The end of the world is approaching, I'm handing myself over to the country.

The passage of time becomes blurred on the desolate wasteland.

After an unknown amount of time, a slight noise broke the silence.

Zhou Jian's fingers twitched slightly.

Immediately afterwards, his eyelids trembled, and he struggled to open them a crack.

In the blurry vision, the first thing that came into view was Chen Feng's face covered in sand and dust.

Then came a series of familiar faces surrounding them.

Lei Yue, Qin Feng, Gao Yuan...

At this moment, everyone had completed their genetic awakening and were looking at him with various expressions.

Worry, tension, and a hint of relief.

"He's awake! Old Zhou is awake!" Lei Yue's voice was the loudest, filled with barely suppressed excitement.

As the team's medic, Gao Yuan immediately stepped forward to quickly check Zhou Jian's condition.

Zhou Jian's consciousness gradually returned, followed by excruciating pain that spread throughout his entire body.

He instinctively wanted to move his body.

"hiss--!!"

A blast of cold air rushed into his lungs, and the excruciating pain almost made him faint again.

It felt like thousands of ants were gnawing at my bones, making me feel sore, numb, and painful.

The healing power of the basic life potion is amazing, but that's only for ordinary people.

For someone like him who has completed genetic awakening, the effects of the primary life potion are greatly reduced.

It took three doses of basic life-saving potion to barely pull him back from the brink of death. In addition to life-saving potions, he will need time to fully recover.

Zhou Jian grinned and looked around; everyone's face was filled with the relief of surviving a disaster.

Zhou Jian weakly opened his mouth, and his chapped lips uttered a sentence that froze everyone's expression.

"Captain...why did you save me?"

Chen Feng was taken aback: "Huh?"

Zhou Jian: "The free revival time is only a few hours away, wouldn't it be better to let me log off and rest early?"

Zhou Jian's voice was full of grievance.

At that moment, he felt as if the whole world had betrayed him.

"..."

These words instantly dispelled the tense and worried atmosphere.

The air was silent for a full three seconds.

Lei Yue couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Sometimes, I really want to crack open your head and see what's inside.

Qin Feng, who was standing nearby, quickly stopped him: "Please don't! If the water inside dries up, there will be nothing left."

The others also wore expressions that were both amused and exasperated.

This guy's brain circuits are definitely different from normal people's.

Chen Feng's face darkened, and his expression, which had just relaxed, quickly turned serious.

He raised his leg and kicked Zhou Jian in the buttocks.

"Get up now if you're all right! It's not safe here, we should leave!"

Zhou Jian was kicked like that, and he let out another strange cry of pain.

He said, looking aggrieved, "The devilish captain!"

"My injuries haven't fully healed yet! You're mistreating a wounded soldier!"

It's hard.

Chen Feng hardened his fist.

"Try disgusting me, you bastard!"

"Get up quickly!"

Zhou Jian struggled to sit up, but found that apart from his mouth being hard, his whole body was as soft as noodles, and his whole body ached terribly.

Lei Yue, who was standing nearby, came over, scooped up Zhou Jian, and put him on his back.

They were whispering mysteriously.

"Old Zhou, you have no idea how worried the captain was about you just now."

Zhou Jian looked incredulous.

He? He worries about me too?

Lei Yue lowered his voice and said in a tone that suggested he was only telling him this: "When the captain saw you looking like you were about to die, he cried. I saw him secretly wiping away tears."

Chen Feng, who was not far away, twitched his ears and suddenly stopped packing his things.

Having activated his spiritual power, his hearing is astonishing.

He turned around and glared fiercely at Lei Yue.

"Get lost!"

Chen Feng wiped his face and shouted indignantly, "Who's crying? Sand got in my eyes!"

"With such strong winds and sandstorms here, it's normal for sand to get in your eyes!"

Lei Yue shrank his neck and winked at Zhou Jian. Although he didn't say anything, he made everything clear.

Zhou Jian looked at Chen Feng's stubborn pride and grinned silently, which aggravated his muscles, causing him to twitch in pain.

Soon, the group quickly left this place of trouble.

Although the process was fraught with difficulties, everyone survived and completed their genetic awakening.

Until their figures disappeared at the edge of the dunes.

The next second...

A wisp of yellow sand blew through the air, and Viola's slender figure, made of bones, slowly coalesced.

Immediately afterwards, Pan Gu's massive, mountain-like body stepped out of the void and stood silently beside her.

The two appeared out of thin air.

Viola's empty eye sockets turned to Pangu, and she let out a silvery laugh.

"You blockhead, you're closest to Lord Ainz Ooal Gown, he tells you everything, so just tell me, what's going on here?"

Pan Gu stared intently in the direction where Zhou Jian had disappeared, his eyes, burning with soul fire, remained unmoved, except for a fleeting moment when a hint of killing intent appeared.

But it disappeared so quickly that even Viola, who was beside it, didn't notice.

"without."

"cut."

Viola pursed her lips, and the veil made of souls moved without wind, emitting bursts of mournful howls.

"Don't try to fool me! If nothing was really wrong, would you be willing to leave your Bone Domain?"

"We've come all this way, are we just going to starve?"

"Should I eat a mouthful of sand?"

The rock remained silent, like a real rock.

Viola circled around him, her long, slender fingers tapping her chin, and said in a tone that said, "You can't fool me."

"And I saw it."

Her voice was drawn out, with a malicious mockery in it.

"Is Lord Ainz Ooal Gown's bone ring still in that human brat's hands?"

"Although you crippled that kid, you didn't kill him outright, and you didn't retrieve Lord Ainz's bone ring. Isn't that strange?"

These words were spoken.

boom--!

A terrifying killing intent suddenly erupted from Pan Gu's body!

The surrounding air seemed to be sucked out instantly, and even the flowing sand and dust froze in mid-air.

For the first time, Pan Gu's eyes, burning with soul fire, were fixed intently on Viola.

The flames inside were no longer indifferent, but had transformed into a tangible rage capable of burning the soul.

That oppressive aura was even more terrifying than when I faced Xin Mi before!

"Giggle..."

Viola was enveloped by this murderous intent, and the veil of souls around her body emitted a shriek of unbearable strain, but she herself laughed heartily.

She quickly raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Hey, don't get so worked up. I just said I saw it, I didn't say I was going to do anything with it."

Viola's laughter carried a hint of reassurance.

"That belongs to Lord Ainz Ooal Gown. Without his permission, I wouldn't dare touch it even if I had a hundred lives."

Upon hearing this, the murderous intent emanating from Pan Gu, which was powerful enough to freeze everything, slowly subsided.

He snorted heavily.

"snort!"

Viola leaned closer, persistently pressing, "Can't you really tell me even a little bit? Just a little bit of inside information would be fine."

"I'm just curious, if Lord Ainz is so determined to protect him, why did he go through all this trouble to get us to come here?"

"And she refuses to admit any relationship with that kid. Isn't that just pointless?"

Pan Gu turned away, not even glancing at her.

"Don't ask too many questions!"

These three words are filled with indifference and alienation.

Viola was rebuffed, but she wasn't angry.

In her memory, Pan Gu had always been like this, as if he never cared about anything.

Suddenly remembering something, Viola's eyes flashed with a shocked expression.

This guy, Pan Gu, seems to be leaving the Bone Domain for the first time outside of the Great War!

But this time she didn't speak directly.

He merely glanced in the direction Chen Feng and the others had left, his eyes flashing with an inexplicable excitement.

My breakthrough to S-class...

It seems we're almost there...