Embers Ad Infinitum

As the Jeep followed the path illuminated by the yellowish headlights in the deep night, heading towards the southeastern area in a city full of abandoned buildings, Long Yuehong's heart slowly lifted involuntarily.

Although he is no longer a newbie, this is his first experience of going directly to the "front line".

This was different from the riot in Weed City. It could barely be called a regular battle.

Just as Long Yuehong quietly took a deep breath to calm her inner tension, Shang Jianyao held the steering wheel with one hand and took out the small blue speaker with black surface from the tactical backpack.

After he pressed it a few times, an exciting melody echoed in the jeep.

This time the music did not include vocals, but it made Long Yuehong a little excited, as if he had become a lone hero, about to fight one against a hundred.

"What's the name of this piece of music?" he asked curiously, tilting his head.

Compared with just now, he was obviously much calmer.

"I don't know, it's pure music." Shang Jianyao swayed his body and replied with a smile, "You can call it a marching song."

While feeling the enthusiasm and excitement brought by the music, Long Yuehong watched the khaki all-terrain vehicle in front of her moving steadily through the ruins of collapsed buildings and damaged roads. She couldn't help but sigh:

"The team leader asked us to drive around Hongshiji in the car before. It was really useful..."

Although it was impossible for them to clearly grasp the status of every road in such a short period of time, since the scale of the city's ruins was not small, they still had a clear understanding of the building locations and commonly used roads in the main areas.

Coupled with the map provided by Warner Song He, they could travel to their destination relatively easily even if it was already midnight.

Hearing Long Yuehong's emotion, Shang Jianyao glanced sideways at him and said doubtfully:

"I thought you should have understood the importance of familiarity with the environment in Weed City."

"That time it was mainly Bai Chen who led the way. I didn't have a deep understanding of it." Long Yuehong explained quite honestly.

Shang Jianyao expressed his understanding and seriously suggested:

"Hide and seek is the best way to get familiar with the environment. Next time I will take you to attend the mass of the vigilant sect."

Do you want to participate yourself? Long Yuehong didn't express her inner murmur.

He stopped chatting and tried to regain his composure.

After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Baimian issued an order through the walkie-talkie:

"Turn off the lights, slow down, turn on the stereo."

They had arrived in the area of ​​Al Supermarket and Sixth Day Mall, but they did not hear the gunshots and gunfire one after another.

Shang Jianyao immediately rolled down the window, adjusted the content played on the small speaker, and turned the volume to the maximum.

Soon, a high-pitched male voice came from inside the jeep that seemed to blend into the darkness:

"We are a team of ruin hunters, entrusted by Warner Song He to deliver arms!"

"We are a team of ruin hunters, entrusted by Warner Song He to deliver arms!"

Because the sound was too loud, Long Yuehong's ears in the passenger seat were buzzing, and these words were echoing in his mind.

He opened his mouth and subconsciously wanted to say something, but the words he spat out were drowned by the waves of sound.

In the khaki all-terrain vehicle ahead, Bai Chen's expression in the driver's seat became a little strange.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Baimian noticed her change and asked loudly.

She manually closed all the car windows to reduce the "pollution" of Shang Jianyao's voice to a level that would not affect the conversation.

Bai Chen took a breath and said as if he should laugh or cry:

“When I was wandering in the dust, I often drove to different settlements to exchange items.

"Sometimes, for the sake of convenience and trouble, I will get a big loudspeaker and keep shouting what I want."

Jiang Baimian looked around and asked curiously:

"for example?"

Bai Chen was silent for a few seconds, looked ahead and said:

"Rice, flour, cans for kitchen knives, handguns, bullet casings and various metal items."

Jiang Baimian chuckled:

"Aunt Nan, did you think of the 'bad pistols, bad rifles, and bad submachine guns' at their door?"

Bai Chen pursed his lips and said:

"Every homeless person who has been through a similar experience has a few words."

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian to respond, she said in a deep voice:

"Team leader, we are almost at our destination. Pay attention to your surroundings."

"Oh, I'm angry..." Jiang Baimian muttered in a very relaxed state.

"Not angry." Bai Chen looked forward and responded quickly.

"So you're embarrassed?" Jiang Baimian asked with a smile.

Bai Chen stopped talking.

Jiang Baimian stopped as soon as he felt good. While sensing the electric signal, he kept looking at the buildings and ruins on both sides of the road through the moonlight outside.

In less than a minute, she picked up the walkie-talkie and said:

"You can turn off the sound and keep a sufficient distance from us."

Every muscle in her body was slightly tense, ready for the unexpected.

After a few dozen seconds, two figures emerged from a collapsed building in front of them.

Carrying assault rifles, they walked along the cleared road and got down to the all-terrain vehicle that had stopped on its own initiative.

In the surrounding darkness, there were countless guns aimed at this side.

The two figures were wearing animal masks and hoods, making it impossible to tell at a glance whether they were the Red River people or the Gray Whisperers.

