Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 15 The Demon
As Zhuang Fan ran, he realized he had underestimated the situation. The pile of rocks in front of him was vast, like a huge maze, and it would be difficult to get out of it in a short time.

Moreover, in the center of the pile of rubble, there is a huge underground cave with an even more intricate structure.

Even the vulture people only occupied less than one-tenth of the space; the rest was shrouded in black mist, and no creature dared to step inside.

The vultures swarmed out, circling and howling in mid-air, and a small number of them noticed Zhuang Fan, the unknown intruder.

"Is there a human?"

"He's a thief! Tear him apart!"

Upon seeing this, Zhuang Fan immediately jumped down from the cave entrance and ran towards the deepest part, quickly disappearing into the black mist.

"Another one going in to die, just wait."

The vultures chased the intruders to the outside of the cave, but dared not venture further, and patiently waited outside.

Surrounded by black mist, visibility was greatly reduced, accompanied by low murmurs, but Zhuang Fan had already gotten used to it.

He walked slowly forward, the ground littered with bones, each step making a cracking sound.

The Eagle People's punishment for invaders was simple and direct: they would throw them into the black mist, where there was virtually no chance of survival.

By the dim light, Zhuang Fan surveyed his surroundings, feeling that something was off about this piece of land; it seemed strangely familiar.

The caves are not naturally formed; the dilapidated rock walls expose discarded steel plates and electrical wires, while the flat ground contains man-made bunkers and concrete roadblocks.

Looking again at the huge circular lake in the center, which resembled an abandoned underground refuge, he felt a strange sense of familiarity.

He continued down the refuge passage, where the bottom was shrouded in black fog due to the lack of sunlight year-round, making it a restricted area.

Zhuang Fan walked straight in, continuing to try and figure out where this strange sense of familiarity came from.

The shelter's door was damaged, and the inside was littered with industrial waste, suggesting it had been visited by scavengers.

With the slightest touch, the once intact desktop turned to dust, and the other devices were corroded by the decaying mist until only empty shells remained.

Zhuang Fan was unwilling to give up. He explored along the smooth wall and came to a high platform. He gently wiped away the dust, revealing a line of red numbers: XR-662
Wow, this number
Instantly, memories from Xu Renyi were triggered, and this time, unlike before, a massive amount of information flooded into Zhuang Fan's mind.

He stood there for a while, processing what he had just learned, and gradually came to understand.

It turns out that this was an abandoned military shelter built 120 years ago and owned by Xu Renyi.

The direct reason for its abandonment was that a nuclear bomb was detonated there, destroying more than half of the shelter that was still under construction.

As for who detonated it, Xu Renyi guessed it was the group's opposition, which also carried a hint of warning.

Why would a warning be issued?

This involved a massive engineering project spanning hundreds of years, personally overseen by Xu Renyi.

In the old man's initial grand vision, he would build hundreds of super-large shelters across the wasteland, each capable of accommodating 10 people, which would be equivalent to a small to medium-sized city in the wasteland world.

These large shelters are interconnected by tunnels, forming a tightly linked underground city network.

In addition, there are numerous outposts, automated factories, safe houses, underground bunkers, and other facilities to supplement and extend this ambitious plan.

What makes this ambitious project special is that it must completely bypass the nuclear group and start from scratch, that is, be built in secret.

The old man's motivation for doing this was entirely out of foresight. He worried that after he was given a completely new body, he would not be recognized by the company's shareholders, who would then take away all his power.

Therefore, he must ensure he has enough resources to make a comeback. If combined with the previous "Primordial Plan," the old man actually has many trump cards at his disposal.

The problem now is that the "Primordial Project" has fallen through, and the shelters that the old man secretly built in the wasteland are less than 60% complete. The shelters are isolated from each other, and even the underground tunnels have not been dug.

Zhuang Fan was puzzled. What was going on? Was the funding chain broken, or had the project been abandoned?
After understanding the old man's multiple escape routes, he felt a bit of a headache, which did nothing to solve his predicament.

He has completely inherited the old man's memories and even has the control over the group's mastermind. This is a semi-public fact. He is Xu Renyi, and Xu Renyi is him.

From a moral, rational, and self-interested standpoint, the Nuclear Corporation will do everything in its power to eliminate Zhuang Fan and prevent any unforeseen events from occurring.

So the moment he stepped out of the shelter, he faced the relentless pursuit of this behemoth, a situation akin to a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Suppressing his chaotic thoughts, Zhuang Fan tried to calm himself and sense the place, but he couldn't find the addresses of these shelters.

He could only sense the nearest outpost, which was twenty kilometers away.

Let's go, let's set off.

