Chapter 640: Resolving the Mystery
The moment the press and all the other soldiers turned towards Xiaoyun and Yiming, they both let out a small sigh.
"Good afternoon... Is everybody here just taking a picture of this fog?" Yiming curiously asked as they changed their direction.
"We’re just capturing this red fog on our camera, if you don’t mind." One of the people in the press answered.
"It’s fine... Ahem, Xiaoyun, you ready?" Yiming asked, looking over to the side where Xiaoyun stood.
"Yep. See you in like... an hour."
As Xiaoyun walked straight into the fog all by himself, everyone was shocked, from the soldiers guarding to the press.
"M-Mr.Yiming, did you just say t-the governor’s name?" One of the people in the press urgently asked.
"Yeah, what about it? You have a problem?"
"No, sir. I’m just curious, why did the governor go inside the fog like this?" The person in the press asked again.
"Do you want to know some classified information that could land you in jail?" Yiming questioned.
"N-Nevermind."
---
Meanwhile, over in the fog...
"God damn it, my clothes are all gone again."
As Xiaoyun tried to create a new piece of cloth, it instantly vanished in his hand as if the ’invisible’ fog absorbed the thing he had just created.
With no other choices, he began walking down the road. Although he was fully naked, it felt surprisingly cold with zero wind.
Looking around, all of the buildings were destroyed in the same way—by an overwhelming number of explosives that landed directly onto them.
Further down the road, there were only more collapsed buildings. Not a single one remained except for the one ahead.
A singular office building, barely holding on to its only remaining pillar. Half of the building had already collapsed onto the side of the road.
"Ouch."
The sharp pain from stepping on the shattered glass made him flinch a little before he suddenly noticed something a little different about his leg.
What was supposed to be a cut wound instantly vanished. Xiaoyun didn’t even need to use his ability to regenerate it.
"Weird... What’s keeping this fog up still?"
The more he looked around his surroundings, the more he started to realize something was a little off.
He was standing right in the middle of a park, with one collasped building to his right and one to his left.
Behind, there were two collasped buildings, with the only building that hadn’t collapsed yet right in front of him.
It was almost as if all the buildings had formed a star formation, giving off their energy to the park right in the middle.
"Do I need to blow that one up to end this?"
After thinking about it for a minute, Xiaoyun decided to put it into a plan as he headed back to where the shattered glass was located earlier.
Standing near the edge, he could see the support pillar right before his eyes. Just twenty steps away.
He tried to create an RPG in his hand, but it unfortunately disappeared within seconds, eliminating the option of using an explosive.
"Have to force me to do it the hard way, huh?"
Xiaoyun ran straight through the shattered glass as the sharp edges cut his bare foot over and over again.
Although the wound kept healing instantly on its own, the pain was starting to become overwhelming.
"Fuck fuck fuck. Come on, just a few more steps... Whew!"
As he looked up to the support pillar in front of him, he froze for a second. There was no way for him to break it.
He couldn’t create any tools. Nor could he run away fast enough if he did somehow manage to break the pillar.
"There’s no way I ran to here for no reason."
Just as Xiaoyun punched the pillar out of frustration, cracks suddenly started to appear right before his eyes.
"Oh shit!"
He immediately bolted out as fast as he could as the crack started to spread rapidly throughout the entire pillar.
The pain couldn’t even bother him anymore, as the only thing on his mind was to run as fast as he could.
After what seemed to be a safe enough distance, he turned around to check, only to find the building still standing.
"Wait... Did it really not crack hard enough?"
Standing there for a whole minute, the building was still standing. It was clear the cracks were nowhere near enough.
"You can’t be serious."
Xiaoyun let out a sigh as he started thinking of going back, but just as he took the first step, a loud sound was instantly followed by sudden smoke ahead.
The building had finally collapsed, with the rubble’s smoke instantly vanishing after just a few seconds.
"Huh..."
Heading back to the middle of the park and looking around, Xiaoyun could clearly see that every single building had collasped.
Yet, nothing changed.
Although he couldn’t see the fog itself, he could tell by the air temperature being way cooler than the outside.
"Is there something I’m missing?"
As he carefully looked around the park he was in, there was nothing unique about it—a bunch of benches along a circle, kids’ sandboxes, and a small playground.
Everything seemed to be functional and normal as he dug through the sands and tapped his finger on each piece of equipment.
"Is it the fountain?"
After staring at it for a full minute, there was nothing weird. It was just a normal park fountain that didn’t have any water.
"Maybe I’m overthinking it... What if it just goes away on its own a few days later?"
Just as Xiaoyun thought of it as a possible explanation and took his leave, his brain suddenly realized something that didn’t make any sense.
To confirm his theory, he quickly created a small sand grain, only for it to instantly vanish.
Running back to the kids’ sandbox, he grabbed a handful of the sand, only for it to be perfectly fine lying in his hand.
"Why is everything in here not destroyed by the fog?"
The more he tried to think of a reason, the closer he felt he was getting to an answer that would resolve everything.
But all of them conflicted against each other. Those that would defeat all the previous understanding Xiaoyun had built.
"It can’t be because this stuff has been in the fog longer... All of those buildings out there were in the fog, too.
But my body was able to be immune to the fog... Why can’t new objects be brought inside the fog to be immune?"
Just as Xiaoyun was about to give up, a glimmer of hope suddenly caught his eye. One that was right in front of him.
He immediately bowed down to the ground below, his bare hand digging through the dirt as he just kept on digging and digging.
After digging for a few minutes, he finally noticed something that had changed. The dirt he had dug up deep underneath the ground vanished.
The more he dug, the more dirt started vanishing from the park as the top layer fell in an attempt to cover it.
"Hm... This fog is only on the surface... Surface... Surface... Wait!"
As he rushed over to one of the collapsed buildings, he quickly dug his hand through the rubble.
Right before his eyes, the inner rubble vanishes. He stood still as his brain short-circuited again.
Although he had now found that the fog itself only stays on the outer layer, it wasn’t really important information in ending the fog.
"There has to be something that’s releasing this fog to trap all these outer layers of material."
Walking back to the park, his brain suddenly realized something that he hadn’t thought of earlier.
"How did the park manage to escape from the artillery strike?"
Xiaoyun thought of leaving to ask Yiming for a second, but he chose to sit down on one of the benches as he looked around the park.
He could feel he was so close to cracking the case. But just not close enough to find the real culprit.
"What could possibly be the thing that’s releasing the fog? Wait a moment..."
As he got up from his seat and walked over to the fountain once again, he tried to look through the small water hole in the middle.
"What the fuck..."
The image before his eyes stunned him, as he could see some sort of red liquid seemingly deep inside the pipe.
It was visible, unlike the fog, and in a liquid form. One that instantly reminded Xiaoyun of the liquid that the dead sphere made.
"This has to be the cause for the fog... But how do I get that liquid out of this fountain?"
Looking at the fountain’s marble and steel structure, it was practically impossible for him to punch through all the way down to the pipes.
He thought of going back and just letting Yiming blow it up for a second. But his mind quickly realized the artillery shell wouldn’t work at all.
The whole park area was being protected by the fog. But the destroyed office building in the distance told him the fog still had limits.