Embers Ad Infinitum
chapter-420

Chapter 420: Criterion

Looking at the artificial lake in front of her, Jiang Baimian stopped and said to Wang Fugui and the others, “Since we’re going to move together, there are some ground rules that we have to discuss in advance.”

“What are they?” Wang Fugui asked warily.

Gray, Waite, and Fars had similar reactions.

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly and said, “There has to be a guiding principle for the operation. There has to be a goal and a plan—we have to make sure that we know what we are doing. We can’t swarm forward in a mess. That will only drag each other down. Our team has a constant principle in such explorations. In layman’s terms, ‘Do not lavishly hope of getting fat in one sitting.’”

“W-what about getting fat?” Gray—who was wrapped in a leather coat and trembling slightly—clearly didn’t understand the Ashlandic maxim even though Jiang Baimian had already translated it into the Red River language relatively accurately.

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment. “In other words: First City wasn’t built in a day.”

Upon seeing the three Ruin Hunters—apart from Wang Fugui—reveal enlightened expressions, Jiang Baimian continued, “We can’t lavishly hope to get to the bottom of this city ruin’s secrets with just one exploration and that we can earn riches that can last us several lifetimes—it’s completely unrealistic.

“We’ll split the exploration into a few rounds. Every time we harvest a little, we will gain a deeper understanding of this place. We will advance step by step until we achieve our main goal—that might be more feasible. During this process, we will let the situation determine if we should give up on the subsequent explorations at all times.”

Although the Old Task Force’s suggestion was a form of torture for impatient people, Wang Fugui and the others understood that this was the safest and most reliable plan after some thought.

Taking a year to explore such a large city ruin wouldn’t even appear extravagant, much less having it done over several times.

It had to be known that this place was filled with danger. Blindly taking action required one to pay with their lives. Even First City’s army didn’t dare to venture deep.

Among them, only Waite muttered, “I just want to get some valuable supplies.”

For a city ruin that had yet to be ‘developed,’ this was a small goal. It was a mission that could be easily completed in a single exploration.

Jiang Baimian looked around and described the plan that the Old Task Force had previously discussed. “I suggest that this exploration is limited to a range of two kilometers from the exit. It’s mainly to gather supplies and search for clues.”

Why two kilometers? Long Yuehong muttered inwardly. He knew the answer, but he felt that the group of lone Hunters would probably ask the same question. After all, he had raised such a question during the team discussion and was then mocked by Shang Jianyao.

Wang Fugui and the others exchanged looks and nodded. “A safe plan.”

When going on foot without vehicles, running two kilometers was close to the limits of their stamina. After all, they had never undergone genetic enhancement or enhanced the corresponding qualities.

They wouldn’t run a five-kilometer cross-country for no reason. Furthermore, there was a huge difference between a mad dash and a cross-country race.

With Chosen One physiques, it was no problem for Shang Jianyao and the others to go further. However, they had to consider Bai Chen.

Upon seeing that the lone Hunters didn’t ask why, Long Yuehong felt a little depressed.

Jiang Baimian didn’t harp on the topic and smiled. “Let’s begin then.”

With that said, she held the Short Neck submachine gun and led the way to the man-made lake with flattened weeds.

They first explored the park. Apart from finding something suspected to be the white wolf’s feces, they didn’t discover anything else.

During the process, they were abnormally careful. They were afraid that the Dao and Electrical Appliance Repairs radio station’s owner—Wu Meng—would exert a negative influence on them in other ways. Fortunately, no anomalies happened.

After leaving the park, the two teams flanked the sides of the street and entered the city.

Just as they turned into this area, piles of bones suddenly appeared in Long Yuehong’s vision.

Unlike Swamp Ruin 1, the streets here were clearly not regularly cleaned by the Heartless. On both sides of the street was rotten and black silt. On the road were parked cars in haphazard positions. Some of them had crashed into each other, maintaining that state for countless years as if they had frozen the moment the Old World was destroyed.

Amidst such objects were countless human bones. They could be seen everywhere—either covered by a few rags or completely ‘naked.’

This was Long Yuehong’s first time seeing so many corpses; he felt like he had entered a mass grave. At this moment, he actually felt a little cold under the summer sun.

Wang Fugui and the others were clearly shocked by this scene as well. They didn’t take a step for a long time.

Shang Jianyao sighed. “The work needed to bury them is too much. It’s almost impossible to do so.”

Jiang Baimian then said, “There should be similar situations in many undiscovered city ruins.”

From the fact that there were no traces of explosions, the corpses were either killed in a gunfight or killed by the Heartless. They had become their food, leaving behind bones only.

“The Heartless didn’t even drag these corpses to their lairs and store them. They left them on the street and ate them on the spot every day? They like outdoor parties?” Shang Jianyao expressed his confusion.

His focus was always wrong.

