Embers Ad Infinitum

Looking at the artificial lake in front of him, Jiang Baimian paused and said to Wang Fugui and others:

"Since we want to act together, some things must be agreed in advance."

"What?" Wang Fugui asked slightly warily.

Gray, Waite, and Fales had similar reactions.

Jiang Baimian nodded gently and said:

“Actions must have a program, goals, and plans, and they must be well-informed. They cannot swarm them in a chaotic manner, which will only hold each other back.

"Our team has an unchanging program for similar explorations. To use a common saying, it is:

"You can't expect to become fat after one bite."

"What, what fat man?" Gray, who was wrapped in a leather jacket and trembling slightly, obviously did not understand this dusty "motto", although Jiang Baimian had translated it into Honghe dialect quite accurately.

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment:

"In other words, the original city was not built in a day."

Seeing that the three ruin hunters other than Wang Fugui had expressions of sudden realization, Jiang Baimian continued:

"We can't expect to find the secrets of this city's ruins in just one exploration, and harvest wealth that will last us several lifetimes. This is completely unrealistic.

“It may be more feasible to divide the exploration into several times, gain a little bit each time, understand a little more about this place, go deeper step by step, and finally achieve your main purpose.

"During this process, we will decide whether to give up subsequent exploration operations at any time depending on the situation."

Although the proposal of the "Old Tune Group" is a kind of torture for people with an impatient personality, Wang Fugui and others thought about it for a moment and realized that this was the safest and safest plan at present.

It would take a year to explore such a large city ruins, let alone just divide it into several parts.

You must know that there is danger everywhere here, and blind action requires lives. Even the regular troops in the "Primary City" dare not force their way deep into it.

Only Waite among them muttered:

"I just want to get some valuable supplies."

For a city ruin that is not very "developed", this is a small goal, a task that can be easily completed in one exploration.

Jiang Baimian looked around and gave the plan that the "old tune group" had discussed before:

"I suggest that this exploration be limited to within two kilometers of the exit, and focus on collecting supplies and looking for clues."

Why two kilometers? Long Yuehong whispered in her heart.

He knew the answer, but he just thought that the group of lone hunters should also ask. After all, he had raised such a question during the group discussion and was laughed at by Shang Jianyao.

Wang Fugui and others looked at each other and nodded one after another:

"A solid plan."

Without a vehicle, two kilometers was close to their physical limit of running away.

After all, they have not undergone genetic modification, nor have they strengthened their corresponding qualities. They will not run a five-kilometer cross-country for nothing. Moreover, there is a big difference between sprinting and cross-country racing.

With Shang Jianyao's "Chosen Ones" physique, it would be no problem to go further, but Bai Chen must be considered.

Seeing that the lone hunters didn't ask why, Long Yuehong was a little frustrated for a moment.

Jiang Baimian stopped talking and said with a smile:

"Then let's get started."

After saying that, she held the "short neck" submachine gun and led the way to the place where the weeds lead to the artificial lake.

The first place they explored was this park, but except for some things that looked like white wolf excrement, they found nothing.

During the process, they were extremely cautious, fearing that Wu Meng, the owner of the "Dao and Electrical Maintenance" radio station, would exert a bad influence on themselves and others in other ways. Fortunately, no abnormality occurred.

After leaving the park, the two teams entered the city streets, one on the left and one on the right.

As soon as he turned into this area, Long Yuehong's eyes suddenly saw piles of bones.

Different from the Swamp No. 1 ruins, the streets here are obviously not cleaned regularly by "careless people". They are lined with rotten black mud on both sides. There are cars parked on the road. Some of them are even colliding with each other. They remain in that state. It has not changed for many years, as if it was frozen in the moment when the old world was destroyed.

Mixed in among similar things are countless human bones, which can be seen everywhere, either covered with only a few rags or completely "naked".

This was the first time for Long Yuehong to see so many corpses, and she felt like she was entering a mass grave.

At this time, the summer sun was scorching, and he actually felt a little cold.

Wang Fugui and others were obviously shocked by this scene, and they did not take a step for a long time.

Shang Jianyao sighed and said:

"The amount of work required to bury them all is so huge that it's almost impossible to complete."

Jiang Baimian immediately said:

"Those urban ruins that have not yet been discovered by humans should have similar situations in many areas."

Judging from the lack of explosion marks here, those corpses either died in gun battles or were killed by "unintentional people" and became their food, leaving only the bones.

"The 'unintentional people' didn't drag these corpses to their own dens, store them up, and just leave them on the street and eat them on the spot every day? They like open-air parties?" Shang Jianyao said that he couldn't understand.

His focus was always wrong.

