Chapter 27: Lost in the Crowd

Anders staggered back two steps, clutching his ears as if to block out a sound—though in truth, there was none.

Even so, the bell of the Eyeless One had left him in this state; the rest of the Defense Bureau fared worse. Two team members collapsed to their knees, energy guns clattering to the floor, their hands pressed desperately to their ears as if warding off some inaudible, demonic music.

Despite this, Anders’s wealth of combat experience enabled him to swiftly conjure a protective net with his powers.

“Damn it, not enough time to attack! Eyes open, move!” Raj called out, covering the bell with one hand and directing his team. This was their established rule—if Raj used the bell, he must immediately warn his teammates.

The Grey Eagle Squad seized the opportunity and rushed toward the maze’s entrance.

Yet a mass of vines surged up, encircling everyone present, including the Grey Eagles, forming a natural barrier.

“Damn it...” Raj gritted his teeth; a C-level abilities user could do far more than he’d imagined.

Keira’s throwing knives and Red’s eagle claws slashed and tore at the vines, but it was futile—the sheer number was overwhelming. Even within this passage, Red’s movements were somewhat constrained. For now, they could only rely on Ye Mi’s shield to hold out a little longer.

But if Anders regained his senses, the Grey Eagle Squad would have no hope but death.

Ye Mi glanced back; Anders was on his knees, retching, but he was already struggling to raise a hand. From his sleeve, a vine shot forth like a javelin, aimed at them.

Its sound as it cut through the air was especially sharp.

“Watch out!” Keira’s knife severed the vine javelin with precision, green foul-smelling liquid spraying from the break.

“This stuff is toxic!” Raj warned his teammates to dodge the splatter as he tended to himself; several bloody scratches appeared on his neck, wounds inflicted by the barbs on Anders’s vine earlier.

Ye Mi’s eyes narrowed. Anders’s mental fortitude was clearly stronger; even under attack from the Eyeless One’s bell, he could manage both defense and offense.

She was already considering abandoning Gina’s guise and escaping with Rust Tide.

“Damn it,” Anders had obviously recovered from his dizziness. Shaking his head, he stood up. “None of you are getting away—you're courting death!”

He spat venomously. Before entering the passage, Team 13 had encountered a cursed expedition team; one of their members had managed to place a mental curse on Anders, forcing him to constantly fend off bizarre specters in his mind.

That bell the Grey Eagle Squad’s healer had just produced—it was a mental attack artifact as well, leaving him muddled. If not for that, he would never have been so affected!

“What was that bell just now?” His eyes glinted coldly as he stepped toward the Grey Eagles, a predator poised to tear into prey.

The Grey Eagle Squad remained tense and alert, no one answering.

Anders’s patience had run thin; he refused to waste more time. After all, once he killed these fools, he'd have plenty of time to study the bell.

Vines shot upward, attacking the four like living creatures.

But at that moment, the passage resounded with a violent roar.

Unlike the single burst when energy waves struck Ye Mi’s shield earlier, this was a chaotic, relentless cacophony, growing ever closer.

Everyone froze—even Anders whipped around abruptly.

The next second, a tide of bronze creatures surged from the end of the passage.

They seemed summoned, skin pressed against skin as they surged forward in a frenzy. Those at the front, if they slowed even slightly, were swallowed mercilessly by those behind, repeating in endless cycles, sweeping forward like an unstoppable engine.

Anders’s expression of certainty cracked; his vines recoiled wildly, forming a barrier of thorns before the Defense Bureau.

In the next instant, the bronze swarm crashed into the vines; Anders felt them gnawing at his powers.

He raged. “What the hell is this?”

The Grey Eagle Squad seized the fleeting chance.

“Go! Into the maze!” Ye Mi charged ahead, the others close behind, squeezing into a narrow branch. The sounds behind them faded away.

The intricate paths made escape all the harder, but none dared relax; they pressed onward until the roar was gone, finally stopping to catch their breath.

The surroundings were now utterly unfamiliar.

So many branches intertwined like a spider’s web; they no longer remembered which way they'd come.

“Just our luck...” Raj leaned on his knees, panting heavily and muttering before pulling out his flask for a long drink.

He hadn’t finished his water when the bronze floor beneath him began to tremble.

“Careful!” Keira grabbed the wall just as it began to writhe like a living thing, the passage twisting and contorting.

The bronze floor cracked open, new walls rising from below, instantly separating the four—

“Hey, Gina!”

“Gina!”

Their calls were cut off by the sudden closing of the walls.

By the time Ye Mi realized, she was alone.

“...”

Raj was right—they truly had rotten luck.

She sighed.

In the empty space, Ye Mi’s solitary shadow seemed especially lonely.

But in that loneliness, she felt relief.

“I really am not suited to being around people...” she murmured to herself.

In truth, she seldom spoke with her teammates, except for necessary communication; she was almost always silent.

It had nothing to do with wearing Gina’s skin. She simply hadn’t been around people for a long time.

After losing her sight, the company had mercilessly fired her. Already introverted, she lost her only social contact, living off savings for a year and a half in utter uselessness.

Then, with the expansion of the Light Ruins and the survival of silver-bodied parasites, her true self was taken to the Defense Bureau for research. When she first met Ian, she could barely utter more than a sentence.

If not for Ian’s regular conversations, she might not even be able to communicate with her teammates now.

Over time, Ye Mi had grown accustomed to living freely as a lone wolf.

“Well then... let’s just wander.” With the maze reorganized, finding direction was a fantasy. Ye Mi chose a path at random, stepping forward alone to face the unknown.