65 Withdrawal symptoms (1/2)

The two soldiers who had not returned yet had only dared to venture out when they saw nothing had happened to Yang Xiaojin and Luo Xinyu. By going outside together, they took the necessary precautions.

But now that almost ten minutes had passed, the two of them were still not back.

Xu Xianchu stood at the edge of the hollow and peered out into the forest. Although it was only evening, the sky had already turned black due to the rain.

”Could something have happened to them?” someone asked.

”But there wasn't any noise,” someone said, curled up in the corner of the hollow. ”Surely they couldn't have been attacked at the same time and made no sound, right?”

Logically speaking, that should have been the case. But wasn't this exactly what made it even more frightening? Xu Xianchu had instructed everyone to go out in groups, but even so, something still happened.

Xu Xianchu said, ”Don't think too hard. They might've been delayed just a little. It's only been ten minutes, after all.”

Everyone in the hollow became quiet. Although Xu Xianchu comforted everyone by saying that, those two soldiers didn't reappear as time slowly ticked by.

Xu Xianchu said, ”Who's willing to go and look for them with me?”

Ren Xiaosu was taken aback. Xu Xianchu was even willing to risk the unknown danger and acid rain to go into the forest and search for his subordinates.

But no one in the hollow volunteered. Who would be willing to go out and seek death at a time like this? Some of the soldiers even urinated at the innermost part of the hollow and filled the entire hollow with the smell of urine. As a result, Ren Xiaosu and the others were forced to sit near the outer part of the hollow where there was ventilation. Although it was a little cold there, at least they didn't have to smell it.

Xu Xianchu sighed and said, ”If you all don't help the others, don't blame others for not helping when the same happens to you.”

Ren Xiaosu was not worried about that since he did not expect anyone to save him. Even Yang Xiaojin, who was his ally, would probably abandon everyone in the event of any danger.

As they were not related to one another, it was already great that they did not sabotage each other.

The sound of rain pouring over the forest came from outside. Ren Xiaosu said to Yang Xiaojin, ”I'll keep watch for the first half of the night. You go and get some rest. The forest ground will become very difficult to walk through after the rain. It'll use up a lot of your stamina. Be careful of those soldiers too. They're up to no good.”

Ren Xiaosu had known ever since the two of them seized the gun that the soldiers would cluster together from time to time. This spelled potential trouble for them, but Ren Xiaosu had not figured out how to handle it yet.

”Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. Then she closed her eyes and leaned against the wall to get some rest. But even so, Yang Xiaojin's gun was still pointing at everyone, including Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu smiled and did not mind it. If it were him, he would have done the same.

A team of 11 people had inexplicably turned into nine. Ren Xiaosu looked at the remaining soldiers in the hollow and saw some of them sitting and smoking. The cigarette smoke was still laced with a smell that nauseated Ren Xiaosu.

He found it hard to imagine just how vulnerable the defenses of the stronghold was when even the soldiers of the stronghold were using such psychoactive drugs to stimulate themselves.

Was this only happening in Stronghold 113 or were most of the soldiers from the other strongholds also the same?

These soldiers had brought quite a lot of cigarettes along, and Liu Bu had also prepared ten packs for them. However, they lost most of them while they were making their escape. Right now, they only had around half a pack or a full pack left on each of them, while some of them did not even have any left at all.

The group of people sitting there were smoking together, filling the entire hollow with smoke. Fortunately, Ren Xiaosu, Yang Xiaojin, and Luo Xinyu were all sitting at the outer edge of the hollow, so they were not that greatly affected.