The highway to the Naval Base was built over the ocean, flanked by tall, sturdy guardrails. Tide-monitoring devices were installed on both sides.

The road began at an on-ramp in the suburbs. With no obstructions, the journey would take several hours—a distance comparable to traveling between two neighboring cities.

Navy Avenue—that was the name of the road leading straight to the Azuregard City Naval Base. The moment the car Flora Bloom was in turned onto the avenue, she was hit with the faint scent of the sea and an abundance of Water Energy.

The moisture in the air seemed to carry a faint energy that swirled around Flora Bloom. She tried to absorb it, but it was futile. ’All this immense Water Energy around me,’ she thought with a sigh, ’and I can’t absorb a bit of it for my own use. What a waste.’

Suddenly, a harsh, grating scrape echoed from the guardrails, then vanished as quickly as it came. Flora Bloom whipped her head toward the sound, but there was nothing besides the occasional wave that surged up to slap against the rails.

Flora Bloom stared for a long time at the section of guardrail where the sound had come from.

The ocean. Even before the apocalypse, in a peaceful era of advanced technology, humanity had failed to explore even a fraction of its depths. After the apocalypse, the ocean was not just mysterious; for humanity, it was a nightmare more terrifying than the zombies.

Flora Bloom’s eyelid began to twitch uncontrollably. She had a very bad feeling.

The waters on both sides of the avenue were shallows, not deep at all. But the ocean was, and always would be, a place of mystery and wonder. You never knew what dangers and troubles it might spring on you, or when.

Her father, Caleb Bloom, was still driving, with Cynthia Grant in the passenger seat. Suppressing the anxiety welling up inside her, Flora Bloom had her father pull over. She switched places with him to take the wheel, while Cynthia Grant stayed in the passenger seat.

"Everyone, buckle up tight," Flora said. "We have to get to the Azuregard Naval Base as fast as we can."

Once Flora was sure everyone was buckled in, she slammed her foot on the accelerator. The car shot forward like an arrow from a bow. Feeling the weightlessness as the scenery blurred past the windows, Jade and Caleb’s faces turned deathly pale.

As the other men in the car, Neal Wallace and Ethan Monroe also looked pale, but they gritted their teeth and said nothing.

Cynthia Grant, a military doctor, and her father, Caleb Bloom, a former military instructor, were in the best shape out of everyone. Still, even they found the ride difficult to endure.

"Flora, there are no zombies here. We don’t have to go this fast, do we?"

Jade fought back the nausea, wanting her daughter to slow down. But the discomfort was so overwhelming that after just that one sentence, she could only take deep breaths to keep from being sick. It felt like another word would make her vomit.

Flora acted as if she hadn’t heard her mother. She kept accelerating while watching the guardrails behind them in the rearview mirror.

The sea rose and fell on both sides, with small waves occasionally splashing up to wet the guardrails. Finally, as the ninth wave struck the barrier, Flora heard that piercing, metallic scraping sound again.

She saw a long, slender fish launch itself out of the water with a splash. Its thin body, gleaming with a metallic luster, flickered in and out of sight in the seawater, almost impossible to spot if you weren’t looking closely.

That sound was the creature’s body scraping against the metal guardrail. It was just like the grating noise of two jagged pieces of metal being forced against each other—piercing and awful.

"Old Monroe! If anything happens, you follow my command!"

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Flora’s forehead.

’Mutated Needlefish! To think they’d appear here this soon.’

The original Needlefish was one of the most common fish in the ocean. It was slender, with a pointed snout and a silvery-white body, and was often served at the dinner table. However, since the fish had more bones than flesh, many people disliked eating it.

But the mutated Needlefish grew from its original seventeen centimeters to thirty or forty centimeters long. Its pointed snout became exceptionally sharp, and its silvery-white scales had mutated to become sharp and erect. A single touch could easily tear off a large chunk of flesh.

