Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 21 Distortion
The body was still warm, and the smell of blood mixed with dust and gunpowder smoke choked everyone's nostrils.

The crisp sound of those gunshots still seems to echo in my ears.

Zhuang Fan's calm gaze swept over the faces that were filled with fear, numbness, or hidden resentment.

He could feel his heart gradually hardening in the wasteland, and his methods of handling things becoming more decisive.

To survive, being soft-hearted is the original sin.

The remaining refugees were gathered together and kept under guard. Harry walked back and forth with a gun in his hand, intimidation being exactly what he was good at.

The medic's face was as white as paper; he had fallen into a coma due to excessive blood loss.

Grey Goose used up the last of her medical gel to barely stop the bleeding from his wound and temporarily save his life.

After a brief silence, her team members began to discuss in hushed tones how to deal with the bandits outside.

The machine gunner, checking the empty magazines, was the first to speak: "It's confirmed, the only passage has been blocked by those guys."

"Then let's fight our way out, and if all else fails, we'll fight with our bare hands."

"No."

Grey Goose immediately objected: "The casualties would be too great."

"How about we sneak through the ventilation ducts and blow them up?"

"We're out of grenades too," the sniper shook his head.

Harry glanced at the survivors, his face grim: "Let's just put them at the front, they're all a bunch of short-lived ghosts anyway."

No one paid any attention to his suggestion.

One proposal after another was put forward, only to be rejected by Grey Goose.

With ammunition depleted and crew exhausted, any direct confrontation would be tantamount to suicide.

Finally, Grey Goose's amber eyes fell on Zhuang Fan in the corner.

"What can you do?"

"Leave Durian to me."

"you alone?"

Zhuang Fan's tone suggested he was making a trivial request: "All you need to do is promise not to disturb me, no matter what noise you hear."

He added, "And don't arrest me either."

"We're barely able to protect ourselves, we don't have the ability to arrest you."

Grey Goose's voice was very soft, like a breeze, "Also... thank you."

She then waved for her teammates to step back.

No one objected; they seemed to have gotten used to Zhuang Fan creating miracles in adversity, except for Harry.

It was already 3 a.m., and everyone was exhausted, like strings that had been stretched taut and then suddenly relaxed.

Grey Goose signaled to the team members to take turns on guard duty and rest.

Zhuang Fan walked alone to a more secluded corner, away from everyone's sight, and sat down against the wall.

He urgently needs to recover.

After he closed his eyes, a thin, eerie mist peeled away from the shadows in the corner and slowly flowed into his body.

The eerie mist was impure, entirely overflowing from the lizardmen, but that was exactly the effect he wanted.

The gunshot wound in my left arm throbbed with pain, as if countless ants were gnawing at my bone.

He deliberately slowed down the effects of the treatment, immersing himself entirely in compressing the light mist.

A condensed dark mist slowly took shape within his body.

……

At Durian's makeshift camp, the campfire was burning brightly.

The meat, of unknown origin, was being roasted until golden brown, its fat dripping into the flames and sizzling.

A strong, strange fragrance filled the air.

The bandits sat together, cutting large chunks of roasted meat with daggers, drinking strong liquor, and laughing and talking wildly.

"Boss, that woman looks pretty good, but her face is disfigured, which really affects my appetite."

"Haha, you don't know anything! That's what's really exciting!"

"Eat yours."

Durian tore off a large piece of roasted meat, stuffed it into his mouth, and mumbled, "Once this matter is resolved, you can do whatever you want with it."

His gaze swept over the wrecked power armor in the corner.

"Remember to take this thing to the black market, refurbish it, replace the battery with a solid-state one, and you can easily sell it for 30."

"The boss is brilliant!" A chorus of compliments rang out.

Zhuang Fan observed patiently from a great distance.

The dark fog can only cause temporary paralysis, not enough to be fatal; instead, it will expose his trump card.

To ensure absolute success, the purest black mist must be used to deliver a swift and decisive blow.

He stopped observing, closed his eyes, endured the tearing pain in his left arm, and focused on recovering his strength.

Just then, a very faint sound of footsteps approached.

Zhuang Fan didn't open his eyes, but he knew who it was.

Grey Goose placed a first-aid kit beside him, then turned and left without saying a word.

He opened his eyes and glanced at the first-aid kit, which contained disinfectant spray and a roll of bandages.

He untied the blood-soaked makeshift bandage, rinsed the wound with disinfectant spray, and re-bandaged it, his movements as practiced as if he had done it a thousand times.

"That strange sense of familiarity again."

Zhuang Fan could no longer tell whether it was the old man's memories that were coming together, or whether something had gone wrong with him, such as his accurate shooting, skillful movements, and survival techniques.

Perhaps the answer will come in the future. He put these thoughts aside and stopped caring about them.

Time passes like this little by little.

Outside the shelter, the sky was turning a pale white, and dawn was breaking.

Zhuang Fan stood up.

