43 Foresight

◎For the first time, I actually reacted faster than Officer Kong!◎

"Turn on the light." The helmet was tapped, and Kong Wei reminded her through Shasha's communicator.

Yan Xunzhi was not very familiar with the operation of this new exoskeleton. When he was wondering which light to turn on, the lights in front of him were lit up one after another.

The high beam has a range of nearly thirty-five meters and a field of view of fifty meters. It has an extremely long range, but on the ground shrouded in darkness, it still seems small and useless, as if being swallowed up.

Click.

Yan Xunzhi tried and failed twice before finally turning on the high beam. The mental power that served as a rope connecting the two exoskeletons in front of him suddenly dimmed and was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.

Kong Wei took the lead and said, "Let's go, be careful."

The earth itself has a part of spiritual power that has been transformed. Now that the north can interfere with the spiritual power, the south will only evolve to be more powerful.

In addition to the radiation interference, the coordinates of the military zone are erratic. Maybe there are some, or maybe they are all sleight of hand. They can only split into several teams and use the signal flares as the basis.

Yan Xunzhi was just focused on moving forward with the main force. She was completely in the dark and had no idea which direction she was participating in.

Having just emerged from the ground and not been disturbed, his mental strength was nourished by his spiritual body last night, so it should be abundant.

But her sense of direction might as well be affected, maybe two negatives will turn out to be positives...

Reconnaissance was usually the job of sentries, but with five S-rank sentries assigned to the team, Yan Xunzhi had no business doing anything about it. By the time she realized there were underground robots around, she'd probably have fallen down a bunch.

Face the facts, follow Kong Wei, and act like a little tail holding a lantern to light her way.

When on the ground during calm periods, guides will generally release spirit bodies to assist in reconnaissance. Even during windy and sandy periods, some who are accustomed to it and can withstand it will still come out.

There is no wind or sand in the south, but the ground is empty and no one releases the spiritual body.

Yan Xunzhi switched the communication to a private chat with Kong Wei. Because the helmet was a completely new model and she had never used it before, she double-checked several times that it was set correctly. "Officer Kong... doesn't the guide release his spirit?"

Kong Wei turned his head and glanced at her.

Nanfang helmets didn't need to block sunlight; they only had a light brown data film. When she turned, the light from Yan Xun's exoskeleton shone on her helmet, making the film appear extremely transparent.

She vaguely saw the frost rapidly rising from Kong Wei's eyes.

What did you ask wrong?

"The radiation is too strong, and my spiritual experience is being disturbed." Kong Wei said in a normal voice, "If I'm exposed for too long, there's a risk of mutation. I won't come out unless there's nothing wrong."

It seemed that what she saw was just an illusion. Yan Xunzhi reviewed the situation and realized that she had indeed not asked any questions.

It was attributed to the dim lighting, so he nodded and said "oh" to show his understanding.

After walking for a while, my cheeks were already cold and stiff.

The exoskeleton, generating heat from its operation, had already formed a layer of crushed ice. The water vapor was thin, so the ice only formed a thin layer on the surface. It shattered during movement, its edges softening, and then instantly refreezed in a new form.

There was a layer of breath on the helmet, and it was obviously showing signs of freezing.

Frozen ice is hard to melt. Yan Xunzhi was afraid that his head would become foggy and he would not be able to see anything clearly, so he quickly turned up the internal heating. Then he saw that the green battery level had dropped by a percentage.

She estimated the remaining power, felt for the spare battery in her pocket, and continued to push the inner heater up.

The Federation's commonly used ground sportswear hadn't been designed for the South District, where the weather was completely different from normal. Although Yan Xunzhi wasn't exactly broke, he had been poor his entire life. Now that he'd suddenly become a bit wealthy, why would he buy this useless South District sportswear on a normal day...

Not only her, many wealthy people have the same idea - you have to queue up for the South District, and you don’t need it on a regular basis, so why buy it!

Moreover, they were temporarily transferred from the north to the south area. Some of them were far away and gathered early, so they were already on their way. Not many people wore the south area activity uniforms to carry out the mission.

The north is extremely hot, the sun scorching. The outer surface of the ground activity suit reflects light, the material allows for rapid heat loss, and the ice layer inside continuously reduces the body's temperature. The suit's insulation keeps the body temperature within a normal range, gradually rising, allowing the senger to remain on the ground for extended periods without suffering heatstroke.

But these advantages are all disadvantages in the completely different South.

The material does not store heat, so the only way to keep warm is through the exoskeleton.

But I have to wear it... After all, it is an activity suit. If I have to go offline, it can still extend my survival time on the ground.

No wind and sand, but not no wind.

When the breeze blew, even though it was covered with a layer of ice, it still took away some heat.

The other S-level sentries in the same group had never been to the South District, but they had been on many difficult missions, and this time they encountered the Earth Self-Defense Force, which was a natural warning. No one planned to be as extravagant as Yan Xunzhi and turn up the heating to keep warm. Everyone was shivering with cold...

Except Kong Wei and Ning Yue.

Officer Kong kept her composure, and Yan Xunzhi couldn't quite tell from her whether she felt anything at all. She even suspected she would remain as calm as she was now, even if she was just one step away from being frozen into an ice sculpture.

But when I turned around and saw Officer Ning, who was obviously more relaxed than the others and was still having fun despite the wind...well, she must have opened it.

Although the officer from Ningda had a carefree image and a bad taste for teasing cats and dogs, which was not like a senior officer, Yan Xunzhi had carefully studied her mission data when he was bored during training and rated it very high.

I don't know if it's because of her defensive nature, but compared to Kong Wei, who was hospitalized every other day and then quickly discharged, her injury rate was among the lowest...

As soon as she turned on the inner warmth, Yan Xunzhi felt relieved.

