Those mists, those specks of light, those active substances—
While they brought destruction, they were also reshaping the laws of human survival.
Su Wan’s gaze fell upon the newborn’s wrinkled little face.
He remained peacefully asleep, utterly unaware of everything happening around him.
This child, born less than an hour ago, would not fall ill until he reached the age of sixteen.
No virus, no bacteria, no pathogen that could easily snatch away a young life on Blue Star would have any effect on him.
He could only die from hunger, cold, suffocation, or—being killed by someone.
This was a child of the apocalypse.
This was the law of survival in this world.
Su Wan withdrew her gaze and looked at the woman on the bed.
The woman was still watching her nervously, her eyes filled with apprehension and unease.
Su Wan remained silent for a few seconds before finally saying calmly,
“Rest well. If you need anything, find a robot to register your request.”
The woman was stunned.
Then, an irrepressible look of ecstasy and gratitude flooded her face as she nodded frantically.
“Thank you, Landlord! Thank you, Landlord!”
Su Wan said nothing more, turning to leave the room.
Back in Room 102, Su Wan closed her eyes, the scenes she had just witnessed churning in her mind.
She had seen with her own eyes how the Death Tide killed people.
Those monsters condensed from the mist, formed by the aggregation of countless light motes, wandered within the grey-white fog.
They had no fixed form, appearing sometimes like twisted giant pythons, sometimes like multi-legged crawlers, and sometimes scattering into countless motes of light, flying about like a swarm of bees.
But as soon as they encountered a living person—
Those light motes would swarm forward, burrowing into the person’s nose and mouth, penetrating their skin, and devouring them from the inside out.
She had seen the fate of those vagrants who failed to escape into the Terminal Station after being overtaken by the mist.
Their skin would fester, their muscles dissolve, and their eyes would turn to pus within their sockets.
In less than three minutes, a living human being would be reduced to a puddle of grey-white slime, merging into the mist.
It was an absolute consumption.
Not even the bones remained.
Every Death Tide would consume a massive amount of life.
Those in the Outer City who couldn't get into shelters, the vagrants in the Ruin Zone who couldn't find sanctuary, and even some unlucky scavengers and small settlements that failed to evacuate in time,
All would be turned into puddles of pus within the grey-white fog.
To say the Death Tide held any benefit for humanity was something Su Wan absolutely did not believe.
And yet, the bodies of human women and children were truly being changed by some substance within the Death Tide.
The “active substances” in the Death Tide mist were so similar to the active substances in the woman’s body during childbirth, and so similar to the “Innate Immune Factor” within the infant.
The Death Tide was killing people.
But the Death Tide was also changing people.
Why exactly was this happening?
Two images began to interweave and flash through Su Wan’s mind—
The first was a scene within the Death Tide.
Those light motes surged from the depths of the mist, converging into monsters that pounced on living humans, devouring their flesh and blood until nothing was left.
Then, when the mist receded, those same light motes would fly back toward the depths of the ruins like birds returning to their nests, disappearing in the direction of that colossal entity.
The second image was the human body.
A woman becomes pregnant, a certain substance becomes highly active in her body, her illnesses are cured, and she gives birth smoothly.
An infant is born, carrying that same substance, immune to all toxins and possessing a tenacious vitality.
After sixteen years, this substance disappears, and bodily functions return to normal—becoming fragile, prone to illness, and easy to kill.
Su Wan’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
These two images seemed completely unrelated, even contradictory—
The Death Tide was killing people, yet the substance within it was protecting women and children?
Wait.
She suddenly realized that before the age of sixteen, children were protected by that substance, making them immune to pathogens, giving them high self-healing abilities, and making them resilient to hunger.
After sixteen, the substance vanished, and the body returned to its normal, fragile state.
Why sixteen?
Why not eighteen, or fifty, or protection until old age?
Su Wan’s thoughts raced.
On Blue Star, what did sixteen signify?
It meant approaching adulthood; it meant the beginning of the ability to reproduce.
And in this apocalypse, sixteen was considered an adult!
A bolt of lightning suddenly flashed through Su Wan’s mind.
She thought of the chicken farms on Blue Star.
In those farms, newly hatched chicks were placed in warm brooder rooms.
There were specialized heat lamps, carefully formulated feed, and regular vaccinations.
Workers cleaned the coops every day to keep them dry and clean, preventing the chicks from getting sick.
If a chick did fall ill, it would be isolated and given medicine for treatment.
Under human care, those chicks grew day by day.
They grew large enough and strong enough to be served on the dinner table.
Su Wan’s breathing suddenly hitched.
Did humans care for those chicks because they loved them?
No.
It was because once they grew up, they became food.
Those heat lamps, that feed, those vaccines, and that meticulous care were all for a single purpose!
To keep them alive, to let them grow, and to turn them into a dish on the table.
That thought exploded in Su Wan’s mind like a clap of thunder!
Captive breeding!
In this apocalypse, humans were being raised as food!
The substances in the Death Tide, the “Innate Immune Factor” that protected women and children—they were the heat lamps, the feed, and the vaccines of the “chicken farm”!
They ensured women could give birth smoothly and children could grow up safely.
They allowed the human species to continue, to reproduce, and to provide a steady stream of—
Food.
Su Wan’s pupils contracted sharply.
She remembered that colossal entity moving slowly deep within the mist.
A certain substance it produced entered the human body through the air and breath, protecting women and children.
Sixteen years later, the protection vanished, and humans returned to their fragile state, becoming easy to kill.
And the flesh and blood that were devoured would turn into mist, returning to the body of that colossal entity.
It was a complete cycle.
Rearing.
Harvesting.
Rearing again.
Harvesting again.
Humans were the chickens in that colossal entity’s farm.
Su Wan leaned against the wall, her entire body cold.
She suddenly understood why the population of this apocalypse always maintained a constant value.
It wasn't because of some “self-regulation mechanism of the species.”
It was because a higher-level existence was silently maintaining this balance.
If the Death Tide killed too many, it would provide a bit more “protection,” allowing more women to give birth and more children to grow up safely.
If the Death Tide killed too few, it would provide less, letting the population naturally decline.
Everything was done solely to ensure—
That every time the Death Tide arrived, there was enough “food” to be harvested!
Rate on N.U.
