(Ancient manual crafting, no AI, Hajikihei: AI could never write an article as divine as mine, haha!!)
Caw, caw-caw--!!
Withered trees, ancient trees, more trees.
Crows, crows, more crows!
At this moment, a winding highway came into view.
The sky was gloomy and dark, with blood-red halos dotting the firmament, but... this was not the most abnormal part.
The most abnormal thing was...
The eerie moon hanging high in the sky.
At this moment, that moon actually bore the outline of a human face, and it even wore a bizarre smile.
Looking straight down at the ground from the firmament, it was just like a "god" looking down from above.
"What the hell kind of place is this? I... I want to go home."
"I'm clearly only nineteen, just a freshman, I clearly still have such a great life ahead of me, why did I end up in a ghost place like this..."
The sound of crying and complaining came from beside his ear, and at this moment Fan Shang, who had been dozing against an abandoned car on the side of the road, opened his eyes.
He cast a habit-hardened glance at the pitch-black and noisy crowd in front of him.
He slowly stood up.
"Meow!"
A light cat meow caught Fan Shang's attention.
Looking down, he saw a black cat with pitch-black fur and dual-colored pupils quietly squatting in front of Fan Shang.
Its light gold and light blue pupils were looking at him with bright, glowing intensity.
Fan Shang knew what this meant.
"Alright, Senior, I'll go make food right now."
After speaking, the bone cleaver clenched in Fan Shang's hand loosened slightly, and pulling open the mountaineering backpack behind him, he took out half a bottle of water, a pack of instant noodles, and a sausage from inside.
Glancing at the remaining two packs of instant noodles and one bottle of water left in the bag, Fan Shang could not help but frown slightly.
He was running out of supplies.
The remaining provisions were only enough to last him two days.
If he factored in Senior Cat as well, that would drop to about one day or so.
Thinking this, Fan Shang broke off half a sausage and handed it to the black cat, and the cat sniffed it before immediately starting to feast on it with enthusiastic meows.
Looking at the remaining half of the sausage in his hand, Fan Shang thought about it, wrapped it up, and promptly put it away.
Immediately raising his gaze, his cold eyes swept across the greenish, greedy gazes all around him.
The bone cleaver in his hand lifted slightly, and his index finger tapped lightly, causing those gazes to instantly avert themselves in dread.
After finishing all this, Fan Shang finally tackled his evening meal with a bite of instant noodles and a sip of water.
However, his gaze did not leave the surrounding people, and the wariness in the depths of his eyes was palpable.
The reason he was so vigilant was that the experiences of this past week had long since forced Fan Shang to accept the fact that the Earth had entered the apocalypse.
A year ago, the moon in the firmament suddenly grew a human face, and then eerie red blood light spilled down, though it was unclear whether it triggered some unknown tidal phenomenon.
Pitch-black, ink-like black water surged from the sea surface; at first, the place where this phenomenon appeared was the waters of Japan, and the world did not take it seriously, simply thinking it was some kind of supernatural phenomenon.
Little did they know this was only the beginning of the apocalypse.
As that black water gradually spread, the territories swallowed by the Black Tide turned pitch-black.
No light could shine in, and at the same time no one could come out, without a shred of information leaking, and this phenomenon instantly drew global attention.
However, what truly drew global attention was the annihilation of Japan a month after the appearance of the Black Tide.
That was the first time humanity truly understood what calamity meant.
On that day, after unremitting efforts by Japan, they finally fished an item up from the Black Tide region.
It was a bizarre flower codenamed [Yogada]; at first they were overjoyed and treated it as a supreme treasure.
Yet merely a single day later, anyone who had touched, contacted, or smelled the pollen of that flower lost their minds, their bodies twisting and warping into deformed monsters.
Yet this was still not the most terrifying part; the most terrifying thing was that the bizarre flower actually grew after killing people, and the more people it killed, the larger the range affected by its abilities.
Japan tried every possible method, but all ended in failure.
Seeing that they were about to be destroyed as a nation, they immediately ordered the five major powers to provide support, while simultaneously demanding that people from other countries go to the interiors of the five major powers.
Otherwise, they would lure the monsters into the interiors of every country.
Faced with such threatening rhetoric, although there was displeasure, as a community with a shared future for mankind, advancing and retreating together at this moment was the truth, and the major powers were not fools.
