Shen Feng and Xu Xing were standing in the city, preparing to see what was in the sky, whether it was birds or insects. Just then, the manhole cover in the distant city was opened, and a small figure emerged and waved frantically at the two.
The two looked towards the manhole cover and saw that it was a child, seemingly the one who had given them bread before.
For orphans, after receiving help, they would always remember their benefactor, and now they were waving at Shen Feng, their faces filled with anxiety. They were clearly very excited and worried that the two might encounter danger.
"What do we do now?" Xu Xing couldn't help but ask.
Her question was simple: she wanted to know whether they should fight or flee. After all, a child had found an escape route for them. While fighting wasn't difficult, they didn't know what the danger was. Since an orphan had kindly reminded them, how could they ignore it?
Shen Feng thought for a moment and said, "Although I also want to know what's happening here, we should follow this child. We gave them bread before, and they wouldn't harm us now, would they?"
Xu Xing nodded quickly, and then the two walked towards the sewer. Although they couldn't understand what the children were saying, they could understand their gestures. They were calling them over and asking them to hide in the sewer with them.
When the two reached the sewer, they saw other people inside. Many adults were also hiding in the sewer, but these adults clearly had no intention of helping Shen Feng. The adults were much more timid than the stray children.
"It's so dirty, do we have to hide in here too?" Xu Xing was stunned when she saw the condition of the sewer. The environment inside was too filthy. The city was located in the rainforest and by the river, so there was always sewage. The sewer was filled with sewage that reached ankle-deep. Xu Xing, being a girl who valued her appearance, immediately resisted upon seeing the condition of the sewer.
Shen Feng said, "If our bodies get dirty, we can just wash them. Danger is about to arrive. If we are still picky now, we will be forced to fight!"
After Shen Feng said this, Xu Xing looked back at the huge dark shadow in the distance. The shadow was getting bigger and bigger. If they hesitated any longer, they would be attacked by these unknown things immediately!
So Xu Xing could only shake her head helplessly and jump down. Shen Feng also jumped down with her. As for the little boy who had warned them, he struggled to close the manhole cover.
Not long after, intense sounds came from outside. Shen Feng was very familiar with this sound. Wasn't it the sound of wings flapping when insects fly? This meant that what was flying outside were not birds, but flying insects.
"Could it be that the ones who destroyed this city were not birds, but insects?" Shen Feng had a question in his mind.
Then, Xu Xing turned on her flashlight in the sewer, finally illuminating the dark space. In this dirty sewer, there was water and mud everywhere, and a foul smell emanated from all directions. This smell was unbearable and drilled into their noses uncontrollably. Xu Xing could still smell methane.
"It stinks so much. How can these people hide in such a place for so long? They are really patient!" Xu Xing said to Shen Feng.
"What else can they do if they can't endure it? If they could go out, they would have gone out long ago!" Shen Feng said helplessly.
If they hadn't hidden in the dirty sewer, most of these people would have been killed by the enemy by now. Only by hiding in a place where they couldn't be found could they survive. Ordinary people were so useless in this world. Once they left their comfort zone, they became very useless. Therefore, humans could only live together. 138 Reading Network
"Two gifted adults, you're finally back. It's a pity we couldn't keep the glider safe!" At this moment, someone from the crowd in the sewer stood up and shone a flashlight, revealing that it was Frankie.
When Shen Feng saw this guy, he realized that he could now communicate with the people here. After all, with a translator, it was easier to ask what had happened in the city.
"Come here quickly, I have something to ask you, answer me carefully!" Shen Feng said urgently.
"I don't know what you want to know, I will tell you everything I know!" Frankie replied quickly.
"All I want to know now is why your city has become like this. It shouldn't have been destroyed!" Shen Feng raised his question, wanting the other party to answer.
"Actually, we never expected this. When the disaster happened, we were completely stunned. Some soldiers took up their guns and went to the city walls to resist, while others fled in all directions. In the end, only a few survived. We were lucky enough to hide in the sewer and thus escaped the disaster. However, we don't dare to go out every day now, because if we go out, we might be targeted by monsters," Frankie said painfully.
It turned out that five days ago, Manaus had encountered a devastating crisis. At that time, giant insects suddenly appeared in the sky. Upon closer inspection, they realized that these insects in the sky were all giant dragonflies. When their wings were spread, they were three meters long and flapped with a terrifying sound. These insects could carry humans into the sky after catching them, and their strength was immense.
If there were only insects in the sky, the people in the city wouldn't be too worried. After all, as long as they stayed at home with their doors and windows tightly shut, these insects couldn't grab them out of their rooms. However, at this time, many giant centipedes appeared in the forest. These centipedes were even larger than the dragonflies in the sky.
