Embers Ad Infinitum

Long Yuehong picked up the piece of paper and quickly scanned it. “Bag 1 for Johnny’s wife.

“Bag 2 for Donovan’s parents.

“Bag 3 for Johann Liss’s son.

“Bag 4 for Eamon’s family.”

It was a simple allocation plan.

Long Yuehong held the piece of paper, walked back to Waite, and squatted down.

Bai Chen—who had already reported the situation to Jiang Baimian—shook her head at him. “He’s a goner.”

Even if they injected Waite with the FECA biological agent now, it would only allow him to last another two to three minutes longer without providing him a blood transfusion given his great blood loss. It was meaningless.

The FECA that the Old Task Force carried with them was limited to begin with. Bai Chen naturally didn’t want to waste them if she could.

Long Yuehong recalled Waite’s timid and cautious appearance in the ruins and felt a little sad. He quickly said to Waite, “You want us to help you send this harvest to your companions’ family?”

Upon hearing this, Waite—whose eyes had already glazed over—lit up slightly. He nodded with great difficulty, and a barely audible sound came from his throat.

Long Yuehong lowered his head and leaned over, finally hearing Waite’s words.

“Th-thank you…” Waite’s voice came to a halt as his head drooped and tilted to the side.

Long Yuehong stared at him for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh. He then slowly stood up and checked the room with Bai Chen.

He found five small cloth bags inside Waite’s carry-on bag. Four of them were labeled from one to four.

Each cloth bag contained many gold accessories, special alloys, and folded information on technology. Apart from the one without a label, the amount was about the same.

The one without a label had the fewest items.

“He probably sorted this out after returning.” Long Yuehong sighed. “Back then, he didn’t expect himself to ‘commit suicide.'”

Bai Chen looked around and didn’t respond to her companion’s sigh. She simply said, “There aren’t any clues.”

Long Yuehong looked back at Waite’s corpse and the large pool of blood before sighing again.

…

At the Old Task Force’s parking spot, the surviving Wang Fugui, Gray, Jiang Baimian, and the others gathered.

Ferrington had also committed suicide—he had hanged himself with his belt.

“Why are we fine when only Waite, Fars, and Ferrington ‘committed suicide?'” Long Yuehong was confused. If it weren’t for the fact that nothing had happened to the Old Task Force, he would’ve suspected that Wang Fugui or Gray were behind it.

The next second, Shang Jianyao replied to Long Yuehong’s question. “What makes you think we’re fine?”

Long Yuehong was shocked. He looked around and realized that everyone had solemn expressions—except Genava.

He was expressionless.

Is this because it hasn’t reached our turn? B-but when were we affected? There are no signs at all… Long Yuehong exhaled to calm the tumultuous upheavals in his heart.

After a long while, Jiang Baimian sighed. “As expected of Wasteland Ruin 13…”

For everything—apart from the slight influence at the beginning that caused them to carry out two subsequent explorations—Jiang Baimian believed that she had done well enough. She didn’t leave any loopholes and had avoided all the risks that she could think of. But even so, they had unknowingly walked toward ‘death.’

If it weren’t for Waite, Fars, and Ferrington’s deaths, nobody knew what would’ve happened to them.

“We didn’t go within a kilometer of the radio station.” Bai Chen was equally confused.

The company had given a very precise number.

Wang Fugui and Gray looked at each other and slowly shook their heads, indicating that they hadn’t realized when they had been affected by Wu Meng. After all, they didn’t hear any hints that would result in them committing suicide.

Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. “I get it!”

Wang Fugui and Gray suddenly looked at him with subconscious anticipation.

Jiang Baimian was also looking forward to seeing what extraordinary reason this fellow could come up with since it might give her inspiration.

Shang Jianyao said seriously, “All usable electronic products within a certain range are Wu Meng’s avatars. He was always by our side during our exploration—never a step away from us.”

Jiang Baimian was a little surprised. “Maybe…”

She remembered that she had sensed an electric current from a loudspeaker coming from a roadside mall.

“He secretly influenced us through those electronic products, and there’s no need to use words to induce those effects?” Gray didn’t believe it.

From Wu Meng’s previous performance, apart from speaking about the ‘Dao’ at the beginning, he needed to rely on words to obtain final control.

Wang Fugui deliberated and said, “It’s not impossible. That method is more concealed, so the effects won’t be that obvious. It just takes time to achieve Wu Meng’s goal.”

Jiang Baimian immediately added, “That’s why he used words to induce us into entering the ruins again and again.”

“This…” Long Yuehong suddenly felt like sequences of events were chaining together.

Bai Chen looked at the tactical backpack behind Jiang Baimian and spoke as if she understood something. “That newspaper was a clue he deliberately left for us so that we would head to the ruins again? A large number of us haven’t been sufficiently influenced to the point of suicide, sp he still needs to enhance the effect?”

