Night of Despair

Chapter 105: Setting Forth

“You can’t keep doing this, even if every mission for Team Three is safe. Over time, the abilities of your members won’t improve, which will drag you down and lower your evaluation,” advised Xu Fei, one of the team leaders, unable to hide his furrowed brow.

Useless members, in his opinion, should be quickly replaced.

“…It’s okay… My whole family is gone, only a younger sister remains, and she’s even more formidable than me. I’ll just leave the improvement to her,” replied Xue Ningning with a smile, seemingly unconcerned. She had always intended to just get by.

“If your evaluation drops, so will the logistical support you receive. Even your equipment and supplies could be cut,” Xu Fei continued to persuade Xue Ningning, showing some personal interest in her.

“It’s fine,” said Xue Ningning, whose heart wasn’t in it, just smiling. In truth, she also wanted to replace people, but doing so meant leaving the safety of Team Three, and that’d surely spell disaster for those three – there had been such cases before. Thus, she had gradually stopped dismissing members so casually, anyway, she only took on the safest missions…

“I’ll free up some time for private training. They are all good kids, and I believe it won’t be long before they catch up,” she said earnestly.

...

“You’re still so naive, Ningning,” said Yao Chenling, the leader of Team Nine, with a cold tone from not far away. “According to the reports, the Language People’s Evil Shadow is on its way here. Soon, there might not be any absolutely safe mission areas. How many times can you lead them then?”

Team Nine also had a female leader; Yao Chenling was a tall and strong woman with both commanding features and presence. She had always disapproved of Xue Ningning, who rose to her position on the back of her sister’s success. And now, at a time when everyone was striving to improve and strengthen their own teams, Xue Ningning was naively trying to drag the dead weight forward with her.

Indeed, a capable person could do this, but at what cost? One’s own progress would be impeded and might even regress.

In such a harsh situation with intense competition and scarce resources, regressing equated to reduced resources, digging one’s own grave!

Xue Ningning did not respond; she just smiled, thinking that if worse came to worst, she’d simply stop taking on missions. As long as she didn’t leave Hope City, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Elsewhere, after the team assembly disbanded quickly, the members returned to their dorms, and Ou Li and her two companions also parted ways. She lived with the stutterer, so they went back together.

As they neared their door in the dormitory building, a voice stopped them.

“Lin Yiyi,” called the matron in charge of managing the dormitory mail, patting a small box in her hand. “There’s a package for you.”

“Package??” the stutterer blinked, clearly puzzled.

“Yes, it’s from Baiqiu Village,” the matron replied offhandedly.

“Baiqiu Village!?” The stutterer’s face lit up with surprise and delight, immediately thinking of a name.

*

*

*

Baiqiu Village, the cave safe house.

Yu Hong stood alone in the basement, concentrating and holding his breath, motionless for a long time.

Minutes ticked by, and he remained still, like a statue.

About fifteen minutes later.

Puff.

Suddenly, his face flushed red, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Failed again…” he muttered to himself.

He looked at his palm, observing the red Vortex Rune slowly fading away, shaking his head in disappointment.

Since completing the new Cultivation Technique yesterday, he had been attempting to train according to the new method.

The new technique, in line with his wishes, had integrated various functions into the Heavy Leg Skill and even included the newly acquired Vortex Rune.

The enhanced booklet that came with the technique had very impressive effects described within, but the difficulty of cultivation had also increased substantially.

Yu Hong relaxed his body, walked over to the side, and picked up a red booklet from the ground, flipping through it.

‘Basic Survival Leg Technique.’

That was the name he chose for this new Cultivation Technique, which was fitting as his sole purpose for creating this technique was survival.

He flipped through the thin booklet, noticing that the three moves of the Heavy Leg Skill remained but were followed by three extra levels, totaling six rather than the original three.

Additionally, each level added some static exercises, integrating them into the specific training process.

Yu Hong had been practicing the static part of the ‘Low Sweep Leg’ from the first level when he failed, not anticipating such difficulty.

After going through the booklet for a while, he confirmed that he was practicing correctly, but his body needed time to adapt. Unable to rush the process, he resigned himself to slowly enduring.

Aside from regular meals, the new Cultivation Technique, Basic Survival Leg Technique, required exposure to radiation for training—not from luminous stones, but from Red Value radiation.

This initially struck Yu Hong as odd, but he soon understood.

If he could absorb and adapt to an increasingly higher Red Value environment, then his chances of survival would naturally be greatly enhanced.

Thus, the technique was perfectly aligned with his goals.

After reviewing the technique for a while, Yu Hong set down the booklet and ascended to the first floor.

The lights were bright, and outside the door, it was quiet. The safe house felt serene and peaceful for a moment.

Such a life, if you could remove the danger, was actually not too bad, except for a bit of loneliness.

Yu Hong walked to the door and pulled open the barrier to take a look outside. @@novelbin@@

The yard was filled with the gentle sway of luminous stone grass, emitting a faint white glow and releasing invisible radiation.

Beyond that, outside the grey-white walls of the yard, there was a faint mist lurking in the darkness, occasionally pierced by undefined, fleeting sounds.

Yu Hong pulled his gaze back and closed the barrier. Ever since he had obtained some scent-eliminating sand from Li Rushan yesterday and had covered the outside of the main door with a thick layer of stone powder to make it blend with the color of the mountain walls,

the Multi-eyed Birds had actually stopped bothering him.

