Chapter 21: Known Dangers and Unknown Dangers
The answer to this question was still unknown, but the surprises that Sector 04A had in store for them were not just this little bit……
“Quick, look, the sky… in the sky! Look at the sky! What kind of monster is that?”
Xiao Liu, at the rear of the team, didn't focus all his attention on the corpse due to his obstructed view, but it was precisely because of this that he noticed a direction others hadn't.
Over in the gray sky, the first glance through the goggles wasn't very clear, but soon, this ceased to be a problem.
The dark shadow he had caught sight of in the sky was rapidly approaching their direction.
It wasn't until the wreckage of what were once tall buildings below became a reference for its size that intense fear surged up.
If not for maintaining a sliver of rational restraint, he probably would have cried out in alarm.
Everyone could hear the intense fear suppressed in Xiao Liu's voice.
When everyone shifted their gaze from the corpse to the sky, the sight that met their eyes caused their expressions to change in unison.
The individual reactions of the group were not much calmer than Xiao Liu's.
It was a giant bird-shaped monster.
Behind the dust lingering in the air, its outline, barely discernible to the naked eye, was very blurry.
And on this body, as dark as a thundercloud, the most soul-stirring features were its pair of pale golden, sharp eyes.
The dust couldn't block the cold light within them; a mere glance was enough to send a chill spreading through one's heart.
That pair of wings, spanning over ten meters when spread, cast a shadow that nearly enveloped the entire intersection, including where the group stood.
Its black feathers were stained with an unknown dark green viscous liquid.
With every flap of its wings, a large spray of water droplets scattered down.
The viscous, dark green liquid landed on the ground and the abandoned car bodies.
After a few seconds, these dark green liquids began to bubble as if boiling.
The objects contaminated by these liquids sank down amidst the continuous boiling reaction of the liquid, soon leaving behind small depressions.
“Quick, get into the building! These liquids are extremely corrosive!”
Uncle Lin shouted loudly.
Even without his reminder, the others could see the danger.
At this moment, they couldn't care less if the building beside them was a dangerous, possibly collapsing structure.
The mercenary team immediately retreated from the sidewalk and ran towards the building on their right.
This wasn't a panicked, indiscriminate choice; before entering the building, no one forgot to quickly visually assess whether its load-bearing structure was intact and the extent of the damage.
“This way, come in!”
Uncle Lin, running at the forefront, stopped in front of a severely deformed roller shutter door.
He quickly slung his gun onto his back, and his freed hands gripped the seam of the roller shutter door.
Because a large dent had already appeared on the roller shutter door, all he needed to do was widen the gap enough for one person to pass through.
This wasn't difficult for him.
Bracing one foot against the door frame, he pulled hard.
Amidst a piercing screech, the deformed roller shutter door twisted further, and he achieved the desired result.
The mercenary team quickly entered and took cover.
Just as the last person stepped inside, the monstrous bird in the sky suddenly stopped flapping its wings and dived towards the intersection below.
Its body seemed to transform into a cannonball, plummeting straight down.
Seconds before impact with the ground, its wings, tucked to its sides, suddenly vibrated forcefully, creating a massive gust of air that brought its body to an abrupt halt in mid-air.
Its sharp talons then snatched up the half-corpse on the intersection and returned to the sky.
The strong wind kicked up a cloud of dust that filled the entire street block.
The gale blowing into the building through the gap almost made people lose their footing.
In the outside world, even a slight accident could lead to a series of irreversible consequences.
And in the direction they had just passed, a dilapidated building, already teetering, was finally brought down by this gust of wind, the last straw.
It trembled continuously, and the wreckage of reinforced concrete collapsed.
Such collapse accidents were common in JD Ruined City; all derelict buildings would eventually meet this fate.
However, the direction in which it fell made every watching mercenary widen their eyes – the iron bridge.
That was the iron bridge they had just crossed to enter Sector 04A!
The fragile bridge offered no resistance to the falling tall building.
Along with those huge concrete blocks, it smashed into the river, stirring up high splashes that churned the entire calm river.
The monstrous waves crashed onto the streets on both banks, dragging several scrapped vehicles into the seemingly bottomless river.
Coupled with the shaking of the entire ground and the deafening roar, the impactful scene left everyone poking their heads out of the building in a daze.
No one had expected such a situation to occur.
The iron bridge was destroyed just like that.
And the severe consequences of this outcome were clear to everyone who knew the terrain of JD Ruined City: that iron bridge was the only connecting passage between Sector 04A East, where they were, and Sector 06.
This is it… we're done for…
“What on earth was that thing…” Si Ling looked up at the monstrous bird carrying half a corpse, flying further and further away, and muttered in shock, his muddled brain feeling as if his normal thinking hadn't yet recovered.
