Chapter Fifty-Nine: Su Yuting

Watching those people, who looked almost like refugees fleeing famine in ancient times, Liang Jing felt an unexplained heaviness in his heart. He was not a sentimental man by nature, yet the sight before him filled him with a strange sorrow. Once the undisputed master of Earth, the rightful spirit of all living things, humanity had fallen to such a state. One could only say that this world had changed with terrifying speed.

Looking at the survivor crowd, with their dim expressions and blank, shadowed eyes, Liang Jing could not imagine how they had endured such a long, cold night. Without tents to block the evening wind and chill, without enough food to eat, the very thought of it was frightening.

Because of the sharp temperature difference between day and night, thick cold-weather clothing and quilts were essential for these refugees. Without them, they might not even survive a single night, even if there were no mutated monsters to fear.

This greatly increased the difficulty and burden of their escape. Under daytime temperatures above one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, how much could anyone carry after hauling heavy clothes and quilts? After that came weapons for self-defense, food, and all sorts of daily necessities. It was easy to imagine how grueling life must be for these fleeing people when they could not even eat enough, and drinking water was a problem besides. No wonder every face was dark and lost. From this, Liang Jing could also infer just how slowly these people must be migrating.

It was said that troops were still at the rear, delaying the advance of the mutated monsters pursuing from behind. But in Liang Jing’s view, if those monsters could not be dealt with once and for all, then such delaying tactics were nothing more than a pointless sacrifice. He did not know how long the army could hold them back. To reach N City there were still at least two hundred kilometers to go, and that was before taking all the winding detours needed to avoid the various dangers along the way. The actual distance might be far greater. At their present condition, how far could these people walk in a day? The difficulty was self-evident.

Liang Jing led the others deeper into the crowd. The farther in they went, the better the conditions became. At the very least, in food, clothing, and spirit, these people could not be compared with those outside. No matter the age, human beings were always divided into ranks.

As Liang Jing and his dozen or so elite fighters strolled through the crowd, they naturally drew most eyes. Their presence was impossible to miss. Though all of them looked windblown and weary, their clothes somewhat torn and even stained with blood, their bearing and gaze were far too sharp and bright. Even Wu Aimin, whose face usually inspired laughter and looked so full of good humor, had undergone a huge change in temperament after killing two men from a major faction.

Was there not always a special feeling when a killer stood before you?

More important still, every one of them was armed. Each wore a shining short blade more than a foot and a half long at the hip, and everyone also carried a pistol without making any attempt to hide it. Liang Jing’s own appearance was far too cool. In a survivor crowd this large, it would have been difficult for their group not to attract attention. After all, the huge sorrow of Baroque and the fierce, monstrous face mask of the Vicious Ghost Mask were simply too unusual. Moreover, in such a crowd of survivors, they needed to show a little strength to avoid unnecessary trouble. Displaying a bit of muscle to intimidate others was not a bad thing. Of course, what appeared most threatening to outsiders were still the four Type 81 assault rifles and the two Type 56 semi-automatic rifles.

So although Liang Jing’s group drew many eyes, no one dared step forward looking for trouble. In a world like this, where danger and bloodshed were everywhere, people were no longer as harmless as they had been in the stable and peaceful society of the past, but neither was anyone foolish enough to offend a strong group without some benefit in return.

"We’ll set up camp here," Liang Jing said, stopping in place and setting the canvas bag on his shoulder down onto the ground.

After making a rough circuit and learning something about the survivors’ situation and the divisions among them, Liang Jing returned to the outer edge of the crowd from where they had entered. He had no intention of competing with others for some supposedly safer spot. Staying on the periphery was fine; even if mutated monsters attacked, it would not matter much to them. If weaker monsters came, all the better, exactly to Liang Jing’s liking, since he could obtain their life essence. If a powerful mutated monster appeared, and he could not defeat it, could he not still run? There was that saying: one does not need to outrun the pursuer, only the others running alongside. For him, whether outer edge, perimeter, or inner core, it made little difference. The edge even offered direct contact with danger, along with some extra gains.

