CHAPTER 79: CHAPTER 78: ESCAPE! AN UNFAMILIAR CITY

[As a wasteland wanderer, Wang Xing’s intuition is sharp. He realizes there is something different about you and wants to seize the chance to escape. Even the terrifying, brutal, and mindless Black Demons keep their distance from you, let alone him.]

[You care not one bit about the thoughts of the person beside you. In your mind, his sole purpose is to lead you to the predetermined location; what happens to him afterward is none of your concern.]

[You realize you need to test a theory. To prevent the man beside you from interrupting, you first tear off his limbs. Before he can even begin to curse you, you dislocate his jaw.]

[You capture an emaciated Black Demon with a crippled foot. It clearly lost a fight for food to end up in such a state. Facing its scarlet eyes, you show no fear. Even as the Black Demon shrieks at you, it cannot stop your advance.]

[You perform a cruel experiment on the Black Demon. Disappointed when you don’t find what you’re looking for inside its body, you summon the Parasitic Seed in your palm and implant it into the creature through an open wound.]

[Before long, the pitiful Black Demon miraculously begins to regenerate its limbs. Although its body remains weak, the intelligence glimmering in its eyes is worlds apart from before.]

[The change in the Black Demon is immense, but to you, it is nothing more than a failed experiment. Having confirmed your theory, you simply release it.]

[You reattach Wang Xing’s limbs and his jaw. Staring into your indifferent eyes and recalling the Black Demon’s fate, Wang Xing doesn’t dare curse you. Instead, he begins to flatter you, but you remain noncommittal.]

"Wang Xing, you’re a real tough guy, huh."

"You couldn’t even handle that little bit of torture? You’re not so tough after all."

Lying on his bed and gnashing his teeth, Chen Pingchuan pitied the man’s spinelessness and lamented his misfortune. It was obvious to him now. Never mind whether the simulation showed his future; the ’him’ in there could not possibly be the real him.

Chen Pingchuan then summoned a white Parasitic Seed in his right palm, murmuring in disbelief, "Is this seed really that powerful? Limb regeneration... it sounds like something out of a story. Am I going crazy? Is this all a hallucination?"

Chen Pingchuan began to feel conflicted again. What he didn’t know was that his current state was actually related to brain damage. The eight damaged regions of his brain were not caused solely by his last accident.

After entertaining himself for a while, Chen Pingchuan refocused his attention on the simulation.

[You and Wang Xing finally arrive at the contact point for the Holy Spirit Sect. There, you see two peculiar-looking individuals: a man with a porcupine’s quills on his back and a Catwoman with feline ears and whiskers.]

[You get straight to the point, introducing yourself as a scientist who can create potions with various special effects. The two Holy Spirit Envoys express interest in your claim. They summon transportation personnel and hand the two of you over.]

[Wang Xing begins to worship you. In his mind, the two Holy Spirit Envoys were untouchable figures, yet you spoke to them as an equal. He thinks that by following you, he might have a brighter future.]

[To his shock, during the transport, you mercilessly kill the accompanying Holy Spirit Envoy. Even the pilot of the aircraft does not escape your deadly hands.]

[Faced with Wang Xing’s bewildered expression, you offer no explanation. You search the aircraft and eventually find two escape pods. You and Wang Xing take one each and successfully escape.]

"What am I thinking? No, wait, what are *you* thinking?" Chen Pingchuan muttered, curious about the actions in the simulation.

He really wanted to know what would have happened if his simulated self had gone to that mysterious Holy Spirit Sect. At the very least, he could have found out if he was the one they were looking for. If he was, what did they want with him? Did they want to restore his memory? Harm him? Or demand something from him? These mysteries all needed to be solved. If they weren’t looking for him, then there was no reason to keep avoiding them.

"Too bad it went off track," he lamented. "The next simulation isn’t for another week. What a waste of an opportunity." He continued to scan downward through the text.

[You land in a small village. Seeing the few scattered houses and their old-fashioned architecture robs you of any desire to explore. You suddenly remember Wang Xing is a wasteland wanderer and begin to question him.]

[Contrary to your expectations, he knows far less than you imagined. He only possesses basic survival skills, like how to find food, secure a water source, and maintain body temperature.]

[Aside from a basic understanding of the distribution of nearby factions, Wang Xing can’t provide any useful information about areas even slightly further away.]

[Deeming him useless, you abandon him without a second thought, pick a random direction, and begin your solitary journey through the apocalypse.]

[The first few days go by smoothly. However, due to the direction you chose, you feel the ambient temperature steadily dropping, making it increasingly difficult to find food.]

[After a month of arduous trekking, you have no choice but to follow a road toward the nearest city.]

[You successfully find a dilapidated city. Compared to the Spring City Outer District, this place is even more run-down.]

[You search the surrounding buildings but find no edible food. During your search, you discover something unusual: the number of Black Demons in this outer district is significantly lower than in the Spring City Outer District.]

[You quickly analyze the situation and come to two conclusions. First, that not enough humans live here to sustain a large Black Demon population. However, a glance at the dense rows of shops makes you instantly dismiss this theory.]

[The truth, then, is obvious: a human or non-human faction exists here that has been systematically eliminating the Black Demons, leaving very few survivors.]

[You start heading toward the Inner City District. Sure enough, after just an hour, you see an inner city patrolled by human guards.]

[Judging by your attire, the guards mistake you for a wanderer. To your surprise, they don’t drive you away but instead grant you entry into the inner city without issue.]

[You have a nagging feeling that something is wrong, but confident in your own formidable strength, you forge ahead anyway, planning to swallow the sugar coating and spit the cannonball back out.]

[You are assigned to a temporary shelter filled with other wanderers in all sorts of attire. By questioning them, you discover the situation may be more dire than you anticipated.]

[According to these wanderers, this place is the City of Hope, the only sanctuary for ordinary people after the apocalypse. They say that as long as you follow orders, you will receive free food, shelter, and living supplies.]

[You pity these common folk for their ignorance. There’s no such thing as a free lunch; if one is offered, it’s bound to be poisoned. You abandon the idea of getting food and stand up to leave.]

[However, your actions attract the attention of the guards. As you reach the city gate checkpoint, your path is blocked. You are told that you can only leave after undergoing a physical examination at the Hope Factory.]

[You feel multiple gazes lock onto you. Your supernatural perception tells you that this time, you likely won’t be able to escape unscathed.]