“I can’t accept this!” A sudden roar echoed through an office at the Military Department. The man who yelled, once handsome, now looked ferocious, his eyes bloodshot, and his lips cracked from dehydration. His high-end suit was wrinkled from days of wear and even torn in one place.

Yan Yi, seated across from him, maintained a calm expression as he explained, “Surveillance at the boarding gate showed the Cheng family trio boarding that train. Fellow passengers confirmed their presence. When our operatives secretly infiltrated the train and were discovered, Indira’s men started using hostages to escape. Some were killed on the train, and others were sucked into folded space, disappearing without a trace. No bodies of the three were found on the train, so the only possibility is that they were pulled into folded space and vanished.”

Yan Qi’s lips trembled, his eyes bulging with fear. “I don’t accept this outcome! Deploy more people! I refuse to believe he’s dead!” he shouted, his voice laced with desperation.

“The train’s surveillance was completely destroyed by Indira’s people to cover up their massacre of civilians. The original files are irretrievable. This conclusion is the only logical one. Tell me, how could they have survived inside folded space?” Yan Yi’s voice grew colder. “No one can search for those lost in folded space. I can’t order my subordinates to do the impossible.”

“It’s not impossible! Over a hundred years ago, two thousand people ‘disappeared,’ but they were eventually found alive. He must be alive too!” Yan Qi roared, grinding his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums, trickling down his chin like he was spitting blood in rage.

“You have no evidence for that conclusion. I see no reason to believe they could have survived.”

“The communicators!” Yan Qi suddenly shouted louder. “If they were pulled into folded space, they wouldn’t have taken off their wrist communicators beforehand! And even if one had accidentally fallen off, all three of them losing theirs at the same time? It’s impossible! They must have taken them off deliberately to avoid Indira’s surveillance and escape!”

Yan Yi responded, “The Military Department’s analysis aligns with that theory. Their actions suggest they attempted to escape. But where could they go? The most reasonable explanation is that they tried to hide but were unsuccessful and got pulled into folded space.”

Yan Qi’s face stiffened, and after a moment of silence, he gritted his teeth. “Fine. Okay.”

Yan Yi’s application for search approval was processed surprisingly fast—faster than he had anticipated. Such matters usually took days to clear, especially with Indira still on trial and all evidence related to the experimental planet sealed. But when it was time to depart, seeing Lu Tao already standing there, Yan Yi understood the reason.

It seemed he wasn’t the only one who had applied; Lu Tao might have even beaten him to it.

Yan Yi wasn’t particularly close to General Lu Tao. There was a significant age gap between them, and they had taken different paths to their ranks—Yan Yi with family backing and Lu Tao relying on his personal abilities. Still, they weren’t strangers and exchanged greetings whenever they crossed paths.

But seeing Lu Tao now, Yan Yi was taken aback.

He had thought his brother, Yan Qi, looked bad enough—disheveled and more like a vagrant than the wealthy young master he was, his beard overgrown. But Lu Tao looked even worse, though in a different way. His appearance was still immaculate: his uniform crisp, his face clean. Yet, his bloodshot eyes and pale, nearly bloodless face betrayed the toll his ordeal had taken.

Lu Tao had nearly died. His abdomen had been pierced by an elite enemy firearm, and he had subdued Indira’s men before being rushed to the Military Hospital. Even with the world’s best surgeons and medicine, he had barely survived. It was far too soon for him to be fully recovered.

Yan Yi had heard rumors of Lu Tao’s marital problems but hadn’t expected him to care so deeply about his partner. This level of commitment seemed extreme, even for someone focused on a mission.

After exchanging greetings and discussing the search plan, Lu Tao spoke up. “General Yan, thank you for your help.”

“I had no choice,” Yan Yi responded with a slight smile, glancing at his brother. “If I hadn’t come, my brother might’ve been arrested for violating the law and sent to Hell Planet.”

Lu Tao took the comment seriously and turned his attention back to the route map in front of him. “When the folded space was first constructed, there were only four routes, all connected to the Imperial Planet. Now there’s a fifth one we didn’t know about. Once inside folded space, we can’t see outside—not because the train is enclosed, but because it’s inherently void. Finding anyone in there is nearly impossible.”

Yan Qi, frustrated, snapped, “Why are you throwing cold water on the situation before we even start? Then why did you come?”

Before Yan Yi could mediate, Lu Tao met Yan Qi’s gaze, his tone calm. “I’m looking for the possibility of a sixth route.”

“A sixth route?” Yan Qi repeated, confused. “Even if there is one, how could they have left without a vehicle?”

Lu Tao pursed his lips. “What if they had one?”

Yan Yi, surprised, frowned. “How could they possibly have…?”

Aside from the train that disappeared 110 years ago, only four trains could enter folded space. They were built with the highest technology and at an enormous cost, making mass production impractical. Ordinary trains would likely be destroyed by unknown elements if they tried to enter.

“They absolutely had one,” Lu Tao asserted. “After the human-chameleon chimera succeeded, he tried to expose everything about the experimental planet to the world. He recorded the evidence and connected to the external network, but Indira’s people intercepted it just after the video was published. We know there are signal jammers on the experimental planet, so it’s impossible to connect from there. He must have escaped.”

Yan Yi considered this. “Maybe he secretly boarded Indira’s train to get out. As a chameleon, blending into the environment would be easy.”

“But when we tracked the hostage vehicle, he suddenly appeared on our train,” Lu Tao said, his voice steady. “We randomly picked that train, and from the decision to departure, it took only three minutes. If he had been hiding there the whole time, he wouldn’t have been discovered so quickly. So, he must have joined midway.”

The train had a hidden emergency entrance, meant for transferring people within folded space, though rarely used and known by few.

“If he joined midway, he must have had his own shuttle,” Lu Tao concluded.

Yan Yi was still processing the likelihood of this theory, but Yan Qi’s eyes lit up. “That’s possible! The chimera had contact with Cheng Jin before. Maybe he found them on the train and rescued them ahead of time! Why are we still standing here? Let’s go ask the chimera directly!”

“He’s now a protected witness under the military,” Lu Tao explained. “It’s hard to meet him. I’ve already applied but didn’t get the answers I wanted.”

Yan Qi’s excitement dimmed. “He denied it?”

“He said, ‘I don’t know,’” Lu Tao replied. But his gaze remained unwavering. “But I firmly believe he knows.”

Finding the sixth route might lead them to where they were taken.

“They must be on one of the seventy-two planets,” Yan Qi muttered, clenching his fists. “I’ll post a missing person notice. If they’re still alive, someone must’ve seen them. No matter where they are, I’ll find him!” He gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and whispered, “Once I do, I won’t be foolish enough to let go again.”

He regretted not acting sooner. Yan Qi had noticed Cheng Xu planning his departure; he even knew the exact day he had booked his ticket, how much money he had exchanged at the bank, and his destination.

But he had pretended not to know.

He had let Cheng Xu think he could really escape, giving him a false sense of security. He had planned to let him relax, only to crush his hope when the time was right. That would have been the ultimate way to toy with him.

But he hadn’t expected the first step to go so wrong.

And that was his deepest regret.