Chapter 185: Arrival
Translator: Editor:
They did not encounter any new dangers along the way, and Luo Yuan was slightly relieved.
He rummaged in his pocket, taking out the things he had taken from the giant: a small dark, green horn and a pair of elastic eyeballs the size of an egg.
The small horn had a smooth surface that looked crystal clear and felt like warm jade in his hand. It looked extraordinary.
Luo Yuan used the identification technique on it.
“Green Hidden Creature's Sharp Horn"
“Rarity: Light Green.”
“Weight: 500 grams”
“Additional Properties: 1. Absorbs various energy waves;
2. Creates visual illusions.”
“Remarks: The Green Hidden Creature is a creature with low-intelligence. It is a killer in the dark, a mysterious creature not known to most people. It can hide and disappear under any circumstances, and neither ultrasonic waves nor the naked eye can detect it, all thanks to its small horn.”
“So that’s the reason why,” Luo Yuan thought to himself. The reason why his Sensory Perception had not been able to detect the giant was this small horn.
While he held the horn in his hand, he could see it with his eyes, but he could not sense it. It was rather strange, actually. Its effective range did not just include the horn itself. The horn's touch had also wrapped around his whole body, creating a dead zone within his Sensory Perception range.
It was another method the horn used to hide. However, he had no idea how it created visual illusions. He would have to test it further to find out.
Nevertheless, Luo Yuan was still delighted.
He was not the only one to have Sensory Perception. Every evolved person and mutated beast had it, although some individuals or creatures' Sensory Perception might be stronger or weaker than others'. The ability to hide oneself from other creatures' Sensory Perception would help a lot in assassinating or hiding from potential danger. Besides, not all mutated beasts observed using their eyes. Some of them, such as bats, used ultrasonic waves. If he encountered such a beast, he would have an advantage over it if he used that ability before the battle.
Next, he identified the giant's eyeballs.
“Green Hidden Creature's Eyeballs”
“Usage: Food Ingredient”
“Rarity: Light Green”
“Weight: 100 grams”
“Additional Properties: 1. Slightly enhances human eyesight;
2. Gives the eyes a certain chance to evolve.”
“Remarks: This is the eyeball of the Green Hidden Creature. The Green Hidden Creature can shoot deadly beams through its eyes and wipe off one’s spirit. Its eyeball is also a rare medicine. Consuming it could greatly enhance your eyesight and give you a certain chance to experience an unusual evolution.”
Both things had strong effects, and their value was much higher than that of regular light green level beasts.
However, Luo Yuan was still feeling depressed. The words “low-intelligence being” were still circling in his mind like a bone down his throat.
This was not good news. The appearance of an intelligent species, even though it was only a low-level one, would only worsen the already dangerous conditions that the humans were facing.
Luo Yuan's face became serious as he looked at the two eyeballs. He took one, put it in his mouth and chewed it. Some liquid burst out of the eyeball, although Luo Yuan could not describe its taste. He chewed for a while, and then swallowed before eating the second one.
When Chen Jiayi, who had been observing Luo Yuan, watched him casually put the two giant eyeballs into his mouth and chewed them indifferently, she was shocked. Her stomach churned, and she turned around, not daring to take another look.
Luo Yuan was not concerned about the thoughts of a little girl. After he had eaten the two eyeballs, he waited in silence for five minutes before something strange started happening to his eyes.
It began with a warm current entering them, and then his eyes became sour and itchy as if ants were nibbling on them. Luo Yuan's vision then turned blurry as if the images before his eyes were overlapping.
After fifteen minutes, the warm current in his eyes had reached its peak, and he started to experience a throbbing pain that felt a lot like burning flames. By now, the heart of an average person would have been filled with fear, and they would have started worrying that their eyes would get permanently damaged.
Luo Yuan, however, was not affected at all. He just closed his eyes and left them alone.
Half an hour later, the pain and itchiness had gone away.
Slowly, Luo Yuan opened his eyes again.
His surroundings had suddenly become very bright as if the light was glowing itself. The bright light gradually faded, and everything went back to normal.
Luo Yuan felt that like the whole world was different: dust fluttered in the air while mutated fish were swimming in the cloudy waters. Suddenly, he realized for the first time that the world was colorful and beautiful, even though it was still night.
The eyeballs had been as effective as he had expected. Luo Yuan felt that his abnormally good vision had become even better. He could now see things clearly under the dim, weak moonlight as if it was bright daylight.
Besides, he had noticed something else too.
The visible spectrum of the average person's naked eye was just between 380 nanometers and 780 nanometers, which was only a small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Therefore, during the night, without the reflection of the moon or the stars, the naked eye was pretty much useless.
It was not true that there was no light at night. The problem was that those light wavelengths were usually smaller than 380 nanometers, and thus not visible to the human eye. In fact, if an object had any temperature, it persistently released electromagnetic waves. Therefore, one could use an infrared lens to observe the scenery at night.
Also, the average person could not see high-energy lights with wavelengths higher than 780 nanometers either. That kind of light was called ultra-violet light.
To Luo Yuan, each object now seemed to have two types of colors interwoven with each other; one was the moonlight reflected from the object while the other one was the invisible light produced by it.
The former was stronger and more dazzling, while the latter was very weak, looking as if it could be extinguished at any time. This meant that Luo Yuan could still see things in the complete darkness, and could also identify the temperature of each object by their difference in color.
This was actual night-vision.
Unfortunately, he'd only had two eyeballs. Perhaps his eyes could evolve even further if he got himself some more, Luo Yuan thought silently.
Nevertheless, he knew that it would be pure luck before he would come across a beast like this again. Plus, the giant was not a creature that he could kill easily. He could fail miserably if he were not careful.
