"To have such a miraculous ability..."
the old man exclaimed.
Li Wenxi has just briefly introduced his abilities.
"I heard that your current metal ore reserves have been exhausted, is that right?" Xu Ying asked.
“…That’s true.” The old man nodded heavily.
"More than 50 years ago, you also learned about the situation here. More than 50 years have passed, and the situation has not only not been alleviated, but has become more and more serious. However, due to the shortage of mineral resources, we are already somewhat stretched in terms of offense and defense."
"Is it getting worse..." Xu Ying frowned, "Didn't you guys take the initiative to attack at the beginning?"
"Of course there are, but..." The old man sighed, "Their number is endless. Even if an area is cleared, it can only maintain stability for half a year. After half a year, it will become a dangerous area again. Their reproductive capacity is too strong."
"We put a lot of effort into this, but it didn't work in the end. Instead... it wasted too much of our resources. We are now in this situation, and that decision of ours may be largely responsible for it."
As he spoke, the old man's cloudy but majestic eyes dimmed slightly.
"You can't say that, Grandpa." Wei Shishi retorted, "If it weren't for Grandpa's decision, perhaps the human base would have suffered greatly fifty years ago."
"What are you talking about?" Li Wenxi was a little confused. "Why don't I understand?"
"Let me explain." Wei Shishi explained, "You are not from our human base, right?"
"… Yeah." Li Wenxi nodded, "No."
"If you live in our city for a few days, you will understand what we just said. This matter is the biggest crisis facing all humans in the human base right now."
"If only a few people know that our resources are about to run out, then this is a real crisis that everyone knows about."
"Our human base has been under attack by beasts for hundreds of years."
Li Wenxi widened his eyes slightly: "A herd of beasts...attack? We will suffer even more in the underground...ah!"
She thought of the experience of exploring the underground world that Xu Xin had discussed with her before.
Thanks to the cultivation of alien invaders, the underground world has indeed developed a relatively stable ecosystem.
"I don't know how you live, but our tribe has lived underground for a thousand years. It has always been very peaceful and stable. The area of our base has gradually expanded and reached its peak a hundred years ago."
"As for why we stopped expanding our base a hundred years ago, it's because... abnormally large beasts appeared around our base, and they were not friendly to us."
"A huge beast?" Li Wenxi asked in surprise, "Is it a giant beast?"
Wei Shishi did not answer, but continued: "Those huge beasts have basically the same characteristics as the beasts above the ground recorded in history books, but they are much larger in size and in abnormally large numbers. They always attack the outermost human bases in groups."
A...tide of giant beasts
Li Wenxi was very surprised.
"Humans a hundred years ago lived too comfortably. During their rapid expansion, they did not take any protective measures outside their base."
"So, when the beast disaster came from multiple points outside the human base, the humans who encountered the beast disaster had no ability to resist at all. It was really a disaster... a disaster for all."
Li Wenxi looked at Xu Ying.
As someone who has lived through a thousand years, she should be very familiar with that era, right
Xu Ying understood what Li Wenxi meant and shook her head, saying, "I haven't been here a hundred years ago. The last time I came here was fifty-five years ago, when I met Wei Bai. The last time before that was two hundred years ago."
Wei Bai is the old man's name.
When the old man heard Xu Ying mention this name, a smile appeared on his face.
At the age of eighty, hearing his own name from an old friend whom he hadn't seen for more than fifty years made him feel a little touched.
Wei Shishi on the side frowned slightly.
Seeing a girl who looked similar to her calling her grandfather's name directly made her feel a little uncomfortable, but she couldn't say anything.
"Then... didn't you go back and take a look?" Li Wenxi asked, "Go back to that time a hundred years ago and take a look?"
A giant beast suddenly appeared and besieged the human base in the underground world. This seems a bit abnormal no matter how you look at it, right
"No." Xu Ying shook her head. "In order to prevent the future from changing and affecting our plans, we usually don't time travel to the past."
"Otherwise, if we set up the future and then go back to the past, and do something that triggers a butterfly effect and changes the future again... that would be too stupid."
