Chapter 8 Poison Town - 1 Tang Bufan...

Tang Bufan looked at the town in the sandstorm from afar, but instead of driving in rashly, he parked his RV in the desert and prepared for battle.

The RV was very sturdy, and the glass was bulletproof. Tang Bufan never expected it to be broken before he met Lu Yi.

The broken windows are now only covered with a thick layer of tarpaulin, so the driver's cab is definitely not safe. Fortunately, there is a metal partition door between the driver's cab and the passenger compartment.

“The hospital for the poisoned has a water supply, and the laboratory has a lot of plants. We can replenish our supplies there.” Lu Yi said, describing the situation there, as Tang Bufan bent down and pulled a pistol from under his driver’s seat.

"We don't even know if we can beat them yet." Tang Bufan put the pistol on the front desk, glanced at the information on the windshield, and saw that Kai Ge had already lowered and retracted the solar panels on the roof and covered them with electric steel roller shutters.

"Don't worry, I can beat them." Lu Yi reassured him, and then reminded him, "Don't leave my side by more than five meters."

Tang Bufan turned to look at him: "I'm not stupid."

After saying that, he gestured for Lu Yi to follow him into the carriage.

Tang Bufan squatted down next to the iron bunk bed. There were many storage boxes under the bed. After Lu Yi arrived, Tang Bufan made room for him to put his bedding.

Lu looked down and saw the small, crouching man struggling to drag out a black box with his thin arms, his whole arm trembling as he dragged it.

"Let me know next time and I'll come get it." Lu Yi was a little afraid that his hand might suddenly break.

"I'm not that useless yet." Tang Bufan opened the box, which was full of guns and ammunition.

Lu Yi squatted down beside him, picked up a gun and looked at it. It was old and rough, not a military product, but probably collected from elsewhere.

Tang Bufan squatted there rummaging through the box. It looked like there were a lot of guns, but actually only a few were usable. Most of them were out of ammunition, but Tang Bufan couldn't bear to throw them away, thinking that maybe one day he would find bullets of the right caliber.

Tang Bufan found two guns with bullets, put them on the bed, and then got up to fasten his belt.

Lu Yi saw that he had tightly bound straps around his thighs, inserted pistols, and tied two waist pouches around his waist, which looked heavy and probably contained bullets and other items. Finally, he put on a bulletproof vest.

Tang Bufan still wasn't satisfied, so he brought out a heavy sniper rifle.

"I've made my choice. What weapon do you want?" Tang Bufan asked Lu Yi, who was standing next to him.

"I don't use guns." Lu rummaged around inside and found a classic long curved sword with a sheath, so he reached in and took it out.

"This knife will do." He finished speaking and used the strap on the scabbard to fasten the knife behind his back.

Tang Bufan knew that the orcs' bodies were their best weapons. He had seen Uncle Wolf kill a black bear with his bare hands before, and Lu Yi, as a high-level orc, would only be stronger, so he did not force him to use a gun.

The two returned to the driver's seat, and Tang Bufan had Kai Ge close the thick iron door between the driver's seat and the cargo area. He then restarted the RV and drove into the dilapidated town through the endless yellow sand.

The area was windy, and the sand almost completely covered the road. Tang Bufan saw huge wind turbines, most of which were damaged, with only one or two still running. As the RV approached, the heavy turning sound of the blades could be heard.

Suddenly, two figures appeared in his field of vision. Tang Bufan tightened his heart and looked over. They were a father and son, one big and one small, both poisoners.

The father of the poisoner was about twenty or thirty years old, and the younger one looked only six or seven years old. Both of them had nearly bald heads, purplish-green skin, and clearly visible black blood vessels on the surface of their skin. Their limbs were withered and thin, like living skeletons.

They were eating a wild dog alive next to a pile of rubble on the street. The dog was completely black with bloodshot eyes and several huge blood tumors on its neck, clearly indicating that it was diseased. Although it had been disemboweled, it was still breathing, its mouth open and its chest heaving as it gasped for breath. Its limbs twitched as the poisonous father and son pulled at its internal organs.

Even after four years in the apocalypse, Tang Bufan still loathed such bloody scenes, and the emaciated appearance of the poison-using father and son made his heart ache, causing his fingers to clench tightly around the steering wheel.

Lu Yi noticed his unusual behavior. He looked at Tang Bufan's thin fingers wrapped with black cloth strips and knew that he was thinking of him.

The Poison People are humans abandoned on the ground, and Tang Bufan is also weakening in that direction.

The two poisonous creatures, one big and one small, were eating the live dog with relish, their hands and faces covered in blood. They only looked up in fright when the RV approached. The larger one then grabbed the smaller one with one hand and dragged the dying stray dog ​​into a collapsed house nearby.

