Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 312: Wilderness Thrills, Unknown Infection!

The autumn weeds grew wild and low to the ground, their withered stems bending until they laid flat against the earth.Only a sparse few maintained enough resilience to stand upright. Serving as the sole surviving breath of life in the wasteland, they swayed unsteadily in the wind, rustling softly.

Yet, the moment the autumn breeze swept past, it would kick up a sky full of dried, yellowed grass clippings. Like a shifting fog of sand, it spread low across the ground, carrying a thick layer of dust that choked the nose and left it dry.

The climate in Shi Province had always been sharply defined. The moment autumn arrived, all vegetation lost its green hue at a visible rate, leaving behind nothing but withered husks.

Gazing as far as the eye could see, the space between heaven and earth was a boundless expanse of earthy yellow. There was not a single drop of vibrant color, much less a trace of human habitation.

The occasionally protruding sand dunes had been eroded by years of wind and sand until they were riddled with holes, taking on a bizarre honeycomb appearance. They looked like exposed scars on the earth, gleaming with a dull, rough luster under the grayish-white sky.

Crunch.

A sharp crack suddenly echoed from beneath the chassis of the Armored Vehicle, sounding as if it had rolled over the dried remains of some creature, or perhaps a rusted shard of metal.

This was an incredibly common occurrence in the Wilderness, but the tire pressure warning on the dashboard lit up almost immediately. The red warning light flashed incessantly, a piercing sight that incited a sense of panic.

Niu Fu did not dare to be careless. He quickly tapped the brakes, slowly bringing the Armored Vehicle to a halt on a relatively flat piece of high ground.

With a heavy clank, the door was pushed open. Liu Bi was the first to jump out, his gaze sweeping the surroundings like a hawk. Only after confirming there was no unusual activity did he signal to the inside of the vehicle that it was safe.

Following close behind, Niu Fu and Cheng Ye stepped out from the front seats, setting foot on this desolate land that had not seen a human presence for an unknown amount of time.

Their shoe soles crushed the dry, sandy soil, letting out a soft crunching noise.

This area was just outside the two-hundred-kilometer radius delineated by Tan Ming, perfectly preserving the old, desolate look of Shi Province.

Niu Fu took a brisk walk around the vehicle, ultimately stopping at the rear right tire. His brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

He climbed back into the driver's seat and moved the vehicle forward by one meter. The object that had punctured the tire was instantly revealed.

Four triangular black barbs, each the size of an infant's fist, had their sharp tips buried deeply into the tire's treads.

"Damn it! It's a Hunter's Road Spike!" Niu Fu's expression instantly darkened as he spat a curse. "How are people still making these wicked things to this day?!"

"Hunters?"

Cheng Ye's heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly raised his eyes to scan their surroundings.

When they set out early that morning, the sun had been shining brightly, with only a few wispy clouds dotting the sky. The weather forecast had also clearly promised a sunny day.

Yet, after driving over a hundred kilometers, the sky had completely changed its face. Thick Lead-Gray Clouds pressed heavily overhead, so dense they seemed on the verge of collapsing. Let alone birds flying past, even the shifting shadows of the clouds moved at a pace so slow they appeared nearly stagnant.

The horizon had long since blurred. Heaven and earth seemed to meld at the edges into a chaotic expanse of grayish-yellow. It was impossible to distinguish the boundary between the sky and the ground; it was just a vast emptiness that bore down heavily, making it hard to breathe.

Fortunately, as far as the eye could see, there were no moving figures. There was only the howling wind whistling in their ears, sounding like someone crying, or perhaps laughing.

Cheng Ye looked left and right, but still felt uneasy. He hurried back into the vehicle and powered up the thick Terminal gifted to him by Raoul, activating the Falcon Radar to scan the perimeter.

It was only when the screen displayed 'No living targets within a three-kilometer radius' that he rubbed his tense brow and breathed a slight sigh of relief.

It seemed he was being a bit too paranoid.

After all, with Little Flame helping to keep watch, if anyone was secretly spying on them, it would definitely provide a warning.

But now that he was truly standing on this uninhabited land, that bone-deep Sense of Oppression finally reared its head:

Desolation, deathly stillness... A vast, bleak aura permeated every inch of space, carrying the barrenness and loneliness settled by the passage of time.

