Chapter 1240: The Terrifying World, the Truth of the Apocalypse

After just one glance, Gu Yanqi hastily covered her mouth and tossed her phone to Ning Chen.

Her brows and eyes were twisted with nausea.

Unable to hold back, Gu Yanqi rushed to the bathroom and vomited violently.

Ning Chen followed helplessly behind her, holding a glass of water, patting her back; when she finished vomiting, he handed her the water to rinse her mouth.

The nausea gradually faded; after rinsing out the foul taste deep inside, Gu Yanqi finally felt better.

Ning Chen took Gu Yanqi's hand and led her back to the sofa.

Everyone around turned to look at Gu Yanqi; Lin Yi worriedly asked, "Yanqi sister, are you alright?"

Only now did Gu Yanqi realize how embarrassing it had been—after all, Ning Chen had warned her, yet she still… still insisted on looking, and even claimed she was fine; the humiliation came too fast.

Gu Yanqi's face burned red; she lowered her head, unable to meet the teasing glances around her.

Ning Chen pulled Gu Yanqi into his arms and looked at Noah: "Go on."

"These are merely shocking, but what turned Sunrise into this is connected to them—and also to his family."

"Family?"

Ning Chen pondered: since they'd found Sunrise and Moonrise, they'd never heard them mention their family.

"Yes, we found his parents—they'd completely transformed into those inhuman, hollow shells."

These words made everyone stare at Noah in disbelief.

What did that mean? Had Sunrise and Moonrise's parents also turned into those eerie 'beings'?

Seeing their expressions, Noah nodded: "Yes, the same ones we encountered—but theirs were worse: black patches covered their entire bodies, and we found another note on them."

Saying this, Noah pulled another note from his person like a magic pouch and handed it to Ning Chen.

The note was written in a human voice, detailing the experiment and expressing deep revulsion toward it; it even revealed a shocking secret.

The writer told them the world had become this way because of a biochemical organization called the C Organization, whose members were scattered everywhere—even within current survivor bases.

They were still secretly conducting experiments, aiming to obtain the perfect body: one that would never age, never die, never be destroyed.

The world became this way because they deliberately leaked experimental fluids into farmland and water sources, forcing humans to drink them.

One by one, people became infected by their experiments.

Initially, the C Organization only wanted to observe the experiment's progress, but when they realized how rapidly the virus spread, it was already too late to contain it.

Now, the C Organization has resumed their inhumane experiments: since discovering crystals in infected skulls, they've captured dozens of people to swallow the crystals and observe the effects.

Sunrise's parents were a successful case of this experiment: they didn't die, and their bodies were fully transformed—but with one major flaw: they lost all thought; they were complete hollows.

For this organization, the experiment had to be perfected, so they extracted blood from Sunrise's parents and dripped it into the daily drinking water of everyone in the West District base.

The mutation occurred in stages: initially, it wasn't widespread, but later exploded—almost the entire West District, except C Organization members, fell.

All of this was hastily written during a sudden moment of lucidity from Sunrise's parents.

When Sunrise stood before them, the two, who had long lost their minds, suddenly regained awareness; seeing their son grown strong and independent, they begged Sunrise to end them while they still had thought, while they could still be called human.

"Sunrise… he… did it, didn't he?" Lin Yi, recalling Sunrise's dazed state, could guess.

Noah nodded: honestly, he'd expected Sunrise to hesitate—but Sunrise said, "I'll still be their child," then killed them.

After that, Sunrise became this hollow, lost shell.

After Noah finished speaking, everyone fell silent.

A sudden sound from the stairs drew everyone's attention.

There, Moonrise sat slumped on the stairs, tears streaming down her face—she'd clearly heard everything they'd said.

Gu Yanqi hurried over and helped Moonrise up.

Moonrise approached Noah, grabbed the front of his shirt, and asked: "You—you're telling the truth? My parents… are they really dead?"

Moonrise's eyes were filled with tears; she couldn't see clearly, yet she stubbornly stared at him.

Noah felt pity, but he could only turn his head away, refusing to meet her gaze.

"Waaahhhhh!"

Moonrise burst into loud, heart-wrenching sobs.

Noah looked at the girl before him, reached out, and pulled her into his arms.

Ning Chen suddenly sensed a gaze: Sunrise stood in the corner of the stairs, watching Moonrise below, tears sliding down his cheeks.

Ning Chen said nothing; he simply led the others away, and the elder, who had remained silent until now, followed them out.

The group reached the back garden of the elder's villa, well-tended by Tianze—flowers bloomed beautifully here.

"Ning Chen, what do you think?" The elder sat on a stone bench, looking at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen gazed at the distant blue sky; honestly, he wasn't surprised—this felt inevitable.

After thinking for a moment, Ning Chen replied with just a few words: "Man must act."

The elder sighed deeply: yes, man must act.

Human hearts are too hard to fathom; human desire is endless, and this world became what it is because of desire.

"Do you have any solution?"

"Find this organization. Since they dared release the virus, they must have an antidote—otherwise, they'd have infected themselves before spreading it."

Hearing Ning Chen, the elder asked: "You mean—"

"First, obtain the antidote—ensure the original survivors remain unharmed."

Honestly, this answer surprised the elder; he'd expected Ning Chen, given his nature, to eliminate them all.

"I need to re-enter the West District base—to find more data in the lab." After a long pause, Ning Chen spoke again.