RotA – Chapter 16

The old armored vehicle parked at the station entrance was already tilted slightly along with the partially collapsed ground.

Chai Yuening yanked open the door, vaulted into the driver’s seat, and the moment she shut the door, Chu Ci, who was right behind her, also sat down in the passenger seat.

A humanoid insect pounced from above, landing on the front windshield and making the entire armored vehicle shudder.

Chai Yuening raised her hand and fired a shot through the glass. Blood splattered across the front window. The humanoid insect let out the wail of a ghostly infant and leaped off the windshield in pain.

“Where are we going?” Chu Ci asked her. “The Fifth District?”

“No.” Chai Yuening stomped on the accelerator, driving toward the city center amidst countless cries for help.

The mutated beasts on the streets, some still draped in human clothing, had already lost their human appearance.

People struggling to survive waved their arms, begging them for help, stumbling toward them from a distance, but received no response.

Disappointment, despair—these were merely the most ordinary emotions of the night.

Many mercenaries had come to support the security office. This wasn’t the first armored vehicle to drive away, nor would it be the last.

Chu Ci gazed out the window at the district that had suddenly become like a purgatory and asked softly, “Aren’t we leaving this place?”

Her tone was calm, as calm as an observer’s.

Her words carried a hint of sorrow that wasn’t overwhelming; it wasn’t coldness, nor was there any excess panic.

Just like when they first met.

An indescribable feeling flashed through Chai Yuening’s heart, but she suppressed it in an instant.

She sped through the horde of beasts that were cruelly hunting humans, looking through the fractured, web-like windshield at the countless people along the way who were pleading for her help.

The initial hesitation in her eyes transformed, bit by bit, into resolve.

Chai Yuening said, “Those things are all human, humans who just recently mutated… If they really came from the Fifth District’s ventilation shafts, they’ll definitely keep crawling through the ducts into other districts.”

Chu Ci said, “New mutants will join them, too.”

Chai Yuening said, “This all happened too suddenly, so suddenly that the military and the security office didn’t have time to implement any defensive measures… If I can block the ventilation shafts leading to the other districts, it will at least buy the main city some more time to react.”

Chu Ci turned to look at Chai Yuening, something seeming to flicker in her eyes.

She asked softly, “Aren’t you afraid?”

Chai Yuening remained silent, her palms gripping the steering wheel, unknowingly slick with cold sweat.

The district’s lights, shrouded in a bloody mist this night, flickered with leaking electricity, illuminating the purgatorial road ahead.

The eleven o’clock lights-out reminder, just as always, sounded in every corner of the district according to its programming.

“The time is now 23:00. There are thirty minutes remaining until lights-out. Please manage your electricity usage reasonably.”

“Sleeping early and waking early is beneficial to your health.”

“May you embrace sweet dreams tonight.”

The familiar broadcast, the unfamiliar blood-soaked streetscape.

Chai Yuening sucked in a sharp breath and, in a heavy voice, answered the question Chu Ci had asked more than ten minutes ago.

She said, “I’m afraid… But if the Base falls completely, even if we’re lucky enough to survive, where else can we go?”

The surface has long been unsuitable for human survival, and the Floating City is in a distant place they may never reach.

If the Underground City Base truly ceased to exist, then the survivors of this disaster would have nowhere to go.

She wasn’t made of steel. She only had one gun; she couldn’t save everyone.

But if there was a chance, she was willing to risk her life for it.

The armored vehicle drove on, finally stopping before a massive, ring-shaped building.

This was the Sixth District’s City Defense Center. Normally garrisoned by the military, tonight it was filled with nothing but a dead silence tinged with the smell of blood.

It was obvious this area had already been ravaged by the horde of beasts.

The prey here was gone, so the horde had followed the scent elsewhere.

The district’s ventilation system was always managed by the City Defense Center. As long as she could find the control room and forcibly sever the connection between the Sixth District’s ventilation ducts and the other districts, she could buy time for them.

But in such a large building, with the signs all knocked askew, Chai Yuening had no idea where to even begin looking.

As she was about to get out of the vehicle, Chai Yuening hesitated for half a second.

She said to Chu Ci, “If you’re scared, you can stay in the car. If the horde comes, just drive away.”

Chu Ci: “Chai Yuening.”

Chai Yuening froze for a moment. It seemed she had never heard Chu Ci call her by her full name like that.

Chu Ci: “Is it the tradition of the Thirteenth Mercenary Team for the captain to face danger alone?”

Chai Yuening: “…”

Chu Ci pulled open the car door and jumped out first.

It had to be said, being sternly lectured by a new teammate who had always been quiet and obedient was a very peculiar experience.

Chai Yuening pursed her lips, pulled out the car key she had intended to leave for Chu Ci, and got out of the vehicle with her.

“Let’s see if we can find anyone alive.” Chai Yuening gripped her gun tightly, stepping with utmost caution over the corpses at her feet as she headed into the City Defense Center.

Chu Ci followed behind her and reminded her in a low voice, “Even if there are survivors, they’ve most likely been infected.”

