Chapter 691: They're going back to the sea.

Number One was sprinting at full speed.

Her short, ear-length hair whipped wildly in the frigid air.

She was running like a madwoman toward a place with no sea anomalies.

She was searching for a path to survive.

She didn't want to die yet!

She hadn't seen humanity's number one Sequence 9, and she hadn't seen these damn anomalies get what they deserved. She refused to die.

One minute ago, everyone had been laughing and chatting.

This minute, the entire convoy was wiped out. Aside from herself, there wasn't a single survivor.

Those vibrant lives, those conversations that never got finished...

All of it was over...

In this world, perhaps aside from her, no one would even remember that the Skeleton Convoy had ever existed.

This was an incredibly weak convoy, so weak that every time they encountered a powerful enemy, they could only choose to retreat or submit in humiliation.

Everything they did was just to survive.

Number One's figure moved as fast as a bolt of lightning.

The agility of the Hunter Sequence was pushed to its absolute limit by her.

She fled through the forest, sprinting desperately toward the direction of the base.

She had no idea if the base could save her, but at this moment, she had no better choice.

Unfortunately, every time she landed on a tree trunk.

Countless heads attached to long necks would come lunging at her.

These heads were incredibly hard. Even thick tree trunks would be shattered by their impacts.

The longer the necks, the harder they were to deal with.

Just as tears flew from the young woman's eyes into the air.

A head with a few sparse hairs on its scalp and bulging eyeballs lunged at her, opening its massive mouth in an attempt to swallow the girl's long legs.

There were even bloody remnants inside its gaping mouth. The stench of rot and blood mixed together, making one feel nauseous just by looking at it.

The girl flipped through the air, spinning the Scarlet Hunt in her hand. She swung it like a great saber, directly slicing the head clean off at the neck.

The girl who had instantly severed a head felt not a trace of joy.

The severed head fell to the ground and immediately turned into a pool of black water.

And the neck retracted, the wound frantically writhing.

It wouldn't be long before a new head grew back in that spot.

These sea anomalies couldn't be killed by any known method. Or rather, they were extremely difficult to kill.

Or perhaps... at her current level, she simply couldn't kill them!

But regardless of the reason, she couldn't deal with these sea anomalies right now.

Seizing this opportunity, the girl hastily glanced down at the ground below the tree, and instantly felt her scalp go numb.

Because everywhere her eyes could reach.

They were all there. Heads with long necks.

Some had shorter necks that couldn't reach her to attack, so they could only stretch their necks and stare up at her.

Those gazes, those heads, would follow her every movement.

The scene at this moment was like holding a feather teaser wand while a group of kittens stared at it, their heads swaying with every move.

And she was the feather teaser wand.

The girl felt a chill run down her spine.

Was this it? Was she really going to die this time?

I won't accept this. I don't want to die...

For a moment, many images flashed before the girl's eyes, like a final burst of light before death!

Back in school, she had walked up to the podium to accept awards in front of the entire school.

Countless times, she had been the "other people's child" that teachers and parents talked about.

Every time she walked through a crowd, she would draw countless envious or jealous gazes.

Everyone said her future was limitless.

That she was destined for greatness.

In this short life of hers, she seemed to have received far too many honors.

Even after the apocalypse, her talent was the best among all her classmates.

If it wasn't for her, maybe they would all be dead by now.

They say that when a person is about to die, their life flashes before their eyes like a movie.

Is this what it's like?

Except... her life was way too short.

Was she... really going to die?

...

When you stop paying attention to the passage of time.

Time flows incredibly fast. Ten years can pass in an instant.

When you focus on the passage of time.

Every single second feels like ten years.

Chen Ye glanced at the watch on his wrist. It had already been three days since the sea anomalies came ashore.

If it weren't for the time displayed on his watch.

Chen Ye would have thought at least a week had passed.

The chatter in the Bluetooth earbuds group had become sparse and intermittent.

Even Dantai Bie, the biggest chatterbox of them all, had nothing to say.

Everything seemed to be frozen in place.

The Superhumans were still fine, just feeling that time was hard to endure.

But the ordinary survivors were in serious trouble.

Some who didn't have enough clothing were caught off guard by the sudden cold snap brought by the sea anomalies, freezing to death.

Back when the weather had warmed up, before the sea anomalies came ashore.

Some people, in order to get a bit more food, had traded away their winter warmth-providing clothing for other supplies.

Those people were the truly unlucky ones.

A gaunt middle-aged man with long, unkempt hair covered in white frost was shivering violently from the cold.

The other survivors looked at him with pity in their eyes.

But no one extended a helping hand.

Because they didn't even have enough clothing for themselves. How could they possibly care for others?

Helping others was something you did only when you could survive yourself.

Not by dragging yourself into the abyss along with them.

