Invasion - Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Shu Jingtong saw the sweat on Lin Yuan’s face. The beads of sweat dripped down, gathered at the tip of her chin, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand.
She wasn’t having an easy time either, Shu Jingtong thought.
But, she was actually learning and growing.
When Lin Yuan had fired the first shot, she hadn’t hit the monster. The human-headed monster had only paused for a bit before quickly running away.
But by the second shot, the monster's movements had become unusually slow and clumsy, as if its brain had suddenly become stupid, and it had been hit hard by Lin Yuan's bullet.
By the third shot, the monster had completely frozen, not moving at all, turning into a live target. Lin Yuan had blasted off half of its head.
In just three shots, she had learned it, how to instantly invade a monster’s brain. In that short period of time, she had learned how to seize her enemy and affect their actions.
On a chaotic battlefield like this, her learning ability was terrifying.
If, she hadn’t grown up in the White Tower since she was young, what kind of person would she have become? That thought flashed through Shu Jingtong's mind.
The monster on the ceiling had not reappeared. It seemed to sense the threat and was hiding far away.
But the metal ceiling of the dining room was slowly deforming, with bubbles forming in many places, and rusty colored liquid seeping out.
That giant human-headed monster was extremely cunning.
It was no longer actively attacking. But, without anyone knowing when it had done so, it had spread its highly corrosive saliva in all the places it had crawled over.
It had been repeatedly shot in the face, and it was filled with hatred, so it wanted to pry open the roof of the entire airship, and tear off a part of the tin can.
So that all of the mutated creatures could come pouring in and let the people who had repeatedly caused it pain taste its revenge.
Drip.
Some parts of the ceiling had been corroded through, and thick acid began to drip down.
That liquid landed on the dining table, quickly creating a puff of smoke and corroding a small, round hole on the table’s surface.
Drip.
That sound was like it was hitting everyone’s hearts, corroding a hole called terror there.
Everyone stopped their actions and looked up at the ceiling above them. Wondering when it would be corroded through and collapse.
Exposing all of the Guides in the cabin, who had no power to protect themselves, to the monster.
“Give the sentinel mental guidance, make her wake up.”
Lin Yuan suddenly said. She maintained her gun-holding posture and gently rubbed her shoulder.
“Mental guidance? Here?” Shu Jingtong said as he pointed at himself. “You…you’re talking to me?”
The mental world was both an incredibly vast and incredibly fragile place.
When Guides entered a sentinel’s mental landscape, they had to be very careful and cautious, like they were walking on thin ice.
If they were not careful enough, they could cause serious mental damage to the sentinel. They could also get lost in the world of the sentinel’s mental landscape and never wake up.
Therefore, most Guides chose dedicated guidance rooms for mental guidance treatment.
Those high-end guidance rooms specially built by the empire were designed to be warm and comfortable. Soft carpets, soft reclining chairs, sofas, and the walls were all top-notch in terms of soundproofing.
Most Guides also had some sort of ritual before starting mental guidance. For example, they would first calm themselves through meditation, play some soft and soothing music, and burn some light and comfortable fruit-scented incense.
After entering the sentinel’s mental landscape, the Guides would also be gentle and courteous. They would never enter too deeply without thinking it through.
They would only carefully remove some of the mental pollutants that had accumulated in the outer area. They wouldn’t be too rough, and they would always prioritize safety.
There was no such precedent. No one would perform mental guidance in a place filled with blood and danger like this.
Especially not on a sentinel who had just been critically injured, and whose mental landscape was definitely a mess.
“Yeah,” Lin Yuan said as she tilted her head to look at him, her expression natural. “You had the top score in mental guidance in our class, right? I think I remember that correctly.”
Although she didn't know her classmates very well, she still had some impression of the name that always ranked first in the semester assessments.
Shu Jingtong’s face turned red. He wasn't sure whether Lin Yuan was mocking him or perhaps she was telling the truth.
Lin Yuan’s mental strength was indeed powerful and unmatched.
But when it came to such delicate work as mental guidance, he, he truly was the top student in the academy.
Shu Jingtong took a deep breath and looked for a clean area on his clothes. He wiped the blood from his hands.
When he reached out to the sentinel’s forehead, he couldn’t help but glance up.
Nicole and another female Guide’s eyes shone as they gave him a thumbs up.
From the corner of his eye, Lin Yuan had already turned back. Her gaze was still locked onto the ceiling, as if she knew that Shu Jingtong would do it even without looking.
She had also remembered his grades.
Shu Jingtong regulated his breathing and calmed himself before he gently put his warm hand on the sentinel’s cold eyes.
Lin Yuan felt someone tugging on her clothes.
