Chapter 690: Annihilation

Everything in the base was the same as yesterday.

The sea anomalies trudged ashore with heavy footsteps, emerging from the ocean.

No one knew where they were going, how long they would stay, or when they would return.

Around every vehicle, countless sea anomalies shuffled forward in numb silence.

The occasional thud of a sea anomaly colliding with a vehicle rang out.

The sea anomalies paid no attention to such sounds, continuing their silent march.

But every minor impact sent a slight tremor through the vehicles.

Inside, everyone couldn't help but shudder with fear.

Still, after all this time adapting to the changing environment.

Quite a few survivors had begun to initially overcome their terror, at least managing to barely carry out daily activities.

Of course, there were also survivors who had wet their pants from fear earlier, though fortunately, with the sea anomalies' arrival causing a sharp drop in temperature, the rank smell hadn't spread through the entire cabin.

But those nearby were the unlucky ones, forced to pinch their noses and endure.

Because inside the vehicle, without a Superhuman's permission, no one was allowed to leave their position under normal circumstances.

Otherwise, they would be instantly executed as lunatics.

At times like this, Superhumans wouldn't listen to any nonsense.

Everyone's nerves were stretched taut.

For the next few days, all daily activities would take place inside the vehicle.

To avoid excessive bodily functions affecting the living environment, water and food were provided in limited quantities.

Quite a few survivors had begun to initially overcome their terror, at least managing to barely carry out daily activities.

But now, even relieving oneself was restricted.

And it wasn't just the survivors—even the Superhumans were subject to the same constraints.

In a corner of the Monster Pickup Truck sat a large water bottle, filled to the brim with yellow liquid.

Night fell once again.

Chen Ye lifted the corner of the window curtain once more.

Aside from the endless sea anomalies, more were still climbing ashore from the ocean in an unending stream.

Nothing else had changed in the base.

The other vehicles around them had their windows tightly sealed, looking like rows of dead cars.

He lowered the curtain corner.

Chen Ye returned to the truck bed.

Since sleep wouldn't come anyway, Chen Ye decided to practice the Blood Moon First Set of Broadcast Calisthenics.

Because the blood moon overhead was blocked by thick cloud cover.

The energy he could absorb from the blood moon had become pitifully scarce.

Still, it was better than nothing.

Crimson energy filtered through the dense clouds, penetrating the Monster Pickup Truck's shell before being absorbed by Chen Ye.

It was less, but at least he could still cultivate.

The blood-red energy eventually converged in his left hand.

A red mist began to wreathe his left hand.

As his cultivation progressed, the red mist grew denser and denser, until his entire left hand looked as if it had just been dredged up from bloodwater, appearing utterly grotesque.

It even gave off a spine-chilling, hair-raising feeling.

He felt as though the threshold of Sequence 4 was right before his eyes.

Yet it also felt like he was always just a little short.

Just that little bit...

...

"Swish, swish, swish!..."

Seven arrows in a row, each as fast as lightning, with no more than 0.5 seconds between each shot.

Seven flesh-and-blood arrows left the bowstring in rapid succession, piercing through the foreheads of the attacking heads.

But even so, the long-necked sea anomalies whose foreheads had been nailed by arrows didn't die.

The force of the arrows merely slightly impeded their movements.

Her short, ear-length hair flew in the air, scattering droplets of sweat from the girl.

If not for her exceptionally agile footwork, she would have died long ago.

The girl stepped on one massive head, and before it could react, she planted her foot on another head to launch herself into the air.

Meanwhile, the Skeleton Convoy's vehicles sat frozen in place.

Each vehicle had dozens, even hundreds, of long necks slithering inside.

Screams and agonized cries rang out endlessly.

Every cry of pain made the girl clench her teeth, her face growing another shade paler.

The Skeleton Convoy leaving the base naturally had their own survival rules.

The Skeleton Convoy's survival rule was to stay as far away from danger as possible.

Even if danger brought opportunity, brought food.

But the Skeleton Convoy never took risks, or rather, they took as few risks as possible.

Because they knew all too well—do too many risky things, and eventually, you'll die.

That was also why, after the Silent Council announced the sea anomaly situation.

The Skeleton Convoy was willing to abandon their hard-won territory to leave as quickly as possible.

There was nothing wrong with what they did.

What was wrong was underestimating just how dangerous this sea anomaly landing would be.

In the Skeleton Convoy's understanding, as long as they left the base, ran inland as far as possible, and got out of Xi City's range, they would survive.

Besides, the Silent Council hadn't said they could never come back.

Once this crisis passed, returning later would be just the same.

At worst, they'd lose the territory they'd originally claimed.

But so what?

As long as they survived, territory and all that didn't matter.

