ATDIWR Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Encountering an Ambush, Stealth Fighter Jets

Gu Jinsheng redialed Du Ruanlan’s phone, but it was completely out of service.

Gu Jinsheng’s expression was serious, and He Tao’s face wasn’t good either. He said, “Du Ruanlan’s phone must have been destroyed by an ability user, which is why it can’t be reached. When I glanced earlier, Du Ruanlan’s location seemed to be inside the Luo City Base.”

That was even more terrifying.

He Tao continued, “I seemed to vaguely hear a Mental-type Zombie King. Could a Mental-type Zombie King have infiltrated the Luo City Base, which is why Du Ruanlan was fighting so desperately?”

Ji An nodded, “Even if the Mental-type Zombie King didn’t infiltrate the Luo City Base, its trusted zombie subordinates did, or the Mental-type Zombie King simply mentally controlled the power users.”

He Tao shivered, “That’s too terrifying!”

Ji An said to Gu Jinsheng, “We need to increase the training for our base’s internal power users to resist mental intrusion. Training for ordinary people can also start, but ordinary people’s mental strength is definitely weaker than power users, and they will need longer training. During this period, try to reduce ordinary people going out of the base, and even prohibit it for a while.”

For some reason, when Ji An received Du Ruanlan’s call for help, he felt it wasn’t a coincidence, perhaps it was just the beginning.

“I will go back and issue a notice to temporarily prohibit ordinary people from going out, and power users in the base should also try to go out less, or only those who have completed training to resist mental intrusion can go out.” Gu Jinsheng had the same concerns as Ji An. He felt that the development of some events was beyond their imagination and a bigger storm was brewing.

He Tao said, “Commander Gu, does the Hai City Base also need to be notified?”

Gu Jinsheng said, “I’m afraid today’s press conference cannot be held for now. You are still the Commander of the Hai City Base. You should issue the notice in your name as the Commander. As for the food problem, you don’t need to worry. I will arrange for an emergency transfer of a batch of Nutrient Solution to supply the Hai City Base first.”

He Tao immediately said, “Thank you, Commander Gu. I will first issue a statement as the Commander announcing that the Hai City Base will join the Jing Shi Base. As for the press conference, we can hold it after returning from the Luo City Base.”

Gu Jinsheng was speechless. It seemed that no matter what, He Tao wanted to solidify the matter of Hai City Base joining Jing Shi Base today. How afraid was He Tao that Gu Jinsheng would regret it!

He Tao also had his own thoughts. The major bases in Xia Country currently included Jing Shi Base, Luo City Base, T Base, South Base, and North Base.

Jing Shi Base, with its Space Storage Items and Nutrient Solution, surpassed the Luo City Base, which used to be on par with it, overnight and firmly held the top position. Now, with the development of Treatment Pods, its position at the top was even more stable.

Now even the Luo City Base, which was second, was asking Jing Shi Base for help, and it was uncertain if the Luo City Base would even exist tomorrow. He Tao’s belief in joining Jing Shi Base became even stronger. He had to implement this matter as soon as possible, otherwise, He Tao was afraid that after returning from the Luo City Base, there would be too many bases wanting to join Jing Shi Base, and there would be no room for their poor Hai City Base.

Gu Jinsheng and He Tao issued notices simultaneously. Of course, Jing Shi Base only needed Gu Jinsheng’s signature. Hai City Base, He Tao first issued a statement that Hai City Base was joining Jing Shi Base, signed by him and the three deputy commanders of the base, as well as Gu Jinsheng’s joint signature. Of course, these were electronic versions, formally establishing Hai City Base’s accession to Jing Shi Base.

After that, Gu Jinsheng, as the Commander, issued statements prohibiting going out of the base and distributing Nutrient Solution.

The release time of these two statements was less than ten minutes apart. The residents of Hai City Base had not yet recovered from suddenly becoming people of another base in the blink of an eye when they saw the statement prohibiting going out issued by Gu Jinsheng, and they started discussing it excitedly.

“If we don’t go out, how do we do missions? If we don’t do missions, what do we eat and drink?” A power user said somewhat dissatisfied.

“The notice said that Jing Shi Base will dispatch a batch of Nutrient Solution, which will be sold at the internal price of Jing Shi Base. A bottle of ordinary Nutrient Solution only costs a few credit points, and a bottle of Tier 1 Nutrient Solution only costs over ten credit points.”

