Chapter 481 Rebirth (first update)

  Although there was no reinforcement from the academy until the end, Zhao Xiao unexpectedly got a piece of news from Lao Bai that he couldn’t believe—

  He can go home now.

  A dark and stormy night.

  The empty camp was empty and silent.

  Fifteen minutes ago, the soldiers of the Burning Corps set up here, but they did not stay in the camp. They left here after leaving a truck and some supplies.

  Zhao Xiao who was standing in the middle of the camp had mixed feelings.

   I didn't expect that Lao Bai was not joking, but really let him go.

   Not only him, but also Chen Yutong, and Wu Liangping who was seriously injured and unconscious in the dormant cabin...all the captured personnel are here.

   As for Xuan Feng.

  The alliance insists that a bionic human without an "intellectual plug-in" should be regarded as equipment, and this is the academy's own point of view, so its body and AI core are not included in the exchange of prisoners.

  Although the words are a bit unreasonable, the academy does not recognize the bionics as human beings, and Zhao Xiao can't think of how to refute them.

   It's not just Xuan Feng.

  His own sniper rifle and accessories were also confiscated by that guy named Ye Shi... But he never expected that those people would return the weapon and freedom to him.

  Although he has regained his freedom, there is one thing that Zhao Xiao can't figure out.

   That's why the alliance and the enterprise released them prisoners.

   What made him even more puzzled was why he couldn't feel happy at all when he was going home soon.

  Maybe because of that bet.

  The guy named Lao Bai didn't mention the glass of beer, and finally just smiled and patted him on the shoulder to express his congratulations.

  But he knew very well in his heart that he lost in the end...

   At this time, Chen Yutong who was standing aside suddenly spoke.

   "I've changed my mind."

   Zhao Xiao froze for a moment, then turned to look at her.

"change idea?"

  Chen Yutong nodded.

   "Well, I plan to stay."

  The confusion in his eyes gradually turned into surprise, Zhao Xiao stared at her in disbelief, and it took a long time before he squeezed out a word from his throat.

   "Reason?"

  Treason is a felony.

   Students who defect will be rewarded and hunted down endlessly by the academy, and the higher the level, the higher the reward amount.

  More than that, any student is obliged to record his words and deeds when he discovers a traitor, and report it to the Department of Internal Affairs for the purge plan team to deal with.

  Otherwise you will be sentenced to connivance...

  Zhao Xiao put his hand on his waist subconsciously, but soon found that there was nothing there, so he put his hand down again.

"have no idea."

   Didn't care about his teammates' actions, Chen Yutong shook his head slightly as if he didn't see it.

  She turned around, looked at the star-studded night sky in the south, and said to herself in a very soft voice, "Maybe... just want to go and see."

  Although it is very clear that the alliance is not the "heavenly kingdom" she imagined, she still wants to see what kind of place it is, so that those who are loyal to him can puff up their chests and say that sentence confidently—

  You can check with your eyes.

  At this moment, she was even more curious about the place than the ruins.

  Of course, the delicious food is also a reason.

   Chen Yutong, who finally made a decision, suddenly felt as if he had let go of all the burdens on his body, and his whole body suddenly became much more relaxed.

  Grade, identity...

  Those things are not important anymore.

   She has already died once for the Academy.

  In the next life, she plans to pursue her true heart and live for the things she is interested in.

  She looked at Zhao Xiao.

   "Just tell the captain that I have died in the previous battle, and thank him and me for taking care of me all the time..."

   When she said this, she paused, and suddenly laughed at herself and shook her head.

   "Wait, forget it, let's skip this sentence, it's so strange that a dead person can talk."

  Anyway, the captain probably didn’t know about her being captured, so it’s not bad if she died in the previous operation just like those teammates who died in battle.

As long as she doesn't make the academy feel ashamed, the academy doesn't have to worry about her little E-rank, and those prospectors who disappeared during the operation may not be really dead, maybe it's like the D in Lao Bai's mouth. Live well there like a senior prospector.

   As for thank you.

   Let’s talk face to face when I have a chance.

  Zhao Xiao swallowed.

  Responsibility told him that he should stop the defected guy in front of him, but he found that what he said was another sentence.

"…Take care of yourself."

   After all, he is a teammate who has been working together for many years, but he still cannot implement that discipline.

  He only hoped that she would not regret today's choice.

   Just treat her as dead.

  Chen Yutong nodded, turned his back to him, and walked out of the camp unsuspectingly.

   Almost less than ten minutes after she left, the creaking sound of the tracks rolling over the stones came along the ground.

  Zhao Xiao looked up towards the north of the camp, and saw that familiar heavy tracked vehicle slowly driving into the quiet and empty camp.

   Sitting in the driver's seat is Zheng Hao, the captain of the beacon team.

