Chapter 142: “Survivors on the Ground”

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“Wasteland Hunter Jeff calling Captain Mark.”

“Team Two has reached the entrance to Sector B.”

“Jeff calling Captain Mark. Please respond.”

“Hello? Hello? This blasted weather!”

Jeff, captain of the second Wasteland Hunter team, shouted into the communications system for a long while, but no one answered. In the end, he could only blame the damned weather.

This kind of dreadful sandstorm interfered terribly with signal transmission.

Of course, it was also possible that Captain Mark had led his people into the enormous wreckage of the spacecraft before them. The hull might be blocking the signal and causing the poor reception.

The weather was foul, and he could not reach the Wasteland Hunters’ commander. As a result, his mood was terrible.

Then he turned and saw the Dustborn below still struggling to carry the supplies, while the newly recruited Upper Citizen Wasteland Hunters stood around them without the slightest intention of helping. They had clearly paid no attention to what he had said earlier.

He immediately began shouting. “Move it! Are you all so eager to stand here and eat sand?”

“But Captain Jeff, we’re Upper—”

One of the newly recruited Upper Citizens was still unwilling to give up his status as an excuse, but Jeff cut him off at once. He leaped down from the embankment, landed beside the rookie Wasteland Hunter, and demanded loudly, “Tell me, what is the first rule of the Wasteland Hunters?”

“Highest priority: bring back supplies…”

Training had been extremely strict, so the rookie immediately stood at attention and answered loudly. Yet the farther he got into his reply, the quieter his voice became.

When he finally fell silent, Jeff said again, “Do you know what you’re supposed to be doing now?”

“Yes, Captain Jeff!”

After answering, the rookie said nothing more about Upper Citizens or Dustborn. He slung his rifle over his back and ran off to carry supplies.

Seeing this, the other rookie Upper Citizens who had been standing by hurried over as well.

Jeff’s anger only grew when he saw that they had finally agreed to work. He felt that the genes of the current generation of rookies were indeed improving, while their ability to do actual work was getting worse and worse.

So he simply started cursing them.

“Up on the Lighthouse, I don’t care what you think. But once you’re on the ground, it doesn’t matter how excellent your genes are or how high your training scores were. Anyone who delays the supply-gathering mission will spend the rest of their life peeling potatoes in the kitchen!”

He was still berating them when a red-haired little girl came running over.

“Uncle Jeff, why are you so angry? And besides, such intense emotional fluctuations aren’t good for you.”

The girl’s arrival immediately calmed Jeff down. He shook his head and said, “I’m not usually this bad-tempered. It’s all because of those idiots.”

“Forget it. Just talking about them gives me a headache.” Jeff ended the subject, turned to her, and asked, “Erika, how are things on your side? Did you notice anything unusual?”

“Don’t worry.” Erika proudly patted her chest. “Our watch is extremely tight. Not even a tiny flying insect could get through…”

As she spoke, Erika suddenly noticed that Jeff wore an expression as if he had seen a ghost. He even drew his gun and aimed it at her. The words caught in her throat.

“W-what are you doing, Uncle Jeff?”

Jeff’s expression was grave. He did not answer her. Instead, he addressed the person behind her in a warning tone.

“Who are you? Let Erika go!”

“I haven’t taken this young lady named Erika hostage. I only came to ask you something… Do you have any food?”

Hearing a strange man’s voice behind her, and seeing the way Uncle Jeff was treating him, Erika shuddered. But after hearing the second half of his sentence, she simply—

“...What?”

She had thought he was some terrifying figure. But that was all?

Jeff spoke again. He paid no attention to the newcomer’s attitude and continued aiming his gun.

“I don’t care what you’re planning to do, but you’d better not move. Not unless you want me to put a hole in you.”

Several veteran sentries nearby who had not been assigned to carry supplies noticed what was happening. They immediately gathered with their guns raised and aimed at Zhou Shu.

“Captain Jeff, what’s going on?”

“Nothing. Keep him covered and wait for my order.” Jeff gave the instruction, then said, “Erika, step away from him.”

“Oh, right!”

Erika suddenly came to her senses. She quickly turned around and moved to Jeff’s side. Only then did she see the man who had been speaking behind her.

He was tall and broad-shouldered. He wore no protective equipment, only clothing resembling that of the Dustborn, though his garments were neither as tattered nor as filthy.

And, truthfully, although he was covered in quite a bit of dust, he looked extraordinarily handsome. With several guns pointed at him, he showed no fear. Instead, he looked as though everything was under his control.

Thinking back, even his voice had been calm and unhurried, possessing a peculiar charm.

