In the year 1820 of the Mira Star calendar, due to the aggressive expansion of the Star Nation, which dominated the world, the small nation of Kye, unable to bear the pressure, sent a terrorist organization to infiltrate the mainland, launching a lightning attack on a heavily armed stronghold and destroying it.
What was intended as a terror operation to deter the Star Nation turned out to be a mistake due to incorrect information. The explosion was not an ordinary military base but a top-secret armory of the Star Nation, which stored the most nuclear warheads.
Nearly three thousand nuclear bombs exploded, not only obliterating the entire Star Nation but also causing shockwaves that affected several neighboring countries. The ensuing landslides, tsunamis, and other geological impacts affected nearly half the planet.
Toxic smoke and nuclear fallout quickly spread through the air, filling almost the entire planet with radiation and highly toxic substances. A large number of creatures died, and the natural environment suffered severe damage.
The remaining creatures soon faced an even more brutal nuclear winter. Global temperatures plummeted, with snow everywhere, and even the highest temperatures at the equator were several degrees below zero. The once vibrant Mira Star almost became a dead planet.
More than fifty years later, winter finally receded slowly, and the surviving creatures finally ushered in the long-awaited spring. However, by this time, Mira Star had already become a world filled with radiation and desolation.
Under such circumstances, the surviving creatures adapted and mutated to varying degrees. Many animals and plants have become almost completely different species compared to their ancestors.
The most extreme changes belonged to the insects, which seemed to be due to the short lifespan and rapid generational turnover of these creatures. Therefore, the frequency of natural selection of genes was also much higher, and the degree of evolutionary mutation was thousands or even tens of thousands of times faster than other creatures.
Compared to their ancestors, the volume of modern insects is generally much larger. Ants the size of sesame seeds in the past are now irradiated to the size of a car, and some have become even larger than ancient tyrannosaurus rex.
Naturally, these creatures, which were once not a threat to humans, have become more aggressive with their increased appetites and volume. If a few hundred years ago, it was mammals that occupied the top of the food chain, today it is the mutated insects that have become the bloody butchers at the top of the chain.
In order to survive in this desolate world, their diet is so broad that it is terrifying. They include rocks, metals, and even their own kind, including humans.
The original fragile defensive shell has now become a real armored protection. It can even withstand close-range bullet attacks. The limbs and mouthparts have also become sharper, and a single bite can break stones and crack gold.
Relying on strengthened limbs and shells, humans have lost sharp military weapons. Although the body has also mutated to some extent and is stronger than the ancients, it still cannot withstand their attacks. If someone encounters a violent mutated insect in the wild, unless there are many people and sufficient weapons, there is only one way out.
At this time, the situation has completely reversed. Ethan Lee, a young human, is single-handedly hunting a helmet worm.
The helmet worm is somewhat similar to the insect rhinoceros beetle before the nuclear explosion, but its volume is thousands of times larger. Its back is composed of two semicircles of thick hard armor, and a pair of short membrane wings are hidden inside, which can glide briefly. The head is a two-meter-long Y-shaped giant horn.
This mutated creature has tremendous strength and can easily knock down trees as thick as hugs. Ordinary metal weapons cut on the back armor as if they were cutting steel. Its attacking horn is extremely sharp, and with the ability to glide briefly, even martial artists with low cultivation dare not face it head-on.
But at this moment, this adult helmet worm is running away like a homeless dog, occasionally stretching out its membrane wings to vibrate and accelerate, as if there is a predator chasing behind it.
Ethan Lee quickly and happily runs forward, occasionally raising his hand to spray silk between rocks and trees, and no matter how the helmet worm flaps its wings to accelerate, it cannot get rid of him at all. The distance between the two is getting closer and closer.
The pursuit did not last long. Suddenly, the rocks in front burst, and a white giant worm broke out of the ground, with a huge mouthpiece towards it, showing its fangs. Faced with a predator in front and a pursuer behind, the helmet worm saw no way to run and immediately became desperate, turning around and butting at Ethan Lee fiercely.
Faced with the attack, Ethan Lee was not panicked at all. He flicked a white silk and quickly wrapped it around the horn, stepped on his feet, and flipped upside down in the air, just landing on the head of the helmet worm. Then he pulled hard with both hands, and the horn wrapped by the silk was raised high, and the body of the helmet worm immediately lost control and flipped over and fell to the ground.
In a panic, the giant worm kicked its limbs around, trying to struggle to get up, but before it could move, the white worm spit out a group of mucus, firmly sticking it to the ground. At the same time, Ethan Lee also gave an elbow strike.
With a crack, the hard back armor that could withstand weapons could not bear his blow and broke immediately. Then Ethan Lee made an excited scream, regardless of the still struggling helmet worm, reached into the hole in the back armor and grabbed a group of vague flesh and blood and stuffed it into his mouth. While chewing wildly, his face was full of happiness.
Seems very dissatisfied with him for eating alone, the white worm hissed, then lowered its head and bit the back of the helmet worm. The sharp mouthparts tore the half back armor and the intense pain made the helmet worm emit a piercing scream, and its limbs convulsed and kicked, but it could not break the seemingly thin white silk.
Then, one person and one insect enjoyed a sumptuous lunch on this desolate plain. During the period, the helmet worm has been struggling in pain until half an hour later, the lunch was over, and it was killed by Ethan Lee with a casual palm strike to the head.
Ethan Lee wiped the green bloodstains on his mouth, but instead, he made himself smelly. He shrugged and didnt care. His mothers database has a lot of knowledge about hygiene and etiquette, and from the data, it seems that these things are necessary for a human to learn. Although the young man felt that it was not very useful, he still retained these small habits.
Looking up at the front, the surroundings are desolate and vast, with no grass growing. Occasionally, some whirlwinds bring up the ground dust, making the air gray. Occasionally, some exposed incomplete buildings stand silently in this world, as if telling the past prosperity of this planet.
It has been the eighth day since he came out of the canyon. Although he grew up in the canyon and rarely went out when he was a child, these eight days have also changed his initial excitement for the vast and unknown world to his current boredom.
After rushing for so long, all he saw in his sight was desolation. The yellow sand is everywhere, and the broken bricks and tiles. Even the sky is also a depressing gray. In addition to mutated creatures that are even more fragile than in the canyon, Ethan Lee has not seen any of the same kind!
"Whitey, doesnt my mothers database say that there will definitely be human survivors after the nuclear explosion? But why cant I see any?"
Ethan Lee jumped onto a rock and lay down, bored and casually asking, but Whitey ignored his nagging and only buried his head to gnaw on the body of the helmet worm. Suddenly, it seemed to sense something, and its upper body suddenly raised, bringing out a large amount of green blood and soaking Ethan Lee all over.
"Stinky Whitey, what are you doing, making me all...? What is that?"
The originally desolate horizon suddenly had a lot of dust, and it seemed that