Chapter 41: The Battle at North Summit Hotel

The two people locked in combat had no idea that the Special Abilities Administration and the Security Administration had already learned of the situation here through Li Chenqiu's phone call and had already formulated a battle plan.

Compared to the bustling downtown, the open mountaintop was the comfort zone of the Special Abilities Administration. Although their individual combat strength was not exceptionally high, these shortcomings could be entirely compensated for by heavy firearms.

After all, no matter how powerful awakened individuals were, they remained carbon-based life forms. First and second-tier bullets could sweep through them, third-tier bullets could hold them off, and anything above that required missiles. If missiles failed, then the matter fell to the Security Administration.

...

Near the stream in North Huangshan

In the shadows where the moonlight could not reach, Li Chenqiu put on the clothes of a corpse and stepped out from the darkness like a normal person.

Huddled beneath a tree, Li Qingxia spotted Li Chenqiu's figure and immediately stood up, trotting over.

"Little Qiu, do you have any idea how dangerous it is to leave a first-tier awakened person in a place like this?!" Li Qingxia ran up and grabbed Li Chenqiu's arm in a death grip.

"Except for the awakened ones around Xu Yuan who wandered off somewhere, basically everyone else in the mountain forest is dead. What on earth are you afraid of?" Li Chenqiu pushed Li Qingxia away with a look of disgust.

"If I were as strong as you, would I be afraid?" Li Qingxia paused for a moment. "By the way, did you kill all these people?"

Li Chenqiu glanced over the corpses scattered across the ground and nodded. "You've seen my superpower in the videos. Dealing with anyone below the third tier is easy. Above that requires getting my own hands dirty."

Li Qingxia drew a sharp breath. "Holy crap, are you even human? How did you quietly become so strong?"

"Eat more, and naturally you grow stronger. Let's go, let's head out and check out the situation." Li Chenqiu patted Li Qingxia's shoulder and took the lead in walking out of the mountain forest.

Upon seeing this, Li Qingxia hurriedly followed. "Where are we going? And hey, Little Qiu, why has the sky turned red?"

...

...

North Huangshan was a flat-topped mountain. As a tourist attraction in City 11, it boasted many large hotels and camping bases.

However, because of its proximity to the no-man's-land, no cell towers had been built here. The lack of internet had turned away a large wave of young people, but this did not diminish the splendor of the sunrise or the lingering glow of sunset.

Every evening around six or seven o'clock, the barbecue area would emit the sizzling aroma of dripping oil, the diners in the stir-fry restaurants were always an endless stream, and couples could always be seen walking hand-in-hand along the roadside.

Yet all of this had been shattered tonight. Bloody handprints stained the glass of the stir-fry restaurants, vehicles on the road were piled up in a jumbled mess, and from time to time, the cries of women for help and the lewd laughter of awakened individuals drifted from inside the cars.

Once abandoned by the law, the moral bottom lines in the hearts of most awakened individuals collapsed right along with it. This was not an accident; it was an inevitability.

...

Beneath the frequently flickering street lamps, Li Chenqiu slowly emerged from the shadows.

After leaving the mountain forest with Li Qingxia, the two of them traveled together to the site where the bonfire party had been held. Afterward, Li Qingxia used her superpower to read the numbers on the wooden crate, which gave Li Chenqiu a glimmer of hope.

The artifact-sealing box had not yet been opened, meaning he still had a chance. If he could stall until the people from the Security Administration lured those two individuals away, perhaps he could contend for the so-called profound artifact.

As for whether the other party might simply grab the box and run, Li Chenqiu couldn't say for sure, but trying was better than just watching. What if he succeeded?

Right now, he only needed to do one thing: delay the opening time of the artifact-sealing box. Simply put, he had to hinder the speed at which the awakened individuals hunted down humans.

On the empty street, Li Chenqiu walked with his hands in his pockets toward a sedan that was shaking rhythmically.

Through the car window, Li Chenqiu clearly saw a young awakened individual attempting to use brute force to coerce a girl with an immature face. The sounds of tearing clothes and weeping inside the car mingled together, sounding exceptionally grating.