As for the Superhumans, they could only sigh softly. This man probably wouldn't make it.

Because his feet had already frozen solid to the floor.

He had probably lost consciousness from the cold long ago.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been foolish enough to freeze like this.

Superhumans weren't gods, and they weren't all-powerful.

There was no point in saving someone like him.

This was the same man who, right after the New Year, when the weather had just started warming up.

Had given away his only few pieces of cold-weather clothing to others.

At the time, people had tried to talk him out of it.

His response was, "I'm not even sure I'll live to see next month. I might as well enjoy today while I can..."

Those words had come true. He wouldn't live to see next month.

Meanwhile, the survivors on Bus Number Five and Bus Number Six, under the management of their convoy supervisors, were all huddled together for warmth.

As a result, no one had frozen to death.

Though a few people had frostbitten toes.

Under the current circumstances, with a shortage of medicine and doctors, there was simply no way to treat them.

Unless all the sea anomalies outside disappeared right now. There were a few Physician Sequence Superhumans back at the base.

But right now... there was simply no condition for treatment.

Bus Number Five, Bus Number Six, and their Superhumans chose to do this.

But that didn't mean the supervisors or Superhumans on other vehicles would do the same.

In some convoys, to the Superhumans, whether a survivor lived or died made little difference.

The Superhumans simply didn't care about the survivors' conditions.

The conditions inside Chen Ye's Monster Pickup Truck were relatively good.

The cold snap brought by the sea anomalies wasn't a problem for a Superhuman like him.

Many places inside the truck were covered in a layer of frost.

Even the bed was ice cold.

As if someone had splashed a basin of water all over it.

Even the little monster hiding in the truck had disappeared somewhere. Probably due to the low temperature, the thing had found a place to hide.

Before, you could occasionally see its little tentacles poking out from odd corners. Now, it had completely vanished from sight.

From outside the truck, footsteps continuously sounded.

These footsteps had already become a form of white noise.

From day to night, from night to day.

During this time, Chen Ye lifted a corner of the window to take a look.

Nothing had changed outside.

It was still an endless sea of anomalies, pouring out of the ocean one after another, then wandering forward aimlessly.

It wasn't just the base that was flooded with sea anomalies.

Everywhere visible to the naked eye was completely flooded with sea anomalies.

"Shhh... hey, do you think after this sea anomaly thing blows over, our base should move to a new location?" Dantai Bie's voice came through.

This guy had scrounged up just about every topic imaginable over the past few days.

"Move to a new location? You mean relocate?" Gong Yong replied weakly.

"Yeah, with something as huge as sea anomalies coming ashore, shouldn't we change locations?"

"Move where? With sea anomalies coming ashore, I'd say all of Xi City has fallen. No place is safe."

"No matter where we move, if the sea anomalies come ashore, no one can escape!"

"Damn Silent Council. Of all the places they could have chosen, why did they have to pick here!"

"Xi City is already pretty good. If they'd chosen another city, we might all be dead by now."

"Actually, what we're experiencing right now is just the lowest level of intensity in the Return to the City Plan!"

"Xi City is just a small city. If this were Shanghai or the capital, those international first-tier metropolises, we'd all be dead by now."

"Besides, the Silent Council put a lot of effort into this base. Like the ground they flattened before, and the forest they planted around the base!"

"From what I've heard, these trees aren't ordinary species either. They were specially cultivated by Botanist Sequence experts. Planting such a large forest must have taken a lot of work."

"So, forget about relocating the base!"

"Anyway, everywhere is dangerous. Might as well do nothing!"

"That's not necessarily true. With the sea anomalies coming ashore, the Silent Council can't just do nothing, right?"

"It's not like these things come ashore every day!"

Both sides had their own reasons, and before long, they were actually arguing.

No one tried to mediate.

At least arguing brought a sliver of life to the cold, silent hours.

Even while arguing, everyone kept their voices low.

Just then.

Everyone suddenly heard several screams.

The screams echoed across the entire coastline.

Hearing these screams.

The conversation in the group came to a brief pause.

A shadow fell over everyone's hearts.

Over the past three days, similar screams would occasionally ring out once or twice.

No one needed to look to know what had happened.

The screams only lasted about two minutes.

Then they faded into silence.

A thought arose in everyone's hearts.

Was it our turn next time?

According to what Xu Lina said, she had already killed at least five survivors who had gone mad.

Iron Lion had even more.

Silence...

Quiet...

No one knew how long it had been.

Maybe a few minutes.

Or maybe a few hours!

"They're retreating! They... they're retreating!"

"Squad Leader Chu! Yezi! Xixi! Big Fool! They... they're retreating!"

"They're... heading back to the sea!"

Just as Chen Ye was counting the hours, a voice bursting with ecstatic joy suddenly came through the earbuds.

That voice was like a beam of light piercing through the darkness.