Long-term salvation

Unfortunately, nothing seemed to happen. Aiden just stopped struggling and fell asleep, as if those desires were temporarily satisfied.

"The oath is established."

Note 1: "Soldier" is also a movie starring Kurt Russell.

Chapter 162: The Pirate Ship is Already on Board, Don't Try to Escape! (4K)

"Now you can see my 'business'. Do you like it?"

Rhodes spoke to the suicide squad members without even looking up. He put his coat on the boy Lucas, who was holding a hot water bottle in his hand and staring at the twisted and charred corpse that had been put into a giant black body bag.

The body of the Wendigo, who was once the boy's father, will soon be sealed in a "steel coffin" made of high-strength alloy and transported to the Atlas Corporation research institute under the supervision of the Cogito Foundation.

As for Aiden, his younger brother, he is currently tied up in a straitjacket and falling asleep. The accompanying doctor gave him a sedative to ensure that he would not wake up on the way to Arkham Asylum.

"I...after this mission is over, I will take my men and leave immediately," Barney Ross said as he watched Rhodes take a deep breath. The burly man, who had seen a glimpse of the madness behind reality, tried to slow down his tone. "We don't even need the deposit. Not a single cent."

But Barney knew that this was impossible - the boy in front of him had dug out information about himself and the suicide squad from the vast archives, investigated everyone's past clearly, and then brought them here just to bear witness.

"Do you think you can still refuse? We're already on board, don't even think about escaping!"

As expected, he came with a purpose, using the bloody truth to bind the death squad here. What would he say next? Will I give you enough money to last you a lifetime? Or will there always be someone standing behind you, someone to back you up, so that you only need to fight and die on the battlefield against this monster?

Barney subconsciously extended his left hand and rubbed it against the palm of his right. He was a witness to what Rhode had just done. Was it... a miracle? Barney didn't believe in God, but he did see a miracle—a weapon appeared in his hand in an instant, and he used his own blood to calm the boy who was about to become a monster.

Aliens? Angels? Demons? Or some elf in a funny hat from a fucking fairy tale?

"Join us, join the Army Without Borders," Rhodes simply said.

"We...if you pay us enough," Lee Christmas from the Suicide Squad hesitated for a few seconds, glanced at Barney who was still in a daze, and then spoke, "and if it's just to kill this kind of monster..."

"Gideon, do you know him? He's also from the SAS, so I bet you know him."

Rhodes asked. He saw that the house in front had been set on fire after the Vulture Squad soldiers had searched it. All traces of the Weaver family's residence were burned. Only the photos, books and personal clothing were packed into a small leather suitcase and placed at the feet of the boy Lucas.

"I know him, but we're not in the same operations squadron. I heard he's on the list of that wealthy man from Irons, which is consistent with his abilities. This guy is the most ruthless one in their squadron."

"The elite Atlas troops he led were ambushed by a monster in a complex mine-like terrain. Of the six-man squad, two were killed and three were seriously injured. He himself lost a hand and is currently trying to rebuild it. You can imagine what you will encounter after joining the Army Without Borders."

"Fvck, do you want us to join or not?"

The hot-tempered Gunnar replied angrily, tightly holding the Saiga-12 semi-automatic shotgun that Rhodes provided to the suicide squad. Thanks to this weapon, the burly man, whose face looked as if it had been chopped by a knife or an axe, was able to suppress his rage and a hint of fear, gritting his teeth and squeezing out the words:

"If so, then stop telling these useless horror stories. Isn't that funny?"

"Once you join, you'll only need to fulfill our part of the deal. We'll enter, and you'll guard the outside, restricting any outside idiots from entering and preventing the monsters from escaping. This will also include engaging in firefights with other human forces. After all, the professional soldiers carrying out missions in the other world are invaluable and cannot be lost due to practical considerations... Of course, I don't recommend you join the missions in the other world."

