Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 715 - 495: Elegy of the bygone days (3)

Chapter 715: 495: Elegy of the bygone days (3)

The caravan hadn’t experienced any unexpected incidents on its journey, and Malin’s face was well-known to the Northern Alliance troops—his portrait was on all the canned food supplied to them.

Although resembling a brand like Lao Gan Ma or Thirteen Spices wasn’t Malin’s intention, he couldn’t argue with the packaging chosen by Faye, so when Malin appeared before the troops, his face was more useful than any identification the military could provide.

Soldiers from the lower ranks sang high praises for Mr. Malin’s canned goods, even though the meat content had been reduced for cost reasons (a cost-cutting measure required by the military, which made Malin feel somewhat disoriented). For them, being able to eat meat every day was already extraordinary—after all, the troops from the other two kingdoms didn’t even have this luxury, and only their officers had access to it, not even on a daily basis.

Upon hearing that Malin was going to investigate the ruins, the soldiers marked the exact location of the ruins on Malin’s map and offered plenty of help—such as finding the headquarters of division commander Aljom.

After completing a campaign with Malin that resulted in the beheading of forty thousand Black Orcs, this commander had been promoted—an advancement the military initially didn’t want to grant, as he was too close to Malin. Ultimately, it was the King of Mowish who personally refuted the army’s foolishness, promoting Aljom and assigning him command over a newly reclaimed national defense division.

Now as a commander of two divisions, Aljom, who came from humble beginnings, had attained a position he could never have dreamed of.

After conversing with him, Malin confirmed the recent situation in the area—the retreat of the Chaos forces left behind a huge battlefield. The numerous remnants of Chaos turned this region into a very dangerous war zone, and now his two divisions were clearing them out. The ruins in question were even more affected, with rogue Machine Souls, Chaos remnants, Undead from the old world, and sly and cruel Spirits of a different kind... Basically, any sort of mess could be found in the ruins.

"How on earth did Jon and his team find that thing?" After confirming the intelligence, Malin thought those guys were incredibly lucky to have penetrated such a troubled ghost town. He wondered what their scouts were fed to grow up, managing to safely enter and exit the ruins unscathed and come back whole.

After seeing the new satellite surveillance images, Jason said it was purely luck, as Malin’s team would not have been able to reach that location at any other time.

Of course, when Aljom heard of Malin’s situation, he decided to launch an offensive on the other side of the ruins. They were clearing the ruins anyway, so attacking from the east would draw the city’s rogue Machine Souls and Spirits of a different kind, and their curiosity would cause the Chaos remnants to be attacked from both front and back.

As for Malin, his team could enter from the west side, reach the place where the tablet was found, then head to the location Jason had mentioned before to find a usable energy core, and afterward proceed to the refuge—if nothing went wrong, the refuge would have to be restarted to gain entry.

The attack was scheduled for two o’clock in the afternoon; Aljom’s artillery fired an odd number of shells at the defensive line established by the Chaos remnants, then the soldiers began their operation. Jason could see the entire city ’come to life,’ with various Spirits of a different kind and rogue machines all moving towards the noisy eastern part of the city.

When the satellite passed by, Jason flew over Malin’s position and began to direct his team to skirt around the various Spirits of a different kind and rogue Machine Souls they should avoid encountering.

"This thing is almost like the animal companions of our Rangers, only much more reliable," said the Human commander of the Church of Justice’s Punisher squad, marveling at the data Jason shared in his vision. They had just bypassed a massive terrestrial otter. Malin wasn’t incapable of defeating it, but fighting a Spirit roughly the size of a bus could attract unwanted opportunists.

Considering that the most important aspect of a stealth operation is safety, avoiding these creatures was the best option.

Moving along a street and facing the ruins ahead, Malin switched to a small air hammer pistol—this small, silent air-compressing pistol used silver bullets effectively against ghosts.

Throwing a purple flare down into the underground passage of the ruins, Malin watched as a Spiritual Body disintegrated in an instant.

"The poor souls lingering here," murmured the Half-human commander of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest, drawing a Holy Emblem across his chest.

Descending the passage, Malin took a hanging wall lamp from Lulu behind him and attached it to the wall. This lamp, which burned Holy Oil, could purify the Undead, and Malin hoped the Spiritual Bodies would confront this purification.

The Punisher of the Church of Justice went ahead, lighting the way with flares and wall lamps, quickly purifying any lurking Spiritual Bodies through their foolish suicidal attacks.

Leading the way through the passage with his rifle, Malin was the first to step out into the half-collapsed waiting hall. Scanning the area, he said, "Hill, take your men and block that main door."

