Tomena Post is a small post, but it has been very busy these days.
Several teams of foreign sentinels sat in the only tavern in the outpost, discussing the recent spread of the contaminated area.
"Area 77 has spread again. How many people died this time?"
"Who knows? Human life is worthless these days, and no one counts how many people die."
"The golden tree is spreading more and more frequently. It comes silently and quickly every time. It's hard to guard against. My brother didn't have time to run out and died inside."
When Ni Ji and his group came in, many people in the tavern looked at them.
He looked over their attire with a wary gaze.
Some people saw the golden armbands on their shoulders, recognized their identities, and showed a little disgust.
That is a special golden armband that only the Royal Guard in the imperial capital has.
"Hey, let me see who's here?" A big bearded man knocked on the table next to the bar. "Ni Ji, the strongest man in our northern outpost. What's going on now? Are you acting like a dog of the royal family?"
Several sentries sitting next to him joined in the laughter.
The sentries at the border posts and the sentries from Kyoto always dislike each other.
Here on the border, residents live in a bitter and cold place, leading lives on the edge of a knife.
Every year, most of the food grown and materials collected at the risk of their lives must be handed over to the White Tower in the form of taxes.
What you have worked so hard to obtain is handed over in exchange for the guide element issued by the White Tower, as well as the "holy bones" that need to be replaced once a year to guard the sentry post.
The sentinels cannot do without the guide element, and the residents of the sentry posts cannot do without the protection of the "holy bones".
Therefore, the border sentinels were both dependent on and resentful of the royal family living in the capital and the mysterious white tower.
It was inevitable that this resentment would be directed towards the sentinels coming from the White Tower.
The sentries traveling with Ni Ji were all filled with anger.
They are all elites in the Royal Guard and are respected even in the capital. They have never been treated like this.
Adjutant Lu Xuan, who came with them, stretched out his hand to stop everyone. He shook his head slightly, not wanting them to cause any trouble before the war started.
"Brother Ni. Don't bother with that blind man. Come and sit over here." One or two of the guests in the tavern raised their hands to greet Ni Ji.
The strong men between the various outposts have more or less heard of each other, and most of them are casual acquaintances who have met each other once or twice.
The more senior the Sentinel is, the more restrained he is, and it is rare for him to develop a deep friendship with someone who is not in the same team.
There have been too many cases where brothers who drank together today died tragically in a polluted area tomorrow.
So much so that everyone has erected a thick barrier in their heart.
Unless it is necessary, I would never let anyone leave too vivid a memory in my mental picture.
Ni Ji sat down next to a familiar sentry.
The sentry's nickname is Scythe, and the bearded man who just swore is nicknamed Blind Man.
"Why are there so many people?" Ni Ji led his men over and handed Dajian a guide element.
"Need I say more?" Dajian took the "cigarette" from Ni Ji and lit it in his mouth, "Isn't it just for the golden tree?"
"The White Tower has issued a bounty to crack Contaminated Area 77. One million Imperial coins plus Kyoto household registration." The sickle with the cigarette between his fingers pointed at the people around him, "There are many poor people in this world, and even more who don't care about their lives. Look, they are all here."
"Brother Ni, you guys are the same, right?" He looked at the new golden armband on Ni Ji's arm, "The Queen's Special Operations Department, why are you here if it's not for the Golden Tree?"
Ni Ji looked at him and agreed.
Osaka moved closer to him and lowered his voice, "Want to exchange information, brother?"
Lu Xuan, who was sitting with Ni Ji, said, "No one has yet taken the 77th area. Where did you get the information?"
Scythe glanced at him and sneered.
"Don't play it with me. Isn't this what you people in the capital are good at?" He tapped his head with two fingers. "No normal person came out, but the madman did. As long as the brain inside is still there, you can read any picture. Don't say you don't know about this."
Lu Xuan was not angry, and said with a smile, "That's right. We are willing to buy any information you have."
Dajian rolled his eyes at him, ignored him, and made a quick sign language gesture to Ni Ji behind his back.
"How about it? Only exchange, not sell," he said.
Ni Ji thought about it, nodded, and the two shook hands under the table.
We exchanged some information on our personal terminals.
Dajian got what he wanted and was in a good mood. He and Ni Ji went to the bar and ordered two glasses of wine.
"After you go in, it all depends on your own ability. With so many people, I don't know how many will come out alive."
