119: Chapter 119 There is still light in your eyes

Su Mingyuan looked at the two shattered mecha wrecks and was silent for a few seconds.

"Thank you for saving us," he spoke up. "If you hadn't arrived in time, we might not have survived that wave of the Swarm."

Lin Wan withdrew her gaze from the wreckage and glanced at him.

"You're welcome," her tone was very flat. "I didn't come specifically to save you either."

"Then what mission were you originally executing?"

"A reconnaissance mission. The base sent us to this area to scout the Swarm's movements."

The corners of her mouth twitched into a mocking arc:

"As a result, the intelligence was wrong. What was supposed to be a small Swarm was actually a medium-sized nest."

"Three mechs crashed into it, and only one survived."

She lowered her head and glanced at her own battle-scarred mech:

"My luck is pretty good."

Su Mingyuan looked at her calm expression, yet in his heart he knew what kind of peril was hidden behind those few words.

Three fighting a nest, two dead and one wounded, and still able to make a clean getaway.

This wasn't luck; it was strength.

"How old are you?" he suddenly asked.

Lin Wan was slightly taken aback, as if she hadn't expected him to ask this.

"...Sixteen."

"You can pilot a mech to execute reconnaissance missions at sixteen?"

"Twelve," Lin Wan corrected, her tone carrying a trace of imperceptible sarcasm. "I started piloting mechs at twelve."

She glanced at Su Mingyuan:

"At the base, as long as you can pass the mental test for mech operation, you have to learn. If you don't learn, you wait for death."

Twelve years old.

Su Mingyuan thought about what he was doing when he was twelve.

Playing games, watching cartoons, worrying over an exam paper.

And this girl, at twelve years old, had to pilot a mech and fight bugs for her life.

"In your world," Lin Wan suddenly spoke up, her tone carrying a hint of curiosity, "what are people of sixteen doing?"

Su Mingyuan was silent for a fraction of a second.

"Going to school," he said. "Studying, taking exams, hanging out with friends."

Lin Wan froze.

She stared at Su Mingyuan, her gaze somewhat complicated, as if listening to a distant myth.

"School..."

She repeated it in a low voice.

Then she smiled slightly.

That smile was very faint, carrying an indescribable meaning.

"Sounds good."

She turned around and walked toward her mech.

"Pity we don't have that kind of life."

Su Mingyuan watched her back, and a complicated emotion suddenly surged in his heart.

Both are sixteen.

On one side is campus life beneath blue skies and white clouds.

On the other side is life-and-death combat in the crimson wasteland.

The same age, yet completely different lives.

"Your arm," he spoke up. "Does it need to be treated? We have medics."

Lin Wan lowered her head and glanced at the blood-seeping bandage.

"No need, won't die from it."

"Wound infection will drag everyone down," Su Mingyuan's tone turned serious. "Including yourself. Besides, we need you to lead the way. If you collapse, we'll all be trapped here."

Lin Wan's footsteps paused for a moment.

Silence for a few seconds.

"...Fine, as you wish."

Su Mingyuan turned around, took out a medical kit from the team, and walked in front of Lin Wan.

"I'll do it," he said.

Lin Wan glanced at him, didn't refuse, and sat down beside the mech.

Su Mingyuan squatted down and gently untied the bandage.

The bandages were peeled away layer by layer, revealing the wound beneath——

A laceration deep enough to see the bone extended all the way from the wrist to the middle of the forearm. The edges of the wound were blackened, obviously carrying some kind of toxin, and the skin around it had already begun to ulcerate.

"A burrowing worm's tail sting," Lin Wan's expression didn't change. "It's poisonous, but I've treated it."

"You call this treated?" Su Mingyuan frowned. "If we don't stitch it up soon, this arm will be ruined."

He opened the medical kit, took out disinfectant and a suture needle, and began to treat the wound.

The moment the disinfectant touched the wound, a normal person would have been gritting their teeth in pain long ago.

But Lin Wan didn't even frown.

She just sat there quietly, lowering her head to watch Su Mingyuan suture, as if looking at someone else's arm.

Zhang Dabiao watched from the side with his scalp tingling.

He remembered when he was twelve, being punished by the instructor to stand at attention during military academy training, and crying after standing for just an hour.

And this girl started piloting mechs to kill bugs at twelve years old.

"We were both twelve..." he muttered to Tao Zhe, "how can the gap be so big?"

Tao Zhe didn't reply, his gaze falling on Lin Wan's mech.

That black mech stood quietly in the ruins, covered in scars, its armor full of deep gouges carved by the bugs' sharp claws. The armor plate on the right shoulder was almost torn away by half, exposing the complex mechanical structure inside.

But it was still standing.

Just like its pilot.

Su Mingyuan's actions were fast—disinfection, debridement, and suturing all done in one go.

Throughout the entire process, Lin Wan just sat there quietly, occasionally lowering her head to glance at the wound.

"It's stitched up," Su Mingyuan put away the instruments. "Try not to do strenuous exercise, otherwise it will tear open."

"Got it."

Lin Wan stood up, moved her arm slightly, as if testing her flexibility.

Her gaze swept over everyone present, and her expression turned stern once again.

"Listen up, everyone."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable coercion:

"From here to the base is thirty kilometers. Under normal circumstances, it takes five or six hours to walk."

"But we don't have that much time."

"The Swarm will find this place in two hours at most. The commotion from your battle earlier was too big and was noticed by scout bugs long ago."

She glanced at the soldiers' equipment:

"With your ammunition reserves, you won't survive two waves of charges."

"Then what do we do?" Zhang Dabiao blurted out.

"Two choices."

Lin Wan held up a finger:

"First, stay here and wait for death."

A second finger:

"Second, come with me. Three kilometers away, there's an abandoned subway tunnel that leads directly near the base. If we take the tunnel, we can arrive in two hours."

"A subway tunnel?" Zhang Dabiao's eyes lit up.

"Don't celebrate too early," Lin Wan coldly interrupted him. "There are bugs in the tunnel. Darkness, moisture, and confinement are their favorite environments."

Zhang Dabiao's face instantly collapsed.

"Then why are you still making us go?"

"Because there are more on the surface," Lin Wan glanced at him. "At most dozens in the tunnel, but a whole Swarm on the surface—tens of thousands. Which one do you choose?"

Zhang Dabiao stopped talking.

Su Mingyuan pondered for a moment:

"We'll go with you."

"Fine," Lin Wan nodded. "We set off in fifteen minutes. Treat the wounded, clear inventory of your ammunition, throw away whatever equipment you can, and travel light."

She turned around and walked toward her mech.

Su Mingyuan suddenly spoke up: "Lin Wan."

The girl's footsteps paused for a moment, but she didn't turn back.

"What?"

"Why are you willing to help us?"

Lin Wan was silent for a few seconds.

"I need to report the intelligence error to the base," she said. "My comrade is dead, and I must return alive to tell the base there is a medium-sized nest here."

She paused:

"I've never seen your weapons before; maybe they'll be useful to the base. Taking you back counts as an exchange."

"Just like that?"

"And..."

She jumped onto the mech's maintenance platform and climbed into the cockpit.

Before the hatch closed, she suddenly spoke again, her voice very soft:

"Your eyes."

"Eyes?" Su Mingyuan was slightly startled.

"The people in this world, their eyes are all dead," Lin Wan's voice came from the cockpit, carrying a trace of emotion she didn't even realize herself. "Numb, despairing, waiting for death. Living and dying make no difference."

"But you guys are different."

The hatch slowly closed.

Her voice came out from the mech's external speakers, returning to indifference:

"There is still light in your eyes."