CHAPTER 24

The next place to go was the Daomiao A4C2 Outpost, which was still operational, much to Xiang Chenxi's surprise.

The previous supply officer returned after completing the supply mission and learned that she would be the one delivering the next supply to this area. Besides explaining the details of the supply work, she specifically mentioned this outpost with a respectful expression, saying, "There's only one person left at the outpost, still standing guard."

Among the supply officer, they privately referred to the outpost personnel as "sentinels." The outposts were scattered across the land, extending the reach of human strongholds, gathering valuable intelligence, and providing support to the patrol teams that went out, rescuing survivors who may not have made it back to the human strongholds in time. It seemed like the existence of the outposts was meant to tell humanity that one day, cities would be rebuilt, human boundaries would connect these points in a line, and prosperity before the war would be restored.

But the number of outposts was decreasing, especially ones like this, which were initiated from already compromised strongholds. It meant long working hours, and most personnel of the same rank in such outposts had sacrificed themselves or returned to the human strongholds. Although there were strict identity checks, the outpost personnel would still be given some leeway.

It was getting dark, and Xiang Chenxi stepped on the accelerator to speed up. She had to reach the outpost before nightfall.

After all, every member of the patrol teams knew that they must not stay alone in the darkness. Even during small team operations, they should bring sufficient lighting and night vision equipment, and it was best not to spend the night in the wilderness.

As she walked, acid rain suddenly started pouring down, bringing fog, and the visibility gradually became misty.

She pressed her wristwatch, and the screen displayed a mental value of 97, within the normal threshold.

Her mental value was higher than that of an average person and relatively stable. She was assigned this supply mission because of her excellent performance in the previous missions. The opportunity for a supply mission was given to her from above. Although the time span was long, successfully completing it would accumulate a significant achievement.

The pollution concentration in the surrounding area was 10%, slightly higher than during the day, which was considered normal.

Xiang Chenxi turned on the car headlights, illuminating a fan-shaped area. She pulled out a backpack from the front of the car, held the steering handle with her left hand, and took out an earpiece from the bag with her right hand. It was like unbuttoning a button, and she hung it on her ear. The earpiece blinked twice, and a gentle mechanical voice came from inside: "The mainframe connection has been established. Hello, Lieutenant. Continuous mental value reminders are in progress. Please select the reminder frequency. Okay, it has been set to remind when below 80. Good luck with the mission."

She put the backpack back in its place. Just as she raised her head, something suddenly flashed in front of her eyes. Bang—it seemed like the car had hit someone.

She paused for a moment, then continued to press the accelerator, swiftly passing by the person.

Soon after, the gate of the outpost was right in front of her. She honked the horn. The night and fog had become much denser.

She slowed down, lifted her head, and looked at the main building of the outpost. Upon closer inspection, it looked like an ordinary four-story building, as if someone lived there. The first, third, and fourth floors were sealed tightly, while light could be seen from the second floor. The rooftop reflected the light from the rainwater collector and signal receiving devices—nothing out of the ordinary.

The barbed wire slowly opened, and she drove in, completely ignoring the person she had just hit and killed.

Even if it was just a glimpse, she could tell that the thing had a human-like shape but no face. She didn't run over anything, so she pressed her wristwatch again. Her mental value was 97, without any fluctuations.

Xiang Chenxi was known to be overly cautious. She would often press her wristwatch from time to time, as if she had developed a compulsive disorder that had turned into a typical post-war pollution-related illness. After multiple checks, her mental value remained consistently high and stable. She knew that pressing her wristwatch was not because she was overly worried about pollution, but rather to check if her mental state was intact.

Pressing her wristwatch was just a confirmation. She didn't have anything else, but she had confidence. After going through a hurdle, she reflected on the feeling she had just experienced and felt that it wasn't a big deal. So she pressed her wristwatch to check, and indeed, there was no change. This made her even more confident.

Later, everyone came to know that checking the values on her wristwatch was her way of being low-key and showing off. She would constantly display a number for everyone to see, as if saying, "Look, I'm strong."

The more someone was like this, the more they would be valued by their superiors. In the gloomy and resentful post-war era, having someone like Xiang Chenxi was like having a compass. People couldn't help but be influenced by her, and her mental value was not easy to lower.

Her abilities in team operations were beyond doubt, but because she was too young, her last promotion was half a year ago. This time, there had to be a reason for another promotion. Her superior looked at her file and pointed at her photo, saying, "Aren't there some special polluted areas that can only be breached one-on-one now? This girl can't be separated from her teammates. It's not good. Let's wait until she has the ability to operate independently."

She stood on the side and listened to the briefing, looking at her file and secretly feeling annoyed by her unattractive long hairstyle.

So her superior arranged for her to become a supply officer. The danger coefficient was low, but the rating was high. The main reason was that long periods of solo action consumed too much endurance. Many people encountered anomalies on the road and, out of loneliness, insisted on engaging them.

In other words, as a supply officer, as long as her emotions remained stable, she would already be considered successful. As for the intermediate outposts? The outposts were highly cherished now. How many outposts could she go through? It was just a formality.

Xiang Chenxi knew that this trip was an opportunity for her to enhance her reputation, but she didn't take it lightly.

