hsntnovel Chapter 121 A Belated Transmigration, But the Teammates Have Changed
Chapter 121 A Belated Transmigration, But the Teammates Have Changed
When the hour and minute hands overlapped on the luminous dial, pointing to the number 12 that heralded "a new day," Jiang Ming held his breath.
He is waiting.
When that familiar dizziness came, when the feeling of weightlessness returned, and when I opened my eyes again, I was in that strange world full of goblins and monsters.
While in stealth mode, he even slightly adjusted his posture to determine what position he should maintain upon landing after teleportation.
one second.
two seconds.
Five seconds passed.
The night wind carried the smell of the rubber track on the playground, along with the lingering odor of diesel exhaust, relentlessly filling our nostrils.
The sirens of police cars still wailed in the distance, and black smoke was still billowing from some unresolved areas.
Business as usual.
Except for that damn teleportation not coming.
"..."
Jiang Ming remained in a half-squatting position, like an unlucky guy waiting for a bus on the roadside only to find that the last bus had already left.
He patted his cheeks, blinked hard, and brought up the attribute panel.
The panel was completely silent, with no prompts whatsoever.
There is no "transfer countdown" or "loading" message.
"What's going on?"
Jiang Ming's brows were so furrowed they could trap a fly.
He turned his gaze to the center of the playground.
There were three black riot control armored vehicles parked there, surrounded by yellow police tape.
Dozens of heavily armed special operations team members were in a highly alert posture, their guns pointed at the air, clearly waiting for the legendary "disappearance moment".
In preparation for this "return," the authorities have clearly done a lot of work. They want to record the entire process of the school's disappearance, and may even be planning to travel through time with it.
But these people looked even more bewildered than Jiang Ming.
The special operations captain who had confronted Jiang Ming at the mall entrance was now yelling furiously into the walkie-talkie, his voice so loud that Jiang Ming could hear him from the rooftop of the teaching building a hundred meters away.
"Report to command! Nothing unusual! Repeat, nothing unusual! The target building is still there, the target land is still there, even the streetlight that was knocked askew at the entrance is still there!"
"The instruments? The instrument readings are normal! The magnetic field is normal! Damn it, this place is as stable as if five hundred tons of cement were buried underground!"
It seems I didn't encounter a bug; the entire dungeon just didn't refresh.
Jiang Ming scratched his head and decided to continue waiting.
The special operations team spent more than half an hour tinkering, moving all sorts of equipment up and down. In the end, the captain even kicked the tire of the armored vehicle in a fit of anger.
Around 1 a.m., the main force began to withdraw.
After all, the city is ablaze with fire, and monsters brought by the "Returners" are demolishing everything. Police resources are as scarce as a year's worth of RAM, and it's impossible to keep hundreds of people and heavy equipment around this "real estate" indefinitely.
The convoy roared away, leaving behind only an armored vehicle and seven or eight unlucky guys to guard the area.
"So, we're not being forcibly transported to another world?"
Looking at the empty campus, Jiang Ming felt not at ease, but rather a strong sense of unease.
This doesn't fit the typical "survival game" formula.
That cold, impersonal system never does anything in vain; once the rules are broken, it usually means that even bigger trouble is brewing behind the scenes.
He reached into his pocket and realized that his phone had been lost sometime earlier.
"Old Wang and the others should be home by now," Jiang Ming sighed.
There was no communication and no agreed meeting point.
Previously, everyone assumed that they would all be teleported to the other world at midnight and meet at school.
Now look what happened, the system has stood us up, and the team has been forced to break up.
Should we go to their house to find them?
Jiang Ming glanced at the city center, which was ablaze with flames in the distance.
just forget it.
"I'll just make do here for the night."
Jiang Ming made up his mind, and with a swift movement, like a nimble cat, he avoided the sight of the special police officers left on the playground and quietly sneaked into the faculty dormitory building.
There were traces of the sheriffs' searches everywhere.
But Jiang Ming didn't care. He found his way into an empty dormitory on the top floor.
The view from here is excellent; you can see the playground and the school gate, so you can see them immediately should anything happen.
He didn't dare to fall into a deep sleep. He held the [Thunder Prison Horse-Slaying Sword] in his arms, leaned against the corner of the wall, and lay down fully clothed.
……
The night seemed to last forever.
The roars of monsters and the sound of gunfire could be heard from outside the window from time to time, a sign that human civilization was undergoing a fierce struggle to adapt to the laws of another world.
Jiang Ming drifted off to sleep, but a taut intuition of danger lingered in his subconscious.
until--
"Buzz—!!!"
