Chapter 875

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Underground? Can they even survive?

Wei Ran and Cheng Nan were full of question marks, but the two tacitly didn't press for more questions; after all, whether they lived or not, they had to dig them out to be certain.

Carrying tools in hand, the two small groups took turns—one on guard, one digging soil—switching every so often, helping each other like this, until one member's iron hoe hit something hard.

Huh?

Wei Ran waved her hand to call a halt, "Earth-type ability user, first see what's inside?"

Digging by manpower alone definitely wouldn't work; the ones contributing the most were ability users, earth and wood types were the main force, while others such as water and fire types were auxiliary.

The earth-type ability user came forward first, then bent down to release their ability onto the ground beneath.

Inside the dug-out large pit, fluctuations occurred; layers of soil spontaneously surged toward both sides, until what was buried in the ground was exposed.

"Is this... a truck?" The transportation they needed when they came out—basically every squad was equipped with several, the best choice for transporting goods and people.

Cheng Nan waved her hand, having the earth and wood types coordinate to pull the truck out of the ground as much as possible, while other ability users also lent a hand; who knew, there might still be people on the truck.

The earth-type ability user continued to exert effort, but in this situation earth types alone weren't enough; wood types needed to activate their wood-type ability to help while the earth-type ability users worked.

The two sides could be said to be very tacit, borrowing each other's strength to pull the truck buried in the soil out.

The whole process took longer than the digging time; fortunately, the final result was good—the truck appeared successfully. Although it was stained with some mud, because it had been buried quickly, there was relatively little mud inside the truck, and they really found several people with feeble breathing (but still breathing) in the truck compartment.

"Quick, take them to the vehicle for first aid; we must find out what happened to them."

Wei Ran quietly arranged it, then turned her gaze to the ground that had already become a large pit; inside was empty, but who knew if there wouldn't be a second truck buried.

The roots of the mutated ginkgo tree appeared tangled and knotted in the soil; the vines wrapped around the mutated ginkgo tree seemed to have completely merged, as if wanting to stuff the entire vine branches into the mutated ginkgo tree's trunk.

Shen Chengyi still stared at the mutated ginkgo tree before her and the suddenly appearing vines; although they currently had no attacking intent, Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and others had an accident on their territory, so they couldn't be careless.

At the same time, Shen Chengyi was still pondering exactly where the problem lay?

Her initial suspicion target was this mutated ginkgo tree, but when breaking the barrier or obstruction existing around, she knew the matter had nothing to do with the mutated ginkgo tree; the vines sprouting from the ground were her second suspicion target, but since the truck was really dug out, the vines were once again ruled out by Shen Chengyi as a suspicion target.

Not these two, then what was it?

Shen Chengyi was still thinking on her side, when Wei Ran, who continued digging the pit on the other side, suddenly shouted, "What is this?"

Shen Chengyi turned back, and saw Wei Ran jumping up and down while telling others to retreat, herself trembling as she pointed at the pit and shouted loudly, as if her emotions had suddenly lost control.

Not only was Wei Ran's emotions off, but the originally very calm mutated ginkgo tree and vines were also off; their branches and trunks moved, bypassing Shen Chengyi to make a move to attack Wei Ran.

Huh?

Regardless of the reason, Shen Chengyi couldn't let the mutated ginkgo tree and vines attack Wei Ran; she quickly grabbed a knife to block the incoming branches, then raised her hand to pull Wei Ran beside her and rapidly retreat backward.

During the retreat, Shen Chengyi noticed the situation inside the deep pit, and her eyes showed a momentary stunned look.

What was that thing?

A reptile animal? But why did it have human faces and features?

Wei Ran was still somewhat mentally out of control; her shouting and screaming improved after leaving the deep pit, but the whole person was still somewhat disoriented, speaking incoherently, and her own consciousness wasn't very clear either.

Was she controlled by some mental-type ability? Shen Chengyi pushed Wei Ran to Cheng Nan behind her, then had them wait by the truck, "Without an ability to protect yourself, don't get close to the deep pit; I suspect there's something inside that affects the mind."

As soon as the words landed, Shen Chengyi rushed forward, stepping on the branches and trunks thrown out by the mutated ginkgo tree and vines, jumping into mid-air; thus, she also seriously examined the image of the thing inside the deep pit.

