A Night of Desperation-Chapter 232: The Labyrinth 230

“Here comes a big guy!” a man familiarly slapped Yu Hong’s arm. “Brother, you’re in luck, your kind of build is most popular in the city now!”

He smiled and winked at Yu Hong ambiguously.

Even with a transparent helmet cover in between, it was still clear that this guy was quite frivolous.

“It has to be said, making it all the way to Aurora City, lucky you.” Another man spoke with more gravity, his chin adorned with sparsely placed black beard.

“Come in. The city is undergoing major construction now, no idle hands allowed. Let me give you an introduction, you can think about what kind of work you want to look for. This place has gathered all the highest technologies from the entire East River, and even rescued a lot of unimaginable tech from the collapsed Silver Tower, so you don’t have to worry about food. What you need to consider is what job you can find to survive here. After all, board and lodging aren’t free.”

“Mm!” Yu Hong nodded.

His calm demeanor surprised both men.

But no one doubted this, under the Black Disaster outbreak, many people had been through life-and-death trials, their emotions becoming numb and severely lacking fluctuations.

Yu Hong wasn’t an exception.

The three entered through the glass door, and an inclined automatic escalator was before them.

Below the escalator was an extremely large, circular area.

Many grey-black buildings were built within the area.

Ten or more stories of residential buildings, office buildings, densely packed together, like chopsticks kneaded into one stick, slender and straight.

Between the buildings were dark green strips of greenery and neatly planned grey-white roads.

Countless people flowed between these buildings, coming and going in the green belts.

“There are five main systems inside the city, and you’re free to apply to any of them. They are departments governed by the five committee members, respectively handling medical services, construction, administration, exploration, and the most important, the joint military.”

“Then may I ask, which department is Minister Xin Zhilei in charge of?” Yu Hong asked.

“The Exploration Department. Why? Do you want to join? That’s one of the most dangerous departments, with a high mortality rate, but the benefits are the highest too,” the bearded man said with surprise.

“Just asking…” Yu Hong gave an awkward smile, seemingly scared off.

“Heh… Once you’re in the city, you’ll get a temporary residence offer, but it’s just ten square meters, very small. If you want to live, and live well, then you’ve got to work, to contribute.”

The two escorted Yu Hong off the escalator, and at a round, white reception desk, they received their ID cards and keys to their temporary accommodations.

“Brother Lin, I believe with your physique and strength, you’ll make a name for yourself sooner or later. Keep it up!”

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Half an hour later, the two led Yu Hong to the front of a residential building, gave him some final advice, and then left on their own.

Yu Hong watched their retreating figures, then glanced around at the hustle and bustle of the flux of people.

Towers rose high, mobile vendor carts sat beneath the buildings, and groups of ordinary people gathered in threes or twos to shop.

The noisy hum of voices and traffic invaded his ears, this familiar sound evoking a profoundly surreal feeling in him.

It was as if he had returned to the familiar safety of a peaceful society.

Aside from the predominance of grey and black in people’s attire, with very little color, the rest seemed no different from the society of old.

Holding the key and ID card, he stood at the entrance of the building, people constantly moving in and out beside him, most shorter than him, some his height, and even a few enhanced humans taller than him.

That seemed to be the primary difference between now and then.

“Hey.”

Suddenly, a cautious female voice came from beside him.

Yu Hong turned to look.

He saw a ponytailed girl with a good-looking face, dressed in a simple black jacket and jeans, standing two meters away, looking at him warily.

“Hello, are you a survivor who just came in from outside?” The girl seemed to be in her early twenties, her eyes somewhat weary with dark circles, her chest surprisingly full and convex, which seemed out of place with her slender stature.

“Mm. I am.” Yu Hong, who had been bewildered about where to start, found a breakthrough with her approach.

“I’m Li Ziyun, the building manager. If you need something, you can call me with the phone in your room,” the girl said with a polite smile, handing him a white business card from her pocket.

Yu Hong took it, noting not only the name but also a phone number.

*

*

*

In another corner of Aurora City, Sector Two.

Dozens of miles away from Yu Hong, inside a crowded building,

A group sat in a room on the thirteenth floor with a heavy atmosphere.

No one spoke.

“Soon, the Science and Logistics Department will find out I used a backup drone to enter the city;you can only hide for a couple of days at most.”

A bespectacled military officer from the joint forces said in a low tone.

“By then, I’ll be taken away for investigation by my superiors, and you’ll need to consider what to do next, whether to expose Xin Zhilei right away or…”

“It’s useless!” Xue Ningning sat aside, letting Lin Yiyi wipe an alcohol-soaked cloth over her arm wound.

“Xin Zhilei has found a temporary solution for the water supply, and now no one will believe our word.”

“Indeed. I’ve just been out to inquire, and they’ve already issued warrants claiming you’ve been infected by the Black Disaster and even show abnormalities. As soon as you go outside, you could be discovered and captured,” the bespectacled officer said gravely. “Though the most dangerous place can be the safest, the blocker isn’t omnipotent, and if they don’t find you outside, they’ll suspect the city eventually.”

