The Wastelander Read online

  Split their heads open! Chop their arms off! Take everything which belonged to them!

  These thoughts filled the scar-faced man’s mind and he was going to do exactly that. Except…, as soon as he lifted his machete, his movements came to a sudden halt.

  Mad Dog reached out lightning-fast with his right hand, his five fingers closing over his opponent’s wrist. Crack! The wrist was twisted in the opposite direction, twisted so hard that the bones could be seen poking out of the skin as blood poured from the puncture wounds.

  Next, Mad Dog followed up with a sweeping kick with his right leg. This kick landed upon the scar-faced man’s legs with the power of a steel whip and the scar-faced man was suddenly ”shortened” as his legs bent to a terrifyingly unnatural degree. The bones within his legs had been cleanly snapped apart in multiple places.

  Finally, a punch was thrown!

  The scar-faced man’s chest was completely caved in by this punch. Eight of his ribs were shattered into tiny pieces and he was sent flying backwards like a sandbag, instantly knocking flat several of the scavengers who were behind him.

  Right at this moment, the metal rod came slamming down towards Mad Dog.

  Mad Dog made it look as easy as picking flowers: a grab, a pull, and a toss. He first grabbed the metal rod, pulled it away from the man forcefully and then sent it back to him in a furious blow by slamming the rod straight through the man’s mouth. This forceful entry first shattered the man’s teeth into tiny bits, and then… crunch. A clear sound rang out as the metal rod exited through the back of the man’s skull. An enormous hole had appeared in his head!

  “Ahhhhh! Monster!”

  The axe-wielding scavenger was so terrified by this sight that he immediately turned tail and fled.

  However, Mad Dog wasn’t going to let him off. He leapt into the air, rising nearly two meters as he lifted his right leg past the man’s head and used it to deliver a crushing downwards blow towards the man’s skull.

  CRUNCH.

  The cervical vertebra was cleanly severed!

  As for the head itself, it was actually shoved into the man’s chest by the terrifying force of Mad Dog’s strike. The inconceivable power of this strike actually drilled the scavenger’s legs into the ground, almost like a nail being hammered into the earth. He stood there, unable to fall down and of course, he was deader than dead!

  “Ahahah!” Mad Dog’s savage face was filled with berserk delight and a look of absolute intoxication. It was as though he had already completely lost control of his mind. “C’mon, keep it up! I haven’t had enough fun yet!”

  The two mercenaries mentally groaned when they saw this scene. The boss had entered one of his incredibly dangerous berserk states. This state was the reason why his nickname was ”Mad Dog"!

  Neither of the two rookie mercenaries dared to move too close to him!

  The scar-faced man was lying on the ground, somehow still alive and struggling to draw breath. Mad Dog stepped directly onto his face, completely caving it in and causing the white brain matter to explode forth from his face, almost as though it was sick of being in the man’s skull and impatient to move elsewhere. Mad Dog had crushed the man’s skull as easily as one would crush a chicken egg.

  This entire process had taken less than five seconds. Mad Dog, using utterly brutal and bloody methods, had instantly defeated and slain the three strongest scavengers. His attacks were so clean and measured that he had clearly perfected them over countless ”practice” sessions. His power was simply inhuman, and it was utterly bone-chilling!

  He was no man. He was an absolute devil!

  The scavengers were all terrified out of their wits, with the more cowardly ones peeing themselves on the spot. Cloudhawk stared wide-eyed at all of this. If he hadn’t seen it all happen in person, there’s no way he would’ve believed that any man could be as strong as this!

  Mad Dog charged forwards towards the other scavengers, grabbing the machete out of the scar-faced man’s lifeless hands. Just as he was about to begin massacring the rest…

  Boom! A rumbling sound could be heard as the porcupine-shaped vehicle came flying through the sand-swept air, having flown off the edge of one of the sand dunes just outside.

