Chapter 1 Undone Earth

Old Earth, the land ravaged by large-scale nuclear war could hardly regain its former appearance, and the ocean was also eroded by severe pollution. After the "doomsday" crisis, this planet underwent irreversible changes.

More than 50% of the land has been turned into desert, and the color of the ocean has changed, with different manifestations in areas with different degrees of pollution: purple, black... There are almost no living creatures in the shallow sea, and the severed ecological chain has led to certain mutations in deep-sea creatures. Survival of the fittest; species that failed to adapt to environmental changes went extinct.

Just as many 21st-century scientists predicted, the polar ice caps eventually melted. After that, the Ohio Valley was flooded, the entire continent of Australia sank into the sea, and New York became a swamp...

War brings death, and death stops war.

When the last few people looked at their devastated homeland and saw the second "sun" disappear into the sky, heat, thirst, pain, remorse, despair... all of this surged into their hearts and would accompany them until death came.

Strong radiation polluted the fertile land near the equator, and the ruins of the city glowed in the dark night, a situation that lasted for a full century. Some species disappeared, while others mutated and evolved.

As time passed, dark clouds began to gather over some barren and desolate lands, and heavy rain poured down, cooling the boiling poisonous seawater on the surface, dispersing the turbid air, and healing the cracked wounds of the earth.

After the warm rain washed over it, the earth presented a scene of deathly silence.

There will always be some people who survive; human life is as fragile as ants, but it will also be as tenacious as ants.

The survivors crawled out of the ruins of civilization and embarked on the road to survival. They found that the temperature was hotter than in the past, and the water vapor in the air was heavier in non-desert areas. Above their heads was an orange-yellow sky, and the sun emitted a dazzling light.

In the ruins, some strange plants began to sprout. Even without watering, even when exposed to the scorching sun, these wild plants with bizarre colors and shapes grew wildly, covering one piece of land after another.

For the vicissitudes of the earth, this kind of climate change was not the first time... Ice ages, crustal movements, volcanic eruptions, all left traces, but they never changed the trajectory of the earth's movement. Now, it still rotates and moves in space as it has for the past three billion years, orbiting around the sun.

Technology has become a thing of the past, and the people who survived the catastrophe have returned to a primitive state of survival, forming social structures similar to tribes, wandering on the surface of the earth, searching for food... and reliable havens.

In those non-desert areas, there are poisonous swamps, deep canyons, muddy depressions, and desolate mountains. But apart from that, on the vast earth, there are indeed one or two pure lands like paradises...

In a canyon on the North American continent, there is such a place. It is a huge underground depression like a city, with an overall pocket shape. A thick vegetation "cloud" covers the top like a pergola, resisting most of the scorching sun. There is a comfortable temperature here; land and environment suitable for the growth of normal crops; clean and abundant underground water sources... Most importantly, there are the remains of "half" of a starship.

No one knows why this spaceship is here. Perhaps this was once a secret research base of a certain country, or perhaps it was a spaceship that crashed after a battle.

In short, a tribe eventually discovered this place. The environment gave them a basis for survival, and the wreckage of the starship enabled them to regain the spark of civilization. Life flourished once again, and a new human society was established.

Nearly three centuries have passed, and this has become the only human gathering place left on Earth. The people living in it call it—the Blessed Village.

…………

In the Crystal Lake underground laboratory.

Doomsday Stronghold had seen the end of the road. He had searched all the forks and followed the corridor all the way here. At this moment, there was a staircase going upwards in front of him, like the zigzag fire escape usually used in residential buildings, with iron railings on the side. The stepping boards were also metal, and he could vaguely glimpse the situation above through the gaps under his feet.

He took out his weapon and approached cautiously. The light here was not good, and it was difficult to find out if there were any ambushes from below.

