Right after that, every single sludge siren started gnawing at the wall, exposing the strange room hidden beneath the outer layer. The damp plaster cracked and flaked away under their relentless jaws, revealing the dull grey metal underneath.
The wall coating seemed ridiculously fragile in their mouths. A few bites were enough to chew through the outer plaster. Even the mixture of compacted dirt and steel reinforcement bars inside the walls became food to them, disappearing into their grinding gullets.
Jing Shu was genuinely shocked, her eyes widening as she watched them tear through the barrier. She had not expected the sludge sirens' bite force to be this terrifying. Maybe it had something to do with their thick saliva too, which bubbled against the concrete and seemed to soften it. After all, they were Darklife creatures that fed on white energy. With white energy supporting them, it made sense they would become this monstrous.
She watched another chunk of wall vanish. "What a waste," she murmured, her voice barely audible over the crunching noises. "With abilities like this, they should be digging tunnels."
Actually, Jing Shu had already reached an agreement with the bug girl, Xiao Wei. If everything went normally back at the base, Xiao Wei would massively increase the breeding of engineering bugs, especially the ones specialized in tunnel digging.
According to the original timeline, the bugs should have already been bred and started excavating a tunnel.
And it wasn't some tiny project either.
The tunnel would stretch all the way from Wu City to the distant south.
This was one of the crucial preparations Jing Shu had made for Wu City's future migration plans. But now she had been trapped on this desolate island for nearly two months, cut off from all communication. She didn't know whether Xiao Wei had already started the work.
Besides, the project was simply too massive.
Even if Xiao Wei's bugs were excellent diggers, there probably wasn't enough time to complete a tunnel to the south before next year.
"But if a huge group of sludge sirens joined the digging..."
She tilted her head, her gaze locked on the tearing metal. "The chances of success would rise dramatically."
If future migrations could travel underground instead of walking outside in the freezing weather, far fewer people would freeze to death in the blizzards. They also wouldn't encounter as many horrifying Darklife creatures on the surface, and the travel speed would probably increase a lot too.
Most importantly, they could scout the route in advance. If the tectonic plates shifted again, they would at least have early warning before the ground collapsed beneath them.
The way Jing Shu looked at the swarming sludge sirens instantly changed.
Her eyes practically glowed in the dim hallway.
Sure, sludge sirens weren't as versatile as Xiao Wei's bugs. They couldn't both hunt and dig. But their greatest advantage was their overwhelming numbers, a massive labor force waiting to be tapped.
Too bad there was one major problem.
How was she supposed to tame this many sludge sirens?
Even with the power of her Rubik's Cube Space, she couldn't control large numbers of them. It would barely make a dent in a pack this size.
"How can I make sludge sirens work for me?" Jing Shu rested her chin on her hand, her eyes tracing the movements of one of them biting hard into the steel room.
Crunch!
Screeeech!
Harsh metallic noises rang out, sounding like heavy plates of steel grinding together. The high-pitched vibration reverberated through the concrete floor.
But soon enough, several sludge sirens lost their teeth from biting the solid steel structure. Broken fangs shattered and scattered across the ground like gravel.
Still, the creatures didn't seem to feel pain.
Even after losing their teeth, they kept slamming their heavy bodies into the room one after another, their heads battering the metal with sickening thuds.
Jing Shu could clearly see the impact.
The steel walls, at least dozens of centimeters thick, had already started deforming inward under the relentless attacks.
Da Ji, who had been scared senseless, trembled in the corner with his arms wrapped tightly around his knees. As his panic gradually eased, confusion slowly crept back onto his face.
Meanwhile, the patrol teams and Boss Lü's men had already heard the deafening noise and rushed over, the beams of their flashlights cutting wildly through the dusty air.
Jing Shu quietly stepped back into a dark corner to keep observing the situation. At the same time, she released several tiny scout bugs from her sleeve, sending them into the shadows to inspect the outer areas.
The main swarm of sludge sirens beneath the building was restless, but none of them had climbed ashore.
So where exactly did these sludge sirens crawling out of the ventilation ducts come from?
Da Ji looked just as confused, his eyes darting back and forth before he slowly fell into deep thought.
Why were the sludge sirens ignoring him and obsessively attacking this tough room instead?
What on earth was hidden inside?
