Chapter 388: Light of Human Evolution

"Qin Feng, who is that?"

"Never heard of him."

"A figure who just appeared on the Light of Human Evolution ranking," Jiang Yun clicked on an interface at this moment and handed it to everyone to see: "According to the calculation of ability peak value, this person has reached Angel-class. It is said that he once fought an A-class strange entity alone, and is now a key focus of the Federation."

"The strange thing is, this person didn't have any information before," Ren Huiyan added with her arms crossed.

"Isn't it normal to have no news? Now it's the apocalypse, information is blocked on the official Phoenix Society side, let alone a fleet?" Xiang Xiang Ningjing said at this moment.

Jiang Yun shrugged: "But an ability user whose ability reached Angel-class, and a mechanical ability user at that, how could he have been silent for so long?"

He said this and looked at Lin Xian: "Lin Dui's name is already well-known in both the Federation and the Phoenix Society. Most of the fleets in Dawn City have heard of what your fleet has done, so this is also the strange place we feel."

"And he also got the Silver Star."

Jian Xuwei's face sank: "The Silver Star has been docked at the Star City Orbital Station, detained by Wen Dong. How could it get into his hands?"

"This is the most critical point," Kiki said at this moment: "It shows that this person's identity is not simple. It is very likely that he has a background in the Federation's upper echelons, or paid some price to get it from the Wen family."

"The price to buy the Silver Star is not small," Jiang Yun said seriously at this moment: "Chairman Jian's train has been updated and iterated, consuming a lot of resources. Now, except for not being able to fly, it can do everything. The Federation knows the value of this train. Not only the Federation, but many fleets also know."

"So this recruitment plan looks very tempting," Mo Nika smiled slightly at this moment.

"Right."

Jiang Yun said: "Mechanical ability is now rumored to be magical, considered one of the top abilities with 【Civilization Creation】 power. This recruitment plan has been out for less than 6 hours, and the number of applicants has exceeded 100,000. You can imagine."

"100,000?!" Kiki was surprised: "So many people, the Silver Star can't fit them."

"That won't happen. This person's recruitment threshold is ridiculously high. Ordinary team members are required to be Gold-class or above. Only Violent-class and Destruction-class can carry a small number of family members. And it's not just ability peak value, this fleet also selects ability types, and even grandly started an underground recruitment conference for ability duels. The location is in the Galag Black Market," Jiang Yun said.

Upon hearing this, everyone's expressions changed slightly.

Lu Xingchen, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes when he heard about ability duels, looking interested.

"Then it can be confirmed that this matter has something to do with the Federation," Jian Xuwei said solemnly.

"I think so too," Jiang Yun smiled: "Now the situation is tense, the Federation was already worried about large fleets evacuating collectively. This Qin Feng's recruitment conference being able to be held under the noses of the City Defense Garrison and the Night Patrol is definitely not simple."

At this time, Mo Nika's smiling gaze fell on Lin Xian, and she said:

"What do you think, my captain~"

Everyone's eyes fell on Lin Xian for a time.

Lin Xian's expression was calm as he looked out the window at the colorful night scenery of the mechanical city. He said indifferently: "Strictly speaking, apart from the Silver Star, this matter has nothing to do with us. We have more important things to attend to after entering the city. Of course, if there is an opportunity, we must also find a way to take the Silver Star back. Besides that, I actually think that if they are holding such a large-scale recruitment assembly at this time, could it possibly mean that within the Federation... someone also wants to evacuate?"

"I understand what you mean," Jian Xuwei's gaze condensed: "You think this might also be a means for the Federation to recruit people."

"Otherwise, the Federation would not sit idly by while an uncontrolled fleet conducts such a high-profile recruitment of powerful superhumans."

Kiki picked up the mobile terminal at this moment, accessed the Dawn City intranet, and opened that Light of Human Evolution ranking. She found that it was simply like an entertainment channel. It not only ranked according to ability peak value but also had popularity rankings. The top 10 even had character biographies and battle record introductions. Intranet survivors even made star-level evaluations of these people's combat power, leadership, and ability potential.

"Wow, wow~ look quickly, everyone."

Kiki said while manipulating her fingers, transmitting the ranking interface via holographic projection.

