RotA – Chapter 15

The crowd, shrouded in fear, scattered and fled in panic.

The security officers’ gun muzzles struggled to aim at the rapidly moving mutated beast.

But it used the chaotic crowd as its cover, making the expressions of those holding the guns turn extremely hesitant.

Such hesitation undoubtedly gave the mutated beast an opportunity, and in an instant, it had injured countless people.

Suddenly, a bullet struck the mutated beast’s hind leg.

A moment of imbalance sent it tumbling to the ground. It crouched low on its four forelimbs and let out a low growl in the direction the bullet had come from.

Rage sent it lunging toward the gun-wielding Chai Yuening, but the injury to its hind leg slowed its speed.

Without the cover of the chaotic crowd, it finally collapsed into a pool of blood.

The moment the beast fell, everyone stared at the bloody, gruesome scene before them, falling into a deathly silence.

More people had been injured.

After an unknown amount of time, the chief security officer broke the silence.

He tried to arrange for everyone to undergo a new round of testing.

He said that the injured, the uninjured, every security officer, medical personnel, and mercenary who had come to provide support—not a single one could be missed.

His voice, already somewhat hoarse from shouting, echoed again and again through the dead silence.

Finally, someone took a few steps forward and stood beside the testing device.

One, two, three, four—more and more people followed behind that person.

None of them were injured, at least not on the surface.

Everyone now understood that Cheng Shan was right. A wound so minor that it would go unnoticed if you didn’t mention it could also lead to infection and mutation.

If anyone went untested, the next person to mutate would start a new round of infections among the crowd here.

So they no longer dared to cause a commotion, wanting only to comply with the arrangements and get it all over with quickly.

But those who had been unfortunately injured just now all remained frozen in place.

They felt the strange gazes from those around them, as if they could already foresee the outcome the moment the test results were announced—that not a single person would speak up for them.

In the end, they numbly joined the back of the testing line.

At the same time, they numbly watched as the people at the front of the line kept a terrified distance from them.

Chai Yuening subconsciously glanced at the electronic clock inside the train station.

The time read 21:47.

The numbers were red; they had been red for so many years.

But Chai Yuening suddenly felt they were like blood, each changing minute so jarring to the eye.

Gunshots rang out once more in the waiting hall, a hall already stained with too much blood.

One after another, one after another.

Those infected who, after receiving the expected test results, despaired, cried out, and struggled to escape—in the end, not a single one got away.

The passengers’ testing was finished, and the security officers lined up to begin theirs.

Chai Yuening quietly watched the not-so-long line and noticed that the young security officer who had collapsed, sobbing on his knees a few hours ago, was gone.

She turned to look at the mutated beast still lying on the ground, an indescribable feeling in her heart.

“He actually knew he was injured,” Chu Ci said softly beside her.

“Infection doesn’t guarantee mutation, but if you’re detected as infected, you will definitely be killed by your own kind.” As Chai Yuening spoke, she couldn’t help but bite her lower lip, lowering her voice. “This is the choice most people would make.”

She thought, I’m one of most people, too.

Everyone wants to live. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to live.

It’s this world that’s killing people.

Chai Yuening stopped looking at the station’s electronic clock. Instead, she took out her pocket watch and watched the hands, tick-tock, tick-tock, wearing away every minute and second.

Not far away, the security officers and medical staff were tested in turn. A gunshot punctuated the process; another infected person fell.

The mercenaries who had come to provide support also joined the end of the testing line.

Chai Yuening suddenly remembered something, and a trace of unease rose in her heart.

She subconsciously grabbed Chu Ci’s hand.

Chu Ci glanced back at her but said nothing, simply pulling her along.

As the number of people who passed the initial test grew, the line for testing shortened. Chai Yuening began to find it difficult to suppress her ever-accelerating heartbeat.

When they reached the very front of the line, the thread of her rationality was stretched to its absolute limit.

Chai Yuening suddenly, uncontrollably, leaned close to Chu Ci’s ear and said something in a voice so low only the two of them could hear.

She said, “If you want to leave, I can get you out.”

In that moment, she thought she must have gone mad.

But Chu Ci didn’t respond. She walked forward as if nothing had happened and extended her arm to the person in charge of testing.

For a dozen or so seconds, Chai Yuening nearly forgot to breathe.

Fortunately, the final result was not what she had feared.

When they returned to an empty seat in the corner, Chai Yuening heard an almost inaudible chuckle from Chu Ci beside her.

That sound made Chai Yuening’s cheeks suddenly flush.

“What are you laughing at…”

“What were you afraid of just now?”

Chu Ci’s counter-question was very soft. Chai Yuening instinctively looked at her, at the faint hint of a smile in her eyes.

It was the only glimmer of light in the oppressive gloom that could allow her to relax, even a little.

She took a deep breath, then slowly sighed it out and said with a smile, “I was afraid that what I brought back from the Fog Zone was a different species, assuming a human form, mimicking human behavior, using human language, and silently infecting me before it fully mutated…”

Hearing this, Chu Ci softly asked in return, “If that were the case, and I was detected, wouldn’t you be safe? Why would you want to help me leave? Aren’t you afraid that if I’m really not human, once I’ve evaded this test, I’ll just keep hiding by your side?”

