Pasha seemed to think of him as someone from inside the shelters.
Before the outbreak of the Day of Catastrophe, tens of thousands of shelters were built worldwide. The opening times of these shelters varied, with the earliest opening decades after the Day of Catastrophe. However, many remain sealed underground to this day. Some people in the shelters survived, but many died for various reasons. Unlike the people outside, many of the shelter inhabitants hailed from the era of civilization. They often possessed special skills and were mostly elite from that era, yet they lacked such strong aggression.
The people emerging from the shelters easily embraced the concept of freedom and equality, making them prime targets for recruitment by various rebel organizations.
Su Ziyu learned some of this world's past from Pasha, feeling grateful that this was not the Earth he once knew, but likely a parallel universe. In this world, a Third World War broke out in the 1980s or 1990s, casting a long shadow of nuclear warfare that persisted until the outbreak of the Day of Catastrophe. Pasha was unaware of the cause of the disaster, only knowing that nearly all nuclear warheads on Earth were detonated on that day, wrecking the planet with severe radiation pollution. Continental plates shifted due to nuclear explosions, and many shelters were destroyed by earthquakes and tsunamis.
Few survived after the Day of Catastrophe. Even over a hundred years later, humanity remains forlorn on this broken Earth.
Radiation is the deadliest threat!
The Earth's magnetic field seems to have been altered, and everything humans encounter appears to be tainted with radiation. In such an extreme environment, powerful oligarchs inheriting the Old World legacy established a new order. Yet, they tightly control all medications. For over a century, many lower-class individuals have perished due to lack of medicines.
Thus, the rebels emerged.
The Freelancer organization believes that the first step in changing this savage and dark era is to break the oligarchs' monopoly on medicines. Because they control life-saving drugs, they can force others to depend on them and work tirelessly.
At dawn, the two prepared to return to the camp—Polaris.
The mutated deer should barely suffice for food; both have considerable appetites, consuming at least four to five pounds of meat a day. The main issue is indeed the water source. Drinking water is a severe problem for them in this era, as most water sources are already radiation-contaminated. Consuming water from the wilderness raises their radiation index; mild contamination might only increase by about 1%, but high contamination could add 10% radiation pollution. If one's radiation pollution index exceeds 30%, bodily organs begin to deteriorate or become diseased.
Currently, there are two main medicines for eliminating radiation: anti-radiation pills, which reduce the radiation pollution index by about 20%, and injection treatments, lowering internal radiation by over 50% in one go.
Few animals exist in the wilderness.
The most common are two species: radiation mice and radiation cockroaches.
They thrive better than humans and have even become somewhat rampant. These creatures have grown larger; radiation cockroaches can reach the size of a human hand. Pasha mentioned to Su Ziyu that some people from lower social strata eat radiation cockroach meat and die soon after due to high radiation pollution.
"There's movement," Su Ziyu suddenly stopped and said.
Since entering this world, his physical fitness seems further enhanced; Time Acceleration Spiritual Energy rose to LV3, and the Attributes page now shows an Agility Enhancement LV1. He's confident of one thing: with each world he visits, the Hourglass of Time seems to reinforce him to some degree. However, this enhancement doesn't match the rate of his own gains, as at least the Divinity Value has brought transformative changes.
The sound of vehicles.
Several of them.
Pasha's expression slightly changed, and she said urgently: "It's the Plunderers. Let's hide!"
"There's no time," Su Ziyu shook his head.
Up ahead, a seemingly modified pickup truck appeared in sight. When Su Ziyu noticed them, the lookout on the truck spotted him as well.
"Ho ho! Look what we have here!"
"A man and a woman! Haha! Brothers, we've got some fun!" A weird laugh echoed from afar.
Then gunfire rang out.
They fired a few shots into the sky for unknown reasons, their thinking incomprehensible.
"Let's go," Su Ziyu tossed the gun he held over, saying in a low voice: "Into the woods."
Initially, Su Ziyu took Pasha's gun without returning it. Now, it's evident the gun was more useful in her hands. These people sported odd tattoos, played with all sorts of piercings, and dressed in a peculiar mechanical punk style, covered in metal studs. One black man on the car roof revealed a metallic arm. Many had strange tumors on their skin, resembling overgrown muscles; the most disgusting was one with a twisted neck tumor that seemed parasitic.
