Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 33 Planning
Watson received the thousand credits.

Battalion Commander Shekorn personally deposited the "interview fee" into his collar account, praising him with a gentle, formulaic smile for bringing honor to the camp.

Watson lowered his head and whispered a thank you.

The wooden pendant that had been with him for over a decade had left a familiar weight on his neck, but the credits he received in return felt weightless and insignificant.

The departure of the important figure did not bring about any changes to the criminal camp; the boxes of clean water and high-end medicines had vanished without a trace.

The next day, Battalion Commander Xie Ke'en returned to the 86th Battalion and summoned Zhuang Fan and Hua Sheng to his office.

He changed out of his crisp uniform and put on the gray jacket issued by the camp, revealing a completely different side of himself.

“You were absent for three days of tunnel work, and then you were absent for another three days to welcome our distinguished guests.”

Shekorn tapped the table rhythmically, making a dull sound. "You must make up for the six days' worth."

He didn't mention that the two were forcibly conscripted, nor did he mention the meaningless welcoming performance; he was simply stating the facts.

"So starting today, you will have to hand in 30 high-value items every day."

He looked at Zhuang Fan, his tone leaving no room for argument, "You'll have to figure out your own share for the incinerator."

"Battalion Commander, but..."

Watson wanted to argue, but Zhuang Fan stopped him with a look; what's done is done and can't be changed.

"Yes, battalion commander."

"Very good, get to work."

The garbage mountain at the incinerator seemed to have become even more barren overnight.

Even with their best efforts, the two could only barely gather forty-five items.

After handing over thirty items belonging to the battalion commander, they got almost nothing.

For three consecutive days, their collar accounts only gained less than one hundred credits.

This income is negligible compared to the enormous cost of redeeming oneself.

The real crisis arrived on the fifth day.

A new notice appeared on the camp bulletin board:

The screening progress of the nuclear group is no longer arranged in the order of the camp area numbers. Instead, it is a series of randomly fluctuating numbers.

"To improve screening efficiency, starting today, the screening order will be randomly selected by the main system."

This line of cold, electronic text signaled that all of Zhuang Fan's plans had nearly failed.

His carefully calculated safe period was completely shattered.

Today we're checking 50 battalions, tomorrow it might jump to 66 battalions, and the day after tomorrow it might be 85 battalions' turn.

Every spot check turned into a roulette game, with his life as the stake.

Zhuang Fan stood in front of the bulletin board, looking at the constantly changing numbers with a solemn expression.

He needs to take a risk.

That night, in a corner where no one was monitoring him, he precisely injected a barely perceptible wisp of dark mist into three nanomedical cabins parked in the maintenance area.

The eerie mist seeped in silently, corroding the most delicate conductive components inside.

The next day, the three scanning chambers indeed malfunctioned, and the nuclear screening progress was temporarily slowed down.

However, the next morning, three heavy transport ships belonging to the nuclear group landed in the border area.

Brand new equipment was transported down, not only in greater quantity but also in more advanced models.

The nuclear group then announced that, in order to reduce disruption to the border area, it had decided to send additional screening teams to increase the screening speed by 50 percent.

Immediately afterwards, a second announcement was issued.

"Anyone who reports suspicious individuals will receive 10,000 credits and have all their debts waived upon verification."

"Key targets for reporting: those with outstanding abilities, those with unusual behavior, and those with unexplained sources of income recently."

Zhuang Fan felt a chill creeping over him.

All his struggles seemed utterly powerless in the face of a highly efficient system.

The more he resisted, the tighter the noose around his neck tightened.

This announcement also made the atmosphere in all the criminal camps strange.

Their eyes held a newfound scrutiny and suspicion, and everyone became a potential informant.

Zhuang Fan's exceptional treasure-hunting ability at the incinerator became a double-edged sword hanging over his head.

He not only had to guard against the exploitation by Shekorn and the foreman, but also against the criminals he worked with on weekdays.

So he took out his meager daily profits and distributed a protein bar to everyone present.

Although it wasn't much, it was enough to temporarily win people's hearts.

After all, everyone knows that Zhuang Fan is on the orders of the battalion commander to search for treasure, and that he has powerful backers.

But from that day on, Watson spoke even less.

The relentless hard labor had already drained him of his last bit of strength, and now his spiritual support had also been broken.

Zhuang Fan looked at his thin back and ashen face, and offered a few words of comfort, but it had little effect.

Night fell, and the workday ended with a ringing bell.

