Chapter 281: Madness in the Ruins

Lu Xin replied as he stepped out of the car, circling around the front to the more open left side of the road.

Although the city was abandoned, remnants of the median strip that divided the road during the Civilization Era still remained.

The convoy naturally kept to the right while traveling through the city, leaving the left side of the wide road more spacious. Lu Xin crossed the median strip and stood beside the madman twitching on the ground, looking ahead.

His eyes narrowed instantly.

He saw at least a dozen madmen frantically charging forward. They scrambled on all fours like beasts, leaping at the trucks lining the road, desperately clawing at the driver’s cabs.

Gunshots occasionally rang out from the vehicles, but they seemed to have little effect on the madmen.

While the best way to deal with a madman was a headshot, not everyone possessed such precise marksmanship. Many who aimed for the head missed, so others chose to shoot at their bodies instead.

However, for these twisted, frenzied creatures, body shots didn’t seem fatal.

A bullet to the chest only made them stagger, barely drawing any blood.

“One… four… seven… fifteen… twenty-one…”

Lu Xin’s gaze swept across them, his brow furrowing slightly. “But there shouldn’t be this many madmen in this city…”

If word got out there were this many, someone would have rounded them up to sell long ago, right?

Two thousand each…

…

*Bang!*

Just then, a deep pit suddenly appeared in the concrete ground beside his foot, smoke curling upwards.

At the same time, Old Zhou’s shout rang out, “Watch out!”

Lu Xin frowned and glanced at Old Zhou, who was holding his gun with an embarrassed look.

He had just fired at a madman sneaking up on Lu Xin, but his aim was clearly poor, hitting the empty ground instead. In fact, the shot landed closer to Lu Xin than the madman, startling both of them.

“Shouldn’t you be the one watching out?”

Lu Xin gave Old Zhou a displeased look. “Is this your so-called sharpshooting?”

“Ah, well…”

Old Zhou, flushed with shame and embarrassment, still yelled, “Look out!”

Lu Xin turned around just in time to see a face leaping through the air, less than a meter away.

The face was covered in pale, wrinkled skin that seemed slick with some kind of fluid. Its mouth gaped wide, severe gum recession making its two rows of teeth look unnaturally long and sharp, dripping with black, foul-smelling mucus.

Lu Xin shot out a hand, grabbing the madman’s neck. Simultaneously twisting his body, he flung it over his head and slammed it onto the ground.

*Thud!*

The madman’s body hit the ground hard, but as if feeling no pain, its limbs thrashed wildly, reaching for Lu Xin.

Lu Xin shifted slightly, grabbing both of the madman’s arms.

With a push and pull against the joints, *Crack!* Both arms snapped into a grotesque caliper-like shape.

Jagged bone fragments pierced through the skin at the joints.

At the same time, Lu Xin pinned one of the madman’s legs with his own and raised his gun.

*Bang!*

He shot the madman’s other leg joint.

*Hhh… Hhh…*

With all four limbs effectively disabled, the madman posed little threat.

Yet, seemingly devoid of pain, it let out a guttural roar from its throat, body arching up to bite at Lu Xin’s face.

Gun in one hand, Lu Xin reached down with the other, seized its neck again, and forcefully pinned it back to the ground.

“What’s he doing now?”

Inside the cab, Little Zhou, who had just scrambled into the passenger seat, was baffled again. “Why isn’t he shooting it?”

Amidst Little Zhou’s confusion, Lu Xin kept the madman pinned, quietly observing it. He noted its tightly constricted pupils, almost white, and felt the strength as it tried to buck upwards. He thought silently, ‘Their strength seems a bit higher than ordinary people, but not excessively so. It’s the frenzy that makes them seem strong.’

While assessing, he glanced down. A red frame appeared on his left lens, boxing the creature, accompanied by a stream of data. Lu Xin looked at the numbers, pondering, ‘The emitted mental radiation is around thirty-four.’

“So, it should be somewhat stronger than an ordinary person, and its mind is in a state of extreme, violent chaos?”

“This level of psychic power is unlikely to pollute others or manifest distinct abilities.”

“But it might just be enough to give them slightly enhanced senses compared to normal people, making it easier to detect living beings at close range?”

…

This was the first time Lu Xin, in all his life, had faced one of these legendary ‘madmen’ up close.

Obtaining relevant data immediately was, of course, a very reasonable thing to do.

*Thump!*

Having roughly figured things out, Lu Xin released the madman’s neck, moved aside, and picked up a concrete brick.

As the madman lunged upwards again to bite him, he smashed the brick down on its head.

