Apocalypse: My Items Can Upgrade Infinitely

Lin Feng slowed his pace, transforming into a streak of bright yellow light as he weaved through the city’s streets and alleys.

In the corners of some roads, he saw uncovered sewer entrances, signs of Zerg activity within.

Just as Lin Feng had predicted, the Zerg Race hadn’t destroyed the city. Instead, they had integrated themselves directly into it, using the existing sewer system to build their nests and survive.

However, this defied logic.

Just as humans couldn’t return to living in caves, the urban system and the Zerg’s natural habits were completely at odds.

If it weren’t for the goal of exterminating and devouring the city’s human population, the Zerg Race probably would have had no interest in this concrete jungle.

Filled with questions, Lin Feng proceeded with caution.

He passed the periphery of the recent battlefield.

The ground, which should have been littered with Zerg corpses and severed limbs, was now completely clean. Other than the damage left by the shotguns, it was hard to believe a fierce urban street fight had erupted here just three or four hours ago.

He figured the Red-Armored Beetles must have come out to clean up after he and his people had retreated.

The Land Patrol Battleship could only navigate the main roads, so they hadn’t had time to collect the corpses of the Black Spine Zergs from the smaller, winding alleys. Besides, the situation hadn’t allowed them to linger.

Who knew when the Zerg Race’s next wave of attacks would arrive? If twice as many Tier Two Tiger Spine Zergs appeared, Lin Feng would have found it difficult to break away and offer support. The hundred-plus Awakeners they had worked so hard to assemble could have been completely wiped out by a single Tiger Spine Zerg that slipped through the cracks.

The retreat had been so hasty that they hadn’t even had time to clean up the battlefield.

So, seeing the clean streets and storefronts now, Lin Feng wasn’t surprised.

But after taking a few more steps, he suddenly stopped.

He noticed that at the entrance of a shopping mall, the glass had been shattered by a shotgun, but all the broken shards had been swept up and piled in a corner.

The foul-smelling Zerg blood on the ground hadn’t been licked clean by Red-Armored Beetles, either. A slick, wet film from some kind of detergent remained, emitting a faint, fresh scent.

Low-level Zergs wouldn’t have that kind of awareness. They wouldn’t clean up building debris or use detergent.

There was only one possibility: human survivors were still in this Zerg-occupied city.

They were the ones who had used tools to clean the battlefield.

At this thought, Lin Feng’s confusion deepened.

’How did these people evade the Zerg patrols and survive in a city with so little food?’

Unfortunately, his Mind Sensing couldn’t detect any Life Form below Level 7. Ordinary people were outside his Sensing range.

Still puzzled, Lin Feng slowly stepped into the mall.

He spent ten minutes or so searching the place thoroughly, inside and out. But aside from traces of human activity, he didn’t find a single soul.

But some of the traces were clearly recent. For instance, the mud from a footprint was still damp.

Following the tracks, he saw they had left the mall and headed deeper into Jia City.

Lin Feng stayed in the shadows of a corner and continued on.

He had to find these people to understand the bizarre situation in Jia City.

’Why could human survivors coexist with the Zerg Race?’

The Zergs couldn’t talk. But people could. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

As Lin Feng moved deeper into the city center, he passed a city park. The woods were lush with the green leaves of midsummer, just like the trees lining the roads...

The Red-Armored Beetles hadn’t devoured these low-fat food sources.

This was completely different from the situation in the Suburban Area of Hai City.

It was as if the Zerg Race was treating the city as their own home, preserving its original appearance as much as possible.

Soon enough, from his hiding spot in a corner, Lin Feng saw several human figures emerge from the wooded hills of the park in the distance.

’So there really are survivors!’

Lin Feng’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t step out and call to them immediately. Instead, he remained hidden, observing their behavior.

But to his surprise, these survivors were actually in the park, planting some kind of crop.

They used shovels, hoes, and other farming tools to till the soil. They looked just like normal people hard at work.

If he didn’t know Jia City had already fallen to the Zerg Race, Lin Feng might have actually believed the peaceful scene.

To be farming so openly, without the tacit approval of the Zerg Race... they would just be lambs to the slaughter.

An idea occurred to Lin Feng.

Relying purely on military force to conquer territory couldn’t possibly sustain a Zerg Race of this size. They had to have other, more stable ways of acquiring Energy.

It had been over a month since the Zerg invasion began, but humanity still had no understanding of the socio-ecological structure of this Alien Zerg Race.

Their internal hierarchy, their societal structure, and most importantly...

...their fundamental method of Energy acquisition!

Water is just a base material for obtaining Energy. It’s like how humans on Blue Star depend on the photosynthesis of autotrophs like plants, which convert the Sun’s energy into Chemical Energy like sugars, starches, and proteins.

But photosynthesis can only occur on a planet’s surface where there is access to sunlight. The Zerg Nest, however, was always hundreds of meters underground—or even deeper.

In the sealed-off underground, forget sunlight—the only life that could eke out an existence were some ancient bacteria and primitive single-celled organisms.

Therefore, the Zerg Race must rely on other methods, unknown to humanity, to acquire additional Biomass.

That was why, upon seeing survivors farming within a Zerg-occupied zone, Lin Feng’s thoughts turned to...

...the possibility that the Zerg Race was enslaving humanity.

Forcing them to grow food for the Zerg Race.

It was just as the parasitic matriarch controlling Cheng Zhan had revealed before its death: this Alien Zerg Race had already invaded multiple planets, and the lowest-ranking Red-Armored Beetles were themselves an alien Life Form that the Zerg had conquered and enslaved.

Perhaps in the future, after humanity suffers a complete and utter defeat, they too would be reduced to slaves of the Zerg Race, forced to handle their logistical needs or even care for the offspring of the High-tier Zerg Race...