Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 286 Rain Curtain
"Could something have happened?" said another person as he removed the devices hanging on his power armor one by one and began to replace the batteries.

"Bah, don't talk nonsense, it's unlucky!" The colleague spat immediately, "I'll go out and take a look, remember to reinforce the tent later... Damn, if the rain doesn't stop, I feel like this place will soon become a swamp."

"It's a swamp now." The man who changed the battery lifted his foot, and black mud slid down his calves piece by piece and fell onto the waterproof cloth in the tent.

"After Lao Li and the others come back, we'll have to apply to our superiors and move the observation post back a few miles... I estimate that this area will be flooded in less than half a day." A mechanical arm with yellow and black warning paint lifted the tent, and the more than three-meter-high power armor once again drilled into the rain curtain.

As he stepped down, he heard a "puff" sound, and the boots of the power armor were immediately sunk deep into the soft mud. The mud and dirty water rushing in from all sides instantly submerged the instep of his feet.

Fortunately, the mechanical joints of this power armor have been specially waterproofed, and a sealing film made of polymer material is covered on the outside. Not to mention trekking in the swamp on a rainy day, there will be no problem even if it moves underwater.

The man glanced at the screen projected on the inside of the mask and saw that the remaining oxygen content was still 67%, which was enough to walk two round trips in the mission area.

He reached out and touched the spare oxygen cylinder hanging on his lower back, and continued to walk forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

It was raining heavily and the wind was strong. Apart from the harsh electrical noise in the communication channel, the only sound that could be heard was a continuous rustling sound. He reached out and turned on the searchlights on the top and shoulders of his helmet. However, the light from the searchlights was swallowed up by the darkness less than fifty meters away, and only a vague outline could be seen of things farther away.

"Xiao Wang, how's the situation over there? Have the video files been extracted?" he asked in the communication channel.

"It's a bit bad. Most of the video files have been damaged. I'll send them back first. As for the extent to which they can be repaired, it depends on luck." Xiao Wang, the field operator who complained about the stinging on his skin earlier, replied, "To be honest, it doesn't make much sense to repair it or not. It's all black anyway. Nothing valuable was captured."

"I'll go in the direction where Lao Li and the others set out. You quickly reinforce the tent." He turned back and looked at the tent. "The wind is too strong. I feel like the tent is going to be blown away."

"What the hell is the point of reinforcing it? Let's quickly grab our stuff and retreat to Observation Post No. 1." Xiao Wang complained, "It's impossible to stay in this place... Shit, the lens of my camera hit the ground!"

"That's fine, but we have to wait for Lao Li and the others to come back first." The man who walked out of the tent switched the communication mode to the public channel. "This is Liu Yu, observation post zero, number 0261, calling Li Yimin and Peng Wei, please reply if you hear me. I repeat, Liu Yu calling Li Yimin and Peng Wei, please reply if you hear me."

There was only the rustling sound of electricity in the communication channel, and no response.

"Brother Liu, I think you should wait here." Xiao Wang's voice rang out in the communication channel. "The visibility outside is less than 30 meters now, and it's raining so hard. I'm afraid you'll go looking for them alone, and they'll come back later, but you'll be lost. That'll be troublesome."

Liu Yu, who had just moved forward with difficulty for more than ten meters, stopped. He thought about it carefully and found that what Xiao Wang said made sense... It was only five minutes beyond the scheduled return time. The other group of people might not have encountered any accidents, but were just slowed down by the bad weather.

"That's right..." Liu Yu whispered. He raised his head and looked at the huge monster standing in the rain in the distance, emitting fluorescent light... For some reason, an inexplicable feeling of irritation gradually grew in his heart.

"Brother Liu, the higher-ups have approved us to dismantle Observation Post No. 0." Xiao Wang's voice sounded again, "They asked us to take all equipment and personnel and evacuate to Observation Post No. 1 immediately. In addition, new reinforcements are on the way."

"Well, pack your things and remember not to leave anything behind." Liu Yu nodded, "We'll just wait for Lao Li and the others."

