Energy Source

"Up ahead, go forward!"

Lu Chengchuan wasn't the only one who saw the orb of light. Everyone ahead of him saw it too.

The orb floated in midair, the only light within the black fog. Anyone who wasn't blind could see it. Lu Chengchuan felt an even stronger summons. He emptied his last magazine, tossed the gun to the ground, drew the newly acquired longsword, and charged forward.

Inner Energy surged wildly through his body, as though he possessed endless strength waiting to be unleashed.

"Don't rush ahead! We can't keep up with you!"

Lu Chengchuan fought his way forward, his longsword leaving afterimages as it danced. None of the monsters blocking his path could stand against him. Each time the sword fell, another monster collapsed.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Chengchuan had charged several meters ahead. The monsters swarmed in and abruptly cut him off from the team behind him.

He didn't feel much pressure up front, but the people behind him were scared out of their wits.

Zhou Yaning hurriedly called him back. Lu Chengchuan merely glanced over his shoulder when the monsters instantly surrounded him, several pairs of sharp claws raking hard across his body.

With a ripping sound, his clothes were torn apart by the monsters, but their sharp claws left only pale marks on his skin.

Having mastered the Eagle Claw Iron Body Skill, his skin was harder than iron armor. The monsters could claw at him for a full minute without hurting him.

He had wanted to charge through in one go, but Zhou Yaning kept shouting behind him. Left with no choice, he stopped where he was and waited for the others to catch up.

"What is that thing?!"

Zhou Yaning came to his side and asked while firing her gun.

"I don't know. It might be related to the fog." Lu Chengchuan didn't know either. He had received the orb's summons, but he had no idea what it was or what it did.

The team advanced toward the orb step by step. More and more monsters gathered around them. Most of the creatures in the fog were low-level zombies and ghouls. Even with their tenacious vitality, they couldn't withstand too many bullets.

More than a hundred people remained in the team by this point. Over a hundred guns spat bullets, and only a few monsters could get close.

Lu Chengchuan kept swinging his sword and cutting down the monsters ahead, while Zhou Yaning and the others fired from both sides. With them clearing the way, even the monsters' desperate attempts to block them couldn't stop the team.

A few minutes later, they fought their way to the orb.

The orb was over a meter in diameter, floating before them. In stark contrast to the dim fog, it radiated a gentle, warm light. Standing around it, everyone could feel its warmth.

Pure energy detected. Absorbing.

Feeling the warmth, Lu Chengchuan suddenly heard a system prompt in his mind.

The system was absorbing the orb's energy. He didn't know what would happen to the fog once the orb was fully absorbed, but no matter how he thought about it, it couldn't get any worse than this.

"Do you see that? The orb is shrinking."

The soldiers formed a circular formation to hold back the monsters, while the Investigation Bureau members observed the orb from within. As she watched, Zhou Yaning noticed that it was shrinking at a visible rate.

Zhou Yaning's mind was a mess. They had done nothing, yet the orb had begun shrinking on its own.

Seeing Lu Chengchuan standing beside her, she suddenly thought of a possibility.

"Mr. Lu, do you know why it's shrinking?"

He had been the one to say there was something here in the first place. Sure enough, they had come over and found the orb, proving that Lu Chengchuan had been right.

Earlier, she had been too busy dealing with the monsters to think about it. Now that she considered it, had Lu Chengchuan known about the orb all along? And was he also the reason it was shrinking?

"I don't understand what you mean." Lu Chengchuan naturally denied it.

Why would he draw that kind of trouble onto himself? The orb shrinking was indeed related to him, but he wasn't going to admit it.

His current strength wasn't enough to contend with the state. If word got out, even if he wasn't captured for research, he would lose far too much freedom in the future.

He had already spent several years lying in a hospital bed. He didn't want to spend several more years confined somewhere else.

Since Lu Chengchuan refused to admit it, Zhou Yaning could do nothing about him and could only turn away.

In just two minutes, the orb shrank to the size of a fist, and it was still getting smaller. As they waited, the gunfire around them gradually stopped.

The monsters in the fog weren't endless. Relying on the guns in their hands, the soldiers killed every monster that rushed at them. Until the orb vanished before Zhou Yaning and the others, no more monsters attacked.

Energy successfully absorbed. Lifespan increased by 20 years.

As the orb disappeared, the system's voice rang out in Lu Chengchuan's mind. Absorbing it had granted him twenty years of lifespan—an unexpected windfall.

He had killed quite a few monsters on the way here. Added to his remaining lifespan, he now had forty-one years to spend.

With forty-one years of lifespan, even if he did nothing from this day onward, he could still live into his sixties.

Just a few days ago, he had been someone lying in bed waiting to die, needing help even to drink a cup of hot water. Now, he was a powerful martial artist who could easily kill someone with a mere gesture.

But Lu Chengchuan wasn't satisfied with that. He wanted to become stronger and live longer.

Just as he was celebrating, the fog began to change as well. With the orb gone, the eerie fog surged toward where they stood. Countless wisps of fog gathered, blocking everyone's vision and making it impossible to see the people beside them.

"Stay where you are! Don't panic!"

Fortunately, the fog couldn't block sound. Zhou Yaning's shout pierced through the black mist and echoed in everyone's ears, followed by orders from the military officers.

The fog surged wildly, sucked into a place invisible to the naked eye.

Endless fog poured into an unknown space. At some point, everyone's eyes brightened as the fog completely vanished. The mall's lights shone down on them, and no one reacted immediately.

Lu Chengchuan looked around and discovered that they were standing in a corner on the first floor of the mall, with all hundred-plus people packed together there.

"What's going on now?" Zhou Yaning couldn't help asking again.

She was asking Lu Chengchuan. What exactly had this guy done? Why had the fog suddenly disappeared?

"I really don't know. That orb was probably the fog's Energy Source. Once the orb was gone, the fog dispersed too. That should be it."

The fog had vanished along with the orb, so the two had to be closely connected. Lu Chengchuan gave her the answer, but he wouldn't say why the orb had disappeared.

"Energy Source... Energy Source."

Zhou Yaning knew the fog had disappeared because the orb was gone. What she couldn't understand was why the orb had vanished.

She vaguely knew it was related to Lu Chengchuan, but she had no evidence.

"Hurry and report this. As long as the Energy Source is destroyed, the fog will disperse." Lu Chengchuan reminded her to report the intelligence quickly.

Lu Chengchuan knew Zhou Yaning suspected him, but it was only suspicion. She couldn't do anything to him.

Compared with Lu Chengchuan alone, the black fog was far more important. Having found a way to deal with it, Zhou Yaning didn't want to delay. "Battalion Commander Chen, let's go back and report this to the higher-ups."

More than a hundred people left the mall and returned to report the situation to their superiors, letting the other cities know how to solve the black fog problem.