Looking at the endless wasteland stretching out before him, Cheng Ye suddenly felt a bit dazed.

It was hard to imagine exactly what kind of resolve those displaced Migrants possessed to trek across such terrain on foot, heading toward an unknown destination.

In a sense, what Jiang Chuan had said before was completely right.

Staying in a place like this for too long would sooner or later drive a person insane.

This was not just due to the inescapable loneliness, but rather the inevitability of one's mind constantly remaining taut in a high-pressure environment until it completely snapped.

Yes, the mind was like a rubber band. If repeatedly stretched and pulled tight, it would slowly lose its elasticity.

Perhaps, in a sudden moment without any warning, the string of reason would snap. Sanity would plummet off a cliff, plunging a person into permanent madness.

To escape this suffocating pressure, one either had to huddle together for warmth or reach a safe zone as quickly as possible to release all the pent-up stress.

Yin Ruofeng and his three companions did not dare to step out. They obediently shrank back inside the vehicle and waited.

Now that they were in the Wilderness, their mission was incredibly simple: do not cause trouble.

In practical terms, this meant each person would only consume one pouch of Yellow Pouch Nutrient Paste every two days, maintaining just enough basic Stamina. This would minimize unnecessary bodily functions and unexpected situations, reducing risks to the absolute minimum.

On the other side, Niu Fu pulled a Wrench from the toolbox at the rear of the vehicle. He squatted down and tapped the Road Spike embedded in the tire, causing rust flakes to shower to the ground.

This object had clearly been buried in the Wilderness for a long time. Covered in rust and sandy soil, it absolutely had not been scattered here recently.

"We just have terrible luck. We hit this dead center," Niu Fu spat, his tone brimming with frustration.

"Can it be patched?" Liu Bi asked, looking down at the tire with his brow tied in a knot.

They had suffered a blowout right at the start of their journey. If it could not be fixed, the road ahead was only going to be much harder to traverse.

"It can!" Niu Fu patted the toolbox confidently. "As long as we do not speed, a simple patch will make it usable."

As he spoke, he pulled out a Crowbar, a Jack, Tire Repair Patches, and a heap of other tools. "It will take twenty minutes tops. It will not delay today's schedule."

"Good," Liu Bi arranged immediately. "You fix the tire, Cheng Ye will stand guard, and I will check the stretch of road we just rolled over. There are probably more of these things lying around."

Bold due to his great skill, he followed the tire tracks and walked back in the direction the Armored Vehicle had just come from.

If there were more Road Spikes, he would bury them along the way, lest anyone passing by in the future fall victim to them.

"Brother Niu, need a hand?" Cheng Ye also squatted down, his gaze fixed on the damaged tire.

If he were alone, he could spend a few Action Points to repair the tire instantly. However, since he was out on Field Duty with a veteran, observing and learning as much as possible was the priority.

"No need!" Niu Fu waved him off, efficiently setting up the Jack. "Getting a flat is incredibly common in the Wilderness. Slapping a patch over the leak is all it takes. It is very simple."

Saying so, he removed the wheel hub, deflated the tire completely, and used the Crowbar to pry the bulletproof tire off the rim.

After using Pliers to yank out the Road Spikes, only a few shallow cuts remained in the thick rubber.

The toolbox held over a hundred Tire Repair Patches. He wiped the inside of the tire dry, applied a patch, and reinstalled the tire to inflate it. Niu Fu executed the entire process smoothly and effortlessly.

But even after the tire was secured and the pressure was back to normal, Liu Bi was still searching the perimeter and had yet to return.

Afraid of driving over another spike, Cheng Ye and Niu Fu had no choice but to retreat to the vehicle and sit patiently in their seats.

Taking advantage of this downtime, Cheng Ye retrieved a Map from the storage compartment and unfolded it. Pressing his fingertip against the markings, he compared them to the surrounding geographical features to pinpoint their exact location.

On the unfurled map, two prominent lines crisscrossed.

A red line near the top twisted and meandered, while a green line in the center extended straight outward.

The red line represented the old road to Guang Province, blazed seventeen years ago but completely abandoned seven years prior.

The green line was a new route established twelve years ago, which had also been fully decommissioned two years ago.