The first to respond to Japan was the Dragon Nation.
In order to prevent the disaster from spreading, the Supreme Representative Assembly of the Dragon Nation held a discussion lasting two and a half hours, finally unanimously deciding to provide support to Japan.
Thus, the Dragon Nation mobilized its entire national strength to provide Japan with a full support of five nuclear bombs.
Displaying the full demeanor of a major nation!
The remaining major powers were unwilling to be outdone and also made joint statements, successively providing nuclear support to Japan.
Yet, upon the scorched earth covered by these nuclear bombs, a terrifying scene unfolded-that flower code-named Yogada remained completely unscathed, even growing human faces that giggled at the satellites.
Fortunately, because the human population of Japan had all perished, the bizarre floral shape did not spread further.
However, just as various nations believed the matter was over, a black tide began to surge across the world all at once.
City after city and region after region were swallowed by the Black Tide, turning into black dots on the map.
Within a year, countries continuously fell, and as of a month ago, only a few populous major nations still existed on Earth.
The Dragon Nation had thought of resisting and containment, but the harvests from doing so were meager.
Until the Black Tide swallowed Orange City a week ago.
Only then did Fan Shang discover that these humans swallowed into the Black Tide were actually all still alive.
No, perhaps it could not be considered being alive.
With this thought, Fan Shang, having finished his dinner, swept his gaze toward a short distance away-those people.
They were none other than his classmates, schoolmates, and teachers.
Yes, on the day Orange City was swallowed by the Black Tide, Fan Shang happened to be a sophomore studying at Orange Province University, and they were all Fan Shang's schoolmates, numbering around a hundred-odd people.
Do not think that is many; this was the mere handful of people who had escaped from the university.
Out of a university of over ten thousand people, a mere hundred or so escaped.
This was the current state of the bizarre world within the Black Tide.
In this world, there existed things called specters.
They killed people as easily as slaughtering chickens, whereas ordinary people could not even inflict a shred of injury upon them.
Upon encountering them, all ordinary people could do was run, flee to the highways, and run without stopping.
The only things capable of inflicting damage upon specters were Sequence Transcendents.
Yes, Sequence Transcendents. Over the past week of entering the bizarre world, countless facts had been proving this point.
Thinking of this, Fan Shang could not help but look toward the three figures at the head of the vehicle convoy. He had once witnessed with his own eyes one of them condense ice crystals to force back a specter that attacked the team, thereby averting the team's annihilation.
Only Sequence Transcendents could adequately explain this kind of ability.
Regarding this, Fan Shang was undoubtedly envious. After all, becoming a Sequence Transcendence would allow one to deal with specters, obtain more supplies, and even...
Not have to worry about some tactless people plotting against you.
Thinking this, Fan Shang narrowed his eyes.
The bone-chopping knife in his hand gripped tightly, slightly raising in one direction into an offensive posture.
"Who?!"
Fan Shang's words were icy, his tone carrying an indescribable sense of alienation and indifference.
"Ha, brother, don't get excited, don't get excited."
"It's me, Liang You, we're in the same class. Brother, you should remember me, right?"
Following the direction of his gaze, a sturdy-built man with short, broken hair stopped his approach toward Fan Shang and spoke with a smile.
Hearing this, Fan Shang glanced at Liang You.
Just as he said, Fan Shang and he were both in Software Engineering Class 1 of their sophomore year, so Fan Shang indeed had a bit of an impression of him.
Liang You was a well-known basketball team member in the class. Because he was tall and somewhat handsome, he was very famous in the class, and he was also one of the few people from Fan Shang's class who had escaped from the school.
So Fan Shang still had some impression of him.
However, Fan Shang did not let down his guard because of this. After all, the disgusting things Fan Shang had seen over this past week of the apocalypse were already numerous.
Classmates? The ones who get screwed over the most are classmates.
"I have some impression, but you stand right there first. What is it?!"
Fan Shang said in a cold tone.
The step Liang You was about to take instantly stiffened.
The smile on his face also became somewhat difficult to maintain; he had not expected Fan Shang to have such an attitude.
Yet, thinking of his purpose, he still bit the bullet and spoke.
"Haha, actually there's nothing much, just wanted to ask if classmate Fan Shang could..."
Before you continue