Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland.

The sticky bubbles rolled slowly, and Sergeant Wu Laowu looked at the rice porridge in his hand in a daze, until the quartermaster's scolding sounded, he woke up as if from a dream and stood aside to make room.

Behind me were colleagues waiting for their meals, some of whom were already getting impatient.

Although the soldiers of Kaiton City also suffered from the stubborn problems of the aristocratic private army, under the command of General Tianxin, their discipline was unusually strict, and their logistics were unimpeded during the march.

Due to limited conditions, they couldn't guarantee that every soldier would be able to eat well, and the officers and noble hooded guards would definitely be able to get more quotas... but at least all the front-line combat personnel could still eat enough.

This is better than many bandits.

Wu Laowu's stomach was empty and his gastric juice was churning. He was obviously very hungry. However, what surprised and frightened him was that he had no appetite at all when he looked at the food that was distributed to him.

It was obvious that before he was called up, he and his wife and children in his hometown might not have enough refined rice and flour for two meals a day.

Noticing the curious looks from the soldiers around him, Wu Laowu quickly gulped down the rice porridge in the bowl, wiped his mouth, and left the station while suppressing the nausea in his stomach.

As he walked away, he subconsciously lowered his head.

This is not only to avoid other people's sight, but also to unconsciously cover up the green light and desire in the eyes.

After the supply was completed, Wu Laowu should have returned to his post, but he made a long detour without anyone noticing, and when he looked up, he saw a camp for wounded soldiers of the Kaidun Army in front of him.

The number of citizens in the town of Aikuang was greater than they had imagined, even more than the wild people outside. Moreover, as the United City army continued to advance, the threat from the citizens became greater.

At first, they were very thin, but they were flexible. But a few days ago, the enemies they encountered in Kaiton City were almost the same as ordinary soldiers, and they also started to use weapons.

If it weren't for those deformed claws and bestial eyes, the warrior leaders would probably have thought they were attacked and fighting another army.

There were also some giants of unusually large stature among the citizens. When they appeared, even the other citizens began to flee in all directions, as if they had seen a predator. These giants held strange machetes and bone crushers, and even the samurai masters could not stop them from hitting them.

This was not a battle on the open field. The army of Kaiton City seemed to be stuck in a quagmire, and they would hit a nail on the head from time to time - of course, with General Tianxin in charge and taking action, their advancement speed had not encountered too many obstacles, but the formation had completely changed.

The entire joint army was squeezed together like a long shuttle. The redundant tentacles were cut off, leaving only the strongest top to carry everyone forward.

The center army had become the vanguard, while the vanguard, which had suffered heavy losses, retreated.

Now resting in the rear.

The armies of other southern states, which originally had some grudges against Kaiton City, now realized the pros and cons and basically obeyed the orders of General Tianxin and no longer acted alone.

The so-called wounded soldier camp should have been the most taboo place in the entire army. Once the number of military doctors and medicines was insufficient, even if they were able to rescue the soldiers at the beginning, in most cases they would just be sent here to die.

It is also a good place to isolate diseases.

The air was filled with the stench of rotting wounds, mixed with a strange medicinal aroma that was disgusting - but when they drifted to Wu Laowu's nose, he somehow began to swallow his saliva.

At the same time, my stomach started churning again.

It hurts like being pulled.

Getting restless again.

With a "wow" sound, Wu Laowu vomited out all the rice porridge he had just drunk. Each grain was full and original, with almost no signs of digestion.

But after vomiting, the old sergeant did not feel uncomfortable at all. Instead, he felt refreshed, as if some dirt had been discharged from his body.

However, the hunger in my stomach became more intense.

At this moment, he saw from afar the curtain of the wounded camp was lifted and a thin figure walked out.

The man had a white cloth covering his face and was holding a cloth bundle in his arms. He was dressed like a military doctor or coroner.

But seeing him looking around and acting furtively, it doesn't seem like that.

Wu Laowu frowned.

