Night of Despair-Chapter 177 - : 175 Road One

Chapter 177: 175 Road One

In the woods.

Mist permeated the air like a thin veil, enveloping the sparse trees.

Plop.

Outside the camp, a glob of black spit shot out, precisely hitting a white rock on the ground.

Hiss.

The black spit slowly reacted with the rock, emitting white smoke. A small hole formed from the corrosion.

...

The hole deepened until the black spit was completely consumed, and then it stopped.

Amidst the crackling footsteps, Yu Hong, in a full suit, walked over and crouched to inspect it.

He extended his index finger, poking it into the hole, reaching roughly the second joint.

“Test over. The saliva of this black lizard has a strong corrosive effect on everything.”

Yu Hong stood up, turning his head to look at the docile black lizard lying down.

Grown black lizards were about the size of a regular cat. Entirely black, they could be mistaken for a piece of dead wood if their eyes were closed.

Looking at the black lizard, Yu Hong mulled over what aspect to enhance.

“First off, speed is a must. Otherwise, it’s pointless as a scout without sufficient reconnaissance ability.”

“Then comes lethality… Fast, high-lethality assassin-type scouts are the sort of sentinel I need. But it’s useless if it’s too weak defensively and gets knocked down by one shot from a gun…”

After much consideration, Yu Hong crouched down and rubbed the black lizard’s forehead.

“Speed, lethality, defensive abilities… Isn’t that comprehensive enhancement?”

Somewhat helplessly, his thoughts quickly shifted as he turned and walked back to the camp, urging the black lizard to follow.

Before long, he used Large Pyroxene Stone powder to sketch Concealing Symbols on the black lizard’s body in the camp.

Then, he thought for a moment and dragged out some unused metal tools and weapons from the cave.

He lumped these together with the black lizard.

Yu Hong glanced outside at the darkening sky.

He placed his hand lightly on the black lizard, encompassing the pile of metal and weapons in his consciousness.

“Enhance black lizard, direction: speed, lethality, defensive abilities.”

He naturally visualized his ideal black lizard in his mind.

It would be a sentinel creature with fast speed, strong concealment, a robust physique with astonishing defensive power, and sufficient strength to drag most things, convenient for carrying trophies back.

Soon, a black line flickered on the back of his hand, sinking into the black lizard.

“Confirm enhancement mark: Black lizard?”

The Black Mark inquired.

Also, a countdown appeared on the black lizard.

“3 days 09 hours 14 minutes.”

“Yes!” Yu Hong firmly replied.

The countdown flashed instantly and began timing.

He exhaled in relief.

“After this enhancement, I’ll enhance the entire camp again, reinforce the stone castle well, and strive to establish a closed, self-circulating system.”

The outside world’s Black Disaster was bizarre and various dangers existed. Avoiding contact was the utmost safety measure.

“Three days’ time, now with fewer people in the camp, the attraction to the Black Disaster has greatly reduced… maybe it’s safer than before…”

He released the black lizard, controlling it to hide within the camp, not knowing what would happen if something being enhanced suddenly got damaged or died, but it was best not to test that.

The three days rapidly passed.

Yu Hong constantly monitored the changes of insects outside; over these days, the insects seemed to lose interest in the camp, not even approaching like usual, hardly any human figures in sight.

The surrounding woods of the camp seemed to have instantly returned to the state before the Black Disaster, tranquil and silent, with nothing around.

Not even shadows, all driven away by the insects.

During these days, Yu Hong consolidated a new Inner Qi, reaching the seventh root of the third layer.

The improvement of Thunderbolt Leg, though not enough for him to confront insects face-on, still gave him a significant sense of safety due to its speed.

At noon, the sky gradually darkened and light rain began to rustle down, falling on the trees in the forest, the dry leaves, and into the muddy ground, producing a soft sound.

Yu Hong left the cave and approached the edge of the Array in the outer courtyard, dressed in the enhanced black lizard suit, unfazed by the rain but slightly tensed, sensing the black lizard about to complete its enhancement outside the fence.

The countdown had six minutes left. He leaned casually against the fence, quietly focusing on his Qi Cultivation.

Buzz.

Suddenly, a faint electric motor sound came from the driveway leading to the public road in the outer courtyard, along with the noise of tires crunching on the wet ground.

Yu Hong abruptly opened his eyes, gazing in that direction.

In the field of vision of the scouting black lizard outside, a familiar car was slowly approaching the camp.

“Is that…!?” He couldn’t help but straighten up, peering intently in the direction of the sound.

Shortly after.

A black car covered in gray runes slowly stopped by the fence outside the camp.

Click.

The car door opened, and a familiar figure jumped out.

“Boss, haven’t seen you in a few days, did you miss me?” Zhou Xueguang, with a smile on his face, patted the car door.

“Didn’t you leave? Why did you come back?” Yu Hong’s expression remained unchanged.

“They went to accompany Doctor Xu for childbirth, having Li is enough, what would I be there for?” Zhou Xueguang answered with a laugh.

He looked back at the misty rain-soaked woods.

“By the way, boss, what are you doing standing here? You didn’t already know I was coming back, did you?”

“Just passing time, observing the Black Disaster, gathering detailed information,” Yu Hong casually replied.

Old Zhou’s return was somewhat unexpected to Yu Hong but also brought a bit of solace, and it rekindled a sense of life in the otherwise desolate camp.

“Go back and rest for a bit, I still have to observe for a while,” Yu Hong calmly said.

“Understood!” Old Zhou nodded, opened the fence, drove in, then closed the gate and returned to the stone castle.

