Chapter 601: Skeleton Corps Arrives!

Chapter 601: The Skeleton Corps Arrives!

Before entering Jinchuan Province, Chu Guang had considered that the problem might be more severe than he imagined, but he never expected it to have deteriorated to such an extent.

The entire Haiya Province had entered the fourth stage of Naguo corrosion, completely reduced to a land shrouded in plague.

The tragedy that occurred at Songguomu Farm was merely a number, 03, on that list. As long as the Forerunners in the Sanctuary and that Saint had the inclination, they could turn any settlement within the diocese into whatever they wished at any moment.

In truth, the people there had already become puppets devoid of self-awareness.

"If what they say is true, this problem is going to be extremely tricky... both scientifically and politically."

In the holographic image.

After listening to Chu Guang's recounting of the Academy's research conclusions, Heya pinched her chin with a grave expression, sinking into thought, and did not speak again for a long time.

Chu Guang was the same.

After a long while, he sighed with a headache and said.

"Sealing off Haiya Province is a compromise, but perhaps dragging it out will only make things worse... and unfortunately, we don't have enough manpower, not even if we mobilize the entire Alliance."

Heya asked softly.

"What about the Corporation? Aren't they planning to do anything?"

"In matters without returns, their efficiency is proportional to the cost required. Only when the problem becomes so severe that they have no choice but to act will they truly make up their minds." The heirs of the Human Alliance that Chu Guang dealt with most often were those from the East Coast.

To be honest, doing business with the Corporation folks was quite pleasant—as long as the returns were generous enough and core interests weren't involved, they didn't mind letting their partners gain a little advantage, since goodwill was also an investment.

But expecting them to step up in a major crisis was far too naive.

The Legion had torn up a century-and-a-half-old covenant and nearly punched through Luoxia Province, and the Supreme Council only issued a harsh statement. In fact, it wasn't until the Alliance captured the Steel Heart that this harsh statement even reached the Steel Heart.

Chu Guang had already secured the Council's support through Yi Chuan, and a batch of valuable aid was on its way.

Yet to expect the Corporation to help seal off a province thousands of kilometers from Ideal City—Chu Guang himself felt this request was nothing short of a fantasy.

"...Can we only use nuclear bombs?" Heya said with a complicated expression.

"At the moment, I can't think of a better way, but... at least we have to solve the immediate problem. At least Jinhe City and Jinchuan Province can still be saved."

As he spoke, Chu Guang looked toward the porthole on the side of the captain's cabin. Beyond the drifting clouds, the earth shrouded in gray mist was faintly visible.

Currently, only this piece of land in Jinchuan Province had been corroded by Naguo, since the ruins of Singularity City once stood here, and there were quite a few survivors and settlements.

The wasteland had many uninhabited zones—dozens of miles might pass without a single settlement, with only a few households living like savages.

In such uninhabited areas, relying solely on natural transmission by animals, it was difficult for the Naguo corrosion to suddenly escalate to the second stage.

It could be said that the plague called "Naguo" designed by the Torch Church was tailor-made for most survivor settlements on the wasteland.

Noticing Heya's complex gaze, Chu Guang suddenly thought of something and switched to a comforting tone.

"Don't put too much psychological burden on yourself. Maybe your teacher, Kailan, was just deceived or coerced by those people... This might not be her doing."

Though after meeting that Luo Qian, he felt this possibility was slim.

Those people were deeply convinced of what they were doing. Even if they hesitated, it was only out of moral qualms about the means, not doubt about the final outcome.

They truly believed—

That world was a utopia greater than the Age of Prosperity.

"Don't comfort me. I'll ask her about this myself..." Heya took a deep breath to steady her emotions.

Then, as if something occurred to her, she looked at Chu Guang, raised an eyebrow, and tossed the topic back with a teasing tone.

"Speaking of which, you haven't even solved your own headache, yet you're comforting me."

Not bothered by her teasing, Chu Guang said with a smile.

"You're our chief biologist. Without you, a lot of work couldn't get done."