“As long as their minds are still clear,” Chai Yuening said.

She just wanted to find someone to give them directions, even if they only had one breath left.

As for whether they would mutate, or whether they would eat people after mutating, she no longer cared at all.

Inside the empty, dilapidated corridor, there was no sound other than their two sets of footsteps.

They followed the bloodstains up to the second floor.

Chu Ci suddenly tugged on Chai Yuening’s wrist.

Chai Yuening turned back, puzzled.

Chu Ci didn’t speak, merely signaling with her eyes that she had noticed something unusual. Then, muffling her footsteps, she approached a closed door.

Chai Yuening held her breath and followed, gun in hand.

But it was too quiet here, so quiet they couldn’t hide their footsteps at all.

The sound of their footsteps seemed to have startled whatever was inside the room. A clatter of falling objects came from within, sounding exceptionally jarring in the empty and deathly silent building.

Soon, the noise from the room vanished again.

But this time, Chai Yuening heard a faint and incredibly restrained sound of breathing.

It could be a hiding human, but it could also be an injured mutated beast.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.

After a brief standoff, an extremely short, terrified sob allowed Chai Yuening to relax slightly.

It was clearly a human sound.

“Is someone in there?” she asked softly.

After a short silence, an extremely shaky reply came from inside the room: “Are you from the City Defense… or the security office?”

This person, hiding here and waiting for rescue, was like so many other district residents—completely unaware that the City Defense forces had gone to the Fifth District, and that the security officers had already fallen at the train station.

Chai Yuening thought for a moment, then said, “I’m from the Thirteenth Mercenary Team.”

“Were you hired by the military?”

“…Yes.”

“Are you here to rescue people!”

“No, but I can get you out of here if you can help me complete my mission.”

The person in the room was silent for a moment, then asked in a trembling voice, “What’s your mission?”

Chai Yuening: “To sever the connection between the ventilation ducts and the other districts.”

“I… I’m an intern technician, I can help you…”

As the person inside spoke, the closed door was gently pushed open from within.

A young girl with glasses emerged, her body trembling as she limped out.

She was clutching a gun tightly, but even the way she held it was wrong.

“Are you injured?” Chai Yuening asked, looking warily at her leg.

“My… my leg’s asleep…” The young girl’s eyes were red-rimmed, filled with lingering terror.

As a mercenary who had spent half her life scraping by in the Fog Zone, tenderly cherishing women was the fine quality Chai Yuening most lacked. She didn’t give the young girl much time for tears, immediately urging her to lead the way. The three of them ran all the way to the fourth floor and found the ventilation system’s control room.

Two mangled corpses lay sprawled at the entrance to the control room, and fresh bloodstains still remained on the control console.

The girl, trembling, sat down before the console, which was covered in a bewildering number of buttons. She turned back hesitantly and asked, “Do we… do we really have to sever the ventilation connection? The air quality in the Sixth District will be affected…”

“Do it!”

“Excuse me, do… do you have written authorization from the military?” the young girl said timidly. “The ventilation system is extremely important. It can’t be shut down arbitrarily except in a particularly urgent emergency…”

“This is a particularly urgent emergency!” Chai Yuening said seriously.

“But…”

“No buts, hurry up and do it!”

“Without military authorization, I…” Before the girl could finish, a trace of panic suddenly appeared in her eyes.

Chai Yuening instinctively followed the girl’s gaze and turned to look. She saw a deathly pale human face with vacant eyes, staring silently in their direction.

It was curled up by the ventilation opening in the corner of the control room, its limbs twisted into a completely inhuman shape.

It was an invertebrate worm, mutated from a human and clad in its skin, that had crawled over from the Fifth District’s ventilation shaft.

Chai Yuening had seen far too many of these things today.

Its abnormally twisted body, under the extremely dim light of the control room, slowly squirmed in their direction.

And behind it, inside the ventilation shaft located high on the side wall, there were clearly countless more of its kind, continuously making faint scraping sounds.

Chai Yuening aimed her gun at it and said once more, her tone resolute, “Listen to me. Sever the connection, and I’ll get you out of here.”

Hearing this, the girl no longer hesitated. With trembling hands, she began to operate the incredibly complex control console.

Her voice trembled violently. “I, I need time. I need… about, about ten minutes…”

“You do your thing. Don’t get distracted,” Chai Yuening said, taking two steps to the side and instinctively shielding both Chu Ci and the small girl behind her.

She didn’t fire, merely facing off against the humanoid insect.

Pain would enrage the mutated beast, and a gunshot would startle the horde.

The military’s supplies hadn’t arrived yet. She didn’t have many bullets left. A long ten minutes might not be something she could stall for even by risking her life.

But she had no choice.

Just as despair was about to shatter her reason, she faintly smelled a light, ethereal fragrance.

A thin layer of mist enveloped the dim control room.

A rustling sound came from behind her.

She saw black vines, carrying a dark red glow, rise into the air beside her.

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Author’s Notes:

Chai Yuening: ???