c1 (1/2)
Chapter 1 – A Wolf
In the area that should have four seasons, in this new era, there were still four seasons. But their meanings were a bit different.
The meaning of spring was awakening. The large monsters were Violent Bears and Stone Dragons, whereas the small monsters were Blood-sucking Flies and Glowing Fleas. They would all awaken from their hibernation, and after being starved for an entire winter, naturally, they would be particularly violent. The danger level of the small guys such as the Blood-sucking Flies was not any lower than the danger level of the steel armored Violent Bears. In this time period, who knew how many epidemics there were that could swiftly cause a person to die? Pretty much every single type of them were bacterias and viruses, so it made the Blood-sucking Flies the most suitable type of carrier. Every year, the types of epidemics were always rapidly increasing. There had never been a time where a profession such as doctors were so significant, yet there was also never a time that they were this powerless.
But spring was still the best season.
The summer was boiling hot. The strong ultraviolet rays from the sun meant death for a large portion of organisms. Even the mutated animals or humans were no exception. Autumn was no longer the season of harvest. The food and fruits from the old times were extinct because of they did not adapt to the new environment. That was why the worries of all organisms were food. Most of the plants that were able to happily grow even in the worst environments were even more dangerous than the Stone Dragons. As for winter, the only question to consider was how to not starve before the arrival of spring.
The thin gray clouds in the sky constantly changed irregularly, and they revealed an extremely beautiful blue sky. The sunlight poured down as if it was fire, and it sprayed on the extremely hot and dry land.
In the instant that the sunlight came down, Tena lowered the goggles that were on his helmet.
The goggles that were meant for soldiers in the old times were able to filter the strong sunlight and the ultraviolet rays to protect the eyes. Although the ultraviolet rays were many times stronger when compared to the past, the humans that survived also adapted to the new environment. As for the weak humans, they already became skeletons in the wilderness. Although the ultraviolet rays that pa.s.sed through the goggles were strong enough to blind, to Tena, they were just a bit bright. The eight soldiers behind him were also very strong, and although the sunlight would make them uncomfortable, it wouldn’t affect their movements.
Tena’s right hand was being supported by a revamped M3A automatic rifle. He looked at the ground all around them, and he did a gesture with his left hand. The troops followed him and continued moving forward. Every single soldier wore camouflage clothing, equipped with automatic rifles, and they even had one grenade launcher. Although the soldiers’ clothing were a bit broken and their weapons were not all the same, as they had the elite M3As to the AK series from the old times, it still showed that they were a real troop and not some random team with weapons like bandit mobs. These troops had ranks, tactics, logistics, training, and the most important thing was the organization that was able to support a troop like this, as it certainly would not be small.
The forty-three year old Tena had almost twenty years of army experience, and he was a reliable, good senior officer. At the moment, he was leading his team and going onto a bare mountain ridge. The benefits were that the vision was extremely good, as he was able to put the scope of a dozen or so kilometers into his eyes. As for whether or not there were trees that could block the sunlight, Tena didn’t mind it since a large portion of green meant unpredictable dangers.
In the mountains, the cries of Decayed Wolves resonated. Tena instantly looked towards the direction of the wolf cries. His pupils rapidly expanded and shrunk. The shape of his eye also slightly changed accordingly. Without needing binoculars, his gaze locked onto the several small black dots several kilometers away. Only then did Tena raise his binoculars, and through it, he could see several gray and black Decayed Wolves spinning left and right uneasily on a red and brown mountain rock. Once in a while, they would face the sky and cry out several times.
Tena’s vision range was 1.5 times the normal person’s, and the price was the consumption of an Evolution Point. Or in easier terms, one chance in genetic modification. In an ordinary person’s life, there was the possibility of getting one or two chances in genetic modification, and a large portion of people choose muscle strengthening or body defense power. Tena on the other hand, he used his Evolution Point on his vision without any regrets. In the wilderness battles, if one could discover dangers earlier, then it meant that there was a bigger chance of surviving.
“d.a.m.n it! It seems like the sizes of those guys got bigger.” Tena cursed a bit, then with the wave of his hand, he turned towards the valley and prepared to attack.
Who knew what happened with those Decayed Wolves? They were actually coming out in such strong sunlight, and weren’t they a species that had a night movement habit? But Tena didn’t need to know about those things. According to experience, he determined that there was a wolf nest in the valley, so that was enough. Summer was also the breeding season for Decayed Wolves, so at this time, there should be a few little wolves that just started weaning in the wolf nest. His mission was to completely annihilate these Decayed Wolves and other organisms that were mutating, to find out if there were new, unknown organisms; and also, every 3 months, to bring a few corpses of the Decayed Wolves back to the research base.
Usually, this mission required Tena and his men to walk in the wilderness for a good half month, but the difficulty wasn’t high. To this wilderness area that had a circ.u.mference of 100 kilometer or so, Tena already knew it like the back of his palm. He could recount the places that were suitable for which organisms to exist with his eyes closed. With his small team of nine people, even if they met a large wolf pack of up to a hundred Decayed Wolves, they could take care of it.
