Night of Despair

Chapter 71: Team 69 – Part One (Requesting First Subscription)

“Apart from water, there’s also the constant harassment by the ‘shadow,’ you need to artificially create a luminous stone isolation environment. Plus, there’s food, mushrooms, cockroaches, lizards, all need to have a stable output, Hope City still has people specifically cultivating crops and breeding livestock, the conditions are too different.” Li Rushan shook his head.

“The conditions are much too different.” His daughter Aisena, who appeared out of nowhere, stood behind him nodding and repeating his words.

“So.” Yu Hong glanced at the girl, then turned his attention back to Li Rushan.

“So you can only look for those people who can’t stay in Hope City any longer.” Li Rushan said with a smile, “Start by relying on them to support a small outpost, once the safety of water and food is ensured, then you can consider attracting skilled individuals to settle down permanently.”

“That makes sense…” Yu Hong sighed.

“In a few days, there will be a group of evacuees passing nearby, all in solar-powered cars, relying only on solar charging, moving very slowly, and along the way, there will definitely be people who run out of food. This group is heading towards the Tianyue area, looking for outposts along the way to trade and exchange food, then you can try to see if you can recruit a few people.”

Yu Hong nodded, but when he thought about the condition of his own safe house, he shook his head inwardly, his safe house was simply not enough to take people in, where could they stay? Live with him, in a cave? With so many secrets, could he be at ease?

So, no way, it was still far from the right time, the road had to be taken one step at a time.

He couldn’t even be self-sufficient yet, it was still far too early.

After talking with Li Rushan, Yu Hong took off, and on the way back, he went to see Dr. Xu, only to find that her earth cave was already empty, utterly quiet.

Thump, thump, thump.

He stood in front of the entrance of the earth cave and knocked on the door.

There was no response.

He let his hand fall and sighed softly, turning to look elsewhere.

It was quiet all around, only a big fire burning in the distance, sending up thick smoke.

The originally silent forest was now completely dyed red by the red light, even though it was close to evening, it was as bright as noon.

Just as he was about to leave, to return to his own safe house.

Thump, thump, thump.

Suddenly, from inside Dr. Xu’s earth cave, there came a knocking sound.

“…”

Yu Hong looked at the Red Value detector integrated in his collar, the Red Value suddenly shot up to over eighty.

“Who is knocking?” Dr. Xu’s voice came from inside the earth cave, cautious and wary.

Yu Hong looked at the Red Value again, sighed inwardly, and without paying any more attention to the voice inside, he turned and left.

After walking a few steps, he suddenly turned back, bent down, and picked up a stone. On the ground in front of the wooden door, he forcefully wrote out a line of words.

‘The owner has left, there is a ‘shadow’ inside.’

After doing this, he stood up again.

Just then, at the window of the earth cave, a white-curtained window with a woman in white standing next to it half-opened.

The woman stared blankly at him, her eyes vacant, quietly standing there.

Her face was exactly Dr. Xu’s, only her skin was whiter, exuding an indescribable sense of decay, like a white wall about to peel.

Yu Hong glanced at her one last time and quickly turned away.

*

*

*

Baihe City.

Inside an abandoned auditorium.

Row after row of chairs were dark red, covered with knit upholstery.

Some of the chairs were collapsed, others were intact but covered in dust.

A large swath of red chairs formed a fan shape, semi-encircling a rectangular platform in front.

At this moment, there were sporadically twenty or so people standing in the auditorium. All were dressed in camouflage, wearing helmets and tactical vests, soldiers of the joint military.

In front of all the soldiers stood three officers, also in camouflage but with silver crescent insignias on their shoulders.

The three officers, two men and one woman, each held a pen and paper, recording names.

“Xu Zhengqiu.”

“Wang Xuan.”

“Zhang Jiawei.”

“Liu Yu.”

One by one, names were called out by the three officers, and the soldiers whose names were called walked up to the corresponding officer, becoming members of the assigned squads.

With each name called, the teams’ outlines became clearer and more people accumulated.

And the number of remaining soldiers decreased.

About ten minutes later.

“Ma Randon.”

“Xu Dawei.”

As time passed, the frequency of the names being called slowed down.

Finally.

“Ding Chao.”

With this name, the three officers stopped calling out names.

But not all the soldiers had been assigned, two women and one man were left unassigned.

“Is that the end? Why are there still three people left?” Xu Fei among the officers frowned looking at the other two peers. “I’m already at full capacity.”

“Same here,” another officer said coldly.

“…” The only female officer, Xue Ningning, looked helplessly at the two.

She could understand that the task squad needed to be as elite as possible, but if she did not select these elites before her and bring them along, the remaining people would have to self-organize into a team and enter the mission area.

Such a team, without a captain leading it and venturing recklessly into the mission zone, was highly likely to encounter unknown types of shadows or Blood Tide Monster types, and the possibility of danger was immense.

Thus, generally, before a mission, team captains would try their best to take everyone and allocate them evenly.

But now…

Xue Ningning looked at the list of names in her hand.

The remaining three people were Ou Li, Chen Qiaosheng, and Lin Yiyi.

Each of these three had troublesome deficiencies. Although they were also elites recommended by local authorities and had their own strengths, compared to ordinary soldiers, they still fell short in a team comprised entirely of elites.

