IRCDM Chapter 81

Chapter 81: Privacy (Revised) Adding Some Cultivation

Starting from the East Gate of the Eastern District Base, passing through the KUGT2378 highway, and then through dozens of mine shafts left behind after heteromorph explosions, you enter the K79 branch highway. A section of this wide highway spans the eastern sea area, where sea zombies and marine mutants emerge endlessly. Heading west along the K79 highway leads to a large group of abandoned factories. Deep south from the factory group is a large area of abandoned cities. Yin City is located on the edge of these abandoned urban clusters, closer to the K79 highway, making it relatively safer. Due to the relatively short period of abandonment and the availability of technical resources in the laboratories, Yin City and its surrounding cities have become the preferred exploration targets for both the military and individual organizations in recent years.

The K79 highway crosses the entire southern edge of the Eastern District Base from east to west, ending in the western forest. The depths of the western primeval forest have harsh climates and extremely high radiation levels, with a large number of unknown heteromorphs appearing. Except for some special military teams, civilian organizations rarely set foot there. Even for special teams entering the depths of the jungle, the survival rate is extremely low. Over time, humans have tacitly accepted this as a habitat for heteromorphs, calling it the Western Heteromorph Jungle.

The last time Liang Huan followed the Shenfeng Team here, they only operated on the edge of the forest, and Li Yao’s secret laboratory was also in a relatively peripheral hidden location, not deep into the hinterland.

“Did you rebuild the laboratory where you placed Kunwu before?” Liang Huan asked, looking at the increasingly lush forest and twisting open a bottle of water to hand to the person driving.

“No need to rebuild, there’s no time to come over anyway.” Li Yao took a sip of water and handed it back. “Kunwu’s shell was almost destroyed, leaving only the Rhine chassis. Qianlong’s Rhine chassis was severely damaged, so I reassembled their chassis.”

Liang Huan reacted, “A smaller one?”

Li Yao snapped his fingers, “Although I am inherently gifted, Yin City’s technology is indeed impressive. Look how clever and lively the small one is, and it even knows to seek revenge on you.”

“You’ve trained it well.” Liang Huan praised symbolically.

Li Yao blurted out, “There’s still a gap compared to Your Majesty. Look how you’ve trained me—”

He stopped abruptly, cleared his throat, and gripped the steering wheel tightly, “I mean, you’re very good at arranging subordinates’ work and understanding human nature very well.”

Liang Huan turned to look out the car window, “Mm.”

“Don’t laugh, the glass is reflecting!” Li Yao slapped his thigh, speaking harshly, “It’s only because you’re my wife, try it with someone else, and I would have run away long ago.”

Liang Huan turned his head and stared at him quietly.

Li Yao pretended to take back his claws and continued driving, “Dirty thoughts in your head.”

Liang Huan said, “I didn’t think much.”

“Even imagining isn’t allowed.” Li Yao slammed on the brakes. “Almost there, we’ll rest here tonight.”

Before Liang Huan could reply, he yanked open the car door and jumped out, took out the walkie-talkie, and shouted, “Attention everyone, stop and set up camp. All vehicles form a semi-circular defensive net. Patrol teams follow the old rules, ten people per group, three groups patrolling in three directions, rotating every two hours… Everyone else, count your weapons, and the logistics team should hurry up and cook!”

“Brother Liang, you looking for me?” Jing Si knocked on the door of the lead vehicle.

The rear door of the car opened with a swish, and Liang Huan was sitting in the back looking at a map of the primeval forest. Seeing him come, he smiled warmly and beckoned, “Come in.”

Jing Si got in the car and sat opposite him respectfully.

“With Yue Hang gone, and Lu Biao being too reckless, I don’t trust the others. After thinking about it, you’re the most suitable person to handle this matter.” Liang Huan smiled as he looked at him, “So, are you willing to help me with this?”

Jing Si said, “Brother Liang, you’re being too polite. As long as I can do it, I will do my best.”

