Bai Zemin nodded silently before looking over at Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun with a smile on his face.
"This discovery is great. Now, our group will not only have a better prospect of facing danger and surviving, but it will also greatly boost everyone's morale!"
Shangguan Bing Xue and Wu Yijun, understanding perfectly what it meant to possess control of what was inside the hangar, could not help but have their eyes light up even more upon hearing Bai Zemin's statement.
"This..." Fu Qigang took a stupefied step forward as he stared in front of him with wide eyes.
Parked at the rear of the hangar, two Bradley-type M3 IFVs were pointed toward the now destroyed door. Next to them, two large military tarpaulins had been casually tossed to the ground, showing that they were previously covered.
This type of IFV was especially known for its terrific firepower, extremely high all-terrain mobility, and several armor plates capable of resisting even the impact of 30 mm armor-piercing ammunition. Undoubtedly terrifying monsters and among the most powerful of the IFVs.
In addition to the two M3 IFVs, there were ten vehicles mounted with Type 92 and Type 67 heavy machine guns.
Military Jeeps, ATVs, even five modified trucks.
"Why... Why are these things here?" one of the military men remarked dumbfounded. "Didn't they take all the vehicles with heavy weaponry that dog Jin Shun and the rest?"
"It's not that they didn't want to take them away, it's that they couldn't do it or saw it unnecessary at the time for some reason." Bai Zemin walked over to one of the IFVs and touched the helmet of the vehicle. Then he turned to look around and pointed to the empty spots, "They took the battle tanks and the vast majority of weapon-mounted vehicles. More than enough for a group of fifteen hundred men."
While the M3 IFVs were powerful even among their kind, against the real king of the land, the battle tanks, they were not worthy of mention. It took three or four M3 IFVs to stand a chance of destroying a single tank, which was proof enough of the power of this type of machine.
It was more than probable that at the time of retreat, Jin Shun and the rest of his men would decide to leave these M3 IFVs behind for lack of manpower capable of operating them. After all, this type of weaponry was useless for anything other than transportation if the weapons could not be operated, which in this forest filled with danger would eventually become more of a burden than a help.
"Bai Zemin, what do we do now?" Wu Yijun asked seemingly worried. "The sky is completely black now. If we go out in this darkness we will be vulnerable to wild animals with enhanced senses."
Bai Zemin thought for a moment before looking at Shangguan Bing Xue and asked her opinion about it, "What do you think? Should we go in search of Chen He and the rest now or just wait until dawn?"
The reason he asked this question was that he wanted to see what kind of response Shangguan Bing Xue had. Bai Zemin considered her a very important person in his group; not only was she extremely intelligent and powerful, but she could also keep a cool mind in most situations and regardless of the danger quickly think of countermeasures; this was precisely why she managed to defeat a First Order New Age Monster that was 22 levels above her.
Now, he wanted to see whether she could maintain rationality in this situation or not. That way, he would know where her limit was and be aware of what situations she could not be reliable to lead in.
Shangguan Bing Xue's eyes flashed inquisitively and she half-closed her eyes outwardly. She seemed to hesitate as she did not speak for almost a full minute.
No one interrupted her and simply looked at her in silence.
"We should leave at dawn." She finally spoke her thoughts, "If we leave now, not only will we endanger the lives of all of us, but we might also end up attracting wild beasts outside, giving trouble to others."
Bai Zemin's eyes glittered slightly. He nodded with a composed expression, "Good. Let's make it so then. We'll leave tomorrow morning at first light."
The military camp naturally had several huge rooms with many beds inside; they were destined for the soldiers to rest during the night or when they were off duty. Therefore, Fu Qigang's group took one large room for themselves while Bai Zemin's group took another.
While they considered themselves allies, there was still some resistance. After all, it hadn't even been two hours since they had met. It took a little more time for trust to begin to grow to the point where they could comfortably lock eyes with each other.
After a quick dinner consisting mainly of mutant beast meat, everyone fell asleep comfortably.
The soldiers slept with smiles on their faces, satisfied with their first "real" meal after several days of eating compressed food that was only used in emergencies during wartime.
* * *
The next day, Bai Zemin's group left the forest early in the morning. They even had breakfast on the way without stopping their steps.
On the route they occasionally encountered some mutated beasts or mutated insects but were easily decimated by the three main fighters without even using a single bullet.
The soldiers held on to their guns tightly as they cautiously scanned the surroundings. But they gradually realized that the three people in front of them were simply monsters; they could no longer be considered normal humans from their point of view.
The soldiers' world seemed to turn upside down when they saw with their own eyes how the cold and indifferent Shangguan Bing Xue crafted ice pikes to end the lives of her enemies, or when the beautiful and warm Wu Yijun used the surrounding grass to trap her enemies and cut them into pieces.
As for Bai Zemin, he just casually swung his sword a couple of times all along the way, killing some enemies just out of boredom.
Since they did not encounter any major setbacks, after walking for two hours, the group finally reached the main road and immediately saw the two modified jeeps on the side partially covered with branches and dry leaves.
The soldiers sighed in relief as they saw the sunlight clearly again without being surrounded by thousands of trees. Some of them could not help but shed tears of joy and comfort as if they had won a second chance at life when they had already given up.
In fact, from a certain point of view it was not wrong. After all, had it not been for the appearance of Bai Zemin and the two women, the soldiers would have ended up being killed by some wild beast and then eaten or starved to death inside the weapons vault.
Unconsciously, the caution the soldiers felt towards him diminished and the look in their eyes became a little warmer; after all, they were aware that the person who had saved their lives was the young man who led the two women.