Crimson light, like the divine punishment depicted in myths, melted the steel bridge connecting the platform and the transit cabin into molten iron with an overwhelming force.
Yet it precisely controlled its attack range, not harming the space station’s main body in the slightest.
The severed support cabin slowly separated from the station’s main body under inertia.
Along with it, the Astral Express and dozens of spacecraft docked at the platform were also carried away from their original positions, advancing alone on a fixed orbit according to the central star’s gravity.
“What happened, pom?!”
Inside the Astral Express, Pom-Pom, who had stayed behind in the car, pressed against the glass porthole, watching the bridge broken in two and the increasingly distant Herta Space Station with a panicked expression.
It instinctively wanted to contact the train crew inside the station.
But the Astral Express had long since been disconnected from the interstellar network.
And the Conductor, the moment those words left its mouth, its pupils dilated and it froze completely in place.
[Folly] meme, second infection!
The Astral Express…
completely disconnected!
All of this happened too quickly.
The Nameless inside the space station had no way of noticing.
They advanced through the dark metal corridors, dealing with many Voidrangers and “monsters” blocking their way.
Yes, monsters.
Twisted, indescribable monsters.
Their forms were bizarre and varied, none alike.
Some were Voidranger Reavers with three heads and six arms.
Some were Voidranger Distorters with extremely elongated bodies, like pythons.
Others were humanoid creatures covered in bone spurs or tumors…
These were only rough descriptions of their forms.
If one observed them in detail, one would find that all their organs, structures, and even the very components making up their bodies did not conform to the results of natural evolution and selection.
This resulted in these twisted monsters, though frightening in appearance, sometimes having combat power that could not even beat the old, weak, sick, and disabled.
As if merely living had already exhausted their full strength.
“Like failed genetic degradation experiments.
But it seems not that simple.” Mr.
Yang used his cane to turn over the monsters’ corpses, trying to discover some secrets and truth from them.
During this time, Navigator Himeko was not idle either.
She released several drones to scout the path ahead.
The space station’s internal routes were mostly the same as she remembered, but there were still some subtle changes easy to overlook.
For example, intersections that did not exist on the map, and cabin corridors blocked by battle damage…
Although none of this was enough to stop them from reaching the Master Control Zone, the combined factors had quietly changed the route they took.
When Himeko saw the prominent words [Sealed Cabin] on the isolation door ahead, her expression visibly darkened.
“This place…”
Ye Cang raised an eyebrow.
He cautiously said only two words, and those two words were enough for Himeko to understand his meaning.
“This should be the reception center of the Base Zone.” Himeko opened the holographic map on her watch again and murmured, “To reach the Master Control Zone, we must pass through two areas of the Base Zone…
I’m certain I didn’t take the wrong path.”
Ye Cang looked around at her words.
Indeed, as Himeko said, there were no other passages.
Unless they had taken the wrong path at that first fork.
“Don’t worry.
Sealed Cabin or not.” Ye Cang shrugged.
After a brief pause, he added a classic line, “Well, we’re already here.”
“Let’s go in and take a look.
Stand behind me.”
Mr.
Yang pushed up his glasses and pressed his cane against the Sealed Cabin’s control panel.
He stared unblinkingly at the dark red electronic screen and said softly, “The power system here is still running.
Maybe the survivors have gathered here.”
No one objected.
They only watched as Mr.
Yang fumbled with the control panel.
A moment later, the originally red screen suddenly turned blue.
“Access verified.
Welcome, Lady Herta.”
Then came a dull rumbling sound.
The heavy metal door before them slowly opened.
“Amazing!
Worthy of Mr.
Yang!” March gave a thumbs-up and praised.
“…” Welt was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head.
“I didn’t open the door.”
It wasn’t Mr.
Yang.
Then who else could it be?
Ye Cang stared at the faintly blue electronic screen and said softly, “It just seemed to say the words ‘Lady Herta.'”
Himeko gripped her suitcase tightly and bit her lip.
“But as far as I know, that genius herself resides at the distant edge of the universe and almost never appears on this space station.
Even for academic research, she only remote-controls puppets…”
“And Herta Space Station has already been disconnected from the interstellar network.” Dan Heng completed Himeko’s unfinished sentence.
It wasn’t Mr.
Yang, and it wasn’t Lady Herta herself.
Then who else could it be?
Could it be a survivor inside the station?
And one who happened to have Herta’s highest authority?
That possibility seemed even more unlikely than Herta herself visiting.
“Maybe it’s a survivor in the space station…”
March hesitantly spoke.
The courage she had barely mustered was suppressed again upon seeing the dark environment inside the Sealed Cabin.
She said weakly, “Old rules.
Let’s still vote on whether to go in…”
Just as the group hesitated, a dull thud suddenly came from the silent metal corridor behind them, followed by continuous metallic impact sounds.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang clang clang!
Each sound was duller than the last, like a giant hammer madly striking steel.
Everyone turned at the sound.
A cannonball-like black shadow shot out from the end of the corridor, instantly passing through the five people standing in place, and slammed heavily into the metal wall behind them!
Ye Cang’s pupils contracted.
A metal robot with only half its torso remaining, its head battered and broken, was embedded in the cabin wall less than half a meter from him.
Broken electronic components and wires on its body were sparking with bzzt bzzt sounds.
His gaze met the electronic eye on the nearly scrapped robot’s head.
The gears in the eye focused and turned.
The speaker emitted a low, intermittent sound: “Warning…
run…
quickly…”
“Leave…
this place…”
“Beware…
Silence…”
Beware what?
Silence?
What is that?
Countless questions piled up in his mind.
Ye Cang’s breathing grew heavy, his heartbeat accelerated, and fine sweat seeped from his forehead.
That familiar near-death feeling surged into his mind again.
Every cell in his body seemed to be screaming, wailing!
But this time, it was not because of the meme called [Folly].
It was because of the woman in red who had, at some unknown time, come to stand beside him.
In her hand, she was holding a familiar head with fiery red hair.
(T/N: I see that we’re just sliming out randoms now, Polka.)