The sky was dark.

Under the dark sky, there is a city that can hardly be called a city. Everywhere there are ruins, and the human beings who survived from the old era have rebuilt a new city with the help of the original stones, steel bars, and concrete along the direction of these ruins.

But in fact, it seems more appropriate to call the city ruins.

Unlike the old cities before the Starfall, these emerging "cities" in the wilderness were all downward. They go deep underground, and only when they encounter a layer that the technological power of the old era can no longer penetrate, then they completely stop and open up in all directions, until the foundation beneath the city is hollowed out, and a standard Starfall city is considered complete. Scattered across the vast and barren wilderness, these cities became the only recourse for humanity in this dark age, who did not have time to enter the eastern and western heavens.

Perhaps, one day, when the slogans of the new human leaders in the Celestial Dome to counterattack their homeland come true, these cities will become outposts of humanity.

It's just that today, when the slogan of the counter-offensive is still too far away and ethereal from the humans living in the wilderness, searching for available wasteland materials and minerals around the city in exchange for time, space and food to continue to live in this wilderness is the most important thing for these new humans called "wilderness people" under the sky.

At this moment, in the center of the city, known as Suyang, a huge steel oven is blazing. It is more than 10 meters tall and is the tallest building in the city. With it as the center, more than 30 special metal pipes of different sizes, thicknesses and lengths connect it to the whole city. Ore mixed with coal and oil is poured in by coolies from pipes behind the ovens to supply the city with the energy it depends on.

At the very top of the oven is a pale gold pipe made entirely of starfall iron. This post-starfall mineral is so precious that the cost of a single pipe is worth the entire wealth of a small settlement in the wilderness. But its own material is indeed worthy of its value, from its discovery to now, people have mined thousands of new minerals in the wilderness, many of which are harder and more resistant than starmeteorite, but only starmeteorite can transport wasteland energy generated by the combustion of wasteland without too much loss.

This precious pipeline goes straight to the sky above Suyang City. More than two-thirds of the huge desolate energy brought by each burning of the steel oven converged in this pipeline, and finally reached an altitude of two hundred meters, and then radiated to the entire city, finally forming a pale golden curtain, which isolated the most terrible radiation of the Starfall to ordinary humans to the greatest extent, although there was still a part of the radiation entering, it was enough for human beings to have a place to rest temporarily in this dangerous wilderness.

This is the product of the people in the wilderness imitating the two giant heavenly domes of the East and West continents, even if the effect is far less than that of the heavenly dome, but in the wilderness, all those who can establish this kind of device are powerful organizations with a population of more than 10,000 and good power, and only this kind of organization can afford the huge consumption of wasteland energy day after day, and protect this device from being taken away.

As for the remaining kinetic energy after the supply barrier, it will follow the pipeline at the bottom, and after successively completing the supply of kinetic energy to the Desolate Battalion, the City Lord's Mansion, and the company that will hand over a large amount of resources and wealth to the Desolate Camp of the City Lord's Mansion every month, the remaining small part will be remitted to the households with household registration in Suyang City according to different quotas, with the help of these kinetic energy, they can have a short breathing time ranging from half an hour to an hour of fresh, unpolluted air, and purify it that can barely be used for irrigation. Half a cubic meter of fifth-class purified water for washing, and 0.1 cubic meter of third-class purified water that is barely drinkable.

Of course, no one is really stupid enough to take these kinetic energy that can purify one more cubic meter of fifth-class purified water to purify one cubic meter of third-class purified water. After all, for these low-level wilderness people, most of whom would not live past the age of thirty-five, there was not much difference between fifth-grade purified water and third-class purified water. Even if they really only drink third-class purified water for the rest of their lives, they will inevitably die early due to the powerful radiation in the process of leaving the city to go to the wilderness to scavenge waste. As for those who have escaped catastrophe after catastrophe and survived the age of thirty-five, with the weakening of the immune system, either a part of their body is "barren", life is worse than death, or, it is completely "barren", the whole body is like turning into pus, with the passage of time, little by little dissolving, and I can only lie in bed, watching all this happen, but there is no way to stop it, to the point where even moaning will become a luxury.

Life is better than death, it is the most intuitive thing that the "new" world, which has been rebuilt just thirty years after the starfall, teaches people, especially those at the bottom.

Suyang City's upper street, which is built on the ruins of the city, is the strongest and most dangerous place in the city.

