Chapter 32
Chapter 32: Can’t Stomach It
Long Ming quickly grabbed a flashlight and returned to the entrance.
He did not turn it on. Instead, he clipped it to his tactical belt.
He kept the light off because it would be too obvious. Many insects react to light, and moths even fly toward it.
He walked inside. When he could barely see, he stopped and waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark.
Time passed, second by second.
His eyes slowly adapted. He could make out faint shapes.
[This level of vision is not enough. I could get ambushed.]
He took a vial of Perception Serum from his backpack, pressed it to his shoulder, and injected it.
As the drug spread through his body, his hearing and smell sharpened at once. Even in the dim tunnel, he could barely see clearly now.
[This feels strange. The gear from the Supply Pod really works.]
He stopped hesitating and moved forward on quiet feet.
The main passage was wide. Both walls were reinforced concrete, but something seemed to cover the surface.
He stepped closer to check. The once smooth wall was packed with dense, honeycomb holes. Each hole was stuffed with a half?transparent egg.
His scalp tingled. [I feel like I’m walking inside a hive.]
Even so, he forced himself to keep going.
Crunch.
Faint cracking sounds came and went underfoot.
As he went deeper, dried insect husks piled up on the ground. There was no way to avoid all of them.
Luckily, the noise stayed small. Nothing came to attack him.
After a few minutes, he passed through the tunnel into a half?circle transfer area. More than a dozen soldiers lay there, dead.
The bodies had been chewed to ruin. Some were missing even their bones, leaving only torn uniforms.
He did not search right away. He watched the area first.
Gray worms still squirmed on the floor. Each was only about the size of a fist. Most were asleep.
[Stay careful. Keep it quiet. It should be fine.]
He lifted his head to check the ceiling.
Metal beams crossed overhead. Webs clung to them. In the webs, vague shapes wriggled. [There are probably bugs nesting up there.]
Once he was sure there was no big threat, he crept toward the bodies.
He reached the first skeleton.
The body was wrecked, but the hand still held a Baka Rifle.
He scanned it with his Wristband: durability 82/100. He picked it up.
[This can sell for at least five thousand Mountain Coin. Even if the price drops when I leave, it should still fetch three to four thousand.]
He moved to the next body.
A short while later, six Baka Rifles hung from his gear. His backpack bulged with magazines so much it would not close. Even then, several good?condition Baka Rifles still lay on the floor.
[It hurts to leave them, but I have to.]
He looked ahead. Three more passages opened off this transfer area, each leading to a different part of the base.
There were no signs, so he took the center passage.
Soon he reached a corridor. Dead soldiers lay on the floor, their deaths awful. None held weapons.
Rooms lined both sides.
[If I’m right, the base was hit late at night. Many soldiers died before they could react.]
He carefully entered the first room.
It was an eight?bed soldiers’ dorm, wrecked and messy.
Bones lay on the floor and on the bunks.
He glanced around, then spotted a row of gear hanging on the wall: Gray Combat Uniforms, bulletproof vests, and tactical backpacks.
His eyes lit up. He scanned them with the Wristband.
Gray Combat Uniform
Durability: 95/100
Infantry Body Armor
Durability: 100/100
Backpack (Physical)
Use: carry on back
Size: 50 x 28 x 22 cm
Capacity: 30 L
Note: On death or failed extraction, drop all items.
Though the space was only a little bigger than his starter pack, it was a proper tactical backpack. He could hang weapons on the sides, and it felt sturdier.
He took one backpack off the wall, dumped out his own, and repacked. He tossed extra gear like a Kog Automatic Pistol and a collapsible baton, then stuffed the rest into the tactical pack.
Next he took a Gray Combat Uniform and changed into it. He swapped his basic vest for the Infantry Body Armor.
With that done, he moved on to the next room.
Before long he had checked most of the dorms. The gear inside was almost the same, but he had to leave a lot due to pack space and weight.
He walked to the end of the corridor and found stairs going down.
He went down carefully to the first basement level. A rotten, fishy stink rushed up to meet him.
He held back his nausea and looked. A thick layer of slime coated the floor. Under it lay bones, broken rifles, and warped shell casings.
Heavy metal doors lined both sides of the hall.
Holding his breath, he moved forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw door after door dented and bent, with claw marks and bite marks torn into the metal.
Halfway down, an officer’s skeleton lay on the floor.
The body was snapped in two at the waist. Clear teeth marks dotted the spine. The dead man still gripped a shotgun.
Long Ming scanned it with the Wristband.
Kaxon Shotgun
Durability: 90/100
Rounds loaded: 3/7
He eyed the readout, bent down, picked up the Kaxon Shotgun, and hung it on the right side of his tactical backpack. Then he kept going.
Soon he reached a room whose metal door had been destroyed.
Hugging the wall, he leaned in and peeked. A cabinet had toppled over. Papers and files littered the floor.
A skeleton lay at the back of the room.
He studied the layout. [This should be a records room.]
He stepped inside with care, went to the skeleton, and looked down.
From the bones that remained, it seemed to be a young woman.
He noticed something in her hand: a beautiful tactical knife, the handle marked with a skull.
He crouched and picked it up. The blade gleamed. It looked excellent.
Kageba Tactical Knife
Durability: 91/100
Overall length: 26 cm
Blade length: 14.5 cm
The Wristband flashed the details.
He smiled. [What a good weapon.]
As he admired it, a black, centipede?like bug slid out of the dead woman’s clothes without a sound.
It was about to strike.
Long Ming snapped up the knife and drove it down in one clean motion, pinning the bug to the bones.
Thick fluid splashed.
The insect twitched a few times, then went limp.
He stared at it, surprised. [I didn’t expect the Perception Serum to be this good. I could even hear the bug crawling.]
[When I get the chance, I need more Perception Serum. It’s perfect for dungeon runs.]