Sand flew in the air as an SUV with a military logo bumpily went forward.
Roadblocks appeared on the road ahead, and a team of heavily armed soldiers patrolled around it. The off-road vehicle slows down for inspection. The window rolled down, and the driver handed out a notebook-like black-leather booklet.
The person in charge of inspection picks up a special flashlight, and a red dragon appears on the cover. On the initially empty space, there is a body like a snake with antlers on its head, a long beard, and sparkling scales. Under its claws is an oval badge, stating the military rank.
The examiner gave a military salute and handed back the booklet with both hands.
The SUV driver is skinny, with protruding cheekbone and small eyes. He seems very inconsistent with the image of a military man. He picked up a wireless radio in the car, and spoke into the mic, “Albatross has reached the blockade, one kilometer from the target location. Asking for instructions, over.”
“Wait for two minutes in place, ready for satellite positioning.”
“Roger!”
The driver leaned away from the window, and turned around, “Yesterday a team of special forces disappeared, and the satellite only found the vehicle wreckage. Major Zhang asked me to tell you two that this operation is very dangerous.”
The people in the back of the car are Jian Hua and Li Fei.
Jian Hua disapproves of Li Fei leaving the Southern cities where the mushrooms “occupy”, and was even more reluctant to contact the Red Dragon staff in the real world. However, Li Fei can’t find even a shadow of the monster he was looking for.
Red Dragon offered two locations, one is the mountain where the spider killed Guan Cheng. But the mountain is too big, so finding the spider would be too difficult, and they could not find a fixed entry point to the Abandoned World, so Li Fei quickly ruled it out.
What’s left is the section of Ganzhou National Highway that has frequent accidents. It’s also the place where the member of the Holy Gate organization disguised as a reporter went missing. Being forced to close the road puts the government under a lot of pressure from the public and after failing to solve the problem several times, Red Dragon thought of Black Abyss.
Or so to say, they thought of the Flame Demon and the Devourer.
“Before the road was closed, there are two consecutive car accidents. The vehicles were hit by unknown forces, resulting in a rollover. We suspect it’s the impact of the Abandoned World, but we could not find the source.”
The skinny driver who maneuvered the car for Jian Hua and Li Fei is perhaps an acquaintance.
——they teamed up before to trap Liu Shan.
The name used by the skinny man at that time is Zhao Wen. It’s clearly a fake name, but Jian Hua did not ask. People can call themselves anything, so what if it’s not the real one? The skinny man also talked about his experience. In his early years, he was undercover as a drug lord. Having such an experience, you can guess that he used various pseudonyms.
This time, Colonel Lu from headquarters specially sent the skinny man to come over, in light of their good cooperation at the Liu Shan case.
Zhang YaoJin, as the leader of the National Ability Holders Team, had to handle innumerable incidents every day, so he can’t participate. Moreover, his ability is more suitable to fight humans, so there are not many advantages against monsters.
“The location of the accident is open terrain, with no hills and no bends. The initial investigation from the energy detectors reveals that there are tunnels underground, half a meter under the ground.”
Li Fei thought about that for a long time and still did not find a description of that monster in the 《Abandoned World Monster Manual》. There are caveman monsters, but those mostly looked for dark and damp caves. Only the mole rats will directly dig out a tunnel, but the rats are vulnerable to high-order ability holders, so it’s not so difficult to handle.
“Is it also a monster not from the original plot?”
Jian Hua still remembers that spider that had eggs. The mycelium forcibly turned the little spiders into puppets. It accelerated the spread of the mushrooms to the eight Southern cities. Since then, Jian Hua did not see the mushrooms using this method on other monsters.
In the end, can it only take advantage of the newly hatched spiders, or can it just do it to the spider “that didn’t show up in the plot”? Jian Hua didn’t understand.
A new instruction came from the radio in the car.
“Albatross, please note, according to recent satellite image scan, nothing unusual on the target location. You can go forward.”
