Apocalypse: My Items Can Upgrade Infinitely

At that thought, Lin Feng, who had been about to show himself and ask some questions, instead crouched low and quietly retreated.

After leaving the park, he continued deeper into the city center.

Before long, after crossing two districts and coming within five kilometers of the city center, Lin Feng used his Mind Sensing to detect a dense cluster of light spots.

Judging by the size and brightness of the light sources, they were all beings with a Life Value of around 100.

’They’re probably a swarm of Tier One Early Stage Black Spine Zergs.’

The problem was that they were packed together too tightly, with at least one per square meter—far denser than any Swarm Lin Feng had detected before.

As he pressed on, another possibility soon came to mind.

’Could it be that the light spots I’m Sensing aren’t the Zerg Race, but a group of Human Awakeners?’

From the moment it surfaced, the thought kept swirling in Lin Feng’s mind...

Ten minutes later, Lin Feng was a hundred meters away from the cluster of light spots, crouched in position atop a tall building.

The targets were located in a large chain shopping mall, the Wanya Shopping Center.

This sight made Lin Feng even more certain of his suspicion.

’This shopping center couldn’t possibly hold hundreds, let alone thousands, of Black Spine Zergs. Only Human Awakeners, with their smaller bodies, could fit inside.’

Soon, humanoid figures emerged from the shopping center’s main entrance, confirming Lin Feng’s suspicion.

A group of human survivors left the shopping center and headed for a nearby green belt.

There, they were also growing various crops.

Seeing there were only five of them, Lin Feng quietly snuck up behind them.

Carefully controlling his strength, he knocked three of them unconscious with karate chops, then aimed his gun at the last man and woman, who still hadn’t reacted.

’They’re stronger than the other three—both are Tier One Middle Stage, above Lv. 13. They must be minor leaders in this settlement.’

"Hands up! Don’t move!"

Lin Feng commanded in a low voice, simultaneously releasing his aura as a Tier Two Mid-Stage Awakener. Startled, the pair spun around and scrambled to their knees.

Seeing a survivor from the outside, the pair looked both hesitant and shocked.

’It seems outsiders rarely make it here.’

’After all, massive Swarms are gathered on the city’s outskirts, tasked with blocking any "intruders."’

"You... you’re from the outside?!"

The man kneeling on the ground with his hands raised was the first to react. He knew every face in the settlement, but the young man before him—neither his face nor his powerful aura—was familiar.

Lin Feng nodded slightly and asked in return:

"Jia City has fallen to the Zerg Race. Why are you still alive? And why haven’t the Swarms on the city’s outskirts attacked you?"

The man swallowed hard, a hint of agitation on his face. The woman beside him, her expression numb, showed a flicker of life in her eyes upon hearing Lin Feng’s confirmation.

"We... we’re being farmed by them."

"The administrators of the settlement... they’re a group of..."

Fear flickered across the man’s face. The woman beside him, snapping out of her daze, added through gritted teeth:

"A group of monstrous Zerg People!"

"They each have a Zerg latched onto their back, controlling their speech and thoughts, using them to rule and enslave the other survivors."

Lin Feng nodded, not at all surprised.

’Since the Mother Empress in Hai City could use parasitic hosts to infiltrate the Thirteenth Division’s high command and steal intelligence, it stood to reason that other Zerg Race Mother Empresses could use parasitic abilities to control and enslave local human populations.’

However, the man and woman were taken aback by Lin Feng’s nonchalant expression.

They thought such news would surely cause a massive uproar if it reached the outside world.

After all, the Zerg Race, long considered simple-minded and brutish, actually possessed higher intelligence and could even communicate directly with humans via parasitism...

"Keep talking. Why is the Zerg Race farming you?"

Lin Feng nudged his gun upward, his tone severe. He didn’t trust them yet, even if they weren’t parasitized.

The man’s heart jumped, and he hurriedly said: 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"My name is Huang Qixin, and this is Lin Ping."

"The Zerg Race arrived here half a month ago."

"At the time, tens of thousands of Jia City locals who hadn’t evacuated were still here. But the Federation never sent troops to defend us. While trying to escape, we were surrounded by a massive Swarm, and large groups of survivors had no choice but to retreat back into the city..."

"The last few thousand of us hid in Jia City Center."

"But on that day, the Zerg Race didn’t attack. Instead, several people walked out from the Swarm... Zerg People."

"They announced that we would be allowed to live, that as long as we obeyed their commands and didn’t leave Jia City Center, we could have the resources of the entire city."

"After that... our nightmare began."

"The survivors were herded into the middle of the shopping center. There, the Zerg People had built a living, flesh-and-blood incubator. We were forced to enter it and compelled to reproduce..."

"Two weeks after conception, they would harvest the fetuses from the women’s wombs."

"...and place them in that flesh-and-blood device to be nurtured."

As he spoke, Huang Qixin glanced at the woman beside him.

Lin Ping’s gaunt, numb expression and her hollowed abdomen confirmed his words.

After Huang Qixin finished, still shaken by the memory, Lin Ping added a question:

"The... the explosions from the east side of the city this morning... was that the Federation Army coming to rescue us?"

Lin Feng didn’t answer, only shaking his head slightly as his gaze grew even colder.

’It seems this Mother Empress’s ambition is no less than the one from Hai City.’

’Its forces might not be as strong in combat as the one in Hai City, but it’s already plotting to seize humanity’s reproductive capabilities, aiming to completely control and exploit them.’