Apocalypse: I Raised the Ultimate Antagonist from Scratch

The door of the lower levels detention wing clicked shut with a loud, echo-filled metallic thud that reverberated down the vacant hallway.

Lu Feng stood in the quiet, dim corridor for a moment, his boots planted firmly against the cold concrete floor. The air down on this level was stale, smelling faintly of old damp stone, motor oil, and harsh chemical disinfectant. He was supposed to be conducting a routine perimeter security audit on the holding cells following the recent morning briefing, but every single step felt like carrying lead weights tied to his ankles.

He stopped directly in front of the one holding his sister.

Inside, Lu Ning sat huddled on the thin mattress of a narrow metal cot anchored to the wall. Her long hair was unkempt and matted around her pale, drawn face, and her once-clean clothes were badly stained with dust and dried grease from the lower cell blocks. Hearing the heavy footsteps halt outside her door, she jolted upright instantly. When her eyes fell on Lu Feng’s familiar silhouette standing under the light, a sudden, desperate surge of frantic energy flared across her expression.

She scrambled off the cot, throwing herself against the door with a harsh metallic clang that vibrated through the frame. Her hands reached frantically through the narrow gap between the vertical bars, trembling uncontrollably as tears instantly welled up and spilled down her hollow, unwashed cheeks.

"Brother! Brother, you came!" Lu Ning wept, her voice high-pitched, shrill, and completely frantic. "Please, talk to Commander Han! Tell them it was all a mistake! You have to get me out of here!"

Lu Feng stood three feet back from the door, his hands tucked tightly behind his back. His face was carved of cold stone, his dark eyes hollow and completely unreadable under the harsh overhead fluorescent light.

"Brother, please!" Lu Ning sobbed, her fingers clutching the cold iron bars so tightly that her knuckles turned bone-white. "Remember back home? Remember how you always protected me no matter what happened? When we were kids, whenever I broke something or caused trouble, you always took the blame for me! You spoiled me, brother! You promised mom and dad before they passed away that you would take care of me no matter what!"

Lu Feng’s jaw tightened slightly, a small muscle twitching near his cheekbone, but he did not utter a single word of comfort.

"I didn’t mean to do it!" she blabbered on hysterically, her voice cracking as she tried to force a look of pathetic innocence onto her tear-stained face. "It was Yang Jun! He instigated me! He told me if Lin Qing was out of the picture, Han Zheng would finally notice me! I was just jealous, brother! I was stupid and angry! Trying to poison that child... it was just my last mistake! My very last mistake, I swear to you! Just pull some strings, tell Han Zheng I’ll take any punishment in the kitchens or the laundry—just don’t let them lock me away forever!"

"A child, Lu Ning."

Lu Feng’s voice cut through her hysterical screaming like a frozen blade. It wasn’t loud or raised in anger, but the absolute, hollow coldness in his tone made Lu Ning freeze mid-sentence, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.

He took one slow, deliberate step forward, looking down at his younger sister through the reinforced iron bars. There was no fury in his eyes—only a profound, crushing disappointment that cut deeper than any physical blade could ever inflict.

"Five-year-old Han Ye," Lu Feng said softly, his deep voice trembling slightly with a quiet, suppressed grief. "You tried to poison a five-year-old child just to frame Lin Qing. And even now, standing in this cell, you aren’t sorry for almost taking an innocent child’s life. You’re only sorry that you got caught."

"No! Brother, listen to me—"

"I spoiled you," Lu Feng interrupted coldly, looking at her as if she were a complete stranger. "I covered for your pettiness, your arrogance, and your selfishness for years because you were my little sister. I thought you would grow up once the world fell apart around us. But you didn’t. You turned into a monster."

Lu Ning’s eyes widened in sheer horror, her lips trembling as her bloodless hands slipped slightly on the cold iron bars. "Brother..."

Without another word, Lu Feng turned sharply on his heel.

"Brother! Don’t leave me! Brother! Come back!" Lu Ning shrieked, slamming her fists against the heavy iron bars with frantic, desperate thuds as her frantic screams echoed down the corridor. "You can’t abandon me! Brother!"

Lu Feng didn’t pause for a single second. He kept his head held high, his posture rigid and straight, walking away in absolute silence as the doors locked behind him, permanently severing the emotional bond between them.

