Allen had said that, so Bai Ye naturally stopped asking.
However, as they moved forward, Bai Ye paid special attention to Ji Ruyue.
As expected, this woman seemed to possess a kind of precognitive ability, able to anticipate the movements of mutated creatures in advance, but only when within a certain distance.
Secondly, this precognitive reconnaissance ability required some time to perceive, so in order to cooperate with Ji Ruyue's abilities, everyone had to slow down their pace.
At the same time, although Ji Ruyue was reluctant to discuss her own matters, the others did not mind.
It was not uncommon for artificial humans like Ji Ruyue to have gene mutations. Both Davis and Gonzales were artificial humans with gene mutations.
Davis's mutation granted him super speed, while Gonzales's granted him increased strength.
Such artificial humans with mutated abilities accounted for about 20% of the total artificial human population, appearing about once every five individuals.
Ji Ruyue's rarity lay in her brain region mutation, which had a very low probability, around one in ten thousand. Furthermore, brain region mutations were very dangerous; among these one-in-ten-thousand mutated artificial humans, only about one in ten managed to survive the mutation.
This surprised Bai Ye quite a bit, as he had not heard of this during his previous life in the City of Ruins.
But upon reflection, Bai Ye found it understandable. During his previous visit, the hidden mission targets he interacted with were limited to Allen, who was not a mutated artificial human.
And apart from Allen, most of the other artificial humans Bai Ye encountered were not Hunters.
After all, Bai Ye could handle himself, and there was little need to interact with combat-oriented natives. Mutated artificial humans were mostly Hunters.
This made Bai Ye find the City of Ruins quite interesting.
Apocalypse, futuristic technology, bio-gene evolution civilization—it all seemed to have some connection to a world of super powers now.
However, overall, the general level of abilities among artificial humans was relatively low. Ji Ruyue's brain region mutation could barely be considered high-level, and even then, it wasn't purely an ability-based area.
Lost in thought, the group had already returned to the highway.
Following the road towards the border, they had lost their vehicles and were escorting Ji Ruyue, so their speed was noticeably slow. However, before evening, the massive ruined city appeared before their eyes.
"Someone's here!"
Ji Ruyue suddenly spoke, signaling the others to stop, and then looked ahead.
Ji Ruyue looked up at the surrounding buildings, her eyes covered with a faint blue glow. The surrounding structures then seemed transparent to her.
Behind the walls, humanoid silhouettes appeared, entering Ji Ruyue's vision.
Ji Ruyue said, "Humanoid figures, they should be the Crystal People."
Allen asked, "Quantity?"
Ji Ruyue replied, "Upon entering the city, there are three on the left side of the street facing us, one on the right. In that large building, there are people on floors 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10, about twenty-odd in total. The first and second buildings on the right also have about twenty-odd, spread across all floors."
Allen frowned, "Are they guards? Or sentries?"
Davis commented, "But it feels rather disorganized."
Ji Ruyue nodded, "And they seem to be wandering, but..."
Ji Ruyue tilted her head, deliberating, and continued, "Without any apparent purpose?"
Bai Ye felt a bit frustrated because he knew the reason but couldn't say it directly.
The Crystal People in the border areas were all discarded defective products.
Bai Ye's comparison of Crystal People to "zombies" was not without reason.
In terms of strength, Crystal People were generally much stronger than zombies, possessing swift movements, immense power, and the ability to use their own crystals as weapons or shields.
However, from the perspective of "life forms," both were essentially walking dead.
Without thought, without consciousness, acting purely on instinct.
The behavior patterns of Crystal People and zombies were very similar.
Of course, this was only true for the incomplete versions of the Crystal People.
According to Rhine Corporation's Crystal Person Project, the Crystal People were meant to be stronger, possessing considerable combat and tactical thinking, but lacking emotional thinking, ensuring absolute loyalty.
The Crystal People on the outskirts of the border were discarded defective products from the development process.
While these individuals indeed lacked emotional thinking, they were far from the super soldiers Rhine Corporation desired. Their behavior patterns were entirely akin to those of common zombies.
They didn't even possess the basic requirement of "obedience."
This was something Rhine Corporation found utterly unacceptable, leading them to decisively discard these failed creations.
After being discarded, these Crystal People wandered aimlessly on the outskirts of the border. Ji Ruyue's assessment that they were purposeless was quite accurate.
With zombie-like behavior patterns, they naturally wandered around without any clear objective.
Guards? Sentries?
Allen was overthinking things.
In reality, as long as they didn't provoke the Crystal People, they could simply walk past. But...
Bai Ye knew that Allen probably wouldn't do that; he still treated the Crystal People as living beings.
Indeed, after a moment of thought, Allen said, "Those guys probably haven't discovered us yet. We can infiltrate and eliminate them, or even capture them alive if possible."
No one else had any objections, but only Bai Ye knew it was a futile effort. Yet, he couldn't say it, which was quite vexing.
Davis opened a box and said, "These are walkie-talkies. The old ones are unusable, and the signal tower is also out of contact. In a way, this also proves we've entered another world."
As Davis spoke, he distributed the walkie-talkies to everyone.
Davis explained, "These walkie-talkies don't have a very strong signal and are prone to interference, and there's no signal tower. But for this short distance, communication should be fine."
Allen nodded, then said, "Ruyue, you'll command from outside. Davis and Gonzales, go to that seven-story building. I'll go with Bai Ye..."
Bai Ye waved his hand, "I can handle it alone."
Allen asked, "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," Bai Ye lied, "Actually, my specialty is infiltration and assassination, so don't worry about me."
Allen looked somewhat unconvinced but still nodded, "Then you go alone. I'll head to the building behind us."
Bai Ye replied, "No problem."
Ji Ruyue stated, "If there are no problems, let's get started. Inform me once you've infiltrated the buildings, and I'll guide you. As for the Crystal People on the street, don't worry about them for now. We'll deal with them after we resolve the ones inside the buildings."
Allen nodded, then clapped his hands, "Remember to proceed with caution. Safety first!"
...