Chapter 396: Forest of the Dead

“The number of destroyed transmitters has reached forty-two sets. Soon, it’ll be half, maybe even more.”

As the truck continued forward, Researcher Wang Song’s voice buzzed with an excitement he couldn’t quite suppress.

Lu Xin nodded. Through the glasses he wore, he could also see the red dots disappearing one by one on the map display.

It seemed everyone was doing their utmost to destroy these transmitters.

However, he still felt like persuading Researcher Wang Song. Even though things were progressing smoothly, there was no need to get *this* excited.

After all, whenever he got excited, blood sprayed from his neck like a garden sprinkler.

The right side of Lu Xin’s own clothes was already stained red.

…

While flooring the gas pedal, treating the truck like a speeding motorcycle, he was also observing distractedly.

Judging by the number of destroyed transmitters, the situation was naturally looking good.

But Lu Xin had already discerned some terrifying problems from subtle details.

The speed at which the red dots were disappearing was slowing down.

If you traced the path of the disappearing red dots, several distinct trajectories emerged. This was because different teams were destroying transmitters based on their distance from their own positions, spreading out like a net. But gradually, those lines simply vanished, disappearing so quietly you’d miss it if you weren’t paying close attention. They hadn’t extended in a long while.

Lu Xin understood why this was happening.

The disappearance of the trajectories naturally meant the people creating them had disappeared.

Just moments ago, everyone was destroying these transmitters simultaneously across various locations, so the speed was naturally fast.

But now, within the last ten minutes, out of the three transmitters destroyed, two were taken out by himself.

This undoubtedly meant the hidden opponent had begun to act.

Besides this death field covering the wasteland, there were definitely other enemies lurking in the darkness.

Ever since discovering that his colleagues’ deaths were due to them killing each other, Lu Xin knew enemies were hiding in the shadows. Although uncertain of their form, this enemy was likely extremely powerful and bizarre.

After all, it could cause a team of over a dozen elite armed soldiers to die bafflingly without even showing its face.

The strange part was the vast distances separating the colleagues who met mishaps.

Some were dozens of miles apart, yet the estimated times of their incidents were extremely close, sometimes only a minute or two apart.

What kind of power could make them disappear so quickly?

Lu Xin’s expression was calm and profound.

Because there were no corresponding signal base stations in this wasteland, and their distances had already increased, they couldn’t communicate effectively while driving at high speed. He couldn’t know what dangers those colleagues faced. Perhaps those colleagues didn’t care either. Everyone’s goal was the same now: destroy this field and keep moving until they could no longer continue.

“Huu…”

Lu Xin took a deep breath, speeding up the truck while steeling his nerves.

He was anxious to destroy over half the transmitters quickly, but he also knew that the closer he got to the goal, the more likely the opponent was to appear.

Regarding this opponent hidden in the darkness…

Lu Xin was looking forward to it.

…

“Screech…”

Under Lu Xin’s repeated operations pushing beyond limits, borrowing his sister’s power, the truck’s engine emitted sounds of being overwhelmed. Perhaps such a large vehicle had truly never experienced being driven like a motorcycle.

As Lu Xin violently turned the steering wheel, the rear tires slid forward against the ground, carving a trench in the muddy earth.

The few soldiers sitting in the back held onto the truck bed tightly with both hands, their bodies bolt upright.

If not for the fact that they no longer had the ability to vomit, who knows if they would have thrown up by now.

“Straight ahead, nine o’clock position, about a hundred meters…”

Researcher Wang Song shouted loudly as Lu Xin pushed open the driver’s cab door and dashed out.

Having borrowed his sister’s ability, his speed now was like that of a ghost.

He instantly plunged into the waist-deep weeds beside the road, vanishing like a fish diving into the deep sea.

After five or six seconds of silence, several gunshots echoed from the distance.

Seven or eight seconds later, Lu Xin bizarrely emerged from the darkness nearby and sat back in the driver’s seat.

“Vroom…”

The engine, which had just quieted down slightly, immediately roared back to life.

Amidst the roar, there even seemed to be a hint of aggrieved protest from being pushed so hard.

“Forty-three… Forty-four!”

Researcher Wang Song shouted lowly, clenching his fist tightly.

Lu Xin was also pleasantly surprised, “Two?”

“Yes!”

Researcher Wang Song said, “Just now, another set was destroyed elsewhere. Only four more to go.”

“Huu…”

Lu Xin nodded, “Good, very close…”

Saying this, he executed a difficult turn on an extremely narrow path, forcibly redirecting the truck’s front, preparing to rush towards the next location—a transmitter position about twelve hundred meters to the northwest, aiming to turn the number forty-four into forty-five.

But this time, after charging forward only about three hundred meters, Lu Xin suddenly looked up, frowning.

The headlights pierced the rain curtain, sweeping ahead. A dilapidated asphalt road stretched forward, flanked by dark masses of weeds standing silently in the rain. Only when the edge of the headlight beams swept over them did their withered yellow color reveal itself.

These weeds were mostly waist-deep, sparse, submerging everything except the asphalt road.

