Chapter 1934 - 1933: A World Without ’He Ao

The gurgling stream flowed over the shattered concrete blocks, following the vague riverbed among the ruins, heading towards the collapsed buildings.

He Ao stood at the edge of this river, lowered his head, and gazed at the stream.

The water was so clear that one could see the aquatic plants swaying in the cracks of the broken bricks at the riverbed.

Yet, there were no fish swimming in this clear river.

The world was flooded with an eerie silence; since leaving Nandu, specifically after parting ways with Lin Chichi and the others, He Ao hadn’t heard any animal sounds.

The sky had no birds, the grass held no reptiles, and the water had no fish.

As if all life’s vitality had been wiped away on the night the ruins descended by an invisible hand.

Any life with the slightest spirituality became fuel for this furnace, steadily burning within this enormous crucible.

This world after destruction lacked the madness and despair seen in apocalyptic stories, only silence, a deathly silence.

He Ao turned his gaze and looked at a pile of ruins not far away, the remnants of an old building.

Those collapsed brick walls had become dark and discolored, marked by the traces of time.

Of course, at this moment, these broken bricks and stones were merely part of the other fallen ruins.

He Ao took a step forward, his figure flickered, and he appeared directly in front of this pile of ruins.

In his childhood, He Ao often followed his grandfather from home to the small river to fish.

At that time, he found the path incredibly long, requiring many twists and turns through alleys.

Only when his grandfather held his hand did he feel somewhat safe in the complex roads, able to look forward to the fishing activity ahead.

Now, with all the buildings collapsed into ruins, the distance between this river and home didn’t seem very far.

He Ao raised his head, gazing at the ruins before him, a faint gray light constructing in his eyes.

As he gazed, the stacked rubble began to float rapidly, levitating in the air.

These shattered bricks and iron doors quickly gathered like scattered building blocks, and in a flash, they reformed into an old small building before He Ao.

He Ao glanced at the small building, took a step forward, his figure passed through the hallway, directly entering room 502.

He raised his head, swept a glance at the empty room, the layout remained unchanged from his memory.

He only restored the overall structure of the building and some larger furniture that hadn’t been lost, not the completely shattered decorations inside.

He Ao turned back to look at the twisted and forcefully restored security door, still the door from his memory, minus the security chain he added later.

He Ao took a step forward and entered the bedroom.

The bedroom walls weren’t reinforced according to his memory, but the bed was restored, still the iron frame bed he remembered.

This was the bed his grandfather left behind.

This house was still the house in his memory, his ’home.’

Yet, there were no obvious traces of himself ’left behind’ in this home.

He Ao walked out of the bedroom, stood by the window in the living room, and looked outside.

There were two possibilities; the first was that this world’s ’He Ao’ was just an ordinary person, or his experiences were entirely different.

The second possibility was that there was no ’He Ao’ in this world.

As he pondered, He Ao’s gaze moved forward, looking at the endless ruins outside the window.

A streak of gray light suddenly cut across the sky.

In the next instant, He Ao’s body disappeared from where he stood.

——

Boom——

Bullets splattered through the purple Shadow, hitting the ground, sparking fireworks.

A speeding pickup truck roared through the rugged, dilapidated road.

A burly man holding a machine gun stood in the pickup truck’s bed, tightly squeezing the trigger, firing continuously at the purple smoke emerging from the ruins.

Splattering bullets fell quickly like raindrops, hitting those twisted purple humanoid shapes.

Each bullet that pierced through those shapes weakened them slightly, temporarily hindering their actions.

"Damn, they’re coming out ahead," shouted the driver, glancing at the front, "Liu Nan, can you hit them?"

His voice received no reply.

He couldn’t help but raise his hand, knocking on the car roof above him, "Liu Nan, can you hear me?!"

Yet no sound came from above.

But he could vaguely sense a figure lying on top of the car.

The driver stared at the rapidly approaching purple figures ahead, gritted his teeth, and grasped the steering wheel, charging forward.