“When humans first contracted the Heartless disease, they had yet to adapt to their bestial instincts. Thus, they would always do such contradictory actions,” Jiang Baimian replied using her research results. “This area should be the core area of the Heartless disease outbreak. There were too many of them, so they quickly finished eating the remaining humans. It might not be the case in the other streets.”

Upon hearing October Xue and Zhang Qubing discuss this matter, Wang Fugui and the others inexplicably found it ridiculous. What does the past Heartless have to do with the present us?

Jiang Baimian instructed Bai Chen and Long Yuehong, “Form a team of two. Search this place a little and see if there are any clues.”

This time, she led Long Yuehong, while Shang Jianyao was teamed up with Bai Chen. She hoped that neither team had any weaknesses.

Upon seeing this, Waite and the others also began searching for valuable supplies in this area.

As they couldn’t drive in and out and had to conserve sufficient stamina, they didn’t choose any large items. They only chose items that were convenient to carry and relatively valuable. For example, the golden accessories on the corpses.

After an hour of simple searching, the Old Task Force didn’t discover any useful clues. They could only roughly replicate the scene back then. More than two-thirds of the people on the street had suddenly gone crazy and attacked normal humans, biting and gnawing at them.

During the search, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen didn’t forget to pick up gold jewelry, technical books, and other items. They had never forgotten that they were still shouldering a huge debt.

After leaving the street, the area before Jiang Baimian’s eyes opened up.

In front of them was a city square. On the other side of the square was a black building dozens of stories tall.

The building’s walls were already shattered, and many places were covered in green vegetation.

As Jiang Baimian had expected, there were relatively few corpses here compared to the previous area.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao pointed at the ground in front of the black building and said, “Their style seems different.”

Bai Chen, Wang Fugui, and the others traced his finger and looked over, only to realize that there were four to five corpses there.

Unlike the others, they were highly decomposed but had yet to turn to bone.

“They died recently?” Jiang Baimian deliberated and said. Her choice of word—’recently’—was relative to the skeletons.

“Let’s go take a look.” This time, Wang Fugui took the initiative to suggest.

As this place was spacious and had a clear view of the surroundings, it didn’t appear dangerous. Gray, Waite, and Fars agreed with him.

The Old Task Force was more focused on such matters and similarly wouldn’t miss the opportunity either.

Just as they approached the four to five corpses, Wang Fugui’s eyelids suddenly twitched. He pointed at one of the corpses and said, “The shirt he’s wearing is the cheap shirt produced in First City’s factory district.”

It wasn’t considered old, and its style also had characteristics of the current era. It had more hidden pockets that made it easier to store things.

Long Yuehong looked over and saw the corpse clearly.

He almost fainted at the sight. Only then did he realize that the highly decomposed and tragic corpse was countless times more disgusting than the white skeletons.

An indescribable stench drilled into his olfactory senses, almost making him vomit on the spot.

Jiang Baimian raised her hand to her nose, took a few steps forward, squatted down, and examined it carefully. “The shirt has no signs of mending. It was probably bought in the past year or two.”

As for the shirt being torn, it should’ve been caused during his death.

She then made a judgment and said in a deep voice, “Are these the missing Ruin Hunters who were brought deep into the cave by the white wolf?”

“Probably.” Bai Chen held her breath and expressed her agreement.

Wang Fugui and the others were stunned. “Weren’t the missing Ruin Hunters either eaten or rescued?”

The rest had been killed by the Old Task Force. Of course, they couldn’t say that out loud.

Long Yuehong took the opportunity to retract his gaze and explained to the lone Hunters that there was something wrong with the numbers. He then revealed the information that a large number of missing people had been brought into the cave by the white wolf.

Waite hissed. “They entered, came all the way here, and died without being eaten?”

This sounded a little strange.

“What’s the cause of death?” Wang Fugui asked anxiously.

Shang Jianyao stroked his chin and looked up at the black building to his side. He then spoke before Jiang Baimian could. “Judging from the damage on the corpses, they should’ve jumped down from somewhere in the building and died.”

Suicide by jumping off a building? Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and the others were alarmed. The batch of Ruin Hunters was brought deep into the cave by the white wolf and entered Wasteland Ruin 13. In the end, a group of them jumped off the building and committed suicide?

“That’s my judgment as well.” Jiang Baimian echoed Shang Jianyao’s words, unable to hide the confusion on her face. What did this handful of Ruin Hunters encounter, and what did the white wolf want?

Jiang Baimian paused and said, “We can’t rule out the possibility that they were pushed down by someone. We have to inspect further and survey the scene of the jump.”

This might be more terrifying… Who pushed them? Why were they pushed? Long Yuehong subconsciously wanted to take a deep breath, but he shut his mouth because of the smell.

“Wanna go in?” Shang Jianyao pointed at the towering black building.

Jiang Baimian fell silent for a few seconds before saying, “Not this time. Remember our preset criterion. Yes, just search the surroundings.”

The criterion was: don’t rashly enter and lay the foundation for a second exploration.