Tang Bufan's gaze shifted slightly, and he realized that the two poisoners, one big and one small, did have some "human" qualities.

The poisoners he had encountered before could only be described as "beasts".

"Have the poisonous people in this area mutated?" Tang Bufan asked Lu Yi beside him in surprise.

"Yes." After Lu Yi finished speaking, he pointed to the side of his car window that was covered with tarpaulin: "Can I take this tarpaulin off first?"

It's obstructing his view.

"Nonsense." Tang Bufan nodded, then curiously peeked out from the little poisoner hiding in the dilapidated house.

It was very thin, with sunken eye sockets, which made its eyes appear particularly large. Although the whites of its eyes were reddish, its gaze was still quite bright.

"...If it were me, I wouldn't give birth to a child in this kind of environment," Tang Bufan said with melancholy, unable to bear seeing a child living in such an environment.

Lu Yi tore off the tape from the oilcloth and carefully folded it up.

“Even if they lose their minds, they will still instinctively think about reproducing. There’s no way around it; it’s etched into their DNA,” Lu Yi said, placing the neatly folded oilcloth on the front desk.

"Then I absolutely mustn't lose my mind." Tang Bufan was frightened by his words: "I don't want to have a child with a female poisoner in a muddle."

Lu Yi jokingly said to him, "I think you probably don't have the ability to snatch the female poisoner, teacher."

Tang Bufan was speechless. Was he mocking him for not being able to win mating rights?

As the RV drove along the desolate road, Tang Bufan suddenly thought of something: because of the incorporation of animal genes, many beastmen have mating seasons.

Tang Bufan couldn't help but turn his head to look at the orc boy beside him, who was carefully observing his surroundings.

Noticing the probing look in Tang Bufan's eyes, Lu Yi asked him curiously, "What's wrong?"

Tang Bufan hesitated for a moment, then asked directly, "Do you have the gene for heat cycles?"

Lu Yi's eyes flickered, and his expression became somewhat tense.

Tang Bufan, driving, sighed softly: "You do."

"I'm sorry..." Lu Yi apologized to him softly, glancing at him furtively with a hint of unease.

"Why should you apologize?" Tang Bufan comforted him, "It's not your fault."

Seeing that Tang Bufan didn't intend to send him away, Lu Yi slowly relaxed. He earnestly assured Tang Bufan, "My heat cycle is infrequent, only once every three or four months. I will leave as soon as I notice anything unusual in my body, and I will absolutely not hurt you, teacher."

Tang Bufan nodded. After spending these days together, he could trust him.

Lu Yi felt relieved, but after a while, she added to Tang Bufan, "I have strong self-control."

Tang Bufan hummed in agreement, thinking to himself that he really didn't need to make repeated promises.

By this time, the RV had officially entered the town, and there were more broken walls and ruins around it. Several poisonous people also appeared, but they only passed by briefly and did not attack the RV.

Is it because they have some kind of consciousness? If it were any other poisonous person, they would have stupidly pounced on them long ago.

Tang Bufan pondered for a moment, and following Lu Yi's guidance, he turned at an intersection and suddenly saw dozens of figures standing straight in the street.

Tang Bufan was startled. Despite it being broad daylight, he was terrified by the dozens of motionless green figures and broke out in a cold sweat.

The figures were all emaciated, poisonous people. They stood on the overgrown road, their heads held high, and their sunken eyes were filled with dried blood.

Tang Bufan stopped the RV, holding his breath. It was 1:30 p.m., and the sun was at its strongest. He looked up following their gaze, and even through the sunshade, the glare of the sun made him squint uncomfortably.

They're looking at the sun... they're all looking at the sun!

An eeriness spread along the street, something Tang Bufan had never encountered before, so he turned to look at Lu Yi beside him.

Lu Yi had been here once before, and he explained to Tang Bufan, "I told you before that this town is extremely polarized. The intelligent poisoners are basically human in mind, while the unintelligent ones..."

He looked at the motionless, poisonous figures: "They've become plants."

"Plants?" Tang Bufan got goosebumps. "You mean...they've become plant-like?"

“Yes, they used to be ordinary poison people, but later they mutated for some reason and chose a place with good sunlight to ‘plant’ themselves,” Lu Yi said, based on his previous investigation.

"They even forgot to blink, instinctively facing the sun, and were blinded by the light, shedding bloody tears. Now they are plants, with a large amount of chlorophyll in their bodies, and they use their skin to photosynthesize and respire."

Tang Bufan felt uneasy and frowned, pressing for an answer: "Was it done by the poisoner at the hospital?"

