Chapter 537: Desert – Men and Women

A barren desert with no sign of life.

A clear, deep‑blue sky.

Yet there are no birds in the sky.

…

Two recruits, who should have completed the trial and become reserve members of the Trapped Formation, stand bewildered atop a sand dune, gazing at the abandoned city buried by sand and dust.

It isn't completely buried.

With Astate‑level remote vision, they can see that aside from some buildings swallowed by several meters of sand, many asphalt roads piled with abandoned vehicles remain clearly visible.

Moreover, they discover a great number of skeletons inside and outside the abandoned vehicles, as well as on the roads, alley mouths, and some corners…

They are human skeletons.

?!

Seeing this, the two recruits raise their vigilance slightly, grip their explosive‑arrow rifles firmly, ready their small‑caliber plasma cannon, and steadily advance toward the abandoned city several kilometers away.

"Hey, Sui Yang, what's going on here?" Sui Yue says, pointing the cannon toward the city while questioning his brother.

"Perhaps… this is the new trial content," Sui Yang replies, staying alert to the surroundings and responding.

"New trial content?"

Hearing his brother say that, Sui Yue immediately catches on.

Indeed.

The trial segment unchanged for a hundred years suddenly altered for their cohort, especially granting early permission to use explosive‑arrow weapons larger than. 75 caliber.

Moreover, since it merely involves some reinforced titan beasts and prehistoric dinosaurs, there is no need to sign any confidentiality agreement, so all this must be the Empire…

It must be a special trial that their father specially "custom‑made" for them.

Furthermore, their father does not want them to reveal this change; he intends to stage a "sudden ambush" so future recruits have no mental preparation.

In a brief instant.

These twin brothers then deduce their father's overall plan for the recruits.

As members of the Trapped Formation, though not yet joined the legion, the G gland grants them various "bonuses", giving Sui Yang and Sui Yue political "intuition" far beyond their peers and ordinary people, even surpassing some Empire officials.

They are no longer "mortals".

Moreover, the Trapped Formation legion, due to OriginalBody's special stipulation, only permits youths of the Chinese surname "Sui" to become candidates, who must be martial and steadfast.

In plain terms, it's the type that clings to rigid logic and, once becoming an Astate, must be fiercely loyal to their father.

This greatly raises the selection difficulty for the Red Queen and White Queen, but also makes the Trapped Formation's elite stronger than the contemporary newborn legions.

Most importantly, because the Trapped Formation members share the Sui surname, they regard themselves as the father's true "biological" offspring, and when needed they will even proactively help their father erase certain negative information and matters.

Overall, the Trapped Formation not only excels at charging formations, but also gradually aligns its role toward being the "father's henchmen", secretly harboring a drive to contend with the Space Wild Wolves.

Thus, when Sui Yang and Sui Yue swiftly discern their father's intentions and realize he is likely "watching" their every move, they immediately decide to flawlessly pass this trial.

And after the trial ends, they will keep silent and help their father ensure this new trial model is smoothly implemented.

At this moment.

"Hmm… based on the star's position, plus…" Sui Yue hefts the plasma cannon whose back is linked to a "battery box (cold‑fusion matrix)", and offers his analysis:

"The cannon's weight hasn't changed; I think we were spatially transported by our father to Earth in some parallel universe.

Only the environment no longer meets survival conditions; it seems the human compatriots on this Earth were wiped out by some anomaly?"

At this point, Sui Yue stops speculating whether it was artificial intelligence, alien husks, or a demonic entity from an alternate dimension.

After all, such things can't be deduced by mere guesswork.

"Hmm, let's scout the advanced city," Sui Yang agrees.

"Alright."

Then the two brothers quicken their pace, crossing the desert in just one minute to reach the edge of the abandoned city.

They step inside.

Sui Yue, wielding the plasma cannon, takes guard duty, while Sui Yang approaches the nearest pile of abandoned vehicles, observes briefly, and says:

"Analyzing the corrosion marks on the vehicles and the state of the skeletons, this city likely experienced the anomaly fifty to seventy years ago."

