Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 727: Harbour Homeland

Translator: CKtalon

The Old Task Force was already familiar with the search process for city maps. They quickly obtained a few copies from a suspected newspaper stand.

However, the problem was that these maps were relatively limited in size. They only labeled the main roads, landmark buildings, tourist attractions, reputable restaurants, medical facilities, and other relatively important things. They didn’t specify every estate or building.

In other words, it was impossible to find Harbour Homeland from these maps.

However, this wasn’t a problem for Jiang Baimian. She deliberated for a moment and said, “Find Renhui Hospital. Since Fan Wensi and Li Jinlong were here to accompany their son for treatment, the rented place won’t be too far from the hospital. We’ll search around Renhui Hospital later.”

With a landmark, things would be much easier.

“Alright.”

“Yes.”

“No problem.”

“Alright!”

Long Yuehong and the others replied one after another.

Genava quickly located Renhui Hospital—it was impossible for the carbon-based humans to be faster than him.

“Let’s go!” Shang Jianyao—who was sitting in the driver’s seat—waved his hand in high spirits. The next second, he shamelessly asked, “Old Ge, how do we go?”

“Go straight and turn left at the second intersection…” Genava took on the role of a smart navigation system. Although he was sitting on the right in the backseat, this didn’t stop him from observing the scene ahead.

Upon seeing the jeep begin to advance, Long Yuehong said worriedly, “I wonder what dangers lay hidden in those three places…”

“We might encounter a New World-level powerhouse or monster!” Shang Jianyao spoke in a threatening tone.

It was unknown if Genava was cooperating or being honest. “What if we really encounter them?”

Man, the standard of Tai City’s Buddhist Holy Land is clearly higher than the first three. We might really encounter an enemy related to the New World… Long Yuehong secretly took a deep breath, but he was unwilling to show his fear in front of Bai Chen. He could only force himself to remain calm, allowing his expression to change only slightly.

“We definitely can’t beat them. Apart from Old Ge, nobody here can resist the Heartless disease’s infection.” Shang Jianyao sighed exaggeratedly. “Eidolon Nun’s protection is gone as well.”

Without waiting for Long Yuehong to look at Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao switched personalities and added seriously, “We can only implement a strategic deterrence plan. If the New World-related enemy’s main body is in Tai City, we’ll tell him immediately once we encounter him. As long as the four of us become Heartless, Old Ge will use keys to activate the nuclear warhead in the trunk, drag him alongside us to his death, and bury him with Tai City!”

This… Long Yuehong first felt that this plan was too exaggerated, but he realized that it might really work after careful thought. He began to suspect that the person pulling the strings behind the curtains had spent all their effort to equip his team with a nuclear warhead to deal with such a situation.

Jiang Baimian nodded thoughtfully. “The conditions should be changed to: if any of the four of us are infected with the Heartless disease.”

Her meaning was very clear: tie the Old Task Force carbon-based humans’ lives together to prevent them from being destroyed one by one.

“No problem.” Genava accepted this order. As a smart bot that served humans, it was necessary to carry out an internecine plan when needed.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao sighed again. “The premise is that we can communicate in time and that the other party can communicate as well.”

“No plan is perfect.” Jiang Baimian was relatively open-minded about this. She then looked at the rearview mirror. “Didn’t we report the general situation to the company before we entered the true Tai City? The company is fully confident in us. That long passage was summarized as: ‘Charge forward with the items!'”

Shang Jianyao turned to look at his team leader and smiled. “You sure are open-minded in this regard. Why do you have such a serious fear of death?”

“Because I’m confident that I can survive most of the time.” Jiang Baimian had long considered this problem.

She had yet to make any progress regarding her third island of fear.

Their casual conversation successfully eased the tension in Long Yuehong’s heart a little. His left hand—which was holding Bai Chen’s—moved. He then felt Bai Chen’s grip increase a little.

The Old Task Force’s jeep charged through Tai City along the sidewalks. On the way, they didn’t alight or gather any supplies.

Time was life!

After more than half an hour, Jiang Baimian and the others saw a building complex with the Renhui Hospital sign after circling around a few completely blocked streets.

The building right in front was labeled as an outpatient building with a total of seven floors. Deep inside the hospital complex was a building with more than 20 floors. Lush trees stood between the two as if there was a small garden.

