In a perfect world, you start by relying on your own strength.

Those pieces of flesh and soil took on various shapes, frozen in the final moments of life.

Some were struggling in agony, their bodies contorted in agony; some had their hands clasped together, as if in desperate pleading; some were kneeling and curled up, as if begging for mercy; some were embracing each other, as if trying to protect one another; and some had grotesque faces, still bearing the marks of extreme fear and madness.

Time seemed to have stood still on them, both deathly and eerily silent.

Before everyone could recover from the astonishing density of this fleshy soil, a loud boom suddenly erupted behind them.

Mark's heart tightened, and he immediately connected the communication and called out to his teammates on the perimeter in a deep voice.

"Jeff, Jeff, please reply if this is helpful. How's the situation outside?"

Only a series of static noises came from the communicator; the sound was intermittent, and a few broken shouts could barely be heard.

"Mark's team... the entrance... has collapsed..."

Mark's face darkened, and the entire spaceship fell eerily quiet, with only the heavy breathing of the crew remaining.

"Donnie, you take some people and gather supplies here, the rest of you continue onward."

Mark remained unusually calm and methodically assigned tasks. Although the entrance had collapsed, the spaceship must still have other escape routes.

With Mark in command, everyone felt like they had found their leader, each doing their own job: some were on guard duty, others were collecting supplies.

"All you dusters, watch out! Any damage to supplies will be deducted from your contribution points!"

Donnie glanced at the procession of dust people to the side and coldly rebuked them.

"snort."

4068 grunted indignantly. He had only made a little noise by accident, but he clearly felt that this Shangmin was deliberately targeting him.

"You can't understand human language, can you?"

Donnie's face instantly darkened.

4079, who was standing nearby, quickly stepped in to smooth things over: "Yes, yes, we will definitely be careful."

As he spoke, he quietly tugged at 4068, signaling him to stop arguing.

"That's more like it. You few stay here and gather supplies, the rest of you catch up with the group."

Donnie snorted and pointed at the group of 4068, including Shi Geng.

Shi Geng shrugged indifferently. It didn't matter where he collected the materials; at least he got some peace and quiet.

Everything usable inside the spaceship was packed into crates—controllable energy, compressed rations, rare metals… almost anything of value was dismantled and stuffed into the supply crates.

They were called hunters, but at this moment they were more like scavengers. But this was the law of survival in the apocalypse. The reason why the Lighthouse had been able to continue to this day was precisely because it had repeatedly ventured deep into the ground to scavenge the resources left behind by the old world.

"Looks like I'll be able to get a lot of contribution points this time."

4079 stuffed a compressed biscuit into the already fully packed box and said happily.

"Hmph, our contribution points are not even a fraction of what those carrying guns contribute."

4068 grumbled with a disgruntled expression. Why is it that they, the common people, work themselves to the bone and only get a meager contribution point, while the upper-class people don't have to do any heavy work and can enjoy a lot of resources?

Is it because they were born as ordinary people?

4079's expression changed drastically. He quickly grabbed 4068 and whispered urgently, "Shh—keep your voice down! They're upper-class citizens. We're lucky to even have a job. Besides, it's safest to go on missions with Captain Mark. I worked really hard to get this opportunity."

It's important to understand that on the lighthouse, it's a major taboo for ordinary people to discuss the upper classes in private. If the discipline department overhears such a discussion, a beating with a whip is inevitable.

"Instead of wasting your time complaining, I suggest you pack your things and leave."

Shi Geng picked up the heavy supply box with one hand and walked straight out the door, casually reminding the two of them before leaving.

In his perception, the aura of the spine-worms was already awakening in the darkness, and there were quite a few of them.

4068 gave a noncommittal snort, turned around, and tiptoed towards the corner. Seeing this, 4079 quickly followed.

Shi Gen shook his head. Considering they were all commoners, he had already given them the necessary reminders. Whether they listened or not was their own business.

Sure enough, a moment later, a shrill, terrified scream suddenly rang out from inside the storage pod.

Donnie, who was guarding the door, rushed in without thinking, but the sight before him made him pause in shock—it was a spinal worm!

"What's going on? How come there are spinal worms here?!"

A spinal worm was clinging tightly to a Dustman, while two other Dustmen frantically tried to pry it off. Penny, standing nearby, aimed her gun but hesitated to pull the trigger, clearly afraid of accidentally injuring someone.

Upon seeing this, Donnie immediately raised his gun and aimed it at the parasitized Dustman, his eyes cold, about to pull the trigger.

Suddenly, a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist.

Donnie glanced to the side and saw that the one who had intervened was just a commoner, and his anger immediately surged.

"The lives of ordinary people are also lives. It's just a spinal worm. There's no need to make such a fuss."

Shi Geng spoke calmly, but before he finished speaking, he suddenly flicked his wrist and threw out the crowbar.

The iron crowbar whistled out, precisely piercing the spine worm's body and pinning it hard to the rear bulkhead.

After doing all this, Shi Geng casually clapped his hands and said, "If you don't want to die, hurry up and get out of here. It's not very safe in here."

"you……"

Donnie frowned, about to reprimand, when Penny gently pulled him back. She looked at Shi Gen: "What do you mean by that?"

Shi Geng glanced at the dark depths of the cabin and said calmly, "The swarm of spinal worms inside has been alerted."

As soon as he finished speaking, a dense chorus of tiny hissing sounds surged forth like a tide.

Countless spine worms crawled out of the darkness, instantly covering most of the ground, and swarmed towards the group to kill them!

Penny's expression changed drastically, and Donnie, no longer concerned with pursuing Shi Geng's overstepping boundaries, shouted sharply, "Retreat! Everyone retreat immediately!"

As he spoke, he kept firing his rifle at the spinal worms. But the spinal worms were extremely fast and their numbers were overwhelming. One round of fire was not enough to stop the swarming worms.

Seeing this, Donnie and Penny could only fight and retreat, while the three unarmed members of 4068 had already run away in fear.

Only Shi Geng slowly carried the supply box towards the door.

Surprisingly, the surrounding spine insects seemed completely oblivious to him, paying him no attention whatsoever, as if they regarded him as nothing more than a lifeless stone by the roadside.

Donnie and Penny were stunned by what they saw, but with so many Spine Worms, they could only suppress their doubts and continue firing to suppress them. The Hunters who heard the commotion outside also rushed over.

With the addition of members of the Wilderness Hunters, the situation was temporarily stabilized, but there were simply too many Spine Gu, so everyone could only fight and retreat.

However, the swarm of spine worms clearly had no intention of letting go of their prey. Wisps of eerie red mist began to spread through the passage—they were releasing scarlet pigment.