Chapter 6: He Is A Man Sent By The State

The closer he got to that fortress, the more he could sense the despair looming over this apocalyptic world.

The ground, barren and lifeless, soaked in blood, was filled with an indescribable aura, like smoke from a never-ending battlefield.

Scratches and impacts left by unknown creatures marred the city walls, and from a distance, the fortress inspired dread.

Only up close could one see its desperate struggle to survive.

Come.

The city walls were covered in patches of repairs, vast swaths of construction marks resembling wounds.

Before it, the roar of clashing weapons and horses seemed distant yet intense.

It really was a fortress.

Ji Ting tilted his head and gazed at the dark cannon barrels, thinking: a fortress standing in the middle of a battlefield.

Suddenly, the dense defensive installations and the turtle shell-like roof blocking out the sky all made sense.

With the attacking power of the mutated creatures, even the most extreme human defenses could only look like this.

Yet, even so, it was far from safe.

What kind of monstrously powerful creature could withstand such firepower and still leave marks on the walls?

Ji Ting studied the marks—scratches, impacts, scorch marks… it was as if the mutated creatures took turns clocking in here.

He stopped.

The fortress was right in front of him.

But Ji Ting couldn’t find anything resembling a city gate.

The entire fortress was seamless, without a single gap.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long before mechanical sounds of rotation echoed.

The section of the wall directly facing Ji Ting slowly turned, revealing a screen.

At first, it was a blur of static, then after a few minutes, a clear image appeared—an unfamiliar face scrutinizing Ji Ting filled the entire screen.

The image was tightly focused on the person’s face; there was no way to see their surroundings or gain any information about the tightly sealed city inside.

Intelligence.

Huh?

Ji Ting muttered to himself about the excessive wariness and met those eyes.

Cold, sharp, insane, suppressed, desperate… complex emotions piled up to the brink of collapse, barely maintaining a fragile rationality.

Suddenly, Ji Ting doubted their initial assumption—was this really Liu Daming’s base?

Though set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the story’s protagonist came with innate golden fingers.

How could he be on the verge of madness?

Besides, the novel’s hero’s golden fingers were incredibly powerful—he had his own arms factory and daily necessities production line.

As long as resources were sufficient, one man could arm an entire army and provide a comfortable lifestyle.

Resource shortage was impossible.

According to the novel’s setting, the base produced other necessary materials not only from the most common wasteland scrap but also from mutated creatures’ corpses.

Because the corpses of mutated creatures contained more energy, their production value to the base was several times higher than ordinary materials.

According to Ji Ting’s original assumptions, this was the story’s consistent highlight: the protagonist killed mutated creatures to produce and enhance weapons and equipment.

***

Beneath the seamless city wall, an entrance appeared as the wall’s material rotated and contracted, opening a smooth, unobstructed path through the thick barrier.

Seeing Ji Ting hesitate, the voice on the other side urged, “It’s unsafe outside, come in.”

Honestly, Ji Ting thought that given the current situation, it probably wasn’t much safer inside… but having come this far, even if he wanted to turn back, he had to ask if the turrets would agree.

He hesitated a few seconds, then stepped into the sealed city.

He braced himself for any bizarre scenes within, but the other side didn’t give him that chance.

He never saw the inside of the city.

After passing through the thick wall entrance, he appeared in a narrow room.

The room’s furnishings were plain.

Ji Ting’s gaze swept across and landed on another person.

It was the “suspected” Liu Daming’s communicator.

He sat in a chair, seemingly lost in thought.

Ji Ting caught his eye; the man reacted and motioned to the opposite chair, then pushed a cup in front of Ji Ting.

“Sit down. Drink some water. Let me catch my breath.”

Ji Ting sat, eyeing the plain water in the ceramic cup cautiously but didn’t move to drink.

Mechanical whirring came from behind.

Ji Ting turned his head and saw the passage he had entered through reseal itself, parts clicking and interlocking, transforming into a seamless whole once again.

Witnessing this, Ji Ting quickly scanned the room but found no “door.”

To be precise, the “doors” were everywhere here.

The city’s internal structure defied conventional understanding.

It was a masterfully crafted mechanical creation—a true fortress.

“Truly incredible,” the man said after a moment of silence, his tone tinged with awe.

“You have no idea what I’ve been through.”

***

“Well, I really don’t,” Ji Ting murmured, rubbing the ceramic cup without responding.