“The biggest advantage of the city is the crowd. As long as we have the blockers, we can blend into the crowd and avoid capture,” Xue Ningning said. “Now, the key is to find evidence to prove Xin Zhilei is problematic. Plus we need to figure out why she sent someone after us!”

“And those guys who bullets can’t kill, who exactly are they! Their speed and strength aren’t strong, the key is that their wounds heal too fast. Even if shot in the head, they healed up quickly like it was nothing…. This is incredible… I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes!” Li Han, the deputy commander, said angrily. “If it wasn’t for that surprise attack, so many of our brothers wouldn’t have…”

His eyes were red, and during the previous attack, nearly half of his team had been killed in an instant.

In the end, it was another deputy commander who sacrificed himself to draw away their pursuers, giving them the chance to escape.

“I…” Yiyi finished treating her wound and raised her hand, wanting to speak.

“What is it, Yiyi?” Xue Ningning asked.

“I, I suspect… this…” Lin Yiyi took out the small, mysterious USB drive from a tiny pocket sewn into her underwear.

She detailed stutteringly the origin of the USB drive, immediately drawing the attention of everyone present.

The sixteen people still here were all directly affiliated elites from the investigation department, but now the head of the department, their superior’s superior, had actually declared that they were contaminated by the Black Disaster.

Adding to that was the sudden attack on their commanders and others at the outpost.

Everyone immediately concluded that perhaps their team was involved in some major secret, and this secret could not be disclosed within Aurora City.

Thus, the action akin to silencing them mid-route had occurred.

At this moment, the USB drive that Yiyi suddenly produced seemed to provide everyone with a clear clue.

So someone immediately got up to borrow a computer.

Although they had been declared contaminated by the Black Disaster, they could still cover their faces, pool together some silver dollars they carried, and find someone else to help buy a laptop.

Soon, two members of the team brought back a silver-gray laptop.

They started the computer, had Yiyi insert the USB drive, and began retrieving the information.

A group of people gathered around the computer screen, waiting to see what secret was so significant it had led them to face so much danger and attack.

Whoosh.

The screen displayed the contents of the USB drive, showing a list of twelve individual text files.

All files were named with simple designations like “One,” “Two,” “Three,” and so on.

Tap tap.

Xue Ningning opened file one.

***

***

***

Click.

Yu Hong pushed open the door, removed the key, and surveyed the small room before him.

In a tiny room of just ten square meters, there was surprisingly even an en suite bathroom.

A square window let in bright white light from outside.

The room was furnished with a bed, a closet, a desk, two chairs, and a lamp.

That was all.

Thud thud thud.

Yu Hong was just about to step in for a look around when the sound of footsteps came from behind again.

He turned around to see a squad of joint military soldiers clad in full-body body armor and carrying short-barreled submachine guns, walking up to the door and knocking.

“Mr. Lin Lan?” the person in the lead buzzed.

“I am. Is there something I can help you with?” Yu Hong said.

“We are the armed collectors from the Scientific Research Department. As you are the only survivor who entered the city from the outside world this past week, we hope you can accompany us to the Scientific Research Department to collect some real-time data on the Black Disaster.”

“No problem!” Yu Hong nodded.

“Additionally, if I may ask, Mr. Lin, are you an enhanced individual?” the lead person inquired.

“No,” Yu Hong shook his head;he showed no signs of being an enhanced individual, something that would be easily verifiable with a check. Without utilizing his Inner Qi, he would not emit the negative radiation like enhanced individuals.

“Not an enhanced individual?” The other person seemed somewhat surprised. “Then Mr. Lin must certainly be a master of Fighting Skill?”

“Yes, I know a bit,” Yu Hong nodded.

“Let’s go then, we can talk on the way,” the person said, sounding more relaxed upon hearing that he wasn’t an enhanced individual.

Yu Hong followed them and climbed aboard the military vehicle downstairs.

Inside the vehicle.

The team leader leading the group pulled off his helmet and sighed with relief.

“Honestly, the last thing we regular soldiers want to deal with are enhanced individuals.”

“Why is that?” Yu Hong asked, surprised. He found everything about this city, called humanity’s last bastion—Aurora City—new and unfamiliar.

“Mainly because the temperament of enhanced individuals is so unpredictable. They are very unstable;incredibly pleasant when good, and violently irritable when not,” the team leader sighed. “I had two team members who were beaten severely by an enhanced individual. They’re still lying in a hospital bed.”

“But enhanced individuals should be the main force investigating the Black Disaster now, right?” Yu Hong asked.

“That’s true. The front line depends on us regular individuals, but for deeper investigations, it’s indeed up to them. That’s where our conflict lies… after all, without the use of firearms, we really stand no chance against them,” the team leader sighed.

“I understand,” Yu Hong nodded.

“To cross the Black Disaster Rift alone, Mr. Lin’s strength must be quite formidable, right?” another team member asked.

“It’s okay… I was mostly just lucky,” Yu Hong said earnestly.