“But that still requires credit points. To get credit points, we have to pay ourselves. If we are not allowed to go out and earn money, where do we get the money to buy Nutrient Solution?”

“But the price of Nutrient Solution is not expensive. This price is not even enough for a family’s single meal.”

“No matter how little, we still need to go out and earn money. How can we buy it without money? How can we earn money if we are not allowed to go out?”

“The notice says it’s only temporary.”

“Who knows how long temporary is? If they don’t let us go out, they should give us more subsidies. I think free distribution of Nutrient Solution is acceptable, otherwise not everyone has credit points on hand. Some families live hand-to-mouth. If they are not allowed to go out, what will these people eat and drink?”

“But I think this policy is already very good. Before, we only saw Nutrient Solution on TV and heard its name, how could we possibly eat it? With how poor our base is, even if we earned money for a hundred lifetimes, we wouldn’t be able to buy the right to purchase Nutrient Solution.

Now we can eat Nutrient Solution, I am very satisfied.”

“Speaking of which, why did our base suddenly join Jing Shi Base out of the blue?”

“Joining Jing Shi Base is great. Jing Shi Base has Space Storage Items and Nutrient Solution, and now it has the ‘all-healing’ Treatment Pod. Now that we have joined Jing Shi Base, those heaven-defying technologies are equivalent to our base’s technologies, how great is that?”

“Moreover, I heard that the treatment in Jing Shi Base is particularly good. In these times, Jing Shi Base even has an orphanage. And their base’s benefits are particularly good. Nutrient Solution is much cheaper than in bases elsewhere. If factories within the base recruit workers, they provide breakfast, and the factory rules and regulations are excellent, just like before the Apocalypse. Overtime and the like are paid overtime, and they get weekends off.”

Many people were looking forward to and happy about joining Jing Shi Base. Of course, there were also some who were pessimistic, but there weren’t many such people.

Gu Jinsheng finished issuing the notice and didn’t pay attention to the reactions of the two bases. He immediately led his men back to the command headquarters. After briefly explaining the situation to Zhou Qin and the other two, he began to count the personnel for the mission.

He Tao said, “Commander, let me go with you. Don’t underestimate me because my leg just healed. Actually, my leg was only broken for less than half a year. Before that, I was one of the strongest power users in our Hai City Base.”

Gu Jinsheng said, “Okay.”

Gu Jinsheng knew He Tao’s combat strength; he was very formidable. Although Hai City Base was poor and lacked resources, due to being near the sea, marine creatures mutated in large numbers, resulting in a large number of mutated creatures and zombies.

These two types of creatures would harass Hai City Base from time to time. It could be said that Hai City Base had no rest throughout the year and was basically in constant combat. As the Commander of Hai City Base, He Tao’s combat strength could not be underestimated.

Ji An followed and said, “Gu Jinsheng, let me go with you. The Luo City Base should have encountered a Mental-type Zombie King. I might be able to help if I go.”

“Okay.” Gu Jinsheng nodded and asked, “Bring a few Healing-type power users as well. They might be able to save lives during combat.”

Ji An thought of the Treatment Pod in the laboratory and said, “Jinsheng, you arrange the personnel first. I will go back to the laboratory and bring the Treatment Pod.”

“Okay.” Ji An hurried back to the laboratory, put the Treatment Pod into his space, brought some pre-mixed treatment liquid, and rushed back to the command headquarters.

At this time, Gu Jinsheng had already finished counting the personnel. Ji An arrived just as they were preparing to depart.

“Researcher Ji!” Bi Xue waved at Ji An, “I knew you would go too, so I specifically applied to come along.”

Bi Xue was a Space-type power user. Although Space-type power users were not very popular after the advent of Space Storage Items, Bi Xue’s Space Blades and Space Slashes were very useful and might be of great use. Gu Jinsheng must have considered this when he allowed Bi Xue to come along.

“Let’s go, we’re heading to the airport now.” Gu Jinsheng brought a hundred power users this time, with Kong Zhongcheng as the deputy commander.

As Ji An and the others drove to the airport, they saw many zombies wandering outside the Jing Shi Base through the Ability Channel. In the past, these zombies would not approach the Ability Channel. Although zombies had no brains, they had instincts. After other zombies bumped into the Ability Protection Channel a few times and were electrocuted into dust, these zombies stopped approaching this thing.

