Chapter 163: Survivors |
The Flaming Sword was indeed a weapon specifically designed against Doppelgangers. The firelight illuminated the mangled corpses on the ground, and no blood flowed from the severed stumps of their arms.
There was no such thing as "blood" inside a Doppelganger's body. The fact that they used to bleed was merely a disguise put on in front of humans. In reality, their insides were more like some unknown, rotting matter. After they died, there was not a single trace of metallic blood scent, only a faint odor of fermenting mold.
Bai Mu did not linger in this place for long. His mission was not to kill Doppelgangers, but to rescue the survivors.
Moreover, after watching the ending cinematic, he already understood that the Doppelgangers could never be completely wiped out. There were far more than just millions of Doppelgangers in this world. At the end of the day, Doppelgangers were just parasites of the pseudogenic mushrooms. They were merely derivatives, not even qualifying as true mushrooms themselves.
This was not a mere guess on Bai Mu's part, because he found that he could not communicate with the Doppelgangers using the mushroom language. These guys were not considered mushrooms at all; they were just puppets controlled by the fungi, much like insects infested by parasites.
Therefore, Bai Mu stopped wasting time. He put on a gas mask and charged right into the raging fire.
Following the mission map, Bai Mu found the first unconscious survivor. It was a middle-aged man around thirty years old, wearing a scavenger suit patched together from various fabrics. His hair and eyebrows were singed and curled by the intense heat, and the surrounding black smoke was frighteningly choking, but he was still alive. Bai Mu slipped the gas mask over the man's face to help isolate him from the toxic fumes. The thick smoke made Bai Mu a bit uncomfortable, but it was not a major issue since his exposure time was very short. He hoisted the survivor onto his back and ran out toward the other side.
The stat bonuses to his strength and agility allowed him to successfully escape the burning area.
He did not carry the unconscious survivor directly to the Evacuation Point. Instead, he found an empty house and set the man down against the wall. The room was vacant, reeking of dust and ash everywhere. In the corner, he spotted a white skeleton. The person who originally died here had decayed until not a single scrap of flesh remained, leaving behind only pale bones.
Some people still had mobility and could help carry those who were unable to walk.
Otherwise, delivering them to the Evacuation Point one by one would be far too inefficient. He was almost certain that doing so would guarantee some survivors would die while being hunted down by the Doppelgangers.
He wanted to save as many people as possible. He believed that with his recently upgraded stats, he had the strength to do so; after all, this was merely a D-grade difficulty Script. He had Witch guard this room, then took the Guard Mushroom out of his inventory and planted it on the room's windowsill. He had already tested the effects of the Guard Mushroom in the Training Room.
This item granted him a secondary split-screen perspective, somewhat like playing a split-screen video game on a computer, allowing him to see both sides simultaneously. The Guard Mushroom's field of vision was much broader than a human's. A human could only see a cone-shaped area directly in front of them, but the Guard Mushroom possessed a comprehensive 360-degree viewing angle. Aside from the blind spot directly beneath its stalk, everything else was captured in a full panorama.
This way, Bai Mu could monitor both locations. Although dividing his attention was difficult, he could switch his perspective at any time to check on the Guard Mushroom's side. If there was any anomaly over there, he would spot it immediately and turn back to handle it.
Fully prepared, Bai Mu left the defense of the area to Witch and went back out to save more people.
He rescued the survivors based on their proximity. He soon found the second person, an uninjured survivor who was incredibly tense the moment he laid eyes on Bai Mu. However, when Bai Mu revealed the Flaming Sword in his hand, the man's expression relaxed.
Doppelgangers were absolutely unwilling to touch or hold anything that radiated such high temperatures. Their first reaction upon discovering a fire source was almost always to completely destroy it.
"Third Scavenger Team, right?" Bai Mu asked.
"Who are you?" the survivor asked.
"We can talk about who I am when we have time. Long story short, I'm here to back you up. I will take you to a safe place first," Bai Mu said, waving him over.
He escorted the second survivor to the safe room. Along the way, they encountered another group of Doppelgangers, but he dispatched them all with clean, decisive sword strikes. He discovered that although the Flaming Sword's active flame state only lasted for five minutes, the weapon itself was forged from heat-conducting materials. As a result, he could roast it over a regular fire to achieve an effect similar to its active skill.
The damage was a bit lower than directly activating the equipment's skill, and the blade was visibly less red than before, but it was still sufficient for dealing with Doppelgangers. This particular equipment trait was not mentioned in the item description, but it was something he could roughly deduce.
Watching him slaughter a group of Doppelgangers as easily as chopping vegetables, the survivor was visibly stunned for a moment. Just earlier, he had been chased by the Doppelgangers, nearly thinking he was going to die, but the scene unfolding before his eyes gave him an "is that it?" feeling.
One had to realize that those Doppelgangers had guns! Yet, they were slaughtered before they even had a chance to pull the trigger.
He sensed an unfathomable mystery about this man, while simultaneously gaining a strong surge of confidence and hope. Thus, he quickly adjusted his mindset and calmed down.
Bai Mu told him to hide in the room and take care of the other survivor. Before Bai Mu went to find the second person, he had already fed a Health Potion to the first one. That man had since woken up. Although his burns and blood loss could not be healed instantly, if his Health could be quantified, it had already been raised back to a safe level. Upon seeing a familiar face, the injured man accepted his current situation and expressed his gratitude.
Witch protected them from the corner, and then Bai Mu continued his excursions to save more people.
On his third trip, he brought back two survivors at the same time. Fifteen minutes had passed, and not a single green dot on the mission map had disappeared yet.
However, from the survivors' accounts, Bai Mu learned that someone had died before he even started rescuing them. Someone had stayed behind to detonate a bomb, buying precious time for the rest to escape.
That was the captain of the Third Scavenger Team. He had shouldered his responsibility as a leader, using his own sacrifice to win a sliver of hope for the remaining members. The fires in the community were also set by those who had not managed to escape in time.
They had made a pact that they must throw their incendiary bombs before they died. Even in death, they would trade a life for a life.
Looking through the survivors' backpacks, Bai Mu saw the shape and craftsmanship of those incendiary bombs. He recognized the design at a glance; it was clearly the exact same crafting technique he had once taught Leon, Anton, and the others.
He instantly understood where these people came from. In truth, he should have figured it out sooner, considering the admission ticket for this Adventure Script was the reward from the "Dying with a grievance" quest. Then, on his fourth trip out to save people, he suddenly noticed something unexpected.
The "Number of Survivors Rescued" suddenly jumped from "0" to "1".
A survivor had reached the Evacuation Point without his help.
His first reaction was surprise, but he quickly realized it made perfect sense.
These people were not fragile flowers raised in a greenhouse. They had struggled and survived in this apocalyptic world for a long time. They understood the laws of survival here far better than Bai Mu did.
Therefore, even without an outsider's help, they were naturally capable of finding their own way out.
Whether their backup had arrived or they managed to escape completely on their own, it was an entirely reasonable outcome.
In truth, even if the Players did absolutely nothing, they would not have all died.
Perhaps many would be sacrificed, but they certainly would not all perish here.