The Invasion Day – Chapter 28

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 28

“Tang Xuhai!!!” Fu Shiwu’s eyes widened in panic.

His consciousness went entirely blank. In his senses, the aliens, Tang Xuhai and the commander formed a crystal clear three-dimensional image, and all their movements looked as though they had been put on slow motion.

Fu Shiwu’s heart beat wildly, and without thinking, he drew out the pistol from his waist, released the safety with the speed of light, clutched the grip with his right hand and placed his left hand on top. Then he raised his arm.

A fire flickered as all six bullets in the pistol flew out.

On the three-dimensional image in his senses, the trajectory of each bullet drew a defined line. One bullet hit an alien’s head, one pierced through another alien’s jaw and struck the chest of the one directly behind it, while  the remaining four, without a fault, ruptured the other aliens’ vitals.

Everything before his eyes seemed like a scene that took place upon the press of a play button. With ear-splitting hisses, the flying aliens were knocked down by the force of the bullets, waving their limbs and crashing heavily on the ground.

“Ahhhh!!!” Tang Xuhai roared loudly, drew out his combat knife and, with a flick of his wrist, threw it at the alien right in the middle of its forehead, the spot where Fu Shiwu hadn’t hit.

Only now that the commander reacted, and he quickly raised his leg to kick the alien falling towards him.

Eight aliens encircled together as they crumbled to the ground, knocking over the commander and Tang Xuhai.

“Tang Xuhai!” Fu Shiwu felt his head spinning as he rushed over: “Tang Xuhai!!!”

The soldiers on the fortification completely went amok. Only under the screams of the deputy commander that half of them stayed focused on the battlefield, but they all anxiously turned their heads to look back.

“Commander! Commander! Are you okay?!” The senior soldier, followed by his two-year junior, rushed forward.

Some aliens hadn’t completely died, their bodies twitching feebly on the ground.

The soldiers furiously pulled out their tri-daggers and directly stabbed the aliens’ heads.

A short moment later, their blood smeared all over the place.

“Tang Xuhai, are you okay?” Fu Shiwu pulled away the alien’s corpse and helped Tang Xuhai, who was underneath, to get up.

Tang Xuhai’s face was drenched in blood, and his reaction stagnated for a second. He blinked and raised one hand to wipe the blood off his face: “I’m okay, still not dead.”

The expression on Fu Shiwu’s face was complicated. It was both distressed and happy at the same time.

Tang Xuhai calmly stared at Fu Shiwu for a while, then he stretched out one hand and rubbed Fu Shiwu’s head: “Good shot!” 

If Fu Shiwu hadn’t fired those shots in time, he and the commander would have died, or at least, been seriously injured.

Thanks to their military uniform, the tentacle hooks of the aliens didn’t critically tear off their skin. But Tang Xuhai’s hand was exposed, and because he used it to shield his head, a bloody scratch had formed.

After being brutally crushed by the alien, his wounded hand was now trembling with pain. Tang Xuhai shook off the blood on his hand and sternly said to the commander: “We can’t stay here. The aliens are getting smarter with more experience, they will take advantage of the terrain to attack us from above. Both sides of the road are high-rise buildings, we can be ambushed any time now!”

The commander solemnly nodded, turned around and shouted at his behind: “Deputy commander! Unit retreat!” 

The commander walked a few steps forward, and upon reaching Fu Shiwu, he gave a military salute with a grim expression. Fu Shiwu was at a loss and wanted to return the courtesy, but he didn’t know if it would be appropriate for a civilian to do so.

“Little comrade, thank you for saving me! Your shots were amazing!” The commander said heartily and gave him a thumbs up.

In such a short period of less than three seconds, his six bullets hit seven targets. This was no ordinary sharpshooter!

Receiving such enthusiastic praise, Fu Shiwu felt embarrassed and replied shyly: “You speak too highly of me. My practice is lacking, I haven’t spent lots of time learning the techniques.”

Thinking that Fu Shiwu was just being humble, the commander even praised him again.

With his less-than-great communication skill, Fu Shiwu tried his best to explain that his shooting practice really only lasted for a short while, which actually had the commander confused. Is he really being humble? But if this is really the truth, doesn’t it just sound impossible?

“Ah —” A cry of pain that was half held back came from behind. Fu Shiwu looked back to find Wen Zhaoming tumbling below the car door, his legs still stuck under the seat.

“Zhaoming? Is everything okay?” Fu Shiwu hurriedly crawled over.

Wen Zhaoming frowned, raised his upper body and looked at his palms.

Fu Shiwu helped him up, and Wen Zhaoming tried to keep a nonchalant expression that was slightly tinged with uneasiness: “I got nervous seeing so many aliens attacking Mr. Tang just now, so I forgot that I still hadn’t gotten used to the prosthesis yet. I couldn’t control it properly and fell down.”

Fu Shiwu was stunned as he finally saw Wen Zhaoming’s palms. Wen Zhaoming had opened the car door, wanting to step out, but gotten stuck halfway and fallen out of the car. As his hands rubbed against the ground, both palms were scratched and now bleeding profusely.

At this point, Tang Xuhai also walked over. He looked at Wen Zhaoming with a slightly embarrassed expression: “Just call me by my first name. Fu Shiwu, you can directly call me by my first name from now on. If you use my full name… even if you don’t feel weird about it, I do.”