On the rightmost side of the garden was an unlabeled nine-story building.

At this moment, the building complex didn’t look like a garden. Instead, it looked like it had been built in a forest as though nature had swallowed up civilization.

“Namo Annutara-Samyak-Subhuti.” Zen Master Redemption Shang Jianyao chanted a Buddhist proclamation.

“This isn’t a Buddhist Holy Land!” Jiang Baimian mercilessly exposed the fake monk’s unprofessionalism.

Zen Master Redemption wore a benevolent expression. “Fan Wensi and Li Jinlong’s son might very well be fated with Buddha.”

Jiang Baimian couldn’t out-talk him and directly ordered, “Alright, go around Renhui Hospital to check the surrounding residential estates’ names, and we’ll branch out from there.”

They searched for nearly an hour. Finally, the Old Task Force discovered Harbour Homeland less than a kilometer away from Renhui Hospital.

This was a rather old residential area—old in the sense that it was already an old building in the Old World. This was obvious from the buildings in the estate that were mostly less than ten stories tall and the corresponding architectural style.

As for the outer walls, every building was about the same in the present day—equally dilapidated, mottled, and covered in vegetation.

“Here’s the problem: This estate has about seven to eight buildings. I wonder how long it will take for us to search each building,” Shang Jianyao said with a grin.

Jiang Baimian revealed an ‘are you stupid?’ expression. “First, go to the place that has information on the residents. It’s called… I think it’s called property management. As long as the computer storage data there can still be restored, we can extract the corresponding information.”

Genava moved his metal neck up and down. “The true Tai City hasn’t been damaged, so the storage equipment shouldn’t have suffered any physical damage. I can read the data directly.”

It was ‘reading’ in the literal sense.

It was relatively easy to find Harbour Homeland’s property management; it was in the three-story building on the left of the entrance.

There was a front desk here, and behind it sat two corpses in rotten clothes. Piles of white bones were scattered in different places.

Bai Chen slowly looked around and said with a solemn expression, “I find the deceased in Tai City very strange.”

She organized her words and continued, “Many people seem to have suddenly died while doing their own things. They didn’t struggle, resist, or show signs of being attacked.

“For example…” She pointed at the two corpses at the front desk and added, “There are also corpses sitting quietly in the vehicles on the street. Those that were thrown out of the window or in different poses have signs of being in a car accident. I suspect that they died while driving. The vehicles lost control and crashed into each other, causing their poses or positions to change.”

Jiang Baimian nodded and pointed at the pile of bones covered in rags. “Same here. They should’ve been walking when they suddenly died and fell to the ground.”

Long Yuehong felt a chill run down his spine and muttered to himself, “This wouldn’t have happened if they were only infected with the Heartless disease…”

Heartless had biological instincts and could even use some tools.

“This means that we’re getting closer and closer to the truth behind the Old World’s destruction,” Shang Jianyao said with a smile.

Jiang Baimian made a terse grunt. “Old Ge, study the computer at the front desk. We’ll examine the corpses.”

After a while, Shang Jianyao and the others didn’t discover any valuable clues. After all, the deceased had been dead for decades, and the Old Task Force lacked the corresponding devices to analyze microscopic traces.

On the other hand, Genava successfully ‘read’ the stored data and found Fan Wensi and Li Jinlong’s names.

“Block 5 Unit 403; it was co-rented. We’ll have to investigate which room they lived in.”

Jiang Baimian glanced at the corpses beside her and sighed. “Let’s go.”

Before long, they found Block 5 in the estate and kicked open the door to Unit 403. The lock was already in bad shape.

After a simple investigation, Jiang Baimian and the others eliminated the other rooms one by one based on the characteristics of the clothes in the closet and the corpses in the room. Only the room that didn’t get sunshine was left.

The bed here was covered in a white dust cover, indicating that the resident had been out of town and wouldn’t return for a while. This matched the situation of Fan Wensi and Li Jinlong returning home in disappointment for the Lunar New Year.

The gloved Old Task Force members separately searched the small room.

Jiang Baimian came to the old brown desk by the window and pulled open the drawer. What she saw was a stack of yellowish documents.

At the top seemed to be a voluntary medical agreement.