TTAETSC Chapter 36.1 - Dreamland

Chapter 36.1

Dreamland

A bowknot with four wings...

It looked like a butterfly, yet also like a flower.

—Very cute.

Yuan Ye was slightly stunned as he lowered his head and looked for a moment. Subconsciously, he touched his chest where his heart was and felt that it was a little soft.

"..."

"Chief!"

At that time, Hu Changchuan finally arrived with a headlamp on his head, looking somewhat comical.

The little light, though faint, was enough to illuminate the dark and narrow underground space. He first looked at Yuan Ye, confirming that the other person was uninjured.

The direct light flashed in Yuan Ye's eyes, causing him to subconsciously raise his hand to shield them. At the same time, he used his knee and lower leg to cover the little jellyfish on the ground.

Yuan Ye's tone suddenly turned cold.

"Move aside!"

"Oh, oh, oh! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Chief, cough, Mr. Yuan Ye, I didn't mean to!"

Hu Changchuan hurriedly turned the headlamp around, and upon hearing the familiar terrifying voice, his heart was instantly put at ease.

Hu Changchuan felt that this was the correct situation.

He said inwardly, how could the powerful and heaven-defying lord chief possibly have an accident?

While thinking, Hu Changchuan vaguely observed the surroundings. The space here was not wide, and everything was clearly visible.

Hu Changchuan looked around but did not see the figure he had briefly glimpsed. On the ground, there was only a military defense cloak and a pink jellyfish crouching on Yuan Ye's shoe.

It seemed that it was indeed a hallucination; perhaps he had simply seen it incorrectly.

After this episode with Hu Changchuan, Yuan Ye's rationality completely returned, and he quickly realized that something was wrong.

He found that the location where he had fainted had changed, and a huge boulder had appeared where he had passed out before.

He turned his head and found that the long knife that he had previously lost was actually beside him. However, at that time, the knife was unmistakably impaled in the sneak attacker's arm, nailing it to the wall.

Even if the other party had struggled and thrown the knife away, it should have fallen to the bottom of the elevator shaft instead of appearing next to him.

"Mr. Yuan Ye, what's wrong?"

Hu Changchuan noticed Yuan Ye showed a hint of gravity on his face. The latter reached out and picked up the long knife beside him, examined it carefully, and asked.

"When did you arrive?"

Hu Changchuan estimated the time and said.

"About an hour ago, I received a call from Captain Chen and Jon, then helped to get the car out. Oh, right, Wei Jing... tsk. He was stationed with me at the T-12 sentinel tower for over two years. I never thought he was a spy."

When it came to serious matters, Officer Hu remained reliable, his tone solemn.

"We waited outside for a long time, thinking you would come out soon, but we ended up waiting for over an hour... so I came down."

"Over an hour?"

Yuan Ye thought he had only lost consciousness for two or three minutes, but he had actually lost consciousness for such a long time.

—This was absolutely not normal!

His expression became even more grave.

Yuan Ye searched around for any abnormalities one by one, and suddenly, he felt a familiar sticky touch on the handle of the knife.

The young man suddenly looked down and found that the shoes on the little jellyfish's feet were also missing. The little guy's tentacles on the ground looked a bit dirty.

He was silent for a moment and then asked.

"You did this?"

The little octopus felt a little guilty, but instead of denying it, he nodded. He had noticed Yuan Ye's gaze just now and knew that the other party must have discovered his misdeed by then.

Time was urgent, so Ye Yunfan had no time to fully deal with it, and even if he had, it would have been difficult to keep Yuan Ye from suspecting.

After spending so much time together, Ye Yunfan understood thoroughly how smart Yuan Ye really was.

So he decided not to conceal these misdeeds, but to rationalize them instead.

After a dozen seconds, Yuan Ye witnessed the palm-sized "little jellyfish" suddenly enlarge, extending its tentacles to wrap around the knife handle.

