Chapter 9 - Village of The Impaired

Combatants were people who often needed to leave their sentiments behind. On the battlefield, things were always changing and time was constantly fleeting, so if one spent too much time dealing with his emotions and fell into panic at the wrong moment, even the gods wouldn’t be able to save him.

Shu Jun felt especially calm at the moment.

He had tried several hibernation pods, and the system’s response had been exactly the same, so it probably wasn’t fake. Let’s take a step back: if Zhu Yanchen just wanted to make a huge joke, then this prank was excessively complicated. From the ‘kidnapping’ of Zhu Yanchen to the Corpse Parasite at the corpse disposal site, there were too many uncontrollable variables in each event.

Combining all that with his own state right now, Shu Jun must admit that “The world of [Erosion] is the real world” logically made the most sense.

He couldn’t help but reminisce about his own life.

His life in the past twenty odd years had been mediocre. Shu Jun was an orphan and had no memories of his parents, and had been taken care of by staff from public agencies since childhood. In such a technologically advanced environment, he didn’t have to stay with an adult, nor was he bored living all alone. They delivered three meals a day to his door, as well as checked on him regularly. Except for going to school, he spent most of his time playing games at home — board games, puzzle games and action games. As long as there were some games to occupy him, Shu Jun found no issues.

He had lived alone since he was 8 years old.

He went on to play normally and make friends normally. There was little difference between today and the day before, and it was easy to guess what would happen the day after. He grew up normally just like that, and thanks to his outstanding ability, he smoothly became a professional game player — In his world, this life trajectory was considered very standard.

If he had to find something extraordinary that had ever happened to him, it would be that he was once ‘blessed’ in a simulated battle organised by the school.

[Erosion] was a form of entertainment with peak popularity, so schools would also offer related elective courses. Before Shu Jun turned 11, his performance in the combat course wasn’t good — it wasn’t because of his poor combat training or lack of strategy ideas, on the contrary, he had too many odd ideas. With his monstrous  intuition, he constantly came up with new ideas that turned the entire strategy messy.

At one point, his grades were so bad that he was on the verge of being dismissed.

At that time, Shu Jun only found it boring. For an 11-year-old child, getting into combat training was too tedious, and Shu Jun was an especially playful type. Shu Jun did consider giving up, but his competitive nature didn’t allow him to be kicked out of the course in such a manner, so he had to bring himself to try to mix in.

The miracle appeared in the final simulation test.

Obviously it was the same test like every other day, but somehow, Shu Jun felt particularly enlightened. Shu Jun’s commands and strategy were as bold as usual, but nothing went wrong at all. It had been a very long time, so Shu Jun couldn’t remember the details of that battle, only the feeling that his heart beat so fast it almost burst, and the feeling of courage and confidence continuously flowing through him.

And a vague yet very firm impression — as long as he was willing to work hard, he would never fail.

Shu Jun resolutely nailed those feelings and impression into his mind, and his grades skyrocketed after that. The instructor even smiled and said that Shu Jun had gotten back his senses at the last minute, but Shu Jun himself knew very well that these feelings weren’t simply a result of experience, rather, they were thanks to his sudden enlightenment. Someone probably pointed out to him that he was hiding a very passionate heart behind his nonchalant façade, but he couldn’t quite remember it clearly.

To make an analogy, he felt as though he was blessed by some ‘surreal’ existence.

After that, although the Blackbird team he led occasionally lagged behind other teams in terms of points, they would always win in the end. He himself won many battles and eventually became the No. 1 ‘Undead Legend’.

Thinking about it now, he never really knew how many times he had strolled past death. His life was no different from a long training prior to a battle. If he was actually dismissed from the course at that time, what would he end up as? Was that inexplicable ‘blessing’ actually an interference from outside? 

But one thing was certain, that ‘blessing’ had been refined by countless battles, and it was still in effect right now.

