Dark Ruins Dawn

Chapter 4 Map
"What's wrong? Are you tired? You were pretty strong when you were breaking the steel claws just now."

"I'm tired, I need to rest for a while."

"That's fine."

David did not notice anything unusual about Zhuang Fan, assuming he was just tired from walking, so he ordered the troops to form a circular defensive line to protect him in the middle.

Although he was a chatterbox, he still maintained the proper attitude.

Zhuang Fan was slightly out of breath and it took him a while to recover. His vision refocused and the lingering sense of deathly silence finally subsided.

But the pain he had just experienced still left him shaken, and he couldn't figure out what had gone wrong.

The only explanation is that he forcibly manipulated the black mist, or that the manipulation lasted too long, causing mental and physical exhaustion and resulting in a backlash.

At this moment, the black mist inside his body had diluted and dissipated, and the remaining light mist was gradually purified by the fog lights.

He can now only "observe," but can no longer manipulate even the slightest bit of the eerie mist.

He had been careless… He sighed softly, not knowing when he would regain this ability; for now, he could only wait patiently.

But he still had to push forward with his escape plan; time was of the essence.

"Have you rested enough? Time to go," David replied.

Zhuang Fan nodded: "Let's go."

……

As night falls, the eerie fog in the wilderness thickens, and the frequency of zombie attacks on the groups increases.

The armored soldiers' rotary machine guns never stopped firing, their muzzle flashes dancing wildly, the dense "rat-a-tat-tat" of gunfire tearing through the night sky, and a large number of brass shell casings flying all over the ground.

The guards' flamethrowers cleared away a large area of ​​eerie fog and hordes of corpses, leaving the air filled with the crackling sound of burning coals and a pungent stench.

Zhuang Fan glanced at David again and saw that he was busy bombarding the horde of zombies with a shotgun and had no time to pay attention to anything else.

He knew this was his last chance, and it would be fleeting.

In an instant, he bent down sharply, his body moving like lightning, and quickly crawled under the legs of the armored soldier next to him, rushing straight towards the most intense barrage of fire, completely ignoring the whistling bullets around him.

"Stop! All of you!"

David, his eyes blazing with fury, decisively issued a ceasefire order, fearing that the armored soldiers might accidentally harm this precious "spy."

At this moment, Zhuang Fan disregarded everything and rushed out dozens of meters, heading straight for the densest area of ​​zombies. He believed that only by facing death could he find a glimmer of hope.

"What are you standing there for? Chase after them!"

David threw down the heavy shotgun, turned the power exoskeleton to maximum, and chased after Zhuang Fan like a madman.

Zhuang Fan's movements were not very agile; he was still trying to adapt to his thawed body.

But thanks to his foresight, he easily dodged the arm-swinging attacks of dozens of zombies, and then used them to delay David and the others.

He had already calculated the distance between himself and the edge of the cliff, where there was a crooked tree growing on the edge, the gentlest slope, and relatively few zombies climbing up.

He only needs to protect his head, curl up and roll down the cliff, using the grass and branches as cushions, and he will most likely survive.

It's better than staying put and waiting to die.

Zhuang Fan considered all the escape routes, the density of the zombie horde, and the normal reactions of David and the others in a very short time.

He was betting that David wouldn't dare to fire and accidentally hurt himself.

But that's it.

"Whoosh-"

An electric shock bullet struck him precisely in the back, instantly unleashing a powerful electric current strong enough to paralyze him.

Zhuang Fan's muscles suddenly spasmed, his torso stiffened, and he fell straight to the ground.

They were just one step away from the cliff.

He gritted his teeth, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, and with great difficulty removed the electric shock device from his back, barely managing to get up.

However, David had already rushed forward, pressed his head down, and locked his torso with his steel claws once again.

"You just keep rushing around like that, like an eel, are you really not afraid of dying?!"

David's voice trembled slightly, filled with lingering fear. If he hadn't brought the stun gun today, the kid would definitely have escaped.

The residual electric current in his body was still surging wildly, but Zhuang Fan no longer cared. A trace of weariness flashed in his eyes as he said slowly, "Brother, I want to live."

The air seemed to freeze. David paused for a long moment before speaking in a deep voice, "Brother, you want to live too."

"it is good……"

Zhuang Fan resigned himself to his fate, his expression returning to calm, revealing no trace of emotion.

David looked at him, hesitated, and eventually lost interest in making a fuss.

On the way back, more zombies climbed up from the cliff edge, but the team did not linger and returned to the military fortress in just twenty minutes.

As the alloy gate of the fortress slowly closed, it also shut down Zhuang Fan's last hope of escape.

The group returned to the underground laboratory, where the blond doctor, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately took out a detector and scanned Zhuang Fan again.

"0 mg/m³, the detective's identity has been confirmed."

The blond doctor broke into a bright smile, and when his gaze swept over Zhuang Fan's disheveled clothes, he raised an eyebrow: "What interesting thing just happened?"

David hesitated for a moment, but ultimately reported all the details truthfully, including how Zhuang Fan broke free of the steel claws and how he escaped.

"There's such a thing?" The blond doctor glanced at Zhuang Fan, looking quite surprised.

Zhuang Fan remained silent throughout, his eyes vacant and his face devoid of any emotion.

Next, he underwent another round of full-body examinations, including all deep-seated items such as bones, blood, nervous system, and brain tissue.