It's neither an alarm clock nor a siren.
Rather, it was a tremor from the depths of the soul.
It's like stuffing your whole body into a giant bell and then someone slamming it hard from the outside.
Jiang Ming suddenly opened his eyes, his heart pounding.
That familiar, nauseating feeling of weightlessness is back!
"I knew it! What's meant to happen, can't be avoided!"
He sprang out of bed with a jolt, instinctively reaching for the sword in his arms while looking out the window.
The view outside the window is being distorted in a strange way.
The originally gray sky looked like an overturned paint bucket, with colors flowing freely.
The distant city skyline seemed to melt and stretch like a candle.
This time, the commotion is bigger than ever before!
If the previous time travels were like taking an elevator, this one was like riding a roller coaster, and without a seatbelt at that.
"Clang!"
The entire dormitory building shook violently, and plaster fell off the walls in clumps.
The water glass on the table fell to the ground and shattered.
This violent tremor lasted for a full half minute.
When the shaking stopped and the nauseating dizziness subsided, Jiang Ming rushed to the window immediately.
He pulled back the curtains.
There are no skyscrapers.
There are no streets bustling with traffic.
There was no longer that familiar primeval forest or highland plain.
What came into view was a suffocating, dark blue-green color.
Mountains.
The mountains stretch endlessly, their jagged peaks resembling the spine of a giant dragon.
Each mountain peak soars into the clouds, its body displaying an eerie bluish-black hue, covered with jagged rocks, and almost devoid of green vegetation, with only sparse, withered yellow shrubs stubbornly taking root in the cracks of the rocks.
The sky was neither the azure of Earth nor the blood red commonly found in other worlds, but a morbid gray-white, pressing down low as if within reach.
The air was dry and cold; inhaling it felt like swallowing a knife.
"The map has changed again?"
Jiang Ming's lips twitched slightly.
Isn't this a bit too random?
Yesterday they were working on the plains, and today they're just dumping people into this godforsaken mountain?
more importantly--
He looked down at the building below.
The school walls are still there, the playground is still there, and the teaching buildings and dormitories are still there.
It's like someone holding a giant shovel; no matter when or where, ( ) is your most loyal reading companion. They dug the entire school, foundation and all, out of the earth and then casually tossed it into this valley surrounded by mountains.
But outside the school walls, where there used to be streets and shops, there is now a neat ring of discontinuities.
It's as smooth as if it had been cut with a cake knife.
Beyond the fault line, there were those hard, bluish-black rocks.
"Hey! Old Wang! Old Li!"
Jiang Ming pushed open the window and shouted.
The sound echoed through the empty valley, startling several strange birds with four wings.
No one responded.
Only the wind howled.
Jiang Ming's heart sank.
If the transmission range is limited to within the school walls...
Then they would all have to stay on Earth.
"Hold."
Jiang Ming slammed his fist on the windowsill, cracking the marble countertop.
This is exactly what he feared most.
The team was forcibly disbanded.
Now, in this unknown and obviously difficult new map, he has become truly alone.
No, perhaps he is not all alone.
Jiang Ming's ears twitched.
With his perception attribute of 13 points, he heard a flurry of footsteps coming from the playground downstairs, as well as the sound of a gun bolt being pulled back.
He squinted and looked down through the crack in the window.
Beside the riot control armored vehicle that was still running, seven figures dressed in black special operations uniforms stood back to back in a circle, their Type 95 rifles trembling as they pointed at the unfamiliar world around them.
It's that unlucky team that stayed behind yesterday.
Jiang Ming raised an eyebrow, his expression turning strange.
Good news: There are still survivors.
Bad news: The team has changed from a luxurious lineup of "powerful tank + all-around support + long-range marksman" to these seven cops who will most likely only shout "hands behind head" (a Chinese internet slang term for someone who is easily defeated).
"This round... is going to be tough."
Jiang Ming sighed, hoisted the heavy Thunder Prison Horse-Slaying Sword onto his back, pushed open the dormitory door, and strode out.
Since we can't resist, we can only try to turn these "burdens" into "cannon fodder"... oh no, into a vital force.
……
Chen Qi felt that all the bad luck in his life had suddenly erupted in the last two days.
As the captain of Special Operations Team 15, his orders last night were to hold this damned school at all costs and record any possible "abnormal fluctuations".
He originally thought this was just a chore of staying up all night, at most just a lot of mosquitoes.
The earthquake just now almost shook out the self-heating rice he ate last night.
When he finally managed to steady himself by holding onto the armored vehicle door, he looked up and the world had changed.
