Life as a mercenary turned into a girl is a bit difficult

"We can't get out." Before Ren Xi could finish speaking, Ujiaxu replied with a very simple and puzzling reply.

"Ok?"

"That's what it means literally." Jiaheng on the side sighed and further explained the answer, "We have confirmed that some kind of special ether-like material has appeared in this dense forest, and its associated dark energy magnetic field Not only does it interfere with our signals, it also affects our thinking."

"Affecting thinking?"

"Yes, we have cognitive impairment in the environment covered by the magnetic field. We have fallen into some kind of motion illusion that is invisible to self-awareness. We are unable to correctly identify the memory of the environment here. In other words, we can no longer leave. Here, unless the influence of this magnetic field can be further weakened."

"Don't believe it. The ranger who is most familiar with this place in your reclamation camp took us here for a whole day and couldn't find a way out. This is evidenced by our previous speculation that some kind of hallucinogenic gas was produced in the dense forest. But even wearing a respirator mask won't help." Jiaheng spread his hands, a helpless smile on his lips.

Jiaheng's words sound like fantasy, but in relevant records, special ether-like substances have special properties, dark energy, which can indeed have an impact in the rare memetic field. Even though Lu Shengyang over there didn't hear the conversation He immediately understood Ren Xi's gaze and nodded to confirm the authenticity of Jiaheng's words.

The ether-like substance in this dense forest...

Compared with Ren Xipingjing, who had already accepted it, she was still confused. After listening for a long time, she only understood one thing: they seemed to be lost?

"But don't worry, we are not just wandering around like headless flies here. You may be interested in some interesting unexpected discoveries." Jiaheng gestured to Ujiaxu on the side, and then Ujiaxu took something from his pocket took out a few photos.

"These are the things we picked up with the primary imaging camera, and there are more of them the closer you get to the center of the dark energy magnetic field."

Taking the photo, the picture above made Ren Xi frown again. It was a skull that had been pierced by a wooden stake. It looked like it had been dried for a long time without any extra muscle tissue. If this was not enough for Jiaheng to call it For 'interesting', behind the skull is a huge black stone slab, and on top of that stone slab is a densely packed strange symbol drawn with red blood.

"These things were made by the monsters just now..." Jiaheng on the side spoke slowly and revealed an even more shocking news, "And they call themselves... new humans."

Chapter 39 Pause

This round of fighting caused extremely heavy casualties to the search team. 17 people died, six were injured, and one of them was seriously injured. Every time he coughed and gasped, he could spit out a mouthful of blood mixed with minced meat from his throat. , which shows the degree of damage to his internal organs. The fate waiting for him has been decided in this dense forest. Compared with those who have died, he has to endure the last torture before death.

They had no time to deal with the sadness of the death of their teammates, and no time to wait to get through the sequelae after injecting the activation potion. There was not much time left for them to rest and recuperate. No one knew when the monsters that had been temporarily repulsed would come back; After hurriedly burying the bodies of more than a dozen team members on the spot due to their injuries, they hurriedly left, following Ujiaxu and others as they moved toward the safe zone they said they had.

The command of the search team has long been transferred to the professional Lu Shengyang by Ren Xi. Ren Xi has always been well aware of her commanding ability. Apart from her excellent shooting ability, she cannot even be regarded as a professional. combatants.

However, getting away from the commanding task did not mean that she had time to relax her tense nerves. The discussion about what Jiaheng and others found in this dense forest was still going on even during this journey, every point The excitement brought by the information to Ren Xi is no less powerful than those bloody scenes with strong impact.

"Calling themselves new humans? Could it be that they..." Continuing the topic that was temporarily suspended due to the hasty march, Ren Xi clarified some of the confusing thoughts for a short period of time, but Ren Xi, who looked hesitant, did not put the thoughts in her mind. The words he had passed were uttered out of his mouth. Such speculation was so shocking that Ren Xi was really not sure to speak.

"Mutants, who else could there be besides them?" Jiaheng replaced Ren Xi and said the term that stopped on Ren Xi's lips, "We don't know much about this kind of existence, but these monsters meet all the recorded characteristics. All the performances just now point to their belonging to this type of group."

The records about mutants are not limited to Newborn City. Even the large database of the Southern Federation only records a few words, because there are very few records of mutant activities in the entire Southern Federation.

