Chapter 42: Saving Unpermitted Chapter 42

Chapter 42: The Trap

The NPCs’ tent was some distance away from the players’, and the two sides wouldn’t go near each other’s unless there was a good reason to. But, now that Hu Yan knew that Shu Jun was here, it was impossible for him to not run there.

For any players, the standard supplies given by the mission were too basic. Most people would bring something to eat, drink and have a little more fun during the trip. As usual, Hu Yan, a meat lover, brought a small bag of canned meat. As soon as Zhu Yanchen walked to the tent entrance, Hu Yan blocked his way.

Hu Yan had a good personality, albeit a tad stubborn. He never tried to hide who he liked or who he didn’t. Earlier, Yu Jin took the initiative to shake hands with him, so naturally, he had a good impression of Yu Jin —  As such, Shu Jun got one box of canned food, Zhu Yanchen got one, and Yu Jin got two.

Shu Jun: “……Did you ration this based on body type?” You’re still technically my deputy captain, okay?

Hu Yan: “Do you have a better way then?”

Yu Jin was flabbergasted. Touching his missing left eye, he happily put away the cans: “Captain Hu, this is too nice of you.”

“You’re welcome. We’ll have to depend on you a lot today.” The gas mask couldn’t hide Hu Yan’s smile. “Our team is ready, we only need some more information… Hey, Xiao Zhang?”

Shu Jun had a vague impression of Xiao Zhang. He was a logistician among the combatants, responsible for contacting the headquarters in places with poor signals. At present, the young man was running out of breath: “Captain Hu, news has come from the higher-ups. Lao Dong has finished analysing the map, and the result has arrived. He told us to proceed with caution. Even if we have to abort the mission, there’ll be no penalty… But, like how we always did it, we’d like to hear your opinion.”

“Pass both the weather information and map analysis to me.” As soon as he switched to his working mode, Hu Yan withdrew his offhand smile, his tone turning rather serious. “Let me see…”

He even specially projected it on the screen so that the three ‘NPCs’ could see clearly.

“Ah, I have to say that this information is much more detailed than what Lao Dong gave us earlier. It seems like Marshal Zhu’s.” Hu Yan looked at the scan of the terrain and the marks on it while stroking his chin.

Shu Jun grabbed Zhu Yanchen’s coat and lowered his voice: “You really do have a clone?”

“I’ve prepared an auxiliary chip.” Zhu Yanchen quickly skimmed through the screen before turning his head.

Shu Jun had heard of this before. It was a special-made error correction programme that could predict loopholes in a plan.

Auxiliary chips were more common in lines of work where the solution was relatively simple and not subjected to extensive personalisation. But when it came to tacticians, basically no one used such a silly item.

The reason was simple. First of all, everyone had a different style of working, which made it difficult for the auxiliary chip to exert its uses. Secondly, it needed massive data support and an extremely thorough understanding of its enemy’s behaviours — which, in this case, meant the Erosion Marsh.

Data improvement called for hard work. It required the designer to manually input all possible developments and unexpected situations, then the chip would slowly learn and mature on this basis. To put it bluntly, this chip had to be taught frame by frame. To wait for it to complete learning wasn’t much different from teaching a living person.

Most people wouldn’t care to do such thankless things.

As for why Zhu Yanchen made this auxiliary chip… Looking at it from a ‘purposeful’ angle, this was likely part of his ‘post-humourous arrangement’.

When he was alive, the chip wouldn’t have any use. But when this ‘great strategist’ died, the chip could ensure that his successor didn’t meet too many obstacles while trying to pass down commands. On the other hand, on the grounds that it followed Zhu Yanchen’s working style, the chip could also be used as an excuse should any tactic be deemed to be too aggressive.

But that wasn’t where Shu Jun wanted to focus on.

No matter how talented Zhu Yanchen was, this chip couldn’t be created overnight. Even if he didn’t sleep day after day, it would take about six years to complete this alone, not to mention that he also had to conduct research on Erosion Marsh and worked hand-in-hand with the teams at the border areas.

……When did Zhu Yanchen even start planning his fake death?

The tranquillity in Shu Jun’s heart suddenly vapourised.

