"Abba, how many days will it take before we can enter the base city? I'm so hungry. I want to eat the fragrant and soft rice you mentioned."
On an off-road vehicle that was driving rapidly in the rugged wilderness, a child with his body curled up and his face turned blue said in a weak voice.
"It's almost there. It's almost here. Just be patient for now. When you get to the base city, you won't have to worry about being hungry anymore."
After hearing his son's words, the man who was driving a steel monster that had been modified countless times and was running rampant in the wilderness licked his dry lips, then smiled and encouraged his son.
"Abba, can we wanderers really enter the base city? Last time I heard someone in the base city call us wild dogs."
"Who? Who called you a wild dog?" Upon hearing his son's words, the man's face instantly became fierce.
He was a scavenger trying to survive on the outskirts of another base city, but half a month ago, he unexpectedly received shocking news that the glorious base city thousands of kilometers away was expanding and recruiting scavengers.
When he learned the news, without much hesitation, he immediately led his team of scavengers thousands of miles away and started heading towards the Brilliant Base City.
Originally a team of nearly thirty people, after traveling thousands of kilometers, only he and his son were left, and everyone else died on the way.
Regardless of their physical fitness or the weapons they use, humans are absolutely vulnerable when facing wild beasts. Once they leave their comfort zone, it means that they will lose their lives at any time.
However, in the base city, the stable life with stable access to food has an irresistible fatal temptation for scavengers, so countless scavengers who got the news flocked to the glorious base city like moths to a flame.
The farther the distance, the greater the risks that scavengers have to bear, but scavengers who can reach their destination across long distances are undoubtedly the elite among human beings.
"I forgot." Seeing his father's expression, the child sitting in the passenger seat couldn't help but shrink his neck. He remembered his father's posture after he started to attack, like an evil ghost crawling out of hell.
generally.
"It doesn't matter, Dad. What I'm worried about now is whether the news we got is true. Can we really join the base city?"
"It's absolutely true." Seeing his son change the subject in such a blunt way, the man squinted his eyes, then restored his calm expression, and narrated the chilling words in a calm tone,
"Even if it is fake, with the scavengers gathered around the base city now, I can make it real."
"Abba!" The child raised his head in shock and looked at his father.
"Haha, look at your expression, I'm kidding you, there's some magic, how could an ordinary person like me be able to do this?"
"Maybe the news is true." The child shrank his body. As a son, he naturally knew the true face of his father. He knew what a crazy person his father was.
If the place they went to did not meet their expectations, he could not imagine what his father would do. He might actually entangle the remaining scavengers and attack the base city.
…
two days later
"Abba, look, there are plants ahead." The child stood up excitedly from the driver's seat and looked at the greenery that appeared on the horizon and then gradually spread, and his mood became extremely happy.
The vibrant scene was completely different from the desolate and dead life he had seen these days, making him involuntarily full of expectations for his future.
Compared to the excitement of the children, the expression of the man driving the car was much calmer, even a little solemn.
"How is it possible that plants can grow in this ghostly environment now?"
"Abba, what are you talking about?" The child turned his head in confusion. He did not hear clearly what his father had just muttered in a low voice.
"It's nothing. Grab the weapon I gave you and don't let your guard down. There's something wrong with this place."
"Oh!" The child was extremely obedient and took out a modified shotgun from the storage folder in front of him.
Tsk~
The thick tire belt left several heavy marks on the ground. To humans, it looked like a behemoth off-road vehicle parked in front of an unusually lush thorny jungle.
The man got out of the car with his child, and then looked at the thorny jungle with a faint fluorescent light in front of him. His originally serious face became more solemn.
"Abba, can these be eaten?" The child who grew up in the wilderness and sometimes even had to feed on the sea of corpses of wild beasts looked at the thorny jungle in front of him and couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.
In a world where mass extinctions have occurred, barkgrass roots are a delicacy for surviving creatures.
"cannot."