But the test results showed that he was no different from a healthy ordinary person; he had neither undergone enhancement surgery nor had any microchips implanted. "Doctor, should we use nanobots?"

The blond doctor stared at the screen and shook his head: "His body is extremely precious. Nanobots can cause contact damage. Even the slightest wound would have consequences we cannot afford."

Ultimately, the blond doctor could only attribute Zhuang Fan's abnormality to "an exceptionally outstanding display of physical fitness."

"From now on, no one will be able to harm a single hair on your head."

The blonde doctor solemnly promised, "No one can afford to take that responsibility."

Zhuang Fan smiled at the promise: "Okay, just don't kick me again."

"That situation will never happen again." The blond doctor's solemn promise was tantamount to a death sentence for the reckless guard.

Zhuang Fan was then locked in a more heavily guarded room, which was simply furnished with only a bed, table, chairs, and a toilet.

With just a quick scan, he discovered eight visible security cameras, not to mention countless more hidden ones.

A small squad of heavily armed soldiers guarded the door; the imposing figures of the two armored soldiers alone were enough to dispel any thought he might have of escaping.

He couldn't get out at all.

……

After passing through multiple security checks, David entered the room and saw Zhuang Fan standing by the wall, staring intently at something without moving.

"What would you like to eat? I'll have the kitchen prepare it; I guarantee it will be fresh."

Zhuang Fan ignored him and stood there like a rotten log.

"Brother?"

David stepped forward and found Zhuang Fan staring intently at the world map on the wall, having been there for a long time.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at it so intently?"

Zhuang Fan slowly turned his head to look at David. His face was calm and serious, and his tone was unusually low.

"Is this a world map?"

"correct."

"Is it for now?"

"That's right, they're all the latest measurements. However, some remote areas are quite dangerous, so the measurements aren't very accurate, but the overall outline should be correct."

“How is this possible…” Zhuang Fan muttered to himself.

David was also confused. He examined the map on the wall carefully again, and nodded after confirming that it was correct: "There's nothing wrong with it, so what's wrong?"

"No problem?"

Zhuang Fan pointed at the map, "Then let me ask you, where are the seven continents and four oceans? What about the Eurasian Plate? What about Africa and the Americas? Even the entire Antarctic is gone? Have they all merged into one supercontinent? Who made this lousy map?"

"Seven continents, four oceans, Eurasian plate, what are all these..." These terms clearly touched on David's blind spots.

Now it was Zhuang Fan's turn to fall silent.

Their eyes met, clear and bright yet filled with confusion, both certain that the other was not joking.

Zhuang Fan's tone was awkward: "This is not funny at all."

"People of the Common Era, um... I think I understand."

David pondered for a moment, then turned and left the room, saying, "Wait for me."

"I'm willing to wait as long as I want."

Zhuang Fan was completely bewildered by the world map in front of him, all his past knowledge was distorted, and he was more inclined to believe that someone was playing a prank.

What kind of world map is this?
Almost all the tectonic plates were squeezed together, indistinguishable from one another, with huge and exaggerated mountain fault lines running through it, and surrounding this supercontinent were only broken islands.

and many more……

Zhuang Fan frowned and took a few steps back, re-examining the map, only to find it increasingly familiar.

The outline of this supercontinent looks a bit like "Amasia".
He once read a research paper that predicted that over the next 300 million years, Asia would continue to drift eastward while the Americas would drift westward, eventually merging all the continents into a new supercontinent—Amasia.

Well, at the end of absurdity lies reality.

Zhuang Fan took a deep breath and tried to make a reasonable connection:
Assuming the map is real, then the main body of this supercontinent is the World Island. The large bulge in the eastern part of the World Island looks quite like Alaska.
The southeastern part of the World Island somewhat resembles the American Plate, but he couldn't tell whether it was North or South America, since the sea level had risen considerably.

The western part of the World Island has a distinct outline and still retains a trace of old Europe, while the long, open strip in the southwest must be the African plate.
Located in the southern part of the World Island, there is an inverted triangular area that looks a lot like South Asia, but its area is also much smaller.
As for the Australian plate, Zhuang Fan searched around but couldn't find anything similar. He guessed it had broken up and was buried among a group of broken islands.

The Antarctic ice sheet has likely melted completely, and the entire tectonic plate is submerged in the sea...

In short, this is an extremely absurd world map; the combined area of ​​all the continental plates is reduced by at least two-thirds.

"Aside from the significant reduction in area, this is practically a carbon copy of Amasia..."

Zhuang Fan couldn't accept this joke.

What does it mean to compress 300 million years of tectonic plate evolution on Earth into just a few hundred years?
The crustal tearing, volcanic eruptions, and massive tsunamis caused by plate collisions alone would be enough to wipe out humanity a dozen times over.

However, David put the joke to rest by bringing out an old paper map.

Due to its age, the map was covered in dust, with yellowed and moldy edges, and wrapped with several layers of transparent tape. However, the familiar layout of the seven continents and four oceans on it was a memory etched into Zhuang Fan's bones.

"Brother, you're really something. You can't find this thing online at all. It was an old guy who's over two hundred years old who rummaged through his archives to find this map of the Common Era for you. Yeah, it's really far from what we have now."

Zhuang Fan took the old map and carefully compared it with the new map on the wall. He then fell silent.

The good news is, he didn't time travel;
The bad news is, it's like time travel.

Zhuang Fan pointed to the old and new versions of the map, his voice slightly grave: "Why did it change like this?"

(End of this chapter)