The faint mist permeated the dimness, as if concealing something.

Shang Jianyao and Genuawa each held their weapons, silently walking forward, temporarily not activating the searchlight function.

The night vision capabilities of the military exoskeleton device and the smart robot were currently sufficient.

After walking for a while, Genuawa's head, hidden inside the "Chameleon" biomimetic intelligent armor, suddenly rotated 360 degrees, with red light flashing rapidly in its eyes.

"What's wrong?" Shang Jianyao asked curiously.

Genuawa replied in a slightly synthesized voice:

"I have a feeling that something is following us."

Shang Jianyao exclaimed:

"Lao Ge, you actually said 'feeling'!"

"Under this circumstance, shouldn't you directly analyze the probability?"

"As a smart robot, your wording should be precise, and your reconnaissance should be pragmatic."

"..."

After Shang Jianyao and the others finished speaking in a lively but orderly manner, Genuawa calmly replied:

"Entering the mist, the electromagnetic disturbance has become more severe, and my reconnaissance range and capabilities have been greatly suppressed.

"Under such circumstances, I sometimes can't even determine whether the information I obtain originates from illusions."

"I understand." Shang Jianyao changed his previous attitude, indicating that he understood.

He took the opportunity to say:

"At the cafe, I secretly tried to use the communication system embedded in the exoskeleton device to communicate with Dabai, but I didn't get any response at all."

"At that time, we could." Genuawa stated the objective fact.

"What about now?" Shang Jianyao's voice entered Genuawa's audio processing program through the communication system.

Genuawa quickly replied:

"It's still relatively clear, but it's also subject to some interference."

This was a response he made using the communication system.

At the same time, he reminded Shang Jianyao:

"An environment with such a high degree of electromagnetic disturbance is not suitable for staying in for too long, otherwise it will cause irreversible damage to your body."

Carbon-based humans are indeed more fragile than silicon-based humans.

"Give me two more hours," Shang Jianyao said.

Genuawa was a little surprised – this was an emotion he simulated, because such a response exceeded the content covered by Shang Jianyao's behavior database.

"You didn't even say 'The long night is long, may Siming protect'," Genuawa said, unable to understand.

Shang Jianyao said sincerely:

"It's not like we have to explore everything this time, and we can't come in again later.

"I clock in at eight in the morning and twelve noon every day, and Xiaohong is so envious that she's about to cry.

"Moreover, this way, I don't have to worry too much about the electromagnetic radiation affecting my body, and with the protection of certain devices, it's not a big problem.

"Siming's protection should be used for important things, such as preventing 'Heartless Disease', and shouldn't be wasted on such small details."

"That is indeed a way of thinking." Genuawa also sincerely suggested, "But you don't have to add something you learned from old world entertainment materials every few sentences, it won't help communication much."

Shang Jianyao laughed:

"This is not to help communication, but to liven up the atmosphere, Lao Ge, you are too serious, blah blah blah."

"What is blah blah blah?" Genuawa was not unfamiliar with old world entertainment materials at all, but he still couldn't understand what such a sentence meant.

"Simply put," Shang Jianyao replied seriously, "I haven't thought about what to say next, so I'll use 'blah blah blah' to replace it for now."

Genuawa briefly fell silent.

At this time, Shang Jianyao seemed to remember the focus of the discussion:

"Lao Ge, you just said you felt something was following us?"

"Yes, but I'm worried that this is just false information that I mistakenly generated due to being affected by the environment." Genuawa said as he swiveled his head, scouting the surroundings.

The head of the "Chameleon" biomimetic intelligent armor was almost twisted into a rope.

Fortunately, Genuawa turned back in the opposite direction.

Shang Jianyao said "tsk tsk":

"Just assume there is, I'll see how long it can follow us.

"According to the current situation, we are getting closer and closer to the root of the problem, and the further we go, the more trouble there will be."

What he meant was that if something was really following them, the "environment" might be able to help solve it.

"That's true." Genuawa no longer struggled with this issue.

One of them was a smart robot with super attack resistance, who wasn't afraid of "Heartless Disease" infection or most Awakened abilities, and the other was "The long night is long, may Siming protect", so what was there to worry about?

After walking for another ten minutes in the dimness filled with mist, Shang Jianyao and Genuawa passed through an intersection and entered the next street.

The reason they didn't go left or right was because they found that the number of corpses ahead had increased significantly.

——In the areas they had passed through before, perhaps the "Heartless" needed food, or perhaps the icefield creatures had been there before, and almost all the corpses had been cleared, leaving only traces of fighting, shooting, and blood splattering.

But here, the corpses on the street and roadside were like sandbags, scattered on the ground in a mess.

They had basically turned into white bones, wearing different styles, different colors, and different degrees of decay.

