Wasteland Border Inspector-Chapter 327 - 137: The Migration Tide Arrives, the Landscape Transforms
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble...
Before dawn fully breaks, the piercingly sharp whine of engines explodes in the Buffer Zone.
Cheng Ye turns over, muttering indistinctly, which bastard starts renovation so early in the morning, don’t they want people to sleep...
Yet before he could finish his words, he suddenly jolts! 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Damn.
This isn’t modern times, and the building is only five stories high; who would renovate at this time.
The drowsiness evaporates in an instant, and Cheng Ye almost reflexively reaches for the pistol at his bedside, the cold metallic touch causing the hairs on his body to stand on end.
Immediately, he retrieves the bewildered Flame beside him into the Spiritual Body Space, rolls off the bed, and the two long rifles from under the bed are drawn into his hands.
Two crisp clicks; the safeties are deftly turned off.
He hooks the Battle Armor box from the far side with his foot, ready to activate the Tear of the Horned Starfish at any moment.
After completing this series of actions, Cheng Ye suddenly snaps back to reality.
Having lived in the Wasteland for so long, it seems he’s... become overly sensitive!
The rumble from outside doesn’t seem like an infected horde invasion or any mischief by an Infected Body; instead, it follows a very regular pattern, carrying a strangely familiar heavy vibration, just like...
Frowning, he crouches and moves to the window, pinching a corner of the curtain and gently lifting it to peek out.
At this moment, the sky is just beginning to lighten, around five o’clock in the morning, a thin mist like soaked gauze softly envelops the earth, with visibility only about five to six hundred meters.
But as his gaze turns skyward, Cheng Ye’s breath suddenly hitches, and his tense shoulders instantly relax.
A false alarm.
It turns out to be Happiness City’s air power...
The sky above is dyed into a flowing river of stars by twinkling signal lights; red, green, and yellow dots blur in the mist, intertwining into a shifting net.
Helicopters large and small rise like a migrating swarm of locusts from the Inner City, darkening the sky as they fly towards the Outer City, the air currents from their rotors churning the morning mist incessantly.
Cheng Ye squints his eyes, looking up, his gaze sweeping over those slow-moving metal constructs in the air.
The most conspicuous are several helicopters with a fuselage resembling elongated loaves of bread, their streamlined noses slightly tilted downward, with rotor hubs atop the fuselage like metal bowls placed on top, hovering above the Buffer Zone.
The side doors are open, like a drawer half-pulled, with anti-slip steel strips welded along the edge; several soldiers in camouflage uniforms stand at the doorway, half their bodies leaning out, the glow sticks in their hands tracing out regular arcs, seemingly directing the following echelon.
Meanwhile, the dozens of helicopters diving forward are much smaller in size, narrowing from the nose to the tail, resembling enlarged flying fish, with tail rotors encased in spindle-shaped ducts, their sound much sharper than the former, like a swarm of startled hornets, rushing densely towards the outer defenses, presumably the assault variant responsible for frontline vigilance.
Additionally, even higher up, several large helicopters leisurely move.
Their fuselages feature dome-shaped radar covers, resembling giant pebbles plastered on, and the square equipment beneath flashes a hint of red light sporadically, notably conspicuous in the mist.
Flying relatively steadily with their doors tightly shut, shadowy figures are faintly visible behind the portholes, perhaps command aircraft responsible for reconnaissance and communication?
Cheng Ye quickly counts, his pupils slightly constricting; those visible already number over a hundred.
Further in the fog, more lights of varying sizes move silently.
"Is this the foundation of Happiness City..."
Cheng Ye can’t help but murmur softly, his fingertips unconsciously tracing the gun’s engravings.
From the contribution system at the checkpoint, he already knew Happiness City was not lacking in air power.
The control over these aerial vehicles might even be more lax than those running on Big Golden Cups on the ground.
But he never imagined it would be on such a grand scale.
Though upon closer reflection, Happiness City has existed for 34 years since its founding.
This kind of battlefield-deciding weapon, as long as there is manufacturing capability, would never cease production.
Accumulating over many years, having such numbers is reasonable.
After watching for a while longer, Cheng Ye simply pulls open the entire curtain, fully opening the window.
The engine hum instantly fills the room, with the airflow’s metallic vibrations caressing his face, like an invisible hand gently pushing his cheeks.
Bathing in this power-laden hum, he returns to the bed to place the gun down but doesn’t push the Battle Armor box back under the bed.
From today onward, the Battle Armor box needs to be carried at all times; the Outer City plan’s launch means battles could erupt at any moment.
The Flame in the Spiritual Body Space pokes its head out from the bottom of his vision again, tilting its small head, letting out two "ya ya" sounds, as if complaining about being woken up.
After testing last night, Cheng Ye discovered that the Spiritual Body Space visible with closed eyes doesn’t expand with his strength but rather grows with the Flame’s development.
For instance, after feeding it some kindling, when he possesses the body and examines it again, the space has slightly more room to move, no longer cramped and tense like at the beginning.
But it was ultimately still tight, so last night he simply let the little guy sleep on the pillow beside him in its physical form.
Upon opening his eyes, the space automatically expands, also allowing the Flame to appear in reality.
Though only he could see it, it was enough to prevent the little guy from being stuck in a perpetual black void.
"Alright, don’t pop out during the day." Cheng Ye extends his hand, gently rubbing the Flame’s smooth little head, able to feel a trace of warmth at his fingertips.
