Chapter 1067: The Overwhelming Gluttonous Desire
The bar windows slammed shut just before the alien creatures could pounce inside. Though those inside hadn't seen how the people outside died, they could imagine it was gruesome just by using their toes. The enclosed space and narrow field of view only magnified their fear. Someone shouted, "I'd rather kill myself than be eaten alive!" and actually rammed into a sharp object inside the bar!
At that moment, the bar was once again surrounded by mutated beasts. Just like before, they propped the mutated beasts up from the sides and continued pushing the building toward the cliff edge.
Uncle Guan, still outside, saw this situation. Under the pursuit of the alien creatures, he distanced himself from the bar, then released a transparent ring with six floating diamond-shaped objects inside. Once the ring left his hand and floated, it quickly dispersed. Each piece flew a hundred meters before stopping. After stopping, each diamond object released a white arc that automatically connected to the next, finally forming a ring about two hundred meters in diameter.
Then this floating ring suddenly descended from the air, like a circular guillotine blade cutting into the alien creature swarm. With its descending posture alone, it sliced all the mutated beasts beneath the ring in half. Then, maintaining a height of one meter above the ground, it spun rapidly, circling around Uncle Guan in a complete circle, carving through the mutated beasts in that area like slicing melons and vegetables—including two super-large alien creatures. However, due to their larger size, they didn't die immediately after their limbs were severed.
Such a useful prop naturally wouldn't last too long, but for a full minute, Uncle Guan killed nearly half of the alien creatures surrounding the bar. After the ring disappeared, only a few lucky mutated beasts remained near him, but he took them out one by one with his gun.
Over a thousand corpses lay near the bar, which greatly intimidated the mutated beasts farther away. Like the ones that had died from eating their companions' poisoned corpses earlier, they paused their attacks again and wandered in place.
Uncle Guan looked up at Xu Huo in the air and nodded, then returned to the bar.
"There will be a third wave soon," Chi Minghong said. Her communicator was still on, so Xu Huo could hear their conversation outside. "I've already used more than half of my applicable props. If the beast swarm rams the bar again, I'll have to retrieve my props."
Props had limits of endurance; they couldn't be consumed indefinitely.
"Then what do we do?" The people from Zone 002 immediately panicked. "Leaving us here means certain death!"
"I don't want to be eaten alive by alien creatures! If I'd known this, I'd rather have died falling from above!"
"...If I fell into the alien creature pile, I wouldn't even have a chance to kill myself..."
...
The atmosphere of fear turned into despair, and someone tried to commit suicide again. Chi Minghong quickly stopped them. "Don't be so hasty! Struggle a bit more. My friend went out to find a way. Maybe there's a safe zone far from the alien creatures here!"
"How could there be a safe zone in a hellhole like this!" someone uncontrollably shouted. "Are you trying to use us to buy time so you can escape?"
Chi Minghong didn't hold back at all. She kicked the person flying and said in a deep voice, "If it weren't for you people, we would have left long ago. We haven't even complained about you holding us back, and you have the nerve to turn around and pick a fight with us? If you don't want to live, just say so—I can grant your wish!"
Her tough stance made the others behave.
At this point, Xu Huo had already crossed through the woods in the opposite direction and relayed a message through the communicator.
"Unfortunately, there's still no sign of human activity ahead. But the rain is lighter there, and the vegetation is denser, looking much better than the plants in the woods. Maybe we can find something to eat."
So far, they hadn't found any animals that seemed remotely normal or potentially edible besides the mutated beasts. If they couldn't find any, they might have to consider slaughtering a couple of alien creatures to eat.
Alien creatures generally carried toxins—just varying degrees of potency. Chronic poisoning was still better than starving to death.
"At least it's not completely barren," Uncle Guan said with slight relief. They had tested the plants in the woods and found they contained trace toxins, but the instrument couldn't determine what kind. Eating them and getting chronic poisoning would be troublesome. If other areas also had plants, it meant most of the soil wasn't toxic, so it wouldn't have killed off all ground species. That meant the water in rivers and streams was likely drinkable.
"How do we move now?" Zhou Yuanzhu licked her lips and pulled a biscuit from her pocket, stuffing it into her mouth.
"Give me one," Ruan Qiyan said.
Zhou Yuanzhu looked at him doubtfully but still handed him the biscuit. "Did you run out of food?"
"It's not filling," Ruan Qiyan replied briefly.
"I-I'm hungry too... Can I have a little?" A young woman awkwardly moved closer to him.
Ruan Qiyan immediately stepped back and tossed the pouch with two remaining biscuits to her. The woman thanked him while picking it up. Just as she was about to shove it into her mouth, a hand suddenly reached out from the side and grabbed it. The already sparse biscuits were reduced to crumbs. Before the woman could lunge to snatch them back, she saw the person press the biscuit directly into their mouth, while another person came to grab what was left in her hand.
Several people started fighting over a few biscuits, completely abandoning their previous united front. Even a child picking up crumbs from the ground was kicked away...
This situation was clearly wrong.
"It should be the rain," Xu Huo said to Chi Minghong. "Most people got rained on when they came down."
Including the baby Tan Qi was holding.
"Can you confirm it's the rain?" Uncle Guan said into the communicator. "We tested both the rain and the air."
"The child I brought was wearing protective gear before coming down. He hasn't felt particularly hungry so far." If Xu Huo's perfect evolution was a special case, then Tan Qi should be the same as the people from Zone 002. The fact that he had no problems so far meant the difference lay in the rain.
"But that doesn't mean avoiding the rain guarantees safety," Xu Huo said. "Rain is part of the water cycle. If the rainwater is problematic, it means other water sources, including plants, might also be affected. It's not just about toxicity—these things might trigger a gluttonous desire in people."
For now, they were only in the hunger stage. But all players had experienced the preliminary trial. The soul-deep hunger before the preliminary trial couldn't be alleviated by ordinary food. Eating a few biscuits now—who knew what it would evolve into later?
"Gluttony is also one of the characteristics of alien creatures."
The players had sharp ears, so Zhou Yuanzhu and the others all heard this and understood Xu Huo's meaning: This was a high-risk instance. The chances of ordinary evolved humans becoming players were slim. Most likely, these people would eventually turn into alien creatures!
(Chapter End)