Invasion - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It turned out that the video playing was the memory from Ni Ji’s mind.

The guide had forcefully invaded the criminal's mental landscape.

She read his memories, and using herself as a medium, under the operation of the brain-in-a-jar system, she played them live in front of everyone.

But, could a guide really do something like that?

The audience was not sure.

Most of them were low-ranking sentinels from civilian backgrounds.

The rare guides who were kept in the White Tower were like something that lived only in newspapers and on television.

They had always thought that those guides in their beautiful dresses were just flowers used to decorate the empire’s prosperity.

They were delicate and docile decorations, preciously kept in an ivory tower.

At this moment, the guide before them had left them stunned.

They felt a chill on their foreheads.

Looking at the pale-faced prisoner on the platform, whose eyebrows and eyes were being pressed down.

Looking at that delicate and fair little hand.

Imagining what it would be like if that hand pressed on them, everyone couldn't help but shiver.

“Can guides really do something like this?” The officer standing by the window murmured in disbelief.

She began to feel very annoyed.

If she had known that this Lin Yuan was so powerful and could directly invade a sentinel's mental landscape and play their memories, she shouldn't have let her do this in public.

After all, some things might not be pleasant if they were played out.

But, thinking about it, as long as she could find the worm jade and complete the task assigned by the big shots above, some minor imperfections wouldn’t matter.

That was a whole piece of living worm jade.

Not a dead one, nor a fragment worth only a small amount of money. Heaven only knew how such a large treasure could be in that contaminated zone.

Thinking about this, the officer became happy again and reached out to push Roy who was sitting next to her. “You have such a powerful guide in your Special Research Department. Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Roy rolled his eyes in a signature way, as if mocking the people from their military administration office for being country bumpkins and making such a fuss.

Who knew that Roy was also chewing on his handkerchief internally.

This young girl was truly an enigma; she was so good at hiding her strength. He had completely misjudged her.

On the screen, the burly sentinel sat down in front of the screen.

That is, he sat down next to Ni Ji.

He handed over a steaming drink.

“Captain,” the towering sentinel said with a slightly embarrassed smile, “can I take some time off after this mission is over?”

Ni Ji turned to look at him.

“My wife is due next month,” the big sentinel said, scratching his head with a smile. “This is our second child. It’s really too much for her to be alone at home.”

He already had rough features, and three scars that diagonally crossed half of his face, which made his smile look very distorted.

But he loved to smile, grinning to reveal his white teeth.

Ni Ji took a sip of the steaming drink, his gaze lingering on that smiling face for a while.

“Yes, this mission was completed very smoothly. There will be a bonus, and you can take it home with you.”

What sounded from the screen was Ni Ji's voice.

That voice was very pleasant, like an ice spring slowly flowing through a mountain stream, with a calm and steady power.

If one only listened to that voice, it would be impossible to think that he was a vicious murderer who could blow someone's head off with a single shot.

The time for shift change had arrived. The female sentinel who was lurking in the tall tree slid down from the tree like a shadow.

She had a high ponytail at the back of her head and a pair of very strong legs.

When she landed, she casually crushed a human-faced spider, as large as a basin, that had crawled out of the darkness.

Another short-haired female sentinel in the team greeted her happily and handed her a cup of warmed food.

The two girls sat by the bonfire, holding hands.

“Sister, the captain said that there will be a good bonus this time,” the short-haired girl said happily. “I want to buy some candy for the younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage.”

“No,” the older sister said, holding her gun firmly in one hand while drinking her soup with the other, without even looking up.

“Why? I really want to see the children cheering and rushing over,” the short-haired girl leaned closer, nuzzling her older sister's shoulder with her slightly rough face, causing the soup in her cup to slosh.

“This winter will be very cold. Mother Ma said that the orphanage is short on coal and food,” the long-haired girl put down her cup and counted on her fingers. “I also need to buy some cotton. If there’s money left over, I want to buy some medicine for chilblains. Mother Ma’s fingers swell every winter.”

The short-haired girl whined reluctantly and lowered her head, looking dejected.

The older sister turned to look at her, reached out, and tucked a short strand of her hair behind her ear.

Finally, she made a hand gesture, saying, "You can only buy a little bit."

The short-haired girl with rough skin and covered in mud clapped her hands happily, like a true young girl.

When she noticed Ni Ji’s gaze, the two girls stuck out their tongues.

They made an apologetic military gesture, and the older sister gave the younger sister a scolding look.

Two or three young sentinels by the bonfire made some commotion.

One of them was blushing, and his neck was pinned by his companion.

“This guy, this guy said he’s going to propose to a girl when we get back,” the companion who pinned him down said.

“Really? You’re settling down so early?”

“Where did you find that girl?”

Everyone around laughed and began asking questions.

“What kind of good woman can this guy possibly know? It’s a girl from the red-light district, and she’s even older than him,” someone said.

The young sentinel who was being pinned down blushed even more, and he plucked up the courage to explain, “She, she's a good girl.”

