Chapter 120: Anxie District
Translator: Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The blood and flesh that had been all over the floor two days ago had been cleaned, but Luo Yuan could still smell its faint odor.
Dinner had been prepared and placed on the table. Luo Yuan put down his Zhanmadao and took a seat.
His rice bowl had been filled just in time. He was famished. He grabbed a pair of chopsticks, picked up a mutated beast internal organ and devoured it.
These days, his appetite had been increasing thanks to his intense training. His previously stagnant strength had slowly been rising. On the whole, 13-point Energy was the human limit. Even if someone were to undergo intense training, they would still not reach that level of power.
This had nothing to do with talent or different training techniques. It was all about body size.
If a 75 kg man and a 150 kg man underwent the same training, their strength and power would vary greatly, and most of that difference would be because of their weight. For someone with Luo Yuan’s body, 12-point Strength was pretty close to the limit, regardless of how many methods they used to surpass it.
The reason for such growth was the evolution process.
Shortly after he had started eating, a few sheets of paper drifted in through the open doorway.
"The wind blew them in," Wang Shi Shi said plainly.
Luo Yuan took a look and discovered that the papers looked new, as if they had just been printed. They did not look like waste papers that had simply been wafted in by a gust of wind. Puzzled, he put down his rice bowl, walked over and picked one up. His face suddenly changed. "They’re flyers!"
“What kind of flyers?” Huang Jiahui asked.
“Take a look!” Luo Yuan handed it over.
“Announcement to all Chinese citizens!
Our fellow countrymen, the current situation is becoming increasingly serious. The central government has no choice but to temporarily abandon all central-east districts within the capital and proceed to a nationwide retreat. This is the only way to preserve mankind’s strength and avoid a greater loss for the future of the human race. The government is unable to dispatch any more manpower to fallen areas for search and rescue.
If there are any lucky survivors reading these flyers, please spread the news and consider them thoroughly!
The National Emergency Committee”
Huang Jiahui read each word carefully, her face turning pale.
Luo Yuan picked up another flyer and read it carefully. On its back was a picture of the world map, marked with a variety of colors. Most of the regions had been painted black, and some areas had been marked with red. Only the West, with its low population and inhabitable climate, had been marked yellow.
The whole Jiangnan Province was black. A fallen zone.
As if he had suddenly thought of something, Huo Dong ran excitedly towards the doorway and shouted, “A plane! The flyers must have been distributed by plane!”
Luo Yuan was startled, but he quickly ran out and joined Huo Dong.
A silver-white dot could be seen hovering in the sky while stacks of flyers were flying everywhere.
"Here! We’re here! There are survivors here!" Huo Dong shouted, waving his hands like crazy.
Soon everyone started shouting until their voices went hoarse.
“They can’t hear us, let’s use smoke! Chen Xianfeng, go to the basement and bring out the diesel!" Luo Yuan shouted.
"It’s useless! What if it’s an unmanned aircraft?" Huang Jiahui could not help but say.
Everyone seemed to not have heard her. Chen Xianfeng quickly ran to the storage room and brought out a bucket of diesel. Luo Yuan took it from him, unscrewed the cap, poured a large amount onto the ground, and lit it up. When it did not produce the thick smoke that he had wanted it to, Luo Yuan shouted, "Get some wet firewood!"
When the firewood was thrown in, a thick dark smoke started to rise.
They stood in silence for a long time, watching the smoke billow towards the sky.
At night, Luo Yuan tossed and turned. He just could not seem to fall asleep. The black markings of death on the flyers kept flashing in his mind, causing him stress and insomnia.
The city had gradually been shrouded in green. As long as there was a tiny bit of soil, plants grew at an alarming speed. Many areas had turned into jungle, where plants grew vigorously. Grass had also begun to emerge in between the cracks of the concrete floor.
When Luo Yuan had been in high school, he had read an essay about a wildflower growing by a cliff. The essay had praised the perseverance of the wildflower for thriving and flourishing under such extreme conditions. At the time, the story had seemed dull, but now he found himself feeling both fear and awe.
As soon as the green covered the whole city, the erosion of the roots would speed up the extinction of the human race, and soon the whole city would disintegrate and become ruins within a forest.
"Why don’t we head towards the West?" Huang Jiahui suddenly said.
"Did I wake you?" Luo Yuan asked.