These two routes once connected over twenty Gathering Places of varying sizes and three Shelter Cities. The Core reason they were ultimately abandoned was that these settlements and cities either underwent mass migrations or ceased to exist altogether.

One thing was certain: these Old Roads leading to Guang Province could no longer be traveled.

Since their abandonment, they had become disaster zones teeming with Infection Sources and Infected Bodies. There might even be a dormant Infection Tide lurking within them. The danger there was far greater than simply carving a new path directly through the Wilderness.

The path the Armored Vehicle was currently traversing was the Lower Region Route, a trail that had never been officially opened.

Heading straight east from East Peace Town, the first two hundred kilometers consisted of the vast Wilderness currently before them. Further on, they would have to cross mountains and ridges to venture deep into uncharted wastelands.

Fortunately, the route highlighted several temporary campsites, sparing them from having to sleep entirely exposed in the open fields.

Cheng Ye took out a blue Marker Pen. He first traced out the hundred kilometers they had driven since leaving East Peace Town, then circled their campsite for the night: Old Pond County.

In the old era, this county had been called Tang County, named after the nearby Sand Pond Lake.

After the New Era began, Tang County enjoyed a brief period of glory. Tens of thousands of people established the New Pond Gathering Place here, its scale once rivaling that of a shelter city.

Regrettably, in the winter of Wasteland Year 22, a Disaster-level Infection Tide swept through, tearing the New Pond Gathering Place apart in an instant.

After the Infection Tide passed, several thousand people attempted to return and rebuild, but they tragically coincided with the eruption of a Transcendent Mother Source left behind in the settlement. Every last person was transformed into an Infected Body, reducing Tang County to a total forbidden land.

To warn future generations, 'New Pond' was renamed 'Old Pond'.

"According to the rules of the Wilderness, an infamous dead zone like this is actually much safer."

Niu Fu rested his hands on the steering wheel and grinned. "Everyone fears the danger inside. Since no one has set foot there for so long, Infection Sources and Infected Bodies do not gather in places devoid of living creatures. We will camp on the outskirts of Old Pond tonight and leave at first light. If you want to see Sand Pond Lake, we can take a slight detour to check it out."

"The records state that a Transcendent Creature once appeared in Sand Pond Lake, causing millions of people to fight over it. Is that true?" Cheng Ye's interest was piqued, and he eagerly pressed for details.

"Of course it is true. We even have descendants of the Tang County survivors living right in Happiness City."

Niu Fu nodded solemnly, his tone carrying a hint of legendary reverence. "That Transcendent Creature was called the Dragon-Eyed Carp. To claim its Transcendent Power, one had to navigate a drifting route it laid out, braving several sheer cliffs and waterfalls alone in a single boat. Just like the old idiom, a carp leaps over the dragon's gate. You had to prove yourself with courage to qualify for such an opportunity!"

"I heard from those survivors' descendants that on the very first day of the struggle for that opportunity, nearly forty thousand people fell to their deaths at the bottom of the cliffs. The corpses piled up over ten meters high. Just thinking about that scene makes my blood run cold!"

Niu Fu clicked his tongue, his voice filled with lament.

The appearance sites of Transcendent Creatures were among the few records capable of surviving the long history of the Wasteland and persisting to this day.

Back then, Tang County was merely a small town with a permanent population of no more than a hundred thousand. Yet, the moment the Dragon-Eyed Carp appeared, it attracted millions who flocked there just to fight for a sliver of transcendent opportunity.

Furthermore, obtaining a Transcendent Creature's power was never as simple as 'eating its flesh to gain its abilities'.

Each Transcendent Creature had its own exclusive inheritance conditions. Only those who met these conditions would be acknowledged by the power.

More importantly, powerful Transcendents were not even qualified to participate. Even if they forcefully cleared the trials, they would absolutely never be accepted by the Transcendent Creature.

"It was not until the sixth day that a young man successfully conquered all the waterfalls and obtained the power of the Dragon-Eyed Carp."

Niu Fu continued to sigh. "When they tallied the casualties afterward, a staggering hundred and sixty thousand people had perished on that drifting route. But guess what? Even with such a horrific fatality rate, it still only ranked below average among all struggles for Transcendent Creatures!"

Just as they were talking, Liu Bi finally returned from the depths of the Wilderness and raised a hand to knock on the window.