“Can a good girl look at someone like us? You silly boy, you’re not being fooled by a woman, are you?”

The atmosphere began to become lively.

Ni Ji got up and walked over there.

“Captain.”

“Captain Ni.”

As the perspective moved along, the screen showed the vivid faces of the sentinels.

Their gazes were either admiring or trusting.

Only the researcher wearing glasses seemed out of place in the entire team.

He wore expensive, non-regulation clothes, hugged a black backpack tightly in his arms, and sat alone by the fire, looking a little absent-minded.

Ni Ji’s gaze lingered on him slightly, then moved on.

Finally, he came to the fire.

“At dawn, we will leave this contaminated zone and end this mission. I’ve said many times, that the closer we get to the end, the more vigilant we have to be.”

Ni Ji’s voice was not loud, but it was concise and highly effective. Everyone immediately calmed down and became vigilant again.

“Sorry, Captain.”

“My bad, Captain.”

The sentinels who had made the noise earlier bowed their heads and apologized.

Ni Ji’s gaze fell on the young sentinel with the still-flushed face. He was the youngest recruit in the team.

“Don't listen to their nonsense.” Ni Ji placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. “If someone like us who walks around with his head hanging by a thread has a girl who is willing to marry him, you should treat her well. Her background doesn’t matter.”

The young sentinel’s face turned even redder, but his eyes were shining.

Ni Ji’s gaze went past him and towards the dense darkness in the distance.

His eyesight was exceptionally powerful, and he could see far and wide, detecting even the smallest details.

He gazed intently, carefully searching every corner of the darkness. Not finding anything out of the ordinary.

Only then did he withdraw his gaze, and look back at the sentinels around him, who were about to complete their mission and return to safety, and who were already starting to become happy.

The orange firelight was on the faces of the warriors who were talking softly.

The entire tone of the screen gradually became warmer.

Outside the screen, all the viewers were watching this scene, and they could empathize with the heart of the person whose perspective the video was from, and feel it gradually become warmer.

At this time, everyone couldn't help but have a thought in their hearts.

Would this kind of captain really be willing to kill the people in his sight?

Humans are often easily influenced by their emotions.

When they were watching the memory of the dead researcher.

Everyone had taken on the perspective of the deceased.

They only felt that the killer with the gun was hateful, cold-blooded, and ruthless. He was an absolutely unforgivable villain.

At this time, seeing the video from Ni Ji’s perspective.

Even though they had not seen everything yet, many people couldn't help but murmur in their hearts.

He was clearly a very gentle captain, so would he really be willing to harm his brothers?

Perhaps, there was some injustice?

The video made up of memories was not continuous.

After a large patch of static, the screen cut to the next scene.

It was still in that ruin.

Ni Ji stood on high ground, walking along the edge of the ruins, gazing at the pitch-black world in the distance.

From that darkness, some faint and strange sounds were coming, as if something was rushing toward them in hordes.

They were still far away, but those things were extremely fast, rushing in like a flood.

Ni Ji was standing next to the burly man and the ponytail female sentinel.

“There are many, very many. They’re heading straight toward us,” the burly man said with a solemn expression.

“How could this be? Why are so many mutated species suddenly appearing?” the ponytail girl said, her brows tightly furrowed.

“No time to think about it,” Ni Ji said. “Give me the inducer.”

“Captain?”

“Captain! It’s too dangerous.”

The two warriors beside him protested in unison.

“Don’t waste your breath, give it to me,” Ni Ji reached out his hand.

This person was a dictatorial captain during times of crisis.

He got what he wanted.

He pulled out the short knife he carried with him, and with a few strokes, he drew a simple route map on the ground.

“You guys go this way. We’ll meet at the exit.”

After saying this, he moved his gaze back and forth between the faces of the two in front of him, and hesitated slightly.

“Brother Ta will lead the team. My sister and I will cover the rear,” the female warrior said first, her voice with the confidence of a female powerhouse. “My sister and I are the strongest combination in the team besides the captain.”

Ni Ji didn’t hesitate any longer and waved in agreement.

He turned around, opened the inducer, and poured it all over his body. He drew his knife and charged toward the dense darkness.

He was heading in the direction of the monsters that were rushing over.

“He’s crazy, is he crazy?”

“Doesn’t he want to live anymore? That was a whole bottle of inducer.”

The audience watching in front of the screen were shocked. As sentinels, they all knew what that inducer was.

It was extremely dangerous to use in the contaminated zone.

Even if only a tiny bit of it was applied somewhere, it would attract monsters from the surrounding area.

For Ni Ji to pour the whole bottle on himself was simply a disaster.

He would be a moving target, madly and firmly attracting all the monsters.

Even a madman wouldn’t dare to do such a thing.

But he did it. All of the team members had a chance to evacuate safely, while he was the only one who fell into extreme danger.

The video that followed was very chaotic, with the camera rotating very quickly.

