IWOL Chapter 123: The Outside World

They went to the sixth floor, where the supplies and armaments were stored.

Unlike the food and supplies used to sustain life, they were quite curious about this era’s weaponry. Dong Zheng had already obtained the entire base’s layout from the general control room and took them straight to the armory.

The moment the door opened, everyone’s attention became distracted by the long rows of specialized storage receptacles. Dong Linhai let out a drawn-out “Wow” and strode in with large strides, like a hot-blooded youth.

Armory No. 1 was about the size of a playground divided into several different areas. The transparent protective cases contained a variety of weapons, some of which they were familiar with and some they’d never seen before. Due to operating at a low-energy consumption rate, not much lighting was provided. Only the small emergency lights on the walls were on, so weak that they could barely illuminate the room at all. Because of this, the weapons appeared more shadowy and mysterious.

The area closest to the door had a variety of handheld guns. On the protective cover, only the nameplates marked the models and calibers of the weaponry. Dong Linhai looked at the Viper in front of him, then at the M9 next to him, before finally running to the other side to look at the Desert Eagle.

He studied it and then swiped his wristband on the identification pad on the protective cover. A blue light flashed and, after confirming his identity, the protective cover slid open.

Dong Linhai eagerly picked up the Desert Eagle.

Although the Desert Eagle was one of the most reputable handguns, due to its heavier weight, longer than traditionally normal barrel, inflexibility, difficulty to master, small bullet capacity, and single row ammunition clip, no military personnel would use it as a standard military equipment.

Dong Linhai tapped it once and speculated that this gun had been improved many times over.

The traditional Desert Eagle weighed about two kilograms when empty. Meanwhile, this one had only half the weight and even the shape was somewhat different. Dong Linhai disassembled the gun, took special care to check the ammunition clip, and discovered that it could reach 20 rounds now that it’d been expanded.

This nearly circumvented all the shortcomings of the traditional Desert Eagle. Dong Linhai happily filled the empty ammunition clip with bullets.

Now, it belonged to him!

On the other hand, Dong Zheng chose the M9, a weapon he’d been using in shooting practice. This standard military handgun was small in size, lightweight, easy to use, reliable in action, had a high shooting accuracy, and was easy to maintain. It also had a low failure rate, and one other favorable advantage was that he was very familiar with it.

For a while, there was only the sound of everyone disassembling guns in the armory as they looked for the most suitable weapon for them.

The boxes that they’d entered before hadn’t provided them with weapons. Now, their intermittent military training the last several months were finally coming in handy.

Cui Zuojing took out two Beretta 92Fs and went to the section where assault guns were stored. He was pleasantly surprised to find that this era had laser guns that were frequently seen only in science fiction. This HK-UMP.45 was equipped with both supersonic bullets and a laser magazine, and it could easily switch between the two types of ammunition.

He immediately took the gun and ran off to practice with it.

There was a test field connected to the armory that was built for the sole purpose of facilitating adaptive training. Cui Zuojing and Dong Linhai each burst out two hundred rounds and then shared the good things they found with Allen, who came afterwards.

Lin Hangzhi and Wang Que arrived later. The doctor had a round-shaped thing wrapped around his waist. He said, “Guess what I found?”

This was something good that Lin Hangzhi had found by accident on a corner of the armory. When smashed on the ground, the ball would immediately trigger a spherical protective field. If its owner encountered an attack that was difficult to evade, he could use it to save his life.

Everyone stayed in the armory for an hour and took out as much as they could carry.

Since the name of the box was Snow Parasite Trail, it must be related to insects. Dong Linhai also brought out a flamethrower. When he was paying “Biochemistry 7,” the flamethrower was the best way to deal with bugs. He believed that it would be the same here.

As a cat, Victor wasn’t suitable for this box, and he could only act as an accompanying medic. Once they left the base, he would most likely stay in Dong Linhai’s summoned beast space.

This time, they were afraid that they would lose an important prop so they didn’t bring the stitched-heart bear along. As a result, Victor’s ability was crucial.

After everyone was armed, Dong Zheng directly went to the No.4 warehouse, where many off-road vehicles were stored. He and Cui Zuojing selected a hover car. The ice age had lasted for 3000 years. Surface conditions must have undergone dramatic changes, leaving very little roads for sports cars.

Once they were ready, they took an automated exploratory probe that could be used in extremely harsh environments and found an open space to eat a hotpot meal. Finally, they double-checked to verify their destination and set off.

Five hours had passed since they entered the box.

The elevator slowly sent six fully armed individuals to ground level. Because he was unable to wear protective clothing, Victor couldn’t travel in an environment with such low temperature. As a result, he temporarily remained in the summoned beast space.

In preparations for all possible unexpected events, the base had military-style protective clothing made specifically for the ice age. Everyone wore this protective clothing, which was much thinner than expected. Even the mask itself wasn’t as bulky as seen in many movies. It was equipped with a compressed oxygen device on the neck and back and could be used for 48 hours at a time.

