A temporary cave was excavated 7 kilometers away from the Thunderpike Safe Zone.
The moon was sparse, and under the dim night, a slender black shadow was cautiously crawling on the ground, slowly approaching the entrance to the illusion under the mechanical compass.
I saw that the black shadow was like a lizard, moving its hands and feet gently alternately, and from time to time it would stick out its tongue, as if to sense information, and explore it carefully.
Although the movement was slow, there seemed to be something inside the cave that was attracting the black shadow, causing "it" to move forward firmly toward the hole little by little.
In a cave dug with a sword halfway up the mountainside, a girl placed in a military tent was sleeping soundly.
Outside the tent, the cans Lin An left behind when he left were piled together. A bonfire generated by low-level props was crackling with spiritual flames, adding a bit of warmth to the cold cave.
Just like a scene in a movie, the black shadow crawling on the mountainside is like a gecko, getting closer and closer.
For some reason, the environment that could affect all living things seemed to have no effect on the black shadow.
As time passed, as if smelling some alluring scent, the black shadow crawled faster and faster, and finally, after nimbly avoiding the rocks, it burrowed into the cave like a loach.
“Good..smells..”
The voice was hoarse and weak.
As the black shadow crawled in, the shadow stood up like a human, twitching its nose and obsessively smelling the smell of the cave.
After a moment of whispering, as if confirming the danger, the short figure couldn't resist the temptation and walked slowly towards the tent where Mo Ling was.
In the tent, Mo Ling, who was still recovering from the power of digestion, was still unconscious. Completely unaware of the outsider's approach.
....
"Captain Lin! Did something happen to that girl Mo Ling!?"
Seeing Lin An's increasingly cold expression, Xiong Hanzi, who was desperately following behind, used all his strength to jump like a kangaroo and follow Lin An.
There was no way, the agility attributes and psychic abilities were too different, and he simply couldn't fly at super speed like Lin An.
Fly in front and pull out the afterimage.
Lin An's eyes were fixed on the hilltop not far away, and his spiritual energy was burning to the limit.
"Something broke through my defense!"
Without looking back, Lin An quickly answered Xiong Hanzi, then accelerated again and made an explosion.
A slight feeling of uneasiness lingered in my heart.
Sensing the aura that the defense device he had left behind had been breached, Lin An was filled with surprise.
Although the defensive formation he left to Mo Ling was not very strong, with the blessing of his spiritual energy, the environment arranged by the mechanical compass was enough to make any existence below the third level get lost in it. Even if a third-level awakener comes, as long as he is not of the spiritual type, he will not be able to walk around Mo Ling in a short time!
For a remote mountain peak with no mutants around, Lin An asked himself that this defensive method had reached its extreme.
There was only one third-level person in the city near the entire safe zone. Lin An asked himself that the opponent's actions were always under his control. Even if the opponent had a one-in-10,000 chance of finding Mo Ling's location, he would not be able to break through the mechanical compass without any hindrance.
But in fact, the crisis did occur.
There was an unknown creature that ignored all his methods and headed straight for Mo Ling!
What is it? Humans are still mutants! ?
Not daring to bet on whether Mo Ling would wake up in time, after noticing the abnormality, Lin An simply went straight to where Mo Ling was hiding.
Fortunately, the route he took to hunt the mutants was nearby. Especially when he hunted the last one, he originally planned to go back and check on Mo Ling after killing it.
"Boom! Boom!!"
Accelerating, accelerating, and accelerating again, looking at the mountain top that was already in front of him, Lin An took out his two swords without hesitation, and flashed like a ghost.
....
"Wha-! Bang!"
The gravel in the cave shook, and violent explosions came rapidly from far to near.
The black figure squatting on the ground and eating something seemed to be frightened. It hunched over in a daze, like a mouse, constantly raising its head and looking around.
However, before it could react, Lin An, who was flying rapidly, suddenly rushed into the cave like an afterimage.
destroy!
Blood burst out in an instant. Lin An, who could only roughly sense the creature in front of him, had a cold look in his eyes. Without hesitation, he activated his destruction skills and prepared to kill the unknown creature with one sword.
The one who can break through the illusion is either a spiritual type or an unknown mutant!
However, when the sword light came on, the figure trying to escape screamed like a frightened puppy, and the can in his hand fell to the ground. Under the pressure of the extremely destructive aura, he shivered.
Um! ?
This is! ?
His breath stagnated. After Lin An saw the creature's appearance clearly, he lost consciousness for a moment. The sword he was about to strike with was slightly deflected, facing the side of the figure, and slashed towards the nearest gravel.
"boom!!"
Amidst the huge explosion, Lin An's face turned strange as he looked at the creature in front of him in disbelief.
A few seconds later, Zhang Tie, who hurried over, saw the motionless Lin An at a glance.
