STB Chapter 97: Last Words

The path curved, like a tunnel.

Actually, there is something there as a support, like a car bumper, abandoned seats and so on.

Although the passage is narrow, the air inside is not cloudy. Li Fei suspects that there are also holes for ventilation.

The giant worm roared, and the walls constantly shook from its banging head. There is dust coming down, but there’s not the slightest trace of the passage collapsing. Such civil engineering accomplishment is really amazing.

“There is an ability holder inside.” Jian Hua said.

“You’re awake?”

“Nn.” Jian Hua uncomfortably pushed Li Fei away. In this narrow space, he was too close.

The skinny man who came in behind them silently turned his head.

The two special forces are outside, pulled their gun back while retreating smoothly. They hadn’t pushed the stone to block the door yet, when the hyphae pasted a layer over the entrance, quickly turning into a thick mushroom with the cap directed outside.

What is this monster? The person who was scared the most almost shredded the mushrooms.

“Don’t move, this is an ability!” The skinny man stopped them in time.

The special forces in camouflage uniforms: “……”

Although they know that there are ability holders in this world, the mushrooms are still beyond the scope of their acceptance. Wind and fire is easy to understand, water and soil earth can also be imagined, but mushrooms——

“Can you eat it?”

“Can’t!” The skinny man hurriedly explained, “They are a kind of devouring ability, it just looks like a mushroom.”

The special forces also saw the “white silk-wool cap” on the top of the giant worm, and can’t help but be curious. He looked at the three people covered in dust and soon recognized the skinny man as the soldier who is proficient in the Nightingale code. The other two are entirely unlike the warriors who had experienced the danger of war. Even without saying anything, they just have to look at the scars on their body to know.

“Those two are ability holders?”

“Yes, I am a member of Red Dragon, Code Albatross.” The skinny man went to take out his documents but touched nothing because his coat was gone. Of course, the things in his pocket also fell.

“Red Dragon!” The special forces guy holding the submachine gun has shining eyes, “Are there any available spots!”

“All right!” The older one rushed to stop him. (T/N: This ‘all right’ is meant as ‘all right, you should stop right there’ tone.)

Red Dragon is a Secret Service department. Except for those involved in technical research, the other members are military men with excellent performance. They were singled out from the special forces and face many dangers. Because of strict confidentiality, they usually cannot reveal their names.

“Don’t be in a rush. You made a few merits, but his rank is probably higher than our captain, don’t even dream about it!”

“Look, they even put a wool cap on that giant worm!” The speaker seemed to admire the skinny man Zhao Wen.

The skinny man is a bit uncomfortable. He coughed, and went back to the topic, “These two are invited by the Red Dragon. They are high-level ability holders who accompanied me to check the abnormalities along this road.”

Then the mushroom that blocked the entrance was knocked in.

The two immediately pointed their guns outside. More hyphae extended from the mushroom and went out to make trouble with the worm.

The giant worm was not willing and attacked the entrance for a while. It ultimately can’t break free of the hyphae, so it can only bitterly leave.

The people in the cave are relieved.

“This bug! If only I have to chance to blow it up.” The special forces soldier muttered.

“Okay, let’s go in!”

The tunnel is deep. They climbed down some narrow passage, and suddenly in front of them, there are three square meters of space at the bottom. Several other special forces soldiers with guns looked at the newcomer.

The passage is not soundproof, so what the skinny man said before in the channel is heard by the people inside.

“Meeting you here, I really don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate.” The man who took the lead has a body full of muscles, with an arm in a sling. There are two bleeding wounds at his back, but he smiled and attempted a handshake with the skinny man.

The entrance was fine, but it’s very stuffy in here.

Jian Hua looks around for a while and found that they’ve completely built this into an underground fortress.

Just like in the pictures during tunnel warfare, there’s an empty “room” to put food and water. It was apparent that they’re running out of stock, and they can guess that they took some from the car wreckage from the other accidents. The military rations and foil-packed potato chips can easily be distinguished.

