Zhuang Fan shook his head. “That’s not right. I’m certain that inside the shelter, aside from that testing area, I never saw eerie fog form anywhere else—including inside my own body.”
“That’s because there are fog-dispelling devices. Do you know how many fog-dispelling lamps they installed throughout this entire base?”
“Fog-dispelling lamps?”
“Come here.”
David motioned for Zhuang Fan to step into the center of the formation, then had him bring his hands together and try to produce eerie fog again. In the end, no matter what Zhuang Fan did, the eerie fog did not appear again.
David then pointed at the soldiers’ chests. “See the dark-green meteorites they’re wearing? Those are the fog-dispelling devices. Within three meters of them, eerie fog can’t form; eerie fog outside three meters can’t get close either. No use trying.”
Zhuang Fan observed carefully, and sure enough, within a three-meter radius around them, the eerie fog seemed to have hit an invisible wall, unable to seep in even the slightest bit.
After David’s explanation, Zhuang Fan finally gained a basic understanding of the principle behind the birth of eerie fog.
Under intense light, the speed at which eerie fog formed would become extremely slow, even impossible to observe with the naked eye. The dimmer the place, the faster it formed.
This eerie fog seemed to come from another dimension. It could neither be heated and evaporated, nor blown apart by violent winds. And if left unchecked, it could penetrate walls of copper and iron as if passing through empty air.
Zhuang Fan tried to understand. “In other words, if you want to ensure the eerie fog is suppressed and prevent the body from producing fog, ordinary light sources alone aren’t enough, because lamplight can’t penetrate skin. A person has to remain within the coverage of a fog-dispelling lamp at all times.”
“Exactly. You’ve got it.”
At that thought, Zhuang Fan finally realized just how troublesome this eerie fog was. It was practically impossible to guard against.
After tossing away his cigarette butt, David shook his head and said, “They call them fog-dispelling lamps, but they don’t even glow. Those big shots just love giving things stupid names so they can sell them for more. Blackhearted as hell.”
Zhuang Fan asked again, “So these meteorites can dispel fog just by holding them?”
“In your dreams. The meteorites themselves aren’t that great at dispelling fog. They need to be powered up before they can unleash their full effect.”
David snorted. “You just haven’t seen them yet. Some large fog-dispelling lighthouses can cover more than a kilometer! They just eat up a fucking ridiculous amount of electricity.”
Zhuang Fan was puzzled. “How much electricity are we talking?”
“An installed capacity of ten thousand kilowatts is about enough to keep one large lighthouse running.”
Zhuang Fan made a rough estimate. “Isn’t that about the generating capacity of a small hydroelectric station?”
“That’s why they’re also called power hogs. Ordinary small cities can’t afford to use them.”
Zhuang Fan pointed at the flamethrowers clearing the way up ahead. “What about flames?”
“Those things can dispel fog too. Bright enough, fierce enough. But don’t they burn fuel? Sunlight can dispel fog too, but it’s even less efficient. Look, the sun’s been shining for most of the day, and isn’t the sky still foggy?”
Zhuang Fan raised his head slightly. No wonder the lower the altitude, the higher the concentration of eerie fog. Even if sunlight shone for an entire day, it could probably only weaken the eerie fog in the stratosphere.
“So fog-dispelling lamps can drive away fog of any concentration?”
“They can only deal with very light eerie fog. If you run into ‘dark fog,’ it becomes troublesome to handle. And if dark fog is allowed to keep increasing until it reaches the level of ‘black fog’…”
David seemed somewhat wary. “If you encounter black fog in the wild, that’s an ill-omened place. Creepy as hell. Run as fast as you can.”
Zhuang Fan fell silent for a few seconds, then looked toward a cave ahead shrouded in black fog. Suspicion filled his eyes. “So we’re… heading in that direction, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we be avoiding it?”
“Don’t worry. You’re the only one going in anyway. Just stay for one minute.”
“…”
“Kid, let me emphasize this again. That’s a cave we specifically dug out. We spent a full two months cultivating it, specially for incubating black fog. There’s no air vent inside this cave, so don’t go blundering around like a roe deer. Got it?”