Exhausted, Hua Sheng did not return to the hideout with Zhuang Fan, but instead headed towards the recreation room on the other side of the camp.

There, there was a row of old virtual pods.

For 20 credits an hour, you can escape reality; it's cheap and not subject to curfew.

The camp administrators were happy to see the convicts squandering their hard-earned money on these expensive forms of entertainment.

Zhuang Fan never went there once in his efforts to save money.

Gradually, he noticed that Watson's mental state was deteriorating, and there was always a lingering weariness in his eyes.

"You don't stay up all night every day, do you?"

"No, I'll go back around 3 a.m."

That evening, Watson rushed into the entertainment area again, and Zhuang Fan thought for a moment and decided to follow him.

Using the alias "Guangtumu," he paid twenty credits to access the virtual world.

There is no tutorial or buffer.

The moment their consciousness connected, Zhuang Fan was thrown into a brutal arena.

The sky was dark red, the ground was covered with a layer of yellow sand, and there was congealed black blood everywhere.

A cyborg wielding a chainsaw axe roared past him, splitting a lizardman's head in two.

Green blood and brain matter splattered all over Zhuang Fan.

Warm and fishy.

The tactile sensation here is incredibly realistic.

The place was filled with heavy metal sounds, the clanging of weapons, and the screams of those dying—it was incredibly noisy.

A giant holographic billboard floats in mid-air, scrolling through text in the most glaring font:
Still worried about your equipment? The 'Slayer' series power hammer is only 998 credits!

"Abyss Loans, borrow and use as you please, helping you become invincible on the battlefield!"

Good local, good direct.

Zhuang Fan quickly found Watson among the mad crowd.

His eyes were bloodshot, he was wearing the most basic novice cloth armor, and he was holding a short, blunt-bladed knife, fighting with a bear.

The bear-man easily dodged his attack and swung his huge paw, sending him flying.

Watson rolled on the ground a few times, then got up and rushed forward again, completely insane.

Zhuang Fan did not hesitate.

He picked up an energy rifle from beside a corpse that had been cut in half at the waist, aimed it at the bear-man, and pulled the trigger.

A blue beam of light flashed by.

The bear-man swayed and collapsed to the ground. Watson stood there, stunned, then turned around and saw "Guang Tumu," a man wearing a hood and whose face was obscured.

Zhuang Fan didn't say anything, but grabbed his arm and forcibly started the exit program.

Hua Sheng suddenly sat up in the virtual reality pod, panting heavily, his heart pounding.

He subconsciously glanced at his account balance, which showed he only had two hundred points left.

He squandered almost all of his 1,000 "reward" points in just a few days.

A strange sense of shame welled up inside him, and he felt only pain.

Zhuang Fan looked at him calmly: "We haven't even gone to Zhongdu to settle accounts with that woman yet. You're not thinking of spending all your money and then hanging yourself from a beam, are you?"

"Of course not."

"That's fine. If it hurts a lot when someone steps on you, just bear with it for now, and then step back with ten times the force."

Hua Sheng smiled, his voice hoarse, "Brother Guangtu, why are you always so calm? Don't you ever feel like venting?"

Everyone has emotions, including me. That's normal, but it exists.

Zhuang Fan raised his hand and tapped the metal collar around his neck.

"It will monitor your heart rate, adrenaline levels, and cortisol levels in real time. Any emotional fluctuations or abnormal heartbeats will trigger a background alarm, be quietly recorded, and become a key observation target, eventually attracting the guard's concerned greetings."

Seeing that Watson was listening attentively, he continued, "Therefore, I must always control my emotions."

"Watson, you're an adult, you have the freedom to manage your own time and money, I have no right to interfere. If you can pull yourself together..."

Zhuang Fan wrote on the ground:
I have a way to get out, but I need your full cooperation.

Watson stared wide-eyed and wrote down beside him:

What should I do?

We need to proceed in several steps.

Zhuang Fan wrote on the dusty ground, writing a paragraph and then erasing it.

Watson watched intently from the side.

The next day, at the incinerator.

Zhuang Fan began to observe every corner of the incineration plant.

Some key wall structural support points, aging fire pipes, the load-bearing structure of the garbage conveyor belt, and the location of water pressure sensors...

He also needed to carefully approach the core area of ​​the incinerator to observe the type and structure of the fuel pipelines.

In the middle of the day, he memorized the entire structure of the incineration plant and repeatedly calculated its structure.

Next, he injected wisps of barely visible dark mist into several sections of the walls and abandoned equipment.

He needs to calculate the corresponding corrosion time under different concentrations of decay fog.

