Chapter 122: Dragon's Roar
The night was as dark as ink, and the cold air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood.
For City, tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful.
- a campus that once echoed with the sound of reading - had now become a solid fortress.
Classroom windows were all sealed shut with desks and iron plates. The playground had been turned into a supply distribution center. The outer walls had been raised nearly two meters with earth and rebar, and several heavy machine guns were mounted on the guard towers at the corners.
More than three thousand people were packed into this small area. Only a few of them were the school's original students. Most were ordinary survivors who despised the 's deeds but lacked the strength to resist, so they could only fall back here to huddle together for warmth.
And at this moment, gunfire was echoing densely along the defensive line - but not because of zombies.
"Boom!"
A shell exploded in front of the defensive line, and the wave of earth it threw up sent two guards flying, guns and all.
In the surveillance room, a young man wearing black-framed glasses, with a fair face and a refined disposition, was staring hard at the surveillance screen, his brows tightly knitted.
His name was , the leader of , a powerful user with .
" , we can't hold on!" A middle-aged man rushed in, his face covered in soot and despair. "The got infantry fighting vehicles from somewhere! Our defensive line... it won't hold!"
didn't turn around. He only said calmly, "Have Squad One and Squad Two fall back, and Squad Three move up. Use every Molotov cocktail we have to hold them off!"
"Then, , you organize the elderly and children to evacuate first. We'll catch up shortly."
"Evacuate where?"
"Outside the city!"
Then, this thin young man took a deep breath, tore off his glasses, and pushed open the door, striding out with big steps.
At the gap in the outer wall at the end of the playground, the silhouettes of two infantry fighting vehicles flickered in and out of view amid the firelight, their mounted machine guns pouring bullets into the defensive line.
stopped behind the defensive line, took a deep breath, and raised both hands.
"Rise!"
The two infantry fighting vehicles that were firing were seized as if by an invisible giant hand.
"Bang!"
The next second, they were violently flipped over onto the ground, their undersides facing the sky, their wheels still spinning in the air.
A cheer erupted from the defensive line, but there was not a hint of relief on 's face.
His complexion suddenly turned deathly pale. His body swayed, and he could barely stay on his feet.
"Fall back..." He had just opened his mouth when a deafening cannon blast cut him off.
The simple defensive wall was blown open with a huge breach by a direct artillery hit. Through the broken bricks and dust, the figure of a main battle tank slowly rolled over the rubble. Its turret swung around, aiming directly at the despairing and the others.
It was over.
In 's eyes, there was nothing left but that ever-enlarging gun muzzle. He didn't even have the strength to dodge.
But at this critical moment, a dark shadow suddenly appeared and yanked to the side.
The two of them rolled several times, and the shell exploded two meters behind them, the blast wave toppling a row of obstacles.
's ears were ringing. He barely lifted his head and saw that the man had a and steady eyes.
"You okay?" asked.
was stunned for a second. "You... who are you?"
didn't answer. He just got up and shouted into his communicator: "Target confirmed. Take it out!"
Three seconds later, a ball of orange-red fire erupted atop the tank.
***
Meanwhile, the wall of the had already been breached with a large gap.
A middle-aged woman wearing a bulletproof vest, with short hair cut to her ears, stood on top of an infantry fighting vehicle she had overturned, blood still dripping from her hands.
, the leader of the survivor group.
Her was - or rather, an absurdly immense amount of physical power.
But even so, after overturning and smashing several infantry fighting vehicles, she was already nearly at her limit.
And now, at the edge of her vision in the darkness, two tanks were slowly rolling across the road, their engines roaring through the night like death knells.
Watching this, clenched her fists but felt only helplessness.
Tanks were simply not something flesh and blood could contend with.
Looking at the gun barrel aimed at the martial arts hall, despair showed in her eyes.
"Boom!"
A violent explosion sounded - but not in the direction of the martial arts hall.
A large hole burst open in the side of the lead tank. Its track snapped, and the entire vehicle tilted to a stop.
whirled around.
A hundred meters away atop the ruins, a young man shouldered a man-portable anti-tank rocket launcher. He let out a whistle, the corners of his mouth curling up.
"Whoo! This is way more fun!"
***
headquarters, top floor.
sat on a leather sofa. Before him lay a handkerchief, and on the handkerchief rested a small crystal emitting a faint blue glow.
He appeared to be a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youth, his features even handsome by most standards, but his eyes carried a coldness and arrogance that did not match his age in the slightest.
He gently stroked the facets of the blue crystal, a smile at the corner of his mouth.
This disaster was truly wonderful.
