The Mirror Image returned to the shard.
Xin Ye strapped the pressure-resistant searchlight to his hand and, without a moment’s hesitation, dove straight into the water.
The blue of the sea deepened from a pale, shallow hue into a heavy indigo. The coral reefs and other brightly colored vistas began to recede, bit by bit.
If diving initially offered a sense of decompression through its silence and sensory release, that feeling shifted once the body fully adapted to the environment. When the mind was deprived of external stimuli for too long, the fears hidden deep within the heart were easily triggered by the darkness, turning the experience into a source of crushing psychological pressure.
Schools of fish with jagged, sharp teeth swam directly overhead, turning the light falling upon him into a flickering, mottled pattern.
【The space here is much larger than the simulated aquatic zone,】 Xun Yin’s voice echoed. 【You won’t run into mutated species as easily.】
【Gu Shaolou originally sank to a depth of about eight hundred meters, but he was eventually pushed down to fifteen hundred meters by deep-sea creatures. Still, you’ve taken three doses of the reagent; you should be fine at this depth.】
Xin Ye covered the gills on either side of his neck, exhaling the last breath of air he had taken through his nose and mouth. His buoyancy gradually decreased until it was less than his body weight, allowing him to sink freely.
The light continued to fade, and his surroundings grew darker and darker.
He remembered being afraid to open his eyes underwater when he was learning to swim as a child. He had thought the water would be painful and insisted on wearing goggles. It felt surreal that he could now stare directly into the endless, yawning void ahead.
People often said that diving into the deep was difficult, but from his current perspective, it wasn't so bad. All it required was endurance—a long, grueling stretch of endurance.
A slight pain began to throb in his ears, and the static-like noise returned.
Though the scent of blood from his wounds and clothes had been mostly diluted by the seawater, it still attracted several predators with keen senses of smell.
Holding his breath until he reached his limit, Xin Ye finally activated his gills. He focused on evasion, only clearing a path when necessary, and accelerated his descent.
The displaced currents wrapped around the human—who looked exceptionally frail compared to the massive mutated beasts behind him—acting as both a gentle protector and a source of resistance.
The number of mutated creatures trailing Xin Ye grew. Some wanted to eat him; others wanted the small fish he had sliced open with his blade.
A single human followed by a massive swarm of fish—it looked like a scene straight out of a deep-sea sci-fi novel.
Xun Yin’s cheering was somewhat perfunctory: 【Keep going, almost there. Nine hundred meters. This is exactly how Leng Xianye escaped back then... ah, wait, no it isn't. He used the Black Box to devour the mutated species.】
An increase in Ability Rank corresponded with an enhancement in physical attributes. At this moment, the gap between Xin Ye and the S-rank Leng Xianye was like the difference between heaven and earth.
Suddenly, a bizarrely shaped fish lunged from the blind spot of the searchlight. Before Xin Ye could even identify what kind of mutation it was, he was slammed upward. The fish pursuing him from behind had no concept of braking and collided with him, pushing him further down.
In the chaos, he felt a sharp sting as a spine or tooth from some creature tore across his back. Another wound was added to his collection, and the taste of blood drifted through the water, touching his lips.
The injured man, however, felt no pain, moving like a machine. Seizing the opportunity, he used the momentum of the impact to escape the gaping maws of the creatures behind him and dove a significant distance further.
Rather than the blood he was losing, he was more concerned with the spreading ache in his throat and chest. It felt as though his internal organs were being squeezed to their limit, on the verge of rupturing from the pressure.
At thirteen hundred meters, he spoke to Xun Yin in his mind for the first time since entering the water: "Where is it?"
【Diagonally ahead and down. You’ll see the corpse of a deformed monster lying inside a ruptured hull.】
Xin Ye followed the instructions, gripping the searchlight that had been knocked askew. He nearly cut his hand on a jagged piece of broken glass.
He saw a blurred silhouette.
Fourteen hundred meters.
"...I think I see it. Is that... a white medical pod?"
【No other pods would have sunk in this part of the sea. Just get closer. As for how to devour it... just stab the mirror shard into the monster's corpse.】
As he neared his goal, his heart grew strangely calm, his pulse slowing down.
Xin Ye reached out with effort, finally touching the edge of the pod. It was fragile from being soaked in seawater and warped into uneven ridges by the immense pressure.
He aimed the searchlight directly at the center of the ruptured pod.
...
Xin Ye did not see a monster.
He saw a human corpse, preserved in a state that could only be described as perfect.
It was the body of Gu Shaolou.
Xin Ye didn't know Gu Shaolou’s exact age, but the man before him looked to be only about thirty. He had a face that perfectly suited a scientist, and his white lab coat fluttered slightly in the wake of Xin Ye’s movement.
He froze.
Xun Yin realized the "keyboard" in his mind was stuck again. On the other end, Xin Ye was silent. The system asked anxiously: 【What’s wrong? You see the Mutation Core, don't you? Hurry up and stab it. It’s almost over.】
Why was it different from what Xun Yin had described? Had something changed?
...He had already come this far. There was no turning back.
The only person who had ever seen the Core’s true form was the Leng Xianye from the previous timeline. No one could tell Xin Ye whether the corpse before his eyes was truly the Mutation Core or not.
"...You're right. It’s almost over."
He let go of the searchlight. The already weak beam of light sank into the abyss. Gripping the mirror shard with both hands, he lunged toward Gu Shaolou’s body.
Regardless of what it was, he had to destroy the thing in front of him. There was no other way.
The mutated creatures from behind had caught up again, closing in rapidly.