"It's already been packed." Xiao Wang said, "It's just a few things, just stuff them into the box and put them on the shelf behind... As for the tent, let's not use it, right? It's not worth much anyway."

"You don't have to pay for it, so of course you don't feel bad." Liu Yu turned his head and glanced at the junior who came out of the tent. "Thinking back to the days when the department was short of funds..."

"Come on, come on, stop trying to give me that. It's already this critical moment, and you're still reminiscing about the good old days? Our current situation is already tough enough." Xiao Wang couldn't help but complain.

Liu Yu turned his head back and didn't continue speaking.

"Hey, I'm wondering, has their own field department in Tianfu City been wiped out or what? Such an important job was pushed onto us. As soon as the plane landed, I wasn't even able to tell the directions, and I was thrown to the front line... What bad luck!" Xiao Wang, carrying a tall pile of boxes on his back, staggered to Liu Yu's side, but he never stopped complaining.

"I heard that Tianfu City's own field service department did suffer heavy casualties." Liu Yu said in a deep voice, "Now they are all newly recruited rookies. It is indeed inappropriate to let those rookies do this kind of work."

"No way? Tianfu City is the capital of Shuzhou after all. The local research institute's field department has at least a hundred people. How can't they even get four veterans together?" Xiao Wang exclaimed.

"Look, it's all thanks to this thing." Liu Yu moved his gaze to the glowing giant.

……

As time passed, the two of them gradually became anxious.

"Brother Liu... ten minutes have passed." Xiao Wang glanced at the time on the projection screen, "Should we... continue waiting?"

"Wait." Liu Yu said firmly, "I have known Lao Li for more than ten years. With his caution and ability, it is impossible for anything to happen."

"Even an old horse can stumble sometimes..."

"Can you shut your fucking mouth?" Liu Yu turned around and glared at Xiao Wang. "When Lao Li comes back, if he knows you cursed him like that, he'll beat you so hard that you can't get out of bed for three days."

"But the people behind us are already urging us..." Xiao Wang said with difficulty, "We have delayed for too long. If we delay any longer, we won't have to go to Observation Post No. 1. We can retreat directly to Observation Post No. 2 and No. 3."

"Then let's retreat to rooms 2 and 3 later!" Liu Yu said impatiently.

"But, we have been notified to evacuate immediately..."

"I'm wearing headphones too, so I can hear the notifications from above." Liu Yu suddenly felt furious. "If you want to retreat, you should do it first. I'm going to stay and wait for them!"

Just as he finished speaking, two bumpy lights gradually emerged from the rain curtain in the distance and slowly approached this direction.

"Finally we're here!" Liu Yu patted Xiao Wang's helmet gently, "I said nothing would happen to Lao Li and the others!" "Okay, okay, can we retreat now?" Xiao Wang responded helplessly.

"What's the hurry? We've already waited for ten minutes, so what's the difference between these few seconds?" Liu Yu said, "They seem to be having a hard time walking. I'll go over and take a look. Maybe someone is injured."

"Do you need a medical kit?" Xiao Wang subconsciously touched the shelf behind him.

"This place is not useful. Even if someone is injured, they have to be sent to the rear for treatment." After Liu Yu finished speaking, he manipulated the power armor to move his legs, pushed away the mud slowly flowing in front of him, and walked forward with big strides.

The rain is getting heavier.

The accumulated silt on the ground was enough to swallow up the knee joints of the power armor - this was the effect of the power armor being much taller than the human. If the power armor was taken off and stepped directly into the swamp, the silt would probably reach the thighs.

This place was originally a rice field. The early rice planted in early April had not yet been harvested when the eternal night descended on Shuzhou. In the dark mud, you could even occasionally see brown and yellow rice ears mixed in.

"Old Li? Peng Wei?" Liu Yu shouted in the communication channel as he walked forward.

However, apart from Xiao Wang's voice and the sound of electric current, the other two people who were less than a hundred meters away made no sound at all.

"Could it be that the communication equipment is broken?" Liu Yu thought, "That's right... If the communication equipment wasn't broken, they would have sent me a message a long time ago... I don't know if they have made any valuable discoveries in the other direction..."

