Embers Ad Infinitum

The desolate and hoarse roar was still echoing, and similar sounds sounded from different places in the ruins of the city.

They are not that huge, but one after another, they are equally nerve-wracking.

The most terrifying thing was that there were countless roars a hundred meters away from Shang Jianyao and others.

At this time, the high-altitude clouds seemed to be dispersed by the movement, and the yellowish moon briefly revealed half of its face.

The bright light scattered, illuminating the buildings at the end of the street that were dozens or even hundreds of meters high.

The windows reflected the moonlight in the rich night, revealing countless figures.

Their appearance was impossible to see clearly. The only thing that was certain was that they all seemed to be looking at Shang Jianyao, Jiang Baimian and others, and their bodies were slightly rickety.

Shang Jianyao and the others reacted almost subconsciously. They each took different actions and found obstacles nearby to block them. Even Long Yuehong, because he had experienced similar things several times, did not slow down much and was able to give full play to his performance. the effect of training.

The clouds moved quickly, and most of the moon was blocked again. The buildings at the end of the street were once again submerged in the deep darkness, and only their outlines could be vaguely seen.

After a while, seeing that there was no attack, Qiao Chu, who was wearing an exoskeleton device, took the lead in leaving the hiding place.

However, he did not go back to the middle of the road, and went directly to the left side of the street paved with dark red stone bricks. There were trees with leaves that were far from falling out, blocking the sight from high places, making it impossible for the shots that might come at the end of the street to aim. .

Similarly, Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen also approached Qiao Chu one after another.

Shang Jianyao looked up at the sky and saw that the moonlight and starlight were getting fainter. He rushed out of his hiding place, rolled twice in a row, and came to Wu Shoushi's side.

Then, he dragged the body, bent his back, and quickly entered an open house on the left side of the street.

The signboard of this house is hanging sideways and half of it is broken. Only the four words "Snack Group" can be seen in gray.

Inside the house, rectangular tables were lined up in two rows, covered in dust.

Shang Jianyao didn't care whether it was dirty or not. He placed Wu Shoushi on one of the tables. According to the first aid knowledge taught by Jiang Baimian, he unbuttoned the other person's shirt and started to perform compressions.

"It seems useless..." Jiang Baimian had followed in at some point and watched Shang Jianyao complete the process.

Without giving Shang Jianyao a chance to speak, she habitually ordered:

"Check his body and see if there are any clues."

Qiao Chu, who was wearing an exoskeleton device, walked to the open door, pursed his lips tightly, and looked at it for two seconds:

"No need, go to your destination as soon as possible."

Jiang Baimian looked back at Qiao Chu and said sincerely:

“If we can figure out what happened to this relic hunter and find out the real reason why he slept on the street, we should be able to avoid a lot of dangers in our follow-up operations.

“It’s really weird here, and the monsters are more terrifying than I imagined.

"Also, there are also the number of 'heartless' people. What do they eat to survive?"

Although the "careless" group has the instinct to reproduce and will not gradually disappear due to the death of an individual, they are also living creatures and also need enough food. In the ruins of cities that have lost the support of agriculture and industry, they only rely on hunting. The same species, rats and bugs, simply cannot maintain such a large scale.

The ecological environment will gradually become balanced.

"Maybe this city has very sufficient material reserves...'Heartless' have a survival instinct and will take the initiative to look for these things." Bai Chen also entered the house and guessed the reason.

As for whether the food that has been stored for so many years has expired and whether it will go bad, "careless people" will not think that much. They are almost without brains.

"Maybe." Jiang Baimian did not deny it.

After all, she didn't know where this city ruins belonged in the old world. What if there were food reserves discovered in other ruins?

Moreover, it is entirely possible for "unintentional people" to reproduce from generation to generation and evolve the ability to eat rice and flour.

Long Yuehong listened to the discussion of the two ladies and couldn't help but said:

“There are so many ‘unintentional people’ here and the situation is weird, should we retreat?

"If you move anything on the way out, you can call it a bumper harvest!"

When he spoke, his eyes were looking at Qiao Chu.

Qiao Chu ignored him and just urged Shang Jianyao:

"hurry up."

He seemed to have accepted what Jiang Baimian said just now, and felt that it was necessary to investigate what happened to Wu Shoushi, otherwise, it would also be more dangerous for him.

After speaking, Qiao Chu carefully dusted off the dust on his body.

Shang Jianyao checked with a flashlight and found no obvious injuries on Wu Shoushi, but the other man's face was twisted, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying or encountered something extremely terrifying.

This is very similar to the strange deaths of people north of Yuelu Station described by bald hunter Harris Brown.

Based on Qiao Chu's statement, Shang Jianyao can initially judge that he died due to being attacked by a nightmare horse.

As for where the monster was and how far it was from here, he had no way of knowing.

He immediately took off Wu Shoushi's clothes and looked for inconspicuous traces.

"There is a circle of skin on the wrist that is whiter than the surrounding area, indicating that I wore a watch before, but it may have been dropped somewhere... There are no recent injection needle holes... Unfortunately, there is no blood test here, and it is difficult to determine whether there has been inhalation of anesthetic gas... ..." Jiang Baimian came closer and helped Shang Jianyao quickly complete the inspection.