“This explanation is very reasonable.” The more Long Yuehong thought about it, the more he found it likely.

As there were outsiders around, Genava remained silent and didn’t participate in the discussion.

After Wang Fugui heard that, he thought for a moment and said, “Actually, I have another guess regarding the reason why we’re fine.”

“What is it?” Shang Jianyao asked curiously.

Wang Fugui looked around, and his expression gradually turned solemn. “I’m a member of a religious organization, and it seems to be the case for Gray as well. We were all blessed by different Kalendarium, so we didn’t commit suicide. You should also be a pious believer of a particular Kalendaria. I could tell on our first entry into the cave—Waite and Fars are only considered Ruin Hunters. They believe in everything and also don’t believe in anything.”

He didn’t know much about Ferrington and didn’t comment on him. But given the other party’s relationship with the Mirror Church, he believed that this person wasn’t a pious believer of a Kalendaria.

While Jiang Baimian found it amusing, Shang Jianyao took out the Blessings from all Kalendarium pictures. “Are you asking if we believe in Eidolon Nun, Arbiter of Fate, Last Man, Double Sun, Shattered Mirror, Subhuti, Golden Scale, or the Door of Scorching?”

Wang Fugui and Gray’s expressions instantly became strange and complicated as if they had never encountered a person like this.

Shang Jianyao put away the paper and sincerely asked, “What’s your respective Holy Communion?”

Wang Fugui subconsciously replied, “Bile and spinach cooked in various ways.”

Shang Jianyao stopped asking what religion they had or which Kalendaria they believed in. He looked directly at Gray, making Wang Fugui inexplicably feel insulted.

Gray hesitated and said, “It isn’t convenient to make it known.”

“You won’t be able to recruit believers like this,” Shang Jianyao said sincerely.

He successfully diverted the topic, and almost nobody paid any attention to Wu Meng’s influence.

Gray tightened his clothes and stopped responding to Shang Jianyao.

Jiang Baimian quickly mediated. “There’s another possibility. The three people who died only recorded the newspaper’s content and didn’t take any photos.”

She was searching for commonalities and differences.

“But I also wrote down some of the content when I returned to make it easier to read normally…” Wang Fugui didn’t quite agree with this. “It’s understandable if you say it’s the difference between people who read or did not read the newspaper. However, both the photography equipment and location are in-camp, far away from Wu Meng. It’s unlikely that they would’ve been affected.”

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly. “Indeed. In short, you have to be careful in the future. It’s best if you have someone to accompany you for a period of time. Yes, at least for half a month.”

As for the Old Task Force, this mission was definitely handed to Genava.

Wang Fugui and Gray didn’t dare to dismiss this advice. They expressed their agreement one after another.

After watching them leave, Jiang Baimian looked at Long Yuehong. “You want to help Waite deliver those harvests to the corresponding people?”

Fars’s belongings were handled by Wang Fugui and Gray—who were relatively familiar with him. Ferrington’s items were handed to a friend he had in-camp.

“Yes.” Long Yuehong nodded slightly and didn’t explain why he wanted to do so. He then raised a difficulty. “But Waite didn’t write down the addresses of those people and their families. I couldn’t find any useful clues from the items he left behind, so I have no idea where to find them.”

“Waite has a First City accent, and his companions are most likely the same.” Jiang Baimian recalled and said, “We can issue a mission at First City’s guild. There should be many Ruin Hunters who know them and are familiar with them.”

After discussing this matter, Jiang Baimian said to Genava, “Pay attention to our subconscious actions for the time being. We’ll decide if we want to continue after visiting Xiaochong.”

“Alright,” Genava agreed.

Jiang Baimian then said to the other team members, “Take turns resting. Old Ge, we’ll have to get you to work a little harder. We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“Alright.” Long Yuehong walked to the jeep with lingering unease. The others similarly had no objections.

…

Early the next morning, with nothing abnormal happening to the Old Task Force quintet, they got into their cars and drove to the camp’s entrance.

Suddenly, a figure jumped out and blocked their car. The figure had white sideburns and was no longer young—he was the camp hotel’s boss.

Jiang Baimian rolled down the window and asked solemnly, “Did something happen?”

Could something have happened to Wang Fugui and Gray?

The hotel owner sighed. “You damaged four doors, so you have to pay for them, right? You can’t just leave like that.”

He had lived for many years. The fact that he dared to run a hotel in the advance base camp meant that apart from having some abilities, he also wasn’t too afraid of death.

“…” The four Old Task Force humans were momentarily stunned.

Shang Jianyao came to a realization and took out the coins on him guiltily.

After this episode, the two cars drove down the mountain and returned to First City.

About 15 minutes later, Wang Fugui—who had finished his morning exercises—was stopped by the hotel owner the moment he returned to his room. He was asked for the repair fees.