The mutation of the insects was far too rapid, surpassing human evolutionary speed in almost every aspect. Although their current level was very low, merely enlarged insects, if they continued to evolve, they would undoubtedly develop the final, indispensable element: intelligence.
Human evolution was incredibly fast. In just a few million years, humanity had gone from the same starting line as ordinary animals to the apex of the food chain, dominating the globe for a considerable time. The primary reason for this rapid evolution was humanity's awareness of unity and cooperation, enabling them to live together. While one person's combat power might be insignificant, a group of people on the savanna could overcome any obstacle, be it an African desert elephant or a lion or tiger.
However, the insects' ability for unity and cooperation was even stronger than that of humans. This was because humans possessed minds filled with schemes and machinations, whereas insects had simpler thinking. Lacking complex nervous systems, backstabbing and scheming were virtually nonexistent.
Therefore, in terms of unity and cooperation, these insects were even more cohesive than humans. Humans engaged in internal strife, but such situations never occurred among insects; instead, they cooperated intimately.
Beyond this, humanity's overwhelming advantage over these insects lay in the technology they possessed, which stemmed from the intelligence generated during human evolution.
In the process of biological evolution, few animals prioritized brain development. Evolving the brain consumed a significant amount of the body's heat, making survival in the wild more difficult. Yet, humans were different. Their evolution was so rapid that their brain capacity continuously increased. Currently, human brain capacity was far greater than that of primitive humans a million years ago.
The initial evolution of the brain was extremely energy-intensive for humans. Fortunately, by this time, humans had learned to use spears, constantly hunting prey to obtain enough energy to support brain evolution. The energy consumed by the brain in its early stages was later repaid manifold. Once the human brain evolved, it began to observe the world, learn, and ultimately, develop intelligence.
Currently, no species on Earth could surpass human intelligence. Humans were the dominant species at the top of the food chain. However, humanity's sole remaining advantage was intelligence. If any creature among the insects evolved intelligence, they would undoubtedly be able to rapidly alter their behavioral logic and thus usurp humanity's position.
Yue Hengyi, fighting in the north, had already discovered this situation. He was facing countless locusts, which were enormous in size and prone to attacking humans, capable of devouring all crops in the fields. For humans, this was an absolute disaster.
Yue Hengyi's objective was simple: to control the number of these locusts in the north, preventing their unchecked proliferation. If these locusts continued to wreak havoc, the people in the north would have no hope of eating their fill. However, during the battle, he noticed a peculiar phenomenon.
The peculiar phenomenon was that every time he destroyed an insect nest, the remaining locusts would soon build nests in deeper locations, digging further into the soil. This made it more difficult to kill these insects using gravity, as the soil itself exerted pressure. Under the effect of gravity, it was hard for the locusts' nests to collapse.
"It seems these insects have also learned to summarize and adapt. Upon discovering that their previous nests were not sturdy enough, they immediately began digging deeper into the soil. How can we curb the evolution of insects? Is heaven truly toying with us?" Yue Hengyi couldn't help but frown upon discovering this situation.
Once, the Earth was dominated by giant creatures like dinosaurs. These creatures reached the biological limits on Earth, measuring tens of meters in length. But when disaster struck, even these powerful dinosaurs could not escape death.
It was said that dinosaurs did not perish instantly but went extinct over a long period. Some dinosaurs, under drastic changes in Earth's oxygen concentration, continuously shrank in size, grew feathers, and took to the skies, becoming birds. The chickens and ducks on our tables today are descendants of dinosaurs.
Humanity's current predicament was similar to that of the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs faced a global cooling, drastic changes in Earth's oxygen concentration, and meteorite impacts triggering volcanic eruptions. Various disasters struck consecutively, continuously worsening the dinosaurs' living environment, ultimately leading to their extinction.
Humans were also facing the same situation. Earth's oxygen concentration had not decreased; rather, it had slightly increased. The climate was indeed getting colder, and a meteorite had fallen on Earth, initiating a series of mutations.
In the more than half a year Yue Hengyi had been fighting, he had gained immense prestige. Every place he went, he would destroy the local locust nests with swift and decisive methods. He would arrive at a location, unleash his abilities, and instantly increase the gravity in the vicinity, causing the various locust nests there to collapse, burying countless insects under soil.
With a gravitational field 20 times stronger on Earth, no creature could move in such a powerful gravitational field, and even surviving was extremely difficult, as the immense gravity could instantly shatter the animals' bones and internal organs.
