The Invasion Day – Chapter 73

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 73

After a while, Tang Xuhai’s group walked out clutching a few bombs in their hands.

The men and women from the civilian camp were shaken to the core to learn that so many bombs had been planted in their place.

Fu Shiwu’s lips twitched as he tried to find the right words to say to them: “The bomb has been moved away, so it won’t kill anyone even if it explodes. You can stay here with ease and wait until everything is over.”

However, the way the two sides understood ‘everything is over’ was clearly different. Fu Shiwu meant that they could wait for the alien attack to end, but these civilians mistakenly thought that Fu Shiwu was a rebel who was here to rescue them.

Fu Shiwu turned around and stood beside his teammates, then together they all headed towards a safe spot.

Behind them, in the eyes of the civilians who were trapped behind the fence, a hint of anticipation lingered.

Everyone tried to recharge themselves. Keeping his eyes closed, Fu Shiwu quietly leaned on Tang Xuhai’s shoulder, and Tang Xuhai insisted that he took a rest.

Over the past half day, with Fu Shiwu using his ‘ability’ non-stop, waves of dizziness had been banging onto his mind for a long while. If it hadn’t been for Tang Xuhai to know about this characteristic of Fu Shiwu’s ‘ability’, no one would see the fatigue that Fu Shiwu was going through deep inside, for he looked completely okay on the surface.

Fu Shiwu only slept for a short while before waking up out of uneasiness.

“Why did you wake up so fast?” Tang Xuhai looked at him unhappily: “How is this enough?” 

As his voice fell, he immediately raised one hand to press down Fu Shi Wu’s head.

Fu Shiwu shook his arm to avoid Tang Xuhai, and accidentally, his finger rubbed against Tang Xuhai’s leg.

At this moment, Tang Xuhai’s legs were still clad inside the steel armours. Looking at the gleaming light reflecting off those armours, Fu Shiwu probed the extremely hard surface and asked: “How did you do this?”

Tang Xuhai lifted his leg slightly, and following his movement, a slight crunching sound could be heard coming from the joints. He said triumphantly: “It was just an idea that flashed past my mind. Of course I didn’t want to look like a fool in front of that scum Shi Zheng.”

Fu Shiwu knocked on it, making a crisp sound.

“It looks like that, but it’s actually just a very thin layer of steel, just to hide my legs.” Tang Xuhai said with a rarely-seen hint of embarrassment.

Fu Shiwu cast Tang Xuhai a look that seemed as though a lot of thoughts were running through his mind, and Tang Xuhai looked back in puzzlement.

“If you have enough materials, you can actually make a full-body armour, which will grant you more effective protection.” Fu Shiwu seriously suggested: “Today, I discovered through fighting with those special ability users that the ideas we used to hold onto in the past were too backward-thinking. They’ll put us in a very passive position.”

Tang Xuhai stroked his chin and said: “A full-body steel armour? The army’s tech advancement department actually has this kind of equipment, but it’s not provided to the soldiers on a large scale. You’re right, in any case, in a world like this, no one is here to keep control anymore. We may be able to take a look at those classified equipment.”

“I didn’t mean that.” Fu Shiwu waved his hand and explained: “I was talking about your own metal ability. It can not only manifest into armour, but can even create spikes and blades at certain spots.”

Fu Shiwu reached out his hands and cupped Tang Xuhai’s fist as he continued: “For example, your fist. Spikes can protrude from here.” Then he stretched out a finger and probed Tang Xuhai’s elbow: “On the other hand, this spot can be equipped with a blade, so that when you use your elbow to attack, you can directly slash the opponent.”

Tang Xuhai’s eyes beamed brightly as he heard those words. Following Fu Shiwu’s examples, Tang Xuhai was able to conceptualise those ideas. Based on the Special Forces’ killing techniques, different metal parts started popping up in his mind. The shoulders could be bumped up with spikes and the heels could also be equipped with inverted blades… 

Unexpectedly, his brain had been immensely stimulated, and he started fantasising about himself looking like an extinct sabertodon with its back densely covered in sharp blades.

“Cough!” Tang Xuhai held back the thoughts that were loudly charging through his head like a herd of wild horses. Finally snapping out of it, he patted Fu Shi Wu’s silly-looking hair.

“?” Fu Shiwu looked at him in confusion.

“You ah…” Tang Xuhai gazed at him with rather complicated eyes: “Usually you’re such a simple man, how did you even come up with such ruthless ideas?”

“Ruthless?” Fu Shiwu became a bit embarrassed: “I didn’t actually think much. I just saw your steel armour pants, then I started making associations…”

Really, just how does his brain look like? Tang Xuhai rubbed Fu Shiwu’s head as a sense of incredibility swept over him, and Fu Shiwu grumpily retaliated by slapping him on the shoulder.

Meanwhile, Miao Jia asked the young girl with a soft voice: “Hey, what’s your name?” 

The girl’s face stiffened a bit. Miao Jia kept watching with so much interest, so she could only take a deep breath and said lightly: “My surname is Zhen, Zhen in Zhen Huan1甄嬛 [Zhen Huan] refers to the main character in ‘Empresses In The Palace’, a famous Chinese drama about conflicts in the royal palace.. My name has only a single syllable, Zi.”