Everyone's gaze instantly shot outside. They saw him holding a blackish-green Military Backpack. The bag was caked in mud and ash, and the canvas edges showed obvious signs of weathering. It had clearly been lost in the Wilderness for many years.

"Get out, prepare for an isolation inspection," Liu Bi said in a deep voice.

"Understood!"

Cheng Ye complied immediately. Grabbing his equipment bag by his feet, he swiftly pulled out Protective Gloves, a Disinfectant Sprayer, isolation bags, and an Infection Source Scanner before pushing the door open to step out.

On this first Field Duty excursion, Liu Bi clearly intended to provide a comprehensive, practical lesson.

And how to handle unknown 'loot' discovered in the wild was the first lesson of the trip.

Cheng Ye firmly shut the car door behind him. He first deftly pulled on a double layer of Protective Gloves, then retrieved a large, sealed isolation bag from his gear, spreading it flat over the dry, sandy soil.

Afterward, he walked over to Liu Bi and carefully accepted the Military Backpack, placing it securely in the center of the isolation bag. Throughout the process, he made sure the bag never touched the ground or any other debris.

Taking a deep breath, Cheng Ye's gaze swept slowly from the top of the backpack to its bottom, carefully observing every detail. His fingers hovered over the bag, never making direct contact. "Report: Target is a blackish-green canvas Military Backpack. The surface is intact, showing no signs of liquid leakage, conspicuous abnormal stains, or suspected Infection Source residue. The zipper is perfectly closed with no indications of forceful prying or violent dismantling."

With that said, he looked up at Liu Bi. Seeing the man give a slight nod, Cheng Ye instantly grabbed the spectral scanner and pressed the power button. "Activating Infection Source matching scan mode. Commencing full-coverage detection."

Holding the scanner, Cheng Ye moved it around the backpack at a slow, steady pace. Even though he had not used these Instruments in a long time, his operation remained proficient.

The scanner emitted a faint hum, its screen displaying real-time detection data. After a full sweep, the feedback colors for all areas were a safe green.

"Reporting scan results: No abnormal Infection Source signals identified. Preliminary assessment indicates no risk of infection on the exterior of the backpack."

Liu Bi nodded lightly, his tone steady as he issued the next command. "Visual inspection and instrument scans show no anomalies. Immediately begin surface disinfection of the backpack and prepare to open and inspect it layer by layer."

Cheng Ye promptly picked up the Disinfectant Sprayer and adjusted the nozzle to a mist mode. Starting from the top, he sprayed the solution evenly from top to bottom, outside to inside, ensuring every corner and seam was thoroughly covered.

He waited for the disinfectant to naturally dry in the arid wind before gripping the zipper pull and slowly opening the backpack's outermost pocket.

"Outer pocket intact, no leakage. Inner lining is completely uncompromised," he reported loudly while inspecting. At the same time, he reached in and extracted the small items from the pocket one by one, gently setting them on another unfurled isolation bag.

Soon, over ten common wilderness survival items were laid out:

Waterproof Matches, a Multi-tool Knife with an edge that was still quite sharp, a Metal Filter Canteen with an oxidized surface, a slightly frayed bundle of Nylon Rope, a few rusted Happiness Coins with a face value of '10', a small bottle of Povidone-Iodine that was only half full, and several bottles of unlabeled White Pills.

An old-model Hand-Crank Flashlight hung from the side of the backpack. Cheng Ye grasped the handle and turned it over, seeing that the battery compartment at the bottom had long since leaked. Just from this detail alone, he could deduce that the backpack had been lost in the Wilderness for over a year.

"Based on the characteristics of these items, the initial assumption is that the owner of the backpack was a Migrant." Cheng Ye organized the goods as he presented his preliminary conclusion.

"Can we rule out a Hunter?" Liu Bi pressed.

"No Hunter-specific Road Spikes, trap components, or hunting markers were discovered. Therefore, 'Hunter' is temporarily excluded from the probability analysis."

"Very well, proceed to inspect the main compartment," Liu Bi nodded faintly. His face remained expressionless, but inwardly, he felt a wave of relief.

Given Cheng Ye's current Combat Power, his biggest fear was that the young man would become arrogant after suddenly gaining such Strength. He worried Cheng Ye might think brute force alone was enough to conquer the Wilderness, thereby dismissing these life-saving procedures and ignoring hidden dangers.

