Chapter 7: Innate Ability

Yu Xia sat on the table, putting her at eye level with Nyx. She had rarely encountered people of such stature before; the men before her all seemed to be around two meters tall, and their presence was overwhelming.

What troubled her most was the intensity of their gazes. They stared at her unblinkingly, giving her the unsettling sensation of being hunted by a large, predatory beast. Even their puppy-dog eyes could not alleviate the pressure they exerted. Sensing her unease, Nyx shooed the other Sentinels away, instructing them to gather useful supplies. Once they had departed, the weight on Yu Xia’s shoulders finally lifted.

"I am Nyx, an S-class Sentinel," he began, introducing himself. "I belong to the Federation's Seventh Legion and currently serve as the captain of the Nineteenth Squad."

Yu Xia offered a small smile. "Hello, I am Yu Xia."

Her smile made Nyx feel a strange flutter in his chest. He cleared his throat and continued, "I previously held the rank of Major, and my assets..."

Huo Lin interrupted him, his expression impassive. "Now is not the time for that."

Nyx immediately straightened up and tapped his terminal. "Right. We need to report your situation first. I wonder if they’ve managed to repair the signal tower yet..."

Huo Lin reached out and pressed down on his wrist. "We cannot report this. We will escort her out ourselves."

"What do you mean?" Nyx asked.

"This mission was riddled with issues, and now a Guide has suddenly appeared here. The people in command cannot be trusted," Huo Lin replied.

Nyx pondered this for a moment. "I can try contacting someone else."

Huo Lin nodded and let go. He watched as Nyx tapped his terminal for a long time, cursing under his breath, barely restraining himself from crushing the device. Contaminated zones typically lacked signals or had extremely weak ones. Before entering, they usually carried portable mini-signal towers designed to bypass the strange magnetic shielding of these zones, while the main tower remained on the periphery under the management of support staff. They carried grain-sized sub-towers attached to their terminal watches, which connected to the main tower to maintain communication with the outside.

Nyx managed to reach the rear guard, but every attempt to connect was rejected. The intention was clear: they did not want them to contact the outside world.

"Those... those..." Nyx took a few deep breaths, swallowing his insults as he saw Yu Xia shrinking back, watching him warily.

Huo Lin was not surprised by this outcome. "We have no choice but to bring her out ourselves."

Nyx set aside the matter of communication for the moment, determined to clarify Yu Xia’s situation first. "Who is your guardian? Why did they bring you here?"

"I don’t even know how I got here," Yu Xia said, shaking her head. She looked at them and asked, "Could you tell me where this place is?"

"This is Derman Planet," Huo Lin replied. "The place we are in right now is the North Second Contaminated Zone."

Upon hearing the terms "Derman Planet" and "Contaminated Zone," Yu Xia fell silent. She was, as she had feared, no longer on Earth.

"Do you know any other Sentinels or Guides?" Huo Lin asked, softening his voice, seeing her apparent distress.

Yu Xia looked lost. "What is a Sentinel? What is a Guide?"

Huo Lin and Nyx were stunned that she didn't even know these terms. They exchanged a look, each forming a similar hypothesis. To verify it, Huo Lin removed his terminal watch and handed it to her. "Do you recognize this?"

Yu Xia shook her head. Huo Lin opened the terminal interface and pointed to a line of text on the holographic projection. "Do you recognize these characters?"

Yu Xia looked closely, but they were symbols she did not recognize. It was strange—they could understand each other's speech perfectly, yet the written language was entirely foreign.

Back at her base, she had received a formal education. Her parents were a teacher and a doctor, and she was proficient in several languages and scripts. After the world was cleansed and civilization was rebuilt, the mode of survival and the educational system had changed; children were taught according to their individual talents. While she possessed a gift for languages, her aptitude for medicine was mediocre—she suffered from hemophobia and a fear of needles. Only after her father helped her overcome these was she able to learn basic medical knowledge, allowing her to focus on linguistics and archaeology. She had been sent on this mission to another large base as a translator and diplomat to negotiate resources and information, while also handling logistical medical duties. Then, the accident occurred, and she woke up in this strange world.

Huo Lin was surprised she could not read the common script. He cycled through several other languages, but she continued to shake her head.

Suddenly, Nyx spoke up. "Have you noticed something?"

Huo Lin turned his head. "Noticed what?"

Nyx stared at Yu Xia. "Suppress your mental power."

Huo Lin paused, then complied. Nyx asked Yu Xia a question, and she replied. Huo Lin could no longer understand her; it was a completely foreign language—neither the widespread Federation Common nor any dialect he knew. It was only when he released his mental power again that he could understand her.

He was stunned, then realization dawned on him. He wasn't truly "hearing" her; he was directly perceiving her meaning. Because Yu Xia was a Guide with mental power, she could communicate directly with them through their minds.

This was a unique talent shared by Sentinels and Guides. Usually, they spoke in the common language or kept their mental barriers open, which allowed communication regardless of the actual language spoken, unless one intentionally shielded their mind while speaking an unfamiliar tongue. Sentinels and Guides were born with this natural habit, so Huo Lin hadn't noticed anything amiss at first. Especially since they had established a mental link the moment they met, their conscious communication was even deeper than usual.

It was only because Nyx had noticed the movement of Yu Xia's lips didn't match the common language that he had realized something was wrong. They frantically opened the terminal's translation software. While everyone spoke the common language, the Saelo Star System contained hundreds of inhabited planets. Sentinels and Guides were a minority, and ordinary people could not understand one another through mental perception. Consequently, there were over a hundred languages and scripts recorded by the Federation.

Yet, even the terminal failed to translate Yu Xia’s language.

"It must be a more obscure language," Nyx said. "The terminal doesn't have all the languages of Saelo recorded. Some inhabitants of remote planets refuse to join the Federation and maintain more primitive civilizations."

But this made them feel even more uneasy. A Guide who was illiterate, could not speak the common language, did not recognize a terminal, and didn't even know she was a Guide—they were already imagining the worst. The Sentinel who had kept her must have taught her nothing specifically to prevent her from communicating with the outside world. Seeing her slender, petite frame, it was clear she hadn't been well-fed.

Afraid she might have been abused, Huo Lin reached out to check her hands, but fearing he might frighten her, he asked instead, "Were you frequently injured in the past?"

Injured? Yu Xia hesitated, then nodded.

Because of her talent for language and text, she had often accompanied her mother to document relics of the previous civilization and travel between districts. Injuries were a common occurrence, though they were usually superficial. Her father had achieved great success in medicine, inventing a powerful healing factor that, combined with medical pods, meant that no matter how severe a physical injury was, as long as one was still breathing, a short stay in the pod would leave them as good as new, without even a scar. Unfortunately, before she arrived in this world, the healing pods could not yet be mass-produced due to limited resources.

Seeing her nod, the eyes of Huo Lin and Nyx turned cold and dark.

That Sentinel deserved to die.