Chapter 117: Unexpected Gains
We all put on our gas masks as instructed and continued walking back. Soon we were back to the camp.
"How are things over there?" Gang Jue asked as soon as they met.
"We've dealt with two abnormal creatures, and they were already dying. All three machines have been installed. If any mutant monsters appear, our detectors will sound an alarm and record it. The protective net has been deployed."
Song Nanxing answered in detail and handed over the photos, soil and plant samples we had just collected.
"It's almost the same over there. Okay, everyone, you've worked hard. Let's take a rest here today and have dinner!" Gang Jue said, and he couldn't wait to open his backpack and take out some rations to distribute to us.
After a day of surveying, everyone was a little tired. After we finished our meal while chatting and laughing, Gang Jue sent the photos we had just collected back to headquarters.
The day's mission passed completely. During this period, we all paid close attention to Lin Hanning, but she did not behave abnormally.
In the following days, we did not act separately, but monitored other areas together, but we did not gain anything.
"Wake up, brothers and sisters."
Awakened by Steel Lord's voice, I opened my eyes from my sleep, then stood up and stretched.
He walked out of the tent yawning. Outside the tent, Gang Jue, Song Nanxing and others were already waiting there.
After seeing me come out, Gang Jue looked down at the map and said, "Let's clean up. Today is Zone G."
Area G, which is the side close to the mountains, is also the woods where we made an emergency landing that day.
When they heard about exploring Area G, everyone's expressions brightened.
Firstly, we can go back and check the condition of the plane and, if possible, take out the remaining supplies inside.
Secondly, the forest is close to the mountains, and Jiang Wang had said before that there would be a feeling of oppression in that forest, so perhaps there might be some discoveries.
As we walked towards the woods, we could see the wreckage of our previous plane from a distance. After so many days, there was no smoke anymore.
In other words, the probability of an aircraft catching fire or exploding is now extremely low and can be detected.
This time we brought an extra pilot with us to investigate, with the intention of checking the extent of the damage to the aircraft.
After checking the plane, the pilot said to Steel Lord.
"It can no longer take off, but some parts are still usable. You can contact the command center to come and recover them when the time comes. I can't see the other parts."
"Well, let's continue exploring other places first, and then bring the remaining supplies back to camp little by little when we return to camp at night."
As Gang Jue said this, he led us deeper into the woods.
As they walked, Jiang Wang fell to the back, and Lin Hanning also fell behind.
Song Nanxing winked at me and said deliberately.
"Steel Lord, I always feel that there is something wrong with this forest. Look at that mountain, isn't it very strange?"
Hearing this, Gang Jue looked towards the woods, then nodded and said, "Our mission today is to explore this area. We won't go over there for now, but we can do some preliminary exploration in the direction of the mountains at the edge of the woods."
Sure enough, the conversation between Gang Jue and Song Nanxing caught Lin Hanning's attention.
I noticed that the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, and then she quickened her pace and came to Song Nanxing and Gang Jue with curiosity.
"I don't think there's anything special about it, but the terrain is really strange."
While Lin Hanning's attention was being drawn to Song Nanxing and Gang Jue, Chen Yubing and I deliberately slowed down our pace, gradually matching Jiang Wang's speed.
"Jiang Wang, you don't look well." I looked at him and said.
Jiang Wang nodded slowly, exhaled softly and said, "I don't know why, but I always feel a little nervous and a little... scared."
When talking about being afraid, he seemed a little embarrassed and turned his head away slightly.
Chen Yubing said calmly, "Can you still hold on? If you can't, you can go back first."
Jiang Wang shook his head stubbornly and said, "No need. I also want to know what's going on in this place."
Seeing that he was so persistent, Chen Yubing didn't say anything more.
After moving forward for a while, Gang Jue suddenly stopped, looked at the compass in his hand and said:
"We're almost there. Let's set up a detector here."
Everyone nodded and picked up their tools to get to work.
The detector is easy to deploy. You just need to bury part of the instrument underground, expose the probe to the air, place the antenna at a high place, and then put up a protective net.
