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Xu Qingran touched his neck. The patches of purple bruising on it were shocking to see. Perhaps because the pain he felt the moment he touched it was worse than he had expected, he frowned slightly, a hint of gloom in his eyes.

He thought that this body might not be very easy to use.

A dark-skinned, skinny young man was crouched beside a broken crate in the corner. He looked to be only around twenty, and his left eye was swollen in a ring. He was hugging his knees and trembling, and when his eyes met Xu Qingran's, he shook even harder.

He stared at the wreckage before him, littered with the dead and injured, his mind in a daze as he wondered how they had ended up in such a situation.

Half an hour ago, they had been tormenting the young man in front of him. When he resisted, they beat him into submission, then hung him up high with a rope, terrorizing and torturing him over and over.

Later, they accidentally killed him, and then gathered together for a fierce argument.

But the young man they had confirmed was no longer breathing and thrown into a corner had suddenly come back to life. He even seemed like a different person, transformed from a coward who could only cower and cry, utterly unable to fight back, into a vengeful ghost come to claim their lives.

The sound of an iron rod scraping against the floor echoed through the spacious factory.

The person by the crate snapped back to his senses. He immediately dropped to his knees before Xu Qingran, who was walking slowly toward him, and volunteered everything. "I'll talk! I can tell you everything! It was your younger brother, Xu Qing'an. He was the one who told us to scare you. We were just taking money to do a job!"

"I'll kowtow to you. Please, let me go." At some point, a puddle had formed beneath him where he knelt.

He kept babbling, "It'll be dark soon. This is South District 13. If we don't leave now, it'll be too late... There's an everyday flyer outside. I can take you with me!"

As long as I can survive and get out of this damned place, won't I still have a chance to kill him later?

Xu Qingran watched him knock his head loudly against the ground, standing with a touch of carelessness. Half his weight rested on the iron rod propping him up, and the index finger laid across it tapped repeatedly. The person kneeling on the ground raised his head and felt that, after what had just happened, Xu Qingran's formerly somewhat youthful face seemed to have gained a few sharper angles.

After a long while, Xu Qingran spoke softly. "Thank you."

His voice was very hoarse; his vocal cords were clearly badly damaged.

The young man's eyes brightened slightly, and he thought he had escaped disaster. Just as he was about to thank Xu Qingran, a heavy blow suddenly struck his head from the side.

And then he lost consciousness.

A hanging rope and a single glove, maliciously slashed open with a sharp instrument, lay on a dust-covered paper bag at Xu Qingran's feet. He glanced at them, casually tossed the iron rod aside now that he was done with it, and headed into the rain.

Outside the factory, the sky was gray.

As far as the eye could see, the entire area was a deserted city in ruins, uninhabited for years. A giant shuttle was parked beside the sloping road. Xu Qingran walked straight toward it and looked it over for a long time, but couldn't figure out where on its smooth surface the door opened.

Then he chose the most primitive method—he raised a foot and kicked it.

The system was hesitating over whether to offer a reminder when it saw an opening suddenly appear in the shuttle, large enough for a person to pass through.

"..." Who would have thought that would actually work?

Xu Qingran stepped in with his long legs and sat down in the spot that looked most like a driver's seat. Only after the door closed automatically did he lean back and relax a little.

Rain pattered against the windshield in front of him, blurring the view.

It was quiet inside the vehicle.

A long while later, the person in the driver's seat spoke in a hoarse voice.

"System."

The system came online with a ding-dong, its internal complaints filling the screen.

Guys, who understands?!

What kind of unlucky trainee system has to witness an epic scene of horror and violence as soon as it starts work, and the whole thing at that?!

If it weren't afraid that its host might get upset and wipe it out too, it would have screamed long ago!

Is this what happens when you pull a villain out of an apocalypse novel?!

But outwardly, its babyish voice answered fearfully, "I'm... I'm here, host."

Fortunately, Xu Qingran had no intention of going crazy on a little system. He said to it indifferently, "Find our location and get us out of this damned place."

The silver-gray flying car left the sloping road without hesitation and soon vanished into the sky.

Outside the factory, water had accumulated unnoticed across the ground, mixing with the layer of residue on its surface and turning dark red. Something lifeless seemed to be awakening beneath the water, stirring restlessly and gliding under cover of the rain.

Black-and-gold boots stepped into it, sending water splashing.

After the shuttle departed, a tall figure walked slowly toward the abandoned factory on the small slope.

The man's ink-black, gold-trimmed long coat was soaked by the rain. He glanced down at a dark-red strip silently slipping past his shoes, paid it no heed, and walked straight toward the body closest to the entrance.

The dark-skinned, skinny young man's breathing was very weak. His survival instinct had brought him back to consciousness despite the pain. Dimly making out an unfamiliar figure, he instinctively cried for help. "Save me... I don't want to die..."

The man looked down at the person calling for help, a faint trace of amusement passing through his azure eyes.

"How cruel," he murmured.

Then he raised his foot and mercilessly brought it down on the head of the person at his feet.

A voice suddenly came through his earpiece. "Admiral, we've finished checking everything on our end. What's the situation over there?"

He raised a hand to press the communicator by his ear and replied as he walked outside, "District 13 has been confirmed clear. You can begin."

In the deserted city, countless tiny dark-red things were gathering around the tallest abandoned building at its center. It was as though a gigantic red tornado was slowly taking shape.

A storm was brewing.

The flying car traveled steadily through the air.

"A friendly reminder from the Silver Dragon FR Red Maple Official Channel: an estimated 40 minutes remain until the last ray of sunlight disappears from Red Maple's eastern hemisphere. Citizens still out and about, please return home as soon as possible..."

The female host's crisp, clear announcement came from the car's radio.