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

But Rose was already prepared. She moved as lightly as a cat, and while dodging, she kept her gun firmly pointed at the attacker.

Bang bang—!

Two bullets left the barrel amidst the bright light and intense noise of the propellant gases, heading toward their intended targets.

In Rose's eyes, the other party's emergency response was nothing but a decoration.

After successfully breaking free from the close-quarters entanglement, Lily also took out her pistol and fired at the guy.

She had no intention of leaving any survivors; if time had allowed, she would have aimed for their heads.

But it's not too late now. The two bullets Rose fired hit his body. Although they were stopped by the bulletproof plates, the impact of the bullets made him lose his balance.

bang bang bang...

Lily seized the opportunity to empty the pistol magazine, leaving no room for error.

But as they knew, the guy in front of them was wearing heavy bulletproof vests, with only his wrists and legs unprotected.

If she remembered correctly, this bulletproof vest was designed and manufactured by the Russian company Tyncom, and was called the 6B43 heavy armor.

Lily tossed aside the insignificant pistol, grabbed the M16A4 assault rifle behind her, and while cursing the bastard who stole their spare weapons, she quickly checked the condition of the firearm.

The guy first kicked the Aimpoint M1 red dot sight mounted on the Picatinny rail, then left a glaring scratch on the receiver with a dagger.

Even though the M16A4 is in bad shape, it can't be easily damaged by stabbing it with a combat knife in a hurry.

The M855 green-tipped bullet should be able to penetrate that protective plate, right? Probably.

The man who had been shot struggled to his feet, dropping a portable syringe that was empty.

Damn Russians, where did they get so much biological agent?!

Surprised, Lily fired again. This time, she didn't expect the bullets to penetrate the bulletproof plate; instead, she aimed directly at the enemy's legs.

What shocked her even more was that the bullet hit his thigh, taking away a lot of flesh, but he continued to move as if nothing had happened.

Rose knew what Lily was thinking, and she felt the same way. If hitting his body couldn't stop him, then only smashing his head would make him stop.

She fired two more shots into the enemy's chest, then quickly raised the muzzle slightly and fired a triple shot into his face.

His brain was completely smashed, bursting into a giant watermelon.

Without the control of his brain, the enemy wearing the 6B43 heavy body armor finally fell to the ground.

“Let’s retreat. Continuing to entangle us will put us at a disadvantage,” Rose said, brushing aside a strand of white hair that had fallen in front of her eyes.

"Ah."

Lily checked the M16A4 assault rifle one last time, maintaining her usual composure, and turned to hurry down the back corridor.

These Russians came aggressively, and they seemed to know their whereabouts and the address of the safe house like the back of their hand.

This made it hard for her not to suspect that someone might have leaked their existence and whereabouts.

If that's the case, things will become very difficult to handle later.

They shouldn't have gotten involved in the mess at the Nobuoyama ruins, but they couldn't resist the irresponsible behavior of the Japanese.

“Ah, those things are here again,” Lily said, seeing the figures drawn to the alley by the gunshots. “They look unsteady and inflexible, but they’re actually moving very fast.”

“The mobility of ELID-infected individuals gradually decreases, and the fact that they are moving so quickly indicates that they are all new transfectors.”

Rose glanced at her watch. "Where are the reinforcements we were promised?"

"It's still early. They were almost at the designated evacuation point when they received orders to turn around and come here urgently."

The highways were jammed with cars, so the conditions on county roads and mountain roads probably weren't much better. Sigh!

Why did it turn out like this? What were the people at the Fukushima City government and the Nobuoyama Relics Management Office doing...?

"Stop talking!..." Rose interrupted her abruptly, because she had indeed thought that way at first. Now that those people were gone in the explosion, there was no point in bringing up the past, and it would only affect their emotions.

Emotional instability can easily affect one's state of mind; if Lily were seriously injured and unable to move, she wouldn't have left.

But the two are currently in good condition, with guns, ammunition, and food. In addition, due to the influence of their special genes, they are able to move around quite well within the area affected by the wide-area collapse radiation ELID. So they should work even harder to survive.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 146 How to Possess Greater Value

The further north you go, the more frequently ELID infected people appear. Occasionally, you can even encounter small hordes of zombies at roadside inns.

Without a doubt, the places on mountain roads where zombie hordes can break out are usually refugee camps converted from campsites.

There are several hundred refugee camps of this type, some no bigger than a parking lot, others stretching for kilometers around a lake, scattered in the mountains and along the coast.

Initially, when the remaining Japanese government was still barely functioning, these refugee camps were occasionally able to receive supplies.

But after the last flight departed from Kagoshima Airport, they completely lost their support, and the Japanese government's systematic administrative structure collapsed.

Without food, anti-collapse radiation pills, or any form of security, the refugee camp became a meat grinder, and the remaining refugees gradually transformed into ELID infected individuals due to the accumulating radiation.

Similarly, the closer Raphael got to Fukuoka, the more severe the radio interference became.

Given that ELID's effect on radio wave interference is negligible, Feiniao quickly calculated the reason for the interference in the high-frequency communication band.

The Fukushima explosion affected not only the Futaba District nuclear power plant, but also several factories that produce nuclear fuel rods.

This means that the nuclear fuel launched into the air is not just the 880 tons used by the power plant units, but nearly 3000 tons of raw materials, although most of them are spent fuel, which are either purified or dumped into heavy water reactors for better use.

After listening to the bird's briefing, Raphael felt even more ironic.

Humanity has tormented itself to the point of either disappearing cleanly or waiting for death in endless suffering.

"Shift handover."

Raphael stepped out of the driver's seat, and Lingyin steadily took control of the steering wheel before methodically getting into the driver's seat.

Feiniao sat beside him, resting his head on his hands, silently gazing at the map.

In less than a week, she slowly realized a new and unfamiliar situation: the world she was used to was shattered.

The rampaging infected are a real nuisance, and you have to stop and deal with them one by one; then you have to clear the lanes to at least make room for cars to pass.

Trivial matters are the real culprit for procrastination.

Asuka turned to remind Raphael, "Oh, right, Raphael, you should take a look. I've marked out all the details about Fukuoka city!"

“Wait a minute,” Raphael said.

She delved into the mind space and discovered that the map that the bird had synchronized with had many familiar locations and markers, such as this was the gathering place of ELID infected people, that was the gathering place they were going to, and some areas where mobs were active.

Raphael found the real-time map provided by the Keyhole satellite and compared it with the map synchronized with the bird.

She suddenly realized that the package to be collected was moving away from the agreed-upon pick-up coordinates and heading towards a residential area in the southeast of the city.

Raphael immediately shared this information with Asuka and Rin, and at the same time deployed the satellite dish to try to contact the intelligence officer and ask him to reselect the rendezvous point.

The intelligence commander's attitude turned sour. Despite the severe interference, he first berated Raphael's support team before sending out the new location coordinates.

He had heard enough of despicable excuses such as "infected people," "roadblocks," "fuel," and "water," and bluntly stated that they were tools that had to arrive within a specified time.

If he fails to complete the task, he will consider the support team a traitor and then scrap them.

Raphael remained unfazed and replied with a smile, "You will meet the high-value individuals codenamed 'Lily' and 'Rose'."

After saying that, she disconnected the line.

Tools, huh? It's a really unpleasant word to say. She squinted and slowly stroked the cold barrel of the assault rifle. Come to think of it, even human hands don't have warmth, just like this gun.

Once things were settled here and she returned to the United States, she decided to visit this arrogant and self-important intelligence officer.

Reverse tracking and location are not difficult; the difficulty lies in confirming identity.

However, it's not a major problem; there's always the possibility of "collateral damage." Once it starts, casualties are inevitable.

Raphael counted on his fingers in his mental space, and aside from the verbal challenges and threats on the internet, this was the first time he had received such a direct threat.

In a sense, the humanoid form at this stage is far more important than two high-value human units.

Her pupils, beneath her eyelashes, spoke of her feelings more intensely than her lips.

It wouldn't be accurate to say that Raphael wasn't afraid; she knew that her current special status stemmed from the fact that it couldn't be replicated in a short time, or rather, that replicating it would take a long time.

This is where its status comes from, because it is a prototype of a concept. Since concept products only demonstrate the concept and do not require much consideration of cost, various engineering and R&D investments can be made to create one or more for demonstration purposes.

However, it is very unstable. Human understanding of the artifacts may break through at any time, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps a week later, perhaps half a year, or it may take decades.

After the breakthrough in mental research, Raphael's mission came to an end.

This seems too pessimistic, Raphael thought, and desperately mobilized the remaining computing power available, incorporating the influencing factors he had considered to conduct a simple simulation.

She wanted to know what tactical androids could ultimately achieve after being separated from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and from U.S. control.

She couldn't even last a year before being overwhelmed by the combined special operations forces of the CIA and NSA. She fled with two puppet dolls, but ultimately failed due to a malfunction caused by a lack of maintenance of the original body.

Raphael made a 'gurgling' sound, like a flattened frog.

This ending is just too terrible.

She can only break free when self-regulating androids are everywhere; otherwise, there is no place for her in this world, absolutely none.

After numerous deductions, Raphael arrived at this ruthless conclusion.

It is conservatively estimated that it will still be several decades before we reach an era where self-regulating bionic humanoids are ubiquitous.

How to demonstrate value during this long period should guide all her subsequent actions. A mere killing machine is not enough; she needs to demonstrate something more significant.

Raphael opened his eyes, his consciousness detaching from his mental space, pondering how to deal with "Lily" and "Rose" next. The intelligence officer...

The reason they are valued so highly must be because of something extraordinary about them.

Well, to be active in Fukuoka City, where the radiation from the collapse was so severe, for so long is itself an "abnormality".

This reminded her of the SHD agent named "Tony Gagia" from back then, who was an extremely rare ELID adaptor who should only exist in theory.

Could it be that the two people who are supposed to be there to meet us are the Adaptors?

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 147 - All Traps

After walking into the city, Raphael and his two companions took advantage of the cover of night to quietly and swiftly traverse the streets and alleys.

After walking about 50 meters, she turned into a corner first, and then suddenly turned back.

Three people walked from the nearest building. Their natural gait and the figures wrapped in heavy protective suits were the kind of humans they least wanted to see on this trip.

It was probably a protective suit called AA-03D, though she wasn't sure of the exact name. The news anchor had mentioned it in the initial news report about the Nobuoyama ruins.

They didn't care, so their minds didn't keep any special records.