19: Chapter 19 Anomaly Exploration

Zhao Hu's entire team was fully assembled. This operation's unit wasn't a squad, but the whole team totaling 27 people.

The engine's roar kept sounding like a tractor. Dilapidated and heavy pickup trucks and off-road vehicles were pushed out of the garage. The welded joints of steel pipes and sheet metal were clearly visible, and the entire vehicle looked like a monster pieced together, with thick black smoke rolling from its rear.

"Bring your good gear. This isn't a patrol. On the road thirty kilometers to the east, you might encounter anything—monsters, wasteland bandits, and people from other camps... Not a single one of them is easy to deal with, so all of you watch yourselves."

Zhao Hu strode past the three vehicles and heavily plopped down into the front passenger seat of the first tall off-road vehicle, his gun never leaving his hand. The seat cushion kicked up a cloud of dust, making him frown from the choking air.

"This car should have been traded for a new one with the people from Chechang Town long ago."

Li Jinming, the person driving beside him, shook his head and said, "The people from Chechang Town charge way more ruthlessly than those from Huangyan Town. A cobbled-together piece of junk can cost thirty to forty thousand energy blocks—they're daylight robbers."

"Whoever has resources is the boss. Who told them the Floor World they control is resource-based?"

Zhao Hu snorted, then added, "However, those things aren't that easy to get your hands on either. There are quite a few anomaly monsters inside their Infinite Building."

He turned back to glance at his team. By now, everyone had boarded the trucks, all twenty-seven people fully geared up and ready to go. Thus, he said, "Let's move. This time, we have to scout out the eastern road."

The gates of Scarecrow Town opened, and the harsh screeching friction still made people feel uncomfortable.

The trucks slowly drove out of Scarecrow Town. The uneven road surface caused the trucks to rock back and forth incessantly as they moved, resembling boats sailing on land.

Wang Ting sat on the second truck, his straight back pressed firmly against the truck's guardrail. His body swayed along with the truck, making his bones feel like they were shaking apart.

The sun overhead shone into the truck bed, and the scorching sunlight falling on his body gave him a burning sensation.

The dilapidated truck had no roof, only guardrails on both sides. Driving it felt like operating an old tractor, and the suffocating smell of gasoline along with the dust rushing straight onto his body made sitting there even more agonizing.

"Every time we come out, it's a mouthful of sand. Can't we switch to a better vehicle?"

Xiang Nan spat out a mouthful of saliva, and all he spat out was yellow sand. He vigilantly observed the surroundings of the vehicles while complaining incessantly. Dong Hu said from the side, "Cut it out. Having something to drive is already pretty good. Do you want to walk on your feet like when we are on patrol?"

Vehicles in the apocalyptic era were truly scarce resources. No matter which camp it was, or even the Giant Wood Shelter City, their vehicles were patched up and barely maintained for use.

Feng Bo, who was holding a gun beside them, sighed. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked into the distance where golden sand and soil covered the earth. Where it wasn't covered, the land had already cracked dry, and bones were faintly buried in the sand.

"Three anomaly points thirty kilometers away—today's mission won't be easy. If things go south, we might end up spending the night outside."

Wang Ting wore a puzzled expression, but the truck drove very slowly on such dry and hard roads, falling far short of pre-apocalyptic cement pavement.

Yet it was only a distance of 30 kilometers; it shouldn't take that much time.

"These 30 kilometers aren't peaceful?"

Feng Bo glanced at Wang Ting and explained, "Our patrol radius is generally only 3 kilometers, and 3 kilometers is a safe zone of our Shelter. Within this range, we can't say we know everything about monster movements, wanderer routes, and environmental changes, but at least we have an idea. However, once we go beyond this circle, it could change completely day by day. The Infinite Building, abnormal weather, monster nests, wanderer camps... anything could change at any time."

He paused slightly, then continued, "For clearing the path and scouting, there are only three things we need to do. First, thoroughly investigate all risk points along the road and guard against those wasteland bandits setting up ambushes in these critical locations."

"Second is clearing out monsters. Outside the patrol radius, monsters constantly roam. A considerable number of monsters likely have gathered on the wasteland. If we don't clear them out now, when it comes time to transport supplies, they might form a monster horde, and by then we won't be able to run even if we want to."

"Third is investigating anomaly zones. After the apocalyptic era, more dangerous than monsters are the anomaly zones that can appear at any time—quicksand, projections, thunderstorms... Any one of them could annihilate the entire motorcade, and even transcendents would probably find it hard to resist such anomalies."