All that could be seen were the scenes of battle that were moving back and forth.

The screen was filled with the mutated and grotesque creatures of the contaminated zone.

Hairy scythes, wriggling lumps of flesh, huge, blood-red eyes...

They surged up layer upon layer.

Severed limbs flew everywhere, and the piercing screams that hurt their eardrums covered the sky and the earth.

The screen was covered in thick blood time after time.

The boundaries between the sky, earth and the screen had disappeared.

In everyone’s eyes, there was only the captain in the midst of his arduous battle.

This captain, using his flesh and blood, by himself, lured away all the monsters.

He fought alone among the overwhelming swarm of monsters.

When the bullets ran out, he drew his long knife. When the long knife broke, all that was left was his flesh and blood.

He was a captain worthy of the title.

Don't die.

Hold on! Captain.

Break free, Captain!

This was what the audience in front of the screen were shouting.

At this time, no one called him a murderer anymore. No one wanted him to fall, even if they all knew that he would finally be able to leave alive.

A huge whale appeared beside him.

First, it was the size of a calf, then it grew to be the size of a house, and soon it was as large as a mountain, shaking the heavens and the earth.

That black and white fish, with a pair of purple burning eyes, was suspended in the air. Its powerful tail fins slapped away the monsters that had come in hordes.

The whale’s cry rang out, like a song, in this tragic battle, as if a call from a distant homeland was piercing through the thick despair.

The man and the whale, using their battered bodies, opened a gap in the monsters’ encirclement.

Breakthrough.

The screen went dark and lit up again.

The terrifying battle was over.

Ni Ji was walking down a street with spores flying everywhere. He reached out several times to wipe away the blood obscuring his vision.

He was walking very fast, and his breathing was clearly audible, with a hint of unease.

At that moment, when he saw the place.

The breathing in the screen suddenly disappeared.

The world was terrifyingly silent.

There was no life in that gray space.

The older sister was tightly embracing the younger sister.

A huge, dried-up finger had pierced through the young bodies at the same time.

It was unknown who had cut off the monster’s huge finger, but the lives of the two had frozen in that pose.

In the sky, countless flocculent spores slowly floated down, gently falling on the dead bodies like flower petals.

The long-haired girl's braid came undone, her long hair falling down, gently covering the person she was protecting in her arms.

It looked as if the two sisters had fallen asleep together.

Ni Ji's gaze solidified on the two embracing corpses, but his footsteps did not stop.

He walked past them, and withdrew his gaze. And he ran!

The airflow around him was in chaos, and the spores that had been stirred up by the turbulence were flying everywhere, like chaotic ashes being scattered in a funeral.

The shadows of the ruins and plants quickly receded in his sight.

Ni Ji was running madly through the night.

The corpses of the warriors gradually became more numerous.

They were mixed with the remains of the monsters.

How could this be?

Everyone outside the screen had the same question in their hearts. Clearly, their captain had risked his life to lure away the monsters.

Clearly, they were close to the safe exit.

Why were so many monsters still chasing after them? Why had so many people died? Why had so much blood been shed?

Some people were lying on their backs in the flying ashes, their empty eyes open, looking at the sky.

Some were incomplete, and their appearances were unbearable even for seasoned warriors to look at.

But in the screen outside, in that video of memories that was displayed in front of everyone.

Every dead face had been seen by Ni Ji, who was running all the way.

The color of the entire world had disappeared from his eyes.

The earth was a vast expanse of gray and black.

Only the tragically dead bodies were still there with intense colors that were especially distinct in his sight.

Engraved in his memory.

He stopped in front of a sentinel who was still alive.

Even though there was no hope of rescuing this warrior.

He was the youngest sentinel in the team, and was almost just a boy. He was shy and wanted to marry a girl from the red-light district.

“Cap…Captain,” the young sentinel saw him.

Ni Ji, who had been running all the way, stopped in front of him.

“Is there anything else you want to say?” he said, with a particularly calm tone.

As if he was still the same as always, that calm, composed, powerful captain who could resolve any crisis.

“I, there's a letter under my pillow in the dorms, take it, take it…”

“Give it to that girl for you?” Ni Ji asked.

“No, no.” The boy tried to raise his arm, but he had no hands. “Burn that letter. Don't let her see it, don’t let her be sad for me.”

Ni Ji looked at him. After a moment, he gritted his teeth and said one word: “Okay.”

The boy cried. “Take, take all the money I saved, give it to her. Let her live well, and live a different life.”

“Okay.”

“Captain, Captain. I still want to be your soldier. I still want to be your soldier…”

He had no more words.

Ni Ji waited for a moment but didn’t hear any other sound. He turned around and walked forward.

Red blood repeatedly covered his vision. He no longer raised his arms to wipe it away.

The whole world was a blood-red world.

Chaotic breathing filled the screen, filling the ears of every viewer.

The square in front of the screen was eerily silent. The dark, crowded sentinels pursed their lips, and were terrifyingly silent.

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