RotA – Chapter 2

Rescuing a girl like this was a complete accident, born from a whim of Chai Yuening’s.

As night fell, visibility in the Fog Zone blurred even further. The broken-down truck, open to the wind on three sides, couldn’t go too fast, or it would be impossible to keep one’s eyes open. One of the truck’s fog lights was shattered; the other flickered intermittently.

This area was designated by the Base as a Level-Six Risk Zone. Black vines were everywhere, glowing with halos of dark red or deep purple in the thick night fog.

Terrifying low growls echoed from all around. They were the new masters of the surface world, the various mutated beasts that had been altered by the black vines.

More than fifty years had passed since the Great Cataclysm. The new ecosystem on the surface had continuously propagated and evolved, infecting and destroying the old one.

By now, the types of mutated beasts were innumerable. There were certainly some swift enough to catch up to a vehicle, especially a dilapidated truck like theirs.

Throughout the journey, Chai Yuening’s nerves were stretched taut, ready to face unknown dangers at any moment.

Fortunately, no one and nothing blocked their path on this night road. In fact, the journey was so smooth it left her a bit dazed.

In her memory, the depths of the Fog Zone, even outside the growth season, shouldn’t be this safe. But regardless, encountering nothing was far better than encountering something, so she just chalked it up to a stroke of good luck.

Before long, in the Level-Five Risk Zone, she ran into Luo Kun’s squad, who were lost in the thick fog, every one of them looking anxious.

In the dense night fog, the fog lights of human vehicles were like guiding beacons in a lighthouse, calling out to each other and bringing people back together.

Luo Kun hired ordinary mercenaries who usually loitered in low-risk zones and had no experience venturing deep into the Fog Zone. This group had been decisive when they abandoned Chai Yuening and fled, but now that they were lost and discovered she was still alive, they shamelessly came over to curry favor as if nothing had happened.

As someone who had been abandoned once, Chai Yuening had no intention of cooperating with them again. But considering they were still in a medium-to-high-risk zone, that the equipment on their vehicle was far more complete than hers, and that she hadn’t yet obtained what she came for, she ultimately suppressed the anger in her heart.

She told Luo Kun, “That big fella is dead. I can take you to it, but you have to give my things back.”

Without a second thought, Luo Kun smiled. “Don’t you worry about that. Once we’re back safely, I’ll definitely give them to you.”

Beside the armored vehicle’s headlights, Chai Yuening stared at Luo Kun in silence for a long time before a contemptuous smile touched her lips.

“Luo Kun, a local tyrant from the city districts can’t throw his weight around in the Fog Zone. In any place above a Level-Three Risk Zone, I call the shots,” she said. “Don’t forget, it’s the growth season right now, and the mutated beasts are very active. If I don’t want to help you, you might not make it back alive. Either you give me my things now, and I’ll take you to the giant beast, or we part ways amicably here. I’ll drive my broken-down truck back to the Base. If you want to follow, I won’t stop you. But if you can’t bear to part with that giant beast, you’ll just have to trouble yourself to go back and look for it.”

“Chai Yuening, you really don’t want that thing anymore?!”

“Perhaps that little thing and I just aren’t fated to be. But you never know with these things. Maybe one day fate will intervene, and I’ll happen to be around here to help collect your corpse and take it back in the process.”

“You…” Luo Kun was momentarily speechless, a flash of killing intent in his eyes.

This man was a local tyrant in the Base’s Seventh District. He seemed to greet everyone with a smile every day, but in reality, he had who knows how many lives on his conscience.

But clearly, he had never run into a tough nut to crack.

At that moment, Chai Yuening didn’t retreat a single step. She simply rested a hand on the gun at her waist and quietly watched the man before her, spitting out a single, resolute word: “Choose!”

Luo Kun unconsciously clenched his fists, his jaw tightening with a grinding sound.

But he calmed down quickly, once again putting on a friendly face and choosing to continue cooperating with Chai Yuening.

After all, he had already lost several men. Only by bringing back that giant mutated beast would his efforts not be in vain.

Speaking of which, Chai Yuening felt her luck on this trip was quite good. Entering and exiting a high-risk zone during a special period like the growth season, aside from being attacked by a pack of beasts at the very beginning, she hadn’t encountered any other particularly difficult crises.

At this moment, the cargo hold at the back of the armored vehicle was filled to the brim with the dismembered carcass of the giant beast.

There was no more room inside the vehicle, so the remaining parts were wrapped tightly in burlap sacks and thick cloth to mask the scent, then tied securely to the roof with thick ropes.

The armored vehicle was clearly overloaded; the green-haired kid in the driver’s seat didn’t dare to drive fast.

