Chapter 105: The Eerie Stone

"Awoo! Awoo!"
"Roar! Roar!"
"Squeak! Squeak!"
"Gigi! Gigi!"

Four distinct cries echoed through the surroundings. The voices were booming and full of vigor, clearly not those of ordinary mutated beasts. Yang Fan concluded that the four great Beast Kings had arrived.

"What are they doing here?" This was Yang Fan’s question, as it was for many others. He paused, signaling Wang Cheng and Fu Gaobin to remain silent, refrain from acting rashly, and wait.

The Tundra Snow Wolf, the Clawed Dinosaur, the Frost Giant Bear, and the Frostbite Tiger—mutated beasts of this caliber were terrifyingly powerful. The Tundra Snow Wolf, for instance, was far larger than a common wolf, possessed high defensive capabilities, and boasted a recovery rate three or four times faster than that of the Zerg.

These mutated beasts were even more troublesome than some of the Zerg. Yang Fan desperately wanted to understand their true intentions.

"Rumble! Rumble!" Suddenly, the snow-covered ground cracked open. In an instant, the heavens shifted; the previously star-filled sky turned murky and dark, and a howling, bone-chilling wind began to whip across the landscape.

Although the heavy snow had subsided over the past two days, the accumulation remained deep, and the cold was still biting enough to make one tremble. Inside the carriages, many stared blankly at the outside world. In this apocalypse, crisis after crisis emerged, and life felt incredibly fragile. Worse still was the psychological torment; it was unbearable.

Some wept aloud, others stifled their cries behind their hands, and some gazed up at the starless sky, mourning a future that seemed to have vanished. If not for the military and the inheritors of the apocalyptic system suppressing chaos in every vehicle, the people might have rioted, spiraling into an uncontrollable disaster.

"Execute anyone who attempts to incite a riot on the spot!" Li Qiang’s cold voice made many shiver involuntarily. At this critical juncture, he could not afford any interference. Everything remained unknown, and a riot could lead to unnecessary trouble that might cost everyone their lives.

"Boom!" Just then, a beam of light shot down from the sky, striking the center of the area. Yang Fan was stunned, and Wang Cheng, Fu Gaobin, and Li Qiang, who witnessed the beam, were equally shocked, their faces etched with tension.

"Could it be aliens?"
"Perhaps it really is aliens?"
"Could all of this be the work of extraterrestrials? Are they descending now to conquer humanity?"

One had to admit, people's imaginations were quite active. Even Wang Cheng and Fu Gaobin speculated about aliens, but Yang Fan instructed them to hold their tongues and observe.

The beam of light seemed to have been fired from beyond the star field, stretching for millions of miles. It was about a meter in diameter. Yang Fan, Fu Gaobin, Wang Cheng, Li Qiang, and the others watched it intently, not daring to make a sound. After about half an hour, a massive black stone suddenly appeared in the center of the prairie.

In an instant, everyone’s heart tightened as if gripped by an invisible force. Did this enormous black stone contain an alien? An extraterrestrial life form? Could it be the source of the zombies, the mutated beasts, and the Zerg?

This was the thought on many minds. Even Yang Fan had speculated on the origins of the monsters. Perhaps alien civilization could explain it all: first, releasing a virus that silently infiltrated the entire Earth, turning some people into flesh-eating zombies. As for the beasts, some were eliminated, while others were transformed and strengthened—much like the Ferocious Rats, which might have been ordinary sewer rats altered by some chemical agent that rewrote their genetic code.

Genes are the foundation of a living being, so this was a plausible theory. As for the Zerg, Yang Fan hypothesized that, as scientists often said, the universe was infinite, and Earth was merely a bacterium in a vast ocean. With countless planets and star fields, perhaps Earth—a technological civilization that had not even exited its own solar system—was merely an experimental ground for a more advanced civilization. They were using it as a testing site, introducing their own lower-tier creatures, the Zerg, into this world.

If this were true, Yang Fan grew more fearful. If he became stronger, would he simply be marked in some alien archive as a lab rat to be studied? Yet, without strength, he would surely perish. It was a dilemma.

Of course, this was all based on his own conjecture, which felt less realistic when considering his own innate abilities and the systems everyone had received. Once something involves the future, technology can no longer explain it; time is the most complex thing of all.

Only a god could touch time. Based on this, Yang Fan was certain this was not the work of mere aliens—or if they were aliens, they were gods.

Recalling his wandering thoughts, Yang Fan focused on the scene before him. The pitch-black stone, about the size of a human, stood upright, covered in strange runes. He dared not move, watching intently from his hiding spot.

The stone remained motionless, yet Yang Fan discovered something even more terrifying: the four Beast Kings charged toward the stone and slammed themselves against it, their blood dripping onto the surface.

The black stone, eerie and radiating a bone-deep chill, stood there. Yang Fan would never forget this sight.

It seemed that through the sacrifice of countless blood, something was about to be born...