Monarch of the Dark Nights - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The Weak Bravery (Part 1)

The time in the monastery inside the Secret Area was twice longer than in the real world. When Yun Tu entered the monastery inside Secret Area, it was in the evening of the 4th day of the apocalypse. And when he rushed out of that place, the time was the afternoon of the 6th day of the apocalypse.

He had spent nearly 2 days, but the prize he got was but only 2 items which were useless for the time being. Yun Tu felt that after the rebirth, the luck he had was quite bad.

The Energy Crystal could rapidly recover one’s physical strength to a certain degree, but it was still unable to replace the need for food and sleep. And Yun Tu was quite exhausted. Thus, he did not run far and looked for an empty house, and started to rest after he had escaped from the besiegement of the military.

Yun Tu could tell that the Second Stage of the apocalypse would be over quickly. Since the rainbow had fallen and activated the Secret Area, according to his estimation, the number of the fallen light pillars that could be seen in the entire city was about 200 or so. Also, a lot of people should’ve known about these 200 Secret Areas, and it would only take 3 or 4 days for the Awakened humans to sweep over all of them.

Certainly, there should be relatively small light pillars that dissipated in the air before it had yet to reach the ground. That kind of light pillars also had the possibility to produce a Secret Area. However, determining its position would be more difficult, and running across into them would really depend on one’s luck.

In his past incarnation, Yun Tu became an Awakened in the 9th week of the apocalypse. And he also entered a Secret Area back then, which meant that he also had quite the good luck. Obtaining the information for Secret Areas cost very heavy prices, but he was still able to get it despite the odds.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry. In his past life, nobody was able to find that particular Secret Area for several months. So he believed that in this second life, there’d also be nobody who would be able to find it.

***

Nearly at the same time period Yun Tu was resting, Duan Hongyu left his office and drove toward his cousin, Duan Hongshan’s villa.

Jiangnan City only had a small military garrison with several thousands of people in the headquarter, and only had tens of thousands rounds of ammunition in the armory. By the 6th day of the apocalypse, more than 60% of the ammunition had been consumed by soldiers in the recent days’ fights. But it was also only the number in the account book, as the said resources had long disappeared.

With no ammunition to boot, the army was no longer an army. The friction inside the army was also inevitable. Although the Regiment Commander Jiang had always wanted the army to be in unity, but his humanist-oriented strategy, in Duan Hongyu’s eyes, was wrong. Therefore, Duan Hongyu had stolen most of the ammunition and took the accounted initiatives.

After having a brief meeting with his brother, Duan Hongshan, the Duan Family held a more formal meeting. There were only 20 people invited to the meeting, and more than half of them were from the Duan Family. The conference resulted in Duan Hongyu would be the president of the Guild while Duan Hongshan would become the Executive Director for the formal establishment of the Jiangnan Family Guild.

At the meeting, Duan Hongyu made a brief statement that emphasized on 3 points:

First, in the apocalypse, bullets were a non-renewable strategic resource and there should be the approval system mechanism to use them as well as applying the strict use for conservation. In the foreseeable early stage, it was an important safeguard control for the Guild’s development.

Second, the Secret Area was a valuable non-renewable resource. Although there were a lot of Secret Areas that had been broken in the last 3 days, but there should be some that had yet to be found. The search for its whereabouts must be continued, as well as the procedures to monopolize it.

Third, a strict hierarchical system must be established within the guild, as well as the rewards and punishments’ regulations. If disloyal individuals were to be found in the Guild, then they must be eradicated. While people who gave major contribution were to be rewarded with important positions and heavy rewards.

Dealing with the new changes brought by the apocalypse would require rapid responses for ones to survive. And without a doubt, the Duan Family’s ability to adapt was one of the fastest.

Fast and slow all in all was relative. Generally speaking, the wicked and ruthless people could be said as to have the fastest adaptability to the circumstances, whilst ordinary people’s ability to adapt in the apocalypse was much slower. And nearly at the same time, a group of good people with slow response ability, was about to be caught in a predicament…

In order to find another Secret Area, Feng Ling and Qing Yi had promised to bring along Liu Wei and Li Xin. The short 3 kilometers’ distance took nearly 2 days for this group of 5 people to arrive there, albeit with difficulties.

For their group, it was not surprising. They were consisted of women and a child who added the burden. For them to survive and not to be killed by zombies and beasts for a few days in the apocalypse, could be considered as lucky enough.

After having went out from that small house in the evening, they only walked for a few hundreds of meters when several zombies fenced them inside another building. Luckily, Feng Ling had a gun as they worked hard together and were finally able to kill a few of them. But during their fight, the Secret Area inside the house was broken and exploded out several hundreds of Secret Area’s creatures in the same instant, crowding the surrounding area and surrounding them.

After having waited with great difficulty, the Secret Area’s creatures finally scattered in the next morning as this group mustered their strength and ability to start moving again.

They had yet to go further when they unfortunately met a mutated Black Zombie. After having fought a tough battle, Liu Wei, who got wounded again, lost the ability to move and could only be carried away by Li Xin.

In desperation, after having discussed repeatedly, Feng Ling and Qing Yi finally decided to give a Blood Crystal to Liu Wei and helped him to be a First Level Awakened in order to increase the group’s strength.

This decision certainly caused Liu Wei to come back from the death’s door and survive. And then, he gave his pledge to listen to their commands after becoming an Awakened. However, as it had always been, the setbacks happened before the good things as Li Xin’s son suddenly fainted.

