The Old Earth's land had been damaged so much by mass nuclear wars to the point that it could never be restored again. At the same time, the ocean was seriously polluted. After the crisis of the 'Apocalypse', irreversible changes had happened on this planet.
More than 50% area of the continent had been transformed into desert. The colors of the sea also changed dramatically into purple or even black. Different levels of pollution had different colors. The ocean was now unaccomodating for most living creatures. The ecological system had been cut off, leading to mutation of creatures dwelling deep in the ocean. Species that could adapt to the situation survived, while the others became extinct.
It happened as the scientists from the 21st century had once predicted. Ice on both poles melted. Ohio valley was flooded. The whole Australian Continent sank to the bottom of the sea. New York became a muddy puddle…
War brings death. Death ceases wars.
At the end, when some people were looking at their devastated homes, they found that the second 'Sun' had disappeared. Heat, hunger, pain, remorse, and despair… all stormed to their hearts at the same time, accompanying them until they fell to their deaths.
Fierce radiation polluted the rich soil near the equator, and light flickered in the ruins of cities during the nights. This situation had been lasting for hundreds of years. Some species were extinct, while others had mutated and evolved.
Time flew fast. Black clouds started to gather over some barren, desolate lands. Heavy rain poured down, cooling the poisonous sea water that blanketed the land, scattering the dirty air and healing open cuts that cracked on the Earth.
After the rain had washed over, a silent, dead land emerged.
There should be some survivors. Human beings were as weak as an ant or an insect; so, their lives would be as tough as one's.
Survivors mounted from ruins of civilization, stepping on their ways to survive. They soon realized that the temperature was hotter than before. Even in the non-deserted areas, the steam in the air was much denser than before. The sky above their heads was orange, while the sun was shining dazzling light.
Inside the ruins, strange plants started to sprout even though no one had watered them, and they bared themselves under the blazing sunlight. Those wild, odd-colored, and bizarre-shaped plants were thriving, covering majority of the land.
To the Earth, where the blue sea turned into mulberry fields (idiom, transformation of the world - TL), this wasn't the first time such a climate change happened… Ice age, tectonic shift, erupting volcano… all had left traces, but they didn't change the trajectory of the Earth. Currently, it was still working as it used to be three billion years ago, spinning itself and orbiting the sun.
Science and technology became outdated. After the calamity, survivors with their new lease of life now had returned to the primitive living conditions. They formed social structures like tribes and wandered on earth, searching for food and reliable shelters.
Besides the desert, there were also highly toxic swamp, deep canyons, muddy low-lying ground, and desolate mountain range. Anyway, besides those places, the earth was still a big place, and places that looked like wonderlands still existed.
Somewhere in a deep canyon in North America situated such a place. This was an underground cave, as big as a city. It looked like a pocket with a dense, thick 'cloud' of ploras, forming a roof to prevent a big part of dazzling sunlight from entering the deeper place. The temperature here was comfy; the soil was suitable for growing crops with an abundant amount of underground water… The most important feature was that, this place had 'half' of an interstellar spacecraft wreckage.
No one knows why this spacecraft was here. Perhaps it used to be a secret research center of some country, or perhaps it was a ship shot down during a battle.
In short, eventually, a tribe had found this place. The conditions here gave them a base to survive, and the wreckage of the spaceship had helped them regain the fire of civilization. Life thrived again, and a new society of mankind was established.
After almost three centuries, this place had become one of the bases of the human survivors on Earth. People called this place—'The Deity Guarded Village.'
Inside the underground laboratory in Crystal Lake.
Apocalypse Assault had seen the other end of the road. He had checked all the turns and followed the corridor to this place. At present, ahead of him was a staircase leading upward that looked like a zigzag staircase of an emergency exit in a normal residential building. It had an iron handrail and metal steps, which he could vaguely see things above from the gaps between the steps.
He took out his weapon and cautiously walked forward. The light here wasn't adequate. Looking from underneath, it was hard to tell if there was an ambush awaiting.
"Members from the Martial World, don't hide anymore. I saw you!" Apparently, Apocalypse Assault was just bluffing. He wasn't afraid of disclosing his whereabouts as he knew this was the last part of the laboratory. No doubt that the part above his head was now the exit. If Wild Trace Sword Shadow and Feng Bu Jue wanted to ambush him, they could only choose this place. And, to the ones who were waiting for him, obviously, they should have recognized him long ago.
"Well, your grenade trick is marvelous, isn't it?" Apocalypse Assault said. "Wild Trace Sword Shadow, that's all you've got? Your Martial World is just a gang of turtles who are good at doing tricks." He was taking advantage of not getting his words censored to carry out the verbal war in order to provoke his opponents to show themselves. At this moment, he was exposed while the other side was still hiding in the dark. It wasn't a favorable condition for him.
"What? Don't dare to come out?" Apocalypse Assault snorted coldly. "You have two, and I'm on my own here, aren't you still scared?"
What answered him was the echo of his own voice.
"Harruphm... You should make up your mind," Apocalypse Assault said. "Under the same condition of Survival Value reducing, the two of you will consume double than me. Well, in the case of taking the upper hand but you are afraid of fighting, it's just a waste of Survival Value." He paused for a while and continued, "I'm not afraid of leaving here and staying away from you as far as possible. Well, we then play the war of attrition. Even if I lose, you guys have to consume double the amount of blood compared to me."
What Apocalypse Assault said seemed reasonable, but since he was here at this moment, it meant that he didn't choose that strategy.
If Apocalypse Assault felt that he couldn't win a direct fight, he wouldn't approach the opponent. After Ultimate Assault was exploded, he should have run to the opposite direction then find a place and wait there until the opponents come for him. In case he could successfully stalk and kill one of them, perhaps he would have a chance to win.
