Chapter 354: Prowler!

In Baicheng, at the West Pass Tunnel, three groups of people darted out from the shadows, rapidly advancing in three different directions.

Lin Lin Xian had the heaviest task. Behind him, two large drones from Silent City were carrying two sets of magnetic-controlled energy deceleration arrays. He had to complete the scanning while on the move; to "catch" the United Train, two sets were clearly not enough.

Besides that, Lin Lin Xian had arranged for Grace to charge ahead as the vanguard, while Fire Brother, kiki, Chen Chen Sixuan, and Hearing Shizhi followed on his left and right.

The city ahead was a pitch-black silhouette. The squad could only discern the environment in the darkness through the navigation routes on their holographic panels and their night-vision and radar systems. Although Silent City had set up detection facilities in many parts of the city, the range was truly limited. To avoid running head-on into any anomalies, Lin Lin Xian chose to sprint along the rooftops of the streets. The advantage of this method was its speed, and generally, monsters would not occupy the rooftops.

However, the disadvantage was that the group was more exposed, so they had to speed up their actions.

【Unknown biological entity detected at high altitude ahead!】

Just as Lin Lin Xian and the others had leaped onto a low building, a warning message suddenly came from Grace in the lead.

The group stopped in their tracks, and Lin Lin Xian opened the map of Baicheng to readjust their route.

"Down!"

At Lin Lin Xian's command, he immediately activated his power armor and leaped out, diving into an underground garage. According to the route planning, there was a path below that could directly cross two streets and enter an underground pedestrian street.

As a mountain city, Baicheng was filled with such intricate tunnels. It was not uncommon for underground tunnels to connect to garages and for overpasses to weave through the rooftops of residential buildings.

Precisely because of this, this mountain city, densely packed like a strange jungle, felt exceptionally oppressive in the deathly darkness at this moment.

Thud!

Grace leaped down from high above, sprinting quickly to catch up with Lin Lin Xian.

The group now had their power armor's photoelectric systems turned on, casting a pale white light throughout the underground garage. The air was filled with dust, and only the metallic roar of the mechs sprinting echoed in the surroundings.

While flying, kiki raised a psionic shield; she was exceptionally cautious in this enclosed environment.

Fire Brother also held a ball of flame in his palm at all times, partly for vigilance and partly to use the searing heat to drive away the chill permeating his body.

"Lin Lin Xian!"

At this moment, Chen Chen Sixuan suddenly stopped and aimed her gun directly toward the deep right front of the garage.

"What is it?"

"Something is coming."

"I feel it too." Hearing Shizhi reacted quickly. She immediately retreated behind the group, raised her hand, and used her ability to connect everyone. For a moment, the others felt a sensation like drinking cold dark reagent surging up from the soles of their feet. Hearing Shizhi's ability could not only briefly drive away the darkness invading their bodies but also strengthen the mental power of ability users.

No wonder Long Long Zhijie and Lu Tianye Lan had been able to deal with the many experts on Lin Lin Xian's side in the square earlier without falling into a disadvantage immediately. At this moment, he also felt the benefits of this peculiar ability.

However, he had no time to be distracted. Hearing Chen Chen Sixuan's words, he immediately maneuvered 25 Thunder Falcon drones to rotate forward for exploration.

"Grace, provide cover!"

【Understood.】

At the same time, Grace charged out directly. But just then, Chen Chen Sixuan, as if she had heard something, suddenly changed her expression, turned her gun, and fired a shot directly into the darkness on the left!

Bang!

"Over here!"

Click, click, click. After the gunshot, a burst of rapid crawling sounds suddenly erupted. Lin Lin Xian turned his head, and the white photoelectric light shone over. He saw a large, human-like yet non-human monster appear in the corner. A strange, sharp mouth emitted a buzzing sound, and instantly, a burst of black gas sprayed out in all directions!

"Retreat!"

Lin Lin Xian knew Chen Chen Sixuan's shot must have hit, but the monster's full appearance could not be seen at the moment. The sharp screech, like the red-lamp-headed one they had encountered before, immediately made everyone feel their vision flicker strangely for a moment, with various bloody and terrifying images constantly flashing before their eyes.

Fear invasion!

"We've been marked!" Hearing Shizhi's voice followed. Silent City possessed the currently advanced soul-oscillation value detector, which could accurately scan for marks on the human body.

Squeak!

The sharp buzzing echoed in the basement, rising in pitch. The dust on the ground was kicked up by this sound wave.

