A Night of Desperation

Chapter 125: Imprint (3)

Inside the cave safe house.

Yu Hong carefully used Great Luminous Stone powder to draw a vortex Rune Board on the skin of his right leg.

“It still doesn’t work. It dries and cracks too easily. The pattern is quickly dried out by the skin, and even the slightest movement disrupts its structure, causing it to prematurely release the absorbed radiation.”

Yu Hong tested it and found it ineffective.

“In that case, I’ll engrave it on the suit instead.”

He quickly took out the White Bear suit and began drawing vortex Rune Boards on its surface.

Thanks to his high proficiency, within just over ten minutes, he had applied the Rune Boards to two sets of suits and a wolf fang club.

Now, he just had to wait for them to dry and absorb radiation.

“This way, during combat, I can continuously trigger exploding vortex Rune Boards to forcibly control Ghostly Shadows”

With the Ghostly Shadows growing stronger, Yu Hong carefully considered a solution.

‘How can I use the Black Mark to continuously strengthen the same object?’

His inner energy had now reached the second level of the second path, significantly improving his speed, strength, defense, and endurance.

Against Blood Tide creatures, he could still hold his ground, but against the eerie and unpredictable Shadow Fiends, his abilities were clearly lacking.

“The abilities of Ghostly Shadows vary greatly. I must have marked objects to test them in advance to ensure greater safety.”

Yu Hong reaffirmed his thoughts. Checking the time, he returned to the table and reviewed the newly completed reinforcement document.

“Methods to Counter the Behind Person (Intermittent Man) ”

The new document clearly displayed this title.

Below it were lines of numbered content:

The Behind Person’s attacks follow the “three-time rule,” but this does not refer to seeing him three times—it refers to hearing the noises he makes three times.

His attack method is based on continuous depletion rather than explosive damage. His primary means involve forcibly reducing the target’s surrounding negative red value. Once this value drops to a critical threshold, the target is instantly devoured.

The Behind Person follows the “singular target rule”: one Behind Person can only mark and pursue one target at a time.

When subjected to a large amount of negative radiation, the Behind Person will be forcibly pulled out of his hidden state and enter a state of rigidity. While in this rigid state, he becomes highly vulnerable to attacks. The duration of rigidity is calculated as:

(Negative Radiation Impact – The Behind Person’s own red value)/800 = Rigidity duration

(Inseconds)

If the Behind Person takes further damage while rigid, exceeding his total red value, he will be shattered in reality and forced into a recovery state.

“Tsk tsk tsk, now this is detailed.”

Yu Hong carefully read through the document. Compared to the intelligence provided by Zhou Xueguang, this was incredibly thorough.

“If I still had access to the right channels, I could probably trade this information for some valuable supplies.”

Yu Hong felt much more at ease.

The greatest fear in dangerous situations isn’t how powerful the enemy is—it’s not knowing how to effectively counter them.

As long as a method exists to harm the enemy, fear diminishes.

He placed the document on the communicator, which had been left on but remained silent, then continued his next round of reinforcement.

Through previous tests, the silver Rune Boards were starting to fall behind in effectiveness, so he planned to develop a more potent tool suited to the current situation.

‘If normal Rune Boards amplify the effects of Luminous Stone, and vortex Rune Boards store radiation, then can I combine the two? Store radiation with the vortex Rune Board first, then, when activated, allow the stored radiation to be amplified by the normal Rune Board, resulting in a greater destructive effect?’

Yu Hong’s logic was straightforward.

This type of structure was merely a simple linkage design.

He took a vortex Rune Board, wrapped it in a layer of soft cloth, and then drew enhancement Rune Board patterns on the cloth.

After drying them together, he bound them with string.

In less than half an hour, he had completed a basic Rune Board synergy system.

“Let’s give it a try.”

Yu Hong weighed the wrapped Rune Board in his hand with some anticipation.

The vortex Rune Board had already absorbed radiation, and now, combined with the newly drawn enhancement Rune Board…

He held the cloth-wrapped Rune Board in one hand and mentally activated reinforcement.

“Reinforce: Radiation Grenade. Direction: Structural Optimization to Amplify Power.”

A black line flowed from the Black Mark, followed by a prompt:

“Reinforce Radiation Grenade?”

A countdown appeared on the cloth-wrapped Rune Board: 13 minutes.

“Yes.”

Yu Hong was satisfied.

Since he was merely asking the Black Mark to optimize the connection between the two elements, the reinforcement time was significantly reduced. After all, the vortex Rune Board was already a finished product.

With only a short wait, he pulled up a chair next to the table and sat down.

Soon, the time was up.

The cloth-wrapped Rune Board blurred momentarily. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a black-brown, rigid, handle-like object.

Yu Hong was momentarily stunned, then picked it up to inspect it closely.

The object was about the size of a mobile phone, as thick as a cucumber, and cylindrical in shape. The surface featured anti-slip grooves for grip and had a hard texture, resembling plastic.

There was also a red switch that could be slid up and down. Below the switch, small text read: “Activate and throw within three seconds.”

“This thing…”

Yu Hong held the object, feeling a mix of unexpected surprise and confusion.