"Consider it done," responded the commander of the Church of Justice, leading his squad to the door.

The Half-human was tasked with going to the roof; they would help confirm everything from above.

Malin then approached the skeletal remains.

Half of the body was sticking out from a sleeping bag, presumably murdered in their sleep. The killer hadn’t realized the significance of the tablet left at the scene, indicating that the murder wasn’t committed to gain access to the refuge.

"The bones are weathered. I think it’s best not to touch them," Lulu suggested as she sifted through the sleeping bag’s pocket, pulling and crumbling a humerus in her hand.

"At least two millennia old, if not older. This area is okay, the ceiling is still intact, and the mechanical doors alongside the rails are half-closed. Still, I find it strange—why didn’t the Spirits in the ruins come to clean up this corpse, leaving it to rot here?"

Malin looked around and finally focused his attention on the skeleton and the backpack nearby.

The backpack was somewhat rotten, but given its pre-Great Destruction era craftsmanship, it was still in fairly good condition.

From it, Malin found a can, a water bottle, and a snack wrapped in paper.

The snack was definitely inedible. Malin picked up the water bottle and realized it was empty... perhaps it had evaporated?

He put it down and glanced at the writing on the can, only to find he couldn’t recognize it. He handed the can to Lulu, "Do you recognize these words?"

"Hmm... it’s very blurry, but I can make out one word, ’herring’?" The girl discerned a word.

Without another word, Malin put the can back in the bag, while expressing the utmost respect for this pioneer.

"Speaking of which, although cans from the Great Destruction Era have been around for a long time, they’re basically still edible, but they need to be treated with a Purification Spell Formation. Don’t you want to try one?" Lulu asked, thinking it was a rare experience to taste food from before the Great Destruction.

"Better not." Malin thought that life was already hard enough when courting death; it was best not to add the taste of crap into the mix.

"Anyway, we’ve found the coordinates. Next, we need to move south; the ruins are not far to the south."

But we’ll need to detour, because Jason discovered that the only entrance is in the east, we have to climb to the second floor first, then we can enter through a window.

Before leaving from the east exit, Malin poured a small cup of Holy Water on the remains, watching the black mist dissipate, then he left.

The team moving through the ruins crouched in a corner, and Jason noticed a group of zombies emerging from a nearby underground entrance, drawn by noises from the east side of the city. The zombies dashed across the open space, completely oblivious to the living humans hidden in the corner of the nearby ruins.

Once the zombies had run off, Malin led the team across the open space to the half-collapsed wall, where a member of the Church of Justice pulled out a foldable ladder from behind, extended it and secured the screws. The members of the Church of Justice climbed up first, followed by the Half-human group, then Lulu, and finally Malin—he backed up, took a running leap, grabbed the edge of the second floor, and pulled himself up.

Seeing the full array of gear on Malin’s back, the members of the Church of Justice began fitting their guns with silencers.

Malin set down his launcher and ammunition, stretched a bit, then pulled out an integrated silenced pistol from his waist, drew a dagger with his left hand, and was the first to enter through the window.

The ladder was already wrapped in soft cloth, and the soft leather pads on Malin’s shoes reduced noise significantly.

Having descended to the first floor, Malin turned on the purple light on his head, and a Half-human behind him pulled out a purple light flare, tossing it down the hallway.

All was safe; there were no screeches from any Spiritual Bodies.

The second Half-human who came down stuck a wall light to the wall, creating a secure area, and the third Half-human lowered the visor from his forehead. He scanned around, "No traces of Chaos or, at least, they’re not present here."

"Follow me," Malin said, holding the pistol level with his front, a dagger aimed forward supported by his left hand underneath his gun-holding right wrist.

Through the audio pickup earpiece he was wearing, the building was so quiet it was hair-raising.

Moving down the hallway, Malin specially checked two small rooms—no monsters, just some overturned shelves and the remnants of packaged food, which after all these years, should be no different from poison.

When they reached the other side of the hallway, Malin stood in front of a half-closed old-fashioned door, silently took out a small bottle of oil, and dripped it onto the metal parts. He then carefully moved the iron door, slowly pushing it open with the lowest possible noise.

The Half-human wearing the visor was the first to rush out to check the hall; he then made a gesture indicating nothing was found, prompting another Half-human to step forward, take a purple light flare, and throw it.

As the flare illuminated the hall, Malin also saw the zombies rising.

They couldn’t see the purple light or hear the muffled footsteps of the Half-human’s padded boots, but they had heard the sounds of the flare’s workings.