The Beginning: Inside the Base

"No problem, thank you for your hard work, sir!" In front of the towering Scarlet Base, a Far East Soldiers wearing a gas mask respectfully handed the notebook back to the driver, saluted, and waved to the Soldiers behind him to open the base gate.

With a creaking sound, accompanied by a teeth-grinding metallic twisting noise, the Refined Steel gate, over ten meters high and more than half a meter thick, slowly opened. Before the convoy set off, everyone, including Ivanor, took out a pack of gas masks from under their seats and put them on. The Allied Army prisoners were also roughly fitted with gas masks by the Far East Soldiers.

"The Scarlet Base is, after all, the source of the Scarlet Mist. There's a possibility of Scarlet Mist leak, so there's a risk within a five-kilometer radius of the base. You still need to wear gas masks outdoors." Ivanor had explained this to everyone before infiltrating the base, so Yago and the others weren't too surprised.

Upon entering the Scarlet Base, an indescribable sense of oppression instantly enveloped everyone's hearts. The Scarlet Base was built inside a valley, relying on the valley walls as its foundation. To create more space, the Scarlet Base had almost hollowed out the valley walls, so most of the base was hidden inside the valley.

However, even the exposed parts alone are enough to send chills down one's spine. All the buildings are tall, cold steel blocks, with countless pipes of varying thicknesses connected together, forming a dense web like that of a killer spider that almost covers the entire building. Inside some of the transparent pipes, one can clearly see various eerie colors and even fluorescent liquids flowing inside.

Especially the scarlet liquid—I don't know if it's just my imagination, Aili feel like I see a tube that has broken, and the scarlet liquid is leaking out of the hole and evaporating into the air.

Unlike outside the base, there were hardly any living people inside. Occasionally, you could see a few sentry posts, and the Middle East Soldiers on them were all wrapped up like dumplings.

It wasn't until the convoy approached the main valley of the Scarlet Base that the number of people increased, and many large trucks bearing Far East flags could be seen, their cargo piled high with gas cylinders. Judging from the uniforms worn by the Far East people, this was the source of the Scarlet Mist used by the Far East frontline forces.

With a screeching sound, the Yago exchanged glances, immediately stood up, grabbed the Far East people weapons and equipment, nimbly climbed out of the carriage, and blended into the ranks of the Far East Soldiers in the convoy.

Ivanor slowly stepped down from the front military vehicle. At that moment, a group of Far East Soldiers wearing gas masks walked up to them, led by an Officer. Because of the distance, Yago and the others couldn't hear what the Officer and Ivanor were saying in their gibberish. The Officer suddenly turned his head and glanced in their direction.

This glance immediately made the group tense. A small Dagger slipped silently from A-Yi's sleeve, and Pieck subconsciously raised his wrist. Fortunately, everything went smoothly. After saluting, the Officer waved for his men to begin escorting the Allied Army prisoners from the truck.

After both truckloads of prisoners had been taken away, Ivanor gave a signal, and Yago and the others immediately understood. They mingled among the Far East Army ranks, carrying Rifle, and followed Ivanor into the true main body of the Scarlet Base inside the valley wall.

Entering the base, how can I describe it? Perhaps only the word "shocking" can do the trick.

Leaving aside A-Yi and A-Wu, even Pieck, who prided himself on his knowledge, was speechless with shock. What came into view was a vast space nearly fifty meters high, with countless steel pillars supporting the base. Steel Buildings, even more magnificent than those outside, were everywhere. On countless buildings, along steel roads, and even on the fifty-meter-high overhead rock walls, countless incandescent lights were embedded, their blinding, cold white light illuminating the entire base as bright as day.

If you didn't know beforehand that this was a base, you could easily mistake it for a small city.

But now is not the time to be shocked, because the true interior of the Scarlet Base is also the most dangerous place, where many fully armed Far East Soldiers patrol, and some sentry posts, which are more than ten meters high, even have several menacing Cannon mounted on them.

Every now and then, I could hear the creaking of tracks turning. Holy crap, there are Tank and armored vehicles inside this base?!

To avoid revealing their identities, the group followed Ivanor closely until they reached a Far East Soldiers' encampment. After Ivanor settled the other Far East Soldiers, she nodded and told Yago and the others to follow her. The other Far East Soldiers didn't find it strange, assuming that this lady was probably just bringing a few personal guards for them.

Ivanor's identity was enough to intimidate the Far East Officer they encountered; none of them questioned him, and most simply saluted him.

Just when everything was going smoothly, a voice rang out from behind everyone.

"Ivanor! Wait a minute!"

Everyone immediately stopped in their tracks. Ivanor frowned, turned around, and sure enough, met Bazel's squinty eyes. As his nominal partner, Iva naturally knew that Bazel's eyes were actually quite large and bright, but he always squinted, putting on this smiling, deadpan look.

With his hands in his pockets, Ivanor asked impatiently, "What do you want from me?"

Bazel walked forward easily, first sizing up the group of people following Ivanor. However, Yago and the others were all wearing full-coverage gas masks with only two round black lenses.

Bazel glanced at Yago and the others, then looked at Ivanor. "Nothing, I just wanted to ask what you've been up to these past few days. I haven't seen you anywhere. People who didn't know better would have thought you went on vacation somewhere."

"Tsk, what business is it of yours where I go? Bazel, do you live at sea? You're quite the busybody. What, do I need to report to you before I go out? Are you bored? Should I talk to the Doctor and find you something to do?" Ivanor retorted rudely.

Seeing Ivanor's anger, Bazel immediately raised his hands in surrender. "Spare me, grandma! We're partners! I was just asking you a couple of questions out of concern. Why are you reacting like you ate chili peppers? Okay, okay, I'll forgive myself for being nosy."

Ivanor rolled her eyes and scoffed, "Come on, get out of the way!"

Bazel immediately stepped aside, Ivanor snorted and was about to continue walking with Yago and the others, but Bazel suddenly reached out and grabbed one of them.

"Hey! Wait, Ivanor, where did you bring these Soldiers from? They seem familiar... and there are female soldiers too? Wait, what's this? Silver hair?" Bazel frowned, his previously squinted eyes opening to reveal a pair of beautiful purple eyes.

At this moment, Aili, who was being held back, was almost paralyzed with fear.