Chapter 49: Desperate Rescue (1)

Volume 1 “Year of Calamity”

“An Sheng, you’ve seen the video footage. I believe there might still be survivors in that airship. I’d like to ask you to join us in the search – after all, they’re our comrades. Besides, they might have ways to contact the Kunlun Mountain Base mentioned in the video. If so, our fortress might receive rescue.”

Nie Chong felt somewhat conflicted. Li Guoan had mentioned in the video about non-combat personnel entering the escape pods. Additionally, there were female voices in the recording, yet they hadn’t found any other human bodies at the scene. It was possible those people were still alive. Nie Chong knew full well that the chances of finding those who had taken the escape pods were slim, and the rescue mission would be extremely dangerous. Still, he couldn’t help but turn to An Sheng for help. After all, those were his fellow soldiers, and he had an obligation to search for their whereabouts.

“I have no problem with that. Let’s return and inform Commander Zhang, then we can depart at any time. However, we shouldn’t have too many people involved in this operation. That Medusa has encountered me before – I’m absolutely no match for her. We need to maintain stealth as much as possible. Last time we met, she spared me because she saw me as one of her kind. If we encounter her again, I don’t know if we’ll be that lucky.” An Sheng had indeed met Medusa before, though he didn’t know that she actually held certain feelings for him and wanted to mate with him to produce superior offspring. Of course, An Sheng had misunderstood Medusa’s words “I can’t help but want to eat you,” thinking she literally wanted to consume him, which was why he feared her so much.

Having made their decision, the three immediately loaded the machine warriors onto vehicles and returned to the fortress. After discussing with Old Zhang, everyone decided that An Sheng, Nie Chong, Xun Lili, Zhou Xiaoxiao, and Liu Pengyu would form a five-person team to search the areas where the escape pods might have landed. They planned to set out early the next morning because Nie Chong needed time to familiarize himself with the TX Full-Coverage Exoskeleton Armor’s operating procedures. The mechanical warriors still posed some threat to An Sheng and Xun Lili, and Skinny Monkey needed to quickly crack and rewrite the intelligent programs on the machine warriors before they could truly be utilized. As for why Zhou Xiaoxiao was included – initially, An Sheng and Old Zhang had opposed this, since Zhou Xiaoxiao had only received basic military training and ranked at the bottom in all assessments, making her combat effectiveness nearly zero. But Xun Lili insisted on bringing her along, with sufficient reason: during the search and rescue mission, if there were injured soldiers among the military personnel, having Zhou Xiaoxiao along would allow for medical treatment. It was precisely for this reason that An Sheng and Old Zhang agreed to let Zhou Xiaoxiao accompany the team.On the evening before departure, Nie Chong spent the entire night familiarizing himself with the operation of the exoskeleton armor. This armor’s performance was exceptionally powerful—capable of traversing sky, land, and sea—and its firepower configuration was equally formidable. Without even mentioning the destructive potential of the mounted Particle Cannon and Laser Rapid-Fire Cannon, the two Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Blades housed in the leg slots alone filled Nie Chong with immense admiration. These high-tech close-combat weapons relied on rapid vibration to achieve cutting effects, their sharpness surpassing carbon-steel military sabers by dozens of times. However, Nie Chong knew that An Sheng and Xun Lili still lacked suitable weapons. Both were super soldiers after mutation, and neither was particularly skilled with ranged weapons. Thus, Nie Chong entrusted these two battle blades to them.

Xun Lili was naturally overjoyed. The sleek appearance of the Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Blades immediately thrilled the young woman who adored fist-and-blade weaponry. An Sheng, however, politely declined Nie Chong’s offer. It wasn’t that he looked down on this high-tech melee weapon, but during two months of dedicated training, An Sheng had immersed himself in studying Muay Thai moves, developing his own combat style. Especially when transformed into his Demon State, the combination of metallic bone spurs and Muay Thai techniques made him virtually unstoppable. For An Sheng, any external weapon was superfluous—his greatest weapon was himself.

After a night of familiarization, though Nie Chong still hadn’t fully mastered all the functions of the exoskeleton armor, he could handle basic combat maneuvers. While not as proficient as Li Guoan, the high-tech equipment still provided significantly more protection than operating without it. The team set off at six in the morning, driving the Armored Assault Vehicle toward Huan’an County.

Based on timestamps from the video, the airship’s journey from being attacked to emergency landing in Huan’an lasted only thirty-eight seconds. Common sense suggested the escape pod’s landing zone would be near Huan’an County Town within such a short timeframe. Though the airship’s exact speed was unknown, a severely damaged aircraft forced into an emergency landing—even one with technology surpassing contemporary planes—wouldn’t travel particularly fast. After discussion, they narrowed the search area to the vicinity of Huan’an County Town.