After having been together and went along for quite a long time, Qing Yi did not have the heart to leave the mother and son. Luckily, they both were nurses and knew some first aid experience. After some series of rescue procedures, they were finally able to wake the child.

There were also a lot storms coming over at them. In short, the whole journey could be described as full of countless difficulties and hardships. And fortunately, after Liu Wei became an Awakened, he became more powerful as they were finally able to have a somewhat smooth journey in the 3rd day. They also killed several zombies along the way and amassed a few pieces of Blood Crystals.

“Are you sure that it’s in the building in front?”

“Yes, it’s there. That piece of rainbow fell when my younger brother was in the neighborhood. Before he died, he told me that he saw a beam of light falling in that Heaven Care Orphanage!”

“But the orphanage’s courtyard doesn’t look small. You cannot determine its specific location and finding it might be difficult. A few days have passed, someone else might have snatched it first!”

“My younger brother said that the light pillar was quite small, and it was also different from the other big light pillars. It was like a floating ribbon, so it would be quite difficult for others to determine the location. And since there was no Secret Area’s creatures around here, we might not be late.”

At first, Feng Ling was worried that Liu Wei would betray them after he become an Awakened. But it turned out that their bet was on the right. Li Wei had a good moral standing and he knew he had received kindness from others and intended to pay it back. Not only did he helped Feng Ling kill the zombies and dug out the Blood Crystals, he even took the initiative to give them to Feng Ling. With this, Feng Ling and Qing Yi began to take him as a friend and not someone who tried to fulfill his contract deal.

The situation at the 6th day of the apocalypse had a stark contrast compared with a few days ago. The government and the military had given up the Eastern District in the 4th day and left the district, causing a large number of people from Eastern District to flee and flock to the Northern District, where the government resided. Apart from zombies lurking around in the Eastern District, the entire area had almost turned into a ghost city.

The Heaven Care Orphanage’s entrance was tightly closed. They did not see the situation inside and thought that there was no one inside. In order to be safe, Liu Wei volunteered to go ahead and scout the situation.

However, when Liu Wei quietly approached the Heaven Care Orphanage’s entrance, it was as if he heard some children weeping in a low voice. He pasted his ear to the door and heard a hoarse woman voice, “Children, don’t cry and be brave. Your crying voices will lead to Zombies and monsters. Everyone! Listen to my voice, I’ll count up to 3 and everyone must be quiet and doesn’t make any sounds anymore; just like we are playing tug-of-war game, we’ll try to break the rope and struggle free.”

What was happening here?

It was affirmed that some people were present in the building, moreover the number was not few and there was even quite a lot. However, the specific situation was still unclear.

Liu Wei bypassed the door and went to the side of the courtyard’s wall. After having spotted a relatively good position to climb, he silently climbed the wall, and finally, everything inside the courtyard entered his sight.

Inside the Heaven Care Orphanage, there were 20 or 30 small and large children that had all been tied with a rope on their hands and feet with a white-haired old woman. They were just like a long rope that was tied onto the 2 trees in the yard. Some adults’ bodies had fallen on the ground on the both side of the trees with dried up blood on their bodies.

“Try again now. Do remember that you must do it at the same time!”

“1”,

“2”,

“3”

“Go!”

Along with the counting of the white-haired old woman, all children’s lips uttered a low voice at the same time as they tried with their best to move toward a direction.

Yes, it was as stated before, their hands and feet were tied and their situation with tug of war game, was completely different. It could be said that the same thing between the two was only the effort.

A thick nylon rope, with the size of an adult’s thumb, was not something the tied up children were able to break. And by looking at the sweat and tears on their faces, they had been trying to break free from the binds for quite a long time.

Since he did not know about the situation, Liu Wei did not dare to act rashly. He quietly slipped down from the wall, and immediately ran back to report to Feng Ling and Qing Yi.

“A few dozens of children are tied up inside?”

Upon hearing the information from Liu Wei, Feng Ling and Qing Yi were at a loss and did not know what to do for a while.

After having gone through these days, they already knew that if they did not adapt to the apocalypse, they would have to face the difficulties and the hardships brought by the apocalypse. Any small mistake, and it would make you die without a burial ground.

“This is too strange. Liu Wei, are you sure that there are no other people beside that old woman and those children?” Qing Yi carefully asked.

“I didn’t see anyone else in the yard. But there shouldn’t be anyone else in the building’s room, and I didn’t confirm about it yet!” Since it was an important matter, Liu Wei replied discretely.

“Since they were tied, then, there must but some people who tied them up!” Speaking up to there, Feng Ling spoke the point that everyone knew in a low voice.

Recklessly rushing forward to save those people was definitely not an option. But seeing somebody in danger and yet doing nothing, not to mention that those were a group of children, this was not something everyone could bear in their hearts. Much less that they also thought that the Secret Area they were looking for was inside the building’s courtyard.

“We should first hide in the opposite building and then observe for a while before making a decision!” Liu Wei suggested.

“Maybe the people who tied them up have entered the Secret Area, and once the Secret Area is shattered, those children will immediately become those mutant beasts’ food! We must release them immediately; else it will be too late to save them!”

When she thought about this, the kind-hearted Qing Yi did not want to wait any longer. And this time, the always timid-her, was the first to stand up.