"The place is pretty dark. I wonder what might pop out of here?" The sound of boots creaking on the grimy ground echoed as Jiang Chen glanced around. It was his first time in a sewer, and though the smell had been overwhelming at first, he'd soon gotten used to it.
"Scared?" Sun Jiao teased, her voice playful.
"Not at all." Jiang Chen shook the PK200 assault rifle in his hand, flashing a grin. "I wasn't afraid of those guys, why would I be scared of these things?"
His flashlight swept over the area, revealing a few half-human-sized fat rats scampering into the shadows.
In this apocalypse, the most terrifying thing wasn't zombies or mutants—it was humans. Jiang Chen had come to understand that all too well.
From the earlier tremor, it was clear that the mercenaries were all dead. The collapse of a building over ten meters tall made escape impossible. No one had expected such a trap in a seemingly abandoned structure.
The building's main support beams had been rigged with explosives, along with radio triggers and camouflage. A simple press of a button, and the whole structure would crumble into ruins with a deafening blast.
At first, Jiang Chen had worried the explosion might damage the sewers, but now it seemed he had overestimated the risk.
Aside from scaring off the creatures in the area, the collapse hadn't affected the sewers at all. It was clear that the pre-apocalypse government had put considerable effort into ensuring the durability of such public facilities.
Shamefully, in the real world, they'd probably have been buried under the rubble.
"Do you think the leader of the Grey Worm Mercenary Group will have a heart attack when he hears his entire raiding team got buried?" Jiang Chen asked, his voice full of dark humor.
"Definitely. If we show up in District 6, he'll be leading a team to kill us," Sun Jiao replied, dousing Jiang Chen's amusement with a cold splash of reality.
"Uh-oh, this might be more trouble than I expected," Jiang Chen muttered. He hadn't anticipated this outcome.
"But who cares? We can always find similar goods elsewhere. And... maybe it's not such a bad idea to deal with the Grey Worms once and for all," Sun Jiao said casually, as though plotting to wipe them out was a natural solution.
Jiang Chen sweat a little, taken aback by her violent enthusiasm. He hadn't considered eradicating an entire group. However, cutting off any extended hands reaching for them was a necessity.
If the risk didn't bring any reward, Jiang Chen had no interest. Even though the Grey Worm Mercenary Group was ruthless, he saw himself as a businessman, not a wandering knight.
Yao Yao trailed behind them silently, unease written across her face as she nervously scanned the area.
"What's wrong, Yao Yao? Don't be scared, stay close to me, and I'll protect you," Jiang Chen said, giving her a cocky pat on the chest. His mood had lightened after handling the pursuit. Yao Yao, looking up at him with admiration, seemed to believe him.
"Mm!"
"I said, how many bandits did you take down earlier?" Sun Jiao shot Jiang Chen a disbelieving look and burst his bubble.
"Heh, maybe one or two," Jiang Chen scratched his head awkwardly. Seeing Sun Jiao's skeptical expression, he quickly added, "I only wounded them. As long as they're out of commission, right?"
Jiang Chen admitted his marksmanship wasn't great. After all, live fire had a different feel than the controller of an FPS game. But he believed with enough practice, he'd eventually become a competent fighter.
Yao Yao stifled a giggle, covering her mouth with a hand. Then, realizing it might seem disrespectful, she quickly became more reserved.
Her expression was quite amusing.
Amid the lighthearted banter, the trio continued towards their "home."
"How much farther?"
"It should be nearby. There's an exit that leads up ahead," Sun Jiao said, glancing at the holographic map and frowning slightly.
Suddenly, Jiang Chen felt a tightening sensation in his chest, a vague, unsettling sense of danger.
His heart began racing.
Sun Jiao seemed to feel something too, stopping dead in her tracks.
Bang! Bang!
Swish! Swish...
Gunshots rang out without warning!
Bullets whizzed through the shadows from the corner ahead. Sun Jiao shoved Jiang Chen backward with force, knocking him into Yao Yao behind him.
But Sun Jiao herself couldn't dodge in time.
