Epoch of Twilight

Chapter 25: The Large Group of Insects

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Luo Yuan drove out of Jingyue District. The road was flat and the cars were rarely seen.

Luo Yuan just started to drive when dizziness struck him. He wasn’t aware of it at the beginning as he thought it was the result of the insomnia he had.

But soon he felt something was wrong.

The surroundings suddenly became very noisy and then silent. His sight started to distort and turn vague.

Luo Yuan braked and stopped the car at the roadside.

He rubbed his face, trying to wake himself but it got worse instead. His mind buzzed like there were lots of mosquitoes inside. He was certain his head was going to split open at any moment. “What’s happening, nothing like this had happened before!”

He kept taking deep breaths, resting on the seat and trying to maintain his equanimity.

Fortunately, as the time passed, all the illusions faded.

Gradually, an amazing feeling came. He closed his eyes and enjoyed it. He wondered whether it was an illusion that he could sense his surroundings. Though he had closed his eyes, he could still sense the rough location of certain objects.

Suddenly, he reached out his hands and grabbed something from a corner in the car. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that it was a palm sized mickey doll which had been thrown to the corner.

Luo Yuan was sure he hadn’t noticed such doll in the car prior to closing his eyes. The place was dark, as it was usual now, after all. But somehow he’d known there was something in the corner and could roughly estimate its size too.

No reason, no explanation—it was completely illogical.

He kept experiencing the feeling and took out things from time to time: something from a toolbox, magazine, one-time use cup, and even a box of condom. He hadn’t checked what was in the car when buying it, and the toolbox was also closed but it hadn’t affected his senses. It was as if the toolbox was transparent.

When he realized that it wasn’t a coincidence but real, he felt surprise and excited simultaneously. He knew clearly the strength of such an ability. If somebody would attack him from behind, he could sense it without turning his back. If he’d had such a power yesterday, he would have dared to attack the group of rats by himself. Though such a power didn’t directly enhance his killing strength but it was more like a lubricant to a machine, and it will definitely help a lot in both fighting and surviving.

After about 10 minutes, his brain finally awoke completely. And he was even more energetic.

Then the notification sound from the system came into his mind.

“Beep, Sensory Perception +1”

“So, this is the sensory perception! I thought I had evolved... Then it must because of drinking the brain juice. I didn’t know the reaction would be so much more intense when compared to the system gently adding a point. Enhancing inner qualities using the flesh of mutated organisms seems to be rougher and more dangerous. I should be more careful when I drink next time.”

“But the body stamina and strength didn’t changed at all. This type of light blue color organism could only help before the property reached 11 points, and when it was above that, the effect would no longer be obvious.” Luo Yuan analyzed within himself.

“But I could get a property point; it’s already a surprise to me.” He was slightly disappointed but his mind-set adjusted quickly. He started to familiarize himself with this relatively mysterious property.

He roughly estimated the range he could sense and the result was about three meters. Anything that entered that range would not able to escape from his senses. But when that something was outside the range, Luo Yuan was no different from a normal person.

Actually, everyone had sensory perception. For example, when somebody stares at you, you will look at him suddenly. Another example is, if somebody is standing secretly behind you and though he does not make any sound, you will still feel uncomfortable like something is behind you. It is just the sensory perception of a normal person is very weak and is always being neglected.

Luo Yuan rested for a while before he got back on the road. When he reached the highway located at the outskirts of the city, the number of cars increased slightly. However, those were not private cars but the army’s heavy trucks with tires close to the height of an adult. They were all carrying various goods and materials. And these large metallic trucks passed by Luo Yuan quite frequently, making his jeep vibrate slightly each time.

Luo Yuan switch on his radio. The receivable stations were very few and all of them were reporting news. The entertainment radio stations had already closed down.

“......****the central called for an emergency army meeting regarding the sea monster case at the eastern sea region. All large military regions near the coastal areas of south east are ready for first level war.”

“The temporary panel of the government during war raised the danger level again and also pointed out that the living organism crisis is a great challenge to the survival of human beings. Once again, the panel appealed to the people to keep calm and be united. The Central Republic Government will restore the order of the society as fast as possible and will also recover the society’s manufacture...”

“Brazil’s economic capital, Sao Paulo, fell completely and there were more than a hundred thousand people who died. Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested a military support from the more powerful countries. It is reported that the large group of animals are mostly from the quickly expanding Amazon region, some of whose organisms are demonstrating some obvious mutations.”