Although the seawater had covered more than half of Hucheng City, its depth was still shallow, so there were no stronger marine beasts around yet. The terrestrial mutated beasts had already migrated, so no forces were occupying any part of Hu City.
As a result, they did not encounter any danger along the way.
After they had traveled for two hours, the water surface started becoming smaller, and they even saw exposed ground surface.
By that time, it was already 2 a.m. The area was so silent that they could not even hear the sounds of insects or the howling of the beasts that they had become familiar with.
Zhou Yicheng was sitting up, holding the map and observing it. As they got closer to their destination, he grew more impatient; his breathing was faster and continuous as he murmured, “Almost there, almost there… We’re going home.”
The soldiers were helping him carefully. Fortunately, they were not in a rush, and the speed of the giant lizard was not fast. Otherwise, Zhou Yicheng would have fallen off.
Luo Yuan realized that his mental condition was a bit off. He grew worried as he looked at his weak body. He would probably slip off and fall if the wind blew too hard.
Wang Shishi pursed her lips. She could not help but say, “You told us that we were almost there half an hour ago. Why are you repeating it? Honestly, when are we going to get there?”
“Shut up,” Luo Yuan said, staring at her.
Grinning, Wang Shishi turned around to show him the back of her head. If this had been before, her eyes would have probably turned red and she would have burst into tears. As her strength increased though, her fear towards Luo Yuan decreased. Scolding her like this was no longer effective. Wang Shishi did not act as cute as she used to anymore.
“This time we’re really close. We’ll be there soon.” Zhou Yicheng’s mouth was trembling. His face was blushing as his fingers swiped excitedly back and forth over the map. Suddenly, he swiped too hard, leaving a few scratches on the map before he pressed on a certain place. “It’s right here. This should be it. Eight more kilometers… No, five more kilometers.”
As they heard him, they all got excited and worried at the same time.
“Battalion Commander Zhou, what do you think? Will they let us enter?” Huo Dong said carefully after a while. Most civilians were in awe of military bases, even more so of the secret military base built following the enemy’s infiltration of the community.
“They should let us in. We are the survivors after all,” Wang Xiaguang said uncertainly.
“Soldiers have to obey orders. Besides, they’re supposed to be transporting equipment, not saving survivors. If they turn us away, what are we going to do?” Huang Jiahui said worriedly.
“It’s still too early to discuss this. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Luo Yuan said firmly, glancing at Zhou Yicheng.
At Luo Yuan’s glance, Zhou Yicheng suddenly realized that these people were not ordinary civilians. If the military base turned them away, they could initiate a terrifying battle.
He did think it was a possibility, but until then, he had been consciously denying the issue. He had been seriously underestimating Luo Yuan and his team’s strength.
As he thought of Luo Yuan’s speed, which was so fast, he had not even been able to see his figure while he had been fighting the green giant, Zhou Yicheng started trembling.
As they reached the road to the rural area, they could finally see the rolling hills up ahead.
Apparently, the secret military base was located somewhere among those hills.
It was obvious, judging by the recently built tar road and the black tire marks on its surface.
The defense had also been fortified by posts filled with gun tubes, which had been built at very short distance intervals.
Spotted from afar, an enormous tube turned quickly towards the giant lizard. The soldiers had probably seen the people sitting on it and thus held their fire. However, that was still enough to make everyone’s faces white as a sheet. Even Luo Yuan broke out in cold sweat; he sure did not want to be shot by a cannon.
Soon, an army car came out from the post and stopped at a location about ten meters away from the giant lizard. Two fully-armed soldiers wearing night vision goggles jumped out of the car fast and made a hand sign, asking them to get down from the lizard.
Luo Yuan hesitated for a while before he ordered the giant lizard to lie down so they could get off.
“Which battalion you are in, and where are you coming from?” As they noticed the army uniforms Zhou Yicheng and some others were wearing; the soldiers became more friendly than they had been a moment ago.
Zhou Yicheng broke loose from the soldiers supporting him and made a precise military salute. “We are survivors of the 21st Army, 18th Special Force, 312th Battalion; I am the Major and Battalion Commander, Zhou Yicheng.”
“We salute you, Head of our comrades!” the two soldiers replied solemnly with a military salute.
“Lieutenant Comrades, please don't call me head yet. It’s a shame. Just Battalion Commander Zhou will do.” Zhou Yicheng waved his hands as he smiled bitterly. “The conditions in Jiangnan Province were too miserable, and the whole 21st army was completely broken up. We are here asking for your help.”
The faces of the two soldiers became more solemn as respect flickered in their expressions. One of them said, “Battalion Commander Zhou, you must be tired after such a long journey. Welcome home. The others must be the survivors; it must have been hard getting here. We’ll get a car to bring you in.”
The whole process was unbelievably smooth, yet also right and proper. Other than requesting that the giant lizard stay somewhere down the hill, the soldiers did not say anything else. They just had them board a truck and depart towards the military base.
The hills surrounding the area were bald. They had obviously been cleaned thoroughly repeatedly.
The truck had been driving for less than ten minutes when the road suddenly became very wide, its foundation becoming thicker. Several roads went over the hillside, supported by a massive bridge pier. The road had rough signs all the way up the hillside.
Looking at it from there, they saw a huge hole dug out of the hillside. All the earth in it had been removed.
However, what had attracted their attention were the unbelievably thick, large tire marks and the surrounding, strongly fortified defense. When Luo Yuan saw the watchtowers built every 100 meters and the missiles launching trucks at the end of the road, his hair stood on end.
“This is the runway for the transport plane. You can all board the plane for the next departure,” a soldier on guard explained as he saw Luo Yuan and everyone else looking around curiously.