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She raised her hand and wearily rubbed her brow, "The coverage area... Initial estimates suggest it's approaching the size of half of Qingjian City."

"Half a city?!" Fang Qingyu frowned slightly.

The faces of the others instantly turned extremely grim, and a suppressed gasp arose.

Duan Ling nodded heavily, "Yes, half a city. Every captain is equipped with such a super-large force field." She looked up, her gaze sharp and icy, "It's to prevent encountering super-large Life Ghosts, or a group of Life Ghosts! The bureau's top combat forces... including the deputy director, several other team captains, and some special support experts... have already formed an assault team, and they're all trapped inside."

She looked at everyone present, "They... can't get out in a short period. Now the defense and cleanup pressure of the entire Qingjian City is on us who can still move." She closed her eyes wearily, leaning against the sofa, "I was forced out by Captain Lin to rest... The battlefield over there is the real meat grinder."

The news detonated like a heavy bomb in the deathly quiet lounge area.

A super-large force field! Half a city! A group of Life Ghosts!? Top combat forces completely unable to escape!?

The relief from barely surviving the abnormal bloody battle was instantly replaced by this grander and more desperate shadow.

It turned out that what they had just experienced was merely the prologue of this catastrophe, or perhaps... the aftermath of another more terrifying disaster?

"You don't need to worry about over there, but you'll need to switch to double shifts these days."

After Duan Ling finished speaking, she seemed to exhaust her last bit of energy explaining, closed her eyes again, her chest lightly rising and falling, clearly compelled to rest after extreme exhaustion.

The rest area sank into a deeper silence once more.

Time passed by the minute.

The rain outside seemed to have completely stopped, but the night was growing deeper.

The clock's hands quietly slid towards midnight.

Gradually, more members of the third squad, dragging their exhausted, scarred bodies, returned to the 28th-floor lounge area.

Every person who opened the door and entered came with a disheveled and bloodstained body, their faces filled with the numbness of a near-death experience and an unspeakable sorrow.

Their eyes searched through the crowd for familiar faces, with some finding them and rushing up for tight, silent embraces, tears flowing quietly.

Others, after scanning around, had their gaze dim completely, silently walking to a corner to curl up.

The previously empty lounge gradually filled with these blood-soaked returning figures.

However, when Duan Ling opened her tired eyes again and slowly scanned the entire area.

Her body suddenly froze.

She straightened up, her gaze like a searchlight, filled with disbelief and an ever-deepening cold, sweeping over those familiar yet haggard faces again and again.

One... two... five... ten...

She counted silently in her heart, her fingers unconsciously gripping the sofa armrest, knuckles turning white from the force.

Gone! They're gone!

Some of those vivid faces in her memory! Those members who usually laughed and cursed, howled during training, and eagerly took on missions... are gone!!

Finally, her gaze settled on Fang Qingyu and others, then scanned the earliest injured ones there and then the last few staggering team members who walked in...

In the entire lounge, there were only about ten formal team members belonging to her squad left.

And nearly everyone was wounded!

Just a dozen people...

At the start of the mission, they were a fully-staffed, prestigious elite action squad of the Divine Management Bureau!!

When they set out, the youthful, spirited, slightly tense but mostly trusting and fervent faces within the bureau...

Now, only these dozen or so scarred, weary, even hollow-eyed figures remain?

"Where are they..." Duan Ling's voice was extremely low, carrying an unnoticed tremor, as if asking herself, or questioning this cold reality, "Where are the others?"

No one answered.

Only suppressed, uncontrollable sobbing and weeping echoed in the quiet corner of the rest area.

"I'm asking you!!" Duan Ling stood up abruptly! Her voice suddenly raised, shrill as if tearing her throat, carrying a kind of madness and anger on the brink of collapse!

The fatigue on her face was instantly replaced by extreme pain and rage, the gray pallor flushed with an unhealthy red from excitement!

"Where's our squad?! Huh?!!"

Her gaze, like a burning knife, fiercely swept across the face of every team member present, finally fixating on those reserve members returned but missing their core team leaders.

"Speak up! Have you all turned mute?! Where did the others go?!"

"Sister Duan..." In the corner, a young team member couldn't hold back, speaking with a sob, "Brother Li... to cover us, he... was hit by... that ghost thing's corrosive liquid..."

"Brother Wu... was crushed by a collapsed steel frame... When we retrieved him..."

"Brother Wang... Sister Liu... they..."

Disconnected, sob-ridden words, like red-hot daggers, stabbed viciously into Duan Ling's heart!

Every name represented a once-vivid face, each disappearing name symbolizing a heavy responsibility on her shoulders... breaking into pieces!

"Enough!!!"

Duan Ling let out a shrill scream, piercing to the point of breaking.

The whole person, like a thoroughly enraged, lost-infantry mother beast, was trembling violently.