Chapter Fifty-two Entering the City

  Xu Ming crouched on the rooftop of a residential building, taking a glance in the direction of the explosion. Within a range of about ten meters, Xu Ming had a rough idea.

  The patrolmen on the streets were swiftly wandering around, seemingly with a grand search and seizure in mind. However, the streets were cold and deserted, occasionally some elderly women could be seen huddled in the corners of the streets, while other residential areas were dead silent, like a ghost town.

  Night was falling, and the four high towers in the small town of Bas suddenly lit up with powerful spotlights, like giant grinding wheels that swept back and forth from different angles, covering every corner of the city.

  Xu Ming and the others took advantage of the gap between the sweeps of the searchlight to slip into the civilian residence that had been crouching earlier. It was a two-story small building, with some cluttered furniture inside, and the dust was very thick, apparently no one had lived there for a long time.

  There are some bullet holes on the wall, and there is also residual dry bloodstain, apparently a battle took place here.

  "No spent casings left behind, the area's been swept after the fight, with only faint bloodstains on the floor." Gren reported over the radio.

  Xu Ming replied, "Received, continue reconnaissance." With wireless communication, it's convenient. Everyone has a clear division of labor and can be commanded uniformly. However, Xu Ming didn't plan to stay in this civilian residence for too long. Their location could be exposed at any time, so they had to keep moving. Even if they were exposed, there wouldn't be too much danger.

  Other people's voices came through the earpiece, saying "no abnormalities", but Xu Ming felt that something was off. This civilian residence wasn't bad, and the war hadn't ravaged it too severely, it could still be inhabited.

  And yet after the battle it was swept so clean, apparently with the intention of living there, but why is no one living there? Is sweeping the battlefield not for the purpose of living?

  The place where Xu Ming was located was the lowest level of a residential building, and outside the gate there was a small courtyard, with a typical villa layout. A smell that couldn't be described came over, making Xu Ming extremely vigilant.

  Quickly retrieve gas mask from backpack and put it on, whispering: "Unknown gas detected, gas masks. No other abnormalities, assemble at coordinates 37, 96."

  Each person's wrist-mounted reverse temperature tester, in addition to having a bomb and serving as an anti-radar thermometer, also has an auxiliary function of electronic coordinates, equivalent to a small GPS navigator.

  Five other people wearing gas masks soon appeared in front of Xu Ming.

  "Maya, test air composition."

  Maya, although wearing a gas mask, had a distinctly different physique from Kapur, making it easy to tell them apart. Maya quickly pulled out a small bottle with chemical symbols on the outside and a rubber stopper on top.

  She pulled out the rubber stopper, Maya waved the small bottle a few times, then covered it with the rubber stopper and pressed the switch at the bottom of the bottle. The bottle immediately emitted green light all over, but the green color kept changing until it turned blue and stopped moving.

  "Oxygen index normal, nitrogen index normal, non-toxic, air identification, safe."

  Xu Ming came off the gas mask, and others also took it off one after another, revealing their true faces. The thing was still very uncomfortable to wear.

  "What's this taste? Why is it so weird? Hmm, sometimes it's there and sometimes it's not?"

  Glen chuckled and said: "Be careful, old lady, maybe the house has been empty for a long time and the furniture is moldy."

  "Doesn't smell like it, can you guys smell it?"

  Xu Ming turned his head to ask others, Kap and Karuso both shook their heads, they also felt that the smell was strange, but didn't know what it was, only Maya looked hesitant.

  "Maya, what's wrong?"

  Maya's face didn't look good, and she muttered vaguely: "This taste is a bit familiar... it's like... it's like..."

  "What is it like?"

  "It's like the smell of quicklime on a dead person..."

  "Not bad," Gren said suddenly. "I feel like I've smelled it before, back when people nearby were killed by stray bullets and the government didn't have time to cremate them, so they buried them in quicklime first. It was summer then, and with just a bit of wind, you could smell this smell. No wonder it's so familiar."

  Xu Ming furrowed his brow. It wasn't summer, so it was unlikely that there would be a stench of corpses. But there was this smell, and it was clearly not far from here. Yet every room had been searched, and not only were there no corpses, but not even an ant or a mouse.

  Bang bang.

  Xu Ming stomped on the floorboard, and there was a dull echo. It seemed that there was a basement, and it was dug very deep.

  Since it's a basement, there must be a place with a cover. Xu Ming let them go find it, and indeed, there was a newly poured concrete mark nearby, and the quality of the concrete was very poor, as if it had been hastily poured.

  Caruso somehow produced a large hammer and with two blows smashed the concrete, which broke open to reveal a stench of rotting flesh.

  Xu Ming furrowed his brow and tossed in a cold light bullet. The cold light bullet could emit bright light, but had no temperature at all, and didn't worry about causing combustion.

  The inside environment was clearly visible, with hundreds of corpses piled up in a dense manner, both men and women were present, they looked like ordinary people, the bodies had several bullet holes. Most of them were older people, only a small number of young people.

  Xu Ming's heart could no longer be described as angry, what was this? Massacre! Naked massacre!

  How many people were in the town of Batac? Before the war, there were at least 90,000 people. Even if some fled when the war started, there were still tens of thousands of people left. Excluding the young men who were forcibly conscripted, that means at least 30,000 to 40,000 people were massacred.

  This is not an invasion by a foreign ethnic group, but rather people from one's own country, who can be so ruthless towards their own country's civilians, it's simply impossible to describe them with the two words "beast", because that would be an insult to beasts.

  Xu Ming also knew it wasn't the time for anger, and he didn't have the qualifications to be angry either.

  Others are at least under the rule of government, and although the government also kidnaps some young people from time to time, large-scale massacres have never occurred, so everyone's faces change.

  "It's clearly a massacre. At this time, everyone on the streets of this city is one of them. They have used violence to suppress and dominate the city. Glen, map."

  Glen unfolded a military map which Lieutenant had given them.

  Xu Ming pointed to the place with obvious red marks and said, "This should be where Qu Qi is. We are now in this position, only two kilometers away from the target location in a straight line, but we need to cross at least nine streets."

  While Xu Ming and the others were discussing, another gunshot rang out in the city, the sound was urgent and brief, and soon fell into silence again.

  The computer is not fixed yet, but I couldn't stop updating for two consecutive days, so I had to rush to the internet cafe and type frantically. If there's a manuscript fee, I'll definitely buy a new one again.