Volume One: The End Times Descend Chapter 54: Blackout and Network Shutdown, Exterminating the Ant Swarm

On the tenth day of the apocalypse, as Xiang Chenguang finished his morning routine of cultivation and headed to the cafeteria for breakfast, Xiang Xiaoxiao brought him a piece of major news: the camp had lost its internet connection.

Upon breaking this news, Xiang Xiaoxiao looked quite displeased as she poked at the hand-rolled noodles in her bowl with her chopsticks, her appetite visibly dampened.

Ever since the apocalypse began, she had spent a portion of every day online to keep abreast of the outside world. A few days ago, after using her account to publish an apocalypse survival guide on the Apocalypse Online Forum, she had transformed into a certified internet addict.

Aside from going out to slay monsters and level up, she spent virtually all her time in the camp's administrative building, surfing the web and checking how many new views and replies her post had accumulated.

This apocalypse survival guide, dictated by Xiang Chenguang and organized by her, was packed with solid, practical information. It ranged from personal power enhancement and introductions to the traits and abilities of common monsters, all the way to methods for farming in the apocalypse.

The moment the post was uploaded, it immediately became a trending topic on the Apocalypse Online Forum. In particular, after forum users verified the descriptions of the monsters' traits and abilities one by one, the credibility of the rest of the post skyrocketed.

She was hailed by the vast community of forum users as the veritable goddess of apocalypse survival.

And when several accounts that had previously announced the establishment of apocalypse bases replied beneath her post to confirm that the farming methods were genuine and effective, expressing their gratitude, the post was universally crowned by forum users as the ultimate divine post of the Apocalypse Online Forum.

As for the speculation in the post regarding the origins of the apocalypse and its future trajectory, though fewer people believed them, they still sparked heated discussions among the forum members.

In the replies, the overwhelming majority of forum users respectfully addressed her as the Valkyrie, expressing their gratitude and admiration. This was the main reason why Xiang Xiaoxiao's internet addiction had worsened over the past few days, finding endless delight in it.

Yesterday, the camp had already suffered a power outage. Fortunately, the camp was equipped with solar panels and energy storage facilities, and electricity was required in very few areas across the entire camp—aside from nighttime lighting, only the kitchen and the water pumping system needed power.

The camp's solar panels were more than enough to keep these facilities running, so the power outage had virtually no impact on the camp's daily operations.

Only Xiang Xiaoxiao had been somewhat worried. If the power grid was having issues, the network system was likely to fail at any moment.

Sure enough, plagued by the fear of losing the internet, Xiang Xiaoxiao had rushed over to the front administrative building early in the morning to surf the web. At around twenty past seven in the morning, the network connection had suddenly cut out.

Whether it was a malfunction in the local equipment due to a lack of maintenance over a long period, or whether it had been destroyed by some monster, remained unknown.

Xiang Chenguang comfortingly patted her little head and said, "Come on, wasn't this to be expected?"

Xiang Xiaoxiao irritably bumped his hand away with her head and said, "From now on, we've completely lost touch with the outside world. The world is so big, and yet we're living like we're on an isolated island."

Xiang Chenguang shook his head and said, "Where did you get all this sentimentality? We have more than enough tasks right in front of us to keep us busy.

Knowing the news from the outside world has virtually no impact on us. We just need to follow our own plans, achieve our goals step by step, and prepare ourselves well for the future."

Xiang Xiaoxiao argued, "How can you say it has no impact? Exchanging information with survivors nationwide would help us avoid a lot of detours."

Suddenly, as if recalling something, she perked up with renewed energy and said, "The Modu Apocalypse Base was attacked by mermaids yesterday. They sang by the riverside, luring people to walk into the river and drown themselves on their own.

The Modu base lost several people who had gone down to the riverbank to fish.

Word is, once you hear the mermaid's song, your mind goes completely blank. No matter how much people behind you shout, you pay them no heed and walk straight into the river water.

