A teammate threw up in the wind.

The first person to start vomiting as soon as they stepped out of the capsule was the youngest teammate, Emily Thompson. He had only been recruited into the Guardians for less than a year. He was usually a healthy, athletic guy, with just one problem: he got “carsick.”

When they heard him throw up, the teammates, as if well-trained, instinctively scattered away from him.

Claire Harris was also forced back a few steps by the smell: “I told you, you’re not allowed on another mission until you’ve ridden the giant pendulum ten times. Be honest, how many times did you actually ride it?”

Emily Thompson didn’t even get a word out before he threw up a second time: “Twice… ugh—”

The teammates all expressed their shock.

“Listen to yourself—is that even human?”

“You had such a long break, and all you did was flirt with girls?”

“The simulator can’t help you anymore, and you still dare to slack off on the giant pendulum?”

Emily Thompson finally finished vomiting and said weakly, “…No, seriously, didn’t you guys smell it? The air here stinks.”

Eric Morgan pinched his nose and handed over an opened bottle of water: “Chun’er, don’t make excuses. Rinse your mouth first.”

Emily Thompson: “Thanks, Wen-ge… Eh? Where’s Consultant Ji?”

Ryan Bennett’s capsule was closest to Emily Thompson’s, the hatch wide open but no sign of him.

Just as everyone was worrying he might have been flung into some other time and space, a cool, clear voice sounded: “I’m over here.”

At some point, Ryan Bennett was already standing four or five meters away from Emily Thompson. Under the capsule’s fluorescent glow, a trace of discomfort could be seen on Ryan Bennett’s pale face.

Everyone: “……”

Was it really necessary to stand that far away?!

Scholarly types really are the cleanest!

Claire Harris glanced at Ryan Bennett, having no time to worry about the new teammate’s lack of camaraderie.

Everyone had encountered pretty much the same situation in the capsule: the transparent panels all displayed garbled code. Claire Harris opened the communicator on his wrist and found the time had updated to the current moment: [1470.8.05 04:41:31]

This was clearly not the time coordinate for this A-level mission, nor was it their original time period.

That intense turbulence just now, along with the “illegal jump” warning, made Claire Harris suspect they’d encountered some kind of malfunction—this was the first time in his two years of missions that he’d run into something like this.

“Eric Morgan.” Claire Harris ordered crisply, “Check the main control panel for any data errors or information hijacking, and contact command immediately.”

“Yes.” Eric Morgan operated quickly and soon reported, “Captain Song, it looks like our equipment has been locked.”

Claire Harris frowned: “What do you mean, locked?”

Eric Morgan said, “The main control panel is offline, we can’t reach command, and the capsules aren’t working. It seems like the electromagnetic waves or magnetic field here are a bit different, but I can’t be sure. Maybe it’s related to that jump just now. Right now, only the communicators are working—we’re trapped here.”

Upon hearing this, everyone started cursing.

“So what about the mission?”

“I was going to take the new girl I met out for dinner after tomorrow’s mission.”

“You’ve already messed around with so many, isn’t it enough?”

At that moment, footsteps suddenly sounded in the woods.

It was 4 a.m.—who would come to such a remote part of the forest at this hour?

Everyone instantly fell silent.

Following the principle that travelers shouldn’t be discovered by natives, Eric Morgan, who was in charge of controls, immediately turned off the glowing holographic map via his wristband. The seven capsules standing in place also entered stealth mode under his control, becoming completely invisible.

The last bit of light vanished, and the deep forest was plunged back into darkness and silence—you could hear a pin drop.

Probably just someone who took a wrong turn.

With the crisis averted, the group waited silently like ghosts under the cover of the trees, waiting for the intruder to leave.

But the vagrant saw them.

A group of mysterious figures suddenly appeared in the pitch-black woods. An ordinary person would have been startled, but the vagrant showed no surprise at all, nor did he stop walking. On the contrary, upon seeing the group, he let out an excited, crazed scream and charged straight at them!

Emily Thompson was standing on the outside, still a bit woozy from vomiting so much.

The stench hit him, and Emily Thompson cursed, reacting quickly and flipping the man to the ground.

“Hah!! Hah!!”

The vagrant let out strange, guttural roars and immediately lunged again.

“What the hell?!” Emily Thompson hadn’t expected the guy to attack again. He just caught a whiff of an unbelievably foul stench, and then a sharp pain shot through his shoulder. “Shit!!!”

The vagrant had bitten down hard on Emily Thompson’s shoulder!

With a “thud,” the vagrant was kicked three or four meters away by Claire Harris!

On this side, Eric Morgan pulled Emily Thompson up: “Chun’er! Are you okay?!”

Emily Thompson grimaced in pain, but luckily the Guardian combat suit had an armored layer on the shoulder, so the bite only left a teeth mark and didn’t break the skin.

If an ordinary person had taken a kick from Claire Harris like that, they probably wouldn’t be able to get up, but the vagrant, still making those guttural noises, actually stood up again!

This time, his target switched to Claire Harris.