Shrouded Seascape

A brand-new car rolled across a rusty iron plate on the ground as it entered an abandoned steel mill.

Anna and the others looked out the window with a gaze full of vigilance and curiosity. The followers of the Shattered God had told them over the phone that this was their rendezvous point.

After looking around for a while, Anna turned to Tobba next to her.

"Is it dangerous outside?"

Tobba put down the baby bottle in his mouth and answered innocently, "You ask me, but who should I ask?"

Anna stared doubtfully at Tobba when she suddenly had an idea. Rather than using him as a danger detector that had been useless so far, wouldn't it be better to tie him around her and use him as a bulletproof vest?

After all, Tobba was going to live a thousand more years. In other words, he wasn't going to die, regardless of the ordeal.

Sensing Anna's odd gaze, Tobba hurriedly stood up and climbed up the car window. Then, he looked around in an exaggerated manner. "Hmm… Ah, yes, there aren't any dangers at all! According to my calculations, this place is safe.

"You can be at peace."

The car came to a halt amidst Tobba's repeated assurance. The road up ahead was overgrown with weeds towering over a meter tall, making it impossible for the car to proceed.

The sound of car doors being opened echoed as Anna and her subordinates got out of the car. The last person to exit the vehicle was Wang Jianshe with a bed of gray hair.

He looked around at the empty, abandoned mill. His expression remained unchanging, but the hint of nervousness in his eyes betrayed his facade of composure.

This was his first time coming into contact with other bizarre organizations apart from Anna's congregation.

"Old man, it's dangerous here. You shouldn't have come along. If you end up dying, how am I supposed to get your funds?" Anna teased.

Wang Jianshe snorted coldly and retorted, "I'm a shareholder, and I think it's better for me to be present at the negotiation table to prevent you from making completely useless decisions like with that black diamond."

"Hey, we're just worried about you," Tobba chimed in, "Since you're such an ingrate, then forget it. If you end up dying, we can still get money from Wang Sheng, anyway."

Their barbed exchange had barely begun when it ended abruptly because someone walked out from the towering weeds.

Anna's vigilance eased upon seeing the individual. She was familiar with the newcomer. The newcomer was a woman whom she had met once during the operation to rescue Wang Sheng at Site 66.

She was a follower of the Shattered God.

Anna couldn't be mistaken, as she could still vividly remember the beauty mark at the corner of the woman's right eye.

Today, she was no longer wearing the hospital gown from Site 66 and was wearing a neat camouflage uniform. Her hair was tied in a ponytail, and she looked exceptionally sharp overall.

The woman gave a crisp military salute, and then she stepped forward to shake Anna's right hand. "My name is Aisha, and I'm an apprentice cleric of the Holy Church. It's my great honor to welcome Miss Anna."

"A cleric?" Anna's gaze swept across Aisha's chest covered in medals and the holster at her waist.

Aisha was also clad in military attire, which couldn't be further from clerical apparel.

A question mark popped up in Anna's mind at the incongruous sight.

"My clothes do not speak of my position. I wear this solely because it's convenient for combat. Our church does not care about something as superficial as exterior appearances.

"Anyway, please follow me. The great Shattered God has been waiting for you for quite a while now."

With that, Aisha turned and walked into the towering weeds.

Anna raised her hand and snapped her fingers. As soon as the crisp noise pervaded the air, the others accompanying her followed her into the tall weeds.

The deeper they went, the more dilapidated the nearby buildings became, but it wasn't a scary sight.

There were vines and moss crawling all over the walls of the buildings, along with verdant tree branches sticking out of the roof. There was no mistaking it; nature was slowly but surely reclaiming the abandoned factory.

Surprisingly, the abandoned buildings nearby weren't uninhabited. The perceptive clown secretly told Anna that there were people hiding within the buildings. Of course, it was normal. It would have been strange if they had no guards.

"What happened to all the people on the site? Did they manage to escape? What happened after I left?" Anna asked Aisha.

"Mmhm, they all managed to escape, but the majority of them ended up getting captured once again. Without any vehicle to ride, they couldn't get that far in the desert."

At that, Aisha turned to look at Anna, revealing a kind smile. "This is also thanks to you. If you hadn't disabled Site 66's countermeasures, it wouldn't have been so convenient for us to escape."

"Ah, it was nothing," Anna answered casually, but she immediately noticed something off. "Wait, what countermeasures are you talking about?"

"The countermeasures that the IMF had in place to ensure that we won't be able to escape. Site 66 had several contingency plans ready based on the threat level to ensure that none of us could escape, but they all remained unactivated."

"My colleagues have been wondering how you did it, Miss Anna. We were shocked that you actually managed to disable all those," Aisha added.

Anna's heart quivered in shock. She was convinced that Site 66's defenses were simply shabby, but to think that she was actually mistaken.

"That wasn't me, but there were so many of you at the time… Could it be that some other organization had decided to take advantage of that chaos to set their people free as well?"

"Huh?" Aisha went agape in surprise. "It wasn't you, Miss Anna? That's weird. Perhaps our god knows what had transpired. I'll go and ask it later."

It seemed that the other party wasn't feigning ignorance, but Anna still decided to change the topic, asking, "Your god has always been here?"

"Yes, that's right. It's always been here because it's not convenient for it to move at the moment."

"It's not convenient for it to move? Does that mean it's been here prior to the events in Site 66?"

"Mmhm, that's right."

Anna instantly became a bit nervous, and she started looking around, saying, "Are you guys crazy? You managed to escape from that site with great difficulty, and you didn't even bother changing your hiding place?!n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Do you really think that woman capable of invading someone's dreams is not going to do some other work for the IMF in addition to being those prisoner's shrink? How can you say for sure that this place is still hidden from the IMF?!"

At this point, Anna felt like the woman leading the way in front of her was one of the IMF's shadow agents.

Anna's words went unanswered for a long time. When her gaze landed on Aisha once again, she found the latter staring at her with confusion all over her face.

"Um... Dreams? Shrink? I don't understand. Can you explain it a bit to me, Miss Anna?"

"You don't understand? I'm talking about Doctor Luvlyn! She can drag people from their sleep into her dreamscape. Hadn't she been providing you with treatment against the Shattered God's influence?"

"I think you're mistaken here, Miss Anna," Aisha said, shaking her head. "When we were at Site 66, we've never met that individual. And if I may speak frankly, the IMF isn't that kind. They treated us as nothing but test subjects and have never provided us with the so-called 'treatment' you've mentioned."