Chapter 36 - Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Leaving Nanyuan City

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: Leaving Nanyuan City

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Arctic Circle.

The people who have arrived here have been working tirelessly for nearly a day and a night, digging deep enough to create warming cellars.

By noon, the officer in charge finally ordered a rest. The elites of the past, the wealthy classes, all cheered at this moment, without any consideration for their image. They dived into their own excavated cellars, bundled up in their clothes, and were snoring in no time.

The affluent classes utilized their connections and wealth to get here before the apocalypse, but their statuses and relationships are of no use here. Except for hard labor, they have no other role to play. This holds true even for the richest among them.

Food is scarce in the Arctic Circle. The refugees didn’t bring much food with them. In order to feed all these people, they must venture out to find food.

Officials have already scheduled working hours for these former wealthy elites. Aside from a few who refuse to work because of their inability to accept reality or their misplaced sense of entitlement and are subsequently informed that there’s no food for them, most have quickly adapted to their new circumstances.

Hua Nation Command Center.

The once bustling scene no longer exists; everyone is silently staring at the screen.

The live satellite footage playing there reveals the situation in the Western Hemisphere—it is nightfall again!

What was once a spatial channel only a dozen or so meters wide, has now grown to several dozens, if not over a hundred meters.

At the bottom of the channel, Black Beetles continuously pour out, intermittently sprinkled with golden beetles about five meters long and twenty meters wide.

Ordinarily, not every spatial channel spawns a Golden Beetle, but at this moment, one emerges every few minutes.

The demeanor of the people in the command center has become serious because these spatial channels spawn gigantic beetles that are forty-five to fifty meters tall and two to three hundred meters long.

These titanic beetles are likely too heavy to move on their legs; they secrete a fluid and move about like caterpillars. They also carry a massive shell-like object on their backs.

Everyone in the command center is visibly terrified.

“Can we really win?”

A technician mumbled. There had been rumors—this situation isn’t unique to this spatial channel but is the status quo in every space channel in the western hemisphere.

This colossal insect could only be exterminated using nuclear weapons; the technician could think of no other weapons capable of doing so.

At that moment, the giant beetle in the frame suddenly ‘laid down’ on the ground, raising its bottom high. Its tail opens, and the shell-like object suddenly blooms like a chrysanthemum.

Before everyone could fully discern the interior structure, the gigantic beetle contracts, followed by violent writhing.

The next moment, it ejects a cluster of green glowing matter from its chrysanthemum-like rear.

Several technicians started operating their computers to calculate what they just witnessed.

“The speed is one Mach, the rising height is 500 meters…”

“1000 meters!” “1500 meters!”

“2000 meters!”

In merely a few seconds, this green object has ascended to almost two thousand meters. The next moment— “Boom!”

Watching the video feed, everyone imagined the sonic impact created by the explosion of the green object.

The enormous green mass exploded into numerous tiny green lights, scattering in every direction in that instant. “What is that?”

At this moment, everyone has that same question.

A bio-bomb made by the bugs?

Or a corrosive liquid?

A myriad of ideas circled in people’s minds.

Finally, when the green glowing fragments hit the ground, nothing happened which surprised everyone!

“Those are bug eggs!”

A biologist finally spoke, “This is a Breeding Mother Bug responsible for spreading Life Seeds!” Colonization?

Invasion?

At that moment, all sorts of possibilities filled the minds of the humans.

Without time for everyone to fully digest, another type of bug, ten meters tall and over forty meters long, slowly emerged from the spatial channel.

Combat Bug!

As soon as this bug appeared, everyone knew the answer.

This bug was surrounded by flashy, incredibly sharp legs shimmering like blades in the light!

Unlike other bugs that appear to be soft, this one had a mechanical aspect to it. It looked as if its body was forged from iron.

Nanyuan City.

Du Gang and his party had already left the train station and were driving a car they had found earlier towards the nearest highway.

An Ya is the only one who knows how to drive among them, so she’s the driver. The ride was bumpy and involved some minor collisions…

Du Gang was in the passenger seat since he couldn’t fit in the back because of his size.

Since there were six of them and the car had five seats, they squeezed four people in the backseat.

Thankfully, Chu Zixuan and the others were still students, lean and not fully grown, so they could squeeze in.

An Ya drove their compact car with the force of an armored tank, running into obstacles left and right, causing the loss of both front and rear bumpers…

They stopped a few hundred meters away from the entrance of the north highway toll booth. Not because they didn’t want to go further, but because the road was blocked by vehicles.

The road was jammed to hundreds of meters outside the entrance, indicating how clogged the highway would be.

Upon closer inspection, most of the vehicles were heavily damaged, capsized, and in utter chaos.

Some vehicles appeared to be hit by the bugs with such force that the vehicles were smeared with lumps of rotting, blood-red flesh.

“Let’s go!”

An Ya glanced at it and couldn’t manage to take it anymore—she felt a wave of discomfort in her stomach.

Although the others couldn’t see the specifics, they could sense something from An Ya’s tone. Moreover, the rotting smell filling the air made them want to leave as soon as possible.

“Let’s move back!”

Du Gang only came to take a look with a sliver of hope, but it’s clear now that this road is infeasible.

They quickly drove away from the highway entrance, and finally stopped where the air was relatively fresh.

“What now?”

Du Gang pulled out the map they had prepared earlier, points to a place on it, and suggests, “Let’s stick to the original plan. We take the county road to the nearest county!”

On the map, Xingyuan County is due north of Nanyuan City, only slightly more than a hundred kilometers away.

They had already discussed that if the highway was totally blocked, there’s no need to try to go through the national road as it would be no better. If they wanted to keep driving, they could only take the county or village roads..