Night of Despair

Chapter 163: Pollution
 

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After the nuclear energy motor incident and resolving the Black Crow, Captain Lang Feng gifted him a lot of intelligence and supplies, among which the food was synthesized into nutritional paste, enough to last for half a year…

Now…

Yu Hong searched again and quickly found the equipment set called “Little Wind Assistant” next to Lang Feng.

This made him certain that the personnel at this stronghold had been completely wiped out.

With regret, he quickly packed up the leftover gear. Most of it was ordinary stuff, but among them were five sets that were top-of-the-line on the market.

He stacked them all together, ready to take them back.

Upon reaching this point, Yu Hong didn’t continue further but decided to go back and aimlessly wander around the other streets.

Soon, he found a shop that used to specialize in air purifiers.

Above the blue shop, a white sign with a Cloud Sea pattern hung, featuring four deep blue printed characters in the middle: “Cloud Sea Purification.”

The shop was closed with a silver roller shutter.

Yu Hong walked to the shop front and pried his fingers into the shutter.

Plop.

He poked a few holes in the shutter and pulled it upward.

With a crash.

Half of the shutter was pulled up all at once, revealing the interior of the shop.

Rows of brand-new white desktop air conditioners and air purifiers were quietly placed in a square inside the shop.

In the center was a square glass counter.

Inside the counter, there was a cash register and a black leather computer chair.

On the chair sat a person, a slim woman with black hair tied in a high ponytail, facing away from Yu Hong.

She wore a blue uniform and was motionless, as if staring at the screen of the cash register.

The screen was pitch black, showing nothing.

“Hey?” Yu Hong quietly called out.

Though the ponytail woman sat on the leather chair with her back to him, from behind, he could see that her neck’s skin was that of a living person—white, delicate, with a faint pink tint.

The ponytail woman remained motionless as if she hadn’t heard him.

Yu Hong furrowed his brows, moved closer, and gently tapped on the glass counter.

Knock, knock.

The sound echoed in the shop.

But still, the woman did not react.

He glanced at the Red Value Detector embedded in the collar of his suit, which showed a red value of only thirty to forty, not much.

*With the possibility of encountering a new Black Disaster, Yu Hong didn’t speak further, instead pulling in his Inner Qi without releasing it. He quickly moved to the side of the ponytail woman to see her face.*

*He needed to confirm if she was alive.*

However, strangely, even though he circled halfway around her, the ponytail woman remained facing away from him.

Still sitting on the leather chair, her back was completely turned to him, motionless.

“…..” Yu Hong squinted, pulling out a Radiation Hand Grenade and gently opening the pin.

He tossed it forward.

*When in doubt, throw a grenade first.*

Buzz!!

In an instant, the grenade exploded with invisible radiation light, covering an area of over ten meters around.

The invisible radiation’s negative value sent the detector’s reading soaring to negative seven thousand.

The air distorted slightly, but astonishingly, the ponytail woman remained unmoved, sitting there, unaffected by anything.

Yu Hong immediately ignored her, his peripheral vision quickly locking onto a high-powered air purifier in the shop.

This purifier resembled a large desktop air conditioner, with fan blades above and below for airflow, an LCD screen in the middle, and a small Cloud Sea icon on the top right corner with the words “Cloud Sea” beside it.

Other details included energy efficiency ratings and national quality supervision standards.

Yu Hong wrapped his arm around this machine and started moving toward the shop exit.

This 1.5-meter-tall desktop unit was enough to purify an area of two to three hundred square meters. With a little Black Mark enhancement, it was more than adequate.

He had just turned, machine in hand, to walk out.

Suddenly, he stopped, standing still.

The ponytail woman was now somehow blocking the shop’s exit.

She was still on the black leather chair, facing away from Yu Hong, motionless, as if gazing outside.

“…..” Yu Hong squinted and glanced at her previous position.

The place was empty.

He stood for a while, ensuring she made no further moves, then simply ignored her and swiftly carried the machine out from one side of the shop.

Plop!

As he stepped out of the shop, a wave of dizziness hit Yu Hong, accompanied by an indescribably intense discomfort flooding from his abdomen, engulfing his entire body.

*He suddenly felt his strength rapidly draining. His limbs became weak and limp, and the machine in his hands felt heavier.*

*It was as if he had stayed awake for several days, unbearably sleepy, exhausted, wanting to fall asleep.*

*Everything in his vision started to sway, tilting left and right.*

The previously clear scene rapidly blurred.

Buzz!!!

In an instant, a surge of Inner Qi exploded within him, filling his legs.

The intense burst of Inner Qi replenished his dwindling energy, causing it to leap upward immensely.

Catching this burst.

Yu Hong pushed off strongly with his legs, rocketing out of the shop with the machine, leaping over ten meters in an instant.

Bang!!

His shin struck a toppled electric scooter by the roadside.

The sound snapped him out of that wretched state.

Hiss!!!

He took a deep breath, realizing something was wrong.

The second wave of Inner Qi burst again.

The explosive fury accelerated the blood flow in his legs, causing his muscles to swell and tense.

