Chapter 174 Holding the Tai'a Axe Upside Down (11)
Allen brought a dozen or so members of the Self-Defense Forces, both men and women, all in their prime, to help Erice transfer all the patients from the underground base to the surface.
They all joined the Self-Defense Forces out of enthusiasm, and were much easier to get along with than Eric had imagined. They were young and energetic, and there was no generation gap. The captain patted his chest and boasted that he would do something big with them.
To avoid disturbing the children, the new location was not chosen from an existing orphanage. Instead, the group immediately began setting up a makeshift shelter and started calling on more people to join in the construction.
The people of New Territories were skeptical. Some felt it had nothing to do with them, while others quietly joined in—after all, there were more and more Manla patients these days, and no one could guarantee they wouldn't be the next.
When Rennagi returned to the base, the scene before him stunned him. He stared wide-eyed at a group of people in dark blue uniforms working hard, his face gradually turning as blue as their uniforms.
Upon seeing Shu Ningmiao, his face turned from pale to ashen, displaying the same ghostly expression as Ai Ruiji.
After Sister Liang passed away, he was in charge of external liaison, while Eric was in charge of coordination at the base.
He said, "There's basically nowhere in the entire new land with a signal, and my powers are useless. There's no other way."
With the signal completely blocked, he was helpless.
Eric walked over quickly: "We were just about to tell you this."
Rennagi had been out all this time and didn't even know that You An had come back. She didn't know whether she should tell him or not, so she changed the subject.
Shu Ningmiao sat kneeling to the side, supervising the work, fiddling with a discarded steel rod, without looking up: "Once the wall is broken, there will be a signal."
Rennagi said calmly, "That's too risky."
His perspective differed from others: "If many people die because of this, you will become the target of public criticism."
"It's nothing." Shu Ningmiao didn't care at all. She had never said that she wanted to be a savior. Wasn't it Wei Shengqianheng who always wanted to be the savior?
She had previously broken through the blockade and knew that the checkpoints between Yingjian and Xindi were equipped with ordinary bullets.
Even if she is alone, she is confident in herself.
But she still wanted the Self-Defense Forces and Prometheus to cooperate and urge everyone in the New Land to participate, because she didn't want to change just that one barrier; she wanted to change the entire New Land.
What bothers her most right now is the situation of signal interruption.
She had no way of knowing Pigne's latest movements, nor did she know whether she was currently wanted by the authorities.
However, if she were truly wanted, even the media equipment in New York would likely be forced to display an arrest warrant.
Where is Zhao at now? He probably hasn't fully seized power yet, so he doesn't have time to target her.
Shu Ningmiao's fingertips caressed the steel rod that served as her weapon, the cold touch temporarily calming her chaotic thoughts.
His gaze swept over every face around him—bewilderment, resentment, fear.
She stepped out of the bustling new base, where a sickly gloom hung over the land. A stagnant, oppressive atmosphere pressed down on the earth, and the thin sunlight struggled to penetrate the barrier, casting blurry spots of light on the ground like the pupils of a dying person.
In the distance, the beams of light from drones slowly swept across the blockade line.
A monotonous, heavy mechanical hum came from somewhere, mixed with intermittent coughs.
Without further mobilization, she stirred up the matter and then remained silent, while Allen and Erice actively tried to persuade everyone, but to little avail.
Apart from a few young people, almost no one from Xindi was willing to risk breaking through the checkpoint.
Night fell as expected, enveloping the new land. Crouching in the shadows between the buildings, Alan felt his heart was about to leap out of his chest.
He looked back and saw that everyone else was holding their breath, just like him.
He swallowed hard, trying to relieve the dryness in his throat.
At this crucial moment, Shu Ningmiao deliberately walked at the very back. Was she trying to trick him?
Before him lay the heavily guarded area, illuminated by searchlights. After waiting for a while, Allen steeled himself and became the first to step into the night.
The distance was so close... He could already see the figures of the guards moving around the sentry post and hear their occasional, indistinct conversations carried on the wind.
