After a satisfying meal back at the "Fire and Iron" Inn, Jiang Baimian surveyed the group and said:
"The relaxation ends here. From now on, stay alert, maintain a high level of vigilance, and occasionally recall 'Yougu's' gaze or 'Zhuang Sheng's' dream."
"Why?" Shang Jianyao was the first to express his confusion. "The bloody disaster isn't until the day after tomorrow!"
Jiang Baimian let out a "Tch":
"Prophecies can be interpreted in multiple ways. They can be fulfilled directly or in reverse. There are too many interpretations, and we can't bet everything on a single possibility."
"Right, right, right!" Shang Jianyao immediately changed his tune.
"Yes, yes." Long Yuehong nodded in agreement.
Shang Jianyao then added:
"Indeed, there are too many examples in Old World entertainment materials of prophecies being misinterpreted, leading to the opposite outcome."
Don't remind me that my experience with prophecies comes entirely from Old World entertainment materials… Jiang Baimian muttered silently.
The "Old Task Force" hasn't encountered many prophecies so far: one from Zen Master Xanaga of the "Crystal Consciousness Church," one originating from the "Asceticism Department," and the other related to the Bodhi statue.
Jiang Baimian further explained:
"Even if the bloody disaster does happen the day after tomorrow, it doesn't mean there's no danger in the next two days.
"What if the enemy launches an attack tonight, gains control of us, and then carries out a humanitarian destruction on us the day after tomorrow? That would still fit the prophecy of the bloody disaster occurring the day after tomorrow.
"Also, people from the Eighth Research Institute might come to sift through our memories in the next day or two to confirm the situation here and prepare for the ambush the day after tomorrow. If they find out about our plans and understand our schemes, and then turn them against us, we'll be in big trouble."
"Treacherous!" Shang Jianyao didn't know if he was cursing the misleading nature of prophecies or the sneakiness of the people from the Eighth Research Institute.
Then, he applauded for Jiang Baimian.
Clap, clap, clap.
Bai Chen nodded slightly and said:
"These are indeed situations that align with the prophecy and need to be guarded against."
"Under normal circumstances, occasionally recalling 'Yougu's' gaze or 'Zhuang Sheng's' dream isn't difficult, but we still need to sleep. Who can control themselves in their dreams to recall specific memories?" Long Yuehong raised a technical difficulty.
Genaeva's red eyes flickered for a moment and said:
"Should we ask Gitis to help with 'Divinity Derivation'?"
"That would affect her condition. She's different from us; she hasn't undergone genetic modification. She also has to split her attention to control multiple bodies, so her mental energy is greatly consumed. Her daily training has probably decreased as well." Jiang Baimian rejected this idea.
She then revealed a smile that made Long Yuehong shudder:
"Since we can't control ourselves while sleeping and find it difficult to recall, let's solve this problem at its root."
"How do we solve it?" Shang Jianyao was very much in the spirit of a comic foil.
Jiang Baimian looked around again and said:
"Don't sleep!
"It's only tonight and tomorrow night that we won't sleep. We can totally handle it and still maintain good combat capability."
"..." Long Yuehong was silent for a few seconds before saying, "I guess so."
He wouldn't have any major problems not sleeping for just two days.
He just didn't expect the team leader's solution to be so simple and crude.
"You guys." Shang Jianyao became proud. "You're really not as good as me in this regard. We can take turns resting."
How do you manage to switch so smoothly between "I" and "we"? Jiang Baimian muttered inwardly, ignoring this guy and looking directly at Genaeva:
"Old Ge, pay attention to your power consumption and recharge in a timely manner."
As an intelligent robot, Genaeva could easily go without sleep or rest for its components for months.
"Any other questions?" Jiang Baimian always knew how to leverage everyone's wisdom to identify and fill any gaps.
Shang Jianyao raised his hand:
"I do."
"Speak," Jiang Baimian said, adjusting her mindset as a matter of course.
Shang Jianyao asked:
"Since we need to be wary of these situations you mentioned, why didn't you say so earlier and let us eat and drink so much without any sense of vigilance?"
Before Jiang Baimian could speak, he "suddenly realized":
"To teach us a lesson!"