Plop!!

Another muffled sound, and in a blink, he surged forward another ten meters, further away from the Cloud Sea Purification shop.

This time, as the distance widened, Yu Hong’s mind quickly cleared.

His vision sharpened, and the weakness in his body began to return to normal.

The discomfort surging from his abdomen lingered but was much better than before.

*’What the hell is that thing!!’* Yu Hong felt a chill in his heart, refraining from turning back, and instead pulled out another Radiation Hand Grenade with a backward motion.

Buzz!!!

The grenade exploded in his arms, releasing a wave of invisible negative value radiation.

BEEP!!

This time, Yu Hong’s ears heard a sharp alarm.

At that moment, he realized the Red Value Detector on his collar was blaring the alarm.

The displayed value read: 2441.523.

*Not a negative value! It’s a positive Red Value!!*

*’Even after detonating a Radiation Grenade, it’s still over two thousand!!’*

Yu Hong decisively pulled out two more grenades and pulled the pins.

Buzz!!!

Two Radiation Hand Grenades exploded simultaneously, and the invisible negative value radiation finally forced the detector down to negative a hundred and something.

*Just barely over negative a hundred!! Moreover, it only just dipped before some invisible force yanked it upward, as if a powerful radiation source nearby constantly counteracted the Radiation Grenades.*

*’So over the top!?’* A sense of dread filled Yu Hong as he accelerated, machine in hand, sprinting madly into the distance without looking back, pulling two more Radiation Hand Grenades with one hand and detonating them in his arms.

Buzz buzz!

The invisible negative value radiation burst. After sprinting another two hundred meters.

The eerie force that had lingered around finally began to disappear.

The detector also returned to normal, with readings stabilizing at around thirty to forty.

Whew….

Yu Hong exhaled deeply. He then paused in the middle of the street, turning to look in the direction he had come from.

From a distance, at the entrance of the Cloud Sea Purification shop, the ponytail woman sitting on the black leather chair still had her back to him, sitting quietly at the entrance, completely still.

*Although she was turned away from Yu Hong, he clearly felt that she was watching him….*

*’…Is this yet another new Black Disaster? Compared to the blatant face-to-face assault of the Speed Man, this was a sudden sneak attack….’*

*He couldn’t quite understand what just happened, whether it was an Illusion or if he had truly seen that ponytail woman.*

*She possessed an exceptionally strong ability to manipulate senses.*

*If it weren’t for the explosive surge of Inner Qi, he wouldn’t have even made it out of the shop’s door.*

*’This is another high-risk Black Disaster. Let’s tentatively call it… Back-Watcher.’*

Yu Hong silently noted it down in his heart. By Red Value categorization, this entity’s danger level was at least Level Five.

Moreover, it couldn’t be initially detected by the Red Value, and its method of sneaky attacks was elusive, making it particularly troublesome.

Now he understood why Lang Feng and his team were completely wiped out here…

With a Black Disaster of this caliber appearing, this town was indeed no longer as safe as before…

He marked this town as high-risk in his mind, choosing not to attempt to expel or eliminate this Back-Watcher, but instead turned and carried the machine, quickly returning along the path away from the town.

He began to sprint, ensuring he returned to the camp before the Blood Tide broke out.

Sprinting all the way.

As the sky gradually became completely dark.

Despite Yu Hong’s efforts to make haste, halfway along the road, he encountered the Blood Tide.

He wrapped himself entirely in the luminous stone blanket he carried, then crouched on the slope by the roadside, quietly observing countless black insects pouring like a tide over the road below.

One after another, Big Skin insects, swaying in the Black Tide, floated downstream, with no clear destination.

Yu Hong crouched on the slope, quietly observing the Black Tide below.

The moonlight illuminated the mist and reflected a faint glow from the Black Tide. This river, shimmering with Black Light, seemed endless, gushing from one side into the mist, flowing into the other side.

Yu Hong quietly waited, using this time to rest and adjust his body.

After waiting for more than three hours, gradually, the number of black insects in the Black Tide began to decrease, and the density thinned.

He exhaled and glanced at the sky.

Deciding to travel under the night.

After all, being away from the camp for long without the Black Lizard and Black Wind Protection Array would pose significant danger.

Jumping off the slope, Yu Hong filled his legs with Inner Qi, stepping toward the camp.

His body leaped forward, zooming over ten meters, lightly jumping to avoid all the black insects on the road.

By this time, the density of the black insects had significantly decreased, leaving enough gaps to move through.

*

*

*

The Black Wind Camp, secondary safe zone.

A petite figure, draped in a luminous stone blanket, slowly approached the previously safe area.

A swarm of black insects continuously passed by the figure yet didn’t attack or bite.

The figure lifted her head, gazing somewhat bewildered at the vast camp before her.

The place had expanded enormously compared to when she left.

She hadn’t seen wooden fences here before,

and the number of shadows nearby had become alarmingly sparse. As she drew closer, they became even fewer.

The figure, wrapped in the luminous stone blanket, continued to walk forward, observing everything carefully under the moonlight.

Before long, she reached the outer fence of the camp.

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