Rhodes took out a cigarette from the box in his pocket, but just put it under his nose to smell it and put it back - he had agreed with the girls that he could only smoke two cigarettes a day, but it was a different matter in battle - unfortunately, the burnt stench of the monster corpses burned by the flames and the burnt smell of the houses on fire had completely overwhelmed the smell of the cigarette. At this moment, every breath was torturing his respiratory system.

Putting the cigarette back into the pack, Rhodes glanced at each member of the death squad, forcing them to look away with a scrutinizing gaze, not daring to meet his gaze. Finally, his gaze fell on the flashing police lights in the distance.

Retracting his gaze, Rhodes continued with a smile:

"All of you have mental issues... I think you understand this better than I do. Do you think you'll only encounter these tall, beast-like monsters in the future? That's impossible. The other world will gradually tear apart your spirits, torture your souls, and force your bodies to succumb to pain, turning you into beings like that monster. At that time, the weapons in your hands will really come in handy."

"This is the real horror story. You are too vulnerable, especially when facing the other world."

Rhode said so, and his words made the members of the Death Squad look at each other in confusion:

From the moment they picked up their guns, no one had ever told them that they were fragile, and these men who had escaped countless hails of bullets had to admit that Rhodes was right. Each of them had some mental problems to a certain extent. They were war hounds roaming outside the mainstream society and would always be spurned by normal society.

Now, they could only let Rhode control them, especially after learning the truth about the world.

Kill the person in front of him and run away? Impossible. Not to mention the numerous armed men around, the suicide squad members were already well aware of Rhode's skills in the bar that night. If a fight really broke out, how many people would still be there after six gunshots? No one wanted to face off against a super soldier who could fight such a monster.

Sighing, Barney Ross threw the rifle Rhodes had given him back to its original owner, spread his hands, and said helplessly:

"It looks like we don't have much of a choice."

"Don't worry, big guy. We're not on missions every day or every month," Rhode said with a grin. "It's a fixed monthly allowance of $3500 USD, and missions are charged separately. It starts at five figures—much lower than the Vulture Squad, who make six figures—but we still cover your medical insurance, housing insurance, and college tuition. You can also get 20-40% reimbursement for your own home purchase based on your combat contribution and price. There's also a dental checkup subsidy, and regular medical treatment at Atlas Corporation hospitals is free..."

"Wait a minute," Barney raised his hand to stop Rhodes from continuing. "You should have said this at the very beginning. These conditions are enough to make an entire armored division work for you wholeheartedly. First, write a note, ah, a long-term employment contract with two signatures... Gunnar! You have a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney, so you better keep a close eye on it!"

"Leave it to me," the hot-tempered boxer said, now grinning, his earlier anger and fear completely invisible. "Let me tell you, if we don't have this money, don't blame us for deserting."

“…Get away!”

Reaching out to press his eyebrows, Rhode felt that he shouldn't waste his feelings on these guys... Barney, who was worried in his heart, forced a few smiles, raised his head and gestured for Rhode to look at the several police cars and a fire truck that hurriedly arrived, and whispered:

"How are you going to deal with this? Let us act tough? I can explain it to a group of mercenaries, but what you're doing now can't be known to others, right?"

"That's pretty much it, but I do need to ask them some questions."

As Rod spoke, he walked towards Sheriff Paul Meadows and his sister Julia Meadows, who were running over. The latter was the boy Lucas's homeroom teacher. It was she who explained to the school principal the torture and malnutrition the boy had suffered...which ultimately led to the death of the dedicated female principal.

What a tragedy, Rhode thought. His eyes swept over the dazed boy Lucas, who had already turned his gaze to the ambulance where his brother lay sleeping, and just looked at him calmly:

When his father turned into a monster and died, and the boy Lucas swore an oath, the system's [Side Quest: From Now On] had already changed from (6/10) to (8/10). Now that he thinks about it, feeding with blood just now should not be considered a spur-of-the-moment idea.

