Chapter 14: Strange Mist

Chen Chong knew that in his current state, he had no way to face Johnson in a direct fight. On top of that, the other guards would arrive within minutes. Staying here would only mean certain death. His only chance of survival was the Mist Zone behind him, which had been marked as extremely dangerous!

Of course, he understood that any place deemed extremely dangerous by a base with armed forces could not be a safe haven. Adding to that was the strange, pulling temptation he had felt earlier, which clearly pointed to the Mist Zone’s eerie nature. But now, like a drowning man clutching at the last straw, he could not afford to care about any of that.

“You can’t escape!”

Seeing Chen Chong turn around and rush toward the Mist Zone without a moment’s hesitation, Johnson’s face darkened. He let out a furious roar, lunged forward, and sprinted in pursuit, while pulling out the large-caliber revolver at his waist.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

The crisp gunshots echoed through the river valley, pounding heavily against everyone’s hearts. However, Johnson’s shots fired while running wildly missed their mark, and Chen Chong, driven by a do-or-die desperation, moved as fast as a sharp arrow. Not a single bullet hit him.

And so, the prisoners clinging to the rock wall with their hearts in their throats, including Lin Kun, watched as Chen Chong and Johnson, one after the other, disappeared into the mist just dozens of meters away within two or three blinks of an eye.

At that moment, the prisoners who had stopped climbing stared blankly at the edge of the mist, their hearts feeling as if something was clogging them.

“What are you all still doing!”

A furious roar thundered out like a sudden storm. Above them, Lin Kun’s eyes were bloodshot as he shouted:

“The other guards will be here soon! Chen Chong used his own life to buy us time! Do you want his blood to be spilled in vain!?”

Rushing into the extremely dangerous Mist Zone while gravely injured meant only one fate for Chen Chong: absolute, certain death.

In Lin Kun’s view, Chen Chong’s choice to jump off the rock wall and draw Johnson away was a clear realization that he, as the primary target bearing all the hatred, could no longer escape calmly. He ultimately chose to sacrifice himself to give the other climbing prisoners a greater chance of survival. In this already broken, dark world where people would fight to the death over a scrap of food, Chen Chong’s selfless act deeply shook Lin Kun’s long-hardened heart.

“I must survive!”

“We can’t let 416’s sacrifice be in vain!”

The eyes of the prisoners still climbing turned red as well. One by one, they clenched their teeth, veins bulging, and began to climb desperately with renewed vigor.

This was indeed a beautiful misunderstanding. In truth, Chen Chong was no self-sacrificing hero. If sacrificing all the prisoners ensured his own safe and easy escape, he might very well have done it.

The main reason he had brought these prisoners along in the jailbreak was to use them to divide the guards’ pursuit pressure. Additionally, the Wilderness was far too dangerous, and only by uniting everyone’s strength could their chances of making it out alive increase. Unfortunately, plans could never keep up with how fast things changed. A series of accidents ultimately created this seemingly tragic and heroic situation, which even Chen Chong himself had not anticipated.

…

At this very moment, inside the mist.

Behind a protruding rock, Chen Chong’s chest heaved rapidly. He struggled to control his breathing while straining his ears to catch any sound.

Pure white mist swirled all around him now, and visibility was extremely low. Beyond two or three meters, there was nothing to see except the gloomy, dense white fog. Even the dim skylight could not penetrate it, making east, south, west, and north utterly indistinguishable.

Just over a dozen meters into the Mist Zone, Chen Chong had already lost his sense of direction. This incredibly thick, strange Mist not only blocked out the skylight but also seemed to isolate and absorb outside sounds. The rumbling water from outside the Mist Zone could not be heard at all here!

“Chen Chong—”

“You pitiful little thing, where are you hiding? It’s dangerous here. Do you want to be eaten alive by the Radiation Species lurking within?”

“When Radiation Species eat people, their favorite thing is to start with the limbs. The person being eaten doesn’t die right away, but watches their own hands and feet be devoured bit by bit. Do you want that too?”

“Did you think running in here would make me let you go? Come out, come out!”

Johnson’s faint roars drifted through the mist, making it hard to determine the exact direction of his voice for a moment.

“This is troublesome now.”

Realizing that Johnson, who was hot on his heels, was probably not far away, Chen Chong forced himself to move his still painfully aching left arm. His eyes were grim.

He knew Johnson was chasing him relentlessly because the consequences of Katherine being killed by him were far too severe. So severe that Johnson had to capture him even at the risk of his own life. Otherwise, there was simply no way to explain things to Diris. In a way, Johnson was just like him; entering this strange Mist Zone was a forced choice.

The situation in this Mist Zone was bizarre to the extreme. Not only did it block outside light and sound, but visibility was incredibly low, making it impossible to discern direction. Besides Johnson’s wandering roars, what kept Chen Chong from relaxing for even a moment were the unknown horrors and dangers that might lurk within the mist. Danger was lurking everywhere!

“That strange feeling of attraction is even stronger now.”

Chen Chong’s face was dark. He felt that ever since entering the mist, that eerie sensation, as if something was drawing him in, tempting him, had grown even more intense. This feeling undoubtedly made Chen Chong’s heart deeply vigilant.

“I can’t wait any longer!”

The unknown was what was more dangerous and deadly. For a moment, Chen Chong’s mind raced. He identified the direction from which Johnson’s roars had just come and immediately began to move.

After roughly identifying the direction of Johnson’s earlier voice, Chen Chong crouched low, like an agile leopard, and swiftly moved in a straight line through the vast fog labyrinth in the opposite direction. In his view, there was no good way to cross this Mist Zone, whose actual area he did not know. All he could do was push forward relentlessly, facing soldiers with generals and blocking water with earth!

Whoosh.

His figure pierced the thick fog like a sharp arrow. Although the injury to his left arm was not light, his movement was not greatly affected. With an astonishing speed surpassing that of the sprinting champions from his past life, he maintained a straight sprint for a short minute, covering at least half a kilometer.

“Something seems off.”

Inside the thick fog, Chen Chong stopped. He observed his surroundings and listened carefully while panting slightly. The gloomy, oppressive thick fog floated silently. Everything around him was deathly quiet, with almost no sound at all.

“I advanced in a straight line for at least 500 meters. The range of this Mist Zone is actually so… Wait!”

The next moment, Chen Chong’s searching gaze instantly locked onto a rock two meters away from him. He found this rock faintly familiar.

Chen Chong immediately moved closer, swept his eyes over it, and then his face drastically changed. He felt as if his entire body had fallen into an ice pit!

This rock was still stained with spots of blood. It was the very rock he had leaned against earlier when hiding.

In other words, after sprinting in a straight line at high speed for a full minute, covering over 500 meters, he had actually returned to his starting point!

“A ghost wall?”

Chen Chong’s heart pounded wildly. He felt the surrounding mist swirling slightly, as if it were flashing him a strange, secretive smile.