Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 961 - 760: Safe Travels

In the silent night, the distant Empire Building glowed with dazzling neon.

In the passenger seat, Huai Shi opened his eyes and glanced over.

"What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty."

Ueno said, "Boss, do you want to take a rest?"

"No need, just lying down for a bit is fine."

Huai Shi shook his head. After all, he was a Sublimator; going a few nights without sleep wouldn’t cause any problems. The nap he’d just taken was only out of caution, a habit of storing up energy before a big fight.

Ever since he’d become a Sublimator up to now, after all this time and all the battles he’d been through, deep down he never really put those Iron King Party guys in his eyes.

If he were still Huai Shi, that’s how it should have been—

But after he abandoned the name Huai Shi and became a Hybrid in the Tanbo Inner Circle, he discovered that powerless frustration of having strength with nowhere to use it.

In wave after wave of turmoil, he had fought with everything he had, climbing to where he was now, yet he was still not in control of himself.

For Hybrids, this world was covered by layer upon layer of great nets. No matter how one struggled, after breaking free of one shackle, one would find that the narrow world ahead was just a new cage.

Tobio had struggled, and he failed; Chiba Ryouni had struggled, and he gave up; God City Future had tried as well, and in the end left in disgrace...

Then what about himself?

Would he repeat the same mistakes?

He let out a soundless sigh and fell silent.

In the driver’s seat, Ueno rummaged through the convenience store bag in his hand, holding a can of beer, not sure whether to pass it over. After a long time, he still didn’t speak. He gently folded the bag closed and rolled down the car window.

The slightly chilly night breeze blew in through the window.

Across the distance, Huai Shi could still feel the agitation and unease surging within the Tanbo Inner Circle. It wasn’t an illusion or a guess, but a literal sensation—the Sorrow conveyed by the Soloist’s miracle.

The Sky’s Command was in turmoil.

As the Soloist who guards children and the growth of the clan, this miracle endowed with Divine Nature sensed the desolation in the Tanbo Inner Circle and overflowed with Sorrow and compassion.

The cool night wind from outside drifted in, pulling him gradually out of his thoughts. He rubbed his face and asked, "Got a smoke?"

"Yeah... ah, no more."

Ueno patted his pockets for a long time and only came up with an empty pack.

"Why didn’t you bring more?"

Ueno froze for a while, looking blank. "Boss, didn’t you say smoking’s bad and we should cut down, so I only brought half a pack... Want me to go buy another?"

"Forget it, better to smoke less anyway..."

Huai Shi waved his hand and smiled helplessly.

"Is it because of what happened during the day, Boss?"

Ueno was still thinking about what had happened after they left the hospital. He had driven Huai Shi to the site of the tanker explosion.

The burning houses hadn’t been completely put out yet.

After a few hurried sprays of water, the fire department left almost at the same time as the TV reporters. Flames spread and leapt over the charred buildings.

There are many earthquakes in Yingzhou, and most single-story houses are wooden structures, which burn extremely fast.

It wasn’t long before, in a field of white ash, only a few chunks of charcoal with embers remained.

At the time, Ueno had been in the car. He only saw Boss Huaizhi get out and then come back after a while, and since then his expression had remained this calm, sometimes zoning out for a long time as if his mind had wandered off.

"Hm?"

Huai Shi turned back, puzzled, as if he hadn’t heard what he’d just said.

"Was it what happened during the day?" Ueno asked. "During the day, after you went over there... you’ve been like this ever since you got back, Boss."

"You, are you really just some big dumb lug?" Huai Shi shook his head with a sigh.

Ueno shrugged. "Because you always wear everything on your face, Boss."

"..."

Huai Shi gave a wry smile. After a long silence, he said, "When I went over there during the day, to be honest, I originally just wanted to... lend a hand."

But he hadn’t been able to help at all.

After the flames spread, Huai Shi realized that he was all alone and couldn’t help with anything.

He could only watch, powerless, as the blaze spread, burning more than a dozen old houses to the ground, while a white-haired old woman clutched a small child and wept silently by the roadside.

Those murky tears fell into the Ashes, staining a streak of gray-black on the cracked cement.

The people who had scrambled out stood by the street, staring blankly at the sight of their homes being burned down, yet they weren’t even afraid. Their expressions were vacant and calm, as if they hadn’t lost anything at all.

Huai Shi lowered his head, looking at that old woman who had cried herself mute.

"I wanted to protect them, Ueno."

Huai Shi sighed soundlessly. "I told her not to be afraid, that the Huaizhi Gang would be coming soon to help, that at least we could find them a temporary place to stay. I told her that with us here, we would protect them, those people wouldn’t come back, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen again... but no one paid me any mind."

Only that old woman raised her empty eyes, filled with coldness and resentment.

She’d lost her husband to a gang fight, lost her son to illegal drugs, and then lost her last home to a sudden fire...

A lifetime of torment from the Tanbo Inner Circle’s suffering had long since numbed her. She’d seen so much that in the end it had all turned into a scorn that had nothing left to lose.

The old woman looked indifferently at Huai Shi’s face.

Every time Huai Shi closed his eyes, he could recall those cloudy pupils, and her hoarse words.

"She asked me: what’s the difference between you and them?"