“How long have you been here.” The skinny man seriously asked.

“Less than a day.” The injured man said, “Judging from the rate the wound is healing.”

Li Fei exchanged a puzzled glance with Jian Hua: Time has the same flow inside and outside the Abandoned World?

“This tunnel?”

“Oh, it’s a masterpiece of an ability holder. He can control the earth. If there is no such tunnels underground, we’ll die at the mouth of that worm.” The injured man revealed an emotional expression.

“An ability holder?” The skinny man asked. There were no civilians among the special forces team that entered yesterday, and no ability holders.

“His situation is horrible……” Jian Hua whispered.

His feedback abilities can sense that a person in the “room” has a faint breath of life.

“Are you a doctor?”

“I’m sorry.” Jian Hua shook his head and truthfully said, “I can only feel the existence of ability holders and monsters.”

The group showed a disappointed expression. They moved away from their positions, and let the newcomers see the dying earth ability holder in the “room”.

A middle-aged man with no right leg is lying on the ground where clothes are laid out.

The wound exuded a medicinal smell and reeked of blood.

“He was the person sent by Red Dragon previously to see the situation. He woke up for ten minutes when we washed the wound. It was said that his vehicle was trapped under a rollover incident, and he used his power to dig a tunnel. In the end, when they went out, Abandoned World came. They were attacked by the worm and had to flee underground again……when we received the mission, we also thought that the attack came from underground, so we didn’t expect that the tunnel is where the ability holder is hiding.”

“Right here?”

“Uh……you should have entered the Abandoned World later. Even if expanded by ability, it doesn’t match the size of the underground tunnels provided by the satellite drawings. When we came, there were two people in the tunnels with one already dead. We buried him in a ‘room’ next to this one. The wounds of this ability holder is also severely infected, and he has a high fever. Although we helped by cleaning the wound and getting rid of the rotten flesh, but……”

The captain of the special forces shook his head, his meaning very clear.

It won’t be long.

Li Fei frowned even more deeply. What happened on this road became more and more bizarre. If you don’t have an ability, you can’t enter the Abandoned World, not to mention it’s not even stable here!

——because people from different points in time meet in the Abandoned World, aside from him, Jian Hua, and Zhao Wen, there are actually three groups of people. It’s different from what happened last time in the North. Over there, they were separated by several minutes, but here, it’s a few days!

“Because I didn’t expect to enter the Abandoned World, we did not carry any weapon that is highly lethal.” The Captain of the Special Forces Team is puzzled, “Our team has also been tested. We tested at fixed overlap points and determined that we had no potential to awaken.”

The skinny man murmured, “This is indeed a mystery.”

At this time, the middle-aged man in a coma raved. His words were vague, and the soldiers did not understand what he was saying, but Jian Hua and the other two were shocked.

“De……devourer.”

Li Fei’s eyes squinted, his look becoming dangerous.

He quickly composed his expression, wiping anything strange. It was too fast that even the skinny man didn’t see it.

Because when the skinny man heard this word, his attention is more focused on Jian Hua.

Jian Hua is not as good at masking his emotions as Li Fei. He showed an undisguised shock at that moment, just looking at his eyes is sufficient to explain a lot of things.

Jian Hua once again confirmed that the earth ability holder in front of him is too weak to stand up. He approached two steps and stared at each other. He wanted to hear the words more clearly.

“Only the Devourer……tell him……”

The words of the middle-aged man stopped, then sounded out again.

“When he was sleeping, what did he say?” The skinny man asked.

After entering the tunnel, Li Fei and Jian Hua didn’t talk much. And because Zhao Wen is a person from the military, he communicates better with the special forces, so hastily interjecting is neither wise nor meaningful.

Black Abyss currently has a good relationship with Red Dragon. Zhao Wen is an acquaintance, and they also have no conflicts. Besides the ability of the skinny man, they also recognize and admire the others in their hearts.

