The heavy, rusted doors of the iron factory groaned as they were pushed open, releasing the surviving humans back into the ruined world.
The evening sky was a dark purple, choked with ash and the distant smoke of burning buildings.The air still carried the thick, metallic scent of blood and decay, a constant reminder of the hell they were walking through.
The group moved in a tight formation. Arthur and a few of the able-bodied men carried the heavy bags of Bulgasari iron, their shoulders slouched under the weight. Behind them, a makeshift wooden platform was dragged along the cracked asphalt, bearing the massive, razor-sharp beak of the Gale-Crested Stryx.
Despite the lingering horror of the city, the atmosphere among the survivors had subtly shifted.
The oppressive, suffocating terror of the apocalypse was still present, but it was heavily muted by the existence walking at the front of their group.
"Let's take a brief rest here," Lu Zhang commanded, pointing to the ruined shell of a convenience store. "Ten minutes. Bind any bleeding wounds."
The survivors practically collapsed against the walls and empty shelves, their chests heaving.
Su Yao sat on a toppled plastic crate, her breath hitched. Her burnt skin was still healing, but the sharp agony in her back remained a constant, throbbing nuisance. The fragments of the exploded coolant tank were still embedded in her flesh.
"Let me help you with that," a soft voice offered. Elena walked over, holding a relatively clean piece of cloth and a pair of sterilized tweezers she had salvaged from a ruined pharmacy days ago. Her beautiful face was twisted into a mask of deep concern.
Su Yao looked at her with blank, chilling eyes. "Make it quick."
Elena stepped behind her, carefully pulling up the torn fabric of Su Yao's shirt. The metal shards were lodged deep into the muscle. "This might sting a little," Elena whispered.
She clamped the tweezers onto the largest piece of jagged metal. Instead of pulling it straight out, Elena intentionally rotated her wrist, twisting the rusted shrapnel violently against the raw muscle fibers before yanking it free.
A sharp gasp escaped Su Yao's lips, her hands gripping the edges of the plastic crate so hard her knuckles turned white. Cold sweat broke out across her forehead.
Elena smiled sweetly where Su Yao couldn't see. "Oh, I'm so sorry. It was stuck on the bone."
She moved to the next shard, repeating the malicious, twisting motion. Su Yao's entire body trembled with the forced agony, but she did not cry out again. She simply closed her eyes, simply ignoring Elena's petty, venomous actions.
'Is she being an idiot on purpose?' Su Yao thought coldly, the pain keeping her mind razor sharp. 'Enjoy your small victories.'
"Time is up. Move." Lu Zhang's voice cut through the rest stop.
They resumed their march, finally leaving the dense, claustrophobic streets of the city center behind. The concrete jungle slowly gave way to broken highways and overgrown suburban roads.
As they walked further from the city, the sheer number of monsters began to noticeably decrease. The constant howling and screeching faded into an eerie, unnatural silence.
"It's getting quieter," Cai Dajian noted, his pockmarked face scanning the tree line as they approached the coordinates on the map. He gripped his bent pipe tightly, uncomfortable with the sudden lack of targets.
"Too quiet," Arthur agreed, adjusting the heavy bag of iron on his shoulder.
They crested a small hill, the road overlooking a sprawling, open expanse.
At the edge of the destination, the monster density suddenly spiked. It wasn't a chaotic horde, but rather a dense, prowling ring of beasts circling the perimeter of the area. Spiders, mutated hounds, and towering insects paced back and forth, snarling and hissing at the open land, but refusing to step past what seemed like an invisible boundary.
It was a barrier of living flesh.
Lu Zhang's eyes narrowed. "Stay away for now."
He accelerated, his figure blurring into the perimeter. The azure glow of [Empty Fang] flared continuously, carving a bloody path through the dense ring of monsters. Severed limbs and shattered carapace rained down as he forcefully tore open a gateway for the group.
The survivors looked around in sheer awe.
Spread out before them was an area of roughly one square kilometer. It was a completely intact, rustic village. Vast tracts of arable land and fields surrounded the cluster of traditional buildings.