However, Cheng Ye's performance was flawless. He maintained the caution of a newcomer to the Wilderness from start to finish, without showing the slightest hint of negligence.

His professionalism was so exemplary it could easily be written straight into an Inspector training manual.

After spraying the disinfectant once more, Cheng Ye lifted his hand to unzip the main internal compartment.

A pungent Putrid Smell instantly wafted out.

The inner pocket was stuffed with several tight bundles wrapped in plastic bags. Their shapes resembled chunks of meat, but eroded by time, the flesh had hardened into rock-solid lumps of a dull, dark brown hue. A fine layer of white salt frost coated the surface of the plastic bags, clearly indicating a rudimentary salting method employed by the owner to prevent spoilage.

Cheng Ye carefully used Tweezers to tear one of the bags open. Pinching the hard chunk with his fingertips, he brought it closer for inspection. When he saw the texture of the meat, his face abruptly changed.

Even though the striations had blurred from dehydration, he could still clearly distinguish the pinnate muscle fibers—unlike the thick, bundled fibers of wild beasts.

"Report! Suspected Hunter-related items detected. High probability that the materials in the inner pocket are..."

Cheng Ye's voice caught in his throat, his heart pounding furiously. The words were stuck in his throat, and he simply could not bring himself to say them.

Even though he had realized long ago that acts demonstrating the total loss of humanity were commonplace across the Wasteland.

He had never expected to confront such a horrifying scene on his very first excursion into the Wilderness. The backpack actually contained the meat of his own kind, stored away as food.

This terrifying sight sent a chill straight to his core, stirring a powerful urge to drop everything, sprint back to the vehicle, and flee this suffocating place immediately.

However, Liu Bi's expression remained completely unchanged. He merely uttered one calm word: "Continue."

"Yes, sir!"

Cheng Ye suppressed the tremors in his heart, forcefully feigning composure as he extracted each chunk of salted meat one by one.

A total of eight pieces. The muscle fibers on every single chunk perfectly aligned with his grim suspicion. This ironclad truth slammed the cruelty and darkness of the Wilderness directly into his face for the first time.

Digging deeper, a Hand-Drawn Map revealed itself.

The edges of the paper had long turned yellow and brittle, and the handwriting was crooked, but the markings were exceptionally clear.

The red and green routes he had seen on the official map earlier could both be found traced onto this handmade chart.

At the very bottom of the backpack, lying flat beneath where the map had rested, was a thick Notebook with a red cover. The cover was worn completely smooth, and a pencil the length of a pinky finger with a nearly flattened tip was clipped to the side.

"Main compartment inspection complete. Combining all available materials for analysis, revising identity assessment: Migrant Hunter." Cheng Ye organized the goods and loudly reported his updated conclusion.

"Inspect the notebook immediately," Liu Bi ordered, his command as concise as ever.

Cheng Ye picked up the Disinfectant Sprayer again and carefully doused the notebook's cover, spine, and the edges of its pages. Only after the liquid had dried did he cautiously flip to the first page.

His first glance focused on the handwriting. It perfectly matched the script on the Hand-Drawn Map, evidently penned by the same individual.

A few blurry words were scrawled in pencil on the inside cover:

[... Alchemical Diary]

[Levin]

It was a typical Western name, written in a crooked, distorted script.

Because the pencil markings had smudged over time, most of the text was illegible. Only keywords like 'Alchemical' and 'Diary' could be vaguely discerned, suggesting there was a high probability it was a journal recording some type of experiment.

But when he turned to the first actual page of the text, all the hairs on his body instantly stood on end. His mind felt like it had been smashed by a heavy hammer, exploding with a loud buzz.

Formulas.

The entire page was densely packed with formulas!

Yet they were neither mathematical nor Physics or chemistry formulas. Instead, they were grotesque Alchemical Formulas.

What was even more spine-chilling was that the 'raw materials' for these formulas were not minerals or reagents, but Infection Sources, and—Humans!

The accounts written between the lines were horrifying to read. Levin had been capturing living Humans, using Infection Sources to transform them into Infected Bodies, and then extracting their blood and special organs to conduct utterly deranged experiments.

"This guy was a sociopathic lunatic!"

