Cave Refuge

Although he could not immediately extinguish the raging fire at his feet, Zachary could barely prevent the fire from spreading further.

Everyone is likely familiar with the method to contain a wildfire: it is not to enter the inferno to put it out but to first clear all flammable materials in the direction of the fire spread, establishing a sufficiently wide barrier. This can effectively prevent the fire from growing.

At that moment, the method to halt the fire was quite simple — removing all the Snake Skins in the fire's path far away. Once the flames lost the fuel provided by the Snake Skins, they would quickly diminish or even extinguish due to a lack of combustible material.

Compared to rushing into the flames for a swift extinguishment, creating a barrier suited Felix Lewis better, especially since the area he had chosen to work in was relatively open and conducive to clearing the Snake Skins and constructing the barrier.

Fortunately, there was no wind at that time, and the fire was in its preliminary spread, not yet ignited fully. Directly extinguishing the fire could be troublesome, but establishing a firebreak in the outskirts didn't require much effort.

Since he had already thought of a solution, Felix didn't hesitate and quickly implemented his plan, clearing a strip over a meter wide of vacuum firebreak around the fire.

As Felix created the vacuum barrier, the fire that had been spreading unchecked was now effectively controlled. When Felix returned to the top floor of the building, a teammate asked him with curiosity, "Felix, what happened down there?"

Upon hearing his teammate's inquiry and wanting to inform the team of the changes below, Felix immediately began, "The black snakes that were rampaging through the camp have now all turned into Snake Skins.

Just now from the roof, I noticed something odd on the ground, so I tried using a Decoy Missile. I never imagined that a single small Decoy Missile could start a fire, indicating that after those Snake Skins had been drained of flesh and blood, they became a kind of flammable material."

Hearing Felix's words, even those teammates who were still around looking for the raiders cast curious glances at Felix, trying to determine if what he said were merely jests.

But when they saw the serious and earnest look on Felix's face, everyone immediately understood that Felix, who had just returned from dealing with the fire nearby, was not joking. What he said must all be true.

If Felix wasn't lying, then the countless black snakes rampaging in the camp had all lost their lives in a short amount of time, even their flesh had disappeared, leaving behind just Snake Skins.

The death of all the black snakes in the camp certainly made them happy, but without knowing the cause of the sudden death, they all felt uneasy.

Thinking back to the strange people who appeared in the camp, they believed this incident was likely related to them, and further considered that the black snakes might have suffered due to some unknown means used by the others.

Since these means worked on the black snakes in the camp, could they also pose the same danger to them? Recalling the state of the black snakes as described by Felix, everyone involuntarily shuddered with dread.

"All the black snakes on the ground have died, and all their bodies have turned into Snake Skins without any survivors?"

Hearing his teammate's question, Felix responded without hesitation, "As you saw earlier, in order to prevent the fire from growing, I specifically created a vacuum firebreak around that area. In the process, I cleared countless dead bodies of black snakes and did not encounter any survivors."

After hearing Felix's affirmative reply, everyone gasped in shock. At that point, they could no longer focus on finding the vanished strangers. Concerned that the black snakes might have died from a highly contagious virus or a potent toxin, they did not arrange for anyone to go back down for inspection, nor did they send someone back up to the deck to report.

Instead, they chose to use the more troublesome flag signaling, communicating with Madeline and others standing on the deck.

Although the communicators could still be used normally at the time, for the vast majority of people, communicators like the ones Zachary and Madeline had in their hands, which could still function normally at that time, were like pre-disaster global satellite phones, which were very difficult for ordinary people to acquire.

And the communicators that everyone in the base had at that time were actually like walkie-talkies that could be used for separate conversations by multiple people and could only be used independently in each base. This was also the reason why every base built its own independent website.

Zachary saw the people revealing themselves and standing on the rooftop, using flag signaling to communicate with Madeline on the deck and was somewhat speechless. However, he couldn't openly say that all those black little snakes in the camp had been killed by him, so he could only let them speculate wildly and pin this matter on those raiders who had already died.

When Three Flags was once again taken into Dantian by Zachary, all the black little snakes that were originally holed up in the camp had died and turned into Snake Skin, and the raiders that had invaded the camp were all dead as well. After confirming there were no other dangers in the camp, Zachary decided not to continue staying there on guard and prepared to go home to be with his parents.

Just as Zachary was preparing to go home, his communicator suddenly rang. Seeing the caller ID, he was somewhat speechless, even though he himself understood the reasons for the changes in the camp, Madeline, still waiting on the deck, was unaware of them.

Madeline, who had just learned about this through flag signaling, although she believed her subordinates would not tell such easily disproved lies, still contacted Zachary, wanting to verify the truth of this matter from him again.

No sooner had Zachary answered his communicator than he heard Madeline's slightly anxious voice on the other end, "Zachary, do you know about the sudden death of the snake plague in the camp and their flesh disappearing, leaving nothing but Snake Skin?"

"I know."

"I know you don't believe it. To be honest, when I first heard about it, I didn't quite believe it either, so I was hoping you could confirm...."

Madeline thought Zachary was unaware of the situation, so she rattled off a series of words, but halfway through, she suddenly realized the implication of Zachary's previous answer.

"You know about this? Then do you know why those black little snakes turned out this way, and is the situation that caused the black little snakes to appear highly contagious, could it be transmitted to us?"

Using a telescope, Madeline had already confirmed that all the black little snakes in the areas visible within the camp were lying motionless in their place, looking as if they had all lost their flesh and become Snake Skin.

Although people should feel relief and joy at no longer being troubled by the black little snakes in the camp, the mysterious and sudden death of the snakes filled everyone's hearts with an indescribable fear.

When Madeline understood that Zachary had said he knew, she did not care whether Zachary only knew about the death of all the black little snakes in the camp or the specific cause of their deaths.

Subconsciously, Madeline blurted out her concerns and began to inquire Zachary.

Actually, Madeline also knew that Zachary might not truly know the causes and consequences of the matter, but it was like a secret hidden in the deepest part of the heart.

As long as there was an opportunity to talk and tell others, regardless of the response, the storyteller would feel as if unburdened, no longer carrying the same psychological pressure as before. This is why many people share their secrets on the internet with strangers they have never met.