His entire bearing seemed completely out of place in the surrounding environment.

“See?” the man said. “I truly mean you no harm. Now will you answer me? Do you have any food? I’ve been hungry for several days.”

You don’t look like someone who’s been hungry for several days.

Jeff silently complained to himself.

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This man was none other than Zhou Shu, who had come running over.

Seeing that Zhou Shu truly had no intention of harming anyone, and that several veteran comrades were nearby, Jeff relaxed slightly. Before he could say anything, the red-haired girl Erika asked in amazement, “Are you… a surface survivor?”

Zhou Shu now knew what this virtual battlefield had been modeled after. The setting of Upper Citizens and Dustborn was simply too obvious. Assuming the rest of the plot followed the original, he gave a slight nod.

“Something like that.”

At his answer, even Erika frowned, let alone Jeff.

“What does ‘something like that’ mean? Are you or aren’t you? Give us a straight answer! And liars get whipped by that foul woman.”

Zhou Shu clearly felt that calling this girl “little girl” was perhaps inappropriate. If he remembered correctly, unless the Hunters had altered the script, her actual age should be the same as his apparent age: eighteen.

Still, she undeniably had a youthful, doll-like air about her—well, except for her chest. In any case, Zhou Shu had assumed she was at most fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen. She had only recently begun working and was extremely lively.

The sensation was fascinating. All he could do was marvel at how much more advanced the Hunters had become. The virtual world was growing more and more like reality.

“All right, I’m a survivor,” Zhou Shu said readily, while continuing to press his demand. “Now you have to give me something to eat, right? If you don’t have food, could I at least have some water?”

Jeff and Erika fell silent.

His longing for food and water certainly did make him resemble a surface survivor.

According to the Wasteland Hunters’ mission records, however, they had not seen a surface survivor in more than twenty years. No one had expected to encounter one only a few months after arriving on the new continent of Ausia.

After more than twenty years without seeing a surface survivor, eighteen-year-old Erika was naturally fascinated. Jeff, who was already in his thirties, felt more than simple curiosity. He was suspicious.

He had studied the relevant material in training and had even seen genuine surface survivors. In his memories, surface survivors were not supposed to look like Zhou Shu.

Still, Zhou Shu was surrounded, and there was nothing to fear from him. Jeff had one of his team members bring Zhou Shu a box of compressed biscuits and a bottle of purified water.

However, he used the excuse that Zhou Shu had not undergone purification and might be carrying pathogens to forbid the eager Erika from approaching him. This left the girl rather dejected.

Fortunately, she could still speak with Zhou Shu from a short distance away.

Zhou Shu ate the food. The compressed biscuits and purified water might have been decades old, but they tasted surprisingly fine.

Considering the era in which this virtual battlefield was set, perhaps they had developed some new preservation technology.

Even canned goods and compressed food produced decades ago could still be eaten in the real world. It was only because there was plenty of fresh food available that people had no reason to eat such things. In an apocalypse like this one, however, there probably would not be so many concerns.

Zhou Shu stuffed one compressed biscuit after another into his mouth. The rock-hard biscuits were no different from freshly steamed buns to him, and he finished them in moments.

Then he drained the water in several loud gulps. Whether his energy had recovered or not was another matter, but at least his stomach immediately felt much better.

Erika, however, stared at him in astonishment.

After finishing the biscuits, Zhou Shu’s expression changed slightly. He said to Erika, “I’ve eaten your food, so I’ll return the favor. Have your people prepare for battle. Some big creatures are coming. I’m going to rescue your first team.”

“What… do you mean?” Erika tilted her head in confusion.

“The Ravagers are here.”

Zhou Shu said this and then vanished from before her eyes. Only dust and smoke spiraled in the spot where he had stood, as though he had appeared behind her the instant she finished saying that not even an insect could fly inside.

“Huh?”

While Erika merely stood there in adorable shock, the veteran Wasteland Hunters guarding Zhou Shu were utterly stunned. They immediately called for Captain Jeff.

Jeff shouted even louder. “What happened? You managed to lose track of a full-grown man? Are you all newly recruited greenhorns?”

The veterans opened and closed their mouths, wanting to explain, but ultimately said nothing.

Erika, however, suddenly snapped out of her daze. She hurried over to Jeff and said, “Uncle Jeff, that man—oh, I didn’t even ask his name! He said the Ravagers were coming and told us to prepare for battle.”

She waved her arms anxiously. “He also said he was going to rescue Team One, and then he just—whoosh—disappeared!”

“What?!”

