Upon hearing Peng Yue's words, everyone's mood grew heavy.
Tang Li, while eating, noticed that everyone else had put down their chopsticks.
She asked, "Why aren't you eating anymore? Food shouldn't be wasted."
Everyone: "..."
"Right, Captain Tang is right, food shouldn't be wasted, especially now."
As Peng Yue spoke, he picked up his chopsticks and continued eating the food in his bowl.
Seeing this, everyone suppressed their discomfort and continued to eat.
However, the food tasted like ash, and their hearts felt heavy.
Since the catastrophe broke out, humanity's living environment had become increasingly harsh.
Not even the rights of the living could be guaranteed, let alone the dignity of the dead.
Due to the preciousness of fuel, cremation was impossible. After death, people were, at most, wrapped in cloth and buried in a pit. Nothing more could be done.
But even burial did not guarantee peace.
The extreme temperatures of the hot seasons would bake corpses into mummies, while the frigid temperatures of the cold seasons would freeze them into icicles that did not easily rot.
This led to situations like the one Peng Yue had described, where people would dig up corpses to eat.
Even in the relatively better Jiangcheng Shelter, such acts were rampant and could not be stopped.
To ensure that their own bodies or those of their loved ones would not be desecrated after death, many people, like this mother, would poison the bodies and write a warning to deter those who intended to steal and eat them.
However, the problem was that not everyone had access to poison.
Those who did not poison the bodies would still write such warnings in the hope of scaring away corpse-eaters.
As such situations became more common, and coupled with the desperation of some who were starving and only wished to eat their fill before death, it led to incidents like today's, where people ate despite the warnings.
Those who died as a result also appeared periodically.
This also made people feel insecure.
The "United Squad" often suffered casualties during missions.
Especially the female combat squad under Lin Xi, which incurred casualties in every battle.
Those present were not certain they would survive safely, and were all worried about what would happen to them after death.
Seeing everyone eating without tasting their food, Tang Li's expression remained unchanged, but she sighed inwardly.
Hadn't she also harbored such worries?
However, there were only two ways to resolve such matters.
One was to find a way for bodies to disappear, much like cremation before the apocalypse.
The other was to obtain enough food so that everyone could eat their fill, and then no one would covet others' corpses.
Thinking about it now, perhaps feeding corpses to the "maggots" in the underground city in her past life was the best solution.
It could make the corpses disappear and also produce more grain.
Besides this, there seemed to be no other way...
"Hmm? Other methods?"
"My space can replicate enough fuel, so I can definitely cremate bodies like before the apocalypse."
"Even if such an act is too wasteful in the apocalypse, can't I directly store the corpses into my space and remove them, making them disappear?"
"Furthermore, I can gain space energy. After all, besides delta particles, corpses contain the most space energy. Storing corpses is the most effective way to expand the space."
"And once I obtain space energy, can't I replicate large quantities of food, allowing everyone to eat their fill?"
Tang Li suddenly realized that her space could achieve both of these solutions simultaneously!
However, to process corpses collectively, only the authorities could achieve this. And if there was enough food for everyone, it would certainly have to be distributed through the authorities.
It would be best, as she had thought before, to cooperate with the authorities without revealing herself.
But now, she knew that this was impossible.
There must be R-country seeds lurking within the high ranks of the authorities. And her space could never be exposed to the R-country people.
If they treated her this way just because she had revealed her powerful physique, imagine what would happen if she revealed her replication space!
It seemed that unless she became the authority herself, she truly could not cooperate with the authorities without revealing herself.