What should have been the direction of the residential community is now a towering black mountain that looks like a coffin lid.
What should have been a highway leading out of the city is now a bottomless, dried-up riverbed.
And the air was bone-chillingly cold, with every breath carrying a strange smell, like a mixture of sulfur and rust.
"Team leader... the compass is malfunctioning, the GPS has no signal, and even the satellite phone is busy." The communications officer, Xiao Zhang, sounded panicked, and the screen of the terminal device in his hand was filled with static.
"Don't panic!" Chen Qiqiang tried to remain calm, tightening his grip on his rifle. "Everyone on alert! Establish a defensive line using the armored vehicles! No matter where we are, as long as we have guns, we're safe!"
That's what he said, but looking at the strange mountains around him that were taller than skyscrapers, he had no confidence at all.
Just then, a series of unhurried footsteps came from the direction of the teaching building.
"Who?!"
The seven guns instantly turned their muzzles and pointed them in unison.
In the shadows where the morning light was just beginning to break, a young man wearing a black windbreaker and carrying an exaggeratedly large sword strolled out with his hands in his pockets, as if he were taking a walk in his own backyard.
He walked silently, without even the heavy hilt of his sword striking his back.
It wasn't until he was less than twenty meters from the cordon that Chen Qi could see the face clearly.
In that instant, Chen Qi's pupils contracted sharply.
It's him!
The ruthless guy who chopped off the head of the Thunder Horned Flame Bull with a single sword strike during yesterday's live stream!
Jiang Ming, whom netizens call the "Black-Clad Sword God" and who is listed as an "extremely dangerous target" by the authorities!
"Looks like I'm not the only one taking this ride."
Jiang Ming stopped in front of the cordon, his gaze sweeping over the seven dark gun barrels before finally settling on Chen Qi's tense face.
He didn't raise his hand, nor did he show any hostility; it was as if he were greeting a neighbor: "Good morning, officers. Welcome to... well, I don't know where this godforsaken place is."
"Jiang...Jiang Ming?"
Chen Qi swallowed hard, instinctively wanting to yell at the other person to cover their head and squat down, but he swallowed the words back.
In this completely unfamiliar environment, in this strange world that has clearly escaped the jurisdiction of law and order, pointing a gun at a superhuman who can kill a Lv.10 elite monster single-handedly is obviously not a wise move.
"Put the gun down." Chen Qi took a deep breath and raised his hand to press down the muzzle of the gun of the teammate next to him.
"Captain?!" The team members were surprised and uncertain.
"I said put it down! Do you want to leave a bad impression on him?" Chen Qi roared.
The team members reluctantly lowered their guns, but their fingers remained pressed against the trigger guards.
Chen Qi straightened his collar, forced himself to take two steps forward, and tried to project the authority of an official: "Comrade Jiang Ming, it's a pleasure to meet you. I am Chen Qi, the captain of Special Operations Team 15. Although some misunderstandings occurred before, I hope we can temporarily put aside our differences in this special situation caused by unforeseen circumstances."
"Prejudice?" Jiang Ming tilted his head, a half-smile on his face. "I don't have any prejudice against you. As long as you stop pointing that firewood stick at me all the time, I won't bother to fight back."
Chen Qi's eye twitched slightly.
A fire poker?
This is a Type 95 assault rifle!
But he held back.
He's a smart man; he understands the current situation.
"Comrade Jiang Ming, according to the intelligence we have, you are very experienced with this...this kind of time travel phenomenon," Chen Qi asked tentatively. "Can you tell where we are? How do we get back?"
"go back?"
Jiang Ming chuckled, walked to the armored vehicle, and patted the thick armor plate.
This thing can be used for riot control on Earth, but it's hard to say whether it can stop a claw from some big guys here.
"Captain Chen, now that you're on this pirate ship, don't even think about getting off. Unless..." Jiang Ming pointed to the gray sky above, "unless you survive the next 'settlement'."
"Settlement?" Chen Qi keenly caught the key word.
"Yes, but instead of thinking about how to get back," Jiang Ming turned around, his gaze falling on the mountains outside the school wall, his expression gradually becoming serious, "you should be thinking about how to survive these ten-plus hours today."
"What do you mean?"
"It means..." Jiang Ming pointed to the ground at the edge of the fault, "...look at the traces there."
Chen Qi looked in the direction he was pointing.
There are deep gullies on the rocky ground outside the school wall.
Those weren't naturally formed; they looked more like scratch marks left by some huge creature with sharp claws dragging its prey.
Moreover, those scratches were very fresh.
The stone's burial site was even white.
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