Demon Hunting Diary – Chapter 3 – Turbulent Era

“Genes decide everything.” This was the first famous quote of Doctor Maksim Rochester.

60 years ago, at the end of the Old Era, Dr. Maksim Rochester was an expert in genetic and biology. He treated himself with the same zeal and madness he spent on science. Because he couldn’t find enough volunteers, or in other word – test subjects, for his genetic researches, he used himself as the subject.

In a 10-year period, innumerable gene fragments were implanted in his body. These genes acted together, mixed with each other, and mutated. Later, Dr. Rochester’s body had become a gene battlefield; countless genes were fighting each other and mutating at the same times. They tried to destroy or control their own opponents. As the gene carrier, Dr. Rochester’s body carried hundreds of deadly viruses.

According to Fawcett, daughter of Dr. Rochester, from the perspective of genes, in his later years Dr. Rochester couldn’t longer be considered a human being

Dr. Rochester also had that same thought. In his later years, he didn’t considered himself as a human, but Apostle of the God; especially after a series of reorganization, his genes finally formed a mysterious, stable, and brand new genome.

At this time, Doctor’s left hand could condense an extraordinary high temperature, which was high enough to burn alcohol. This was the temperature that a normal body couldn’t endure, but Doctor’s left hand didn’t have any wounds.

“This is the Left hand of God!” Dr. Rochester was staring at his left hand while he spoke his second famous quote.

One year after, the Control Temperature ability of Doctor became more stable, and the temperature of it also improved continuously. Dr. Rochester recorded his experience in this ability, as well as the initial stable genomics model. This record was divided into three parts; two of them was stored, while the last one was used in his speech to declare his achievement to the world.

At the same day of Dr. Rochester’s speech, the World War broke out without any warning.

The high-temperature flame and shock wave instantly destroyed everything, even Dr. Rochester, who recently stated that he got the body of the God. However, his brief but shocking speech was delivered to every corners of the world through radio.

The short war ended as abruptly as its arrival.

The survival people began to come out from various shelters and ruins, and looked thrillingly at a completely different world. Some of them still remembered the speech of Dr. Rochester, and they even found the safe which Dr. Rochester left. That safe, which was created from the highest prewar technologies, was in one piece, and the data inside was still intact.

The data they found inside that safe was the prototype of Level 1 Ability in Magical Domain today: The Flame.

Every Abilities of human was born since that day.

Ten year after, in this Turbulent Era, Abilities appeared like mutated insects burst out from their nests. Among these Abilities, some of them were very stable, some had very short effect, and some even brought deadly effect to the user. Moreover, human discovered that Abilities also appeared on people who was surviving on the wilderness and in the ruins. Their bodies, which was exposing continuously under deadly radiation, created various Abilities without artificial genetic recombination.

After classification, aggregation, systematization and a series of quarrels, all of the well-defined and having stable effect Abilities were categorized into five main Abilities Domain: Magical, Fighting, Perception, Psionic and Occultism.

Magical Domain contained every energy manipulation abilities. It was named “Magical” to commemorate Dr. Rochester, who was a fantasy paranoid. Combat, attack, defense and mobility Abilities was grouped in to Fighting Domain. Perception Domain, similar to it name, was the group of detection abilities. These ability could work in current 3-D world or even unknown worlds. Psionic Domain was a summary of control Abilities. The most common Abilities in this Domain was the ability to control weapons, from the most basic Non-firearms Operation, to intermediate ones like Normal Firearms Manipulation and Sniper Specialization, and advanced ones like Complex Weapons System Control.

The last one was Occultism, a really complex and kind of useless Domain. Actually, it was a bunch of unclear abilities which couldn’t be classified. The central of Occultism was “Luck”, and there was tons of “Luck”-related ability in that Domain. However, the people who spent a lot of evolution point in Occultism usually didn’t have extraordinary luck in their imagination. They didn’t find rare mineral mine, they didn’t have extravagant wealth or superhuman abilities fall into their lap. In fact, there was one person found a gemstone mine, but he was chopped into a pool of meat by greedy mobs. As a result, fewer and fewer people wanted to focus on Occultism.

Of course, the border between these Domains wasn’t so clear or possible to bypass. Along with the time, more and more Abilities was discovered, and many new-found Abilities couldn’t be classified into one specific Domain. Moreover, many Abilities were built up from the combination of Abilities from different Domains.

Dr. Rochester, once was the madman, had been known has “Father of Abilities Domain.” He used his “Left hand of God” to open a door, so humanity could increase their possibility of survival and continuation in this harsh world. However, up to now, no one knew that what was behind that door. Was it Heaven, or Hell?

When the survival people woke up from the aurora of Abilities, they horribly found out that everything this world was stable anymore, even the genomes of every species.

Every species on the world, even human, evolved rapidly. The evolution and mutation progress, which needed millions years in the Old Era to accomplished, was condensed into a few years in the new era. The knowledge of mankind of the world, which was accumulated for thousands years, was collapsing at an alarming speed.

Outside of the fence made from barbed wire, there was a red eyes, long ears, and tender temperament rabbit. It was using its high speed to run away its natural predator. However, no one can make sure that a rabbit, which was only slightly faster than a cheetah today, would become what kind of animal in the next year.

Because of these reasons, this brand new era was called “Turbulent Era”

Su walked carefully in the cave; his footsteps were light and soft. He moved without making a sound like a flexible cat. The thick hood and cape, as well as the bandage wrapping his body made sure that his body scent and temperature wouldn’t leak. This would make his presence become harder to detect, because these dangerous species living underground relied mostly on their smell or Infrared Vision to hunt.

In his hand, there was a sharp edged triangle steel bar. Its tip was grinded sharply. It could be used to swing or pierce, and it was a deadly weapon. His modified rifle and revolver was put behind his back and hidden under his cloak, respectively. His revolver had high power but low accurate, however, in a narrow environment like the cave, power of this revolver could be multiplied.

The only problem was the gunshot could be heard from very far if he used it in this quiet passage. It was similar to talk to his enemies in an area with a few kilometers diameter that – I’m coming.

Su’s eye emitted a faint, jade color light. This light didn’t change significantly while the environment’s light changed dramatically. With the help of it, the scenery in the passage became clearer. This Abilities was Level 3 of Vision Enhancement, which was belonged to Perception Domain. It had another name – Low-light Vision.

In this natural cave, N11 base set up some electric lamps. Their light revealed an area with 100 meters diameter. They were the result of the previous discovery. Other lamps, which were located in deeper area, were destroyed. Nevertheless, the base was wise enough to not deploy more personnel to repair and recover them. But it didn’t cause any trouble to Su, who had Low-light Vision. He only needed a faint light to see everything around.

Now Su was walking in a dark passage. There were some visible luminescent moss scattered around, and some ponds of radiated sewage. The light emitted from them were enough for Su’s Low-light Vision.

Su suddenly stopped at a corner. His body slowly retracted into his cloak, then slowly disappeared in the darkness.

There was a low rustling in the cave, and a one-meter-long Violent Gopher came out. On its head, its disproportionately large nose raised to the air and twitched crazily. Their little eyes was dimmed; it looked like Violent Gopher’s eyes were completely degraded. A dozen years ago, Violent Gopher and their close, living on the ground relative, Violent Rodent had the same appearance, but now, they were completely different.

Su, who was silently hidden in the darkness, suddenly moved. The triangle steel bar thrust out like a lightning; it pierced from that Violent Gopher’s nose to both its upper and lower jaw, and firmly nailed it to the ground.

The nose was the greatest fatal point of Violent Gopher. It screamed wildly while its four short and sharp claws was desperately clutching the ground. Small stones were scattered around, and a hole was quickly created on the hard rock.

Su’s left hand firmly hold the top of the triangle steel bar, his delicate arm was unshakable like a rock. Due to the wound on fatal point that Violent Gopher couldn’t endure more than one minute. After a violent twitching, its body stopped moving.

Su slowly pulled out the steel bar, and flipped that Violent Gopher over. He recognized it was a female gopher. Although the male Violent Gopher preferred acting alone, when a female Violent Gopher went out of the nest, it always be protected by another male one.

Su quickly moved a few steps to the side, then stopped at the place which that female Violent Gopher appeared. He slightly lowered his front leg, while pushing his other leg to the ground, and simply held the steel bar toward the darkness straightforwardly. An instant later, a stench wind came out and a stouter male Violent Gopher suddenly sprang out from the darkness, rushed to Su.

The steel bar didn’t had even a slightest movement. It used the momentum of that Violent Gopher to pierce it from its mouth to its butt.

Su released his hand and quickly walked back a few steps. His movement was light and fast, like he was sliding on water.

A crack sound issued. That male Gopher used all its might to close its huge mouth and ferociously bit that thick steel bar. While Violent Gopher’s front teeth could break most of the stone, it weren’t tougher than thickened steel. After its bite, the steel bar only had a slight bend, while all of Violent Gopher’s front teeth were broken.

After that, the Violent Gopher slid on the ground with the steel bar and stopped in front of Su.

Su raised his right leg and stepped on its head. The male Gopher squeaked and struggled, but it couldn’t raise its head. As long as it moved, the unbearable pain would come from its severely wounded body. Despite its wound, it still struggled for a full minute before stopped breathing.

Su beautiful eyebrows gently knitted. Based on his experience, these Violent Gopher were tougher a little than themselves a few month ago. Their evolution speed made Su feel unpleasant.

He didn’t want to use that triangle steel bar again. He searched for a while on the wall, then pulled out a wire. It was the line set up by the base for electric lamps in here, but now it was abandoned. He cut a two-meter long wire, then stripped the cover to get the tough alloy wire inside. He wound the ends of the wire around his hands, then continuously walked into the darkness.

With the Low-light Vision and his rich experience, Su easily tracked back the trace of Violent Gopher, even in that dark, rugged cave. It didn’t take him so long before he found the nest of Violent Gopher. Inside the nest, there were almost 30 different Violent Gophers. The biggest one was almost matured, while the smallest ones still hadn’t opened its eyes. It could be seen that these Gophers were born at three different times. From the three months of adulthood of the Violent Gopher, Su realized that the dead female gopher gave one birth per month.

“Fertility period was shortened by ten days.” Su muttered, and his unpleasant became larger.

His bad mood didn’t affect his action. He used the alloy wire to trap an incoming Violent Gopher, then tossed it back to the wall of the cave. Blood flew out wildly from its neck, and that Violent Gopher couldn’t stand back. Su swept the blood sticky wire around, and the heads of seven to eight immature Violent Gophers were cut into two halves.

One minute later, that nest was completely destroyed. Violent Gopher was an animal had a strong concept about territory. If the first nest was treated as a center, there weren’t any second nest of Violent Gopher in an area with 1 kilometer diameter.

Su pulled out a map, carefully added the terrain of this passage on the blank area. After he finished to note the area of Gopher’s nest, he put it back carefully.

Su continuously walked a few hundred meters forward, then stopped at a collapsed area. Behind the rubble, there was a door, which was big enough for only one person. The area beyond that door was the subway passages, which was complex, dark and dangerous like a labyrinth in the myth. Su had come to this place, which meant he already had gotten 500 Yuan reward. Beyond that door, a dose of basic medicine for genetic enhancement was seducing him.

Su knelt on one knee near the entrance, listened attentively.

The wind blowing inside the subway passages fluctuated from strong to weak. There was a vague rustle inside. The air inside had a really bad smell; It showed that the percentage of oxygen inside was very low and it was clearly not suitable for normal human. It was one of the main reasons that N11 couldn’t clear this subway passages.

Of course, Su wasn’t an ordinary human being. He had one level 3 ability in Perception Domain and one level 2 ability in Occultism. Even he couldn’t answer whether he was human or not. After killing that nest of Violent Gopher, Su felt that his genes was ready to reshuffle again. He had accumulated three genetic evolution points, and perhaps he would get another one after this trip in this subway passages system.

Evolution point was a common name in the Turbulent Era. In fact, Evolution point was the space for new genes, after the reshuffling of old genes. More evolution points meant more space, and it also meant being able to obtain higher level and more powerful abilities. There were many ways for obtaining evolution point, however, most of the naturally occurring evolutionary points came from unknown causes. In additional, there were two controllable shortcuts for getting evolutionary points; it were genetic enhancement medicine and fighting.

After obtaining evolution point, human also had to get a specific genome to form an appropriate ability. In five main Domains, there were many identified abilities, but the number of unknown abilities was higher. New abilities usually appeared when human got evolution points through fighting. Most of the time, these abilities were not the same as known abilities. When two people fought against each other till death, there was a small chance that the survival would get the loser’s abilities. Due to that reason, many soldiers treated their abilities as their biggest secret.

So, ironically, in that Turbulent Era, killing indeed made people become stronger.

Su closed his eyes; the vague rustle drew a clear image of living corpses in his head. They were aimlessly wandering in the subway passage, their red eyes hungrily glanced at everything around. Living corpses were different from zombies in the Old Era novels; they was thin, flexible and agile, and their movement was faster than normal human many times. Their strong muscle and their flexibility even made them to move on the wall or the ceiling easily. From the angle of genome, in fact living corpses was closer to old era human than this era human, especially who received numerous times of genetic enhancements.

The world war had passed fifty years. Now many of the living corpses were the second generation or even the third generation. Compared with their parent generation, they were stronger, faster, and able to survive in harsher environment. In order to adapt with the environment in subway passages, where didn’t have any light, many living corpses were evolved to have Infrared Vision.

After reconfirming that there weren’t any dangerous creature hiding on the other side of the door, Su pulled out his revolver and moved into the subway passage. He stepped on the rail and moved by jumping. While he was moving very fast, there weren’t any sound come from under his feet, and his balance on these thin rails was very stable.

As Su moving forward, the vague rustle became louder, and the rancid, unique smell of Living Corpses became clearer. Su took a turn at a corner, and he saw a tilting train, which was blocking half of the passage. The passenger car had already rusted horrendously, and its body walls and its windows were broken completely. Through the windows, Su saw two living corpses in the farthest passenger car. They were rummaging around to find food.

Su looked at the surroundings a little, then moved silently. He picked up a few pieces of rust iron and a thin wire, then returned to the entrance passage. The thin wire was stretched across the center of this passage. He folded the iron pieces into cone-shape, then put them on the ground. Then he picked one coned iron piece and moved silently to outside of the farthest passenger car.

Ding!

Su tapped on the wall of passenger car. The sound of knocking wasn’t large, but in the keen audition of living corpses, it was similar to a thunder. These two living corpse stopped their searching and immediately turned around, and they saw a shadow disappeared behind the door. In the eyes of living corpses, which only had animal instinct left; everything could move was a delicious food.

With its crazy howling, two living corpses rushed to the end of the passenger car with the speed of a hunting dog. The living corpse at the front dove into the sky and crashed in the broken window. Half of its body squeezed out from the window. It looked around from right to left to find the trace of its prey.

Suddenly, a small sound issued. From under the windows, the coned iron pieces easily pierced into its throat, and cut its neck bone into two halves.

Su calmly stood up and walked to the passage, didn’t pay any attention to that living corpse, which was trying desperately to pull the iron piece out of its neck.

The second living corpse, which was blocked inside the passenger car, had already lost its patience. It roared and held the legs of the first one and violently pulled it back to the car. The sharp pieces of glass on the window frame cut into seven or eight deep wounds on the body of the previous living corpse; its black and red blood flew down with its internal organs. However, these two living corpse didn’t care about it. The previous ones were almost died when the second one rushed out of the passenger. It was only able to see a faint shadow disappeared in the corner.

The second living corpse stretched out its neck and roared fiercely. Its hard feet, which also had very long and sharp nails, stepped heavily on the ground. It rushed through the corner like a blowing wind!

Suddenly, that running as fast as flying living corpse really flew off the ground! It swung back and forth few times in the air before heavily falling down from the metal wire. As soon as it landed on the ground, it immediately howled in pain! The coned iron pieces on the ground was pierced deeply into its back, while the metal wire cut a deep wound on its chest.

After seeing that, Su opened the safe trigger on his revolver. He walked over the second living corpse, which was struggling unconsciously. In fact, he didn’t pay any attention to it. He raised his head, then gently leaped up. His body lightly raised two meters high, then boarded on the abandoned train roof.

Inside Su’s jade eye, a coldness suddenly flashed. Suddenly he ran along the abandoned train with a faster speed than living corpse. Although he was running so fast like that, his breathe was still stable. Looking from the behind, Su’s body disappeared like a black smoke.

Bang! Bang! Two thunderous gunshots disrupted the silence of the subway passages. In a passenger car, two living corpses were shot, the huge impact completely blew off their heads!

