Chapter 24: Simply a Hooligan
Chi Wan shivered and let go with both small hands.
The next second, the motorcycle smashed heavily onto the ground. The powerful inertia propelled her forward, and her small hands grabbed forward again.
This time she saw clearly.
Her two hands, one on each side, grabbed exactly one-quarter of his chest.
The force of her small hands wasn’t light, and it was an extremely sensitive area. Shen Yu’s White Tiger Mental Entity was almost triggered out.
His face turned red and black, his jaw tight. He controlled the handlebars steadily and braked urgently.
Chi Wan, who wanted to let go again, was thrown backward by the force of the emergency brake.
Her hands, half-released, grabbed hurriedly for something else.
Coincidentally, right near…
Shen Yu groaned outright. An electric stinging sensation spread through his body instantly, accompanied by an unfamiliar numbness.
He looked down incredulously at the innocent-looking Chi Wan, his handsome face flushing red instantly.
He kicked down the kickstand. The Mental Entity behind him popped out.
The massive White Tiger, like a giant mountain blocking out the sun, bared its teeth and stared at her ferociously.
Chi Wan was too scared to speak, her hands pressed on the fuel tank, trying to scoot back.
“Get off.”
It was almost through gritted teeth; his fierce look was cold and sharp.
Chi Wan got off obediently.
Watching Shen Yu step off the motorcycle with his long legs.
He wore a high-quality white casual combat uniform. The noble temperament nurtured by a large family allowed him to maintain his manners as much as possible even when furious.
He walked toward her step by step.
He took a step forward, and she took a step back.
Until she retreated to a big tree and had nowhere else to go.
Chi Wan admitted defeat and started apologizing immediately.
“Sorry, you…”
As she spoke, her gaze looked at his chest.
“Does it hurt…”
Her voice got smaller and smaller toward the end.
His harsh words were suddenly blocked in his throat. Being looked at by her presumptuous gaze, the back of Shen Yu’s ears turned a few shades redder.
He turned sideways, closed his eyes slowly to calm his anger, then whispered:
“Sim… ply, a hooligan.”
Chi Wan pouted, full of grievances.
She wasn’t.
“Walk the rest of the way yourself.”
He wouldn’t allow her on his bike again.
Not looking at her anymore, the young man drove the motorcycle away mercilessly. Chi Wan stood helplessly in the dust.
[Sigh, don’t be afraid, Host. Shen Yu is the softest-hearted of the male leads. He’s just scaring you. Thorn City is just over seven hundred meters ahead.]
…
When Chi Wan arrived outside Thorn City, the two light armored vehicles arrived close behind.
The Sentinel squad leader guarding Thorn City looked at Shen Yu’s group as if seeing saviors and greeted them immediately.
“The Federation has already told me the general situation. Time is tight; let’s talk while walking.”
“Okay!”
As the Sentinel captain spoke, his gaze fell on Chi Wan, whose silver hair was extremely conspicuous behind the crowd.
“Hey, it’s Guide Chi Wan.”
“That’s great! As an SSS-rank Guide, you’re actually willing to condescend to come here and help. Thank you!”
The Sentinel captain stepped forward gratefully, placing his right hand over his left chest and bowing in a Sentinel salute.
“No need to be so polite. As a registered Guide of the Alliance, it’s what I should do.”
Chi Wan, who had come for the Purification Stone, felt a bit ashamed. She silently decided that besides finding the stone, she must also work hard to help them.
The group followed the Sentinel captain into the city.
In this conquered small town, many Sentinels and ordinary humans were coming and going.
Unlike the Sentinels, ordinary humans all wore full oxygen protective gear.
“After Thorn City was conquered, the Federation assigned a total of over 30,000 ordinary humans, 3,000 Sentinels, two A-rank Guides, and thirty medics to cooperate in excavating usable resources.
But…
Everyone’s pollution levels are consistently rising inexplicably fast.”
As the Sentinel captain spoke, he synchronized the data to everyone’s optical computers.
“Commander Shen Yu, I’ve synced the data to you. Please take a look. This is the pollution value change statistics for all Sentinels over the past half-month.”
Chi Wan looked at her optical computer while following the main force.
The pollution speed of the Sentinels had reached five times the normal rate.
“Especially in the last few days, there are always Sentinels who inexplicably become completely polluted at night. Last night, three died violently, and eleven were polluted!”
“Purifiers are precious to begin with. This rate of pollution is too severe. The Federation has issued a notice giving us a final deadline of two days. If we can’t find the source by then, we have to abandon this city.”
“At that time, all resources in the city will be forfeited.”
As the captain spoke, he added as if remembering something:
“By the way, Commander, there is another piece of information, though I don’t know if it has any value.”
Meeting Shen Yu’s attentive gaze, the Sentinel continued:
“It’s inevitable that people lose things, but the strange thing is, once lost, they can never be found again.”
The sky was getting dark.
Under the pollution fog, visibility dropped extremely fast.
The eerie sound of wind and sand made the situation described by the Sentinel captain gradually veer toward the supernatural.
Chi Wan inevitably thought of those horror ghost stories from the 21st century.
In this world, there were no ghost stories because reality was the biggest horror story. Bloody violence and grotesque mutations were everywhere.
At night, there were the true “ghosts” of this world—pollution Specters.
“We’ve searched the city inside and out more than once. Never mind high-level pollution entities, we haven’t even found a low-level one.”
After the Sentinel captain finished, Shen Yu spoke calmly:
“Understood. I’ll take the night watch tonight.”
The Sentinel captain stopped walking. He looked at Shen Yu, looking nervous.
“Commander, do you mean… pollution Specters?
But… normal pollution Specters don’t have the ability to make so many Sentinels’ pollution levels rise so fast, do they?”
What the Sentinel captain expressed was not doubt, but fear.
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