Meanwhile, Zhou Shu had not come merely to repay the favor of a meal. He had been inspired by the sight of prey. He had entered this virtual battlefield to train and grow stronger, and when he had watched the animated series, the Ravagers had seemed incredibly powerful.

Now that they had arrived, he had no intention of letting them leave. He would use them for practice first and see whether he could break through.

Besides, he had spent seven days accompanied by sandstorms, with little time to see the sky and not once catching sight of the stars. Now that he had finally encountered living people—and people who spoke his native language—he did not want a pile of corpses left behind a moment later.

This was also his first time entering a virtual battlefield modeled after a domestic television series. He felt he could not behave as recklessly as he had in the previous two battlefields. If he could help even a little, he did not want to stand by and watch these people who spoke with such a familiar accent die.

So, for both public and private reasons, he was determined to kill every Ravager.

His detection range had now reached more than ninety meters. After moving beside the enormous spacecraft wreckage, he scanned the area and quickly located Team One, where Mark and the others were stationed, along a straight line.

A straight line across open ground was easy enough. But a straight line through a spacecraft was another matter entirely, with layer upon layer of metal bulkheads between them.

Those metal bulkheads were insurmountable obstacles to ordinary people. But to him…

He clenched his fist and drove it straight into the metal wall.

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“Boom!”

“Craack!”

Zhou Shu quickly disappeared into the spacecraft.

Inside, a large, centipede-like Spine Parasite appeared and caused a commotion. The creature was clinging to someone’s body, while a blonde woman stood nearby with her gun raised, afraid to fire.

A grim-faced, bearded man arrived moments later. Just as he was about to shoot regardless of the consequences, they heard a series of enormous impacts.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was not only the humans who froze. Even the Spine Parasite stopped crawling and stiffened on the man’s body.

Huge noises were often accompanied by huge monsters. Compared with a massive beast, this several-dozen-centimeter-long centipede-like Spine Parasite was no longer much of a threat.

“Quick, get out of here!” the blonde woman shouted.

The others came to their senses and immediately ran outside. The man with the Spine Parasite on him was no exception. Now that the creature had gone rigid, he simply brushed it off.

As soon as they emerged, they heard the rapid chatter of gunfire. Mark and the others had engaged a swarm of Spine Parasites ahead.

When Mark saw them running over, he shouted to the grim-faced, bearded man in front, “Donnie, don’t come this way! Run over there!”

“We can’t, Captain!” Donnie shouted back. “Something even bigger is coming from that direction!”

“What?!”

Now they were caught between pursuit and interception.

But Mark was the commander of the Wasteland Hunters, and he immediately made his decision.

“Go back! We can’t break through the Spine Parasite swarm ahead. I’ll hold off the larger one for a while. You leave from that direction!”

“But, Captain…”

“Move! That’s an order! Dustborn, abandon the supplies. The supplies outside are enough to meet the minimum requirement!”

“Yes, sir!”

With the order given, the Wasteland Hunters immediately led the Dustborn, who had thrown down their supplies, into retreat. Commander Mark and several elite Wasteland Hunters ran behind them.

A short distance back, the ground was thick with Spine Parasites. The swarm had already entered a berserk state, constantly releasing a red substance from their bodies.

After running only a few steps, they noticed the tactical lights mounted on their firearms beginning to flicker. Starting from the rear of the formation, the lights went out one by one.

“What’s happening?”

“The lights are out!”

“It’s a Ravager!”

Someone shouted. Another person looked back while running, and sure enough, a huge monster had appeared amid the dense swarm of Spine Parasites.

The creature moved with astonishing agility. It had six legs, and numerous tendrils grew beside its head, glowing with blue light. Their radiance mingled with the red substance emitted by the Spine Parasites.

“Roar!”

They were finished. There was one monster waiting ahead, and now another had appeared behind them.

But they had no choice. They could only choose one direction and keep sprinting forward. If they stopped and were trapped between the two creatures, they would truly have nowhere to run.

When they neared the warehouse entrance, everyone was prepared for a monster to burst out and devour them. Their only hope was that someone might be lucky enough to make it through.

Yet no monster charged out of the warehouse. Instead, a Dustborn whose identification tag had fallen off came running out. When he saw the main group, his face lit up with delight.

He even ran toward them.

You idiot! Run the other way! Why are you coming here?

Someone in the group screamed silently.

Before they could finish their frantic thoughts, they realized that the Dustborn had passed them without stopping.

“Now that I’m looking at you up close, you really are an unusual little thing!”

“Let me see what you’re made of!”

The running Zhou Shu clenched his fist and punched the monster directly in the forehead.

“Boom!”

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