Night of Despair

Chapter 131: Hope Three
 

Materials? Sunlight materials??

Yu Hong’s expression suddenly came to life, assuming that materials couldn’t be delivered in such an environment.

After all, with such high danger outside, who would dare to risk their life delivering goods here?

“Is it true? You’re not dreaming, are you?” Yu Hong quickly changed into his suit, took his weapon amulet, and went out the door.

“According to the password translation, that brother only left for half an hour, we must hurry!” Li Rushan said quickly, without wasting any words.

“Let’s go!”

Yu Hong didn’t waste words either.

The two asked Zhou Xueguang to look after Nana and left the courtyard together.

Outside the courtyard during the day, the fog in the forest had thinned a lot. The long-unseen sunlight pierced through the fog and dappled the ground.

Both were wearing bulletproof suits. Li Rushan walked in front leading the way, moving towards the direction of the highway.

About ten minutes later, a curved road gradually emerged ahead.

On the road, there was a black armored vehicle, decked out like a porcupine.

The vehicle had large toad-eye lights on the front, back, left, and right, and there was a heavy machine gun with ammunition draped over it on top. The side had many dark red blood stains, clearly, the vehicle had encountered dangerous things on the way here besides the Black Disaster.

“How did you find out the vehicle had come?” Yu Hong asked in a low voice as he approached.

“Flare. We have special flares in our post office. Firing one can last for more than an hour suspended in the air and it also carries a coded message.” Old Li quickly said, looking very pleased.

“Good idea.” Yu Hong praised.

The two quickly approached the armored vehicle. Li Rushan stepped forward, shouted loudly, and recited a special sequence of numbers.

The vehicle quickly opened its hatch, and a lean middle-aged man climbed out from the top cover.

The man was wearing dark black camouflage and had something like a communication headset around his neck.

Unexpectedly, this guy wasn’t wearing a helmet. His lips were somewhat purplish, and his eyes had a fleeting, unfocused look.

“Li Rushan, good buddy, I’ve brought you something. The sunlight materials you wanted, a total of twelve catties of paint. I brought it all. They wanted to leave, no one was going to deliver to you, just, just I remembered, remembered.” The man spoke in a halting manner, occasionally repeating himself.

Li Rushan and Yu Hong’s expressions immediately became hesitant.

“Tang Haitao… what happened to you?” Li Rushan obviously recognised the other party, his expression changing suddenly.

“Sunlight materials, materials.” Tang Haitao climbed back in, quickly emerged again with a red paint bucket, and unsteadily climbed out of the vehicle, jumping to the ground.

He handed the red bucket to Li Rushan.

“This is… yours.”

“Haitao…” Li Rushan took the red bucket, but his eyes were carefully observing the other person.

“I’m leaving, leaving. You, take care.” Tang Haitao staggered, turned around, and climbed onto the armored vehicle.

Li Rushan was about to call out to him, but as he saw the man’s back for a moment, he paused.

On the man’s back, close to the kidneys, there was a huge gash about the length of a forearm. The flesh inside the cut was blackened, with no blood seeping out, as if it had been dried out for a long time.

Li Rushan suddenly couldn’t speak.

He watched his friend’s figure slowly climb onto the armored vehicle, and for a moment his throat felt choked, making no sound.

“Li Rushan, the favor you did for me before, I’ve repaid it!” On the vehicle, Tang Haitao turned back, waving at him.

Yu Hong, watching from the side, only then noticed the man’s hands and everywhere on his body, the skin began to slowly crack, dry out, and age, as if time had accelerated countless times in that moment.

A middle-aged soldier, who had been normal just seconds ago, now had his skin quickly developing extensive wrinkles.

Thud.

Tang Haitao went back inside the armored vehicle, which slowly drove away. Under their watchful eyes, it gradually entered the fog and disappeared.

“Haitao!!” Li Rushan couldn’t help but dash forward in a burst.

But strangely, although the armored vehicle appeared slow, when he chased after it and passed through the fog, he found nothing ahead on the road.

Behind him, Yu Hong crouched down and touched the marks on the ground.

“No tracks…” His pupils contracted slightly.

Standing up, he walked to Li Rushan’s side. They both looked forward in the direction the vehicle had left, silent for a long time.

By the time the two returned to the safe house in the cave, it was already over half an hour later.

Li Rushan had not yet pulled himself out of the emotions of his friend’s departure when the recovering Zhou Xueguang explained to Yu Hong the uses of the sunlight paint.

“This should be Sunlight No. 1 paint, the least effective, but also the easiest to obtain.” Zhou Xueguang examined the red bucket and whispered, “Old Li really went all out, how much did he charge you?”

Yu Hong shook his head: “He didn’t take any money.”

“Generous.” Zhou Xueguang sighed. “Believe it or not, this small bucket of stuff, if taken back to the old Hope City, could be traded for a warehouse full of various supplies, a year of different girls every night, or almost anything you wanted.”

“It seems I made a good deal.” Yu Hong shook his head, his mind still on Tang Haitao.

It took a while before his thoughts returned to the materials. Now that he had the sunlight materials, their greatest use was to enhance them with the Black Mark.

But currently, the Black Mark was still merging and strengthening into the second imprint’s special creature, so either way, this material would have to wait a few days.

Taking the red bucket, he returned to the cave, watching Li Rushan who had perked up again, starting to dig foundations in the courtyard with his daughter, and finally relaxed.

