Chapter 42: ArmoryClack.The safety came off with a sound that cut through the tense air. Seven watched the man’s finger tighten on the trigger guard. One twitch. That’s all it would take.“Hey! What the hell are you guys doing?!”A new voice, sharp and young, sliced through the standoff.Seven didn’t turn his head. His eyes stayed locked on Qian Yu, the so-called team leader whose smile had evaporated. In his peripheral vision, a small figure shoved through the ring of onlookers. A girl. Couldn’t have been older than nineteen. She was hauling a weapon almost as big as she was—a grenade launcher, its tube ugly and promising.Kr-chk.Behind her, a tall man racked the slide on a machine gun. Brother and sister, maybe. The resemblance was there in the set of their jaws.“We’re together.” The girl planted herself between Seven and the muzzle of Qian Yu’s gun. Her voice didn’t waver. “You want Seven? You go through

Chapter 44: Air Raid Alert The air in the underground room was thick with the smell of cheap wine and stale meat. Clink. Tang Hai set his empty can down on the metal table. The sound was flat, final. He leaned back in the tactical recliner, the worn leather creaking under his weight. His face, half-shadowed by the low emergency light, was a mask of grim calculation. “That kid,” he said, voice a low rumble. “The Null with the girl. He’s too calm.” Across from him, Feng Yuming snorted. He scraped the last of some syrupy fruit from a can with his finger. “The one called Seven? He’s nothing. Just a pair of eyes. The girl’s the battery. And she’s tapped out.” “You’re sure?” “Saw it myself. She’s running on fumes and attitude. And now she’s stuck in a hole.” Feng Yuming licked his finger clean, a smirk playing on his lips. “Da Huang is ready. We’ve stripped the last of the gear from th

Chapter 46: Advanced Insect Transformation Boom. The pickup truck flipped, metal shrieking as it tore across the railway gravel. Inside, Sha Sha screamed. Lou Ye moved on pure instinct—arm around his sister’s waist, boot kicking the door, rolling them both clear a half-second before three tons of steel crumpled against the hillside. He hit the ground hard. Shoulder first. Felt the wet crunch, not the gravel, but the bullet that had found him moments before. “Brother!” Sha Sha’s voice was raw. No time. Gunfire rat-tat-tatted from the platform above, muzzle flashes like strobe lights in the thick, oily fog. The air tasted of blood, cordite, and something worse—spoiled meat and wet chitin. Lou Ye shoved Sha Sha behind the overturned wreckage. Peered over the hood. Hell. That was the only word for it. The T34 outpost courtyard was a meat grinder. The Black Serpent Team

Chapter 48: The Lou SiblingsThump.Lou Ye’s back hit the cold metal floor of the locomotive cab. He was breathing hard, one hand clamped over the bloody tear in his shoulder. His sister, Sha Sha, knelt beside him, her face pale but her hands steady as she ripped a strip from her own shirt.Seven stood over them, silhouetted against the grimy window. Outside, the last of the gunfire echoes had died, swallowed by the ever-present, oppressive fog. The stink of cordite and something worse—wet rot and spilled blood—hung in the air.“Sister Chen,” KIKI breathed, her usual sarcasm gone, replaced by genuine shock. She stared at Chen Sixuan, who was already moving toward a wall-mounted medkit. “How the hell did you get the train here? Comms have been dead since we stepped into this soup.”Chen Sixuan didn’t answer right away. Her movements were efficient, brittle. She snapped the kit open and thrust it toward Sha Sha. “Pressure. Now.”“T

Chapter 50: Angel PlanThe heavy steel wheels ground against frozen rails.K-chunk. K-chunk.The Infinity slid through the corpse of Beiwan Station, leaving it behind in the swallowing dark. No lights. No sound. Just the rhythmic groaning of metal and the endless white breath of snow beyond the reinforced windows.“Why the rush?”KIKI’s voice cut the dim carriage air. She leaned against the bulkhead, arms crossed, staring at the man by the window.Seven didn’t turn. His reflection was a ghost in the glass—pale, sharp, eyes like chips of dirty ice. He watched the dead city scroll past.“Greed gets you killed,” he said. Flat. Final. “Supplies are endless. Time isn’t.”“Tang Hai’s still out there.” KIKI pushed off the wall, her boots scuffing the floor. “You saw him. You know he’s not dead.”A low sigh escaped Seven’s lips. It fogged the cold glass.He’d seen it. Clear as the crack in his own refl