Chapter Nineteen: Into Battle

No matter how fiercely Carter swore and threatened, the mission had to go on. At night, the mutated creatures became more active, and far more ferocious. Fortunately, however, the reputation of the Seven Titans was well earned. Except for Ferrin, who had slept soundly and left the Wilderness Alliance short-handed, the other zones had successfully repelled the enemy and held their ground. When dawn broke, reinforcements from Zone Nine took over the defensive lines, and after a brief rest, the others pressed onward.

But compared to the rest, the members of the Black Dog Squad found themselves at a loss.

After a restful night’s sleep and a steaming breakfast, Eluca immediately sought out Ferrin for instructions regarding their next task. Though they still knew little about this new commander, everything Ferrin had done for them so far had earned their trust. As members of the Black Dog Squad, both Eluca and Kurona were eager to show their abilities to their new leader. Despite their youth, each harbored a strong sense of pride. If they chose, they could have easily left behind the dangers of the wild for a comfortable life—after all, for girls like them, a clean face and a touch of beauty would open many doors. Yet, they had chosen to keep fighting on the frontier, a choice the adults might see as naive or even foolish. But then, isn’t that the kind of mistake only the young can afford to make?

What left Eluca exasperated, however, was Ferrin’s offhand response to her request.

“Just keep doing what you usually do.”

Keep doing what we usually do?

Eluca was speechless. In the past, their squad leader always took on the responsibility of accepting missions; the rest of them just had to see them through. But their eldest sister and captain had perished in the last battle, which was precisely why headquarters had assigned them a new commander. They’d hoped he would direct them, but now it seemed everything was back where it started.

With no other choice, Eluca forced herself to approach the frontline assault teams, asking if there was anything they could help with. The Black Dog Squad had always supported the vanguard, so this wasn’t out of line. Yet to Eluca’s frustration, the assault team leader—who normally seemed all too eager to send people to their deaths—had a sudden change of heart. “Everything goes according to your commander’s orders; do whatever your commander instructs you to do.”

After going in circles, were they right back where they started?!

Left with no alternative, Eluca went through the usual procedures and reported to the front camp. As a sniper team, it was never their job to lead the charge. Instead, they took up positions at vantage points, scanning the surroundings to ensure the frontline didn’t fall into an ambush or trap. And when necessary, they would eliminate particularly dangerous targets from afar. Now, Eluca decided to continue with the same task—after all, every endeavor should have a proper end, and it was also a way to honor their fallen sister.

The handover at the frontline camp went smoothly. “As long as your commander agrees, there’s no problem,” was the reply. So Eluca, mustering all her courage, went to Ferrin once more. Truth be told, the decision weighed heavily on her. For a sniper squad like theirs to operate so far from the main force was a risky prospect; isolated, under attack, they could only rely on themselves, with little hope of backup. Eluca half-expected Ferrin to object, but after listening to her report, Ferrin didn’t even bat an eye before issuing his order.

“Let’s go, Delin. Time to get to work.”

As a sniper team, the Black Dog Squad was highly professional. They chose an office building not far from the main force, half-collapsed in the earthquake, but the remaining structure was still sturdy. The monsters that had once lurked within had long since been killed or driven off by the vanguard, so the squad encountered no serious threats. They made their way to the roof via the emergency stairs. Eluca began searching for a secure anchor to rig a zipline for a quick escape if things went wrong, while Kurona and Chris prepared for observation and sniping.

Chris “Narcissus” had rejoined them that morning. Unlike the lively Eluca and animal-like Kurona, this short-haired girl was taciturn, keeping to herself and rarely speaking, even to Ferrin, who’d saved her life. She’d offered only a quiet thank you and left it at that. While Eluca worried this might offend Ferrin, he paid it no mind—the Seven Titans were known for their eccentricities, and compared to them, Chris’s quirks hardly counted.

As for Ferrin, he found a chair by the window and began leafing through Delin’s notes.

Eluca had no idea that after they’d retired for the night, Ferrin had retrieved Rose’s corpse and performed a meticulous dissection and examination, only to be surprised by the results.

