Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 105: After Despair
During his time lying on the sickbed in his old age, Xia Yufeng had countless recollections of that period. In his work, <Memoirs of Transformation>, he described the details of those few days in great detail.
He publicly admitted that he was a fake and then fled the command center, blending in with the crowd. Everyone looked grim, with masks covering their faces, but Xia Yufeng was still not at ease. He had previously obtained a thin mask from Ai Xiaoxiao that could temporarily alter his facial features.
He witnessed people expressing their discontent with life and shouting the name of Zhu Yanchen as they demonstrated in the Grand Theatre. He also saw the first appearance of the large sentient Erosion Swamp, which turned the streets into flat ground, and expensive weapons burning like wax paper.
Soon after, he witnessed the synthetic humans causing destruction all around and eventually taking control of the central square. Fortunately, he had some information on the side of the synthetic humans, which prevented him from being thrown into a deep pit. Xia Yufeng hid near the square, carrying a bag of food and crouching in a corner like a mouse.
The empty house was located in a partially constructed residential building, with only dim concrete walls and sandy floors. However, its advantage was its elevated position and good visibility, which allowed for timely detection of new developments.
Xia Yufeng had already arranged for his parents to be placed in the safest residential area, and he himself had considered the idea of burying his head in the sand. However, the fear of Sigma outweighed the anticipation of waiting for the other shoe to drop. With his hair and beard disheveled, he resembled a homeless cat sitting by the window, becoming a living lookout stone.
And he actually witnessed it.
After countless days of the synthetics’ invasion, the standoff on the square continued. Shu Jun had transformed into a massive monster and was wreaking havoc on the infrastructure around the city center. While chewing on his dry rations, Xia Yufeng noticed a human team quietly departing from the command center and heading towards Shu Jun’s direction.
Were they courting death?
Xia Yufeng sniffed and activated the surviving cameras near the city center. After impersonating Marshal Zhu for so long, he hadn’t forgotten to take advantage of certain observation programs in key locations, ensuring he received firsthand information.
This team was guarding a supply truck, moving with extreme caution. Xia Yufeng adjusted the camera’s focus to keep the supply truck in the center of the frame. However, as soon as he made this adjustment, half of the screen went black. Some dark object was blocking the camera, obscuring most of the view.
Xia Yufeng cursed and adjusted the focus for a while—then he saw a black ball about the size of a human head next to the camera. Its surface was undoubtedly the glossy black texture of an Erosion Swamp, but within the swamp-like material, there were structures resembling eagle eyes. Apparently disturbed by the moving camera, dozens of eyes on the surface of the swamp instantly turned towards it.
Seeing this scene, Xia Yufeng almost wet his pants. He didn’t dare move the camera anymore and nervously looked at the unobstructed view. After some time, the eye-filled swamp seemed to lose interest and slowly turned away, observing the human team together with Xia Yufeng.
They stopped at a distance from Shu Jun, opened the truck’s compartment, and began assembling a bizarre-looking weapon. From afar, it resembled a cannon, and the assembly members’ movements were incredibly gentle, as if each component were as fragile as a newborn baby.
Xia Yufeng held his breath.
Finally, the weapon was adjusted. The operator aimed the barrel at the monstrous beast that was wreaking havoc on public facilities and kept adjusting the angle.
…Are they trying to kill Shu Jun inside the monster?
Xia Yufeng glanced at the synthetic humans on the square, their imposing presence not causing him any concern—if Zhu Yanchen had a change of heart at this moment and decided to stab Shu Jun in the back, he would be overjoyed.
So, he just nervously squeezed his sweat and continued to sneak a peek.
Finally, the adjustments were completed.
The projectile shot out, hitting the faraway Erosion Swamp monster precisely. The creature’s chest was struck, leaving behind a nearly perfect circular hole with smoke rising from its surroundings. It emitted an extremely mournful wail, and the next second it disintegrated into ordinary erosion substance, crashing to the ground.
Xia Yufeng took a deep breath and disregarded the mysterious thing by the camera, immediately rotating it and zooming in. The human artillery naturally had their considerations. The monster happened to be on an open plain without any obstructions, allowing for a clear view of the weapon’s power. The disintegrated erosion substance quietly flowed on the ground, without a trace of a person or any protruding unidentified objects.
Shu Jun was dead?
The human team that fired the cannon seemed somewhat skeptical as well. They dispatched a series of drones to scan the area near the erosion substance for quite some time. Those drones roamed within a radius of a few kilometers for two to three hours, as if Shu Jun could still burrow into the ground and escape. Xia Yufeng almost choked on this anticipation.
