"Is that so," Jiang Miao nodded and said, "I'll remember it."
Meanwhile, as the transport vehicle continued its journey into the depths of Mount Efeng, on the other side within the camp, tactical flashlights illuminated the path of several advancing figures.
A few captain instructors found a row of dark shadows in the bushes before the barbed wire fence.
"You there, hit the deck immediately!"
"What's... what's going on?" The members of the Wayfarer squad were blinded by the sudden light, momentarily confused.
"Reporting, all members of the Wayfarer squad have been located. The headcount is confirmed."
"Why didn't you head to the training ground after the assembly whistle? Where is your staff officer!?"
"Wait, there must be some misunderstanding." Celine, the captain of the Wayfarer squad, immediately realized something was wrong and stepped forward.
"Our squad received orders before the training started to head to these coordinates and standby. We are simply carrying out the mission according to the instructions."
The captains exchanged glances. One of them nodded and approached Celine, taking the terminal from the girl's hand. His eyes shifted slightly after seeing the mission parameters on the screen.
She wasn't lying; they had indeed received mission instructions, and the orders came from... Headquarters?
However, for these squads, individual orders were usually communicated in advance, yet even Snow Crow Ji hadn't received any special instructions regarding the Wayfarer squad.
In the moment that instructor dithered, the instructor beside him raised a gun and indifferently fired a shot directly into his head.
Blood splattered. The other three snapped back to their senses, but just as they summoned their mimicry, they were efficiently dealt with. The sudden scene left the members of the Wayfarer squad at a loss, their minds going blank until a voice suddenly exploded in their heads:
"Run!!"
Celine, who was the first to sense the gravity of the situation, roared at the others. It was like a starter pistol firing over the heads of the squad members as they belatedly began to sprint toward the barbed wire.
"Deal with the unimportant brats as quickly as possible. We've been exposed. Finish this fast; tonight we only have one objective..."
A roaring sound came from the sky, followed by a violent explosion in the rear as piercing alarms echoed over the camp.
Celine watched the once-familiar figures of the instructors walking toward her, their indifferent silhouettes illuminated by the firelight, making them feel like strangers.
Just as she drew her gun, wanting to buy time for her companions to escape, a sound echoed in her ears.
It was similar to a cicada's chirp. The man walking toward her had lips trembling at a specific frequency; this eerie sound was being emitted by him.
"Celine, have you forgotten us?" the man said.
"Return to the Swarm... Return to the embrace..."
An ethereal voice from far-off Tower City echoed in her ears, washing her consciousness into a blank slate as her body began to lose control.
Her eyes instantly rolled back, becoming bloodshot, then began to spin, accelerating until they suddenly snapped back to their original positions.
Her expression likewise turned indifferent. Without a word, she looked at the two men and nodded, then drew her gun and aimed at the backs of her fleeing teammates, opening fire. Three of them fell instantly.
The last two were dragged before her.
"Captain! Captain!" one of them cried, tears and snot mixing together in a hideous expression. "You damn bastards, Captain, what's wrong with you? Wake up!"
"They'll do." Celine's voice was as cold as iron as she watched a writhing insect that looked like a cross between a scorpion and a beetle in one of the men's hands. The second squad member's face twisted in horror as he screamed and struggled, but he was pinned to the ground, forced to watch as the insect lunged at his face.
It burrowed into his eyes.
In a short moment, the other member was also parasitized. The two stood there dazed with numb expressions, which then returned to a state of calm.
"How do you feel?" Celine asked.
"Very warm."
"Very happy."
The two responded.
"Dammit, what's the situation over there? Answer me immediately, Wayfarer squad!" Snow Crow Ji's voice came through the walkie-talkie on the ground.
The group shared a silent look. Celine bent down to pick up the radio, her indifferent expression suddenly becoming animated with visible fear and suppressed panic:
"Save us, I'm Celine, captain of the Wayfarer squad! There are Syndicate members among the instructors! I'm hiding now, they haven't found me yet, I'm so scared..."
As the trembling, sobbing voice came through, Snow Crow Ji frowned slightly while looking at the radio. The girl sounded like she was in a confined space, and her tone didn't seem like a lie, but she still felt something was off.
"Where are you?"
The call was cut off.
"Dammit, to hell with the Syndicate!"
The woman slammed the desk in anger. Right then, the squads operating outside began to lose contact one by one on the communication channel.
The icons for the squads on the screen grayed out as floating cursors dissipated, followed by a striking red exclamation mark appearing across the entire display.
Communications had been manually severed.
This wasn't the first time Snow Crow Ji had experienced such a thing. She quickly assigned people to investigate the situation as her heated mind cooled down.
Such a situation meant that the camp had been infiltrated by the Zerg both inside and out, and even the decision-making level had Syndicate moles. These fellows usually appeared no different from ordinary people, lurking in the camp, but they had suddenly moved en masse tonight. What was their objective?
Suddenly, a figure flashed through her mind, and a premonition of unease grew in her heart.
Snow Crow Ji immediately asked loudly:
"Where is the Red Glow squad right now!?"
"This is really strange. Why do I feel like we've driven past this road before?" Yin Yusheng stared at the road signs flashing by and spoke up in confusion. "Why are we still so far from the mission objective?"
"Don't you all think it's weird?" The boy in the corner's voice was trembling. "We've already left the camp so far, we should have entered the range of the Zerg sentry towers, yet we haven't seen the shadow of a single Zerg..."
Akabane Tsubaki had also noticed this problem long ago; it was clearly abnormal. Beside her, Jiang Miao silently tightened her grip on her weapon.
They continued driving for a short distance as branches and mountain highway signs whipped past on both sides.
Until a certain moment, Akabane Tsubaki's ears twitched, keenly capturing a strange sound in the wind. It wasn't loud, but it sounded like... the wingbeats of a giant insect.
"Wait, stop the vehicle immediately—"
Before she could finish, a sudden change occurred. The transport vehicle was struck by an impact, slamming violently into the guardrail before plunging down the cliff and exploding. The glass shattered upon impact, and tongues of fire along with the whistling wind poured in instantly. Her body went from losing balance to weightlessness, then into a complete loss of control.
The world inside the vehicle began to rotate, flip, and turn upside down.
Frantic screams rang in her ears as white noise filled her world. Akabane Tsubaki saw with her own eyes as Yin Yusheng's head was pierced by an iron-black insect limb, which then tore through the upper half of his skull...
The endless fall was paused by a massive impact at a certain moment, the shock stripping her of consciousness as her vision plunged into darkness.
Rate on N.U.