Boom——

A roaring gunshot sounded atop the car, and the fast-approaching purple figure was instantly pierced by a powerful bullet, dissipating into purple smoke.

The driver breathed a sigh of relief.

But almost immediately, two more purple figures emerged from the sides ahead, the driver tightened his grip on the steering wheel, "What the hell is this, are there supposed to be this many monsters here?"

Boom—— Boom——

He was just about to call for help when two booming sounds echoed from above, the two purple figures were instantly defeated, scattering into dust.

"That’s something," the driver sighed with relief.

"Liu Nan is the best shooter in the shelter," said the mature-looking woman in the passenger seat, also relaxed after witnessing this.

"Something’s coming!!" Just then, the burly man holding the machine gun suddenly shouted from behind.

"What is it?" The driver nervously glanced at the rearview mirror, "Are the monsters catching up behind us?"

"No, no," the burly man seemed tense, followed by dense gunfire, "It’s a bird! No, it seems like a flying machine! An unmanned drone!!!"

"What rubbish?" The driver was slightly stunned, fixating on the rearview mirror.

Soon, he saw a vague gray dot at the edge of the mirror, quickly approaching at a visible speed.

The gray dot enlarged rapidly in his view, revealing a spindle-shaped mechanical flying machine, at its front, there was something like a camera flashing a red indicator light.

"What’s this thing?!!" The driver hadn’t yet reacted, but the burly man behind had already aimed the machine gun at the mechanical flyer.

"Die!!!!!!" With the burly man’s shout, intense gunfire rang out again.

Dense bullets poured toward the flyer like a rainstorm.

However, amidst such densely packed bullets, the flyer swiftly elevated its body, dodging the barrage, then spiraled sideways approaching the truck.

Vaguely, the driver even saw the opened gun turret below the flyer.

"Damn, damn, damn, no—"

The driver immediately floored the gas pedal, accompanied by the jolting upheaval, the pickup truck roared forward at high speed.

Meanwhile, the burly man adjusted the gun turret, constantly unleashing a barrage, but the flyer dodged each shot, not a single bullet hit the flyer.

And the flyer was closing in on the pickup truck.

Close enough that the driver could almost see the red glow of the gun turret from the rearview mirror.

Bang——

At that moment, a thunderous gunshot rang out.

The swiftly approaching aircraft suddenly paused, its muzzle seemingly obstructed, instantly exploding into dazzling flames, spiraling down from the sky.

As the blazing fire rose amidst the ruins, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Liu Nan? Is that you?!" the woman sitting in the passenger seat turned around and glanced behind.

Thud thud——

"Mm." A gentle response came from the back.

"What do we do now? Should we go check out that thing?" At this point, the driver holding the steering wheel glanced at the smoking scene not far away and nervously asked.

"No need," the woman in the passenger seat shook her head, looking down at the pocket in her hand, "Our primary task now is to take the seeds back; everything else can be reported later and they can send specialized armed personnel."

"Alright, alright," the driver sighed in relief and turned the steering wheel, "Let’s head back first."

The speeding pickup truck kicked up a heavy cloud of dust as it drove past the edge of the city and towards the distant mountains.

In the rear of the truck, the aircraft that had originally crashed and was spewing black smoke began to tremble violently.

The destroyed parts started to grow and repair themselves, like flesh and blood.

Accompanied by the sound of squeaking and creaking.

The smoke-spewing machine slowly rose again from the ruins, floating towards the sky.

It was then that a hand slowly stretched out from the back.

Bang——

Accompanied by a soft sound.

The smoke-spewing aircraft was gently caught by this hand.

Buzz——

The shattered engine roared violently, power erupted from the aircraft, trying to escape the grasp of the hand.

But no matter how much the aircraft struggled, it couldn’t break free from the grip of the hand, as if what was being held was just a cardboard toy.

He Ao lowered his head, gazing at the aircraft, observing the naturally growing iron plates, watching the half-damaged core engine still running.

Although the machine appeared to be purely mechanical in structure, it exhibited self-repair and growth characteristics like flesh.

