Broken limbs were scattered on the ground overgrown with weeds, creating a scene of extreme gore. However, the remnants of these shattered limbs were not a horrifying shade of red, but a thick green color.
Whether they had been infested by insects or overtaken by plants, their blood was no longer red.
A creature lacking all four limbs wriggled on the ground, and all of its brethren had already lost their lives. Although it had developed a fear of the stronger beings, it couldn’t feel the sorrow humans might experience when their companions died.
Survival of the fittest; if it weren’t for the cooperation with a few of its kin to capture more prey, they would have long ago turned on each other, in an endless cycle of predation.
“How long have you been here?” a whisker emerged from its skull and twitched, with a hint of confusion in its eyes. “Before the big snow…”. These cold-averse mutated insects had inadvertently burrowed into human bodies to seek warmth during the winter, resulting in their current predicament.
“Why did this happen?” Yue Zheng frowned as he glanced at the scattered limbs on the ground, a feeling of unease creeping over him.
“Cold… human body… warm…” Yue Zheng raised an eyebrow at the mention of cold. “So, why can you control human bodies and even learn to speak?”
The creature hesitated for a moment, looking at Yue Zheng with confusion. It seemed even they were uncertain about the reasons behind their transformation.
Yue Zheng was about to ask more questions, but he noticed the creature’s eyes losing focus, and its head tilted to the side, lifeless.
With a sigh, Yue Zheng wiped the disgusting fluid from his blade, contemplated for a while, then returned to the vehicle to retrieve a camera (one of the many useless items he had obtained through the base’s point system, intended for entertaining children and placating elderly family members). He took several photos of the animals and plants that had overtaken human forms.
In theory, if he wanted to report this to the base, it would be best to bring back some physical evidence, such as the remains of these creatures. However, the idea of handling these repulsive things was so unpleasant that even Yue Zheng hesitated to touch them.
“Let’s go,” Yue Zheng said as he returned to the vehicle, taking the driver’s seat and handing the camera to Xu Song.
“Did you ask them anything just now? What’s going on exactly? How did they turn into humans?” Xu Song, though further away, had been using binoculars to get a better look at the severed limbs. Even though it was revolting, the thought of being bitten by one of those insects and transforming into such a creature sent shivers down his spine.
Well, this was merely the result of someone’s overactive imagination, he thought, this wasn’t the world of zombies.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“It seems they did it to find a warm place to spend the winter, by killing and burrowing into human bodies… As for why their actions have become so agile now and why they can speak, I suspect there was some kind of fusion between the two, resulting in them learning some basic human language and behavior,” Yue Zheng explained, but he didn’t elaborate fully.
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Yue Zheng nodded, “After I return to the base, I’ll visit Zone A to at least give them a heads-up. We’ll need to assess the potential threat posed by those vegetable people in the base. These creatures here have mixed with the insect-human hybrids, so they might lean more towards hunting humans. If the situation with the vegetable people is similar to Little Tree’s, they might not necessarily be aggressive.”
“That’s true.”
Although that’s what they said, no one had absolute certainty. Moreover, while the area of City C wasn’t large, it was the capital city of the province. Even when they had passed through City J earlier, they had noticed the remnants of a survivor base.
However, upon reaching City C, there was no trace of any former survivor base. It was likely that even if the survivors had tried to escape, not all of them could have made it out. Some people would likely have remained in the city.
In addition, these several mutated animals and plants that had taken over human bodies were likely obtained before the arrival of winter, which at least indicated that there were people here before that time.
But now, they hadn’t seen a single trace of anyone. Perhaps, they had all been killed by those few “people” who wore human disguises, hadn’t they?
The entrance to Base B in City B was still bustling with activity. The arrival of spring brought endless hope. While humanity had to face more challenging natural conditions, the fact that they were still alive meant they had hope. For the majority of survivors, as long as they could live another day, it was considered a win.
In recent days, some ragged individuals had arrived at Base B, and today, a larger group had arrived, drawing the attention of those who were out on missions.
In this group, a bearded man looked at the newly reinforced high city walls of B City and suddenly shouted in excitement, “Damn it! I finally made it alive!”
One of his companions patted his shoulder with sympathy, saying, “You could have at least spared yourself the embarrassment.”
“Embarrassment? It’s been almost a year, and I nearly lost my life several times. What’s there to be embarrassed about?” The man wiped his face with his hand, brushing away what appeared to be tears.
