Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 625 Kuqiao Village

Before long, the ghost train began to slow down, eventually bursting out of the "tunnel" and slowly coming to a stop on a sandy beach bathed in the golden sunset.

The group filed out of the vehicle and, after using spray gel to create a simple floating island, Zhulong and the other team members quickly assembled a high-powered communication device.

With the power on and the antenna deployed, Zhulong picked up the communicator and said in a deep voice, "Communication identification code 1776, the Second Advance Team of the Desert Sea is calling the Sand Boat Outpost. To repeat, communication identification code 1776, the Second Advance Team of the Desert Sea is calling the Sand Boat Outpost."

"No signal?" Wang Xiyi asked, frowning.

“No…” Zhulong shook his head. “I have already connected to the communication channel of the Sand Boat Outpost, which is less than seventy kilometers away from us… but no one is responding to the calls.”

A sense of foreboding immediately rose in everyone's hearts.

……

……

Xia State Federation, Kuqiao Village.

This is a village about 90 kilometers from Chunming City, with a permanent population of just over 1,000 and a small food processing plant. Because it is adjacent to Highway 317 leading to Chunming City, Kuqiao Village is also a necessary route for people entering Chunming City from the southeast.

To protect the capital, the 151st Battalion of the Federal Garrison is located less than three kilometers from the village of Kuqiao.

This is a mechanized infantry battalion. In addition to more than 400 officers and soldiers, the battalion has two main battle tanks and eleven armored infantry fighting vehicles, as well as a military camp built according to military fortress standards.

Furthermore, this infantry battalion is even equipped with an anomaly handling team, which includes two monster hunters and four accompanying investigators. In terms of combat capability, the 151st Battalion is definitely considered elite among the Federation's regular forces.

Liu Meng is the platoon leader of the first platoon of the second company of the 151st battalion. Today, his platoon is on routine patrol. Routine patrol is a simple job: just lead the soldiers around the mountains surrounding the village.

Except for a short section of the defense zone where there is no road and you have to climb a mountain, the rest of the route is so easy that you just need to keep an eye on the screen of the vehicle's meme monitor while driving.

The soldiers in the back carriage were already discussing the food at the camp that night, but Liu Meng didn't bother to say anything to them. He had been stationed here for four years and had carried out at least two or three hundred patrol missions. Apart from one time when a multi-vehicle collision occurred on Highway 317, there had been no other special circumstances.

If it weren't for the shooting range in the camp, Liu Meng wouldn't have had the chance to pull the trigger in these four years.

Liu Meng naturally knew that the border regions of the Federation were not peaceful at the moment, but it was the border regions that were not peaceful, while they belonged to the garrison regiment that guarded the capital. If the day came when they would all need to raise their combat readiness level, then probably most of the Federation, except for the capital, would have become occupied areas.

Liu Meng really hoped he could receive a transfer order to the border region, but unfortunately, the fate of being cannon fodder to fill the gaps did not fall on him, and the great opportunity to make meritorious contributions on the front line had nothing to do with him.

As a soldier, all he needed to do was obey orders and complete his mission of guarding Kuqiao Village.

He has performed this task perfectly for four years.

Liu Meng had one hand on the steering wheel and the other fumbling for a cigarette case in his pocket when he suddenly heard a rumbling sound coming from the hills not far away. The sound was faint, but very clear, and Liu Meng was certain he hadn't misheard.

"Stop the truck!" Liu Meng shouted into the walkie-talkie, while simultaneously slamming on the truck's brakes.

The armored off-road vehicle that had been leading the way stopped, and the squad leader of the first platoon leaned out from the machine gun position on the roof, looked at Liu Meng in the driver's seat of the truck, and asked loudly, "Platoon leader, what's wrong?"

"There seems to be some movement in the mountains," Liu Meng said in a deep voice, his hand already pulled out of his pocket and resting on the holster at his waist as he reached for a cigarette.

"But the meme monitor isn't responding!" the class monitor asked, puzzled.

"It's probably because it's too far away." Liu Meng pulled the handbrake, jumped out of the car, walked to the roadside, and looked in the direction from which the sound had come. "Did you guys hear that sound coming from the mountains? A rumbling sound, like... like a train going through the mountains!"

"I think I heard a little bit... I thought I was hallucinating." The class monitor walked over and nodded.

"Old Liu." The deputy platoon leader, who had been sitting in the passenger seat of the truck, squatted down and placed his palm on the road. "You heard right, the ground is indeed trembling slightly."

"Tsk... Could it be some kind of monster?"

"Reporting, Platoon Leader!" a soldier suddenly shouted. "I have something to report!"

"Just say what you want to say, stop with all that nonsense," Liu Meng said impatiently. "You know I hate this the most."

“A subway used to be built in this mountain,” the soldier said.

He was the only "local" in the entire 151st Battalion—this soldier grew up in Kuqiao Village, enlisted in the army after graduating from high school, served in the south for a few years, and was then transferred back to his hometown by chance, becoming a member of the 151st Battalion stationed in Kuqiao Village.

Liu Meng remembered teasing him once: "Other brothers have to take planes or trains to go home to visit their families, but you're so lucky, you just turn right and you're home."

"Subway? I don't remember the subway line in Chunming City passing through here, do you?" the deputy platoon leader asked doubtfully.

“This happened when I was a child, more than 20 years ago,” the local soldier said. “Back then, the subway was supposed to be built here, but when they were digging the tunnel, they found that the mountain was unstable or something else, so the whole project was canceled, and the subway line that was supposed to be built here was rerouted… My dad used to complain a lot, saying that if the subway were built in our Kuqiao Village, the villagers could make a lot of money just by sitting at home.”

"Is the mountain structure unstable?" Liu Meng looked up at the hillside not far away. "Could it be a landslide or some kind of collapse? It hasn't rained recently, so there shouldn't be a mudslide... Hmm, if there really is a tunnel left over from back then, could it be that the tunnel has collapsed due to disrepair?"

"Platoon leader, how about I take a few men up the mountain to take a look?" the squad leader of the first squad volunteered.

"Go ahead, be careful. If anything happens, retreat immediately. Don't be reckless." Liu Meng nodded and watched as the squad leader selected a few quick-witted soldiers, lightly equipped, and they climbed up the hillside on the side of the road using both hands and feet.

(End of this chapter)