Chapter 967 - 35: Kuqiao Village

Soon, the ghost train began to decelerate, eventually bursting out of the "tunnel" and slowly came to a stop on a Desert Sea bathed in the golden sunset.

Everyone disembarked in single file, and after quickly creating a floating island using jetting gel, Candle Dragon and several other team members swiftly assembled a high-powered communication device.

Power connected, antenna unfolded, Candle Dragon picked up the communicator and said in a deep voice, "Communication identification code 1776, Desert Sea Second Expedition Team calling Sandboat Outpost. Repeating, communication identification code 1776, Desert Sea Second Expedition Team calling Sandboat Outpost."

"No signal?" Wang Xiyi asked with a frown.

"No..." Candle Dragon shook his head, "I've already connected to Sandboat Outpost's communication channel, it's less than seventy kilometers away from us... But, no one is responding to the call."

Everyone suddenly felt a rising sense of foreboding.

…

…

Xiazhou Federation, Kuqiao Village.

This is a village about ninety kilometers away from Chunming City District, with a little over a thousand residents and a small-scale food processing plant. Being adjacent to Highway 317 leading to Chunming City, Kuqiao Village is considered a necessary route into the city from the southeast direction.

To guard the capital, less than three kilometers away from Kuqiao Village is the garrison site of the 151st Battalion of the Federation Garrison Troop.

This is a mechanized infantry battalion with over four hundred officers and soldiers. It possesses two main battle tanks and eleven armored infantry fighting vehicles, as well as a military camp constructed to the standards of a military fortress.

Moreover, this infantry battalion is equipped with an exceptional handling squad, including two Mysterious Creature Hunters and four attached investigators. In terms of combat capability, the 151st Battalion is definitely considered elite within the Federation's regular forces.

Liu Meng is the platoon leader of the first platoon, second company of the 151st Battalion. Today happened to be his platoon's turn for routine patrols—the so-called routine patrol means simply taking the soldiers around the mountainous area surrounding the village once and calling it a day.

Except for a small stretch of the defense zone without a road requiring some climbing, the rest of the trajectory only involved driving and monitoring the screen of the vehicle-mounted memetic monitor, which was incredibly easy.

The soldiers in the back of the truck were already discussing the dinner in the camp. Liu Meng had no intention to scold them—having been stationed here for four years, he had patrolled the area no fewer than two or three hundred times, apart from a multiple rear-end traffic accident once occurring on Highway 317, no special incidents had ever happened here.

If there wasn't a shooting range in the camp, Liu Meng would have hardly had the opportunity to pull the trigger during these four years.

Liu Meng naturally knew that the Federation's border areas were not peaceful at the moment, but the unrest was in the border areas. They belonged to the Garrison Troop guarding the capital—if there ever came a day when they needed to elevate their combat readiness level, then probably most regions of the Federation, except for the capital, would have already turned into a Surrendered Area.

Liu Meng rather hoped to receive orders to transfer to the border areas, but unfortunately, the fate of filling the front lines as cannon fodder did not befall him, and the great opportunity to gain achievements on the front line had no relation to him.

As a soldier, he only needed to obey orders and complete the task of garrisoning Kuqiao Village.

And he had executed this task perfectly for four years.

With one hand on the steering wheel and the other fumbling for the cigarette box in his pocket, Liu Meng suddenly heard a "rumbling" noise coming from inside the distant hillside.

The sound was faint but clear enough that Liu Meng was certain he hadn't misheard.

"Stop the vehicle!" Liu Meng shouted into the walkie-talkie while himself pressing down on the truck brake.

The armored off-road vehicle leading in front came to a stop, and the squad leader of the first squad poked his head from the machine gun position on the vehicle's roof, looking at Liu Meng in the truck's driver's seat and loudly asking, "Platoon Leader, what's wrong?"

"There seems to be movement in the mountains." Liu Meng said in a deep voice, his hand that had been reaching for a cigarette now lying on his waist holster.

"But the memetic monitor isn't showing anything!" The squad leader said, puzzled.

"Maybe the distance is too far." Liu Meng pulled up the handbrake, jumped off the vehicle, walked to the roadside, and looked towards the direction the sound was coming from, "Did you hear the noise from the mountains just now? Rumbling, like... like a train passing through the mountains!"

"I think I heard a bit... I thought it was just an auditory illusion." The squad leader came over and nodded.

"Mr. Liu." The deputy platoon leader who had been sitting in the truck's co-driver seat crouched down and placed his palm on the ground, "You didn't mishear. The ground is indeed trembling slightly."

"Tsk... There's not something unusual, is there?"

"Report to the Platoon Leader!" Suddenly, a soldier shouted, "I have something to report!"

"Speak up directly, don't mess around with any formality." Liu Meng said impatiently, "You know I hate that the most."

"A subway was built inside this mountain before." The soldier said.

He was the only "local" in the entire 151st Battalion—this soldier had grown up in Kuqiao Village, joined the army after graduating high school, and after serving in the south for a few years, he was unexpectedly transferred to his hometown, becoming a part of the 151st Battalion defending Kuqiao Village.

Liu Meng remembered teasing him—others have to take a plane or train to visit family, while this guy just has to turn right to reach his home.

"Subway? I remember the Chunming City subway lines don't pass through here, right?" The deputy platoon leader asked, puzzled.

"This was from my childhood, over twenty years ago." The local soldier said, "Back then, the subway was supposed to be extended here, but while digging the tunnel, it seemed they found the mountain structure unstable or something, and the entire project was canceled, and the subway supposed to reach here was rerouted... My father often complained at that time, saying if our Kuqiao Village had a subway, the villagers could make good money just by staying at home."

"Unstable mountain structure, huh?" Liu Meng raised his head to look at the nearby hillside, "Could it be a landslide or a collapse somewhere? There's been no rain recently, so a mudslide is unlikely... Hmm, if there are indeed tunnels left from back then, could it be a tunnel collapse due to years of disrepair?"

"Platoon Leader, should I take some men up the mountain for a look?" The squad leader volunteered.

"Go ahead, be careful and withdraw immediately if there is any issue, don't act recklessly." Liu Meng nodded, watching the squad leader pick a few nimble soldiers, gearing lightly, clambering up the mountainside from the road.