Embers Ad Infinitum

A corpse was thrown very high and far away, and landed in the swamp ahead, splashing countless mud spots.

It was inlaid on the dark and soft surface, sinking inch by inch.

Next to it are two more similar scenes, only buried a little deeper in silt.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong stared at each other for a few seconds, then looked away, turned and walked towards the jeep.

Jiang Baimian didn't ask who would ride the heavy motorcycle first, he put on the corresponding helmet and straddled it.

With a miniature submachine gun on her back, she looked sideways at Shang Jianyao and others, and said with a smile:

"I've wanted to get one for a long time, but never had the chance."

Before she finished speaking, she twisted the accelerator, causing the heavy motorcycle to make a low and violent roar.

Jiang Baimian crouched down. Even though it was his first time riding, the pose was still quite professional.

The roar became louder and louder, and the heavy motorcycle rushed out like an arrow, and rushed to the distance along the edge of the swamp.

"The romance of steel and fuel..." Long Yuehong whispered enviously, "There is also freedom and wind."

In the sound of bang, the heavy motorcycle turned back and stopped not far away.

Jiang Baimian put his feet on the ground, pulled up the visor of his helmet, and laughed twice:

"This, that, Bai Chen, which way should we go?"

Bai Chen looked down at her scarf, and responded loudly:

"You follow the jeep."

"Ah? What did you say?" Jiang Baimian raised his hand to touch his ear, but it was blocked by the helmet.

She didn't change her smile, pulled down her mask again, and rode the heavy motorcycle back to the side of the jeep, as if she had made her own decision.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong got into the car one after another, and Bai Chen sat back in the driving seat and started the jeep.

In this way, they traveled at a relatively low speed in the Black Marsh wilderness, changing direction from time to time, drilling around.

During this process, Jiang Baimian repeatedly used the excuse of scouting the surroundings to ride the motorcycle, break away from the team, and gallop to different places.

After nearly two hours, Bai Chen stopped the Jeep who seemed a bit overwhelmed.

She pushed open the car door and said to Jiang Baimian who had just come back from afar:

"Team leader, we are almost at the settlement."

Jiang Baimian put one foot on the ground, pulled up his mask and said:

"Do you have any idea?"

Bai Chen touched the rather rough skin on his face:

"I'm worried that by going this far we'll overreact the Wilderness Rangers in the colony, who are always wary of this.

"How about this, you wait here, I will ride a motorcycle, make a good contact, and then come back to lead you over? If they won't let us in, then I will try to trade outside."

Jiang Baimian nodded lightly and said:

"Our firepower is indeed daunting."

The black marsh iron snake skin tied on the top of the jeep is even more terrifying.

She immediately got out of the car, parked the motorcycle, took off the helmet, and handed it to Bai Chen.

After watching Bai Chen's back disappear into the sparse woodland ahead, Jiang Baimian opened the door of the jeep and sat in the driving seat.

"Would you like one?" She smiled and picked up the simple cigarette in the armrest box.

This is the loot you got earlier.

The charred and blackened tobacco leaves exude an unspeakable fragrance.

"No need." Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao shook their heads at the same time.

"You two, this is a luxury!" Jiang Baimian put down the simple cigarette, "I don't know how many people who have been on the battlefield are crazy about it. It can relax their spirits and prevent them from crushing themselves. Just like alcoholic beverages can make people forget many unpleasant things that they don't want to recall, hey, many people will only be happy when they are drunk."

"That's not real happiness." Shang Jianyao suddenly sang. (Note 1)

"Hey, I'm still singing." Jiang Baimian opened his mouth slightly, cursing with a smile.

Shang Jian Yao nodded seriously and said:

"I like music."

"But the lyrics don't seem quite right..." Jiang Baimian rubbed the metal device in his ear.

Shang Jianyao said as if discussing an academic issue:

"The lyrics can be modified to fit the current scene, which helps to express better."

"..." Jiang Baimian waved his hand, "That's not the point, I almost forgot what I was going to say after being interrupted by you!"

She exhaled angrily:

"I mentioned cigarettes to bring up the topic of war trauma.

"Although the battle you just experienced has not reached this level, it is necessary to pay attention, and whether it is cigarettes, alcohol, or even controlled drugs, it is actually not a good way to deal with it, and it is easy to make you seriously dependent. And it's bad for your health.

"If you are too nervous, stressed, anxious, irritable, and have difficulty concentrating, you can chat with me at any time. I have studied some psychological courses."

"Yes, team leader!" Long Yuehong responded loudly, "Just now, on the way, Bai Chen actually asked us to talk about this matter, and I feel much better now."

"Not bad." Jiang Baimian praised, "Since the above approved the establishment of this old tune group, the most correct thing I did was to pass Bai Chen's application. Tsk, I have a good vision, right?"

Before Shangjian Yao and Long Yuehong could respond, she leaned on the driver's seat, her eyes turned slightly:

"Bai Chen doesn't know when he will come back, and he will be free when he is free. Let me tell you something, which I haven't told you before."

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong immediately sat upright, as if they were still in school.

Jiang Baimian laughed lowly:

"Don't be so focused! Be distracted and look outside! Aren't you afraid that a rocket will fly from somewhere and take us down?

"Okay, back to the topic. Didn't I say it before? On the dust, except for a very few creatures, the most dangerous enemy of human beings will always be human beings.

"So, which humans can be called dangerous?

"Long Yuehong, what do you think?"

Long Yuehong recalled and said:

"A person wearing an exoskeleton device."

In the previous battle, he was deeply impressed by the role played by the military exoskeleton device.

He even suspected that this would be one of the sources of his nightmares.

"Yes, people wearing bionic smart armor can also be added. These two kinds of people can deal with a team alone, and even wipe out a small settlement of wanderers in the wilderness." Jiang Baimian set his sights on Shang Jian Yao, "What else do you think?"

"A team equipped with heavy weapons, a team with outstanding firepower, and people who have installed specific types of biological prosthetics or have done corresponding mechanical and electronic modifications." Shang Jianyao said three in one breath.

Jiang Baimian nodded lightly:

"really."

She stroked her left arm with her right hand and said:

"It has brought me a lot of improvement, but it's still the original one, you should cherish it!"

She immediately added:

"In addition, there are monks from the Order of Monks, as well as genetic modifiers. You may not know that in many forces, people like you are called 'chosen ones'."

"Why?" Long Yuehong asked in amazement.

Jiang Baimian laughed:

"You have too much contact with it, and you are also yourself, so you don't realize the preciousness of this technology.

"Of all the forces, currently only our company and the 'White Knights' can stably carry out genetic improvement and produce the corresponding stock solution.

"Think about it, a person who is tall, strong, fast, responsive, well coordinated, strong in balance, strong in immunity, strong in self-healing ability, extremely energetic, has outstanding eyesight, and has a good talent for firearms. To ordinary people, isn't it like the darling of heaven? Isn't it synonymous with danger?

"However, don't rush to be proud. Some forces extremely reject genetic technology, thinking that it is a blasphemy against nature, heaven, and gods, and is the main reason for the destruction of the old world."

Jiang Baimian breathed a sigh of relief and continued:

"And those who are stronger than the genetic improvers are those who have undergone genetic modification. They often have some abilities that humans do not possess. In this regard, those sub-humans who have been deformed by pollution have similar performances. I even saw It is the second person who can complete photosynthesis by itself and does not need to eat for three months.

"However, the technology of genetic modification is still very immature, and the failure rate and death rate are quite high. Don't try it lightly."

The second person is a normal human being, but was polluted and deformed in the catastrophe that destroyed the old world.

Although a large number of them died completely not long after being contaminated, some survived and passed on their aberrations to their offspring.

These people are discriminated against by normal humans, expelled from the settlement, and insultingly called "subhumans".

Due to changes in their bodies and similar encounters, people inevitably hated normal human beings, always carrying resentment that was difficult to resolve, and the two sides gradually developed into sworn enemies.

Under such circumstances, the term "subhuman" really spread in the dust and became a "scientific name".

However, in the New Era many years after the destruction of the old world, strong pollution still remains in some places, and the distortion has not disappeared from human beings, and new sub-humans are still being created.

Of course, most of the subhumans today are the result of natural reproduction.

"There are such subhumans..." Long Yuehong knew what subhumans were, but she had never heard of the subhumans described by Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian let out a "hmm", glanced at Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong respectively, and said as if nothing had happened:

"In addition to those just mentioned, there is another kind of people who can be called dangerous, even very dangerous."

"What kind of person is it?" Long Yuehong was extremely curious, and so was Shang Jianyao.

Both of them have more or less understood what they said before in textbooks and training, but no one has put the corresponding content together from the perspective of "dangerous human beings".

Jiang Baimian lowered his head and smiled and said:

"Awakened."

"Awakened..." Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao repeated in whispers.

Jiang Baimian raised his head, looked at the two of them and said:

"Awakened refers to the human beings who have undergone strange mutations for some reason, and they all have some strange and terrifying abilities.

"Some people once thought that the abilities of some awakened people should be described as funny, but later, it turned out that no matter how funny the ability is, in the right scene, it can become very scary.

"So far, no force has figured out the law of the emergence of awakened people. All experiments to artificially create awakened people have failed. Therefore, the number of awakened people is very rare and it is not easy to encounter them. I did not rush to tell them before. you.

"Ah, by the way, this is knowledge that needs to be kept secret."

Long Yuehong asked worriedly:

"Team leader, you have said that the awakened one is so strong, if you encounter it, how should you deal with it?"

Shang Jianyao was silent and did not speak.

Jiang Baimian smiled and said:

"Except for a small number of very powerful awakeners, the abilities of most awakeners have a limited range, and this range is not large.

"Based on this, if you encounter them, try to distance yourself first and use a gun to solve the problem remotely."

"That's it..." Long Yuehong began to imagine the corresponding scene.

Shang Jianyao nodded slightly, as if thinking about something.

Seeing this, Jiang Baimian added another sentence:

"Also, don't just pay attention to these dangerous humans. Our bodies are too fragile. If we are careless, children of seven or eight years old have a chance to kill us."

…………

Bai Chen rode a heavy motorcycle, and after going around for a while, he went deep into the swamp along a seemingly soft road.

Ten minutes later, a small red dot appeared on the road in front of her.

Gently shaking red dots.

This is a warning.

Note 1: Quoted from "You Are Not Really Happy" by Mayday. Originally, in order to prevent harmony, I made this book completely empty, but sometimes, in order to arouse resonance, I still quote and adapt some realistic poems or lyrics, so that after everyone reads it, the corresponding melody and lyrics can be generated in their minds. screen. This is necessary for some of the later scenes.

PS: Ask for a recommendation ticket~