If Apes Had a Hell

Shen Feng drove the armored vehicle at full speed into the ruins of Radiant City.

The engine's roar echoed through the ghostly urban ruins, sounding especially piercing.

Judging from the panic of those Brain Apes just now, there was no ambush waiting for him in Radiant City.

His appearance must have been an accident to these Brain Apes. They had merely hastily assembled several dozen cavalrymen to ambush him.

Now, Shen Feng only wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible—the farther away, the better.

Only by completely shaking off their pursuit could he turn around, ambush them in return, and complete his mission.

As he drove, thoughts raced through Shen Feng's mind like lightning.

Based on the information he had encountered so far, as well as his understanding of Stone Statue Disease, this virus was most likely an entirely new silicon-based virus.

The name Silicon-Based Half-Brained Ape was likely connected to Stone Statue Disease as well.

There had once been a film series on Earth called Rise of the Planet of the Apes, about a vaccine invented by humanity to treat Parkinson's that ultimately triggered a deadly plague. Yet the apes' brains were greatly developed as a result, granting them intelligence comparable to humans.

Could these apes have gained intelligence in the same way?

But if that were true, then after nearly ten years of the Stone Statue Apocalypse, these apes should have long since completely occupied human cities and inherited humanity's technological civilization.

Yet from the current situation, the apes were not particularly numerous, and they were merely using humanity's remaining tools. They could not be said to have fully inherited civilization.

Otherwise, the ones appearing today would definitely not have been ape cavalry, but ape tank crews and ape artillerymen.

Before long, he had entered Radiant City's central district. As long as he passed through the entire city and returned to the wilderness, he would be able to completely shake off these apes.

Cavalry might be fast, but they could never outrun an armored vehicle's engine.

Just then, the armored vehicle's engine suddenly let out a bang. Black smoke billowed from the engine, even filling the cabin with haze as the vehicle abruptly slowed.

"Fuck!"

Shen Feng cursed, stopped the armored vehicle, and opened the hatch.

The thing he had feared most had happened after all.

The diesel he had used had been stored for far too long and had undergone chemical changes, causing incomplete combustion. The engine had been knocking throughout the drive, and now it seemed that residue from the incomplete combustion had completely ruined it.

After all, so many years had passed, and many of the armored vehicle's internal lines had aged as well.

Standing beside the armored vehicle, Shen Feng looked back the way he had come. Two tracks wound off into the distance, plainly visible.

It would be absurdly easy for the apes to find him.

With only his own two legs, escaping Radiant City and reaching the wilderness was basically impossible. And once he entered the wilderness alone, he would instead become their prey completely.

He had to use these urban ruins for street fighting!

Gritting his teeth, Shen Feng quickly returned to the armored vehicle and took an automatic rifle with a scope, a pistol, three grenades, plenty of ammunition, and the food and water in his backpack.

There were still quite a few weapons and supplies he had collected earlier in the vehicle, along with several hundred autocannon rounds.

If they fell into the Brain Apes' hands, they would undoubtedly make them even more formidable.

Shen Feng unwound a spool of optical fiber from the armored vehicle. After making a few arrangements, he dragged the long fiber cable and quickly ran toward a nearby building.

The optical fiber was light and long, stretching for several hundred meters. Shen Feng hid on the second floor of a mall several hundred meters away, behind a stone statue, and quietly waited for the apes to appear.

The beginning of these apes' newfound intelligence had been the beginning of humanity's extinction. They surely had little understanding of human cunning.

This was a fight to the death between two species!

Shen Feng did not have to wait long. He had rested in the mall for less than an hour when hoofbeats sounded in the distance. They began far away, then gradually rolled across the ruined earth like muffled thunder.

More than a thousand ape cavalrymen surged forward like a flood, following the tracks left by the armored vehicle.

When they saw the armored vehicle parked in the middle of the street, the ape cavalry scouts at the front let out delighted roars, passing the news back.

"Hoo roar! Kuafu, the human really did not escape!" A tall Brain Ape astride a horse shouted to Kuafu.