"I could not fall asleep either," Huang Jiahui said, suddenly turning and hugging Luo Yuan. She placed her head on his chest before she added, "We can’t keep living like this. Why don’t we leave this place?”
That was the second time that Huang Jiahui had raised that topic. In their previous conversation, Luo Yuan had rejected the idea. This time he remained silent.
After a long time, he said in a low voice, "It’s very dangerous outside. People may die. Perhaps none of us will even make it half way there.”
“We may die, but we can’t stay here forever. I don’t want our future children to be raised here. As long as there is a glimmer of hope, we shouldn’t give up," Huang Jiahui said softly, embracing Luo Yuan tightly.
Luo Yuan was startled. He almost jumped up from the bed. “Are you pregnant?”
He had never considered having a child. He felt like a high school student whose girlfriend had just told him that she was pregnant. His first reaction was not happiness, but fear. This was all too sudden.
After observing Luo Yuan’s reaction, Huang Jiahui let out a quiet sigh.
She knew that they were together because of sex, not love. She had been married and given birth to a child. Although she was considered a beauty, that still did not mean anything. Luo Yuan could have even the most beautiful of women at his feet. In fact, if Luo Yuan wanted to, he could go to any of the women’s beds and not be turned away.
As long as they were together, she could not ask for more. Nonetheless, she could not help but feel sad. She forced a smile. ‘Look how scared you are. I said our future children.”
Luo Yuan realized that he had overreacted, so he said apologetically, "I did not mean it that way. It’s just that now is not a good time to get pregnant. It would be too harsh for the child. They’d have to face this cruel world the minute they were born.”
The idea stirred his heart. After all, they could not stay there all their lives. Sooner or later, they would have to leave. Hedong City was getting increasingly dangerous; the larger mutated beasts could undergo evolution any time. Staying there might not be safe anymore.
He closed his eyes, struggling for a moment. Then he took a deep breath and with a heavy heart, he said, "Then let's head west. We will depart in a few days.”
A silhouette was running at high speed down an empty street.
Luo Yuan jumped across a half-fallen building on the road, and kept running forward. He had been sprinting nonstop for an hour, but his 16-point Physique would not allow him to get tired. His body was at optimum condition all the time.
Suddenly, he came to a stop. He was holding a tattered map and looking around carefully, comparing the area to the picture. Various landmarks had collapsed, and several streets had been blocked. Even with the map, it was difficult to name the location. Luo Yuan stood there, looking around for a long time before confirming that this was Huayuan Street of the Dongguang District. There was still some distance to go before reaching the Anxie Gaoshang Community.
A few days ago Luo Yuan had been so stressed, he had almost forgotten something. It was only when he was about to leave that he remembered receiving a text message from Wang Xiaguang.
Perhaps the person that you ignored the most was the one that cared about you the most. Luo Yuan had always harbored guilt towards that girl. Before leaving Hedong City, he had finally decided to check on her.
In order to avoid attracting a mutated beast, he had not brought his giant lizard. Instead, he had come alone.
He suddenly realized that the situation there was very bad. This had once been an affluent area with a beautiful environment, full of parks and greenery. Although all trees had been eradicated before the fall of Hedong City, the plants were flourishing with even more vigor than before, and the large canal that snaked through the district made it even more dangerous.
His heart gradually sank. Compared to Dongguan District, the place that Luo Yuan stayed in seemed like a safe heaven.
He could not pinpoint the exact level of mutated beasts, but they had to be several times more powerful than the underground worm he had encountered. He had never felt such a terrifying aura before.
Mutated beasts had finally started to evolve, yet no one knew how many exactly had evolved in the entire Hedong City.
Luo Yuan was affected by the strange aura. His heart got tense, and he became more careful. He kept away from the area as he compared the streets to the map. About an hour later, he finally arrived at Anxie District.
The electric gate looked as if it had been hit by something. It had flown ten meters away and been twisted into hemp-like rolls.
Although this had once been a high-end area, it was hardly recognizable anymore. Plants were forming a dense, airtight forest, and the roars of mutated beasts could be heard in the distance. A group of mutated insects that looked like they belonged in prehistoric times was flying up and down through the woods.
The road on the ground had been buried completely under the grass; there was not even the slightest trace of concrete. Except for several vine-covered high-rise apartment buildings that could still be seen towering over the woods, the rest of the buildings had been completely covered by trees.
It looked more like a virgin forest than a community park.
Luo Yuan’s heart felt heavy. He hoped that Wang Xiaguang was still alive.