If it weren't for this disaster, he would still be sitting in that boring elite junior high classroom, listening to a bunch of empty-headed teachers drone on about "study hard,"
and having to act like an obedient, sensible child in front of those two shortsighted, worthless parents who could only earn money by selling their physical labor.
How ridiculous.
This disaster, to him, was not doomsday - it was a rebirth.
He possessed the strongest no one else had. He was the first to discover that crystals could be consumed in a specific color order.
With his intelligence and talent, in just two months he had become the strongest existence in City.
This was what a correct world should look like.
Emperors ascend their thrones treading on corpses; heroes are deified by trampling over the mediocre.
A genius like him was meant to stand above everyone else, to become that supreme, sole winner.
He looked at the faint blue crystal on the tea table, a cruel arc curling at his lips.
Soon. As long as he devoured a few thousand more people, he could attempt to accept even greater power and complete his next transformation.
The world would ultimately belong to him.
As for those weaklings he had killed or discarded? History would only be written by victors.
Once he stabilized his power, he could casually toss out some leftovers. No matter how loudly those wastes cursed him now, when the time came they would naturally swarm around him, hailing him with shouts of "long live," praising his greatness and his hard choices.
Only those who held absolute power were qualified to be defined as heroes.
That was the truth about heroes. Those without power and resources didn't even have the right to offer others the resources needed to save them.
So no matter what specific methods he used, as long as he seized the most resources,
then in the future, when he casually threw a bowl of rice to those starving pieces of trash, those pieces of trash would still be grateful for his immense kindness.
As for those fools he had killed - the ones who thought about saving people every day - heh, future history books would only write about how blind and irrational they were.
And he, , the emperor of the new era - oh no, the god of the new era - he had simply had no other choice, and so, under extreme helplessness, he had killed those fools.
However, just as he was immersed in the emperor's dream he had built, his brow suddenly furrowed.
A faint stabbing pain came from his heart.
and 's links... severed?
Was it that group of survivors outside the city?
's face instantly darkened, regret and vexation surging in his heart.
When had met with trouble, he should have been on alert. But he had been arrogant enough to think the armored vehicles were sufficient. Now he had wasted two of his precious "parasitic eggs" for nothing.
But immediately after, an even more intense stabbing pain came.
... dead too?!
How was that possible?!
suddenly stood up from the sofa, his eyes full of shock and uncertainty.
Something was wrong!
"KABOOM——"
A thunderous crash that shook heaven and earth interrupted his thoughts.
The entire building shook violently, as if it might collapse at any moment.
***
"All units, attention. Frontal demolition complete. 'Soldier Bees' are entering. Begin cleanup."
's calm voice sounded over the communication channel.
After greeting the 's visitors with high-explosive warheads, had no intention of letting up.
Since the other side had come to provoke him on their own initiative, he naturally had every reason to return the courtesy.
Speed was paramount in war. Now that the battle had begun, there was absolutely no reason to remain on the defensive and take hits.
Especially after learning that and the had been attacked at the same time, he made his decision at once.
and each led an elite squad to the rescue, stayed behind to guard the camp, and he himself took the remaining main force and the self-propelled mortar-howitzer to strike straight at the enemy's heart!
Outside the headquarters building, thousands of attracted zombies and hundreds of gang members fell in swaths like mown wheat under the concentrated laser fire of the " " drone swarm.
High-explosive shells blasted the building's fortifications to pieces.
A laser drone locked onto a shadowed area at the base of the building. In the thermal imager, a blurry human figure had nowhere to hide.
[Target locked: .] 's voice was as steady as ever.
The next second, a high-energy laser descended from the sky and precisely pierced through that person's skull.
However, just as the 's defense line was about to collapse, something unexpected happened.
The gang members who had already begun to flee suddenly had their eyes turn blood-red. Mad, contorted expressions twisted their faces as they charged fearlessly at 's forces.
Even more bizarrely, they seemed to have lost their sense of pain. Even when electromagnetic rounds tore through their limbs, they still struggled on the ground, trying to bite and tear at everything with their teeth.
"Something's wrong with them!" immediately assessed the situation. "Try to restrain them. If there's no other way, shoot them on the spot!"
And just then, the alarm around the building also went off - the zombies in the vicinity were converging on this place.
Two massive second-stage mutants were even charging over from a distant street.
"Holy crap!" 's voice came through the communication channel. "Report! After we finished off the attacking gang members over here at the middle school, a huge horde of zombies suddenly appeared all around!"
