Chapter 657: 495

Chapter 657: 495

Weiss was somewhat curious.

“Then, why did you bring us over if you’re not afraid we’ll harm him?”

The woman gave a bitter smile and shook her head.

“I only found out after seeing you all, who would have thought that a recruitment company’s people would be carrying a truckload of weapons… But by then, it was already too late. Now, I can only hope that you will spare Andiyet; he really is a good person. If he did anything, it must have been under the coercion of that group!”

“Oh? The group you’re talking about, what kind of people are they?”

The woman shook her head and said:

“I don’t know, they were all dressed in black, and as soon as they came in they threatened Andiyet with weapons, forcing him to join the laboratory to participate in some kind of research. Even if he had the chance to come back to see me, there would always be someone with a gun following him, preventing him from escaping.”

“I see…”

Weiss’s expression turned grave, feeling that this base might be even tougher to crack than they had imagined.

He hesitated for a moment but ultimately couldn’t bring himself to tell the pitiful woman in front of him the truth about the situation.

He decided to leave this task to the poker-faced Mikel.

Mikel was injured, his arm still in a sling; he was unable to move with the rest of them.

Later, he would stay in the car, ready to provide back-up for them while taking the opportunity to inform this woman about the monsters.

Since he had a poker face, delivering such cruel news suited his character well.

Thinking this, Weiss led Anna and Ciro and set off towards the base not far away.

They were fully armed and ready for battle.

Whether it was against humans or monsters…

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…”

The river flowed, murmuring softly.

Near Guldegai, the environment was still relatively good; the phenomenon of desertification was not severe, and the presence of woods and small rivers was not uncommon.

In the woods, tropical birds chirped merrily, and a hazy mist surrounded the area, sketching out a beautiful morning scene.

The river was not large; its depth only came up to the waists of the group.

It was more of a large stream than a river, actually.

“Ah!”

A sudden scream rang out. Weiss was startled and quickly turned his head, only to see Ciro clutching his thigh in agony.

Below him, blood flowed out, staining the nearby waters red.

“Shit! Help me! There’s something in the water!”

Weiss didn’t hesitate; seeing a black shadow beneath Ciro, he immediately pulled the trigger.

“Dadadada!”

Several gunshots sounded, and his burst fire clearly hit the target.

But what followed the commotion here was more shadows.

“Retreat quickly!”

He bellowed and immediately rushed to help Ciro retreat towards the back.

Fortunately, they had just entered the river and hadn’t gone far, quickly making it back to the shore.

“Damn it, what the hell is this thing!”

Ciro’s face twisted in pain; hanging from his calf was the body of a dead monster.

It was a creature that looked strikingly like a catfish.

But unlike normal fish, it had claws similar to those of a gecko, along with black scales, giving its overall shape the appearance of an axolotl.

At this point, the monster was already dead, but its mouth was still clamped down on Ciro’s calf, refusing to let go.

Weiss and Anna helped him into the car, then found tools to pry the monster’s mouth open and tossed its body aside.

“Damn, another Mutant Beast! I wondered why there were so many rocks in the river; turns out they were all these things. We need to think of another way to get across.”

“How about I blow us across?”

As Anna spoke, she was simultaneously bandaging Ciro’s wound.

“No, that will create too much noise and easily draw their attention on the other side.”

Weiss shook his head, rejecting the proposal.

Meanwhile, Ciro, his face filled with grief, exclaimed:

“The great poet dies with a heart-wrenching scream, and they should use a Lemon clot for the shit taste!”

Anna’s face darkened upon hearing this, and she slapped him on the shin, eliciting a series of wails from him.

“What’s with the screaming? It’s clearly a case of ‘the student dies before the master achieves success, a hero in tears,’ can’t you stop talking nonsense, Ciro?”

The line they quoted was spoken in Chinese.

After joining the Star Alliance, in order to facilitate communication with others, they often practiced Chinese and even took time to attend an adult Chinese crash course.

Seeing Ciro’s state, Weiss knew he probably wasn’t seriously hurt.

However, under these circumstances, he definitely couldn’t join the action, which ironically fulfilled the line he’d just quoted.

“Weiss, now it’s just you and Anna left. How about we retreat for now, and we can move together again after Mikel and I have healed,” suggested Ciro.

Anna, who was nearby, responded without mercy:

“No way, we have to at least go and have a look, make proper reconnaissance markers. Besides, we don’t even know if your leg is broken yet. If you end up crippled, we’ll still be down one person.”

Ciro’s eyes went blank.

“Anna, how can you curse me like that!”

“I’m not, I’m just stating facts!”

Weiss frowned and thought for a moment before interrupting:

“Alright, I think Anna is right, we at least need to scout out the situation. We absolutely can’t return empty-handed… I just checked, the river isn’t deep. We can drive across it, and then the monsters inside won’t be able to touch us.”

“Hey, Weiss, I can’t believe you’re willing to let your wife wade into muddy waters like this. That’s surprising.”

Ciro looked at him with a surprised face.

Weiss gave him a disdainful glance.

“Quit the nonsense. Once you’re bandaged up, we’re setting off. Make sure you hold on tight and don’t break your leg again.”

Soon, ten minutes passed.

After everyone was ready, Weiss stepped on the gas, driving his cherished car straight toward the small river.

It had to be said, the performance of the Knight-class off-road vehicle was impressive.

The deepest part of the river completely submerged the tires, yet it didn’t hesitate at all, driving straight across.

All the way, bouncing around, sometimes accompanied by the sluggish feel of running over monsters, it was truly alarming for everyone.

The number of Mutant Beasts in the river was unexpectedly high.

Luckily, the off-road vehicle was powerful enough, and they crossed the small river successfully.

“Ciro, you guys stay here and keep a lookout for any unusual activity around. Call us immediately if anything happens,” Weiss instructed, then he and Anna set off towards the base not far away.

They were cautious along the way, fearing encountering any Mutant Beasts or traps, and the two of them passed through the dense thickets to the location mentioned by the wife.

“Is this, is this the base where they research Mutant Beasts…?”

Anna couldn’t help but let out a voice full of doubt as she pushed aside the bushes.

The sight in front of them was drastically different from what they had imagined.

There were no high-tech buildings, no hidden mountain doors, and certainly no armed guards.

What they saw was just a chaotic assemblage of wooden huts and several decomposing, stinking bodies.

“How can this be? We couldn’t have come to the wrong place, could we?”

Anna looked puzzled.

No wonder she reacted that way.

The cluster of wooden huts they saw didn’t look like a laboratory at all but rather an unknown small village.

“No, we haven’t come to the wrong place. Look at those bodies, they’re all wearing Tri-Colored Violet Research Institute clothes. And those cages, all showing signs of being broken out of, must have contained certain creatures previously.”

“Even these wooden huts, though made of wood on the outside, you can see that some rooms are fortified with composite materials.”

Weiss squinted as he surveyed the scene in front of him, providing an answer.

“According to the intel, after the Tri-Colored Violet Research Institute closed down, it didn’t dissolve immediately but was instead bought privately by a mysterious individual, and that was just three short months ago.”

“They wouldn’t have time to construct any high-tech labs in three months, especially while conducting experiments. Finding such a Hidden place was already quite impressive. This suggests that they were just a temporary makeshift research base.”

Anna came to understand as well.

Weiss was right; conducting experiments didn’t necessarily require the dazzling high-tech equipment seen in movies.

In a situation where the conditions didn’t allow it, they had to make do with these wooden huts for the early stages.