Apocalypse: Last Traveler

"Can you also turn invisible?"

Lu Xi'an got out of the car and glanced at the roof.

It seemed because she saw the person coming out of the cornfield, Chai Xin was a bit scared and used her ability to disguise and hide herself again.

But this time her ability wasn't working well; her clothes were still visible, hanging loosely and looking like a ghost floating on the car roof.

This sight could be a modern urban legend in the old world.

Lu Xi'an sighed inwardly, pointing the gun at the strange, hunchbacked old man — from his aged appearance and posture, Lu Xi'an was sure he was an old man — and asked, "Why can you turn invisible?"

The old man shrank his neck and raised his hands a little higher, "Can, can, can you not, not, not point the gun at me?"

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei slightly lowered the muzzles of their guns, moving them away from the old man.

However, if the old man made any suspicious moves, they could still quickly raise the guns and aim at him.

Even so, the old man felt somewhat relieved and no longer stuttered, "This is, is better…This is better… I'm just an old man, never seen a gun before... Please don't point it at me.

"If I had known you had guns, I wouldn't have dared to get up from the ground. Being stepped on a few times is nothing, having lived for so many years, it's not like I haven't been stepped on before."

Lu Xi'an asked, "Who stepped on you?"

The old man scratched his head, the roots on his head rustling, "I can't remember, and I didn't know them, sigh... I'm really old, my mind's not working well. Anyway, it wasn't that many.

"Ever since that strange rain, all the people here disappeared, and not many from outside came, our village is too remote, ordinary people wouldn't come."

"Strange rain?"

Lu Xi'an caught the key point in the old man's words.

"Yes, there was a strange rain, it was a few years after the cold disaster, how many years exactly? I can't recall..."

The old man scratched his head again, nearly pulling off a slightly thin tree root on the edge, "It was really hard back then, the land became hard to cultivate, the house wasn't warm, we could only survive on relief from the county.

"Couldn't watch TV, no signal on mobile phones, to know anything, had to listen to the radio."

Lu Xi'an said, "Focus on the main point. What's the deal with the strange rain?"

"Oh... the main point...strange rain, almost forgot..."

The old man was muddled, his thoughts forcibly brought back by Lu Xi'an, "Anyway, there was this strange rain, and then the people here got messed up.

"Everyone started having skin breakouts and rotting, dying in pain. Those hiding indoors who didn't get caught in it quickly ran away."

Lu Xi'an suddenly thought of the Fungus Stone wrapped in wolf skin on the car.

Reflecting on the content from the X-17 Strain Plan Practical Manual, his heart skipped a beat.

The Type D-1 strain increases in concentration to become the D-type strain.

Chai Xin relied on the Fungus Stone to transform from a Type D-1 Neo-Human to a Type D Neo-Human, while other Type D-1 Neo-Humans who encountered the Fungus Stone ended up with skin ulcers and died from the pain.

The symptoms of the people the old man mentioned were the same as those who touched the Fungus Stone.

The ability the old man had was also somewhat like Chai Xin's.

Was that strange rain the old man mentioned similar to the Fungus Stone in attributes, containing similar components?

Could the D-type strain manifest as a Fungus Stone or a strange rain?

"What color was that strange rain?"

Lu Xi'an recalled the stone uncovered from the wolf skin and asked.

But the old man scratched the tree roots in confusion and said, "Color? I can't remember... sigh, I'm old, can't recall..."

Lu Xi'an: "..."

Forget it; let's not worry about things from back then, this old man seems unable to remember.

Anyway, something significant must have happened in Jianshan City back then, resulting in consequences similar to the Fungus Stone's descent.

And now, the old man's situation also seemed related to the Fungus Stone — or rather, the strange rain back then — incorporating characteristics of those like Chai Xin and others who encountered the Fungus Stone.

"Did you experience that strange rain too?"

Lu Xi'an asked.

"Yeah... wait, let me think..."

The old man was scratching his tree roots again, "I got caught in the rain. It was a big rain, the radio said... most parts of Jianshan City had it.

"I wasn't here at the time, I was on the mountaintop...

"Oh, I remember. If you go west past East Mountain County, it's on the top of East Mountain.

"Life was really hard back then, many people went to jump off the cliff at East Mountain's top, so people were recruited to keep watch there, and I signed up.

"I was on the mountain when it rained, got soaked, and my whole body rotted. Look, these sores are still here, see —"

As he spoke, his memory seemed to return a lot, becoming more spirited, and he forgot to keep his hands raised, extending his arm to show Lu Xi'an.

Indeed, his arm was covered in sores, and on other parts of his body as well, there were quite a few.

It's just that his bark-like aged skin, with its yellow-black color, also covered the sores' shapes, making them hard to see unless examined closely.

Lu Xi'an took one or two glances and then withdrew his gaze, continuing to ask, "And then?"

"And then..."

The old man fell into thought, after a long while he scratched the tree root and said, "Then I got hit by something and fell into a pit, and then I passed out.

"When I woke up later, the rain had stopped. I came down from the mountain, returned to the village, and everyone was gone.

"Later, I lived here alone for many years, farming and eating by myself.

"Then some unknown people came... Oh, right, right, they were the first people I encountered after the strange rain, came and rummaged everywhere, even with guns, picking my corn in the field.

"I got a bit scared, so I hid under a tree and accidentally turned invisible."

"..."

Lu Xi'an asked, "You accidentally turned invisible, what's the connection with the strange rain?"

The old man scratched the tree roots, "I don't know... I just feel there's a connection."

Alright then...

Lu Xi'an thought the old man's feeling might be accurate. Although he couldn't clearly explain, it seemed indeed related to the strange rain back then.

Further questioning wouldn't clarify it, so Lu Xi'an decided to stop probing into it and asked about the main business, "Is there any trick to invisibility? Can you explain it?"

"A trick..."

The old man scratched his head in thought and after a long time said, "I can't explain it clearly. It should be... just be scared more often?

"Anyway, I couldn't do it myself before, every time someone came, I'd get scared and lie under the tree, then no one could see me.

"Fortunately, those people came here and always went to pick and eat my corn, and after eating, they died.

"After being scared a lot, I gradually learned to turn invisible myself. Didn't the little girl just now also do it?"

He spoke while flashing a friendly smile at Chai Xin on the car roof, "Don't be afraid, young lady, I'm not a bad person. Want some corn to eat? I can pick some for you."