At that mont, Li Wei stopped on the ground floor. In his mind, the surrounding buildings materialized one by one.
Nothing about those buildings was unusual in itself — but without exception, every passage leading to a basent had been sealed with reinforced concrete.
The sa was true here. The central building's basent passage was sealed as well.
So was the central elevator.
He was certain — the elevator in this building was still operational. Otherwise, why seal it?
This place definitely had secrets.
'The survivor camp in the northern suburbs is a facade. The actual survivors all live underground.'
'The camp has over three hundred hectares of farmland, yet no mutant birds or beasts co to raid it.'
'Add in the details of this central building, and it's hard not to suspect that a massive underground base has been excavated — one connected to the city's underground parking system.'
'If that's the case, there are quite a few natural persons hiding here. Possibly over a thousand. And there must be a strict managent structure. But then why are Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi so certain the Fla Duke will inevitably lose control?'
'By that logic — will the Frost Duke also inevitably lose control soday? Regardless of anyone's wishes? Though his side will probably hold out longer.'
Li Wei mulled it over, then carefully climbed the stairs. He saw the marks of fire everywhere — doors, windows, entire floors scorched and gutted, burned down to bare concrete. Even steel door fras and fixtures had been warped by the heat.
But without exception, every elevator shaft on every floor had been sealed with thick reinforced concrete.
If he was right, this pattern would continue all the way to the top floor — where the elevator entrance would be open, directly accessible to the Fla Duke.
Li Wei hesitated and weighed his options. He stopped at the tenth floor. He had a feeling that going any higher would get him detected — even with the Scout Cloak.
Should he go underground instead?
No good. Every entrance was sealed. Getting in would require breaking through by force, and any sound at all would alert the Fla Duke.
Fifteen years into the apocalypse, the survivors below would have sealed every possible gap.
There would be hidden doors, of course — concealed within the concrete — but Li Wei had no way to open them.
Hm?
Sothing stirred in Li Wei's mind. He sensed Adai — about five kiloters away.
He switched to Adai's perspective and found himself looking at Li Yue's profile, close enough to touch.
Adai was dozing on Li Yue's shoulder.
Almost imdiately, Li Yue turned her head, eyes sharp — as if she'd sensed the exact mont Li Wei entered Adai's vision.
"Brother, what's the situation over there?"
Li Wei heard her speak through Adai's senses.
But he couldn't answer. He didn't dare make a sound — not even breathe too loudly.
He could only make Adai shake its head.
"So you want us to stay here and wait for your signal?" Li Yue said quickly.
Li Wei made Adai nod. He was certain — the mont Li Yue, Liang Yuzhi, and the others entered the city, the probability of the Fla Duke detecting them would be very high.
He still hadn't figured out how to start this fight. The whole place felt like a dragon's lair.
"Understood. We'll wait here. Be careful out there. If it gets too dangerous, fall back. We've brought nearly everyone we have."
As she said this, Li Yue grabbed Adai's head and looked around. Sure enough — quite a crowd had gathered.
Liang Yuzhi, Thomas, Leon, Zhao Xuanxuan, Zhang Jinjun, and one man and one woman he didn't recognize — presumably He Yuying, the Four-Star Mountaineer, and Julian, the Three-Star Butcher.
Everyone was here.
Though to be fair, the camp now had Level 3 walls, and after Benjamin, Santiago, Xavier, and Javier all advanced their primary professions to Three-Star, their individual combat strength had risen considerably.
Benjamin, Santiago, and Xavier had all been snipers before — their primary professions were Hunter. They weren't yet comfortable with bows, but operating a Siege Crossbow or a sniper rifle to pick off mutant birds eyeing the crops was no trouble at all.
And the camp still had an electric-drive tank. Not enough to go on the offensive, but more than enough to hold the walls.
Li Yue and Liang Yuzhi had really pulled out all the stops for this one.
Li Wei thought for a mont, then had Adai take flight and guide the group to a residential building in the suburbs, before withdrawing from Adai's perspective.
Urban street fighting was out of the question — too easy to get flanked and surrounded.
The only option was to find a way to lure the Fla Duke out of the city.
But luring a monster was dangerous work.
For the mont, Li Wei was at a loss. He stayed put and waited, hoping for an opening.
About two more hours passed. The sky began to lighten — dawn was breaking. He had to make a decision. Today's battle was unavoidable.
