Drip, drip, drip.
“The water here isn’t so heavily contaminated by radiation. It's within the range that can be purified.” The silver-black robot, Genava, squatted beside a stream flowing through the black earth, completing the detection.
The weeds here were thick and long, the green almost covering everything within sight. But compared to areas with more severe radiation contamination, they weren’t too exaggerated—in those places, the grass often reached nearly half a person's height, and seeing wild green onions reaching nearly three meters wasn’t uncommon.
Although similar environments weren’t the key criteria for judging the level of contamination, they could help relic hunters make preliminary judgments from a greater distance, reducing the difficulty of screening.
“Finally…” After hearing Genava's words, Long Yuehong let out a long sigh of relief.
Venturing into the Northern Wastelands, the most serious and practical problem was obtaining water resources.
Here, many water sources were heavily polluted, exceeding the capabilities of the water purification chips. Forcing oneself to drink it might not lead to poisoning, but subsequent illnesses and even mutations were highly probable.
Because of this, relic hunters who traveled to the Northern Wastelands, in addition to carrying weapons and food, also prepared water purification chips and knew the distribution of mildly polluted water sources.
The "Old Task Force" was being hunted, and there were many places they couldn't go. They could only rely on Zeng Duo's experience, Jiang Baimian's knowledge, and Genava's pollution detection to find new water sources.
With their original drinking water dwindling, their repeated failures finally yielded results.
In his relief, Long Yuehong, Shang Jianyao, and the others filled their respective containers with the stream water, using water purification chips to process it.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Jiang Baimian looked around and said:
“From the current situation, the regular army of ‘First City’ guarding the Early Spring Town has about two companies. They usually patrol the surrounding areas in platoons, pretending to be drills, to prevent relic hunters or wasteland wanderers from approaching Early Spring Town...
“A preliminary estimate is that one company remains stationed, and one company patrols...”
The "Old Task Force," after disguising themselves and "making friends," learned from those relic hunters who had entered the North Anheford area during this time the times, locations, and specific details of their encounters with the "First City" regular army.
With this information, analyzing the enemy's situation became much easier.
For example, judging that there were only two companies stationed was because those relic hunters kept running into the same people over and over again, often encountering familiar faces after a few times.
“They have at least two tanks, two armored vehicles, six drones, and a lot of heavy machine guns, individual rocket launchers, and grenade launchers. As for Awakened and gene-modified humans, you can’t tell from the surface, so there’s no way to guess…” Jiang Baimian briefly introduced the situation and concluded, “With only this level of understanding, I don’t think acting now is a good idea. We’re trying to rescue an entire town. Once we’re trapped and surrounded, without corresponding contingency plans, a total annihilation is no joke.”
Her words made Han Wanghuo and Zeng Duo become silent.
This wasn’t because they thought that Xue Shiyue, nicknamed “Big White,” was wrong; on the contrary, it was too right, making them somewhat discouraged.
Genava, based on the results he had analyzed, tentatively asked:
“Old Han, what was your previous plan of action? Tell us for reference. Maybe it can bring some inspiration.”
Jiang Baimian and Long Yuehong almost raised their hands to cover their faces. They had forgotten to stop this robot, who was so lacking in emotional intelligence.
Han Wanghuo's lips moved a few times, and he said with a hint of embarrassment:
“We didn’t have time to formulate a plan of action yet.”
In his mind, wasn't it just about sneaking near Early Spring Town, taking advantage of the night to launch a surprise attack, then coordinating from the inside out, breaking out of the encirclement, and heading to the "Land of Hope" chosen by Zeng Duo?
If it didn't work, he wouldn't live much longer anyway, so he could just cover his teammates' retreat with his life.
As the former sheriff of Redstone Town and captain of the town guard, Han Wanghuo wasn't unaware that this plan was full of loopholes, but with the resources he had and his own strength, he could only do so much.
To prevent Genava from asking further questions, Long Yuehong tentatively asked Zeng Duo:
“Are there any tunnels in Early Spring Town?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Shang Jianyao's laughter, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat. He felt that he had probably overlooked something again and was about to be laughed at.
Jiang Baimian said with a normal expression:
“In the early days, it was a good idea, but ‘First City’ has controlled Early Spring Town for several months. With their resources and capabilities, they shouldn’t be unclear about this. Choosing a tunnel is almost like walking into a trap.”
