Chapter 44
In a cave in the wild.
It was quiet and dead, with only the dripping sound of an unknown liquid.
A soldier was lying on the ground, his face grim and purple blood vessels bulging out of his pale skin. At this moment, he was staring wide-eyed, his right hand tightly gripping the handle of his gun - as if doing so could help him avoid the consequences of his tragic death.
Most of them crawled out of the cave, moving slowly, their bodies as if they had no bones, moving very limply. After finally reaching the cave entrance, they didn't have time to say anything before their heads tilted and they died.
The two in the distance seemed to still be breathing.
There was not a single piece of intact skin on their bodies. They were lying on the ground, barely breathing, holding walkie-talkies.
"1312, 1312 team requests..." One of the team members tapped the screen, "...support."
He clicked repeatedly, but because the intercom was missing more than half of its parts, he couldn't get through. Until the last few seconds, when a huge shadow appeared behind him and approached, the communication was connected.
"Hello, Manlot City Branch Base."
"13... 1312 squad." The team member's throat was torn several times, "Requesting support."
"How is it going?"
"Colonel Si... is missing... Captain Qiao has fallen into the abyss..."
The intercom was silent for a second before continuing: "Where?"
"Radar coordinates are being sent: N131.24, W23.2, right behind the giant cave, located...Ah!"
With a scream, the half-broken machine suddenly came to life.
Facing a team member who was calling for help, he opened the screen full of fragments and bit off the other person's neck.
As blood spurted out, his teammate gasped for breath and held down the intercom tightly: "Fuck you...Fuck you!"
After just a few seconds of pressing, his palm immediately became bloody, and the walkie-talkie continued to gnaw at his skin, flesh, and bones - until finally, the soldier who had swallowed most of his palm slammed the radar button hard.
*
Su Ran held Xiao Ye Zi and sat next to the man.
"What do you mean by exchange?" he asked quietly.
The man smiled and moved his roots.
Starting from the roots, it turned into a rotten and ancient color, gradually turning black and rotten.
Su Ran was very familiar with this. In the wild, this kind of distortion would often devour the parasitic objects.
"This is a toxin from the abyss. There's no way to cure it," the man said. "At least humans can't heal themselves."
"But... the distortion ability of plants can."
"What's the meaning?"
"The healing power within you can slow down the deterioration and eventually make it disappear," the man said. "However, if that happens, you will also lose your healing power."
As he spoke, he rolled up a dirty, discarded kettle with the branches on his back and poured water directly onto the ground: "Just like this stream of water, you may not feel anything at first, but the feeling of disappearance will come one day. You may not be able to feel it, but gradually, your healing power will disappear."
As soon as he finished speaking, before Su Ran could react, Guji jumped directly onto his tree trunk and started beating him with his little tentacles.
He was very angry.
Even if it was just a mushroom, he knew it was robbery and taking advantage of someone’s misfortune!
The power of healing is so important to Su Ran. If it is taken away from her, wouldn’t she be just a small, ordinary rose?
If he is no longer useful, not to mention humans, even the colonel in that department will definitely abandon him!
The more Guji thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. He was worried and angry at the same time. In the end, he even pulled Su Ran's leaf and hit it against the tree trunk several times before he stopped.
At this moment, it heard Su Ran speak: "What happened before?"
His voice was naturally soft, even more so when he was a rose and even more so when he was a human.
The little mushroom jumped up when he heard it: "Guji!"
Now that it has come to this, are you still concerned about what happened before?
"A long time ago, our team was led by Si Chengyan," the man said. "At that time, he was ranked first in the base, so he should have led the team into the field to conduct terrain exploration."
Su Ran tapped the flower bud.
He had heard Si Chengyan talk about this before.
He had no premonition at the time, but after leaving for a few days, when he was lying alone on the rattan bed in the sacred tree area, he suddenly figured something out.
——Those calm eyes could flash a hint of sadness when mentioning this great human adventure. It must be related to the colonel.
"In the end, our entire team was wiped out." The man spoke slowly, as if he was telling a story so long ago that it didn't even belong to him. "That time... besides me, only Si Chengyan survived."
"In this era, no group's annihilation is ever attributed to a single person. But that time, under his leadership, we encountered danger while venturing into uncharted territory," the man said. "I blame him, but I also don't blame him. All these years... I've been half-human, half-ghost in the abyss, fighting for food with those stinking creatures, and I've wanted to vent these emotions on the entire human race."
"At that time, another incident occurred," the man said. "Si Chengyan's sister, who was traveling as the leader of the medical team, also died in that abyss."
"What did you say?"
When Su Ran was in the medical team, she heard that the colonel had a sister.
It seemed like no one would bring it up again, and even if they did, they would quickly change the subject.
Perhaps seeing Su Ran's drooping leaves, the man continued, "As a mutant, you don't understand our emotions at all. It's useless to talk to you."
He retracted his gaze and said coldly, "Tell me when you've made up your mind whether you want to exchange it for healing power."
Su Ran lowered the flower bud.
For him, perhaps that group wipeout became a knot in the colonel's heart.
It was like a nightmare that entangled him every night, or rather, it swallowed up that tall figure completely in an invisible place.
But Su Ran didn't know why, in this distorted era, all he had was the power of healing.
He cannot have the strong self-defense ability like other creatures, or possess other animal limbs, which would give him a different kind of power.
And what nature gave him was only the power of healing.
He can heal others and revive all things in the world, but he cannot protect others.
While he was thinking, the man suddenly started crying again.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so selfish, I shouldn't be like this..." The man looked at Su Ran, his green lips trembling, "I don't want to, I really have no choice, I don't want to die..."
He muttered madly, "But... I'll regret it again. How did I get through all these years in the abyss? And now, how should I face humanity and myself? I don't know, I don't know..."
Su Ran took a few steps back and heard the man say, "I'll tell you the location directly. It's right..."
Before he could finish, he slapped his opponent hard twice.
When he came back to his senses, his face looked extremely ferocious again.
"No! I can't tell you directly, I can't..." the man muttered frantically, "He and I are comrades! We studied together at the base, and we are loyal to him and to the entire base... Why is he the one who survived?"
Su Ran: "I... don't know."
As soon as he finished speaking, the man burst into laughter, his face full of pain and confusion.
It was a complete split, with unwarranted emotions overwhelming him and becoming the only human characteristic he possessed.
As Su Ran looked at him, the sadness and unspeakable pain of that night came back to her mind again.
He had no idea how such an emotion came about, but he seemed to understand it - the colonel was so sad the night before leaving, it must be because of this incident.
"Guji." Su Ran didn't look at the man who was crying and laughing crazily. She stretched out her leaves and tightly grasped the small tentacle of the mushroom. "I think... I have the answer."
The author has something to say:
The double redemption in the copy has begun.
p.s. I've been working overtime recently, so the updates may be late, around 1 or 2 in the morning. You'll definitely see them when you wake up the next day. Don't worry, I'll keep updating as long as I start writing.
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