Then, at that mont, Li Wei caught a faint but very fresh scent of blood. And the faintest sound of footsteps — deep underground, transmitted through the wall he'd been pressing his ear against.
Hm?
A low hum.
The elevator had been activated. Li Wei listened carefully, eyes flickering. His guess had been right — the elevator appeared to be rising from sowhere very deep underground.
He estimated roughly fifty ters below ground level — about twenty ters beneath the surface.
Quite an engineering feat.
The elevator rose without stopping, all the way to the top. A heavy clank. Then the elevator doors slowly slid open — and then silence.
Li Wei pressed himself against the elevator shaft and listened, waiting. He felt like he'd stumbled onto one of this survivor camp's secrets.
Thirty seconds passed. A heavy footstep sounded from the top of the building — not truly heavy, actually. An ordinary person couldn't have heard it at all. But Li Wei's hearing was sharp enough to deduce from those footsteps that whoever this was weighed at least three hundred kilograms. Not a monster, though — the gait was bipedal, and the stride length and force distribution were unmistakably human.
Tall, though. Close to three ters?
A thud. The person entered the elevator cage.
Bending down. Exhaling in a strange, labored way.
A tearing sound — plastic being ripped open.
A gulping sound — drinking sothing liquid. No — drinking blood.
Because in that instant, Li Wei caught a stronger, fresher wave of blood scent.
More gulping. At least a thousand milliliters already.
Another gulp. Two thousand milliliters.
Done drinking. Now licking — the rustling of plastic told him so. Li Wei's mind conjured the image of a large blood bag.
He wasn't drinking directly from a person. He was having the natural persons in the underground base donate blood, then consuming it — using this thod to suppress his radiation levels?
So that was it. He was the Fla Duke. He was providing protection to the survivors below, and they were providing him with blood to stabilize his sanity.
The full picture clicked into place in Li Wei's mind.
A clank. The elevator closed and began descending. Two thousand milliliters of natural human blood every day?
There must be quite a few people down there.
Li Wei's thoughts stirred. He instantly switched to Adai's perspective and had the bird take flight. He couldn't lure the monster himself — that would be suicide.
But could Adai draw the Fla Duke out?
Adai climbed high and banked toward the central building. Almost simultaneously, Li Wei caught a glimpse through Adai's eyes — a pair of blood-red eyes, and a towering figure at least three ters tall. Then the connection was severed. Adai had been startled and was already flapping away in another direction.
Li Wei imdiately recalled Adai into the Pet Card. If Adai flew beyond five kiloters, it would be too late.
At that sa mont, a wave of terrible danger crashed over him. He'd been detected.
Li Wei's heart lurched. He tore off the Scout Cloak and stuffed it away in one motion, then lunged for the window and threw himself out.
An instant later, a swarm of fla-red fire bats ca shrieking through the window — and in the next second, they coalesced into that towering three-ter figure. His body was covered in crimson scales. His hair fell to his waist — all of it blazing red, like a demon risen from hell.
In the split second of his leap, Li Wei glanced back and t the Fla Duke's eyes. Just that one look — and his head spun briefly, sothing like a ntal Shock. Not serious, though. Nothing like the spider demoness's attack.
But what struck him was this: in those blood-red eyes, there was no madness, no savagery. Instead — mockery.
What the hell?
Li Wei had jumped from the tenth floor, but he knew exactly what he was doing. As he passed the eighth floor, he grabbed a window ledge to break his montum, then dove headfirst through the seventh-floor window.
Behind him, a jet of fla erupted like a fire dragon — missing him by a hair.
He hit the floor, rolled, sprang up, and sprinted toward the opposite window. Three steps — then he wrenched himself sideways and dove back out the sa window he'd co through.
A fraction of a second later, the crimson figure appeared at the seventh-floor window across the way.
If Li Wei hadn't changed direction, he would have run straight into the Duke's arms.
"Oh?"
The red figure made a surprised sound, then leaped out again — fast as a gale.
But this ti, he found no trace of Li Wei on the sixth floor. Because Li Wei was currently clinging to a ninth-floor window like a great ape, climbing upward at speed.
Fast — nearly one floor per second.
But when he reached the fifteenth floor, he had to jump again. The powerful, uncanny Fla Duke had transford back into fire bats and was closing in once more.
His speed far exceeded Li Wei's. And that ability to dissolve into fla bats — it made him extraordinarily difficult to deal with.
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