The skinny man rolled up the window after the roadblock is pushed open, and the vehicle went forward.
“This road leads to Ganzhou?”
“There are several neighboring counties. Actually, we’ve been here before when we filmed 《Crow》 last year.”
This short conversation led to a strange atmosphere in the car. The skinny man is puzzled and glanced at the rearview mirror. Jian Hua looked straight ahead, while Li Fei looks at data on the tablet. There is also a distance between the two. It seems normal, but where does this weird feeling come from?
“Strictly speaking, the incident took place 430 km from the Lanxin highway section.”
The skinny man has a serious expression. He glanced at the map, and explained, “We speculated that it’s because of the impact of the Abandoned World, so the roadblocks are to prevent ability holders from passing by, but its completely useless! The latest dispatched special forces, after confirming that they are all ordinary people, should reasonably be unable to fall into the Abandoned World, but you just heard the results.”
“The satellite images did not show anything?”
“In the previous years during this time, the sand has not been so big.”
The meaning of the skinny man let Jian Hua frown.
Abandoned World’s influence on reality is growing. No matter how unwilling the country is, and no matter how much effort they pay to cover up these things, the truth will eventually surface. Perhaps it will be presented in front of everyone in a tragic way.
Before this happens, Red Dragon can only drag it by one more day.
The reward that the country promised Black Abyss is very lucrative. Not to mention Li Fei, even Jian Hua is moved.
For the expansion of mushrooms, they have long thought of using express delivery.
China’s online shopping boom precipitated the express delivery industry booming. Even in Europe and the United States, it’s hard to buy something and receive it the next day. Three days is already fast, while seven days is normal, but the hyphae may die halfway. There is no “food” in the courier package, so even if Jian Hua is squatting at the door of the courier company warehouse door, it still can’t guarantee that the mycelium will reach the other places.
It’s okay now since a Professor from Beidou Research Institute received the “mushroom from the South” box. Red Dragon provided a sealed jar, a container for the transport of hazardous chemicals. It’s also recommended to put a mouse in the jar as a mushroom nutrient.
If Black Abyss helps solve the hidden dangers in Ganzhou Highway, Red Dragon will give Black Abyss a thousand jars of this particular material, plus a further exchange of information, research cooperation, and the most important thing is negotiating the issue of security checks.
Li Fei has the hyphae, so he’s not afraid of sounding the security alarm, but other ability holders are different. They could hardly move.
The social order nearly collapsed in the book since the ability holders boldly come and go. In the early days, everyone can only squat, and now this problem has also been solved by the Beidou Research Institute.
With a mini energy jammer, those below B-level can pass the security gates at will.
It can only be used on the energy inside ability holders, but other dangerous items are not affected.
This new product, Red Dragon promised to take out two hundred to Black Abyss. Even Li Fei suspects that the mini-jammer will send out a signal, and will be convenient for the country to supervise ability holders. But there will be too many people who can’t go out because of this, and since many people can’t live normally, there are many who have resigned from school and work.
As for B-level and above.
——they still have to use the hyphae bottle. Using high-tech materials and completely sealed, it’s valid for five days. Take a bottle and pour it on your body when preparing to go through security. The characteristics of the high-order ability holders will make the mycelium happy to stay on them until other food is found.
Envisioning the airport and subway security gates shortly after this, there probably will be no monsters that can survive.
It’s also a meaningful way to save public facilities……
Even Li Fei said it’s not bad since they’re gaining in such a cooperation.
Black Abyss is too close to Red Dragon, and the win-win situation is perfect, but the tie is too deep, so there is no secret. Unfortunately, it is currently impossible to refuse. Black Abyss is just an empty shell, and it’s impossible to have a research institute, so there are no factories that can make high-tech materials. If they rely on themselves and only used Black Abyss’ resources, don’t know how many years it’ll take.
Especially book transmigrators, those people who know the story will stare at Black Abyss! There is the trend of wanting to go under the country’s noses, although Black Abyss is destined to go a completely different way than the original.
