CHAPTER 22: CONFLICT

Standing erect, peeking through the clouds, the high scrapers were at the end of the road just like before. The glass was grey, worn, and broken. Blackening bloodstains also covered the road. When the black Land Rover sped into the city, it was almost completely silent, only a few people surreptitiously peered through the darkness, not daring to make a sound.

“S City actually also became like this?” Yu Jie said with surprise, “I originally thought that a major city like S City with more people would be a little better than those small towns along the road. How come it feels that the damage and destruction is a little more serious?!”

Yu Jie’s eyes widened as round as a ball as he looked at the bronze statue that had been cut down. He only saw that the statue’s head had already fallen and rolled around 3-4 meters away. Its remaining body was also separated, scattered all over the ground. There was blood all around, and flies were constantly buzzing on it.

“On the contrary, more people will ruin more things. You don’t know about these words?” Qin Chu raised the car window and faintly laughed, “You haven’t seen B City’s appearance, there is not much difference. However, S City seems more serious. Young Master, do you know why?” She had turned around, facing Ji Chuancheng when she said these words.

Without waiting for Ji Chuancheng to reply, Jing Xia bent his lips and said, “In my opinion, there’s no need for us to worry. Soon, there should be people answering our questions.”

Qin Chu followed Jing Xia’s line of sight with surprise and turned around. Through the clear windshield, she saw a tall, sturdy man making a “pull up” sign, walking towards his side. In this kind of cold and biting autumn wind, he only wore a tight black tank top, revealing his strong muscles and not afraid of the cold at all.

Behind him was a barbed wire netted fence. For every five metres, there was a person holding a weapon. As far as the eye could see, the fence was around 100 metres long, separating the entire street with barricades and anti-collision barrels. The entire set of equipment was complete. The guard seemed quite ordinary, not bold and powerful like this strong man.

Yu Jie slowly stopped the car. Before he had even opened his mouth, he saw the man walk over and maliciously berated, “Where did you guys come from? Don’t you know that you can’t drive in S City? Quickly come down.

Yu Jie was just planning to discuss some things with the others when he suddenly heard this manner of speaking and content. He froze before becoming slightly angry, “We came from B City, who are you? We are looking for your leader. Remove those wire netting.”

Yu Jie’s position in the Restricted Zone’s Armed Force was not low. Although his military rank was not that high, he was the direct subordinate of the Restricted Zone A Squadron, so he was always unrestrained. Seeing a man who had abruptly appeared from nowhere and also did not wear a military uniform, naturally, Yu Jie did not regard the other as anything.

The man, who had a clear and handsome appearance, heard Yu Jie and because his temper was originally irritable, now he was even angrier. He lightly raised his foot onto the car door on one side of the driver’s seat. Just as Yu Jie was jeering and his laughter still had not cleared from his throat, he suddenly felt the whole vehicle shake. The body of the car swiftly left the ground for a few centimetres before abruptly falling onto the ground.

The car door sank into a fist-sized hole. The excessively strange appearance made Yu Jie’s eyes widen. At this moment, even Qin Chu astonishedly stared at that deformed iron door, speechless from surprise. Qi Yang who sat behind the driver’s seat sneered, not speaking. 

To be able to kick the car which had undergone special remodelling into this, Jing Xia naturally immediately understood that these people were evolvers. He furrowed his eyebrows and turned around towards Ji Chuancheng, only seeing that the latter’s eyes thoughtfully stared at that dent for a long while, slowly saying, “We will get out of the car.”

Yu Jie who had an impulsive nature turned around with surprise and said, “Major, this person actually still dared to damage our car. We don’t need to get off, I’ll go and give him a lesson.”

Not waiting for Ji Chuancheng to reply, the man outside laughed with a clear voice, “Who do you want to give a lesson to, ah, youngster?

While speaking, that person casually reached out and grasped the rearview mirror of the driver’s seat. With a seemingly light squeeze, that rearview mirror which had been manufactured with special materials was rubbed into powder. The grey, black fine powder slowly flowed through the small cracks between the man’s fingers. The sharp glass did not lacerate his hand even a bit, it was as tough as the legendary iron skin.

Yu Jie, “……”

Despite how irritable Yu Jie’s temper was, seeing an expert whose strength was one level higher than his own, his temper also wilted away. Yu Jie obediently got out of the car. Just as they all got off, a person walked over from behind the man, driving the car away.

As if the man was worried that Jing Xia and the others would misunderstand, the man said, “We merely first moved it to a safe place. You won’t have any chance to use this car in S City Base. What’s more, now, in this entire city, there are no gas stations that can normally operate. Even if you have a car, there’s no gas so there’s no use.”

