Light is the Prelude to Victory

Chapter 26: Light is the Prelude to Victory

"AHHHHHHH!!!"

Seeing that face again, Fang Ye was scared out of his wits and screamed for help: "Help! Save me!!!"

A monster wearing a human face lurked in the darkness, but the people standing above the pit, limited by their field of vision, could only see Fang Ye shouting and Cao Hongyi firing continuously.

Just as everyone hesitated whether to go down and rescue him, Feng Ling grabbed a flashlight and jumped down—

The flashlight beam swept over a massive creature. Feng Ling's heart raced, and she felt a long-lost thrill of excitement!

Without waiting to get a clear look at the target, her two Bone Blades slashed out the moment she landed!

Piercing the human face, stabbing into the carapace, cutting through muscle—these solid sensations sent a tingle through her heart. It felt amazing!

Like a lion that had tasted blood, she wanted to press the attack after that hit, but the monster quickly crawled out of the light's range and vanished from her sight.

Feng Ling swept the flashlight around. Aside from a few pitch-black cave mouths, she saw nothing.

Fled into another hole again?

She frowned and examined the bloodstains on the ground. Unlike the bugs from before, this monster's blood was bright red.

A heavy thud came from behind her. She turned to see Zhou Diao jumping down.

Then Xiao Li and Qin Liang slid down on ropes, followed last by Huangfu Miaomiao, who cautiously trailed behind the Special Forces members.

"Why did you all come down too?" Feng Ling walked over and asked.

Qin Liang wiped the sweat from his face and held up the black square case in his arms. "We checked with the detector just now. We can circle around from below and get out."

Xiao Li added, "Besides, most of our lighting gear is in Old Cao's bag. Even if we stayed up there, we'd need sufficient light to move."

Zhou Diao frowned and asked Cao Hongyi, "How are you? Can you still walk?"

Cao Hongyi sat on the ground, holding his calf, and shook his head. "Can't move. It's probably broken."

Zhou Diao's frown deepened. There was no signal in the cave; he couldn't call for backup, and there was still a long way to go before they could get out. What now?

"You all go ahead. Don't worry about me." Cao Hongyi didn't want to be a burden to the team. "I can find a small hole to hide in. Those bugs might not find me."

"Hide?" Zhou Diao snapped angrily. "You think hiding will make it okay? If we can't eliminate this Contaminant, the worst-case scenario is calling in heavy weapons for a blanket bombardment! Staying here means getting buried alive!"

Cao Hongyi's lips moved, but he lowered his head and said nothing.

Every Special Forces member valued the mission more than their own lives. Being a drag on the team now hurt him more than anyone.

Zhou Diao probably understood his teammate's feelings too. After shouting a few times, he fell into a huff and stopped talking.

Xiao Li silently set down her bag, pulled out the emergency medical kit, and began treating Cao Hongyi's leg.

Qin Liang also put down the detector and started sorting out the remaining lighting tools. "...Four flare sticks left, two headlamps, two small flashlights."

Zhou Diao said irritably, "That's all we have left?"

Qin Liang explained in a low voice, "There are some more flare sticks in my backpack... but I dropped them back in that big cave."

Zhou Diao grew even more annoyed and swiped his beast claw through the air in frustration.

Since entering the cave, everything had gone wrong. How was he supposed to carry out this mission now?!

Frustrated, he found fault with everything. He noticed Qin Liang's back was still bleeding and snapped, "Don't you know your back is bleeding?! Are you waiting to bleed dry so I have to carry you out?!"

Qin Liang was taken aback.

He'd been bitten by a bug earlier while trying to protect the expensive detector. The pain had been excruciating at the time, but later, focused on retreating, he'd forgotten about the wound on his back. Now he didn't even feel it anymore.

Xiao Li tossed over a small spray bottle and said in a low voice, "Not feeling pain is more troublesome than feeling it. It might be a paralytic toxin. We don't have an antidote now, so just spray on some disinfectant for now."

Qin Liang's face tightened. He said nothing, took off his shirt, and awkwardly sprayed disinfectant on his own back.

The Contaminant was hiding in the cave and wouldn't come out. The team had lost supplies, and two members were injured. Morale was at rock bottom.

Even Feng Ling couldn't help feeling a bit down—

The terrain here was too favorable for the Contaminant, and with the poor lighting, she doubted she could take it down even if it showed up again.

What now?

Xiao Li said, "Vice Captain, I think light is the key to this mission. When using flashlights and headlamps, the light is too strong, creating shadows and blind spots. Moving also causes glare effects, which is very bad for combat. And we're critically short on flare sticks. If we enter a large cave, we'll need to light at least two at once. That means we only have two chances to fight."

She took a deep breath and looked Zhou Diao solemnly in the eyes. "We only have two chances. After that, we have to find the exit, or we'll be in a tough fight!"

Zhou Diao was agitated. "I know all that too, but that thing runs away too fast every time! And even if I can catch up to it, I can't see it. Unless I can lure it into the light, I'm sure I can kill it!"

Feng Ling listened to their conversation and fell into thought.

The Contaminant had appeared twice. The first time, it killed Super Strong Super. The second time, it tried to attack Fang Ye but she stopped it. From this, it seemed the Contaminant wasn't completely mindless like Huangfu Miaomiao had said. In fact, it had some intelligence and was good at creating opportunities.

"There's one thing. Don't you think it's strange?" Feng Ling said slowly, thinking it over. "Every time the Contaminant appears, it's alone... I mean, why doesn't it attack us at the same time as those bugs?"

Zhou Diao frowned and thought for a moment. "That is odd. When the Contaminant showed up, the swarm had already retreated. When the swarm came again, the Contaminant was gone. Attacking us in the chaos would give it a much better chance of winning. Why does it insist on attacking alone?"

Feng Ling thought of another detail. "If I remember correctly, the first time the swarm appeared, almost all of them went straight for the lights and flashlights. At first, I thought it was just insects being attracted to light. But now that I think about it, maybe those bugs did it on purpose—destroying our lighting to put us at a disadvantage. It was because the environment was so dark that we went into the wrong cave mouth, giving the Contaminant an opening."

"Have these bugs become demons?" Qin Liang said in shock.

Feng Ling said, "They're not ordinary bugs to begin with. They're products of gene fusion. It's not surprising they have intelligence. Besides, the mission prompt Little Skeleton received said, 'Silence is the Overture to Death, Light is the Prelude to Victory.' 'Light' is easy to understand. In this sunless environment, without light, we really can't win. So what does 'Silence' refer to?"

Feng Ling paused. She could feel all the scattered thoughts gradually converging toward an unmistakably clear answer.

Everyone was looking at her.

Zhou Diao couldn't help pressing further: "What does 'Silence' refer to?"