“The flight which the vice president of European Union, Mr. Eros, took was attacked bybirds and the plane crashed in Switzerland. A total of 18 personnel on board died.”

Luo Yuan listened to the radio calmly. He even took out a bottle of mineral water to drink while listening. As the situation had become very bad, Luo Yuan wouldn’t be surprised if he heard something unbelievable.

He touched the steering wheel, thinking of where he should go.

He had left in a hurry, without preparing much, and had no idea about his destination.

He didn’t notice when the sky started to gradually darken. It seemed to have been covered by the clouds but the mineral water on the glass stand was shaking and forming ripples from time to time. Sometimes Luo Yuan even heard buzzing sounds.

While he was still driving, he suddenly felt a throb in his heart and was struck by sense of indescribable impatience, panic, and chill.

Then, the ear-splitting siren of an air defense warning tore through the serene atmosphere. As Luo Yuan had never heard such a sound before, it was difficult for him to find a suitable adjective to describe it. It seemed to be able to penetrate through every place, including both the hearts of the strong and the weak-willed.

He unconsciously raised his head to take a look and the sight sent a chill down his body. It was akin to falling into an ice cellar.

A huge green colored face appeared in the sky.

As the distance was too great, Luo Yuan couldn’t estimate the actual size of the face and was uncertain when it had appeared.

The face looked vague and unreal, but it was the face of a man. Though, what made people chilled was the fact that the face was continuously changing its expression. It could be angry at one time, but laugh, smile or frown at another.

And the buzzing from afar was getting louder. It started indistinctly but was becoming so loud that it even covered the sound of the siren.

The loud sound wave had caused Luo Yuan’s blood to vibrate uncontrollably which left him dizzy and nauseated.

As the face in the sky got bigger, the look became more vague. Luo Yuan quickly realized that it wasn’t a single organism but was formed by millions of green dots.

Luo Yuan knew that the nature had lots of organisms which demonstrated some similar traits in order to threaten their enemies. For example, lots of small fish gathered together to pretend to be a big fish while some peculiar moths would also gather together and form a weird design.

As human being were positioned at the top of the food chain in the nature, they had an overwhelming advantage in the competition, thus they would naturally be imitated by other organisms.

Then, a heavy truck suddenly plowed into a guardrail, rolled over on one side and gave a loud noise. As the heavy truck generated terrific forces, they added with the violent friction against the concrete surface and produced a long spark of one meter high.

The sight woke Luo Yuan.

It didn’t matter what was coming. If he wanted to live, he had to leave this place.

He quickly turned the steering wheel, pressed hard on the accelerator and drove back. The car jetted out a dense black smoke and sped down the road.

He looked back and the face seemed to have grown bigger. Its speed was very fast, though Luo Yuan was racing as fast he could, he wasn’t able to get rid of it.

Worried, he took a glance to both sides and drove his car toward the **** nearby.

The security there were already hiding inside the building. The electric gate was closing tightly, but Luo Yuan could no longer stop the car.

“Bang!”

Came a loud noise, and the electric gate was smashed open.

The jeep careened into the building and stopped only in front of the registration building.

Luo Yuan had no time to attend to his baggage; he only took his knife and jumped out of the car.

The glass door of the registration building was locked from inside. About twenty of the workers were watching in panic at the lobby. When they saw somebody run toward them, they became vigilant.

One of the workers was suddenly delighted. She talked to the security guards and the door was opened.

Luo Yuan was relieved and quickly walked into the lobby.

“Xiao Luo, why are you here?” a young lady wearing a light grey office wear asked in disbelief.

Luo Yuan was slightly stupefied. He turned and said with surprise, “Sister Huang, aren’t you a policeman at Gaotang? Why are you working here now?”

The person who was speaking was Huang Jiahui. The two of them had met while for Chen Weiqiang at Gaotang. But since then, they didn’t keep in contact.

“The family has been opposing me being a cop. Furthermore, that near escape had somehow ruined my life, so I quit.” Huang Jiahui laughed at herself. “But nobody comes to register now, so it’s quite free here. Maybe I’ll soon be transferred to another department.”

Though Huang Jiahui described it indifferently, Luo Yuan knew that if she didn’t have a certain family background, it would be difficult for her to be transferred to another department.

“Both of you are old friends that just met up, but, brother, you just came in from outside, do you know what’s that human face?” a middle aged man, who looked like a leader and had a huge beer belly, asked worriedly after coming over.

“Xiao Luo, this is Manager Sun,” Huang Jiahui introduced.