After looking at it for a while, the woman wearing the bull mask said in a gray language:

"Are you the relic hunters who took on Herwig's mission?"

"Yes, we have recovered Herwig's arms and want to sell our part to the town guard. I wonder where Captain Han is?" Jiang Baimian was not at all uneasy about being pointed at a gun and explained with a smile.

"Recovered?" The woman wearing the bull mask was quite surprised.

Jiang Baimian said "hmm":

"Song Warner can testify."

The woman wearing the bull mask was silent for a few seconds, picked up the walkie-talkie, and reported the incident to Han Wanghuo.

Not long after, the Sheriff came here on his own initiative.

He was wearing black clothes and no mask.

After checking Herwig's arms and the supplies of the "Old Adjustment Team", Han Wanghuo, who was carrying a rifle and two "United 202s", asked directly without being verbose:

"What do you want in exchange?"

"A military exoskeleton device for the town guard." Jiang Baimian, wearing a delicate monk mask, answered calmly, "One can be delivered after the war is over."

Seeing Han Wanghuo frown, she smiled and added:

"Ankhbas has repented in the church and is willing to make more contributions to the Red Stone Collection against the people.

"When the situation calms down, you should be able to get a new military exoskeleton device through him. This may take a year and a half, but you can afford to wait, but we can't."

Han Wanghuo was silent for a while and said:

"I can't agree directly. I'll discuss it with others."

Jiang Baimian, who knew that he could not make the decision in Hongshiji, expressed his understanding:

"OK.

"But please hurry up, we can wait, the fish-man mountain monster will not wait."

Han Wanghuo nodded slightly and walked to the side.

After a few steps, he turned back and asked:

"Aren't you afraid that the town guards will forcefully recruit people, or even kill people to steal goods?"

Jiang Baimian laughed.

But before she could give an answer that fit her status as the "ultimate villain", Shang Jianyao, who had already driven the Jeep over, shouted loudly:

"We believe you!"

Han Wanghuo was stunned for a moment, and then said bitterly for a while:

"There are some things that I can't stop."

He stopped talking, walked to the side of the collapsed building, and used the walkie-talkie to communicate with several powerful figures in the town guard.

A full ten minutes passed before he walked back to the all-terrain vehicle and said to Jiang Baimian and others:

"make a deal."

"Happy cooperation." Jiang Baimian originally wanted to extend his right hand and shake it, but considering the folk customs of Hongshiji, he gave up this plan.

Although she knew that Han Wanghuo was not a believer in the Vigilance Sect and that shaking hands was not something that needed to be taken care of, the surrounding townspeople in Hongshiji believed in "Yougu". What if they became vigilant because of their handshake and decided to abort the transaction?

Don’t be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the unexpected!

Han Wanghuo took a breath and talked about the specific plan:

"You first hand over the arms and supplies to me and distribute them. After we have defeated the fish-man monsters and severely damaged them, we will hand over an 'AC-42' military exoskeleton device to you."

"No problem." Jiang Baimian didn't hesitate.

Han Wanghuo was a little uneasy and asked thoughtfully:

"Aren't you afraid that we will lose the war with Ji Ren, and even those two exoskeleton devices will fall into their hands?"

What he really wants to ask is, aren't you afraid of defaulting on your debt later?

Shang Jianyao answered first again:

"We'll get it back."

He said it with unusual confidence.

Jiang Baimian laughed and added helpfully:

“We can arm debt collectors.”

Seeing that the other party was so confident, Han Wanghuo began to notify the town guard members at various points in the defense line, asking them to come in groups to collect new supplies at different times.

This is not to say that they no longer have guns and bullets, but that they must be prepared to break into pieces and use the ruins of the city to fight for a long time.

During the distribution of materials, Han Wanghuo looked at Jiang Baimian and others:

"Do you have anything else to do?"

Jiang Baimian had already planned it and asked with a smile:

"Do you want to hire mercenaries?

"Just give us food for a week. The main thing is that we have to look after our property and not let it get lost."

She wanted to take this opportunity to give the team new training so that they would have experience in dealing with similar situations in the future.

Han Wanghuo picked up the walkie-talkie again, walked to the previous position, and discussed with several nominal subordinates.

This time, he quickly returned, nodded and said:

"good.

"Just follow me."

As soon as he was hired, Jiang Baimian immediately entered the state.

She glanced to the southeast and said:

"Captain Han, don't you think it's strange?

"The fish man and the mountain monster haven't launched an attack yet. How long has it been?"

They all arrived here from the Vigilance Church in the north of the city, and the supplies they brought were almost finished being distributed.

Along the way, they heard no obvious gunshots or artillery sounds.

"This is also the reason why we hired you." Han Wanghuo said with a solemn expression, "The team that first discovered the fish-man mountain monster has never come back."

The southeast corner of the ruins of the city was eerily silent.