"Where do we go now?"

Phoebe got into the van, Kexi asked.

"I want to rest for a little while first. Do you have anything to eat here?"

As long as she regained some strength, Lin Ye could guarantee Phoebe's safety within a certain range.

"I have some emergency food."

The bespectacled woman took some snacks from her backpack and handed them to Phoebe.

"Thank you."

Phoebe finished the snacks quickly. Eating restored some of her strength.

"I think we should look for those lunatics. They must know something about the Real World."

While Phoebe ate, the middle-aged police officer suggested.

"You're not wrong, but we need to consider the details carefully."

The old man didn't think it wise to rashly hunt down dangerous lunatics. One misstep and they could be wiped out.

"Have you ever seen a Giant Infant? The lunatic we met earlier came with one. That Giant Infant might be related to the Real World."

Phoebe relayed the information Lin Ye had told her.

"That's actually a good lead."

The bespectacled woman agreed.

"Woo-ee…"

The bandaged student suddenly made a strange sound.

"Little Yi is someone we rescued from those lunatics. They did terrible things to her. Now she can only make that sound."

The bespectacled woman explained quietly.

"...She makes that sound because she knows the Giant Infant?"

Phoebe didn't know what to say in that situation.

"That's possible. It seems we need to find that Giant Infant."

The bespectacled woman looked out the window. They had encountered a Giant Infant on the road earlier. The Giant Infant was enormous. If they turned back, they should find it quickly.

But just as the middle-aged police officer was about to turn the vehicle around, a massive silhouette crashed into their field of view.

It was a Giant Infant the size of a bus. In front of it wandered some gaunt survivors.

"Wasn't it supposed to be going the other way?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The bespectacled woman asked, puzzled.

"This might not be the same Giant Infant I ran into before, unless it could quickly replenish itself with survivors and come around from the outskirts."

Phoebe wasn't sure if a Giant Infant could do that, and she couldn't imagine why it would.

"You mean there might be more than one Giant Infant in the city?"

Kexi readied his weapon, alert.

"I can deal with the Giant Infant, but there are likely lunatics lurking nearby. We should find their locations first, or we risk being ambushed."

Phoebe certainly couldn't handle the Giant Infant herself, but Lin Ye would help her take care of it.

"You can handle a Giant Infant by yourself?"

The middle-aged police officer driving asked.

"Yeah. If we cut the umbilical cords inside those survivors, the Giant Infant won't be able to feed through them. Then it will flee somewhere else and we can follow to see where it goes."

Lin Ye had regained control of the body. Phoebe did not possess the ability to sever those umbilical cords; many tasks would fall to him.

"Fine. The Giant Infant is yours to handle. We'll deal with the lunatics hiding nearby."

The old man decided decisively.

The middle-aged police officer parked the van on the roadside. Lin Ye took the bone dagger and approached the survivors. He had already handled an umbilical cord once; repeating the procedure was no challenge.

More worrying to him was whether those survivors could deal with any lunatics hiding in the shadows.

In fact, his worry was somewhat unnecessary. Those survivors were stronger than he had expected. Just as he finished cutting the umbilical cords, the survivors returned.

Lin Ye heard gunshots. The lunatic hiding in a nearby residential complex must have been shot dead.

"That lunatic could even deflect bullets. You actually handled both the Giant Infant and that lunatic at the same time."

The middle-aged police officer looked at the bodies of survivors around Lin Ye, and his assessment of Phoebe's danger increased again.

"I can't casually deflect bullets."

At least not yet.

They returned to the van. The middle-aged police officer drove, trailing the Giant Infant as it moved toward the city center.

No one in the van spoke; only the sound of the vehicle could be heard.

"Do you need more time to rest?"

Phoebe communicated with Lin Ye through consciousness.

"No. Your physical cap is limited. Resting longer won't help. I just need enough energy to function normally."

Lin Ye did not give the body back to Phoebe. He moved slightly, keeping this body in a state where it would be easy to act before battle.

Soon the van stopped near the city center. Many Giant Infants had gathered there, and the one they had been following had joined the cluster.

Because the Giant Infants congregated, they noticed something none of them had paid attention to before.

Each Giant Infant had a thick red umbilical cord attached to its back. The other end of those red cords pointed up at the sky, where a massive shadow hung over the entire city.

That enormous shadow loomed above the city. They could have seen it by simply looking up, but it wasn't until they noticed the red cords stretching skyward that they understood the presence above them.

"...What is that... Is that the Real World?"

The bespectacled woman raised her head to stare at the sky. She suddenly thought of those lunatics. If she had always observed that enormous shadow, would she have become one of them?

"Woo-ee woo-ee woo-ee woo-ee woo-ee…"

Little Yi kept making strange sounds, like a phone that had just received a signal.

"What do we do now? Don't tell me that shadow up there is the Real World. How are we supposed to destroy something like that?"

The middle-aged police officer loosened his grip on his handgun and spoke weakly.

The old man had no answer either; he didn't know how to deal with such a thing.

"I can crawl up those umbilical cords, but first I need you to help me cut the Giant Infants' umbilical cords and deal with the lunatics around them."

If spiritual energy were abundant here, Lin Ye could simply fly up. He wouldn't need this complicated plan.

"You sure about that?"

Kexi didn't think climbing the cords would be easy, and the Real World up there might hold many unknown risks.

"I'm sure. What about you? Will you turn and run, or will you do what needs to be done with me? Even if we might die here?"

Lin Ye drew the bone dagger. He didn't get out of the van; he waited for the others' answers.