He raised his glass and clinked it with Ni Ji's, and then talked about what he had seen and heard in the past few days, "There are so many people coming this time. There are all kinds of people. Brother Ni, I even saw a guide yesterday."
Dajian has known Ni Ji for many years. Although they have not interacted much, he knows that he is a man who can always keep his composure.
But at this moment, he seemed to see a trace of panic in Ni Ji's eyes, and even the hand holding the wine glass shook.
After blinking and looking carefully again, Ni Ji's hand was holding the glass of wine steadily, his brows were motionless, and he looked the same as usual.
Maybe it was an illusion, I drank too much tonight, Osaka thought.
"Guide?" Ni Ji turned sideways and asked him.
"Yes, it's very rare," said Dajian. "When I saw it yesterday, I almost thought I was seeing things. Nowadays, even guides come to contaminated areas, and they go in alone."
Ni Ji's hands were steady. He raised the wine glass, swallowed the wine silently, and lowered his eyes. "What kind of guide is this?"
"About this tall, with black hair." Dajian gestured. "She's dressed similarly to us, and carries professional gear, but you can tell she's not a sentinel, with skinny arms and legs. If it weren't for the silver badge of the Guide Academy on her arm, I wouldn't have recognized her."
"Has he already gone in? Yesterday?" Ni Ji asked again.
Dajian was a little surprised that Ni Ji was so concerned about a guide.
But think about it, this is a guide who ran into a polluted area, and a dangerous place like the Golden Tree. Who wouldn't be surprised when they heard it
Yesterday, the entire Tomena Outpost was discussing this matter, and the popularity even overshadowed the spread of the incident in Area 77.
"Yes, my brother who was guarding the border saw her walk in with his own eyes. She walked in alone with a gun, a knife and a small bag. Her knife was quite good, and I guess few people could recognize it. It was a demonic knife that only appeared in high-level pollution areas, in black and white."
When he finished speaking and looked back, Ni Ji had disappeared.
The sentries who came with Ni Ji also quickly left the tavern.
Is it so urgent to go to the contaminated area? Dajian was surprised.
Ni Ji's character was not like this before. Although the young captain was powerful, he was extremely cautious when entering the battlefield.
Like himself, he was a person who cared a lot about the lives of his brothers in the team. Before entering the contaminated area every time, he would carefully collect all the information, make a plan, and then act.
Maybe it was because of that incident. Now that I don’t have anyone to worry about, my style of doing things has changed.
Dajian thought of the news he had heard about the complete destruction of the northern outposts.
He sighed, shook his head, and drank another glass of wine.
***
When Lin Yuan arrived at the border of the Golden Tree pollution area, he found that it was surprisingly lively here.
There were many sentries standing on the open space in front of the eye-catching red warning sign.
Several teams of people were crossing the bright red warning sign and entering the contaminated area.
When the sentinels saw Lin Yuan, the guide, appear here alone, they all looked surprised.
When she crossed the invisible boundary line, a sentry beside her entered almost at the same time.
The sentry, whose half body had disappeared, turned around and saw her, and opened his mouth in disbelief.
"Ah, where did this guide come from..."
He had just finished speaking when he disappeared.
Lin Yuan seemed to see countless golden veins and golden threads like tree roots, forming a huge grid in the boundless space.
One of the golden threads saw her and swam over quickly, with the tip touching her body.
Lin Yuan's eyes blurred and when he opened them again, he was already in the polluted world.
When she came in, there were clearly many sentries around her. Those people came in just a little earlier than her, and one of them even came in at the same time as her.
But when Lin Yuan stood firmly on his feet, he found himself in an empty street. The long intersection stretched into the distance without a single person.
She spread out her tentacles and searched the area thoroughly, but did not find any human emotions.
There are no people here. No animals, no living things.
Lin Yuan thought that this golden tree contaminated area was different from other places. No matter how many people entered in a team, they would be dispersed to different places in the contaminated area.
Perhaps because of this, the possibility of forcing this contaminated area by numbers was lost. It has been so many years, but it has not been able to break through.
From the map she secretly got, District 77 was a prosperous town before it was polluted.
There is a large population here, with outposts and troops stationed there.
No one knew why it fell into a land of death overnight and became this strange area that swallowed up countless lives.
At this moment, it is "daytime" time in the contaminated area.