Bang bang bang bang! Four continuously gunshots sounded when Su ran to the end of the train. He immediately jumped off the roof without slowing down; and some cracking sound issued while he was on the air. When he landed on the ground, his revolver was fully reloaded.

He increased his force from his feet, and his speed was also increased by 30%. The 10 meters long passage was completed in an instant. It looked like Su turned into a breeze, he swiftly went pass four incoming living corpses!

Su suddenly stopped and turned his body back, then immediately fired three shots!

Three living corpses fell down, while the remaining one turned over, then yelled to Su!

Su looked this one silently and motionlessly. This living corpse could only walk a few step ahead, then completely fell down the ground.

On Su’s right hand, a black, light reflective tungsten steel dagger was holding in reverse grip. In the previous moment when he went pass four living corpses, this dagger completely cut open the rib of the last one.

Su turned around and looked to the end of the passages, where the four living corpses came out. Another two living corpses appeared. However, the strange thing was these two living corpses were carrying a corpse of a Violent Gopher. From their glowing red pupils and dripping saliva mouths, Su knew that they were very hungry. But they didn’t touch on the food on their hand, and it was completely contract with Su’s experience. Satisfying their hunger was the sole living purpose of Living Corpses, and they didn’t know what was moderate. If you fed a living corpse enough food, it would eat until it die.  Moreover, the stomachs of not only these two new living corpse, but also the four previous ones were shriveled, that meant they were torturing by their own hunger.

Some Living corpses didn’t eat the food in front of their mouths?

Bang Bang Bang! Su lowered his revolver then walked to two living corpses, which weren’t able to stand up again. This time, 1 shot missed its target. Su wanted to shoot its head, but he hit its chest instead, so he had to add another shot. Because the distance was larger than 10 meters, the low accuracy of his revolver caused this problem. This time, Su wasn’t blessed by luck, he couldn’t kill 1 enemy by 1 shot.

Living corpse, which was made from blood and flesh, couldn’t compete with metal and gun powder. At a close distance like this, a 20 centimeters diameter circle would appear on living corpse’s body, at the place was hit.

Su reloaded his revolver before observed these two living corpse. The vitality of living corpse was amazing; even their lower body was completely destroyed, they still could leap to the hunters and bite them.

These two living corpses were significantly thinner and weaker than the four previous ones. Based on Su’s knowledge about Living Corpse, these two one was old stage living corpse, which were capable for activity, but their power was reduced dramatically. The clothes on these living corpse also make Su surprise. The clothes on the group of four were better and tougher than that of the group of two; moreover, there wasn’t any noticeable difference between the clothes of the four previous living corpses.

Everything was clear. The previous four living corpses were specialized in hunting and fighting, while the old two remaining was responsible for carrying. This was a very well organized labor system: the strong and capable to fight living corpses were allowed to eat and dress better, while the old ones had to do the chores and eat lesser than the former. The most important thing was these living corpses weren’t controlled by their instinct anymore, they learnt how to be moderate!

That mean these 6 living corpses were belonged to a tribe, and this tribe had well organized rank and labor systems. They were different from the living corpses that Su killed in that abandoned train; they were belong to a hunting team.

“I hate the clever stuff.” Su stood straight, thought silently.

These living corpses reminded him to that wolf pack leader in the valley. In the instant before it was killed, Su saw its shock, confusion, and anger. These emotion was mixed with its full of curse eyes, and it was engraved in Su’s mind. While the organization of that huge Rotten Wolves pack was still basic and chaos, these living corpses had formed a clear, organizational division of labor. It suggested to Su that there were a clever leader among these living corpses. It wasn’t a good news, because in the underground area, living corpses were creature which were very hard to deal with. And the danger of organized living corpses were higher than normal multiple times.

Whether the Turbulent Era or the Old Era, there was no free lunch. The price for killing an organized living corpse pack were higher than a dose of basic genetic enhancement medicine. The number of their hunting team was 6, so probably the number of the pack was over 30. A normal people could get one evolution point by killing all these living corpses.

Perhaps N11’s base committee had already known that there were organized living corpses in this subway passages, so they would spend such a high reward to hiring Su to clear it. A sort of shadow passed Su’s heart when he remembered the sincere smile of Tony and Turner. But he immediately cast this problem aside. After moving from many settlements, Su learnt that he shouldn’t have too high expect for anything.

Su starred to the deep and dark passage; the jade light from his eye scanned the bottomless darkness for the trace of living corpse. At this time, he was a hunter, and he had to finish his task first.

At the end of the passage was a thick darkness. Even Su, with the help of Low-light Vision, could see 5-6 meters far. Of course Su wouldn’t be stupid enough to turn on a light; in this environment, this action was similar to suicide.

Su exhaled slowly, and a vague steam came out from under the bandage. He pulled down the bandage on his face a little, revealed his straight forward nose and white skin. In this dark passage, the rancid, unique smell of Living Corpse was everywhere. This smell was significantly heavier in that passage, which mean this area was a common active zone of Living Corpse. Basically, normal human couldn’t survive in this area. The smell was one way of forming the border of Living Corpse’s territory.

Su analyzed the air on his nose; hundreds of information was flowing into his brain. Finally, he recognized the smell of these 6 living corpses.

Su covered himself in the cloak and hood, then walked into the dark passage like a ghost. The smell of these 6 living corpses was the guiding lines; it led Su to their own nest. From the strength of the smell, they had gone out for hunting for 2 days.

The passage was rugged; inside it some empty cans were intentionally put in some places. While Su could avoid this basic alarm system, they definitely slowed him down.

Su suddenly stepped two steps forward, then jumped up. He grasped at the corner of ceiling and the wall, then moved forward like a lizard.

After moving around a turn, Su slightly dropped down behind a living corpse, which was standing at a corner. This living corpse was holding an iron bar; its glowing red eyes were staring at the dark passage.

Su stretched out his hand and patted its shoulder.

Roar! A low roar came from its throat, then that living corpse immediately turned around. Before it could act anymore, the sharp dagger in Su’s right hand were cut open its throat. Its neck was almost broken down.

Su bent down, slightly put this living corpse down. From the touch from his fingertips, he could know that this living corpse was the strongest one he had meet since he went down this passage. Moreover, the sharp end of the steel bar was created through grinding. Probably, this living corpse was a sentry, and lucky that these organized living corpse in this place wasn’t smart enough to know that they need to put 2 sentries.

Not far from Su, there was a half-constructed sand barrier, but there weren’t any living corpse at this place. Behind the sand barrier was a huge room, and Su could see the flickering fire inside through the half closed door. From inside the room, occasionally, the low or high pitched roar of Living corpses issued.

Usually, among these mutated creatures who barely got simple intelligence, there was a leader who had the highest intelligent. The best way to deal with the whole pack was killing that leader. Without leader, the other would fall into a chaotic state. There was a world of difference between the danger of an organized army and a pack of fighting by instinct creatures.

Su pulled back the bandage to cover his nose, and began to move to the nest of the living corpse. His speed gradually increased, and it looked like he was running when he came near the door.

He suddenly opened that heavy gate, and jumped into living corpse’s nest!

This huge room was a few hundreds square meters hall; there were about 30 living corpses scattering inside. A few of them were cooking Violent Gopher meat in a large cauldron. At a corner, a couple of Living corpses were breathing heavily while they were mating. A conspicuous, big bed was placed in the center of the hall, and a living corpse were sitting virtuously on top of that. From its appearance, it looked like a female Living corpse. She was wearing a set of suit and pencil skirt, which was a common clothes of white-collar lady in the Old Era. Her skin didn’t have wrinkles and some large black green spots like other Living corpse. Overall, her skin was quite smoothly, and her face was very similar to white-collar lady in the Old Era. Comparing with other living corpses; her petite body, her proper sitting and her crossed-legs posture made her much more similar to an office lady in the Old Era.

However, from the cautious attitude of other living corpses; which didn’t dare to come close to that bed, and from her red eyes, which was glowing brightest than all other, Su could know that she was the Queen of that nest!

When the main door of the hall was opened, all of the living corpses inside moved their sight to it. But, there was no one at there!

In one instant when Su opened the door, he immediately released his forces, and rushed a few meters forward in a second. In the eyes of Living corpses, it was similar to teleport! When he had already came to the middle of the hall, all of the living corpses inside had just started to look to the door, so they couldn’t see anything. Su took an advantage from that moment, and continued to move 3 meters forward!

Su’s pupil shrunk rapidly, and formed an enigmatic cross! This cross and the sight on the muzzle of his revolver formed a straight line, and it aimed to the middle point of the Queen’s eyebrows

The Queen was the only Living Corpse in the hall wasn’t looking to the door, so she could see Su. Her mouth was wide opened and it looked like she was surprised. Her red eyes was filled with fear, and she didn’t dare to have any action!

Now the Queen was similar to a frightened litter deer. Looking at her expression, Su’s finger on the trigger was loosened a bit; his forward rush was also stopped, and the revolver was lowered.

The Queen’s red eyes suddenly emitted the bright red light. She revealed her one-inch-long fangs, then rushed to Su with a speed higher than ordinary living corpses! Her extremely opened mouth completely twisted her face!

Bang bang bang bang bang bang! 6 rounds of bullets were shot at almost the same time. The first one pierced the Queen’s neck, while the others drew an arcs along her collarbone, completely cut off her head from the body.

Su slowly lowered his revolver.

Until now, the Living Corpses in this hall reacted. They roared hysterically; their eyes was glowing red lights, and they rushed to Su crazily.

Once again, Su moved backward smoothly like water to avoid the living corpses’ attack. Then he used his quick and crushing footsteps to rush to a big living corpse, which was guarding the door. He stretched out his hand and caught in time the steel bar which it was swinging.

Su pulled his hand back, and easily stole this steel bar. Then he charged into the Living Corpse’s chest, pushed it backward. That Living Corpse couldn’t stand again his force; it was pushed until its back was slammed against the wall! After that, Su quickly got out of its chest, then ran to the door and completely disappear in the darkness. On the chest of the big Living Corpse on the wall, there was a bottomless deep wound.

The corpses in the hall roared and crazily rushed to the door!

A strange and sharp whistle suddenly issued in the air, and the previous steel bar flew back in the hall with an unremarkable speed. It pierced through 3 Living Corpses before it stopped. When it fell to the ground, it still bounced back slightly a few times.

Although Living Corpse was a vindictive creature, they still knew fear. And the fear was spreading out in this hall; some of them started to avoid the door.

From the darkness outside, a drop of blood flew into the hall. It dropped on the ground and created a small crown shape.

Roar! The pack of Living Corpses started to lose their control. Their deepest desire of fresh blood finally overcame their fear; they quickly scrambled out of the hall, and rushed into the dark passage.

They didn’t know that up to now, darkness was the kingdom of Su.

The dull and heavy gunshot sounded occasionally, and spread out along the passage.

Ten minutes later, Su walked into the hall. The place, which was occupied by the Living Corpse was originally a subway station waiting room. However, at this era, there weren’t any subways or passengers. Su walked to the big bed at the center and stopped by. He picked up the magazine on the bed, and flipped its pages readily. It was a FASHION magazine, published in 5/1997. He could see that it was very carefully preserved.

Su put down the magazine and walked near by the Queen’s corpse. His right hand gently brushed her face; then the red light and the luster in her eyes slowly faded away. Su took out a 10 cm long exquisite aluminum box, and carefully opened it. He took out a scalpel from the box, then removed the Queen’s eyes. Finally he put everything back to that box.

Now he had got the gene sequence inside the Queen’s eyes.

Infrared Vision had always been the next ability Su wanted to get. It was obvious that Living Corpse’s Queen were stronger than normal ones in this ability, and it was why Su collected her eyes. Now Su only needed 8 evolution points, then he could use the Queen’s genetic sample and her eyes structure to evolve to Infrared Vision.

Su walked along the ladder of the hall all the way up until he was stopped by a barbed wire door. He removed the debris that blocking the door away, then shot the rusty iron lock on the door and opened it.

After walking up 10 more meters, Su’s pupil shrunk a bit. A bright sunlight shone on his face, which make him feel a little unpleasant, because he had stayed too long in the dark.

After a little adaptation, Su walked to the ground. The “METRO” mark on the ladder was still very clear, it didn’t blurred through many years.

Su looked around, and realized that the west of him was the endless wilderness, while the east was numerous skyscrapers hidden in the fog. Perhaps this place was an outskirt subway station in the Old Era. Because this subway station and the small area around it was in the hunting range of that Living Corpses’ pack, Su thought that there weren’t any dangerous mutated creatures around here. Although the Living Corpses hate the sunlight and they rarely went to the ground, they still went out of the underground and wandering in the city in the night when they were starving.

Su pulled out the map and marked his place as “safety”. At the same time, in a deep place inside Su’s brain, a precise, accurate map was turned on. On this map, the area around Su was highlighted. While Su’s eye were scanning around the area, a partial outline of a big city was gradually appeared on this map.

At this point, the task of N11 base was finally completed.

 

 

 

Demon Hunting Diary – Chapter 2 – Night Assault

The unique sound of hydraulic machines echoed in the deep cave. Then, from hidden exhaust pipes behind the rock, a huge amount of steam came out. The three meters diameter, gear-shaped door, which was shining the blue light of high-strength alloy steel, slowly sank into the mountain. After sinking about 1 meter, it rolled to the side, hid itself in the mountain wall, and revealed a deep passage.

Although the light was quite faint, Su was able to see through the thick steam to see some terminal weapons, which was hanging on the wall of the passage and hidden in the mountain body. The main type of weapon in this terminal system was miniature automatic machine guns. The angles of these black, swarthy barrels were carefully studied; from these calculated points, these guns were able to cover the whole passage. Moreover, on top of each gun, there were two separated lenses. According to their appearance, they should be optical and infrared sensors. In the old era, this kind of defense force could be superior, however, in this era, powerful creatures able to resist the strafing of mini machine guns appeared constantly. So, old-fashioned terminal weapon system was actually left behind.

“Hey! Turner! I’m glad that you come back in one piece!”

When the group just came out from the passage, an approximately 2 meters high brawny black man came to them and gave Turner a bear hug.

Turner also returned a similar hug, said: “Without Su, the problem wouldn’t be being able to come back in one piece. It would be could you dig our pieces out of Rotten Wolves’ dung, if it were there.”

From Turner’s eyes, the black man found Su, who was standing at the end of the troop. He walked to Su quickly, showed his hand and his white teeth, smiled: “My name is Tony; logistics director of N11 base! You saved Turner, which means you are my friend! Welcome to the N11 base!”

After simple scan and quarantine, every soldier, who had worked the outside task more than two weeks, disbanded and returned to their home. Because of rescuing everyone in Turner’s troop and holding a hunter and mercenary license from Payne Company, Su received special treatment. He not only got a personal room, but also was able to purchase the goods in the internal price of the base.

N11 wasn’t a large base; there were only about 400 citizens inside. Because there wasn’t any extra space, recently, the audit of residential qualification became very harshly. Moreover, there were numerous tedious regulations were set about the standard and the amount of foreign visitors.

In the past, N11 base was one of many anti-nuclear and anti-biochemical shelter, with its area number was N11. According to the size, N11 was the mini shelter, but it had everything inside, which were internal water, food, defense, medical and self-purification air system. In every country, a shelter could protect people inside against nuclear war and could be self-sustain was absolutely not prepared for normal civilians. As a result, the equipment inside N11 shelter was really modern at this time, and would be regularly replaced.

When the war broke out without any warning, N11 shelter wasn’t even enabled. The rich and powerful people, who had permitted in N11 shelter, couldn’t come to it in time. When the automatic defense mechanism is activated, N11 shelter closed itself with mere 16 staff responsible for routine maintenance.

After 15 years, N11 shelter opened again according to set programs. At this time, the old era was buried under endless ruins, and the Turbulence Era had just woke up.

N11 base replaced N11 shelter, similar to new era replaced the old era.

Su closed his eyes, let the powerful stream of water to clean his body, while repeating the basic history of N11 base in his head. This base had a complete function, and it was divided into 4 areas: residence, logistic, military and center control area. Behind the base was an emergency exit. Outside of the base is a natural formed cave. Rumors said that this cave leads to the abandoned subway network a few kilometers away. However, that underground subway had become the paradise of numerous dangerous species. So, on the N11 base map, this area was marked by a striking red note: “Danger”.

The short shower only lasted two minutes, but it already cost Su 50 Yuan (Taiwan Yuan, 50 Yuan ~ 1.5 $), and it was the internal price. In the new era, the currency wasn’t equivalent to the old days; coins were the most common currency because it was easy enough to use but hard enough to counterfeit. So, for many normal people, even they were residents in N11 base, 50 Yuan was a fortune. Even if the money wasn’t a problem, the time for taking a shower couldn’t be too long, because the water used for taking a shower still had a noticeable amount of radiation. Even this kind of water was treated, but the radiation rate wasn’t low enough to drink, so using this water too long would lead to some unrecoverable damage to the body. Despite the limitations and costly price, being able to take a shower still was the biggest proud of N11 residents about this base’s welfare.