  Zhao Xiao's eyes were filled with surprise, he didn't expect him to come to pick him up himself.

"team leader!"

  Looking at Zheng Hao who jumped off the tracked vehicle, Zhao Xiao ran over quickly and gave him an excited hug.

   Patting the young man on the shoulder, Zheng Hao let go of his hand, looking at the young face in front of him, his tense expression suddenly loosened.

  All the way here, he hesitated whether his decision was correct, but at this moment all hesitation disappeared.

  He was extremely grateful for his choice at the moment.

Perhaps from the academy's point of view, it is the most "economical" way to cancel the names of these E-levels from the list, and what he and the other team members should do is to write down the names of these people and their memories. Erase from memory.

   But he is not an academy after all.

   Neither Dr. Conclusion nor the Chief Technology Officer is too far away from him.

  He is just a selfish person, an insignificant D-rank, a little person who is called around by his superiors...

  No matter what their reasons were, those people died under his order.

  Even if he could save another one, it would relieve his guilt.

   "Those people didn't do anything to you, did they?"

  Zhao Xiao shook his head excitedly.

   "No! They were kind enough to me...didn't even hit me."

"very good."

  Grinning a rare smile on his expressionless face, Zheng Hao patted him on the shoulder and let go of the young man.

   "They kept their promise, I will remember this favor... By the way, did that guy named Lao Bai give you anything?"

   "Yes! I have it with me!"

  Zhao Xiao nodded immediately, took out a test tube from his pocket and handed it over.

  Old Bai had told him to hand it over to their captain himself.

  After taking the test tube, Zheng Hao's eyes flashed with joy, but when his eyes fell on the sleeping cabin next to him, the joy was quickly diluted by complicated emotions.

   "Anyone else?"

  Zhao Xiao was silent for a while, then shook his head.

"Gone."

  Zheng Hao said nothing more.

   "...Put Lao Wu on the truck, this is not a place to stay for long, we should go."

  Zhao Xiao nodded without asking any further questions, and cooperated with the captain to carry the dormant cabin containing Lao Wu onto the back compartment of the truck.

  The two then came to the front of the truck, opened the door and got into the driver's and co-pilot's seats.

   A note was taped to the steering wheel.

  A few crooked stick figures roughly describe how the truck starts, how to turn on the lights, how to drive and so on.

   Zheng Hao glanced at it, tore off the note and threw it aside, turned off the key, started the car, and drove out of the camp.

  Looking at the gradually receding camp in the rearview mirror, Zhao Xiao suddenly said.

   "By the way... there is one more thing."

   Zheng Hao, who was driving, replied casually.

"What's up."

   "Chen Yutong, she... was seriously injured before, and felt that she couldn't survive, so she gave the hibernation cabin to Old Wu who could still be rescued."

  This is a story he just made up.

  Under the premise of not revealing that she is still alive, she can barely justify herself.

   After a moment of silence, Zhao Xiao continued.

   "She asked me to say thank you...thank you for taking care of me all the time."

  Zheng Hao nodded.

  That expression seemed to have guessed something, and he didn't seem to think too much about it.

   "Well, I see."

  Zhao Xiao heaved a sigh of relief.

  It is uncomfortable to hold back some words in my heart.

   It feels better to say it.

  …

  The truck drove for about five or six kilometers and stopped beside a mountain road.

   Several members of the Beacon Squad gathered around with their rifles in their hands. Seeing that the captain and the sniper were sitting in the driver's seat, they breathed a sigh of relief and lowered their guns.

   "The transaction was successful."

   Jumped out of the car, Zheng Hao glanced behind him, but no car lights followed.

  It seems that those people did let themselves go.

  Perhaps as that old Bai said, they are still looking forward to the next cooperation with him... although he doesn't want to meet those monsters again at all.

  Deputy Captain Song Changfeng stepped forward and asked.

   "What do we do now? Without communication equipment, we can't report our situation to the academy..."

   "That's just right. When we went back, we said that we encountered an active attack from alliance and corporate reinforcements, and the follow-up operation failed."

   After a pause, Zheng Hao continued.

   "But there is no unparalleled road. At the cost of a vehicle, we not only successfully rescued the captured team members, but also successfully obtained tissue samples from the mother's body."

  Although they lost a tracked vehicle, it wasn't their own in the first place. It would be nice to be able to exchange captured teammates with academy equipment.

   They had communicated about this point before, and everyone agreed. For this reason, the engineers in the team also helped format the AI ​​cores of the two android players.

  A team member climbed into the back compartment of the truck, and suddenly found that there were two boxes in addition to a dormant cabin, so he yelled and asked.

   "What are the two boxes on the truck?"

  Zhao Xiao heard it and replied.

   "Oh, that, it's the supplies they gave us. They said they couldn't finish it anyway, and left it for us to eat on the way..."

