Chapter 1323: The Desiccated City
The air in the swamp zone was especially humid and hot, and combined with the vast size of the area, staying in the hot air balloon for a long time gradually gave one a suffocating feeling.
At this moment, on the simple map, Xu Huo had not yet covered a quarter of the distance to Twin Cities Point A.
Cao Qinglin's condition fluctuated after being poisoned. The antidote only lasted for half an hour, and every thirty minutes, she had to take a new dose. With the poison and internal injuries, and lacking a good environment for recuperation, her state was even worse than it had been on the train.
Fortunately, after three hours, the hot air balloon finally left the swamp zone. Without the fog barrier obstructing them, the view ahead suddenly opened up, allowing them to see an abandoned city not far in the distance.
"Finally, a city. I wonder if there are still people inside," Qiu Ming said.
As they drew closer, they could see the outer perimeter of the city was lined with iron fences.
The fences, dozens of meters high, were covered with sharp blades, with three layers of iron mesh inside and out. However, many places were damaged. No bones or anything like that were visible, but some animal fangs and claws were still stuck in the mesh, uncleaned and covered in old stains.
"Was this place breached by xenomorphs?" Cao Qinglin looked down as well. The hot air balloon was now near the city's edge. From this position, they could clearly see the city's dilapidated appearance. Because there was no vegetation nearby and the climate was unsuitable for plant growth, even the greenery had turned into rows of withered, decaying grass. Occasionally, a gust of wind would sweep through, and the dead branches and leaves would crumble like ancient paper.
The entire city looked gray and dusty. Whether it was the buildings, the vehicles parked on the ground, or anything else, everything was covered in sand and dust. Not a single person was visible, not even a mutated animal.
The hot air balloon passed over the iron mesh and proceeded along the main avenue in the middle of the city. But then, a hissing sound of air leaking came from above the balloon, and the glass cabin hanging below began to sway.
"The item is failing. We need to go down." Before the hot air balloon could completely descend, Xu Huo retracted the item, used the String to pause briefly in mid-air, and then landed smoothly on the ground.
Qiu Ming was carrying Cao Qinglin, and the two of them used a parachute item. They were a bit slower, landing beside Xu Huo a few seconds later. Qiu Ming looked around warily, "I don't sense anyone else."
Xu Huo indicated that he hadn't found anyone either.
Cao Qinglin said, "It might be jamming devices set up in the city. Some districts, to prevent aerial attacks from outside players, simply block the airspace. Although this city is abandoned, the devices might not have failed."
"It looks pretty big. Finding the jamming devices might be difficult," Qiu Ming said, looking around.
"Don't bother. Let's just go on foot." Xu Huo glanced at a tilted car by the roadside. "With luck, we might find a usable vehicle."
So the three of them walked forward along the main street, leaving three trails of footprints on the dusty ground.
The dust in the air fell like fine snow, and it seemed that before long, the fresh footprints were already covered by a thin layer.
They didn't walk fast. Qiu Ming said, "Be careful not to step into a random instance."
The entrances to random instances have no fixed form. Sometimes they might be objects, other times simply designated areas. Often, even instruments have difficulty detecting them because the entrances to some random instances aren't always open.
However, for Xu Huo, who had already mastered spatial power, he could somewhat distinguish special items. Items that represented random instance entrances often had different spatial rays from the surrounding things, making them quite conspicuous—he had checked the vicinity when they landed, and there was nothing suspicious.
At least, nothing obvious on the surface.
The signs of fighting on the main street were very old. Dust had settled an inch or two thick in many places, but there were no bones or xenomorph corpses to be seen. This was a city that had been attacked by xenomorphs. Whether the xenomorphs or the people had cleaned up the bodies at the outer fence, the city streets shouldn't be this "clean."
"There's a parking lot down here." Qiu Ming had discovered an underground passage. The entrance was blocked by an iron gate covered in cloth strips. As soon as he lifted the iron gate, a shriveled head suddenly fell out from the tangled cloth!
Qiu Ming was startled and instinctively kicked the corpse that was falling towards him. The thing was already desiccated. With one kick, it crumbled all over the ground, completely falling apart before it had rolled three meters away.
"So that's why there are no bodies. Someone moved them to hidden places," he said, trying to cover his embarrassment. "I thought it was a living person!"
"Probably moved inside to avoid attracting xenomorphs," Cao Qinglin said matter-of-factly. "It's dry and hot here, so the bodies desiccate quickly."
"But isn't it a bit strange?" Qiu Ming had already walked into the underground passage, puzzled. "Since someone cleaned the streets, it means not everyone in this city died. If there was a mass evacuation, why are all these cars still on the streets?"
"It might have been a government-organized relocation, using large vehicles to transport people." The underground passage was pitch black. Cao Qinglin turned on a light and saw Xu Huo trying to pry open the iron door at the end of the passage, so she shone the light over.
With a dull thud, the chains on the iron door snapped. As soon as Xu Huo pushed the door open, half a human head tumbled down from above, its body hanging halfway up, dangling right in front of his face.
He stared into the dark, empty eye sockets for a moment, then pushed the corpse aside and turned to the two behind him, saying, "Be careful."
Cao Qinglin and Qiu Ming exchanged a glance and followed him into the parking lot.
But once inside, they were a bit stunned. Compared to the cleanliness outside, the inside looked like it had been attacked by xenomorphs. A large number of wrecked vehicles were chaotically crammed together, and scattered corpses were everywhere. The pillars and ceiling were covered in scratch marks and stains, giving a clear idea of how tragic the situation had been.
"Did xenomorphs do this?" Qiu Ming stopped in front of a female corpse holding a child.
"The people in this city mutated," Xu Huo said, looking around. "Most died killing each other. You can tell from some of the corpses—the finger bones and teeth have varying degrees of damage, but there are no animal features. The mutation didn't last long."
"Were they locked in here?" Cao Qinglin was a bit surprised. After a pause, she added, "One iron door couldn't hold that many evolved humans. It was probably players who did it."
"There are too many people," Qiu Ming said. "I've never seen a district have such a large number of mutations at once."
Generally, if attacked by xenomorphs, the number of deaths would definitely exceed the number of infected. Only a large-scale evolution or a special infection could cause so many people to degenerate at the same time.
"I've heard of it. Some places, to quickly increase the number of players, trick ordinary people into getting injections of evolved blood under the guise of vaccines. In such a case, half the city's population could start evolving in a day or two."
Cao Qinglin said.
(Chapter End)