Closed windows shut out the howling wind, and the rain struck the glass, gradually merging into a thin stream.

Ling Shucheng stood in front of the window, the dark sky and the ocean vaguely reflected in his eyes. He pushed open the window, and the chilly rain immediately rushed into the house with a cheer. Half of a cigarette burned hard in the rain, and the faint spark struggled and danced in the smoke. After a while, Ling Shucheng twisted the cigarette butt in his hand and threw this ignition out of the window.

"Throwing garbage into the sea violates at least six regulations, little boss." A lazy voice came from behind him.

Ling Shucheng didn't look back, just silently closed the glass window slowly.

"Tsk, I won't say how much you have found for the housekeeper to do - you might as well smoke less." The young man in the black uniform spoke as he lay down on the rain-soaked half-wet sofa with a big grin, "It's not that I'm worried about your body, it's that tobacco is too expensive now......"

"Han Yue," Ling Shucheng interrupted, and at the same time picked up the plain white table flag nearby, wiped it casually on the dripping rainwater hair, and warned in a low voice, "Talk about business." ”

"Okay, okay. I don't think you're probably full of poetry, and I want to talk to you about people's livelihood first. Han Yue stretched his neck, noticed that Ling Shucheng actually had a very simple flower basket on his table, pretended to say "yo", and asked, "Who gave this to you?" It's too unsophisticated to send such a basket in a row. ”

Ling Shucheng took out a standard saber from the drawer, glanced at Han Yue, who was lying on his back, and made a beautiful pattern of silver saber in his hand.

"Okay, okay, the mission is urgent, I'll make a long story short." Han Yue reluctantly sat up straight and cleared his throat again, "Fifteen minutes later, board the 'Call' and cooperate with the sixteenth team to bring back the children who landed today for graduation training." ”

"Graduates of this class of military schools?" Ling Shucheng paused as he packed his bags, "Briefly explain the reasons why a group asked me to perform the mission." ”

"Because two groups of children are lost."

"Out of line?"

"That's not it, it's just a loss of contact." Han Yue restrained his joking tone slightly, "The problem is that the two groups of children are special, and they happen to be the samples of the laboratory's recent secret experiments. ”

"The school should be informed in advance to avoid sending them on assignments."

"Even the students themselves don't necessarily know that they don't have a hand in their usual food – those people are always good at making secrets." Han Yue stretched his waist, with an undisguised excitement, and happily continued, "In this way, guess who leaked the news...... It's fun. ”

"I don't care about that."

"Yes, yes, yes. Detailed mission instructions, including a missing list, have been sent to your ID. Han Yue stretched his waist and collapsed again, "In addition, there is also the 'message' that I want to pass on to you: bring those children back alive as much as possible, and if the situation does not allow, the body cannot fall into the hands of the other family." ”

"Other considerations?"

"My special reminder is that one hour after you land, the 'Call', which is also responsible for bringing back the other students, will return. Try to keep the engagements to a minimum, save time, and avoid causing other trouble. ”

"I'm listening." Ling Shucheng pinched his eyebrows, poured himself a cup of hot tea without hurrying, took a sip, and walked away.

From afar, he vaguely heard Han Yue still muttering to himself complaining about his waste.

-

2199, autumnal equinox, rain.

Durga has not been so lively for at least three years.

Even if it was dark and rainy. At 7 o'clock in the morning, the "Call" carried 240 students from the military academy to carry out the graduation comprehensive task of semi-survey and semi-field survival training as planned. The 240 students are organized in groups of three with a team leader and a team of eight without a team leader in accordance with the army's official organization method. The two missing teams were a team of three and a team of six. The two groups worked together to take charge of a near-circular area, set off at the same place, walked clockwise and counterclockwise along the outer side of the area in a semicircle, and then met at the agreed place, a small flat area that appeared to look like a former market ruins.

Ling Shucheng was here at this time.

Six of the two missing teams have twice delivered messages to the control team. The first is to report that they arrived at the rendezvous site on time and are waiting in place for cooperation. Twenty minutes later, in the second report, the first team and the third team still did not arrive, and the leader of the sixth team asked if they should take the initiative to go to the area that the other party was responsible for to find out. The third group was completely lost.

The fine rain slammed down on the remains of the low-rise buildings, and Ling Shucheng tossed aside the empty shells of the military cans he had stumbled, causing a splash. It seems that the members of the six groups who have been here for at least twenty minutes have been relatively good at swimming in the past - they even opened a can of food for lunch in advance and made a snack. If you carefully analyze the records left by the three members of the six groups during the military training, the physical fitness of two of the women is only at the level of ordinary people, so it is impossible for the whole group to travel very fast. Therefore, it is a little strange that six groups will get here faster than three. Considering that the children were all students of the same period, knew each other well, and would be punished for not completing their tasks on time, it is likely that the six groups arrived earlier than the time of the first report, but the three groups were not reported to be late until they were about to reach the dead line of the scheduled time. Then he waited in place for another twenty minutes before officially confirming the failure of the three groups of missions and requesting assistance.

