64: Chapter 64 Cities That Once Belonged to Humans

Actually, the military really didn't want these students to enter the Wasteland Zone for training; every time, they had to pull people away to ensure the safety of most students.

But... there was no other way. The quality of students from each city every year affected the supplies provided by the Federal Government.

Students who only trained in training rooms would absolutely not be able to achieve results during the martial arts exam.

The martial arts exam used a simulated Wasteland Zone for actual combat, so if they wanted to become stronger... they had to face these things early.

...

The dark green military trucks started up one by one, engines vibrating lowly, the exhaust carrying a pungent smell of oil.

Students climbed into the carriages with their bags and weapons; the iron plates on both sides were ice-cold, and sitting down felt hard and uncomfortable.

Just as Lu Cheng and his group got on, two teams from No. 1 High School and No. 2 High School were sitting opposite them.

Lin Tianjian was also in one of the carriages, nodding to Lu Cheng across a few people.

Lu Cheng returned the gesture casually.

This scene, falling into the eyes of a few No. 1 High School students nearby, made their expressions look somewhat strange.

A crew-cut boy asked Lin Tianjian in a low voice: "Do you really know him?"

Lin Tianjian's tone was very serious: "Yeah, Brother Lu is very strong."

The crew-cut boy glanced at Lu Cheng, his eyes clearly filled with disbelief.

A boy with dyed gray hair from No. 2 High School was quite carefree, grinning at Lu Cheng:

"Buddy, are you that ruthless guy who snatched Lin Tianjian's girlfriend?"

Lu Cheng leaned against the carriage, stunned after hearing this... How did this thing get twisted as it spread???

He spoke up:

"Who spread this nonsense???"

The gray-haired boy was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Haha... They were just spreading rumors blindly. My name is Zhao Ye, from No. 2 High School."

"Lu Cheng."

"When we enter the Wasteland Zone later, any chance of forming an alliance?"

"If we happen to run into each other later."

Laughter suddenly broke out in the carriage, and the originally tense atmosphere eased a bit.

Soon, the convoy started moving.

The heavy alloy gate slowly rose in front, and the outer city defense line opened layer by layer.

Fixed artillery positions were set up on the high walls, and patrolling martial artists stood in the wind, their gun barrels and gazes directed outside the city together.

When the military trucks drove out of the last line of defense, many students subconsciously went quiet.

Inside the city, there were still lights, advertising screens, and human voices.

Outside the city, there was soon nothing left but the wind.

The cold, dry wind, carrying a musty smell of earth and a faint scent of decay, kept pouring in through the gaps in the carriage.

The road also began to break; the originally smooth highway was severed into sections, withered yellow shrubs grew in the cracks, and the edges were covered with traces of accumulated sand.

In the distance, half-collapsed service stations could occasionally be seen, their ceilings hanging at an angle, rusted signs swaying gently in the wind.

Further away, a few severely weathered high-rise buildings stood crookedly, their outer walls peeling off in large patches, the glass completely shattered, and the dark, hollow windows facing this way, like rows of empty eye sockets.

Ma Dachun leaned against the side of the truck, looking out, his voice a little lower.

"This place... did people really live here before?"

A military instructor nearby heard him and spoke calmly.

"Unlike the north, a dozen years ago, this area had residential quarters, schools, shopping malls, and even a logistics station on the south side."

"Later, the beast tide and pollution came together. We couldn't hold it, so everyone evacuated."

The carriage was silent for a moment.

Someone couldn't help but look outside again.

Abandoned cars were buried under half-collapsed billboards, a piece of blackened laundry pole still hung on the balcony of a residential building, and faded children's graffiti could even be seen on the outer wall of one building.

These things were still here.

But the people were gone.

After the convoy drove into the relatively stable Wasteland Zone on the south side, the speed slowed down.

The terrain ahead was more complex; patches of abandoned residential areas began to appear on both sides of the broken road.

Low buildings, courtyard walls, and collapsed storefronts were squeezed together; the streets were narrow, with many shadows, and in many places, sunlight couldn't reach.

A black shadow suddenly flashed past a window on the second floor nearby.

Ma Dachun sat up abruptly: "Holy crap! Did you guys see that?"

Xia Xi had already gripped the handle of her knife.

Lu Cheng stared for two seconds and said in a low voice: "A bird."

The next second, a gray-black mutated scavenger bird fluttered out from a broken window, its wings frighteningly large, landing on the remains of a utility pole, bowing its head to peck at something.

As the truck got closer, it became clear that it was a piece of yellowed human arm bone...

The military truck did not stop.

One after another, they drove deep according to the predetermined route.

After another dozen minutes, the lead military truck suddenly pulled over and stopped. A team quickly got off and entered the depths of the ruins along another fork in the road. The vehicles behind continued driving.

Immediately after, the second one also stopped. The third. The fourth.

Each military vehicle dropped off a team at a different location, with a wide distance between their starting points, clearly intending to have all teams disperse upon entering the Wasteland Zone.

When it was Lu Cheng's group's turn, the surroundings had become completely quiet.

