As he heard the voice behind him, Hao Ren could only shake his head as he stood up. He saw a small group of soldiers standing about 10 m away from him; half a dozen rifles were pointed at him.
There were seven of them, and all were clad in uniformed, greyish black combat gear. They had all sorts of equipment, but it was clear that they were armed to the teeth. However, the surprising thing was the leader of the group who stood ahead of the rest. She looked 16 or 17 years old based on his first glance. Hao Ren was not sure if it was her extremely fine features, or she was really just a girl scout. She was holding a rifle, which was aimed at Hao Ren. Her grey hair was tied into a ponytail and her facial expression was stiff. Aside from the typical caution a soldier would have, Hao Ren could not read her expression at all.
Needless to say, Hao Ren was surprised that this was a place where children were also combatants, but after some thought, this was probably nothing to be surprised about. He spread his hands open to indiciate that he was not a threat. “Finally, the living… Don’t be so tensed.. I’m just a passerby.”
“What are you doing?” the MDT’s voice rang in Hao Ren’s head. “I sense that you are close by. Why aren’t you helping me?”
“Can’t you sense the movement around me?” Hao Ren kept an eye on the soldiers as he answerewd the MDT.
“I don’t know what when wrong, but my senses are very sluggish.” the MDT sounded very defeated. “I think something went wrong with the teleportation. It feels like only half of my conciousness was transferred over. I’m trying to reboot some of my systems.”
Hao Ren gave a mental ‘Oh’ before noticing the ‘girl scout’ was pointing towards him with her rifle. Her fellow soldiers fanned out towards him from both sides. With a stiff look, she asked. “Name yourself. Are you a mercenary or a scavenger? Are you a natural or an evolved?”
Hao Ren had no idea what she was talking about, but in order to learn more of the place, he tried to talk with the soldiers before him. “I have no idea what are you talking, I’m just passing through. Would’ve stayed away if I knew there was fighting here.”
“Good luck finding someplace without any fighting.” A soldier in a full helmet laughed. A slight echo followed his voice. He then used a device attached to his rifle to give Hao Ren a scan before turning back towards the girl. “Nolan, seems like a civilian.”
“A civilian?” the girl named Nolan finally had some form of expression on her face. She frowned as she came to check things out. Hao Ren noticed that her gloves have some micro-device that was glittering. Nolan swiped the device two meters away from him: seems like it was a high-grade scanner. “No signs of combat nerve, there’s not even the most basic of microchips?” Nolan gave Hao Ren a shocked look, her grip on her rifle tightened. “Are you a hardline natural?”
Hao Ren was trying to process what the mercenaries were on about on the fly as he tried to lower their guard against him. “I’m probably what you call a natural, but I don’t think I’m a hardliner…”
No matter which world it is, hardliners are not welcomed. This Hao Ren could at least be very sure of.
“Hardline or not.” Nolan glanced at Hao Ren. “Civilians should not be here. But us mercs don’t care too much, just that you are not a combantant is fine. It’s dangerous here, leave. If you can make your way in here, you can get out too.”
Nolan said as she turned towards her squad to leave. Seeing so, Hao Ren called out to them. “Eh, wait up! Can I come along?”
A soldier lifted his rifle slowly as he gave Hao Ren a suspicious look.
Seems like all of them are rather twitchy. How long has this battle has been going on?
Hao Ren immediately gestured that he meant no hostility as he tried to cook up some stories to approach the mercenaries (based on what Nolan said, these group are one of the mercs). “Those that came with me are all dead, I won’t be able to get out of here alive.”
“Our service is not free.” Nolan said as she pointed towards the logo on her chest. “The Righteous Grey Fox’ company. If your price is right, we can do business. Since you actually dare to show up here, you probably know how we operate.”
Hao Ren heaved a sigh of relief. His instincts have been right. Mercenaries are one of the easiest group to approach, if your price is right.
This was what he learned from Becky.
And Becky even specifically mentioned this to him: If you ever end up in a foreign world, as long as your actions are not too suspicious, getting a mercenary band as your entry point is possibily the smartest move. As long as the price is right, or not meeting anything that would lead them to turn on you, mercenaries are the best bodyguards and guides. They won’t ask too many questions, and as long as the employer is not a bumbling halfwit, they would be glad to entertain their employer’s whims, as long as the price is right.
Of course, this is incumbent on the mercenaries having some work ethics.
Hao Ren spread his hand open. “I don’t have cash with me, but does other things work?”
“Jewellery? Gold?” Nolan gave Hao Ren a distrusting look. “An escapee with money? Alright, that’s fine. But those things are harder to get rid off, so give me a price that works.”
Hao Ren immediately pretend to fumble in his pocket before pulling out a piece of gold and throwing it towards Nolan. It was a piece he took from Tannagost.
Nolan and her men were all stunned. All of them eyed Hao Ren as the solder in the full face helmet spoke. “You… You are out and about with this nugget of gold?”
Only after the question was popped did Hao Ren belatedly realise that his actions were not normal. A person who had not bring anything with him but having half a catty of gold with him? That’s not something a normal person would do…
But he had no way to weasel himself out this time around. He nodded stiffly. “Things are a bit complicated, and there’s no easy way to explain this. So… does this suffice?”
Nolan nodded as she lifted her rifle. “I’m not sure if you are plain naive or what… What makes you think that it would not be easier just to shoot you dead and take your gold?”
The soldiers all started chuckling, a few of them had lifted their rifles.
Hao Ren had thought of this happening when he pulled the gold nugget out, but he never thought things would actually progress the old fashioned way. “Well, if that’s the case, feel free to shoot. But I think that after the first shot you’d find the gate to a new world opening, but I must add, you guys sure have no creativity.”
“Wew, you’re actually not afraid?” Nolan stared back at Hao Ren before pursing her lips and putting the gun down. “Meh, there’s no fun teasing you then. Right, lets go. I’ve said, we are the righteous ‘Grey Fox’. You and your gold nugget is in good hands. If you ran into others, you might not be as lucky- Mr Naive Riche.”
This time around, it was Hao Ren’s turn to be surprised. But seeing how this group of mercs keeping to their creed was indeed a fortunate thing, for Hao Ren and them.
Nolan only then started inspecting the gold nugget. Normal person would not have brought such an item to pay for anything hence her first impression that it was a fake. But after some checks, she found that it was the real deal, yet she was perplexed. “Why is there so many tooth marks on this?”
Hao Ren thought for a bit and realised he could not tell Nolan that it was the work of the husky back home…
The mercenaries prepared to leave and Nolan gave her new employer a hand signal for him to follow. Hao Ren suddenyl remembered something as he called out. “A mooment, I’ve dropped something, it’s just close by.”
Nolan gave a slightly disgruntled look. “Quickly! Don’t tarry!”
Hao Ren waved back as he ran towards the rubble about ten odd meters away based on the signal that the MDT was broadcasting. The soldiers too followed out of curiosity.
Before him was a series of collapsed buildings and the carters nearby was still warm. It seems like they were only destroyed not too long ago. Hao Ren could feel that the signal came from within. That brick sure had chosen a nice place to land.
Hao Ren bent down to move the shattered cement blocks away. “That thing you’re looking for, it’s underneath there?” Nolan asked.
Hao Ren gave a silent nod as he tried to dig through the rubble as humanly as possible. Two of the mercenaries were kind souls and went ahead to help him. It didn’t take long for a big enough hole to be cleared and the MDT’s signal was before him.
But yet, Hao Ren was stunned by the sight within the ruins.
It was not his flying brick.
It was a person.