Eternal Night

Vol. 1 Chapter 23

Smiling Gas XIX

Translated by xiaohei
Edited by xiaohei

There was a momentary pause in the doctor’s actions, but soon, his eyes scanned around his surroundings.

Of course, there was no sign of anyone present apart from Yu Feichen and the chemistry teacher, Gerold. All the soldiers had either left to stop the fleeing Koroshans or stood at the south gate with their smiling gas pipes, ready to release the deadly gas in the direction of the fleeing people.

No one could help him.

There was a faint sound of chaotic footsteps upstairs as if many people were moving around. Gerold’s eyes darted, and the doctor seemed even more uneasy than before.

The doctor’s gasp could be heard in the cold air, then he stumbled back a few steps.

“Guards, to the first floor,” he ordered over the radio with feigned calmness.

The doctor’s countdown came to an abrupt end before reaching its finale. The soldiers were surprised at the unexpected situation, but a team of them immediately rushed over as soon as they heard the order.

The south gate was only a short distance away from the building. It would only take half a minute for them to arrive. The doctor seemed relieved and stood with more confidence and composure compared to before.

Then, he pulled a brown pocket pistol from his belt!

His breath trembled faintly in the dead silence. Both hands held onto the gun, its muzzle pointed at Fei Yuchen. Step by step, he backed up, moving closer to the door.

“Drop the gun, Doctor,” Gerold demanded in a deep voice.

As he said so, he put his hand on the valve as if he were going to turn it. With his eyes turned to him, Fei Yuchen knew that Gerold was not playing around.

That tank was the main tank they used for storing smiling gas, containing an extremely high volume of it. Once the valve was opened, then an extremely high concentration of smiling gas will instantly spread throughout the small building. The filtering capacities of the gas masks were limited, it was simply impossible for them to filter out this volume of smiling gas. Once the gas reaches their system, everyone will die.

There was no threat more effective than this.

The doctor’s body tensed up and he turned abruptly, pointing his gun at Gerold.

Everything happened in just an instant.

Bang!

Yu Feichen had long since moved from his casual gun-spinning pose and raised his hand, firing a bullet that cut through the air in a straight line, piercing a hole right through the doctor’s head.

The doctor had the quickest reaction speed he had witnessed all night. The very moment the bullet entered his body, he had also pulled the trigger and fired on Gerold.

Two gunshots were picked up by the radio’s microphone and amplified countless times, thundering through the entire concentration camp and echoing through the valley in ripples that startled the countless black birds inhabiting it.

Unfortunately, the Doctor had never received proper gun training, and the visual warp from the eyeholes of his gas mask also created a disruption to his vision that stopped him from firing accurately.

Sure enough, the gun whizzed past Gerold, missing him by 20 centimeters and scraping through the metal tank, leaving sparks in its wake, leaving behind a blackened groove after the crackle of “fireworks” subsided.

Meanwhile, the doctor’s body swayed left and right a few times before he began to fall. His gun-holding posture left his center of balance to his front, so he leaned forward and fell face-first. The gun slid out of his hands, which formed a surrendering pose as they bounced off the floor upon impact. Half of the blood spilled out from the bullet hole on his gas mask while half of it pooled up inside of the mask, flooding his face with the red and sticky fluid.

The doctor, always standing high above the rest, ending countless lives through gas or electricity, was respected in the concentration camp for his insane cruelty, and he was proud of himself for that fact. However, he still left the world in such an undignified position. Before leaving the world completely, the doctor even choked on his own blood as they filled his airways, coughing painfully before finally going still.

—A death no different than those of the defenseless Koroshans rid of all dignity. Death took no pity on the Koroshans, neither did it show any kindness to the Doctor; all humans stood equal in the face of death.

Just then, the soldiers finally made it into the room in a hurry. All of them were shocked when they saw what had happened, and they raised their guns, aiming them at both Yu Feichen and Gerold who were in the room.

Yu Feichen’s expression did not change. All humans were also equal in front of him when he held a gun in his hand.

