Chapter 1

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

It was six o’clock in the morning. The day was dawning, and the rising sun was willing to reveal a ray of brilliance from the east. The walls of the suburbs of the Central Alliance were filled with people waiting in line to enter the city.

Most of them were wearing dark protective cloaks from head to toe, with radiation-protective hoodies and jackets tied tightly to their bodies, and protective helmets were tightly worn on their heads without exception. Those in better conditions also wore masks, which weren’t leaking. Some people’s helmets were cracked, so they took scotch tape or something and wrapped them layer after layer so that they could still be used.

The entire place was permeated with a gloomy atmosphere, the people were shrugged and listless, coupled with the desolate and overgrown scene outside the city, it seemed to be the epitome of the whole end of the world. There was silence from the beginning to the end, except for the noise of duty officers reporting numbers from time to time in the security room.

All survivor bases have a default rule; it is easy to get out of the city and difficult to enter the city. The complexity of the process also brought about low efficiency. When the sun leaped out of the mountain, the queue to enter the city was still so long, as if there had been no change at all.

During the whole process of entering the city for security checks, the people being suspected would be bathed in the vigilant and suspicious eyes of several mercenaries, especially those new entrants who don’t have a Central Alliance ID card, as if they were the cause of the explosion of the super planet and made Earth become a wasteland overnight.

Eleven years ago, at a distance of forty light years away from Earth, a super planet that was originally functioning normally suddenly exploded. The explosion brought a large number of extremely dangerous high-energy rays and particles, which caused more than 70% of the creatures on Earth to mutate.

Mutant humans (also known as zombies), mutant animals, and mutant plants followed. They died without rigor mortis and became monsters who only knew how to attack and eat. They have no thoughts and feel no pain. Unless they break their heads or destroy their roots. Moreover, it was highly contagious. Once bitten or scratched by a mutant creature and coming into contact with blood, a normal person or animal would be infected within 24 hours and become a zombie.

Misfortunes didn’t come alone. The super planet explosion also severely damaged the Earth’s ozone layer, resulting in global meteorological mutations, great temperature differences between day and night, and serious damage to the ecological environment. The Earth was then full of deadly radiation, and humans who survived had almost 90% of the soil available for survival.

Fortunately, after several years of integration and hard work, the domestic survivors struggled to set up five large bases and a number of small shelters in exile, and finally were able to find a place to breathe in this dangerous apocalyptic wasteland.

The Central Alliance belonged to one of the five major bases in the country. Although its name was very glorious and stalwart, it seemed to be the center of the world, but in fact, its strength was only at the bottom, and the gap between the rich and the poor in the city was large. The high-level people had to rely on the neighboring base to live.

When the sun fully rose, the surface temperature suddenly rose, and the heat and high temperature scorched everyone exposed to the sun, but even if they were sweating profusely and dizzy from the heat, the people outside the wall didn’t dare untie their protective cloaks at all, because judging from the current radiation index, once their skin and respiratory system were exposed to the air for a long time, the only thing waiting for them was the path of disease and death, the kind that was extremely miserable.

Everyone could only silently pray that the security check would be faster, so that they could go to the cities protected by a number of huge radiation filters as soon as possible.

Suddenly, a scream broke the silence.

The mournful shout was like a stone dropped into the lake, causing ripples in circles. Riots and whispers in the crowd were born from this. Everyone stretched their necks and looked at the source of the sound in horror.

Dozens of mercenaries standing on both sides of the city wall were well-trained, and they instantly clenched their guns. They stood together vigilantly and asked their colleagues in the high monitoring room through their headsets about what happened.

“A medium-sized zombie group in the north-three o’clock position is coming. All personnel on duty in all departments, please prepare for battle. I repeat, three o’clock in the north…”

“Fuck!” They didn’t know who was shouting among the mercenaries.

Soon, the three people being chased by the zombies rushed into everyone’s sight in horror. They screamed and ran towards the city wall, rolling all the way, looking embarrassed.

A person must keep quiet when encountering zombies. This was common sense that even three-year-olds knew, but when facing hundreds of disgusting and terrifying zombies, these human-form monsters with twisted limbs could instantly dispel anyone’s sanity. The horrifying appearance that made their scalps numb, the stench that made people nauseous involuntarily, too few people were able to remain calm when confronted with these abominables.

The smelly and rotten black-purple minced meat fell to the ground with the ups and downs of the zombies, and was stepped on by the zombies behind, making a puffing sound. Because it was too clear, it was easy to imagine the smelly and sticky feeling.

Zombies’ intimidating weapons were long pointed nails and sharp teeth, and their red eyes and black sclera were their distinguishing features.

In an instant, screams and panic exploded and spread in the crowd, and the people that were originally lined up in an orderly manner instantly became scattered and disordered. They rushed to the city gate in a chaotic manner. The screams of men and women followed one after another. They were panicked and willing to be at the mercy and protection of the mercenaries for fear of being abandoned and reduced to rations for zombies.

“Sound the Level 3 alarm.” A leading figure in the mercenary army calmly gave orders, “Team 4 protect all the security personnel and make sure they return to the city. Team 2 cover the other non-entrants and hide them behind the bunker. The machine gun team quickly go to your places and listen to my orders. The rest, get ready to meet the zombies!”