“Liu Team, there are still three people left… what do you think?” Xue Ningning frowned and looked toward the tallest male officer.

“Let them form their own team,” Liu Team didn’t even give the three a glance, leading his own team out of the auditorium.

“Ouyang.” Xue Ningning then looked toward another peer officer.

“Ningning, don’t look at me; I have to be responsible for the safety of my own team. In a few days, new types of Evil Shadow will spread over here, and the Blood Tide density nearby is also getting higher. More people doesn’t necessarily mean safer—you understand that too,” the other officer said with difficulty, also leading his team out of the auditorium gradually.

As they left, gazes fell upon the remaining three, clearly aware that these were the least desired three, and none of their superiors wanted them.

Xue Ningning watched her two colleagues leave, her expression equally troubled.

She raised her hand, giving the command for all her team members to line up and prepare to leave as well.

But as she was about to give the leaving command, she saw the anxious and hopeful faces of the last three, and her heart ultimately softened.

“Forget it; you guys come join the team too,” she waved at the three.

After all, the route her team was going to scout was the shortest and safest; having three extra people should be manageable as long as they were careful.

“Yes!”

The last three quickly stood to attention and responded loudly.

Lin Yiyi and Ou Li stood together, their worried expressions from being not selected turning joyful instantly.

“Chosen… chosen, yay!” She grabbed Ou Li’s hand excitedly and shook it.

“Alright, alright, I know, stop touching me,” Ou Li said impatiently, shaking off her hand. She didn’t care which team she was in, as long as she could join any. After all, she joined the army to cure her stutter and would run at the first sign of danger, never foolishly charging forward on a command.

On the side, the third person, Chen Qiaosheng, looked listless and pale, but he breathed a slight sigh of relief on hearing the command to join the team.

Observing the varying reactions of the three, Xue Ningning, as the team captain, shook her head slightly.

One was selfish, one lacked intelligence and was unable to operate various equipment, and the other had frail health with extremely poor physical strength.

Though they each had their specialties, their deficiencies were far too obvious. She wondered whether taking them along was the right or wrong decision.

*

*

*

“How will water be solved?”

As the sun set, the fire was still burning but had greatly reduced.

Perhaps it was stopped by the natural isolation belt, or perhaps some other unknown reason, but the forest fire was slowly dying down.

Inside the safe house, Yu Hong was still pondering how to address the water supply.

He sat on a wooden stool, sketching with a charcoal pencil on a wooden board, his face thoughtful.

‘I’ve basically adapted to the current environment now; if I move to the creek’s edge, everything has to start over… It’s difficult to move everything here, so it has to be abandoned… it would take too much time…’

Thinking this, he picked up a cup of water, tilted his head back, and took a sip to moisten his throat.

Placing down the cup, he looked at the droplets clinging to its inner walls, sighed, and put it back on the desk.

He picked up the charcoal pencil again.

‘Wait a minute!’ Suddenly, a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind.

The droplets clinging to the cup had sparked an idea.

‘What if I use the water in the air to create a water source??’

The air contained moisture, which came from various evaporated water vapors.

‘The high humidity in the air also causes molding, leading to microbial growth. If I could directly dehumidify and separate water from the air, that wouldn’t just ensure a basic water supply but also keep the living environment from easily getting moldy and affecting health!’

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

‘So, how do I come up with a dehumidifier?’

He thought for a while, planning on starting with Li Rushan’s supply team. The supply team traveled between various city strongholds, almost getting anything that was available. Of course, the price was steep, not to mention a kickback for Li Rushan, the shrewd trader.

Fortunately, the multitude of spoils he gathered this time significantly benefitted Yu Hong.

Over twenty sets of basic protective gear, more than twenty unloaded guns, and about thirty silver yuan scavenged, as well as various other mishmash items like glasses, pencils, keys, pocket watches, magnesium rods, luminous stone blankets, car keys, and so forth.

And Xu Fan, who disdained all these, indicated that the value of repairing and upgrading the Blue Whale suit far outweighed these material assets.

Coming to his senses, thinking of the car keys, Yu Hong suddenly stood up.

“They also drove here, according to what was agreed, these cars should belong to me too!” He became excited.

There were many parts on a car, and what a vehicle could be enhanced into, he was also very much looking forward to.

With this in mind, he decided to first search for the cars tomorrow morning, then find Li Rushan to order a dehumidifier.

‘Speaking of dehumidifiers, I should also prepare the energy source in advance…,’ Yu Hong sighed. Thinking through it all, he came back to where he started—the energy. The solar power he had wasn’t enough.

‘Forget it, I’ll first check out the cars tomorrow. If I can directly enhance the cars into mobile safe houses, the water issue might be resolved by transportation, and it would greatly expand the range I could explore nearby.’

He casually enhanced a Large Pyroxene Stone and then started today’s exercise session.

The next day, early in the morning.

Yu Hong got up early, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, and he put on his gear and left the house to search for the cars driven by Zhao Zhenghong’s group.

With the crunching sounds of his footsteps, he moved neither fast nor slow through the charred forest land that had just extinguished. @@novelbin@@

The surrounding temperature was still very high, despite it being the coldest morning, he still felt as though he was in the middle of summer, hot to the point of burning.