No. 1 "Star Fall" - Yu Huaian

Peak Value: 11200 Angel-class (Historical High)

Ability: 【Gravity Control】

Three-dimensional Index: Combat Power | Potential ☆ | Leadership ☆

Battle Record:

Single-handedly killed A-class strange entity "Echo"

Large-scale extermination of strange entity tide in Qilian Mountains (over 5000 individuals)

Character Tags: #InvincibleAbility #LeadershipQuality #Steady

Identity: Leader of the Wanderer Alliance

No. 2 "Iron Curtain" - Mo Qi

Peak Value: 10800 Angel-class

Identity: Pure Body-Technique User (No Ability)

Three-dimensional Index: Combat Power | Potential | Leadership

Battle Record:

In the S-class battle of Dawn City, shattered part of the Gray Mist Walker's hard bone tissue head-on.

Led the "Iron Dome" fleet, rushed out of the Shenli City polar night monster tide with 0 casualties.

Character Tags: #HumanLimit #Self-disciplineDemon #Anti-AbilitySubjectivist

No. 3 "Mechanical Commander" - Qin Feng

Peak Value: 10150 Angel-class

Ability: 【Mechanical Ability】

Three-dimensional Index: Combat Power ☆ | Potential | Leadership ☆

Battle Record: None yet

"Humanity is on the verge of being wiped out by the Eternal Night, yet they are still engaging in entertainment products like 'leaderboards' and 'popularity rankings'." Xiang Xiang Ningjing said with a serious face: "Does that have any real significance?"

"Can't think like that either."

Qian Dele said blandly: "It seems absurd, but it is actually a distorted manifestation of civilization's survival instinct. Whenever there is a crisis, in the subconscious of humans, they hope for powerful leaders to appear to lead people out of disaster. This is very logical."

"Yes," Jian Xuwei said: "Dawn City is least lacking in recruitment activities. Major fleets expand teams here and accumulate resources. As long as they haven't entered the Underground City, they are basically prepared to escape the darkness. So survivors will be very fanatical about these powerful ability users. Underground boxing rings, ability exchanges, mechanical modifications, weapon sales, everything you can think of and can't think of is here."

"Are the ability peak values of these people the same as the Phoenix Society's standards? Will Angel-class be too fast?"

"Can't look at it like that. Some people just acquired abilities, and their peak value already exceeded ordinary people. For example, Yu Huaian of the Wanderer Alliance, this person awakened his ability on the first day of Apocalypse Day and already reached Violent-class, and was the first batch of testers for the Angel Project," Jiang Yun said: "Then there is the fact that the concentration of dark invasion is constantly increasing. The disadvantage is that mutations increase, and the advantage is that the evolution of surviving ability users is accelerating."

"And it also has to do with killing S-class," Jian Xuwei added: "After that great battle, the values of many ability users are skyrocketing. Didn't you notice in Xilan City?"

"Noticed, but just never had time to care about this problem."

Lin Xian sighed slightly. After coming out of Xilan City, they first encountered danger in Yijin, then transferred to Akse, and before they could rest, they were involved in Star Abyss No. 5, fighting consecutive battles.

He certainly knew that the crazy transformation of the Hell Black Chrysanthemum accelerated the evolution of the Infinite's members. Every mechanical source point transformation Lin Xian obtained started at 1000. It is conceivable that for others, this improvement was very huge. Even the children on the train and the women responsible for logistics were no longer at the physical strength level of the early apocalypse.

It's just that they were facing either Corpse-Gatherers or Abyss Demons, and Lin Xian really didn't notice how much the abilities of Kiki, Huo Ge, and the others had increased.

Thinking of this, Lin Xian raised his hand and a light screen appeared. A Soul-Oscillation Value peak detector made by the construction sequence fell into his hand. Immediately, he started it. Suddenly, accompanied by the roar of the Mechanical Heart, his ability peak value number skyrocketed to 3650.

3650. According to Lin Xian's limit coefficient, this value would reach 7300, indicating that his ability had reached Destruction-class, which was three times higher than in Xilan City.

Lin Xian immediately threw the detector to Kiki and the others for re-detection. The result was surprisingly incomparable. Kiki's ability peak value had increased to 4800, while Lu Xingchen's was even more exaggerated, actually increasing to 5300. If combined with the limit coefficient, Lu Xingchen's growth was already 9010, close to Angel-class, surpassing Kiki's 7680.

"9010!" Lin Xian looked at Lu Xingchen in surprise: "You've progressed so fast?"

