Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 202 Infection Outbreak, Ghost Water Cave Crab!
Night fell earlier than expected.

Just after 7:20, the last glimmer of light on the horizon was completely swallowed up, and thick darkness instantly enveloped everything.

Everything around fell silent, except for the whistling sound of the wind blowing through the broken walls, like an invisible giant beast lying in the wilderness, silently staring in the direction of the camp.

Although the flames did not warn of any eyes staring at him, Cheng Ye clearly felt waves of cold malice constantly falling on him.

When he last went out of town to investigate Dabo Town, he had never had this chilling intuition.

"Is this the threat in the wilderness?"

As Cheng Ye walked, he kept shrugging his shoulders and swinging his arms to warm up his upper body muscles.

A wise person does not stand under a crumbling wall; after learning martial arts, a martial artist's perception of danger will also improve.

He refused to believe that these malicious intentions were illusions; in a world where even the extraordinary existed, there must be things in the wilderness that humans could not comprehend.

Perhaps this malice wasn't directed at him personally, but rather enveloped everyone in the wilderness, but the feeling of being "targeted" was like wearing wet clothes—it was unsettling no matter what.

Holding a flashlight, Cheng Ye first patrolled the area around the camp. After confirming that there was nothing unusual on the outskirts, he paused and turned towards the street leading to the river.

Almost the instant he stepped onto this path, the faint malice suddenly sharpened, as if countless eyes were hidden behind the dark broken wall, staring intently at his back, making even the hairs on his body stand on end.

"Wow"

"Wow."

The sound of the Baishui River flowing was particularly clear at night, and the flow rate was noticeably faster than during the day.

The sound of the river water lapping against the embankment was intermittent, occasionally mixed with the sound of the wind passing through the corridor. It sounded like a woman's low sobbing, or an old woman singing a ghostly opera in the dark, long and eerie, making people's hearts tremble.

Cheng Yeqiang suppressed his anxiety and quickly walked to the embankment, gazing into the distance by the moonlight.

Without the light pollution of modern society, the moonlight in the wasteland is exceptionally bright, and even with a few wisps of clouds obscuring it, it still illuminates the river surface with a silvery glow.

It was visible to the naked eye that the flow of the Baishui River and Huangshui River had increased by 30% compared to the daytime, and the river was rushing even faster.

"The weather forecast for Happiness City says there will be light rain tomorrow evening. Could it be that a heavy rain fell upstream first?"

As tributaries of the Linjiang River, the sudden rise in water levels of these two rivers will likely cause the main stream to become even more turbulent.

This suggests that the upper reaches of the Linjiang River likely experienced heavy rainfall, which caused a sudden increase in the water volume of the downstream tributaries.

As Cheng Ye pondered, he raised his right hand, and the beam of his flashlight slowly swept along the edge of the dam.

Wherever the beam of light reached, there was only damp soil and overgrown weeds; nothing unusual could be seen.

If one ignores Rokuk's warning during the day, the scene at this moment is somewhat similar to the night when they first left the city.

Calm, serene, and even possessing a touch of primal natural beauty.

The abandoned town, the neglected dikes, far removed from any trace of human activity, everything here is slowly reverting to a chaotic, primitive state.

call.

Cheng Ye stared at the water for a while, but still couldn't detect anything unusual. He then breathed a sigh of relief and turned to walk back to the camp.

Rococo and Garcia weren't as bold as him, daring to come to the river alone to investigate after nightfall, but after confirming the situation with his own eyes, his anxiety did lessen.

thump.

thump.

creak.

The armored boots trod on the road, occasionally crushing into weathered concrete blocks with a "crunch" sound.

In the distance, the patrol team from the red zone was marching past in formation, eight people per group, two groups in total, each holding a flashlight.

Several dozen meters apart, both sides tacitly refrained from shining their flashlights directly at each other, instead simply waving them at their feet, using the standard long and short signal in the wasteland as a way of greeting each other.

Watching the group leave, Cheng Ye continued walking back, his footsteps particularly clear in the quiet night.

thump.

thump.

click
Suddenly, his raised foot stopped in mid-air, and almost instinctively he twisted his body to the side, his armor crashing with a "bang" into a pile of abandoned bricks and stones next to the street.

The crimson sword at his waist was drawn and landed in his left hand, while his right hand immediately turned the beam of the flashlight behind him.

no one?