After a shower, he dried off with a freshly laundered towel, sat down at the wooden table, opened the communicator, and quietly waited, concentrating on practicing his still techniques.

About half an hour later, the communicator sounded again.

“Good morning,” Guan Cao, whom I had just met, greeted me.

Six seconds later,

Yu Hong also greeted. Thinking about Tang Haitao’s situation, he inexplicably wanted to ask someone.

*

*

*

Outside the cave.

“You didn’t go with them?” Zhou Xueguang was surprised to see Li Rushan starting to work.

“Go? Where to?” Li Rushan exhaled, his eyes still holding the departing silhouette of his brother.

He and Tang Haitao were close friends, but now…

“Go to Hope City. The Black Disaster is becoming increasingly dangerous, and it’s unclear how long we can survive staying here,” Zhou Xueguang casually said.

“Just like Yu Hong,” Li Rushan replied indifferently.

“Boss… how many people like him have you seen?” Zhou Xueguang recalled the scene he had witnessed earlier.

Yu Hong single-handedly grabbing the rampaging Evil Shadow had filled him with a sense of security that still remained.

That was also the main reason he decided to follow Yu Hong later.

It mainly had to do with when one is afraid and suddenly discovers that the thing they fear is being thrashed by someone else.

That impact… up to now, Zhou Xueguang still feels a tingling in his scalp.

“I’ve seen quite a few,” Li Rushan replied. “I work as a middleman; I’ve seen many enhanced individuals.”

He stopped digging the foundation with his hoe, stood up straight, and smiled at his daughter who was eating nutrient paste nearby.

“But… although I’ve seen many, maybe the only one who grabbed the Evil Shadow and saved me three times is him,” he whispered softly. “How about you? Have you seen anyone like that on the front lines?”

“…” Zhou Xueguang was silent.

Both men stood up straight for a moment, unconsciously looking around at the scattered luminous grass.

Clearly, both had reached a consensus that following Yu Hong was obviously safer than entering the city.

*

*

*

Inside the cave.

“You should really name your stronghold,” Guan Cao couldn’t help mentioning through the communicator. “Honestly, I wanted to tag a name for your place just now, but I didn’t even know how to mark it. Should I just call it ‘Cave Safe House’?”

Unlike others, Guan Cao’s tone had a noticeable laxness distinct from the rest.

“This is indeed an issue that needs to be resolved,” Yu Hong stroked his chin, his face thoughtful.

Two seconds later, he spoke.

“Let’s call it Black… Black Wind Base.” Actually, he was initially going to simply call it ‘Black Mark’, but considering that the name ‘Black Mark’ might also attract some trouble, he changed one word to ‘Black Wind’.

As for why it was ‘Wind’? It was entirely because his leg technique training mentioned the principle of moving like the wind.

“Black Wind? Okay, the name has a bit of a Black Bear Spirit from Black Wind Cave vibe,” Guan Cao couldn’t help laughing.

“Think what you will, that’s the name,” Yu Hong said. “By the way, didn’t you say you were going to introduce other people to me? There are still two more, right?”

“They need to find the right time; not everyone is always online all the time. Moreover, with the front line collapsing recently and the Black Disaster raging, things are getting more chaotic. These two are also at their wits’ end,” Guan Cao casually said.

“Aren’t you afraid?” Yu Hong asked, his tone slightly strange in this environment.

“I’m hundreds of meters underground, scared of nothing. The exit passages are all blocked; no one can come in, and I can’t go out. I have enough supplies here for over a hundred years. Oxygen and everything can be auto-recycled. What do I have to be afraid of?” Guan Cao laughed.

“Just you alone?” Yu Hong asked.

“Yeah.”

“…..Truly lucky,” Yu Hong was at a loss for words. “Or rather, you’ve got a really good signal.”

“I think so too,” Guan Cao laughed even more joyfully. “Old Yu, have you ever thought about where this Black Disaster actually came from? At first, everyone was normal. Why did everything collapse so quickly?”

“What do you know?” Yu Hong raised his eyebrows slightly.

“I’ve been bored and looked up a lot of information. The origin of the Black Disaster initially came from ancient relics all over the world. Among these relics, a few are crucial. Long ago, the government had people investigate, but they found nothing. However, the Black Disaster first emerged from these relics,” Guan Cao said. “Also, I found a special name.”

“What?” Yu Hong’s interest was clearly piqued.

“Meisha,” Guan Cao smiled. “In the initial outbreak of the Black Disaster, there were a few key places with various mysterious rumors for many years. Looking back now, it wasn’t without basis.”

“Meisha…” Yu Hong thought of the corpse he had discovered earlier. “Have you heard of the Meisha family?”

“Of course. More than twenty years ago, my father mentioned this Flica family. They are one of the oldest families in the whole Flica, but in reality, they have really risen only over the past hundred years. Before the outbreak of the Black Disaster, they had completely declined,” Guan Cao said.

“I live near the relics here; I just happened to find a body recently—it’s from the Meisha family,” Yu Hong frowned. “A guy named Lurs Meisha, dead by the relic near here.”

“It’s no big deal. This family has always been secretive; no one knows what they are up to. Their members mostly like adventuring,” Guan Cao said indifferently.

“Maybe,” Yu Hong said.

“Speaking of which, compared to us in Eastern River, Flica collapsed even faster…” Guan Cao changed the topic, bringing up the strongest country among the human united forces, Flica.

Although Yu Hong wasn’t interested in it, he listened calmly while also practicing the Basic Survival Leg Technique.