Embers Ad Infinitum

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong did not react immediately until the people on the two bicycles also saw them.

Bang, bang, bang, the two men, each carrying a rifle, abandoned their bicycles and rolled and jumped to hide behind nearby obstacles.

Seeing this scene, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong woke up and no longer just raised their assault rifles vigilantly and reflexively. They quickly jumped sideways and used the two pillars at the hospital entrance to cover themselves.

The scene became extremely quiet for a while, with only the occasional sound of birds chirping coming from the distance.

Seeing that Long Yuehong seemed to want to pick up the walkie-talkie, Shang Jianyao raised his voice and shouted from the air:

"We mean no harm!"

After a brief silence, a slightly hoarse voice came from the other side, as if he had phlegm in his mouth:

"Neither did we!"

Shang Jianyao responded immediately:

"Maybe we can exchange information!"

After a few seconds, the other side shouted:

"It doesn't seem very convenient to communicate like this!"

"Then let's get closer!" Shang Jianyao suggested loudly without thinking.

The two people on the other side communicated in low voices across the barrier, but because of the distance, neither Shang Jianyao nor Long Yuehong heard the specific content clearly.

In less than a minute, the other side responded:

"good!"

Hearing this, Shang Jianyao turned his head and said to Long Yuehong:

"I'll go first, you last, provide support and protection."

"Yes." Long Yuehong released her right hand holding the handle of the gun and made a no problem gesture.

Shang Jianyao didn't try to let the other party leave the hiding place first. He held the assault rifle and left behind the pillar step by step with his muscles tense.

During this process, he was highly vigilant and ready to fall and roll at any time.

Seeing that he showed sincerity, a person appeared over there with the same alert attitude.

This man was in his thirties, about 1.7 meters tall. He was wearing a slightly shriveled, dirty dark blue knee-length down jacket with three or four patches. The hairline on his head was severely degenerated and he was quite bald.

His hair is light yellow, his eyes are light blue, and his facial features and outline are darker. He is obviously different from Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong and others. At first glance, he belongs to the Red River race.

Perhaps due to long years of activities in the wilderness, this man's skin has many signs of dryness and cracks, and his fingernails are obviously black.

He held the rifle tightly and closed the distance with Shang Jianyao meter by meter.

After they entered a convenient range for conversation, Long Yuehong and the remaining person on the opposite side left their hiding place and moved closer to their companions.

"What do you call me?" The bald man spoke the same Hui Tu dialect as before, which is the native language of Shang Jianyao and others, instead of Honghe dialect.

While speaking, he did not relax and remained on high alert.

"Shang Jianyao." Shang Jianyao replied calmly, "A formal relic hunter, how about you?"

Long Yuehong, who originally wanted to answer, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief - he was quite afraid that Shang Jianyao would "get sick" at this time. After all, they were not acquaintances, and no one could appreciate or tolerate his "humor".

The bald man thought for a moment and said:

"Harris Brown, intermediate hunter."

He did not show his hunter badge, nor did he ask Shang Jianyao to show it, because this was in the ruins, there was no special machine to read the information in the chip, and it was impossible to confirm the real owner of the badge and the corresponding credit level, and in the wilderness , many people will register as a hunter casually, or get corresponding items from the corpses of enemies. Simply having a badge means nothing.

——The technique of engraving names on badges is too primitive and very easy to imitate. The most important thing is that the person holding the badge can choose to state the name on the badge without using his real name.

This conversation between Harris Brown and Shang Jianyao was actually closer to "small talk" and was used to set the mood.

Shang Jianyao glanced at Harris Brown's companion and found that she was a woman, more than 1.60 meters tall, with rather ordinary facial features.

Her flaxen hair hangs down naturally, just reaching her shoulders, and she wears a beige beret with a clean starched top.

"You don't seem to have gained much?" Shang Jianyao turned his attention to Harris Brown again.

Harris Brown replied without a smile:

“It’s normal to just pass by and spend some time trying, but it’s normal to get no results.

“In this ruin, it’s already difficult to get supplies without the right equipment.

"Is this your first time here?"

"Yes." Shang Jianyao answered calmly, then asked, "Did you also accept the mission to find the guy with black hair and golden eyes?"

Harris Brown nodded slightly:

"I'll give you a piece of advice, it's free of charge:

"Abandon this mission. The north of Yuelu Station has been very uneasy recently."

"Is it related to the anomaly deep in the swamp? Did you hear the roar that night?" Shang Jianyao asked.

Harris Brown's expression gradually became solemn:

"Yes, we were north of Yuelu Station at that time.

“After daybreak, we continued moving forward and found several corpses, corpses that had just been dead a few hours ago.

"These corpses did not have any fatal injuries on their bodies, but their expressions were all distorted. Some showed pain, some were full of fear, and some seemed to be laughing, and the laughter was terrifying."

Long Yuehong felt fuzzy in her heart after hearing this, and her scalp was slightly numb, but this feeling was quickly dissipated by Shang Jianyao's question:

"There are no fatal wounds... Where are the clothes? Do you still have them?"

What the hell kind of problem is this... Long Yuehong couldn't help but sneered.

Harris Brown's expression froze slightly:

"No.

"Apparently someone found the body before we did and took all the belongings."

"Professional." Shang Jianyao praised, which made Harris Brown feel like he couldn't keep up with the rhythm of the conversation.

He took a breath silently and continued:

"Hey, they didn't even let go of their hair, otherwise I could get a wig. In short, after seeing those corpses, we gave up the mission and headed back all the way, not daring to rest much. We just arrived here an hour ago .”

