Rebirth of MC

Cutting through the rain, the Hummer speeds down the bumpy dirt road. A constant 'sha sha' sound blends with the humming of the engine as the half a meter tall weeds growing on both sides brush against the car frame. Although the road is narrow, it is at least wide enough for the Hummer to fit through nicely. In addition, the ground is not flat, with small potholes and puddles of water everywhere. Anyone with less skills will have a high chance of getting their car stuck in the ditch on either side, especially at the speed they are currently driving at.

Just as well Long Zhanye is someone who possesses more than adequate skills. For the several kilometres they have been travelling down this road, the Hummer maintains its steadiness, its wheels never once slipping.

It has been five days since they left M City. As soon as they exit this small dirt road, they would reach I City. Even though the last survivors have fled the city, leaving it devoid of life, before the pollution forced everyone out, a safe zone was already established in the military district. Thus, the main highway has already been cleared. After a quick discussion, they settle on taking the Huan Shi main street to directly by-pass I City, and take a detour to avoid H, G and F, these three high-risk places before heading into E City.

Yet once again, things never go according to plan, and Huo Zaiyuan's party is rather unfortunate. Just as the Hummer exits the small road and enters a bigger street, the vehicle is intercepted by someone.

The individual who stopped their vehicle is clad in a military camouflage uniform and wearing a full-face gas mask on their face. Gloves on their hands and combat boots on their feet, not a single sliver of skin is visible from head to toe. In addition, a rifle is held at the ready.

However, no malicious intent can be detected from this mysterious person. After blocking their way, he walks up to the car window and pats it before making some hand signals, hinting that they should not wind down the window. Pausing to ensure his message is received, the individual continues gesticulating.

Watching the series of gestures, Huo Zaiyuan frowns lightly, not understanding what the person is trying to convey.

"What is that guy saying?" Li Qing promptly displays his inquisitive side.

"This person is a recruit in the army. He is saying he apologises for blocking our vehicle, but there is a highly toxic substance in the air, warning us not to open the car window. Their own vehicle is currently out of fuel and is asking if we can spare some." Long Zhanye explains to the others in the car, at the same time making a few quick gestures in reply to the person outside.

The guy expresses his thanks before waving his hand, indicating for them to head forward a little and stop beside their armoured car.

"Older brother Long, you're really awesome. How did you understand all that?" Pressed up against the passenger seat's chair, Li Qing exclaims in amazement.

"He is the senior officer in A City's military district. How can he not understand?" Huo Zaiyuan stares at him as though looking at an idiot, before exchanging a teasing smile with Qin Jun.

"Not allowed to laugh!" Li Qing's face flushes red before launching himself at his lover.

"But it's strange. Wasn't I City abandoned quite a while ago? They don't look like they are leaving, but rather, they seem to be heading into the city." Qin Jun gazes out the window at the six soldiers outside. Although all six are covered from head to toe, every action is cautious and their tensed body language gives away their alert state of mind. The head of their armoured car is not faced away from the city, but towards it.

"That's right." Li Qing agrees.

"The equipment on them is one I have never seen before. But it ought to be able to resist toxic substance. In addition, this armoured car is the sort banks use to transfer huge amount of funds from one place to another. The fact that they ran out of fuel shows the safe zone they come from has gasoline shortage." Long Zhanye offers his analysis. "According to their equipment, the danger level of this city is extremely high."

The him who was raised in the army is well aware that the more dangerous a mission is, the more meticulous and higher-quality the allocated equipment will be. During the apocalypse, one can gauge a place's danger level from the attire of the soldiers therehowever, to enter such a risky place with insufficient equipment, is is obviously a mission betting on one's luck and life.

"A pity we don't have full-coverage attire like them ah. Or else we can get out and lend a helping hand." Li Qing knows full well that his ability is the weakest one in this party, but upon hearing these few soldiers will be heading into this dangerous city like moths flying into the flame, his heart feels rather uneasy.

"Who says we can't get off the car if we don't have that kind of equipment?" Huo Zaiyuan says before opening the passenger-side door and getting off.

"Little Yuan ah!" Cries of alarm ring out in the car.

"The poison gas wafting through the atmosphere has actually already spread as far as the outskirts of J City. That night, when we entered the outer suburbs of J City and got out of the car for a while, I noticed the evil energy within the air was unable to enter our bodies, which is why there wouldn't be any problems if we get down here." Huo Zaiyuan waves his hand and a bottle of gasoline appears in order to pretend that this had always been in the car. Carrying it, he heads over to the soldiers.