"The two from Jianghu, don't hide, I've already seen you!" Doomsday Stronghold was obviously bluffing. He was not afraid of revealing his whereabouts, because he knew very well that this was the end of the laboratory. The exit was undoubtedly above. If Kuangzong Jianying and Feng Bujue wanted to ambush, this was the only place they could choose. And for the two people who were lying in ambush from a high position, his whereabouts must have been discovered long ago.

"The grenade trick is really clever, huh?" Doomsday Stronghold said, "Kuangzong Jianying, is that all you've got? You bunch of shrinking turtles from Jianghu, you're pretty good at playing tricks." He tried his best to curse without being shielded or silenced, trying to provoke the other party to show up on their own initiative, after all, the enemy was in the dark and he was in the light, which was not very favorable.

"What's wrong? Still afraid to come out?" Doomsday Stronghold snorted coldly, "It's two against one, are you still afraid like this?"

Only his own echo responded to him.

"Hmph... you have to think clearly." Doomsday Stronghold said, "Under the effect of indiscriminate reduction of survival points, your consumption is twice as high as mine. Being timid in the face of an advantage will only waste survival points in vain." He paused and added, "I don't mind turning around and leaving, the farther away from you the better. Then everyone will just consume survival point replenishments, and see who runs out first. Even if I lose in the end, you will at least waste twice as many potions as I do."

Doomsday Stronghold's words seemed to make sense, but since he appeared here at this moment, it meant that he had not chosen such a strategy.

If Doomsday Stronghold felt that he had no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation, it would have been impossible for him to continue to approach his opponents. When Ultimate Stronghold was blown up, he should have run in the opposite direction, found a favorable terrain to lie in ambush, wait for work at leisure, and wait for the other party to come to him. If he succeeded in a sneak attack and directly killed one person, he would still have a chance of winning.

So... the only reason why Doomsday Stronghold came here was that he was confident that he could take on two opponents by himself and win. And the basis for this confidence was obviously some powerful skill or prop.

After shouting for a while, there was still no response from above the stairs, which made Doomsday Stronghold's situation embarrassing. He couldn't help but think: Could it be that going up this staircase, there is another floor in this laboratory? Is the upper floor as big as the lower one?

Thinking of this, he cautiously reached for the steps and slowly walked up. This was the only thing he could do. First, if the other party refused to show up no matter what, he had no choice but to either go up or leave. Second, if there really was another floor above, then he could shout here for an hour and the other party wouldn't be able to hear him.

He went back and forth, climbing the stairs, and he really didn't run into any ambushes, and he couldn't even detect any signs of a trap. However, Doomsday Stronghold didn't dare to be careless at all. He still vividly remembered the grenade incident. His teammate died instantly because he was too close, and he was almost blown up himself. He would probably never forget this lesson in his entire career, or even his entire life.

He walked this staircase, which was about three stories high, four times back and forth, for a full five minutes. When he finally reached the upper floor, Doomsday Stronghold was stunned. What was in front of him was a corridor, an empty corridor. The end was only ten meters ahead, where the entire wall was a door. The door was divided into two parts, and the gap in the middle was meshed together in a zigzag shape. The thickness of this door was definitely not inferior to any bank vault, and the switch next to the door had been destroyed...

"Where are the people?" This was Doomsday Stronghold's first reaction.

He and Ultimate Stronghold had already explored the end of the other side of the laboratory, and the end of this side was the exit. He had come all the way here and saw the traces left by Feng Bujue and Kuangzong Jianying. He had also fallen into the traps they had set and searched every fork in the road. He was definitely on the right track, but why... was there no one here?

"Could it be that they went out?" This thought flashed through Doomsday Stronghold's mind, but he immediately rejected this speculation, "Impossible... according to the script introduction, the environment outside is even harsher than inside. Maybe the survival points will be deducted even faster. Besides, the switch is broken... how could they go out?" He thought again, "Could it be... that they went outside first to activate the switch to close the door, and before the door closed, they destroyed the switch on the inside, wanting to lock me inside?"

