The outskirts, stained with the smoke of gunfire and the blood of mutated creatures, welcomed an unusual guest—a massive black vehicle barreled recklessly through, accompanied by stirring music that painted the wasteland with a surreal color.
Canned Food slammed the accelerator to the floor, excitement bubbling in his voice: “Speed it up, speed it up, charge, charge, charge…”
He glanced at the rearview mirror and abruptly cut off mid-sentence: “Hacker, what are you doing?”
Since entering the anomalous zone, Hacker hadn’t stopped.
His hands flew across the keyboard, occasionally adjusting the instruments beside him.
As they ventured deeper into the zone, his expression grew increasingly serious.
Ji Ting was discussing the usefulness of his gear with Marksman when he instinctively glanced toward Hacker upon hearing the question.
Hacker crouched in the corner with two laptops before him and a pile of devices nearby.
He frantically typed, barely managing to respond amidst the chaos: “Don’t you think it’s too quiet?”
Everyone fell silent, tuning their senses to the surrounding environment.
The rousing music blared across the wilderness, the roaring engine thundered deafeningly…
Baozi rubbed his ears: “Canned Food, turn off the music. My ears are about to go deaf.”
Doctor flipped open his medical kit, muttering to himself: “I don’t have any medicine for deafness…”
Marksman carefully wiped down his wooden stock and asked Hacker, “When did your ears go deaf?”
Hacker ignored them, his fingers casting shadows as they danced across the keyboard, the screen reflecting his clenched teeth and gritted expression faithfully.
Marksman blew the gun barrel and squinted through the scope: “There’s a dark shape on the horizon up ahead. That’s probably our target.”
Canned Food’s enthusiasm surged: “Alright, we’re almost there.”
He slammed the gas pedal to the floor again, the engine roaring louder, until a sudden realization struck him: “Hacker’s right. It really is too quiet! Usually by now, Glass would be going on and on with a list of precautions and plans.”
Baozi tapped his earpiece: “Not just Glass, the intel analysis team is silent too.”
Marksman hit the mark: “Communications are down.”
Doctor recalled: “I remember the data mentioning drones lose contact due to unknown frequency interference deep in the anomalous zone.”
The joking atmosphere vanished completely.
Li Yishu confirmed with Hacker: “Aside from communication, are other devices still working?”
Hacker shook his head: “The closer we get to that city, the stronger the interference. Check your gear.”
Canned Food lifted his foot off the accelerator, slowing the vehicle to a normal pace.
Everyone swiftly inspected their equipment, replacing anything that malfunctioned.
Ji Ting’s gear was mostly unaffected.
After all, he wasn’t a combatant or a specialized support like Hacker; his equipment mainly boosted his survival odds.
The others weren’t so lucky.
The more advanced and professional the gear, the more vulnerable it was to this mysterious frequency, causing malfunctions and even complete failures.
As the team busied themselves checking their gear, Ji Ting sensed something was off.
He glanced out the window a couple of times, still pondering what felt wrong.
Then Canned Food suddenly shouted, “The car’s acting weird.”
No sooner had he spoken than the fully packed vehicle suddenly emptied.
Ji Ting reacted swiftly, but the others were faster.
Just as he made a move, the ground rushed up beneath his feet.
Looking back, Ji Ting saw Li Yishu release his collar and dust off his shoulder, watching the car wobble forward a bit before finally dying completely.
“I thought it was about to explode,” muttered Canned Food, neither relieved nor disappointed, as he ran to the vehicle and tried to restart it.
“Won’t start. Engine’s dead.”
“Looks like we’re walking from here on,” Baozi gazed into the distance, where the dark shape on the horizon flickered faintly—they were now just a short distance from their destination.
“Let’s hope our luck holds. I really don’t want to run into mutated creatures in this situation.”
Marksman loaded ammunition, tossed the pile of malfunctioning weapons into the trunk, and without looking back said, “Don’t go making stupid flags.”
Baozi wistfully looked at the car: “This was the latest upgraded model, said to be able to tank mutated creatures’ attacks—a great meat shield…”
Li Yishu approached Ji Ting, studied him briefly, thought for two seconds, then hoisted him onto his shoulder.
The Tian Shu Squad began their “march” toward the target.
The wind howled past their ears.
Carried on Li Yishu’s shoulders, Ji Ting was silent.
The military doctor casually trailed behind, offering a professional suggestion: “Boss, that position risks brain hemorrhage. How about a princess carry instead?”
Behind them, Hacker and Canned Food debated the mysterious frequency.
“Is this electromagnetic anomaly caused by the fusion of the novel and reality? Or is it the city’s self-defense mechanism?”