Sending these madmen to the Circus would fetch over a hundred each. Killing one meant losing that hundred.

Having already lost over a hundred, wouldn’t using a bullet mean losing even more?

*Phew…*

After finishing off the madman, Lu Xin slowly stood up and looked ahead.

He saw the number of madmen up front seemed to have increased again. They were now desperately trying to force their way into the various driver’s cabs.

Their appearance threw the convoy into chaos. Some drivers panicked, ramming their trucks blindly. Gunshots echoed wildly from other cabs. Some drivers were already half-dragged out, surrounded by swarming madmen.

The sounds of tearing flesh, crunching bones, gunshots, and panicked screams wove together into a terrifying symphony.

Lu Xin frowned slightly.

Although these madmen weren’t terrifying individually, having so many charge at once was still troublesome.

Using Sister’s ability required dealing with them one by one.

Mom’s ability didn’t seem suited for resolving this kind of situation either…

As for Father’s ability, he could kill these madmen, but the drivers probably wouldn’t survive either.

After all, his relationship with Father wasn’t good enough to save so many people from his grasp all at once…

…

*Rat-tat-tat-tat…*

Just as Lu Xin was calmly considering his options, a sudden burst of gunfire erupted, accompanied by the roar of numerous motorcycles rapidly approaching.

Looking up, he saw several motorcycles accelerating towards them from the front.

He could see that on the lead motorcycle was the long-legged Boss, Gao Ting.

One hand on the handlebar, the other wielding a submachine gun, she charged forward alongside four or five other motorcycles.

The continuous gunfire earlier was them, firing at the madmen as they advanced.

*Rat-tat-tat-tat!*

The gunfire echoed relentlessly, striking sparks off nearby buildings and abandoned vehicles.

The madmen attacking the cabs or clinging to the facades of nearby derelict buildings were scattered by their concentrated fire. Some retreated, ducking into the pitch-black houses nearby, while others took direct headshots, collapsing to the ground twitching.

Lu Xin noted that the Boss’s marksmanship was surprisingly good; her submachine gun sweeps had a very high hit rate.

Their charge actually managed to scare off quite a few madmen and rescue several people from their cabs.

“What are you still spacing out for? Grab your guns, group up…”

Charging in like a whirlwind, the Boss slammed on her brakes. The rear wheel lifted, sliding in a half-circle.

*Rat-tat-tat…*

Simultaneously, she raised her hand and unleashed a burst, shredding a madman leaping down from a utility pole. Then, steering with one hand, she passed the empty submachine gun to the person on her back seat, taking a loaded shotgun in return.

*Bang!*

She pointed the shotgun downwards, blowing apart the head of the madman that was still twitching despite taking several hits.

“B-Boss! We can’t drive out! The big trucks can’t turn around…”

Old Zhou had pushed open his cab door by now, tightly gripping his handgun as he yelled.

“What damn time is it to be thinking about the trucks?!”

Although the Boss was a woman, her temper flared fiercely now, rough and wilder than any man’s. She cursed harshly:

“Worry about getting out alive first! The madmen don’t want your cargo…”

“Everyone gather up! Hold your guns tight! Form up like we practiced and stay alive!”

…

Berated by the Boss, Old Zhou snapped back to reality, flushing with shame as he jumped down from the truck.

He gathered with the drivers from the adjacent trucks, each holding a weapon.

Submachine guns, handguns, shotguns – there was even someone cradling a machine gun.

These caravans running the Wasteland usually had their own gear. Some larger ones even had dedicated armories built outside the High-wall City. The first thing a large convoy did after leaving the city was to head to their private armory outside the walls to gear up.

With guns in hand, they calmed down considerably, forming a back-to-back circle, covering different directions.

Their skill level looked quite decent.

Their training might be far below Qinggang City’s City Patrol Army, but after the initial panic, their performance wasn’t bad.

Caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the madmen, everyone naturally panicked, but the Boss’s reminder brought them back to their senses.

For truck drivers, the most important things are their truck and the cargo.

If it weren’t for a boss like Boss Gao shouting them down, they might not have been willing to abandon their vehicles just like that.

…

“Don’t panic! Keep your gun hands steady! Just pretend they’re a pack of wild dogs…”

“Watch all directions! Push outwards slowly…”

“You’re all damn men, don’t you dare be cowards! If you flinch, you’ll drag everyone else down with you…”

After yelling for a bit, the Boss revved her motorcycle again and charged forward.

The entire convoy was in disarray; she still needed to organize the others.

…

“This woman… she’s got real guts…”

Lu Xin observed her quietly from within the crowd, making a mental note.