My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 93

by Little Panda

Eradication

Although the neighboring province had an abundance of mutated plants, it had even more mutated beasts and zombies. Even though Old Fan and Fan Haotian constantly paid lip service to how much their hearts ached for their son and brother, when the critical moment arrived, they refused to risk their own lives. Left with no choice, Old Fan could only suffer the flesh hurting¹ sting of allocating over twenty espers of the 3rd-order and above to follow Fan Juntian to the neighboring province to protect his safety.

But now, almost a month had passed! Fan Juntian still hadn’t returned with the poisonous grass and flowers!

Could it be that the neighboring province was truly too dangerous, and Fan Juntian and the twenty-plus espers had all…

Fan Haotian hardly dared to imagine what Fan Juntian had encountered. By now, a vast swath of the poisonous grass and flowers they had so meticulously cultivated had died off, and their remaining supply of drugs was running low. If Fan Juntian didn’t return with the poisonous grass and flowers soon, wouldn’t the espers in the base who relied on his poison smoke rebel en masse when their drug addiction flared up?

That was it! It had to be that some esper saw Fan Juntian’s prolonged absence and, in the throes of a drug addiction flare-up, murdered the old man! Overnight, they had killed the old man right next door to him without making a sound. Did that mean tomorrow night, it would be his turn?

The more Fan Haotian thought about it, the more terrified he became. Just as he was frantically preparing to gather his men to root out the killer, a younger cousin suddenly came running over, panting heavily.

“Cousin, bad news! Qi Sheng brought a group of espers to attack our door. He says he’s going to rescue everyone we locked up in the dungeon!”

The dungeon—how had it been exposed?!

First the fire, then Old Fan’s murder—the members of the Fan family had been in a frantic rush one by one, so absolutely no one had gone to the dungeon to check the situation. Even the two guards stationed on the level above the dungeon despised its darkness and stench, and couldn’t be bothered to go down on regular days. Naturally, no one realized that the dungeon’s main doors had already been opened, the iron chains on every cell door had been severed, and that even the cells were missing two important “prisoners”!

Now, hearing that Qi Sheng had come knocking to save the people in the cells, Fan Haotian finally realized that something must have happened in the dungeon as well!

No, he couldn’t let Qi Sheng save them, especially those two women! One of them could manufacture top-grade drugs! The other had a significant amount of those top-grade drugs hidden in her space!

At this thought, Fan Haotian hurriedly led a large group of men down the stairs toward the dungeon. However, the moment he reached the first floor, he was intercepted by Qi Sheng’s group, who violently smashed the front doors open and stormed inside.

“Qi Sheng, you have a lot of nerve. Aren’t you afraid—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Fan Haotian took a solid, face-to-face punch from Qi Sheng. A strike from a 5th-order strength and speed esper was not something Fan Haotian, a 3rd-order hands mutation esper, could block. Fan Haotian’s ability allowed him to mutate his hands into two long scissors; while leading the crowd downstairs, his hands had already transformed into a pair of sharp shears.

But no matter how sharp Fan Haotian’s scissors were, he was no match for Qi Sheng’s speed. Qi Sheng’s attack was sudden, his punch devastatingly fast and ruthless. With just this single blow, Fan Haotian’s front teeth were instantly knocked out, spraying through the air as his entire body crashed heavily onto the floor. For a long time, he couldn’t even scramble back up.

“Beat them! Beat them mercilessly! This human scum! They really have committed every vile deed imaginable! Today, we’re beating them out of Nanhai Base!”

Ever since the Fan family first vied with Qi Sheng for power, the two factions had been at odds. Qi Sheng’s brothers and subordinates found every single thing about the Fan family repulsive. However, since the Fan family possessed so many espers whose strength rivaled their own, they could only swallow their anger after half their authority was snatched away. Furthermore, for the sake of peace within the base, Qi Sheng had been forced to maintain a facade of friendly relations with them.

But things were different now. Fan Juntian had taken over twenty powerful espers with him and still hadn’t returned. The Fan family had suffered considerable losses from a major fire, and now the dungeon incident had been exposed. Naturally, Qi Sheng was going to raise the banner of punishing evil and crush the Fan family in one fell swoop!

