RotA – Chapter 32

The elevator platform carrying the armored vehicle rose slowly from the depths of the earth.

Suspended lights on either side of the platform illuminated this man-made “abyss” with no visible top or bottom.

Inside the vehicle, everyone joked and laughed as they filled their stomachs with dry rations and cold water.

More than a month had passed since the Thirteenth Mercenary Team’s last trip to the surface. The world below had been turned upside down, and the surface was no different.

It was still daytime, not long past lunch, yet the sun was nowhere to be seen.

Previously, there was no fog above the Base, but now, the black vines had brought with them a thick mist, and along with it, the mutated beasts that loved to hide within it.

Lao Xiang couldn’t help but sigh. “This fog is as thick as a medium-to-high-risk zone. Looks like there’ll be no sunset to watch.”

Lu Qi said, “The beast hordes are already running rampant underground. What’s the point of classifying risk zones on the surface anymore?”

Lao Xiang replied, “That’s true. Captain, what’s our plan? Are we really just going for a drive?”

Chai Yuening nodded, silently clutching the locator she had received from the military. “We have to protect this until the rescue team from the Floating City finds us.”

“What exactly is that thing the Base gave us?” Lu Qi came over, craning his neck for a look, but saw nothing. His curiosity got the better of him. “Captain, we’re all on the same team here, don’t be so mysterious. What did the military send us out for this time?”

“A micro-locator. It’s from the Floating City.” Chai Yuening opened her palm. “It’s the Base’s only hope for rescue now.”

“It’s that small? What kind of genius makes a locator this small?” Lu Qi leaned in for a closer look and couldn’t resist complaining, “Are they afraid you might actually find it if you lose it?”

“It won’t get lost if it’s embedded in a human body,” Chu Ci stated faintly from the side.

“This…” Lu Qi was stunned, his gaze shifting to Chu Ci in astonishment.

On the day the team moved to the main city, everyone had heard the Base’s resolve to cut its losses and survive. However, this supposedly unshakable resolve had changed after Chai Yuening disappeared with Chu Ci for a morning.

Everyone knew that Chu Ci was from the Floating City.

That day, although Chai Yuening had only returned with a result, it was obvious to everyone that this result was closely related to Chu Ci.

Since Chai Yuening didn’t elaborate, everyone had an unspoken understanding and didn’t ask.

But at this moment, a micro-locator and an incredibly calm reply instantly made everyone understand.

What kind of person in this world would need a tracking system embedded in their body?

Even the most vicious criminals had prisons or death as their final destination; there was absolutely no need for constant tracking.

No one knew what the Floating City was like, but in the underground Base, this kind of system embedded in a living organism was only ever used for experimental subjects.

A few years ago, the Base Research Institute had embedded similar devices in some less dangerous specimens before releasing them to the surface to track and observe their integration and evolution with other species.

But that was only ever done to inhuman mutated beasts.

Chu Ci said the micro-locator was a model designed to be embedded in a human body.

And Chu Ci was the one who had brought it to the underground city.

With that much said, some things no longer needed to be spelled out.

Awkwardness filled the air in that instant.

After a brief, awkward silence, Ren Dong called out, “Lu Qi, come give me a hand.”

Lu Qi scurried over in a few large strides as if making an escape.

An unknown amount of time passed before Lao Xiang, gripping the steering wheel, began to whistle a slightly airy tune—an ancient song from the Old World called Unity is Strength.

In the rear compartment, Ren Dong set up a heavy sniper rifle by the hatch. Lu Qi, who had been helping her, stood up, stretched dramatically, and hollered for Lao Xiang to “change the song,” only to be met with a thoroughly disgusted retort.

As the two bickered playfully, the vehicle grew lively again, the atmosphere so pleasant it was as if the earlier awkwardness had never happened.

The doors between the armored vehicle’s compartments were open. Chai Yuening got up and walked into the cockpit. Leaning on the back of the rear seat, she gazed out both side windows.

