Hope Fortress

He turned to the others and said, "Take him with you, back to base."

"General!" someone cried out urgently, "He's a man of unknown origin! How can we take him back!"

"Yes, General! What if it's one of those things that transformed..."

That's enough.

The one-armed man—the general—interrupted them.

"If he were one of those things, he wouldn't have stood there listening to you argue for so long."

"And..."

He looked at Uchiha Kei.

"He just killed over a hundred dark creatures, I saw it."

"If someone like that were an enemy, we would be dead long ago."

Everyone froze, and the way they looked at Uchiha Kei changed.

Fear, awe, doubt, curiosity... a complex mix of emotions.

Uchiha Kei didn't speak, but simply watched the one-armed man quietly.

General.

That's interesting.

The survivor base is called "Hope Fortress".

The name is quite ironic.

Because this place doesn't look like a place with any hope.

A wall, about five meters high, made of scrap iron and concrete blocks, was erected around the perimeter and was filled with sharp steel bars. Inside the wall were densely packed makeshift shacks, pieced together from whatever materials could be found—sheet metal, planks, canvas, and even cardboard boxes.

The air was filled with an indescribable stench, a mixture of rotting, excrement, and the smell of some kind of rotten food.

There are a lot of people.

More than 30,000 people were crammed into this ruin of less than one square kilometer, like sardines in a can.

Uchiha Kei walked down the "street," attracting countless stares.

Curious, wary, numb, greedy...

He ignored the stares and silently observed everything around him.

Thirty thousand people, without order, without discipline, without hope.

How long can a place like this exist?

"Isn't that amazing?"

The general walked beside him, his tone calm.

"When I first came here, I was also shocked. Not shocked by how good this place is, but shocked by... how people can live like this."

Uchiha Kei did not respond.

The general continued, "There are even larger bases outside, some with 100,000 people, some with 200,000. But I don't want to go there. Because those bases with more people have more rules, and those who can't kneel down won't live long."

"This place may be dilapidated, but at least..." he paused, "... people are still people."

Uchiha Kei turned his head to look at him.

The general's gaze was complex.

It wasn't numbness, it wasn't despair, but... a profound sorrow.

"I saw you kill those dark creatures," the general suddenly said. "One strike, and you killed over a hundred. I've seen that kind of power once before."

Uchiha Kei: "Where have I seen you before?"

"Many years ago," the general's gaze drifted into the distance, "A man in white descended from the sky, shattered the heavens with a single punch, and then... vanished."

Uchiha Kei paused in his steps.

The man in white.

Jiang Hao.

"Where is he?" he asked.

The general shook his head. "I don't know. After that, those things appeared. Some say he brought the disaster; others say he sealed something even more terrifying. I don't know who to believe."

"All I know is that after he disappeared, the sky in this world never brightened again."

Uchiha Kei remained silent.

Is this the price Jiang Hao paid?

He sealed away the Dark Old God with his own power, but plunged the entire world into eternal night.

Those survivors, however, also had to bear the stigma of "he brought the disaster upon himself."

"Are you looking for him?" the general asked.

"Um."

"Why?"

Uchiha Kei thought for a moment and said, "Because he is... a part of me."

The general glanced at him but didn't ask any further questions.

The two Earth Flow in silence for a while before stopping in front of a relatively clean shack.

"You'll stay here tonight," the general said. "Tomorrow, I'll take you to see someone."

"Who?"

"Do you know why this base has been able to exist for so long?" The general didn't answer directly. "It's not because of my leadership, nor because these people are so united."

"It's because there's someone protecting this place."

"Every seven days, those dark creatures would launch a massive uprising. And every time, that person was always at the forefront of it."

His name is...

The general paused, then his voice suddenly became very soft.

"Jiang Hao."

Uchiha Kei's pupils suddenly contracted.

That night, Uchiha Kei did not sleep.

He sat cross-legged in the shack, closing his eyes to rest.

During the day, he asked the general if that Jiang Hao was the same Jiang Hao he knew.

The general said he didn't know.

"He only calls himself Jiang Hao; no one has ever seen what he looks like. He always wears a black cloak and a mask. But every time the dark creatures riot, he appears and single-handedly fights off thousands of monsters."

Some say he's a ghost, some say he's a god, and some say he's the ghost of the man in white. I don't know who to believe.

"All I know is that as long as he's there, this base can still exist."

Uchiha Kei opened his eyes and looked at the dark night sky.

The gray clouds obscured all starlight, making it impossible to see anything.

But in the darkness, he could feel something watching him.

Surveillance.

More than one.

A lot of.

They were waiting for him to make a mistake, waiting for him to use power beyond his limits, and then... to report to Him.

"Jiang Hao..."

He muttered to himself.

Are you in this base?

Or is this just another trap?

He didn't know.

But he had to go and see.

Because tomorrow is the day the dark creatures will riot.