No signs of escape were found in the surroundings, and the land scan showed no issues. The disintegrated erosion substance flowed weakly, unable to reform into an Erosion Swamp.
…It seems that the synthetics had too much faith in Shu Jun’s abilities, or perhaps they never considered that humans could develop countermeasure weapons so quickly.
With this thought, this invasion might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Y City. Zhu Yanchen would gain great merit and undoubtedly rise to a high position in the future. Xia Yufeng was currently on his side, and once the storm settled, he might have a chance to achieve great success…
Xia Yufeng was dreaming on one side while the team on the other side excitedly reported the good news to the command center. People embraced and cried tears of joy for this perfect outcome. Some even blew kisses towards the cannon barrel.
“The target has been eliminated. Repeat, the target has been eliminated! ‘Fireworks’ is functioning well, and the effect is astonishing!”
“My loved one is still in that pit. This thing can be mass-produced soon, right? Just a few more days, just a few more days, and this nightmare will be over!”
“Yes, even if the Erosion Swamp attacks again, we won’t be afraid anymore! This thing is so effective that player systems and the like are no longer necessary—”
In the distant empty house, Xia Yufeng’s mouth widened to his ears. Unfortunately, the next moment, his smile froze completely—compared to the celebrating human team, the camera’s field of view was broader and more extensive.
Something was approaching from the west of the city.
The moment he saw that thing, his brain stopped for a few seconds. For a period of time, Xia Yufeng couldn’t even comprehend what he was seeing. It was daytime, and there was still a faint light in the world. The approaching “creature” was like the embodiment of darkness itself, devouring half of the world before his eyes.
At the boundary between light and darkness, numerous enormous arms stretched and bent, pulling the immense darkness behind them. These hands seemed to be severed from mummies or directly extended from hell.
Hell had descended upon the world, nothing more. The entire scene seemed like an illusion, devoid of any sense of reality.
Xia Yufeng remained stunned for a full five minutes.
Compared to this thing, the monster created by Shu Jun seemed as cute as a fluffy teddy bear. The hope that had just arisen in his heart was completely crushed in this moment. Forget about the future or prospects; he didn’t even have the thought of escaping for his own survival—faced with this thing, where could he possibly run?
Where could humans possibly run?
Did Zhu Yanchen persist even though he knew the opponent was this kind of thing? That one surname Zhu was truly a lunatic. Xia Yufeng suddenly wished that Shu Jun hadn’t died—if that person was still alive, considering the people in the city, Shu Jun might still be able to stand in the way of the impending darkness approaching Y City.
‘It’s all over,’ he thought blankly. ‘It’s all over.’
Humans could defeat other species, but in the face of a true natural disaster, victory only lay in “successful self-preservation”. Who could stop an earthquake? Who could evaporate a flood? Furthermore, this thing had its own will—no matter how one thought about it, this timing was too deadly.
The long standoff had exhausted a significant amount of energy from both humans and synthetics, and with Shu Jun just dead, chaos was bound to erupt among the synthetics. As for humans… they had only glimpsed a thread of hope but hadn’t had the chance to reach out and grasp it.
Contrasted against the prior hope, the arrival of despair felt particularly bitter. Overwhelming suffocation and fear enveloped Xia Yufeng. For a brief moment, he even felt the impulse to jump from the building—to escape this kind of terror by dying first.
However, after hesitating for a long time on the cement windowsill, he couldn’t bring himself to take that step. Xia Yufeng curled up in the corner, covering his eyes, and cried out in pain.
To make matters worse, his speculations soon turned into reality.
Sigma didn’t immediately crush Y City. Even with victory within reach, Luo Duan felt no impulse. He instructed Sigma to activate its abilities and construct a flexible “erosion spider web” around its main body. Even if the human escort team attempted to shoot at it with their limited number of new weapons, those projectiles would be consumed within the layers of barriers. Afterward, Sigma would immediately command the large-scale Erosion Swamps to follow and destroy this exposed new weapon.
Those new weapons embodied human hope and were costly to the point of being jaw-dropping. However, in the face of a true “natural disaster”, they became nothing more than useless junk capable of firing a single shot. Their numbers rapidly increased, only to be swiftly destroyed by the swamp, until they practically vanished.
Humans weren’t machines. Fear grew with every passing second, and the strings of their hearts tightened more and more until they reached their breaking point two days later.
