Night of Despair

Chapter 113: Harvest 3

Ah!!!

After being smashed more than a dozen times in a row, Du Chengtao’s pained and furious roar finally echoed from within the mountain wall.

Pop!

He suddenly reached out, grabbed the Wolf Fang Club with his hand, surged power through his body, burst out from the mountain wall, and rammed his head into Yu Hong’s.

Their skulls collided violently.

Boom!!

...

Du Chengtao’s head reeled as if he were a ball bouncing off a wall, rebounding from his own force and springing back into the niche in the mountain wall.

Yu Hong took a step back, shaking his head.

Now his goggles were even blurrier; he couldn’t see anything clearly.

“Fuck!” He finally lost his temper and reached out to grasp Du Chengtao’s neck. His right leg exploded with power, disappearing from its original spot.

The Basic Survival Leg Technique’s Low Sweep Leg, now executed with his current strength and condition.

As of now, the Wolf Fang Club alone was already sufficient to deal with the majority of enemies.

There were few occasions where leg techniques were necessary, but at this moment, Du Chengtao was tougher than all previous opponents, giving him the chance to employ his legwork again.

Boom!!!

In an instant, Yu Hong kicked out heavily, hitting Du Chengtao squarely in the abdomen.

The immense force of the kick immediately burst the muscles in his abdomen, and not just that, it completely tore through, carrying along the spine on his back, turning it into a mass of blood and flesh that sprayed against the mountain wall.

“Pain!!” Du Chengtao could still yell out, swinging his arms wildly in front of him, resisting.

His strength was almost half of Yu Hong’s, and his resistance actually caused quite a bit of interference.

Aside from strength, this guy’s physique was even more abnormal, even more exaggerated than Yu Hong’s current post-training body.

If only he had been wearing bulletproof gear, he might not have been so easily critically wounded.

Now with his abdomen punctured and his body battered with fractures, Du Chengtao was unable to move, leaning against the inner mountain wall, unable to stir, wildly swinging his still-intact arms for defense.

Yu Hong pulled out the Wolf Fang Club that had broken the opponent’s shoulder and looked at this so-called danger level three fully enhanced human.

In just this short time, he noticed that the blood hole in Du Chengtao’s abdomen was beginning to stop bleeding and heal.

“Exaggerated physique, stronger than mine, but not as powerful.” Weighing in comparison, Yu Hong felt his strength was much greater than this guy’s, but his recovery ability was likely far inferior.

“Poor guy, better to die early than to live madly in this world. After all, in times like these, living might not be as peaceful as death.”

He looked at the wailing Du Chengtao, feeling momentarily indifferent.

It seemed that, without exception, his physical condition had likely surpassed that of a fully enhanced human, reaching the peak level of humanity.

Although this wasn’t worth much in a society reliant on high-powered weapons, like being useless against a bomb, it was a good thing for his personal survival in the wilderness.

At the very least, as long as he encountered living people, as long as they didn’t have firearms, they were likely no match for him.

“Pain!” Du Chengtao was still shouting incoherently, his voice grating and unpleasant, like a crow.

Bang!

Quickly, a Wolf Fang Club smashed down hard, hitting him right on the forehead.

The immense force endowed the Wolf Fang Club with a powerful impact, shattering his frontal skull, caving it inwards.

Du Chengtao’s body shook, and finally, he stopped moving completely, lodged in the mountain wall, motionless.

His hands fell limply by his sides, his breathing soon ceased, and his skin rapidly started to blacken, as if polluted by ink.

Yu Hong was about to move forward to scavenge, to see if there was anything to gain, when he saw this scene and frowned instantly, stepping back to put distance between them.

He had just moved away when he saw Du Chengtao’s whole person quickly covered by a layer of black gel, then shortly after, transformed into the black gel humanoid he had seen before.

Yu Hong glanced at the Red Value detector on the suit’s high collar; the numbers had already skyrocketed to over a hundred positive.

“It’s time to go.” He quickly backed away, helping the middle-aged military officer who had warned him get into the vehicle, and the two of them quickly started off, speeding away on the highway.

Behind them, Du Chengtao’s body softened rapidly; after few tens of seconds, he pulled himself out from the mountain wall, turned into a weird humanoid made entirely of black gel, and step by step, walked toward Huafeng City.

He didn’t even glance at the departing solar-powered Jeep, as if called by something, walking briskly toward Huafeng City, now covered in black gel.

Yu Hong sat in the car, watching this scene through the rearview mirror, his expression darkened.

He had already flipped up his goggles; the shattered, blurred goggles were not just unhelpful but also a hindrance.

The middle-aged military officer was now sitting in the passenger seat, breathing heavily, clearly still injured.

He looked at Yu Hong, who was driving, with an expression that seemed hesitant to speak, eyes still reflecting the shock from earlier.

“What do you want to say?” Yu Hong asked casually.

“…Brother, you’re an enhanced human too, right?” The officer asked solemnly.

“I’m not, I’m just an ordinary person,” Yu Hong replied. He had just confirmed that he indeed did not belong to the enhanced human system but followed another path.

“…I’m Zhou Xueguang… a deserter who’s just escaped from the front lines…” The man fell silent for a moment before speaking.

“You aren’t asking me how I managed to kill Du Chengtao??” Yu Hong was somewhat surprised.

“Everyone has secrets, just like I wouldn’t want you to ask why I’m a deserter,” Zhou Xueguang replied.

“Okay, I was indeed about to ask you that,” Yu Hong raised his eyebrow, “What are your plans now?”

