Clearing Out the Base

When on the aircraft, Xilin saw the scene displayed on the screen below. The surface of the base was crawling with many mutated black rats, and more black rats were continuously emerging from inside the base. These black rats varied in size, with the smallest being only twenty centimeters long and the largest even over a meter, not including their tails.

As they approached the central area of the base, the aircraft slowly descended. The black rats below did not seem afraid of the aircraft's arrival; instead, they became more excited, as if they had spotted food.

Because many areas of the base were inaccessible to detectors, the exact number of black rats below could not be predicted. However, looking down from the aircraft, all that could be seen were dense clusters of black dots.

In just half a year, they had multiplied from a single individual to such a massive population, demonstrating a breeding speed far beyond that of ordinary mice.

"Base isolation layer activated. Operation can commence. Over."

"Received. Over." Shute, the captain of the Seventh Team, switched communicator channels. "All squads prepare! Infrasonic Weapon countdown begins in 10 seconds. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—Fire!"

Sound waves inaudible to the human ear were emitted from the aircraft. The mutated black rats, which had been excited and active moments before, suddenly became agitated. The faster ones began to flee into the distance, while the slower ones became increasingly sluggish.

This infrasonic weapon was specially designed based on the inherent frequencies of the organs of the black rat provided by the Research Base. While it had an effect, it wasn't as potent as imagined, but at least it was effective.

After the infrasonic attack ceased, the number of black rats around the base's central area had significantly decreased. The mutated black rats that remained were moving sluggishly and their consciousness was blurred.

Taking advantage of this opening, ropes were lowered from the aircraft hovering at a low altitude. Operatives clad in combat suits and carrying firearms descended to the ground along the ropes. The ten members of the squad quickly formed a formation, began dealing with the targets, and advanced forward.

Bullets shot out, spinning at high speed as they sliced through the air and penetrated the mutated black rats, exploding and shattering their internal organs. A large hole was blown into the body of a half-meter-long mutated black rat, which fell to the ground, twitching before dying. Under the effect of the drugs carried by the warheads, its black fur and red blood began to dehydrate. In less than a minute, the entire mutated black rat turned into a pile of powder.

Xilin was assigned to Captain Shute's squad in the Seventh Team, likely to accommodate him as a cadet. However, warriors were not babysitters. Shute didn't expect Xilin to achieve any particular score, but at the very least, he needed to be able to protect himself.

Within the ten-person formation, Xilin was placed in a relatively safe, auxiliary position. But it didn't take long for the others to realize that this teenage cadet was an absolute killer.

Xilin's shooting was incredibly fast. While others fired two shots, Xilin had already fired three, all in rapid succession and all hitting their mark. Most importantly, the black rats he eliminated were the larger, faster-moving mutated ones. This was enough to draw attention.

During the time it took one squad member to reload his magazine, Xilin almost single-handedly provided fire support for that position and assisted other squad members. The people in the squad didn't even notice when Xilin reloaded; they only heard the continuous sound of gunfire. With such a rate of fire, setting aside the physical strain, was there even time to aim?

A cadet demonstrating performance no less than that of a seasoned warrior, Xilin was quickly accepted by the squad. The others began to focus on their own attacks with peace of mind, knowing they had a comrade, and this highly capable young man, watching their backs, so they didn't have to worry about anything.

In the space station outside the asteroid, a person wearing a military uniform with the epaulets of a lieutenant general stood in the command center, observing the "cleansing" situation of the base displayed on the screen.

He was sent by Marshal Fegler and had received a communication from a certain dignitary of the Star Alliance before departing, truly "shouldering a heavy responsibility." Both Knight's and Pride's squads had special envoys from those two individuals to ensure the safety of these two young masters. This was a form of privilege, and even if he had thoughts about it, he wouldn't voice them. However, this trip was not without its rewards; the other three cadets mentioned by Huoding were performing well, especially the young man named Xilin, who was no less impressive than the prominent figures from the C Star Zone military academy. As it stood, the lieutenant general hadn't perceived any significant emotional changes in Xilin. His cooperation was excellent, calm, decisive, and accurate!

Watching the screen, the lieutenant general pondered whether he could recruit this young man into his own unit after this operation. Keeping him at the Seven Luminaries would be a waste of his talent...

As they continued to advance and entered the base's interior, their progress was somewhat hindered. Cables had been chewed through, the location of the generators was unknown, the power system was malfunctioning, and the energy cells were unusable. Areas without windows were plunged into complete darkness. Furthermore, many parts of the base's laboratories were shielded against infrared and X-ray detection. To ensure every laboratory was "cleaned" thoroughly, the operatives would throw Stun Grenades and Rat Repellent Bombs into the labs to force out the black rats, eliminating them one by one as they emerged.

As the clearing operation progressed, the black rats seemed to sense the threat from within the base and began to escape. This suited everyone's intentions perfectly.

If these mutated black rats were driven out of the base and into the open ground outside, the armed aircraft in the sky could use high-energy weapons for large-scale elimination. Because, unless absolutely necessary, the base, which had been painstakingly built, could not be destroyed by high-energy weapons.

Occasionally, several caves were spotted within the base; these were the tunnels through which the mutated black rats had attacked the base from underground. Many robots had been dispatched to investigate and were simultaneously spraying agents below to force the underground black rats to the surface. After this battle, it was believed that the underground construction of the Bio-chemical Base would be further improved.

After some time, the number of black rats inside the base had greatly diminished. The areas the action teams had passed through were littered with gray powder, the remains of mutated black rats that had been turned to powder by the drugs after being hit by bullets.

Xilin's senses were exceptionally sharp. Even without looking, he could detect three mutated black rats behind a laboratory bench. The moment they poked their heads out, bullets shot out and directly blew their heads off.

Perhaps such a dark environment would pose a visual challenge for other operatives, but not for Xilin. Several times, before his teammates could react, Xilin had already fired, and the sound of explosions from the black rats echoed his gunshots.

After scanning the abnormal life signatures in this area, Shute chuckled, "Complete."

"Captain, are we already at the edge of the base?" a teammate asked. Although Shute was the leader of this group, the teammates were still accustomed to calling him Captain.

"Mm, almost. High-energy weapons outside the base have already started sweeping. The rest should be relatively easy," Shute said with a relaxed tone. He looked at Xilin, who was repairing the circuit board of an instrument, and added, "Xilin is doing very well."

"Yeah, we're all a bit ashamed of ourselves," a teammate joked.

Xilin remained silent, focused on his work.

He felt something was off. According to his predictions, those black rats shouldn't have been just like this.

Thanks to book friend Wu Wanyan for the reward! ^^

Received notification today that the Sci-Fi category will have a strong recommendation next week. The usual two updates per day are a must, and there will be another update in the evening. Thank you all for your support!