Chapter 58

Mid-Autumn Festival, Earth.

The silvery moonlight blanketed the ground, but everyone knew that now there were no beautiful rabbits or cassia trees on the moon, only the cold, hostile occupying forces of the enemy.

Spring had turned to autumn since the aliens landed on Earth.

Wang Yacheng carried a shopping bag in his hand and quickly walked through the narrow streets of the underground city.

It was already late at night, and the underground city was like a ghost town, eerily quiet with not a single person on the street. At the sound of his footsteps, a few figures, startled like birds, would occasionally peek from the curtained windows of the houses on both sides.

Wang Yacheng almost jogged all the way back to Wu Qiong's house. As soon as he raised his hand to knock on the door, a thin, dry hand from inside grabbed him and pulled him in.

"Do you have a crater in your brain?" The lip-ringed girl gritted her teeth and dropped this sentence, dragging Wang Yacheng by the collar and pulling him behind her. She vigilantly poked her head out to look around the doorway before silently closing the door. "They're fighting up there. Who in their right mind goes out in the middle of the night? Are you tired of living?"

Wang Yacheng's worldview seemed to have not yet fully developed, which led to an extremely singular attitude towards the outside world. Whether it was dealing with enemies or parents, it was all the same mode - "If you want me to do something, I'll do the opposite."

He impatiently shook off Wu Qiong's hand, "I feel like it, I just wanted to go out. What are you going to do, beat me to death?"

Faced with such a tireless death-seeker, Wu Qiong was at her wit's end, "Keep your voice down!"

Wang Yacheng took a deep breath, "Ha ha ha ha!"

The boy's slightly sharp voice echoed through the quiet underground city.

This death-seeking was done very professionally. Wu Qiong, as a delinquent girl for many years, actually felt it was difficult to keep up. Helplessly, she could only resort to force.

She pinched Wang Yacheng's neck, easily suppressing this weakling's flailing struggle. She raised her knee and bumped his butt, throwing him into the room amidst his shouting. After doing all this, Wu Qiong took a breath and pointed at Wang Yacheng, "You bastard."

Wang Yacheng coughed violently, his face red and neck bulging.

Wu Qiong's seven-year-old brother Wu Xiaowei ran over barefoot, his small gap-toothed mouth slightly whistling as he said, "Don't fight!"

Wu Qiong glanced at her brother, her face solemn, and walked away without a word. Wang Yacheng calmed his coughing, reached out to brush his half-long, half-short bangs, and beckoned to Wu Xiaowei as one would to a dog, "Bitch's little brother, come here."

Wu Xiaowei stupidly opened his mouth and pondered for a long time before reacting that his sister had been scolded. He ran over, wagging his tail, and said gleefully, "Hehe, then my sister is a bitch."

Wang Yacheng suspected this child had some mental issues. With a disdainful expression, he used two fingers to pick out a small box of cheap-looking mooncakes from the shopping bag and tossed it to Wu Xiaowei, "Go eat."

Wu Xiaowei ran away, bouncing his butt.

Wang Yacheng silently moved his head and neck, walked into the kitchen, opened the empty refrigerator, and half-squatted down, as if doing a very serious and important job, checking the expiration prompt codes on the food items one by one.

"Beep - Your food has expired for two days, it is recommended not to consume too much."

"Beep - Your food has expired for a week, it is recommended not to consume."

"Beep - Your food has expired for twelve days, the bacterial content exceeds the standard, please do not consume."

"Beep - Your food has expired..."

The boy listened to the expiration prompts while taking out the expired food from the shopping bag and neatly placing it in the refrigerator.

Food prices had already started to rise, and it had only been half a year since the invasion by the other star system.

Reliable jobs were becoming increasingly difficult to find, especially for little brats like Wang Yacheng and Wu Qiong who lived by "mixing". In difficult times, the government should have allocated funds, and the national food reserves could have lasted for a while.

But there was no way. The high cost of war almost dragged down the finances of various countries, and if that wasn't enough, the more terrifying thing was the space pirate groups.

In order to attack and break through the Earth Alliance's fortress defenses, the humans of the other star system brought in wolves. The pirate groups could not survive in the atmosphere for long periods, and their hobby was not to fight for territory with the humans of the other star system, but to rob and plunder.

