Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 24: letter

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Because the design of the military exoskeleton device must take into account the recycling of the wearer after death, and Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong are familiar with such items in the previous two months of training, so they are not unfamiliar with it. Jian Yao just fumbled a few times and found the button, which successfully closed the integrated system and energy backpack.

After completing this step, the next task is to unscrew the metal buckles at the auxiliary joints one by one.

Long Yuehong opened her mouth and closed it again while fiddling with the buckles at her elbow and wrist.

After three times of wanting to speak, he finally couldn't help but suppress his voice and asked:

"You weren't nervous just now, weren't you afraid?"

Shang Jianyao, who was in charge of the legs, pointed to himself:

"Are you asking me?"

"Apart from you, who else is here?" Long Yuehong asked angrily and hilariously.

Bai Chen repaired the jeep behind him. Jiang Baimian took the pistol and went around to the other side. In the small area where the corpse was, only he and Shang Jianyao were.

Shang Jianyao patted the corpse's thigh:

"And him."

"..." Long Yuehong wanted to scold the guy on the other side, but she was inexplicably a little scared.

He remembered the stories that adults often used to scare children.

Shang Jianyao restrained his smile and said "um":

"You must be nervous and scared too."

"But I can't see it at all." Long Yuehong blurted out.

Shang Jianyao nodded lightly:

"Because I told myself in my heart: Your goal is to save all mankind."

"...What's the connection?" Long Yuehong felt that she was used to thinking about it from time to time when she met with businessmen. "I mean, why don't you be afraid or nervous?"

Shang Jianyao replied with a serious expression:

"On the way to this goal, sacrifices are inevitable."

At this moment, Long Yuehong didn't know whether to say Shang Jianyao was normal or abnormal.

He quickly decided to drop the subject and asked instead:

"Won't you feel bad? Killed two people with your own hands.

"It wasn't so long ago that they could talk and laugh, walk and dance, and live and have flesh and blood.

"Uh... It doesn't have to be uncomfortable, isn't there any special feeling anyway?"

Shang Jian Yaowei nodded invisibly:

"Have."

Long Yuehong breathed a sigh of relief.

Shang Jianyao continued:

"I want to make two more shots."

"...Why?" Long Yuehong gave up to synchronize his thoughts with Shang Jianyao.

Shang Jianyao glanced at him and turned his attention to the jeep behind him:

"We never thought of robbing them, hurting them, shooting them, and they were hostile to us from the start, tracking us all the way, attacking at every opportunity.

"If we didn't perform well and made one more mistake, then we are the ones who are here now and the body was searched, and do you think they will feel special because of this

"No, they just sing, spit on us, eat our energy bars, eat our compressed biscuits, eat our military cans, and use the black marsh iron snakes we killed to make hot pot, can this be tolerated?"

A similar picture flashed through Long Yuehong's mind conditioned reflexively, which reminded him of the intense hunger he had endured since childhood.

He was suddenly furious:

"cannot!"

After answering, he suddenly slumped, like a basketball that hasn't been pumped for a long time:

"But I still don't feel so comfortable."

When Shang Jianyao heard this, the corners of his mouth slowly opened, revealing a somewhat exaggerated smile:

"It's ashes.

"Get used to it."

"It's not like it's the first time you've come to the surface..." Long Yuehong muttered and got busy.

Before long, they opened all the metal clips and took the military exoskeleton device off the corpse.

Jiang Baimian did not know when he had returned to the jeep and said thoughtfully:

"Long Yuehong, give it a try and see if you can control it."

Similar things will always make some men crazy, and Long Yuehong is one of them. He doesn't care that there is blood left on the exoskeleton device, so he hurriedly urged Shang Jianyao to adjust the length of the auxiliary bones with the help of the other party. , put on the energy backpack, put on the iron black helmet, and locked the metal buckle.

After the self-check of the integrated system was completed, Long Yuehong took a look and quickly reported:

"There is still 23 per cent of electricity, which is said to last 1 hour and 55 minutes."

"Don't believe this, this is just a situation where you maintain normal movement and only do basic operations. If you want to fly like this guy, run and jump like this, and all systems are overloaded, I estimate that it will take half an hour at most." Jiang Baimian Lifting up his left leg, he pointed to the corpse of the middle-aged man with his toes.

"Well." Long Yuehong began to do various basic movements.

After a series of operations, he said in surprise:

"Team leader, this is much easier to use than the one I tried in the company before!"

Jiang Baimian made a "heh":

"It was copied by the company. You don't even think about it, how strong can we be in machinery and electronics once we are a biological company?"

"Yes." Long Yuehong excitedly tested the rest of the functions of the military exoskeleton device.

Shang Jianyao still squatted on the spot, searching every pocket of the corpse, not even the inner layer of his pants.