"Half a half‑century…" Sui Yue glances at the desolate surroundings and the deathly silence beyond the wind, sighing, "Alas, I wonder if anyone is still alive."

"There must be," Sui Yang replies without hesitation.

Moreover, in the back seat of an abandoned vehicle, he finds two skeletons embracing, a large and a small, appearing to be a mother and child.

Seeing this, Sui Yang's heart instantly turns sour.

With his innate talent for Spiritual Energy, by touching the bones he can faintly sense the mother and child's desperate, painful anguish at the moment of death.

He then says in a low voice, "I believe that in any parallel universe, as long as there is a fighting spirit, our compatriots will not easily admit defeat."

"…" Sui Yue nods wordlessly.

Next.

The two recruits begin to swiftly and individually scout the city.

Even without powered armor or even antique Mechanical exoskeletons, merely wearing simple titanium‑alloy armor, the pair already possess "reinforced steel bones" and "hardened skin".

Given their current state, as long as the head and two hearts are not simultaneously hit by high‑velocity Gauss spike projectiles larger than 12 mm with extreme armor‑piercing capability, they can "run rampant" on a first‑level civilization's homeworld.

(Note: Support troops typically use 8 mm Gauss Rifles, with muzzle velocities of 10%–12% light speed, combined with tungsten‑iron spike projectiles, capable of severely damaging most light armor and energy shields.)

However, if a first‑level civilization's military continuously bombards such recruits with conventional strikes or even drops nuclear bombs, they can still be killed.

The premise is that the recruits lack any powered armor.

At this moment, Sui Yang and Sui Yue, being Astates regardless of recruit status, conduct their reconnaissance without fear.

If they encounter any husks, they are absolutely confident they can eliminate them.

All the way, it remains a scene of utter silence.

No animals, plants sparse; it seems this place has been completely abandoned and forgotten by humans.

However, they managed to determine from several incomprehensible old-world newspapers and various signs in this ruined city that this place should be located in the northwestern part of the Middle East, a new concept city called "Eternal Oasis" built at great expense by those oil tycoons and royal families.

On one sign, the words "Recyclable renewable energy is humanity's new beginning, a new chapter" were engraved.

Moreover, accompanying the text was an illustration of a family of three embracing side by side, with a genuine smile, and a diagram of pleasant weather.

However, this sign, having long been exposed to wind and sun, has yellowed and rusted, showing no trace of a "new beginning".

But through these, Sui Yang and Sui Yue also more intuitively judged that the language and script used by human civilization on this Earth are hardly different from those of their main universe.

Not long after.

They almost crossed the entire city, arriving at the northern outskirts.

After climbing over a towering sand dune and being able to see the other end of it, their expressions changed slightly.

Because this place resembles a cemetery.

Ship graveyard.

Countless ships, unable to launch, resembling the earliest Precursor engineering ship model of Umbrella in appearance but only about a hundred meters long, lie haphazardly anchored in the city's outskirts.

With their extraordinary vision, they could also see that these ships were marked with the words "Colonization—Mars".

"Sigh." Gazing at the distant scene, Sui Yue sighed again: "It seems that this Earth's compatriots hadn't yet fully embarked toward the stars and seas when they suffered a devastating blow."

"…" Sui Yang nodded silently, his eyes also revealing a sense of regret.

Clearly they had already developed the technology capable of large-scale colonization within the Solar System, yet the mother planet Earth has become what it is today.

Either humanity has gone extinct, or those who have colonized Mars, or humans on the Moon, due to fear of some existence, cannot return to Earth nor save their compatriots, resulting in the desolate scene they discovered being so dead silent.

What exactly caused this anomaly?

This made the two of them even more curious.

They are new recruits, and as new recruits wanting to participate in the trial, they instinctively wanted to "crush" and "beat up" any anomaly.

However, since being sent here by their father, a full two hours have passed, yet they have not yet engaged the anomaly in combat.

If they had directly gone to the jungle of the prehistoric planet, perhaps they would have already finished the skinning and "barbecue" process.

After all, they are young and itchy for action.

"Boom… boom…"

At that moment, from the far end of the ship graveyard, a faint explosion seemed to be heard.