But where their headlights reached furthest, at the very limit of the light, they suddenly discovered rows of menacing bushes. These bushes stood taller than the surrounding weeds, stretching horizontally across the end of the light’s reach, obscuring the asphalt road. It created the impression that the bushes were so overgrown they had swallowed even this long-neglected road.

Lu Xin glanced at his glasses. The lens display showed this road went straight ahead; there shouldn’t be bushes blocking it.

He frowned slightly. Could the asphalt road pass through the middle of the bushes?

He slowed the truck slightly, driving towards the bushes ahead. The headlights were like two sharp swords tearing through the hazy rain curtain, pushing back the boundless darkness all around, bit by bit, bringing the scene ahead closer into view.

Then, Lu Xin’s expression suddenly changed slightly, and he slammed on the brakes.

The tires skidded on the ground, sliding forward two or three meters before shuddering front and back and stopping abruptly.

Both Researcher Wang Song in the passenger seat and Captain Li Jian and the soldiers in the back nearly fell.

Startled, they quickly looked up.

Then, they all suddenly froze for a moment, and astonished expressions appeared on their ashen faces.

By now, they were close to the bushes and could see the dark mass clearly.

In the headlight beams, raindrops slashed down, falling onto the heads of the silent “bushes.”

But they weren’t bushes. They were one after another, emaciated, twisted, and grotesque “people.”

Dark-skinned, with heads, human shapes, and features, yet they stood there woodenly.

Tattered clothes still hung on some bodies. Some held a hand high, others had one foot lifted mid-air. Heads were tilted slightly or stared blankly at the night sky. Occasionally, their sunken, dried-out eye sockets would reflect an eerie glint from the headlights.

Just like that, motionless in the light rain, like bushes.

…

“Are they… dead or alive?”

Researcher Wang Song sat up, pressing hard against the windshield to look out.

Perhaps because he was already dead, his vision was somewhat affected. However, at such close range, he could still clearly see what was blocking the way ahead. His body seemed to tremble from fright as he stammered, “Why… so many?”

Lu Xin also fell silent, taking a deep breath.

Indeed, there were too many.

The frightening part wasn’t the desiccated corpses blocking the road ahead like bushes, but their sheer number.

From a distance earlier, it vaguely looked like a grove of bushes. But now they realized that all of it, every single one, was a person—emaciated like dried corpses. Their numbers seemed endless, completely filling the wasteland ahead.

This was a forest of the dead.

The surrounding light rain suddenly felt colder, the wind chilling to the bone.

“I think… we thought wrong about something…”

Researcher Wang Song was the first to react, his voice trembling slightly as he whispered, “We thought the opponent was a ghost wandering the wasteland, but actually… they… they directly planted a forest of the dead here waiting for us…”

“It’s too terrifying. How could they… how could they dare do this?”

“So many people, probably no less than a thousand…”

…

A chill had crept into Researcher Wang Song’s voice.

Lu Xin could feel his mood at this moment.

Hundreds, a thousand people, might not sound like much.

But seeing it for real—that dense, dark mass, countless faces, innumerable heads—was enough to create a powerful sense of suppression. Especially when there were only four or five people on their side, the disparity was terrifyingly large.

The sheer pressure exuded by their numbers alone could completely drown a person like a black tide.

So many dead people.

How did the opponent manage this?

Lu Xin suddenly remembered something—information he bought at the Club when returning to Qinggang from Central City.

It cost a full two million.

The Calamity Archbishop of the Technology Church appeared in Water Bay City. Three hours later, Water Bay City became an empty city.

The information was simple, so much so that both he and Chen Jing felt they had wasted their money.

But connecting it with the forest he was seeing now, Lu Xin couldn’t help but feel a slight stir in his heart.

Could it be…

The Technology Church really did come to Qinggang?

These people, these dead people, or rather, this forest of the dead—was it their handiwork?

…

“We must… we absolutely must destroy this pollution field…”

Researcher Wang Song suddenly grabbed Lu Xin’s arm forcefully.

In his eyes, already dim and lusterless, genuine panic and anxiety appeared:

“Mr. Lone Soldier, no matter who the opponent is, this kind of bottomless behavior is too terrifying. So please, promise me, you must destroy this pollution field! And find the core of their field, figure out what exactly they intend to do…”

“I will.”

Lu Xin took a deep breath and started the truck again.

Their path was blocked by these “people,” completely blocked.

To dismantle the remaining transmitters, they had no choice but to pass through these people.

Lu Xin glanced at the oppressive forest of the dead pressing towards them. He didn’t feel scared.

He just hesitated slightly, looking at his companions beside him. “Our time is extremely tight now, so our only option is to cut through this place full of dead people. It might be very dangerous… and I have to admit, I’m not exactly skilled at protecting others…”

Researcher Wang Song and the soldiers were taken aback upon hearing this.

Then, Researcher Wang Song and the captain with the missing piece of his head both suddenly smiled.

“Mr. Lone Soldier, do you know the advantage of teaming up with the dead?”

They also looked up at the oppressive forest of the dead surrounding them and said softly, “Dead men aren’t afraid of danger.”

“So, we don’t need protection.”