  The fat man, cigar in mouth, was seated in the shaking vehicle. His left hand controlled the steering wheel as his right hand pulled his gun out of its holster. Both the vehicle and the fat man himself were midair when the fat man acted. He drew his gun and shot at Mad Dog without even aiming.

  A bullet tore through the air, moving dozens of meters in a split second.

  Clang!

  The machete in Mad Dog’s hands was struck head-on and shattered into two pieces.

  Cloudhawk was stunned once again. The fat man didn’t seem to possess any skills at all, but he actually was a terrifyingly skilled marksman. His inconceivable accuracy was just as inhuman as Mad Dog’s strength!

  The vehicle sped straight into their temporary base.

  “Mad Dog, what the actual fuck are you doing?” The fat man stared at the three obliterated corpses on the ground. “Messing around and killing one or two of them is one thing, but are you planning to wipe out all of these fuckers?”

  “I lost control for a second.” Mad Dog shook his head hard, seemingly back in control of himself again. “They are still alive, right? No big deal.”

  The fat man knew of Mad Dog’s problem. Whenever the guy killed someone, he often entered a berserk state. Thank goodness he had managed to come back just in the nick of time.

  “Slyfox, what’s the point of you even bringing these pieces of crap with you?” Mad Dog was now extremely irritable and impatient. “Way I see it, all you are doing is wasting our time!”

  “How are you supposed to catch any fish without bait? Alright, stop yapping.” The fat man patted Mad Dog on his shoulders. “Our employers for this mission are quite extraordinary and the mission rewards are quite incredible!”

  Mad Dog said nothing further.

  The fat man turned to glance at the remaining scavengers. “Enough. Now that we’re all here… listen up, you dirty scavs! I’ll give you half an hour to prepare!”

  “I’m not going anywhere!” A terrified-looking scavenger suddenly cried out.

  This was different from the jobs that the excavators usually had the scavengers do. These excavators were all freaks. If they followed these excavators, all of them would definitely die.

  Bang!

  No one even saw the fat man pull the trigger.

  The fat man had personally modified his gun, and the bullets were custom-made as well. The enormous power of the slug actually caused the protesting scavenger’s head to completely blow apart. Moments later, the protestor slumped to the ground, white brain matter oozing out from his shattered skull onto the ground. His entire body was twitching involuntarily.

  The other scavengers all felt a chill go through their spines.

  As for Cloudhawk, he continued to sit there next to the wall, watching as he slowly popped the final piece of bread into his mouth. He then finished off his final mouthful of water.

  The old-timer’s words echoed in his mind. A man can become either a chess player or a chess piece. Chess players could choose how they wish to play. Chess pieces cannot.

  Everyone had the chance to become chess players, but they had to be incredibly careful with each choice they made. Once they became chess pieces, their lives would no longer be under their own control. Anger, terror, resignation… None of those feelings would matter. Once you became a chess piece, if you overestimated yourself and still thought yourself to be a player who had the power to choose your own fate, the result would be that you would end up like the scar-faced man and the others.

  This principle was why Cloudhawk had already made up his mind on what he was going to do. He was going to be a good little chess piece and wait for the right moment to jump off the board and become a player once more.

  4 The Sweepers

  Nightfall
. Night signified the cold. It also signified death.

  An enormous rat skittered through the ruins, its pitch-black form merging into the darkness of the night as its beady little crimson eyes swept left and right. The area around it was rife with ditches of water. The water was a deep green color and thick with the aura of rot and contamination. The corpses of many unknown animals had long been steeped within that foul water.

  There was some type of algae-like growth which could be seen in spots throughout this area, emanating their dim, sickly fluorescent light. The light wasn’t enough to illuminate anything; all it could do was make the dark night seem even more sinister and foreboding.

  The giant rat vigilantly scanned its surroundings. Finally, it came to a halt in front of a giant tunnel. This tunnel was perhaps a transportation hub of the Ancient Times, or possibly an entranceway to an ancient, enormous building. It was also possibly a building from one of the invading worlds… but by now, none of this mattered.