No matter how strong an ability holder is, their physical fitness won’t suddenly become higher. No matter how good their abilities are, in the final analysis, they are still ordinary people. The Secret Service skinny man and the special forces are different. Even S-class ability holders like Jian Hua and Li Fei is impossible to have a lot of combat experience overnight. The average ability holders’ reflex and reaction time are no match for the professionals!

Those transmigrators who have inflated self-confidence, when they get abilities, won’t even know their last names.

Ability does not improve their physical fitness, but it affects their IQ.

Such an error, Li Fei certainly won’t make it, and Jian Hua has Li Fei here, so he’s not willing to speak out.

The Special Forces Captain hesitated after seeing Li Fei and Jian Hua. The skinny man immediately understands what he means, and explained, “The most important thing at the moment is how to get out of here alive. Sharing information will help get rid of the giant worm. Its danger level, we are all quite clear.”

The captain nodded, agreeing.

“The Devourer should be a code for a person. When he was sleeping, he said that only the Devourer could handle the worm. He also mentioned that a crisis is coming and that the whole world is collapsing and all that nonsense.”

“……”

But the mushrooms can’t absorb the worm at all!

Jian Hua still thinks when Li Fei couldn’t help but whisper, “Is he an ‘insider (zhīqíng)’?”

The captain did not know the meaning of the word, while the skinny man sweated. Jian Hua’s look towards the dying person also changed. For those who transmigrated, he has a bad impression.

“What did you say?”

“Intuition (zhíjué).” Li Fei is expressionless and took advantage of Jian Hua’s power attribute. Ordinary ability holders won’t have this habit. This kind of blind trust is only by thoroughly understanding the other person. Shouldn’t a regular ability holder be curious about the difference between a higher order ability holder and himself, and how big is the difference?

They left the “room”, got a little something to eat, spread the map and continued to discuss tactics. The person responsible for looking after the earth ability holder came over and told them that he’s awake.

Coming in again, Jian Hua saw at a glance that the middle-aged man is dying.

His color suddenly changed a lot just by half-sitting. He was talking to the captain when he looked up and saw Li Fei, then looked on blankly.

——Li Fei deliberately wiped the dust off his face.

His face has no impact on people who are on military camps all year round, and the shock to ordinary ability holders are also not that big. However, the book transmigrators are different. Even a transmigrator who is completely ambitionless will also “know” what an S-class ability holder look like after coming to this world.

The reaction of the middle-aged man explained everything.

He shook, as if scared, but also surprised.

“Flame……Mr. Li, I have something important to say!” The earth ability holder’s voice is full of pleading as he struggled to reach out.

Everyone knew why and made way for Li Fei.

Jian Hua added a mycelium to Li Fei’s body, and only then was he assured to let Li Fei approach the ability holder.

But his fears are meaningless, the middle-aged man dare not touch Li Fei. He shrunk back, and just looked on in awe.

“You know me?” Li Fei said a lot of meanings in those three words, as a warning, and as if interested.

“Yes! I know everything……I know the future.” The middle-aged man concealed his identity, then said urgently, “Please tell the Devourer, the giant worm in the sky is not a monster that normally appears in the Abandoned World. Nania Kaiya did not describe it……according to the plot, ten years after the arrival of the Abandoned World, there will be ‘void worlds’ all over the place. This is caused by the Abandoned World being in contact with the real world for a long time, and the void is a sign of the collapse of the world. I think the situation here is very similar to that of a void, I can’t tell, but……”

The color on the middle-aged man disappears, and his words became incomprehensible, “Very powerful ability holders, but it didn’t work in the end……I thought I still have ten years, I didn’t expect to die here. It’s been a long time since I passed over……voids can cause the world to collapse, Flame Demon……please convince the Devourer, abilities are useless, we can only give up our abilities. That way, we can……live……”

His voice gets lower and lower, and his breath became weaker.

After a few seconds, the captain sitting next to him reached out towards his glazed eyes and closed the eyes of the deceased.