Ji An looked at the zombies outside and said, “These zombies are a bit unusual. You should notify Zhou Qin and Wan Xueying to pay attention. If possible, during your absence, even high-level power users should not leave the base.

The time not spent on missions should ideally be used for training to resist mental intrusion.”

Gu Jinsheng said, “That’s what I was thinking as well.”

Ji An looked outside and happened to see several zombies very close to the Ability Protection Channel, but just a little short of touching it, poking their heads in and looking inside the Ability Protection Channel.

However, zombies’ vision was very poor, and they were separated by a protective channel, so they couldn’t see anything, and were just looking around blindly.

Fortunately, it was the Apocalypse now, and major bases had airports for mutual flights, so there was no need for transfers; they could fly directly to the airport in Luo City Base.

The group boarded the plane and headed straight for Luo City Base. On the plane, Gu Jinsheng tried to contact Du Ruanlan several times, but there was no signal. He couldn’t even reach Owen and several deputy commanders’ numbers.

Ji An worried, “It’s likely that someone or a zombie from inside has blown up the Luo City Base’s signal tower.”

“If that’s the case, the situation at Luo City Base might be even more severe than we imagined,” He Tao said with a serious expression.

In the cockpit, the captain suddenly said, looking at the distant sky, “It looks like there are planes at the three o’clock direction?”

The co-pilot sitting in the passenger seat leaned closer to the window and glanced, confused, “It seems like more than one. Did the Luo City Base ask for help from other bases while asking us?”

While saying this, the co-pilot looked at the instrument panel, “Strange, did the radar on the plane break? Why doesn’t it show any planes nearby?”

However, the captain’s face suddenly turned horrified, “No! These planes are coming towards us! They are not passenger planes, but fighter jets! Stealth fighter jets!”

Stealth fighter jets were invented in the 1980s. They are coated with a material that efficiently absorbs radio waves, making them untraceable and unable to be locked onto by radar.

The shape of the fuselage is no longer designed to be the usual streamlined shape, but instead designed into various special shapes such as rhombuses, cones, and helmet shapes. The connection between the fuselage and the tail wings is curved, and there are no tail wings like those of typical aircraft, thus not producing strong echoes.

At the same time, stealth aircraft install the exhaust ports of heat-dissipating jet engines on the top of the aircraft, and absorb cold air to cool down before discharging the high-temperature jet stream, so that infrared detectors can rarely or even not detect the heat emitted by the aircraft, and thus cannot discover the specific location of the aircraft.

Stealth fighter jets are not truly invisible; they are just not detectable by radar. The human eye can still identify them.

However, since stealth fighter jets have the word “fighter” and “stealth” in their name, it can be known from the name that their main purpose is for combat. Now they appear near a passenger plane, and their purpose is self-evident.

If it weren’t for the seatbelt restraining the co-pilot in time, the co-pilot would probably have jumped up in fright.

“What’s going on? We just left the airspace of Jing Shi Base not long ago, how did we run into stealth fighter jets!” The co-pilot’s eyes were filled with fear.

The captain, relying on his years of flying experience and intuition, suddenly pulled the elevator stick, maneuvered the plane to climb, and replied, “I’m afraid these planes are coming for us.”

It must be said that the captain’s intuition was very accurate. A missile came directly at them. If the captain hadn’t instinctively climbed the plane, their plane would have been blown to pieces by the missile by now.

The fighter jets on the opposite side didn’t give the captain any time to breathe, and the second missile was fired immediately after.

While maneuvering the plane up, down, left, and right, the captain performed a 360-degree aerial rotation.

Ji An and the others were still discussing the situation at Luo City Base, and had not expected to encounter an ambush right after leaving Jing Shi Base. While they were talking, they felt the plane suddenly ascend, but before Ji An and the others could react, the plane began rotating 360 degrees in the air again.

Ji An, Gu Jinsheng, and the others were like riding a roller coaster, their whole bodies inverted in the air. Fortunately, Ji An, Gu Jinsheng, and the others had their seatbelts fastened, otherwise they would have been thrown out.

“What’s happening?” He Tao yelled.

Without anyone needing to answer, Ji An, Gu Jinsheng and the others saw missile after missile whizzing past the windows.

