"Hiss~"
In the dim light, exposed bricks and flakes of dried cement silently scattered around the area.
A beetle crawled across the surface, its six hardened legs alternating as it moved, searching for something to satiate its hunger.
It hadn't eaten for nearly a week.
In this wasteland, finding anything edible was harder than reaching the heavens.
A single misstep could turn it into food for another.
But with a body nearly half a meter long, a glossy black carapace, limbs sharp enough to leave imprints on cement, and mandibles capable of slicing through steel rods, this beetle was not a small predator in the ruins of this dark corner.
The giant beetle used its mouthparts to lift a fragile piece of cement, hoping to find something inside that it could devour and digest, even if it was just a tuft of hair.
But after a long search, it found nothing—not even a trace of another creature's excrement.
Just as it was about to leave in disappointment, its two small emerald-green eyes suddenly brightened, emitting a chirp of excitement louder than when it found a mate!
It had caught the long-lost scent of food.
In extreme hunger, even a mate was just food.
Although the sudden scent of blood was faint and strangely eerie, it deeply stimulated its tiny brain, no larger than a fingertip.
Its body had mutated and evolved, but its intelligence had not, so it rushed towards the source of the smell without hesitation.
The faint scent led it to a small house not far away.
The room inside was just as dark, with overturned cabinets and furniture long since gnawed away by other insects, leaving only a rusty iron frame amidst the rubble.
The source of the food scent was on a bloodstained piece of cloth inside the iron frame.
The giant beetle, driven by the delicious smell so close by, forgot all potential dangers and threw itself forward recklessly.
In these times, it was better to die full than to become someone else's food.
And without exception, this giant beetle now fell into the unlucky category.
Just as it squeezed into the iron frame, which barely accommodated its body...
Creak~
A black rope tied to the corner of the iron frame suddenly tightened under an external force, causing the entire frame to collapse inward, trapping the half-meter-long giant beetle tightly within!
Hiss!!
The beetle, startled, immediately let out a hiss like leaking gas, which sounded particularly sharp in the silent room!
At the same time, a figure hidden in the dark corner sprang into action!
With a lean but agile body, the figure moved swiftly through the rubble like a light breeze.
Before the giant beetle could break free from the decaying iron frame, the figure leaped onto its iron-like carapace!
But this only made the beetle struggle even more fiercely.
Without hesitation, the figure gripped the metal crowbar in his right hand and slammed it down on the beetle's head, which was also covered by armor!
Bang!
The first strike glanced off the beetle's smooth, hard head, sparking a weak flash of light that momentarily illuminated the boy's dark, determined, and thin face.
Swish!
The second strike drove the curved end of the crowbar into a gap between the beetle's head and body.
Crack!
On the third strike, the boy used his weight and the crowbar's curved end as a lever to forcefully press down!
The beetle's hard head armor finally pried open, revealing the still-warm muscle tissue underneath!
Before the beetle could emit a piercing scream that would attract other high-level mutated creatures, the boy quickly withdrew the crowbar and stabbed it fiercely into where he remembered the beetle's brain to be!
Swoosh!
Instantly, a foul-smelling green liquid sprayed onto his face, and the giant beetle stopped struggling, leaving only its six sharp legs twitching slightly in reflex.
After killing the beetle, the boy didn't relax. He pulled out a piece of plastic wrap he had prepared earlier and tightly wrapped the beetle's crushed head to prevent the stench from spreading.
Finally, he picked up the nearly dozens of kilograms heavy beetle carcass and quickly left the small house.
About a minute after he left, the ceiling, floor, outside the door, and every corner of the room suddenly filled with a rustling sound that made one's scalp tingle.
Hundreds of fist-sized poisonous ants, drawn by the lingering stench in the room, swarmed in, instantly occupying the entire abandoned house, enveloping it in a writhing black mass.
...
Inside a three-story building so warped it looked like it might collapse at any moment, the boy placed the giant beetle carcass he had been carrying on the ground.
The run with the beetle had left him panting heavily, though he made a conscious effort to keep his breathing quiet.
He pulled a sharp bone knife from his waist and skillfully poked a small hole in the plastic wrap covering the beetle's head.
Then he bent down, brought his chapped lips close to the hole, and began greedily sucking the foul-smelling, dark green brain matter of the beetle.
He only stopped when his sunken belly swelled slightly, then plugged the hole with another layer of plastic wrap.
The last time he had eaten was about three days ago.
Sitting on the ground, Xia Leng wiped the sticky liquid from the corner of his mouth and let out a small sigh of relief.
This hunt should sustain his combat strength for another 3-5 days.
He couldn't stand the revolting taste of insect blood and wanted to roast the meat over a fire to make it more palatable.
But starting a fire without a fortified shelter at night was as good as digging your own grave.
In this absurd apocalypse, beasts no longer feared fire, insects were no longer deterred by the cold, and plants no longer needed photosynthesis.
Lighting a flickering campfire in the dark night was like announcing to every high-level predator that there was a fool waiting to be claimed.
And Xia Leng didn't have the strength left to make it to the next day.
So, devouring raw flesh and blood was the simplest and most brutal way to regain energy; after all, this wasn't his first time.
As he waited for his strength to gradually recover, he surveyed the surroundings of the three-story building he was in.
The remnants of a shattered refrigerator, a rotting sofa overturned on the ground, a crystal chandelier dangling precariously from the ceiling, and a dust-covered photo frame lying next to him—all indicated that this place had been a happy home for a small, well-off family five years and three months ago.
Five years and three months ago, everyone was still immersed in a happy life, with no worries about food and clothing, entertained to death.
At that time, Xia Leng was only 17 years old, a student who had just been admitted to university. He was introverted, not good at talking, and had made almost no friends after a semester.
But he didn't mind; that was just his personality.
Then one day, without warning, the sky was suddenly shrouded in dark clouds, and a strange black rain began to fall.
That day, the school was holding its anniversary celebration in the square, and except for Xia Leng and a few others who had called in sick and were resting in their dorms, tens of thousands of students and teachers were soaked by the sudden black rain.
Xia Leng didn't remember how long he slept, only that when he woke up, he heard all kinds of terrifying screams outside the window...