Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 192

When Hei Mu emerged from the kitchen carrying a tray, he saw Xi Yuan enduring his seventeenth fall in the living room.
Thud—
Even though the floor was covered with thick carpet, the heavy sound of impact was painful to hear. Yet the person who had been thrown to the ground struggled back to his feet, unsteady but determined.
Yu Xi flexed her fingers slightly, her tone calm but firm. “I told you, let me know when you’ve reached your limit. Otherwise, I won’t stop.” Learning combat began with learning how to take falls, and this was only Xi Yuan’s second day of training. He was still very much in the “getting thrown around” phase.
Xi Yuan wiped away the blood at the corner of his lips, split from his earlier fall, and took up his stance again. “I can keep going.”
Yu Xi raised an eyebrow. Without needing him to repeat himself, she gestured for him to come at her again. “Come on!”
Xi Yuan charged forward. His task was simple: grab Yu Xi’s shoulder. He had thought it would be an easy task, but after two days of trying, he hadn’t even managed to touch the fabric of her clothes, let alone her shoulder.
Predictably, this time was no different. Yu Xi didn’t even use her hands. Moving with lightning speed, she sidestepped his reach, her left leg sweeping toward his, her body lowering simultaneously to dodge his other hand. Before he could react, her leg hooked his calf with precision and minimal force, sending him tumbling to the floor again.
However, after being thrown so many times, Xi Yuan had developed an instinct. As he fell, he braced himself with one hand while using his other to grab Yu Xi’s ankle. Holding on tightly, he twisted his body, using his own weight to pull her off balance as he hit the ground.
Yu Xi had deliberately lowered her strength and speed to about 1.5 to 2 times that of an average person, making her not unbeatable. Still, she was surprised that he had already come up with a counterattack, even if it was a strategy that resulted in mutual defeat—or rather, she couldn’t truly be “defeated.”
As she fell toward the ground, Xi Yuan’s grip on her ankle loosened slightly at the last moment.
This was the opportunity she had been waiting for. With a swift motion, she broke free. Just as he attempted to tighten his hold, she countered by pinning one of his arms to the carpet with her knee. Twisting his other arm behind his back, she locked his movements entirely, her other knee pressing into his lower back.
When Hei Mu returned with a fruit platter, he saw Xi Yuan lying awkwardly on the ground, his face pressed to the carpet. Both his arms were immobilized, and with no leverage to lift his shoulders or twist his body, he was utterly stuck.
Yu Xi, unbothered, freed one hand to pat his shoulder lightly. “Remember, until the very last moment, never relax your grip.”
“Got it…” Xi Yuan, though clearly embarrassed by his helpless state, replied earnestly, his face flushed red.
Hei Mu placed the fruit platter on the coffee table that had been moved aside for training. Turning around, he noticed their guest standing on the stairs.
The man had been awake for a few hours yesterday but was too weak to leave the sofa. Even his meals had been personally brought to him by Yu Xi.
She seemed to know his tastes well, skipping the dishes Hei Mu had prepared. Instead, she had made a large bowl of vegetable and fruit salad and some light vegetable noodles, which she had brought to his room on a tray.
Hei Mu had only caught a glimpse of him when collecting the tray, thinking the man was very handsome. Now, seeing him fully, he realized “handsome” was an understatement.
The man appeared no older than twenty-three or twenty-four. His tall, slender frame was emaciated, likely due to days of fleeing and his injuries. His pale complexion and fragile demeanor gave him an air of frailty.
Yet his facial features were stunning, a delicate balance of elegance and refinement. Combined with his pallor and innate nobility, he exuded a strikingly ethereal beauty tinged with a morbid charm.
At the moment, he was watching the scene in the living room, his gaze calm and detached. His expression betrayed no emotion, but Hei Mu, skilled in reading people, sensed that the man was not particularly pleased.
Hei Mu glanced at Xi Yuan again. Perhaps Yu Xi had held him down for too long, as the redness on his cheeks had spread to his neck. From Hei Mu’s angle, the agitation and panic in Xi Yuan’s eyes were unmistakable.
Hei Mu sighed silently.
For a Subordinate to develop feelings for their master, the outcome was never good. In the eyes of natural humans, Subordinates were merely manufactured beings. Even though they had flesh, blood, thoughts, and emotions, they were still regarded as little more than sophisticated “objects,” slightly more advanced than inanimate tools.
Noticing the figure on the staircase, Yu Xi released Xi Yuan and announced that today’s combat training was done. She told him to continue with his physical training and then headed toward the stairs. “Why are you up? Don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I’ve mostly recovered. This body can only go so far for now,” Xing Min replied.
Yu Xi nodded and gestured for him to return upstairs so they could talk in private.
Xing Min hesitated, his gaze lingering on the coffee table. He had come downstairs intending to find something to eat. Yesterday, his body hadn’t fully recovered, and his appetite had been poor. Now, with most of his recovery complete, hunger had naturally followed.
Following his gaze, Yu Xi’s eyes landed on the fruit platter on the coffee table.