“We didn’t encounter this when merging with reality,” Canned Food said.
“I think it’s the self-defense system.”
Marksman couldn’t help but join in: “Considering the novel’s timeline is decades in the future, some special defenses make sense.”
The doctor shifted his focus: “And Liu Daming has that base cheat code. With enough resources, he can endlessly produce equipment.”
In just a few words, they had closed the distance enough to clearly see the city.
The image from the photo came to life—a city entirely shielded by a dense, turtle shell-like dome.
Li Yishu slowed his pace, setting Ji Ting down, his gaze fixed on the densely packed gun barrels atop the city walls.
The feeling from the photo was completely different from seeing it in person.
The photo was a bird’s-eye view—a small, compact circle with tiny gun barrels.
But now, before their eyes, the city stretched vast and endless.
They had to tilt their heads back just to see the turtle shell shielding it.
And those gun barrels were anything but small.
Only standing here could one truly grasp the terrifying firepower.
Thousands of turrets operated nonstop, densely arrayed across the walls and the “turtle shell.”
Their attack range was absurdly long.
Even though Li Yishu’s team was still kilometers away, the turrets had already turned and aimed at their direction.
Ji Ting broke the tense silence: “Looks like they’ve spotted us.”
Canned Food and the others ignored the comment, quickly forming a formation with Ji Ting in the center.
Li Yishu took the front line, staring toward the fortress: “Let’s see how they respond first.”
Silence fell again.
Even Canned Food, usually the most noisy, showed a reliable side Ji Ting hadn’t seen before—finally somewhat fitting his impression of the Tian Shu Squad.
The silence dragged on.
The city—more like a fortress—remained motionless, its dense turrets silently aiming like a wordless warning.
Ji Ting frowned.
Based on Liu Daming’s character—an old-school gang leader with a strong jianghu vibe who loved recruiting followers—hiding inside a fortress upon encountering strangers seemed highly unusual.
He waited patiently longer.
Seeing no attempt at communication, he broke the silence again.
“Time’s running out. We can’t wait forever. We need to try another way to communicate.”
Li Yishu frowned, then quickly relaxed.
Guessing what Ji Ting meant, he said directly, “Immediate retreat.”
Once his words dropped, the others moved at once.
Facing the fortress, they slowly backed away to avoid provoking misunderstandings and to be ready to react quickly if attacked.
This gave Ji Ting a chance to speak.
“I’ll go talk to him alone.”
Li Yishu’s answer was firm: “No.”
Seeing Ji Ting about to object, Li Yishu doubled down: “You’ve seen the situation at that city. You probably won’t even make it halfway before being killed. This isn’t bravery—it’s reckless foolishness.”
Then he softened his tone: “The situation isn’t urgent enough to solve today. Wait for the intel team to get updates and draw up a better plan…”
Before he finished, a barely perceptible tremor ran through a pile of stones nearby.
The next moment, the sound of wooden stock gunfire shattered the silence, echoing across the land.
The pile of stones was blasted apart, scattering fragments everywhere, each fragment marked by fierce impact.
Marksman glanced at Baozi, who bent low and gently tossed a circular device toward the rubble—a tool for detecting and jamming signal sources.
The device rolled into the stones, emitting a crackling sound like faulty electrical contact.
Hearing this, Hacker sounded frustrated: “Should’ve thought of that earlier. This guy’s armed the city like a hedgehog—there’s no way he ignores the large empty areas outside the city. If only my gear still worked…”
Li Yishu cut him off: “Are the monitors definitely down?”
Hacker immediately went silent. The scene grew awkwardly quiet.
One stone in the rubble trembled again, as if activating some program, shedding its disguise and revealing its true form.
What remained was half of a brass button with a jagged broken edge, exposing a tiny chip inside.
Despite being broken in half, it still functioned, emitting intermittent, garbled sounds like a scratched tape.
“Ka-zz… ka-zz ka-zz… come… ka-zz… alone… ka-zz…”
Ji Ting exchanged a look with Li Yishu.
Despite Li Yishu’s disapproving gaze, Ji Ting signaled toward the turrets.
Theoretically, Liu Daming wouldn’t open fire on ordinary people—but given the current situation, who could be certain?
At the very least, Ji Ting knew that if they turned and ran now, they wouldn’t outrun the incoming shells.
Ji Ting winked at Li Yishu: “Don’t worry. It’s not that bad. Don’t forget why I was ‘specially recruited’—this is my ‘specialty.’”
“Wait here for me a while. If time’s tight, take the information back first. Don’t stay here too long; running into mutated creatures would be trouble.”
Having finished his instructions to Li Yishu, he strode determinedly toward the fortress.
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