“Let’s talk about it later!” Luo Yuan stopped the conversation as he felt that the sound outside was getting louder.

The face of manager Sun suddenly turned sour.

Luo Yuan walked toward the glass door, put his hands on the surface and felt numbness through them. The glass door was vibrating in high frequency. The situation was worse than he’d expected. So he turned to Huang Jiahui and said, “It’s not safe here. The glass door will soon break.”

“Brother, are you kidding me? This is bulletproof glass door, how can it break?” manager Sun said, interrupting him.

As soon as he finished his sentence, a huge green colored insect landed like a lightning on the step.

Manager Sun was frightened and drew a step backward.

The shuttle-like shaped insect was covered with a shiny exoskeleton. Its two pairs of hind legs had tapering sharp ends like four thin and sharp blades while all of the front legs’ joints were pulled back into the chest. And from Luo Yuan’s point of view, these front legs appeared to be even more dangerous.

This about one meter long beautiful insect was like a creation of God. However, Luo Yuan couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be when it moved.

In the meantime, there were other insects were landing on the steps. And soon, the whole place were filled with insects.

As the buzzing sound outside got louder, the glass continued to vibrate and then the vibration became more violent until the whole glass door started to tinkle. Suddenly, it cracked and a narrow white line appeared on the glass door. Then, there were more and more white lines spreading out like a spider web.

“Ahhh! Help!”

“Run!.”

The people were frightened, and the room into chaos as everyone was trying to escape in a different direction.

“Help me, Xiao Luo!” Huang Jiahui screamed in panic.

“Just follow me,” Luo Yuan roared. He didn’t dare to pull Huang Jiahui because he had learned his lesson as he was almost dragged to death last time.

Huang Jiahui followed immediately. Besides her, manager Sun and other five people followed too.

“Any completely sealed room here?” Luo Yuan shouted while running.

“I don’t know.” Huang Jiahui shook her head anxiously. She had just started to work here and wasn’t too familiar with the place yet. Besides, how could she recall anything when she was so frightened?

“Fourth floor, there’s a small meeting room at the fourth floor,” a comely girl replied.

When manager Sun saw Luo Yuan run toward the entrance of the staircase, he reminded, “Why don’t we take a lift, we have electricity all the time here.”

“We can’t make it. There are many uncertainties if we take a lift. Besides, many people will think of taking the lift and that will slow us down!” Luo Yuan explained.

Manager Sun agreed. If many people triedt to squeeze into the two lifts, it would be another problem of the door being unable to close.

Then there was the sound glass shattering, soon followed by gun shots and screams.

Luo Yuan tensed. He ran toward the staircase and with just a few steps he had already reached the first floor. He actually reduced his speed on purpose, else the rest wouldn’t be able to follow him.

The horrible cries and the calls for help outside urged them to run even faster toward fourth floor.

Manager Sun was panting heavily as he used to drink alcohol which had weakened his body. Normally, he would start gasping for air after walking a short distance, but now he even had to climb the staircase. When he reach the second floor, he had already fallen behind.

“Manager Sun, let me help you,” a young man said, looking back and stopping immediately to help manager Sun.

“Good, good! Xiao Chen, you are good. Thankfully I didn’t misjudge you.” Manager Sun said breathlessly, patting his shoulder.

That young man called Xiao Chen was happy to be praised and quickly pulled manager Sun up the staircase.

Suddenly, the window of the third floor shattered and the pieces of glass slid off the staircase like drops of rain.

Manager Sun accidentally stepped on the sliding pieces of glass, his body slanted and he slumped on the floor. The next moment, he sprang up like he’d gotten an electric shock as his butt was pricked by the pieces of glass and bled.

“Are you alright, manager Sun?” Xiao Chen tried to stifle a laugh.

Manager Sun waved his hand with an agonized face. “Why’s this window broke only at this very hour? Please, help me pull out these pieces of glass first. Ouch, it’s painful.”

Xiao Chen pulled out a few large pieces while manager Sun yelled in pain. Then, Xiao Chen said, “Manager Sun, let’s go first and settle the rest later.”

Xiao Chen was looking at the broken window worriedly as he feared that the insect would come in anytime. As soon as he finished his sentence, he was scared that manager Sun would be displeased with him and continued to explain, “Since we don’t have any medicine right now, we may not able to clean them up completely.”

“Alright!” Manager Sun knew it wasn’t the right time to do it now. As the others had run far, he became anxious and said, “Let’s go faster.”

But neither of them was aware that a giant beetle had silently come in through the window and swiftly landed on the floor.

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