As for when this natural disaster that swept across the entire Blue Star began, everyone on the planet, except for those in the Neon Country, believed it started on the day the Neon Country ignored the solemn protests of neighboring countries and began discharging nuclear-contaminated water into the pristine ocean.
After the continuous discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea for three months, a massive volcanic eruption occurred in the Neon Country. Volcanic ash, boiling lava, and the tsunamis and massive earthquakes triggered by the eruption swallowed the Neon Country, leaving less than five percent of its total population to narrowly escape.
Before humanity could even recover from this planet-shaking “disaster,” dozens of massive volcanoes scattered across the five continents of the Blue Star erupted one after another. The planet’s freshwater became undrinkable due to volcanic ash pollution, and the months of acid rain triggered by the eruptions caused global agriculture to collapse.
It was only six months after the volcanic eruptions that atmospheric visibility on the Blue Star began to improve. Just as the people of the Blue Star walked out of their homes to warmly celebrate the end of the disaster and prepare to rebuild their homes, an even greater catastrophe suddenly struck.
A supernova explosion occurred in a star eight thousand light-years away from the Blue Star, causing an ultra-strong gamma-ray burst to inexplicably change direction and head straight toward the Blue Star, which was originally outside its path of impact.
After a flash of ultraviolet light lasting only a few seconds, an electromagnetic pulse covering an entire hemisphere struck the Blue Star. The intense radiation completely paralyzed communications and cut off the power supply in the two directly impacted continents. At the same time, all artificial satellites outside the Blue Star’s atmosphere suffered devastating damage, losing contact with the surface.
Not long after the people in the two continents on the night hemisphere woke up and walked out of their homes, a massive amount of high-speed meson particles swept over them. The cells within all living organisms that came into direct contact with the meson stream were penetrated, their DNA completely destroyed, turning the human world into a living hell.
The gamma-ray burst not only caused the death of most living organisms on the two continents but also threw the Blue Star’s magnetic field into chaos. Two mysterious elements suddenly appeared in the Blue Star’s atmosphere, which were later named “Qiang” and “Yi” by Hua Guo scientists.
Qiang: to brutally harm and kill, damaging the body and shortening one’s lifespan.
Yi: thunder emerging from the mountains, the sprouting of all living things.
Under the influence of these two elements, all living things on the Blue Star underwent a massive evolution in a short period, simultaneously launching a grand challenge against humanity, which stood at the top of the food chain. The hellish survival mode of the entire Blue Star had officially begun.
Xia Qing’s mother died in an insect plague during the fourth year of the natural disaster, and her father died in a beast tide during the fifth year.
In the tenth year of the natural disaster, Xia Qing was still alive.
“Thud!”
A stone slab weighing over three hundred jin crashed to the ground. Startled, the recorder Old Zhong raised his face, which was pitted and scarred from acid rain. When he saw the thin, dark-skinned woman standing before the stone slab wearing a green identity tag, he forced his anger down and muttered, “Take a break if you’re tired. Breaking the stone slabs won’t earn you any points.”
Xia Qing wiped the sweat and lime powder from her face with her sleeve and spoke, which was a rare occurrence. “Uncle Zhong, I’m leaving.”
Old Zhong didn’t expect Xia Qing to speak to him. He stood up, his face covered in smiles. “Are you going out hunting with the battle team? What day will you be back? Can you save a jin of good meat for your uncle? I’ll trade you for it at 1.5 times the points.”
After the great biological evolution of the Blue Star, human bones became tougher and muscles grew stronger. A tiny minority of people evolved physically by several or even over ten times, becoming Evolvers.
Evolvers controlled more survival resources, and their living conditions were much better than those of ordinary civilians struggling on the brink of life and death.
Xia Qing was a Level 4 Strength Evolver, which meant her current strength was four times that of an evolved ordinary person. Although Level 4 strength was nothing special among Evolvers, it was enough to make ordinary people envious, fearful, and eager to please her.
As an Evolver, Xia Qing usually kept a stiff, silent face simply because she didn’t want to deal with scenes like this.
However, she wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore.
“I’m not going hunting. I’m leaving the Safety Zone,” Xia Qing smiled. But because she hadn’t smiled in years, her expression was stiff, which looked exceptionally terrifying to Old Zhong.
The corner of his eye, which was missing a piece of flesh, stretched wide, and his eyeballs nearly bulged out. He asked, trembling, “Is another massive pack of evolved beasts coming? Can our base not hold out? Didn’t the broadcast yesterday just say that the evolved fierce beasts had been driven back hundreds of miles? Is another evolved beast tide coming?”
Hearing Old Zhong’s words, the four ordinary people carrying stone blocks behind him were so frightened that the stone slipped from their hands, looking as if it was about to crush one of them.
Xia Qing, quick-eyed and deft-handed, grabbed the stone block, placed it steadily on the ground, dusted herself off, and explained, “No, I’m going farming.”
Farming? Farming!
The call for people to go out and farm had been blaring over the broadcast for several days. However, the people who had managed to survive to the tenth year of the apocalypse valued their lives dearly; no one wanted to go out and take risks. Rumors had already begun spreading in the Safety Zone with great detail, claiming that if no one volunteered to leave the Safety Zone to farm, the next step would be to forcibly draft ordinary people to go out and die.
Who would have thought that someone actually wanted to go, and it was even an Evolver who could live quite well within the Safety Zone.
Coming to his senses, Old Zhong hurriedly caught up with Xia Qing. “Farming is good! Do you still remember my eldest son? Zhong Tao. He works in the transport fleet. I’ll talk to him later. In the future, Qing, if you need anything, just look for your Brother Tao and let him handle it for you.”
