Dawn.
Most of the research institute staff had returned to their quarters. The few who were working overtime or on patrol remained at their posts. This was the time of day when people were most relaxed and prone to complacency, with those on duty dozing in their chairs.
The majority of the lights were extinguished, leaving only some for illumination. The laboratory was somewhat dim, with several alien monsters sedated and drowsy at the moment.
Suddenly, a shrill dog bark echoed from the laboratory.
The person on duty was startled, jolting upright. He glanced at the surveillance video but found nothing unusual.
Perhaps he had heard the dog barking for too long during the day and was hallucinating.
After a moment's thought, he got up to check. All the animals in the laboratory were asleep, with no sign of anything amiss.
He shook his head, returned to his post, and resumed dozing in his chair.
Moments later, he was completely unaware of the paused time on the surveillance feed. By the time he sat down again, everything had returned to normal.
Inside the laboratory.
The air seemed to be distorted by something, creating a peculiar sense of oppression. The distortion lasted only a few seconds before a woman emerged from the warped space.
She was clad in a white robe that covered her from head to toe. She held a scepter in her hand, her white attire making her appear incredibly holy, much like a legendary high priestess.
Yet, as this "holy" figure materialized in the laboratory, all the alien creatures awoke. They let out terrified screams, their bodies recoiling backward, their desperate cries echoing as if hoping for a savior.
"Haven't seen you for a while, and you've become dumber," the woman's cool voice scoffed. She walked towards the "rabbit" confined in a cage, saying, "Thought you were free by coming to this place? You're still locked up, useless and foolish no matter where you go."
"Useless, foolish."
A winged alien couldn't help but mimic, but under the terrifying threat, it managed to suppress its instincts. It repeated the two words and then wisely fell silent, looking at her with fear.
Their eyes glowed in the darkness. The eyes of one mutated dog with three eyes resembled three luminous dots on a circle, appearing somewhat eerie.
"Heh." She chuckled as she approached the alien that had just mimicked her speech. Reaching out towards the glass cage, the glass seemed to instantly transform into a semi-finished product, a transparent silicone, which then disintegrated into particles floating in mid-air, allowing the woman's hand to reach in and pluck out the winged alien.
"Keep imitating me."
The bird-like alien struggled in her grasp, emitting terrified, piercing cries. Slowly, it turned into a pile of dust in the woman's hand.
She tossed the powder in her hand, looking at the other aliens. "Do you want to go back? Or go back?"
The first "back" meant returning to that void.
The second "back" meant returning to the true nature of all things.
A group of aliens chirped noisily. The woman smiled with satisfaction, energy emanating from her body. The space in the laboratory twisted again, and the cages holding them opened one by one.
They eagerly scrambled out, stepping into the distorted space, and vanished from the laboratory.
As the last one, an alien with arms, approached the passageway, the woman said with annoyance, "Humans only have two hands."
A flicker of confusion crossed the beast-like creature's pupils.
"Go back."
Hopelessly foolish.
It too, quickly ran inside.
Once they were all gone, the woman retracted her power, looked around, and then her own body vanished from the laboratory.
—
One could only drive to enter the village, and the final stretch required walking.
They set off early in the morning and were still not at their destination by almost noon. Uncle Sheng had initially worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up since she hadn't fully recovered from childbirth, and had even planned for two female soldiers to carry her.
To his surprise, Zhuo Yan walked with a steady pace, her face unruffled and her breathing even. Climbing the mountain was as effortless as walking on flat ground, and she moved at a relaxed pace in the middle of the group.
It was he, on the other hand, whose physical condition was poor. Coupled with several days of insufficient rest, he sometimes felt dizzy if he walked too fast. A captain providing protection, seeing this, had soldiers take turns carrying him up the mountain.
Uncle Sheng felt a pang of embarrassment.
But he was indeed slowing down the entire team, so he could only let others carry him.
As they entered a wooded area, his communicator suddenly rang.
This village was quite remote, and once they entered the mountains, there was no mobile signal at all. Therefore, they used satellite communication. Whoever was contacting him was almost certainly from the research institute.
The soldier put him down, and the people ahead stopped.
"Hello."
"It's me. What's wrong?"
Uncle Sheng's face grew increasingly grim, turning almost black enough to drip ink.
"I understand."
After hanging up, he walked to the front and looked at Zhuo Yan and another researcher.
"It's a call from the research institute. All the items sent back yesterday have completely disappeared."
The other person was also stunned. After a while, he asked, "Disappeared? How did they disappear?"
"There was a problem with the surveillance video. I'm not entirely sure what kind of problem, but the laboratory has an alarm system. If a person did it, the chance of success is too low. I don't think it was a person."
"Could it be the aliens?"
Zhuo Yan's mind was also in disarray.
Those aliens, capable of transforming themselves in such a manner, indicated they couldn't control space. Without human assistance, how had they escaped?
"I don't know."
Zhuo Yan looked ahead. "Let's go to that place first. We can discuss other matters when we get back."
They knew nothing for now, and further discussion would be fruitless. They could only continue forward.
After another half-hour of walking, they finally reached the location of the well.
City C was already a relatively remote area, and this small village was deep in the mountains. Because the terrain was too high and unsuitable for habitation, its residents had moved away long ago. They had relied on energy reaction positioning to find this place.
Only some ruins of the village could be vaguely discerned. The area around the well had been cleared, with several resting spots and even tents set up. People were still guarding it.
As soon as they saw them, the guards rushed over excitedly. "Professor Sheng, you're finally back!" Su Dan Novel Network
Uncle Sheng sat down to rest and asked, "Did anything escape while we were gone?"