Chapter 117 No, It's Them (3K5)

Yuri looked through the telescope at the camp in the distance that was gradually being swallowed by the white fog, with a complicated expression.

Soon, the adjutant came up and said in a low voice: "Captain, the statistics are complete."

Yuri put down the telescope and looked at the adjutant, but did not speak immediately. Instead, he paused for a moment, then sighed and said, "Just tell me how many people were lost."

"Nine." The adjutant's tone was very bad. Even through the thick mask, Yuri could guess his expression at the moment. "All of them were destroyed by the emergency device in an instant..."

The adjutant could not continue.

Yuri reached out his hand, patted his shoulder, and then said self-reproachfully: "My problem."

"No, there is nothing wrong with you." The adjutant shook his head and said, "You are the only one among us who escaped from the pollution. If it weren't for you, all of us would have died there, not even one alive. Even if you were a little slower, we would have lost more people. Compared to the annihilation of the entire army, the current loss is enough to be accepted. You saved us all."

Yuri didn't say anything, just smiled bitterly and shook his head.

The adjutant asked again: "But how did you wake up from the pollution?"

Facing the adjutant's question, Yuri was silent for a long time, and finally spoke slowly: "It was the Knight of the Evening Star who told me."

The adjutant was stunned: "What did you say?"

Yuri told his adjutant all about his conversation with the Knight of Evening Star.

After listening to this, the adjutant did not speak for a long time, but his rising and falling chest and the sound of his breathing escaping from the mask showed his current mood.

"This... is really surprising." The adjutant was a little incoherent, "But we didn't hear anything, we didn't see anything, it was just a rotting corpse in our eyes."

Yuri said softly: "I also encountered it when I was contaminated."

"You mean, you encountered the Knight of Vesperia ten years ago while you were contaminated, and it was his warning that allowed you to get rid of the contamination and return to reality?" The adjutant shook his head violently. "Excuse me, Captain, this statement is really hard for me to believe. And you also said that he mentioned that 'the source is pollution'. What does this mean?"

"I don't know." Yuri shook his head and looked into the distance again. "Not only you, but I also doubt whether everything I experienced is true. But according to what you said, you didn't have any memory when you were contaminated. It was just a blink of an eye, and you heard me screaming."

"...That's true." The adjutant said, "The situation you are facing is indeed somewhat special."

Having said that, the adjutant paused, as if hesitating about something. After hesitating for a moment, he still spoke to Yuri.

"Captain, you'd better not make what you saw public yet. If others ask you, you can say that you just broke free from the pollution and you don't know the specific reason."

"Why?"

"Because the atmosphere in the team is very bad now." The adjutant said, "The team members all believe that it was the corpse that brought them misfortune and pollution. They think you saved them. If you stand up now and say that it was not you who saved them, but the corpse... it may cause morale to collapse."

Yuri turned his head and looked behind him.

The devil knights sat there in groups of three or four, not talking to each other, but one could still feel the despair and depression that permeated around them.

After all, they saw with their own eyes their comrades being killed by the emergency device on their necks, and they were only one step away from death.

"Although this is not the first time the emergency device has been activated," the adjutant said softly, "most of the time only one or two team members were contaminated, and then they died outside after the emergency device was activated, and then we found their bodies. But today, when it was activated in front of everyone, it was only..."

Before he could finish his words, one of the knights stood up suddenly, and then frantically and desperately took off his mask.

"Carlos! What are you doing?!"

"With this level of pollution, you'll die if you take off your mask!"

Two knights rushed up and held him down.

Carlos yelled through the mask: "Fuck it, I don't want to die at the hands of this thing!"

"Damn it, hold him down!"

After a lot of struggle, the knight named Carlos was finally pinned down.

Silence returned to the temporary camp once again.

But everyone could hear the "click" sound of the emergency device.

"Just like what you saw." The adjutant said in a low voice, "Before the reserve team comes up to test the pollution for us, we cannot take off the mask or retreat to the rear... So, Captain, we cannot bring more uncontrollable factors to the team."

Yuri looked at his comrades in front of him silently. He knew that the adjutant was right.

These people have already been polluted.

Before confirming the extent of the situation, they had no way to retreat to the rear to avoid contaminating other people, nor could they take off their masks. They could only wait here for support from the reserve team. Their minds were filled with the previous scenes, and the countdown of the emergency device echoed in their ears...

Indeed, his team couldn't stand any more stimulation.

"I understand." Yuri nodded, "But I will make a formal report and send it to the rear for the bishops to decide."

"Of course, that's what you should do." After the adjutant finished speaking, seeing that Yuri didn't respond and once again looked at the camp in the distance, he couldn't help but ask, "Are you still thinking about the sentence 'the source is pollution'? Excuse me, that is most likely just your imagination after being polluted. Don't take it too seriously."

