Chapter 25: Annihilation of the Settlement
The deafening blast from the armory echoed like thunder, forcing everyone battling on the front lines to turn in unison toward the billowing plumes of black smoke.
By the time they rushed to the scene, all that remained was catastrophic ruin. The armory burned fiercely in roaring flames, and through the jagged breach in the perimeter wall, a handful of scattered zombies were already clambering inside.
Tang Qiao’s manic, unhinged state quickly drew the attention of the surrounding metahumans.
Stepping to the fore, Zhao Guang conjured a water shield to deflect the blistering waves of heat, dragging Tang Qiao out of the blast zone with frantic effort.
“Are you out of your fucking mind, Tang Qiao?!”
An ability user beside him stepped forward and delivered a vicious slap across Tang Qiao’s face.
“Just because your scheme got blown wide open, you decided to drag the entire base down with you?!”
“Ungrateful piece of shit!”
Tang Qiao threw his head back and burst into wild, hysterical laughter. “Instead of barking at me here, you’d better rack your brains on how to plug that hole in the wall.”
A crater that massive couldn’t be blocked even if two heavy-duty trucks were wedged side by side.
Sparks had burned scorched holes through Tang Qiao’s clothes, leaving severe, blistering burns across his skin. Yet he seemed entirely numb to the agony, keeping his bloodshot eyes pinned unwaveringly on the burning ruins of the armory.
Despair flooded the hearts of the onlookers as they stared at the colossal tear in the stone.
The horde had originally been massed outside the main gate, but after a detonation of this magnitude, the infected would begin pouring through this breach within half an hour.
Sealing a gap this wide in thirty minutes was nothing short of a fantasy.
Hope Base… was truly finished.
Panting raggedly, Zhao Guang wiped a sleeve across his face, instantly soaking the cuff with cold sweat.
How could this happen…?
He refused to accept it.
He had gone through absolute hell just to bring his sister to a sanctuary like this, to a place where they could survive without shedding blood on the front lines.
If Hope Base collapsed, even if they miraculously survived the immediate slaughter, the odds of crossing the wasteland alive to find another human settlement were virtually zero.
Zhao Guang knew his own limitations all too well. He couldn’t shoot straight to save his life, his physical stamina was pathetic—how could he ever keep Zhao Yue safe out there?
Fuck!
“Don’t just stand there like statues! Block whatever we can!” Li Fu roared, stepping forward with heavy strides.
Li Fu was an earth-element ability user, but being somewhat dull by nature, he had yet to cross the threshold into the primary tier.
Slamming both palms flat against the pavement, he channeled his power until a mound of packed earth about waist-high slowly pushed up from the center of the breach.
“…Bro, not gonna lie, that looks like you just set up your own grave.”
“If I hadn’t looked closely, I would’ve missed that pathetic little dirt bun entirely.”
“Shut up, at least it might trip a zombie when it crawls through.”
Though the surrounding metahumans shot off cynical gibes, their hands never stopped moving.
Some hauled loose bricks and chunks of cracked masonry; others ran to hotwire two cargo trucks, and a few even scrambled to commandeer a pair of heavy bulldozers.
Zhao Guang could only watch from the rear ranks, his fists clenched so tight his fingernails bit into his palms.
Deep down, everyone understood these desperate measures were merely a drop in the ocean.
The hole could not be plugged.
No, wait.
A sudden spark ignited behind Zhao Guang’s eyes.
A name flashed through his mind—Shen Chengyin.
Shen Chengyin was a spatial ability user. In practical terms, that meant he could haul immense mass with zero physical burden.
Whether it was dozens of tons of dirt or entire structures, as long as it fit inside his spatial void, Shen Chengyin could transport it across space in the blink of an eye.
Plugging this tear would take Shen Chengyin nothing more than a flick of his fingers.
Spinning on his heel, Zhao Guang broke into a frantic sprint, tearing through the streets like a madman and leaving the surrounding fighters startled by his sudden departure.
“Where the hell is that kid running off to?”
“Forget him. The little coward’s probably bolting early to save his own skin.”
“He’s got zero combat strength anyway; keeping him around only gets in the way.”
“True. Let him run.”
Someone muttered under their breath:
“Running is smart… at least he might live.”
