CH 53

Chapter 53 – Iron City

This time, the special infected creature was called “Rock Snake”.

Its pollution value was not high, but it was mainly active underground with a swarm of snakes, which brought great difficulties to the defense of the city.

Most importantly, people couldn’t go to underground shelters, they could only stay on the surface and close their doors and windows. A large number of troops were deployed on the streets, and temporary outposts were established, ready for battle. The aircraft flew out of the city in teams and carried out carpet bombing. Sometimes, with the sound of explosions continuing all night, there seemed to be the painful hiss of snakes.

Once another battle was over, Lu Tinghan took off his command optical brain, his temples were slightly damp with sweat.

He returned to the office with half a cup of coffee on the table. He left in a hurry, and he only drank half of the cup of coffee. It was cold now, and the aroma was forty to fifty percent less. He leaned against his desk and shook the cup lightly, drinking slowly.

There were a few stacks of thick documents on the table. Lu Tinghan thought of something, turned sideways, and pulled out a piece of paper from the folder in the far corner.

It was a sketch he drew.

The young man in the picture had devil horns on his head, and scales on the tail of his right eye, his eyes were as black as an abyss, and he was smiling with his eyes curved.

Lu Tinghan smiled silently.

There was a knock on the office door.

He put the sketch back and said, “Come in.”

Su Enqi pushed the door in: “I thought you were going to rest.”

Lu Tinghan raised a cup: “I remembered that I still hadn’t drunk half a cup of coffee, so I came back.”

Now, coffee production had long been discontinued, and only those of his level could drink it, which was considered a luxury.

Su Enqi laughed twice: “When I was young, I was addicted to coffee. I had to have a cup every day. If I didn’t drink it, I couldn’t get up. If you don’t have enough, come to me to get it. I still have a lot of good ones, black coffee and white coffee are available. Keep it until you are satisfied.” He took two steps and sat on the sofa. “But are you going to the front line again?”

Lu Tinghan: “Hmm.”

He had to get close to the monsters in order to know more accurately what they think.

“The ‘Rock Snake’ is different from other special infected creatures. As you know, it is difficult for us to fight underground, and the frontline is too dangerous,” Su Enqi said, “This time is different from before, I don’t recommend you to go.”

Lu Tinghan said, “I’m going.”

“…” Su Enqi sighed lightly, “You are still the same as always. I won’t say anything more, just be careful and don’t take your own life for granted. No matter how powerful or talented, we are just flesh and blood, we can also get hurt and bleed.”

Lu Tinghan responded.

The room fell silent, Su Enqi clasped his hands and rubbed his thumbs lightly, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a long time, he slowly spoke: “‘Echo’ has failed.”

Lu Tinghan: “Hmm. In my opinion, this is a predictable result. The last time we had contact with the Empire was before the fall of the Empire’s capital, and we haven’t heard a bit of news since. It has been more than 70 years since the end of the world, and we shouldn’t have hoped that there would be other survivors.”

Su Enqi asked: “You never believed that the ‘Echo’ project could be successful?”

“I don’t believe it,” Lu Tinghan said flatly, “If it can succeed, I will be happy.”

Su Enqi raised his eyelids and looked at him with hazy eyes: “What about ‘Overlook’, do you think it will succeed?”

Lu Tinghan: “It’s hard, but not without a chance.”

Su Enqi smiled: “I’m so glad I didn’t hear you answer ‘never.’ If you say that, then there is hope.” He patted his sore knees after standing for a long time. “It’s a pity that an old thing like me can’t go to space – I remember I can jump and stay up late when I was young. After running 20 kilometers with a heavy load, I will still be fine and energetic the next day. After drinking coffee, I can still fall asleep if I want to sleep. No matter when, the greatest enemy of mankind is time.”

Lu Tinghan lowered his eyes and the coffee in the cup shook gently.

Su Enqi continued: “The older people are, the faster they feel that time flies. Everything seems to have happened yesterday. I still remember that the first time I saw you, you were with Colonel Lu, standing next to him, only this tall, and asked if I could teach you how to fight.” He gestured with his hand to a height, his smile was deeper, and wrinkles appeared at the end of his eyes. “Who would have thought that you will be the mainstay of the entire Alliance in the future, and I can’t even run anymore.”