"Don't flatter me. There are plenty of people more experienced than me." Heya rolled her eyes, but inside, she felt as sweet as honey.

Having her hard work acknowledged was a pleasant thing for anyone, and she was no exception.

Sensing she was in a better mood, Chu Guang nodded with a smile.

"Knowledge and experience can be accumulated slowly. What's irreplaceable for the Alliance is you... That's basically the situation I just described. Let's end the call here. It's getting late, get some rest."

Heya curved her lips.

"You too. You just finished dealing with the trouble in Boulder City, and now you're off to Jinchuan Province. Don't wear yourself out."

Chu Guang laughed heartily.

"Don't worry, I'm still pretty tough. You know that."

For some reason.

This person, who always liked to joke about him not being human, inexplicably blushed, let out a "pfft," and vanished from the holographic image...

...

In a pure white virtual space, the ceiling emitted a warm white light.

Some flowers and grass had already grown on the clean white floor, but the blades of grass were white, swaying illusorily in the windless room.

Their crystalline outlines were like corpse flowers blooming on a body...

Standing in the center of the room, Jiang Xuezhou looked around and soon spotted the girl sitting in the corner with her knees hugged.

Her face was expressionless, sitting quietly, staring at the floor in front of her toes, as if lost in thought.

Jiang Xuezhou hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided to greet her with an ordinary opening.

"Are you... okay?"

Yinyin looked up at her and slowly nodded.

"Mm, I'm fine... just a little confused."

"Confused?" Jiang Xuezhou rested her hands on her knees, leaned down, and said in a gentle tone, "My name is Jiang Xuezhou, a researcher from the Academy... Can you tell me your confusion? Maybe I can help answer it."

"There's no reason not to," Yinyin rested the back of her head against the invisible wall behind her, gazing at the unfamiliar older sister before her. "That big brother called the Administrator told me that Grandpa Luo Qian gave me this strange room, letting me, who should have died, live on. But..."

Her bright eyes carried a hint of bewilderment. Yinyin unconsciously tilted her head slightly and uttered a sentence completely out of step with her age.

"What exactly am I?"

What exactly?

Jiang Xuezhou was momentarily stunned and said instinctively.

"You are, of course—"

"I am Zhao Yinyin, I know my name," Yinyin interrupted her, letting out a soft sigh, her expression seeming troubled. "But I don't know whether the current me is truly me, or the me in that old grandpa's memory."

Jiang Xuezhou stared blankly at Yinyin sitting in the corner, her mouth slightly open, unable to believe that an eight-year-old girl could say such words.

As if sensing the surprise on her face, Yinyin smiled apologetically and brushed the troubled expression away.

"Sorry for saying strange things. This is just my personal worry. Please don't mind it."

Jiang Xuezhou didn't know how to respond, so she could only nod gently.

"We... will all try to get you out of here as soon as possible. Please give us some time."

“Mm, I trust you. If only I could go out and play—Little Lamb and I promised to play hide-and-seek together,” Yinyin’s face bloomed with a smile, as if the earlier worries had never existed, and she shifted the topic. “You came to see me for something, right? Can you tell Yinyin what it is?”

Jiang Xuezhou nodded, a little ashamed.

“Yeah, I do have some things I want to ask you. It could save many lives… Of course, if you’re not willing, you can refuse. Just tell me honestly what you know.”

She had thought it would take some time to get the little girl to open up to her, but to her surprise, Yinyin nodded generously and looked at her with a smile.

“No problem. I’ll tell you whatever I know—go ahead and ask!”

She didn’t want to repeat the mistakes born from dishonesty.

Having died once, she had already learned her lesson.

Staring blankly at the little girl, Jiang Xuezhou snapped back to reality, blushed, and hurriedly said “thank you” before starting her questions.

In fact, before coming here, she had already learned from her mentor about the relevant materials and research on the Naguo fruit.

This inquiry mainly focused on the basic situation of Pinecone Wood Farm, including the patients’ behavior in the early stages of infection, the overall shift in the settlement’s atmosphere, and so on.

