The snow on the western tundra has not yet melted, but the wilderness near Asgard has ushered in spring. The snow has faded away, turned into snow water and seeped into the ground, but it does not bring vitality to all things like in the old days, but makes the living environment more harsh. If the snow that contains radiation is just piling up on the ground, as long as it doesn't go deep into the snow layer, it won't reach the ground given the radiation resistance of today's wild creatures.
But it is another concept to see the snow water seeping into the ground.
That means that the amount of radiation in the formation will increase, and the water source after the snow water flows into the groundwater will not be edible in a short time. And for some burrowing creatures, it is even more catastrophic. The snow water with strong radiation enters their lair, even if they are unwilling to end their hibernation. For the sake of his own life, he had no choice but to break through the lichen and come to the still chilly ground.
Plants will be subjected to the most severe test, but after half a century of evolution. Most wilderness plants have developed a defense system against this phenomenon, whether it is herbs or various flowers and trees. Before winter they will try to take their roots deeper, deep enough to reach groundwater sources. The groundwater at that time was still edible, so these mutated plants would constantly extract water and store it in their bodies as much as possible.
When the winter is about to end, they will stop all activities. As a result, the plant's outer skin will age quickly, and the fibers will be stretched from a relatively loose mesh to a planar shape. So from the outside, the parts on the surface are all dead, while the root system under the ground becomes old and tough. Even raging gophers can't bite them, and when the snow melts, the highly radiated snow water seeps into the ground, and it can't enter the plant through the loose fiber channels, thereby destroying its important internal tissues.
The water stored in the body before will help the plants survive the most difficult period. When summer comes, the radiation of groundwater will precipitate or decrease. These mutated plants will shed old and dead parts and grow new shoots.
Therefore, for plants, spring is fatal, and only in summer can they usher in new life.
This is the law of survival in the wilderness, and both plants and mutant beasts must follow this law to survive. Plants can store clean water in advance, and a small number of creatures in mutant beasts also have the same function. And those without water storage organs can only survive on the blood of other mutant beasts, or break into human settlements to plunder clean water.
So in a way, spring is a lively season. It's just that it's different from the liveliness of the old era. Spring in the new era is the time of the year with the heaviest killing atmosphere.
Human beings are relatively intelligent beings in the current life system on the earth. They can neither store clean water in their bodies in advance like mutated plants, nor attack their companions like mutated beasts. After all, they are the first creatures on this planet who know how to make and use tools, even in the most primitive settlements, even without advanced water purification equipment. But there are always containers for water storage. Humans in settlements will try their best to store as much clean drinking water as possible before spring, so as to survive the harsher spring than winter.
And this has also become the main reason why mutant beasts attack human settlements. The conflicts continue all year round, but spring is the worst.
Everything is just for survival, whether it is human beings or other creatures.
The same is true for Jin, but it is not the radiation water that threatens him, but his former companions who are chasing and killing him like ghosts.
Alice!
It has been almost a month since he left Asgard and was attacked by Pedafini. During this month, Jin hid in the wilderness. At the very beginning, Alice didn't mean to kill him, and even helped him escape several attacks from Pedafini. Not long after, Pedafini received a new task and left. Alice talked to Jin several times in detail, and helped him take care of his injuries by the way.
But the two did not reach a consensus after all.
For King, the town of Buford was too much for him. He was born, raised and lived in this small town. Everyone in the town is more or less connected to King, especially old Pete. This man who looks like both a grandfather and a father runs through Jin's life trajectory, and he is Jin's biggest bond. King could lose anyone, but he couldn't forgive whoever killed old Pete.
If that person was not Alice but someone else, Jin would have turned his back on him long ago.
But that person happened to be Alice again.
For this woman who always loves to tease her from time to time, Jin has an indescribable feeling. Closer than friends, and distant from lovers. Alice is like an untouchable lover. No matter how close the two are in real life, Jin knows that they cannot be together.
