"Lu Meng, what's the situation?" a voice came from inside the tank pit.

"Two irregularities too the left, another three too the right." Lu Meng answered, a pair of binoculars before her eyes.

"d.a.m.n." The voice cursed out, "Can you handle any?"

Placing down the binoculars, Lu Meng proceeded to tie back hair long hair into a ponytail.

"I can take the two on the left." A sword was unsheathed from her back as she stood and jumped off the tank, "I'll be back."

"Watch yourself." The voice came again right before the entrance was securely shut.

"Of course." Lu Meng said under her breath, her golden eyes gazing upon the two faraway figures.

'M City cannot fall.' Lu Meng thought grimly, 'I won't allow it.'

Suddenly a purple flame came from her hand onto her sword.

"You better be alive Lu Xing." Lu Meng muttered as she sprinted, her sword posed before her.

☆☆☆

Lu Xing sneezed, 'someone must be thinking of me..'

He had taken a small tour of the place, and had found it to be quite something.

"Admiring the booze?" Li asked as he came over to the bar area.

Standing behind the bar, Lu Xing had selected a gla.s.s cup, and a bottle of Kva.s.s. Pouring it into the cup, he swished it around a bit before downing it.

Wiping his mouth.

"Want something?" Lu Xing looked at him as he raised and gestured towards the lineup behind him on the shelves.

Li smiled ruefully before shaking his head, "I don't feel like having Long Zexi on my case just yet."

Lu Xing glanced at the entryway, big bronze doors blocked the inside of the restaurant from outside. The only two windows were at either side of the doors, both sat a little bit to high, and were the size of a bas.e.m.e.nt window. And both had been boarded up, thus successfully hiding the treasure trove from raiders who didn't know about the place.

Save for Lu Xing and Li, everyone else was on the 2nd floor.

Lu Xing sighed then frowned, 'I feel like an old old man the more I keep sighing...'

"The amount of provisions here..." Lu Xing started but stopped.

"Are pretty much nonexistent." Li answered with his half smile, "We won't be able to stay here without food, but if we send one person out, we're taking a large risk."

"The booze here...was used for bartering." Lu Xing had come to the realization...

A dark unfathomable emotion briefly took place on Li's face, after seeing that brief expression before he had once again resumed his nonchalant manner, Lu Xing felt a stab at his chest.

An old memory from another time surfaced within his mind, but he was quick to. shake it off.

"How many were in your group originally?" Lu Xing asked.

"Fifteen in total including us..but now only seven of us remain." Li sighed out.

"..." Lu Xing didn't say a word, instead he turned around and grabbed another gla.s.s cup, then filled it with Kva.s.s before placing it in front of Li, "For you. If Long Zexi gets upset, tell him I forced it on you."

Hearing his words, Li threw his head back and ended up letting out a deep bellied laugh.

After a few minutes, he had stopped and finally started to drink Lu Xing's offering.

"Thanks." Li let out, a twisted smile on his face.

'Self loathing hmm...' Lu Xing thought as he refilled his own drink.

Lu Xing glanced towards the stairway leading to the upper floor before turning his gaze back onto Li.

"Tell me about your group." Lu Xing asked inwardly smiling.

"Not much to tell..we met under extreme conditions..and then barely managed to escape this city.." Li sighed as he stared at his half filled cup, "and now here we are again."

"Hmmm..mind telling me about the others who were with you.." Lu Xing smiled awkwardly, "before it became just seven."

"I wouldn't even know where to start.." Li frowned.

"It's always easier to start at the very beginning..perhaps when things took a turning point for the worst." Lu Xing prompted, 'I need to know as much about the situation here as possible,' "I'll listen."

Lu Xing poured more into the man's cup, Li only hesitated before downing it.

Li nodded, his gold eyes flas.h.i.+ng with a swirl of emotions, "I first met Long Zexi's younger sister on the night of the first raid..."

A dark expression pa.s.sed over his face at the words 'first raid'...

'Long Zexi's younger sister...' Lu Xing's stomach turned as an unwanted memory resurfaced..

"I was just a simple volunteer for one of Z City's minor infantry groups that was in charge of supervising the Area E-5 Block. My team was distributing the rations to newcomers entering the block on that day. Survivors from outside Z City." Li seemed as though he were reliving that day as he spoke, "were coming in, hungry and tired, and we were helping keep the situation under control..we didn't know.." Li placed his face in his hands, "if we had only known..."

Li stopped talking...Lu Xing grimly took another swig of his drink.

"They segregated everyone as they entered the city, dividing the Mutants from the *Evolved." Lu Xing said, his mind turning through multiple possible methods the Evolved would use to get their hands on Mutant cores..and only this plot stood out..except... "Their were normal people and some Evolved who were related to those Mutants, they would've had no choice but to send those few together to the same block."

Li felt a chill as he heard Lu Xing's voice out his thoughts.

"Some of the Evolved would be convinced to join the Z City Forces, leaving their loved ones behind during their s.h.i.+fts..all for perhaps the sake of a place to live in, and guaranteed provisions. Now those Evolved from Area E-5 Block, somehow, they were all scheduled for a s.h.i.+ft on that day, at the same exact time." Lu Xing never made his words seem like a question, instead it all sounded rather matter of facto, "It was a great opportunity for the higher ups to place a makes.h.i.+ft team of volunteers, that were actually mostly made up of Mutants, in charge of that block during that time. With the inflow of newcomers, the blame could easily be placed on a small outbreak that only affected E-5 Block."

Lu Xing's eyes were harsh as he placed himself into the shoes of those who had known nothing...had understood nothing as they'd been slaughtered and butchered for the sake of an Evolve's upgrade.

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"It didn't end there though..there's always so much more.." Lu Xing's eyes flashed up to look at the person leaning against the staircase wall, their shadow casted down onto the floor.

*Evolved- Short for Evolutionary.