Chapter 1134: Chapter 1121: Young Man, Do You Desire Power? Chapter 1134: Chapter 1121: Young Man, Do You Desire Power? “Father, how many more days until we can enter the Base City? I’m so hungry, I want to eat the fragrant, soft rice you talked about.”

On an off-road vehicle speeding through a rugged wilderness, a child with a curled body and a greenish face spoke in a weak voice.

“We’re almost there, it’s coming up soon. Just bear with it a little longer. Once we’re in the Base City, you won’t have to worry about going hungry again.”

Hearing his son’s words, the man driving an iron beast of a vehicle that had been modified countless times, charging recklessly through the wilderness, licked his dry lips and then smiled to encourage his son.

“Father, can we wandering people really enter the Base City? I heard someone from a Base City calling us strays last time.”

“Who? Who called you a stray?” The man’s face turned fierce instantly upon hearing his son’s words.

He was a Scavenger surviving on the outskirts of another Base City, but half a month ago, he unexpectedly received an astonishing piece of news: Glorious Base City, thousands of kilometers away, was expanding and recruiting Scavengers.

Upon hearing this news, he did not hesitate much, and immediately took his team of Scavengers and started making their way toward Glorious Base City.

The group, originally nearly thirty strong, was reduced to just him and his son after a journey of thousands of kilometers, as the others had all died along the way.

Whether in terms of physical fitness or weaponry, humans, always at a disadvantage against the Desolate Beasts, risked their lives the moment they left their comfort zone.

But the stable access to food and a secure life within the Base City posed an irresistible lethal attraction to Scavengers, so countless Scavengers who received the news flocked to Glorious Base City like moths to a flame.

The farther the distance, the greater the risk the Scavengers had to endure, but those who could traverse the vast distance to reach their destination were undoubtedly the elite of humanity.

“I forgot.” Seeing the expression on his father’s face, the child sitting in the passenger seat couldn’t help but shrink his neck. He remembered the terrifying demeanor his father took on when he got serious, almost like a demon crawling out of Hell.

“It’s no big deal, Father. What I’m worried about now is whether the message we received is really true. Can we truly join the Base City?”

“It is absolutely true.” Seeing his son shifting the topic in such a stiff manner, the man narrowed his eyes and then his expression softened, as he spoke in a calm voice that was chilling to hear,

“Even if it’s false, with the Scavengers gathered around the Base City now, I can make it true.”

“Father!” The child looked up at his father in shock.

“Ha ha, look at your face, I’m just teasing. With the Divine Machine User around, how could an ordinary person like me turn the tables?”

“Maybe the message is true.” The child shrank his body, knowing his father’s true nature well; he knew how mad his father could be.

If their destination failed to meet their expectations, he could hardly imagine what his father would do—perhaps he would really gather the remaining Scavengers and attack the Base City.

…

Two days later

“Father, look, there are plants ahead.” The child stood up excitedly from his seat, watching the greenery appearing on the horizon and spreading gradually, his mood becoming exceptionally joyous.

This vibrant scene was so different from the barren desolation he had seen these past days, involuntarily filling him with hope for his future.

Compared to the child’s excitement, the driving man’s expression was much steadier, even somewhat grave.

“How can there still be plants growing in this kind of hellish environment?”

“Father, what are you saying?” The child turned his head, puzzled, not having heard what his father was muttering under his breath.

“Nothing, just hold on to your weapon and keep alert; something’s off about this place.”

“Oh!” The child obediently took out a modified shotgun from the storage compartment in front of him.

Hisss—

The thick tires left deep marks on the ground. For a human, the off-road vehicle, like a Giant Beast, stopped in front of a lush thicket of thorn branches.

The man got out of the vehicle with his son and then surveyed the surroundings, the faintly glowing thorn forest in front of them making his already serious face grow even more somber.

“Father, can we eat these?” The child, who had grown up in the Wilderness and sometimes even had to eat the flesh of Desolate Beasts, swallowed nervously at the sight of the thorn branches.