As the distance between the display and the ground became smaller and smaller, Dong Linhai took a deep breath. His voice was soon transmitted into the other people’s helmet through their linked communication devices. “I’m a bit nervous. Say, do you think it’ll look like the Ice Age movie, huh?”

Allen said, “I don’t know what it’ll look like, but there definitely won’t be mammoths, giant sloths, and saber-toothed tigers.”

A slight fluctuation passed into Wang Que’s mind and gradually became more prominent and chaotic. It came from all directions, making her unable to distinguish where it was coming from.

She closed her eyes, maintained a clear consciousness throughout the increasingly chaotic signals, and said, “There are many insects outside.”

Lin Hangzhi said, “Do you feel uncomfortable?”

Wang Que shook her head. “Fortunately, it’s not too bad.”

Before they came there, they were faced with many suitable boxes. However, Dong Zheng chose this specific box for her.

It’d been ten months since she came to the Pure White Realm and half a year since her ability was awakened. However, Wang Que was still unable to fully master her ability. Her natural fear of insects made Wang Que avoid these small insects that she had the power to control.

Therefore, while everyone’s abilities gradually evolved during the process of repeatedly clearing boxes and they became stronger and stronger, Wang Que still made no advancements. Her only gain was that she was no longer confused about whether the sounds in her head were the insects or herself.

Seeing that she was being left farther and farther behind, Wang Que felt very uncomfortable in her heart. Although Luo Yan never visited her again, she still remembered that the young woman had told her the truth to persuade her to strive to get stronger as soon as possible.

Even though Wang Que still didn’t know why she trusted Luo Yan.

Ding!

The dull sound rang out as the elevator reached ground level. The negative indication on the screen finally turned to zero after three thousand years, as the people from underground returned to the surface.

The elevator door slowly opened, and the wind and snow immediately poured in.

The timing of their leaving wasn’t very good. It was snowing outside. The wind carried ice particles and snowflakes inside, slapping their helmet visor and making a crackling and popping noise. The white ice and blue-gray sky blurred together as sunlight refracted into a dazzling light, leaving almost no other colors far into the distance.

Although there was plenty of oxygen in their helmet and their thermostative protective clothing completely separated them from the outside world, it seemed as if they could feel the suffocating chill of the wind and snow. The temperature meter showed that the current temperature was -7.8 degrees.

Winter in the north often had this type of low temperature, but this was supposed to be the hottest summer in the past 3000 years.

The military base was built in the suburbs. Cui Zuojing looked out at the vastness in front of him and was unable to find any traces of human activities.

The ice and snow had buried everything.

Since the inception of Earth, scientists had confirmed that Earth had experienced six great ice ages, including the Neoarchean, Precambrian, Early Paleozoic, Late Paleozoic, Late Cenozoic, and the Fourth Ice Age. Each ice age resulted in great changes to Earth, causing the earth’s crust to drop by 100 meters. Due to the large sheet of ice thousands of meters thick, the earth’s crust slowly sank due to massive pressure, and a large number of thermophilic animals and plants went extinct.

Now, this planet was undergoing it’s seventh ice age.

There wasn’t too much time to indulge in shock. The countdown in the upper left corner of their vision reminded them that they still had a mission to complete. After a few steps against the snowy flurry, Cui Zuojing finally knew what the words “hard to move” truly meant.

“It’s better to use the car,” he suggested, hiding behind Dong Zheng’s tall frame.

Allen looked around and didn’t see the creatures he’d expected. He couldn’t help but wonder, “Where are the snow insects?”

“Yes.” Wang Que squatted down and, following the faint voices in her mind, began digging at the spot by her feet. She dug out the snow covering and, on top of the ice was a black thing lying on its stomach.

It was the size of an adult’s thumbnail, and if one wasn’t looking carefully enough, it would look like an inconspicuous ball.

At this moment, it was dormant. Wang Que took a deep breath, resisted the discomfort in her heart, and gently sent out a call to it.

[Fungus Bell] slowly awakened this parasite that had never seen the above world. It slowly unfolded it’s body, causing hundreds of legs that had evolved to move more effectively in ice and snow to sway in waves. Under everyone’s amazed gazes, it flipped over from Wang Que’s palm and quickly sank into the snow.

Dong Linhai followed Wang Que’s action and parted the top layer of snow.

A large swath of snow fell away, revealing the densely packed black spots on the thick layer of ice underneath. The sight was enough to make people with intense phobia commit suicide on the spot.

The falling ice and snow soon covered them again, but the terrifying scene still remained on their retina.

The snow flurries were relentless.

After a long time, Cui Zuojing lightly pushed Dong Zheng and said, “Okay, hurry up. There will definitely be more in the future. If you’re like this now, you’ll be scare stupid then, and I won’t be able to save you.”

Everyone got up one after another, got in the hover car, and drove along the route toward the Institute of Biochemistry.

Under their feet were thousands upon thousands of dormant insects.

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