"Ugh..."
A muffled groan escaped her as she clutched her shoulder, collapsing to the ground. The Starlight pistol slipped from her hand.
"No!" Jiang Chen's eyes went bloodshot in an instant. He roared, practically leaping to his feet, pulling Sun Jiao's limp form back into his arms.
Bullets slammed into the concrete floor, sending a spray of debris into the air. A horrible howl echoed from nearby, reverberating through the enclosed space, amplifying the eerie atmosphere.
Sun Jiao...
But Jiang Chen could hear nothing else.
Looking down at Sun Jiao's closed eyes, a wave of agony surged through Jiang Chen, creeping from his toes to the top of his head, threatening to consume him.
All the memories of the days they'd spent together rushed into his mind.
The rough woman, the seductive one... the one who loved him...
It was her who pushed him away...
And now, she...
Staring at the blood staining her clothes, Jiang Chen felt a pain in his heart as though it were being torn apart by a thousand blades.
Her eyes burned with a fire.
"Do you know how to bandage?" Jiang Chen asked in a gritted voice.
"Yes, yes!" Yao Yao, terrified by the blood that soaked Sun Jiao, was on the verge of tears.
This was the first time she had seen such a terrifying expression on the face of the woman who had always worn a gentle smile.
"I can't... please, help!" Jiang Chen shoved the first-aid kit from his bag into Yao Yao's arms before grabbing his assault rifle and moving toward the corner.
Ohhh! Rrraaarghh!
The inarticulate screams were filled with rage, and the flash of gunfire illuminated hideous, gleeful faces. These were likely the natives who had made the sewers their home, accustomed to the darkness. Even without the light, they could see perfectly.
Anyone passing through would become their next meal.
Whether mutant rats or humans.
"Haha, you filthy animals!" Jiang Chen roared, his fury boiling over as he raised his rifle from behind cover.
Bullets whizzed past his cheek, but he felt no fear. It was as if his nerves had been severed, leaving only the instinct to kill.
Focusing on the flickering light, Jiang Chen pulled the trigger.
An unexpected sensation filled him.
It felt as if every cell in his body was screaming and thrashing, yet this sensation didn't cloud his mind—in fact, it made him feel more awake, more in control, as he unleashed a hail of bullets.
This clarity was solely for the purpose of killing.
Jiang Chen didn't notice the faint yellow glow flickering from the EP device on his wrist.
He slammed the empty magazine off, roughly inserted a fresh one, yanked the bolt back, and continued to pour fire into the chaos.
Gradually, his vision began to warp, everything swirling like a chaotic stream of water. This strange distortion made Jiang Chen snarl in anger, but his rage only seemed to fuel the spread of this strange anomaly.
As he struggled to tighten his focus, he saw something new forming on his retinas.
Dozens of scarlet dots leaped in the darkness, pulsating like hearts, thumping next to the flickering flames.
Or perhaps they were hearts.
Jiang Chen let out a growl, firing at the clusters of red dots with his rifle.
"Ah—!"
"Ugh!"
The unearthly screams drove Jiang Chen's gaze to a maddened frenzy. He pushed forward, firing as he moved toward the targets.
The tactical flashlight's blinding beam was a nightmare for those natives, whose eyes were already adapted to the dark. Their world was suddenly a glaring white, and they could barely see anything once Jiang Chen popped out of cover. The natives fired blindly, desperately.
The scattered bullets barely made a dent in Jiang Chen's resolve.
The kinetic energy and penetrating power of his PK2000 rifle rendered their crude cover useless. Even though they huddled behind it, they couldn't hide their pounding hearts.
The "red center" targets exploded into bursts of blood, then fell eerily silent. Jiang Chen wasn't sure how many bullets he had fired. He only cared about tearing apart those red dots that infuriated him so much.
Gradually, the gunfire from the enemy ceased.
The savagery and ferocity Jiang Chen displayed terrified even the wild, subterranean people who lived below the surface.
This man... is a demon!
