Night of Despair

Chapter 133: The Second Seal
 

Cave safehouse.

Sss…

The communication device transmitted faint circuit noise.

“Today we finally gathered,” Guan Cao’s voice came from the other end, “Wei Song, Zhang Kaijun, we’ve got a newcomer here, pretty badass, modified the communicator himself to connect to the satellite, accidentally stumbled upon me.”

His voice sounded like it didn’t belong to this era, no sense of urgency, just casually greeting like during peacetime.

“Hello, I am Yu Hong, I am pleased to make new friends,” Yu Hong went through the usual pleasantries.

“I am Wei Song; anyone who can access this channel isn’t trash. I’m happy to have another friend.”

“I’m Zhang Kaijun. And please don’t call me Zhang Kaijun, thank you.”

Wei Song turned out to be female, her tone unmistakably confident and sharp, felt a bit like Qiu Yanxi, but with a stronger presence than Qiu Yanxi.

Zhang Kaijun, on the other hand, spoke with a hint of dejection and solemnity, hard to pin down anything specific.

“Zhang Kaijun, can you get in touch with the Eastern Reinforcement Special Response Team?” Wei Song greeted and then directly asked.

“I’m only in charge of base affairs, the rest isn’t my responsibility because there are special Evil Shadows that can attack through communication, so I am isolated from the main body of the united forces,” Zhang Kaijun replied. “Also, I told you not to call me Zhang Kaijun.”

There was not only his voice; there were also faint mutterings and footsteps from others. Clearly, there were many people.

“Okay, then that’s impossible. The force field distribution map about the origin of the radiation that you wanted before, I’ve managed it, Riswibul’s technology, absolutely no problem,” Wei Song replied. “Shall I send it directly to you?”

“Okay. How big?”

“About 15g.”

“Fine.”

Clearly, these two individuals differed vastly from Guan Cao; they were true professionals, their communication always served a specific purpose.

Whereas Guan Cao just idly hung on the line, failing to get a word in.

Yu Hong also decided to mimic him, staying silent, just listening to the two exchange various technical terms.

Listening to them, Yu Hong gradually discerned that although Wei Song and Zhang Kaijun were both tech experts, one was an expert in a narrow field, while the other covered a broad scope, different types.

Moreover, both seemed to be investing efforts into investigating something related to the Black Disaster.

The communication did not last long, both signed off the line, leaving Yu Hong and Guan Cao.

“See, both of them are busy people, under a lot of pressure, always in a mess. My task is just to stay online, see if I can contact more people,” Guan Cao said helplessly.

“They seemed to be looking for something?” Yu Hong squinted and asked.

“Yeah. Every so often, Wei Song gathers a summary of the radiation force field distribution to pinpoint the areas with the highest concentration of radiation. The stronger the radiation, generally, the stronger the Black Disaster. But now the situation’s off, with the frontline crumbling, causing the Black Disaster to surge in, making the environmental concentration in all domestic areas spike dramatically. Changes need to be monitored all the time, so they must prepare the calculations for this,” Guan Cao answered.

“So it’s kind of like prevention?” Yu Hong understood.

“Yes, exactly, the Black Disaster prevention notices from the united forces are indeed their work. Initially, it was done by the national forecasting department, but after the department was annihilated by the Evil Shadows, leaving only Zhang Kaijun and others on duty outside, they simply found a base outside, reorganized a department, and continued to issue notices,” sighed Guan Cao. “Actually, before him, due to the attacks by Evil Shadows, the reporting department had been wiped out more than ten times. The death count almost reached a thousand. So then it fell on personnel like Zhang Kaijun to handle the general affairs. Because the more specialized experts had all perished…”

“….” Yu Hong didn’t know how to respond.

“Although I’m staying in the safest underground base, I can feel it, the outside world is about to completely collapse…” Guan Cao sighed.

“What kind of Evil Shadows can attack through communication across the line?” Yu Hong asked.

“It’s called a Level 9 Black Disaster with the code name ‘Evil Code.’ Its characteristics include… abruptly making communication attempts at midnight, including but not limited to phone calls, telegrams, codes, Morse code, etc.,” Guan Cao cautioned. “Our area is relatively peaceful, with only a few low-danger level Black Disasters, not a big deal, but by the looks of it, outdoor radiation concentrations will soon escalate to those of the frontline, and once the concentration reaches the standard, War Level Black Disasters will descend,….”

“….War Level, can anyone resist that?” Yu Hong couldn’t help but ask.

“No. If you encounter it, just wait to die. But Black Disasters all have their approximate ranges, even the mobile ones follow their own patterns. Areas near the frontline are now preliminarily forming fixed special regions.”

“So as long as you stay within these regions, you’ll be safe?” Yu Hong spoke.

“Yes, many Black Disaster creatures, shadows, Evil Shadows, all have their own core activity areas. This is also one of the reasons why the frontline deliberately leaves gaps. Although it leads to the collapse of nearly missed cities like Hope City, concentrating resources and power to preserve the last seeds of the nation’s core is most crucial.”

As Yu Hong practiced his Inner Qi, he listened carefully to Guan Cao’s explanations, knowing far less about the external situation than the latter.

This sudden communication opened up his overall vision to the outside world, enhancing information flow.

