EDEH Chapter 18

The third day after main city support arrived at District Seven.

 

A soldier roared: “Get down—”

 

“BOOM!!”

 

A tentacle suddenly swept over Sang Jue and Colin, the massive impact sending them crashing to the ground. The next second, a violent explosion sounded behind them.

 

Ears buzzing, they looked back to see burning fabric and strange bird feathers floating in the wind, all turning to ash just before hitting the ground.

 

—An infected soldier had detonated a dolphin mine, perishing together with three or four honey-guides.

 

The explosion was very close to where they had just been standing, in the soldiers’ blind spot.

 

Fortunately, Colonel Wei Heng, who had joined them hours earlier, had extended his tentacles to knock them away, avoiding the tragic fate of being blown up.

 

Sang Jue wasn’t seriously injured, but his back stung from being hit by the tentacle. He helped Colin up and asked: “Are you okay?”

 

“Cough cough—” Colin covered his throat and asked, “I’m fine. Are you hurt!?”

 

Sang Jue shook his head and reloaded his gun.

 

Colin recovered for a moment, then staggered to the other side of the explosion: “Wei Heng, how are you!?”

 

“Won’t die just yet—”

 

The soldier who had perished with the honey-guides didn’t have a single intact limb left to find. Wei Heng wasn’t much better off—his entire back showed no patch of good flesh. Because he’d been too close to the dolphin mine, his back clothing was blown to shreds, intertwined with bloody skin and flesh.

 

He really was just temporarily not dying.

 

The most serious injury wasn’t the blast wounds on his back. When he’d extended his tentacle-transformed left arm to knock away Sang Jue and Colin who were too close to the dolphin mine, it had also been blown to pieces, now leaving only a stump hanging with shredded flesh.

 

Colin shouted: “Someone here is severely injured and needs treatment!!”

 

A medic rushed over and together with Colin, they carried Wei Heng to a nearby building corridor for emergency bandaging.

 

Sang Jue stood guard nearby in case any disordered infected or birds charged over.

 

Wei Heng: “Don’t worry about me. I won’t die. You know how strong tentacle regeneration genes are…”

 

Colin took a deep breath: “Your arm…”

 

“Good thing it’s broken—now I can retire early. The main city will have to support me for life.” Wei Heng joked, his consciousness fading. “Stop dawdling. I’m the one with the severed arm, not you. Hurry up and go end this battle…”

 

Sang Jue stood guard nearby in case any disordered infected attacked.

 

“Kill… me.”

 

Sang Jue faintly heard a hoarse voice. He walked into the side alley where a severely wounded and infected soldier was pinned under a strange bird’s corpse, struggling to crawl out.

 

Seeing Sang Jue, he pleaded with a hoarse voice: “Give… give me a quick death…”

 

Sang Jue raised his gun. The soldier had no strength left and mouthed “thank you”—

 

“Bang!”

 

Through the narrow alley, Sang Jue saw the devastation of the distant urban area.

 

His eyes reflected the wisps of smoke rising upward. Dim yellow clouds pressed oppressively overhead, merging with the smoke. The city was in ruins, with flames of war everywhere and endless gunfire, permeated with an atmosphere of sorrow and despair.

 

This was already the afternoon of Sang Jue’s third day in District Seven. His original purpose had been to find the spacecraft, but aside from some free time on the first day, yesterday and today he hadn’t had a moment to relax.

 

Yesterday morning at 6:53 AM, a large wave of bird flocks attacked from outside the city. Because the outpost had fallen and no one reported enemy movements, the city was caught off guard with tragic casualties.

 

Yesterday at 12:43 PM, the Fifth Safe Zone nearest to District Seven’s north came to provide support, and the battle situation somewhat reversed.

 

Yesterday evening at 6:07 PM, another wave of mutant birds attacked from outside the city, and the battle situation was reversed again.

 

At 10:10 PM, District Seven’s leadership held a meeting, engaging in heated debate between retreat and defense.

 

Today at 00:00, in the deep of night, citywide broadcasts rang out. Commander Lin Shuyi stationed in District Seven and General Huo Yanji jointly issued a military order—defend District Seven to the death, absolutely no retreat.

 

They had no way back.

 

Over the past ten years, humanity had lost one large safe zone and three small safe zones, ultimately having to disperse nearly a million survivors to other cities for resettlement.

