# Chapter 536: The People in the Underground Nest
The temperature inside the city was slightly lower than outside, but it was still not a normal climate suitable for human habitation. Not long after sunrise, the temperature began to rise sharply.
Xu Huo chose to walk along the shaded areas. Before he even got close to the crack in the city center, he felt someone following him. Turning around at a street corner, he saw two young Split-Head Xenomorphs throwing stones at him.
He raised his hand to catch the stones and casually threw them back. The two Xenomorphs, startled by the stones landing beside them, turned and fled. Their running posture was very human-like—at least on the surface, they didn't seem like Xenomorphs who had lost their reason.
Maintaining a certain distance, he followed behind the two of them and discovered that after they crawled into an alley's sewer, they quickly disappeared without a trace.
Even in underground spaces, as long as they weren't too deep, Xu Huo could sense a little. But the two children went down and then had no movement at all—this wasn't normal.
He waited outside the alley for a minute before walking in, moving the manhole cover aside and jumping down.
The passage below wasn't very spacious. It might have been convenient for children, but for an adult male like him, it was a bit cramped. He barely made it to the end of this passage, only to find that outside it split into five different paths.
These passages were a mix of old and new. Two of them were very roughly dug, unlike the others which had metal pipes laid down. They were simply coated with paint to smooth out the soil.
But these passages transmitted sound well, and Xu Huo could determine the source of footsteps even from outside.
He chose the left passage and crawled in, turning twice more and descending twice before the surroundings began to change.
It was no longer just simple pipes. He must have gone deep under the crack in the city center. Occasionally, through openings, he could see the sunlight in the narrow crevices outside, as well as clothes hanging there.
That's right—clothes. From the two crevices he discovered, looking out, he saw at least three or four places where clothes were hanging.
People were living underground.
Or rather, Xenomorphs were living underground like humans.
A skinny child passed by in front and ran straight into Xu Huo. Separated by a few meters, the child with pale pink skin on the top of his head and forehead opened his mouth and made "ha, ha" sounds.
This sound attracted the attention of nearby Xenomorphs. The first to run over were the two children who had thrown stones at Xu Huo earlier. The two of them shielded the skinny one, backing away while baring their teeth to intimidate Xu Huo.
Within seconds, a few more Xenomorphs ran out, probably the parents of these children. They immediately hugged the little ones tightly, looking at Xu Huo with terrified eyes. As Xu Huo moved forward, they retreated.
Walking out of the narrow passage that barely allowed a person to stand upright, Xu Huo saw that both sides of the outer crevice had been hollowed out into numerous stone and earthen caves. At first glance, they resembled the dwellings of early humans when intelligence was just emerging. Inside were pale faces peering out—some fearful, some angry, but most huddled inside their caves without coming out.
He noticed they were all pitifully thin. Due to the limited underground space, many were hunched over. Even though they outnumbered him, they appeared weak in front of a normal person.
Looking around at the "Xenomorphs" who showed vigilance but didn't attack him, Xu Huo looked at the few in front and asked, "Can you understand what I'm saying?"
Several adults just stared at him intently. It was still the two children who were braver. One of them grabbed a handful of mud and threw it at him, mouthing the word, "Get lost!"
Xu Huo smiled and raised his hand to throw something back at them.
Several adults let out strange screams and hugged their children. When the object landed on the ground, the skinny child couldn't resist the smell of food and struggled out of his parents' embrace, picked it up, and sniffed it hard.
"Food." Xu Huo opened one himself and took a bite.
The skinny child imitated him and opened the bread. Just as he was about to eat it, another child suddenly slapped his hand. The bread fell to the ground and got covered in mud. Seeing this, the skinny child burst into tears.
Xu Huo ate his bread, staring at the child who had hit the other.
The child looked back at him angrily, but didn't hold out long before compromising for the sake of his gradually weakening companion.
Carefully scraping off the mud, he handed the bread to the skinny child. Watching him eat it with relish, the child couldn't help licking his own fingers.
Some small children crawled out of the caves, drooling as they gathered around the skinny child, each getting a fingerful of bread.
Xu Huo simply gave them all the clean bread from his luggage compartment, along with two bottles of water. Then he called over the child who had thrown mud and asked if he could write.
The child looked at him several times before writing his name on the ground, then added a sentence behind it: "Do you like eating children? Are you going to fatten us up before eating us?"
The smile instantly vanished from Xu Huo's face. Then he said, "I have a lot of food. I just came from outside. I don't eat children."
The child barely believed his words and then asked him what the outside world was like.
Xu Huo took out his communicator and found some images to show him.
This was clearly more attractive to them than food. Not just the children, but the adults also crowded around, greedily staring at the holographic projection of bustling crowds and various food shops.
"Can all those be eaten?" the child wrote on the ground to ask him. "Is there really that much food outside?"
Xu Huo nodded and then asked them what they ate underground.
A group of adults huddled together, gesturing and discussing for a while, then a woman stepped forward to lead the way.
The city was in a high-temperature zone. Nothing grew on the surface, but seeds underground could sprout. Some grass grew in the crevices, and occasionally some wild vegetables could be seen, though they were scarce. Additionally, Xu Huo saw some rats and dried meat strips from unknown animals.
"Have you been living here for a long time?"
The woman took out a tattered notebook and flipped through it page by page. There were words written inside: "We came to the Cleanup Zone more than ten years ago."
"After being contaminated, we turned into Xenomorphs, but we didn't lose our humanity. For over ten years, we've lived underground and haven't eaten a single person."
"The bacteria we're infected with aren't highly contagious. Even if you come into contact with us, you won't get infected."
"Many children here have never been outside or eaten normal food. After all these years, there must be medicine outside that can cure the infection."
"You're a good person. Can you take one or two children out? Clown City can definitely cure them."
"Please!"
After flipping through the words she had prepared in the notebook, the woman knelt tearfully in front of Xu Huo. Seeing that he was unmoved, she opened the last page and held it up high. "You came from outside, so you must not know the situation here. The group living on the surface treats us like livestock. They eat people who arrive in the city but haven't been infected. We're telling you this information. Please, at least take one child away!"
When the child had asked him earlier, Xu Huo had already roughly guessed that Gao Peng and his group weren't good people either.
"How many people have you shown this notebook to?" Xu Huo looked at the woman. "Since you haven't lost your rationality, why don't you leave yourselves?"
(Chapter End)