Eh? Do you also want to try the iron fist of the humanoid girl?

On December 12, the commander of the New York Land Security Bureau classified the loss of contact with the Noble Squad as "Missing In Action", meaning that all members were missing during a combat mission.

In early January, Doug looked at the streets of New York after a snowstorm, and walked with Celia Ant, Alki Huberst and Tony Gaggia towards the oncoming Purifier patrol.

At this time, there were no longer any SHD marks on them, and the normally bright yellow halo had gone out, flashing a dim red light.

Wherever there are bad guys and wherever there is a need to save, the noble team will go there. This is their mission. It is the mission they have carried out before, are carrying out now, and will continue to carry out in the future.

"...Received, noble, no, the hundred-eyed giant will go to the designated coordinates and wait."

Doug released his hand that was holding PTT, nodded to his team members, and then they formed groups of two and launched a fierce attack on the enemies blocking the way ahead.

For the sake of their oath and for the lives of others, they still decided to go even though they knew nothing about the enemy's specific location, deployment, number of people, equipment, and characteristics.

This is very dangerous, but they face danger every day. There may be sacrifices, but they are determined to die just to prevent others from dying innocently.

The Centaur Squad, set off.

Chapter 31: Miss Doll's skills updated

Shortly after parting with the noble team, Raphael found a long-abandoned single-family building with red "X" spray-painted on the doors and windows.

In the distance, the lackeys of the Lex Gang were sweeping the building bit by bit in an organized and planned manner, turning it upside down.

At this rate, they wouldn’t be able to find this place for a long time. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t come in to search for supplies after seeing the warning painted on the door.

Because this is a deadly contaminated area full of greenback smallpox virus, only people who are tired of living will come in. When the residents of the high-rise apartment across the street saw Raphael walk into the villa, they all pulled the curtains at the same time and no longer paid attention to this poor man who was determined to die.

Therefore, this is a perfect place to rest.

Villains may sacrifice their lives for resources and take risks for pleasure, but they will not waste their lives fearlessly.

Raphael is still very confident about this judgment.

She put down her heavy package, took out the vacuum-packed sheets and cup lids from the guest room locker, then placed the pistol under her pillow and tried to enter a second sleep.

That night, she didn't sleep very well - there was a gunfight nearby. Thank God, the gunfight didn't spread to her in the end. However, it reminded her to leave here quickly.

According to the human habit of storing supplies, Raphael searched the apartment, but found only a few things - it was obvious that the previous owner's inheritance was not rich. In addition to the broken wine bottles on the floor, there was only a pile of rotten and shriveled fruits and a few canned vegetables.

Oh, and some sugar.

All that's left is garbage.

She had no interest in the clothes in the wardrobe, and it was not yet the season for her to change into revealing clothes.

Raphael waited for the second night to come. Night was the best camouflage, or rather, her night vision gave her a tactical advantage that others could not achieve, while others could not see the road clearly in the dim lighting environment of New York.

Another reason was that she was reading data stored in the ISAC offline terminal device. Rather than being a personal terminal processing device dedicated to SHD, it was more like a high-performance notebook equipped with a detachable keyboard and touch screen.

When Raphael read the hardware information, he found that this device was equipped with an anti-interference internal coating. It can only be said that it has some effect, but it is better than nothing.

It is precisely because of this coating that it can operate normally in the inner isolation zone where radiation is everywhere.

This is black box technology coming in reverse again, Raphael commented.

She arranged a complete unlocking process, and then used the permission verification number provided by Doug Sutton to generate the corresponding identification file, then packaged the system, copied it, performed the mirroring operation on the original system and completed the boot reconstruction to ensure that the system would enter the mirrored system after startup.

After confirmation, she started the mirrored carrier system.

The processed duplicate virtual system completely loses the ability to connect to the SHD network and can only connect to the network released by the MPU-5 radio.

The complex system reconstruction work was finally completed. Raphael found that she had spent the past ten hours tinkering with electronic equipment and had done nothing else.

Skills: Computer Science and Technology +1

No matter what, she put down her things and took a nap before it got dark - after all, humanoids can feel tired too. When she woke up, it was so dark that she couldn't see her hand in front of her face.

It was the first time she saw a city night that could be so dark. After all, there was always light. Even if there was a power outage, someone would always come up with all kinds of light-emitting gadgets.

But now it is pitch black, almost indistinguishable from the wilderness.

