CHAPTER 351: CHAPTER 348: [NONE OF THEM] (FOURTH UPDATE, REQUESTING MONTHLY VOTES~)

Chapter 348: None of Them

After the Neon man had spoken, he stepped back a few paces, moving to Chen Nuo’s side, and whispered, "Please make sure to take me with you... I definitely won’t hold you back."

Chen Nuo looked at the Neon man with some surprise—Well, okay, the idea was actually first voiced by him.

Seeing that Chen Nuo didn’t speak, the Captain also didn’t object, letting the Neon man stand at his side.

In the crowd, everyone had complex expressions, but the most conflicted was Rebecca.

This woman was tormented... deep down, she also had the impulse to drop out and join the Captain.

But...

With the severe cold about to strike, how could one survive on the surface without going to the underground facilities?

The Captain hadn’t said he had any plan, had he?

Moreover... it seemed obvious he didn’t want to say.

The Wizard spoke up, "Captain, do you have a plan?"

"I don’t have one at the moment, but my judgment tells me not to go down," the Captain replied calmly.

The Wizard frowned, staring at the Captain and slowly said, "If you’re willing to share your plan, perhaps Li Qiang and I can cooperate..."

"No, I really don’t have a detailed plan, but I think we can stay above and try our luck," the Captain said.

Okay then.

Actually, compared to Nolan, the Wizard was more willing to cooperate with the Captain.

After all, a Controller is more trustworthy.

But if the Captain couldn’t present any specific plans, that was another matter.

After a moment’s hesitation, the Wizard nodded, "Then I wish you good luck."

With the Wizard saying this, Nolan’s expression became even uglier.

He couldn’t possibly force a Controller to stay!

Among these people, the only one who could exert some level of restraint on the Captain was the Wizard.

"...Alright," Nolan took a deep breath, barely maintaining his composure, and coldly said, "Then I can only wish you good luck, Captain."

He ignored Chen Nuo and Kamisou Ichiro.

In his view, a Controller might have a chance to survive the imminent severe cold...

But the other two, in his eyes, were already dead.

* * *

The division of the team greatly diminished the morale of Nolan’s group, but they still followed Nolan into the elevator bay.

As the circular blast-resistant electronic gate outside closed...

Rebecca suddenly felt a surge of impulse—she thought she might have made the wrong choice!

But, she forcefully suppressed the impulse, watching helplessly as the blast door closed.

She glanced to her side and saw the figure of the Wizard...

Maybe it wasn’t a mistake?

After all, there was still a Controller there.

* * *

Chen Nuo, the Captain, and Kamisou Ichiro watched the blast door close.

"Now... can you talk about your plan?"

Now that it was just them and Kamisou Ichiro, the Captain dropped the pretense and asked Chen Nuo directly, "What exactly is going on?"

Kamisou Ichiro raised his eyebrows and looked at the two men with a strange gaze.

Chen Nuo shook his head, "I’m still thinking... but I’m sure I’ll find a way."

Of course, I still have a way.

Teleportation!

But Chen Nuo wasn’t planning on using this trump card immediately.

There were still too many secrets in this base that Chen Nuo hadn’t figured out.

After all, he came to find the Mother.

If it was merely a matter of survival...

He didn’t need to come to Antarctica at all.

* * *

The three of them returned to the command hall outside.

Standing at the door and taking a look, the flames in the firebreak strip outside were gradually dying down.

The monsters, however, were no longer crowding around the perimeter but had retreated. Only around the pit in the distant warehouse area were a few monsters lingering, roaring from time to time.

"The other monsters might have all gone back underground..." Kamisou Ichiro said slowly.

"You are very suspicious," Chen Nuo said bluntly, staring at Kamisou Ichiro. "You’ve been acting too calm all along, Mr. Kamisou Ichiro!"

"Oh?" the Neon man said slowly. "I’m sorry, this is just my personality. If it has caused you any burden, there’s nothing I can do about it."

Chen Nuo gave the man another look, and suddenly a thought struck him. In a low voice, he said in Chinese, "Yiyi?"