The moment they approached the restricted area, the guards noticed something amiss. A piercing alarm ripped through the night sky, and the drone's searchlight immediately locked onto them.
Behind the makeshift shacks, people hiding in the windows and in the shadows of guns silently watched everything, like a silent forest.
The reprimands and warnings came through the loudspeaker, cold and emotionless.
"Stop! Or we'll shoot!"
At the same time as the warning sound came bullets carrying scorching air. Bullets rained down like raindrops, whistling past the heads and sides of the rushing crowd, hitting broken bricks and tiles, and splashing up a series of sparks and dust.
Allen crawled forward, using the terrain to his advantage. He had a million regrets to express. They had their own homemade guns, but they still hadn't anticipated that the gap between them and Pinheis would be so vast.
With such abundant weaponry, even if they manage to evade, it will be very difficult for them to get close.
The armed guards on the ground began to cautiously approach them. He wiped the blood from the scrapes on his face and choked out, "We just don't want to be trapped here."
The well-trained guards watched them silently, observing the mob before them who exuded a strange odor but whose eyes burned with a mad flame.
No one expected the atmosphere to become so tense.
With a thud, the guard in front of him fell straight down.
As the steel rod swept forward, Shu Ningmiao met his gaze and swung her hand, striking him precisely and knocking him down.
"Why talk so much nonsense?"
Her figure was exceptionally clear in the dim moonlight, as she weighed the steel rod she had found at the last minute in her hand.
Shu Ningmiao took a step forward.
Just one step.
She casually tossed the deformed steel rod in her hand into the ground, and stretched out her hand, her fingertips trembling slightly.
There were no slogans, no dazzling lights, but a silent yet heavy pressure, as if the entire sky were collapsing, suddenly spread out from her center.
All the bullets in flight—whether they had just left the muzzle or were about to hit a human body—were as if they were being compressed to their limit by invisible, dense air, emitting a teeth-grinding screeching sound.
These warheads, carrying murderous intent, seemed to be forcibly choked by countless hands, their direction twisted, turning 180 degrees in unison, and rushing towards the sky.
Then, with a piercing shriek, it slammed heavily onto the open ground below.
Bang bang bang bang——
The dense sounds of impact blended together, and the open space in the center was instantly riddled with holes. The smoke and dust from the bullet impacts filled the air, stunning both the charging men and the guards, who stared in disbelief at this surreal scene.
However, this is just the beginning.
Almost at the same instant when all the bullets hit the ground.
More violent and terrifying explosions rang out one after another from inside the isolation line, and every gun muzzle suddenly exploded from the inside at that moment.
Weapon fragments flew everywhere, and the well-organized formation instantly descended into chaos.
The entire blockade fell into an eerie silence.
Shu Ningmiao's face was even paler than before, but she still stood tall in the same spot, amidst the craters left by bullets and the chaos of continuous barrel explosions, as if she were standing in an insurmountable chasm.
She said nothing, but her silence at that moment was more intimidating than any roar or slogan.
Allen's mouth gaped open, his eyes filled with almost devout shock, and he couldn't utter a single word.
Those who possess power possess the ultimate right to interpret this world.
He scrambled to his feet, and with all the strength he had, shouted, slamming his body forward: "Don't stand there!!"
The others were initially clumsy and fearful, but under the scene opened by Shu Ningmiao, their fighting spirit was completely aroused. Using crude weapons, and even picking up stones from the ground, they frantically rammed the gate.
Roars, crashes, and cries of pain mingled together, creating a chaotic wave.
Erici led the second team, taking advantage of the fact that the others had drawn most of the fire, and broke through the high wall from an uninhabited spot to escort Rennagi to the gate controlling the isolation line.
They broke through the control center of the layers of checkpoints—towards that huge alloy door, a symbol of isolation.
The massive alloy door, which had stood for many years, relentlessly separating the new land from the inter-district, from the capital, and from hope, slid slowly and irreversibly to both sides with a heavy, grating scraping sound...
The door opened.
The people of Xindi were also stunned. They looked at the land behind the door, a land that had once been out of reach and symbolized the "normal" world, and at the passage leading to the unknown, but which might also be a path to survival.
