Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

Extremely accurate, the bullet hit the unarmored sternum.

Even if the bullet doesn't hit the heart directly, the air-blast effect and shattered bones from the initial impact can be fatal.

Snap, snap...

Two crisp gunshots echoed through the mountains.

Before the two robbers could even jump onto the road, they tumbled and fell to the ground on the hillside. They weren't completely mangled, but they were unlikely to survive.

From the woods not far behind came a series of hurried footsteps and the sound of branches scraping against each other.

Without a second thought, Raphael immediately shifted his gun and fired a bullet at the middle-aged man fleeing up the other side of the hillside.

After being shot and falling to the ground, the middle-aged man tried to get up, but she pulled the trigger again.

The guy who was trying to escape fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and then stopped moving.

After confirming that the two people had fallen to their deaths on the hillside, Asuka came down and said to Raphael, "You two fools who overestimated yourselves, how's it going over there?"

"He must have been the one who caused the explosion. He's dead."

"Oh, what kind of explosives?"

"The ammonium nitrate explosives used in mining must have been stolen from some quarry."

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 144 The Cannibalistic Demon

"How should we handle this?"

"Just leave it there. In less than two months it will be just a skeleton. It won't have any impact."

Raphael put away his gun and tested the weight of the eucalyptus tree with his hand.

Tsk, the trunk looks pretty thin, but if you include all the branches and leaves, it's not a weight that a single humanoid could handle.

If it weren't for them walking this mountain path, they would definitely be doomed.

For ordinary people, in such an apocalyptic environment, having goodwill towards humanity is tantamount to embracing death.

Just as Asuka and Raphael were clearing away the eucalyptus trees blocking their way, and while Suzune was looking after their vehicle, she discovered a pile of human bones in a roadside ditch.

There were many of them, and they were fragmented; half of them were submerged in sewage.

It seems quite a few people have died on this road. Is this considered ridding the people of a scourge?

Lingyin resisted the urge to shut off her sense of smell and crouched down to examine the pile of severed limbs. The cut surfaces and injured areas all showed signs of being cut...

The most obvious change is in the thigh muscles; many areas have disappeared.

Is it food rations?

It is quite possible that the cut surface of the injured area was too clean, and judging from the physique of the three robbers before their deaths, they clearly received sufficient nourishment.

Although there is a risk of prions, you will not get sick as long as you don't eat human brains.

So, it's safe to say that what happened is no longer in doubt.

Lingyin saw what looked like a child's thigh bone from the fallen leaves nearby. It had been scraped clean, and there was no residue left.

vomit……

An overwhelming urge to vomit overwhelmed her mental control, and Suzune was astonished by her own reaction.

During a great famine, people resorted to cannibalism—these words, which existed only in historical records, actually appeared before her eyes.

“…Rin-ne,” Raphael patted the puppet girl on the shoulder, “Don’t look anymore. The culprit is dead. It’s avenge for these innocent people.”

"Oh, I see."

Abandoned vehicles can be seen everywhere along this narrow, winding path.

There were also damaged cars that crashed through guardrails and plunged into farmland outside the highway; the people inside had all turned into skeletons, and the twisted, rotting corpses were chilling to look at.

Raphael rummaged through the locker and retrieved the satellite dish and computer that he had previously removed from the broadcast van, then unfolded the dish antenna and set it up on the table in the living area.

She glanced at her watch, pondered for a moment, then turned the antenna toward the northeastern sky and connected the power.

This isn't a dedicated military satellite communication antenna, so its security is probably negligible, but at this point, we really can't worry about that.

After the call connected, Raphael immediately put on the headset and said, "Identification code: NG1574SIR93X."

"How is it?" The CIA official's voice was distorted, the tone completely changed.

"The road conditions are terrible, and the arrival time is expected to be delayed."

Just then, gunshots rang out from the highway outside. Following Raphael's orders, Asuka opened fire on the clearly hostile refugees.

"what happened?"

"It's nothing, the disaster victims have turned to banditry."

Raphael glanced back and said:

"This is the third time we've encountered this since we set off, and things will only get worse from here on out."

The CIA official on the other end of the phone remained silent for a long time before speaking:

"There are no rules of engagement in this area; you may decide for yourself if necessary."

What nonsense is this? Raphael shut his mouth and waited to hear what kind of foreign rubbish the person on the other end of the satellite phone was going to spout.

—Oh, foreign stuff, I've even insulted myself. Her real passport is American, so the foreigner is actually me!

Raphael quickly retracted his previous comment and patiently waited for the other side to perform.

"...Six hours later, a batch of specially supplied materials will appear at the appropriate location."

Having apparently come to a conclusion, the intelligence officer responsible for liaising with the tactical doll team made a concession, providing Raphael with a 12-digit regional code.

"clear."

After the call ended, Raphael didn't turn off the radio. Instead, she took out her phone and snapped a few pictures of the corpse by the roadside, uploading them to the system to prove that she hadn't spoken carelessly.