Chen Yubing and I picked up the engineering shovels and started shoveling the soil. Jiang Wang and Song Nanxing went to install the antenna, and Gang Jue, Lin Hanning and the pilot were responsible for installing the detection device.
In order to make the detector more stable, we need to dig a pit about half a meter deep.
The soil in the woods was very loose, so it was quick to shovel. After a while, we had reached almost the same spot.
Just as I made my last shovel move, the engineer shovel suddenly hit something hard.
"Hmm? There are stones?"
I said with some doubt.
Hearing what I said, Chen Yubing frowned, then squatted down and used an engineer shovel to shovel away the soil on the flat surface.
Only a small piece of grayish-white hard object was seen emerging from the soil.
Seeing this hard object, I quickly moved over.
"Is this... a bone?"
Chen Yubing and I looked at each other, and she quickly pulled out the grayish-white object. It was about ten centimeters long and was a broken leg bone.
And judging from its appearance, it should be human bones.
"Come here quickly! There seems to be a body buried here." Chen Yubing shouted outside the pit.
Hearing Chen Yubing's voice, the others rushed over.
Gang Jue took the bone from Chen Yubing's hand, took a look at it, and said seriously, "Keep digging."
Since the pit could only accommodate two people, and Chen Yubing and I were right at the bottom, we dug even harder.
Soon, we dug out several bones from the pit, including human skulls, and they had a foul smell. Although the bodies were almost rotten, they were obviously buried recently.
Because there were too many people, the rest of the people also joined the digging team.
As the pit grew bigger and wider, more and more bones were exposed inside.
Everyone's expressions gradually became serious.
After working for more than two hours, we finally dug up most of the bones.
Densely packed corpses with rotten flesh that had not yet completely decayed and decomposed were placed in front of me.
Even though I have seen many strange monsters, seeing these piles of bones still makes my scalp tingle.
However, Steel Lord Chen Yubing, Song Nanxing and the pilots in our group were in much better condition.
Perhaps it was because they had been in the investigation bureau for too long and had seen a lot of outrageous scenes.
"this……"
Lin Hanning was also a little surprised and pointed at the pile of bones and said:
"This is too much..."
Gang Jue counted the skulls without hesitation, there were 99 in total.
In other words, there are at least ninety-nine people buried in this corpse pit, and perhaps even more.
Faced with such a situation, everyone was shocked and puzzled.
"So many corpses... it can't be a simple attack by mutant creatures..." Jiang Wang sighed in disbelief.
Song Nanxing shook his head and said:
"Of course it's impossible. Not to mention that we haven't found many mutants in the area after exploring for a few days, even if mutants were responsible, why would they deliberately gather these bodies and bury them together? This is a forest, and there aren't usually that many people here."
"Is that an abnormal unit?" Chen Yubing said uncertainly.
"No matter what it is, report it to the headquarters first." Gang Jue frowned and took out his camera to take a few pictures from different angles.
Due to this sudden incident, our exploration was temporarily terminated and the area was blocked off.
To prevent any emergencies, we did not dare leave the scene, but stayed nearby waiting for news from the command center.
The command center quickly sent back instructions, asking us to monitor the area first, and at the same time dispatched two additional teams to explore other areas to see if there were any other abnormal situations.
In other words, today, we only need to monitor this mass grave.
It was still early, only one in the afternoon, but everyone was busy digging the hole and had no time to eat lunch.
The four veteran members of the Investigation Bureau present sat down without any psychological burden and took out compressed biscuits.
But the most important thing about eating in front of a pile of bones is that there is a huge stench. It is already a miracle that I didn't vomit it out, let alone eat it.
But the mission was important, and I also had to replenish my energy to prevent emergencies. I gritted my teeth, made up my mind, took out the compressed biscuits and started eating.
I was so nauseous that I started chewing compressed biscuits and talking to Chen Yubing to distract myself.
"Yubing (chew chew chew) when do you think the reinforcements will arrive... Ugh..."