After leaving the base, the Skeleton Convoy had been driving like mad.

But if this were before the apocalypse, that much time would have been more than enough for the convoy to escape.

Now, though, this was the apocalypse—anomalies were everywhere.

Getting the pathfinder to find a safe route out wasn't that easy.

To that end, the Skeleton Convoy had to repeatedly detour, avoiding any anomalies they might run into.

All of which wasted a great deal of time.

If it had only been that, it would have been tolerable.

After all, the sea anomalies didn't move fast, and surrounding the Skeleton Convoy wasn't easy.

But when the Skeleton Convoy chose a rural back road, planning to take a shortcut—

They ran into several extremely terrifying anomalies on the way.

These anomalies had wandered over from nearby villages.

With no better option available, the Skeleton Convoy could only kill these anomalies.

Aside from Number One, everyone else in the Skeleton Convoy was severely lacking in strength.

Because of that, this skirmish cost them at least half an hour.

And that half hour was fatal.

By the time the Skeleton Convoy had disposed of those anomalies and fled forward like mad.

The sea anomalies had already been ashore for a long while.

When they saw the road ahead blocked by those long-necked anomalies, despair gripped every single one of them.

The battle took less than ten seconds to break out.

And the convoy had already lost half its people.

Those long-necked anomalies were far more terrifying than anything they'd faced; even Superhumans could barely hurt them.

The only one who could deal any damage to them was Number One.

But expecting Number One alone to protect so many people within the sea anomaly horde was simply unrealistic.

At the thirteenth second.

The convoy's captain, Number Two, died.

That big boy with the thick glasses, who always seemed a little shy, who always loved stealing glances at Number One, was dead.

His body was being torn apart by several heads...

It wasn't a heroic death...

It was ugly, and it was agonizing!

To the very end, this shy big boy never confessed to Number One.

Before he died, Number Two wasn't confessing his feelings.

Instead, he murmured with deep remorse: "I'm sorry... I... I wasn't a good captain! I shouldn't have..."

The second half of the sentence seemed to be about regretting leading them out of the base.

But the sea anomalies didn't give him the chance to finish.

At the fourteenth second.

Number Three, that round-faced girl from the Physician Sequence, died too.

She wasn't stunningly beautiful, with her round little face, always wearing a teasing expression.

She always liked wearing a dress, with a leather jacket over the top, a skull pattern printed on the back.

On her feet were always a pair of white canvas shoes of a certain brand.

Even though those shoes had long turned pitch-black, their original white unrecognizable, the girl always wore them.

Blood stained her dress, vivid crimson on that white garment, like a cluster of passionate peonies.

According to her, that dress was a gift from the boy she liked.

They had agreed that once they got to college, they'd go public with their relationship.

After graduation, they'd get married, and after marriage, they'd have a beautiful baby—boy or girl, they'd love either.

Unfortunately, she never got to see that boy enter college, nor did she get to see their relationship go public.

That boy was already gone.

And now... she too was about to end, to end this nightmare.

Then there was Number Four, Number Five...

No one even remembered their names.

Almost every second, a Superhuman died.

The Skeleton Convoy was so weak that the sea anomalies didn't even notice any resistance as they enjoyed their warm meal.

Only Number One... was still fighting desperately.

Her fingernails had been split by the bowstring, the flesh of her fingers ground away...

But she kept fighting.

Draw the bow... release the string...

Every arrow carried boundless rage and fury...

The girl's eyes, lined with eyeliner, were already bloodshot, blood-red tears streaming down her cheeks...

"Big Sister, run... run... hurry... go, go to the base!"

That was Number Six's voice.

Number Six was a young man with a crew cut. Back in school, he'd had terrible grades and had been made to give self-criticisms countless times during morning flag-raising ceremonies.

He was the "bad" kid that classmates despised, teachers despaired over, and parents went silent about.

But he'd also thrown himself into countless battles against anomalies without a second thought.

And when facing powerful enemies, Number Six was also the fastest to drop to his knees.

In his own words, since he had no face to lose anyway, he might as well be the one to do the shameful things.

Number One was Big Sister, Number Two was the captain, Number Three was a girl...

It would be too humiliating for them to beg for mercy on their knees.

Someone like him, a piece of trash, what did he care about losing face?

Whenever others called Number One by her designation, Number Six stubbornly called her "Big Sister."

In his words, calling her "Big Sister" carried more authority.

"Run! Go find... go find Chu Che, Chen Ye, and the others... Big Sister... run!"

"Hurry..."

The last word had barely left his lips when several heads shot forward on their long necks, sinking their teeth into Number Six's neck...

To the very end, Number Six was telling Number One to run!

And with that, the Skeleton Convoy, all except Number One.

WIPED OUT!!!