Ice Age Apocalypse: I Hoard Billions of Supplies-Chapter 1088: The Swarm

Chapter 1088: The Swarm

In places Zhang Yi couldn't see, hidden undercurrents were surging beneath Tianhai City.

Winter had already arrived. In the deep cold of winter, Tianhai City welcomed its coldest winter yet. Outside the Shelter, it always snowed so heavily that distant views were completely obscured.

Inside the Shelter, however, it was a scene of warmth and tranquility.

The fireplace burned fiercely, its flames radiating a comforting warmth. Hua Hua and Totoro had already become well-acquainted, the two adorable pets playing and roughhousing all day long in the rooms, able to romp all the way from upstairs down to the deep levels of the basement.

Yang Siya and Aunt Zhou Haimei were over by the open kitchen, researching how to bake new pastries to welcome the upcoming holiday.

Fatty Xu was being pressed into service by Old You in the basement training ground, undergoing devilish training every day. After several months of this, it felt like a layer of his skin was about to be stripped off.

Everyone else was also busy. Although they weren't idle, they were incredibly relaxed.

The inside of the Shelter and the outside world had clearly become two completely different worlds.

In the distance from the Shelter, a thick patch of ice and snow was suddenly pushed up, creating a barely noticeable crack.

Then, from within that crack, a blue cockroach emerged.

Its body was about the size of a palm, covered in a layer of blue frost crystals.

After crawling out from beneath the snowdrift, it cautiously looked towards that massive Shelter in the distance.

After a long while, it returned underground.

Passing through the thick layers of ice, snow, and frozen soil, it arrived in a dim, damp sewer pipe.

And this pipe, which had been abandoned for a year, was densely packed with cockroaches of various sizes.

After that blue cockroach returned underground, it seemed to communicate with the cockroach swarm.

Not long after, within the vast and extensive underground network, a terrifyingly massive army of cockroaches began to detour around that Shelter radiating an aura of dread. Like a river forced to split around a giant boulder, they surged towards other areas.

On this day, heavy snow sealed the city, trapping everyone inside their houses, making it difficult to go out.

However, the three major bases were not as leisurely as the people in the Shelter.

They had long since adapted to this kind of cold. Even braving the heavy snow, every single person had to work.

Rest was a very luxurious thing for them.

Even if you couldn't say they worked according to a 007 schedule, they only had two rest days per month.

During blizzard conditions, everyone had to come out promptly to clear the accumulated snow around the base perimeter.

Otherwise, by convention, if a blizzard continued for just a day and a night, the entire area above the underground refuge would be completely buried, which was very troublesome.

Thus, around Dawn Rain Base, everyone was wearing thick clothing, holding snow-clearing tools, and laboring under the heavy snowfall.

Lu Dahai and Chen Jingguan were also nearby supervising the work.

Chen Jingguan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, appearing calm and composed.

He prided himself on having received a higher education, and in the military, he always presented himself as a scholarly general.

Therefore, when directing work, he often preferred to have his subordinates convey his will, avoiding tarnishing his image by yelling and shouting himself.

However, Lu Dahai didn't bother with such considerations.

He remembered Zhang Yi's words, striving wholeheartedly to maintain order at Dawn Rain Base, and thus had been diligently cooperating with Chen Jingguan's work.

The two of them had been working together as a team for a while now.

Chen Jingguan had always been wary of Lu Dahai. In daily work, he would frequently reprimand him and assign him tasks that were either more difficult or more likely to offend people.

Lu Dahai, however, bore the burden without complaint and obediently carried out his assignments.

Up until now, the relationship between the two had at least superficially eased somewhat.

"Clear the area around the base entrance first! Otherwise, the snow will keep piling up, and it'll be troublesome if the entrance gets blocked."

"In weather this cold, the snow won't melt even if it stops. Once it freezes solid, it'll take three to five days to clear."

Lu Dahai shouted loudly, directing the laborers at the base.

The laborers kept their heads down and worked, cursing in their hearts at the damnable weather, the damnable apocalypse, and these damnable dog leaders like Lu Dahai and Chen Jingguan.

However, they didn't dare slack off on the work in their hands.

If they were caught, they might have their dinner rations deducted for the day.

One laborer raised his snow shovel, thrust it forcefully into a snowdrift, stomped down on it twice with his foot, and then heaved it up with all his might.

But after he flipped that shovelful of snow, he suddenly discovered a pitch-black, gaping hole had appeared in the snowfield.

"Huh? Why is there an empty patch here?"

The laborer curiously leaned over to take a look.

The next moment, the most terrifying, and also the final, scene of his life flooded into his view.

From that dark, snowy hole, a cockroach head as large as a human skull suddenly emerged and lunged straight at his face!

"Ah!!!"

The cockroach opened its mouthparts, its sharp, barbed forelimbs directly piercing into the skin of his face.

With a sickening *squelch!* the skin of his face was completely torn off.

In such a frigid environment, and with the cockroach having consumed much carrion and garbage, its body was covered in potent toxins.

The laborer immediately saw black and collapsed to the ground.

The cockroach perched on his head, ignoring the other stunned laborers around, and began voraciously devouring his skull.

Immediately after, that pitch-black hole rapidly expanded, and cockroaches of all sizes surged out from the opening like a tidal wave!

Only then did those terrified laborers snap out of their stupor.

Such a horrifying sight made their souls flee their bodies. They immediately threw down their tools and ran screaming like madmen in the opposite direction of the cockroach swarm.

The massive snowy hole seemed like a bottomless magical artifact, continuously spewing forth cockroaches, quickly inundating the entire expanse of pristine white snow-covered ground.

"Buzz buzz buzz~"

Some of the enormous cockroaches directly flapped their wings and took to the air, then pounced towards those fleeing laborers.

All of this happened in a mere instant, something no one had anticipated.

Humans might have an innate disgust for cockroaches, even a fear of these incredibly hard-to-kill, repulsive creatures.

Seeing this scene, Lu Dahai immediately recalled the orders Zhang Yi had once issued. However, back then, Chen Jingguan had only dealt with it perfunctorily.

They hadn't conducted a thorough inspection and cleanup of the area around the base.

But who could have imagined that so many mutated cockroaches would emerge!

"Quick, fire suppression, fire suppression! Don't let them get close to the base!"

Lu Dahai shouted loudly.

A brownish light flashed in his eyes, and then his entire body underwent a noticeable transformation. His skin turned into the color of seaweed and grew fine, dense scales.

Two bone blades *clanged!* as they extended from his forearms.

He drew a pistol from his waist and shot several of the giant cockroaches. Under his lead, the other base guards reacted, rushing over and beginning to attack the massive, terrifying cockroach swarm with gunfire.

Author's Note