Support

He was barely holding on himself; he had no energy to worry about the others. He just wanted to use his remaining strength to kill a few more gene monsters.

"Alert! The East Sector needs support! The East Sector needs support!"

Zero's voice suddenly crackled through the earpiece. Tu Ran paused mid-trigger-pull and looked toward the East Sector. A small mushroom cloud was rising rapidly, bursting through the factory roof. The immense heat shockwave spread to nearby flammable and explosive materials, triggering five or six more explosions in quick succession.

The heat wave rolled from the East Sector into the West. The moisture in the moss on the ground evaporated quickly, shriveling and turning black.

"Alert! The West Sector needs support! The West Sector needs support!"

The West Sector was Xie Xu's area. It mainly produced various types of gun barrels and cannons, with no flammable or explosive materials—theoretically, it should have been about the same difficulty as hers. Judging from the gunfire, the shots from the west were sparse and sporadic, as if they were already in the cleanup phase of hunting down gene monsters.

"Alert! The North Sector needs support! The North Sector needs support!"

Tu Ran: "..."

Couldn't you just say the other three sectors all need support outright? Why waste time saying it in three separate sentences?

Tu Ran turned and looked at her dwindling team.

"Everyone, listen up. All Pioneers, head to the North Sector to reinforce Deputy Commander Li Wenchuan's Pioneer Team. All Executive Department guards, head to the West Sector to reinforce Senior Researcher Xie Xu."

She had no idea what difficulties Xie Xu and Li Wenchuan were facing, but Tu Ran just wanted to say: you're on your own. I've sent you the people. Save them if you can; if not, you can all stay in this factory together.

She wasn't going. She was personally heading to the East Sector to reinforce Xie Hong.

She wanted to see where his inner core came from.

Hopefully it wasn't dug out of Xi Chunzhi.

If it was, then he could stay in this factory with Xie Xu and Li Wenchuan.

"Yes!"

Upon receiving the order, the Pioneers and guards who could still stand immediately evacuated the South Sector, exiting through the south gate and moving toward the North and West Sectors respectively. Tu Ran, on the other hand, cut through the factory interior and headed toward the explosion site.

The explosions had stopped, but the smoke was still spreading. Tu Ran activated her helmet's air purification system.

She pushed through the thick black smoke, searching for Xie Hong's figure.

Their white uniforms were really conspicuous. Even in the pitch-black smoke, Tu Ran spotted them at a glance—though only rough outlines.

Tu Ran didn't rush over. Instead, she concealed herself behind a machine nearby and secretly observed the scene.

The major beside Xie Hong seemed injured, head hanging low. Xie Hong was dragging him by the upper body toward a corner.

After pulling him to the corner, Xie Hong pulled out a black cloth laid over an assembly workbench, activated "Ice Freeze," and a thin layer of ice instantly formed on the cloth. Seemingly unsatisfied, he activated "Ice Freeze" again, adding another layer on top of the first.

Once he was sure the ice layer was thick enough, he draped the black cloth over the fallen major, completely wrapping him.

He was guarding against the moss attacks of the gene monsters. That moss could corrode most materials. Could a single block of ice stop it? Tu Ran was skeptical, but Xie Hong was a general, after all—he wouldn't do anything pointless. Maybe ice born from abilities had special properties.

After finishing this, Xie Hong slipped back into the smoke, laser gun in hand, scanning his surroundings warily.

"General Xie Hong is twenty meters ahead of you. You can go directly there. Major Xie Wei was hit by the explosive energy wave and is unconscious—he needs timely medical attention."

What a waste of good equipment, Tu Ran thought to herself.

"What caused the explosion?" Tu Ran stood in place, surveying the area. It was all thick smoke; she couldn't tell where the explosion originated.

"Major Xie Wei accidentally shot a furnace while firing at a gene monster. The furnace contained a small amount of flammable and explosive materials, triggering an explosion. The sparks from the blast reached six small-yield bombs that hadn't been moved to the safe zone, causing secondary and tertiary explosions," Zero explained.

Tu Ran didn't know what to say. She couldn't understand these rich kids. It was perfectly safe at home—why did they have to come to a place like this to take risks? They accomplished nothing and just created more trouble for working-class people like her.

"What about the other Pioneers and guards assigned to this sector? Why aren't they anywhere to be seen?" Tu Ran looked around, seeing no one.

"Some died in the explosions. Others were hit by the infrasound wave attacks from the gene monsters, causing severe nerve damage, and fell into comas," Zero said.

"Not even one left?" Tu Ran couldn't quite believe it.

"Correct. Not one left," Zero paused. "That's why your support is needed. Please proceed twenty meters ahead immediately, locate Major Xie Wei and General Xie Hong, and assist General Xie Hong in taking Major Xie Wei out of here."

"The smoke is too thick; I can't see clearly." Tu Ran's right hand silently touched her helmet.

"I will provide you with the most precise route guidance. You only need to follow my instructions to get there," Zero said.

"No. You're only positioning us through our locators. You can't detect whether gene monsters are hiding along the path—some gene monsters don't emit infrasound, so you can't track them. If they ambush us... I can't take that risk." Tu Ran declined, but it was also a probe.

She was testing whether Zero could detect living organisms in this smoke-filled environment.

If it could, Zero would insist she move and guarantee it could detect their locations. If not, Zero would come up with other countermeasures to allay her concerns.

"I've activated the Sankar Arsenal's air purification system. In five minutes—"

"Ah! Gene monster!"

"Bang!" A gunshot.

"Crackle..."

A shattered faceplate on the ground emitted a crackling sound.

Tu Ran had used "Landslide."

Zero's response made it clear that besides the combat helmet's locator, it had no other way to detect living organisms. In this just-exploded space, thermal imaging wasn't reliable either.

So Tu Ran decisively destroyed the helmet, shaking off Zero's surveillance.

The final shout and gunshot were purely her professionalism. If you're going to act, see it through.

She hadn't forgotten Zero's half-finished sentence: "In five minutes—"

In five minutes, the smoke would clear.

She only had five minutes.

Biting her finger, Tu Ran smeared the blood on her left palm.

As expected, the purple iridescent mushroom grew out quickly.

It was truly resilient—as long as it had Tu Ran's blood, it could grow anywhere.