“What is that?” Bi Xue asked in horror, pointing at the missile with a long tail outside the window.

“Missiles! Fighter jets!” Kong Zhongcheng said, “We’ve been ambushed!”

“Why are there missiles?” He Tao also asked in panic.

Almost as soon as Kong Zhongcheng finished speaking, the captain’s voice also came through the broadcast, “Reporting to Commander Gu, we are under attack by unidentified stealth fighter jets. Commander Gu and all power users, please fasten your seatbelts, do not move around casually, and do not break the windows, otherwise there will be a risk to your life.

What should we do next? Please instruct, Commander Gu?”

“We might have fallen into a trap,” Gu Jinsheng said with a solemn expression, but without panic. He was very calm.

“Who is it? Luo City Base?” He Tao asked, “Do they want to eliminate us, so they sent us a seemingly urgent and ambiguous call for help, but in reality, they had already dispatched fighter jets to ambush us halfway?”

“It’s not Luo City Base,” Ji An and Gu Jinsheng replied in unison.

“Then who else could it be? If it’s not them, how could it be such a coincidence?” He Tao asked again.

The plane had righted itself, but the attack had not stopped. The plane was still constantly dodging the incoming missiles left and right, up and down.

“Ichiro Kobayashi!”

“R Base!”

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng replied simultaneously again. The two looked at each other, both recalling Ichiro Kobayashi’s threat a few days ago.

“Is it the Commander of R Base? Why would he do this? Is it because of the Nutrient Solution or the Treatment Pod, or both?” He Tao had not participated in the Jing Shi Base training and did not know that Ji An and Gu Jinsheng had caught a spy from R Base and had been threatened by Ichiro Kobayashi.

Bi Xue was present at the time, and she knew. She cursed angrily, “It must be him, despicable! He wants the Space Storage Item, Nutrient Solution, and Treatment Pod, which is why he planned this ambush. But why would Luo City Base cooperate with them? Did Luo City Base collaborate with the R Country people?”

Gu Jinsheng said, “No, I hope it’s all just a coincidence.”

Ji An’s eyes were filled with worry, “If it’s not a coincidence, it’s terrifying. Du Ruanlan would never betray Xia Country. If it’s not a coincidence, then the R Country is involved in this attack on Luo City Base!”

He Tao, Bi Xue, and the other power users on the plane gasped.

Compared to everything being a coincidence, or Luo City Base betraying Xia Country, the most horrifying possibility was that R Base had a connection with the Mental-type Zombie King. Everyone dared not think further, feeling a chill down their spines.

Gu Jinsheng leaned against the window and could clearly see the stealth fighter jets flying around, and there were more than one, at least a dozen.

With so many stealth fighter jets pursuing an ordinary passenger plane with no ability to retaliate, it was only a matter of time before it was hit. In fact, it was a miracle that the captain had been able to hold out for so long under the attack of so many stealth fighter jets.

Gu Jinsheng unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up to walk towards the cockpit, “I’ll go to the cockpit and take a look.”

Ji An also stood up and said, “I’ll go with you. I might be able to help.”

Just as Ji An and Gu Jinsheng stood up, the plane suddenly tilted to the side. The others remained seated with their seatbelts fastened and were fine, just their bodies tilted, but Ji An and Gu Jinsheng were both thrown towards the left side.

Gu Jinsheng and Ji An simultaneously released two streams of ability. One wrapped around each other’s waists, and the other hooked onto the airplane seats, allowing them to barely stabilize themselves.

Seeing this, the other power users followed suit, shooting out their abilities towards Ji An and Gu Jinsheng, wrapping around their waists to stabilize them.

Ji An and Gu Jinsheng stumbled into the cockpit with over a hundred streams of ability wrapped around their waists and bodies.

As soon as he entered, Ji An felt a strong wind and suction. If his waist hadn’t been wrapped with over a hundred streams of ability, he would have been sucked out the window by now.

The captain and co-pilot were both leaning out of the windows with more than half of their bodies, each holding a signal gun in their hands, firing flares into the sky.

Flares certainly cannot be compared to missiles, let alone collide with them. But flares can interfere with the missile’s tracking, making the missile mistakenly believe that the target it wants to track is the flare, thereby changing direction, pursuing the flare, and then exploding outside the sky.