Cheng Ye's gaze instantly focused. The spot he had just stepped on contained only two pieces of weathered and cracked concrete, with damp soil exposed underneath.

But he just heard a distinct clicking sound, as if it were imitating the previous footsteps.

"What the hell?"

Cheng Ye cursed inwardly, cautiously surveying his surroundings, and subtly switched the Crimson Blade to his right hand.

Teaching one person to another is futile, no matter how many words are spoken.

A lesson can be learned in a single instance and become deeply ingrained in one's heart.

Cold weapons do have their limitations; they are far less effective than a pistol when dealing with infected individuals.

But after leaving the buffer zone, leaving the quarantine area, and arriving in the real wilderness.

At this moment, the sense of security provided by a pistol, or even a Thunderbolt 1, is far less reassuring than the Red Blade held in one's hand.

One second, two seconds, five seconds passed, and the "click" sound did not ring out again.

It was like an illusion, perhaps the sound was made by the wind blowing a broken brick.

just.

Cheng Ye suddenly adjusted his breathing, and his body pounced out like a cheetah poised for battle. Instead of fleeing towards the camp, he strode back towards the riverbank.

The only truly open area in the entire town of Dabo is the riverside. Once you enter the town, you'll find ruins everywhere, making it incredibly easy to hide an infected person or source of infection.

When he rushed back to the shore, the patrol team in the red zone had not gone far.

Hearing hurried footsteps behind them, the team members instinctively turned around, and a dozen beams of flashlight beams instantly shone towards them. Seeing that it was Cheng Ye in his battle armor, the patrol captain inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

But this sense of security soon turned into a chilling fear.

Cheng Ye didn't stop. Instead, he rushed up to them and stopped five meters away, his tone icy: "How many people are in your patrol team?"

"Two squads, 16 people in total?" The patrol captain was stunned, not understanding why Cheng Ye suddenly asked this.

"Now count how many people are left." Cheng Ye's gaze swept over the patrol team's ranks, his eyes serious.

"Now?" The patrol captain's heart tightened. He quickly shone his flashlight on each patrol member's face, counting aloud: "1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 14..."

As he counted down, his voice trembled more and more, and his legs went weak, almost causing him to kneel down.

The two teams had a total of 16 people, but now only 14 are left!
Two people disappeared during the patrol.

What's even more terrifying is that none of them noticed when the two disappeared, and there wasn't even a sound of struggle or shouting!

"When we met by the river just now, there were 16 of you." Cheng Ye gripped the red knife tightly, forcing his voice to remain calm, but the fear in his heart surged like a tide, and he couldn't help but have the thought of "dropping the job and running away".

This job is simply inhuman.

Challenging the most primal fears in people's hearts is indeed a difficult hurdle.

At this moment, even if a bunch of infected creatures suddenly appeared and rushed towards him, he would not want to face such a bizarre situation again.

Based on the footsteps he just heard behind him, could it be that the two people who disappeared have already set their sights on him?
"Contact Rokuk immediately! Quickly!" Cheng Ye thought for a moment, then could no longer suppress the urgency in his voice. His shout startled the Red Zone patrol team.

The guard captain then came to his senses and hurriedly pulled out the radio from his waist and pressed the communication button.

"Prosecutor Luo! Something's happened! Two people are missing from our team!"

"What?" Rokuk on the other end of the radio instantly lost his daytime composure, his voice turning icy. "Where are you now?"

"Prosecutor Cheng was also standing next to us on the riverbank."

"Give him the communicator!"

Cheng Ye took the radio and heard Rocco's voice: "Prosecutor Cheng, take everyone and retreat to the red-blue border immediately. Consider it a favor I owe you."

"Row."

Cheng Ye gave a brief reply, tossed the radio back, and turned to the patrol team, saying in a deep voice, "You go first, I'll cover the rear. Retreat directly to the border. No one is allowed to look back, no one is allowed to be alone, and no one is allowed to speak!"

"Yes!"

Two of our comrades have already gone missing, what's the point of continuing our duty?

The fear at this moment is far more suffocating than the darkness.

The team members panicked completely. Without Cheng Ye needing to urge them any further, they gripped their flashlights and guns tightly and rushed back.

Cheng Ye followed at the back of the group, his eyes fixed on the backs of the 14 people, and his palms inevitably broke out in a cold sweat.