“I didn’t think that far ahead,” Chai Yuening said, laughing self-deprecatingly. “I’m a shortsighted person.”

“That night, that vial of reagent, you prepared it specifically for me, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“No.”

The two of them, sitting side by side, suddenly fell silent together.

Chu Ci watched the pocket watch in Chai Yuening’s palm. Only after the second hand had circled a full three times did she say faintly, “Thank you.”

Chai Yuening was clearly taken aback.

She had thought Chu Ci would be angry, or at least that her anger wouldn’t fade so quickly.

After all, her trust in her was so shallow, so shallow that even living under the same roof was fraught with suspicion.

But she had heard a “thank you.” She couldn’t understand it.

She opened her mouth, wanting to ask something.

But the alarm that heralded the arrival of danger blared again at that very moment.

This time, there was no broadcast, no words of explanation, only the alarm sounding from both inside and outside the train station.

This was the district’s evacuation alarm.

In all these years, the Base had never broadcast it even once, but every resident of the outer city who had received a basic education had heard this alarm in a classroom.

Many people stood up, looking toward the station exit with terror in their eyes.

Cheng Shan’s face was ashen as he picked up his communicator, seemingly asking someone a question. But after a few words, his expression grew even graver.

Chai Yuening subconsciously checked her own communicator’s signal.

As expected, just like on the surface, messages could neither be sent nor received.

Although she didn’t know what had happened, the Sixth District’s communications were down.

The alarm wailed ceaselessly, invisibly draping a layer of despair over the vast train station.

“Something’s approaching,” Chu Ci said with a frown.

It wasn’t an illusion. The ground beneath their feet had also begun to tremble slightly.

It was a strange frequency, as if something was approaching from not far away, crawling in droves, either under their feet or over their heads.

“What’s that sound!”

“Something’s coming!” someone screamed. “It’s above us! And below us too!”

“It’s the ventilation ducts! The mutated beasts are crawling over from the Fifth District through the ventilation ducts!”

The originally quiet district outside the train station was also thoroughly awakened by this sudden turn of events.

“Sixth District communication signal is down. District evacuation alarm activated. It seems a swarm of beasts… has infiltrated through the ventilation ducts. Specific cause unknown… The Sixth District’s military forces were dispatched to the Fifth District for support this afternoon. Remaining combat strength… is severely insufficient. Cheng Shan of the Sixth District Security Office requests support from the main city!”

Cheng Shan recorded this message with a trembling voice.

If the signal was intermittent, perhaps this message would be automatically transmitted during a better window.

But that was only an “if.”

However, Cheng Shan clearly didn’t intend to keep performing this useless task.

He quickly put away his communicator and stepped forward, shouting at the panicked crowd, “Everyone, don’t panic! The Base’s structures are very sturdy! The ventilation ducts can only fit one person, so these small mutated beasts that can enter the ducts in swarms can’t possibly break through our…”

Before he could even finish his sentence, he was mercilessly interrupted by a series of dull, heavy thuds.

Chai Yuening felt the ground beneath her feet begin to shake uncontrollably.

The source of the shaking was not singular.

The originally flat ground was suddenly forced open by some kind of sharp object, creating one crack after another.

Not just underfoot, but overhead as well.

From within the cracks, one after another, pale hands—like a human’s but not, with sharp nails—slowly extended.

They were clearly so sharp, yet seemed to have no bones, beginning to limply stretch and extend outward after squeezing through the gaps.

The security officers fired at the “ghost hands.”

The electronic clock, displaying 22:23, suddenly sparked. A “ghost hand” emerging from the ceiling wrenched it from its high perch, sending it crashing heavily to the ground.

The shattered screen seemed to have distorted time itself.

The first mutated beast wriggled out from a widened crack in the ceiling.

Splat!

Amidst the screams of countless people, it landed on top of the large testing device.

Its limbs were limp, like a boneless human, or like a worm wearing human skin. It opened a pair of vacant eyes and surveyed every “prey” before it.

The infection detector flashed its red warning light frantically.

“Run!”

Cheng Shan’s hoarse cry jolted awake those who had been scared witless.

There were too many mutated beasts. No one could protect anyone else; everyone could only fend for themselves.

This time, no one was holding anyone back.

Everyone fled for their lives. Those who couldn’t find a direction just crashed about like headless flies.

Chai Yuening aimed and fired one shot each at the beast’s throat and the space between its brows, only to find that those were not its vital points at all.

A ghost hand that had just emerged from the ground wrapped around her ankle.

Chu Ci drew the dagger from Chai Yuening’s waist, bent down and slashed it clean through, then grabbed her arm as she stood up, turning to run toward the station entrance.

The glass doors at the station entrance had opened at some unknown point; the security officers who had been guarding them were long gone.

On the streets of the Sixth District, that boneless “humanoid worm” was preying on the panicked, scattering crowds.

The streetlights hanging askew overhead flickered on and off, like a carnival at the end of the world.

The gunshots inside the train station fell silent.

The wailing alarm, at this moment, died.

The Underground City Base, Outer City Sixth District, had fallen into despair.