The eerie mist within his body, through repeated compression and condensation, transformed into a small, pitch-black entity.

He knew that continuing to suppress it might lead to trouble, so he decisively stopped.

Outside the camp, the four bandits on night watch leaned against the wall, looking listless and almost asleep.

A wisp of dark mist peeled away from his fingertips, like a silent little snake, slithering away close to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the dark mist branched precisely under his will and entered the nasal cavities of the four bandits.

Their bodies stiffened abruptly, their eyes vacant and blank, like soulless pieces of wood, remaining in a dozing posture.

The fog can only make people stiffen for a short time; the window of opportunity is very short.

Zhuang Fan quickly reached the edge of the camp, sent a small cloud of black mist into the warmest tent in the center, and then withdrew.

He had already pinpointed Durian's sleeping position and location.

"Uh……"

In his sleep, Durian let out a painful groan, his body convulsing violently like a fish thrown ashore.

He opened his eyes, his eyes filled with terror, and he could only manage a hissing sound from his throat, as if there was a leak.

I want to move, but I find that my body no longer belongs to me.

He watched in disbelief as something wriggled beneath his skin.

Dark green scales covered in slime pierced the skin and rolled out.

The finger bones were stretching and deforming, making a "crackling" sound, and the nails became sharp and black.

“Crack…Crack…”

The sound of bones breaking and reforming was exceptionally clear in the silent camp, waking the sleeping bandits.

They were still half asleep when they were terrified by what they saw.

In just a few minutes, a fully conscious human being was forcibly twisted into a genuine lizardman.

Durian looked down at the unfamiliar claws covered in scales, then glanced at his surroundings.

Tents, campfire, everything was ordinary.

But he could "smell" the familiar scent of his kind in the air.

He was assimilated.

“No…No—!”

A roar that was not human was squeezed out of his mutated throat.

More bandits were awakened. They were about to curse when they saw the monster standing by the campfire, its face still vaguely recognizable as Durian's.

"Old...boss?"

The bandits' voices trembled slightly, and the more timid ones had already begun to clutch their weapons.

Durian suddenly turned to them, his scarlet vertical pupils particularly terrifying in the firelight.

He tried to maintain his last shred of authority, shouting in a distorted voice, "Put down your weapons, it's me!"

"What was he saying, in lizard language?"

".Can't understand."

Durian grew increasingly agitated, his entire being acting like a madman, trying to knock down the raised gun barrels.

Not of my kind!

Loyalty was crushed by fear, and someone opened fire.

"boom!"

The bullet struck Durian in the shoulder, exploding into a cloud of foul-smelling green blood.

The intense pain stimulated his confused mind and ignited his bestial instincts.

"Roar—!" He let out a deafening roar and pounced forward, his sharp claws easily tearing open the chest of his subordinate.

Warm blood and entrails splattered all over his face.

"Monster! He's turned into a monster! Kill him!"

"Stop! That's the boss! Who dares to fire!"

"Fire! Fire now!"

"Bang bang bang-!"

Gunshots, screams, and the dying roars of monsters instantly turned the camp into a bloody slaughterhouse.

The confidants and the fears were firing at each other, but Durian, caught in the middle, was the most uncomfortable—he became the most conspicuous target.

Hey! Don't hit me, everyone!
He was hit by a dozen guns, his skull was blown apart, and his massive body fell into a pool of blood, filled with resentment.

When the gunfire stopped, only three surviving bandits remained on the scene.

They stared at the corpses and wounded scattered on the ground, bewildered, as if they had just woken from a nightmare, their minds still foggy, not knowing what had happened.

One of them threw down his pistol and began looting the dead man's body for valuables.

The other two quickly realized what was happening and joined in dividing the spoils.

They fired a final shot at everyone who was still breathing, then scrambled out of the cave.

When Grey Goose arrived with his men, the battle was already over.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, and mutilated corpses were everywhere.

The enormous lizardman corpse was unrecognizable, but the ripped leather jacket and the hideous scars on his face clearly identified him.

She looked around but couldn't find Zhuang Fan.

"Record the video as evidence first."

Grey Goose took out a biological sample collector and skillfully extracted blood and iris information from Durian's corpse.

She stood up and said calmly, "Grey Goose Squad, Class A wanted criminal, Durian, confirmed dead."

At this moment, Zhuang Fan was lying in the shadows of the armory.

His face was as pale as paper, his body trembled slightly uncontrollably, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

When the grey goose found him, it immediately knelt down and checked his pulse and pupils.

The pulse is steady, there is no external injury, only mental weakness.

"I am fine."

Zhuang Fan slowly sat up and leaned against the wall. "The enemy has been cleared out. You can leave now."

Harry, like a hyena smelling blood, immediately moved closer: "He's at his weakest now, grab him quickly!"

But no one took action.

Harry gritted his teeth: "A bunch of cowards, I'll take the bounty myself."

"The android next to me has entered self-destruct mode."

