Chapter 76 Guide 4
The fan whirred and whirred. It was an old-fashioned device that would occasionally malfunction and make a "creaking" sound. After spinning for a while, it suddenly stopped. The shopkeeper slammed his hand on it, and only then did the fan blades slowly start to sway again.
He picked up a palm-leaf fan and waved it as he said, "I'm getting old. I'd die of heat here without these things."
The customers at the counter chatted with him casually. One was old and frail with a shriveled mind, and the other suffered from desensitization. They were rare among the sentries of the Asian Bridge who were of a peaceful temperament. They didn't need to say a few words to get to know each other, but they became friends like ordinary people despite their age difference.
The guest had just finished his work and returned to Yaqiao to recuperate. With nothing to do, he came to chat with an old friend.
Their lives are worth less than grass; every time you see them, it's one less time you'll see them.
"If I could save up enough to buy a mental health consultation, I would have no regrets in this life..." he said, before his voice abruptly stopped.
As genes evolved, human death was no longer simply brain death. The fall of each Sentinel Guide was accompanied by the collapse of the mental landscape, unleashing a powerful and chillingly immense energy.
The company's location was constantly trembling, causing the sentinels' senses to become acutely overloaded. Some people on the street had already gone mad. Finally, a cold, violent wave, as if from hell, swept across the entire Yaqiao area, and its aftershocks reached the nearby barren hills and fields. The invisible energy transformed into a tangible effect, and all living creatures fell into a state of suspended animation under extreme fear.
The guest's nose twitched; he smelled a strong odor of blood.
The shopkeeper put down his palm-leaf fan and stood next to him. The smiles on their faces had vanished at some point, leaving only stiff, wooden expressions.
Buzz, buzz.
It looked as if there was a clump of pencil lines constantly wriggling in the whites of his eyes.
"Chaos...chaos...premature...capture of Yaqiao..."
Swish—
"Contaminant intrusion!"
The sky over Asia Bridge suddenly darkened, and tiny flies swarmed everywhere, engulfing every corner.
Six hundred meters away, a hidden outpost.
The man stared at the fluctuations in the detection instrument: "A strong emotional fluctuation center has been detected. The reaction of a suspected high-energy individual has disappeared. It is conservatively estimated to be S-level... Serial number 922 has advanced the plan and has already conquered 42% of the area of Asia Bridge. Individual reactions are frequent, and people are dying every second."
His tone grew increasingly harsh: "I only have one small squad with me. Going there would just be delivering equipment. What the hell, when are the promised reinforcements arriving?"
The Federation had long planned to wipe out Asiabridge and rescue the guides inside. Just then, a numbered contaminant project caused trouble. The man originally planned to use this as an opportunity to launch a counterattack during the chaos. However, the sudden death of the sentry triggered a chain reaction, causing the contaminant to be released ahead of schedule. But the promised military support had not yet arrived!
"Soon? A few minutes?! There's a high-level guide inside who specifically requested to be brought back. Any later and we might as well be collecting the guide's corpse!"
The Federation's biggest shortage right now, besides various survival resources, is guides. Even the lowest-level guides, as long as they can provide mental guidance, are extremely valuable. The occasional sweeps of the Dark Zone in recent years have also been aimed at poaching young guides from the company to replenish their ranks. Not bringing back resources isn't the worst thing; if the target guide gets into trouble, it's a major case worthy of being sent to the Sanctuary.
The rewards are great, but the risks are great too. Under immense pressure, the man bit his lip until it bled, his eyes bloodshot: "I'll give you one more minute. If you don't show up, I'll go there myself. I'd rather die in a pile of pollutants than go to be judged!"
The man slammed down the phone and paced back and forth anxiously. He had just silently counted to nine when he saw several armored vehicles drive up, and a dense group of sentries got out. The man pinched the bridge of his nose as he was about to curse when a sentry wearing a high-ranking officer's insignia strode over.
“…Chief!” The man snapped to attention and saluted, then quickly reported the situation.
According to the investigation, the guides at Yaqiao were concentrated at the company's premises. Originally, the pollutants were not a threat, but now there have been a large number of sentry deaths, and the chief has to be cautious.
He led his team straight to Yaqiao. The area near the company's headquarters was eerily quiet; there wasn't a single sentry in sight, not even a speck of pollutants. Half of the sky was bright, while the other half was shrouded in dense pollutants and dark clouds—a truly bizarre sight.
The air was no longer air, but rather congealed, viscous blood plasma itself. Each inhalation felt like swallowing a mouthful of cold, rusty, bubbly water. Even with the team wearing pre-installed filtering equipment, many sentries still felt incredibly uncomfortable. But they were used to enduring it.
Following the cold tactical hand signals, several squads, led by their captains, silently infiltrated.
Corpses were everywhere—throat ones, hearts pierced, spirits bitten to death… The ground was a vibrant red.
The blood soaked the soles of the boots, creating a wet, sticky, and nauseatingly sticky feeling.
"...Report, no mental energy response indicators!" The captain narrowed his eyes and said, "There are no living sentries here."
But a powerful energy still lingers, even though the original body is dead, it still vividly and sharply envelops the entire area.
The source of the entity sat on the steps of the gate with its head bowed. To its right lay a dull dagger. It showed no signs of life. Although its body was soaked in blood and human tissue, there were no external injuries. The cause of death was unknown.
The captain was still shaken: "If he hadn't died, and we had run into him, a lot of us would have died."