There were no bloodstains on the dirt paths. No shattered windows.
In the distance, the wooden wheel of a water mill turned lazily in a clear stream, and the stone chimney of a smithy stood tall and untouched. It seemed like a slice of paradise preserved amidst the apocalypse.
"How is this possible?" Elena whispered, stepping past a line of untouched crops.
Lu Zhang didn't answer. His gaze was locked on the center of the village.
Looming over the small houses and dirt squares was a massive, foreign object. It was about the height of five to ten people stacked on top of each other.
As they approached the village square, the object became clearer. It was a single, colossal scale.
It shimmered with a mesmerizing, iridescent light, shifting between deep purples, blues, and golds as the light hit it. It was half-buried into the earth, looking like a monolith dropped from the heavens.
Lu Zhang cast an [Inspect] silently upon the giant scale.
[...]
Nothing.
There was no blue text, no level indication, no name. The System simply returned a blank response, as if the object did not exist or was far beyond the skill's authority to quantify.
'Or is it because its not attached to a living being anymore?' Lu Zhang mused to himself.
"What is that thing?" Cai Dajian asked, rubbing his burnt arms.
The rest of the group looked at the iridescent scale with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.
It was just a giant, pretty rock to them.
But as Lu Zhang stepped closer, a heavy, suffocating pressure washed over his senses. It was a subtle, vibrating hum that resonated directly with his flesh. The others felt absolutely nothing, but Lu Zhang could vaguely sense the terrifying, latent power radiating from the singular scale.
It was the same kind of suppression he now passively emitted, but infinitely denser and older.
"It's a beast's scale," Lu Zhang stated flatly, his mind recalling the colossal blue wing that had blotted out the sun on the first day.
Su Yao walked up beside him, her intelligent eyes darting between the scale and the ring of monsters far in the distance. "It's repelling them," she realized aloud. "The beasts outside aren't circling the village. They're avoiding the scale."
Lu Zhang nodded slowly. "The mana left on this single piece of the beast's body is enough to terrify the weaker monsters into staying away."
"Does it repel everything?" Arthur asked hopefully.
"I'm not sure," Lu Zhang admitted, his hand resting on the smooth, hard surface of the scale. "But we should assume stronger beasts can resist it, just to be safe."
He pulled his fist back and struck the iridescent surface with his bare knuckles.
Thud!
The impact sent a painful shockwave up his arm, but the scale didn't even vibrate. There wasn't a single scratch on it. He couldn't break it, and he certainly couldn't dig it up and move it.
It was a permanent fixture for now.
Lu Zhang turned around to face the group of survivors. They were battered, bleeding, and trembling with exhaustion. They stood in the center of the quiet, intact village square, surrounded by fields of grain and untouched buildings.
There were no zombies lurking in the shadows. There were no roars echoing from the sky.
"Drop the bags," Lu Zhang commanded, his voice carrying clearly in the quiet night. "We're safe here for now."
The heavy sacks of Bulgasari iron hit the dirt with a loud thud. The wooden platform bearing the Stryx beak was unceremoniously dropped.
For a moment, no one moved. The concept of safety had become so entirely foreign to them in just a few days, that their brains struggled to process it.
Then, an elderly woman collapsed onto the grass, sobbing quietly into her hands. Arthur slumped against the wooden post of a nearby house, sliding down until he hit the dirt, closing his eyes.
Even Cai Dajian let out a long, shuddering breath, sitting down heavily on a stone bench, his metal pipe finally slipping from his grip.
For the first time since the sky broke and the world ended, the group felt a genuine, profound sense of relief.
They could finally rest.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Name: Lu Zhang]
[Level: 11]
[Strength: 36]
[Speed: 69]
[Intelligence: 38]
[Endurance: 36]
[Stat Points: 25]
[Mana: 380/380]
[Skills: Inspect lv 6, Empty Fang Lv 8, Sky Walk Lv 1, Mandate Lv 1, Devour Lv 5]