He remembered a rumor in the army: most of the other states in the United City recorded military merits by the number of heads, but only the city of Kaiton counted people's left ears, so some shrewd people would cut off the enemy's head first and then cut off the left ear, and sell the head to the soldiers in the end of their wandering place while sending the ear to the city of Kaiton.

And if Colonus is included, sometimes the entire corpse is used.

This is of course against military orders, but that's human nature. Sometimes when the superior officers know about it, they will just turn a blind eye.

However, the other party came out of the wounded camp... If he used the corpses of his comrades or even killed the wounded to claim credit, it would be a bit too much.

Once discovered, it will be a capital crime.

Wu Laowu held down his sword, hesitating whether to turn a blind eye or go back to stop the report. But before he could make a decision, the figure in the distance paused, turned his head abruptly, and looked as fierce as an eagle.

I actually found the sergeant hiding in the shadows.

Wu Laowu was startled, but after the man noticed him, his eyes softened strangely and he walked towards him carelessly.

Wu Laowu took two steps back cautiously, until the other party approached him nonchalantly and pulled off the white cloth on his face. Then he said in surprise: "Li Xiaosan?"

The visitor was a good fellow villager of his.

Wu Laowu's doubts were mostly gone. Li Xiaosan was indeed a member of the vanguard army. He often fell and injured himself when he went up the mountain to mine when he was a child. He became a doctor through his bandage skills and actually became a military doctor.

Li Xiaosan treated him very well. When he retreated from the front line, he specially asked someone to send a bag of jerky to Wu Laowu, saying that it was the spoils of war looted by the vanguard army.

Other troops wanted it but couldn't get it. The supply in Kaiton City was guaranteed, but the grassroots soldiers could only eat meat every six or seven days. Having several kilograms of animal meat was still very enviable.

Wu Laowu was naturally grateful.

He also knew that Li Xiaosan was actually a timid and sensitive person, sometimes even making people laugh at him. He needed someone to take care of him so that he wouldn't be bullied. It was most appropriate for him to stay in the back and heal his injuries.

I won't do anything like killing innocent people and taking credit for it.

Relaxed, Wu Laowu even ignored the fact that his fellow villager had sunken eye sockets and his skull seemed to have grown larger. He looked like a tired patient, but his expression was unusually excited.

"How is it? How is the war on the front line?" Wu Laowu suppressed the strange hunger in his stomach, held his fellow villager's shoulder and asked with concern, "Are you injured? When your sister-in-law sent me out, she didn't even bother to ask me a few questions. She was worried that you would die outside, so she asked me to take care of you, haha..."

In the end, Wu Laowu was promoted to private first class, and Li Xiaosan became a military doctor. The results were pretty good for both of them, but they had different divisions of labor and could not stay together on weekdays.

But after listening to Wu Laowu's reminiscence, Li Xiaosan seemed to have no reaction at all. He just looked him up and down, and then spoke with difficulty: "Wu, Brother Wu, you too..."

In Wu Laowu's impression, Li Xiaosan was not a stutterer, but at this moment he had difficulty organizing his words, and his following words were vague, as if his vocal cords were stuck together.

It makes people feel uncomfortable.

Wu Laowu frowned and was about to interrupt the other party, when he suddenly understood a sentence from it:

"Are you hungry?"

If it were any other question, Wu Laowu would definitely ignore it and instead find out the situation of his fellow villager first. However, when he heard these words, his bones felt itchy as if a caterpillar was crawling through them, and his previously strong will finally collapsed.

Wu Laowu nodded subconsciously.

When he came to his senses, he had a cloth wrapped in his hand. On the other side, Li Xiaosan had already walked away. He didn't know where he went. Only a few intermittent words echoed in his ears:

"Food... wounded soldiers..."

In Wu Laowu's hand was the cloth package that Li Xiaosan had just held. His palm felt heavy and a little wet, but he could smell a rich fragrance that was hard to resist.

Are these supplies for the wounded?
Wu Laowu was thinking in a daze and walked back like a lost soul.

He didn't notice.

