Chapter 47: Time Sealing – Section 5

They’re all still alive!
That’s the most important thing. With just those words, even if the entire Black Prison Planet exploded, Hei Fa wouldn’t feel the slightest pain. The tension he had felt along the way suddenly dissipated upon hearing those words; he felt as if all energy had been drained from him, leaving him weak and listless.
“What’s the exact situation?” Hei Fa asked calmly, taking a soft breath.
“Well… Leader, maybe you should come and take a look yourself?” The scout hesitated for a moment before stammering.
“Hm?” Hei Fa frowned, feeling a sense of unease. Logically, his subordinates shouldn’t show such hesitation. Could there be more problems ahead?
With that thought, Hei Fa pushed aside the mechs in front of him and moved to the front of the group. It was a steel passage melted by cutters. The construction mechs walking on it made heavy clashing sounds. At the end of the passage lay an opening about three meters square. The scout who had been in communication with him earlier was standing beside the opening. Seeing Hei Fa approaching, he obediently stepped aside.
“This?” Through the opening, Hei Fa immediately saw an unbelievable scene.
It was a room in utter chaos. All the walls were twisted and deformed. But from certain traces, Hei Fa could still recognize it as the place Madaro had brought him to before. What had originally been a laboratory hundreds of square meters in size was now compressed to less than fifty square meters. In the center of the room, on a piece of metal that had melted and deformed, lay a stone quietly.
The Stone of Light and Darkness.
This stone, which had once been crucial to the Death Star’s operation, now looked like trash—its surface gray and dull, no longer smooth as before. Hei Fa glanced at it briefly before shifting his attention to something else: a giant grayish-white sphere in the northeast corner of the room. In his memory, this object had never appeared in the laboratory before.
“What’s that?” Hei Fa pointed at the circular object and asked softly.
“It’s a protective device, Leader. Our detectors show strong life signs inside. But these signals don’t match human frequencies—they’re extremely chaotic,” the scout replied hurriedly.

I see. Kurokami nodded silently. As expected, the members of Black Prison are truly remarkable folks—they’ve left themselves enough backups. But what kind of protective measure is that sphere, and can it really ensure their safety amidst such intense explosions? And what exactly is going on with those strange phenomena around them?

Questions piled up in his mind, but Kurokami had no time to ponder them. With a wave of his hand, he led his team to get to work. Dozens of cutters operated simultaneously, and in just a few minutes, the room expanded several times over, large enough for the engineering mecha to enter.

In the oppressive atmosphere, Kurokami stepped forward to a giant sphere. An opening appeared on the right chest of the engineering mecha, and a small detector was attached to the sphere. At the same time, highly complex data appeared on the screens inside the cockpit.

Instantly, all the team members stopped what they were doing and focused on Kurokami’s mecha. They knew well that the results coming from this mecha in three minutes would determine the standards for their actions.

The rescue operation was, in essence, a process of making choices. Things of value would be retrieved first, while those of no value or less value had to be sacrificed in times of crisis. Although they hadn’t encountered any interference since entering, who could predict what might happen next? After all, they were right at the heart of an explosion—one that was still ongoing!

Just then, one of the team members suddenly noticed a change in the wall beside him. The once-smooth surface cut by the cutters showed a slight distortion. Other members also observed the same change. Immediately, everyone’s expression changed.

“Leader, something’s not right. The environment around us is starting to behave abnormally.”

“That’s right, leader. The wall beside me just twisted. Yes, it twisted—I saw a crack appear on it. If I’m not mistaken, it was completely smooth just a few minutes ago!”

Reports came in one after another over the channel, reaching Kurokami’s ears. Yet he seemed to hear nothing, focusing intently on the data on the screen. After a long while, he finally let out a long sigh.

“Good. This is the third self-protection plan of the Black Prison madmen. Use the corresponding softener right away. I’m sure your first-aid training includes procedures for this situation.”

“Understood!” The team members were stunned for a moment before responding loudly.

As Kurokami said, they were already aware of the so-called third self-protection plan during their training, and there were corresponding procedures in place. So once Kurokami confirmed it, the rescue operation could begin immediately. Two mechs stepped forward right away and got to work. Pairs of mechanical arms attached to the sphere’s shell while spraying a pungent liquid.