"Why?" The child was a little puzzled. "Didn't you tell me that any plant can be eaten? Aren't these plants?"
"I can't tell whether these are plants or not. This is the first time I've seen this thing since I was born."
"Oh." After hearing his father's words, the child lowered his head in disappointment. He knew that his father would most likely not let him touch the things in front of him.
At this moment, another convoy of several dilapidated and refitted vehicles came from afar and stopped not far from the father and son. The scavengers who came down from above did not even look at them, and just went straight to them.
Rushed into the jungle of thorns
"Hahaha, there are so many plants here. Brothers, we can satisfy our cravings."
A skinny man looked around at the plants with light red fluorescence flashing around him. The excitement in his eyes could hardly be concealed. He was like a rat that had been hungry for a long time and suddenly broke into a warehouse filled with corn.
generally.
Soon, the man couldn't suppress the impulse of his body. He pulled out a polished sword, then cut off a relatively fresh-looking thorn branch, then put it in his mouth and chewed it.
.
After he ate this thorn branch, his companions did not follow his example. Instead, they stared at his body closely and observed his condition. Few people who could survive in the wilderness were reckless.
generation.
"How does it taste? How does it taste?"
"The taste is not very good, it's rather woody, but it's much chewier than wild beast meat, and the taste is pretty good, sour."
The man who ate the thorn branches smiled and described his feelings. He knew that his teammates regarded him as a guinea pig, but he didn't care about it. He only knew that he was going crazy with hunger. If he didn't eat something, he would feel
I'm really going to die.
A sudden change soon occurred. The smile of the man who ate the thorn branches froze shortly after it bloomed on his face. His eyes bulged wide and there was a look of horror on his face.
"Save me!" The man felt that something was growing and spreading crazily in his body. He extended his palm to his companion to ask for help. He felt that his life force was being absorbed crazily by the foreign object in his body.
But after his companions saw him calling for help, not only did they not save him, but they kept retreating and staying as far away from him as possible.
The man was initially angry about this, but when Jean saw a branch very similar to the thorn he had just swallowed piercing his skin on his palm, he understood.
"So I am the food." The man understood his identity, the scene in front of him became blurry, and then everything fell into darkness.
"Abba!" The child who witnessed a plant devouring a human being, then breaking out of the body and taking root into the soil, turned around with some fear and hugged his father's leg.
"Don't be afraid, this guy is trying to kill himself. These plants have no ability to actively hunt."
The man who witnessed the tragedy happened in front of him calmly comforted his child.
"Gan, I just knew that the world has become such a ghost, how can there still be normal plants?"
The team of scavengers who lost one of their members did not show too much sadness. For them, death was just a common occurrence.
Just when the man began to think about what he should do next, the sound of propellers came from above his head, and then he looked up and saw an armed transport plane descending from above.
A soldier with live ammunition jumped out of the transport plane, looked at the scavengers in front of him, and then looked at a short thorn tree that was still wearing clothes in the thorn jungle, and suddenly laughed,
"Tsk, another unlucky guy who's gone crazy with hunger."
After sighing, the soldier looked at the scavengers in front of him and said, "You all want to join our glorious base city. If so, come up!"
...The man standing on the transport plane looked at the rapidly passing land below and couldn't help but feel a little dazed, because everything in front of him made him feel a little dreamy and unreal.
"Are these plants planted by your base city?" The man looked at the earth below with almost no soil exposed under the sky, and couldn't help but asked with some doubts.
"Of course not. How can we have such ability? These are all planted by Master Long?"
"Lord Long?"
"You will know after we arrive at the base city." The soldiers all showed mysterious smiles.
"Is this your son?" Just as the man was thinking, the soldier's eyes fell on his son.
"Um."
"You can grow up so big in such an environment. It seems that you are in good health." The soldier looked at the child, nodded, and then asked him with a smile.
"Young man, do you long for power? The power to fight against wild beasts with your fists."