“That's a Corrosive Monstrous Crow.” Han Nianling, getting up from the ground and patting off the dust blown onto her by the wind, answered Si Ling's question. There were white scuff marks on her suitcase, likely from quickly passing through the narrow gap just now.
“Impossible! Corrosive Monstrous Crows can't be that big.” Crow, leaning against the wall, raised his voice in refutation. The scene just now had clearly frightened him badly; his breathing was still rapid, but this didn't stop him from raising his voice further.
“But that was a mutant, and a mutant fledgling at that. See those dark green corrosive liquids? Those are amniotic fluid. This means that fledgling just hatched not long ago.” Han Nianling didn't react to Crow's refutation but continued to explain in a calm tone. Her words plunged the mercenaries into a new round of silence. Upon careful consideration, everyone broke out in a cold sweat.
If that was just a juvenile, how big would it be as an adult? JD Ruined City was actually home to such a terrifying monster, and right beside them… Besides that mutated Corrosive Monstrous Crow, how many other high-risk monsters were hidden around here?
With their retreat cut off and being in such an environment, who knew what dangers lay ahead on the road? An icy chill crept up everyone's spine, spreading bit by bit to the back of their minds, coupled with all the crises encountered before… Finally, someone could no longer bear such suffocating pressure.
“This… this has far exceeded the level of danger described in the commission, right? The expanded contaminated area, the expanded activity range of the Swift Walkers, and why did those two monsters appear in Sector 04A… Your work is related to these, right! You knew all this, right! What exactly are you doing this for? See, the bridge collapsed! Now we can't go back, what are you going to do in this situation?”
Crow questioned Han Nianling fiercely, the muzzle of his gun also pointed at Han Nianling. In his eyes, this so-called senior researcher was the culprit who had led him into this desperate situation.
“I disdain to explain anything, and I don't care about your displaced anger. I just want to state that I also didn't anticipate that everything happening in JD Ruined City would be this severe. However, I admit that I concealed some things from you, but this is highly classified information for researchers, and your identities do not permit access, so please forgive me for not being able to inform you.” Even with a gun pointed at her, Han Nianling showed no sign of panic, maintaining her composure from beginning to end. But Zhong Jing, standing not far to the side, noticed Han Nianling quietly reaching for the pistol holstered at her lower back.
She was prepared, Zhong Jing thought so, and she had an inexplicable belief that Han Nianling could pull the trigger faster than Crow.
“Besides… I’ve said it before: you can quit anytime. The chance to back out, I’ve already given it.” Han Nianling’s tone further provoked Crow’s anger.
“You bastard…”
Seeing the internal conflict within the mercenary team, Zhong Jing wanted to step forward to stop it, but Uncle Lin acted more promptly. He reached out and pressed down Crow’s gun barrel: “Enough, calm down. This is not the time for infighting. What we need to do most now is to find a way to leave here, not send bullets to each other. Do you want the blood to attract more monsters?”
“Yeah, let’s find a way to leave here first.”
Si Ling and Xiao Liu also came forward to persuade him. The deterrence and persuasion from so many people helped Crow regain his sanity. His actions were indeed driven by an impulse. He gave Han Nianling a reluctant glare, snorted coldly, and put his gun away.
Seeing that the internal situation of the team had finally stabilized, Uncle Lin breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Crow was also an experienced mercenary and was able to regain his composure in a short time after the impulse. The most feared thing in the current situation was infighting. He had a lot of mercenary experience and had seen too much.
It was not uncommon for the psychological pressure brought by desperate situations to become the trigger for conflicts among team members. People's emotions were most sensitive at such times. It was a luxury to expect humans to always remain rational, but they absolutely could not miss out on hope due to a momentary impulse, especially since they still had a glimmer of hope…
“Employer Han, tell us your plan.” He had seen it long ago. Han Nianling’s composure was not feigned calmness but stemmed from confident assurance. Coupled with her status as a senior researcher, her understanding of D Ruined City was inevitably much more detailed than that of mercenaries like them. She must have backup plans for route selection; this was extremely necessary for a shrewd senior researcher, otherwise she wouldn't have chosen a ragtag mercenary team like theirs.
Uncle Lin’s words made the other mercenaries turn their gazes to Han Nianling. Even Crow, who had just turned his back in a huff, couldn't help but slightly turn his head.
“Everyone gather around…” Han Nianling glanced lightly at Uncle Lin. She wasn't surprised that he knew she had a backup plan. An old mercenary who could live to this age wouldn't be inferior to anyone in terms of shrewdness. Besides, she had already planned to explain.
Han Nianling knelt down on one knee, then picked up a stone fragment. Xiao Liu, reminded by Uncle Lin, quickly turned on the flashlight on his gun barrel to provide light in the dim room.
