On the artillery position of the second line of defense, a stream of light flashed, accompanied by a wailing roar, the shells arrived in a blink of an eye!
“Boom! Boom! Boom!…”
The artillery shells exploded one after another on the ground behind Chu Yunsheng. The land was covered with fire after the shells exploded. Chu Yunsheng was unlucky, one shell had landed just right behind him. The explosion caused a tremendous shockwave, kicking up dirt and stones, knocking him and the monsters’ bodies over. The shockwave forced Tian Weidai and him to be separated from each other, all Chu YunSheng got was a piece of Tian Weidai’s clothes in his hand.
……
“Who the fuck gave the order to fire the artillery!? Is it Wang Da Pao again?!” standing on the roof of a twenty-floor building, the division commander, Fu Liaoyuan shouted. He, who was using his binoculars to watch the situation at the front line, was not pleased with the artillery fire at all.
“Commander, the Eastern Main Defence Force belongs to division commander Wang. It’s not under our jurisdiction. We’re only responsible for the second line of defence, so please stop worrying so much.” Staff Officer Qín Mín responded.
“Bullshit, what time do you think it is right now, huh?! Fuck it! Forget about what I said. Lao Qin, I need you to get someone from the Eastern defence line for me immediately. Take my security Battalions with you as well. Make sure that you will get that person before other people do, do you understand?!” Fu Liaoyuan said anxiously.
“Get who?” Qín Mín asked in confusion, Fù Liáoyuán changed the topic all of sudden, leaving him completely confused.
“Look there… Over there! I just saw a guy, who single-handedly killed a golden-shelled insect. Even the “Steel Beast” from Headquarters could not do something like this. So, hurry up before Wang Da Pao gets him!” Fù Liáoyuán urged. Nowadays, it was not enough to just have soldiers and guns in his division, he still needed powerful warriors to join him and new weapons from the research department.
“But, Commander, the Headquarters has already given us the orders. If those people don’t want to join us, we cannot force them. Did you already forget about what happened last time? Hundreds of people were killed! That’s why the headquarters prohibited us to use force!” Qin Min reminded Fu Liaoyuan.
“Why are you so stupid? Did I say I want to use force? You are the Chief of Staff, can you not induce him!? Tell him that we will give him whatever he wants, tell him that I, Fu Liaoyuan, said so!” Fu Liaoyuan was irritated by Qin Min’s stubbornness. It was the only thing bad about this man. He just could not think outside the box. Whenever the Headquarters gave orders, he would always follow without any question. But nowadays, almost all the divisions would find some ways to recruit awakened humans. If they didn’t do anything, the weaker divisions would be eventually disbanded.
“Okay, I’ll try. But commander, tonight you will need to remind the commander-in-chief about our supply, it has already been delayed for a few days now…” Qin Min still wanted to talk, but he was kicked out of the roof by Fu Liaoyuan…
……
“Cough… Cough.” Chu Yunsheng spat out the dirt from his mouth, and slowly stood up. The bombardment had stopped, but he did not know why the power of the artillery shells seemed to be much stronger and more effective than before.
The front line suddenly went quiet, the explosion made him temporarily lose his hearing. He could only hear the muffled sounds of gunshots from time to time. It seemed like some soldiers were trying to clean up the rest of the monsters.
Chu Yunsheng looked around. There were just craters, dirt, blood, and insects’ bodies on the ground around him. A moment later, his hearing was restored. This time, he heard the sound of the injured people. They were moaning and screaming in pain.
This was not the first time Chu Yunsheng saw such a miserable scene. He still remembered what had happened near Xi Cheng City. It was even worse than this. The only difference was that one was caused by the insects, and the other was caused by humans themselves.
Based on what he saw, Chu Yunsheng believed that the number of people who were killed by their own people waa not less than the number of people that were killed by the monsters.
Suddenly, a shadow quickly flew into his arms. It was the little tiger. He immediately hugged it tightly. The little tiger constantly rubbed its head on Chu Yunsheng’s chin. It seemed like it was worried about Chu Yunsheng’s safety.
But as soon as Chu Yunsheng petted the little tiger, he was startled. His hand was covered with blood, and that blood came from the little tiger. There was a wound on its back! He immediately examined the wound with worries. Luckily, the wound was not that deep, the little tiger was okay.
“Brother Chu? Brother Chu? Where are you? Why I can’t see anything, is it the sky going dark again?” Tian Weidai’s shivering voice suddenly appeared. He was groping around, looking for Chu Yunsheng.
“I’m here!” Chu Yunsheng quickly walked towards Tian Weidai while holding the little tiger in his arms.
Tian Weidai’s face was gone, the same of his eyeballs, his head was covered with blood, and there were multiple crushed stones stuck in his injured back.
