Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 534 - 116: Inside the Building

Although the ruins of Lake Baikal City are not covered by a signal shielding field, the reinforced concrete structures themselves can be seen as a kind of barrier. To maintain smooth communication with the base in the rear, we must rely on aerial drones as signal relay stations—first transferring the communication signal to the drone, then having the drone transmit the radio signal back to the forward base from the high-altitude where there are no barriers.

In some extreme situations where radio cannot be used, the drone can even use laser communication to ensure signal continuity.

However, for the Nineteenth Reconnaissance Team, which has lost its drone, both radio and laser communication have become empty words.

"Maybe we can borrow a drone from the nearby team?" a female team member suggested.

"No... there’s no team near us..." The captain shook his head. "Originally, it was the Twentieth Reconnaissance Team behind us, but half an hour ago, their captain Levi communicated that their drone’s electronic equipment malfunctioned and needed to return to base for repairs... According to the pre-departure plan, the closest team to us should be the Sixteenth Reconnaissance Team, six kilometers to the northeast, assuming their advancement speed is consistent with the plan."

"Six kilometers? That’s too far..." Maxim said, a bit dejected.

"By the way, Maxim, did you notice anything about that building earlier? Did that shadow appear again?" asked the sixth member of the team, a medic with a red cross armband on his arm.

"I was just pinned to the ground by the captain, how could I see? With my ass?" Maxim exclaimed.

"It didn’t appear." The one answering was the sniper Grazkov, who maintained his position with the rifle, not moving an inch even as a piece of rubble struck his helmet. "I’ve been watching that window, didn’t see anything—thermal imaging didn’t capture any heat source other than the drone wreckage."

"Maxim, could you have been mistaken?" the machine gunner asked, puzzled.

"Believe it or not! I really saw it!" Maxim said.

"If we could retrieve the drone, maybe we could repair it and re-establish contact with the base, but..." The medic’s words trailed off.

But the unspoken half of the sentence was understood by everyone.

The drone fell into the building, buried under a heap of bricks and rubble. To retrieve it would mean entering this pitch-black building... If Maxim wasn’t mistaken earlier, there was likely an unknown entity lurking within.

Too dangerous.

They initially sent the drone to investigate because they discovered traces of an unknown entity... and now to recover the drone, they have to face the threat directly, creating a sense of putting the cart before the horse.

The team captain felt some regret. Had he called for support from the headquarters immediately instead of riskily using the drone to explore the building, they might not be in this dilemma.

The soldiers exchanged glances, hesitating. Then the female soldier stepped forward: "I’ll go! The collapsed area is too narrow, my body is the smallest, so it should be the easiest for me to squeeze through!"

Just as she was about to take off her backpack, Maxim dashed out first: "How can a group of big men shy away and let a woman take the risk? I can’t bear that shame! Besides, I’m the breacher, this is my task!"

In a few swift moves, he removed the excess gear from his body, folded the stock of his submachine gun, and hung it underneath his neck. Then, with a quick step on a pile of rubble in the corner, he propelled himself up, grabbing onto the windowsill about 3.5 meters from the ground.

Maxim was slender, just one centimeter taller than the female soldier on his team, but he was extremely agile—in army martial tournaments, he often used this advantage to beat opponents several weight classes above him.

The anti-slip grooves at the bottom of his military boots gripped the rough wall. Maxim’s core muscles tightened fiercely, and he climbed up the wall like a gecko.

His upper body directly went inside the building, and with his free hands, he grabbed the submachine gun. The tactically mounted flashlight under the barrel swiftly scanned the entire interior.

"No unknown entities found," Maxim reported immediately.

His tension slightly eased, and he suddenly thought, maybe... he really had been mistaken just now?

After all, as they traveled, everyone was in a state of heightened tension... He remembered hearing a pretty military doctor say at the back hospital, that when people are more tense, hallucinations are more likely to occur...

Could it be that the fleeting shadow he saw earlier was indeed a hallucination from being too tense?

"In any case, staying alert won’t hurt... Moreover, that sudden tremor and collapse were too suspicious." Maxim told himself internally, "Even if there is an unknown entity in this building, it can’t be something formidable... Otherwise, it would have dealt with us already, so why hide?"