After selecting their equipment, Claire Harris asked, “Weapons should be used when necessary, and it’s best not to let them leave your side. But do you know what to do if the natives discover you’re carrying a gun?”

He looked at Ryan Bennett with his dark eyes, a hint of teasing in his tone, and taught him, “Just say you’re a police officer.”

*

After walking out of the woods, everyone realized that the place they had arrived at was a park.

Claire Harris was right. As soon as they reached the main road of the park, they found a corpse under a streetlamp. To call it a corpse wasn’t quite accurate—only half of it remained, and the wounds had been gnawed by some animal, immediately reminding everyone of that terrifying, crazed vagrant.

Thinking of the chunks of flesh on that vagrant earlier, everyone felt a wave of nausea.

Could it have been eaten?

Not only was this the earliest they’d ever been discovered by the natives, it was also the most gruesome encounter.

This was a fairly large forest park, located in the city center, surrounded by tall buildings. It was already five in the morning, and there should have been people out for morning exercise, elderly folks strolling in the park, but along the way, they didn’t encounter a single living soul.

Trash was blown everywhere by the wind—on the lawns, on benches, scattered all around, as if sanitation workers hadn’t cleaned up in a long time. Amidst the desolation, they occasionally spotted dried, dark red bloodstains on the pavement, suggesting that more than one murder had taken place here.

Looking up, aside from a few streetlights still lit in the park, it was nearly impossible to spot any other lights.

Not only that, but all the windows of the distant high-rises were pitch black, standing lifelessly under the dark gray sky.

There was no hustle and bustle of traffic, no familiar morning clamor—the city was eerily quiet, as if it had fallen into a deathly silence.

Stranger still, the farther they got from the woods, the more pronounced the faint stench of decay in the air became, as if more ominous things awaited them in places they couldn’t see.

What on earth had happened here?

A pale streak appeared on the horizon—the sun was about to rise.

Yet the vast, deserted park remained shrouded in shadow, chilling and sinister.

Sensing danger, Claire Harris silently made a hand gesture.

Everyone immediately went on alert, moving in formation and scanning their surroundings.

Ryan Bennett walked to the left of Claire Harris, his elegant fingers gripping his gun, smoothly chambering a round for the diamond bird. In this, he was finally in sync with his teammates. But given Ryan Bennett’s reaction to danger in the woods earlier, Claire Harris tilted his head toward him.

The meaning in Claire Harris’s dark eyes was clear: move to the middle of the group.

But Ryan Bennett showed no awareness of being a “pretty face,” acting as if he didn’t understand, and continued forward on his own.

A few seconds later, he lowered his voice and spoke quickly: “Captain Harris, eleven o’clock, the park management office.”

Claire Harris squinted in the direction he indicated. It was pitch black there—he couldn’t see anything.

Ryan Bennett added, “There seems to be a light inside.”

The minimum requirement for an observer was keen senses. When the previous observer, Old Reed, was around, Claire Harris treated him as the team’s eyes and never doubted his judgment.

So Claire Harris said in a low voice, “Let’s check it out.”

It turned out Ryan Bennett had excellent eyesight.

With his reminder, the group walked a bit farther before they could make out a building hidden beside the bushes. Hanging above the low building’s entrance was a sign: PU-31 Central Park Management Office.

“What the heck is PU-31?” someone whispered. “There’s no such place name, is there?”

Everyone was puzzled. The current time coordinate was Star Era 1470. Even though they came from over a decade ago, surely they wouldn’t use a place name like this?

From such a distance, with such small letters—how did Ryan Bennett even see it?

Once inside, Claire Harris realized that the so-called light was just a desk lamp on a solid wood desk in the corner.

Could this person’s eyes zoom in like a camera lens?

The park management office was empty, as dead and silent as the world outside.

A few teammates went to check the other rooms. Claire Harris picked up the administrator’s communicator on the desk, only to find it had shut down due to lack of power. The desktop was a mess—keys, newspapers, registration books, takeout boxes, and more.

Soon, Helen Ford came out: “Captain Harris, there’s a corpse in the restroom!”

The body in the restroom was wearing a uniform, apparently the administrator here.

The corpse lay face down on the floor, a large bloody hole in the neck penetrating the brain, exposing rotting flesh and clearly visible arteries. Claire Harris casually grabbed a towel to wrap his hand and turned the body over. As expected, just like the vagrant earlier, the skin on the face was deathly pale, covered in bluish, web-like veins. The difference was that the corpse’s face was stiff, eyes tightly shut, yet still frozen in a scream of agony before death. The wide-open mouth crawled with maggots, making everyone’s scalp tingle.

In the cramped space, the air was stagnant and the stench overwhelming. Someone retched softly.

Without turning his head, Claire Harris said, “Emily Thompson, try throwing up one more time and see what happens.”

Everyone crammed into the restroom glared back. Emily Thompson raised his hand innocently, “It really wasn’t me this time!”

Standing at the door, Ryan Bennett quickly covered his mouth and walked away.