He sighed, then said, "Just doing the items listed above probably won't take just a single day, let alone the possibility of running into monster communities. This time, there are three clearly defined anomaly points. Once we investigate them one by one, I think we'll have to spend the night outside."

Feng Bo was an old member of the team and was quite clear about this set of procedures. The other old members on the side didn't chime in, quietly listening to Feng Bo explain it to the newcomers like Wang Ting.

After hearing this, Wang Ting frowned slightly. If they had to spend the night outside, the risks would shoot straight up.

The three vehicles quickly drove into the boundless wasteland, soon crossing the boundary of the patrol line. Everywhere met the eye were mounds like yellow hills, the parched earth, withered yellow weeds, and claw-like dead trees. Desolation was the sole backdrop of this wasteland.

As the vehicles moved along, gazing into the distance, one could still see sporadic zombies roaming about in the wasteland.

They were about two to three hundred meters away from the exploration motorcade. Although they observed the zombies' movements, the motorcade didn't stop. The zombies had not completely formed into hordes yet, and firing prematurely would attract more monsters onto their route. They needed to perform targeted clearance at critical intersections.

The motorcade began to turn, leaving those few zombies behind, and arrived at a relatively perilous canyon.

The weathered rock walls were about thirty to forty meters high, undulating left and right, forming a road in the middle. Extending out on both sides were uneven rock slopes covered in gravel and rocks, making passage utterly impossible.

This was one of the mandatory routes, called Fengyan Slope. If they wanted to bypass it, they would have to travel an extra twenty to thirty kilometers.

The vehicles slowly stopped. This place was about twelve to thirteen kilometers away from Scarecrow Town.

"Observe the surroundings of Fengyan Slope. The squad will split into left and right groups to start investigating the terrain. Be careful of being ambushed and clear out the area within 3km around us."

"Understood!" Everyone responded in turn.

Wang Ting followed the squad down from the truck. He stretched his stiff hands and feet, then scanned the surrounding environment with his gaze.

"If there's an ambush here, it could probably wipe out more than half of the motorcade."

Positioned high up, the roads on the left and right were hard to traverse. Whether it was monsters or wasteland bandits, as long as an accident happened here, the motorcade would be in deep trouble.

A howling gale swept past, whipping up a sky full of sand and dust that filled people's ears and eyes.

A rustling sound suddenly came over. Wang Ting's nose twitched, and he immediately distinguished the different positions from which the scent was coming.

He immediately turned around—on the cliff wall, a Sand Scorpion lunged over, flying straight for his face!

With a bang, he raised his hand and fired a shot, directly piercing through the Sand Scorpion's body. That massive Sand Scorpion crashed to the ground.

"Awesome!"

Seeing Wang Ting act so crisply and neatly, everyone couldn't help but praise him out loud.

At this moment, however, Wang Ting frowned: "The scent here is wrong. Such a heavy stench of blood."

His gaze followed the hillside toward the east; the smell was coming from over there.

"Wang Ting, your marksmanship is getting more and more accurate."

Ren Chuan praised with a smile. Wang Ting leaned close to his ear, lowered his voice, and said, "I feel like something is wrong. It feels like there are monsters."

At these words, Ren Chuan's expression changed slightly.

They knew of Wang Ting's acute perception of monsters. Now that Wang Ting suddenly said this, his heart also skipped a beat.

"Be careful."

Ren Chuan reminded the few people around him. Seeing his gaze, Xiang Nan and the others also turned more serious.

Everyone held their weapons, then explored toward the right, climbing up onto Fengyan Slope.

"Roar—"

Low growls echoed over. With just a glance, the scene behind the hillside made everyone's scalp tingle: zombie remains were piled up into small mountains, and the ground was covered with the corpses of wanderers and scavengers. Severed limbs and broken arms, along with bloody skeletons, covered the area behind the hillside.

The heavy stench of blood came precisely from these remains. Right now, in the center of the remains, there were also more than a dozen sturdily built zombies lowering their heads to continuously gnaw on the corpses.

Their skin was pale, their muscles bulged, and each of them stood nearly two meters tall. Their split corners of the mouth revealed ferocious teeth, and tentacles faintly flickered deep within their throats.

Swish—

In just an instant, they abruptly turned their heads, fixing their oily green gazes intently on everyone, and then charged over frantically.

[Discovered low-level anomaly Parasitic Fungus Vine, Parasitic Fungus Vine cataloging progress: 5%]