The truck door opened.

The wind outside poured in, carrying gray dust.

"Get off. Explore on your own ahead. Return to the assembly point according to the locator when the time is up."

The soldier driving only dropped this one sentence without even looking at them again.

The four of them jumped off the truck, and the military vehicle roared and drove away quickly, disappearing at the end of the sloping road, leaving only the increasingly faint smell of exhaust.

The surroundings suddenly became empty.

The highway cracked in many places, wild grass grew out of the cracks, and beside it was an abandoned residential area, with low buildings connected in patches, wall plaster peeling off in large pieces, windows dark, and balcony railings rusted red.

Further away were a few dead trees, their branches twisting and stretching, with plastic sheets, broken bricks, and blackened bones piled under the trees.

Ma Dachun looked left and right, his voice lowered:

"They really just dumped us here?"

Lu Cheng flexed his shoulders: "Let's go. Follow the edge of the residential area first, don't go too deep."

The four quickly adjusted their positions.

Su Wan was in front, her footsteps light, her sword bag already untied.

Lu Cheng walked in the middle-front, responsible for frontal vigilance.

Xia Xi was in the rear right, her eyes scanning the shadows on both sides and the windows above.

Ma Dachun was the most self-aware, standing at the very back... his position was actually the most dangerous place in the team...

Not long after entering the residential area, Lu Cheng suddenly paused.

"Stop."

The voice wasn't loud, but the three stopped simultaneously.

Su Wan immediately turned her body, her hand on the sword hilt: "What's wrong?"

Lu Cheng's gaze landed on the ground in front of a unit building on the left.

There was a long drag mark in the gray dust, intermittent, extending all the way into the shadows of the building entrance.

Scattered nearby were a few broken bones, white and brittle, with gnaw marks on the edges.

The shadow at the entrance of the building was too dark, unnaturally dark, and connected with the surrounding light in a very strange way.

"Can you see anything?"

Xia Xi narrowed her eyes; she felt that in that shadow, something was holding its breath.

Very light.

Very steady.

"Left building entrance, retreat."

Just as Xia Xi finished speaking, a gray shadow suddenly exploded out of the shadows!

Extremely fast!

That thing rushed out almost against the ground, its body slender, limbs crouching on the ground, fur gray-black, but its face looked as if a layer of skin had been peeled off, revealing wet muscle textures, its two eyeballs white, its mouth split very wide, carrying a foul, fishy wind as it pounced.

Tier 1 intermediate beast!

Ma Dachun was so scared his hair almost stood on end: "Holy crap!"

Just as Su Wan and Xia Xi were about to make a move, Lu Cheng had already moved a step ahead.

With Wandering Step activated, he shifted his whole body forward, directly cutting into the beast's pouncing path, twisting his waist to exert force with his right fist, and the Crushing Fist smashed out instantly!

Bang!

A muffled explosion.

The beast's head jerked to the side in mid-air, its neck bone snapped on the spot, and its entire body flew sideways, slamming hard against the wall, causing the wall plaster to fall down rustlingly.

It twitched twice and stopped moving.

Quiet.

There were still faint scratching sounds deep in the building entrance, as if something had been startled and retreated quickly.

Ma Dachun opened his mouth, and it took him a while to squeeze out a sentence: "Brother Cheng... your punch really doesn't respect beast rights."

Xia Xi's eyes were shining brightly: "Cool."

Su Wan quickly stepped forward, squatted down to check the beast's corpse, and frowned slightly:

"It had been lying in ambush here for a long time. There might be others of its kind nearby, or this might be its feeding spot."

Lu Cheng followed her gaze.

On the wall inside the building entrance, there were a few dried, dark red smear marks. A small piece of clothing fragment was still hanging by the handrail on the second floor, swaying gently in the wind.

This place really used to have people living here.

Now only these things remained.

The four of them didn't stay long and quickly left the residential area.

After walking for nearly another half hour, they encountered other teams one after another.

First was a team from No. 1 High School, three men and one woman, bypassing from another street corner.

When the person leading saw Lu Cheng and his group, he first glanced at the beast blood traces on the ground, then looked at the dust on Lu Cheng's fist, his expression a bit solemn.

"You guys just fought?"

Lu Cheng said casually: "Just killed one while passing by."

That person stared at him for two seconds, didn't ask any more questions, just nodded: "There's a resource point ahead, someone has already gone over."

After saying that, they left in a hurry.

Moving further ahead, two teams from No. 2 High School and Yangrong Girls High School also gradually approached.

Once there were many people, the atmosphere naturally changed.

When Lu Cheng and his group arrived, they saw an abandoned gas station in front.

The ceiling had collapsed by half, the fuel nozzles were tilted, and the convenience store glass was shattered all over the floor.

In the cracked concrete ground behind the gas station, a few dark red mineral veins were exposed, with fine textures on the surface, shining slightly in the sunlight.

Beside it grew a few gray-green medicinal herbs clinging to the ground, with red lines on the leaf edges.

Red-Vein Ore, and accompanying medicinal herbs.

At this moment, three teams were already standing around, separated by a few meters, none of them moving first.