He glanced at the time on the Enhanced Red Value Detector – 21:42 in the afternoon.

Yu Hong turned on the communicator, listening to the static noise, waiting for his connection with Li Rushan.

They had agreed to contact each other around ten o’clock each night.

After waiting for a few minutes, there was a stir on the communicator.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. I just got Nana to sleep after telling quite a few stories… Kids these days really are tough to handle,” Li Rushan’s tired voice spoke on the other end of the communication.

“Kids are like that,” Yu Hong smiled, “By the way, thank you for the scent-eliminating sand and the camouflaging method. The Multi-eyed Birds didn’t come to attack after all. It seems to have worked.”

Since it proved effective, he had to express his gratitude, both emotionally and rationally. After all, Li Rushan, stingy as he was, had provided him with this help for free. Although Yu Hong still had to help repair things, having taken a look before, he couldn’t fix the communications equipment under the guise of a non-repairable item and substituted a simple little fan instead, which the other party had agreed to. It appeared that this guy just needed an excuse to support him.

“Ah? It really worked?” Li Rushan couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise on the other end.

“…What do you mean?” Yu Hong’s smile faded from his face. “You’re not using me as a guinea pig, are you?”

“How could I? I’m using the scent-eliminating sand myself. Why would I experiment on you?” Li Rushan quickly laughed it off.

“Did you coat yours with sunlight paint?” Yu Hong asked.

“…I did, but as you know, that stuff also depends on quality. Regular sunlight material can’t stand up to a danger level four creature,” Li Rushan tried to bluff his way through.

“Forget it, let’s not talk about that. How about the map you were going to ask around for me? I’m planning to leave tomorrow,” Yu Hong said.

“Small matter, it’s already been taken care of. But setting out at this time, don’t you want to wait a bit? Multi-eyed Birds are still out there, and the environmental Red Value is getting higher…” Li Rushan said with a frown.

“It’s because the Red Value is getting higher that I worry it will become more dangerous later on. It’s better to hurry up and make quick work of it now,” Yu Hong felt helpless. He had planned to set out once he had made some progress with his new Cultivation Technique, but the environment outside was deteriorating. The Red Value outside had already reached thirty when he measured it today.

If this continued, he was concerned he might not be able to leave his home in the future.

“You’ll need to expand your breeding scale over there, otherwise I’m worried we may run into food issues later on,” Yu Hong advised.

“Mm, I’ve already prepared the breeding boxes you asked for. You mentioned wanting to breed them yourself, come and pick them up,” Li Rushan responded, “The situation is getting worse, but the only piece of good news is that Nana’s condition has stabilized a lot. It’s not in vain that I’ve come to this forsaken place for such a long time, ah, I don’t mean to speak ill of it.”

“Heh,” Yu Hong just laughed.

“Sigh, speaking of which, what exactly happened between you and Ge Shenghao?” Li Rushan changed the subject and asked.

“How should I know? They suddenly attacked me, and I was lucky to hide quickly. Then I saw them being picked off one by one by the Multi-eyed Birds. I was so scared that I hid in the house and didn’t dare to breathe, afraid of being discovered by the creatures. Fortunately, after killing their prey, the Multi-eyed Birds left,” Yu Hong didn’t give anything away.

“They must be crazy, stirring up internal conflict at a time like this, and considering the special circumstances back then, the rescue team couldn’t stay in place forever waiting for them, nor could they afford to dispatch people to search everywhere. If it weren’t for picking up passengers, they wouldn’t even want to leave the city. Once the rescue team evacuated, no one would care about a few bodyguards,” Li Rushan said, seemingly explaining to Yu Hong but also setting the stage for the past events.

Yu Hong’s heart stirred, and he played along.

“I guess, they must have wanted to obtain methods to evade the Multi-eyed Birds from me, but they didn’t anticipate that I just had good luck, fewer people around, so I didn’t attract the Multi-eyed Birds’ attention…”

Both let out a sigh over the communicator, going through the motions to close the topic convincingly.

After a few breaths, Li Rushan concluded.

“Everything is ready for you; take care on the road. I hope you can get the nuclear energy motor because recently the sunlight is getting weaker by the day, and the nights are growing longer. I did a test yesterday, and daylight lasted for only eight hours, three hours less than at the very beginning.”

“I’m worried about the insufficient light… it will be problematic later on,” Yu Hong sighed.

The nuclear energy motor was now related to many of his logistical problems.

The water supply system was waiting, the solar panels were waiting to be replaced, and the oxygen generator also needed power. The communicator, lights, and Red Value Detector – all these needed electricity, and once the light was insufficient, so would be the power supply. Then the environment would become far more treacherous than it already was.

“Sigh, it’s a pity I still have to take care of Nana and cannot accompany you,” Li Rushan feigned regret.

“There are some supplies left in Baiqiu Village. If you can’t accompany me, Li, could you go and bring some back?” Yu Hong said.

“That… The environment is harsh now, and I’m also not available to leave at a moment’s notice, moreover,” Li Rushan laughed it off.

The communication was cut off.

Yu Hong began to prepare the things he needed for departure tomorrow.

He would bring all three silver talisman arrays, twenty common talisman arrays, water, protein bars, dried mushrooms, and dried vegetables.

For the bulletproof suit, he chose the reinforced grey lizard suit for its flexibility, which was far more convenient than the white bear suit and better for travel.

Finally, the most crucial item was the luminous stone blanket, to which he had made a small modification.