CHENGGONG, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA

OCTOBER 11

5:00

After the attack on TianHui's central database, a complicated situation became even more chaotic. Now, there was a huge magic circle above the city, permanently covering the entire city. It had completely changed the life within it; the atmosphere was now quieter and calmer, but even more deadly. The only way to survive was to adapt to the new circumstances. It has been a week since the magic circle appeared; there is no way in or out. We are completely cut off from the rest of the world.

I got up after checking the time on the clock. I had to get up early, before the sun rose. I searched the table for something to eat, only a few cookies and a bottle of water were left; that was all I had to get me through the day. There was also a map of the city; a large part of it was already marked in red. I still hadn't found Xian Fang's hideout, but my search had yielded some results. I had verified that the other relics had been destroyed, well, at least they were no longer there after searching for them. Also, I'd thoroughly searched the western half of the city, so it's obvious that the cursed sorcerer must be in the other half. Also, the number of Horde watchers is much higher in that part of the city, which would make sense.

I don't have many supplies left; the pistol ammo I had was used up three days ago, the food I managed to get is now running low, and the store I was watching was looted overnight. I have no choice but to move further east if I want to find my enemy or food, so I'll try to scout the area today. I grabbed my bag and packed the makeshift crossbow I made yesterday, it was the only ranged weapon I had left.

After securely locking the entrance to my shelter, I left the toy store's warehouse and continued my walk through the mall. It's incredible to see how a place always known for its hustle and bustle and people walking around could become so desolate in just one week without warning. Luckily, there was a subway station in the same place, so I don't have to risk much to travel long distances across the city. After TianHui was deactivated, the city's computers went into maintenance mode, which means the city now operates on set schedules rather than intelligent functioning. The trains still run and stop at all the stations, even though there's no conductor; there's still electricity, public lighting, and water in the pipes. The city feels like a metropolis of ghosts, all the infrastructure works perfectly and efficiently, but there's not a single person in sight, which gives it a mysterious and nostalgic aura. But don't confuse this feeling with the real dangers lurking around. That's why, even though I have the whole train to myself, I hide under the seats to avoid being seen from the train windows. My destination is about 30 minutes away.

After getting off at the right station, I carefully stepped down onto the platform. I was now in the Guandu district, the old part of the city. There are several historical sites and temples here, but don't be fooled; nothing here is in ruins. Aside from the selected ancient buildings, the rest of the place is as modern as the rest of the city. Fortunately, this time there was a skyscraper near the station. I ventured inside and started climbing the stairs until I reached the tenth floor, where I thought I could take the elevator to the highest part without being detected. When I reached the roof, I lay down on the floor, made a peephole in one of the walls, and took my binoculars out of my bag to get a good look.

In the distance I could see two watchmen. One was in a building higher than mine, so I moved further away from the new window to avoid their line of sight. The other was in a building about 100 meters away, looking down at the ground. Both were a threat, because if they managed to alert the horde, I'd have to spend the rest of the day trying to lose them, and right now I couldn't afford that. The wind had changed direction and was now blowing toward the second lookout. My crossbow could reach him; if I could take him out, I could slip away enough to take out the other one at the top of the tower and scout the area in peace. It was a risk worth taking.

So I took my crossbow out of my bag and prepared the projectile, which, like the crossbow, was handmade - this time a piece of iron from one of the shops in the mall. I pulled the string as tight as I could and prepared to aim. The sight was just a nail in the wood, not accurate by any means, but better than nothing. The target was a small head more than a hundred meters away. Fortunately, the enemy was a little lower than my current position, so I didn't have to adjust for gravity much, but I think the wind was pulling slightly to the right, so I had to take that into account. Finally, after taking a few moments to make sure I wasn't missing, I pulled the lever and the projectile flew out. It took almost a full second to reach the monster, but it did, and it fell backwards, dead.

With one guard down, all I had to do was make my way to the radio tower and climb it to take out the second guard. The best way to get there was to jump from this building to the next and then go through this balcony to reach the radio tower. Luckily, the guard didn't notice anything until I was right behind him, so I quickly and quietly slipped a rope around his neck and pulled it tight until the creature stopped moving. With the guards out of the way, I could finally descend to the ground and try to scrounge up some food.

The risk was less, but it wasn't zero; the worst of them were still lurking in the city. While the Horde stayed hidden, attacking only when provoked or when a guard sounded the alarm, the Hunters were different. They roamed the city at their own pace, with only one goal: to end me. They were the same spider-like creatures as Xian and her sister, the first two I encountered. The other three were humans with super strength and resilience. The best way I found to kill them was to try to drown them with water. It's hard not to feel like I'm being watched when there are so many people chasing me from all around.

