67
"We'll only take you so far." Chen Fei's men parked the car at the city boundary, passed through the damaged city wall, and outside was the black iron wasteland. They could clearly see the cracks that were spewing flames.
"Thank you for your hard work, you can go back now." Chun San got out of the car.
The man in the car handed over a weapon: "Take this with you for self-defense. The car is coming, and we don't know what's going on with the travelers yet."
"Thank you." Chun San took the weapon and looked at it.
The car turned around and left.
Chun San looked back at the main city buildings that had been destroyed beyond measure. Under the flickering sunlight, the whole world seemed extremely strange.
The flashing did not continue all the time. It would stop for a few minutes after flashing for a while, and then start flashing again. After coming out of the City Affairs Office, she had been silently noting down the pattern. If her estimation was correct, the flashing started when she heard the words in the administrator channel in the liaison room. She hoped to find the answer.
Chun San took a few steps, jumped onto the broken wall, stepped out of the main city, and when he landed on the black iron wasteland, he could feel the sharp ground on the soles of his shoes.
She still had to walk a long way before she could reach the Lost Valley, where the cleanup team had a temporary resettlement point where some people who had escaped from the main city would seek shelter.
Many safe places in the main city have been blocked. Only some people in area A and area B can enter, but everyone else needs to fend for themselves.
The hyenas, once hated by everyone, have now become the last hope for the fleeing people.
Chun San tied up her loose hair and walked towards the Lost Valley.
After walking for a while, you can start to see people who have escaped, sitting or standing, or walking around aimlessly.
At this time, it was no longer possible to tell who were the former high-ranking residents and who were the "untouchables". Everyone looked desperate and exhausted.
There was a scream in the distance. When Chun San turned around, he could see a small black dot falling rapidly from the top of the high wall of the main city.
She turned her head, looked at her feet, and walked forward anxiously.
Just after taking two steps, someone stopped her.
As soon as she raised her head, the man punched her in the face.
Chun San was knocked to the ground, and his back was hurt by the sharp impact of the ground.
The man then rushed over, pressed his knee against her stomach, and began to grope her body: "Take it out."
"What?" Chun San was almost unable to breathe due to the man's knee, but he still tried to reach out and touch the weapon behind his waist.
"Supplies," the man smelled of dust and kept tearing her clothes with his hands, "You are from the City Affairs Office, you must have good stuff on you."
"Let me go!" Chun San raised his voice and tried to push the man away with one hand.
Her weapon was ready to fire at any time, but she didn't press the button. She didn't kill anyone, and she didn't even get violent with anyone. This was an ordinary resident who had lost her humanity due to despair and the desire to survive. She was once the most ordinary resident in the main city, so ordinary that she was even ignored by the system.
"Give it to me!" The man's eyes turned red, and he put his hands on her neck and tightened them suddenly.
Chun San only saw golden flowers before his eyes.
She closed her eyes, pulled her hands from behind her waist, and pressed the button on the weapon towards the man.
My neck and stomach suddenly relaxed at the same time.
When she opened her eyes, she saw only black ash.
Chun San quickly got up. She didn't know how many people like this were around. Although she was not wearing a uniform, she still had the aura of a "high-level resident" that could be seen at a glance.
As she was walking and trying to take off her coat, a voice shouted, "That's her!"
"She's armed!" another voice shouted.
Chun San turned her head and saw a group of people, at least twenty of them, all holding iron bars in their hands, their eyes fixed on her, and slowly approaching her in a semi-circle.
"Weapons?" Chun San said, "We can give them to you."
The leader suddenly laughed and said, "You rubbish from the City Affairs Office, you actually dare to come to the Black Iron Wasteland and want to negotiate with us?"
"Kill her!" someone shouted.
"Kill her!" More people responded.
Chun San raised the weapon in his hand and pointed it at the man in the middle.
Just as she was about to open fire, a brown-black shadow suddenly leaped out from the darkness beside her and passed in front of the people closest to her.
Several people then covered their chests and screamed in pain, with several deep black scars clearly visible on their bodies.
Before these people could come to their senses, the attack was launched again and the shadow passed by again.
A group of people screamed and began to retreat.
"Boss." Chun San let out a long sigh and called softly.
The caracal stood between Chun San and those people, crouching down and staring ahead.
"It's a caracal!" someone exclaimed.
"Lianchuan's caracal!"
After the people around him retreated, the caracal turned around, sprayed air at Chun San, greeted her, and motioned for her to follow.
Chun San quickly trotted a few steps to catch up.
After walking a little further, she saw several members of the cleaning team, and the one walking in front was Lei Yu.
When Lei Yu led the team to leave the main city, they had already said goodbye and were prepared to never see each other again while they were alive. She had been calm during this period of time.
But at this moment, when she saw Lei Yu walking towards her quickly, her vision was instantly blurred by tears.
She even cried like a little girl when Lei Yu ran up to her and hugged her.
