Night of Despair

Chapter 72: Fleet 070
 

Over an hour later.

On the edge of a winding, gray highway among the forest, a tall, black figure emerged slowly from the dense woods.

The figure was clad in a thick, black bulletproof outfit, wearing a helmet with deep brown goggles looking left and right to make sure there were no other living things, before sliding gently down the slope alongside the road.

With a rustle,

he brought down a patch of black mud and withered leaves, sliding to the highway with ease like down a slide.

Once at the bottom, he stood firm, patting the mud and rotten leaves off his body.

The figure looked up, quickly locking eyes on the three dark green jeeps parked by the side of the road.

“I’ve finally found them!” he sighed with relief in his voice.

After circling the nearby area for over an hour, he had at last found the vehicles left behind by Zhao Zhenghong and his company.

He walked briskly to the first vehicle.

He closely examined the rugged, practical appearance of the jeep.

The vehicle was like a set of building blocks, composed of one large and one smaller rectangle connected together.

The large block was the cabin, the small block the hood.

The two large, round headlights wrapped in steel wire looked like toad eyes, extremely conspicuous.

Yu Hong walked to the driver’s side, pulled on the car door, but it wouldn’t open.

He bent down and fished out three car keys from the outer pocket, the shield-shaped car keys also in army green with a silver star mark on them.

He gripped the end of the key, yanked it forcefully, and immediately the cover came off, revealing the long, silver key inside.

“Just like the door keys, not automatic sensors…” Yu Hong found the keyhole on the door, inserted the key, and twisted.

Click.

The door opened.

“Good luck. Got it right with the first key.”

He glanced at the Red Value LCD screen on his collar to ensure the figure was normal, then leaned in to search the vehicle.

The interior of the car was exceedingly simple.

A dashboard, seats, an integrated radio, and nothing more, not even an air conditioner.

Rustle.

Yu Hong reached up to pull open the car roof, and to his surprise, it was a folding roof with a series of long solar panels on top.

“An electric car with solar charging!” he exclaimed, thrilled. He quickly found the wires connecting the solar panels to the inside of the cabin.

He continued to search inside the vehicle and soon discovered the solar charging battery display.

It was a small, circular black-and-white LCD screen hanging on the left side of the driver’s seat, no bigger than a walnut, obscured by the steering wheel and quite unobtrusive.

He grabbed the display to take a look.

“The battery is full! This has definitely got more capacity than the one I had before!”

Yu Hong, feeling pleased, swiftly sat in the driver’s seat to test the start-up, moving forward, reversing, and turning left and right—all without issues, the vehicle was in perfect condition.

Then he got out of the car and pressed his hand on the door.

‘Strengthen solar car, direction: increased space, fully enhance and improve protection, enhanced durability.’

Initially, he didn’t dare to enhance too much, as his previous tests indicated that the larger the volume, the more time was needed for enhancement.

So, he decided to just give it a try without any enhancement, to see the countdown.

Shortly after, a black line flashed from the Black Mark into the car.

A mechanical voice promptly announced,

‘Would you like to enhance the solar car?’

Yu Hong ignored the voice, stepping back to observe the countdown timer that appeared on the car: 11 days 4 hours 5 minutes.

“…So long…” his face under the helmet momentarily froze. “As expected, the bigger the volume… the longer it takes…”

Going without using the Black Mark for a total of eleven days wasn’t good news for him.

‘But a mobile solar car… with some basic protection and paired with a luminous stone mat, I could completely explore other areas instead of just staying in one place.’

Yu Hong felt conflicted.

‘Wait a minute!’ His eyes suddenly paused, ‘What materials do I need to collect?’

In this era where food and drink could only be obtained through personal cultivation and gathering, there wasn’t much difference for him between staying put and traveling far away.

The only place he needed to go far for was the Pyroxene Ore Mine. Since it wasn’t much of a walk from where he lived to the Mine, driving there would actually be slower.

So… after some thought, the car… didn’t seem to have much use for him other than transporting water.

With this in mind,

a decision quickly formed in Yu Hong’s head. He rummaged through the trunk of the car and found a toolbox.

Taking out the tools, he swiftly dismantled the solar engine from inside the car.

Fortunately, the solar system of the car was very rudimentary—the modifier had clearly not cared about hiding the wires for the sake of aesthetics, prioritizing function over form.

This made it easier for Yu Hong to dismantle it at this time.

He moved quickly and soon had taken apart the solar engines from all three cars, stacked them up, and transported them back and forth to the safehouse.

Back and forth, it took him a little over two hours to transport everything.

In addition, he also took down three lighting bulbs from the cars.

Along with the necessary wiring, he wouldn’t need to wait for Li Rushan to bring supplies to get electric lights this time.

Back at the safehouse, looking at the heaping piles of items, Yu Hong felt much more at ease.

“With this, when I need the car, I’ll just fit the engine on-site; when I don’t, nobody else will be able to drive the three vehicles.”

Next, he agilely found a corner inside the cave, fixed the lampboxes in place, connected the wires, and connected the solar engine.

Click.

He flipped the switch.

Immediately, bright light filled the dark cavern for the first time.

Pure white light softly illuminated every corner of the safe house, casting its gentle glow on Yu Hong’s pale, rough face.

He looked at the light and a sense of gratitude inexplicably rose in his heart.

He just stared at the light for a good while before he sat down in great spirits, took a short rest, and then moved the rest of the debris to the corner before continuing to dig the second chamber with renewed vigor.

With the light shining on him, he seemed to regain a lot of strength and worked nonstop until noon. After having lunch and practicing his Heavy Leg Skill, his emotions finally settled down.