“Fine.”
Perhaps still afraid that he would run, David directly brought over a set of steel claw restraints that firmly bound Zhuang Fan’s hands, chest, and abdomen.
A guard beside them joked, “Boss, you’re even using steel claws? With this kid’s frail little body, a rope would be enough.”
David looked at Zhuang Fan. “What are you standing there for? Go in.”
“Don’t rush me. I’m building up the mood.”
Zhuang Fan felt a tightness in his chest. He realized that David was a cautious and difficult fellow to deal with. After taking a deep breath, he strode into the cave shrouded in black fog.
In an instant, sound, light, and heat seemed to be swallowed by the black fog. The surroundings sank into dead silence. Visibility was less than a meter; he could not see his fingers before his face. An intense sense of psychological oppression came crashing over him.
The steel claw structure was exceptionally sturdy. He tried several times, but it remained as steady as a mountain, without the slightest sign of loosening.
Faintly, he could also hear strange noises coming from within the black fog—sometimes whispers, sometimes murmured sighs, and a few pained wails, as though they could call a person’s soul away at any moment.
A nameless unease swept over him. Zhuang Fan endured it for a while, then decided not to sit there waiting for death. He began struggling with all his might.
“Chh… chh…”
This time, he used every bit of strength in his body, gritting his teeth until deep red marks were carved into both arms. Finally, he forcibly pulled the steel claws outward by several centimeters.
But at the same time, the alarm device was triggered.
“Kid, what the hell are you doing?”
David yanked him out of the cave in one motion. When he pulled him closer and took a look, his eyes went wide. “Sh… shit! How the hell are you so strong? You almost slipped free.”
The guard beside him was stunned as well.
Zhuang Fan silently matched “she” with its corresponding English swear word, then said helplessly, “That thing of yours must be counterfeit. Give me a little more time and I would’ve gotten it open.”
“Shit! Impossible!”
David sized him up meaningfully. “Even if I put on a powered exoskeleton, I wouldn’t have as much strength as you. Did you secretly undergo enhancement surgery?”
“No. I woke up like this.”
David clearly did not believe him. He touched his own explosive biceps, then looked at Zhuang Fan’s well-proportioned arms, his face full of suspicion.
“Whatever. I’ll test you first.”
David picked up a device and scanned Zhuang Fan’s body. After lowering his head to confirm the readings, his gaze became complicated. “Eerie fog concentration, zero milligrams per cubic meter… Kid, you really are a Demon Scout.”
It was the second time Zhuang Fan had heard that term. “So people who can be immune to eerie fog are called Demon Scouts?”
“That’s right. Not a single person born in our era is a Demon Scout. We still have to look among you Common Era people.”
“You went through all that trouble to find Demon Scouts. And then?” What Zhuang Fan actually wanted to ask was what fate awaited him.
David did not answer. First, he removed the ruined steel claws, then casually straightened Zhuang Fan’s messy clothes and even patted the dust from his shoulders. His attitude was better than before.
Zhuang Fan muttered inwardly. He had discovered that whenever these people’s attitude toward him improved, it definitely meant nothing good.
“Brother, not talking?”
“Don’t worry. It’s definitely a good thing. Kid, you’re going to be top-notch from now on. I’ll have to rely on you in the future.”
The almost unconcealable pity in David’s eyes made it impossible for Zhuang Fan to be convinced by his words.
Suddenly, he felt as though a small mass of foreign matter remained within his organs, about the size of a fist.
At first, he thought it was an illusion. But when he sensed it carefully, he could actually “judge” it clearly—it was a mass of eerie fog, and black fog of the highest concentration at that.
More importantly, it was as if his heavenly eye had opened. He could “observe” the existence of this mass of black fog, and knew subtle changes in its volume, shape, concentration, and so on.
This was somewhat unscientific.
Zhuang Fan did not act rashly. He swept a glance over David and the others, confirming that no one had noticed anything unusual about him.