  The medical soldier pouted.

   "Who will eat the enemy."

  He had unloaded the crawler's supplies, including enough freeze-dried food, energy bars, and fresh water to last the squad for thirty days.

  Zhao Xiao scratched the back of his head.

   "That's what I said, but those things taste pretty good..."

   Several team members looked at each other with weird expressions.

  This guy must have been locked up.

  Song Changfeng looked at Zheng Hao, with that expression obviously wanting to ask his opinion again.

   Zheng Hao didn't say anything, just nodded and said casually.

   "Keep it."

  He had already heard Zhao Xiao talk about the two boxes in the car. Although he was puzzled why the other party did such a redundant thing, he never thought that those people would poison or something.

  With their ability, there is absolutely no need for this.

   Such trivial things are fine, he doesn't bother to worry about them at all.

  What he is thinking now is, which professor is more appropriate to contact after returning to the college.

   There is only one chance.

  He has to think of a way to maximize the value of the test tube in his hand...

   At the same time, the north side of No. 8 oasis.

   After nearly a week of long-distance travel, Lao Bai and his party finally succeeded in reuniting with the large army that came to support them.

  Looking at Sun Ze walking towards him, several enterprise pilots walked up to him with a smile and patted his shoulder and arm.

   "Haha, brother, I heard in the back that you had a bad fall."

  Sun Ze sighed.

"That's not true, the ghost knows what medicine the crows in the swamp took wrongly, and when they met, they fired a missile and killed me! You don't know how exciting it was at that time, I was so close to being finished! Fortunately, my driving skills are excellent, and I was rescued back!"

   "What about the plane?" Another pilot asked curiously.

  Sun Ze waved his hand indifferently.

   "It's scrapped! I've marked the wreckage on the map, let's wait for the aviation department to send someone to deal with it... What the hell, I'm worth it anyway! Hahaha!"

   As he spoke, Sun Ze vividly talked about what happened to him and the Burning Corps after they landed.

   In particular, he focused on how he led a group of soldiers to break out of the tight encirclement under the siege and interception of the academy by virtue of his wit, bravery and determination, completely forgetting that he was almost scared to pee at that time.

   Several young players stood aside and stared dumbfounded, staring at the subtitles on the VM while whispering in Mandarin.

   "Damn it, isn't this too bragging?!"

   "+1, this face is probably thicker than the walls of Boulder City..."

  The two rescued corporate pilots will take a direct flight back to Ideal City, accept interviews from the media, and clarify some misunderstandings.

   But before going back, the pilot's chief seemed to have something to say to the two rescued lucky ones, so he pulled Sun Ze aside who was bragging about his superiority.

  As for Luo Yu and Xiao Yu, they will take the samples recovered from the Eagle fighter jets and return to Dawn City on the enterprise plane.

  The company is not particularly interested in Xiaoyu.

   Or to put it more accurately, those who are interested in it do not have enough voice and influence in the Supreme Council.

  In contrast, the bionic man named "Xuan Feng" may arouse the interest of Kangmao Group, but that is something for the managers to worry about.

  Lao Bai confirmed the update task on the VM.

   After meeting with the large forces of the Burning Corps, they will take the reindeer heavy tracked vehicles "captured" from the academy and return to the frontline airport to wait for the next instruction.

   I heard that the battle on the front line was going very smoothly. Under the joint attack of the Skeleton Corps, Storm Corps, and Lion Kingdom Army, two of the nine 10,000-strong teams that retreated were defeated.

  If this trend continues, less than half of the 10,000-strong team that can successfully withdraw to the No. 2 oasis may be less than half. The balance of victory is almost in the hands of the alliance.

   It is estimated that before the end of the year, the Alliance will be able to meet old friends on the Pioneer.

   At this time, Feng Feng, who was operating the drone, suddenly raised his head and looked at Lao Bai, who was thinking about the marching route later.

   "Someone is coming from the north."

  A look of surprise floated on Lao Bai's face.

  North?

  Have those nerds not given up yet?

   "Several."

  Guang Feng touched the bridge of his nose and said.

   "I just saw one."

   "Go and meet him!"

  Ye Shi jumped out of the truck excitedly, and was about to try the weapon accessories he had just seized, but was stopped by Lao Bai.

   "It may not be to trouble us, I'll go and have a look."

   As he spoke, Lao Bai walked out of the camp alone.

   After about ten minutes, a figure appeared on the sand dunes in the distance.

  She came alone, unarmed.

  Looking at Chen Yutong who walked in front of him, Lao Bai asked with a smile.

   "Did something fall here?"

  Chen Yutong shook his head, but after a while, he nodded slightly again.

   "I want to follow you... to the place you mentioned where wastelanders gather together to keep warm."

  Old Bai looked at the girl in front of him in surprise.

