The prosperous and brightly lit Star-Moon City was now littered with ruins, and waves of foul odor mixed with billowing smoke and dust drifted back and forth throughout the city.

Ancient trees hundreds of meters high and weeds and shrubs more than ten meters high grow rampantly in the city.

The roofs, window sills, and green belts were covered with huge plants. Dense green vines climbed up the buildings, leaving windows broken and walls destroyed. A brand new city became devastated and dilapidated in just three years.

“Ga ga ga!——”

Over the city, flocks of carrion crows, with wingspans of two or three meters, circled back and forth, their sharp gazes fixed solely on the rotting corpses below. Once they spotted their target, they swooped down at high speed, determined to achieve their goal. The crows were so numerous and vindictive that even mutated stray cats and dogs, reaching two or three meters in height, would retreat when confronted alone.

“Ga ga ga!——”

A carrion crow spotted two corpses buried under the rubble, its eyes lit up, and it swooped down rapidly.

Thirty or forty crows followed closely behind him, like black cannonballs, rushing towards the corpse.

At the back door of an abandoned supermarket, a man and two women were standing behind the door, looking warily at the group of crows pecking at the corpses on the ground outside the supermarket, their heads sweating with anxiety.

“What should we do?… Those two corpses are obviously missing. I just counted them and there are 36 crows in total… Based on their appetite, they have to eat at least three corpses. These crows will definitely not leave without food. Crows have a keen sense of smell and might break into the house at that time…” The young man’s voice trembled slightly. He was tall and thin, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He held a steel pipe in one hand and tightly grasped the strap of his backpack with the other.

The man and two women were all carrying slightly worn backpacks, which were slightly bulging. The backpacks were filled with scattered supplies that the three of them had just dug out from the abandoned supermarket, as well as edible roots that they had finally dug out from the weeds on the roadside.

"So what should we do...?"

The young girl standing next to the man looked extremely nervous. She tugged slightly at her boyfriend's sleeve, trying hard to suppress the sobs that were about to choke out of her throat, for fear that the noise would be too loud and alert the crows outside the house.

Three years ago, a sudden global change turned the world upside down.

A virus called HCP spread across the globe at an extremely fast speed. Humans, animals, insects, plants, and all living things were infected with the HCP virus within three months.

The world instantly turned into hell, and human life was turned upside down.

First, plants began to undergo drastic changes. After a large number of deaths, the individuals that withstood the baptism of the virus grew and expanded rapidly, reaching hundreds of meters. Countless high-rise buildings were crushed and collapsed just because of a few weeds or saplings growing on the roof. The thick roots pierced through the steel and concrete, causing cracks to appear in the houses on the ground.

Those areas in the wild suburbs with dense vegetation instantly turned into primitive jungles, covering up the traces of the original plant death.

Dense green moss covered the entire city, and mushrooms, which were once almost invisible in the city, now covered the walls and eaves.

after--

Insects, animals, humans...all experience this rapid turn.

However, humans seemed to be experiencing some problems during this transition. Plants, insects, and ordinary animals that survived all underwent mutations. Plants were a minor concern, but the city's cats and dogs transformed into giant beasts three or four meters tall, with even small crows the size of large dogs. Only humans remained virtually unchanged, their physique and agility only slightly improved compared to before the virus infection.

The identities of animals and humans are reversed in an instant.

Even if humans possessed a vast array of firearms, life would become difficult after the destruction of military bases, factories, warehouses, and all transportation to airports, along with the destruction of plants. Furthermore, even the use of nuclear weapons would be ineffective against such a global disaster. Not to mention that plants in previously heavily affected areas continued to grow, sometimes even more frantically. Humans alone couldn't withstand the intense radiation energy; they couldn't just bomb the entire planet and then die.

"Damn it! If only we could live in the survival base! There are military mutant animals guarding it, and there are private plots of land in the survival area. Why would we need to go out to look for food every day?" The young man gritted his teeth, and his original gentle appearance was completely gone.

"There are only eight survival bases in our country that have been cleared out by the military. Each survival base can only accommodate an average of 10 to 20 million people. How could it be our turn?" The middle-aged woman who had been silent frowned, and her right hand also tightly grasped an axe. Her muscles were tense, and she was ready to fight at any time.

The mortality rate of HCP virus infection is extremely high, reaching 45%.

But before the disaster, their country had a population of nearly 1.5 billion. Even if there were deaths from infection, and house collapses, animal attacks, etc. after the disaster, there were at least 600 to 700 million people who survived. With such a huge population, eight survival bases are not enough.

The remaining people either hid in various corners of the original city like panicked rats, or formed small forces and divided up regional territories.

The three of them had previously lived in a small private underground shelter in the south of Xingyue City.

"Sigh... If I had known before the disaster, I should have gotten two pets. Even a short-legged corgi wouldn't have mattered..." The young girl stared at the carrion crows outside the window, constantly feasting on the corpses, and sniffed fearfully. "Lili's black cat brings back a lot of food for the three of them every day. Not only can it easily pay for the shelter's daily expenses, but we can even eat our fill without leaving the shelter. We have to risk our lives every day to find food..."