Kuafu nodded, wisdom gleaming in his eyes behind his glasses.

"Human vehicles need blood. Their blood has already dried up."

Over the years, the Brain Apes had also studied the vehicles humanity had left behind.

At first, they could barely make them run using the remaining fuel, but as time passed and the fuel deteriorated, those vehicles had become nothing more than dead objects.

Moreover, the vehicles' blood was extremely precious and scarce. Even if they could barely be driven, they could not travel very far.

The strong Brain Ape shouted, "The human is inside the vehicle! Apes, follow Ironhead! Kill the human!"

After shouting, Ironhead fiercely whipped the warhorse beneath him and led more than a hundred ape cavalrymen charging toward the armored vehicle.

They had already caught the scent of a human. That scent was both unfamiliar and familiar, driving them mad!

A group of ape cavalrymen quickly arrived beside the armored vehicle. Warily, they raised their guns and aimed them at the hatch, ready to shoot the human inside at any moment.

The hatch was slightly ajar.

Ironhead reined in his horse beside the armored vehicle and let out a roar at a young ape. The other immediately jumped down from his horse, walked to the armored vehicle, and gripped the hatch handle. At the same time, he turned and gave his kin a look, signaling them to fire at any time.

In the distance, Kuafu quietly awaited the final scene, yet he vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

The instant the young Brain Ape grabbed the hatch handle, a question surfaced in his mind.

Why hadn't that madly fierce human used the vehicle's cannon to attack?

Something was wrong!

Kuafu shouted, "Ironhead, get away! Immediately! All apes, take cover!"

At the same time, the young Brain Ape had already pulled open the hatch.

On the mall's second floor in the distance, the instant Shen Feng saw the hatch open, he immediately grabbed the optical fiber and sprinted wildly in the opposite direction.

The fiber cable, which had been lying loosely on the ground, was suddenly pulled taut.

More than a hundred Brain Apes led by Ironhead surrounded the armored vehicle. Seeing the empty cabin, all of them wore puzzled expressions.

Only a pile of autocannon ammunition, various guns, and grenades had been stacked together inside.

The optical fiber had been pulled to its limit and suddenly tightened, pulling the pins from two secured grenades.

Ironhead had just heard Kuafu's shout. He turned around on horseback and looked doubtfully at his bespectacled leader, unable to understand why they were being told to retreat.

A crisp metallic clink rang out. Ironhead finally saw the grenade pins that had been yanked free by the optical fiber.

Terror spread across his face as he roared, "Quick..."

Boom! The two grenades exploded at once, scattering thousands of steel pellets and explosive fire in every direction. They also detonated the surrounding ammunition, along with the armored vehicle's fuel tank!

The sympathetic explosions formed a massive fireball that swallowed the surrounding ape cavalrymen, while countless steel pellets and fragments shot outward like a rain of steel!

The explosion's shockwave and fragments formed a second wave of destruction, piercing the bodies of the outer ape cavalrymen and the warhorses beneath them!

With the armored vehicle as its center, a massive fifty-meter radius of death was created!

The more than one hundred apes led by Ironhead had been completely wiped out, while nearly a hundred of the outer apes were seriously wounded.

The wails of Brain Apes and the shrill neighing of warhorses rang out without end. Some panicked ape cavalrymen even fled directly on horseback.

Kuafu clenched his teeth amid the firelight. Terror finally appeared deep within his eyes, intertwined with hatred.

From the time they had gained freedom until now, they had never suffered such a devastating blow. At this moment, they finally remembered the fear of once being ruled by humans.

If apes had a hell of their own, this place would surely be one of its levels.

"Treat the wounded! All other apes, find the human and kill him!!!"

When the explosion rang out, Shen Feng had already rushed out of the mall. He crossed the pedestrian overpass into the building opposite, then continued through one silent building after another toward a place he had spotted on the way here.

Radiant City Epidemic Prevention Center Building!

The most dangerous place was the safest place!