Chapter 412 - 409: Strange Phenomenon and Illusory Voice

Chapter 412: Chapter 409: Strange Phenomenon and Illusory Voice

In Zhao Kai’s hands, the heavily modified car with its powerful engine felt like something out of a racing game. It took less than two hours to get from the nearest Association Secret Realm to Nottingham, covering a distance that would normally take a British Army patrol half a day.

The Nottingham Refugee Center’s Forward Outpost 24 in the Military Defense Identification Zone was now in sight.

The World Alliance had gathered nearly all of humanity’s top elites. With shared data, they could naturally develop all sorts of strategies at an incredible speed.

The search terminal atop the outpost ran ceaselessly.

It included a small Radar and high-intensity thermal sensors, while electrostatic devices and capacitor coils were buried underground in arcs at 50, 100, and 200 meters out.

On the outpost’s main control screens, the Radar display was standard, but the thermal control screen showed a peculiar color pattern.

The positions of the three outer arc-shaped coils appeared on the thermal screen as three faintly glowing red lines on the ground.

If a Yin Spirit or other invisible Demon entered the scanning range, it would be caught by both the Radar and the thermal equipment. Even if it could evade the Radar and maintain the same temperature as its surroundings, it would inevitably block the heat emitted by the coils when crossing the three sensor-lined zones, which would still trigger the alarm.

So far, however, it seemed most Yin Spirits couldn’t even evade one of the two systems, let alone both.

Although Radar detection, like communication waves, suffered from interference due to the worlds’ collision, it still worked fine over short distances of a few hundred or a thousand meters with enough power.

Moreover, some veterans who had survived numerous life-or-death battles, as well as Soldiers who had gone through the special military training zones in France, possessed a unique intuition.

Even if they couldn’t see the Yin Spirits with their naked eyes, they often had a strange sense of alertness to their presence.

At this moment, the Soldiers in the outpost had, of course, already spotted the vehicle speeding toward them from a distance.

A parasitized human might conceivably know how to drive, but to drive like *that*? And given that the timing matched up, it was most likely the people from Dawn.

Sure enough, before the car even entered the alert perimeter, the outpost had already received clearance from a superior officer via the military’s local area network, run through fiber optic cables.

As a sign of respect, when the vehicle paused inside the outpost, a Lieutenant came out personally to brief Hilbert on the situation. He then dispatched someone to guide Zhao Kai’s car to the most critical suspected area.

...

The Nottingham civilian refugee area was actually quite far from Nottingham City itself. Its core was composed of a remote suburban town and several nearby villages.

It got its name from the many refugees who had gathered from the surrounding Nottingham area, while the actual Nottingham City had been sealed off long ago as it was a contact zone.

"Sir, do you need us to dispatch soldiers to accompany you?"

The Officer in charge of the handover saluted the eight of them and asked if they required assistance.

The one addressed as "Sir" was, of course, Hilbert; it was just his codename.

"No need. If these parasitic Demons know how to disguise themselves, they likely have high intelligence and are sensitive to military personnel. Besides, it would be inconvenient for you to operate in here."

The group glanced at the somewhat crowded conditions inside the refugee area. It was clearly not a place for military vehicles to perform high-speed maneuvers.

While the two sides were talking, the Holy Spirit and Qin Xiaoxia also stood up from their spots on the vehicle.

The former watched as Hilbert, Zhao Kai, and the other six set off into the refugee area, then turned and bowed to Qin Xiaoxia.

"Well then, Master Sage, I will go make the arrangements!"

"Alright. Go on."

The glow around the Holy Spirit’s body slowly blurred. Strands of Magic Silk rapidly wove themselves into the shape of wings on its back. Its entire body seemed to become like flowing light, and in an instant, it vanished in a blurry streak of movement.

CRACK... CRACKLE...

Qin Xiaoxia stretched, and his bones let out a series of satisfying cracks.

Sometimes he didn’t care whether it felt good or not; it was as if he stretched just for the sound of it.

While Hilbert and the others gradually relaxed and began to blend in as a group of newly arrived "refugees," Qin Xiaoxia, standing on the roof of the car, had already extended his Perception to cover nearly the entire area.

There were indeed cases of parasitism, but the intelligence of this batch was clearly no match for the Soul-possessing Spirit Mother from the Hua Country Capital back then. They were actually all holed up together in one spot.

He glanced up at the sun. It seemed they were afraid of being discovered and probably wouldn’t come out during the day.

With Hilbert and Zhao Kai on the case, plus the six rookies for support, these weaklings wouldn’t be able to stir up any trouble. Qin Xiaoxia didn’t need to waste any thought on them.

By comparison...

’I should probably run through the revised script in my head... Ah, forget it. I’ll just improvise.’

...

Hilbert and Zhao Kai chatted as they walked, while the six rookies at their sides did their best to look inconspicuous.

But all of them were still keeping part of their attention on their surroundings.

The original town and village buildings made up about half of the refugee area; the rest consisted of prefabricated houses and tents set up by the British Government.

Many temporary markets were still bustling under the circumstances.

The group quickly roamed through this planned section of the refugee area for over twenty minutes, covering about two-thirds of it.

Even though the original Nottingham City had fallen, and even though this refugee area was a refugee camp in the truest sense of the word, the situation was at least not as dire as depicted in some post-apocalyptic novels. It was neither filthy nor chaotic.

Social order remained relatively intact.