By now, the people in the building had experience fighting these creatures. Without hesitation, they rushed in carrying electric batons, torches, fire bottles, and makeshift shields. They immediately targeted the monsters' eyes with high-voltage electricity and hurled fire bottles to burn their open mouths.
As for this newly arrived batch of uninvited guests, the other sludge sirens' eyes glowed green the moment they saw them. They charged forward, snapping their jaws at what they viewed as fresh prey.
At that moment, their beastly instincts fully erupted in a flurry of claws and snapping teeth.
But another group of sludge sirens ignored the fight entirely, continuing to attack the steel room.
Soon, both sides descended into absolute chaos.
More sludge sirens kept dropping out of the ventilation ducts nonstop, hitting the floor with heavy, wet splats. Thankfully, because the building's people now had experience and relied heavily on electricity and fire attacks, the battle temporarily reached a stalemate.
Jing Shu heard Li Chenglong shouting commands somewhere in the distance, his voice strained and hoarse over the blare of the building-wide alarm. Both sides were steadily increasing in number, the narrow corridor filling with the smoke of burning fuel and the stench of charred flesh.
"So... why?" Jing Shu frowned deeply. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't figure out the reason behind their strange behavior.
Then she looked toward Da Ji and suddenly noticed excitement, greed, and disbelief in his eyes.
The man who had originally been terrified of getting bitten had quietly crept closer to a corner of the steel room again, completely ignoring the battle raging nearby.
He stared at the metal structure like it was a legendary treasure vault.
His mind was clearly racing with possibilities.
Could there be mountains of white rice and fine flour inside?
Could there be mouthwatering cured ham?
"Sausage... I want sausage too..." Da Ji muttered, his eyes vacant and wide while drool dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Jing Shu: "..."
She stared at him, speechless. Even in a life-or-death situation like this, this fool could only think about filling his stomach.
Crunch.
The steel fortress slowly collapsed under the suicidal assault of countless sludge sirens.
After deforming inward to a certain angle, the thick metal structure finally cracked open with a screeching moan.
After that, the wall's integrity failed entirely, and everything naturally fell apart.
Da Ji's expression turned from disbelief to wild ecstasy as he watched the gap widen. Taking advantage of the smoke and the chaos, he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled inside. Moments later, his crazed laughter echoed out from the darkness of the room.
Jing Shu slowly approached from the darkness behind him, her steps silent on the debris-strewn floor.
At this point, nobody had time to pay attention to this side of the corridor. Everyone's focus remained entirely on the swarming sludge sirens.
Inside the dim, dusty room, Da Ji's hands fumbled through the darkness, touching bag after bag of sealed rice. The tiny space was piled high to the ceiling with all kinds of food supplies, the dry air carrying the rich scent of preserved fat and grain. Because the lighting was so poor, he had to crawl around on his knees, identifying everything by touch.
The more he checked, the more unbelievable it felt to his greedy fingers.
"Smoked chicken! My favorite smoked chicken! And sausage, my favorite sausage! This is amazing, amazing!"
This place was practically heaven to him. It contained all kinds of premium foods that were nearly extinct in the harsh landscape of the apocalypse. Almost everything he had ever loved eating was packed into this single room.
Good heavens.
Was he dreaming?
Suddenly, a weak light switched on, casting a dim yellow glow over the stacked crates.
The cold metal of a gun barrel pressed directly against Da Ji's head.
Slowly and stiffly, he raised his head, the crazed smile freezing on his face.
Standing there was Boss Lü, dressed in a silk bathrobe with an ashen expression.
"You think you've got the life to eat this stuff?" Boss Lü gritted out through clenched teeth.
He sized up the fool who didn't know his place, then looked painfully at the ruined steel fortress he had spent an enormous fortune building. After only a few minutes of attacks from those monsters, it had completely fallen apart. This secret, bulletproof hideout had originally been a random whim when he renovated the building before the apocalypse.
Back then, he had thought that if debt collectors ever came after him with knives and he had nowhere to run, he could hide inside. So he had stocked enough supplies, food, and weapons for one person to survive ten years. After the apocalypse began, he had secretly continued adding valuable supplies inside. He had never even been willing to eat any of it himself.
No matter how difficult things got, he still refused to open the stash and use those precious resources. The biggest reason he had stayed with the building this whole time was because this giant steel lump couldn't be moved.
Yet tonight, those monsters had pried it open.
And the most infuriating thing of all was the bastard standing right in front of him.
This guy actually came here hoping to freeload off his supplies?