Chapter 12: The Mysterious Guest

(1/3)

While waiting, Qi An dozed off in a haze. She was utterly exhausted from the day’s ordeal, yet the experiences had made her realize just how much her survival skills still needed sharpening—so much so that even in her dreams, she was running under heavy load.

Her dreams were haunted by those pale walls she had seen countless times, by the anguished screams of collapse, and by her father’s disappointed, reproachful face.

But dreams leave no trace, and the night passed in silence.

Qi An kept watch during the last night shift and was able to sleep four uninterrupted hours. When she was roused, she felt refreshed and joined Yu Shuang by the campfire, chatting about various military gossip.

At dawn, Tang Long was already up, cheerfully gathering firewood and preparing to hunt, intending to cook a warm pot of chicken soup for everyone.

The morning mist in the woods hovered between dark teal and deep blue. Yu Shuang poked at the fire, yawning, while Qi An stood and stretched lazily.

Mid-stretch, she suddenly froze—she sensed something behind the trunk of a poplar tree in the distance.

Was there really something there?

Qi An wasn’t sure. The forest was unnervingly silent, save for Tang Long’s fading footsteps and the crackling fire.

Blinking repeatedly, she seemed to see only her own breath misting in the cold air and the still morning woods.

Perhaps it was a trick of the eye. But as she began to sit down again, a figure appeared as if conjured from thin air behind the poplar!

Qi An jumped in fright.

Yu Shuang noticed immediately and stood up, asking sharply, “What is it?”

The next moment, she saw the figure too, raised her rifle, and demanded, “Who goes there?”

Her shout roused everyone, but the figure moved silently, as if a shadow of gray, swiftly closing in on the camp.

It was coming from the direction of “the Gate,” and it had clearly discovered the camp’s nearly invisible nanowires.

Yu Shuang’s expression darkened.

The team tacitly coordinated—alerted soldiers and Tang Long raised their weapons from different angles, aiming at the approaching figure.

The atmosphere was tense and silent, but only now did Qi An get a clear look at the intruder.

(2/3)

He was very tall, wearing a deep gray camouflage jacket unzipped to reveal a black combat suit underneath. His hood and tactical mask concealed almost his entire face, exposing only a pair of slender eyebrows and strikingly dark, beautiful eyes.

Qi An was momentarily stunned. Those eyes were like a frozen lake—she had never seen eyebrows and eyes more handsome than even the deputy squad leader’s.

As dawn brightened the forest, the man’s tall, well-proportioned figure gradually became clearer in the morning light. The chill of his frostbitten aura was somewhat softened by the gentle rays.

The mysterious figure spoke, “My code name is ‘Dove.’ I’m here to coordinate with the Windrider Team of Zhongyuan Base No. 3.”

Everyone was taken aback by the youthful tone!

Yu Shuang quickly responded, “State the password and remove your mask!”

Last night, after the meeting with Wei Fengduo, she had indeed been assigned a new task order.

The mission had changed: to penetrate deep behind enemy lines to locate the Mother Nest. However, the actual search was assigned to someone else; their job was simply to rendezvous with that person.

The man removed his hood and mask and said, “Life passes without meeting.”

Truly a youth! His black hair was soft and thick; his face pale but with sharp features, a blend of youthful innocence and mature severity, an odd yet compelling temperament.

“In motion, fierce as the ancient gods,” Yu Shuang added.

The correct password confirmed, she produced a tablet, carefully comparing the photo in the mission briefing with the man’s face. Once verified as a match, she had him confirm his fingerprints, finally allowing everyone to lower their weapons.

So this was their teammate.

A mission to penetrate behind enemy lines to find the Mother Nest would be undertaken by a single youth—this intrigued the entire team.

Yet he spoke little, exchanging mission details only with the two team leaders.

Afterward, invited to join breakfast, the young man initially declined but eventually sat down silently, unable to resist Yu Shuang’s warmth.

Time was short, so cooking meat was impossible. Tang Long simply boiled a small bag of compressed vegetables, producing a soup surprisingly delicious enough to astonish Qi An.

“Dove” sat on a dead tree stump in a corner, creating a clearly defined, solitary space apart from the rest of Team Two.

He maintained a habitually straight posture, hands cupping his bowl. When the steam blurred his dark brows and eyes, a soft, youthful tenderness emerged beneath his severe exterior.

After finishing the warm meal, everyone was invigorated. The convoy expanded to three vehicles, bypassing the service station checkpoint, and headed north.

(3/3)

They were moving toward Hualin County.

Since the mission continued, penetrating enemy lines was inevitable—but only Dove would venture deep inside. Team Two’s job was to escort him to a relatively safer drop-off point closer to their target.

A drone was sent to Dove for a battery recharge, then took to the sky to scout ahead. The team chatted animatedly over their radios.

“Who the heck is this expert? He got right close to us this morning—I have super-sensitive hearing and didn’t detect a thing! We don’t have anyone like this at our base, do we?” Zhuang Xiao asked eagerly.

Yu Shuang felt somewhat deflated, realizing what true elite skill looked like, which bruised her confidence.

“He’s from the Newborn Base, rated SA in enhancements. Beyond that, I don’t know—his name is classified,” she said.

“Holy crap!” Zhuang Xiao reacted strongly. “Newborn Base? The Newborn Base?”

Qi An shared Zhuang Xiao’s astonishment silently with a matching “Holy crap!”

All bases were numbered according to regions; this one, Northern Base 1, was no exception.

But the Newborn Base was called that because, although also under Northern Base 1’s command, it was privately established.

Located in the frigid northeast, it consisted of a main base housing a million people and seven satellite bases.

The harsh cold and vast ice fields severely diminished the fighting capability of the corrupt insects. The Newborn Base, though challenged by the environment, faced far less pressure defending its territory, allowing it to flourish and to be far ahead in biotechnological research.

Currently, the most effective “Gan Ning” pills against contamination, as well as blockers, were all produced there. The Newborn Base was also rumored to have conducted two rounds of genetic enhancement surgeries, effectively inducing secondary mutations to increase enhancement levels.

However, the operation carried a high mortality rate and was said to be conducted with questionable ethics.

Qi An thought that if this man was from the Newborn Base, whose location was thousands of miles away, he must have already been operating nearby and was sent to coordinate with them.

In other words, Wei Fengduo’s trip for a meeting was not only with the base leadership but had also drawn the attention of Northern Base 1!

Otherwise, how could personnel be coordinated so swiftly across bases?

Her understanding of their current mission deepened—it might really be a major operation!