Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 976

Chapter 976: Chapter 310: Wilderness Peril, Unknown Infection! (Part 3)

Niu Fu continued to lament, “Afterward, they tallied the casualties and found that a staggering 160,000 people had fallen on that drift route. But guess what? Even with that terrifying death rate, it was still only at a mid-to-low level among all the Extraordinary Creatures’ skirmishes!”

As he was speaking, Liu Bi finally walked back from the depths of the wilderness and tapped on the car window.

Everyone’s gaze immediately turned outside the car, where they saw him holding a black and green military backpack. The pack was covered in dust and mud, with the canvas edges showing visible signs of weathering, making it clear it had been left in the wilderness for many years.

“Get out of the car and prepare for isolation checks,” Liu Bi said in a deep voice.

“Yes!”

Cheng Ye immediately responded, grabbed the gear bag beside his feet, and quickly pulled out protective gloves, a disinfectant spray, an isolation bag, and a source of infection scanner before opening the door to exit the car.

This first field mission was apparently meant by Liu Bi to provide a comprehensive real-world lesson.

And learning how to handle unknown “spoils” discovered in the wilderness was the first lesson of this trip.

Cheng Ye closed the car door firmly behind him, adeptly put on a pair of double-layer protective gloves, and then retrieved a large sealing isolation bag from his equipment, spreading it out on the dry sand.

He then walked over to Liu Bi, carefully took the military backpack, and placed it steadily in the center of the isolation bag, ensuring the backpack didn’t touch the ground or any other debris during the process.

Taking a deep breath, Cheng Ye’s eyes slowly scanned from the top to the bottom of the backpack, meticulously observing every detail, with his fingers hovering above it without making direct contact: “Report, the target is a black and green canvas military backpack with no surface damage or liquid leakage marks, no visible unusual stains, or suspected residual sources of infection; the zipper is intact with no signs of forced entry or violent dismantling.”

After finishing, he looked up at Liu Bi, and upon seeing a slight nod of acknowledgment, immediately picked up the spectrum scanner and pressed the power button: “Activating source infection matching scan mode, beginning comprehensive detection.”

Cheng Ye moved the scanner slowly and steadily around the backpack. Although this instrument had not been used for a long time, he still operated it skillfully.

The scanner emitted a faint buzzing sound, and the screen provided real-time feedback of the scanned data. After a full sweep, all areas showed the safe green color.

“Report scan results: No abnormal infection sources detected, initial judgment indicates no infection risk on the backpack exterior.”

Liu Bi gave a slight nod, speaking calmly as he issued the next directive: “No abnormalities found in visual inspection and instrument scanning, proceed with surface disinfection of the backpack and prepare for layer-by-layer inspection.”

Cheng Ye immediately picked up the disinfectant spray, adjusted the nozzle to mist mode, and sprayed the disinfectant evenly from the top to the bottom, ensuring all edges, seams, and surfaces were thoroughly covered.

Once the disinfectant dried naturally in the breeze, he pinched the zipper head and slowly unzipped the outermost layer of the backpack.

“Outer pocket with no damage or leakage, inner lining is intact.” He inspected and reported in a clear voice as he reached in to take out small items one by one, placing them gently on another spread-out isolation bag.

Soon, over a dozen common wilderness items were displayed:

Waterproof matches, a multi-tool knife with a still sharp blade, a metal water filter bottle with a surface oxidation, a bundle of slightly worn nylon rope, several rust-stained Happiness Coins with a face value of “10”, a small bottle of iodine almost half full, and a few bottles of unlabeled white pills.

On the side of the backpack hung an old model hand-cranked flashlight. Cheng Ye gave the handle a turn to inspect, seeing the battery compartment at the bottom had long since corroded, making it evident this backpack had been abandoned in the wilderness for at least a year.

“Based on the characteristics of the existing materials, preliminary identity determination of the backpack owner: Migrants.” Cheng Ye organized the items and gave a preliminary conclusion.

“Rule out Hunter identity?” Liu Bi followed up.

“No Hunter-specific road spikes, trap components, or hunting marks were found, so ‘Hunter’ is currently not considered within identity probability analysis.”

“Very good, continue to check the main inner pocket.” Liu Bi nodded slightly, his face still expressionless, though he felt a sense of relief internally.

What worried him most about Cheng Ye with his current capabilities was the possibility of the young man becoming arrogant with his newfound power, thinking that brute strength alone could dominate the wilderness and underestimating these life-saving procedures and hidden dangers.

But Cheng Ye’s performance was exemplary, maintaining the caution typical of someone’s first foray into the wilderness, without a hint of complacency.

This professionalism could even hold up as a standard in an Inspector’s curriculum.

After another spray of disinfectant, Cheng Ye raised his hand to pull open the zipper of the main inner bag.

A strong stench immediately poured out.

The inner pocket contained several plastic bags tightly wrapped around objects, resembling meat chunks. But the passage of time had turned these pieces as hard as stones, presenting a dark, dull brown hue, with a fine layer of white salt crystals condensed on the plastic bag’s surface—a clear indication of the owner’s rudimentary salt curing to preserve it back in the day.

Using tweezers, Cheng Ye carefully tore open one of the bags, pinching the hard piece closer for inspection. When he saw the texture on the meat, his expression changed suddenly.

Even though the texture had blurred due to dehydration, it was still distinctly recognizable as feather-like muscle fibers instead of the bundle-like coarse texture of a wild beast.

“Report! Suspected Hunter-related items detected, high suspicion that inner bag supplies are…”

Cheng Ye’s voice halted, his heart pounding. Those two words stuck in his throat, refusing to come out no matter what.