The time limit is down to the last two minutes.
At the town's assembly point, four carriages are still waiting.
A large number of crazed townspeople have pursued them here, and naturally, a small part also noticed Yi Chen approaching from the lakeside and turned to chase after him.
At that moment,
the rear compartment of one of the carriages suddenly burst open,
and an arm solid as a column of stone reached out—it was Dagbert from the Northern Realm, with whom there had been previous cooperation.
Blond Edmund was also sitting to the side, gesturing to Yi Chen to come over.
"Isn't that William? Come on, we're just short one person."
At such a crucial moment related to the end of the assessment, there was naturally no need to refuse.
Hurrying forward,
when Yi Chen reached out and touched Dagbert's palm... an unimaginable force was transmitted to him,
and without even making a jumping motion, he was already pulled onto the carriage.
Edmund, seated to the side, simultaneously closed the door.
Now that the carriage was full, the coachman didn't wait any longer.
Snap!
The reins lashed on the horses' backs, and the carriage quickly left the small town filled with the stench of fish.
Inside the carriage, besides the four of them,
there were two other new faces, both injured... one wrapped with bandages around the waist, another with a right arm severely flayed, spraying medicine on the wound.
In comparison, Edmund's squad had suffered minor injuries.
Dagbert had a small bandage wrapped around his upper left arm,
Juliana was resting at the side of the carriage, with one hand on the right side of her waist, seemingly nursing a minor injury,
Blond Edmund had only an adhesive bandage like a plaster on his cheek.
By contrast,
the unharmed Yi Chen naturally became the center of everyone's attention.
Edmund leaned forward, curiously asking:
"Mr. William, I'm a bit curious~
The three of us almost fought our way to the assembly point through the town center, and we also stopped twice along the way for observation, but we never saw any sign of you.
Could it be that you came from the lakeside?"
"Yes."
"How did you manage that? The small town's chaos, especially near the lake that breeds pathogens... hardly any assessors would get close to it at the last moment."
"I just accidentally observed a 'Gap'."
"Really? That's amazing."
"By the way, how long will it take to get to the organization from here?"
Seeing the reticent Yi Chen take the initiative to ask, Edmund hurriedly explained:
"Generally, the places chosen as assessment sites won't be too far from the organization... This is conducive to monitoring the site and avoiding unexpected situations.
At most, it will take us three hours to reach the headquarters of the Organization—Zion City."
"Yes."
Yi Chen asked no more,
taking this opportunity to close his eyes and rest, recovering from the mental trauma that remained.
At the same time,
he could pay close attention to the condition of the Little Grape.
Leveraging the action at the bottom of the lake, although Little Grape had its own agenda, overall, it could still be trusted.
Crackling~
The plant roots were moving inside his body, trying to make contact with the Little Grape, which is still in the developing stage, to check its condition.
Just as it was about to make contact, all the roots dispersed.
"Forget it, better not disturb it..."
Hands in his pockets,
he leaned against the wooden frame of the carriage, ready to get some good sleep,
but found that there were some remnants in his head that prevented him from falling asleep,
whenever he closed his eyes, he would remember the Abyss Laboratory and the untouchable unknown entity.
Since he couldn't sleep,
his engineering mind began trying to ponder the root cause of the Green Lake Town incident.
"The true mastermind behind this must be the unknown entity I stumbled upon.
The giant eye at the bottom of the lake is merely a result of his experiments.
To plant this eye along with some parasite samples in Green Lake Town... it's less of an invasion by pathogens and more like treating the town as a 'Breeding Farm'.
Once a high-quality patient is produced, it might be taken to the Abyss.
It's terrifying...
Just what kind of entities dominate this world?"
Recalling the epic music amongst the sea, and the gold frame that appeared above the head of an unknown entity,
Yi Chen actually revealed a slight smile, eagerly wanting to explore the secrets of this world.
...
About two hours passed
Suddenly, an intense jolting sensation struck.
At the same time,
the carriage gradually began tilting upward, clearly ascending an uphill road.
"Are we finally climbing the mountain? Ouch~ We'll be there soon, how exciting."
Blond Edmund stretched lazily and then took it upon himself to open the rear door of the carriage... The coachman said nothing about such behavior.
As long as they climbed the mountain, there was no risk of pathological infection.
At least that was the case for now.
The moment the carriage door was fully open.
"Holy shit!"
The effects of acrophobia swept over Yi Chen's brain instantaneously, instinctively widening his eyes... Luckily he wasn't sitting in a seat closer to the outside, or he would have been scared stiff.
At present,
The carriage was traveling along an extremely steep edge-of-the-cliff road, ascending upwards.
To the right was a cliff, with an estimated height of over two hundred meters,
and what was most terrifying,
was that the width of the mountain road was just barely ten centimeters wider than the carriage,
The rolling wheels were almost touching the very edge of the road, at risk of slipping at any moment... Any ordinary person would feel an instinctive fear, a dread of death.
However.
The rest of the Assessors had little change in their expressions, fully trusting in the coachman's skill.
When the carriage rounded a bend between the cliffs,
hundreds of meters away,
looking towards the top of the cliff,
a black city stood there.
The city was built against the mountain cliff, with even 1/3 of the area extending beyond the edge of the cliff.
A thick fog enveloped the city above, with some areas even covered by a black membrane that effectively blocked external prying.
"This is Zion."
For some reason,
when Yi Chen gazed at the city, his body autonomously produced a cold comfort, as if he had found a safe haven in a world riddled with sores.
Just then,
a commotion suddenly erupted within him.
The skin on Yi Chen's shoulder swiftly bulged, and strands of black threads pierced through and grew out,
gently and painlessly tearing the skin,
a completely identical black flesh ball emerged, and the nerve connections between them also returned to normal.
The voice of Little Grape followed:
"Are we about to reach the Organization already? That was fast."
"Little Grape, you're better already? I thought it would take you a few days."
"It was just a fine small meal after all, a few hours are enough for digestion... It was barely decent, but it did give me a certain improvement.
Let's let you experience it as well."
When Little Grape shared the newly upgraded visual trait,
an additional circular dashed line symbolizing [Locking] appeared in Yi Chen's vision.
As soon as any living target appeared in his field of vision,
this dashed circle would automatically fall on the entity,
At the moment,
Blond Edmund was conveniently in Yi Chen's field of view,
and just like an auto-aim, the circular dashed line immediately encircled the target's head.
One second later,
the dashed line gradually solidified, signifying the completion of locking.
The voice of Little Grape came again,
"Alright, the target is locked! Just move the related thought and the mental radiation will act directly on it."
"What!?"
Yi Chen quickly shifted his gaze and blinked simultaneously.
The [Locking] naturally deactivated.
Blond Edmund seemed to notice Yi Chen sneakily looking at him but didn't mind at all.