It made him stand here calmly, standing among his sleeping companions in those hibernation pods, himself not being crushed by the truth. He was a fighting machine made in this world, so he would fight to the end just like always.

And he knew he would win.

For this, Zhu Yanchen was necessary. It didn’t matter what purpose Marshal Zhu was having when he first came into contact with Shu Jun. Shu Jun wouldn’t let go of this valuable source of information — If he was running away alone, perhaps he himself would be enough; but, to save his companions, cooperation with Zhu Yanchen was his only way out.

As for his vague crush on Haze, Shu Jun decided to press it deep into his heart and let it die down itself. His world had been completely overturned, and the ‘Haze’ in front of him was a brand new person, a partner whom he needed to be cautious with —  The state of this world was bad, and someone who could rise to the position of a marshal was definitely no simple man.

“Happy cooperating.” Shu Jun said in a relaxed tone: “Okay, I know what you’re worried about. I won’t go berserk here, and I won’t just bring these members out right now — You’ve been struggling a lot just to try to tell me the truth, and I’ve also stood at the edge of death a few times. The Blackbird team has more than 300 core members. Even if they open the door and let me take my members away, I’ll have trouble with the resources and managing them later.”

Zhu Yanchen let out a cold breath, his whole body tightening up: “Indeed.”

“If I really wanted to take them away, what would you do?” Shu Jun asked half-jokingly.

“Blast off your arms with a purifying gun.” Zhu Yanchen’s words totally didn’t sound like a joke, and he showed no intention to unlock the handcuffs at all.

“…” This sounded a bit like a threat.

“Since we’re not leaving yet, we need to replenish supplies, because now we can’t go back to that secret room of yours.” Shu Jun continued . “At the beginning, you brought a briefcase with all those strange things. We need clothes and food… Speaking of which, is there enough for me to eat?” 

The Erosion Marsh inside him was definitely not the kind that would be full with an afternoon tea.

“Normal food can make you feel better. To fill your stomach, you can try the mutated monsters outside.” Zhu Yanchen pulled slightly on the handcuffs, and the two began to walk towards the door. “This is the first time I see a case like yours, so I can only make rough guesses for now.” 

The handcuffs still hadn’t been unlocked, but Zhu Yanchen’s mood seemed to be a bit better.

As they returned to the roof, one was carrying a large backpack stuffed to the rim with supplies. The corpse handler had been earnestly staying at the same spot. Shu Jun picked her up and let out an “Ouch” from the added weight.

A wind-type special ability was very convenient, but usually the Blackbird team wouldn’t let the captain act as a transport aircraft.

The woman pointed to a stronghold that was extremely far away. Shu Jun had to exert his energy for a long time, and by the time they landed, he wilted like a half-dead man.

The stronghold was terribly run-down, and the surrounding purifiers weren’t even operating, their colour eaten up by the erosion. The building wasn’t lit up, and lines of dark cracks lay on the wall, casting a ghostly aura on the whole place. Instead of looking like a stronghold, this actually looked like a battle map. Shu Jun still remained vigilant, but Zhu Yanchen already took a step forward.

“You want to come by yourself. The purifiers here are no longer working, we won’t be responsible if something goes wrong.” The woman mumbled, leading them into the building.

After saying that, she turned around again: “It’s too late now, everyone is asleep, and I can’t talk to you alone. Here, there’s a vacant room on the right hand side. You can make do with it for one night. We can talk tomorrow.”

As though fearing that they would turn down her proposal, she ran away right after finishing the sentence.

“Remove the handcuffs.” Shu Jun shook his wrist, and his occupational habit popped up at once: “I’ll look around this place first.”

Zhu Yanchen just stood there like a stone statue, but he wasn’t expressionless — He raised his eyebrows at Shu Jun.

“…Wait, A Yan, do you really think I’ll go berserk now?”

“When I let you move around freely before, you immediately tried to restrain me and even asked someone for the coordinates. If it weren’t for your rather strong mental stability, we might have fought until you died and I lived.” Zhu Yanchen said, his tone sounding like a soft hiss.     