Zhuang Fan's voice was weak, but carried an undeniable chill: "It's not very powerful, but it would easily kill the two of us."

Harry's expression changed slightly.

"Also, the machine gun turret outside the door, guess if it still has any bullets left."

Harry became wary; he finally understood why Zhuang Fan was hiding here.

"Stop lying, we've already run out of bullets."

"You can try."

"Withdraw," Grey Goose commanded.

Harry was about to argue when she calmly looked at him and said, "Then go catch it yourself, don't drag the whole team down."

"you"

Harry was furious. He stood there for a while, but ultimately didn't have the courage and left without saying a word.

Zhuang Fan looked at Hui Yan and said in a slightly somber tone, "If you hadn't been there and watching so closely, I would have killed him several times over."

"Thank you for your patience. He really doesn't know what kind of being he's messed with, but he can't die here, or I'll be the first one to suffer."

"You're really good at holding back."

"Just trying to make a living."

Grey Goose walked up to Zhuang Fan and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Hurry up and run. Next time we meet, I won't hold back."

"Thanks."

Before leaving, she seemed to remember something, turned back, and gave him a deep look.

"besides."

Her voice was soft, but firm: "Your name isn't Zhang Dafan."

"You're definitely not called Grey Goose either."

"Grey Goose is just my code name."

"The same goes for Zhang Dafan."

"Okay, see you later."

After leaving the armory, she returned to the camp, only to find that all the refugees had gathered around her.

“We are going back to the South City. You can follow behind, but you are not allowed to carry any firearms.”

Her voice remained calm, "The journey is dangerous, and we have no obligation to protect you. Whether you stay or go is your own decision."

Silence is suffocating.

An elderly man with gray hair stepped forward shakily: "Sir, can we stay? There's... a place to stay, and... food."

He pointed to the piles of meat crates in the camp.

“Yes, if we go to the South City, we’ll be arrested and forced into hard labor. It’s better to stay here.”

More people chimed in, fearing that the woman in front of them would snatch the meat box away.

In the wasteland, survival is the only rule.

Morality is a luxury.

Grey Goose looked at them, said nothing more, and turned to leave.

Her team members were responsible for moving the decommissioned power armor.

Harry, who was at the back, searched the camp and found several detonators, which he then quietly installed on the tunnel wall.

"You want to stay here, then stay put."

Once the group had left the rocky hill and reached an open area, Harry took out his communicator and quietly dialed an encrypted channel.

The sun has risen, and much of the eerie fog in the fields has dissipated, with short-range communications being restored.

"You guys are nearby, right? There's an S-class bounty target... Yes, as soon as possible... I need 40% of him. Okay, the coordinates are at Strange Rock Hill. He can't escape. I'll blow up the exit."

A laugh came from the other end of the communicator.

"make a deal."

Harry turned off the communicator and pressed the remote detonator.

"Boom——!"

The mountain behind them collapsed, accompanied by a muffled roar, and dust billowed into the sky.

"What are you doing? Don't you know the zombie horde hasn't gone far?!" The young armored soldier glared at Harry.

"I'm just making sure that guy doesn't come out too soon, otherwise what if he gets away?"

Harry straightened his collar, looking nonchalant. "That's eight million gold notes."

Looking at the completely sealed-off landslide, Grey Goose remained silent.

"Team leader?"

"Let's go."

Harry took it as a sign of weakness and became even more smug: "I will report everything about this operation truthfully. You can just wait to be punished."

Grey Goose ignored him completely, treating him like air.

Inside the shelter, Zhuang Fan looked at the completely sealed exit and guessed that Harry had done it.

That loud noise will surely attract a new horde of zombies.

Since Harry was determined to leave him with nowhere to escape, he will inevitably bring people back later.

Zhuang Fan pondered for a moment, then turned to look at the survivors who had chosen to stay. With no external threats, the ugly side of human nature began to be revealed.

Some people fight tooth and nail for a piece of bacon, while others offer their bodies just to gain a false sense of security.

He didn't interfere, but simply pointed to the few people who still retained a shred of integrity.

"Come with me."

He led the group to a clean residential area and taught them how to use clean water and how to cultivate emergency food—cockroach traps.

"If you don't want to touch that meat, eat this. If you find it disgusting, grind it into powder and make it into a paste. All the tools are here."

After giving his instructions, he returned alone to the armory, where there was still one android that could be salvaged.

Referring to his memories, he found the book "Disassembly and Repair of Industrial Bionics," then selected undamaged parts from the scrapped androids and removed the industrial drill bits.

He replaced the left and right hands of the two fully functional androids with new industrial drill bits.

"Let's try it first."

Zhuang Fan operated two cold machines, making them begin digging through the collapsed tunnel.

To avoid potential problems, he also confiscated all firearms and warned those who were eating not to interfere with the androids' work.

After doing all this, Zhuang Fan returned to the armory, walked to the alloy wall, and stopped.

Behind the wall, there was a box that only he knew about.

(End of this chapter)