Seeing this, Li Chenqiu clenched his fist and smashed through the car window with a loud crash, then reached in, grabbed the awakened person by the collar, dragged him out, and slammed him heavily onto the ground.

"Ow, what the fuck, are you out of your—" Before the young man could finish speaking, Li Chenqiu stomped down and snapped the young man's arm.

"Ahhh!" The intense pain instantly twisted the young man's face in agony as he began to struggle on the ground.

The girl inside the car clutched her clothes tightly, bit her lip, and looked at Li Chenqiu with excitement as teardrops slid down her cheeks. "Li... Li Chenqiu?"

Li Chenqiu turned his head. "You know me?"

The girl excitedly wiped her nose and nodded. "I... I've seen you... on TV..."

"Mhm," Li Chenqiu replied casually, then shifted his gaze back to the awakened individual. "I'm asking you, where did your main force go?"

"You... are you from the New World?" the young man asked through clenched teeth.

"I'll ask you one last time, where did your main force go? If you don't talk, go die." Li Chenqiu raised his foot and slammed it directly onto the young man's face.

"Bastard!"

The young man's hands transformed into wolf claws, lunging to grab Li Chenqiu's lower body.

"Careful, his claws are sharp!" the girl shouted anxiously, her voice loud and tense.

Faced with the young man's claw strike, Li Chenqiu applied a slight pressure with the tip of his foot, bursting the young man's head open with a loud pop. The opponent's arms dropped limply at that very moment.

Li Chenqiu had already broken through to the second tier, and his true combat strength was on par with the fourth tier. If he unleashed all his methods, he could even barely fight against the fifth tier. A first-tier awakened individual was no different from an ant to him.

...

"You..." Seeing this scene, the girl shrank back toward the car with a trace of fear. Having lived a life of peace, how could she have ever witnessed such a scene?

Li Chenqiu turned his head to look at the girl. "Do you know where there is a gathering place for survivors nearby?"

"Yes... Our No. 1 Senior High School was heading to the bonfire party in separate classes by order. Behind me, there are still two classes staying at the hotel," the girl said timidly.

"No. 1 Senior High School?" A trace of imperceptible nostalgia flashed in Li Chenqiu's eyes. It had been a long time since he last heard the name of his alma mater.

Meanwhile, Beiding Hotel, located a thousand meters away from this spot.

Several large buses blocked the main entrance, and a dozen security officers squatted halfway inside the buses, continuously shooting through the windows at the awakened individuals gathered at the entrance.

"Qi Mingyue, get back here! We're running out of ammunition!"

Wu Shan, a police officer crouching behind a car window, shouted at the top of his lungs while firing his handgun continuously, providing cover for Qi Mingyue, who was engaged in a fierce battle with the awakened.

At the entrance of Beiding Hotel, a dozen awakened individuals were surrounding a delicate-looking young man—none other than Qi Mingyue.

Qi Mingyue's condition was very poor at the moment. His face was as pale as paper, and his clothes had been torn into shreds that hung loosely across his body.

Even though he was manipulating two second-tier awakened puppets, he still could not withstand the siege of more than a dozen awakened individuals.

"Good kid, a first tier actually managed to hold down so many of us!"

"He can't hold on much longer! Push harder! Once we kill him, everyone inside will be ours!"

The awakened individuals grew more and more excited as the fight went on, their attacks blanketing Qi Mingyue like a curtain of rain. Although the security officers' bullets could help share some of the pressure for Qi Mingyue, it was merely sharing; they could not resolve the crisis.

"Captain, I'm out of ammo!" Zhu Cheng pressed his finger against a trigger that produced no response, looking anxiously at Wu Shan.

"If you're out of ammo, smash them with whatever is in the bus! Qi Mingyue is just a kid standing on the front line, we cannot retreat!" Wu Shan ordered with bloodshot eyes.

"Understood!" Zhu Cheng shouted back loudly.

Just as the situation was growing increasingly dire, a flurry of chaotic and dense footsteps echoed from the rear of the buses.