At the same time, Lin Lin Xian and Fire Brother were the first to strike.

"Fire Fist!"

A huge fireball, accompanied by the pulse rays from Lin Lin Xian's drones, instantly illuminated the entire basement. The flames and explosion immediately engulfed the unknown monster, directly shattering the load-bearing columns and ventilation ducts along with it.

Just then, a loud noise also came from Grace's side. An object that looked like a human head flew from afar and rolled to Lin Lin Xian's feet.

In the light, Grace flew backward, holding a strange human head with spider legs, then performed a backflip in the air to land, smashing the head—whose spider legs were still crawling—into the ground. At the same time, she sent a voice message to the squad:

【Careful, human anomalies approaching!】

Bang! Just as she finished speaking, a wall next to Grace shattered with a roar. A powerful impact force directly snapped several pillars. kiki struck, using her psionic power to sweep away all the concrete fragments and disperse the dust.

Behind that wall, a humanoid creature like a butcher stood there. This "human anomaly," bloated all over, was wearing a gas mask and tattered equipment. Its entire body had mutated, and its skin was greenish.

Chen Chen Sixuan made a decisive move and fired a shot. Half of the butcher's head exploded instantly. But strangely, with only half a head left, this human anomaly remained indifferent. Suddenly, many scale-like things grew all over its body; they turned out to be countless small beetles. Those scale-insects buzzed around it, and then the butcher began to ooze green sludge from its body and lunged at the squad.

"Don't let it get close, this monster will explode!" Seeing this scene, Hearing Shizhi said immediately.

"Don't even think about it!" kiki raised her hand and clenched it. A powerful psionic force, carrying broken soil and dust like a wind pillar, surged toward the butcher. After blasting the sharp-mouthed monster, Lu Lu Xingchen turned around and also sprayed fire at kiki's wind pillar. For a moment, the spray-type fire pillar directly scorched the pillars, the ground, and the wall above inside the garage until they turned red.

Boom!

At this moment, only a muffled explosion was heard, and a large amount of ink-green sludge sprayed out in all directions. But the front was all blown away by kiki's wind pillar. However, at this time, several more strange human anomalies swarmed out from the darkness. Lin Lin Xian could see that these were not zombies or anomalies; judging by their attire, they were more like evolved humans who had mutated after being swallowed by the Star Abyss.

For a moment, the entire basement was filled with black smoke and green mist.

After being hit by Lin Lin Xian and Fire Brother, the screeching monster actually quickly hid toward the darkness in the rear. Its strange cries were like those of a wailing child. Lin Lin Xian looked at the flickering mark detector and gritted his teeth. While Grace and kiki were suppressing the human anomalies, he directly burst out. The human anomalies were not the main priority; the anomaly that could apply the darkness mark was.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The drones shuttled flexibly in the basement, their crimson pulse arcs never stopping. Under the searchlights, Lin Lin Xian seemed to see a monster over ten meters long constantly retreating. It retreated all the way to an elevator entrance. The monster seemed to be attached to the building structure; the sharp-mouthed body in front was merely the head it had extended.

Seeing this scene, Lin Lin Xian did not hesitate; he opened his mecha's palm cannons forward with both hands, and at the same time, the 6 small needle-missiles on his shoulders fired in unison, accompanied by the drone's bombardment, directly striking the monster's main body attached to the elevator entrance.

Under a barrage of fire, the monster's snake-like torso began to break from the bottom, and the screech it emitted became even more intense. At this time, Fire Brother also freed up his hands and flew over urgently. His hands sprayed flames in a cross, directly cutting the monster into several segments. And kiki, after dealing with those few human anomalies, also turned back and used her psionic power to fiercely crush the sharp-mouthed monster's head, and the screeching stopped abruptly.

Argh!!

At this moment, the darkness marks on Lin Lin Xian and the others were indeed cleared. But following the short, intense battle just now, it seemed to have attracted the attention of many dark creatures. In the distance, on the buildings, at the exits, sounds were coming from everywhere.

"Let's go, fast!"

Lin Lin Xian did not hesitate. After dealing with this monster, the entire basement was almost filled with that black mist. This fear power contained highly toxic substances and they could not stay at all. He immediately called everyone to proceed along the original route. At the same time, high-energy explosives, accompanied by rotor drones, were constantly generated on Lin Lin Xian's hands and then flew out, being placed on the load-bearing columns of the basement.

