In the Rainforest, under Gaoqiao's lead, the group dug a pit not far from camp and buried the smoking man's body.
After finishing, everyone silently packed their things and left the camp before dawn, continuing deeper into the Rainforest.
No one could believe that man had died so easily.
According to Gaoqiao, only the filters of the man's cigarettes contained plastic. Inhaling such a tiny amount had killed a middle-aged man within hours. It was terrifying.
Of course, it also had to do with the fact that the man had been a Non-Ascendant.
The dozen or so people in this group were all ordinary people. It was not intentional; it was simply that, throughout the two-year Apocalypse Rules Era, ordinary people and Ascendants had interacted less and less.
During the first year, the two sides had still lived together in some places, but by the second year, mixed communities had nearly vanished.
It had nothing to do with discrimination. It was simply a natural result. Even if they were friends, when one was an ordinary person and the other an Ascendant, they would have less and less in common until they eventually went their separate ways.
Yet this outcome had also indirectly fueled hostility between the two sides. Less contact meant less understanding of each other's actions and words, and if that continued, conflict would become inevitable.
Fortunately, the UHC firmly opposed escalating such tensions, so real, physical clashes between the two sides were still relatively rare. Most of the fighting took place online.
Now that Gaoqiao's group had witnessed the devastating effects of Microplastics, they picked up their pace through their fear, heading deeper into the unpolluted Rainforest.
"Hey! Those are..."
A moment later, someone walking in front suddenly shouted. The others looked ahead and stared in shock.
Several