"Hey hey hey, how did you surpass me?" Kiki was a bit unconvinced, took the detector again, and operated with full force, but the peak value never exceeded 4800.

Lu Xingchen was quite proud at this moment: "It seems that this one's diligent practice every day has indeed yielded fruitful results."

Jiang Yun on the side frowned: "Are you using some kind of forbidden item?"

"Uh..." Lu Xingchen nodded upon hearing this: "That is true, will it have an impact?"

"Forbidden items will resonate with more Soul-Oscillation Value. It will have an impact, but no one will care about this. It will all be counted as a kind of your strength," Ren Huiyan said at this moment.

"Alright, count you as powerful." Kiki curled her lips, not wanting to argue about this at this time.

Lu Xingchen smiled slightly: "I concede, I concede~"

At this time, Mo Nika, Xiang Xiang Ningjing, and others also re-detected with Lin Xian's detector. In fact, Lin Xian also obtained this latest detector blueprint after entering the Silent City. Before that, the United Train people had no chance to re-detect. The results came out quickly. The fastest growing one here was actually Mo Nika, whose ability index reached 7400, higher than Lin Xian's.

Next was Xiang Xiang Ningjing, whose ability index as a pure gene evolver also reached 7200, and finally Qian Dele, who only had 6600.

It was Shizhi, the little girl, who was not good at fighting, but her ability index actually reached 6900. However, the little girl was not surprised at all. According to her, she had performed routine tests at Mochizuki Shinji's place after coming out of the Star Abyss, so she had already reached 6700 a week ago.

"According to this measurement, the strongest human evolution now can only fight A-class. So the enhancement of abilities still hasn't changed our situation of being hunted by darkness. Pessimistically speaking, there is no difference," Lin Xian said: "But for humans themselves, this power growth is still very powerful."

Jiang Yun nodded approvingly: "S-class, world-class, dark invasion, Star Abyss, so far we don't even have absolute certainty about S-class. This is also why the Federation has been planning the Curtain-Breaking Action, and we don't have much time left."

After speaking, he checked the time and said to Lin Xian: "Lin Dui, the curfew will be lifted after dawn. Although the Federation side will have some trouble, at least it is safe in the city for the time being. Don't be too worried about strange entities and zombies. Of course, you can't let your guard down completely. You can rest for a while first. People from our alliance are responsible for investigating news in all areas of the Old City District, and I believe it will be very helpful for your actions."

Afterward, Jiang Yun, Jian Xuwei, Ren Huiyan, and Lin Xian's team discussed things in the city and the actual situation of the alliance fleet together. Then Lin Xian let the group rest separately and act after dawn.

The time came to 3:00 AM, the night city rain drizzled continuously. Lin Xian was alone in a room covered with iron armor on the top floor, looking at the city scenery through the grid window.

Dawn City is very large, so large that it can't be seen at a glance. This was once one of the world's top three modernized cities. At this time, it was sealed by two high walls, maintaining some basic activities of the human social group.

Lin Xian recalled what Ye Lan had told him before, looking at the drizzle outside the window, inexplicably feeling a sense of reluctance.

Once upon a time, his Infinite Train Project defined Star City as an important safe harbor. Even after leaving Jiang City, he once thought that Star City might be one of the last cities not fallen under official protection. Coming here could still get a moment of peace.

Even if Dawn City became the Federation's last place of resistance, Lin Xian subconsciously didn't want to see this magnificent and brilliant city completely swallowed by darkness. That would give people a sense of great loss and anxiety. Even if he would embark on a journey later, there would only be the boundless ocean and the desperate escape of the polar night countdown left.

Lin Xian took out the Soul-Oscillation Value detector at this moment and started it. The ability peak value reached 3650 again.

But his expression remained unmoved, and he silently started the Superstring Reactor Phase Rainbow Ring. Instantly, a reactor rainbow ring lit up behind Lin Xian. The blue aurora brilliance seemed to contain endless energy, and even the air was trembling.

At this time, the ability peak value on the Soul-Oscillation Value detector in Lin Xian's hand skyrocketed to 5000!

This means his ability index has reached 10000! Entering Angel-class!

And Lin Xian was not surprised. With a thought, the second phase rainbow ring lit up, ability peak value 7000! Ability index 14000!

*Buzz! *

The third phase rainbow ring lit up, ability peak value 9000, ability index 18000!

