Chapter 104: All in all
Translator: Letty Editor: DarkGem
“Perhaps, perhaps he is indeed more intimidating than Zhuo.” Chang lightly pushed Zhizhi’s back to get her moving, hinting for her to catch up with the proceeding soldiers. “Even if that is true, I’m still willing to help him.
“Because I believe in him.
“I believe that he is more human-like than Zhuo.”
Chang was reminded of when he, Qing Shui, and Jing had fled from the jungle, and Qing Shui had decided to return to the abyss to rescue Pangzi. That fist bump they did in front of the welcome billboard would never disappear from his mind.
Chang felt a surge of tears welling up in his eyes when he thought of that day, but he blinked a few times to hold them back, then sped up so that his group wouldn’t be left behind.
…
In two hours, the three thousand soldiers Qing Shui had brought with aligned into columns. He hadn’t brought as many as Zhuo had, but the number of soldiers wasn’t the key to triumph. The composition of their enemies was quite special. Once the bacteria bomb massacred most of the normal human soldiers, and it was time to defend against Zhuo’s special force, more soldiers meant more sacrifices.
The regiment marched from Zhengzhou to irrigation gate of the Yellow River, traveling along the national highway 107 toward the north. They would also have pass through a small segment of the jungle’s edge in twenty kilometers.
The regiment was of an average size, the number of the soldiers even less than the population of an ordinary college. If someone was to take a look from the sky, the regiment wouldn’t be noticeable at all. They were soon inundated by the gloom of the thick jungle.
Qing Shui, the fine man, and Chang were the lead of the whole regiment, while Zhizhi and Jing acted as a radar during the march. They walked right beside front.
Chang was in charge of planning out the route on the winding trail while Zhizhi chose the general direction. The fine man, who specialised in deductive reasoning, mapped out Zhuo’s formation in accordance to the footsteps and traces, simultaneously briefing in Qing Shui.
The path they took was absolutely safe since Zhuo’s formation had already marched through this same route. The special force must have expelled the majority of the predators from this area, clearing out even their hideouts, and thus, Qing Shui’s regiment could only focus their energy on marching on the flat road.
The journey was full of peace and tranquility, the regiment almost reaching their destination in three hours.
“Stop,” Qing Shui ordered as he strode to the peak of a slope. “We’re less than ten kilometers from Zhuo’s formation, so there’s a chance we might expose ourselves to them early if we get too close.”
“You’re right, although we are protected by the red fog, we don’t know if he secretly stationed some other EMs that we haven’t met in the surroundings. The distance is relatively safe here,” the fine man agreed, nodding at Qing Shui.
“Thanks. Wang, can you roughly estimate their location and how they’re deployed for me?”
Gesturing for the regiment to move up the slope, Qing Shui handed a small sketch book to the fine man. He then ordered the soldiers who toted the mortar and artillery components to assemble the weapons on the spot.
Most of the soldiers busied themselves with the assembling. Because transportation tools were mostly limited by the energy supply and the difficulties of operating with limited vision, they could only transport things by manual labour.
Tens of soldiers would carry all the components for a single artillery, and there were more than 15 of them brought. First, the soldiers who had the parts of the same artillery gathered together and took off their backpacks holding the parts. Then, five of the soldiers from each group would dominate the assembling process as they were trained in the craft.
While the soldiers were busy, Qing Shui joined the crowd and arranged some positionings. He and some other officers then distributed the special respirators to every soldier on the field.
The assembling process was long and complicated. It took almost two hours for the artilleries and mortars to be assembled even with the effort of a thousand soldiers.
At the same time, Qing Shui walked to the center of the regiment, waving his hand to a squad that bore boxes of custom bombs.
Qing Shui scanned the surroundings and made sure the preparations were done. He then rejoined Chang and the others, looking at Zhizhi.
“They’re still there, aren’t they?”
“They are. I can smell the odour of humans and the scent of the blood from over there.” Zhizhi raised her head, eyes closed. Her nose wings twitched as she said,.”But all I can be sure about is that they haven’t left yet. The scents are mixing altogether, I can’t distinguish individuals until we get closer.”
“No worries.” Qing Shui gave her a knowing look that affirmed her output. Then he asked Chang, “What do you think? Can you go over there to check out what is happened there for me? Your vision and Jing’s perception make for the best combination, and we need to know more about where Zhuo is at this moment.”
“Sure.” Chang stood up from the ground, dusting off the mud from his pants.
“Be safe, I only want to know how far they are from us and their general location. It doesn’t need to be a detailed report of what they are doing exactly.” Seeing Chang obediently submitting to his request, Qing Shui hesitated. He reached to his pocket and took out a syringe with some kind of liquid inside, then said, “Take this. Inject it when you can no longer escape from danger.”
“What is this?” Chang held up the syringe, but he still couldn’t see what exactly was inside.
“This is the product of my recent research project. It’ll empower you.” Qing Shui’s expression changed. He seemed to be pained mentally. “But it hasn’t passed the human subject test yet. Even I don’t know what side effects it might have. Don’t use it until the very last minute. I’m afraid of the consequences, that you might become one of those soldiers who were injected with the red fog concentrate, gaining enhanced strength for a few days before death arrived.”
“Got it.” Chang placed the syringe into his shirt’s pocket and patted it twice. He then lifted Jing up into his arms and ran down the slope. “I will keep myself away from them!”
Chang bolted down before his voice dropped. The wind brushed his hair as he ran toward the direction Zhizhi had pointed to.
It was only less than 10 kilometers, which wasn’t far to Chang at all. In fact, he could sprint over one kilometer in ninety seconds in the jungle. Thus, when Jing sensed the presence of Zhuo’s army, he had been traveling for only ten minutes.
His arms tightened to ensure Jing wouldn’t fall off from his arms. He didn’t go any closer but patrolled around the vague shadows of Zhuo’s regiments. He veered back to Qing Shui after he confirmed their locations.
The whole information collection was smooth.
He noticed that Zhuo’s soldiers were celebrating—their thirteen-hour long battle with the Yessie had just ended, and it happened to match with Qing Shui’s arrival. The coincidence made Chang suspect that Qing Shui might have arranged this.
This was the time when their enemies had suffered heavy casualties, and those still alive lied back and relaxed. It was the perfect timing to have the greatest impact on Zhuo’s force.
However, Chang knew he’ll never find out how Qing Shui had calculated the length of the battle, nor how he could estimate Yessie’s endurance even without having seen it before.
Not that any of these puzzles were his business
Another ten minutes passed and Chang returned with the locations. He pinpointed them on Wang’s map, and that was the start of the first wave of Qing Shui’s long-awaited attack.
“Calibrate to the direction of 11 o’clock! Load the bacteria bomb!”