What was more, he wasn’t the only person in there.

On this night when the rest of his compatriots were all running for freedom, Gerold, the chemistry teacher, was exceptionally calm and composed.

Mogrosh told him that he had to trust his teammates sometimes, and those words seemed to make sense to him now.

“Drop your guns,” Gerold said, “or I’ll unscrew the valve and release all the smiling gas in here. I’m sure you know what the consequences of a leak would be.”

The soldiers were all silent for a moment, none of them opening fire.

The soldiers were holding guns, but Gerold was holding the valve. They were both threatening each other, both fighting for superiority.

The first one to flinch would be the loser.

However, there was nothing for Gerold to fear.

His compatriots had already fled and were on the glorious path to freedom away from here, and his beloved wife, her fate unknown, was right upstairs.

It was a contest that if he won, he would be able to scare the Black Badges into backing off, granting him freedom; if he lost, then he would die with his dear wife who had endured endless torture.

He was not afraid of anything anymore. He was willing to die honorably.

On the other hand, the low-ranking Black Badges still wanted to live, and it was obvious who had the upper hand here.

Some of the soldiers were already showing weakness in the grip of their guns, and faint tremors could be seen from their muzzles.

It was at that moment that Yu Feichen walked down the stairs step by step with his gun in hand.

The sound of footsteps thudded on the wooden stairs, growing nearer.

His presence was so strong that all eyes went up toward him.

A few locks of sweat-soaked hair hung down the sides of Yu Feichen’s forehead. His features were both handsome and deep, while those eyes were cold to the point of lifeless. He walked down the steps unflinching with a steady hold on his gun. The top two buttons on his work shirt were unbuttoned, revealing a perfectly muscled chest.

Some blood, still yet to dry, stained his shirt, and his grip looked more skilled than any one of them, just like a killing machine or a grim reaper here to reap their souls in the dim gaslight.

Somehow, a man like him seemed even more frightening to them than Gerold, who held the deadly valve.

Someone recognized him as the man who started the chaos tonight, and faint whispers broke out among the soldiers.

One soldier’s hand trembled.

At once, Yu Feichen’s gun swiveled over, aiming straight at him.

“Put the gun on the ground.” Yu Feichen’s voice sounded slightly husky and deep at the moment. “5, 4…”

The soldier, who had the gun pointed at him, was utterly crushed by his own fear, and he tossed his gun to the ground.

At the other end of the room, Gerold pressed his hand on the valve again and picked up where Yu Feichen left off. “3, 2…”

The sound of his countdown inside the empty room was just like the gradual approach of death. A second soldier dropped his weapon.

Following that, clatters could be heard as weapons were being dropped. The doctor’s body was still laying in miserable condition on the floor while they had to face the double threat of Gerold’s valve and Yu Feichen’s gun. Under the psychological pressure, the Black Badges eventually surrendered.

Yu Feichen commanded, “Stand back.”

Nobody resisted and they all stepped back, moving away from the weapons that were on the ground.

Yu Feichen continued pointing his gun at them, but at the same time, he glanced slightly behind him.

A dwarf standing in front of the stairs on the second floor was the first to react and quickly rushed down to pile up the guns dropped by the soldiers, holding them in his arms before running to Yu Feichen’s side as if to claim his merit.

Yu Feichen glanced at the Black Badges as he reached down to pat the dwarf’s head like a form of compliment, and the latter beamed in response to it.

It was at that moment that Gerold suddenly looked up.

It turned out that he was so absorbed in the fight with the doctor and the soldiers that he had completely missed that the pregnant women and the disabled being studied upstairs were rescued by Yu Feichen.

Not only were they rescued, several of them were standing at the staircase to the first floor, silently watching the situation unfold below.

There among the crowd stood a woman with a slightly cumbersome body.

She had a withered appearance with dull flax-colored hair, but her turquoise eyes were as beautiful as always. It was Lianna, and she was still alive.

