Lacroix and his team members found Chanter Town to be quite a picturesque place.
The houses, two or three stories high, each with its own yard, were scattered in an aesthetically pleasing way. Various kinds of green vegetation surrounded the buildings, and the streets were also very tidy.
Compared to the newly built houses in the outer district of Revival City, these could not be matched. Those houses were much taller, with five to six-story apartment buildings, and hardly any greenery.
Initially, the special operations soldiers were quite tense as they moved through Chanter Town, but they soon discovered that it had been long abandoned.
They also entered several houses to investigate and saw signs of habitation, though it had been some time since.
When people left this place, the evacuation was orderly, not rushed; houses were left empty, with nothing of value taken away.
After a brief search yielded nothing valuable, they continued with their exploration.
Until they found a research facility.
It was not easy to find, with a very concealed underground entrance. A few steps inside, a solid steel door blocked their way.
But it did not block them for long.
Having switched from shotguns to cannons, Lacroix’s tactical backpack held several thermite grenades.
This type of equipment, not yet mass-produced by the Alliance, was relatively inexpensive if only grenades and not advanced thermite weaponry. Mr. Gu had imported a good number from his cousin, and the special forces, of course, were entitled to be equipped with them.
Under the powerful effects of the thermite grenades, no matter how thick the steel door was, it proved futile and was blown open by them.
After entering, they indeed made some valuable discoveries.
There were no great expectations initially, as the place clearly appeared abandoned. It might have once been the headquarters of the Nature Salvation Society, its core area, but why would they leave anything behind after an organized withdrawal?
But they did leave something.
There, they found more recent traces of people having come and gone.
Certainly, they had been moving things out, but many of the facilities and materials inside the research institute were probably too numerous and cumbersome to move out quickly, hence not all had been transported away yet.
According to the traces at the scene, at least until yesterday, there were still people working here.
After a short discussion, they decided to explore first to see if there were any high-value items. Intelligence, equipment, samples, research data… anything would do.
If there was anything valuable and easy to carry, they would move it out and then call down the Wind Falcon, loading the items to transport back to the Alliance.
Then they planned to lie low here for a while.
Since enemies seemed to be continually moving items out, they could wait and see if they might catch those moving the goods or find their new hideouts.
The operation started off smoothly.
They found quite a lot of good stuff, including some documents and even what appeared to be encrypted data storage devices.
They transported the items to the entrance to temporarily pile them up and then re-entered the research facility for another search.
Then, while Lacroix was searching a room, he heard from a comrade that something… indescribable had been found deep in the research institute.
When Lacroix went to inspect, it appeared to be a low-temperature specimen layer. There were six large glass cultivation tanks, three meters tall, standing there.
In each of these cultivation tanks, there was a terrifying monster.
They looked like upright lizardmen, with four arms and a long tail.
The most prominent feature on their bodies, like most Aberrant Beasts, was the boils and deformed flesh.
Bubbling pustules of various sizes grew on their skin, often bursting; their bodies always had unnatural bulges or indentations, indicating some abnormality.
“We’ve never seen anything like this in the previous data. Is this so-called Nature Salvation Society cultivating a new type of Aberrant Beast?”
“That must be it. These twisted Cult followers are despicable; Rage Owl Star would be infinitely better off without them!” the soldiers communicated among themselves.
Upon seeing Lacroix approach, someone turned their head and asked him, “Uh… Sergeant, what should we do about these? Should we… move them?”
Lacroix was also at a loss.
He didn’t know what to do.
Transferring these specimens back would most likely be very valuable, and the Alliance’s researchers could probably gain something useful from them.
However, the risk was high.
Not to mention whether there might be problems during the transportation by thirty people, there was just one point: they couldn’t guarantee they would be able to keep the cultivation tanks operational during the move. If the creatures inside, whatever they were, simply died, that might be fine, and they could only say they had done their best upon return.
But if the result of the tanks breaking was that it triggered the creatures inside to activate…
That would be a serious problem.
Loading these six cultivation tanks onto the Wind Falcon, and having them break out mid-flight… the mere thought of the outcome was terrifying.
Yet, it seemed a waste to destroy them outright.
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Lacroix scratched his helmet, his mind in turmoil.