Suppressing the chill rising from the bottom of his heart, Cheng Ye flipped through several more pages. His understanding of the Wasteland's cruelty was torn open once again, leaving a bloody gash.

The stability of Happiness City had almost made him forget that, apart from the rampaging Infected Bodies, there were also these inhuman individuals hiding in the dark corners of the Wilderness, gnawing away at the last vestiges of civilization.

However, as he continued flipping past a few blank pages in the middle, the style of the notebook abruptly changed.

It was no longer a collection of cold experimental logs. Instead, there were several distinct sets of handwriting, as if a group of people were using the paper and pen to converse:

[Do not speak. "It" is right beside us, waiting for us to expose a weakness!]

[Then what do we do now? Run?]

[Scatter! "It" only chases one target at a time. It won't attack everyone all at once!]

[Impossible! We have already spoken to "It". Anyone who speaks to "It" will be marked, and "It" will systematically manifest the most terrifying things from their memories!]

[Trust me. As long as we keep our mouths shut the whole way and make it to Happiness City, we can survive!]

["It" has already destroyed three Gathering Places... Can Happiness City really stop it?]

[Damn it! If even Happiness City can't stop it, we're dead no matter where we run!]

[...]

"What is this?"

Cheng Ye's gaze sharpened. The owner of the Alchemy Notebook, Levin, had seemingly fallen into a desperate situation and was being hunted down alongside his companions by an Infected Body with bizarre abilities.

Counting the different styles of handwriting, there were a total of five. Aside from Levin, there were four companions.

"Do not speak? What kind of grotesque Infected Body is this?"

Cheng Ye furrowed his brow and continued flipping. On the third day of conversation logs, a date finally appeared in the top right corner of the page:

July 5th.

Unfortunately, there was no specific year noted, making it utterly impossible to deduce when this group had reached this uninhabited land or under what dire circumstances.

'Was it last year, or the year before?'

The dates in the notebook progressed day by day until he flipped to July 9th, where a new entry practically screamed in despair:

[We're doomed! "It" is still following us! We already killed Levin! Why won't "It" stop chasing us?!]

["It" isn't failing to catch up... "It" is torturing us! It wants us to die under the most agonizing terror imaginable!]

[We're only half a month away from Happiness City. We have to push through!]

[No! We need to detour! Head to the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place! I can feel that "It" is getting impatient. We must use something new to distract its attention!]

[Good God, could "It" be forcing our hand on purpose? Making us lead it to human Gathering Places, to the Shelter Cities?]

[Listen, we have no choice left. This is the only way to survive!]

[...]

This was yet another vital piece of information.

Cheng Ye immediately called out the name of the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place. Hearing this, Liu Bi pulled out his Defense Terminal and swiftly searched the relevant records.

"Two years ago, the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place was destroyed by an unknown, special Infection Source. All three thousand seven hundred residents perished," Liu Bi read out the search result, his tone dropping a few registers.

Cheng Ye's heart sank. Now they could determine the time of the notebook owner's death.

Year 33 of the New Era.

"What about the location?" he pressed.

"Five hundred and forty kilometers from our current position, situated along a waypoint on the Central Abandoned Route."

Thank goodness.

Cheng Ye breathed a sigh of relief. They were currently traversing the unestablished Lower Region Route, avoiding that perilous central path entirely.

"Did you find anything else?" Liu Bi asked again.

"Summarizing the current information: The notebook's owner, Levin, was a deranged experimenter. His small group was targeted by a special Infected Body, and they desperately fled toward Happiness City. Along the way, internal strife led them to kill Levin. To divert the Infected Body's attention, they intentionally lured the disaster toward the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place."

Cheng Ye laid it out succinctly. However, Liu Bi's expression changed slightly as he looked down and read out supplementary information from his Defense Terminal: "The records do not detail the exact cause of the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place's destruction. A passing trade caravan simply discovered it and filed a routine report. By the time our people arrived, the site had been completely washed out by several consecutive summer rainstorms, leaving no traces behind. What was even more bizarre was that every single person in the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place vanished. They were not dead; they vanished into thin air, as if they had packed up and migrated overnight."

'The people vanished?'

The hairs on the back of Cheng Ye's neck instantly stood up. He did not respond, instead lowering his head to continue reading the notebook.