He turned his head and coughed twice, his cough was very muddy: “I’m glad to see you grow up, but it would be great if we could go back in time. At that time, we still had countless cities, the sky, the ocean and the land, and the whole world was ours. There is still room for redemption for anything.”

He smiled again: “It would be great if the time of Abyss No.0 could be allocated to me, and I could return to the most energetic moment and the most prosperous era.”

Lu Tinghan took another sip of coffee.

The cold coffee seemed to be a bit sour, mixed with bitterness, blooming on the tip of the tongue. He said: “There is no if, we can’t go back.”

“…that’s true,” Su Enqi said, “I can’t go back, and there will be no more ‘Echo’.”

It was getting late, he supported the armrest of the sofa, got up strenuously, stopped suddenly before reaching the door, and turned his head and said, “But I still hope that some things have never happened.”

Lu Tinghan was silent.

They both knew what this sentence was referring to.

—Jiang Huazhi, who smuggled inhibitors, was supposed to be taken to the main city by order, but Lu Tinghan forcibly detained him in Fengyang, awaiting trial. Five years ago, the 1,000 injections of inhibitors that he had sunk had already come to light.

Who covered up Jiang Huazhi?

There was no conclusive evidence, but the two people in this office knew it well.

The teacher and student have been fighting side by side for many years, and any cover-up is self-deception.

Only one light in the office was turned on, and the light enveloped Lu Tinghan, his upright body was like a sword that refused to return to its sheath.

Su Enqi stood in the shadow of the door, his skin was old and his back was slightly hunched, he slowly said, “Even if you can’t go back to the past, maybe there are some small mistakes you can let go of. What do you think?”

Lu Tinghan put the cup down, looked into his eyes, and said word for word: “…that’s someone else, not me.”

The contrast between light and dark cut out the two worlds, like a chasm.

Su Enqi was not surprised, and said with a smile: “General Lu, be careful on the front line, I will wait for your good news.”

He closed the door and left.

*

There was a heavy fog on the wasteland, and it was so dense that Shi Yuan couldn’t see the direction clearly, and felt that he should be approaching Iron City.

He didn’t have much confidence.

—The last time he left the city by feeling, he got lost in a mess and got lost from the east of the city to the west of the city and got wet in the cold rain for nothing.

He was torn about what to do, and suddenly saw a little blue light in the depths of the mist.

It was a dancing, ocean-like jellyfish.

They were still wandering in the wasteland, floating near the Iron City, refusing to leave.

He thought it must be no problem to walk in that direction, so Shi Yuan headed that way.

Soon, the earth trembled slightly, and a huge white deer appeared. Most of its body was immersed in the mist, its antlers were strange, and a rich white mist gushed out of its body every time it took a step.

‘Deer Outside the High Forest’.

Lu Tinghan once stared at the city wall for a long time, waiting for its arrival.

Shi Yuan guessed that there was some connection between them. He raised his head and asked Forest Deer, “Hello, do you know Lu Tinghan?”

Of course, Forest Deer would not answer.

It paced slowly and walked silently into the distance, its figure completely obscured by the mist.

Shi Yuan followed the jellyfish and continued to walk.

He didn’t know how long it took, there were a few ruined walls here and there, and gravel and rubble began to appear under his feet. Shi Yuan also accidentally kicked a half-rotten soldier’s helmet, which was covered with wet soil.

After that—

He saw the city wall.

Black vines crawled all over the wall, twisting the metal until it was deformed. If you get close, you could see the vines rising and falling like breathing. The entire city wall was riddled with holes, so no need to bother looking for an entrance. After a few steps forward, Shi Yuan crawled into the city through a huge gap.

A second difficulty arose.

The fog today was too heavy, he could barely see the abandoned buildings nearby, and he had no idea how to get to the communication tower.

It would be much more convenient to turn into black fog, but it might interfere with the Alliance army’s exploration of pollution values and affect operations.

Shi Yuan was hesitating, but a cloud of light lit up in the mist high above.

That was not the gentle light of jellyfish, it was much brighter and warm in color.

Like thunder on the flat ground, a burst of gunfire suddenly sounded, and an unknown monster screamed in the mist! Immediately afterward, several dead flying insects half a human size fell on Shi Yuan’s feet, and black blood gushed out of the bullet holes.

Shi Yuan never expected that there would be humans here!

