Night of Despair-Chapter 95 - : Transformation One

Chapter 95: Transformation One

“What? Li Jingyuan and her group went to the caves over there?”

Inside the stone house of the post office.

Li Rushan stood up from his seat in surprise.

“I saw it when I came back to pick up firewood, they were a group of more than ten people, and they had guns. I think your friend might be in danger.” The strongest among the refugees were in Team One, and the temporary leader of Team One speaking now was Ge Shenghao.

This man was strong and muscular, his face was square and his eyes determined, his skin was dark—giving an immediate impression of integrity at first glance.

He gave orders to the team accordingly, the only problem was that he only cared for Team One and was completely indifferent to the life and death of the other two teams.

...

“Yu Hong also has a gun. As long as he doesn’t go out and get ambushed, he should be able to handle those people,” Li Rushan pondered before sitting down again.

“Then let’s talk about tonight’s arrangement. Last night, in order to save people, we used up almost all of our talisman array and Large Pyroxene Stone, barely enough left.” Ge Shenghao spoke gravely. “I don’t care about the others, but all fourteen members of Team One must be safe.”

Li Rushan frowned.

Team One consisted of only two types of people: family members of high-level officials of the United Army and their bodyguards.

The former weren’t much of a problem, but the latter were truly strong in combat. He glanced over them briefly: among them, six were family members, from three different families. The remaining eight were all bodyguards. Among these eight bodyguards, at least three were his former colleagues—sharp soldiers who had worked in the postal system.

In this environment, postal workers were second only to the elite specialists of the United Forces. And there were three such specialists in this team, which spoke volumes about the troublesome status of the families in their group.

Trouble, indeed.

All Li Rushan could think of now was trouble.

The equipment provided by the supply team matched, if not exceeded, his own. Whether it was firearms or armor, they were well-equipped.

This made it impossible for him to forcibly expel them.

“The remaining talisman arrays and luminous stones can only just about fill one basement room to create a secure chamber. It’s fine if everyone squeezes in a bit, but what about Teams Two and Three? They’re not fools. Everyone saw when we drove those people out,” Li Rushan said with a heavy voice.

“Let them go to the mining area. Or see if your friend has any solutions. It has nothing to do with us, I only care about Team One,” Ge Shenghao replied coldly, unconcerned.

Dropping that statement, he turned and left the stone house, going down into the basement.

The most uptodate nove𝙡s are published on frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓.

Li Rushan sighed and got up, walking to the window. Peering through the crack, he looked outside.

In the courtyard outside, members of Teams Two and Three were making a fire to cook their food, all with lingering panic and numbness on their faces from the night before.

The bodyguards of the two teams gathered in small groups, seemingly discussing something.

Seeing this, Li Rushan felt a sinking feeling in his heart, knowing that if this continued, the conflicts between the three teams would explode before nightfall.

Just Team One… he wasn’t sure if they could withstand the pressure.

Just then, at the edge of the forest far outside the yard, several figures rushed forward at a fast pace.

They were running in a panic, as if chased by something extremely horrifying.

“Halt! Stand right there!”

The bodyguards on this side of the courtyard aimed their guns and yelled.

To prevent the “shadow” from approaching and to guard against a counterattack from Li Jingyuan’s group, which had been driven out, their vigilance was extremely high.

But the figures, as if scared witless, kept running towards them, seemingly not hearing the warning at all.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunshots rang out.

Several people fell to the ground.

Those in the yard put down their guns and continued on with their activities like nothing happened. Those who were cooking, chatted, those who were chatting, continued to chat, and those resting continued to rest—no one cared about the few people who died outside.

Just as no one had cared about the eight who had been dragged away by the “shadow” and disappeared the previous night.

They had seen too much death.

What they completely failed to notice was that in the forest outside, as the Red Value increased, wisps of white mist began to rise faintly amid the branches and undergrowth.

The thin strands of mist, like gossamer, made the once-clear forest blur into mystery and secrecy.

Hiss.

Suddenly, deep in the forest, a gray-white shadow flashed by.

*

*

*

Inside the cave.

Yu Hong had stopped trying the Vortex Rune, as the Black Mark had begun to fortify the entire safe house, strengthening the main door and merging it with the cave itself—a significant enhancement to the defense.

Yu Hong remembered that the last time they encountered Big Skin, the initial problem actually lay at the edges of the door where it joined the walls.

Essentially, while the defense of the door was strong enough, he still needed to guard against others breaking through from the outside.

Now, the strength of the stone walls was not as reliable as the door, so to prevent this, merging the weak areas of the door and the stone walls became the best solution.

‘After this enhancement, both the space and security of the entire cave safe house should be significantly improved. Subsequent reinforcements and repairs should do the job.’

He put on the enhanced polar bear suit and continued to rigorously practice the second level of Heavy Leg Skill. For him, dealing with those troublemakers was just a process of refining his skills, with no real challenge.

After all, if bullets couldn’t penetrate his defense and those people were weak, they posed no threat at all.

He practiced his skills and rested in the room, comparing the effects of the Vortex Rune and waiting for the countdown to the fortification time. Meanwhile, outside in the courtyard, Qiu Yanxi and Wei Shanshan stood still for a while before they began to silently move the bodies together and throw them out.

The two of them worked for a while, panting heavily, before stopping to look at the bloodstained courtyard.

