Chapter 20 - Searching for the True Image of the Village. Attacked by a One-Horned Hyena

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was not long before Su Chen arrived at Xiao Mei village.

There were actually quite a number of houses in this area.

They were all built on a small hill.

Nonetheless, the atmosphere of the village was very strange.

There were no people or animals around.

It was so quiet that people may think no one lived here.

There were also barely any birds in the sky.

“Sir, why are you here?”

An old man asked Su Chen as soon as he stepped out of his car.

Su Chen looked at the old man.

He was about fifty years old.

The old man sat on a stone at the village’s entrance.

Next to him was a pile of rattan. He was weaving items like dustpans.

There was also a little girl playing beside him. She looked about four or five years old and was chasing a small animal around.

Su Chen continued to stare at the old man in front of him.

His face was haggard and his limbs were thin, but his abdomen was abnormally swollen.

There seemed to be a ball hidden under his clothes.

Su Chen deduced that the old man had probably caught a strange disease caused by the radiation.

“Old man, I heard that there’s an abandoned nuclear power plant nearby. Can you tell me the direction?”

Upon hearing Su Chen mention the nuclear power plant, fear flashed across the old man’s eyes.

Then, he raised his hand and pointed at a mountain behind the village.

“Go through the village and over that hill. Young man, what are you going to do there?”

The old man advised, ‘Don’t get too near. It’s not safe.”

He continued anxiously, “I used to work as a handyman in that nuclear power plant. Everything was fine until one day, the higher-ups fired everyone and shut the place down. Ever since then, the people and animals around here have all become abnormal. Look at my stomach. Even if I go to the hospital, nothing could be done. I just have to live with it. Basically, I’m merely waiting for death.”

As he spoke, the old man’s eyes dimmed.

“Big brother, don’t you think my little rabbit is cute?”

The little girl interrupted the old man.

This little girl looked no different from a normal child.

She was also cute and well-behaved.

However, when Su Chen observed carefully, he noticed that both of her ears were missing.

The little girl raised a ball of white fur and showed it to Su Chen.

He smiled and looked at the rabbit in the little girl’s hand.

The rabbit also had no ears.

‘I’m positive the nuclear power plant is leaking.’

The nuclear radiation had caused the surrounding people to fall sick and animals to mutate.

‘I have to be well prepared. It’s important for me to check-in at the abandoned nuclear power plant.’

Su Chen thought to himself and instantly headed to the nuclear power plant.

He went through the village and noticed that most of the houses were idle.

The doors and windows were broken.

Occasionally, he would pass by some houses with residents.

However, they just looked at Su Chen with blank eyes.

They had no reactions at all.

This added to the strange atmosphere of the village.

The fallen leaves on the mountain grounds were obviously different from regular leaves.

They were rust-copper in color and showed no signs of decay, like fossils.

The radiation had completely killed off all bacteria and the leaves would probably not rot for a thousand years.

There were also mushrooms growing on the ground and they were equally strange.

The mushrooms had many warts on them.

Additionally, the spider webs on the trees were distorted. Unlike normal spider webs, these webs were big on one side and small on the other. 

The spiders had probably been affected by radiation as well to form these kinds of webs. 

In other words, there were probably mutated spiders around.

Su Chen continued to move forward.

Suddenly, he saw a long black strip.

It was an eighty-inched long fish.

As expected, even the waters had been affected by the nuclear leak.

The fishes and shrimps had also begun to mutate.

…

Meanwhile, in front of the nuclear power plant, there was a group of one-horned hyenas with green eyes.

They were gnawing on a mutated wolf that was as big as an ox.

These one-horned hyenas were not much bigger than normal hyenas.

The most obvious difference was the sharp, dagger-like horns on their head.

It was definitely caused by nuclear radiation.

Blood spurted out from the mutant wolf’s neck.

Its body twitched before it finally died.

The single-horned hyena’s claws were extremely sharp. They could pierce through bones without much difficulty.

Furthermore, their jaws were very strong and could even bite through steel!

Soon, the mutated wolf was torn into pieces.

It was a bloody mess.

Then, only a pile of white bones remained.

Just then, one of the one-horned hyenas noticed Su Chen’s presence.

It immediately opened its mouth and let out a thunderous roar.

Without any warning, It bared its sharp teeth and attempted to pounce on Su Chen.

Another one-horned hyena let out a roar.

It jumped up with its agile body and aimed its claws directly at Su Chen’s face.

Su Chen could even see the glint on the hyena’s claws.

Before the one-horned hyenas could reach him, Su Chen dodged them.

Simultaneously, the Thunder Blade in his hand brushed past the neck of one of the hyenas.

It split into two.

“Bam!”

The one-horned hyena fell to the ground.

Su Chen slightly sidestepped to avoid another attack and a second hyena fell to the ground. 

The hyena did not even see how Su Chen retaliated!

Three, four, five.

More and more one-horned hyenas fell one after another.

Upon seeing this, the other hyenas stopped attacking.

They turned around and fled back into the woods.

Su Chen went through the forest and finally arrived at the outer area of the nuclear power plant. It was a quarantine zone.

As far as he could see, the quarantine zone was quite large and deserted.

The buildings near the edge of the quarantine zone were still in good condition.

However, the further he went in, the more damaged the facilities were.

The walls were falling apart.

There were weeds growing everywhere because nobody maintained this place.

Furthermore, the bones of small animals could still be seen sporadically.

As for the paths leading to the nuclear power plant, they were blocked.

There were also guards patrolling the intersections.

Outside the quarantine zone, there was a large cemetery.

It seemed that people still came here to pay their respects.

Some flowers on the tombstones had yet to wither.

Suddenly, Su Chen noticed something strange.

Many black things were growing between the cemetery and quarantine zone.

To be precise, they were gray mushrooms!

Fungi!

These fungi were full of melanin.

They could absorb radioactive components and convert them into nutrients.

The more it absorbed, the darker its color. It could also reproduce faster.

It seemed that the fungi outside the quarantine zone did not absorb too much radiation because their color was not gray yet.

The closer they were to the leak, the darker the color of the fungi.

Su Chen carefully looked around the periphery of the nuclear power plant.

He needed to find a suitable entrance.

Most importantly, he needed to get a nuclear radiation detector.

It would help Su Chen find the core of the nuclear power plant in the shortest time possible. 

Su Chen turned around and activated his scamper skill.

He quickly ran back to his car and returned to the city.

This was all to look for a nuclear radiation detector..