Fortunately, the man’s desire to talk now was unusually strong, a stark contrast to his earlier excessive caution and distrust.

“I never thought I’d be able to come back,” he suddenly sat up straight, eyes blazing as he stared at Ji Ting. “I time-traveled!”

Ji Ting hesitated for two seconds.

“Huh?”

“I know it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true!”

His emotions surged, words pouring out in a torrent.

“I traveled through time to the apocalypse, where there was nothing—monsters everywhere! You have no idea how I survived!”

Ji Ting lowered his head to drink water, masking his expression—of course, he already knew.

Liu Daming lived comfortably in the wasteland, running the base, gathering a horde of followers, raising the survival standards a notch higher.

Before Ji Ting stopped following the story, Liu Daming was punching mutated creatures and kicking rival survivor camps, rallying a group of survivors and rising like a new star in the wasteland, just a step away from uniting District 10 and ruling the entire world.

“At first, it was alright, but later…”

Ji Ting pricked up his ears; this was the part he cared about most.

“Forget it, no need to say. Anyway, I’m back, and that’s all in the past.”

Liu Daming vented, then calmed down and resumed socializing with Ji Ting.

“How about you? How have you been all these years? How long was I gone?”

Ji Ting suppressed the urge to lose control.

“You can see the situation outside; there are still some small problems to solve. Things aren’t over yet.”

Liu Daming frowned, sobering from the joy of reunion.

“You’re right. Those mutated creatures just won’t stop!”

His expression turned grim.

“What happened to me is too long a story, but basically, I poked the mutated creatures’ nest, and then they went crazy…”

Ji Ting was surprised.

“Mutated creatures have nests? How come I never knew that?”

“Of course. You think how these monsters came about?”

Liu Daming sneered.

“There has to be a source, right?”

Ji Ting recalled his own story settings.

“Isn’t it because nuclear war radiation caused large-scale mutations? That sounds scientific.”

“At first, yes, but after generations, these monsters turned the mutation source into their nest, tossing smaller monsters in to become bigger ones, trying to breed stronger offspring.”

Clearly, this wasn’t something worth remembering.

Liu Daming’s emotions began to spiral again, but upon seeing Ji Ting, his tense expression softened slightly.

“It’s not an interesting story. Just know those monsters have gone mad now.”

Ji Ting slowly formed words.

“How much do you know about the outside situation?”

Liu Daming laughed.

“Quite a lot. I have many followers now. I’ll introduce you to them sometime.”

Ji Ting silently breathed a slight sigh of relief—there were other living people.

At least this proved the city’s situation wasn’t as bad as they feared.

Liu Daming’s words stopped midway.

He looked down and tapped his “watch” a few times, suddenly projecting a transparent screen into the air.

Ji Ting sat opposite him, unable to see the images, but heard an unfamiliar voice from the screen: “Boss, that guy is suspicious.”

While the stranger’s accusation echoed, Ji Ting casually studied Liu Daming’s “watch.”

It looked no different from an ordinary smart watch, so Ji Ting had initially ignored it.

But considering this was a sci-fi, heavily apocalyptic setting, it was normal for smart watches to have more advanced features.

Ji Ting’s daydreaming was blatant, as if he hadn’t heard the accusation at all.

Liu Daming glanced at him, then scowled and said to the other side of the comms, “Chuanzi, this is my brother.”

***

The room fell silent for a few seconds.

The one most puzzled by this relationship wasn’t Chuanzi, but Ji Ting himself.

Something felt off, no—everything was off!

Chuanzi felt the same and blurted out in surprise, “Biological brother?”

Liu Daming was even more shocked.

“Of course! Otherwise, why would I call him my sworn brother?”

Like an outsider, Ji Ting silently lifted the ceramic cup and took a tactical sip of water.

Chuanzi was silent for a few more minutes, then uncertainly said, “Boss, but your biological brother’s surname isn’t Li…”

Hearing this, Ji Ting began to grasp the full extent of Liu Daming’s earlier remark about “knowing a lot about the outside world.”

This wasn’t just “a lot”—they had even dug up his profile and probably knew far more than they imagined.

Liu Daming grew impatient.

“Do you think I don’t know my own brother’s name? What exactly are you trying to say?”

Perhaps because Liu Daming was so confident, Chuanzi’s words were filled with strong uncertainty.

“He’s someone sent by the government.”