“Mom… what if the rescue team doesn’t come…”

“They will,” Qiu Yanxi shook her head, “they have to… With so many important people here, they can’t possibly abandon us…” It seemed she was trying to convince her daughter, as well as herself.

Click.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened, and Yu Hong walked out clad in his grey lizard suit. He tossed out a set of tools.

“Since you’re idle anyway, help me chisel this luminous stone,” Yu Hong instructed. “Just break it up a bit; it should split on its own after that.”

There were still several days to go, and he couldn’t possibly just keep feeding these two without them helping out a bit with day-to-day supplies.

“Also, when you’ve got nothing else to do, help me gather more firewood.” Saying so, he threw out a talisman array wooden board. “This one, take turns carrying it when you go out.”

After saying that, with a bang, he closed the door once more and went back to rest.

Leaving Qiu Yanxi and her daughter looking at each other in confusion.

After hesitating for a while, it was Qiu Yanxi who stepped forward, picking up the tools and talisman array board, examining them carefully, then whispered to her daughter not to go out, while she herself went out to start gathering firewood.

Since Yu Hong wasn’t interested in their bodies, they had to demonstrate their worth, otherwise, if the rescue team failed to arrive…

She couldn’t help but recall those tragic cases she had seen before. Those skeletons that were left behind, eaten clean…

That evening, Blood Tide emerged again, and the black bugs, as usual, passed by outside the courtyard walls without stepping a foot inside.

This finally set Qiu Yanxi and her daughter’s anxiety at ease, realizing that the courtyard indeed had some unique property that kept the bugs at bay.

Meanwhile, Yu Hong was leading a life in the cave that was more comfortable and convenient than before.

With someone to gather firewood and no shortage of food, he initially needed to fetch water, but two days later it started to drizzle outside.

He collected four full large buckets of rainwater, enough for him to drink for an entire week after filtering and boiling.

Apart from eating and drinking, he exercised and practiced his skills daily, occasionally checking on Qiu Yanxi and her daughter to ensure their health, before returning to the cave to wait for the countdown.

It was the first time he had massively reinforced the entire cave shelter. With this reinforcement, he guessed it would likely integrate the entire cave completely.

Any structural weaknesses, according to Black Mark’s previous style, might well be completely eliminated and perfected this time.

So, he was looking forward to it.

Days went by, day by day.

In the blink of an eye, five days had passed.

Bang!

On the fifth day early morning, a loud noise startled Yu Hong awake from his sleep.

He flipped out of bed and rushed to the door, sliding open the hatch to look outside.

He saw smoke billowing up from the direction of the post office, churning black clouds climbing into the half sky.

“What’s happening?” His expression turned grave. He wasn’t yet completely self-sufficient. If something had happened to Li Rushan’s side…

But at such a distance, if he left and some danger attacked his shelter, it would be a great loss.

Qiu Yanxi and her daughter were powerless, they couldn’t help at all. If they died, his hope for energy would be gone.

After a quick deliberation, Yu Hong turned and hurriedly activated the enhanced communicator.

Hiss…

A burst of urgent static noise and soon, a voice came through.

“Finally connected!! Be careful over there, Old Yu, we’ve had trouble here during the day too! A troublesome fellow showed up, in the blink of an eye several were dead, we just couldn’t keep up…”

A sharp scream interrupted Li Rushan’s words, followed by a burst of swearing, gunshots, the sound of a knife chopping wood, and chaos.

A few seconds later, a breathless Li Rushan came back to continue.

“Damn it! This is during the daytime and Blood Tide Monsters are showing up! Warning! Not Shadows! Not Shadows!! They’re a completely new kind, extremely fast, flying Blood Tide Monsters! You yourself…”

Bang!

The signal broke off. Then there was a period of noisy static.

Yu Hong’s face darkened, he didn’t shut off the communicator but continued to charge it with solar power, hoping for further news.

“What on earth could it be… daring to strike in broad daylight…” How long had it been, and the environment had deteriorated to this extent?

*

*

*

Outskirts of Baihe City.

On a beach near the sea.

Ratatatatatata!

Dense machine-gun fire, creating invisible trails of bullets, swept across the surface of the sea.

Between the trails of bullets, three-headed, multi-eyed monstrous birds nimbly dodged, diving towards the sand below.

Even when occasionally hit by bullets, they didn’t care much; aside from a spatter of blood, their speed hardly decreased as they continued their dive attack.

Below on the beach, squads of soldiers in camouflage wielded firearms, occasionally firing shots into the sky.

The leading captain’s shooting was the most accurate. With each shot, he precisely hit the monstrous birds.

But quickly, two trails of machine-gun bullets ran out, clearly indicating a need to reload, and at that moment, seizing the chance, the monstrous birds swoop down fiercely.

Thump.

Two men standing next to the captain were sliced through as if by blades, their upper bodies gone in an instant, the lower halves snatched up by the monstrous birds and swallowed headfirst like snakes.

“Retreat, retreat, retreat!!” The captain roared, directing the other soldiers still trying to resist desperately.

The machine-gun trails reappeared, hitting the bird feeding on humans and breaking its neck on the spot, causing the half-devoured bodies to fall out from inside.

“Move it, retreat! No more bullets!!” The captain shouted, his vision blurred as he took off running towards the military fortress base.

One by one, the soldiers followed him, seizing the chance to rush into the fort.

Seeing this, the monstrous birds were forced to flutter away, leaving the beach and disappearing into the fog over the sea.