Mozi Fort was the largest survivor base in the Kurt Empire, with a population of millions. It boasted the most complete infrastructure, the tightest defense, as well as farmlands, factories, and food supplies, allowing those who entered to lead a life as peaceful as in the past.
It was no exaggeration to say that Mozi Fort was the last pure land of the Kurt Empire, but to reach it, one must traverse a literal hell. Outside the secure base of Mozi Fort, countless infected wandered about, eyeing the soldiers guarding the walls as if they were chunks of tender meat. The ravenous gaze was bone-chilling.
Since the establishment of the base, there were only outgoing vehicles, never returning ones. The ground troops and mecha troops sent by the military to rescue civilians all disappeared without a trace. One could easily guess that they must have fallen somewhere along the way. The military liaison officer urged survivors daily through the radio to seek refuge in major bases and not to remain alone in abandoned cities, but the number of those who reached safety was few.
Since the infected evolved to levels five and six and sprouted wings, no one could return alive. No matter if they were in a hovercar or an airship, none could escape the pursuit of the high-level infected. Recently, even the military's flying ships had to be on guard against high-level infected tearing through the airlock and entering the cockpit. They were shockingly destructive and omnipresent.
The originally peaceful Mozi Fort base was becoming increasingly unsafe. One day, a soldier on the city walls, wearing smart glasses, conducted a routine observation of the surroundings. The level-five metallic infected from yesterday seemed to be gone; a level-six infected appeared in the infected nest on the east side, but it was unclear whether it had special abilities; oh my God! The female level-five infected was pregnant! Her belly was swollen!
The soldier hurriedly wrote this situation into the report and sent it to his superior. The fact that infected could mate and reproduce was more terrifying than any news! They were originally a large-scale communal species, and if they had not lost their reproductive ability, they could recreate a more massive population in a matter of moments. When would the army be able to completely eliminate them? In a hundred years? Two hundred years? Or perhaps never?
Thinking of this, the soldier couldn't help but reveal a look of despair, but he did not forget his duty. After a moment's silent breath, he continued observing the infected around him, then noticed an unusual situation again.
"Charles, is the report you sent me true?" His superior ran up the wall in quick steps, breaking out in a sweat over a short distance, not from exertion, but from fright.
"Yes," the soldier slowly adjusted the focus of his glasses and whispered, "I'll tell you about that later. There's still a situation below."
"How can such a big matter be left for later? Show me where that pregnant infected is!" The superior also put on smart glasses and searched for the infected below through the long-range function. But their numbers were simply too many, finding a pregnant female was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
"Captain, look at the nine o'clock position, look! Isn't that a survivor? My God, how could he be there? I didn't notice any vehicles approaching! What is he doing? Walking over? No, no, no, he'll be torn to shreds by the infected, quickly notify the mobile team to go down and rescue him!" Charles shouted loudly.
The captain also noticed the man who appeared inexplicably among the infected, but he did not call the mobile team. First, he was unsure if the man was truly human, though he looked like one; secondly, the way the man appeared was too peculiar, making him wary.
The reason Mozi Fort base was established on the plain was two-fold: to kill infected en masse and to occupy fertile farmland for survivors to cultivate. Standing on the several hundred-meter-high city wall, everything below was visible. If survivors arrived here, the scouts could not have failed to notice their vehicles, but the man came on foot and was exposed to the sight of countless infected without being attacked, which was absolutely abnormal!
"Hold your horses, let's see the situation first!" The captain chided.
"What else is there to see? That man's appearance is perfectly normal; he's clearly not an infected." Charles said anxiously.
"How can you be sure this isn't the end evolution of the infected? What if their appearance is closer to humans the higher their level? Don't you see? This person is completely unaffected by the infected, and the infected's nest is right around the plain!" The captain questioned sternly.
Charles looked at the man with an upright appearance, then at the infected hiding in the nest and not moving out, and was speechless.
Casio's heart was filled with bitterness. He knew Qi Ze wanted to use him as bait, but he didn't know how difficult it was to be bait. Qi Ze had actually made him wear a robe and head straight for Mozi Fort. After penetrating deeply enough, he was to remove the robe and attract all the infected around him. What kind of situation was this? It was too terrifying.
When he heard of the plan, the usually polite and graceful Prince Casio immediately jumped up and cursed a lot. But when Qi Ze spoke, he quieted down, "I agree that you can take Ball-Ball with you. If you don't trust me and Junyu, you should trust Ball-Ball, right?"
