Tomena Post was originally a small post, but it has been very busy in recent days.

Several teams of foreign sentinels sat in the only tavern in the sentry post, discussing the recent spread of the contaminated area.

"Sector 77 has spread again. How many people died this time?"

"Who knows? These days, human life is worthless, and no one keeps count of how many people have died."

"The spread of the golden tree is really getting more and more frequent. Every time it comes silently and quickly, it is simply impossible to defend against it. One of my brothers didn't have time to run out and died inside."

When Ni Ji and his group came in, many people in the tavern looked at them.

He looked over their attire with a wary gaze.

Some people saw the golden armbands on their shoulders, recognized their identities, and showed a look of disgust.

That is a special golden armband that only the Royal Guard, which is far away in the capital of the empire, has.

"Hey, let me see who's here?" A big man with a beard knocked on the table beside the bar. "Ni Ji, the strongest man in our northern outpost. What's going on now? Are you acting like a dog of the royal family?"

Several sentries sitting next to him joined in the laughter.

The sentries at the border posts and the sentries from Kyoto always dislike each other.

Here on the border, residents live in a bitter and cold place, leading a life on the edge of a knife.

However, every year, most of the food grown and materials collected at the risk of their lives must be handed over to the White Tower in the form of taxes.

All the hard-earned things are handed over in exchange for the compass elements issued by the White Tower and the "holy bones" of the guard posts that need to be replaced once a year.

The sentinels cannot do without the guide element, and the residents of the sentry post cannot do without the protection of the "holy bones".

Therefore, the border sentinels are both dependent on and resentful of the royal family living in the capital and the mysterious white tower.

It is inevitable that this resentment will be reflected on the sentinels from the White Tower.

The sentries traveling with Ni Ji were all filled with anger.

They are the elites of the Royal Guard and respected even in the capital. How could they have ever been treated like this?

Adjutant Lu Xuan, who came with them, stretched out his hand to stop everyone. He shook his head slightly, not wanting them to cause any trouble before the battle started.

"Brother Ni, don't bother with that blind man. Come and sit over here." One or two of the guests in the tavern raised their hands and greeted Ni Ji.

The strong men between the various sentry posts have more or less heard of each other, and most of them are casual acquaintances who have met each other once or twice.

The more senior the Sentinel is, the more restrained he is, and it is rare for him to develop a close relationship with someone who is not in the same team.

The one who drinks with you today? Your buddy will die tragically in the polluted area tomorrow? This happens too often.

So much so that everyone has built a thick barrier inside themselves.

Unless it is necessary, I will never let anyone leave too vivid a memory in my spiritual picture.

Ni Ji sat down next to a familiar sentry.

The sentry called the scythe, and the man with a beard who just uttered the evil words was called the blind man.

"Why are there so many people?" Ni Ji led his people over and handed a guide to Dazhang.

"Need I say more?" Dazhu took the "cigarette" from Ni Ji and lit it in his mouth, "Isn't it aimed at the golden tree?"

"The White Tower has issued a bounty to crack contaminated area 77. One million Imperial coins plus Kyoto household registration." The scythe held a cigarette and pointed at the people around him. "There are many poor people in this world, and even more who don't want to die. Look, they are all here."

"Brother Ni, you guys are the same, right?" He looked at the new golden armband on Ni Ji's arm. "The Queen's Special Operations Division, why are you here if it's not for the Golden Tree?"

Ni Ji glanced at him and tacitly agreed.

Dazhui moved closer to him and whispered, "Want to exchange data, brother?"

Lu Xuan, who was sitting next to Ni Ji, said, "No one has conquered Area 77 yet. Where did you get the information?"

Dazhen glanced at him and sneered.

"Don't play it with me. Isn't this what you guys in the capital are good at?" He pointed at his head with two fingers. "Normal people didn't come out, but crazy people did. As long as the brain inside is still there, you can read any picture. Don't say you don't know this."

Lu Xuan was not angry, and said with a smile, "That's right. Whatever information you have, we are willing to buy it."

Da Zhan rolled his eyes at him, ignored him, and quickly made some sign language gestures to Ni Ji behind his back.

"What do you think? Just exchange, don't sell." he said.

Ni Ji thought about it, nodded, and the two shook hands under the table.

We exchanged some information on our personal terminals.

Dazhu got what he wanted and was in a good mood. He and Niji went to the bar and ordered two glasses of wine.

"After you get in, it all depends on your own abilities. With so many people, I don't know how many of you will be able to come out alive."

