…
…
“There’s already another squad that has discovered a Magical Beast entrance, and they were able to successfully destroy it.” Officer Cheng walked out from the side as he spoke to everyone seriously.
“Shouldn’t we be happy about this?” Xu Dahuang immediately smiled.
“The squad was also completely wiped out, not a single person escaped alive,” Officer Cheng added with a whisper.
The smile on Xu Dahuang’s face immediately froze.
The others opened their mouths in shock, no longer feeling any kind of excitement.
The entrance of a Magical Beast most likely had a group of Magical Beasts. Maybe slipping into the place was rather simple. However, once the entrance was destroyed, then the squad will definitely be surrounded by groups of Magical Beasts in an instant.
In fact, when they were filtering members, Officer Cheng had clearly told everyone that the mission this time will most likely be one where you can go, but you will never return.
“Let’s continue advancing, we shouldn’t be too far from Mingwen Girls Middle,” Officer Cheng said.
“Mhm, there is a student street after we pass through this old house. After we pass through the student street, we will be able to see the gate to the girl middle school. The report back then had said that there were vibrations coming from their cafeteria, thus, the Magical Beast Entrance is most likely beneath their cafeteria,” Xu Dahuang told them.
Everyone nodded agreement, and followed the route chosen by Xu Dahuang.
On the way there, they had encountered a few troublesome Magical Beasts. However, they were quickly dealt with by Officer Cheng.
An Intermediate Mage was able to instantly kill Minion-class Magical Beasts, and so they proceeded relatively quickly
“Help!! Save me~~ Save meee!!”
Just as they were going to continue, a shrieking yell suddenly sounded out from in front of them.
Just when Xu Dahuang was about to take action, Officer Cheng immediately stood in front of him to stop him.
Xu Dahuang’s face was filled with confusion, just when he was about to open his mouth, Officer Cheng coldly said, “I have already said this when we set off, our mission is to destroy the Magical Beast Entrance. Even if we were to meet someone we know on the way, we cannot lend a helping hand. Other than Mo Fan who is here to save his relative, I hope others will understand what they’re here to do!”
Everyone entered a moment of silence.
They were all Battlemages, and obeying orders was their duty. Thus, even if there were miserable shrieks coming from the street to the right of the corner ahead of them, they could only bite their lips and remain where they were.
Mo Fan was still shocked.
However, after carefully thinking about it, he understood the reasoning behind the seemingly inhumane decision.
If they were to save people en route, then the squad would become a rescue squad. With so many people burdening them, there’s no way they would be able to charge into the Magical Beast Entrance.
Lingering around Magical Beasts for even an extra minute could result in their ten-person squad losing their lives. They had to pick this option, even if just reaching their hands out to the people in front of them would be able to save them, they still could not do so.
After two minutes had passed, the miserable shrieking yells finally disappeared.
A few minutes later, Instructor Luo Yunbo returned to the squad and said to Officer Cheng, “The Magical Beasts have left, we can proceed.”
Luo Yunbo had personally seen those people being killed, and at this current moment, his complexion was very ugly. If it wasn’t for the mission, then he would definitely have gone and saved them.
——
In front of them was a street that could be considered quite spacious, and the entire road was empty of cars. However, on the asphalt were a few corpses that were still horrifyingly bloody. It hadn’t been very long since they had died…
As they took a few steps forward, a fat man’s body laying on the road, emitting a foul stench, moved suddenly.
It seemed he hadn’t died yet, and with his eyes wide open, he raised his head with great effort as he looked at the squad.
His eyes were filled with anger and suspicion.
As he was crawling away with his body dripping blood, he had clearly seen this group of Magicians in the reflections from the glass on a building.
He was precisely yelling at these Magicians to come and save him just before.
However, when his legs were being bitten off by the Magical Beasts, these people didn’t take a single action. When his lower body was almost completely swallowed by the Magical Beasts, these heartless Magicians remained indifferent.
When those Battlemages walked past his body, he used his last bit of strength to grab onto the leg of one of them. He wanted to ask, he wanted to firmly ask these scoundrel Battlemages why they would watch as everyone died!
Pan Lijun slowly came to a stop. As she looked at the fat man grabbing her who was at his last breath, her eyes didn’t have any trace of emotion.
The next second, she continued to walk forward again.
Everyone didn’t look too much at the incomparably miserable man as they quickly moved on.
Not too many steps further, they saw more corpses that were mutilated beyond recognition.
After walking to the middle of the street, the Battlemages who had suffered the silent criticism of the dying discovered a woman’s corpse by the mouth of the underground tunnel, her throat torn out by a Colossal-eyed Ape Rat.
“They probably wanted to escape using the underground sewers, but then…” Luo Yunbo’s voice was low.
“The underground sewers are the lairs of the Colossal-eyed Ape Rats; they followed the path to their own doom.” Xu Dahuang helplessly shook his head.
The path they shouldn’t have walked was precisely the sewers; the Magical Beasts had used the underground world to scatter into all of the locations of the city.
“Let’s go, if we don’t destroy this entrance, then there will be more people dying,” Officer Cheng said without a sign of emotion.
The others nodded.
Just when Mo Fan was about to proceed forward, his pace abruptly came to a stop.
His gaze was fixated on the wrist of the girl that was next to the entrance. He had never seen this girl before; however, the bracelet she wore was something he was very familiar with.
This was a DIY bracelet he had bought for Ye Xinxia in the student street on her sixteenth birthday. They had chosen different beads to create this unique bracelet, and amongst them was a single, ugly black bead which he personally had inserted with great fanfare.
Other boys and girls would string half the bracelet each. A careless person like Mo Fan had wasted a very long time to string together a very incompatible black bead. It was as though this beautiful DIY bracelet had been polluted by a rat. Yet, Xinxia had still worn it happily every day.
This type of bracelet was everywhere on the streets, however, the black bead that he had strung was easily recognizable. This was definitely the DIY bracelet which he and Ye Xinxia had successfully completed through a “cooperation”. But why was it in the hands of a unfamiliar girl?
“Mo Fan, are you all right?” At the front of the group, Pan Lijun turned around to look at him.
“I think I have found a clue. This girl is wearing my sister’s bracelet.” Mo Fan removed the bracelet from the girls wrist. After going through a closer inspection, he confirmed it.
“The dead fatty’s back has the logo of Walmart; these people must’ve escaped here from the underground sewers near Walmart. They were most likely found by Colossal-eyed Ape Rats halfway through, which was why they tried to escape to the surface,” Pan Lijun said.
Mo Fan glanced toward the entrance of the sewers, and indeed there were two more corpses down there. Additionally, he could determine that they were from the sewers from the stench of the sewage on their bodies.
“Around this area, there should only be a Walmart Supermarket beneath the Mingwen Shopping Mall.” Xu Dahuang was very familiar with this area, and he immediately said this to Mo Fan.
The search from before was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Who would’ve thought that the heavens would be so nice to him, and allow him to find some clues?
Although he couldn’t confirm if Ye Xinxia was at the supermarket or not, now, he’d at least have a direction to go. At least he wasn’t like a headless housefly, looking around this area.
“Mo Fan…”
Mo Fan nodded. “I understand.”
“Then we’ll wish you luck.” Officer Cheng no longer said anything else as the team continued to advance.
“I wish you luck.”
* * *
Translator: Tofu
Editor: RED