In general camps for wounded soldiers, there are always sounds of cursing, crying or groaning from suffering soldiers, which are unbearable to listen to.

I just want to escape and stay far away.

But today, it's exceptionally quiet here.

The dilapidated ruins of buildings in the distance appear even colder and more chilling.

Then, there was a sticky chewing sound.

Meat…meat…meat…

---

---

【Standing at the end of the world, looking at the barren plain, I can always feel the shock of the civilization gap. The latest survey data from northern hunters show that the history of the painted tribe can be traced back thousands of years. But this discovery does not bring joy, but more confusion: Did they exist before the destruction of the suspected laboratory, or did they appear after that?】

[In a land full of advanced technological relics, the existence of such a primitive tribe seems out of place. Every time I read the investigation report of the Cannibal Plains, I would think about the same question: Why did the residents here degenerate? ]

[Through analysis of unearthed artifacts, we have proposed several possibilities. One hypothesis is that the painted tribe is likely to be the direct descendants of the ancients. Their initial degeneration may be due to multiple factors: inability to adapt to toxic environmental changes; harmful substances leaked from the laboratory; mental abnormalities caused by earth-shaking changes; or the simplest reason - extreme famine forced them to take the path of cannibalism, which has been passed down from generation to generation...]

[But no matter what the reason is, this mutation has been passed down to today. It is no longer from any culture or infection, but a toxin rooted in the blood of all humans (note: including those with horns). They will accumulate from generation to generation, and every attempt will make people slide into the abyss faster. Even the Sons of the Scorched Earth are not immune - the Hive People may not be affected, but obviously, the threat that plagues them is even more serious...]

【We have long warned through books and bards, trying to spread knowledge about the cannibal curse to the world, but the same tragedy keeps happening again and again. It is clear that the power of education is not as effective as my teachers and colleagues claim. Compared to the problems in front of everyone, our concerns are more like the nonsense of a group of absurd scholars. There are some truths that even illiterate peasants can understand, but reality always forces people to trample on them... If you don't understand this, don't expect the world to run as perfectly as we imagine. 】

[In the remains of the laboratory, we found weapon debris and traces of internal damage. These damages may come from civil war, but they may also be wanton damage caused by cannibal tribes occupying the laboratory. We don’t need long-term observation to understand that these tribes have extremely strong violent tendencies. When rational individuals avoid these areas, they can only prey on their own kind, which further enriches the mutation factors.]

[Atticus was a great researcher. In addition to his excessive attention to legendary monsters, his theories were usually bold and innovative: many years later, we did find some traces of human experiments deep in the abandoned laboratory in the north. These discoveries suggested that the ancient civilization might be conducting some extreme survival experiments, which made his original question valuable again - could the cannibal tribe be an accidental product of these experiments? Or, is their behavior pattern the result of deliberate design?]

[I think: they are not simply the product of degeneration, but an adaptive mutation produced under specific environmental pressure... If the world ends again one day, they may be the first wave of survivors. ]

[In the next research plan, I will focus on two directions: first, to conduct an in-depth investigation of the laboratory's human experiment records, trying to find the root cause of the cannibal tribe's abnormal behavior, or even a solution. This requires applying for support from the intelligence core... Secondly, to expand the scope of archaeology and look for other possible tribal groups, even though I hope that the search in this direction will not yield any results.]

【We hope our new discovery can serve as a memorial. 】

【To Atticus.】

——Finch.

The army of Kaiton City was slowly changing, and facing the brave soldiers, even the citizens driven by appetite seemed to feel a little fear, they realized that these cans were not so easy to open, and not as delicious as each other - or maybe they were waiting for something, just like all predators hibernating before launching an attack. But anyway, the offensive was indeed slowed down, and the march seemed to be much smoother.

"Another United City person..."

But deep in the Ai Mine Town, unlike the crazy citizens, there seem to be other rational people.

They were wearing pointed hats and white robes, their chain mail had rusty stripes, and the old figure was holding a crescent-shaped scimitar, examining the two captives, a man and a bee, in front of him.

(End of this chapter)