This could mean that the three groups had an accident earlier, and that the problem was most likely in the area of responsibility of the three groups. First of all, no matter what kind of opponent will make the members of the three groups who are usually the top in training disappear silently, it is impossible for the six groups that have already been prepared to lose contact without having time to leave any useful information. If the top students of this class of military academies do not even have the strength to struggle in the face of ordinary enemies, this matter may be more serious than the loss of experimental samples.

Ling Shucheng tried to bring himself into the minds of the six members of the group who were anxiously waiting for their teammates here. According to the records sent to him, the only male member of the six groups had been disciplined twice for missing opportunities to protect his teammates during the internship mission, and could probably be classified as a more impulsive type. Perhaps with this in mind, the leader of Group 6 was not him, but a woman with a gentle personality. According to the general regulations, if there is an emergency in the mission, the team leader has the sole discretion to decide on the handling plan. And the leader of the sixth group chose to ask the control group for advice on the next move, perhaps because the opinions within the six groups were very different at this time, and she could not control it. In principle, she only needs to objectively state the facts of the three groups that have lost contact and report on their decision on how to act next.

If the course of action is still being discussed, then the six groups will not be able to leave too far, even if they do not stay here.

Ling Shucheng arrived here along the course of action of the six groups. Should he consider it according to the inertia of most people's thinking, and go backwards from here to the course of action of the three groups?

Or had three of the members of the group arrived here long before the six groups arrived, and were ambushed while they waited?

The bad weather helped to clean up the traces of their predecessors, and the six formed the second fish to burrow into the net.

Wrong. Ling Shucheng wiped his face vigorously. Consideration of the student's life and death should be the premise of all inferences. If the students are still alive, it will not be easy to control them, and they will do everything in their power to cause trouble to escape. If the students have died, what exactly is the purpose of the person who killed them? The value of a dead test subject is too limited.

…… Not really.

Ling Shucheng's scalp was numb, and he picked up the empty jar that had rolled a little far, and tried to check the code on the jar.

This code is not a recent allocation of military rations - it seems that someone did not steal lunch, but couldn't help but settle the stockpile. And this code should be assigned to the self-discipline team in the military academy - the traditional "student elite organization".

Within the three and six groups, only the leader of the third group is eligible to enter the self-discipline team with school results.

Ling Shucheng sighed unconsciously, imagining the feelings of the three children in the sixth group after waiting for more than twenty minutes in the air, and suddenly realized that the three groups had already arrived here.

There are many things that he can't figure out, but Ling Shucheng suddenly has a gut guess.

-

"Temporarily deregister the IDs of all missing persons?" On the other end of the communication was the noisy voice of Han Yue.

"Yes, immediately."

"You have to think clearly. If the group of students are still alive, deregistering their IDs will make it impossible for them to reach us. ”

"I understand." Ling Shucheng subconsciously clenched the saber hidden in the inner pocket of his sleeve, "Have you carefully read the information of that group of children?" ”

"Do you suspect that the children weren't involved in the experiment......?" Han Yue let out a low sigh.

"One of them belongs to the 'Self-Discipline Team,'" Ling Shucheng took a deep breath, "You understand the special authority that the 'Self-Discipline Team' has. Even if the corpse falls into the hands of the other party......"

"No wonder the people above are so nervous, it's more than just about-"

"Alright." Ling Shucheng interrupted, was silent for a moment, and suddenly whispered, "I seem to hear a little sound." ”

"What?"

But Ling Shucheng no longer responded, but ended the communication neatly.

Someone is moving quickly in this direction. In fact, Ling Shucheng didn't need to watch or listen, but he could know this accurately.

And the way the person moves cannot be defined by "running" or "sprinting". Of course, these two ways of moving are also unrealistic in the dense forest. Judging by this approaching speed, the other party may be able to fly or float - which is not particularly unusual in this era.

Thirty-five minutes to go. Ling Shucheng threw his soaked coat aside, feeling a little more relaxed. The current situation may no longer be counted as "rain", but "smashing rain". Hiding in the bushes in such weather and trying to sneak attack will bring you far more trouble in your actions than the trouble you bring to the other party. What's more, the other party seems to be far better at moving around this terrain than him. He is still better at simple and direct methods than surprise attacks.

It's already very close. And after this one goal, many more are approaching in an orderly manner from afar.

In the storm, whether it is the ruins or the grass and trees, they can only tremble.