However, Huan’an County was a semi-mountainous region, with half the town built on hillsides and many areas comprising rugged terrain. This undoubtedly added considerable difficulty to the search and rescue mission. Yet, most members of this rescue team were far from ordinary. Beyond the two powerful mutated warriors, there was Nie Chong—a special forces officer equipped with Full-Coverage Exoskeleton Armor. In terms of combat capability, even if they encountered ordinary Purifiers or Advanced Mutants, the rescue team could easily eliminate them, unless facing powerful anomalies like Medusa.On the way to Huan’an, Zhou Xiaoxiao was the most excited. It was practically common knowledge that this girl had feelings for An Sheng, and now that she finally had the chance to spend extended time with him, she was naturally overjoyed. Although there were others around, they all intentionally or unintentionally arranged for her and An Sheng to be together. As the only medical staff in the fortress, aside from An Sheng, all the survivors held great respect for this young girl. Even those older single women who usually drooled over An Sheng felt that Zhou Xiaoxiao and him were a perfect match. Unfortunately, An Sheng never saw it that way. After all, An Sheng had suffered severe emotional trauma, and most importantly, there was his own physical condition. He knew exactly what he was—an Infected, a Mutant! How could such a body be with an ordinary person? What if intimate contact led to the other person becoming infected? How could he bear to watch someone he loved turn into a Zombie or a Mutated Creature? An Sheng didn’t want to see it, and he feared the possibility, which was why he maintained a cold demeanor toward those girls.

“Same method as before. Peng Yu and Xiaoxiao will set up a communication point on that high-rise. The three of us will split into three directions, maintaining a distance of three kilometers between each other and covering a five-kilometer radius in a straight line. Everyone, stay in constant contact and be extremely careful to conceal your movements. If you encounter danger, immediately report your position through the communication point, and the other two will provide support as needed. An Sheng, you take the center route…”

Nie Chong methodically arranged the search tasks. An Sheng, being the most powerful, would take the center route to facilitate support for the other two in their respective directions. Once everyone was ready, the three set off on their search and rescue missions according to their assigned directions. In truth, their approach was akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. They had no idea what the Escape Pod looked like, and even if they saw it, they might not recognize it. Moreover, the video had a timestamp—49 hours had already passed since the Airship crash. Whether the soldiers who had landed via the Escape Pods were still alive was anyone’s guess. Frankly, their current mission had a somewhat blind and desperate quality to it, a fact everyone was well aware of. But since Nie Chong had asked for help, neither An Sheng nor Old Zhang could refuse.

An Sheng chose the direction where he had previously used a loudspeaker to lure Zombies. After all, as an Infected Body, the Zombies posed no threat to him. He couldn’t let Nie Chong and Xun Lili take the risk instead. Although the town was over ten kilometers from the county, there was no guarantee that Zombies wouldn’t wander back near the county. However, An Sheng soon realized his worries were unnecessary. It wasn’t that they encountered no Zombies along the way, but their numbers were pitifully small. The nature of Zombies was such that, unless provoked, they generally didn’t roam far from their usual areas.After walking about three kilometers, An Sheng hadn’t seen anything resembling an escape pod. This area was on the outskirts of the county town, mostly consisting of low-rise buildings and open spaces. The surrounding hills lacked dense vegetation, allowing clear visual observation of all movements in the vicinity. Although few zombies remained, An Sheng could sense several mutated creatures nearby – all low-level variants. Given his current combat capabilities, he probably wouldn’t even need to transform into his demon form to deal with them. Nevertheless, An Sheng chose to detour around the mutated creatures’ nests. It was better to avoid trouble than invite it; he wasn’t a battle maniac and saw no need to provoke these mutated beings.

“Calling Liu Pengyu, please respond?” His last call had been five minutes ago. According to previous arrangements, they needed to maintain contact with the communication point every five minutes.

“This is Zhou Xiaoxiao. Any discoveries on your end, An Sheng?” It was Zhou Xiaoxiao who answered. Hearing An Sheng’s voice through the walkie-talkie, the woman snatched the device right out of Liu Pengyu’s hands. Liu Pengyu didn’t protest – after all, this could be considered creating an opportunity for the young woman.

“Nothing here. I hope the escape pod didn’t land in Longjiang Town. When we rescued Xun Lili and the others last time, I attracted almost all the zombies from the entire county to that town. If the escape pod landed there, the survival chances for anyone inside probably wouldn’t be great.”

An Sheng didn’t know the exact number of zombies in Longjiang Town, but the count definitely reached hundreds of thousands. Based on his calculations, the loudspeaker system should have been operating for over ten hours, combined with the corpse tide that had moved from Huan’an County Town toward the area. The town was likely an ocean of living corpses by now. If the escape pod landed there, unless the occupants were infected bodies like An Sheng, they could only wait to become meat in the zombies’ mouths.