The terrifying heavens inside the box

Wang Hao looked at the scene inside the box with some surprise.

"Where has everyone gone?"

Apart from the conspicuous "abyss" pit and the black severed arm encased in an unknown crystal, there was no one else in sight.

"Where did they all go?" he muttered to himself, switching the view of the box to the cabin in the woods.

"They really are back! Oh! Even 'Ripley' is here..."

……

A cabin in the woods, a makeshift research base next to the "Abyss".

David, Ollie, Brent, and other residents of the misty town are undergoing disinfection checks and registration.

High-ranking officials from the Bureau of Strange Tales were also present.

"Ripley", Garrison, the Mediterranean manager, and Steve Hadley, an irritable middle-aged man.

There are also Jules, Marty, Houghton, and Dinah, who are part of the Kurt "Chosen Ones" lineage.

The group had gradually shed their youthful naiveté, now dressed in clean and sharp formal attire, exuding the aura of professional elites.

Kurt, who was the first to complete the scanning and disinfection process, gave Jules a warm kiss as she rushed over, and then turned to greet the other three people briefly.

"Hey Marty, how's it going?"

"I feel like I'm about to become the Pope," Marty joked in reply.

The others laughed upon hearing this, and Kurt then looked at Diana and Horton, "What about you two? When are you planning to announce the good news?"

"Actually, we broke up," Horton said regretfully.

Diana rolled her eyes. "Don't pretend you're innocent, okay? I saw you and your secretary first..."

Ripley led in two other high-ranking members of the Sacrifice Faction, interrupting their pleasant conversation.

Kurt glanced at them, then looked at the machine behind the arched doorway and asked the researcher beside it, "How long can this machine stabilize the spatial rift?"

The researcher standing next to the archway provided the answer.

"As long as the power supply doesn't stop, it will remain stable."

Seeing Kurt raise an eyebrow, clearly disbelieving, the other quickly added, "Originally, the opening of this rift was very small, and according to the emergency plan of the 'Arrow Project' at that base, it could have been completely closed."

But then, the researcher hesitated and changed the subject, "The problem is that before that, the fissure was impacted by an even greater force, and had expanded to the point where it could no longer be closed."

"The good news is that when we need it, we can quickly form a stable channel by stabilizing only a small part of the crack."

Kurt paid no attention to the so-called good news, but instead recalled the scene of "two gods colliding" that he had witnessed that day.

Although to humans it may seem like just a slight touch between hands.

But for the "evil god" and the "giant god," it was like the earth colliding with Mars, a cataclysmic event.

"What are the downsides?"

Ripley brought up another point.

The researcher hesitated for a moment, but still said, "If someone tries to enter our world through this rift, or travel to other worlds, it might be... difficult to stop."

Kurt looked confused. "What do you mean by 'other worlds'?"

The one who answered his question was "Ripley".

"Kurt, you've got one thing wrong. You didn't go back to the past; you arrived in another world."

"How could that be?"

Seeing that he didn't believe him, "Ripley" took a document from Garrison and handed it to him.

As Kurt flipped through the pages, she continued talking.

"The town of Bridgeton, Maine, does exist, but as for the people like David Drayton you mentioned... we haven't found a single one of them, from the past to the present."

"And when they registered, we investigated some information and were able to confirm that they were not originally from our world."

Kurt understood the implication: "What do you mean? You want to throw them back into that foggy, monster-infested hellhole?!"

Ripley could hear the anger in his tone, but his face remained completely expressionless.

"Kurt, you need to think this through! Right now, Congress, the military, and even the whole world are watching us."

"What if a group of people from another world leaked this information?"

"The situation is about to spiral out of control! All the world's powers will fight each other over this passage to other worlds!"

Kurt, however, continued to look at her and let out a sneer:

"You've said all this, but it's really just so you can control this passage, isn't it?"

"Ripley" shook his head to correct him, "No, not me, but us!"

"This is the reason why the Bureau of Mysteries exists."

Kurt did not refute, but turned to look at the townspeople queuing outside the base.

"On one condition: I need to find a way to settle them down. In exchange, I can stand on your side this time."

Just as the irritable middle-aged man, Steve Hadley, was about to speak, Garrison, who was standing next to him, pushed up his glasses and pulled him back.

After thinking for a moment, "Ripley" in front of the two decided to nod in agreement.

Compared to a passage to other worlds, the refugees from those parallel worlds are not so important.

However, at that moment, Kurt suddenly asked her a question.

Have you considered another possibility?

Ripley raised his hand, gesturing for him to speak.

"What if fog and fissures appear elsewhere as well?"

After saying this, Kurt turned and left with Jules and the others.

……

Outside the box.

Wang Hao stroked his chin, looking at "Ripley" in the box whose brows were gradually furrowing, and then glanced at the arched doorway machine next to him.

"I didn't expect these people to actually have some advanced technology. They even managed to stabilize the spacetime rift created by the mist."

"But thinking about it, it's not surprising, since that original sacrificial base already used spatial barrier technology."

In the past, Wang Hao might have found these things strange.

But once he realized that he could make more good things from the box, he stopped caring so much.

"Hmm? There's more to it?"

Wang Hao raised an eyebrow and saw two groups of people in the base heading towards the same place.

He immediately focused his attention and continued looking into the box.

……

Kurt and Ripley, among others, arrived at a laboratory in this research base.

They looked through the glass into the unusual, enclosed room.

"What was the cause of death?" Kurt asked first.

"The initial diagnosis was death due to blood reflux, but during the autopsy, we discovered something strange."

One of the researchers spoke as he operated a robotic arm in the enclosed room to process the body placed inside.

Ripley then spoke up, asking, "Is this the one who died on the spot after coming into contact with the severed arm of the evil god?"

Kurt was very dissatisfied with her tone and corrected her, "He has a name, his name is Kane."

The researcher then pointed to a picture on the computer screen, "After examining his cell samples... simply put, all the cells were self-destructing, which was his primary cause of death."

Ripley looked to the other side of the closed room, where some black substances were floating in a transparent petri dish.

"What about the analysis of the ancient god's flesh and blood? Is it consistent with the monsters we've contained?"

The researchers then presented another experimental report. Kurt frowned as he looked at the images of the mice dying horribly in the laboratory.

"It can be preliminarily determined that the results we obtained from our experiments on those monsters are completely inapplicable to 'them'."

"If the monsters we contain merely create and absorb fear and despair through slaughter, then any creature will self-destruct when facing the Ancient Gods; the only difference is how long its will and body can endure."

"The only thing they have in common is that the ancient gods also need to feed on these negative emotions."

As they spoke, everyone looked at the screen in the petri dish. A small white mouse approached and immediately began screaming and struggling.

However, the rigidity of the robotic arm prevented it from escaping.

In the end, the white mouse bled all over its body, turning into a "little red mouse".

Researchers zoomed in on the petri dish, and the black mass within it showed clear signs of proliferation...

Outside the box, Wang Hao was also looking at the wriggling black substance.

But I don't know if it's just my imagination, but whenever I focus my attention on this lump of flesh, I always feel that this black thing... is very restless?