Chapter 1 The Shelter

The shelter Andaher was talking about turned out to be a cryogenic stasis pod. Hao Ren had been listening to the demon hunter talk about magical secrets all the way, so when he suddenly saw something so technologically advanced, he almost couldn't react. But having seen similar situations many times before, he wasn't too surprised by the facility. His only surprise was the name of the facility: cryogenic stasis pods, which reminded him of things on a spaceship.

Could this underground facility be a part of a spaceship?

Lily was趴 in front of the large glass window, watching the movements inside, her tail swaying unconsciously in the air: "Wow... it looks so high-tech."

Andaher came to the metal gate and awkwardly operated the control equipment next to it. Hao Ren casually asked her, "Why didn't you go in with them?"

"This facility has been dormant for too long. According to Vogus, one of the core machines shut down due to a malfunction years ago. There wasn't enough time to start it up back then, and without that controller, the gate can only be closed manually from the outside," Andaher explained. She wasn't familiar with the technology made by the Tana people. Although with the development of Earth's own civilization, demon hunters were no longer strangers to the word "technology", the Tana people's devices still seemed too complex and advanced. "Someone had to stay outside, so I stayed."

"Why you?" Vivian looked at Andaher with some suspicion. "I'm not doubting anything, but it just doesn't seem to make sense."

Vivian's suspicion was easy to understand, because no matter how you looked at it, the person responsible for guarding the rear shouldn't have been Andaher. A senior demon hunter was left to guard the rear for an alien family. Both Andaher's spirit of sacrifice and the Ankatelo family's trust in her were a bit incredible. And more importantly, Andaher wasn't familiar with these devices. You could tell from her clumsy operation right now. Vivian felt that it would have been more reliable to have a more professional Ankatelo technician be responsible for closing the gate.

Andaher sighed: "Because I can cast a mind-binding spell on myself. At that time, the Shadow of Chaos had already eroded this place. Many people were already affected by the shadows, including me. We persevered to the shelter with willpower, but we didn't know when we would lose control. So, we had to ensure that the person left outside the gate wouldn't make a big mistake due to loss of reason after closing the gate, such as cutting off the power to the life support system, and I was the most suitable."

Andaher didn't explain many details clearly, but you could figure out the reason for their choice at the time by reasoning. Under the influence of the Shadow of Chaos, personal thoughts and loyalty were meaningless. Only the person with the strongest willpower was the most reliable—whether he was a demon hunter or an alien. So, they chose to leave the still completely conscious Andaher outside at the time. After closing the gate of the cryogenic facility, Andaher could use mind binding to free herself from the influence of the shadows, or more extremely—commit suicide.

Andaher clumsily fiddled with the gate for a long time, and finally successfully found a way to open it. With a creaking mechanical friction sound, the seemingly extremely heavy alloy door slowly retreated to both sides, and a bone-chilling cold air blew out from the gate.

Lily was so excited by the cold wind that she immediately cheered up. Perhaps she felt the breath of her hometown in this temperature.

The group walked into the cryogenic stasis pod area, and Hao Ren and Vivian quickly came to the nearest container. This was a long, oval-shaped container, with a metal base and an "eggshell" wall made of transparent crystals and metal frames. A burst of cold air continuously radiated from the bottom of the container, and white mist formed by water vapor flowed under everyone's feet.

Inside the container was a Tana person with his eyes closed, immersed in a jelly-like substance, looking as if he was asleep.

"Cold air is leaking..." Hao Ren frowned as he looked at the white cold air flowing under everyone's feet, muttering to himself. To outsiders, it was normal for cryogenic stasis facilities to have this kind of low temperature, because it fit the "atmosphere", but Hao Ren felt that this was a sign of system failure. The real cryogenic chambers were just these oval containers in front of them. To maintain life, it was only necessary to ensure that the temperature inside these containers was lowered. Obviously, it was a waste of energy to lower the temperature of the entire room. A normal design shouldn't have this problem. So, there was only one reason for the low temperature in this room: system failure.

