Chapter 81 – Black Cloud

Lu Yuan tore off a piece from the hem of his T-shirt, ripped it in half, and forcefully stuffed his ears.

The noise was still headache-inducing, but it was slightly better.

He watched the spectacular Flock of crows swirling around the house like a black tornado, feeling a sense of awe.

The scene before him was like something straight out of a fantasy movie.

Luckily, this was a remote rural area and it was the middle of the night. Otherwise, he couldn’t imagine the commotion it would cause.

Just as he was thinking this, Lu Yuan suddenly felt the noise in his ears grow louder again.

He initially thought the cloth in his ears had come loose and pushed it in further.

Under the terrifying noise, his other senses seemed to dull.

But soon, Lu Yuan realized something was wrong.

The increased noise was coming from outside.

He squinted his eyes and looked into the distance, seeing a large black cloud rapidly approaching about a kilometer away.

This black cloud was very close to the ground, only about ten meters high.

If it weren’t constantly moving, it would be nearly invisible in the dark.

“Another large Flock of crows?”

Lu Yuan took out his mobile phone from his pocket.

The phone still showed no signal.

He had tried to send a message to Ge Wenjun earlier, but a red exclamation mark kept appearing after he sent it.

Lu Yuan quickly opened the phone’s camera.

He aimed it at the black cloud, continuously tapping the screen to zoom in and magnify.

The image was blurry in the night, with many distant scenes turning into indistinct blobs.

But it was clearer than what his eyes could see.

The screen revealed the true nature of the black cloud: it was indeed countless crows packed together.

As the Flock of crows quickly approached, Lu Yuan saw more clearly.

Suddenly, a red light flashed on the phone’s screen, and for a split second, Lu Yuan thought he saw a figure flash within the black cloud.

“There’s someone among the Flock of crows?!”

Lu Yuan was taken aback.

Someone was being carried by the black cloud of crows, getting closer and closer?

Was it an extraordinary member of the Crow Deity sect?

He hurriedly tried to get a closer look. By now, the Flock of crows was already very close to the house.

Lu Yuan kept sliding his mobile phone screen, his eyes moving back and forth between reality and the screen.

Suddenly,

Buzzz!

A blinding blue light burst forth from the bottom of Lu Yuan’s field of vision.

It instantly pierced through the darkness before him.

Like a powerful flashlight beam, it shot out abruptly, accurately hitting the approaching black cloud in the distance.

“Caw—”

“Boom!”

Accompanied by a sudden eruption of fiery light from the black cloud, a large chunk of the cloud was blown away.

The Flock of crows circling above the house seemed to be agitated by something, their frenzy escalating several levels in an instant.

Previously, they were only swirling and cawing, but now, like fighter jets receiving orders, they collectively dove down, ferociously attacking everything alive within the house’s vicinity.

Naturally, Lu Yuan was within the attack range.

He raised his hand and swung it forcefully, his arm slicing through the air with a tearing sound.

He instantly swatted away seven or eight crows about to pounce on him.

Taking advantage of the brief pause before the next wave of crows attacked, Lu Yuan quickly looked down.

He saw a person standing at the front door, their right hand clenched into a fist and held out, with a faint blue light rapidly dimming on their forearm.

It was Zhou Ling!

“Dammit!”

Lu Yuan didn’t look any further, as the surging Flock of crows was about to engulf him.

Within a second, he couldn’t count how many times he was pecked and clawed.

He quickly turned around, yanked open the nearest room door, and dashed inside.

It was like breaking through a thick black cloud.

“Bang!”

As soon as Lu Yuan entered the room, he slammed the door shut.

Several crows caught in the doorframe were crushed into pulp.

Lu Yuan’s hands didn’t stop moving. He swiftly pulled off the crows still clinging to him, hurling each one to the ground with force.

When he got to the last one, he held it up to his face for a closer look.

The small creature struggled frantically in his hand, its body sleek and black, with claws and beak as dark as coal, and a pair of terrifyingly red eyes.

“Caw caw—”

As it screeched desperately, Lu Yuan noticed its mouth was filled with fine, sharp teeth.

Both creepy and disgusting.

Lu Yuan quickly squeezed it to death and threw the bird’s corpse on the ground.

After encountering the Ratman, Lu Yuan was no longer surprised by a crow having teeth.

Now that he had calmed down a bit, Lu Yuan felt a burning pain all over his body.

Both of his arms were covered in scratch marks from the crows, and his face probably had some too.

If he went home looking like this, Zheng Qiuling would definitely give him a good scolding.

But that was the least of his worries right now.

Ignoring the corpses and the pungent smell of blood in the room, he quickly walked to the window facing the corridor.

He pulled the curtain aside; the window was closed, but it was completely obscured by countless dark crows, making it impossible to see what was happening outside.

The crows continued their relentless attack on the window and door, producing a series of dull thuds.

At this rate, the “safe house” wouldn’t hold much longer.

Lu Yuan’s face tightened as he prepared to rush out again at any moment.

His mind kept replaying the scene of the blue light beam he had just seen.

“What was that? A laser cannon?”

Lu Yuan now began to believe what Zhou Ling had said earlier. If No.13 didn’t have any desire to attack him, he wouldn’t have had the chance to knock him out and render him useless.

If every one of Yellow Bear’s Cyborgs was equipped like Zhou Ling…

No, not even the same.

Slightly less powerful, just a bit stronger than a handgun would suffice.

If they knew his position in advance and shot through the wall with one of those…

He would probably already be a corpse.

“Extraordinary in terms of technology!”

Lu Yuan clenched his fists, feeling extremely conflicted.

Since his transmigration, although he knew this world’s technology far surpassed his previous life, his daily life hadn’t seen much difference.

At most, the news on TV had become a bit more sci-fi.

Now, the backdrop of his life had suddenly jumped vividly into the foreground, making him feel like he had stumbled forward a step.

Getting a bit closer to the true essence of this world.

“Boom!”

Suddenly, a massive explosion sounded outside.

Lu Yuan felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly.

Before he could react, a second explosion followed immediately.

Then they continued, one after another.

The crows clinging to the window were scattered by an invisible shockwave, and dust rained down from the ceiling.

“Crack”

Lu Yuan heard a clear sound of a wall splitting.

He looked around but couldn’t locate the source of the noise; who knew which room’s wall had cracked.