"I found something." Shang Jianyao held the long white hair and walked quickly back to the living room area.

To make it easier for Qiao Chu and Jiang Baimian to see, he turned the flashlight to shine on his hand.

The yellowish beam of light diffused slightly, making Shang Jianyao's face look incredibly eerie, scaring Long Yuehong so much that he almost shot him.

"Look at my hand." Shang Jianyao seemed to have anticipated Long Yuehong's reaction, but only now did he add a sentence.

Long Yuehong slowly exhaled and shifted his gaze to look over.

In the yellowish beam of light, tiny dust particles danced, and the white hair swayed gently.

"Where did you find it?" Jiang Baimian asked.

Shang Jianyao pointed to the wall where the LCD screen was hanging:

"On the pillow in this bedroom."

"Only one?" Jiang Baimian followed up.

"Theoretically, yes, unless it can devour its companions and evolve itself." Shang Jianyao replied seriously.

"Are you learning this kind of stuff in basic class now?" Jiang Baimian said casually, seemingly distracted by thinking about various possibilities.

Bai Chen, who had been listening quietly, pulled at the old scarf around his neck and said:

"Left over from the destruction of the Old World?"

Hair isn't so easily rotted in a similar environment.

"It doesn't make sense that only one strand was left." Jiang Baimian voiced her doubts. "Moreover, don't we have a preliminary judgment? This city is periodically 'maintained' to some extent. Some situations in this room also confirm this point. Just now, we found traces of rat activity in the dining room and kitchen, but besides bite marks and scratches, they left nothing behind."

"This is getting scarier and scarier..." Long Yuehong couldn't help but mutter.

A city that had already died was still periodically cleaning up debris and "maintaining" itself!

Without knowing the reason, this was even scarier than the ghost stories on the radio!

"Maybe the rats were eaten by the active 'Heartless' here. They need food too." Bai Chen offered his speculation.

Jiang Baimian "Hmm"-ed:

"Possibly. But would the 'Heartless' help rats clean up? They only have survival instincts left."

"Why is that impossible? Don't they still sing?" Shang Jianyao turned off the flashlight in his hand and said seriously.

"..." Jiang Baimian rolled her eyes at him, "You call that kind of roar singing? Besides, even if they still have some instinct to clean the environment, although I haven't seen it on the 'Heartless' in other places, let's assume they do, anyway, they should 'maintain' frequently, not after a long time, because they don't have much thinking ability, they just act according to instinct."

Judging from the conditions of the streets, buildings, and rooms, it hadn't been maintained for a long time.

Shang Jianyao argued "logically":

"Humans all have the instinct to be lazy.

"How often do you usually clean your room?"

Jiang Baimian was momentarily speechless and looked at Qiao Chu:

"I'm more casual when I'm on missions in the wilderness, it's a form of conformity.

"At the company, if I cook myself, I clean every day, more than once. If I eat in the cafeteria, I clean every three days and do a major cleaning once a month."

Qiao Chu, who hadn't spoken since their discussion began, suddenly asked:

"Are you from 'Pangu Biology,' or 'United Industries,' 'Oranges' Company, 'Future Intelligence'?"

"We're from 'Pangu Biology.'" Jiang Baimian answered truthfully.

Qiao Chu touched the silver rifle across his lap and nodded slightly:

"No need to discuss that hair, it's not a big deal.

"Eat, rest, and wait for dawn."

"Okay." Shang Jianyao and the others gave up the discussion, found their respective positions, and ate compressed biscuits and energy bars with the clean water from their water bags.

After filling their stomachs, Jiang Baimian stood up and walked to the window in the dining area, looking down at the overgrown lawn.

She originally intended to directly state her needs, but after glancing at Qiao Chu, she became a little embarrassed:

"I'm going to go down, for a bathroom break."

"The toilet here can solve it directly." Shang Jianyao looked eager to try, seemingly wanting to share his discovery with his companions.

"No need... it'll affect rest." Jiang Baimian politely declined his offer.

Qiao Chu, sitting in his chair as if he were resting with his eyes closed, opened his eyes and said:

"You can go to the corner on the 601 side."

Jiang Baimian instinctively shook her head:

"It's better to be careful in such a strange place.

"If a strong odor isn't buried and is close to oneself, it could attract unnecessary trouble."