Unfortunately, not only did I fail to divert my attention, I even started to retch in front of Chen Yubing.
Chen Yubing was stunned for a moment by my sudden retching, then shook his head and laughed.
Song Nanxing, who was standing by, almost got internal injuries from holding it in. After enduring for a while, he realized that he couldn't hold it in any longer, so he just laughed at him mercilessly.
Although Steel Lord tried hard to maintain his expression, the corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching upwards, which was harder to suppress than AK.
I didn't feel embarrassed, after all, this is a normal reaction. Although Jiang Wang didn't retch, his face still looked bad.
On the contrary, Lin Hanning, although she also had a somewhat nauseous expression, her face could not be faked, and it was rosy and normal.
But to be honest, I have begun to get used to Lin Hanning's various peculiarities.
Anyway, she hasn't done anything harmful to us so far, and the people in the Investigation Bureau are secretly keeping an eye on her.
"Don't force yourself. You can eat farther away and come back later."
I nodded and ran away at the speed of light with Jiang Wanglin Hanning.
We found a place that was some distance away from the pit of corpses but still within their sight and sat down, quickly finishing the food in our hands.
Anyway, there was nothing urgent at the moment, so we didn't rush over.
I felt a bit bored sitting here, so I couldn't help but look at the mountains not far away.
To be honest, I looked at this mountain range countless times yesterday and today, but I couldn't see any clues at all. It just so happened that Lin Hanning was here, so I did it on purpose to show her.
Apparently, Lin Hanning also noticed my gaze. She glanced at me, then at the mountain range, and asked in confusion:
"Ji Ling, what are you looking at?"
"Looking at the mountains. When I was a child, I always wondered if there would be any treasures or dragons hidden in the mountains..." I paused here.
Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head, yes.
Is it possible that there really is something hidden in the mountains?
Although it seems absurd, the more I think about it, the more I feel that it is possible.
"There may not be treasure, maybe there is a ghost." Lin Hanning joked with a smile.
On the contrary, Jiang Wang, who usually talks the most, was silent at this moment.
After a while, he suddenly looked up and asked me, "The mountain range in the exploration area designated by Steel Lord is next to Area G, right?"
I nodded, not knowing why he suddenly brought this up, and then I nodded: "Yes, tomorrow we will finish exploring the last area and continue to explore the outer areas. It's only a matter of time before we go into the mountains."
Hearing this, Jiang Wang nodded thoughtfully and asked again:
"Ji Ling, you just said that the people of the Apocalypse Sect are all a bunch of lunatics, right?"
I nodded, not sure what he meant.
"I just suddenly thought, is it possible that this pile of corpses was created by the Apocalypse Cult? If they are really crazy, they would do anything."
Seeing that Lin Hanning and I were waiting for his next words with great interest, Jiang Wang told us his thoughts.
"You're right, it's not impossible." I nodded in agreement.
"But...what is their purpose?"
Having said this, the three of us fell silent at the same time, then raised our heads and said in unison:
"That abnormal unit in the city center!"
Although all this is just speculation, it is indeed the most likely possibility at the moment.
Gang Jue and his men, who were not far away, heard our movement and turned around.
"What's wrong?" Chen Yubing asked.
I looked at Jiang Wang and Lin Hanning, and they both nodded to me.
So I strode over and relayed the speculations that the three of us had just made.
After listening to this, Chen Yubing nodded thoughtfully: "It's not impossible."
Gang Jue also agreed with our guess, but we are short of manpower now.
So he said to us, "It's just right. The reinforcements will be arriving this afternoon. We can discuss the division of labor and explore as soon as possible. Maybe we can help the combat troops in the city center."
According to the original battle plan, there are already several level L "Swords of Dawn" in the city center conducting fire tests on abnormal units.
The mission of our special operations team is to support the mission in the city center.
Now that we've discovered this, I feel like we've had an unexpected gain.
So I looked deeper into the woods.
Maybe there we can know the truth of the matter.
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