Epoch of Twilight

Thick and deep dark clouds covered the entire sky like a black curtain. It was still daytime, but the light was still gray. Even the sun looked like a slightly brighter halo.

The nuclear winter lasted longer than originally expected, and a large amount of dust permeated the near space of the earth, which caused the natural purification speed of the earth to be greatly slowed down.

Ling Zhongan glanced at the location of the halo, and found that it was almost evening, so he couldn't help speeding up his pace, rushing towards the cave.

The cave is 20 to 30 kilometers away from here. If you don't hurry up and you haven't returned home, it will probably be night.

Once night falls, this is a hellish world. Not only is the temperature even colder to the bone, but also the darkness is as deep as an abyss, which makes it completely impossible for people to move. Many people in the gathering place have forgotten the time because they went hunting. Since then never came back.

At that time, even he must be careful not to lose his way.

The originally warm corpse was gradually cooled by the cold wind, and soon it was completely frozen. Water seeped from his shoulders, causing the animal skin on his body to be frozen hard. It will be a little colder if you don't wear it.

Fortunately, as the top super evolutionary of human beings, this level of cold can't affect him.

Ling Zhongan carried the mutant beast on his back and strode forward. Before the sun's halo was about to be engulfed by the horizon, he finally arrived at the destination.

He lifted the broken iron cover blocking the entrance of the cave, revealing the stairs on the ground.

This staircase was cut from ice blocks, and the inside twists and turns, reaching more than 500 meters underground. It not only dug through the ice layer, but even dug through the permafrost layer.

Compared with a few decades ago, the number of people gathered here is very small. Over the years, people who have died of old age, died of illness, and disappeared. The number of people who used to be close to a hundred is now only a dozen.

It's not that there are no women here. In fact, although the number of women here is not comparable to that of men, they still account for one-third. However, after forty or fifty years, there is still no birth.

Those who can survive until now are basically evolutionaries, and their genetic differences have formed a reproductive isolation to some extent. If there are no accidents, in another hundred years, human beings may completely disappear.

...

The atmosphere today is a bit dull, almost all the people who went out to hunt returned empty-handed, and the people here have not known the taste of meat for three days.

Of course, apart from meat, there are not a lot of other food here, so you won’t starve to death, but most of them are relatively tender grass roots and tubers dug from the permafrost near this cave. How many calories it contains, even if you eat a round belly, at night, in this freezing environment, it is completely a kind of torment.

It wasn't until Ling Zhongan arrived with his prey that the atmosphere here became a little more heated.

Ling Zhongan smiled and dropped the food: "I'm lucky today, Xiaohu, go and deal with it."

This middle-aged man named Xiao Hu quickly stood up, with a happy face on his face, he said, "Okay, Boss!"

Handling prey is a good job. As the saying goes, there is no chef who starves to death. Although handling prey is not a chef, there are still many opportunities to make mistakes during the processing process. At least the scattered ice blood clots can be enough to eat.

He picked up the corpse of the mutated beast, and a dirty woman huddled in a corner quickly stood up and followed.

This is not the Garden of Eden for human beings. The most basic rule is to eat the strong and the weak. Having a regular partner here is a symbol of status. As Ling Zhongan's hardcore subordinate, he still barely has a regular woman.

It's just that the image is not flattering. Half of her face was completely torn off by the mutant beast in a life-and-death battle before, and she looked hideous and terrifying.

But no matter how beautiful a woman is, she will be greatly discounted here. It is completely normal not to take a bath for a few years, and the thick dirt on her face has long made it difficult to see her original appearance.

...

The flames were burning very vigorously, a few burnt red charcoals were burning with reddish flames, occasionally bursting out sparks.

At first glance, it is a rough big iron pot handcrafted by laymen. It is set on a stone, and the broth on it has already made a gurgle sound. Intense fragrance.

A woman with a good complexion sprinkled a few black mineral salts, stirred the thick white broth a few times with a spoon, then put it in front of her mouth, blew a few times indiscriminately, and took a big gulp regardless of the heat. Everyone's throats loosened.

"Brother Ling, you can eat." She said to Ling Zhong'an with a charming smile.

Ling Zhongan nodded with a smile, and said without hesitation: "The old rule is, whoever catches the prey gets half, and the rest get half."

Of course, as the boss here, when other people hunt prey, they still have to pay his respects.

As he spoke, he picked up a large wooden bowl with his left hand and a spoon with his right hand. He picked out large chunks of fat meat and put them into the bowl one by one. He filled the large bowl to the brim, and then filled it with soup.

After he finished filling, the rest of the people rushed up with empty bowls.

Although the scene looks chaotic, it has a certain default order when carefully discerned.

There wasn't a lot of cooked meat, and after Ling Zhongan shared half of it alone, each person could get a few taels of meat, but fortunately, the broth was enough.

The hot pieces of meat, accompanied by soft broth, rolled down the throat and into the stomach, a warmth came from the stomach, and the body couldn't help but ooze a little sweat.

Ling Zhongan distributed some of the meat to his two women, and he wrapped the rest into rounds, and stuffed several catties of meat into his stomach. The feeling of fullness actually gave him a sense of satisfaction.

...

A good night's sleep.

In the early morning of the next day, Ling Zhongan, who was holding two women in his arms, was not going to get up early.

The rest of the people didn't have much desire to go hunting today. The half ton of meat that Ling Zhongan brought back could be eaten for more than a month. Even if everyone gets a small amount, it is still enough to survive with the help of vegetable roots and tubers.

"Why did it suddenly vibrate?" This evolutionary who is extremely sensitive to fluctuations suddenly opened his eyes from his sleep, his eyes full of vigilance.

The rest of the people couldn't sleep anymore, they lifted the animal skins one after another, and stood up. People who are not vigilant in the last days will not be able to live now, not to mention that the volcano hundreds of kilometers away has obviously shown signs of recovery recently, so people have to be vigilant.

"Boss, I'll go and have a look!" Xiaohu said cleverly.

"No, let's go together!" Ling Zhongan walked out of the cave first, and a group of people walked outside along the stairs. If an earthquake really happened, it would be a waste of time to stay underground.

The vibration became more and more obvious, as if from far to near, with a certain rhythm, as if there was a mountain peak, walking this way.

When walking halfway, everyone has roughly guessed what caused it.

"Forget it, let's go back, it should be the eighth-level monster again, just wait until it passes by." Ling Zhongan said, his tone was weak and dejected.

"It's that damn beast again!" The crowd cursed.

This is a terrifying giant beast in the shape of an ape. For some reason, it has wandered around this area almost every one or two years for decades. At the beginning, its size was only ten meters high. The level was about level seven, and Ling Zhongan still regarded it as prey at that time, and was eager to try it for a while. But every time it was either because the distance was too far or because of fear of injury.

By the time he made up his mind, this giant beast had already become an eighth-level creature.

The huge size of 40 to 50 meters and the golden hair that radiates bright luster even in the dark are enough to make anyone daunted. Such a creature has already stood at the top of the earth's food chain.