She turned around and saw that the sentinel with the long braid had awakened.
Half of her body was covered in white bandages, and there wasn't a trace of blood on her face. But as soon as she opened her eyes, she reached out to pull Lin Yuan.
“You…” she said as she pointed at the gun Lin Yuan was holding. “That gun’s not for you. Let’s switch.”
Her voice was hoarse at first, but when she said the last word, she was already able to sit up. She took a smaller scorpion submachine gun from her waist and traded it with Lin Yuan.
Lin Yuan returned the heavy assault rifle and took the much lighter submachine gun. She rubbed her shoulder.
A large area of red skin was showing under the wide, dark blue sportswear.
Half of the sentinel’s shoulder had been completely disabled. She used her one good arm to lift the heavy metal weapon to her shoulder.
“You, you can't shoot anymore,” Shu Jingtong said as he helped support her.
He had personally bandaged her wounds, so he knew how serious they were. If this person were not a sentinel, but a Guide or an ordinary person, wounds like this would have killed her two or three times over.
That kind of clumsy, makeshift suturing wouldn’t be able to withstand any shaking, let alone the powerful recoil of a gun.
“If I don’t shoot, we'll all just die,” the girl said as she lifted her bloodied braid over her shoulder and looked up at the ceiling, which was gradually deforming and softening. She had dark circles under her eyes. "All of you will die. And so will I."
“Then…” Shu Jingtong thought for a moment, and finally said, “Then put the butt of the gun against my shoulder.”
He supported the sentinel’s injured body from behind and reached out his hands, which usually only arranged flowers and made tea, to help support the heavy weapon, letting the hard butt of the gun rest against his shoulder.
Shu Jingtong knew that many people were secretly watching him. He and an unfamiliar sentinel were too close.
But he suddenly felt like he didn’t care anymore.
Leaning against him was a commoner sentinel, without any title or halo.
But she was a life.
She was a hero who, even with a disabled arm, was still holding a gun, wanting to protect them.
At this critical juncture of life and death, she was someone he should help with all of his might.
The warmth of the sentinel’s back could be felt through her clothes, and he could smell the lingering scent of gunpowder and blood on her.
Shu Jingtong supported her, and together, they held the gun. They were very close, but there were no improper thoughts in his heart.
At this moment, he vaguely felt like he was also a warrior, standing shoulder to shoulder with a sentinel on the battlefield, waiting together to face the ferocious and cruel enemies.
The ceiling of the cabin trembled, and dust fell down.
Then, a large piece of the roof shattered and fell into the cabin, before the despairing gazes of everyone.
With a crash, it stirred up the debris and dust everywhere.
The sunlight shone in, and it was dazzling.
The inside of the airship was no longer safe. It was like a tin can whose lid had been lifted, revealing the fresh meat inside to be devoured.
At the edge of the gaping hole in the ceiling, a monster’s face appeared. It was a six or seven-year-old little boy, who seemed to be very obese. There were two red spots on his cheeks, and his mouth was open to reveal his wide and strange front teeth.
The sentinel fired first, and the head of the boy was shot through on the spot. It rolled down the interior wall of the airship, crying “waa, waa.”
The powerful recoil from the gunshot hit Shu Jingtong’s shoulder unexpectedly.
It hurt!
So that was how powerful it was. He gritted his teeth, steadied himself, and supported the sentinel whose back was against his.
That human-headed monster dodged the first bullet and quickly rushed forward, but halfway there, it suddenly slowed down.
The face that was covered in tears started to laugh foolishly, with a dazed look as if it was dreaming.
The sentinel’s second volley of bullets followed and blasted it to pieces.
Another head appeared from the edge, and then two, and a third.
As soon as those terrifyingly agile creatures showed their faces, their movements became slow and sluggish, as if they had been bewitched.
For sentinels, whose eyesight was excellent and physical fitness was powerful, this was no different from shooting at stationary targets.
The sentinel quickly took care of those monsters, two or three shots at a time. The monsters, which had been so difficult to deal with before, were now as easy to kill as chopping vegetables.
She gave the girl who was standing next to her a look of surprise.
That young woman, who was wearing dark blue clothes, was standing in the dust that was flying everywhere. Her sleeves were rolled up to her wrists. She held a small submachine gun in her pale hand and was looking up at the sky.
Beneath her feet, amidst the dust, seemed like countless strange entities were surging back and forth.
One head after another emerged from the edges of the hole.
They had strange expressions on their faces, crowded against each other as they watched the people in the cabin, saliva dripping from their mouths.
However, all of them, whether big or small, always experienced a short pause in their movements at some strange moment.
