Start with push-ups to gain experience

Comparing the several blood cores of varying sizes in his hand, Fang Cheng made a rough deduction in his mind.

The probability and quality of blood core condensation should be positively correlated with the individual strength of the mutated beast.

The stronger the mutated beast, the larger the blood core it condenses, and the purer the life energy contained within it.

This pure crystallization of life energy is precisely the "food" that the dark monsters lurking in the storm crave most.

Fang Cheng reached behind his back into his pack, unzipped the side pocket, and tossed in three newly acquired spoils of war.

Including the two smaller blood cores that were dug up earlier, I now have six in my possession.

Fang Cheng held the slightly dim bead, which had been absorbed by the black monster, in his palm, quietly feeling the warm energy emanating from it.

This stuff is undoubtedly an excellent tonic for martial artists cultivating their true energy.

It may also have an immeasurable effect on ordinary people's physical health and awakening of supernatural abilities.

Otherwise, the military wouldn't have gone to such lengths, even joining forces with the Noah organization to conduct secret research projects in order to explore this world.

As Fang Cheng pondered in thought.

The people in the hall held their breath, maintaining a humble posture and not daring to make a sound.

Aside from the occasional thunderous tremors overhead, this underground space was unusually quiet.

"Gurgle—"

A loud rumbling sound of intestines suddenly broke the surrounding silence.

Fang Cheng turned his head to look at the sound.

Parker was staring at the smashed remains of several reptiles on the ground, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, a glistening drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

For the wasteland's bottom layer, who rely on moss, fungi, and rats for sustenance year-round, these hundreds of kilograms of fresh, high-level beast meat are nothing short of a gold mine exuding a deadly allure.

Kyle was squatting on the ground examining Loken's injuries when he heard the noise and turned around.

Seeing the kid lounging unceremoniously beside the reptile carcass, he quickly walked over, slapped Pike on the back of the head, and scolded him in a low voice:

"Put your eyes back in! Those are the adults' prey! Do you want to die?!"

Fang Cheng straightened the shoulder straps of his pack, his gaze sweeping over Parker's emaciated belly, and said casually:
"These beasts are too big for me to carry. You can divide the meat among yourselves."

"Oh, really?!"

Parker suddenly looked up, his eyes shining like two searchlights.

Fang Cheng smiled and nodded:

"Just leave me 10 jin to try."

Upon receiving an affirmative answer, Pike immediately cheered.

He then drew the sharded dagger from his waist and was about to stab the back of the nearest reptile.

"Slow down, don't cut recklessly!"

Upon seeing this, Ira rushed over and grabbed Pike's wrist.

She wiped the dust off her mask with her sleeve and gestured to a raised bump below the monster's spine:
“This is the reptile’s venom gland; if you cut it open, the flesh will be completely ruined.”

"You should make the incision from the back of the neck, cutting downwards, avoiding the internal organs. The flesh in these areas is least contaminated with radiation..."

“Ira is right, step aside, I’ll make the cut.”

Kyle then joined in, drew his sharp machete, took Pike's place, and gave orders:
"Go and lay out those few relatively clean tarpaulins, and get ready to wrap the meat."

With professional guidance and Kyle's skilled techniques, a half-ton reptile was quickly disassembled.

But this has become a happy problem.

There was just too much meat to carry with me.

Keep in mind that there were two other prey of the same size nearby.

Kyle selected the fattest part of the hind leg, cut off about ten pounds of meat, and tied it tightly with a hemp rope in a slipknot.

Then, carrying the heavy load of meat, he walked up to Fang Cheng, respectfully presented it with both hands, and bowed his head at the same time:

"Sir, this is the amount you requested. However, there is simply too much meat here; the few of us cannot carry it all."

"I plan to take some with me first, leave a mark, and then bring the camp's transport team to pick it up tomorrow."

Fang Cheng nodded slightly, having no objection whatsoever.

As he reached out to take the meat, he thought for a moment, then tossed the broken blood core in his hand over:

"This is for you."

Kyle hurriedly reached out and caught it.

When he saw what was in his hand, his eyes widened, and he almost knelt down on the ground:

"A third-tier blood core?! My lord... this is far too valuable!"

"Consider it a deposit for the guide."

Fang Cheng dusted off his hands and gave the order:

"I'm not very familiar with this area, so I need a reliable guide to show me around."