“Logically, the power of reinforcement should be proportional to the time spent. But in just over ten minutes, this thing even changed materials… This doesn’t match the pattern I observed before.”

He frowned, noting this anomaly for future study.

Holding the Radiation Grenade, Yu Hong walked to the main gate, carefully opened it, and stepped into the courtyard.

The night-shrouded courtyard was illuminated by the glowing white radiation of strengthened Luminous Stone grass.

There were no Blood Tide creatures outside—only an inexplicable chill that spread and lingered in the dark mist.

Yu Hong paced around the courtyard with the Radiation Grenade in hand. Using his detector, he quickly pinpointed a suitable location.

He cautiously extended one hand beyond the courtyard wall, reaching into the black mist.

“Hello? Anyone nearby?”

WHOOSH!!

In an instant, a black shadowy figure suddenly materialized within the mist where his hand reached.

The figure also extended its hand, lunging toward Yu Hong at an incredible speed.

It moved so fast that an ordinary person would have no chance to react. Even a reinforced human, caught off guard, would struggle to pull back in time.

Yu Hong, however, did not react—nor did he intend to.

The moment the shadow appeared, he had already activated the Radiation Grenade in his other hand and hurled it forward.

Thud.

The grenade spun through the air, lightly passing through the shadowy figure as if it were an illusion, before landing softly on the grass.

Then—

BOOM!!!

A transparent, invisible, lightless explosion erupted at the center of the figure.

The black silhouette shattered like foam, disintegrating in an instant and vanishing without a trace.

BEEP!!

At the same time, Yu Hong’s reinforced detector blared an alarm. His negative red value spiked from -100 to over -7000, held for two seconds, then rapidly stabilized back to around -200.

Yu Hong blinked.

“Still there?”

He cautiously waved the hand he had extended.

No response.

The mist remained, but the figure was gone.

“Hello?”

He waved his hand again.

Still nothing.

Taking out his red value detector, he reached into the darkness to measure.

“-271.241.”

“…”

Yu Hong was speechless.

He had not expected such immense power from simply combining two Rune Boards.

Of course, this was only possible because of the targeted intelligence and the Black Mark’s optimized synergy. This allowed the effect to be so effective in one strike.

‘When facing the Behind Person, I should first force him into a rigid state, then use concentrated radiation to break his physical form. If I can push the radiation burst past 6000 in a two-stage explosion, I might be able to temporarily destroy him. As for his recovery time, that’s a problem for later.’

Yu Hong climbed over the courtyard wall and calmly stepped into the darkness outside.

The air was still thick with strong negative radiation.

On his way back, he gathered some dry firewood.

After returning to the cave, Yu Hong changed into his suit and continued reinforcing new Radiation Grenades.

This weapon might not be effective against creatures like the Multi-Eyed Bird, as those regenerate quickly and require continuous damage to be eliminated.

However, against the Behind Person—an elusive, hard-to-handle shadow entity—it was highly specialized.

‘That thing just now was likely a Ghostly Shadow. If I encounter the actual Behind Person, I don’t know how effective it’ll be. Also, there isn’t just one of them—I need to prepare multiple grenades for emergencies. Fortunately, the Radiation Grenade doesn’t damage physical entities. Its impact is strong but brief, so I don’t need to worry about collateral damage at close range.’

Back inside the cave, Yu Hong swiftly got to work, crafting more Radiation Grenades.

The test results were impressive. However, their true effectiveness against the Behind Person remained unknown.

Yu Hong looked forward to testing it.

As night deepened, time flowed steadily. With the Black Mark continuously reinforcing, more Radiation Grenades gradually appeared on the wooden table in the cave.

The quantity he could produce was entirely dependent on the available materials—Great Luminous Stone graphite powder and vortex Rune Boards.

Soon, a total of five Radiation Grenades were neatly arranged before him.

Satisfied, he carefully placed them into the sealed pockets of his suit.

‘No time to waste. Since the Blood Tide hasn’t arrived yet, I might as well head to the post office now and retrieve the marked creature.’

With all preparations complete, Yu Hong saw no reason to leave the Black Mark idle. Rather than waiting around, it was better to secure materials in advance for synthesis.

After tidying up, Yu Hong adjusted his suit, opened the door, and swiftly stepped outside.

*

*

*

Bang!

The stone door of the post office building was slammed open.

Li Runshan, wrapped in a Luminous Stone blanket, held his daughter tightly as he sprinted madly.

He leaped over the steps, crashed through the courtyard fence, and dashed frantically toward Yu Hong’s cave.

‘Faster! Faster!’

‘I must not die! Never!!’

His bloodshot eyes burned with desperation. Every muscle in his body was stretched to its limit, and sweat poured down, scattering with each ragged breath.

His legs pounded against the dark ground, the muffled thuds of his footsteps leaving behind a trail of chaotic, unsteady prints.

“Daddy… are we going to die?”

Aisena, nestled in his arms, asked calmly.

Despite being only a few years old, she showed no fear of death—only quiet acceptance.

“No! Daddy won’t let you die. You will live… You must live!”

Li Runshan forced a smile, tightening the blanket around his daughter to keep her warm.

(End of Chapter)