Faintly, leaping tentacles could be seen appearing suddenly from the shadows.
Those nimble tentacles would invade the brains of the monsters without fail. The monsters that had been running around, would, at a certain moment, become emotionally dazed.
The sentinel keenly seized that moment of opportunity to quickly finish the monsters.
One controlling the scene, and the other attacking. They had excellent teamwork.
Even though human-headed monsters kept reappearing, they were still unable to break through that huge opening.
This was a Guide?
So this was what a real Guide was like, the sentinel, who had never come into contact with a Guide before, thought.
With her level and combat ability, she would usually not be able to deal with so many mutated creatures at the same time.
It was the female Guide standing next to her, who had spread her powerful mental strength and taken control of the battlefield, allowing her to exert her combat power ten times over.
She had never experienced such a thrilling battle before.
Even though she was running out of bullets, even though her body was reaching its limits.
Her mental landscape, which should have fallen into chaos from exhaustion, was peaceful at this moment.
There were hardly any negative emotions that came from the pain in her body or the exhaustion from overusing her mental strength.
This kind of mental stability was enough to support her, to make her give it her all, to fight to the end without any reservations.
That Guide with a pure white Chinchilla as her mental body, had been giving her mental support.
He had used his feline mental strength to soothe and eliminate all of the painful negative emotions from her mental landscape.
So this was what a Guide was.
No wonder the empire cherished Guides so much.
But Guides like this really shouldn't just be the partners of sentinels. They should appear on the battlefield, becoming the best partners, and comrades, of the sentinels.
For a moment, a thought that a low-level soldier like herself shouldn't have flashed through her mind.
It was a pity, I might not be able to protect such an excellent Guide, the sentinel thought to herself with some regret as she looked at the dim yellow sky. She might not be able to protect them and make it out alive.
She had run out of bullets. And her body was at its limits.
But monsters were still emerging one after another.
They were just ordinary airship guards, and they rarely came into contact with contaminated zones.
Suddenly entering such an unfamiliar, unexplored new contaminated zone made it difficult to find the exit.
The sentinels who were fighting in the sky were all covered in blood, and from time to time, warriors, blood-soaked, fell from the sky thousands of meters high.
There were also sentinels who were badly wounded, falling back into the airship, struggling.
The first sentinel who fell down, had his legs broken, and he was covered in blood. He rolled on the floor a few times, and then propped himself up and gritted his teeth as he reached out for his gun that had fallen to the ground. Two long blood trails formed from his crawling body.
“Give me my gun, I can still fight. Damn those monsters. Those monsters killed the Captain.”
His eyes were red, and dark feathers would appear and disappear on his face. It was a sign of him turning berserk.
Nicole hesitated for a bit before walking towards the blood-covered person. She reached out a trembling hand, touched his skin, and cupped his face in her hands.
Could I do it? A poor student like myself, Nicole thought.
My grades for Channeling weren't very good. I might not be able to.
At this moment, she suddenly regretted her past laziness at the academy. She should have at least been better at Channeling.
The face in her hands was covered in black feathers, and its pupils were vertical. It roared at her fiercely, which startled her.
But soon, the black on his face faded, returning him to his human form. The sentinel had briefly regained his consciousness.
He was dazed for a moment. He looked at his amputated legs and his changing body. He passed over the gun that he was holding tightly to Nicole.
“You…can you use a gun?” he said to Nicole, his voice soft and gentle, like a plea.
“Can, can you point it at my head, and fire?” his blood-covered hand gestured at his head.
“I beg you, I don’t want to become a monster at the end.”
Nicole’s mental body appeared at this time.
It was a reticulated python with a silvery white body. The white body of the snake was moving along the floor, circling around the two.
“It’s okay, you’ll be fine. I’m a Guide. A very powerful Guide. Please calm down and cooperate with me.”
Although the Guide was very young, and she had an afro, her voice was very gentle, and the hands that were cupping the sentinel's face were soft and warm.
The silvery white snake body moved around them. The beautiful scales reflected the light in multiple colors, blocking out all the chaos and disorder around them.
The sentinel stared at her blankly. His changing face slowly became stable.
“Yes, very good. Just like that. I’ll start your mental guidance immediately,” Nicole said.
In the past, at the academy, she had always seen herself as an eccentric girl. She was rebellious, uninhibited, and very cool.
Now, she finally knew that her past arrogance was very ridiculous. They were just child’s play.
The current her was truly cool.
The young lady from a wealthy and powerful family closed her eyes, reached out, and pressed her hands onto the sentinel’s eyes.
With one person stepping up, a second and a third followed.
Many people came over, rolling up the sentinel’s trouser legs to stop the bleeding and bandage his wounds.
