Too Many Reincarnators? I Bring the National Team to the Field - Chapter 183

Chapter 183

What was a normal Level 3 Shelter supposed to look like?

Even if it was small, even if it had suffered heavy losses, at the very least, it should still resemble a Shelter.

And what did a Shelter that had gone through a crisis look like?

Half-collapsed, with its people in a panic.

They had traveled all the way from Jing City and seen many Shelters along the way, in all kinds of conditions.

But they had never seen anything like F19.

Li Xin’s eyes widened in disbelief. “This is a Shelter? Why does it look like some ancient ruin that’s been decaying for years?”

The Shelter before them had not merely collapsed in its entirety.

Everything underground was coated in dust, charred black and ancient-looking. Iron frames were rusted through, and even the reinforced concrete was crumbling and broken. Only the faintest traces of what it had once been remained.

Was this really a Shelter?

For an instant, everyone questioned it in their hearts.

Hao Jingye and Gu Qiansheng dug a sign out of the ground. Written across it in large characters were the words-F19 Shelter.

“It really is.” Zhang Kun sucked in a breath and stepped forward in shock. The sign was just as battered and rusted, even riddled with holes from some unknown source. It was speckled all over, and the writing had grown blurred.

Sheng An frowned slightly.

As if she had noticed something, she quickly jumped down into the Shelter and reached for a collapsed slab of concrete, intending to lift it.

Qi Lingwu followed and helped her pry it open.

Beneath it lay a skeleton.

Both of them frowned at the same time.

Hao Jingye and the others came over as well, drawing in sharp breaths.

Long Tianyu frowned. “How could it have decayed this badly? It’s already been reduced to bones…”

Hao Jingye offered a guess. “Could it be related to the Miasma in the Southwest?”

Otherwise, how could it have rotted so quickly?

Not only had the Shelter become like this, even the bodies had turned into skeletons, left forever beneath the Shelter.

Sheng An and Qi Lingwu searched around some more.

There was not a single living person in all of F19. Only traces of decay remained, along with one skeleton after another.

Song Linwei flipped through the records, then looked up. “Sister Sheng, the F19 Shelter should have had around five thousand people, but there aren’t many skeletons here. They may have already relocated and left.”

“No normal person could live in a place like this. Relocation would be only natural.”

Li Wanyun rubbed her arms. The Miasma on the ground was not as concentrated as it was in the air above, but staying here still felt extremely uncomfortable. Once the Miasma clung to the body, it caused a faint stinging pain that was terribly unpleasant.

Liu Yue sighed. “We just don’t know what the rest of the Southwest is like.”

Sheng An glanced at her own hands. After moving things around, they were covered in dirt. Even the surface of the concrete slab had accumulated a thick layer of dust, decayed beyond recognition.

She and Qi Lingwu exchanged a look. Both of them were somewhat puzzled.

They found nothing else at F19, so the group could only return to the Convoy.

The journey in had been difficult, but retracing their route was much easier. In less than half an hour, they had returned to the Convoy.

Academician Zhou and the others were wearing protective suits, busy working beside the Convoy.

When he saw them return, Dr. Yan quickly asked, “How was it? Did you discover anything?”

Sheng An explained the situation, then asked, “What about you?”

Dr. Yan’s brows were tightly knitted. He shook his head. “We haven’t found much. The Wasteland Cultivation Research Institute believes this land is in extremely bad condition, dozens of times worse than B11 was before.”

Sheng An looked over.

The Planting Research Institute was conducting an experiment. One of the Plant Ability Users buried a plant from Jiang Yu’s Space Ability in the soil and was just about to use his Supernatural Ability when the plant withered and died, all vitality gone.

Too fast!

Jiang Yu hurried over and applied her Supernatural Ability to the soil. At the same time, she placed a seed on it and continued increasing the input of her Supernatural Ability. The other Plant Ability Users helped her.

With this kind of procedure, on any patch of Scorched Earth they had encountered before, at least a section of plant would grow.

How much it could grow depended on the condition of the land.

But here…

Jiang Yu lowered her hands, her expression grave. “The seed is dead. There’s no activity at all.”

It was too terrifying!

They had imagined countless possible states the Southwest might be in, but they had never imagined this.

The harmful Miasma had sealed off the entire Southwest. Decay happened at an alarming speed, and the ground was dozens of times worse than outside. This place could practically be described as “hell.”