——Officer Ning will never let anything happen to himself.

No trace of the ground robot was found. As the scope expanded, the people were scattered more and more. The high beams were almost swallowed up in the darkness, and it was difficult to illuminate everyone's traces.

The highest-ranking leading guide blew the assembly whistle. The whistle was so sharp that it ripped through the veil of darkness.

Yan Xunzhi heard the whistle and stopped, "What's wrong?"

"Tell us to go back and connect the exoskeleton." Kong Wei understood very well and tilted his head slightly to make a walking gesture. "We are too scattered. We are not familiar with the South District. It is easy to get lost."

The team gathered, and the six guides quickly tied the spiritual power to each person, and then linked them to each other, forming a tough net through the interweaving.

This way, if anyone gets lost, there are five or six safety pins.

Less than a moment after they dispersed again, there was a sudden bang behind them, followed by a sharp assembly whistle.

The stars in the night sky suddenly lit up and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

"Assemble signal." Kong Weilian spoke faster, "Someone has discovered the ground!"

As the signal flares exploded, the leaders of several teams blew their whistles simultaneously. The whistles were a chaotic mess, and they kept moving as they ran. Yan Xunzhi was not an S-class sentry after all, and his five senses were not as sensitive as others. At this time, there was a lot of noise coming from all directions, and it was a bit difficult to hear and determine the position.

It was already very important, but when I thought about Kong Wei standing next to me, the invisible pressure suddenly doubled.

The temperature of the internal heating was too high, and Yan Xunzhi felt his blood boiling. The thin layer of clothing inside the latex suit became transparent on his back in a few seconds.

Can't be impatient. She took a deep breath and suppressed her subconscious gaze that was looking for Kong Wei.

I can't go see her, what's the point of seeing her? If she has a soothing expression, she won't feel relaxed, and if she has a serious face, she will only become more anxious.

He kept determining the location of the whistles from various places, locating, connecting, and gathering them according to the helmet map. Yan Xunzhi's mind was filled with dense lines, and finally all led to the same destination, "Over there!"

She didn't even bother to think about how long it took her to determine the direction. She jumped up and ran after shouting, not daring to look behind her to see if Kong Wei was already impatient.

well!

With so much sand, the ostrich is the easiest to be!

The position was far away and kept changing. Yan Xunzhi initially ran ahead of Kong Wei, knowing that she would not get lost. Besides, he had a spiritual rope tied to his body, so he felt relieved and accelerated from the beginning, leaving her behind for a distance.

But afterwards she had to keep listening to the sounds and changing her direction. She had a poor sense of direction and it was difficult for her to do so, so she slowed down unconsciously.

Kong Wei quickly came to her side, ran side by side with her at the same level as her towards the assembly point.

There were eyes staring at him from the side, and Yan Xunzhi felt really uncomfortable. He couldn't help but glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, and saw that Kong Wei had twisted his helmet directly towards him. He was looking at him while running so directly and unconcealedly.

Her mind was a bit overloaded for a moment, "...Why are you looking at me?"

"You're running faster than the value." Kong Wei's words sounded concerned, but his tone was scrutinizing. "Do you feel anything unusual or uncomfortable?"

Yan Xunzhi shook her head. She ran alongside her for a while, then fell behind when a fluorescent dot suddenly lit up in the distance. She said on the comms, "Go back and call Sang Wanyin to remeasure the value."

“…”

Officer Kong really should change his career and become a researcher.

People have been gathering around one after another, but there is no sound of gunfire or hand-to-hand combat. Except for the occasional assembly whistle, everything is silent. Everyone is tense and ready for battle.

"...Have we been tricked?" Someone finally lost their patience. "They deliberately tricked us into coming here, but there's nothing there? Are they trying to make a feint to the east and attack in the west?"

Yan Xunzhi turned to look at Kong Wei. She reached out and grabbed her arm, gently shaking her head.

Nearby? Yan Xunzhi ignored the noise in the channel, hesitated for a moment, turned off the communicator, and listened carefully to his surroundings.

Communications can be turned off when on a mission, but this generally refers to turning off communication reception to avoid interference from other channels, so that delivery can still be made in an emergency.

But Yan Xunzhi knew that her hearing was worse than others, and she was the easiest one to bully because of the weaker ones. She could only block out all interference as much as possible to make up for her shortcomings.

She turned off the communicator completely, and the indicator light on her channel went out.

The mechanical auxiliary loudspeaker's physical structure couldn't be adjusted. At this moment, the surroundings froze. With the communicator removed, even the howling wind in the southern area seemed almost tangible.

Since the Earth has been active on the ground all year round, it knows the ground very well.

It may have a way to approach silently, or it may have a way to hide its mental power, so that even the most powerful guide would find it difficult to detect its mental fluctuations.

But it is a real object after all. It can be invisible, transparent, but it cannot disappear.

Like the wind suddenly hitting a wall.

When you are extremely nervous, your body reacts faster than your brain. The moment the wind was blocked, Yan Xunzhi had already made a move to retreat.

Her forearm was slightly pulled, and then she fell backwards along with her body. Yan Xunzhi was surprised that Kong Wei's reaction was half a beat slower than hers. This time, she actually guided her guide to dodge like an ordinary sentry.

At the same time, there was a bang in my ears!

Something crashed into the exoskeleton. The sound was so loud, it was enough to demonstrate the opponent's immense strength. However, Yan Xunzhi didn't feel any vibration. Just as he was about to exclaim at the high quality of the exoskeleton in the South District, he saw an arc of light pass by him.

Kong Wei was hit hard in the abdomen and flew backward, her exoskeleton deeply dented. The light beside her illuminated a giant sickle with a hooked blade, half a meter high.

【Author’s words】

Pickled Fish: Officer Kong, you have fallen!

Kong Wei: ...