On the long corridor.
Three figures walked forward with slightly hurried steps.
Zhao Yuan walked slightly ahead, with Chen Zhuo and Xiao Yu following beside her.
They immediately headed back after separating from their captain!
Finally, after more than a day of travel, they returned to Shuofang City safely.
They were alarmed because this was their first time operating in the Erosion Zone without the assistance of reconnaissance personnel.
The reason for the lack of danger is that there are three Fourth Tier, two of which are in the Late Fourth Tier. With this configuration, even without scouts, as long as one is not extremely unlucky and does not encounter Fifth Tier Calamity Beast, or even less likely Sixth Tier Calamity Beast, the overall situation is still very safe.
but...
"Damn it, I'm finally back!"
Xiao Yu clicked his tongue and wiped away non-existent cold sweat from his forehead.
"I knew it wouldn't be easy to operate without reconnaissance personnel, but I didn't expect it to be this difficult! I've been on tenterhooks the whole way, and I haven't dared to fly too fast!"
"Otherwise, why do you think the hunting team has developed into what it is now?" Chen Zhuo glanced at him from the side.
"I know, but I didn't expect it to have such a big impact. Hey, do you think there might be any issues with us reporting this information back...?"
The two followed along, chatting the whole time.
Zhao Yuan did not participate and continued walking briskly forward.
Soon, their destination appeared ahead: an office with its door open.
Zhao Yuan walked quickly to the door and raised her hand.
"Shen..."
The sound suddenly stopped, Zhao Yuan looked at the figure inside with some surprise.
Girl, ponytail, ash blonde hair...
As a member of Captain Shen, she naturally recognized the other person; however, why was that person here?
Zhao Yuan instinctively wanted to ask, but quickly realized that the other person's presence meant that Captain Shen was probably not in the city, which meant...
" Captain Han, during our recent hunting trip, we discovered some unusual movements from the Calamity Beast," Zhao Yuan quickly corrected herself.
Upon hearing this, the figure sitting behind the desk instantly became serious.
She gestured for them to sit down, then asked with a serious expression:
Do you have any specific information? Or do you only know that the Calamity Beast are making unusual movements?
"We do have some information, but we can't confirm its accuracy yet!" Zhao Yuan replied.
"What specific intelligence is it?" Han Ling asked.
"We extracted information from a Fifth Tier Calamity Beast Calamity Beast: it was attempting to cut off the supply lines to the two cities outside our city..."
Zhao Yuan began to recount her story.
To avoid causing Han Ling to make a misjudgment due to his own subjective influence.
She also recounted the general process, from initially not noticing anything, to realizing the anomaly only after being reminded by their captain Xu Yu, to attempting to capture the Calamity Beast for interrogation, and then...
Han Ling followed Shen Heng's example and sat in her seat, listening quietly.
After a while, the narration finally stopped.
Han Ling was silent for a moment before speaking:
"So, the information you gathered from the Calamity Beast indicates they're trying to cut off our supply lines from the rear?"
"Yes."
"And what about the authenticity you're unsure about, which is this?"
"Yes."
" Xu Yu doubted the authenticity of this objective, so he went to investigate further?"
"Yes."
After asking the three questions in a row, Han Ling thought for a moment and nodded.
"Please wait a moment, I'll contact Elder Zhou. I might need to report to him in person again later."
Zhao Yuan nodded, offering no objection.
Han Ling then raised her hand and placed it next to her ear.
" Zero Speech, take over from Elder Zhou."
"Connecting..."
A response came from my personal terminal.
Han Ling placed her hand beside her ear, waiting.
A few seconds later, the call connected.
"What's wrong, Han Ling?" Zhou Zhenguo's voice came through the terminal.
Having worked together in the same city for a year, with Shen Heng in the middle, the two could be said to have become very familiar with each other.
Han Ling didn't stand on ceremony and quickly recounted the situation reported by Zhao Yuan and the others, without adding any unnecessary words.
There was a two-second silence on the other end.
"The operations room, come here now."
"OK."
The communication was disconnected.
Han Ling stood up and looked at Zhao Yuan and the other two.
"Let's go to the operations room."
The group got up and walked along the corridor toward the operations room.
After walking for a while, Xiao Yu suddenly spoke, his tone tinged with doubt.
"By the way, Captain Han."
Han Ling turned her head to look at him.
"Why do I feel like... when you heard about the situation with the Calamity Beast, you didn't seem very surprised?" Xiao Yu asked, somewhat puzzled.
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yuan and Chen Zhuo also looked at Han Ling.
I didn't realize it at first, but now that I think about it carefully, the other person didn't seem surprised when they heard the news; all they seemed to do was... be serious!
Han Ling continued walking without slowing her pace:
"If the Calamity Beast are behaving strangely, we already know that; we just don't yet know Calamity Beast specific purpose. That's why when you came in, the first thing I asked you was if you knew the details."
Upon hearing this, the three of them stopped in their tracks simultaneously.
Han Ling noticed the movement behind her, stopped, and looked at the three of them.
"What's wrong?"
"This..." Xiao Yu opened his mouth, his eyes widening slightly, and said, "Have other teams also discovered similar information?"
Han Ling looked at the three of them with some confusion, "No, that's not the case."
"How did the city find out?" Xiao Yu's eyes widened even more.
Zhao Yuan and Chen Zhuo also looked at Han Ling.
Han Ling blinked, somewhat puzzled by their strong reaction, but still replied:
"Because there were significantly more teams returning earlier than usual."
"The team that returned early?" Zhao Yuan asked in confusion.
"Hmm." Han Ling nodded slightly. "Teams that usually venture deep into the Erosion Zone for hunting only return early if a teammate is injured or killed."
"Although the number of these teams that return early varies each time, the fluctuations are usually not significant."
She paused for a moment, then continued:
"But this time, quite a few teams have returned early. Including you, nearly twenty teams have come back early, almost half the number of teams that applied to go hunting this time."
"So, we then questioned every team that returned early and came to the same conclusion: they generally encountered significantly more Calamity Beast outside than before."
"Is that so?"
Zhao Yuan gave a wry smile.
Chen Zhuo raised an eyebrow slightly, his expression seemingly revealing his approval of discovering the anomaly through this method.