Ke Lan and the others looked at each other in tacit understanding: Fortunately, Ivan did not come with them, otherwise, they would be in big trouble now.

The soldiers quickly took control of all the carriages on the train, and then quarantine personnel wearing orange protective suits brought up two heavy metal boxes.

When the box was opened, Ke Lan saw bundles of vacuum tubes and boxes of test strips of unknown purpose. He couldn't help but wonder - could it really be some kind of serious infectious disease? You know, blood tests can't tell the difference between the Seed of Corrosion parasites and normal humans... unless the blood drawn happens to be from the alienated part.

Moreover, if the cells of the Seed of Erosion are still in the latent stage and have not yet begun to assimilate the host's own body tissues, then even if the entire person's blood is drained, it will be difficult to detect abnormalities.

Or maybe... these soldiers had no idea that they were about to face a monster like the Seed of Erosion?

That's not right! Since the agents of the Security Bureau appeared here, even if their relationship with the military was bad, in the face of a crisis that was enough to threaten the Ark and all of humanity, this bit of intelligence had to be shared.

The Security Bureau has much more information about the Seed of Erosion than Ke Lan and the others.

If nothing else, at least the body of the Seed of Erosion in the exile settlement finally fell into their hands.

The passengers in the carriage lined up in a long queue and underwent inspection one by one. Ke Lan noticed that in addition to blood tests, the quarantine personnel would also ask the passengers to open their lower eyelids and then use something like a laser pen to shine before the entire inspection process was completed.

"Is the blood drawing just a cover?" Ke Lan subconsciously touched his lower eyelid.

"Next." The quarantine officer shouted with a hint of fatigue in his tone, as if he had been working at a high intensity for a long time.

The next person to be examined was a young girl. She was very thin, and it would not be an exaggeration to describe her as "skin and bones". Ke Lan even felt that if she gave her a slight push, her body would break in half...

But just as he was thinking this, the image in his head overlapped with reality - a man behind the girl pushed her hard on the back and pushed her towards the quarantine officer who was about to draw blood!

The man was very strong, and the girl crashed directly into the arms of the quarantine officer. Both of them fell to the ground at the same time, and the man directly smashed the glass window on the side of the carriage and jumped out!

"Catch him!" a soldier shouted loudly. He had rushed to the broken window, raised the gun in his hand, aimed at the back of the fleeing man, but never pulled the trigger.

"Is it because they didn't get the order to open fire? Do we have to report to our superiors even in such an emergency?" Ke Lan guessed in his heart, "Or... is there no need to open fire?"

The fleeing man jumped off the track, but saw more soldiers surrounding him. These soldiers, like the ones who entered the carriage, did not shoot, and it seemed that they wanted to capture him alive.

The man looked around anxiously, then turned back to the train. He quickly ran to the carriage, jumped up, and grabbed onto the window frame of an open window with both hands.

But just as he was about to climb into the car, the soldier who had aimed at him ran over, swung the butt of his rifle and hit the man hard on the head.

The soldier's pistol was a modified version of the "Type 01" rifle, with an all-metal folding stock and a triangular frame structure. It was sturdy and heavy. If an ordinary person was hit on the head like this, even if he did not faint, he would most likely lose his combat capability instantly. But the man in front of him managed to withstand this heavy blow, exerted force with his arms, and jumped into the carriage in one breath!

His knee hit the soldier's chest directly, denting the armor plate on the soldier's chest. Ke Lan even heard the crisp sound of a broken rib...

The soldier fell backwards, and the gun in his hand was snatched away by a man - this man had obviously received professional military training. The moment he got the rifle, he directly opened the safety, pulled the bolt to load the rifle, and then pointed the gun at the soldiers controlling the entrance to the carriage!

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!!”

Deafening gunshots rang out in the carriage, and several soldiers fell down immediately. For a moment, a series of screams rang out in the carriage.

Ke Lan quickly squatted down and used the metal seat as a shelter - as long as he was not so unlucky as to be hit by a ricochet bullet, the material and thickness of the seat would still be able to block the bullets fired by the "Type 01".

As for retired elite soldiers like Lao Gou, their reactions were even half a step faster than his.

Gazing through the gap between the chair backs, they saw that the man made the same choice as them - he also squatted behind the back row of chairs, with only half of his body exposed for observation and shooting.

"He's a tough guy." The old dog squatting not far from Ke Lan whispered, and handed a loaded pistol to the unarmed Ke Lan, "He used single shots and bursts, and knew how to save ammunition. Moreover, his shooting skills were very accurate. He killed three people with four shots, two in the chest and one in the head. All of them hit vital parts."

"What's the approximate level?" Ke Lan took the gun and asked.

"Even among the field troops, his reaction speed and marksmanship are considered elite... These rookies in the garrison troops have never been tempered outside. I'm afraid that even an entire squad may not be able to defeat him alone."

"If he intends to take hostages, we should kill him first." Ke Lan said decisively. Although the weapons in their hands were not good enough, there were four of them. In addition, Ke Lan was very confident that he could kill the man. However, if they took action, it would inevitably attract the attention of the military and the security bureau, which was not what Ke Lan wanted to happen.

I don’t know if the garrison didn’t deploy snipers nearby. If the sniper could have killed the man with one shot, then there wouldn’t have been so much trouble.

"Requesting support! Situation D has occurred on Section 9 of Line 34. The target is a middle-aged male who has occupied a light rail car and is holding weapons snatched from our personnel! One of our people is seriously injured and his current condition is unknown. Three people are dead!" The captain of the garrison team shouted into the walkie-talkie while directing several of his soldiers to lie on the ground and drag the bodies of their companions off the car.

"There are still a large number of passengers in the carriage, and they cannot be evacuated for the time being! Requesting instructions--"

"Hey, old dog." Layton half-knelt on the ground, his body pressed against the back of the chair, and turned to shout to the old dog, "Things don't seem to be going well."

"What's wrong?"

"I just monitored the team leader's communication channel... The instructions from the other end seemed to be... 'at all costs'. I'm not sure if the passengers in this car are included in this 'cost'."

"Fuck! Are those idiots planning to sacrifice everyone in the carriage?" The old dog was stunned for a moment and couldn't help cursing in a low voice.

If a fierce gunfight broke out between the garrison and the man in the carriage, I'm afraid there would be a large number of casualties among the passengers who didn't escape in time... If it happened somewhere else, the officer in charge of commanding this action would definitely be severely condemned by public opinion...

But this was a light rail train heading to the North Nine District, and most of the people in the carriage were residents of the slums. These people had no background and no influence... As long as no one revealed the truth here, this incident could completely become an accident... For example, the train derailed and overturned... For example, a suicide attack by an extremist...

There were so many excuses to cover up everything, so many that one could easily come up with several. The death of dozens of passengers would at most be mentioned by the anchor of the morning news, and then it would be forgotten...

"It seems that we have no choice but to take action." Lao Gou calmly opened the safety of his submachine gun. "These good-for-nothings, they even need a retired old man like me to clean their butts. It's really embarrassing!"