"The martial arts hall is the same!" 's voice followed right after.
didn't panic. He said very calmly,
"All squads, hold steady. Once you've dealt with the enemies on the perimeter, converge on my position.
Two survivor leaders - if you still have strength to spare, please help us hold back the . I'm going to deal with the source of the trouble."
A hoarse female voice came through the communicator. "Understood. Make sure you kill that brat."
Immediately after, 's voice sounded - weak in breath but firm in tone. "...I'm good too. We'll leave the to you."
"Let's go!" didn't hesitate any longer. Leading ten team members, he drove straight up to the top floor of the building like a sharp blade.
***
Top floor of the office building.
stood there, hands in his pockets, his expression already calm again.
Scattered on the floor in front of him were several shriveled corpses - his own people.
"You're ?" walked through the door, his short blade held in front of him.
The youth tilted his head, sizing up the group of invaders clad in powerful gear.
"Who exactly are you people?"
"The people who've come to settle accounts with you." 's tone was thick with murderous intent.
"Settle accounts?" laughed. The smile looked utterly incongruous on the youth's face. "What did I do wrong? I only made everything more efficient. Is that also a crime?
Wastes that can't produce value for now - I let survival of the fittest determine which individuals deserve to live. What's wrong with that?
I save those who are qualified to trade with me, dispose of those wastes who would only drag everyone into the abyss, then pick out the strong who have been tempered by hardship, and finally build a group with hope and resilience."
He spread his arms wide, as if embracing his ideal.
"Have you read history? Which emperor of any dynasty didn't do the same?
This is necessary sacrifice! But you fools who indiscriminately hand out kindness understand nothing! You just shout that human lives are precious.
But in reality, some people's lives should be more precious and more worth living. I'm the one who's truly clear-headed and rational - the hero!"
listened in silence. Then he raised his head, his eyes terrifyingly calm.
"You say you've exhausted yourself for the continuation of humanity? From the moment you stopped treating people as people, don't try to gild yourself with that line."
His figure vanished from the spot in an instant. The next second, a flash of blade light appeared.
A layer of blood-red flesh membrane surfaced over 's body, barely managing to block the strike - but the whole of him was still sent flying by the immense force and slammed into the wall.
Afterward, the ten team members opened fire at the same time.
Electromagnetic rounds pierced through 's body at high speed, but every bullet hole healed at a visible rate.
That speed actually even surpassed the ' by a margin.
"Useless," 's voice remained calm. "I was chosen by the world - the hero destined to become the savior. There's no way you can ever defeat me."
As he spoke, his right arm deformed into three flesh whips like tentacles, lashing out in three directions at once.
Two team members' shields activated, and they were sent flying by the tremendous force.
Seeing this, dodged the tentacles and charged straight in. The frost on his short blade had already spread to his entire arm.
He slashed down, directly severing one flesh whip.
The severed cross-section was instantly sealed in ice, and for a moment, it couldn't regenerate.
's expression finally changed.
"Your ability..."
But gave him no time to think. He slashed again and again, each strike carrying bone-piercing cold.
was forced into repeated retreats; his regeneration speed clearly couldn't keep up with the spread of the ice.
"Human civilization? You're not even worthy of saying that word!" 's attacks grew fiercer and fiercer, the frost on his blade nearly freezing the air itself.
"If you're going to say that trash like you represents human civilization, then I only hope you go extinct as soon as possible!"
"History? Ha!" kicked to the ground. "You understand neither civilization nor history!
You think that just because you've seen a few things and picked up a few foul tricks, you're so superior.
You can't wait to treat ugly ideas that should have been swept into the scrap heap as some kind of profound insight. I just find you pitiful and laughable."
"You may look young, but your thinking is so rotten it's nauseating!
You read history but can't remember to critique it while understanding it. You've really wasted being born on this land, in this era.
You claim to understand history, but you've completely forgotten that on this very land beneath your feet, what countless martyrs who came one after another fought against was precisely the bitter fruit forged by disgusting thinking like yours!"
Every slash made landed precisely on the weak points of 's defense, nearly whipping him into a spinning top.
"Hero? You're even less worthy of that word!
What sustains civilization is every stubborn, resilient, and noble person who refuses to die - not beasts like you who steal fame from the world!
Those who truly wrote history on this land were never emperors, generals, or ministers, but the silent people!
And true heroes will only ever be born among them!"
"Nonsense!" The youth's face twisted. "You say all this simply because you happen to be stronger than me for now!
Curse this world for having no fairness at all! I've racked my brains and never dared to stop for even a moment, and yet I come out worse than a fool like you who only talks big!"