Everything must be documented. This is a truth she learned during her six months working odd jobs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Otherwise, if something goes wrong later, she will be unable to defend herself when the blame is pinned on her.

Only after the upload progress bar reached 100% confirmation did she put away the satellite dish and computer, personally check the situation outside, and then inform Feibiao of the coordinates of the next move.

boom--

I don't know where the explosion happened, I just heard the sound drifting over from afar.

Raphael turned on the radio, adjusted the antenna slightly, and heard a sharp, furious, and very young-sounding Japanese Self-Defense Force military attaché screaming that his order was to blow up the bridge, no matter how many people were still on the road.

Another voice angrily replied that the bridge must be destroyed only after everyone has left.

If it were detonated now, it would not only kill a large number of refugees, but also trap tens of thousands of people on the other side of the river.

The voice on the radio roared back that this road would never be cleared, and that behind those refugees, and even within their community, lay a large number of potential ELID patients with severe infections.

To be fair, Raphael thought the officer in charge of the self-defense was right; hesitation only leads to trouble.

A momentary outburst of conscience could very well lead to even more serious consequences; this is the difficulty they face.

But those who disagreed with him replied:

“He’ll blow up the bridge as soon as the ELID infected appear. But right now, he won’t commit murder just because some cowardly self-defense officer is yelling about it…”

Then came a burst of gunfire and screams, followed by a long silence.

Around 5:21 p.m., Raphael clearly remembered that the internal timekeeping in his mental space and the time on his military watch were less than 17 seconds apart.

She drove away from the rudimentary, paved mountain road and back onto the highway.

As I walked up, the bridge that had appeared many times in the radio conversation came into view.

The Self-Defense Forces once stationed here, but unfortunately, nothing remains at the bridgehead except for corpses.

The bridge they wanted to blow up still stands there, completely undamaged.

On the bridge, one could still see the figures of refugees slowly moving about; they were still human beings, and Raphael was not mistaken about that.

She looked around and saw several people in camouflage lying on the maintenance platform at the bridgehead. Finally, under one of them, she saw the detonator that had been pressed down.

Clearly, the bridge-blowing operation failed.

"Lingyin, stay in the car and cover me."

"learn."

After Raphael finished dressing, he hung the bomb disposal kit on his waistband, then picked up his HK416, jumped out of the car, and carefully walked toward the bridge maintenance entrance where the Self-Defense Force soldiers were.

It is not necessary to remove the explosives. Military explosives are very safe. As long as there is no corresponding detonation device, they will not cause any problems when used for normal incineration.

This bridge is a fairly convenient one for their subsequent activities. If it were destroyed, they would have to go around to the other side of the mountain via tunnels or winding mountain roads, and time is a crucial factor in determining the success of the rendezvous mission.

The intelligence officer was always vague and seemed reluctant to mention anything about the mission package to them, only urging them to speed up their movement.

Volume 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 145 Sisters

It seems like yesterday was a day they would never forget.

Then came today, a day of constant fighting. From the very first minute, "Lily" had no time to think about yesterday's events, the Shinobu Mountain ruins, the missing high school student, or the earlier explosion.

“Stun grenade,” Rose said calmly, her hand on Lily’s shoulder tightening slightly to remind her companion that she was ready to attack.

Three loud bangs followed as the pillar thrown through the crack in the door exploded.

They obtained the Mk13 stun grenades manufactured and designed by Rheinmetall from the CIA armory. They were the same type used by the military and police, but they didn't explode as many times; it was just a standard three-bang blast.

At the exact moment the stun grenade exploded, the adjacent window burst open almost simultaneously. The blast wasn't strong enough to break the window frame, so someone had to jump out.

Lily was standing right next to it, directly in the blast. As the window burst open, she consciously took a half-step back, just in time to see a dark figure lunge at her.

In her haste, she held her spear above her head and felt a powerful force coming from above.

The unidentified man's downward blow was hastily parried by the opponent with his gun. He immediately changed his elbow into a knife, and in the process of changing his movement, he drew out a fighting dagger and stabbed at Lily's ribs from a different angle.

Lily reacted even faster. She didn't see the knife, but subconsciously felt that things would get really bad if she continued. So she changed the position of her assault rifle, blocking the path of the fighting knife in front of her.

The dagger struck the gun with a crisp sound, scraping away some of the anti-rust paint on the receiver. After two unsuccessful double strikes, he decisively sheathed the knife, twisted his waist, turned around, and delivered a sweeping kick to Lily's hand.

Since he chose to rush in at close range, he wouldn't give Lily or the woman standing a little further away aiming a chance to fire.

Lily was kicked by him, and the assault rifle slipped from her hand. Fortunately, she had a sling, and the weapon slid behind her back due to inertia.

She never tried to outmuscle her enemies, so she used the momentum she received to quickly retreat, giving Rose, who was waiting to seize an opportunity, time to fire her gun.

The attacker realized he had made the wrong choice the moment he kicked the weapon away. He tried to throw his fighting knife in the hopes of distracting the woman who was aiming her gun at him not far away, while his left hand reached for the pistol tucked into his waistband.