Chapter 184 Retreat from Battle

"Hurry!" Xiao Ran pressed the blasting switch with one hand, his face even more stern than the cold light in the room.

"Guard the back door and don't let those soldiers chase into the passage!"

Behind him followed two survivors, both of whom were the main force that had emerged from the previous firefights. They were equipped with only a few modified guns and grenades, and all the miscellaneous ammunition was dependent on the stockpile that Han Xue had secretly collected before.

At the end of the corridor, the military's special forces were divided into two groups and were advancing slowly. Their footsteps were distinct, and someone was whispering orders using tactical gestures.

Xiao Ran pointed to the secret compartment in the corner. A man bent down, pulled up the iron cover, and twisted the red handle tied at the bottom.

Another person reached behind the overhead cables, pushed aside the camouflage cloth, and pressed the button.

"Wait three more seconds." Xiao Ran straightened up, gritted his teeth, and glanced at the timer on his wrist.

Suddenly, a very bright flash of light shone through the cracks on the side of the passage. The next second, the smoke bombs detonated in the outer ring burst out white mist, and the flash bombs exploded on the stairs and windows on both sides.

There was chaos outside the yard in an instant. The explosions were mixed with coughing and falling, and the military lost their direction for a short time.

The entire perimeter of the base was instantly engulfed in thick fog, and even the laser dots outside the window could no longer be seen.

"Now!" Xiao Ran raised his hand and led his men to retreat to the right passage.

He reversed a chair to use as cover and motioned for the survivors to follow.

People from the rear of the army rushed in one after another. As soon as they showed their heads, they were forced down by the crossfire of Xiao Ran and the survivors.

Xiao Ran threw a grenade towards the corridor, and the sound of the explosion and the smoke behind him completely cut the special forces team's vision into pieces.

"Go! Go to the second door on the left around the corner. Don't fight them!"

Xiao Ran roared in a low voice. The well-trained survivors moved to both sides to avoid the falling bullets.

The military obviously did not expect that there would be so many defensive measures reserved in the base, and the rhythm of the attack was temporarily slowed down.

The third survivor raised his gun and fired at the end of the corridor. When the magazine was empty, he immediately retreated to the back to reload.

Xiao Ran called another person to fill in the position and kicked a movable iron plate off the ground, "Let's retreat. No one will be left behind."

At the same time, Lu Zhao, carrying the hastily packed equipment, leaned against the wall of the underground passage.

He took out the backup communication terminal and put a monitor in his ear. A string of encrypted information from the external network passed through the decoding software and a green bar flashed.

"Reaper team, please be aware that the target Apple of Eden may have escaped to the underground passage. All personnel should pay attention to targets with abnormal body temperatures and must not harm living beings."

"Apple of Eden..." Lu Zhao's hands trembled and his heart skipped a beat.

He paused, copied the instructions into the memory, and intercepted another conversation.

"Target No. X03, living body first - all data and serum can be processed later."

Lu Zhao quickly followed Su Wanqing and the others, his heart beginning to beat fast.

The serum was clearly the focus of all parties, but they were not in a hurry to search for the medicine. Instead, they restricted the main passage layer by layer. The focus was on the girl with the child's voice, not the medicine or equipment.

"They want to be alive." Lu Zhao whispered to Su Wanqing. "The target is not the serum, but Tong Yin herself."

Su Wanqing frowned and said nothing. She just quickened her pace and went deeper underground.

The sound of gunfire outside was getting farther and farther away. There was a clanging sound of metal coming from behind the steel door, but it was blocked by a series of bunkers.

Xiao Ran led the last team to throw away the empty magazines, watched the movements of the military special forces, and led them to the corner of the small building.

There were occasional faint lights flickering in the smoke. The military began to restore order, and the aftermath of the flash bomb lasted only a dozen seconds.

"They also brought thermal imaging." The survivor who followed them panted, "The smoke won't cover them for long."

Xiao Ran turned his head to look at the thermal probe on the ground and whispered, "Then let them chase the virtual ones. The real one must leave."

The team retreated while firing. The two survivors painted the corners with marker bullets and turned to hide in the side alley.

There were too many ventilation channels and obstacles in the old floors of the base, and Xiao Ran had already drawn a retreat route.

The special forces soldier followed up the stairs, but suddenly stepped on the homemade ammunition that had been preset long ago. After the explosion, the passage was forced to stop again.

Lu Zhao restored the signal within the golden thirty seconds behind the fire door and continued monitoring.

Military report: "Heat source locked, area 7, target temperature curve uploaded, automatic tracking mode activated."

The system sent another message: "Order reiterated - the 'Apple of Eden' must be captured first, the serum second."

Behind Su Wanqing, Lin Che was half leaning against the wall, his face pale. He was panting and trembling, holding the girl with a childish voice on his knees.

The little girl's collar was soaked with sweat and her face turned red and white.

Su Wanqing took out the USB drive left by Han Xue, found a hidden corner, and opened the spare notebook.

The system popped up a window asking for a long special password. She thought for a moment and tried the first few encryptions she knew, but was blocked all the time.

Lu Zhao squatted down, "The password doesn't look like a simple character. Everything Han Xue left behind had to be specially verified."

Su Wanqing stared at the screen and suddenly glanced at the little girl: "Can you read a sentence? Read it as I say." She pressed an audio command, pulled the girl with the childish voice to her side, and whispered: "Try to read it again."

The little girl's lips moved, her voice was hoarse, and she uttered a few words vaguely. The green light of the USB flash drive indicator flashed and then went out.

The system pop-up window then switches to the voiceprint collection interface, prompting "Second-level authorization is missing and the target voiceprint needs to be supplemented."