"It's okay." Qiao Chu insisted on his opinion.

Jiang Baimian didn't want to argue and chose to obey.

Bai Chen stood up with her:

"I'll go with you."

"It's good to keep watch for each other." Jiang Baimian nodded lightly, revealing a smile, "Even if you don't want to go, I'll have to drag you along."

Long Yuehong squeezed his thighs and looked at Shang Jianyao:

"Go together later?"

"Okay." Shang Jianyao replied with a hint of regret, "Since Qiao Chu said it's okay, we can be more relaxed, for example, stand on the railing, open the window, and go directly outside..."

"Stop!" Long Yuehong stopped his leaping thoughts, or rather, his sudden whims.

After this interlude, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen each occupied one end of the sofa, curled up, and prepared to rest. Qiao Chu was still sitting in that chair, his eyes closed, unsure if he was resting or already asleep.

Shang Jianyao sat cross-legged on the railing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the tunnel direction, monitoring the movements in the dark city. Jiang Baimian, without her grenade launcher, held the "Ice Moss" pistol and walked back and forth in the living room, constantly watching for any abnormalities on the sleeping people.

After a few minutes, a scream filled with fear rang out somewhere in the city.

In this unusually quiet night, in this dead forest-like city ruin, the scream carried far, making Long Yuehong, who hadn't fallen asleep, feel his scalp tingle and tremble with fear.

Immediately afterwards, gunshots rang out one after another.

Bang bang bang bang bang, this series of noises was like firecrackers, quickly burning out and returning to silence.

After a while, Shang Jianyao, using the faint starlight, saw a figure darting out of an alley nearby.

The figure was hunched over, its movements more like an ape than a human.

He was wearing some clothes haphazardly, with some cloth tied around him, quickly approaching the building where Shang Jianyao and the others were.

Then, he ran along the street full of yellowed fallen leaves towards the other end, occasionally skillfully climbing to high places and then jumping down lightly.

Seeing such a scene, Shang Jianyao felt that even if he had undergone genetic modification and systematic training, it would be difficult to complete similar movements, after all, the main direction of the modification was not in this area.

At this time, high-altitude clouds moved, and a little moonlight leaked down, allowing Shang Jianyao to barely see the figure's appearance.

This should be a male, with black hair that was thick, messy, and dirty, but not too long, not even reaching his shoulders.

Seeming to notice Shang Jianyao's gaze, the figure suddenly turned his head and looked upstairs.

Shang Jianyao's eyes suddenly reflected a blank face.

"Heartless".

This was a "Heartless", a "Heartless" in his prime.

Shang Jianyao didn't dodge, opened his eyes, and stared silently at the "Heartless" from a distance.

Finally, the "Heartless" withdrew his gaze and continued to advance towards the shadows of the distant high-rise building, disappearing there.

A smile gradually appeared on Shang Jianyao's face, as if he had won some decisive victory.

Suddenly, he saw another figure.

This figure was also hunched over, and its speed was much slower than the previous "Heartless".

Shang Jianyao glanced over and saw a withered face full of wrinkles, and a head of messy white hair.

This figure flashed by and slipped into the left alley—this was Shang Jianyao's blind spot.

In the next two hours, Shang Jianyao saw several more "Heartless". Jiang Baimian also noticed this point and expressed her doubt about the number of "Heartless" here.

After that, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong woke up and took over their duties.

By the time Shang Jianyao was woken up from his dream by Long Yuehong, Qiao Chu had already left his chair and stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.

"It's almost dawn." Qiao Chu said calmly.

He then withdrew his gaze from the dark city ruins, and ordered with a cold look in his eyes and a gentle voice:

"Help me put on the exoskeleton device."

Before long, with the help of Jiang Baimian and Bai Chen, he had put on the military exoskeleton device and started the system.

After picking up the silver rifle, Qiao Chu, whose body was covered in a black metal skeleton, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and pointed to a building several blocks away:

"Our destination is there."

Shang Jianyao and the others followed the direction he pointed and saw a building that was a considerable distance from all the surrounding buildings.

It seemed to have a large attached courtyard.

At this moment, it stood quietly in the dark city ruins, with not a single light shining from inside, as if it had already died long ago.

A few seconds later, Qiao Chu turned his body, stepped towards the door, and said in a deep voice:

"Let's go!"

ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~