Chapter 30: Uncle Lin's Mark
Zhong Jing had reason to believe that the Chu Sheng City Human Base government had little understanding of the relevant information regarding the subway lines of JD Ruined City.
Even Han Nianling, a senior researcher, knew very little about this place.
Their initial understanding of the JD Ruined City subway was merely derived from the subway route map they saw at the transfer station just now.
Fortunately, such understanding was very valuable; at least after seeing the map, they knew what direction they were heading.
But even so, when she truly stepped into the pitch-black tunnel, Zhong Jing, who originally thought she was mentally prepared for everything, still couldn't suppress her rapidly beating heart.
The temperature dozens of meters underground was already not high, not to mention the subway tunnel, which received no sunlight at all.
The gentle, cool breeze blowing against her face penetrated her skin, transmitting a chill deep into her heart.
In pure darkness, people's visual range was limited to the area illuminated by flashlights.
And even the light from the flashlights could only tear open a small visible area in the darkness.
The glow sticks inserted at their waists to help teammates identify their positions were almost completely buried by the darkness.
Even their general outlines were indistinct, only a slightly cramped, faint halo of light.
Under such circumstances, the group still struggled to advance along the rust-covered subway tracks into the darker depths of the tunnel.
“Wait, there’s light ahead…”
It was unknown how long they had been walking when Zhong Jing, at the front of the team, saw a faint green fluorescent light emanating from the ground against the wall ahead in the tunnel.
She wasn't the only one who saw it; the conspicuous light, highlighted by the darkness, naturally attracted the attention of Han Nianling and Xiao Liu at the first instance.
The three of them quickened their pace towards the light source, careful not to trip over any unnoticed rocks.
It was a green glow stick.
Its dim light had almost no effect on illuminating the surroundings, but in comparison, the message it conveyed was far more important than its own illuminating capability – Uncle Lin.
“To appear here, it must have been left by Uncle Lin. It seems he probably also anticipated that Xiao Liu would meet up with us, so he felt at ease scouting ahead…” Han Nianling bent down and picked up the glow stick. After examining the glow stick in her hand for a few moments, she disappointedly tossed it back to its original spot.
“Unfortunately, it’s just an ordinary glow stick from the market, not the standard issue of the Security Team. There’s no way to tell how long ago he left here.”
To be able to walk alone in the tunnel and not forget to leave such a mark for those coming later while overcoming fear; in Zhong Jing’s two years as a mercenary, she had seen many old mercenaries with rich experience in exploring the outside world, but those who could truly do what Uncle Lin did were few and far between.
The more seasoned the mercenary, the smoother and more life-cherishing they became.
It was in the tempering of the wasteland that they cherished everything they had obtained even more.
Cherishing life was originally a very normal thing, but these seasoned mercenaries had made it their only heartbeat, and to an unscrupulous extent.
Among these, the most disgusting was the exploitation of inexperienced new mercenaries, even using them as stepping stones to escape predicaments in critical moments.
In her own eyes, the weight of different people's lives might vary, but Zhong Jing believed that she would not arbitrarily take others' lives for her own survival.
She deeply understood how desperate it felt to be betrayed by someone trusted in a predicament.
That was her first experience struggling on the brink of life and death.
It was also from that time that her view on things like mercenary succession changed.
A solo journey in the wasteland might be more dangerous, but there was no possibility of a cold shot from someone beside her.
This was Zhong Jing’s choice.
“Don’t worry, there are no signs of a fight here. Your uncle is still very safe.”
Noticing Xiao Liu’s worried gaze, Zhong Jing softened her voice to comfort him.
After checking the glow stick on the ground, the three of them quickened their pace considerably.
With Uncle Lin scouting ahead, it at least indicated that the road ahead of them was basically safe, and they didn't need to spend too much effort on vigilance.
The further they advanced, the fewer fallen rocks there were on the ground.
As the few of them continued forward, more marks were discovered by them.
Under the guidance of the glow sticks, the oppressive feeling accumulated in their hearts also eased considerably, even though the darkness ahead remained.
“What is that?”
When Zhong Jing turned and passed a relatively small bend, the light from her flashlight didn't penetrate into the bottomless depths of the tunnel as before, but was blocked by a white metal block.
Just as Zhong Jing thought the light was blocked by some debris or garbage, the moving light source made her gaze fixate on three words on the white metal block – Peace.
Peace?
It seemed familiar… but Zhong Jing couldn't recall where this familiar name came from for a moment.
However, the movement of the searchlight in her hand unearthed more information from the darkness.
“This is a subway train set…” The answer that had just emerged in her mind was confirmed by Han Nianling’s words. That’s right, ahead was a subway train.
The subway train had long since derailed, obliquely blocking the entire narrow subway tunnel.
The front of this train car, where it had impacted the walls on both sides, was extremely severely deformed.
Under the strong impact and friction, the walls were also densely covered with cracks.
Large pieces of exfoliated rubble had fallen, smashing the train below into an unrecognizable state.
Although she couldn't see behind this train car, she could imagine it was an extremely tragic scene.
“This train was attacked just as this city was attacked while it was in motion. The strong attack caused a serious derailment accident for the train…” Han Nianling, who also witnessed all this, muttered in a low voice, “I guess…”
A guess?
Zhong Jing, silent, her gaze fell on the fragmented skeletons scattered around the train…
Regardless of whether Han Nianling’s words, spoken in a narrative tone just now, truly contained an element of speculation, perhaps such a guess was already very close to the truth.
"What was the truth of the war that separated the pre-war and post-war worlds… Even if that truth had long since vanished over the past hundred years, people still couldn’t help but dig for it, to mourn the glory that once belonged to the pre-war world."
“There… a glow stick!” Suddenly, Xiao Liu’s voice broke the silence. He quickly ran forward. His impulsive run made him stumble and almost fall, but he used all four limbs, and while steadying himself, his speed didn't decrease in the slightest.
Running to the side of the train, Xiao Liu squatted down and immediately saw the glow stick under the train.
And beside the glow stick was a narrow passage – a gap at the train car connection.
The deformed carriage was barely enough for one person to pass through.
There were also signs of clearing around it.
It seemed this was also left by Uncle Lin.
“Don’t go in…”
Xiao Liu, crouching down, was about to enter the carriage when a hand from behind pulled him out.
Zhong Jing moved past him, raised the gun in her hand, pointed it at the entrance of the passage, and entered a combat stance.
“Sister Stone? What’s wrong?”
“There’s the smell of blood.”
Zhong Jing’s words made Xiao Liu’s breath catch.
Without her needing to say anything more, Xiao Liu had already very consciously stepped aside, leaving this to her.
The relaxed atmosphere ended here.
More severe.
This smell of blood was very foul, and very fresh.
This meant there was at least one recently deceased monster inside.
Needless to say, anyone would know that Uncle Lin was responsible for triggering this battle.
Regardless of whether Uncle Lin successfully passed through here or died fighting the monster, it meant: the brief period of safety was over.