"Han Xue has already prepared a backup plan." Lu Zhao held the computer and lowered his voice.

Su Wanqing's face tensed and she put the USB drive back into her pocket. She turned back and stared at the girl with the childish voice. She had no choice but to put it aside and think of another solution.

Lin Che leaned forward and pulled Tong Yin closer, his breathing a little unstable. He raised his hand and placed it on the girl's forehead. A small ball of blue light seeped into her temple. The little girl suddenly trembled twice and her breathing quickened.

Lin Che gritted his teeth, his vest was soaked, and his left arm twitched slightly, but he refused to let go.

The girl with a childish voice retracted her fingers and her face gradually turned from pale to moist.

Lin Che said in a low voice: "It's okay, just take a while."

Lu Zhao held the computer, turned sideways to look at the hiding place, and asked in a low voice: "Can you still maintain it?"

Lin Che didn't say anything, but just blinked twice. His blue and green eyes had dimmed, as if he was forcing himself to stay awake.

Su Wanqing looked at the shaking of the surrounding walls and estimated the delay caused by the explosion.

She lifted her backpack up again and said to Lu Zhao, "They must be carrying thermal imaging equipment. It won't take long to find them out."

Lu Zhao pointed at the terminal map and said, "The team needs to disperse and cannot all go along the same line."

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He handed the small controller to Su Wanqing, "Turn right at the next alley and meet up in front of the old elevator shaft."

Xiao Ran led his men across an abandoned corridor. At this time, the special forces used infrared positioning in the secondary passage and fired a bullet.

The survivor lowered his body and fought back, but Xiao Ran used an iron rod to knock over the obstacles in the corridor and retreated.

Lu Zhao's voice came intermittently from the communicator: "'Reaper' has taken over the supreme command. All satellites and thermal images are aimed at capturing X03 bodies with abnormal body temperatures. To put it bluntly, it is the child's voice in your hands."

Xiao Ran was cold for a moment, and gestured to the people behind him: "Pay attention to cover, don't look at the heat source probe, there is a spare cover in the gas source pipeline, use it if you can change the temperature."

The survivor team shut up and adjusted their breathing, using the remaining bottom-level pipes to create a safe distance of more than ten meters.

Later, the soldiers who chased in found that the temperature difference between the front and the back had disappeared, and they could not figure out the direction for the time being.

The complex underground pipeline network gave a few people a chance to breathe.

Su Wanqing led Lin Che and Tong Yin to climb down to the lower level. When they turned into the elevator shaft, they met Lu Zhao again.

He held the bag in both hands and had no time to wipe the sweat off.

"The route is cleared. The explosion point No. 3 outside will solidify in ten minutes. If we delay it for a while, we will probably be able to distract their attention."

Lu Zhao wiped a stain off his face.

When Xiao Ran reached the last corner, he ordered another person to stay behind to guard the door.

The military reported in the radio transmission: "The outer target has been lost, and there is an afterimage of the base's heat source. We are re-matching."

He threw out one last flash grenade himself and hurled it hard into the nearest corner, continuing to delay the military team.

The team split into two groups and retreated to their respective pre-set safe spots. Xiao Ran muttered softly on the way: "In terms of equipment, they are much better than all of us. As long as the equipment used to locate Tong Yin is still effective, we can hold out for a few minutes at most."

Su Wanqing reiterated the plan in the corridor: "Lin Che, how long can you hold on? Tong Yin's condition is not stable yet, you have to hold on for a while."

Lin Che lowered his head and grabbed Tong Yin's shoulders. Energy flowed from his palm into the girl's body. Tong Yin was hot and her body was obviously shaking.

Lin Che used her body to block the cold wind for her, and said in a low voice: "We can push for a while longer."

Su Wanqing bit her lip and looked at the broken security door beside her.

"Lu Zhao, is there any spare rescue kit near the exit?"

Lu Zhao nodded, threw out the last roll of first aid bandage in his arms, and stuffed two water bottles in.

Tong Yin opened her eyes and looked at Lin Che for a while. She spoke in a soft voice without saying a word.

The team retreated step by step into the deep tunnel. The smell of medicine in the air was almost gone, but a sense of anxious oppression swept down from above.

Occasionally, military commanders could be heard on the radio inquiring about the location of the heat source, and the Reapers' orders were repeated over and over again: X03 must be captured, no damage allowed, and no mistakes allowed.

Lu Zhao reorganized the information in his hand. Since the target was not the serum, the characteristics of Tong Yin's body temperature became the only clue they had.

He whispered to Xiao Ran: "They use thermal curves instead of facial recognition for Tongyin. The equipment is too new and we have never used it before."

Xiao Ran responded, took out the infrared countermeasure device he carried with him and threw it into the corner, temporarily disrupting the equipment.

"These guys have done their homework a long time ago. It's obvious that they didn't come here in a hurry."

Ten minutes later, the dispersed evacuation team successfully hid in the outer circle of the base.

Su Wanqing, Lin Che, Tong Yin and Lu Zhao met up at the exit. The chaotic breathing around them was mixed with the footsteps of the special forces. A large searchlight swept across the ruins, but it was no longer possible to tell which ones were the real ones.

The girl with the childish voice slowed down her breathing and clenched the bottle cap of the medicine handed to her by Lin Che in her small hand.

Lin Che’s forehead was sweaty, and his voice was hoarse: “Get rid of the fever quickly, don’t let anything happen again.”

Su Wanqing pointed ahead, "It's still two hundred meters to the safe spot, hurry up."

The chaos created by the smoke and flash bombs gradually dissipated, and the shouts of the pursuers behind could be heard in the distance.

There was the last gate ahead, and the team quickened their pace and rushed into the door of the safe house outside the base.