"We must have disturbed something big." Chen Chen Sixuan, wearing Black Hawk combat armor and holding Meteor No. 3, had her vision and hearing evolved to an extremely strong level, besides the combat window. Although she could not perceive the power of darkness like A-Bai or Hearing Shizhi, she could detect the movements of monsters in advance.

While running, Lin Lin Xian looked at the changes in the detector and said sternly, "Don't worry about it. I'm running along the underground route. As long as we aren't marked, don't attack."

Whether on the ground or underground, the path to the rail station was one that the people of Silent City had rarely taken before. Lin Lin Xian knew there was a high probability of encountering anomalies. However, by comparison, the advantage of choosing the underground was that the scale of the battle could be suppressed. As long as they could remove the marks, they could enter the darkness and remain silent just like the anomalies. If they were on the ground, the commotion caused by Fire Brother and kiki attacking would be too great.

【Click, click...】

After entering the underground, communication was severely interfered with. Lin Lin Xian could not contact the members of the other two routes for the time being and could only lead the squad to advance quickly. After turning out of the underground garage and entering a dilapidated building, a wire door appeared in front. Lin Lin Xian raised his hand and directly used mechanical devouring, and in an instant, the wire door disappeared.

They needed to go up from this building structure and climb to the platform above to enter the street.

"Ahead."

"Lin Lin Xian, ahead!" Chen Chen Sixuan and Hearing Shizhi said at the same time.

As the lights flickered, a twisted anomaly suddenly emerged in the dilapidated staircase ahead, as if it had been disturbed by the squad's lights. Just as the anomaly opened its mouth wide, dozens of Lin Lin Xian's drones rotated and fired pulse rays together, disintegrating the monster's upper body completely.

"C-level anomaly!"

Lin Lin Xian glanced at the anomaly whose half-corpse was still burning and did not say much, directly bypassing it and running upstairs. With their current strength, dealing with this kind of C-level anomaly was not difficult, but what he feared was being marked.

In this Star Abyss darkness, even a tiny mark could expose the entire squad to the surrounding anomalies, just like before.

"We... have lost contact with the fortress." Hearing Shizhi whispered while running.

"We'll have it again soon!"

Whoosh, ~whoosh~

Lin Lin Xian stabilized his breathing. With the protection of the Black Hawk power armor, his mobility and defensive power were greatly enhanced when dealing with these monsters. Besides the pressure of darkness invasion, he now only cared about the mark detector.

Bang~

On the dark and dilapidated street, a gate was burst open. Several people wearing power armor, accompanied by a large number of flying drones, rushed into the street. At this time, they had passed through three streets via various underground passages, and they were less than one kilometer away from the Baicheng Rail Station.

【Follow me.】

Grace's calm voice came. She transmitted the path information and continued to lead Lin Lin Xian and the others through the streets and alleys. Soon, the few arrived at the Baicheng Rail Station.

Lin Lin Xian stood on the clock tower and looked over. The vehicles abandoned after the great battle by Hu Hu Lushou and the other convoys were still parked in a mess in the square of the rail station.

Chen Chen Sixuan set up her gun to scout and said, "Lin Lin Xian, there must be something in there. I can hear movement."

Zzz.

Lin Lin Xian raised his hand and manufactured a signal repeater, placing it directly on top of the clock tower. After strengthening the signal transmission, he finally connected to the signal base stations deployed by Silent City throughout the field.

"Lin, I see that your position has reached the rail station. It looks like it's going quite smoothly."

"It's okay, we haven't encountered any big trouble," Lin Lin Xian replied.

In the main control room of the nuclear bunker in Baicheng, Mochizuki Shinji, dressed in plain robes, looked at the positioning points of the three teams on the holographic screen, actually commanding the three teams simultaneously with different voices.

"Miss Xiang Ningjing, at Baicheng Hospital, there is a high probability of anomalies in the morgue on the negative first floor. Xun and the others encountered one before and didn't clear it completely. Be careful there."

"Xun, at point A, point B on the north side of the central square, and on the Livelihood Building on the east side, place detonators. Place EMP drone missiles at the commercial center and that TV tower..."

On Lin Lin Xian's side, he had now manufactured infrared sentry sensors and placed them on top of the clock tower, then said to Chen Chen Sixuan:

"Chen Chen Laoshi, you guard here. If you encounter a situation, move toward me."

Chen Chen Sixuan nodded. She walked to the sloped roof of the clock tower and slid down, crouching at a corner of the high building, overlooking the entire Baicheng Rail Station.

"kiki, Fire Brother, you go up, we go down!"

"Good!"

