Invasion - Chapter 50

Chapter 50

The Tuomeina Outpost was originally a small outpost, but it had been very lively these past few days.

Several teams of sentinels from outside sat in the outpost's only tavern, discussing the recent contaminated zone expansion.

"The No. 77 Contaminated Zone expanded again, how many people died this time?"

"Who knows? Human lives aren’t worth much these days, no one keeps track of how many die."

"The Golden Tree’s expansions are becoming more and more frequent, each time silently, and so fast, it's impossible to guard against. One of my brothers didn't make it out in time, he’s trapped in there."

When Ni Ji and his team entered, many people in the tavern looked over.

Their gazes, filled with vigilance, scanned their attire.

Some, seeing the golden badges on their shoulders, recognized their identity, and showed a hint of disdain.

Those were the special golden badges only the Royal Guard in the imperial capital had.

"Yo, look who’s here," a large man with a thick beard, by the bar, knocked on the table. "Ni Ji, the strongest warrior from our northern outposts. What's going on now? Become a dog of the Royal Family?"

Several sentinels sitting beside him laughed along.

The sentinels from the border outposts and those from the capital always looked down on each other.

Here, on the border, the residents lived in harsh lands, their lives constantly on the line.

Every year, they had to hand over most of the food they painstakingly grew, risking their lives, and the supplies they collected, to the White Tower as taxes.

The things they worked so hard to obtain were handed over in exchange for Guide pheromones issued by the White Tower, and the "holy bones" that protected the outpost, which needed to be replaced every year.

Sentinels couldn’t live without Guide pheromones, and the outpost residents couldn't survive without the protection of the "holy bones."

So the border sentinels, towards the royalty living in the capital, and towards that mysterious White Tower, were both reliant and resentful.

Inevitably, this resentment was projected onto the sentinels from the White Tower.

The sentinels who came with Ni Ji were furious.

They were all elites of the Royal Guard, even in the capital, they were respected, when had they ever been treated like this?

Adjutant Ji Xuan, who had come with them, reached out to stop everyone, slightly shaking his head, not letting them cause trouble before the battle.

"Brother Ni, don’t mind that blind man. Come sit over here," one or two people in the tavern raised their hands towards Ni Ji.

The strong warriors from different outposts had more or less heard of each other, mostly just acquaintances who had met once or twice.

The more experienced sentinels were, the more restrained they were, rarely forming deep friendships with people who weren’t in their team.

The situation of brothers drinking together today, then tragically dying in a contaminated zone tomorrow, happened far too often.

So everyone built a thick wall around their hearts.

Unless necessary, they were very unwilling to let anyone leave a distinct memory in their mental landscapes.

Ni Ji sat down next to a sentinel he knew.

The sentinel's nickname was Big Sickle, and the bearded man who had just spoken was nicknamed Blind Man.

"Why are there so many people here?" Ni Ji led his people over and handed a Guide pheromone stick to Big Sickle.

"What else?" Big Sickle took the stick from Ni Ji, put it in his mouth, and lit it. "They're all here for the Golden Tree."

"The White Tower issued a reward, to conquer the No. 77 Contaminated Zone. One million imperial coins and capital residency," Big Sickle, his cigarette between his fingers, pointed at the people around them. "There are a lot of poor people in this world, and even more who don’t care about their lives, so, here they are."

"Brother Ni, you guys are here for the same reason, right?" He looked at the new golden badge on Ni Ji’s arm. "Queen's direct Special Operations Unit, why else would you be here if not for the Golden Tree?"

Ni Ji glanced at him, tacitly agreeing.

Big Sickle leaned closer to him, lowering his voice, "Want to exchange information, brother?"

Ji Xuan, who was sitting with Ni Ji, said, "No one has conquered the No. 77 Contaminated Zone so far, where did you get your information?"

Big Sickle glanced at him and sneered.

"Don't play dumb with me, isn't this what you guys in the capital are best at?" He tapped his head with two fingers. "Normal people don’t come out, but lunatics do. As long as the brains inside are still there, you can read any image. Don’t tell me you don't know about this.”

Ji Xuan didn't get angry, he smiled. "You’re right. What kind of information do you have? We’re willing to buy it."

Big Sickle rolled his eyes at him, ignoring him, and quickly made a sign language gesture to Ni Ji behind his back.

"So? Only exchange, not selling," he said.

Ni Ji thought for a moment, nodded, and the two shook hands under the table.

Exchanging some information on their personal terminals.

Big Sickle, having gotten what he wanted, was in a good mood. He went to the bar with Ni Ji, and ordered two drinks.

