MERIDIAN OF THE DAMNED

Ch 10. A New Dawn in the Merchant District

"Cough! Cough! Ugh... fuck, I almost drowned," Wu Chen groaned, coughing up the filthy sewer water that had filled his lungs.

He had washed up along the edge of a rocky canal that flowed directly into the Merchant District. His entire body was covered in dark blue-black bruises, his broken ribs shifting painfully every time he drew breath, while the remaining poison in his body caused his consciousness to constantly drift in and out.

"B-Big Brother! Are you awake? You're not dead..." Xiao Yu's crying voice came from beside him.

The little girl was soaked to the bone and trembling violently. With what little strength she had left, she had apparently managed to drag Wu Chen out of the rushing canal using a floating wooden merchant's board, placing him on the dry ground of an empty logistics dock.

"Yeah, you're noisy, kid. Stop crying so much. You're making my head hurt even more," Wu Chen rasped, trying to sit up against a stack of wet cargo crates.

He stared at his thin, trembling palm.

"Fuck... Li Jian Nan's body really is a wreck after that fight with Lieutenant Zhao."

"B-Big Brother... did we... did we make it through the iron gate?" Xiao Yu asked, staring around the dock with her eyes wide.

"Yeah. We're in the Merchant District now," Wu Chen replied, squinting through the thick blur still lingering around the edges of his vision.

However, the Merchant District before them was far from what Xiao Yu had imagined.

The supposedly magnificent and secure district was now in complete chaos. Silk and spice shops that had once lined the dockside streets in neat rows had been reduced to wreckage. Their doors had been forcibly smashed open, and everything inside had been looted.

Fragments of expensive porcelain littered the marble-paved streets, mixed with piles of wasted grain.

"Why... why is it such a mess here too, Big Brother?" Xiao Yu whispered fearfully, edging closer to Wu Chen. "I thought this was where all the rich people lived safely..."

Wu Chen gave a cynical laugh, immediately aggravating the unbearable pain in his broken ribs.

"Safe, my ass, kid. Wherever fear takes hold, the rules disappear immediately. Even civilized rich people will turn into animals worse than the zombies outside when their lives are threatened. That's called the law of the jungle."

Wu Chen's eyes swept across the chaotic streets.

Instead of feeling afraid, his ruthless mafia instincts formed a faint smile behind his pale face.

"But for me... an environment without laws like this is actually pretty welcoming," Wu Chen murmured, a wild glint returning to his clouded eyes. "This is an ownerless concrete jungle. It's exactly the kind of environment I knew in my old world. In a place like this, I can start building a new power base from scratch."

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed from a passageway at the dockside intersection.

"Hey! Search the eastern dock canal!" a hoarse voice shouted from a distance. "We just received a report that the canal water was violently disturbed! It must be a refugee rat from the Common's District who escaped through the waterways!"

"Prepare your weapons! Anyone who looks dirty or suspicious, incapacitate them immediately!" another voice called out firmly.

"Shit, a private patrol or an association's mercenaries," Wu Chen muttered, immediately shifting into a defensive stance. "We need to find somewhere safe to hide before they find us covered in blood and sewer filth."

"B-Big Brother... my legs are weak... I can't run anymore," Xiao Yu whimpered, her body trembling violently from hypothermia after being submerged in the filthy water for so long.

"Hold onto my shoulder, Xiao Yu. We have to move now!" Wu Chen ordered sharply.

Supporting Xiao Yu with one arm, Wu Chen dragged his leaden legs forward. Every step sent waves of burning pain through his chest from his broken ribs. The fever coursing through his body continued to worsen, making his head throb violently.

"System... how much time do I have left, damn it?" Wu Chen whispered hoarsely inside his mind.

The System gave no audible response, but a blue holographic screen suddenly flickered violently before his increasingly blurred eyes.

[SYSTEM WARNING: INFECTION SPREADING RAPIDLY TO THE MERIDIAN NUCLEUS.]

[LIFESPAN COUNTDOWN ACTIVE...]

Wu Chen continued forcing his body down the deserted dockside passage, searching for a large building with strong enough defenses to serve as a hiding place.

But his footsteps suddenly stopped in front of a magnificent and expansive white marble building.

Above its entrance hung a large sign made of sturdy oak, exquisitely carved and coated in gold:

"Tingzhou Trade Association"

Creeeak...

The massive oak gate suddenly swung wide open from the inside before Wu Chen could turn away.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

A dozen guards wearing thick black leather armor and steel breastplates rushed out, immediately surrounding Wu Chen and Xiao Yu in the middle of the street. Each of them held a long steel spear, its sharpened tip gleaming beneath the first rays of dawn.

Shhk!

The dozen steel spearheads were instantly aimed directly at Wu Chen's neck, stopping only a few millimeters from his filthy skin.

"Stop! Don't move an inch!" the head guard barked in a thunderous voice, staring at Wu Chen with disgust. "Who are you?! You're filthy, you stink of sewage, and your body is covered in fresh bloody wounds! You must be plague-carrying wild refugees from the Common's District who managed to escape!"

"Big Brother...!" Xiao Yu cried in fear, immediately curling up behind Wu Chen's legs and clinging tightly to him.

Wu Chen stared coldly at the dozen spearheads aimed at his neck.

He tried to raise his trembling right hand to show that he was unarmed, but at that exact moment, his System screen suddenly flashed bright red with an intense warning, covering his increasingly darkening field of vision.

[SYSTEM: LIFESPAN REMAINING: 48 HOURS.]

[WARNING: CRITICAL STAGE REACHED. FIND PURIFICATION INGREDIENTS IMMEDIATELY TO UNLOCK MERIDIAN OR FACE TERMINAL ROT.]

"Shit..." Wu Chen whispered hoarsely, a cold, sarcastic smile curling across his lips as he faced the guards' spearheads.

"My time... really is down to two days."