"It's pretty fast." Shang Jianyao commented casually.

Harris Brown did not turn his head:

"We ride bicycles and can use some paths in the swamp, but cars and motorcycles cannot pass through and can only take detours."

Shang Jianyao nodded lightly:

"last question.

"Are there any other ruin hunters or wilderness wanderers here?"

"There are a few more, but with your equipment, as long as you don't attack them actively, they won't provoke you." Harris Brown's head reflected a little light in the sun.

Shang Jianyao asked as if thinking:

"What if we don't have these weapons anymore?"

Harris Brown's face suddenly twisted:

"On dust, weakness is the original sin."

His eyes became a little fierce, revealing a bit of unconcealable hatred.

Before Shang Jianyao could ask again, he exhaled and his expression returned to normal:

"It's my turn to ask.

"This is the reward for the advice just now."

In fact, he didn't expect Shang Jianyao to give a definite answer, and he wasn't being a rogue. Anyway, the information contained in that advice was not very valuable, because many relic hunters who had withdrawn had discovered abnormalities at one time or another.

Besides, this happened more than a day ago, and it would take more than a day to get to the north of Yuelu Station at the fastest. Calculated in this way, even if Harris did not give any advice and allowed the two people on the other side to go, They're also likely to be behind on things happening.

"Can I pay with something else?" Shang Jianyao released his left hand from holding the assault rifle magazine and reached into his pocket.

"We have to take a look." Harris Brown and his companions suddenly raised their alert level, fearing that Shang Jianyao would bring out any dangerous items.

Shang Jianyao quickly took out two small bags of compressed biscuits and showed them off.

- This was supposed to be part of his ruins lunch.

"...Excellent, you are very generous." Harris Brown did not expect that the other party was willing to exchange food.

This is barely enough for them to deal with.

Shang Jianyao immediately threw the two small bags of compressed biscuits over.

Harris Brown and his companions did not pick them up and let the two small bags of compressed biscuits fall to the ground.

This is because they are afraid that the other party will shoot them while they are picking up the cookies.

"Let's talk later." Shang Jianyao smiled, as if saying goodbye to his friend.

He and Long Yuehong immediately walked step by step towards the gate of the ruins of the steel plant, without relaxing their guard against Harris Brown and his companions.

The same goes for the other party.

When the distance between the two sides was wide enough and the sharpshooters could no longer hit, Harris Brown asked his companions to pick up the compressed biscuits and push the two bicycles over.

After watching the two people leave the ruins on bicycles, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong held assault rifles and looked around the square outside the gate.

"The outside should be the accommodation area. Should we search here first, or inside?" Long Yuehong asked hesitantly.

Shang Jianyao didn't look at the collapsed or dilapidated "green" buildings on both sides of the square. He pointed to the door and said:

"First go inside and figure out the basic layout."

"Okay." Long Yuehong didn't object.

The two immediately passed through the iron-black gate that allowed multiple vehicles to pass through.

"It seems that ruin hunters have their limits. The gate has not been divided and moved." Long Yuehong looked back and sighed.

Shang Jianyao followed and looked at:

"Maybe it's not cost-effective."

They stopped talking and walked along the wide but dilapidated road deeper into the steel plant.

There is a row of very tall, doorless, and spacious bungalows on the right side. Unlike the bungalows in the outpatient area of ​​the hospital, there are walls to separate small rooms, and there are only pillars in the middle to mark the divisions.

In some rooms without left and right walls, there are still trenches where people can stand or lie down.

"What place is this?" Long Yuehong asked in confusion.

Shang Jianyao shook his head:

"I don't know. But don't you think it would be easy to repair the underside of a car by standing in those trenches?"

"This is the repair area? It's like a garage next to it?" Long Yuehong suddenly realized, "Remember to mark it later."

On the left side of the road, there is a smelly pond, a group of trees that are not widely spaced, and a small building hidden in the depths of green.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong ignored these places for the time being and went deeper into the factory area step by step.

Not long after, they came to the towering "chimneys" and saw many steel supports and rough buildings erected around them.

Large dragon-like iron-black pipes slid down from somewhere in the "chimney" to different places, and the angles were not too steep.

These pipes are not closed, and appear to be the remaining half of the circle cut horizontally.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong entered this area, walking up and down the road, walking through the rusty steel forest.

Soon, there was a broken guardrail on the edge of the road, and outside was a pond filled with rainwater. I didn’t know what it was used for.

Because it is blocked at a high place, only a little sunlight can shine in, and the surrounding area looks very gloomy and dark.

In addition, there was no sound and it was quiet. Long Yuehong's heart trembled more and more as he walked.

He couldn't help but said:

"Didn't you say there are other ruin hunters? Why haven't you met any of them?"

Shang Jianyao glanced at him:

"It doesn't seem very auspicious to say something like this at this time."

As soon as he finished speaking, a clanging sound suddenly sounded from high up.

A black shadow fell quickly, and after a few collisions with the steel supports and building support parts, it fell heavily not far ahead.

This is a human being. His body has been damaged to some extent and his blood is leaking out rapidly.

At this time, the clanging sound was still echoing in the area and had not completely subsided.

Before Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao had time to react, they saw a figure coming from the corner of the road ahead.

This figure is taller than Shang Jianyao. The whole body is composed of a black metal frame. The left arm holds a grenade launcher, and the right palm has a flame spout and a laser emission hole.

"He" was wearing a tattered yellow monk's robe with a bright red cassock on the outside, and had a pair of shining red eyes on his face.

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