The deathly silence lasted only a moment.
Immediately, a huge shout that almost lifted the night sky erupted from the corners of the crowd!
Like the first domino to fall.
One by one, the hidden figures emerged, and the crowd surged through the open gate like a torrent. Some ran while weeping bitterly, while many others simply ran forward desperately, as if trying to shake off all the suffering and despair behind them.
Pinhea's guards began to retreat. Unarmed and facing a far larger and more demoralized crowd, they were powerless to stop them.
At first, people outside the cordon simply stood on the relatively clean street, looking at them with astonishment and hesitation, and subconsciously backing away.
Gradually, whispers spread among the crowd.
The faces, contorted from strain, were clearly visible, many bearing familiar signs of illness, yet conveying a chilling longing. The gaze was all too familiar, like the reflection of oneself in the mirror every morning.
I long to live.
One of the men, whose face was ashen, suddenly threw away the baseball bat he was using to defend himself and rushed forward first, bracing his hand against the rough wall and pushing outward with all his might.
This action was like a signal, and more and more people joined in. Countless hands, rough and delicate, greasy and scarred, pressed together against the mottled wall. Sweat mixed with blood slid down their arms and seeped into the cracks in the wall.
The hazy morning light, like diluted gilding, spilled onto the wall, illuminating the mottled stains and deep scratches, as well as the sides of the wall.
"Boom—"
With a deafening roar, the wall that once stood at the border finally gave way and collapsed outwards after a violent tremor.
Daylight broke.
The dawn, after a night of fierce fighting, illuminated the collapsed ruins and the astonished, tearful faces of every stranger.
Allen leaned against the ruins, watching the surging crowd, his chest heaving violently, his face wet with what looked like tears or sweat.
He looked at Shu Ningmiao, who was standing quietly. She was breathing slightly, and her face still looked a little pale in the morning light.
The morning breeze ruffled the stray hairs on her forehead, and also carried the faint, increasingly sharp and frequent alarm sounds from afar.
Why didn't Pines send any messengers? What held them back?
"Sizzle—"
When it was time for the public facilities on Yingjian Street to be powered on, a sudden electrical interference shattered the silent peace, and everyone instinctively looked in the direction of the sound.
All outdoor public media facilities, whether giant light screens on high-rise building facades, old loudspeakers on corner streetlights, or even flashing electronic billboards in front of some shops, were all forced to switch their images at the same time.
All the screens turned into a blinding crimson background, symbolizing the highest level of alert.
Synthesized electronic sounds emanate from every screen and every speaker.
"This is an emergency broadcast announcement: a T0-level nationwide arrest warrant is being issued. The wanted person is suspected of crimes under the National Security Law, engaging in terrorist activities, and assassinating a former parliamentary representative. They are extremely dangerous."
Oh no! Shu Ningmiao!
Allen acted faster than he thought, ripping off his tattered coat and rushing to Shu Ningmiao's side, trying to cover her conspicuous face.
At the same time, Eric pushed through the crowd, his voice trembling with urgent sobs: "Lower your head! Lower your head now!"
Shu Ningmiao did not resist and let them do as they pleased.
There was no surprise on her face, as if she had expected this to happen. She even slightly raised her head to meet the images.
On countless scarlet screens, a clear ID photo appears. The person in the photo has black hair, blue eyes, sharp bone structure, and an indifferent expression.
The expressions on their faces were instantly replaced by astonishment. Erice covered her lips tightly, staring at the face on the wanted poster that was both familiar and unfamiliar to her.
Wanted: Shu Changyan
Number: 03
Danger Level: T0
"Warning: Citizens who discover their whereabouts are urged not to make contact and to report the information while ensuring their own safety."
“Shu… Changyan?” Alan froze, and the coat covering Shu Ningmiao’s head slipped down slightly.
He looked at Shu Ningmiao, who slightly turned her head away from the coat that was trying to cover up the obvious. There was a very faint but very clear curve on her slightly pale lips.
She was smiling.
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Author's Note: I'm back from my trip (not really).
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