In a world that had undergone a massive extinction event, tree bark and grass roots were considered supreme delicacies for struggling creatures.

“No.”

“Why?” The child was somewhat perplexed, “Didn’t you tell me that all plants are edible? Aren’t these plants?”

“Whether these qualify as plants, I can’t quite say. This is the first time I’ve seen such a thing in my life.”

“Oh.” Hearing his father’s words, the child bowed his head in disappointment, knowing his father would probably not let him touch these things.

Just then, a convoy of shabbily modified vehicles drove up from afar and stopped not far from the father and son. The scavengers descending from them rushed into the thorn jungle without giving them a glance.

“Hahaha, there are so many plants here, brothers, we can satisfy our cravings.”

A rather gaunt man surveyed the surroundings filled with faint red luminescent plants, excitement barely concealable in his eyes, like a giant rat that had been famished for a long time and suddenly burst into a warehouse filled with corn.

Unable to suppress the urge in his body, the man pulled out a shiny, well-worn war knife and chopped off a relatively tender thorn branch, then started to chew on it.

After he ate the thorn branch, his companions did not follow his example but stared intently at his body to observe his condition, knowing that among those who could survive in the wilderness, few were reckless.

“How does it taste? What’s the texture like?”

“The texture isn’t great, quite woody, but it’s easier to chew than desolate beast meat and tastes pretty good, quite sour.”

The man who ate the thorn branch described his sensations cheerfully, knowing his teammates treated him as a guinea pig, but he didn’t mind. He only knew that he was about to starve to death, and if he didn’t eat something soon, he felt like he might actually die.

Suddenly, the man who ate the thorn branch’s smile had just blossomed on his face when it froze; his eyes bulged out, his face showing a look of terror.

“Save me!” The man, feeling something grow and spread crazily inside his body, reached out his palm to his comrades for help, feeling his life force being rapidly drained by the foreign object within him.

But when his companions saw his cries for help, not only did they not save him, they kept retreating, trying to distance themselves from him as much as possible.

Initially angry, the man understood when he saw a branch very similar to the one he had just swallowed piercing through his palm.

“So I was the food all along.” The man realized his identity, the scene before him grew blurry, and then everything plunged into darkness.

“Father!” Witnessing a plant devour a human whole and then break through the body to take root in the earth, the child turned around fearfully and clung to his father’s legs.

“Don’t be afraid, it was his own fault; these plants don’t have the ability to hunt actively.”

The man, having witnessed the tragedy before his eyes, comforted his child with unsettling calmness.

“Damn, I knew it, the world has turned to this ghastly state, how could there still be normal plants.”

The scavenger team, having lost a member, didn’t seem too sad; for them, death was a common affair.

As the man was contemplating what to do next, the sound of helicopter blades came from above, and then he looked up to see an armored transporter descending overhead,

A fully armed soldier jumped down from the transporter, surveyed these scavengers, and then looked at the new, small thorn bush in the middle of the thorn jungle that still wore clothes, before bursting into laughter,

“Tsk, another starved unlucky fellow.”

After the remark, the soldier turned to the scavengers in front of him, “All of you want to join our Glorious Base City, right? If so, come on board!”

… Standing on the transporter, the man looked down at the land swiftly passing below and felt somewhat dazed because everything seemed a bit dreamlike and surreal.

“Are these plants all planted by your base city?” The man, seeing practically no earth exposed under the sky, couldn’t help but ask with some confusion.

“Of course not, we don’t have such ability, these were planted by the Dragon Lords?”

“Dragon Lord?”

“You’ll find out after we arrive at the base city.” The soldiers all flashed mysterious smiles.

“Is this your son?” As the man was pondering, the soldier’s gaze fell on his son.

“Hmm.”

“He seems to have good physical health to have grown up in an environment like this,” the soldier observed the child, nodded, then smilingly asked him,

“Young man, do you crave power? The power to fight desolate beasts with just your fists.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read