"Hubbard." Tang Lan murmured the name: "He..."
He seemed to be speechless, and only spoke again after more than ten seconds, his voice was slightly hoarse: "...Is he okay?"
An Zhe recalled the scenes about Hubbard.
When the insect tide ravaged the outer city and the first district was destroyed, Hubbard was on a mission outside the city. This was an extremely wise move. He not only avoided the catastrophe of the outer city, but also avoided being arrested by Lu Xun for "illegally stealing the judge's information." Later, he led the team back to An and was welcomed by the main city. Later, this legendary mercenary captain met Lu Xun again, and he and Colonel Lu took PL1109 to the underground city base for rescue. In the mine, he and Lu Xun would occasionally chat. Hubbard and Lu Xun completed the rescue mission and returned home together.
He said, "He's fine."
Tang Lan lowered his eyes slightly, and he seemed to smile. He didn't ask anything else, not a word, just said, "That's good."
An Zhe looked at Tang Lan.
The first time he knew this person was in Boss Xiao's shop. He saw a beautifully made, almost real doll. Boss Xiao said that it was custom-made by Hubbard at most of his fortune. Hubbard was the most legendary captain of the mercenary team in the entire outer city, and this man was his deputy captain who had a life-and-death friendship. After an expedition, he never came back, and not even a body was found.
Next to the doll was a label with various data. The first line was his name, Tang Lan.
Now Tang Lan was standing in front of An Zhe. He was safe and sound, and didn't look like he had been injured. He actually survived in this dangerous abyss, and lived so well.
"You survived." An Zhe said, "Aren't you going back?"
Tang Lan's eyes were filled with a hint of helplessness.
"I can't go back." He said. As he
said that, he buried the marked stone in his hand into the soil.
"You have a map, you can go back." An Zhe said: "...Do you need it?" "
No." Tang Lan said: "You are not a human anymore."
An Zhe: "..."
Tang Lan took out a dagger with a cold glow and carved an arrow on the tree branch next to him. While carving, he said: "Do you know what you are doing?"
An Zhe: "I don't know."
"After being infected, most people are very unfortunate and completely turned into monsters. But there are also one in ten thousand people who are luckier and sometimes look like human beings." Tang Lan said, "You are showing the way to those lucky people - that's how you were shown the way in the first place."
An Zhe didn't say anything. He found that he had a special talent to recognize a person who wanted to tell a story.
However, Tang Lan's story was very short.
"Then 놖 had a little dispute with Hubbard. He wanted to go deeper, but 놖 thought it was time to go back. Anyway, it was very unpleasant. 놖 did not meet him again that night and kept watch in another car as per the rules."
"There are all kinds of things in the abyss. At twelve o'clock, a monster that we can't afford to offend discovered us. We have never seen anything so dangerous." After Tang Lan finished carving the numbers and put away the dagger, his voice was as clear and neat as he was: "놖 warned them and then led the thing in another direction. Later, 놖 died, and he must have died miserably."
"But I don't know why, 놖 seemed to wake up again, and turned into a very powerful thing." He played with the dagger and said to An Zhe, "What about you?"
An Zhe thought for his words.
At this moment, Tang Lan suddenly turned his head, and his gaze shot like a sharp arrow towards the center of the dense forest - the rustling sound came from there.
He whispered to An Zhe, "Let's go!"
The moment he finished speaking, a huge black shadow emerged from the forest!
An Zhe's arm was grabbed, and Tang Lan carried him on his back with unquestionable force. The next moment, a huge sound of breaking through the air was heard, and a pair of huge black membrane wings spread out from his back!
An Zhe suddenly left the ground, and behind him, the claws of the mountain-like monster swooped down, but Tang Lan's ghost-like flying speed was faster than it, and he left the dense forest almost instantly.
An Zhe looked down, and everything on the ground became smaller and smaller as they rose higher, while the tall mountains to the south were getting closer and closer.
In the wind blowing in his face, he asked Tang Lan, "Where are we going?"
The wind in the sky was getting stronger and stronger, blowing away the sound, and Tang Lan asked him a question loudly.
"Have you heard of the Fusion School?"
As he finished speaking, he flew higher and higher with An Zhe, gradually approaching the highest mountain peak. As they got closer and closer to the sky, the highland was reflected in red gold by the setting sun, and the white building on the top of the highland gradually emerged at the junction of the sky and the mountain top.
The first thing that caught An Zhe's eyes was two smooth cylindrical white towers, which were located at both ends and connected by a line in the middle. Between the two white towers was the main body of the building, an elliptical three-story low building, with auxiliary buildings and scattered other buildings on both sides. There were all kinds of strange-looking devices scattered on the open space in front of the main building. Behind the building was a flat land with more than a dozen tall wind turbines standing on it. The snow-white wind turbines were spinning rapidly in the whistling wind.
A huge dark green vine was divided into more than a dozen branches, surrounding the entire building complex. Its branches were placed on the fence and the white tower. When Tang Lan and An Zhe landed, a vine swam over, sniffed each of them, and then dispersed.
The huge black wings on Tang Lan's back slowly retracted into his body - when he retracted them, Tang Lan's body trembled slightly, his fists clenched, and a look of pain appeared on his face. An Zhe looked at him without blinking until he opened his eyes again.
When they looked at each other, Tang Lan's eyes suddenly became dark, an inhuman look, but fortunately they recovered in a few seconds.
"The transformation process was a bit chaotic and uncomfortable," Tang Lan said, "but I'm very lucky."
He looked at the vine: "This guy can't become a human anymore."
An Zhe looked at the vine: "Does it have human consciousness?"
"Somewhat." Tang Lan raised his legs and walked forward, and An Zhe followed him. The strong wind on the mountain peak blew their clothes, and they gradually approached the slightly old white building in the center .
It was late in the evening, when the sunset was the strongest.
In the southwest of the sky, clouds rolled, and a huge red sun burned and sank. The golden-red light illuminated the open door, and a figure stood in the center.
An Zhe couldn't really tell the age of a human being. He only knew that the man was at least 10 years old, the same age as Mr. Xiao. But he didn't look old or hunched because of his age. As he got closer, An Zhe saw that he was wearing a strict and upright black suit, a bow tie carefully tied under the collar of his silver-gray shirt, and his snow-white hair was neatly combed back. On his face, which looked more calm and kind with the passing of time, there was a pair of gentle gray-blue eyes.
Those eyes made An Zhe feel that he had seen all the turmoil and changes in the world.
"Sir." Standing in front of him, Tang Lan's voice was very respectful: "You are back with new members."
The man smiled at An Zhe, and his gray-blue eyes made people feel close to him. An Zhe looked up at him, and he stretched out his right hand to An Zhe.
After a slight hesitation, An Zhe shook hands with him in a slightly unfamiliar posture. His palm was warm and dry, and the handshake was gentle and powerful.
"Welcome to join the Highland Research Institute. We are presumptuous to call ourselves the first base of mankind." The man said: "You are Polly Jones."