As they stayed together longer and longer, he found himself understanding this man less and less. But no matter what the answer might be, at least before he got the answer, he had to keep this man alive.

Shu Jun stretched out his hand and gripped Zhu Yanchen’s wrist, feeling as though the blood pumping through his heart had been muddled with lead. Zhu Yanchen was taken aback but didn’t resist.

Opposite them, Hu Yan kept on talking: “……Very good, very good. At first, I was worried that if the higher-ups keep sending more cautions, I might have to retreat a step further. Who knows, it almost seems that this mission may turn out to be dangerous.”

“Captain Hu.” Shu Jun gritted his teeth and spared a moment to adjust his emotion. “We need all the luck to be on our side. Don’t speak nonsense like that.”

Hu Yan coughed a little: “What are your thoughts?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any problem, and the weather is stable. But just in case, we’d better explore only during the day. Let’s camp at night to keep ourselves safe.” Yu Jin opened his mouth first. “Let’s do that. I’ll put up even more safety measures than the rules suggest.”

Zhu Yanchen cast a thoughtful glance at Shu Jun. The latter understood at once, and his grasp at Zhu Yanchen’s wrist became a little more forceful: “I didn’t find anything wrong either. But the data is indeed a bit weird. I agree with One Eye’s viewpoint.”

“Okay, my idea is the same. Let’s leave 30 people behind as emergency backup. Scouring teams A and B will continue to move forward and carefully clean the surroundings. Frontline team, leave 9 people behind as backup. We’ll set off in ten minutes.”

Since Erosion Marsh hated light and liked water, the sky near any Erosion Marsh was always particularly gloomy.

The frontline team of more than a dozen people entered the heavily eroded zone first, everyone wrapped tightly in thick protective suits, looking like a bunch of staggering gingerbread men.

Gingerbread Shu Jun was still pulling on gingerbread Zhu Yanchen. Meanwhile, other people only assumed that they were relying on each other to save energy, all their attention focused on the Erosion Marsh at the horizon instead.

Unlike Sweet Vanguard, the marsh this time looked even more peculiar.

The surrounding ground was rather wet, with dark clouds reflected on the pitch-black water, their shapes warped by rings and rings of ripples. The ruins of a rocky mountain slightly poked out at the horizon, and a long, slender liquid pillar of that Erosion Marsh was protruding from the mountain, pointing straight at the sky. At the moment, no one could see the top of that pillar.

As though it was a string that connected Heaven and Earth.

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The good news was that there were no mutated monsters nearby. But when paired with the eerie atmosphere around them, this good news seemed to deviate a little from the norm.

The three NPCs in front led the way, looking around as they walked, their speed as slow as an old man taking his leisurely stroll. With the protective suits so suffocating and heavy, people slowly lost the mood to talk. Seeing that the sun was about to go down, the team gradually came to a stop.

Except for the Erosion Marsh in the distance, the surrounding scenery had hardly changed. Above and below them were billowing black clouds, as though they were walking through Chaos.

Only one person was still full of energy at the moment —

“That Erosion Marsh looks like a garden eel.” After studying the Erosion Marsh in the distance, Shu Jun took the initiative to speak about it. “We’ve reached this far, yet I still don’t feel anything special. There’s no illusion of ‘nothingness’ near it either… This distance should be fairly safe.”

“There hasn’t been any obvious change in the concentration of erosive substance, which is a bit strange.” Zhu Yanchen raised his wrist and glanced at the monitor.

“Except that there’s a low tide here, I haven’t noticed anything odd. It’s just that the ground is too wet, which will make it a bit hard to camp later.” Seeing the two begin to whisper, Yu Jin joined in the conversation while panting hard for air.

After putting down an anti-erosion sign to mark their path, he said as his breath fogged up the goggles: “How do I say it… By right, everything has been smooth, but something just doesn’t feel right for me. Anyway, let’s stop here today. Let’s talk to Captain Hu, it’s time to camp… Hey, whatever is out there, we’ll have canned meat for dinner tonight.”

But, as soon as they set up the waterproof rack, a surprise came their way —

The messenger Xiao Zhang was here again.

Thanks to the safety markers, Xiao Zhang quickly caught up with them with a mud sled — Once they came into this place, it was impossible to make any contact with the outside world, so Xiao Zhang could only resort to this labourious means of communication.