Kamisou Ichiro frowned at Chen Nuo. "Mr. Anderson, what are you saying?"

Chen Nuo: "..."

Well, it’s not my wife.

Chen Nuo felt a mix of disappointment and relief.

It seemed that Lu Xixi had indeed listened to him and had not come to Antarctica this time.

Good, very good.

"The temperature is negative sixty-seven degrees!" the Captain shouted. "And it’s still dropping! What do we do now?"

Chen Nuo looked at the Captain and said slowly, "We head to the central control equipment area!"

"Ah?"

"To find Diamond! Lillian! I don’t believe a Controller could die that easily in an explosion! Nor do I believe a Controller could be so easily killed by monsters or mutants! Even in death, a Controller’s final battle should make a lot of noise!"

Chen Nuo took a deep breath and declared his decision.

The Captain sighed, "Alright, I have no objections. I’ll follow your lead."

Kamisou Ichiro looked at the two with confusion, then suddenly showed a strange expression. "You two, who is really the BOSS?"

"What do you think?!" the Captain replied irritably.

Kamisou Ichiro nodded, looking seriously at the Captain. "...I’m sure now. It’s definitely not you."

The Captain: "..."

「Outside the base.」

The blood on the ground had already solidified and frozen.

The convoy’s snow vehicles were parked there. The ice field was silent, save for the sound of the wind.

Bodies left on the ground, even severed limbs, had been abandoned there, now encased in a layer of ice crystals.

Finally, a slight movement came from under one of the vehicles.

A twisted body was harshly flipped over, its head tilted to one side and its neck broken, dangling lifelessly.

An arm raised, the sleeve of the parka torn, revealing a thick and sturdy arm with dense hair!

Fingers clutched the edge of the snow vehicle tightly, then the fingers tensed, muscles on the arm tightened, and the body was forcefully pulled out.

Vanel, the Davarishi, the valiant Bear Warrior, gasped as he crawled out from underneath.

His cold-weather gear was torn, showing bite marks in numerous places. His arms, neck, and face also bore scratch marks.

The worst area was his face, where a scratch had nearly torn through his cheekbone, splitting the flesh of his face apart!

Vanel forced himself to stand up using the vehicle for support, his body wobbling before finally stabilizing.

The device on his wrist had been shattered, and the earpiece had long been lost.

He staggered a few steps, checked the body of a mutant for a communicator, then threw it away in disappointment and went to search for another...

Finally, inside a snow vehicle, he found the corpse of the unfortunate technician to whom he had given liquor and took the communicator from his neck.

Leaning against the vehicle, Vanel couldn’t remain standing and slowly sat down, catching his breath before taking out the flask.

Fortunately, it’s intact.

Unscrewing the cap, Vanel downed the contents of the flask in one go, feeling the soul of the fighting nation reignite within him.

He started to climb into the vehicle and then took out a set of cold-weather gear—he quickly stripped it off the dead body and put it on himself.

Having passed out after the previous fight, Vanel knew his condition from hypothermia was already very bad.

He had already used his powers; his strength was exhausted.

That swig of vodka could only add a mental BUFF to the Russian bear of a man; of course, shouting "Ura" a couple of times at the right moment might also help.

"Hey... Is anyone there?" Vanel pressed the communicator...

"Hey... This is the convoy..."

"Hello? This is Vanel! Damn it, is there anyone there? Answer!!"

"...Sukabule!"

Vanel helplessly threw the communicator aside.

Looking towards the interior of the base, there was fire and smoke in the distance...

He staggered up, picked a snow vehicle with an intact door, climbed in, and closed the door.

After turning on the heating system, Vanel, shivering, took out two high-calorie Energy Bars from the supply bag, quickly tore them open, stuffed them into his mouth, and chewed furiously, swallowing them with effort.

Finally, with the last of his strength, he pressed hard on the horn of the vehicle...

* * *

"Did you hear something?" Chen Nuo abruptly turned, his eyes gazing into the distance...

"?" The Captain and Kamisou Ichiro both shook their heads.

The three of them were walking in an underground ruin.

This was the area Diamond’s team was responsible for at the start of the mission: the central control equipment center.

