Volume 1, Chapter 49: The Debt of a Father's Murder is Irreconcilable

"Han Xu?"

Upon hearing this name, Lin Qianying immediately recalled the fellow who had just cursed at her.

"No wonder!"

Lin Qianying instantly understood why she had been berated a moment ago.

"Did you see him?" Zhang Tao asked somewhat anxiously, eager to catch the scoundrel who was stirring up trouble behind the scenes.

"I shot him, but it's not fatal. He went that way."

Lin Qianying gestured in a certain direction.

She held zero expectations of actually catching up to Han Xu, which was why she didn't even bother to move an inch. After all, Han Xu had been running for quite some time; it would be a miracle if anyone could catch him now.

However, Zhang Tao was not one to give up so easily.

What if Han Xu subscribed to the notion that the most dangerous place is the safest place?

"I'll go take a look," Zhang Tao said to Lin Qianying and immediately set off.

Zhang Tao's frantic running attracted the attention of many people, as every heavy step taken by such a massive machine caused tremors in the surrounding ground.

In Zhang Tao's view, this was akin to beating the grass to startle the snake.

Unfortunately, the snake wasn't startled, but Zhang Tao did end up hearing a very passionate sound of crying.

At first, Zhang Tao didn't pay much attention to it, but after running a few laps around the villa district, the weeping persisted.

Given how wildly he was sprinting, any other child would have been terrified into hiding long ago. What was going on with this kid?

Zhang Tao couldn't help but walk toward the child's home.

From quite a distance away, he spotted a young boy clutching a mass of bloody flesh.

"He was killed by someone!"

Zhang Tao knew what had happened at a single glance.

If this person had been killed by mechanical creatures, he certainly would have been devoured. Only when killed by a human would a corpse be left behind.

"Kid, stop crying. Aren't you annoyed?" Zhang Tao didn't get too close to the young boy, fearing he might scare the little guy. Although Zhang Tao was a spoiled second-generation heir, he still possessed a shred of conscience.

He felt no psychological burden in intimidating adults, but bullying a child was something Zhang Tao simply couldn't bring himself to do.

"Get lost! Just get lost!" the boy yelled frantically at Zhang Tao.

Having cried until he was exhausted, his tears had forged a sudden reservoir of courage.

At this moment, within the boy's worldview, none of those who piloted mechs were good people.

Besides, since he didn't believe he could survive now that he had lost his father, he might as well just die right here. Therefore, he was fiercely defiant.

Zhang Tao was momentarily stunned by the outburst.

*Wait a minute, I haven't even provoked you, little bro, have I?*

"Kid, look closely. I'm not the one who killed your dad," Zhang Tao said, pointing at his own nose.

Zhang Tao's mech was quite distinctive; he assumed this child would recognize him.

Unfortunately, trying to reason with a grief-stricken, out-of-control child was pure nonsense.

"I told you to get lost!" the young boy roared with a hoarse voice, even picking up a stone and hurling it at Zhang Tao.

Alas, his strength was too feeble; it didn't come anywhere near hitting him.

Instead of feeling annoyed by the boy's actions, Zhang Tao felt a tinge of sympathy welling up inside him.

Who hasn't been a child once?

If his own father had died when he was this small, then...

"Kid, do you want revenge? I can help you."

Hearing Zhang Tao's words, the little boy abruptly raised his head.

At that instant, Zhang Tao felt as though there was a spark of light in the child's eyes.

"Really? Can you really help me?"

The vengeance for a murdered father was an irreconcilable feud.

Miraculously, the young boy checked his tears at that very moment.

"I can. Tell me, who killed your father? I'll avenge him for you," Zhang Tao promised, patting his chest.

"I don't know who he is." The little boy's expression turned distressed, his small face scrunched up.

Zhang Tao could understand; after all, murderers rarely announce their names before striking.

"Tell me what you know. What happened?"

"Okay, I'll tell you."

With that, the young boy began recounting the events.

Initially, Zhang Tao wasn't particularly invested, but the moment he heard the boy mention that the murderous mech had asked his father about Han Xiao, Zhang Tao instantly became excited, because he knew the identity of the killer.

It had to be Han Xu.

Aside from Han Xu, who else would inquire about where Han Xiao was buried?

Once the boy finished telling him everything he knew, Zhang Tao immediately beamed and said, "Good lad, well done! I'll avenge you. Do you have any other family members?"

The young boy slowly shook his head, a look of profound sorrow in his eyes.

"Alright, that's just how the world is nowadays. Come with me, go to my house—you won't go hungry." Zhang Tao's benevolence was sparked, largely because his family possessed vast wealth and resources; missing an extra mouth to feed was nothing to them.

"My dad..."

"Just leave your dad here. I'll have someone come and help you bury him."

"Thank you." The young boy still possessed good manners, at least knowing how to distinguish kindness from malice.

When Zhang Tao returned to the villa with the boy in tow, Lin Qianying immediately hurried over out of curiosity.

"Whose kid is this?"

"Found him. Let me tell you..." Zhang Tao launched into a fluent, animated explanation.

Upon hearing of the little boy's tragic fate, maternal instincts instantly flared up within Lin Qianying. She even disembarked from her mech to properly comfort the child.

Meanwhile, following the boy's instructions, Zhang Tao began dispatching men to track Han Xu along the trail left behind by the mechanical snake.

While Zhang Tao was busy and deeply engaged in his search, Zhang We's side was so deathly quiet that it began to irritate him.

"Not a single mechanical creature in sight? With a river this massive, it's impossible for there to be no mechanical life."

Zhang Wei was deeply troubled.

He had been away from Sichuan City for over a day now and hadn't reaped a single reward; he would have been better off rummaging through the sewers back in Sichuan City.

"Did I forget something?"

Zhang Wei began racking his brains in deep thought.

In the original plan Zhang Wei had formulated before the apocalypse, this river was supposed to play a major role because it undoubtedly harbored a massive quantity of mechanical creatures, which meant a wealth of source crystals could be harvested.

However, Zhang Wei had overlooked one crucial detail.

During the first two years of his past life, he had merely been a bottom-feeder struggling just to survive, someone who didn't even own a mech.

He could still recall some of the major events from the dawn of the apocalypse, but minor details or things he hadn't personally experienced escaped his memory entirely.

Take the rat tide, for example—Zhang Wei had no recollection of it, or perhaps it hadn't even occurred in his past life since his mere existence was capable of triggering the butterfly effect.

In his previous life, those massive beasts in the zoo hadn't left their enclosures initially, but the reason they had ventured out in this lifetime was entirely due to Zhang Wei.

"Let's keep looking. If there are no mechanical creatures in the river, finding them elsewhere will be even harder." Zhang Wei continued moving along the riverbank.

Moreover, traveling along the riverbank had a distinct advantage: as long as one kept walking, one was bound to stumble upon a village eventually.

Villages invariably kept poultry and livestock; though these mechanical creatures might not be overwhelmingly ferocious, their sizes wouldn't be too small, at the very least capable of providing intermediate source crystals.

Continuing his journey forward for another half an hour or so, Zhang Wei could faintly make out the silhouette of a settlement.

This village appeared to be relatively prosperous, with every household boasting a two-story villa. However, at present, most of those two-story structures had collapsed.

Clearly, this village had been decimated by a massacre of mechanical creatures.

With the apocalypse having descended, seeing living people in rural areas was a rare occurrence. Zhang Wei had known this long ago, so the sight came as no surprise.

"There certainly won't be any people left, but there are bound to be mechanical creatures."