Heaven knew how long he had tolerated the Fan family! Heaven knew! After seeing the woman he loved tortured into such a miserable state by them, his desire to slaughter the entire Fan family was overwhelming!

Liang Ke was the goddess Qi Sheng had loved since college. She was beautiful, intelligent, and deeply favored by the academy’s professors. With so many suitors surrounding her every day, he only ever dared to gaze at her from a distance. After graduation, everyone went their separate ways, but Qi Sheng’s heart had never been able to let go of her beautiful silhouette.

And then the apocalypse arrived, throwing the entire world into chaos. As Qi Sheng worked hard to build the base, he also anxiously sent people to search all over H City. The very reason he had come to H City for work was to be closer to his goddess. After the apocalypse began, his first instinct had naturally been to find her and protect her well.

Thankfully, he had found his goddess in the end. Yet, he had failed to protect her, allowing her to become tainted by such filthy things!!!

Seeing his goddess bruised and bloody from head to toe in his own office, Qi Sheng had undoubtedly been shocked. When she finally woke up, saw Qi Sheng, and realized she had escaped hell, she immediately broke down in loud, agonizing sobs. Then, through her tears, she recounted everything she had endured.

As it turned out, Liang Ke had never harbored any intention of working for the Fan family. She and Qi Sheng were old classmates, after all, and she had a good impression of him. Compared to the completely unfamiliar Fan family, she naturally preferred to stick with him. If possible, she had wanted to return to her former line of work and continue her pharmaceutical research. If Qi Sheng needed her to, she could also manufacture some medicines—lifesaving medicines.

Therefore, no matter what bargaining chips or conditions the Fan family offered, Liang Ke remained unmoved. Furthermore, when they demanded her help in making drugs but were vague about what kind, her intuition told her it was nothing good. That made it even less likely for her to agree. In the end, she refused on the first day, only for the Fan family to return on the second. Qi Sheng happened to be out on business, so Liang Ke tried to make things clear to the Fan family and tell them to stop pestering her. As a result, she was hit by Fan Juntian’s poison smoke. Her sister, who was with her, fell victim to it as well!

That very night, Liang Ke’s drug addiction flared up, and so did her sister’s. The two of them were tortured half to death. Intimidated by the Fan family’s threats and afraid of dragging Qi Sheng down, they didn’t dare tell him the truth, ultimately leaving with the Fan family. Afterward, the Fan family indeed demanded that Liang Ke manufacture narcotics. As a top student in medicine, Liang Ke was certainly capable of developing exceedingly high-quality poisonous drugs, but she was entirely unwilling to hand them over to the Fan family to harm others. Furthermore, in an attempt to break free from the control of Fan Juntian’s poison smoke, Liang Ke wanted to test the effects of her own manufactured drugs against the addiction. Thus, she only handed over a small portion to the Fan family each time, having her sister hide the vast majority of it.

Liang Ke’s petty tricks were soon discovered by the Fan family. To teach the sisters a lesson, the Fan family locked them in the dungeon. But upon seeing the miserable states of the other “prisoners” in the dungeon, Liang Ke suddenly lost all desire to continue helping the Fan family manufacture drugs for their evil deeds. Her sister fully supported her decision. The two sisters endured the Fan family’s torture with a readiness to die—one absolutely refusing to synthesize any more narcotics, and the other utterly refusing to surrender the drugs from her space. They even hoped the Fan family would simply beat them to death; that way, they could finally be free from the torment of their drug addiction.

After being brutally beaten into unconsciousness by the Fan family yet again, the two sisters woke up to find their surroundings were no longer the dim, gloomy dungeon. With sunlight streaming through the window and falling upon them, they dazedly thought they were dreaming!

After listening to Liang Ke’s account, Qi Sheng felt his heart ache, but even more than that, he was shocked and furious. He was naturally enraged by the Fan family’s despicable cruelty, but he was shocked to learn that Fan Juntian’s poison smoke was actually addictive!!! No wonder—no wonder the Fan family could control so many espers! If he extended his reach even further one day, did he plan to control Qi Sheng as well? No wonder that bastard had repeatedly released his poison smoke against Mu Ning and her companions; it turned out he wanted to control even more powerful espers! If Mu Ning, a 6th-order esper, were to be controlled…

A drop of cold sweat rolled down Qi Sheng’s temple. Such a dangerous tumor had to be eradicated from the base!