“I’m relieved to hear you say that.” Liang Huan magnified the holographic map in front of him. “This exploration team’s entry into the heteromorph jungle is of great significance, both to the Eastern Third District and to me personally. I won’t hide anything from my own people. There’s something wrong with Chen Jia’s death, and we were swindled out of the 50 billion we earned. Without financial support, whether it’s the hospital, school community, laboratory, or the Black Market scenic area, the Eastern Third District will soon face bankruptcy and huge debts. All our previous efforts will have been in vain.”

Jing Si frowned, looking indignant, “Brother Liang, there must be a traitor within us, someone is playing tricks!”

“Yes, some clues have been found, but our most urgent need is money.” Liang Huan leaned back and sighed, “So this time, we must hunt enough high-level heteromorphs at any cost.”

Jing Si nodded heavily.

“Furthermore, my functional disorder requires a large amount of special-grade heteromorph brain marrow as a raw material for medicine. Of course, we brought mecha this time, so hunting special-grade heteromorphs is not a problem.” Liang Huan rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache, “But there are very few people in the exploration team who can pilot mecha. Besides you, You Zhao Chen and Jiang Chudong are from the Mercenary Base, so you need to pay extra attention.”

Jing Si hesitated, “Brother Liang, won’t you and Brother Li be piloting mecha?”

“Li Yao’s mental power is only D- now, and there’s no need to mention my functional disorder. Once inside a mecha, we’re likely to suffer mental collapse.” Liang Huan paused, “Besides, Li Yao he… we have some misunderstandings between us, so forget it.”

Jing Si didn’t dare to ask more, and said sincerely, “Brother Liang, I will definitely get the brain marrow of special-grade heteromorphs, rest assured.”

Liang Huan patted his shoulder, “Go ahead, we’ll be entering the jungle tomorrow, pay attention to vigilance tonight.”

Jing Si responded and left.

Liang Huan was about to continue looking at the map when Li Yao suddenly hung upside down from the car window, asking doubtfully, “What misunderstandings do we have?”

Liang Huan glanced at the large expanse of abdominal muscles he was showing and the fresh scars on them, grabbed his collar, and pulled him directly into the car through the window.

The car window slowly moved up, isolating the curious gazes from outside.

You Zhao Chen withdrew his gaze and exchanged a subtle look with Jing Si on the other side, continuing to smash down with the hammer, driving the stake deep into the mud.

Jiang Chudong knelt on the top of the protective tent, forcefully pulling the rope in her hand, the muscles in her arms instantly tensing. After tying it tightly on the top, she placed the heteromorph scanner and alarm, jumped down in two steps, patted the dust off her hands, kicked up the hammer on the ground, and hammered the stake You Zhao Chen was hammering all the way to the bottom.

You Zhao Chen had mud splashed all over his face and looked at her speechlessly, “Grandma, can you be a little gentler?”

“Waste.” Jiang Chudong lit a cigarette and bit it in her mouth, her long hair hanging down to her lower back, the short hair on the side of her face was blown up by the wind, obscuring her vision. “What’s the order from above? Liang Huan and Li Yao are at their weakest right now. If we don’t make a move at this time, are we waiting for them to recover?”

You Zhao Chen squatted on the ground and continued to wedge in stakes, lowering his voice, “They have their considerations. The military is fighting fiercely internally recently. If the Eastern Third District doesn’t develop, Liang Huan will have no backup plan. The main task now is still to monitor Li Yao.”

“You’re getting along with him so well, you’re practically wearing the same pants,” Jiang Chudong said, “It wouldn’t be surprising if you betrayed him one day.”

You Zhao Chen twitched the corner of his mouth and smiled, “That’s not possible.”

“Don’t smile, it looks disgusting.” Jiang Chudong pinched out the cigarette. “I’m going to find Jiang Chuxia.”

“Hey.” You Zhao Chen called out to her.

Jiang Chudong turned her head in confusion.