   Seeing that the expression didn't look like he was joking, he didn't ask any more questions, and stretched out his right hand with a smile.

   "It seems that you have been thinking about it for a long time. Now that you have decided, then I will not persuade you... Welcome to join us."

   "Thank you, if you don't take me in, I'm afraid I'll be homeless."

  reached out his hand and shook him, Chen Yutong joked with a slightly relaxed expression, "After making this decision, I should have changed from missing to dead at the academy."

  Old Bai also made a joke.

   "Congratulations on starting a new life, do you want a new name?"

  Chen Yutong said bluntly.

   "No need, I don't plan to forget the past, and there are so many people with the same name and surname, no one will care about the life and death of an E-level prospector."

  She is just a small person, not worthy of the attention of those high-ranking A-level or B-level people.

   Paused for a moment, she looked around and continued.

   "Didn't you get a tracked vehicle from Zheng Hao? Why didn't I see it?"

  Old Bai said embarrassedly.

   "Still on the way back... My people just took over and are studying the manual left by your captain. It will be back in a few minutes."

  Compared with Alliance trucks, that thing is much more troublesome to drive. The 12-inch center console can only wish for more than fifty buttons.

  That thing is not much easier to operate than the orthopter that the company sold them.

  Chen Yutong smiled.

   "That's right, when your people come back, I can teach you how to drive that thing."

  A trace of surprise flashed in Lao Bai's eyes, and he said with a hearty smile.

   "That's great, you can help us a lot!"

  The naturally hanging bangs blocked her view, she tossed it lightly, and said nonchalantly.

   "You're welcome, this little thing is nothing, just treat me to a glass of that potato-made wine when I get back... what's it called?"

   "You mean vodka?"

  Old Bai looked at this brave girl in surprise, and joked with a smile, "I heard that people in the academy don't drink alcohol, and ethanol is only used as reagents and fuel...Are you sure you can drink it?"

  Chen Yutong's mouth curled up.

   "I am no longer a member of the academy. And if I can drink it, how will I know if I don't try it?"

  Maybe it's because of her different identities, or maybe it's because she wants to open up, Lao Bai always feels that she seems to be different from yesterday.

   However, this is not a bad thing.

  Try more new things that you haven't tried before, which will be of great help to integrate into your new life.

   "Okay, I won't stop you... But I recommend you a drinking method suitable for rookies, you can add some Coke or Sprite to it."

  Chen Yutong asked curiously.

   "What's that? Is it delicious?"

   "A drink...the stuff made by those life-professional players—I mean the life-loving shelter residents. Simply put, it's sugar water with some carbonated water."

   "Carbonic acid? Does that thing have a smell?" Chen Yutong frowned slightly.

   College of course also has drinks supplemented with sugar, caffeine and vitamins.

   But they definitely don't add carbonation to drinking water, they put it in labeled sample cabinets just like ethanol.

  Those things can neither supplement nutrition nor promote the secretion of dopamine, but will cause the loss of minerals in the body, just like alcohol can damage the brain.

  Even if the harmful dose is controllable, there is absolutely no need to increase avoidable risks for meaningless things.

   "No, there is no taste at all, but the feeling of the bubbles exploding between the lips and teeth can bring a little different stimulation to the mediocre sugar water, you will know if you try it..."

  Lao Bai's answer was in line with her expectations.

   It just surprised her that he had other insights into "meaning".

   For her reborn, this is more interesting to her than delicious.

   "I see, can you... tell me about Sprite again? I'm a little curious."

  Looking at the face full of curiosity, Lao Bai explained with a little headache.

   "Hiss, this question is too professional, in general it is the same as Coke, but we replaced caffeine with citric acid..."

   "Citric acid instead of caffeine?! So that's what it is...I'm looking forward to it."

   I don't know when it started, but the two of them have already started walking back.

  Chen Yutong naturally followed him, and asked a lot of questions that he was interested in but didn't have time to ask with great interest.

  The two are like old friends who have known each other for a long time.

  On the sand dunes not far away, Ye Shi with a sniper rifle put away the gun cursingly, patted the ashes on his pants and got up.

   "Damn it! Don't watch it, because I was worried that something would happen to him, so I stuffed me with dog food."

   Gale, who was holding a telescope, gave him a sideways look.

   "Which of your eyes can see that it's dog food, can't it be a pure friendship?"

  Ye Shi complained.

   "Come on, have you forgotten Fang Chang's dog thing? At the beginning, he talked about the task, and then his wife barked... vomit, vomit."

   It's gone.

  He can't stand dog food unless it's his own.

  Guang Feng coughed.

   "Fang Chang is Fang Chang, Lao Bai is Lao Bai...different."

  Ye Shi rolled his eyes.

"gone back."

  (end of this chapter)