When they saw his broken legs, the eyes of several Guides turned red.
The sentinels in the sky tried their best to protect the shaking airship.
The Guides inside the airship were trying their best to treat the wounded who had been sent down.
Everyone was giving their best effort.
However, the monsters seemed to be endless.
The sky at this moment was orange-yellow. It was like an oil painting, and it was as beautiful as a painting.
The small airship, which had strayed inside, was shaking as it traveled on the endless canvas, desperately searching for an exit to escape.
A huge illusion of a city appeared mirage-like in the distant sky.
It was a city from the old days. The tower-like skyscrapers were closely packed together. The neon lights flickered, and the traffic flowed along the elevated roads that crisscrossed the city.
That city from the old world was like a past dream someone had lost themselves in. It hung silently in the distant sky.
A swarm of human-headed monsters, which looked like a dark cloud, flew out from that brilliantly lit illusory city.
Such an unfamiliar, and huge world, so vast and boundless.
The endless monsters, where would they be able to find the exit to escape?
The number of sentinels who could fight in the sky was decreasing. Almost everyone was lying in the airship, injured or dead, unable to move.
The Guides were sweating profusely, and many could no longer summon their mental bodies.
Shu Jingtong put down the gun in his hand.
His shoulder was now red and swollen, and he could no longer lift it.
The sentinel who had been leaning against him just now had just passed out and was now lying at his feet.
He looked at everything before him with a bit of despair.
He had done his best.
But he couldn't help but think that if only he, if only they were not so weak and powerless.
If only he hadn’t lived such a comfortable life in the White Tower since he was young, if only he had received a little bit more training, would there have been a different outcome today?
They lived in such a terrifying era, why could he cover his eyes and live such a peaceful life for so many years?
His blurry vision was filled with his comrades, who were injured and crawling all over the place. He tried his best to wipe his sweat away.
There was only one person, Lin Yuan, who was still standing straight in the center of the battlefield that was filled with blood and dust, just like before.
At the edges of the gaping hole at the top of the airship, dark heads were layered together, appearing one after another.
Like a rising black tide, refusing to fall, clinging to the hole, and accumulating layer after layer.
So many monsters, all suppressed by Lin Yuan alone.
But those monsters could not be shaken off, nor could they be killed, and there would eventually be a moment when those waves, which had accumulated to form such a high wall, would come crashing down.
Perhaps, we would all die. But I hope she, that person, could at least survive to the end, Shu Jingtong thought with blurry eyes.
Lin Yuan was standing stubbornly in the messy battlefield.
Her chest and back were soaked with sweat.
The orange sky outside the airship looked like a blazing fire.
The sky was full of human faces, all kinds of faces, with all kinds of expressions. The sounds they made were very unnerving.
The ground was covered in blood. The screams of her classmates and warriors could be heard all around her.
Lin Yuan felt that her head was hurting so badly that it was like it was about to crack.
There was a huge hole in her heart, empty. But she couldn’t pinpoint its location, as it seemed to be sealed shut by something.
Lin Yuan felt like she had returned to her childhood, when she was standing alone in that huge fire.
There were cries and screams all around her.
Everyone was going to die, she thought. Just like back then, everyone would die tragically here in the end.
No matter how hard she tried, it would be useless.
Even if she exhausted herself, she still wouldn’t be able to save anyone.
But it was okay, she wouldn’t feel any pain, nor any sadness. She was a monster without emotions.
Her heart, the place where all emotions should exist, was empty and had been sealed shut. It was as if her five senses had been blocked by her father, just like back then, and they had yet to be unsealed.
She would never feel grief or sadness.
But why was she still standing here? She didn't understand herself.
She was clearly already at her limit, recklessly overusing her mental strength, making her head hurt so badly it felt like it was about to split open. Her tentacles had also become weak and almost completely withered.
And those monsters were still piling up, layer after layer, like waves, slowly accumulating to form a terrifying high wall.
This was not something she could solve alone.
Collapse was imminent, and there was no point in holding on.
She didn't need to look. She already saw the faces of everyone around her falling, saw their despair and their pain. She heard some people telling her to leave alone.
She was not weak. Lin Yuan thought.
She belonged on this battlefield.
She didn't want to lose, and she didn't want them to die.
She simply…
A crack had appeared in the thick glacier that had been sealed in her heart for many years.
At this critical juncture of life and death, she actually felt a little relieved.
She seemed to finally understand what sorrow was.
Just then, a wave surged through, and icy seawater washed over her tense heart.
Lin Yuan was stunned. She heard a familiar whale call.
From the distant, dusky sky.
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