Chapter 420 - 300: Fissure (Part 2)
As she watched, the squad had already crossed half the field. She couldn’t help but clutch Marcus Monroe’s shoulders and whisper in his ear, "This place is too weird. Be careful!"
The words had barely left her mouth when a terrified, suppressed, low cry suddenly came from another team heading toward the single-story building on the right. "Ethan Koenig! Ethan Koenig is gone!"
While not all the Superpower Users on this mission were battle-hardened, they were still the base’s elite. They shouldn’t have made a sound during an operation; even if they had to speak, they would have kept their voices as low as possible. Any member who regularly hunted outside knew that human voices easily attracted Zombies or Mutant Beasts. Although the area looked clear, who knew where enemies might be lurking?
But the person who had cried out did so in a moment of sheer shock, losing control.
Ethan Koenig had been walking right in front of him, as normal as could be. Just seconds before, he had sped up to pass him, but when he glanced aside, he discovered his companion had vanished!
In the blink of an eye, a living, breathing person was gone!
What’s more, he hadn’t sensed any outside force at play. Just like that, without any explanation, the man was gone—without so much as a sound!
It was no wonder he had cried out in shock.
His shout served as a wake-up call. One by one, others began to whisper in low voices, "Hey! So-and-so is gone, too!"
With that, they could no longer continue toward their respective objectives.
At a hand signal from Leo Joyce, everyone gathered in front of the school building.
The squads began a headcount, only to discover that in just that short while, five people had gone missing. And without exception, all five had been at the rear of their respective groups!
It was a disastrous start to the mission. Although Leo Joyce’s expression remained relatively calm, fury was brewing in his eyes.
His gaze swept over the field they had just crossed. After a long moment, he found nothing out of the ordinary.
His first suspicion, naturally, fell upon the eerie cracks in the ground.
But at the moment, the fissures remained still.
Nothing looked out of place.
Recalling his earlier observation that the cracks weren’t very deep, he temporarily crossed that possibility off his list.
Despite this, he still sent members of his own squad to give the field a quick search.
Drawing his gaze back, he let it fall upon the Superpower Users.
Suddenly, his eyes met a pair that stood slightly higher than the others in the crowd.
A flash of suspicion crossed his mind, but after a quick assessment, he dismissed it.
’No, it couldn’t be her.’
’This child is even thinner and smaller, looks completely different, and her eyes even seem dull and lifeless. There’s no resemblance at all. Even the most clever disguise couldn’t achieve this, and besides, her superpower has nothing to do with shapeshifting. The people with her also bear no resemblance to anyone from my intel on her.’
He turned to scrutinize the others.
The person who had met his gaze was none other than Paige Summers.
She sensed he was suspicious of her, but he quickly dropped the idea. ’My appearance must be too different,’ she mused. Then she realized that regarding the five missing Superpower Users, he was also suspicious of the very people he’d brought along.
’Such paranoia. It’s a common flaw for people in charge.’
She let out a breath and listlessly flopped back onto Marcus Monroe’s shoulder.
Leo Joyce found no clues. The team members who had searched the field came back empty-handed; the cracks were completely clean, with no trace that anyone had fallen into them.
Leo Joyce nodded, quickly announced that the mission would continue, and told everyone to be extra vigilant.
On the teams that had lost members, some faces were grim, darkened by the loss of their comrades.
But they also knew this was unavoidable.
These kinds of operations were inherently filled with danger and uncertainty. If you didn’t make it back alive, you could only blame your own lack of strength, or your bad luck!
Marcus Monroe and his team proceeded to the large building with the A-frame roof.
Inside, various pieces of equipment were strewn about. It did look like an indoor training room, but unfortunately, there was nothing else. When they came back out, the other squads were emerging as well. The whole group split in two, following the paths on either side of the school building to head deeper into the complex.
Since the base was built on a mountainside, the ground sloped gently upward.
With no more buildings blocking their line of sight, they could easily see the layout beyond.
A few large, barracks-style dormitories, a plot of land that had been tilled for crops or vegetables, and a few scattered houses.
The group searched all the locations as quickly as possible, and after finding nothing, they converged at the base’s underground entrance.
This time, no one else went missing.
Leo Joyce let out a quiet sigh of relief.
The base’s underground entrance looked like the entrance to an air-raid shelter from the outside, only much larger. Six or seven people could walk through it side-by-side without a problem.
The door was broken.
The stone-lined entrance gaped open before them.
A look inside revealed nothing but deep darkness.
After the recent mysterious disappearances, the sight of it made many of them frown, including Paige Summers and her companions.
At that moment, Ben tugged on Paige Summers’s sleeve, pointed at the entrance, and shook his head.
Paige Summers let out a breath.
’Ben has a very sensitive nose. If even I can smell that reek, he definitely can too. I can’t quite place the smell, but it’s foul. Any stronger and it would probably be suffocating.’
’It seems there’s definitely something down there that even he considers dangerous!’
’To be honest, I really don’t want to go in.’
’I really don’t have any good memories of tunnels.’
’Just filled with filth and bad luck.’
She glanced at Rhonda Rhodes, but Rhonda shook her head, made a subtle gesture toward the Compass, and then pointed inside.
The corner of Paige Summers’s mouth twitched.
’Looks like there’s no getting out of it...’
Marcus Monroe glanced at her, gave her a light pat on the back, and mouthed the words, "It’s okay, don’t be afraid."
Paige Summers felt a bit awkward. ’Why is he coddling me like a real kid!’
’I’m not scared... I just feel a little tired, that’s all.’
’Huh? Tired?’
’I’ve been carried this whole time, why would I feel tired?!’