Epoch of Twilight

As they entered the mothership, the experts and technicians started work right away. As ordered, they went straight to the production area to take a look at the Glassians’ production system.

There were two floors on the mothership’s production area. As compared to the spacious residential area that was 200 meters high, the layout of the production area was tight and compartmentalized. It was much lower and compact with heights of 50 meters on each floor.

The factories were arranged in an orderly fashion with numerous machines whirring away. Some were massive and bulky, while others were tiny and complexed. Parts of the machines were similar to human machines while some sections were completely new to mankind. The reason for this was because the Glassians’ production system was very different as compared to a human’s and their technology was way more advanced. To mankind, everything on the mothership looked like something out of a sci-fi movie, astonishing and mysterious. Without thorough understanding of the systems and regular operational practice, it was difficult to identify what each machine did.

The factories followed a standard operating unmanned module. They were strictly categorized with each product placed into rectangular containers. There were production robots in the factories but without the command of a computer, they were in hibernation mode. All the factories had stopped running. To restart production, the experts and technicians would have to give the go ahead before anything proceeded.

Luo Yuan stayed for a while to brief Bi Jianping on the precautions and procedures before he left the mothership. He then boarded the rescue spacecraft and went back to earth.

The situation had gotten worse since his departure. People in the nearby cities had migrated away to save themselves in any way they could. There was no time to waste, the spacecraft was crucial for the migration.

It was only 1 a.m. when he departed and now it was almost 7 a.m. as he got back. He stepped out of the spacecraft and looked at the pitch black sky. He felt the stress of impending doom build within him.

Compared to last night, the temperature was 10 degree Celsius lower than before. Snow started to cover the earth. In merely half a day, the layer of ice on the ground was much thicker and made cracking sounds as people walked on it. There were clouds of dust and sand in the air, and the layers of ice seemed dirty like the polluted pitch black sky.

The wind that was blowing had subsided. It was rather peaceful and quiet.

Walking in the snow, he experienced a new level of silence that he had never experienced before. The chaos that he had gotten used to before the apocalypse was long gone. In the desert, Luo Yuan did not see any living things. The weeds that were everywhere were nowhere to be found.

It was at the edge of the zone where the anti-matter bomb attack occurred. There were still mutated beasts in other areas, but they could not survive much longer. Most of the plants were dead due to the shroud of darkness that covered the land for a long time. Besides a small population of plants that evolved to obtain certain unique survival skills that allowed them to live with minimal sunlight, most would die due to their inability to carry out photosynthesis.

Without plants which were the base of almost every food chain, the entire ecosystem would collapse in no time.

...

"Ding! Your battle beast ‘Giant Lizard’ is dead!"

The notification from system popped in his mind as he walked his way around the reconstruction area. He paused and opened the attributes panel.

Giant Lizard’s name appeared to be gray on the panel and soon, it dimmed and four seconds later, it completely disappeared. Luo Yuan was stunned. He stopped walking and frowned.

The Giant Lizard had been following him since the beginning of the apocalypse. It had been with him through thick and thin across the whole of China. They had been through a lot together. His abilities skyrocketed ever since they entered the reconstruction area, and he did not need the Giant Lizard’s help anymore.

But now, it was dead!

In reality, it had not died due to the cold weather, but it was badly injured from the aftermath of the anti-matter bomb. It was amazing that it held on until now. As Luo Yuan did not look at the attributes panel lately, its injuries had worsened and now it was dead. Luo Yuan noticed that aside from his Blue Dragon that was healthy because it was far away from the reconstruction area, the Raging Ape was badly injured too. He was not sure how long it could hold on.

He stared in silence at the barren mountains in the distance. That was the place where the two giant beasts used to be. Since then, he had never visited them. In reality, he did not have feelings for the two battle beasts he knew. After all, compared to pets, they were wild and untamed mutated beast. If not for his strong abilities, he would have been eaten by the both of them.

However, without knowing why, he felt sad.

He thought for a while and flew towards the barren mountain.

Soon, he landed in the valley. It was a lush forest not long ago, but it was now barren land. Its height dropped significantly due to the shockwave, and it was much shorter now.

The two battle beasts lay motionless on the ground. The body of Giant Lizard was stiff, while the Raging Ape lay not so far away on the ground, weak and dying.

As Luo Yuan walked closer, the Raging Ape seemed to notice him and lifted its head. It saw Luo Yuan and struggled to stand up. It whimpered, with tears in its eyes.

It was a mess. Its red hair was molted and its body was covered in wounds. A part of its head was scraped and its skull was showing, frozen in ice. There were scabs all over its body. As it stood up, the frozen ice on its body fell to the ground.

Looking at it getting all excited, Luo Yuan sighed. He then turned around to look at Giant Lizard. Its body was completely frozen. From the cuts and blood on its body, he could see that it was severely injured in the disaster earlier and the cold weather accelerated its death.

He took a moment to pay his respects to the Giant Lizard and then stood up.

The Raging Ape was shivering in cold, its wounds caused it great discomfort. It was barely holding on.

Luo Yuan took out a crystal from his pocket. It was a Level Eight energy crystal. To keep it safe from the mutated humans that tried to steal it from him, he had it with him at all times, and now it came in handy.

He flicked the energy crystal into the Raging Ape’s mouth. It melted immediately on its tongue, and before it even figured out what happened, the nuclei had disappeared. Soon, there was a burning sensation in its body. Steam was rising out of its body because of the high temperature. Its blood was boiling, its wounds were healing at the speed of light!

The rich active energy in the level eight crystal worked miraculously on the injuries all over its body

Once it was much better, it rose to his hind legs and let out a resonating roar! It was not as weak as it was just a few moments before.

As its wounds healed, it’s hair began shedding rapidly and grew out almost instantly after. But soon, all its hair had shed and it was hairless.

It was the beginning of its evolution.

It started to groan, its muscles tightened and its veins were bulging around them.

It was the same with the evolution of the mutated human earlier. Such unnatural evolution at high speeds did not make its body bigger but on the contrary, its body was shrinking.

Luo Yuan could hear the cracking of its bones like firecrackers as it shrank. It slammed the ground with its heavy hands, roaring in an intense pain. Each hit felt like a bomb attack, smashing the hard ground. With his strong punches, hundreds of tonnes of sand and rocks scattered like broken glass.

As its body shrunk, its strength was increasing relative to the loss in size.

Before the evolution, its Strength was +21 but in 10 minutes, its Strength had leaped to +25 and it was still increasing.

The ground was shaking like there was an earthquake! Gravel fell in landslides from the valleys. Chaos shook the whole area!

...

Half an hour later, the evolution finally ceased. The Raging Ape was now less than 10 meters tall, but it’s red hair was now golden. Its green eyes burned with a menacing fire, and it gave off a furious vibe.

Its transformation was not physical as its body was still similar to its original form. However, its shrunken body did not make it weak. On the contrary, it was as terrifying as a demon from hell.