Elimination

Xia Leng looked at the dozens of deformed drifters crowding the entrance until it was completely blocked.

He quietly tightened his grip on the newly acquired dagger at his waist, his gaze turning cold.

Were these people trying to avenge the leader he had killed?

He wondered if the little bit of power he had just gained would be enough to withstand the combined assault of dozens of people...

Just as Xia Leng drew his dagger, preparing to kill the burliest drifter in front of him first to intimidate the others—

Thud!!

Suddenly, the deformed drifters at the entrance all dropped to their knees in unison!

Some prostrated themselves, some trembled all over, and some even knelt while holding disgusting food up to him. All in all, they seemed utterly terrified of Xia Leng.

Seeing this, Xia Leng understood.

He had killed the leader they regarded as a godlike Baptized One, and had thereby become their new god. They wanted to elevate him to the position of leader of Drifter Camp.

"Y-Your Majesty, the King, please accept our offerings and lead us so we can keep surviving in this wasteland!"

An ugly old man who looked quite aged held out a piece of rotten meat whose original form was unrecognizable. He tremblingly prostrated himself before Xia Leng, displaying utter submission.

King?

Xia Leng scoffed at the antiquated word. He had no intention of wasting his time on these deformed drifters, whose lives would soon be over anyway.

He had grown used to being alone all these years. He didn't need subordinates, much less companions.

After all, when food grew desperately scarce, these supposedly loyal followers might collectively turn on you in your sleep and take everything you had.

So Xia Leng coldly stepped over the drifters lying on the ground. He didn't want to waste the energy killing them to prevent future trouble, either.

These drifters were as twisted inside as they were on the outside. They had no thoughts of revenge.

All they cared about was filling their stomachs, staying alive a little longer, and taking food from other people.

"Let that guy be your leader."

Xia Leng pointed at the lackey who had followed the Baptized One—the same tall, skinny man who was lying on the ground, trembling all over.

When the tall, skinny man realized that this terrifying man wasn't going to kill him, he frantically knocked his head against the ground as if granted a new lease on life, thanking Xia Leng for sparing him.

He kept at it until his forehead was bloody and he couldn't keep up the act any longer. When he finally raised his head, the cold man had already vanished...

"Land of Corpse Cold... What kind of place would have a name like that?"

Xia Leng pulled up the black hood woven from the virus, blending into the dim ruins around him.

After leaving Drifter Camp, he had found another abandoned house, one that seemed a little sturdier, and settled in.

After all, it was still night, and there was no telling when it would end. Even a high-ranking Baptized One couldn't guarantee complete safety in the wilderness after dark.

Besides, the coordinates calling to him in his mind seemed a long way off. Setting out blindly without considering anything would be a very unwise choice.

Xia Leng planned to wait for the next dawn before embarking on a long journey.

Though he had no idea when daylight would come.

Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps half a month from now, or perhaps it would never come...

To date, no organization had been able to predict the changes between day and night.

The alternation between day and night was bizarre and completely unpredictable, just like the face-changing performances of Sun Xiaochuan, a Sichuan opera master from the old era.

Likewise, spring, summer, autumn, and winter no longer followed any rules.

About two years ago, an extreme weather event had occurred. The temperature had suddenly plunged to -40°C, and infectious snow fell relentlessly for two whole months!

The drifters, already living in harsh conditions, had suffered mass deaths and injuries from the cold!

But just as the remaining survivors had finally adapted to the bitter cold, on the second day, the sun—absent for so long—suddenly appeared in the sky and baked the land at temperatures above 50°C for an entire month...

The sudden shift between extreme cold and scorching heat had nearly wiped out the entire biosphere, including the survivors. Xia Leng had fallen gravely ill during that time, almost dying from a high fever.

But the humans who had survived those extreme conditions had finally learned to control and adapt to this apocalyptic world.

They had also become more primitive, brutal, and savage. To survive, they could cast aside morality, ethics, dignity, and everything else...

Xia Leng sat crouched in a corner of the room, his back against the wall, staring blankly at the eerie blood moon hanging in the night sky.

At that moment, he wasn't thinking about why the world had suddenly fallen into such ruin.

Instead, he was thinking about how to live longer now that he had gained these abilities, and about where he came from...

As he thought, sleep gradually overtook him. The high-alert hunts he had carried out day after day just to fill his stomach had kept him from closing his eyes for a full twenty-four hours.

Somewhere in the depths of his mind, the shadows in his fragmented memories also lulled him to sleep as his consciousness grew hazy.

In the five years since he had begun wandering, Xia Leng had never slept as peacefully as he did that night. He sank into a deep slumber, his breathing steady. He hadn't even set the traps he always prepared before going to sleep.

Xia Leng was asleep, but his body was not. The droplet of Blacklight Virus that had merged with his brain began to circulate wildly, with his brain as its center!

Like a well-drilled army with unwavering morale, it surged through his muscles, organs, and even blood vessels, devouring every germ, weakened cell, and other piece of waste in its path!

At the same time, countless wisps of dirty mist seeped through the tiny pores on Xia Leng's skin and gathered into droplets that fell to the ground.

His entire body was purging impurities all on its own!

Even the terrifying, ten-centimeter centipede-shaped scar on his back was covered over by layers of new skin until it disappeared. His new skin was as smooth and lustrous as polished jade...

Throughout the entire process, Xia Leng remained in a deep sleep, completely unaware of the changes taking place in his body.

Just then, a pile of broken bricks and tiles in one corner of the room suddenly began to twitch. Several creaking sounds came from within!

Two tiny red dots, no bigger than mung beans, appeared through a crack between the bricks and fixed their gaze on the man sleeping against the wall.

Creak, creak~~

The red dots crawled out. They belonged to a Mutant Spike-Burst Rat nearly as thick as a human arm!

Its body was larger than a cat from the old era, its fangs were sharp and coated in saliva teeming with countless toxic germs, its claws could easily tear through skin, and its tail was covered in spikes. This was the "house mouse" found everywhere in this era!

Mutant Spike-Burst Rats were also a social species of mutated animal. They never hunted in groups of fewer than ten.

And Xia Leng was now sleeping inside one of the rats' nests...