The Black Badges had already been disarmed and the danger was lifted. Nervously, she called out with a sob in her voice, “Gerold…”

Gerold’s firm gaze faltered for a moment, and his eyes had also filled with tears. However, rather than act immediately, he looked toward Yu Feichen.

Yu Feichen could read what he was trying to say. Gerold was asking whether or not he could move away from the valve now.

He nodded.

Gerold shuddered for a moment, then he crawled clumsily down the tank. At the other end of the room, Lianna held her belly with one hand and supported herself on the handrail with the other as she walked down. Finally, they reunited at the bottom of the stairs.

Gerold held Lianna tightly in his arms and his voice was shaking. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

Yu Feichen did not know why exactly he was apologizing. Maybe it was because he hadn’t been able to protect Lianna and left her to be taken to the doctor’s experimentation lab, but maybe it was because of how he had threatened the doctor and the soldiers earlier. If he did unscrew the valve, then not only would he himself die, Lianna would also be gone from the world.

Lianna smiled as she cried. Holding Gerold’s face, she said, “I saw what you did.”

Then, she could be heard whispering, “You’re a hero, Gerold.”

The two lovers continued to embrace each other. Touched sobs had also emerged behind Yu Feichen, which were followed by excited gazes of admiration directed at Yu Feichen.

“I don’t know how to thank you…” Lianna said as she wiped her tears.

Yu Feichen looked at both her and Gerold.

Previously, in one of the futures that the barracks was leading up to, the doctor would cut open Lianna’s belly and take out her unborn child, then Lianna would be tortured to death. A distraught Gerold, already devastated by his wife’s death, would break down in utter despair when he saw the Koroshans being poisoned to death by the Black Badges and their corpses incinerated. He would open the main valve of the smiling gas tank, allowing the gas to spread throughout the concentration camp, ending the suffering of himself, the test subjects, and all of his compatriots, as well as making all the perpetrators of violence in Oakvale pay with their lives.

Though everyone does certainly return to Mother Earth on such an ending, it was after all, a bit cruel.

And now, they had changed all of that.

However, now was not the time for celebrations.

“Go south,” Yu Feichen said, “quickly.”

Gerold jerked back to his senses and helped his wife out the door while the rest hastily followed suit.

It was then that the sound of glass bottles breaking could be heard upstairs, followed by a scream, “Fire!”

Yu Feichen’s brows knitted into a frown, and he rushed up the stairs. He was in far too much of a hurry earlier to search the storage room, but when he arrived, he saw a doctor in a white coat fleeing quickly from the storage room’s direction, flames burning up behind him.

This man must be trying to destroy any evidence when he realized that the Black Badges had lost their advantage.

Yu Feichen raised his gun and made quick work of the doctor. Then, he rushed to the reagent and data cabinets which had been set ablaze.

The data cabinet and the large desks in front of it carried vital research materials, including the process of creating smiling gas and its molecular formula. There were even records of how exactly their prisoners were mutilated, as well as the number of test subjects in each case.

These were vital pieces of evidence that would be of great use if one could get their hands on them.

If Yu Feichen knew nothing about them, he would surely have been at a loss as to what to do when he saw the blaze.

However, this was not the case. As he had already gone through the materials previously during his nightly probes, he was able to memorize the location of key materials so that he could save time in the future.

Now, the fire had already been set, and the doctor must have added something to fuel the flames. The wooden cabinet was crackling and the flames were spreading out in his face. Without any attempt to avoid them, Yu Feichen took a big step forward and pulled a military jacket hung over one of the chairs. Pulling up the collar, he used the large jacket to stir up the air and fan in front of him, and as soon as the fire retreated slightly, he rushed straight in, blocking the flames out with the jacket as he quickly opened the cabinets and pulled the documents out of them.

As the flames licked the jacket, it took barely a moment for the leather jacket to burn through.

However, Yu Feichen was already done searching the cabinets and pulled the drawers on the left side of the desk open, pulled out a thick stack of documents without even looking and jumped onto the desk while holding them in his arms.