The pale golden sky dome supported by the steel furnace was not as good as the rumored super sky dome that covered nearly two million square kilometers of the eastern and western continents combined. The powerful radiation from the dark yellow sky shrouded in radiation clouds still has a lot of residue after passing through this thin curtain, eroding the residents gathered here all the time.

In addition to the barren camp stationed on the northern edge of the ruins, which is closest to the desolate beast activity area, there are more people who do not have household registration in Suyang City.

These unregistered wilderness people, or ordinary people who have fled from the outside world, or down-to-earth marching merchants, or former lower-class residents who have been driven out of the lower classes of the city to avoid contagion, have been "barren". They live at the very top of the city, but they are the most unbearable people in the city. Their only source of survival is to get out of the barrier and go to the wilderness in search of wasteland. If they can find it, they can come back and exchange it for the things necessary for the continuation of life with the barren camp - food, water, and then take these things back to their settlement, the upper street, and use them to extend their lives for an unknown amount of time, or in exchange for sexual satisfaction. After all, in this era of the jungle, there will never be a shortage of desperate people, and women are the easiest to be cornered.

Under the sky obscured by radiation clouds, the dark yellow light finally dissipated. The day was over. The scavengers dragged their heavy bodies and began to walk back to the settlement. The "miners" with household registration take a different path, they have a special passage to the underground, so naturally they do not have to walk with these scavengers.

It's just that in the past few days, the crowd of these scavengers has mixed in with a person who is a little out of place.

In the crowd that was not crowded, a child who looked to be only about 1.5 meters, wearing an old radiation-proof suit that was obviously more than one size older than her, holding a small bag of supplies that had just been exchanged from the desert camp in his arms, carefully avoiding the scavengers who had just returned from outside the city barrier on the upper street of Suyang, and who were still a little mentally deranged because of the effects of radiation. Occasionally, when passing through some dark alleys, hearing the intermittent "mmmm-hmm" syllables of women and even some young boys, and the sound of struggling and even flesh clashing, the child would clutch the supplies in his arms, quicken his pace, and rush through the alley without looking back, towards the end of the upper street. There, there was an old-fashioned elevator that led to the underground—for Suyang people who had household registration but were not qualified to join the miners' ranks.

Don't take care of what you can't manage, don't save what you can't help, don't help what you can't help. This is what his brother, who has been dependent on him since his parents disappeared, taught him since he was a child.

People in the last days are like dogs, and compassion is too much of a luxury for those of them who can't even survive.

However, the small bag of supplies in the child's arms finally caught the attention of the residents of the lower streets. Even more eye-catching than this bag of supplies was the old radiation-proof suit on the child's body—a high-end gadget that only the families of the soldiers of the Desert Battalion could equip with, and having it could almost be said to have an extra life in the wilderness. This is the biggest reason why children have not encountered danger when they cross the upper streets these days. Because no one wants to provoke a little imp who may be a desolate man's family, even if that imp may just be a slave of a desolate man.

The means of those desolate warriors who have gone through the devastation of starfall and have not been "desolate", but have opened a new evolutionary path in the original genes of human beings, and even radiation can hardly harm them, is definitely not something that those of them who have almost given up their dignity are willing to bear.

The hands of the desolate warriors can tear apart the desolate beasts, and naturally they can also tear apart their bodies, which cannot even withstand radiation.

Only today, the threat from this radiation suit seems to have lost its effect.

In a dark alley near the old-fashioned elevator, three dark figures were staring at the child who was getting closer and closer to the elevator entrance. One of the men's right hand had been visibly "barren", yellow pus dripping from his right hand from time to time, and even the white bones could be seen in it. But the man who had lost sensation in his right hand didn't care, and he used his left hand to carry a rusty meat chopping knife that was more intimidating than practical, and in the upper streets, it was already a rare weapon.

But viciously, he smeared the blade of the knife with the pus of his right hand, which meant that the knife had a more disgusting and even fearful "desolate" quality in addition to its original function.