“If one day you have to kill Jiang Chuxia to complete the mission, would you do it?” You Zhao Chen asked.

Jiang Chudong’s eyes were inexplicably strange, but a bright smile appeared on her face. She smiled and brushed her hair behind her ear, “No, she’s my sister.”

Jiang Chuxia was helping to cook. Seeing Jiang Chudong coming over, she smiled and said something to Ai Li next to her and turned to leave.

“Jiang Chuxia.” Jiang Chudong called her, and when she saw her speeding up, she raised her voice, “Sister!”

Jiang Chuxia stopped and turned to look at her impatiently, looked her up and down, then crossed her arms and said, “You have something?”

Jiang Chudong smiled, “It’s rare to be able to go on a mission with you, so I came to catch up.”

Jiang Chuxia’s eyes were cold, “Catch up on what? Talking about how you and Mom and Dad went on a mission to the Outer District together, but only you came back alive?”

“I said long ago that mercenaries don’t have good endings.” Jiang Chudong said helplessly, “It was the two of them who insisted on getting married and having two children to raise. Whether you live or die on a mission is up to fate. Besides, back then, we could have raised enough tuition fees to send you to university. I’m not cut out for studying, we—”

“I know it’s all my fault.” Jiang Chuxia said coldly, “But it’s not your place to say it.”

Jiang Chudong tilted her head, “Why?”

“I know more about Chudong than you think.” Jiang Chuxia looked at her coldly. “Chudong hates long hair the most, and no one can smile at a funeral after their parents die.”

Jiang Chudong smiled, “I just didn’t want you to worry back then.”

“Human behavior patterns don’t stay the same either.” Jiang Chuxia said, “If the one who came back was really Jiang Chudong, she wouldn’t be a mercenary anymore.”

Jiang Chudong looked at her in confusion and put her hand on her shoulder helplessly, “Sister, you don’t need to doubt me like this, you’re just too traumatized.”

“I’ll find the evidence sooner or later and kill you with my own hands.” Jiang Chuxia slapped her hand away and turned to leave without hesitation.

Jiang Chudong shook her reddened hand, lit a cigarette a little irritably. Although she had to wear a protective suit in the Outer District, the mental power enhancer in the cigarette had almost no effect, but she still stubbornly maintained her long-held habit.

“There’s no room for discussion on this matter, if you want everyone to live, do as I say!” A roar came from not far away.

Jiang Chudong and the people next to her looked in the direction of the sound and saw Li Yao storming out of the lead vehicle. After taking a few steps, he turned around unwillingly, yanked open the car door, and roared, “Liang Huan, you can’t gamble with the lives of a group of people!”

“This is the most profitable way.” Liang Huan’s voice came from the car. “Li Yao, calm down. We’re just discussing specific solutions.”

“No need to discuss, I will never agree to this matter.” Li Yao slapped the car door and turned around to stare at him fiercely.

Liang Huan’s collar was wide open, and the ambiguous marks gnawed out a few minutes ago were on his collarbone and shoulders. Seeing the person returning, he showed Li Yao a gentle smile.

“You—” The lines Li Yao had prepared got stuck, and his tone couldn’t help but soften, “If you insist, then I won’t care!”

Liang Huan, relying on the fact that no one could see him in the car, raised his hand and buttoned his buttons slowly, with a smile in his eyes, but his voice suppressed anger: “Whatever you want!”

Li Yao’s Adam’s apple moved slightly. Seeing him button up, he turned around and left mercilessly.

“Brother Liang, what’s wrong?” Lu Biao and Jing Si ran over.

On the other side, You Zhao Chen and a few others also walked to Li Yao, who was burning with anger, to ask. Li Yao pointed in the direction of Liang Huan and cursed a few times, and even kicked over a stone violently.

Liang Huan withdrew his gaze and smiled, “It’s nothing, we disagreed and had a few words.”