He tossed the jacket into the sea of flames while jumping off with the documents.

Behind him, the file cabinet crackled before crumbling in the flames and falling over.

Through the raging flames and smoke, Yu Feichen passed over the heavy dissecting table and made his way back to the stairway, where the Koroshans were still waiting for him. A few of them had even come forward to help.

“Go!” He said quietly.

Smoke and heat bombarded them as they rushed out of the small building together.

The outside of the building was safe for now. Yu Feichen distributed some of the less important information to them to lessen his own burden. The dwarf handed him the soldier’s submachine gun, but Yu Feichen only left three to them for protection. Most of the sick and disabled were unable to wield the guns, so it would only be dead weight for them to bring any more. Following that, he dismantled the remaining guns, chucking out the most important parts and rendering them useless.

Then, Yu Feichen took them toward the south gate. The north wind was howling through the air, chilling the mountains deeply under the night, but none of them were afraid of it.

“Head for Oak Hill. They haven’t gone far, there are still footprints in the snow,” Yu Feichen gave them simple instructions, “If you can’t catch up with them, just keep going south.”

Gerold, who stood at the front, nodded. “What about you?”

“I’m going to grab a few more things from the barracks, their maps and so on.” Yu Feichen said, “See you in Sasha.”

Gerold nodded and took Lianna’s wrist, leading the disabled prisoners on the same path where the others escaped.

The snowfall continued, covering up the blood all over the ground. The fleeing Koroshans were smart enough to have picked up any remaining weapons off the ground.

A noise emerged nearby. A soldier who had managed to survive was waiting at the doorway. He had a young appearance and his lips were pale from shock. He muttered a few words of bravado and struggled to stand up with his gun aimed at the fleeing group of people.

When Lianna heard the noise, she jerked back around.

That action caused her flaxen hair to flutter up in the snow, and her turquoise eyes were so clear and crystalline that it was astonishing. She locked eyes with the Black Badge soldier.

During this moment, her right hand was held over herself, protecting her slightly raised belly.

A woman—pregnant, with a fragile life inside of her, was the frailest and most deserving of protection in the world.

Yet at this moment, she was running for her life through the cold winds and the bodies littered on the ground.

The soldier’s hand which held the gun began trembling heavily all of a sudden.

Yu Feichen was able to watch this scene unfold through the heavy curtain of snowfall. He also noticed the Black Badge’s extremely rusty hold of his gun.

During the warring years, many of the recruits were ordinary civilians who were drafted into the army on short notice. perhaps, this man was just an ordinary man from an ordinary family just two months ago. The same two months ago, Lianna would also have been well-clothed and well-fed, living a decent life as a housewife. If they could have met then, then perhaps that boy would have shown respect to women, courtesy to a pregnant madame, and offer her directions with a polite smile.

But war and faith changed everything in the blink of an eye. The peaceful dream was shattered. Some took up guns, and others were reduced to cattle as the world lay bare its cruel nature.

The victors, unwittingly, took violence and murder for granted.

Once the madness hidden within the hearts of men peeped its head, it was no longer possible to end things respectably.

Yet at this moment, through their terrified locked gazes, their pupils quivered as did their souls, both of them seeing the truth for what it was.

The young Black Badge suddenly wailed in sorrow as he fired several shots into the snow before throwing his gun down. He too dropped down to the snow and cradled his head with his arms, his body shaking as he broke down in tears.

Yu Feichen exhaled a cold breath in the biting chill of the northern wind.

War and domination—complete and utter violence, an affair that changes everyone.

Without further thought, he watched as Gerold and the others disappeared into the snow.

After scrapping the gun thrown down by the crying soldier, Yu Feichen no longer paid him any mind and headed back into the concentration camp. He had already done what was necessary to facilitate the prisoners’ escape. The rest of the Black Badges would be handed over to the law post-war for a fair sanction; his bullets were limited.