Then, she straightened up and looked at Qiao Chu, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong with a slightly solemn expression:

"There is a high probability that he was forced to sleep by an ability similar to that of Nightmare Horse.

"What's not certain is whether this was done by the Nightmare Horse or another monster."

"It's not a nightmare horse." Qiao Chu said very firmly.

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"Hmm... do you know what the roar of a nightmare horse sounds like?"

Qiao Chu opened his mouth, as if he wanted to imitate, but felt too ashamed and finally gave up the plan.

At this time, Shang Jianyao also stood up straight.

He held a flashlight and asked seriously:

"Is that so?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he imitated the loudest and most terrifying roar just now, without showing any embarrassment at all.

Of course, this time, he had the volume control.

"No." Qiao Chu shook his head in denial without hesitation.

Jiang Baimian frowned slightly:

"It seems that the most terrifying monster in the ruins of this city is not the nightmare horse."

This was what she wanted to determine with the question just now - whether the nightmare horse was the one that made a loud roar and elicited a wave of responses.

"Is that like this?" Shang Jianyao continued to imitate the various roars he heard before.

"No." Qiao Chu, who was wearing a helmet, couldn't help but ask, "Can't you just imitate a horse's cry? The roar of a nightmare horse is essentially the same as a normal horse's cry, with slight differences."

Shang Jianyao glanced at Qiao Chu:

"I've never seen a horse."

After saying that, he turned around, bent his back, and checked Wu Shoushi's pockets.

The first thing he pulled out was a brass-colored badge. On the front of the badge, there was a relief of a human face with blurred features, a knife, and a gun. On the back, there was a small chip embedded in it.

Shang Jianyao had seen something similar before and knew it was the badge of the "Hunter Guild", so he handed it to Jiang Baimian.

Jiang Baimian put it away without reading the contents of the chip.

——The missions Wu Shoushi completed before have almost no connection with the encounters in this exploration.

The second item Shang Jianyao found was a blue and white checkered handkerchief.

The handkerchief looked old and a little pilled, but it was neatly folded.

Shang Jianyao shook out the handkerchief and found no clues. He folded it back and stuffed it into Wu Shoushi's breast pocket.

The third item he uncovered was a half-bar of dark chocolate wrapped in tinfoil.

The chocolate had obvious signs of melting and recondensing, but there was no sign of bites.

When Shang Jianyao was looking at the piece of chocolate over and over, Bai Chen suddenly said:

"You should usually lick it if you want to eat it, or put it in your mouth and hold it in your mouth."

She spoke very calmly, as if she was used to similar things.

Shang Jianyao nodded slightly and replied:

"Do you want it?"

"It's not necessary in the ruins of this city." Bai Chen shook his head.

There must be a lot of supplies to be found here.

Shang Jianyao didn't ask anyone else and continued to search Wu Shoushi's clothes.

The fourth item he found was a similarly neatly folded piece of paper.

The text on the paper is quite neat:

“I owe Ruxiang a can of beef;

"I owe A Gang two payments, equivalent to a large bag of compressed biscuits;

"I owe Zhang Laizi half a bowl of oil;

“I owe Aulanc a pistol and ten bullets;

“I owe Xiaoguang a meal of meat;

"I owe Ruxiang a flower..."

Shang Jianyao read it quickly, folded the paper again, and put it in his pocket.

"You don't know how, do you want to help him pay it back?" Jiang Baimian looked a little surprised.

However, she wouldn't be too surprised by what Shang Jianyao did.

Shang Jianyao replied expressionlessly:

"If you meet his companions, give them this paper and the hunter's badge."

Jiang Baimian nodded slowly and slightly, without saying anything more.

The fifth "item" found by Shang Jianyao was the twelve coins in Wu Shoushi's trouser pocket.

Judging from their patterns and shapes, they should belong to the old world.

"Can old world coins still be used?" Long Yuehong glanced at them and asked in surprise.

"Yes, but it doesn't depend on the face value, just what kind of metal it is and how heavy it is." Bai Chen explained simply.

Among the twelve coins, seven were silver-white and five were gold. Shang Jianyao looked at them for a while and put them into the small compartment of the camouflage backpack.

Next, after removing his clothes, pants and shoes, he only found Wu Shoushi's black pistol.

"Wubei 7, there are five more bullets." Shang Jianyao briefly identified it and hung the gun on his armed belt.

This bullet is 7.62 mm, which is different from the ones they prepared when they set off.

As for the automatic rifle Wu Shoushi was carrying when he first met them, it is unknown where it went.

After the search, Shang Jianyao put the clothes back on Wu Shoushi.

"Let's go." Seeing that he didn't get any clues, Qiao Chu urged impatiently.

Jiang Baimian and others did not object and followed him out of the house on the street.

Shang Jianyao walked at the end, looked up, suddenly jumped up, and pulled down the metal door.

With a crashing sound, the house was sealed.

"What's the use of this? The 'unintentional ones' will open the door, and when the time comes, this will be their food." Qiao Chu couldn't help but say something, and then said in a deep voice, "Follow me!"

Shang Jianyao didn't do anything else. He followed the team, continued to hold the gun, and trotted away somewhere in the ruins of the city in the deep night.

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