Everywhere was a scene of devastation, so ruined it hardly seemed like something that could exist in the present.

Sheng An took a deep breath, and the Miasma irritated her windpipe until it throbbed with pain.
She spoke again, her voice hoarse. “Get in. We’re going to the next Shelter. We need to find someone and ask what’s going on as soon as possible.”

And so the group got back into their vehicles and continued onward.

But after searching several more Shelters, they found the same thing every time: bones scattered across the ground, the Shelters rotten and decayed, and not a single living person in sight.

They even went to a Level 2 Shelter.

The scene there made their scalps crawl.

Corpses were everywhere. The rotted bones had been piled on the ground, as if someone had organized them, roughly gathering them together. Yet many more were still scattered all over the place. It was a horrifying sight.

Especially one small skeleton. Its skull was still tilted upward, one arm stretched out, as if crying out its unwillingness to die.

There were also skeletons locked in each other’s arms, sunken into this stretch of Scorched Earth. Some had turned black, while others had already crumbled into ash, leaving no trace behind.

Jiang Yu’s scalp went numb.

She grabbed at her own hair and broke down. “What the hell is going on? How did the Southwest end up like this?”

Li Xin moved closer to Long Tianyu, pressing against him for warmth.

His voice trembled slightly. “Fuck! This is even scarier than an Aberrants’ nest. Are there any living people left in the Southwest at all?”

He had infiltrated an Aberrants’ nest before, and even that hadn’t frightened him this badly.

At this moment, Li Xin only felt a chill crawling up his back, and even his face had gone pale.

The others weren’t doing much better.

Sheng An’s face was grim. “Keep moving forward.”

The Convoy set out again.

Hao Jingye studied the map. With no signal and no landmark buildings, even figuring out the coordinates of their current location was a troublesome task.

Fortunately, he had a sharp mind, and the entire Communications Department was assisting him.

“We’re almost near the core area of the Southwest. A few days before the Apocalypse, the Research Institute locked onto this place and designated it as the future core zone of Southwest Base. It counted as a safe location, and it’s also in the central Southwest.” Hao Jingye looked toward Sheng An.

They had already reached the very center of the Southwest.

Wu Buyu’s scalp prickled. “But we still haven’t found any living people. What exactly happened to the Southwest? I’m starting to wonder if we’re inside an Illusion Realm.”

Sheng An said, “I wish we were.”

But right now, everything felt far too real. They were not in an Illusion Realm.

Wan Yuan’s voice suddenly rang out. “Dr. Yan and the others detected that the Miasma concentration has dropped a little!”

Sheng An immediately looked out the window.

The others also craned their necks to look outside.

It really was clearer out there. Visibility was better than before, and joy instantly rose in everyone’s hearts.

This Miasma had a massive impact on them.

Even though the vehicles were specially made, some Miasma would always seep in. And since they had stepped into the Miasma-filled Southwest Region, there was no point expecting to avoid contact with it entirely.

The Superpower Users fared slightly better. They only felt unwell, and the Aberrants consumed a great deal of energy, but many ordinary people had already fainted.

If they hadn’t brought a medical team and all kinds of Medicines with them, the Convoy would likely have suffered heavy casualties.

Even now, despite their thorough preparations, more than a dozen people in the Convoy had died. Some were special police officers, and some were researchers in poor health.

How could they not be happy that the concentration had dropped?

Hao Jingye let out a breath of relief. “The Miasma concentration has dropped in the core zone of the Southwest. In that case, the empty Shelters we encountered earlier may not all have been wiped out. The people there might have entered the core zone to take refuge.”

If that was true, then this wasn’t necessarily bad news.

“It’s possible.” Sheng An nodded. “Speed up.”

With a target ahead, the state of the entire team changed at once.

After all, all along the way, they had seen nothing but blackened ruins everywhere. Aside from the Miasma, there had been nothing. Every Shelter had been empty, and all they could see was bones covering the ground.

It felt as if they were walking through a deserted ghost zone, bringing with it endless terror and dread.

The Convoy continued forward.

They drew closer and closer to the core area, but still encountered no one.

Sheng An’s expression grew worse and worse.

If the people of the Southwest had all fled here, then the core area should be full of people. How could they have gotten this close without encountering anyone?

Five hours later, they finally found people-living people.

“Sister Sheng, living people!” Li Xin shouted from the front.

Sheng An leaped down from the vehicle and strode over quickly.