Thus, Prince Casio appeared on the plains of Mozi Fort, holding a large jar in his arms, with a nest of infected built of dirt a kilometer away, like the ant hills. He looked up at the cannon-filled city wall, showing a bitter smile, then resolutely took off his robe to let the infected discover him.
The robe draped over his arm, the residual confusion effect delayed the infected from immediately noticing his presence. But gradually, some infected twitched their noses and approached, their eyes full of murderous intent.
"Ball-Ball, your master is too heartless and unreliable; I can only rely on you! Ball-Ball, if I can go back alive, I'll definitely hold you to sleep every day." Casio, trembling, pulled out a fist-sized black crystal from his pants pocket and threw it into the jar as instructed by Qi Ze.
Ball-Ball immediately hugged the black crystal with its tentacles and greedily absorbed it. A vast and dense aura of magic gushed out of the jar's mouth, combined with Casio's identity as a dark ability user, making them two pieces of tender meat that had dropped into the wolf's den, attracting countless covetous gazes.
Infected from miles around swarmed in, among them, high-level infected at levels five and six.
Charles, who had thought Casio was surely not human, was stunned, stammering, "C-Captain, he is human! He's been discovered! We have to go and save him quickly!"
"Calling Command Center! Calling Command Center! A survivor has been spotted at the nine o'clock direction outside the city gate. He has been surrounded, requesting the mobile force to rescue immediately!" The captain had already opened the communicator to report the situation outside. But both he and Charles knew that the survivor would not survive. Before the mobile force could arrive, he would be devoured by tens of thousands of infected, leaving not even a scrap of bone.
They've seen the same tragic scenes too many times. Other than calling for rescue forces and then helplessly watching the tragedy unfold, they could do almost nothing.
High-level ability users, mobile forces, fleets, gods... whoever you are... please, you must save my fellow humans! Charles prayed bitterly, then took off his glasses, bowed his head, and dared not look again. He was too clear about what was about to happen.
The captain was obviously a little stronger mentally. Though he felt sorry, he always kept an eye on the man's situation, then witnessed a miraculous scene.
Vines suddenly sprouted around the man. They grew thicker from thin and multiplied from few to many. In a short few seconds, they covered dozens of kilometers. From the city wall, the scene could only be described as spectacular. In an instant, the area where the man was became a sea of vines, with a range of deep and light purples in sight, beautiful and eye-catching. They continued to expand further, and the flowers at the top of the vines could swallow a high-level infected in one go, while the lower-level infected were buried at the base of the vines, becoming nutrients for them.
The man dared not move, hunched his shoulders, tiptoed, and held his ground in his little patch. A chubby blob crawled out of the large jar he was holding. Seeing no living beings around, it was a bit unhappy. It wiggled its fat butt and went to places not yet touched by the vines to begin a massacre of the infected.
Its attack method wasn't as domineering as the vines, sweeping through in one motion, but rather it would grab one infected, and use its tentacles to suck out the flesh and blood. Its body seemed very fragile, always having its tentacles torn off by the infected's sharp claws and flesh ripped away, but this did not weaken its attack power; it made it even more terrifying. The limbs and flesh that fell to the ground would immediately develop into new blobs, quickly penetrating the bodies of the infected and draining them into empty shells.
At the periphery of the purple sea, countless empty shells piled up. These two great weapons cleared all the infected on the west side of the Mozi Fort base, and even destroyed the nests. And this had only taken a dozen minutes.
Charles and the captain simply could not believe their eyes, but they had to. The blob had become even larger, moving like a small mountain. It crawled into the relatively small jar, disappearing without a trace as if really stuffed inside. The man picked up the jar, patted it gently a couple of times, with a very gentle expression, while the vines under his feet were all drilling into the ground, leaving a large area of grass covered with ashes.
"Did you record that scene?" The captain came to his senses.
"I, I forgot!" Charles was agitated, "That man is definitely a 5S-level plant ability user! No wonder he was able to walk to Mozi Fort, he has that capability! If he wanted, he could clear all the infected outside! Did you see the monster he keeps? Too cool! Who is that man? Oh! He's coming, he's coming over, I'll go open the gate for him!"
Charles forgot his duty as a scout and quickly rushed to the city gate. Other soldiers who had seen the same spectacle also left their posts, ready to welcome this superhero. The captain chased after him, scolding a few words, but his own steps were faster, quickly overtaking Charles and running ahead. He had to see the expert with his own eyes. With him, Mozi Fort didn't even need to activate the protective barrier; just plant a field of vines.