The virus not only evolved the physique of animals, but also their IQ. For those families that once raised pets, the pets still remembered their owners, and even most of the pets still lived with their original owners after the disaster.

If it weren't for the large number of these people, and the fact that they gathered in separate areas, the entire city would probably have been completely deserted by now. Even so, most people could only live in dark basements to avoid being attacked and killed by other animals at night.

"Forget it! Who wouldn't regret not having a pet now? After the apocalypse, animals are like spirits. 99.9% of them no longer recognize their owners. Forget about keeping them as pets and asking them to help with work. It's good enough that these mutated animals don't eat people."

The young man looked out the window at the flock of carrion crows. In just a few minutes, they had already dug out the two corpses from the rubble and pecked away most of them, revealing the thigh bones. He became increasingly irritated and depressed. "At the rate these carrion crows eat, they'll probably finish those two corpses in another 10 minutes. If they barge in without a care in the world, none of us three will be able to escape! We have to find a way to escape quickly."

"Three? What about the child? Aren't we taking her with us?" The middle-aged woman was slightly stunned and pointed to the dark corner next to her.

It turned out that in addition to the three of them, there was a little girl who looked about three or four years old in the dark corner of this abandoned supermarket. She was wearing an oversized yellow down jacket, and her little face was dirty and red from the burn.

"We might not even be able to escape on our own. Wouldn't it be a burden to bring her along? Do you want to die here with her?"

The young man spat, secretly grumbling, his tone rather unkind. "From the northwest district to the southern shelter, we'll have to hike for at least three hours, and there's no telling how many dangers we'll have to endure along the way. Not to mention whether we can survive this danger with this burden, she definitely won't survive the dangers along the way."

"Sister Zhou, let's not waste time here... Look at this child, she's here all alone, without even a suitable piece of clothing. She must have been abandoned by her parents. Even her parents have abandoned her, what can we strangers do? Let's go upstairs... The front door is blocked, but every window upstairs is equipped with a burglar-proof net. Maybe we can hold out until these crows leave." The young girl glanced at the little girl in the corner, her eyes filled with reluctance, but she still tugged at the middle-aged woman's sleeve and led the way upstairs.

Seven days ago, a mutant giant cat with a height of one hundred meters appeared in the Northwest District. The white cat had black stripes on its body. With a casual sweep of its tail, the giant trees and tall buildings all collapsed. With a casual jump, roll and stomp of its feet, the earth shook. The big cat wreaked havoc in the Northwest District, turning the entire area upside down and causing countless houses and buildings to collapse.

The group of forces originally located in the northwest area were so unlucky that they were wiped out!

If they hadn't wanted to come out and see if they could find any supplies left behind by the original group in the northwest area, they wouldn't have walked all the way from the south area to the northwest area.

after all.

After the disaster, vegetation grew wildly, severely damaging houses and other urban infrastructure. However, along with this growth came a proliferation of food. As long as one wasn't picky, even a single wild vegetable could feed a family of three for several days.

"Let's take this child up here and hide." The middle-aged woman said with some reluctance, "Perhaps this child's parents died in the turmoil a few days ago... After all the effort to escape here and hide, it would be a shame to be eaten by carrion crows."

After all, he wasn't a real bad guy. The young man's face darkened as he gave up the thought of using the child as bait to throw him out. He pursed his lips and followed his girlfriend upstairs. "Sister Zhou, you'll take care of the child... We won't help you hold the child. The carrion crows will definitely break in soon. We have to go upstairs and find a place to hide."

But the three people who are arguing at the moment——

He had not noticed that above the unconscious little girl's head was hanging a thick, red, translucent illustrated book that looked like the Xinhua Dictionary and emitted a faint golden light.

And above the illustrated book - a line of golden text was hovering above the little girl's head, appearing and disappearing from time to time.

["First Zootopia - Infrastructure Guide" activated! ]

However, at this moment...

"Bang! —"

With a loud bang, the original iron and wooden door suddenly made a series of collisions!

“Bang, bang, bang!——”

This is the sound of the carnage crows crashing after they smell the breath of living people after eating the corpses in the ruins!

——It’s over!

These two big words instantly appeared in the man's mind, and he pulled his girlfriend and ran upstairs frantically.

“!!”

The middle-aged woman heard the crazy crash behind her, picked up the little girl on the ground, and tried to run upstairs. However, a child of three or four years old, even if light, would weigh at least 30 or 40 kilograms, and picking her up would delay her.

"Bang!——"

The iron and wooden door, which was not very sturdy to begin with, was suddenly smashed to pieces by dozens of crows.

The black crows, like large dogs before the disaster, showed their sharp claws and beaks that gleamed with cold light, and rushed into the house fiercely!

“Ahhhhh!——” The next second, the woman’s terrified scream pierced the void.