Chapter Seventy-Two: The No Man’s Land

Sophia nodded and clapped her hands toward the door.

Several attendants in white entered in single file, each carrying a substantial load. They walked over to Zhou Yi and the others, placing their burdens on the table.

"Take all of this with you—store it in your inventory function. I’ve granted you temporary access; I’ll revoke it when you return to the base. The control panel can be used at any time. If you sense danger or haven’t finished investigating, don’t worry—just send me a message and I’ll teleport you all back immediately. Also, there’s no time limit for this mission world, nor any set objectives for you. All you need is to gain some understanding of the world."

Zhou Yi nodded. Sophia was making it clear that everyone should know he had storage privileges, and that she had specifically enabled it for him. There was no need for envy; the reason was obvious—it was to explore this uncharted mission world. Whether this privilege was temporary or permanent depended entirely on Sophia.

Zhou Yi opened the control panel, fiddling with it for a while on purpose. Sophia helped demonstrate, then walked over to the table and began packing all the supplies away.

Sophia was a meticulous person, and the supplies she had prepared were abundant—not just food and water, but also tools: axes, saws, steel nails, ropes, knives, and even gasoline.

Seeing all this, Zhou Yi was a little surprised. What kind of place was this mission world, that they would need such supplies?

He glanced at Sophia; with preparations like these, she hardly seemed ignorant of what awaited them.

Suppressing his questions, Zhou Yi packed everything up—for Carter’s men were still present, and the less said the better.

With Fatty and Cheng Zhi, Zhou Yi did not head for the space capsule. Since it was their real bodies being transmitted, lying down was pointless. Instead, they stepped onto a platform resembling an elevator. Zhou Yi remembered returning by just such a device last time.

With Carter absent, Sophia didn’t ask anyone else to operate the controls; she did it herself, tapping away before looking at Zhou Yi on the platform.

“If anything happens, contact me immediately. If you encounter more than two Hunters, abort the exploration at once. We can abandon this mission world if necessary—your safety comes first!”

Zhou Yi nodded emphatically.

Her words warmed him—Sophia truly wished him unharmed, and she was also offering an easy way out if things went wrong.

As Sophia pressed the final button, a white shield appeared around the elevator platform. There was no painful pressure in their ears, only the rising hum of electricity. Cheng Zhi looked tense; Fatty gave his shoulder a reassuring pat.

“Better than riding an elevator—just a moment and we’ll be there!”

Before the words were out, the platform gave a slight jolt, the electric hum ceased, and the white shield vanished in an instant.

A biting cold wind swept in. Zhou Yi quickly looked around—they seemed to be on a mountaintop, barren and treeless. In the distance, valleys and ravines stretched out, with patches of snow lingering in the shaded areas. From below in the gorge came a faint, rustling sound—nothing like water.

Zhou Yi stepped off the platform, and the other two followed. Instantly, the platform vanished, shrinking to a palm-sized disk. Cheng Zhi stared; Fatty bent down to pick it up, knowing they’d need it to return.

Fatty sneezed and rubbed his nose.

“Boss, is this the Great Gobi Desert?”

Everywhere they looked was barren mountain—utter wilderness, with no sign of cities or human activity.

Zhou Yi was dumbfounded. The world was unknown, certainly, but if there were no people, how could it be a mission world? But for now, what could they do?

The wind bit at them. Their base-issued jumpsuits were as warm as air-conditioning, but their heads and hands, left exposed, quickly stiffened with cold.

He looked around; the mountain to their left seemed higher. Zhou Yi pointed and said:

“Let’s go to the summit on the left. From the highest point, we can at least search for a city or signs of human activity.”

The other two said nothing, following Zhou Yi leftward. They stood atop a rocky peak, searching in vain for a path down, until they found a low, gentle slope. Zhou Yi leapt down.

It didn’t look high, but the landing was rough; Zhou Yi nearly lost his senses. Cheng Zhi managed with some agility; Fatty tumbled several times before stopping.

He stood, dusting himself off and grimacing.

“Damn it, what is this place—are we on some wilderness survival show?”

Zhou Yi had no time for complaints.

It was daylight, but judging by the sky, sundown was only a few hours off. In such wild country, three people exposed outdoors was far too dangerous—you never knew what might happen.

Two hours later.

They had climbed to the summit opposite, having saved time by traversing the mountainside.

But standing on the crest, they were even more stunned.

Fatty leaned on his knees, nearly collapsing.

“What the hell is this place?”

Cheng Zhi’s legs felt weak too; he patted Fatty’s shoulder.

“Fatty, don’t say anything. Your mouth is a jinx!”

“…”

Fatty froze.

He turned to Zhou Yi in exasperation. Though Zhou Yi was silent, his expression said everything—Fatty’s face collapsed.

“Come on, I was just expressing my feelings. It really is as bleak as the Gobi. Look—the peaks are bare, just a few branches on the sunny slopes halfway up. If it pours rain…”

At the word “rain,” Cheng Zhi lunged and clamped a hand over Fatty’s mouth. In this temperature, rain would be a nightmare.

Zhou Yi was troubled too. He rubbed his numb hands and opened the control panel on his wrist, searching for something like a GPS—it could scan the local map, surely seeing farther than the eye.

A tablet-like device appeared; Zhou Yi caught it. A green ring spun on its surface, ticking rhythmically.

When the ring stopped, the ticking ceased, and a map appeared. Zhou Yi stared, stunned.

Damn, it really was the Gobi.

Fatty and Cheng Zhi crowded around when Zhou Yi failed to speak, sneaking a glance at the map.

Cheng Zhi cast a resentful look at Fatty.

Fatty quickly waved his hand, disclaiming responsibility. “How is this my fault? I say Gobi and it’s the Gobi? If I said this was Paradise in the Sky, would someone show up to serve us?”

“Don’t look at me—how could I predict this?”

Zhou Yi sighed and swiped the map left and right; the borders wouldn’t move. Clearly, they could only map places they’d been.

But one bright spot blinked on the map, right where they stood.

Zhou Yi tried zooming in, and at the foot of the mountains and along the edge of the gorge, there were red dots—the only anomalies on the map. As he turned, the map’s orientation shifted with him.

It functioned much like a navigation system.

Judging by the distance between two peaks, the red dot wasn’t far at all.

But what could it be…?

A mission world sealed for ten years, with no name, no number, no indication of its era, and once occupied by the Hunter Clan for years—could there be something special here?

He thought of the supplies Sophia had sent—just what you’d need for wilderness survival. Did she know something she couldn’t tell him?

A sudden crack of thunder shattered Zhou Yi’s thoughts.

The sky darkened visibly as storm clouds rolled in, lightning flickering among them. The weather was enough to unnerve even Zhou Yi.

Fatty panicked.

“Damn, is it really going to rain? I take it back!”