Because Alice is that man's slave, and Alice often puts the brotherhood of that premature death on Jin, not the relationship between men and women. Jin knew this very well, so he knew that he liked this older woman, but he would not take the initiative to admit it, even just once.
During the first half month of negotiations, Alice hoped that Jin would stay away from this chaotic land. Go to the coastline settlements and find a city to stay, and you can get a good job with your gold skills. And that was the territory of the Dark Parliament, Jin would not be easily assassinated and attacked by that lord.
But Jin didn't compromise, he asked Alice to leave, and don't care about the matter between him and that person. He didn't need to shoot Alice, after all, Alice was only executing orders at the time. But Jin is absolutely unwilling to let that person go, the person who gave him hope but also brought him despair!
So under the premise that no reconciliation was possible, the negotiations broke down. Alice turns ruthless and gives Kim five days to escape. Once five days had passed, she began hunting Kim. In fact, Jin had already expected such a result. The conflict between the two lies in Alice's feelings and loyalty to that man.
Once unable to persuade herself to leave, Alice will become ruthless in order to erase any possible threat for that person.
At this time, Alice is the real Frost Queen.
The five days left for Jin is not only the last bit of friendship expressed by Alice to Jin, but also the time left for Jin to make a choice. Undoubtedly, King has not changed his choice. So five days later, Alice and Jin had a fierce battle in the wilderness far away from Asgard.
In a battle that lasted nearly a day, King seized a hard-earned opportunity to escape. And in that battle, Alice still didn't do her best. But then, Alice became more and more ruthless, and each shot became heavier. Jin fought and fled, and the time for respite became less and less. Alice is like a ghost that may appear at any time, which makes the already overwhelmed Jin situation even more difficult.
The shadow of death is everywhere, and Jin will not be surprised if he will die in the next second.
It's just that the figure of old Peter flashed in his mind from time to time, which became the last motivation for Jin to persevere.
It has been 13 hours since she was attacked last time, and the frequency of Alice's attacks is getting higher and higher. Even if Jin had exhausted all means, he still couldn't get rid of the Frost Queen behind him. Once, Jin even led Alice into a medium-sized base. But half an hour later, that base was history forever. What Jin got in exchange was 35 hours of rest.
Time is of the essence in this chase game.
Alice clung to Jin as if she could not eat or drink, and Jin had no time to rest, eat, or heal. His physical energy fell again and again, and he was almost approaching the limit. Just like at this moment, Jin felt that his body was very light, double images began to appear in his vision, and his senses became dull. All this was due to the decline in physical fitness, he smiled wryly, wondering if he could survive the next attack.
When he stumbled out of a low dry forest, Jin saw a ground base. It should have been rebuilt from an old military base. The base still retains the ground command building, garages, and even an airstrip. The entire base was surrounded by barbed wire, and a sentry tower was set up every 100 meters. There are soldiers on duty on the sentry tower, which does not look simple.
The entrance to the base is a steel gate with pulleys, and there are two self-propelled artillery on the gate as a defensive force. These two cannons alone are the most powerful firepower that Jin has seen since wandering in the wilderness in recent months, not to mention the two hundred or so soldiers who are training in the sentry towers and bases.
But more importantly, there was a sign hanging at the entrance of the base, which clearly said "Zero Point Technology Company" in large characters, and below it was a warning saying "Private important place, no idlers should enter".
Jin smiled wryly, and ran around by himself, but returned to the vicinity of Asgard. He knew very well whose industry the Zero Company belonged to, so Jin staggered towards the gate of the base.
About five hundred meters away from the gate, Jin stopped suddenly. A stream of bullets swept across the ground two meters in front of him, and then a soldier shouted: "Stop, this is not a place for you to come. Refugees, go back!"
refugees
Jin wiped his face, and his fingertips were covered with blood-stained sand. Looking at his body again, he was wearing a cloak that even he himself forgot where to get it, it was indeed no different from the refugees in the wilderness, no wonder the soldiers called it that.