As soon as he got up, he noticed a strange creature deep in the corner, which looked like an eagle-man, but was even more bizarre and ferocious.

[The Ripper, a vulture-like creature, a second mutation, a mutant, specializes in ripping out hearts, has no edible flesh]

With just a few words of information, Zhuang Fan roughly learned the characteristics of the Ripper. Compared to ordinary vultures, they were irrational, more ferocious, and more terrifying.

But at this moment, something was wrong with it; instead, it curled up into a ball, its whole body trembling, and it couldn't make a sound.

A large number of black mists collided and entangled around them, and the situation was very intense. In the end, it seemed that a winner had been decided, and the largest black mist flew into the body of the Ripper.

After a while, its back was torn apart, and a mass of black matter was forced out from it, then turned into a misty fog and floated in mid-air.

Zhuang Fan looked at the floating object that was neither human nor ghost, and it immediately activated the old man's memories.

[The Demon, in shadow form, can possess and control mutant monsters. It has limited intelligence and is responsible for creating eerie mist. It is afraid of fire and explosions.]

Zhuang Fan frowned. He seemed to have figured out one of the true functions of the eerie mist: to mutate humans and then hatch them into demons.

In Xu Renyi's memory, humans and demons fought for hundreds of years, spanning three eras, leaving the Earth ravaged.

However, over the past few hundred years, the demons have gradually disappeared from human sight, as if they suddenly hid away and vanished without a trace.

The newly born demon seemed to be still adjusting, hovering and circling in mid-air for a while before using the eerie mist to conjure a new form.

Its facial features were blurred, its skeleton was twisted, its limbs were withered and black, and it was draped in a black cloak, exuding an aura of decay and emptiness, making it extremely sinister.

Zhuang Fan remained silent for a long while. The image of this strange demon looked a bit like a Dementor.
At least they got the vibe right, which is quite intimidating.

He could clearly sense that the eerie mist emanating from the demon was very pure, containing no strange impurities.

According to the old man's memory, the pure, eerie mist makes up the vast majority of the wilderness, and anyone infected by it will turn into a zombie.

If the eerie mist is emitted by mutants themselves, such as the eerie mist of the Eaglemen, it will deform normal people into Eaglemen, giving them racial characteristics.

As the Vulture continues to be infected by the eerie mist, it will undergo a second mutation into the Ripper, becoming insane and irrational, and then gradually hatching a demon within its body.

"."

Zhuang Fan and the dog stood frozen in place, neither of them making a move.

Zhuang Fan knew that the demon was irrational, but it did not attack him first. It was still trying to figure out what kind of being was living in the black mist in front of it.

Zhuang Fan sensed its confusion, coughed lightly, and tentatively greeted it, but the other party did not respond.

He then thought for a moment and tried to absorb the eerie mist from the demon to see how it would react.

The result was very smooth; the eerie mist was continuously drawn from the demon, making it seem like a blood bag.

"Sizzle—!!!" The demon was startled and retreated at an extremely fast speed, trying to hide itself. In the end, it simply ran away and never came back.

Zhuang Fan didn't understand what had happened. Was he enraged because he had absorbed its pure, eerie mist?

Well, it's not exactly polite.

Nancheng is located south of the Hanling area, and the two places are 100 kilometers apart as the crow flies.

The city lord was Karl, a 45-year-old middle-aged man with brown hair, a broad face, and a slightly weathered appearance.

He wore a black nano-combat suit with a silvery sheen on the surface, which rippled from time to time and could also assemble into nano tentacles on his body.

After reading the intelligence, Karl asked with great interest: "Xu Renyi is dead, and the source of the information is confirmed?"

"My lord, the information is correct. He died in the laboratory, and there is no trace of his remains."

"What about the cause of death?"

"Some say he was killed by rebels, which has a 72% credibility."

Karl gradually became serious: "What do you think of the arrest warrant just issued by the Nuclear Corporation? It's okay, just say whatever you want."

The intelligence officer considered for a moment: "My lord, it's impossible for an ordinary refugee to kill the founder of a large company. It's more like a smokescreen, hiding some important secrets."

"Yes, so that's the point of contention."

Carl issued a new order: "You need to focus on this wanted criminal. It would be best to catch him first, and then you'll find out everything."

"Yes!"

After the intelligence officer left, the strategist beside him said slowly, "He is very likely a cunning detective."

Carl nodded: "Yes, Old Demon Xu has been a coward all his life. The fact that he was able to stumble this time must be related to the Demon Detective."

The strategist pondered for a moment: "My lord, we probably need to find this person as soon as possible. Once the nanosuit starts to backfire, the speed will increase."