"That's not right... there's no benefit to going out." Doomsday Stronghold paced back and forth with a stiff expression. After a long time, he finally came up with a theory that he thought was correct, "That's right! That must be it!" He had a sudden realization in his mind, but his face and tone were still the same, "They came to the end of the corridor, destroyed the exit switch, created the illusion that they had already escaped from the laboratory, and then turned back... They must have taken advantage of the fact that I went to search the fork roads and sneaked past on the main passage, missing each other... At this moment, they are probably hiding at the end of the other side of the laboratory."

…………

At the same time, outside the laboratory.

Under the dim yellow sky, there was a continuous undulating sea of sand. A strong wind was blowing in the air, and black sandstorms were sweeping and raging everywhere. If a person stood unprotected in this environment, it would be difficult to even open their eyes. As soon as they opened their mouths to speak, they would inevitably eat a mouthful of sand, and their voice would not be heard even five meters away.

A "Sand Fish Cabin" was hovering and driving on this sea of sand. The cabin was twenty meters long, six meters wide, and more than four meters high. The exterior shape looked like a giant armored shark, but this Sand Fish Cabin had no "fins", and the top was a streamlined, smooth design. The color of the cabin was painted the same earth yellow as the desert. There was no windshield or visual device in the front. It was entirely relying on the internal detection radar and navigation device to drive.

The air in the Sand Fish Cabin had been treated. Although the two players were not wearing protective suits, their survival value loss status had stopped.

At this time, Feng Bujue was sitting leisurely in the driver's seat with his hands behind his head. It didn't take him long to learn how to drive the Sand Fish Cabin. The operation interface of these devices was not complicated, and the navigation coordinates of the destination had already been entered. He just needed to select automatic mode.

When Feng Bujue walked out of the laboratory and saw the environment outside, he understood that manual driving was basically meaningless on this planet, because there was no "road" at all. Not to mention a road, there wasn't even a reference object. Therefore, this Sand Fish Cabin must rely on automatic navigation to drive to the place he wanted to go.

So... the question came again, how did this group of people find the Crystal Lake Laboratory?

Hank said that their team was "ordered" to search here. This sentence meant that the superior department that issued the order to them had the specific coordinates of the Crystal Lake Laboratory.

So a new question arose. Did their superiors find out about this coordinate long ago, or did they just discover it today? And what means did they use to find this place? Could it be miniature detection robots?

Feng Bujue's speculation was... this team didn't come early or late, and the "Star Immigrants" came right after they left, which actually explained an obvious thing... and Hank's reaction when he first saw the "outsiders" gave Feng Bujue a further basis for reasoning. At this moment, although he had not yet arrived at that village, Feng Bujue could basically determine the situation there.

"Why didn't you kill him?" Kuangzong Jianying sat in the co-pilot seat next to him and turned his head to Feng Bujue and said, "Keeping him, aren't you afraid of something changing?" He naturally lowered his voice when he said this, so that Hank, who was tied up in the corner behind him, would not hear him.

"There's no grudge, why bother killing people at every turn." Feng Bujue replied.

Kuangzong Jianying chuckled twice: "No way... isn't it too late for you to pretend to be orderly and righteous now?"

"This has nothing to do with whether I am orderly and righteous. The main reason is that this NPC is still useful." Feng Bujue replied, "We still have to rely on his help to get into the village."

"He will help us?" When Kuangzong Jianying spoke, he turned his head slightly again and glanced at Hank, who was pale in the distance, out of the corner of his eye. "Why? He can't resist now, but when he returns to the village, he can find a chance to escape at any time, or he can directly shout for others to catch us."

A smile appeared on the corner of Feng Bujue's mouth, and he replied: "Everyone has weaknesses. Once they are caught, they will betray their principles. Then, they will do anything according to your wishes." He got up from his seat and whispered, "For Hank... simple force deterrence and psychological pressure will do the trick." After he finished speaking, he walked towards Hank...