 

Currently, humanity’s twenty-seven safe zones, including the main city, were already overcrowded and could no longer accommodate more survivors.

 

Most importantly, every retreat meant one less patch of the scattered pure land belonging to humanity.

 

If this continued, humanity would eventually lose all livable space.

 

Another four hours passed—

 

Oppressive clouds pressed closer step by step, the sky a dim yellow, uncertain whether night or storm would arrive first.

 

The chaotic gunfire and battle sounds finally weakened somewhat. Many of the mutant bird flocks circling in the air had withdrawn, and the approaching thunderstorm weather gave humanity a chance to defend their homeland.

 

No one stopped to rest, continuing to pursue victory and eliminate the remaining birds.

 

After a long while, the hoarse bird cries in the air gradually subsided, with only occasional gunshots.

 

Someone looked up: “It should be ending soon…”

 

“The cost this time was too heavy…”

 

“I almost thought I was going to die here.” A mercenary crouched by the roadside with lingering fear, his fingers trembling as he lit a cigarette.

 

Flying creature swarm attacks had always been one of the most dangerous battles. Although some humans had chosen flight-oriented genetic evolution, humans who had lived on land for tens of thousands of years found it difficult to compete with contaminants born to soar in the sky, even after gaining flight abilities.

 

Fighter jets were even worse—any random mutant bird could easily crash a plane, and even the best pilots would struggle to navigate through so many contaminants.

 

That’s why so much energy and time had been spent researching sonic dispersal devices in the past, fortunately with remarkable results.

 

But monsters were also evolving—the honey-guides unaffected by sonic interference this time were a lesson.

 

“But the General has done it before.”

 

Everyone finally had a moment to breathe. Sang Jue turned his head toward Colin, who was leaning against a pillar, and asked: “When?”

 

Colin fell into memories: “Eleven years ago, a small safe zone to the west was also attacked by birds and was beyond saving. But several important researchers were trapped there. The General flew in with an old aircraft whose attack systems weren’t even fully functional, not only bringing out those researchers but also successively rescuing 137 ordinary residents.”

 

“Amazing.”

 

“One of those researchers you should have heard of—Dr. Hill. If the General hadn’t rescued her back then, we would have stopped eating fresh vegetables and occasionally enjoyed fruits long ago.”

 

“Dr. Hill is also amazing.”

 

Colin smiled and tossed Sang Jue a bottle of water: “The General was promoted to general and became the highest supervisor based on his accumulated achievements, not those boring rumors.”

 

“So be good to the General.”

 

Sang Jue nodded instinctively, then immediately reacted: “He has to be good to me before I can be good to him.”

 

The little evil dragon refused friendship manipulation.

 

In this rare moment of relaxation, quite a few displeased gazes were directed at them.

 

On the steps on the other side, several mercenaries led by Andre sat together, sneering disdainfully: “Taking a kid on a spring outing?”

 

For men in their thirties and forties, the frail, beautiful, and excessively young Sang Jue was indeed a child.

 

“But the brat’s marksmanship is decent.”

 

“What’s the use of good marksmanship? How many strange birds has he killed? Aren’t all his bullets going to his own people?”

 

The man sitting beside Andre looked Sang Jue up and down from afar: “If you ask me, with his looks, he could make good money in the ‘entertainment district.’ Why does he need to run around outside?”

 

“With General Huo, why would he need to go to such places?”

 

“Tsk tsk, Huo Yanji was just pretending to be righteous before—all that talk about being pure and avoiding carnal pleasures. What an act.”

 

“Just playing around. We’re all men, we understand.”

 

“The little thing is also pretty close to Colin. Could he be shared property?”

 

…

 

Sang Jue’s ears twitched. Although he didn’t quite understand, those people’s tone already made him very unhappy.

 

He asked Colin: “What does the entertainment district do?”

 

With the intention of not corrupting the General’s little boyfriend, Colin deliberated for a long time: “It’s just a place for people’s entertainment.”

 

Sang Jue frowned at him.

 

Colin had to explain briefly.

 

The human main city wasn’t built on flat ground—the surface was also divided into upper, middle, and lower districts.

 

Deep within the middle district was an area conducting special business. Many deviants who couldn’t find suitable partners would go there from time to time to relieve excessive stress.

