Chapter 322: Abandon Rescue, Return to Base!

The swamp beneath Wang Yun cracked open, but his leg remained trapped within it.

However, there was one advantage—the cracking ground caused the surrounding seawater to drain rapidly. In the blink of an eye, Wang Yun was able to crawl onto the ground, no longer at risk of being submerged by the water.

He quickly pulled his leg free, rolled to the side, and completely escaped the swamp.

“Big Brother’s out!”

“Thank God! Big Brother, run! Get out of there!”

“Can he even escape? Where’s the helicopter? They came to rescue him, why haven’t they picked him up yet?”

“I don’t think he can get out this time. The cracks are spreading too fast!”

The livestream audience erupted in anxious comments as they watched.

On-screen, Wang Yun was equally frantic. He sprinted forward with all his might.

It was like a scene from a movie—wherever he ran, the ground behind him collapsed straight down.

“Shit!”

Wang Yun couldn’t help but curse, the thrill of racing against death unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

Boom!

The surrounding ground sank rapidly. With each rumble, Wang Yun’s heart skipped a beat.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

After two minutes of running, the unmistakable sound of helicopter blades reached his ears.

He looked up and saw a helicopter, two ropes hanging down from it. At the end of the ropes were Xiao Gang and Brother Hu. They had been successfully rescued.

Seeing this, Wang Yun exhaled in relief and waved his arms while running.

“I’m here! I’m here!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.

But the deafening noise of the collapsing ground and the powerful gusts drowned out his voice entirely. His shouts were barely louder than the buzz of a mosquito.

The sinking terrain created massive air pressure changes, causing the helicopter’s tail rotor to sway uncontrollably.

The swinging ropes tossed Xiao Gang and Brother Hu like pendulums, completely beyond their control.

“This isn’t going to work! The ground is collapsing too quickly, we have to leave!”

The helicopter pilot shouted urgently. Inside the cabin, Wu Yaoming, Hardy, and Werner anxiously scanned the ground for any sign of Wang Yun.

“Pull them up first,” Wu Yaoming ordered.

The pilot, along with the program inspectors and crew, leaned out to haul the two dangling men up.

The swaying ropes made it incredibly difficult, requiring five people to pull on a single rope. The effort was exhausting.

“We can’t return without Wang Yun,” Wu Yaoming shouted, his voice trembling.

He yelled into his earpiece while staring at the horrifying scene below. A deep sense of helplessness gripped him. If they failed to rescue Wang Yun now, his fate was surely sealed.

Boom!

A deafening roar erupted from the distance.

Moments later, an enormous surge of seawater breached the island, sweeping across it like a flood.

The water was boundless, a massive wave crashing over the terrain.

“We have to leave now! The Smoky Forest is out of control, seawater is flooding in! The sea level keeps rising, and the helicopter can’t stay stable. If we don’t go now, we’ll all die!” the pilot screamed over the roar of the incoming waves. His hands gripped the controls tightly as waves, towering over ten meters high, pummeled the area.

The sheer height of the waves generated immense wind pressure—enough to crush even a multi-ton transport or fighter jet.

“This…”

Wu Yaoming froze.

Hardy and Werner, their hands bloody from the strain of gripping the ropes, scanned the ground desperately.

“I… I can’t see anything!” Hardy shouted, turning to Wu Yaoming.

Standing in the doorway, Wu Yaoming’s bloodshot eyes stared down at the chaos below. His fingers dug into the metal frame, his knuckles and nail beds white as bone.

Everyone waited for his decision.

The weight of it pressed down on him like a thousand tons. One word from him could decide life or death.

If he didn’t give the order now, they would all die.

What to do?

What to do?!

All he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat, pounding in his ears.

The ground, just twenty meters below, was cracking rapidly. The fissures widened with every second, and seawater surged through them uncontrollably.

Some of the cracks had already reached a meter wide. One misstep could send someone plummeting into the unknown.

“Return to base!”

No one knew how long it took, but as the pilot’s hands began to go numb from exertion, he finally heard Wu Yaoming’s low, strained command.

“Return to base!”

Hearing those words, Werner and Hardy turned to look at Wu Yaoming in disbelief.

Their faces were pale.

Wu Yaoming didn’t look much better, his face wet with either tears or rain. No one could tell.