It was already late, and the vehicle had yet to leave the medium-to-high-risk zone.

She had gotten what she wanted. Now, Chai Yuening could only hope her good luck would hold, allowing her to follow this armored vehicle safely back to the Base.

And, along the way, deliver this little sister, who was too scared to even speak properly, back home.

With this thought, Chai Yuening smiled at the young girl huddled in the corner, watching her. It was an awkward yet polite smile.

The girl didn’t respond, merely watching her quietly. Her bandaged wound was still seeping blood, yet she appeared calm and silent. Her beautiful eyes seemed to be studying something, and it was an obviously guileless sort of observation.

That gaze gave Chai Yuening a very strange feeling. If she had to describe it, it was like a child studying a novel object that posed no danger.

The rest cabin wasn’t large, and the warm-toned lamp hanging from the ceiling was rather dim.

Being alone like this made Chai Yuening feel a bit uncomfortable.

She tucked the rusty, broken watch she was holding into her small satchel, placed her hands on her knees to stand up, and stretched her arms a few times in a seemingly casual but actually awkward manner, finally pointing to the cabin door.

“I’m going out for some air.”

With that, Chai Yuening pressed the switch and left the rest cabin without a backward glance.

The girl’s gaze slowly shifted to the small, dimly lit bulb overhead.

The road in the depths of the Fog Zone was not smooth, and the overloaded armored vehicle drove with a bumpy rhythm.

An unknown amount of time passed before the rest cabin door opened again.

A man walked in.

He sported a head of flamboyant red hair and brightly colored tattoo sleeves. In his hand, he carried a half-empty bottle of white liquor, and his steps were a bit unsteady.

The cabin door closed. He fixed his gaze on the girl, his half-lidded eyes filled with a discomfiting smile.

“Little girl, how old are you?”

“Which mercenary team did you come out with? Are the people who brought you all dead, or did they abandon you when they ran into danger?”

“From now on, stick with me. I can take care of you, and you’ll never have to follow anyone to a dangerous place like this again.”

Under the dim yellow light, the drunken man approached, reeking of alcohol.

The girl in the corner stared daggers at the approaching man, her eyes filled with vigilance. Her hands, wrapped around her knees, slowly clenched into fists, but she remained silent.

Seeing the girl’s demeanor, the man couldn’t help but let out a derisive laugh.

“No need to put on an act in front of me, little missy. With your skinny arms and legs, you can’t carry a thing. Instead of staying put in the Base, what do you think people bring you out here for? You really think no one can tell?”

The girl didn’t reply, only frowning, which made his words even more frivolous.

“You’ve already been out with others anyway. Me, I’m not that picky. When I meet someone like you, I’ll ‘help’ out whoever I can… Besides, you’re so pretty.”

As he spoke, the man strode forward, no longer hiding the lecherous look on his face.

“Don’t be afraid. What’s the difference who you’re with? I guarantee I’ll make you feel good!”

But just as the man crouched beside the girl, grabbed her shoulders, and leaned his body forward, a dagger was pressed against the belt at his waist. Its sharp tip seemed ready to pierce through that insignificant layer of “protection” at any moment.

“You…”

“Please, stay away from me.”

The girl’s tone was icy, without a hint of the panic the man had expected.

Anger flared in the drunken man’s eyes. He exhaled heavily, gritted his teeth, and grabbed her wrist, trying to wrest the dagger away. But as he exerted force, he realized his strength was completely unable to overpower her.

Not only that, but the dagger pressed forward a little more. The sharp sensation sent a stabbing pain into his side.

A drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead. Looking into the girl’s eyes again, he felt as if he were gazing into a bottomless abyss, cold and devoid of any emotion.

This nearly suffocating feeling instantly extinguished all his malicious intent. His body went rigid, and he could only grip the slender wrist holding the dagger, not daring to slacken his hold in the slightest, terrified that his abdomen would be run through in the next second.

As the two were locked in a stalemate, the rest cabin door suddenly opened again.

A clamor of noise and a few hurried footsteps rushed in, and someone pressed the muzzle of a gun against the back of his head.

“Luo Kun, a big brute like you bullying a little girl? That’s not right, is it?” Chai Yuening’s voice was clearly laced with anger.

“Boss, this woman is fierce as hell, I really couldn’t stop her…” The yellow-haired kid with a hand over his left eye cowered at the door, his voice trembling.

As if to corroborate his words, a series of groans came from outside the rest cabin.

Pressure from both front and back made Luo Kun suck in a cold breath, but an indescribable rage welled up in his heart. “Chai Yuening, stay out of my business!”

“What a coincidence. Everyone in the Sixth District knows I love to meddle in other people’s business.” As she spoke, Chai Yuening jabbed the red-haired head with her gun. “Let go, now!”

