Shangqing, Shunlian, Weijin, and Seoul were the main birthplaces of the Ming Empire's navy, with 40% of the Ming Army's fleets on the sea originating from here.
After America gained control of the near-Earth orbit airspace above the Ming Empire, it carried out large-scale orbital air drops in these cities, intending to directly destroy the Ming Empire's Bohai Sea Harbor industrial zone with ground-strike ships from near-Earth orbit.
The Ming Empire's counterattack was swift, and their space assault troops fearlessly engaged in space boarding battles.
After losing dozens of warships, America was forced to withdraw from near-Earth orbit, leaving only the orbital airborne brigades that had landed in the cities to deal with.
The skeletons in the subway were the handiwork of the American orbital airborne troops.
After learning that their space fleet had failed and they were isolated and helpless, some began to surrender to the Ming Army in organized units, but others chose to fight to the death.
They used the occupied cities as positions to engage in street fighting with the Ming Army, and brought this war underground.
These skeletons in the subway were the handiwork of the American orbital airborne troops.
Before they were annihilated, this American force began to massacre indiscriminately in the subway.
Although they were all eventually eliminated by the arriving Ming Empire army, the murdered civilians remained here forever, turning into piles of white bones.
However, Li Lu seemed to have little empathy for this massacre.
When she spoke to Feng Jun about this history, there was not much resentment in her eyes.
She was also selected to enter a Refuge at the beginning of the war, where she slept until she woke up after the Doomsday.
If she hadn't been chosen to enter the Refuge, she didn't know what her fate would have been.
However, she certainly wouldn't have been one of those who flew into space.
Surviving in the Doomsday for several years had almost completely eroded her concepts of nation and ethnicity.
Seeing Feng Jun staring blankly at a pile of skeletons, which were clearly not East Asian in structure—these bones had wider skulls and more prominent cheekbones, more consistent with Caucasian features, while Asian facial features might be relatively flatter—Li Lu walked over and said, “After the massacre, death naturally awaited them.
Whether they were evil or innocent, it no longer matters.
A group of rulers fled after completely ruining the Earth, so their deaths were meaningless to begin with, and even more so now.”
“Aren't Blood Nests easily formed where bodies accumulate? Why isn't there one here?” Feng Jun asked.
Li Lu stepped forward and kicked a leg bone, revealing the pale blue mycelium from the sewer zombies in the broken crack.
“Blood Nests mostly form near highly radioactive nuclear craters.
The radiation here is relatively lower than on the surface.
Moreover, this kind of mycelium prefers to grow underground, and it's also possible that the growth of the mycelium hindered the formation of the Blood Nest.”
“But who cares, the dangers underground are no less than those above ground.”
Li Lu checked the map; they still had a long way to go.
Feng Jun stopped talking and followed behind Li Lu into the depths of the tunnel.
Because the subway had a high level of wartime preparedness, the Ming Empire repaired it after the war, and some lighting facilities in the tunnel were still operating normally, which was much better than the situation in the sewers.
After walking a distance along the subway, Feng Jun felt a bit hungry.
Checking the time, including the time they spent on the surface, six hours had passed.
Even with Feng Jun's current Evolver physique, he began to feel hungry.
Just then, Li Lu's stomach also rumbled.
Since both of them were hungry, Feng Jun and Li Lu found a relatively clean platform to sit down and eat.
Because there was no place to cook, the two ate portable aggregated energy bars.
It was a transparent plastic container filled with a milky white, turbid substance.
Li Lu tore open one end of the packaging and began to suck the energy bar.
Feng Jun imitated Li Lu, tore open one end of the packaging, and held the energy bar to his nose to smell it.
There was no scent.
He tried taking a sip to taste it.
Just like the smell, there was absolutely no taste, feeling like he had a mouthful of paste.
Chewing a couple of times, it even felt a bit sticky to his teeth.
It was hard to imagine that this was the most popular food in the wasteland.
If Feng Jun had to eat this every day, he would probably go crazy.
Feng Jun had heard Song Peng and his subordinates mention this thing many times, but this was his first time eating it, so he became curious about it.
After quickly sucking down the energy bar in his hand, Feng Jun didn't feel much satiety, so he took out another one and started sucking.
Li Lu stopped eating after one bar and sat on the steps to recover her strength.
Seeing that she wasn't busy, Feng Jun asked, “You get full with just one? What are these aggregated energy bars made of?”
Li Lu nodded and said, “Although aggregated energy bars have no taste, the energy absorbed from one bar can meet an adult's daily consumption.
We're eating the military-grade type, so naturally, we don't need to eat too much.
This stuff doesn't give much of a feeling of fullness, so you don't need to eat too much.