 

Such places were naturally illegal, and many bold deviants even dared to involve ordinary people, easily causing contamination.

 

But it was the same in any era—sunlight could never dispel all shadows.

 

Sang Jue understood. Just like prostitutes and male escorts from before.

 

“Hey!” Colin watched Sang Jue’s suddenly departing figure. “Where are you going?”

 

Sang Jue didn’t look back: “To fight!”

 

Although they saw Sang Jue walking toward them, those mercenaries remained dismissive, grinning.

 

Until Sang Jue grabbed one and threw him to the ground, they were still dumbfounded in disbelief—how could someone with such thin arms and legs have such strength??

 

“I never fight with women or sissies—” Seeing his companion attacked, Andre’s face darkened as he swung a punch directly, “Today I’ll make an exception!”

 

“Thud—!”

 

Andre fell to the ground in a sorry state, his jaw making the sound of breaking bone.

 

—It wasn’t Sang Jue who had struck.

 

Behind the steps where the mercenaries were resting was a sewer. At some point, green fungal masses had extended like tentacles, directly wrapping around Andre’s calf and dragging him toward the sewer.

 

The angry Sang Jue hadn’t noticed the green fungus’s arrival either. There were too many monsters around—one more or one less sound rhythm wasn’t strange.

 

A loud shout came from behind: “Colonel, watch out!!!”

 

There was also a sewer behind the pillar Colin was leaning against. Between saving Andre and saving Colin, Sang Jue naturally chose the latter without hesitation. Just before Colin completely disappeared, Sang Jue rushed back at the fastest speed, braced against the manhole cover, and grabbed Colin.

 

The witnesses cried out in terror: “How is it this thing again?”

 

“Quick, quick, who still has fire magma!?”

 

It was too late.

 

Not only was Colin dragged down, but Sang Jue couldn’t escape either—compared to Colin, the green fungal clusters were obviously more interested in him than anything else.

 

Having fired many shots these past two days, his sore shoulders and wrists weren’t enough to support him for long. His fingers gripping the edge of the sewer slipped away one by one—

 

Just before being completely dragged down by the green fungus, he seemed to see a pair of long legs in military boots rushing over.

 

…

 

Ten minutes later, Saiya emerged from the sewer, retracting spider silk and saying with difficulty: “General… no discovery.”

 

Wei Lan, who had also assembled, was silent for a second: “General, we must set fires.”

 

Even though Colin and Sang Jue had both been dragged underground, and there might be even more residents dragged into the sewers, they had no choice but to set fires.

 

With so many corpses these past few days, no one knew how much the green fungal clusters had digested or how large they had grown. Continuing to let them be would only cause more casualties.

 

Huo Yanji turned around, pressed his communicator and coldly issued orders: “All supervisors in the city, attention. Immediately drop all current tasks and throw fire magma into sewer openings along the outer city A1 sequence toward the inner city in order.”

 

“Report, A1 sequence fire stones ready!”

 

Huo Yanji: “Throw immediately!”

 

“A2 sequence ready!”

 

“Throw immediately.”

 

“A3 sequence ready—”

 

The dark clouds burst, and torrential rain poured down.

 

Huo Yanji came before Andre, who had been fortunately rescued, and knelt on one knee: “Andre Barnes, you are under arrest for spreading rumors about military personnel and insulting compatriots with unspeakable language—hereby notified.”

 

Saiya personally handcuffed Andre and had him taken away.

 

Huo Yanji stood up: “Wait.”

 

The soldiers stopped.

 

Huo Yanji walked up to the defiant Andre, grabbed his hair and pulled it back—his other hand formed a fist and swung hard at Andre’s left cheek.

 

“Ah!” Andre screamed, “I won’t let you do whatever you want! I’ll definitely take you to court!”

 

Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth as he spat out a bloody tooth.

 

“Welcome to try.” Huo Yanji’s voice was colder than the rain. He turned around: “Take him away.”

 

“Yes!”

 

Huo Yanji removed his gloves, reached into his inner pocket, and a bag of ham sandwiches followed a parabolic arc into the trash can with a “thud.”

 

Heavy rain soaked this part of the city. The blood of monsters and humans mixed together, flowing into ditches with the rainwater, bringing a chill. Only the drainage pipes dozens of meters underground burned with raging fire.

 

##

---