Empty Camp

Tom was not too conflicted about the disappearance of soldiers on the 17th and in the camp. He checked for a round and found no abnormalities before starting to search around.

People have become smaller, and the range of activities has also become smaller. Except for the two vehicles driven by the Pasha team, all the other vehicles in the camp are there. This indicates that the 17th and others did not go far. Tom drove a car and walked around the 6th floor, but couldn't find any trace, which made him feel even more eerie.

As if these seventy or so people had evaporated out of thin air, they were all gone.

It's already 3:30 in the morning, and the surroundings are pitch black. You can't see much just by the headlights of the tram, so Tom decided to stop searching first

He first returned to the campsite to find a pen and paper, and wrote a line of words: "The campsite situation is confirmed, I will go to No. 23 to understand the situation, and continue to be vigilant." Then he got into a car in the campsite, drove back to the stairwell, and woke up the mutated little black cat Bell lying on the stairs. Tell it to bring this note back to the aquarium camp and hand it over to the people inside the camp.

He drove back to the 6th floor, replaced the new battery, and headed to the safety ladder on the other side, crawling towards Tower 2. He is going up to search for the team on the 23rd and report to him about the situation at the camp.

At 4:30 in the morning, Tom drove the tram and climbed up the 28th floor of Tower 2 along the canvas ramp laid on the stairs by the 23rd team.

Along the way, he saw many traces of battle and the remains of insects, indicating that the 23rd side also encountered a similar situation as Tom's. The survivors of Tower 2 are likely to have also chosen to hide at the Western restaurant on the 28th floor of the top floor.

Of course, if there are survivors.

Tom thoughtfully entered the restaurant and followed the lights to discover their camp under a dining table.

Their journey was not so smooth. When Tom met the 23rd, he was injured and even had a broken arm hanging on his chest with a cloth.

Regarding Tom's late night visit, the 23rd immediately realized the seriousness of the problem and pulled him to a secluded place to inquire.

Upon learning of the eerie situation at the 6th floor campsite, the 23rd was also shocked, but currently they are unable to allocate manpower to explore the 6th floor.

Because they were also attacked by large mutated creatures on their side, resulting in a loss of 34 people and injuries to others. But fortunately, they also killed the mutated creatures.

The mutated moth was the biggest crisis they encountered here, with over forty mutated moths attacking them in the restaurant. But fortunately, there was a team of grilled squid skilled in controlling the fire, relying on igniting and strengthening the fire, they burned all the incoming mutated moths.

Afterwards, they also encountered a mouse as tall as 23 centimeters, which not only emitted spiky hair with tracking, but also had an electric charge throughout its body.

Fortunately, Liao Jinglei was assigned here. With her reinforcement, the captain of the Wild Wolf Squad, Pan Mingda, used his strong power to pierce the heart of the mutated rat and ultimately successfully killed it.

Of course, this also cannot be achieved without the joint efforts of the members of the Wild Wolf and Roasted Squid Awakener teams, who fought for an advantage at the cost of 6 deaths and 12 injuries.

This kind of loss is not without gains, at least they found 9 survivors in the cabinets of the restaurant, including 5 people on the expert list.

According to their instructions, initially 43 people were hiding here, but in the end only 9 were left. If the team on the 23rd comes a little later, they will be trapped in the cabinet and starve to death.

It's still quite some time before dawn, and with the disappearance of the 17th and others, they are unable to conduct a search. On the 23rd, they had to make an appointment with Tom to meet on the 5th floor in the morning, and then allocate manpower for the next action.

So Tom drove the tram all the way down to the 6th floor campsite, replaced a new battery, and checked the campsite to confirm that there were no changes. He then climbed up the stairs into Tower 1 and finally returned to the aquarium campsite before 5:30 pm.

Everything is fine in the camp, and the emotions of the 5 members of the Pasha team are relatively stable. It was the talkative couple Du Yanxin and Chen Ya who became very quiet, probably because the changes in the camp scared them a lot.

Tom checked Yan Xuebing and found that he was still feverish and unconscious, but according to a member of Zhao Xin's shark team, his condition had stabilized.

Tom gathered Zhao Zijian, Liu Lian, Ouyang Haotian, Zhou Zhengping, and others to briefly discuss his strange discovery on the sixth floor and explain his decision to meet with the 23rd. Everyone agreed with Tom's decision and set off downstairs at dawn.

Until the beginning of the morning, the sky lit up, but the sun still couldn't be seen. The weather was gloomy and a bit stuffy, looking like a long lost rainy day.

As everyone was preparing to leave, Yan Xuebing woke up. Tom quickly went over to check his condition and should make a guess.

"I want crystals!" Yan Xuebing's first sentence when he saw Tom.

Tom nodded, and Liu Lian placed four different colored Level 1 crystals that had already been prepared in front of him.

He grabbed the yellow crystal without even thinking, and then the yellow crystal emitted a yellow light, and his head also flickered with a faint green light.