"There are bats in the main city. They said they saw Chen Fei's people taking you out of Area A," Lei Yu whispered in her ear. "They were afraid of a conflict, so they didn't make direct contact. They came back to inform us. I guess Chen Fei is going to send you out of the city."
"Yeah." Chun San nodded, hugged Lei Yu's waist and cried until he was almost out of breath.
"Why don't we go back to the garrison first before crying," Lei Yu said, "It's not safe here. There are too many refugees, many of whom have weapons. We don't have enough firepower now, and we have to rely on Jiuyi for subsequent weapons."
"Okay." Chun San let go of him and wiped his eyes a little embarrassedly, "Thank you all for coming to pick me up."
"You're welcome, sister-in-law." Several members of the cleaning team said with a smile.
Long Biao spoke after a while: "When you cry, you don't look like you anymore. You look like the captain's daughter."
The whole group of people laughed.
The outpost outside the Lost Valley was built jointly by the cleanup team and the bats. Chun San knew that there were a large amount of supplies in the Lost Valley, but he did not expect there were so many.
"The car has arrived."
Chun San had just returned to the base with Lei Yu, and before he had time to say hello to the team members, someone rushed over to report.
"Is there an ambush at the get-off point?" Lei Yu asked immediately.
"Except for the dozen large boxes that Liu Dong from the training department sent over two days ago," the team member said, "we haven't seen their people anymore, and we don't know what's in the boxes."
"The EXs have been activated," Chun San said, "All the EXs in the main city are on standby. Chen Fei can no longer control the situation. Liu Dong has joined forces with Xiao Lin."
"Go ahead," Lei Yu glanced at the black ring beside him, "tell Jiu Yi that we will take the travelers over first, and you guys will provide reinforcements."
The two Black Rings nodded, turned around and ran into the Lost Valley.
The current situation was urgent, and a lot of important information had not been exchanged in time. Chun San didn't want to speak, but she couldn't help it. When Lei Yu was preparing his weapon, she whispered the question that concerned her the most: "Where's Chuan?"
"With Ning Gu and Jiu Yi," Lei Yu said, "but he went to find the poet. I don't know the situation yet."
Chun San's heart, which had just relaxed, suddenly became tense again.
"He will be fine," Lei Yu got on the A01 and looked at her. "We all know what kind of person he is. He is someone who can survive until the last second."
"Yeah." Chun San nodded.
"Let's go." Lei Yu put on his goggles and gave the order, "Stop."
Chun stepped aside and looked at the A01 that was emitting blue light and rising into the air and hovering, as well as the familiar team members on the A01. She could recognize each of them in their uniforms and goggles.
The team assembled in a few seconds and rushed towards the parking spot without stopping.
Lian Chuan jumped up from the ground and pulled Ning Gu out of the cave.
The moment Ning Gu was dragged out of the cave by him, he began to feel the severe pain in his body.
The several beams of red light that penetrated his body left his body the moment they rushed out of the cave, rolled towards Jiu Yi, and disappeared behind his mask.
"Lianchuan!" Ning Gu roared.
"Here." Lian Chuan said.
"Are you okay?" Ning Gu stared at him.
"It's okay." Lian Chuan said.
"What were you shouting outside just now?" Ning Gu turned and looked at Jiuyi.
Jiu Yi stood next to the sharp spike and said nothing.
After waiting for a few seconds, Ning Gu turned around abruptly, and a light flashed on his fingertips: "Nine Wings?"
"The car has arrived." Jiuyi said.
"What?" Ning Gu looked at him, "Those lights..."
"The vehicle from Ghost Town has arrived," Jiu Yi said, "There is an ambush at the Training Department, and the cleanup team and travelers have already gone there."
"Where is Shitu Valley?" Ning Gu asked.
"All the black rings have been sent out." Jiuyi said.
"Let's go over there." Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu didn't move, staring at Jiu Yi: "Those lights just now."
"It's okay," Jiu Yi said, "I am still Jiu Yi. Such a small thing can't affect me."
"Then why are you pretending to be cool?" Ning Gu didn't quite believe it.
"I'm still in shock," Jiu Yi suddenly raised his voice and shouted in a series of roars, "I'm still in shock! If you do something like this next time, tell me first! Otherwise, I'll smash you into pieces and turn you into a black ring!"
When Lei Yu and his men arrived at the parking spot, the car had already stopped in the middle of the track.
More than a dozen huge black boxes that Liu Dong placed around the parking lot and on the road leading to the main city are still there, neither opened nor moved.
"Determine the safe range." Lei Yu said on the intercom.
"Three hundred meters is safe." Long Biao replied quickly.
After a brief silence, Li Liang asked, "Why is this car like this?"
This time the car does look different from previous cars.
The carriages can still be roughly seen, there should be eight of them.
But the body of the car is thicker than before, and the gaps between the carriages are gone. It looks like someone has installed a circle of black armor outside the carriages.
"Can we get in touch with the people in the car?" Lei Yu looked back at the travelers sitting in Li Liang's car.
"Yes." The traveler nodded, put his hands to his mouth, and let out two sharp screams.
