The last soldier to be discovered died standing up.
His dead body was much larger than a normal human's.
It looked like a patchwork of some strange creatures, or a huge twisted statue. In short, it didn't look like a human at all.
Only the scarred half of his face remained unchanged, with his eyelashes drooping, as if he was calmly gazing at his belated comrade-in-arms.
Ni Ji stood in the shadow of the giant tower and looked up at the familiar face.
Everyone on the parade ground followed Ni Ji's gaze and looked at the soldier's final appearance.
The Sentinel went berserk.
Everyone whispered this word in their hearts.
This Sentinel, in the final battle, overused his abilities, beyond what he could endure.
Once you cross that boundary, you can no longer control the excitation of your mental strength, and eventually your consciousness slides into the abyss, falling into complete madness.
In this crazy world, his spirit and body merged randomly and he became a complete monster.
Madness is the nightmare hanging over the head of every low-level sentinel.
Every sentry is like a dancer stepping on sharp knives, and no one knows when he will step on empty air.
With a click, the fuse blew.
It turned into a distorted monster like this.
The berserk sentinel was already dead.
But he stared down like a huge black tower, casting a shadow on everyone in front of the screen.
Some tiny noises were heard on the training ground.
There was a disappointing new recruit who cried quietly.
Some people started cursing.
More people were whispering, discussing seriously the reasons for the tragic deaths of these soldiers.
The world on the screen was still dead silent.
The captain quietly pried open the hands of his dead comrade, picked up the gun in his hand, and loaded bullets into it.
He remained silent and said nothing.
With the gun in hand and the bullets loaded, he continued to move forward, stepping over the corpses of his teammates.
At the feet of his dead comrades, there were three words carved in blood:
"researcher"
The screen lights up again.
It appeared at the border of the contaminated area, only a few hundred meters away from the "gate" where the exit was located.
The researcher held his backpack tightly in his arms. He stood in front of Ni Ji with sweat all over his forehead. He showed a fake smile to please her.
He didn't even look panicked, as if he felt everything was still under control and could be resolved through negotiation.
"I'll tell you what I'll tell you. Put your gun away first." He wiped the sweat from his forehead, opened a corner of his backpack and showed it to Ni Ji. "Do you know what this is? Insect jade, alive, and this big."
He looked around, afraid of being spied on even in this deserted place. He lowered his voice and approached Ni Ji, "It's very rare and priceless. The big shots above got the news and specially assigned me to come in and get it."
Bug Jade is a special type of stone that only appears in heavily polluted areas. Some say it is the core of the polluted area, while others say it is the egg of a twisted god. Those monsters will not allow anyone to take away the Bug Jade.
Regardless of the reason, as long as someone brings the insect jade close to the "door", the monsters in the entire contaminated area will be awakened by something, and begin to collectively become restless and rush towards the location of the insect jade.
That is why it is very rare to see insect jade in human hands. Only a very small number of people know about the characteristics of insect jade.
Ni Ji's calm voice sounded, "I see. I just found it strange. They had to mobilize all the sentries from the entire sentry post to protect you alone, and also allocated more compensation than before."
His voice sounded the same as before, smooth and clear, as if without any particular emotion.
"That little money is nothing but a drop in the bucket. It's just a scam." The researcher laughed. "We can get all kinds of good things with this insect jade. Money, position, or do you want a guide? Let me tell you, none of those are impossible."
The huge screen was occupied by his greedy and complacent face.
The drizzle he mentioned was the hope in the hearts of countless soldiers. For this, they risked their lives to protect him all the way.
"Why didn't you tell everyone in advance?" Ni Ji asked.
He always wants to get things straight.
"This is a routine operation. You just don't know about it." The researcher stretched out his fingers and rubbed them together. "This is a private job, you know that, right? If it's to go into those people's pockets, how can we announce it publicly? Besides, if those soldiers know about it in advance, it will be more likely to cause trouble."
Maybe it was because of Ni Ji’s peaceful attitude, or maybe he really didn’t think the death of a few sentinels was a big deal.
As he spoke, he even dared to reach out to touch Ni Ji's shoulder.
"Captain Ni, you are a capable person. I will recommend you to a higher position. Do you want to be transferred to the imperial capital?"
"Your soldiers are really good. I heard that all the teams that came here before failed."
"You didn't see it. One of your soldiers transformed into a giant iron bear at the last moment. It was as tall as a tower and scared me. He killed all the remaining monsters, and that's how I managed to get here."
A sudden gunshot interrupted his words.
The man screamed and fell to the ground, covering his bleeding knee.
The priceless insect jade rolled out of his backpack and rolled into the dust at his feet.
The black barrel of the gun in Ni Ji's hand moved, aiming at a certain position on his lower body.
"No, no. You can't do this." The researcher's voice was hoarse with fear. He said quickly, "Don't shoot, don't shoot. I was forced to do this. I can't go against those people...Ah!"
The second shot triggered even more horrific screams.
The broken wails did not travel far and could not comfort the wronged souls everywhere.
It just made the male sentinels in front of the screen feel their skin tighten and they clamped their legs together unnaturally.
The following scene has been played many times in front of everyone.
It's just a change of perspective.
When we first watched it, everyone felt that the dead man begging for mercy was very pitiful.
Now that the perspective has changed, everyone feels that Ni Ji's hand was not heavy enough.
