Allen said, "It's not very far, about forty minutes on foot."
Li Chengjie nodded, "Why don't we move the supplies over, send a couple of people ahead on foot, and the rest can walk. After all, one car might not be enough for all this stuff and people."
Allen nodded, "Head southeast, in about forty minutes you'll see an abandoned machine tool factory."
Li Chengjie nodded, "Take Gonzales and Ruyue with you."
Davis took a box from the car, "Here are walkie-talkies, specially made, with a transmission range of up to three hundred kilometers."
As Davis spoke, he took out a remote-controlled drone. Once activated, it flew into the sky without needing to be piloted, slowly moving forward.
Davis said, "This is a mobile signal tower."
After assigning personnel, Allen led Gonzales and Ji Ruyue ahead.
Li Chengjie, Davis, and Bai Ye walked forward on foot.
Carrying their weapons, Li Chengjie looked at Bai Ye and smiled, "Mr. Bai, you're quite skilled. You're not a cyborg, are you?"
"No," Bai Ye replied, "but I've had some gene therapy."
"No wonder," Li Chengjie said with a look of understanding. "That's not great for your health. Most gene therapies have some side effects."
"Yeah, that's why I'm so handsome, oh wait, I mean I get knee pain when it rains," Bai Ye quipped, making things up. "But as long as I can stay alive, anything is fine. A few side effects don't matter."
Li Chengjie nodded and sighed, "Who isn't? It's not easy to survive these days."
Li Chengjie clearly wanted to probe Bai Ye's background, as Bai Ye was the only one not from the Ruined City. The backgrounds of others were easy to find out, but Bai Ye was an exception. However, Li Chengjie's guard wasn't too high. The reason was that Bai Ye's strategy had worked. Bai Ye had shown some strength, making his claim of coming from Cowboy City to the border believable; it was impossible to traverse such a vast wasteland without some ability. Yet, Bai Ye hadn't shown overwhelming power, at least not to the point where Li Chengjie felt he couldn't handle him. Therefore, the doubts surrounding Bai Ye had decreased, and he was within a manageable range, so Li Chengjie naturally became less wary.
They continued forward without encountering any trouble. The venomous arrow frog was an unexpected encounter. As seasoned hunters active on the border, Li Chengjie and Davis were very familiar with the surrounding areas, including the distribution of most mutated creatures. Therefore, 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 that Allen had mentioned appeared before Bai Ye and the other two. The barbed wire fence around the factory and the buildings within were covered with extensive vines, and the ground was overgrown with weeds. Many sections of the outer barbed wire fence had collapsed, and even those still standing seemed precarious.
But the most notable thing… were 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 the tip of a fingernail to the palm of a hand. They were not densely packed, growing like mushrooms around the barbed wire fence, appearing every so often. However, this number of crystals was clearly insufficient to enter the mirrored world.
At this point, Davis called out from the front, "The vehicles are this way, they left us a marker."
Bai Ye and Li Chengjie stepped forward and saw the jeep, with an arrow next to it pointing to a gap in the broken barbed wire fence. Just as they were about to enter, Gonzales happened to walk out and immediately called out, "Move the stuff, the destination is inside the factory building."
Li Chengjie nodded and took the lead in carrying the boxes of weapons, while Bai Ye and Davis followed, picking up the supply crates. They walked inside and arrived at the front of a factory building.
The scene here was much more astonishing. Large swathes of pink crystal covered almost the entire factory building—the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and even the discarded machinery were all encrusted with crystals.
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 go to another world." Allen gestured to a corner on the side as he spoke. "I discovered the peculiar nature of those crystals when I once placed a weapon in that corner, and the item simply vanished."
Bai Ye nodded, "No problem, let's put everything together first."
Allen nodded, "Everyone, come lend a hand."
Once the items were piled together, Bai Ye instructed again, "Move the crystals over here."
Allen asked, "Those crystals have grown solid, can we break them?"
"You can break them, just smash them," Bai Ye said with a smile. "If you're unsure, aren't there many crystals growing on the surrounding machinery? You can just push those machines with the crystals attached over here."
Allen nodded, "Let's do that!"
Allen was somewhat hesitant and unwilling to damage the crystals easily, so he took the lead in pushing over the machines that had crystals growing on them. As per Bai Ye's instructions, they arranged them in a circular formation. However, nothing happened.
Bai Ye frowned. It seemed the magnetic field wasn't strong enough, and more crystals were needed. But there were no more machines around, and Allen was still reluctant to smash the crystals.
"Looks like I need to add some effort!" Bai Ye murmured. With a subtle tap of his toe, an arc of electricity appeared, climbing along the ground to the surrounding crystals.
In the next instant, the crystals began to emit a glow.
Allen exclaimed excitedly, "Yes, just like that, the same as when things vanished."
The glow initially appeared crimson. As more arcs of electricity appeared beneath the crystals, the glow began to flow, transforming into a swirling, multi-colored brilliance, like smoke drifting within the crystals.
In the next moment, the surrounding scenery suddenly blurred. A fierce wind swept around them, and rings of electrical arcs appeared, enveloping everyone in a series of electric circles.
Crack, crack!
Cracks began to appear on the surrounding crystals, and fine crystal shards dispersed into the air. Everyone instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes.
The surrounding landscape spun faster and faster, eventually blurring into streaks of light.
In an instant, the space around them became distorted, with a dizzying sensation that made people feel nauseous. After about seven or eight minutes, the rotating space gradually stopped, and the scenery began to slowly come back into focus.
...