The flow of water from the shower declined quickly, then finally stopped. The last drop of water fell reluctantly, popped a small splash on the skin as smooth as jade on Su’s shoulder, then flew down along the smooth curve of the skin. However, that drop of water was absorbed quickly by the skin, and completely disappeared in the waist area.

So when the shower was over, there wasn’t any drop of water on Su’s body. He simply wiped his body, then wrapped himself by the bandage. He had carefully checked the room already, and he was sure that there weren’t any surveillance devices in this room. By the way, no one would have noticed that the shower was reduced by a few gallons; it was undrinkable, recycled water.

Su had checked his physical condition when he was taking a shower; now it was the time for checking firearms, ammunition and money, for developing the action plan, and for restocking supplies. These were everything Su always had done when he came to a new habitat.

The normal heavy machine gun shells for the modified sniper rifle was still plenty, but there were only three rounds of handmade, special bullets left. Su needed at least 20 rounds of this special bullet. The modified revolver used old era standard, 5.66 mm rifle ammunition. This wasn’t hard to find; this base should sell it with a fair price.

“Only 110 Yuan left?” Su counted his money, coin by coin, and his beautiful eyebrows slightly wrinkled. This amount of money might just be enough for food, water and ammo; and it definitely wasn’t enough for his goal: a rifle in RF series of Carter Rowan companies. As the basic level firearm products of the new era, it cost 3000 Yuan for the reference model of a rifle in RF series; while the additional gadgets were more expensive than the rifle itself. The big companies like Carter Rowan also sold basic medicine for genetic enhancement, which was able to provide 1 fully Evolution Point for the consumer. One dose cost 10,000 Yuan; and this was just basic medicine. There were some advanced medicines, which was able to grant the consumer some specific abilities. This kind of medicine had a truly form and stable effect, but its cost, even the lowest, was multiple times higher than the basic one’s.

Agility is one of the most important qualities for living in the outside world, and of course no one was willing to carry ten thousand coins across the wilderness. Many companies and organizations tried to develop their own credit system, and they even released their own paper money and credit card. However, all of them faced a same problem that their competitors didn’t accept their credit score. Gradually, in this no bank era, barter had become the main means of exchange. Firearms, weapons, and ammo could be treated as semi-ubiquitous currency; while medicine for genetic enhancement, in fact, had become a high value currency. Of course, this kind of currency was very easy to be damaged, and it also couldn’t be stored too long.

Su’s luggage was very simple, a standard military kettle, bullet bags, and a 10 centimeters long, 5 centimeters wide bag for storing money, medicines and other stuff. All of these item could be easily hang on the belt without affecting to movement. No matter who you are, hunter or mercenary, the more minimal stuff usually meant a higher survival chance.

Su grabbed a piece of paper readily, then drew some patterns on it and marked them with associated data. After that, he walked out of his room.

According to the logo on the passage in the base, Su easily found the logistic area. On the way, he met some resident, and they were glad to greet him. For them, that blonde young man just dressed a little strange. Not to mention his superior ability – level 3 sniper or his license of Payne Company; just that full of mysterious, charm, beautiful left eye was enough to reduce all the effect of his bandage.

Finally Su found the military zone in the logistics area. He glanced at a brawny black man, who was busy among varied types of firearm.

“Tony, could you make some bullet for me?” Su handed out his blueprint.

Tony’s big hand swept away, created a little space on the table full of weapon’s components; then he put the blueprint on it. After a glance, he gave Su a big smile and said in surprise: “Hey! This bullet’s recoil force can crush your shoulders! Perhaps only mutated human or people who were strengthened their physical defense dared to use this kind of bullet.”

“I want twenty rounds.” Inside Su’s jade color eye, there was a smile. He like the simple and straightforwardness of that big guy.

“Okay, twenty rounds. Anyway, all of the level 3 people like you were abnormal.” Tony muttered, then estimated the price of material, then stretched out a big hand to Su: “90 Yuan and 1 days, can’t be cheaper.”

For the full handmade, non-standard ammunition, this price was indeed very fair, so Su didn’t hesitate to pay most of his money.

After receiving his money, Tony was still staring at Su’s shoulder. He couldn’t imagine how this seemingly thin shoulder could withstand such a huge, violent recoil impact. Normally, people strengthened their defensive or power-related genes always had very obvious characteristics, such as over-developed muscles and thick bones. Apparently, according to Su’s slightly thin body, or 179 centimeters height, he and these enhancements was basically missed.

Tony shook his head, decided to not let this unanswered problem troubled him. In his eye, every people evolved to level three, no matter what kind of abilities, was abnormal. Of course, he automatically ignored him. Tony’s level 3 abilities was Firearms Modification Specialization, which was related to Sub-Abilities Domain. It wasn’t similar to five Main Abilities Domains, which was more inclined to combat abilities.

“Tomorrow, the base committee wants to talk with you.” Tony said while mixing the gunpowder. “They should have some tasks for you. You know, we are living in a small base, and the chance for meeting a level 3 mercenary isn’t so high. Actually, chairman of the committee, old man Anthony was a level 3 Firearms Specialization soldier, but ten years ago, he lost one arm and half of a leg in an anti-mob fight, so he retired and became the chairman. He is honest, and he knows what level 3 soldier is, so I think he will give you appropriate tasks and remuneration. You should consider it.”

“Thank you.” Su’s answer is very simple, and very sincere.

Tony grinned, his white teeth were very eye-catching: “You rescued Turner, so you are my friend. Tony never mistreated friend. Even…”

Tony shrugged his shoulder, then continued: “Even in this era, this word almost had been forgotten.”

Su bought a box of 5.56mm high-explosive bullet, then left the military zone.

“Hey! If you want to have some fun, go to the red bar, there are some very hot girls in there!” Tony shouted to Su, who hadn’t gone to the door yet.

Alcohol, hallucinogens and women, in Su’s dictionary, were the synonyms of troubles. He didn’t like trouble, even a little, so he neglected meaningful suggestion of Tony, and returned to rest in his room.

Su carefully locked the door, and smoothly add an inconspicuous little machine on the door. From others’ eyes, it looked like a small, twisted metal wire in the lock keyhole. In this base, Turner was quite popular, in fact, he also had a seat in the seven-member committee. Su saved both his and his troop’s lives, so theoretically, Su would be quite safe in this base. However, Su knew that there wasn’t absolute in this world, so he preferred to be more careful.

After arranging everything done, Su laid in the bed, and closed his jade color eyes. His breathing gradually slowed, his body temperature slowly reduced. He fell into a strange state of sleep. The big modified revolver was placed near his leg, while his left hand was lightly placed over the gun.

With Su, the world when he was sleeping was totally different from when he was awakened. The world belonged to sleeping, sometimes was quiet, and sometimes was noisy and full of lustrous and dazzling fragments. However, when Su woke up, most of these fragments would disappear from his memory.

In a new environment, Su usually had a very swallow sleep. That meant he probably would have a quiet and dream-free sleep, which allowed him to respond to any small changes. N11 base was obviously a totally new area, so Su slept very carefully.

However, tonight wasn’t a dream-free night; Su, once again, fell into that irresistible world of dream.

This was a green world, and everything in sight was rippling in the water. It looked like this world was immersed under a green liquid. Through the light, there were a lot of faces; some of them were human, but most of them weren’t. These faces appeared in front of his sight, one by one. Their lips were opened and the sound was echoed all around; like they were talking non-stop about something. However, Su couldn’t hear anything, even a word. When a different face appeared, it would give him a completely different feeling such as itchy, sore, achy … However, the most ubiquitous feeling was pain, the pain made him want to tear himself apart!

Most of these faces only appeared once, a few of them appeared twice. Only two of these faced were repetitive. However, both of them were very vague and completely unrecognizable. Therefore, Su always didn’t understand how he knew what faces had been appeared.

This kind of dream repeated many times in Su’s head, but it would disappear from his memory when he woke up. So, until now, Su didn’t know what he had dream of.

Today, this dream had just been half way through, then it was accidentally interrupted.

A special signal was immediately released from the depth of Su’s consciousness; and dozens of data were instantly transmitted throughout his body. Su’s body weirdly shifted 30 centimeters to the side, and stood up. Without delay, his left hand grabbed the revolver and pointed it on the chin of the uninvited guests.

This series of movements was really fast. After the revolver pointed at the target, Su’s eyes were actually opened. In the darkness, his pupil flashed a faint jade light. It looked like a rays of light, and it was the symbol of Low-light Vision.

“Who are you?” Su uttered a quiet cry. Due to intentionally suppress, his gentle voice was added more enigmatic attraction. However, the fifty-centimeter long, rough revolver on his hand was completely contrary to his voice, which was gentle as water.

With a big size, a super long barrel and a daunting muzzle, it was obvious that at a nearly zero distance like now, this revolver could easily blew up the head of the strongest Armored Fury Bear. This wasn’t a revolver for normal people; its huge recoil could be equal to the old era automatic rifle. If someone used that revolver by just one hand, even their wrist wouldn’t break or fracture after the first shot, at least the recoil would shift the hand out of position, which would increase the difficulty and the aiming time of the second shot.

Now that revolver’s muzzle was on the intruder’s chin. Even Su’s wrist would be broken completely after the first shot, it would happen after the intruder’s head was blown off.

The head under the muzzle seemed quite thin and delicate. This extremely rude revolver wasn’t necessary, even the weakest common pistol could easily penetrate it. However, after seeing the face of the intruder; there weren’t many people could pull the trigger; especially the men.

This was a very beautiful girl; based on her appearance, she might not be 20 years old. The harsh environment in the new era made women’s appearance looked older than their true age. Maybe she was just 18 or younger.

She had chestnut, short hair and light brown skin; her sexy red lips were painted in a strange purple gray. Her beautiful big eyes were looking at Su; inside it there was panic, which was also mixed with excitement and expectancy. She was wearing a leather jacket; its neckline was very low while its length was short enough to expose half of her breast and her without excess fat waist. It seemed that there was nothing under the jacket. On her lower body, there were a jeans that were tightly sticking to her very upturned hips and slender legs, as it was her second layer of skin.

Her face and figure was beautiful enough to be proud of, and she also was full of vitality and superfluous energy. It could be seen from the thick smell of alcohol, which had been emitting from her body. Apparently, she drank too much alcohol, so now her burning nerves started looking for stimulation and excitement, while it didn’t give enough attention to the fear.

Even though there was a gun, which could blow her head off at any time on her chin; her eyes, which lost its focus due to alcohol effect, were staring at Su’s charming left eye and holding gun left hand. Now, Su’s hand wasn’t wrapped in the bandage; and whether its line or its skin, was completely better than this girl’s proudly hand.

An intent of murdering was flashed in Su’s eye; he saw the small metal wire on the ground. This girl could break his alarm system even when she was drunk?

He immediately tightened slightly the slender forefinger on the trigger. Just 1 or 2 more millimeters, this shot would be released. The girl finally noticed this detail; her eyes instantly became clearer and full of fear. Su kept maintaining this firing posture, while pushing the gun to force this girl to stand up.

If Su’s finger had even a slightest quiver, this girl’s beautiful face would become a pool of meat!

The revolver stopped until this girl stood on her tiptoe. Small beads of sweat began to appear on her face and neck. She was very nervous, but she knew that she had to maintain this posture of ballet dancers, because even the slightest movement could trigger that huge revolver.

Yet at this moment, Su began to touch her.

First, Su’s right hand touched her hair, then behind her ear. After a gentle pinch on her neck, he even put his fingers in her slightly opened, gasping mouth.

The girl really wanted to bite off these two cold, velvety fingers, but she didn’t have enough guts.

Next, Su unbuttoned two remaining buttons on her short leather jacket. It made her upper body, which wasn’t covered by any underwear, completely exposed. After that, every point on her upper body was being carefully touched. Of course, her breasts, which wasn’t too large, but very lifting, were given additional focus; her nipples were repeatedly pinched several times.

Similar to left hand, Su’s right hand wasn’t wrapped in the bandage. The cold but smooth touch from his finger was similar to not only a winding snake, but also a lingering tongue of a lover.

The next target was her lower body. Su unbuttoned her jeans without any scruples; then rudely pulled it down to her knees, and started his search. Unexpectedly, Su felt that his hand was wet, but it didn’t affect his cautious searching. In this era of mutations and unstable genes; every bulging or sunken areas on a woman’s body could be used to hide deadly weapon or mutated organs. Su saw too many similar precedents in his alone and wandering on wilderness life.

“Oh!” The girl frowned and squeezed out two hoarse and painful sounds from her throat. The body investigation finally stopped.

Su stepped back one step and put away his revolver. She wasn’t armed; her drunken state seemed not fake, and she also didn’t have any bad intention.

“Who are you? Why did you come here?” Su whispered.

The girl’s eyes were burning with flame: “My name is Lì jī (nickname for the most beautiful woman among The Four Beauties of Ancient China). I heard that you are a very cool newcomer, so I decided to take a look. Oh, right, I am an expert on unlocking.”

Su knew that it was a common thing. In this era of violence, due to congenital disparities of physique and strength, women were in an absolute disadvantage; their position was very low. Many women had to rely on their bodies to exchange necessary food and water for survival. For something like N11 base residency, it might cost an arm and a leg. With her youth and beauty, perhaps it could be traded; but if she wanted to live better, it wouldn’t be enough. At least, she must have an excellent skills, which could make a substantial contribution to the base.

As a person who worked as both hunter and mercenary, Su wasn’t unfamiliar with monetary, violence, women and trade; however, the situation in front of his eye wasn’t a good one, because it didn’t meet his principles.

“I don’t have enough money.” Now Su only have 5 Yuan, most of his money was exchanged into ammunition and food. The price of this girl was absolutely far more than that.

The flame in Lì jī‘s eyes became stronger. Suddenly she rushed over like a female leopard; the impact was strong enough to push Su down to the bed. She was gasping heavily, while her hands were tearing the bandage on Su’s body. The sound come from her mouth was a mixed of groan and growl: “This time, free! Damn it, your touch was so hateful, give it to me, now!”

Straightforward action instantly gave result; she felt the fiery, hard and huge thing almost went to her empty body. However, she had to stand up again and leave the position which could immediately extinguish the fire of desire in her body.

That huge revolver, once again, pointed at her chin and forced her to stand up again.

“I have a mission tomorrow, I have to save my energy.” The last moment, Su was a fire, but now, he was an ice.

The transition from scorching hot to severe cold almost drove this girl to crazy; but she was forced to leave under the pressure from the revolver. Almost completely naked, she was holding her clothes while watching the metal door in front of her was shut with a bang and locked.

Su sat straight on the bed’s edge; the revolver was put on his lap. Even when he heard a hysterical, full of anger threat from outside: “Su! Sooner or later, someday I will rape you!” he just smiled without any care.

It was absolute that the girl called Lì jī was a high quality stuff. Her skin was a litter rough due to using low rate radiation water for bathing, but it was scarcely clean, and it also had amazing elasticity and flexibility. There was no doubt that a woman like her could bring great excitement and fun in the bed. However, at the inserting moment, Sue sensed that, there was a force inside her body made him feel very repulsive. It made Su’s desire disappear in an instant. Although Su didn’t know what that force is or whether this force really exists, but Su always believed in his instincts.

Because his instincts had never deceived him, and his luck had always been over the standard.

This time, Su hadn’t believed any more in N11 locked door and his alarm; he sat against the door until morning.

The seven-man committee was the core of N11 base. Chairman Anthony and Turner were in charge of its twenty-man armed forces, which were police and soldiers. Other members were Tony, chief medical officer and three research directors. N11 base was not large, but its function was very complete; which wasn’t allowed the residents of the base to slack off. It also led to a quite cruel residential system. The citizens of the base had to prove that they were useful, or they had enough money to purchase the residency before they were approved to stay inside the base. Only people who made enough contribution for the base, such as seven-man committee, were allowed to be retired.

For safety and to a certain degree of stability, N11 base still kept a portion of the old era marriage system. Marriage in here didn’t have monogamous limitation, as long as the man could prove that he can support a woman and could afford the marriage tax. The stability of marriage was guaranteed by the committee. From some point of view, this kind of guarantee was very tenuous, however, in the N11 base, no one dared to go against it. Turner and twenty-man armed force was the cornerstone of N11’s authority.

