W City South Train Station.

The members of Team 7 stood in the waiting area, waiting for the train to X City to pull in.

Because it was an impromptu mission, everyone had prepared in a hurry. However, since Zhou Ran had single-handedly taken care of carrying the luggage, it was relatively relaxing.

Lin Han looked down at his phone.

Just a moment ago, he had received the internal data package sent by Qin Zhizhi.

He hadn’t been at the branch for the past two days, and the information regarding the Qingchuan Public Incident and the Metamorphosis Society had been updated once again.

Lin Han quickly scrolled through it.

Then, his finger suddenly stopped; a new file had appeared on the screen.

Lin Han looked at those few lines of text, a cold sweat slowly breaking out on his back.

As expected of SAVE, they worked fast. To think they had already created a file for Phil this quickly.

But the codename “White Witch” was completely devoid of taste, making her sound like some cheap NPC. Couldn’t they have chosen a better-sounding name?

While complaining inwardly, Lin Han suddenly felt as if he had sneakily done something bad, only to have his surveillance footage analyzed frame by frame by someone else.

If he transformed again in the future, he would have to keep a lower profile and try his best to avoid SAVE.

However… A-Class, huh…

Honestly, Lin Han didn’t know what level his Devil form was considered either. But since he could defeat a B-Class Mutant with relative ease, perhaps being classified as A-Class wasn’t an issue.

However, Lin Han had also read the data on true A-Class Calamities. Those were genuine monsters capable of destroying a small city if left unchecked.

Phil was currently incapable of reaching that level.

Overall, Lin Han felt that Phil1 was stuck somewhere between B and A, caught in an awkward middle ground.

Having lost the mood to continue studying the files, Lin Han turned off his phone, his gaze inadvertently sweeping over the area in front of him.

Lin Han normally had no interest in snooping on other people’s chat histories, but the spot where he was standing was just too coincidental, so he accidentally caught a glimpse of Xu Weian’s chat screen.

Seeing this bizarre conversation, Lin Han was completely baffled.

As if sensing something, Xu Weian turned around.

Lin Han immediately averted his gaze.

“Sorry, I saw that by accident.”

Xu Weian pushed up his glasses and explained with a calm expression:

“It’s fine. The person on the other end is my roommate. She has a little trouble adapting to modern technology.”

“…A little trouble adapting to modern technology?”

Lin Han drew in a sharp breath.

He initially wanted to ask what kind of oddball could fail to adapt to modern technology to such a ridiculous degree.

But before the words could leave his mouth, he caught sight of Shen Qingshu out of the corner of his eye.

She was sitting not far away, holding a paper book in her hands, reading it earnestly page by page. Her dignified posture made her look like a figure who had stepped out of an ancient painting, completely out of place among the surrounding passengers with their heads bowed, looking at their phones and playing games.

Seeing this, Lin Han suddenly understood.

“Your roommate and Shen Qingshu should have a lot in common.”

“Maybe.”

Shen Qingshu looked up as if she had heard something. She shot an unfriendly glare at Lin Han and his companion, snorted, and lowered her head again.

Just then, a crisp female voice echoed through the waiting area.

Accompanied by a low rumble, a silver-white train approached from the distance.

The train’s surface was engraved with dense blue patterns. As the train decelerated, these patterns gradually lit up, spreading across the exterior like flowing water.

Working for SAVE, Lin Han naturally recognized that these were Protection Formulas.

The reason the train could travel between cities relied entirely on these formulas and the Barriers around the tracks.

Otherwise, the Calamities lurking in the Wasteland outside the city would have long since chewed the railway to dust.

The members of Team 3 had already lined up to board.

“Let’s go too.”

Saying so, Lin Han and the others from Team 7 picked up their luggage and got on the train.

The interior of the carriage was very quiet.

Since this carriage was temporarily requisitioned by SAVE, there weren’t many regular passengers, only a few staff members who looked like they were also heading to X City on business.

Lin Han took a window seat and gazed outside.

The train slowly started moving, and the platform fell behind.

At first, the towering architecture of W City remained outside the window.

Glass facades reflected the sunlight, hovering billboards swept through the air, and the iconic structure of the SAVE Branch building could be seen in the distance.

But as the train left the city, the buildings gradually thinned out.

High-rises turned into low houses.

Low houses turned into the Barrier encircling the city.

Finally, the city’s borders vanished behind them, and the Wasteland appeared outside the window.

The grayish-yellow earth stretched to the horizon. The wind swept up dust and sand, forming blurry shadows in the distance. Occasionally, the half-buried ruins of abandoned buildings could be seen in the dirt, looking like the skeletons of dead behemoths.

On both sides of the train tracks, the Blue Barrier stretched all the way, and outside the barrier, some relatively weak Calamities could be faintly seen wandering about.

Beside Lin Han, Tang Xiaoman carefully glanced out the window and immediately shrank back.

“Every time I take this kind of train, I feel it’s so dangerous…”

Lin Han looked at her.

“What’s wrong?”

Tang Xiaoman said softly:

“What to do if, by any chance, Calamities destroy the Barrier?”

Lin Han thought for a moment.

“It’s not entirely impossible.”

Tang Xiaoman’s face instantly turned pale.

“Has… has that really happened?”

“Yes.”

Lin Han looked out the window, his tone calm.

“But that was more than three years ago. It seems you hadn’t come to W City at that time, so you wouldn’t be too clear about it.”

“Was… was it very serious?”

Lin Han seemed to fall into his memories.

The Blue Barrier outside the window reflected in his pupils, as cold and fragile as ice.

After a while, he slowly nodded:

“That time, it wasn’t just the train; a part of W City’s urban area was also completely destroyed.”

Tang Xiaoman froze.

“Ah…”

She wanted to ask more, but after seeing Lin Han’s expression, she swallowed her words.

Lin Han didn’t say anything else; he just looked quietly out the window.

The scenery of the Wasteland was so monotonous that it made people sleepy.

The Blue Barrier flashed intermittently, like a hypnotic spell.

He didn’t know how long had passed, but Lin Han’s eyelids slowly grew heavy.

He had a very short dream.

Everything in the dream was blurry, but he could see Jiang Wanfeng behind him. She was clearly younger than she was now, with an expression like she was about to cry.

“Brother…”

Lin Han looked ahead, where two figures were drifting further and further away. He shouted loudly, but his voice seemed to come from extremely far away, until a blinding white light swallowed everything…

Lin Han snapped his eyes open.

“Team Leader.”

Tang Xiaoman was carefully pushing his shoulder. Seeing Lin Han wake up, she quickly pulled her hand back.

“We… we’ve arrived.”

Lin Han blinked, and it took two seconds for his consciousness to return to reality.

The train had come to a complete stop.

Outside the window was X City.

Compared to W City, X City’s station was noticeably older. The crowd on the platform wasn’t very dense, and the walls bore obvious marks of time.

Lin Han raised a hand and rubbed the center of his brows.

“Thank you.”

He stood up and picked up his bag.

Zhou Ran had already brought down everyone else’s luggage and waved at him with a smile.

“Team Leader, you were sleeping really soundly just now.”

“I’m a bit tired. Maybe I haven’t quite recovered yet despite resting for two days.”

Lin Han yawned.

Gu Xinglan and Team 3 had already gotten off the train ahead of them and were standing at the front of the platform, talking to the reception personnel sent by the X City Branch.

The rest of the group followed them off the train.

Lin Han scanned the area and suddenly paused.

Among the reception personnel, he spotted an exceptionally striking golden figure.

Through the crowd, Monica and Lin Han locked eyes.