Looking at the boy's sorrowful face, Rhodes touched his chin and felt that he could form a mobile task force with members having special characteristics... such as a two-faced abomination, a soldier who transformed into a deer-headed monster, and a brother who bound him. It sounded quite exciting.

"You guys...what on earth is going on here?!"

The sheriff ran over breathlessly. He immediately saw the mutilated body of the headmistress lying on a plain canvas stretcher, and the huge deer antlers being placed into a metal box by staff in protective suits. They were definitely not the antlers of the deer found around the town. As his heart skipped a beat, he could only cast his eyes on the Vulture Squad and the Death Squad members who were armed with live ammunition:

"Oh my God, I said...I told you! Don't cause any trouble!"

"Who are you?" Julia asked. She tried her best not to look at the headmistress's body. Before she could reply, she squatted in front of the boy Lucas and asked softly and concernedly, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Teacher Julia," the boy replied calmly, without moving his gaze. "The deceased lady protected me. She saved me from the fire."

"I can……"

"The two children will leave with me, ma'am," Rhodes stepped forward, ignoring Sheriff Paul's questions and warnings. He looked into the eyes of the strong and maternal woman and said calmly, "Don't try to ask us where we're going or what we're doing. Leave here now, go home, get some sleep, and forget all this."

"what?!"

Julia's chest heaved. She shook her head, rubbed her temples, and said to Rhodes firmly:

"Listen, I don't know your background, so I can't guarantee they'll have a better life. I'm a teacher, and I have the ability, knowledge, and morals to teach and raise two children. For God's sake, I can't just watch them walk into an unknown future! Do they have any irreplaceable value? I can compensate you for your losses, or I can even get a loan!"

Rhode looked at Julia quietly. Some kind of pressure forced her to shrink back half a step, but she immediately stepped back... What a kind person, Rhode thought, but he still decided to give her a fatal blow. Turning his head to look at Sheriff Paul and Julia's brother, Rhode spoke, the coldness in his words seemed to come from the icy hell:

"I refused because I couldn't place my two children in the family of a drug dealer. Sheriff Paul Meadows, where is the abandoned mine where Frank and his gang manufacture drugs? I'm sure you know because you were involved and facilitated it for them."

"Wait...you're dealing drugs?!"

"No, I mean..." Sheriff Paul avoided his sister's gaze. He wanted to deny it, but when he met those azure eyes, his already shaken inner defenses collapsed. "All I know is that outside the abandoned mines that the mining company announced they were redeveloping, we found the mutilated bodies of Frank's accomplices. That wasn't done by humans, and there have been missing persons reports on the edge of town... I saw Lucas's paintings, and the old Indian said it was the work of a Wendigo, a deer-horned monster that can never be satisfied!"

Sheriff Paul thought of what he had just seen, the huge antlers growing wildly like mutant branches. He closed his eyes, not knowing what to do, but he could not open his eyes to face his sister's accusing gaze.

For a moment, this vast yet narrow barren land fell into deathly silence. Those sounds - the crackling sound of flames burning houses, the sound of fire trucks spraying water, human shouts and the sound of the wind - became increasingly distant. Only one person's heart was being tortured by his conscience, and he let out a low, painful gasp.

After a moment of silence, Julia wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes and asked in a low voice:

"Can Lucas and the others live well?"

"You'll know, Ms. Julia," Rhodes said, pulling two business cards from his jacket pocket. One showed the information for Miskatonic University's affiliated school, and the other for Arkham Asylum. After putting them in Julia's hands, he patted her shoulder and said with a smile, "Lucas and Aiden will be there. You can come visit them... when you're done here."

Patting Julia's shoulder again, Rhode walked past the silent sheriff and headed towards the Vulture Squad, who had been waiting for a long time. He said to Vulture No. 1:

"Be prepared. You will be operating alone this time. The dark and narrow mine is not a good place for fighting. It will be very difficult."

"For humanity, I will die."

