AZI Volume 3 Chapter 31

Getting out of the rundown truck—

"So this is it?"

Ye Chen draws in a deep breath of air.

About 100 miles away from the walls of GC012—is an area surrounded by damaged old buildings. In the center of these grounds is a colossal crater.

Within this 120-meter-deep crater, a three-floored stone temple stands.

The hollowed areas of this temple's structure are filled in by glass panels, and surrounding the structure is a hemisphere-shaped dome of energy—that looks to be a barrier of some kind.

"I heard when they found hints of this being here, the military ended up using a large number of explosives to open up the ground."

"Forceful as usual."

Over 500 individuals are gathered near the crater, with most of them being Sinners—while the rest are men dressed in military attire, who had come to oversee this operation.

Behind the crowd of Sinners are numerous transport vehicles parked in a messy manner, along with supply crates.

(I'm actually getting value out of these sunglasses…)

Getting out of the truck as well, Long Hua puts on the round-framed sunglasses. At this time, Tian Cheng is stored away in his storage pouch.

Since his destination is a desert, Long Hua is currently dressed in a white dress shirt with a pair of black hiking pants.

The hems of the pants are tucked into his new boots, and carried over his shoulders is a black backpack with many pockets.

Hanging by his hip is a calabash gourd that is tied to his belt via a quick release buckle.

"…"

Subtly spreading his divine senses outwards, Long Hua looks pass the sea of bodies.

As there are no stairs that lead directly down to the temple, numerous ropes are stapled into the ground, and left to dangle into the crater's base.

"…"

Upon his divine senses coming into contact with the barrier that protects the temple, Long Hua constricts his eyes.

Due to the presence of this barrier—that seems to have a state preservation effect, the temple looks as good as new; for there was not a single scratch on the glass panels—that are fitted throughout its body.

"Attention!"

Simultaneously, all heads turn towards the front, where a man—dressed in a military uniform, stands, holding a microphone in his right hand.

"To those gathered here, your task-"

Ignoring the military man, who is making a speech—that will no doubt put a few individuals to sleep, Long Hua continues to observe the temple via his divine senses.

If one must summarize the nature of the speech that is given, then it mainly serves to give the Sinners—a sense of being sent off on a noble mission; akin to the sort of speech used when sending a hero off to defeat the demon king—reminiscent of a classical RPG story.

The only thing that made this speech stray from the classical RPG story archetype, however, is how, a hefty reward—in materialistic wealth, is promised outright; and in response to this, the crowd is immediately riled up with a bit of excitement—not knowing what it is that is waiting for them inside the stone temple.

"Now then, a word from those of the Ashen River Hall."

"…"

Upon the conclusion of his speech, the military man passes the microphone over to Shao Tianming, who sweeps a bored look over the crowd, before saying—

"Most of you will probably die, but that's just life, so don't feel too bad about it. Right, that's all I've got to say. We'll be waiting for you all on the other side."

Having said this, Shao Tianming tosses the microphone back before turning towards the crater. Behind him, nine more individuals come forth, and among them, are Li Zi Xiang and Chen Lan.

Different from when they first met, Chen Lan is currently dressed in a light brown jacket with a pair of black jeans, and short boots.

Taking hold of a rope each, the members of the Ashen River Hall begin to descend.

"…Come up when your office is called."

Judging by the frown that is on the military man's face, he clearly isn't too pleased with Shao Tianming's words.

However, since the other group is the one that has more experience, it wouldn't do to start an argument here.

Eventually—

"DB-06-07 and DB-04-03!"

"Right, that's us."

Moving together to the front, along with another office, Long Hua glances over to the other side, and sees—

(Ah, it's the rotten-eyed chick from the casket incident…)

Dressed in a loose white jacket over a black shirt, along with a pair of black trousers, and tall boots, is none other than Shen Le—who Long Hua had fought against during the casket incident.

"Oh? Colonel Ye."

"It's been some time, Téng Hào."

The one to have called Ye Chen out is named Teng Hao, a man with brown hair and blue eyes.

The attire Teng Hao is wearing is a black jacket over a sleeveless shirt with jeans and brown boots.

"Captain, you were a colonel?"

Hearing Ye Chen's military rank for the first time, Yu Ji is slightly surprised.

Continuing to move, while shrugging his shoulders, Ye Chen answers—

"Staying on the frontline for 5 years grants you a high chance of being promoted to colonel, or major—depending on your performance. Li Xue is a major, by the way."

"Vice-captain, he's indirectly saying you didn't perform as well, are you just going to take that?"

Towards Qing Yue's remark, Li Xue replies—

"Heh, he best watch his rear later."

"…"

All of a sudden, Ye Chen feels a bit of coldness around the rear.

"Same as usual, is it?"

"Yup…"

Answering Teng Hao as such, Ye Chen heaves a sigh.