RotA – Chapter 12

Something happened in the Fifth District.

Chai Yuening stopped in her tracks on the way home.

The broadcast overhead repeated three times, and with each repetition, Chai Yuening’s brow furrowed deeper.

“Du Xia just went back yesterday. She and her grandmother are in the Fifth District!” Chai Yuening’s expression was grave.

She subconsciously took out her communicator to contact Du Xia, only to be met with a voice prompt: “The signal in the recipient’s area is temporarily unavailable.”

Just as the district broadcast had said, all contact with the Fifth District had been completely lost.

“Are we going to find her?” Chu Ci asked in a small voice.

“Yes, we have to go… We’ll go now!” Chai Yuening said, a flicker of confusion crossing her eyes before she immediately regained her composure. “All trains to the Fifth District will be suspended. We’ll have to drive there ourselves.”

The sudden broadcast had sent the residents of the Sixth District into a panic.

On their way back to the team’s base to get the vehicle, they saw some people unhurriedly continuing their business, but they also saw shops that had closed before nightfall, countless people with anxious faces dragging luggage as they rushed toward the train station, and mercenary armored vehicles that had suddenly appeared on the streets.

In truth, none of these people had any real direction.

If something truly catastrophic had happened to the Base, then aside from the main city with its most robust defenses, probably no outer district was truly safe.

All they could do was either wait where they were or proactively move to a district farther from the center of the incident to take refuge for a few days.

However, those who chose the latter option were unable to successfully board a train out of the Sixth District.

Barely fifteen minutes had passed since the alarm first sounded, and the entrance to the Sixth District’s train station had already been completely sealed off by security officers.

Those who wanted to leave with their luggage, and those inside the station who hadn’t had time to exit, were now separated by two police cordons at the entrance, waiting anxiously as they were placated by station security and district security officers.

For a moment, people were packed shoulder to shoulder, some complaining, others shouting curses.

Just as Chai Yuening and Chu Ci were hurrying past, a sudden gunshot shattered the fragile order.

The shot came from a distance. After the first, more than ten followed in quick succession, each one accompanied by the startled cries of the distant crowd.

Each report was like a searing flame, sending the crowds inside and outside the station into a panic, like ants on a hot griddle.

All at once, the figure of a mutated beast, pursued by gunfire and letting out a hoarse growl, appeared before everyone’s eyes.

The station’s electronic clock read 16:41.

Everyone, both inside and outside the station, scattered and fled.

The crowd surged.

Chai Yuening instinctively gripped Chu Ci’s hand.

The piercing gunshots rang like a doomsday bell in everyone’s heart.

The agile mutated beast weaved through the panicked crowd. It had sharp fangs and a vicious maw, four slender, humanoid forelegs, and hind legs as nimble as an ape’s. A scorpion-like tail grew from its base, and its back was covered in black scales that bullets could hardly penetrate.

The security officers blocking the entrance raised their guns in unison, aiming their muzzles at the exceptionally agile mutated beast.

In an instant, the color of blood bloomed like a flower before everyone’s eyes.

In just a few short minutes, the mutated beast fell, but the casualties were impossible to count in the moment.

Chai Yuening stood frozen at the station entrance, her gaze uncontrollably fixed on a little girl of about ten. The girl was clutching her mother, whose chest had been pierced by the scorpion tail, and crying so hard she could barely breathe.

That was just one among countless casualties.

The station broadcast crackled to life amidst the panicked din of the crowd.

“After investigation, the military discovered a mutated beast of an unknown class in the cockpit of train A50133, which passed through the Fifth District at 14:20 this afternoon. The beast has now been successfully eliminated. All passengers, there is no need to panic. All mutated beasts possess infectious capabilities. For your own safety and the safety of the Base, please do not move around. Cooperate with the military’s arrangements and proceed in an orderly manner to undergo injury examinations and infection testing.”

Civilian mercenaries with clearance to go outside were always a minority. The district was filled with far too many residents who had never seen a mutated beast. For them, this was the closest they had ever been to this kind of unknown terror in their entire lives.

Many people broke down instantly, some kneeling on the ground in a daze, others crying out loud.

This tranquility, so suddenly shattered, was far more unsettling than the appearance of some behemoth in the already perilous Fog Zone.

Having witnessed all this, Chai Yuening couldn’t help but take two deep breaths before turning to continue toward the team’s base.

“Those things from the surface have gotten in…” Chu Ci said, hurrying after Chai Yuening.

“That one just came from the Fifth District. If you come with me to the Fifth, you’ll see even more,” Chai Yuening said. “If you’re scared, you can stay…”

“I’m not scared!” Chu Ci interrupted. “I’ll go with you.”

Chai Yuening nodded, quickening her pace.

News that a mutated beast had appeared at the Sixth District train station had already spread.

In this time of widespread panic, the rolling shutter door of the Thirteenth Mercenary Team’s small base opened once again.

After resting for the better part of a month, the old armored vehicle, with a roar comparable to a tractor’s, welcomed a new mission.

On the less-than-spacious streets, one mercenary armored vehicle after another drove toward other districts.

Ordinary people wanted to flee, and so did the mercenary teams.

Only one vehicle headed toward the Fifth District, a place everyone else was desperate to avoid.

But just then, the communicator clipped to Chai Yuening’s waist suddenly rang.

She pressed the button with one hand to answer.

A strange man’s voice sounded, catching her off guard for a moment.

“Hello, is this Chai Yuening, captain of the Thirteenth Mercenary Team?”

“This is she.”

“Captain Chai, I’m the Chief Security Officer of the Sixth District, Cheng Shan. Most of the Sixth District’s military forces were dispatched to support the Fifth District at one in the afternoon. Now, we’re seeing rapid infection and mutation among the wounded at the train station. The situation is abnormal, and our security personnel may not have enough firepower. We need assistance from you mercenary teams!”

“…”

“Captain Chai!”

“…”

She knew a request for help like this couldn’t have been sent only to her.

She knew that if the situation was truly spiraling out of control, two more people wouldn’t change anything.

She knew some would accept, and some would refuse. Under these circumstances, even if she chose to refuse, to that security officer, it would just be one more disappointment among many.

In truth, she wanted to refuse. Compared to a multitude of strangers, she had a greater duty to find the teammate with whom she had faced life and death for so many years.

But in that moment, the chaotic scene at the station entrance filled her thoughts.

It was as if she could hear the little girl’s cries from the station once more, just like her own when she lost her closest kin as a child—so helpless, so despairing.

Chai Yuening bit through her lower lip.

After a brief hesitation, she calmed herself. “The Thirteenth Mercenary Team. We have two members remaining in the Sixth District.”

Cheng Shan: “Any number is good. The Sixth District needs you!”

Chai Yuening: “We’ll be there right away.”

Hanging up, Chai Yuening let out a long, trembling breath.

She wrenched the steering wheel, the sound of the tires screeching against the ground was piercing.

She said to Chu Ci, “We’re going back.”

Chu Ci looked at Chai Yuening, her lips pressing together slightly. She didn’t ask any questions, only silently clenched her fists.

She knew Chai Yuening wasn’t the type to abandon a teammate.

But she also knew that choices were difficult.

So she looked at Chai Yuening, her gaze firm. “Du Xia must be just like you, protecting those who need to be protected.”