Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 275 The Mercenaries' Mission
Seeing these energy shields, Ke Lan was basically certain that these people were the convoy that attacked the Tiankeng Observatory... Even the top mercenary groups might not be able to afford such sky-high priced equipment that cost tens of millions, let alone take out two pieces at once.
"Free fire, prioritize attacking targets carrying shield generators, and be careful not to accidentally hurt Lao Gou and the others!" Ke Lan shouted.
Since they were attacking from behind, Ke Lan and his team knocked down half of the exiles with a single volley of fire. Afterwards, the remaining few were quickly wiped out by the double-sided attack.
On Ke Lan's side, except for the hunting dog who accidentally twisted his ankle when going ashore, no one was injured.
"Fortunately, none of these guys have infected containers." Ke Lan looked over each corpse and then put the dagger made from a stone cone back into the equipment bag.
Layton took the initiative to undertake the task of cleaning the battlefield, but it was just cleaning the battlefield. The only things on these exiles that caught his eye were the two small shield generators.
After stripping the exiles clean, he threw the naked bodies into the underground lake... After a while, the blood attracted a large group of transparent small fish, and in a blink of an eye, the bodies were eaten until only a white skeleton was left.
"There's nothing valuable..." Layton poured everything in the exiles' pockets onto the ground. Apart from ammunition, food and a small amount of medicine, he did not find any valuable intelligence.
"I should have left him alive." The Hound sat on the ground, rubbing his ankle with his hand and said.
"There is still one survivor..." Ke Lan had returned to the campfire. One of the two mercenaries who had survived had already died. The other one dragged his seriously injured body and crawled on the ground for more than ten meters, leaving a long trail of blood behind him.
Ke Lan walked over, stepped on the man's calf, and pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of his head.
“Don’t… don’t kill me… I… I’m not in the same group with them… I’m just a mercenary, I do things for money… Don’t kill me…” The other party’s tone was very weak, as if he was about to die at any time . Ke Lan thought about it, took out the adrenaline and gave him an injection - in the absence of other treatment methods, this thing could not save his life, but at least it could allow him to finish what he was saying before he died.
"Why did you attack the observatory?" Ke Lan asked.
"W-what observatory? I don't know..." the mercenary answered in confusion.
"You're still playing dumb when you're about to die, right? Are you trying to do something fancy?" At this time, the hound limped over and said viciously to the mercenary.
"I... I really don't know... " The mercenary almost cried, "Our mission is just... just to go with those exiles and follow the secret passage they found into the mountain to help them find something... I don't know anything about attacking or observing stations!"
"Secret passage? Looking for something?" Ke Lan and the hound looked at each other and then asked, "Secret passage? Where is the secret passage you came in through?"
"It collapsed not long after we entered, and two people were buried alive inside." The mercenary replied, "It's less than a kilometer away from here. If you keep walking east, you will see the blocked entrance to the secret passage..."
"So it seems that this group of people are not in the same group as the attackers?" Leighton came closer and whispered.
"No, they are the same group, but they are divided into two groups, just like our sneak attack this time." The Hound shook his head and said, "One group attacked the observation post above the tiankeng and snatched the stone tablets mined by the hunters, while the other group entered the ruins through the secret passage that this guy mentioned, looking for..."
The hound paused, then turned to the mercenary and asked sharply, "Hey, you said you came here to look for something, what are you looking for?"
"I don't know... The employer didn't specify. I only know it's an opaque brown or black glass jar that's more than a meter tall..."
"Did you find it?"
"No..." the mercenary replied.
"Then do you know the true identity of that employer?" Ke Lan took over the conversation and asked.
"He is from the True God Church... But I am sure that he is definitely not an exile. An exile cannot afford so much money..."
Ke Lan knew that "True God Church" referred to that heretical sect. It was one of the names given to their own organization by the internal believers. There were many similar names, such as "Eternal God Church", "Great God Church", "Only God Church" and so on... It seemed that even they themselves had not completely determined the official name of the sect.
"They pay you money as a reward?"
Most of the exiles barter with each other. They have no habit of using currency. Food or bullets are just . Only the residents on the Ark have the concept of "money"... The mercenary was right about one thing. The employer was definitely not an exile.
"The employer pays us with an anonymous credit point storage card... I put the card on the Ark. If you can give me a chance to live, I'll give you all the money..." The mercenary's answer was similar to what Ke Lan expected. Anonymous credit point storage cards are indeed a popular payment method for mercenaries like them who "take illegal jobs". They are safe, reliable and convenient... The only drawback is the high handling fee that needs to be paid when applying for this storage card. But for those who are not short of money, this only drawback cannot be considered a drawback.
"Ke Lan, look at this." Layton suddenly took out a seized energy shield generator. "At first I thought this shield generator was just an embryo dug out from the ruins, with a shell on the outside. But after taking it apart, I found that it was a fine product that had been artificially processed. The energy pathway and converter had been improved. Although the trademarks and production serial numbers on the surface of the parts have been erased, the records in the chip cannot be deleted. As long as I take it back to the Ark, I can find out the origins of these things."