The deserted town was quiet, with dead leaves blown by the breeze, floating in the blue brick streets.
On both sides of the road are solid houses built with white stones and red bricks. Many dark windows on the houses are planted with beautiful flowers.
It can be seen that before the fall of this area, people here lived a good life.
Lin Yuan walked along the deserted street, only able to hear the sound of her own footsteps. The world was eerily quiet, as if she was the only person walking in the entire town.
A strange sound of footsteps suddenly sounded.
Boom boom, boom boom…
It sounded like some animal's hooves were stamping heavily on the floor tiles.
The sound was so abrupt that the tentacles didn't even notice any emotional fluctuations, nor did they detect any movement in advance.
It was as if something suddenly appeared at the corner of the intersection.
Lin Yuan stayed close to the house on the roadside, with his back against the cold red brick wall, motionless.
A team of strange "cows" carrying long sharp knives, lined up in an orderly manner, and appeared from the corner of the street walking on two legs.
That’s right, “cow”.
A docile creature with white background and black spots commonly seen on pastures.
Here, they stood on their two feet, their eyes bloodshot, carrying long swords on their shoulders, marching in unison, making heavy footsteps, and walking out one by one from the street corner.
The last cow's sharp knife pierced a sentry whose belly was ripped open.
The dead sentry had his limbs hanging down, his body hung on the long sword, his lifeless eyes wide open, staring straight in the direction of Lin Yuan, as if he couldn't believe that he had died like this.
Lin Yuan recognized him. He was the person who had just entered the contaminated area with him.
At that time, the sentry with short hair opened his mouth in surprise and said half a sentence, "Ah, where did the guide come from..."
Before he could finish his words, the person disappeared. He probably wanted to go into the contaminated area and ask this strange girl again.
But I didn't expect that these half sentences would become his last words.
Huge tentacles appeared and entwined Lin Yuan's body, protecting Lin Yuan in the thick and soft tentacles.
Wrapped by the tentacles, Lin Yuan lay motionless against the wall.
Those strange cows lined up in a line, carrying the bodies of the sentries on their shoulders, and walked past Lin Yuan.
They actually turned a blind eye to the large group of twisted tentacles around them and Lin Yuan standing in the midst of them.
Boom boom boom…
The footsteps gradually faded away, leaving a thick bloodstain on the blue bricks of the street.
As if something was absorbing the hot blood from the young sentry's body, it quickly seeped under the blue bricks and disappeared without a trace.
The streets are still clean.
When the wind blew, a few dried petals flew up from the ground.
That dead life did not leave any trace here.
The tentacles slowly let go of Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan stared at the clean ground for a while and continued walking forward.
Before coming, she carefully reviewed the internal information about Contaminated Area No. 77 in the Special Research Department.
One of the dangers here is that in this polluted area, many strange creatures will appear on the streets at any time, even in the relatively safe daytime.
Those monsters would suddenly appear anywhere, powerful, brutal, and emotionless. They would not judge humans by sight, but would rely entirely on capturing human emotions to find sentinels lurking nearby.
Most Sentinels, no matter how good they are at hiding, find it difficult to completely conceal their mental fluctuations.
Therefore, they were inevitably caught and died tragically in this polluted area.
Lin Yuan is a person who rarely has emotional fluctuations, and the tentacles wrapping around her can more effectively isolate her from all human emotions.
That's why she came here alone to find what she wanted.
The tentacles spread out slightly, surrounding the forest garden, and moved forward cautiously along the green bricks on the ground.
Not long after, the sound of dragging chains was heard from a very nearby place.
Lin Yuan had just stopped and buried himself in the pile of tentacles when a huge fat pig, with a bloody butcher knife on its shoulder, came out from the corner.
The fat domestic pig had a face full of flesh and a ferocious look. He was wearing a pair of overalls that belonged to a human and walking upright on his feet. He held the bloody pig-killing knife in one hand and was holding a human in the other.
The man might be a sentry. At this moment, he was dragged by the "pig man" with tears and snot on his face. He was naked, with an iron chain around his neck, and he was crawling on all fours on the street in pain.
Lin Yuan leaned against the wall, motionless.
The pig did not see Lin Yuan wrapped in the tentacles.
But the man being dragged on the ground saw the girl standing on the side of the road at a glance, and he immediately screamed.
"Help! Help me! Help me!"
(End of this chapter)