Embers Ad Infinitum

Although she had seen coverage bombing scenes in old world entertainment materials, Long Yuehong still felt insignificant when she actually encountered them.

The technological creations that seemed to be comparable to the power of heaven and earth expanded in different places in a city, making this area seem to be welcoming the end of the world. Even the iron will and the mechanical arms would be blown to pieces.

The thick smoke and dust rising upwards, the blazing firelight that illuminated for a moment, the trembling ground beneath their feet, and the deafening roars made Long Yuehong and others hiding behind the bunker truly understand what it means to be on a large scale. High-intensity war.

This was more spectacular and mind-shaking than the salvo of artillery that Jiang Baimian had seen before.

I don’t know how long it took, but the missile strikes finally stopped, leaving only the lingering sound of turbulent winds and approaching heavy rain.

Wow!

Heavy raindrops fell, stained with countless dust.

Long Yuehong wiped her face and said with emotion:

"Fortunately we are not the target."

Fortunately, the "old tune team" evacuated Taicheng in advance to rest and eat.

Recalling the team leader’s decision at that time, Long Yuehong just wanted to hug Xiaobai with all her strength and shout:

"Long live!"

Jiang Baimian showed a rare expression of confusion and let the rain hit his face.

"How could there be a sudden missile strike?" she asked herself doubtfully.

Moreover, it was a saturation attack aimed at the ruins of a city, regardless of cost and consequences!

You know, except for the large-scale wars between top forces such as the "Prime City", there has been no such thing as launching missiles to hit targets in the dust for unknown years.

This is comparable to the incident when the "Old Tune Team" encountered the loss of a nuclear warhead, and it was more sudden, without warning, and incomprehensible.

In Jiang Baimian's mind, at this moment, he had a subtle sense of absurdity as if he was encountering a deus ex machina.

"Can you write a script?" Shang Jianyao threw a stone in his hand to the ground.

When he was hiding behind the temporary bunker he found, he was bored and played the game of throwing stones and catching stones.

Jiang Baimian found that this time he easily understood what Shang Jianyao wanted to express:

God, the "screenwriter" of fate, felt that something was wrong in the Taicheng incident and there was no way to solve it, so he used missiles to clean up the ground to force the end!

Gnawa has finished calculating the trajectory of the previously observed ballistics, pointed to a place in the northwest and said:

"It was launched from there. The specific coordinates need to be further collected."

Bai Chen rubbed his short hair that was wet by the rain and guessed:

"A certain change within Taicheng triggered a planned missile strike?"

Even though she had been a wanderer in the wilderness for many years and had seen all kinds of things beyond cognition and common sense with the "Old Tune Group", during the missile strike just now, her mind was still trembling and she could not control herself, as if she had returned to the weakest and most helpless state. Help that meeting.

"It's possible." Jiang Baimian responded to Bai Chen's words.

Long Yuehong stopped the subsequent communication, looked at Bai Chen with concern and said:

"Why discuss in the rain?

"Go back to the car first, or put on your raincoat."

Although everyone in the "Old Tune Team" has outstanding physical fitness and is not even human, there is no need to get wet in the rain.

Gennava tried to reassure Long Yuehong:

"I have tested it and found that there was no radiation or chemical contamination associated with the explosion just now."

"Okay, okay." Long Yuehong breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Baimian greeted the team members, packed up the items scattered outside, and returned to the car.

The rain caused by the missile strike lasted for a while before slowly stopping. Although the sky was still gloomy, the brightness could no longer prevent the "old tune team" from looking at the Taicheng scene in the distance.

Many buildings there have collapsed and only some are barely standing, making it look more like it has experienced the end of the world than before.

Jiang Baimian, who was sitting by the window in the back row, stared for a while and said:

"Let's retreat a little further to avoid further attacks from affecting us."

"Yes, yes!" Long Yuehong, who was in the passenger seat, almost raised her hands and feet in agreement.

Inexplicably, he was a little grateful for the missile attack just now, which forced the team's next exploration operation to be terminated early.

Maybe he can return to the company soon and register with Xiaobai... Long Yuehong's thoughts suddenly went astray.

The "old adjustment team" withdrew for more than ten kilometers in the direction they came from, until they reached the highway fault zone.

Instead of re-camping, they sat in the Jeep and waited for a call back from the company.

About an hour later, "Pangu Creature" finally gave the latest instructions:

“When exploring Renhui Hospital, be careful of the ‘New World’ nodes.”

"It seems that the company also suspects that there are nodes of the 'New World' in the Vegetative Rehabilitation Center of Renhui Hospital." Jiang Baimian made a simple comment.

Shang Jianyao sighed and said:

"It's too late. The company still doesn't know that Taicheng was bombed."

After saying that, he suddenly became excited:

“I haven’t explored a city that was bombed by missiles.

"The kind that just got bombed."