Simply bringing people back to the border is hardly worth a favor.

Rokuk clearly knew something, and this was probably what he had discovered during the day. Sure enough, after taking only ten or so steps forward, the last member of the group suddenly convulsed, staggering to the side as if he were drunk.

Moreover, even though he had been told not to turn around, his head seemed to be twisted by an invisible hand, and it actually turned 180 degrees.

A face flipped in an instant, and the previously honest-looking middle-aged man's face twisted into an indescribable, eerie smile, stiff and contorted, as if silently saying...
"Congratulations, you've found me!"

hum.

In an instant, the malice of the wilderness surged in like a tidal wave, engulfing people and making it hard to breathe.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The teammates who were running forward were completely unaware that their companions behind them had silently entered the outbreak period of the infection source and began to undergo bizarre mutations.

Cheng Ye stopped in his tracks.

The two stopped in place at the same time, and in the blink of an eye, they were three or four steps away from the advancing group.

The middle-aged man grinned, dark green saliva dripping down his chin, his eyes glazed over yet filled with madness.

Staring at Cheng Ye's face, only one thought remained in his mind.

Purification.

Purify!
Clean up this garbage!!!

just.

To the middle-aged man's surprise, the "trash" in front of him did not seem to be frightened by his change.

The face under the helmet paused for a moment, and a smile even appeared on the corner of its mouth.

In an instant, a fiery red line climbed up the sides of the young face's eyes, carrying an intense and domineering pressure.

And on his brow, a golden flame-shaped mark that he could hardly look at suddenly lit up.

What is this?
The middle-aged man froze. With his remaining consciousness, he forced his eyelids to squint, trying to take a closer look.

however.

Boom, boom.

The enormous figure before them seemed to defy the laws of physics, taking two steps forward and then rising more than half a meter into the air as if its feet were on air, ignoring gravity.

The next second, his straight right leg lashed out like a steel whip, kicking with terrifying force.

"Laugh, you, Mom!!!"

In an instant, the immense force erupted completely, accompanied by a sharp whistling sound as it pierced the air. Combined with the explosive power of the iron-clad body and the extraordinary symbiotic energy, it slammed into the man's temple.

Just how terrifying is the power of that kick?
boom! ! !
Caught off guard, the middle-aged man didn't even have time to raise his right hand to block before his head and neck exploded upon contact.

A thick, tar-like blackish-green liquid spurted from the severed neck. The liquid was still in the air before it hit the ground, but the body was still carried by inertia and crashed heavily into a low wall five or six meters away with a deafening thud.

what happened?
The thunderous roar made the fleeing team members stop abruptly and instinctively turn around, where more than a dozen beams of flashlight were simultaneously shone towards the source of the sound.

Cheng Ye, who had just kicked out, had already landed, and dust scattered around his feet.

The scene under the low wall.

But it made three members of the patrol team so weak in the knees that they collapsed to the ground.

My companion, who was perfectly fine just moments ago, is now covered in a dense array of tiny red cone-shaped dots, like sharp thorns emerging from his skin.

Above the headless neck, two stalks as thick as chopsticks protruded, with two protruding red eyeballs at the top, rolling around like crab compound eyes.

Even more terrifying, two gashes were torn open on his back, and two eerie green crab claws snapped open and closed, gleaming with a cold metallic light.

Even without a head, the infected organism's mutation continues!
"Shoot! What are you all standing there for?"

After landing, Cheng Ye retreated like a nimble monkey, instantly creating a distance of four or five steps. A loud shout finally woke up the terrified team members.

Gunshots suddenly rang out in the night, and bullets rained down on the "headless crab man" on the ground.

Even the most ordinary guard pistol is powerful enough for such close-range shooting.

Before it could complete its transformation, its body was riddled with holes.

No one knows who shot the crabman's eyeball, but a dark blue liquid flowed out, dripping onto the ground with a "sizzling" sound and emitting wisps of pungent white smoke.

"This is an infection source we've never seen before."

After severing the symbiotic relationship, Cheng Ye stared at the corpse on the ground, his heart skipping a beat.

He quickly searched his memory for any information about the source of infection associated with crabs, but could not find a corresponding entry.

Clearly, this is either an unknown source of infection that has never been recorded before, or a special type of infection that is extremely rare.

"Get out of the way, don't touch these liquids, and keep heading back to the border!"

Cheng Ye roared again, his voice carrying an undeniable calmness.