"But... I heard that their activity range shouldn't be in the northwest of the Ofanto Community in the north? This is the dense forest to the west of the New City. The distance between the two is at least hundreds of kilometers." In the apocalyptic wasteland In the earth world, the various dangers along the way cut off any possibility of crossing, let alone the distance of hundreds of kilometers. This distance makes it difficult for Ren Xi to admit that those monsters are integrated with the Orfanto community that is active in the horizon. mutants within the territory.

"Then what if our thinking was wrong from the beginning?" Jiaheng's voice gradually deepened at this point, and the other meanings revealed in her words made Ren Xi gradually enlarge her pupils, "The danger of the end of the world will bring mankind all over the world." Isolated, even the Southern Federation has only explored a small area of ​​the world. Perhaps...these mutants have already spread widely around the world, but we are the minority..."

"Blue-grey skin, tall humanoid body, capable of organized actions, thoughtful creation and use of tools, and often living in tribal groups..." Detailing the descriptions of the characteristics in the records of mutants, Jiaheng said Providing further evidence for his inference, "They even have primitive totem beliefs, which are completely different from the description of the variants in Ofantuo in the data. I'm afraid there is not much connection between the two. These mutants Perhaps he has been an aborigine in this dense forest for a long time."

Ren Xi knew that what Jiaheng said was reasonable. In fact, she didn't want to stick to her own opinion. It was just because Jiaheng's speculation was too shocking and the amount of information was too large that she was unwilling to accept it for a while.

Hiiragi didn't know what the mutants were, but she had heard a little bit about the Ofanto Federation. She heard that this was a political entity that had only started contact with the Southern Federation in recent years. It was located to the north of the Southern Federation and was located a short distance away. The northernmost city-state of the Southern Federation is still more than 100 kilometers away.

In addition to the basic risks along the way, you also need to pass through a huge abandoned city, which contains hidden threats that no one has dared to set foot in so far. This makes the contact between the Ofanto Community and the Southern Federation need to bypass a long distance and be pulled away. The long route adds additional dangers, which is why there is a huge gap in communication between the Southern Federation and the Ofanto Commonwealth.

Basically, every time the two sides set out to carry out a task of contacting each other, the convoys would face a certain degree of losses. In severe cases, all people and vehicles would disappear. Before a safe communication channel was completely opened up, the Yugoslav Federation and Ofanto knew each other well. The extent is limited to 'knowing that the other party exists'.

From what they said, those mutants should frequently appear in the territory of the Ofanto Commonwealth, which is why there are so few records about it in the Southern Federation. As for why the mutants appear here, let them worry about it.

In addition to the mutants and the Omando fusion, there is another thing that still guides Hiiragi's interest from the beginning to the present, and makes her unable to stop looking at Lingjiu who is walking beside Jiaheng.

That cool-looking technical armor is really eye-catching. What are the functions of this black metal shape, these brackets and wires?

"What's wrong, little sister Hiiragi Jing, what are you looking at?"

Hiei Jing didn't expect that just as she was secretly taking off Lingjiu's clothes from behind, Jiaheng's voice suddenly came to her ear. If she hadn't bit her lower lip at the critical moment, she might have been unable to bear it. There was a shameful scream among the team.

"Oh——? It turned out that you were looking at the powered exoskeleton of our science department. It feels good."

The long ending was obviously deliberate, but before Hiiragi could criticize Jiaheng's pretentiousness, the new term the other party used caught Hiiragi's attention.

"A powered exoskeleton?"

"Yes, to put it simply, it can be regarded as self-powered wearable external armor, but providing defense is not its main function. It is more about providing power assistance to the wearer, in this way increasing your strength and load-bearing. Thereby improving personal combat capabilities.”

Increase strength?

Jiaheng's explanation made Hiiragi suddenly recall the scene of killing monsters before Zero Nine. The simple two-foot attack on a monster was probably accomplished with the help of this powered exoskeleton.Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Ren Xi's bullet had already broken through most of the defense of the monster's skull.

Thinking about it this way, the frustration caused by Zero Nine dissipated a lot.

"How are you interested? Do you want to work in our science department? This kind of powered exoskeleton can be customized according to your body size." Jiaheng's eyes narrowed cunningly, which made Hiiragi shudder all over. Ji Ling quickly ended the topic.

"No, thank you for the invitation. The institute is very good." Rather than providing long-term services to certain departments, Hiei Jing still wants to be an unfettered mercenary. If it weren't for Han Nianling's contract, she wouldn't make a compromise.

Furthermore, Jiaheng's words were just to make fun of himself, and Hiiragi certainly wouldn't take them seriously.What she didn't expect was that just as Jiaheng turned around, Ren Xi suddenly whispered into Hiiragi's ear: "The Institute of Powered Exoskeleton Technology also has one, and the R&D department has produced several sets of trial products with mature functions... …”

Are you worried about being poached by the Southern Federal Ministry of Science?This unnecessary worry made Hiiragi a little bit dumbfounded, but what he didn't expect was that Ren Xi actually valued herself.

"Okay, here we are."

Wu Jiaxu, who was leading the team, suddenly turned around to remind him, and the conversation in the team also subsided.

When Hiei Jing followed Wu Jiaxu's instructions and looked forward, there was still only a large area of ​​lush vegetation in front of him, and there was no description that could be related to Jiaheng's previous "comfort and safety".However, as the team approached Zhun Jian, the shadow behind the vegetation gradually appeared, and a cave with a large capacity came into Hiiragi's eyes.

The sheltered vegetation in front of the cave does not grow naturally, but is a man-made concealment method. It is simply bundled and arranged among the dense forests. It is really difficult to find anything strange without careful observation. There are no traces of animal survival around the cave. This space should be formed by nature.

"The capacity of the cave is limited. The injured and those who are experiencing the sequelae of the activation potion can rest. Others can rest in the open space in front of the cave."

The team that finally arrived at their destination finally had enough time to breathe. During the rush, a considerable number of team members who had been injected with activation potions began to suffer from varying degrees of sequelae.In mild cases, the patient only had body aches, dizziness and nausea, while in severe cases, he fainted and fell unconscious, which forced the team to allocate two more people to move him on a stretcher.

Fortunately, they arrived here before most of the people's sequelae became severe. After having a safe enough place, the teams became orderly again.

Originally, Ren Xi planned to arrange for Hiiragi to enter the cave, but Hiroyuki refused. In her opinion, her injuries to this extent were nothing, and the so-called sequelae had not yet seen any symptoms. It should be some time yet. That's right, the limited space in the cave should be given to team members who need it more than yourself.

It's not that she is selfless, but that she understands the current situation and ensures that more people can quickly restore their combat effectiveness to effectively protect herself and Ren Xi.

Even if they are not inside the cave, the environment in the open space outside the cave is much better than in other places in the dense forest. The ground is covered with fingernail-sized gravel and gravel instead of wet soil and dead leaves.There is still a lot of white powder left between the stones on the ground, which seems to have been sprinkled by the Southern Federation and others to drive away insects and snakes.

The sky was getting darker, and the dense forest, which already had insufficient light, seemed even darker. The coolness in the air made people shrink their necks unconsciously.

Whether it was the Southern Federation and others or the reclamation camp, the team members all had good wild survival abilities. Soon a small camp was formed in this open space. People who had been tired all day in fear and uneasiness finally finally Having a temporary shelter after the crisis.

Chapter 40 Light Beam Mutation

There was neither the sound of the evening wind passing through the forest, nor the chirping of insects from deep in the grass. Hiiragi had experienced too many nights spent in the wild, whether as a mercenary or a refugee, but it was already dark. The dense forest was far more dead than Hiiragi imagined.

This dead silence gave people a sense of inexplicable peace of mind, as if they were still in a human base, protected by tall walls. Of course, she knew this was just an illusion.

The only sounds that can be heard in the ears are from the occasional explosions in the fire in front of the fire caused by the heating of the air inside the firewood. A string of sparks fly upwards and then disappear in the air in an instant.Hiiragi has not changed her posture since she sat down here. She just stared at the bonfire with jumping flames reflected in her pupils. The only thing she needed to do was to add the matches at hand to the waning fire at the right time. among the piles.

Mentally guessing whether the moisture from the next piece of firewood will cause a burst of acrid smoke is her only effective and simple pastime at the moment.

The quiet self-entertainment ended with the sound of footsteps on the stone and gravel ground, and Hiiragi distracted part of his attention from the bonfire.

"Zero-nine?"

The figure who walked straight towards him sat down on the wooden pier beside Hiiragi Jing. Hiiragi Jing calmly glanced at the pocket watch she borrowed from Ren Xi. Then, after the firelight confirmed the time displayed on the pocket watch, she couldn't help but ask: "It's not your duty time yet, it doesn't matter, the side effects of the medicine don't seem to have taken effect yet."

Even though they had more than 100 manpower after joining the Southern Federation team, in fact, their manpower was very tight at this stage.

