Wow! The item-dropping rate is really high!

Scattered goods on the ground were wrapped in a bundle of soft materials, and inside, the simple assembly of instruments flashed with a glaring red light.

"Tick tock tick tock tick tock~"

The red light quietly flickered, signifying that it was at work.

... Explore stories at empire

"Beep beep beep~"

The buzzer emitted a slight alarm sound.

In the quiet and tense environment of the Monitoring Center, this unexpected noise was immediately noticed by the intensely focused researchers.

The man with glasses and dense hair showed a puzzled face and muttered to himself, "Where is this signal coming from?"

Looking at the sudden string of messages that appeared on the monitor, the man scratched his head in confusion.

The channel used by their reception center's signal tower had undergone special processing, ordinary signals should not have been relayed to this analysis center dedicated to sensor research...

Something's not right, this is the place specifically for receiving internet signals!

Even they in Blackwater City had only just recently picked up this technology again, where else could such signals come from that would be sent to their specific channel's reception center?

"Minister!" the researcher suddenly stood up, but before him, more excited voices nearly simultaneously erupted.

"Report to Minister Likok! The lights for Squad 1 have all gone out!"

"Report to Minister Likok! The lights for Squad 2 have all gone out!"

"Report to Minister Likok! The lights for Squad 3 have all gone out!"

...

"Report to Minister Likok! The lights for Squad 10 have all gone out!"

All lights out!

This shocking news made all the scientists in the Monitoring Center feel a sudden chill.

In this rhythm, the researcher who had first discovered the unexpected signal was instantly drowned out.

Minister Likok stood in place, feeling his head spinning.

All lights out?

And all at once?

What had happened?

Had all the soldiers died in an instant?

That's impossible!

The collective death of soldiers from ten squads operating in different areas, even the dominant Bug Race they had once encountered did not possess such capability.

Distance was an insurmountable hurdle, there might be many unbelievable things in this world, but some fundamental laws had to be followed.

It was more believable to assume that some power had instantaneously severed the connection between the sensors carried by all the soldiers and this reception center.

However, who possessed this capability that leaned more towards the technological side?

Other human forces? Could there be other cities developing internet technology faster than Blackwater City, which had just unlocked the server seals?

Or perhaps… the Bug Race?

The soldiers' mission on this operation was to target the Bug Race, making it easy to immediately associate it with the Bug Race.

Minister Likok first picked up an internal communicator, intending to contact the Military Department to investigate this eerie event.

Whichever force it was that had managed this, it warranted their attention and an investigation was necessary.

Others had the ability to intercept their internal communication even though they had not completed their research on internet technology?

However, the moment Likok picked up the communicator, he froze.

The ten squads had moved into different areas, where exactly did the incident occur?

Without a specific direction, the large forces sent by the Military Department would only waste time like headless flies.

In an instant, Minister Likok remembered that strange flicker he had initially ignored.

That seemingly insignificant abnormality might have been the moment when the signal was replaced.

The soldiers hadn't died at the same time, but instead had been attacked separately after the signals were replaced, not giving their base time to react.

Was this an ambush by the Bug Race against humans?

How did they know humans were sending out squads to capture their new type of sandworms?

Of course, that wasn't really important, low-level Bug Race individuals might indeed lack intelligence, but it was no secret among humans that the Bug Race's brain bugs possessed intelligence, perhaps the sandworms roaming about were baits sent out by them.

The pressing issue was to investigate the reason behind the collective death of the soldiers, or rather, the collective disconnection of information.

Should they start from every location where the signals flickered separately? The places where something had happened would definitely leave some clues behind.

"Pull up the locations of their signals when they flickered and mark them on the map to send to the Military Department," Likok ordered immediately.

The voice in the corner hesitantly spoke up, "Minister… Minister… I might have found something special."

As all the signals were cut off, this researcher finally started to take the information he saw seriously.

"I've discovered a strange signal here," said the researcher, standing up amid some chaotic voices.

Minister Likok immediately looked over, "What?"

"An unexpected signal was sent to our receiver."

"Have you decoded it?"

"It's a location, the decoding method of the information is exactly the same as what we use." The researcher had not been idle even during the commotion.

Minister Likok's eyes lit up instantly, "Bring it up quickly!"

The location information was displayed on the big screen, which immediately caused an uproar...

"...At the boundary area between two squads' territories?"

"Where is this signal from?"

"How is that possible!? This is an encrypted channel we just started using!"

"Perhaps our soldiers, realizing something was wrong, tried to notify us through other means."