Chapter 358: Contact

“You were looking for me?” Hu Maomao arrived at the model airplane room in the Youth Palace and saw Zhang Wenda, surrounded by protractors and a globe.

The entire Youth Palace was basically Zhang Wenda’s home now. He slept here and worked here.

Although the Youth Palace’s interior wasn’t much to look at, that was all relative. Compared to the bare concrete shells outside, this place was incredible.

“Yeah, things have been crazy busy, so I haven’t had a chance. Come over and take a look at this for me.” Zhang Wenda didn’t turn around, his head buried in whatever he was fiddling with.

When Hu Maomao walked up to him, she saw a wooden radio on the table in front of him, almost taken apart to shreds.

“This thing should be alive, but the strange thing is, I couldn’t find any tissue in its body other than wood. Forget flesh and blood—it doesn’t even have normal radio components. I have no idea how it makes sound.”

“I didn’t dare mess with it anymore, in case I killed the only sample we have.” As Zhang Wenda lightly pressed it with his hand, all the damage on the radio was instantly transferred to the Youth Palace, and the radio was restored to its original state in a flash.

“Then why were you messing with it in the first place?”

Zhang Wenda turned to the side, his eyes wide with surprise as he looked at Hu Maomao. “Did I not tell you? This guy came for the fragments of 1999. This little thing knows a lot about 1999; it might have some key information we don’t.”

“I was hoping to communicate with it again, but for some reason, it seems to have gone silent ever since that piece of wood caught fire.”

He then passed the wooden radio to Hu Maomao. “That’s why I called you over today. I want to try your ability, see if you can pull anything out of its head. After all, this thing was able to receive your brainwaves before.”

Here, Zhang Wenda paused before speaking again. “Best-case scenario, we find out how this thing detects 1999. If we could get that ability, we could definitely pinpoint 1999’s current location fast.”

Realizing this was serious, Hu Maomao immediately grew solemn. “Did you use your blue ability on it?”

“I did, but it was no use. I can’t cut out any Inner World from this thing with the blue ability. I can even cut one out of Song Jianguo,” Zhang Wenda said with regret.

Hu Maomao placed the radio on the table and held her hands out flat, hovering in front of it. “I’ll try. Let’s see if I can control its mind.”

As Hu Maomao began, the once-silent radio started to tremble, and a piercing static emerged. The volume fluctuated wildly, and various distorted human voices could be heard.

‘Is it working?’ A a an a a a a a a a a a a a a Zhang Wenda held his breath, watching with anticipation in his eyes.

The sound gradually grew louder, and agonized screams even began to emanate from within the wooden radio. Hu Maomao’s expression became exceptionally grave, and a thin sheen of sweat started to bead on her forehead.

Just as the reactions from both sides were escalating, to the point where even Zhang Wenda was getting worried, Hu Maomao staggered and stopped. “It’s not a native entity from Zone 4. It’s just one of its tree roots.”

“What else? What’s in its head about 1999?” Zhang Wenda asked impatiently.

“I don’t know. I only saw some fragments. I’ll send them to you now.” As the words appeared in Zhang Wenda’s mind, a series of what looked like torn-up image fragments began to surface.

First, he saw a mountain with a rugged, uneven surface. But then he felt something was off. The texture of the mountain didn’t seem right. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was tree bark.

It was only because the trunk was completely obscured by clouds, and because it was black, that he had mistaken it for a mountain.

Most importantly, this wasn’t a single mountain, but a mountain range. It was a forest that walled off heaven and earth.

Next came images of severed roots and broken branches. They looked unremarkable, but only Zhang Wenda, who had seen them before, knew just how massive they were.

It was a good thing the entire world had been transformed by 1999. Otherwise, that tree would have long since pierced the atmosphere.

That was it. The remaining fragments were too small and scattered—they probably depicted environments from different zones and couldn’t be restored, even with AI.

“Was that useful?” Hu Maomao asked, wiping away her sweat.

Zhang Wenda frowned, replaying the fragments in his mind. “Judging from the images, the big piece of wood we fought was sent by that tree. Why else would it randomly sever its own limbs?”

“Sent out? What for?”

Remembering what the radio had said before, Zhang Wenda’s pupils contracted. “Is it possible it was sent out by that great tree specifically to collect the fragments of 1999?”

“But why?”

“What do you mean, why?! It must have benefited from it before! For all we know, this tree grew so huge and gained so many special abilities because it already has a piece of 1999!”

After saying this, a jolt of joy went through Zhang Wenda. ‘And if we follow that line of thought, doesn’t that mean 1999 is shattered?’

The fragments from the radio gave Zhang Wenda a lot to think about.

“Don’t get too excited yet. This is all just speculation for now. If we want to confirm whether it’s true, we need more clues.” Hu Maomao’s words calmed Zhang Wenda down.

“Then show these to our people and ask around. See if any of them recognize anything. Maybe they know something.”

Hu Maomao quickly did as he asked. She even discreetly probed for information about 1999. If 1999 really was shattered, no matter how rare the pieces were, there should have been some rumors.

Unfortunately, the people from the Federation provided no further clues, either about the Giant Forest or the fragments of 1999. No one could claim the substantial bounty offered.

The problem reached a stalemate. That night, Zhang Wenda tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He knew these doubts had to be cleared up as soon as possible.

If there really were entities or even organizations in other zones that had started learning to use the fragments of 1999, and were even consciously sending agents to other zones to find them…

…then it wouldn’t just mean that 1999 was shattered. It would also mean that Old Tan and the others hadn’t died in vain. They had actually wounded 1999.

A god isn’t supposed to bleed. If a god bleeds, it can be brought down. If his theory was correct, it would mean a great many things.

Zone 2 had no day or night. Everyone followed a rough schedule for their daily routines.

When Hu Maomao woke from her sleep, she threw off her Black Cat blanket, walked out of the chess and card room, and opened the door to see Zhang Wenda standing there, having not slept all night.

“Maomao, we can’t just hole up in this backwater corner. The flow of information is too slow. I think it’s time we made contact with organizations in other zones.”