?!!!

Hearing this commotion, Sui Yang and Sui Yue instantly became energized, and their eyes both flashed with a sharp light.

Where there is an explosion, there is battle!

"Go!"

"Okay!"

Having finished their brief exchange, the twin brothers immediately stepped forward and sprinted toward the source of the sound.

Without the power and speed boost from powered armor, the two still reached a speed of a hundred kilometers per hour, or even faster.

"Whooo—!"

Moreover, their running kicked up a cloud of dust behind them.

Fortunately, in order to avoid premature exposure as much as possible, Sui Yang and Sui Yue chose to reduce their speed at a point about two kilometers from the source of the sound.

"Boom——! Boom——!"

"Bang…! Bang…!"

Here, the explosions and gunfire began to be clearly audible.

But for the two brothers, there was hardly any change, because while running they had already distinguished the explosions and gunfire mixed in with all other noises.

There were guns of various calibers firing in unison.

There were also human shouts, pleas for help, and screams.

And also…

And the howl of some kind of alien creature.

From these, they could basically infer that the source of the sound was likely surviving humans engaged in battle with the anomaly that caused Earth's downfall.

Yet they maintained a steady pace, spending a full four minutes to close the two‑kilometer distance, arriving at the fringe where humans and the anomaly clashed.

This place seems to be the outskirts of a town near the Eternal Oasis.

Moreover, there was a colony ship that should have taken off and entered low Earth orbit, but for some unknown reason crashed at the edge of the town.

And the site of the conflict came from the stern of that colony ship.

By this time.

Sui Yang and Sui Yue slowed their pace to that of ordinary people, heightened their vigilance, and first entered a sloping low building opposite the ship's stern.

The sixth‑floor rooftop.

The view was good.

Here they finally saw living fellow humans!

The other side numbered over a hundred, and by their standardized uniforms and handheld weapons, as well as their shabby, mismatched attire, they could be roughly divided into "soldiers" and "laborers".

All the soldiers were frantically pulling the triggers of their live‑ammo guns, covering the laborers as they retrieved supplies from that colony ship and hurriedly sent them to the waiting transport convoy.

Not only that.

They discovered that among the soldiers' weaponry were several fully enclosed heavy mechanical exoskeletons.

Not called powered armor, it was judged that its craftsmanship and energy supply, etc., still fell far short of the standards of their Human Empire.

As for the enemy that made this group of compatriots tense and fearful, it was a crawling giant beast with a snake's head, a slender torso, but six limbs resembling human hands; its overall form was neither snake nor dog.

Furthermore, the numbers of these "snake‑dogs" that are continually increasing will, when defending and moving, retract their heads like a turtle to minimize damage as much as possible.

Most importantly, the snake-dogs' movement speed and attack range are extremely threatening; ordinary-caliber weapons have hardly any effect on them.

Only those heavy Mechanical exoskeletons equipped with cannon-caliber machine guns, operated by soldiers, can effectively attack the snake-dog swarms.

Boom—

At this moment, the ship's stern erupted in a violent explosion.

Only a man and a woman burst out of the smoke, sprinting toward the transport convoy, with several snake-dogs hot on their heels behind them.

The man is tall and imposing, standing over 1.9 meters with extremely muscular build; the woman has rare white hair and is agile.

Just as the man and woman were about to be surrounded by the snake-dog pack…

"Tat! Tat! Tat!" The distinctive clear, pleasant report of the explosive-bolt firearms echoed throughout the area.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Accompanying the gunfire was the sound of the snake-dog pack pursuing the man and woman, each one being blown to pieces by regular (diamond) explosive-bolt rounds.

Some of the snake-dogs, upon exploding, flung flesh and fragments outward while revealing spindle-shaped "crystal shards" that flickered with a faint blue light.

?!

However, the man and woman had no mind or energy to spare for the "crystal shards" at that moment.

Moreover, the man deduced from the gunfire and the state of the dying snake-dogs that the shots came from the low building opposite.

The instant he turned his gaze toward the low building, the man happened to see Sui Yang step down from the platform.

(End of chapter)