The problem was in his era, everything was changing with flying speed. Tena was looking, with his own pair of eyes, as the sizes of the Decayed Wolves increased. The adult Decayed Wolf that only required one bullet to kill at first now required two 3-round bursts. The faster they changed, the stronger their body got. According to the director of the research base, in the past twelve months, the weight of the adult Decayed Wolves increased by an average of 12%, their muscle increased by 23%, agility by 18%, defense by 35%, and resistance against radiation increased by 50%.
Of course, Tena couldn’t remember all that, nor did he have any interest to remember such accurate and careful explanations. His line of thought was extremely simple to describe. The Decayed Wolves were currently becoming larger, and becoming more and more dangerous. His small team could defeat a hundred and fifty Decayed Wolves in the past could only defeat no more than a hundred Decayed Wolves now. Just like that. Although it seemed that everything was under the control of the base, everytime that Tena went out for a mission, his feeling of uneasiness in his heart would become stronger everytime. Could you imagine Decayed Wolves that were as large as tigers yet were as intelligent as humans? Tena did not only dream about that once.
To Tena and his small team that specialized in mountain battles, several kilometers of mountain road was half an hour of walking. Seeing as Tena and the others arrived, the male adult Decayed Wolves on the mountain rocks crouched while baring their teeth that was dripping with saliva and continuously made snarling sounds from its throat.
That was the very typical movements of Decayed Wolves who were protecting their land. It meant that behind them, there was a wolf nest, and inside of it were many young wolves that were unable to wean, unable to follow the footsteps of the huge wolves.
The territory of the Decayed Wolves was extremely large, and the caves all around in the valley could only belong to these group of Decayed Wolves. Tena did not want to search in every single cave one after the other, so he made a hand gesture, and an old soldier behind him raised his automatic rifle. The first burst made the Decayed Wolf fly in the sky, the second burst followed quickly on its heels. The 3-round bursts all shot into the body of the Decayed Wolf that was no longer moving, and it flipped it over a few times.
The remaining Decayed Wolves started whimpering, and leaving their comrade, they pressed their tails and escaped deeper into the mountain valley.
Tena moved his M3A and said, “Lucas, you’re up!”
“Understood!” A little guy that seemed to just reach twenty years of age took off his mask and revealed a nose that was double the size of a regular person’s. He kept on sniffing as he walked deeper into the valley. Although there were the nose-piercing smell of the Decayed Wolves all along the valley, Lucas’s nose was not any worse than the Decayed Wolves. To him, every single smell of the Decayed Wolves was different from one another, and as they just left, there was no way that he would be mistaken.
The nine man team did not walk slow yet walked without rush, and they slowly reached the middle of the valley. Their target was very clear. It was the cave several hundred meters away, and at the entrance of the cave, one could see several dried out bones.
As same as always, Tena left two soldiers to guard at the entrance as he led the remaining soldiers into the cave for searching. He was not afraid of ambushes because in the narrow and long cave, the high speed and mighty M3A was undefendable. Besides, within the eight people that he had brought here, there were five veterans that had been in over ten missions, and they had modified their genetics at least once so they were enough for any situation. There were already team members that started a.s.sembling an simple beast cage, as the value of one alive Decayed Wolf Club was way higher than ten dead wolves.
The cave was not deep, and after walking for thirty meters or so, they reached the end. Other than the piles of dried up bones, there was only a huge pile of hay and there was not even the shadow of the little wolves.
Tena’s face turned green, and he glared the dry hay to death as the corner of his eyes were twitching. Suddenly, he used the muzzle of the gun to split open the hay pile and what was revealed under it was a rock that had sticky traces of dirt, but there were still no shadow of the little wolves.
“Lucas, you…”
Someone said half a sentence, but was roughly interrupted by Tena, “Shut up d.a.m.n it! Lucus would never make a mistake!”
Tena kneeled down, took out a bayonet and poked at the seemingly still fresh wolf excrement. He looked carefully, then suddenly stood up, and with a loud sound he pulled open the bolt of his M3A and yelled, “d.a.m.n it! This is a trap! Let’s go!”
A veteran behind him followed up and said, “Hey! Boss! Who made this trap for us? Don’t tell me it was the Decayed Wolves! Haha…”
After two laughs, he found out that no one responded to that, so he could only stop and helplessly shrug his shoulders. He also smelt danger, but to make a joke at that time was a good way to ease the nervousness.
Tena increased his speed and muttered, “It’s most likely Decayed Beasts! Lord, I really hope I’m wrong!”
They took large strides, and after a few steps they moved around the last bend and arrived at the cave entrance. The two people who were guarding at the cave entrance had their waists bent, and while trembling they retreated back into the cave one step after the other! Tena said nothing and directly rushed out of the cave. He pulled those two people apart and looked out of the cave.