Surprisingly, the price of water in N11 base, no matter what level it was, was at least half cheaper than outside. People in this base were even extravagant enough to use treated water for bath, of course, if they could afford the price. As a result, drinking water was an important material for foreign exchange of N11 base. Food, medicine, firearm, ammunition and other stuff, everything were traded back by water. It clearly hinted that the N11 base had a secret, huge source of water; and the base itself also had high efficiency water treatment system. Only these factors could solve the question how N11 base had enough water, to provide for internal citizens and to sell.

Having water didn’t mean having everything, but it was quite similar. In the area with a diameter of 100 kilometers, N11 base was the richest and the most powerful one. 15 soldiers who had level 1 genetic enhancement, a small and complete logistics base, military equipment, as well as a lab could produce medicine for genetic enhancement; all of these factors made N11 base into an armed to the teeth cheetah. Even when the number of bandit groups and armed mob in this area increased significantly, compared with N11 base, they weren’t as strong as a group of Rotten Wolves. They were only a bunch of angry, biting human rabbits.

In a previous task, Turner and his troop were surrounded by a group of armed mob, which had more than 50 men. When 10 soldiers occupied a hill, the battle broke out with automatic rifles versus a rushing mob with vintage pistols and flintlocks. The mob also had some grenades, but no one could survive the rain of bullet from 10 level 1 soldiers to enter the 100 meters distance. The final result of this battle, was zero versus 35 casualties. After that, there weren’t any bandit groups or mob want to provoke N11 base.

In the meeting room of the central area of N11 base, Su sat alone on an iron chair. In front of him, seven members of the committee sat behind a semi-circular aluminum conference table. This kind of arrangement was similar to the old era trial, but it occurred in a police station instead of a court. It was lucky that both Turner and Tony were in the meeting room, so the atmosphere inside it was fairly easy.

According to N11’s internal rules, seven committees began to inquire Su about his abilities. In this similar to chatting inquiry, all committees, even Turner, looked at the modified sniper rifle, which was placed beside of Su, from time to time. Although they weren’t familiar with firearms like Tony, they were able to recognize that this rifle was quite old and original. Perhaps it only had some advantages like stable, reliable, easy to maintain and fair price. However, when it was compared with M3A, one of the most modern automatic rifles of the old era, the disadvantages of it was too much.

This rifle modification was worth seeing. Even if its ammunition were heavy machine gun bullets or special ones; its 1500 meters effective range was able to make people surprise. However, it also had some significant weaknesses, such as huge recoil and low precision. Another interesting factor on this gun was its scope; normally, the simple scope was only suitable with mid – ranged automatic rifles, and it completely couldn’t bring enough precision which snipers needed.

Of course, the price of a fairly advanced scope wasn’t cheap, and sometimes it could be higher than the price of the rifle. Nevertheless, this amount of money wasn’t a thing that a level 3 Sniper couldn’t afford. An ordinary person would need 7 evolution points in order to strengthen to level 3. Converted these points back to money, it was enough to buy three or four the most modern scopes in this era. But Su’s background was quite special, he chose to enhance himself instead of purchase modern gun. It was very different from other people, because, a good sniper rifle could boost the ability of a sniper in a whole new level, which also meant more income. After all, guns were the breadwinner of every soldier.

From this point of view, Su perhaps didn’t have a strong economic mind.

The inquiry was still in the middle, but it began to boring, because actually the committee didn’t need to have a real understanding about Su’s abilities. The mandated task itself was a disclaimer, which stated that the hirer wouldn’t need to be responsibilities for the life of hired person. Similarity, Su wouldn’t show his true card to an organization which just hired him. The main reason for having this inquiry was the base’s rules required it.  N11 base had inevitably produced a lot of form and bureaucracy in some postwar decades.

Level 3 Sniper Specialization in Psionic Domain, and level 1 Vision Enhancement in Perception Domain; these were the content that Su gave to the committee. The seven-man committee was shaken when they heard that, and the main reason was the extra Level 1 Vision Enhancement.

In fact, Sniper Specialization was a comprehensive enhancement; it improved the physical strength, endurance, vision, ability to control body and coordination. After that, sniper need to adapt these transformations through specialized training. This enhancement had been established and developed very well, and the collocation of level 3 Sniper Specialization and level 1 Vision Enhancement was very common. Because the difficulty of improvement increased exponentially after every level, it needed 8 evolution points to level up from level 3 to level 4 Sniper Specialization. Due to that costly price, and the fact that level 4 Sniper Specialization hadn’t been fully studied yet; from the angle of vision improvement, level 4 Sniper Specialization didn’t provide a huge boost like level 1 Vision Enhancement.

However, one single evolution point could also represent approximately a 10000 Yuan fortune. According to Su’s age, which was lower than 20, this amount of money was quite large. It hinted that Su know how to be remunerative, although his action in here showed that he knew how to spend his money. According to each person’s preference, seven men in the committee quickly exchange that extra 10000 Yuan into alcohols, cigarettes, firearms, water, and women. After that, their sight to Su became a bit different.

In their eyes, those bandages weren’t wrapping a human body, but a wealth of nearly 100 000 Yuan.

The boring inquiry finally passed, next was the content of the task. Su, who was close to sleep, immediately woke up and listen to the committee without mission a word.

This task was both simple and complex.

Due to the concern of the base’s safety, the committee decided to explore the outside cave system, which was connected with the back door of the base. The main target of this mission was the web-like subway tunnels. The committee wanted Su to create an emergency escape way for the base. There were 2 missions in this task. If Su only explored through the natural caves and stop at the entrance of the subway tunnels, his reward would be only 500 Yuan. If Su could clear a safe way in the subway tunnels, his reward would be a dose of basic medicine for genetic enhancement, which was produced from the labs of N11 base.

After thinking a little, Su realized that the danger of this task and its reward was very commensurate. There was a huge city ruins a dozen kilometers away from N11 base. It was occupied by cruel and cunning mutated species, mutated humans, living corpses, bandit groups, armed mob and some unknown organizations. In additional, the underground world, which was similar to a labyrinth and could be divided into 6 separate floors, its danger wasn’t lower than the ground.

The underground world wasn’t a good battlefield for snipers. The paradise of sniper should be the urban city, which had buildings everywhere in a large area. So, as a level 3 Sniper, clearing a natural cave was a suitable task for Su. In the past, he usually took these difficult tasks, and the compensation for each was ranged from 300 to 1000 Yuan.

But the high remuneration of the follow-up mission had attracted Su. Even he didn’t need that basic medicine anymore, he could use it for exchange. The quick sell price of a basic medicine for genetic enhancement was 5000 Yuan, and with a nearly bankrupt person like Su, 5000 Yuan was an irrefutable reward.

After taking the task, Su got 100 Yuan as preparation fund. The license of Payne Company was equal to this amount of prepaid money.

At the twilight, all of 100 Yuan were traded into a box of 5.56 ammo, 10 extra special rounds for his rifle, and two bottles of level 4 drinking water.

When the night fall, fully equipped Su walked out of the base through its emergency exit door.

Before leaving the base, he knew that the girl called Lì jī had left the base. She wasn’t a resident of this base, and her unlocking skill was useless in here, so she didn’t have any sources of income. Most of her money was used to purchase the temporary residency. Because she didn’t want to use her body to purchase money, like other women, so she had to leave the base at today morning. This was a very regretful ending, because numerous men in this base were aiming to Lì jī’s bed. All of them wanted to pay a very generous price for that. Leaving the base, perhaps the life of Lì jī wouldn’t become better than inside, because at least N11 had enough power to maintain its basic order and rules. It meant even if Lì jī was raped inside the base, the rapists still had to pay to Lì jī afterward, in order to make their behaviors suit with the rule of the base. Out of the base, chaos was the eternal theme; those wandering in the wilderness males had excessive violence and desire, but no money.

At this time, Su didn’t have any extra mood to concern about Lì jī. His jade color eye was focusing on the deep and bottomless cave in front. Behind his back, the thick and heavy metal door of the base was closed and locked.

 

Demon Hunting Diary – Chapter 1 – Wolf Leader

The Earth, where used to have four seasons, in this era, still had four seasons, but their meaning was a little different.

The spring meant to awaken. From large animals like Fury Bears, Stone Dragons; to small ones like Bloodsucking Fly and Fluorescent Flea; every kind would wake up from hibernation. After being starved in a whole winter; they would, naturally, become very ferocious. The little ones like Bloodsucking flies wasn’t no less dangerous than the big ones, such as Fury Bears. In this era, there were unnumbered kinds of deadly plague, which could bring the death quickly to human. Moreover, almost every kind of bacteria or viruses, which caused these plague, usually chose Bloodsucking flies and their vector. Every year, the number of plagues always increased sharply. Until now, doctor profession, not only had become the most significant job, but also the most powerless one.

Nevertheless, spring was still the best season.

Summer meant scorching hot. The intense ultraviolet rays from sunlight were deadly for almost living organisms; even human and mutated animals. Fall was no longer being the season of harvest. Crops and fruits of the old era were because they can’t adapt to the new environment; so food were the biggest worries of every living creature. Some plants, which could grow in the harshest environment; were more dangerous than Stone Dragons. As for winter, the only concern was how to not starve before the arrival of spring.

The thin gray clouds in the sky were constantly changing; and a very beautiful blue sky was exposed. The sunlight, which was similar to fire, poured down the dry and chapped ground.

At the moment the sunlight came down, Turner lowered the goggles on the helmet.

This individual goggles from the old era could filter the light and UV rays to protect the eyes. Although the intensity of the nowadays UV ray was higher than the past multiple times, the survivals of this era also adapted with to the new environment. The weak ones had become the dry bones in the wilderness. The UV rays through the goggles were strong enough to make old era’s people blind; but Turner only felt slightly dazzle. Eight men followed him were also strong enough; this kind of sunlight only made them feel uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t affect their action.

Turner’s right hand was holding a revamped M3A automatic rifle. He looked the area around them, then gave a hand gesture. The troop continued to follow him forward. Every solders were wearing camouflage clothes and equipped with an automatic rifle. They also had a grenade launcher. Although their clothes were a bit old and their equipment was varied; from the M3A of old era’s elites to the common AK; but these stuff still proved that they were a real army troop and were not a randomly created armed troop like mob or bandit group. This troop had ranks, tactics, logistics, training, and the most important thing was the organization behind them. In order to support a well-trained army like this troop, this organization must be a big one.

Turner, forty-three years old, had been serving in the military more than twenty years, was a capable and reliable team leader. At this time he and his team were walking on an austere ridge. This place provided them a very good point of view; from there, Turner’s vision could be increased to 10 kilometers. About the woods, which could protect them from the sunlight, Turner didn’t care about it. Woods usually meant unpredictable dangers.

The howl of Rotten Wolves echoed from the mountain; and Turner immediately turned to this sound. His pupils dilated and contracted rapidly; according to that his eyeballs also altered slightly. Without scope, his eyes locked on a few dark spots far from a few kilometers. Until now, Turner raised his scope. Inside the lens, there were some gray and black hair Rotten Wolves wandering anxiously on red and brown rocks. Sometimes they howled a strong and long sound.

Turner’s vision was 1.5 times better than normal human; and its pricey cost was a 1 Evolution Point. To be simple, it was a result after one time of genetic enhancement. Normal human usually had one or two times of genetic enhancement in the whole life. The most common choice at the first enhancement was improving muscle strength or their physical defense. However, Turner used his first Evolution Point on his vision. For the battle in the wilderness, the earlier you detected the enemies, the higher survival chance would be.

“Damn it. The size of their heads increased again!” Turner cursed and led his men to the valley.

He didn’t know what made them go out in a strong sunny day like today. Rotten Wolf was always a nocturnal animal. However, Turner didn’t need to know these things. Based on his experience, there was a high probability that there was a wolf den in the valley; and that was enough. Summer was also the breeding season of Rotten Wolves, and probably, there were some weaned pup inside the den. Turner’s task was to find out the mutated processes and situations of Rotten Wolves and other similar animals in this area. His task, frankly meant searching for new appeared mutated animals, and provided some Rotten Wolves bodies every three months for organization’s researches.

In general, this task required Turner and his troop to walk in the wilderness for half of a month or longer, but it wasn’t difficult. Turner knew everything in this desolate area of one hundred square kilometers like his own hands. What kind of place was suitable for what kind of animals; he could tell all of them while he was closing his eyes. He also knew that with the firepower of his nine men troops, they could deal easily with about one hundred Rotten Wolves.

However, the real trouble was everything changed so quickly in this era. Turner was seeing that the size of Rotten Wolves’ heads was increasing gradually. A fully matured Rotten Wolves, which could be killed by one shot in the past, now usually need two three-shot bursts to kill. They’re getting faster and stronger. According to the head of research faculty, in the past 12 months, the average weight of an adult Rotten Wolf was increased by 12%, muscle strength increased by 23%, agility increased by 18%, while the physical attack resistance was increased by 35%, and the resistance to radiation was increased by 50%.

Of course Turner couldn’t remember all of the statistics; and he also didn’t want to remember. His thought was more simple and conspicuous: “Rotten Wolves became bigger and more dangerous.” His troop, who could easily deal with 150 rotten wolves; now could only deal with a group of 100 and lower. It looked like everything was still in the control, but whenever Turner went out for a task, his uneasy feeling always raised by a bit. Let’s imagine a Rotten Wolf, which was as big as a tiger and as smart as a human. It wasn’t the first time Turner had that nightmare.

For Turner and his elite troop, who were very experienced in mountain area, a few kilometers just took them half of an hour. The matured male Rotten Wolves on the mountain crouched their bodies when they saw his team come; they revealed their drooling teeth, and issued some low roar from their throat.

It wasn’t the common activities of protecting the territory of Rotten Wolves, which meant there was a wolf den, which had some unweaned baby wolves, who couldn’t travel with mature ones behind them.

The Rotten Wolves’ territory was usually very large; probably this group was the only one in this full of caves valley. Turner also didn’t want to waste his time on searching every caves. He gave a hand gesture; a veteran behind him raised his automatic rifle. His first burst hit a Rotten Wolf fly in the air, then his second burst followed. 3 bullets pierced into its body, made it rolled some rounds before grounded.

The rest of the Rotten Wolves whimpered for their dead companion, then ran back to the depth of the valley with their tails between their legs.

Turner lowered his M3A, said: “Lucas, up to you.”

“Roger.” A young man, who was just in his early twenties removed his mask, revealed a nose which was bigger as twice as normal. He sniffed all the way to the depth of the valley. Although the whole valley was full of the pungent smell of Rotten Wolves, Lucas’ nose wasn’t worse than wolves’. With Lucas, every Rotten Wolves had a different smells, and moreover; the wolf pack was just retreated, so he was simply unable to make a mistake.

Nine-man troop walked to the depth of the valley neither fast nor slow. Their target was very clear – a cave a few hundred meters away. Now they could see some dried bones at its entrance.

Similar to the past, Turner let two people guard at the cave entrance, while he led the others to search in the cave. He didn’t worry about the ambush, because in a narrow and deep cave, an M3A with high rate of fire and power was almost irresistible. Moreover, there were five veterans in the eight men. They had experienced at least ten tasks in the past and they also were strengthened their genes at least one time. It was enough to deal with any situation. Some member was already assembling a simple cage, a living immature Rotten Wolf was worth as ten dead ones.

The cave wasn’t very deep, just about thirty meters. However, at this place, despite a big pile of dried bones, there was only a heap of hay, and there wasn’t any shadow of immature wolves.

Turner’s face became livid. He stared to the haystack without any motion in his eyes. Suddenly he dug out the hay by his muzzle. Under the hay, there was only rocks, which was covered by wolves’ shit and pee. There weren’t any callow wolves in here.

“Lucas, you…”

Turner brutally interrupted a person, who just said half of a sentence. “Shut the fuck up for me! Lucas will not make a mistake!”

Turner sat down and pulled his bayonet. He used it to pick a quite freshly wolf dung and observed it very carefully. Then he instantly stood up, pulled out the M3A’s bolt, and yelled: “Motherfucker, It was a trap! Let’s retreat!”

His word was followed up by a veteran: “Hey, captain, tells us who set this trap? Don’t tell me that the Rotten Wolves did it! Ha-ha…”

He laughed, but stopped bitterly when he realized that no one around agreed with him. He just shrugged helplessly. He also smelt the scent of danger, however, at this situation, a little joke could be a good solution to ease the tension.

Turner increased his pace, said: “Mostly Rotten Wolves! God, please tell me that I was wrong!”

Just after a few big strides, they passed the last bend and came to the entrance. However, two guards at the entrance were bending over and trembling. They retreated to inside step by step! Turner, didn’t say anything, immediately went to the entrance, pulled them back and looked to the outside.

Turner’s eyes suddenly widened. In his dark brown pupils, Rotten Wolves were everywhere!

“Oh my god! At least there were 300 of them!” Turner’s heart suddenly tightened, he almost couldn’t breathe!