She tried to phrase the questions in a way a child could understand, and Yinyin answered each one honestly after hearing them.

After finishing the last question, Jiang Xuezhou pinched her chin and fell into thought. Yinyin, who had been watching her intently, suddenly spoke in a pleasant voice.

“You’re a lot like that big sister.”

Jiang Xuezhou paused slightly, snapping out of her contemplation.

“That… big sister?”

“Mm.” Yinyin nodded gently, her bright eyes fixed on her. “Another big sister asked these questions before… She seemed to be a doctor from the Alliance—the one who often checks Little Lamb’s health.”

A doctor?

Though she found it a bit odd, Jiang Xuezhou didn’t dwell on it. She nodded, said thank you, and waved goodbye to Yinyin.

The medical bay of the Steel Heart.

Standing beside the fully sealed cryo-chamber, Little Lamb looked worriedly at Jiang Xuezhou, who had just removed the neural connection device, and asked softly.

“Yinyin… is she okay?”

Placing the neural connection device on the nearby table, Jiang Xuezhou cast a gentle gaze at Little Lamb and said.

“She’s a little lonely. Could you please spend more time with her?”

Little Lamb nodded understandingly.

“Mm… I’ll stay with Yinyin forever, tell her about the outside world, until she wakes up.”

Seeing how well-behaved she was, Jiang Xuezhou couldn’t help but curl her lips, reaching out her right hand to affectionately pat her little head.

“Good girl.”

Watching those crescent-shaped lashes and that seemingly glowing smile, she felt all the day’s fatigue and unhappiness melt away.

Damn it!

She really wanted to keep one!

But it was just a thought—she didn’t actually plan to take the little girl back to the Wandering Swamp.

Though the Academy had extremely abundant material conditions, that was only for its researchers. For ordinary people who couldn’t generate “value beyond production,” it was a completely different story.

In the settlements managed by the Science Committee, ordinary survivors might not starve, but they were only guaranteed basic nutrition for survival. Apart from fighting their way through the sole assessment, there was virtually no hope for change.

She had heard that a few settlements operated under a different jurisdiction outside the Science Committee’s rules, mainly where senior researchers’ families lived, aimed at ensuring superior genes and thought patterns could be passed to the next generation.

But she was only a D-level researcher, unable to even send her own family there, let alone someone with no blood relation.

After the visit with Yinyin, Jiang Xuezhou stepped out of the ward and gently closed the door behind her.

But the moment she came out, she saw that annoying guy, and her face immediately fell. She crossed her arms and stared at him coldly.

“I came with the administrator’s permission.”

Forced back two steps by the palpable killing intent, Ye Shi awkwardly scratched the back of his head and muttered.

“I know.”

“Then what are you doing here?” Jiang Xuezhou lifted her chin slightly, her gaze icy. “Do I have to say it? I have no interest in the junk you make. Stealing your technology would be less productive than staring at a paramecium—”

“I’m sorry.”

“…”

Never expecting him to apologize, Jiang Xuezhou paused mid-sentence, slightly stunned as she looked at him.

Ye Shi’s gaze drifted to the side, too embarrassed to meet her eyes.

Because it really was awkward.

He had only just found out from the mission system that she had come here with her mentor to help.

Just like in Dawn City.

He had not only suspected her of being a spy but also asked why she had only shown up now… Thinking back, those words were indeed inappropriate, at least not something he should have said to her.

Before logging off, he got a glare from his little sister. After hesitating, he finally crawled out of the hibernation pod, deciding to clear things up before logging out.

“I said some really harsh things before. I can’t lie and say it wasn’t what I meant, because that’s how I felt at the time—I even thought I’d triggered some hidden quest or something… But please let me take those words back. Jumping to conclusions without investigating properly was my fault, and that’s why such a big misunderstanding happened.”

Having said that, he still felt a bit defiant, as if admitting defeat, so he couldn’t help adding quietly.

