Chapter 25: Exposed

Who could it be?

Controlling his breathing, Chen Chong hid in the narrow, dark space of a corner, focusing all his spirit to capture every stir and movement.

“…Now… there shouldn’t be anyone…”

“Careful… check it out…”

Amid the wind, Chen Chong faintly caught a few words drifting with the breeze, along with a few barely audible footsteps, and his mind stirred.

“Judging by the number of footsteps, could it be Lin Kun and the others, or base guards?”

More than one person was coming. Chen Chong’s gaze in the darkness appeared cold and calm, and he remained completely motionless.

“No, it could also be Scavengers from other gathering places.”

Just then, through a gap, Chen Chong saw two figures wearing tattered leather coats cautiously patrolling the ruins, flashing past his narrow line of sight.

“It’s not Lin Kun and the others, nor the base guards! They must be Scavengers!”

Chen Chong’s eyes narrowed slightly. Although it was not the worst-case scenario of base guards chasing him, he still prepared a certain plan in his heart.

Within a radius of over a hundred kilometers on the map, the locations of three survivor gathering places were marked. When plotting his prison break in the base with Lin Kun, Chen Chong had also learned the general situation of the survivor gathering place Lin Kun belonged to. His current target was the Dawn Gathering Place, where Lin Kun had been before, with a population of several thousand.

Scavengers were the adventurers and prospectors of the gathering places, relatively low-level existences. They moved in groups, taking enormous risks to explore and search for any valuable resources in the vast Wilderness, then brought them back to the gathering place to trade with others for food or other resources. Including Lin Kun, all the prisoners captured and brought to the base were once Scavengers from various survivor gathering places.

This group had an extremely high death rate. Most were ordinary people without any special skills, who had to tie their heads to their belts and risk their lives in the Wilderness just to exchange for barely enough food to fill their stomachs.

The world’s order had already collapsed. No matter how many people came or what their background was, Chen Chong did not expect them to be good-hearted individuals and directly prepared for the worst.

Fortunately, the sky was already dark, and the newcomers only hastily checked the ruins for any signs of Radiation Species, failing to discover the well-hidden Chen Chong. Afterwards, in Chen Chong’s perception, several sets of footsteps gradually gathered towards the ruin next to his.

A low male voice asked, “How is it? Have you all checked?”

“Captain, all checked. No problems.”

“Same here, no problems.”

“We’ve been here before, it’s relatively safe. I even found an empty can. Looks like the team that stayed here before was pretty wealthy.”

Voices answered quickly one after another. Chen Chong, just a wall away, pressed his ear to the wall and listened carefully. Then he heard the earlier low male voice continue,

“Be careful. We’ll rest for one night. Don’t light a fire, to avoid attracting any troublesome things. Arrange two people to rotate on night watch. Tomorrow at first light, we’ll immediately return to the gathering place!”

“Yes!”

Seven or eight voices answered simultaneously. Moments later, these people each found resting spots and began to chat idly.

“Damn it, this time was really unlucky. We actually ran into a large squad of the Blood General. If the captain hadn’t spotted them early, we’d be in serious trouble.”

“Good thing we spotted them early, or else the Spiritual Fruits we gathered would have been given to them for nothing. We might’ve even been captured and made slaves!”

“I heard the Blood General is a blood-sucking monster in human skin, feeding on blood. Every day, he grabs someone from his own gathering place to drain their blood dry. I really don’t know how the people in that gathering place manage to survive.”

“A blood-sucking monster? Feeding on blood?”

Another person chimed in, his tone revealing a sense of horror.

“Is there really no one who dares to resist or run away?”

Just a wall away, Chen Chong listened to the conversations of these mysterious Scavengers, digesting all kinds of information.

From these people’s dialogue, they were indeed a Scavenger squad belonging to some survivor gathering place. As for the so-called Blood General, he was probably some leader with a powerful armed force. This squad had come to this safe point to avoid the Blood General.

Just as Chen Chong was pondering, the voice of the man previously called captain sounded.

“Don’t spread rumors. The Blood General isn’t some blood-sucking monster in human skin. He’s just a powerful Awakener of the Transcendent Tier. Because he possesses some special ability related to blood, he’s been described this way by people who don’t know the truth.”

“Transcendent…”

All voices immediately fell silent. Then one voice hesitantly asked,

“Captain, you’re the only Awakener among us. Can you tell us just how powerful a Transcendent really is? If we had guns, would we have a chance to kill him?”

Just a wall away, Chen Chong immediately held his breath and pricked up his ears.

The captain’s voice laughed wryly, “Ah Hua, in an open area with no cover, if I gave you two guns, do you think you could kill me?”

The voice that had asked earlier said sheepishly, “Of course not.”

“No matter how powerful the weapon, it is meaningless if it cannot hit the enemy. My speed is not faster than a bullet, but I just need to be faster than your wrist and fingers.”

The captain’s voice continued in a low tone.

“Same principle. If I can do it, then what about a monster like the Blood General? His Life Field Intensity is definitely above 100 units, already stepping into the First Energy Level, ten times that of a newborn Awakener! Combined with a Gene Lock that maximizes his own strength, his reaction speed, combat instinct, and power control have all reached an inhuman level… Even a fully equipped, well-trained armed force with powerful firepower couldn’t do anything to the bare-handed Blood General and might even be killed in return, let alone stragglers like us with homemade firearms. Do you understand?”

Now, because of the captain’s words, the atmosphere immediately grew heavy. The other Scavengers were all silent, seemingly intimidated.

“Life Field Intensity entering the energy level sequence, a Transcendent who has unlocked the Gene Lock… So this means the Blood General is an existence on the same level as Diris?”

Behind the broken wall, Chen Chong’s heart beat slightly. The concept of Life Field Intensity was something he had actually become familiar with from Katherine’s mouth during his previous experimental experiences. It referred to a measure of a biological entity’s life force expression; the higher the Life Field Intensity, the stronger its life force.

Furthermore, the term Gene Lock immediately reminded Chen Chong of the Main God in his mind, also stirring a doubt in his heart.

“Is the Gene Lock they’re talking about the same concept as the Gene Lock in the Main God Space?”

He was naturally very familiar with the Gene Lock system of the Main God Space. The so-called gene in Gene Lock was not gene in the broad sense; it more often referred to ‘fundamental factors’ or ‘the source of life’, a combination of spiritual miracles and life miracles. But he was not sure if the Main God Space’s Gene Lock was the same thing as the Gene Lock these people were talking about.

However, just as intense thoughts raced through Chen Chong’s mind, just a wall away, the voice belonging to the captain sounded faintly once more.

“Friend next door, have you heard enough?”

I’ve been discovered!

In the dark corner, upon hearing this sentence, Chen Chong’s gaze instantly turned cold!