NOVEL WEB Chapter 364: Ants
The night was pitch-black. Outside the outskirts of Dawn City, abandoned streets and buildings were lined with barbed wire and chevaux-de-frise, holding back the overwhelming tide of corpses. Every few hundred meters stood reinforced concrete watchtowers, where armed guards kept silent vigil. Infrared fire-control radars of automated machine guns continuously scanned for approaching anomalies.
The roars of the corpse tide rose and fell in the distance, like some ancient, ravenous beast gnashing its teeth. At that moment, several modified trucks broke through the encirclement of zombies. Black smoke billowed from their hoods, tires crushed decaying limbs, and headlights pierced the darkness as they charged forward. In the night, the hundred-meter-high Wall No. 1 of Dawn City loomed like a cliff spanning east to west, its signal lights blinking silently in the dark. In some areas, welding sparks flickered, and numerous searchlights swept across.
"We're here... finally, we're f***ing here!" The man in the driver's seat let out a hoarse shout, gripping the steering wheel tightly, his knuckles turning white.
The survivors in the convoy crowded inside the vehicles, peering through bulletproof glass at the massive wall. Searchlights on the wall swept over the wilderness, occasionally illuminating the dense tents, convoy camps, and bonfires at the base of the wall. These belonged to survivors who couldn't afford the entry fee, gathering under the wall to set up camps and huddle together for warmth. From a distance, the lights of the convoy camps resembled a vast apocalyptic night market, stretching endlessly.
At the city gate, the line of vehicles extended for several kilometers. Countless drones buzzed overhead, spraying disinfectant mist and scanning for dark marks. Large armed mechs patrolled back and forth, the barrels of their rotary machine guns slowly rotating to maintain order.
At the entrance, federal officials responsible for population control worked in 24-hour shifts, conducting screenings. Everyone entering the city had to disembark, pay the entry fee, and pass through multiple detection channels before receiving a new Dawn City resident ID and being assigned a district and residence within Wall No. 1's old city.
"Three blood crystals per person?! Wasn't it two Level 1 blood crystals just yesterday?!"
At the crowded city entrance, chaos erupted. A convoy leader shouted angrily at the population security officer, "How did the price go up again in just one day?!"
"Yeah, three blood crystals per person—are the anomalies our prey now?!"
"Exactly!"
...
"What's all the yelling for!" A disgruntled security officer in power armor stepped forward. "According to regulations, if the ratio of non-combatants exceeds 1:2, this is the standard. Your convoy has only 15 combat personnel but 34 elderly, weak, sick, and disabled. If it weren't for your two berserker-level members, we'd charge extra for the excess!"
"You—!" The middle-aged convoy leader flushed and stepped forward, only to be instantly targeted by the heavy mechs' cannons on both sides.
"What? Planning to force your way in?" The security officer sneered coldly. "Do you know why the price increased? Because this is the only place in the world where you can drink water that's 95% purified from darkness. Only here can withstand an S-level attack!"
He then stepped onto the roof of the convoy's vehicle and shouted to the winding line behind, "This is humanity's hope. Everyone must contribute everything to resist the enemy. Without resources, where do the city's weapons and ammunition come from? Without resources, how do we build an invincible fleet to counter the darkness? Thanks to Vice Chairman Zhou's wise leadership, Dawn City is now the safest place!"
After speaking, he looked at the convoy leader and said, "Dawn City is very humane. Even in the outer city, as long as your combat power exceeds the Vajra level or you possess special skills, you can work to earn blood crystals. If you can't afford the entry fee now, set up camp in the outer city. It's better than being eaten by anomalies in the wilderness, right?"
Upon hearing this, the convoy members fell silent, and the teams behind began to murmur. Many convoys lacking sufficient blood crystals started to discuss among themselves and withdrew from the queue.
On the other side, a convoy that had just completed the screening and registration drove forward slowly, following the drones responsible for resident placement. In the passenger seat sat a young girl. She opened the window and watched as the convoy passed through numerous checkpoints. The original stench of decay was replaced by the scent of crowded humanity.
Old City.
Cramped, crowded, teeming with people. The once-urban buildings of the old city were now dilapidated, retrofitted into various apocalyptic shelters. Windows were sealed with iron bars, and numerous doomsday-modified vehicles were tightly parked along the streets. Communities were heavily fortified, with malls and office buildings converted into residential areas. Dawn City prohibited weapons, but long and short guns were set up under buildings in every alley.
"D-47..." The convoy leader, Gao Tou, looked at the electronic sign and led everyone through the tranquil streets. Every window was crowded with seven or eight households. Below the streets, the cries of children, couples' quarrels, and patients' groans blended into a symphony of despair.
Dawn City had network communication. Former mobile phones and the internet were still functional, with various trading and information communities bustling with a small number of active survivors.
Standing beneath the rooftop, looking up at the original Twin Star Towers in the core area, now surrounded by Wall No. 2. The low steel jungle rose in tiers from high to low. At the center stood the once-iconic Twin Star Towers, which were not only landmarks but also famous spaceports. In the neon-lit cyber inner city, many aerial vehicles were no longer present, leaving only the federal garrison and patrol warships.
Above the spaceport was the massive entrance to the Federation's Ground City No. 1, an ultra-large underground project extending 800 layers deep. The circular platform resembled an inverted Tower of Babylon, spiraling upward. The entire underground city was like an independent subterranean hive metropolis, spanning tens of kilometers. Each layer was interconnected, similar to Ground City No. 9, but larger in scale and population. It also had a more complete public transportation system, with hundreds of maglev carriages slowly shuttling through, like meteors circulating through the kilometer-deep underground world.
Dawn City, Ground City No. 1, Core Administrative Hall.
It didn't resemble an office, as the interior space was vast. The sky featured a blue cloud projection, with golden carvings and swirling cloud patterns. A massive palace lantern hung in the center, its core a holographic "artificial sun," casting deliberately adjusted warm golden light reminiscent of dusk.
The entire office was transformed into a miniature Jiangnan garden, with white jade steps, babbling streams, scattered rockeries, red pavilions, and a large clear pond. Surprisingly, some freshwater koi that survived the apocalypse were still swimming joyfully among the lotus flowers.
A gunshot shattered the tranquility. Soon, two armed guards sprayed a dissolving agent on the face of Zhou Mingyuan, who lay in a pool of blood, causing his face to rot. They then placed him in a body bag and dragged him away.
"Didn't I tell you not to bring him back?"
By the clear pond, a middle-aged man with a plump figure, dressed in luxurious clothes, held a dish of fish food. He pinched a bit between his fingers and tossed it into the pond, watching the fish frolic.
The speaker was a woman beside him, with short, neat hair. Wen Hui,
"They are too!"
The young man in the power armor sneered, his tone laced with disdain.
"In the face of the true horrors of the dark world, we're nothing but ants... and so are they!"