Chapter 5 – Meeting a Compatriot in a Foreign Land
Amidst such a scene, Tu Ran instinctively lightened her breathing. She pressed down her pounding heart and quietly moved closer behind Xie Xu.
Instinctively, she felt a strange sense of trust towards the first human she encountered in this otherworld.
Her attempt to hide drew Xie Xu’s attention, and he glanced back at her.
In just that glance, Tu Ran only managed to see the color of his pupils before he turned away.
Blue eyes. She hadn’t seen this kind of eye color much before.
Foreigner?
But he spoke Mandarin.
Tu Ran wasn’t sure about his ethnicity.
Xie Xu took off his helmet, revealing a head of short, messy black hair, like a bird’s nest.
From behind him, Tu Ran thought: Oh, he’s Chinese.
She felt a surge of excitement.
When compatriots meet in a foreign land, it brings tears to the eyes.
As he removed his helmet, the soldiers surrounding them parted slightly, and a woman in black combat gear emerged from the gap.
She wasn’t wearing a helmet, and her wavy golden hair shone brilliantly in the sunlight.
She smiled and spoke in English.
Tu Ran’s English listening skills were barely passable, but she caught a few common words: “you’ve made it… lucky… 221… congratulations, welcome back.”
Based on the woman’s tone, Tu Ran guessed she was congratulating them on surviving the monster world.
Contrasting sharply with the blonde woman’s enthusiasm, Xie Xu only nodded slightly, without any intention of speaking.
The blonde woman didn’t mind and turned her attention to Tu Ran.
When their eyes met, the woman’s expression turned dramatically sympathetic.
She rattled off a string of English, likely expressing her sorrow for Tu Ran’s unknown tragic experiences during this journey.
Tu Ran’s spoken English was even worse, so she felt too embarrassed to speak. She just stood there with a smile, looking a bit foolish.
The blonde woman quickly realized this and, with a hint of resignation, stopped talking and gestured for them to proceed.
Instinctively, Tu Ran looked at Xie Xu. He held his helmet under one arm and walked forward calmly.
Tu Ran immediately followed, squeezing into the narrow path that only allowed one person to pass at a time.
On both sides were tightly packed black shields, their surfaces displaying an interlocking diamond pattern, densely arranged.
Peeking through the gaps between the shields were countless firearms, all pointed directly at them. As they moved, the direction of the gun barrels shifted accordingly.
‘Why are they being so heavily guarded against us?’ Tu Ran couldn’t understand.
After walking through a shield corridor that was over ten meters long, they emerged into an open area.
A giant glass dome, like a transparent soap bubble, refracted the sunlight into a spectrum of colors.
Following closely behind Xie Xu, Tu Ran stepped inside, curiously looking around.
Unlike the tense, suffocating atmosphere from before, the inside of the glass dome was bustling with people and filled with the noise of conversations.
She stayed right behind Xie Xu, lining up in a long queue.
Looking ahead, most people in the queue wore the same cool exoskeleton armor.
Of course, there were also some like her, looking ragged and appearing to have narrowly escaped death.
Tu Ran guessed that these people must have also come from the monster-filled world.
However, what puzzled her was that this glass dome had only two doors: one entrance and one exit.
The entrance connected to the heavily armed semicircular barrier that tightly surrounded the mountain.
Thanks for the chapter!