Upon inspecting Rose, Narcissus, Tulip, and Lily, Ferrin found their bodies astonishingly clean—even the deceased Rose and the gravely wounded Narcissus showed no traces of mutated material. This was highly unusual. According to Eluca, they were born and raised in the wild, and even after joining the Blackstone Group, they spent most of their time fighting for survival on the frontier, hardly different from any other wasteland nomad.

Yet, the absence of mutation within them was bizarre.

Wasteland nomads almost always exhibited some degree of mutation, a result of living far from the protective reach of the energy networks. To use an imperfect analogy, the world was shrouded in toxic miasma, and the energy network served to purify it. The closer one was to the network’s center, the more thorough the purification; the farther away, the less protection, and the more likely one was to inhale poison and suffer mutation. This explained the savagery and brutality of most wastelanders: the mutated tissue within them eroded their health, eventually destroying them from the inside. It was akin to a cancer patient who, knowing the end was near, lived only for the moment—a bottle for today, nothing for tomorrow. Whether killed or left to die in agony on the wild plains, what difference did it make?

Yet Eluca and her companions, to Ferrin’s eyes, were as if they’d rolled around in toxic fumes without protection, eating and drinking their fill, and emerged unscathed. It simply defied logic.

Within Rose and Narcissus’ bodies, Ferrin found no abnormalities; all their organs were perfectly normal, with no signs of mutation. The answer, then, could only lie in their abilities or their genes. Unfortunately, Zone Nine lacked the necessary equipment, so Ferrin abandoned further research for now.

Who would have thought that a casual mission could yield such fascinating specimens...

Just as Ferrin pondered his next steps, the battlefield below erupted into chaos. Hundreds of zombies surged in from all directions, seeking to wipe out the human invaders. The defenders pressed forward behind makeshift barriers, as machine gun and artillery fire echoed across a hellish landscape.

Unfortunately, Eluca and her team played little part in the day’s fight. Instead, Kurona became the busiest among them.

The youngest of the group, appearing no more than ten, had awakened to a first-rank ability: Mental Detection, with a range of one kilometer. In essence, she was a living radar—capable of detecting and pinpointing any living or inanimate object within her radius. The squad’s continued survival owed much to her; a 24/7, thousand-meter human radar was nothing short of miraculous.

Unfortunately, her ability’s low rank meant that high-level mutants or abilities could evade her detection. The reason they’d been caught off-guard before was simply that the mutant’s level far surpassed Kurona’s, making it invisible to her senses. Still, on an open battlefield, her power was invaluable. The little girl stared wide-eyed across the battlefield, muttering the positions and numbers of enemies as they appeared, while Chris silently shifted her rifle, confirming each target and reporting concisely to the front line: bearing, numbers, direction—nothing more, nothing less. It was the mark of a true sniper.

Ferrin had already learned that this silent girl’s ability was Absolute Lock: once she marked a target, it could not escape her aim, and her bullets would track it unerringly until blocked or the target was hit.

Their fallen leader, Rose, had possessed Invisibility Field, an ability to cloak an entire group.

Invisibility, scanning, assassination—little wonder this squad had survived so long, facing nomads and monsters alike. Out in the wasteland, where energy was scarce and few beings could rise above the third rank, two third-rankers, a second-ranker, and a first-ranker with such complementary powers made for a formidable team.

But, regrettably, the dangers of the wasteland and those of the ruins were worlds apart.

Beep—beep—beep.

As Ferrin prepared to jot down a few more notes in his experimental log, a familiar call sounded in his ear. He looked up, and with a thought, a face appeared before him.

“Hello, Doctor.”

A bearded man, drenched in sweat, materialized before him. The rattle of machine-gun fire echoed nearby—the fighting below must have been fierce.

“What is it?” Ferrin asked.

“It’s like this…”

Though the lines looked secure, the man was visibly tense. He barked orders to his men before turning back with a wry smile.

“We’ve reached the target area…”

“Congratulations. When will you have it done?”

“Well…”

The man’s face soured, as if forced to swallow a bitter pill. He hesitated, then said,

“To be honest, we’ve run into some trouble here. We need your help…”