  The giant rat hesitated, unsure of whether or not it should go in. It could smell a strange, dangerous scent.

  Right at this moment, a large amount of torch light appeared, followed by the sounds of many people moving together.

  The giant rat was so startled it instantly dove into the tunnel. A few seconds later, it emanated a chilling screech from deep within. The giant rat’s screeching sound continuously receded, almost as if it was being dragged deeper and deeper into the tunnel. Finally, its miserable screeches were cut short, replaced by ripping, gnashing, and chewing sounds.

  A few minutes later, the light from a torch shone over this place.

  Mad Dog stared at the enormous ruins before him, a frown on his face. “You sure this is it?”

  The fat man pulled a match and used it to light the cigarette in his mouth. “The layout here is extremely complicated. Supposedly, those bastards are pretty sly. It’ll be dangerous if we try to force our way in and we’ll also set off the alarms. It’ll be hard for us to wipe’m all out.”

  Mad Dog frowned even more. “Then what should we do?”

  “Why do you think I brought so many pawns?” The fat man stared at Mad Dog as if his question were offensively stupid before tossing his half-smoked cigarette to the ground. “Rookies, send in the bait!”

  Several of the mercenaries walked over to the quivering scavengers. “Y’all deaf? Slyfox told you to move it!”

  The scavengers were both cold and frightened. The yawning black tunnel before them seemed to be the entrance into Hell itself. By now, even the most foolish of them could tell that they were just here to serve as bait. Bait to lure some people out. That was it!

  But… did the scavengers have the choice to refuse? Only if they could move faster than a speeding bullet. Otherwise, none of them would be able to escape Slyfox’s pistol!

  The scavengers had no choice but to be driven into the tunnel, raising their torches high as they slowly shuffled forwards.

  “Be careful in there, rookies.” The fat man lit another cigarette, puffing slowly in a relaxed manner as he watched the torches advance down the tunnel. “Take things slow. Let the pawns stay up ahead of you.”

  The tunnel was both cold and moist. It was filled with a strong stench of rot and decay as well as many ancient abandoned algae-covered tools. Many mosquitoes could be heard buzzing throughout the tunnel. It was filled with the signs of dangerous creatures living within.

  Cloudhawk was simultaneously terrified out of his senses and quite puzzled. For some reason, he could vaguely sense that something was calling him from an unfathomably deep part of this dark tunnel. He never sensed anything like this before. The feeling was both subtle and indescribably peculiar.

  What secrets were hidden within? And what were those powerful excavators planning on doing?

  Ancient items from the Ancient Times weren’t the only things that littered the tunnels. The scavengers were also able to see many suspicious traces, such as tattered bits of cloth, animal carcasses, and congealed pools of blood. However, the layout here was quite complicated; after walking for twenty or thirty minutes, no one was able to tell which direction was which.

  Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk.

  A shrill sound rang out from some unknown place, sounding almost like nails being drawn across a blackboard. The sound was ear-piercingly sharp and rang continuously, sometimes loud and sometimes soft. There was no way to tell where it was coming from.

  Darkness was something capable of bringing out the most primordial of fears, with the fear of the unknown possibly multiplying all other fears a hundredfold!

  The scavengers halted their advance, their bodies stiff with fear and foreheads covered with sweat. They didn’t know if they were to advance or to retreat. The darkness around them was filled with rustling sounds, causing their nerves to fray even more. In fact, they were almost at the breaking point already.

  “AHHH!!” A scavenger suddenly let out a horrifying, blood-curling scream. Only then did the others turn and see something they would never be able to forget. At some point in time, the area around them had become filled with bugs. The vast majority of the bugs looked like beetles, but there were also long, centipede-like creatures that hung from the walls, crawled on the ground, and even crawled up their bodies. The entire area was filled with the things.

