Chapter 485: Chapter 473: Monsters Rampant

"Thank you, sir."

"He brought him a new life, far from war, disease, and hunger. Here, he could have more opportunities and a better future."

"And all of this was bestowed by sir!"

In a noisy building, a room full of people was praying. It was easy to sense their immense gratitude towards the ’sir’ they spoke of, so much so that they prayed even while eating.

However.

Contrary to the gratitude in their tone, their expressions were unusually wooden; the vacant look on their faces made them resemble a group of puppets, exuding an oddity.

And the so-called food on their plates was even more horrifying— a huge meat worm, alive and struggling on the plate, its plump body wriggling grotesquely, evoking an inexplicable feeling of nausea.

Yet, the people appeared indifferent, picking up the worms without even the most basic expression, placing them into their mouths.

"Splat!"

A spurt of white juice splashed out, and the people began to earnestly savor this so-called delicacy.

This was just a corner of the city, where over eighty thousand people lived, yet they never stepped outside, merely needing to sit and pray together. As for food, it was naturally delivered to them daily.

Muddled and unaware.

The people here no longer resembled humans; they were clearly a group of thoughtless monsters. Lacking exercise, their bodies had long since degenerated. Their legs became as thin as grass stalks, while their upper bodies grew extremely bloated, like countless cocoons, exceedingly obese.

This was not a human dominion.

More accurately, this was not a dominion ruled by humans.

At the bottom of the city, a strange and enormous monster lay on the ground. Its appearance resembled the worms devoured by the people, but its size multiplied countless times, becoming several meters in form, like a mountain of flesh, inhabiting the land below, living leisurely.

It was a worm, continuously rolling about, and upon closer inspection, those rolling skins bore human faces.

Men, women, the elderly, children, and even some newborn babies— at this moment, these faces struggled incessantly inside the worm, seemingly trying to break free from this confinement, yet no matter how they struggled, it was futile. Gradually, hope turned into despair, and then into hysterical screams.

But surprisingly, there was no sound around, as if the voices of these people were muted, filling one with despair.

In reality,

these people were already dead.

Now appearing inside the worm were but lingering spirits; due to some special circumstance, these spirits could not escape, condemned to struggle and exist in this place for all eternity.

A monster from an unknown dimension.

It first controls its prey with larvae, and after swallowing enough eggs, people become numb and mindless, mainly because those eggs are infused with mild poison, causing brain damage when consumed daily.

The consequence of this is that a city that once housed tens of thousands has now completely turned into a ghost town.

Rather than calling it a human dominion, it is more a storage pantry for the worms, and the reason the humans still maintain their life function is simply because...

The worms enjoy eating live food.

...............

A shuffling group of zombies walked along the streets, a gust of wind blew the intense stench of corpses.

There was not a single living soul in this city.

City of death.

In times of peace, it was a tourist destination that received millions of visitors annually, but now, it has been overrun by zombies.

When the apocalypse erupted, it became a zombie epicenter, due to the dense population. A few infections spread rapidly, casting a wide net.

Finally,

this place became a city of the dead, ruled by zombies.

In the park, where adorable pet dogs once frolicked, now ran grotesque zombie dogs, riddled with widespread rot and maggots wriggling within.

The plaza, the most favored spot for people to stroll after meals, now devoid of vibrant figures, was occupied by sluggish, hideous zombies.

As for the large malls, handbags worth tens or hundreds of thousands were now trampled underfoot; those beloved shops— the female owner, once devoted to enhancing her beauty, now sat in a chair. Differing from her past makeup sessions, her eyes had fallen out during a battle. At this moment, her eye sockets contained no eyeballs, staring motionlessly into a mirror.

Subways, schools, cinemas;

These places, once bustling with people, have been wholly engulfed by zombies. One city, a mass of corpses, and this place that held endless fond memories now became an enormous tomb, bleak and terrifying.

...............

Rats, a meter in length, scurried along the street.

Foxes, with fur like silk, sharp faces, and slender eyes, stretched lazily atop a building, basking in the rare sunlight.

An Earth Dragon, clad in battle armor, had just bitten to death a mutated domestic pig. The latter, with a three-meter body, perhaps due to atavism, had a pair of one-meter-long tusks at the corners of its mouth, once a dominant force, but before the Earth Dragon, it was destined to be devoured.

Empty city.

In the city, aside from countless white bones, there wasn’t a single trace of humanity; instead, it was occupied by a group of mutated beasts.

Before the apocalypse, they were perhaps just members of a slaughterhouse, but in this apocalypse, they mutated. Timid lambs turned into monsters that relish swallowing humans alive, while cowardly rats became giant beasts about a meter in size. As for those animals that originally possessed destructive strength, they grew several times stronger, some even possessing power not inferior to the Silver Tier.

Without human maintenance, city vegetation began to grow lush; some trees, even with the aid of power, grew into towering trees over twenty meters tall.

Some skyscrapers, due to tree roots entwined beneath, collapsed one after another.

The traces of humanity were being erased.

Houses that once captivated countless people had now become residences for mutated birds, and rooms diligently designed with painstaking effort had long since cracked. Even some wedding beds bore nests and eggs of these birds.

Insects, zombies, beasts.

The apocalypse descended, and perpetual fortune couldn’t always favor humanity. To these monsters, they too...

are the victors in this era!