Chapter Thirty-Nine: Picking Up a Little Girl

In the woods at the boundary between the outer ring of Zone D and the outskirts of Zone E, thunderous explosions echoed through the air. The location was not far from the mobile rail station.

Standing ahead of the blasts were three figures: Shangguan Youran, Shangguan Yueling, and Mu Feng.

Shangguan Youran wore pale blue, high, folding boots that shimmered with white light and radiated cold. In her hands, she gripped a pair of pale blue blades, her gaze fixed solemnly on the approaching horde of beasts.

“Bombardment and sniping!” Shangguan Yueling, her twin ponytails as dark as night, wore an expression of grave determination on her fresh, youthful face, so different from her usual carefree demeanor. A rocket launcher, over a meter long, rested on her shoulder as she tensely announced, “Sister, a neural-reflex mech warrior is attacking us!”

“These past days, beasts have kept appearing—it’s as if someone is orchestrating everything, just to lure us here together!” Mu Feng, dragging a three-meter-long great sword in his right hand and carrying a polygonal shield in his left, calmly analyzed the situation as he surveyed their surroundings.

Shangguan Youran’s face was cold and sharp with resolve as she rapidly considered their options.

At that moment, from within the beast horde, a werewolf and a catwoman appeared, eyeing the trio. The catwoman giggled, “Miss Shangguan, you’ve worked so hard hunting us every day. Today, you’ll taste your own medicine!”

Had Nangong Yuchen been here, he would have recognized these two instantly as Xia Yue and Chen Hao.

“Attack!” Black De uttered, launching himself forward. His robust upper body burst through his shirt, powerful right arm pulsing with strength, giving the three no time to catch their breath as he charged straight for them.

“Break through with everything!” Shangguan Youran’s purple hair billowed as she stamped the ground, leaping into the air to strike first at Meila before her.

They had come here upon receiving word that two monsters would appear, but scarcely had the battle begun when a whole beast horde materialized. Though most were lower-tier creatures beneath the werewolf and catwoman, Shangguan Youran sensed something was amiss and tried to retreat. The real surprise, however, was the appearance of human mech warriors attacking them.

Now, they were surrounded, with sniping mech warriors lurking in the shadows.

Mu Feng also rushed ahead, meeting Black De head-on. Unlike Youran, he was not swift, but each step he took was full of stored power. With a swing of his massive sword, he struck the ground, gouging a several-meter-long trench.

Shangguan Yueling followed behind, rocket launcher in hand. Seeing the beasts surge forward, she pulled the trigger, whispering, “Three, two, one—Burst!”

The rocket launcher’s blue energy sphere dimmed rapidly, then unleashed a yellow energy shell the size of a bowl, which shot into the beast horde.

Explosions erupted everywhere. The ground trembled as nearly twenty beasts were blown to pieces. The yellow glow faded, leaving a ten-meter-wide circular crater in the forest.

Despite the victory, Shangguan Yueling showed no joy. She quickly stowed the rocket launcher, drew her sniper rifle, and continued picking off the beasts as they charged.

The three fought desperately to break through. Minutes passed; though the beast horde dwindled, wounds accumulated on each of them, and the most perilous threat was their dwindling stamina.

Shangguan Youran, despite her long-standing first-tier prowess, held the upper hand against Meila. But the constant barrage from other beasts forced her to defend, giving Meila occasional opportunities to inflict wounds.

“Icy Twin Souls!” Seeing a giant wolf pounce from her right, Shangguan Youran spread cold beneath her feet, accelerating suddenly as she leapt and slashed downward with her twin blades, splitting the wolf in two. Warm blood splattered her clothes.

At that moment, Meila’s claws grew longer, slashing at Youran from another angle. Unfazed, Youran spun her blades and struck at the incoming claws.

But as their weapons met, Youran’s heart chilled—her attack passed through Meila, who vanished.

“Shadow projection!”

Before she could evade, Meila’s claws, over thirty centimeters long, pressed against her back.

Death loomed; Youran’s face turned ashen. Just as she thought she would perish here, a yellow energy bullet shot in, striking Meila’s claws and blocking the attack. Youran snapped back to attention, spun around, and slashed at Meila’s head.

A crisp clash rang out as blade met claw, sending Meila flying ten meters into a tree, where she let out a wretched cry.

On the other side, Mu Feng fared worse—if not for his shield, Black De might have torn him in two already.

Youran hurried to assist, her boots’ blades flashing as she leapt and slew beasts with every jump.

The tide seemed to shift, but then, the hidden mech warrior struck again!

A blue energy cannonball, the size of a fist, tore through the night and appeared before the three.

Shangguan Yueling had no time to stow her sniper rifle; instead, she grabbed her black-and-red rocket launcher. She had been waiting for this moment, her clever mind already formulating this plan, though she had never tried it before.

“Burst!”

No time to aim, she pulled the trigger. A yellow energy shell shot skyward, her senses stretched to their limits. In her mind’s eye, time slowed, allowing her to calculate the blue cannonball’s trajectory as it approached. At less than ten meters overhead, yellow and blue collided, detonating in a brilliant explosion.

A semi-circular glow of yellow and blue lit up, enveloping everything within a dozen meters. The blast spread, obliterating the surrounding trees and grass, leaving behind a vast, deep crater.

“Cough, cough—Kexin?” Nangong Yuchen gently shook his sister, who he held protectively.

“Yu…Chen,” Nangong Kexin stammered, still shaken as she clung to her brother. She had never imagined such a disaster could occur on the mobile rail car.

“We need to get out of here!” Fearing further danger, Nangong Yuchen anxiously pulled Kexin from the carriage. They found themselves surrounded by woods, utterly lost.

Around them, cries and shouts could be heard—likely other survivors. The sounds of police and fire trucks approached, but the darkness was oppressive. Grateful to be alive, Yuchen led his sister along a narrow path toward the outside.

After a while, Nangong Kexin stumbled and fell, as if she had tripped over something.

“Kexin, are you alright?” Yuchen helped her up, worried.

Instead of answering, Kexin quickly took out her phone, using its weak screen light to illuminate the ground. Terror-stricken, she exclaimed, “Nangong Yuchen, there’s a ghost!”

What she tripped over felt soft; she thought it was a snake or something else, but it turned out to be a person.

Yuchen rolled his eyes at the clinging Kexin and reassured her, “It’s a person, not a ghost!”

He then took out his own phone, stepped forward, and shone it on the ground. He was stunned.

“Shangguan Yueling?”