Dark King

"Was there anyone living in here?" Mason and the others who were looking all over the streets could see the ruins covered by the vegetation. The architectural style was totally different but from these vestiges they could vaguely understand that most of the things were the remnants of broken residential buildings.

"Of course." Scott looked up at the surrounding ruins and continued: "Our ancestors had lived in this place until the disaster destroyed it. As a result it is desolate now. As everything that is here was made and build by our ancestors, our role is to take back these things to the consortium"

"Where our ancestors lived ... " Mason exclaimed in excitement as he heard words Scott said. Everyone was curiously looking around.

Dudian saw a map drawn on sheepskin in Scott's hands. He peeked at it and saw the crooked routes sketched on it. In the centre of the map a huge sqare pattern was depicted. 'The giant wall of Silva' was written close to it. Outside the giant wall there were outlines of irregular curved circles marked with numbers above them.

"Zero, one ... " Dudian eyes sweeped over them. He saw that these numbers were repeated in different places. There was 'area 0' at one place and in another one. The numbers went up to seven. Each area were dyed in a different color. The map looked like a rainbow.

Scott saw that Dudian was observing the map: "This is the scavenging map of the giant wall. The outside areas are divided by consortia in advance and marked accordingly by number and color. For example our Mellon consortium's areas are colored in blood red. The green and yellow that you see close by to our area belongs to others. Green areas area owned by military while yellow refers to Huasheng consortia's area. Each consortia sends their hunters in advance to clean out the region before sending scavengers"

Dudian nodded slightly as he undertood the meaning behind circles and colors. Zero to seven referred to military and 6 consortiums. He asked:"What is the gray are outside?"

"This is place that hunters haven't gone through yet." Scott spoke in a serious tone: "We absolutely can not enter these gray areas. They are extremely dangerous. Even hunters are likely to die in there if they are alone"

"Dangerous?" Dudian was curious: "What is the source of danger?"

"Monsters!" Scott whispered.

Dudian's heart jumped: "Monsters?"

At this time, they came up a corner. There was a traffic light which had collapsed on to the street. As everything else it was covered by vegetation and surrounded by vines. It was not collected by scavengers.

"The area No 8 is in front of us" Scott looked at the corner of the street. There was less vegetation in here in comparison to other areas as it was close to the city center. Traces of cracks were on streets that had been caused by the earthquakes.

"From now on all of us should be on alert! " Scott looked dignified as he pulled out a dagger from his waist: " The hunters have just cleaned out area No 8. We are the second batch to enter this region. Although the harvest will be very good, but it is likely that we will encounter monsters that weren't killed by hunters. Be calm and try not to be attacked by monsters otherwise you may get infected."

Dudian and the others who were new to this felt a little nervous. They took out their weapons as Scott had done previously. Everyone vigilantly began to scan the surrounding environment.

As Scott entered the middle of the street, Dudian saw a new wooden sign on the roadside. There was a blood-red 'eight' written on it representing the area number eight under Mellon Consortium.

Dudian vaguely saw a large lump of green vegetation covering an object on another part of the street far away from them. From the shape of object he identified it as a scrapped car.

He was excited at sight. If there were cars then he could find generators too. Naturally in the last three hundred years because of the ultraviolet effects, rain and corrosion most of them would have turned into scrap metal. But there was a chance that he would find some well-preserved parts. There can be a well-preserved generator at some underground shelter too.

Scott whispered: "These green vegetation are covering some large-scale materials. When we return we have to think of way to take them back. For now the first is to find a foothold to live for the next ten days. So we should get a base campe and the separate to search for the materials."

They passed by the cars that were covered by the greenery. They were totally unaware of a pale and dry hand that stretched out of the windows of one of the cars that was covered in thick vegetation. It was struggling as it tried to reach out to the crowd that had gone.

...

...

At the end of the street on crossroads Scoot looked up and picked a slightly complete three story building: "This place should be fine. Let's clean-up the place" He went towards the building.

"Ah!" A girl's scream sounded out from behind. She pointed out to the ground close to the building in horror: "Blood! Blood!" She was shocked and trembling.

Everyone looked to see a pool of blood on the ground. Although it had dried up but the color was visible. It was clearly left in here recently. After all rain would have scrubbed it away in the last three centuries.

Dudian's remembered Scott's words regarding the monster. He subconsciously clutched his waist where gunpowder was kept.

Other children were tense as they saw the blood pool on the ground.

Scott frowned: "What are you making the fuss for? I've already said that there were monsters in here. Obviously hunters have killled them. Do you expect them to clean afterwards? Do not be surprised as we may see sights like this a lot. Ah! I hate working with rookies!" His patience was clearly not as high towards the others as with Dudian.

Mia, who was next to him, pushed forward the door of the building. The door was made up of the glass but had been broken. It seemed to be a shop. Vegetation had spread inside the building.

Dudian entered behind Scott. There was thick accumulation of dust everywhere. After the long time, it had dried and had become as hard as the layer of earth.

Scott with a handle of the dagger poked the vegetation on the counter. There was a glass cabinet. His eyes brightened. Immediately with the hilt of the dagger he broke the glass and grabbed the jewelry that was inside. He wiped the dust above the jewelry with a fabric and exposed the golden luster. There was surprise exposed on his face.

Dudian quietly watched. He knew that Scott will get extra commission from the jewelry that he had picked up. After all, nobles loved gold. Especially the ornaments such as these were very hard to find.