*Zzz zzz zzz~*

The Soul-Oscillation Value detector in his hand emitted an overload mechanical sound at this time. This armored iron house also emitted a subtle humming sound because of the extremely powerful energy fluctuations, as if a collapsing energy black hole appeared in the room, piercing and burning a large amount of invisible matter. The light tubes on the ceiling even had their light constantly dislocated.

"Phew~"

Lin Xian let out a long sigh, closed his Superstring Reactor Phase Rainbow Ring, and the room returned to calm, everything as usual.

He put away the damaged Soul-Oscillation Value detector. Lin Xian had already guessed this result. His Mechanical Heart's power source, after the enhancement of the Superstring Reactor Phase Rainbow Ring, presented an exponential growth in magnitude. If nothing goes wrong, even if the Infinite doesn't have the Gemini 11R, Lin Xian can now drive the Infinite to rush along the 320,000-kilometer ring star orbit for infinite endurance until the world is destroyed.

"Angel-class... the world only has 10 months left. How far can humans evolve?"

"Can there be a chance to counterattack the darkness, or can we only flee to the Far Stars?"

Lin Xian logged into Dawn City's intranet anonymously. Recruitment, rescue, alliance, material exchange, ability exchange, power armor, armory, survival routes—besides these main survival contents, what was presented was undoubtedly the dregs of human nature released under extreme conditions.

Various conspiracy theories, human inevitable defeat, and religious worship filled it. The Federation's control was clearly only focused on a few keywords related to the interests of the upper echelons. Perhaps it was also out of the need to release pressure, and even pornographic content was completely public and unrestricted.

From a certain angle, Lin Xian even felt that this could be considered the Federation's cleverness, letting these survivors with armed foundations wantonly vent their suppressed mental emotions on the intranet, which actually helped management, or they were just too lazy to care. After all, how much time was left in the world?

Lin Xian set an alarm for himself, but he didn't sleep, instead adjusting the Black Star Forge's manufacturing sequence.

【Congratulations, Mechanical Manufacturing upgraded to lv. 6!】

No surprise, as the 5 manufacturing sequences ran at full power, Lin Xian's mechanical manufacturing proficiency grew rapidly and soon broke through the level. And at this time, the speed of the giant star body in the Black Star Forge seemed to accelerate slightly, and at the same time, a brand new manufacturing production line was opened.

At this time, there were already more than a hundred drones in Lin Xian's Black Star Forge space. However, these were not enough. To deal with large-scale strange entities, this number must be at least in the thousands.

Just as Lin Xian was immersed in researching in the Black Star Forge, a strange sound suddenly woke him up. He opened his eyes immediately and heard intensive artillery fire coming from the blocks in the distance.

He hurriedly rushed out of the room and arrived at the rooftop. The rainy night had not ceased, and the time was already past 9:00 AM. Less than an hour remained until dawn, yet at this moment, heavy roars of aircraft swept across the sky every few moments. He looked toward the direction outside the city and saw that outside the No. 1 city wall, the sky was filled with burning firelight. Faintly, one could see massive amounts of artillery fire crisscrossing, and the base defense weapons atop the high walls were roaring at this time!

"E5 defense zone hit by strange entity tide, there are several A-class strange entities, the monster tide scale is over 100,000, and it has broken into the outer city area!"

The team members walked out one after another. Jiang Yun received the contact news and said to everyone:

"Will it hit the No. 1 city wall?" Qian Dele asked.

"Shouldn't," Jiang Yun said solemnly: "This kind of attack is still within the controllable range. As long as there is no S-class, or the monster tide scale doesn't expand, it generally won't threaten the No. 1 city wall."

"Then what about those people outside the city?" Kiki said at this moment.

"No way."

Jian Xuwei said: "In this situation, people in the outer city area either have to retreat toward the city wall or scatter and run, relying on Dawn City's firepower to avoid danger. There is no other way."

"Won't the city gate be opened to let people outside retreat in?" Xiang Xiang Ningjing frowned.

Jiang Yun shook his head: "Monster tides are all phased. The dark marks must be cleared out. Part of the Garrison Army is stationed outside. Except for the Garrison Army and survivor fleets in the outer city area, the No. 1 city wall is basically the last line of defense. Even if one opening is broken, the No. 1 city wall is built in vain. The city wall was never opened during the last S-class outbreak, let alone this kind of attack."

"If it were me, I'd rather rush to the Dawn Center day and night than stay in the outer city. That's simply a monster hunting ground with no way out," Mo Nika said with her arms crossed, her face solemn.