Throwing away his old-fashioned rifle, a man, broken mentally, shrieked as he rushed out from behind cover. But before his comrades could react, his heart was blasted apart, spraying a fountain of blood.
The natives hiding behind cover were now in disarray. They fled in a panic, running for their lives, but Jiang Chen's bullets harvested them one by one.
"All you punks, get in line! Your master Jiang Chen's here! Hahaha!" Jiang Chen bellowed, his mind broken, as he swaggered over the cover, rifle in hand.
Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught the flicker of another still-beating heart.
A boy with dark skin stared at him in terror, his handgun jammed, unable to fire.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jiang Chen's rifle erupted in a burst of gunfire, tearing apart the annoying heart in a spray of blood.
"Next! Who's next?!"
A decaying wooden door blocked Jiang Chen's path, but with a violent kick, he sent it flying open.
A revolting stench hit him. Intestines, severed limbs, blood-soaked filth... and maggots crawling on the bones, still covered in remnants of flesh. In the center of the cave was a large pot, beside which lay a "living" person, their arms and legs gone, barely clinging to life.
Ugh!
Even Jiang Chen, now fully mad, recoiled, gagging. But in the next moment, his twisted grin reappeared, and he raised his rifle to begin firing again. The trembling, desperate females and the barely alive man were swept into his gunfire.
"Ahhhhh!"
The shrill scream of a creature, neither man nor woman, rang out. Bloodied, it let out a death cry, its lips twisted into a smile of liberation. The flames from Jiang Chen's rifle lit up his twisted face as he snarled in anger, though he wasn't even sure what he was angry about. He didn't even remember his own name.
All he wanted was to kill. He knew nothing but killing. Only by shedding blood could he silence the red sparks that tormented his mind.
Click!
The rifle jammed.
Jiang Chen roughly slapped the side of his gun, trying to fix it. But he didn't notice the murderous gleam in the eyes of the survivor hiding under a corpse.
"Ah-la-la!"
With an eerie shout, the blood-soaked figure pushed Jiang Chen to the ground. From beneath matted hair, tiny, soulless eyes gleamed. The person straddled Jiang Chen, using all their weight and strength to drive a short knife into his throat.
This knife had dissected countless survivors' bodies.
"Haha, you little bastard! Time to die..."
Jiang Chen grinned savagely and roared as he caught the descending wrist, stopping the blade inches from his throat. No matter how hard the attacker pressed, they couldn't push it any further.
The sickening color of the blood... Roar!
Jiang Chen, enraged, wanted to tear out the attacker's heart, no need for a rifle—just his hands...
But suddenly, a wave of dizziness swept over him, the ache spreading through his muscles like the burn after a long run, filled with lactic acid.
The attacker's face lit up with delight. They screamed and pushed the knife further, the blade now inching closer to Jiang Chen's throat.
Bang!
Blood...
The attacker froze, staring at the hole in their stomach, then slowly raised their head.
It was a face, full of tears, flickering with sadness and fear.
So "ugly"… Jiang Chen wanted to rip it apart...
But before he could shout in rage, there was another Bang!
This time, it was a bullet through their skull.
Yao Yao, crying, let the gun fall to the ground. It was one she had picked up from a boy, and she knew how to clear a jammed weapon.
After tending to Sun Jiao's wound, she didn't expect the first thing Sun Jiao would say after coughing up blood to be:
"Go after Jiang Chen... his condition... it's bad..."
Looking into Sun Jiao's almost pleading eyes, Yao Yao started to worry about Jiang Chen. Despite her fear, something inside her overcame it. She ran in the direction Jiang Chen had gone.
When she saw him being tackled, her heart nearly stopped.
Picking up a handgun from the ground, clearing the jam, Yao Yao fought to suppress her fear and squeezed the trigger.
This was her first time killing. Though what she killed couldn't be called human—it was a beast in human form.
In the haze of his madness, Jiang Chen felt something warm and soft touch his head, cradling it in someone's lap, holding him close.
Vaguely, he could hear the sound of a girl crying.
Water dripped onto his face, onto his cracked lips...
Salty?
Not the taste of blood?