In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

Su Ran and Bai Lu looked down at the screen.

The camera zooms in.

The huge open-pit coal mine tunnels are like a bottomless maw.

Inside the tunnel, the modern heavy excavation equipment had long since stopped and rusted, with only a few dilapidated diesel generators emitting a piercing noise.

A dense mass of human figures wriggled in the deep pit.

Looking around, there were thousands of people!

Most of them were barely clothed, carrying baskets on their backs, digging coal with their bare hands and simple iron picks, and then climbing the steep slope step by step with the coal baskets on their backs.

People slipped and fell from time to time in the crowd, heavy chunks of coal hitting them and causing them to scream in pain.

The foreman carried a steel gun on his back and a barbed leather whip in his hand.

Seeing that someone was moving too slowly, he stepped forward and lashed them hard with his leather whip.

The survivors who were beaten dared not fight back and could only curl up on the ground and wail.

"Get up! Get to work! You bunch of wasteful pigs!"

The foreman cursed in crude Russian, and the simultaneous translation came through the equipment.

Several guards sat around, drinking vodka and loudly mocking the horrific scene below.

The scene continued to move deeper into the tunnel as Ye Xiao's gaze followed.

A frail woman could not bear the weight and collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.

The foreman simply beckoned two guards over.

The guard dragged the woman by her legs, like pulling a bag of garbage, toward a dark abyss at the very edge of the mine.

The guards pushed the woman's body directly down.

A few seconds later.

A chilling growl echoed from the bottom of the abyss.

Immediately following was the cracking sound of bones breaking and flesh being frantically chewed.

Hearing this sound, the other survivors in the tunnel became even more frantic in their coal-digging, fearing they would be the next to be thrown down.

Ye Xiao's heavy breathing could be heard over the tactical terminal communication channel.

"They're all a bunch of fucking animals!"

Ye Xiao gritted his teeth, his voice filled with suppressed killing intent.

"Brother Su, did you see that? Thousands of living people are being treated like human miners."

"If they're exhausted, just throw them down as fodder to feed the monsters."

Su Ran stared at the screen, her eyes turning completely cold.

This is the real world after the loss of the protection of the state apparatus.

Without moral constraints, wild awakened beings who wield power do not consider their fellow human beings at all.

This group of people does not deserve to be called survivors.

They are a cancer in themselves.

"Ye Xiao, step back. There's no need to look anymore."

Su Ran issued instructions over the communication channel.

"These so-called wasteland warlords, and all the guards who wielded guns and aided and abetted their evil deeds—leave no one alive! Kill them all!"

The fact that these soldiers underground dared to treat living people like livestock so openly basically reflects the attitude of the six awakened ones at the top towards their fellow human beings.

Since they have chosen to give up being human, then we should completely deprive them of their right to live.

"Brother Su, I've been waiting to hear you say that."

Ye Xiao sneered in the channel.

"But Brother Su, shouldn't I take action here directly?"

"No need. Those few Awakened Ones are the leaders. Moving against the subordinates beforehand would only alert them and be pointless."

Su Ran's gaze swept like a sharp sword into the depths of the mining area.

"Anyone who can survive in this environment and become a local tyrant is more afraid of death than anyone else."

If they sense something is wrong and one escapes using their familiarity with the terrain, it will be a hidden danger for the Great Xia Expeditionary Force.

He turned his head and looked at the white deer beside him.

"White Deer, activate your spiritual perception and locate the six Awakened Ones."

Su Ran simply laid out the tactics,

"These six people are the first sacrifice for the Great Xia's expedition. I want them all; none of them will escape."

"clear."

The white deer nodded, a faint blue light flashing in its eyes.

A moment later, the white deer opened its eyes, the deep blue halo in its eyes not yet completely faded.

She spoke very quickly, pointing towards the heart of the mining area.

"Those six Awakened Ones are all on the first floor of the building that was converted from an abandoned dispatch center at the edge of the mine."

Su Ran nodded slightly and gave the signal to proceed.

With a thought, his spatial abilities silently unfolded.

The invisible spatial barrier directly folded up the surrounding light and aura, causing the three figures to melt as if they were in a state of temporary optical invisibility.

The building is on the first floor.

In the center of the site, a giant iron cage, crudely welded together from the chassis of a heavy mining truck, stands there.

"Please... spare them!"

A man named Victor knelt on a coal pile covered in ice shards, his forehead bearing dark red marks from the impact.

Behind him, two ragged women trembled.

The girl was only seven or eight years old, her lips were purple, and she clung tightly to her mother's clothes.

Standing in front of the man was a burly Russian man who was nearly two meters tall.

The man was bald, carrying a half-empty bottle of vodka.

"Let them go?"

The burly man took a swig of liquor and let out a burp.

"Victor, you know the rules. It's hungry."

The burly man pointed to the iron cage behind him, which was sealed by thick iron chains.

Below, a muffled roar shook the rocks, causing them to tumble down.

That was a second-tier peak mutated snow bear that they had deliberately kept in captivity below!

"I'm not going! I'm not going!"

Victor suddenly raised his head, his face filled with despair.

"I've been down in the mine for three days straight! I've been digging coal for you for three days straight!"

"Can."

The burly man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"If you won't go, then I'll push your wife and daughter in there myself."

As a reward, I'll give you the qualification to patrol guard. Not only will you not have to go down the mine every day, but you'll also receive half a loaf of black bread.

"No! This can't be done! Boss, please... spare our family!"

"I can still work! I can dig twice as much coal every day!"

"So you don't want to go?"

The guards around him, who were holding guns, burst into laughter.

Victor stood frozen in place, turning to look at his wife and daughter.

The woman shook her head frantically, her eyes filled with terror and pleading.

"Okay... I'll go."

Victor gritted his teeth, tears mingling with coal dust as they streamed down his face.

He stood up, took one last look at his wife and daughter, then turned and staggered away.

A giant hand slammed down.

"No!" the woman screamed shrilly.

A few seconds later.

A sickening sound of bones cracking echoed from underground.

The sounds of chewing, mixed with faint screams, echoed above the mine.

The woman covered her daughter's eyes and suppressed her sobs.

"Boss, what should we do with these two women?"

A guard with a fierce face stepped forward, his gaze sweeping over the woman without restraint.

"Too thin."

The burly man wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth.

"Here you go. Don't kill him, we still have to go down the mine to dig coal tomorrow."

The guard chuckled lewdly, slung his gun behind his back, and reached out to grab the woman's hair.

Clang!

A blinding blade of light slashed down from above.

The guard's outstretched arm was severed at the shoulder.

A full second passed before the blood gushed out.

"what!"

The guard clutched his broken shoulder and rolled on the ground.

The burly man's eyes narrowed, and he abruptly took half a step back, drawing a large-caliber pistol from his waist.

Dozens of guards around him instantly raised their guns, the sound of them pulling the bolts echoing in unison.

Three figures appeared silently in front of us.

Ye Xiao flicked his sword, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground.

The white deer hovered in mid-air, its feet half a foot off the ground, a deep blue light swirling in its eyes.

Su Ran stood with his hands in the pockets of his black tactical trench coat, his expression indifferent.

"Damn it! Where did these Xia people come from?"

The burly man roared in Slavic, and the simultaneous translation device transmitted the sound to Su Ran and the other two.

He sensed the fluctuations in power emanating from these three individuals.

"Ability user?"

Without the slightest hesitation, the burly man immediately issued the order to kill.

"Fire! Turn them into mincemeat!"