Hearing Jiang Baimian's words, Long Yuehong felt a sense of sudden realization, yet also felt as if he had fallen into a dream.
He couldn't help but look around again, completely unable to associate the "Heartless," who were diligently sweeping fallen leaves and wiping windows, with the fixed image in his mind.
The "Old Task Force" had encountered the "Heartless" in this ruin on their way to the "City Smart Network Control Center." They were the same as their counterparts outside, fierce, irrational, aggressive, with a strong hunting instinct, as if they had regressed to the stage when humans had just shed their beastly nature.
At that time, if someone had told Long Yuehong that the "Heartless" here would sweep the floor, wipe windows, and maintain lines, he would have scoffed and dismissed it as a joke.
But now, this scene was unfolding so realistically before his eyes.
Looking out, the streetlights stretched into the distance, with shadows of people, countless "Heartless," returning to the streets and windows after the city had "lit up" again, doing all sorts of things.
They were no longer fierce, no longer treating Long Yuehong and the others as prey, but "following the rules" and earnestly completing their tasks, allowing the entire city to exhibit a prosperity different from before.
At this moment, Long Yuehong felt as if they were in another world, coexisting peacefully yet unable to establish contact.
As his thoughts raced, he heard Jiang Baimian sigh:
"It's like a silhouette projected from the Old World from the past..."
"Why are they sweeping the floor, wiping windows, and maintaining exterior walls and streets?" Shang Jianyao suddenly asked.
Long Yuehong subconsciously replied:
"Maybe it's some kind of instinct. Their jobs in the Old World were these. After becoming 'Heartless,' it solidified into instinct..."
As he spoke, Long Yuehong's voice gradually lowered until it disappeared.
He also realized that his explanation was untenable because the Old World had been destroyed for nearly seventy years, and the "Heartless" here had changed countless generations. None of them had ever lived or worked in the Old World.
Finally, he forcefully added:
"That kind of instinct has been passed down through generations by the demonstration and teaching of parents.
"The descendants of repairmen are still repairing equipment, and the descendants of cleaners are still cleaning streets..."
Jiang Baimian chuckled and said before Shang Jianyao could speak:
"Don't engrave all sorts of messy things into genes, or it will cause the body to collapse.
"Teaching is indeed possible, but it's only useful for simple, repetitive tasks at most."
Bai Chen guarded the surroundings and said thoughtfully:
"Is it that after generations of breeding, the current 'Heartless' can learn more complex things? No, even if they can learn, the first few generations wouldn't be able to. The corresponding technology must have been lost..."
"Maybe someone is teaching them, instilling some 'instincts' into them." Shang Jianyao withdrew his gaze and said his guess.
Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen simultaneously remembered the strange and mysterious boy Xiao Chong, and they couldn't refute Shang Jianyao's statement for a moment.
During the previous discussion, they had all walked several steps towards the opposite side of the street, wanting to see the figures behind the bright windows more clearly.
A few seconds later, Long Yuehong looked at the "Heartless" in the distance sweeping the streets, repairing tree branches, and heading to other places, and exclaimed with emotion:
"Is this what the city in the Old World looked like?
"Is this how people lived and worked back then?
"Was the night so brightly lit back then, as if the stars were reflected on the ground?"
Because of this sentence, Jiang Baimian once again raised her head and looked at the building opposite.
On each of its floors, more than a third of the windows emitted either yellowish or whitish light, with "people" coming and going, either wiping windows, "watching" TV, or coaxing "children," or chopping on a cutting board. Although no sound was transmitted, Jiang Baimian directly felt the "liveliness" and "vigour."
At this moment, she seemed to have returned to decades ago, to the time when the Old World had not yet been destroyed, and smelled the breath of life.
As her gaze continued to move upward, Jiang Baimian's pupils suddenly dilated.
She saw a red dot flickering on the top of a tall building not far away.
It seemed to be coming from a sniper rifle.
"Duck for cover!" Jiang Baimian shouted and leaped and rolled to the side of the road, hiding in an open house.
With a "pop," fragments of stone flew up from the hard ground where she had just been standing.
Thanks to their previous experience, Shang Jianyao, Bai Chen, and Long Yuehong did not doubt their team leader's orders at all. They reacted immediately, rushing into the street-facing houses opposite the side door of the "City Smart Network Control Center" with different movements and postures.
With two "pops," two more bullets shot from the tops of different buildings and drilled into the ground.
After Jiang Baimian hid against the wall in the room, she took out the walkie-talkie, pressed the button, and said urgently:
"There are snipers on at least three rooftops around.
"This style of coming to the source of the anomaly but not going in, only ambushing around, reminds me of someone.
"'Hyena'!"
This was the standard style of the "Hyena" bandit gang.
It wasn't that only they liked to use similar methods, but they were the most famous among the teams that haunted the area and had at least three sniper rifles, and possibly the only one.