There was no fire, no lights, and it was even a little scary.

Then there's the sound. The tactical headset paired with the MPU-5 picks up sound superbly, and it's so quiet now that even the sound of wind hitting the window sounds weird.

There was a constant creaking of something, where someone had obviously left a door open, and then there was the rustling of various bits of rubbish in the wind, but no sound of any engines or large motors or footsteps.

After taking out the MRE rations and eating them together with canned vegetables, Raphael packed up various items and finally stuffed the computer into the innermost layer of the backpack with a protective pad.

After reading the number of online devices and removing the MPU-5 radio, the SHD laptop appeared in the list.

Although the bed was warm, she had to move on. There was no point in staying here any longer.

But before leaving, Raphael didn't lock the door, instead she put a piece of paper on the bolt to prevent it from snapping shut, and she stuffed more paper in the gap between the door and the floor so that the wind wouldn't blow it open or close, at least not straight open.

She also wrote down the coordinates of the house as a safe haven to run to in case of danger.

And now this house, which others think is seriously contaminated by the virus, is the best candidate location.

Raphael did not intend to break through the main gate, but left from the backyard and entered the dark back alley. She raised the XM5 assault rifle, lit the IR illuminator of the AN/PEQ-5 laser generator, and used the additional light source to see the terrible scene in the alley.

Bags of garbage nearly filled the alley.

She opened her eyes wide, pricked up her ears, and quickly left the alley that exuded the stench of corruption and walked towards another street. Before leaving the alley, she stayed in the darkness, holding her breath and listening silently... No, she could not feel anything.

It's so quiet.

Arriving at another street, this one much wider than the previous one, Raphael looked around, adjusting the parameters of his night vision to make the world look a little brighter without the extra light source.

After getting familiar with the street environment, she made out the outlines of the buildings and the surrounding green trees. It was quite quiet for the time being.

She timed her departure perfectly, crossing the street quickly without causing anyone to shout or react.

It went smoothly, let's run away...

As she was warily walking through the streets and alleys, she read the radio recording evidence saved by Doug Sutton on the hard drive. The audio recording marked as important by him said: JTF betrayed us!

The recording berated the weak and incompetent commander of the joint operations force and explained the failure of the "Dark Zone" plan and the reasons why many agents and ranger units suffered heavy losses as a result.

Finally, the person who sent this audio roared righteously: "I'm leaving SHD. JTF, agents, all of you can eat shit."

Raphael laughed when she heard this. She finally heard the news about the Rangers.

As expected, they did not stay in Wall Street as originally planned, but entered Midtown to carry out their mission. According to the recording, the Rangers also took on some of the responsibilities of maintaining urban security.

Why is that?

Raphael couldn't understand it, and then he thought, if he couldn't understand it, he should try to figure it out.

Did they abandon the mission, or was this part of the mission? It seems that contacting them has become very important.

Chapter 32 Killing the chicken to scare the monkey

Before Doug Sutton cut off the network, he also received broadcast voice messages from other agents.

Agent Clark's tone was harsh, but what he said was indeed an irrefutable fact.

He said in the recording:

"I started out as a very enthusiastic Division agent, ready to go into the city and save everyone. But you know what? The city didn't want anyone to save them at all...

At least that's what I can tell from the situation in the city. There's not much we can do, and it's too late. Too many people have died, but we don't have enough agents, and some have left because they think it's pointless.

No matter what we did, the situation didn’t get better.”

Raphael listened expressionlessly and then opened another recording.

"One day I left with my gear and walked into the Dark Zone. Another agent came into the Dark Zone to find me, and I knew that the guy just wanted to take my gear and didn't care if I lived or died.

He got close to me and I shot him. You know how I felt? I felt nothing. I had never killed any good guys, I had never killed any agents, but it gave me some ideas."

What other idea could he have? The only one he could think of was to rebel and leave the Strategic Homeland Security Agency.

This was thanks to the hastily issued order by the JTF commander, which not only disrupted a lot of original plans, but also left behind countless valuable assets.

And he, "Clark," knew where to look for treasure.

He said in the recording that he would try to take away the communications equipment and weapons that the Division had left behind in the inner quarantine zone, also known as the "dark zone."

These were used to create secure networks, infiltrate Division communications networks, and flag those who became rogue agents.

His reason for doing this was straightforward. Clark didn't want to be hunted, and he felt that providing some necessary intelligence should allow those who were forced to be alone outside to live longer.