The middle-aged man in the middle frowned when he saw this, he was the best dressed of the three, a black suit that could hardly tell the age, but a pair of blue jeans on the bottom, which looked very carefully washed. He was holding a serrated steel knife in his hand that was far more hideous than his companion's meat chopper, and after seeing his companion's action of smearing the pus of his right hand on the meat chopper from time to time, he couldn't help frowning and said, "Pig Tu, don't take out your disgusting things again." Our goal is just that hazmat suit, and if it gets broken by your stuff and the bosses on the black market don't want to buy it, can you afford it? ”

The man known as Pig Slaughter originally still had a disdainful expression, but after hearing the man in the suit say that he didn't want to buy it, he stopped stupidly and sneered: "Brother Hei, you are the leader of this business, so naturally you have the final say." Little brother, just listen to your orders. As he spoke, he rolled the knife several times over his clothes, trying to wipe away the pus.

The man in the suit known as Brother Hei snorted coldly, turned his eyes to the other side, and asked, "Green snake head, are you sure you have checked out, there are really no desolate adults behind this little kid, and they are not the family members of some desolate people?" ”

The head of the green snake, who was slightly thin, immediately bowed down and replied: "Brother Hei, don't worry, the little one has been staring at this kid for several days." There was never any reliable lower class person on the other end of the elevator who came out to pick him up. And the model of his chemical protective suit, although it is from our Suyang Huangshi Battalion, is obviously the old model from four or five years ago. It has long been eliminated. Who knows which of the lower layers this lucky boy came from. If Brother Hei is really not at ease, you can ......" Green Snake Zi gestured with his hand to wipe his neck, "Who in this upper street doesn't know Brother Hei's name, who dares to talk more." ”

The man in the suit snorted coldly again, noncommittal to the compliment of the green snake, and redirected himself to the child who was constantly approaching this shadow. After weighing it in my heart, I finally gritted my teeth and waved my hand, "It's done!"

With his order, the three of them pounced on the child almost at the same time, and they didn't even have time to react, so they wanted to knock the child down or even kill him. Villains often die from talking too much, especially weak villains. These principles, which had become axioms before Starfall, have been passed down to this day because of their correctness, and the weaker the villain, the more they can remember this.

Although Brother Hei and his party are unwilling to admit that they are the villains who are destined to be defeated by the righteous brave in the novels, this does not prevent them from doing some things that villains can only do, so they can start more neatly. After all, there is always some truth in the things handed down by the ancestors.

However, their surprise attack, which they had hoped for, was unexpectedly disappointed. At the moment before they were about to knock down the child, the entire Suyang City suddenly shook violently without warning, and the vibration was so strong that the child who was running wildly fell out at once, and the supply bag in his hand flew out more than a dozen steps away, and the cold steamed buns in it were scattered on the ground not much weaker than the cement floor, and the farthest one even fell in front of the door of the old-fashioned elevator.

It's just that the children also happened to escape the attack of the three people, so that they fell firmly on the hard concrete floor.

The earthquake continues, and the child, who has been trained by his brother to have a keen sense since childhood, immediately realizes what has just happened and how lucky he is.

Ignoring the threat that the earthquake might pose to the elevator, she struggled desperately from the ground, picked up the remaining half-baked supply bag on the ground, and ran towards the elevator like a dog in water chasing a branch, pressing the downward button.

The elevator, which had stayed deep in the ground fifty meters underground, received the signal and began to rise.

The three of them had already gotten up from the ground, and they didn't care about complaining about each other, and rushed towards the child with hideous faces.

The elevator has risen ten meters. Another wave of impact struck, knocking all four of them to the ground.

All the people on the street, and indeed the entire city of Suyang, realized that something was wrong with this earthquake. After the starfall, the planet's surface and even the surface and even the surface were harder than they could be compared to the old era. What kind of catastrophe can bring back the word "earthquake", which has been dusty for 50 years, back into people's memory?

The people underground walked out of the room, looking in horror at the constantly shaking steel ceiling, the miners who were sitting on the train and starting to go home looked out of the car window in shock, the scavengers were the closest to the center of the "earthquake", and the first group of people to see the real situation, after the shock, they began to run wildly towards Suyang City, that place that was not much better than a rat hole, at this moment was their only reliance.

also saw the terrifying scene, as well as the desolate soldiers of the Suyang Desolate Battalion. The only two remaining commanders of the Desert Battalion sensed the crisis as soon as the earthquake erupted, but they didn't expect it to come so quickly.

The four people beside the old-fashioned elevator raised their heads at the same time, and they saw the grand fireworks in this life, second only to the catastrophe that destroyed the civilization of this planet.