The tip of the shard was aimed directly at Gu Shaolou’s heart—
Then, the moment the white coat and the shard made contact, Gu Shaolou’s body vanished.
It vanished into thin air.
Xin Ye stood frozen in place.
Xun Yin’s voice continued to ring frantically in his head: 【How is it on your end? I can’t even type the words 'Mutation Core'... Hello? Can you still hear me? The keyboard is moving on its own... Xin Ye! Dodge! The creatures behind you are attacking!】
Something clamped onto his shoulder, tearing away a chunk of flesh. Xin Ye’s hand jerked, and the mirror shard slipped from his fingers, falling into the depths just like the searchlight.
But a pair of hands caught the shard.
The Mirror Image grabbed Xin Ye and pulled him into the Mirror Dimension.
A fang-fish that had mutated from fifteen centimeters to one and a half meters snapped its jaws on empty water.
***
After returning from the toy factory mission, Leng Xianye had nightmares for three consecutive days.
It was always the same dream: the pitch-black deep sea.
He hated dark environments more than anything, yet in the dream, he couldn't even struggle as he sank deeper and deeper. Finally, consumed by overwhelming terror, he used the Black Box to devour himself.
The Black Box, which was supposed to be unable to swallow humans, had accepted him and consumed him in the dream.
He only told Xing Yue about it. Xing Yue comforted him, saying, "You’ve already left that room. From now on, you will live in the light."
When it came to his fear of the dark, Xing Yue’s words were always effective, so Leng Xianye stopped dwelling on it.
However, they had another problem to solve.
Since the mission ended, Xin Ye had been hiding for three days, seeing no one.
That day, all four of them had fallen asleep in the car. When Yi Ting woke them up, Xin Ye was already gone. Yi Ting said Fu Shu had been looking for him urgently and had let him leave first.
They hadn't been suspicious at first; after all, Fu Shu had been incredibly clingy toward Xin Ye lately.
But a whole day passed without a word from him.
Lian Muyun and Tang Qiuqiu couldn't help themselves the next day and went to knock on Xin Ye’s dorm. They waited all afternoon until Lian Muyun was about to start fake-crying, only for Fu Shu to walk out and casually say, "He’s with Sister Ting."
The two of them were being passed around like a hot potato.
Tang Qiuqiu was struck with panic. "Is the Captain sick?! It’s my fault for making him worry so much... What kind of illness requires him to stay with Sister Ting? Can we go see him?"
Fu Shu kept his hands behind his back and didn't answer directly. "Forget it. Sister Ting won't allow it."
Lian Muyun and Fu Shu didn't quite get along. Ignoring the advice, she tried to run to Yi Ting’s office, but Xing Yue stopped her, saying they should try to gather some information indirectly first.
Recalling Xin Ye’s strange behavior before the mission, Lian Muyun suppressed her urge to demand answers.
But another day passed, and Xing Yue found out nothing. Yi Ting’s lips had never been so tightly sealed.
"If something is really wrong, it shouldn't be hidden for this long," Leng Xianye finally suggested that the four of them go find Yi Ting together. "If something happened at Headquarters, we should be able to help."
He didn't like using his family connections, but if it was a major problem, solving it took priority.
The four of them didn't give Yi Ting any prior notice, fearing she would use the time to cook up more excuses for Xin Ye. However, the researcher was nowhere to be found, and the person guarding her office was Fu Shu.
He was fiddling with the leaves of a spider plant. For some reason, the plant had looked a bit wilted over the last two days. "Sister Ting went to the breeding farm waters. She told me she wouldn't be back until midnight. Without a mission permit, the dorms have a curfew, right? It’s twelve o'clock sharp—you guys shouldn't wait. Go back and come again tomorrow."
Returning empty-handed, Leng Xianye’s suspicions deepened, though he didn't voice them.
On their way back, they ran into Tao Cheng’an and Xu Hua.
Tao Cheng’an had just returned from a mission and was severely injured. He hadn't had time to clean himself up and was leaning listlessly against Xu Hua. The relationship between the three teams was supposed to be unfriendly following the finals, but Tao Cheng’an stopped Xu Hua when he saw the group.
He looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated. After a long silence, he finally managed: "Your captain... he’s pretty ruthless, isn't he?"
Xu Hua suddenly let out a short laugh.
"Yeah, our captain is amazing. He led us through our first official HQ mission with ease," Lian Muyun, the most impatient of the group, snapped back. "You, on the other hand, look quite pathetic."
Xu Hua clearly knew something. "Oh? And where is your captain now..."
Tao Cheng’an clamped his hand over Xu Hua’s mouth.
He didn't share Xu Hua’s desire to mock others. He simply gave the group a deep, meaningful look. "I don't know what happened, but I still believe that once you're teammates, you have to trust each other... Your captain seems like a good person. It’s just a gut feeling. Forget it, I’ve said enough."
He urged Xu Hua to help him back to the dorms. Leng Xianye, who detested riddles, pressed him to explain what happened to Xin Ye, but Tao Cheng’an kept his mouth shut tight, refusing to utter another word.
What kind of massive event could make everyone around them so tight-lipped? Leng Xianye couldn't understand it.
His confusion didn't last much longer. The truth could no longer be hidden. That night, the anxiety that had gripped them for days was resolved by an email from Headquarters.
It turned into shock and bewilderment.
{Notice: Xin Ye, Captain of Team No. 04024 (formerly of the 7th Branch) directly under Headquarters, has defected. As members of his team, you are required to undergo personnel restructuring. Decisions are pending; all subsequent mission assignments are canceled.}
***
He sat by his bed until three in the morning before finally falling into a fitful sleep. He did not dream of the deep sea again.