“What’s the matter?” Hu Yan was a tiny bit startled to see Xiao Zhang jump off the mud sled. Communication in a heavily eroded zone was extremely troublesome. Instructions usually didn’t reach here so quickly.

“It’s Lao Dong’s new order.” Xiao Zhang gasped hard. “The previous scan data was wrong. This Erosion Marsh’s result turns out to be normal. It’s just an atypical but ordinary Erosion Marsh. Let’s not consume too many resources. Finish the mission early and return early.”

Hu Yan didn’t make a fuss, rather, he only frowned: “Are you certain?”

“Very certain.” Xiao Zhang nodded and took a few steps forward. “Captain Hu, I’m also very surprised. But their information is absolute. This time, Mr. Dong didn’t even give any new intel. Maybe he did make a mistake.”

“I understand, thank you for your hard work.” Hu Yan nodded. “You should use the mud sled first to —”

Before Hu Yan even finished speaking, a shadow swept across and a broadsword directly split Xiao Zhang into two. Hu Yan couldn’t react at all and simply stood rooted to the spot.

Shu Jun held up his sword horizontally to keep Xiao Zhang separated from the rest of the team — He loosened the white cloth covering the blade, only leaving it to cover Monday’s brain and mouth. The suit made it difficult to move in, but his movements were still very neat.

A step away, ‘Xiao Zhang’ slumped down, his whole body neatly ripped into two pieces. However, no organs or blood gushed out of the cut at all.

He was empty.

‘Xiao Zhang’ was also wrapped in a protective suit with human skin on the outside, which made him appear no different from a living person. But inside that skin, there was only air, as though he was but a life-like paper man. After being cut apart by the broadsword, he shrank and gradually dissipated into the black water on the ground. The next instant, the mud sled also melted into the ground.

“What — what —” Hu Yan’s tongue clogged into a knot, but immediately, he got into a defensive stance. Before Shu Jun pulled back his sword, the Blackbird players had set up a defensive formation.

“The way it stepped on the ripples didn’t seem right.” Shu Jun hissed: “It doesn’t look like a heavy object walking, more like a balloon popping up and down.”

“Retreat now!” Seeing such an abnormality, Zhu Yanchen almost reacted at once. “We must retreat immediately, or else —”

“I guess it’s too late.” Shu Jun murmured.

“What are you talking about?”

Hu Yan was still a little sluggish, while Yu Jin was still in his original spot, fiddling with the waterproof rack. Zhu Yanchen and Shu Jun looked at each other and stepped forward.

“Use your captain’s authority to maximise the anti-erosion property of everyone’s protective suits. After that, activate the emergency oxygen supply.” Zhu Yanchen said to Hu Yan: “Now!”

“Take down the tarpaulin on your tent and wrap your body with it. The tighter you wrap it, the better!” Shu Jun unscrewed the speaker on his protective suit and forcefully squeezed his voice through it: “Hurry up, don’t just stand there!”

The Blackbird team members looked at each other. This person was an official NPC, yet the way he talked was really familiar. Subconsciously, they all followed his instructions.

Hu Yan took a deep, resolute breath and, clenching his teeth, he also followed suit.

“I’m done, now tell me why — F**k!” He got his answer before he even finished asking the question.

Waves were rushing towards them.

By now, Hu Yan could react promptly. If the huge liquid pillar was the stamen, this evil flower hid all its thin petals under the water. This Erosion Marsh spread out its erosive substance very thinly yet firmly; that was why the concentration of erosive substance remained low along the journey.

Now that it had been exposed, the marsh pushed its flat ‘petals’ toward the center, directly trying to envelop the whole team. The water that the erosive substance hid behind was now lifted by those ‘petals’ whose size was so large that their shape couldn’t quite be distinguished anymore, turning into huge waves that now ambushed them.

From the moment the frontline team entered this heavily eroded zone, a trap was already waiting for them.

Yu Jin reacted extremely fast, pulling the tarpaulin as he rushed over and wrapping the four of them inside. Shu Jun clenched Monday with one hand and Zhu Yanchen, who was closest to him, with the other.

In a blink, the muddy water engulfed them all.

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