Genuawa quickly began a simple reconnaissance:

"Some of these corpses died from attacks, and some temporarily can't be identified as to the cause of death."

Shang Jianyao nodded and said solemnly:

"Is this the core area of the 'Heartless Disease' outbreak?

"At that time, it was too chaotic, the 'Heartless' killed each other, and it was difficult to calm down?

"And those who escaped, didn't dare to get too close to the root of the problem, and would rather starve to death than enter this area to collect food?"

Genuawa analyzed for a while and said:

"This is a speculation, but there are still too many possibilities."

"Mm." Shang Jianyao did not refute.

He turned on the searchlight of the military exoskeleton device, and with the help of the yellowish light, he checked the corpses one by one.

His focus was mainly on the clothes, items, and possible height of the corpses.

Genuawa knew what he was looking for, didn't speak, followed quietly behind, guarding against accidents.

As they walked, the two of them simultaneously saw a street lamp lit up in the distance, like a servant welcoming guests.

"Another 'New World' projection?" Shang Jianyao whispered excitedly.

"Should be." Genuawa thought this was the most likely situation.

Shang Jianyao did not speed up, and at his original pace, he roughly scanned the corpses along the way, and found no humans suspected to be from "Pangu Biology".

Then, he and Genuawa clearly saw the area illuminated by the street lamp:

Near the side of the road was a lush roadside tree, next to the roadside tree was a wooden brown bench, and sitting on the brown bench was a man in his late twenties, with his hair neatly combed, wearing a gray suit with black stripes, and wearing a pair of small round-framed glasses.

At this time, the man was leisurely reading a newspaper by the light of the street lamp.

"Wu Meng!" Shang Jianyao shouted happily.

The man was Wu Meng, who was sealed in the Wasteland No. 13 ruins.

His projection actually appeared here.

Shang Jianyao immediately turned his head and said to Genuawa with emotion:

"It's really like meeting an old friend in a foreign land."

"Barely." Genuawa didn't use specific probabilities, but chose more ambiguous words closer to human habits.

Wu Meng obviously couldn't hear Shang Jianyao's greeting just now, but the experienced Shang Jianyao decisively abandoned the "Berserker" assault rifle he was holding and took out the small jade Buddha.

The green light lit up, silently surging around, making the mist seem to dissipate a lot.

Wu Meng raised his head and looked at Shang Jianyao and Genuawa through his small round-framed glasses.

He slowly revealed a smile:

"You guys..."

He was still using Red River language.

"It's us." Shang Jianyao asked curiously, "Aren't you sealed in the Wasteland No. 13 ruins, how can you still appear in the 'New World'?"

He seemed to regard his previous speculation as the real situation, and naturally believed that Wu Meng was now a reflection from the "New World".

Wu Meng's expression turned slightly cold:

"If not for the 'New World', what would they use to seal me?"

"Oh, so that's how it is." Shang Jianyao pretended to be enlightened.

Before he could ask another question, Wu Meng folded the newspaper in his hand and said with a smile:

"I know, you want to inquire about a lot of things, but I don't plan to answer you.

"I can only remind you, don't go any further, there is a danger there that you can't deal with at all right now."

As soon as Wu Meng finished speaking, the area illuminated by the street lamp twisted.

After flashing a few times, this scene completely returned to the dimness filled with faint mist.

"Why did the 'New World' projection get destroyed after only saying a few words?" Shang Jianyao was very aggrieved.

This was the case when he communicated with Flora and Barnard before, and it was the same when he was talking to Wu Meng now.

Genuawa speculated:

"There may be some kind of power preventing people from the 'New World' from communicating with people from the graylands."

"Like the earliest batch of 'New World' powerhouses encountered by the 'Salvation Army'?" Shang Jianyao put away the small jade Buddha and raised his right hand to press the armor on his left chest.

"Should be." Genuawa felt that these two things were the same in essence, but the forms of expression were different.

He suggested to Shang Jianyao:

"Return now?"

"Why return?" Shang Jianyao was very surprised.

Genuawa replied:

"Didn't Wu Meng just say not to go any further, there is a danger ahead that we can't deal with?"

Shang Jianyao laughed:

"Wu Meng also said that the more dangerous it is, the more you have to take risks.

"He may be implying that we continue to move forward, um, under the restriction of that power, he can't say it clearly!"

Just as Genuawa was about to speak, he suddenly rotated his head again:

"I have that feeling of being followed by something again."

Bang!

Shang Jianyao, who had been secretly prepared, used the grenade launcher of the exoskeleton device to fire an illumination flare to the rear.

Under the sudden burst of light, wearing a helmet, he saw through his goggles that on the balcony of a building in the distance, there was a black feline creature, about the size of a leopard.

The creature's emerald green eyes were narrowed into a line by the illumination flare.