The previous outpost was near the Changhe base. The two people at the outpost did their best to offer her gifts and asked if they could enter the base through her introduction letter. She refused. She didn't know them, so why should she vouch for them with her reputation? But she did point out a route for them to sneak in. They were extremely grateful, but she disdainfully disregarded their gratitude.

Wearing a mask, she grabbed her backpack and got out of the car. A person came out of the outpost, wearing the oldest type of protective suit that she couldn't even name, like someone spraying toxic gas. They walked towards her gracefully.

As she opened the trunk to retrieve something, she introduced herself, "I'm the supply officer. It's getting dark, and I need to stay here overnight. Is there an available room?"

"Yes," came a woman's voice. Xiang Chenxi already knew this information, but she couldn't recall her name, so she asked again, "What's your name?"

"He Ran."

"Hello, nice to meet you." After the greeting, Xiang Chenxi took out a heavy black box and carried it, while He Ran led the way.

She glanced around as she entered the outpost. Immediately to the left was a wall filled with old protective suits. Underneath the suits was a notice board, and in front of it was a staircase. On both sides of the staircase were changing rooms, with a washroom, kitchen, and a storage room located to the right of the changing rooms.

He Ran sat on a row of benches by the door, taking off her boots. Xiang Chenxi felt a mixture of sympathy and respect and gently reminded her, "There's an injection now that allows you to stay safe in the wilderness without wearing protective suits for four hours. I brought some extra when I came out. I'll leave you with two later."

The bulky figure in the protective suit wriggled for a moment, then let out a muffled response, "Oh, okay."

With a click, the boots were finally removed. He Ran took off the other one and pulled up the protective suit from the top.

As He Ran lifted it up, blocking her view for a moment, Xiang Chenxi lifted the pants leg of the protective suit on the wall, looked at the notice board, furrowed her brows, and gently put the pants leg back down.

He Ran finally took off her protective suit, unaware of Xiang Chenxi's actions.

Handing over the heavy black box, Xiang Chenxi followed He Ran upstairs and was asked to sit on a bench and wait for a moment.

Xiang Chenxi had a preliminary understanding of He Ran. She was around thirty years old, with shoulder-length black hair, single eyelids, and a height between 174 and 177 centimeters. There was a hint of cheap coffee smell from her clothes. Even indoors, outside of work, she wore a researcher's white coat, with a linen-colored shirt underneath and loose polyester trousers below. She wore ordinary white cotton socks and indoor soft-soled shoes. She looked exhausted, her lips were pale, and her voice was calm. She had a gun at her waist and calloused palms, but her movements were slow, and her alertness was poor.

He Ran quickly came back downstairs, holding the black box with both hands, and there was a thick work log on top of the box.

Xiang Chenxi signed her name on the cover of the work log and stamped it with the supply officer's seal. She walked alone to the car and carefully stored the black box containing the samples and the work log. Then she took out a form from the car and walked back.

"Supply list, but it's a bit late. Let's do the handover tomorrow morning." She started a new line below the list and wrote: Potential Solution 334, 3ml, quantity: 2. She signed her name below and He Ran agreed, taking the form from her and going upstairs again.

She turned around and glanced at the walls of the first floor, noticing an old-fashioned wall clock. The hands showed it was twelve o'clock.

Time was always an important factor in polluted areas. She pressed her wristwatch, and her mental value was 96. It was 8 PM.

However, upon closer inspection, she noticed that the clock's hands were not moving, and there was no sound of machinery. It seemed to be broken.

She couldn't fully confirm that the outpost was abnormal, but she wouldn't let her guard down because of it. There wasn't enough evidence yet to prove that this was a polluted area, and even if it was polluted, judging by what she had seen from He Ran just now, the danger factor was much lower than the outside mist.

She had experienced missions of staying overnight in polluted areas before.

When He Ran came back downstairs, she was holding a towel and suggested that Xiang Chenxi could dry her hair with it. The towel was warm and dry, which left a better impression of He Ran on Xiang Chenxi. She took the initiative and said, "Do you want to go back to the base?"

"Hmm?"

"Isn't it lonely staying in the outpost all the time?"

"Yeah, a bit," He Ran didn't seem talkative, smiled slightly, shook her head, and took the towel from Xiang Chenxi after she finished drying her hair. She whispered, "Our staff dormitory is on the third floor, and I'm there too. There are several vacant rooms... I can't handle everything alone, and there might be some residual pollution in the rooms. I don't know if you..."

"It's alright. Did you feel anything when you opened the door?"

"Not really."

"Then it's fine. The pollution level isn't too high, and I can handle it."

"Okay."

"What do you mean by 'residual pollution?'"

"Everyone else are all dead, so I haven't opened those rooms again."

Indeed, there could be a situation where people die without suffering too much, but they are indeed in contact with pollution, resulting in some minor, harmless pollution in a small area. For example, harmless hallucinations or midnight mutterings. If you have prolonged contact, you might go crazy. However, the concentration and the duration of one night wouldn't have much impact on her.

Moreover, when she saw He Ran being honest about pollution, she felt relieved. She basically ruled out the possibility of He Ran being a pollutant, as pollution silently assimilates people into its system. Once the "pollution" is exposed, it becomes difficult for the other person to be assimilated.

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