"I don't trust anyone. You can't trust anyone here. They call us 'renegade agents' for a reason, because we're here just to survive.

Just when you have achieved something great, someone will come up to you jealously and start to sabotage you.

So I just keep doing it, and people are finding it useful. Hopefully it keeps me alive, and doesn't get me shot in the face. Rogue Agent Clark, out for good."

Although the masters of these recordings said they had betrayed, Raphael felt that it would be more appropriate to describe them as "departure". Even their superiors and allies had chosen to give up, so what reason was there for them to continue to insist on the mission of restoring the city?

Raphael looked at the figure passing by in the distance, then shook his cold-proof coat and hat and walked west along the road towards the quarantine area.

Along the way, from time to time you can see people tinkering with things beside abandoned vehicles, some people digging in dilapidated shops, and some people suddenly fall down while walking on the road, then stand up again, dragging their tired legs to measure the road step by step!

They have been trying to survive for 1 days, into the first month of New York's lockdown.

Among these ragged middle-aged people, old ladies, old men and children, there was occasionally a young woman wearing a fashionable coat. They looked pitiful, covered in dust, with their carefully styled hair in a mess, standing helplessly in front of the garbage dump.

Even at this point, these women were still unwilling to let go of their reserved attitude. Their fingers were clenched stiffly together, and their bodies were shaking with fatigue and hunger.

Not far away, there were a few strong young men standing in a scattered manner. They had cigarettes in their mouths, and the cigarettes flickered with the rise and fall of their breathing, which could be seen clearly from a distance.

They rounded up all these people and used them as cheap labor for scavenging searches. Only if they found valuable items in apartments, office buildings and other places could they get food to sustain their activities for the day.

At an intersection a little further away, Raphael saw from afar that the thugs who had transformed into bloodthirsty monsters were dragging a tall middle-aged man, beating him until he was covered in blood, and then dragging him to the highway intersection.

Just as she was wondering what these people were going to do, a young man in orange clothes raised the hatchet in his hand high and then swung it down suddenly.

A head rolled into the middle of the intersection.

"This is what happens when you resist!" the man shouted.

The roar of the diesel generator resounded through the sky near the intersection, and the head, still with a terrified look on its face, was kicked away by the man with the knife.

Under the pale searchlight of the checkpoint at the intersection, there was only a headless corpse and bloodstains that scattered cold light in all directions.

If nothing unexpected happens, the bloodstain will be covered by the snow after daybreak.

Green trees of all sizes stretched quietly on both sides of the road. This very ordinary scene deeply impressed Raphael's mind.

The breath of death, suddenly flashing out from the cars and the asphalt, hit her hard, as heavy as all the power of a windmill.

It rises from the ground, from beneath the broken sidewalk tiles. It leaps from the wrecked cars, from the machinery that never fully functions these days. It seeps slowly from the towering street lamps, creeps quietly from the maggot-infested garbage heaps.

It managed to emerge from all the objects in her field of vision, as if it - death - had made up its mind to replace everything visible and tangible.

Raphael stood in the shadows, savoring this rare and special experience.

Feel that death is not only visible, but also alive!

alive!

She was used to its straightforward style, whistling, undisguised, impatient, even attached to the weapon in her hand.

Death could no longer restrain greed, especially when it had almost won the whole world.

"This is the will of death." Raphael raised his gun and turned off the high-power searchlight left by the JTF at the checkpoint, plunging the world back into darkness.

She wondered if seeing death was the same for those who stayed in New York, or if it was just her unique experience due to the black box technology?

This is an interesting question, she thought. But who else could she discuss it with, who could she compare herself with? In this shabby and gloomy city, there was no one she could consider as her equal.

Like the buildings in other areas, this place is deteriorating day by day until it becomes a no-go zone for life.

One day.

The screams, the commotion, the heavy footsteps and the clanging sound of the beam thrown down to break down the door all concealed all traces of Raphael.

She had been specially trained, like other special forces candidates who were undergoing physical fitness and combat skills training at the same time, to be proficient in dealing with such situations.

Chapter 33 Slave Labor Camp

Eleanor found it very interesting; after all, this was her only source of daily fun.

There were many hopeful guys in the scavenging team, and she could always identify the guys with ulterior motives from the crowd, then pull him out and execute him on the spot.

Catch the guy who instigated the scavengers to resist, and kick him away.