“No plans, just find a place to settle down first, survive. Heal up first, then I’m qualified to consider anything else,” Zhou Xueguang sighed.

“Go to my place, there are quite a few abandoned safe houses nearby where you can rest and stay. There’s also a post office that can provide basic food. I will also ensure a supply of Large Pyroxene Stones and talisman arrays,” Yu Hong suggested.

“Do you trust me just like that?” Zhou Xueguang wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve and asked.

“We’re not living together, just staying next to each other temporarily. You just spoke up to warn me, and you don’t seem like a bad person,” Yu Hong replied.

“It’s not good to trust people too easily,” Zhou Xueguang couldn’t help but say.

“Don’t worry, I’ve met many more good people than bad,” Yu Hong said with a smile.

“That’s because you’re lucky.”

“As long as you’re strong enough, bad people will turn good in front of you,” Yu Hong said with another smile.

“…That’s true,” Zhou Xueguang had no reply to that.

“How are your injuries?” Yu Hong asked.

“Not bad, two broken ribs, a dislocated wrist, and a cut on the shoulder. Once I settle down somewhere, I can cauterize it, take some anti-inflammatory medicine, and it will be fine. Speaking of which, do you have any anti-inflammatory medicine?” Zhou Xueguang asked with some resignation, “Consider it a loan.”

“I’ll have it for you soon,” Yu Hong said nonchalantly. This attitude gave Zhou Xueguang some confidence. It seemed that there was no shortage of medicine.

The two men chatted intermittently as they drove, and after more than an hour, they finally returned to the original spot where another jeep was parked.

Click.

Yu Hong got out of the car and looked at the loaded vehicle, suddenly facing a dilemma.

“How am I supposed to move all this stuff back?” he asked.

Zhou Xueguang, limping, got out of the car and looked around. The gray fog surrounded them, and it was getting close to evening.

“It’s getting dark. I suggest we don’t stay here and move things back and forth slowly. If the distance isn’t far, we can come back tomorrow,” he replied.

“It’s fine, let’s just move the most important things,” Yu Hong thought for a moment and reached to unbind the nuclear power generator from the roof of the car.

Thankfully, it was only the size of a refrigerator.

‘Wait.’ Suddenly he remembered something, dove inside the car, and dug out the chip token given by Wei Hongye, then circled around the nuclear power generator. He quickly found a slot of the right size and shape.

Taking the chip, he inserted it into the slot.

Click.

It fit perfectly.

“What’s next?” Yu Hong looked at the large refrigerator, waiting for some kind of change.

Hum.

Suddenly, one side of the black refrigerator with the slot slowly cracked open a small door. Like a real refrigerator, it opened to reveal a narrow space the size of a watermelon.

Inside the space sat a square, battery-like black metal box.

The box was surrounded by a dense array of unnamed holes and slots, and a series of small green lights that blinked intermittently, resembling a power adapter.

But after Yu Hong carefully inspected the refrigerator’s interior cavity, he was certain that this device was the actual nuclear power generator core.

The outside layer was for protection and insulation; the true generator was only the size of this watermelon. @@novelbin@@

He picked up the generator, feeling its weight to be much heavier than he had anticipated.

After manually removing the solar panels from the car, Yu Hong, with Zhou Xueguang’s calm face in tow, left the highway, climbed up a forested hillside shrouded in fog, and headed toward the safe house.

Stopping and starting along the way, it took them over half an hour to arrive at the location of the cave safe house.

Standing outside the courtyard wall, Yu Hong swiftly returned the items to the cave, then quickly took Zhou Xueguang toward the direction of the post office.

The main safe houses, the abandoned underground dwellings of previous residents, were all located near the post office.

Before long, he had Zhou Xueguang settled in the post office underground, informed Old Li about the rescue, and rapidly returned to the safe house.

He was eager to integrate the nuclear power generator into his own cave dwelling.

Thud.

The wooden door of the cave closed, and Yu Hong sat down on the floor, looking at the nuclear power generator in front of him with hope in his eyes.

“How long has it been since I’ve bathed?”

“Too long… so long that I can’t even remember…” he mused.

The stench had completely solidified on him, so much so that his nose couldn’t smell anything anymore because it had become numb.

Only particularly strong odors could stimulate his current sense of smell.

He quickly boiled water for bath, threw mushrooms and wild vegetables into the pot, then turned it to the smallest flame. Yu Hong glanced outside at the sky, then quickly went out. In about fifteen minutes, he brought back a large amount of supplies from the car and piled them into the second basement.

He planned to use this place as a future breeding room and storage room.

While it was still not completely dark, Yu Hong sped up his actions and went back and forth twice more, finally bringing back all the supplies given to him by the kind-hearted Lang Feng and others.

He roughly calculated that these supplies, including cans and such, would be enough for him to eat for more than ten days. Added to his own protein bars, he wouldn’t have to worry about food for a long time.

‘First, be fully prepared and strengthen the food before beginning to integrate the nuclear power generator.’

Outside, night fell, and there were faint thunderous sounds in the sky, suggesting that rain was coming.

Yu Hong closed the shutter, sat at the wooden table, and pressed his hand on the black mark on the back of his hand and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, a white point of light that seemed alive, like a firefly, slowly appeared and fluttered in his dark field of vision.

‘Current mark: 1.’

The cold mechanical voice of the Black Mark came.

‘First Mark: Luminous Stone Grass. Activate Luminous Stone Grass?’