The woman who had been holding his hand suddenly tugged at him and said, “Let’s go.”
“Oh.” When the people in front of them had all finished registering, it was their turn to step forward.
In Zone A, the same room that was often used for high-level meetings was filled with the leaders of the base. Each of them had a stack of documents in front of them, and they wore worried expressions.
“Marine creatures that had retreated during the heavy winter snow have returned to the shore,” one person stood at the front and introduced the situation to the others.
“The cause is still unclear, but compared to last year, this year’s situation is even more severe, with many aquatic creatures gaining stronger water-based abilities. Additionally, a significant number of them have acquired ice-based abilities. There are even some with electric abilities, not to mention the power-based creatures… their destructive potential is extremely high.”
Someone weakly raised their hand and touched their forehead, muttering, “Hopefully, their activity is limited to the coastal areas…”
Another person seemed to want to lighten the atmosphere and chuckled, “Of course, after all, they’re just fish. If they can make it to the shore, that’s already impressive. How could they venture inland?”
The man in his forties with glasses beside Elder Wu subconsciously added, “Whales, dolphins, and others are mammals, and research has suggested that humans evolved from marine creatures in the past…”
As soon as he finished speaking, he realized that the atmosphere in the room seemed to have become even more oppressive. As a tech enthusiast, this was the first time he had so clearly felt that he had spoken out of turn.
Elder Wu cleared his throat, saying, “Currently, since last winter, the number of original 2,000+ bases in the country has decreased sharply, with the last count during the arrival of winter showing only 500 bases remaining.”
“Now, after a winter has passed, and approximately a month ago when we last received satellite communication, only 334 bases were still able to maintain contact. In the last two weeks or so, only about 200 of them had continued to communicate with us, but their population sizes…”
Another man in military attire chimed in, “Most of the recent messages they’ve sent are distress signals.” But now, even B City itself was struggling to protect its own people. Where could they spare the troops to go out and help?
“Sigh… Our control over the entire nation is greatly diminishing,” a man in his sixties sighed, earning sympathetic looks from the others.
“What we need to consider now is the issue of our base’s self-preservation.” As for control? It had almost completely disappeared since the onset of the apocalypse.
The person leading the meeting cleared their throat and, at Elder Wu’s signal, nodded, and then displayed a new satellite photo: “This is a photo we received just three days ago.”
“What is this?” The picture showed a cluster of dark dots, making it hard to discern what they were.
The host looked at the person and pursed their lips, silently signaling the staff operating the equipment to zoom in on the image. Soon, everyone in the room could see clearly what was in the picture.
“These are… migratory birds, migrating from the south to the north,” the host swallowed hard.
Those in attendance immediately grasped the significance of these birds. One person asked with a trembling voice, “How long do we have left?” How long until they would arrive in North China?
“Based on their movement speed, it should be less than ten days,” the host took a deep breath.
“Due to the unusual climate this year, their actions have also been disrupted by the weather… Currently, what we know is that some of the places these migratory birds have passed through have experienced extremely terrifying ‘aerial attacks.’ It’s already confirmed that at least ten small bases within our country have been completely destroyed. Through satellite communication, the M country on the west coast has also been significantly affected, with several of their largest bases almost completely destroyed.”
“So… are there any protective measures in place?!”
A researcher with glasses raised their hand, saying, “Our research institute received notice last night and has been working overnight to improve bird-repellent devices. We can only make improvements to the existing repellent devices from before the apocalypse and aim to produce more effective products within ten days.”
“In addition, we need to add bird-catching nets and other measures on the city walls and outside the city. These tasks have already been delegated,” the secretary behind Elder Wu added.
“That’s good…”
“However, due to the immense size of this bird flock, we still need to implement protective measures within the base.”
“Yes, inform the various ability users squads not to go outside in the near future and focus on safeguarding the base’s security when the time comes.”
With collective brainstorming and action, everyone worked tirelessly to fill any gaps and ensure that no negligence would lead to regrets later on. The disappearance of certain bases and the significant losses suffered by others in the country were stark reminders for everyone.
Author just keep pitting everyone in the story lol.
Aerial attack incoming?🫣
From the land, the sea, and now air… I missed the zombies. I do prefer them than thise bizarre mutants😀
No need to worry so much about those shadow things that were zombie-like, all the mutant critters are incoming continually. I think I would have given up about the time of the bad bug wave… Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗🐝