39: The psionic prodigy is actually the base's human radar!

As the base gradually relocated into the "Frontier Outpost," order was re-established upon the graveyard of steel.

Ample supplies of nutrient paste and pure water brought a flush of color back to the sallow faces of the survivors.

The one who changed the most was Aila.

The little girl was no longer the terrified, anxious child she had been; her cheeks had filled out, making her look less gaunt.

In those clear, large eyes, the curiosity and sparkle belonging to a child were rekindled.

She felt a sense of wonder about everything in the base.

She would crouch in the distance, watching curiously as the SCVs used their massive mechanical arms to cut and weld metal; the spraying sparks were like beautiful fireworks in her eyes.

She would also secretly imitate the patrolling Space Marines, mimicking their heavy, stomping gait, only to trip over herself and sit on the ground, giggling.

She even gave those cold steel giants cute nicknames, such as calling the dark red Firebat "Big Heater" and the hulking Marauder "Mr. Thump-Thump."

Her innocent smile became the warmest sight in this cold base.

But soon, people noticed that Aila was a bit "special."

She became unusually sensitive.

There were certain places she would intentionally or subconsciously avoid, and she wouldn't go there no matter who tried to pull her along.

For instance, she absolutely refused to go near the warehouse that had previously stored the chemicals of the Children of the Sewer, even though that area had been scorched to bare earth by the plasma flames of a Firebat and cleaned over and over again by SCVs.

Whenever she got close to that place, she would pout, tears welling up in her eyes.

One day, Marcus prepared his militia squad, ready to enter a newly discovered abandoned maintenance tunnel.

That tunnel could bypass a massive, dangerous pile of scrap, significantly shortening the patrol route.

"Stay sharp! Check your weapons and comms!"

Marcus patted the cmc power armor on his chest and led the way toward the pitch-black tunnel entrance.

Just as one of his feet was about to step into the darkness, a small figure suddenly rushed over.

Aila.

She gripped the hem of Marcus's combat uniform tightly, her small body trembling from the effort.

Her little face was filled with terror as she shook her head desperately, her other small finger pointing into the depths of the tunnel, making "woo-woo" sounds, refusing to let him go.

"Aila, stop it, Uncle Marcus has to go to work."

One of the squad members tried to pull her away.

"Don't touch her."

Marcus stopped the squad member.

He crouched down, trying to make his expression look gentler.

"What's wrong, Aila? Is there something in there?"

Aila couldn't speak; she just shook her head, tears falling in large drops as her hand gripped his uniform even tighter.

Marcus was a bit puzzled.

He looked at the bottomless tunnel, then back at Aila's fearful expression.

A strange sense of unease welled up in his heart.

He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately chose to trust the intuition this child had given him.

"Everyone, fall back! We're taking another route!"

"But Captain, that will add over an hour to our route..."

"Execute the order!"

Marcus's voice was unquestionable.

Not long after, when they arrived panting at the other side of the tunnel's intended exit after taking the long way around, everyone stopped in their tracks.

The sight before them made everyone's back turn cold.

The floor of that tunnel had completely collapsed.

A massive gap, over a dozen meters in diameter, had appeared there, with a bottomless sewage shaft churning with foul-smelling gases below.

At the edge of the collapse, one could still see several severed wires connected to some devices emitting a faint glow.

Those were traps, the marks left behind by an explosion.

If they had walked in there just now...

Marcus felt a bone-chilling cold shoot up his spine to the top of his head; cold sweat instantly soaked his inner lining.

If he had taken just one more step forward, he and his squad would have been sent into that abyss of no return, along with the explosives and the cave-in.

This incident was quickly reported to the Command Center.

Zhang Yuan looked at the structural analysis of the trap transmitted back by the exploration robot on the holographic screen, remaining silent.

He immediately thought of all of Aila's previous abnormal behaviors.

Could this be... psionics?

A passive ability to foresee danger?

"This is an early manifestation of psionic talent."

Ilaria's voice rang out behind him, incomparably grave.

She had arrived at some point, also looking at the screen.

"But this is also the most dangerous stage."

She walked to Zhang Yuan's side and lowered her voice.

"She is currently a lit candle without a lampshade. Her light can illuminate the traps ahead for you, but it also draws all the moths lurking in the darkness that crave devouring light—and even more terrifying things—directly to you."

From Aila's perspective, she didn't know what "psionics" was.

She only "felt" it.

In that pitch-black tunnel, there were "bad things" that made her skin crawl waiting inside.

That feeling was like the monsters she imagined when she was little, hiding under the bed, waiting to grab her ankles.

Those "bad things" gave off a "stench" that made her feel nauseous.

And on Uncle Marcus, there was a warm "light."

She didn't want that warm light to be dirtied by those "stenches" or to be devoured.

Although Ilaria was worried, Aila's "early warning" ability did indeed help the base avoid several potential risks over the next few days.

Once, due to Aila's crying and fussing, the SCV construction team avoided a section of a crumbling ceiling; half an hour later, that concrete slab, weighing dozens of tons, crashed down with a roar.

Another time, a man claiming to be a Scavenger wanted to trade some rare metals for food, attempting to get close to the base.

When he reached the pass, Aila, who was playing with her grandfather nearby, suddenly screamed, pointing at the man, her face full of disgust and fear.

"Dirty... so stinky!"

Aila's intense reaction made the guards immediately vigilant.

Under the dark muzzles of the Space Marines, the "Scavenger's" disguise was instantly torn away.

He was a spy belonging to that mysterious organization Ilaria had mentioned—the "Spiders Web."

On his person, he did indeed have a device that could emit weak psychic fluctuations.

Zhang Yuan began to systematically record every "early warning" from Aila on a separate personal terminal: the time, location, target, and the subsequent verification results.

He kept Aila protected in the safest living area of the Command Center and had Old Man Enos look after her, never leaving her side.

He knew very well that this impossibly pure little girl might be his greatest trump card in this dark world, aside from the system.

However, he did not know.

At the moment he held this trump card in his hand, the dealer sitting in the shadows of the abyss across the table had already noticed him.

A formal "greeting" was about to arrive.