Speaking of challenges, there were also problems with food. It turned out that what the news said about the city was true; this place had very few places that sold food other than luxury restaurants. There were hardly any supermarkets, and the few I found had already been looted by the horde. It must be difficult to feed such a large number of wild creatures. The best I could do was break into private homes and raid their refrigerators.

As for weapons, the same problem arose. There were almost no guns or ammunition to scavenge in this city. The stores just didn't exist, and they were completely off limits to civilians in every way. The only places that might have something were the police stations, but they had obviously already been searched by Xian Fang's forces. In fact, they used them as bases, so it was best to stay away from them.

All this shit reminds me too much of my adventure in the Moscow metro, only without the snow, for now.

Despite my best efforts to search the area, I found nothing, although I did manage to find some food, but there was no sign that this place was also the supposed and so far mythical Lóngyán Village. The barrier extends much further east, outside the city and past some mountains; that place will be my next stop. Fortunately, it's in a rural area, so it will be easier to walk through the thick forest without being found. Other than that, I did not make any progress or find anything useful. Night was approaching, so I decided to go back to my hideout in the mall to gather my things and move here tomorrow, but as I was walking back to the train station, I heard a loud, guttural scream. A guard was sounding the alarm, and a chorus of shouts from all directions indicated that the horde was already on the move. With fear gripping me, I began climbing the buildings to gain height, trying to lose them by parkouring between the buildings. However, I began to see the creatures running at full speed down the street to the south, completely ignoring me; they were gathering on the other side, I wasn't the one they were looking for.

Seeing the behavior of my enemies, it was clear that something had caught their attention, something else, which surprised me quite a bit. It could only mean one thing: there was probably someone else in this place, another enemy of Xian, someone else enduring this little hell alongside me. Excited not to be completely alone, I began to walk across the rooftops towards the place where all those disgusting creatures were gathering. Upon arrival, I heard gunfire coming from an electronics store surrounded by abominations. Whoever's in there is as good as dead if they don't get help immediately, so even though I knew it would be dangerous, I had no choice but to help.

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Summoning Avalon, I attack the horde from a great height, destroying several monsters in the process. But as soon as I touched the ground, I twisted my body and swung my big sword, because there were so many monsters together, I could slay several with one attack. Seeing the success of the attack, I repeated it again and again until the number of the horde decreased drastically. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy to get rid of them, as it was clear that more were on their way. With no time to lose, I entered the shop to look for the missing person. What a surprise when I found Wu Yan there. The girl was quite tired and surprised to see me.

"¡哈！是你！"

"快！我们必须离开这里！更多的敌人正在接近！"

"请救我！"

Once again, I couldn't understand what the girl was saying, but I imagined it must have been something about many monsters attacking her. It didn't matter; the important thing now was to try to get her out of here and make our way to the train station to try to lose the horde as soon as possible. So, without time to waste, I grabbed her and lifted her onto my back to run away from there. The frightened girl held onto me tightly, trying not to fall, so it would be quite a bumpy ride when we returned to the rooftops.

"在干什么！这很危险！"

"这太高了！如果摔下来我们会摔死的！"

Ignoring what Wu Yan said, I tried to run as fast as I could. The monsters that were chasing us were able to quickly climb buildings from the outside or pile up under each other to create new entrances, so the best way to escape was to use speed. However, using a car was a terrible idea, as they would only follow you because of the noise, and they would have a rough idea of your location, something I had experienced firsthand. The best option was to take the train and get off halfway while they continued to chase the train. It was a difficult maneuver to pull off, but not impossible if I timed the jump correctly. After losing the monsters, we finally had some time to rest.

"哇，那真是令人难以置信的！"

"我以为那会是我们的结局，但你成功地救了我。"

"我永远感激不尽"

Wu Yan spoke again, but I couldn't understand her at all, and she probably couldn't understand me either, so we were at a crossroads. I tried to see if I could communicate a little, trying to think of something she might understand.

"Do you know where Li Wei is?"

"Li Wei?"

"Li...Wei?"

I asked about the man who had acted as translator before; she should at least know what that name meant, right? The girl seemed to half understand that I was asking about the other person, and looked for something in her backpack.

g3wAg1a.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/g3wAg1a.jpg]

"李伟在金属铸造厂被袭击后去世。"

"我在同一设施里发现了他的尸体，他的身体在这里。"

"我在三天前发现了他的尸体，他手里拿着这个。"

She pulled out a strange, dark jade disk that was completely broken. It seemed to be one of the ancient relics Xian Fang used to hide. The girl mentioned the name Li Wei several times, accompanied by a gesture of crossing her fingers into an "X", so I could get an idea of what happened to him. As for me, I took out my map and the relic I had found, then pointed to where I had found it. She did the same with the jade disk and pulled out another object, this time an old hair comb, also broken, and pointed to its location. But instead of stopping there, she also took out a marker and began to trace on the map, drawing a line between the locations of each object she found. I quickly noticed the pattern she was creating, a five-pointed star across the city. Logically, that meant there was another object southwest of the city. Before I could ask, the girl preempted me and presented another object, another piece of jade, this time a square shape with a special carving on the bottom that seemed to be a family seal for letters, also broken. We now had five broken relics, including the mayor's mask. I had only found two, Li Wei one, and it seemed that Wu Yan had found her relic and had spent the week looking for another relic while I searched for Xian Fang.