After talking for two hours, he turned off his device and went out to help build a new wooden house.

The previous cabin was too small, suitable for no more than two people. Therefore, it was necessary to build an additional suitable house for Zhou Xueguang, including a breeding room. Yu Hong didn’t want to expose the environment inside his safehouse, but in doing so, breeding had to be conducted outside the safehouse.

This, for the increasingly dangerous future environment, was undoubtedly unsafe.

Afternoon.

After the fog had thinned a little, Yu Hong helped move several thick logs, cut them off and directly inserted them into the foundation, watching Li Rushan skillfully construct the wooden house’s walls, floors, and framework.

He was responsible for sawing the trees into flat planks and then briefly scorching them with fire.

Zhou Xueguang was beside him oiling the wooden boards. Aisena was not far away, slowly flipping through a storybook.

With Yu Hong’s help, by the afternoon, a new, sturdy wooden house had been completed. Inside the wooden boards, several people took up charcoal pencils and ink powder, mixed it with water to make ink, and started drawing a talisman array on the interior walls by hand.

The talisman array chosen was a spiral one, etched with Inner Qi. It took Yu Hong a full two days to intermittently complete it.

These talisman arrays continuously absorbed the surrounding radiation, forming a simple radiation vacuum area. It was perfectly suitable for ordinary people to live in.

The fifth day, which was also when the Black Mark enhancement was nearing completion.

The talisman array drawn by Yu Hong was almost dry, having absorbed enough air radiation.

Inside the new wooden house.

A few people stood together. This time, the size of the house was much larger than the last one, with enough space to lay out six beds side by side, fully capable of expanding the room later.

Inside the wooden house, Yu Hong reached out and gently touched the lines on the wall, all of which had absorbed radiation and reflected back full silver light spots.

“This is a new type of talisman array I’ve researched. It can absorb surrounding radiation to prevent you from developing radiation sickness. But because of its limited capacity, I’ve designed a folding talisman array structure at the doors and windows.”

“How so?” Zhou Xueguang asked curiously. He hadn’t seen any second type of talisman array on the front lines besides the enhanced runes he was familiar with. Yet here, he was witnessing a second type created by Yu Hong.

“When you open the door or windows, the talisman array becomes incomplete, breaking in the middle due to the folding, thereby releasing the stored amount of radiation. When closed again, the talisman array restores to completeness and begins to absorb radiation anew.”

Yu Hong modestly introduced his newly designed structure.

This structure was not a product of Black Mark enhancement, but rather an outcome of his own painstaking research.

To resolve the connectivity requirements of the ink for the lines during disconnection and reconnection, he had come up with quite a few solutions.

Eventually, he succeeded by increasing the concentration of ink powder in the ink.

“This new talisman array… it can absorb external radiation and release what’s stored??” Li Rushan, too, reached out and gently touched the runes on the wall, his expression astounded.

“Yes, but only the runes drawn with my unique etching technique possess such special effects. Techniques akin to printing technology can’t be applied here,” Yu Hong, knowing what he was thinking, immediately dismissed the idea.

“Can’t it be popularized?” Li Rushan sighed.

“No, if it could be popularized, it would save more people, and I’m not so stingy…” Yu Hong nodded. Suddenly, he thought if Wei Song and Zhang Kaijun, whom he could contact through communication channels, could truly reach and inform more people, then perhaps he could share various detailed reports about the Evil Shadow he possessed.

He wasn’t a saint, but in such an environment at this moment, humans were indeed struggling…

Even elite individuals like postal workers had such tough lives, let alone ordinary people who would undoubtedly die.

This thought arose in his heart, but Yu Hong internally did not approve of freely sharing important information with others.

What comes too easily is not cherished and could be detrimental to oneself.

After all, once given freely, expectations for the second, third times emerge. Moreover, should there be any mutations in the information, the consequent dangerous losses would inevitably bring negative impacts to him.

“Boss, may I ask a question?” Li Rushan suddenly shifted the topic.

“What?”

“If there are new rune symbols, could you research something new?” Li Rushan turned, looking seriously at Yu Hong.

“Hmm? Have you seen other new symbols?” Yu Hong, slightly surprised, immediately felt a sense of anticipation.

“Yes, I have been to other ruins for deliveries before. There are many ruins around the world. In some ruins, besides enhancement symbols, there are other rune symbols. But since only one had an effect, after some time of research without results, these runes were completely abandoned. But…” his eyes gleaming, “If you could make these new symbols functional, maybe… it could bring us a good influence.”

“I can’t guarantee that,” Yu Hong shook his head, “I can’t assure that all symbols are useful. Also, I should say upfront: just because I can use them doesn’t mean others can. Even if we discover their effects, it might not help others.”

“I understand.” Li Rushan wasn’t ungrateful. “Since I’m technically working for you now, I can make this clear.”

“Good. Since you’ve mentioned it, that means you might have a chance to get hold of other new symbols, right?” Yu Hong discerned the implication in old Li’s words.

“In Shoudong City, there’s an ancient museum where I remember delivering some stonework relics. Inside, there are a third kind of rune symbols that are completely different from the ones we have here,” Li Rushan nodded.

“Are you sure?”

“Sure.”