---

Stepping out into the bright light of the upper lobby, Lu Feng took a long, deep breath of the cold mountain air circulating through the primary ventilation shafts, using the physical sting to clear the suffocating emotional weight from his chest.

Channeling his frustration and disappointment directly into his duties, he immediately sought out Song Yan to re-align the security guard shifts around the lower holding level, ensuring zero vulnerabilities, unauthorized contact, or breach points.

Meanwhile, down in the Sub-Level 3 main workshop, the continuous hum of heavy industrial machinery echoed through the long bays.

Following the success of the perimeter defense against the thawed vanguard, Dr. Zhou and Lin Qing had converted the secondary engineering workshop into an active, highly streamlined assembly line.

Old Wang and several vetted Depot craftsmen were working diligently at long steel workbenches, systematically mounting regulated crimson energy stones into high-caliber kinetic rifle receivers under Dr. Zhou’s careful supervision.

"The minefield in the valley did its job during the vanguard push, but we used up a massive chunk of our explosive payload," Han Zheng remarked, walking into the noisy workshop alongside Lin Qing. He paused near a heavy wooden crate of landmines being assembled for the outer ridge. "How are we holding up on ordinance reserves for the next wave?"

Lin Qing offered a slight smile as she adjusted a precision torque wrench on an assembly press. "You can thank the thorough sweep of Block C. When Ye Lin helped us clear out Director Chen’s subterranean caches, we recovered over three tons of military-grade plastic explosives, kinetic detonators, and industrial blasting caps stored in their lower armory. Block C was stockpiling heavy ordinance for a prolonged siege against external forces. Now, it’s fueling our outer perimeter traps."

Dr. Zhou picked up a sealed glass beaker from her lab table nearby, holding up a thick, glowing amber fluid that shimmered under the bright fluorescent lights.

"Which brings us to our next major technical upgrade," Dr. Zhou said, drawing Han Zheng and Lin Qing’s full attention. "During the ridge battle, Old Wang noted that yellow-core variants absorb initial thermal hits due to their dense kinetic reflection fields. Standard energy conduits can’t break through their calcified bone armor without concentrated, multi-rifle fire."

Dr. Zhou tapped a digital display on her tablet, pulling up a complex molecular schematic of an energy dampening matrix. "I’ve synthesized a multi-phase kinetic gel compound. By coating the core receiver housing and bullet bypass in this gel, it acts as a fluid kinetic dampener. When fired, the crimson round doesn’t just superheat the projectile—it builds up a compressed kinetic shockwave directly behind the thermal burst."

Lin Qing leaned over the tablet display, looking at the structural data points approvingly. "The gel prevents the superheated energy round from scattering its thermal payload upon initial surface impact. It forces the thermal discharge to drill into a single concentrated point, punching clean through a yellow core’s kinetic reflection field on the very first shot."

"Precisely," Dr. Zhou nodded with immense satisfaction. "With our current reserves, I can produce enough multi-phase gel to upgrade twenty rifles by tomorrow morning."

---

By late afternoon, Han Zheng, Lin Qing, and the squad leaders gathered on the high outer ramparts of the Research Center to review the base’s overall defensive posture.

Down in the rocky gorge below, engineering details under Song Yan’s supervision were already embedding fresh plastic explosives deep into the cratered mountain pass, layering them with heavy acoustic lures and hidden tripwires. On the high parapets above, guards mounted with newly gel-stabilized crimson rifles stood watch at every firing port, their eyes sweeping the snow-draped horizons.

Lin Qing walked to the edge of the observation deck, looking up at the high peaks. The pale afternoon sun was piercing through the dense gray cloud cover, and distant sounds of trickling meltwater echoed down the granite cliffs. The high mountain ice was melting rapidly under the seasonal shift.

"The infected we repelled last night was just a small cluster pushed out by the initial opening of the pass," Lin Qing spoke, her voice calm, clear, and steady against the howling mountain wind. "As the thaw spreads further over the coming weeks, entire dormant regions will clear out. The real wave hasn’t hit us yet."

Han Zheng stood beside her, his hands resting on his belt, his dark eyes fixed on the horizon with cold, unwavering resolve.

"Let the ice melt," Han Zheng declared quietly, his voice carrying absolute authority across the freezing deck. "We have the food, the fortress, and the firepower. No matter how many waves come down that pass, they won’t break this wall."

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