This was not a surface module but an excavated underground area.

Of course, it was not as deep as the place Nolan and the others were currently heading to.

In the underground chamber where the central control equipment center was located, pipes lined the surrounding walls, and in the distance, a light flickered faintly.

The three had been walking for more than five minutes but soon reached the end.

The passage ahead had collapsed in an explosion, but some metal pipes had formed various-sized gaps within the rubble.

The three could only walk through these gaps with difficulty; in many places, they were so narrow that they had to bend over or even crawl.

Chen Nuo led the way, extending his Spiritual Force Tentacles ahead while continuously using Telekinesis to move and clear obstacles, forging a passable path for them.

The central control’s equipment was now not far ahead, no more than twenty steps away.

A large device, resembling several connected boilers, had been torn apart in the explosion, its top third completely blown open.

Another section of piping had also been completely twisted and shattered, with some fragments remaining on the ground.

"There are no holes or tunnels dug by monsters here," Chen Nuo said quickly. "Diamond’s team probably wasn’t attacked by monsters here."

"Even if there was an attack, bodies should have been left behind," the Captain frowned. "Lillian is very strong, but she had others in her group, including two ordinary technicians."

"Perhaps the bodies were eaten by monsters?" Kamisou Ichiro replied in his usual deadpan tone.

"What about the blood? Did they lick it all clean too?" The Captain retorted irritably.

The drop in temperature was starting to overwhelm the cold-weather gear.

But the three of them were Ability Users, so their endurance was much stronger than that of ordinary people; for now, they were fine.

"Maybe those monsters just like to lick bloodstains," Chen Nuo shrugged. Walking at the front, he added in a low voice without turning around, "This place is very strange... If there were no monster attacks, how did the central control equipment explode?"

"Residual fuel might have still been stored inside after the equipment was shut down. Perhaps when they tried to restart it, an operational error caused the explosion," Kamisou Ichiro frowned. "And... the resulting high temperature would have kept the monsters away... Don’t forget, when we set fires outside the command hall, the monsters didn’t dare approach."

"Makes sense. But we still need to find that woman first," Chen Nuo sighed. "I always feel that she might have discovered something."

The Captain followed Chen Nuo. After walking a bit further, the three of them stood before the exploded central control equipment—the large, boiler-like device—and looked around.

"Check around for any traces," Chen Nuo ordered softly.

The Captain immediately complied.

Kamisou Ichiro didn’t refuse, but he still gave the two a strange look.

A moment later, they found nothing.

"No bodies, no bloodstains, not even footprints," the Captain shook his head. "It’s like Lillian’s team vanished into thin air."

Chen Nuo felt a heaviness in his heart.

But his personality was such that, in these kinds of situations, he tended to make snarky remarks to lighten the mood.

After thinking, Chen Nuo gave a wry smile and said, "Maybe the bloodstains really were licked clean by those monsters?"

The other two didn’t say anything.

However, at that moment, a voice suddenly echoed in Chen Nuo’s mind, within his Consciousness Space.

"...No, they don’t like blood."

Chen Nuo tensed, spun around, and scanned his surroundings rapidly with wide eyes!

The Captain was taken aback. "What’s wrong?"

Chen Nuo’s expression was grim as he made a sharp gesture with his hand.

"...A Chosen One, what an unexpected surprise."

The voice resounded in his mind again.

Chen Nuo took a deep breath. "Captain, Kamisou Ichiro, did you hear anything?"

They both replied, "...No."

Chen Nuo’s face suddenly showed a strange expression. "Spread out, let’s search in three different directions around here... and see what we find!"

The two didn’t refuse, and after exchanging glances, they followed Chen Nuo’s instructions and walked off in different directions.

A few steps later, Chen Nuo took a deep breath, and a thought crossed his mind.

Telepathic communication? What are you? A Seed? Or... the Mother?

"...Neither."

The voice in his mind seemed to carry a mix of complex emotions: a touch of helplessness, a hint of bitterness...

Then its reply made Chen Nuo’s expression change dramatically, and he stopped in his tracks.

"... I, am human."