“Of course, it wasn’t entirely my fault either. If you’d just said what you were here for from the start… Sneaking around, asking me to show you around, talking about secrets and missions—what else was I supposed to think?”

Jiang Xuezhou stared at him for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing.

Ye Shi looked up, displeased.

“What are you laughing at? I’m being serious here.”

He thought she would hold back, but instead she laughed even louder.

“Ahaha! Nothing. Since you’re being so frank for once, I’ll just pretend those unpleasant things never happened.”

Raising her right hand to toss the ponytail over her shoulder, Jiang Xuezhou dropped her haughty, nose-in-the-air attitude and instead curled her lips slightly.

“Actually, it was kind of fun. That was the first time I was sent to the station as a spy… Though I got scolded by my mentor when I got back.”

Getting scolded was fine, but causing trouble for so many unrelated people made her feel a bit guilty—especially when it ended up bringing the mayor of Dawn City over.

When she got back, she should send a thank-you letter to the Dawn City Guard Station…

Seeing Jiang Xuezhou cheer up, Ye Shi sighed in relief, and his usual goofy grin returned.

“Well… anyway, the misunderstanding is cleared up. If you have any mission—I mean trouble or worries—you can come to me. I’ll head back now.”

As Ye Shi turned to leave, Jiang Xuezhou instinctively called out to stop him.

“Wait!”

Ye Shi stopped and looked back at her with a puzzled expression.

“Something else?”

“Well…”

Jiang Xuezhou looked away awkwardly, twirling the tip of her ponytail around her finger, a little embarrassed.

"You know... my mentor and I are here to solve that Nago problem, right? Since the fieldwork is mostly handled by us D-class, I'll probably be on duty quite a bit. Though, though I'm pretty strong too—if I get serious, I can take on one or two hundred Awakened without breaking a sweat—but it'd be nice to have someone to help with pouring tea, running errands, and all that miscellaneous stuff..."

Seeing that the guy had listened for ages without any reaction, Jiang Xuezhou gritted her teeth in frustration and, in a fit of self-abandonment, blurted out the whole thing.

"F, fine... If you're not busy, could you give me a hand, please?"

Pfft.

Is that all it was!

Listening to her hem and haw for so long, Ye Shi finally caught on and let out a hearty laugh.

"Leave it to me! I can't help with pouring tea or running errands, but protecting you is no problem! Don't worry, as long as I'm alive, I won't let a single scratch come to you."

Caught off guard by the sudden straight shot, Xiao Jiang was stunned for a moment, then quickly snapped back to reality, her entire face turning as red as an apple.

"Y-you better be mentally prepared—I-I won't go easy on you when I'm bossing people around... D-don't forget to write your last will!"

Stammering out a string of incoherent words, Jiang Xuezhou fled like a startled rabbit, disappearing in a gust of wind.

By the time she came to her senses, she found herself standing in the bathroom of her room, with water from the showerhead splashing noisily onto her face.

Jiang Xuezhou regretted it so much she wanted to punch herself, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, and instead slammed her fist against the bathroom wall.

Ahhh!

What stupid things did I just say!

She wished she could find a crack in the wall to crawl into...

Unlike the regretful Xiao Jiang, someone else hadn't paid the slightest attention to that ominous "harsh words," and even brushed them off entirely.

Come on, who could be more venomous than him?

He could rattle off a whole basket of even more cutting remarks, even turn them into a poem, and even the most silver-tongued Fang Chang was no match for him—he'd just roll his eyes and shut up to play games.

He wasn't bragging.

As a veteran of the "Zuan" server, he'd never lost a verbal duel.

What really puzzled Ye Shi was something else...

Watching the NPC's retreating figure, he pulled out his VM, glanced at it, opened the quest log, and scratched the back of his head.

"Weird."

Why didn't a quest trigger?

Logically, serving as a bodyguard for the academy's "special researcher" should at least count as a hidden quest, right?

Ye Shi couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Could this dog of a game designer have forgotten about me...