As soon as the words fell, kiki and Lu Lu Xingchen had already leaped out directly, while Lin Lin Xian, under Grace's lead, jumped down from the clock tower with Hearing Shizhi, preparing to cross the passenger center from the front square and reach the rail section behind.

While sprinting, Lin Lin Xian also casually devoured an off-road vehicle. And kiki and Fire Brother flew to the rail station in the rear in the blink of an eye. Before they even landed, the mark detector on their bodies suddenly sounded.

Her expression changed immediately, and she and Lu Lu Xingchen searched with their eyes.

"Oh no, Chen Chen Jiejie..."

"I didn't see it, the sound I heard was inside the passenger station!" Chen Chen Sixuan's voice came.

But at this time, Lin Lin Xian and Hearing Shizhi had already entered the passenger station hall, yet no darkness mark appeared on their bodies.

"Split up and search!" Lin Lin Xian said directly.

Just as Lin Lin Xian's words fell, Chen Chen Sixuan, hiding on the clock tower, immediately noticed many strange sounds appearing in the surrounding streets. She adjusted her perspective, and on the holographic screen under the night-vision radar, she could clearly see some indescribable creature in the nearby dark alley slowly crawling toward the rail station in the rear. All of this happened the moment kiki and Lu Lu Xingchen were marked.

"There are anomalies approaching you, you must solve it immediately!"

Hearing this, kiki and Lu Lu Xingchen were also like facing a great enemy. At this time, one of them stood on the open-air track, and the other stood on the steel roof of the platform. The power armor systems on their bodies searched constantly, but they found nothing.

The dilapidated track seemed to lead into hell, and they couldn't see very far at all.

And at this time, Lin Lin Xian and Hearing Shizhi had already passed through the passenger station and also arrived at the track.

As soon as Hearing Shizhi came out, she immediately pointed to the outside of the outer wall of the rail station, in the direction of an old-fashioned residential building: "Over there, it's a Prowler!"

Prowler—this term was told to Lin Lin Xian by the other party after he had asked Brother Qian Brother Qian Suxun about the anomaly that had crawled out of the tunnel and then disappeared. According to the intelligence of the Silent City squad, this was a type of creature that could emit darkness marks but would not actively attack itself, existing like a scout among anomalies. When Lin Lin Xian heard it at the time, he immediately thought of the S-level Cloud Black Thorn in Xilan City. He didn't expect that such existences also existed among ordinary anomalies.

And Mochizuki Shinji called this type of anomaly a Prowler and believed that its level was not low. They lurked in the shadows, marked humans, and attracted surrounding anomalies to besiege and feed on their flesh and blood.

Hearing Hearing Shizhi's words, kiki and Fire Brother immediately took action and flew toward the direction of the residential building.

"Despicable thief, watch as I burn you to ashes!"

"Fast, there's no time!" kiki's expression was serious. In this situation, she dared not have the slightest hesitation.

Just as the two had flown over the wall, they indeed discovered a white ghostly shadow quickly shrinking behind the residential building. But when the two chased over, they lost the target again.

At this time, Lin Lin Xian followed with Hearing Shizhi.

"I sensed the aura!" Hearing Shizhi's expression was a bit nervous at this time. She used her ability to "purify" the few, and then said.

"Grace, scan!"

Scrape, Grace, who followed in the rear, leaped onto the wall and performed an environmental scan of the surroundings.

【Scanning in progress, suspicious locations marked.】

Soon, on Lin Lin Xian's holographic screen, several path points appeared, pointing to several escape routes respectively.

"Split up and chase!"

And at this time, Hearing Shizhi stood on the side with her brows tightly furrowed. For some reason, she could feel that the terrifying aura of darkness had not gone far but had been staying by her side. Suspicious in her heart, she hurriedly looked around, only to discover that in the corner of the courtyard of the residential building, there was something like a water well from a long time ago. The enclosure of the water well had already collapsed, revealing a pitch-black hole.

"It's right here, it hasn't left!"

Just as Lin Lin Xian and the others were about to set off, Hearing Shizhi directly called out to the few, and then pointed to the water well.

Lin Lin Xian, kiki, and Fire Brother, hearing this, directly rushed over. kiki was the fastest. This time, she had to use her psionic power to grab the monster immediately, and then cooperate with Lin Lin Xian to solve it. Otherwise, the marks on them would soon attract a large number of anomalies, and then it would be troublesome.

But just as she flew to the sky above the water well and shone the searchlight down, a terrifying scene suddenly appeared.

A white ghostly shadow was shrinking at the bottom of the water well at this time, emitting a strange laughter.

