Chapter 252: City Reconnaissance after the Storm
The ventilation system of the fortress made a slight hum. Su Wanqing stared at the city scan on the system interface, and the purple storm cloud mark was fading at the edge.
She reached out and knocked on the console, and the metal tabletop made a fine echo - this was her way of judging time, and in her previous life she always heard this sound at six in the morning.
"Six o'clock." Lu Zhao pushed his glasses and the time on the screen jumped to 06:00:00.
Su Wanqing looked up and the emergency lights of the fortress dimmed automatically. The purple-red skylight could be vaguely seen through the vents.
She pulled up the scan map and pointed at several green routes. "There is a safe passage in the northeast and southwest areas, with pollution indexes below 30%."
Lin Che put the mutation detector that Lu Zhao handed over on her waist, and the metal buckle clicked.
He held a medical bag in his other hand, and the canvas strap left shallow marks on his palm.
Xiao Ran had already checked the lens of the military telescope. The rubber shell still had body temperature. He pinned the communicator to his collar with the antenna hanging at his collarbone.
"Xiao Ran, head southwest, focus on the military's movements." Su Wanqing folded the map into four and stuffed it into the pocket of Xiao Ran's tactical uniform. "You must be back in two hours."
Xiao Ran nodded, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of his pocket. Lu Zhao suddenly reached out and pressed his shoulder: "Avoid the red area, don't touch any purple liquid."
His tone was heavier than usual, and his eyes behind the lenses scanned the shoe covers and gloves of the two people. "The mutant bacteria may penetrate through the skin."
Xiaoling stood at the entrance of the passage at some point, with beads of sweat from meditation still on the ends of her hair.
She stared at Lin Che's back and said in a voice as soft as a sigh: "There are eyes in the purple mist, don't let them see."
Lin Che turned around, and the red mole on Xiao Ling's face glowed light gold in the morning light. He opened his mouth, but finally said "I know", and turned around to follow Xiao Ran.
The streets of the Northeast District were quieter than expected. Lin Che walked forward on the broken glass. Two cars were stuck diagonally in the middle of the road. The driver's seat was empty, and there was an unfinished sweater on the steering wheel - as if the owner had just started knitting halfway when he was called away by something.
The oak trees in the park broke through the iron fence, and purple slime oozed from the cracks in the bark.
Lin Che squatted down, and the red light of the detector began to flash ten centimeters above the ground.
He took out the sampling tube and was about to touch the purple moss on the ground when a stray cat jumped out from the bushes and pressed its front paws on the moss.
The cat's cry got stuck in its throat. Lin Che watched helplessly as its fur quickly fell off and its muscles atrophied at a speed visible to the naked eye. Three seconds later, only a dried corpse remained, and even its bones were grayish white.
He held his breath, picked up a small piece of moss with tweezers and put it into the sampling tube.
There was a sound of metal collision coming from the direction of the supermarket. He moved over along the wall and saw three white shadows reflected in the glass window - there were no markings on the protective suits and the masks were covered with a layer of mist.
"The sample has a 42% contamination rate, which is above the predicted value." One of them stuffed the medicine box into his backpack, as if he was sorting laboratory specimens. "Target area B has been located, but there is still no news about anchor point number five."
Another person opened the canned goods shelf, and the metal cans fell to the ground with a clang. "The energy fluctuations of the anchor point are periodic, which may be related to the time field."
Lin Che's detector suddenly vibrated, and just as he was about to step back, the third person turned around abruptly.
The eyes behind the mask narrowed, and the other party raised a silver disk, and a blue light swept across his chest: "Abnormal energy reaction, it may be anchor point number two!"
Lin Che ran away. He heard hurried footsteps behind him. He pushed open the back door of the supermarket, and the mutant vines suddenly wrapped around his ankles.
He gritted his teeth and activated his ability. The blue lines on his arms began to heat up and the vines withered instantly.
When he turned into the alley, the white shadow had disappeared.