Yu Xi: … Got it.
Without a word, she picked up the entire fruit platter and carried it upstairs.
The villa’s thick walls and soundproof doors ensured that, with the door closed, conversations inside a room could not be overheard from the hallway by anyone with normal hearing.
During his limited time awake yesterday, Xing Min had explained to Yu Xi why he had expended energy to enter this world. Initially, when connecting with mission worlds, this advanced-level world had appeared repeatedly, actively drawing him in. Eventually, he had no choice but to connect with it.
A world like this, with incomplete information, high difficulty, and an active pull for connection, was hard to leave unattended. Though entering had cost him significant energy and finding a suitable body took considerable effort, Xing Min felt it was worth it.
“This world… I originally thought that rebirth signified hope, but now I realize it was a misdirection. It made me think I had an advantage, but it’s ultimately meaningless.”
“What have you figured out?” Yu Xi asked.
“This world’s category is called ‘Seven Layers of Hell.’ At first, I thought it might involve being reborn seven times, but now it seems the ‘seven’ refers to seven different disasters. The ‘Red Lotus’ disaster has ended, and the current one is the fog outside.”
Yu Xi pulled open the bedroom curtains as she spoke.
Although it was daytime, the view outside was shrouded in a thick, tangible gray fog that had persisted for two days. She suspected it might last even longer.
What was known so far was that within the gray fog existed small, soft-bodied organisms that were drawn to humans. When they latched onto a person, they extended tendrils into the flesh, releasing an anesthetic that dulled the victim’s thoughts and reactions.
Yu Xi speculated that if these organisms remained attached for longer periods, they might induce uncontrollable behavior in their hosts, such as leading them away from shelters to the creatures’ “nesting grounds.” Those controlled and taken away had not returned, becoming part of the missing population during previous fog events.
As for why the organisms existed, where the “nests” were, where they hid when the fog dissipated, and the purpose of controlling humans—many mysteries remained unsolved.
But whatever the answers were, they would undoubtedly bring no good news.
The chances of survival for those who went missing are slim.
Due to the gray fog, all communication and networks have been cut off. Those in large shelters are relatively better off since the presence of many people provides a sense of safety, even if they cannot leave.
The truly unfortunate ones are the survivors who remained in what were once relatively safe zones within the city. Surrounded by ruins and trapped in buildings with no way out, they are quickly facing food and water shortages. Protective suits, if they had any, are rare in individual households. Even then, it’s unclear if regular protective gear can prevent the blood-red organisms’ tendrils from penetrating.
If the “Red Lotus” disaster was a physically destructive catastrophe, the “gray fog” feels more like psychological torment.
Stay indoors, and you’ll face starvation and dehydration. Step outside, and you’ll encounter unknown dangers.
Being trapped in a building could be manageable if one is with close family, but if surrounded by friends or other survivors, prolonged confinement is bound to create tension and spark crises.
Yu Xi’s predictions proved accurate. Even in military-guarded shelters, conditions were deteriorating.
The sheer destructive power of the “Red Lotus” forced hasty evacuations. At the time, protective suits were almost useless against the suction of the “Red Lotus.” Instead of bringing ineffective gear, evacuees prioritized essentials like food, water, medicine, and weapons. As a result, even in the military, the supply of protective suits was extremely limited.
Initially, the military distributed supplies to buildings in the shelter zones every few days, with personnel donning protective suits to navigate the fog.
However, food and water supplies soon began to run out. Under normal circumstances, rescue teams in hover vehicles would have ventured out to acquire new resources or coordinated with other shelter zones or headquarters for drone-delivered supplies.
Now, with communication and visibility reduced to one meter, even operable vehicles and drones were effectively grounded.
On the tenth day of the gray fog, the military shelter faced the same dilemma as survivors trapped in ruined areas.
Compounding the anxiety was the rapid drop in temperature after ten sunless days. Trapped civilians lacked not only food and water but also adequate heating supplies.
Even within the military, patience was wearing thin.
“How much longer do we have to wait? If this continues, things will only get worse! Can’t we even establish radio contact?”
“We’ve already tried. All communication systems have failed. Even walkie-talkies lose functionality beyond a certain range in the fog!”
“What about the research team? Any progress?”
“The composition of the gray fog remains unknown. The cellular structure of the blood-red organisms resembles the petals of the ‘Red Lotus’ but shows some differences. To be precise, they seem to be an evolutionary offshoot of the same species.”
“So, the gray fog is aiding the evolution of the ‘Red Lotus’?”
“It’s not that simple. The ‘Red Lotus’ was indeed killed. More accurately, this is a self-adaptive transformation triggered by certain substances in the gray fog when the ‘Red Lotus’ faced an extinction-level threat. That’s why these organisms are now dependent on the fog; they die completely when removed from it.”
“We can’t wait any longer. Tomorrow, a supply convoy will set out. As for who goes, it will be on a voluntary basis.”
For those in the military, this mission was fraught with unknown dangers. Whether the convoy would return safely or not was entirely uncertain.