Thus, the only reason why Apocalypse Assault came here was that he was confident he could battle against the other two. And, the foundation of his confidence was some strong skills or equipment.
After he had been shouting for a while, there was still no response from the stair above. This confused Apocalypse Assault. He couldn't help but to think whether this staircase would lead to another level, which was as big as this underground lab?
Upon this thought, he cautiously groped to the staircase and mounted it. Now, he could only do that. First, if the opponent wouldn't show up at any cost, he had no choice though. Climb up there or leave here. Second, if there were actually one more level up there, even if he had been shouting here for one hour, no one could hear him.
He came back and forth, taking each step with full alert. However, he didn't encounter any ambush or even the smallest mark of traps. Anyway, Apocalypse Assault wouldn't dare to be careless. The memory of the grenade event was still new in his mind as his teammate was screwed in a blink because he had been too close to the grenade and he himself almost got exploded to death. Such lesson, he would never forget for the rest of his time being professional gamers or even his life.
This staircase was as high as three or four floors. After four times of walking back and forth, he had spent a whole five minutes. When he got to the upper floor, Apocalypse Assault was dazed. Laying in front of him was a section of corridor, an empty corridor, which had the end standing 10 meters ahead. The wall there was a massive gate with two parts, left and right, meshed to each other by the sawtooth edges. The thickness of this gate wasn't less than any bank's vault, and the lock on the gate was broken…
"Where are they?" This was Apocalypse Assault's first reaction.
He and Ultimate Assault had completely searched the other side of the laboratory, and this side was the exit. On the way here, he saw the traces that Wild Trace Sword Shadow and Feng Bujue had left, hit their trap and also searched all the turns. This meant he was on the right track. But why… was nobody there?
"Did they get out of this place?" This thought had flashed in Apocalypse Assault's head, but he immediately crossed out this assumption. "Impossible… According to the plot's introduction, the outside environment harsher than in here… perhaps the Survival Value will be reduced faster… And, the lock here is broken, how could they get out?" He started to make assumptions. "Perhaps… They got out then closed the door. Before they closed the door, they had broken the lock to confine me inside?"
"Hmm, that's not true. Getting out there is not good…" Apocalypse Assault walked back and forth with a stiff face. After a long time, he had jumped to a supposition that he thought it was true. "Yep! Absolutely!" He suddenly recognized something, but his face and tone stayed the same. "They entered the end of the corridor, broke the lock and made a scene like they had walked out of the lab then turned back… They had definitely taken the main path while I was searching the other turns… I'm afraid that they are at the other end of the lab now."
...
At the same time, outside the laboratory.
Under the pale yellow sky was an undulating sea of sand extending continuously. The wind was howling in the air while dark sand storm was sweeping here and there. Without the protection equipment, in such circumstances, humans would find it hard to open their eyes. If they opened their mouths to talk, surely they would receive a mouthful of sand. Moreover, their voices couldn't come further than five meters.
A 'Shark Cabin' was floating above this sea of sand. This was around 20 meters long, six meters wide and four meters tall. It appeared as a giant armored shark. However, this Shark Cabin didn't have any fins. The top of the ship was streamlined and flat. The ship's color had been washed until it was khaki as the color of the desert. Without windshields or visual devices in front of it, they could only rely on the internal detection radar and the navigation devices to move.
The air inside the Shark Cabin was treated. Even if they didn't wear protection clothes, the Survival Value of the two players would stop decreasing.
At this moment, Feng Bujue was leisurely sitting on the pilot's chair, with his hands placed behind his head. It didn't take him too long to study how to control the Shark Cabin. The interface of those devices wasn't too complicated. At the same time, the coordinates of their destination were set up before, so now they just needed to choose auto-pilot mode.
When Feng Bujue got out of the laboratory, seeing the environment outside, he immediately understood that manual control on this planet was useless since there was no road. Let alone road, it didn't even have something that looked like that. So, this Shark Cabin should be equipped with some navigation device to get to the desired destination.
And, here came another problem. How could the other team get to the Crystal Lake Laboratory?
Hank said that his team got 'the order' to search here, which meant their superior knew the particular coordinates of the laboratory in Crystal Lake.
Then, another problem arose. Had their superior searched this coordinates before or did they just find it the other day? What methods did they use to find this place? A micro-detection robot?
Feng Bujue guessed that… those people had arrived not too late or too early. Right when the 'Interstellar Immigrants' left, they arrived. This obviously meant something…
From Hank's reaction when he first saw the 'outlanders', Feng Bujue immediately advanced his reasoning to another step. Currently, even though they hadn't reached that village yet, Feng Bujue could basically know the situation there.
"Why didn't you kill him?" Wild Trace Sword Shadow was sitting on the co-pilot's seat next to Feng Bujue as he cocked his head. "Keeping him here, aren't you afraid that something unfavorable would happen?" Of course, he had lowered his voice so that Hank, who was tied back there, couldn't overhear what they were discussing.
"No hatred, no resentment, why kill people," answered Feng Bu Jue.
Wild Trace Sword Shadow forced a smile. "No way, don't you think it's too late to pretend you are on the good guys' side?"
"It has nothing to do with me, whether it is for the sake of justice or not. Mainly, this NPC is still useful," Feng Bu Jue answered. "We need his help to mingle in the village."
"He will help us?" Wild Trace Sword Shadow slightly turned his head to glare at Hank, who was sitting a little far from them. "For what? Although he couldn't resist now, once we enter his village, he could find a chance to run away or shout out loud to ask for help, and the other guys would come and arrest us."
Feng Bujue curled his lips. "Everyone has a weakness. Once you can grab it, they will betray their own principles and follow you." He stood up from his seat and muttered, "To Hank, we just need to use force or some simple psychology pressure." He then walked to Hank…