The Barrier Collapses

Lu Chen brushed his lightly callused fingertips over Xiaoyu's delicate cheek, making her shudder.

He could feel how tense her body was, and the trace of fear hidden beneath her stubborn gaze.

"Prepared? Of course you should be." Lu Chen grinned, baring two rows of white teeth like a beast about to hunt. "After all, the first rule of survival in the apocalypse is to know when to yield!"

He released Xiaoyu and turned to look at Tie Dun, who had collapsed on the ground and was barely clinging to life. There was not a trace of pity in his eyes.

"Iron tortoise, so this is how you end up?" Lu Chen spat at Tie Dun's feet. "Weren't you acting all high and mighty before? What was it you said? 'The fortress will never fall'? How about now? Does your face hurt?"

Tie Dun gasped violently, the dent in his chest clearly visible. Lu Chen had punched it into him.

He struggled to raise his head and looked at Lu Chen, fear appearing in his eyes for the first time.

"How could you... how could you be so strong?" His voice was hoarse, like a worn-out bellows.

Lu Chen slowly crouched down and patted Tie Dun's bloodstained cheek, as though soothing a wounded beast.

"Because what you believe in is a dead thing, while I am the rules themselves." Lu Chen's voice was gentle, yet carried an unquestionable authority. "No matter how sturdy your 'fortress' is, it's still dead. But I can evolve endlessly and grow endlessly stronger. Do you understand? Times have changed, iron tortoise!"

Over on the other side, Xiaoyu knelt beside her brother, trying to stop his bleeding with trembling hands.

Her delicate face was full of helplessness and despair.

Lu Chen glanced at her and, with a thought, copied the B-rank Trauma Repair talent of a doctor he had met at the base.

Although the talent wasn't high-ranked, it was practical and exceptionally effective at treating external injuries.

The copied talent instantly merged into his body, and a warm current flowed into his palm.

Lu Chen walked over to Tie Dun and gently pressed his palm against his wound.

A miraculous sight unfolded!

The blood that had been gushing from the wound stopped instantly.

The dent in Tie Dun's chest also began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

His breathing gradually steadied, and color slowly returned to his face.

Xiaoyu looked up in astonishment, her beautiful eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

She could hardly believe her eyes. This... this was nothing short of a miracle!

"Wh-what kind of ability is that?" she stammered, her voice trembling badly.

Lu Chen didn't answer, merely smiling faintly.

He turned and gestured with his chin toward Old Lei, the gunner, who had been brought back under guard a short distance away.

Old Lei's face was full of indignation and anger. He glared viciously at Lu Chen, as though he wanted to tear him apart and devour him.

"You... you devil! You destroyed everything we had!" Old Lei roared, his voice shrill.

Lu Chen picked at his ear and said disdainfully, "You're so damn noisy! It's the apocalypse, and you're still going on and on here. What are you even doing?"

He walked up to Old Lei and looked down at him from above.

"You won... but you wouldn't understand. We established order to protect the weak!" Old Lei craned his neck and shouted himself hoarse.

"Protect the weak?" Lu Chen burst out laughing, as though he had heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.

"Ridiculous! Absolutely ridiculous!" He stopped laughing, and his eyes turned cold in an instant. "Your so-called order is nothing but a disguise for violence. You use guns and cannons to maintain your rule, and intimidation to maintain stability. How is that protection? That's slavery, plain and simple!"

As he spoke, he raised his foot and kicked the shackles around Old Lei's ankles.

With a crack, the shackles broke apart.

"Get lost. I don't want to see you again." Lu Chen waved a hand in disgust, as though shooing away a fly. "Remember, don't go doing dirty business under the banner of 'justice' again. Disgusting!"

Old Lei froze. He hadn't expected Lu Chen to let him go.

He stood there in a daze, unsure what to do for a moment.

"Still not leaving? Waiting for me to change my mind?" Lu Chen raised an eyebrow, his tone hostile.

Only then did Old Lei come to his senses. He gave Lu Chen a long look, then ran off without looking back, his figure soon disappearing at the end of the street.

Tie Dun looked weakly at his sister and struggled to speak. "Xiaoyu... go... don't follow him..."

He wanted to persuade his sister to leave Lu Chen; following Lu Chen might offer a glimmer of hope for survival.

Before he could finish, everything went black, and Tie Dun passed out.

Xiaoyu was silent for a moment, looking at her brother's pale face, her heart full of guilt and helplessness.

She knew her brother had ended up like this because he had tried to protect her.

She slowly turned to look at Lu Chen, her gaze complicated.

"Brother, I'm sorry," she said softly, as though confessing to her brother, yet also as though making up her mind.

Then she raised her head and looked at Lu Chen with a determined gaze. "Can I stay?" she asked, enunciating every word. "I want to... learn your ability."

She wanted to become stronger. She wanted the power to protect herself and her brother.

Only then could she survive in this cruel apocalypse.

Lu Chen didn't answer immediately. Instead, he walked over to the wreckage of the armored vehicle and crushed its front end underfoot. The sound of twisting metal echoed through the empty street like a lament for the apocalypse.

He looked back at Xiaoyu, his tone so calm it sent a chill down her spine. "You need to learn how to kill before you can talk about saving people."

He gazed into the distance, his eyes piercing through layers of rubble, as though he could see countless undiscovered geniuses.

A gentle breeze swept past, stirring the fine dust on the ground and lifting the ends of his hair.

He slowly spoke, his voice low and resolute. "Next, we're going to find more geniuses."

With that, he crouched down and examined Tie Dun's wound again. The warm current flowed slowly through his fingertips, seemingly gathering strength for what he would do next.