After comforting the Liang sisters and arranging a room for them to properly rest in, Qi Sheng turned around and, with a darkened expression, began assembling his men. Since Fan Juntian was currently away, he had to perform a purge first. Furthermore, as he led his brothers charging toward the Fan family, other espers inquired about the commotion. Upon learning of the Fan family’s actions, and discovering that Fan Juntian’s poison smoke ability could induce addiction, many furious espers immediately joined Qi Sheng’s crusade against the Fan family.

Although over twenty people had been sent to protect Fan Juntian, the number of espers left behind was still substantial. No matter how much Old Fan cared about his son and his abilities, he would never have put himself in danger.

Qi Sheng’s attack had come suddenly, knocking Fan Haotian flat with a single punch. But the other espers of the Fan family were no pushovers. Even though Old Fan was dead and they wanted to use this opportunity to rebel, they… still bore the burden of their drug addiction, relying on Fan Juntian’s poison smoke and the various narcotics manufactured by the Fan family. Thus, no matter how reluctant they were, they had no choice but to fight the men Qi Sheng brought.

In an instant, everyone cast aside the base’s strict ban on brawling. Hadn’t they seen the base leader throwing the first punch himself?!

While everyone was tangling in a chaotic melee, Qi Sheng took a small group and headed straight for the first basement level. After witnessing the terrifying gloom and foul stench of the dungeon, the men following Qi Sheng grew red-eyed with fury. Relying on the information he got from Liang Ke, Qi Sheng found the light switch by the staircase. He flicked on the lights and began rescuing people from cell after cell. By the time Qi Sheng’s group brought up the “prisoners” rescued from the cells, the two factions upstairs were still fighting. There were also many other survivors—both espers and ordinary people—who had run over to the Fan family’s estate to watch the spectacle. Qi Sheng and the Fan family had finally torn off all pretenses, but these bystanders had no desire to get involved with either side.

Adopting an attitude of staying aloof from things of no personal concern, these rubberneckers watched the show with great delight, even laying bets on which side would emerge victorious. That is, until Qi Sheng brought up all the “prisoners” from the dungeon who still had a breath left in them.

“W-Wait! Stop laughing! Isn’t that Xiao Hai, who’s been missing for a long time? How… how did he end up like this? Is he… is he still alive?”

“Ah—Xiao Yan! That isn’t Xiao Yan, is it? Even though she’s lost so much weight and her face is covered in blood, that… that has to be Xiao Yan!”

“Hey, stop watching the show and look over there! That person lying on the ground, all battered and ragged—isn’t that our captain who ran off to the beach alone and never came back?”

As Qi Sheng brought up more and more people, many of the spectating survivors lost all interest in watching the show. Several survivor squads spotted familiar faces among the group and immediately rushed forward in an absolute panic.

“What’s going on?! What happened? Xiao Yan, wake up!”

“Captain! Captain! Sheng-ge, what happened? Why is our captain—who was supposedly eaten by a mutated octopus—here in the Fan family’s house? And why is he so heavily injured?!”

Qi Sheng wore a cold expression as he glared at Fan Haotian, who was still sprawled on the ground in the distance but fiercely guarded by over a dozen espers. “They were all locked up in the Fan family dungeon,” he declared viciously. “As for what happened, you can ask them yourselves! Oh, right—there are still several corpses in the dungeon. Those of you with missing teammates can go down to identify the bodies and help give them a proper burial!”

The moment Qi Sheng finished speaking, several other survivor squads immediately rushed toward the first basement level.

The author has something to say:

Seeing so many little cuties in the comments being affected, it’s really been so hard.

It feels so surreal. It’s 2022 now, right? How can there still be so many infected people? And in such a large, developed city, too…

One city the author remembers is Tianjin, I think? Back then it was also because of the pandemic. So many people cheered them on and sent aid, and there were so many crosstalk jokes about it, weren’t there? Then, suddenly, there was no more news from them, and everything was just fine. That speed of control was incredible!

There’s also Shenzhen. I had only just learned they locked down, and then just a week later? The lockdown was lifted. They’re right next to Hong Kong, yet they managed it so well…

I originally thought the pandemic would pass right away.