At the same time, Xiao Ran showed his ID at the checkpoint in the southwest area.
The soldier had his helmet pulled low, and when he took the ID, he saw purple spots on his cuffs - the same symptoms as the patients in the hospital surveillance.
"Let you go." The soldier slapped the ID back into his hand. His movements were a beat slower than usual, as if he was being dragged by something.
A triple cordon was set up around the water conservancy project. Xiao Ran lay on the slope, and the scene in the telescope made his pupils contract.
Several people in white coats were installing a silver device on a concrete pier. The pattern on the base was exactly the same as the time field stabilizer that Lu Zhao had drawn.
"The third group continues to take samples, and remember to keep your distance." An old man's voice came from the loudspeaker, and Xiao Ran's fingers paused - this voice was similar to the recording of his father in Lu Zhao's video, even the ending of the cough was the same.
The water surface suddenly exploded with waves. When Xiao Ran saw the black shadow, it had already jumped out of the water.
The five-meter-long fish body is covered with purple scales, and the fluorescence of its dorsal fin is so bright that it is impossible to open your eyes.
The soldier's rifle began to fire, and the bullets hit the scales, sending sparks. The fish swung its tail and smashed an armored vehicle, then opened its mouth and spewed out purple mist.
The soldier who was sprayed first covered his throat and his skin festered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Xiao Ran crouched down and groped towards the scientist's tent. The computer was on, and the global map on the screen was filled with red dots.
He quickly pressed the camera button and caught a glimpse of a fingernail-sized piece of metal on the ground with regular hexagonal edges - exactly the same shape as the remains of the Weaver in the previous life.
By the time he had stuffed the metal sheet into the interlayer of his tactical boots, the mutant fish had already knocked down half of the wall.
As he evacuated along the truck, he heard the officer shout into the walkie-talkie: "Activate level two alert, all non-essential personnel," but the rest of the words were drowned out by the explosion.
As the metal door of the fort closed behind them, the clock on the wall read 08:02.
Lu Zhao took the sample tube from Lin Che. As soon as the value of the detector popped up, his fingers trembled: "Time accelerates the bacterial flora, and the aging rate of the contact objects increases by a hundred times."
He looked up. "The spread rate is two meters per hour. It will cover the entire Northeast region in three days."
Xiao Ran placed the metal piece from his tactical boots on the table. The blue light of the system scanned over, and a message popped up on the interface saying "Weaver aircraft wreckage".
Xiaoling and Xiaoyu came over. Xiaoyu reached out and touched the metal piece, her eyes glowing silver. "It's older than the Earth, and it came from outside the stars."
Xiao Ling's red mole lit up: "It has existed in many worlds."
Lu Zhao quickly wrote down on the tablet: "Time vision, their abilities complement each other."
He pushed up his glasses and said, “The man in white that Lin Che mentioned might be the Watcher.
In the previous life, they were active in the early stage, and later..." He didn't finish his words and lowered his head to continue typing on the keyboard.
Su Wanqing's system suddenly issued a piercing alarm, and red fonts jumped on her retina: [Time Observer's positioning success rate increased to 78%, it is recommended to relocate the base within 48 hours]
Lin Che touched the blue lines on his arm, which were darker than before he left the house.
Xiao Ran pulled out the photos taken by the military, and the red dots on the global map looked like a handful of blood beads.
Lu Zhao's fingers stopped on the keyboard. When he looked up, his glasses reflected the light: "The situation is worse than expected."
Su Wanqing stared at the rebate points in the system, and the 15-fold multiplier was flashing.
She reached out and pressed her hand on the table, causing the metal surface to reverberate again. "We will start expanding the fortress tonight, starting with the biological purification device."
Xiaoling suddenly grabbed Xiaoyu's hand, and the two girls' foreheads lit up at the same time.
In the holographic projection, the purple moss in the northeast area is spreading rapidly, and the mutant fish in the southwest area are swimming towards the city pipes with their tails swinging.
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