Click, click, click~

kiki was startled. In an instant, the white ghostly shadow rushed out fiercely, as if preparing to escape again. kiki focused her attention, her eyes shining with psionic light, and immediately poured down her psionic power, pinning the ghostly shadow down directly.

Fire Brother and Lin Lin Xian, who had already arrived at the side, seeing this scene, where would they give it a chance? They struck with all their might from left and right!

"Burning Heaven Sword!"

Mechanical Cannon!

To ensure nothing went wrong, Fire Brother directly unleashed his ultimate move. A crimson fire chain, accompanied by a Mach ring, directly cut the white ghostly shadow that had just crawled out, along with a large area of the residential building behind it, directly in half. The raging flames even melted the walls, and boiling smoke surged into the sky.

In an instant, the faint marks on kiki and Fire Brother disappeared again, and the squad immediately entered a silent state.

Mochizuki Shinji, located in the main control room, saw the change in the signals on Lin Lin Xian's squad, and at this time, he sent a message saying:

"Lin, there isn't much time left for the tide to recede. You need to leave here quickly and enter the evacuation hall below the rail station to hide!"

"Good!"

The situation just now was extremely dangerous. After confirming there were no marks on their bodies, Lin Lin Xian immediately called Chen Chen Sixuan: "Chen Chen Laoshi!"

"Coming!"

Chen Chen Sixuan also moved and rushed over. The group directly entered an underground garage used for parking from the stairs from the hall of the passenger center. This underground parking lot had a total of three floors. The bottom floor was a place similar to an underground warehouse. The space was smaller than the parking lot above. Generally, as a transportation hub station, such civil air defense facilities would be built for some emergency situations.

Lin Lin Xian looked at the time, led the squad directly into the evacuation hall, and then closed the blast door.

Clang.

Following a muffled sound, echoes constantly came from the empty hall.

Lin Lin Xian immediately turned on the lights. This evacuation hall was the closest one he could find to the Baicheng Rail Station. Unlike other areas, Brother Qian Brother Qian Suxun and the others had already explored them, so the basement below this passenger center might still have dangers for them.

The light swept over. The evacuation hall was empty. Various fire-prevention appliances were still placed on the emergency supply racks in the corner. Besides dust, there was nothing on the ground.

Just like what they saw after they first entered Baicheng, this city did not look like it had experienced a doomsday escape. Everything was frozen. Even the emergency supplies had not been taken by anyone, indicating that after the arrival of the Apocalypse Day, this place had already "stopped."

"The tide is rising soon. Everyone must remain rational and not be distracted."

At this time, Hearing Shizhi kindly reminded the few: "Shinji said that the more afraid we feel, the more our rationality will decline, and the less strength we will be able to exert. So if we are well-prepared, we can reduce the pressure brought by the darkness invasion when the tide rises."

Lin Lin Xian nodded, raised his hand, and manufactured a large-sized lighting lamp. For a moment, the light shone throughout the entire hall. The light was bright, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

【Combined with current world research on abilities, ability strength and mental power growth are directly proportional, while mutation is an irreversible life collapse caused by the collapse of will. So keeping one's heart firm helps improve the survival rate.】

Grace said plainly.

Lin Lin Xian looked at Grace. The metal skin all over her body was extremely lustrous. Just now, her action of crushing several strange human-headed spiders with her bare feet was elegant. Even facing the huge explosion and the frontal suppression of Brother Qian Brother Qian Suxun's heavy-duty robot before, it did not cause obvious damage. It had to be said that the toughness of this robot was comparable to a Xiang Ningjing. The level 5 metal material was indeed powerful.

At this time, he lowered his head and looked at the time: 13:04.

Lin Lin Xian's heart felt a slight chill. He knew that the tide, like time stagnation and space interlacing, was about to arrive. He didn't think much more and immediately held his breath and focused his attention.

13:04:59

59

59

13:05!!

In an instant, a feeling of extreme coldness struck. Everyone felt their whole body tremble. Hearing Shizhi gritted her teeth and unleashed her green ability to wrap everyone.

【Abnormal situation detected.】

Just at this time, Grace suddenly issued an alarm reminder. She stood in front of the crowd, her hands behind her back, and looked at the direction of the supply rack in the center of the hall.

Lin Lin Xian looked over at this moment. Instantly, his pupils shrank sharply.

On the wall where there was clearly nothing just now, with the alternation of the tide, a huge scarlet biological entity slowly grew out...

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 355 =====