She hadn’t been to the surface in so long that she almost didn’t recognize this plain, now covered by black vines.

A long time ago, the Base had toppled countless surface structures, destroyed the surface ecosystem, and painstakingly turned this area into a sandy plain, all to prevent the black vines from spreading toward the area above the Base.

But if the great western desert, where humanity’s third base was once established, could bloom with one flower of despair after another, what did this man-made, desertified plain even count for?

Since the beginning of spring, the continuous drizzle had created the most suitable climate for the black vines to grow.

The black vines had, in the end, conquered the sandy plain, climbed the tall, distant towers, and at their peaks, bloomed with black flowers that symbolized calamity.

In the dense fog, the faint reddish-purple glow emitted by the black vines lightly traced their former shapes.

“It’s different from last time,” Chu Ci’s voice came from behind her.

Chai Yuening snapped back to her senses and nodded. “It’s a road I’ve traveled countless times, yet I almost didn’t recognize it.”

Chu Ci said coolly, “With fog this dense, all kinds of mutated beasts will love it.”

“This density is almost like the depths of the old Fog Zone,” Lao Xiang said, turning to glance at Chu Ci before looking back at the road ahead. “Speaking of which, I’ve lived for more than half my life and I’ve still never seen one of those behemoths they describe in the broadcasts. I hear those things have been showing up frequently lately.”

Lu Qi’s interest was piqued. “Me neither! How big are they really? The Base said they cause minor earthquakes when they pass by, but we can’t feel it because the Base is too deep. Is that true?”

Ren Dong, who had been listening from the rear compartment, couldn’t help but retort disdainfully, “You guys can’t possibly be interested in something like that, can you? If we really ran into one, all the firepower in this vehicle combined wouldn’t be enough to take it down!”

Lu Qi said, “Who said anything about a head-on fight? If we run into one, we’d obviously run. We might not be able to beat it, but can’t we escape? We have a good vehicle now.”

Ren Dong said, “Did you forget how Luo Kun died? Du Xia said there wasn’t even a complete corpse! We have the same model vehicle as he did!”

Lu Qi: “Pah, pah, pah, don’t jinx it. Can’t you learn from Du Xia? Shoot more, talk less…”

Ren Dong: “You’re clearly the one who talks the most…”

Lu Qi: “No, I’m not!”

Lao Xiang: “Yes, you are. You’re so damn loud, kid.”

Lu Qi: “You’re in no position to talk, Lao Xiang. Every time we’re on the surface, you’re the one who loves to talk to yourself the most. I only chime in because I’m afraid you’ll feel awkward!”

Lao Xiang: “Is that what you call talking to myself? I’m lightening the mood, what do you know?”

The argument in the vehicle had inexplicably shifted to the question of “who talks the most.”

Chai Yuening walked back to the rest cabin and leaned back in a corner illuminated by the vehicle’s dim yellow lightbulb.

She yawned, listening to the strangely reassuring sound of their bickering, and secretly began to doze off.

The armored vehicle bumped along the black-vine-covered ground. Chai Yuening could feel Chu Ci sit down beside her, as quiet as when they had first met.

In a state of half-sleep, she couldn’t help but wonder if this could all be a dream.

When she woke up, she would still be on her way back to the Base, in the team’s old armored vehicle that seemed ready to break down at any moment.

The area above the Base wouldn’t be covered in black vines, the outer city would be as stable as ever, there would be no mutants in the Fifth District, no loss of contact, and no danger spreading outward.

Except for her encounter with Chu Ci, none of it would have ever happened.

But when she opened her eyes again, nothing before her had changed.

Chu Ci had fallen asleep on her shoulder, and her own head was resting naturally on Chu Ci’s.

The vehicle was much quieter now than before she had fallen asleep.

Lu Qi was sleeping askew in the seat behind the driver, and Ren Dong was hunched over a small notebook, writing something seriously under the light.