Since Demon Scouts could resist the invasion of eerie fog, then what was with this overly familiar mass of black fog? Had he inhaled it in the cave just now?
This mass of black fog had an extremely high concentration. Even within the coverage of the fog-dispelling devices, it showed no sign of weakening at all.
When he tried to “sense” it up close in his consciousness, a strange thought actually arose in his mind—he could control it.
Then he would try.
Zhuang Fan held his breath and focused. The thought flowed with remarkable ease. The black fog really did move slowly according to his will, shifting from his organs to the layer of fat beneath his skin, as if it had been granted life.
After confirming it several times, he found that although the black fog moved slowly, it went wherever he directed it, as though it had become part of his body.
He asked casually, “Brother, if black fog enters someone’s body, is there any way to remove it?”
David glanced at him. “Black fog entering the body? Then you’re done for. For the rest of your life, you’d have to stay obediently under a fog-dispelling lamp and never leave by even one step, or you’ll definitely mutate.”
“There’s really no way at all?”
“There is, little brother. Go lie in one of those fog-dispelling chambers.”
David curled his lip. “A hundred thousand per treatment course. Six days and it’ll sort you out.”
“A fog-dispelling chamber?”
“Mm. An iron lump of a machine made specifically to fleece poor bastards.”
David shook his head and laughed at himself. “I’ve risked my life all these years and only saved up a hundred and fifty thousand. If a poor bastard really gets infected by black fog, he might as well obediently roll out into the wild. There’s no saving him.”
Then I should still be saveable…
Zhuang Fan finally asked the key question. “If someone has fairly strong willpower, can they force eerie fog out of their body?”
David froze for a moment, then his tone became rarely serious. “You Demon Scouts are naturally immune to eerie fog, so don’t ask stupid questions like that. It makes me feel awkward just listening to it.”
Zhuang Fan nodded and said no more.
Combined with his earlier analysis, he could basically confirm that his ability to control eerie fog was unique. Moreover, it was a secret that could never see the light of day. It absolutely could not be discovered by anyone.
He had already gotten himself into trouble because of his identity as a “Demon Scout.” If he added on an ability to control eerie fog, his situation would only become even more dangerous.
At that thought, Zhuang Fan began pondering what concrete help this ability to manipulate eerie fog could bring him.
As Zhuang Fan traveled, he silently studied it inside his body.
Very quickly, he had shaped the black fog into all kinds of simple forms. As long as he was willing, the black fog could even leave his body at any time.
How far could he take it?
Zhuang Fan thought for a moment, then decided to first increase the volume of the black fog.
With a thought, the black fog was rapidly diluted into dark fog. As its volume continued to expand, its concentration grew thinner and thinner, until it finally became a light-fog state, somewhat like the process of water vaporizing.
The volume of the light fog could continue to expand until it could almost no longer be “observed,” then under the purification of the fog-dispelling devices, it dissipated bit by bit.
Zhuang Fan was thoughtful. It seemed that fog-dispelling lamps could only deal with light fog and dark fog. Anything higher than that, and they basically had no solution.
In that instant, a bold thought surged up in him:
Since he could control eerie fog, did that mean he could also drive it into an enemy’s body and accelerate their mutation?
The path before him suddenly opened up. It was completely feasible.
According to David, if black fog entered the body and was not interfered with, it would turn a person into a monster in just ten minutes. So if he wanted a surprise attack to have miraculous effects, he had to use black fog of the highest concentration.
Zhuang Fan continued experimenting, compressing the diffused light fog back into dark fog, then condensing the dark fog into a small mass of black fog.
Within his perception, this mass of black fog seemed capable of being compressed even further, as long as he was willing.
If he raised the concentration of the black fog to its limit, then after driving it into an enemy’s body, the time needed for mutation would probably shorten to one or two minutes.
But just then, something unexpected happened.
“Hiss—”
A violent headache swept over him like a tsunami. Zhuang Fan felt his vision blur, while his ears filled with sharp, murmuring howls. His heart, too, began pounding wildly in chaos.
In just a moment, his entire body was drenched in sweat, and he could hardly move his feet.