  Cloudhawk frantically began to brush away at his clothes, legs, stomach, and back. He had no idea when so many bugs had crawled all over his body. He hadn’t felt them biting at him at all even though some of them had already begun burrowing their way into his flesh. He frantically clutched at his torch, pressing the blazing flames against his own body. It was better to suffer heavy burns than to let these bugs eat their way into his body and kill him!

  Bugs! There were bugs everywhere! They were so numerous and clustered so tightly that it was like an entire wave of bugs was before them!

  Even the boldest of men would be scared senseless when confronted with such a sight. By the time the scavengers on the perimeter noticed the bugs, it was already far too late. By the time they tore their clothes open, they found that their bodies had already been transformed into unrecognizable masses of blood and flesh, with many bulging lumps roaming about underneath their skin.

  “NO!”

  “AHHH!”

  Several scavengers let out horrified screams as they collapsed to the ground and the surrounding bugs all immediately swarmed towards them. They burrowed in through every available orifice, and if they couldn’t find any, they would make their own using their mouths.

  “RUN!” The scavengers were already at the point of completely breaking down. When this word rang out, it acted like a spark going off in a room full of gunpowder, setting all of their fears alight. The blazing fear burnt away all their rationality and intellect, causing all of them to scream in horror as they began to flee in every direction.

  A few managed to escape the bug-infested region. Before any of them had the chance to so much as relax, the ones at the front stumbled into some sort of trap.

  Whoosh! A large bucket of powerful green acid was overturned above them, splashing the acid down their faces and bodies. The powerful, corrosive acid instantly began to eat away at them, causing large clumps of acid-eaten flesh and hair to fall off their bodies as bloody blisters emerged on their faces and hands.

  “AHHHHHHHH!” A scavenger let out a horrified scream before turning and running straight towards Cloudhawk. Right now, he looked just like a demon. He clawed at his acid-eaten head out of blind instinct, scraping large chunks of flesh off his face, revealing the bloody skull within. The flesh on his fingers had already withered away, leaving only the bones… but oblivious to all of this, he continued to scream like a madman.

  Cloudhawk stared at this horrifying, heart-stopping sight. He was stunned and unable to give voice to his astonishment. His fear was overridden by an even more terrifying thought: these were all carefully prepared traps. Traps set by sentient, intelligent beings!

  A sharp spear sudd
enly shot through the darkness. The scavenger’s chest was pierced through as easily as paper. The terrifying strength behind the spear nailed both it and the scavenger firmly to the wall.

  A steel hook shot out as well, reaching one of the fleeing scavengers and ripping out half the flesh from his stomach. The scavenger didn’t seem to notice, continuing to scream madly as he fled as fast as he could. His blood and intestines gushed out and he only made it a few meters before he fell to the ground, all traces of life having left him.

  This was a slaughter. This was butchery!

  “Don’t be afraid. It’s all a trap. If we just…”

  The scavenger didn’t even have a chance to finish his words before a long knife chopped towards him through the darkness. The knife wasn’t that sharp, but its wielder was so terrifyingly strong that the knife sliced all the way through the scavenger, from the right shoulder blade to the lower flank. The man was ripped in half, the blood from his bisected body instantly spraying across the faces of those around him.

  His organs flopped out on the ground, still pulsing.

  The scavenger didn’t die right away, but all of his “courage” evaporated. All he could do was let out an absolutely inhuman scream, filled with such despair and horror that it hammered away at the spirits of the survivors like a mountain.

  Is that them? Have they finally come out? Cloudhawk saw strange creatures appear in front of him, the likes of which he had never before seen. The creatures were completely nude, but their bodies were completely covered with cancerous growths that looked like the knots on a tree or tree roots. From head to foot, they were covered with these gnarly, wart-like growths.

  They also had large growths atop their heads that appeared to be the most malignant of malignant tumors. They each had two legs that resembled that of a rat’s, with knees that bent backwards instead of forwards. This gave the creatures superior running and leaping capabilities. As for weapons, they primarily wielded long knives, spears, and stone hammers.