After gathering everything, we set off again, this time more slowly as it was night and the guards had probably changed positions to search the area for us. When we reached the mall, I took her to the toy store's storage room and put all the traps back in place. The food I had was scarce, but with a little effort, I could give Wu Yan some more; surely she needed it more than I did, since she was only a human. While she rested for a while, I continued to study the map, trying to solve the puzzle of where the damn sorceress who caused all this mess might be. I was losing patience; having to go through this misery again wasn't something I found amusing. I was sure she was at home, laughing at the chaos she had caused, far away from all the battles and deaths she had caused. I thought maybe I could use a little more force and end this faster, because even though the hunting environment was perfect, it was impossible for a decrepit old woman to put up the fight I was looking for if all she could do was delay her death by constantly torturing myself with searching for objects.

*Bang!*

But just before midnight, an explosion robbed us of what little security we had left. One of the traps had been triggered, the shotgun fired after the door was opened. Wu Yan and I stood up and grabbed our weapons. I signaled for her to stay while I went out to check the area. I stealthily made my way to the checkout area of the store. I could see the body of a creature lying on the ground next to the shotgun. The monster wasn't one of the deformed humans from the horde; it was a lizard man. Much of its head was missing, but it was easy to tell that it had been there before it was shot. It was strange; these monsters usually only roamed around ancient relics. What was that thing doing here?

*clang*

The sound of glass being stepped on came from behind me. It was another one of the things I had thrown to make noise to detect enemies. This very sound had saved me when I noticed the attack from behind in time. The source was another one of Xi'an's sisters, an Arachnea that had managed to sneak in to attack me. It was one of the hunters who had been roaming the city looking for me, and now she had found her target again. With little time to act, I summoned Avalon on the ceiling to fall on her, but she noticed in time and managed to dodge. I ran for the exit of the shop, the Arachnea following me relentlessly, which was just what I needed. I pulled the cable beside me to activate the Bamboo Whip booby trap. From one of the shelves, a long tube with several sharp bamboo spikes shot out at high speed, directly at the spider girl's chest. She remained impaled, surprised by her own death.

Now the place isn't safe, more hunters will come soon. I had to get Wu Yan out of here and escape to a safe place.

"对不起，我没有看到它来了。"

"我...很...抱歉..."

"这一切...都是我的错...我...抱歉..."

Unfortunately, that wasn't possible when I found her with the same fatal wound as the Arachnea from before. A new hunter was behind her, several of his legs piercing the girl from side to side. I could only watch as Wu Yan's life faded before my eyes and the cruel grin of the creature behind her.

I could hear the mastermind behind it all laughing at me, proud of their circus, reminding me of the hardships of my worst years.

Remembering some of the tragedies I had lived before, such an act enraged me so much that in less than an instant I stretched out my arm like a dragon and crushed the insignificant spider like the insect it was; my hand became its grave. His blood exploded, instantly filling the entire room with red. I checked Wu Yan's body and tried to help her, but there was nothing I could do for her, another victim of Xian Fang, and at this rate, I swore she would be the last.

Even in the battered remains of the Huntress, I found something that finally convinced me to end this shit once and for all when I found a new relic, a jade earring in excellent condition. The damned Xian Fang was trying to scatter new objects all over the city and bring us back to the beginning of our search, trying to make the sacrifices of Wu Yan and Li Wei completely futile.

She was trying to live on borrowed time.

I laughed instead, realizing that it was all my fault for dragging this out longer than necessary, treating it like just another ordinary case, not taking it seriously and seeing it as just one of the thousands of problems I had to deal with. But Xian Fang was anything but an ordinary case. She was a monster who wanted to steal the throne of Atlantis from me, and I had treated her like just another human being.

But if she wants to be taken seriously as someone who wants to fight for the throne, then that's what she'll get, with all the consequences. If I had to fight to the death against someone superior to me and win, then she will have to do the same and defeat me.

If she thinks she can use my traumas to defeat me and laugh about it, she'd better be prepared, because I'm going to make her live through her own.