Almost everyone in the search team, which accounts for two-thirds of the total number, has been injected with activation drugs and has either fallen into a coma or is currently in a coma. The rest are either on night shift or patrolling the perimeter of the camp in order to send out danger signals at any time. They have already No one dares to underestimate the dangers of this dense forest. Not to mention Hiiragi Jing and Ling Jiu, even Wu Jiaxu and Jiaheng have to take on part of the night shift work themselves.

Since Hiiragi herself had been injected with the activation drug, her night shift was the earliest shift. If she felt dizzy during the following missions, she would have to enter the tent to rest.

But even she found it strange that her one-hour shift was almost over, but the side effects were still lingering. Comparing her past experience of injecting medicine with the effects of other people's use, this seemed a bit abnormal.It also made her feel more and more worried. Without long-term cultivation, it would be difficult to make up for the consumption of the activation potion on the body, which would have a very negative impact on the task she was about to perform tomorrow.

"..." Lingjiu, who sat down in front of Hiiragi Jing's question, just shook her head silently. She also cast all her eyes towards the fire, as if she didn't pay the slightest attention to Hiiragi Jing, but Hiiragi Jing didn't know. The other person immediately avoided her gaze before she looked at Ling Jiu.

"Hiiragi Jing..."

The silence that lasted for more than ten seconds was suddenly broken by Ling Jiu on his own initiative, which surprised Hiiragi. Ling Jiu himself was not good at words, and the few exchanges between the two basically started from Hiiragi's side. However, Ling Jing was not very good at talking. Jiu responded to Hiiragi's expectations with a strange question, "Well... did you feel uncomfortable after fighting that monster?"

uncomfortable?

Is Lingjiu worried about his physical condition?

"Oh, it doesn't matter. This body's ability to withstand stress is far beyond my imagination. Besides, I'm not the only one who thinks so."

Lingjiu didn't seem satisfied with Ren Xi's answer. Her eyes began to show a bit of anxiety. After she composed some words in silence, she spoke again unwillingly: "I mean...the aura on her body, Hiiragi Jing." Can you identify the changes in your own aura?"

Breath again?

I didn’t expect that Ling Jiu was so persistent. She could actually continue the problem of breath from the reclamation camp to the present. Although Ling Jiu looked at her with a serious and expectant face, Hiiragi Jing really didn’t understand what was hidden in these words. What special meaning does breath refer to?

Is it your own body odor?No, this substitution does not conform to the original meaning of the context.

"Sorry..." Hiiragi spread her hands helplessly to express that she was helpless with the answer to this question. Lingjiu lowered his eyes in disappointment.

In order to make Lingjiu no longer entangled, Hiiragi immediately found another topic to divert the other party's attention, and at the same time, in order to prevent her vigil from being boring to the point of using a fire to entertain herself: "By the way, Lingjiu, can you tell me about your past?" Something about that?”

"Uncle Wu said: Don't mention your own affairs to others."

Is this a gag order?Sure enough, Ling Jiu's life experience is not simple.

"By the way, what about your relatives? I remember you once told me in the reclamation camp that you have a father." During the brief conversation in the reclamation camp, Hiiragi Jing recalled that Ling Jiu mentioned that he had a father. Regarding her father, according to what she said, that father seemed to be the originator of those pinholes on Lingjiu's arms.

According to Wu Jiaxu's information, this so-called 'father' should not have any blood relationship with Lingjiu. There is no family affection in 'uncle' and 'father', they are just simple titles.

"Father..." Lingjiu, who was silent for a while, seemed to be weighing whether the information about him was within the scope of confidentiality. After a few seconds of thinking, she finally spoke slowly, "Father is my father. Lingjiu saw it at first sight. It’s the father.”

"How does he treat you? Do you like him?"

"Father taught Ling Jiu a lot of things, including reading, painting, and singing..." Ling Jiu's next answer was beyond Hiiragi's expectations. "I often bring a book called 'The Best Annual Travel Guide' to tell Zero Nine about the outside world... I like my father very much."

She originally thought that Ling Jiu would be as afraid of the 'father' in her mouth as she was of Wu Jiaxu. Those pinholes could prove how harsh the environment in which Ling Jiu grew up was, but what she didn't expect was that Ling Jiu would actually treat That 'father' entrusted her with a lot of emotion, but she also noticed a piece of information revealed in Lingjiu's words just now.

outside world?Could it be said that Lingjiu's growth environment has always been in a closed space?Is it the Boy Scouts or something?

In the apocalypse, there are many forces that take in children. They can be homeless orphans, children sold on the black market, or even forcibly rob human settlements or refugee groups. The reason for this behavior is of course Not out of good intentions, these children will be trained and instilled with loyal thoughts by the forces from an early age. When these children grow up, they will become the most loyal and powerful group of the forces.

