Nightmare Shuttle

Tang Shun abruptly handed them a thin, black robe without a word. And after examining the stats, they immediately understood why. 

[The Grim Reapers Hood. (Medium Level)

Quality: Unique

Uses: Function 1. Completely masks all indicators of life.

Function 2. Can be used to disguise appearance and give monsters the illusion of being of the same kind.

Function 3. Can imitate the breath of any high class creature and used as a means to deter Low Level lifeforms.

Danger level: 50

Duration: 30 minutes.

Cool Down Time: 3 Days

System Remarks: <As the fake Grim Reaper, you are the bearer of death, you must be strong and you must be unpredictable. But considering that you're a weak trash, this robe will help to fool the eyes of a few brainless creatures. But just be careful, you might attract the hostility of the real Grim Reaper>]

This was exactly what they needed now, when the robes were pulled over their heads, they could instantly feel a shift in the atmosphere. It was like an intense and greedy gaze had always been concentrated on them without notice but suddenly that gaze looked away and the feeling of suffocation and pressure instantly eased.

Chu Yi glanced up and locked eyes with Tang Shun, the smile at the corner of his lips became meaningful.

Some people always say that judging a person's real smile or a fake smile depends on whether the smile at the corner of his mouth reaches his eyes. This method didn't work on Chu Yi, because when he laughed, his eyes were always bent, and the smile in the corner of his eyes was also very obvious, but it also made people unable to judge whether it was it was truly a sincere emotion. 

Everyone else was holding a rope, long or short, more or less, and the ropes contains all the things they care about in the world. Inevitably, they won't dare to stretch the rope too tightly or be careless, thinking too much until the rope becomes permanently attached to their bodies

But compared to others, Chu Yi's body seemed to be empty, self-separated from the rope and his actions weren't restricted by anything, like a boundless spirit wandering the realms. What he does and doesn't do depends entirely on his own consciousness. Because there is nothing, his choices are difficult to predict and control.

Tang Shun pushed up the metal frame glasses and walked out but before they could get far, he suddenly stopped them, raising a slender hand to point at something below their feet. Somehow, a strange dark red substance begun to seep into the room from the cracks in the door, draining heavily from the black walls that stood ominously in the corridor. It was as if the entire Institute was bleeding!

Chu Yi shifted his head to the front and stared at the end of the corridor, the dark and heavy shadows was like the abyss, beckoning and enticing them to descend into into the shura. That kind of cold resentment coiled tightly around the monotone building, even masked by the vibrant sweet scent, they could still smell the unpleasant rancid smell swirling in the air, accompanied by the unswerving rumbling of the heavy floors.

The dark red eyes revealed under the black hood flashed slightly, the Institute was just like a large gaping mouth, swallowing its prey and slowly digesting until nothing was left.

"Are we sure about this." Chao Bin's immature voice echoed slightly in the silence. The chaos around them seemed to be isolated in an infinite space. 

"Yes."

When Chu Yi said this, he voice did not reveal a sense of laziness. He spoke extremely calmly, so calm that people couldn't hear the usual sarcasm, sneers or any other meanings.

How many years ago since the last time Tang Shun had heard him speak like this? It's been too long, so long he couldn't remember, but it still makes him feel a little dazed, as if he had gone back in time.

Tang Shun narrowed his eyes slightly when he looked at the unfathomable and empty darkness. For a moment, he wanted to turn his head to look at Chu Yi, but in the end he didn't move, but after two seconds of silence, a low voice sounded, "Let's go."

The response couldn't be more plain, almost boring but Chu Yi seemed to sense something. He had always been very keen in this regard. Tang Shun didn't look back, he flung the dark hood over his head and took the first step out into the bloody path, Chao Bin behind him as he left the shouts and fighting of the players and monsters behind. 

Chu Yi's eyes flashed thoughtfully and with a silent grin, he followed, his faint footsteps echoing ominously in the silent wards.

It was as if they had traveled back to the fourth dimension, even as they walked unheeded through the Institute only a depressing darkness followed. Their footsteps echoed quietly as they slammed against the stairs leading down to the basement.

The heavy and sticky sludge seemed to have disappeared leaving only cold concrete floors underfoot, the open doors were now shut and an occasional drop of water would drip from the ceiling above. Even the rancid and damp smell that lingered had been replaced in favor of a heavy sterile smell.

