Chapter 50: Chapter 50 Second Mission (5)
Perhaps the more one worries about something, the more likely it is to come true. As the sky began to lighten with the first rays of dawn, Ye Nai’s hair suddenly stood on end.
“Danger, turn right! Quick!”
From the silence of the cockpit came her sudden shout. Without a second thought, the warrior at the wheel swerved sharply to the right, as instructed.
The vehicle executed a wide turn.
They hadn’t gone far when a dull thud sounded from behind, the noise of a heavy object hitting the ground. Fortunately, the quick turn meant the object missed the vehicle, which would otherwise have taken a direct hit to the roof.
...
“Enemy attack!”
The radio from a vehicle behind them blared the warning.
Ye Nai’s vehicle narrowly missed the danger, but the vehicle following them was now confronting the enemy head-on.
“It’s an Awakener!”
“From the Gold Element!”
“Three of them!”
“Hold on, we’re coming!”
The lead vehicle and Ye Nai’s immediately made a U-turn to go back and reinforce.
“Everyone out, Ye Nai, stow the vehicle!”
The voice of the squadron leader from the lead vehicle came over the radio.
Three enemies from the Gold Element, their first move would be to disrupt metal objects. The two vehicles caught by the blockade were undoubtedly in grave danger, but the others must be saved at least.
Before the vehicle had fully stopped, Ye Nai swung the door open and rolled out, heard someone shout to stow the vehicle, and slapped the door to retract it.
The lead vehicle also arrived just in time, screeching to a halt. Its occupants leaped out at lightning speed, not even bothering to shut the doors behind them, and sprinted to assist their comrades-in-arms.
After Ye Nai retracted her vehicle, she dropped to the ground and scattered a wave of spores. Looking around, she saw that only two warriors had followed her, while Squad Leader Lu had taken the others to provide reinforcement.
Among those two, only one was a main combatant, while the other was a communications soldier, who began taking out various modules and parts from different pockets on his body and snapped them together to assemble a device the size of a laptop—it was a portable radio set.
Watching the assembly, Ye Nai noticed that the modular parts did not seem to have a large battery capacity.
“Just this one battery? Will it last?”
“There’s also a spare battery, but if it’s really just these three enemies, we won’t even need to use this one,” said the other warrior.
The communications soldier busied himself calling out, informing the camp they had just left. Exchanging information, they asked if the camp was secure as they had been attacked.
“Not good, can’t get through. No response. Could they be using a large-scale jammer?”
“They’re that ruthless?” Ye Nai couldn’t help but blurt out with a hint of sarcasm, “Is that camp some kind of precious land for the enemy? They didn’t take it down yesterday, and now they’re back again?”
“No idea, we’re just here to deliver supplies.”
“Can we call other camps then? Is there anyone nearby who can pick up our broadcast?” Ye Nai pulled out a cell phone from her Space, “The phone can raise the alarm, right?”
“The messages sent from the phone are unencrypted; the enemy can see them too.”
“Ah, right…” Ye Nai silently put the phone back into her Space, “So using a cell phone out here can be pretty dangerous.”
“We need to make an encrypted call to the town in the rear.”
The communications soldier decisively cut the communication, took out the spare battery, and fitted it into the radio. Then he attached an even longer and thicker antenna next to the wire.
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“This little radio has such a high-power antenna?”
“Energy consumption means power drain, calling for reinforcements through an encrypted channel to see who can receive the signal and rush over,”
“So the two batteries won’t last long? Can it be plugged in?” Ye Nai slammed down an outdoor power supply, “It’s full, I only charged a gaming console once with it.”
The signal operator’s eyes lit up and quickly took out the charging cable to connect the radio and power supply.
Next, they would call out every minute to see if any signal operator from a nearby rear town would scan and pick up this encrypted channel during their patrol.
Ye Nai, afraid he’d shout himself hoarse, also gave him a bottle of water.
The distant shouts and kills still came in waves with the wind, three Gold Element Awakeners immediately rendered the warriors’ guns and daggers useless, leaving them to rely on Fighting Skills and superpowers alone.
However, Ye Nai felt something was off. So many people fighting three Gold Elements, even if only using fists and feet—was it supposed to take this long? Weren’t military Fighting Skills effective?
Could there be some other ambush?
The more Ye Nai thought about it, the more she suspected a conspiracy. She released more spores and expanded a greater area of Fungal Mycelium to scout for her.
There seemed to be nothing amiss above ground, but underground was another story.
The spores that sank into the soil proliferated along the energy-rich areas, landing on the stir-crazy mutant plants and piercing through their outer skin to find gaps to infiltrate and drain their essence.
As soon as Ye Nai felt the intense energy feedback, she knew trouble had struck; there was indeed an ambush.
Underground, thanks to abundant nutrients, the spores grew rapidly, not just decomposing that piece of mutant plant but also benefiting from the nutrient-rich soil itself, which promoted the mycelium to double in mass time and again. The more mycelium, the more spores; the more spores, the more mycelium, forcibly taking away half the energy from a vine.
The mutant plant felt the loss of energy and abandoned the idea of an ambush, erupting from the soil, a long vine whipping through the air with a sonic boom.
This sudden turn of events alarmed everyone, as the warriors scattered to dodge; the three wounded enemies on the ground laughed heartily, though.
“Hahaha, die! Bloodthirsty Vine has been lying in wait all night, none of you will escape!”
Ye Nai and the other two who were hiding at a distance were also startled; while their gaze was still fixed on the wildly thrashing vine, they felt a tremor underfoot akin to an earthquake.
“Fuck! We’ve got one here too!”
“Run!”
Quick as a whip, Ye Nai gathered the radio and outdoor power supply into her Space, sprinting towards the main force with the two warriors.
“Regroup first!”
“Keep up, don’t get separated!”
As Ye Nai ran, she drew guns from her Space, holding a large number of spare weapons for Squad Leader Lu’s team within, including a grenade gun.
She immediately pulled it out.
“Need this?”
“Yes!”
One grabbed the gun to fire while Ye Nai threw out a box of grenades, forming a temporary combat team of three.
Gun in hand, Ye Nai widened her eyes to stay alert, while her other hand feverishly released spores to provide ammunition for her mycelium, searching underground for the mutant plant’s main root and Heart Core.
Explosions filled the air, with six vines now attacking from underground, cracking through the air, each one causing a sonic boom.
Those above ground were exhausted running for their lives, not daring to linger for long in one place; Ye Nai’s team was the same, firing a shot then running a hundred meters before reloading and firing again.
No one knew how long the stalemate lasted; the sounds of gunfire grew less frequent, sparse and scattered—a sound that sank hearts, signifying the grim situation of the other warriors.
Meanwhile, the mutant plant visibly grew more frenzied by the moment.
Ye Nai could roughly guess that it must be the proliferation of the mycelium into the main root threatening its life that caused the frenzy, but this also meant it needed energy replenishment urgently, and the silent warriors became ready-made food.