"You have indeed awakened," Thompson felt as if his head was large, and the issue of the missing people in the camp was indeed related to awakening.

Yan Xuebing leaned against the wall with a relaxed expression, like a smoker who had been holding it for a long time. Finally, he took a long breath of smoke and said, "Hah... I guess so... I woke up with an impulse to hold onto the crystal. This is a thirst for crystal energy just after awakening, but I don't know which direction of the ability it is."

"So the missing people in the camp are all ordinary people, only the awakened ones have remained."

Yan Xuebing closed his eyes and said, "At night, I don't remember what time it was. I lay in my sleeping box and vaguely heard a sound that made me want to get up and search for the source of the sound. However, at that time, I had no strength to get up. This sound annoyed me for a long time, and during that time, I also heard the footsteps of others. No one spoke, it was just strange footsteps slowly moving towards the direction of the sound."

"Voice?" Tom and Liu Lian looked at each other face to face. It seemed that Yan Xuebing was still conscious when the campers went missing. He immediately asked, "And then?"

"Then my whole body was burning hot and I really wanted to hug a crystal, and then the sound disappeared."

Tom asked Liu Lian, "What do you think?"

Liu Lian said anxiously, "Perhaps only the awakened can resist the temptation of that voice, and Yan Xuebing happened to awaken, so that tempting voice is ineffective for him."

Yan Xuebing opened his eyes and said, "I also thought the same way. Since yesterday, many people in the camp have been feeling a bit lethargic. Among them, the 17th team leader was the most serious, but he still persevered. Then in the afternoon, the members of the Pasha team and the two survivors you sent back fell into a coma. The 17th guessed that something was causing disturbance to the Awakened, and he even sent four people to climb up the stairs in two, warning Tom and the 23rd. Didn't you see them?"

Tom shook his head and said, "No, there was no warning on the 23rd either."

It seems that the person notifying them may have encountered an unexpected situation halfway, but it is also a coincidence that both sides have encountered such an unexpected situation.

Confirmed the situation from Yan Xuebing's side, although Tom was full of doubts, he still gathered his team and boarded the car with 17 survivors of the aquarium led by Zhou Zhengping.

This road goes downhill, passing through the sixth floor without entering, but returning to the fifth floor and merging with the convoy of number 23 on a corridor.

Tom reported Yan Xuebing's situation to the 23rd, and after discussing it, the two decided to send a team back to the 6th floor to search and see if they could find any clues to the disappearance of the 17th and others during the day.

This time, considering possible situations, they mixed up three Awakener teams to ensure that both the left and searching teams had half of the Awakeners. In this way, if non awakened individuals are lured by unknown sounds, at least there are awakened individuals around to help them get rid of it.

Among the four captains of the Awakened Team, Pan Mingda has the highest combat effectiveness. However, when it comes to leadership and organizational abilities, it is Zhao Zijian, the captain of the Pasha Squad, ranked 11th in the Eighth Courtyard.

Exploring outside was naturally led by Tom, and along the way, Tom proved through his actions that he was not a "paratrooper" who rose to power by flattery. Both soldiers and awakeners no longer resisted him.

And the team left behind is naturally led by the 23rd and supplemented by Zhao Zijian. If the 23rd is also hypnotized by an unknown voice, then at least Zhao Zijian is still in charge of the overall situation.

And Tom brought half of the members of the Wild Wolf Squad, including Captain Pan Mingda and... Liao Jinglei.

This time Tom could no longer refuse Liao Jinglei's request to join the team, after all, compared to the defending team, their search could lead to combat. Liao Jinglei's ability to enhance the effect of the Awakener's ability was a very good aid in combat.

Unfortunately, they searched around the vine infested 6th floor and found nothing except a few guns around the corridor. Finally, Tom could only lead his team back to the fifth floor and meet with the 23rd. The team rushed back to the restaurant camp on the first floor before dark.

When they first arrived here, they found 37 survivors, and 6 awakeners led by hotel electrician Zhang Tianhui became the leaders of the camp. Due to being exposed by Tom and others about Zhang Tianhui coercing the women among the survivors, the 23rd did not have a good impression of them. But at that time, on the 17th, in order to ensure the stability of the exploration team, Zhang Tianhui was forcibly released using the regulations granted by the shelter not to pursue the crimes of the awakened, and their suspected wrongdoing was not pursued.

In exchange, the survivors obeyed their leadership and stabilized the camp of this hotel for them.

Before leaving the camp and exploring upstairs, on the 17th, six soldiers were left to protect Zhang Tianhui and others, ensuring the safety of the camp and also monitoring Zhang Tianhui and others.

However, it was unexpected that on the 23rd, when the team returned, four soldiers were found missing. Under the cover of Zhang Tianhui and others stuttering, Liu Lian detected the positions of the four soldiers through humanoid radar.

Tom used his metal shapeshifting ability to rudely open a metal cabinet. The four soldiers were hugging eight female survivors, all naked, and the scene was once very awkward.