An incomparable planet, with incomparable ecological accumulation, and incomparable economic development.

This was a piece of fat that space pirate groups were eager for.

Even when Fu Luo was captured by the other star system's large ship, the other party politely gave her a meal, because a single carbon-based life form without weapons and equipment in the universe was like an ant in the center of a storm. So there were unique moral rules in interstellar space, such as not touching unarmed personnel, not abusing prisoners of war, and so on.

But pirates were different. They had no sense of morality and didn't know what the hell "human rights" were. They were just a huge shit-stirring stick, and causing destruction was their only specialized skill.

They dealt further blows to Earth's already collapsing economy.

The number of urban poor skyrocketed, and even regular supermarkets had armed guards at the door to prevent looting. The survival needs of these people also gave rise to certain illegal vendors who bought expired food from regular supermarkets at low prices and then resold it in underground cities.

Expired and inferior food flooded the market and the lives of the poor.

On this day, the only thing Wang Yacheng bought that was not expired was the box of mooncakes he threw to Wu Xiaowei.

After eating the mooncakes, the carefree Wu Xiaowei ran over. Hearing the noise, he pointed at the refrigerator door, not understanding, "Expired."

Wang Yacheng: "Mm."

Wu Xiaowei was very serious: "Expired means it can't be eaten. There are bacteria inside. Eating it will make you sick. Getting sick means you'll die."

Wang Yacheng replied coldly, "It won't kill you."

Wu Xiaowei: "Our teacher said..."

Wang Yacheng suddenly threw everything in his hands on the ground and jumped up angrily, shouting at Wu Xiaowei, "What the hell is your teacher talking about! Like hell you'll die!"

Wu Xiaowei was startled.

The teenager and the child stood in the kitchen, staring at each other. Suddenly, an ominous scream came from outside the window. Wang Yacheng woke up with a start, grabbed Wu Xiaowei, pressed his head tightly against his chest, and quickly hid behind the refrigerator. A strong light shone in through the window, and the sound of a low-altitude mecha flying by was terrifying and ear-piercing.

Wang Yacheng carefully poked his head out for a peek. He was terrible at studying but had excellent eyesight. From this angle, he could see the ferocious monster head on that strangely shaped low-altitude mecha.

Wu Xiaowei struggled, making a faint whimpering sound.

"Don't make a sound," Wang Yacheng scolded in a low voice. "If you keep making a fuss, I'll throw you out to feed the aliens."

The low-altitude mecha circled a few times, as if a cat playing with its prey, surveying where to strike. Wang Yacheng was so nervous that his palms were sweating. Suddenly, the huge steel monster abruptly turned in the air and crashed straight towards their building.

It's over!

The close-combat king with the defensive capabilities of a small warship would split the entire building in half, and no one would survive.

Wang Yacheng grabbed Wu Xiaowei by the back of his neck and shouted at the girl in the other room amidst the huge noise, "Wu Qiong! Run! Run quickly!"

Wu Xiaowei's calf accidentally hit the corner of the table, and the little boy who didn't know any better started crying loudly.

The light behind them grew brighter and brighter.

At that moment, Wang Yacheng suddenly felt very calm. Half a year had passed, but the explosion at the Space Science Academy still appeared in his nightmares every day at the same time.

When the bomb fell, there must have been such a strong light. What was Wang Yizheng thinking at that time?

There was a loud noise outside the window behind him. Wang Yacheng arched his back, shielding Wu Xiaowei with his arms. Looking at the little boy with snot and tears all over his face, he thought coldly, "The two of us are about to be done for, little fool."

Wu Qiong rushed in with a panicked look on her face. The glass window behind Wang Yacheng had shattered into a pile of shards, splashing onto the boy's exposed neck, stinging.

Wait... stinging?

Wang Yacheng turned his head back in surprise and saw another low-altitude mecha appear out of nowhere, blocking the residential building. The two mechas collided, and the huge shock wave shattered a pane of glass.

Wang Yacheng pushed Wu Xiaowei hard, sending him into Wu Qiong's arms, and ran to the window sill recklessly, clinging to the empty window frame and looking out.

He saw a prominent national flag logo printed on the tail of the mecha that had suddenly rushed out.

