Tongzhou City, a city in the Central Plains, boasts convenient transportation, comprehensive education, advanced medical facilities, and well-developed infrastructure. Before the apocalypse, its permanent population was roughly five million.
The frail man, Lai Yinghuan, provided this description.
But in Chen Bugu's eyes, the dilapidated city before him bore no resemblance to its former prosperity and hustle.
Skyscrapers had collapsed into a chaotic mess of concrete and steel, broken glass shards and Deprecated vehicles were haphazardly piled on the streets, and only blurred, swaying signs of the street corner coffee shops and supermarkets remained.
The city looked as if it had been utterly ravaged by war, devoid of any vitality.
According to Lai Yinghuan, it was now the year 2030, the second year of the war between humanity and the "Demonic Species."
In this world constructed by the Free Secret Realm, the "Great Disaster" still occurred.
Three years after humanity extensively entered the Zero Realm, on a certain day, most of the surviving human Awakeneds were collectively teleported back to Earth.
People who returned to their homes hadn't even had time to rejoice when they discovered a rift suddenly appeared in the sky.
Subsequently, a massive teleportation portal emerged in the sky, and to everyone's bewildered gaze, the "Demonic Species" invaded Earth.
The "Demonic Species" varied in physique but all wore black armor and were shrouded in black mist.
They possessed supernatural energy similar to Awakeneds, capable of flight, earth manipulation, and elemental control—omnipotent.
No one knew where these monsters came from, but as soon as they appeared, they ferociously attacked the human Awakeneds on Earth.
After the initial chaos, humans who had returned to Earth quickly organized a counterattack.
However, from the beginning of the war until now, humanity had never gained the upper hand.
After the initial teleportation portal disappeared, a new portal would open in the sky every six months.
The number of "Demonic Species" was constantly replenished, while human Awakeneds were depleted and perished in continuous battles.
Humans returned to Earth, only to unexpectedly witness the destruction of their homeland once more.
After more than a year of resistance, the remaining human Awakeneds on Earth were concentrated in the Asian region, with only over three thousand left.
They were the last seeds of human civilization, striving to sprout in the despair-ridden scorched earth, but unfortunately, nothing went smoothly.
The only remaining human organization is codenamed "Nameless"; all survivors belong to this organization.
Lai Yinghuan and "Chen Bugu"'s team belonged to the logistics branch of "Nameless"'s First Regiment.
Their mission was to transport a batch of offensive incendiary weapons to the Second War Zone, primarily composed of large amounts of white phosphorus, which was why Chen Bugu smelled garlic on the train.
Although to this day, humanity has not yet figured out what kind of creatures the "Demonic Species" truly are, it can be confirmed that there are also many sub-branches within the "Demonic Species," with different branches possessing differentiated forms and attack methods, and corresponding weaknesses and characteristics.
It is said that the "Demonic Species" in the Second War Zone fear fire, so a batch of offensive incendiary weapons was mobilized to be sent there.
Thanks to someone in the logistics branch who was a former railway system engineer, combined with certain Awakeneds with specific abilities, the train was able to run again, enabling the large-scale transfer of war materials.
And the logistics branch to which Chen Bugu and Lai Yinghuan belonged was responsible for this transport mission.
Though they were said to be responsible, they were actually doing logistics work.
Considering that the logistics branch was generally composed of human Awakeneds with strength below Silver, the organization specifically arranged a small team from the combat branch to participate in the escort.
However, the situation later unfolded as Chen Bugu saw: the mission failed.
The "Demonic Species" somehow obtained intelligence and attacked the train, carrying out a massacre.
Lai Yinghuan had the idea of retreating from the moment he saw the "Demonic Species" appear, and so, he became a deserter.
However, in the chaotic battlefield, he was still accidentally wounded in the abdomen.
Left with no choice, he had to hide back inside the train.
With profuse bleeding from his abdominal wound, Lai Yinghuan quickly felt dizzy and weak. Just as the train suffered a violent impact, the compartment he was in rapidly collapsed, and he was crushed under a pile of scrap metal.
Otherwise, with Lai Yinghuan's eight-star strength, even as a logistics staff member, it would be impossible for him to be trapped under a pile of junk and unable to escape.