How could Luo Kun dare to let go? In a place Chai Yuening couldn’t see, a sharp knife was pressed against his waist.

The moment he let go, the tip of the knife would plunge into his side.

“I don’t believe you have the guts to shoot.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Chai Yuening said. “This isn’t the Base. Countless people come here and never return. It doesn’t matter who you are. The world won’t miss one of you.”

“Chai Yuening!”

“You don’t actually think everyone who dies out here is killed by mutated beasts, do you?” At this point, Chai Yuening asked with a newfound interest, “After all the rotten things you’ve done, you can’t be naive enough to think that the hands of a low-class person like me, who lives and dies on the edge, have never been stained with the blood of my own kind?”

Her tone was light and airy, but it suddenly took a sharp turn as she gritted her teeth and snarled, “Luo Kun! Think your hair isn’t red enough?”

“If you dare to shoot, you won’t live either!” Luo Kun roared through clenched teeth.

Outside the rest cabin, his men, their heads still spinning from the recent beating, had been listening and finally realized the situation was serious. They all raised their guns, aiming them at the woman before them.

“Who are you trying to scare? Everyone in this line of work walks on the edge of life and death. Fix your attitude, and I might just let bygones be bygones.” Chai Yuening pressed the muzzle of her gun forward hard and said in a cold voice, “I’ll count to five. You think it over.”

With that, she wasted no more words and began to count down in a calm tone.

“Five.”

“Chai Yuening, stay out of this, and I’ll give you a cut of the money from this trip!”

“Four.”

“You’ve got guts, I admire that! We can be brothers. From now on, in the Base, I’ll have your back in anything, and your brothers’ too!”

“Three.”

Luo Kun began to howl in near desperation. “Cross me, and you won’t have an easy life back in the Base either, you fucker!”

“Two.”

The short dagger at his waist and the countdown behind him made him tremble uncontrollably.

Just as the air in the rest cabin had all but solidified, an inopportune sound of running water, followed by the stench of urine, awkwardly shattered the dead silence.

“I… I won’t do it again, I’ll never… do it again…”

Before the countdown ended, Luo Kun’s psychological defenses crumbled. He could no longer care about anything else and began to beg for mercy in a trembling voice, his right hand, which was gripping the girl’s wrist, already aching to the point of uselessness.

At the same time, Luo Kun felt the dagger pressed against his waist retract.

When he looked down again, the girl before him had returned to her previous harmless appearance, her beautiful eyes even seeming to hold a glimmer of tears.

He tentatively loosened his grip on the girl’s right shoulder and left wrist, only to be grabbed by the collar by Chai Yuening and shoved aside the next second.

“Are you okay?”

Chai Yuening knelt down, gently supporting the teary-eyed girl, her voice full of concern.

The girl shook her head, seeming to want to say something, but then she saw the humiliated and enraged Luo Kun stagger to the door, snatch a gun from one of his men, and turn to aim it at Chai Yuening.

For a moment, he no longer even cared that he needed this woman to guide him back to the Base; his only thought was to avenge his own shame.

“Watch out…”

Before she could finish her sentence, two gunshots rang out.

In that instant, a bullet grazed past the two of them, embedding itself in the vehicle wall behind them.

At the same time, a scream rang out. The gun in Luo Kun’s hand instantly fell to the ground, and the hand that had held it a second ago was already seeping fresh red blood.

“Kill her, fucking kill them!”

His men’s hands, holding their guns, hesitated slightly. Chai Yuening slowly stood up, aiming her gun at his throat.

“If we’re playing for keeps, I’ve still got one bullet. Want to see who dies first?”

“…”

In the tense standoff, the armored vehicle fell into a dead silence.

It was as if everyone had forgotten to breathe.

But at that very moment, the man on lookout duty, standing on the ladder at the observation scope on the roof, suddenly let out an utterly bloodcurdling scream.

Along with a body that could no longer keep its footing on the ladder—no, to be precise, half a corpse—that came crashing down from the roof outside the rest cabin, the entire armored vehicle shook violently.

Half a bloody torso splattered fresh blood onto the dismembered carcass of the giant beast.

And through the round observation window, a spiky, dark green tentacle, stained with blood and as thick as an adult’s thigh, suddenly descended.

It seemed to be hunting for something.

Like a demonic hand from the abyss, it slowly, slowly, reached inside.

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Author’s Notes:

That day, feigned weakness met true righteousness.

Let me just weakly say, in a post-apocalyptic setting, social order is chaotic, and all sorts of people exist. You can curse the scumbags, but please don’t curse me, or I’ll start whimpering [ducks for cover and runs away].