A stench smell came to Turner’s nose. The fighting instinct developed after many years made him immediately jumped backward, then fired rapidly to an open space on the entrance.

A shadow flashed across the sky like lightning; its mouth with full of sharp teeth bit precisely at the previous position of Turner’s neck. Then, five hot rounds completely ripped off its belly!

This is a strong male wolf with a weight of thirty kilograms. The bullet impact made it fly a few meters away; flipped a few rounds before grounded. After that, it still could struggling stand up when its whole organs were already falling off. It was shaking while issuing some deterrent low howl, until another wolf came at bit its neck.

Thump! Turner heavily fell over, and knocked down two other soldiers. When he was handed up, he realized that cold sweat wet all his clothes!

A veteran looked outside the cave; his face immediately became pale; said: “Captain, it looked like we were trapped.”

Another tried the walkie-talkie in his hand, then shook his head and said: “Completely no signal from the base.”

“Our supply and water is enough for ten days.”

“We only have a basic amount of ammo, which isn’t enough for killing all of them.”

Some veterans automatically reported the material situation. The more Turner heard, the worse his face was. He carefully stood at one meter away from the entrance, then looked outside. The more he saw, the heavier the chill inside is heart was.

The strong Rotten Wolves were wandering around; their saliva dripped on hot rocks in the valley and evaporated into white smoke. Although they were hungry; all of them stop at 500 meters from the cave entrance. Perhaps they knew that was the effective range of automatic rifle; over 500 meters; the power and accuracy would decrease sharply. 300 Rotten Wolves wandering in the valley completely destroy every hope of Turner’s troop about breaking through. Without the cover of the cave, the fast and agile Rotten Wolves would quickly group up and surround them; at this time, whole troop would be torn into pieces after one charge.

Turner returned to the cave, sat down against the wall, and said: “It seems these Rotten Wolves want to keep us here until we starved. Two men guard the entrance, switch every two hours. Lucas, Berg, you are the first shift. Other people, rest! I hope that our luck is good enough so the reinforcement of the base can find us!”

Other soldiers sat down against the wall, closed their eyes and took a nap. They had to save their energy, only god knew that how long they would be here.

However, no one could sleep. All of them had a same question – why these Rotten Wolves became so intelligent? They knew how to set a trap, how to avoid the effective range of automatic rifles. Moreover, although they were hungry, but there wasn’t any wolves dared to cross that invisible line. This action; to be simple; it looked like….

Army!

“Captain! Look at this!” Lucas suddenly yelled. He tried to lower his voice as much as he can, like he feared to disturbing something.

Turner carefully moved to the entrance. He looked to the outside, followed the direction of Lucas fingers. Finally, he saw the leader of this wolf pack.

It was an uncommon wolf. Its huge body and smooth black fur were rare from Rotten Wolves. However, the most terrifying factor was it was standing!

That wolf leader, sometimes it also stood on all four legs, however, most of the time it stood straight, and used its front paws and howls with varied lengths to control the pack.

A highly experienced veteran heard it carefully, then exclaimed with fear: “There are at least thirty different sounds. If these sounds could be combined, then it would be a language. Is it really Rotten Wolf?”

Turner already sat down against the wall, closed his eyes and said: “It obviously Rotten Wolf! There is nothing strange when a Rotten Wolf starts talking! From the beginning of this year, everything could happen…. Must find a way to kill it!”

Berg was the sniper of the troop. He carefully raised his SVD, and used the crosshair to aim the wolf leader slowly. The distance from the wolf leader to the cave was about 1000 meters, and its alertness and agile was obviously higher than a normal wolf. At this distance, only experts in Psionic Domain who was strengthened to level 2 Sniper Specialization and used the newest sniper rifle from a big company of this era could hit on the first try. Berg wasn’t level 2 Sniper Specialization sniper; his sniper rifle was also an old age antique. Could hit or not, everything depended on luck.

“…Must find a way to kill it!” Berg repeated that sentence many times in his head; the crosshair patiently moved along with the wolf.

Finally!

The wolf leader stood up, moved its nose up to the air to smell something. Of course Berg wouldn’t waste that precious chance, he pulled the trigger decisively!

Bang! A huge recoil heavily hit Berg’s shoulder, immediately pushed him back 10 centimeters. However, from the scope, Berg clearly saw that, at the moment he pulled the trigger, the wolf leader suddenly hid itself in the pack with an incredible agility! One second after, a huge bloody flower suddenly bloomed on a Rotten Wolf’s body, almost cut off its powerful and flexible waist. But, Berg’s heart sank to the bottom. Such precious chance like this only came once, if you missed it, it wouldn’t come back.

Berg buried his head into his arms.

A rough, powerful and warm hand patted Berg’s shoulder, then Turner’s unique steady voice came in Berg’s ears: “Over the past 20 years, I made many mistakes in many important situations, some of them were even worse than this. Don’t think too much, young man. If you couldn’t do it, no one among us could. There are many situations that we only need to do everything we could, and hand the success to the luck.”

Three days had passed.

The wolf leader was still maintaining order and commanding the wolves’ actions. Other wolves, which didn’t obey it was killed. When necessary, it still walked with standing form, but it never stopped at one place too long. It mostly hid itself among the pack. Apart from the wolf appearance, from every aspect, it looked like a calm, cruel and cunning human commander.

“…Must find a way to kill it.”

On the mountain ridge, a jade color eye with grey patterns was staring at the wolf leader. No one knew when he was on that ridge, which could overlook the whole valley. A thick brown blanket covered his body, made him completely blend in the surrounding rocks. After observing for a really long time, finally, a muzzle wrapped in brown rags came out slowly from under the blanket. On top of the muzzle, the old-fashioned front sight slowly aimed towards the head of the wolf leader.

Half of the gun was uncovered. This was an enhanced and improved old-fashioned sniper rifle with some manual modifications. The body of the gun was solidified simply so it can shoot more powerful bullet; the barrel was improved by a steel pipe to increase the effective range. However, on this gun there wasn’t any either new era modern gun scope or old era rear sight; there was only the most original front sight. The straight-line distance from the barrel to the wolf was more than 1500 meters. Even if the effective range of this old – fashioned rifle was long enough, in order to hit the wolf leader, the shooter need not normal but extraordinary luck.

“It depends on luck again…” The rifle muzzle wiggled slightly as the wolf moved; this kind of movement was almost accurate to micrometers.

Bang! Huge and violent gunfire resounded whole the valley!

The wolf leader’s thick chest was almost blasted off. It lowered its head to look at its terrible wound before it collapsed.

After the wolf leader dies, the whole pack became chaos. Most Rotten Wolves were irritated; they ran back and forth through the valley to find the one who dared to provoke the whole pack. However, in the wind blowing through the valley, unless the spreading smell of gunpowder, there wasn’t any abnormal smell. A few most sensitive Rotten Wolves rushed to the mountain ridge, but that person wasn’t there anymore. Dozens of furious wolves rushed to their long-standing target – the cave where Turner and his troop was hiding.

This kind of charge was as same as suicide. More than 40 strongest Rotten Wolves rushed to the cave, but the best distance these wolves could get was ten meters away from the cave entrance. They were all shot down by the rain of bullets. The only result that they could bring is to reduce the ammo of Turner’s troop by one third.

After half an hour, when the Rotten Wolves pack became more chaos and anxious, another strong male wolf began to roar and howl frequently; it tried to become the new leader of this pack. Seeing that scene, Turner’s troop became nervous again. This male wolf was only stronger and brawnier than other male wolf; it didn’t have the wisdom beyond similar wolves of the previous one. Despite that fact, only god knew what would happen when the pack would have a new leader.

Bang! Another stirring sound of gunshot issued; the new wolf leader roared then fell.

This time, Berg finally saw a green smoke from the opposite mountain ridge. He immediately pulled out his telescope and looked to this direction, however, he could only see the rock; there was no one at that place.

“How long is the shooting range?” Turner, who already laid down on Berg’s side, asked

Berg estimated the distance, then said: “… 1400 meters.” In his response, there was jealous and respect. That person could shoot accurately from this distance, and not only one, but two shots, which means that person was at least a two ranks higher sniper than him. It also meant that sniper was strengthened his genes at least three times.

The gunshot was rough, heavy, and also had the unique scent of metal gun powder of an old – fashioned gun. In the Turner’s troop, whether veterans or rookies, this gunshot also had a different meaning. An old-fashioned gun could hit the target from 1500 meters, it must be sacrificed other factors to improve its shooting range. However, that high level sniper, who was hiding in the darkness, was absolutely proficient in both movement and hiding. Even the Rotten Wolves couldn’t find his track. Moreover, coupled with the ultra-long shooting range and extraordinary hit rates, exposing wasn’t a problem. Only luck could help you survive under his sniper rifle.

The valley returned to the silence. After twelve o’clock, the sun became more blazing; it made the wolf pack became more restless. Even though they became more robust and cunning at a terrifying evolution speed; their resistance and aversion toward the sun wasn’t improved so much.

Without the leadership and order from the wolf leader, the pack transformed from a disciplined army to a pack of beasts which could only act by instinct. One hour before the dusk, the wolves lost their tolerance and started to leave the valley.

The soldiers in the cave breathed a sigh of relief, and even Turner felt his taut nerves loosened. In the past three days, all the soldiers in the troop were suffering in the shadow of death. Even their bodies were rested, but their mental were extremely tense. If the ways to die could be sort of their badness, then be eaten by Rotten Wolves was only second to be eaten by zombies.

When the dusk was coming, a body appeared on the opposite mountain ridge; a thick brown hood and cloak made him completely blend in the surrounding rocks. On his back, the sniper rifle as high as his height was probably the lethal weapon which was used to kill two wolf leaders consecutively. A few Rotten Wolves still wandering in the valley, immediately roared and charged to him. After a few huge gunshots, these wolves fell to the ground without any suspense; they weren’t able to whine, or twitch, or stand up again.

He didn’t use the sniper rifle on his back; in his left hand there was an unusually powerful revolver. It was obviously modified gun. While automatic rifle needed two bursts to kill one Rotten Wolf, this gun only needed one shot. The previous result couldn’t be achieved with only the power of the gun, it also required that every shots was accurately hit the fatal spots of Rotten Wolves.

Similar to its power, this revolver’s sound was also shocking; and it wasn’t smaller than the sound of the sniper rifle on his back. The sound was rough, thick, simple and direct; it looked like a strong man with stubble.

After 6 Rotten Wolves were killed consecutively, the rolling chamber of this revolver was opened between the dancing fingers of this man, and six hot shells fell on the ground. Then through these dexterous fingers, six more bullets were inserted, and after a cracking sound, the rolling chamber returned to its previous location. Without aiming, the barrel moved upward slightly and expelled a long flame. In the gunfire resounding through the valley, the seventh Rotten Wolf, which was also the last one, trembled its body rapidly, turned a somersault in the air, flew over this man’s head and fell on the ground. It couldn’t whimper any sound. The blood gushed endlessly from under its corpse, but the wound couldn’t be seen from this corpse position. It raised the curiosity of people around, how the Rotten Wolf, which was famous about its aggressive and tenacious, could be killed just by one shot.

There were still a dozen of Rotten Wolves in the valley, but with the crisp and intensive gunfire of automatic rifles, they couldn’t survive or escape under the hot rain of bullets.

Turner’s M3A issued a breezy roar, shot down the last Rotten Wolves, which was escaping, in the middle of the mountain ridge. After that, he lowered his gun, pointed the muzzle on the ground and walked through the valley to the mysterious man on the opposite side. Turner’s hand was slightly holding the fore grip of the rifle. With this kind of handling, the M3A’s muzzle could be bounced up like a frightened rabbit. Behind him, the soldiers seemed to be scattered inadvertently, but in the emergency, everyone’s firepower could immediately cover that mysterious man.

It could be said that the entire team’s lives was saved by that person, however, to be on guard at the stranger was an instinct of everyone. Although that mysterious man put this revolver back to his waist, but its power still imprinted a huge impression for the whole Turner’s troop. Everyone still remembered that there were five rounds left in that revolver. According to the agile action of that man, who can reload within one second; if he had bad intention, he can shoot at least three times before anyone in Turner’s troop can react. And from his marksmanship skill, three shots meant three lives.

Turner stopped before the mysterious man 10 meters, carefully observed him. Through the bright sunset, Turner could see a face below the thick brown hood. Half of this face was wrapped in tight bandage, a black eye patch covered the right eye, and the pale golden, partial gray hair covered half his forehead. Although from this body, Turner could only see his left eye, but the slender, vigorous, and slightly curved eyebrows, the jade color with grey patterns eye, as well as the contour outline of his eye; everything mixed into a nearly perfect picture.

From the shape of that body, Turner could figure that mysterious sniper should be a male. But he couldn’t determine that the body under the blanket was human or not. Despite that fact, he still felt his throat became a little dry. In this era of survival, the desire had lost its shackles; sex and violence had become the most common instinct of most people. Male and female, adult and children, human and non-human; in the eyes of people who desired stimulate and orgasms, every border blurred quickly.

Years of experience of struggling between the line of life and death made Turner calm down quickly. The thing made him delight was he didn’t see any hostility in that jade eye.

Turner hesitated for a little, then released his hand from the M3A, stretched toward the stranger: “I am Turner.”

For two people who met each other at the first time, it was a rare friendly expression. The stranger was obviously surprised, but his eyes were slightly curved then a smile showed on his face. He shook hand with Turner: “I am… Su.”

This hand of Su was also wrapped in bandage, and there wasn’t any piece skin was exposed. Through the bandage, Turner could feel that this hand was more slender than the normal men’s hand. It was also extra soft, but hiding among the softness was the explosive power. This fallacy feeling made Turner felt that he wasn’t shaking with a human, but was holding a Stone Dragon’s sharp tooth.

Turner shook hand lightly, and he pulled his hand back quite quickly and rudely, but Su didn’t pay any attention.

Turner waved his hand and vaguely made a safe gesture. The troop’s soldiers were relieved. They scattered around to check the still alive Rotten Wolves, and gather enough wolf’s bodies for their task.

Turner, who was standing with Su, took out a pack of crumpled cigarettes. He carefully pulled out two cigarettes, and gave one to Su: “You saved the lives of all of us! Want to take one?”

Su smiled, said: “Why not? This is a good stuff”

After the cigarettes were ignited, Su took a deep breath through a gap in the bandage. After three or four minutes, he breathed out a faint smoke. Look like he really knew how to entertain this one.

Turner watched his men, who was skillfully cutting the Rotten Wolves’ corpses, then asked casually: “In this area, except Rotten Wolf, there were probably nothing. Why did you come here?”

“I have been tracking some abnormal action of the Rotten Wolf. I wanted to know what happened to them, then I found that you were trapped in the valley. I killed that wolf leader with only pure luck.” Su’s voice was flowing like water.

Mutated animals, whether dead or alive, could be sold a good price at big settlements or bases, because their genes were the sources of human genetic improvement medicines. So in this era, there was a job which was specialized in tracking, hunting and selling mutated animals – Hunters.

“Are you a hunter?” Turner asked.

“Level 1 Hunter and elementary Mercenary.” Su said.

“From what company?” Turner asked.

Hunter or Mercenary, at this era, was the job that everyone could do, and they could get a license and ranking based on their past records. Licenses could be issued by organizations, scattered bases, big companies or even huge corporations. When someone got a license from an organization, that means he or she would be recognized on its area, by its allies and friendly organizations, and would get corresponding treatment. Of course, some big organizations could reject the license from smaller ones. So getting a level 1 Hunter license of a big organization was usually better than getting a level 4 license of a small one.

“Payne Company.”

Turner was a little surprised, his sound became more respect: “That’s a big one!” But when he thought about Su’s ability on sniping, shooting, hiding and moving; getting such a license was understandable.

Thinking about the wolf leader killed by Su, Turner’s eyes couldn’t help but twitch a few times. He smoked his cigarette by a long breath, then gloomily said: “I really never think that even wolf could get human’s wisdom. That fucking damn world!”

Su looked at the soldiers, who were carrying a few fully wrapped Rotten Wolves corpses on their back, sighed and said: “That kind of wolves will become more common in the future.”

Turner viciously cursed some sentences, then yelled: “Lads, move faster! We will walk to home all night!”

After that, he turned to Su, said: “Look like you had travelled a lot, why don’t you go to our base to rest and get supplies?”

Having a license also meant having a background, which also meant Su wasn’t dangerous stranger anymore. Moreover, in this area, Payne was also a big company.

Turner’s troop started to move when the dusk came. From this place to their base, they had to walk two days. Even the night was dangerous, but compared with what happened here, it was nothing. At the end of their formation, there was Su, who was moving like a shadow.