There were more and more big insects, flying around the lights, stirring the mist. Shi Yuan hesitated for two seconds, rushed forward, stood under the light, and raised his tail, his scales opened and closed, rubbing—

Rattle Tail Abyss appeared!

The sound of Rattle Tail Abyss resounded through the mist, which brought great deterrence to the bugs. Coupled with the constant gunfire, several waves of flying insects were shot.

After a while, the flying insects retreated and disappeared into the fog.

The surroundings calmed down.

Shi Yuan couldn’t meet other people, otherwise, he couldn’t explain how he got here and why he wasn’t attacked by monsters.

Just as he was about to leave quietly, he heard “squeak!” sound, and the door of the building in front of him was slammed open, and a tall man rushed towards him with a gun!

Shi Yuan: !!

He was so frightened that he almost turned into a black mist and ran away, but the man shouted in a low voice: “You’re amazing!”

Shi Yuan: ?

“You are awesome!” The man, who was covered with machine gun bullets, walked up to him, and stared at him, “How did you do it? Make such a funny sound! Edward wants it too!”

There was a lot of bloodshot under his eyes, and his eyes turned quickly and erratically, like he was in a state of hyperactivity. But he didn’t look like he meant to attack.

Shi Yuan hesitated and replied: “I make sounds with my tail, like this—”

He demonstrated once how his scales rubbed together.

“So interesting!” The man pressed his voice and exclaimed. “That’s so interesting! What street do you live on? Are you here to play?”

Iron City had already fallen, and not only did the man stay here, but he was able to ask such a thing when he met Shi Yuan, who was unarmed, he obviously had a problem at first glance.

Before Shi Yuan could think about how to answer, the man had already grabbed him: “Come, come, come with Edward! Edward wants to take you to his house!”

Shi Yuan: ?

He was inexplicably dragged into the building by a man, and it was useless to refuse or struggle. He looked like a little monster who had been abducted to be sold by a human trafficker.

This was once a watchtower for sentries, there was a spiral staircase, which was very narrow and suitable for defensive measures. And it was obviously transformed. The man took out his homemade remote control, pressed it a few times, and the iron walls, barbed wire, and laser mechanism along the way were all put away.

Shi Yuan asked hesitantly, “Is your name… Edward?”

The man said excitedly: “Edward said yes!”

Shi Yuan was convinced that something was wrong with this human.

They went all the way up to the top of the tower.

Edward opened the small door at the top of the tower and turned on the light with a “snap”: “This is Edward’s home! Edward has always lived here!”

It was a small room full of guns, bullets, and bulletproof vests. The long and short guns were scattered all over the place. Different sabers could be seen everywhere, like an arms warehouse, and there was no place to sit. The workbench in the corner was full of screws and wires, wrenches and scissors, and a few things that looked exactly like bombs were placed on the table.

Anyone who saw this scene would believe that the owner was an extremely violent and incorrigible terrorist.

If there was something peaceful in this room—

Probably the small dining table next to the workbench.

Three chairs were placed next to the dining table.

One chair was empty, and on the other two chairs, there were human figures cut out of cardboard boxes.

Their skin was cardboard, their bones were thin iron frames, and they were covered with ragged clothes that were completely ill-fitting. One was wearing a golden wig that looked like a chicken coop. On its cardboard face, there were brush strokes showing the five facial features in a simple sketch, and a nametag was hanging on its chest with the words “Joanna”; the other was wearing a maroon-colored explosive head with a short stature of a child, with the same simple sketch-like features, two vertical lines and one arc outlining its smiling face, and the nametag on its chest read “Mike”.

At first glance, it looked creepy.

Edward sat down in a chair and pointed to himself: “Edward.”

He pointed to the tall cardboard man: “This is Joanna, she rarely greets guests.”

He pointed to the short cardboard man: “This is Mike. Like his mother, he doesn’t like to greet people.”

There were several bowls on the table, dirty and unsure of what they had been filled with. Edward picked up a fork, knocked on the bowl twice, and shouted, “This is the Edward family! We will always be together forever!”

The bowls and chopsticks clattered and collided, and the cardboard people showed weird smiles.

Shi Yuan said, “Well, hello.”

Joanna: “……”

Mike: “……”

Mike’s head hung down and fell on the table.

Shi Yuan got a little upset: “You guys are really rude.”

He named them Tattered Clothes and Ragged Shirts.