Seeing his long hair drifting in the wind, walking over nonchalantly dressed in only a knitted sweater, cotton trousers and sneakers, the soldiers startle so badly that their tight formation loosens a little.

Stunned silent by the piece of new information, the three within the Hummer pause for a second, before exiting the vehicle one after another.

Long Zhanye walks over to the recruit who rapped on their Hummer's window to ask for fuel and presents his military identity card. The guy stiffens, then snaps out a salute before gesturing for them to come into the armoured car.

As soon as the four steps in, the soldier leads them over to a machine stored at the back of the compartment. Lifting a gloved hand, he presses a few buttons. A green light flickers, then the man's voice comes out.

"Senior officer, youwhy are you deliberately exposing yourself to the toxic atmosphere" Hearing an anxious male voice coming from the machine while the person himself remain silent is honestly a little unsettling.

"Don't need to worry about me. I have a toxic resistant equipment with me. What happened here?" Pulling up a chair that was pushed to the side for Huo Zaiyuan, Long Zhanye questions. "Are you planning on heading into I City?"

"Reporting to senior officer. We are E City's Commando squad with a mission to enter I City and retrieve vital data and materials stored in the abandoned research institute" The recruit informs Long Zhanye of all the details pertaining to their mission.

Within I City, there were already a few cases of mutant plants attacking humans. These various lifeforms were delivered over to the plant research centre where an elderly professor took over the studies of these demonic beings. Not long ago, when the pollution from G City reached all the way to this place, I City immediately ordered an emergency evacuation of all unaffected survivors. However, this professor refused to leave, for he was in the middle of a major experiment during that time. Now with all contact in this city lost, no one knows if said professor is still alive. But what caused a commotion was that three days ago, A, B, C, D, E, these five cities suddenly received a radio morse code signal coming from I City's research institute calling for help. Together with the SOS, a single sentence was also delivered. "Mutant plant experiment a success, please send rescue squad from safe zone." The connection broke off instantly after that.

According to reports given by the few researchers who were working with the professor before escaping, this time, the professor's research was to filter poison gases and purify the air using the demonic plants as a medium. In other wordsthe mutant plants have the ability to absorb the poisonous gases in the air and consequently prevent the spread of this pollution. Hence, the safe zone sent out commando squads tasked with retrieving this priceless information by all means necessary.

However, for some reason, after D and E's safe zone sent out four separate squads to enter I City, they immediately lost contact. Since the squads are still unaccounted for, E City sent this group out in order to confirm the status of those previous squads and even gave the six members this armoured car and all the necessary protective gears recently sent over from A City.

"You said all the equipment you are wearing were given by A City. Do you know who the manufacturer of this attire is?" After listening to this report, Long Zhanye frowns.

At first glance, he didn't see anything special about their equipment, but after boarding this vehicle and learning everything they are using right now was given as a set, he can tell the person who made this was very thorough.

"General Long personally made them." The recruit replies, his tone full of respect and admiration when talking about this "General Long".

"These ordinary pieces of equipment were made by Uncle Long?" From his words, one can tell he is very familiar with "General Long".

"Ehthatthis equipment and armoured car[1] was given to us on the day of our departure from the safe zone. Matters were rather urgent, soour superior officer only gave us an operation manual, but none of us is able to make sense of it, thus" He trails off, implying that none of them has yet to figure out how to properly operate their various equipment.

"This vehicle doesn't use gasoline to power it engine. Rather, it is for supplying electrical energy to the various machines you have in here." Li Qing speaks out from the side, having procured the complex manual from somewhere and is currently flipping through it.

As he read, he reaches out and speedily punches buttons on a machine. Following his administrations, the silent machine begins to hum faintly before it moves slightly, as though something is pulling on the bottom of it. A few seconds later, the interior of the entire car lights up.

"Heavens" Upon seeing this, the soldiers can't help exclaiming.

"Little Qing, youhow were you able to understand how to operate these machines?" Qin Jun asks with an astonished expression.

Gaze lifting from the instruction manual in his hands, Li Qing's face is full of innocence as he replies. "Because the book my mum left me had a few technology terminologies written down. I was able to understand this after reading that notebook."

Footnotes:

[1] Kinda imagined the armoured car to look something like this:

But perhaps a little longer length-wise to fit more equipment in the back.