Chapter 4 — I Built an Empire in the Wasteland

Bạt Phong did not take Yên Nhi straight to the Black Market. He clearly understood that place was not safe for a girl who had just spent seven years in detention, without documents, without anyone knowing, and especially with a secret that the machine voice in the shelter had called a "test sample". If someone in the Black Market saw her, rumors would spread quickly, and people like Lôi Quang Việt certainly wouldn't miss the opportunity to profit from a weak, helpless girl.

He built a temporary shelter with an old tarpaulin right near the tunnel door, hidden behind a collapsed wall, enough to block the sun and dew during the first night. Yên Nhi sat with her back against the wall, wrapped in an insulating blanket taken from the cellar, her eyes following Bạt Phong's every move as he built a small fire with a few scraps of wood he picked up.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Yên Nhi asked, her voice much steadier than a few hours ago. "You don't even know who I am, where I came from, why I was locked in that... compartment," Bạt Phong paused for a moment, then continued to blow fire. "I don't really know. But I know one thing: no one deserves to be locked in the dark for seven years, no matter who they are." He looked up at her. "Besides, you didn't do anything to me. If there's anything scary here, it's probably the people who locked you up, not you."

Yên Nhi was silent for a moment, her eyes looking at the small flickering fire, as if trying to find warmth not only for her body but also for her empty mind. "I keep remembering... there was a face. A man, older, wearing glasses, who used to pat my head." She frowned and tried to search further, but the memory vanished as soon as she tried to grasp it. "But that's it. Everything else is... blank."

"Slowly," Bạt Phong said, his voice gentle. "Perhaps your memory will return gradually, when you get better."

That night, Bạt Phong did not sleep much. He sat guard next to the fire, holding a dagger in one hand, his eyes vigilantly looking out into the darkness around him, his ears listening for any suspicious noises. He knew that in Phế Thổ, night was always the most dangerous time - not only because mutated wild animals prowled around hunting, but also because gangs of robbers often chose the dark night to strike.

The next morning, when pale light began to spread through the dust clouds, Bạt Phong decided to return to the shelter to investigate further, this time bringing Yên Nhi along because he did not dare leave her alone outside. She felt much better after a night of rest, although her walking was still a bit unsteady.

They returned to the circular room with the control panel and empty cylinder. This time, with daylight filtering through the cellar door and a more alert mind, Bạt Phong was able to observe the entire room more closely. He discovered a small door in the corner of the room, leading into a storage room that he had missed before.

Inside the warehouse were rows of neatly arranged metal cabinets, most of which were locked by electronic mechanisms that had lost power so they can be opened manually. Bac Phong checked each cabinet in turn. The first cabinet contains several military uniforms that had rotted over time. The second cabinet contained a weapons rack, on which were still three strangely designed rifles, different from the old guns he had seen people use in Phế Thổ - the gun bodies were made of lightweight composite material, with a small blue light slit along the barrel, probably an energy indicator.

"This is an energy gun," Yên Nhi suddenly spoke up, startling Bạt Phong and turning to look at her. She was standing next to him, her eyes glued to the gun, her expression as surprised as his. "I... how did I know that?"

"Do you remember something?" Bạt Phong asked, his voice full of hope.

Yên Nhi shook her head, looking confused. "It's not that I remember it. It's just that... when I look at it, I naturally know how it works, how to charge it, how to shoot it. It's like an instinct." She gently touched the butt of the gun, her finger skimming a small button near the trigger with strange proficiency, causing the blue light slit along the barrel to glow vividly. "I guess... I was trained, or exposed to a lot of these things, before..." She trailed off, not knowing how to express the seven years of captivity of which she had no memory.

Bạt Phong nodded, silently remembering that detail. Perhaps Yên Nhi was directly related to the organization that created this place, not simply a random kidnapped victim. He continued to open the remaining cabinets, finding more ammunition for the energy gun, a few small communication devices with dead batteries, and in the last cabinet, something that stunned both of them: two full-body powered armor suits, dark gray in color, the joints reinforced with thick metal, with a small control panel attached to the armor's wrists.