“For example, my brother and I traveled to fifty years ago and told Wei Bai a lot of things. If we go back a hundred years ago and unconsciously trigger some changes, causing changes fifty years later, Wei Bai is no longer the head of the family, or there is no such person as Wei Bai… wouldn’t our efforts be in vain?”
Xu Ying's words made the three people present look a little strange.
Elder Wei Bai suddenly felt a chill on his back and said with a wry smile, "Should I thank you for not killing me?"
He had known for a long time that Xu Ying could travel through time, but this was the first time he had heard of such a thing.
Wei Shishi, who had been expressionless, looked at Xu Ying with deep vigilance and a hint of fear in her eyes.
If this kind of thing could be realized, it would be like killing someone without being noticed!
"I definitely wouldn't do such a thing, and aren't we talking about the beast tide? Wei Shishi, please continue. I don't know anything about this either." Xu Ying said, leaning back in her chair.
Although she was not satisfied with Xu Ying's lazy sitting posture, Wei Shishi did not waste any more words and continued, "A hundred years ago, the human base was devastated by the invasion of a giant beast tide, and most of the people in the periphery fled to the interior."
"The tide of giant beasts is almost endless!"
"Almost all the soldiers went to the frontline at that time. The accumulation of hundreds of years was exhausted in one year. The military resources were also depleted a lot, more than the total of the previous nine hundred years."
"As the Wei family in charge of military forces, we suffered the greatest losses in that disaster and have since lost control of this underground human base. The three families have begun to compete with each other."
"That's true." Xu Ying nodded. "Our original plan was to support one family that was stronger than the other two. Although the three families were competing against each other on the surface, the Wei family had the ability to rectify the three families secretly. As long as we gave them a little help, we would be able to centralize power. As a result... the disaster that suddenly came a hundred years ago turned the apparent situation into a real situation."
"That's it." Old man Wei Bai sighed again, "Fifty years ago, when Xu Ying and Xu Xin came, they wanted to help us become stronger again and take back control."
"But unfortunately, our strategic resources had been exhausted at that time. We only had technology but no resources. There were also wild beasts attacking from the outside. With internal and external troubles, the Wei family was really struggling. So at that time... Sigh..."
Wei Shishi nodded and continued, "In the past fifty years, the beast tide has continued. And it's not just the external beast tide. Almost all the sparsely populated areas in the base have also been occupied by them. They have become real wild beasts."
The size of human bases now is almost equal to the area of a large country on Earth a thousand years ago. In such a large area, it is understandable that there are wild beasts roaming around.
With such a long border and so many beasts, there is no way to defend...
"Fortunately, in the past twenty years or so, these wild animals have settled down. Especially the wild animals in the territory, they almost never attack human bases anymore, but have integrated into the ecology of this area."
"But even so, in order to prevent disasters from happening, necessary resource consumption is essential. Over the past fifty years, our resources have continued to slowly decrease."
"So..." Wei Shishi looked at Li Wenxi, "If you really have that ability, please save us."
"If this continues, this human base will lose the ability to protect itself."
Li Wenxi basically understood the current situation of the human base. She nodded quickly and said, "Of course, I will help you. I came here for this purpose. Moreover, during the time I have been here, I have discovered a mining site."
"Already discovered?" Wei Bo and Wei Shishi were both surprised.
Xu Ying chuckled: "Sister-in-law's ability is definitely a life-saving straw for you now."
The most important purpose of her bringing Li Wenxi here was not to save this underground world whose resources would be exhausted in a few decades.
After all, the most important resource, crystal stone, has been almost exhausted.
Although the crystal stone contains enormous energy, humans underground are unable to mine and use it. They can only use it to release light and allow it to release energy passively.
Similar to the effect of the sun.
However, the crystal stone that maintains the basic energy source of the underground world, which is essential for the maintenance and expansion of human bases, has been almost exhausted in a thousand years.
Survival in the underground world is not a long-term solution after all.
Xu Ying brought Li Wenxi underground, more because she wanted Li Wenxi to provide resources to manufacture a large number of weapons here, and turn this underground human base into a crazy operating underground arsenal.