How to put it?

Her head felt somewhat swollen and dull, but more so was the huge impact on her vision; Shen Chengyi was already an outstanding battle maniac among ability users, yet she was still hard-controlled by these bad things for several seconds; if it weren't for the mutated ginkgo tree and vines catching her from below, she probably would have had intimate contact with these human-faced reptiles.

It was also at this time that Shen Chengyi realized the mutated ginkgo tree and vines weren't trying to attack Wei Ran; they saw that Wei Ran's position was too close to the monster and wanted to push Wei Ran out or throw Wei Ran out—not necessarily to save, but more out of fear.

Fear of what?

If the two sides had intimate contact, would an irresistible situation arise?

Shen Chengyi couldn't figure it out herself, and since the mutated ginkgo tree and vines couldn't speak, she could only first deal with the monsters taken out of the deep pit.

Hmm

Calling them monsters was being polite; these things were really ugly and terrifying; at first glance she thought human faces were printed on them, but upon closer examination, it turned out to be flayed human skin pasted on top.

Shen Chengyi:...

The long blade in her hand was swung out with sparks; other ability users also took turns helping to attack, but just as if the monsters had some three-dimensional defense, no matter how they chopped or exploded, there was no loss at all; finally, Shen Chengyi, unable to bear it any longer, used lightning-type ability to directly strike down, turning these human-faced monsters into ashes.

But even if turned to ashes, there wasn't completely no possibility of resurrection, because Shen Chengyi saw white egg-like objects inside the ashes.

Shen Chengyi:...

What the hell was this thing? How did they mutate and evolve?

The stress level of the mutated ginkgo tree and vines was simply more serious than hers; Shen Chengyi, even wearing a filtering device, still smelled a strong fragrance in the air; her head felt as if some buff had been put on it, completely unable to break the confinement, and her movements slowed by several circles.

Other ordinary ability users couldn't resist one by one, dazed and about to fall to the ground; it was only when the vines roughly threw them out that they eased somewhat.

But these all treated symptoms not the root, because on the ground human-faced monsters began to appear; they had the body structure of reptiles, but at the head position, a human face of unknown how long dead was pasted; some human faces had already rotted to the point of being unrecognizable, while some with clear edges were shocking.

Shen Chengyi steadied her mindset and continued dealing with these monsters that appeared; at the same time, she also had to watch that other team members wouldn't be secretly taken away by these monsters.

It was also at this time that Shen Chengyi learned that the culprit behind all this was the human-faced monsters; they were in an opposing relationship with the mutated ginkgo tree and vines; Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and others' disappearance was related to the human-faced monsters.

The ability in her body was squeezed dry time and time again; the ability users who could fight alongside Shen Chengyi became fewer and fewer; finally, the only ones barely cooperating were the mutated ginkgo tree and vines.

"Retreat first!"

There was no other way; Shen Chengyi was human, not a robot; she needed to eat and drink to restore the ability in her body; facing an endless stream of monsters, she could only run first.

Wei Ran had long been excluded from the battle; Cheng Nan, because she had to take care of her, had few chances to help; when the others retreated one by one, they discovered Shen Chengyi was covered all over with black stuff.

Waving her hand, Shen Chengyi had Cheng Nan seize the time to contact the temporary camp; the situation here was too complex; if they wanted to deal with it, at least ordinary people had to withdraw, and even ability users not strong enough were useless.

"Those human-faced monsters should be the main reason Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and others went missing; to find them, the monsters must be dealt with first," but there were too many monsters; relying on Shen Chengyi alone made it very difficult to accomplish.

This isn't a question of whether Shen Chengyi wants to save people, but that Shen Chengyi simply cannot find where the people are; otherwise they could still scheme to fish the people out first before dealing with the monsters.

Cheng Nan indicated she had already informed the temporary camp, and the Commander-in-Chief would arrange two squads to come provide support.

"Before that, we need to find a place to rest," after all, their team had quite a few wounded, and the ability users' ability loss was severe; all of this needed slow recovery.

Shen Chengyi expressed that from now on command would be handed over to Cheng Nan; the battle just now had left her somewhat tired, so if there was nothing important, she need not be bothered temporarily.

"No problem?" Cheng Nan was worried; the team's combat power was clearly insufficient, and if something happened to Shen Chengyi as well, she wouldn't know what to do.