He Ao’s index finger touched the aircraft, and in an instant, the Divine Sense swept over the entire aircraft.

Apart from its mechanical structure, the aircraft carried traces of a mysterious higher power, almost imperceptible, and this power was the core of the aircraft.

Though the power itself had no strength, it allowed the aircraft to exhibit traits akin to flesh, even being able to generate its own projectiles.

Was this a machine contaminated from the relics? Or something else?

At this moment, the muzzle of the aircraft had already been restored, now pointing towards He Ao.

Bang——

He Ao exerted a slight force, and immense power suddenly acted on the aircraft, instantly crushing the entire machine, along with the almost imperceptible higher power, completely obliterating it.

As the scattered debris fell to the ground, He Ao lifted his gaze, looking towards the direction where the pickup truck disappeared.

——

Clang——

The heavy gate slowly opened, allowing the dust-covered pickup truck to enter the inside of the gate.

"Finally it’s over." The driver glanced at the slowly descending gate and handed the pickup truck keys to the inspection personnel walking over.

At this moment, she saw a slim and tall figure carrying a sniper rifle, wearing jeans, jump down from the back of the pickup truck.

Meanwhile, the woman in the passenger seat also walked over, looking at Liu Nan, "Liu Nan, thank you for this time."

She raised her hand and handed a card to Liu Nan, "This is the food ration card we agreed upon."

"Thank you." Liu Nan took the card and nodded slightly.

She didn’t say anything further but instead carried the sniper rifle and left through the nearby passage.

"Yang, so what’s the story with this Liu Nan, really?" The driver walked over, looking at Liu Nan’s departing silhouette, and asked softly.

"It’s said that her father used to be a super-rich man," the woman whispered, "That gun she carries is an Extraordinary Item, capable of dealing significant damage to those monsters."

"Oh, the heiress, huh," the driver clicked his tongue, pulling out a cigarette from his pocket, putting it in his mouth, and chuckled, "How did the heiress end up asking for food from our hands, and still acts all haughty."

"Let’s go," the woman took the cigarette from his mouth, "Let’s hand the seeds to the farmers."

Saying that, she raised her gaze, looked towards the direction where Liu Nan disappeared.

Meanwhile, behind them, a silhouette slowly walked in from the back of the gate, standing in the corner, gazing at the humanoid passage.

——

Clang——

The narrow iron door was opened from the outside.

The girl raised her hand, flipped the switch, and the dim light illuminated the cramped room, "Dad, I’m back."

The room was approximately two meters wide and four meters long, with a single iron bed placed inside. A figure was lying on the iron bed.

With the girl’s greeting, the figure on the bed did not respond.

The girl seemed long accustomed to this scenario; she lowered her head, removed the sniper rifle from her body, placed it in a nearby box, then walked to the bedside.

A middle-aged man with a refined appearance was lying on the bed, eyes shut, appearing as though he’s in a deep sleep.

The girl pulled out a finger clip oximeter, clipped it to the man’s finger.

Beep——Beep——

Accompanied by the crisp sound, the oximeter displayed the man’s heartbeat and oxygen level data.

Still alive, but perhaps he may never wake up again.

Watching this, the girl removed the oximeter, walked over to the corner, took off her coat, revealing the bandages seeped with a tinge of crimson that wrapped nearly her entire upper body.

She gently peeled off the bandage, glanced at the healing wound starting to scab, and sighed with relief.

Then, she re-tied the bandage, put her coat back on, reached for the handgun in her pocket, pulled out the card she just received, and stood up, "Dad, I’m going to get some food."

With that, she walked to the room’s door.

The room was unusually quiet, without a sound.

She pulled open the door, stepped out, and bumped into a broad figure.

"Sorry." She looked up, catching sight of the figure in front of her, a young man she had never seen before.

"No problem." He Ao looked at her, noticed the puzzled look in her eyes, slightly shook his head, then turned and left.

Did he know her?

Liu Nan stared in puzzlement at the young man leaving down the corridor.

But eventually, she retracted her gaze, closed the door, and walked in another direction.