Chapter Eight: A Rare Trust

The drone was ruined, lying in the grass and emitting a wisp of smoke that signaled it would likely never restart.

The convoy of Fallen Insects roared past, leaving behind only a cloud of exhaust that felt like a mockery. In the lead vehicle, Zhao Bohan’s eardrums throbbed with excruciating pain from the screeching sound; his eyes were bloodshot, and his contamination level had spiked by 10%. Su Qingran and Qi An flanked him, one checking his ears and brain while the other provided light purification.

Yu Shuang slammed her fist onto the hood of the lead vehicle, leaving a deep dent. The red dot representing the tracker on her tablet had flickered twice before dying out completely.

It was broken, too.

Su Qingran glanced over, her beautiful face frosty. "Didn't we check all the critical equipment before we left? This spy drone was test-flown, and it was perfectly fine then!"

If it was fine then, its precise failure now could only mean someone had tampered with it.

Everyone remained in a gloomy, heavy silence. Yu Shuang had no cigarettes at hand, which only added to her irritation.

"None of us are experts in this kind of precision electronics, so being taken advantage of is inevitable," she said, managing to restrain her emotions as the team leader. She took a deep breath. "Pick up the broken drone and keep it safe. I will report this to the main headquarters later."

"Those rotten-hearted, maggot-brained pieces of filth! They don't do a lick of real work, only know how to form cliques and fight internally! This isn't the first time, either! If they push me too far, I’ll snipe them myself!" Zhuang Xiao cursed, his baby face twisted in rage.

However, once he finished venting, he carefully checked the expressions of the two team leaders and asked, "So, what do we do now?"

Qi An gained a new understanding of the squad’s dire predicament. She remained silent, roughly calculating the three choices before them.

The first was to return to the base. They could report the equipment failure, but the logistics department would likely refuse to admit the gear was faulty to begin with. If someone had sabotaged it, they surely had a backup plan to ensure the device was destroyed beyond repair. For Team 2, returning would mean a failed mission, the potential blame for damaging precious equipment, and a major disciplinary mark.

The second option was to continue tracking using the chemical detection and path-calculation functions of the multi-functional reconnaissance drone. But that unit was too large and couldn't get too close without risking exposure. Plus, there was the issue of battery life. Keeping the chemical sensors and path-correction active drained power rapidly; they weren't sure if the remaining batteries would last four hours. If the Fallen Insects stopped frequently or took a detour, four hours wouldn't even be enough to reach the first suspected stronghold, meaning the team wouldn't even be able to rule out one of the two locations. Not to mention, there was no telling if the wind would pick up in the afternoon. Wind would accelerate the dissipation of the insect oil exhaust, making the trail impossible to follow.

The final option was to head directly to the two suspected strongholds and search them one by one. Without the spy drone, their multi-functional reconnaissance drone lacked integrated aperture radar. Relying solely on optical and infrared cameras was possible, but the workload would be immense and the danger level extremely high.

All three choices were essentially a contest of which was the least terrible, but the last one was slightly better. Based on what Qi An knew of Yu Shuang, she would likely choose the last one.

However, to Qi An’s surprise, the captain chose none of them.

Yu Shuang rummaged through the trunk of the rear vehicle and pulled out a battered box. When she opened it, it revealed another set of spy drone equipment. This set was visibly much older than the previous one; the drone body was the size of a goose egg with mottled, unrecognizable paint, and the accompanying neural controller had pitifully few sensors.

Zhao Bohan was stunned. "What is this?"

"It’s something Xiao Zhou brought back," Yu Shuang said, her voice dropping. "His sister runs a second-hand electronics shop. She scavenged old parts to assemble this and gave it to him for his birthday last year."

Xiao Zhou was one of the team members who had died during Team 2's previous mission. After a moment of shocked silence, the team fell quiet. Qi An was filled with admiration. Spy drones were rare commodities at any time; the fact that his sister could collect parts and repair one spoke volumes about her sourcing channels and technical skill.

Yu Shuang’s tone was grim. "Its stealth performance and battery life are far worse than the previous one, and it’s much harder to operate. Plus, there’s a small but lethal probability that the audio-monitoring module will malfunction and start broadcasting uncontrollably once activated!"

The team members exchanged glances.

This was truly lethal. Every Fallen Insect was a mobile source of contamination. The lumps and patterns on their skin, the foul stench of the mucus and blood they excreted, and the terrifying sensation of their tentacle suckers touching human skin... all of these were sources of potent poison. Among them, the screams produced by the Fallen Insects using their vestigial human vocal organs were the worst of all—a poison within a poison! If the monitoring module glitched and the Fallen Insects happened to shriek, the person controlling the drone remotely could suffer an immediate mutation.

It was a massive gamble, but one worth taking. Zhao Bohan said, "I’ll do it. I’m feeling much better."

"Just rest," Yu Shuang scoffed, pulling the headset onto her own head.

Qi An hesitated in the corner. "What if... I do it?"

Everyone looked at her. Yu Shuang refused instinctively. "No, it’s too dangerous..."

Her refusal was subconscious, but she suddenly realized that the danger primarily came from contamination, and Qi An had the highest mental resistance in the group. Why then was she refusing? Was it a lack of trust?

The atmosphere grew awkward. Qi An paused for a moment and said, "I often participate in experiments with Professor Tang and am quite familiar with operating neural controllers. I test-flew the spy drone this morning when we checked the equipment. However, I cannot guarantee there won't be any mistakes. If you decide to operate it yourself, Captain, I will stay by your side, ready to perform purification at any moment."

She spoke calmly and earnestly, with no sign of resentment on her face; she was truly prepared to accept either choice.

A sudden wave of guilt washed over Yu Shuang. The low-spec controller had fewer sensors, requiring higher mental focus. Furthermore, if she were to hear a scream and her mutation accelerated, the risk to the purifier would be just as high.

Time was running out.

"Let Xiao Qi operate it!" Yu Shuang decided.