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"Stop, don’t run!"

"You can’t get away. If Young Master Tu has set his eye on you, do you really think you can escape?"

Hearing the people chasing them shout repeatedly from behind, some of the bystanders—men who had already been frowning and preparing to step in when they saw several obviously bad characters chasing two long-haired girls in broad daylight—immediately wilted at the mention of Young Master Tu. Their angry expressions turned at once into ingratiating smiles, and they hastily stepped aside. If not for the crowd all around them watching, they might even have helped seize the two girls in front.

Although no one dared provoke Young Master Tu’s people, it was clear they were hardly popular; if anything, they were openly resented. The only reason that feeling was not shown was fear.

"Ouch, that hurts..."

At that moment, one of the girls fleeing ahead, the shorter one, perhaps about five feet three, seemed to stumble and fall to the ground, crying out in pain.

"Miss Mu, get up quickly. Run!"

The other girl, a little taller at around five feet five, saw her close friend Mu Yuan fall and hurried over to help her up, speaking in a clear, youthful, anxious voice.

Mud and grime smeared her face, making her features hard to see. She grabbed her friend by the arm, trying to pull her up and run, while turning to glance nervously at the several men chasing them from behind.

"Heh-heh, let’s see where you can run now."

"Everyone in front, get out of the way! If you delay Young Master Tu’s business, none of you will end well!"

"Still running? Do you really think you can escape? Be sensible and come with us to see Young Master Tu. Then eating well and living comfortably will be more than just talk. Why make things hard on yourselves?"

"You Ting, run. Don’t mind me."

The girl who had fallen got back on her feet, clutching her knee in obvious pain, and urged the taller girl to flee first.

"Come on, come on, stop talking," the taller girl named Yu Ting said, pulling her up and running. She had no intention of leaving her friend behind to escape alone.

She paid no attention to the shouts behind them. In her heart she thought, as if I’d believe you. Who was this Young Master Tu, anyway? By now, everyone in the fleeing crowds knew: he was a deranged, perverted madman. No woman he took a liking to and seized ever ended well. None escaped his cruel, twisted abuse, and if he grew bored after tormenting someone for a while and she was still alive, he would simply hand her over to his subordinates to continue playing with. Just imagining it was enough to fill the women among the refugees with despair and terror.

Su Yuting was seventeen this year. Since childhood, she had been known as a gifted girl, excellent in both character and studies, and breathtakingly beautiful besides. In her classmates’ eyes, she was a perfect princess. That year she and her fellow student, Mu Yuan, who came from the same hometown, had both been admitted to South City Jiaotong University. She had barely spent a single semester in the ivory tower, and before she could meet the white horse prince and love of her dreams, the world had descended into terrifying monsters and apocalypse. When South City collapsed, she fled with her teachers and classmates. Throughout the journey, thanks to her figure and appearance, the days of flight were hard and exhausting, but not unbearably so. After all, her advantages meant she was never short of the care of senior students, classmates, and even teachers.

But everything changed a few days ago, when that monstrous villain, Young Master Tu, saw her face. Her nightmare began then. In order to force her to submit, all the senior students and classmates who had once stood by her were instantly frightened away, vanishing from her sight as if the whole world had betrayed her at once. Only Mu Yuan, her closest friend and fellow townsman, remained faithfully at her side. Yet without anyone else to help or look after them these past few days, the two girls had been forced to carry heavy packs and make their way onward with great difficulty. Their food had dwindled little by little, and how hard those days had been needed no explanation. Even so, no matter how difficult it became, she had no intention of yielding to that universally known monster.

She had not expected that today he would run out of patience and decide to seize her by force. Fortunately, she had been clever enough to send them off for a while, then smear mud over her face and quickly blend into the crowd in her panic, narrowly escaping disaster. But the other side had shown no intention of letting her go. They had mobilized many faction members eager to curry favor with Young Master Tu to hunt her down, and before long the two of them had somehow been recognized, which led to the present chase.

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