The soldiers at the Modu base shot and wounded a mermaid, but she quickly escaped back into the water and vanished.

Do you think there might be mermaids in the rivers around here too? This kind of monster feels almost impossible to guard against.

Dad is even planning to accelerate the ripening of the rice currently planted at Wangjiawan and squeeze in another round or two while the weather is right. Those rice paddies are right on both banks of the river—won't our farming personnel be in danger?"

Xiang Chenguang said helplessly, "Those aren't mermaids; they're sea monsters, or sirens. A normal adult individual possesses Tier 2 strength.

You can tell just from the name—they mainly live in the ocean. Modu is coastal, so they can briefly enter the river currents.

We are hundreds of thousands of miles away from the ocean here, and given the trickle of water in that little ditch of ours, let alone sea monsters, even a slightly larger water snake wouldn't be able to hide."

Xiang Xiaoxiao flushed slightly and glared at him, then asked with renewed concern, "A normal adult individual has Tier 2 strength, which means there are Tier 3 or even stronger monsters among the sirens? Doesn't that mean the Modu base is in danger?"

Xiang Chenguang replied, "Apocalypse bases are all established by the military. While I'm not entirely clear on what kind of strength mid-tier monsters possess, the military at least still has heavy artillery at its disposal. Tier 3 and Tier 4 monsters definitely cannot withstand the bombardment of heavy artillery.

Alright, you don't need to worry on behalf of the Modu base. Hurry up and eat; our camp has a major operation today."

At 8:30 in the morning, in front of the administrative building of the militia training camp, everyone in the entire camp was fully assembled.

Aside from the elderly and children, all personnel, including He Wan and Xiang Xiaoxiao, were organized into six platoons of twenty-person formations.

Following four or five days of drilling by Xiang Dongliang, coupled with actual combat against invading monsters, even though these formations were mostly composed of middle-aged people aged thirty to fifty, with the majority around forty, and nearly half of the ranks being women:

This 120-person formation marched in neat rows, each holding a square iron shield in one hand and a steel spear in the other, exuding the bearing of elite soldiers and a palpable aura of grim determination.

Although their training time was still short, starting two days ago, all of them had begun participating in real combat, using genuine weapons to slaughter mutant bugs.

Among these 120 people, even those of the lowest rank had risen to Tier 0, Level 2. Empowered by two free attribute points, they were at least no inferior in physical constitution to ordinary soldiers before the apocalypse.

As for the elite core among them—namely that earliest batch of guards—through days of continuous monster-slaying and level-grinding, their ranks had all risen above Tier 1. At least one of their attributes exceeded 10 points, and they possessed an intermediate-level skill.

By pre-apocalypse standards, every single one of them could be considered a minor superman.

Xiang Dongliang stood on the steps before the main entrance of the camp administrative building, looking at the crowd whose mental outlook had undergone a heaven-defying transformation in merely four or five days. His heart swelled with a sense of accomplishment.

He took a deep breath and shouted loudly, "Attention!"

Below, the 120-person formation snapped their feet together into the attention stance, raising their shields with their left hands while holding their steel spears pointed diagonally upward at a forty-five-degree angle toward the sky.

The movements of the 120 people were uniform and synchronized, possessing a pleasing aesthetic beauty.

Many children watching from the sidelines also mimicked Xiang Dongliang's commands and struck the attention pose.

Xiang Dongliang nodded with satisfaction and said, "At ease."

Everyone below lowered their shields, resting the bottom edge of the square shields against the ground, while straightening their right-hand steel spears and propping the shaft butts against the ground.

Xiang Dongliang declared, "Today, we will fight our way back to the county town.

Many of you probably know that one of the reasons we rushed to relocate here on the fourth day of the apocalypse was that a massive swarm of mutant insects called giant army ants had entrenched themselves on Jianxin Street, and everyone on that street perished in the jaws of those bugs.

Today, we are going to take action to eliminate this hazard, transport the building materials from Jianxin Street back here, and construct our base."