Berg, whether intentionally or not, walked at the end of the troop. Through the faint green fluorescent in the night, he kept peeking at the huge modified sniper rifle at Su’s back. However, he was confused. On this sniper rifle, there was only one simple optical scope. Based on the size of the scope, even the amateurs could tell that Berg’s SVD sniper rifle was better.

Berg was obviously a shy person. His face became red before he whispered: “Mister, no, Sir, could I ask you a question? What is the level of your Sniper Specialization?”

Su silenced.

Berg became more nervous, stammered: “I’m really sorry, sir, I don’t want to insult you. Sir, you know, I’m just twenty years old, just a level 1 sniper. I had never seen a person like you.”

Psionic Domain………. Simple Weapon Mastery……. Sniper Specialization.

Inside Su’s head, these contents were reviewed, and hundreds pieces of information were analyzed. Three seconds after, Su got a result.

“Level 3.” Su smiled and said.

Berg became more excited; Su was really strong as he thought, a level 3 sniper. Because every time leveling up, the amount of Evolution point would increase significantly. A level 3 sniper required at least 7 evolution points. For Berg, whose lifetime desire was becoming level 2 sniper, Su was his idol.

Berg was too shy to dare to talk with Su again, and Su also didn’t talk most of the time, so the back of the troop returned to its silent. Ten people quietly and quickly traveled in the darkness.

The old-fashioned, simple, and rough modified sniper rifle behind Su’s back, in Berg’s eyes, became a rough and concise art represented for violence aesthetics.

He didn’t know that Su didn’t use even 1 evolution point on Sniper Specialization.

 

 

 

 

Hunting Demon Diary – Prologue – If time could stop at our first met

War.

War had destroyed an era, war has also created a new world.

No one knows when the night were not completely dark.

Under the night, two dots emitting dark and deep red light were floated slowly in the air

The area around these fireflies was full of thickened, dark green color and putrid smell water. Even in the corner which the firefly couldn’t shine, the sewage also emitted a faint green light, illuminated a small area around it. Compared with its unbearable filthiness, the deadly radiation was the most dangerous factor of this ubiquitous sewage.

Inside the small puddle of sewage, all kinds of dirty trash floated or sunk. There were rags, which couldn’t figure out original color, rusty metal cans and some rotten carcasses of unknown animals. Sometime, a one – meter long huge rats appeared from nowhere, screamed squeaky, rushed through sewage and disappeared in the dark. It looked like the radiation enough to kill a mature horse didn’t have any effect in this huge rat. However, occasionally, a few pieces of meat fell from the body of the rat. If someone observed carefully, they could see that the meat was rotten. From this evidence, it’s clear that the huge rat wasn’t immune to the radiation.

Two red dots flew a few meters higher, stopped at the top of a sloping steel beam, looked around the world in the dark below. The only thing was reflected from it were frames of buildings, half – collapsed wall, as well as the wreckage of the car which was scattered around.

Under the night, everything in the world emitted a faint green fluorescence.

This kind of place, fifty years ago, it was called the ruins, fifty years after, it was called the city.

The fire was lit suddenly in a near corner. Crazy and hysterical cries intertwined together, quickly rushed to this place.

The red dot was frightened. It quickly spread out four transparent wings, vibrated it rapidly and flew up high. A fire just shined over, irradiated a huge, larger than one meter beetle, which was flying away.

The man was holding the torch didn’t pay any attention to this beetle. He just ran and followed with the crowd in the front of him, and roared like a beast sporadically.

The fire quickly went away, and the beetle returned to hide in the dark. Then, a sharp wind blew suddenly and the giant beetle screamed bitterly. Its sound was sharp like the needle. Its arthropod legs, which were sharp as knives, scratched to the metal and drew some sparks out; its wings vibrated desperately; but the beetle still was being pulled inside the darkness.

Then, corresponding with its scream, is the crack crack chewing sound.

Inside a dark alley, a burst of footsteps suddenly sounded, then an extreme panic woman rushed in. As soon as she entered the alley, she immediately noticed a figure who was leaning on the wall.

The whole body was covered in a black blanket, its head lowered, so no one could see the true face. According to the small size of the body, it looked like an 8 or 9 years old child.

The woman gritted her teeth and rushed to this figure after a few strides. She pushed the swaddling which she was holding tightly in her hand in the blanket wrapped around this body, begged with a cry: “Please, save her.”

The fluorescence from a puddle under the wall shined the woman’s face. Even the light was very faint, it was clear enough to see that was a very young and beautiful face. Her appearance was about twenty; she had a rare, delicate and white skin in this era. It was beautiful enough to make most women jealous and want to cut some knife on her face. Her neck was also perfect; from the lower jaw, a curve line drew a near-perfect curvature, then extending all the way down. It suddenly raised on her complexion chest, created a deep cleavage. Her clothes were very transparent and only a few buttons were buttoned. Half of her plump breasts were exposed outside, two seductive bulges could be seen vaguely through her shirt. On her shirt, there was a small stain of water. Probably she just fed her child milk.

She only stopped a second, didn’t wait for this person respond, then she suddenly stood up and ran to the depth of the alley. After she ran about ten meters, she uttered a tragic scream that nearly pierced the eardrum. In a hustle and bustle night, this screams spread very far. The frenzied crowd not far from here immediately burst out the shout, which couldn’t figure out that is about excitement or joy. Less than a minute, numerous torch illuminated this small alley. A mob created by more than ten thugs wearing ragged clothes; their faces were mixed of cruelty and excitement; rushed into the alley. They were hustling to each other and also chasing to the depths of the alley.

A stout-looking guy wielded his nail bat; his arms rampaged through the crowd, pushed other people in front of him. While chasing, he yelled: “When we catch that women, I want to taste her first! Who dares to fight with me, I will smash his head!”

Behind him, a lanky middle-aged man laughed noisily. The volume of his authentic mockery wasn’t commensurate with his body. “Come on, Black Duncan! That woman slept with demons! Who knows she has something on her body! Do you dare to poke her? Are you not afraid that your member will rot inside her body when you just insert partially?”

Black Duncan also yelled back: “That is nonsense, I am able to resist more radiation than you!” However, there was hesitation clearly in his voice.

His hesitation made some people laugh out: “Black Duncan, who had mounted on even mutated sow, now fears? Is your third leg rotten already? But its size and your body are really disproportionate!”

Black Duncan roared angrily, yelled back: “I don’t fucking care! Who think theirs are larger, do it! Anyway, I quit!”

Suddenly someone screamed: “If you don’t dare to do it, I will! My old guy already has rotten half! If I can screw a fine-skinned woman like her, even it will rot completely it will be worth!”

The shouting person was a skinny and almost naked old man. Some dirty rags were wrapped around his body. There were numerous rotten wounds on his emaciated body. His head was nearly bald, there were only a few hoary hairs on it. He breathed heavily while running; there was a harsh sound came from his chest, which is similar to an old wind box. He just barely kept up with the crowd, but under his belt, his dark stick was as hard as a short and thin iron bar. It stood abruptly on his belly.

The small alley was not too long. Shortly after, dozen thugs rushed out from the other end. When the flickering fire had gone, the darkness, again, dominated this area. In the eyes of these thugs, which were full of violence and pornography, the only thing left was the shaking white skin of this woman. They didn’t notice that the shade near the corner is a body. Even if they knew that, they wouldn’t pay any attention, because it is too similar to a person lying beside radiated sewage and waiting the last moment. These people were everywhere in this era.

Not too far from the alley, the sound of the thugs suddenly became higher, mixed with the tragically scream of a woman. Shortly after, her scream suddenly stopped; probably her mouth was blocked. The thugs’ laugh went up higher again and again, and completely submerged woman’s voice.

In the dark valley, the body covered in a black blanket suddenly moved. He lowered head slowly lifted; from under the blanket, a swaddling was brought out. Partially of its hand was exposed from the edges of the rags; and its tender outline clearly showed that was a juvenile’s hand. However, its skin was extremely bright and smooth. It looked like the skin is shining, and it is completely out of tune with the environment around. Under the blanket over his lowered head, there was a point of deep jade green color. It was his eyes, which were focused on the infant inside the swaddling.

This infant didn’t cry nor cause trouble. A pair of big blue eyes was also looking back at the regiment of deep blue light. This is a little girl, her small nose was straight up high, and her skin was pristine like the highest quality crystal. It was clearly different from other babies affected by radiation in this era; there were a lot of black, blue, gray chunks on their skin. Her lips also had very rare perfect curves. Overall, she was very beautiful, especially for a non-weaned baby.

He blinked his eyes a few times, so the jade green light on the girl’s face also flashed. Finally, he stretched out his hand, loosened the tightened swaddling a little, so the baby could hear the sound around, which was the sound of thugs’ gasp, as well as the occasional outbreak woman’s tragic scream.

That slender, fair-skinned hand and fingers acted like dark clouds in the night, only appeared a split second, and then returned to the blanket.

The baby’s head tilted slightly, her ears shook lightly, collected the sound around, and listened very focus. Now he noticed that there were two separated tips on top of her ears, which made it longer than other normal human ears by a half.

This tyranny and promiscuous feast afar did not last long. With a burst of an extremely disappointed shout, the thugs gradually became calm. Then, a huge flame reached to the sky and an unpleasant smell emanating around with the spread of dense smoke. The raging fire sometime could reached about ten meters in the air. At this time, this fire could even disperse the darkness in the alley for a moment.

Near the puddle of sewage in the alley, nothing was left. The child that had been wrapped in a deep black blanket has disappeared.

The sun rose as usual. The blazing sunlight penetrated the thick gray clouds, and shone on the black and yellow ground. Suddenly, a strong wind blew away a small piece of gray clouds, allowed the sun to shine down without obstructions. Immediately, all kinds of strange animals on the ground fled away to find the shade. Some of them hid in underground caves to avoid this deadly sunlight. The only thing that didn’t fear this sunlight was a tall plant, its pale stem was full of half meter long spikes. Every time the sunlight came down, it twisted its stems, in order to get as much sunlight as possible. Then it grew crazily with a speed could be noticed by bare eyes.

Bang, Bang! Waves of loud sound broke the quiet morning. A nearly 50 age old man, while knocking the ground very hard by an empty iron pipe, yelled around with a hoarse voice:  “Work! Wake up, you bastards! Let the old Hans see how many lucky people left today!”

Hundreds people immediately jumped out from the surrounded ground, then rushed to him. But when they were five meters away from him, they stopped automatically. It looked like there was an invisible barrier that didn’t allow them to move a single step ahead. In the hustle, some greenhorns who didn’t know the situation was still pushing ahead. Several brawny guys around immediately scolded: “New people stay behind! Squeeze for what?” The new people didn’t have any time to react. They immediately ate some heavy punches; their bodies involuntarily fell to the ground. People around instantly added their fists and kicks without any sympathy. After a while, the group of brawny people threw these greenhorns, which were beaten to nearly death, out e of the crowd, and also bitterly spat a few mouthfuls of sputum on them.

Old Hans, who had been used to see these atrocities, just shrugged indifferently. He wore a leather jacket which was completely lost its luster; inside was a piece of crimson dark red plaid shirt. On his lower body, there was an oily jean and a pair of military boots. Compared with the group of refugees around, who was wearing like the beggars, Old Hans was simply a king, and he was indeed arrogant as a real king. A silver badge was pinned on his chest. The background of the badge was a city afar, and at a middle, there was a hostile tank. In the sunshine, this badge shone quickly and became very appealing. There were almost 100 pairs of eyes focused on the badge. Among them, there was fear, there was respect, but most of them were the greedy eyes of a starved wolf seeing the meat.

Faced with hundreds of wild wolves, Old Hans didn’t show the slightest fear. He stood behind a table made from angle iron, and took out some food cans, which their brands couldn’t be seen from the wooden chest behind. He threw it heavily on the table, and yelled out with all his might: “Old laws! One hundred kilograms of ore for five cents! Price of food is similar to yesterday! You bastards are very lucky, today I have some food cans! Let’s see who from you can take it! Line up, no squeeze, one by one!”

These refugees had already known the laws in here. They lined up and went to the front of iron table, one by one. Old Hans was like a butcher picking animal, he glanced at their physique, skin and face, then said: “You can, go there!” or “You cannot!”

The greenhorn refugees, who got approval from Old Hans, instantly ran to the pile of tools, picked up a metal pickax and a back basket, then rushed to the mine one hundred meters far way. They feared that if they acted a little slowly, Old Hans would treat them as useless, and said these terrible words “You cannot!” The experienced ones, in contrast, walked very slowly, like they were in their own courtyard. They knew that they had to work whole day long in the mine, and wasting stamina on the road was not a smart idea.

“Why am I not chosen!” A thunderous roar pulled back everyone’s attention. An approximately 190 cm (6’3”) height black man, which looked like a black bear, slammed the iron table and yelled to Old Hans.

Old Hans pulled out a clean handkerchief and slowly wiped out the saliva sprayed in his face. He pointed to an ulcer big as a cup on his black chest, and calmly talked: “You are sick! If I let you go to the mine, you will spread the disease to my strong mules. After that, who will work for me?”

“I can work! I want to eat, I also have to feed three children!” That black guy didn’t pay any attention to Old Hans’ word, he just kept slamming the table noisily and yelling non-stop.

Old Hans knitted his eyebrows, managed his thick beard and secretly gave a hand signal to behind. Just one bang and black guy’s voice stopped. He was staggered to see a huge wound on his chest; his voice was stuck at his throat and he couldn’t say anything.

Behind Old Hans’ back, a bald brawny man pulled again the trigger of his double-barrel shotgun. Another loud bang, and hundreds of metal sands hit this black guy’s chest, doubled the size of his wound and thoroughly penetrated his generous chest. This bald brawny guy wore a horrendous wrinkly black suit, which also had some big holes. This suit was clearly a relic of a few hundred years ago. There were total three brawny guys like him behind Old Hans’ back.

After cleaning everything on his face, Old Hans told back to the air, like that black man still was here: “One more thing, nigga, your saliva is so fucking stinky!”

There were more than one hundred refugees didn’t come to the mine. The greed decreased and the fear increased noticeably in their eyes. Some of them came to pull the corpse of that black guy and throw it a few hundred meters far away. Shortly after, Rotten Wolves and Vultures, who could track to the scent of blood, would come and eat his corpse completely, even his bone would not been left.

The line before iron table shortened quickly. Before the sun rose completely, most of the refugees had gone to the mine already. People who wasn’t chosen went to the town to gamble their luck.

“Number of sick mules are increasing, this month’s quota might be tough.” Old Hans groaned, then stood up and twisted his sore back. When he was stretching his lazy waist half way, his action stopped immediately. He pressed his hands on iron table, then leaned his body to the front, and looked at the child who only higher than this table a little.

This child was wrapped in a very dirty blanket, which its original color couldn’t be recognized. Its face, his arms, every exposed outside part of its body was wrapped with dense cloth. Only the left eye was revealed, and this child was looking for Hans silently.  This child looked like an eight – nine years old kid, but Hans didn’t know that child was a male or female.

Usually, Old Hans would never waste any effort in this kind of clearly unqualified refugee. He didn’t operate a charity organization. However, perhaps the bloody situation before softening his heart a little, perhaps the concern of labor lacking in this month, or perhaps the eyes of this kid; anyway, he just hesitated a little, then asked this kid: “Do you also want to work?”

The kid nodded his head.

“Alright! But first, tell me are you male or female?” Old Hans asked.

“Male.” Finally, this kid opened his mouth. Compare to the kid at his same age, his voice was low, but it also had an unusual and indescribable enigmatic attraction.

“Good job, little boy, go there and take the tools. Similar to others, dug out one hundred kilograms of ore then you can get five cents. This is your greatest favor. Wearing like that, did you get sick already?  Good, don’t worry, at least there isn’t any stinky scent on your body, and Old Hans’ nose is very accurate. Go to work, finish it early, then you can fill your stomach early. When you couldn’t work anymore, find Lame Peter, he will tell you how much money you earned, as well as how many foods you can exchange.”

In the nagging of Old Hans, this little boy carried a higher than himself pickaxe and wore a back basket that almost touched the ground, then gradually disappeared into the depth of the mine.

When his body finally faded away, Old Hans shook his head heavily. Suddenly he turned his head, asked the brawny man in the black suit behind him: “Am I too wordy today?”

In front of this neurotic old man, even the man in black, who was sturdy as a bull, had to take a step back, then hurry shook his hand firmly.

Old Hans dry laughed twice, then talked: “You are very smart, that’s why I let you be the chief of the guards. But you should know that at this place, I am the sole official agent of the company. Today I can let you kill the refugee in an instant like you kill a dog, but I also can turn you into the same dog as them in tomorrow. You should also know that I am quite old, and old man usually has some eccentric characteristics. You only need to fulfill your own thing, is it clear?”

