Chapter 35

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong did not react immediately, until the people on the two bicycles also saw them.

Clang, clang, the two men, each carrying a rifle, directly abandoned their bicycles and rolled and leaped to take cover behind nearby obstacles.

Seeing this, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong finally came to their senses and no longer just raised their assault rifles reflexively. They quickly sidestepped, using the two pillars at the hospital entrance to shield themselves.

The scene became extremely quiet for a moment, with only the occasional bird call heard from a distance.

Seeing that Long Yuehong seemed to want to pick up the walkie-talkie, Shang Jianyao raised his voice and shouted across the distance:

"We have no ill intentions!"

After a brief silence, a slightly hoarse voice, as if the speaker had a mouthful of phlegm, came from the other side:

"We don't either!"

Shang Jianyao immediately responded:

"Perhaps we can exchange some information!"

After a few seconds, the other side shouted back:

"This way of communication isn't very convenient!"

"Then let's get a bit closer!" Shang Jianyao suggested without hesitation.

The two men on the other side communicated in low voices behind the obstacles, but due to the distance, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong couldn't hear the specific content.

Less than a minute later, the other side responded:

"Okay!"

Hearing this, Shang Jianyao turned his head to Long Yuehong and said:

"I'll go first, you follow, and be ready to provide support and protection."

"Okay." Long Yuehong loosened his right hand, which was gripping the gun, and gave a thumbs-up gesture.

Shang Jianyao didn't try to make the other side leave their hiding place first. He held his assault rifle, muscles tense, and slowly moved away from behind the pillar.

Throughout this process, he remained highly alert, ready to dive and roll at any moment.

Seeing his sincerity, a person from the other side also emerged, equally cautious.

This man was in his thirties, about 1.7 meters tall, wearing a deep blue down jacket that was slightly shrunken, dirty, and had three or four patches. His hairline had receded severely, and he was quite bald.

His hair was light yellow, his eyes were light blue, and his features and contours were more pronounced, clearly different from Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, indicating he belonged to the Red River race.

Perhaps due to years of living in the wilderness, his skin had many dry cracks, and his fingernails were noticeably black.

He tightly gripped his rifle and slowly approached Shang Jianyao, inch by inch.

Once they were within speaking range, Long Yuehong and the remaining person on the other side left their hiding places and moved to join their companions.

"What should I call you?" The bald man spoke in Ash Soil language, which was Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong's native language, not Red River language.

During the conversation, he remained highly alert and did not relax.

"Shang Jianyao," Shang Jianyao answered calmly, "a formal relic hunter. What about you?"

Long Yuehong, who had been about to answer, immediately felt relieved— he was quite afraid that Shang Jianyao would "act up" at such a time, as they were not familiar with each other, and no one could appreciate or tolerate his "humor."

The bald man thought for a moment and said:

"Harris Brown, a mid-level hunter."

He did not show his hunter badge, nor did he ask Shang Jianyao to show his, because they were in the ruins, and there were no special machines to read the information on the chips, making it impossible to confirm the true owner and corresponding credit level of the badge. In the wilderness, many people would casually register as hunters or obtain the corresponding items from the bodies of their enemies, so having a badge meant nothing.

—Carving names on badges was a primitive technique, easy to imitate, and most importantly, the person holding the badge could choose to report the name on the badge rather than their real name.

This conversation between Harris Brown and Shang Jianyao was more like small talk, used to set the tone.

Shang Jianyao glanced at Harris Brown's companion and noticed she was a woman, about 1.6 meters tall, with rather ordinary features.

Her flaxen hair fell naturally to her shoulders, and she wore a relatively clean light yellow beret.

"You don't seem to have much to show for your efforts?" Shang Jianyao shifted his gaze back to Harris Brown.

Harris Brown answered without a smile:

"Just passing through, spent a little time trying, but no results. In these ruins, without the right equipment, it's already very difficult to obtain supplies. Is this your first time here?"

"Yes," Shang Jianyao answered frankly, then asked, "Did you also take that mission, to find the black-haired, golden-eyed individual?"

Harris Brown nodded slightly:

"Let me give you a piece of advice, for a fee:

Give up on this mission. The area north of Moonru Station has been very unstable recently."

"Is it related to the anomalies in the depths of the swamp? Did you hear the screams that night?" Shang Jianyao pressed.

Harris Brown's expression grew increasingly serious:

"Yes, we were north of Moonru Station at that time.

After dawn, we continued forward and found several bodies, all dead just a few hours ago.

These bodies had no fatal wounds, but their expressions were very distorted, some showing pain, some fear, and some seemed to be laughing, a terrifying kind of laugh."

Long Yuehong felt a chill run down his spine, his scalp tingling, but this feeling was quickly dispelled by Shang Jianyao's question:

"No fatal wounds... what about their clothes, are they still there?"

What kind of question is this... Long Yuehong couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Harris Brown's expression froze for a moment:

"No.

It's clear that someone found the bodies before us and took all the items."

"Professional." Shang Jianyao praised, making Harris Brown feel a bit out of sync with the conversation.

He took a silent breath and continued:

"Well, they even took the hair, otherwise I could have gotten a wig. Anyway, after seeing those bodies, we gave up on the mission and headed back, not daring to rest much. We just arrived here an hour ago."