At some point, Lao Xiang had parked the vehicle in an open area where the black vines were sparser and the fog was thinner. He was chewing on some extra-hard, jaw-breaking dried bean curd snacks.

Since there was no need to press on for the moment, he had turned off the vehicle’s fog lights, making the surroundings seem somewhat dim.

Chai Yuening pulled out her pocket watch and glanced at it. It was already past six in the evening.

This small movement startled the person leaning on her shoulder awake.

Chu Ci rubbed her eyes and sat up straight, her hair slightly tousled from sleep.

Chai Yuening unconsciously reached out to smooth it for her. But the moment her fingers combed through the soft, long hair, a wave of inexplicable nervousness washed over her.

She discreetly pulled her hand back, her gaze darting away to the side.

Outside the fog-shrouded vehicle, the daylight was gradually fading.

Night would fall soon.

The surface was not like the Base, where light existed when the lamps were on and darkness when they were off, with no difference between day and night.

But here, the distinction between day and night was exceptionally clear. The day was incredibly bright, but when night came, darkness would swallow all light. And the dangers that liked to hide in the dark would more easily arrive with it, always so silently.

Chai Yuening quietly watched as the sky darkened bit by bit.

A light evening breeze blew gently through the half-open window of the cockpit.

The air carried the faint, sweet fragrance of the black vines.

After an unknown amount of time, Lao Xiang stood up, stretched his limbs, and walked to the rear compartment to rummage through the dry ration bags.

The noise woke Lu Qi, who then loudly called everyone to gather around the small, dim hanging lamp in the rest cabin for a dinner that wasn’t lavish, but was lively enough.

After dinner, they chatted about all sorts of trivial things.

It wasn’t until the night grew deeper that they closed their eyes one by one.

Lu Qi, having slept a long time during the day, volunteered to take the first half of the night watch.

To ensure she had energy for the second half, Chai Yuening forced her wide-awake self to sleep for a while longer. When she could sleep no more, she got up, hauled Lu Qi out of the driver’s seat, and sent him off to the rest cabin with a few sharp words.

A little after two in the morning, she sat in the driver’s seat, watching the danger monitor, and began her watch over the long night.

Before long, Chu Ci tiptoed into the cockpit and sat in the passenger seat.

Chai Yuening lowered her voice and asked, “You’re not sleeping?”

Chu Ci shook her head.

Chai Yuening smiled, looked out the window, and remarked, “The night is still long.”

Chu Ci: “So I’ll keep you company.”

Chai Yuening thought for a moment, then said softly, “Can I ask you a few questions?”

Chu Ci: “Mm.”

Chai Yuening: “That time in the ventilation system control room, and on Luo Kun’s vehicle… was it you who scared them away?”

Chu Ci: “No.”

Chai Yuening: “Then why did they leave?”

“Mutated beasts in the Fog Zone hunt by scent. I can only temporarily conceal the scent within a small area. It doesn’t last long. If we’re lucky and they have other prey, they’ll naturally leave.”

“I see.” Chai Yuening nodded. “No wonder. I could never figure it out. If you could scare away mutated beasts, how could you have possibly gotten injured in the Fog Zone?”

“Then why didn’t you ask me?”

“I was afraid you’d be unhappy,” Chai Yuening said with a smile. “Everyone has their secrets. Curiosity isn’t an excuse to pry into them.”

Chu Ci smiled without a word, just gazing quietly out the window.

Chai Yuening looked where she was looking. It was a signal tower not far away. At its peak bloomed a black vine flower that glowed red in the dead of night. The vine’s body snaked around the tower, dyeing the surrounding fog with a faint red hue.

Books left over from the Old World once mentioned that when people first discovered the black vines nearly ten thousand meters deep underground during resource exploration and transplanted them to the surface, they had praised their magnificence more than once.

But if they had known that in the coming decades, this plant would bring a devastating blow to humanity, they would surely have regretted their foolish act of eagerly bringing them up from the dark abyss to the surface.

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