Chapter 51: Mutual Aid Bonfire

Jiang City was already enveloped by the polar night, and they had lost long-wave signals over twenty days ago. To obtain the latest world news and escape the strange encroachment of the polar night, he had to find a way to flee eastward.

Although his Mechanical Heart had great potential, in the beginning, its functionality far outweighed its combat power. Take that giant bug, for example. If Lin Xian had been driving a car, he would have died in some remote corner of the mountains long ago.

“Hey, I think you’re a bit more amazing than I imagined.”

Just then, KIKI suddenly spoke.

Lin Xian gave a wry smile. “You should go inside and rest. You’re on watch for the second half of the night.”

“Okay!”

KIKI smiled, turned, and took two steps, then suddenly looked back.

“By the way, besides the train, can you drive other machinery?”

“I probably can. What are you referring to?”

“Like mechs, for example. I mean intact mechs, the Guardian 2 and Guardian 3 series light assault types, or the Destroyer heavy military siege type. If we could get our hands on one of those big guys, wouldn’t you be unafraid of fighting those giant bugs?”

A flicker of emotion crossed Lin Xian’s eyes. “I’d like that too, if I get the chance…”

He had dreamed of it countless times. If he could, who would want to fight bugs with a blade?

Who wouldn’t want to pilot a Gundam?

Never mind that heavy equipment; even some higher-level mechanical combat parts would be great. But he had rarely even seen such things, let alone their blueprints.

Vroom~

Just then, the sound of a motorcycle broke the silence of the wilderness. Lin Xian and KIKI’s expressions changed as they both looked over.

In the distance, a bright beam of light bobbed up and down, the sound growing louder. Hearing the commotion, Teacher Chen and the other two also ran over from the cars in the distance.

“A motorcycle. What’s going on?” KIKI stood behind the armored vehicle.

Lin Xian’s gaze hardened. Seeing that only one vehicle was approaching, he didn’t immediately stop the devouring process.

Now with Dalou and KIKI, he wasn’t as flustered.

At that moment, the motorcycle’s headlight suddenly flashed twice, paused, and then flashed twice again.

Two short, one long. The other party was actually using light signals. Lin Xian frowned and immediately said, “They seem to be signaling friendliness, but let’s not let our guard down.”

He gestured to Teacher Chen and the others in car 5 in the distance, signaling them not to stick their heads out.

“Hey~~ Don’t shoot!”

When they were a few hundred meters away, the person on the motorcycle started shouting. A moment later, the motorcycle sped across the snowy wilderness and entered the range of the train’s lights.

Screech~

The motorcycle came to a beautiful stop with a fishtail at the bottom of the track embankment. There were two people on it, a man and a woman.

The man stopped the motorcycle, took off his helmet, and looked to be in his early thirties, with a bit of stubble and handsome features. The woman was dressed in leather pants and a jacket, with two pistols holstered on her thighs, her expression somewhat cold.

Lin Xian looked at the two of them warily. “Who are you?”

The man raised his hands, a smile on his face.

“Don’t be nervous, we have no hostile intentions. Let me introduce myself. Jiang Yun, captain of the Wind Chaser team. This is my second-in-command, Ren Huiyan. I noticed you guys after you left North Bay and entered the mountains.”

Jiang Yun’s gaze swept over Lin Xian and KIKI, then looked at Dalou at the entrance of car 5 in the distance, a look of surprise in his eyes.

“Looks like I guessed right. There’s more than one ability user.”

Hearing this, Lin Xian and the others’ faces changed slightly. They wondered who this person was and why he could identify ability users at a glance.

“What do you want?”

KIKI squinted at the two of them and asked loudly.

“Of course we want something.” Jiang Yun pointed ahead along the tracks. “About thirty kilometers further is Quguan City. There are more than a dozen teams stationed there, all gathered through channel 7. I’ve organized a mutual aid bonfire there. I wonder if you’re interested.”

“Mutual aid bonfire? What does that mean?”

Jiang Yun smiled and said, “It’s just a gathering of survivors from nearby to exchange things, information, and so on. In these times, who hasn’t run into a bit of trouble?”