Old Zhong’s son, Zhong Tao, had joined the military of the Hui San Base and was currently serving in the transport fleet as a squad leader. This was the reason why the Zhong family was able to get by so well in the Safety Zone, and it was also why Xia Qing had taken the initiative to strike up a conversation with Old Zhong today.
Xia Qing gave a stiff smile. “Great. I’ll definitely be troubling Brother Tao in the future to help transport my grain and prey back to exchange for supplies.”
Old Zhong’s scarred face lit up with a wide grin. “That’s exactly what he’s supposed to do! It’s no trouble at all, not in the slightest. Qing, which area of land are you claiming?”
“I haven’t claimed it yet. I’m on my way there now.” Having achieved her goal, Xia Qing stopped forcing herself to engage in unfamiliar socializing, which was more exhausting than carrying stones. She quickly made her way to the Safety Zone’s Mission Hall, bypassed the crowd gathering under the territory electronic bulletin board, and stood at the very front of the territory office desk.
“What do you think you’re doing? Don’t you understand the concept of first come, first served?” Seeing Xia Qing snatch the first spot, several people under the bulletin board grew upset and rushed over with rolled-up sleeves.
Xia Qing turned around. When the people rushing over saw the green tag she was wearing, they stopped instantly.
Xia Qing clenched her fists and rotated her wrists, slowly raising her eyelids. “If you want a territory, line up.”
Today was the day to claim territory, which was why there were so many onlookers. Although these few people hadn’t decided whether to claim any land yet, they still obediently stood behind Xia Qing and lined up.
Seeing that they didn’t start a fight, the two soldiers on duty lowered their guns and retreated to their original positions.
Most people had a herd mentality. Seeing someone lining up, the people under the bulletin board immediately scrambled over.
Whether they wanted to claim land or not, they would get in line first.
The commotion here caught the attention of the people in the hall. A woman wearing a green tag with two long scars on her face walked over to greet Xia Qing. “Are you going farming?”
Xia Qing nodded. “Sister Xu, are you here to pick up a mission?”
In the years since her father passed away, Xia Qing had frequently gone on missions with Xu Juan’s Dongyang Team. Xu Juan was warm-hearted and already treated Xia Qing as one of her own.
Xu Juan looked around. Finding no Hearing Evolvers nearby, she lowered her voice and asked, “Did you offend someone? I can talk to Dongyang. Why don’t you join our battle team?”
Unless they had offended someone and couldn’t survive here anymore, what Evolver would give up a comfortable life in the Safety Zone to risk their life scraping a living from the dirt?
Xia Qing shook her head. “I didn’t offend anyone. I just like doing this.”
But you can’t just go and seek death just because you like it.
Just as Xu Juan was about to speak, she heard the sound of a car braking outside the hall, followed by leather shoes hitting the ground.
It had already been ten years since the natural disaster, and there were only a few people in the Safety Zone who still wore high-heeled leather shoes. Xu Juan turned her head toward the entrance of the hall. She saw an alluring woman dressed in a form-fitting leather coat, looking clean and completely out of place among the crowd, walk through the door and head straight in their direction.
Tang Lu, the niece of the Hui San Base’s second-in-command Tang Zhengrong, and the daughter of Tang Zhengsu, the captain of the base’s top-ranked Su Feng Team. She was the most troublesome woman in the entire Safety Zone; whoever crossed paths with her was bound for bad luck. Xu Juan had been held in a grudge by her over a trivial matter, so she avoided her as much as possible now.
Xia Qing’s lips moved slightly, speaking in a barely audible voice, “Sister Xu, go tend to your business. We’ll catch up when you’re free.”
Xu Juan nodded slightly, turned around, and quickly walked back to her teammates.
The crisp click-clack of leather shoes echoed through the hall. Most of the people in the hall watched Tang Lu, wondering which man she had set her eyes on today, or which woman she was here to make trouble for.
Wearing the yellow tag of an ordinary civilian, Tang Lu walked with an impatient expression to the territory office desk on the west side of the hall. With her chin tilted up and eyes looking down in a superior posture, she stared at the green tag hanging on Xia Qing’s chest.
Xia Qing raised her eyes to glance at her, then calmly took a step back.
“Hmph.” Only then did Tang Lu snort triumphantly. She swayed her hips as she took the first spot in line, pulled out a perfume-scented handkerchief, and fanned it in front of her nose. “What is that smell? It’s suffocating. Don’t you even know how to wash yourself?”
After nuclear-contaminated water and six months of continuous acid rain mixed into the oceans and lakes, the Blue Star’s water resources could only be used after purification. Because the cost of purification was exorbitantly high, water usage in the Safety Zone required points to exchange. For ordinary people, even eating their fill and drinking water had become a luxury, let alone being willing to spend life-saving points on taking a bath.
As an Evolver, Xia Qing lived slightly better than ordinary people, being able to take a hasty bath once a week. However, today she had intentionally come looking dirty. Although her thin but still quite pretty face had been painted a dark red, it was best not to let the jealous Tang Lu remember her, and even more crucial not to let Tang Zhengrong and Tang Zhengsu get a clear look at her.
Listening to Tang Lu’s complaints, Xia Qing kept her head slightly lowered, remaining expressionless, but her mood was incredibly good.
She had known long ago that the Tang family would come, but she hadn’t expected the one showing up to be none other than the eldest young lady of the Tang family, Tang Lu.
Banxia Novel, so much joy.