The sentries from the Imperial Capital carried the wounded on their backs and headed for higher ground.
In fact, they didn't quite understand why Ni Ji wanted them to carry this burden.
50 imperial coins may seem like a lot to a young boy from a remote village, but they are nothing to a regular sentry in the imperial capital.
If it wasn't for Ni Ji's order, there was no way they would have taken a few burdens who had nothing to do with them to such a dangerous place just for such a small amount of money.
Although they only walked a short distance, each of them was completely convinced by the new captain. They were willing to obey his arrangements and did not dare to disobey his orders.
Ni Ji is not only a strong individual, but also an experienced, strategic, and responsible captain. Several times when they encountered large numbers of mutants, it was thanks to Ni Ji's calm and precise command that the entire team was able to escape danger safely.
This is a quality that can only be honed after hundreds of times of entering and exiting the contaminated area. It is not an ability that can be trained in the training room of the Sentinel Academy, and it is very admirable.
To be honest, if Ni Ji hadn't led the team through the contaminated area of "Night", their casualties wouldn't necessarily be much better than those of the East Coast sentinels. At least they wouldn't be as unscathed as they are now.
The sentries walked very quickly. They carried the wounded in the rain and soon found a high ground where they could shelter from the rain.
It was a stone house with three walls and a protruding eaves. It was not rainy and had a good view, making it a good place to hide.
Everyone lit a bonfire in the stone house, sat around it to dry clothes, heat food and water. After a whole day of fighting, they could finally relax their tense nerves a little. The sentries sat around the bonfire, chatting in low voices.
Ni Ji sat alone under the eaves, away from the bustle of the bonfire, his tall body leaning against the door under the rain curtain, looking out at the sea glittering in the heavy rain.
Song Yunsi handed him food and invited him to eat with everyone. He just took it politely, waved his hand, and continued to sit there alone.
"You guys eat. I'll be on duty."
Song Yuansi had no choice but to go back. Under the rain curtain, Ni Ji's back looked extremely thin. The tight tactical suit showed off his slender waist. The shape of his shoulder blades was slightly visible through the clothes. He sat outside the door. It was pitch black and there was no sound at all, as if he was going to melt into the night.
Song Yuansi always felt that his seniors nowadays looked very lonely.
He admired Ni Ji very much and wanted to be close to him from the bottom of his heart. But after Ni Ji came back, he clearly felt that Ni Ji was distant. Not just to him, but to everyone else, she only maintained a superficial courtesy.
It was as if he no longer wanted anyone to get close to him, and didn't want to have any worries in his heart.
The terrain here is very high, and you can clearly see the coastline not far away. The mutants that were sleeping in the "daytime" woke up in the "night" and are crawling up from the bottom of the sea one by one, their ghost-like bodies stained with little glows, and they are lining up to walk back to their former home.
Looking down from here, the earth looks like a chessboard, with countless twinkling fireflies flowing towards the lighted homes.
In the center, the fire is the brightest, and looking from afar, the fire converges and flows into a huge vortex.
Contaminated Area No. 5 has expanded countless times over the past hundreds of years, swallowing up a large amount of land and lives, covering a vast area.
The outer part is made up of buildings from ten or twenty years ago. As you go deeper, the architectural styles gradually change. In the center, the simple and heavy buildings are mixed with high-tech neon lights.
It was a relic of the past and also the lair where deformed monsters had been stationed for hundreds of years.
Lin Yuan dozed off by the campfire.
Surrounded by sentinels, she, the only guide, was like a sheep among wolves. She should have been anxious and panic-stricken.
But Lin Yuan was sleeping soundly, as if he had done a very tiring job. His small, fair-skinned hands supported his chin, and his head was nodding, as if he could fall down at any time.
Xiao Mu was very busy. He took care of the tiger, the bird, and bandaged the wounds of every seriously injured companion. He also boiled a pot of hot water on the fire, baked a few cakes, and called Lin Yuan to wake up and eat.
Lin Yuan rubbed his eyes, woke up, took the pancake from Xiaomu, and ate it while checking on the birds and the others.
Xiao Niao and Da Hu were both seriously injured, and the sentinels' strong physical fitness supported their lives. If they could get out in time and get formal treatment, their lives would not be in danger. But if they stayed here, it would be hard to say.
"When can we go out?" Lin Yuan asked.
"There is no 'key'." Xiaomu said awkwardly, "The night in Contaminated Area No. 5 lasts 72 hours. It has just begun."
It is easy to enter the contaminated area, but to leave the contaminated area you must use a specific "key" to open the exit door.
In the core area of every contaminated area, there will be a most powerful mutant, called "The Pillar". Any part of the "Pillar"'s body, whether it is eyes, fingers, teeth or hair, can serve as the "key" to open the door.
During the day, the Pillar is mostly asleep. If you quietly take away a part of its body, it will hardly wake up. Monsters have strong healing abilities, and they will repair themselves in their sleep, and they won't even know that someone has taken the key from it.
But at night, the "Pillar" will wake up completely, and stealing some of its organs at this time would be a dangerous and nightmare-like thing.
If we had to wait until the night was completely over, it would be three days later.
Lin Yuan cast his gaze at Xiaoniao's unconscious face, knowing that they could not wait.
"One of them just went to get the key." Xiaomu whispered in Lin Yuan's ear, "Maybe he can bring the key back."
Lin Yuan didn't even need to ask who went out.
As soon as she woke up, the tentacles were already muttering about the disappearance of the big fish again.
"Do you think he can get the key?" Lin Yuan asked Xiaomu.
"I don't know. I think it's difficult." Xiaomu pointed to Lin Yuan, "It's over there, in the center of the vortex, where the light is the brightest. You can get the key there. That's the most dangerous place. Even the strongest person may not be able to get it."
Two sentries from the Sheriff's Office were talking by the bonfire.
"I really don't understand Ni Ji. Why does he have to go get the key now? Wouldn't it be safer to wait for three or four days?" The sentry who spoke glanced at the wounded lying on the ground, "It can't be for these country folk, right?"
His companions laughed and said, "How is that possible? I guess he is just a bold man with great talent and wants to show off his achievements to the principal as soon as possible."
"That's right. How can we guess what they are thinking?"
"Speaking of which, this mission is too weird. This is the first time I've heard of the night falling early in the contaminated area."
"Exactly. Who could have thought that Brother Shu would die here and that night would fall early? The aberrations are more abnormal than expected. There are weird things everywhere. We can even meet a guide in this damn place."
"Strange, where is the guide? Where did the guide go?"
When Lin Yuan sneaked out, Xiaomu was very panicked.
"Sister, what are you going to do?"
"I'll try to get the key."
"But the sentinel has already gone."
"The more important things are, the more you should do them yourself." Lin Yuan said as a matter of course, "How can you pin your hopes on someone who has nothing to do with you?"
Xiaomu was dumbfounded and couldn't say anything.
He no longer thought that the guide was a weak person who relied on the sentinel for protection. But Sister Lin Yuan was a little too courageous. She always did something amazing, and as a sentinel, he was often scared by her.
For example, she actually wanted to get the key in the dark.
"Well, I'll go too."
Lin Yuan's words seriously hurt the little boy's self-esteem.
[Hey, that's too much.]
Seals are people too
[Seals are also very cute.]
He is still a child
Lin Yuan had no choice but to imitate the bird and reluctantly touched the boy's head.
"In two or three years, if you work harder, you can become a formal sentinel. Then, we can work together again."
"Not yet. Besides, the little birds need someone to take care of them."
Lin Yuan forced Xiaomu to stay and walked down from the high ground alone.
She first met three identical aunts carrying baskets to buy eggs.
Before, the mutant that was chopped into three pieces by the tiger saw her and immediately showed a ferocious and angry look, preparing to pounce on her.
Lin Yuan stopped, opened his eyes, and calmly watched the three monsters that were pouncing on him with bared fangs and claws.
There was a light in her eyes, as if the light was borrowed from the bright moon. The bright moonlight shone brightly in her eyes.
The three mutants stopped moving under such a gaze, their twisted expressions of anger receded, and they gradually became confused.
"Eggs in the mall are going to be on sale." They said to Lin Yuan in a low voice.
"Yes, we must hurry up." Lin Yuan replied.
The three aunts clapped their hands and walked forward happily.
"Yes, we must hurry up."
[Plan pass.]
[Can be done]
[No different from humans]
[As long as there is emotion, it’s easy to say]
[They are called mutants, but their thinking is just a little different from that of humans.]
Lin Yuan continued forward and arrived at a neighborhood densely populated by mutants.
She did not hide by climbing over rooftops or walls like a sentry.
Just slow down your pace, take tentative steps, and move forward slowly.
One step, then another, getting closer.
The tentacles guard around, surge underground, connect to all creatures with thoughts and emotions, and connect to their spiritual world.
Weird images kept coming back to Lin Yuan's mind.
A chaotic scene, incomprehensible mumblings, and a distorted world with fangs and claws.
These strange images echoing in Lin Yuan's mind did not make Lin Yuan feel scared.
Lin Yuan had never experienced the emotion called fear.
She had always lived in a chaotic and confusing world.
Lin Yuan moved forward step by step, his breathing became gradually more natural and his steps became lighter.
When the strange mutants saw her, they were either slightly confused or ignored her, allowing Lin Yuan to pass by them as if she was the same kind as them.
"My cat is missing, have you seen it?" A three-story-tall mutant who looked like a young child asked her with his head down.
"I didn't see it. I'll go to the front and help you look for it." Lin Yuan said.
The mutant who still had some consciousness stared at her in confusion for a while, then let her go.
There are many strange events that need to be dealt with, and you must concentrate highly all the way. It is very dangerous, like walking on a tightrope.
Perhaps she panicked and made a mistake, and fell into the group of monsters.
With Lin Yuan's current ability, it is just enough for her to barely sustain herself walking through the dense group of monsters.
But such things made Lin Yuan feel a little excited.
Lin Yuan suddenly felt that it was very similar to when he was in the White Tower.
Every time she escaped from the White Tower, she walked like this, slowly among a group of humans she didn't quite understand.
To her, those people were not much different from monsters.
She knew that those people didn't like her and thought she was a monster, so she didn't like them either, and regarded them as creatures different from herself.
She likes to play pranks, hiding herself from everyone and sneaking out into the outside world in front of them.
It's fun to have no one to see me, but also a little lonely.
She ran away so many times, but she always went back on her own initiative and was never found.
Except that time, the young sentry dropped from the sky, sending snowflakes flying all over the ground.
"Found her," he said.
Oh, and the sentry is here too.
You can compete with him again and see who finds the key first this time.
How interesting, Lin Yuan thought.
(End of this chapter)