As Long Yuehong muttered "That's right" to himself, Zeng Duo answered his previous question:
“There are no tunnels.
“For us, the town is the last resort. Leaving it is even more dangerous. There’s no need to dig tunnels.”
In the Northern Wastelands, there were many "Heartless Ones" and mutated creatures. The exit of a tunnel wasn't safe no matter where it was opened. In comparison, when facing a crisis, the people of the entire town would fight and retreat, evacuating in batches, which was a better choice.
“Are there any rivers around the town? Are there any mountains nearby?” Bai Chen joined the discussion.
“What do you want to do?” Shang Jianyao looked "terrified."
Bai Chen didn't hide his thoughts:
“Artificially create a natural disaster to create opportunities.”
“There are only small rivers and streams around the town. It’s located on the edge of the hills and there are no mountains,” Zeng Duo's answer declared the bankruptcy of Bai Chen's proposal before it even entered the refinement stage.
Jiang Baimian nodded lightly:
“It’s difficult to control the extent of the damage caused by artificially creating natural disasters. If there are other ways, try not to attempt it.”
Speaking of which, she sighed:
“The most important issue now isn’t how to rescue Early Spring Town. That’s something we need to consider later. We can only formulate an effective plan if we understand the situation of the ‘First City’ regular army there.
“The thing I’m most worried about is that this matter is being presided over by an Awakened at the ‘Mind Corridor’ level or a mutated person of corresponding level. If that’s the case, the degree of trouble will increase exponentially.
“Moreover, those two companies may also have several sets of military exoskeletons or bionic intelligent armor.”
With the equipment possessed by the "Old Task Force" and the strength currently displayed by the garrison of Early Spring Town, they wouldn't dare say they were very confident, but at least in the case of a night raid, the hope wasn't small.
But the problem was that the strength revealed by the other party might not be all of it.
Han Wanghuo and Zeng Duo, who had already been informed by the "Old Task Force" of what a "Mind Corridor" was, both had quite solemn expressions.
If the experiment of "First City" in Early Spring Town wasn't that important, Jiang Baimian's worry wouldn't appear, but if that experiment involved many things, it was almost a high probability that a strong person would preside over it.
“But how can we figure out this situation? I can’t contact anyone in the town,” Zeng Duo didn't hide her worries.
As soon as she finished speaking, Shang Jianyao sighed:
“It’s all the fault of those cowardly relic hunters.”
“Huh?” Not only Long Yuehong didn't understand, but Han Wanghuo, Zeng Duo, and others also didn't understand.
Jiang Baimian smiled and helped explain:
“He means that those relic hunters retreated as soon as they encountered the regular army of ‘First City’ and didn’t have any intention of continuing to go deeper.
“In that case, there wouldn’t be any conflicts. No conflict means there’s no way to make the regular army of ‘First City’ show their true strength.
“Um, if an Awakened at the ‘Mind Corridor’ level exists, they must be staying in Early Spring Town, monitoring the surrounding several hundred meters. They won’t go out on patrol...”
If I were a relic hunter, without any vested interest, I wouldn't have a conflict with people from a large force… Besides, those regular army soldiers act in platoons of thirty to forty people, and their weapons and equipment are very sophisticated. How would ordinary relic hunter teams dare to offend them? They would only worry about being forcibly identified as robbers and having their property plundered… Long Yuehong muttered in his heart.
“Shall we try to engage with a patrol team?” Han Wanghuo offered his suggestion.
Jiang Baimian pondered for a moment and smiled:
“That’s the idea, but there’s a better way.
“If we can avoid coming forward ourselves, we should avoid it, lest we startle the snake.”
Without waiting for Han Wanghuo to ask further, she looked at Zeng Duo:
“In the North Anheford area and the surrounding area, what are some powerful bandit gangs? Where do they often appear?”
“You want to drive the bandit gangs to attack those regular army soldiers?” Han Wanghuo asked with some understanding, “But how could they do such a thing…”
Han Wanghuo's voice gradually lowered, as if he remembered something. Long Yuehong's similar muttering was the same.
“They’re very easy to get along with, very easy to persuade,” Shang Jianyao revealed a kind smile.
Jiang Baimian also smiled:
“Sometimes they have no choice.”
For some reason, Zeng Duo silently mourned for those bandit gangs at this moment.
She quickly came back to her senses and tried her best to find possible targets from her memory.
This gave her a feeling of picking out "unlucky ghosts."