Chapter 065 Three Sentences Fill the World-weary Villain with Hope (Thirty)
Shelter No. 19 is easy to find. Looking out from the ruins, you will see the most neatly organized buildings.
"If you run too fast, your horse will die..."
Leaning on a steel pipe, Chen Yunli walked among the broken walls and ruins, one foot high and one foot low, for a long time, sweating profusely. When he looked up again, the shelter was still there, not far away, not near, as if the distance he had walked before was just the same.
"Want to take a break?"
Chen Qiaoyun handed over the half bottle of water he had left: "Would you like some water?"
"No, thank you." Chen Yunli waved his hand. Seeing that his face wasn't red, his heart wasn't beating fast, and his breathing wasn't irregular, he said enviously, "You have amazing stamina. You walked such a long distance without breaking a sweat. Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask before, how did you get injured?"
Chen Qiaoyun lowered her eyes silently. Chen Yunli understood immediately: "Alright, I won't ask anymore."
He took a deep breath and continued walking forward. Chen Qiaoyun quickly followed him, walking in front of him to lead the way and clearing the rubble under his feet to save him some energy.
The two walked for more than six hours. When it was half dark, Shelter No. 19 in their sight finally became a little bigger.
This time Chen Yunli couldn't bear it anymore. The clothes on his chest and back were soaked with sweat and stuck to his body. Water kept dripping down from the ends of his hair. If he took two more steps, he would probably die with smoke coming out of his head.
"No, no, I can't walk anymore, take a break!"
Chen Yunli relied on his last bit of willpower to move to the nearest relatively flat broken rock and sat down. His legs felt heavy as if they were filled with lead, and he was shaking like a sieve while losing consciousness. If he were given a sewing machine, he could have sewn an evening gown on the spot.
Even Chen Xiaoyun, a man of formidable physique, was slightly breathless at this moment, leaning against the other side of a rock, tilting his head back to drink water. Beads of sweat slid down his Adam's apple, which was rolling up and down, and sank into his already sweat-soaked collar.
"How long will it take?" Chen Yunli asked, "Can we get there before dark? If not, we must find a place to stay for the night."
The ruins at night are full of dangers, this is the consensus of the survivors.
"We can get there." Chen Qiaoyun wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "The entrance to Shelter No. 19 is right in front of us."
Chen Yunli raised his eyebrows and squinted in the direction he was looking at - it was an open space surrounded by three stone pillars, with many broken walls and collapsed houses standing next to it. It was a long distance away from the neat and tidy Central Park.
"I only said the park you saw was Shelter No. 19, not that it was the only Shelter No. 19," Chen Qiaoyun explained calmly. "The survivors within the shelter are both strong and weak, and the shelter itself has core areas and peripheral areas. The clean and tidy park only belongs to a small number of strong people, while the rest can only make a living on the periphery."
“…”
The classic apocalyptic setting, just missing the awakening of superpowers and the siege of the dead, would be just right.
"Alright." Chen Yunli rubbed his sore legs and calmly accepted the reality. "It doesn't matter. I didn't come here to live in Central Park in the first place."
As soon as he finished speaking, a sharp "clang" sound suddenly came from behind him.
Chen Yunli's heart skipped a beat, and he and Chen Qiaoyun looked in the direction of the sound at the same time.
About ten meters behind them, there were several thick steel bars bent in an intertwined pattern on the ground. Several half-figures poked out from the hollow in the middle. One of them was holding two irregular iron plates in his hands and knocking them up and down, making the sharp sound they had heard.
"What are they doing?" Chen Yunli suddenly recalled the scene in the countryside where people would knock on the food bowl to call the dog home for dinner. "Are they calling their companions?"
Chen Qiaoyun frowned slightly and stood up to stand in front of him.
As he made a move, one figure after another walked out from the end of Chen Yunli's sight.
They seemed to have come from a long journey, dusty and heavy-footed. There were old and young, fat and thin, with the same expression, and they all walked towards the people who were beating the iron plate with a pilgrim-like longing.
Chen Yunli suddenly thought of what Chen Qiaoyun had said earlier and subconsciously glanced at him. He turned his head to meet Chen Yunli's gaze and nodded, confirming his guess.
This group of people are the believers who have converted to Chen Wenjian. They regard Him as the omniscient and omnipotent Lord, and believe that serving Him, worshipping Him, and praying for His forgiveness and protection is the only way to rebuild human civilization.
They had human faces and bodies, yet Chen Yunli sensed a strange inhumanity in them. Ultimately, no matter how different their appearances were, their eyes, demeanor, and temperament were identical, as if they had been copied and pasted together, indistinguishable.
These people walked past Chen Yunli and Chen Qiaoyun quickly and firmly, leaving behind the sound of footsteps coming and going, but only footsteps.
Soon, they met up with the people under the steel bars, exchanged a slightly strange salute, and then jumped into the hole one after another, disappearing like fish into water.
The figures disappeared, but the eerie atmosphere they brought still echoed in the wind.
Chen Yunli exhaled lightly: "Not bad."
Chen Qiaoyun glared coldly at the place where the group of people disappeared, with deep disgust in his eyes. He was stunned when he heard the words: "What do you mean it's okay?"
Chen Yunli shrugged and said something that left him baffled: "Fortunately, the evil god's followers are them."
Chen Qiaoyun: “……?”
"You'll understand later." Chen Yunli smiled, "Let's go, take me to the shelter first."
Chen Qiaoyun was very puzzled, but Chen Yunli did not ask him why he was injured. He did not want to ask him about the matter to the end, so he could only suppress his doubts temporarily and quickly walked towards the entrance of Shelter No. 19.
Before Chen Yunli took a step forward, he looked back.