The soldiers of the Zero Company were already benevolent, and even when they visited other bases, Jin would find the stream of bullets coming at him without even a warning. But the soldier's passing did not make Jin give in. He raised his voice: "Open the door, I want to see your supervisor. I know who your boss is! Zero, I... I am his friend."
After a moment of silence, the soldier's laughter came from the sentry tower: "Okay, don't make trouble. If the higher-ups didn't allow us to kill people indiscriminately, we wouldn't hear jokes like yours now. For God's sake, hurry up!" Go away, or you will break your legs and throw them into the wilderness to feed the wolves!"
what to do? Forcibly break through? Jin pondered, his eyes swam back and forth on the two self-propelled artillery above the gate, looking for the dead angle of the artillery so that he could cut into the safe zone in an instant. But at this time, the roar of the off-road vehicle engine sounded behind Jin.
Jin turned around and saw an arrogant modified vehicle driving on the wilderness. The entire car was painted black, with two-tone red and bright yellow paint spouting flame patterns on the underside. The front of the car is equipped with a baffle covered with steel vertebrae, and even the four wheels are welded with prismatic spikes. While the wheels were spinning, the mud and rocks on the ground were rolled up from time to time, and when they were smashed by the wildly spinning spikes, fluffy sparks burst out immediately.
When seeing this car, the soldier on guard changed his expression: "No, it's the supervisor's car. Hey, if you don't leave, I'm going to shoot!"
The soldier hurriedly picked up his gun and aimed at Jin's body.
Should be a stern character.
Jin Xin thought, otherwise the soldiers would not have such a big reaction.
The car drove up to the gate in an instant, and a tall woman jumped out of the car. Zhang Yang's short hair was dyed fiery red, and when the wind blows, it dances in the air like a flame. The woman glanced at Jin, her face sank, and she shouted at the door: "Are you all blind? Let a high-ranking person touch the door. Is the self-propelled artillery a display for you by my mother? Why don't you give it to me?" I'll kill this guy!"
The soldiers on the sentry tower were startled, followed by the sound of people running. With the sound of the shell being loaded, the two self-propelled artillery on the gate began to adjust the shooting angle. Jin smiled wryly, raised his hand and said, "Don't be nervous, okay? If I were the enemy, I would have done it long ago. Would I still wait for you to raise your cannons to shoot?"
Only then did the woman make a "pause" gesture to the gate, then looked Jin up and down and said, "Then tell me why you're here, stranger."
"News. I have a big news to sell to you. I believe that Zero will be interested."
"Oh, so what do you want in return?"
"Protection, at least 48 hours." Jin said with difficulty. As long as he can remember, he has never remembered a time when he showed weakness. But this time, he was cornered by Alice. If there is no third-party force willing to give him shelter, he will not have the time to rest and heal his wounds.
The woman nodded and said: "No wonder, I said that you are covered with injuries. And there are several very subtle injuries. It seems that you were hunted down by powerful guys."
"Why, don't you dare to take this business?" Jin asked with a smile.
The woman said coldly: "Don't use such childish methods as provocative tactics against me. There is no question of whether you dare or not, only whether it is worth it or not."
She called out to the soldiers on the gate again: "Open the door!"
Only after receiving her order did the soldiers open the door. Seeing the extremely heavy steel gate slowly slide open from both sides, Jin heaved a sigh of relief. Only then did the woman say: "I hope your news is worth it, otherwise you will find that I can be more cruel and ruthless than that pursuer."
"Don't worry, I won't make fun of my own life." Jin said again: "Then, don't ask for advice?"
The woman raised her eyebrows and said coldly, "My name is Eva, let's get in the car."
After finishing speaking, she jumped into the car first and waved to Jin. When Jin climbed into this arrogant car, his eyes were immediately attracted by a huge black sword leaning on the back seat. Anyone who likes to use such an epee as a weapon is either a real strongman or a swindler.
Jin believes that this woman is the former, because she has an aura that makes him feel uncomfortable.