Having been trained as warriors since childhood, they generally possess extremely strong combat abilities, which is also in line with Zero Nine's own performance.

The laws of the Southern Federation prohibited this incident from happening within the territory of the Southern Federation, but I did not expect that the Ministry of Science, which is affiliated with the Southern Federation, would actually train children to become warriors in private. This is too surprising.

Just when Hiroyuki was secretly criticizing the actions of the Southern Federal Government, Lingjiu's originally lowered eyes suddenly opened suddenly, and the same light flashed in the red pupils. Lingjiu stood up suddenly and looked behind him, causing a gust of wind. It was so chaotic that the flames in front of him were beating.

"What's wrong with you, Lingjiu? Is the enemy showing up?" Lingjiu's sudden move startled Hiiragi Jing. There were obviously many patrols around but no signal was sent out. Could it be that it was like encountering those who were being attacked at that time? Are those called mutants being quietly eliminated?She immediately stood up and looked in the direction where Lingjiu was staring.

But there was only endless darkness, and the patrols who thought they were understood were still standing not far away. The deadly silent camp did not look like anything had happened, and the surrounding silence had never happened at all. Change.

Just when Hiiragi Jing was about to ask Ling Jiu about her discovery, some kind of power conveyed from that direction instantly grabbed her eyes as she was about to move away.

The darkness was still just darkness. The tall tree crowns completely covered the sky above. The picture seen by the naked eye did not change, but Hiiragi's self-awareness saw a different scenery through the darkness. In other words, the scenery penetrated the darkness and appeared before her eyes.

That blue light!Yes, she 'saw' that blue beam of light.

The blue beam of light that disappeared after the sighting at the reclamation camp appeared again, and this time he didn't catch it with his eyes... Wait, could it be said that Zero Nine can also 'see' it?

Ever since the results of Ren Xi's last investigation into the reclamation camp were announced, Hiiragi realized that there was a difference between the blue light beam in this dense forest and the light beam in the abandoned city. Not everyone could see it. Unexpectedly, she was not the only one who could see the light beam. .

Is that the real purpose of this Confederate team?

It happened that the day after he witnessed the light beam, he had just finished his academic exchange with the institute. People from the Southern Federation came to the remote reclamation camp to inquire about Ren Xi's recruitment investigation, and they did not hesitate to risk their lives to enter this dense forest, and zero Is Nine one of their important means of tracking that blue light?

"Ow, ooh, ooh—"

"Hoohoho!!!"

Just like that time when JD destroyed the city, the beam of light caused large-scale chaos. The roars of beasts broke the dead silence of the dense forest. There were headhunting wild dogs and other monsters. The continuous sound resounded almost throughout the world, from the branches to the branches. Swarms of frightened birds flew through the forest in large swaths, and the atmosphere of terror and depression completely tore apart the illusion of comfort in the camp.

They are still in the wild and they still face great dangers.

"Lingjiu, what did you find?"

Suddenly, Wu Jiaxu's low voice came from behind, and in his hand was a testing instrument similar to the one used by Han Nianling when JD abandoned the city. Except that it did not have a tripod and was smaller in size, it was not too big. The big difference is that according to Han Nianling, the instrument she introduced was improved by the R&D department on the basis of the 'portable dark energy detector'. Could it be said that the one in Wu Jiaxu's hand is the prototype?

"Hmm... very strong." There was a look of expectation and confusion on Lingjiu's face, "It's like... it's about to be born..."

After listening to Ling Jiu's description, Wu Jiaxu did not hesitate at all. Without any discussion with the leaders of the reclamation camp such as Ren Xi or Lu Shengyang, he issued his order to the surrounding Southern Federal team members who were on patrol. : "The team gathers, let's go!"

Chapter 41 Join and go

"Captain Wu...are your decisions a little impulsive?"

No one present who has experienced it can doubt how dangerous this jungle is.The night is undoubtedly a time period that favors mutant beasts. Everyone knows that this kind of dark environment is unfair to mutant beasts with various developed senses and humans who rely heavily on visual combat, not to mention the emergence of light beams. It drives the beasts into madness, and the already troublesome mutant beasts will become more aggressive under its influence.The consequences of going out hastily can be imagined.

No matter how tempting that beam of light was to the people of the Southern Federation, under such circumstances, Ujaxu Hiiragi, who still chose to divide his forces and take the initiative, was very polite to use the euphemistic 'impulse' to refer to it. .