Night of Despair

Chapter 62: Weakness 2

“I can’t stay here any longer.” Xu Ruoying nodded, her expression somewhat dim. “Xiao Jieba told me about the situation in the city, it’s safe, although a bit chaotic, but for someone with technical abilities like me, the treatment in the city is not too bad…”

“Then before you…”

“I hadn’t developed anti-inflammatory herbs before, but this time is different.” Dr. Xu lifted her head, revealing a hopeful smile. “So, once Xiao Jieba and I lay down a good foundation in the city and settle down securely, then I can also help you come over and join us.”

“….” Yu Hong remained silent.

Dr. Xu seemed to realize something, and her smile smoothed over.

“In the city, it’s much better than us being alone outside….” she said softly.

“Then I wish you good luck….” Yu Hong replied in a soft voice too.

Turning around, he headed back towards the direction of the cave safety shelter.

He had anticipated that others without the Black Mark would leave due to the increasingly dangerous external environment, but he didn’t expect it to happen this quickly.

But he could understand….after all, it’s really hard for ordinary people to survive safely in the wild.

Returning to the cave, he took out the letter he had received, tore open the edge, and unfolded the paper.

This time, the handwriting was much more scribbled, many words were written incorrectly, punctuation was misused, and some places didn’t even have any.

Obviously, this time it was written by Xiao Jieba.

‘Yu, the things received are very useful and easy to handle, I am doing well here so don’t worry, everyone is fine here and it’s very safe, I am happy. No need to prepare food and drink, can wear clean clothes and even wash clothes and take baths, very happy.’

Yu Hong felt a bit of a headache reading this, this guy really should learn how to use punctuation and paragraphing properly, it’s hard to read.

He continued reading.

‘Because there’s a very large wall built with Solar Material, the outside monsters and bugs can’t come in, and recently here they have also started producing various talisman papers printed with luminous stone powder which have effectively restrained the shadows and Evil Shadows so I am thinking of looking into my parents’ old matter, I want to know where they went.’

Yu Hong sighed helplessly upon reading this, and took out a charcoal pencil to add paragraphs and dots to the contents of the letter.

After a few minutes, the letter finally looked normal.

‘I’ve also found friends who want to find out about their own relatives, they are all doing well, and we plan to form a small group to gather all the information. Right, I have already asked around, the elderly who came out from Baiqiu Village are still alive, some people seem to know about my parents’ matter, I plan to go and inquire about it after a while, now I still have to carry out missions and patrols.’

The letter ended abruptly here.

Yu Hong refolded the letter and put it back, not knowing why, but after reading the letter, he felt slightly more relaxed, as if his mood had also improved a bit.

Thinking about Xiao Jieba, in faraway Baihe City, Hope City, leaning on the desk brooding over writing a letter to him, he couldn’t help but smile slightly.

Suddenly, he remembered something, and found a portion of anti-inflammatory herbs that Dr. Xu had given him from the corner of the wall, he also knew the composition now, thinking that Xiao Jieba in the military could likely get injured, infections and such.

He pressed his hand on the packet of medicine powder.

‘Enhanced anti-inflammatory medicine, direction: enhanced effect.’

Soon, a black line flowed out, and a countdown emerged: 2 hours 21 minutes.

Yu Hong confirmed the enhancement inquiry of the Black Mark, watched the countdown start ticking, and then withdrew his hand.

‘Enhance the medicine and send it to her, also since the talisman can be sent, it shows that this mailing system still has certain guarantees. It’s just a bit expensive. And since Xiao Jieba can send a letter to both me and Xu Ruoying at once, there might be some military benefits involved.’

He got up to practice Heavy Leg Skill, although he was injured, his thighs and calves were fine, so practicing Heavy Leg Skill was not a big problem.

Two hours passed quickly.

The countdown on the medicine powder disappeared instantly, and the whole packet of powder flashed, turning into a plate of compressed pills, wrapped in an unknown silver packaging.

Yu Hong picked it up and looked at it, there were twelve pills in total, and there were also thoughtful instructions printed on it.

‘For adults between fifty to one hundred kg, one pill per day, to be taken after meals. For children, adjust the dosage according to body weight. A seven-day course, with a day off in the middle.’

‘Mainly treats diseases such as: general muscle inflammation, lung and bronchial tonsil inflammation, gastrointestinal tract inflammation, mouth inflammation, can also be used for external wound anti-inflammation.’

“Good!” Yu Hong nodded in satisfaction, this should help Xiao Jieba greatly.

He then started to write a reply to Xiao Jieba right away, and sent the medicine along with it.

*

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*

A week later, Baihe City. @@novelbin@@

Seaside base.

Layers of waves crashed against the concrete walls of the base, splashing white foam.

Inside the base, in the soldiers’ dormitories, there was a noisy chatter as young female soldiers chatted and frolicked.

In one of the dormitories, the room was dimly lit, four iron bunk beds were placed along the two sidewalls.

Xiao Jieba was leaning on a black iron desk by the window, reading the letter she had just received.

The letter was from Yu Hong, and it also contained a plate of anti-inflammatory medicine. This made Xiao Jieba very happy.

Because recently she had been eating too much, causing gastrointestinal problems.