As he spoke, he glanced at the indifferent-looking Chief. Both being S-rank, the oppressive aura emanating from the dead, unfamiliar Sentinels was nearly identical to that of the Chief. It seemed he had killed these Sentinels as well; he was truly a monster. Thank goodness they were already dead.
But for some reason, the crazed sentries didn't kill the guides. Although the two guides, found by the Federal Army, showed fear in their eyes, they maintained a basic level of calm. One was fifteen or sixteen, the other only seven or eight.
"Brother Lu hasn't been found yet!"
"Hurry to the church, there's a guide there."
Having lived in Asiabridge for so long, they understood the value of a guide. Since it was just a change of power from the company to another faction, they anxiously spoke without bothering to inquire about the Federation's situation.
The captain forced a friendly smile and reassured everyone, "Don't worry, our people have already gone."
That was someone the higher-ups ordered to be brought back. The chief had already led a team there while they were searching for the guide.
The guide's level is suspected to be S.
He'd seen plenty of S-rank Sentinels, but what would an S-rank Guide be like...?
...
On the other half of the bridge, a fierce battle could erupt at any moment. Thousands upon thousands of dark gray insects swarmed around them. Even though the sentinels were physically strong, they could not withstand the swarm's onslaught for long and were quickly devoured, leaving only a skeleton.
Although sentinels are difficult to infect, they can still be transformed into contaminants if contaminants enter the heart area.
Insects possess intelligence, and while the subbridge lacks many things, it has no shortage of fanatical sentinels. After besieging the sentinels, they seize the opportunity to invade the heart and transform their enemies into their own kind.
Under such a plan, Yaqiao quickly fell into disarray, with nothing but pollutants and contaminants in sight.
But there is another place where a sweet scent attracts insects to keep coming closer.
Outside the church, the insect corpses were scattered all over the ground, and the leopard and falcon tore through the insect swarm's defenses from above and below.
"Damn it..." Senno leaned against the door, looking utterly disheveled. His lip piercing had faded, and his only remaining hand trembled as he wiped his forehead to avoid blood blurring his vision. He was a far cry from the high spirits he had displayed just a few hours earlier.
"Could everyone be dead?!" he shouted angrily. No matter how he pleaded for help, he received no response, leading Senno to suspect that the company had already been taken over.
The captain was panting hysterically, veins bulging on his forehead. The two of them had been fighting off the pollutants and were now completely exhausted.
Several corpses lay nearby—the other members of the mercenary squad had either been infected unintentionally or had gone mad from overload of their senses and were killed by their captain.
Several bloody gashes appeared on the leopard's bulging back, and insects rushed in to devour it, only to be shattered by the energy wave unleashed by the leopard's howl. The pain was felt by the insects themselves, and Senno gritted his teeth until they broke.
Suddenly, the swarm's attack weakened, and the captain jumped to his feet: "Go! Get him away quickly! There are unfamiliar sentries approaching!"
Senno knew the situation without needing to explain further. They had been resisting until now because of Lu Xuejin in the church; they couldn't let her fall into the hands of other sentries. Even though the company could no longer issue orders, neither of them considered abandoning Lu Xuejin and running away.
Such a guide, once left unguarded, will inevitably perish without a complete corpse.
Their lives are worthless.
"Senno, you take him first, I'll carry him." The captain gave the red-haired sentry a hard shove, not out of a sense of self-sacrifice, but because the captain's spiritual form had a greater advantage against the swarm, and only by having him hold off the guide could they get far.
"You must protect him, remember!" he shouted sternly.
"Damn it, why are you so talkative!"
At that very moment, a powerful pressure descended upon their mental images, a ruthless whip, a sharp weapon, coldly, decisively, and mercilessly slicing through their mental barriers. Their fragile mental images offered no resistance, and were instantly destroyed by the sweeping wind and snow.
The captain, still with a ferocious expression, and Senno, who was about to run away, remained frozen for a moment before collapsing to the ground with a thud.
Buzz, buzz.
The Federation forces arrived a split second before the swarm of insects invaded.
After the fighting, all fell silent. Someone set fire to the place, and the flames engulfed all the filth.
The outpost scouts investigated the remains in front of the church: "Four bodies. One was killed because of a heart mutation, one was killed because he was suspected of going berserk, and the cause of death for the other two is unknown. This setup must be the company's hunting dogs."
They cleared away all threats outside the church before slowly pushing open the doors. Inside, the church remained holy and clean, with the headless angel statue, the shimmering holy pool, and rows of low wooden benches; the chaos outside seemed undisturbed.
Gunpowder smoke intruded.
There was no sign of the guide, but no one showed any panic or confusion.
The procession was arranged in an orderly fashion, then, like Moses parting the sea, it made way for the future leader.
Beneath the brim of his officer's cap were a pair of gray eyes. He had white hair, but it wasn't a lustrous, beautiful white like silk; rather, it was a bleak, dry white, as if it were dead.
The commander waited for a while, but no one came out, so he walked straight towards the angel statue.
He paused as he walked around behind the statue. The pool reflected the boy's thin, lonely figure. He hid behind the angel statue, looking back helplessly, weeping silently, his tears falling like raindrops into the pool.
"...We are from the Federation, here to rescue you," the commander said curtly, softening his tone.
After a moment of silence, the water began to ripple, and the young guide, supporting his broken wings, slowly emerged, gazing into the distance under the watchful eyes of the army.
The place was littered with corpses.
The young guide leaned weakly against the angel statue, sunlight and firelight dancing through his golden hair, his lake-blue eyes, washed clean, filled with melancholy.
“They’re all dead,” he said blankly.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com