However, within the organization, deserting the battlefield is equivalent to treason; once one becomes a deserter, they are tacitly assumed to have abandoned the human faction and will no longer be accepted by the organization.
Under the current circumstances, every surviving human must be a warrior, and can only be a warrior.
Renegade warriors naturally have no possibility of rejoining the organization.
And to prevent deserters from joining the Demonic Species' ranks or revealing secrets of the human faction to them, most teams do not easily let deserters go.
This is why Lai Yinghuan told Chen Bugu that he needed to be wary of his own people's whereabouts.
Lai Yinghuan was a typical pessimist; although he once thought he was lucky when he returned to Earth, as human powerhouses died one by one in battles against the "Demonic Species," he increasingly felt that defeating the "Demonic Species" was impossible, and humanity's demise was only a matter of time.
Since death was inevitable, rather than dying immediately on the battlefield, it was better to flee and live one more day.
As for the "ants on the same rope" he mentioned, it naturally referred to Chen Bugu, who also chose to be a deserter, which was why he was so agitated at the time.
In a life of fleeing and clinging to survival, having a companion is always better than being alone and helpless.
Moreover, Lai Yinghuan had some impression of the person "Chen Bugu."
Although they were both in the logistics branch, "Chen Bugu" was a Silver One-Star Awakened, and even though he was usually quiet and exceptionally reclusive, greater strength meant an extra layer of security.
Lai Yinghuan naturally did not know that the current Chen Bugu was no longer the "Chen Bugu" he remembered.
As for becoming a deserter, Chen Bugu didn't care; to him, this was merely a fictional illusion, and he would always leave, so his stance held no meaning for him.
Of course, he didn't tell Lai Yinghuan this either...
At this moment, the two of them were hiding in an abandoned office building, sitting around a bonfire.
Chen Bugu took out two pieces of beast meat from his storage ring and roasted them over the flames, a sight that completely stunned Lai Yinghuan.
He stared wide-eyed, constantly swallowing saliva, as if he hadn't seen meat in a long time.
In fact, on the way, Chen Bugu had noticed that Lai Yinghuan kept glancing at the storage ring on his hand.
He only understood after asking later that since the war began, Earth had fallen into a strange state.
Environmental degradation, erratic climate, soil decay, intense crustal movements...
Some said that Earth had also abandoned humanity.
Therefore, plants died, animals could not reproduce, and vitality gradually disappeared.
When humanity's battle gradually declined, in order to extend the front line, the organization coordinated all supplies, including all personal items; rings were naturally no exception.
Under the premise of the war for the survival of the human race, weak "individuals" had no self-rights.
Therefore, even though Lai Yinghuan did not suffer a fatal injury, he could only wait for death due to the lack of medicine to treat his wound.
And the food they ate daily consisted of long-term rations stored before the apocalypse, such as military compressed biscuits.
Lai Yinghuan hadn't seen fresh fruits, vegetables, or meat in a very long time.
Chen Bugu threw a piece of meat to Lai Yinghuan and also handed him a big-orange.
The frail man tore at the meat without any regard for his image, but halfway through, he seemed to remember something and changed his demeanor, becoming very careful, chewing repeatedly, and finally swallowing it reluctantly.
Not only that, Lai Yinghuan even tore off a piece of his shirt hem and carefully wrapped the unfinished meat, putting it into his pocket.
Finally, he contentedly peeled the big-orange and savored it with a happy expression.
Chen Bugu watched but did not intervene.
Although everything was just an enactment within the Secret Realm, he could understand and respect the other's choice.
Just after the two finished their meal, outside the broken floor-to-ceiling window, for an instant, the world was illuminated by a white light.
Immediately following was a thunderous roar that echoed through the heavens and earth.
Lai Yinghuan seemed to remember something, quickly extinguished the fire before them, and then led Chen Bugu to quickly run up to the office building's rooftop.
Upon reaching the rooftop, Chen Bugu realized that the night sky was clear and cloudless.
Lai Yinghuan pulled him down, urging him to squat, and pointed into the distance.
On the other side of the city, high in the sky, a battle had just begun.