Casio did not come to the protective barrier as the soldiers expected, but stood still and waved at a distant hill. Without a doubt, his companions were still behind, and he had come to pave the way. A scout shot the scene and sent it to the base's upper echelons. After seeing the video, the commanding officer personally came to greet them. They stood inside the protective barrier, gazing at the expert with reverence.
Feng and Leo jumped down from the roof of the car, speaking in awe, "We can enter the city now. All the infected on the west side have been cleared."
As they spoke, a high-level spatial infected suddenly teleported above them, its sharp claws piercing for Yan Junyu's heart. Yan Junyu raised his hand slightly and threw out a vine, piercing through its abdomen. Qi Ze pulled out a long black knife, stabbing through its back, and the blade flashed red, turning the infected into ashes, faster than Yan Junyu's vine by a few seconds.
"This knife feels familiar," Yan Junyu carefully looked at it for a moment.
"It's made from the remains of the previous immortal gu, with strong blood-sucking abilities. Still in its nascent form, it needs further refinement." Qi Ze wiped the ashes off the blade. If in the Qianyuan Continent, such a knife would've been branded as a demon sword and then sealed by some righteous powerful being. But in the Black Eye Galaxy, it could play its unique role.
Qi Ze was satisfied with its power after the first test. In the future, he would continue to refine it to become a divine weapon that could liquidate blood without a trace. Whether a demon sword or a monster sword, the name actually sounded quite good.
"Good sword! Can I try it?" Yan Junyu immediately took a liking to the knife.
"It's for you," Qi Ze smiled at him flirtatiously, earning a breath-taking kiss.
Feng and Leo waited until the two had had enough of kissing before reminding them, "We can start, they're still waiting for us." The other team members, leaning out of the car windows, gazed at the two with reverence. Such power could allow them to swagger anywhere. The plains of Mozi Fort, which were hell for ordinary people, posed no danger to them at all. To be able to travel with them was indeed lucky, as Leo had said.
Yan Junyu got into the car first, holding the teenager on his lap, ignoring the spare seats even if there were plenty available. Qi Ze initially struggled a few times but didn't dare to move after being threatened by a hard stick-like object.
"General Yan, you didn't even get out just now, where did those vines come from? Can you still control them from such a distance?" Feng held back for a long time before asking this question.
"They spread from the feet." Yan Junyu tightly hugged the teenager, his lips pressed against the tender back of his neck, kissing quietly. He never knew that his self-control was actually so weak. Just hugging and kissing had produced such a strong physiological response. He heard that antique cars had four wheels, and when running on the ground, they would always be particularly bumpy, not as smooth and comfortable as flying cars. But he thought antique cars were a great invention that should not have been phased out of history. If there was an opportunity in the future, he would definitely find one.
Qi Ze's buttocks were both numb and hot, his neck was covered in tingling kisses, which made him both anxious and restless. He knew that once they entered the base, certain things would happen, but he was unwilling to resist any longer. Thinking like this, he relaxed his straight back, nestling contentedly into the man's arms.
Yan Junyu was initially stunned, then lowered his head and pecked him hard, his hoarse voice, "You agreed?"
"What did I agree to?" Qi Ze fluttered his large eyes.
"To this." Yan Junyu pressed his crotch.
"I remember a certain someone was unwilling to send me a nude photo, saying I wasn't of age." Qi Ze started to bring up past grievances.
"How many do you want? I'll send them to you right away." Yan Junyu thought for a moment, and chuckled lowly, "Forget it, you can just look at it yourself. The apocalypse has come, why postpone enjoyment?"
The two kissed again, occasionally emitting hoarse chuckles full of lust. Feng and Leo, sitting in the front row, were awkward but didn't dare to interrupt. In the apocalypse, everyone lived in fear, but only these two were like bathing in honey, truly enviable! â
Doctor Kulun crawled out of the repair chamber and dried his body with a towel. In just a few days, he had lost a significant amount of weight, and his abdominal ribs were clearly visible. Kirkbo stood behind him, word by word, "I will dismember Yan Junyu."
"You remembered the name of a lowly ability user?" Doctor Kulun was slightly surprised.
"I remember every person who hurt you, and they will all become rotting bones."
"No," Doctor Kulun cupped Kirkbo's cheeks, kissing his pale lips sweetly and murmuring, "I want him to be completely annihilated, remember that?"
"As you wish." Kirkbo leaned forward slightly, to deepen the kiss, but was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Mu Feixing. He glared at the other person with a cold gaze.