"Only you need to be taught a lesson, thank you." Jiang Baimian retorted impolitely, "Do the math. How long did it take from the moment Murrey and Benito 'woke up' and sent a telegram to the Eighth Research Institute to when we were eating? Unless the people from the Eighth Research Institute had already detected the abnormality and secretly planned against us for a long time, they wouldn't be so fast. And if they had been plotting against us all along, then everything we did would have been 'seen' by them, and there would be no secrets to keep. Relaxing or not while eating wouldn't matter."
Jiang Baimian paused and then said:
"Actually, these few hours shouldn't be a problem, but since we're idle anyway, we might as well start early and adapt to a life of high alert as soon as possible."
"Mm-hm." Long Yuehong and the others nodded in agreement.
With their thoughts aligned, the "Old Task Force" entered a state of combat readiness.
...
In the early hours of the morning, inside the safe house where Murrey and Benito were staying.
One of them was lying on the bed, and the other was on the sofa, both sleeping soundly.
Suddenly, in the deep darkness of the night, something invisible seemed to be fluctuating, transforming into two unseen, intangible tentacles that appeared to not even exist, silently reaching towards Murrey and Benito and burrowing into their heads.
A moment later, the two invisible tentacles, as if they were merely a nightmare, retracted and merged into the darkness.
After an unknown amount of time, in the neighborhood where Morr lived, a large number of countless invisible, colorless things resembling tentacles rose into the night.
Indistinguishable from each other in the darkness, they extended towards different rooms.
In this way, the tentacles, like nightmare monsters from legends that sucked people's brains, sometimes rose and sometimes receded in different neighborhoods of Gesterbourg.
Some people woke up as a result, but there was nothing abnormal. Half-closing his eyes, he left the bed, and wobbly found the toilet to solve the distention that had been holding back for a long time.
Following a certain pattern or tracing a certain path, the invisible and colorless tentacles finally arrived at the "Fire and Iron" Inn.
After one of them entered Spante's head for a few minutes, the night rippled, and four tentacles branched out, quietly extending towards the "Old Task Force's" suite.
Inside the suite's living room, the lights were still on. Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, Bai Chen, and Long Yuehong were either sitting in different positions or huddled together, none of them asleep yet.
Two of them were on guard, and two were watching Old World entertainment materials, using a bit of leisure to prevent their minds from snapping.
But regardless of which side they were on, every few minutes, they would recall "Yougu's" gaze or "Zhuang Sheng's" dream in their minds.
The invisible tentacles stopped in the night, as if blocked by the light, and did not extend into the room, towards the heads of the four carbon-based humans of the "Old Task Force."
They quietly clung to the curtained windows, like eyes peering into the room.
Fifteen minutes passed, half an hour passed, two hours passed, and the "Old Task Force" still hadn't fallen asleep.
Finally, the invisible tentacles retracted and disappeared into the darkness.
...
In the blink of an eye, the day mentioned in the prophecy arrived. It was also the day Murrey and Benito were to leave Gesterbourg and return to the Eighth Research Institute.
The two exchanged glances and, according to the original plan, informed the "Old Task Force" of their departure time and which intersection they would take to the Icefield.
Genaeva received their telegram and knew that they were about to depart.
"We should also go out." Jiang Baimian said as she ate a pill that stimulated her brain to keep her awake.
Although she could still hold on completely and her spirit was still fine, with a formidable enemy present, any improvement in her condition was beneficial.
Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Shang Jianyao also took the "Pangu Biology" produced pill.
Then, they went downstairs, settled the room bill, and got into the jeep.
The jeep headed towards the exit from Gesterbourg that led to the Icefield, at a speed that was neither too fast nor too slow.
As the outer fortifications came into view, a deep-red off-road vehicle drove out from another street, parallel to them.
There was only one person in the off-road vehicle, a man in his thirties.
He was wearing a baseball cap and gray-blue clothes, with a slightly hooked nose and obvious golden stubble on his cheeks.
When Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong looked over, the man driving released his left hand and made a Buddhist palm gesture.
This was the confirmation method agreed upon in advance between the "Old Task Force" and Gitis.
Shang Jianyao contentedly retracted his gaze and nodded to Jiang Baimian.
Jiang Baimian couldn't help but sigh silently:
"'Clairvoyance' and 'Clairaudience' are really too useful. We don't need to contact her specifically at all; Gitis can cooperate well and keep up in time, without worrying about being detected by hidden monitors..."
At this moment, the traffic lights at the intersection ahead changed, and the jeep and the deep-red off-road vehicle drove out of this street one after the other, entering the road interspersed with the outer fortifications.