Following behind the tall, strong man, Jing Xia and the four others entered the area surrounded by defensive nets together. The man vigilantly gave the mutant hamster on Jing Xia’s head a glance, provoking the tsundere little black dumpling to stick up its tail. Baring its teeth, it made two “jiji” cries. 

Jing Xia immediately understood. He rubbed the little chubby ball standing on his head, saying, “Don’t worry, it’s just a pet without any destructive power.” While speaking, he also intentionally pinched the little black dumpling and brought it down from his head, showing that person its chubby short legs, “Just with these short legs that are not even as big as fingernails, it will not cause any harm.”

Jing Xia knew about the “Crimson Epoch” that had happened in his previous life, so he had long known that any animal that had the potential to harm would be eliminated from the range of residence for humans.

“Jijijiji!”

It seemed that it understood that Jing Xia was mocking its own chubbiness, that little black dumpling wrinkled its face and bit Jing Xia. It firmly used its back legs to kick Jing Xia’s palm, and pounced on Jing Xia’s shoulder with a jolt. Then, it familiarly stood up on Jing Xia’s shoulder, pulling on his ear and lightly jumped onto his head.

Its little tail swayed around before finding its most familiar position, nesting down. The little black dumpling spiritedly made a few jiji sounds and then proudly laid down once again.

“Haha, okay. No problem.” The man laughed loudly. He then waved his hand and continued to walk forward. He spoke while walking, “It has been a long time since any human has come to S City. It already has been around four months since the day of sudden mutation. Those who should’ve come have already arrived. You guys are really uncommon. Now, there should still be approximately 7 million people remaining. There are still houses, but the resources have been reduced. You need to use labour in exchange. You can first go to District 67 to settle down and then follow the arrangements of those people to do physical labour.”

Yu Jie cried out in surprise, “…… physical labour?!”

That person nodded his head as if the matter was a natural thing to do, “Of course. Otherwise, what else could you do? Fight with mutant beasts? That belongs to evolvers, it’s good enough for you to protect your little lives from the rear.”

Hearing this, Qin Chu’s red lips slightly hooked up, “How do you know…… that we can’t kill mutant beasts?”

Listening to Qin Chu’s words, Jing Xia raised his head and looked towards the other in puzzlement. He could still remember that Qin Chu had not awakened any sort of abilities to this day. Moreover, the ability that Qin Chu had awakened mainly focused on healing, a defence type, not suitable for attacking at all. As Jing Xia turned his head, he saw Ji Chuancheng’s pupils looking at himself. From merely a glance, he suddenly understood.

His lips slightly hooking up, Jing Xia stepped forward to say, “I am an evolved person.”

As soon as his voice rang, Jing Xia lifted his left hand and a clear jet of water rose from his palm in an instant. That stream of water floated approximately 5 cm above his palm, lightly rising up like a fountain. But just as it rose to a height of 10 cm, it then disappeared without a trace, and a strange phenomenon occurred once again.

The man’s eyes widened, and he froze in place for a long while, before exclaiming, “You have a water ability?!!!”

His voice contained unconcealable surprise and excitement, or it could be said that he was so happy that his mood was unable to be concealed.

There was a sudden 360° change in attitude.

If previously, the man’s attitude was considered lazy and arrogant as he arranged the following procedures for Jing Xia and his group, then right now, he was serious about taking along Jing Xia’s group of three to the general headquarters of S City.

As Jing Xia had mentioned previously, even if the country’s weaponry and army organization were completely destroyed, high-level technical and intellectual talents would not just decline. No matter where it was, knowledge was definitely the biggest treasure and could obtain everyone’s acknowledgement and support.

S City naturally contained that lunatic organization that had been secretly cultivated by the country, and at this moment, the people that Ji Chuancheng wanted to find was precisely this group of people.

“You are the second one with a water ability in our S City Base. Your type of ability is very rare, most people’s evolutionary path is an improvement in the five senses, speed and agility, for example, I have high strength.” The man spoke as they walked, “Previously, that young lady with a water ability was not very strong, so when no enemies were attacking, she provided  water for almost one thousand people. Now that you’ve come, you should be of some help to her.”

Jing Xia froze, “You mean…you need me to provide you with a water source?”

The man said as a matter of factly, “Yes, aren’t all water ability users like this? That young lady is like this; she can only provide us with water and has no attack power at all.”

“…Or perhaps you can use me to do other things, for example… killing S grade mutant beasts.”

The man：“……”

After remaining silent for a long time, the man speechlessly said, “If that S grade classification that you spoke of is based on the classification system of those mental cases higher up, then, unfortunately, I must tell you, the highest level mutant beast that our S City has encountered so far is B grade, and we have not seen any with higher grades.”

Jing Xia, “……”

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T/N NOTE:
LIN: Double update for last week’s missed chapter

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