The other tentacles wrapped around the cloak on the ground and made a dragging motion.

Ye Yunfan decided to gradually show a bit of progress in front of Yuan Ye, instead of always being a mascot. This way, in case they encountered a crisis in the future and he needed to take action, it would feel more natural, rather than appearing abrupt.

"So, you dragged me over here and then found the knife?"

In non-emotional related issues, Yuan Ye has a strong comprehension ability. He simply took a quick glance and immediately understood the meaning of the "little jellyfish".

The little guy had grown larger once before when he snatched away the candy from his mouth, but not as large as this time. Therefore, Yuan Ye was not at all surprised by its ability to grow larger.

"!"

He actually understood it instantly.

The pink little dumpling immediately jumped from Yuan Ye's foot to the cloak and nodded with joy. Upon seeing this, Yuan Ye, who had originally intended to check the cloak, abandoned that idea.

Seeing that the other party didn't investigate further, the little octopus finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In this way, the appearance of the long knife and the location of the dropped cloak were both explained. As long as Yuan Ye didn't carefully inspect the cloak, this excuse could be justified.

—Because there were no traces of dragging or friction on the cloak.

Beside him, Hu Changchuan's eyes showed a hint of surprise. He scratched his messy hair and thoughtfully said.

"Hiss... this little guy grows really fast."

"Mm, it has grown a bit."

Yuan Ye's tone this time was relatively gentle. He stood up and slung the long knife around his waist. This time, he didn't use the back of the knife to lift the little guy up, but instead reached both hands toward the little jellyfish.

The latter immediately understood, quickly shrinking his size from a volleyball to the original palm size. He then skillfully and affectionately climbed into Yuan Ye's palm.

"Other than finding me, did you discover anything else?"

Yuan Ye glanced coldly at Hu Changchuan. The latter's forehead immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

Of course, he knew the meaning behind the chief, leaving him a secret mark: to have him as the final defense for reinforcement or to intercept any potential escaping enemies.

However, Hu Changchuan was unable to find the person.

"How... how about you go up first, and I'll keep looking?"

At this moment, the little octopus estimated that the self-destruct devices would be activated soon. He started to feel anxious and urgently patted Yuan Ye's palm with his little tentacles "pa, pa, pa," signaling him to leave quickly.

Yuan Ye can now understand a lot of the body language of the little jellyfish. For instance, when the little tentacles step back and forth, it indicates excitement and joy. When the little tentacles keep rubbing and scratching, it shows anxiety and restlessness. Additionally, when the little tentacles rapidly pat, it means urging.

Urging what?

Yuan Ye swept his eyes around.

"Hold on."

Hu Changchuan raised his hand and pressed it against the side wall, closing his eyes to sense the surroundings.

"It seems like there are still some dangerous things here..."

As he was speaking, his voice suddenly stopped as he heard the sound of a countdown in the distance through the thick layer of soil.

"Not good! This place is going to explode!!"

Hu Changchuan suddenly opened his eyes.

"We have to leave quickly!"

Yuan Ye didn't waste words.

"Lead the way!"

Hu Changchuan immediately took Yuan Ye to another location, where there was a passageway about two people wide above. It seemed to have just been dug out, still emitting the smell of earth.

"Here!"

Hu Changchuan handed a rope gun to Yuan Ye.

"Mm."

Three minutes later, Jon, who was sitting in the car, felt a strong vibration.

Rumble!

He woke up suddenly, looked up, and saw many giant trees toppling down. Tortoise shell-like cracks appeared on the ground, and the hillside, covered with vines in front of him, collapsed instantly.

At that moment, as the ground caved in, the giant trees blocking the sunlight collapsed, vines snapped and fell, and numerous strange mountain birds were startled into flight.

"Cap...Captain!"

Chen Xinyue opened the car door and came up without saying much, then stepped on the gas pedal and drove out tens of meters away.

"Captain, are Officer Yuan Ye and the others okay?"