"Only two packs of biscuits." Finally, he looked at the items in front of him with disgust.

These two packs of biscuits are not compressed, and there are rows of red river characters written on the packaging bag - due to serious wear and tear, Shang Jianyao can only barely recognize "scallions" and "soda".

—On the gray soil, the two most mainstream languages are the gray soil language and the Honghe language. The former is the lingua franca of the forces such as “Panga” and “The Salvation Army”, and the latter is mainly used in the Red River Basin and the forces close to the Red River Basin — This includes "First City", "White Knights" and "Orange Company", among others.

In addition to these two packets of cookies, Shang Jianyao also found two pieces of stationery and a badge.

The two pieces of letter paper, one neatly folded and the other folded randomly.

Shang Jianyao unfolded the neat and tidy letter and commented casually:

"It's been folded many times."

After Jiang Baimian instructed Long Yuehong to be vigilant for four weeks, he approached Shang Jianyao, squatted down, and read the letter with him.

This letter is written in gray soil:

"Dear Father:

"I had a good time in Primal City. Although I still have some difficulties in reading, the dialogue is basically no problem, and no one can notice that I come from the wilderness...

"...The hierarchy here is very strict, but compared to the outside world, it's beautiful like heaven. As long as you follow their rules, obey those who are higher than you, and find out your class and status, you can live relatively smoothly...

"...You don't have to worry about my studies. With the help of that person, I have been transferred to a regular college. As long as I successfully graduate, I can get rid of the status of a 'slave' and become a citizen...

"…I wonder if the food reserves in the town are enough? Although it is still summer, I heard from some classmates that this winter will be particularly difficult. I don't know where their judgment came from, but I just feel it is necessary to tell you. , let everyone make some preparations as soon as possible, even if it is a rumor, it is better to believe it than ignore it...

"… You said last time that you became a ruin hunter, which is a good thing. Compared with being a robber, this profession is obviously safer. Of course, it is also very dangerous... Don't go to the newly discovered ruins of the city, and don't go to the few people who come back. Ruined city, and, stop being a robber, although it does bring back winter food to town as quickly as possible...

"... I will try to find businessmen in the city who dare to smuggle food, but I am not sure, nor do I have enough resources to exchange, I just hope that the descendants of the elders who brought me to know more about the elders will see if they can get from Opportunities are found in them...

"...Finally, I hope you stay healthy all the time, hope that the famine will not come, hope that Uncle Jishun, Uncle Jinfeng, Brother A Yu, and Brother Qian Ning are all doing well and can bring enough food back to their families. I hope everyone Can wait until the Senate approves, until the day when the first city is incorporated as a citizen instead of a slave. Also, the one who is very good to mother, don't need to worry about...

"...Your little Angie."

After reading it, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao did not speak for a long time.

"This is dust." After a while, Jiang Baimian laughed at himself.

Shang Jianyao replied in a low voice:

"He has read this letter no less than twenty times..."

A certain judgment can be made from the crease pattern of the letter and the condition of the paper.

Jiang Baimian wanted to tell Shang Jianyao that this kind of thing is life and death, and there is no need to feel guilty for it, but suddenly remembered something, and could only pat the other party on the shoulder:

"Everyone has two sides, or even more than two sides, completely different to their own children than to strangers.

"As a stranger, I don't need to care about what happens to his child when he loses his father, just be glad that he is still alive.

"I know what you are thinking, and I have heard some rumors. I can tell you with certainty that the people of our company will not be reduced to this level of wilderness robbers. If they want to rob, they will only rob the material delivery of the hostile forces. team."

Shang Jianyao didn't speak, folded the letter and stuffed it back into the middle-aged man's inner pocket.

Then, he unfolded the other letter, a crumpled one:

"mission details:

"Explore the area north of Yuelu Station and collect information about the target.

"Target Description:

"Male, of unknown origin, about 1.8 meters tall, black hair and golden eyes, very handsome, and equally attractive. He likes to wear trench coats, boots, gloves, and his hair is always neatly combed, not like a wanderer in the wilderness at all. , the risk level is tentatively set as 'High'.

"remuneration:

"One ton of normal grade flour (guild guaranteed).

"Task level:

"C, 100 credit points."

"This is the mission document of the Hunter Guild." Jiang Baimian introduced, and then thoughtfully picked up the badge found by Shang Jianyao, "Yuelu Station is an old world relic in the Black Marsh Wilderness. Further north is the depths of the Great Swamp, where danger is fraught."

While speaking, Jiang Baimian checked the badge in his hand.

The badge was brass-colored, with a face embossed with vague facial features on the front, and a knife and a gun were engraved on the cheeks of the face.

The back of the badge is inlaid with a small chip.

This is the badge from the Hunter's Guild.