“Understood, Mr. Hans!”

“You should call me Your Excellency Hans!”

“Understood, Your Excellency Hans!”

Old Hans, humming a song from an unknown place, walked into a flat room made from corrugated steel and iron nails. Even in the town few kilometers away, this kind of room which could protect the user from wind and rains completely would be treated as a luxury house.

The sunset came very quickly. The Rotten Wolves, who had slept a whole day in starve, started waves of howl. Then they began to wander around, try to find some prey to fill their stomach.

In the squeaking sound, Old Hans pushed the metal door of the flat room, walked out and squinted at the sunset. After a long nap, he felt much better. Not too far away, the mine was empty. Workers had left and took their ration and returned to their living places already. When the sun went pass the horizon, longer than one meter Violent Gopher would appear in the complex underground tunnels. With the combination of their powerful jaws and their sharp and solid incisors, they could break two centimeters thick iron bar easily by one bite. Even the hardest rock was nothing in front of them. Luckily, when the sun rise, Violent Gopher would hide in the deep underground and slept in there, so these miners still had half of a day for mining ore.

At the same time the sun disappeared completely, a small figure appeared at the entrance of the cave. The little boys, while carrying a basket of ore as high as himself, tottered out.

Old Han’s eyelid jumped a few times, but his face didn’t show any change. He looked at that child dragged the basket of ore on his back to the scale, then put near the huge heap of ore and finally took the record from the foreman. He walked very slowly to Old Han’s room. The rags wrapped on his body was stained with red, yellow and miscellaneous blue from the mine dust.

Looking at the little boy, Old Hans walked to behind of his flat room. At this place, there was a big shed, next to the steal room. Lame Peter, who didn’t have a half of his leg, struggled to move his over one hundred kilogram body. He yelled: “Come here, little boy!”

The little boy came to the shed, handed the report over. Lame Peter took a glance, then blew a whistle and told: “Not bad, little boy! You had done more than most adults! Come here, this is the list, what do you want to change? Do know recognize these words? You know it? That’s good, even me could only recognize half of the words on this list. Hey, don’t look at this side, you couldn’t exchange the items on the top side yet. Here, looking down from this line.”

Peter used his rough finger to draw a line across the long list. The boy looked to the list; his eye stopped at the “drinking water” column, then looked up all the way until his sight was blocked by Peter’s rough finger.

“This is it.” The boys used his fully wrapped finger to point to the list.

Peter called out at once: “Ah ha, rank 3 drinking water. Little boy, you must be a noble, right? I heard that the body of the nobles is too tender, so they could only drink pure water. Yeah, that is it, that kind of water without any impurities, without any radiation!”

“This is it.” The boy still pointed to the list. His voice didn’t have any fluctuation. Many people would have some doubts that whether it was an artificial voice.

Peter shrugged, took out a can of beverage from the bunch of wooden boxes behind. He threw it to the boy: “Here you are! Rank 3 drinking water, luxury kid.”

Little boy carefully hid the beverage can inside his blanket, then turned over. Saw that, Lame Peter scratched his head, then took out a moldy bread, which was hard as an ore and big as a fist, then gave it to the little boy: “Hey little brat, mining requires a lot of stamina, you can’t eat nothing. Take this, brat. Remember that you owe Lame Peter five cents. I will reduce it from your earning tomorrow!”

Little boy received that bread, hid it carefully in his blanket again, then bowed deeply to Lame Peter. After that, he walked into the darkness.

In the Wilderness covered by darkness, dozens of wolf-like eyes were watching over him. Whispering sounded another after another.

“That little brat today worked very well, should we pay him a visit? I wonder what kind he exchanged. Perhaps it was half of a bread.”

“I bet that inside his blanket is a huge piece of roasted Violent Gopher!”

Nearby them, a lazy and cruel voice took over the thread. “Hey, greenhorns! Do you know the rule of the land of Old Hans? In his area, no one is allowed to rob the exchanged item.”

The previous sound appeared again, clearly showed its owner’s disobedience. “Old Hans? What could he do? I can beat tens old man like that at once!”

The lazy man laughed: “Just by you? Even licking his ass, you are not qualified!”

The greenhorn, who was just criticized, still wasn’t convinced. He didn’t know that lazy man didn’t have so much tolerance. While he was going to argue, that man blew a whistle and yelled loudly: “Boys, kill that trouble maker then feed Rotten Wolves by his corpse!”

More than ten people listened to his call, gathered together.

After a short scream, the Wilderness returned to silence. Everyone tried to sleep as much as they can, so tomorrow they could bring out more ore.

In the warehouse, Lame Peter couldn’t see this boy’s body anymore. He pulled some hairs from his almost bald head, and muttered: “Where do he want to go? If he would be eaten by rotten wolf, my five cents would have been a waste. Hey, Old Hans, tell me, my five cents wouldn’t become a waste, right?”

Old Hans, who was lending on the warehouse’s wall, said: “God knows.”

Lame Peter tried to stand up with all of his mind, and began keeping up the records list and the food on the operating table. His remaining thigh was strong enough to support a 100 kilograms body. Lame Peter could walk inside the warehouse without a stick. When he picked up the last record of the little boy, he just wanted to throw it away easily. But, it looked like he remembered something; he looked it again, then muttered: “Level 3 drinking water. I don’t know why he wants this. The radiation in the mine is stronger than that of sewage multiple times; and it couldn’t be cured easily by drinking a little pure water.”

Old Hans took away the paper from Peter’s hand, took a glance, then crumpled it and threw it into the fire hole outside the warehouse.

He coughed a few times, spit out a thick sputum, then said: “Peter, go back and tell to Mad Dog Milde, from tomorrow, reduce the quota for every basket of this boy by 10 kilograms. If he can endure for a whole month, give him the full amount of weight.”

Peter said: “This seems a bit against the rules.”

“He is raising a child.” Old Hans lit a cigarette, which only remained a half; his sound seemed a little heavy.

Peter looked up in surprise, said: “What? How old he is? Why does he raise a kid?”

Old Hans breathed out a ring of smoke, said: “For every child under three years old, if they can drink water without radiation and eat clean food, yes, damn it, if they can consume level three food and drinking water continuously, they will not mutate, even when they become mature!”

Peter knitted his eyebrow, and said: “Oh my god! I supposed that everyone will have to mutate! But how could you know that?”

Old Hans responded calmly: “Because I also raised children.”

Peter amazed: “You have never told me about that! How old is he? May be he is twenty already. Please, god bless him, don’t let him be ugly as you.”

Old Hans smiled: “At this time, I was very poor. I couldn’t earn enough clean food and water for him. He encountered mutation when he was five. He couldn’t make it.”

Peter didn’t know what he should say. After a long silence, he said: “Sorry, old man. I shouldn’t mention it, you know… Oh, until now, I’ve never met a woman who could give birth, I didn’t have a change to raise a kid.”

Old Hans took a deep breath of smoking. He saw the sky night outside of the warehouse, said: “Bro, you don’t need to say sorry with me. This year, if it wasn’t you, I would become the food for Rotten Wolves already. I also wouldn’t become company official agent.”

Peter picked up a 50 kilogram supply box from the ground, used his remaining leg as a pivot, jumped one step and put it gently on the highest shelf. He scratched his head again, then said: “Actually, I didn’t want to save you, but you know, at this time I was an expert in Fighting Domain. My ability to Strengthen Defense was upgraded to level 2; that wolf leader couldn’t kill me casually. But you was not. For an expert in Magic Domain coward like you, one bite is enough.”

Old Hans gave the half of the cigarette, which was almost burned out to Peter, said: “Bro, go to sleep. It is too late already, there aren’t any woman would come to this place.”

Peter inhaled the smoke deeply, then held the breath in the lung until he couldn’t bear it anymore. Old Hans had returned to his room already. Peter only heard a loud bang sound; he knew that mean Han threw himself to the bed already. Lame Peter pulled out a green box from under the operating table. He carefully took out from this box a rotten magazine, which could be scattered at any time. Through the light of the bonfire, he turned it page by page; his breath became more heavily.

The cover of this magazine suddenly fell off on the ground. The hot and sexy woman on the cover, due to the age of this magazine, became a bit blurred. However, it was still easy to see the title on it – PLAYBOY. Under the cover, a small line of text revealed the publication date of this magazine: February 1982.

No matter how many new arrivals came to the Wilderness, and regardless how many people disappear inexplicably, the sun always rose.

The little boy was similar to yesterday. He came when everyone had gone to the mine, came out when the sun hid under the horizon. The amount of ore that he dug out was also as much as yesterday; the exchanged item was similar, too. The only thing changed was his debt; from five to ten.

One month later, perhaps that boy got enough food, or perhaps his strength increased; his earning increased every day, and his debt also decreased gradually.

Life in the Wilderness is monotonous and repetitive. One year passed.

In this era, being able to live a monotonous and repetitive life was a rare happiness. In this kind of life, people hadn’t to snatch food against Rotten Wolves; they also had low radiation food and water. Was there anything else to expect? About boring, it was an extravagant topic, only the lunatic people would occasionally think about it.

In the beginning, there were some greenhorns refugee want to steal food from the boy, but his full-wrapped body scared them. In this era, there were at least dozens highly contagious diseases; which no medicine could cure. These diseases had a same characteristic, it was decaying. Many people tried to guest, under these wrapping, how much his body had been rotten. They also bet how long he could live, counted by days. But when the deadline of the most daring gamblers had passed, there were four greenhorns, who were both courageous and stupid enough to following him in the night. Three of them never appeared again, while the last one also lost the track of the boy. In the dawn of the next day, the refugees found that guy was hanged, upside down, on the wooden pillar in front of the house of Old Hans. The guard in black suit, used his double-barrel shotgun, fired full ten rounds toward him, but didn’t let him die. In terms of how to torture people, the black suit guard absolutely had talent.

From this moment, the refugees knew that Old Hans didn’t want them to lay a finger on that boy.

Three years passed.

The amount of ore the boy could dig was increased four times, but his exchanged food also increased, so he didn’t have any saving. Wrinkles on Old Hans’ face deepened, and the number of pages of Lame Peter’s treasure, Playboy 1982 edition, also reduced from 15 to 11.

In the fifth years, the amount of ore which could be mined decreased significantly, and the plain happiness on the Wilderness also reached its end.

In the dusk of one day, when the boy just got his item from Peter, Old Hans called him back. That little be from the beginning now was a young man; he followed Old Hans into that metal room. There were many different stuff in the room, but the most important thing was a bed. It was a real bed; a real bed with pillow and bedding. This bed was enough to distinguish the difference between Old Hans and others. The young man didn’t pay attention to the bed; his eye focused on a hand drawn map on the wall. The map was very rough; there were a lot of empty places on it; and some places were marked as dangerous by an eye-catching red color.

“We are here.” Old Hans pointed at one place on the map. Then his finger moved across the west, and only stopped when it came near the dangerous area. He continued: “This place is the nest of Spitfire Ant. Its body is longer than one meter, and it is a very tough opponent. It don’t actually spit fire, but you have to be careful with the corrosive liquid it spits out. If you would get stained by this, it would have been worse than fire. The most dangerous thing is Spitfire Ant always moved as a group. However, there are some good stuff on a Spitfire Ant body. Its forelegs, which was also called its blade, are harder than steel, while the weight is light as a half. It could be sold everywhere; and its price is not so bad, because there aren’t so many people hunted them. Between their last pair of legs, there is a piece of meat without any radiation, however, the amount of it is really too low.”

The young man looked the map calmly. It looked like he wanted to remember every detail on the map by heart. His only exposed eye had a deep jade green color; there were some gray patterns around its pupil. His eye was clear as crystal, and overall, it looked like a finest jade. After so many years, Old Hans realized it was the first time he saw it clearly.

Old Hans cleared his throat, then moved his finger to the south of Spitfire Ant’s nest. This place was marked with a letter W.

“There is a cave here; in the cave there is a sewage pond, and in the pond there is a mutated large leech. If you feed it with your blood, it will release excess water from inside it body. This kind of water has very low radiation, I think it is safe enough for a one year kid.”

“The nest of Spitfire Ant is one hundred kilometers far away from this cave, I think you need to spend a few days on the road. Tomorrow, this mine will close, don’t come back.” Old Hans waved his hand, and the young man left silently. Before going out, the young man looked at Old Hans, and thanked him gently.

The voice of the young man was gentle like a wind, and also had an enigmatic attraction. If he was in the previous era, he might have a potential to become a superstar.

In the early morning of the next day, the sunlight lured wandering Rotten Wolves back to their base, but it also brought a roaring tornado with fist – sized gravels. From the west of the mine, it was an interminable desert. The blowing wind cuts the fiery red magma into many rusty stone pillars. Looking ahead, there were only some bush of thorny Buckthorn, which contained virulent toxic in its branches and leaves. Although Rock Scorpion and Giant Belly Black Bee were also fatal threats, the greatest danger was the lack of water, even the highly radiation sewage.

When the Rock Scorpion had to hide itself in the rock crevices to avoid the sun, that boy appeared on the edge of the desert. His body was wrapped in a black blanket; the hand was wrapped by bandage was holding a little girl, which was also wrapped in a black blanket.

In the compound eyes of Rock Scorpion, two people, one big and one small, held each other hands and walked slowly to the center of the desert. Suddenly, a strong wind blew off the blanket on the little girl’s head, and a silky grey hair spilled out. Under the sunlight, it swayed out millions of dazzling radiance.

The young man stopped walking, tied carefully her long hair, and then put back her blanket on her head. Then he held her hand again, and continuously walked to the heart of the desert.

After one week of walking, they found the cave and the mutated leech mentioned by Old Hans. After settling everything, the young man walked alone to the Spitfire Ant’s nest in the night.

Until the dawn of the third day, the young man struggled to come back. The litter girl had been sitting in front of the entrance of the cave, waiting for his return. No one knows how long she had waited.

In this evening, she frowned and used her little white teeth with all her might to bite the greeny white Spitfire Ant’s meat, which was tough as a rubber. The ant’s meat was tough and fishy, but the little girl tried to chew each piece of meat completely; she even licked all the liquid in her hand.

Deep in the cave, the young man hide in the darkness, cleaned up little by little the crisscrossing wounds on his body. Some of them were deep enough to see the bone.

Saturated with the blood, the mutated leech got out of the bowl slothfully, then silently slid in the green sparkling sewage pond. It left behind a half bowl of clean water.

The young man need three days to go to Spitfire Ant’s nest and return, so the life of him, the little girl and the leech, repeated itself in a three-day cycle.

Three years after, the leech died.

No matter what happens, the sun would always rise.

The boy and the girl stood at the entrance of the cave. The strong wind blew the tattered blanket on their bodies. Sometimes, a broken piece was ripped off from them.

“We have to go to the settlement.” The boy’s voice was always so gentle; the enigmatic attraction became more deep and broad.

Now the girl had grown up to the boy’s chest. She leaned against him; her hand held the blanket tightly; murmured: “I am afraid.”

“Don’t worry, I will protect you.” The firm voice of the boy showed the unchangeable determination inside it. However, only he would know how much confidence it could be.

The boy carried four forelegs of Spitfire Ant, which were selected carefully. Old Hans had said that this stuff could be sold for a lot of money in the settlement. A lot of money meant clean food and water. The experience at the mine told the boy that he shouldn’t bring a lot of stuff which could be sold at a high price, otherwise, troubles would come.

The boy walked ahead, the girl held his clothes, two people, walked together to the forward area, which was desolate enough to bring desperation to human.

Yorkston town was a settlement developed in the last decade. In the town, there were approximate five to six hundred people from every types stayed here for a long time. In this town, bars, inns, restaurants, grocery stores, clinics gradually opened up. There was even a sheriff responsible for maintaining the order in the town. The main power of that sheriff was the Uzi sub-machine gun, which was always hanging on his hip. Comparing with common weapons in this town, such as bottles, iron sticks, machetes or even homemade powder shotgun; the sub-machine of that sheriff was obviously more convincing than others. Due to that, Yorkston town had kind of basic order. At least, arbitrary killing was not allowed in here; if you wanted to kill someone, you should have a legitimate reason.

And, a reason accepted by the sheriff would be a legitimate reason.

Today, a real VIP came to Yorkston town, so most of higher status people in the town went to the outskirt to great. Other people, who weren’t qualified to go, stayed in the town and talked excitedly about that VIP, even though they didn’t know whether that VIP was a man or a woman. As a result, no one noticed the boy and the girl.