As for the raw materials? Weeds by the roadside, trees, mutated field mice, insects, even zombies or corpses by the roadside can be thrown into the reactor and recycled to make aggregated energy bars, though the grade of the output differs.
And aggregated energy bars themselves have many benefits, for example…”
Gag ~ Ah ~
Upon hearing that the stuff in his mouth was made of zombies and corpses, Feng Jun couldn't help but dry heave.
What he had sucked into his mouth was immediately spat out, but a strong sense of nausea still came over him.
He quickly leaned over the railing and started dry heaving, but no matter how much he tried to vomit, not a single bit of the energy aggregated bar he had eaten came out.
Thinking of the corpses and zombies he had seen by the roadside, Feng Jun dry heaved again.
“One of the benefits is that the energy aggregated bar adheres to the stomach and intestinal walls and is slowly absorbed by the human body.
It won't be vomited out by a soldier due to stimulation on the Battlefield, causing unnecessary loss.
Just one bar can ensure a soldier's high-intensity combat for a day.”
Li Lu walked over and patted Feng Jun's back to make him feel better.
When Feng Jun stopped dry heaving, Li Lu handed him some tissues to wipe his mouth, then asked Feng Jun, looking incredulous, “Is this your first time eating something like this?”
Feng Jun nodded and said, “Haha, in my hometown, food production is still relatively abundant, so we don't have to worry about food.”
Li Lu was very puzzled.
Although she had inwardly come to rely on Feng Jun, she was even more curious about his origins.
She hadn't found a suitable opportunity in Longmen Town, and now she wanted to ask for clarification.
Just as Li Lu was about to ask Feng Jun where he came from, a sparse, wriggling sound came from the direction they had just walked from.
It sounded like some kind of creature was moving.
Upon hearing the sound, Li Lu and Feng Jun immediately raised their guns and looked in the direction of the sound.
Li Lu's delicate brows furrowed slightly.
She often ventured through ruins and had never heard such a wriggling sound; it sounded hair-raising.
Although she didn't know what creature was making it, in the wasteland, such a sound meant danger.
“Hurry, don't stop,” Li Lu whispered.
Feng Jun had originally wanted to send a Hummingbird UAV to investigate, but after hearing Li Lu's urging, he abandoned the idea.
The two accelerated their run along the planned route.
Because both of them were Evolvers and wore mechanical exoskeletons for assistance, they naturally ran much faster.
In just a few minutes, they had left the sound far behind.
After the two had gone far, the sparse wriggling sound reached the platform where they had rested.
It was a swarm of dense white insects, only the size of a ping-pong ball, entirely white with six spider-like legs.
Their bodies were plump, with no visible eyes, but they had a mouthpart almost as large as their body, filled with interlocking sharp teeth.
These insects moved in swarms, densely covering the entire tunnel, turning the ground and ceiling white.
Each of these small insects was extremely hungry.
Many mutated rats lived in the subway.
Because the subway received relatively less radiation, these rats had a relatively lower degree of mutation.
Aside from their increased size, they were basically no different from before.
But at this moment, these rats became the prey of these white insects.
These insects spread out like a carpet in the tunnel, searching for any living creature they could encounter.
They swarmed into the rat holes in the subway, and the rats screamed as they ran out of the holes, covered in bizarre white insects.
After only a few struggles in the swarm, they were completely devoured, leaving only a few white bones.
The swarm engulfed the platform where Feng Jun and Li Lu had just rested, where the half-eaten aggregated energy bar that Feng Jun had discarded remained.
These white insects seemed to not be picky eaters; even the puddle Feng Jun had spat on the ground was eaten by them.
These insects had exceptionally good teeth; they ate the aggregated energy bar along with its packaging completely clean.
After eating, they were unusually excited, as if they had tasted a particularly delicious treat.
Several larger insects among them opened their mouths and inhaled deeply, seemingly distinguishing the scent in the air.
Their olfactory system was extremely sensitive, and they immediately locked onto the lingering scent of Feng Jun and Li Lu in the air.
These larger insects vibrated their body armor, emitting a low-frequency sound.
This sound spread through the swarm, one after another, quickly reaching the entire swarm.
Upon receiving the signal, the swarm began to move in unison, but their direction was locked onto Feng Jun and Li Lu.
At this moment, Li Lu and Feng Jun had arrived at a subway station where the tunnel had collapsed, blocking their original route.
If they had followed the original route, they would only need to continue along the subway tunnel to reach their destination, but the section after this station must have collapsed during the war.
After recalculating the route, Li Lu decided to go up to the surface first, find a way to bypass the collapsed subway, and then go back underground.
“This station is already in the downtown area of Shangqing City, so there will be more zombies on the surface.
You must follow me closely later,” Li Lu warned.
“Don't worry, my lady, I'm very capable of fighting,” Feng Jun said.