Mu Feixing raised his hands and said, "Sorry, I didn't mean it, but it's urgent, I think Doctor Kulun will be interested."
"What do you want to say?" Doctor Kulun slowly put on his clothes, taunting, "If I'm not interested, Mu, you can go into eternal sleep forever." Since losing his symbiotic beast, he had been less able to control his emotions. Of course, he hadn't controlled them much before, but now he was even more violent.
"This is a video I accidentally discovered. Please evaluate it." Mu Feixing waved his palm, and a holographic screen appeared in the air, displaying the figure of a spider. It was very large, almost the size of a light cruiser, with hair on its back forming a ghost face. Whenever it spat out spider silk, causing its abdomen to tremble, that ghost face would continuously change expressions, sometimes ferocious, sometimes enraged, looking terrifying either way.
Even Doctor Kulun, whose mental power had reached the level of a saint, felt a great threat. He dared not look at that ghost face, feeling that his soul would be swallowed up.
"Kirkbo, what do you think?" He lowered his eyelids, his voice filled with excitement.
"A very powerful interstellar giant beast, its strength is definitely not inferior to Cooper's." Cooper was the scorpion killed by Yan Junyu.
"Is that so? You felt it too?" Doctor Kulun's pale cheeks finally flushed red, determined, "I want it! It will become my symbiotic beast."
"Yes, this subordinate will immediately head to Ikeen Planet." Kirkbo was about to teleport away when he was grabbed by the wrist by Doctor Kulun.
He said nervously, "No, no, Kirkbo, you can't leave me right now. Send someone else, you can only stay by my side."
Knowing that it was because he had lost his powers that he had become so dependent on himself, Kirkbo felt extremely satisfied. His cold face softened, clasping Doctor Kulun's hand and promising, "Alright, I'm not going anywhere, I will always stay by your side."
Doctor Kulun then smiled, waving his hand, "Mu, you still have a few super-ability mechas in your possession, right? Help me capture this spider, it must be alive."
"It would be my pleasure to serve you," Mu Feixing asked, "How about that resurrecting pattern, how is your progress? Do you need my help?"
"No, you can leave." Doctor Kulun's smiling face was immediately replaced by a grim expression. After dismissing the miscellaneous people, he went to the lower deck cabin, scrutinizing the pattern projected on the holographic screen while imitating Qi Ze's method, using a chisel to engrave many intricate yet orderly lines on the ground. He liked exploring unknown things and even more liked personally uncovering their mysteries.
Kirkbo stood by his side, gazing at him with focused attentionâ
Ikeen Planet was the empire's temporary capital. Since the infected invaded, many people had already prepared to abandon this planet, but they had made up their minds to settle down a few days ago and sent messages to relatives and friends far on other planets, urging them to move quickly.
"There's no safer place than Ikeen Planet. No, not because of the military, but because of our guardian deity. Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I'll send you the video." A teenager sent a video he had secretly taken to a friend.
"Zhou Zijian, for the love of God, can we stop talking now?" The man wrapped in spider silk shouted loudly.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Zhou Zijian turned off his smartbrain, walked to the man's side, and chuckled, "I told you not to use your ability, you were caught by the guardian deity, weren't you?"
"How could I know that its sense of smell was so keen, it could even detect a bit of dark ability. You quickly go and find it, I still have to go home to cook. The tomatoes my wife planted have already ripened, I'll treat you to scrambled eggs with tomatoes." The man's face was full of helplessness, but he showed no fear.
"That's more like it. Wait, I'll be right there." The teenager ran to the cliff edge and threw down several black energy stones. A rumbling sound echoed from the bottom of the cliff. Soon, a giant spider crawled up, its mouthparts slightly wriggling, as if chewing on something. The teenager wasn't afraid, walking and throwing out energy stones as he went, lamenting, "Our guardian deity is too easy to feed, it actually prefers this kind of waste with the most impurities."
The spider followed behind the teenager, picking up the energy stones one by one, crunching and biting them. Finally, it reached the man's side, poking him with its appendage, sniffed, and then spat out saliva to dissolve the spider silk. The man, who was freed, expressed his gratitude with a flood of kind words, then took out all the energy stones in his pocket and fed them to the spider, before happily going home.
Originally, living on a cliff was extremely inconvenient, but because this spider liked to sleep at the bottom of the cliff, it had become the most longed-for settlement for survivors. The area, which went from desolation to prosperity, gradually acquired its own nameâSpider City.