Epoch of Twilight

People were talking in unison at the information monitoring center in Desert City; the commotion there was as noisy as a marketplace. This center controlled the monitoring system throughout the city and it also served as a hub for information exchange.

In the apocalypse, as the eyes and ears of the city, there was no exaggeration of how important this center was. This rare cemented building in the Desert City was more than enough to prove it.

As a matter of fact, its main office area was ten meters under the refuge floors. The information center would still be safely untouched, even if the entire Desert City was destroyed despite its strong defence system.

"District C3 is now at peace, the crypt worm is presumed to be dead," a monitor reported loudly in excitement. A minute later, "Same goes to my area, there’s nothing here in District A5," another monitor said.

"The monitoring system in District D4 has been destroyed, but the army had been withdrawn, I believe things are settled by now."

The announcements of the reports had come and gone, making the routine atmosphere lively again. The red dots on the big screen on the wall were disappearing quickly. The interval was less than half a minute.

"What is happening?" One of them removed his earphones and asked curiously.

"Yea, how are the red dots disappearing so fast?" another person asked in confusion.

"This is way too unusual, should we report this to the departmental head?"

"I don’t think so, as he has already been receiving calls out there. As he is still not back, my only guess is that this is about the matter at hand."

...

The crypt worms’ level was not high, even the highest one was only at a light-green level. They were incomparable with the Desert City’s strong defense system, where they could be killed with one heavy artillery shot. But even the strongest creature was fragile inside. Humans were capable of killing a beast, but they could not avoid bacteria. Should the mutated beasts ever invade the city, the risk would be multiplied.

That was when an evolved person was needed.

For Luo Yuan’s ability, such a battle was easy as one, two, three. Moreover, Desert City was rather small. In merely half an hour, he managed to kill most of them. When Luo Yuan got back to the City Hall, there were more people in the small office; even more crowded than before. After Mayor Wu’s introduction, only then he realized that most of the leaders in Desert City were there.

Courteous and pretentious conversations filled the room but Luo Yuan was not interested. He excused himself along with the gang with a good reason of being exhausted from the journey. Of course, Luo Yuan did not have to worry about their accommodation. With Little Zhen, the secretary leading the way, they arrived at a ‘high class’ area and stopped at a ‘villa’ that was three-storeys high.

"Mr Luo, all of you will be staying here for the night. We will arrange something else for you guys tomorrow, please do not mind this." Secretary Little Zhen said, with respect.

"I don’t demand much on accommodation. As long as it is livable, it’s fine by me." Luo Yuan said.

It would be ridiculous if they were to even mind how their sleeping conditions were. During the apocalypse, they were thankful if they had the chance to put up in the military base and the cave. Once, they were even sleeping under the sun.

"Here are the keys. Oh right!" Little Zhen thought of something and said, "There will not be water nor electricity supply after 10 o’clock at night in this district. If you would like to wash up, you will have to do it before that. It’s late, please allow me to excuse myself now."

Once Luo Yuan took the keys, Little Zhen left quickly. As a sensory-based evolved person, his sensory perception was much more sensitive than the others were. Immense pressure was everywhere, it gave him an illusion that he was not facing a human, but a scary level-five mutated beast. Even the short exchange of words mentally exhausted him, and he would have already lost control if he did not calm himself down.

...

Naturally, the villa could not be compared with the ones before the apocalypse. It was just a three-storey wooden house. There was not much difference with the ones they saw by the street. But if they were to look carefully, there were a few differences. The making of the villa was more detailed, and there were no gaps between the planks. Luo Yuan did an evaluation secretly and found out that the wood that was used, was anything but ordinary. It was a blue-level wood. Although such grade of wood was everywhere in the apocalypse, it was not valuable, but considering the challenges to process such a wood, it was indeed admirable.

Not only that, the materials they used were luxurious. The door alone was 5 centimeters thick, and the wall was 15 centimeters. Speaking of defense, it could be easily better than the normal 30 centimeters cement wall.

Luo Yuan then opened the door, they could not wait to go and head straight to the living room.

Wang Xiaguang found the light switch in the dark, and with a flick, the room was lit up.

Wang Shishi saw that there was a couch in the living room. She ran towards it with glee and sat down. "Such a big house! It would be great if we could stay here permanently."

"Yea, everything is wonderful here," said Huang Jiahui, as she picked up a piece of cloth from the coffee table and wiped away the dust.

"Sigh, you are all so easily contented. With Boss Luo’s ability, we can do even better than this in the future!" said Huo Dong in excitement. From what the secretary said, this should be just an expedient. To get closer to Boss Luo, much flattering and cajoling was needed to get into his good books.

He was just a businessman before the apocalypse. He probably only knew one deputy chief and bought him a meal, they were just mere acquaintances. He was invisible to the city leaders, as they have never met before. But today, not only the leaders were passionate, they were even trying to brown-nose him. Although he was not the main person, being part of the gang, he was proud of himself.

"Don’t talk about a small city like this, I believe Boss Luo will get the same treatment even if he goes to the New Capital City. I guess there is no level five evolved person there at all. The leaders would be crazy if they don’t want to get closer to you." Commander Xia said while laughing.

They were excited, but once they relaxed, there was an unstoppable vibe within them. Luo Yuan looked at the time and interrupted, "It’s already 9:30 at night now. It’s late, go wash up now, and we will talk tomorrow."

Only then they recalled there would be no electricity and water supply after 10 o’clock. If they did not wash up now, they would have to wait until the next day.

...

Luo Yuan briefly cleaned himself and walked to the master bedroom on the first floor. He discovered that Huang Jiahui had placed the mat properly and brought a bucket of water.

"Why don’t you shower in the bathroom?" Luo Yuan asked while picking up the stack of old newspapers on the bed head.

"There are too many people in there, I’m not used to it." Huang Jiahui glanced at Luo Yuan and took off her clothes, revealing her plump body while slowly cleaning herself.

"Be patient, it will be better soon." Luo Yuan said while reading the newspaper.

"I’m grateful that we can even stay here. Compared to the harsh wilderness, this feels like heaven," said Huang Jiahui, full of emotions. She then hinted, "Hey, do you remember how long has it been since we last spent the night together?"

Luo Yuan did not say a thing. Huang Jiahui turned around and saw he was frowning, his attention was on the newspaper.