"Yes, my lord."

Kyle's face flushed red, and he gripped the blood core tightly in his hands, nodding excitedly repeatedly:

"It's our team's honor to guide you, and we guarantee there won't be any mistakes!"

He immediately turned around and called to the others, speeding up the evacuation.

Ira quickly pulled out several bandages to stop the bleeding and used them to immobilize Roken's injured arm through his protective suit.

Parker gritted his teeth and laboriously carried a meat bag weighing several dozen kilograms on his back.

He was already thin and frail, and when the heavy object pressed down on him, his whole body was almost bent into a bow shape.

With each step, his body swayed uncontrollably from side to side, resembling a tortoise carrying a huge rock, looking rather comical.

Loken stood up and, seeing this, couldn't help but grin and chuckle:

"Hey, little Parker, watch out for breaking your bones. If my hand weren't ruined, you wouldn't be doing this kind of rough work."

Parker, with his neck stiff and defiant, retorted:

"I'm not that delicate! Once I eat more beast meat to build up my strength, I'll definitely grow taller and stronger than you!"

Kyle stepped forward, supporting the bottom of the backpack with one hand to help Pike steady himself.

He was usually very strict with this young follower, but at this moment he showed a rare hint of concern:
"Walk slowly and watch your step."

After saying that, he picked up a bag of meat weighing 400 kilograms and carried it steadily on his shoulder.

After getting ready, the group walked into the dark tunnel and deeper into the subway station.

The air here is very murky, carrying a strong smell of rust and a musty odor from years of darkness.

The railway tracks beneath our feet were already badly rusted, and most of the sleepers were rotten and blackened, making them soft and slippery to step on.

As the beam of the flashlight swept across, several plump rats scurried away in a panic through the crevices covered in fluorescent moss.

The murky water dripped down the cracked ceiling, splashing onto my head with a "plop, plop".

The group stepped over the remains of a concrete support pillar that was lying across the middle of the road, and then turned into the depths of the hole on the left.

Because they were carrying heavy loads of meat, Kyle and Pike's steps were somewhat heavy.

In the dimly lit tunnel, the heavy breathing of the two could be heard intermittently.

Fang Cheng walked in the middle of the group, avoiding the puddles on his feet, and casually said:
"I've been alone in the mountains for too long. What's going on in this world? Are all the living people hiding underground?"

Loken spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, supported his rifle with his uninjured hand, and huffed and puffed as he continued:

“That’s right, sir. Besides the radiation that can scorch your skin, the surface of this place is full of man-eating monsters.” “If it weren’t for a few bites of meat, who would be willing to crawl out from underground to die?”

Upon hearing this, Fang Cheng followed up with another question:
"I don't know much about history, but I know what happened in the past that led to this situation."

Parker, carrying a large bag of meat, huffed and puffed as he walked. Hearing this, he turned around and said with an innocent look:
"It's okay, I don't know anything about history either. Not many people in our camp can read, only Sister Ira went to school properly!"

A bitter smile forced across Ira's pale face as she slowed her pace to walk alongside Fang Cheng, explaining softly:

“Sir, we’ve heard this from the old folks in the inner city since we were little. They say that in the old days more than a thousand years ago, society was extremely prosperous, with all sorts of unimaginable technological products, and everyone could live a happy life.”

"But then, I don't know what happened, countless blinding lights lit up the sky, and a huge fire fell..."

"What followed was a long war that lasted for hundreds of years, which ultimately led to the destruction of the entire world, and most people died in that war."

"Yes, yes, the ground was blown up, and there was radiation and poison gas everywhere."

Loken, catching his breath, chimed in:
"The plants are all dead, the animals have all turned into monsters, and on top of that, there's this kind of bizarre weather like polar night storms... It's impossible for humans to survive up there."

Kyle, who was leading the group, shone his flashlight into the pit ahead to warn everyone to avoid it, and casually added:

“I’ve also heard older people say that our underground city used to be some kind of ‘subway transportation network’ from the old days.”

"Later, the humans who hid here simply dug down these tunnels generation after generation, building underground camps and forming a huge underground network."

“Now, the camps here are all connected, and we occasionally go out to hunt on the surface through the subway station exit.”

As Fang Cheng listened to their stories, the words of the Masked Man came back to mind.