"It's not time to talk about death yet. Save your life," Rhode said unhappily, pounding Vulture 1's chest. "Besides, Irons suffered a loss once in this kind of terrain. Do you think he's unprepared?"

"Atlas Corporation men! Drag out those ultrasonic detectors, infrared sensors, and other gadgets, as well as the cables with hundreds of 100,000-lumen bulbs. I'm going to roast that damn deer-headed demon with my flashlight today!"

Chapter 163: Dispel the Darkness! (4K)

Outside the abandoned mine, a cold wind blew over the dilapidated flat-roofed factory buildings around it, bringing with it sobbing sounds.

A large truck was slowly reversing, with its rear end facing the mine. Several Atlas employees in tight work clothes jumped out, grabbed the cable ends of the cable reels and pulled them, connecting them to six four-wheeled robots that had been waiting for a long time. Each cable was equipped with a flashlight with tens of thousands of lumens.

"Barney, have your men go to the surrounding factory rooftops. Equip your heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, with 600 rounds of ammunition each. If anything goes wrong, retreat immediately after the fight," Rhodes ordered the strong men of the suicide squad to disperse to maximize suppressive firepower. "Plan your own escape routes. If you die at the hands of monsters because of broken legs, don't blame me for writing on your tombstones, 'Here lies the fool who couldn't find a ladder for himself.'"

"You are the boss, whatever you say is right."

Barney Ross shrugged, turned to look at his teammates, and shouted:

"You all heard it, bad boys, move! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"

Looking at the suicide squad members taking action, Rhode reached out and pressed his brow - these guys were good in every way except that they were unruly. As long as they were given a mission objective and some precautions, they would always complete it perfectly... But there were still too few of them. In the future, the area they would have to control would not just be a small hole.

A real army is still needed.

After turning this thought over in his mind, Rhode turned to the Vulture Squad who were debugging the personal data terminal on their left arm and said:

"In six minutes, the detection device will send back a second mine topographic map. Combined with the mine map found at the mining company, it can be seen that those monsters—you should be prepared for the presence of multiple enemies—have already opened up a large number of new passages with their bare hands. The only good news is that you can move freely in the cave."

"This also means the enemy will be much larger than us," Vulture 3 fiddled with the monocular night vision goggles overhead. The upcoming battle might involve frequent light-to-light switching, and using the four-lens night vision goggles would be a bit of a hindrance. "This isn't good news, Boss."

"Believe me, you will definitely prefer to face one big one rather than hundreds of small ones in the future."

Shrugging, Rhode took out a cigarette and held it between his fingers, watching as six four-wheeled robots dragged long cables into the mine... This thing looked a lot like a mechanical dog in a movie that traveled around with its home planet, that is, a "multi-functional all-terrain intelligent transportation platform", but it still looked very primitive and not very intelligent.

Rhodes only hoped that the technical experts at Atlas Corporation would think more about it and quickly develop things like door frame robots, quantum computers, and orbital elevators.

After a few more instructions, Rhodes rejected the Atlas employees' request to retreat behind the bunker roadblock. Instead, he found a white plastic chair and sat in front of the mine entrance. By the way, he began to hum something strange like "I am the storm that is approaching~~~".

After waiting for nearly half an hour, all preparations were complete, and the Vulture Squad began to enter the abandoned mine.

"It's so damn bright in here..."

Vulture No. 2, who was walking in the front, sighed subconsciously. He saw that the long mine in front of him had been completely illuminated. The light from the flashlights was reflected on the surrounding rock walls, and was refracted by the potholes and puddles on the ground, as if countless crystal gems were engraved on them - the sewage mixed with mud and slag actually became much more noble at this moment.

After carefully observing the surroundings, Vulture 1, feeling a sting in his eyes, said helplessly on the communication channel:

"Command team, can you lower the brightness? It's too bright and we can't stand it."

"Sorry, the flashlight brightness will drop to around 1 lumens."

The light receded a little, but even so, it was still beyond the reach of darkness.

After the Vulture Squad adapted to the current environment, they searched forward in the formation they had set up earlier.