"After going in, it’s every man for himself. So many people, who knows how many will make it out alive," he clinked glasses with Ni Ji, then talked about what he had seen these past few days, "So many people came this time, all kinds. Brother Ni, I even saw a Guide yesterday."

Big Sickle had known Ni Ji for many years. Although they didn't interact much, he knew that this was a man who could remain calm under any circumstances.

But at this moment, he seemed to see a flash of panic in Ni Ji's eyes, even the hand holding the glass trembled slightly.

He blinked, and when he looked again, Ni Ji’s hand steadily held the glass, his expression unchanged, just like usual.

It was probably just his imagination, he had had a bit too much to drink tonight. Big Sickle thought.

"A Guide?" Ni Ji turned to ask him.

"Yeah, pretty rare, right?" Big Sickle said. "When I saw her yesterday, I almost thought I was hallucinating. Even Guides are coming to contaminated zones these days, and she even went in alone."

Ni Ji’s hand was steady as he raised his glass, silently taking a sip, his eyes lowered. "What kind of Guide?"

"About this tall, black hair," Big Sickle gestured. "She was dressed similarly to us, and the things she carried were professional, but you could tell at a glance she wasn't a sentinel, thin arms and legs. If it weren't for the silver badge of the Guide Academy on her arm, I wouldn’t have recognized her."

"She already went in? Yesterday?" Ni Ji asked again.

Big Sickle found it strange that Ni Ji would be so interested in a Guide.

But thinking about it, it was a Guide who had come to a contaminated zone, and such a dangerous place like the Golden Tree, who wouldn’t be surprised hearing this?

Yesterday, the entire Tuomeina outpost had been discussing this, it was even more talked about than the expansion of the No. 77 Contaminated Zone.

"Yeah, my brother who was guarding the border saw her walk in with his own eyes. Alone, a gun, a blade, and a small bag, that's all she brought. That blade of hers wasn’t ordinary, probably not many people would recognize it. A demon blade that only appears in high-level contaminated zones, black and white."

When he finished speaking, and looked back, Ni Ji beside him was gone.

Even the sentinels who had come with Ni Ji had quickly left the tavern.

Was he in such a hurry to go to the contaminated zone? Big Sickle was stunned.

Ni Ji’s personality wasn’t like this before. Although this young captain was very powerful, he was incredibly cautious when entering a battlefield.

He was just like him, someone who valued the lives of his brothers. Before entering a contaminated zone, he would carefully collect information, make plans, and only move after careful consideration.

Perhaps because of that incident. He had no more attachments, and his style had changed.

Big Sickle remembered the news he had heard, about the annihilation of the northern border outpost.

He sighed, shook his head, and had another drink.

When Lin Yuan arrived at the boundary of the Golden Tree Contaminated Zone, she found it was surprisingly lively.

Quite a few sentinels were gathered in the open space in front of the prominent red warning sign.

Several teams were crossing the bright red warning sign, entering the contaminated zone.

The sentinels, seeing Lin Yuan, a Guide, appear here alone, all looked surprised.

Lin Yuan was used to this. To avoid troublesome questions, without a word, she adjusted her equipment and directly crossed the warning line, entering the contaminated zone.

As she stepped past that invisible boundary, a sentinel entered almost at the same time as her.

The sentinel, half of his body already disappearing, turned to look at her, his mouth wide open in disbelief.

"Ah, where did this Guide come from…"

He didn't finish his sentence before disappearing completely.

Lin Yuan seemed to see countless golden veins, golden threads like tree roots, spreading a giant net in the vast space.

One of the golden threads, seeing her, quickly swam over, its tip touching her body.

Lin Yuan's vision blurred. When she opened her eyes again, she was already inside the world of the contaminated zone.

When she came in, there had clearly been many sentinels around her, those people only entering a little bit before her, one even entering at the same time as her.

But when Lin Yuan stood firm, she found herself in an empty street, the long intersection stretching into the distance, empty, without a single person.

She extended her tentacles, searching the surrounding area, not finding any human emotions.

There were no people here. No animals, no living creatures at all.

Lin Yuan thought, so this Golden Tree Contaminated Zone was different from other places, no matter how many people entered as a team, they would be scattered to different parts of the contaminated zone.

This was probably also why it had been impossible to conquer this contaminated zone, having lost the possibility of brute-forcing it with numbers, even after so many years.

According to the map she had secretly obtained, before being contaminated, the No. 77 Contaminated Zone had been a prosperous small town.