Little Lamb, hiding by the crack in the door, quietly pulled her head back and mimicked the big brother's gesture, scratching the back of her head.

She'd heard someone arguing in the hallway earlier and wanted to see what was happening, only to witness a scene that left her utterly bewildered.

Though she couldn't understand a word they were saying, it all seemed pretty impressive...

...

The long night finally passed. As dawn rose from the horizon, the gray sky brightened with a hint of pale white.

No matter how thick the fog on the ground, it couldn't block the sun from rising as usual. Even if the warm sunlight was temporarily obscured by bad weather, it couldn't stop all living things from yearning and longing for its rays.

On the distant horizon, silhouettes of armored vehicles emerged from the rolling dust.

A murderous steel tide carried grenadiers with skulls printed on their chest plates, advancing with high morale straight toward Jinshi City.

Since the end of the war in the Luoxia Province, the various regiments had plenty of time to rest, or rather, slack off. So, egged on by a bunch of busybodies, each regiment designed its own emblem, painted on the chest or shoulder plates of their exoskeletons.

The Skull Regiment's emblem was, naturally, a skull.

Of course, during this rest period, the brothers of the Skull Regiment hadn't just been painting.

The "Chimera" wheeled infantry fighting vehicle deployed in this operation was a joint design by players from the Skull Regiment and engineers from Goblin Tech.

It was born from lessons learned in the previous war against the Legion—the Alliance's armored forces needed a fast, light vehicle capable of carrying light infantry to keep pace with tanks as they advanced.

In the earlier war against the Legion, the Skull Regiment's infantry usually rode on armed trucks, but those things had terrible mobility—basically dumplings with the filling exposed. When a real fight broke out, veteran players would rather run behind the tanks than sit on those things and get pounded.

Thus, the "Chimera" was born.

Its design referenced the Legion's "Hyena" reconnaissance vehicle, while the six pairs of road wheels and the front-mounted power compartment mimicked the real-world WZ551.

Besides a driver and a gunner, the rear compartment could carry six light infantry soldiers in full protective exoskeletons.

The turret mounted a 37mm rapid-fire cannon, using the same ammunition as aircraft autocannons, and was also equipped with a "Dove" missile launcher, capable of posing a threat to heavy vehicles and large targets.

However, even though the armored vehicle had interior space, most of these veteran players were used to riding on trucks and couldn't stand the cramped quarters.

One by one, they refused to sit inside and instead perched on top of the vehicle.

Not only that.

Even with only a few kilometers left to the battlefield, not a single face showed any fear—only an unbearable eagerness—

"I'm ready to kill twenty-two! Anyone taking bets?"

"Haha, kills from the 'Chimera' don't count!"

"Tch, do I need that thing?"

"Don't call me daddy to save you if you get captured by mutants."

"Bring it on!"

"Damn, have you no shame?"

"Hahaha!"

The bombardment from the Steel Heart would begin at exactly eight in the morning.

Whether it was the 37mm rapid-fire cannon on the armored vehicle or the rifles on their shoulders, everything was already loaded.

Half his body poking out of the vehicle's turret, Mole held a pair of binoculars, gazing at the abandoned city faintly visible through the mist.

Ahead was Jinshi City!

Tossing aside the binoculars and grabbing a loudspeaker, he opened his throat and shouted excitedly.

"Brothers—!"

"Ahead lies the nest of the Qi tribe!!!"

"A bunch of man-eating bastards are feasting and singing, completely unaware of what they've gotten themselves into!"

"Let those green-skinned beasts see for themselves—whether their fangs and bones are tougher, or our tracks and gun barrels!"

Someone shouted inappropriately.

"Chief! We came in armored vehicles! We don't have tracks!"

Ignoring that troublemaker, the impassioned Mole continued shouting.

"Skull Regiment! Advance—!"

"Shove death right in their faces—!"

The watch's hour hand pointed exactly to eight o'clock.

The cannon fire above roared as scheduled!

Beneath the deafening thunder of the cannons, what answered him were shouts full of vigor.

"Kill!!!"