“Oh~ You can still have a bonfire gathering? Aren’t you afraid of running into monsters?” KIKI looked surprised.

“Sorry, I’m not interested,” Lin Xian said, directly refusing.

“Don’t be so tense, friend.” Jiang Yun looked at Lin Xian with a scrutinizing gaze, his expression calm. “From the looks of you, you’ve run into a lot of trouble along the way. Armored train, huh? The main railway lines are still clear because the Federation’s Phoenix Society is still making various combat deployments. If you have an electrical or bio-symbiotic type ability, this is a good choice.”

“By the way.” At this moment, Jiang Yun took a small object out of his jacket pocket and placed it in his palm. A closer look revealed it to be a small, dark red glass bead. “This thing is called an Anomaly Blood Crystal by the Phoenix Society. We wanderers usually call them red beans. If I’m not mistaken, your radio shouldn’t be able to receive any signals, otherwise you should be able to pick up channel 7 and the Phoenix Society’s long-wave frequency. Use this, wrap it with copper wire, and connect it to the radio antenna. This thing can resonate with the energy of the dark anomalies and receive ionized signal waves from them.”

“But… be careful.” Jiang Yun tossed the red bead in his fingers, his expression complicated. “Using this thing, you won’t just be able to receive signals from people…”

“Ah?! So you guys can receive long-wave frequencies!” KIKI looked surprised. “Where did you get this red bead?”

At this moment, the cold-faced woman on the motorcycle finally spoke.

“Kill any anomaly in the darkness, and you’ll find them.”

“That’s right.” Jiang Yun nodded, his gaze sharp. “It seems you really don’t know. The Phoenix Society has a lot of important information on the LW01 long-wave frequency, while we wanderers now mainly use the AM07 and 09 frequencies. The information on these is relatively friendly, but you still need to be careful and discerning. In the apocalypse, there are plenty of people with ill intentions.”

As he spoke, he put his helmet back on and looked at Lin Xian. “Don’t be nervous, friend. It’s just an invitation. It’s voluntary whether you come or not. If you have needs, you can come and take a look, learn some news about the nearby area. Food, water, weapons, supplies, equipment, ability evolution, dark items—you might find someone trading for anything you can think of. Also, the places where we hold mutual aid bonfires are usually tested for Ethereal Fluctuation levels. The chances of encountering anomalies or strange events are slightly lower, but it will still attract zombies. If you’re coming, be careful not to bring trouble.”

Vroom~

After speaking, the man wasted no more words, twisted the throttle, and rode away.

“Wow, so survivors can gather like this. It seems some people have already obtained equipment to detect Ethereal Fluctuation levels.” KIKI looked at Lin Xian in surprise. “Are you interested?”

“Of course I am.”

Lin Xian’s expression was now calm. Jiang Yun was right; he had indeed been too tense.

Since leaving Jiang City, it had been nothing but trouble along the way, with hardly any rest. That’s why he had rejected Jiang Yun’s invitation without a second thought.

But now, hearing what he had to say, he felt that this mutual aid bonfire was very necessary to attend.

“What a pity. That giant bug and that big spider before, we didn’t look carefully for this kind of red bead.” KIKI looked annoyed.

Lin Xian looked at her. “Your data didn’t have this?”

KIKI pouted. “Didn’t I tell you? That was an early initial report. The situation is changing every day now. There are also many things we know that the officials don’t necessarily know. For example, the special fog we encountered in North Bay wasn’t in the official data.”

“That’s true.”

Lin Xian nodded. “We need to find a way to get one of those red beads. And I’m also interested in what he said about Ethereal Fluctuation detection and… ability evolution information.”

Food and water were not the top priority for Lin Xian at the moment. The bigger problem was charging forward in the dark with a lack of information.

“Teacher Chen.”

Lin Xian called out to Chen Sixuan. “Let’s start the electric locomotive and go take a look at Quguan Station. KIKI, Dalou, Shasha, you guys be on high alert.”

“Okay.” Chen Sixuan nodded and immediately complied.

“Alright!” KIKI smiled excitedly and quickly ran to her information center.

The Lou siblings also raised their guns and became vigilant.

Vroom!

The Infinity in the dark night suddenly shuddered and began to move slowly.