It had a large population, an outpost, and even a military presence.

She didn't know why, but one day, it had become a land of death, a strange zone that swallowed countless lives.

Right now, it was “daytime” in the contaminated zone.

The empty town was silent, the breeze rolling up withered leaves, which drifted along the bluestone-paved streets.

On both sides of the road were sturdy houses built of white stone and red bricks, beautiful flowers planted in the many dark windows.

It could be seen that before this area fell, the people here had lived good lives.

Lin Yuan walked along the deserted street, only the faint sound of her footsteps could be heard, the world terrifyingly quiet, as if she was the only person walking in the entire town.

A strange sound of footsteps suddenly came.

Thump, thump, thump, thump…

Like some kind of animal’s hooves heavily stepping on the stone bricks.

The sound was very abrupt, the tentacles didn't even detect any emotional fluctuations, nor any movement beforehand.

As if something had suddenly appeared at the corner of the intersection.

Lin Yuan pressed herself against the building by the roadside, her back against the cold, red brick wall, motionless.

A group of strange "cows", carrying long, sharp blades, lined up neatly, walking on two legs, appeared from the corner of the street.

Yes, "cows."

The common, docile creatures with white fur and black spots seen in pastures.

Here, they stood on two legs, their eyes blood-red, carrying long blades on their shoulders, walking in unison, their heavy footsteps echoing, one after another, emerging from the corner of the street.

The last cow had a disemboweled sentinel impaled on its sharp blade.

The dead sentinel's limbs drooped, his body hanging on the blade, his lifeless eyes staring straight at Lin Yuan, as if he couldn't believe he had died like this.

Lin Yuan recognized him, he was the one who had entered the contaminated zone at the same time as her.

At that time, this sentinel with short hair had opened his mouth wide in surprise, just saying half a sentence, "Ah, where did this Guide come from…"

He hadn’t finished speaking before disappearing. He had probably wanted to ask this strange girl after entering the contaminated zone.

Who would have thought that this half-sentence would be his last words?

The giant tentacles appeared, intertwining, wrapping around Lin Yuan’s body, protecting her within their thick, soft embrace.

Lin Yuan, shielded by the tentacles, pressed against the wall, motionless.

Those strange cows, lined up, carrying the sentinel's body, walked past Lin Yuan.

They seemed to not see the large mass of crooked tentacles beside them, and Lin Yuan standing among the tentacles.

Thump, thump, thump…

The footsteps gradually faded away, leaving a trail of thick blood on the bluestone street.

As if something underground was absorbing it, the warm blood from the young sentinel's body quickly seeped under the bluestone bricks, disappearing without a trace.

The street remained clean.

The wind blew, and a few dried petals flew up from the ground.

That vibrant life that had just died hadn't left a single trace here.

The tentacles slowly loosened their hold on Lin Yuan.

Lin Yuan stared at the clean ground for a moment, then continued walking forward.

Before coming, she had carefully read the internal data on the No. 77 Contaminated Zone at the Special Research Department.

She knew that one of the dangers here was that strange creatures would appear on the streets at any time, even during the relatively safe "daytime."

Those monsters would suddenly appear anywhere, powerful, ferocious, and emotionless. They didn’t rely on vision to identify humans, but completely on capturing the emotional fluctuations of humans, to find sentinels lurking nearby.

Most sentinels, even if they were good at hiding, couldn’t completely conceal their mental fluctuations.

So they would inevitably be caught and die tragically in this contaminated zone.

Lin Yuan was someone who rarely had emotional fluctuations, and the tentacles’ embrace could further effectively block all of her human emotions.

That was why she had come here alone, to search for the thing she wanted.

The tentacles slightly dispersed, surrounding Lin Yuan, cautiously moving forward along the bluestone street.

Not long after, the sound of dragging iron chains came from nearby.

Lin Yuan had just stopped, burying herself among the tentacles, when a giant fat pig, carrying a blood-stained butcher knife on its shoulder, turned the corner.

That fat pig, its face covered in flab, a ferocious expression, wearing a pair of human overalls, walking upright on two legs, it held the bloody butcher knife in one hand, and its other hand was actually dragging a human.

That man might have been a sentinel, his face covered with tears and snot, being dragged by the “pig man”, naked, an iron chain around his neck, crawling painfully on the street on all fours.

Lin Yuan pressed herself against the wall, motionless.

The pig didn’t see Lin Yuan, who was wrapped in tentacles.

But the man being dragged on the ground saw the girl standing by the roadside at a glance. He immediately screamed.

"Help! Save me! Help me!"

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