In her past life, this fish was common in coastal shallows. They often appeared in schools and would swarm to attack any person they met, stiffening their bodies and launching themselves like darts. They could make a Level 3 superpower user bleed to death in an instant. The most terrifying part was that after being struck by a school of Needlefish, their sharp, raised scales would strip most of the flesh from a person’s body. They would then carry the flesh back to feed the school, allowing it to grow even larger.

So, if you saw one Needlefish, there was guaranteed to be a school of them in the nearby waters or shallows. No human ever attacked by Needlefish had survived.

"Mom, just hang on. Dad, use your Gold Ability to reinforce the back of the car! Hurry! Reinforce it as much as you can!"

Flora floored the accelerator, pushing the car so fast it almost flew, all while monitoring the frequency of the metallic scrapes behind them.

Flora was driving at over a hundred kilometers per hour. At first, the sound of a Needlefish scraping the guardrail behind them only came every hundred meters.

SCRAPE... SCRAPE...

Flora didn’t dare let her guard down for a second.

She knew the habits of this fish; once they locked onto a target, they were relentless. They wouldn’t leave until their prey was dead. Clearly, by appearing on this deserted military avenue, her group had become the perfect target for the hungry Needlefish.

"Flora, what’s going on?"

"Yeah, what gives? For crying out loud, take it easy! This is a car, not a plane! Are you trying to take off?"

"It’s a school of mutated Needlefish."

Flora answered curtly, her focus on driving and calculating the frequency of the scraping sounds behind them.

"It’s just a school of fish, isn’t it? Why run? We could catch ’em for dinner."

Ethan Monroe had barely finished his nonchalant remark when a Needlefish leaped a good three or four meters out of the water behind the guardrail. The sharp glint from the silvery, slender body and its pointed snout sent a jolt of fear through everyone who looked back. The sight scared Ethan Monroe into shutting his mouth.

The thirty-centimeter-long Needlefish glinted dangerously in the sunlight.

Frowning, Flora explained, "Have you guys ever heard of army ants?" 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Yes," Neal Wallace said. "Where the swarm passes, nothing is left. I remember a news story about a group of scientists on an expedition to a desert region to study them. They ran into army ants. To preserve their research data, they used all their special ant-repellent chemicals on the documents. The ants devoured them, leaving only skeletons behind. It was a long time before a later expedition found their remains and brought them home."

Neal Wallace was a doctor, and in university, he had followed a professor for a course on drug research and development involving formic acid. Although it was just a theoretical lab, he had done some in-depth research on various types of ants.

Flora was pleased with Neal Wallace’s thorough explanation and added, "Exactly. Army ants are colonial creatures. When they attack, they often form a ball. Once that ball latches onto its prey, they instantly strip it of all flesh and blood, leaving nothing but bone."

"These Needlefish are also colonial. When they attack, they also gather into a ball and launch themselves at their prey. After a Needlefish’s pointed snout pierces its target, its erect scales shred the flesh inside. Then, the scales, which were flared out, close up, scraping and trapping the flesh inside like a bone scraper. They absorb all the prey’s blood and then carry the meat back to their school."

"The prey is left with nothing but bones and a few residual scraps. Not even the internal organs remain. So, tell me, how is that not exactly like army ants?"

Flora’s words sent a chill down everyone’s spine. Goosebumps erupted on their skin.

"You’re saying those fish behind us have marked us as prey?" Neal Wallace asked. He looked calm, but his pale face betrayed his true feelings.

This highway was built over the ocean. Even if these were shallows, they were surrounded by sea. If they were cornered here, no matter how powerful they were, they would be stripped clean of their flesh in an instant.

Flora, meanwhile, was calculating. ’If they attack, how many people can I save with my space ability in that split second?’

The frequency of the scraping sounds from the fish on the guardrails was increasing. They were getting closer. Flora slammed the accelerator to the floor, pushing the car to its maximum speed.