Chapter 81: A ruined civilization
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
A complete platoon consisted of 30 people in a corporation’s order of battle1 . When they encountered any danger, they could immediately use all their firepower to carry out a full coverage attack. This was also the reason why the wild animals could only flee in haste when facing them.
However, even with such a powerful platoon, they did not hesitate to call for reinforcements when they came into contact with the “Experimental.” This showed that they did not have the confidence to defeat it with their current strength!
Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu knelt on the ground as they listened to the sound of gunfire bursting out around them. A soldier slung his rifle over his shoulder and tied Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu’s thumbs on both hands together with some plastic strips1 . It was tied so tightly that they were in pain.
Furthermore, the soldier completed a body search on Liu Bu in just two seconds and ensured that this man and woman in front of him would not be of any threat.
The soldier did not ask them anything. He just left them to rejoin his team and continued with the battle.
All the other soldiers ignored Liu Bu. It was as though he did not exist. Each of them had their own responsibilities and were working like gears in a well-oiled machine. They took every step with steady precision.
Someone muttered, “What is that plastic doll he’s carrying on his back?”
Someone on the communications channel shouted, “The Experimental has fled to our 9 o’clock. Take notice, formations over there. The Experimental has fled to our 9 o’clock!”
The Experimental also did not seem like it wanted to confront these platoons with such heavy firepower. It chose to avoid them for now.
At this moment, Liu Bu felt that comparing the combat strength of the consortium’s troops to the private army was simply a matter of heaven and earth. With these sights, the private army was like a pig farm compared to the consortium!
Liu Bu had been worried the consortium would immediately kill him. After all, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had described them as demons. By the looks of it, that was not the case. The consortium tied him up together with Luo Xinyu but did not do anything to them.
With that, Liu Bu was finally relieved. At least, he would not have to die, right?
However, a moment later, Liu Bu heard the screams of the troops up front. It sounded like they had suffered some casualties!
...
Ren Xiaosu was hiding in the shadows of the forest and was very well-hidden within the bushes. A centipede was crawling quickly towards him, but Ren Xiaosu stabbed it down into the soil with his dagger. Ren Xiaosu had changed into Sun Junzheng’s private army uniform. He didn’t put on a dead person’s clothes because he was that poor but because the camouflage patterns would help him to stay well-hidden in the forest.
Soon after, he heard the sound of footsteps coming from in front. As he had not gone far, he could hear the consortium’s platoon calling for backup from their comrades.
For Ren Xiaosu, this was probably the best chance to sneak past the perimeter that was set up by the consortium. If they needed reinforcements on this side, the consortium’s line of fire would gradually be concentrated here. At that time, openings would start appearing in the perimeter of defense!
When he and Xu Xianchu parted ways, there was no mention of where they would meet up again. At this point, they had tacitly chosen to act alone as they believed that their individual skills surpassed the strength of the group.
But that alone was not enough to give them a reason to act solo. More importantly, they still did not trust each other.
Everyone still had some scruples about the team when Yang Xiaojin was around. The three people kept each other in check and formed a temporary, stable alliance. But now that Yang Xiaojin had suddenly disappeared, it led to the immediate breakup of the group.
Ren Xiaosu held his breath and waited for the oncoming platoon to pass him. It was obvious that the Qing Consortium was more informed than Xu Xianchu. They even knew what the chain dragging monster was.
Experimentals? People were conducting experiments in the depths of the mountains?
Ren Xiaosu had some doubts, but he did not waste too much time thinking about this. After a supporting platoon passed him by, he headed towards the hinterlands of the Jing Mountains at a shockingly fast pace. During this time, Ren Xiaosu almost encountered another two platoons that responded to the call for reinforcements. Fortunately, he managed to avoid them in time.
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu felt a little puzzled. They could not even kill one monster with so many people? Or... could it be that monster was too powerful?
He did not care too much about that since he had to sneak past the inner perimeter first. Whether he was planning to escape from the Jing Mountains or explore its secrets, this was the best opportunity.
As Ren Xiaosu galloped through the forest, the knotty roots and pitfalls in the ground were not an obstacle to his advancement. His travel speed in the forest had never been slowed by such obstacles before.
Gradually, Ren Xiaosu could hear the sound of heavy machinery operating ahead of him. It seemed an ongoing excavation was being carried out at a huge site ahead.
There was a hill in front of him. When Ren Xiaosu quietly climbed up to have a look at the other side, he was stunned. Frankly, he had not expected there would be such a lively place in the hinterlands of the Jing Mountains.
He was surprised to see a dozen excavators digging up the soil about 500 meters behind the slope of the hill he was on. Then Ren Xiaosu saw something. It was not these dozen or so excavators that caught his interest but the magnificent sight of a city behind this slope!
However, the city had been reduced to ruins. The dozen or so excavators were doing some digging near a pit that looked like it had just been blown up by the Qing Consortium with their shaped charges. It looked like they were searching for something.
In reality, the city in front of him was not considered a complete one. In fact, it was far from that. At the furthest point that was visible to him, the skyline of the city abruptly came to an end with the rest of it buried underneath mountains and earth.
The jagged city from before The Cataclysm was like a giant maze that got destroyed.
Even though Ren Xiaosu could only see a part of it, he could already imagine how magnificent the city was in the past!
He saw a relatively well-preserved metal sign hanging on a building with the characters ” xiao long kan1 ” on it.
Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. What sort of a name was “xiao long kan”? Was it the idea of a carp turning into a dragon after jumping over a waterfall1 ? What a mysterious sounding place.
But before Ren Xiaosu could figure it out, the sign crumbled into pieces when the excavator touched it. Eons had passed, so everything was in a state of decay.
For some reason, Ren Xiaosu was really looking forward to seeing this place. The tectonic movements that occurred had buried much of the Pre-Cataclysm civilization deep underground, but these plate tectonics were also responsible for the formation of the volcanoes in the Jing Mountains.
Somehow, a huge city was preserved in this location. Although the buildings were all broken and in pieces, the main structure still existed!
When Ren Xiaosu looked into the distance from the hilltop, he saw that some areas spaced several kilometers apart had already been excavated. However, some of the excavation sites had stopped halfway.
It looked like... they were searching for something. Once they found the excavated site was not what they were searching for, they would immediately stop work and identify a different location.
Ren Xiaosu could sense that whatever the Qing Consortium was searching for, it must be very important to them. Furthermore, they knew exactly what they were searching for.
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu spotted a place heavily guarded by soldiers in the distance. Some cargo containers were stacked over there. Next to it, soldiers were injecting drugs into some unconscious animals before loading them into the containers one by one.
Were these wild animals captured by the Qing Consortium? Perhaps even these evolved beasts would find it difficult to escape the fate of being studied.
“Should I leave?” Ren Xiaosu wondered as he felt he might not even have a chance to get near the “target” the Qing Consortium was searching for.
After all, he had already witnessed the might of the Qing Consortium, so he knew it would be impossible for him to snatch the “secret” away from them.
All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw a young man in a white suit standing on the roof of a building overlooking the city.
In the wilderness, that white suit was so spotless it would amaze anyone.
A sight like this was just like a clash of violence and civility that would make it unforgettable to whoever witnessed it.