Lu Biao looked at Li Yao dissatisfied, but Jing Si couldn’t help but persuaded, “Brother Liang, Brother Li is just this temperamental, he definitely didn’t mean anything else, don’t take it to heart.”

Liang Huan smiled, but Lu Biao couldn’t help but said after hearing this, “Does he think he’s the boss? What’s he being so arrogant about? It’s just because Brother Liang has a good temper, he—”

He unexpectedly met Liang Huan’s gaze, his back went cold, and he subconsciously closed his mouth tightly.

Jing Si persuaded a few words next to him and then left. Lu Biao sat down on the car with a plop and sighed, “If only Team Yue was here.”

Liang Huan was concentrating on looking at the map.

Lu Biao muttered to himself for a while, touched his smooth round head, and tutted, “Brother Liang, why do I feel like something’s not right?”

Looks like he’s not completely stupid.

Liang Huan said, “Don’t sleep tonight, keep a close watch.”

He didn’t explain it specifically, but Lu Biao had a flash of inspiration and remembered what Yue Hang had said before he left.

‘No matter what happens, don’t try to guess Liang Huan’s thoughts, just do as you’re told, there won’t be any problems.’

Lu Biao touched his bald head, carried his gun into the tent, poured a few mouthfuls of mental power enhancer, stared at the densely packed light screens of the monitoring instruments in the chip, and tensed his nerves.

The sky was completely dark, and apart from the lighting around the edge of the camp, only the flashlights of the patrol team were shaking in the nearby jungle.

The captain of the first patrol team was called Ning Qiu, a tall man in his thirties. His left eyebrow was broken in two places and he fought fiercely. He had fought hard for the position of patrol team captain this time, so he was very responsible.

“What do you think the Deputy District Chief and Instructor Li were arguing about today? I heard from those mercenaries who were close by that they were fighting in the car.” Ning Qiu shook his flashlight at the distant bushes.

“Hey, what else could it be, they’re divorced, and the division of property is uneven.” Someone said, “I heard that Instructor Li was sick and had surgery some time ago, and he owes a lot of money again.”

“Your news is outdated. I heard from a friend in the military that Instructor Li and the mecha minister over there got married long ago, and he’s marrying our Deputy District Chief for the second time. His ex-husband even came over to snatch him back.”

Ning Qiu was shocked: “What?”

“No, no, I heard that the minister and Instructor Li are both in love with our Deputy District Chief.”

“What a mess, that minister and our Deputy District Chief are twin brothers, and Instructor Li was originally our Deputy District Chief’s sister-in-law…”

Ning Qiu was shocked again: “What!?”

“No, what I heard means that the Deputy District Chief wanted to send some mercenaries to attract high-level heteromorphs, and Instructor Li disagreed.” Someone revealed the truth, “The mercenaries are all spreading rumors that the Deputy District Chief just wants them to die.”

“But the resources and weapons allocated to the mercenaries are several times better than ours, and the salary is even higher, so that’s reasonable.”

“That’s right, two of the three mecha were given to the people from the Mercenary Base, I wonder when we’ll be able to touch a mecha.”

The few people chatted enthusiastically while patrolling, when someone suddenly screamed, “Ah!”

A group of people rushed over, and Ning Qiu raised his voice: “Be alert! Mi Hui, what are you yelling about?”

Mi Hui pointed at the bushes in the dark, swallowing hard: “I, I seem to have seen a heteromorph… turning into a hu-human…”

“You’re seeing things, how could a heteromorph turn into a human.” Ning Qiu clenched the gun in his hand, plucked up his courage and walked over.

Mi Hui and a few others watched him nervously. Ning Qiu looked around the bushes a few times, and came back carrying his gun: “Don’t make a fuss, there’s no heteromorph at all. Our camp is equipped with the latest mental power interference device… What expressions are those?”

Mi Hui raised his hand tremblingly: “Captain, be-behind you—”

Dense gunfire suddenly rang out, and the camp was in chaos for a moment.