Fu Shiwu’s eyes lit up with joy. Am I officially having two friends now? I can’t be happier.

So ironically, with this alien ambush, the most injured was Wen Zhaoming, who had difficulty moving around.

Seeing the man who could control fire like those in the legends, the commander was sad to discover that he was disabled. The commander thus immediately dispelled the thought of pulling this person to his battalion to help with the battles.

It wasn’t that he looked down on the disabled, but on the battlefield, the situation was always changing rapidly. People who couldn’t run with their legs might not be able to escape for their lives.

Fu Shiwu and Tang Xuhai weren’t affected in the slightest by this line of thought. Fu Shiwu definitely never thought of Wen Zhaoming as a burden, while Tang Xuhai had regarded Fu Shiwu and Wen Zhaoming as his comrades, so it was naturally impossible to leave them behind in this apocalypse.

After all the troops were grouped from the rear defending side, Tang Xuhai drove the car to follow the battalion’s retreat to the central warehouse. 

Finally able to reach their destination after a week, all three of them felt a great sense of relief.

Fu Shiwu kept glancing at the back of Tang Xuhai’s hand, where the large cut scratched by the alien’s hook had finally stopped bleeding, leaving only red marks behind.

Fu Shiwu said to let him drive, but was stubbornly rejected by Tang Xuhai. If it weren’t for the wound on the back of his hand, perhaps Tang Xuhai wouldn’t insist on driving by himself with such an attitude. He needed to prove that there was no problem at all, and this small scratch wasn’t even a wound.

Fully aware of Tang Xuhai’s absolute trust in his own strength, Fu Shiwu gave up trying to argue with this as-stubborn-as-a-mule guy.

“Don’t look, it’s just such a small injury.” Tang Xuhai said impatiently.

Fu Shiwu withdrew his gaze and looked straight ahead.

He also knew that Tang Xuhai didn’t like people treating him like fragile glass, but Tang Xuhai was a friend that he went through so much thick and thin to have. He couldn’t help but worry.

Back when those acquaintances in his previous workplace couldn’t be contacted, he had to check the institute to ease himself of his worries. Now one of his only two friends was wounded, of course he had to be concerned.

Although the wound didn’t look deep, its area covered the entire back of Tang Xuhai’s hand. The weather was horribly hot now — it would be bad if the wound became inflamed and sent him into another fever.

Later, after they arrived, he would wipe Tang Xuhai’s wound with disinfectant. Fu Shiwu made up his mind and pushed his glasses up, his lenses flashing a cold light. If he dares to resist, I’ll confiscate his cigarettes!

Tang Xuhai of course didn’t know that behind that stern face and indifferent look, Fu Shiwu was thinking about confiscating his cigarettes. After spending the past few days with Fu Shiwu, Tang Xuhai knew that outside, he might carry a specially frightening impression, but inside, he was a very caring man. Being used to Fu Shiwu’s outward expression that often contradicted what was going on inside, Tang Xuhai didn’t feel anything particularly wrong right now, so he continued to drive slowly along with the troops’ vehicles.

Wen Zhaoming sat behind with a nonchalant look, but he was actually feeling a little nervous in his heart, wondering what happened to Fu Shiwu and why he was putting on such a scary face.

Perhaps because he had been frightened once by Fu Shiwu’s fierce consciousness during the shooting practice, he couldn’t help panicking when he faced Fu Shiwu, even though he knew that Fu Shiwu was being totally normal.

Wen Zhaoming also felt a bit ashamed. He was obviously a respected manager back in his workplace, but against such a seemingly harmless guy, he just couldn’t erase the impression the guy had left on him.

With each immersed in their own thoughts, the three finally reached the central warehouse where the survivors of Yun City had gathered.

This central warehouse was originally set up as a temporary shelter for epidemic prevention, so with its design, it wasn’t a problem to accommodate tens of thousands of people.

It was just that the living environment couldn’t be ideal here.

They didn’t contact Wen Zhaoming’s acquaintance, and even if they wanted to, Wen Zhaoming’s phone had gone dead since long ago. Fu Shiwu and Tang Xuhai didn’t bring their phones because they had no one they needed to reach out to. Under the arrangement of the army, the three moved into a large warehouse with slightly better living conditions.

This warehouse was where the people that arrived the earliest were staying. They were those who withdrew immediately after being notified, and those who obtained the news the fastest through their connections.

The warehouse was very tall, with many windows and well-designed vents, so even though the whole place was as noisy as a vegetables market, the air wasn’t unpleasant.

As for the other warehouses located nearer to the sides and reserved for those who arrived later, the condition wasn’t so good. The lighting wasn’t great, and the air wasn’t very comfortable.

Tang Xuhai knew that the people who squeezed in here might be complicated, so he decidedly parked the car in the army’s parking lot and carried all their belongings to the warehouse with Fu Shiwu.

After Tang Xuhai’s scavenger hunt from the supermarket, they had stocked a lot of items now, and they also needed things to protect Wen Zhaoming’s legs.

The three men walked into the warehouse carrying three jugs still with some water in them.

As they walked past, the people sitting in the dark corners next to the entrance looked at their backs, then looked at each other.