"Second generation tactical powered armor." Yên Nhi blurted it out again, then surprised herself because the knowledge suddenly poured out from somewhere in her subconscious. "Enhanced muscle strength three times greater than normal, with built-in anti-radiation armor, allowing the wearer to move in highly contaminated areas without the need for separate protective equipment."

Bạt Phong stood silently looking at the armor, then looked at Yên Nhi, a feeling of both excitement and insecurity arose in his heart. If what she says is true, this armor can completely change the way he survives in Phế Thổ - no longer afraid of radioactive lands, no longer trembling before Lôi Quang Việt's three thugs. But at the same time, possessing advanced military technology like this also means that he is entering a world that is much more dangerous than he has ever known.

"What should we do with these?" Bạt Phong asked, mostly asking himself rather than asking Yên Nhi.

"I don't know for sure," Yên Nhi replied, her voice thoughtful. "But I think... if someone had built this place and stored such precious things, they certainly wouldn't have given up so easily knowing it still existed. And maybe, they would also come back to find me."

Her words made the atmosphere in the room calm down. Bạt Phong looked at her and noticed a vague but very real fear in Yên Nhi's eyes, even though she herself did not clearly understand what she was afraid of. He stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder, an awkward but sincere gesture of reassurance.

"Whoever they are, I won't let them take you back to that compartment again," he said, his voice stronger than he expected. "We're going to find a way to protect this place, protect ourselves. If the technology here can help us do that, then I think we should take advantage of it." Yên Nhi looked at him for a long moment, then nodded slightly, her eyes gradually gaining a bit more determination that she had never seen before. The two spent the rest of the morning inventorying the entire warehouse, memorizing the location of each item, careful not to move anything out of the shelter in a hurry — both of them implicitly understanding that if anyone was watching this area, bringing high-tech scrap out in the open would only make things more dangerous.

By mid-afternoon, Bạt Phong couldn't contain his curiosity and decided to try wearing a powered armor to see what it would look like. He took off his outer layer of clothing and crawled into the open armor frame like an empty metal shell, the joints automatically closed around his limbs with a dry "click" sound. The small control panel on her wrist lit up, displaying a few lines of flashing text that Bạt Phong couldn't fully understand, but Yên Nhi standing next to her read it clearly as if it were her native language.

"You need to place your palm on the chest sensor, so it can recognize the biometrics," she instructed, her voice so confident that she surprised herself. Bạt Phong did so, and immediately the armor vibrated slightly, the indicator light on his wrist changed from yellow to green.

"Try moving your hand," Yên Nhi continued.

Bạt Phong extended his hand forward, and he clearly felt a gentle push that supported every muscle movement, causing his arm to swing out much more gently than his actual strength. He tried to grab a heavy metal table nearby, which needed two people to carry, and lifted it up with just one hand as if it were just an empty plastic chair. That feeling was both strange and overwhelming, as if his body had just been given a power that did not belong to him.

"Unbelievable," he muttered, setting the table down, his heart pounding with both excitement and shyness. For the first time in seven years of living in constant fear of those stronger than him, he feels the feeling of true power in his hands — even if it's just borrowed from an old suit of armor from a fallen era.

He took off the armor after a few minutes of testing, carefully putting it back in the closet, telling himself he would have plenty of time to get used to it later, when the situation was more stable. Now, the most important thing is to bring Yên Nhi to a safe place and find a way to build a new life for both of them.

Before leaving the bunker in the afternoon, Bạt Phong stopped for a moment in front of the locked chest he had seen yesterday, below the main control panel. Yên Nhi walked over to stand next to him, looking at the chest with a strange feeling rising in her heart, as if something inside was calling her, although she couldn't explain why.

"We'll open it, when we have the tools," Bạt Phong said, as a promise to himself and the girl standing next to him. The two left the shelter as the daylight began to fade, carrying with them unanswered questions, but also a new ray of hope that neither of them dared to think of just two days before.