The other two orange-yellow power armors were trudging through the rain. Unlike Liu Yu and Xiao Wang, whose bodies were only covered in mud below the waist, these two power armors were covered in mud all over their bodies, as if they had fallen several times in the mud.

"What's going on? Why are you in such a mess?" Liu Yu gently adjusted the angle of the searchlight and shone the light directly at the two people who were walking over.

Although the surface of the power armor was covered with mud, the name and number painted with white paint on the front chest were still recognizable. The two people walking towards Liu Yu were Li Yimin and Peng Wei, field operators from another group.

"No one of you two is hurt, right?" The other party's communication equipment was damaged, so Liu Yu could only shout loudly and wave his arms vigorously at the same time - but the sound of the rain was so loud that his shouts could not even be heard one meter away, and were wrapped by raindrops and slammed into the mud on the ground.

"It's useless, Brother Liu. They can't hear you." Xiao Wang gave advice from the side. "If you want to talk to them, you have to put the mask against the mask and use solid matter to conduct the sound. Maybe they can hear more clearly this way."

"Damn it." Liu Yu cursed, but just as he was about to move forward, his heartbeat seemed to suddenly skip a beat, causing him to freeze in place for half a second.

As a senior field operator who has carried out dozens of missions, Liu Yu's survival to this day is closely related to his luck and ability, but the most important thing is his ability to foresee danger - colleagues even half-jokingly say that Liu Yu is also a psychic, and his ability is that he will have a very obvious feeling when danger is approaching.

Liu Yu felt that every hair on his back stood up. Instead of moving forward, he began to retreat.

"Xiao Wang, something is wrong." Liu Yu said in a low voice.

"Ah? Something's wrong? What's wrong?"

"I... I can't see their faces." Liu Yu said.

The distance between him and the two people who had returned was less than twenty meters, but when the searchlight shone on the visors of their helmets, all he could see was darkness, and he couldn't see their faces at all.

"Brother Liu, what do you mean by that?" Xiao Wang shuddered for no reason after hearing what Liu Yu said. "You... don't scare me, Brother Liu... You know, I'm a very outspoken person, and sometimes I say whatever comes to my mind... Brother Liu, don't use this method to retaliate against me... This joke is not funny at all."

"Retreat, retreat behind the tent." Liu Yu said as he retreated, "Get your weapons ready..."

"Weapons?" Xiao Wang was stunned. "Our power armor is not equipped with weapons?"

"Open the main menu, select the spare tools column, and enter the code FN097." Liu Yu said, "It can unlock the power limit of the welding gun installed on your robotic arm. This thing is your weapon."

"Oh...oh, but it warned me that this was a dangerous operation and wouldn't allow me to unlock it!" Xiao Wang's voice was obviously a little flustered.

"Just repeat three times." Liu Yu continued to retreat, but he didn't know when, the two people in the other group suddenly became much faster, and the distance between them and Liu Yu was constantly shortening.

"Okay, okay... Brother Liu, are you sure there's something wrong with Lao Li and the others?" Xiao Wang continued to ask, "Could it be...could it be that their masks are just dirty, so you can't see their faces?"

Liu Yu did not reply, but instead raised the mechanical arm on the right side of his backpack. The four mechanical claws that simulated the structure of human fingers retracted inward and made a fist with the palm facing forward.

In common tactical actions, this gesture means "stop moving forward."

However, the two did not stop, but continued to walk towards Liu Yu silently.

Liu Yu suddenly felt a piercing chill - he and Li Yimin had known each other for more than ten years. The two had collaborated on missions at least twenty times, if not thirty times, and they often trained together on weekdays... Liu Yu was so familiar with this old partner that he couldn't be more familiar with him.

To put it a little more exaggeratedly, even if Li Yimin was burned to ashes, Liu Yu would still be able to recognize him.

But now, this power armor with the three big words "Li Yimin" written on the chest gave Liu Yu an extremely unfamiliar feeling.

　My cold is getting better, but I can't stop coughing. I took two Asmacil pills but they didn't help...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)