"They're all depraved, principle-less individuals."
"Burning, killing, plundering."
"Specialized in robbing those in the wilderness and even attacking Scavenger camps." Pasha's expression was extremely disgusted.
Most Plunderers were once criminals; some joined out of desperation and quickly fell into complete depravity. They're a gang of thorough robbers, unwilling to produce anything themselves, solely aiming to snatch resources from others, often targeting Scavengers.
"Keep running. Distract them a bit," Su Ziyu abruptly said: "Give me the tactical dagger."
The light in the woods is a bit dim.
Su Ziyu took the tactical dagger Pasha handed over, turned around, and quickly climbed up a tree, hiding completely within the thick foliage. He made a gesture to indicate Pasha to keep running.
"Where is he?"
"Where did he run off to?" Soon, a few people came in pursuit, carrying various odd-looking firearms in their hands. They seemed crude and appeared to be self-modified.
"Spread out and search! Be careful! That woman has a gun!"
"Kill the man. Bring the woman back."
The leader was a bald-headed man with a large, rotten scar on his head. It wasn't clear how it got there, more likely a wound caused by some disease. He was carrying a weapon that resembled a rifle. Su Ziyu was not very familiar with firearms, so he couldn't identify it yet. These people dispersed into the woods to search for traces, seemingly intent on capturing Pasha.
Su Ziyu quietly took out the tactical dagger from his tree hideout, judged the distance slightly, and suddenly threw the tactical dagger.
Whoosh!
Thud!
The bald leader suddenly fell, the rotten scar on his head stabbed precisely by the tactical dagger, inserted almost two-thirds of the way in.
Su Ziyu's silhouette slid down from the tree, and as the second person beside him raised his gun, he instantly flung his black broken blade, the black blade almost entirely buried into the opponent's chest. However, a piercing gunshot still rang out; although it didn't hit Su Ziyu, it alarmed the others nearby.
Another round of gunshots was heard.
It seemed to come from Pasha's side, followed by a burst of gunfire.
Su Ziyu darted forward, picked up a modified weapon resembling an AK from the ground, and with a roll, hid behind a big tree. He turned to shoot at the enemies on the other side, but didn't hit anyone, his gun technique was terribly poor, having only handled guns briefly during university military training.
"Damn it! Why is the recoil so strong!"
The big tree behind Su Ziyu was blasted by firearms, bark flying everywhere, indicating someone was flanking from the side. He gritted his teeth and cursed, then directly threw away the firearm in his hand.
In an instant!
The flow of time seemed to slow down, everything turning into frame-by-frame slow motion. Su Ziyu suddenly dashed out, flew over to pull the black broken blade out from the corpse on the ground, raised his hand, and flung it. Immediately afterward, he saw bullets flying towards him, the bullet speed was not frame-by-frame, but he could catch them with his eyes, almost grazing his scalp and hitting the ground behind him. He pulled the tactical dagger out from the bald head and flung it again. Only then did two screams resound, as the last plunderer appeared as if he'd seen a ghost, repeatedly cursing with "fuck", fumbling a bit while loading bullets.
Who knows what just happened!
That man's speed was ghost-like, able to dodge the bullets sprayed at him.
Bang!
Su Ziyu then picked up the bald leader's weapon, fired a shot at the last person, this gun was incredibly powerful, blasting the plunderer away, nearly tearing open a huge hole in his chest.
Corpses littered the ground all around.
Only at this moment did Su Ziyu lower his head and look at his hands, as if unable to believe he had just taken them all down.
"Su?!" Pasha's voice echoed.
Then came the sound of a woman gasping sharply, looking at Su Ziyu standing amidst a heap of bodies, murmuring in disbelief, "Oh, My God!"
"Are you Superman?"
Su Ziyu simply didn't respond to her. He bent down and hacked off the bald leader's mechanical arm, a prosthetic full of mechanical feel, heavy in his grip, weighing perhaps over ten kilograms.
"Find something clean to eat."
"I'm hungry," Su Ziyu finally spoke.
......