To his disappointment, the entries abruptly ended on July 12th.

It seemed this group had scattered and fled upon reaching the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place, rather than traveling to Happiness City together.

And the person who had inherited the backpack and the notebook ultimately collapsed in the Wilderness just over two hundred kilometers away from Happiness City, a single step short of the hope of survival.

"There is no more information. All records ceased after they reached the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place."

Cheng Ye closed the notebook and stood up, gazing in the direction the Armored Vehicle had come from. "Did you find his corpse?"

"No," Liu Bi shook his head lightly. "We only found this backpack lying on the ground nearby, along with some scattered supplies. There was no sign of a body, nor any traces of a struggle or an attack by an Infected Body."

"Let's go take a look."

Cheng Ye placed the notebook back into the isolation bag to store it. Getting up, he followed Liu Bi along the tire tracks toward the spot where the backpack was discovered, hoping to conduct another thorough search to see if any clues had been missed.

On the ground, there was only a short blade, a low-quality handgun covered in rust, and two magazines.

Liu Bi had not moved anything from its original position. Cheng Ye stood off to the side, concentrating on the scene for half a minute to reconstruct what had happened, yet he simply could not simulate any valuable information.

Two years of wind and rain had long scrubbed every crucial trace completely clean.

"The rain and the wind must have shifted the positions of these items."

Cheng Ye murmured.

Even the world's top detectives would have nowhere to start when faced with traces left in the Wilderness two years ago.

Carrying everything, the two men pondered as they returned to the vehicle. Cheng Ye pulled a Folding Shovel from the toolbox and quickly dug a large pit nearly two feet deep into the dry sand.

He placed the backpack, the notebook, and the scattered weapons inside, burying them alongside that horrifying alchemical record and packing the dirt down tight.

Leaving these objects in the world would only breed more danger.

Yet, even after returning to the vehicle, Cheng Ye felt his heart pounding fiercely. It took a long time for him to calm down.

He immediately used the Defense Terminal to search for Infection Source information related to 'infected cannot speak'. Over a hundred and seventy entries popped up.

This was an incredibly common symptom, but the classifications of the corresponding Infection Sources were wildly extreme.

The highest-ranked one reached the Extinction-level, known as the 'Alien Speaker'. It spread solely through possession by a Transcendent Mother Source, yet its abilities defied reason.

Every single word it uttered carried severe Mental Pollution, capable of twisting human minds, fabricating Hallucinations, and inducing Cognitive Impairment. If it ever infiltrated a Shelter City, it could effortlessly obliterate the entire metropolis with just its mouth.

The lowest tier was a Swarm-level Infection Source known as the 'Dream Monster'.

Whatever the infected person inadvertently said during the day would force their body to execute it autonomously while they slept at night.

For instance, if they argued with someone during the day and casually threatened to 'kill them', they would act like a sleepwalker at night, grabbing a knife and hunting the person down, utterly unaware of their own actions.

However, even after Cheng Ye scoured all the records, he could not find a single Infection Source that perfectly matched the symptoms described in the notebook.

'The Core issue is the inability to speak, but their minds were completely normal... And the notebook used the word "followed", not "infected". It also reads and manifests the things Humans fear from their memories. This is far too bizarre.'

'

Cheng Ye put down the Defense Terminal, leaned against the headrest, and thought quietly.

Yet another unknown Infection Source.

Even though it had annihilated a Gathering Place of several thousand people, humanity's understanding of it was still a complete blank.

Moreover, the location of the Mountain Shadow Gathering Place had been entirely erased from the map, leaving no records behind.

Picking up the Defense Terminal to cross-reference the two, that location was approximately two hundred kilometers away from their campsite for tonight, Old Pond County.

Coupled with the fact that the New Pond Gathering Place had been destroyed over a decade ago, it was absolutely unrelated to this bizarre, unknown Infection Source.

But precisely because of this, it was highly likely that the Infection Source was still alive, wandering the Wilderness, capable of attacking a human Gathering Place at any moment.

"Once we get back, report this information. The city will send people to conduct a new survey," Liu Bi added from the back seat. "If a Malignant Infection Source like this is not dealt with and subjected to Containment immediately upon discovery, there will be endless consequences."

"All we can do is stay vigilant in advance. The next time it appears, we will stamp it out immediately!"