Number 2, the strongest, walked in front, pushing a thick alloy shield with electric wheels. His weapon was an M240 general-purpose machine gun mounted on the shield's corner, specifically designed to suppress enemy units immediately. An exoskeleton would be even better, but Atlas's product was still in the lab.

Others would enter in standard combat gear, armed with shotguns and rifles, but would carry twice as much explosives and incendiary grenades.

The brightly lit mine tunnels stretched in all directions, and the deeper one went, the more traces of primitive mining became apparent. Workers once used picks to knock out the ore, then shoveled it into mine carts, which then lurched away along the tracks. As time progressed, more sophisticated equipment was naturally employed, but these things had completely disappeared. Only the thin rails, deeply embedded in the solid soil, tamed by the footsteps of thousands of heavy boots, remained, their lonely hold.

Now, a few pairs of combat boots occasionally stepped on the thin rails that sporadically emerged from the ground, making a not-so-crisp sound crawling along the interconnected mines, like flying insects stirring a spider web... The supernatural creature from another dimension exhaled warm breath, and saw a flash of light from the very end of the corridor.

It opened its mouth and began to speak, and the same sound returned from the same path and merged with the echo.

"The mine is becoming more complex, and some directions are unlit," Vulture 3 said, his fingers stroking the gun barrel. His left arm was aching slightly, a scar left by the last mission to the other world that would never be erased. "We are entering the territory of monsters."

"I agree—look at these weird hanging decorations. Bags? They look more like some kind of Indian ward off evil spirits. Do you want to take one back?"

"Can you take one down, be careful... Command team?"

Vulture 3, who was about to reach out to grab it, immediately retracted his hand. He took a few steps back to the same level as his captain, who was patting his earphones with his palm. After a few seconds, he said seriously:

"I can't hear the command team's voice—everyone else immediately try to reconnect the communication line, then check the team's communication. Are the personal data terminals still usable?"

"Okay." / "At least the map works." / "Okay... I'm feeling a bit cold, are you guys feeling it?"

cold?

Vulture No. 1 moved his hands slightly and was suddenly shocked to find that his fingers had become stiff and his breathing was becoming rapid, each breath carrying a heavy, tired, damp heat.

At some point, the water seeping from the rock walls surrounding the Vulture Squad had frozen solid, now gleaming brightly under the flashlight. Staring at the thin ice for too long could even make one feel slightly dazed.

At this moment, Vulture 1 even felt that he was swimming in the dark and cold lake water. When he tried again and again to stick his head out of the water, he could see the shadow of a giant beast wandering in the forest around the lake - that thing looked like a huge and shriveled moose. It crawled out of the narrow cave where it lived, as soft and boneless as an octopus, and then ran through the forest. Its thin body allowed it to pass through any gap between the trees.

The cold brings an insatiable hunger and thirst, and hungry beasts are approaching.

"Be alert, creatures from the other world are approaching!"

Vulture 1 roared orders into the communication channel, his eyes sweeping over the cables on the ground. They were still supplying power... This was good news:

"Number 2, prepare to withstand the impact. Number 4, be alert to our retreat—at least we need to see the enemy's true appearance before we decide whether to retreat!"

The foul-smelling wind suddenly hit every member of the Vulture Squad, causing them to subconsciously take a half step back, but everyone gripped their weapons tightly, letting their heavy breathing cover up all their thoughts.

Lights began to go out one after another from deep within the mine, and darkness and shadows advanced layer by layer, slowly and inexorably pressing towards the human warriors.

There were faint whispers, and everyone who was consumed by hunger and thirst was trying to persuade the soldiers in their ears. The voices were low and carried a hint of impatience.

A huge, dry hand stretched out from the darkness and pressed against the rock wall. Frost filled with a foul smell immediately spread from the palm print. Unclean, festering juice slowly dripped down, but before it hit the ground, it had already turned into dirty ice beads, bouncing on the ground.