"Oh yes, you've suffered so much!"
was so angry he laughed out loud.
In that moment, countless faces flashed through his mind.
Senior , those doctor companions who died on foreign soil, those ordinary people who died protecting others in the apocalypse...
Friends he'd made later while working with , friends he'd fled with after the disaster. They had all been good people. But they were all dead now.
Yes! When heroes were mentioned, it was always so glorious, so brilliant, inevitably making a bunch of parasites envious, jealous, and hateful, to the point of slandering them as "just lucky" - and regretting that they themselves didn't have the luck to become heroes and enjoy adoration.
They never once considered what risks and resolve these people had faced in making their choices.
There was one very young girl who had left a deep impression on to this day. Her appearance was actually unremarkable, but she loved to smile, and her eyes always held a light unlike anyone else's.
She loved the starry sky, sunny days, and desserts. But in the end, she chose to become an investigative journalist who went deep into war zones. She said it was such an important thing that if she didn't do it, there really might be no one else who would.
Yet on the very first day she set foot in that work, she met with misfortune - they couldn't even find the culprit.
And the photos she took barely stirred even a single ripple on the internet, as if it were all a joke.
They - all of them - had made this resolve, including the 150 people currently acting recklessly alongside . Who among them hadn't prepared for the possibility of dying on their very first day out, failing to become heroes and instead becoming laughingstocks?
And in the end, it was the parasites who schemed only for their own gain who kept saying good people were just lucky, while they themselves were so hardworking and suffered so much?
How absurd! How ironic!
At that moment, couldn't be bothered to waste another word on .
A flash of blade light rose, driving straight at 's head.
Knowing he had no hope of survival, 's eyes flashed with mad venom.
He dodged abruptly, then pulled the blue crystal out from his chest and shoved it into his mouth.
"If I can't live, none of you will! All of you, die with me!"
The next instant, his body suddenly swelled and stretched. Skin tore, flesh churned, and in an instant he became an ever-expanding, worm-like monster, emanating a nauseating stench.
However, , his face expressionless, simply kicked the disgusting worm out through the hole in the top floor.
In midair, a high-explosive shell trailing flame slammed precisely down beside it.
"Boom——"
Flesh and flame blossomed into a brilliant firework in the night.
At almost the same moment, across the entire city of , all the core members who had entered a berserk state also lost their lives.
Just as had said - if he couldn't live, no one was allowed to live.
***
The war was over.
But this bloody victory brought no joy to anyone - only gloom.
led the subsequent integration and cleansing work with swift and decisive efficiency.
For safety, the new joint camp was moved to an open area on the outskirts of City.
, , and became members of the joint camp's provisional management committee.
Thanks to the reactivation of a small thermal power plant on the outskirts of , the 's basic units were also successfully built here, providing the camp with stable electricity and basic defense.
On the evening of the third day.
sat on the watchtower high above the camp, gazing at the distant city's silhouette.
The setting sun dyed that strange a pale gold - giving it, after all, a kind of rare tranquility amid the apocalypse.
However, at the final moment when the day was about to end and the last glow of the sunset was about to be swallowed by darkness,
"Aooo——"
A that seemed to come from the depths of ancient primordial time resounded across heaven and earth!
Inside the camp, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up in shock.
At the edge of their vision, in the center of City, a silhouette so immense it was hard to imagine was slowly rising from the ruins of the city!
It was a creature made of pure crystal, its body winding like a , its scales refracting a dreamlike luster in the sunset.
It pushed open the sky, like a giant crystal pillar connecting heaven and earth. If it weren't slowly ascending, people couldn't even have told whether it was a living thing.
Just as everyone was spellbound by this miracle-like sight, suddenly pointed in another direction, voice trembling with fear.
"Boss! Look over there!"
Looking over, in the direction they had come from, a vast expanse of cloud had at some point been dyed an alarming scarlet!
That scarlet expanded wildly like a plague, and in almost the blink of an eye, it had spread across the horizon.
And when the red cloud reached the sky above City, it seemed to hit an invisible wall, firmly stopped by that ice-crystal-like cloud layer, unable to advance even an inch.
Only then did the tiny, insignificant people finally realize - that inconceivable crystal giant seemed to be roaring in fury at that scarlet sea of clouds!
's heart sank heavily.
He looked at the beside him and shouted into the communicator: " ! What's the situation in ?!"
But this time, the voice of that AI which always responded instantly did not come immediately.
A deathly silence lasted for more than ten seconds.
Then, an electronic voice so calm it was unnerving slowly came through.
[The flowers have bloomed. The war has begun.]
[We... must stop it.]