"No big problem," just a bit tricky; "the monsters are obsessed with human faces, I'm worried about the missing personnel's safety."

This doesn't seem like they were simply buried in the soil, where digging them out and rescuing them could still save them.

Cheng Nan had no good solution for this either, because the missing personnel's current location was still uncertain; they had also been digging halfway when they encountered the monsters, and right now, unless those monsters were cleaned up, they had no chance to continue digging.

The truck beneath them slowly left the original place; of course, at this time they definitely wouldn't return to the temporary camp.

Cheng Nan synthesized the markers on the map and ultimately chose to park the truck inside a building just a few kilometers outside the mutated ginkgo tree.

That place was originally a small plaza; although the exterior was already covered in accumulated snow, the interior was still very spacious and bright; even though it had been destroyed during the End of Days, it was still enough to temporarily place this group of people.

Cheng Nan helped Wei Ran get off the vehicle, then had the others set up the tents, and herself led the team members who could move to set up a warning line to guard against danger; only after a whole round of busy work did they have a chance to rest.

Huff

Leaning against the building behind her, Cheng Nan let out a breath of relief, and looked down at the communication device; sure enough, the support squad list and arrival time had been sent over.

Cheng Nan combined her own position and sent the relevant information to the other side, and finally didn't forget to remind them of the danger here.

Wei Ran's head was still dizzy; the truck engine they had dug out earlier was damaged, so they could only helplessly abandon it in place, but the personnel and tools on the vehicle were all brought out.

Several people woke up one after another, and were currently lying together with Wei Ran; their conversation was still somewhat at cross-purposes, but there were other people with normal thoughts around them, so understanding was still very easy.

"... So that means, that group of monsters appeared when they were about to faint.

Then the mutated ginkgo tree and the monsters fought, the overturned soil covered them, and after that they lost consciousness; when they woke up they saw us."

Cheng Nan sorted out some of the threads in that account, and felt this matter was probably a comedy of errors.

Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and the others had brought people to deal with that mutated ginkgo tree from the start; after the two sides clashed, the vines — as the mutated ginkgo tree's good friends — appeared.

The vines carried a fragrance with a coma-inducing effect; Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and the others had no guard against it, and directly collapsed in a large patch, including the few people on the truck.

Their capabilities were weak, so they were the first to exit the battlefield; they fundamentally didn't know what the others fought into; being able to see the monsters show themselves was also luck; otherwise right now it would be a state of total ignorance.

Cheng Nan called her Deputy Captain and Shen Chengyi, and the three began discussing countermeasures; action would definitely have to wait until the support squads arrived, but facing the missing Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and the others, they had to prepare for the worst.

For the next several hours, everyone just recuperated on the building's first floor.

Wei Ran finally got through the awkward chaotic period, and became lively and jumping around again; hearing Cheng Nan say she had talked nonsense at that time, Wei Ran touched her face, "Anything else?"

She didn't do anything strange, right.

Cheng Nan shook her head, then spoke again of the bad news about Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng and the others, "Not necessarily accurate, but analyzing from the current situation, their probability of surviving isn't high."

If it were mutated creatures not so bloodthirsty, they could still remain optimistic, but those monsters not only look hideous, their hobbies are also hideous; Wang Fei and Gao Xuefeng aren't Big Shots with off-the-charts combat power, so they can only pray in their hearts.

"This kind of thing is inevitable; before we came out on the mission we already anticipated it."

People who go on missions encountering what is all unknowns; the team has quite a few people who have lost close comrades, cooperative partners; they've long since grown accustomed to everything.

When the two support squads arrived, everyone gathered together again.

This time, Cheng Nan spoke, with Shen Chengyi as information supplement; the two detailed the situation around the mutated ginkgo tree, and how they could uproot all these dangers.

"Ordinary firearms have little influence; ability users also aren't such that every ability works.

Best to still use offensive abilities, not giving those monsters a chance to counterattack; once they're killed, the ashes must also be collected and uniformly processed."

Because the ashes contain monster eggs; hatching again would be new monsters; since the Commander-in-Chief's purpose is to come handle these crises, they definitely can't just treat symptoms not the root; otherwise they'll make a comeback later, and they fundamentally won't be able to resist.