"This is a mutation."
Natalie stood beside Gina, looking up at the things clinging to the wall, and frowned.
"Mutant species are increasing, they're everywhere. This is a malignant pathological change, like a tumor."
Natalie said, slowly approaching the wall until she was only about five centimeters away, observing intently for a full ten seconds.
"Let's go look elsewhere."
Natalie observed nothing, so she turned and walked towards the deeper parts of the camp. Cervantes, Sergio, Shepherd, and others followed behind her.
"Hmm!?"
Just as Illumi was about to leave, his neural-mechanical helmet's screen suddenly zoomed in on the strange mycelia on the walls, causing him to stop and stand still.
On the screen, the magnified mycelia were slowly coiling, straightening, and swaying, at a degree imperceptible to the naked eye. They were moving like animals.
"Living creatures?"
Illumi narrowed his eyes. A slender black thread appeared from beneath his feet, extending to the wall and touching the mycelia. But the mycelia showed no reaction to the black thread, merely swaying slightly.
"Mark."
Illumi said. The Ranger neural-mechanical helmet system immediately stored the video of this scene and marked it on the map they had detected along their way.
"Let's go. We'll go look ahead too."
Illumi refocused his gaze on the large wooden cabins within the camp, searching them one by one with the Avenger troops. However, most of the cabins contained nothing but some household waste.
Finally, Illumi set his sights on the largest wooden cabin in the center of the camp.
"Creak~"
An Avenger soldier slowly pulled open the dilapidated wooden door. Unlike other wooden cabins, this one had many wooden tables, a few beds and backpacks, and some water bottles and paper cups.
Looking at the ground, there were also various weapons and equipment: handguns, rifles, machine guns, RPGs, grenades, and so on.
"All the bullets are gone."
Greed bent down and lifted a heavy machine gun with one hand to examine it, even lightly shaking it. The ground was covered in metal shell casings.
Of course, what most caught Greed's eye were the countless bullet holes scattered across the walls, floor, and ceiling.
"Bullet holes everywhere. Looks like they fought fiercely."
Greed and Illumi's five men scanned the area. Apart from the dense bullet holes, it was strangely devoid of any human corpses.
"Peyton Squad, Cain Squad, Shelley Squad..."
Jin Bradley stood in front of a wooden board, on which many names were neatly posted, with "Squad" added after each name.
Some names had an "X" drawn over them, presumably indicating that the squad had been completely wiped out.
"These people are the captains of the various squads of the Ozma Federation expedition team. It seems they treated this place as a temporary military base."
Illumi came to Jin Bradley's side, looked at the squad names on the wooden board and their patrol schedules and rotating night watch roster, then looked at a blackboard next to it.
On the blackboard, an irregular elliptical map was drawn with white secretions.
"Looks like this is a map of the camp."
Illumi looked at the map. Various areas were marked and signed, seemingly for defense.
"We'll camp here today."
Illumi looked at the sky outside the window. The golden light was gradually dimming. He checked the time; it was already 8:50 PM, and night was about to fall.
"Boss."
Just then, Pride, who was searching on the other side, called out to Illumi. Illumi turned to look and saw Sloth pick up a file bag from the wooden table in front of him.
"There should be some clues in here."
Pride said, looking at the file bag in Sloth's hand.
Illumi slowly walked up to Sloth, reached out, and took the file bag from Sloth's hand. Inside the bag was a square white box. The bag had a tag that read: "For the next group to arrive here."
"It must be for us."
Illumi opened the file bag and shook the box out into his hand. With a "click," he opened it. Inside was a memory card.
"Give me the camera. See if we can play this."
Illumi looked at an Avenger. The Avenger opened his supply backpack behind him and took out a camera. Illumi inserted the memory card into the slot.
"Hoo hoo hoo~"
The video was dark, but the first thing that appeared was a series of heavy gasps, indicating that the person in the video was in extremely poor condition.
The next moment, someone turned on a flashlight, illuminating a bare-chested, burly man. The man had a buzz cut and an iron tag around his neck; he was a soldier.
At this moment, he was leaning against a wall, his chest heaving, his breathing ragged, and his face covered in sweat.
"Hoo hoo Are you ready?"
In the video, four men in military uniforms surrounded him. The man with the buzz cut looked up, panting, and asked. Someone replied, "It's started."
Then, the video showed another man with black curly hair holding a sharp dagger. He knelt on one knee in front of the buzz-cut man, his left arm embracing the buzz-cut man's shoulder. Their foreheads touched.
"Don't worry, we'll always be with you."
The black-haired curly-haired man hugged his head, his shoulders subtly trembling. One could tell his emotions were extremely unstable.
"I know. Do it."
"Hoo hoo I can do it."
The atmosphere was eerie. The scene shifted to the buzz-cut man's abdomen. At this time, the four soldiers surrounding the buzz-cut man squatted down, pressing on his shoulders and thighs respectively.
"Come on Come on Come on~"
The buzz-cut man, who was being held down, didn't resist. He merely repeated the words "come on."
The black-haired curly-haired man held a sharp dagger and gestured over the buzz-cut man's slightly bulging abdomen, his movements trembling. As he gestured, the buzz-cut man's stomach subtly rippled.
But the next moment, the black-haired curly-haired man seemed to make up his mind. He gritted his teeth, and his eyes turned fierce.
With a "poof," he plunged the dagger into the buzz-cut man's abdomen and forcefully sliced to the right.
"Ah~!!"
The buzz-cut man immediately screamed and wailed in excruciating pain.
At this moment, the camera's view shifted downwards, focusing on the buzz-cut man's abdominal wound.
Inside the continuously gushing, bleeding abdomen, something faintly moved. Their diameter appeared to be like human large intestines, coiling and twisting inside the buzz-cut man's abdomen, like a ball of snakes entwined in mating season.
"Gurgle..."
The video trembled, and a gurgling sound came from it. It was clearly the sound of the cameraman, startled by the scene before him, swallowing his saliva.
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