The planet exploded into countless fragments, and they became nothing more than specks of dust in the vast sea of stars. The space prison was now far beyond his current monitoring range, and the most troublesome dangerous element had been on the run for 27 years. Could things possibly get any worse?

No, they couldn’t.

Mason couldn’t tell what Scott Harris was thinking during his brief daze, and just shifted restlessly, waving his watch in front of him.

A gust of wind from the movement hit his nose, the “fragrance” was simply outrageous.

“……” Scott Harris: “If you find your two hands in the way, I don’t mind helping you break one.”

Mason instantly pulled his hand back. “No, I just wanted to remind you, another two minutes have passed. We only have 30 minutes left. Don’t you feel dizzy?”

Scott Harris frowned. “You’re making me dizzy with your stench.”

Still, although he disliked the smell on Mason, he didn’t ignore his words. Rather than worrying about how to recapture a bomb that had been on the run for 27 years, it was better to make sure he could see tomorrow’s sun first.

…Or the stars, at least.

He turned his head and scanned the area. In the black pine forest, aside from the ancient soil and decaying needles, there were only these twenty-five cryogenic capsules.

Through the withered branches, he could faintly see a silent dark shadow in the distance, lying quietly beneath the sea of stars.

“Oh right, there’s a villa over there.” The oxygen was so thin that Mason was slightly out of breath after talking for a while. He leaned on a nearby cryogenic capsule and squatted down, moving closer to the air vent at the base of the capsule, trying to make himself more comfortable. “Before the explosion, government officials would occasionally come here for vacation. I’m not sure which department they were from.”

Of course, Scott Harris knew all this, because he was the official who occasionally came back for vacation. For certain unavoidable reasons, he would stay here for a week every six months, bringing along a doctor, a nutritionist, and some guards.

Now all those people were lying in the cryogenic capsules beside him. Their luck was a bit better than his; their energy hadn’t run out yet, so they were still in deep sleep.

It could be said that everyone living in this area was his people—except for these two Mason, big and small, whom he had never seen before.

“If I remember correctly, there aren’t any other residents here,” Scott Harris said.

Mason was almost about to stick his nose into the vent. Half-hugging little Mason, he explained, “You know, there’s only a very short period each year when people live here. The scenery is nice, the air is good, so we sometimes sneak over to camp for a few days.”

Scott Harris let out an “oh.” “Camping in December, when it’s cold enough to freeze your bones.”

Mason said in frustration, “Yeah, this is probably the biggest mistake of my life. Not only did I run into someone at the villa, but I also ran into the apocalypse.”

After speaking, he glanced at his watch again. “27 minutes left… Are we really going to keep discussing how I went camping? I’m so dizzy now I can barely think. Can’t you come up with any ideas?”

Scott Harris lightly kicked him twice. “Of course there’s a way.” He just needed to confirm whether these two were truly harmless.

“Is 27 minutes enough?” Mason seemed a bit skeptical.

Scott Harris replied, “Plenty, as long as you can still move your legs.”

When the Fragmentation Plan was being prepared, this place was designated as one of the execution zones. Considering that the villa might partially collapse when the planet broke apart, most of the cryogenic capsules were placed in this pine forest, not far from the villa, making evacuation convenient.

But in fact, there were still 9 backup capsules in the villa, stored in the underground storage room on the west side.

There were also some spare energy bars in the storage room. The space there was cramped, and when all 9 capsules were activated, the oxygen output wasn’t as much as the 24 functioning capsules outside, but in such a small and relatively sealed environment, the concentration would be higher.

It would be enough to buy some time.

What’s more…

Scott Harris glanced at the communicator in his hand, which kept flashing “low battery,” and thought impatiently: Even if it won’t be useful for now, it’s always good to find a way to recharge it a bit.

As an ordinary person, Mason had never received any extreme environment training, and his tolerance for hypoxia was far inferior to Scott Harris. His mind was now barely better than a goldfish’s, and he was almost entirely following orders.

The moment he heard Scott Harris say there was a way, he reflexively stood up without thinking, scooped up little Mason—who only reached his waist—and stumbled after Scott Harris.

Scott Harris led him expertly down a forest path in the darkness. It only took eight minutes to reach the villa along this path, and opening the storage room and activating the backup cryogenic capsules would take at most five minutes, leaving them with about ten minutes to rest.

Time wasn’t too tight, so Scott Harris’s previously foul mood improved a little.

However, after less than five minutes, when they were less than fifty meters from the villa, Scott Harris’s barely functioning communicator suddenly gave a “ding.”

Scott Harris paused, looking at the communicator in surprise.

The vibration was a low battery warning, but this short chime… that was a message notification!

Because of the low battery, the screen was dim, but it was still bright enough for him to see the prompt: sure enough, there was a new message.