"There's a boat." As the team's sniper and a human who had undergone corresponding genetic modifications, Bai Chen's ability to observe distant situations was second only to Genaava.

Hearing this, Jiang Baimian took a telescope from her tactical belt and brought it to her eyes. Shang Jianyao followed suit, mimicking the same action.

Soon, the two clearly saw the black dots Bai Chen was referring to.

It was indeed a boat, made of steel but quite crude.

Each boat had a number of humans on board. Some, despite having perfectly good legs, could only crawl on the deck, scattering fishing nets in different directions. Others had heads that were unusually pointed, wobbling as they performed simple tasks. Still others had extra limbs, busily operating the boats.

To a team like the "Old Task Force," which had seen and experienced too much on the graylands, the characteristics of these humans were unmistakable. They could recognize them at a glance.

Deformed!

Similar to subhumans, these were tragedies created by various kinds of pollution. What was even worse for the deformed was that the changes in their bodies were mostly useless and varied greatly, making it difficult to form a stable community.

They were like the disabled among humans. In the graylands, where many people starved to death each year, it was difficult to find a place willing to accept them. Like certain creatures in evolutionary theory, they could only wait to be eliminated by nature.

The "Salvation Army" used to treat everyone equally, without abandoning them, but later, due to food shortages, they stopped accepting new ones.

Today, except in some heavily radiated areas, it was rare to see such people.

"I didn't expect so many deformed to survive on this large lake," Jiang Baimian said with emotion as she observed. "They seem to be making a living by fishing."

Shang Jianyao held his telescope in one hand and stroked his chin with the other:

"The question is, where did they get the oil for their boats?"

It was possible that some of these deformed could read old-world books, become self-taught, and master the technology of repairing and maintaining those boats. But humans couldn't conjure fuel out of thin air.

"Such a large lake should have many islands. Maybe one or more of them have oil depots with huge reserves," Jiang Baimian said casually. "Or maybe merchants come here regularly to trade fuel for local products."

She lowered the telescope, hung it back on her tactical belt, and then looked around.

"Let's move on a bit further. Let's not disturb these poor people."

That was one reason. Another reason was that the fish in this large lake were all polluted and severely mutated. Even if the "Old Task Force" stayed, they wouldn't dare to taste the "local delicacies" to reduce the consumption of supplies.

Long Yuehong and the others had no objections.

The "Old Task Force's" jeep drove along the lake's sporadically good and bad roads for nearly an hour, unexpectedly discovering a rest stop with a gas station next to an old-world wide highway.

The buildings at this rest stop were quite well-repaired, and lights even shone from the windows, dispelling some of the evening's dimness.

In the old world, similar rest stops would inevitably have a large parking lot, and this one was no exception. Now, five or six vehicles sparsely filled that empty area.

"How does this feel like returning to the 'Salvation Army' heartland?" Long Yuehong, who was taking his turn driving, said with slight surprise.

Jiang Baimian, who always cared for her team members, had already moved to the back row. She looked at the scenery outside the window and said:

"It even looks a bit like some of the scenes presented in old-world entertainment materials."

After driving a long stretch of highway, they finally encountered such a rest stop with a gas station, a parking lot, a rest area, and various foods and goods for sale…

Bai Chen pointed to the other side of the passenger seat:

"This seems to belong to the 'Salvation Army'."

"Is that so?" Jiang Baimian didn't try to lean across Genaava and Shang Jianyao to observe the situation on the other side. Instead, she patiently waited for Long Yuehong to turn the steering wheel.

Then, she saw four people wearing "Salvation Army" black uniforms patrolling in pairs at the entrance and parking lot of the rest stop.

These people either carried "Red Maple Forest" assault rifles produced by the "Salvation Army" or "Short Neck" submachine guns, which were more common in the graylands. Judging from their demeanor, they seemed to be soldiers who had received formal military training rather than bandits roaming the area.

"Didn't they say that the 'Salvation Army' doesn't substantially control the icefield?" Long Yuehong asked in confusion.

In other words, the "Salvation Army" only sends people to the icefield on a large scale every summer to search for supplies and hunt wild animals, without establishing long-term settlements.

Shang Jianyao sneered:

"There are exceptions to everything, just like you only grew to be five foot nine after genetic modification…"

"Let's just ask and we'll know." Bai Chen interrupted Shang Jianyao's "chanting."

After the "Old Task Force" parked their jeep, based on their unfamiliarity with the rest stop, they left Genaava behind to guard the vehicle.

Shang Jianyao went straight to a patrolling team of soldiers, preparing to press his hand to his chest and shout "For all of humanity!" But one of the targets preemptively pointed to the row of connected houses in the rest area with his elbow:

"Go inside and ask if you have any questions."

His implied meaning was not to interfere with their patrol and distract the guards.

"Alright." Shang Jianyao was quite polite when facing the "Salvation Army."

After entering the door of that row of houses, Jiang Baimian and the others' eyes lit up.

Amidst the roar of a fuel generator, energy-saving lamps emitted a whitish light, illuminating neatly arranged dining tables.

These were all four-person tables, but some were pushed together, with seven or eight people sitting around them.

Near the door of the hall, there was a counter behind which stood a graylander man who was not tall but rather broad, with ordinary looks.

He was also wearing a "Salvation Army" black uniform, with a Ubei 7 strapped to his waist.

"Do you need to see our pass?" Shang Jianyao asked familiarly.

The man paused for a moment:

"If you have one."

Jiang Baimian immediately handed over the pass that Hong Guangming had issued.

The ordinary-looking man reached out and took it, glancing at it casually.

"This pass does not include intelligent robots.

"When corresponding four personnel enter the settlement, they cannot carry heavy weapons, high-tech equipment, or crates."

Uh… The man raised his head and looked at Jiang Baimian and the others with surprise and seriousness.

He interpreted the two attached clauses of the pass from another angle:

This team really has intelligent robots, heavy weapons, and high-tech equipment instead of devices.

"We didn't bring anything, and we didn't carry crates." Jiang Baimian smiled.

Compared to the Red River people, her appearance was more in line with the aesthetic of the graylanders. The man was stunned for a moment before saying:

"You meet the requirements of the pass. You can enter the North An Lake rest stop."

"Are you really from the 'Salvation Army'?" Long Yuehong asked curiously.

The man nodded, reached out his right hand, and pressed it against his left chest:

"Yes.

"But to you, doesn't it not matter much? If we weren't from the 'Salvation Army', would you not rest here tonight and replenish fuel and other supplies?"

"Replenishment also has civilized and uncivilized differences." Bai Chen replied simply.

Uncivilized referred to robbing directly.

The man was speechless.

After a few seconds, he laughed

"You can try."

He seemed quite confident.

"Is that so?" Shang Jianyao immediately became eager to try.

Jiang Baimian took a step diagonally, blocking in front of this guy, and said with a smile:

"We're just very curious about how there's a 'Salvation Army' rest stop on the icefield.

"By the way, what's your name?"

The man muttered:

"Chang Haijiang."

He paused and then said:

"We 'Salvation Army' have rebuilt many similar rest stops on the icefield, mainly for our teams to rest and replenish supplies on the way.

"You didn't think that only in the summer do we 'Salvation Army' send people to the icefield, did you?"

That's what we thought… Long Yuehong suddenly felt a little awkward.

Chang Haijiang pointed to the north:

"At the very least, we've established several icefield weather observation and research stations, with people stationed there all year round.

"The climate change on the icefield indirectly affects the harvest of our 'Salvation Army's' northern grain."

Clap clap clap, Shang Jianyao applauded.

Jiang Baimian's heart stirred, and she took off her tactical backpack, rummaged for a photo, and handed it to Chang Haijiang:

"Have you seen this person?"

The photo showed Ji Qiang, Ding Ling's husband.

Although Ding Ling didn't have extra photos, the "Old Task Force" had Genaava, so they completed the scan at the time, established electronic data, and after returning to Ubei, they relied on ticket exchanges to find a special shop to print out the photos.

Chang Haijiang held the photo and looked at it for a while and said:

"Never seen him. What does he do?"

"He does scientific research, and he's also from your 'Salvation Army.' He came to the icefield two years ago and hasn't returned." Jiang Baimian explained simply, "We were commissioned by his family to come to the icefield to find him."

"Two years?" Chang Haijiang moved his eyebrows, "Didn't his unit give a death notice?"

"I'm not too sure about that. Maybe the family is still unwilling to accept it and doesn't want to give up just like that." Jiang Baimian said whatever came to mind.

Chang Haijiang agreed with this explanation and nodded:

"Yeah, that's the habit of us graylanders, we want to see the person alive and the body dead."

He looked at the photo again carefully for a while:

"I don't really remember him."

Just as Shang Jianyao sighed, Chang Haijiang changed the subject:

"But two years ago, a group of people with a rather strange style of doing things did pass by.

"They didn't enter the rest stop. They only sent three people in to replenish fuel and supplies, and bought a batch of cooked food. They seemed very wary of us, and I don't know why.

"We're all people from the 'Salvation Army,' so why do that?"