Lin Xian looked at her and said: "It's not that simple. Those fleets are weak forces. Relying on the firepower of the No. 1 city wall, they can still live. Running outside is a big gamble for them. These ordinary people dare not gamble."

"Yes, they don't have much chance to choose," Jian Xuwei said.

The firelight in the distance reflected the rainy night sky. Lin Xian's group could hear nothing but the delayed thunderous artillery fire, but without thinking, the blocks in that area must be tragic.

Lin Xian remembered the scene of the dense crowd of survivor fleet camps he saw when entering the city last night, his gaze sinking. When survivors gather together, death might just become a number.

About ten minutes later, the intense artillery fire disappeared, and the surging firelight was gradually shrouded by the drizzling rain. The No. 1 city wall was safe and sound. Lin Xian and the others stood here without even seeing a strange entity appear, which showed that Dawn City's city wall defense was indeed stable.

"Lu Tianye's troops are over there. As long as it's not a specific monster, the casualties shouldn't be large. The Garrison Army's sense of trust among survivors is still quite good, better than the Night Patrol."

Jiang Yun let out a sigh of relief and turned to look at Lin Xian at this moment.

"The day is about to dawn, how are you preparing to act?"

"We'll go directly, there will be people meeting us there."

Jian Xuwei said to Lin Xian at this moment: "I'll gather the Silver Star's team and then meet up with you. If Chu Zhaonan's action is in the near future, we must be prepared to transfer at any time."

Lin Xian nodded: "Alright, synchronize with the Jinhai side then. The preliminary plan is to bypass Dawn City from Changuan and Qingbo, but everything depends on the situation."

Saying this, Lin Xian took out the communicator to set up a signal frequency band and synchronize with everyone.

"01 is the Infinite Alliance channel, all team dispatching will be through here later. 02 is our internal channel, mainly for contact within Dawn City."

10:15, the black curtain that originally shrouded the night city retreated like a tide, instantly turning into a drizzling morning. The patrol drones of the City Defense Garrison disappeared from the sky.

Curfew lifted.

E5 defense sector, gray sky light seeped down from the gaps in the clouds, like diluted lead water, poured on Dawn City's hundred-meter-high steel city wall. The heavy giant city wall was densely arranged with a large number of base weapons. Electromagnetic cannons, heavy artillery, howitzers, and pulse cannons were all soaked in rain. Rainwater flowed along the grooves full of monster claws and ferocious cracks, converging into a turbid stream at the bottom, washing away the charred remains left by the monster tide attack just now.

Inside the city, the neon lights hadn't completely gone out.

Survivors stationed in various blocks poured out like a beehive. Some fleets seemed to have been prepared ahead of time and set off immediately as soon as the day dawned. Modified vehicles of all types, large and small, began to drive out from the narrow streets and pour into the main road toward the direction of leaving the city. It's just that there were quite a few fleets with such thoughts. Not long after the day dawned, several main roads out of the city were already lined up in long queues and traffic jams. Some small fleets on the roadside held up various signs, writing about their fleet situation, hoping to merge or follow.

Lin Xian and Jiang Yun took several team members and sat in a modified off-road vehicle, driving toward the depths of the Old City District. Outside the window, they could clearly see a huge and magnificent city ring above the inner city Twin Star Towers. It was originally the city's aerial rapid magnetic levitation track channel, and it was also a landmark spectacular view of Star City. Even in low-Earth orbit, one could see this blue city ring.

But after Apocalypse Day, the Star City Ring had completely gone out, 1/3 of the channels collapsed, leaving only a broken city giant structure, telling the afterglow of human technology.

More and more residents appeared on the road. Long queues formed in front of vending machines using blood essence coins. The coin slots were rusty, occasionally jamming a blood essence coin, leading to a few curses. Street vendor fleets set up rain shelters, selling synthetic protein blocks, filtered bottled water, and some collected unexpired food materials. Heat steamed in the cold rain, mixed with the smell of damp concrete in the city.

In the sentry tower on the city wall, the Garrison Army soldier yawned and rubbed his red eyes. On his display screen, except for the E5 defense sector just now, the monitoring screens outside the city in other areas jumped with snowflake noise, and the radar and Soul-Oscillation Value scanner detected no abnormalities.

Safe.

The day has dawned, at least today, Dawn City is still alive.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 389 =====