Shu Jun tried to joke around: “But since I’m trying so hard to clarify this whole situation, doesn’t it mean that my mental stability is exceptional?”

Zhu Yanchen remained unflinching: “I won’t let you go for the next three days.”

“…” Shu Jun swallowed hard: “It’s useless if it’s only three days. I can act nice for three days.”

Zhu Yanchen raised the corner of his mount and made a soft hum in his throat, which almost sounded like a polite chuckle. He might as well laugh, Shu Jun thought, this reaction looks as though he’s mocking me.

But to be honest, Shu Jun really never knew how to put up an act.

“All right, but I still think it’s better to look around first.” Shu Jun closed his eyes.

“I’ll go with you.”

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Shu Jun looked up and down at Zhu Yanchen. The latter opened the backpack and took out two unsophisticated gun-shaped weapons: “Let’s go together.”

Of course, the fraud corpse handler didn’t head to bed directly. In this quiet building, people’s movements were particularly easy to hear. The two of them made very light steps and moved quickly in the direction of some vague human voice. Zhu Yanchen’s sneaking skill was unexpectedly good, and his level of door picking could make even professional thieves feel ashamed — What kind of marshal is this guy?

The clash of their handcuffs was probably the loudest sound that the two of them made.

The erosion here was quite severe, and electronic equipment was rarely seen. Without the trouble of security cameras, they could move quite fast — By the time they caught up with the woman again, the conversation between her and another person in the room seemed to have just begun, and she was taking off her gas mask.

Shu Jun looked through the crack on the door.

The woman put the mask on the table. Her face looked as though it had been invaded with a huge cyst, her facial features pushed to the edge of her face, like the pattern on an over-inflated balloon. Shu Jun recognised this, for he had seen the same thing on other NPCs previously. This was one of the complications caused by long-term exposure to Erosion Marsh. You might still be okay by not coming into contact with erosive substances and taking some medicine, but if you lived in this kind of place, the only thing that awaited you was death.

He subconsciously glanced at Zhu Yanchen next to him. Zhu Yanchen put one hand on his shoulder, his expression even grimmer than Shu Jun’s.

“I encountered a Corpse Parasite today, and I was found out.” The woman said anxiously: “Lao Wei, you listen to me, they have guns, and they force me to bring them here.” 

“Someone from the army?” The person she was talking to couldn’t be seen from this angle, and only an old voice could be heard.

“He shouldn’t be. That man wears a mask, it sounds like he’s from the city. He also brings with him a… I don’t know how to say it, he brings with him a monster. Now the monster is still following him. I ask them to rest first. Lao Wei, what should our village do —”

“If he isn’t from the army, it’s fine. Let them rest and we’ll entertain them tomorrow. Anyway, we have nothing to be robbed off here.”

“But that mons—” The woman stopped the sentence as soon as she opened her mouth and swallowed back her voice, probably because she was silently warned by the other man. “Or we can find someone to make a move on our behalf. Lao Wang still has a gun.”

“They discovered your fraud identity and dared to come here with you, what can a gun do? Let’s not provoke them, what if you drag more people to die with you. Xiao Xi, go to bed first. I know you’re worried, but this matter can’t be rushed.” 

The woman opened her mouth again. Her face had been so deformed that this particular facial movement was scary to look at.

“Okay, I understand.” A few seconds later, she replied dejectedly.

Seeing her turning back to the gas mask, the two eavesdroppers outside the door immediately retreated. After the woman went out, they ran away without leaving a trace behind.

“It seems that we will be okay for the time being. For safety, let’s take turns to watch the night.”

“You sleep.” Zhu Yanchen said concisely.

“You can make it?” 

“Used to it.” Zhuyan Chen nodded: “Today you’ve consumed a lot of energy, so you’d better take a rest first. If you get ‘hungry’ like back then again, we’ll be in trouble.”