The tall and sturdy boy from No. 2 High School spoke first, his tone very aggressive:

"We arrived first, the stuff belongs to us."

On the side of Yangrong Girls High School, a short-haired girl sneered:

"It belongs to you just because you arrived first? Then I saw the sun first, does the sun belong to me?"

Someone in the No. 1 High School team nearby also frowned: "Resources are taken based on ability, stop the nonsense."

The atmosphere suddenly spiked.

Ma Dachun lowered his voice: "Brother Cheng, how do we handle this?"

Lu Cheng scanned the mineral veins and the surrounding terrain, just about to speak, when a crew-cut boy from No. 2 High School had already fixed his gaze on him.

"You're Lu Cheng?"

Lu Cheng looked at him: "Something up?"

The crew-cut boy grinned, his eyes filled with obvious defiance:

"Lin Tianjian thinks so highly of you... I'm actually a little curious about just how good you are at fighting."

Two other people nearby also followed and took a step forward.

"Put the resources aside for a moment, want to spar?"

"Dare you?"

As soon as these words came out, many people around went quiet.

Everyone understood.

This wasn't a spar at all; it was clearly a probe, and a way to step on No. 3 High School's limelight.

Xia Xi's face turned cold instantly: "Are you looking for trouble?"

Su Wan also raised her eyes, her hand already on the sword hilt.

Lu Cheng raised his hand to stop them, his expression very calm: "Sure."

He walked forward a few steps, stood in the open space in front of the gas station, and flexed his wrists.

"Come at me together, I'm in a hurry."

Honestly... the gap between these students and Lu Cheng was already too big... If it weren't for these resources, Lu Cheng wouldn't have bothered to make a move.

The crew-cut boy's face sank: "What are you acting arrogant for."

As soon as he finished speaking, he already rushed up.

He used a straightforward, hard-hitting style, his fists carrying wind, clearly having practiced basic fist techniques, and his Qi and blood were not weak.

Lu Cheng didn't activate any extra abilities, relying only on pure physical body and basic martial arts to receive the moves, raising his arm to block, side-stepping with an elbow, and with just one punch, knocked the person back a meter.

His teammates couldn't hold back and directly intervened: "My turn!"

Immediately after, the third one also came up.

The scene instantly turned from one-on-one to a siege.

There was a commotion around, and even some people from No. 1 High School frowned.

Su Wan, Xia Xi, and Ma Dachun remained motionless in place.

They understood Lu Cheng's personality very well; if he said he would handle it himself, then he would handle it himself, and besides... this group of people wasn't worthy of making Lu Cheng nervous.

The next second, a heavy kick slammed fiercely toward Lu Cheng's side waist.

Origin-level Hardening Pulse instantly covered his whole body, his skin, Tendon & Bone Stage, and internal organs tightened simultaneously. That single-point impact had just landed when it spread along his whole body, and its power was shaved off by a large margin.

Bang!

A muffled sound exploded.

The person who kicked had his eyes light up, and just as he wanted to continue following up with an attack, Lu Cheng had already used this impact to violently twist his body and counter-attack with a punch!

The stacked force of the Three Styles of Crushing Fist exploded!

That person didn't even have time to block, and his whole body flew out directly, falling into the pile of broken glass at the gas station, his face turning pale from the pain.

The remaining two had their expressions change simultaneously.

Lu Cheng had completely let go.

Shifting his feet, Wandering Step pulled out afterimages, instantly cutting to the front of the crew-cut boy, raising his hand and slamming a straight punch into the opponent's chest—just one punch! That person's sternum slightly caved in, and his whole body flew out several meters away.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The three fell to the ground one after another.

Lu Cheng stood in place, his breathing not even messed up, just shaking his wrists.

He had already pulled his punches.

It definitely hurt, but the injuries were all controlled within the scope of a spar, at most they would lie down for a while.

The surroundings were completely quiet.

Those who had just wanted to watch the fun now changed their eyes when looking at Lu Cheng.

The tall and sturdy boy from No. 2 High School gritted his teeth, but ultimately didn't dare to come up again.

Someone from No. 1 High School cursed in a low voice: "Really fierce."

Lu Cheng scanned everyone, his tone very light: "Anyone else want to try?"

No one answered.

He nodded: "Then the resources will be divided according to the team. I'll take half, and you can split the rest equally among yourselves. Any problems?"

A team solved in one minute, and you're still leaving us stuff? Whatever you say goes!

With this fight just now, the subsequent matters went smoothly instead.

Several teams quickly divided the Red-Vein Ore and accompanying medicinal herbs. Although they were still wary of each other, with Lu Cheng's deterrence, everyone behaved quite properly.

After dividing the resources, the sky began to darken.

Night in the Wasteland Zone came very quickly.

As soon as the sun tilted, the entire ruin seemed to be covered with a layer of gray-black, the outlines of the buildings became blurred, and the wind passed through the empty buildings and dead trees, carrying a wailing echo.

Lu Cheng and his group moved away from the residential area and continued to approach the edge of an abandoned forest.