The town’s Butcher, who also ran the only inn in Yorkston, after receiving a high quality Spitfire Ant blade; was very happy to give the boy and the girl a double room, and he even offered them a free dinner. Of course, if the boy wanted the luxury stuff with low radiation rate, one Spitfire Ant blade was not enough.

The boy let the girl rest in the room, then went out of the inn with three other blades. He heard that he could sell this stuff at the grocery store for a higher price. Before going, he set up some normal alarm system at the door.

From the unnatural smile of the Butcher, the boy predicted that there might be trouble, but he didn’t know that trouble could come so fast. After he crossed an intersection, he was stopped by three men. According to their wooden sticks, which were ready to make trouble, he knew that they came with really bad attention.

“Hey, brat! We heard that you want to sale Spitfire Ant, so our leader wants to talk with you!”

The boy hesitated a little, then followed them to a quiet and uninhabited alley. Then he walked into a fairly completed big house. He saw a big man, which might be their leader, sat carelessly in the middle of the house. Three people behind the boy, perhaps intentionally or unintentionally, blocked the door silently.

The head was clearly satisfied with the attitude of the boy, which was always lowering his head. “Brat, you can call me as Viper. I heard that you have some blades from Spitfire Ant, good word. No matter how many you have, I want all! Here is your remuneration!”

The boy watched a hard as a stone bread rolling to his feet. He slowly bent down to pick it up, and also put three Spitfire Ant’s blades on the floor. Although this bread was too hard, its radiation rate wasn’t so high. The little girl had grown up, now she could endure this level of radiation.

When he stood up straightly, he found that three people behind him didn’t want to open the door. The wooden sticks in their hands were already prepared.

Viper also stood up, pulled a homemade one barrel powder shotgun from his belt, and grinned: “Brat, you are not only smart, but also know the rules. Originally, after finishing the deal, I will let you go alive. However, Butcher said you also brought a white skinned woman, so there aren’t other ways. Actually, I am just the vice-leader, our leader is called Black Bear. I guess at this time he is screwing her already. Well, no way, his size is as big as a mutation, but his hobby is banging little girl. All right, it’s time to send you to heaven! I hope that when I come to that inn, that little girl haven’t died yet!”

At this time, through the ears which were wrapped under the blanket, the boy heard a very faint sound. This was the sound of breaking a piece of metal, which he put at the door of his room, through fictional. This kind of ten thousand hertz sound was something that normal human couldn’t hear.

He raised his head instantly. Although all of his face was covered in the blanket, his left eye suddenly lit up, like a jade flame!

“You…..” Viper screamed, then his sound stopped. After that, a huge shooting sound came from his powder shotgun. The gunshot scattered the only piece of intact glass in the room; then the air quickly filled with pungent smell of gunpowder.

The boy wrapped in the black blanket appeared at the door of Butcher’s inn like a ghost.

The inn’s door made from some wooden boards was half-opened. The bloody scent inside could be smelled from a very far distance. In the inn, there was an unusual silence. Vaguely, it seemed that a little voice was sobbing.

The boy stopped at the door for an instant, then walked inside. Behind him, there were numerous consecutive bloodstain.

Butcher was at the door of the boy’s room; his eyes stared to their limit. Extremely fear solidified on his face. There was only his head left, his body was missing.

The door was half-opened. Blood was pouring out like a spring from under the door, which made others feel palpitation.

The boy stood in the blood. His senses told him that the blood was still fresh. He gently pushed the half-opened door, then walked inside.

The girl holding her knees sat in the middle of the room and hid her head between her knees. She was sobbing softly. The black blanket, which was wrapped over her body usually, was thrown into the corner of the room. The coarse wooden bed was also completely collapsed. The girl was wearing a very rough but clean handmade skirt; her exposed skin, whether her arms or calves, was white and tender enough to drive man crazy. She was still young, but even in the old days, she was beautiful enough to make all the man of a city became sex beasts.

The room became the hell.

The flesh and the limbs were scattered everywhere, which lead to almost no place for settle. Some fresh organs were still peristalsis; and the wall was stained into black and red by blood. Blood was still pouring out from some limb fragments; there were even some centimeters deep bloody puddles on the floor. No one could figure out whether the body of Butcher was here; what piece of flesh belongs to Black Bear; or how many peoples, perhaps there or four, was died in here. Everything were shredded and mixed together.

The girl was still sitting like that, sitting inside the hell made from blood and flesh.

Her long gray hair fell like a waterfall, like a silk, and it was immersing in the blood. Beside the girl, a big, one-meter long, square edge bone chopper was stabbed on the ground. On its blade, there were several holes and even some piece of human muscle were hanging on it. Only when dealing with Armored Fury Bear, which had the bone harder than molten rock; Black Bear would use this bone chopper, which was made from stainless steel.

Hearing the sound from the door, the girl raised her head. When she saw the boy, she immediately exposed her rainbow smile. Under the sunshine from out of the room, two drops of tear on her eyes was sparkling light like two bright diamonds.

The boy exhaled deeply, carefully found some foothold in a room full of limbs and flesh, walked to the girl.

The girl didn’t pay too much attention about that. She rushed to him and jumped to his chest; caused the leftover flesh to scatter around and blood to spill all the place. The boy gently rubbed her grey hair; it was still soft and warm. Even it was immerged in blood, there weren’t any stain on her hair.

“I am afraid.” The girl said softly. Her little hands hold the wraps on the boy’s body tightly, made him fell a little hurt. He knew that she was really afraid, but he didn’t know how to comfort her.

A settlement always means trouble, but in the Wilderness, finding supply became hard and harder. Among them, water was the hardest one. In this era, the first thing that everyone had to face every day was surviving. In front of surviving, there wasn’t toleration nor sharing. Anyone, in every others’ eyes, could mean clean food and water.

From outside of the inn, some noisy voice suddenly appeared. One person yelled: “Outsiders murdered! Butcher was died! I saw them were still inside!”

The shout was getting louder. It could been heard that there were some sound of metal percussion. There were at least ten people gathering around this small four-room inn. The boy patted the girl, then pulled out a well hidden Spitfire Ant’s blade from the blanket. This blade was cut a half, only the sharpest part was remained. Every tooth on the blade were flashing a deep green light. The grip of this blade was carefully made, and it was tightly wrapped by some duffle bands. The power of this blade was as high as military dagger in the previous era.

The boy gripped the blade tightly, and waited calmly for the moment that the crowd would break into the room. The girl also stopped sobbing, her beautiful blue eyes looked around the room, then stopped on that bone chopper. She stretched her little hand to grab it; she used it very smoothly.

The boy’s left hand stretched out and pulled the girl back. He didn’t allow her to touch this bone chopper. He kept the girl behind him, and quietly watched the door and windows. Although the windows was blocked by nailed wooden board, but it couldn’t guarantee that someone would rush into the room from there.

“Silent!” The powerful voice of sheriff came from outside. The noise around immediately became quieter, which clearly showed the power of the sheriff, although it wasn’t enough. “Let me see what happened first! Damn it, the bloody smell is so heavy; how many people died inside?”

After one bang, the door was opened by one kick of sheriff. The crowd instantly exclaimed, while the sheriff’s Uzi was immediately loaded.

At this time, a cold voice full of killing intent came from outside: “Scat! Get a way for Lady!”

The boy immediately heard several sound of scream and heavy objects falling to the ground. Obviously, the newcomers did not leave for residents leaving time. However, the surging noise outside disappeared completely. Either the residents or the sheriff, everyone was in perfect silence. No one dared to make a noise, and there weren’t any voice of dissension.

Then a thunderous sound came and everywhere was covered in dust and smoke. The inn’s walls, gates, and roof was forcefully opened. After another rattling sound, a hand in a black leather glove was inserted in the thin wall made from iron sheets. This hand’s owner tore the iron sheet easily and throw it 10 meters far away casually. This was a tall and handsome but cold and arrogant young blonde man. His golden short hair was bristling; it looked like a burning flame. His half plate made from a silver-gray alloy protected his chest, back, lower abdomen and a few other fatal places. Below the half plate was a black uniform with golden stripes, and the leather boots on his legs were sparkling. This guy weren’t completely suitable with the dirtiness around. This guy was also the person who used his bare hands to demolish everything from ten meters away in a few minutes. He created a five meters wide road in a block of chaotic buildings and constructions.

The boy, the girl, and the hell in the house were completely exposed for everyone.

The girl raised her head and looked the crowd around dizzily. This was the first time she saw many people gathered together. She instinctively feel a touch of danger; her hand tried to reach the bone chopper, but it was seized tightly again by the boy.

At the moment people saw the face of the girl, everyone was stunned. Even the arrogant blonde bodyguard also had some stagnation.

Everyone’s breathing sound clearly echoed in the boy’s ears and it obviously became more and more heavy. He exhaled deeply then looked past the blonde bodyguard.

At the beginning of the new constructed road, a horse drawn carriage parked. This was a four-horse drawn carriage of the eighteenth century; its black gold body was old and elegant; and its copper lamp shone brightly. It was driven by four tall horses. More scarcity, all of them are albino horses.

No one in the Yorkston town would have known that they were four purebred horses. Anyway it didn’t make any sense, because a horse was far beyond the luxury of their imagination.

Eight fully armed bodyguards stood at the front and the rear of the carriage. Their uniforms and armor was same as the blonde’s ones. The only difference was the blonde man didn’t carry any weapons, while these 16 bodyguards were carrying heavy firepower gun. Compare with their Minimi heavy machine guns (*), sheriff’s Uzi submachine gun was just a toy.

Four male servants took a curl of scarlet carpet from the back of the carriage, and spread it out from the carriage to in front of the boy and the girl.

Inside the room there was hell from blood and flesh; when the thick scarlet carpet came inside, it immediately sunk down the blood. These servants, without any hesitation, superimpose another set of ridiculously expensive carpet, until it was higher than the blood by five centimeters. They only stopped when they ensured that the blood would not came to the top of the carpet through osmosis.

The clothes of four servants, whether the black tuxedo, or white shirt with neatly knotted tie, weren’t belong to this era. On Yorkston town, even the upper class people were similar to old era’s beggars. For example, sheriff’s pants had a large hole, but it wasn’t on the buttock, so it became a representative clothes for upper class. Moreover, due to the scarcity of water, so all the residents never bathed.

Unlike other people, the boy only noticed the leg of these servants. They gracefully set foot on the broken pieces of extremities, which were higher than the blood surface. They acted lightly likes the butterflies. The softened muscles on these broken pieces only subsided a little when these servants step on it. Until they completed their job and got out of the room, there was only one small stain of blood at the soles of these eight polished, shiny black leather shoes. When the boy saw that, his pupil instantly contracted.

An old butler went to the carriage, opened the door slowly and gracefully. Then, he spread out a white handkerchief on his arm, and stretched it out.

From behind the door, a delicate, slim, and elegance like an orchid hand put on the butler’s arm. On its middle finger, there was a ring with a quail’s egg sized dark sapphire, which attracted all sights. The only thing made the residents fell abrupt was the five centimeters long nails. Their shapes was impeccable, but they were decorated with black and red patterns, which made the residents couldn’t help shivering.

Coming from inside the carriage was a woman dressed in old medieval court attire. Her hair was tied highly by a golden hair band decorated by rose patterns. She looked around twenty; her light grey eyes has typical coldness of aristocratic person; her skin was dedicated enough for being hurt from the wind. No matter from which point of view, she met even the most demanding standards of classical beauty.

When the women came down from the carriage, the whole Yorkston Town exploded. They forgot the people who were lying death on the ground; they squeezed each other in order to see her more clearly. Most people in here had never seen a white skinned woman in their life; not to mention that she was wearing an old era formal dress, and these jewels which were luxury enough to make aristocratic ladies in the old era jealous (*).

Almost everything around this woman was out of tune with this age, to be more precise, they were extravagant and beyond the reach of the imagination of everyone in Yorkston.

The crowd, who were excited and agitated, pushed toward the carriage. As long as staying in the group, the most coward person would have an inexplicable courage. Moreover, in this era, the difference between man and beast had blurred.

When the group were nearly going out of the control, one bodyguard suddenly raised his gun. Minimi’s muzzle ejected a blazing fire without any warning. In the storm of gunfire, hundreds of bullets easily torn the people at the front into many pieces, and cut out an empty from the crowded wall!

This bodyguard lowered the burning heavy machine gun when the whole magazine became empty; his callous face didn’t show any emotion. It looked like he hadn’t killed dozens of people, but only dozens of cattle instead. In the ears of every Yorkston’s residents, the clicking sound when the bodyguard was changing the magazine was too clear and icy cold. The sheriff, swallowed his slobber difficultly, and quietly hid his Uzi behind his back.

The woman didn’t take a look at the massacre. Since the moment she came down from the carriage, she was always noticing the little girl. She graciously raised her hand, then point her black and red fingertip to the girl, said: “I want the girl.”

Her tone didn’t allow any doubts nor disobedience. One sentence for both the boy and her steward. The old steward bowed slightly, said: “Yes, madam.”

The boy understood that was a command without any room for negotiation. Since the moment that woman get off the carriage, he always bowed his head and didn’t take a look at her. However, his body trembled out of control. The closer that woman came, the stronger he trembled.

The old steward, which was working as the woman’s armrest, followed her step by step. However, he walked out of the carpet carefully and respectfully. Although he was walking in a ruins filled by blood; his shoes were still spotless. Moreover, his shoes soles didn’t have any blood stain, which was completely different from the previous servants. In fact, every step he walked hadn’t really contacted with the ground.

The woman went to in front of the boy, and pulled the girl from his back. She bent slightly and carefully looked at the very delicate face of the girl. After a long relief, she exhaled and praised: “What beautiful eyes.”

Since the girl was born, she was so beautiful. Her beauty increased as along with her age. Perhaps because of their age, the girl didn’t fear, but looked to that woman curiosity.

Since the beginning, the boy had been standing with his head bowed. He let the woman take the girl away. Although he was wrapped in a thick blanket, but it couldn’t hide his body trembling.

The woman looked to the boy surprisingly, then nodded: “You actually fear me, not my men, that’s very good. You look like a smart child and know what you should do. What kind of choice do you think that I will give you?”

The boy silenced for a moment, then said: “I’m alive, she is yours. Or I’m dead, she’s still yours.”

The woman surprised because of his voice, not his answer. Her voice softened a little, and asked: “Tell me your name.”

“…… Su.”

Before every responds, the boy always be silent for a moment. He needed to keep his body from trembling to maintain his voice steadily.

The woman smiled: “Well, Su. My full name is Angelina Fin Lenachsciz. Today I will take that girl. You couldn’t protect her. She can only expose and develop all of her talents at my place. Remember my name, you can find me someday if you are strong enough. Okay, now, show me your face.”

She leaned forward, raised the boy’s jaw by the long nails on her left index finger. The distance between two faces was less than ten centimeters, and the mysterious aroma on her breath even completely enveloped his face. Then, she used two nails to slowly pull down the bandage wrapped around his face. These bandages looked very dirty, but they didn’t have any strange smell.

Spike and black and red fingernails slowly moved over his skin.

The old steward, who was standing beside, continuously kept his head low; his eyes only saw his shoes toes. Every bodyguards turned their back against the woman and the boy, slowly raised their weapons to the crowd. Those dark muzzle make Yorkston residents become smart. They knew that only lower their head is not enough; they must also turn back to keep their lives.

In extreme silence, the feeling of time turned into a problem. Perhaps it was a moment, but it could also be a long time.

No one know when Angelina returned the bandages on the boy’s face. After that, she smiled while covering her mouth: “I am looking forward to the day you come to me.”

Then, Angelina took the girl to the carriage. Behind her, the crisp, high pitched, unscrupulous and ambiguous laughter fell like rain on the bloody red carpet.

The girl didn’t cry or have the slightest action of resistance. But she turned her head and looked back all the way until the car door completely blocked her deep blue eyes.

On the carriage windows, Angelina suddenly raised the curtain, revealed half of her classical beauty face, and then said to the boy: “At this era, the hardest thing is to live with dignity. I hope that you wouldn’t choose that worst way.”

Until the four horse drawn carriage completely disappeared from Yorkston town, the boy slowly raised his head.

At this moment, he didn’t know the true meaning of the Lenachsciz name. He also didn’t know the meaning of Arachnid Queen of Bloody Parliament in this era.

Hunting Demon Diary – Translator’s note

I had some interests in this novels a few months ago, and started to translated it. However, after a few first chapters, my motivation and interest of translating plummeted, because I was translating it from another language – Vietnamese into English, rather than Chinese into English. In additional, I’m not a native English speaker, so it took a huge amount of time for editing and proofreading my translated chapters. However, I felt unhappy when I left my translated chapters in the abysmal (aka in a rusty folder in my computer), so I decided to put it online.

I dropped it completely, and anyone are free to continue it. Thanks for reading!