Chapter 633: The Truth Behind Death Zone
"Red tentacles?"
Both Yiming and Xiaoyun looked a little puzzled, as they didn’t expect something so far-fetched to be in the death zones.
"Yes. It’s... like a pile of meat that can wiggle around. It just appeared from the ground when we found the soldiers who got tied up by it."
"How big is it?" Yiming questioned.
"The ones that attacked us were up to around our heights... But we’ve seen ones that go as high up as this HQ tent."
As everyone looked up to the ceiling, they could see it was roughly three meters tall.
"God damn, that’s big."
"Ahem, how did you all go past them? Yiming asked, interrupting Xiaoyun from commenting any further.
"We cut through them with our shovels... They are extremely easy to cut. It’s like cutting through jello."
"So guns wouldn’t really work against it?"
"I’m not sure... But I just felt like a bullet wouldn’t work against it since it doesn’t seem to have a head."
"I see..."
"Was there anything else in the fog that stood out to you? Anything other than those tentacles?" Xiaoyun asked this time.
"Oh, I almost forgot. There was a giant sphere made out of flesh. It’s like right in front of the soldiers when we rescued them."
"A giant ball of flesh?"
Everyone in the tent once again looked a little puzzled, as the thing Wuli had described didn’t sound like things related to zombies at all.
It didn’t add up to the Luoping’s Daily report on the death zone at all. There was almost zero similarity other than the initial zombies that came out.
"Do you remember what they were trying to do to the soldiers that were tied up?"
Wuli didn’t answer right away as she turned over to her soldiers, only for them to bring out multiple different explanations.
The first one was from the 2nd in charge, who described the scene as a ritual, with the soldiers all tied up to be sacrificed to the ball of flesh.
The other two soldiers felt a weird sense of intelligence from the sphere, almost as if it was learning from humans.
Their reasoning?
The tentacles weren’t just tied to the unconscious soldier’s hand, but smaller, thinner tentacles attached to their heads.
It seemed to be extracting human knowledge, at least that’s what they felt when they freed the hostages from the connections.
The last soldier, or Wuli herself, leaned more towards the whole sacrificed theory. But rather than for some ritual, she felt the sphere was just about to eat them.
They just happened to arrive at the perfect time to save them. However, the 2nd in charge heavily disputed it.
To her eyes, it didn’t make sense for the sphere not to eat them right away.
There was no reason to keep them alive unless there was a ritual or steps that needed to be taken before consuming the soldiers.
With all the different conclusions, Xiaoyun and Yiming both fell into silence. They didn’t know which theory was right.
All three of the theories had their own valid explanation, other than Wuli’s one, which felt like a near-zero chance of being a coincidence.
---
"Xiaoyun, what are we going to do next?"
Yiming questioned as Wuli and the soldiers left the tent after reporting the last information they knew of.
"We are... going to stay put for now."
Xiaoyun’s answer caught Yiming a little surprised, but he didn’t question it, as it felt like the safest option in his head.
"But, Commander, we still have four soldiers trapped inside the fog." Han Bang raised his voice.
"It’s too late. They are most likely long gone by now... All I wanted was Lingang to come back alive."
The answer made everyone’s spine shiver a little. They knew Xiaoyun was right, but it just felt a little cold hearing it out of his mouth.
"I’m not saying the soldiers’ lives aren’t valuable... I just don’t want to lose more people trying to save a small fraction."
Xiaoyun quickly added, realizing his answer earlier came out way too disrespectful and cold towards the soldiers.
"We understand, Commander... You aren’t wrong. The last thing we need right now is to go in one by one." Han Bang quietly murmured.
"Ahem, everyone, it’s time for dinner. Remember your duty schedule for tonight. You’re all dismissed."
Yiming ended the meeting before the awkward atmosphere could manifest as the Colonels all left the tent at once.
"Xiaoyun, what were you thinking when you said that out loud?" Yiming questioned, his voice with a hint of anger.
"Sorry... I just didn’t think more into it."
"Be more careful with what you say. People are listening... The last thing you want is for someone to take it out of context."
"You’re right. I’ll be more careful next time."
As Yiming exited the tent, Xiaoyun stood in the tent all alone as he stared down at the sandbox in front of him.
"When did I become so careless and so cruel... Maybe I need a little break."
Heading out of the tent, soldiers were walking in and out of the base as it was time for their rotation.
Looking up to the sky, it was already dark out, with the sun setting on the horizon as the moon rose up to the sky.
"I should go eat something."
As Xiaoyun headed back towards his own tent to get some food, he was a little surprised to find someone already inside his tent.
"Tianci? What are you doing inside my tent?"
"N-Nothing!"
Seeing her hands holding an open beef can with a pair of forks, it was obvious what she was doing to his ration.
"I don’t mind you eating it. I can just make more myself."
Zipping the tent closed, Xiaoyun quickly created another beef can for himself, one that’s steaming hot and already opened.
Just as he was about to take a bite, he noticed Tianci staring at his can despite having her own beef that she hadn’t finished yet.
"What are you looking at?"
"H-How did you heat up your cans?" Tianci curiously asked.
"I just created one that I had already heated up in the past... You want to switch?"
Seeing her nodding her head, Xiaoyun quickly switched the cans, letting her eat the hot one while he ate the cold one.
---
After the short dinner, Tianci remained in his tent as she started asking him about what the soldiers had witnessed inside the fog.
He explained every single detail of the conversation, from the fog looking red from the inside to the tentacles and the ball of flesh.
Despite all the bombshell news, she didn’t seem to be surprised by it. She remained silent as if she already knew all of it.
"You aren’t shocked? Do you already know about this?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"This is my first time hearing it... I’m a little shocked. But what you had just said pretty much confirmed my theory."
"What theory?"
"That fog in Shenzhen isn’t a death zone. At least not the death zone we are thinking of up north in the capital."
"Huh? What?"
Xiaoyun’s head was all confused as Tianci’s answer overthrew all the explanations that had laid the foundation of this whole disaster in Shenzhen.
"All of the things happening here are man-made. Someone is behind all these, and I already have proof of it."
"What proof?"
Tianci quickly took out her bag, only to take out a small glass containing a sample of a weirdly looking flesh that had dried up.
"My lab had just sent me the result an hour ago. The DNA in the flesh has extremely similar sequencing to the one back in Longxue Island."
"Really... Wait a moment, how do you know about Longxue Island? I never told you about it."
"I have my own methods, okay?"
After a silent staredown for a whole minute, Tianci finally couldn’t handle the pressure and confessed.
"Okay, fine... Yuqi happens to have experimental tools in the inventory that are way too advanced compared to the typical ones found in basic labs.
I just looked at the labels on the machines, which said Longxue Island. Then all I had to do was ask Kate about it."
"She told you all about it?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"Maybe... Okay, fine, she did tell me about the weird air particles that you guys ran into on the island.
I just sent a few salvage teams to bring back some of the samples. That’s all I know, I swear."
As Xiaoyun continued to look right into her eyes, he finally looked away before letting out a small sigh.
"Kate really needs to keep her mouth shut sometimes... So you’re telling me this whole thing in Shenzhen is done by the secret society?"
"Yeah. There’s no way this could occur naturally. Someone has to put a lot of effort into setting this up to be this big."
"Those damn bastard... But why did they set it up in Shenzhen out of all places?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"I don’t know... Maybe they just want to do it in a city that’s not too close to their main base, wherever that place is."