The fuse of the synthetics’ escape was ignited.
With Shu Jun gone, the synthetics forces visibly fell into disarray. Although Hu Yan attempted to replace Shu Jun and manage the remaining people, he couldn’t withstand the sight of hopelessness. Finally, in the darkness of one night, even Hu Yan and his team disappeared.
They didn’t kill the hostages in the square. No one knew if it was due to despair or fear of exposing their whereabouts. All people knew was that when the negotiator with dark circles under his eyes visited again, there was barely half a synthetic human left on the square.
But no one could feel happy.
The screens no longer broadcasted uplifting messages, and everyone gazed at the phenomenon in the west of the city. No one knew what it was, but they could only sense the chill evoked by their primal instincts. These days had been filled with too much misery, and even the warmest blood now felt icy cold in exhaustion.
Including the troops stationed west of the city, most people were waiting—waiting for that colossal monstrosity to move its body and utterly crush the city. Fear made survival difficult, and they were waiting for an end, even if that end meant death.
Those who still had the mood to continue working diminished by seventy to eighty percent, and the production of the new purification cannons came to a halt. The command center was also silent, and even though Zhu Sheng’s mouth was worn out from talking, few people were willing to move.
Previous temptations were no longer effective. Zhu Sheng stood at the highest level of the command center, staring at the boundless darkness.
Yi Ning hadn’t given up yet. Leading those who still held onto some hope, he ensured the barely functioning infrastructure of Y City. But it was like a praying mantis trying to stop a car, and Zhu Sheng knew in his heart that this city was on the verge of death. And in that moment when the city collapsed completely, that monster would destroy it—right now, it was pressuring them with fear, injecting venom into its prey like a venomous snake, quietly waiting for the prey to stop struggling.
Reversing the situation seemed impossible, perhaps this was what this situation imposed.
With Tang Heyu’s crazy explanation, Zhu Sheng probably understood the cause of that monster. Just as they used the player system to reclaim the land and expand the city, those sacrificed synths just piled up and formed a grotesque monstrosity from their corpses.
…In a sense, this could be considered summoning a demon through death.
For some reason, Zhu Sheng suddenly thought of a distant past. He once again recalled the image of a little boy kneeling on the ground, crying, and praying for a path to survival for his dear friend.
If he hadn’t intervened, could those two children have become friends?
In that case, could Zhu Yanchen have lived a better life?
Would the fate of Y City have a slight change because of this?
However, what was done was done*, and it was already too late. Even if he exhausted all his wisdom in this lifetime, he couldn’t come up with a solution—it wasn’t that people are unwilling to sacrifice, but the existence of hope was the most fundamental prerequisite.
*Spilled water can’t be gathered up. (覆水难收)
But he couldn’t see any hope.
Finally, after several days of “border oppression”, Sigma removed its spider web and started moving again. People stood numbly in the square, waiting silently for the arrival of the calamity.
But in that moment when the monster approached the city center, countless Erosion Swamps rose from the barren land, and a giant black wolf appeared out of thin air. It crouched low and emitted a deep growl towards the creature. By its posture, it was undoubtedly protecting Y City behind it. Limited by its size, the black wolf failed to stop the behemoth Erosion Swamp approaching from all directions, but it kept the monster restrained outside the city center, unable to advance.
What was that thing? Where did it come from?
The numb people show signs of thawing. The current situation still filled them with despair, but a faint inexplicable hope surged through their bodies with every heartbeat. At that moment, the dim screens on the square lit up once again.
“As the newly elected leader of Y City, I have something to say.”
Zhu Yanchen was still wearing his formal uniform, and his expression remained blank. No one questioned his identity—people hadn’t seen much of Zhu Yanchen before, which allowed Xia Yufeng to successfully deceive them. After observing Xia Yufeng for so long, anyone could see the difference in aura between the two.
No one wanted to ask how he survived, and no one cared if this was another deception. Even if everything was fake, at least in this moment, they could momentarily escape from boundless despair.
“First of all, Y City still has hope. It’s not time to give up yet.”
For once, that person showed a faint smile.
“…The approach of this thing was our plan from the beginning.”
The author has something to say:
The time has come for the counterattack, XDDD.
The synthetic human army enters popcorn mode (
Marshal: Playing dead twice.
Come to think of it, Shu Ge also played dead. Playing dead as a couple ←
Kinky Thoughts:
I mean, technically, this is Zhu Yanchen’s third resurrection, right? At this point, he might as well just start a religion under him.
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