"These cooling pipes are severely aged," the data terminal found the location of the cold air leak. On the base of many oval containers, there were refrigerants and jelly-like semi-solid substances leaking out from inside. "Quickly activate the awakening process!"

Andaher was already performing the awakening operation. She stood at the operating table at the end of the room, constantly releasing wrenches and valves through the manual control device. Due to the temperature drop caused by the damaged cooling pipes, the console was completely frozen. Lily had to help defrost it with Huo Zhi Fei Chang Gao. But fortunately, these control devices were only covered with a layer of ice, and the things inside weren't broken. With a series of sounds of airlocks opening and depressurizing, the oval containers opened one after another.

And at the same time as the containers opened, holographic images showing the system status appeared in front of each container. Almost every holographic image flashed an alarm: the life signs of the sleepers were weak, and the situation was worrying.

Vivian immediately dragged Hao Ren to help the Tana people who slipped out of the containers and fell to the ground, while calling to the other demon hunters: "Hurry up and help save people!"

At this moment, the demon hunters didn't care about the racial antagonism issue. Everyone ran forward to treat the sleepers. There were hundreds of Ankatelo family members who took refuge in this place. When all the stasis devices were released, the scene suddenly became extremely busy. Hao Ren and Vivian dragged a Tana person out of the cryogenic chamber. The latter was still covered with that strange jelly-like substance, and his body was icy cold, with almost no temperature at all, but Vivian still detected vitality from him: "This one is still alive!"

Hao Ren looked up and around, and found that there were far from enough people on the scene, so he didn't hide anything, and raised his hand to open his portable space: "Everyone, pay attention, young ladies and young wives, keep calm! I'm going to release some helpers!"

Several demon hunters looked over curiously when they heard the words, and then they saw several space cracks appearing beside Hao Ren. A group of mechanical tentacle monsters then drilled out of them. These shiny silver metal monsters made a series of "cooing" sounds, while waving their terrifying tentacles and floated towards the nearest sleeper. This scene looked like a squid nest had been stabbed, and Hao Ren was that nest.

Most of the demon hunters were shocked when they saw these monsters. If Hao Ren hadn't warned them in advance, some people would have taken out their weapons, and Andaher exclaimed in shock after seeing these tentacle monsters: "What are these things?!"

"Same as this machine, it's high-tech!" The data terminal rose into the air, while shouting and using a blue beam to direct, "First carry the people to a ventilated place outside, and give priority to treating those marked by this machine. Who is good at fire magic, go help warm them up. Bai Huo, don't look around, I'm talking about you! And anyone else who is good at heating..."

Izhaks and Elizabeth immediately carried a huge lava ball each and walked out after hearing the data terminal's instructions. Hao Ren saw this scene and quickly stopped them: "Wait! Old Wang, you two are an exception! Your fireballs are not suitable for this!"

Lily raised Huo Zhi Fei Chang Gao and jumped out: "Then can I do it?"

Hao Ren looked at the girl's sharp claws and her eager expression: "...I think I'll pass."

Lily glared: "You don't trust my claws?"

"I don't trust your brain..."

Lily really didn't seem like someone who could do detailed work. To be honest, apart from grilling meat, Hao Ren really didn't dare to let her grill anything else...

After the self-disciplined machines participated in the operation, the treatment work suddenly became smoother. The flash-frozen Tana people who fell out of the cryogenic chambers were quickly transferred to the hall outside the cryogenic stasis pod area, and Hasse set up a barrier at the entrance of the cryogenic stasis pod area to prevent the low temperature in the cryogenic facility from spreading outward. Fortunately, although the stasis facility had a malfunction, the various safety devices built into the oval containers seemed to have worked. Although the sleepers' life signs were extremely weak, almost all of them were still alive.

The hall outside the facility was soon filled with Tana people still covered in thin ice. The demon hunters and Hao Ren were still running in and out busy. Wayne was also helping, and without realizing it, he had assisted the demon hunters more than once. Vivian couldn't help but mutter after noticing this scene: "So they can get along."

Just then, Andaher suddenly shouted not far away: "Vogus is here! He's alive too!"