After the United Nations signed the peace treaty, countries collectively destroyed low-altitude mechas. Although each secretly retained some, they had declined and could not compare to the equipment of the alien pirates.

The head of the pirate's mecha was tilted a bit, while the military's mecha plummeted straight down, crashing until it was halfway embedded in the ground.

The pirate's balancer seemed to have a slight problem, and it flew unsteadily close to the ground. It circled around in fits and starts, knocking down two street lamps, then fired a laser cannon at the fallen mecha as if to vent its frustration before reluctantly leaving.

Dust and chaos everywhere.

Wang Yacheng turned and ran. Wu Qiong couldn't hold him back and shouted at the boy's back, "You'll die, you little brat!"

Wang Yacheng ran all the way downstairs in one breath. Panting heavily, he looked at the low-altitude mecha that had become a pile of scrap metal in front of him. A roar built in his chest and his mind was buzzing, but he couldn't make a sound.

At this moment, the severely damaged mecha used the last bit of power to eject the pilot.

The body of an old soldier with half his head blown off fell in front of the boy.

Wang Yacheng saw the old soldier's body curled up like a stiff shrimp, with a bit of graying hair exposed on his bloody, mangled head.

The boy stood still for a long time, then suddenly ran along the narrow and lifeless streets of the underground city.

He ran out a long distance in one breath, turning into an even dirtier and narrower alley, barely wide enough for a slender person to pass through. At the end of the alley was a dilapidated small inn, desolate and deserted.

Wang Yacheng pounded on the door hard, waking up several families nearby who turned on dim lights to look out.

After a while, the broken door creaked open. A middle-aged fat woman in pajamas, with a cold expression, looked at him through the crack for a moment, then silently reached out, pulled the chicken-like boy in, and slammed the door with a bang.

The fat woman's cheeks sagged, forming deep nasolabial folds. At first glance, she looked ill-tempered.

She dragged Wang Yacheng, making him stumble all the way, then threw him onto a broken wooden chair and tossed him a home medical kit, cursing in a low voice, "You little brat, I think you have a death wish."

Wang Yacheng sat on the chair and stared at her for a moment, showing an expression that looked like he was about to cry.

The fat woman said, "If you dare to wail, I'll beat you to death."

"Auntie Chun," Wang Yacheng suddenly said in a hoarse voice, "I want to join you. I've made up my mind. I'll join, and you have to accept me!"

Mid-Autumn Festival, space.

The starving Fu Luo walked back to the command room of the medium-sized ship after changing shifts. She took the compressed food handed to her by Yang Ning and started eating.

Yang Ning: "Three teams report their respective situations."

Fu Luo heard the voices of comrades from the other two fleets sent out to reinforce them through the communicator.

"First team operating normally, monitoring devices deployed and functioning well, no enemy traces found within ten range units, currently maintaining stealth."

"Second team operating normally..."

Yang Ning glanced at Fu Luo. Fu Luo quickly swallowed the food in her mouth, nearly choking, and squeezed out a voice with difficulty, "Third team, same as above."

Yang Ning laughed, "You sure know how to keep it simple."

He raised his wrist to look at his watch and suddenly ordered, "All personnel, halt advance, stay alert, and stand by."

Fu Luo held a biscuit in her mouth, looking at him in confusion.

"The Mid-Autumn signal is open for one hour. Everyone, seize the time, try to keep it short. The system is unstable and may be intermittent, so don't be anxious." Yang Ning looked at the dumbfounded Fu Luo, "What are you still standing there for? If you didn't bring a phone, I can lend you one."

Fu Luo suddenly jumped up, gave Yang Ning a sloppy salute, and ran off.

Yang Ning watched her clumsy retreating figure with a smile in his eyes, suddenly recalling the casually dressed graduate he had seen on the first day at the entrance of "Gold Standard". At that time, she had been walking along while being scolded, but she had an attitude of brazen indifference—like a pig that isn't afraid of boiling water—which was the most unique form of petulance he had ever seen.

Yang Ning picked up his personal phone, which was already showing a good signal connection, and stared blankly at the monotonous and boring system default desktop for a while, then put it back in its original place. He opened the reader and went to work.

If Yang Jinghe were still around, he might give him a call, Yang Ning thought casually - but it seemed like the two of them didn't have much to talk about anyway.