Inside the south gate, the small building had already burned down completely. The chemicals inside stoked the fire and the smoke was suffocating. The flames burned away the snow fluttering in the air and formed a red haze in the sky. Yu Feichen flipped through the documents in his hands and found the composition and properties of smiling gas. Its conditions in high temperatures were recorded there, and fortunately, smiling gas was unstable and would denature quickly once exposed to heat.

He breathed a sigh of relief. This way, even if the tanks were damaged, it would not have too detrimental of an effect, and he still had time to go into the barracks to search for other information that may help the Koroshans in the war.

—It was his first time entering the Gates of Eternal Night, so he had no idea what the exact criteria were for the mission’s completion. He had to do everything that he could.

The fire illuminated the surroundings, and he looked toward the barracks. Suddenly, something came to mind.

Not once since the very beginning had Captain Anfield shown up. What was he up to?

Very quickly, Yu Feichen collected a pocket watch from one of the other soldiers and retrieved another two to calibrate the time. It was currently 10 p.m., two hours before the final hour of 12. There was not much time left. He had to complete everything within two hours and leave this place. Otherwise, the consequences would be unthinkable.

He immediately headed in the direction of the barracks. On the way, whenever he passed through the prisoners’ quarters, he would go in and check, thus saving the prisoners scattered elsewhere who did not participate in the events outside.

Almost all of the soldiers in the concentration camp were gone, either dead or fled far away. The only ones who remained were the guards and quartermasters. They had not killed anyone. When they saw Yu Feichen come in with a gun in hand, they were all shaking in fear. Yu Feichen said to them, “Get out of here.”

Hurriedly, all of them scrambled away.

After arriving at the barracks, Yu Feichen went into the senior colonel’s office first. Based on what he could remember, there was a lot of important information in this place—maps marking the locations of the various concentration camps, plans for the construction of larger, more efficient camps, the next war deployment, and telegrams to and from Oakvale and Xiyun.

—At first, things went smoothly as he expected.

But as he searched, he realized that something was wrong.

—Something was missing.

Plans, telegrams, there were pieces missing from all of them. Though they did not affect the whole picture, they were still important parts.

The missing parts were chosen with precision and nicked with great skill. The drawers and cabinets looked completely untouched. It was a clean job.

After searching through the files, Yu Feichen put the documents away and shut the cabinet door before walking out with an expressionless face.

He patrolled the area nearby and quickly locked in his focus on a suite diagonally opposite the senior colonel’s room. This place was clean and neatly furnished, obviously belonging to a senior officer. The charcoal fire was still burning inside, showing that the owner of this room was no good with the cold.

A coat was hung on the stand, bearing the captain’s insignia.

So, the odds were high that this may be the office of Captain Anfield, the man with long platinum blonde hair that spent half the time helping him out, and the other half adding to his problems.

Yu Feichen’s face stiffened further.

The office was empty, but the lights were still on. The tea was barely warm, bordering on cold. The man must have been gone for at least half an hour.

At the same time, Yu Feichen caught the smell of something burning in the air, which gave him a slight sense of foreboding. He followed the scent and sure enough, there were some ashes covered with soil in the flower pot on the desk.

On the other side, a telegram machine was placed on a small table by the desk. He walked over and opened up the machine. It was still faintly warm. Clearly, it had been working intensely just a while ago.

Of course, there was no need to even guess what had happened. Given that there were ashes left behind from burning paper, the key information must have been disposed of by Anfield. This man was meticulous, completely different from the likes of the senior colonel. He would not leave dangerous information behind.

So, Gu Feichen didn’t even try to search the office. He turned away from the desk, grabbing an empty briefcase along the way to store the documents. Then, he went into the suite restroom to grab a towel and wet it. In just over an hour, the fire in the south had turned into a large disaster. Smoke was harmful to the lungs when inhaled, so a wet towel might be a useful protective measure.

After he was done, he left the office.

Only the sound of the door shutting was slightly louder.

It wasn’t a necessity for him to figure out what Anfield was doing. That knowledge probably wouldn’t be of any help to him anyway.