The calmness of the leader obviously gave the team a great sense of security. Each team took the order and quickly opened a powerful front against the zombies.

At this moment, an old woman called out to the mercenary leader who was giving orders, “Captain Li, Captain Li!”

Captain Li followed the voice, looked over, and saw an old woman with a rickety waist. Her protective clothing was obviously the most dilapidated. The mask was a motorcycle helmet. It was of no practical use except for psychological comfort. The protective gloves were also full of holes, and the exposed fingers were covered with red blisters. Inside was white and red pus—a typical radiation skin disease.

Behind her were nearly ten children who were just one meter tall, under the cracked helmet were pairs of dirty and thin cheeks. They stood timidly together, the big ones pulling the small ones together, wearing old protective clothes that were obviously not needed by the adults, and the protective clothing that was abandoned under this condition was basically rotten. It couldn’t be of use anymore, but they could only mend the cracks with ordinary clothes and continued to use it with difficulty.

“Captain Li… I am Grandma Sun from the welfare home.” Grandma saw the captain looking at her and hurriedly brought the children forward. “Today, on Thursday, I took the children out to the bottom of the mountain to pick mushrooms and wild vegetables. Captain Li, we often meet… Captain Li, Captain Li, please..can you please let us in?”

“…”

This wasn’t in compliance with the law. Captain Li wanted to say that, but once again, he took a deep look at the ragged and purulent blisters on Grandma Sun’s five fingers, as well as the group of children behind her who had been orphaned since birth.

The Central Alliance was divided into two urban areas: inside and outside. The living conditions in the outer urban areas were much lower than in the inner suburban areas. Food and clothing were very problematic, not to mention contraceptive measures. However, most of them were people who were drunk and dreaming of death when they saw that life was hopeless. As a result, countless orphans were born with deformities and disabilities. Eating mushrooms with a radiation content ten times higher than the standard at the bottom of the mountain was tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst, but they had no choice.

He’s afraid none of these children will live to adulthood…

He turned his head and ordered the adjutant beside him, “Take them in.”

“Yes!”

Grandma Sun was overjoyed, and quickly hugged the children to let them go first, “Thank you Captain Li, thank you Captain Li!” The miserable children also shouted sensibly one after another, “Thank you, Captain Li!”, “Thank you uncle!”, “…”

“Thank you, Captain Li.” A boy who walked last nodded respectfully at Captain Lie, then raised his head, revealing a pair of black and white eyes.

His cheeks were covered by a mask, and he had only one pair of eyes, even if they were blocked under the broken protective helmet, it still could not hide the brightness in them.

Captain Li couldn’t help but glance at him twice, watching him catch up with the other children, and then followed the adjutant into the security room. His sixth sense made him vaguely aware that something was wrong, but this feeling was fleeting, and he couldn’t figure it out even after thinking about it carefully.

The war was urgent, and he didn’t have time to spend more time thinking about a little boy. Captain Lie took his gaze back and refocused his attention back on the battlefield.

In the security room.

Most of the personnel on duty had already returned to the city, and only one or two who didn’t have time to leave were stopped by the adjutant and asked to check on the group of children behind them before entering the city together.

“It’s Grandma Sun.” The radiation tester who stayed behind was a girl in her twenties. She obviously knew the old woman from the welfare home in front of her. While scanning with the handheld radiation detector on Grandma Sun, she said mechanically, “The radiation level hadn’t exceeded the standard. Come and scan your ID card, and then go to the back room with the children to disinfect.”

The adjutant frowned slightly and pointed to the group of children with his chin, “Don’t they need to scan their ID cards?”

“Where can they have ID cards? They don’t have any parents; they’re all unregistered children.” The girl wasn’t surprised by this, but the main reason why this group of children didn’t have ID cards was not because they were orphans, but because their parents had suffered more or less radiation. These children were genetically defective and died fast. It’s better not to waste manpower and material resources.

The adjutant frowned even tighter, but for the sake of a group of children who were so thin that it looked like only a skeleton was left, he didn’t say much in the end.

For fear of accidentally missing one, Grandma Sun stood in front of the disinfection room, counting the number of children one by one. “Nine, ten…eleven?”

She was taken aback; not only were they not missing one, but there was one more! Grandma Sun wanted to count again carefully, but she heard the girl on duty urging her to hurry up inside. Grandma Sun hurriedly responded, and could only comfort herself that she must have been dizzy and counted wrongly.

Everyone was escorted into the outer city safely. Listening to the noise of the huge filter with a diameter of two meters and a height of ten meters in his ears, the adjutant immediately said goodbye to everyone and returned to the front line, while Grandma Sun hurriedly asked all the children to line up and report the numbers in order. One by one, familiar and tender voices were shouted over. The count stopped at ten, which was the same number they had taken out in the early morning.

Grandma Sun was completely relieved, and secretly thought that she had counted it wrong…

She would definitely never know that just as the children in the welfare home were returning home with hard-picked mushrooms, Shen Shanwu, wearing an old protective cloak, was walking quickly in the alley of the uninhabited suburban city.

In the black background, his eyes gradually turned red, with a strange bloody light emitting from the shadow, and in the blink of an eye, it changed back to the familiar black and white human eyes.