“I… am blind? Brother Chu, I am blind!?” Tian Weidai’s voice was shaking, he felt where Chu Yunsheng was and immediately grabbed him.
Chu Yunsheng did not know how to answer him. Tian Weidai’s injury was extremely severe, he did not think he would make it.
His body suddenly started to tremble violently. The struggle caused him to bleed even more.
“Ha…ha. It’s okay, I am going to die soon, it’s okay…” he stopped moving and began to laugh, but the blood on his face made him look even worse.
“Ju… just… Brother, Brother Chu, do you think… that… there… is… an… afterlife?…” his voice grew weaker and weaker until he stopped completely. Chu Yunsheng checked his pulse. He was dead. But even when he was dying, he still doubted and worried if there was an afterlife…
“Cough… Cough!” This time it was the little girl, she was still alive. Tian Weidai had used his body to cover her during the bombardment. Chu Yunsheng immediately moved her out and checked her injuries.
The little girl’s eyes and nose were bleeding, but there wasn’t any wound on her body. Probably, the bleeding was caused by the concussion.
At the same time, many people also staggered to their feet, and everyone was covered with dirt. Those who woke up from the shockwave and who were injured soon started groaning or screaming in pains.
Chu Yunsheng gave the little girl back to her mom. They held each other tightly and cried loudly. He then went back and planned to bury Tian Weidai, but he was stopped by a soldier. The military wanted to move all the bodies together, and cremate them to prevent a plague.
Chu Yunsheng didn’t understand anything about those precautions, but he did not want to have any conflict with the military either. Especially when he was just outside of Jin Ling City, so he just let them do whatever they liked.
He held the little tiger and followed the crowd to slowly retreat to the back of the second defence line.
There were checkpoints after the second line of defence. The main city was surrounded by a barrier made by abandoned cars and goods. Because of the limited time, they could not build a large-scale military defense properly. But when Chu Yunsheng arrived at the checkpoint, he saw that numbers of people were already organised to help build the proper defensive measures.
There was a song constantly being broadcasted at the checkpoints. It was a very famous song during the Age of Light.
“… as long as everyone contributes a little bit of their love, this world will become a better place…”
All Chu Yunsheng could feel was only irony, when he listened to the song. Just now, the military killed numerous people with a heartless artillery bombardment, what kind of better place were they trying to build?
“Attention everyone! Attention everyone! Anyone who has awakened, please come to the checkpoint number 0! Everyone else, please make your way to checkpoint 1-10. In order to prevent a plague, anyone who is feeling sick or any sort of discomfort, please say it! We will provide treatment, we will provide treatment…” a female soldier repeated using a megaphone, while standing on top of one of the trucks next to the checkpoints. Her voice was rough and harsh. She had probably been shouting for quite a while now.
Everyone who was still alive were crowded at the checkpoints, and almost everyone had a look depressed.
The military wanted to check everyone’s health before they could get into the city. Anyone who had symptoms of any infectious diseases would be immediately isolated to other places in order to prevent the diseases from spreading inside the city.
“What document? Do you take any document with you when you are running for your life!? I have been working for the government for almost twenty years now! That is the document!” Huang Renkuan shouted loudly.
“I’m sorry, without any form of legalised documents, we can’t determine who you are. Please cooperate with us!” the soldier, who was responsible for checking in, said coldly.
Huang Renkuan still wanted to argue, but when he saw the security guard pointed the gun at him with a stern face, he stopped, “Okay, okay! You win! Just register me as an ice elemental warrior!” Huang Renkuan raised both of his hands and waved them in the air. He had lost all his courage.
“Just to remind you, according to the latest documents released by the General Command Headquarters and the General Research Department, from now on, all the people, who have awakened, will be called Dark Warriors. Now please show us your ability, we will need to verify it. After verifying it, you will need to go to the Dark Warrior Management Headquarters to do further tests such as: power, ranking…” said the soldier.
He raised his head and waited for Huang Renkuang to show his ability.
“How dare these people treat me like an animal at the zoo! I am the chief of development…” Huang Renkuan kept moaning but he still unleashed his ability.
“Pass!” the soldier said flatly. He stamped on a piece of paper and continued, “I’ll repeat the information,
Name: Huang Renkuang
Gender: Male
…
Occupation: Dark Warrior
Rank: ??? (Need to be tested)
Element: Ice
Skill: ??? (Need to be tested)
……
If you don’t have any questions, move along, and please keep this document safe.
Next!”
Huang Renkuan gave an angry snort and took the document.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you this. There is a notice board behind the checkpoint, there are several rules temporarily issued by the General Command Headquarters. Due to the lack of materials, we can’t give out a copy to everyone! However, please do read the board before entering the city lest you will have a conflict with the security patrol.” the soldier turned around to the crowd and said sternly.