"Captain Lin!?"
There was a roar, and just when Zhang Tie thought something unexpected had happened, he saw the face of the unknown creature through the hole cut by Lin An.
After a moment, a dazed expression also appeared on the roaring face.
Not... a monster! ?
What the fuck is...
A little girl! ?
....
A minute later, the bonfire was lit again in the cave.
Warm firelight filled the cave. Under the gaze of the two men, a little girl dressed in rags hugged her knees and her teeth chattered.
She "looked" in horror at the direction of Lin An's breathing. Her big eyes were full of dullness and dullness.
"Captain Lin, this girl...is blind!?"
Standing next to the girl, Xiong Hanzi crossed his legs and kept waving his palms in front of the girl's eyes.
There was no reaction at all. The frightened girl just kept trembling, feeling the disturbance in the air in front of her with her skin, and her little head kept shrinking back.
"should be.."
After hesitating for a moment, Lin An also looked at the girl's dirty little face in surprise, and it was difficult to express his feelings in words.
He never expected that the creature that ignored the illusion and broke through his defense was actually a blind little girl...
Although the girl has a faint aura of an awakened person, her level will never exceed level 0. It can be said that she is the bottom of the bottom among awakened people, and is not much different from ordinary people. He didn't even have complete clothes, let alone equipment.
Looking at the teeth marks on the ground and the dropped cans, Lin An also realized that the girl must have been attracted by the smell of food.
Looking at the girl's frightened little face, Lin An couldn't help feeling weird.
How did a blind man survive to this day?
In doubt, he couldn't help but let out a breath, trying to calm the frightened girl, and asked softly:
"You should be able to hear us, right?"
"what's your name?"
After a while, the girl who was questioned by Lin An was like a frightened little animal, and her body was shaking even more.
She stammered for a long time, and finally turned over the text systematically and managed to make out a few vague syllables:
"Sophie...ya..."
"Don't... hit... Sophie..."
"Sophia...is hungry...will lose money..."
After saying that, the girl held her hands with a pleading look on her face and knelt forward tremblingly, as if begging Lin An to let her go and not hit her.
"Sophia...it hurts...please...please..."
Like a small animal that has been abused by humans, the girl kept shaking forward and begging for mercy, and the wounds on her back were also exposed.
Looking at the several cuts on the girl's back that were covered by stains, Lin An was silent for a moment and sighed.
Complex expression.
He also didn't expect that the monster or powerful awakener that he thought was approaching through the breakthrough would be some kind of monster. But now it seems that she is just a disabled little girl who doesn't know how to survive until now. Judging from the girl's thin body, food must be in short supply. This frightened look was probably because he had been abused by many survivors after being close to the human living area.
"Captain Lin, how did this kid break through the illusion..."
"This kid seems to be very hungry..."
Squatting on the ground, Zhang Tie couldn't bear to look at the wounds on the girl's body. He wanted to comfort the girl with his generous palms, but he was afraid that he would scare the girl, so he froze in mid-air for a moment, at a loss.
Without replying, Lin An looked back at the mechanical compass suspended in mid-air. His eyes moved slightly.
He was not sure how the girl came in. He could only guess whether it was because she had no eyesight that the girl could not be disturbed by illusions, or... some kind of special talent?
After gently opening a can of luncheon meat, Lin An sighed softly and slowly pushed it in front of the girl:
"Eat..."
"Are you the only one around here?"
Lin An is indeed very curious that the girl can survive until now.
Smelling the aroma of the can, the little girl curled up her hands and sniffed tentatively like a kitten. After confirming that Lin An was really feeding her, she quickly picked up the can from the ground and used He took out the piece of meat with his hand and ate it hungrily.
With a complicated expression on his face, Xiong Hanzi looked at the hungry little girl and felt a sadness in his heart.
A moment later, as the two watched quietly, Sophia seemed to have thought of something. She swallowed the piece of meat in her mouth dryly and then carefully held the half-full can of meat in her arms.
Seeing that the girl didn't answer or continue eating, Lin An's expression faltered and he asked softly:
"What's wrong? Why don't you eat? Do you want water?"
After the words fell, the girl shrank her head. After a moment of silence, she replied in a low voice:
"unwilling.."
"Someone...there is a teacher..."
"Sophia...someone...everyone needs Sophie..."
His eyes were dull and his face was full of vigilance. But she didn't know if it was Lin An's kindness that touched her. Sophia hesitated for a moment and pointed in one direction timidly:
"Everybody..over there.."
"Sofia wants to eat...bring it back..."
Um?
Lin An and Zhang Tie looked at each other, and subconsciously, they followed the little girl's slender arms and looked into the distance outside the cave.
At the end of the distant horizon is an abandoned garbage dump.