Kurokami finally got the chance to focus on the anomaly that had just occurred. He called over one of the team members who had just reported. Kurokami frowned.

“Show me where you mean the wall is.”

“That way.” The team member immediately pointed in a direction. Kurokami looked over and was stunned.

Indeed, there was a crack. It was barely noticeable, only a few millimeters wide, appearing in a corner of the wall. But Kurokami had noticed that area when he first arrived—there definitely hadn’t been such a crack. In his memory, it should have been smooth.

Wait, something’s wrong!

As Kurokami observed the crack, another change occurred. Visibly, the crack, just a few millimeters wide, twisted slightly. When Kurokami thought he was seeing things, he checked again and found its length had increased, nearly reaching one centimeter. At the same time, he heard a faint, sharp crackling sound.

“Bad! The surrounding environment is starting to activate!” In an instant, Kurokami’s expression changed drastically. He immediately thought of this possibility and recalled the explosion sphere outside that had been dormant. What would happen if that dormancy ended?

Images of a fleet engulfed in flames flashed through his mind.

In an instant, Kurokami felt every hair on his body stand on end. He quickly opened the communication channel and shouted, “This is Team One. We’ve located the rescue target and are starting the rescue. How are the other teams progressing? Report immediately!”

“Team Two reports: We’ve also located the rescue target and have begun the rescue.”

“Team Three reports: We’ve also located it…”

“Team Four reports…”

One after another, reports came in. Kurokami silently counted—almost all teams had found their targets. Although it was still unclear how many people could be rescued, it was clearly better than expected. Without hesitation, he issued orders right away.

“Speed up the rescue operation. Except for essential personnel, the rest should immediately expand the search area to see if there are any other survivors. The entire rescue must be completed within fifteen minutes. We don’t have much time left.”

“What’s wrong, Leader!?” Surprised responses came through the channel immediately.
But Black Hair didn’t have time to explain to them. With a click, he ended the communication. At the same time, he turned to face his teammates.
“How much time do we have left to finish the disassembly?”
“Give me two minutes,” the teammate working ahead replied loudly, his voice tense. It was clear he had picked up something from Black Hair’s orders just now.
Seeing this, Black Hair patted his shoulder.
“Don’t rush. We have enough time left. If we work fast, we’ll still have time to search for other survivors.”
“Understood, Leader,” the rescuer replied loudly, his movements becoming much more brisk.
He first sprayed all the liquid, then replaced the engineering mech’s manipulator arm with a cutting blade. Under the high-speed rotating sharp teeth, it cut into the grayish-white sphere. Soon, a piece of the sphere, several meters square, was removed, revealing what was inside.
It was dozens of Black Prison researchers. They lay or huddled together, eyes tightly closed. Neither breathing nor heartbeat could be detected. Their pale faces showed their extreme weakness, like a group of corpses that had been dead for a long time…
“Dead… they’re dead?” The rescuer who had just cut open the sphere’s voice trembled, clearly filled with disappointment.
“Not yet. They just don’t have a heartbeat or breathing. The life signals on the scanner are theirs. Alright, young man, get to work. Hurry and get them all out.” Black Hair interrupted the rescuer’s despairing murmurs and encouraged him loudly. At the same time, he glanced inside. Unfortunately, he didn’t see Madaro’s figure.
With Black Hair’s urging, the rescue operation proceeded much faster than expected. In just ten minutes, all the Black Prison researchers in the laboratory were transferred out one by one. On the surface of Black Prison Planet, a spindle-shaped armored shuttle had just landed. Hundreds of elite medical personnel were waiting inside for these survivors.
Fifteen minutes later, all the rescue teams returned to the surface. The survivors were properly taken care of. Without hesitation, Black Hair immediately gave the order to leave. But at that very moment, everyone felt a violent vibration beneath their feet, as if someone had punched them in the soles. This caused all the engineering mechs still on the surface to stagger and fall to the ground in disarray.

Looking up suddenly, the dark-haired one was horrified to see that the giant fireball that had been stationary outside began to move slowly. A large piece of armor, several hundred meters square, fell from the sky and slammed down on top of their heads…