Yue Hengyi was once a demon king, remembered by people for his deeds. He was not welcomed wherever he went because he had killed too many innocent people, leaving no one with a good impression of him. But now, he had proven himself through his actions. He had reformed and was continuously protecting people's survival, causing his prestige to soar. He was warmly welcomed wherever he went.
"This can be considered atonement for past mistakes. The fact that people trust me now is because I have taken action to help them, and that is why this change has occurred," Yue Hengyi said to himself.
In the southeastern coastal regions, the situation was also not good, as many strange insects had appeared. First, around Yangcheng, many giant cockroaches appeared. There was once a joke online about the people there, saying they often rode cockroaches when traveling, implying that the cockroaches in that area were particularly huge. But now, these creatures appearing around the city had indeed become enormous. A child could indeed be carried by a cockroach and run along. A humorous joke had become a reality.
In addition, there were those damned cicadas. These mutated cicadas would feed on human brain marrow and blood, making them extremely troublesome. Despite their small size, a single cicada was enough to kill a human. The nests of these cicadas were very scattered, making it impossible to completely eradicate them. In the depths of the mountains, these cicadas' habitats were everywhere. Unless the entire plains and hills of the southeast were meticulously searched and subjected to carpet bombing, the cicadas could not be completely eliminated.
Apart from China, other countries worldwide were almost all facing attacks from mutated insects. Many countries resorted to using nuclear bombs for strikes. However, the people in these countries soon discovered something was wrong. Initially, they had hoped that nuclear bombs could kill large numbers of insects, but later they discovered a problem: the radioactive dust produced by nuclear explosions spread with the atmosphere to distant places and then fell to the ground as rain. Consequently, they would ingest radioactive elements simply by drinking water, leading to their own mutations.
Many children were declared dead shortly after birth because their bodies were the weakest and they clearly could not resist radioactive elements. As a result, they died in infancy, with very few children surviving to adulthood.
In addition to infant mortality, many teenagers, despite their young age, contracted cancer and died, one by one, in hospitals or at home, suffering excruciating pain and unable to speak, their eyes filled with despair. This had shattered countless families.
By this time, people in foreign countries finally realized how terrifying nuclear bombs were. Besides emitting immense light and heat, they also produced a large amount of radioactive dust. Once these radioactive elements were ingested, they caused irreversible damage to the body. These children were undoubtedly the price paid for these nuclear explosions.
Unfortunately, it was too late when these people discovered the truth. Their bodies had already been harmed by radioactive elements. Now, even dying a natural death had become a luxury, as the environment they lived in was filled with radioactive elements. These elements continued to spread to other places with the oceans and atmosphere, and radioactive elements were even discovered in Antarctica.
The poor were always the most unfortunate. Countless poor people had hoped to rely on nuclear bombs to return to their former ordinary lives, to a peaceful existence. That was the most important thing, and any price was acceptable for it. But now, these poor people realized that they themselves were the so-called price, not those who could enjoy ordinary life.
As for the wealthy, they were not too worried about the threat of nuclear bombs. This was because the food and water consumed by these wealthy individuals had undergone various tests. The food they ate came from greenhouses, and the water and soil they used were uncontaminated, allowing them to use them with confidence. Their bodies remained largely unchanged, and they were even healthier.
This was the difference in reactions between the poor and the rich when facing different situations. The poor were always the disadvantaged group because they could not obtain sufficient resources and often lacked the ability to cope with difficulties. The rich, on the other hand, were always the ones enjoying blessings. Even when danger appeared, they could use their resources to resist it, and they would never end up being the most miserable.
"You damned politicians have deceived us! If you hadn't said that nuclear bombs would not cause any other effects, we would never have believed you. We cannot use nuclear bombs anymore, or we will all be killed by radioactive elements!" someone shouted loudly outside a certain building.
This building was a gathering place for the wealthy. These wealthy individuals typically held banquets in this building. What they enjoyed most was to lean out from their balconies and watch the poor people walking by, as if watching the poor struggle for survival in this doomsday was a good thing.
Countless poor people were shouting at the wealthy people in the building, but the wealthy were not worried. They knew that the security guards below the building were armed with guns, which was enough to deter the poor outside.
Facing the same crisis, people in different places had different coping mechanisms. Some preferred to attack with nuclear bombs, while others preferred to retaliate against insects with poison. Many, however, had no countermeasures and could only hide in air-raid shelters, living day by day, trying to last as long as possible.
Consequently, this year's Spring Festival was even more desolate, as there were few people who could celebrate it. They didn't even have festive supplies. Being able to eat a full meal during the Spring Festival would have been a great happiness, but for many, this thought was all they could manage; they could do nothing else.