“BG4MSR, BG4MSR, this is BG4MXH, I’m here. Can you hear me? OVER.”

Bai Yang released the hand mic, feeling somewhat anxious.

The other side suddenly went silent. Bai Yang pressed the headphones to his ears, faintly hearing trembling breaths and crying.

“BG4MSR, this is BG4MXH. I received your signal, OVER.”

Bai Yang turned the volume to maximum. He thought he could hear the other person muttering something softly, but couldn’t make it out clearly.

“BG4MSR?”

“YOU JERK!!”

A lioness’s roar, deafening sound – the girl’s voice exploded from both sides simultaneously, attacking his brain. Bai Yang jumped, instinctively pulling off his headphones.

“YOU BASTARD!”

“YOU IDIOT!”

Bai Yang grimaced at the scolding but didn’t dare say anything.

The long period of lost contact was his fault, and when you’re wrong, you should stand still and take the beating. He could imagine how many emotions had built up for her over the past two weeks, how much panic, fear, sadness, and anger needed release. Fortunately, he had returned quickly enough, while the girl was still just frightened and angry, not yet despairing.

When Ban Xia heard BG4MXH’s voice in her headphones, her emotions immediately collapsed. She cried until she couldn’t make a sound. When she caught her breath, she took a deep breath, wiped away her tears, and shouted into the hand mic: “You bastard! You jerk! You idiot! Where the hell did you go? Where the hell did you go…”

This tirade left the other side silent.

The girl slumped in her chair, her forehead hitting the desk as she slowly caught her breath.

“I’m sorry.”

Ban Xia straightened up, wiped her swollen eyes, and sniffled.

“I got too emotional… shouldn’t have cursed at you…”

“I’m the one who should apologize, BG4MSR. I’m sorry, the long period of lost contact was my fault. Someone took the radio away, and it was just returned today,” the headphones explained. “How are things on your end? OVER.”

“Not good, not good at all.”

“What’s wrong?” The voice in the headphones suddenly grew tense.

“I’m afraid to turn on the lights now,” Ban Xia said.

She hadn’t turned on any lights, sitting alone in the pitch-black room with the curtains drawn tight. The only light sources were the indicator lights on the radio and the dark yellow LCD screen.

She had spent two weeks in these cold, lightless nights, moving around her own home using only a small LED flashlight. She was extremely cautious, walking softly, not even daring to make a sound.

Through all these nights, Ban Xia had curled up in bed, listening to the howling wind outside. She wrapped herself in thick quilts but couldn’t find even a hint of security. She kept imagining that giant black shadow crawling on the outer wall of Building 11 of Meihua Estate, its eyeball rolling back and forth, checking each window one by one.

Eventually, that terrifying eyeball would reach her window. It would peer through the gaps in the curtains, seeing the small, trembling bundle curled up on the bed.

Then it would say in a ghostly voice: Come out— I’ve found you—

Ban Xia could only hug her blue plastic desk lamp, hiding under the covers crying.

She was too small, too helpless, and the people who could offer her the greatest support couldn’t be contacted.

When had that old Icom 725 radio become her emotional anchor? Since connecting with BG4MXH, Ban Xia felt she had gained solid armor and backing. This made her strong, made her brave, made her no longer afraid to face this world. But as people grow stronger in one way, they become more fragile in another. Once she lost contact with BG4MXH, Ban Xia immediately fell into complete isolation. She became thinner and weaker than ever before.

“Why are you afraid to turn on the lights? OVER.”

“Lights would expose me,” Ban Xia answered. “It would find me.”

“It?” Bai Yang was a bit surprised. “What’s ‘it’? Another Bengal tiger? OVER.”

“No, not a tiger. Something much scarier than a tiger,” Ban Xia said. “It’s the Big Eye. It’s back, and it’s looking for me.”

Regarding the Big Eye, or the Blade Guest (the codename later given by the emergency team), Bai Yang’s understanding was vague. He only knew the Big Eye was a spider-like monster with six long legs and one giant eyeball, possibly over ten meters in size, able to climb freely on building walls. Thinking about it this way, the image seemed almost silly and cute (later, when Bai Yang learned that Blade Guests were fond of cutting humans into 30-centimeter segments, he stopped thinking this way).

Without a doubt, the Big Eye was a lethal natural enemy of humans. Even Bai Yang could deduce that it was inseparable from humanity’s extinction. A creature—or machine—capable of destroying human civilization would be extremely dangerous to a lonely young girl.

“About two weeks ago, I went to Xuanwu Bay to find food because I’d run out of fish at home. I needed to catch some fish to replenish my supplies,” Ban Xia said. “I was digging for crabs on the beach when I looked up and saw a huge ball perched on top of the Zifeng Tower across the way.”

“Was it there before? OVER.”

“No, that thing wasn’t there before,” Ban Xia shook her head. “I don’t know when it appeared. I didn’t know what it was, so I just stood there looking and looking, trying to see it more clearly. Suddenly, it grew a leg! A snake-like leg, twisting and writhing like a tentacle.”

“Then what?”

“Then came the second leg, the third, the fourth, until all six legs had grown out,” Ban Xia continued. “That’s when I realized what it was. My god, you know childhood trauma? It scared me! I never thought there would still be Big Eyes in Nanjing now – they’d disappeared for almost twenty years!”

“Was there only one? OVER.”

“I only saw one,” Ban Xia said. “It must have seen me too, because it quickly crawled down from the building, jumped into the water, and started swimming toward the shore. I ran for my life and didn’t even have time to put on my shoes or grab my bicycle. I was so terrified I couldn’t even tell which direction I was going, just ran blindly, diving into the ruins, rushing wherever was most chaotic. If I’d run on the main roads, it definitely would have caught me. Can you imagine that feeling? That clicking sound behind me getting more and more intense, until finally I dove into a large area of ruins and hid under a big concrete slab, holding my breath, listening to something crawling overhead.”

The girl’s description was vivid.

Connecting with BG4MXH had calmed her considerably.

“I could hear it digging, opening up the ruins. Dust and fragments kept falling from above. I didn’t dare move at all. I thought even being crushed to death by collapsing ruins would be better than being found by that thing. And it could talk – scared me to death,” Ban Xia shuddered at the memory. “It reached its tentacles into the gaps, speaking in a very high, thin woman’s voice, saying ‘Come out— Come out— Where are you—?'”

Bai Yang felt his skin crawl.

“I hid under the ruins until dark. When I finally crawled out, it had disappeared somewhere,” Ban Xia continued. “That’s when I realized I’d run to the South Library. I don’t know how I ended up there. I slowly crept back home and haven’t dared to go out since.”

“Have you seen it again since then? OVER.” Bai Yang asked.

“No,” Ban Xia shook her head. “It’s hiding too, somewhere in the ruins of Nanjing. I’m sure it’s looking for me.”

Bai Yang turned his head. Bai Zhen, Old Wang, Zhao Bowen, and others were standing behind him, their expressions grimmer than each other.

“This is your fault,” Bai Zhen gave Zhao Bowen a hard pinch.

“This is your fault!” Zhao Bowen gave Wang Ning a hard pinch.

“What the hell! What does this have to do with me!” Wang Ning exploded in anger.

“BG4MXH.”

“I’m here.”

“Can you stay with me all night tonight?” Ban Xia asked. “I’m scared.”

“Of course. Tonight we’ll take shifts to keep you company. We absolutely won’t abandon you again,” Bai Yang said. “The rest of us will work on finding a way to deal with this monster!”