"This is too insidious, isn't it?" Long Yuehong held the walkie-talkie and blurted out.
The "Hyena" bandit gang didn't want to explore the anomaly and look for more valuable things, but only planned to deal with the relic hunters who retreated.
"They're a bandit gang," Jiang Baimian responded with some amusement. "Fortunately, they were probably dazzled by the changes after the city ruins restored power just now, and didn't deal with us immediately."
"But we were also affected by the changes in the ruins," Bai Chen simply defended.
"Maybe they climbed more than twenty floors and haven't caught their breath yet, and we came out. Moreover, the power is back, and we can use the elevator," Shang Jianyao sighed inexplicably. "What a pity..."
Long Yuehong was very taciturn:
"What a pity?"
"It's a pity that I was attracted by the changes in the ruins at that time, otherwise I could have given them a Golden Coast Hula dance first," Shang Jianyao's tone revealed obvious regret.
"...Looking forward to that day in the future," Jiang Baimian held the walkie-talkie and perfunctorily said. "The most important question now is, how do we escape the 'Hyena's' ambush? They definitely don't only have snipers as a trick."
"'Hyena' they have armored vehicles, heavy machine guns, and rocket launchers. After using snipers to control our range of activities, they should send people over to sweep us away," Bai Chen recalled the various news he had heard and calmly gave the most likely development.
"What should we do?" Although Long Yuehong wasn't too panicked, he still felt that they were in great danger.
Without the military exoskeleton, they couldn't avoid the heavy machine gun fire in such a limited area, and neither grenade launchers, rifles, nor grenades could break through the thick armor.
If the military exoskeleton was still there, they could try using electromagnetic weapons.
Jiang Baimian was silent for a few seconds and issued an order through the walkie-talkie:
"There are definitely no snipers on the 'City Smart Network Control Center' building. 'Hyena' they don't dare to enter that area at all.
"So, we can go to the door and walk against the wall. This is their blind spot for shooting.
"After finding a good position in advance, when the armored vehicle comes over, Bai Chen will shoot the machine gunner at the first time to suppress him briefly. If the fire control system of that armored vehicle is intact, the heavy machine gun can be operated inside the vehicle. Then I will try to give the firing position a 'Thunder Spear.' In short, the purpose is to create an opportunity for Shang Jianyao to get close.
"Shang Jianyao, at that time, you drill to the bottom of the armored vehicle. The distance between there and the people inside the vehicle is less than one meter, which can fully utilize your abilities and allow you not to worry about the threat of snipers."
Jiang Baimian named the attack of her electric eel bio-prosthetic limb "Thunder Spear."
"Okay!" Shang Jianyao seemed to have wanted to do this for a long time.
Bai Chen also responded.
Long Yuehong listened quietly and said silently for two seconds:
"What do I do?"
"You cheer me on," Shang Jianyao said seriously.
Just as Shang Jianyao finished speaking, Jiang Baimian added:
"You are responsible for guarding the surroundings. What if it's not just the armored vehicle that comes?
"I'll give you the grenade launcher later."
Long Yuehong immediately replied loudly:
"Yes, Team Leader!"
Jiang Baimian was about to say a few more words when she suddenly turned her head, sensing something.
"Here it comes! Right street, only one car," she quickly told Shang Jianyao and the others the information and found a pair of metal scissors from the room.
The four members of the "Old Task Force" immediately returned to the door, moved against the wall, and went to different positions.
In this process, they exchanged some weapons to prepare for what was to come.
Soon, the armored vehicle appeared at the corner of the street.
It had three large wheels on one side, and the armor surface was painted military green. There was a door on the side and dark bulletproof glass on the front.
It was more than twice the size of an ordinary vehicle, with a black heavy machine gun on top and something like an antenna.
Long Yuehong only glanced at it, and words like "steel," "hard," "strength," "crushing," and "indestructible" appeared in his mind.
Just at this moment, a melodious music sound quickly came from far to near and turned into the current street.
It was a large blue truck with a giant metal tank, shining its lights and spraying water on the street while playing music.
A "Heartless" wearing an old orange-white cotton coat was sitting in the driver's seat, operating the steering wheel with slightly stiff movements.
His eyes were blank, and he had a pair of black, chipped headphones on his head.
This sprinkler truck, illuminating the road ahead, was driving very fast and almost collided with the armored vehicle coming from the side.
With a squeak, the "Heartless" driver reflexively slammed on the brakes, blocking the vehicle there.
The armored vehicle driver had never encountered a similar situation and also stopped the vehicle.
Seeing this scene, Jiang Baimian's eyes lit up and shouted loudly:
"Opportunity!"
In the brisk and melodious sprinkler music, she took a step forward and pulled back her left arm.
The pair of metal scissors in her hand was instantly "covered" with crackling silver-white electric snakes.
ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~