Then the guy sat down on the bed, opened his briefcase and pulled out two documents.

It seemed that even if Shu Jun was asleep, Zhu Yanchen didn’t intend to unlock the handcuffs. Disheartened, Shu Jun had no choice but to lie down. He was clearly tired, but he couldn’t sleep.

The bed was quite hard with its edges showing signs of erosion, and the sheets were dusty. But the air here made him feel refreshed, even though the concentration of erosive substance in it wasn’t low. Shu Jun turned sideways and looked at Zhu Yanchen, who was still wearing a mask. The guy was sitting upright and meticulously looking at the documents, his gloves brushing across the papers. The rustling sound was actually quite pleasant.

Zhu Yanchen didn’t change his torn protective clothing but only put on a coat outside.

Marshal Zhu wasn’t a girl. Even if he was handcuffed to Shu Jun, he shouldn’t be so shy that he couldn’t change his protective clothing. Only the gods would know how many secrets this guy is hiding, Shu Jun rolled over and closed his eyes.

His breathing quickly became soft and stable.

Knowing for certain that the person beside him was asleep, Zhu Yanchen gently put down the document in his hands and stood up carefully. He frowned and drank a potion, then, still keeping the two of them handcuffed, he began to unbutton his protective suit.

In order to cope with various situations, the design of protective clothing was relatively complex, but there were many ways to disassemble it. It was easy to take it off even with just one hand.

He silently removed his torn jacket, pulled out a new one from the freshly looted supplies and quickly put it on. If Shu Jun still kept his eyes open, maybe he would be able to see Zhu Yanchen’s back.

The skin on Zhu Yanchen’s behind was also pale, but it was densely covered with many fine scars. They weren’t traces of old battles, rather, they looked more like surgical scars, and several new scars were still carrying a faint shade of grey. He put on a new suit in a blink and quickly came back to his neat appearance, looking proper enough to enter the conference room in the next second.

Then he sat back on the bed, turned around and stretched out his unhandcuffed hand. There was no hug and no touch; his gloved hand simply picked up a few strands of grey hair on Shu Jun, brushing them back to their intended position.

“Good night.” He said, then turned his gaze back to the document in his hand.

When Shu Jun woke up, the sky was already bright. This place wasn’t a heavily eroded zone, so there was still a little difference between day and night. Zhu Yanchen was sitting against the headboard like a statue. If the document in his hand hadn’t turned into a book, Shu Jun would think he hadn’t moved all night.

“Morning.” Shu Jun muttered.

“Morning.” Zhu Yanchen turned around and picked up a needle, then directly pierced it into Shu Jun’s skin.

Shu Jun: “…”

“How do you feel?”

“I’m okay.”

Shu Jun glanced at his arm that had just been injected. The slightly dull complexion and mutated nails hadn’t recovered, and the bandaged wounds were still there. But he felt comfortable, as if he was simply poking his head out after spending the night under three layers of cotton quilt. The fatigue that he constantly felt earlier was gone, and his physical condition was good enough to be on the battlefield.

“…Just a little hungry.” He added solemnly.

Zhu Yanchen took out a bar of emergency ration from the backpack: “Very good, I just happened to look at your hunger stats. You eat this first, and we can go hunting when we have time.”

“Since we’re already partners, at least tell me a bit. Why do you want to come here? Where is this place?”

With one hand still handcuffed and his nails transformed into claws, Shu Jun struggled to open the package of ration. Zhu Yanchen took it back, tore an opening and threw it to Shu Jun.

“I’ve always wanted to be here from the beginning. It’s just that I met with an unexpected variable, so there was no need to find other ways to get into here.”

“From the beginning?”

“Well, you’re the unexpected variable in my plan.”

“…”

“This place is ‘Village of The Impaired’.” Zhu Yanchen continued to speak as he put the book back into the backpack.

“A place where you’ll find people who are probably ‘your kin’.”

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