeared.

At the same time, in the central area of the city-state, deep beneath the Boiling Gold Mine, in the ancient, sealed-off

Chapter 2 Second Waterway

The fog in the city did not spread to the underground, and the slight anomalies on the surface would not affect the exploration team's actions—in the dark and desolate underground world, the Church's Guardian forces were tensely and orderly reinforcing the advance base they had just established.

Spider-like steam walkers glided through the wide sewer corridors, high-powered searchlights swept through every dark corner of the corridor, multi-barreled machine guns on the turrets on both sides of the "spider" carapace slightly adjusted their angles, always vigilant against the shadows that might be lurking in those dark岔路, silent修士es in black robes silently prayed in the fortifications at the crossroads, conserving their energy for subsequent advances, and elite veteran Guards guarded the哨位s and gates at each intersection, hanging lanterns at their waists, holding canes in one hand, and gripping specially modified shotguns or large-caliber revolvers in the other.

The Second Waterway had been ruled by darkness for too long—in this dim place, performing exploration missions was less about "investigating" anything and more about

declaring war on a terrifying kingdom that had gradually become distorted and畸变ed.

The enemy could be anything, the enemy was darkness itself.

A strange hissing sound came from a岔路口 in the distance, interspersed with the crawling and wriggling sounds of some enormous limbs. Two steam walkers on guard at the intersection immediately reacted, and four powerful flashbangs were first launched from the front end of the spider機體. Then, the Guards on the walkers manipulated the rotary machine guns, aiming at the direction of the strange noise and firing a round of sweeping fire—in the deafening roar, that darkness violently expanded, and it seemed that something was injured and about to emerge from the darkness.

Twelve silent修士es in black robes rose from behind the fortifications, simultaneously raised the holy scriptures in their hands, pointed their bandaged arms towards the darkness, and roared in unison.

In the darkness, pale flames burned, cooperating with the弹幕 fired by the steam walkers, burning the things born out of that formless darkness into ashes.

The restless darkness returned to calm, and the岔路口 gradually turned from漆黑 to昏暗, and then to光明—the lights normally spread to that intersection, illuminating the situation there.

There was nothing there, only large and small bullet holes left on the walls.

And the faint, rapidly dissipating臭味 in the air.

Agatha retracted her gaze from the distant岔路口.

A岔路 had been retaken, and the Guardian forces had driven away another piece of darkness in this underground world—but for the entire vast Second Waterway, this was just a tiny corner.

She was not here to deal with those "岔路口s".

"Take me to that door."

The gatekeeper turned his head slightly and said to his subordinates beside him.