The captain quickly fired a few signal flares into the sky and then quickly pulled back to fly the plane.

“Commander Gu!” The captain noticed Gu Jinsheng when he pulled his body back and asked, “If this continues, we will be caught sooner or later. What should we do?”

“Tell everyone to grab their parachutes and be ready to jump at any time!” Gu Jinsheng said, leaning out of the co-pilot’s window. One hand released an ability to hook onto his body to prevent him from being sucked out by the plane’s suction if the other power users in the plane accidentally withdrew their abilities. The other hand released an ability to interfere with the stealth fighter jets’ missiles.

Meanwhile, Ji An closed the captain’s window glass. He opened a small window behind the captain, leaned out, and released his ability to interfere with the stealth fighter jets’ missiles.

Zhou Qin also walked over at this time. He leaned over the small window where Ji An was and interfered with the stealth fighter jets’ missiles with Ji An.

The other power users remained seated and couldn’t move. The size of this plane was limited, and opening two windows was the limit. No more windows could be opened, otherwise the suction from outside would suck all the seats in the plane out, let alone the power users inside.

Furthermore, the low temperature at high altitude was also unbearable for the power users.

Just then, a communication came through the radio, “Commander Gu, there is an unfamiliar signal requesting communication. Should I connect?”

“Connect,” Gu Jinsheng said.

After the communication was connected, the person on the other end seemed to know that Gu Jinsheng could hear him and directly called out Gu Jinsheng’s name, “Commander Gu of Jing Shi Base, long time no see! Hahaha!!!”

A familiar yet unfamiliar laugh came through the radio, somewhat distorted, making the laughter seem even more rampant.

“Commander Ichiro Kobayashi,” Gu Jinsheng’s voice was flat, not as panicked as Ichiro Kobayashi had imagined. Ichiro Kobayashi was displeased.

“Commander Gu, do you like this gift I gave you?” Ichiro Kobayashi said smugly, “During our last call, Commander Gu must have thought I was just bragging to scare you and that I had no way to deal with you, after all, we are thousands of miles apart.

But Commander Gu doesn’t know that even if we are thousands of miles away, as long as I want and I am willing, I can make Commander Gu a stray dog at any time, just like now!”

Gu Jinsheng held the radio microphone and said, “How did you do it? How did you make those Mental-type zombies listen to you and attack the Luo City Base?”

Ichiro Kobayashi laughed heartily, “I don’t need them to listen to me. I just need to put these high-level Mental-type zombies near the major bases, and these high-level Mental-type zombies will naturally think of ways to get food, just like humans know to find food when they are hungry.”

Gu Jinsheng’s eyes turned cold, “Cloned zombies, these Mental-type zombies are cloned zombies you cultivated? Now you randomly put them near various bases and use their instinctive craving for human flesh and blood to deal with the major bases?”

Ichiro Kobayashi said with regret, “Gu Jinsheng, you are very smart. It’s a real shame that you’re dying like this!”

Gu Jinsheng turned his head, and a stream of ability as thick as two adults embracing was released from Gu Jinsheng’s hand, hitting the stealth fighter jet pursuing them from behind, directly blowing off one of the fighter jet’s wings.

The stealth fighter jet immediately lost balance, tumbled in the air, and then quickly fell.

Gu Jinsheng pulled his body back, his eyes filled with cold and determined light, “Who wins is yet to be known. You should not be too impatient.”

Ichiro Kobayashi sneered, “Could it be that, at this point, Commander Gu still thinks you can escape?

Commander Gu, it’s good to be confident, but don’t be too confident.

You have an ancient saying in Xia Country that ‘a wise person adapts to circumstances’. I advise you to quickly hand over the core technologies of the Space Storage Item, Nutrient Solution, and Treatment Pod, and then say some nice words to beg me. Maybe if I’m in a good mood, I might spare you!”

Ji An at this time aimed at a stealth fighter jet flying past the side. A stream of ability was directly shot out, hitting the fuselage of the stealth fighter jet squarely. The fuselage exploded instantly, and with a bang, the stealth fighter jet was blown into pieces.

Zhou Qin had also been aiming for a long time, and released three streams of ability in succession, but all of them just grazed the stealth fighter jets, not hitting a single one.

