Standing over the Violent Ape King’s body, Shen Cong attempted social interaction. It did not come naturally.
He was already suppressing his threat instincts as hard as he could manage, and hard as he could manage wasn’t the same as completely. The people in front of him were armed. Their ammunition was bone-gold — rounds ground from Activity cores — and theoretical analysis said that kind of projectile, at close range, would go through his armor and through him.
They had the means to kill him. That was a fact he couldn’t think past without deliberate effort.
The counter-analysis helped. His reaction speed exceeded bullet velocity at short range; the Half-Activated Armor could absorb a small number of bone-gold hits without failing; getting back inside Vajra required approximately 0.1 seconds. From inside Vajra he could accelerate away or, if the situation required, drive directly through them.
He’d also taken several bone-gold rounds off Li Aiping during the pat-down. They were in his handgun now.
Commander Zhu’s group had no armor. At eight-bull strength, with the initiative and the hardware he currently held, Shen Cong believed he could eliminate all of them without taking meaningful damage if he chose to. He’d run the engagement scenario twice in the past thirty seconds.
If evolved people were classified on the same seven-tier scale as evolved beasts, he’d sit somewhere in the near-Heavyweight bracket. His physical capability combined with his tactical intelligence could produce a level of destruction comparable to the Ape King he’d just killed. The difference was that the Ape King was an animal — sustained firepower could wear it down eventually. Shen Cong was a person with access to guerrilla tactics, and extracting him from a running engagement would cost the garrison badly.
This was what gave him the composure to stand here and negotiate.
Commander Zhu, clearly unaware of any of this analysis, was managing the situation with the practiced warmth of someone who’d done a lot of survivor intake.
“Comrade Hu Ge, the worst of this will pass eventually. Being in Hefei means you don’t have to carry everything alone anymore.” He glanced at the ruins around them. “It’s getting late and the noise from this fight may attract more threats. Shall we bring the Ape King’s body and continue the conversation back at camp?”
Shen Cong didn’t move his feet. “How does the garrison handle an iron person who arrives?”
“Standard procedure is direct assignment to the Independent Motor Battalion. We currently have twenty-eight iron people — they receive the garrison’s best treatment. You have my word.”
“Direct assignment to the Motor Battalion — full militarized management?” The refusal was already in his voice. “Commander Zhu, does assignment to the Motor Battalion mean my vehicle and cargo are surrendered to the garrison?”
A brief pause. “Under the wartime regulations the provincial garrison has issued, yes — all arriving survivors are required to contribute resources to the collective. Comrade Hu Ge, these are exceptional circumstances. Human population has fallen by ninety percent. Our civilization and what remains of our territory are under threats without precedent. These measures exist because there’s no alternative.”
“I understand the reasoning,” Shen Cong said. “I cannot accept the terms. My vehicle and I share a life-bond. My life is entirely my own to govern. That is not negotiable.”
Commander Zhu nodded slowly. “I understand your position. We have a difference of views. But it’s night, we’ve just had a major engagement, and the noise may draw larger threats. Why don’t we clean up here, return to camp together, and continue the discussion properly? What do you think?”
“The garrison wore it down. I killed it. The bone-gold material stays with me. The body is yours. We’re even.”
“We can discuss allocation and assignment once we’re back at camp—”
The impatience in Commander Zhu’s voice was small, brief, and probably involuntary.
It landed on Shen Cong like a confirmation.
He’s managing me. There’s already a plan and I’m not in it. The garrison has absolute control inside their perimeter. His friendliness has been a tactic from the first word.
He was not going to the Mingfa Camp.
“I won’t be going to Mingfa Camp. Take the body — I’ll return to Feidong County. That area is my base of operations.” He kept his voice even. “I’m willing to work with the garrison. I will not accept assignment to any unit. I will also not be maneuvered against — my combat capability exceeds every evolved person in your camp, and I have no interest in discovering whether that becomes relevant.” He looked at Li Aiping, who had been standing slightly to one side throughout this exchange, unable to find an opening. “She can serve as a liaison. Joint hunting operations, intelligence sharing, resource exchange — those are the terms of cooperation I’m offering. Take it back and discuss it.”
Before anyone could respond, he moved.
He crossed to the Ape King’s body, pulled every javelin free in a single continuous motion, was back at Vajra and inside with the external armor sealed before the sequence had registered as complete. The entire thing took under two seconds.
The demonstration was deliberate. Words were one thing. Watching someone move like that in person was another category of information.
Engine on. Throttle down.
Vajra rolled east toward Feidong County.
He kept his eyes on the camera feeds the entire way. The moment anyone behind him made a move toward their vehicles with intent, he’d decided, he would turn around and remove the problem permanently, take the iron person vehicles, and disappear.
Commander Zhu’s group didn’t move. He watched them in the rear camera — a brief huddle, some words exchanged, heads turning to watch Vajra’s taillights. Then they turned back to the considerably more straightforward problem of moving several tons of dead ape.
Li Aiping stood at the roadside longer than the others. She watched until Vajra’s lights disappeared, then joined the work.
The night lay still and dark over what remained of Hefei.
Vajra followed its own tracks back to the Feidong County ruins.
He’d made the call the moment he sensed the gap between what Commander Zhu was saying and what Commander Zhu was thinking. When the fundamental terms were irreconcilable — when accepting their framework meant surrendering the one variable he could never surrender — argument was a waste of time. The garrison wanted full integration. He needed full independence. There was no position between those two that satisfied both.
Cooperate with them. Hope they accept cooperation and don’t try to force the issue. Anyone who moves against me answers for it with their life.
In the armored personnel carrier heading back toward Mingfa Camp, the Violent Ape King’s body divided into three sections across three vehicles, Commander Zhu sat next to Li Aiping and asked her about the man who had just driven away.
She edited her account — the search, the chain, the six hours of captivity all quietly omitted — and arrived at her honest assessment: “I kept feeling like something was off with him, psychologically. He’s convinced at all times that someone is planning something against him. His entire approach to everything was about how to neutralize threats before they developed and how to make contact with the garrison while keeping himself completely safe.”
A mutant in the back seat leaned forward. “So he’s got a persecution complex? Paranoid delusions?”
“Something like that,” Li Aiping said.
Commander Zhu was quiet for a moment, working through it. “I’ll put the Hu Ge situation on the agenda for tonight’s command meeting. Little Li, you may need to attend — it’ll run late.”
“Yes, sir.”
The conversation lapsed. After a while Commander Zhu sighed — a tired sound, carrying more weight than the immediate situation.
“White Cat Squad is down to one survivor. The camp just took a Violent Ape assault with serious casualties. A nuclear detonation out of Nanjing today.” He shook his head. “The situation keeps getting worse. We need to be thinking about broader coalition-building — united front work. This is a question of human survival now, not just garrison management.”
(End of Chapter 142)