"It's not far, about a forty-minute walk," Allen said.
Li Chengjie nodded. "Why don't we move the supplies over and send two people ahead? The rest of us can walk. One vehicle might not be enough for all this stuff and everyone."
Allen nodded. "Head southeast. In about forty minutes, you'll see an abandoned machine tool factory."
Li Chengjie nodded. "Take Gonzalez and Ruyue with you."
Davis took a box from the vehicle. "Here are walkie-talkies. Special issue, with a transmission range of up to three hundred kilometers."
As he spoke, Davis took out a remote-controlled drone. Once activated, the drone flew into the sky and slowly moved forward without any manual operation.
Davis said, "This is a mobile signal station."
After assigning personnel, Allen, along with Gonzalez and Ji Ruyue, set off first.
Li Chengjie, Davis, and Bai Ye proceeded on foot.
Carrying their weapons, they advanced. Li Chengjie looked at Bai Ye and smiled. "Mr. Bai, you're quite skilled. You're not an android, are you?"
"No," Bai Ye replied. "But I've had some gene therapy."
"That explains it," Li Chengjie said with a look of realization. "That can't be good for your body. Most gene therapies have side effects."
"Yeah, that's why I'm so handsome. Oh, wait, it's why my knees ache when it rains," Bai Ye quipped, making up a story. "But as long as I can live, anything goes. A few side effects don't matter."
Li Chengjie nodded and sighed. "Who isn't like that? It's not easy to stay alive these days."
Li Chengjie clearly wanted to probe Bai Ye's background. After all, Bai Ye was the only one not from the Ruined City.
The backgrounds of the others were easy to investigate, but Bai Ye was an exception.
However, Li Chengjie's guard wasn't up too high. The reason was that Bai Ye's strategy had worked.
Bai Ye had shown some strength, which made his story of traveling from Cowboy City to the border believable. It would be impossible to traverse such a vast wasteland without some skill.
Yet, Bai Ye hadn't displayed excessive strength. At least, Li Chengjie felt he could handle Bai Ye at the moment.
Therefore, the doubts surrounding Bai Ye had decreased, and he was within a controllable range. Li Chengjie naturally felt less wary.
They continued forward without encountering any trouble.
The venomous arrow frog was an unexpected encounter. As hunters who frequented the border, Li Chengjie and Davis were actually quite familiar with the outer areas.
This included the distribution of most mutated creatures. So, as long as they were careful, with Davis and Li Chengjie leading the way, it was relatively easy to avoid mutated creatures.
Forty minutes later!
The abandoned machine tool factory Allen had mentioned appeared before Bai Ye and the other two.
The barbed wire fence surrounding the factory and the buildings within were covered in thick vines, and the ground was overgrown with weeds.
Many sections of the outer barbed wire fence had collapsed, and even those still standing looked precarious.
But the most noteworthy thing…
was the crystals!
From outside the factory, they could already see the crystals Allen had spoken of.
They were a striking fuchsia color, varying in size from as small as a fingernail to as large as a palm. They were not densely packed.
They grew around the barbed wire fence, like mushrooms, appearing at intervals.
However, the amount of crystals here was clearly too small to enter the Mirror World.
At this point, Davis, walking ahead, called out, "The vehicles are this way. They left a marker."
Bai Ye and Li Chengjie stepped forward and saw the jeep. Beside it was an arrow pointing to a gap in the broken barbed wire fence.
Just as they were about to enter, Gonzalez happened to walk out and immediately called out, "Move the supplies. The destination is inside the factory building."
Li Chengjie nodded and took the lead in carrying a box of weapons. Bai Ye and Davis followed, picking up boxes of supplies.
They walked inside and reached the front of a factory building.
The scene inside was much more astonishing. Large patches of pink crystal covered almost the entire factory floor, walls, ceiling, and even the abandoned machinery.
Allen looked at Bai Ye as he entered. "This is where I found them, but I don't know how to use the crystals to get to another world."
As he spoke, Allen pointed to a corner on the side.
"I discovered the peculiar nature of those crystals because one time I placed a weapon in that corner, and it just disappeared."
Bai Ye nodded. "No problem. Let's just put everything together first."
Allen nodded. "Everyone come help."
Once the items were piled together, Bai Ye instructed again, "Move the crystals over here."
Allen asked, "Those crystals have grown in place. Can we break them?"
"You can break them. Just smash them," Bai Ye said with a smile. "If you're worried, aren't there many crystals appearing on the surrounding machine tools? You can push those machine tools, along with the crystals, over here."
Allen nodded. "Let's do that!"
Allen was somewhat hesitant about the crystals and didn't dare to break them easily. So, he took the lead in pushing over the machine tools where crystals had appeared. Following Bai Ye's instructions, they arranged them in a circle.
However, nothing happened.
Bai Ye frowned. It seemed the magnetic field wasn't strong enough; more crystals were needed.
But there were no more machine tools around, and Allen was reluctant to smash the crystals.
"Looks like I'll have to add some power!"
Bai Ye muttered, subtly tapping his foot. Immediately, an arc of electricity appeared, climbing along the ground to the surrounding crystals.
The next instant, those crystals began to emit a glow.
Allen exclaimed excitedly, "Yes, that's it! Just like when things disappeared."
The glow was initially crimson. Then, as more electric arcs appeared below the crystals, the glow began to swirl, turning into a multicolored, ethereal light that drifted and danced within the crystals like smoke.
The next moment, the surroundings suddenly blurred.
A fierce wind swept around, and circles of electric arcs appeared, enveloping everyone, forming ring after ring of electricity.
Crack! Crack!
Cracks began to appear in the surrounding crystals, and fine crystal dust drifted through the air.
The group involuntarily raised their arms to shield their eyes.
The scenery around them blurred faster and faster, eventually becoming streaks of light, a hazy expanse.
In an instant, the surrounding space twisted, the sky and earth spun, giving everyone a queasy feeling.
After about seven or eight minutes, the spinning space gradually stopped, and the scenery began to return to normal.
...