Night of Despair

"It's a man!" Doctor Xu at this moment twisted open the door, turned her head back to look at him.

"I take back what I said about you being a burden, and thank you for saving me. But now, your decision is really stupid!"

She couldn't understand how there could be someone like Yu Hong in this world, he seemed like an overly idealistic and naive person. What he said and did were always things that ordinary people couldn't comprehend.

Now it seemed that Yu Hong might be somewhat capable, being able to construct this kind of reinforced wooden door was indeed a skill.

But he was too full of himself...

"You'll regret it. You don't understand how hard the high tide period is," Doctor Xu couldn't help but sneer.

That was just her personality.

"It's not too late to change your mind and come with us!"

She stared at Yu Hong and finally revealed a deeply hidden persuasion.

"No thanks," Yu Hong shook his head, "I prefer living alone."

"You!" Doctor Xu's face changed slightly, snorted, and walked out, pulling Little Stutter with her.

"Hurry up! It just rained, and the ground is difficult to navigate, we must move fast! First, we'll go to a patient I once saved and stay there temporarily!"

She finally stopped paying attention to Yu Hong, forcibly pulling Little Stutter and hastening out of the cave, jumping off the cliff, and running toward the distance.

Little Stutter looked back at Yu Hong as she ran.

"Yu, Hong!" She waved with all her might. "The house, the things, all yours!"

She felt that this might be the last time she saw him, and it made her heart a bit heavy.

"Thanks!" Yu Hong too waved his hand, with a smile appearing on his face.

Watching the two of them run further and further away on the wet forest ground, quickly shrinking until they turned into two tiny specks.

Suddenly, he had a feeling.

Maybe Doctor Xu and Little Stutter won't come back for a long time...

The sudden appearance of the giant blood ticks seemed to signal that the external environment had begun to deteriorate even further...

If in the future, the presence of Big Skin became the norm...

Yu Hong stopped thinking further.

Looking in the direction where the two had disappeared, a deep sense of loneliness suddenly surged in his heart.

Suddenly, he took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Yiyi! I'll be waiting here for you always!!"

The sound was loud, echoing continuously through the mountains and forests, sending wave after wave into the distance.

The two distant specks paused briefly, then continued moving until they completely vanished from sight.

At this moment, more golden beams pierced through the grey clouds, illuminating the land and the forests.

Yu Hong looked in the direction where the two had gone, then toward Baiqiu Village.

"Now there's no one left," he let out a breath.

"Just me alone."

All the surviving villagers living in the vicinity, if they encounter Big Skin, will definitely make the same decision as Doctor Xu.

They will all seek out larger bunkers, as just a few individuals could no longer fend off stronger monsters.

"Maybe for dozens of kilometers around, I'm the only one living in the wild now..."

Yu Hong looked at the quiet, deathly still Baiqiu Village, the old houses full of patches, as if emitting a cold and eerie sense of death.

From the mouth of the cave, one could barely make out a glimpse of the village outline through the forest.

Yu Hong stood motionless at the entrance of the cave, standing for a long time.

Suddenly his pupils contracted, his muscles tensing slightly.

In the distance, he saw a figure appear at the entrance to Baiqiu Village's broken stone road.

It was a middle-aged man in grey and white old clothes, with a thin frame.

From this distance, it was impossible to make out the man's features.

All he could see was the man, far away, seeming to smile and wave in his direction.

The stranger just stood at the entrance of the village, right hand raised, mechanically waving toward Yu Hong.

Yu Hong blinked, but in the blink of an eye, he found that the figure had disappeared.

"Shadow..." he clenched his teeth, feeling a sourness in his jaws.

The frequency of shadows appearing in broad daylight was getting higher... According to what Little Stutter said, it wasn't like this before.

This was not normal.

Plus with the newly emerged giant blood ticks, Big Skin...

"Just as the radio said... The environment is deteriorating... It's getting more and more troublesome."

Yu Hong slowly stepped back, no longer looking in the direction of the village. Instead, he looked for the wooden barrel he had previously used to collect rainwater.

Soon, he found a barrel missing a big chunk on the grassland some ten meters away from the cave entrance.

Thankfully, it still contained a small amount of rainwater.

He struggled to lift it and returned to the cave.

Then, he checked the wooden door, placing his hand on the door plank.

'Repair?' the mechanical voice of the Black Mark rose again.

'Yes,' Yu Hong mentally responded.

Suddenly a thin black line flowed out from the Black Mark on the back of his hand, leaving his hand instantly and merging into the wooden door.

A countdown then appeared, visible only to Yu Hong.

Seeing that the repair had started, he breathed a sigh of relief, opened the door slightly, and let some of the outside wind blow in.

Then he started to check the food and supplies stored in the cave.

1 A bag of enhanced protein bars, ten sticks. It could sustain him for ten days if the packaging wasn't exaggerating.

2 A big bag of dried mushrooms and vegetables that Little Stutter had given him, enough for one person to eat for quite some time under normal circumstances, ensuring the supply of trace elements and dietary fiber.

3 A stinky cotton quilt.

4 A radio.

5 Two round wooden stools.

6 One stove.

7 A broken water bucket.

8 A piece of enhanced pyroxene.

9 A set of axe and saw logging kit.

10 One enhanced candle.

These were all the main things, other daily necessities were all in the house at Baiqiu Village.