It is not only to resist the beasts underground, but also to prepare for future battles on the ground.
This was their original purpose, to make this underground force one of the backbone forces in resisting alien invaders in the future.
This beast invasion that has lasted for a hundred years has consumed too much power from the underground world. There is no other way but to replenish it now.
Fortunately, the current progress on the ground has not yet reached the point where a large-scale military force is needed.
However, we must hurry up!
Wei Bai showed a look of joy, stood up, and asked directly without questioning: "Where is the location of the resources?"
"Yes, it's near where I live, but it's..." Li Wenxi pointed above his head.
"Up there..."
"Well, do you have the ability to mine upwards?"
Wei Shishi pondered for a moment: "This involves some problems. There is no problem with the technology, but in terms of safety hazards... If there is a residential area below, perhaps people need to be relocated first. If it is a densely populated area, it may be more troublesome..."
“That’s the outskirts of the city, and not many people live there,” Li Wenxi recalled.
"These are not problems." Wei Bo waved his hand and said, "Just tell us where the location is, and we will handle the rest."
It seems that Wei Bai has been coveting resources for a long time. His obviously anxious attitude now is enough to show how much the Wei family lacks resources.
"Is it near the villa?" Xu Ying asked.
"Yeah." Li Wenxi nodded.
"Then come with me, let's go and take a look together!"
…
On Shi Wanyun's side, the story continues.
"When that woman looked at me, I really felt like my heart and lungs were in arrest." Shi Wanyun said softly.
"She is also a genetically modified person, but she doesn't have any special features?" Xu Xin pondered, "Could it be..."
"Well, they are definitely genetically modified humans, but... I really can't tell." Shi Wanyun recalled, "You guessed right. The stronger the people there are, the more they look like normal humans. On the contrary, the weaker the people are, the more strange physical signs they have."
"Go on."
"good."
After being stared at by the mature woman, Shi Wanyun felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave.
Even though her entire body was enveloped by the influx of heat, she still felt a chill running down her spine.
She had a feeling that this mature woman in front of her could be subdued with just one finger!
The scarlet eyes staring at her made her body a little stiff and she dared not move easily.
"Sir, this is what I am saying..."
No. 228, who brought her here, hurriedly explained: "She is a person with no identity who crossed over from below..."
In just a few words, No. 228 told everything he knew: "This is what happened, sir. I was planning to tell you after the baptism. After all, the baptism cannot be interrupted..."
"… You're telling me such an important thing only now!"
The mature woman suddenly slapped him!
With a "pop" sound and a scream, No. 228 was immediately blown away.
Her head spun several times, her neck was twisted into a knot in an instant, and her body tumbled several times in the air before falling to the ground with a plop, her body twitching slightly.
However, she did not die. After twitching a few times, she quickly stood up. After her neck and head spun rapidly, she returned to her original position, lowered her head and said in fear and trepidation: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Mr. Supervisor..."
"… Never mind. I don't blame you." The mature woman shook her head. "No matter who you are, you must be baptized first. I have always taught you this. You are right."
As she spoke, she looked at Shi Wanyun, who had already begun to become drowsy in the pool.
After seeing what happened just now, it would be a lie to say that she wasn't afraid, so when the mature woman reached out her hand to her, even though Shi Wanyun felt dizzy, she subconsciously wanted to hide back.
She naturally had no ability to dodge, and in an instant the mature woman grabbed her arm and lifted her out easily like a chicken, and then...
She was upside down, with the mature woman holding her under her armpits, holding her like an object.
She was naked and put in this position, which was really embarrassing and insecure.
But after soaking in the pool for more than a minute, all the strength in her body disappeared and she could not move. Even when she opened her mouth, no sound came out.
She felt her whole body burning.
"She is special. I will take her away for a while and you continue with the baptism." The mature woman's voice sounded, and there seemed to be a hint of... joy in her tone
"yes!"
In the Mimi Lake, she knew that she was taken away from the baptismal space surrounded by red mist, and then she fell into coma again.