170: Trying to save

[Real World]

Shen Mingyuan circled and turned high in the sky, his dark purple eyepieces firmly locked onto the area below that had already turned into a small-scale ecological nightmare.

That Dragon—or rather, that aggregate of life irreversibly heading toward genetic collapse—was struggling to a horrific degree.

On its body, characteristics of animals, plants, and insects emerged, competed, covered, and vanished like boiling water; every change was accompanied by skin-crawlingly strange sounds and the frantic squirming of tissue.

It couldn't even manage effective movement anymore, only able to roll and twitch in place, performing the most chaotic and painful "show" of its life's final moments.

This was no longer an opponent suitable for close-quarters combat, but a walking biological disaster that could completely explode or collapse at any moment.

The GUPA forces below had clearly reached the same conclusion. Captain Mountain Leopard's urgent orders echoed through the public channel:

"All ground units! Retreat to a safe distance immediately! Repeat, retreat immediately! The target has entered an uncontrollable disintegration phase; biological contamination or area-of-effect energy splashes may occur!"

The silver-and-red motorcycle turned around without hesitation. With its engine roaring, it turned into a streak of light and quickly moved away from the Dragon's core area, heading toward the rear of the defensive line where Lu Jianchuan and the others were.

The ground team members, well-trained, also retreated quickly with their equipment, leaving only remote monitoring devices to continue working.

Shen Mingyuan also prepared to pull up to a higher altitude again to be safe.

Just then—

On his left wrist, at the part that had reverted to its armband form and was embedded with a crimson orb, he suddenly felt an abnormal stinging sensation!

It wasn't pain, but more like a weak bio-electric current surging across his skin. Shen Mingyuan immediately looked down.

He saw that inside the crimson orb, strands of extremely fine yet exceptionally clear scarlet electric arcs were forming, flowing, and jumping!

They weren't the violent black-red seen during an attack, but a bright red closer to a warning or... some kind of strong intent.

"What's going on?" Shen Mingyuan felt alert. His first reaction was that the armor or System had malfunctioned, but he immediately sensed his own state—

His power was full, his consciousness clear, his connection with the "twin stars" arm-blade stable, and his flight control effortless. There were no signs of discomfort or loss of control.

"It's not a malfunction... then what do you want... to express to me?" Shen Mingyuan muttered to himself, his sharp gaze scanning the surroundings. A Detective's instinct made him look for a point of connection for the abnormal signal.

He tried to slightly turn his left arm, changing the direction the orb was facing.

He quickly discovered a clear pattern:

When he pointed the orb directly at the collapsing Dragon below, the brightness, jumping frequency, and number of those scarlet arcs would reach a peak, emitting a faint light almost visible to the naked eye.

When he moved his arm away to point in other directions, the arcs would quickly weaken, becoming faint and almost nonexistent.

The orb was "looking" at that Dragon and producing its strongest "reaction" in this way.

Shen Mingyuan hovered in mid-air and stopped the meaningless turning. He was silent for a few seconds as his high-speed mind connected the clues:

The direct connection between the orb's abnormality and the suffering life below, and... this abnormality wasn't a forced command; it was more like a presentation.

"Are you telling me... about its situation? It's in pain, I know," Shen Mingyuan said softly to the orb on his wrist, as if talking to an invisible entity. "Could it be... you want to help it?"

As soon as he spoke, the scarlet arcs inside the orb suddenly intensified for a moment as if in affirmation, then returned to their previous state of strong, continuous jumping.

Shen Mingyuan's brow furrowed. "Help it? Get close to it now? That's dangerous."

His voice was calm, stating an objective fact. He didn't even directly ask "how to help," because that would mean he was already considering accepting this crazy suggestion.

Almost the instant he said the words "that's dangerous"—

All the jumping scarlet arcs inside the orb quickly receded like a tide, vanishing without a trace.

The crimson orb returned to its usual gentle, restrained luster, as if everything just now had never happened. That faint stinging sensation also disappeared.

This change made Shen Mingyuan startle slightly, and then, a barely perceptible curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He understood this silent answer: The suggestion has been made; the choice is yours. If you think the risk is too high, the matter is dropped. No coercion, no moral kidnapping, just placing a possibility before you.

This absolute respect actually caused the scales in Shen Mingyuan's heart to tip.

He looked at the twisted life below heading toward its end in endless pain—in a sense, also a "victim." A Detective's sense of justice, that instinct to seek fairness for the wronged and the victimized, resonated with the naked "injustice" and "pain" before him at this moment, and was ultimately touched.

"I didn't say I wouldn't save it," Shen Mingyuan said to the now-calm orb, as if responding to that respect. His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear and firm. "I only said it's dangerous. After all... it really does look quite pitiful."

As soon as he finished speaking!

Hum—!

The crimson orb lit up again! This time, the emerging scarlet arcs were brighter and more active than ever before. They were no longer just jumping, but even began to flow slightly along the contour of the armband, emitting a gentle yet firm warmth, as if expressing some kind of approval and... expectation.

"Then," Shen Mingyuan took a deep breath, his gaze becoming as sharp as a hawk's again as he locked onto the center of the Chaos below, "what should I do? Get close to it?"

Crackle! The orb emitted a clear, almost joyful soft sound of an electric arc, its red light steady and bright.

"Understood." Shen Mingyuan said no more. He took one last look into the distance, then suddenly looked up at the sky above.

He needed height, he needed speed, and he needed a perfectly controlled dive.

Huge wings suddenly unfurled. They weren't mechanical creations, but a structure composed of countless distinct, dense biological feathers shimmering with "iridescent black," full of the power and beauty of life.

He turned his body and began to climb rapidly upward, accumulating kinetic energy. At the same time, the arm-blade interfaces on both arms opened slightly, entering a ready-to-fire state, and the dark purple armor patterns began to flow with an even richer luster.

His speed increased sharply under the influence of gravity and the wing shape, and the sound of the wind breaking became sharp again.

Meanwhile, behind the second defensive line at a safe distance away.

"He—'shadow' is diving again!" a GUPA member responsible for observation immediately reported.

Captain Mountain Leopard, who was monitoring the battlefield with high-powered binoculars, and Lu Jianchuan beside him almost simultaneously turned their lenses toward that black figure descending from the sky.

"This angle... he's not attacking!" Captain Mountain Leopard's brow furrowed as he quickly judged that the dive trajectory wasn't pointed at any of the monster's "vitals" or a side used to inflict damage. "He's... heading directly for the core?"

Lu Jianchuan's fingers tightened slightly on his binoculars. He saw the posture of the black figure's arms during the dive—it wasn't the extension of gathering strength before an attack, but more like a retraction in preparation to withstand an impact or make contact.

"He... wants to touch that thing," Lu Jianchuan said in a deep voice, his tone filled with doubt and gravity. "What is he trying to do?"

"It's too dangerous! That thing is a biological bomb right now!"

Captain Mountain Leopard's voice was urgent, but he also immediately realized that given Shen Mingyuan's current speed and distance, any communication warning or interception was already too late.

"All units maintain silence! Do not interfere with him! Observers, keep a close eye on the moment of contact between 'shadow' and the target! Record all data!"

The order was given, but everyone's heart was in their throat. They could only watch helplessly as that black arrow representing "shadow" shot with a resolute posture toward that vortex of genetic collapse that was constantly twisting and boiling.

Shen Mingyuan blocked out all external distractions. In his dark purple eyepieces, the Dragon's silhouette rapidly enlarged in his field of vision. Those alien features that were frantically squirming, blooming, and vanishing were already clearly discernible. The stench, the disordered energy radiation, and the perception of countless lives mourning mixed together and rushed toward him.