This was normal. Stealth fighter jets flew extremely fast in the air and were inherently difficult to aim at. In aerial combat with abilities, abilities were not truly superior to missiles. After all, missiles had a directional cruise device and could track planes, but abilities could only rely on the power user’s accuracy when firing and could not accurately track.

Zhou Qin let out a cry. He had lost to the boss, and now he had lost to Ji An. But there was nothing he could do about it. Who told these two people one was a big shot and the other was a god!

Gu Jinsheng saw the plane behind them that was on fire, and the corner of his mouth slightly curved, “We also have a common saying in Xia Country, ‘Rather overeat than overspeak’. I will give you that saying now!”

It took Ichiro Kobayashi a while to understand, and he immediately became furious, “Gu Jinsheng, I see you won’t shed tears until you see the coffin. Before, I just wanted to scare you and didn’t really tell them to use their full strength. Now that you are so ungrateful, don’t blame me for making you see colors!”

Ichiro Kobayashi’s furious voice came through the microphone, “All stealth fighter jets, listen to my command! Begin the full-force ambush now!”

Gu Jinsheng hung up the communication. At the same time, just as he was about to lean out, a missile flew past Gu Jinsheng’s scalp. Fortunately, the captain reacted quickly, quickly turning sideways to dodge the missile. Otherwise, this missile would have hit the plane, and once hit, everyone on the plane would have died instantly, with no one escaping.

“Damn it, I missed again! How could I not hit even one?” Zhou Qin failed another ability attack. He had fired ten streams of ability, but not one had hit.

Ji An at this time raised his hand and shot out his ability, directly bombing the opponent’s flank. The plane lost balance and quickly fell.

Zhou Qin roared, “Why does it look like you and the boss are hitting them so easily, one hand, one target, while I haven’t hit a single one?”

Ji An corrected, “It’s not one hand, one target. Otherwise, these stealth fighter jets would have been completely annihilated…”

A pitch-black missile shot towards Ji An’s plane from the front. The captain maneuvered the plane to roll to the side and dodge it. The co-pilot fired a flare in an attempt to interfere with the missile, but this time it was useless.

The missile that had clearly been dodged seemed to have eyes. Although it had already passed the passenger plane, it immediately turned around and chased after them after separating.

“Directional missile!” the captain cursed, “This thing has a directional cruise device built-in. It won’t stop until it hits its locked target. However, do they think this can stump me? I used to fly fighter jets myself back then!”

The captain suddenly maneuvered the plane to descend rapidly, with the directional missile behind it following closely.

The captain flew the plane faster and faster, lower and lower. Finally, the plane reached a mountain peak. At the same height as the mountain, the captain suddenly pulled up just before hitting the mountain peak, soaring straight into the clouds, while the directional missile couldn’t react in time and crashed into the mountain.

Immediately, half of the mountain was blown up, sending rocks flying everywhere. Ji An’s passenger plane was not spared, being hit by rocks that shattered many windows. The power users immediately used their abilities to form glass and seal the openings in time.

The captain looked at the instrument panel. Many pointers began to spin wildly out of control, indicating that rocks had hit certain parts of the plane, causing damage to some components.

However, this move was not a loss. At that time, several stealth fighter jets were still chasing them. Those stealth fighter jets were also hit by rocks. One was directly knocked away, and two others crashed after being hit somewhere by rocks. Another was swaying noticeably, clearly unstable. The remaining stealth fighter jets were also affected to varying degrees of damage.

Although the passenger plane was also damaged, it could still fly. This risky move was worth it. The captain clenched his fist and let out a cheer.

Gu Jinsheng praised, “Excellent!”

But before Gu Jinsheng’s words were finished, his pupils reflected countless bombs and various kinds of abilities. They were as dense as a meteor shower in the night sky that one could wish upon, all smashing towards the passenger plane where Gu Jinsheng was.

At this moment, the captain, who had always been relatively calm, panicked for the first time. Looking at the rain of missiles and abilities, he said, “Commander Gu, the missiles and abilities are too dense, we can’t dodge them! What should we do now?”

There was nowhere to hide from such a dense barrage of missiles and abilities. They surrounded the passenger plane closely. Let alone so many bombs hitting the passenger plane at the same time, even if only one hit, it would be enough to kill everyone on the plane instantly, blowing everyone to pieces, leaving no bones behind!