The three team members who had fallen to the ground scrambled to their feet. Everyone's face was ashen, and even though they were in a state of utter confusion, they could only continue to flee towards the safe zone they had cleared during the day, their heads covered.

Taking advantage of the moment when everyone was retreating, Cheng Ye quickly stepped forward and gently touched the remains of the "crab man" on the ground with the tip of his red sword.

The moment the panel notification flashed and lit up, Cheng Ye saw three "???" pop up. He paused for a moment, but without stopping, he turned around and ran towards the border.

The question mark indicates that the source of this infection is not only beyond his understanding, but also not among the civilization information he had previously collected through the substitute starfish.

It's worth noting that even rare and extraordinary creatures like the Whirlpool Turtle can unlock corresponding entries in the Pokédex.

However, there is no information about the source of this infection, which is enough to prove that it is even rarer than the vortex turtle!
Besides, who knows where those two people who disappeared are hiding now?

Before we understand how this source of infection parasitizes, any unnecessary actions could lead to infection.

Even if his level of life has improved, he doesn't need to gamble his life in this situation.

The two-minute journey felt like half a century.

When the team rushed back to the red-blue border, Rokuk indeed led more than twenty people to stand guard with guns raised, their flashlight beams forming a defensive line.

"Stop! Submit for inspection!" Upon seeing someone rush out, Rocook gave the order, and more than twenty guns were simultaneously pointed at them.

The patrol team members, who had survived the ordeal, stopped abruptly. A look of relief flashed across their faces, and they quickly raised their hands and obediently stood aside.

an examination?
Cheng Ye strode out of the shadows, and their eyes met.

Rokuk immediately walked over, deliberately keeping a three-meter distance. "What's going on?"

"An unseen source of infection."

Cheng Ye took a breath and immediately described the middle-aged team member's eerie head turn, grin, and the appearance of his transformed appearance with long crab claws and bulging eyes, word for word.

Rokuk's expression changed instantly. He immediately took out the Fire-Burning Scroll from his waist and his fingers flew across the screen.

Ten seconds later, he raised his phone and turned around; a clear picture was on the screen.

The creature in the picture resembled the "crab man" he had seen to a great extent. The only difference was that the creature in the picture still had a head, with only its eyeballs protruding, unlike the man whose head he had just kicked open, which was only connected by two lonely stalks.

"Is this it?" Seeing the emotion in Cheng Ye's eyes, Rokuk's tone was urgent.

“Yes!” Cheng Ye nodded.

"It seems my investigation during the day was correct. Damn it, this river really does harbor a huge threat!"

Upon confirmation, Rokuk, unusually, lost his composure and began babbling incoherently, "The assessment should end; this has exceeded our capabilities!"

"what?"

Cheng Ye was taken aback. What did he mean by "it's beyond our ability to handle"?
Before he could ask further, Rokuk had already returned to the main page of the Firelink platform, swiped his finger upwards, and a striking entry popped up:

[Code Name: Cave Crab (Special Infection Source)]

[Classification: Freshwater genus, biotype, habitat type]

Threat Level: B-

[Latest sighting record: Spotted in Bartlett State in 13]

[Extraordinary Creature: The Cave Crab]

【Parasitic method: Infected individuals will slowly generate “toxic crystals” in the waters they pass through (limited to within a 50-meter radius of their activity). The crystals are translucent rhomboid in shape, about 1-3 millimeters in diameter, and covered with a very thin layer of viral protein membrane. After entering the water, they will float 10-20 centimeters below the surface, resembling miniature ice crystals.

If a human comes into direct skin contact with the toxic crystals, they will be immediately infected with the virus and develop parasitism, and the infection will quickly enter an outbreak phase.

If no contact occurs, the crystals will dissolve on their own after 72 hours. The released virus will quickly become inactive due to the lack of a host, and the contaminated water will return to its original quality within 24 hours. However, if the wastewater is ingested directly by humans during this period, the remaining crystal shells will dissolve in stomach acid, potentially causing infection.

His gaze quickly swept to the bottom, and Cheng Ye waited until he had seen all the information.

The encyclopedia, which had just recorded biological information, started flashing again, and the panel popped up automatically.

[Collectors have detected that relevant biological information has been collected; information is being completed.]

[Completed, new creature added to the bestiary: Cave Crab]

(End of this chapter)