Two seconds later, someone in the car responded with a sharp scream.
"They are coming out," said the traveler.
"Pay attention to cover," Lei Yu ordered, "Groups one, two, three, and four keep an eye on the boxes, and the rest are ready to provide fire cover for those getting off the car."
As soon as Lei Yu finished speaking, the carriage changed. The armor-like parts on the outside suddenly fell off at the same time and turned into things that were more than a person tall and looked like shields.
After landing, the shield armor quickly reassembled together to form a black shield wall three people high.
The black boxes placed around made a "beep" sound at the same time at this moment, and all the black boxes popped open at the same time. The box walls fell to the ground, and the exes that were standing full in the boxes poured out as the box walls fell.
Then he rushed towards the shield wall at an extremely high speed.
"Attack!" Lei Yu ordered.
The blue lights intertwined into one and pushed towards the rear of the ex team.
At the back of the shield in front of the train, a dazzling light suddenly lit up, and it rushed towards the EX. The dark silver light leaked out from the gaps in the shield wall like mist.
ex were like unconscious monsters. The scars caused by the dark silver light when it touched their bodies did not slow down their movements at all. Even when they were cut in half by the light, they were still jumping forward.
"What is that?" Ning Gu was so shocked that he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a dark silver light from afar.
"Same ability as yours," Lian Chuan looked ahead, "Is it E?"
"He's missing!" Ning Gu shouted, "And such a large area... is it too strong?"
"This is not the ability of one person," Lian Chuan pulled him to the right side of the cleanup team, "This is the ghost town's army."
Ning Gu was stunned: "Did the Legion finally load the ability of e..."
"Activate the second batch of ex." Liu Dong looked at the monitor.
"What is that?" Xiao Lin looked at Liu Dong, "If I'm not mistaken, that's Ning Gu's ability?"
Liu Dong stared at the monitor, and after a while he turned his head to look at Xiao Lin: "It's e."
"Isn't E dead?" Xiao Lin was a little surprised. "What's his relationship with Ning Gu?"
"I don't know," Liu Dong said coldly. "When E disappeared, I was just a small reserve officer in the training department. I'm afraid you should ask Commander Chen about this. I only know that some of the basic materials of EX came from E, but it has never been perfect, otherwise there wouldn't have been only one Betelgeuse."
"So... their code name is ex..." Xiao Lin looked at Liu Dong, "How much did the training department do behind the scenes?"
"The things the training department has done are now your capital for survival," Liu Dong raised his voice, "Let the patrol team take the boxes to their positions! Activate the second batch!"
"The rear." Long Biao shouted into the intercom.
Betelgeuse appeared in his sight, and the exes that were surrounding the cleanup team from behind fell down instantly.
"Betelgeuse is coming," Long Biao said with a sigh, "He's really good at stealing the spotlight... Groups one and two, follow me and cover him!"
The second batch of EXs was larger in number. When they jumped out of the boxes in groups and rushed over, Betelgeuse leapt into the air, and the cleanup team launched an attack when he fell.
Ning Gu jumped onto a broken wall and raised his hands.
The control ability had no effect on the ex, and a dark silver light shone from his fingertips.
As Lianchuan fell back, the light exploded, and fragments of EX flew everywhere.
Almost at the same time, the shield wall on the carriage side was suddenly withdrawn, and the Ghost Town troops with black circles on their necks rushed out in large numbers and joined the melee with the ex.
A dark silver light was always hovering above them.
There was a violent tremor coming from underground.
In the direction parallel to the track, flames suddenly appeared in the distance.
"The crack is coming," Lei Yu shouted, "Traveler! Get your people to push into the main city immediately. The crack will cut off the current road!"
The traveler screamed to send a message to his companions.
Ning Gu turned his head and looked in the direction of the car. The regiment commander and Li Xiang were standing on the roof of the car. Behind them, there was a figure whose outline could barely be seen, and the whole person was wrapped in dark silver light.
Following this man's action, the ghost town army changed direction and began to force its way towards the main city. The travelers sandwiched in the middle also continued to attack. The EX's offensive was quickly disintegrated. The army directly pushed down a section of the city wall and walked onto the narrow bridge leading into the main city.
This was the entrance that travelers would never choose to enter the main city in the past. It was once tightly controlled by the city guards, and passing through the bridge was tantamount to committing suicide.
And now, the mighty legion and travelers roared across the bridge and entered the main city.
"Let's go," Lian Chuan jumped back to Ning Gu, "Let's go back to Lost Valley first."
Ning Gu didn't say anything and just glanced at him.
"If you want to see the head of the group," Lian Chuan said, "I'll take you there."
"No," Ning Gu said, "Let's go back to Lost Valley first. I have something to ask Jiu Yi."
"Okay." Lian Chuan said.
When the captain looked back again, the light belonging to Ning Gu in the distance had disappeared, leaving only the blue light of the cleanup team's final cover.
"Is it him?" E's voice was deep.
"It's him." Li Xiang replied.
"Very strong." said E.