But...

Yu Hong approached the main door's window and looked in that direction.

Under the sunlight, the dilapidated old village was faintly visible, and at every household's doors and windows, blurred figures could be seen standing.

They stood silently, motionless.

As Yu Hong watched, they seemed to sense something and began to look back in his direction.

"So many!" Yu Hong's scalp tingled, and with a swoosh, he closed the wooden cover, blocking the view from the window.

Baiqiu Village had obviously changed from before and had become more dangerous.

It wasn't just the blood ticks that were showing changes, even the mysterious figures...

"During daylight, with the sun this bright, it should be impossible for there to be so many mysterious figures... how can there be now..." He couldn't understand.

In his hand, he had only one enhanced pyroxene left, the rest he had all set into the walls and the main door.

That's right, there's also the club!

Yu Hong grabbed the steel-spiked club and surveyed the cave once more, glancing at the embedded enhanced pyroxenes, and felt a bit safer.

He was now somewhat understanding of Doctor Xu's point of view.

She was right.

If there was no Black Mark on him, heading to the bunker in town was the best, and the only way out.

"Right, I wonder if the enhanced pyroxenes can be repaired and recharged after use..." Yu Hong sat down on a round wooden stool, picking up a piece of enhanced pyroxene that had been used before.

This stone was one he had taken off the steel-spiked club.

The white stone, the size of an egg, had lost its jade-like texture and turned into a pallid white similar to limestone.

The runes on the surface were still there, but upon closer inspection, one could notice many fractures in the rune lines.

They had become discontinuous.

Holding the enhanced pyroxene, Yu Hong sat quietly, staring at the countdown numbers on the main door.

He dared not go out.

The outside was clearly abnormal.

Tomorrow was the surge period, but today was already exhibiting extreme abnormalities.

Over at Baiqiu Village, there was something Stutter had said he'd leave for him, but he didn't dare to go get it now.

Because it was too dangerous...

Just now, from a single distant glance, he had seen no fewer than twenty mysterious figures, and these dared to show up in the daylight.

This was completely different from before. If these mysterious figures attacked, his enhanced pyroxenes would not be able to hold them back.

Yu Hong kept his eyes on the numbers while thinking.

"Good thing I gave Yiyi an enhanced pyroxene before I left, and also taught her the more complex runes on it... Should be useful to her..."

Hiss.

Just then, as he was thinking, the wooden door in front of him suddenly blurred.

In an instant, the originally damaged door with cracks turned back into its complete and undamaged state, as if it were as new as when it was first made.

All the damages, cracks, the screws that had come loose, and so on, were all reinforced and restored.

Yu Hong let out a breath of relief and stood up to inspect carefully.

He made sure there were no issues; the main door had indeed returned to its original state, just as he had strengthened it in the beginning.

A wave of immense relief washed over him.

"But it's not enough."

The thought of Big Skin's terrifying impact caused a shadow to envelop his eyes.

After some thought, he picked up the steel-spiked pyroxene club and, with caution, opened the door to step outside the cave.

Outside was a quiet, lush forest.

The moisture from a recent rain was evaporating, forming a light mist that spread through the trees, beginning to obscure the visibility.

Yu Hong felt a twinge of alertness with the fog becoming increasingly indistinct.

But he needed to go to the place where he had made the wooden door before to find a few long planks to create reinforcing brackets.

With the steel-spiked pyroxene club in hand, he made as little noise as possible as he descended the rock wall and arrived at a small clearing in the forest.

There were a few sawn-off stumps scattered around the place, traces of burnt wood, and sawdust from cutting trees.

This was the spot where he had made the wooden door before.

Yu Hong looked around to ensure there was no danger and then quickly gathered two thick planks of arm-thick wood from the ground.

These materials were leftovers from before because they weren't straight enough to use.

But now they were perfect to use as door bolts and support pillars.

Dragging the two planks, over a meter long, Yu Hong returned to the cave.

The planks were wet from the rain and felt humid.

But he ignored these details, unconcerned with whether they were wet or not, focusing on getting through the next few surge days.

He took out a saw, made a few rough measurements, and began vigorously sawing the planks.

Shortly, the two thick planks were slightly adjusted and modified at both ends, fitting perfectly against the back of the wooden door at an incline, reinforcing its defense.

Having completed this, Yu Hong placed a hand on one of the planks.

In his mind, he thought about strengthening the door's reinforcing brackets.

This was his test.

On the surface, they were just two rough wooden brackets; if he gave them a functional name, could they be targeted for strengthening by the Black Mark?

If not, it would mean the Black Mark had specific requirements for the strengthening target.

If so, then the possibilities were greatly expanded...

He silently recited with one hand on the plank.

Soon.

"Would you like to strengthen the main door's reinforcing brackets?"

As a faint voice audible only to him resounded,

Yu Hong's expectant gaze turned expectant!

He saw numbers emerging on the planks: 11 minutes.

"Yes!"

He answered forcefully in his mind.

Workable!!

It really works!!!

At the same time, a flutter of excitement rose in his heart.

If this was the case, then I could set up a simple water filtration system, and it should also be strengthened and refined!

And furniture, various tools, as long as I give them a designated functional name, perhaps...