“Although the bridge has collapsed, we still have two routes to leave D Ruined City and return to the Chu Sheng City observation post…”
“This is our current location… Sector 04A is located on the east bank of the JD River. To the north is Sector 06, separated from us by a river. The passage in this direction is gone…” As Han Nianling spoke, she used the stone to draw a simple map on the thick layer of dust on the ground, making her explanation more intuitive.
“And next we have two directions to go. One is to the east, to the unexplored Sector 09, then take a long detour north back to the Chu Sheng City observation post. And on this route, we need to pass through a large area of mutated jungle. The other is to the south, to Sector 02A near the city center, and then cross the bridge there to return to the other side of the river. From there, heading north, we can return along the route we took to enter JD Ruined City… You choose.”
After speaking, Han Nianling tossed the stone aside. After her voice fell, the movement in the room, including the atmosphere, fell into a dead silence. Only the sound of everyone breathing through their gas masks showed a trace of life here.
Han Nianling’s first sentence had brought hope to the team, but her subsequent words poured cold water on this newly ignited hope.
Going east meant entering the unknown Sector 09, and also taking a long detour through a mutated jungle. The danger level of the mutated jungle was by no means weaker than that of JD Ruined City; the dangers within were self-evident. But going south, to Sector 02A, which was clearly marked as 'dangerous', also seemed fraught with peril.
The difference was that one was a known danger, and the other was an unknown danger. How should they choose between the two…
Faced with such a choice, no one dared to act rashly. This was a multiple-choice question that determined their life or death. Would they successfully return to Chu Sheng City, or become soulless corpses in JD City, or perhaps both paths led to death? The life of a mercenary in the post-war world was like this; fate's arrangements were always unknown, and every choice faced was a gamble between life and death.
After a long silence, someone had to break the deadlock. Uncle Lin’s pupils swept around, and he sighed inwardly. He took a deep look at the young Xiao Liu beside him and then said in a slightly hoarse voice: “Sector 09 is an unknown, unexplored area, but our understanding of Sector 02A is also limited. The civilian market in Chu Sheng City doesn't have maps of Sector 02A in the JD Ruined City Nuclear Wasteland Area. Employer Han, as a senior researcher, how much do you know?”
“I’m generally familiar with the terrain…” Han Nianling answered truthfully, “I’ve glanced at it a few times due to my duties.”
Only a general idea of the terrain? Was Han Nianling’s knowledge sufficient to serve as a reference for advancing towards Sector 02?
However, just as Uncle Lin was still weighing the options in his mind, Zhong Jing, who had remained silent, suddenly spoke, delivering an explosive statement into their ears.
“I remember the detailed map of Sector 02A.”
“?!”
Zhong Jing’s words were astonishing. This time, it wasn't just the mercenaries; even Han Nianling couldn't help but cast a surprised gaze at Zhong Jing, a change from the indifferent impression she had given before, though no one saw it under the cover of her gas mask.
“Stone, you really know the detailed map of Sector 02A?!”
Si Ling grabbed Zhong Jing’s shoulder, forgetting to control his strength due to excessive excitement, causing Zhong Jing’s shoulder to throb with pain.
She shrugged off the hand on her shoulder and then, imitating Han Nianling, drew a simple map on the ground with a stone. After a glance, the other few turned their gazes to Han Nianling. At this time, they certainly didn't have the qualification to verify it. A few seconds later, under everyone's gaze, Han Nianling nodded slightly, giving them the answer they most anticipated: “That's right, this is it. It's even more detailed than what I know.”
“Rest briefly, prepare to head to Sector 02!”
Even Uncle Lin couldn't suppress his inner ecstasy. The mercenaries didn't delve into why Zhong Jing knew the map of Sector 02A; they were all immersed in the joy of surviving a disaster, or perhaps they didn't have much of a concept of the importance of the Sector 02A map.
But Han Nianling, as a senior researcher, was different. She knew very well how high the confidentiality of the Sector 02A map was. A mere second-level mercenary, even through special channels, couldn't obtain detailed map data.
So how did this second-level mercenary named Zhong Jing know it? Her so-called dream and she herself were more research-worthy than she had imagined… This time, when she looked at Zhong Jing again, there was an added spark of exploratory desire in her eyes.
Zhong Jing was oblivious to Han Nianling's psychological activities; her attention had long since flown to the nine heavens.
On the surface, she appeared calm as she inspected her weapons and equipment, but in reality, the strong emotions deep within her were no less intense than anyone else's. The map of Sector 02A was already deeply imprinted in her mind, something she would probably never forget in this lifetime.
Because in that dream, the place where she met her demise was right there – Sector 02A.