"When humans are first infected with 'Wuxin Disease', they have not yet adapted to their animalistic instincts and will always behave in similar contradictory ways." Jiang Baimian replied with his own research results, "This area should be where 'Wuxin Disease' breaks out. In the core area, there are too many of them and they quickly eat up the remaining humans. This may not be the case in other streets."

Listening to Xue Shiyue and Zhang Qubing discussing this matter, Wang Fugui and the others felt inexplicably absurd.

What does the "unintentional person" of the past have to do with us now?

"Work in pairs and search here a little to see if there are any clues." Jiang Baimian ordered Bai Chen and Long Yuehong.

This time, she led Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao with Bai Chen to ensure that both sides had no shortcomings in strength.

Seeing this, Waite and others also began to search for valuable materials in this area.

Because they couldn't drive in and out, and they had to conserve enough energy, they didn't choose large items, but only things that were easy to carry and relatively valuable, such as the gold jewelry on the corpses.

After an hour of simple search, the "old tune team" failed to find any useful clues and could only initially restore the scene at that time - more than two-thirds of the people on the street suddenly went crazy, attacking normal humans and biting them. Eat them.

During the search, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen did not forget to pick up gold jewelry, technical books and other things.

They never forgot that they and others were still burdened with huge debts.

After leaving this street, Jiang Baimian's eyes suddenly became clear.

Ahead is a city square. On the other side of the square is a black building with dozens of floors.

The curtain wall of the building has broken parts, and many places are covered with green plants.

As Jiang Baimian expected, compared with the previous area, the number of bones here is quite sparse.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao pointed to the ground in front of the black building and said:

"Their painting styles seem to be different."

Bai Chen, Wang Fugui and others followed his hand and found four or five bodies there.

Unlike the others, they were highly decomposed but not yet turned into bones.

"He died not long ago?" Jiang Baimian said thoughtfully.

The "not long" in her context is relative to those bones.

"Go over and have a look." This time, Wang Fugui actually suggested.

Because the space here is open and the surroundings are unobstructed, there seems to be no danger. Gray, Waite and Fales all agreed with him.

The "Old Tune Team" is more concerned about this kind of thing and will not let it go.

As soon as he approached the four or five corpses, Wang Fugui's eyelids suddenly jumped and he pointed at one of the dead and said:

"Then the shirt he is wearing is the kind of cheap shirt produced in the factory area of ​​the original city."

It's not old-fashioned yet, and the style is characteristic of the current era - it has more hidden pockets for easy storage.

Long Yuehong then looked around and saw clearly what the corpse looked like.

At this sight, he almost pouted.

Only then did he realize that a highly decomposed, miserable corpse was infinitely more disgusting than a white skeleton.

The unspeakable stench penetrated his nose, making him almost vomit on the spot.

"There are no traces of sewing on this shirt. It should have been bought in the past year or two." Jiang Baimian raised his hand to his nose, took a few steps forward, squatted down, and examined it carefully.

As for the current tear on the shirt, it should have been caused by death.

She immediately made a judgment and said in a deep voice:

"Are these the ruin hunters who have completely disappeared, the ones who were taken deep into the cave by the white wolf?"

"It should be." Bai Chen held his breath and agreed.

Wang Fugui and others were stunned for a moment after hearing this:

"Didn't the missing relic hunters either get eaten or rescued?"

The rest were killed by the "old tune team". Of course, this cannot be said.

Long Yuehong took the opportunity to look away, explained to the lone hunters the discrepancy in numbers, and told the information that a large number of missing people had been taken deep into the cave by the white wolf.

Waite hissed:

"They got in here and died without being eaten?"

This sounds a bit weird.

"What was the cause of death?" Wang Fugui asked anxiously.

Shang Jianyao touched his chin, and before Jiang Baimian could, he looked up at the black building on the side:

"Judging from the signs of damage to the bodies, they should have jumped to their death from a certain floor of that building."

Suicide by jumping off a building? Long Yuehong, Bai Chen and others were all shocked.

Those ruin hunters were taken deep into the cave by White Wolf and entered ruins No. 13, but one of them committed suicide by jumping off the building one after another?

"My judgment is the same." Jiang Baimian echoed Shang Jianyao's words, with doubts that could not be concealed on his face.

What happened to these four or five ruin hunters, and what did the white wolf want to do?

Jiang Baimian paused and said:

"It is not ruled out that they were pushed down. Further inspections are needed to survey the scene of the jump."

This one might be scarier, okay... Who pushed them and why? Long Yuehong subconsciously wanted to take a breath, but the smell of the scene made her shut her mouth.

"Want to go in?" Shang Jianyao pointed at the majestic black building.

Jiang Baimian was silent for several seconds and said:

“Not this time, remember our pre-established guidelines.

"Well, just search the surrounding area."

The rule is not to go in too hastily and to lay the foundation for the second exploration.