"Pretty fast," Shang Jianyao commented casually.

Harris Brown didn't turn his head:

"We were on bicycles, able to use some small paths in the swamp, while cars and motorcycles couldn't pass and had to take detours."

Shang Jianyao nodded slightly:

"Last question.

Are there any other relic hunters or wanderers around here?"

"A few, but with your equipment, as long as you don't attack them, they won't bother you." Harris Brown's head reflected some light in the sun.

Shang Jianyao asked, as if in deep thought:

"What if we didn't have these weapons?"

Harris Brown's face suddenly twisted:

"In the Ash Soil, weakness is a sin."

His eyes turned fierce, revealing a barely concealed hatred.

Before Shang Jianyao could ask more, he exhaled and returned to a normal expression:

"It's my turn to ask.

This is the payment for the advice I gave earlier."

He didn't really expect Shang Jianyao to answer, as the information in the advice wasn't very valuable, since many returning relic hunters had discovered similar anomalies.

Besides, this had happened over a day ago, and it would take at least a day to get from here to north of Moonru Station, so even if Harris hadn't given the advice and let the two go, they might not have caught up with the events.

"Can I pay with something else?" Shang Jianyao loosened his left hand, which was gripping the magazine of his assault rifle, and reached into his pocket.

"Let's see." Harris Brown and his companion suddenly raised their alertness, fearing that Shang Jianyao might pull out a dangerous item.

Shang Jianyao quickly took out two small bags of compressed cookies and showed them.

—This was originally part of his lunch in the ruins.

"…Very good, you are generous." Harris Brown didn't expect the other party to offer food in exchange.

This would barely get them through a meal.

Shang Jianyao then threw the two small bags of compressed cookies over.

Harris Brown and his companion didn't catch them, letting the bags fall to the ground.

They were afraid that Shang Jianyao might shoot while they were catching the cookies.

"Talk again later." Shang Jianyao smiled, as if saying goodbye to a friend.

He and Long Yuehong immediately started walking step by step toward the entrance of the steel plant ruins, without relaxing their vigilance on Harris Brown and his companion.

The other side did the same.

Once the distance between them was large enough that even a sharpshooter couldn't hit them, Harris Brown let his companion pick up the compressed cookies and push the two bicycles over.

Watching the two ride their bicycles away from the ruins, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong held their assault rifles and scanned the square outside the gate.

"Outside should be the residential area. Should we search here first or inside?" Long Yuehong asked hesitantly.

Shang Jianyao didn't look at the "green" buildings on either side of the square, which were either collapsed or dilapidated, and pointed to the gate:

"Inside first, to understand the basic layout."

"Okay." Long Yuehong didn't object.

The two then passed through the iron-black gate, which was wide enough for multiple vehicles to pass.

"It seems even relic hunters have their limits. This gate hasn't been dismantled and taken away." Long Yuehong looked back and sighed.

Shang Jianyao followed his gaze:

"Maybe it's not worth it."

They stopped talking and walked along the wide but broken road toward the depths of the steel plant.

On the right was a row of very high, wide, and doorless bungalows, unlike the bungalows in the hospital outpatient area, which had walls dividing them into small rooms. In the middle, there were only pillars marking the boundaries.

Some rooms without side walls still had trenches where people could stand or lie down.

"What is this place?" Long Yuehong asked, puzzled.

Shang Jianyao shook his head:

"I don't know. But don't you think standing in those trenches would make it convenient to repair the bottom of cars?"

"Is this a repair area? The adjacent area is like a garage?" Long Yuehong suddenly understood, "Remember to mark it later."

On the left side of the road were foul-smelling ponds, clusters of trees, and small buildings hidden in the greenery.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong temporarily ignored these places and continued deeper into the factory area.

Soon, they reached the vicinity of the tall "chimneys" and saw many steel supports and rough buildings around them.

Large, iron-black pipelines, like dragons, slid down from the chimneys to different places, with angles not too steep.

These pipelines were not enclosed, appearing to be the remaining half of a circular cross-section.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong entered this area, walking up and down along the road, navigating through the rusted steel forest.

Soon, the edge of the road had broken guardrails, and outside was a pool filled with rainwater, the purpose of which was unknown.

Due to the high cover, only a little sunlight could penetrate, making the surroundings quite gloomy and dark.

With no sounds coming from anywhere, the silence made Long Yuehong increasingly uneasy.

He couldn't help but speak:

"Weren't there supposed to be other relic hunters? Why haven't we encountered any?"

Shang Jianyao glanced at him:

"Saying that at this time doesn't seem very auspicious."

As he spoke, a clang, clang sound suddenly came from above.

A black shadow quickly fell, colliding with the steel supports and protruding parts of the buildings several times before heavily landing not far ahead.

This was a human, his body already damaged, blood rapidly flowing out.

At this moment, the clang, clang sound was still echoing in the area, not completely subsiding.

Before Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong could react, they saw a figure walking from the corner of the road ahead.

This figure was taller than Shang Jianyao, entirely composed of a black metal skeleton, with a grenade launcher on the left arm and a flame nozzle and laser emitter on the right hand.

It wore a tattered yellow monk's robe, with a large red cassock over it, and had a pair of red, glowing eyes.

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