Low-key stuff, it depends on the mood.
Mysterious stuff, food for the Corgi!
The SUV tires are wrapped by hyphae. Jian Hua intentionally used his ability and controlled the mushrooms to grow on the side of the road. There is no food, so the hyphae lost interest, and their growth is not active.
“I can call for backup and let a chopper drop a box of mice?” The skinny man sincerely asks.
“……no need. If there really is a big monster, it will become active immediately.” Jian Hua can’t imagine the strange scene of a helicopter dropping a box of mice. He could not help but think about the Southern mushrooms sent to the North by the Red Dragon, a picture of them guiding the growth of mushrooms through feeding it with mice.
Do they put some in front of important buildings?
“I forgot to say, some time ago, xx terrorists attacked Jincheng train station. Things just happened, and the mushrooms, stimulated by blood, bundled up the perpetrators along with the victims, and it didn’t make a bigger incident. Colonel Lu is pleased. It’s just that headquarters has a polarized view of you.”
A mushroom that can effectively stop killing, and also a blood-sensitive mushroom.
Jian Hua is expressionless, and Li Fei doesn’t care too much.
At this time, the wind rolled up a wave of sand and covered their field of vision. The skinny man pressed his foot on the brake, while his hand held the steering wheel.
“Something’s wrong.”
The skinny man Zhao Wen is just a C-class ice ability holder, but with his combat experience and sensitivity to danger, it can match Li Fei’s magic eyes and Jian Hua’s scanning ability.
“Nothing in the wind.” Li Fei looks around. There is still a distance from the location of the incident.
“Abandoned World, after each arrival, will arrive again at the same place after 24 hours. When did the people who disappeared yesterday go missing?” Jian Hua also did not find any suspicious targets.
“Yesterday afternoon, 18 hours ago.”
Theoretically speaking, it should be safe. They have enough time for the mushroom to expand in the field and let the three of them look at the surroundings.
“Continue forward. We have to solve the problem. The longer we stay at the periphery, the more unfavorable our situation is.” Li Fei calmly said.
After the wind went by, the ominous premonition disappeared again.
The SUV went forward.
Five minutes later, some scattered backpacks and shoes appeared on both sides of the road. There are also remnants of fires. It was half-covered by yellow sand and looked dirty.
“Red Dragon has collected some items, but there were no bloodstains and the only damaged things are those that fell.”
The skinny man slows down, started a detector and threw it out the window. When they are destroyed or encounter unknown energy, the receiver from the SUV will find out the direction where the danger came from.
The SUV found the underground tunnels empty, and that several missing people may have stayed for a while, but no abnormalities were found.
The indicators from the detectors are always green, making rhythmic beeps.
“Normal magnetic field, normal energy outputs, and the image displayed by the satellite are normal……”
“Crack!”
A harsh alarm sounds and the three people stared at the screen at the same time.
There are more than a dozen bright yellow lights from the detectors on a circular area, then it went out again, followed by a dozen lights behind. The yellow warning signs extended all the way, just like something is running wild, directly to their car.
Li Fei immediately turned his head and stared outside the car while many fine white silks covered the pavement.
“It’s close!”
The three people are nervous. As a result, only a blizzard of yellow sand went by.
“What?”
The yellow line displayed in the receiver indicated that it had crossed the car and went ahead.
But there was nothing——
“Is it the wind?”
The author has something to say:
430 km Lanxin highway is a real road in the real world
I did not verify it’s authenticity, but mysterious events happen at that place
The setting here is that before the Abandoned World, this road is normal.
T/N: I did some research (if you could call it that) and it seems that this stretch of highway is called Lanzhou Xinjiang highway (shortened to Lanxin highway) and is also called Land Bermuda. It appears that any vehicle passing at this stretch of the road, no matter how careful the driver is, will experience an accident. After many crashes, people have observed that it is mostly concentrated in the North (whatever that is) and speculated that there must be a strong magnetic field at that area though no one has verified it yet.