It was just that there were still things in the concentration camp that he did not have full control over yet, and that feeling left a bad taste in his mouth.

It was 11:40 when he left, time was running out. However, fifteen minutes was enough to get from here to the south gate with his speed.

Since Anfield had the leisure to destroy the information, it meant that he was still alive and well. This man knew that he had to leave the camp before midnight, so Yu Feichen no longer paid him any mind and focused on making his way out.

The closer he reached the south, the brighter the firelight became, and the smoke was also getting heavier on his lungs. Fortunately, the snowfall dampened the effects to a range that he could deal with. The flames that spread from the two-story building had spread to the incineration tower and even reached the womens’ and childrens’ quarters. The brick houses were not very sturdy. Several of them had already collapsed amidst the flames.

He passed through the ruins and continued on. The night was silent, with only the wind and the crackling hum of the flames to be heard. The smell of blood was just as strong as the smoke; this place was hell on earth for the Koroshans, and the scene that was left now truly seemed to be on par with hell itself.

Just then, there was a tiny rumple from within the ruins!

Yu Feichen snapped back around.

The noise continued, followed by voices and a faint cry.

He rushed over the rubble in a large stride, making toward the source of the noise. After passing through a collapsed building, the first thing that caught his eye was blonde hair glowing in the firelight.

At the sound of bricks crumbling beneath his feet, the man looked up at him.

It was Anfield!

Anfield was draped in a cloak and wearing white gloves, but he was down on one knee in the rubble, trying to pull something out of the ground. Looking over, Yu Feichen saw the torso of a young girl. Her body was trembling, which meant that she was still alive. She must have been the source of the crying.

Then, there was a yelp.

Anfield looked back down and spoke as he pulled her out.

Yu Feichen had never heard him use this tone of voice before. It was a very gentle voice.

“Move a little to the left,” he said.

Yu Feichen approached them. The girl seemed to have been left behind in the barracks and did not flee alongside the others. Somehow, she had gotten stuck under the collapsing building. It was not only bricks and concrete slabs that were trapping her here, but also the interlocking steel frames.

She moved carefully out of fear of being hurt by the steel frames, crying with her eyes shut.

Yu Feichen quickly went over to Anfield’s side and swept his eyes over the intricate steel frames, picking out one of them.

Anfield looked at him again.

The moment he raised his head to look at him, Yu Feichen saw it—this man was crying.

But in the next moment, his gaze focused. What he saw earlier seemed to have been a fleeting illusion. There were no tears on Anfield’s face, there was nothing.

The dazzling firelight illuminated the young captain’s face clearly. The two of them had never faced each other in such a clear environment before, and that was when Yu Feichen realized the source of his mistake.

Under Anfield’s right eye—close to the iris—just under the base of his lashes was a small and faint mole like an old scar, resembling a teardrop that was about to roll down.

—Though, Yu Feichen had only glanced at it for an instant.

After that, he grabbed the steel frame with both hands and pulled up with all his might.

The mass that the steel frame was holding up was extremely heavy, so he could barely move it. When the charred masonry came tumbling down, the girl screamed and leaped forward, where she was caught under Anfield’s arm and was yanked out of the rubble.

Yu Feichen let go and the wreckage which had been pried up came crashing onto the ground. Anfield then held the girl by the wrist and stood up amidst the charred rubble. Yu Feichen checked his watch and met his eyes.

He had a stony gaze, and the chill in Anfield’s green eyes was biting.

—11:58. He had no time to lose.

Just then, the wind blew the smoke in their direction, causing Anfield to break out in a violent cough.

Yu Feichen sighed and covered his nose and mouth with the towel he had supposedly prepared for himself.

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Anfield’s eyes widened slightly at first, then he accepted the towel in understanding.

Then, Yu Feichen grabbed Anfield by the shoulders while Anfield held the girl’s wrist tightly. The three of them ran for their lives through the fire, the smoke, and the debris, running toward the south gate 400 meters away from them.