Jon had lost too much blood, and his face was currently pale.

"They will be fine."

Captain Chen's tone was steady and confident, as if she was a hundred percent certain, which immediately reassured the anxious Jon.

He opened the car window and looked outside. It was already dawn, and the visibility was gradually increasing.

Ten minutes later, two familiar figures appeared in Jon's field of vision. The curly-haired puppy was instantly overjoyed.

"Captain! You're really amazing!"

Chen Xinyue didn't answer. Her chest heaved slightly as if she had finally breathed a sigh of relief. Jon completely didn't notice this detail. He leaned half of his body out of the car window and waved vigorously.

"Officer Yuan Ye! Over here!!!"

The little octopus crouched in Yuan Ye's palm could clearly see the familiar off-road vehicle, and Jon was leaning half of his body out of its window.

The morning sun shone on the face of the seventeen-year-old new recruit, making his surprised and joyful smile appear particularly brilliant and touching.

A few minutes later—

Everyone finally reunited.

After Yuan Ye came over, he first took a bottle of water, briefly washed the little jellyfish, and then put on a new pair of shoes for it.

"Mr. Yuan Ye, where are we going now...?"

Chen Xinyue waited for him to finish everything before speaking up. The little octopus shook off the water on his body, looked in the direction of the sound, and his wet blue eyes stared at Captain Chen.

The bloodstains on the woman's chest had darkened beneath the gauze. It seemed that her vital organs were not injured.

The little octopus thought for a moment. Previously, Fang Shuo had mentioned that Yuan Ye had intentionally chosen the underground shelter. He quickly speculated that Yuan Ye may have planned Captain Chen's injury.

Showing vulnerability to the enemy was necessary. Not only did Captain Chen need to show vulnerability, but Yuan Ye also needed to show it.

So in the end, they successfully caught the sneak attacker. Had Yuan Ye not failed to foresee Fang Shuo's escape skill, they might have caught two fish by then, especially the latter, which should be the big fish Yuan Ye wanted to catch.

However, Captain Chen's current condition didn't look too good. She looked haggard, with pale lips and dark circles under her eyes.

That's right, anyone who has been severely injured for several days and fought tirelessly day and night wouldn't be in a good condition, either.

Yuan Ye noticed the gaze of the little jellyfish. He glanced back at Chen Xinyue, did not answer her question, and went straight to open the driver's door.

"Go to the back. I'll drive."

"...Ah?"

Captain Chen was slightly stunned.

"Okay."

She got out of the car as instructed and sat in the back seat.

Hu Changchuan also wanted to get in the car, but a glance from Yuan Ye kept him in place.

"Go bring your car over here."

"Oh, oh, oh, yes!"

Officer Hu, the sloppy uncle, slapped his head, almost forgetting.

"Yes, yes, yes, my car, my car is still over there. I'll go bring it over."

The roads in the occupied area were uneven, and the noise of driving was loud, which could attract many otherworldly creatures or evolved species to spy. Therefore, to arrive quickly, Hu Changchuan parked the car outside and ran over.

Yuan Ye looked at the little jellyfish on his shoulder and found that the little guy was looking around energetically, in a very good state, showing no signs of tiredness at all.

So he gave up on the plan to put the little jellyfish back in its house to rest.

Rumble...

The car started.

The little octopus crouched on Yuan Ye's shoulder and deliberately observed his expression. Despite both of them fighting for a day and a night, the latter looked completely not exhausted at all.

He was indeed still young.

However, the even younger Jon was already dying from exhaustion. After the car started, he managed to hold on for a while, but before long, the curly-haired puppy slumped over in the passenger seat, falling into a deep sleep.

After fighting for a day and night, everyone was indeed tired. Moreover, Yuan Ye driving the car seemed safer than staying in the underground shelter last night.

Captain Chen held on for a while, closing her eyes to doze off, but she didn't allow herself to fall into a deep sleep.