Ten meteorites of unknown size once again passed through the scarred planet's torn barrier and fell rapidly towards the north of Suyang City. The vibration was only a faint effect of the sound waves when they landed.

The grand and gorgeous fireworks, with the murderous machine, were staged in the direction of the extreme north of Suyang City, and the smoke and dust and beautiful scenery they rolled up, even if they were separated by nearly a thousand kilometers, were still visible to the naked eye, and those golden smoke and dust, drifting uncertainly, passed through the barrier and quietly entered Suyang City.

It's like a firefly looking for its hometown.

Wait a minute! Looking for fireflies in the old garden?!

The two desolate commanders finally reacted, roared angrily, and black and white desolate energy light curtains erupted almost simultaneously on the two of them, isolating those golden smoke and dust, and then roared angrily: "All the desolate soldiers in Suyang City, enter the barracks immediately, and do not go out, otherwise you will bear the consequences, Deputy Commander Wang Ji, immediately open the protective shield of the desolate barracks!" All the upper-class residents of Suyang City immediately went back indoors to take refuge! Otherwise, you will bear the consequences! All elevators in Suyang City stop going up and close the safety valves! Otherwise, you will bear the consequences! ”

Its voice was like a bell, and the three military orders with self-responsibility spread throughout the entire Suyang City.

The child in the hazmat suit was like crazy, and the roar of the huge impact made her hearing temporarily deaf, and now she could only hear a rumbling sound in her ears, and she almost cried without knowing what was going on.

The old-fashioned elevator slowly opened, and the dim yellow light in the elevator room looked like the sunset that her brother had drawn on paper for her a long, long time ago.

The child swallowed his tears, hugged the supply bag in his arms, and rushed into the elevator.

There were a few golden dusts, moving with the wind, gently falling onto the child's chemical protective suit, and then, as if the chemical protective clothing did not exist, integrated into the child's body. It's just that the child doesn't seem to notice anything.

All elevators were ordered to stop going up. The old-fashioned elevator creaked with an overwhelmed creak and began to descend.

And on the upper street, at the elevator entrance where the old-fashioned elevator had only stopped for a short time, the three people who were also contaminated with those few particles of dust did not even scream.

Another gust of wind blew, and the three miserable white skeletons whose flesh was completely corroded were completely reduced to powder.

Among the powder, there was a particle of dust that was far stronger than the other dusts, quietly blending into the ground, ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters...... Fifty meters. It finally chose its target and quietly landed on a sleeping teenager in his bed.

———————————————————

At the same time, crossing a distance of five thousand kilometers, came to the edge of the Eastern Continent. The young black-haired man stood at the top of the "Eastern Celestial Dome", and there was a golden light in his black pupils, taking in the grand fireworks.

"In the spring of the thirtieth year of the Starfall Era, on March 3, at 8:13 p.m., a miniature starfall erupted in the Northern Wilderness of the Eastern Continent, and the impact is unknown at present, and it has not affected the Eastern Sky Dome."

The genius boy who was accustomed to being sought after by the people around him looked around the empty area after completing all these accounts, and couldn't help but sigh with some regret, gently brushing away a speck of dust that had been stained on his body at some point. Then, the body suddenly stiffened.

The night wind of the remnants of winter and early spring blew, bringing a slight chill, and the young man's body shivered with coldness, and finally slowly recovered from the stiffness. It's just that his eyes are full of confusion.

———————————————————

Outside a hut 50 meters deep in Suyang City, the child pushed open the door of the house, turned around and closed the door when he entered the room, and after making sure that the door was locked, he immediately ran to the bathroom to change out of the radiation protective suit. Then quietly walked to his brother and her bedroom.

On the bed, the boy had an oxygen cylinder at his hand, and the pure oxygen was followed through the tube into the modified ventilator, and finally completely inhaled by the boy.

On the desk in the bedroom, there is an old-fashioned table lamp, which may have been forgotten to be turned off by the child in a hurry before going out. At the moment, it is emitting a soft white light. In the frame of the lamp, the young boy held his sister, who was not yet two years old, stood in front of his father and mother, and the sunlight pulled a long shadow behind them through the radiant clouds, which were not as dim as they are now.

The dust slowly melted into the boy's body.

The boy's eyelashes fluttered slightly, and then slightly, and then, slowly, opened his bright eyes.

The sound of the door shaft turning quietly sounded fifty meters below the lonely and dark ground.

"Brother, you ...... Awake? ”