"No problem!" The commander snapped his legs together and saluted, then immediately passed down the arrangements.
In less than three minutes, the rescue helicopter on the aft deck was on standby. Once the mission briefing was over, the pilot quickly climbed aboard.
Standing nearby, Zhang Tianyuan had a bad feeling. Remembering that one of the helicopters aboard had been modified to carry weapons, he suddenly reached out to stop them. "Send an armed helicopter instead. I'll go along too!"
The officers and crew aboard were briefly puzzled, but they still chose to carry out the order and began preparing the armed helicopter for takeoff.
The commander soon received word as well and hurried over to persuade him otherwise. "President Zhang, this is only an aerial reconnaissance mission. There's no need for you to go along."
Zhang Tianyuan was also preparing to board. He shook his head. "Wind direction changes abruptly over Antarctica, so there's a considerable chance of a helicopter accident. If I go along and the helicopter goes out of control, I can immediately take the crew back to the parallel spacetime, then come back."
"That will make things much safer for the pilots, and the mission will be more efficient too."
Hearing this reasoning, the commander could no longer argue. He could hardly disregard the crew's safety.
The commander could only change tack, urging Zhang Tianyuan to take everyone out of the helicopter immediately if he noticed anything wrong.
"Don't worry." Before boarding the helicopter, beneath the blades that had already begun to spin, Zhang Tianyuan said one last time, "The moment anything unusual happens, I'll take everyone back to the parallel spacetime, then return to the ship. Wait for our good news."
Things were no longer as they had been.
After these past few months, Zhang Tianyuan had built up a modest fortune.
His fifty thousand-plus residents could provide enough energy each month to keep the Spacetime Tunnel open for fifteen seconds.
Four months had now passed. Even after subtracting his recent expenditure, his remaining base energy was enough to keep the Spacetime Tunnel open for nearly a minute.
On top of that, both "2012" and Legend World had been continually taking in new members during this time, and the resident count had been slowly rising.
Especially after this operation, people both within and outside the plan had joined one after another, sending the resident count soaring to over ninety thousand in one go.
For the foreseeable future, his base energy would only continue to increase.
Zhang Tianyuan
naturally no longer needed to count every penny when opening the Spacetime Tunnel.
The helicopter slowly lifted off and flew south under the eyes of everyone aboard the ship.
Even aboard the helicopter, Zhang Tianyuan continued calling No. 1 Research Station, but he never received a reply.
At the helicopter's speed, the outline of the Antarctica Peninsula soon became clearly visible to everyone.
April was winter in Antarctica. After the Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox in March, polar night would begin to appear in Antarctica. As time passed, its reach would gradually expand until it extended to the vicinity of the Antarctic Circle at the June summer solstice.
No. 1 Station lay north of the Antarctic Circle, where polar night had yet to arrive. Light could still be seen between heaven and earth.
As they approached the Antarctica Peninsula, Zhang Tianyuan and the others also recorded the locations of floating ice at sea along the way, using the radio to guide the fleet behind them safely through the ice.
Soon, the helicopter officially entered the land area of the Antarctica Peninsula. Below lay an expanse of dazzling white snow.
Yet in this very landscape, the machine gunner beside him, who was in charge of operating the weapons, pointed in a direction outside the window and shouted, "Three o'clock! Is that a person lying on the ground?"
Zhang Tianyuan roused himself and immediately looked over.
"That's right, it's a person!"
The other crew members reached the answer before Zhang Tianyuan did.
A person dressed in red lay on the ground, their black hair particularly conspicuous.
Zhang Tianyuan's heart was heavy. "Can we land? Let's land and take a look first."
The pilot nodded and brought the helicopter down nearby.
The helicopter's crew disembarked with their weapons. Only after spreading out in formation and checking the area did they lead Zhang Tianyuan toward the corpse on the ground.
Yes, this had to be a corpse.
From the helicopter's approach to its landing, the person had not moved once despite all that commotion. Clearly, they could not still be alive.
Only when he drew closer did Zhang Tianyuan realize that the situation was worse than he had imagined.
This person was not wearing red clothes. He was wearing a white sweater that had merely been stained red with blood.
Besides, wearing nothing but a white sweater in Antarctica...
Either he had been stripped or he had been driven out.
Coupled with the injuries on this person's body, the greater likelihood was that his clothes had been stripped
off.
The crew soon completed a basic examination, and one of them came to report to Zhang Tianyuan:
"This person hasn't been dead long. We found a bilingual Korean-English nameplate on him. He probably isn't one of our countrymen."
"Also, the injuries on his body were all caused by sharp weapons and blunt-force blows. The enemy probably lacks firearms, or only has a small number of them."
"It looks like even Antarctica isn't peaceful anymore!" Zhang Tianyuan's bad premonition had come true.
On this savage, freezing continent, desperate humans might already have turned into beasts!
Zhang Tianyuan exhaled a warm breath and ordered everyone, "Return to the helicopter immediately. We'll continue to No. 1 Station. Prepare for combat!"
King George Island, Antarctica.
Below a snow-and-ice-covered hillside lay a bay, with No. 1 Station situated between the bay and the slope.
It had originally been a good location. The hillside could help block the wind, while the meltwater flowing down it and the bay outside the station made obtaining fresh water and transport by sea very convenient for No. 1 Station (image included).
Now, however, this location had become particularly awkward.
Because when they first established the station, no one had imagined that one day they would be caught up in a "war" in Antarctica.
The hillside behind them had become high ground occupied by the enemy.
The bay before them was a natural moat barring their way.
They had nowhere to hide and nowhere to flee.
Station chief Liu Chunshi's face was red from the cold. Utterly exhausted, he leaned against an ice wall, gulping down the freezing air.
Around him were many other men and women, gripping stones and hurling them with all their strength at the enemies who showed their heads on the hillside outside the station.
Behind them, stretching all the way up the hillside, stood bunkers and ice walls built by pouring ice water. Every strategic point had people specifically assigned to guard it, preventing the enemies above from charging down.
Between the hillside and the camp, where the two sides had met in close combat, several white people's corpses could still be seen lying face down or on their backs, vivid red flowing from their bodies.
"Fuck, those bastards from the South American Gang have gone mad. They've been here since last night and still won't leave..."
"I heard they brought too many people to Antarctica and have already run out of supplies. Naturally, they've started looting."
"If it weren't for the virus, how would they ever get a chance to throw their weight around?"