“No, they are also mutants.” Lu Yi looked at Tang Bufan: “Instead of natural mutation, I am more inclined to believe that someone conducted experiments in this remote town.”

Experiment... Tang Bufan suddenly thought of the man in the white coat, the one who piloted the aircraft called him Doctor.

Could it be him? Tang Bufan's heart started racing. He hadn't expected to get a clue about that man in this small town.

Tang Bufan took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He looked at the feet of the poisonous people who had turned into plants and, sure enough, saw roots that resembled blood vessels.

“They’ve settled down here,” Tang Bufan said, then asked Lu Yi, “Are there any other routes?”

Everyone is struggling to survive, and even though these poisonous people have completely lost their minds, their bodies are still growing towards the sun.

“These poisonous people also exist on other roads.” Lu Yi looked at Tang Bufan, whose eyes were filled with sorrow, and was surprised to find that he seemed to still regard the poisonous people as human beings.

The Poison People have been mentally deranged for a thousand years, and their appearance has become increasingly different from that of humans. Scientists in the underground city have long proposed that the Poison People should be classified as "beasts" on the same level as chimpanzees.

Tang Bufan glanced at the information on the car window; the RV's battery was down to 36%, and it was dropping rapidly. Taking a detour would be detrimental to their next move. He sighed silently and could only restart the RV.

The heavy RVs crashed into the poisoned people one after another, then ran over them. Tang Bufan could hear the sounds of skulls being crushed and bones being broken, creaking and crunching, making his body ache and feel very uncomfortable.

Lu Yi pointed out the shortest route to Tang Bufan as much as possible. He was right. Plant-like poisonous people were scattered all over this town. Their atrophied muscles made their bodies look like branches, and their raised heads looked like flower buds. They were the "flowers" blooming in this town.

Meanwhile, the mutated, intelligent poisonous beings began to cause a ruckus in the town. They had all spotted the RV and were observing it from the shadows.

Several stones hit the RV with a loud bang; they were thrown by those poisoners. Tang Bufan's nerves tightened as he listened to the increasingly noisy sounds around him.

If it weren't for Lu Yi, Tang Bufan wouldn't have driven into this small town.

The heavy RV turned another street corner, and a tall hospital ruin appeared before the two of them.

The hospital was in a state of disrepair; almost all the bricks on the exterior walls had fallen off, and withered grass grew in the cracks, swaying in the wind high up. Even though it was broad daylight and the sun was blazing, it inexplicably gave off a gloomy and eerie feeling, like a scene from a AAA horror game.

Tang Bufan stopped the RV and looked at the hospital with Lu Yi through the glass.

"See those two lit rooms on the 11th floor?" Lu Yi said to Tang Bufan. "The one on the left is the pharmaceutical preparation room, and the one on the right is the laboratory."

"I saw it." Tang Bufan also saw several poisoners hiding in the dark windows.

He reached into a hidden compartment under the driver's cab and took out a pair of black glass screen goggles.

"Brother Kai, activate the RV's Wi-Fi." Tang Bufan instructed Brother Kai, who responded with a gentle electronic male voice. Then, Tang Bufan took out a large pair of light-screen glasses from a hidden compartment and handed them to Lu Yi.

"These are smart assistive glasses. I know they might be useless to you, but they allow us to connect within a 3,000-meter range."

Lu Yi reached out and took it, recognizing it as a military product, produced in the same Northern Federation of Orcs as the RV.

Lu Yi had been wondering about something for a long time: "What was the original owner of the RV's military rank?"

"Captain of the search team." Tang Bufan put his glasses on, his voice becoming much colder when he spoke of Uncle Wolverine.

"He's just a mid-level orc, right?" Lu Yi's eyes deepened.

“Yes.” Tang Bufan adjusted his glasses, and a long string of data appeared on the screen. “How so?”

“Generally speaking, a battalion commander needs to apply to use an armored vehicle, and it must be returned to the unit after the mission is completed. Only commanders are qualified to own their own independent armored vehicle.” Lu Yi looked at Tang Bufan and expressed his suspicion: “This vehicle might have been stolen by him. What’s his name?”

“Wolf,” Tang Bufan didn’t want to talk about Uncle Wolf. “I’ve already killed him, and this car now belongs to me. How I got it is not important.”

“That’s true.” Lu Yi then put on the light screen glasses in his hand and saw several red icons on the screen, which were all poisoners hidden in the dark and identified by AI.

Tang Bufan saw through his glasses that Lu Yi had already connected, then took a deep breath and hugged the heavy sniper rifle tightly.

“Let’s go,” he said, opening the heavy car door and jumping out with his sniper rifle in hand.

A note from the author:

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