Three mecha were neatly arranged in the center of the camp, and a black shadow took advantage of the chaos to feel its way into the protective shield. He looked up at the three mecha for a while, selected Black Emperor, and successfully logged into the mecha after unlocking his identity.

In the next second after he logged into Black Emperor, another black shadow quietly felt his way into the protective shield.

The Rhine chassis inside the mecha was running quietly, and the login operation time above was still displayed five years ago. There were also stacks of thick books piled on the operating table. The intruder walked closer with some curiosity, and swept away the thick dust on top.

The words “Large Combat Mecha Operation Guide” were revealed in the dim light.

He chuckled lightly, opened this obscure tome, and was stunned for a moment. On the first few pages, some difficult English was carefully marked with pronunciation and translation, and more obscure traditional characters were written next to some simplified characters. Next to it were large sections of traditional annotations and quotations. It seemed that the other party was not familiar with the posture of using a pen, and many turns were slightly stiff.

He flipped back a few pages, the phonetic notation and traditional character markings began to decrease, but more light blue powder began to appear on them, staying on the upper right corner of each page. He pinched it up and put it to the tip of his nose and smelled it, it was the familiar smell of mental power enhancer, and it had been left on the paper for so long, the other party should have adopted the method of injecting concentrated doses – this was a long-outdated method of using mental power concentrate.

Flipping back again, there were almost no phonetic notations or traditional characters, only Zhu Hong’s pen slightly messy scratch marks. Judging from the degree of wear and tear of this book, the owner should have read it more than once. Occasionally, when there were annotations, they were already familiar simplified characters, and even the beauty of the annotations could be used to know how old they were:

‘Is the login step positively correlated with the degree of violent mental fluctuations?’

‘How should the connection between internal power and mental power be?’

‘Adjust the Rhine chassis connection port down by 3.5.’

‘The editor is stupid.’

‘Waste of time!’

‘Nonsense!’

……

He flipped through that obscure tome with great interest, as if he had seen that Liang Huan, who had just escaped from the laboratory many years ago, was clumsily using a chip without anyone teaching him, and trying to understand the basic structure and driving methods of the mecha word by word, and how difficult it was to solve each problem he encountered, studying day and night. The violently fluctuating mental power forced him to take a large amount of mental power enhancers to stabilize it, but he resisted the “taking medicine” thing, so he stubbornly used the most dangerous injection method to take it…

He tutted, put the book next to him, saw the name of the book below, and was slightly surprised in his eyes.

“Teenage Mental Health”

He laughed gleefully, but as he flipped down the page, the look in his eyes became more and more serious. He flipped extremely quickly, even flipping over several pages of blood-soaked pages in a hurry, but because of the age, the dripping blood had long faded in color, becoming mottled and fragile.

He frowned and looked at the books below, all of which were studying space physics, arguing about traveling through time and space and past and present lives, and even below there was an application form and detailed instructions for applying for euthanasia.

Each stroke on it seemed to be soaked in blood, exuding a suppressed despair and rotten death atmosphere in the darkness.

“Fuck.” He cursed somewhat violently.

The flashing light of the chip was silently urging him.

He opened the backpack behind him, swept all the books on the table into the backpack, then skillfully unloaded the Rhine chassis next to him, put it in the backpack, pressed the books at the very bottom, and caught a glimpse of the messy chips and precision operating instruments on the operating table.

He narrowed his eyes, flipped through the chips, and didn’t touch the code – they were all self-made.

And those precision operating instruments even included the sutures and scalpels of the treatment instrument. He deducted the recording chip inside the operating instrument before logging out of the Black Emperor mecha with a huge backpack on his back.

“What happened?” Liang Huan led people to the commotion.

You Zhao Chen and Jiang Chudong, a few people from the Mercenary Base, and Ai Li and Jiang Chuxia were all there. Mi Hui, who was surrounded, knelt on the ground in horror, his face covered in blood, his lips trembling, “There, there’s a heteromorph.”

A group of people instantly picked up their weapons.