When Zhao Guang finally tracked down Shen Chengyin and Su Han, the two were standing on a high section of the ramparts, watching the distant glow of the inferno.
Su Han leaned casually against the parapet. Piecing together the vivid passages from the original novel and the scene unfolding before him, he could roughly visualize how the male lead had fought during that first catastrophic siege.
What kind of monster did someone have to be to carve a blood-soaked path through an ocean of the infected relying solely on physical combat skills, without a single offensive ability to his name?
Damn, he’s cool.
This was a relatively thin stretch of the defense perimeter, with scarcely a soul nearby.
With twilight fully settled, had it not been for Su Han’s eye-catching light hair, Zhao Guang might never have spotted them in the gloom.
Had Zhao Guang possessed half a brain, he would have realized that this elevated vantage point offered an unhindered panoramic view of both the main gate and the armory below.
The towering flames licking at the sky had been watched by Su Han and Shen Chengyin from the very beginning.
Consumed by sheer panic, Zhao Guang failed to notice anything amiss.
“A-Han! Leader Shen!!”
Casting aside every shred of his pride as a grown man, Zhao Guang dropped heavily to his knees with a loud thud right before Shen Chengyin.
“Leader Shen! I beg of you, please save Hope Base! Tang Qiao blew a crater through the wall—you’re the only one who has the power to seal it!”
Zhao Guang’s voice choked with sobs, his entire frame shuddering uncontrollably.
Shen Chengyin remained silent. It was Su Han who cut through Zhao Guang’s tearful plea:
“Forgive me if this is out of line, but I seem to recall that when I first stepped foot into this base, every single person told me Leader Shen was a treacherous, backstabbing mongrel, while Leader Wang was the benevolent saint you all revere.
Now that this has happened, why aren’t you begging your precious Leader Wang for help?”
The words stuck in Zhao Guang’s throat; he could hear the dripping mockery in Su Han’s tone.
“We—we were just deceived by Wang Jiafu… This isn’t the time for old grudges! The lives of nearly ten thousand people in this base rest entirely in your hands, Leader!”
Su Han had no intention of letting him off the hook, pressing forward with biting scrutiny: “What about you, Zhao Guang? Were you deceived by Wang Jiafu too?”
That flippant, teasing posture paired with Su Han’s clear, delicate features ignited an unnameable flare of fury inside Zhao Guang’s chest.
“Leader Shen, I was coerced by Wang Jiafu! You know my sister is the only family I have left in this world. I… I had an impossible choice to make!”
“And after that ‘impossible choice,’ you chose Wang Jiafu,” Su Han tutted with an amused smirk. “You’re a clever one, aren’t you? Waiting until no one’s around to come crawling with an apology—you certainly care a lot about protecting your reputation.”
Snapping his head up, Zhao Guang glared venomously at Su Han, barking a warning: “A-Han, Leader Shen hasn’t even spoken yet! You have no right to open your mouth here!”
Their argument grew increasingly heated, quickly drawing the attention of other metahumans stationed along the battlements.
The undead clustered near the main gate had been lured away by the thunderous explosion at the armory, limping and shambling toward the breach in the wall. The core focus of the defensive line had no choice but to shift with them.
As the units repositioned, the flow of defenders was halted right before Su Han, Shen Chengyin, and Zhao Guang, giving everyone a front-row seat to the unfolding spectacle.
The base’s entire standing combat force soon encircled the stretch of wall three rings deep, their eyes pinned desperately onto Shen Chengyin.
If Leader Shen stepped in, the breach could be sealed, and Hope Base would still have a chance.
Shen Chengyin hadn’t moved an inch until now. A sudden gust of wind swept across the battlements, gently lifting the loose strands of dark hair at his temples.
“Zhao Guang,”
Shen Chengyin’s voice dropped, low and heavy.
“That day, had I not thrown myself into the horde to pull you out, no scheme Wang Jiafu concocted could have ever killed me.”
“And as a high-value water user entitled to priority protection, you should have been stationed safely in the rear lines under my orders long before the breach occurred.”
“Just what kind of price did Wang Jiafu pay to buy you?”
Apocalypse: Becoming The White Moonlight Of A Possessive Mad Dog