“So I’m also thinking about another thing.”

"What?"

"What would have happened if I had been a step late and I was the only one who survived and returned to the rear?"

The adjutant didn't react immediately: "What will happen?"

Yuri turned his head and glanced at his adjutant, and whispered, "In that case, do you think I will be the next Jellal? Will anyone think that I killed my subordinates?"

The adjutant was stunned. He subconsciously wanted to refute, but didn't know what to say.

Yuri reached out again and patted the adjutant's shoulder.

"After the inspection, send someone to find Ina immediately." Yuri said, "Tell her everything that happened today, and then..."

Yuri seemed to be hesitant, but soon became determined.

"Let her go find Eve Star."

…

Gerard sneaked into the processing plant easily.

Since there were only a few symbolic security personnel in the factory, it was very easy for Gerard to avoid their sight.

After entering the factory, Gerard hid in a corner, frowning as he looked at the roads ahead. Then he slowly said, "Do you want to find the original inspection report? But I don't know where it is."

"What do you want to see the inspection report for?" Bai Wei said lazily, "Who wants to see that?"

"Where to go then?"

"Simple." Bai Wei said with a smile, "Just go to where there are more source oil samples... Well, I think the big room opposite is good."

Big room?

Gerard raised his head and looked at the big room that Bai Wei mentioned, and then his expression changed again.

Because it is a processing workshop.

There is indeed a large amount of source oil inside, but there are also hundreds of workers working inside.

"In there?"

"Why?" Bai Wei asked, "You dare to enter the polluted areas, but you don't dare to enter here?"

Gerard ignored Bai Wei's teasing, but he didn't reject Bai Wei either, because he knew that Bai Wei would not let him do anything meaningless.

So, after looking around, he found a uniform hanging on the wall and put it on.

Then he entered the workshop.

The workshop was very noisy, with all kinds of Lyra-style machines roaring. Hundreds of workers were working on their respective production lines, either processing or refining. They all seemed very busy. No one even looked up, and naturally no one noticed Gerard who suddenly walked in.

It’s as if they are also parts in this workshop.

"What should I do now?" Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Gerard asked Bai Wei in his heart again.

Bai Wei replied: "Just find a barrel of source oil."

Although he didn't know what Bai Wei wanted to do, Gerard did it anyway.

There are iron barrels filled with source oil piled up everywhere, as well as various source oils that have already been refined, so there is no need to worry about finding them.

But to be on the safe side, Gerard walked to the corner and found an unopened barrel of source oil that had obviously just been transported from the contaminated area.

"Open it." Bai Wei said briefly.

Gerard didn't say much and simply opened the lid of the source oil.

Soon, a bucket of thick and sticky dark yellow liquid appeared in front of the two, accompanied by an unbearable stench.

But that was only for others. Gerard had long been accustomed to the smell, but Bai Wei... he couldn't smell it.

But this did not stop Bai Wei from saying, "You actually call this stuff source oil... Isn't this just corpse oil?"

"The source oil itself is made up of the corpses of pollutants." Gerald said, "Is there something wrong?"

"There's really nothing wrong with putting it here." Bai Wei said calmly, "So in your opinion, this is pollution-free? Are the pollutants that have been squeezed into juice really dead?"

Gerard lowered his head and carefully observed the barrel of source oil.

Dark yellow, sticky, foul smelling.

But other than that, he couldn't feel anything more. If it really was the pollutant standing in front of him, there was no way he couldn't feel it.

So he shook his head: "I don't feel anything."

"Is that so..." Bai Wei suddenly sighed heavily, "Then this is the only way...Put my finger in."

Gerald was stunned: "What?"

"I said, put my finger in." Bai Wei's words were full of disgust, "Don't make me repeat it again, or I will regret it."

Although he didn't know what Bai Wei was going to do, he still raised his left hand and extended his middle finger.

"Just touch it casually." Bai Wei said, "Don't put the whole thing in."

Gerard did as Bai Wei said and quickly stirred the source oil with his fingers. Even though he pulled his fingers back quickly, he still felt Bai Wei making him sick in his mind.

"It's such a hellish experience." Bai Wei said unhappily.

Gerard wiped the source oil off his fingers while staring at the iron barrel: "There will be changes next..."

He froze halfway through his sentence.

I saw that the originally calm source oil began to roll slightly at this moment.

Then, under Jellal's gaze, a... strange face slowly emerged.

"...It's looking at me." Gerald said softly.

"No." Bai Wei said calmly, "It's them."

Bai Wei raised his middle finger and signaled Gerard to look up.

Then Gerard raised his head.

Then he saw hundreds of workers in the factory stop their work.

Looking straight at Gerald.

That expression was exactly the same as the one on Yuanyou.

(End of this chapter)