Humanity’s ability to adapt was actually far stronger than people imagined. Many things they thought, "I can’t do that," turned out to be no big deal after they actually did them for a while. To some extent, the same was true for doomsday panic.

On the streets, basic rations of all kinds of necessities were being distributed, and some stalls or shops were selling other goods.

There were also some storefronts and open-air eateries in operation. Naturally, they weren’t selling complicated dishes—mostly things like hamburgers and hot dogs. Zhao Kai even spotted, to his surprise, a *jianbing guozi* stand. And the one making the savory crepe wasn’t Chinese, but a big, brown-haired white guy.

It was just that most people in the crowd were hurrying along, and few wore smiles.

Just then, Hilbert’s nose twitched. He caught a whiff of a peculiar scent.

He turned his head toward two rows of prefabricated houses in the distance, where bedsheets were hung out to dry. His eyes narrowed, and he nudged Zhao Kai with his shoulder.

"Zhao, do you smell that?"

"Yeah. Even if a human didn’t bathe for a month, they wouldn’t give off that particular stench. I’ll keep an eye on things from here. You go around the back and have the rookies fan out to the sides."

Hilbert nodded and spoke in a low voice to the rookies beside them, who had grown tense after hearing their exchange.

"Squad One, take the west side. Squad Two, the east. Fos, go inform the military and have them start discreetly evacuating the crowd."

One of the men nodded slightly and quickly departed. There was a military sentry post about 200 meters away.

Afterward, the eight of them made their way to their positions, each moving like a casual passerby, surrounding the two rows of closed-up prefabricated houses from all sides.

Zhao Kai, speaking fluent English, asked the owner of a food truck,

"Hey, how much for a *jianbing guozi*?"

"Standard is forty Pound Sterling. An extra sausage or egg is another five."

"What? That expensive! Alright... give me one. You’d better hurry up, though. You might have to move your truck soon."

Zhao Kai said this because he could already see soldiers approaching in the distance.

Sure enough, less than a minute after he got his *jianbing guozi*, the surrounding crowd was quietly evacuated, and some of the shops naturally had to close down.

The crowd was told that a possible fissure had been detected nearby. The military had locked down the location and was preparing to clear the target.

The truth about the parasitic infestation wasn’t disclosed, as it would easily cause a panic. Clearing targets from random fissures, on the other hand, was a common occurrence. Although rare inside the refugee area, it wasn’t unheard of.

Just as the area was cleared, Zhao Kai stuffed the last bite of his crepe into his mouth. Hilbert kissed a pendant hanging on his chest and tucked it back inside his shirt.

The strength of parasitic Demons was heavily dependent on their hosts. Since these ones were parasitizing ordinary humans and holing up here, one could imagine they weren’t very strong. There would be no need for the military to use heavy weaponry this time.

THUD— THUD—...

The ground beneath the eight of them trembled slightly as their muscles erupted with power in an instant.

The moment the first prefabricated house was thrown into the air, they got a clear look at the true form of this Demon.

Their eyes were bloodshot with reddish pupils, their bodies were emaciated, and their ashen skin gave off a faint, foul stench.

...

Just five minutes later, Zhao Kai, his hand encased in a Magic Steel Palm Claw, was gripping the head of the last host. The creature struggled constantly but couldn’t break free.

Seven or eight soldiers carefully approached. After Zhao Kai gave them a nod, they each fired their high-voltage Electric Shock Guns. POP! POP! POP!

With a BZZZZT of electricity, Zhao Kai released his slightly numb hand.

Then, another twenty-some soldiers armed with long-poled Electric Shock Guns repeatedly zapped the host until it was barely twitching. Only then did personnel in hazmat suits lift it, place it into a special transparent container that resembled a coffin, and load it onto a vehicle, which then drove away.

The mission had been very simple, but having just exerted himself, Hilbert’s heart was still beating fast. Hot blood was coursing through his body far quicker than usual.

He once again took out his pendant and kissed it lightly. The pendant symbolized the heritage of the Chakus Clan.

But in that instant, Hilbert felt a sudden searing heat spread through his body, as if his blood had abruptly become scorching hot.

The sensation was similar to when he channeled the Magic Power in his arms, but today’s battle hadn’t been worthy of wasting his precious Magic Power.

THUMP...

The thumping of his heart was like a heavy drumbeat in his ear. Hilbert realized he couldn’t move.

A terribly hoarse voice, almost like a hallucination, suddenly echoed in his mind.

"Gold... ss... my...?"

’If a Demon could immobilize me in an instant without me even noticing, how terrifying must it be!’ This anomaly was extremely unsettling and bizarre. Hilbert struggled instinctively.

He could still see Zhao Kai and the others in his peripheral vision.

But they also seemed to be frozen in place.

’Could they all be under control too?’ It was a terrifying thought.

But soon, Hilbert realized that Zhao Kai’s eyelids were closing at an estimated rate of about one centimeter per minute.

Nearby, an Officer’s lips were opening slowly, so slowly, and he could see tiny specks of saliva floating outward from his mouth. Meanwhile, Hilbert’s own agitated fingers were curling at a snail’s pace. Even though it was slow, he knew he was trying to clench his fist—the very same subconscious action he had been about to take just a moment ago.

"Gold... ss... my...?"

Illusory and ethereal, as if coming from a distant place, the voice sounded again.

PS: Chapter two for Wednesday.

Another all-nighter...