The game has become a real alternate world-Chapter 871 - 553: Tracking

Laspal Plains.

This place lies at the center of the area currently occupied by the United Army; it is flat and open, with fertile land and a pleasant climate.

It is considered one of the most important and livable regions within the United Army’s occupied territories.

In the past, numerous villages and farms were scattered here, serving as a critical grain production base for a certain nation’s power.

However, after the rat invasion, this land was ravaged.

Even the Kingdom that originally occupied this area was among the first few to be annihilated.

Though a few nobles remain in this country, most of those left are commoners, despite the nobles claiming ownership over this area.

But the outcome was, of course, that none recognized this claim.

It wasn’t until the Night Watcher arrived, using the Power of Secondary Profession, that this place once again turned into a granary. At this stage, more than half of the grain supply for the United Army and various refugee camps comes from here.

At the edge of this plain, an elite squad of Night Watchers was quietly weaving through the forest.

"I smell it." Anger caught a whiff of a peculiar scent in the woods and stopped.

"What smell?" Tyr looked puzzled, even blinking as he activated his Identification ability to thoroughly scan the surroundings.

But he found nothing unusual.

Meeting the puzzled gazes of his teammates, Anger slowly said, "Plague, it’s the scent of plague."

"Really? You can smell it just by sniffing?" Bi’an crouched on a tree branch, full of disbelief.

They weren’t entirely ignorant of the Identification ability.

It had long been explained that this ability merely skipped the tedious process of detection, allowing the user to directly see the results with their eyes.

But if no traces could be detected in the normal, tedious process, even using Identification wouldn’t help.

In other words, how many traces could be seen through Identification entirely depended on one’s knowledge reserves and familiarity with various traces.

It simply shortened the traces that required several hours or even a whole day to discover to an instant after the ability was activated.

As elite squad members, they undeniably understood the composition of Evil God Power and the characteristics of residual traces.

Anger blinked.

"I not only smelled it, but also saw... the breath of plague, that catastrophe which escaped from my hands."

Hearing this, his teammates silently closed their mouths.

As their Captain, Yorndaren glanced at Anger, asking gravely, "Since you are so certain, I choose to trust you. However, if this is indeed the case, the mission we are now performing is no longer simply about pursuing vengeance. This is the heart of the United Army’s territory; you must have received the intelligence that a treacherous individual has infiltrated.

The Four Gods are united, they must be plotting some conspiracy, and now a High Level follower of the plague has appeared here."

Without him finishing, the teammates understood the seriousness of the situation.

"We’ll continue the investigation. Once we get any solid information, send it out immediately. Please, do not act recklessly." He specifically pointed at Anger to remind him.

Anger nodded: "I merely want to make up for past mistakes, I won’t act on impulse."

Soon, during their continued progress, they sensed some traces and discovered a hidden camp in the forest.

The camp was crude, with only a small tent and an unextinguished campfire in front of the tent, surrounded by something resembling a drying rack.

"A Hunter’s camp?" Tyr felt a surge of doubt.

Before the fall of Golden Wheat City, he was just a street hooligan, but to make a living, he had once hunted in the forest. In his impression, it looked like a Hunter’s camp. Hunters usually processed their catch simply at the camp before bringing their spoils home.

With doubt in mind, Tyr quietly approached the camp and after a simple inspection, concluded.

"Indeed, this is a Hunter’s camp, but it’s been abandoned for over two years. However, it has certainly been used frequently in the last half-year—the soil beneath the skinning rack is soaked with a lot of blood.

Judging by the traces around, somebody must have processed prey here in the past two days. But strangely, according to the traces, they didn’t take all of their prey with them. For a normal Hunter, that doesn’t make sense..."

The teammates came forward to help, conducting another meticulous inspection.

"The Hunter was abducted, there is a very faint residue of plague power here; the event happened about a day or two ago, and the Hunter made an extremely subtle resistance before being captured."

"Were they used as a pitiful sacrifice?" Bi’an asked calmly.

After all, Evil God Followers capture these commoners mostly to be used as sacrifices.

"Perhaps, but based on these traces, we might be able to find a direction for further investigation." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

...

The sound of horse hooves lightly echoed on the stone pavement.

Raelia carried her Long Spear, her steps leisurely, as if she was casually strolling on a spring outing.

But if you observed her eyes closely, you’d discover a slight convergence of Magic Power, ready to activate Identification, vigilantly observing her surroundings, always maintaining a combat-ready Status.

"So boring, let’s do something fun, shall we?" lying back on Raelia’s horseback, looking at the clouds, Amber grumbled.

Raelia replied without turning: "If you’re bored, go play by yourself, I still have an important task to complete."

Normally, Amber would have disappeared long ago, but lately, she really hadn’t found anything fun around.

So, she continued to nag by Raelia’s ear.

"You’ve been wandering around this area every day, are you searching for some treasure? Amber can help you."

"It’s just a simple Patrol mission. If you’re willing to help, it couldn’t be better."

"Hmph! No way!"

With that, the Little Fairy floated up and landed on top of Raelia’s head, glancing around curiously.

"There’s nothing special here at all!"

Raelia didn’t argue, sinking into contemplation.

Their squad had been here for several days. In theory, being tasked with a Patrol mission here was in the hopes they could find some clues, so if any issues occurred, a strong team could swiftly provide support.

However, the reality was that their squad gained nothing. Even now, as everyone scattered, individually expanding the Patrol search range, they still had no clue.

It’s entirely unclear whether the enemy has withdrawn, or if the opponents are so cunning that no trace was left behind.

No matter, continue the Patrol. Though this mission seems like a public-funded tour, it couldn’t be this simple. In any case, maintaining a high state of combat readiness is undoubtedly necessary.