Chapter Sixteen: Countermeasures

“Not quite accurate.” Liu Chang lowered his head and thought for a moment. With his keen eyesight and sensitive perception, he felt that in this environment, he could easily handle more than just two or three people.

“Your danger number is exactly that,” the girl rolled her eyes, calculated carefully, and nodded with certainty.

“Is that so?” Liu Chang pondered again, understanding that the strength of life was not true combat power. Although they were proportional, the intensity of life did not truly represent one’s destructive capacity in battle. For example, his heightened senses—vision, hearing, and others—had increased several-fold, and so had his life strength. Yet no one could determine how much his improved vision would actually enhance his fighting ability in this dense fog.

“How about that thing in the hospital? What’s its danger number?”

“Around 129, no, wait, it’s already 130 now, and still increasing,” the girl glanced in that direction, unmistakable fear flickering in her eyes.

“Oh, truly a terrifying monster,” Liu Chang nodded and turned around. “Let’s go.”

“Alright.” The girl nodded vigorously, not asking where Liu Chang was headed, simply following behind him.

“How far is your sensing range? I mean, how far away can you detect danger?” Liu Chang asked as they walked.

“About a hundred meters, maybe a bit more. Any farther and it gets blurry.”

“Does your face still hurt?”

“Yes, but I can bear it.”

“You’re very strong.” Liu Chang continued walking through the grass along the road—in this world, wherever sunlight reached, plants flourished everywhere.

“How old are you?”

“Twelve.”

“What?” For the first time, Liu Chang turned around, surprise written all over his face as he looked at the young girl. “You’re twelve? Why do you look only six or seven? You’re not lying to me, are you?”

“I’m not lying. I was born small, and even now at twelve, I haven’t reached a meter in height. But you needn’t worry, you don’t have to take care of me too much. Even though I’m short, my stamina is better than most kids—I won’t hold you back,” the girl said anxiously.

“It’s alright. Since I’ve decided to take you along, whatever the reason, I won’t abandon you halfway,” Liu Chang turned his head away so as not to see her expression, continuing as he walked, “Let’s go to a convenience store first. In this unfamiliar world, it’s the only place where I might find someone I know.”

“Okay.” Hearing Liu Chang’s promise, the girl hurried her steps, drawing closer to him.

The two walked in silence. With the girl’s help, Liu Chang skirted a creature with a danger value of 35 from afar, then crossed two streets and returned to the convenience store.

He knocked on the door. Some of those who had been there yesterday were gone, leaving about half of last night’s crowd. Fortunately, a few familiar faces remained.

The fat man sat in silence, his eyes bloodshot. The bespectacled family had left, but the biology teacher, Li Qingshui, was still there.

“Liu Chang, you’re alright?” Li Qingshui opened the door, surprised at Liu Chang’s swift recovery from near death the day before. Then he glanced behind him and asked, “Where’s Liu Tao?”

“Here.” Liu Chang touched the bone pendant hanging from his neck, offering no explanation.

“Oh.” Li Qingshui saw the necklace and didn’t press further.

“Where did the bespectacled guy and the rest go?” Liu Chang looked around and pulled the little girl inside, closing the door.

“They left. Did you expect this small convenience store to keep people in a world like this? To be honest, even I’m considering my next move,” Li Qingshui waved his hand. “The bespectacled guy’s parents seem to have some connection with the military. They’ve gone to seek shelter with the army.”

“The army?” Liu Chang mused over the word.

“Yes. Even though the fog covers everything and tanks and artillery are unusable, the military still has much greater combat capability than ordinary civilians. At least, being with them means you don’t have to fear attacks from regular mutated creatures,” Li Qingshui analyzed calmly. “And the army usually has supplies, so food and drink shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Not necessarily.” After listening to Li Qingshui, Liu Chang shook his head. “With ordinary people’s visibility under three meters, if the military opens fire, it could result in mass casualties. Without guns, civilians have no way to defend themselves against large mutated creatures. Still, you’re right—even so, the military is much stronger than the average person.”

“As for supplies, microorganisms are becoming increasingly terrifying. If human corpses rot within two or three hours, the rate at which food spoils is beyond doubt. Unless they use large amounts of preservatives to inhibit microbial growth, the storage period for food won’t even last a day given the current mutation speed. I believe, no matter how much the military has, their supplies must have already gone bad.”

“You’re right. The bread and other foods in the convenience store have already started to mold, except for those vacuum-packed or loaded with preservatives. Nothing here is edible anymore,” said Li Qingshui.

“Yes, it seems in just a few days, the world will face a food shortage.”

“Indeed. Even the military won’t be able to provide enough food; I doubt they’ll take in civilians anymore.”

“But we should still check. In the apocalypse, surviving alone is impossible—you have to rely on the group, on the machinery of the state,” Liu Chang sighed as he looked at the refugee-like crowd in the store.

“Yes, we must visit the military and government departments. Even if they don’t accept us, we should at least learn about the direction this nation—or rather, this world—is heading. Only then can we prepare thoroughly,” Li Qingshui said, lowering his voice suddenly, “Besides, I feel the government knows more than we do.”

“You mean?” Liu Chang also lowered his voice so that only the three of them could hear the subdued echo.

“It’s just my guess, with no evidence. I feel the government has long known about the red fog incident.”

“They knew beforehand?”

“Yes. Think about it—since 2002, this red fog has intermittently appeared. Though it was very thin, its composition was identical to the dense fog outside now.” Li Qingshui gestured with his fingers, his teacher’s habit making him accompany his words with hand movements.

“Recall carefully the times you encountered the red fog in the past. Remember those wisps—don’t they feel exactly the same as the thick fog now?”

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