No wonder he wandered in the wilderness for a long time after entering the world and didn't see a single person. It turns out that all the living people were underground, like groundhogs.

"Uncle, what about you?"

Parker stared wide-eyed at Fang Cheng with curiosity:

"You're so powerful, you're not even afraid of the black monsters, you must come from a really big camp, right? Bigger than our Iron City?"

Fang Cheng stared calmly into the darkness ahead.

“I come from a very far place, where there is a large city right by the sea.”

"ocean?"

Parker blinked, his face behind the gas mask full of confusion:
"What is the sea? Is it a camp much, much bigger than Iron City? Can you eat the rats in it?"

Fang Cheng smiled and was about to speak when a clear voice interrupted him with an explanation.

"The sea is an endless expanse of water on the earth's surface."

Ira adjusted the backpack straps that were digging into her shoulders and whispered:
"When I was a child, I saw a picture book in the orphanage. It said that the old days more than a thousand years ago were very prosperous. There was no radiation, no monsters, the sky was blue, and the sea was blue..."

She paused here, a hint of confusion about the unknown in her eyes:
"But ever since fire fell from the sky and burned the entire earth, does the world... really still have a 'sea'?"

Fang Cheng smiled dismissively, offering no explanation for the existence of the other world, and simply gave a perfunctory reply:
"I heard it from my elders."

No one pursued the matter further.

In the wasteland, no one bothers to dig into the background of a powerful individual.

The group continued their journey through the dark tunnel.

The deeper you go, the more damp and cold the air becomes.

Fang Cheng's heart skipped a beat as he stepped over a pile of collapsed rubble.

A strange pulling sensation came from the depths of his consciousness, as if a faint voice was calling to him from the darkness.

He stopped abruptly, his gaze fixed on a certain direction in the darkness.

Deep in my mind, the faint image of a red vortex appeared, flickering between light and shadow.

"That is?"

Fang Cheng narrowed his eyes and instantly realized the problem.

Several hours have passed since I opened the portal and arrived in this world.

The spatial passage inside the cave clearly requires a massive amount of energy to operate.

Judging by this movement, it should be almost empty.

Once the energy is depleted, the channel closes.

If you don't know how to restart, you may have to stay in this wasteland forever.

Fang Cheng thought quickly.

We've already gathered some information about the other world and even acquired a treasure like a blood core. Continuing to explore Iron City further might be counterproductive.

If they insist on staying, they will face the danger of being trapped in another world.

Besides, the physical fitness test is about to end.

It's time to evacuate.

Fang Cheng weighed the pros and cons and made a decisive decision.

As for how to come back in the future, we'll figure it out then.

"Pause."

He suddenly shouted.

The four people walking in front immediately stopped.

Seeing Fang Cheng standing there with a frown, they assumed something had happened and immediately became tense.

Kyle threw the meat on the ground, quickly placed his right hand on the hilt of his knife, and asked as if facing a formidable enemy:

"Sir, is there a situation?"

"I just remembered something urgent, so I won't be going to Iron City today."

Fang Cheng changed his words with a calm expression:

"Just take me to the northern exit near the mountains."

Kyle was taken aback when he heard this.

Although taken aback by the powerful man's sudden change of mind, he dared not ask a single question and immediately nodded:
"Understood. Go north from that fork in the road ahead. There's an abandoned ventilation shaft that leads directly to the northernmost part of the city ruins. Keep going forward, and you'll reach the mountains."

After explaining in detail, Kyle led the way:
"Please come with me."

The team then temporarily changed its route.

About twenty minutes later.

The group followed a sloping maintenance passage to a heavy, rusty iron door.

A few wisps of cold wind from the polar night were seeping through the crack in the door.

After Fang Cheng and the four others said their goodbyes, he stepped forward and prepared to push open the door and leave.

"Sir, please wait a moment."

Ira suddenly spoke up.

She took two steps forward, grabbed the buckle of the gas mask with both hands, and twisted it hard.

With a slight hissing sound from the leaking valve, she removed her mask.

She revealed a pale yet very delicate face.

Because of the prolonged stuffiness, her face was flushed with a sickly redness, and a few strands of hair, soaked with sweat, clung to her forehead.

She reached around her neck and pulled out a necklace adorned with a deep blue gemstone, offering it to Fang Cheng with both hands:

"I have no way to repay your life-saving grace, please accept this." (End of Chapter)