Monster Dismantling Company

This question left Li Lin speechless.

He carries a 120-kilogram all-nitrogen anion bomb and possesses immense strength; he leads a monster dismantling company with a glorious history and is handing over his responsibilities to the head of Ningzhou's defense department; he is popular at school and has many friends.

But he rarely thought about whether he would lose these things one day.

Or rather, in the current environment, he's not really inclined to think about this—

Animals sympathize with their own kind. Elephants, whales, and even tiny mice grieve for the misfortunes of their kin. They learn from the misfortunes of their fellow creatures, taking them as a warning, and thus begin to fear those things that might harm them. All of this stems from a sense of compassion.

Humans learn to respond to changes in the external world through stimulation. It's not difficult for most children to learn these things. Because experience teaches, and things are learned quickly. A child who falls while running learns to watch where they're going; a child who is punished for doing something wrong learns that they will be punished again for making the same mistake.

But for Li Lin, learning to be afraid and to feel compassion is extremely difficult. Because nothing in his life so far has truly harmed him. He hasn't been stimulated, and therefore it's difficult for him to truly learn what fear is, since he has nothing to fear in the first place.

For someone like him, this is a natural thing, because he really has nothing to be afraid of.

But humans are different, because without compassion, they are not human—this is also recorded in Mencius.

Recalling his encounter with the colonel, Li Lin was certain of this—the colonel treated him as some kind of indescribable ancient god, constantly clearing away any obstacles in his path, afraid of making Li Lin lose patience.

"I..." Li Lin looked at Master Wang, "I don't know how to say it... but I really don't want you to leave me."

"Then, this mission depends on you. Your master will protect you."

"???" Li Lin was stunned for a moment. His compassion, his reluctance to bear it, and even his sorrow had just been stirred up. "So, what does this mean?"

"What I mean is, your master doesn't want to die so soon. This mission is so dangerous, don't you think you should help your master shield him from the disaster?" He put his hand on Li Lin's shoulder, as if he were holding a shield in front of him.

"Tsk... So sometimes I feel like the reason I can't learn these things is because there's something wrong with your teaching methods."

...

With everything ready, it's time to set off.

As expected, Master Wang really did "protect" Li Lin in front of him. When he said he would use himself to shield Li Lin from disaster, he meant it.

The two of them walked at the very front of everyone.

The searchlights from behind illuminated the entire passage as bright as day, allowing a clear view of its entirety—just like from the outside, the passage was dark red, much drier than the outermost layer of fresh flesh, suggesting it was a part that had died long before Taba was killed.

The ground beneath his feet was tough yet resilient, strong enough to support the weight of his heavy equipment. A faint, salty smell permeated the air. It wasn't pungent, but rather stuffy. Even the air brought in beforehand hadn't made the place any fresher.

As Li Lin was being pushed along, he turned back and said, "Hey, Master. I don't think this is helping me train my empathy."

"It's okay, I think my safety is more important right now. Empathy and such can be trained later."

As he spoke, he pressed Li Lin's head to the left with his hand—in the narrow tunnel, a clump of white slime brushed past him.

Master Wang also avoided the area with the slime, preventing himself from getting the extremely foul-smelling liquid on him.

"Oh, so you didn't want me to run into them, that's why you made me walk in front to watch the way, right? And as long as I'm in front, even if the others bump into me, I won't be able to smell them?"

"Watch where you're going, look ahead as you walk."

Not far ahead was a wall of flesh, and the group stopped there.

"Hmm..." In the middle of the group, the colonel was looking at data on a tablet. "This is the first cliff face, about 5 meters high."

Five meters isn't particularly high for rock climbing. But for soldiers carrying enormous weights, this distance requires meticulous preparation.

"Let me do it." Master Wang looked up at the top, took a step back, and used his grappling hook to launch a meat hook to the top of the cliff, where it got stuck in the gap of the muscle fiber bundles.

After pulling on the rope from below to confirm it was safe, Mr. Wang tied another rope up – soft tissue is far less reliable than rock. Therefore, this type of body cavity climbing requires far more ropes than cave climbing.

With the help of two ropes, Master Wang quickly climbed up the cliff face, and then, following the muscle texture he could feel and the folds of the fascia, he drove in as many as 12 meat hooks at once.

He weaves a network of hooks to withstand the tension before releasing the rope downwards.

"One at a time. Li Lin, you go first."

Carrying a 120-kilogram bomb, Li Lin easily climbed up using the grappling hook—above was an even darker corridor, an area undetectable by the outer ultrasonic waves.

The overhead lights began to flicker and dim, indicating that external power could no longer extend further. The environment inside Taba continued to hinder exploration from the outside world.

He flipped a switch above his head, switching the chest-mounted lighting to battery mode, and the surroundings brightened once more. Li Lin then pulled up one by one the people behind him in line.

The colonel was positioned in the center. He was protected from both sides when he came up, so there was no danger—after all, he was inside the monster's cavity, and the ground was soft, so even if he fell, it wouldn't be a big deal.

But for someone so terminally ill, falling down like that would likely cost them half their life.

Perhaps due to palpitations, or perhaps due to exhaustion, he was panting heavily when he came up.

"Can you hold on?" Master Wang pressed on his shoulder. "If you can, keep going; if not, then you have to leave."

"Yes..." He fastened his breathing mask. At this depth, the air pumped in from the outside was no longer enough, and the stale smell was stronger here than outside.

Donning a breathing mask and connecting to the oxygen supply, he got up: "Let's set up another ultrasonic probe. According to the calculations, we're still quite a distance from the spine."

Ultrasound is one of the few detection methods that can be used inside monsters—although its detection range cannot penetrate very far, it can at least provide some basic information.

"There's a fork in the road ahead." The defense soldier who had set up the equipment put down his headset. "There are two roads, and something seems to be moving."