"Just wait, who knows if there will be another round of attacks." Jiang Baimian calmly stopped Shang Jianyao.

She did not forget to feed back the latest situation to the company, and Pangu Biology’s attitude towards this was:

"Observe for a few days to confirm whether the target location has been destroyed."

Seeing the sentence "Confirm whether the target location has been destroyed", Jiang Baimian said thoughtfully:

"The purpose of this missile strike is not to blow up Renhui Hospital and Taicheng No. 1 Senior High School, right?"

"This sounds like what the Eighth Research Institute wants to do." Shang Jianyao slapped his thigh.

One of the missions of the Eighth Research Institute is to prevent humans from investigating the cause of the destruction of the old world and the origin of "Careless Disease". To this end, they often blow up various buildings that contain clues, such as the secret laboratory in the ruins of Swamp 1.

"Judging from the intelligence we have collected so far, the Vegetative Rehabilitation Center of Renhui Hospital may indeed be hiding very valuable clues." Jiang Baimian nodded in agreement with Shang Jianyao's statement.

Long Yuehong asked confusedly:

"Then why didn't the Eighth Research Institute destroy it earlier or later, but why did it launch the missile at this time?"

"Before, they could only find fake Taicheng. They probably thought that the target location had been destroyed long ago." Bai Chen recalled what the team saw when they first came to Taicheng and gave his own guess.

Jiang Baimian nodded gently and said:

"We awakened 'Zhuang Sheng', which caused the dream in Taicheng No. 1 Senior High School to be broken, and the fake Taicheng that protected the real Taicheng disappeared. As a result, the Eighth Research Institute found that the place they wanted to destroy the most was still standing on the dust. .”

"But, how could they find out so quickly?" Long Yuehong asked doubtfully.

The Eighth Research Institute has no personnel stationed here.

Gnawa moved his metal neck, pointed at the sky and said:

"Maybe it has their 'eyes' on it."

satellite? Does the Eighth Research Institute have satellites that are still usable? Long Yuehong quickly understood what Lao Ge meant.

Jiang Baimian said "hmm":

"So wait a few days and nothing happens, then go and confirm whether the target location has been bombed."

…………

After waiting for two days, the "old adjustment team" did not wait for the follow-up missile strike.

So, they drove the jeep, made a small circle, and entered Taicheng from another place.

As we walked toward Inhye Hospital and No. 1 High School, the damage to the road became more serious, and the collapse of the buildings on both sides became more tragic.

At the end, it was difficult for vehicles to move, so Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao had no choice but to push down the door, put on military exoskeleton devices, and climbed over many obstacles to reach Renhui Hospital.

Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Gnawa stayed behind, waiting for response.

Not long after, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao arrived at the block where Renhui Hospital is located.

At a glance, they saw that it was almost razed to the ground.

Obviously, the missile strike is indeed aimed here as the main target.

"The clue is broken..." Shang Jianyao made a disappointed voice.

Jiang Baimian also felt sad for a while, feeling the taste of failure.

She composed herself and said to Shang Jianyao:

"Go to Taicheng No. 1 High School and have a look."

The two places are not too far apart, otherwise the member of the scientific expedition team would not have strayed there in a panic.

The result is self-evident. Taicheng No. 1 Senior High School was also razed to the ground.

"Aren't they afraid of offending 'Zhuang Sheng'?" The reckless Shang Jianyao marveled at the courage of the Eighth Research Institute.

Jiang Baimian took a breath and said:

"It should involve disputes in the 'New World'."

She waved her metal-skeleton-covered palm and sighed:

"Let's go back."

After getting on the jeep, Jiang Baimian fell into silence. Although Long Yuehong was secretly happy, she did not dare to say anything at this time.

As the jeep drove back, Jiang Baimian suddenly raised his head and said thoughtfully:

"I'm thinking that it's impossible for all of Ding Ling's husband's scientific expedition team to die in Renhui Hospital, right?

"Since someone can escape and accidentally enter Taicheng No. 1 Senior High School, there should be other survivors. Well, there is a certain probability."

"Yes." Long Yuehong was puzzled as to why the team leader suddenly discussed this topic, but he felt there was nothing wrong with this reasoning.

Jiang Baimian looked at the windshield in front and said:

"Where will those survivors go after they escape from Renhui Hospital and go through the stage of panic?"

Bai Chen, who was driving, and Gennava, who was in the back seat, said at the same time:

"Return the same way, leave Taicheng, and seek rescue."

Jiang Baimian nodded:

"But obviously they failed to leave Taicheng."

At this time, Shang Jianyao laughed:

"Maybe they lost their Buddhist 'tokens' at Renhui Hospital and found they couldn't find their way out, so they wandered around the edge of the city, collecting food and looking for an exit."

This... Long Yuehong suddenly realized that this was really a direction of investigation.