Outside, the sunlight grew dimmer, and clouds gathered densely in the sky, slowly followed by the rumble of thunder.

Yu Hong had just started practicing when suddenly a flurry of disordered footsteps came from outside.

“This… this is the place! I see the door!” someone exclaimed with joy.

Quickly, the footsteps drew closer.

“Come, let me pull you up,” a young woman’s voice sounded.

Then two people climbed the stone steps and stood at the door.

Thump, thump, thump.

“Is anyone there? Is anyone inside? We are a convoy passing by and would like to buy some luminous stones from you!”

Yu Hong slightly furrowed his brow, glanced at the silver talisman array behind the door, which did not react, and immediately confirmed that it was neither the Evil Shadow nor the shadow.

He remembered what Li Rushan had told him before, that refugee convoys would be passing by lately, and to be on the lookout.

He approached the door without delay.

Swish.

He slid open the peephole shutter and saw two young girls who looked alike crammed outside.

Both were wearing similar white, long-sleeve T-shirts, with their long hair tied into ponytails, pale skin, pretty looks, and their peach blossom eyes, clearly made up, were watery.

The two girls stood one in front of the other. The one in the front had a perky nose and lips that were smaller and pinker than the other girl’s, and her chest was fuller and more voluptuous.

“Hello, hello,” the girl said, quickly forcing a smile when she spotted the peephole opening. “We’re looking to trade for some luminous stones to use on the road, what’s your price here? What kind of goods do you accept?”

“Luminous stones? I only sell Large Pyroxene Stones here, not the ordinary ones,” Yu Hong said casually. For him, mining regular luminous stones was time-consuming and labor-intensive, yielding too little profit compared to using them as materials.

“As for goods, let’s say food and dry rations,” he thought for a moment and responded.

He wasn’t lacking anything for the time being, but he could trade for some dry rations to keep in reserve.

“Er… food we have just enough for ourselves… can we exchange clothes, blankets, and stuff like that? Also some small furniture… tableware…” the girl responded.

“How much are those worth? Do you have any silver?” Yu Hong frowned.

“Silver… silver…” the girl looked a bit embarrassed, “In that case, we can work for you. Let us know if you need any heavy lifting done, we’ve got lots of people. We can help you get it done faster.”

“…..” Yu Hong understood—they were simply a bunch of paupers.

“Please, help us out. We thought there was a small village here before we arrived, but when we got here… everyone was gone, leaving only you three households. We’ve run out of luminous stones, we really have no other choice… If we don’t have luminous stone bags to protect us at night, many people will die in our vehicles!”

The girl pleaded with Yu Hong, bringing her hands together in prayer.

“How many people do you have in total? How many vehicles?” Yu Hong asked.

“Five buses, more than a hundred people…” the girl replied helplessly.

“Where do you come from?” Yu Hong continued to inquire, “Why are you fleeing?”

“…We came from Yuhe City over there… when we left it was chaos, so many people died… the joint military sent support troops twice, and both times it was no use… we saw no hope and could only flee,” the girl said in a low voice, and up close, it was noticeable that her eyes were bloodshot.

“Is it the Evil Shadow attacking you? The Withered Woman?” Yu Hong tensed up, asking quickly.

Their predicament was such that even the joint military could not handle it, moreover, it was at the level of a city-sized Hope City, which was completely different from the towns before.

A city-sized Hope City was far more powerful than a town. Basically, what he had, the city had, and probably more.

If even the city defenses were inadequate, it would mean he certainly couldn’t hold off an attack.

“Not the Withered Woman… it’s the Language Person…” As the girl mentioned this name, her body involuntarily shivered, as if trembling with fear.

Language Person…

Yu Hong recalled the danger level information he had heard on the radio, which included the name of the Language Person among the Evil Shadow—a super-threat even more dangerous and terrifying than the Withered Woman.

“Tell me everything you know about the Language Person—all the details, all the intelligence. I want it all. As a reward, I will give you two Large Pyroxene Stones!” Yu Hong said quickly.

Hearing this, the girls’ faces brightened, and they immediately nodded in agreement.

“Yes!”

*

*

*

Between the deep green sea of trees lay a gray road that meandered far into the distance until it met the horizon.

In the middle on the left side of the road, there were five gray and white buses parked.

The buses were covered with sturdy white metal plates, and all windows were nailed shut with thick wooden boards from the inside.

“Is this the convoy…” Not far from the convoy, hidden behind a patch of brown grass, a young man crouched on the ground, his camouflage blending in with the surroundings, his head adorned with a halo of dried grass.

“Yup, I originally came here because you mentioned finding some abandoned jeeps, but it turns out this is a big catch,” another person crouched beside him whispered with a smile.

“Let’s report back to the boss; we should be able to get our hands on some good loot. I already saw some twin sisters get off the buses. There’s got to be more inside,” the young man said with a sleazy grin.

“The club just lost a few young ones, if we can replenish them from here, heh heh heh… we’ll get a share of the boss’s bounty,” the other person also laughed.

After observing for a while longer, one of them spoke up again.

“Alright, I’ll contact Sister Yu, tell her to send people over for the meetup.”

“Okay.”

One of them got up and silently left to go further away.

The young man left behind continued to squat, carefully watching the movements of the convoy.

What seemed strange to him, though, was that despite the fact that around ten people had originally disembarked from the five buses, after squatting there for a good ten minutes or more, there was no further movement from inside the vehicles at all.

The five buses were as still as coffins, completely motionless, eerily silent.

“What’s going on…?” The man furrowed his brow, took the luminous stone blanket from behind him, and draped it over his body.

As soon as the blanket was on, he felt much safer.

But looking at those five buses, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.