He raised his glass and clinked it with Ni Ji's, and then talked about what he had seen and heard in the past few days. "There are so many people coming this time. There are all kinds of people. Brother Ni, I even saw a guide yesterday."

Dazhen has known Ni Ji for many years. Although they have not interacted much, he knows that this is a man who can always keep his composure.

But at this moment, he seemed to see a flash of panic in Ni Ji's eyes, and even the hand holding the wine glass shook.

After blinking, I looked carefully again, and saw that Ni Ji's hand was holding the glass of wine steadily, his expression was motionless, and he looked the same as usual.

Maybe it's an illusion, I drank a little too much this evening, Dazhong thought.

"Guide?" Ni Ji turned around and asked him.

"Yes, it's very rare." Dazhong said, "When I saw it yesterday, I almost thought I was seeing things. Nowadays, even tour guides go to contaminated areas, and they go in alone."

Ni Ji's hands were steady. He lifted the wine glass, swallowed the wine silently, and lowered his eyes. "What kind of guide is this?"

"About this tall, with black hair." Dazhong gestured. "She's dressed similarly to us, and she's wearing professional gear, but you can tell she's not a sentry, with skinny arms and legs. If it weren't for the silver badge of the Guidance Academy on her arm, I wouldn't have recognized her."

"Already? In? Yesterday?" Ni Ji asked again.

Dazhen was a little surprised that Ni Ji was so concerned about a guide.

But think about it, this is a guide who ran into a contaminated area, especially in a dangerous place like the Golden Tree. Who wouldn't be surprised if they heard it?

Yesterday, the entire Tomena Outpost was discussing this matter. The popularity even overshadowed the spread of the incident in District 77.

"Yes, my brother who was guarding the border saw her walk in with his own eyes. She walked in with a person, a gun, a knife and a small bag. Her knife was quite good, and I guess few people could recognize it. It was a magical knife that only appeared in highly polluted areas, in black and white."

When he finished speaking and looked back, Ni Ji had disappeared.

The sentries who came with Ni Ji also quickly left the tavern.

Is it so urgent to go to the contaminated area? Dazhong was shocked.

Ni Ji's personality was not like this before. Although this young captain is powerful, he is very cautious when entering the battlefield.

Like himself, he is a man who cares a lot about the lives of his brothers in the team. Before entering the contaminated area every time, he will carefully collect information and make a plan before taking action.

Maybe it's because of that incident. Now that I have nothing to worry about, my style of doing things has changed.

Da Zhang remembered what he had heard, about the complete destruction of the northern outposts.

He sighed, shook his head, and drank another glass of wine.

***

When Lin Yuan arrived at the border of the Golden Tree pollution area, he found that it was surprisingly lively here.

There were many sentries standing on the open space in front of the eye-catching red warning sign.

Several teams were crossing the bright red warning sign and entering the contaminated area.

When the sentinels saw Lin Yuan, the guide, appearing here alone, they all looked surprised.

Lin Yuan was used to this. In order to avoid troublesome questioning, she didn't say a word, straightened her equipment, crossed the cordon and went directly into the contaminated area.

When she crossed the invisible boundary line, a sentinel beside her entered almost at the same time as her.

The sentry, whose half body had disappeared, turned around and saw her, and opened his mouth in disbelief.

"Ah, where are you from? Guide..."

He was halfway through his words when he disappeared.

Lin Yuan seemed to see countless golden veins, and golden threads like tree roots were intertwined, forming a huge grid in the boundless space.

One of the golden threads saw her and swam over quickly, with the tip touching her body.

Lin Yuan's eyes blurred, and when he opened them again, he was already in the world of the polluted area.

When she came in, there were clearly many sentries around her. Those people came in just a little earlier than her, and one of them even came in at the same time as her.

But when Lin Yuan stood firmly on his feet, he found himself in an empty street. The long crossroads stretched into the distance without a single person.

She extended her tentacles and searched the area thoroughly, but did not find any human emotions.

There are no people here. There are no animals, no living things of any kind.

Lin Yuan thought that this golden tree contaminated area was different from other places. No matter how many people entered in a team, they would be dispersed to different places in the contaminated area.

Perhaps because of this, the possibility of forcing this contaminated area by numbers has been lost. It has only been so many years, but no breakthrough has been made.

According to the map she secretly got, before it was contaminated, Area 77 was a prosperous town.

There are many people here, there are sentry posts and troops stationed here.

No one knew what had happened, but it suddenly became a land of death and turned into this strange area that swallowed up countless lives.

At this moment, it is "daytime" time in the contaminated area.

The deserted town was quiet, and the dead leaves blown by the breeze fluttered in the green brick streets.

On both sides of the road are solid houses built with white stones and red bricks. Many of the dark windows on the houses are planted with beautiful flowers.

It can be seen that before this area fell, the people here lived a good life.

Lin Yuan walked along the deserted street and could only hear the faint sound of her own footsteps. The world was eerily quiet, as if she was the only person walking in the entire town.

A strange sound of footsteps suddenly rang out.

Boom boom boom, boom boom boom boom…

It sounded like some animal's hooves were stepping heavily on the floor tiles.

The sound was so abrupt that the tentacles didn't even notice any emotional fluctuations, nor did they detect any movement in advance.

It was as if something suddenly appeared at the corner of the intersection.

Lin Yuan stayed close to the house on the roadside, his back against the cold red brick wall, motionless.

A team of strange "cows" carrying long sharp knives, lined up in a neat team, and appeared from the corner of the street walking on two legs.

Yes, "cow".

A common porcupine on pastures, it is a docile porcupine with a white background and black spots.

Here, they stood on their two feet, their eyes were bloodshot, they carried long swords on their shoulders, they walked out one by one from the street corners with neat and uniform steps and heavy footsteps.

The last cow's knife pierced a disemboweled sentry.

The dead sentry's limbs hung down, his body hung on the long sword, his lifeless eyes wide open, staring straight in the direction of Lin Yuan, as if he couldn't believe that he had died like this.

Lin Yuan recognized him. He was the man who had just entered the contaminated area with him.

At that time, the sentry with short hair opened his mouth in surprise and said half a sentence, "Ah, where did this guide come from..."

Before he could finish his words, he disappeared. He probably wanted to go into the contaminated area and ask this strange girl some more questions.

But he never expected that these few words would become his last words.

Huge tentacles appeared, entwining Lin Yuan's body, protecting Lin Yuan within the thick and soft tentacles.

Lin Yuan was wrapped by the tentacles and stuck to the wall, motionless.

Those strange cows lined up in a line, carrying the corpses of the sentries on their shoulders, and walked past Lin Yuan.

They actually turned a blind eye to the large group of twisted tentacles around them and Lin Yuan standing in the pile of tentacles.

Boom boom boom…

The footsteps gradually faded away, leaving thick bloodstains on the blue bricks of the street.

As if something was absorbing blood from the young sentinel's body, it quickly seeped under the green bricks and disappeared without a trace.

Are the streets still clean?

When the wind blew, a few dried petals flew up from the ground.

That dead life did not leave any trace here.

The tentacles slowly released Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan stared at the clean ground for a while and continued walking forward.

Before coming, she carefully read the internal data of the Special Research Department regarding Contaminated Area 77.

One of the dangers here is that in this polluted area, many strange creatures will appear on the streets at any time, even in the relatively safe daytime.

Those monsters would suddenly appear anywhere, strong, ferocious, and without emotion. They did not judge humans by "sight", but relied entirely on capturing human "emotional fluctuations" to find the "sentinels" lurking nearby.

Most sentinels, no matter how good they are at hiding, find it difficult to completely conceal their mental fluctuations.

Therefore, he was inevitably caught and died tragically in this contaminated area.

Lin Yuan is a person who rarely experiences emotional fluctuations, and the tentacles' wrapping can more effectively isolate her from all human emotions.

That's why she came in here alone to find what she wanted.

The tentacles spread out slightly, surrounding the forest garden and moving forward cautiously along the green bricks on the ground.

Not long after, the sound of dragging iron chains was heard from a nearby place.

Lin Yuan had just stopped and buried himself in the pile of tentacles when a huge fat pig, with a bloody pig-killing knife on its shoulder, came out from the corner.

The fat domestic pig, with its face full of flesh and a hideous appearance, was wearing a pair of human-like overalls and walking upright on its feet. In one hand, it held the bloody pig-killing knife, and in the other hand, it was actually holding a human.

The man might be a sentry. At this moment, he was dragged by the "pig-man" with tears on his face and snot. His body was torn into pieces, and his neck was tied with an iron chain. He was crawling on all fours on the street in pain.

Lin Yuan was pressed against the wall, not moving at all.

The pig did not see Lin Yuan being wrapped in the tentacles.

But the man who was dragged on the ground saw the girl standing on the roadside at a glance. He immediately screamed in shock.

"Help! Help me! Help me!"