The three looked at each and continued forward and it wasn't before they eventually arrived at their goal. 

The pitch black door had disappeared leaving only the sole red door, wide open as if welcoming them.

The strangeness in the air only seemed to grow deeper. 

Neither of them stepped back, with Tang Shun taking the lead, they stepped into the room.

This was a foreign room. 

Apart from the cold bench tables and wide cabinets, the biggest attraction in the room was the giant screen that occupied the centermost part of the room, dizzying amount of different consoles and buttons that Chao Bin could never remember in his life was built into its wide desktop. Without a word, Chu Yi threw the hard drive to Tang Shun and stepped aside. 

In tacit understanding, he silently took it and walked towards the system.

"That–Chu Yi...?"

Chu Yi raised his head to look at Chao Bin, his left cheek was slightly imprinted with a faint red mark but his expression was particularly focused, red eyes were like whirlpools with a strange and unexplainable evil. Chao Bin's back was numb when he saw him, and he actually had the urge to turn around and run away! 

However this inexplicable atmosphere was quickly shattered by the system starting up. Tang Shun pressed the last button and skillfully started to penetrate into the database. The silver glasses that rested on his eyes nose made him look aloof and indifferent, under the shining light he revealed a coldness from deep in his bones.

Tang Shun shook his head and his fingers appeared like rapid illusions as they tapped heavily on the screen after plugging in the hard drive. Chao Bin couldn't help but lean forward, eyes trained dazedly on his sharp profile.

He first pulled up a few monitor screens that seemed to point to the different places in this Institute, before continuing on.

"I found something interesting," 

While talking, he poked flexibly on the blue screen with his fingertips, his expression was light and breezy, as if he was saying something trivial:

"—I found the control structure in the database circuit diagram and reconnected it to the inner circuit and the local diagram base station of the starships used to transport the residents was transmitted. Therefore, if I pressed this signal, the network code will be renumbered and become inaccessible to a few of the data stations."

"..."

Chu Yi instantly furrowed his brow the words made sense when spoken individually but once Tang Shun put them in a sentence suddenly it became alien language. His slanted eyes rolled silently and he was no longer interested in listening to Tang Shun's speech. Without hesitation, he pulled the dull Chao Bin to his side and shoved him towards Tang Shun, red lips curled into a teasing smirk and his attention was quickly pulled away by the documents on the other side.

Snap–

With the sound of the final button, a bright blue star studded map suddenly lit up at the center of the giant screen, water ripples spread rapidly from the center to the outside until there were countless blinking blue dots on the screen connected to other blue dots in a confusing and dizzying display. The huge virtual star map is was filled with countless complex orbits and icons intertwined, like a patchwork of blue galaxies.

Tang Shun stared at the star map in front of him intently, as if looking at something unknown and far away through the image in front of him. The galaxy shrunk and reflected in his eyes, like blue waves on the surface of a dark lake.

He looked back at Chao Bin and raised a dark light flashed in his eyes.

"What is this?" Chao Bin, snapped out of his reverie embarrassingly lowered his head.

Tang Shun stared at him deeply and pressed the console desk glancing at the map fixedly, a cold blue light reflecting in his glasses. When he moved, his arm accidently touched Chao Bin, the slender but powerful muscles were stiff, and he felt that the skin that grazed against his skin was warm.

Chao Bin didn't have time to dwell on this feeling however when Tang Shun spoke up, blinking lazily at him: "The Institute has a foundation and importance that surpasses all research base stations. Therefore they would need to be able to connect to all planetary systems in this galaxy. To monitor, to regulate the flow of intelligence and to keep the various delegates informed. It can handle more than a variety of signals. Since we have to cast a net to catch all the fish, of course, the bigger the spread, the better."

Tang Shun tapped the screen and zoomed in on one blinking blue dot, P1145, ,"I just changed it a little bit and adjusted its range of capabilities up."

He compared a gap with his finger, and then lifted his chin at the countless light spots spread out, " This is the location of all the planetary fragments within the reach of the signal. " He looked at Chao Bin quietly,

"Chao Bin.....the entire world is right before your eyes."

Chao Bin blushed fiercely, unable to stop his heart from skipping a beat. 

Why were his reactions so weird–

Chu Yi walked back to the two's side and opened his mouth as if to say something, when without warning, the blue light in the room suddenly turned red!