The man cried bitterly, crawled on the ground, and picked up the insect jade that was exchanged for the lives of countless sentinels, thinking that he could use it to exchange for his own life.
"I'll give this to you, all of it, and spare my life."
"People always have to take care of themselves. Why get angry over a few low-ranking sentinels? They always die quickly anyway..."
The third gunshot rang out in the silent contaminated area and hit the amber stone.
It shattered the priceless stone and pierced the person who was holding it and begging for mercy.
Amber stone fragments were scattered all over the ground. An unformed strange creature uttered a sharp cry and crawled out from the fragments, dragging its strange umbilical cord. It crawled a few steps on the gray-black land, gradually lost its vitality, and became rigid and motionless.
The picture stops here, followed by large patches of snowflakes.
"Oh my God! This is actually true! He really broke the insect jade!" The clerk at the window jumped up when he saw this, clapping his hands and cursing, "This stupid trouble, this fool. No, he is a madman!"
She watched the whole thing, indifferent to all the deaths, sacrifices and injustices, but when she saw the stone breaking, she clapped her hands and shouted in grief.
The sentries on the parade ground were also frightened by Ni Ji's move.
"Oh my god, he smashed that piece of insect jade."
"Is he so stupid? That thing is very valuable, right?"
"You are stupid. If you take this thing out, it will end up in those people's pockets sooner or later. Why should we let them have their wish?"
"Or do you think that Ni Ji will come out with this piece of jade and hand it over personally? Stepping on the corpses of his brothers as a stepping stone for promotion? Captain Ni is not that kind of person." The sentry who said this forgot that he had just said not long ago that Ni Ji was not a good person.
Someone responded soon.
"He was wrongly accused, let him go!"
"Yes, you are wrongly accusing someone, let him go!"
"Yes, that's too much. You actually tortured him like this!"
"Release him. Release him immediately!"
A piece of yellow earth hit the glass on the second floor of the office.
Piece of soil fell down one after another.
The anger of the sentinels had already been ignited, and when the wind blew, it burned throughout the entire place.
Some people lifted their legs and walked directly towards the rack.
The interrogating sergeant wanted to stop the men, but the female sentry who had caused the most commotion came up and slapped him to the ground.
"You Chaos, where did you just say you were going to send him to?"
She rode on the fallen sergeant, raised her palm like a palm-leaf fan, and slapped the man's face several times until it was swollen.
"You are so reckless and wrongly accusing people. A strong man like him was almost tortured to death by a villain like you. I am so pissed off. Just wait and see how I will slap you in the face!"
He completely forgot that he had joined in the fun before and even made dirty jokes about taking care of other people's business.
Another veteran who had served as a captain came over, held her shoulders and whispered, "Don't stay here, drag her to the corner."
Then, three or five people dragged the interrogator with swollen cheeks to the corner.
Others rushed onto the rack and began to smash the chains, trying to get the dying Ni Ji down.
More people, with anger that they had nowhere to vent in their hearts, rushed towards the office building of the Military Control Office.
They smashed the glass, demanded the release of the prisoners and demanded an explanation.
The crowd was excited and the atmosphere was burning like fire.
They are all ordinary sentinels from the lowest class of society.
At such moments, once they gather together and roar, those officials sitting in their offices, high up, feel scared.
Soon the timid voice of the clerk was heard on the radio.
"It is true that he was wronged. We were also deceived. We will release Ni Ji immediately."
"Yes, immediately acquitted. Everyone, please be patient."
After this chaotic farce came to an end, Lin Yuan's entry and exit procedures were barely completed.
When I came out, the sun was already setting.
Roy led Lin Yuan to stand outside the gate of the Military Control Office waiting for the passing bus.
He looked at the orange sunlight on the street, still a little dazed.
"Xiao Yuan," Roy asked, "I always feel like something is wrong. Are you taking care of him on purpose?"
"No." Lin Yuan said calmly, "Everything is true."
She was still the same as before, quiet and uninterested in anything.
After a while, she raised her white and tender little hand and made a gesture with her index finger and thumb, "I just helped him hide it a little bit."
"Really?" Roy's eyes lit up. "I just feel like some of the scenes were abruptly cut off. Tell me what it is?"
Lin Yuan did not answer his question.
She turned to look at the alley where the side door of the Military Control Office was located.
Roy's eyes followed.
In the narrow alley, a small door opened.
Two men came out carrying a wounded sentry. They put the obviously seriously injured sentry down and quickly closed the door and went in.
The sentry, wearing a soldier's coat, leaned against the dark earth wall for a while. As if he could not hold on any longer, he supported himself with one hand and slowly sat down next to the wall.
Roy squinted his eyes and looked at him for a while, very surprised, "Is it him, that Ni... Ji?"
"The officers in the military department are too much. They tortured the man like that, and when they found out he was innocent, they just bandaged him up and threw him out."
Roy is a very compassionate person. He discussed with Lin Yuan, "It doesn't look like he has any family who will come to pick him up. Xiao Yuan, should we help him?"
Lin Yuan looked at the dim alley.
There, the sentry sat with his back against the earth wall in the half-light, and the expression on his face could not be seen clearly.
Lin Yuan watched for a while. Something mysterious came back to her feet from the direction of the alley.
"I think it's not necessary." Finally, Lin Yuan retracted his gaze, "The person he wants to wait for is not us."
(End of this chapter)