“Oh.” Miao Jia slowly reacted: “Zhen… Zi? “

Seeing the girl nodding so stiffly, Miao Jia mumbled the name under his breath: “Zhen Zi, Zhen Zi…… Sadako?!2Zhen Zi’s name is homophonous to the Chinese name of Sadako [Chinese: 贞子], the ghost from the famous Japanese horror movie ‘The Ring’.“

As his eyes widened with amazement, the young girl Zhen Zi felt dejected like a deflated rubber ball.

“Pfft hahaha!” Miao Jia burst out and laughed until he almost rolled all over the floor. His heavy heart finally felt a hint of relief. 

Zhen Zi sukily looked at Miao Jia, who had attracted the curious eyes of others: “What’s so funny?!”

Miao Jia wiped the corners of her eyes: “How much grudge must the person who named you have against you?”

“Roll away!” “Zhen Zi scolded in embarrassment: “My father’s surname is Zhen, and my mother’s is an uncommon surname, Zi! So my name is Zhen Zi. Who knew my name would be the same as that famous ghost!” 

Only after the year 2000, when the name Sadako became famous in the film industry, did her father and mother realise such a coincidence. But it couldn’t just be because of this that they would let their daughter, who had worked so hard for several years to finally learn to write her own name, change her name?

Speaking of which, the mother wasn’t very happy about the daughter anyway, so the father  wasn’t bothered at all. He didn’t even think about how his daughter would feel when she grew up.

Zhen Zi was a music student in the provincial capital, and her major was choir. She was having her summer holiday with her classmates when the apocalypse began. At that point, they became isolated, then Zhen Zi developed a fever.

After recovering from the illness, Zhen Zi and her classmates wanted to rush home, but they encountered an alien attack. That was when Zhen Zi discovered her explosive sound-type ability.

Among her classmates, only one awakened her special ability, while the others only, at best, turned into mutants.

Although a few male classmates were jealous of her new-found ability, Zhen Zi didn’t pay them any mind and still protected all her classmates, until they fell into Shi Zheng’s hands.

The classmates who didn’t mutate were directly sent to be bait, and those who mutated became cannon fodder. Zhen Zi desperately worked for Shi Zheng, constantly using her ability in exchange for keeping the last classmate, who was also her good friend, alive.

But, at one moment when Zhen Zi wasn’t there, the girl was humiliated by Shi Zheng’s cruel men.

As she stared at her friend who was taking her last breaths, Zhen Zi could only feel pain and regret.

But the friend said to her with a smile and tears trickling down her cheeks: “Actually, I was dragging you down… Maybe you’ll be able to escape if you’re by yourself… You are not a saviour, you can’t save everyone. Take care of yourself well, Zhen Zhen……”

Before her death, the friend insisted that Zhen Zi must escape. Towards Shi Zheng and his men, Zhen Zi abhorred them to the core, so how could she escape like this? As such, she began to resist.

But she ended up being locked up because of her ability.

Zhen Zi would never forget the look on the friend’s face during her dying moments, and she would never give up on her revenge.

She must kill Shi Zheng.

After a short break, Fu Shiwu began to use his perception ability to observe Shi Zheng’s movements.

Now he didn’t need to exert so much power to cover a large area; he just had to pay attention to Shi Zheng alone.

As long as he started moving, it would be a sign that he would strike soon, and Fu Shiwu’s team must quickly rush over.

Then they would wait until all his subordinates had been all ordered to withdraw, with only a small number staying behind with Shi Zheng to detonate the bombs.

Fu Shiwu’s eyebrows twitched slightly and his eyes slowly opened. Having watched him closely, Tang Xuhai took notice at once.

“They can’t defend the place anymore.” Fu Shiwu blinked a few times, then stood up.

Seeing him getting up, one after another, the other team members also stood up.

“He’s heading east.” Fu Shiwu said, a flash of light gleaming in his eyes.

“East?” Zhen Zi thought for a moment and said: “There’s a gate over there, but it was later reinforced by an earth-type ability user.”

“Uhm, Shi Zheng has separated from his men.” Fu Shiwu reached out to grab Tang Xuhai’s wrist: “We’ll move now!”

Tang Xuhai nodded. At this point, Fu Shiwu’s mind was wholly focused on Shi Zheng, rendering him unable to pay attention to the situation around them, so Tang Xuhai directly pulled Fu Shiwu over.

In Fu Shiwu’s perception, Shi Zheng and his men were fighting and retreating at the same time. The majority of the gang members had withdrawn, and the aliens gathered by the evolved aliens had swarmed into Ping Nan prison. They were swifting charging towards the civilians’ square like a gigantic tide.

“Is this deliberately leading them over?” Huo Enting said with a suspecting tone.

“Don’t make any sound.” Wang Dan whispered.

The few remaining ability users were extremely powerful, immense powers gushing out of their hands. They were luring the aliens to run past the spot where Fu Shiwu’s team was hiding.

“Where is Shi Zheng?” Zhen Zi mumbled anxiously.

“Aliens only chase after people who pose a serious threat to them. If Shi Zheng doesn’t strike them himself, he won’t attract their attention.” Tang Xuhai whispered.

“Yes, so he didn’t come here… A strange alien is coming, stay quiet!” Fu Shiwu suddenly voiced out in a haste.

At this moment, a white shadow swiftly flashed past them. With his perfect eyesight, Tang Xuhai could clearly see the creature’s movement, and he gasped in sheer dismay.

Although this alien was thinner than an evolved alien, it was taller and had fairer skin. The bulging forehead at the top of its head indicated that it was likely smarter.

It was just that, the disproportionately huge head due to its developed brain really gave out a creepy feeling.