She had already tried the medicine provided by the military, but it was ineffective, clearly not suitable. And in the current environment, although there were medicines, there were far fewer varieties compared to the peaceful times.

“Lin Yiyi!” Suddenly, a girl with a ponytail burst into the dormitory.

“I just received the notice, we are to prepare for tomorrow’s gathering to investigate the explosion at the water plant in the south. We need to prepare ahead, as the situation may not be good.”

The girl is named Ou Li, and among the four people in the dormitory, she’s the best friend of the stutterer.

Because the stutterer is a bit silly, Lin Yiyi is actually not very popular. Additionally, due to her ugly appearance and mental deficiency, she often can’t use many pieces of equipment; she’s unwelcome when dealing with the rapid changes of the outside world.

Those who can quickly adapt are the popular ones nowadays.

Ou Li, who is also unpopular like her, naturally ended up sticking together with her because they were isolated.

“Tomorrow, do we gather?” The stutterer put away her medicine and turned back to her friend.

“This mission is a bit dangerous, bring everything and don’t leave anything behind,” Ou Li advised.

“I understand, thank you,” the stutterer replied emphatically.

“Just help me carry the backpack,” Ou Li waved her hand.

“Okay!” The stutterer nodded. She hesitated, then spoke again, “You, tomorrow, do you want to, with me…”

“No, I am much faster alone than you, you don’t know anything and are too slow,” Ou Li said bluntly.

“Okay… I understand.” The stutterer lowered her head, disappointed.

Ou Li pursed her lips, muttered to herself softly, and then went out.

“By the way, remember to wash my underwear and socks.” Her voice drifted back into the room.

“Okay!” The stutterer eagerly responded, the smile on her face brightening.

*

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*

“The biggest problem with this engagement is that I couldn’t keep up with the opponent’s attack speed, and I couldn’t anticipate his movements. Of course, that’s secondary.”

Yu Hong was analyzing the battle in the cave.

“The main point is… I’m not able to withstand enough.”

He reminisced about the previous fight.

‘If I could stabilize my body when hit, I could have exploded with a counterattack on the spot. Unfortunately, most of the time I couldn’t stabilize myself; I was knocked off balance, making it impossible to kick, and my legs instinctively tried to maintain balance and stabilize my body, losing the chance to counterattack.’

‘So the key now is to increase stability to ensure the body doesn’t move. And this point… coincidentally coincides with the center of gravity of Heavy Leg Skill.’

Yu Hong instantly thought of the key in his mind, which was to increase weight.

Weight…

‘Rather than increasing weight, it might be better to increase the thickness of the Protective Suit to enhance defense; thus killing two birds with one stone, increasing the center of gravity and strengthening protection,’ Yu Hong realized.

‘I am not one of those martial arts masters who can strengthen their centers of gravity by practicing horse stance year after year to empower their lower body. I don’t have such strong willpower, nor so much time. But…’

Yu Hong looked at his full set of enhanced armor, and his gaze shifted to the legs.

‘I can’t practice lower body skills, but I can make my lower body heavy enough directly!’

Thinking thus, he immediately started modifying the newly obtained White Python Guo Xudong bulletproof suit.

This suit had a small polar bear on the chest, also labeled with the same polar lights product, so Yu Hong simply referred to it as the Polar Bear Suit.

The Polar Bear Suit had damage on one leg and a hole punctured through the chest, but no matter, it would naturally be repaired once strengthened.

The crucial part was, Yu Hong began to add weight to the legs and feet of the suit, stuffing blocks of hardwood as baffles. Then he tore rags to wrap around them.

Soon, an unusual Protective Suit with a heavy lower body and a light upper body appeared before him.

He reached out his hand, attempting to strengthen it.

‘Enhance Protective Suit to the upper limit, focus: increase heaviness and size at the lower body, reinforce the whole body armor, enhance the resilience of the breathing valve.’

The recent attack had brought the breathing valve close to a fatal issue by damaging one, so he specifically requested this issue to be addressed now.

At this moment, while the Black Mark was enhancing, the specific image of the desired Protective Suit emerged in his mind.

This was a little trick he had learned recently; as long as he visualized the specific appearance of the item during the Black Mark’s enhancement, he was likely to guide the enhancement direction, allowing the final result to change according to his wishes.

Soon, a black line flowed out, feedback arrived.

‘Enhance Polar Bear Suit?’

The cold mechanical voice rose again, relieving Yu Hong’s heart, at least being able to strengthen was good.

Then he looked at the countdown number that appeared.

‘7 days, 7 hours, 5 minutes.’

“…..”

This timeframe… he temporarily canceled the enhancement, it was best to enhance other short-term items needing enhancement in these days before addressing this long-term project.

He moved aside the Polar Bear Suit and went to check the other spoils he had just obtained.

“What is… this luminous stone blanket used for?” Sitting in the cave, he closely examined the item in his hand.

This thing he had plundered from an attacker, as he frequently came in contact with luminous stone powder and Large Pyroxene Stone powder, he instantly recognized that the powder stuck on this blanket was that of luminous stone.

“Could it be, it’s used to make a makeshift Pyroxene Secret Room?” he guessed.