"What's the matter?!" Chao Bin blurted out, and everyone's eyes suddenly fell on Tang Shun.

Before he could respond, the situation on the screen changed! The star map was still displayed properly but now there were additional flashing strings of blue code flowing running across the screen. The high interface immediately crashed and suddenly a large red lock abruptly filled their vision! 

Bright red system prompts followed the sudden crash–

[SYSTEM 02G detects unauthorized access to database, firewall procedures 

[Please enter access card before self destruct procedures are carried out! 100...]

[Please enter access card before self destruction procedures are carried! 99..]

"What's going on–" Chao Bin's face quickly changed and he stared incredulously at the flashing screen. There was a faint panic in his voice!

"Its like a mutation of a spider code." Tang Shun pushed up his glasses and judged with a serious face, adding, "I'm not exactly sure about it, but if it's spider code then I won't be able to crack it within an hour. Plus we don't even have this much time."

Quickly, they were unable to see anything beyond the overlapping red codes like hundreds of intertwined spider webs. Tang Shun tried to tap a few times, but the system prompt was the only thing that shone through. 

The countdown quickly fell.

The atmosphere instantly fell into a depressing silence.

We're they really going to fail at this step?!

Suddenly something was flung at Tang Shun's face, he reacted instinctively and quickly caught the small metal object and brought it to his face. 

It was sharp metal card.

A quick look at it immediately told him what it did and without hesitation he plugged it into the interface!

Chao Bin held his breath silently, unable to stop the rapid beating of his heart–

The card plugged into the system and there was a brief moment of stillness before hundreds of messy characters suddenly appeared on the screen completely shadowing the red code. There was a brief loading screen and the system scanned the card.

[R89, Access Code SS+ has been scanned. All rights have been activated. Welcome back Sir.]

These garbled-like combinations did not stay on the screen for long, and they were refreshed almost immediately after they reached the end.

After about ten short flashes later, those garbled combinations all turned into normal readable words:

[The signal source is captured successfully.

<Signal source attribute: Double layer>

<First floor signal source: 845532-018>

<Layer 2 signal source: 50001>

<Processing method: Clear or Lock>

<Processing Execution: Clear>

<Manual access has been granted, connecting to planetary signal source.>

<Connected.>

<Scanning hard drive.>

<Scan complete.>

<Converting into signal waves.>

<Achieving preliminary contact.>

<Launch Complete.>

<Exporting files. %1>

<Exporting Files. %2>....]

The room was silent, only the soft ticking of a clock as the three stood in place, "Where'd you get the card?"

Chu Yi didn't look up, "On the first day of the copy." Inexplicably, Chao Bin felt as if Chu Yi was laughing. He hesitatingly stopped talking and turned back to the system.

In the darkness of the room, the screen was adjusted to the dimmest screen, only leaving a faint light, and a progress bar was briefly displayed. Simply lying horizontally on the screen, the progress prompt at the bottom read: 35% of the database export has been completed. 

This calmness didn't mean long.

His eyebrows suddenly jumped and all heads lifted just in time, a blaring red alarm instantly went off! 

The scream was terrible and violent. It pierced into eardrums, not only alerting the monsters outside but also brought attention the place they were staying! 

[Intruder! Foreign Lifeform has been detected!]

[Accessing System Defense!]

[Defense failed...!]

[Accessing System Defense Beta 221Sþß]

[Defense overridden–]

From the corner of his eyes, Chao Bin caught something appearing in the left monitor screen, an ominous premonition hit his heart and when he turned his head to look, he was appalled to see a man appearing right under the watch of the monitor screen. 

A man slowly walked though the silent corridors, the ubiquitous shadows made it so Chao Bin couldn't see his face but he had long noticed one thing, a strange black cat was being held in the man's hand!

His pupils shrunk sharply and at this moment the man seemed to sense something, his hand patterned the cats head and suddenly looked towards the screen, two pitch black eyes piercing straight into his soul!

He shuddered with fear, and felt a chill rise from under his feet and quickly spread across his body.

At this moment, Chu Yi turned his head back. His eyes flashed with suppressed excitement and enthusiasm, as if the devil lurking in the abyss cast a fleeting glance in a flash of lightning, there was a kind of inhuman coldness and treacherous about him.

He licked his lips and whispered softly:

"He's coming."