Karl looked down at his nanotech combat suit, his expression calm: "They've swallowed another part of my organs; they can never feed me enough."

At this moment, Zhuang Fan was unaware that he was being watched by a group of people again, but he probably got used to it after being watched so many times.

As the sun set and darkness fell, he had traveled for most of the day, heading north by general direction.

He felt a vague unease.

He kept feeling a chilly, poking sensation on his back, which made him turn around frequently, but he didn't see any living creatures. It was just a bit eerie.

As night fell completely, all sorts of monsters and demons began to have team-building activities outdoors, making Zhuang Fan's unease particularly intense.

He checked again to make sure there was no one following him, so he concluded that the thing must have come from underground, and that was the only possibility.

Having been on the run all day, he was too tired to move, so he climbed up a big tree and used the eerie mist to surround himself and hide.

After two or three days of practice and experimentation, he discovered the trick.

As long as you compress the light fog into dark fog, there will be no side effects when controlling it, and dark fog is sufficient for daily use.

As for the black mist, it should only be used in the most urgent situations, and it is easy to become exhausted from using it, so it should not be used lightly.

The moonlight could hardly penetrate the overwhelming, eerie fog. Zhuang Fan lay on the tree trunk, and through the branches, he could clearly see that the moon was indeed missing a small corner.

That small corner showed clear tear lines and deep pits, and even from a distance, Zhuang Fan could feel the aftershocks of the explosion.

In Xu Renyi's memory, the "meteorite shower event" was not activated; it was only confirmed to be related to the demon.

After finishing the last energy bar, he was about to rest when he felt a familiar tremor on the ground. He thought it was a zombie horde attacking.

"boom--!"

The soil completely collapsed, and a giant worm with a diameter of over 2 meters and a length of over 30 meters emerged, which terrified Zhuang Fan.

Its body is brownish-brown, covered with thorns and spikes, and when it opens its gaping maw, rows of sharp hooks can be seen inside.

[The thorny sandworm is a burrowing, underground creature, a giant bulldozer, reaching 40 meters in length and up to 3 meters in diameter; those who encounter it have virtually no chance of survival.]

Zhuang Fan was quite certain that it was this giant sandworm that had been following him all the way, and it was planning to launch a sneak attack under the cover of night.

The thick insect body quickly wrapped around the tree roots and swiftly climbed upwards, determined to swallow Zhuang Fan whole.

When did we offend it? Was it that demon?
Without a second thought, Zhuang Fan jumped down from the tree with all his might, fell flat on his face, got up, and ran away frantically.

The sandworm twisted its body, relentlessly pursuing the sandworm.

As the insect's body scrapes against the sand and gravel on the ground, it makes a hissing sound, like a cat catching a mouse, teasing its prey.

Zhuang Fan tried to drive it away with the eerie mist, but it was no use. In the end, he had to hide in the crevice of the rocks for the third time in a sorry state.

The thorny sandworm is very cost-effective in its hunting; it will only come out of its burrow when it is certain of success, since each move consumes a great deal of energy.

But this sandworm was different; it only had eyes for Zhuang Fan and was determined to swallow him whole.

It must have been possessed by a demon and is here seeking revenge.
Zhuang Fan used his dagger to block the tentacles reaching in, but it was to no avail.

Seeing that even the rocks could no longer stop the sandworms' mouthparts from corroding the rock layers, and that the rock layers were getting thinner and thinner, his situation was extremely dangerous.

Suddenly, laser spotlights shone, and an airship flew in from the front, its two rapid-fire machine guns unleashing a barrage of bullets at the sandworm.

"Bang bang bang-"

In a very short time, its tail was completely broken off, and green pus oozed out.

The sandworm, in pain, decisively abandoned Zhuang Fan and frantically burrowed into the soil, its entire body quickly disappearing into the rocks.

Zhuang Fan was still in shock and it took him a while to recover.

After he crawled out of the crevice, the intense spotlights were so bright they almost blinded him.

"Stop!"

Faced with two machine guns aimed at him, he stood still, not daring to move rashly.

After the airship slowly landed, more than a dozen fully armed soldiers disembarked and began to deploy defenses on the spot.

The masked soldier at the head of the group approached Zhuang Fan, glanced at the information on his wrist display, and asked, "Zhang Dafan, that must be you, right?"

The female voice, spoken in a slightly slower tone, sounded ethereal and clear.

Zhuang Fan could sense a hint of her goodwill, but he still subconsciously shook his head: "Who? Never heard of her."

She picked up the scanner, confirmed Zhuang Fan's facial features, and said softly:
"Yes, it's you."

Just as Zhuang Fan was about to speak, he was hit by a stun gun and collapsed in front of the woman.

(End of this chapter)