These centipedes had very thick waists, and each centipede was at least fifty to sixty centimeters thick. They crawled in from outside the city, making terrifying chirping sounds. These centipedes had many legs on both sides of their bodies, and these legs scraped against the floor, making a harsh sound.
So, when the centipedes appeared, they also brought fear to everyone. However, at this point, it was not enough to destroy the city. The most terrifying thing was that these centipedes could spray acid, which could corrode walls. As a result, the foundations of hard buildings were corroded, and they collapsed with a bang. People no longer dared to hide in their rooms and rushed out of their rooms to escape to distant places.
When people fled their houses, it was already too late to leave the city. This was because giant dragonflies in the sky were constantly catching people. These dragonflies were carnivorous, but before they only ate small insects. After their bodies became giant, they began to eat humans. After all, humans were pure food in their eyes. On the ground, there were also giant centipedes constantly crawling. As long as they encountered humans, they would spray acid, which could directly corrode human flesh.
Under these circumstances, people in the city wanted to escape, but in the end, very few people managed to escape the mortal world. Most people were killed by the dragonflies that suddenly appeared in the sky. These dragonflies had huge bodies and were very cruel.
Some people hid at home and eventually died under the collapse of their houses. After all, when the foundations of various houses were corroded by acid, these houses could no longer stand and would collapse with a bang. Centipedes liked to crawl into cracks in stones. When the houses collapsed, the ones looking for these humans were not rescue teams, but giant centipedes.
Humans hiding in houses could not escape being eaten by centipedes. Therefore, during these few days, dragonflies and centipedes appeared in the sky over the city every day and ate humans. A once decent city had now become a ruin. Most of the survivors in the city were hiding in the sewers.
"So so many things have happened. I haven't heard of such giant insects elsewhere before. Now there are giant insects in the Amazon region, what does this mean? Could it be that insects also have atavism?" Shen Feng muttered to himself.
In ancient times, there was a period when the Earth's oxygen concentration was very high, mainly due to the high outbreak of cyanobacteria in the oceans. At that time, the Earth's oxygen concentration was much higher than it is now. With sufficient oxygen, insects began to develop, and many insects evolved towards having larger bodies.
When insects grew larger, their predation ability became stronger. Some insects could even prey on small mammals, such as rats and rabbits. At that time, these mammals were food for insects.
Fortunately, later, the Earth underwent changes, and the oxygen concentration dropped rapidly. As a result, insects had to reduce their body size to survive and reduce oxygen consumption, because without oxygen, these insects would suffocate. Thus, later mammals had the opportunity to develop.
As a result, in the doomsday, due to the appearance of many mutated cyanobacteria in the Earth's oceans, these cyanobacteria could produce more oxygen, which directly led to the increase in the size of various animals. The most affected were the insects. Insects were originally unable to achieve giant sizes due to the constraint of oxygen concentration. Now that they could easily obtain oxygen, their size instantly increased.
After their bodies increased in size, these insects began to prey on humans, and in the Amazon region, they could easily destroy a city, which was quite terrifying.
"Brother Shen Feng, what should we do next? Should we go and kill these insects?" Xu Xing couldn't help but ask Shen Feng.
"We've been out for almost three and a half months. I don't know how things are in China during this time. We should hurry and find a chance to leave. As for the Amazon region, we don't need to worry about it. It's other people's territory anyway," Shen Feng told Xu Xing his intention.
"But there are so many people trapped in the sewer here. If we don't take them with us, they will all suffer heavy casualties in the end, and perhaps not a single one will survive. We can't just stand by and do nothing!" Xu Xing said earnestly to Shen Feng.
"Stop being so meddlesome. Whether these people live or die has nothing to do with us. Are we going to extend a helping hand to everyone we meet in the future? If that's the case, there are people who need help everywhere in the world, and we don't have the energy to take care of them!" Shen Feng explained to Xu Xing.
"Buddhist scriptures say that saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda. Therefore, saving people is accumulating merit and virtue. Moreover, humans are social animals. Saving others is also for the better development of society, isn't it?" Xu Xing said to Shen Feng.
"You don't seem to mind the trouble. Take them if you want, but I won't protect them. If you want to protect them, you can do it yourself. I'm afraid you won't be able to manage it then," Shen Feng shrugged.
Originally, Shen Feng wanted to fly away with Xu Xing directly. He couldn't carry too many people, but if he only took Xu Xing, he was very confident. But now it seemed that he could only escape through the forest with everyone. The Amazon rainforest was full of dangers, let alone fierce beasts and poisonous insects, there were the dragonflies in the sky that could appear at any time, which posed a great danger. Escaping the city with hundreds of people would definitely be a burden.