From his perspective, the hollow area under the steel bars was covered with layers of muddy traces, which came from a group of "people" who had just passed by. To be more precise, it was a group of human-shaped, wriggling black mud.
As they advanced, their irritating mutterings echoed in short, dense bursts, evoking responses from unknown creatures beneath the ruins. The two noises intertwined and overlapped, like a dusky funeral song, filled with themes of decadence, malaise, and decay.
Chen Yunli felt a little nauseous after hearing this. It was not a psychological effect, but a real physical nausea.
"arrive."
Chen Qiaoyun's clear voice flowed into his ears, instantly dispelling the repetitive noise in his mind. He looked up and saw that he had unknowingly followed Chen Qiaoyun into the open space surrounded by stone pillars.
There was a stone slab in the center of the open space. Chen Qiaoyun grabbed the handle and lifted it up, revealing a narrow staircase leading to a dark underground.
"The main body of Shelter 19 is located below, in the underground parking lot outside the former Central Park. Perhaps due to earthquake resistance considerations, this parking lot was built to be exceptionally sturdy, which is why it wasn't completely destroyed during the apocalypse."
Chen Qiaoyun walked down first, explaining to Chen Yunli.
"Because of that person's presence, the underground is safer than the surface. The parking lot has an entrance in the park, and the several powerful people living there also have to return to their underground residences at night."
Chen Yunli sneered, "There's no way humans living in the apocalypse can be divided into strong and weak. Forcing them into different levels is nothing but deceiving oneself."
"At least the 'strong' can live more comfortably and comfortably than others. For them, this is the greatest meaning." Chen Qiaoyun's tone was flat, and no emotion could be heard from his voice.
The staircase was not long, with only twenty steps at the bottom. Chen Yunli stood behind Chen Qiaoyun and had a panoramic view of Shelter No. 19.
There are countless low houses made of various materials standing here in a messy manner. They are not much bigger than tents, barely big enough for one person to live in, and quietly hidden in the darkness.
There is a half-meter gap between the houses for people to pass through. These gaps are connected to form paths, crisscrossing and leading in all directions, which is extremely complicated.
Some houses had cloth strips, wooden signs, or other objects hanging from their "doors." These weren't useless decorations, but rather signs of barter. Chen Yunli had seen signs offering "water exchange," "weapons exchange," and "information exchange." Only these houses had a glimmer of light, and even then, it was very dim.
"New here?"
In the darkness, a cold hand silently placed itself on Chen Yunli's shoulder from behind. The slightly sharp nails brushed against his aorta intentionally or unintentionally, leaving a creepy chill.
Chen Yunli shuddered slightly and almost had a heart attack. He turned his head and saw a man covered in a long black robe. He couldn't help rolling his eyes.
"He is, but I'm not." Chen Qiaoyun stepped aside to block Chen Yunli. "Is there any room available?"
"Together... or separately?" The man in black robe withdrew his hands into his sleeves and glanced back and forth at the two people in front of him.
Chen Yunli could feel the ambiguity in his gaze even through his hood.
"Together." Chen Qiaoyun said. This was what he and Chen Yunli had discussed before setting off.
Shelter 19 had many small rooms like the one Chen Yunli had seen, divided into single and double rooms. Buying a double room was one-third cheaper than buying two single rooms, and if you didn't live in it, you could sell it back to the owner at the original price, making it the best option.
Of course, the area of a double room is definitely smaller than the sum of two single rooms, so there is a reason why it is cheaper.
As for how Chen Qiaoyun was certain the black-robed man was selling a vacant house—buying a house was the first thing all survivors did upon entering Shelter 19, and the ordinary people living there would only avoid their own kind for self-protection. The person who approached them immediately after entering could only be the seller.
Moreover, the survivors who were capable of running a real estate business were almost all residents of Central Park. Chen Qiaoyun had been here for a while and was already familiar with the place.
"Two men sharing a double room?" The black-robed man let out a deep laugh that sounded familiar to Chen Yunli. "Yes, I do, but what are you offering in exchange?"
Chen Qiaoyun took out some food that he had specially left behind - two packs of biscuits and a bottle of beer.
"Oh—wine! This is a rare treasure!" The black-robed man suddenly reached out and snatched the two items, his tone immediately becoming cheerful and happy. "I have a large suite with enough space for three people. I give it to you!"
Chen Qiaoyun and Chen Yunli looked at each other and nodded: "Thank you, please lead the way."
The man in black robe whistled and walked towards the east.
Passing through one can-like house after another, Chen Yunli found that they were gradually leaving the pitch-black darkness. They were getting closer and closer to Central Park, and it was getting brighter and brighter. The roads were much wider, and the houses were becoming fewer and bigger.
It seems that this bottle of beer in Shelter No. 19 is worth at least an apartment in the CBD.
"Here, the one in front is..."
The black-robed man pointed with his pale hand at a triangular house twenty meters away with a diameter of fifty meters. The surface was covered with graffiti and it was built with various iron sheets and steel pipes, giving it an artistic atmosphere. Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted unexpectedly.
"Finally, there are new people in Shelter No. 19. Today is a really good day."
A voice that was extremely familiar to Chen Yunli, one that could even be called unforgettable, came from the front. Footsteps, neither light nor heavy, slowly approached. A tall, handsome young man turned out from behind the house on the right. The light gradually dispelled the shadow on his body, and the smile in his eyes was clearly reflected.
Chen Yunli's pupils trembled, and he stared blankly at the person approaching. A chill rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
The black-robed man stopped and turned to face the person who had suddenly appeared. He said with disgust, "It's you again, a fallen follower of the evil god, Chen Wenjian!"
Chen Yunli: “…”
It’s over, the human side is completely finished!
It’s better to restart the game!
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