Yu Hong continued to stand in the same place, listening to the faint sounds coming from the stone castle behind him, the corners of his mouth involuntarily curling up.

Distracted by Old Zhou, he momentarily didn’t notice that the enhancement of the black lizard had finished.

At that moment, Yu Hong regained his senses and once again sensed the Black Mark in his mind.

After a few breaths, he took a step forward, flipped over the fence, and walked into the mist.

After several meters, he stopped in front of a withered tree and watched as a brand-new black lizard slowly crawled out from behind the trunk.

Pfft, pfft, pfft.

The half-human-tall black lizard, resembling the world’s largest Komodo dragon, had grown significantly in size.

Its eyes were like murky black glass beads, its body swollen and thick, about two meters long, clad in black scales as tough as old tree bark.

Yu Hong stepped forward, reached out, and knocked on the lizard’s forehead.

Thunk, thunk, thunk, the sound as dull as knocking on wood.

“Come on, spit,” Yu Hong commanded, pointing at a nearby tree trunk.

Pfft.

The black lizard immediately spat out a glob of black phlegm, which was at least three times bigger than before, quickly covering the waist-thick trunk.

Shortly after the hissing sound, the tree trunk was corroded severely, causing the tree to sway and was about to fall at any moment.

“Not bad,” Yu Hong nodded slightly before his thoughts shifted.

He directed the new black lizard toward a large moss-covered boulder.

Bang.

The black lizard took a few running steps and rammed into it.

The boulder, easily weighing a hundred kilograms and as big as a small millstone, was sent rolling away, turning a few times before stopping.

“The strength has also increased quite a lot,” Yu Hong noted and then drew a dagger from his back, walking forward to scratch the lizard’s scales.

Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss.

Using only the strength of a normal person, the tip of the knife could only scratch white marks on the back of the black lizard, unable to harm it.

“I’ve incorporated some metal elements, so its defense is also decent. All in all, it can now be considered a strong sentinel. Besides dealing with low-level Black Disasters, it can also handle some hostile entities.”

“Finally, the speed.” He sheathed his knife, mentally controlled the black lizard, and urged it to sprint at full speed along the roadway toward the highway.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One! Run!”

He simultaneously glanced at the timer on a detector and began timing.

The black lizard sprinted off in silence, swiftly disappearing into the gray fog.

About half a minute later.

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Hiss!

The vision of the black lizard abruptly stabilized and stopped.

Yu Hong, seeing through the mark, noticed it had reached the road surface.

“36 seconds.” He had estimated that the distance from the camp to the highway was slightly over a kilometer, and the black lizard only needed half a minute to cover it… This speed was indeed much faster than before.

“With this, the area across the highway can now be included in my patrol range…. Let’s test the maximum radius.”

Yu Hong continued to control the lizard to sprint further, crossing the highway and passing through a slope.

It wasn’t long before the lizard exceeded the two-kilometer range, but this time, it surprisingly did not lose connection and still maintained contact.

This invigorated Yu Hong.

He continued to control the lizard to run farther, and quickly, when it reached three kilometers, the lizard’s vision suddenly went dark.

“Lost connection.”

Yu Hong exhaled.

“Three kilometers, the control limit has increased. It seems that the enhancement of the mark depends on continuous strengthening. The stronger the marked creature, the stronger the overall data will be.”

Soon, the black lizard automatically returned within three kilometers, and its vision returned to Yu Hong.

He started directing the black lizard to return while having the other black lizards automatically patrol around the camp.

Now that the array was enhanced and the black lizards were strengthened, he decided to find a way to completely solve the problem with the insect man and prevent them from staying near the camp and treating it as their own territory.

*

*

*

Gray City.

The massive, robust gray city walls stood amid the endless yellow, hilly terrain.

In front of the city gates, the thick metal gates, over ten centimeters thick, slowly and sequentially rose, opening a passageway for entry and exit.

Outside, the survivors from various places, dressed in tattered clothes and showing signs of malnutrition, surged forward, trying to rush into the city.

“Everyone line up, undergo the city entry inspection one by one, check the notice on the right immediately after entering the city, and strictly follow all the procedures listed. Violators will be expelled from the city.”

Inside the gates, teams of black-clad security personnel, in full-body bulletproof suits, holding firearms, and wearing brown goggles that fully covered their faces, remained silent as pre-recorded messages played over the loudspeakers.

The speakers, hanging on either side of the city gate, continuously repeated the message.

Among the armed personnel responsible for inspections, one was checking the data cards filled out by those entering.

Suddenly, the inspector held down a card he had just seen.

“Former postman? Baiqiu Village? Black Wind Camp?” he muttered hesitantly, raising his head to look at three people in the distance undergoing the third round of body searches.

Li Rushan, raising his hands, seemed to hear the sound and immediately turned toward them with a sincere smile.

Aisena was behind him, while Dr. Xu, prominently pregnant, entered a separate tent for inspection at the end.

“Take these two down, drag them out and kill them,” the inspector released the card and casually waved his hand.

Crash, three people from the black-clad team immediately stepped forward and approached Li Rushan.

“Wait! We haven’t done anything! What are you trying to do? Why are you killing us!?” Li Rushan’s face changed instantly.

This was neither logical nor reasonable!

Normally, they would have heard that he was a former postman and immediately given him special treatment. After all, a postman is a skilled and valuable asset anywhere.

But this Gray City…!!

Before he could struggle, two steel-like arms instantly clamped his arms, and a tremendous force pinned him down, rendering him immobile.

Of the three who had emerged, two were enhanced humans!?