Chapter 42 A Short Break

The living room became quiet.

Everyone fell silent at the same time.

Outside the window, sunlight bathed the entire city.

Xie Tu opened the window, and the hustle and bustle of the city filled everyone's ears, creating a stark contrast with the atmosphere inside the room.

A moment later.

"Then what do we do?" Tao Haohao couldn't stand it any longer and broke the silence first.

Xie Tu stood by the window, his gaze passing over the city's hustle and bustle and looking towards the distant horizon.

The city under the sunlight is bright, yet it has an illusory quality, like a painting that is too perfect, making it feel unreal.

"The problems we face now are: first, our teammates are scattered; second, the whereabouts of the other members of Jiang Mu's team are still unknown; third, we need to find the real Contaminated Zone 88; and finally, where did Zhou Tianqi's spiritual body go?"

Xie Tu's cold profile tightened. "Don't forget, our purpose in coming in is rescue. First, find people, find Song Liang and Jiang Mu's team."

In this situation.

Xie Tu remained calm and decisive. "In the next operation, keep your eyes wide open and carefully examine every barrier you've breached."

"Yes!" everyone responded in unison.

The rabbit had calmed down. She got up and went into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out a few bags of frozen dumplings, and then turned on the stove to boil water.

A dozen minutes later.

The rabbit came out of the kitchen and brought out steaming dumplings.

"Come and eat, everyone."

Duan Xi stole a glance at her, and seeing that she had returned to normal, he finally felt relieved.

Since entering, I have been in a state of constant tension.

At this moment, everyone relaxed and felt very tired. They didn't have time to savor the taste of the dumplings and just wanted to finish eating quickly and rest for a while.

A group of men stood around the dining table, wolfing down their food.

Xie Tu glanced around, his gaze finally settling on Yun Zhao.

She was the only one sitting upright at the table, eating very politely, slowly picking up dumplings and taking small bites.

I'm clearly not hungry.

Indeed, you can tell from the pile of snacks in her bag that she's eaten quite a bit since she came in.

Xie Tu lowered his gaze and finished off the dumplings on his plate in a few bites. "The rest time has been adjusted to four hours. After eating, rest well and replenish your energy."

According to the outside time, it should already be past midnight.

The team members were not physically exhausted, but mentally drained.

Moreover, the guide's physical strength is too poor, so we need to ensure she gets enough rest.

"receive!"

Duan Xi visibly relaxed, buried his head in his mouth and stuffed his portion of dumplings, then quickly made the most of the time to find a place to sleep.

Tao Haohao brought a small plate of dumplings into the living room.

Zhou Tianqi lay face up on the living room carpet, bound hand and foot.

Tao Haohao sighed, picked up the dumplings, and used a fork to stuff them into his mouth one by one. "Brother, it's only been a short time since we last met, how did you become like this?"

"If you go out looking like this, will Dawn Base still pay your bonus?"

Zhou Tianqi swallowed the dumpling with his mouth open, and before the next dumpling arrived, he took a moment to reply, "Yes."

He can still communicate, but he can't express emotions.

After feeding him, Tao Haohao lay down on the sofa next to Duan Xi, closed his eyes, and began to sleep.

Yun Zhao and the rabbit entered the inner room together.

The ten-square-meter room was decorated very warmly.

Rabbit's ever-present sniper rifle and her military backpack were both displayed on the bay window of the room.

The rabbit stared at the sniper rifle, somewhat dazed. "Sister Yun Zhao, what exactly is Shengshi like..."

Will my brother's sacrifice bring peace?

"A golden age?"

Yun Zhao said, "It will come as long as the polluted area is eliminated."

Everything here is an illusion. It may have actually existed, but it doesn't belong to their era.

The old era is now a distant history.

The Dark Ages are over.

The wasteland era has arrived.

Outside, the soil is all weathered into sand, and the world has long been riddled with holes.

People dared not leave the shelter.

Because the area outside the base is filled with countless contaminated zones and mutant species.

That was their era.

Yun Zhao used to think about this question often, but now she has figured it out.

Let's take the old era as our goal for moving forward.

The guides were no match for the sentries in terms of physical strength and endurance.

The rabbit nodded, probably not wanting to disturb her rest, and then didn't say anything more.

Yun Zhao lay on her side on the bed. She wasn't used to sharing a bed with someone and thought she wouldn't be able to sleep, but as soon as she closed her eyes, she felt sleepy.

I'm so tired.

*

The communicator had long since gone black; it was supposed to last four hours, but in reality, communication was only possible through Xie Tu.

Yun Zhao felt as if he had just fallen asleep when he was woken up.

She sat up sleepily, her neatly tied hair now a mess, her expression somewhat blank, clearly looking like she hadn't woken up properly.

It was still daytime outside, and the weather seemed to have frozen in time.

The rabbit had already packed up, shouldered his backpack, and picked up his sniper rifle.

She didn't urge them, but stood aside patiently waiting.

Yun Zhao's gaze slowly focused, and she reached behind her to untie her hair tie, letting her cascading hair fall over her shoulders.

Her gaze swept over the rabbit's short, wispy hair, which looked like it had been chewed by a dog.

I guess the rabbit cut it itself just now.

The sentries are at the forefront and often need to leave the base, so their long hair is difficult to manage.

Yun Zhao wondered if she should also cut her hair shorter.

The idea was met with strong opposition from the little bluebird as soon as it came to mind.

The little guy couldn't stand having a head that looked like it had been chewed by a dog.

Yun Zhao sighed, dismissed the idea, quickly tied her hair up, and went out with the rabbit.

In the living room.

Everyone had finished getting ready. Tao Haohao was carrying his grenade launcher in one hand and holding the bound Zhou Tianqi in the other.

Xie Tu glanced at his team members, habitually doing a final check.

After confirming that everything was alright, let's go!

I went downstairs and onto the street.

They stole another car and headed to the edge of the city.

Duan Xi was still driving.

Xie Tu said, "There are three directions, let's just choose one at random first."

Duan Xi started the car, and his voice came through: "Okay."

Yun Zhao sat in the first row of the back seat by the window. She took out the map she had drawn at the temporary base and began to record all the barriers they had crossed.

She marked the cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) at the bottom of the map and drew arrows to indicate the direction in which they broke through the barrier.

Mark each person's barrier with an asterisk.

Then we perform permutations and combinations to see if there are any patterns.

Sitting next to her was Xie Tu, who inadvertently glanced at the doodles on the paper.

I simply couldn't understand what she was doing.

Xie Tu asked, "Is this a painting of a little bluebird?"

The little guy resting on her head immediately bristled.

Yun Zhao stopped writing, looked up at him expressionlessly, and said, "It's a map, a city map of contaminated zone number 88."

Xie Tu visibly swayed for a moment. He turned his head away and casually changed the subject, "Distinguishing the real No. 88 contaminated zone is actually not difficult. Just change the barrier and try to see if there are any obsessions there, and you'll know."

The difficulty lies in breaking through these illusions and finding the real pollution zone No. 88.

Yun Zhao knew all of this even without him saying it.

Yun Zhao lowered her gaze, unwilling to pay him any more attention, and continued with her previous train of thought while pursing her lips.