“Where’s the heteromorph?” You Zhao Chen asked him.

Mi Hui shook his head, “I, I can’t see clearly at all. At that time, Ning Qiu and I were, were patrolling, and I saw a huge black shadow in the bushes, but then a person quickly came out of it… I, I thought a heteromorph had turned into a human, Ning Qiu took the others over to see, I, I felt like I blinked my eyes, and Ning Qiu’s head was gone!”

You Zhao Chen looked solemn and said, “What about the others?”

Mi Hui was shaking all over: “I, I passed out, and when I woke up, there was nothing around. It must have been done by the heteromorph!”

Lu Biao ran over and said, “Brother Liang, the number of people has been completely counted, and nine people are missing, and the locators on them are all out of order. These nine people… are all mercenaries.”

Jiang Chudong said coldly, “You mean nine mercenaries are all dead, but this useless guy was able to survive in the hands of heteromorphs?”

There was an instant murmur around him.

“The people from the Black Market are alive, but so many people from the Mercenary Base have died…”

“Wouldn’t it be intentional?”

“How could a heteromorph appear in the camp? Is the scanner for nothing?”

“No wonder Li Yao and the surnamed Liang quarreled, Instructor Li is from our Mercenary Base after all…”

Lu Biao said in a deep voice, “Shut up!”

There was a moment of silence around him.

“The people from the Mercenary Base and the Black Market are in groups of five, ten people per camp, and whatever you do, you have to report it, and at least three people travel together.” Liang Huan said, “Strengthen vigilance, and the patrol team reduces the patrol range.”

He had great prestige in the Eastern Third District, and now that he had opened his mouth to give orders, even if some people were dissatisfied, they did not dare to openly defy the orders.

“This heteromorph may be able to locate humans through electromagnetic waves, everyone turn off chip positioning.”

A group of people dispersed to be on guard, and Mi Hui was taken by Lu Biao to the first off-road vehicle.

At the same time, Jing Si quietly jumped off the Shenfeng mecha and mixed into the scattered crowd. Just as he was about to click on the chip to send a communication, the signal in the chip suddenly cut off.

He was stunned for a moment, grabbed the person next to him and asked, “Why is there no signal in the camp suddenly?”

“The higher-ups suspect that a special heteromorph has appeared, and all chip blocking will be invalid before dawn, and everyone will be transferred urgently.” The other party said, “Didn’t you go just now?”

“I didn’t hear clearly in the back.” Jing Si clenched the invalid chip and looked back at the three mecha standing in place. “Nothing will happen, let’s go.”

When Liang Huan returned to the first vehicle, Li Yao was looking at Erlang’s legs and collapsing on the chair to read.

“Is the Rhine chassis of Shenfeng unloaded?” he asked.

Li Yao gave him an OK gesture, lowered his eyes and studied the books with a deep expression.

“When did you like to read books?” Liang Huan asked suspiciously.

Li Yao said lazily, “All chip signals are cut off, and games can’t be played, so I’m increasing my cultivation.”

Facts have proved that people who have been emperors for a long time have no cultivation at all. He turned Li Yao’s light screen very naturally and spied on the other party’s personal privacy: “What book are you reading?”

The striking words “Post-Marriage Couple Mental Health Handbook” caught Liang Huan’s eyes.

He raised his eyebrows and issued a question syllable: “Hmm?”

Li Yao pushed his virtual glasses: “Irresponsible men who don’t know how to manage marriage. Your Majesty, will you watch it with me?”

Liang Huan turned the light screen to him very calmly: “I can.”

Li Yao nodded in satisfaction, just about to turn the page, when he saw the “Post-Marriage Couple Mental Health Handbook” on it turned into a “Post-Marriage Couple Physiological Health Handbook”.

Liang Huan smiled slightly: “The lower volume is generally written, but the upper volume can barely be read.”

Li Yao cleared his throat and closed the virtual book with a snap: “Let’s do the business first.”