The real world was not quiet anymore.
The air around the broken railway shed twisted like bending glass.
The sand shook with every pulse from the Rift.
The sky above had changed color—
no longer dark blue,
but streaked with violet cracks that spread like lightning frozen in place.
Kai wiped blood from her forehead and stared upward.
"…No.
No, no, no—this is bad.
This is very, VERY bad."
Chen Gu crawled out from behind a collapsed metal beam, coughing.
"What did we miss?! The Rift was small before—like a door! Now it looks like it wants to eat the entire station!"
Kai pointed at the sky.
"Look at that. It's growing."
A giant tear in the air hovered above them, spinning slowly.
Pieces of metal… chunks of sand… even the broken parts of Crawlers…
were floating upward into the crack.
Like they were being pulled into another world.
Chen Gu's face went white.
"This is not normal Rift expansion. This is PULSE expansion.
Meaning the Rift isn't just open…"
He swallowed hard.
"…it's feeding."
Kai snapped her rifle into ready position.
"Explain. Fast."
Chen Gu pointed both hands at the Rift, shaking.
"When a Rift feeds, it means something inside is using power so big that reality around it starts collapsing.
This—this is beyond dangerous.
This is end-of-city-level dangerous!"
Kai clenched her jaw.
"Lie must be awake in there."
Chen Gu nodded.
"And losing control."
The ground shook.
Both of them almost fell.
Sand began lifting off the surface in spirals—
tiny ones at first, then growing into tall columns.
The entire desert looked like it was breathing.
Kai grabbed Chen Gu's collar and hauled him behind another piece of shelter just as a burst of blue-white energy exploded outward from the Rift opening.
BOOOOM—!!
A shockwave tore across the ground, flipping Crawler bodies like toys.
Chen Gu screamed:
"What was THAT?!"
Kai gritted her teeth.
"That was Yin Lie having a mood swing.
Or an emotional breakdown.
Or both."
Chen Gu clasped his hands together like praying.
"Oh god, oh god—if he breaks any harder we're all dead."
The Hunters Return
In the distance, red lights flickered to life.
Kai squinted.
"No way…
They're still active?!"
The Type-B Hunters—
the tall, humanoid ones—
began standing back up, repairs happening automatically across their bodies.
Metal limbs reattached.
Cracked faceplates reformed.
New glowing lines traced across their armor.
Chen Gu panicked.
"They linked to a secondary power node! They're rebooting!"
Kai lifted her rifle.
"Well, that's just great."
The Hunters turned toward the Rift—
and stepped forward slowly, deliberately.
Chen Gu's heart sank.
"They're going inside…
They want Qin Mian."
Kai's grip tightened on her gun.
"Oh hell no."
She fired a warning burst.
BANG-BANG-BANG!
The bullets hit a Hunter's chest, but the machine didn't even flinch.
Chen Gu yanked Kai's arm.
"Don't provoke them! They're Type-B models!
We can't take even ONE of them—"
Kai stepped forward anyway.
"If they reach the Rift, Yin Lie will wake up angry."
Chen Gu blinked.
"He's already angry!"
Kai's voice hardened.
"I mean angrier."
Reality Breaks Further
The Rift pulse grew unstable again.
A second tear split open beside the first.
Then a third.
The air vibrated like a giant engine spinning too fast.
Kai shielded her face as wind blasted outward.
"GET DOWN!"
Chen Gu hit the sand as glowing symbols—Keystone patterns—flew from the Rift like falling snow.
The ground changed beneath them, turning into a grid of blue light for an instant before flickering back to sand.
Chen Gu whispered:
"He's rewriting the space…
The whole station is becoming part of the Rift."
Kai exhaled slowly.
"I hate magic."
"It's not magic! It's physics bending under emotional overload!"
"That doesn't make it better!"
A chunk of the shed lifted into the air, spinning like a leaf in a storm.
Kai pulled Chen Gu back before it smashed beside them.
"Move! We need distance!"
"We can't leave the Rift area! What if Mian comes back out? We have to be here!"
Kai almost snapped—
but then she saw something in Chen Gu's eyes.
Fear,
yes.
But also determination.
He wouldn't leave them.
Kai sighed.
"…Fine. But we need a plan."
Chen Gu spread his hands helplessly.
"What plan works against dimensional collapse?!"
Kai pointed her rifle toward the Type-B Hunters approaching the Rift.
"That's the plan.
We stop THEM."
Chen Gu's voice cracked:
"Do you hear yourself?! You want to fight anti-variant kill machines with—WHAT? A gun??"
Kai checked her magazine.
"A very nice gun."
Chen Gu made a long, pained noise.
The Sky Tears Open
Then—
the Rift pulsed again.
But this pulse was different.
Deeper.
Louder.
More desperate.
The wind turned icy.
A long vertical crack tore open across the sky—
stretching from horizon to horizon.
Chen Gu whispered:
"Oh no…
That's—
That's the second layer collapsing."
Kai's eyes widened.
"Meaning what?"
Chen Gu swallowed.
"Yin Lie just broke through a deeper level of the Rift."
Kai stared upward, murmuring:
"Damn it, kid… how strong ARE you now?"
He didn't have time to answer.
Because from the Rift—
a scream came out.
Not human.
Not machine.
A mix of both.
It tore through the sky like lightning.
Kai froze.
"That wasn't Lie…
That was something else…"
Chen Gu shook violently.
"The Rift Creatures…
They felt him break the layer…
and now they're coming for him."
Kai raised her rifle again.
Her jaw tightened.
"Then they'll have to get through me first."
The Hunters Move
The Type-B Hunters all turned at once.
Their red faceplates brightened.
They formed a perfect formation.
Then—
they RAN toward the Rift gate.
Fast.
Too fast.
Kai stepped forward.
"Oh no you don't—"
Chen Gu grabbed her arm.
"Kai—WAIT—"
But she didn't wait.
She sprinted directly toward them—
alone—
screaming:
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!!"
The ground cracked beneath the Hunters' feet as they charged.
The Rift pulsed harder—
the wind howling—
space splitting—
time bending—
and deep inside the Rift, someone answered with a roar.
Yin Lie.
Chen Gu's voice cracked in pure panic:
"THEY'RE ALL GOING TO COLLIDE—REALITY WILL BREAK APART—!!!"
Kai didn't stop running.
She aimed straight at the monsters sprinting toward the Rift.
And the Rift pulsed again—
a bright, violent pulse—
as though someone inside was fighting with everything he had.
The entire world shook.
The Hunters reached the Rift edge.
Kai reached firing distance.
Chen Gu screamed.
The sky shattered.
And Chapter 98 ends here.