In order to prevent anyone from noticing Zhuang Fan's unusual behavior, the important task of creating confusion was entrusted to Hua Sheng.

Using his knowledge of ordinary machinery, he could always create some plausible minor malfunctions to attract the attention of the overseers and vagrants, thus creating valuable window periods for Zhuang Fan.

Zhuang Fan needed some inconspicuous parts, a screwdriver, or a small piece of copper wire, and Hua Sheng could always find them in the trash heap and then quietly slip them into his hand as they passed each other.

The two worked together more and more seamlessly.

Zhuang Fan's observation range also expanded from the incinerator to the entire camp area.

The patrol routes of the guards, the shift change times, the distribution of power supply relays for the high-voltage power grid, and even the few wall joints that were recently repaired due to the earthquake...

Everything became part of the grand blueprint in his mind.

On one occasion, a wisp of dark mist he injected prematurely caused a small-scale collapse of a wall, nearly hitting a passing refugee.

This incident led the camp to intensify its inspections and repairs of all structural weaknesses.

But Zhuang Fan felt it was worthwhile, as his ideas and judgments were further validated.

The only problem now is how he will get out of that heavily guarded gate even if he gets his collar back.

He knew that even regular border control personnel rarely went outside the gate.

The security here is far superior to that old shelter, and he worries that if he tries to disguise himself again, he will probably be caught on the spot.

Moreover, after going through layers of security checks, he would have to undergo nuclear screening, so it was impossible for him to leave calmly.

Just when Zhuang Fan's plan was at a standstill, an unexpected turning point occurred.

Deep within the garbage mountain, he discovered a completely decommissioned nanomedical pod.

Its exterior was severely damaged and deformed by pressure, filled with a large amount of decaying mist; it was only a matter of time before it rotted.

After he removed the outer layer of decaying mist, he discovered that the core unit inside had miraculously remained intact.

It can definitely be repaired and reused.

He kept quiet and continued to carefully "sabotage" inside, breaking several important chips and then breaking the box containing the nanobots, causing a small amount of protective fluid to leak out.

Watson knew that this step was very important and could not be overlooked, so he kept watch outside, keeping a close eye on the surrounding movements.

Finally, Zhuang Fan emerged from the garbage heap, picked up some discarded boards, and completely covered the medical pod.

Inside the incinerator, those long-time criminals were no longer satisfied with just one protein bar a day.

"Brother, we give you the best spot every day so you can find so many good things."

A convict stopped Zhuang Fan, saying, "So, you need at least two dollars a day, otherwise we'll find our own."

"it is good."

At this critical moment, Zhuang Fan did not want to cause any unnecessary trouble.

Anyway, there aren't many days left.

That evening, when Zhuang Fan passed by the 85th Battalion, he discovered that the nuclear engineers had already moved the equipment inside.

He immediately sensed something was wrong and quickly went to the electronic bulletin board.

New content has been added there:

"Notice: The Nuclear Group screening team will be stationed at Camp 86 on April 28. All personnel are requested to cooperate with the inspection."

Only two days left.
Zhuang Fan took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then returned to his hideout.

He noticed that Watson's condition was also off.

Zhuang Fan gestured for him to come out, and the two sat on the dark, empty ground.

"My sister, Hua Xin, may have had an accident."

"The new group of people who arrived today are refugees who retreated from the western border defense line of Linhai City. I went to ask them about it. They said that the largest refugee settlement outside the city was hit by a zombie horde a few days ago."

His voice trembled slightly, "My sister is there."

"You saw it with your own eyes, and you confirmed it?"

Zhuang Fan emphasized, "Since it's all hearsay, don't overthink it. Focus on saving money first."

"Brother Guangtu, you're right."

Hua Sheng suddenly raised his head: "We have to find a way out, now, immediately!"

Zhuang Fan nodded.

He wrote a sentence on the ground with his hand:

[The day after tomorrow, nuclear weapons will begin random inspections of the 86th Battalion.]

Watson was slightly surprised; the timing was too sudden and seemed to have disrupted their plans.

Wait, what does nuclear weapons have to do with our escape?
Watson was suddenly stunned as a bold idea popped into his mind.

He carefully recalled everything that had happened recently, and all the clues from the past connected together at this moment.

Watson's breath hitched, and he wrote a sentence on the ground.

[Do nuclear energy have anything to do with you?]

Zhuang Fan pondered for a moment, then, without hiding anything, he erased the original writing and rewrote a sentence:
They're here to arrest me.

(End of this chapter)